František Drtikol: Between the Theosophy and Communization of Buddhism

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When Peppa Pig and Confucius meet, joining forces on the battlefield of health literacya qualitative analysis of COVID-19 educational materials for children and adolescents from China, the USA, and Europe

W czasach pandemii wiedza zdrowotna (HL) jest bardzo ważna, ponieważ pomaga znaleźć, zrozumieć i korzystać z podstawowych informacji i usług zdrowotnych. Według WHO, HL ma kluczowe znaczenie w skutecznej walce z infodemią, a edukacja jest niezbędnym narzędziem do jej rozwoju. W prezentowanej pracy analizujemy 247 materiałów edukacyjnych poświęconych dzieciom, młodzieży i ich opiekunom wyjaśniających pandemię, przygotowanych przez rządy chiński, amerykański, niemiecki, włoski i polski oraz międzynarodowe organizacje pozarządowe. Koncentrując się na stronie tekstowej i wizualnej dokumentów, zbadaliśmy, w jaki sposób wyjaśniono pandemię i jakie środki dyskursywne zastosowano, aby poinformować młodych obywateli o zagrożeniach i konsekwencjach ograniczeń związanych z pandemią. Dodatkowo sprawdziliśmy, czy materiały pomogły w rozwijaniu krytycznego myślenia, co ma kluczowe znaczenie dla zapobiegania rozpowszechnianiu fałszywych wiadomości i teorii spiskowych. Chociaż analizowane materiały zostały przygotowane w różnych kontekstach kulturowych, stwierdziliśmy, że wszystkie zawierały proste instrukcje dotyczące pożądanych zachowań w czasie pandemii. Kluczowe komunikaty odnoszące się do wagi zachowań higienicznych były często uzupełniane o wskazówki, jak pomyślnie zakończyć każde działanie. Podczas gdy specyfika kulturowa w przedstawianiu stanu pandemii jest widoczna, na całym świecie dominowały wyzwania związane z radzeniem sobie z kryzysami emocjonalnymi i społecznymi. W naszym badaniu argumentujemy, że możliwości budowania HL nie zostały w pełni wykorzystane przez instytucje krajowe i międzynarodowe. Obywateli uczono, jak zachowywać się w nietypowych okolicznościach, ale nie uczono ich, dlaczego powinni zachowywać się inaczej. W materiałach edukacyjnych brakowało rzetelnej wiedzy, która pozwoliłaby im radzić sobie z infodemią i rozwijać krytyczne myślenie. Dochodzimy do wniosku, że wiedza specjalistyczna w zakresie edukacji zdrowotnej na całym świecie powinna koncentrować się na zwiększaniu zdolności jednostek do podejmowania świadomych decyzji zdrowotnych i przedstawia trzy zalecenia dotyczące procesu opracowywania zasobów edukacji zdrowotnej dla dzieci i młodzieży.In times of pandemic, health literacy (HL) is very important, as it helps to find, understand, and use essential health information and services. According to WHO, HL is pivotal in fighting infodemic effectively, and education is a vital tool for developing it. In the presented work, we analyze 247 educational materials dedicated to children, adolescents, and their carers explaining the pandemic, prepared by the Chinese, American, German, Italian and Polish governments and international non-governmental organizations. Focusing on the textual and visual side of the documents, we investigated how the pandemic is explained and what discursive measures were used to inform young citizens about the risks and consequences of pandemic restrictions. Additionally, we verified whether the materials helped developing critical thinking, which is crucial to prevent spreading fake news and conspiracy theories. Although the analyzed materials were prepared in different cultural contexts, we identified that all of them contained simple instructions on the desired behaviours during the pandemic. Key messages relating to the importance of hygienic behaviors were often supplemented with guidelines on how to successfully complete each action. While the cultural particularities in presenting the state of the pandemic are visible, the challenges of dealing with the emotional and social crises were dominant all around the world. In our study, we argue that the possibilities of building HL were not fully exploited by the national and international institutions. Citizens were taught how to behave in unusual circumstances but not why they should behave differently. The educational materials lacked reliable knowledge that would allow them to deal with infodemic and develop critical thinking. We conclude that health education expertise worldwide should be focused on enhancing individuals’ ability to make informed health decisions and provide three recommendations regarding the process of development of health educational resources for children and the youth

The effect of chronic tianeptine administration on the brain mitochondria : direct links with an animal model of depression

A growing body of evidence has focused on the impact of mitochondrial disturbances in the development of depression, but little data exist regarding the effects of chronic administration of antidepressant drugs on the brain’s mitochondrial protein profile. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of chronic treatment with an atypical antidepressant drug—tianeptine—on the mitochondria-enriched subproteome profile in the hippocampus and the frontal cortex of 3-month-old male rats following a prenatal stress procedure. Rats that were exposed to a prenatal stress procedure displayed depressive- and anxiety-like disturbances based on the elevated plus-maze and Porsolt tests. Moreover, two-dimensional electrophoresis coupled with mass spectrometry showed structure-dependent mitoproteome changes in brains of prenatally stressed rats after chronic tianeptine administration. A component of 2-oxoglutarate and succinate flavoprotein subunit dehydrogenases, isocitrate subunit alpha, was upregulated in the hippocampus. In the frontal cortex, there was a striking increase in the expression of glutamate dehydrogenase and cytochrome bc1 complex subunit 2. These findings suggest that mitochondria are underappreciated targets for therapeutic interventions, and mitochondrial function may be crucial for the effective treatment of stress-related diseases

Enhanced expression of Fas Ligand (FasL) in the lower airways of patients with fibrotic interstitial lung diseases (ILDs)

The exact role of FasL, and particularly its soluble and membrane-bound forms, in the development of chronic ILDs and lung fibrosis has not been extensively explored. We aimed at analyzing membrane-bound FasL expression on alveolar macrophages (AM) and lymphocytes (AL) as well as soluble FasL (sFasL) levels in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) from ILDs patients, incl. pulmonary sarcoidosis (PS), hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP), silicosis, asbestosis, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), nonspecific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP), and healthy subjects (n = 89, 12, 7, 8, 23, 6, 17, respectively). In IPF, significantly increased percentage of AM FasL+ and CD8+FasL+ cells as well as sFasL levels in BAL were found. Increased sFasL levels were also observed in HP. NSIP and asbestosis were characterized by higher AM FasL+ relative number; CD8+FasL+ population was expanded in asbestosis only. There was a significant decline in AL FasL+ percentage in PS and HP. Vital capacity was negatively correlated with sFasL levels, AM FasL+ and CD8+FasL+ cell relative count. CD4+FasL+ and CD8+FasL+ percentage strongly correlated with BAL neutrophilia, an unfavorable prognostic factor in lung fibrosis. The concurrent comparative BAL analysis of FasL expression indicates that FasL+ AM and AL (mainly Tc cells) comprise an important element of the fibrotic process, mostly in IPF. FasL might play a crucial role in other fibrosis-complicated ILDs, like NSIP and asbestosis. (Folia Histochemica et Cytobiologica 2011; Vol. 49, No. 4, pp. 636–645

Giant cell arteritis: Diagnostic difficulties

Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is the most common form of vasculitis present in adults. Its symptoms result from ischemia of the areas supplied by the arteries or the severity of the inflammatory reaction: headache, jaw and limb claudication, visual disturbances, blindness, stroke, polymyalgia, and fever. Because of the variety of symptoms, the disease is often overlooked in diagnostics, possibly leading to permanent ischemic complications. The current classification criteria and the gold standard for diagnostics – temporal artery biopsy – apply to the cranial form of the disease. European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology guidelines have systematized diagnostics, based mainly on simple and reproducible ultrasound examination (ultrasonography). Despite the widespread availability of this imaging method, GCA is still diagnosed too late, and therefore the authors analyzed the possible diagnostic difficulties, based on a group of 21 patients

Clinical outcomes in patients with acute myocardial infarction treated with primary percutaneous coronary intervention stratified according to duration of pain-to-balloon time and type of myocardial infarction

Background: Based on the clinical outcomes of patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI), treated with primary percutaneous coronary intervention (pPCI), this study intended to assess mortality and major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular event (MACCE) rates according to duration of pain-to-balloon (PTB) time and type of MI.   Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study based on the prospectively collected ORPKI registry which covers PCIs performed in Poland chosen between January 2014 and December 2017. Under assessment were 1,994 STEMI and 923 NSTEMI patients. Study endpoints included mortality and MACCE rates (in-hospital, 30-day, 12- and 36-month). Predictors of all-cause mortality in the overall group, STEMI and NSTEMI were assessed by multivariable analysis. Results: Kaplan-Meier survival curve analysis did not reveal significant differences between the STEMI and NSTEMI group for all-cause mortality or MACCE at the 36-month follow-up. While in the long PTB time group, MACCE rate was significantly greater in STEMI patients when compared to NSTEMI (p = 0.004). Among STEMI patients, the short, medium and long PTB time groups differed significantly in the rate of all-cause mortality (p = 0.006) and MACCE (p = 0.04) at 1,095 days of follow-up, which were the greatest in the long PTB time group. Conclusions: Before considering the length of PTB time, there were no statistically significant differences in mortality or MACCE frequency between the STEMI and NSTEMI group at 36-month follow-up. Longer PTB times are related to significantly greater mortality at the 36-month follow-up in the STEMI, but not in the NSTEMI group

Administracja, zarządzanie i handel zagraniczny w warunkach integracji. Materiały konferencyjne - Handel Zagraniczny

Ze wstępu: "Obrady w sekcji H - „Handel zagraniczny” - prowadzone w ramach Międzynarodowej Konferencji Naukowej „Administracja, zarządzanie i handel zagraniczny w warunkach integracj i” dotyczyły szeroko rozumianej wymiany handlowej i współpracy gospodarczej Polski z innymi krajami, zarówno z punktu widzenia gospodarki, jak i poszczególnych przedsiębiorstw. Prezentowane w naszej sekcji referaty dotyczyły w głównej mierze problematyki ujednolicania polskich przepisów w zakresie prowadzenia działalności w szeroko pojętym handlu zagranicznym w celu dostosowania ich do regulacji obowiązujących w Unii Europejskiej."(...

Targeting the NLRP3 Inflammasome-Related Pathways via Tianeptine Treatment-Suppressed Microglia Polarization to the M1 Phenotype in Lipopolysaccharide-Stimulated Cultures

An increasing body of evidence postulates that microglia are the main mediators of inflammation-related disorders, including depression. Since activated microglia produce a wide range of pro- and anti-inflammatory factors, the modulation of M1/M2 microglial polarization by antidepressants may be crucial in the treatment of depression. The current paper aimed to investigate the impact of tianeptine on the microglia’s viability/death parameters, and on M1/M2 microglial activation in response to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation. Furthermore, the molecular mechanisms via which tianeptine affected the LPS-evoked changes were investigated. The results revealed that tianeptine had partially protective effects on the changes in microglia viability/death evoked by LPS. Tianeptine attenuated microglia activation by decreasing the expression of cluster of differentiation 40 (CD40), and major histocompatibility complex class II (MHC II) markers, as well as the release of pro-inflammatory factors: interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-18, IL-6, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), and chemokine CC motif ligand 2 (CCL2), and the production of nitric oxide and reactive oxygen species. In contrast, we did not observe an impact of tianeptine on M2 microglia measured by IL-4, IL-10, TGF-β, and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) expression. Moreover, we demonstrated an inhibitory effect of tianeptine on the LPS-induced activation of the nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like (NOD-like) receptor pyrin-containing 3 inflammasome (NLRP3) inflammasome subunits, NLRP3 and caspase-1, as well as the ability of tianeptine to reduce Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) levels, as well as the phosphorylation of extracellular signal-related kinases 1 and 2 (ERK1/2) and of the nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB). Collectively, we demonstrated that tianeptine has protective properties and inhibits M1 polarization, thus attenuating the production of inflammatory mediators. Moreover, we found that M1 microglia suppression may be related to the NLRP3 inflammasome and TLR4 signaling. These findings suggest that a better understanding of the multifaceted mechanisms of tianeptine action on microglia may increase the effectiveness of therapy, where inflammation is a central hallmark