Pamięć o II wojnie światowej i wykorzystanie jej do promocji miasta – szansą na szybszy rozwój Wielunia

Artykuł pochodzi z książki pt. „Dziedzictwo kulturowe - ochrona i adaptacja jako szansa na rozwój”, red. W. Tołoczko, Łódź 2008Prorektor ds. Nauki Uniwersytetu Łódzkieg

Does communal context bring the worst in narcissists?

The present experiment (N = 95) investigated the relations of narcissism with social value orientation under façade conditions of testing communal or agentic traits (or none - in a control condition). The results indicated that narcissism predicted less willingness to share resources with others and more competitive orientation in a façade communal condition compared to the remaining two conditions: control and agentic. The results confirm narcissistic disregard for communal domain and are consistent with the extended agency model of narcissism and the “success as a drawback” effect

The Stigmatized and the Stigmatizing – The Psychological Aspects of the Phenomenon of Stigmatizing

Publikacja recenzowana / Peer-reviewed publicationThis paper is divided into three separate parts: introduction into the phenomenon of a stigma, and two other parts showing the perspective of the stigmatized and the stigmatizing. It focuses on the psychological explanations why people stigmatize others and how you can live with a stigma. It is mainly based on the research done in social psychology and it starts with a relational definition of a stigma, taking into consideration the social context of the above mentioned phenomenon

Psychospołeczne paradoksy przemocy

The paper presents several paradoxes related to violence and their psychosocial explanations. The goal was not to deny the common knowledge, but to find a more complete description and better understanding of this complex phenomenon. In opposition to the uncontested perception of violence as a phenomenon ruining human relationships, there was highlighted its role as a factor in consolidating the group – collective violence against „them” in a situation of conflict, and particularly violence against the „scapegoat”. Recalling the views of Rene Girard, collective murder committed upon a scapegoat was presented as part of the founding mechanism of society. Also, the unique and amazing bond can connect to the victim and his/her pursuer. Some psychological explanation for the phenomenon of „Stockholm Syndrome” were presented – a classic: from the psychoanalytic perspective and its reinterpretation on the grounds of social psychology. The second topic is associated with social perception of the victim of violence – there were presented psychological mechanisms, explaining why, instead of getting compassion and help, the victim is often humiliated, accused of provocation and blamed. This unjust judgment paradoxically is associated with sharing „belief in a just world” from Mervin Lerner’s theory. Another paradox relates to helping victims of violence. Firstly the aid may be undesirable and rejected by the victim, secondly, helping can caused additional suff ering (the phenomenon of „secondary victimization”), and thirdly, persons who try to help can drop in the trap of satisfying their own selfish needs

Experimental investigations and computer simulations to solve acoustic problems in the modern church

Architectural acoustics of contemporary sacred buildings is still an under-appreciated issue. Many contemporary churches are not functional enough due to acoustic defects which occur there. The study discusses issues of the modern Catholic church, where acoustic problems surface as high reverberant noise levels. The building under investigation, i.e. the Church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is the biggest contemporary church in Poznań, Poland, as its internal volume amounts to 16,800 m³. On the basis of in situ investigations, a computer model of the church was built and a series of simulations were carried out to determine correct treatment in order to achieve satisfactory acoustic conditions. The main assumption was to find such a solution as not to affect the modernist architecture of the church

Czytelnictwo wśród użytkowników Facebooka

Recent research on reading situation in Poland indicates decreasing interest in books among adults. This tendency is also supposedly followed by changes in reading models as well as different ways of reader-text interactions. Since internauts are generally believed to be a non-reading community, an online questionnaire for Facebook users was prepared, a group which is quite easy to reach, to get a better insight into the situation. The research was carried out between April 23rd and May 3rd 2011 on a group of 150 respondents. It focused on book reading and purchasing intensity, book choices, most commonly used book sources, reading traditional magazines, online magazines, e-books and using digital libraries. It was available in either Polish or English language version. A total of 138 respondents from Poland, USA, UK, Tunisia, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Finland, Germany, Mexico, South Korea and Switzerland took part, one origin unknown. Most of them (74,67%) were people between 17 and 35 years old, the eldest one being 77, the youngest 13. Out of 138 interviewees, 110 were women, over 76% lived in urban areas and declared their education level as higher (57,3%) or secondary (28,7%). The results proved surprisingly optimistic. Only 9 interviewees admitted that they had not read any books in the last 12 months, others read 0–2 or 3–5 books a month. Fantasy, suspense fiction and classical novels were the most popular among them. When asked about favourite titles, respondents listed mainly classics of world literature and popular bestsellers. Reviews as well as recommendations of family members or friends had the greatest influence on their reading choices. Almost 75% of survey participants bought books, usually once a month or once every few months, however, they preferred to borrow them from libraries or friends. Almost half of Polish respondents read e-books and online magazines, although they avoided using digital libraries. They also read traditional print magazines, especially political and social ones, women and popular science magazines. As the results show, reading still remains one of the most popular forms of spending free time for both interviewed Facebook users and other members of their communities. Books are also a popular subject of their conversations and discussions in both real and virtual space.Artykuł nie zawiera polskiego abstrakt

Kultura popularna w medialnych kontekstach

Praca recenzowana / peer-reviewed pape

Recurrent and multiple bladder tumors show conserved expression profiles

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Urothelial carcinomas originate from the epithelial cells of the inner lining of the bladder and may appear as single or as multiple synchronous tumors. Patients with urothelial carcinomas frequently show recurrences after treatment making follow-up necessary. The leading hypothesis explaining the origin of meta- and synchronous tumors assumes a monoclonal origin. However, the genetic relationship among consecutive tumors has been shown to be complex in as much as the genetic evolution does not adhere to the chronological appearance of the metachronous tumors. Consequently, genetically less evolved tumors may appear chronologically later than genetically related but more evolved tumors.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Forty-nine meta- or synchronous urothelial tumors from 22 patients were analyzed using expression profiling, conventional CGH, LOH, and mutation analyses.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We show by CGH that partial chromosomal losses in the initial tumors may not be present in the recurring tumors, by LOH that different haplotypes may be lost and that detected regions of LOH may be smaller in recurring tumors, and that mutations present in the initial tumor may not be present in the recurring ones. In contrast we show that despite apparent genomic differences, the recurrent and multiple bladder tumors from the same patients display remarkably similar expression profiles.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our findings show that even though the vast majority of the analyzed meta- and synchronous tumors from the same patients are not likely to have originated directly from the preceding tumor they still show remarkably similar expressions profiles. The presented data suggests that an expression profile is established early in tumor development and that this profile is stable and maintained in recurring tumors.</p

Long non-coding RNA containing ultraconserved genomic region 8 promotes bladder cancer tumorigenesis

Ultraconserved regions (UCRs) have been shown to originate non-coding RNA transcripts (T-UCRs) that have different expression profiles and play functional roles in the pathophysiology of multiple cancers. The relevance of these functions to the pathogenesis of bladder cancer (BlCa) is speculative. To elucidate this relevance, we first used genome-wide profiling to evaluate the expression of T-UCRs in BlCa tissues. Analysis of two datasets comprising normal bladder tissues and BlCa specimens with a custom T-UCR microarray identified ultraconserved RNA (uc.) 8+ as the most upregulated T-UCR in BlCa tissues, although its expression was lower than in pericancerous bladder tissues. These results were confirmed on BlCa tissues by real-time PCR and by in situ hybridization. Although uc.8+ is located within intron 1 of CASZ1, a zinc-finger transcription factor, the transcribed non-coding RNA encoding uc.8+ is expressed independently of CASZ1. In vitro experiments evaluating the effects of uc.8+ silencing, showed significantly decreased capacities for cancer cell invasion, migration, and proliferation. From this, we proposed and validated a model of interaction in which uc.8+ shuttles from the nucleus to the cytoplasm of BlCa cells, interacts with microRNA (miR)-596, and cooperates in the promotion and development of BlCa. Using computational analysis, we investigated the miR-binding domain accessibility, as determined by base-pairing interactions within the uc.8+ predicted secondary structure, RNA binding affinity, and RNA species abundance in bladder tissues and showed that uc.8+ is a natural decoy for miR-596. Thus uc.8+ upregulation results in increased expression of MMP9, increasing the invasive potential of BlCa cells. These interactions between evolutionarily conserved regions of DNA suggest that natural selection has preserved this potentially regulatory layer that uses RNA to modulate miR levels, opening up the possibility for development of useful markers for early diagnosis and prognosis as well as for development of new RNA-based cancer therapies