Psychosocial aspects of infertility and its treatment

Nowadays, more and more couples face impediments associated with conception. Infertility is related with experiencing psychological problems by both partners. One of the infertility treatment procedures is in vitro fertilization. Using this method has significant influence on patients and their family’s psychology. This essay reviews literature about IVF treatment and discusses the significance of infertility to a couple, children development and psychosocial functioning, their relation with parents and public opinion about in vitro fertilization

Development of fluvio-lacustrine systems in the young glacial area in Poland based on the research in the valleys of the rivers Wierzyca and Wda

Both rivers presented in the article, the Wierzyca River and the Wda River, flow along typical polygenic valleys in young glacial areas. Their valleys include a number of postglacial basins, mainly subglacial channels connected by gap sections. The course of fluvial processes in postglacial basins was determined by the Late Glacial melting and the development of lakes. In Holocene, on the lacustrine and delta deposits, which were filling up the lake basins, wide meander zones with meandering river beds developed. In Late Glacial erosive processes dominated at the gap sections, which ended up with the development of slide meanders. Since the beginning of Holocene, lateral erosion has been dominant due to stabilization of the river bed. This has lead to the widening of the floodplain. Despite this, along the major course of both valleys the width of the floodplains is insufficient for free development of river channels. This is the case of constrained meandering

Jezusowa mowa o służbie jako centrum Łukaszowego opisu wydarzeń z Wieczernika: Egzegeza Łk 22,14-38 na podstawie metodologii wypracowanej przez retorykę semicką

The matter of the following paper is to read the message of Jesus which He has left the community of the New Covenant as a testament during the Last Supper. Completion of this testament will lead to achieving the Kingdom promised. This goal has been achieved by the analysis of a part of the 22nd chapter of the Luke’s Gospel (Luke 22:14-38) with the Hebrew biblical rhetoric’s.The research performed has been described in three chapters connected with each other. The first one is dedicated to the composition of the text. This stage of work consists of delimitation which has let to separate from the 22nd chapter of the Luke’s Gospel the fragment contained in verses 14-38. Next demarcations pointed five smaller units arranged parallelly. Their careful segmentation has been described in the second paragraph. At the end of this chapter an overall presentation of the sequence examined has been made. Thus its symmetrical-concentric structure has been justified.The composition has become a starting point for the analyses undertaken in the second chapter. They consisted of the biblical context together with the interpretation of each pericope. This stage of research has shown the connections between units which collected and described in the following chapter justified the previously proposed compositional figure ABCB’A’.At the beginning of the third chapter the interpretation of the five units examined in their references to parallel fragments and others as well. This has let to draw theological conclusions. It has been pointed that service with love as its motive is the completion of the Jesus’ testament. Only one who accepts the revolution of the Master of Nazareth preaching that to rule it is necessary to serve, will be worthy of acceding to the Eucharistic table here on earth and some day to rule with God in heaven.Artykuł jest próbą odczytania przesłania Jezusa, pozostawionego wspólnocie Nowego Przymierza jako testamentu podczas Ostatniej Wieczerzy, którego realizacja zaowocuje osiągnięciem obiecanego Królestwa. Cel ten został osiągnięty poprzez analizę fragmentu 22. rozdziału Ewangelii według św. Łukasza (Łk 22,14-38) za pomocą hebrajskiej retoryki biblijnej.Przeprowadzone badanie zostało opisane w 3 powiązanych ze sobą punktach. Pierwszy z nich (Kompozycja) został poświęcony kompozycji tekstu. Na ten etap pracy składała się delimitacja, która pozwoliła wydzielić z rozdziału 22. Łukaszowej Ewangelii fragment zawarty w ww. 14-38. Kolejne odgraniczenia wskazały 5 mniejszych jednostek ułożonych względem siebie paralelnie. Ich szczegółowa segmentacja została ujęta w 2. punkcie (Kontekst biblijny oraz interpretacja poszczególnych fragmentów sekwencji Łk 22,14-38). Na koniec 1. punktu (1.3. Ujęcie całościowe) dokonano ujęcia całościowego badanej sekwencji, co uzasadniło jego symetryczno-koncentryczną budowę.Wypracowana kompozycja stała się punktem wyjścia dla analiz podjętych w drugim punkcie. Składał się na nie kontekst biblijny oraz interpretacja poszczególnych perykop. Ten etap badania pozwolił dostrzec powiązania pomiędzy jednostkami, które zebrane i opisane w rozdziale kolejnym uzasadniły proponowaną wcześniej figurę kompozycyjną ABCB’A’.Na początku trzeciego punktu (3.1. Interpretacja perykop w ich wzajemnym odniesieniu) przedstawiono interpretację 5 badanych jednostek w ich odniesieniach do fragmentów paralelnych oraz pozostałych, a to z kolei pozwoliło na wyciągnięcie wniosków teologicznych. Wskazano, że realizacją testamentu Jezusa jest służba, której motywem musi być miłość. Tylko ten, kto przyjmie rewolucję Mistrza z Nazaretu, głoszącego, że aby królować, trzeba służyć, będzie godny przystępować do stołu eucharystycznego tu na ziemi, a kiedyś królować z Bogiem w niebie

Effect of overexpression of β- and γ-actin isoforms on actin cytoskeleton organization and migration of human colon cancer cells

Actins are eukaryotic proteins, which are involved in diverse cellular functions including muscle contraction, cell motility, adhesion and maintenance of cell shape. Cytoplasmic actin isoforms β and γ are ubiquitously expressed and essential for cell functioning. However, their unique contributions are not very well understood. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of β- and γ-actin overexpression on the migration capacity and actin cytoskeleton organization of human colon adenocarcinoma BE cells. In cells overexpressing β- or γ-actin, distinct cytoskeletal actin rearrangements were observed under the laser scanning confocal microscope. Overexpressed actins localized at the submembranous region of the cell body, especially near to the leading edge and on the tips of pseudopodia. The cells transfected with plasmids containing cDNA for β- or γ-actin were characterized by increased migration and invasion capacities. However, the migration velocity was statistically significantly higher only in the case of γ-actin overexpressing cells. In conclusion, the increased level of β- or γ-actin leads to actin cytoskeletal remodeling followed by an increase in migration and invasion capacities of human colon BE cells. These data suggest that expression of both actin isoforms has an impact on cancer cell motility, with the subtle predominance of γ-actin, and may influence invasiveness of human colon cancer

Single pulse emission from PSR B0809+74 at 150 MHz using Polish LOFAR station

We report the observations of single pulse emission from the pulsar B0809+74 at 150 MHz using the Polish LOFAR station, PL-611. The three major phenomena of subpulse drifting, nulling, and mode changing associated with single pulse variations are prominently seen in these observations. The pulsar has a single-component conal profile and the single pulses are primarily in the 'normal' drift mode with periodicity (P$_{3}$) 11.1 ± 0.5 P for 96 per cent of the observing duration, while the shorter duration 'slow-drift' mode has P$_{3}$ = 15.7 ± 1.2 P. We were able to measure the phase behaviour associated with drifting from the fluctuation spectral analysis that showed identical linear phase variations across the pulse window for both modes despite their different periodic behaviour. Earlier studies reported that the transitions from the normal state to the slow-drift mode were preceded by the presence of nulling with typical durations of 5 to 10 periods. Our observations however seem to suggest that the transition to nulling follows shortly after the pulsar switches to the slow-drift mode and not at the boundary between the modes, with one instance of complete absence of nulling between mode switching. In addition, we also detected a second type of short-duration nulls not associated with the mode changing that showed quasi-periodic behaviour with periodicity PN ∼ 44 ± 7. The variety of features revealed in the single pulse sequence makes PSR B0809+74 an ideal candidate to understand the physical processes in the Partially Screened Gap dominated by non-dipolar magnetic fields

Subcellular distribution and expression of cofilin and ezrin in human colon adenocarcinoma cell lines with different metastatic potential

The dynamic reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton is regulated by a number of actin binding proteins (ABPs). Four human colon adenocarcinoma cell lines – parental and three selected sublines, which differ in motility and metastatic potential, were used to investigate the expression level and subcellular localization of selected ABPs. Our interest was focused on cofilin and ezrin. These proteins are essential for cell migration and adhesion. The data received for the three more motile adenocarcinoma sublines (EB3, 3LNLN, 5W) were compared with those obtained for the parental LS180 adenocarcinoma cells and fibroblastic NRK cells. Quantitative densitometric analysis and confocal fluorescence microscopy were used to examine the expression levels and subcellular distribution of the selected ABPs. Our data show distinct increase in the level of cofilin in adenocarcinoma cells accompanied by the reduction of inactive phosphorylated form of cofilin. In more motile cells, cofilin was accumulated at cellular periphery in co-localization with actin filaments. Furthemore, we indicated translocation of ezrin towards the cell periphery within more motile cells in comparison with NRK and parental adenocarcinoma cells

Mining the UKIDSS GPS: star formation and embedded clusters

Data mining techniques must be developed and applied to analyse the large public data bases containing hundreds to thousands of millions entries. The aim of this study is to develop methods for locating previously unknown stellar clusters from the UKIDSS Galactic Plane Survey catalogue data. The cluster candidates are computationally searched from pre-filtered catalogue data using a method that fits a mixture model of Gaussian densities and background noise using the Expectation Maximization algorithm. The catalogue data contains a significant number of false sources clustered around bright stars. A large fraction of these artefacts were automatically filtered out before or during the cluster search. The UKIDSS data reduction pipeline tends to classify marginally resolved stellar pairs and objects seen against variable surface brightness as extended objects (or "galaxies" in the archive parlance). 10% or 66 x 10^6 of the sources in the UKIDSS GPS catalogue brighter than 17 magnitudes in the K band are classified as "galaxies". Young embedded clusters create variable NIR surface brightness because the gas/dust clouds in which they were formed scatters the light from the cluster members. Such clusters appear therefore as clusters of "galaxies" in the catalogue and can be found using only a subset of the catalogue data. The detected "galaxy clusters" were finally screened visually to eliminate the remaining false detections due to data artefacts. Besides the embedded clusters the search also located locations of non clustered embedded star formation. The search covered an area of 1302 square degrees and 137 previously unknown cluster candidates and 30 previously unknown sites of star formation were found

VLBI study of maser kinematics in high-mass SFRs. II. G23.01-0.41

The present paper focuses on the high-mass star-forming region G23.01-0.41. Methods: Using the VLBA and the EVN arrays, we conducted phase-referenced observations of the three most powerful maser species in G23.01-0.41: H2O at 22.2 GHz (4 epochs), CH3OH at 6.7 GHz (3 epochs), and OH at 1.665 GHz (1 epoch). In addition, we performed high-resolution (> 0".1), high-sensitivity (< 0.1 mJy) VLA observations of the radio continuum emission from the HMC at 1.3 and 3.6 cm. Results: We have detected H2O, CH3OH, and OH maser emission clustered within 2000 AU from the center of a flattened HMC, oriented SE-NW, from which emerges a massive 12CO outflow, elongated NE-SW, extended up to the pc-scale. Although the three maser species show a clearly different spatial and velocity distribution and sample distinct environments around the massive YSO, the spatial symmetry and velocity field of each maser specie can be explained in terms of expansion from a common center, which possibly denotes the position of the YSO driving the maser motion. Water masers trace both a fast shock (up to 50 km/s) closer to the YSO, powered by a wide-angle wind, and a slower (20 km/s) bipolar jet, at the base of the large-scale outflow. Since the compact free-free emission is found offset from the putative location of the YSO along a direction consistent with that of the maser jet axis, we interpret the radio continuum in terms of a thermal jet. The velocity field of methanol masers can be explained in terms of a composition of slow (4 km/s in amplitude) motions of radial expansion and rotation about an axis approximately parallel to the maser jet. Finally, the distribution of line of sight velocities of the hydroxyl masers suggests that they can trace gas less dense (n(H2) < 10^6 cm^-3) and more distant from the YSO than that traced by the water and methanol masers, which is expanding toward the observer. (Abridged)Comment: 23 pages, 8 figures, 4 tables, accepted by Astronomy and Astrophysic