Meaning management – photography and “personal” media education

In the article, I analyse the fascinating (from the perspective of culture-related mainstream media research) phenomenon of building meanings through a specific composition of images – photographs, their placement in the macro-structure of the website, the number of additions (comments, tags, loca-tions) forming the so-called chain of meanings and being one of the pillars of the modern media education. The specifics of the discussed phenomenon are primar-ily influenced by the observation point: the level of image comprehension largely depends not only on the observer’s perception (understood even in an extremely general way), but also on the level of media competencies (acquired through con-scious or unconscious education), the need to interpret the surrounding space filled with images – or more precisely understood as the place for “hanging” vari-ous images (static, but moving) and a specific social (situation) position.W artykule analizuję fascynujące (z perspektywy kulturoznawcze-go nurtu badań nad mediami) zjawisko budowania znaczeń poprzez określoną kompozycję obrazów – fotografii, ich umiejscowienie w makrostrukturze strony, liczbę dopowiedzeń (komentarzy, znaczników, tagów, lokalizacji) tworzących tzw. łańcuch znaczeń i będących jednym z filarów współczesnej edukacji medialnej. Na specyfikę omawianego zjawiska wpływa przede wszystkim pułap obserwacji: poziom komplikacji rozumienia obrazu będzie w dużej mierze zależny nie tyl-ko od „spostrzegawczości” obserwatora (rozumianej nawet w sposób wyjątkowo ogólny), ale również od poziomu kompetencji medialnych (nabytych w drodze świadomej lub nieświadomej edukacji), potrzeby interpretacji otaczającej go przestrzeni wypełnionej obrazami – czy bardziej rozumianej właśnie jako miejsce „zawieszania” różnorodnych obrazów (ruchomych i statycznych) oraz określoną pozycją (sytuacją) społeczną

Patchwork ['pætʃ,wɜ:(r)k] : kulturowa cyrkulacja obiektów medialnych

"Decyzję o napisaniu tej książki poprzedziła długa analiza jej „bibliotecznej” potrzeby. Zastanawiałem się, czy w interesujących mnie obszarach (media cyfrowe, kultura współczesna, mechanizmy regulujące media społecznościowe) istnieje możliwość wprowadzenia części własnych ustaleń. Nie jest to kwestia strachu przed oceną środowiska, ale realny dylemat badacza mediów, którego korzenie sięgają tradycyjnego literaturoznawstwa. Dynamika zmian, nieadekwatność i nieprzystawalność części rozwiązań wynika w przypadku nauk o mediach nie tylko z wyjątkowej podatności przedmiotów analizy na erozję czasu, co z kolei powoduje bardzo widoczną utratę trwałości wszelkich zastosowanych teorii naukowych, lecz także z interdyscyplinarnego charakteru medioznawstwa, który nie zawsze przynosi zamierzony efekt w postaci wypracowania holistycznej interpretacji badanego materiału." (fragm.

New data on introduced and rare synanthropic spider species (Arachnida: Araneae) in Poland (II)

Over the last decades, a large number of introduced spider species (Araneae) has been noted in Europe. Some of these newcomers have been introduced incidentally. However, the others develop permanent populations, for example in greenhouses or botanical gardens, and become synanthropic species. Introduction and synanthropization of new spider species also occurs in Poland. New records presented herein extend the list of introduced arachnofauna by seven species: Aphantaulax trifasciata, Cheiracanthium furculatum, Cyrtophora citricola, Olios argelasius, Nurscia albomaculata, Phoneutria boliviensis and Triaeris stenaspis. In addition, new posts of rarely reported so far in Poland synanthropic spiders such as: Amaurobius ferox, A. similis, Cheiracanthium mildei, Hasarius adansoni, Holocnemus pluchei, Nesticella mogera, Psilochorus simoni, Pseudeuophrys lanigera, Scytodes thoracica and Uloborus plumipes are presented. The data complement the deployment of these species in Poland as well as indicate their potential expansion routes

RAFEN -- Regularized Alignment Framework for Embeddings of Nodes

Learning representations of nodes has been a crucial area of the graph machine learning research area. A well-defined node embedding model should reflect both node features and the graph structure in the final embedding. In the case of dynamic graphs, this problem becomes even more complex as both features and structure may change over time. The embeddings of particular nodes should remain comparable during the evolution of the graph, what can be achieved by applying an alignment procedure. This step was often applied in existing works after the node embedding was already computed. In this paper, we introduce a framework -- RAFEN -- that allows to enrich any existing node embedding method using the aforementioned alignment term and learning aligned node embedding during training time. We propose several variants of our framework and demonstrate its performance on six real-world datasets. RAFEN achieves on-par or better performance than existing approaches without requiring additional processing steps.Comment: ICCS 202

Unveiling the Potential of Probabilistic Embeddings in Self-Supervised Learning

In recent years, self-supervised learning has played a pivotal role in advancing machine learning by allowing models to acquire meaningful representations from unlabeled data. An intriguing research avenue involves developing self-supervised models within an information-theoretic framework, but many studies often deviate from the stochasticity assumptions made when deriving their objectives. To gain deeper insights into this issue, we propose to explicitly model the representation with stochastic embeddings and assess their effects on performance, information compression and potential for out-of-distribution detection. From an information-theoretic perspective, we seek to investigate the impact of probabilistic modeling on the information bottleneck, shedding light on a trade-off between compression and preservation of information in both representation and loss space. Emphasizing the importance of distinguishing between these two spaces, we demonstrate how constraining one can affect the other, potentially leading to performance degradation. Moreover, our findings suggest that introducing an additional bottleneck in the loss space can significantly enhance the ability to detect out-of-distribution examples, only leveraging either representation features or the variance of their underlying distribution.Comment: Under review by AISTATS 202

Microbial alterations of oral cavity and their association with Pancreatic Cancer

Introduction: Pancreatic Cancer (PC), while relatively infrequent, remains one of the deadliest cancers as a result of late diagnosis and absence of preventive measures. Over 50 % of patients diagnosed with PC already suffer metastasis. Combined with lack of effective treatment, the need arises for universal biomarkers specific to PC. In the last decades the importance of human microbiota in its upholding of the body homeostasis has been under radar, in special regards to its association to cancer. Several species of oral microbiome have been linked to increased or decreased risk of developing pancreatic cancer, most notably P.gingivalis and Fusobacteria.   Purpose of the study: The aim of this study is to collect and summarize existing evidence on connection of oral microbiome and pancreatic cancer, as well as to assess their potential use in diagnostics of PC .   Material and method: Literature review was performed, in English databases, using keywords : cancer, pancreatic cancer, pancreatic cancer prevention, oral microbiome, microbe variation, microbial biomarkers.   Results and conclusions: In our systematic review, evident differences between microbial architecture of PC patients and healthy individuals were observed. The data on association between microbiota and risk of developing cancer is limited, however it still provides evidence for relationship between microbial composition and incidence of pancreatic cancer

Is the perception of physicians based on the type and colour of attire?

Introduction:  Patients’ confidence in a physician is influenced by many factors. Recent studies suggest that there’s an association between doctor’s attire and the way patients view physician’s trustworthyness, competence and empathy in various specialties and contexts of care. Along with the developement of medical attire market comes a need to understand how the choice of professional clothes infulences patients’ perceptions. Purpose of the study: The aim of this study was to determine whether patients perception of physician and the confidence in professional skills is determined by the type and colour of doctor’s attire. Materials and methods: We carried out literature search using English based databases (PubMed, Springer, Google Scholar) using key words: physician attire, profesionalism, scrubs, patients perception, psychology of colour. Most recent studies matching this criteria were analysed and those most relevant were picked for this review. Results and conclusions: The assotiation between physician’s attire and patients’ perceptions is complex and depends on numerous factors including age, gender, geographic location and culture, as well as physician’s specialty and context of care. The white coat, despite latest research on it’s role in infections spread, remains an important attribute of a doctor.  Physicians who wear white coats are viewed as more trustworthy, knowledgeable, competent and more caring. Colour of scrubs may serve as a valuable hospital personel identification tool. Various colours evoke possitive emotions in patients, navy blue, light blue and green remain the the colours of scrubs that patients perceive as the most professional and appropriate

How do eating disorders can affect the endocrine system? - literature review

Introduction: Eating disorders (ED) are complex psychological disorders with low rates of detection and early intervention. High rates of morbidity and mortality in eating disorders, especially anorexia nervosa (AN), is still continued. ED mostly refers to adolescent and lead to many significant complications, including many changes in endocrine system. Hormonal disorders in AN occur among sex hormones, thyroid hormones, adrenal hormones, growth hormones, as well as the entire hypothalamic-pituitary axis. Purpose of the study: The aim of this study is to collect and summarize the latest views on endocrine dysregulation in anorexia nervosa and highlights the complications associated with it. Material and method: Literature review was performed in English different databases, using keywords: eating disorders, anorexia nervosa, menstruation, menses, irregular menstruation, estrogen, bone mineral density, cortisol, hipercortisolemia, insulin, leptin, ghrelin, growth hormone, thyroid, tyrosine. Results and conclusions: In our systematic review we would like to present the most significant hormone dysregulation in anorexia nervosa and how they can affect the whole organism, such as gonadal axis disregulation, menstrual disorders, bone mineral density, hipercortisolemia, hypoglycemia and other that anorexia nervosa may cause. The phenomenon of eating disorder is becoming more and more frequent – for this reason it is important to put attention to that and be aware of many complication ED can lead to, including hormonal changes

Abdominal aortic aneurysm surgery with a modern method - is there anything to fear?

Background: Endovascular surgery for abdominal aortic aneurysms using a stent graft is the modern method of supplying these life-threatening lesions in large arterial vessels. In recent years, there have been significant improvements in the technique of performing these procedures, despite which complications are still common. In order to make progress in dealing with this problem, it is important to understand in which areas of the treatment strategy appropriate changes have not yet been implemented. Various clinical cases that describe post-operative complications of stent-graft surgery, types of post-operative complications and methods of dealing with the complication that has occurred should be analysed. And also other research papers relating to this topic. The first step is to deepen the knowledge of existing post-operative complications and the types of complications that can occur after stent-graft implantation into the abdominal aorta, as well as contemporary methods of treating complications that have already arisen. Aim of the study: The aim of this study is to present the incidence of complications after endovascular surgery for abdominal aortic aneurysms using a stent graft, the repair methods used when a complication occurs, the types of complications and their different kinds based on a review of the literature. Material and methods: A literature review was conducted in English-language databases, based on original articles and case reports, on post-operative complications of abdominal aortic stent-graft surgery, together with treatment methods and different types of complications arising from this procedure published between 2022 and 2023. Using the keywords: "abdominal aortic stent-graft" and "complications"