Dr Henryk Antoni Filipowicz-Dubowik (1930-2015)

Henryk Filipowicz-Dubowik, PhD, Vilnius and Bydgoszcz resident, librarianship and expert and literature specialist. He was born in Vilnius on February 23, 1930. Displaced with his family in 1946, he took up residence in Bydgoszcz. Inthe years 1947-1951, he studied Polish philology at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. The career of Henryk Dubowik was connected with librarianship. In 1969, he became a qualified librarian and the director of the Main Library of the Teacher Training College, renamed in 1974 as Pedagogical College, where he stayed until retirement in 1996. He transformed the school’s little library into a national library. Henryk Filipowicz-Dubowik was both the library’s director and an academic teacher. As an adjunct assistant professor he organized in 1974 the Department of Librarianship and Scientific Information of the Pedagogical College in Bydgoszcz, which he managed until 1981. For over 40 years he was also involved in teaching secondary school librarians. He published a few dozen articles in the scope of librarianship. His scientific interests included literary studies. He was granted his doctor of liberal arts degree in 1969 based on his thesis Surrealism in contemporary Polish literature, supervised by Professor Artur Hutnikiewicz. Also in this field he published scores of articles in collective works and in magazines. Involved in scientific, cultural and artistic life of Bydgoszcz, he gave many lectures on Polish and foreign literature, contemporary painting, library construction, and functioning of libraries in foreign countries. He was active, among others, in The Friends of Bydgoszcz Association. For many years he was a member of the editorial board of the Bydgoszcz Chronicle

Tactile to visual number priming in the left intraparietal cortex of sighted Braille readers

Numbers can be presented in different notations and sensory modalities. It is currently debated to what extent these formats overlap onto a single representation. We asked whether such an overlap exists between symbolic numbers represented in two sensory modalities: Arabic digits and Braille numbers. A unique group of sighted Braille readers underwent extensive Braille reading training and was tested in an fMRI repetition-suppression paradigm with tactile Braille digit primes and visual Arabic digit targets. Our results reveal cross-modal priming: compared to repetition of two different quantities (e.g., Braille "5" and Arabic "2"), repetition of the same quantity presented in two modalities (e.g., Braille "5" and Arabic "5") led to a reduction of activation in several sub-regions of the Intraparietal Sulcus (IPS), a key cortical region for magnitude processing. Thus, in sighted Braille readers, the representations of numbers read by sight and by touch overlap to a degree sufficient to cause repetition suppression. This effect was modulated by the numerical prime-probe distance. Altogether this indicates that the left parietal cortex hosts neural assemblies that are sensitive to numerical information from different notations (number words or Arabic digits) and modalities (tactile and visual)

Ocena stężenia adipokin u dzieci z mukowiscydozą

Introduction: Patients with CF present numerous pathological conditions such as malnutrition, depletion of fat-free mass, metabolic disturbances (abnormal glucose metabolism, increased insulin resistance, chronic energy deficit, local and chronic inflammation), which could affect or be associated with altered adipokines concentration Material and Methods: We aimed in this study to investigate the levels of selected adipokines such as resistin, apelin, adiponectin to demonstrate their application as possible markers of inflammation. Results: Serum level of resistin was higher (p < 0.001) and adiponectin - lower (p=0.02) in CF children than in healthy children. There was no difference in serum apelin level between two examined groups. However, values of adiponectin/BMI and apelin/BMI ratios in CF did not differ significantly from controls. Higher values of resistin/BMI ratio in CF in comparison to controls were observed Serum resistin/adiponectin ratio was significantly higher in CF patients than in controls (p < 0.0001). Resistin/BMI ratio correlated negatively with FEV1 (R:-48,p < 0.043). Serum resistin/adiponectin ratio correlated negatively with FEV1/FVC (R:-49, p=0.04), Adipokines showed no correlation with BMI and BMI-SDS, glucose, total cholesterol, and LDL-, HDL-cholesterol, triglyceride serum levels. Spirometric parameters FEV1, FVC, VC correlated negatively with serum glucose levels (R: -0.55, p < 0.018; R: -0.65 p < 0.0025; R:-0.76, p < 0.0008 respectively). FEV1 and FVC correlated positively with BMI-SDS (R:0.58, p < 0.01; R:0.5, p < 0.036, respectively). Conclusions: A significant increase in resistin concentration expressed also as resistin/BMI, and resistin/adiponectin ratios, observed in children with CF may suggests that this adipokine is involved in the inflammatory process underlying the disease and is related to worse spirometric parameters describing airways obstruction.Wstęp: Pacjenci z mukowiscydozą (CF) ujawniają liczne stany patologiczne, takie jak niedożywienie, zmniejszenie beztłuszczowej masy ciała, zaburzenia metaboliczne m.in. nieprawidłowy metabolizm glukozy, zwiększoną insulinooporność, przewlekły deficyt energetyczny, miejscowe i przewlekłe stany zapalne, które mogą wpływać lub być związane ze zmianami stężenia adipokin. Materiał i metody: Celem aktualnego badania było oznaczenie stężenia wybranych adipokin, takich jak rezystyna, apelina, adiponektyna w celu wykazania możliwości ich zastosowania jako markerów stanu zapalnego. Wyniki: Stężenie rezystyny w surowicy było wyższe (p &lt; 0.001) a adiponektyny — niższe (p = 0,02) u dzieci z CF niż u zdrowych dzieci. Nie stwierdzono różnicy w stężeniu apeliny w surowicy krwi pomiędzy tymi dwoma badanymi grupami. Wartości wskaźników adiponektyna/BMI i apelina/BMI u dzieci z CF nie różniły się jednakże znacząco od stwierdzanych w grupie kontrolnej. Obserwowano wyższe wartości wskaźnika rezystyna/BMI w CF w porównaniu z grupą kontrolną Wskaźnik rezystyna/adiponektyna w surowicy był znacząco wyższy u pacjentów z CF niż u osób z grupy kontrolnej (p &lt; 0.0001). Stosunek rezystyna/BMI korelował negatywnie z FEV1 (R: –48, p &lt; 0.043). Stosunek rezystyna/adiponektyna w surowicy korelował negatywnie z FEV1 / FVC (R: –49, p = 0,04). Stężenie adipokin w surowicy nie wykazało korelacji z BMI i BMI-SDS, stężeniem glukozy, cholesterolu całkowitego, stężeniem cholesterolu LDL i HDL, stężeniem triglicerydów. Parametry spirometryczne FEV1, FVC, VC korelowały negatywnie ze stężeniem glukozy w surowicy (R: –0,55, p &lt; 0.018, R: –0,65 p &lt; 0.0025, R: –0,76, p &lt; 0.0008). FEV1 i FVC wykazywały dodatnią korelację z BMI-SDS (R: 0,58, p &lt; 0,01, R: 0,5, p &lt; 0.036). Wnioski: Znaczne zwiększenie stężenia rezystyny wyrażone również jako wskaźnik rezystyna /BMI oraz stosunek rezystyna/adi­ponektyna, obserwowane u dzieci z CF może sugerować, że ta adipokina jest zaangażowana w proces zapalny leżący u podstaw choroby i jest związana z pogorszeniem parametrów spirometrycznych opisujących niedrożność dróg oddechowych

Formaldehyde 2% is not a useful means of detecting allergy to formaldehyde releasers- results of theESSCAnetwork, 2015-2018

BACKGROUND Studies suggest that patch testing with formaldehyde releasers (FRs) gives significant additional information to formaldehyde 1% aq. and should be considered for addition to the European baseline series (EBS). It is not known if this is also true for formaldehyde 2% aq. OBJECTIVES To determine the frequency of sensitization to formaldehyde 2% aq. and co-reactivity with FRs. To establish whether there is justification for including FRs in the EBS. MATERIALS AND METHODS A 4-year, multi-center retrospective analysis of patients with positive patch test reactions to formaldehyde 2% aq. and five FRs. RESULTS A maximum of 15 067 patients were tested to formaldehyde 2% aq. and at least one FR. The percentage of isolated reactions to FR, without co-reactivity to, formaldehyde 2% aq. for each FR were: 46.8% for quarternium-15 1% pet.; 67.4% imidazolidinyl urea 2% pet.; 64% diazolidinyl urea 2% pet.; 83.3% 1,3-dimethylol-5, 5-dimethyl hydantoin (DMDM) hydantoin 2% pet. and 96.3% 2-bromo-2-nitropropane-1,3-diol 0.5% pet. This demonstrates that co-reactivity varies between FRs and formaldehyde, from being virtually non-existent in 2-bromo-2-nitropropane-1,3-diol 0.5% pet. (Cohen's kappa: 0, 95% confidence interval [CI] -0.02 to 0.02)], to only weak concordance for quaternium-15 [Cohen's kappa: 0.22, 95%CI 0.16 to 0.28)], where Cohen's kappa value of 1 would indicate full concordance. CONCLUSIONS Formaldehyde 2% aq. is an inadequate screen for contact allergy to the formaldehyde releasers, which should be considered for inclusion in any series dependant on the frequency of reactions to and relevance of each individual allergen

Positive correlation between fluoride release and acid erosion of restorative glass-ionomer cements.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine whether there is a correlation between acid erosion and fluoride release of conventional glass ionomer cements. METHODS: Ten specimens for each material were prepared for fluoride release tests and five for acid erosion tests separately. After placed in pH cycling solution, concentration of fluoride was measured by a fluoride-ion selective electrode each day for 15 days. For the acid erosion test, specimens were immersed in a lactic acid solution and their depth measured with a spring-loaded dial gauge. The data were submitted to 3-way ANOVA, followed by Tukey's test (p0.05). The highest acid erosion values were registered for Magic Glass, Ion Z, VitroFil and Maxxion R, which exceeded the maximum stipulated by the relevant ISO test (ISO 9917-1). A positive linear correlation (r2=0.4886) was found for both properties, i.e., higher fluoride release is related to higher acid erosion. SIGNIFICANCE: Acid erosion and fluoride release are related properties of GICs, though factors such as pH and P/L ratio lead to differences between actual values for individual brands of these materials