Rediscussing centres and peripheries: communication lenses on migration. ECREA 2018 special panel report

The ECREA 2018 special panel “Rediscussing centers and peripheries: communication lenses on migration” was held at the ECREA conference on 2 November 2018, in the beautiful venue of a frescoed room at Villa Ciani. The panel was co-organized by the two authors of this report, Jolanta Drzewiecka and Sara Greco, both from USI Università della Svizzera italiana. As the organizers, we provide a brief report of the rationale, aims and expectations that we had for this panel. We then include a discussion on how the panel exceeded our expectations by encouraging profoundly critical communication lenses on migration

Editorial

We are pleased to present to you the first of the three issues of Studies in Communication Sciences scheduled for publication in 2023. Beginning in 2022 and on a trial basis, SComS begun to publish three issues per year in response to the increased number of submissions. We are continuing our trial which allows us to offer two issues with Thematic Sections which have been very important to our community of readers. This still leaves us another full issue dedicated exclusively to general submissions. In 2023, SComS will publish two Thematic Sections “Old media persistence. Past continuities” in issue 23-3. The Thematic Section in this issue 23-1 is titled: “Historizing international organizations and their communication – institutions, practices, changes”. We have enjoyed receiving very interesting proposals for Thematic Sections. At this moment, we already have Thematic Sections planned for 2024. If you are thinking of organizing one, please plan ahead and we look forward to receiving your proposal

Editorial

The third and last issue of the year offers a diversity of communication topics. The General Section includes a study of parasocial relations with media characters and an analysis of COVID-19 rhetoric in Iran. The Thematic Section presents a rich discussion of issues and processes involved in the persistence of “old media.” Diverse topics are also presented in the Community Section including a summary of the SACM award winning dissertation and an introduction to DOCA. Finally, the contributions to the Book Review Section discuss books on Internet memes and the influencer industry. Before our more detailed overview, we are pleased to present an important next step for SComS.SComS is evolving toward Open Data and Open Research. Since 2017, SComS has been published as a platinum open access journal. One notable feature is the journals’ multilingual nature. For authors, the online first publication of articles is particularly advantageous, enabling the timely publication of accepted contributions. With these features, SComS has positioned itself as a dynamic and innovative journal in the European journal landscape. However, the step toward Open Data and Open Research has not been fully embraced yet

Critical perspectives on migration in discourse and communication: An introduction

While these lines were written, Taliban were conquering Afghanistan, establishing a regime of terror in the country, while concurrently provoking a wide conflict in the Western public sphere about responsibilities and consequences of this situation. More specifically, Europe witnesses a racist and xenophobic wave of discourses against a new possible escape of refugees toward Europe; presently such discourses abound in politics and the media. It is more than a truism nowadays that, in crisis-stricken Europe, there is an increasing politicization of migration, which takes place against the background and mutual overlapping of diverse crises. More specifically, migration has become a focal and quite polarizing issue in the European public sphere especially since the numbers of refugees, escaping from conflict territories of the Middle East (e. g., Syria), crossing the Mediterranean, dramatically increased starting in 2014 (Bevelander & Wodak, 2019a). The so-called “refugee crisis,” as this movement was portrayed by mainstream media and powerful political figures in Europe (Krzyżanowski, Triandafyllidou, & Wodak, 2018), contributed to social and economic tensions (such as the Eurozone “debt crisis”) that took place in the European Union and played into Brexit that followed

Editorial

We are pleased to announce several innovations at SComS. In July, SComS was added to the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). This gives our young open access journal more visibility and connects us even better with the growing community dedicated to developing open access journals and making scientific knowledge accessible. In addition, there are technical innovations on the Submission Platform. Authors can now directly enter their ORCID ID as part of the submission process and link their papers to their unique researcher ID. In case you are not familiar with ORCID, you can find more information on https://orcid.org. Let us now turn our attention from future issues to this issue of SComS. It contains four articles in the General Section, a Thematic Section entitled “Critical perspectives on migration in discourse and communication,” and two book reviews in the Reviews and Reports Section. In addition, the Community Section contains the summary of Sina Blassnig’s dissertation, which was awarded the 2021 Dissertation Prize of the Swiss Association of Communication and Media Research (SACM). On a sad occasion, the issue also contains an obituary of the communication and media scientist Michael Schanne

Contemporary Dilemmas of Management

Praca recenzowana / Peer-reviewed paperThe presented publication contains the articles maintaining widely understood problem of Organization Management. The notion of Management demands nowadays to undertook the interpretation of many important questions, such as: the way of influencing inferiors, the values commonly shared by random community, importance of culture, role of information, communication problems as a source of ideas concerning possible improvement of enterprise functioning effectiveness and marketing actions

NT-proBNP level in the diagnosis of isolated left ventricular diastolic dysfunction in patients with documented coronary artery disease

Background: The diagnostic value of NT-proBNP for left ventricular (LV) systolic dysfunction is well established. However, its role for diastolic dysfunction (DD) diagnosis in patients with preserved systolic function has not been clearly defined. Methods: A total of 83 patients with documented coronary arterial disease following anterior myocardial infarction and with a left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) > 45% were enrolled. According to echocardiographic mitral inflow and right upper pulmonary vein flow, DD was excluded in 32 patients (group A). The patients with DD were divided into three subgroups: B1 - 38 patients with impaired relaxation, B2 - 8 patients with pseudonormalisation and B3 - 7 patients with restrictive inflow. In all patients E-wave propagation (Vp) and NT-proBNP were determined. Results: Mean LVEF was 56.2 &plusmn; 9% and did not differ between the subgroups. NT-proBNP levels were 107 &plusmn; 101 pg/ml in group A, 299 &plusmn; 281 pg/ml in B1, 734 &plusmn; 586 pg/ml in B2 (p < 0.05 vs. A) and 2322 &plusmn; 886 pg/ml in B3 (p < 0.01 vs. A and p < 0.01 vs. B2). Propagation Vp was 69 &plusmn; 21 cm/s, 56 &plusmn; 20 cm/s, 53 &plusmn; 17 cm/s (p < 0.05 vs. A) and 44 &plusmn; 11 cm/s (p < 0.01 vs. A) respectively. A positive correlation was found for DD degree with NT-proBNP level (r = 0.66; p < 0.001) and negative with Vp (r = &#8211;0.41; p < 0.001). ROC curves were constructed to determine the NT-proBNP level cut-off point for DD (> 131 pg/ml, area under the curve: 0.63) and advanced restrictive DD (> 1670 pg/ml, area under the curve: 0.83) diagnosis. Sensitivity, specificity, accuracy and positive and negative predictive values were 71%, 50%, 63%, 69%, 52% and 57%, 99%, 95%, 80%, 96% respectively. Conclusions: In patients with coronary artery disease and preserved LV systolic function a single NT-proBNP measurement helps to identify those with isolated DD, especially those with advanced restriction

The prognostic value of contrast echocardiography, electrocardiographic and angiographic perfusion indices for prediction of left ventricular function recovery in patients with acute myocardial infarction treated by percutaneous coronary intervention

Background: Fast and effective culprit artery patency restoration is important in acute myocardial infarction (MI) but does not ensure that tissue perfusion related to a better prognosis in the long-term follow-up is achieved. In this study we compared the prognostic value of myocardial perfusion contrast echocardiography with other well-known electrocardiographic and angiographic indices of preserved tissue perfusion. Material and methods: We studied 114 consecutive patients, of whom 85 were male, aged 57.9 &#177; 11 years, within 12 hours of the onset of symptoms of their first anterior myocardial infarction. These were treated with primary PCI, after which PCI myocardial blush grading was assessed (MBG 0-1 no perfusion, 2-3 normal perfusion). One hour after PCI a reduction of > 50% in the sum of ST-segment elevation (&#931;ST 50%) was assessed as an indicator of perfusion restoration. During the first 24 hours continuous ECG monitoring recorded reperfusion arrhythmias (RA) and the time required for ST-segment reduction to exceed 50% in the single lead with the highest ST elevation (&#916;t ST 50%). On the next day of MI, after LVEF evaluation, real-time myocardial contrast echocardiography (RT-MCE) was performed to assess perfusion in dysfunctional segments. The reperfusion index as an average of the dysfunctional segment perfusion score was determined. Regional and global LV function was assessed again one month after MI. An LVEF increase of over 5% divided the patients into two groups: group A with LVEF improvement (72 pts) and group B without LVEF improvement (42 pts). Results: In group A baseline LVEF was 41.9 &#177; 7.1% and in group B it was 38.9 &#177; 7.4% (p = NS). The reperfusion indices were 1.59 and 0.78 (p < 0.001) respectively. MBG 2-3 occurred more often in group A (64%) than in group B (34%) p < 0.001. &#931; ST50% and &#916;t ST 50%, after determination of the cut point on the ROC curve (61 min), occurred in 47 and 48 patients in group A and 17 and 16 patients in group B respectively. The accuracy of the tests under discussion for LVEF prognosis was 76.3%, 64%, 63.2% and 64.9% for RT-MCE, MBG, SST50% and &#916;t ST 50% respectively. Conclusions: Myocardial perfusion echocardiography had a high prognostic value for the prediction of LV global function improvement. It turned out to be the best predictor among the other angiographic, echocardiographic and electrocardiographic markers

Marketing

Praca recenzowana / Peer-reviewed paperArtykuły zebrane w niniejszym Zeszycie dotyczą problematyki zarządzania marketingowego w przedsiębiorstwach działających na rynkach krajowych i międzynarodowych. Efektywne funkcjonowanie współczesnych organizacji wymaga bowiem rozeznania warunków panujących na rynkach docelowych pozwalających na prawidłowe opracowanie ich strategii działania

Wartość diagnostyczna dobutaminowego testu echokardiograficznego z użyciem badania przemieszczania tkanek w rozpoznawaniu choroby niedokrwiennej serca - doniesienie wstępne

Wstęp: Pomimo ugruntowanej pozycji tradycyjnej echokardiografii dobutaminowej (DSE) z uwagi na ograniczoną czułość metody - szczególnie w wykrywaniu choroby jednonaczyniowej - poszukuje się nowych sposobów obrazowania niedokrwienia mięśnia sercowego. Badanie przemieszczenia tkanek (TT) stanowi nową echokardiograficzną metodę obrazowania, opartą na tkankowej echokardiografii doplerowskiej, która pozwala oceniać podłużne, dokoniuszkowe przemieszczanie miokardium. Materiał i metody: Badanie przeprowadzono u 20 kolejnych chorych z prawidłową funkcją skurczową lewej komory, zakwalifikowanych wcześniej do zabiegu koronarografii z powodu podejrzenia choroby niedokrwiennej serca. W spoczynku i w trakcie obciążenia dobutaminą według standardowego protokołu (10, 20, 30, 40 &#181;g/kg + atropina), posługując się projekcjami koniuszkowymi (2-, 3- i 4-jamową), oceniano frakcję wyrzutową i wskaźnik kurczliwości lewej komory oraz przy użyciu metody TT podłużne przemieszczanie miokardium, które wizualizowano 7-kolorową wstęgą, wyrażającą różny stopień ruchu w kierunku koniuszkowym. Badanie powtarzano na kolejnych etapach obciążenia, wyznaczając wartość TT dla każdego z 16 segmentów lewej komory. Wyniki: Wyliczano średnią wartość TT (aTT) w spoczynku i na szczycie obciążenia. Następnie opracowano krzywą ROC w celu wyznaczenia granicznej wartości przyrostu TT na podstawie badania koronarograficznego, pozwalającej określić wynik próby TT jako dodatni. Wartość najlepiej wskazująca na obecność choroby niedokrwiennej serca to wzrost aTT pomiędzy spoczynkiem a maksymalnym obciążeniem o mniej niż 0,46 mm. Czułość, specyficzność i dokładność DSE tradycyjnej i z zastosowaniem TT wynosiły odpowiednio 72%, 100%, 85% oraz 100%, 89% i 90%. Wnioski: Technika TT pozwala w sposób ilościowy i nieinwazyjny ocenić funkcję skurczową włókien podłużnych lewej komory u chorych pozostających w spoczynku i po obciążeniu dobutaminą. Wysoka czułość testu dobutaminowego z zastosowaniem obrazowania TT wydaje się przewyższać wartość tradycyjnego testu dobutaminowego. Należy przeprowadzić kolejne badania obejmujące większą populację