US VS THEM. CATEGORIZATION IN SOCIAL DEBATE IN THE CONTEXT OF MIGRATION CRISIS IN EUROPE

The aim of this article is to demonstrate the differences in the perception of immigrants and refugees in social debate taking place online. For that purpose, the authors analysed comments posted in social media (Facebook). When describing the techniques of categorization, attention was paid to the interlacing colloquial and scientific descriptions in the discourse concerned with contemporary migrations, also focusing on the process of neosemantization to which scientific terms are subjected.  The aim of this article is to demonstrate the differences in the perception of immigrants and refugees in social debate taking place online. For that purpose, the authors analysed comments posted in social media (Facebook). When describing the techniques of categorization, attention was paid to the interlacing colloquial and scientific descriptions in the discourse concerned with contemporary migrations, also focusing on the process of neosemantization to which scientific terms are subjected

Student assessment of knowledge about low-calorie food and analysis of its consumption

Redukcja wartości energetycznej produktów spożywczych jest odpowiedzią na zjawisko szerzącej się epidemii otyłości i innych schorzeń związanych z wysokokaloryczną dietą. Nieodpowiednie spożywanie asortymentu ubogokalorycznego może jednak wiązać się z negatywnymi konsekwencjami zdrowotnymi. Autorzy pracy dokonali analizy wiedzy na temat żywności niskokalorycznej oraz oceny spożycia produktów ubogoenergetycznych wśród studentów poznańskich uczelni wyższych. Badanie pr zeprowadzono za pomocą autorskiego kwestio - nariusza ankiety wśród 91 słuchaczy tr zech poznańskich wyższych uczelni. Znaczna część przebadanych studentów, zwłaszcza reprezentantów uczelni medycznej, potrafiła rozróżn ić żywność niskokaloryczną od tradycyjnej oraz była świadoma korzyści i zagrożeń wynikających z konsumpcji pokarmów o obniżonej wartości energetycznej. Prawie wszyscy słuchacze deklarowali co najmniej jednorazową konsumpcję produktów typu light, ale nieliczni zaznaczyli, że spożywają je reg ularnie. Wśród żywności niskoenergetycznej najczęściej wybieranymi produktami były: mleko i produkty mleczne, płatki śniadaniowe oraz pieczywo. Analiza wiedzy studentów na temat zdrowotnych aspektów spożywania żywności ubo goenergetycznej oraz weryfikacja zachowań konsumenckich w tym zakresie wskazują na konieczność dalszej edukacji żywieniowej społeczeństwa.The energy value was reduced by food producers in response to increasing epidemic of obesity and different kind of diseases associated with high-calorie diet. The negative consequences of health can be caused by inappropriate consumption of low-calorie food. The aim of the study was to analyze the knowledge and opinion about light products’ consumption in a group of students from Poznan. The research was conducted among 91 students from Poznan with the use of a questionnaire designed by the author of the paper. The most of respondents, especially neohesperydyfrom medical university, were conscious of benefits and risks, which are a result of eating low- -calorie food. They also see differences between conventional and reduced-calorie products. Almost all students declared at least single consumption of reduced-calorie food, but only in few cases this kind of groceries were founded in their daily me nu. Milk and dair y products, cereals and bread were the most frequently chosen among low-calorie goods. This research indicates that the students’knowledge about health aspects of c onsuming light food is not sufficient. The whole population should be educated in the range of healthy dietary habits and correct consumers’ behaviors

Evaluation of dietary supplements use among pregnant women or planning pregnancy

WSTĘP: Racjonalne odżywianie i stosowanie suplementów diety w przypadku niedoborów pokarmowych sprzyja zachowaniu odpowiedniej kondycji zdrowotnej organizmu. Ma to szczególne znaczenie dla kobiet w ciąży i ją planujących. Dostarczenie niezbędnych składników pokarmowych umożliwia prawidłowy rozwój płodu. Celem pracy była ocena częstości stosowania suplementów wśród kobiet w ciąży lub ją planujących w porównaniu z pozostałą populacją ogólną. MATERIAŁ I METODY: Badaniami ankietowymi objęto 254 osoby, w tym 49 kobiet ciężarnych lub planujących ciążę. Do analizy statystycznej wyników zastosowano program GraphPad Prism 6 (testy Shapiro-Wilka, U Manna-Whitneya, Pearsona chi2). WYNIKI: Zażywanie suplementów diety deklarowało niemal 70% grupy kobiet w ciąży lub ją planujących oraz 54% osób reprezentujących pozostałą populację ogólną, z czego połowa zadeklarowała stosowanie preparatów suplementacyjnych codzienni e. Najpopularniejszym źródłem wiedzy na temat suplementów diety w obu grupach był Internet, a w mniejszym zakresie lekarz. Co czwarta osoba z obu badanych populacji nie zauważyła poprawy stanu zdrowia po zastosowaniu suplementów diety. Najczęściej suplementowaną witaminą w grupie kobiet ciężarnych lub planujących ciążę był kwas foliowy przyjmowany przez 43% respondentek, natomiast wśród składników mineralnych — magnez (33%). P ozostała populacja zażywała poszczególne suplementy witaminowe lub mineralne 2−6 razy rzadziej. WNIOSKI: Niska częstość stosowania suplementów zawierających kwas foliowy, witaminę D oraz jod przez kobiety w ciąży lub ją planujące może negatywnie wpłynąć na stan zdrowia matki i dziecka, zwłaszcza że niedobory tych składników są powszechne.INTRODUCTION: The rational nutrition and the use of dietary supplements in the case of dietary deficiencies, promotes good health condition. This is especially important for pregnant women and planning a pregnancy women. The provision of the essential nutrients enables the proper development of the foetus. The aim of the work was the assessment of conditions using dietary supplements among women before and during pregnancy, in comparison with the rest of population both genders. MATERIAL AND METHODS: 254 persons were examined using questionnaire method, including 49 pregnant women or planning a pregnancy. In the statistical analysis we used the GraphPad Prism 6 (Shapiro-Wilk, Mann-Whitney U, Pearson’s chi2 tests). RESULTS: Intake of dietar y supplements was declared by 70% pregnant women or planning pregnancy women, and 54% persons of second group (half use ever y day dietar y supplements). The most popular source of knowledge about dietar y supplements in both groups was the Internet, and to a lesser extent the physician. Every fourth person from both studied populations did not notice health condition improvement after dietary supplements intake. The most common vitamin-supplement in the group of women before or during pregnancy was folic acid (43% respondents), whereas the most popular mineral component was magnesium (33%). The remaining part of population used various supplements with vitamins or minerals with 2−6 times smaller frequency. CONCLUSIONS: Low frequency of use of supplements containing folic acid, vitamin D and iodine by pregnant women or planning a pregnancy women may negative effect on the health of mother and of child, especially that their deficiencies are popular

Next Generation-Targeted Amplicon Sequencing (NG-TAS): an optimised protocol and computational pipeline for cost-effective profiling of circulating tumour DNA

Cancer; Computational pipeline; Deep sequencingCàncer; Segmentació computacional; SeqüenciacióCáncer; Segmentación computacional; SecuenciaciónCirculating tumour DNA (ctDNA) detection and monitoring have enormous potential clinical utility in oncology. We describe here a fast, flexible and cost-effective method to profile multiple genes simultaneously in low input cell-free DNA (cfDNA): Next Generation-Targeted Amplicon Sequencing (NG-TAS). We designed a panel of 377 amplicons spanning 20 cancer genes and tested the NG-TAS pipeline using cell-free DNA from two HapMap lymphoblastoid cell lines. NG-TAS consistently detected mutations in cfDNA when mutation allele fraction was > 1%. We applied NG-TAS to a clinical cohort of metastatic breast cancer patients, demonstrating its potential in monitoring the disease. The computational pipeline is available at https://github.com/cclab-brca/NGTAS_pipelin

Differentiation dynamics of mammary epithelial cells revealed by single-cell RNA sequencing.

Characterising the hierarchy of mammary epithelial cells (MECs) and how they are regulated during adult development is important for understanding how breast cancer arises. Here we report the use of single-cell RNA sequencing to determine the gene expression profile of MECs across four developmental stages; nulliparous, mid gestation, lactation and post involution. Our analysis of 23,184 cells identifies 15 clusters, few of which could be fully characterised by a single marker gene. We argue instead that the epithelial cells-especially in the luminal compartment-should rather be conceptualised as being part of a continuous spectrum of differentiation. Furthermore, our data support the existence of a common luminal progenitor cell giving rise to intermediate, restricted alveolar and hormone-sensing progenitors. This luminal progenitor compartment undergoes transcriptional changes in response to a full pregnancy, lactation and involution. In summary, our results provide a global, unbiased view of adult mammary gland development

Shallow whole genome sequencing for robust copy number profiling of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded breast cancers.

Pathology archives with linked clinical data are an invaluable resource for translational research, with the limitation that most cancer samples are formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues. Therefore, FFPE tissues are an important resource for genomic profiling studies but are under-utilised due to the low amount and quality of extracted nucleic acids. We profiled the copy number landscape of 356 breast cancer patients using DNA extracted FFPE tissues by shallow whole genome sequencing. We generated a total of 491 sequencing libraries from 2 kits and obtained data from 98.4% of libraries with 86.4% being of good quality. We generated libraries from as low as 3.8 ng of input DNA and found that the success was independent of input DNA amount and quality, processing site and age of the fixed tissues. Since copy number alterations (CNA) play a major role in breast cancer, it is imperative that we are able to use FFPE archives and we have shown in this study that sWGS is a robust method to do such profiling

MLH1-methylated endometrial cancer under 60 years of age as the “sentinel” cancer in female carriers of high-risk constitutional MLH1 epimutation

Objective. Universal screening of endometrial carcinoma (EC) for mismatch repair deficiency (MMRd) and Lynch syndrome uses presence of MLH1 methylation to omit common sporadic cases from follow-up germline testing. However, this overlooks rare cases with high-risk constitutional MLH1 methylation (epimutation), a poorly-recognized mechanism that predisposes to Lynch-type cancers with MLH1 methylation. We aimed to de-termine the role and frequency of constitutional MLH1 methylation among EC cases with MMRd, MLH1- methylated tumors.Methods. We screened blood for constitutional MLH1 methylation using pyrosequencing and real-time methylation-specific PCR in patients with MMRd, MLH1-methylated EC ascertained from (i) cancer clinics (n = 4, <60 years), and (ii) two population-based cohorts; Columbus-area (n = 68, all ages) and Ohio Colo-rectal Cancer Prevention Initiative (OCCPI) (n = 24, <60 years).Results. Constitutional MLH1 methylation was identified in three out of four patients diagnosed between 36 and 59 years from cancer clinics. Two had mono-/hemiallelic epimutation (similar to 50% alleles methylated). One with multiple primaries had low-level mosaicism in normal tissues and somatic second-hits affecting the unmethylated allele in all tumors, demonstrating causation. In the population-based cohorts, all 68 cases from the Columbus-area cohort were negative and low-level mosaic constitutional MLH1 methylation was identified in one patient aged 36 years out of 24 from the OCCPI cohort, representing one of six (similar to 17%) patients <50 years and one of 45 patients (similar to 2%) <60 years in the combined cohorts. EC was the first/dual-first cancer in three pa-tients with underlying constitutional MLH1 methylation.Conclusions. A correct diagnosis at first presentation of cancer is important as it will significantly alter clinical management. Screening for constitutional MLH1 methylation is warranted in patients with early-onset EC or syn-chronous/metachronous tumors (any age) displaying MLH1 methylation.(c) 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

Fragmentation patterns and personalized sequencing of cell-free DNA in urine and plasma of glioma patients.

Glioma-derived cell-free DNA (cfDNA) is challenging to detect using liquid biopsy because quantities in body fluids are low. We determined the glioma-derived DNA fraction in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), plasma, and urine samples from patients using sequencing of personalized capture panels guided by analysis of matched tumor biopsies. By sequencing cfDNA across thousands of mutations, identified individually in each patient's tumor, we detected tumor-derived DNA in the majority of CSF (7/8), plasma (10/12), and urine samples (10/16), with a median tumor fraction of 6.4 × 10-3 , 3.1 × 10-5 , and 4.7 × 10-5 , respectively. We identified a shift in the size distribution of tumor-derived cfDNA fragments in these body fluids. We further analyzed cfDNA fragment sizes using whole-genome sequencing, in urine samples from 35 glioma patients, 27 individuals with non-malignant brain disorders, and 26 healthy individuals. cfDNA in urine of glioma patients was significantly more fragmented compared to urine from patients with non-malignant brain disorders (P = 1.7 × 10-2 ) and healthy individuals (P = 5.2 × 10-9 ). Machine learning models integrating fragment length could differentiate urine samples from glioma patients (AUC = 0.80-0.91) suggesting possibilities for truly non-invasive cancer detection

Pro Libris: Lubuskie Pismo Literacko-Kulturalne, nr 4 (2010)

145 s. : il., portr.