EU accession and Poland's external trade policy

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Arteriovenous fistula of superficial temporal vessels

We present a case of patient with a rare vessel pathology — arteriovenous fistula (AVF) of superficial temporal artery and vein. The 56-year-old man was admitted to the Department of Neurology because of a headache in the right temporal region with concomitant buzzing sound in his right ear. The pain was present mainly in the evenings and was stronger when touching the temporal region. He denied having any head injury in the last few years. There were no signs of central nervous system involvement in the neurological examination. Within the right temporal area a subcutaneous mass with redness of the surrounding skin and with palpable and audible pulsatile thrill was observed. In computed tomography (CT) of the head no abnormalities were found. In duplex-Doppler ultrasound examination of carotid arteries the systolic blood velocity in the right external carotid artery was over two times higher than in the left one. Its flow profile was turbulent and low-resistant. In CT angiography (CTA) an AVF between superficial temporal artery and vein was revealed — it was located at the level of the right zygomatic arch. In both CTA and magnetic resonance angiography, no abnormal connections between extra- and intracranial vessels were found. The patient underwent surgery with good result — all the symptoms disappeared. AVFs of vessels of the scalp are rare and their aetiology is mainly traumatic or iatrogenic. By describing this case we wanted to draw attention to less frequent causes of headache

The occurrence of wakefieldite, a rare earth element vanadate, in the rhyolitic Joe Lott Tuff, Utah, USA

The high-silica rhyolitic Joe Lott Tuff was erupted at 19.2 ± 0.4 Ma from the Mount Belknap caldera, SW Utah. Certain units in the tuff contain two species of wakefieldite, the Nd- A nd Y-dominant types. They occur in disseminated streaks and patches in association with rhodochrosite, calcite, Fe oxide, cerite-(Ce), and a Mn silicate (caryopilite?), thought to have been deposited from hydrothermal fluids. The wakefieldites contain the highest levels of As (≤15.34 wt.% As2O5) and P (≤5.7 wt.% P2O5) yet recorded in this mineral, indicating significant solid solution towards chernovite-(Y) and xenotime-(Y). Thorium levels are also unusually high (≤14.2 wt.% ThO2). The source of the hydrothermal fluid(s) is unknown but might be related to uranium mineralisation in the region, in that As, V and U are commonly associated in such deposits. © 2019 Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland

Anticancer activity and DNA interaction of bis(pyridyl)allene-derived metal complexes

The constant need for novel drugs has prompted the scientific community to explore alternative structures to natural products and small and medium size organic compounds used in classic medicinal and pharmaceutical chemistry. Since the discovery of cisplatin, organometallic compounds have revealed great potential as metallodrugs and their development has exponentially grown in recent years. In this manuscript, we describe our efforts towards the synthesis of new metallodrugs by reaction of bis(pyridyl)allenes and metal complexes. Two classes of compounds are presented: one in which the allene structure is intact and the metal (Pd(II), Pt(IV) or Au(III)) coordinates to the pyridine-nitrogens; and another, in which one of the pyridines cyclises into a gold-activated allene to form β-N-stabilised gold carbenes. Both classes of compounds are active catalysts in important organic reactions, and are also promising antimicrobial, antifungal and anticancer agents. In this work, we describe the promising anticancer activity, against breast cancer cells, of the gold carbene complexes, and preliminary studies of their interaction with DNA, including non-canonical DNA structures. Our results have revealed an unusual selective stabilisation of hTeloC i-motif by one of the Au(III) carbene complexes, that opens up exciting opportunities for further development of novel DNA-binding metallodrugs

Policiklički aromatski ugljikovodici u zraku okolice plinskog polja Molve

Small-volume air samples (~7 m3 per 24 h) of airborne PM10 particle fraction were collected on quartz fibre filters at two measuring sites in the vicinity of the gas field Molve in April and July 2006. It took five to seven days for each sample to collect and one month to collect five to seven samples. Mass concentrations of PM10 fractions were determined by gravimetry while PAHs were analysed using a HPLC with a fluorescent detector. The analysis included fluoranthene (Flu), pyrene (Pyr), benzo(a)anthracene (BaA), chrysene (Cry), benzo(b)fluoranthene (BbF), benzo(k)fluoranthene (BkF), benzo(a)pyrene (BaP), benzo(ghi)perylene (BghiP) and indene(1,2,3-cd)pyrene (Ind). Average concentrations of all PAHs in April at site A were slightly higher than at site B while in July they were lower and similar on both sites. Average BaP concentration measured at site A in April was 0.156 ng m-3 and at site B 0.129 ng m-3, while July BaP averages were 0.022 ng m-3 at both sites. In both months, the mass concentration of BaP was lower than the limit value (1 ng m-3) and well below the tolerant value (2 ng m-3) set by a Croatian regulation of 2005. This suggests that the air near gas field Molve was of acceptable quality in respect to BaP at the time of the measurement.Uzorci PM10 frakcije lebdećih čestica skupljani su prosisavanjem malog volumena zraka (~7 m3 za 24 h) kroz filtre od kvarcnih vlakana. Svaki je uzorak skupljan tijekom pet do sedam dana na dva mjerna mjesta u okolici plinskog polja Molve. Uzorkovanje je provedeno tijekom travnja i srpnja 2006. godine. Masene koncentracije PM10 frakcije određene su gravimetrijski, dok je analiza policikličkih aromatskih ugljikovodika (PAU) rađena tekućinskom kromatografijom visoke djelotvornosti (HPLC) s fluorescentnim detektorom. Mjereni su sljedeći PAU: fluoranten, piren, benzo(a)antracen, krizen, benzo(b)fluoranten, benzo(k)fluoranten, benzo(a)piren, benzo(ghi)perilen i indeno(1,2,3-cd)piren. Srednje vrijednosti masenih koncentracija svih PAU u travnju na mjernome mjestu A bile su neznatno više od onih na mjernome mjestu B, dok su u srpnju na oba mjerna mjesta bile vrlo slične. Srednja vrijednost koncentracije BaP izmjerenog u travnju na mjernome mjestu A bila je viša od vrijednosti izmjerene na mjernome mjestu B. U srpnju su srednje vrijednosti bile znatno niže i na oba mjerna mjesta iznosile su 0.022 ng m-3. Iz rezultata dobivenih mjerenjem vidljivo je da je koncentracija benzo(a)pirena bila znatno niža od granične vrijednosti (1 ng m-3) i tolerantne vrijednosti (1 ng m-3, Uredba iz 2005.), pa možemo zaključiti da je zrak u okolici plinskog polja Molve tijekom istraživanog razdoblja bio prve kategorije kakvoće

Remodeling of T Cell Dynamics During Long COVID Is Dependent on Severity of SARS-CoV-2 Infection

Several COVID-19 convalescents suffer from the post-acute COVID-syndrome (PACS)/long COVID, with symptoms that include fatigue, dyspnea, pulmonary fibrosis, cognitive dysfunctions or even stroke. Given the scale of the worldwide infections, the long-term recovery and the integrative health-care in the nearest future, it is critical to understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms as well as possible predictors of the longitudinal post-COVID-19 responses in convalescent individuals. The immune system and T cell alterations are proposed as drivers of post-acute COVID syndrome. However, despite the number of studies on COVID-19, many of them addressed only the severe convalescents or the short-term responses. Here, we performed longitudinal studies of mild, moderate and severe COVID-19-convalescent patients, at two time points (3 and 6 months from the infection), to assess the dynamics of T cells immune landscape, integrated with patients-reported symptoms. We show that alterations among T cell subsets exhibit different, severity- and time-dependent dynamics, that in severe convalescents result in a polarization towards an exhausted/senescent state of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells and perturbances in CD4+ Tregs. In particular, CD8+ T cells exhibit a high proportion of CD57+ terminal effector cells, together with significant decrease of naïve cell population, augmented granzyme B and IFN-γ production and unresolved inflammation 6 months after infection. Mild convalescents showed increased naïve, and decreased central memory and effector memory CD4+ Treg subsets. Patients from all severity groups can be predisposed to the long COVID symptoms, and fatigue and cognitive dysfunctions are not necessarily related to exhausted/senescent state and T cell dysfunctions, as well as unresolved inflammation that was found only in severe convalescents. In conclusion, the post-COVID-19 functional remodeling of T cells could be seen as a two-step process, leading to distinct convalescent immune states at 6 months after infection. Our data imply that attenuation of the functional polarization together with blocking granzyme B and IFN-γ in CD8+ cells might influence post-COVID alterations in severe convalescents. However, either the search for long COVID predictors or any treatment to prevent PACS and further complications is mandatory in all patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection, and not only in those suffering from severe COVID-19

How do MNC R&D laboratory roles affect employee international assignments?

Research and development (R&D) employees are important human resources for multinational corporations (MNCs) as they are the driving force behind the advancement of innovative ideas and products. International assignments of these employees can be a unique way to upgrade their expertise; allowing them to effectively recombine their unique human resources to progress existing knowledge and advance new ones. This study aims to investigate the effect of the roles of R&D laboratories in which these employees work on the international assignments they undertake. We categorise R&D laboratory roles into those of the support laboratory, the locally integrated laboratory and the internationally interdependent laboratory. Based on the theory of resource recombinations, we hypothesise that R&D employees in support laboratories are not likely to assume international assignments, whereas those in locally integrated and internationally interdependent laboratories are likely to assume international assignments. The empirical evidence, which draws from research conducted on 559 professionals in 66 MNC subsidiaries based in Greece, provides support to our hypotheses. The resource recombinations theory that extends the resource based view can effectively illuminate the international assignment field. Also, research may provide more emphasis on the close work context of R&D scientists rather than analyse their demographic characteristics, the latter being the focus of scholarly practice hitherto

Germline MSH2 and MLH1 mutational spectrum in HNPCC families from Poland and the Baltic States.

Peer reviewe

Metal Complexes as Antifungals? From a Crowd-Sourced Compound Library to the First InVivo{In Vivo} Experiments

There are currently fewer than 10 antifungal drugs in clinical development, but new fungal strains that are resistant to most current antifungals are spreading rapidly across the world. To prevent a second resistance crisis, new classes of antifungal drugs are urgently needed. Metal complexes have proven to be promising candidates for novel antibiotics, but so far, few compounds have been explored for their potential application as antifungal agents. In this work, we report the evaluation of 1039 metal-containing compounds that were screened by the Community for Open Antimicrobial Drug Discovery (CO-ADD). We show that 20.9% of all metal compounds tested have antimicrobial activity against two representative Candida and Cryptococcus strains compared with only 1.1% of the >300,000 purely organic molecules tested through CO-ADD. We identified 90 metal compounds (8.7%) that show antifungal activity while not displaying any cytotoxicity against mammalian cell lines or hemolytic properties at similar concentrations. The structures of 21 metal complexes that display high antifungal activity (MIC ≤1.25 μM) are discussed and evaluated further against a broad panel of yeasts. Most of these have not been previously tested for antifungal activity. Eleven of these metal complexes were tested for toxicity in the Galleria mellonella moth larva model, revealing that only one compound showed signs of toxicity at the highest injected concentration. Lastly, we demonstrated that the organo-Pt(II) cyclooctadiene complex $\textbf{Pt1}$ significantly reduces fungal load in an in vivoG. mellonella infection model. These findings showcase that the structural and chemical diversity of metal-based compounds can be an invaluable tool in the development of new drugs against infectious diseases