Profesor Bolesław W. Lewicki - między filmem i literaturą

Zadanie pt. „Digitalizacja i udostępnienie w Cyfrowym Repozytorium Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego kolekcji czasopism naukowych wydawanych przez Uniwersytet Łódzki” nr 885/P-DUN/2014 zostało dofinansowane ze środków MNiSW w ramach działalności upowszechniającej nauk

Better target detection in the presence of collinear flankers under high working memory load

There are multiple ways in which working memory can influence selective attention. Aside from the content-specific effects of working memory on selective attention, whereby attention is more likely to be directed towards information that matches the contents of working memory, the mere level of load on working memory has also been shown to have an effect on selective attention. Specifically, high load on working memory is associated with increased processing of irrelevant information. In most demonstrations of the effect to-date, this has led to impaired target performance, leaving open the possibility that the effect partly reflects an increase in general task difficulty under high load. Here we show that working memory load can result in a performance gain when processing of distracting information aids target performance. The facilitation in the detection of a low-contrast Gabor stimulus in the presence of collinear flanking Gabors was greater when load on a concurrent working memory task was high, compared to low. This finding suggests that working memory can interact with selective attention at an early stage in visual processing

Is that a real oocyst? Insectary establishment and identification of Plasmodium falciparum oocysts in midguts of Anopheles mosquitoes fed on infected human blood in Tororo, Uganda.

BACKGROUND: The human infectious reservoir for malaria consists of individuals capable of infecting mosquitoes. Oocyst prevalence and density are typical indicators of human infectivity to mosquitoes. However, identification of oocysts is challenging, particularly in areas of low malaria transmission intensity where few individuals may infect mosquitoes, and infected mosquitoes tend to have few oocysts. Here, features that differentiate oocysts from other oocyst-like in mosquito midguts are explained and illustrated. In addition, the establishment and maintenance of infrastructure to perform malaria transmission experiments is described. This work may support other initiatives to set up membrane feeding infrastructure and guide oocyst detection in low transmission settings. METHODS: In 2014, an insectary was developed and equipped in Tororo district, Uganda. A colony of Anopheles gambiae s.s. mosquitoes (Kisumu strain) was initiated to support infectivity experiments from participants enrolled in a large cohort study. Venous blood drawn from participants who were naturally infected with malaria parasites was used for membrane feeding assays, using 60-80 mosquitoes per experiment. Approximately 9-10 days after feeding, mosquitoes were dissected, and midguts were stained in mercurochrome and examined by light microscopy for Plasmodium falciparum oocysts and similar structures. In supportive experiments, different staining procedures were compared using in vitro cultured parasites. RESULTS: A stable colony of the Kisumu strain of An. gambiae s.s. was achieved, producing 5000-10,000 adult mosquitoes on a weekly basis. Challenges due to temperature fluctuations, mosquito pathogens and pests were successfully overcome. Oocysts were characterized by: presence of malaria pigment, clearly defined edge, round shape within the mosquito midgut or on the peripheral tissue and always attached to the epithelium. The main distinguishing feature between artifacts and mature oocysts was the presence of defined pigment within the oocysts. CONCLUSIONS: Oocysts may be mistaken for other structures in mosquito midguts. Distinguishing real oocysts from oocyst-like structures may be challenging for inexperienced microscopists due to overlapping features. The characteristics and guidelines outlined here support identification of oocysts and reliable detection at low oocyst densities. Practical advice on sustaining a healthy mosquito colony for feeding experiments is provided. Following the reported optimization, the established infrastructure in Tororo allows assessments of infectivity of naturally infected parasite carriers

Long-Term Soil Structure Observatory for Monitoring Post-Compaction Evolution of Soil Structure

The projected intensification of agriculture to meet food targets of a rapidly growing world population are likely to accentuate already acute problems of soil compaction and deteriorating soil structure in many regions of the world. The key role of soil structure for soil functions, the sensitivity of soil structure to agronomic management practices, and the lack of reliable observations and metrics for soil structure recovery rates after compaction motivated the establishment of a long-term Soil Structure Observatory (SSO) at the Agroscope research institute in Zürich, Switzerland. The primary objective of the SSO is to provide long-term observation data on soil structure evolution after disturbance by compaction, enabling quantification of compaction recovery rates and times. The SSO was designed to provide information on recovery of compacted soil under different post-compaction soil management regimes, including natural recovery of bare and vegetated soil as well as recovery with and without soil tillage. This study focused on the design of the SSO and the characterization of the pre- and post-compaction state of the field. We deployed a monitoring network for continuous observation of soil state variables related to hydrologic and biophysical functions (soil water content, matric potential, temperature, soil air O2 and CO2 concentrations, O2 diffusion rates, and redox states) as well as periodic sampling and in situ measurements of infiltration, mechanical impedance, soil porosity, gas and water transport properties, crop yields, earthworm populations, and plot-scale geophysical measurements. Besides enabling quantification of recovery rates of compacted soil, we expect that data provided by the SSO will help improve our general understanding of soil structure dynamics

Recenzja: O amerykańskim filmie noir raz jeszcze, czyli o skutkach rewizjonistycznej historii kina

ON AMERICAN FILM NOIR AGAIN AND AGAIN The review of the anthology The Philosophy of Film Noir, edited by Mark Conard and published by the University of Kentucky Press in 2006, presents most of the essays from the volume, summarizing and discussing the problems and ideas they raise, in order not only to publicize quite recent opinions and remarks of American film criticism on film noir, but also to contextualize them. What is worth emphasizing here is that they represent, on the one hand, the evidence of the revival of film history postulated by Thomas Elsaesser at the beginning of the 1990s and the decline, or the waning, as David Bordwell said a few years later, of Grand Theory, on the other hand. Constituting overtly the turn to history in cinema studies, they manifest another stage in the process of studying and analyzing film noir that has remained unabated since the late 1940s. The persistence of this critical activity that has resulted in quite large number of books, articles and essays on the subject published each year for decades, generates a question on whether such enduring appeal reveals something covertly related to the American Psyche.  ON AMERICAN FILM NOIR AGAIN AND AGAIN The review of the anthology The Philosophy of Film Noir, edited by Mark Conard and published by the University of Kentucky Press in 2006, presents most of the essays from the volume, summarizing and discussing the problems and ideas they raise, in order not only to publicize quite recent opinions and remarks of American film criticism on film noir, but also to contextualize them. What is worth emphasizing here is that they represent, on the one hand, the evidence of the revival of film history postulated by Thomas Elsaesser at the beginning of the 1990s and the decline, or the waning, as David Bordwell said a few years later, of Grand Theory, on the other hand. Constituting overtly the turn to history in cinema studies, they manifest another stage in the process of studying and analyzing film noir that has remained unabated since the late 1940s. The persistence of this critical activity that has resulted in quite large number of books, articles and essays on the subject published each year for decades, generates a question on whether such enduring appeal reveals something covertly related to the American Psyche. &nbsp

On the film sign, with the interrogation mark

Culture is not a homogeneous whole; its dynamic character results from the fact that within its boundaries various „languages" operate, which are an expression of man’s semiotic activity. His culturegenerating role in the realm of nature consists of continuous transformation of nature into culture. Thus he generates various texts (both artistic and non-artislic) which are sequences of relevant signs arranged in a special manner. The signs have to be arranged according to a defined set of norms a id regulations, otherwise the given text is likely to lose its consistency. No text can exist beyond a given semiotic system; occasionally the existence of certain texts depends on several systems (for instance film texts). The notion of a text is not identical with the notion of an artistic work. The relation between the two corresponds to the signal-sing relation. * At the rnomeiv. it is difficult to explain the semiotic processes in the domain of film, as well as to define the segmentation of particular codes involved in their decipherment. Neither is it possible to say what a film sign is. Hence the interrogation mark in the title, indicative of the „incapacity" of present statements of purely arbitrary character.Zadanie pt. „Digitalizacja i udostępnienie w Cyfrowym Repozytorium Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego kolekcji czasopism naukowych wydawanych przez Uniwersytet Łódzki” nr 885/P-DUN/2014 zostało dofinansowane ze środków MNiSW w ramach działalności upowszechniającej nauk

Development and future of helicopter emergency medical care in Slovenia

Helikopterska nujna medicinska pomoč (HNMP) je za Slovenijo izrednega pomena, saj omogoča hitro oskrbo ponesrečencev in bolnikov ter s tem rešuje življenja. Kljub temu pa je v slovenskem HNMP veliko neučinkovitosti. S kvalitativno in kvantitativno analizo ključnih parametrov HNMP v Sloveniji, Avstriji, Nemčiji in Švici, kot so reakcijski čas posadke, sestava letalske flote, število baz v razmerju s površino države, sistem aktivacije HNMP in podobno, smo prišli do ugotovitve, da je v Sloveniji potrebno še kar nekaj sprememb za bolj optimalen HNMP sistem, ki bi lahko konkuriral zgledu naprednejših HNMP sistemov v Evropi. HNMP v Sloveniji bi deloval bolje z dodatno bazo HNMP, namenskimi helikopterji, drugačno sestavo reševalne ekipe in pod nadzorom zasebne, neprofitne organizacije ter zasebnega letalskega operaterja.Helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) is of vital importance for Slovenia, because it enables quick treatment of injured persons and patients, which ultimately saves lives. Despite that there are a lot of inefficiencies in the Slovenian HEMS system. With qualitative and quantitative research of key parameters, such as approach time, helicopter fleet, the amount of country’s surface one HEMS base covers on average, I analyzed and compared HEMS systems from Slovenia, Austria, Germany and Switzerland. I have come to a conclusion that there are a lot of areas of HEMS in Slovenia where change would be necessary in order to optimize HEMS better and to be on the same level as the top HEMS systems in Europe. HEMS in Slovenia would work better with an additional HEMS base, use of purpose-made helicopters, different formation of the HEMS rescue team and under the supervision of a private, non-profit organization and a private helicopter operator