Why the Polish Supreme Court’s Reference on Judicial Independence to the CJEU is Admissible after all

On August 2nd 2018, the Polish Supreme Court has referred questions to the European Court of Justice about whether or not the forced retirement of most of its senior judges and other infringements of judicial independence are compatible with EU law. That decision is a landmark step in the serious constitutional crisis in Poland that has been going on for several years. One issue is of fundamental importance: Is the SC’s preliminary reference  to the CJEU admissible

Trening etyczny Policji polskiej

Artykuł ma na celu ukazanie aspektów etycznych Policji w Polsce, zarówno w wymiarze historycznym, jak i współczesnym. Punktem wyjścia jest przedstawienie przebiegu procesu kształtowania się zasad etycznych w zawodzie policjanta, ale też w służbach o podobnym charakterze. Autorki ukazują problematykę pracy Policji w świetle zasad etyki zawodowej ze względu na specyfi kę tego zawodu oraz wynikające z niej trudności.The paper aims at showing the past and current ethical aspects of police work in Poland. The starting point of the discussion is a presentation of the process of forming ethical guidelines in both the police force and other similar services. The authors present problems in police work in light of professional ethics and the specifi c nature of the police force, as well as the diffi culties faced as a result.Целью статьи является указание этического аспекта действий полиций в Поль- ше, как в прошлом, так и на современном этапе. Авторы рассмотрели процесс формирования этических основ в профессии полицейского и представителей иных силовых служб. Проблематика работы полиции указана в свете основ профессиональной этики и специфики этой профессии, которая порождает многие дилеммы

Molecular Patterns of Resistance Among Helicobacter pylori Strains in South-Western Poland

Treatment failure of Helicobacter pylori infection is caused mainly by progressive antibiotic resistance among H. pylori strains. In Poland, the prevalence of H. pylori strains resistant to metronidazole is higher than in other developed countries, reaching almost 50%, and resistance to clarithromycin is as high as 30% and is still increasing, contributing to the failure of first-line therapy in approximately 70% of patients. Moreover, the introduction of levofloxacin to eradication therapy of H. pylori infection quickly led to the emergence of resistant strains. Therefore, a necessary approach in microbiological diagnostics of H. pylori infection should be determination of susceptibility of H. pylori strains before the eradication treatment.Aim: In this study was to evaluate the molecular mechanisms of resistance among 170 H. pylori strains to clarithromycin, involving mutations in the 23S rRNA gene (A2143G, A2142G, A2143G) and to levofloxacin, involving mutations of gyrA and gyrB. Analysis was performed by using polymerase chain reaction and classical sequencing of DNA fragments.Results: Among examined strains, 26% were fully sensitive and 74% were resistant to at least one of the tested antibiotics. The overall resistance rate to metronidazole was as high as 56%, whereas to clarithromycin 46%, respectively. Resistance to LEV occurred among 6% of strains. All tested strains were susceptible to AMC and TET. The A2143G point mutation was found in 72% of clarithromycin-resistant strains. The most common mutation, present in 40% of H. pylori strains resistant to levofloxacin, was a change at position 91 of gyrA.Conclusion: The increasing number of point mutations in the 23S rRNA gene leads to an increase in the rates of antimicrobial resistance. Presence of the GCG allele at position 122 of the gyrA gene may cause an eightfold increase in risk of development of resistance to levofloxacin

Machine learning on the road to unlocking microbiota's potential for boosting immune checkpoint therapy

The intestinal microbiota is a complex and diverse ecological community that fulfills multiple functions and substantially impacts human health. Despite its plasticity, unfavorable conditions can cause perturbations leading to so-called dysbiosis, which have been connected to multiple diseases. Unfortunately, understanding the mechanisms underlying the crosstalk between those microorganisms and their host is proving to be difficult. Traditionally used bioinformatic tools have difficulties to fully exploit big data generated for this purpose by modern high throughput screens. Machine Learning (ML) may be a potential means of solving such problems, but it requires diligent application to allow for drawing valid conclusions. This is especially crucial as gaining insight into the mechanistic basis of microbial impact on human health is highly anticipated in numerous fields of study. This includes oncology, where growing amounts of studies implicate the gut ecosystems in both cancerogenesis and antineoplastic treatment outcomes. Based on these reports and first signs of clinical benefits related to microbiota modulation in human trials, hopes are rising for the development of microbiome-derived diagnostics and therapeutics. In this mini-review, we're inspecting analytical approaches used to uncover the role of gut microbiome in immune checkpoint therapy (ICT) with the use of shotgun metagenomic sequencing (SMS) data

Nutritional knowlegde and lifestyle of obese patients with diagnosed hypertension

Wstęp Celem pracy była ocena wiedzy żywieniowej i wybranych elementów stylu życia otyłych pacjentów ze zdiagnozowanym nadciśnieniem tętniczym, leczonych w Klinice Chorób Zawodowych i Nadciśnienia Tętniczego Szpitala Klinicznego Akademii Medycznej we Wrocławiu. Materiał i metody Badaniem objęto 52 osoby ze zdiagnozowanym nadciśnieniem tętniczym - pacjentów Kliniki Chorób Zawodowych i Nadciśnienia Tętniczego Szpitala Klinicznego Akademii Medycznej we Wrocławiu. Ankiety przeprowadzano od lutego do maja 2008 roku. Do oceny wiedzy żywieniowej i wybranych elementów stylu życia wykorzystano autorski, standaryzowany kwestionariusz opracowany w Zakładzie Żywienia Człowieka Uniwersytetu Przyrodniczego we Wrocławiu. Obejmował on różne zagadnienia, dotyczące między innymi rodzaju aktywności fizycznej, częstości palenia papierosów. Wyniki Wykonywanie ćwiczeń fizycznych trwających jednorazowo 20-60 minut w czasie wolnym od pracy zadeklarowało 85,7% kobiet oraz 74,2% mężczyzn. Prawie 26% mężczyzn oraz 14% kobiet nie wykonywało żadnych ćwiczeń fizycznych. W niniejszej pracy oceniano również zawodową aktywność fizyczną osób ankietowanych. Wśród badanych 66,7% kobiet oraz 35,4% mężczyzn nie pracowało zawodowo. Zapytani o dietę respondenci w większości odpowiadali, że nie stosują żadnej. Takiej deklarację złożyło 66,7% kobiet oraz aż 87,1% mężczyzn. Wysoki odsetek wskazuje, że pacjenci nie stosują się do zaleceń dietetycznych jako podstawowego elementu leczenia hipotensyjnego. Wnioski Wiedzę żywieniową pacjentów z nadciśnieniem tętniczym można uznać za zadowalającą. Niestety w większości przypadków znajomość zasad żywienia nie przekłada się na prawidłowe zachowania żywieniowe.Background The study was aimed at evaluating the nutritional knowledge and selected elements of lifestyle of obese patients with diagnosed arterial hypertension. Material and methods It covered 52 persons with diagnosed arterial hypertension - patients of the Clinic of Occupational Diseases and Arterial Hypertension, Clinical Hospital of the Medical Academy in Wrocław, and was conducted from February till May 2008. The nutritional knowledge and selected elements of lifestyle were evaluated by means of own-construct, standardized questionnaire developed at the Chair of Human Nutrition, Wrocław University of Life and Environmental Sciences. It included questions from different fields referring to knowledge on rational nutrition, types of physical activity, frequency of cigarette smoking, etc. Results Physical activity lasting each time for 20-60 minutes in free time was declared by 85.7% of the women and by 74.2% of the men. Nearly 26% of the men and 14% of the women did not perform any physical exercises. In the reported survey, evaluation included also patients’ occupational physical activity. Amongst the respondents surveyed, 66.7% of the women and 35.4% of the men did not work. When asked about applying therapeutic diet, in most cases the patients replied that they did not use any diet. Such replies were delivered by 66.7% of the women and by as many as 87.1% of the men. The high percentage of such answers indicates that the patients do not comply with dietetic recommendations as the basic element of the hypotensive therapy. Conclusions The nutritional knowledge of the patients with arterial hypertension may be evaluated as satisfactory. Unfortunately, in most of the cases the knowledge of principles of nutrition does not translate into proper nutritional behaviors

Oncogenic osteomalacia — detection of the tumour site upon physical examination

Ostemalacja onkogenna jest rzadkim zespołem paranowotworowym wynikającym z obecności guza produkującego fosfatoniny. Pacjenci bez właściwej diagnozy i leczenia cierpią na silne bóle kości, nawracające patologiczne złamania i osłabienie mięśni przez miesiące, a nawet lata. Guz jest zwykle niewielki i może występować w różnych miejscach. Najczęstszym typem nowotworu powodującego onkogeniczną osteomalację jest wariant mezenchymalny w tkankach miękkich. Nasze badanie ma na celu przedstawianie przypadku klinicznego 50-letniej pacjentki z onkogeniczną osteomalacją u której w badaniu fizykalnym znaleźliśmy guz w tkance podskórnej okolicy prawej łopatki, co skróciło czas wdrożenia odpowiedniego leczenia do jednego tygodnia. Na tym przykładzie chcielibyśmy podkreślić rolę badania fizykalnego jako ważnego etapu w procesie diagnostycznym tej rzadkiej choroby i zalecić usuwanie łatwo dostępnych guzów bez przeprowadzania zaawansowanych badań obrazowych jako szybkie, skuteczne i korzystne ekonomicznie postępowanie.Not required for Clinical Vignette

Arrested neural and advanced mesenchymal differentiation of glioblastoma cells-comparative study with neural progenitors

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Although features of variable differentiation in glioblastoma cell cultures have been reported, a comparative analysis of differentiation properties of normal neural GFAP positive progenitors, and those shown by glioblastoma cells, has not been performed.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Following methods were used to compare glioblastoma cells and GFAP+NNP (NHA): exposure to neural differentiation medium, exposure to adipogenic and osteogenic medium, western blot analysis, immunocytochemistry, single cell assay, BrdU incorporation assay. To characterize glioblastoma cells <it>EGFR </it>amplification analysis, LOH/MSI analysis, and <it>P53 </it>nucleotide sequence analysis were performed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p><it>In vitro </it>differentiation of cancer cells derived from eight glioblastomas was compared with GFAP-positive normal neural progenitors (GFAP+NNP). Prior to exposure to differentiation medium, both types of cells showed similar multilineage phenotype (CD44+/MAP2+/GFAP+/Vimentin+/Beta III-tubulin+/Fibronectin+) and were positive for SOX-2 and Nestin. In contrast to GFAP+NNP, an efficient differentiation arrest was observed in all cell lines isolated from glioblastomas. Nevertheless, a subpopulation of cells isolated from four glioblastomas differentiated after serum-starvation with varying efficiency into derivatives indistinguishable from the neural derivatives of GFAP+NNP. Moreover, the cells derived from a majority of glioblastomas (7 out of 8), as well as GFAP+NNP, showed features of mesenchymal differentiation when exposed to medium with serum.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our results showed that stable co-expression of multilineage markers by glioblastoma cells resulted from differentiation arrest. According to our data up to 95% of glioblastoma cells can present <it>in vitro </it>multilineage phenotype. The mesenchymal differentiation of glioblastoma cells is advanced and similar to mesenchymal differentiation of normal neural progenitors GFAP+NNP.</p

Age-dependent determinants of infectious complications profile in children and adults after hematopoietic cell transplantation : lesson from the nationwide study

Incidence and outcome of microbiologically documented bacterial/viral infections and invasive fungal disease (IFD) in children and adults after hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) were compared in 650 children and 3200 adults in multicenter cross-sectional nationwide study. Infections were diagnosed in 60.8% children and 35.0% adults, including respectively 69.1% and 63.5% allo-HCT, and 33.1% and 20.8% auto-HCT patients. The incidence of bacterial infections was higher in children (36.0% vs 27.6%; p  21 days were risk factors for death from infection. In conclusion, pediatric patients have 2.9-fold higher incidence and 2.5-fold better outcome of infections than adults after HCT