Zróżnicowanie kulturowe wsi w Bełchatowskiem

W niniejszej pracy przedstawiono badania nad dezintegracją kulturową wsi w okolicach Bełchatowa. Były one punktem wyjścia do dyspozycji badawczych, które umożliwiły zebranie materiałów związanych z wybranymi zagadnieniami i sformułowanie o wniosków uogólniających. Na czoło wysunięto problem kulturowego zróżnicowania badanego obszaru tak w zakresie kultury tradycyjnej jak i w historycznie uwarunkowanej sytuacji ekonomicznej z uwzględnieniem podstawowych przyczyn tegoż zróżnicowania i w nawiązaniu do ogólnych przemian kulturowych wsi współczesnej. W pracy przede wszystkim wykorzystano materiały zebrane w terenie. Materiały zebrane podczas badaŃ terenowych, znajdują się w Archiwum Zakładu Etnografii Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego /nr inw.AZ3/B1-907/

Polish-Jewish Relations in the Folk Culture of Podlasie. Part I - Customs

500 lat osadnictwa żydowskiego na Podlasiu. Materiały z konferencji międzynarodowej, Białystok, 14 - 17 września 1987 r.500 Years of the Jewish Settlement in Podlasie. Popers From the International Conference, Białystok, September 14 - 17, 1987.It is considered that the term „shtetl" (town) functioning in scholarly considerations, understood as compact Jewish community of any size, living its own internal life and hermetically isolated from non-Jewish communities, is not precise enough as a model construticon. It seems that the extension of research methods to the problem of cultural style will contribute to an increase in thoroughness in the study of the traditional Jewish culture in Eastern Europe. Jews in Podlasie lived mostly in towns; only individual families lived in villages. Rural Jews maintained close cultural and organizational links with Jewish communities in small towns. The relations between Jewish and non-Jewish urban communities were usually limited to occasional meetings and professional contacts. Neighbourly ties tended to develop inside the groups of both communities. In villages these relations were more frequent, closer and direct. Neighbourly bonds occurred here between Jews and their non-Jewish neighbours. Partial or full knowledge of both languages was more common. One of the examples may be mutual participation in wedding ceremonies. Invitations extended to Jewish neighbours had the form applied to strangers in the village. Non-Jewish participants of wedding ceremonies in Jewish families usually took part in the proceedings outside the house; usually they did not participate in the wedding feast. A frequent eustom was stopping by the Jewish inn after church ceremonies of baptism or marriage. Jewish inn-keepers wife welcomed the young with honey and ritual sweet bread (korowaj), sometimes giving a gift to onsure happy, „sweet" life together. Jewish baker sometimes prepared wedding „korowaj" and she brought it to the wedding feast. Such situations, as well as being paid in kind, prove that she was not considered a stranger. In folk rituals connected with Christmas celebrations, in the group of so called herods, dressed-up performers wandering through villages there used to be a figure of Biblical King Hernd, a rabbi or Jewish peddler. This figure usually serves as an intermezzo in the religious mystery. During Orthodox Easter ritual celebrated near Siemiatycze the effigy of the Jew Zelman takes part: a key to the church should be taken away from him in order to celebrate the service. On the other hand, during the Jewish holiday of Purim, an important figure of Haman, symbol of evil forces, an alien and non-Jew was performed by a non-Jewish actor. In some parts of the Białystok region Haman pranced on a wooden horse, contrary to the legend, thus referring to a local, non-Jewish tradition. Mutual knowledge was extended by contacts of craftsmen with their customers. It was caused at least by the necessity to adjust some produtcs to Jewish religious observances. Hence there existed the plane of mutual relations between the two cultures. On this plane both essentials of life and symbols were trasmitted. Also the stereotypes were shaped. The stereotypes did not always contribute to the extension of the factual knowledge concerning the neighbours; always, however, they strengthened the awareness of their existence.148-15

Application of gas chromatography for separation and determination of selected estrogenic compounds in the environmental samples

Estrogeny to związki hormonalne, których obecność w środowisku - nawet w bardzo niskich stężeniach (poniżej 1 ng/L) - może wywierać negatywny wpływ na reprodukcje i rozwój organizmów żywych. Opracowywanie odpowiednio czułych metodyk przygotowania próbki, rozdzielania i oznaczania tych związków w próbkach środowiskowych stało się zatem jednym z ważniejszych zadań z zakresu chemii analitycznej oraz ochrony środowiska. W pracy przedstawiono przegląd metodyk przygotowania próbki, rozdzielania i oznaczania wybranych substancji estrogenowych (estronu, 17β-estradiolu, estriolu, 17α-etynyloestradiolu, dietylostilbe-strolu) w różnych komponentach środowiska techniką GC-MS (ang. gas chromatography co-upled with mass spectrometry).Estrogens are hormonal active compounds, which presence in the environment - also in very low concentrations (less than 1 ng/L) – could have a negative influence on reproduction and growth of the living organisms. Development of the sensitive methods for determination of these compounds in the environmental samples has been found as one of the most important tasks of analytical chemistry and environmental protection. In this work, a review of methods for determination of selected estrogenic compounds (estrone, 17β-estradiol, estriol, 17α-ethinyle-stradiol and diethylstilbestrol) in environmental compartments using GC-MS (ang. gas chroma-tography coupled with mass spectrometry) technique is presented

Identification of Selected Antibiotic Resistance Genes in Two Different Wastewater Treatment Plant Systems in Poland: A Preliminary Study

Antibiotic resistance is a growing problem worldwide. The emergence and rapid spread of antibiotic resistance determinants have led to an increasing concern about the potential environmental and public health endangering. Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) play an important role in this phenomenon since antibacterial drugs introduced into wastewater can exert a selection pressure on antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). Therefore, WWTPs are perceived as the main sources of antibiotics, ARB and ARG spread in various environmental components. Furthermore, technological processes used in WWTPs and its exploitation conditions may influence the effectiveness of antibiotic resistance determinants’ elimination. The main aim of the present study was to compare the occurrence of selected tetracycline and sulfonamide resistance genes in raw influent and final effluent samples from two WWTPs different in terms of size and applied biological wastewater treatment processes (conventional activated sludge (AS)-based and combining a conventional AS-based method with constructed wetlands (CWs)). All 13 selected ARGs were detected in raw influent and final effluent samples from both WWTPs. Significant ARG enrichment, especially for tet(B, K, L, O) and sulIII genes, was observed in conventional WWTP. The obtained data did not show a clear trend in seasonal fluctuations in the abundance of selected resistance genes in wastewaters

Evaluating the toxicity of TiO2-based nanoparticles to Chinese hamster ovary cells and Escherichia coli: a complementary experimental and computational approach

Titania-supported palladium, gold and bimetallic nanoparticles (second-generation nanoparticles) demonstrate promising photocatalytic properties. However, due to unusual reactivity, second-generation nanoparticles can be hazardous for living organisms. Considering the ever-growing number of new types of nanoparticles that can potentially contaminate the environment, a determination of their toxicity is extremely important. The main aim of presented study was to investigate the cytotoxic effect of surface modified TiO2-based nanoparticles, to model their quantitative nanostructure–toxicity relationships and to reveal the toxicity mechanism. In this context, toxicity tests for surface-modified TiO2-based nanoparticles were performed in vitro, using Gram-negative bacteria Escherichia coli and Chinese hamster ovary (CHO-K1) cells. The obtained cytotoxicity data were analyzed by means of computational methods (quantitative structure–activity relationships, QSAR approach). Based on a combined experimental and computational approach, predictive models were developed, and relationships between cytotoxicity, size, and specific surface area (Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface, BET) of nanoparticles were discussed