Analysis of Thermal and Humidity Sensations in Educational Buildings in Eastern European Climate Conditions

Perception of temperature and relative humidity has an important influence on feelings of thermal comfort or discomfort. The aim of this study is to analyse the thermal sensations of 222 people aged 19 - 30 years, taking into account air temperature and relative humidity in four educational buildings at Kielce University of Technology. Two methods were used to conduct the study, indirect (use of an environmental meter) and direct (use of questionnaires). Air temperature ranged from 20oC - 27.5oC and humidity from 18.16% - 50.9%. Approximately 60% of the students rated the humidity as pleasant, nevertheless 32% would prefer it to be more humid.  Furthermore, thermal comfort was declared by 69% of the students, while 31% rated their feelings as uncomfortable. In addition, a correlation analysis was carried out for temperature and humidity.  In the overall assessment of the students, the buildings created good conditions for feeling comfortable

A New Approach to Suffering in Life-Limiting Illness: Total Pain and the Human Microbiome

No abstract available

A brand new medical condition - 6 years old patient with neurological symptoms diagnosed with PIMS-TS (Paediatric Inflammatory Multisystem Syndrome – Temporally Associated with SARS-CoV-2) - case report

Children's multi-system inflammatory syndrome PIMS-TS is a completely new challenge for pediatricians, which has established a separate branch of the fight against the still active COVID-19 pandemic. It turns out that even a pediatric patient who has not suffered symptomatic infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, as a result of contact with this pathogen, can develop a severe systemic inflammatory reaction rich in symptoms originating in almost every system of the human body. The first reports of the inflammatory syndrome that is the subject of this work come from May 2020. It is known that the symptoms of PIMS are caused by a multi-system inflammatory response in the body, potentially related to the immune system. The course of this disease may bring to mind other inflammatory diseases in children, such as Kawasaki disease, toxic shock syndrome and MAS macrophage activation syndrome

Transcription-coupled deposition of histone modifications during MHC class II gene activation

Posttranslational histone modifications associated with actively expressed genes are generally believed to be introduced primarily by histone-modifying enzymes that are recruited by transcription factors or their associated co-activators. We have performed a comprehensive spatial and temporal analyses of the histone modifications that are deposited upon activation of the MHC class II gene HLA-DRA by the co-activator CIITA. We find that transcription-associated histone modifications are introduced during two sequential phases. The first phase precedes transcription initiation and is characterized exclusively by a rapid increase in histone H4 acetylation over a large upstream domain. All other modifications examined, including the acetylation and methylation of several residues in histone H3, are restricted to short regions situated at or within the 5′ end of the gene and are established during a second phase that is concomitant with ongoing transcription. This second phase is completely abrogated when elongation by RNA polymerase II is blocked. These results provide strong evidence that transcription elongation can play a decisive role in the deposition of histone modification patterns associated with inducible gene activatio

Transcription-coupled deposition of histone modifications during MHC class II gene activation

Posttranslational histone modifications associated with actively expressed genes are generally believed to be introduced primarily by histone-modifying enzymes that are recruited by transcription factors or their associated co-activators. We have performed a comprehensive spatial and temporal analyses of the histone modifications that are deposited upon activation of the MHC class II gene HLA-DRA by the co-activator CIITA. We find that transcription-associated histone modifications are introduced during two sequential phases. The first phase precedes transcription initiation and is characterized exclusively by a rapid increase in histone H4 acetylation over a large upstream domain. All other modifications examined, including the acetylation and methylation of several residues in histone H3, are restricted to short regions situated at or within the 5′ end of the gene and are established during a second phase that is concomitant with ongoing transcription. This second phase is completely abrogated when elongation by RNA polymerase II is blocked. These results provide strong evidence that transcription elongation can play a decisive role in the deposition of histone modification patterns associated with inducible gene activation

Efficacy of chemoimmunotherapy in a lung adenocarcinoma patient with mutations in the KRAS and STK11

Immunotherapy is a groundbreaking treatment method when it comes to cancer, and this includes non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In NSCLC patients, immunotherapy is used in a form of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), and depending on the proportion of tumor cells with programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression on them, it can be administered either in monotherapy (≥ 50%) or in combination with chemotherapy (< 50%). In this article, we would like to present a case of a female patient with Kirsten Rat Sarcoma Virus (KRAS)-mutated lung adenocarcinoma who was responding to chemoimmunotherapy for a long time despite the presence of co-mutation in the Serine/Threonine Kinase 11 (STK11) gene, known to worsen immunotherapy outcomes. In this patient, another mutation was found – in the nibrin (NBN) gene, which is of uncertain relevance, but it presumably could be connected to a better outcome as it encodes proteins involved in DNA repair. Deficiency in DNA repair may be marked by homologous recombination deficiency (HRD), and there already exists some evidence of better immunotherapy efficacy in patients with HRD. Considering the above, further investigation and thorough genetic diagnostics in NSCLC patients are required to fully understand the background of immunotherapy response

Liposome-based DNA carriers may induce cellular stress response and change gene expression pattern in transfected cells

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>During functional studies on the rat stress-inducible <it>Hspa1b </it>(<it>hsp70.1</it>) gene we noticed that some liposome-based DNA carriers, which are used for transfection, induce its promoter activity. This observation concerned commercial liposome formulations (LA), Lipofectin and Lipofectamine 2000. This work was aimed to understand better the mechanism of this phenomenon and its potential biological and practical consequences.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We found that a reporter gene driven by <it>Hspa1b </it>promoter is activated both in the case of transient transfections and in the stably transfected cells treated with LA. Using several deletion clones containing different fragments of <it>Hspa1b </it>promoter, we found that the regulatory elements responsible for most efficient LA-driven inducibility were located between nucleotides -269 and +85, relative to the transcription start site. Further studies showed that the induction mechanism was independent of the classical HSE-HSF interaction that is responsible for gene activation during heat stress. Using DNA microarrays we also detected significant activation of the endogenous <it>Hspa1b </it>gene in cells treated with Lipofectamine 2000. Several other stress genes were also induced, along with numerous genes involved in cellular metabolism, cell cycle control and pro-apoptotic pathways.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our observations suggest that i) some cationic liposomes may not be suitable for functional studies on <it>hsp </it>promoters, ii) lipofection may cause unintended changes in global gene expression in the transfected cells.</p