An Information System Design for Organizational Creativity Support

The aim of this paper is to explore the issue of organizational creativity support and to propose a conceptual framework for the design of an organizational creativity support system. In order to achieve the research goal, the logic of the discourse is as follows. At the start, a critical review of the relevant literature is conducted to identify the issue of computer organizational creativity support. Next, a multi-agent approach is described as a foundation for the design of the organizational creativity support system. Then, a comprehensive framework for the design of information systems to support organizational creativity is proposed. Finally, the idea of organizational creativity support system based on different intelligent agents is discussed. In conclusion, theoretical contributions and practical implications of the study are presented

Characterization of the newly isolated lytic bacteriophages KTN6 and KT28 and their efficacy against Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm

We here describe two novel lytic phages, KT28 and KTN6, infecting Pseudomonas aeruginosa, isolated from a sewage sample from an irrigated field near Wroclaw, in Poland. Both viruses show characteristic features of Pbunalikevirus genus within the Myoviridae family with respect to shape and size of head/tail, as well as LPS host receptor recognition. Genome analysis confirmed the similarity to other PB1-related phages, ranging between 48 and 96%. Pseudomonas phage KT28 has a genome size of 66,381 bp and KTN6 of 65,994 bp. The latent period, burst size, stability and host range was determined for both viruses under standard laboratory conditions. Biofilm eradication efficacy was tested on peg-lid plate assay and PET membrane surface. Significant reduction of colony forming units was observed (70-90%) in 24 h to 72 h old Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 biofilm cultures for both phages. Furthermore, a pyocyanin and pyoverdin reduction tests reveal that tested phages lowers the amount of both secreted dyes in 48-72 h old biofilms. Diffusion and goniometry experiments revealed the increase of diffusion rate through the biofilm matrix after phage application. These characteristics indicate these phages could be used to prevent Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections and biofilm formation. It was also shown, that PB1-related phage treatment of biofilm caused the emergence of stable phage-resistant mutants growing as small colony variants

A proposed integrated approach for the preclinical evaluation of phage therapy in Pseudomonas infections

Bacteriophage therapy is currently resurging as a potential complement/alternative to antibiotic treatment. However, preclinical evaluation lacks streamlined approaches. We here focus on preclinical approaches which have been implemented to assess bacteriophage efficacy against Pseudomonas biofilms and infections. Laser interferometry and profilometry were applied to measure biofilm matrix permeability and surface geometry changes, respectively. These biophysical approaches were combined with an advanced Airway Surface Liquid infection model, which mimics in vitro the normal and CF lung environments, and an in vivo Galleria larvae model. These assays have been implemented to analyze KTN4 (279,593 bp dsDNA genome), a type-IV pili dependent, giant phage resembling phiKZ. Upon contact, KTN4 immediately disrupts the P. aeruginosa PAO1 biofilm and reduces pyocyanin and siderophore production. The gentamicin exclusion assay on NuLi-1 and CuFi-1 cell lines revealed the decrease of extracellular bacterial load between 4 and 7 logs and successfully prevents wild-type Pseudomonas internalization into CF epithelial cells. These properties and the significant rescue of Galleria larvae indicate that giant KTN4 phage is a suitable candidate for in vivo phage therapy evaluation for lung infection applications

Current views on fetal surgical treatment of myelomeningocele — the Management of Myelomeningocele Study (MOMS) trial and Polish clinical experience

Abstract Myelomeningocele (MMC) is the most frequent congenital defect of the central nervous system for which there is no satisfactory alternative to postnatal treatment. On the contrary prenatal MMC surgery is conducting before birth and is aimed at protecting from Chiari II malformation. The main goal of fetal MMC repair is to improve development and life quality of children with Chiari II malformation. Management of Myelomeningocele Study (MOMS) which was published in 2011 clearly confirmed effectiveness of prenatal surgery. In this paper we compare MOMS results with our own clinical experience. Thanks to high effectiveness and significant improvement in safety of maternal-fetal surgery prenatal MMC surgery become a new standard of treatment.  Myelomeningocele (MMC) constitutes the most common congenital defect of the central nervous system, with no satisfactory alternative to the postnatal treatment. Prenatal repair of MMC is aimed at protecting from a Chiari type II malformation. The main goal of fetal MMC repair is to improve the development and quality of life in children with a Chiari type II malformation. The Management of Myelomeningocele Study (MOMS), which was published in 2011, confirmed the effectiveness of prenatal surgery. In this paper, we compared the MOMS results with our own clinical experience. Owing to high effectiveness and significant improvement in the safety of the maternal-fetal surgery, prenatal MMC repair has become a new standard of treatment

Endometrial cancer in a 25-year-old patient. Case study

Endometrial cancer is one of the most frequently diagnosed malignant neoplasms among women. In Poland, it is in the fourth place in terms of incidence. The highest morbidity concerns women aged 50-70 years, however it may also appear in women in their reproductive period. Endometrial cancer concerns about 3% of premenopausal women. We present a case of a 25-year-old patient who underwent endometrial curettage because of irregular menstrual bleeding for the last 5 months. Histopathology revealed endometrial cancer. We attempted to apply a conservative treatment. During the next 6 months the patient was treated with lynestrenol. After one month of hormonal therapy endometrial curettage was repeated. In histopathology endometrial tissues corresponding to the hormonal treatment were found. After 6 months of treatment hysteroscopy with endometrial biopsy, followed by endometrial curettage, were performed. Hormonal treatment resulted in disease regression. About 5 months after successful treatment the patient conceived spontaneously. One year after she gave birth to her first child, she conceived spontaneously once more. Both children were born vaginally. In selected cases of atypical hyperplasia and early endometrial cancer in young women the attempt of hormonal treatment is acceptable

The temperate Burkholderia phage AP3 of the Peduovirinae shows efficient antimicrobial activity against B. cenocepacia of the IIIA lineage

Burkholderia phage AP3 (vB_BceM_AP3) is a temperate virus of the Myoviridae and the Peduovirinae subfamily (P2likevirus genus). This phage specifically infects multidrug-resistant clinical Burkholderia cenocepacia lineage IIIA strains commonly isolated from cystic fibrosis patients. AP3 exhibits high pairwise nucleotide identity (61.7 %) to Burkholderia phage KS5, specific to the same B. cenocepacia host, and has 46.7–49.5 % identity to phages infecting other species of Burkholderia. The lysis cassette of these related phages has a similar organization (putative antiholin, putative holin, endolysin, and spanins) and shows 29–98 % homology between specific lysis genes, in contrast to Enterobacteria phage P2, the hallmark phage of this genus. The AP3 and KS5 lysis genes have conserved locations and high amino acid sequence similarity. The AP3 bacteriophage particles remain infective up to 5 h at pH 4–10 and are stable at 60 °C for 30 min, but are sensitive to chloroform, with no remaining infective particles after 24 h of treatment. AP3 lysogeny can occur by stable genomic integration and by pseudo-lysogeny. The lysogenic bacterial mutants did not exhibit any significant changes in virulence compared to wild-type host strain when tested in the Galleria mellonella moth wax model. Moreover, AP3 treatment of larvae infected with B. cenocepacia revealed a significant increase (P < 0.0001) in larvae survival in comparison to AP3-untreated infected larvae. AP3 showed robust lytic activity, as evidenced by its broad host range, the absence of increased virulence in lysogenic isolates, the lack of bacterial gene disruption conditioned by bacterial tRNA downstream integration site, and the absence of detected toxin sequences. These data suggest that the AP3 phage is a promising potent agent against bacteria belonging to the most common B. cenocepacia IIIA lineage strains

Research on gravity field modelling and gravimetry in Poland in 2015–2018

Activities of the Polish research gSDroups concerning gravity field modelling and gravimetry in a period of 2015–2018 are reviewed and summarised in this paper. The summary contains the results of research on the evaluation of GOCE-based global geopotential models (GGMs) in Poland and geoid modelling. Extensive research activities are observed in the field of absolute gravity surveys, in particular for the maintenance of national gravity control in Poland, Sweden, Denmark, the Republic of Ireland and in Northern Ireland as well as for geodynamics with special emphasis on metrological aspects in absolute gravimetry. Long term gravity variations were monitored in two gravimetric laboratories: the Borowa Gora Geodetic-Geophysical Observatory, and Jozefoslaw Astrogeodetic Observatory with the use of quasi-regular absolute gravity measurements as well as tidal gravimeter records. Gravity series obtained were analysed considering both local and global hydrology effects. Temporal variations of the gravity field were investigated using data from GRACE satellite mission as well as SLR data. Estimated variations of physical heights indicato the need for kinematic realization of reference surface for heights. Also seasonal variability of the atmospheric and water budgets in Poland was a subject of investigation in terms of total water storage using the GLDAS data. The use of repeatable absolute gravity data for calibration/validation of temporal mass variations derived from satellite gravity missions was discussed. Contribution of gravimetric records to seismic studies was investigated. The bibliography of the related works is given in references

1,3-Thiazolidine derivatives from regioselective [2+3]-cycloadditions of azomethine ylides with thioketones

The title compounds, namely dimethyl (2RS)-2,3-diphenyl-1,3-thiazolidine-5-spiro-20-adamantane-4,4-dicarboxylate methanol solvate, C28H31NO4S . 0.275CH4O, and dimethyl (4RS)-3,4-di-phenyl-1,3-thiazolidine-5-spiro-9' -(9'H-fluorene)-2,2-dicarboxylate, C31H25NO4S, were obtained from dipolar [2+3]-cycloadditions of an azomethine ylide with adamantanethione and thiofluorenone, respectively. The structures show that the choice of thioketone affects the regioselectivity of the cycloaddition. The asymmetric unit of the former structure contains two molecules of the thiazolidine derivative plus a site for a partial occupancy (55%) methanol molecule. O-H...O and C-H...O interactions link two of each of these entities into closed centrosymmetric hexamers. The five- membered ring in each structure has an envelope conformation

Validation of European Gravimetric Geoid models in context of realization of EVRS system in Poland

In this study, several variants create and choose of a local quasi-geoid model in Poland have been considered. All propositions have a source in European Gravimetric Geoid models – EGG2008 and EGG2015, which are purely gravimetric models of reference surface. In the course of this work, each model has been analyzed in various ways: without any corrections, by parallel shifting of residuals, by the 7-parameter conformal transformation and by fitting residuals by 4- and 5-parameter trigonometric polynomials. Eventual corrections were based on points of national GNSS/levelling networks (EUVN, EUVN_DA, POLREF, EUREF and ASG-EUPOS eccentric points). As a final result of this study, a comparison of the accuracy of selected models has been carried out by RMSE statistics and maps showing spatial distribution of residuals and histograms. Validation has shown that the maximum achievable accuracy of the EGG models is approximately 2 cm for the ETRF2000 reference system and approximately 8 cm for ETRF89. In turn, fitting with the use of different mathematical methods results in an improvement of the standard deviation of residues to the level of 1.3–1.4 cm. The conclusions include an evaluation of considerations for and against the use of models based only on EGG realizations and, on the other hand, fitted to the points of Polish vertical network. Its usefulness is strictly connected with needs of the definition of up to date quasi-geoid model for the new realization of heights system in Poland, based on EVRF2007 frame