Zróżnicowanie przestrzenne poziomu rozwoju społeczno-gospodarczego miast średniej wielkości w Polsce

The purpose of this article is to show the spatial differentiation medium-sized cities in Poland in terms of socio-economic situation. The study is based on a variety of measures of social and economic conditions. The result of the analysis is to rank cities according to the synthetic medium index describing the level of socio-economic development.Celem artykułu jest ukazanie przestrzennego zróżnicowania miast średniej wielkości w Polsce pod względem sytuacji społeczno-gospodarczej. Badanie opiera się na różnorodnych miernikach społecznych i ekonomicznych. Wynikiem przeprowadzonej analizy jest ranking miast średnich według syntetycznego wskaźnika opisującego ich poziom rozwoju społeczno-gospodarczego

Poziom empatii u studentów kierunków medycznych, psychologii i informatyki

Empathy is considered a vital trait in helping professions such as doctor, psychologist or nurse, while less important in technical professions such as IT specialist. The aim of this study was to investigate the differences in empathy level between medical (doctor and nursing), psychology and computer science students. For this purpose, 243 students of psychology, nursing, medicine, and computer science completed an online survey containing a short version of the Empathy Quotient (EQ-Short) questionnaire which measures affective and cognitive empathy. Results showed that psychology, medical and computer science students differed significantly in their level of empathy. Psychology students scored highest, medical majors scored medium, and computer science students scored lowest. On average, women, regardless of the field of study, had a higher empathy trait level than men, which was in line with previous studies regarding gender differences in this trait. Students of helping professions: psychology and medical faculties showed a higher level of empathy than computer science students. Discrepancies in existing data suggest a need for further research regarding differences in empathy levels and its changes in psychology and medical students.Empatia jest cechą uznawaną za szczególnie istotną w zawodach pomocowych, takich jak lekarz, psycholog czy pielęgniarz, natomiast mniej ważną w zawodach technicznych, jak informatyk. Prezentowane badanie przeprowadzono w celu określenia różnic w poziomie empatii pomiędzy studentami kierunków medycznych (lekarski i pielęgniarski), psychologii i informatyki. W tym celu przebadano 243 studentów psychologii, pielęgniarstwa, medycyny i informatyki z wykorzystaniem ankiety internetowej zawierającej kwestionariusz Skróconej Skali Ilorazu Empatii (SSIE), mierzący empatię afektywną i poznawczą. Uzyskano wyniki świadczące o tym, że studenci psychologii, kierunków medycznych i informatyki różnią się istotnie poziomem empatii. Najwyższe wyniki uzyskano w grupie studentów psychologii, średnie w przypadku kierunków medycznych, natomiast najniższe u studentów informatyki. Ponadto w podziale próby na płeć, bez rozróżnienia na kierunek studiów, kobiety cechowały się średnio wyższym poziomem empatii niż mężczyźni, co potwierdziło dotychczasowe wyniki badań w aspekcie różnic międzypłciowych w zakresie tej cechy. Studenci zawodów pomocowych – psychologii i kierunków medycznych – wykazują wyższy poziom empatii niż studenci informatyki. Ze względu na rozbieżności w wynikach badań sugeruje się dalsze zgłębianie różnic w poziomie empatii i jego zmianach pomiędzy studentami psychologii i kierunków medycznych

Allostery in Its Many Disguises: From Theory to Applications.

Allosteric regulation plays an important role in many biological processes, such as signal transduction, transcriptional regulation, and metabolism. Allostery is rooted in the fundamental physical properties of macromolecular systems, but its underlying mechanisms are still poorly understood. A collection of contributions to a recent interdisciplinary CECAM (Center Européen de Calcul Atomique et Moléculaire) workshop is used here to provide an overview of the progress and remaining limitations in the understanding of the mechanistic foundations of allostery gained from computational and experimental analyses of real protein systems and model systems. The main conceptual frameworks instrumental in driving the field are discussed. We illustrate the role of these frameworks in illuminating molecular mechanisms and explaining cellular processes, and describe some of their promising practical applications in engineering molecular sensors and informing drug design efforts

Accelerating Drug Discovery Efforts for Trypanosomatidic Infections Using an Integrated Transnational Academic Drug Discovery Platform

According to the World Health Organization, more than 1 billion people are at risk of or are affected by neglected tropical diseases. Examples of such diseases include trypanosomiasis, which causes sleeping sickness; leishmaniasis; and Chagas disease, all of which are prevalent in Africa, South America, and India. Our aim within the New Medicines for Trypanosomatidic Infections project was to use (1) synthetic and natural product libraries, (2) screening, and (3) a preclinical absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion\u2013toxicity (ADME-Tox) profiling platform to identify compounds that can enter the trypanosomatidic drug discovery value chain. The synthetic compound libraries originated from multiple scaffolds with known antiparasitic activity and natural products from the Hypha Discovery MycoDiverse natural products library. Our focus was first to employ target-based screening to identify inhibitors of the protozoan Trypanosoma brucei pteridine reductase 1 (TbPTR1) and second to use a Trypanosoma brucei phenotypic assay that made use of the T. brucei brucei parasite to identify compounds that inhibited cell growth and caused death. Some of the compounds underwent structure-activity relationship expansion and, when appropriate, were evaluated in a preclinical ADME-Tox assay panel. This preclinical platform has led to the identification of lead-like compounds as well as validated hits in the trypanosomatidic drug discovery value chain

Unraveling the structural complexity in a single-stranded RNA tail: implications for efficient ligand binding in the prequeuosine riboswitch

Single-stranded RNAs (ssRNAs) are ubiquitous RNA elements that serve diverse functional roles. Much of our understanding of ssRNA conformational behavior is limited to structures in which ssRNA directly engages in tertiary interactions or is recognized by proteins. Little is known about the structural and dynamic behavior of free ssRNAs at atomic resolution. Here, we report the collaborative application of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and replica exchange molecular dynamics (REMD) simulations to characterize the 12 nt ssRNA tail derived from the prequeuosine riboswitch. NMR carbon spin relaxation data and residual dipolar coupling measurements reveal a flexible yet stacked core adopting an A-form-like conformation, with the level of order decreasing toward the terminal ends. An A-to-C mutation within the polyadenine tract alters the observed dynamics consistent with the introduction of a dynamic kink. Pre-ordering of the tail may increase the efficacy of ligand binding above that achieved by a random-coil ssRNA. The REMD simulations recapitulate important trends in the NMR data, but suggest more internal motions than inferred from the NMR analysis. Our study unmasks a previously unappreciated level of complexity in ssRNA, which we believe will also serve as an excellent model system for testing and developing computational force fields

From screen to the paper. How do bloggers connect digital and traditional media?

Celem niniejszej pracy było ukazanie, jaki wpływ na rynek książki w Polsce ma rozwój blogów internetowych. W pracy zostało opisane zjawisko blogosfery, jej powstanie i rozwój w ciągu ostatnich kilkunastu lat oraz jak zmieniało się spojrzenie internautów na tzw. pamiętniki sieciowe. Skupiono się również na stanie czytelnictwa w Polsce i jego konsekwencjach. Część pracy to analiza bloga jako gatunku literackiego oraz związanego z nim problemu grafomanii w sieci. Drugą część pracy stanowi analiza wybranych publikacji najbardziej znanych polskich blogerów, zarówno pod względem edytorsko-literackim, jak i z punktu widzenia rynku. W tej części pracy podjęto próbę odpowiedzi na pytanie, czy popularność autora w Internecie wpływa na sprzedaż jego książki oraz odwrotnie – czy książka w obiegu tradycyjnym wpływa na liczbę czytelników i odsłon bloga danego autora. Ostatnia część pracy stanowi podsumowanie oraz ukazanie trendów wydawniczych wśród blogerów w najbliższej przyszłości.The aim of the study was to show what's the impact that the development of blogs has on the book market in Poland. In the essay I described the phenomenon of blogosphere, its beggining and progress in last few years and how the atttude to blogs was changing within users of the Internet. I also focused on the state of readership in Poland and its consequences. A part of my study is to try to classify a blog as a literary genre and to describe a problem with graphomania on the net. The second part of my study contains analysis of particular publications of the most known Polish bloggers, in terms of literary and marketing point of view. In this part I tried to answer a question whether popularity of an author on the Internet influences selling and the opposite – whether the paper book influences more page views and readers of a blog. The last part of my essay shows future trends of bloggers and their books and summarizes whole study