In Pursuit of Empowering the Culturally Fragile – an Emic Approach and Indigenous Methodology in a European Research Context

This article was inspired by my long-standing experience in conducting field research in the culturally diverse environment of Bosnia-Herzegovina. It contributes to the better understanding of emic research, reviewing indigenous strategies and the importance of increasing the researcher’s cultural sensitivity and awareness of the cultural peculiarities they wish to investigate, through the adaptation of qualitative methods. Moreover, the article adds to the ways in which research projects are designed, acknowledging the equal status of the participants (neither the respondents nor “the researched”) who can (and should) be approached ethically and with full recognition of their status as the co-producers of knowledge. Such an outlook towards one’s own project can provide an important input to the emancipation and recognition of culturally fragile groups, such as ethnic or religious minorities, refugees, groups subject to social exclusion, etc. The lessons I have learned in the course of almost 17-years experience of doing field research in a multicultural setting (Bosnia-Herzegovina), also including some failures in this regard, inspired me to propose this paper as a starting point of a broader debate on conducting socially and ethically responsible field research in a multicultural society, or amongst culturally diverse groups

Review: Jasminko Halilović: War childhood: Sarajevo 1992-1995

As early as at the beginning of the last century, the Polish-Jewish educator, children's author, and pedagogue Janusz Korczak called for the right of child to happy childhood. This revelatory vision was accompanied by Hellen Key, who proclaimed 20th century as the century of the child, publishing book of such title and calling for the rights of children to free growth. Unfortunately, the history of the modern world added to these humane ideas rather pessimistic post scriptum, involving children in the armed conflicts and totalitarian regimes, making them the victims of adult cruelty to an unimaginable extend. In such context, the "War Childhood" book provides a very important and exceptional pedagogical and sociological study, for it induces readers to ponder over the position and status of children in armed conflicts, with the biographical, psychological and social repercussion of the latter

The influence of benzene air pollution on leukemia incidence and mortality rates

The following study identifies areas where adverse conditions related to benzene pollution are concurrent with leukaemia incidence and mortality (C91-C95). Moreover, it determines the similarities between benzene and leukaemia levels, as well and rules defining their co-occurrence. The analysis covered the period of 2015-2017. Data was obtained from Dane.gov.pl (number of leukaemia cases),  Polish National Cancer Registry website (number of deaths),  Local Data Bank of the Central Statistical Office (population data) and from Chief Inspectorate of Environmental Protection and found via the Air Quality Portal (data on air quality). Based on the carried out analysis, it was concluded that areas with an unfavourable epidemic situation related to leukaemia are the following poviat towns: Kielce (incidence), Rzeszów (incidence), Elbląg (mortality), while high leukaemia incidence and mortality co-occur with high average benzene concentration in 2015 -2017 in the following poviat towns: Kielce, Rybnik, Płock and Rzeszów. It was found that leukaemias belonging to the following three-character ICD-10 categories: C94, C95 and C92, show the highest rate of co-occurrence with benzene concentration. In addition, two main rules for the co-occurrence of benzene pollution and leukaemia were identified. It was also noted that it is necessary to continue the research over a longer-period of time, especially in the following poviat towns: Kielce and Rzeszów

Borderlands of the Countryside. Dilemmas of the Quality of Life – Experience of the Polish Transformation

      This study is a reflection on the quality of life of the countryside dwellers in the Polish–German borderland. It has been assumed that the assessment made is conditioned by the consequences of changes within the functioning of the state borders. Based on the findings from the research conducted in 1993 and 2010, an analysis of the changes of social reality in the place of the countryside dwellers’ residence was made, followed by an attempt to define determinants of the attitude of the countryside dwellers towards given social, economic and political aspects of the reality, as assessed and expressed by them

Rainwater management in urban areas in Poland: literature review

The work analyses and evaluates the results of research work carried out so far in the field of rainwater management in urban areas in Poland. Using the "biblioshiny" tool, a bibliometric analysis was carried out based on queries to the Scopus and Web of Science databases. As a result, information was obtained on selected bibliometric statistics of scientific publications in which the topic of rainwater in Poland was taken up. The probable direction of further research development in the field of the analysed issues was also determined. In addition, after a detailed review of all the articles obtained at the earlier stage of the bibliometric analysis, the main research contexts were indicated and discussed. Areas and issues requiring further analysis and supplementation were indicated in the work

Health and functional benefits of yoga practice in times of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic

The purpose of this article is to identify and quantify the benefits of yoga practice, particularly in the most severe of the coronavirus pandemic and related lockdown periods. The subject of the research was the form and quality of online yoga practice, which has become an alternative to sports and stationary activities. The most important health benefits of yoga practice are also discussed. Using the method of analysis of documents and sources, the role and importance of yoga in the health context and its advantages related to maintaining health during the coronavirus pandemic have been demonstrated. The authors of the publication also made an original quantitative and qualitative analysis of individual forms of online yoga practice, according to the most popular and used tools and technologies in this discipline. An analysis of functionalities conducted on Facebook and Instagram social networking sites, live broadcasts, applications that can be installed on smartphones and channels on the YouTube website, publishing videos for joint yoga practice, was developed. Using own observation and SWOT analysis, all the strengths and weaknesses of online yoga practice, as well as its opportunities and threats, were presented

The potential of data exploration methods in identifying the relationship between short-period (daily) water consumption and meteorological factors

. The purpose of the work was to identify the hidden relationship between water consumption and meteorological factors, using principal component analysis. In addition, clusters of similar days were identified based on relationships identified by k-means. The study was based on data from the city of Toruń (Poland). The analysis was based on daily data from 2014–2017 divided into three groups. Group I included data from the entire period, Group II- from warm half[1]years (April–September), and Group III-from cold half-years (January–March and October–December). For Groups I and II the extent of water consumption was explained by two principal components. PC1 includes variables that increase water consumption, and PC2 includes variables that lessen water demand. In Group III, water consumption was not linked to any component. The k-means method was used to identify clusters of similar days. In terms of PC1, the most numerous days were Saturdays, and in terms of PC2 Sundays and holidays. It was determined that further research aimed at explaining the specificity of water consumption on particular days of the week is appropriate

Salinity-induced changes in plastoquinone pool redox state in halophytic Mesembryanthemum crystallinum L.

We have analyzed the effect of salinity on photosystem II (PSII) photochemistry and plastoquinone (PQ) pool in halophytic Mesembryanthemum crystallinum plants. Under prolonged salinity conditions (7 or 10 days of 0.4 M NaCl treatment) we noted an enlarged pool of open PSII reaction centers and increased energy conservation efficiency, as envisaged by parameters of the fast and slow kinetics of chlorophyll a fluorescence. Measurements of oxygen evolution, using 2,6-dichloro-1,4-benzoquinone as an electron acceptor, showed stimulation of the PSII activity due to salinity. In salt-acclimated plants (10 days of NaCl treatment), the improved PSII performance was associated with an increase in the size of the photochemically active PQ pool and the extent of its reduction. This was accompanied by a rise in the $NADP^{+}$/NADPH ratio. The presented data suggest that a redistribution of PQ molecules between photochemically active and non-active fractions and a change of the redox state of the photochemically active PQ pool indicate and regulate the acclimation of the photosynthetic apparatus to salinity

Zmiany zachorowalności na nowotwory złośliwe ośrodkowego układu nerwowego w województwie wielkopolskim

The paper analyzes the spatial and temporal change in the raw incidence rate of malignant neoplasms of the central nervous system (including the meninges), determines the nature and strength of the incidence trends, and identifies areas of unfavorable and favorable situation. An unfavorable situation in terms of raw incidence rate of the analyzed malignant neoplasms was observed in the subregion of the town of Poznań, the Kalisz subregion and the Piła poviat. In the Wielkopolska voivodship, statistically significant upward trends in incidence were recorded for “malignant neoplasm of meninges (C70)*” and “malignant neoplasm of brain (C71)*”. The only statis- tically significant downward trend in incidence occurred in the Piła subregion and concerned “malignant neoplasm of spinal cord, cranial nerves and other parts of central nervous system (C72)*”. *English names of the malignant neoplasms which are in the ICD-10 have been taken from: https:// icd.who.int/browse10/2010/en#/C69-C72 (accessed: 10.09.2021).W pracy dokonano analizy przestrzennej i czasowej zmiany współczynnika surowego zachorowalności na nowotwory złośliwe ośrodkowego układu nerwowego (z uwzględnieniem opon mózgowo-rdzeniowych), określono charakter i siłę trendów zachorowalności oraz wskazano obszary o niekorzystnej i korzystnej sytuacji. Niekorzystna sytuacja w zakresie zachorowalności surowej na analizowane nowotwory występowała w podregionie miasto Poznań, podregionie kaliskim oraz w powiecie pilskim. W województwie wielkopolskim istotne statystycznie trendy wzrostowe zachorowalności odnotowano dla „nowotworu złośliwego opon mózgowo-rdzeniowych (C70)” oraz „nowotworu złośliwego mózgu (C71)”. Jedyny istotny statystycznie trend spadkowy zachorowalności wystąpił w podregionie pilskim i dotyczył „nowotworu złośliwego rdzenia kręgowego, nerwów czaszkowych i innych części ośrodkowego układu nerwowego (C72)”