Entropy versus adaptive dynamics: contemporary conflict and its implications for the nato doctrine evolution

Ostatnia dekada historii Sojuszu Północnoatlantyckiego wypełniona była wyzwaniami o niespotykanej dotąd skali różnorodności, co stało się przyczyną strategicznej debaty zainicjowanej na szczeblach polityczno-wojskowych struktur dowodzenia i kierowania NATO. Dyskusje oscylowały wokół złożoności natury współczesnych konfliktów oraz wpływu tego stanu rzeczy na doktryny sojuszu. Reagowanie kryzysowe w dobie XXI stulecia, zgodnie ze zidentyfikowanymi trendami, wymaga wirtuozerii w dziedzinie posługiwania się instrumentami siły. Kombinacja tak zwanej hard power i soft power w narracji teoretyków doktryn zyskała miano smart power. Termin odnoszący się do pojęcia wielowymiarowych kampanii reagowania kryzysowego wywołał liczne refl eksje, których skutkiem stały się konsultacje oraz studia współczesnych strategii NATO. Reformatorskie tendencje po raz pierwszy zostały formalnie zdefiniowane na szczycie Sojuszu w Rydze w 2006 r. Inspirowane naturą współczesnych konfl iktów badania zaowocowały powstaniem nurtu strategicznego zwanego comprehensive approach (CA). Jego geneza sięga korzeni teorii smart power oraz effects based operations, natura natomiast jest mocno osadzona w skoordynowanym aplikowaniu militarnych, cywilnych i ekonomicznych instrumentów siły. Autor poddaje analizie genezę oraz okoliczności powstania filozofi i CA; ukazuje strategiczny kontekst budowy nowego nurtu w dziedzinie reagowania kryzysowego i naturę CA, przytaczając różne perspektywy narodowe. Analizie poddano aparat pojęciowy funkcjonujący obecnie w Sojuszu. W celu ukazania stopnia implementacji strategii na grunt doktryn operacyjnych różnych szczebli NATO. Autor przytacza przykłady rozwiązań strukturalnych w systemie dowodzenia Sojuszu, wynikających z konieczności dostosowania kształtu instytucji do nowej fi lozofi i działania. Opracowanie ilustruje również praktyczne zastosowanie CA na podstawie wybranych przykładów koncepcji wdrażanych w ramach operacji NATO w Afganistanie. Podsumowanie to refleksja dotycząca adekwatności comprehensive approach do wyzwań, które zdefiniowano na szycie Sojuszu w Walii. Słowa kluczowe: kompleksowe podejście, reagowanie kryzysowe, NATO, bezpieczeństwo międzynarodowe, bezpieczeństwo globalne, bezpieczeństwo europejskie, doktryna, strategia

Seasonal changes in avian communities living in an extensively used farmland of Western Poland

To study the seasonal changes in avian communities, we collected data in an extensively used farmland in Western Poland during 2006-2013. Generalized additive mixed models were used in order to study the effects of seasonality and protected areas on the overall bird species richness. A similarity percentage analysis was also conducted in order to identify the species that contribute most strongly to dissimilarity among each bird according to the phenological season. Furthermore, the differences in bird communities were investigated applying the decomposition of the species richness in season, trend, and remainder components. Each season showed significant differences in bird species richness (seasonality effect). The effect of the protected areas was slightly positive on the overall species richness for all seasons. However, an overall negative trend was detected for the entire period of eight years. The bird community composition was different among seasons, showing differences in terms of dominant species. Greater differences were found between breeding and wintering seasons, in particular, the spatial pattern of sites with higher bird richness (hotspots) were different between breeding and wintering seasons. Our findings showed a negative trend in bird species richness verified in the Polish farmlands from 2006. This result mirrors the same negative trend already highlighted for Western Europe. The role of protected areas, even if slightly positive, was not enough to mitigate this decline process. Therefore, to effectively protect farmland birds, it is necessary to also consider inter-seasons variation, and for this, we suggest the use of medium-term temporal studies on bird communities’ trends

Abdominal cystic lymphangioma. A case report

Introduction. Cystic lymphangiomas are benign tumors that are most prevalent in children in the head and neck region. Abdominal location of these tumors in adults is rare. Radical surgery is the treatment of choice. Case presentation. We present a diagnostic and therapeutic approach to cystic lymphangioma. A 20-year-old male patient was diagnosed with an extensive multicystic lesion involving the hepatic hilum, hepatoduodenal ligament, aorta and inferior vena cava. Histological examination confirmed the diagnosis of cystic lymphangioma. Non-radical resection was performed as it was impossible to dissect the lesion from large vessels. The patient underwent a consecutive follow-up. Results. An increase in residual lesions was not observed during a 7-year follow-up. No clinical manifestations were reported. Conclusions. Non-radical resection can be considered in the case of cystic lymphangioma if total tumor resection is associated with a high risk of serious intra- and postoperative complications

Abdominal cystic lymphangioma. A case report

Introduction. Cystic lymphangiomas are benign tumors that are most prevalent in children in the head and neck region. Abdominal location of these tumors in adults is rare. Radical surgery is the treatment of choice.Case presentation. We present a diagnostic and therapeutic approach to cystic lymphangioma. A 20-year-old male patient was diagnosed with an extensive multicystic lesion involving the hepatic hilum, hepatoduodenal ligament, aorta and inferior vena cava. Histological examination confirmed the diagnosis of cystic lymphangioma. Non-radical resection was performed as it was impossible to dissect the lesion from large vessels. The patient underwent a consecutive follow-up.Results. An increase in residual lesions was not observed during a 7-year follow-up. No clinical manifestations were reported.Conclusions. Non-radical resection can be considered in the case of cystic lymphangioma if total tumor resection is associated with a high risk of serious intra- and postoperative complications

Social Networks through the Prism of Cognition

Human relations are driven by social events - people interact, exchange information, share knowledge and emotions, or gather news from mass media. These events leave traces in human memory. The initial strength of a trace depends on cognitive factors such as emotions or attention span. Each trace continuously weakens over time unless another related event activity strengthens it. Here, we introduce a novel Cognition-driven Social Network (CogSNet) model that accounts for cognitive aspects of social perception and explicitly represents human memory dynamics. For validation, we apply our model to NetSense data on social interactions among university students. The results show that CogSNet significantly improves quality of modeling of human interactions in social networks

Short-fragment PCR assay for highly sensitive broad-spectrum detection of human papillomaviruses in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma and normal mucosa: clinico-pathological evaluation

The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence and genotypes of HPV infection in laryngeal cancer specimens, normal mucosa obtained from the surgical margin and laryngeal nodules using a novel high sensitive and specific SPF10 HPV DNA test, PCR/DEIA method and INNO-LiPA genotyping assay. The correlation between HPV presence and clinico-pathological features was analyzed. Tissue samples were collected from 93 primary laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC), 49 specimens of normal mucosa and from 22 specimens of laryngeal nodules serving as control group. HPV DNA was amplified by the short PCR fragment (SPF10) primer set using HPV DNA enzyme immunoassay (DNA/DEIA) method and INNO-LiPA HPV genotyping assay. Human papillomavirus was detected in 33 (35.5%) of the 93 samples from LSCC, in 4 (8.2%) of 49 samples of the normal mucosa and it was not detected in any of the sample from the control group. Twenty-eight of 33 (81.8%) were positive for HPV-16, 6 of 33 (18.2%) were positive for HPV-18 and 5 of 33 (15.1%) were positive for HPV-33. Multiple infection was found in 5 of 33 (15.1%); 3 samples were positive for HPV-16 and HPV-33, 2 samples for HPV-16 and HPV-18. There was a statistically significant correlation between the presence of HPV in LSCC tumors and in control group samples and between the presence of HPV in the tumors and normal mucosa from the free surgical margin. The presence of HPV infection in 35.5% of the cases suggests a possible role in the etiology of laryngeal cancer and supports the role of high-risk types of HPV (16, 18 and 33) in LSCC. HPV infection is not likely to influence survival rates as an independent prognostic factor in patients with laryngeal cancer

Usefulness and efficiency of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded specimens from laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma in HPV detection by IHC and PCR/DEIA.

The use of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues for HPV DNA detection by PCR from biopsy materials is not entirely clear in retrospective studies. The aim of our study was to evaluate the usefulness and efficiency of FFPE tissues from laryngeal cancer (LSCC) in HPV detection by immunohistochemistry reaction (IHC) and PCR-DNA enzyme immunoassay method (PCR/DEIA) and to compare with HPV detection from DFT. HPV-DNA was amplified from 54 FFPE tissues from LSCC specimens by the short PCR fragment (SPF10) primer set using PCR/DNA method and monoclonal anti Human Papillomavirus antibodies in IHC. In the same patients 54 specimens were collected and immediately deep-frozen and stored at (-70°C) to (-80°C). All the FFPE and deep-frozen tissue (DFT) specimens were positive for β-globin amplification. HPV was detected by two methods (SPF10 PCR/DEIA and IHC) in 14 (25.92%) out of 54 specimens from FFPE. Significant differences were found between the HPV detection using PCR/DEIA method and IHC method in FFPE tissues. The comparative analysis of the 54 samples after assuming PCR method in FFPE tissues showed accuracy of 92.6%, sensitivity of 90.5% and specificity of 93.9%. The FFPE tissues method has high sensitivity, specificity and accuracy when used to detect HPV DNA by PCR reaction and it is comparable to DFT results. DNA quality of FFPE samples is adequate and it can be used in HPV-DNA detection and in retrospective studies on LSCC

Improved DeepFake Detection Using Whisper Features

With a recent influx of voice generation methods, the threat introduced by audio DeepFake (DF) is ever-increasing. Several different detection methods have been presented as a countermeasure. Many methods are based on so-called front-ends, which, by transforming the raw audio, emphasize features crucial for assessing the genuineness of the audio sample. Our contribution contains investigating the influence of the state-of-the-art Whisper automatic speech recognition model as a DF detection front-end. We compare various combinations of Whisper and well-established front-ends by training 3 detection models (LCNN, SpecRNet, and MesoNet) on a widely used ASVspoof 2021 DF dataset and later evaluating them on the DF In-The-Wild dataset. We show that using Whisper-based features improves the detection for each model and outperforms recent results on the In-The-Wild dataset by reducing Equal Error Rate by 21%.Comment: Accepted to INTERSPEECH 202