Wild boars as a source of antimicrobial resistant Escherichia coli

To reveal wild boars as a reservoir of antimicrobial resistance 332 faecal samples were collected from individual wild boars shot during 42 hunts within two seasons (2012/13 and 2013/14) in 34 regional forests scattered over the whole territory of Poland

Prediction Error-based Classification for Class-Incremental Learning

Class-incremental learning (CIL) is a particularly challenging variant of continual learning, where the goal is to learn to discriminate between all classes presented in an incremental fashion. Existing approaches often suffer from excessive forgetting and imbalance of the scores assigned to classes that have not been seen together during training. In this study, we introduce a novel approach, Prediction Error-based Classification (PEC), which differs from traditional discriminative and generative classification paradigms. PEC computes a class score by measuring the prediction error of a model trained to replicate the outputs of a frozen random neural network on data from that class. The method can be interpreted as approximating a classification rule based on Gaussian Process posterior variance. PEC offers several practical advantages, including sample efficiency, ease of tuning, and effectiveness even when data are presented one class at a time. Our empirical results show that PEC performs strongly in single-pass-through-data CIL, outperforming other rehearsal-free baselines in all cases and rehearsal-based methods with moderate replay buffer size in most cases across multiple benchmarks

Interleukin 1-β, Interleukin-1 Receptor Antagonist, and Interleukin 18 in Children with Acute Spontaneous Urticaria

Very little is known about the role of interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and interleukin-18 (IL-18) in urticaria. Material and Methods. Serum levels of IL-1β, IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1RA), and IL-18 were measured in 56 children with urticaria and in 41 healthy subjects. Results. Serum IL-1β did not differ between children with acute urticaria and controls. Children with single episode of urticaria had higher levels of IL-1RA and IL-18 than healthy subjects. In children with single episode of urticaria, level of IL-1RA correlated with C-reactive protein (CRP), D-dimer, and IL-1β levels. In subjects with recurrence of urticaria IL-1RA was positively correlated with WBC and D-dimer levels. No correlation of cytokine levels and urticaria severity scores (UAS) in all children with urticaria was observed. In children with single episode of urticaria UAS correlated with CRP level. In the group with single episode of urticaria and in children with symptoms of upper respiratory infection, IL-1RA and IL-18 levels were higher than in controls. The former was higher than in noninfected children with urticaria. In conclusion, this preliminary study documents that serum IL-1RA and IL-18 levels are increased in some children with acute urticaria. However further studies are necessary to define a pathogenic role of IL-1β, IL-1RA, and IL-18 in urticaria

Salmonella contamination of pig farm environment, Poland, 2014

Although pork is considered an important source of Salmonella infections, the introduction of control programs in pig farms are not obligatory in the EU. To resolve current epidemiological situation, monitoring of pig farms was introduced in Poland in 2014. The paper reports the first year outputs of the survey

Growth and electronic and magnetic structure of iron oxide films on Pt(111)

Ultrathin (111)-oriented polar iron oxide films were grown on a Pt(111) single crystal either by the reactive deposition of iron or oxidation of metallic iron monolayers. These films were characterized using low energy electron diffraction, scanning tunneling microscopy and conversion electron Mossbauer spectroscopy. The reactive deposition of Fe led to the island growth of Fe3O4, in which the electronic and magnetic properties of the bulk material were modulated by superparamagnetic size effects for thicknesses below 2 nm, revealing specific surface and interface features. In contrast, the oxide films with FeO stoichiometry, which could be stabilized as thick as 4 nm under special preparation conditions, had electronic and magnetic properties that were very different from their bulk counterpart, w\"ustite. Unusual long range magnetic order appeared at room temperature for thicknesses between three and ten monolayers, the appearance of which requires severe structural modification from the rock-salt structure.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures, 50 reference

Substrate quality and spontaneous revegetation of extracted peatland: case study of an abandoned Polish mountain bog

If peatland is left without any restoration treatments after mechanical peat extraction ceases, the process of secondary transformation of peat continues. The resulting changes in peat properties severely impede the recovery of vegetation on cutover peatland. The aim of this study was to assess how secondary transformation of peat affects spontaneous revegetation, and the relative importance of different factors in controlling the re-establishment of raised bog species on previously cutover peat surfaces. The study was conducted on two sectors of a raised bog in southern Poland where peat extraction ended either 20 or 30 years ago. Where the residual peat layer was thin (~ 40 cm or less) and the water table often dropped into the mineral substratum, the development of vascular plants (including trees) was favoured, and this further promoted the secondary transformation of peat. In such locations the vegetation tended towards a pine and birch community. Revegetation by Sphagnum and other raised bog species (Eriophorum vaginatum, Vaccinium uliginosum, Ledum palustre, Oxycoccus palustris) was associated with thicker residual peat and higher water table level which, in turn, were strongly correlated with hydrophysical properties of the soil. A species - environmental factor redundancy analysis (RDA) showed that any single factor (of those considered) was not important in determining the revegetation pattern, because of their intercorrelations. However, water table level appeared to be the most important abiotic factor in determining the degree of soil aeration and, consequently, the stage of secondary transformation attained by the peat

Exploring Continual Learning of Diffusion Models

Diffusion models have achieved remarkable success in generating high-quality images thanks to their novel training procedures applied to unprecedented amounts of data. However, training a diffusion model from scratch is computationally expensive. This highlights the need to investigate the possibility of training these models iteratively, reusing computation while the data distribution changes. In this study, we take the first step in this direction and evaluate the continual learning (CL) properties of diffusion models. We begin by benchmarking the most common CL methods applied to Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models (DDPMs), where we note the strong performance of the experience replay with the reduced rehearsal coefficient. Furthermore, we provide insights into the dynamics of forgetting, which exhibit diverse behavior across diffusion timesteps. We also uncover certain pitfalls of using the bits-per-dimension metric for evaluating CL

Reversal of endothelial dysfunction by nicotinamide mononucleotide via extracellular conversion to nicotinamide riboside

Nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) and nicotinamide riboside (NR) are effective substrates for NAD synthesis, which may act as vasoprotective agents. Here, we characterize the effects of NMN and NR on endothelial inflammation and dysfunction and test the involvement of CD73 in these effects. Materials and methods: The effect of NMN and NR on IL1β- or TNFα-induced endothelial inflammation (ICAM1 and vWF expression), intracellular NAD concentration and NAD-related enzyme expression (NAMPT, CD38, CD73), were studied in HAECs. The effect of NMN and NR on angiotensin II-induced impairment of endotheliumdependent vasodilation was analyzed in murine aortic rings. The involvement of CD73 in NMN and NR effects was tested using CD73 inhibitor-AOPCP, or CD73$^{-/-}$ mice. Results: 24 h-incubation with NMN and NR induced anti-inflammatory effects in HAEC stimulated by IL1β or TNFα, as evidenced by a reduction in ICAM1 and vWF expression. Effects of exogenous NMN but not NR was abrogated in the presence of AOPCP, that efficiently inhibited extracellular endothelial conversion of NMN to NR, without a significant effect on the metabolism of NMN to NA. Surprisingly, intracellular NAD concentration increased in HAEC stimulated by IL1β or TNFα and this effect was associated with upregulation of NAMPT and CD73, whereas changes in CD38 expression were less pronounced. NMN and NR further increased NAD in IL1β- stimulated HAECs and AOPCP diminished NMN-induced increase in NAD, without an effect on NR-induced response. In ex vivo aortic rings stimulated with angiotensin II for 24 h, NO-dependent vasorelaxation induced by acetylcholine was impaired. NMN and NR, both prevented Ang II-induced endothelial dysfunction in the aorta. In aortic rings taken from CD73$^{-/-}$ mice NMN effect was lost, whereas NR effect was preserved. Conclusion: NMN and NR modulate intracellular NAD content in endothelium, inhibit endothelial inflammation and improve NO-dependent function by CD73-dependent and independent pathways, respectively. Extracellular conversion of NMN to NR by CD73 localized in the luminal surface of endothelial cells represent important vasoprotective mechanisms to maintain intracellular NAD