Introduction

Wstęp do Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Oeconomica nr 162Zadanie pt. „Digitalizacja i udostępnienie w Cyfrowym Repozytorium Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego kolekcji czasopism naukowych wydawanych przez Uniwersytet Łódzki” nr 885/P-DUN/2014 zostało dofinansowane ze środków MNiSW w ramach działalności upowszechniającej nauk

Career learning journeys of Derby and Derbyshire NEETs

Young people (aged under 25 years) typically represent a third of all unemployed people across Derby and Derbyshire. The numbers of young people aged between 16 and 18 years old who are either not in education, employment or training (known as NEETs) in Derby and Derbyshire is a concern for local communities, businesses, support organisations, and families. In early 2010 changes to support services and structures were being undertaken, whilst at the same time the economic downturn was affecting opportunities for employment and training. The opportunity that arose at this time through the EMIEP project to undertake research both about, and with, the local NEET population was seized upon locally as a way to better understand the realities of being NEET through systematic analysis of the NCCIS database alongside qualitative analysis of interviews with 40 young people who were categorised as NEET. It finds that those young people with multiple disadvantage feel better supported by services than those whose NEET status derived from just one or two disadvantaging factors.East Midlands Improvement and Efficiency Partnershi

The signature of a fibre bundle is multiplicative mod 4

We express the signature modulo 4 of a closed, oriented, $4k$-dimensional $PL$ manifold as a linear combination of its Euler characteristic and the new absolute torsion invariant defined in Korzeniewski [11]. Let $F \to E \to B$ be a $PL$ fibre bundle, where $F$, $E$ and $B$ are closed, connected, and compatibly oriented $PL$ manifolds. We give a formula for the absolute torsion of the total space $E$ in terms of the absolute torsion of the base and fibre, and then combine these two results to prove that the signature of $E$ is congruent modulo 4 to the product of the signatures of $F$ and $B$.Comment: v2: Improved proof of Proposition 9.

Absolute Whitehead torsion

We refine the Whitehead torsion of a chain equivalence of finite chain complexes in an additive category \bA from an element of \widetilde{K}^{iso}_1(\bA) to an element of the absolute group K_1^{iso}(\bA). We apply this invariant to symmetric Poincar\'e complexes and identify it in terms of more traditional invariants. In the companion paper [1] (joint with Ian Hambleton and Andrew Ranicki) this new invariant is applied to obtain the multiplicativity of the signature of fibre bundles mod 4.Comment: To appear in the MPI preprint serie

Mechanisms underlying extremely fast muscle V˙O2 on-kinetics in humans.

The time constant of the primary phase of pulmonary V˙O2 on-kinetics (τp ), which reflects muscle V˙O2 kinetics during moderate-intensity exercise, is about 30 s in young healthy untrained individuals, while it can be as low as 8 s in endurance-trained athletes. We aimed to determine the intramuscular factors that enable very low values of t0.63 to be achieved (analogous to τp , t0.63 is the time to reach 63% of the V˙O2 amplitude). A computer model of oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) in skeletal muscle was used. Muscle t0.63 was near-linearly proportional to the difference in phosphocreatine (PCr) concentration between rest and work (ΔPCr). Of the two main factors that determine t0.63 , a huge increase in either OXPHOS activity (six- to eightfold) or each-step activation (ESA) of OXPHOS intensity (>3-fold) was needed to reduce muscle t0.63 from the reference value of 29 s (selected to represent young untrained subjects) to below 10 s (observed in athletes) when altered separately. On the other hand, the effect of a simultaneous increase of both OXPHOS activity and ESA intensity required only a twofold elevation of each to decrease t0.63 below 10 s. Of note, the dependence of t0.63 on OXPHOS activity and ESA intensity is hyperbolic, meaning that in trained individuals a large increase in OXPHOS activity and ESA intensity are required to elicit a small reduction in τp . In summary, we postulate that the synergistic action of elevated OXPHOS activity and ESA intensity is responsible for extremely low τp (t0.63 ) observed in highly endurance-trained athletes

Examinations regarding the prevalence of intestinal parasitic diseases in Polish soldiers contingents assigned to missions abroad

The aim of this paper is to present the program of diagnostic examinations regarding the detection and following treatment of intestinal parasitic diseases in the population of Polish soldiers serving in different climatic and sanitary conditions. Intestinal parasitoses remain one of the health problems of soldiers participating in contemporary military operations. This fact mainly results from unsatisfactory sanitary and hygienic standards in the regions where troops are deployed, contamination of water and soil, inappropriate processes of purifying drinking water, and the terrible condition of sewage systems, water purification plants, or sewage treatment facilities. The occurrence of such diseases is further facilitated by disregard of some basic principles of food and feeding hygiene. Mass examinations of Polish troops to find the prevalence of intestinal parasitoses will cause a decrease in the morbidity rate of parasitic diseases among Polish soldiers deployed in military operations. They can also lead to a decrease in expenditure on medical treatment of disease-related complications and on damages awarded to soldiers who have developed a serious disease while being engaged in a mission abroad. (Int Marit Health 2011; 62, 1: 31–36

Travel health prevention

All around the world there has been a rapid growth in the number of international travels. According to the World Tourism Organisation the number of international tourist arrivals reached 1,235 billion in 2016 and continues to grow at a high rate. This has been much due to the development of air transport (including low-cost airlines), increasingly common economic migration, a growing number of travellers visiting friends and relatives, and an increase in medical tourism. With tropical destinations becoming increasingly popular among travellers, doctors have seen a rising number of patients who seek medical advice on health risks prevalent in hot countries and health prevention measures to be taken in tropical destinations, especially where sanitation is poor. The risk for developing a medical condition while staying abroad depends on a variety of factors, including the traveller’s general health condition, health prevention measures taken before or during travel (vaccinations, antimalarial chemoprophylaxis, health precautions during air, road and sea travel, proper acclimatisation, prevention of heat injuries, protection against local flora and fauna, personal hygiene, water, food and feeding hygiene), as well as the prevalence of health risk factors in a given location. Health prevention is a precondition for safe travel and maintaining good physical health; in the era of a rapid growth in international tourism it has become of key importance for all travellers

The pregnant traveller

Travelling during pregnancy has become increasingly common. Many pregnant women travel for pleasureand recreation and a lot of them continue to work and therefore often travel on business, sometimes to areas with poor standards of sanitation and limited access to health care providers. During pregnancy, it is extremely important that a woman has a regular access to maternal health care, also in temporary destinations, especially in areas characterised by harsh environmental conditions, and places where the prevalence of infectious diseases is high. It must be remembered that the course of contagious or parasitic illnesses, such as hepatitis E and malaria, is generally more severe in pregnant travellers, due to pregnancy-related immunosuppression. The assessment of indications and contraindications for the use of mandatory/recommended vaccinations and antimalarial drugs is also very important in pregnant travellers. When pregnant women travel for long term, it is absolutely necessary that they receive prenatal care in a new place of residence. Scheduled maternity care usually begins in week 10–12 of pregnancy, and continues once a month until the 7 month of pregnancy, next every second week until week 36 and then once a week until the delivery.  

Mind-body problem : does complexity exist objectively?

Complexity and related phenomena exist as at least as “objective” and primary aspects/elements of the world as matter, space, and time. On the other hand, space, time, and matter become more and more subjective in modern physics. Complexity causes “something new” to emerge at the level of the whole complex system, which is not present at the level of the elements of this system and cannot be fully reduced to the interactions between these elements. This fact concerns both simple systems, such as atoms composed of a nucleus and electrons or (macro)molecules composed of atoms, as well as very complex systems such as living individuals built of (macro)molecules, organelles, cells, and organs, and conscious brains composed of networks of neurons. In other words, the dynamic complexity consisting of a special concrete spatiotemporal organisation of matter/ energy is as real as space, time, and matter themselves. Therefore, one can speak about the “objective” existence of such a “subjective” phenomenon as (self-)consciousness. The last phenomenon constitutes an aspect, epiphenomenon, or “by-product” of the functional complexity of the (part of the) neural network in the human brain. Self-)consciousness is equivalent to a certain kind of such complexity and must emerge as a necessary aspect of an appropriately organised dynamic neural network. Therefore, for instance, zombies cannot exist or are even nonsensical. Each dynamic state of the neural network underling self-consciousness is univocally related to one psychic state, and inversely. It is postulated that the mind-body problem can be explained/resolved by a special kind of complexity, which consists of recurrent self-reference, directing on itself the “cognitive centre” in the neural network in the human brain