Linguistic complexity: English vs. Polish, text vs. corpus

We analyze the rank-frequency distributions of words in selected English and Polish texts. We show that for the lemmatized (basic) word forms the scale-invariant regime breaks after about two decades, while it might be consistent for the whole range of ranks for the inflected word forms. We also find that for a corpus consisting of texts written by different authors the basic scale-invariant regime is broken more strongly than in the case of comparable corpus consisting of texts written by the same author. Similarly, for a corpus consisting of texts translated into Polish from other languages the scale-invariant regime is broken more strongly than for a comparable corpus of native Polish texts. Moreover, we find that if the words are tagged with their proper part of speech, only verbs show rank-frequency distribution that is almost scale-invariant

Chrześcijańska pedagogika personalistyczna a współczesne koncepcje wychowania

Questo articolo presenta un confronto critico tra le principali correnti della pedagogia   contemporanea (l’indirizzo personalista, l’indirizzo laico neo-illuminista, l’indirizzo   moderno e neo-radicale, l’indirizzo tecnologico-funzionalista) con lo scopo di valutarle,   prendendo come punto di riferimento le linee fondamentali della pedagogia personalista   cristiana. Essa riconosce la Rivelazione come “criterio negativo” per valutare le varie   concezioni educative, soprattutto dal punto di vista delle affermazioni antropologiche ed   assiologiche. Questo ruolo di “coscienza critica” spetta anche alla pedagogia personalista,   che interviene nel dibattito pedagogico, da un lato in difesa dei diritti e della dignità personale,   dall’altro per richiamare l’attenzione sulla necessaria vigilanza epistemologica   delle asserzioni pedagogiche.   Partendo da questi presupposti, sono state valutate le correnti più significative della   pedagogia contemporanea per dimostrare che alcune idee e impostazioni educative sono   in contrasto con la pedagogia d’ispirazione cristiana. Queste differenze riguardano, ad   esempio, il modo di vedere l’educazione, la funzione educativa, il contributo della pedagogia   come scienza (dal naturalismo pedagogico di J. J Rousseau alla anti-pedagogia fino   alla concezione post-moderna), il problema del pluralismo culturale ed educativo, la visione   dei fini educativi, la questione del relativismo e dell’individualismo nel campo della   conoscenza e della morale e, infine, le istituzioni educative.   Molto spesso teorie pedagogiche si ritrovano come ideologie pedagogiche di sistemi   e prassi politiche. Più specificamente, si presentano sotto forma di mentalità o di atteggiamenti   generali riguardanti l’educazione e la “scienza” che ne scaturisce, confortati dai   risultati della riflessione critica e magari da approfondimenti filosofici, nel senso stretto   del termine.   A livello di azione educativa concreta, questi indirizzi teorici entrano spesso in conflitto   con le possibilità soggettive di educazione e con le concrete richieste e opportunità   sociali di sviluppo umano. Questa tensione dovrebbe tuttavia evitare ogni forma di accentuazione   unilaterale e riduzionistica.   Questo articolo presenta un confronto critico tra le principali correnti della pedagogia   contemporanea (l’indirizzo personalista, l’indirizzo laico neo-illuminista, l’indirizzo   moderno e neo-radicale, l’indirizzo tecnologico-funzionalista) con lo scopo di valutarle,   prendendo come punto di riferimento le linee fondamentali della pedagogia personalista   cristiana. Essa riconosce la Rivelazione come “criterio negativo” per valutare le varie   concezioni educative, soprattutto dal punto di vista delle affermazioni antropologiche ed   assiologiche. Questo ruolo di “coscienza critica” spetta anche alla pedagogia personalista,   che interviene nel dibattito pedagogico, da un lato in difesa dei diritti e della dignità personale,   dall’altro per richiamare l’attenzione sulla necessaria vigilanza epistemologica   delle asserzioni pedagogiche.   Partendo da questi presupposti, sono state valutate le correnti più significative della   pedagogia contemporanea per dimostrare che alcune idee e impostazioni educative sono   in contrasto con la pedagogia d’ispirazione cristiana. Queste differenze riguardano, ad   esempio, il modo di vedere l’educazione, la funzione educativa, il contributo della pedagogia   come scienza (dal naturalismo pedagogico di J. J Rousseau alla anti-pedagogia fino   alla concezione post-moderna), il problema del pluralismo culturale ed educativo, la visione   dei fini educativi, la questione del relativismo e dell’individualismo nel campo della   conoscenza e della morale e, infine, le istituzioni educative.   Molto spesso teorie pedagogiche si ritrovano come ideologie pedagogiche di sistemi   e prassi politiche. Più specificamente, si presentano sotto forma di mentalità o di atteggiamenti   generali riguardanti l’educazione e la “scienza” che ne scaturisce, confortati dai   risultati della riflessione critica e magari da approfondimenti filosofici, nel senso stretto   del termine.   A livello di azione educativa concreta, questi indirizzi teorici entrano spesso in conflitto   con le possibilità soggettive di educazione e con le concrete richieste e opportunità   sociali di sviluppo umano. Questa tensione dovrebbe tuttavia evitare ogni forma di accentuazione   unilaterale e riduzionistica. 

Fusion of the 1H NMR data of serum, urine and exhaled breath condensate in order to discriminate chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and obstructive sleep apnea syndrome

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, COPD, affects the condition of the entire human organism and causes multiple comorbidities. Pathological lung changes lead to quantitative changes in the composition of the metabolites in different body fluids. The obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, OSAS, occurs in conjunction with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in about 10–20 % of individuals who have COPD. Both conditions share the same comorbidities and this makes differentiating them difficult. The aim of this study was to investigate whether it is possible to diagnose a patient with either COPD or the OSA syndrome using a set of selected metabolites and to determine whether the metabolites that are present in one type of biofluid (serum, exhaled breath condensate or urine) or whether a combination of metabolites that are present in two biofluids or whether a set of metabolites that are present in all three biofluids are necessary to correctly diagnose a patient. A quantitative analysis of the metabolites in all three biofluid samples was performed using 1H NMR spectroscopy. A multivariate bootstrap approach that combines partial least squares regression with the variable importance in projection score (VIP-score) and selectivity ratio (SR) was adopted in order to construct discriminant diagnostic models for the groups of individuals with COPD and OSAS. A comparison study of all of the discriminant models that were constructed and validated showed that the discriminant partial least squares model using only ten urine metabolites (selected with the SR approach) has a specificity of 100 % and a sensitivity of 86.67 %. This model (AUCtest = 0.95) presented the best prediction performance. The main conclusion of this study is that urine metabolites, among the others, present the highest probability for correctly identifying patents with COPD and the lowest probability for an incorrect identification of the OSA syndrome as developed COPD. Another important conclusion is that the changes in the metabolite levels of exhaled breath condensates do not appear to be specific enough to differentiate between patients with COPD and OSA

The use of modern telemedicine technologies in an innovative optimal cardiac rehabilitation program for patients after myocardial revascularization: Concept and design of RESTORE, a randomized clinical trial

Despite proven efficacy of cardiac rehabilitation (CR) in reducing the all-cause mortality in patients after myocardial revascularization, the penetration of CR, due to patient-related factors and referral rates remains limited. To improve the outcomes, home-based tele-rehabilitation (TR) has been proposed recently. In theory TR enhances the effects of standard CR procedures due to implementation of an intelligent monitoring system designed to ensure optimal training through on-demand transmission of vital signs, aimed at motivating the patients through daily schedule reminders, setting daily goals and creating a platform for mutual feedback. Several meta-analyses assessing various studies comparing these two methods (CR and TR) have proven that they are at least equally effective, with some of the research showing superiority of TR. Although there was a small sample size, lack of long-term follow-up, reporting effects of TR itself, no integration with tools designed for coaching, motivating and promoting a healthy lifestyle constitutes an important limitation. The latter carries a hopeful prognosis for improvement when utilizing a broad-spectrum approach, especially with use of dedicated technological solutions exploiting the fact of a large and yet rapidly increasing penetration of smartphones, mobile PCs and tablets in the population. The above-mentioned findings worked as the basis and rationale for commencing the RESTORE project aimed at developing and delivering state-of-the-art, comprehensive TR for patients after myocardial revascularization and evaluating its molecular aspect in view of how it influences the atherosclerosis progression attenuation. This paper presents the current state and rationale behind the project based on up-to-date TR efficacy data

Metabolomics of Human Amniotic Fluid and Maternal Plasma during Normal Pregnancy - Fig 2

<p><b>The PCA results obtained using quantified metabolites (signal areas) for amniotic fluid (A) and plasma (B).</b> Pregnancy stages. Yellow inverted triangles– 2^nd trimester (T2), red triangles– 3^rd trimester (T3), blue squares–delivery (TD) and green circles–prolonged pregnancy (PP).</p

Assessment of life quality and health perception among recovered COVID-19 patients: multivariate analysis – own material and a review of previous reports on life quality assessment among convalescents

Background The SARS-CoV-2 virus, causing acute respiratory disease, is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, which began in early 2020. In addition to symptoms typical of respiratory tract infections, the virus causes a number of non-specific, often long-lasting effects that hinder the daily functioning of individuals. The aim of the study was a subjective assessment of life quality and health perception among recovered COVID-19 patients. Material and Methods The study included 337 subjects who had been infected with SARS-CoV-2 confirmed by a positive RT-PCR test. The study participants were of legal age. The convalescents completed a questionnaire that contained 26 questions about gender, height, body weight, blood type, general and specific symptoms, comorbidities, hospital stay and duration of specific symptoms, the severity of which was assessed on the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). The subjects determined whether the COVID-19 infection influenced their health perception and life quality. Results According to 46% of the respondents, COVID-19 had an impact on their quality of life and health. The chance for patients to notice the negative effects of COVID-19 on their current health status and life quality increased with each subsequent symptom of the disease by 49%, with each day of its occurrence by 3%, and with each VAS point of the severity of all infection symptoms by 30%. Conclusions The study shows that COVID-19 disease affects life quality and overall health perception after recovery. Significant impact of COVID-19 on the quality of life should be a signal to create mental support and rehabilitation programs for convalescents to minimize discomfort and shorten the duration of absenteeism from work. Med Pr. 2022;73(6):449–5

The characterization of the amniotic fluid and plasma samples.

<p>The characterization of the amniotic fluid and plasma samples.</p

Differences of metabolites (expressed as percentage) between the four gestational age periods.

<p>Differences of metabolites (expressed as percentage) between the four gestational age periods.</p