Pasterka – pamiątka po trzech mszach papieskich

Pasterka, czyli Msza Bożego Narodzenia odprawiana o północy, otwiera oktawę liturgicznych obchodów związanych z tajemnicą wcielenia, czyli przyjęcia przez Syna Bożego ludzkiej natury i przyjścia na świat. Noc wigilijna wbrew temu, co mówi kolęda „Cicha Noc” nie była ani cicha ani spokojna. Jeszcze w XVII i na początku XVIII wieku była świętem radosnym, pełnym psot, żartów, dowcipów, humoru sytuacyjnego. Dopiero nasze narodowe dzieje sprawiły, że wigilia wpisała się w polską tradycję jako wieczór zbliżenia, wzajemnego odpuszczania win, przykazanie miłości i najbardziej rodzinne święto w roku. Po pasterce mężczyźni chodzili „po podbazach”. Odwiedzali krewnych i sąsiadów, a kawalerowie rodziców przyszłej żony. Składano sobie życzenia szczęścia i wszelkiej pomyślności. Obsypywano przy tym gospodarzy zbożem oczywiście na szczęście. Wygłaszano oracje na ogół w formie wierszowanej

The new and reinstated genera of agglutinated foraminifera published between 1996 and 2000

During the four year period since the previous International Workshop on Agglutinated Foraminifera, some 33 genera of agglutinated foraminifera have been described as new, and an additional six genera have been reinstated by various authors. This brings the total number of new and reinstated genera to 121 since the publication of “Foraminiferal Genera and their Classification” by Loeblich & Tappan (1987)

Słów kilka o Mosinie (na marginesie badań archeologicznych przeprowadzonych na mosińskiej starówce w 2011 r.)

The archaeological excavations conducted in the spring of 2011 in yard No. 7 in the vicinity of old market at Plac 20 Października (20th October Square) were the first in the history of the town large-scale investigations of residential urban area in Mosina. Late-medieval and modern relics of buildings have been unearthed, and an extremely interesting assemblage of the fifteenth-eighteenth century pottery and small objects of everyday use collected. The absence of materials dating from the fifteentheighteenth- century Middle Ages speaks in favour of the thesis suggested by researchers that Mosina might have been translocated into its present location from neighbouring Niwka

Paleoenvironmental and stratigraphic investigations of the foraminiferal fauna from the Karpatian (Lower Miocene) Garáb Schlier Formation of the Mátraverebély-122 (Mv-122) borehole (North Hungary)

Abstract The Garáb Schlier Formation is composed of gray sand, silt, clay and clay marl, deposited in an open marine environment. The aims of this study were to reconstruct its paleoenvironmental features and to propose a hypostratotype of the Garáb Schlier Formation. Eighty-seven samples from the Mv-122 borehole (between 177.0–698.0 m) provided a dataset for detailed qualitative and quantitative analysis. The benthic and planktonic foraminiferal fauna were studied together. The associations indicated three different environments in the section. The lower part of the section records deposition in a normal marine, cool, outer shelf environment. Later on conditions changed to an upper bathyal, normal salinity, cool environment without permanent currents. Assemblages from the upper part of the section suggest that the water depth decreased and an inner shelf, normal salinity sea is inferred, with fluvial influence and open marine connections. The age of the sediment is Late Karpatian (Latest Burdigalian) as indicated by the M4b Planktonic Foraminifera Zone. The middle part of the studied section (337.0–664.0 m) is proposed here as the hypostratotype of the Garáb Schlier Formation

Miocene deep water agglutinated foraminifera from Viosca Knoll, offshore Louisiana (Gulf of Mexico)

An exploration well from the Gulf of Mexico, Amoco Viosca Knoll-915, has been studied in order to document the Neogene foraminiferal assemblages. Ditch cuttings samples from the Amoco V.K. 915 well yielded diverse assemblages of agglutinated and calcareous benthic foraminifera over a stratigraphic interval of 2940 m. Three species associations can be identified in the studied interval; the stratigraphical location of these associations is evident when total agglutinated species abundance for each sampling interval is plotted. In this study we use a combination of morphotype habitat preference and test functional morphology to interpret depositional environments. The associations indicate a change from a well-ventilated water column, to the development of a strong oxygen minimum zone characterised by alveolar foraminifera. The species composition of the lowermost association indicates a depositional environment dominated by fine-grained overbank fines and channel levee deposits, in agreement with sedimentological data. Colour plates of key agglutinates species are presented, created using digital image manipulation techniques (Palaeovision Technique, NHM)

The Year 2000 classification of the agglutinated foraminifera

A reclassification of the agglutinated foraminifera (subclass Textulariia) is presented, consisting of four orders, 17 suborders, 27 superfamilies, 107 families, 125 subfamilies, and containing a total of 747 valid genera. One order (the Loftusiida Kaminski & Mikhalevich), five suborders (the Verneuilinina Mikhalevich & Kaminski, Nezzazatina, Loftusiina Kaminski & Mikhalevich, Biokovinina, and Orbitolinina), two families (the Syrianidae and the Debarinidae) and five subfamilies (the Polychasmininae, Praesphaerammininae Kaminski & Mikhalevich, Flatschkofeliinae, Gerochellinae and the Scythiolininae Neagu) are new. The classification is modified from the suprageneric scheme used by Loeblich & Tappan (1992), and incorporates all the new genera described up to and including the year 2000. The major differences from the Loeblich & Tappan classification are (1) the use of suborders within the hierarchical classification scheme (2) use of a modified Mikhalevich (1995) suprageneric scheme for the Astrorhizida (3) transfer of the Ammodiscacea to the Astrorhizida (4) restriction of the Lituolida to forms with simple wall structure (5) supression of the order Trochamminida, and (6) inclusion of the Carterinida within the Trochamminacea (7) use of the new order Loftusiida for forms with complex inner structures (8) broadening the definition of the Textulariida to include perforate forms that are initially uniserial or planispiral. Numerous minor corrections have been made based on the recent literature

Insights From New Age Constraints and Sediment Volumes From the Austrian Northern Alpine Foreland Basin

Detailed characterization of variations in sediment architecture, flux, and transport processes in peri-orogenic basins offers insights into external climatic or tectonic forcings. We tested how four well-known tectonic/erosional events in the Oligocene/Miocene Alpine source area are recorded in the sediment-accumulation rates (SARs) of the deep marine sink in the Northern Alpine Foreland Basin (NAFB): exhumation of the Lepontine Dome (starting at 30 Ma) and the Tauern Window (23-21 Ma), erosion of the Augenstein Formation (∼21 Ma), and the visco-elastic relaxation of the European Plate. The Upper Austrian NAFB offers a unique opportunity to investigate external forcings on sedimentary infill due to the large amount of data on the Alpine hinterland and foreland. Deep-marine sedimentation, forming the Puchkirchen Group and the basal Hall Formation, was controlled by a basin-axial submarine channel (3–5 km wide, >100 km length). Two basin-wide unconformities were recognized in seismic-reflection data: the Northern Slope Unconformity (NSU) and the Base Hall Unconformity (BHU). We combine biostratigraphic and chemostratigraphic analyses of 316 drill-cutting samples from three wells with a large 3D-seismic-reflection data set (3300 km2, >5 km depth) to determine age and duration of the unconformities and to calculate spatially averaged SARs for the submarine channel and its overbanks, separately. Deepening of the basin, recorded by the NSU, occurred between 28.1 and 26.9 Ma. The Puchkirchen Group (26.9–19.6 Ma) is characterized by constant SARs (within standard deviation) in the channel [432–623 (t/m2/Ma)] and on the overbanks [240–340 (t/m2/Ma)]. The visco-elastic relaxation of the European Plate results in low SARs on the overbanks [186 (t/m2/Ma)], a decrease in sediment grain size in channel deposits and a decrease in sea level at the BHU (19.6–19.0 Ma). In the upper Hall Formation (19.0–18.1 Ma), clinoforms prograding from the south filled up the basin [1497 (t/m2/Ma)] within 1 Myrs. We conclude that only two of the tectonic signals are recorded in this part of the deep-marine sink, erosion of Augenstein Formation and visco-elastic relaxation of the European Plate; the exhumation of the Tauern Window and Lepontine Dome remain unrecorded

Polskie kolędy zawierają cechy narodowej duszy

Kolęda polska. Piękna, wzruszająca i pełna dostojeństwa zajmuje wyjątkowe miejsce w historii polskiej kultury. Jest droga każdemu Polakowi jak pisze Jan Węcowski w swoim „Śpiewniku kolędowym”. Pierwsze zachowane wzmianki o utworach kolędowych pochodzą z końca XIV wieku. Kolęda jest modlitwą, pieśnią, opowiadaniem, żywym pomnikiem dawnych wieków i tym, co nas łączy z naszymi przodkami. Śpiewanie kolęd należy niewątpliwie do najpiękniejszych zwyczajów bożonarodzeniowych. Pomimo, że przez wieki Polska była zróżnicowana pod względem kultury, oświaty czy rozwoju intelektualnego, w okresie świąt Bożego Narodzenia kolęda, pieśń pełna wesela szczęścia, ale także tęsknoty jednoczyła Polaków pod każdym względem

Guided Tissue Regeneration in Heart Valve Replacement: From Preclinical Research to First-in-Human Trials

Heart valve tissue-guided regeneration aims to offer a functional and viable alternative to current prosthetic replacements. Not requiring previous cell seeding and conditioning in bioreactors, such exceptional tissue engineering approach is a very fascinating translational regenerative strategy. After in vivo implantation, decellularized heart valve scaffolds drive their same repopulation by recipient’s cells for a prospective autologous-like tissue reconstruction, remodeling, and adaptation to the somatic growth of the patient. With such a viability, tissue-guided regenerated conduits can be delivered as off-the-shelf biodevices and possess all the potentialities for a long-lasting resolution of the dramatic inconvenience of heart valve diseases, both in children and in the elderly. A review on preclinical and clinical investigations of this therapeutic concept is provided with evaluation of the issues still to be well deliberated for an effective and safe in-human application

Remarks on age of the Middle Miocene deposits in the Szydłów area (southern margin of the Holy Cross Mountains

The Middle Miocene sediments outcropping between Szydłów and Brzeziny are represented by the Pińczów Beds and the Chmielnik Beds. The Pińczów Beds are developed as the Heterostegina sands with intercalations of red algal limestones. These sediments contain numerous fossils of foraminifera, bryozoans, bivalves, ostracods, echinoids, crustaceans and corallinacean red algae. Foraminifera (Amphistegina, Heterostegina, Orbulina suturalis) point to the early Badenian age of the Pińczów Beds. The Chmielnik Beds contain mainly organodetritical limestones, which are composed mainly of grains eroded from the Badenian red algal limestones. The organodetritical limestones contain pebbles and blocks of microbial-serpulid limestones, Abra limestones, marls and rare lenses of quartz sands. Numerous pectenids, other small bivalves, gastropods, foraminifera and rhodolites occur here. The fossils point to mainly Anomalinoides dividens Zone. New literature data show that this zone, commonly accepted as diagnostic for the beginning of Sarmatian, is diachronic. Therefore, the Badenian-early Sarmatian age is suggested for the Chmielnik Beds. The presence or absence of normal-marine biota as an age criterium for the Badenian-Sarmatian boundary, the commonly accepted idea for the brackish Sarmatian basin of the central Paratethys has been challenged recently. Both Badenian (not redeposited) and Sarmatian fossils occur in the Chmielnik Beds. Therefore, part of deposits in the Szydłów area assumed so far to be of Sarmatian age, can in fact represent late Badenian age