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This study focuses on the relationship between the age of acquisition of Polish Sign Language (PJM) by deaf individuals and their receptive language skills at the phonological, morphological and syntactic levels. Sixty Deaf signers of PJM were recruited into three equal groups (n = 20): (1) a group exposed to PJM from birth from their deaf parents; (2) a group of childhood learners of PJM, who reported learning PJM between 4 and 8 years; (3) a group of adolescent learners of PJM, who reported learning PJM between 9 and 13 years. The PJM Perception and Comprehension Test was used to assess three aspects of language processing: phonological, morphological and syntactic. Participants were asked to decide whether a series of signs and sentences were acceptable in PJM. Results show that the age of PJM acquisition has a significant impact on performance on this task. The earlier deaf people acquire PJM, the more likely they were to distinguish signs and sentences considered permissible and impermissible in PJM by native signers. Native signers had significantly greater accuracy on the phonological, morphological, and syntactic items than either the Childhood or the Adolescent signers. Further, the Childhood signers had significantly greater accuracy than the Adolescent signers on all three parts of the test. Comparing performance on specific structures targeted within each part of the test revealed that multi-channel signs and negative suffixes posed the greatest challenge for Adolescent signers relative to the Native signers. The above results provide evidence from a less-commonly studied signed language that the age of onset of first language acquisition affects ultimate outcomes in language acquisition across all levels of grammatical structure. In addition, this research corroborates prior studies demonstrating that the critical period is independent of language modality. Contrary to a common public health assumption that early exposure to language is less vital to signed than to spoken language development, the results of this study demonstrate that early exposure to a signed language promotes sensitivity to phonological, morphological and syntactic patterns in language.

The main issue addressed in this paper is a practical application of sign language in early development support for deaf and hard of hearing children in Poland. This discussion is set in a broad cultural, linguistic, psychological and rehabilitation context. This paper presents the concept of Mary Pat Moeller which includes four approaches to the use of sign language in the programming of language in DHH. The discussion on the possibility of Polish rehabilitation centres adopting these solutions required an explanation of the diff erences between auditory deprivation and language deprivation, which is another important issue addressed in this paper. The main aim of this publication is to propose a fl exible approach to the creation of a model of education for deaf and hard of hearing children, one that will completely fulfi ll the needs of a specifi c child and to substantially argue about the conviction that sign language is a factor potentially detrimental to the development of these children.

Despite the need for an early assessment of the linguistic competence of deaf children using sign language, there are no instruments available for individuals who use Polish Sign Language (PSL). In order to encourage the development of such tools, this paper presents several instruments used to assess individuals using American Sign Language (ASL) and British Sign Language (BSL). These instruments assess various aspects of linguistic competence, including vocabulary, morphology, syntax, and metalinguistic awareness. The development of such tools would benefit children using PSL, who need early diagnosis and intervention to enhance their language outcomes.

The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) is a framework for scaling agile methods in large organizations. We have found several experience reports and white papers describing SAFe adoptions in different banks, which indicates that SAFe is being used in the banking industry. However, there is a lack of academic publications on the topic, the banking industry is missing in the scientific reports analyzing SAFe transformations. To fill this gap, we present a study on the main challenges with a SAFe transformation at a large full-service bank. We identify the challenges in the bank under study and compare the findings with experience reports from other banks, as well as with research on SAFe transformations in other domains. Many of the challenges reported in this paper overlap with the generic SAFe challenges, including management and organization, education and training, culture and mindset, requirements engineering, quality assurance, and systems architecture. However, we also report some novel challenges specific to the banking domain, e.g., the risk of jeopardizing customer relations, stability, and trust of external stakeholders. This study validates several SAFe-related challenges reported in previous work in the banking context. It also brings up some novel challenges specific to the banking industry. Therefore, we believe our results are particularly useful to practitioners responsible for SAFe transformations at other banks.

Ethanol, as a small-molecule organic compound exhibiting both hydrophilic and lipophilic properties, quickly pass through the biological barriers. Over 95% of absorbed ethanol undergoes biotransformation, the remaining amount is excreted unchanged, mainly with urine and exhaled air.The main route of ethyl alcohol metabolism is its oxidation to acetaldehyde, which is converted into acetic acid with the participation of cytosolic NAD+ - dependent alcohol (ADH) and aldehyde (ALDH) dehydrogenases. Oxidative biotransformation pathways of ethanol also include reactions catalyzed by the microsomal ethanol oxidizing system (MEOS), peroxisomal catalase and aldehyde (AOX) and xanthine (XOR) oxidases. The resulting acetic acid can be activated to acetyl-CoA by the acetyl-CoA synthetase (ACS).It is also possible, to a much smaller extent, non-oxidative routes of ethanol biotransformation including its esterification with fatty acids by ethyl fatty acid synthase (FAEES), re-esterification of phospholipids, especially phosphatidylcholines, with phospholipase D (PLD), coupling with sulfuric acid by alcohol sulfotransferase (SULT) and with glucuronic acid using UDP-glucuronyl transferase (UGT, syn. UDPGT).The intestinal microbiome plays a significant role in the ethanol biotransformation and in the initiation and progression of liver diseases stimulated by ethanol and its metabolite - acetaldehyde, or by lipopolysaccharide and ROS.

In recent years, changes in the approach to deafness and, hence, in the education of the deaf and hard of hearing have been occurring around the world, including Poland. Deafness is increasingly perceived as a sociocultural phenomenon and not merely as a medical one, while sign language is seen as a natural language that can be used in deaf schools and by large numbers of d/Deaf people. Nevertheless, it seems at present that both deafness models are incompatible with each other for ideological reasons although they are concurrent, the medical model being dominant and the sociocultural one being alternative. For that reason, both the d/Deaf community and the deaf education still contend with significan problems related to the language policy, discrimination based on deafness (audism), sign language (linguicism), disability (ableism) or the specificityof conflictsamong the d/Deaf themselves (deafism).All this will be illustrated in this paper, along with suggested possible solutions.

Receptor for advanced glycation end-products (RAGE) and toll-like receptors (TLRs) are the key factors indicating a danger to the organism. They recognize the microbial origin pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) or damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs). The primary response induced by PAMPs or DAMPs is inflammation. Excessive stimulation of the innate immune system occurs in arterial wall with the participation of effector cells. Persistent adaptive responses can also cause tissue damage and disease. However, inflammation mediated by the molecules innate responses is an important way in which the adaptive immune system protects us from infection. The specific detection of PAMPs and DAMPs by host receptors drives a cascade of signaling that converges at nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) and interferon regulatory factors (IRFs) and induces the secretion of proinflammatory cytokines, type I interferon (IFN), and chemokines, which promote direct killing of the pathogen. Therefore, signaling of these receptors’ pathways also appear to present new avenue for the modulation of inflammatory responses and to serve as potential novel therapeutic targets for antiatherosclerotic therapy.

Izoenzym CYP3A4 jest moonoksygenazą zaangażowaną w procesy wewnątrzustrojowych przemian licznych związków endo- i egzogennych (ksenobiotyków), w tym ponad 50% znanych leków. W organizmie człowieka CYP3A4 wykazuje najwyższą aktywność enzymatyczną w hepatocytach i enterocytach. Kodujący to białko enzymatyczne gen CYP3A4 podlega ekspresji regulowanej przez zróżnicowane czynniki egzo- i endogenne, w tym kwasy żółciowe oraz liczne leki, działające za pośrednictwem receptorów wewnątrzkomórkowych, takich jak np. PXR czy FXR. Zrozumienie mechanizmów ekspresji genu CYP3A4 ma kluczowe znaczenie dla zapewnienia bezpiecznej i skutecznej farmakoterapii.

A series of 2-(1H-indol-3-yl)ethylthiourea derivatives were prepared by condensation of 2-(1H-indol-3-yl)ethanamine with appropriate aryl/alkylisothiocyanates in anhydrous media. The structures of the newly synthesized compounds were confirmed by spectroscopic analysis and the molecular structures of 8 and 28 were confirmed by X-ray crystallography. All obtained compounds were tested for antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive cocci, Gram-negative rods and for antifungal activity. Microbiological evaluation was carried out over 20 standard strains and 30 hospital strains. Compound 6 showed significant inhibition against Gram-positive cocci and had inhibitory effect on the S. aureus topoisomerase IV decatenation activity and S. aureus DNA gyrase supercoiling activity. Compounds were tested for cytotoxicity and antiviral activity against a large panel of DNA and RNA viruses, including HIV-1 and other several important human pathogens. Interestingly, derivative 8 showed potent activity against HIV-1 wild type and variants bearing clinically relevant mutations. Newly synthesized tryptamine derivatives showed also a wide spectrum activity, proving to be active against positive- and negative-sense RNA viruses.

Since 2011, or since the entry into force of the Sign Language Act, there has been growing interest in Poland in this form of communication not only among public institutions or mass media but also among scholars. To date, Polish research into sign languages, not very extensive anyway, has focused on their grammar aspects. This paper is an attempt to bring a new, sociolinguist perspective in sign language research in Poland. Hence, it has some of the character of a review. The Authors propose four areas of sociolinguist research into sign language. The first one is the description of lexical variants (especially the phonological and the lexical ones), the second one is the observation of the life of words and the historical changes in the sign language lexis, while the third area involves research on language interactions, especially the codes included in the so called sign language continuum. The last area considered by the Authors is the reconstruction of deaf Poles’ attitudes to sign language. The suggested direction of research is especially important in the light of the global tendency of languages (and thus of cultures) to die out, mostly for reasons of civilization.

This paper discusses the communicative competence of deaf children. It illustrates the process in which such children build narrative texts in interaction with a deaf teacher, and presents the diversity of this process due to the shared vs. non-shared perception of a picture - the source of the topic. Detailed analyses focus on the formal and semantic aspect of the stories, including the length of the text in sign language, the content selected, information categories, and types of answers to the teacher’s questions. This text is our contribution in memory of Professor Grace Wales Shugar, whose idea of dual agentivity of child-adult interaction inspired the research presented here.

Collaboration between industry and academia supports improvement and innovation in industry and helps to ensure industrial relevance in academic research. This article presents an exploratory study of the factors for successful collaboration between industry and academia in software research.

Child visual discourse: The use of language, gestures, and vocalizations by deaf preschoolers1 This exploratory study examined the linguistic activity and conversational skills of deaf preschoolers by observing child-child dyads in free-play situations. Deaf child of deaf parents - deaf child of deaf parents (DCDP-DCDP) pairs were compared with deaf child of hearing parents - deaf child of hearing parents (DCHP-DCHP) pairs. Children from the two groups were videotaped during dyadic peer interactions in a naturalistic play situation. The findings indicated that deaf children were able to engage in successful communicative interaction. However, statistically significant differences were found between the two groups of deaf preschoolers with regard to some categories of communicative behaviors from the point of view of sign and spoken languages (Polish Sign Language and Polish). For example, DCHP were found to be less actively than DCDP through using speech. The results of this study suggest that intervention efforts should be focused on improving the language learning environment by facilitating signing by the parents and increasing their skills in visual-gestural strategies.

Statistical fault prediction models and expert estimations are two popular methods for deciding where to focus the fault detection efforts when the fault detection budget is limited. In this paper, we present a study in which we empirically compare the accuracy of fault prediction offered by statistical prediction models with the accuracy of expert estimations. The study is performed in an industrial setting. We invited eleven experts that are involved in the development of two large telecommunication systems. Our statistical prediction models are built on historical data describing one release of one of those systems. We compare the performance of these statistical fault prediction models with the performance of our experts when predicting faults in the latest releases of both systems. We show that the statistical methods clearly outperform the expert estimations. As the main reason for the superiority of the statistical models we see their ability to cope with large datasets. This makes it possible for statistical models to perform reliable predictions for all components in the system. This also enables prediction at a more fine-grain level, e.g., at the class instead of at the component level. We show that such a prediction is better both from the theoretical and from the practical perspective.

Many software systems are developed in a number of consecutive releases. In each release not only new code is added but also existing code is often modified. In this study we show that the modified code can be an important source of faults. Faults are widely recognized as one of the major cost drivers in software projects. Therefore, we look for methods that improve the fault detection in the modified code. We propose and evaluate a number of prediction models that increase the efficiency of fault detection. To build and evaluate our models we use data collected from two large telecommunication systems produced by Ericsson. We evaluate the performance of our models by applying them both to a different release of the system than the one they are built on and to a different system. The performance of our models is compared to the performance of the theoretical best model, a simple model based on size, as well as to analyzing the code in a random order (not using any model). We find that the use of our models provides a significant improvement over not using any model at all and over using a simple model based on the class size. The gain offered by our models corresponds to 38-57% of the theoretical maximum gain.

Introducing new and specialized technology is often seen as a way of meeting increasing non-functional requirements. An example of such a technology is a software platform that provides high performance and availability. The novelty of such a platform and lack of related experience and competence among the staff may affect initial development productivity. The competence problems should disappear with time. In this paper, we present a study, which we conducted at Ericsson. The purpose of the study was to assess the impact of experience and maturity on productivity in software development on the specialized platform. We quantify the impact by comparing productivity of two projects. One represents an initial development stage while the other represents a subsequent and thus more matured development stage. Both projects resulted in large commercial products. We reveal a factor of four difference in productivity. The difference was caused by a higher code delivery rate and a lower number of code lines per functionality in the latter project. We assess the impact of both these issues on productivity and explain their nature. Based on our findings, we suggest a number of improvement suggestions and guidelines for the process of introducing a new technology.

The high non-functional requirements on mobile telecommunication applications call for new solutions. An example of such a solution can be a software platform that provides high performance and availability. The introduction of such a platform may, however, affect the development productivity. In this study, we present experiences from research carried out at Ericsson. The purpose of the research was productivity improvement and assessment when using the new platform. In this study, we quantify and evaluate the current productivity level by comparing it with UNIX development. The comparison is based on two large, commercially, available systems. We reveal a factor of four differences in productivity. Later, we decompose the problem into two issues: code writing speed and average amount of code necessary to deliver a certain functionality. We assess the impact of both these issues. We describe the nature of the problem by identifying factors that affect productivity and estimating their importance. To the issues identified we suggest a number of remedies. The main methods used in the study are interviews and historical data research.

Cytochrome P450, initially perceived as a type of cell pigment, was soon identified as a hemoprotein with an enzymatic activity characteristic for monooxygenases with an affinity for differentiated endo- or exogenous substrates, including drugs. So far in the human organism 58 CYP isoenzymes belonging to 18 families have been described. Most from the CYP monooxygenases superfamily turned out to be integral elements of hepatocytic reticular monooxygenase complexes which also contain NADPH-dependent cytochrome P450 reductase (CPR). Later investigations indicated the possibility of the participation in electron transport for reticular CYP isoenzymes, alternative NADH-dependent reticular system composed of cytochrome b5 reductase (CBR) and cytochrome b5. The demonstration of the activity of some CYP superfamily isoenzymes not only in hepatocytes but also in many other cells of the human organism, numerous plant and animal tissues and even in cells of fungi, protists and prokaryotes has contributed to the significantly increased understanding of the role of CYP in biological systems. In addition, some CYP isoenzymes were found to be characteristic for the inner mitochondrial membrane monooxygenase complexes which contain NADPH-dependent adrenodoxin reductase (AR) and adrenodoxin (Ad), which is identical with ferredoxin-1 (Fd-1) and hepatoredoxin (Hd).

In the human organism 58 cytochrome P450 (CYP) isoenzymes belonging to 18 families have been described. These hemoproteins, with enzymatic activity characteristic for monooxygenases, show a broad affinity for chemically differentiated endo- or exogenous compounds, including drugs. CYP isoenzymes participate in metabolic pathways important for proper physiological functioning of the human organism, i.e.: cholesterol, bile acid and oxysterol biosynthesis; metabolism of fatty acids, prostaglandins, prostacyclins, leukotrienes, steroid hormones, ketone bodies, vitamines A and D. CYP isoenzymes participate in the metabolism of over 80% of drugs and other xenobiotic substances which can be present in the human organism. Differences in molecular structure and kinetics of conformational changes of particular isoenzymes of CYP superfamily monooxygenases on the one hand determine their affinity direction for chemically differentiated groups of compounds susceptible to oxidation, on the other hand determine the mechanism and position of the oxidative change of their molecules. Drugs and their metabolites and other endogenous and xenobiotic compounds may be acting not only as substrates, but also as competitive and non- competitive inhibitors, suicide inhibitors and inducers of CYP isoenzymes as well as repressors of CYP genes. These relationships are the metabolic basis of numerous multidirectional interactions between drugs, drug metabolites, food components, stimulants, environmental toxins and metabolites of these xenobiotics.

Faults are considered as one of the important factors affecting the cost of software development projects. To be able to efficiently handle faults, we must increase our understanding of the factors that make the code fault-prone. A majority of large software systems evolve during their lifetime. In each new release of the system the functionality can be added by writing new classes or/and by modifying already existing ones. In this study we compared the fault-proneness of new and modified classes in such systems. Our study is based on two releases of two large telecommunication systems developed at Ericsson. The major finding of the study is that the risk of introducing faults (the number of faults in the class /the number of new or modified lines of code in the class) is 20 to 40 times as high in modified classes compared to new ones. In the systems which we analyzed a small modification (a few percent) of the class resulted in as many faults as we would expect when the same class was written from scratch. Previous research on this relationship does not appear to exist. Partly in conflict with related research, we found that there is no statistically significant difference between the average number of faults in modified and new classes, and that the average fault-densities (the number of faults/the size of the entire class) in new and in modified classes are very similar. Finally, we also suggest how our findings can be used in practice.

In this paper we suggest and evaluate a method for predicting fault densities in modified classes early in the development process, i.e., before the modifications are implemented. We start by establishing methods that according to literature are considered the best for predicting fault densities of modified classes. We find that these methods can not be used until the system is implemented. We suggest our own methods, which are based on the same concept as the methods suggested in the literature, with the difference that our methods are applicable before the coding has started. We evaluate our methods using three large telecommunication systems produced by Ericsson. We find that our methods provide predictions that are of similar quality to the predictions based on metrics available after the code is implemented. Our predictions are, however, available much earlier in the development process. Therefore, they enable better planning of efficient fault prevention and fault detection activities.

Fault prediction models still seem to be more popular in academia than in industry. In industry, expert estimations of fault proneness are the most popular methods of deciding where to focus the fault detection efforts. In this paper, we present a study in which we empirically evaluate the accuracy of fault prediction offered by statistical models as compared to expert estimations. The study is industry based. It involves a large telecommunication system and experts that were involved in the development of this system. Expert estimations are compared to simple prediction models built on another large system, also from the telecommunication domain. We show that the statistical methods clearly outperform the expert estimations. As the main reason for the superiority of the statistical models we see their ability to cope with large datasets, which results in their ability to perform reliable predictions for larger number of components in the system, as well as the ability to perform prediction at a more fine-grain level, e.g., at the class instead of at the component level.

The importance of mobile and electronic commerce results in much attention given to credit-control systems. There are high non-functional requirements on such systems, e.g. high availability and reliability. These requirements can be met by changing the architecture of the credit-control system. In this paper the authors suggested a new architecture and a number of alternative implementations of credit-control server. By quantifying the availability, reliability, performance and cost the designers enabled to make better trade-off decisions. The new architecture was compared with the current, "state-of-the-art" solution. Finally, suggestions for the system developers concerning the choice of an appropriate architecture implementation variant were presented.

Many software systems are developed in a number of consecutive releases. Each new release does not only add new code but also modifies already existing one. In this study we have shown that the modified code can be an important source of faults. The faults are widely recognized as one of the major cost drivers in software projects. Therefore we look for methods of improving fault detection in the modified code. We suggest and evaluate a number of prediction models for increasing the efficiency of fault detection. We evaluate them against the theoretical best model, a simple model based on size, as well as against analyzing the code in a random order (not using any model). We find that using our models provides a significant improvement both over not using any model at all and using the simple model based on the class size. The gain offered by the models corresponds to 30% to 60% of the theoretical maximum.

Tomaszewski Piotr, Implanty ślimakowe – etyka a wybór [Cochlear implants – ethics and choices]. „Kultura – Społeczeństwo – Edukacja” nr 2(14) 2018, Poznań 2018, pp. 155–181, Adam Mickiewicz University Press. ISSN 2300-0422. DOI 10.14746/kse.2018.14.13. This study discusses the ethical issue of the development of hearing technology in the form of cochlear implants that are used by an ever-growing number of deaf and hard of hearing people. The development of this kind of technology has progressed so quickly all over the world, including Poland, that the deafness paradigms have drastically changed. This may affect, to a greater or lesser degree, not only the implementation of early support programmes, but also the image of the Deaf communities using their respective sign languages on a daily basis. It is therefore necessary to create an eclectic model of education for deaf and hard of hearing people which would allow for the ethical option to integrate the conflicting approaches on the proper procedure for deciding on the language (spoken or signed) and the culture (the hearing or the Deaf one) for the development of deaf and hard of hearing students with cochlear implants or hearing aids.