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Worldwide school closures which were happening during the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020 created a great lesson about the conditions for effective teaching. As temporary school closures seem very likely to occur in the forthcoming school year(s), at least locally, it is worthwhile to exploit this lesson to learn more about the capacities and resources that can be utilised in both emergency remote teaching (ERT) and regular teaching, beyond the pandemic. This research was initiated in the third week of ERT, on 13 April 2020, and involved 154 teachers in 87 schools in Poland. Its purpose was to identify predictors of subjective effectiveness of emergency remote teaching (SEERT) that might be important for remote teaching pedagogy in general. The results show that the best predictors of the SEERT are self-efficacy, digital competence and peer support from other teachers. The situation of the pandemic in a sense confirms the key role of transferable resources in the performance of teachers' professional duties and sets a path for strengthening these in teacher training and continuing professional development programmes to increase capacity for both regular and remote teaching.

This research aims to investigate the relationship between the self-esteem of student teachers, their attitudes towards inclusive education for children with disabilities, and the mediating factor of their attitudes towards people with disabilities. The study involved 562 student teachers from Poland. Significant correlations were found between the student teachers' attitudes towards inclusion, self-esteem and attitudes towards people with disabilities. Higher self-esteem was associated with more positive attitudes, manifested as thoughts about people with disabilities, emotions felt towards them, and behaviours directed at them. The results show that the correlation between self-esteem and negative attitudes towards inclusion is mediated by negative attitudes towards persons with disabilities. These results correspond to findings pointing to the importance of self-esteem as a psychological resource that affects one's interpretation of difficulties, life situations, and other people. The correlations of these three complex variables form a basis for a model of how to educate student teachers on inclusion.

The aim of this paper is to analyse oral communication strategies in English as a foreign language (EFL) of deaf and hard of hard-of-hearing (D/HH) students. The paper is based on an action research case study concerning oral communication strategies of this group of students with special educational needs. The results demonstrate that when they communicate orally in the target foreign language, D/HH students use the same verbal, nonverbal, linguistic, and non-linguistic stimuli as their hearing peers, alongside certain characteristic communication strategies. The paper relates these students' employment of various communication strategies to their greater autonomy, and emphasises the need to identify and promote beneficial communication strategies during EFL classes for the D/HH.

Age-related hearing loss (ARHL) is one of the most common sensory impairments, and has a serious impact on the quality of life (QOL) of affected individuals. The QOL and coping strategies of elderly people in Poland experiencing subjectively assessed hearing problems (SAHP) were analyzed. The method made use of the World Health Organization Quality of Life scale (WHOQOL Group, 1998) and three questionnaires tailored for the present study: the Coping Strategies Inventory, ARHP Inventory, and Participant Chart (Domagala-Zysk, 2017). A generally good QOL for elderly respondents with SAHP was found. However, their QOL was lower in the social domain than that reported for elderly persons without hearing problems in other studies. Respondents tended to report using active, adaptive strategies, but about one third resisted wearing hearing aids and half reported using passive (i.e., maladaptive) strategies in social relationships.

This article demonstrates the importance of social support from students' significant others (parents, peers and teachers) in the process of doing well at school. The main focus of the research project was to find correlations between the quality of adolescents' relationships with significant others and their school success or school failure, as measured by their average grades. One hundred adolescents experiencing school failure [mean school grade 2.9 (FX) or below] and 100 adolescents without any problems with learning [mean school grade 4.1 (C) or more] participated in the study. In each of the groups half of the participants were female and half were male. All the students were attending the second class of gymnasium; their mean age was 14. The students were attending eight different schools in one Polish town. The main hypothesis of the study was that students experiencing school failure differ from these with school success in the quality of their relationships with significant others, as measured by the different amount of perceived social support from their mothers, fathers, peers and teachers. The results show that teenagers need parental support in the form of attachment with, not detachment from their parents. Perceived parents', peers' and teacher's support helps teenagers to get good marks. Therefore, in order to help teenagers to achieve school success pedagogues should teach them not only academic skills, but show them how to create and maintain good relations with their parents and peers. (Contains 6 tables, 4 figures, and 1 endnote.)

The Chinese pond mussel, Sinanodonta woodiana , an invasive species indigenous to Asia, naturally colonizes new locations as a glochidium that parasitizes fish. Human activity has facilitated a continental-scale spread of S. woodiana in Europe, where it is found in artificial reservoirs and has begun to invade natural habitats. This study aimed to investigate the reproductive activity of males in a female-biased population of S. woodiana that lives in a riverine channel linked to a power plant with a cooling water system in NW Poland. Cells formed during spermatogenesis and morphological changes in reproductive follicles (acini) were analysed over a 2-year period using light microscopy. Typical and atypical spermatogenic pathways were identified. The atypical spermatozoa were released from multinucleated cysts and had significantly shorter heads than typical spermatozoa. Spermatozoa formed in the typical way occurred consistently in all months over the study period, while the atypical spermatozoa were recorded occasionally in the first year of the study and more frequently in the second study. The highest proportion of males with spent gonads was found in late summer and early autumn. Our data show that mussels produce spermatozoa year-round, but that the levels of typical and atypical spermatogenesis varied. The two pathways of spermatogenesis in S. woodiana provide an important insight into potential mechanisms underlying the evolution of doubly uniparental inheritance of mitochondrial DNA, a phenomenon observed in S. woodiana. Additionally, a detailed understanding of the reproductive cycle of this non-native species can help to understand its reproductive potential and predict the likely direction of population change in a newly colonized area. The breeding population of S. woodiana studied by us inhabits a tributary of the Odra River, one of Poland's largest rivers, and thus poses a threat to the natural environment. Riverine habitats like our study site are local heat islands and the mussels reproducing in them over time may colonize natural waters and expand the range of their distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study was carried out in 2005-06 in the experimental orchard at Garlica Murowana in the Kraków area. The effect of early (0.4%) and late spraying (0.8%) with Ca(NO3)2 on storability and the calcium content as well as elemental mutual relations in 'Elise' fruit of a 5-year-old apple tree were studied. Trees were sprayed 3 times at 10-day intervals in the first time of fruit development (beginning of June) and 30 days before fruit harvest. Fruit mineral composition was estimated after harvest. Foliar sprayings with calcium before harvesting (30 days before) significantly increased the Ca concentration in apples in both years of the experiment. This dependence was only slight and observed in the case of early spraying (at the beginning of June). The late foliar treatment with calcium nitrate significantly reduced the N/Ca and K/Ca ratios in fruits. Fruits harvested with Ca(NO3)2 had higher flesh firmness and titratable acidity than the control ones. The use of 0.8% Ca(NO3)2 before fruit harvest reduced the percentage of physiological disorders and fungal diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Testicular development was followed in juvenile sea trout ( Salmo trutta morpha trutta L.) stocked in a river near Szczecin, Poland in 1992. Fish age was between 3 and 6.5 months post-hatch. Fish were sampled monthly. Sex-dependent differences in gonad structure and timing of their differentiation were observed after dissection under light microscope. In 3-month-old fry, when female gonads were differentiating (morphologically and cytologically), gonads of potential males remained undifferentiated. Development of a gonad into a male was primarily indicated by the formation of seminiferous tubules (lobules). In the sea trout under study, the lobules formed between the fourth and fifth month post-hatch (July–August) (fork length >5.6 cm). There were no significant differences in body fork length between fish with and without lobules, although mean length of the former was higher. Early spermatogenesis began once the type B spermatogonia appeared. The timing of their appearance differed widely among individuals. Type B spermatogonia were found for the first time in a 5-month-old male (late August). Spermatocytes and cells of subsequent stages appeared in an incompletely matured 6.5-month-old male as ‘attempted spermatogenesis’ (fork length = 8.8 cm). Most examined males remained immature, their germ cells not having passed the type A spermatogonium level. In 6.5-month-old alevins, no significant differences in fish size between individuals beginning spermatogenesis (stage II) and those at stage I were detected, although those at stage II were longer. As the male gonad structures were forming, the quantitative gonad parameters were gradually increasing, even when referring to the unit area; only the gonocyte size gradually decreased. Generally, each observed monthly or bimonthly difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background: The number of patients on the waiting list for kidney transplantation is increasing as a result of the cadaveric donor shortage. One way to expand the pool is living donor transplantation. However, only 2% of kidney transplants in Poland come from living-related donors. Aim: We sought to assess residual renal function, incidence of hypertension, and proteinuria among living kidney donors. Patients and Methods: Between 2004 and 2007, we performed 46 living donor open nephrectomies. The mean age of the kidney donor was 39 years (range, 25–57). The donors were predominantly females (61%). Mean hospitalization time was 8 days (range, 4–22). Nine donors did not report for follow-up visits. The observation periods ranged from 1 to 24 months. Physical examination, blood and urine tests, as well as ultrasound scans were performed before nephrectomy and at every follow-up visit (1, 3, 12, and 24 months post operatively). Results: Mean creatinine concentration was higher at 3 months after nephrectomy than preoperatively (P < .05). Mean creatinine clearance according to Cockroft–Gault formula and mean creatinine clearance according to abbreviated modification of diet in renal disease equation (aMDRD) decreased after donation by 30% (P < .05). No cases of proteinuria were observed. Hypertension occurred in 1 donor (2.7%). Conclusion: Living kidney donation resulted in a reduced creatinine clearance in the donor. Follow-up of living kidney donors is essential to determine risk factors for deterioration of residual kidney function. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This analysis of the Polish health system reviews recent developments in organization and governance, health financing, health care provision, health reforms and health system performance. In late 2017, the Polish government committed to increase the share of public expenditures on health to 6% of GDP by 2024. If the GDP continues to grow in the years to come, this will present an opportunity to tackle mounting health challenges such as socioeconomic inequalities in health, high rates of obesity, rising burden of mental disorders and population ageing that put strain on health care resources. It is also an opportunity to tackle certain longstanding imbalances in the health sector, including overreliance on acute hospital care compared with other types of care, including ambulatory care and long-term care; shortages of human resources; the negligible role of health promotion and disease prevention vis-a-vis curative care; and poor financial situation in the hospital sector. Finally, the additional resources are much needed to implement important ongoing reforms, including the reform of primary care. The resources have to be spent wisely and waste should be minimized. The introduction, in 2016, of a special system (IOWISZ) of assessing investments in the health sector that require public financing (including from the EU funds) as well as the work undertaken by the Polish health technology assessment (HTA) agency (AOTMiT), which evaluates health technologies and publicly-financed health policy programmes as well as sets prices of goods and services, should help ensure that these goals are achieved. Recent reforms, such as the ongoing reform of primary care that seeks to improve coordination of care and the introduction of the hospital network, go in the right direction; however, a number of longstanding unresolved problems, such as hospital indebtedness, need to be tackled., (World Health Organization 2019 (acting as the host organization for, and secretariat of, the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies).)

Background: The aim of this study is to explore the views of family physicians/general practitioners about the most important competences in health promotion and diseases prevention and areas where these competences might be below the desired level., Methods: A qualitative, descriptive study, combining two data collection techniques, was conducted in two Eastern European countries in June and July 2009. Focus groups numbering 10 and 9 physicians, respectively, practising in various clinical settings, were held in Poland and Lithuania. Seven well-informed health care experts were recruited in both countries to provide information during the in-depth interviews. In both formats, questions were devoted to three main areas of health promotion and disease prevention competences: (1) educational, (2) clinical, (3) organisational. A qualitative content analysis was performed., Results: Lithuanian and Polish family physicians/general practitioners view preventive care as one of their main responsibilities. Among 3 areas of competences, participants identified clinical competences as the most important in everyday practice. They also acknowledged that organisational and educational competences might be below the level required for effective preventive care. Only clinical competences were indicated as sufficiently developed during under- and post-graduate medical education., Conclusions: In addressing current health promotion and disease prevention challenges, teachers of family medicine need to critically consider the training that currently exists for physicians. Development of a high-quality preventive service is not only a matter of proper education in the clinical field but also requires training in practice organisation and patient education.