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The article discusses Poland's first case of Erdheim-Chester Disease (ECD) with cerebellar manifestations, a rare inflammatory disorder with only about 1,500 documented cases worldwide. The case study highlights the diagnostic and therapeutic challenges faced by neurological specialists in treating ECD. The patient, a 39-year-old male, presented with speech difficulties, gait problems, weight loss, and other neurological symptoms, leading to the diagnosis of ECD confirmed through genetic testing. Treatment with vemurafenib was initiated, and the patient remained stable for two years under continuous medical follow-up. [Extracted from the article]

Research background: The European Housing Charter defines housing as a basic necessity, but also a fundamental social right underpinning the European social model as well as an element of human dignity. Housing conditions constitute a major element of the broader quality of life for individuals and society.

Copyright of Ekonomista is the property of Polskie Towarzystwo Ekonomiczne & Institute of Economic Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

With global life expectancy rising every year, ageing-associated diseases are becoming an increasingly important problem. Very often, successful treatment relies on early diagnosis. In this work, the issue of Parkinson's disease (PD) diagnostics is tackled. It is particularly important, as there are no certain antemortem methods of diagnosing PD - meaning that the presence of the disease can only be confirmed after the patient's death. In our work, we propose a non-invasive approach for classification of raw speech recordings for PD recognition using deep learning models. The core of the method is an audio classifier using knowledge transfer from a pretrained natural language model, namely wav2vec 2.0. The model was tested on a group of 38 PD patients and 10 healthy persons above the age of 50. A dataset of speech recordings acquired using a smartphone recorder was constructed and the recordings were labelled as PD/non-PD with the severity of the disease additionally rated using Hoehn-Yahr scale. We then benchmarked the classification performance against baseline methods. Additionally, we show an assessment of human-level performance with neurology professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim of the study. To assess whether combined therapy with botulinum toxin injections (BoNT) and KinesioTaping could be helpful in managing non-motor symptoms (NMS) of cervical dystonia (CD). Material and methods. Seventeen patients with CD were enrolled in this single-centre, prospective, evaluator-blinded, randomised, crossover trial. We compared three forms of treatment: BoNT treatment alone, or combined with KinesioTaping, or combined with ShamTaping. NMS were assessed using the 14-item self-reported questionnaire proposed by Klingelhoefer, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Results. There were no significant differences between the groups concerning mean results of HADS and PSQI scales, or mean total number of NMS after the procedures. The mean change from baseline HADS and PSQI scores, and total number of NMS after the procedure, also did not differ significantly between groups. ShamTaping combined with BoNT significantly increased the prevalence of pain. Conclusions and clinical implications. Our study did not confirm the effectiveness of combined therapy of BoNT and KinesioTaping in the management of NMS in patients with CD. Due to a potential negative effect of improper taping on pain in CD, patients with CD should only experience KinesioTaping as an adjunctive therapy, and if it is performed by a trained, experienced physiotherapist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Polish Statistician / Wiadomości Statystyczne is the property of State Treasury - Statistics Poland and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Social Inequalities & Economic Growth / Nierownosci Spoleczne a Wzrost Gospodarczy is the property of University of Rzeszow and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study aims to determine the scale of housing poverty and its determinants using a multi-dimensional tool to measure housing quality. Its main contribution is the proposed new approach to the study of housing poverty using the Integrated Fuzzy and Relative (IFR) methodology, which allows a large number of variables of a quantitative and qualitative as well as objective and subjective nature to be included in the analysis. This approach solves the problem of correlation between variables by assigning weights, rather than limiting the number of variables as before. The risk evaluation of bad housing situation is based on micro-data from the Household Budget Survey conducted by the Central Statistical Office in Poland in 2017. Polish households falling into the housing poverty sphere in different sections of society were also examined. The multidimensional approach adopted in this study captures the diversity of housing poverty risk between areas of assessment, which is impossible to achieve using traditional housing deprivation measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Social Inequalities & Economic Growth / Nierownosci Spoleczne a Wzrost Gospodarczy is the property of University of Rzeszow and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The growing number of botulinum neurotoxin type-A (BoNT/A) preparations on the market has resulted in a search for pharmacological, clinical and pharmacoeconomic differences. Patients are occasionally switched from one botulinum toxin formulation to another. The aim of this paper was to review studies that have made direct comparisons of the three major BoNT/A preparations presently on the market: ona-, abo- and incobotulinumtoxinA. We also review the single medication Class I pivotal and occasionally Class II-IV studies, as well as recommendations and guidelines to show how effective doses have been adopted in well-established indications such as blepharospasm, hemifacial spasm, cervical dystonia and adult spasticity. Neither direct head-to-head studies nor single medication studies between all preparations allow the formation of universal conversion ratios. All preparations should be treated as distinct medications with respect to their summary of product characteristics when used in everyday practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to assess the direction of changes in the distribution of per capita income as well as income inequalities in Polish households. The main trends of change were distinguished on the basis of theoretical distributions estimated for 2009-2018. However, a detailed comparative analysis of income distribution and the decomposition of income inequalities by major socio-economic groups was carried out for 2015 and 2018 (before and during the implementation of significant social programmes). In the article we used methods of modelling distribution of per capita income, including the Dagum distribution, Bhattacharyya distance, Gini coefficient and Theil index. All analyses were performed on the basis of microdata from the Household Budget Survey of 2009-2018, carried out by Statistics Poland. The data set for each period consists in the observation of a minimum of 35 thousand households. The results of research indicate an increase in the level of per capita income in the period 2009-2018. The introduced changes in social policy have both resulted in an increase in the average level of income and a decrease in income inequality, especially in families with dependent children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]