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Hodgkin’s lymphoma (HL) is a malignant disease of the lymphatic system with two peaks of incidence. Often one of the first symptoms of the disease is non-painful enlargement of the lymph nodes. The development of diagnostic techniques has allowed more efficient evaluation of the lesions. Classification of patients according to stage and the presence of risk factors has made it possible to tailor treatment regimes to the individual patient. The article discusses the diagnosis and contemporary treatment options for HL.

The authors present the case of a patient with tetralogy of Fallot. The patient underwent surgery to correct the defect 30 years ago. Our patient remains in good condition, currently reporting only poorer exercise tolerance. The authors attempted to analyse the development of treatment methods for tetralogy of Fallot based on world literature with reference to the case described in this paper. This paper presents the history and advances that have been made in the treatment of Fallot syndrome. Numerous details and dates are cited regarding the history of the treatment of the defect. Due to the vastness of the subject of tetralogy of Fallot, the article does not discuss contemporary treatments for the defect.

The article presents Polish and related EU legal basis for thermal waste conversion (in particular municipal waste and waste of municipal origin) as an energy source. It was hypothesized that at the current stage of systemic development of municipal waste management in Polish legal conditions, thermal waste conversion is an extremely important element which not only allows for achieving quantifiable environmental benefits, but also constitutes a source of energy. However, waste incineration cannot be treated as a fundamental element of closed-loop waste management. Waste incineration plants are and should be treated as an element of complementing the waste system, taking into account energy recovery in the cogeneration system, but also the limitations arising from taxonomy. The unquestionable advantage of this type of installation is the possibility of producing thermal energy and a more beneficial impact on the environment than the combustion of fossil fuels.

The purpose of the study is to explain the aggressive policy pursued by the Russian Federation based on the concepts of four authors: Feliks Koneczny, Włodzimierz Bączkowski, George Kennan, and Yevgeny Messner. It turns out that imperialism is a feature of Russia regardless of the period and political system, because it stems from civilizational characteristics different from those of Europe. Russia was able to carry out territorial expansion not through military superiority over its enemies, but through long-term preparation of conflicts by methods of diversion and information warfare, as recommended by Chinese and Indian ancient authors and based on the experience of the Mongol Empire. The source of the Russian drive for expansion is a sense of constant threat from the West, stemming from Russia's relative technological and cultural backwardness. In order to weaken hostile states, Russia employs deep diversion and information warfare, leading to the confrontation of political elites and the subsequent fracturing of society into conflicted groups, which in perspective leads to the weakening of state structures, making them vulnerable to political and economic influence.

The random-phase approximation (RPA) includes a subset of higher than second-order correlation-energy contributions, but stays in the same complexity class as the second-order Møller–Plesset perturbation theory (MP2) in both Gaussian-orbital and plane-wave codes. This makes RPA a promising ab initio electronic structure approach for the binding energies of molecular crystals. Still, some issues stand out in practical applications of RPA. Notably, compact clusters of nonpolar molecules are poorly described, and the interaction energies strongly depend on the reference single-determinant state. Using the many-body expansion of the binding energy of a crystal, we investigate those issues and the effect of beyond-RPA corrections. We find the beneficial effect of quartic-scaling exchange and non-ring coupled-cluster doubles corrections. The nonadditive interactions in compact trimers of molecules are improved by using the self-consistent Hartree–Fock orbitals instead of the usual Kohn–Sham states, but this kind of orbital input also leads to underestimated dimer energies. Overall, a substantial improvement over the RPA with a renormalized singles approach is possible at a modest quartic-scaling cost, which encourages further research into additional RPA corrections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors present a case report of an 11-month-old boy who underwent a swab collection for SARS-CoV-2 virus. During the procedure the end of tip got broken, and the cotton part was found in the child’s stomach and extracted endoscopically. To date, no similar cases involving children have been found in literature. The authors also reviewed literature for other complications during diagnosis of COVID-19 infection.

The purpose of this mixed methods, cross-sectional patient survey was to characterize patient experience, to explore the frequency of and reasons for infertility treatment discontinuation and return to infertility treatments. Participants were recruited from United States patient support groups. Participants had received or were receiving ovulation induction (OI) with or without intrauterine insemination (IUI), with or without subsequent in vitro fertilization (IVF), or IVF with no other previous infertility treatment. Live birth was achieved by 62% of participants. Compared with participants treated with OI/IUI only, participants who underwent OI/IUI followed by ≥1 IVF cycle were less likely to consider discontinuing care (64% vs 77%; P = .014) or to discontinue treatment without achieving a pregnancy (40% vs 58%; P = .004). The most commonly cited reasons for treatment discontinuation were financial (62%) and psychological burden/treatment fatigue (58%). Expected versus actual time to pregnancy differed greatly. Continued desire for a child (60%) was the most frequently cited reason for continuing or resuming treatment. Expanded access to treatment, counseling and fostering realistic expectations regarding cumulative time to pregnancy may reduce treatment discontinuation.

Osteoporosis is a multifactorial systemic skeletal disease that is characterized by a low bone mineral density (BMD) and the microarchitectural deterioration of bone tissue, leading to bone fragility. The search for new genes that may play an important role in the regulation of bone mass and the development of osteoporosis is ongoing. Recently, it was found that altering the activity of the endothelin-1-converting enzyme encoded by the ECE1 gene may affect bone mineral density (BMD). Another gene involved in the process of osteoblast differentiation and maturation is believed to be PPARG (peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma). This participates in regulating the transformation of stem cells and affects the process of bone formation and resorption. Therefore, we analyzed the association of the ECE1 and PPARG variants with osteopenia and osteoporosis risk in the Polish population. This study included a group (n = 608) of unrelated Polish women (245 individuals with osteoporosis (aged: 57 ± 9), 109 individuals with osteopenia (aged: 53 ± 8) and 254 healthy controls (aged: 54 ± 8)). The real-time PCR technique was used to determine the genetic variants for rs213045 (-338G>T) and rs213046 (-839A>C) of the ECE1 gene and rs1801282 (Pro12Ala, C>G) of the PPARG gene. Analysis of the PPARG rs1801282 variants did not show any association with the risk of osteoporosis and osteopenia. However, in the densitometric results, lower median Z-score values were observed for the T allele compared to the G allele for the rs213045 variant of the ECE1 gene (−1.11 ± 1.07 vs. −0.78 ± 1.21, p = 0.021). Moreover, the TT genotype for the rs213045 variant was more common in women with osteopenia (13.8%, OR = 2.82, p < 0.05) and osteoporosis (7.8%, OR = 1.38, p > 0.05) compared to the control group (5.5%). Additionally, our results suggested that the T allele of rs213045 was more common in women with osteopenia compared to the controls. We further observed that the haplotype containing two major GA alleles of ECE1 (rs213045, rs213046) could reduce the risk of osteopenia in our population. Finally, we found that women with osteoporosis had statistically significantly lower body mass and BMI values compared to the control group. Our results suggest that the ECE1 rs213045 variant may increase the risk of osteopenia. However, the data obtained require confirmation in further studies.

IntroductionAttention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder with an unclear etiology. Systemic inflammation and immune dysregulation may play a role in the pathogenesis of ADHD. Morphology-derived parameters such as neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and monocyte to lymphocyte ratio (MLR), have been proposed as peripheral biomarkers of the immune-inflammatory process in various diseases. However, studies examining their role in ADHD remain inconclusive.MethodsA systematic review and a meta-analysis were conducted to evaluate the association between NLR, MLR, PLR and ADHD. Relevant articles were identified, screened, and assessed for quality according to PRISMA guidelines. Moreover, a qualitative and quantitative analyses were performed.ResultsThe review contained eight eligible studies, five of which were included in the meta-analysis. The meta-analysis showed that ADHD patients had higher NLR and PLR values compared to health controls. No significant difference in MLR value was observed between the two groups. Analysis in relation to ADHD subtypes showed no significant differences in inflammatory markers in any of the included studies as well. The influence of medical treatment on these ratios could not be adequately assessed due to limited data.ConclusionADHD patients exhibit higher NLR and PLR than healthy controls, which may indicate the potential immune-inflammatory involvement in this disorder. Further studies on inflammatory markers and ADHD, especially those considering the impact of treatment and clinical symptoms, are essential to comprehensively understand this association.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) and diabetes mellitus (DM) remain among the most prevalent diseases and the most significant challenges faced by medicine in the 21st century. The frequent co-occurrence and bidirectional relationship between the two conditions necessitates the identification of treatment strategies that benefit both. The purpose of this study was to systematically review and meta-analyze data on the efficacy and safety of agomelatine (AGO) in the treatment of patients with depression with comorbid diabetes to explore its potential mechanism of action in both diseases and its impact on diabetic parameters. Following PRISMA guidelines, a total of 11 studies were identified, both preclinical and clinical trials. Agomelatine has shown great potential as a treatment option for patients with diabetes and comorbid depression and anxiety. In addition to improving depressive and anxiety symptoms, it is also beneficial in glycemic control. A meta-analysis demonstrated a statistically significant reduction in glycated hemoglobin (HbA1C) and fasting blood glucose (FBG) levels following AGO administration over a period of 8–16 weeks. The administration of agomelatine was found to result in a significantly greater reduction in HbA1C than that observed with the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) medications (namely fluoxetine, sertraline, and paroxetine) during 12–16 weeks of therapy. Furthermore, AGO has been found to be at least as effective as SSRIs in reducing depressive symptoms and more effective than SSRIs in reducing anxiety symptoms. The safety of such treatment is similar to SSRIs; no severe adverse events were reported, and the incidence of some side effects, such as insomnia and sexual dysfunction, are even less often reported. Particularly promising is also its potential action in improving some diabetic complications reported in preclinical trials. This might be through mechanisms involving the reduction in oxidative stress, anti-inflammatory effects, and potentially noradrenergic or NMDA receptor modulation. Further clinical studies on larger sample sizes, as well as elucidating its mechanisms of action, especially in the context of diabetic complications, are needed. Research should also focus on identifying the patient subpopulations most likely to benefit from agomelatine treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The management of wounds with possible presence of a foreign body can pose major problems, especially for bodies that cannot be seen in X-ray scans. The most common materials of this type include wood and glass. The size of the foreign body is also important. If overlooked and left behind, even the smallest foreign body may result in permanent damage to local tissues or contribute to a systemic infection such as sepsis. The presence of a foreign body is not detected upon primary wound management in one-third of patients. Presented herein are the cases of four patients in whom foreign bodies in the form of splintered wood or glass shards were left in the wound following trauma, leading to significant difficulties in the diagnostics and removal of these foreign bodies. Aim: The aim of this study was to present four cases of patients presenting with non-metallic foreign bodies causing diagnostic difficulties due to the absence of shading components, and leading to complications such as purulent inflammation. Materials and methods: The study material was collected from the records of the Department of Forensic Medicine of the Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin. Forensic medical opinions and medical records of the patients were analyzed. Results: Ultrasound and computed tomography (CT) scanning are promising methods for pinpointing the presence of foreign bodies such as splinters of wood and shards of glass within wounds. When left behind, a foreign body may lead to generalized inflammation and/or sepsis. Incomplete removal of the foreign body can result in chronic inflammatory reactions and consequent limb dysfunction. Discussion: The management of non-metallic foreign bodies in daily medical practice is discussed, and the reader is familiarized with the possible complications of a foreign body being left behind within the wounded tissue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The aim of the study was the evaluation of the effectiveness of radiotherapy in elderly T1 glottic cancer patients and prognostic factors with particular focus on comorbidities. Five-year overall survival, disease-specific survival, and local control rates were 63%, 92%, and 93%, respectively. Multivariate analysis showed that the following factors had statistically significant impact on local relapse risk and cancer death risk: diabetes, underweight, and fraction dose of 2 Gy. High number of comorbidities, high CCI, and underweight negatively influenced overall survival. A retrospective analysis was performed in a group of 131 T1N0M0 glottic cancer patients aged 70 and above treated with irradiation at the National Institute of Oncology in Cracow between 1977 and 2007. In the analyzed group men prevailed (92%) of mean age of 74 years. Each patient was diagnosed with at least one comorbidity with the following comorbid conditions being most frequent: hypertension, ischemic heart disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In the studied group, the effect of comorbidities on overall survival was evaluated using Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI). Twenty five (19%) patients showed underweight. All patients were irradiated once daily, 5 days a week, to a total dose of 60–70 Gy with a fraction dose of 2 or 2.5 Gy. Radiotherapy is an effective treatment modality in elderly T1 glottic cancer patients. Diabetes as comorbidity, underweight, and conventional dose fractionation decrease the probability of curative effect of radiotherapy in this group of patients, while high number of comorbidities diminishes the probability of long-term survival.

Não se aplica.

The methodology developed for testing gun propellants at low temperatures according to PN-EN ISO 604:2006 is presented in the paper. Brief characteristics are given of the materials tested and the most important static compression test conditions, such as specimen dimensions, deformation velocity and temperature range for selected propellants, i.e. JA-2 and SC. To verify the methodology developed, preliminary strength tests were performed at selected temperatures (25, 0, -25 and -50°C). Tests were carried out on specimens fabricated by shortening the propellant grain to the dimensions required by the reference standard. The results obtained confirmed the expected strength properties for both propellants (tensile strength and brittleness). Due to its chemical composition, the JA-2 propellant is a material of low brittleness even at -50°C. It does not crack completely and only its yield point increases. The results obtained for the JA-2 propellant were consistent with those published in reference literature. The SC propellant proved to be very brittle even at room temperature. At temperatures below 0°C, it fractures completely after reaching the desired deformation. The results obtained confirm that the adopted strength test conditions and the way the tests were prepared and performed enable acquisition of comparable and reliable results. It can be seen by analysing the results for the JA-2 propellant, which are consistent with the data in the available references. In contrast, the tests on the SC propellant proved the validity of strength tests on this type of material. Brittleness of propellant grains is a very undesirable phenomenon. A change in the combustion surface of low explosives caused by the process of propellant grain fracturing can adversely affect the magnitude and course of the pressure pulse, leading to failure of a cartridge chamber or gun barrel.

Introduction: Demographic assessment in Poland allows to show progressive aging of society, which is further related to the growing number of people with cardiovascular diseases, cancer and disabilities of various origins. In November 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued recommendations for physical activity which, for the first time, also apply to people suffering from chronic diseases and to those with disabilities. Compliance with the guidelines is part of prevention with regard to both chronic diseases and disabilities of various origins. Study aim: The aim of the study was to present the latest guidelines of the World Health Organization and, based on the cited literature, to answer the following question: How can changes in physical exercise have impact on the functional state of people above the age of 60? Materials and methods: The aim of the study was carried out on the basis of analysis regarding the quoted WHO guidelines and the cited literature concerning the recommended level of physical activity for people over 60 in overcoming various origins of their disabilities and lesions. Within this context, the following provisions were analysed: the WHO guidelines from 2020 and the quoted literature in the number of 32 positions. Results: Physical activity may delay human aging for up to 2 decades, improve whole-body condition, positively affect the symptoms of depressive disorders, inhibit neurodegenerative diseases and has a beneficial effect on the health of patients suffering from metabolic diseases. Conclusions: Regular physical activity of people over 60 years of age definitely has a positive effect on their functional state, both in terms of disabilities and diseases of various origins.