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This paper is dedicated to the development of rhetoric in Poland after 1989 taking into account adaptation processes at two levels: communication practices and research refl ection. The sociopolitical transformations have enabled an unrestricted development of rhetorical activities, which were impracticable in the former Eastern Bloc countries: advertising and marketing, political debates, civic engagement, academic freedom. The adaptation has taken place at the level of communication habits of citizens and rhetorical practices of rhetoric researchers themselves. The study adopts the descriptive methodology and focuses on several aspects: the process of internal differentiation of rhetorical studies, the infl uence of the American rhetorical criticism on the studies, the rhetorical perspective in linguistic research, media studies, and politics. The paper emphasises the cultural characteristics of Polish rhetorical studies, which draw inspiration from three main sources: 1) Old Polish oratory and its modern analyses from the perspective of literary studies; 2) analyses of the propaganda of the times of the Polish People’s Republic, including the media; 3) modern concepts from the areas of argumentation, rhetorical criticism, discourse analysis, and media studies. The overview shows that, after 1989, rhetorical studies can be described as a self-organising system cre ated by dense intertextual relations, relationship networks, and institutional frameworks rather than as a compilation of sparse individual works.

The aim of this paper is to analyse Twitter activity of Prime Ministers of Poland and of the Czech Republic, Mateusz Morawiecki and Andrej Babiš respectively, during the 2019 European Parliament election campaign with the special focus on their ways of creating, imposing and reproducing the campaign discourse. It examines especially the person-alization of the election campaign, namely using the election-related activities to promote their image. Also, the im-portance of hashtags as a strategy for building discursive styles is explored and ways of using political pretexts e.g. the Europe Day to introduce election themes are compared. In this context the answer to the following question pre-sents itself as a research challenge: to what extent PMs’ tweets impact the course and the dynamics of the campaign and to what extent it is just dry information, a press commentary?

The purpose of the article is to present a case study of the self-organization process within rhetorical studies in Poland, which has emerged as an independent area of research with the ambition to...

This paper combines quantitative and qualitative methodologies to study the persuasive strategies employed by candidates taking part in televised pre-election debates in Poland and the United States between 1995 and 2016. First, the authors identify the key strategies and calculate the frequency with which they are used by individual candidates. This allows for numerical comparisons between politicians in the two polities, as well as between winners and losers, and candidates of the right and the left politically. These statistical results led the authors to look more closely at the individual styles of two contrasting debaters. We conclude that the rhetorical landscape of political communication does not differ greatly between the two countries; although the data suggest noticeable differences in the approach of political parties and between individuals.

Bielsko Lake is large (257.9 ha) and deep (max. depth 23 m, mean depth 6.2 m) lake, located in the Pomerania Region, serving as a receiver of treated municipal sewage as well as stormwater, from the town of Bialy Bor. Deterioration of water quality has been observed in recent years – the lake was still a in moderate state (III class) in 1997, but now it is in a poor condition (IV class) with low Secchi depth (to 0.3 m), high chlorophyll-a content (up to 153 μg dm−3) and cyanobacterial water bloom in summer, dominated by Planktothrix agardhii, Aphanizomenon gracile, Planktolyngbya limnetica and Pseudanabaena limnetica. External nutrient load exceeds 3.4 times the permissible TN load and 2.4 times TP load, according to Vollenweider's criteria. To improve the ecological state of Bielsko Lake protective measures against pollution have been proposed. Treated municipal sewage should be diverted from the lake by the transport to specially prepared filtering fields, which will drain the sewage into the ground. Stormwater should be treated in a sedimentation and biofiltration system before being discharged to the lake. As internal loading from bottom sediments is very high, sustainable restoration was also proposed. Soluble reactive phosphorus in the water column could be inactivated using small and accurately calculated doses of iron sulfate and magnesium chloride. A cascading effect of trophic interactions of the food web on phytoplankton could be obtained using piscivorous fish stocking (biomanipulation method).

The authors acknowledge COST Action ES 1105 "CYANOCOST Cyanobacterial blooms and toxins in water resources: Occurrence impacts and management" and COST Action Global Change Biology ES 1201 NETLAKE -Networking Lake Observatories in Europe" for contributing to this study through networking and knowledge sharing with European experts in the field. We acknowledge the members of the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON) for their collaborative spirit and enthusiasm that inspired the grassroots effort of the EMLS. E.M. was supported by a grant from the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation to Bas Ibelings and by supplementary funding from University of Geneva. We thank Wendy Beekman for the nutrient analysis. We thank Pieter Slot for assisting with the pigment analysis. We thank Dr. Ian Jones for valuable feedback on an earlier version of the manuscript. We thank the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and the Aquatic Microbial Ecology Group for logistic and technical support of J. Fonvielle and H.-P. Grossart, and the Leibniz Association for financial support. H.P. was supported by the US National Science Foundation (1840715, 1831096). A.C.'s work was funded by the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigacion and EU funds through the project CLIMAWET (CGL2015-69557-R). The collection of data for Lough Erne and Lough Neagh were funded by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, Northern Ireland. We are grateful to Kristiina Vuorio from the Freshwater Centre of the Finnish Environment institute for her help in organizing, collecting and analysing samples by the University of Jyvaskyla and to Gerald Dorflinger from the Water Development Department of Cyprus for his assistance with the sampling in Cyprus and for granting the CUT team permission to use WDD's equipment. Finally, we would like to thank the numerous other assistants that helped realizing each local survey. Open access funding provided by Universite de Geneve., To determine the drivers of phytoplankton biomass, we collected standardized morphometric, physical, and biological data in 230 lakes across the Mediterranean, Continental, and Boreal climatic zones of the European continent. Multilinear regression models tested on this snapshot of mostly eutrophic lakes (median total phosphorus [TP] = 0.06 and total nitrogen [TN] = 0.7 mg L-1), and its subsets (2 depth types and 3 climatic zones), show that light climate and stratification strength were the most significant explanatory variables for chlorophyll a (Chl a) variance. TN was a significant predictor for phytoplankton biomass for shallow and continental lakes, while TP never appeared as an explanatory variable, suggesting that under high TP, light, which partially controls stratification strength, becomes limiting for phytoplankton development. Mediterranean lakes were the warmest yet most weakly stratified and had significantly less Chl a than Boreal lakes, where the temperature anomaly from the long-term average, during a summer heatwave was the highest (+4 degrees C) and showed a significant, exponential relationship with stratification strength. This European survey represents a summer snapshot of phytoplankton biomass and its drivers, and lends support that light and stratification metrics, which are both affected by climate change, are better predictors for phytoplankton biomass in nutrient-rich lakes than nutrient concentrations and surface temperature., European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) ES 1105 ES 1201, Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation, University of Geneva, Leibniz Association, National Science Foundation (NSF) 1840715 1831096, Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigacion, European Commission CGL2015-69557-R, Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, Northern Ireland

The aim of nitrate treatment as a restoration method is to bring about a reduction of the high potential reactivity of sediments by the oxidation of biodegradable organic matter. As a consequence, oxygen uptake by sediments is reduced, sulphate reduction is lowered, hydrogen sulphide formation diminished and iron present in sediments binds phosphorus (P) effectively. This approach was applied in Uzarzewskie Lake, where innovative nitrate treatment of sediments was proposed through the diversion of subsurface waters to the lake hypolimnion. Nitrate-rich and oxygenated water from two tributaries was directly delivered to the hypolimnion through pipelines in order to increase redox potential and eliminate sediments as a P source. Research on selected physico-chemical and biological water characteristics was conducted in the years 2005–2015 to determine the results of restoration measures. P concentrations in lake waters were reduced both in surface water layers and the hypolimnion, hence epilimnetic chlorophyll-a content was diminished as well. Statistically significant changes in phytoplankton community structure were noted as the biomass of cyanobacteria had decreased in 2010 and 2013–2014 in comparison to 2006, while cryptophytes biomass increased in 2011–2013 in relation to 2007. Unfortunately, planktivorous fish domination in fish fauna exert a distinct pressure on zooplankton, thus Rotifera dominated and Cladocera were rarely noted. Additionally, the morphometric lake features (steep slopes, small surface surrounded by forest) create unfavorable conditions for submerged macrophyte development, and hinder the effectiveness of the restoration. Long-term studies revealed that the reconstruction of the phytoplankton community was not permanent, hence further restoration activity is required, with the inclusion of new techniques.

The aim of this paper is to present a comparative analysis of selected elements of strategies for building political image of Miloš Zeman and Andrzej Duda, applied in the presidential campaign in Poland and Czechia in 2013 and 2015. The paper presents not only basic information about both campaigns, but primarily points to a number of common features, such as main motifs (history, family, the future), the target group and its image, communication channels, all used in both strategies for communicating with voters, despite different PR and cultural sphere of application.

The occurrence of cyanobacteria in freshwaters attracts much attention due to its associated health threats and ecological implications. Yet data on the composition of cyanobacteria taxa and toxigenicity in some regions is still scarce. Here, we explored the occurrence of cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins in three locations in Ukraine (reservoir for Kasperivtsi Hydrothermal Power Plant and outflowing River Seret, and cooling pond of Khmelnytsky Atomic Power Plant) in summer 2017. Cyanobacteria were a dominant fraction at all stations. A number of potent-toxin producers were identified including Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii, Aphanizomenon gracile, Dolichospermum flos-aquae, and Planktothrix agardhii. Screening for the presence of dissolved and particulate content of microcystins (-LR, -YR, and -RR), cylindrospermopsin, and anatoxin-a yielded negative results. The studied waters displayed no toxicity in human platelets in vitro. Further toxicological and ecological studies are necessary to evaluate the potential presence of cyanotoxin producers in Ukraine.

Cyanobacterial blooms and cyanotoxins occur in freshwater lakes and reservoirs all over the world. Bacterial degradation of microcystins (MC), hepatotoxins produced by several cyanobacterial species, has also been broadly documented. However, information regarding MC biodegradation in European water bodies is very limited. In this paper, the occurrence and identification of MC biodegradation products was documented for 21 European lakes and reservoirs, many of which have well-documented cyanobacterial bloom histories. Varying cyanobacterial abundance and taxonomical composition were documented and MC producers were found in all the analysed samples. Planktothrix agardhii was the most common cyanobacterial species and it formed mass occurrences in four lakes. MC biodegradation was observed in 86% of the samples (18 out of 21), and four products of dmMC-LR decomposition were detected by HPLC and LC-MS methods. The two main products were cyclic dmMC-LR with modifications in the Arg-Asp-Leu region; additionally one product was recognized as the tetrapeptide Adda-Glu-Mdha-Ala. The composition of the detected products suggested a new biochemical pathway of MC degradation. The results confirmed the hypothesis that microcystin biodegradation is a common phenomenon in central European waters and that it may occur by a mechanism which is different from the one previously reported. Such a finding implies the necessity to develop a more accurate methodology for screening bacteria with MC biodegradation ability. Furthermore, it warrants new basic and applied studies on the characterization and utilization of new MC-degrading strains and biodegradation pathways.

SUMMARY Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii and Sphaerospermopsis aphanizomenoides are increasingly widespread cyanobacterial species, considered invasive. However, they have never been found to dominate the phytoplankton in the northern part of the invaded area. The aim of our study was to expand the understanding of the invasion process in Nostocales, by answering the question which environmental conditions enabled the first ever noted bloom incident of C. raciborskii and S. aphanizomenoides in the northern part of their current occurrence ranges. We examined the population dynamics of the two invasive cyanobacteria and the abiotic conditions in which their blooms developed in a reservoir at 52°N. We also examined the phytoplankton community diversity and composition before and during the invasive species blooms. As shown by redundancy analysis, the competitive advantage of S. aphanizomenoides depended strongly on high water temperature and high concentration of phosphates, and was positively related to other summer conditions (low water transparency, high ammonium nitrogen concentration). C. raciborskii biomass was not related to temperature and phosphates, but we argue that high water temperature in the first half of July enabled abundant akinete germination, and pulsed phosphorus availability synergized to bring about a later bloom. Both the invasive species co-occurred with the native cyanobacterium Aphanizomenon gracile, but C. raciborskii bloomed after the native species domination period. The results of the study corroborate the high competitiveness of S. aphanizomenoides in hot, nutrient-rich conditions, and the adaptation of the invaders to the environment in the invaded regions, inter alia by the overwintering mechanism of numerous akinete differentiation. Our results also contradict the assumption that the phytoplankton diversity index would decrease after colonization of freshwater bodies by invasive cyanoprokaryotes.

DOI: http://doi.org/10.26333/sts.xxxii1.07 Celem niniejszego artykułu jest wyznaczenie kierunków badań edukacyjnych w działalności Polskiej Szkoły Argumentacji (http://argdiap.pl) oraz zainicjowanie dyskusji w polskim środowisku filozoficznym i wśród nauczycieli szkolnych. Opierając się na dotychczasowej działalności Szkoły w badaniach nad edukacją i tworzeniu standardów nauczania sztuki argumentacji (część 1) oraz wątków edukacyjnych wyeksponowanych podczas XV konferencji ArgDiaP (część 2), formułujemy postulaty, które mogą stanowić część planu edukacyjnego w najbliższych latach (część 3). Realizacja tych postulatów może stanowić punkt odniesienia do realizacji długoterminowego planu tworzenia standardów nauczania sztuki argumentacji (część 4).

In this chapter we present our research on hypertrophic lakes and the identified changes in their water quality, phytoplankton and zooplankton, under the influence of restoration activities. Most of these lakes have been used for recreation, and – as a result of the deterioration of water quality – this option has lost. The average annual concentration of total phosphorus in almost all the lakes was higher than 100 μg/L, and the mean concentration of chlorophyll a was in the range of 40–172 μg/L, thus exceeding the limits for hypertrophy. To improve the water quality, so-called sustainable restoration was initiated, combining physical, chemical, and biological methods. Currently, we are documenting changes in the lakes Maltanskie, Uzarzewskie, Swarzedzkie, Rusalka, and Konin to verify the results of in-lake treatment. In the first four lakes, restored by phosphorus inactivation, oxygenation of water overlying the sediments, biomanipulation, and nitrate treatment of the hypolimnion, a gradual improvement of water quality was observed. This was manifested in phytoplankton community structure changes (less Cyanobacteria) as well as reduction in nutrient concentrations. In the case of Lake Konin, the inefficiency of EMs in lake restoration was noted.

INTRODUCTION Most patients with malignant biliary obstruction are suited only for palliation by endoscopic drainage with plastic stents (PS) or self-expandable metal stents (SEMS). OBJECTIVE To compare the clinical outcome and costs of biliary stenting with SEMS and PS in patients with malignant biliary strictures. PATIENTS AND METHODS A total of 114 patients with malignant jaundice who underwent 376 endoscopic retrograde biliary drainage (ERBD) were studied. RESULTS ERBD with the placement of PS was performed in 80 patients, with one-step SEMS in 20 patients and two-step SEMS in 14 patients. Significantly fewer ERBD interventions were performed in patients with one-step SEMS than PS or the two-step SEMS technique (2.0±1.12 vs. 3.1±1.7 or 5.7±2.1, respectively, P

Uzarzewskie Lake is a small, postglacial lake, located in western Poland. The lake is under restoration treatment since 2006. At first, iron treatment was done for 2 years. In the second stage, spring water was directed into the hypolimnion in order to improve water oxygenation near the bottom sediments. The purpose of our research was to determine changes in the contribution of functional groups to the total number of taxa and total biomass of phytoplankton due to changes in the physical and chemical characteristics of the restored lake. Phytoplankton composition was analyzed in three periods: (1) before restoration, (2) during the first method of restoration, and (3) when the second method was implemented in the lake. Epilimnetic phytoplankton was sampled every year monthly from March to November. The relationship between phytoplankton groups and environmental factors (water temperature, ammonium nitrogen, nitrate nitrogen, dissolved phosphorus, conductivity and pH) was examined, using the canonical analyses. The redundancy analysis indicated that the temperature, dissolved phosphates concentration, ammonium nitrogen and pH were the main determining factors of the phytoplankton community dynamics. During the study, 13 coda dominated the phytoplankton biomass. Cyanobacteria of the codon H1 with such species as Aphanizomenon gracile, Dolichospermum planctonicum, D. viguieri dominated the phytoplankton community before restoration. S1 group consisting of Planktolyngbya limnetica, Limnothrix redekei and Planktothrix agardhii mostly dominated during the period in which the first method was used. Improvement of water quality due to restoration efforts in the third period caused dominance of other groups, especially J (Actinastrum hantzschii and other Chlorococcales), C (Asterionella formosa and other diatoms), Y (Cryptomonas marssonii and other cryptophytes), Lo (Peridiniopsis cunningtonii and other dinophytes) and X2 (Rhodomonas lacustris).

Cyanobacterial blooms are an increasing threat worldwide. Invasions of certain cyanobacterial species, mainly towards higher latitudes, add to this concern as they enrich the pool of potential bloom-formers in the invaded region. Among the numerous causes of this escalating process, climate warming is commonly considered the most crucial factor, but empirical studies of this issue are lacking. The aim of our study was to identify physical, chemical and biological factors related to the occurrence of an invasive cyanobacterium at the northern border of its putative current range, and thus enabling its expansion. This study focuses on the relatively little studied species Sphaerospermopsis aphanizomenoides (Nostocales, Cyanobacteria; synonyms: Aphanizomenon aphanizomenoides, Anabaena aphanizomenoides), which is predicted to become one of the main nuisance species of the future. Forty-nine freshwater lakes located between latitudes 51° and 55°N were examined for the presence of S. aphanizomenoides, and environmental factors that could drive its occurrence were studied simultaneously. To identify factors correlated with the presence of the species, principal component analysis (PCA) and Mann-Whitney U test were performed. Water temperature did not differentiate lakes with or without S. aphanizomenoides, however the study was conducted in a particularly hot summer. Total phosphorus concentration was identified as the primary driving factor of the occurrence of S. aphanizomenoides. The species grew in poor light conditions and high phytoplankton biomass, mainly in shallow lakes. As shown by detrended correspondence analysis (DCA), the species accompanied shade tolerant, eutrophic species of native and invasive cyanobacteria as well as eukaryotic algae. Our results indicate that eutrophication may be the primary factor enabling the increasing occurrence of S. aphanizomenoides in temperate environments, and suggest that this process may stimulate expansion of cyanobacterial species towards high latitudes.

Insight into how environmental change determines the production and distribution of cyanobacterial toxins is necessary for risk assessment. Management guidelines currently focus on hepatotoxins (microcystins). Increasing attention is given to other classes, such as neurotoxins (e.g., anatoxin-a) and cytotoxins (e.g., cylindrospermopsin) due to their potency. Most studies examine the relationship between individual toxin variants and environmental factors, such as nutrients, temperature and light. In summer 2015, we collected samples across Europe to investigate the effect of nutrient and temperature gradients on the variability of toxin production at a continental scale. Direct and indirect effects of temperature were the main drivers of the spatial distribution in the toxins produced by the cyanobacterial community, the toxin concentrations and toxin quota. Generalized linear models showed that a Toxin Diversity Index (TDI) increased with latitude, while it decreased with water stability. Increases in TDI were explained through a significant increase in toxin variants such as MC-YR, anatoxin and cylindrospermopsin, accompanied by a decreasing presence of MC-LR. While global warming continues, the direct and indirect effects of increased lake temperatures will drive changes in the distribution of cyanobacterial toxins in Europe, potentially promoting selection of a few highly toxic species or strains. © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland., The authors acknowledge COST Action ES 1105 “CYANOCOST—Cyanobacterial blooms and toxins in water resources: Occurrence impacts and management” and COST Action ES 1201 “NETLAKE—Networking Lake Observatories in Europe” for contributing to this study through networking and knowledge sharing with European experts in the field. Evanthia Mantzouki was supported by a grant from the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) to Bas Ibelings and by supplementary funding from the University of Geneva. We thank Clare Ahnlund, Ena Suarez and Irene Gallego for helping out with the Swiss survey. We thank Wendy Beekman and Els J. Faassen for the nutrient and toxin analysis.

Under ongoing climate change and increasing anthropogenic activity, which continuously challenge ecosystem resilience, an in-depth understanding of ecological processes is urgently needed. Lakes, as providers of numerous ecosystem services, face multiple stressors that threaten their functioning. Harmful cyanobacterial blooms are a persistent problem resulting from nutrient pollution and climate-change induced stressors, like poor transparency, increased water temperature and enhanced stratification. Consistency in data collection and analysis methods is necessary to achieve fully comparable datasets and for statistical validity, avoiding issues linked to disparate data sources. The European Multi Lake Survey (EMLS) in summer 2015 was an initiative among scientists from 27 countries to collect and analyse lake physical, chemical and biological variables in a fully standardized manner. This database includes in-situ lake variables along with nutrient, pigment and cyanotoxin data of 369 lakes in Europe, which were centrally analysed in dedicated laboratories. Publishing the EMLS methods and dataset might inspire similar initiatives to study across large geographic areas that will contribute to better understanding lake responses in a changing environment., The authors acknowledge COST Action ES 1105 “CYANOCOST – Cyanobacterial blooms and toxins in water resources: Occurrence impacts and management” and COST Action ES 1201 “NETLAKE – Networking Lake Observatories in Europe” for contributing to this study through networking and knowledge sharing with European experts in the field. Evanthia Mantzouki was supported by a grant from the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) to Bas Ibelings and by supplementary funding from University of Geneva. We thank Wendy Beekman for the nutrient analysis and the University of Wageningen for covering the costs of this analysis from the personal funding of dr. Miquel Lürling. We thank Pieter Slot for assisting with the pigment analysis and the University of Amsterdam for covering the costs of the analysis through funding from the group of Prof. Jef Huisman and dr. Petra Visser (IBED). We would like to thank the Environmental Data Initiative for covering the cost of archiving the EMLS dataset. We would like to thank the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Dept. of Experimental Limnology and the Aquatic Microbial Ecology Group for logistic and technical support of J. Fonvielle and H.-P. Grossart; and the Leibniz Association for financial support. The collection of data for Lough Erne and Lough Neagh were funded by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, Northern Ireland.

We present a 22-year-old male who developed a severe erosive oesophagitis extending to the pharynx and oral cavity without obvious risk factors. Endoscopic image suggested viral aetiology that could not be confirmed by routine serological diagnostics of infections with cytomegalovirus, Epstein-Barr virus, and Herpes simplex virus. The histopathological evaluation also gave no definite clues to the aetiology of the inflammation. Treatment with acyclovir was ineffective, but gancyclovir therapy caused spectacular clinical improvement and healing of erosions. Two months later the patient presented febrile diarrhoea that was a symptom of ileocecal Crohn’s disease proven by endoscopy, enterography, and histopathology. It is the first report of severe viral oesophagitis preceding clinical manifestation of Crohn’s disease. This observation warrants further study towards the viral aetiology of oral, pharyngeal, and oesophageal erosions, frequently associated with Crohn’s disease.

This research relates to the rhetorical criticism of journalistic genres. Attention has been paid to the selection of genres made by the communicating entities affected by the nature of the media. Moreover, the author takes into account the personal aspect of these messages, namely, who formulates the text in the press and how. The subject of the study was opinion-forming tendencies appearing in one of the leading Polish newspapers "Gazeta Wyborcza". This issue is explored using press material referring to the topic of the Independence Day celebrations.

Introduction. Alcohol abuse among the youth is a pressing social issue. It is not only related to one’s individual susceptibility to risky or harmful drinking but also the issue of one’s family living with the individual that abuses alcohol. It needs emphasizing that alcohol consumption is on the rise and the age at which young people have their first alcoholic drink is declining as well. Also, girls tend to drink as much as boys. Aim. The aim of this work was to investigate the issue of alcohol abuse among young people of school age and the relationship between the following variables: school educational level, sex, satisfaction with home life and drinking patterns. Material and methods. The authors interviewed some 1444 students of 32 schools (12 elementary schools, 10 junior high schools and 10 high schools) chosen at random, using an anonymous questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed statistically, taking the following factors into consideration: sex, school level, atmosphere at home. Results and conclusions. One’s sex, school level and satisfaction with home life had influence over the respondents’ answers concerning alcohol consumption. The research study shows that students of schools at all levels drink alcohol - high school students drink vodka, junior high school students (gimnazjum in Polish) prefer beer, while elementary school students, who tend to drink the least, prefer wine. Interestingly enough, boys are drinking more than girls, yet girls are more likely to try all types of alcohol. Children who reported good atmosphere at home are less likely to drink, while in case of troubled homes, only every eighth respondent does not drink. The atmosphere at home also affects one’s drinking habits. Most of the respondents have no idea about ways of helping people addicted to alcohol.

Pancreatic mesenchymal neoplasms are very rare pancreatic tumours. One of them is pancreatic lipoma, often diagnosed incidentally. We herein report a case of a large lipoma of the pancreatic head, diagnosed by computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging and confirmed by ultrasound-guided fine needle biopsy (FNA) biopsy. Regarding its benign character, silent clinical course and excellent prognosis of invasive surgical removal was avoided. We propose here the diagnostic and therapeutic management of these rare pancreatic tumours. Computed tomography is the most accurate method to diagnose pancreatic lipoma. Nevertheless large tumours may need confirmation by FNA in differential diagnosis of liposarcoma.

Introduction: According to the World Health Organization, Helicobacter pylori infection affects 70–90% of adults in developing countries and 25–50% of adults from developed countries. Objectives: An assessment of the incidence of Helicobacter pylori infection among the household members of patients with positive urease test as well as determination of risk factors, symptoms and coexisting diseases. Material and methods: Study included 62 relatives of 32 patients with Helicobacter pylori infection, who were occupying the same household. Control group included 40 relatives of patients with negative urease test. All participants were subjected to Diago-HP serological testing and completed a questionnaire including 30 questions. Results: It was found that Helicobacter pylori infection is significantly more common among the household members of infected patients compared to the control group (37.1% vs. 18.4%, p < 0.001). The incidence of infections was 58.5% in the study population (patients and their relatives). Infected patients were older than the uninfected ones (51.1 ± 15.0 vs. 36.5 ± 18.6 years, p < 0.001), they more often reported difficulties in defecation (72.7% vs. 50.8%, p = 0.04) and a feeling of fullness in the upper abdomen (75.9% vs. 50.8%, p = 0.02). Type 2 diabetes significantly increased the risk of Helicobacter pylori infection (100% vs. 53.6%, p = 0.004). No relationship was found between accommodation, hygienic habits, drug use, diet or keeping pets. Conclusions: The incidence of Helicobacter pylori infection is significantly higher among the household members of infected patients. The infection is more common among elderly and diabetic patients.

Objective: To determine the value of serum and bile insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I), interleukin-6 (Il-6) and tumor M2-pyruvate kinase (Tu M2-PK) in distinguishing pancreatobiliary cancers from benign biliary strictures. Material and methods: The study was performed prospectively on forty jaundiced patients admitted for biliary decompression due to bile duct strictures. Malignant strictures were diagnosed in 22 patients including 15 cases of CCA and 7 cases of pancreatic cancer, and benign biliary strictures in 18 cases. IGF-I, Il-6 and Tu M2-PK were measured in sera and bile by ELISA and compared to serum levels of carbohydrate antigens (CA) 19-9 and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA). Results: Serum levels of IGF-I (74.4 vs. 117.0 ng/mL, p=0.03), Il-6 (37.1 vs. 17.0 pg/mL, p=0.04), CA19-9 (5689 vs. 38.9 U/mL, p

Functioning of the Lake Rusałka ecosystem in Poznań (western Poland) Lake Rusałka is a shallow, artificial, strongly eutrophic reservoir. Thermal stratification is weak and comprises only about 8% of the bottom surface. In summer, the epilimnion is oversaturated with oxygen due to intensive phytoplankton growth (chlorophyll a up to 80.2 μg l-1), while conditions in the hypolimnion are anaerobic. The high concentration of ammonium nitrogen and low N:P ratio stimulated intense growth of cyanobacteria in the period from June to November. The domination of rotifers in the metazooplankton and low diversity and biomass of benthic macroinvertebrates was the cause of low top-down pressure of these organisms on the phytoplankton. The most advantageous restoration measures were identified to improve water quality and make the recreational use of the lake possible.

The resistance of Helicobacter pylori to antimicrobials, known to be increasing in many countries, is an important factor compromising the efficacy of eradication therapy. Therefore, our study aimed at analysing the current susceptibility status of H. pylori in Poland. A total of 337 H. pylori isolates were cultured from children ( N = 179) and adults ( N = 158) from various regions of the country from January 2001 to December 2004. All strains were susceptible to amoxicillin and tetracycline. The overall resistance to clarithromycin (CL) was 28%, but there were significant differences between the centres (ranging from 0% to 33%) and between child and adult isolates (28% versus 15%, respectively; P = 0.01) for primary a resistance. Altogether, 46% of H. pylori isolates were resistant to metronidazole (MTZ) and 20% of isolates were simultaneously resistant to CL and MTZ.