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The article analyzed the level and changes in prices of selected agricultural products in Poland during the COVID-19 pandemic. The scope of the analysis included data for the years 2018-2022. Central Statistical Office data on the purchase and prices of agricultural products and the consumer price index (CPI) were used. Data on purchasing prices included average annual and monthly prices for products paid to agricultural producers by purchasing entities (commercial, industrial and agricultural). The prices of carefully selected agricultural products were analyzed – three from animal production and three from plant production, i.e. pigs, poultry, cow milk and potatoes, which constitute the basis of the household consumption basket, and rye and wheat, as the basic raw materials of the food industry. In 2021-2022, the purchase prices of agricultural products, calculated as an arithmetic average, increased annually. Analyzing price changes expressed by the m/m index and the price dispersion measure, greater dynamics and, potatoes and pigs. These phenomena were reported on a larger scale in 2021-2022. Prices of selected agricultural products and the value of the price index of consumer goods and services showed similar directions of changes. Agricultural product prices and CPI values were relatively stable in 2018-2019. The highest prices of selected agricultural products, their dispersion, changes expressed in amounts and percentages, as well as CPI values, were recorded in 2021-2022. The values of seasonality indices of purchase prices for agricultural products indicated the greatest variability concerning the average prices in the season, taking the example of potato purchase prices.

The aim of the study was to determine changes in the demand for food in Poland during the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis covered 2017-2021, i.e., the period both before and during the pandemic (2022 was excluded due to the impact of events related to the war in Ukraine). The study uses comparative and descriptive analysis methods. The macroeconomic indicators of the Central Statistical Office were used to identify the macroeconomic determinants of demand for food, while the identification of purchasing changes was determined on the basis of the results of household budget surveys. During the pandemic, despite the decline in the GDP, we could see an improvement in household income. Despite the reduction in total consumption in the first year of the pandemic, household food consumption increased significantly, which continued the following year. In turn, a significant reduction in household spending on catering services indirectly influences the demand for agricultural and food products, but the scale of this impact is difficult to estimate. Further study of changes in food demand should include the period of the war in Ukraine. In its aftermath, agricultural and energy commodity prices rose, and there was an influx of refugees to Poland, which undoubtedly impacted changes in food demand.

Objectives The main goal of this study is to identify and evaluate the level of good governance in European Union countries and to determine whether there is a relationship between good governance and economic growth. Material and methods Empirical materials are based on currently available statistical data from Eurostat. In case of unavailability of unit data in the studied year, they were replaced with data from the nearest period, i.e. 2020. Due to the complexity of the analyzed categories and the possibility of ordering objects from best to worst to achieve the goal, we used the TOPSIS method for multidimensional data analysis. Results The study found that the variable with the greatest impact on the ranking achieved by a given country in the GG range was the Corruption Perception Index, followed by the proportion of the population who trust EU institutions. In the presented comparison, three countries, Luxembourg, Germany, and Sweden, occupied the top positions in the GG scale, while Greece and Cyprus were at the bottom. Countries with very high GG accounted for 11% of the total number of EU countries. No countries were identified as belonging to the fourth class, which is characterized by a very low level of GG. The majority of countries, over 67%, were represented by those with medium to low levels of GG. Conclusions The analysis allowed for identifying a significant correlation between Good Governance and Economic Growth in European Union countries. It can be assumed that the higher the level of economic development (measured by many SDGs), the lower the level of corruption in state institutions, and the greater the trust of citizens in public institutions, which translates into a higher level of GG.

In the research on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economic situation in agriculture, the demand and supply channels are distinguished. They indicate how restrictions on economic activity translate into the volume and structure of production and the demand for agricultural products. The aim of the research was to identify and assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Polish agriculture through the transmission channel of foreign trade. The research period covered the years of 2017-2022. The primary research tool used was time series indicator analysis. During the pandemic, changes in foreign trade were limited only to short-term disruptions, which intensified in the first wave of COVID-19 (2020, second quarter). Trade in agri-food products turned out to be more resistant to shocks caused by the pandemic compared to trade in non-agricultural sectors. Therefore, disruptions on foreign markets did not significantly affect the production and economic situation of Polish agriculture. In the second quarter of 2020, the value of exports of agri-food goods decreased by 2.8% compared to the previous quarter. As it comes to other groups of goods, export values were lower by 7.2-40.1%. At the same time, the value of imports of agri-food goods was lower by 6.1% compared to the previous quarter. Imports of other goods collapsed much more severely as decrease in the value of imported goods ranged from 8.4 to 47.4%.

Celem opracowania jest ocena wyników produkcyjnych i ekonomicznych gospodarstw rolnych o różnej wielkości obszarowej specjalizujących się w produkcji zbóż. Ocena została przeprowadzona na podstawie danych z gospodarstw objętych rachunkowością rolną w systemie FADN w 2020 roku. Do oceny gospodarowania czynnikami produkcji w badanych gospodarstwach zastosowano klasyczne wskaźniki produktywności i dochodowości ziemi, pracy i kapitału. Z przeprowadzonej analizy wynika, że wraz ze wzrostem wielkości gospodarstw specjalizujących się w produkcji zbóż wyraźnie wzrastają ich produktywność i dochodowość, co się wiąże z organizacją produkcji i wzrostem poziomu intensywności produkcji w większych gospodarstwach. Wobec tego powiększanie gospodarstw zbożowych prowadzi do wyraźnej poprawy wyników produkcyjnych i ekonomicznych ich działalności.

The aim of the study was to assess the economic and production-related situation of Polish agriculture during the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis covered the years 2015-2021, i.e. in addition to the years of the pandemic’s occurrence in Poland (2020-2021), the research period included 5 earlier years, in order to identify possible changes during the pandemic. In order to attain the objective, the data from the Economic Accounts for Agriculture – EAA, published by Eurostat, was used. A library query and secondary data from the Eurostat database were employed. Over the years 2015-2021, the value and quantity of agricultural production in Poland increased. In the first year of the pandemic, the value of production increased nominally by 13.7%, and by 8% in real terms. This growth mainly stemmed from the increase in the volume of plant production. The second year of the pandemic brought a slight decrease in the production volume – by 0.8%. It resulted primarily from yield deterioration. The time of the pandemic was characterized by considerable changes in agricultural income. Unfavourable price changes in 2021, related to a large increase in costs, caused the income from agriculture rise in the first year of the pandemic, but over the second year of COVID-19, the income situation deteriorated significantly. Worse farming conditions related mainly to an increase in the cost of loans and the prices of production means may have a significant impact on the food security of the Polish society.

The aim of the study was to determine and evaluate the level of sustainable development of counties in Poland. Counties were divided into four types – voivodship cities, other cities, land counties in the immediate vicinity of voivodship cities and other land counties. Statistical data from the Local Data Bank of the Central Statistical Office of Poland for 2018 were applied. A set of indicators of sustainable development was defined. Using methods of multidimensional comparative analysis, synthetic indicators of economic, social and environmental development were determined. The measure of cohesion was used to assess the level of sustainable development of counties. It enabled dividing counties into five groups: a very low, low, medium, high and very high level of sustainability. The results show that only 20% of counties in 2018 was classified as a very high level of sustainable development class. Relatively, the highest level of sustainability was observed in land counties, both those bordering large cities and other ones. It was found that the environmental aspect may be a barrier in shaping the sustainable development of counties.

The purpose of the presented research is to assess pro-environmental behaviour (PEB) in European Union countries in 2009 and 2019. The study used a synthetic measure developed using the TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution) benchmark method. This method enables distinguishing classes and ranks of countries depending on the adopted characteristics. Basic measures of descriptive statistics, i.e., average, standard deviation and the coefficient of variation, were used in the analysis of the data set. The main research question addressed in this study concerns the relationship between the level of PEB and economic, demographic, and educational factors—not only on a micro scale but also from the macroeconomic perspective. The research has revealed a wide variety throughout the European Union (EU-27) countries in terms of pro-environmental behaviour. Sweden, Finland, and Denmark top the ranking, while Malta, Greece, Spain, and Romania are at the bottom of it. Northern European countries can therefore be identified as a group that represents a positive benchmark in terms of PEB across the European Union (EU-27). The correlation between PEB and selected economic, demographic, and education-related variables was also investigated. Country-level PEB is correlated with demographic and economic variables, but it is not correlated with education-related variables.

Abstract Background Neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) and/or associated multiple congenital abnormalities (MCAs) represent a genetically heterogeneous group of conditions with an adverse prognosis for the quality of intellectual and social abilities and common daily functioning. The rapid development of exome sequencing (ES) techniques, together with trio-based analysis, nowadays leads to up to 50% diagnostic yield. Therefore, it is considered as the state-of-the-art approach in these diagnoses. Results In our study, we present the results of ES in a cohort of 85 families with 90 children with severe NDDs and MCAs. The interconnection of the in-house bioinformatic pipeline and a unique algorithm for variant prioritization resulted in a diagnostic yield of up to 48.9% (44/90), including rare and novel causative variants (41/90) and intragenic copy-number variations (CNVs) (3/90). Of the total number of 47 causative variants, 53.2% (25/47) were novel, highlighting the clinical benefit of ES for unexplained NDDs. Moreover, trio-based ES was verified as a reliable tool for the detection of rare CNVs, ranging from intragenic exon deletions (GRIN2A, ZC4H2 genes) to a 6-Mb duplication. The functional analysis using PANTHER Gene Ontology confirmed the involvement of genes with causative variants in a wide spectrum of developmental processes and molecular pathways, which form essential structural and functional components of the central nervous system. Conclusion Taken together, we present one of the first ES studies of this scale from the central European region. Based on the high diagnostic yield for paediatric NDDs in this study, 48.9%, we confirm trio-based ES as an effective and reliable first-tier diagnostic test in the genetic evaluation of children with NDDs.

The myeloma overexpressed gene (MYEOV) has been proposed to be a proto-oncogene due to high RNA transcript levels found in multiple cancers, including myeloma, breast, lung, pancreas and esophageal cancer. The presence of an open reading frame (ORF) in humans and other primates suggests protein-coding potential. Yet, we still lack evidence of a functional MYEOV protein. It remains undetermined how MYEOV overexpression affects cancerous tissues. In this work, we show that MYEOV has likely originated and may still function as an enhancer, regulating CCND1 and LTO1. Firstly, MYEOV 3′ enhancer activity was confirmed in humans using publicly available ATAC-STARR-seq data, performed on B-cell-derived GM12878 cells. We detected enhancer histone marks H3K4me1 and H3K27ac overlapping MYEOV in multiple healthy human tissues, which include B cells, liver and lung tissue. The analysis of 3D genome datasets revealed chromatin interactions between a MYEOV-3′-putative enhancer and the proto-oncogene CCND1. BLAST searches and multi-sequence alignment results showed that DNA sequence from this human enhancer element is conserved from the amphibians/amniotes divergence, with a 273 bp conserved region also found in all mammals, and even in chickens, where it is consistently located near the corresponding CCND1 orthologues. Furthermore, we observed conservation of an active enhancer state in the MYEOV orthologues of four non-human primates, dogs, rats, and mice. When studying this homologous region in mice, where the ORF of MYEOV is absent, we not only observed an enhancer chromatin state but also found interactions between the mouse enhancer homolog and Ccnd1 using 3D-genome interaction data. This is similar to the interaction observed in humans and, interestingly, coincides with CTCF binding sites in both species. Taken together, this suggests that MYEOV is a primate-specific gene with a de novo ORF that originated at an evolutionarily older enhancer region. This deeply conserved putative enhancer element could regulate CCND1 in both humans and mice, opening the possibility of studying MYEOV regulatory functions in cancer using non-primate animal models.

Abstract Deciphering genomic architecture is key to identifying novel disease drivers and understanding the mechanisms underlying myeloma initiation and progression. In this work, using the CoMMpass dataset, we show that structural variants (SV) occur in a nonrandom fashion throughout the genome with an increased frequency in the t(4;14), RB1, or TP53 mutated cases and reduced frequency in t(11;14) cases. By mapping sites of chromosomal rearrangements to topologically associated domains and identifying significantly upregulated genes by RNAseq we identify both predicted and novel putative driver genes. These data highlight the heterogeneity of transcriptional dysregulation occurring as a consequence of both the canonical and novel structural variants. Further, it shows that the complex rearrangements chromoplexy, chromothripsis and templated insertions are common in MM with each variant having its own distinct frequency and impact on clinical outcome. Chromothripsis is associated with a significant independent negative impact on clinical outcome in newly diagnosed cases consistent with its use alongside other clinical and genetic risk factors to identify prognosis.

The factors that are associated with myeloma precursor condition progression are not well understood. Here the authors find that monoclonal gammopathies of undetermined significance and smoldering myelomas that did not progress to multiple myelomas have a distinct genomic profile and emerge later in the patient’s life.

Rarely, immunophenotypically immature B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (BCP-ALL) carries an immunoglobulin- MYC rearrangement (IG-MYC-r). This can result in diagnostic confusion with Burkitt lymphoma/leukemia and use of individualized treatment schedules of unproven efficacy. Here we compare the molecular characteristics of these conditions and investigate historic clinical outcome data. We identified 90 cases registered in a national BCP-ALL clinical trial/registry. When present, diagnostic material underwent cytogenetic, exome, methylome and transcriptome analyses. The outcomes analyzed were 3-year event-free survival and overall survival. IG-MYC-r was identified in diverse cytogenetic backgrounds, co-existing with either established BCP-ALL-specific abnormalities (high hyperdiploidy, n=3; KMT2A-rearrangement, n=6; iAMP21, n=1; BCR-ABL1, n=1); BCL2/BCL6-rearrangements (n=15); or, most commonly, as the only defining feature (n=64). Within this final group, precursor-like V(D)J breakpoints predominated (8/9) and KRAS mutations were common (5/11). DNA methylation identified a cluster of V(D)J-rearranged cases, clearly distinct from Burkitt leukemia/lymphoma. Children with IG-MYC-r within that subgroup had a 3-year event-free survival of 47% and overall survival of 60%, representing a high-risk BCP-ALL. To develop effective management strategies this group of patients must be allowed access to contemporary, minimal residual disease-adapted, prospective clinical trial protocols.

Alport syndrome with intellectual disability (ATS-ID, AMME complex; OMIM #300194) is an X-linked contiguous gene deletion syndrome associated with an Xq22.3 locus mainly characterized by hematuria, renal failure, hearing loss/deafness, neurodevelopmental disorder (NDD), midface retrusion, and elliptocytosis. It is thought that ATS-ID is caused by the loss of function of COL4A5 (ATS) and FACL4 (ACSL4) genes through the interstitial (micro)deletion of chromosomal band Xq22.3. We report detailed phenotypic description and results from genome-wide screening of a Czech family with diagnosis ATS-ID (proband, maternal uncle, and two female carriers). Female carriers showed mild clinical features of microscopic hematuria only, while affected males displayed several novel clinical features associated with ATS-ID. Utilization of whole-exome sequencing discovered the presence of approximately 3 Mb of deletion in the Xq23 area, which affected 19 genes from TSC22D3 to CHRDL1. We compared the clinical phenotype with previously reported three ATS-ID families worldwide and correlated their clinical manifestations with the incidence of genes in both telomeric and centromeric regions of the deleted chromosomal area. In addition to previously described phenotypes associated with aberrations in AMMECR1 and FACL4, we identified two genes, members of tripartite motif family MID2 and subunit of the proteasome PA700/19S complex (PSMD10), respectively, as prime candidate genes responsible for additional clinical features observed in our patients with ATS-ID. Overall, our findings further improve the knowledge about the clinical impact of Xq23 deletions and bring novel information about phenotype/genotype association of this chromosomal aberration.

MYC is a widely acting transcription factor and its deregulation is a crucial event in many human cancers. MYC is important biologically and clinically in multiple myeloma, but the mechanisms underlying its dysregulation are poorly understood. We show that MYC rearrangements are present in 36.0% of newly diagnosed myeloma patients, as detected in the largest set of next generation sequencing data to date (n=1,267). Rearrangements were complex and associated with increased expression of MYC and PVT1, but not other genes at 8q24. The highest effect on gene expression was detected in cases where the MYC locus is juxtaposed next to super-enhancers associated with genes such as IGH, IGK, IGL, TXNDC5/BMP6, FAM46C and FOXO3. We identified three hotspots of recombination at 8q24, one of which is enriched for IGH-MYC translocations. Breakpoint analysis indicates primary myeloma rearrangements involving the IGH locus occur through non-homologous end joining, whereas secondary MYC rearrangements occur through microhomology-mediated end joining. This mechanism is different to lymphomas, where non-homologous end joining generates MYC rearrangements. Rearrangements resulted in overexpression of key genes and chromatin immunoprecipitation-sequencing identified that HK2, a member of the glucose metabolism pathway, is directly over-expressed through binding of MYC at its promoter.

Monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance is a pre-malignant precursor of multiple myeloma with a 1% risk of progression per year. Although targeted analyses have shown the presence of specific genetic abnormalities such as IGH translocations, RB1 deletion, 1q gain, hyperdiploidy or RAS gene mutations, little is known about the molecular mechanism of malignant transformation. We performed whole exome sequencing together with comparative genomic hybridization plus single nucleotide polymorphism array analysis in 33 flow-cytometry-separated abnormal plasma cell samples from patients with monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance to describe somatic gene mutations and chromosome changes at the genome-wide level. Non-synonymous mutations and copy-number alterations were present in 97.0% and in 60.6% of cases, respectively. Importantly, the number of somatic mutations was significantly lower in monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance than in myeloma (P