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During late pregnancy, sleep deterioration is regularly observed. In concert with these observations, in previous studies by other researchers, a slight objective cognitive decline in pregnant women has been found. Sleep is essential for memory consolidation. The hypothesis of the study was that cognitive impairment could be related to sleep deterioration during pregnancy. The study included 19 pregnant women in their third trimester of pregnancy (28–40 weeks, median 33 weeks (IQR 32–37)) recruited at the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Medical University of Warsaw, and 20 non-pregnant women as controls. The assessment was performed using the vocabulary subtest from the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS), D2 Test of Attention, OSPAN task (Operational Span Task) to assess cognitive performance, actigraphy to examine sleep parameters, and a set of self-report instruments: Athens Insomnia Scale (AIS), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Ford Insomnia Response to Stress (FIRST), Regenstein Hyperarousal Scale (HS), and Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS). Although there were no differences between the groups in WAIS (p = 0.18), pregnant women had worse scores in working memory capacity (overall number of remembered letters: p = 0.012, WM span index: p = 0.004) and a significantly lower score in attention (p = 0.03). Pregnant women also had lower sleep efficiency (p = 0.001), more awakenings from sleep (p = 0.001), longer average awakenings (p < 0.0001), longer wake after sleep onset (WASO, p < 0.0001), and longer total time in bed (p < 0.0001). In psychological assessment, pregnant women had only a higher FIRST score (p = 0.02). Using mediation analysis, we found that frequent awakening might be the major factor contributing to deterioration in working memory performance, explaining almost 40% of the total effect. In conclusion, sleep fragmentation in the third trimester of pregnancy may impair working memory consolidation. Pregnant women often complain about poor daily performance as well as non-restorative sleep. In this study, we showed that there is a relationship between lower sleep quality in pregnancy and worse cognitive functioning. We can expect a cognitive decline in women with sleep disturbances in pregnancy. Therefore, we should pay more attention to the treatment of sleep disorders in pregnancy.

W jelitach człowieka znajduje się około dwóch kilogramów mikroorganizmów, nazywanych mikrobiotą. Wśród nich znajdują się bakterie komensalne, których rolą jest dostarczanie organizmowi energii, produkcja metabolitów, czy też unieszkodliwianie bakterii patogennych. Niektóre bakterie komensalne są w stanie wytwarzać substancje neuroaktywne, wpływające na funkcjonowanie mózgu. Komunikacja mikrobioty z ośrodkowym układem nerwowym zachodzi przede wszystkim za pośrednictwem nerwu błędnego, osi podwzgórze-przysadka-nadnercza, systemu immunologicznego czy produkowanych przez mikrobiotę metabolitów. Szczególnie w ostatnich latach zaobserwowano szereg zależności między substancjami produkowanymi przez bakterie składające się na mikrobiom a funkcjonowaniem mózgu. Zauważono także, iż mikrobiota jelitowa może brać udział w procesach neurorozwojowych oraz neurodegeneracyjnych. Co więcej, z badań tych wyłania się związek między działaniem mikrobiomu a funkcjonowaniem psychicznym, co odzwierciedla się w sposób szczególny w zaburzeniach depresyjnych i lękowych. Zaobserwowano także zależność między funkcjonowaniem układu trawiennego, a kondycją psychiczną - stresogenne czynniki czy nieodpowiednia dieta przyczynić się mogą do zmiany składu mikrobioty jelitowej, co w konsekwencji może wpłynąć na funkcjonowanie mózgu i umysłu.

Att olika arter av däggdjur vandrar mellan olika områden under året (sk säsongsvandringar) förekommeri många områden världen över. Hos hjortdjur såsom älg, kronhjort och rådjur i det boreala skogszonen tycks benägenheten att vandra vara starkt kopplad till typen av levnadsmiljö där den säsongsmässiga variationen i klimatet är en viktig drivande faktor. Benägenhetenatt säsongsvandra medför också stora konsekvenser för förvaltningen av älg och skog eftersom älgarna förflyttar sig över administrativa gränser och mellan olika förvaltningsområden. En av de viktigaste målsättningarna inom forskningsprojektet GRENSEVILT har varit att skapa bättre förutsättningar för förvaltningen av älg hos en älgpopulation som lever längs den svensk-norska gränsen i Värmlands och Dalarnas län samt Innlandet fylke genom att studera älgarnas rörelsemönster. Under vintern 2018, 2019 och 2020 försågs 30 kor och 11 tjurar med GPS-sändare i detta område. GPS-halsbanden blev programmerade till att positionera i regelmässiga intervaller om 2 timmar. Studien omfattar data från de 41 radiomärkta älgarna från det första märkningstillfälleti februari 2018 fram till hösten 2021. Av dessa uppvisade 20 (49%) ett strikt migrerande vandringsmönster mellan sommar och vinterområden, 14 (34%) nyttjade samma område både vinter och sommar och varstationära. De resterande 7 (17%) uppvisade en kombination av dessa två typer av rörelsemönster mellan olika år. Det fanns inga statistiskt säkerställda skillnader mellan könen i fördelningen av rörelsemönster. Medeldatum för de migrerande älgkornas start och slut på vårvandringen var 20 respektive 30 april medan tjurarna startade sin vårvandring i medeltal den 30 april och anlände till sommarområdet 16 maj. De flesta älgarna migrerade till sina vinterområden under december och januari där 49% hade anlänt till vinterområdet den 1 januari medan 92% hade anlänt den 1 februari. I medeltal vandrade tjurarna 52 km (linjärt avstånd)från sommar till vinterområdet medan korna vandrade 19 km. Den längsta vandringssträckan mellan säsongs-hemområden för tjurar var 87 km och förkor 38 km. Det fannsstatistiskt säkerställda skillnader mellan de olika åren för när under året som säsongsvandringarna startade och avslutades. En motsvarande variation mellan år kunde även identifieras för snödjupet och den totala snöperiodens längd. Vandringarna skedde till största delen från mer syd-ostligt belägna vinterområden i Sverige under våren till mer nord-västligt belägna områden i Norge.Medelstorleken på årliga hemområden för stationära kor och tjurar var 6700 respektive 9200 ha medan detta för migrerande kor och tjurar var 17 000 respektive 65 000 ha. Bland de stationära älgarna berörde huvuddelen (70%) endast ett förvaltningsområde medan 59% av de migrerande älgarnas rörelser överlappade 3-5 olika administrativa förvaltningsenheter under ett år. Resultaten visaratt mer än hälften av älgarna nyttjar olika områden under vintern och under den del av jakttiden där den absoluta majoriteten av älgarna fälls vilket medför en ojämn fördelning mellan kostnader (skogsskador) och intäkter (jaktuttag) mellan olika områden. Ett hårt betestryck och omfattande skogsskador under vintern i ett område styrs därmed till största delen av den rådande älgförvaltningen 10-50 km därifrån och som i detta studieområde huvudsakligen ligger i nordlig och nord-västlig riktning. En framtida förvaltningsstrategi bör ske över ÄFO och kommungränser, över läns-och fylkesgränser och i vissa områden även över nationsgränser som i detta fall utgörs av den mellan Sverige och Norge.

Poland is characterised by a relatively high variety of living organisms attributed to terrestrial and water environments. Currently, close to 57.000 species of living organisms are described that occur in Poland (Symonides 2008), including lowland and mountain species, those attributed to oceanic and continental areas, as well as species from forested and open habitats. Poland comprehensively represents biodiversity of living organisms on a continental scale and thus, is considered to have an important role for biodiversity maintenance. The Mammal Research Institute of Polish Academy of Sciences (MRI PAS), located in Białowieża Forest, a UNESCO Heritage Site, has been collecting biodiversity data for 90 years. However, a great amount of data gathered over the years, especially old data, is gradually being forgotten and hard to access. Old catalogues and databases have never been digitalized or publicly shared, and not many Polish scientists are aware of the existence of such resources, not to mention the rest of the scientific world. Recognizing the need for an online, interoperable platform, following FAIR data principles (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable), where biodiversity and scientific data can be shared, MRI PAS took a lead in creation of an Open Forest Data (OFD) repository. OpenForestData.pl (Fig. 1) is a newly created (2020) digital repository, designed to provide access to natural sciences data and provide scientists with an infrastructure for storing, sharing and archiving their research outcomes. Creating such a platform is a part of an ongoing development of life sciences in Poland, aiming for an open, modern science, where data are published as free-access. OFD also allows for the consolidation of natural science data, enabling the use and processing of shared data, including API (Application Programming Interface) tools. OFD is indexed by the Directory of Open Repositories (OpenDOAR) and Registry of Research Data Repositories (re3data). The OFD platform is based entirely on reliable, globally recognized open source software: DATAVERSE, an interactive database app which supports sharing, storing, exploration, citation and analysis of scientific data; GEONODE, a content management geospatial system used for storing, publicly sharing and visualising vector and raster layers, GRAFANA, a system meant for storing and analysis of metrics and large scale measurement data, as well as visualisation of historical graphs at any time range and analysis for trends; and external tools for database storage (Orthanc) and data visualisation (Orthanc plugin Osimis Web Viewer and Online 3D Viewer (https://3dviewer.net/), which were integrated with the system mechanism of Dataverse. Furthermore, according to the need for specimen description, Darwin Core (Wieczorek et al. 2012) metadata schema was decided to be the most suitable for specimen and collections description and mapped into a Dataverse additional metadata block. The use of Darwin Core is based on the same file format, the Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A) which allows for sharing data using common terminology and provides the possibility for easy evaluation and comparison of biodiversity datasets. It allows the contributors to OFD to optionally choose Darwin Core for object descriptions making it possible to share biodiversity datasets in a standardized way for users to download, analyse and compare. Currently, OFD stores more than 10.000 datasets and objects from the collections of Mammal Research Institute of Polish Academy of Sciences and Forest Science Institute of Białystok University of Technology. The objects from natural collections were digitalized, described, catalogued and made public in free-access. OFD manages seven types of collection materials: 3D and 2D scans of specimen in Herbarium, Fungarium, Insect and Mammal Collections, images from microscopes (including stereoscopic and scanning electron microscopes), morphometric measurements, computed tomography and microtomography scans in Mammal Collection, mammal telemetry data, satellite imagery, geospatial climatic and environmental data, georeferenced historical maps. 3D and 2D scans of specimen in Herbarium, Fungarium, Insect and Mammal Collections, images from microscopes (including stereoscopic and scanning electron microscopes), morphometric measurements, computed tomography and microtomography scans in Mammal Collection, mammal telemetry data, satellite imagery, geospatial climatic and environmental data, georeferenced historical maps. In the OFD repository, researchers have the possibility to share data in standardized way, which nowadays is often a requirement during the publishing process of a scientific article. Beside scientists, OFD is designed to be open and free for students and specialists in nature protection, but also for officials, foresters and nature enthusiasts. Creation of the OFD repository supports the development of citizen science in Poland, increases visibility and access to published data, improves scientific collaboration, exchange and reuse of data within and across borders.

The efficacy of cognitive training interventions is recently highly debated. There is no consensus on what kind of training regimen is the most effective. Also, individual characteristics as predictors of training outcome are still being investigated. In this article, we show the attempt to address this issue by examining not only the impact of working memory (WM) training on cognitive effectiveness in older adults but also the influence of the initial WM capacity (WMC) on the training's outcome. We describe in detail how to perform 5 weeks of an adaptive dual n-back training with an active control group (memory quiz). We are focusing here on technical aspects of the training as well as on the initial assessment of participants' WMC. The evaluation of pre and post training performance of other cognitive dimensions was based on the results of tests of memory updating, inhibition, attention shifting, short-term memory (STM) and reasoning. We have found that the initial level of WMC predicts the efficiency of the n-back training intervention. We have also noticed the post training improvement in almost all aspects of cognitive functioning we measured, but those effects were mostly intervention independent.

Our study aimed to evaluate whether the type of food products and the frequency of their consumption are associated with cognitive functioning in younger and older adults. The impact of diets that are high in added sugars and saturated fat on cognitive functioning, especially on memory, was at the center of our interest. Participants in the study were 204 healthy adults (aged 20–55) who performed a multitasking cognitive test and completed dietary and psychological questionnaires. Stepwise regression analysis with age and food consumption patterns as predictors, and the cognitive task performance as a dependent variable, revealed that cognitive task performance worsened with age. However, we found that the frequency of consuming different types of foods (healthy versus unhealthy dietary patterns) moderates the effects of age on cognitive functioning. Red meat and animal fat consumption were negatively correlated with cognitive performance, and this relation was dependent on the age of our participants. Conversely, white meat and fish consumption were positively related to memory. Different indices of dietary patterns (both positive and negative) were stronger predictors of cognitive performance in the older adult group. We interpret our results as evidence that diet may be a protective (or worsening) factor in age-related cognitive decline.