Containment of and Its Mycotoxins in Various Biological Systems by Antagonistic and Strains.

Prevention of fungal diseases caused by species, including , and thus the accumulation of mycotoxins in wheat ears, is a constant challenge focused on the development of new, effective crop management solutions. One of the currently most ecologically attractive approaches is biological control using natural antagonistic microorganisms. With this in mind, the antagonistic potential of thirty-three and strains was assessed in this work.

The Lack of Influence of Homozygous Long Allele of the 5-HTTLPR Gene on the Severity of Alcohol Craving During 6 Weeks of Rehab Hospitalisation in Comparison to Not Homozygous and Homozygous Short Alleles - Preliminary Report.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to assess changes in the severity of alcohol craving according to allelic variants of the 5-HTTLPR gene polymorphism during hospitalisation and their association with selected clinical variables in alcohol-dependent patients.

Patients And Methods: The study is exploratory. Participants were investigated at the 2nd and 6th week of alcohol-dependence therapy in the addiction treatment unit.

Accumulation of Particles and Formation of a Dissipative Structure in a Nonequilibrium Bath.

The standard textbooks contain good explanations of how and why equilibrium thermodynamics emerges in a reservoir with particles that are subjected to Gaussian noise. However, in systems that convert or transport energy, the noise is often not Gaussian. Instead, displacements exhibit an α-stable distribution.

Profile of homeless people in emergency departments.

Objectives: For homeless people, emergency departments (ED) are the place of medical care and satisfying physiological, safety and social needs. The treatment of the homeless in EDs is a common issue in many countries. The aim of study was to analyze selected parameters of health care to homeless people in EDs.

Breaking of time-reversal symmetry for a particle in a parabolic potential that is subjected to Lévy noise: Theory and an application to solar flare data.

The noise in nonequilibrium systems commonly contains more outliers as compared to equilibrium systems and is often best described with a Lévy distribution. Many systems in which there are fluctuations around a steady-state throughput can be modeled as a Lévy-noise-subjected particle in a parabolic potential. We consider an overdamped particle in a parabolic potential that is subjected to noise.

Lack of Evidence That Bird Feeders Are a Source of Salmonellosis during Winter in Poland.

Bird feeders are known to be a transfer site for many important bird pathogens, such as zoonotic spp., known to be widespread among wild birds in Poland. The aim of the study was to investigate (1) whether feeders can be a source of spp.

Biofilm on the polymer composites - qualitative and quantitative microbiological analysis.

Background: Modern technology, which has been getting more and more recognition in the world for the last several years, is the moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) technology. Currently, movable biofilters made of basic polymeric materials, polyethylene and polypropylene.

Methods: An innovative solution in the field, mainly because of the large active surface area for biological membrane can be wood polymer composites (WPC).

Data-Driven Dietary Patterns and Diet Quality Scores: Reproducibility and Consistency in Sex and Age Subgroups of Poles Aged 15-65 Years.

This study aimed to assess: (i) the test-retest reproducibility of identification of data-driven dietary patterns (DPs) derived using a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and hypothesis-driven DPs (diet quality scores); (ii) the consistency of data-driven DPs with diet quality scores in sex and age subgroups of Poles aged 15-65 years. The study involved 504 subjects (55.6% of females).

Sensitivity analysis based on the random forest machine learning algorithm identifies candidate genes for regulation of innate and adaptive immune response of chicken.

Two categories of immune responses-innate and adaptive immunity-have both polygenic backgrounds and a significant environmental component. The goal of the reported study was to define candidate genes and mutations for the immune traits of interest in chickens using machine learning-based sensitivity analysis for single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) located in candidate genes defined in quantitative trait loci regions. Here the adaptive immunity is represented by the specific antibody response toward keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH), whereas the innate immunity was represented by natural antibodies toward lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and lipoteichoic acid (LTA).

Smart Containers Schedulers for Microservices Provision in Cloud-Fog-IoT Networks. Challenges and Opportunities.

Docker containers are the lightweight-virtualization technology prevailing today for the provision of microservices. This work raises and discusses two main challenges in Docker containers' scheduling in cloud-fog-internet of things (IoT) networks. First, the convenience to integrate intelligent containers' schedulers based on soft-computing in the dominant open-source containers' management platforms: Docker Swarm, Google Kubernetes and Apache Mesos.

Campylobacter in wintering great tits Parus major in Poland.

Domestic and wild mammals, domestic birds and particularly wild birds are considered to be reservoirs of many species of Enterobacteriaceae, and also important human enteric pathogens, e.g., the bacteria of the genus Campylobacter that occur in their digestive tracts.

Reproducibility of a Short-Form, Multicomponent Dietary Questionnaire to Assess Food Frequency Consumption, Nutrition Knowledge, and Lifestyle (SF-FFQ4PolishChildren) in Polish Children and Adolescents.

The aim of the study was to assess the reproducibility of a short-form, multicomponent dietary questionnaire (SF-FFQ4PolishChildren) in Polish children and adolescents. The study involved 437 children (6-10 years old) and 630 adolescents (11-15 years old) from rural and urban areas of Poland. The self-administered questionnaire was related to nutrition knowledge, dietary habits, active/sedentary lifestyle, self-reported weight and height, and socioeconomic data.

Do agricultural environments increase the reproductive success of White Stork Ciconia ciconia populations in South-Western Poland?

As populations of White Stork Ciconia ciconia have decreased at different rates in Europe, the specific environmental drivers that influence breeding success are a matter of controversy. Here we use body size, blood, and environmental data of a total of 1226 stork nestlings of different ages from a total of 363 nests in three different habitats (meadows, forest-edges, open agricultural landscapes) in S-W Poland to ask whether: 1) natural grassland environments increase the reproductive output in comparison with agricultural landscapes, 2) nestlings from agricultural landscapes differ in health status from nestlings in more natural habitats, 3) differences in environmental stress translate into respective differences in reproductive output and health status of nestlings. There was no significant difference in age corrected body mass and in the temporal increase in nestling mass between the study sites.

Prediction of semen quality using artificial neural network.

Examination of semen characteristics is routinely performed for fertility status investigation of the male partner of an infertile couple as well as for evaluation of the sperm donor candidate. A useful tool for preliminary assessment of semen characteristics might be an artificial neural network. Thus, the aim of the present study was to construct an artificial neural network, which could be used for predicting the result of semen analysis based on the basic questionnaire data.

The Amphoteric and Hydrophilic Properties of Cartilage Surface in Mammalian Joints: Interfacial Tension and Molecular Dynamics Simulation Studies.

In this paper, we explain the amphoteric character of the cartilage surface by studying a lipid bilayer model built from phospholipids. We examined the interfacial tension values and molecular dynamics simulation in solutions of varying pH. The effects of negative and positive charge density (or fixed charges) on the (cartilage/cartilage) friction coefficient were investigated.

Survivability of rabbit amniotic fluid-derived mesenchymal stem cells post slow-freezing or vitrification.

This work aimed to evaluate the effect of two distinct cryopreservation procedures - conventional slow-freezing and vitrification, on survivability and mesenchymal marker expression stability of rabbit amniotic fluid-derived mesenchymal stem cells (rAF-MSCs). Cells at passage 2 were slowly frozen, using 10% of dimethylsulfoxide, or vitrified, using 40% of ethylene glycol, 0.5 M sucrose and 18% Ficoll 70.

Outbreaks of the measles in the Dutch Bible Belt and in other places - New prospects for a 1000 year old virus.

In the Netherlands there has been nationwide vaccination against the measles since 1977. However, a tight-knit community of a few hundred thousand orthodox protestants in the "Dutch Bible Belt" refuses the vaccine. Within this community of orthodox protestants there has been an outbreak of the measles with roughly 2500 reported cases about every twelve years.

Reproducibility of a Questionnaire for Dietary Habits, Lifestyle and Nutrition Knowledge Assessment (KomPAN) in Polish Adolescents and Adults.

The aim of the study was to evaluate the reproducibility of the Dietary Habits and Nutrition Beliefs Questionnaire (KomPAN) in Polish adolescents and adults, including the assessment of indexes developed based on the questionnaire. In total, the study involved 954 subjects aged 15⁻65 (53.9% females).

Establishing the cell biology of apomictic reproduction in diploid Boechera stricta (Brassicaceae).

Background And Aims: In the Brassicaceae family, apomictic development is characteristic of the genus Boechera. Hybridization, polyploidy and environmental adaptation that arose during the evolution of Boechera may serve as (epi)genetic regulators of apomictic initiation in this genus. Here we focus on Boechera stricta, a predominantly diploid species that reproduces sexually.

Human Sperm Characteristics with Regard to Cobalt, Chromium, and Lead in Semen and Activity of Catalase in Seminal Plasma.

We analyzed cobalt (Co), chromium (Cr), and lead (Pb) concentrations in human semen and catalase CAT activity in seminal plasma and the effects of their relations on the sperm quality. We obtained semen samples from men (n = 168) undergoing routine infertility evaluation. Studies included two groups based on the ejaculate parameters: I (n = 39; normal ejaculate; normozoospermia); II (n = 129; pathological spermiogram).

Humic substances in Fluvisols of the Lower Vistula floodplain, North Poland.

The present study describes properties of humic substances of the Fluvisols (the Lower Vistula, Poland). Fluvisols under agricultural management (arable soil and grassland) were sampled from the surface horizon 50, 200, 600, and 900 m from the Vistula River. The content of carbon in the fractions of humic acids (C), fulvic acids (C), and humins (C) as well as the content of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) were assayed.

Development of a Highly Sensitive FcMito qPCR Assay for the Quantification of the Toxigenic Fungal Plant Pathogen .

is a ubiquitous, soil-borne fungus (ascomycete) causing foot and root rot and Fusarium head blight on cereals. It is responsible for yield and quality losses as well as grain contamination with mycotoxins, which are a potential health hazard. An extremely sensitive mitochondrial-based qPCR assay (FcMito qPCR) for quantification of was developed in this study.

FISH-aimed karyotype analysis in Aconitum subgen. Aconitum reveals excessive rDNA sites in tetraploid taxa.

The location of 5S and 35S rDNA sequences in chromosomes of four Aconitum subsp. Aconitum species was analyzed after fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). Both in diploids (2n = 2x = 16; Aconitum variegatum, A.

Comparative Efficacy of Topical Pertmehrin, Crotamiton and Sulfur Ointment in Treatment of Scabies.

Background: Scabies is an ectoparasitic infection, which occurs because of direct skin-to skin contact. The ideal treatment modality is still unclear and further research on this topic is warranted. The aim of the study was to compare the efficacy and safety of the topical scabicides: permethrin, crotamiton and sulfur ointment.

Biomineralization of gold by Mucor plumbeus: The progress in understanding the mechanism of nanoparticles' formation.

This contribution describes the deposition of gold nanoparticles by microbial reduction of Au(III) ions using the mycelium of Mucor plumbeus. Biosorption as the major mechanism of Au(III) ions binding by the fungal cells and the reduction of them to the form of Au(0) on/in the cell wall, followed by the transportation of the synthesized gold nanoparticles to the cytoplasm, is postulated. The probable mechanism behind the reduction of Au(III) ions is discussed, leading to the conclusion that this process is nonenzymatic one.