Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw

Background : Health literacy concerns the capacities of people to meet the complex demands of health in modern society. In spite of the growing attention for the concept among European health policymakers, researchers and practitioners, information about the status of health literacy in Europe remains scarce. This article presents selected findings from the first European comparative survey on health literacy in populations. M ethods : The European health literacy survey (HLS-EU) was conducted in eight countries: Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain ( n = 1000 per country, n = 8000 total sample). Data collection was based on Eurobarometer standards and the implementation of the HLS-EU-Q (questionnaire) in computer-assisted or paper-assisted personal interviews. R esults : The HLS-EU-Q constructed four levels of health literacy: insufficient, problematic, sufficient and excellent. At least 1 in 10 (12%) respondents showed insufficient health literacy and almost 1 in 2 (47%) had limited (insufficient or problematic) health literacy. However, the distribution of levels differed substantially across countries (29–62%). Subgroups within the population, defined by financial deprivation, low social status, low education or old age, had higher proportions of people with limited health literacy, suggesting the presence of a social gradient which was also confirmed by raw bivariate correlations and a multivariate linear regression model. Discussion : Limited health literacy represents an important challenge for health policies and practices across Europe, but to a different degree for different countries. The social gradient in health literacy must be taken into account when developing public health strategies to improve health equity in Europe.

The dynamic interactions of cancer cells with their microenvironment consisting of stromal cells (cellular part) and extracellular matrix (ECM) components (non-cellular) is essential to stimulate the heterogeneity of cancer cell, clonal evolution and to increase the multidrug resistance ending in cancer cell progression and metastasis. The reciprocal cell-cell/ECM interaction and tumor cell hijacking of non-malignant cells force stromal cells to lose their function and acquire new phenotypes that promote development and invasion of tumor cells. Understanding the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms governing these interactions can be used as a novel strategy to indirectly disrupt cancer cell interplay and contribute to the development of efficient and safe therapeutic strategies to fight cancer. Furthermore, the tumor-derived circulating materials can also be used as cancer diagnostic tools to precisely predict and monitor the outcome of therapy. This review evaluates such potentials in various advanced cancer models, with a focus on 3D systems as well as lab-on-chip devices. Video abstract.

BACKGROUND: Several measurement tools have been developed to measure health literacy. The tools vary in their approach and design, but few have focused on comprehensive health literacy in populations. This paper describes the design and development of the European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire (HLS-EU-Q), an innovative, comprehensive tool to measure health literacy in populations. METHODS: Based on a conceptual model and definition, the process involved item development, pre-testing, field-testing, external consultation, plain language check, and translation from English to Bulgarian, Dutch, German, Greek, Polish, and Spanish. RESULTS: The development process resulted in the HLS-EU-Q, which entailed two sections, a core health literacy section and a section on determinants and outcomes associated to health literacy. The health literacy section included 47 items addressing self-reported difficulties in accessing, understanding, appraising and applying information in tasks concerning decisions making in healthcare, disease prevention, and health promotion. The second section included items related to, health behaviour, health status, health service use, community participation, socio-demographic and socio-economic factors. CONCLUSIONS: By illuminating the detailed steps in the design and development process of the HLS-EU-Q, it is the aim to provide a deeper understanding of its purpose, its capability and its limitations for others using the tool. By stimulating a wide application it is the vision that HLS-EU-Q will be validated in more countries to enhance the understanding of health literacy in different populations.

Abstract Body-mass index (BMI) has increased steadily in most countries in parallel with a rise in the proportion of the population who live in cities 1,2 . This has led to a widely reported view that urbanization is one of the most important drivers of the global rise in obesity 3–6 . Here we use 2,009 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in more than 112 million adults, to report national, regional and global trends in mean BMI segregated by place of residence (a rural or urban area) from 1985 to 2017. We show that, contrary to the dominant paradigm, more than 55% of the global rise in mean BMI from 1985 to 2017—and more than 80% in some low- and middle-income regions—was due to increases in BMI in rural areas. This large contribution stems from the fact that, with the exception of women in sub-Saharan Africa, BMI is increasing at the same rate or faster in rural areas than in cities in low- and middle-income regions. These trends have in turn resulted in a closing—and in some countries reversal—of the gap in BMI between urban and rural areas in low- and middle-income countries, especially for women. In high-income and industrialized countries, we noted a persistently higher rural BMI, especially for women. There is an urgent need for an integrated approach to rural nutrition that enhances financial and physical access to healthy foods, to avoid replacing the rural undernutrition disadvantage in poor countries with a more general malnutrition disadvantage that entails excessive consumption of low-quality calories.

This critical review describes a class of polymers prepared by electrochemical polymerization that employs the concept of molecular imprinting for chemical sensing. The principal focus is on both conducting and nonconducting polymers prepared by electropolymerization of electroactive functional monomers, such as pristine and derivatized pyrrole, aminophenylboronic acid, thiophene, porphyrin, aniline, phenylenediamine, phenol, and thiophenol. A critical evaluation of the literature on electrosynthesized molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) applied as recognition elements of chemical sensors is presented. The aim of this review is to highlight recent achievements in analytical applications of these MIPs, including present strategies of determination of different analytes as well as identification and solutions for problems encountered.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are members of a non-coding RNA family. They act as negative regulators of protein translation by affecting messenger RNA (mRNA) stability; they modulate numerous signaling pathways and cellular processes, and are involved in cell-to-cell communication. Thus, studies on miRNAs offer an opportunity to improve our understanding of complex biological mechanisms. In the cardiovascular system, miRNAs control functions of various cells, such as cardiomyocytes, endothelial cells, smooth muscle cells and fibroblasts. The pivotal role of miRNAs in the cardiovascular system provides a new perspective on the pathophysiology of disorders like myocardial infarction, hypertrophy, fibrosis, heart failure, arrhythmia, inflammation and atherosclerosis. MiRNAs are differentially expressed in diseased tissue and can be released into circulation. Manipulation of miRNA activity may influence the course of a disease. Therefore, miRNAs have become an active field of research for developing new diagnostic and therapeutic tools. This review discusses emerging functions of miRNAs in cardiogenesis, heart regeneration and the pathophysiology of cardiovascular diseases.

It seems obvious that the identification of coping structure is necessary to understand how stress affects human health and functioning. Despite numerous coping conceptualization proposals, there is no agreement as to the core coping categories. This article presents the Coping Circumplex Model (CCM), which is designed to integrate various coping distinctions, drawing inspiration from the tradition of circumplex models in psychology. The model is based on the assumption that individuals in stressful situations face two tasks: they need to solve the problem and regulate their emotions, which are reflected in two corresponding dimensions, that is, the problem coping dimension and emotion coping dimension. Problem coping and emotion coping are interpreted as bipolar dimensions. Importantly, these dimensions define a space for other coping categories. The model contains a total of eight coping styles forming a circumplex: positive emotional coping, efficiency, problem solving, preoccupation with the problem, negative emotional coping, helplessness, problem avoidance, and hedonic disengagement. The paper discusses the potential of the CCM to overcome some of the problems of stress psychology by: (a) supplementing the set of coping categories (i.e., process, strategy, style) with coping mode; (b) providing a foundation for the integration of numerous coping constructs; (c) enabling the interpretation of results obtained by means of different coping measures, thus facilitating knowledge consolidation; (d) explaining relationships between coping and adjustment after trauma, as well as explaining the mechanisms of psychological interventions (e.g., cognitive therapy, exposure therapy); (e) clarifying linkages between the effectiveness of coping strategies and situation controllability. Moreover, the CCM may elucidate the relationship between coping and emotion regulation (e.g., cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression).

= 263), we examined the role of personality traits (i.e., Big Five and Dark Triad) and individual differences in perceptions of the COVID-19 pandemic situation (the situational eight: Duty, Intellect, Adversity, Mating, Positivity, Negativity, Deception, and Sociality) in accounting for individual differences in compliance with the governmental restrictions in Poland. We found that the way people perceived the situation explained more variance in compliance than personality traits which is in accordance with the hypothesis that strong situations, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, leave less room for dispositional tendencies in predicting behaviors than situational cues. Moreover, people scoring low on agreeableness and high on aspects of the Dark Triad traits (i.e., Machiavellianism, psychopathy Factor 1, and narcissistic rivalry) were less likely to comply with the restrictions. Additionally, we replicated and extended what is known about the associations between personality and individual differences in the perception of situations when the latter were assessed in relation to a strong situation and the former were assessed with long and multidimensional measures.

Copper is one of the most abundant basic transition metals in the human body. It takes part in oxygen metabolism, collagen synthesis, and skin pigmentation, maintaining the integrity of blood vessels, as well as in iron homeostasis, antioxidant defense, and neurotransmitter synthesis. It may also be involved in cell signaling and may participate in modulation of membrane receptor-ligand interactions, control of kinase and related phosphatase functions, as well as many cellular pathways. Its role is also important in controlling gene expression in the nucleus. In the nervous system in particular, copper is involved in myelination, and by modulating synaptic activity as well as excitotoxic cell death and signaling cascades induced by neurotrophic factors, copper is important for various neuronal functions. Current data suggest that both excess copper levels and copper deficiency can be harmful, and careful homeostatic control is important. This knowledge opens up an important new area for potential therapeutic interventions based on copper supplementation or removal in neurodegenerative diseases including Wilson's disease (WD), Menkes disease (MD), Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), and others. However, much remains to be discovered, in particular, how to regulate copper homeostasis to prevent neurodegeneration, when to chelate copper, and when to supplement it.

Complex Hadamard matrices, consisting of unimodular entries with arbitrary phases, play an important role in the theory of quantum information. We review basic properties of complex Hadamard matrices and present a catalogue of inequivalent cases known for the dimensions N = 2,…,16. In particular, we explicitly write down some families of complex Hadamard matrices for N = 12, 14 and 16, which we could not find in the existing literature.

We present a scaling formula for size-dependent viscosity coefficients for proteins, polymers, and fluorescent dyes diffusing in complex liquids. The formula was used to analyze the mobilities of probes of different sizes in HeLa and Swiss 3T3 mammalian cells. This analysis unveils in the cytoplasm two length scales: (i) the correlation length ξ (approximately 5 nm in HeLa and 7 nm in Swiss 3T3 cells) and (ii) the limiting length scale that marks the crossover between nano- and macroscale viscosity (approximately 86 nm in HeLa and 30 nm in Swiss 3T3 cells). During motion, probes smaller than ξ experienced matrix viscosity: η(matrix) ≈ 2.0 mPa·s for HeLa and 0.88 mPa·s for Swiss 3T3 cells. Probes much larger than the limiting length scale experienced macroscopic viscosity, η(macro) ≈ 4.4 × 10(-2) and 2.4 × 10(-2) Pa·s for HeLa and Swiss 3T3 cells, respectively. Our results are persistent for the lengths scales from 0.14 nm to a few hundred nanometers.

Background: Even on optimal therapy, many patients with heart failure and atrial fibrillation experience cardiovascular complications. Additional treatments are needed to reduce these events, especially in patients with heart failure and preserved left ventricular ejection fraction. Methods: This prespecified subanalysis of the randomized EAST-AFNET4 trial (Early Treatment of Atrial Fibrillation for Stroke Prevention Trial) assessed the effect of systematic, early rhythm control therapy (ERC; using antiarrhythmic drugs or catheter ablation) compared with usual care (allowing rhythm control therapy to improve symptoms) on the 2 primary outcomes of the trial and on selected secondary outcomes in patients with heart failure, defined as heart failure symptoms New York Heart Association II to III or left ventricular ejection fraction [LVEF] <50%. Results: This analysis included 798 patients (300 [37.6%] female, median age 71.0 [64.0, 76.0] years, 785 with known LVEF). The majority of patients (n=442) had heart failure and preserved LVEF (LVEF≥50%; mean LVEF 61±6.3%), the others had heart failure with midrange ejection fraction (n=211; LVEF 40%–49%; mean LVEF 44 ± 2.9%) or heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (n=132; LVEF<40%; mean LVEF 31±5.5%). Over the 5.1-year median follow-up, the composite primary outcome of cardiovascular death, stroke, or hospitalization for worsening of heart failure or for acute coronary syndrome occurred less often in patients randomly assigned to ERC (94/396; 5.7 per 100 patient-years) compared with patients randomly assigned to usual care (130/402; 7.9 per 100 patient-years; hazard ratio, 0.74 [0.56–0.97]; P =0.03), not altered by heart failure status (interaction P value=0.63). The primary safety outcome (death, stroke, or serious adverse events related to rhythm control therapy) occurred in 71 of 396 (17.9%) patients with heart failure randomly assigned to ERC and in 87 of 402 (21.6%) patients with heart failure randomly assigned to usual care (hazard ratio, 0.85 [0.62–1.17]; P =0.33). LVEF improved in both groups (LVEF change at 2 years: ERC 5.3±11.6%, usual care 4.9±11.6%, P =0.43). ERC also improved the composite outcome of death or hospitalization for worsening of heart failure. Conclusions: Rhythm control therapy conveys clinical benefit when initiated within 1 year of diagnosing atrial fibrillation in patients with signs or symptoms of heart failure. Registration: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov ; Unique identifier: NCT01288352. URL: http://www.controlled-trials.com ; Unique identifier: ISRCTN04708680. URL: https://www.clinicaltrialsregister.eu ; Unique identifier: 2010-021258-20.

Abstract. The Mediterranean region and the Levant have returned some of the clearest evidence of a climatically dry period occurring around 4200 years ago. However, some regional evidence is controversial and contradictory, and issues remain regarding timing, progression, and regional articulation of this event. In this paper, we review the evidence from selected proxies (sea-surface temperature, precipitation, and temperature reconstructed from pollen, δ18O on speleothems, and δ18O on lacustrine carbonate) over the Mediterranean Basin to infer possible regional climate patterns during the interval between 4.3 and 3.8 ka. The values and limitations of these proxies are discussed, and their potential for furnishing information on seasonality is also explored. Despite the chronological uncertainties, which are the main limitations for disentangling details of the climatic conditions, the data suggest that winter over the Mediterranean involved drier conditions, in addition to already dry summers. However, some exceptions to this prevail – where wetter conditions seem to have persisted – suggesting regional heterogeneity in climate patterns. Temperature data, even if sparse, also suggest a cooling anomaly, even if this is not uniform. The most common paradigm to interpret the precipitation regime in the Mediterranean – a North Atlantic Oscillation-like pattern – is not completely satisfactory to interpret the selected data.

Researchers around the world are applying the recently revised Portrait Value Questionnaire (PVQ-RR) to measure the 19 values in Schwartz’s refined values theory. We assessed the internal reliability, circular structure, measurement model, and measurement invariance of values measured by this questionnaire across 49 cultural groups ( N = 53,472) and 32 language versions. The PVQ-RR reliably measured 15 of the 19 values in the vast majority of groups and two others in most groups. The fit of the theory-based measurement models supported the differentiation of almost all values in every cultural group. Almost all values were measured invariantly across groups at the configural and metric level. A multidimensional scaling analysis revealed that the PVQ-RR perfectly reproduced the theorized order of the 19 values around the circle across groups. The current study established the PVQ-RR as a sound instrument to measure and to compare the hierarchies and correlates of values across cultures.

BACKGROUND: The extravascular implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) has a single lead implanted substernally to enable pause-prevention pacing, antitachycardia pacing, and defibrillation energy similar to that of transvenous ICDs. The safety and efficacy of extravascular ICDs are not yet known. METHODS: We conducted a prospective, single-group, nonrandomized, premarket global clinical study involving patients with a class I or IIa indication for an ICD, all of whom received an extravascular ICD system. The primary efficacy end point was successful defibrillation at implantation. The efficacy objective would be met if the lower boundary of the one-sided 97.5% confidence interval for the percentage of patients with successful defibrillation was greater than 88%. The primary safety end point was freedom from major system- or procedure-related complications at 6 months. The safety objective would be met if the lower boundary of the one-sided 97.5% confidence interval for the percentage of patients free from such complications was greater than 79%. RESULTS: A total of 356 patients were enrolled, 316 of whom had an implantation attempt. Among the 302 patients in whom ventricular arrhythmia could be induced and who completed the defibrillation testing protocol, the percentage of patients with successful defibrillation was 98.7% (lower boundary of the one-sided 97.5% confidence interval [CI], 96.6%; P<0.001 for the comparison with the performance goal of 88%); 299 of 316 patients (94.6%) were discharged with a working ICD system. The Kaplan-Meier estimate of the percentage of patients free from major system- or procedure-related complications at 6 months was 92.6% (lower boundary of the one-sided 97.5% CI, 89.0%; P<0.001 for the comparison with the performance goal of 79%). No major intraprocedural complications were reported. At 6 months, 25 major complications were observed, in 23 of 316 patients (7.3%). The success rate of antitachycardia pacing, as assessed with generalized estimating equations, was 50.8% (95% CI, 23.3 to 77.8). A total of 29 patients received 118 inappropriate shocks for 81 arrhythmic episodes. Eight systems were explanted without extravascular ICD replacement over the 10.6-month mean follow-up period. CONCLUSIONS: In this prospective global study, we found that extravascular ICDs were implanted safely and were able to detect and terminate induced ventricular arrhythmias at the time of implantation. (Funded by Medtronic; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT04060680.).

Values reflect how people want to experience the world; emotions reflect how people actually experience the world. Therefore, we propose that across cultures people desire emotions that are consistent with their values. Whereas prior research focused on the desirability of specific affective states or 1 or 2 target emotions, we offer a broader account of desired emotions. After reporting initial evidence for the potential causal effects of values on desired emotions in a preliminary study (N = 200), we tested the predictions of our proposed model in 8 samples (N = 2,328) from distinct world cultural regions. Across cultural samples, we found that people who endorsed values of self-transcendence (e.g., benevolence) wanted to feel more empathy and compassion, people who endorsed values of self-enhancement (e.g., power) wanted to feel more anger and pride, people who endorsed values of openness to change (e.g., self-direction) wanted to feel more interest and excitement, and people who endorsed values of conservation (e.g., tradition) wanted to feel more calmness and less fear. These patterns were independent of differences in emotional experience. We discuss the implications of our value-based account of desired emotions for understanding emotion regulation, culture, and other individual differences. (PsycINFO Database Record

INTRODUCTION: The DSM-5 Alternative Model of Personality Disorders (AMPD) and the ICD-11 classification of personality disorders (PD) are largely commensurate and, when combined, they delineate 6 trait domains: negative affectivity, detachment, antagonism/dissociality, disinhibition, anankastia, and psychoticism. OBJECTIVE: The present study evaluated the international validity of a brief 36-item patient-report measure that portrays all 6 domains simultaneously including 18 primary subfacets. METHODS: We developed and employed a modified version of the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 - Brief Form Plus (PID5BF+). A total of 16,327 individuals were included, 2,347 of whom were patients. The expected 6-factor structure of facets was initially investigated in samples from Denmark (n = 584), Germany (n = 1,271), and the USA (n = 605) and subsequently replicated in both patient- and community samples from Italy, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Poland, Czech Republic, the USA, and Brazil. Associations with interview-rated DSM-5 PD categories were also investigated. RESULTS: Findings generally supported the empirical soundness and international robustness of the 6 domains including meaningful associations with familiar interview-rated PD types. CONCLUSIONS: The modified PID5BF+ may be employed internationally by clinicians and researchers for brief and reliable assessment of the 6 combined DSM-5 and ICD-11 domains, including 18 primary subfacets. This 6-domain framework may inform a future nosology for DSM-5.1 that is more reasonably aligned with the authoritative ICD-11 codes than the current DSM-5 AMPD model. The 36-item modified PID5BF+ scoring key is provided in online supplementary Appendix A see www.karger.com/doi/10.1159/000507589 (for all online suppl. material).

We measured the viscosity of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG 6000, 12,000, 20,000) in water using capillary electrophoresis and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy with nanoscopic probes of different diameters (from 1.7 to 114 nm). For a probe of diameter smaller than the radius of gyration of PEG (e.g. rhodamine B or lyzozyme) the measured nanoviscosity was orders of magnitude smaller than the macroviscosity. For sizes equal to (or larger than) the polymer radius of gyration, macroscopic value of viscosity was measured. A mathematical relation for macro and nanoviscosity was found as a function of PEG radius of gyration, R(g), correlation length in semi-dilute solution, xi, and probe size, R. For R < R(g), the nanoviscosity (normalized by water viscosity) is given by exp(b(R/xi)a), and for R > R(g), both nano and macroviscosity follow the same curve, exp(b(R/xi)a), where a and b are two constants close to unity. This mathematical relation was shown to equally well describe rhodamine (of size 1.7 nm) in PEG 20,000 and the macroviscosity of PEG 8,000,000, whose radius of gyration exceeds 200 nm. Additionally, for the smallest probes (rhodamine B and lysozyme) we have verified, using capillary electrophoresis and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, that the Stokes-Einstein (SE) relation holds, providing that we use a size-dependent viscosity in the formula. The SE relation is correct even in PEG solutions of very high viscosity (three orders of magnitude larger than that of water).

Flexibility in the exchange of genetic material takes place between different organisms of the same or different species. This phenomenon is known to play a key role in the genetic, physiological, and ecological performance of the host. Exchange of genetic materials can cause both beneficial and/or adverse biological consequences. Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) or lateral gene transfer (LGT) as a general mechanism leads to biodiversity and biological innovations in nature. HGT mediators are one of the genetic engineering tools used for selective introduction of desired changes in the genome for gene/cell therapy purposes. HGT, however, is crucial in development, emergence, and recurrence of various human-related diseases, such as cancer, genetic-, metabolic-, and neurodegenerative disorders and can negatively affect the therapeutic outcome by promoting resistant forms or disrupting the performance of genome editing toolkits. Because of the importance of HGT and its vital physio- and pathological roles, here the variety of HGT mechanisms are reviewed, ranging from extracellular vesicles (EVs) and nanotubes in prokaryotes to cell-free DNA and apoptotic bodies in eukaryotes. Next, we argue that HGT plays a role both in the development of useful features and in pathological states associated with emerging and recurrent forms of the disease. A better understanding of the different HGT mediators and their genome-altering effects/potentials may pave the way for the development of more effective therapeutic and diagnostic regimes.

The critical food safety assessment is one of the essences of the modern food industry. The major factors contributing to this assessment include the increased public awareness of safe food and the surge in quantity and variety of food pollutants because of globalization, industrialization, and population growth. With molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) recognition units, electrochemical sensors have opted for food analysis in recent decades. MIP-based electrochemical sensors are versatile as they can be devised for different food contaminants. They offer simplicity in terms of sensor preparation and measurement and cost-efficiency. These sensors' affinity to target analytes is often high. In effect, the number of publications reporting MIP electrochemical chemosensors for food safety and quality monitoring applications has significantly increased. Therefore, the present review highlights the recent developments in fabricating MIP recognition-units-based electrochemical sensors and their applications in determining contaminants in various food and drink matrices.