We talk to Prof. Agnieszka Sirko from the PAS Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics about our improving understanding of cellular death.
Death is one of the key concepts present in the traditional image of the world. It means an end and is related to the process of wearing out and losing original properties. In folk anthropology, death is understood in terms of the transition from the earth world to the land of the dead, as the beginning of eternal existence. Death is one of the rites of passage and as such is correlated with other crucial moments of human existence, mainly with birth and marriage. Death is a common motif present in various genres of folklore. Researchers are interested in death predominantly because of its belief- and ritual-related image. The aim of the article is to analyse depictions of death in folk fablesand other kinds of prose works. Special emphasis is placed on the personifi cation of death as well as on its genesis and ontological status. The article also deals with the idea of death understood as both an event and a process, and it addresses death seen as a transcendental and unmaterialised force which determines a person’s life against his or her will.
The article deals with the issue of illness and suffering in Carmelite sermons of the 17th–18th centuries. The question of the origin of suffering is considered along with the role of God’s mercy and justice in the preaching discourse about the rightness and purposefulness of suffering of the human being. In addition, an analysis of the views of preachers about topics related to passing away and the attitude they advocate in the face of death is included.
The death of a person, particularly my own death, is the most momentous occasion that happens in a lifetime. It seems to be an inevitable end of any possible experience, ceasing any relationship, the end of memories and hopes. It evokes various reactions in the living, just to mention some as: fascination, fear, stress, consent, willingness to familiarization. Each of them may be analysed, while each one shows also the death in a different aspect. In the proposed article, the author indicates another reaction - that is experiencing anxiety. It appears that this is the key experience, both when I am thinking about it as something that may afflict me at any moment, as well as when I become aware that there is a possibility of exit of the loved ones or just a popular person. Some texts by Joseph Ratzinger have inspired me to carry out such analyses.
The present paper analyses the self-portrait of Isabelle Eberhardt emerging from the letters she wrote to three men: her brother Augustin de Moerder, her friend Ali Abdul Wahab and her husband Slimène Ehnni. The paper is divided into three parts. The first one discusses her desire of Orient, the second shows her will of annihilating herself and the last one focuses on the power of the desert which helps the writer to find the desired calm.
The author, putting the metaphor of “a living dead” to the interpretation, tries to find the common points in the creative output of both writers i.e. Pushkin and Kharms. Both writers, belonging to extremely different literary periods and using other medium, were interested in the most important matters, among others the matter of life and death. Paradoxical metaphor of “a living dead” may imply not only a person being physically exhausted but above all a person deprived of emotions, experience and human reactions, whose fate brings nothing else but the inevitability of death. However, the matter that links both Pushkin and Kharms is the concept of “a coincidence”, which rules human fate, which is unpredictable, hard to avoid and which is a tool at hands of the providence.
Introduction: Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) is a Gram-positive, anaerobic rod-shaped bacteria, widely spread in the human environment. In the last decade, the frequency and severity of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) have been increasing, making this particular disease one of the most significant nosocomial infections. The aim of our study was an analysis of CDI risk factors, its course and consequences.
Materials and Methods: Medical documentation of the patients treated for CDI in the University Hospital in Cracow and St Anne’s Hospital in Miechów has been analysed. The analysis focused on epidemiological data, blood parameters, comorbidities, recurrence rate, and complication rate (deaths included). As part of risk factors analysis, antibiotic use or hospitalisation in a period of 3 months before the episode of infection was considered relevant. Blood tests have been performed using routinely employed, standard methods.
Results: We evaluated data of 168 people infected with C. difficile, out of which there were 102 women (61%) and 66 men (39%). Th e median age of the patients was 74 years for the entire population with 76 years for women and 71 years for male patients. One hundred thirteen people (67%) had been previously hospitalised, and 5 person was a pensioner of a nursing home. 99 people (59%) were treated with antibiotics within 3 months before the first episode of infection. An average length of the hospital stay because of CDI was 11 days. One hundred thirty persons (77%) experienced only 1 episode whereas 38 people (23%) had more than 1 episode of infection. The person with the largest number of recurrences had 9 of them.
Conclusions: The development of CDI is an increasing problem in a group of hospitalised persons, particularly of an old age. The general use of beta-lactam antibiotics is the cause of a larger number of infections with C. diffi cile. Vast majority of patients have had at least one typical risk factor of CDI development.
In the present article, the author attempts to solve the paradox hidden in the declaration pronounced by Bogusław Wolniewicz who referred to himself as a ‘Non-Confessional Roman Catholic.’ First, the author analyses (1) the way Wolniewicz understood the sources of religion, and then, (2) how he defined the minimum of Christianity. (3) The author investigates whether it is possible to reconcile his acceptance of euthanasia with the teaching of the Church, and finally, (4) the author focuses on his evangelical aesthetics. By way of conclusion the study traces on similarities between the tychistic rationalism and Christianity.
The author analyses problems of disease, dying, and death addressed in a play by Margaret Edson entitled Wit. Special attention is paid to the structure of meta-theatre and the function of wit in the play. The author investigates limitations of reason in the approach adopted by the doctors who take care of Vivian Bearing, and who subject her to an excruciating experiment in order to achieve a potential research success. She also discusses the protagonist’s attitude to literary works, dealing with her own disease, to other people and to God. This offers an opportunity to ruminate on the exact meaning of irretrievable loss involved in suffering. She also concentrates on the attitude of the nurse who – thanks to her emotional intelligence and empathy – accompanies Vivian on her way to death.
This article presents a picture of war in Mikhail Shishkin’s novel The Light and the Dark (2010). In the narrative, the author introduces a character who fought on the side of the Russian army during the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion in China (1898–1901). When describing the events of that period, Shishkin relied on numerous archival materials, especially the study by Dmitry Yanchevetsky At the Walls of Immovable China. As a military journalist who participated in the rebellion, this author blamed the Chinese people, disgruntled with the domination of other countries in their country, for the war. Shishkin, abundantly drawing on Yanchevetsky’s factual research, in his book reevaluates the historical events and condemns the aggression of the Eight-Nation Alliance on China. The writer compares this war to the Soviet Union’s attack on Finland in 1939 citing a term from Aleksandr Tvardovsky’s poem: “the infamous war”. Because Russia’s participation in quashing the Boxer Rebellion remains a little-known fact among Russian readers, it becomes a generalized representation of war in the novel: a universal one. Shishkin adopts a pacifist attitude here. He debunks the myth of war, which presupposes a sacralization of killing and a heroic death of soldiers. There are no glorious warriors on the battlefield, only corpses of anonymous soldiers, blood, the smell of rotting bodies, chopped off heads, flies, and dirt. In this novel, war is an evil that alters one’s perception of reality and emotional reactions and destroys elementary moral principles.
ABSTRACT:
The aim of the work is to determine the exact place and date of Kazimierz Stronczyński’s birth and death. An analysis of documents reveals that he was born on 24th July 1809 in Piotrków Trybunalski and died on 10th November 1896 in the same town.
SUMMARY:
Kazimierz Stronczyński was one of the greatest 19th century Polish numismatist, who is sometimes called the father of Polish medieval numismatics. Even though his life, career and works are very well known, in works devoted to Kazimierz Stronczyński’s life we can find several different dates and places of his birth and several different dates of his death. The following text, based on original documents, explains exactly when and where Kazimierz Stronczyński was born and died.
The aim of this contribution is to derive a general matrix formula for the net period premium paid in more than one state. In order to avoid “overpayment” which implies higher premiums we give a formula for replacement of lump sum benefit into annuity benefits paid in more than one state. The obtained result is useful for example to more advanced models of dread disease insurances allowing period premiums paid by both healthy and ill person (e.g. not terminally yet). As an application, we supply analysis of dread disease insurances against the risk of lung cancer based on the actual data for the Lower Silesian Voivodship in Poland.