Contemporary Counseling and Its Discontents: A Counselogist on Homo Consultans

The paper addresses risks and threats inherent in the “counseling boom”, which has affected the actual modes of help provision in guidance/counseling, and generated a unique “counseling fashion” for counseling of various kinds and hence, of various quality. Offering a critical analysis of counseling, the author proposes a few hypotheses about the phenomenon and posits that: (1) Some of the current counseling interventions—also within career counseling—are clearly market-driven; (2) Neoliberal (and post-neoliberal) social policies, as well as stratification of society, have prompted changes in the counselor’s role, who is no longer a creator of unique social services but, with the services having been marketized, has become a “commodity supplier”; and (3) Contemporary homo consultans, falling into the “clutches” of experts, becomes dependent on counselors, who exert power over him/her and appropriate his/her life

Repartition in the field of reprographics – experiences of KOPIPOL Association

W odpowiedzi na zjawisko dynamicznego rozwoju reprograficznej techniki kopiowania utworów, mocą uchwalonej w 1994 r. ustawy o prawie autorskim i prawach pokrewnych, wprowadzono do polskiego porządku prawnego opłaty mające rekompensować straty ponoszone na skutek eksploatowania przedmiotów praw autorskich za pomocą tej techniki. Pobór opłat reprograficznych w połowie należnej twórcom powierzony został powstałemu w 1995 r. Stowarzyszeniu Zbiorowego Zarządzania Prawami Autorskimi Twórców Dzieł Naukowych i Technicznych KOPIPOL. Obowiązkiem KOPIPOL-u stało się tym samym nie tylko inkaso rzeczonych opłat, lecz także rozdzielanie ich wśród uprawnionych autorów twórczości naukowej i technicznej.Inkaso okazało się procesem skomplikowanym, kosztownymi czasochłonnym. Przyczyną takiego stanu rzeczy są nagminne próby unikania opłat, co zmusza KOPIPOL do egzekwowania ich na drodze licznych postępowań sądowych. Zainkasowane środki KOPIPOL dzieli w pierwszej kolejności pomiędzy organizacje zbiorowego zarządzania reprezentujące kategorie twórczości, które zgodnie z wynikami badań statystycznych podlegają kopiowaniu reprograficznemu. Znakomita większość tych środków należna jest twórcom utworów naukowych i technicznych, na rzecz których KOPIPOL prowadzi drugi etap podziału – repartycję indywidualną. W ramach tego procesu rozdzielane i wypłacane są wynagrodzenia pomiędzy autorów zidentyfikowanych z imienia i nazwiska.Efektywność prowadzonych działań systematycznie wzrasta w wykładniczym tempie. Do dziś KOPIPOL wypłacił wynagrodzenia dla 2375 autorów w kwocie ponad 2 mln zł i oczekuje na zgłaszanie się kolejnych uprawnionych twórców.In response to the phenomenon of a dynamic development of a reprographic technique of copying works, the Act on Copyright and Related Rights of 1994 introduced relevant fees to the Polish legal order. Their aim was to compensate the losses incurred as a result of copying copyrighted works using this technique. The collection of reprographic fees, of which half of the collected sumis due to authors, has been entrusted to the Association of Copyright Collective Administration for Authors of Scientific and Technical Works KOPIPOL, created in 1995. The duties of KOPIPOL include not only the collection of those fees, but also their allocation and distribution among authors of scientific and technical works.The collection turned out to be complicated, expensive and time-consuming, mainly because of constant attempts to avoiding paying the fees. As a result, KOPIPOL is forced to seek enforcement of due payments by way of numerous judicial proceedings. Funds collected in fees are first of all allocated to collective management organisations representing different categories of creativity, which according to statistical surveys undergo reprographic copying, and next to the authors of scientific and technical works. As part of the latter, called Individual Repartition, sums are paid out to authors identified by names and surnames.The effectiveness of these activities is systematically increasing. So far KOPIPOL has paid remunerations to 2 375 authors, for a total exceeding 2 million zlotys

Controlling the charge transfer flow at the graphene/pyrene-nitrilotriacetic acid interface

The fabrication of highly efficient bio-organic nanoelectronic devices is still a challenge due to the difficulty in interfacing the biomolecular component to the organic counterparts. One of the ways to overcome this bottleneck is to add a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) in between the electrode and the biological material. The addition of a pyrene-nitrilotriacetic acid layer to a graphene metal electrode enhances the charge transfer within the device. Our theoretical calculations and electrochemical results show that the formation of a pyrene-nitrilotriacetic acid SAM enforces a direct electron transfer from graphene to the SAM, while the addition of the Ni2+ cation and imidazole reverses the charge transfer direction, allowing an atomic control of the electron flow, which is essential for a true working device. © 2018 The Royal Society of Chemistry

Automated Decision Support and Guideline Verification in Clinical Practice

Applying international guidelines in medical, including cardiological, therapies is a guarantee of safe and modern treatment. Unfortunately, standards are often not obeyed. In this paper we present an experimental software program based on rough sets methods. The main aim of this application is to improve patient care and help the decision process using guidelines verification. We concentrate on the practical aspects using these methods. Examples and clinical tests, which were based on real-life data of our patients, show that the accuracy of results reached on a large group of patients could be acceptable in clinical practice. 1

Self-Assembling Peptide Detergents Stabilize Isolated Photosystem Ion a Dry Surface for an Extended Time

We used a class of designed peptide detergents to stabilize photosystem I (PS-I) upon extended drying under N(2) on a gold-coated-Ni-NTA glass surface. PS-I is a chlorophyll-containing membrane protein complex that is the primary reducer of ferredoxin and the electron acceptor of plastocyanin. We isolated the complex from the thylakoids of spinach chloroplasts using a chemical detergent. The chlorophyll molecules associated with the PS-I complex provide an intrinsic steady-state emission spectrum between 650 and 800 nm at −196.15 °C that reflects the organization of the pigment-protein interactions. In the absence of detergents, a large blue shift of the fluorescence maxima from approximately 735 nm to approximately 685 nm indicates a disruption in light-harvesting subunit organization, thus revealing chlorophyll−protein interactions. The commonly used membrane protein-stabilizing detergents, N-dodecyl-β-D-maltoside and N-octyl-β-D-glucoside, only partially stabilized the approximately 735-nm complex with approximately 685-nm spectroscopic shift. However, prior to drying, addition of the peptide detergent acetyl- AAAAAAK at increasing concentration significantly stabilized the PS-I complex. Moreover, in the presence of acetyl- AAAAAAK, the PS-I complex is stable in a dried form at room temperature for at least 3 wk. Another peptide detergent, acetyl-VVVVVVD, also stabilized the complex but to a lesser extent. These observations suggest that the peptide detergents may effectively stabilize membrane proteins in the solid-state. These designed peptide detergents may facilitate the study of diverse types of membrane proteins

Changes in the mental and physical components of the quality of life for patients six months after pacemaker implantation

Background: The additional purpose for pacemaker implantation, beyond treating arrhythmias and conduction disturbances, is to improve the quality of life (QoL) of the patient. Most previous research has shown this purpose to have been achieved. However, the question as to whether all mental and physical components improve QoL to the same degree is still valid. The purpose of this study is to evaluate changes in the primary mental and physical areas of QoL in patients six months after they have had a pacemaker implanted. Methods: Ninety eight patients with atrioventricular blocks (AVB) and 100 patients with sinus node dysfunction (SND) who were qualified for pacemaker implantation were included in this study. Every patient had a DDD(R)-type pacemaker with bipolar screw-in leads implanted. The ventricular lead was positioned in the right ventricular outflow tract. QoL was evaluated twice: three to five days before implantation and six months afterwards - the MLWHF questionnaire was used. Results: A very high statistical improvement in QoL (p ~ 0,0000) - reduced number of points was found in all five areas of QoL in patients with SND and in four areas in patients with AVB. In the ‘anxiety/depression area’ in patients with AVB, the average number of points was higher (p = 0.3871), so QoL was worse. Conclusions: Implanting a pacemaker improves QoL in patients with AVB and SND. In patients with AVB, anxiety/depression is made more intense