Naming the Nation: A Critical Analysis of Names in Polish Political Discourse

This article offers a critical discursive analysis of proper names used in Polish political discourse, focusing on six addresses to the nation made by prominent public figures of the Polish political scene?the president, prime minister, and the primate of the Catholic Church. The names used in the speeches did not function merely as means of referring to places or persons. The speakers used them to construct an ideologically preferred reality. Those used by the president of Poland ''embellished'' the Communist past of the country and showed his political (post-Communist) option as a viable proposal for Poland. The speeches made by the primate of Poland created a politically uncontroversial image of the country, with the head of the Catholic Church positioned as a moral authority. Finally, the visible absence of names in the prime minister's speech represented the etatistic view of Poland.     

STR data for the AmpFlSTR SGM Plus loci from Warmia and Mazury (NE Poland)

Allele frequencies for the ten STRs included in the AmpFlSTR SGM Plus kit were determined in a sample of 320 unrelated individuals born in the region of Warmia and Mazury (NE Poland). All loci met Hardy-Weinberg expectations. Exact tests disequilibrium analysis revealed only one departure from independence out of 45 pair-wise comparisons of the 10 loci.     

A rare case of lethal methadone intoxication of a 3-week-old infant

The authors describe a rare case of lethal methadone intoxication of a 3-week-old infant. Born of a drug-addicted mother who was undergoing methadone substitution therapy, the newborn presented withdrawal symptoms and was immediately admitted to a paediatric ward where it was treated for 3 weeks, without administration of methadone. The infant died during bottle feeding within 24 h following discharge home.A post-mortem examination was performed as well as histopathological, toxicological and genetic tests were carried out in order to establish the cause and mode of death.The autopsy revealed obstruction of the lower air passages by stomach contents along with classical features of asphyxia. Toxicological tests revealed high concentrations of methadone and its metabolite in blood and urine as well as presence of methadone in stomach contents, and the DNA polymorphism analysis of the (sex-specific) amelogenin locus gave a negative result.On the basis of the results of the post-mortem examination, the laboratory tests and the police investigation, it was concluded that the drug was ingested with the bottle milk, and the possibility of administration of methadone at the hospital or its ingestion with the breast milk was precluded. Though both the cause and mode of death were established, the public prosecutor discontinued proceedings in the case due to inability to find the perpetrator.     

How communism could have been saved: Formal analysis of electoral bargaining in Poland in 1989

During the 1989 Roundtable Talks Solidarity and PUWP (the communist party) were bargaining over the electoral law for the 1989 parliamentary elections in Poland – the first semi-free elections held in the Soviet Bloc. I show that the PUWP consent to the elections was founded on an overly optimistic estimate of its popular support. A surprising Solidarity's victory led to the subsequent collapse of the communist regime in Poland and initiated the fall of communism in other countries. An alternative electoral law, a Single Transferable Vote, would have been mutually acceptable to both parties while producing an outcome that would have been critically better for the communists.     

Individual value priorities,education, and political tolerance

Extensive research on political tolerance identifies numerous social, psychological, and political sources of attitudes toward political dissenters. Much of this research underscores the salutary influence of education on greater acceptance of diversity, although some sophisticated work questions the strength of the linkage between education and tolerance. This study has two principal goals. First, it attempts to point to an alternative source of tolerance that has been given very little attention in the extant literature. Specifically, it argues that increases in political tolerance may be tied to the broad-based value shift allegedly sweeping through advanced industrial society. Second, research reported in this paper provides more evidence for the robustness of the education-tolerance relationship and offers one possible explanation for why this relationship exists. It suggests that one of the reasons higher education tends to be linked with greater tolerance is because it leads to individual value priorities that are conducive to greater openness to political diversity. A multivariate model of political tolerance is estimated that demonstrates modern versus traditional values contribute most to variation in tolerant attitudes, followed by education. The explanation of indirect effects of education on tolerance through its direct impact onvalues receives empirical support as well. The endeavor concludes by outlining some tentative predictions concerning the attainment of a more tolerant polity that would fare well when evaluated by the liberal democratic theory yardstick.     

The influence of ethanol on the level of ketone bodies in hypothermia

Presently available possibilities of macro- and microscopic diagnosis of death from hypothermia are very limited as the changes observed are either weakly specific (ecchymoses in the mucous membrane of the stomach, histological features of haemorrhagic pancreatic necrosis, cardiomyocyte necrosis or decreased content of glycogen in hepatocytes) or represent only local action of low temperatures (frostbites, violet patches in the region of knees and elbows, red livores) and they may not be present in cases of death from cooling at environmental temperature close to zero or higher.The study evaluated the usefulness of acetoacetic acid (Ac-Ac), beta-hydroxybutyric acid (beta-HBA) and acetone determinations in blood, urine and vitreous humour for diagnosis of death from hypothermia. These three substances called ketone bodies, are easily assimilated energetic substrates that get oxidized preferentially before glucose and fatty acids. In hypoglycaemia (also hypothermia-induced one), the tissues dependent on glucose (e.g. the brain) cover most of their energetic needs from oxidation of these compounds.The analysis of 16 cases of death in circumstances suggesting hypothermia (mainly of the alcohol abusers) showed that the degree of ketosis was inversely proportional to the blood ethanol concentration. This relation may result from stimulation of insulin release and a decrease in the release of its antagonists by ethanol, as well as from inhibition of free fatty acid (FFA) beta-oxidation due to increase in the NADH/NAD ratio. So, the antiketonaemic effects of ethanol (together with its influence on the dilatation of the peripheral vessels and inhibition of shivering thermogenesis by muscle relaxation), explain increased sensitivity of intoxicated persons to low temperatures.