Central Region Of Poland Research Articles

Applying the 16 Y-chromosome STRs in the population of central Poland

Haplotype and allele frequencies for the panel of 16 Y-chromosome STR loci, namely DYS19, DYS385, DYS389I, DYS389II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393, DYS437, DYS438, DYS439, DYS448, DYS456, DYS458, DYS635 and Y GATA-H4 were determined in a population sample of 200 unrelated males from the central region of Poland. The 191 different haplotypes were identified, of which 182 haplotypes were unique and 9 were duplicated. None of observed haplotypes appears more than twice in the investigated population. The haplotype discrimination capacity was 0.955, and combined gene diversity was 0.9999. The analysed set of 16 Y-STRs is very useful in forensic practise to identify males and trace paternal lineages.

Population data of STR loci included in FFFL tetraplex in central Poland

Allele distribution and statistical parameters for fluorescent quadruplex including following STR loci: F13A01, F13B, FES/FPS and LPL were determined in a population sample of 200 unrelated individuals from central region of Poland. The applicability and usefulness of the investigated markers were evaluated in paternity testing and in personal identification. Combined values of power of exclusion and power of discrimination were 0.9004 and 0.9994, respectively. The allele frequency determination and forensic evaluation allow using this system as an extension of commonly applied autosomal multiplexes in relevant population. This extension may be necessary to resolve most difficult cases in forensic practise.

Quantification of phosphorus retention efficiency by floodplain vegetation and a management strategy for a eutrophic reservoir restoration

This paper presents an ecohydrological approach to the reduction in the phosphorus load transported by the Pilica River into a lowland reservoir in the central region of Poland. The research was carried out on a 26.6 ha section of the river floodplain where vegetation was the important component accumulating phosphorus (P) in plant tissues. Quantification of P accumulation in plant tissues and retention efficiency by plant communities in the floodplain were analyzed in order to develop a vegetation management strategy that would enhance river self-purification. A Digital Terrain Model (DTM), a location–altitude map, an inundation model of the floodplain, and a map of the distribution of plant communities were used to evaluate the capacity of the floodplain to retain P. In summer, the biological potential for phosphorus retention in the floodplain was estimated to be as high as 255 kg P. However, this potential can be increased by planting fast-growing patches of willow. Therefore, covering 24% or 48% of the entire floodplain (identified by DTM analysis) where are suitable hydrological conditions for growth and cultivation of willows may increase this accumulation to 332 or 399 kg P, respectively. In the long run, an appropriate management strategy (cutting and removing the biomass from the floodplain) should favor a decrease in nutrient transport downstream.

The Significance of Spoligotyping Method in Epidemiological Investigations of Tuberculosis

The control of tuberculosis (TB) requires methods for rapid detection and tracing sources of infection, so that further transmission can be arrested. Recent developments in molecular biology have resulted in techniques that allow prompt identification and tracking specific strains of M. tuberculosis as they spread through the population. Most of these techniques take advantage of M. tuberculosis DNA polymorphism and are based on various repetitive DNA elements as genetic markers. Each method yields strain-specific genetic profiles (fingerprints). Strains showing identical fingerprints are referred to as clustered and are usually associated with recent transmission, whereas strains whose fingerprints are unique are presumed to represent remote transmission, a reactivation of infection acquired in the distant past. In recent years, spoligotyping has become one of the most widely used genotyping method for epidemiological studies of TB. Spoligotyping is a PCR-based method allowing to analyze strain-dependent polymorphisms observed in spacer sequences present within the direct repeat (DR) genomic region of M. tuberculosis complex strains. Spoligotyping provides some important advantages over other genotyping techniques. These are simplicity, rapidity, high reproducibility and stability of the results, with the latter being expressed in a simple digital pattern, readily named and databased, and the ability to perform spoligotyping directly on clinical samples, without the need for prior culture. However, spoligotyping has relatively low discriminatory capacity, which makes it necessary to use secondary fingerprinting methods to prove clonality between isolates. The aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of spoligotyping in epidemiological investigations of TB by analyzing 16 isoniazid-resistant M. tuberculosis strains isolated from patients with pulmonary TB in the central region of Poland. A total of 11 distinct spoligopatterns were obtained. 9 isolates were represented by a unique pattern, whereas 7 were clustered in 2 groups of 5 and 2 isolates, respectively. When compared with an international spoligodatabase SpolDB4, 13 isolates shared already described spoligotypes, whereas 3 did not match any existing spoligopattern in database and were defined as orphans. Spoligotyping overestimated the number of clustered isolates in one of its two clusters when compared to IS6110 Mtb1/ /Mtb2 PCR. Strains clustered using the latter method were assumed to be closely epidemiologically related. This report demonstrates the utility of spoligotyping as an initial screening technique, to be supplemented by another typing method of greater discriminatory power, such as the IS6110 Mtb1/Mtb2 PCR in order to better recognize the epidemiological links between TB patients.

Stature of boys post World War II migrants

Poland is a country with significant regional differences in socio-economic, demographic and epidemiological phenomena. This is partly due to its history; notably the division of Poland among three different countries and the change of the borders after the second World War. The latter caused massive migratory movements of population. Then from the territory which now constitutes one third of Poland, Germans were evicted and Poles settled. These, then new, Western and Northern Territories of Poland (WNTP) are still the most developed parts of Poland with better roads, better housing and easier access to medical service and schools. On the other hand, some of the statistical data concerning the health and lifestyle of the population of these parts of Poland are worse than the corresponding data concerning the rest of Poland. For example the rate of lung cancer, the rate of divorce, the rate of adolescence pregnancies, the rate of cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption are all higher in the WNTP. In 1955, a very comprehensive anthropological nationwide survey of school children was performed. Our findings based on this material exhibit a number of phenomena which might contribute to the explanation of these negative population data. We have observed that the boys born in various regions of pre-war Poland and settled with their parents in the new territories were of different height at the age of 7-18 years than those from the four other regions of Poland whose parents were not resettled. Also the average height of boys, those sons of the migrants who during post-war migration did not go to the west but settled in the central region of Poland, was greater than those who settled in the west of Poland. Our results indicate that among the migrants there was a considerable fraction of people who were physically weaker and less socially adapted in comparison to the rest of the Polish population and that these characteristics have been passed down to the subsequent generation.

International report: The impact of industrial waste landfill on drinking water in Poland

This report presents the state of industrial waste landfills in Poland. It analyses the contamination of groundwater with industrial wastes at a site belonging to a metallurgical factory located in the Kielce province (central region of Poland). In landfill leachates, there exists a considerable amount of toxic substances like phenols, formaldehyde, cyanides, detergents and others which, due to improper bedding tightness, seri ously threatens groundwater, including the drinking water intake for the City of Konskie (located 3 km from the land fill). Toxic substances are washed-out from wastes with rain water and, because of unfavourable geological structure, per colate into the Quaternary and then the Jurassic level. In order to prevent water intake contamination, it is necessary to keep the quantity of water extracted to a reduced level.