Resource productivity and environmental degradation in EU-27 countries: context of material footprint.

This study explores the relationship between the resource productivity and environmental degradation in European Union-27 countries. This study tests this relationship in context of high, moderate, and low material footprint sub-samples; these samples are formed utilizing the expectation-maximization machine learning algorithm. Using the panel data set of EU-27 countries from 2000 to 2020, linear and non-linear autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) are applied for the symmetric and asymmetric evidence and to test environmental Kuznets curve (EKC), linear ARDL with the quadratic function is included.

Nexus between stock markets, economic strength, R&D and environmental deterioration: new evidence from EU-27 using PNARDL approach.

This research investigates the impact of stock market indices, economic strength, and research and development expenditures on environmental deterioration in the EU-27 countries for the period 2000-2020. This study utilized linear and non-linear panel ARDL to estimate the short- and long-run effect. According to the results, the stock market indices have negative effect on environmental deterioration in the symmetric form.

ICU Care in a Pandemic.

This letter to the editor responds to commentaries in the September-October 2021issue of the Hastings Center Report by Douglas B. White and Bernard Lo, by Govind Persad, and by Virginia A. Brown, which were themselves responding, in part, to the article "Life-Years and Rationing in the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Critical Analysis," by MaryKatherine Gaurke, Bernard Prusak, Kyeong Yun Jeong, Emily Scire, and Daniel P.

Life-Years & Rationing in the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Critical Analysis.

Prominent bioethicists have promoted the preservation of life-years as a rationing strategy in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet the philosophical justification for maximizing life-years is underdeveloped and has a complex history that is not reflected in recent literature. In this article, we offer a critical investigation of the use of life-years, arguing that evidence of public support for the life-years approach is thin and that organ transplantation protocols (heavily cited in pandemic-response protocols) do not provide a precedent for seeking to save the most life-years.

Rationing With Respect to Age During a Pandemic: A Comparative Analysis of State Pandemic Preparedness Plans.

Background: Faced with possible shortages due to COVID-19, many states updated or rapidly developed crisis standards of care (CSCs) and other pandemic preparedness plans (PPPs) for rationing resources, particularly ventilators.

Research Question: How have US states incorporated the controversial standard of rationing by age and/or life-years into their pandemic preparedness plans?

Study Design And Methods: This was an investigator-initiated, textual analysis conducted from April to June 2020, querying online resources and in-state contacts to identify PPPs published by each of the 50 states and for Washington, DC. Analysis included the most recent versions of CSC documents and official state PPPs containing triage guidance as of June 2020.

Genetic diversity and population structure of Polish Arabian horses assessed through breeding and microsatellite data.

Polish Arabian horses are one of the most important populations of this breed in the world. Their post-war history can be divided into two periods, with the dominant role of state studs until 1989, and the increasing significance of private breeding in the next years. The goal of the study was to evaluate genetic diversity and structure of the population under a new breeding policy.

Health status and potential uptake of transgenic DNA by Japanese quail fed diets containing genetically modified plant ingredients over 10 generations.

The hypothesis assumes that feed containing GMOs affects animal health and results in the transgene product accumulating in the body. Therefore, the objective of the study was to evaluate the impact of genetically modified (GM) ingredients used in poultry diets on aspects of bird health status and accumulation of transgenic DNA in eggs, breast muscle and internal organs. A total of 10 generations of Japanese quail were fed three types of diets: group A - containing GM soya (Roundup Ready) and non-GM maize, group B - containing GM maize (MON810) and non-GM soya, and group C - containing non-GM soya and maize.

A note on the organization and expression of β-defensin genes in Polish goats.

Nucleotide (cds) and amino acids sequences of the caprine β2-defensin genes were in silico compared to search for the sequence variation and for the LAP gene sequences in the goat genome and for the presence of LAP gene transcripts in goat tissues. The comparison of the exon sequences revealed that the first 64 amino acids are identical in both LAP and β1-defensin. However, the GBD-1 prepropeptide is shorter by 18 amino acids due to the presence of the stop codon UAA at position 209-211 in GBD-1 mRNA.

Pedigrees as a source of information in mtDNA studies of dogs and horses.

The goal of this study was to demonstrate the usefulness of pedigree data in studies of mitochondrial DNA diversity in dogs and horses. Pedigree information allows for precisely choosing animals with distinct haplotypes for analysis, makes it possible to find rare haplotypes present exclusively in single individuals and helps to evaluate haplotype frequencies at the present and in the past. Estimating founder contributions to gene pools enables evaluating the parts of gene pools observed with the help of mtDNA analysis.

Double effect, all over again: the case of Sister Margaret McBride.

As media reports have made widely known, in November 2009, the ethics committee of St. Joseph's Hospital in Phoenix, Arizona, permitted the abortion of an eleven-week-old fetus in order to save the life of its mother. This woman was suffering from acute pulmonary hypertension, which her doctors judged would prove fatal for both her and her previable child.

What are parents for? Reproductive ethics after the nonidentity problem.

Bioethicists often use the "nonidentity problem"--the idea that a child born with a disability would actually be a different child if she were born without the disability--to defend parents' rights to have whatever children they want. After all, a child is not harmed by being brought into the world with a disability; without the disability, she would not be brought into the world at all. But what happens if we turn the moral question around and ask, not about the benefits and harms to the child, but just about parental obligations? Will that lead to a different view of reproductive decisions?

The study of polymorphism within the promoter region of the osteopontin (OPN) gene in sows.

Objectives: The aim of the present study was to find a possible polymorphism in the promoter region of the osteopontin (OPN) gene, as a potential mutation region, connected with the transcription factor-binding sites or regulatory sequences and to estimate the expression of this gene in ovaries and oviduct of sows.

Material And Methods: Sixty wbp x pbz sows after the first mating were slaughtered and tissues samples of the ovaries and oviduct were taken. Primer pairs for PCR analysis were designed on the basis of swine osteopontin 5' end sequence driven from GenBank.

Effectiveness of a program aimed at the elimination of BLAD-carrier bulls from Polish Holstein-Friesian cattle.

The molecular basis of BLAD is the D128G mutation of the gene coding for the CD18 subunit of beta-2 integrin. This mutation is lethal, since homozygous (BL/BL) animals die before they reach sexual maturity. In the 1990s, BLAD was the most widespread genetic disease in HF cattle worldwide.

The polymorphism in the beta4-defensin gene and its association with production and somatic cell count in Holstein-Friesian cows.

The aim of this study was to find a polymorphism of the bovine beta4-defensin gene and search for its association with milk yield and composition and with the somatic cell count in milk. The data were from the years 1999 to 2004 on 212 Holstein-Friesian (HF) dairy cows, descended from 70 sires. Based on the sequence of the bovine beta4-defensin gene (GenBank no.

[Difficult species identification of cranial fragments--case report].

Introduction: An examination of remains found on the roadside in a locality near Łódź, Poland showed them to be cranial bones. Their general appearance, and particularly the significant curvature of the vault and dimensions indicating a relatively large skull capacity showed that they could be human remains. But against that notion spoke anatomical details such as the size of the frontal sinuses, the situation of probable zygomatic appendices of the frontal bone, the texture of the interior surface, atypical in human beings, and the progression and morphology of the cranial sutures.

No incidence of DUMPS carriers in Polish dairy cattle.

DUMPS (Deficiency of Uridine Monophosphate Synthase) is a hereditary recessive disorder in Holstein cattle causing early embryo mortality during its implantation in the uterus. The only way to avoid the economic losses is early detection of DUMPS carriers. Because American Holstein semen has been intensively imported to Poland since 1970, there was a risk that DUMPS could have spread in Polish dairy cattle.

Non-random base composition in codons of mitochondrial cytochrome b gene in vertebrates.

Cytochrome b is the central catalytic subunit of the quinol:cytochrome c oxidoreductase of complex III of the mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation system and is essential to the viability of most eukaryotic cells. Partial cytochrome b gene sequences of 14 species representing mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians are presented here including some species typical for Poland. For the analysed species a comparative analysis of the natural variation in the gene was performed.

Cytomegalovirus as a risk factor in living-related renal transplantation. A prospective study.

Forty-four living-related donor kidney (LRD) recipients (19 HLA-identical and 25 haploidentical) were followed prospectively to determine the posttransplant incidence and sequelae of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection as they relate to the CMV status of recipients and donors. CMV titers were measured in all patients before transplantation by an immunofluorescent assay (IFA). Recipients similarly had CMV titers measured at selected intervals after transplant and during febrile episodes.

Anatomic abnormalities of cadaver kidneys procured for purposes of transplantation.

Over a 7-year period the authors studied the vascular and ureteric anomalies of kidneys procured from brain dead, heart-beating cadavers for the purposes of transplantation. Four hundred donors had a bilateral nephroureterectomy performed using an en-bloc technique, followed by fine anatomical dissection in cold saline slush solution. Thus, 800 kidneys were available for study.