Showing papers by "University of Warsaw published in 2023"

Almost all extremal black holes in AdS are singular

Abstract: A bstract We investigate the geometry near the horizon of a generic, four-dimensional extremal black hole. When the cosmological constant is negative, we show that (in almost all cases) tidal forces diverge as one crosses the horizon, and this singularity is stronger for larger black holes. In particular, this applies to generic nonspherical black holes, such as those satisfying inhomogeneous boundary conditions. Nevertheless, all scalar curvature invariants remain finite. Moreover, we show that nonextremal black holes have tidal forces that diverge in the extremal limit. Holographically, this singularity is reflected in anomalous scaling of the specific heat with temperature. Similar (albeit weaker) effects are present when the cosmological constant is positive, but not when it vanishes.

A common resequencing‐based genetic marker data set for global maize diversity

Abstract: Maize (Zea mays ssp. mays) populations exhibit vast ranges of genetic and phenotypic diversity. As sequencing costs have declined, an increasing number of projects have sought to measure genetic differences between and within maize populations using whole-genome resequencing strategies, identifying millions of segregating single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and insertions/deletions (InDels). Unlike older genotyping strategies like microarrays and genotyping by sequencing, resequencing should, in principle, frequently identify and score common genetic variants. However, in practice, different projects frequently employ different analytical pipelines, often employ different reference genome assemblies and consistently filter for minor allele frequency within the study population. This constrains the potential to reuse and remix data on genetic diversity generated from different projects to address new biological questions in new ways. Here, we employ resequencing data from 1276 previously published maize samples and 239 newly resequenced maize samples to generate a single unified marker set of approximately 366 million segregating variants and approximately 46 million high-confidence variants scored across crop wild relatives, landraces as well as tropical and temperate lines from different breeding eras. We demonstrate that the new variant set provides increased power to identify known causal flowering-time genes using previously published trait data sets, as well as the potential to track changes in the frequency of functionally distinct alleles across the global distribution of modern maize.

Towards hydrogen-rich ionic (NH₄)(BH₃NH₂BH₂NH₂BH₃) and related molecular NH₃BH₂NH₂BH₂NH₂BH₃

Abstract: Attempts of synthesis of ionic (NH4)(BH3NH2BH2NH2BH3) using metathetical approach resulted in a mixture of the target compound and a partly dehydrogenated molecular NH3BH2NH2BH2NH2BH3 product. The mixed specimen was characterized by NMR and vibrational spectroscopies, and the crystal structure of their cocrystal was solved from powder x-ray diffraction data, and supplemented by theoretical density functional theory calculations. Despite their impressive hydrogen content, and similarly to ammonia borane, both title compounds release hydrogen substantially polluted with borazine, and traces of ammonia and diborane.

The effect of the pandemic on European narratives on smart cities and surveillance

Abstract: This article presents an analysis of European smart city narratives and how they evolved under the pressure of the COVID-19 pandemic. We start with Joss et al.’s observation that the smart-city discourse is presently in flux, engaged in intensive boundary-work and struggling to gain wider support. We approach this process from the critical perspective of surveillance capitalism, as proposed by Zuboff, to highlight the growing privacy concerns related to technological development. Our results are based on analysing 184 articles regarding smart-city solutions, published on social media by five European journals between 2017 and 2021. We adopted both human and machine coding processes for qualitative and quantitative analysis of our data. As a result, we identified the main actors and four dominant narratives: regulation of artificial intelligence and facial recognition, technological fight with the climate emergency, contact tracing apps and the potential of 5G technology to boost the digitalisation processes. Our analysis shows the growing number of positive narratives underlining the importance of technology in fighting the pandemic and mitigating the climate emergency, but the latter is often mentioned in a tokenistic fashion. Right to privacy considerations are central for two out of four discovered topics. We found that the main rationale for the development of surveillance technologies relates to the competitiveness of the EU in the global technological rivalry, while ambitions like increasing societal well-being or safeguarding the transparency of new policies are nearly non-existent.

Bioprospecting of the Antarctic Bacillus subtilis strain for potential application in leaching hydrocarbons and trace elements from contaminated environments based on functional and genomic analysis

Abstract: The production of secondary metabolites including biosurfactants by the Bacillus subtilis ANT_WA51 and the evaluation of its ability to leach metals and petroleum derivatives from the soil, using post-culture medium was investigated. The ANT_WA51 strain isolated from a pristine, harsh Antarctic environment produces the biosurfactants surfactin and fengycin, which reduce the surface tension of molasses-based post-culture medium to 26.6 mN m-1 at a critical micellization concentration (CMC) of 50 mg L-1 and a critical micelle dilution (CMD) of 1:19. The presence of biosurfactants and other secondary metabolites in the post-culture medium contributed to significant removal of xenobiotics from contaminated soils in the batch washing experiment - 70% hydrocarbons and 10-23% metals (Zn, Ni and Cu). The isolate's tolerance to different abiotic stresses, including freezing, freeze-thaw cycles, salinity (up to 10%), the presence of metals - Cr(VI), Pb(II), Mn(II), As(V) (up to 10 mM) and Mo(VI) (above 500 mM) and petroleum hydrocarbons (up to 20.000 mg kg-1) as well as the confirmed metabolic activity of these bacteria in toxic environments in the OxiTop® system indicate that they can be used directly in bioremediation. Comparative genomic analysis of this bacteria revealed a high similarity of its genome to the associated plant strains from America and Europe indicating the wide applicability of plant growth-promoting Bacillus subtilis and that the data can be extrapolated to a wide range of environmental strains. An important aspect of the study was to present the absence of inherent features which would indicate its clear pathogenicity enables its safe use in the environment. Based on the obtained results, we also conclude that the use of post-culture medium, obtained on low-cost byproducts like molasses, for leaching contaminants, especially hydrocarbons, is a promising bioremediation method that can be a replacement for the use of synthetic surfactants and provides a base for further large-scale research but the selection of an appropriate leaching may be dependent on the concentration of contaminants.

Concise tensors of minimal border rank

Abstract: We determine defining equations for the set of concise tensors of minimal border rank in $${\mathbb {C}}^m{\mathord { \otimes } }{\mathbb {C}}^m{\mathord { \otimes } }{\mathbb {C}}^m$$ when $$m=5$$ and the set of concise minimal border rank $$1_*$$ -generic tensors when $$m=5,6$$ . We solve the classical problem in algebraic complexity theory of classifying minimal border rank tensors in the special case $$m=5$$ . Our proofs utilize two recent developments: the 111-equations defined by Buczyńska–Buczyński and results of Jelisiejew–Šivic on the variety of commuting matrices. We introduce a new algebraic invariant of a concise tensor, its 111-algebra, and exploit it to give a strengthening of Friedland’s normal form for 1-degenerate tensors satisfying Strassen’s equations. We use the 111-algebra to characterize wild minimal border rank tensors and classify them in $${\mathbb {C}}^5{\mathord { \otimes } }{\mathbb {C}}^5{\mathord { \otimes } }{\mathbb {C}}^5$$ .

Polysaccharide-based hydrogel electrolytes enriched with poly(norepinephrine) for sustainable aqueous electrochemical capacitors

Abstract: One of the main drawbacks of conventional energy storage systems is the possibility of electrolyte leakage due to faulty encapsulation or accidental overcharge. In this work, novel environmentally benign all-biopolymer-based hydrogels have been designed to be used as electrolytes in aqueous electrochemical capacitors. A primary component of gels, i.e. microcrystalline cellulose dissolved in NaOH/urea mixture and cross-linked with epichlorohydrin, was used in combination with agarose, or subsequently introduced agarose and poly(norepinephrine) to form the three-dimensional interpenetrated polymer network of enhanced mechanical stability. The effect of introduced components has been studied independently and investigated in terms of morphology, conductivity, swelling degree, and mechanical/structural properties. The electrochemical diagnostic tests of electrochemical capacitors utilizing acidic (H2SO4, H4SiW12O40) and neutral (Na2SO4) electrolyte-saturated hydrogels of the best overall characteristics have revealed the performance approaching the one characteristic of the liquid electrolyte-based counterparts but with lower self-discharge. The systems were characterized by the capacitance of 97–127 F g−1 at 0.1 A g−1 with retention of 33–89% at 20 A g−1, and cycling life of 10 000 cycles with a maximum of 10% of capacitance loss. The effect of intentionally improved hydrophilic properties of activated carbon electrodes, on the interfacial compatibility between electrode/hydrogel electrolyte is discussed as well. The results are in line with the global trend of green and sustainable energy storage designed for specific applications, i.e. in-vivo systems and wearable electronics.

How Risky Can Biomedical Research Be?

Abstract: One of the unmet challenges for risk–benefit assessment in biomedical research is whether there should be an upper limit of risk in non-beneficial studies involving competent and consenting participants, and if yes, how it should be defined. This chapter focuses on this second question. It examines the four dominant regulatory and conceptual approaches to setting a maximal risk threshold in research: no catastrophic harm/risk approach, pure procedural approach, numerical approach, and comparative approach. It then considers the pure procedural approach, which leaves the judgment of risk acceptability to RECs discretion. The approach has significant advantages, but it is not free from certain shortcomings, such as unwarranted diversity and arbitrariness of RECs judgments. The chapter concludes by sketching the outlines of what is referred to as the “ELS procedural approach” that provides RECs with procedural recommendations for identifying an ethically, legally and socially acceptable upper limit of risk in non-beneficial research on volunteers. The ELS procedural approach is an improvement over the pure procedural approach. It is more standardized and accountable, but still context-sensitive and flexible.

Sudakov Minoration for Products of Radial-Type Log-Concave Measures

Abstract: The first step to study lower bounds for a stochastic process is to prove a special property—Sudakov minoration. The property means that if a certain number of points from the index set are well separated, then we can provide an optimal type lower bound for the mean value of the supremum of the process. Together with the generic chaining argument, the property can be used to fully characterize the mean value of the supremum of the stochastic process. In this article we prove the property for canonical processes based on radial-type log-concave measures.

An East Central European “Sahib” in a Former Colony: Andrzej Bobkowski in Guatemala (1948–1961)

Abstract: Abstract The chapter analyses a case of colonial othering manifested by immigrants from Soviet-dominated countries after World War II in former Western colonies which stood in a position of dependency towards Western powers at that time. In a paradoxical manner, immigrants, who themselves had experienced subjection to foreign rule, took on the role of the white colonisers in postcolonial spaces, at least in attitudes and perceptions.

Reviews and syntheses: Remotely sensed optical time series for monitoring vegetation productivity

Abstract: Abstract. Vegetation productivity is a critical indicator of global ecosystem health and is impacted by human activities and climate change. A wide range of optical sensing platforms, from ground-based to airborne and satellite, provide spatially continuous information on terrestrial vegetation status and functioning. As optical Earth observation (EO) data are usually routinely acquired, vegetation can be monitored repeatedly over time; reflecting seasonal vegetation patterns and trends in vegetation productivity metrics. Such metrics include e.g., gross primary productivity, net primary productivity, biomass or yield. To summarize current knowledge, in this paper, we systematically reviewed time series (TS) literature for assessing state-of-the-art vegetation productivity monitoring approaches for different ecosystems based on optical remote sensing (RS) data. As the integration of solar-induced fluorescence (SIF) data in vegetation productivity processing chains has emerged as a promising source, we also include this relatively recent sensor modality. We define three methodological categories to derive productivity metrics from remotely sensed TS of vegetation indices or quantitative traits: (i) trend analysis and anomaly detection, (ii) land surface phenology, and (iii) integration and assimilation of TS-derived metrics into statistical and process-based dynamic vegetation models (DVM). Although the majority of used TS data streams originate from data acquired from satellite platforms, TS data from aircraft and unoccupied aerial vehicles have found their way into productivity monitoring studies. To facilitate processing, we provide a list of common toolboxes for inferring productivity metrics and information from TS data. We further discuss validation strategies of the RS-data derived productivity metrics: (1) using in situ measured data, such as yield, (2) sensor networks of distinct sensors, including spectroradiometers, flux towers, or phenological cameras, and (3) inter-comparison of different productivity products or modelled estimates. Finally, we address current challenges and propose a conceptual framework for productivity metrics derivation, including fully-integrated DVMs and radiative transfer models here labelled as "Digital Twin". This novel framework meets the requirements of multiple ecosystems and enables both an improved understanding of vegetation temporal dynamics in response to climate and environmental drivers and also enhances the accuracy of vegetation productivity monitoring.

Dekonstrukcja pojęcia gotowości szkolnej

Abstract: The article presents a discussion of the notion of school readiness in the context of contemporary theoretical approaches and practical solutions, with a specific reference to the concept of Barbara Wilgocka-Okoń, who initiated research into the category of children’s skills in Poland and presented the evolution of her approach from school maturity to school readiness. The starting point is to refer to critical psychology as represented by Erica Burman and her concept of the child as method, allowing the concept of development to be deconstructed and applicable to the reinterpretation of the understanding of school readiness. She criticises developmental psychologists’ construction of a fictitious image of the child as a product of the educational system, abstracted from the environmental and cultural context. Burman’s approach is not a specific research method, but a concept that encourages a dialogue of innovative, creative approaches, spanning multiple scientific disciplines and empirical analyses. It creates an understanding of the child as a figure or trope of politics, of childhood as a social category, and of children as living individuals operating within a field of specific institutional practices with different geopolitical contingencies. The article undertakes a polemic against the traditional normalising diagnosis of school readiness present in educational practice, which exposes an adequate preparation of the child for school. It presents a critical analysis of school readiness assessment tools used in educational practice by teachers and researchers of this phenomenon. At the same time, the article points out an alternative approach of psychologists exposing the processual and interactional approach to the study of school readiness. The article concludes by drawing attention to the necessity of constructing methodological instruments for diagnosing school readiness to work with children with diverse developmental needs and to move away from monopolising their development by the educational institution.

In the Shadow of the Pyramids

Abstract: Abstract This article is an attempt at presenting the Holocaust sermons of Rabbi Kalonimus Kalman Shapiro not only as a religious text, but also as a testimony of communal, and above all personal development, which the religious community of the Warsaw Ghetto gathered around the Rabbi and he himself underwent in the years 1939–1942. Therefore, in order to cut through the religious, historical, communal, and personal layers of the text, I use diverse tools, including literary analysis of motifs repeatedly used by the author, contextualizing them in his religious discourse, and treating the sermons as an EGO document, despite its formal genre being remote from a personal text. By those means I wish to present not only a great theologian and leader, whose theodicy has come to fill postwar commentators with awe, but also a deeply dedicated person, who stands up to the challenge laid before him, despite the crushing circumstances, despite the philosophically unprecedented complexity, and despite his personal fears and concerns.

New Polish right – politeness and radicalism. A corpus analysis of Krzysztof Bosak’s (de)legitimation strategies on twitter

Abstract: The article discusses (de)legitimation strategies of Krzysztof Bosak, one of the leaders of the Confederation Liberty and Independence, a Polish coalition of right-wing movements. The success of the formation appears to be in line with that of other European (far) right-wing parties, which have become politically relevant in recent decades. Despite the Confederation’s growing position in European politics, there is a paucity of research devoted to the party. The present paper attempts to bridge the gap by focusing on Bosak’s 2020 presidential campaign and the politician’s use of Twitter. In order to investigate Bosak’s discourse in detail, corpus linguistic methods were used. As they allow the researcher to work on large samples of data, Bosak’s tweets were investigated at both qualitative and quantitative levels. The results suggest that the candidate focused on legitimizing Catholicism and conservative ideas. At the same time, he delegitimised the left and LGBT communities, framing the presidential campaign as a clash between the conservative order.

Polish Stereotypes of the East: Old and New Mechanisms of Orientalisation in the Regional and Transnational Dimensions

Abstract: Abstract The chapter sets out to delineate a synthesising picture of the fundamental types and features of stereotypical images of “the East” in contemporary Polish identity discourses. They are analysed from a critical perspective in relation to postcolonial theory and the cultural/discursive problem of Orientalisation. The chapter also attempts to link the development mechanisms of stereotypical imaginaries of “the East” in contemporary Poland with so-called structural conditions, meaning dependencies of an economic and geopolitical kind. The Orientalism they engender, as the text sets out to prove, relates both to the countries neighbouring Poland, and to regions of eastern Poland which can be called the “internal Orient.” The author differentiates between two basic types of Orientalism, which he subsequently links with two ideological orientations: the conservative and the liberal. Conservative Orientalism is often branded as “classical,” and features the traditional Polish Eastern Borderlands ( Kresy )as its dominant rhetorical figure. Liberal Orientalism characterised has less overt and less distinctive forms, and its manifestations are analysed using examples of new Borderlands discourses, which are often built in opposition to the traditional Eastern Borderlands stereotypes. The chapter also offers a comparative survey of reactions to Polish discourses of the East and analogical discursive mechanisms in the countries neighbouring Poland to the east.

Old-Fashioned, but Still a Superfood—Red Beets as a Rich Source of Bioactive Compounds

Abstract: Beetroot (Beta vulgaris L.) is a vegetable that is consumed worldwide in the form of juices, soups, or salads. It is also known for its high content of biologically active substances such as betalains, polyphenolic compounds, vitamins, carotenoids, and other nutrients including, sodium, potassium, and magnesium. The distribution of these compounds in the plant is diverse, some occur in greater amounts in the leaves (e.g., vitamin A, B6) and others are in the tubers (e.g., folate, lycopene). The concentration of bioactive compounds in beetroot also depends on its variety and growing conditions. Recent studies have reported on the beneficial effect of beetroot juice and beetroot products on the body’s efficiency during prolonged physical exercise. The purpose of this review is to discuss the content of biologically active compounds in beetroot and the impact of beetroot product consumption on the human body, based on the latest literature.

Explaining the Calendar: The Catholic Church and Family Planning in Poland, 1930–1957

Abstract: Abstract This article explores continuities and discontinuities in Polish Catholic discourses on family planning across a time span that tends to be divided in the historiography on Poland and political history in general. The period we analyse begins in 1930, with the pivotal encyclical Casti connubii defining church doctrine on contraception, and ends with the legalization of abortion in 1956, and a state-sponsored family planning campaign the following year. In order to reconstruct Catholic teachings on marriage and family planning we examine advice publications that received official church approval, paying particular attention to their gendered dimensions, the emphasis placed on marriage, and the ‘calendar’ method. Although our research includes three politically and socially distinct periods, we argue that the content of Catholic teachings on family planning in Poland was consistent throughout. We also show that, although there were some distinct national characteristics, the Polish Catholic discourse on family planning resembled to a great extent the developments in other countries, particularly in regard to visions of marriage and sexuality. As we delineate, by engaging in the discussion on family planning, Catholic authors acted as active constructors of modernity, construed in both periods in relation to science and nationalism.

Law

Abstract: This chapter outlines the main relations between law and collective memory by stressing the role of law as a factor shaping the possibilities to articulate collective memories, but also affecting the content of the memories themselves. First, it discusses the framing effects of law on memories to point out that the commemorative effect is not always an express goal. The intersection of law and memory is a domain in which the predictable results of memory activism intertwine with the unforeseeable risks. Second, it presents four areas where the reliance of memory activism on legal means is particularly conspicuous: memory laws, truth-seeking initiatives, mnemonic mobilization in the struggles for historical justice, and constitutional memories. The chapter concludes with a brief overview of the risks involved in memory activism focusing on the legal frame of memories, including the potential loss of credibility as a result of involvement and lobbying with the law-making power. Overall the chapter argues that the conflation of regulatory framework for memories with memories themselves may come at a loss to the transformative potential of memory activism.

Mediterranean biodiversity gradient initiated by basin restriction

Abstract: Physical connectivity between marine basins facilitates population exchange and hence controls biodiversity. The Mediterranean Sea is a semi-restricted basin with only a small two-way connection to the global ocean, and it is a region heavily impacted by climate change and biological invasions today. The massive migration of non-indigenous species into the basin through the Suez Canal, driven and enabled by climate warming, is drastically changing Mediterranean biodiversity. Understanding therefore the origin and cause(s) of pre-existing biodiversity patterns is crucial for predicting future impacts of climate change. Mediterranean biodiversity exhibits a west-to-east decreasing gradient in terms of species richness, but the processes that resulted in this gradient have only been hypothesized. By examining the fossil record, we provide evidence that this gradient developed 5.33 million years ago at the end of the Messinian Salinity Crisis, and it was therefore caused by the re-population of the basin by marine species with a dominating western source at the Mediterranean–Atlantic gateway.

Asexual and Genderless Futures1

Abstract: Science fiction (SF) is a fruitful ground for thinking through queer desires and gender identities because of the ways in which it defamiliarizes these categories. Science fiction (SF) critics and writers ask how non-normative sexualities may function in imagined futures and what this, in turn, reveals about how they are understood here and now (Pearson, Hollinger, and Gordon; Melzer). This chapter examines queer visions of futures that posit lack of sexual desire and/or lack of gender (or biological sex), asking how the two are connected and how they can contribute to reimagining heteronormative desire and the heteronormative gender binary. Focusing on two classic texts of queer SF, The Left Hand of Darkness(1969) by Ursula K. Le Guin and “Aye, and Gomorrah” (1966) by Samuel R. Delany, and the newer, critically acclaimed Imperial Radch trilogy (2013–15) by Ann Leckie, this chapter uses the asexual perspective to show Le Guin and Delany destabilize the gender binary but retain the importance of desire in their visions of future intimacy, while Leckie offers readers a society without gender and a story in which non-sexual intimacies and relations replace desire.

Cytokine gene polymorphism and parasite susceptibility in free-living rodents: Importance of non-coding variants

Abstract: Associations between genetic variants and susceptibility to infections have long been studied in free-living hosts so as to infer the contemporary evolutionary forces that shape the genetic polymorphisms of immunity genes. Despite extensive studies of proteins interacting with pathogen-derived ligands, such as MHC (major histocompatilbility complex) or TLR (Toll-like receptors), little is known about the efferent arm of the immune system. Cytokines are signalling molecules that trigger and modulate the immune response, acting as a crucial link between innate and adaptive immunity. In the present study we investigated how genetic variation in cytokines in bank voles Myodes glareolus affects their susceptibility to infection by parasites (nematodes: Aspiculuris tianjensis, Heligmosomum mixtum, Heligmosomoides glareoli) and microparasites (Cryptosporidium sp, Babesia microti, Bartonella sp.). We focused on three cytokines: tumour necrosis factor (TNF), lymphotoxin alpha (LTα), and interferon beta (IFNβ1). Overall, we identified four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with susceptibility to nematodes: two located in LTα and two in IFNβ1. One of those variants was synonymous, another located in an intron. Each SNP associated with parasite load was located in or next to a codon under selection, three codons displayed signatures of positive selection, and one of purifying selection. Our results indicate that cytokines are prone to parasite-driven selection and that non-coding variants, although commonly disregarded in studies of the genetic background of host-parasite co-evolution, may play a role in susceptibility to infections in wild systems.