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Our picture of Central and Eastern Europe during the early Middle Ages is rather obscure because this part of the continent is hardly accessible historically given the scarcity and limited reliability of the relevant evidence. Archaeologists have revealed fascinating finds which are, nevertheless, hard to 'translate' into a historical narrative. Their discoveries are well localized, both in time and in space, but provide neither names nor ethnic affiliations.

In the lands which make up contemporary Poland, i.e. those lands set between the Baltic Sea in the north and the mountainous belt in the south, the period in question sees important processes in the establishment of a territorial State by the Piast dynasty. Unfortunately, written sources are scarce for both the pre-State period and for the reigns of the first recorded rulers: Mieszko I (before 963–992) and his son Boles³aw Chrobry (992–1025). Therefore, when studying the last three centuries of the 1st millennium AD there must be a heavy reliance on the archaeological evidence, prominent among which

Contemporary Polish national identity is strongly referred to the medieval roots of the early Polish state organized and run by the rulers of the first historical dynasty — the Piasts. Who were those people who relatively quickly established in central Poland a strong territorial organization and quickly expanded their domain in all directions? The basic historical alternative in the two-hundred-years-old discussion was between the «patriotic» position whose adherents took for granted the local origin of the Piasts and these scholars who suspected their foreign origin. Both parties had to refer to the Gallus’s story where the former saw the proof for vernacular roots of the dynasty which derived from a simple peasant, while the latter pointed to the recorded memory of the semi-violent replacement of the old dynasty of Popiel by a new one — the Piasts. In our opinion, it is hardly believe that in the forests of Wielkopolska there suddenly «popped up» the idea of building a territorial state which was effectively and quickly executed according to a precise plan. Such a vision does not explain where the necessary technical and organizational know-how came from and how was it mentally adopted and practically adapted by local leaders living in the area which does not boast any archaeological evidence for contacts with the more advanced parts of Europe and which existed during several decades unnoticed by the contemporary descriptors of the «world». These doubts made me accept the alternative solution that Mieszko’s forefathers had arrived to Wielkopolska from some more civilized outside and grabbed supreme power there. We have substantial archaeological evidence and some onomastic indicators which point to the southern direction of such contacts. In my opinion, the hypothesis of the southern source of Mieszko’s I organizional experience and technological knowledge should be developed much further. Thus, in the light of archaeological materials and toponymic data, it seems reasonable to assume that those of the Moravian elite who survived the Magyar invasion in the region of Olomouc subsequently retreated further north, namely to Wielkopolska (Greater Poland). We should accept a possibility that not only their collaborators but also early Piasts themselves could have arrived to Wielkopolska from Great Moravia wherefrom they inherited necessary knowledge of how a viable state should be organized. Thus, the story of a simple but sincere and hospitable peasant Piast who was granted political power taken from an arrogant former ruler Popiel may reflect some vague memory of an ancient political turmoil. This (hi)story written down by Gallus Anonymus may be interpreted as a propaganda cover up for the original coup d’etat which resulted in coming to authority in Wielkopolska of a new family of Moravian strangers who started there a new successful dynasty.

The generation of videos is crucial, particularly in the medical field, where a significant amount of data is presented in this format. However, due to the extensive memory requirements, creating high-resolution videos poses a substantial challenge for generative models. In this paper, we introduce the Memory Efficient Video GAN (MeVGAN)–a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) that incorporates a plugin-type architecture. This system utilizes a pre-trained 2D-image GAN, to which we attach a straightforward neural network designed to develop specific trajectories within the noise space. These trajectories, when processed through the GAN, produce realistic videos. We deploy MeVGAN specifically for creating colonoscopy videos, a critical procedure in the medical field, notably helpful for screening and treating colorectal cancer. We show that MeVGAN can produce good quality synthetic colonoscopy videos, which can be potentially used in virtual simulators.

Clinical pharmacy as an area of practice, education and research started developing around the 1960s when pharmacists across the globe gradually identified the need to focus more on ensuring the appropriate use of medicines to improve patient outcomes rather than being engaged in manufacturing and supply. Since that time numerous studies have shown the positive impact of clinical pharmacy services (CPS). The need for wider adoption of CPS worldwide becomes urgent, as the global population ages, and the prevalence of polypharmacy as well as shortage of healthcare professionals is rising. At the same time, there is great pressure to provide both high-quality and cost-effective health services. All these challenges urgently require the adoption of a new paradigm of healthcare system architecture. One of the most appropriate answers to these challenges is to increase the utilization of the potential of highly educated and skilled professionals widely available in these countries, i.e., pharmacists, who are well positioned to prevent and manage drug-related problems together with ensuring safe and effective use of medications with further care relating to medication adherence. Unfortunately, CPS are still underdeveloped and underutilized in some parts of Europe, namely, in most of the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. This paper reviews current situation of CPS development in CEE countries and the prospects for the future of CPS in that region.

A series of new peptide dendrimers with amphiphilic surface, designed around a dendronized ornithine (Orn) core were synthesized and characterized by ESI-MS, 1H-, 13C- NMR, and CD spectrometry. An improved antimicrobial potency against S. aureus and E. coli was detected as a result of an increased charge, higher branching and variable lipophilicity of the residues located at the C-terminus. Minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) values indicated that the selected dendrimers were not sensitive to the physiological concentration of Na+ and K+ ions (100 mM), but expressed reduced potency at 10 mM concentration of Mg2+ and Ca2+ ions. Circular dichroism (CD) curves measured under various conditions revealed structure and solvent-dependent curve evolution. ESI-MS studies of gas-phase interactions between selected dendrimers and both anionic (DMPG) and neutral (DMPC) phospholipids revealed the presence of variously charged dendrimer/phospholipid aggregates with 1:1 to 1:5 stoichiometry. The collision-induced fragmentation (CID) of the most abundant [dendrimer/phospholipid]2+ ions of the 1:1 stoichiometry demonstrated that the studied dendrimers formed stronger complexes with anionic DMPG. Both phospholipids have higher affinity towards dendrimers with a more compact structure. Higher differences in CID energy necessary for dissociation of 50% of the complex formed by dendrimers with DMPG vs. DMPC (DCID50) correlate with a lower hemotoxicity. Mass spectrometry results suggest that for a particular group of compounds the DCID50 might be one of the important factors explaining selectivity of antimicrobial peptides and their branched analogs targeting the bacterial membrane. Both circular dichroism and mass spectrometry studies demonstrated that dendrimers of Nα- and Nε-series possess a different conformation in solution and different affinity to model phospholipids, what might influence their specific microbicidal mechanism.