Anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG against the S Protein: A Comparison of BNT162b2, mRNA-1273, ChAdOx1 nCoV-2019 and Ad26.COV2.S Vaccines

Background: COVID-19 vaccines induce a differentiated humoral and cellular response, and one of the comparable parameters of the vaccine response is the determination of IgG antibodies. Materials and Methods: Concentrations of IgG anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies were analyzed at three time points (at the beginning of May, at the end of June and at the end of September). Serum samples were obtained from 954 employees of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń (a total of three samples each were obtained from 511 vaccinated participants). IgG antibody concentrations were determined by enzyme immunoassay. The statistical analysis included comparisons between vaccines, between convalescents and COVID-19 non-patients, between individual measurements and included the gender, age and blood groups of participants. Results: There were significant differences in antibody levels between mRNA and vector vaccines. People vaccinated with mRNA-1273 achieved the highest levels of antibodies, regardless of the time since full vaccination. People vaccinated with ChAdOx1 nCoV-2019 produced several times lower antibody levels compared to the mRNA vaccines, while the antibody levels were more stable. In the case of each of the vaccines, the factor having the strongest impact on the level and stability of the IgG antibody titers was previous SARS-CoV-2 infection. There were no significant correlations with age, gender and blood type. Summary: mRNA vaccines induce a stronger humoral response of the immune system with the fastest loss of antibodies over time.

Evolutionary Theism of Henryk Levittoux in Polish and International Context

Henryk Levittoux (1822-1879) is currently best known as the model of Jan Matejko who posed for him as Nicolaus Copernicus. Less known, however, is his concept of evolution, which he presented as a part of his philosophical system and which caused a heated debates among Polish intellectuals in the second half of the nineteenth century. Levittoux's theory, which was trying to combine religious dogma with the achievements of contemporary science, breaks out of the popular historical narrative, in which it is assumed that the discussions about the evolutionism were dominated by creationists and pro-Darwinian positivists. The aim of this article will be to present Levittoux's theory of evolution and to show how he combined the ideas of evolution with the concept of Divine creation. Secondary focus of the article will be to place his theory in the broader context of scientific and philosophical changes, that took place in the nineteenth century. Attention will be paid to the way in which the professionalization of science affected natural philosophers, such as Levittoux, who were refusing to accept the rigorous positivist methodology. It will also be shown how Levittoux’s evolutionism became part of the so-called "developmental evolutionism" which promoted a completely different vision of evolution than Darwinism. The non-Darwinian nature of Levittoux's evolutionism was inspired by Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire’s theory. Levittoux adopted his idea that species evolve thanks to the environmental stimulus which affects their ontogenesis. However, this idea will be extrapolated in Levittoux’s writings to the whole Earth. So, he will conclude that the Earth is the equivalent of the womb in which, like the fetus, all Life develops. All changes of species, in his opinion, are additionally controlled by a universal principle which he called the law of attraction-repulsion. This law was also the tool by which God created the world. The Levittoux’s concept is one of the first attempts to create a synthesis of evolutionism and religious thought in the Polish post-Darwinian philosophy of nature. Levittoux, as a continuator of Saint-Hilaire's thought, is also an interesting example of an attempt to instill in Polish philosophy French evolutionist thought.

Editorial

The cover title of the new issue, An Oriental Journey, has attracted a great deal of interest from authors of various disciplines. Scholars of both remote and recent history have passionately explored this theme. The issue section contains three articles related to the medieval Levant. Wojciech Mruk, a medievalist from the Jagiellonian University, analyses the account given by Lionardo Frescobaldi, Simone Sigoli and Giorgio Gucci, who made a peregrination to the Holy Land together between 1384 and 1385. Another article, by Christopher Schabel (Cyprus University in Nicosia), discusses the best-known medieval Cypriot village of Psimolofu and its links with the patriarchs of Jerusalem. Nicholas Coureas of the Cyprus Research Center provides a broad perspective on the presence of the Greek Church on Cyprus during the Lusignan and Venetian rule (1191–1571). The next contribution takes us back to the 20th century and even further to the East. Magdalena Filipczuk (Jesuit University Ignatianum in Cracow) reconstructs selected themes in the reflections by Lin Yutang, a Chinese thinker, translator and editor, based on his work towards explaining and popularizing Chinese culture and philosophy in the West. One more article that takes us to the Far East, but back in time, is by Małgorzata Sobczyk (Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń) undertakes to characterize the image of a Japanese woman in the light of sixteenth-century European accounts. The next three studies invite us to learn more about Poles and their presence in the East. Ewa Siemieniec-Gołaś (Jagiellonian University) makes an attempt to discuss the figure of Władysław Jabłonowski, not only a physician in the Ottoman service, but also an expert and researcher of the East. Beata Gontarz (University of Silesia in Katowice) discusses the cultural experience of Jan Józef Szczepański based on his book Do raju i z powrotem [To Paradise and Back]. The last article in the issue section is a work of turkologist Sylwia Filipowska (Jagiellonian University), who discusses the circumstances of Tadeusz Kowalski’s journey to Turkey in 1927.

Changing the Health Behaviour of Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Poland

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented changes in educational, professional, and leisure activities around the world. Protecting health against the virus has become the most important task in the social and individual dimension. The aim of the study was to diagnose changes in the behaviour and health beliefs of students. The WHO definition of health and the Health Belief Model (HBM) were adopted as the theoretical basis for defining variables. The study was of diagnostic and verification nature, and a quantitative strategy was used in it. The general population comprised students of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun. The study was conducted electronically in 2020, during the first lockdown in Poland. The Likert scale was used as a tool to assess the degree of change. The respondents declared the greatest changes in terms of caring about physical and relational health. The declared behavioural changes concerned the most conservative, trained forms of pro-health activity. Despite the declared beliefs about the importance of maintaining health and the personal risk of viral infection, the respondents declared undertaking more advanced pro-health activities only to a small extent.

Analysis of the Nicolaus Copernicus Airport Activity in Terms of the Flight Operations Impact on Air Pollution

The dynamic development of aviation is associated with many benefits, but also, unfortunately, with negative effects. One of the adverse consequences is the exhaust emissions that have a negative impact on human health. It particularly affects the residents of areas neighboring airports, as airport activity deteriorates local air quality. Using the Emissions and Dispersion Modeling System, the activity of the Nicolaus Copernicus Airport was assessed in terms of the flight operations’ contribution to air contamination in the area adjacent to the airport. Emissions from three sources were compared: aircraft, ground support equipment and auxiliary power units. The concentrations of pollutants in inhabited areas located in three different directions in relation to the airport were also estimated. In addition, the effect of distance from the airport on contaminant concentrations was assessed as a function of wind direction. It was noticed that small values of pollutant concentrations, originating from airport activity, appeared within a few kilometers from the airport, even if the prevailing wind direction on a given day was opposite to the analyzed dispersion direction.

Analysis of the visibility and signal strength of the LoRaWAN network in an urbanized area – a case study of the Bielany campus at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń

In order to assess or determine the overall quality of the surrounding geographical environment, it is necessary to measure selected factors that directly or indirectly affect its condition. The aspects to be monitored include i.a. air pollution levels, surface water purity, soil erosion rates, as well as night sky light pollution, a phenomenon increasingly often observed with the unaided eye. To collect data on the night sky brightness on a regular basis, a remote measuring device was designed and constructed using specialised electronic components, wireless communication, programming code, a high-sensitivity digital light data logger and custom-made programme code. LPWAN networks, including LoRa technology, were developed to support a number of mobile devices where long wireless operation is a priority. To determine the potential use of LoRa technology, as well as to plan the target locations of network access gates (gateways) and the deployment of measuring devices for the collection of environmental data, tests of signal coverage and signal visibility, including measurements of its strength, were carried out in a selected, compact part of the city of Toruń. The paper presents the results of research on the visibility of the LoRa network in a built-up area, such as a university campus, using antennas of two different lengths. The obtained results can be used to design distributed measurement networks in areas with varying density of buildings.

E-learning w nauczaniu medycznego języka angielskiego

The aim of the present article is to describe the methods and forms of e-learning implemented to classes of medical English to Polish students in the summer semester in 2020 at Nicolaus Copernicus University (NCU) in Torun. The theoretical framework of the proposed e-learning was based on the assumptions voiced by constructivism. The article also discusses the results of two anonymous surveys concerning classes of medical English, which were administered among students of Collegium Medicum NCU. The first survey was administered after one week of e-learning (in March) and the second one after the last class of e-learning (in June). Over one hundred respondents took part in each survey. A number of apps were used in the distance education described in the article, inter alia: MS Teams, MS Forms, Fiszkoteka, Kahoot, LearnClick, OBS Studio, YouTube, etc. The results of the surveys demonstrate that a vast number of students who took part in the online course of medical English were satisfied with this form of learning, which they found effective, motivating and attractive.

Philosophical models of cosmos of Pythagoras and Philolaus: from Antiquity until the beginning of Modern Age

This article determines the fundamental principles of the models of the Cosmos of Pythagoras of Samos (c. 570 – 500 BC) and Philolaus of Croton (c. 470 – c. 388 BC). The perception of Cosmos as “beauty” and “harmony” – one of the basic characteristics of Pythagorean approach towards cognition of the world; it “interweaves” with the rational perception of reality. The harmony of beauty is transformed into the harmony of numerical relations. The achievements of Pythagoreans, subsequently become one of the foundations of Plato's astronomical texts, who describes cosmology as exact scientific discipline. Nicolaus Copernicus resorts to Philolaus as his major predecessor. This article is first to analyze the symbolic elements of Philolaus’ model of Cosmos from the perspective of modern scientific knowledge. Based on the conducted analysis, the author advances a hypothesis on the noematic nature of the elements of Philolaus’ model of Cosmos, as well as indicates the significance of transposing the methods of practical geometry onto the theoretical fields of “celestial” space, independent from the direct measurements. The article describes the key principles of the model of the universe of Pythagoras of Samos and Philolaus of Croton; discusses reconstruction of Philolaus’ model of Cosmos by Ivan Nikolaevich Veselovsky and Sergey Viktorovich Zhitomirsky. Analysis is conducted on the continuity of the principles of the models of Cosmos of Philolaus and Nicolaus Copernicus.

Ten Years of Recruitment for Archaeology in Toruń – Candidate Profiles and the Student Recruitment Process. A Multi-indicator Data Analysis

The article is a research report on candidates for archaeological studies, for which the source of data was the Internet Candidate Registration (IRK) system of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. The analysis was carried out on a sample of 695 people admitted to the first year of archeology at UMK, with the material covering the period from 2007 to 2017. It was decided to build the profile of candidates for students based on six criteria: the size of the hometown and its distance from Toruń, gender, age of the candidates, completed secondary school, results of secondary school-leaving exams and recruitment decisions of candidates (priority system). As researchers, we had no influence on the set of data we had at our disposal, the work was carried out using an already existing database, the primary purpose of which was not research or analyzes similar to ours. The text presents conclusions and generalizations based on proprietary tools for the analysis of the existing database. The conclusions, although they concern archeology itself and candidates for archeology, may be a starting point for further analyzes of other majors. Archaeologists can use these outcomes to evaluate the condition of their discipline.

The Sun about Heliocentric Theory in Science Perspective and Al-Qur’an Tafsir al-Maraghi

This study aims to analyze the sun as the centre of the solar system in the heliocentric theory from the point of view of physics and the Qur'an. The research method used is a qualitative research method with library research (Library Research). The results of this study are proof of the truth that in the Qur'an, there is also a science that explains the heliocentric theory, which states that the sun is the centre of the solar system. Based on the idea of Nicolaus Copernicus in a book entitled De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium, it has been published that the heliocentric theory can overthrow the long-established geocentric theory. The Qur'an was revealed long before the astronomical concept of the earth's motion was put forward and was in line with the heliocentric view. In the Al-Qur'an, there are verses about the world, moon and sun, for example, Yunus: 5, al-Naml: 88, and Yasin: 38-40. The sun as the centre of the solar system is not static but also in motion. This is explained in the Al-Qur'an in Surah Yasin verses 38-40. Ahmad Mustafa al-Maraghi in Tafsir al-Maraghi emphasized that the heliocentric theory is by the Qur'an and the birth of the heliocentric idea is part of the miracle of al-Qur'an.