Kinetic and Thermodynamic Studies of Precious Metals Sorption on Impregnated Lewatit VP OC 1026 from Chloride Solutions.

Precious metals are used in many branches of industries. Due to their rarity and diminishing natural resources, more and more new methods are being sought to recover them from secondary sources, which can be electronic waste or spent car exhaust converters. This paper presents the research on the recovery of precious metals from chloride solutions using the Aliquat 336-impregnated Lewatit VP OC 1026 sorbent. The study used a warm impregnation method without toxic solvents, which is beneficial for the environment. The maximal sorption capacities obtained for model solutions in 0.1 M HCl were: 95.6 mg/g for gold, 38.2 mg/g for palladium, and 36.2 mg/g for platinum. There were studied: kinetics and thermodynamics of sorption, as well as amounts of the sorbent, effects of phase contact time and HCl concentration on the sorption of precious metals. Positive values of enthalpy change ΔH° validate that the process is endothermic. The research was also carried out on a real leaching solution obtained by digesting a spent catalytic converter, containing small amounts of platinum group metals. Desorption of precious metal ions was conducted using 1 M thiourea in 1 M hydrochloric acid. The obtained impregnated sorbent proved to be effective for sorption of Au(III), Pd(II), Pt(IV) ions.

Factors associated with burnout among hospital-based healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional CRACoV-HHS study.

AIMS: To assess the prevalence of burnout and associated factors among healthcare workers (HCWs) working in a hospital admitting patients with COVID-19. BACKGROUND: Burnout among HCWs is related to age, gender and occupation. However, little is known about organisational factors associated with burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study of 1412 hospital HCWs (748 nurses) was carried out via online survey during the COVID-19 pandemic between 4 and 19 January 2021. METHODS: The Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey, the Checklist Individual Strength questionnaire, the interRAI items covering mental health, the WHO questionnaire items assessing HCWs' preparedness and exposure to SARS-CoV-2 were used. Univariable and multivariable linear regression analyses were conducted to clarify factors associated with emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalisation (DP) and personal accomplishment (PA). This study adheres to the STROBE guidelines. RESULTS: Burnout prevalence varied from 10.0% to 22.0%. Most respondents (83.6%) reported low PA, 22.9% high EE and 18.7% high DP. Nurses and physicians had the highest levels of EE and DP. Staff exposed or uncertain if exposed to contaminated patients' body fluids and materials had higher levels of burnout. Preparedness (training) (b = 1.15; 95%CI 0.26 to 2.05) and adherence to infection prevention and control procedures (b = 1.57; 95%CI 0.67 to 2.47) were associated with higher PA, and accessibility of personal protective equipment (PPE) (b = -1.37; 95%CI -2.17 to -0.47) was related to lower EE. HCWs working in wards for patients with COVID-19 reported lower EE (b = -1.39; 95%CI -2.45 to -0.32). HCWs who contracted COVID-19 reported lower DP (b = -0.71, 95%CI -1.30 to -0.12). CONCLUSIONS: Organisational factors such as better access to PPE, training, and adherence to infection prevention and control procedures were associated with a lower level of burnout. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Healthcare managers should promote strategies to reduce burnout among HCWs with regard to preparedness of all staff.

Editorial: Biomedical Data in Human-Machine Interaction.

Analysis of biomedical data can provide useful information regarding human condition and as a result-analysis of these signals has become one of the most popular diagnostic methods [...].

Investigating the Impact of Guided Imagery on Stress, Brain Functions, and Attention: A Randomized Trial.

The aim of this study was to investigate the potential impact of guided imagery (GI) on attentional control and cognitive performance and to explore the relationship between guided imagery, stress reduction, alpha brainwave activity, and attentional control using common cognitive performance tests. Executive function was assessed through the use of attentional control tests, including the anti-saccade, Stroop, and Go/No-go tasks. Participants underwent a guided imagery session while their brainwave activity was measured, followed by attentional control tests. The study's outcomes provide fresh insights into the influence of guided imagery on brain wave activity, particularly in terms of attentional control. The findings suggest that guided imagery has the potential to enhance attentional control by augmenting the alpha power and reducing stress levels. Given the limited existing research on the specific impact of guided imagery on attention control, the study's findings carry notable significance.

UV-C Seed Surface Sterilization and Fe, Zn, Mg, Cr Biofortification of Wheat Sprouts as an Effective Strategy of Bioelement Supplementation.

Metalloenzymes play an important role in the regulation of many biological functions. An effective way to prevent deficiencies of essential minerals in human diets is the biofortification of plant materials. The process of enriching crop sprouts under hydroponic conditions is the easiest and cheapest to conduct and control. In this study, the sprouts of the wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) varieties Arkadia and Tonacja underwent biofortification with Fe, Zn, Mg, and Cr solutions in hydroponic media at four concentrations (0, 50, 100, and 200 µg g-1) over four and seven days. Moreover, this study is the first to combine sprout biofortification with UV-C (λ = 254 nm) radiation treatment for seed surface sterilization. The results showed that UV-C radiation was effective in suppressing seed germination contamination by microorganisms. The seed germination energy was slightly affected by UV-C radiation but remained at a high level (79-95%). The influence of this non-chemical sterilization process on seeds was tested in an innovative manner using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and EXAKT thin-section cutting. The applied sterilization process reduced neither the growth and development of sprouts nor nutrient bioassimilation. In general, wheat sprouts easily accumulate Fe, Zn, Mg, and Cr during the applied growth period. A very strong correlation between the ion concentration in the media and microelement assimilation in the plant tissues (R2 > 0.9) was detected. The results of the quantitative ion assays performed with atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) using the flame atomization method were correlated with the morphological evaluation of sprouts in order to determine the optimum concentration of individual elements in the hydroponic solution. The best conditions were indicated for 7-day cultivation in 100 µg g-1 of solutions with Fe (218% and 322% better nutrient accumulation in comparison to the control condition) and Zn (19 and 29 times richer in zinc concentration compared to the sprouts without supplementation). The maximum plant product biofortification with magnesium did not exceed 40% in intensity compared to the control sample. The best-developed sprouts were grown in the solution with 50 µg g-1 of Cr. In contrast, the concentration of 200 µg g-1 was clearly toxic to the wheat sprouts.

A New Impregnated Adsorbent for Noble Metal Ion Sorption.

Noble metals (NM) such as gold, platinum, palladium, and rhodium are widely applied in the electronics and automotive industries. Thus, the search for cheap and selective sorbents for noble metals is economically justified. Nitrolite does not sorb noble metal ions. A new impregnated sorbent was prepared. The natural sorbent Nitrolite was impregnated with Aliquat 336 using a new warm impregnation method. After the impregnation process, Nitrolite adsorbed platinum(IV), palladium(II), and gold(III) ions from the chloride solutions. The values of the sorption capacity for palladium(II) and platinum(IV) ions were 47.63 mg/g and 51.39 mg/g, respectively, from the 0.1 M HCl model solution. The sorption capacity for gold(III) ions was estimated to be 73.43 mg/g from the 0.1 M HCl model solution. An exhausted catalytic converter was leached, and platinum(IV), palladium(II), and rhodium(III) were transferred to the chloride solution. The impregnated sorbent Nitrolite-Aliquat 336 was used in the investigations of the platinum(IV), palladium(II), and rhodium(III) ions' sorption from a real solution. The impregnated sorbent Nitrolite-Aliquat 336 proved to be suitable for the recovery of platinum(IV) and palladium(II) ions, whereas rhodium ions were not sorbed from the leached solutions. Notably, 1 M thiourea in the 1 M HCl solution desorbed platinum(IV), palladium(II), and gold(III) above 94%.

Insight into the removal of vanadium ions from model and real wastewaters using surface grafted zirconia-based adsorbents: Batch experiments, equilibrium and mechanism study.

This study concerns the fabrication of CTAB- and N,N-dimethyltetradecylamine-grafted zirconia and evaluation of their ability to adsorb vanadium ions. The effectiveness of ZrO2 functionalization and the different nature of the modifiers used were confirmed by differences in the porosity (ZrO2: SBET = 347 m2/g; ZrO2-CTAB: SBET = 375 m2/g, ZrO2-NH+: SBET = 155 m2/g), types of functional groups, and isoelectric points (the ZrO2 and CTAB-modified samples have IEPs = 3.8 and 3.9, ZrO2-NH+ has IEP = 7.1) of the prepared adsorbents. The designed materials were tested in batch adsorption experiments involving the removal of vanadium ions from model wastewaters at various process parameters, among which pH proved to be the most important. Based on equilibrium and kinetic evaluations, it was proved that the sorption of V(V) ions followed pseudo-second-order and intraparticle diffusion models, and the data were better fitted to the Langmuir model, suggesting the following order of the sorbents in terms of favorability for V(V) ion adsorption: ZrO2-NH+ > ZrO2 > ZrO2-CTAB. The estimated maximum monolayer capacity of ZrO2-NH+ for V(V) (87.72 mg/g) was the highest among the tested materials. Additionally, it was confirmed that adsorption of V(V) ions onto synthesized materials is a heterogeneous, exothermic, and spontaneous reaction, as evidenced by the calculated values of thermodynamic parameters. The key goals included the transfer of experimental findings obtained using model solutions to the adsorption of V(V) ions from solutions arising from the leaching process of spent catalysts. The highest adsorption efficiencies of 70.8% and 47.5% were recorded for the ZrO2-NH+ material in acidic solution; this may be related to the protonization of -NH+ groups, which favors the sorption of V(V) ions. Based on desorption tests as well as the results of infrared and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, irrespective of the process conditions, the physical nature of the adsorbent/adsorbate interaction was confirmed.

Rapid antiretroviral treatment start seems as vital and cost-effective strategy in Central and Eastern Europe.

BACKGROUND: It is essential to deliver specialist human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) care with maximum effectiveness, but also minimum time delay. Therefore, we aimed to determine whether rapid linkage to care defined as starting combined antiretroviral therapy (cART) on the day of the first visit at the HIV clinic is a costeffective approach. METHODS: In the analysis, Markov's lifetime model presented in our previous study was implemented. The inputs used in the model were updated in the terms of costs, life expectancy, and patient characteristics. For the analysis we used information from the previous model about the additional costs of treatment and qualityadjusted life years (QALYs) lost in the life horizon for people newly infected with HIV. The number of newly infected persons was estimated based on available data. RESULTS: Input data was available for 344 men having sex with men (MSM) who registered in the HIV specialist care between 2016 and 2017. The estimated QALY loss due to lack of rapid treatment initiation, where the viral load is not (was) taken into account, equals 0·018 (0·022), 0·039 (0·047), 0·131 (0·158) respectively in low, medium and high risk transmission groups. Rapid cART initiation was dominant regardless of the chosen scenarios. CONCLUSIONS: Cost-effectiveness analysis considering the HIV transmission indicates that the rapid initiation of HIV treatment is a cost-effective and potentially cost-saving approach to improve HIV care and reduce HIV transmission in Central and Eastern Europe.

Unprocessed Red Meat and Processed Meat Consumption: Dietary Guideline Recommendations From the Nutritional Recommendations (NutriRECS) Consortium.

This article has been corrected. The original version (PDF) is appended to this article as a Supplement. Description: Dietary guideline recommendations require consideration of the certainty in the evidence, the magnitude of potential benefits and harms, and explicit consideration of people's values and preferences. A set of recommendations on red meat and processed meat consumption was developed on the basis of 5 de novo systematic reviews that considered all of these issues. Methods: The recommendations were developed by using the Nutritional Recommendations (NutriRECS) guideline development process, which includes rigorous systematic review methodology, and GRADE methods to rate the certainty of evidence for each outcome and to move from evidence to recommendations. A panel of 14 members, including 3 community members, from 7 countries voted on the final recommendations. Strict criteria limited the conflicts of interest among panel members. Considerations of environmental impact or animal welfare did not bear on the recommendations. Four systematic reviews addressed the health effects associated with red meat and processed meat consumption, and 1 systematic review addressed people's health-related values and preferences regarding meat consumption. Recommendations: The panel suggests that adults continue current unprocessed red meat consumption (weak recommendation, low-certainty evidence). Similarly, the panel suggests adults continue current processed meat consumption (weak recommendation, low-certainty evidence). Primary Funding Source: None. (PROSPERO 2017: CRD42017074074; PROSPERO 2018: CRD42018088854).

Method for direct coupling of a semiconductor quantum dot to an optical fiber for single-photon source applications.

We present an effective method for direct fiber coupling of a quantum dot (QD) that is deterministically incorporated into a cylindrical mesa. For precise positioning of the fiber with respect to the QD-mesa, we use a scanning procedure relying on interference of light reflected back from the fiber end-face and the top surface of the mesa, applicable for both single-mode and multi-mode fibers. The central part of the fiber end-face is etched to control the required distance between the top surface of the mesa and the fiber core. Emission around 1260 nm from a fiber-coupled InGaAs/GaAs QD is demonstrated and its stability is proven over multiple cooling cycles. Moreover, a single photon character of emission from such system for a line emitting above 1200 nm is proven experimentally by photon autocorrelation measurements with an obtained value of the second order correlation function at zero time-delay well below 0.5.

Acoustic Neurofeedback Increases Beta ERD During Mental Rotation Task.

The purpose of the present study was to identify the effect of acoustic neurofeedback on brain activity during consecutive stages of mental rotation of 3D objects. Given the fact that the process of mental rotation of objects is associated with desynchronisation of beta rhythm (beta ERD), it was expected that suppression in this band would be greater in the experimental group than in the controls. Thirty-three participants were randomly allocated to two groups performing the classic Shepard-Metzler mental rotation task (1971). The experimental group received auditory stimuli when the level of concentration fell below the threshold value determined separately for each participant based on the engagement index [ß/(α + Θ)]. The level of concentration in the control group was not stimulated. Compared to the controls, the experimental group was found with greater beta-band suppression recorded above the left parietal cortex during the early stage and above the right parietal cortex during the late stage of mental rotation task. At the late stage of mental rotation, only the experimental group was found with differences in beta ERD related to varied degrees of the rotation angle and the control condition (zero angles, no rotation) recorded above the right parietal cortex and the central area of cerebral cortex. The present findings suggest that acoustic feedback might improve the process of mental rotation.

Analytical modelling of temperature effects on an AMPA-type synapse.

It was previously reported, that temperature may significantly influence neural dynamics on the different levels of brain function. Thus, in computational neuroscience, it would be useful to make models scalable for a wide range of various brain temperatures. However, lack of experimental data and an absence of temperature-dependent analytical models of synaptic conductance does not allow to include temperature effects at the multi-neuron modeling level. In this paper, we propose a first step to deal with this problem: A new analytical model of AMPA-type synaptic conductance, which is able to incorporate temperature effects in low-frequency stimulations. It was constructed based on Markov model description of AMPA receptor kinetics using the set of coupled ODEs. The closed-form solution for the set of differential equations was found using uncoupling assumption (introduced in the paper) with few simplifications motivated both from experimental data and from Monte Carlo simulation of synaptic transmission. The model may be used for computationally efficient and biologically accurate implementation of temperature effects on AMPA receptor conductance in large-scale neural network simulations. As a result, it may open a wide range of new possibilities for researching the influence of temperature on certain aspects of brain functioning.

Highly birefringent polymer side-hole fiber for hydrostatic pressure sensing.

We report on the fabrication of a birefringent side-hole polymer optical fiber with an elliptical core made of polymethyl metacrylate-polystyrene (PMMA/PS) copolymer and pure PMMA cladding. The fiber core is located in a narrow PMMA bridge separating the holes. Two fibers with different bridge thickness were fabricated and characterized. We demonstrate, experimentally and numerically, that, by narrowing the bridge between the holes, one can increase simultaneously the fiber birefringence and the polarimetric sensitivity to hydrostatic pressure. In the fiber with the bridge as narrow as 5 µm, we achieved a record-high polarimetric sensitivity to hydrostatic pressure ranging between 175 and 140 rad/MPa/m in the spectral range of 600-830 nm. The phase modal birefringence in this fiber is also high and exceeds 3×10(-5) at 600 nm, which results in small polarization cross talk.

Impregnated Polymeric Sorbent for the Removal of Noble Metal Ions from Model Chloride Solutions and the RAM Module.

Nowadays, there is a need for new sources of noble metals due to their dwindling natural resources. This paper presents studies on the sorption of noble metals such as Au(III), Pt(IV), Pd(II) and Rh(III) from model chloride solutions on a newly prepared Amberlite XAD-16-Aliquat 336 sorbent. A "warm impregnation" method without the use of toxic organic solvents was applied to impregnate the polymer matrix. The influence of such factors as hydrochloric acid concentration, sorbent mass and phase contact time was investigated. Kinetic as well as adsorption isotherm studies were carried out. The sorption capacity of the synthesized sorbent was Au(III)-94.34 mg/g, Pt(IV)-45.35 mg/g and Pd(II)-46.03 mg/g. Based on thermodynamic considerations, their sorption proved to be endothermic, as the values of ΔH° > 0. Sorption was spontaneous and favourable (ΔG° < 0). After leaching the RAM module, there was obtained a real solution, in which the metal contents were determined: 38.10 mg/g of gold and 1.76 mg/g of palladium. Totals of 99.9% of gold and 45.4% of palladium were removed from the real leaching solution, with other elements in the solution.

Selective Recovery of Gold from Electronic Waste by New Efficient Type of Sorbent.

Modular connectors are applied by computer users, and they can be metallic secondary sources containing metals such as gold and copper. Because gold is a micro-component, the solution obtained after the pin digestion contains a low concentration of gold(III) ions, and efficient and selective sorbent should be used for gold(III) ion recovery. The selective removal of small amounts of gold(III) from 0.001-6 M hydrochloric acid solutions using pure and solvent-impregnated macroporous polystyrene crosslinked with divinylbenzene sorbents (Purolite MN 202 and Cyanex 272) is presented. Gold(III) ions were recovered effectively from the chloride solution after the digestion of the modular connector RJ 45 (8P8C) using Purolite MN 202 after the impregnation process. The dependence of the recovery percentage (R%) of gold(III) on the contact time was determined. The highest value of gold(III) ion sorption capacity (259.45 mg·g-1) was obtained in 0.001 M HCl for Purolite MN202 after the Cyanex 272 impregnation. The results can be applied to gold recovery from e-waste. The presented method of gold recovery does not generate nitrogen oxides and does not require the use of cyanides.

Neural simulation pipeline: Enabling container-based simulations on-premise and in public clouds.

In this study, we explore the simulation setup in computational neuroscience. We use GENESIS, a general purpose simulation engine for sub-cellular components and biochemical reactions, realistic neuron models, large neural networks, and system-level models. GENESIS supports developing and running computer simulations but leaves a gap for setting up today's larger and more complex models. The field of realistic models of brain networks has overgrown the simplicity of earliest models. The challenges include managing the complexity of software dependencies and various models, setting up model parameter values, storing the input parameters alongside the results, and providing execution statistics. Moreover, in the high performance computing (HPC) context, public cloud resources are becoming an alternative to the expensive on-premises clusters. We present Neural Simulation Pipeline (NSP), which facilitates the large-scale computer simulations and their deployment to multiple computing infrastructures using the infrastructure as the code (IaC) containerization approach. The authors demonstrate the effectiveness of NSP in a pattern recognition task programmed with GENESIS, through a custom-built visual system, called RetNet(8 × 5,1) that uses biologically plausible Hodgkin-Huxley spiking neurons. We evaluate the pipeline by performing 54 simulations executed on-premise, at the Hasso Plattner Institute's (HPI) Future Service-Oriented Computing (SOC) Lab, and through the Amazon Web Services (AWS), the biggest public cloud service provider in the world. We report on the non-containerized and containerized execution with Docker, as well as present the cost per simulation in AWS. The results show that our neural simulation pipeline can reduce entry barriers to neural simulations, making them more practical and cost-effective.

Prevalence of burnout among healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic and associated factors - a scoping review.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic exerted significant mental burden on healthcare workers (HCWs) operating in the frontline of the COVID-19 care as they experienced high levels of stress and burnout. The aim of this scoping review was to identify prevalence and factors associated with burnout among HCWs during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. A literature search was performed in PubMed, Web of Science, and CINAHL. Studies were selected based on the following inclusion criteria: cross-sectional, longitudinal, case-control, or qualitative analyses, published in peer-reviewed journals, between January 1, 2020 and February 28, 2021. Studies carried out on other occupations than healthcare workers or related to other pandemics than COVID-19 were excluded. Following the abstract screen, from 141 original papers identified, 69 articles were eventually selected. A large variation in the reported burnout prevalence among HCWs (4.3-90.4%) was observed. The main factors associated with increase/ decrease of burnout included: demographic characteristics (age, gender, education level, financial situation, family status, occupation), psychological condition (psychiatric diseases, stress, anxiety, depression, coping style), social factors (stigmatisation, family life), work organization (workload, working conditions, availability of staff and materials, support at work), and factors related with COVID-19 (fear of COVID-19, traumatic events, contact with patients with COVID-19, having been infected with COVID-19, infection of a colleague or a relative with COVID-19, higher number of deaths observed by nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic). The findings should be useful for policy makers and healthcare managers in developing programs preventing burnout during the current and future pandemics. Int J Occup Med Environ Health. Int J Occup Med Environ Health. 2023;36(1):21-58.

Factors Associated with Insomnia and Aggression among Healthcare Workers during COVID-19 Pandemic.

(1) Healthcare workers are exposed to increased risks of insomnia and aggression during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of the study was to assess insomnia, sleep disturbances, and aggression and identify the associated risk factors among healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. (2) A total of 264 healthcare workers participated in the study. The study was conducted with the diagnostic survey method, using the Buss−Perry Aggression Questionnaire, the Athens Insomnia Scale, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and a self-administered questionnaire. (3) The vast majority of the respondents (81.06%) suffered from insomnia and had poor sleep quality (78.03%). Education (p = 0.038), marital status (p = 0.043), and working with patients suffering from COVID-19 (p = 0.024) were statistically significant contributors to insomnia. Age was found to significantly correlate with total aggression (r = −0.133 p = 0.031), verbal aggression (r = −0.138 p = 0.025), and anger (r = −0.151 p = 0.014). The analysis demonstrated statistically significant relationships between gender and physical aggression (p = 0.017), anger (p = 0.032), and hostility (p = 0.002). A statistically significant positive correlation between the quality of sleep as per the PSQI and all subscales of the BPAQ was found (p < 0.001). (4) A considerable proportion of HCWs experienced sleep disturbances during the outbreak, stressing the need to establish ways to reduce long-term adverse outcomes associated with chronic insomnia and mental health problems and adjust interventions under pandemic conditions.

Investigating brain cortical activity in patients with post-COVID-19 brain fog.

Brain fog is a kind of mental problem, similar to chronic fatigue syndrome, and appears about 3 months after the infection with COVID-19 and lasts up to 9 months. The maximum magnitude of the third wave of COVID-19 in Poland was in April 2021. The research referred here aimed at carrying out the investigation comprising the electrophysiological analysis of the patients who suffered from COVID-19 and had symptoms of brain fog (sub-cohort A), suffered from COVID-19 and did not have symptoms of brain fog (sub-cohort B), and the control group that had no COVID-19 and no symptoms (sub-cohort C). The aim of this article was to examine whether there are differences in the brain cortical activity of these three sub-cohorts and, if possible differentiate and classify them using the machine-learning tools. he dense array electroencephalographic amplifier with 256 electrodes was used for recordings. The event-related potentials were chosen as we expected to find the differences in the patients' responses to three different mental tasks arranged in the experiments commonly known in experimental psychology: face recognition, digit span, and task switching. These potentials were plotted for all three patients' sub-cohorts and all three experiments. The cross-correlation method was used to find differences, and, in fact, such differences manifested themselves in the shape of event-related potentials on the cognitive electrodes. The discussion of such differences will be presented; however, an explanation of such differences would require the recruitment of a much larger cohort. In the classification problem, the avalanche analysis for feature extractions from the resting state signal and linear discriminant analysis for classification were used. The differences between sub-cohorts in such signals were expected to be found. Machine-learning tools were used, as finding the differences with eyes seemed impossible. Indeed, the A&B vs. C, B&C vs. A, A vs. B, A vs. C, and B vs. C classification tasks were performed, and the efficiency of around 60-70% was achieved. In future, probably there will be pandemics again due to the imbalance in the natural environment, resulting in the decreasing number of species, temperature increase, and climate change-generated migrations. The research can help to predict brain fog after the COVID-19 recovery and prepare the patients for better convalescence. Shortening the time of brain fog recovery will be beneficial not only for the patients but also for social conditions.

Investigation of structural and neurobiochemical differences in brains from high-performance and native hen breeds.

Selection of livestock has not only led to changes in the level of their performance but also modified their behavior. As a result, within a single species, we have to deal with different behaviors of different breeds. In our study, we assumed that the different behaviors within a species are due to differences in the morphology and physiology of behavior-related systems. Two breeds of hens were used as a model: the highly reactive, fearful and high-performance Leghorn breed and proactive, unselected Green-legged Partridge breed. The higher reactivity and fearfulness of Leghorn hens in comparison to the Green-legged Partridge breed may be related to the greater number of neurons in the paraventricular nucleus and anterior hypothalamus and the higher content of zinc and iron in the brain, as these elements are involved in neuronal conduction and myelination processes. The reactive behaviours of Green-legged Partridge hens may be associated with the lower number of neurons in the paraventricular nucleus and the anterior hypothalamus and the higher concentration of dopamine and copper ions in the brain. The analyses confirmed the hypothesis of the existence of interbreed differences in the morphology and physiology of behaviour-related systems, which most probably emerged through unintentional and correlated selection towards high production performance. Consequently, attention should be drawn that the selection of a given genotype (breed) towards a specific environment could lead to creation of highly specialised lines that may not achieve homeostasis in every maintenance system.