All tangible and intangible elements of cultural heritage that the past has conceded to local communities create unique landscapes shaped by tightly connected anthropogenic and natural factors. This heritage is a keystone of local identity which plays a significant role in politics, economic development, society and world view. In some regions, such as in the Vistula delta in Poland, the cultural heritage has been created by consecutive groups of settlers who represented different values, beliefs and ways of life. On the one hand, such a rich heritage may be perceived as a valuable asset and become a landmark or tourism product of a region. On the other hand, it may be perceived as alien and unwanted by contemporary residents, especially when they are not descendants of the former communities. The main objective of the study presented herein is to analyse how the residents of the Vistula delta region, called Żuławy Wiślane, perceive and use cultural heritage of the Mennonites, representing the most extraordinary group of settlers who used to live in the region. The analysis covers original data gathered during survey research in the period of 2017–2018 under the project Miniatura I “Perception and usage of cultural heritage of the Vistula delta Mennonites” financed by the National Science Centre in Poland.
Information coding in the hippocampus relies on the interplay between various neuronal ensembles. We discovered that the application of a cholinergic agonist, carbachol (Cch), which triggers oscillatory activity in the gamma range, induces the activity of matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9)—an enzyme necessary for the maintenance of synaptic plasticity. Using electrophysiological recordings in hippocampal organotypic slices, we show that Cch potentiates the frequency of miniature inhibitory and excitatory postsynaptic currents (mIPSCs and mEPSCs, respectively) in CA1 neurons and this effect is MMP-9 dependent. Interestingly, though MMP-9 inhibition prevents the potentiation of inhibitory events, it further boosts the frequency of excitatory mEPSCs. Such enhancement of the frequency of excitatory events is a result of increased synaptogenesis onto CA1 neurons. Thus, the function of MMP-9 in cholinergically induced plasticity in the hippocampus is to maintain the fine-tuned balance between the excitatory and the inhibitory synaptic transmission.
The main objective of this article is to offer an answer to the question whether introducing local border traffic (LBT) on the external frontiers of the EU is an effective tool for cross-border integration and development of marginalised border areas. The analysis was carried out in an area of particular strategic importance for the European Community and Russia, which is the Polish-Russian borderland. The study includes the analysis of political discourse supplied with the findings from the original survey revealing mutual perception of Polish and Russian partners. The authors drew special attention to the significance of delimitation of areas included in the visa-free traffic. The success of the four-year period of LBT zone's functioning on the Polish-Kaliningrad border came as a result of modification of the regulations concerning the scope of the zone and the inclusion of economic regions otherwise heavily affected by the split in the functional dimension. The analysed region had the chance to become a model of national and local policies' cooperation in border areas. The decision to shut down the LBT has proved yet again that socio-economic initiatives in border regions are deterministically dependent on the decisions of central governments.
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