The research aimed to use chemical, geochemical, and ecotoxicity indices to assess the heavy metals content in soils with different degrees of exposure to human pressure. The research was conducted in southern Poland, in the Malopolska (Little Poland) province. All metal contents exceeded geochemical background levels. The highest values of the Igeo index were found for cadmium and were 10.05 (grasslands), 9.31 (forest), and 5.54 (arable lands), indicating extreme soil pollution (class 6) with this metal. Mean integrated pollution index (IPI) values, depending on the kind of use, amounted to 3.4 for arable lands, 4.9 for forests, and 6.6 for grasslands. These values are indicative of a high level of soil pollution in arable lands and an extremely high level of soil pollution in grasslands and forests. Depending on the type of soil use, Vibrio fischeri luminescence inhibition was from -33 to 59% (arable lands), from -48 to 78% (grasslands), and from 0 to 88% (forest). Significantly the highest toxicity was found in soils collected from forest grounds.

The aim of the study was fractionation of Zn, Cu, Ni, Pb in the bottom sediments of two small reservoirs: at Krempna on the Wisłoka River and at Zcslwicc on the Dlubnia River. The partitioning of metals for various fractions was performed with the use of Tessier's sequential chemical extraction method. All together five metal fractions were distinguished: exchangeable metals (fraction I), metals bound to carbonates (fraction II), metals bound to hydrate Fe-Mn oxides (fraction III), metals bound to organic matter (fraction IV), and metals bound to minerals (fraction V). The largest quantities of metals were bound with fraction V, the smallest occurred in the forms most easily available for living organisms, in faction I. Proportions ofZn, Ni and Pb in the exchangeable fraction were about 1%. The amounts of metals bound with fraction II were also relatively low, except lor Zn in bottom sediment at the Zeslawice Reservoir. In this bottom sediment the share of Zn bound to carbonates was 33%. Medium metal quantities were associated with hydrate Fe-Mn oxides (fraction III) and with organic matter (fraction IV). Relatively high proportion ofmetals in fraction V and trace amounts ofmetals in fraction I as well as alkaline and neutral reaction of the sediments may prove a potentially low hazard of the metal release in the case of chemical changes in the reservoirs.

Developing the empathic attitude is one of the tasks of medical education as it aff ects the quality of therapeutic contact in the relationship between the doctor and the patient, conditioning the treatment process. According to Davis’s concept, empathy is defi ned as an aff ective-cognitive reaction in the context of the other person’s experience. Aim: Analysis of profi les of empathic sensitivity in students of medicine. Group: Male and female students of the fi ft h year of medicine who agreed to participate in an anonymous study (n = 153; M = 57, F = 96; mean age: 23 years). Tools: Th e Empathetic Sensitivity Scale (EES), which is the Polish tool for Davis’s Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) was used. Th e ESS includes three sub-scales: Empathic Care (EC), Personal Distress (PD) and Adopting Perspective (AP). Results: The raw results were converted into sten scores and for sten scores for all three dimensions of empathetic sensitivity no diff erences were found between male and female students. Th ree clusters (1: n = 33%, 2: n = 39%, 3: n = 28%), which diff er in terms of each distinguished indicator, were identifi ed. Conclusions: Th e first cluster characterizes empathetic people, both in the aff ective and cognitive spheres, and those dealing well with unpleasant emotions in situations diffi cult to others. Th e second cluster characterizes participants with the ability to recognize the needs of others and to take into account their perspectives; the third cluster includes participants with a tendency to focus on their own experiences emerging in response to other people’s suff ering but with the ability to understand a situation and show empathic concern for the other person. The most favourable profi le — for a future doctor as well as for his patients — is the fi rst cluster because the doctor, with his empathic sensitivity directed towards the other man, can deal with his own unpleasant emotions.