Biocomponent-Based Quality Improvement Opportunities of Binders for Road Construction

In our experimental work, stabilised pinewood-based fast pyrolysis bio-oil and the linear block copolymer styrene butadiene styrene (SBS) were used as additives in bitumen used for road construction (Penetration Grade 50/70) to produce a higher-performance asphalt binder. Our aim was to investigate the modifying effect of the biocomponent on bituminous binders and prepare a comparative analysis. In order to characterize our samples, conventional and rheological measurements were performed. It was concluded that the biocomponent by itself cannot provide a favourable bituminous binder with beneficial mechanical properties, however, a favourable solution may be achieved by combining it with the block copolymer SBS. Based on our test results, stabilised pinewood-based fast pyrolysis bio-oil could be blended with the examined bituminous binders up to concentrations of 10 w/w% resulting in good bitumen quality

Innováció, kreativitás, térségi sors és pozitív visszacsatolás a vidékfejlesztésben = Innovation, creativity, regional fate and positive feedback in the rural development

Hazánk csatlakozása az Európai Unióhoz lehetővé tette a Strukturális Alapokhoz és a KAP-támogatásokhoz való hozzáférést az Nemzeti Fejlesztési Terven és a Nemzeti Vidékfejlesztési Terven keresztül. A vidéki Magyarország sikere a következő évtizedekben - a helyi erőforrásokat és lehetőségeket felismerő, - azokat innovatívan és kreatívan kiaknázó, - a saját sorsukat kritikusan elemző kistérségeken, - az emberek és a térségek együttműködésén, a - kölcsönhatásokból adódó szinergiák kihasználásán, - az európai uniós támogatásokat befogadó-képességünkön és az előzőeket felerősítő pozitív visszacsatoláson alapuló önerősítő folyamatokon múlik. 2003-2006 között folytatott kutatásunkban a fenti tényezők alakulását, kölcsönhatásait és sikeres vidékfejlesztési felhasználhatóságát vizsgáltuk. A kutatásunk folyamán négy, általunk a jövőben fontosnak ítélt részterület rajzolódott ki. Ennek megfelelően kiemelten vizsgáltuk a következő évek globális innovációjának; a genetikailag módosított (GM) szervezeteknek a fogadtatását és kockázataik érzékelését. A minőségrontó versenypiacok elleni védekezésül a gazdálkodók a direktmarketing eszközeivel léphetnek fel. A vidéket érintő innovatív eljárások közül az utóbbi években egyre nagyobb figyelem terelődött a "rural fuel", mint alternatív energiaforrásra. És végül a vidék fejlődésében, az innovációs, a kreatív készség fejlesztésében meghatározó az oktatás vagy (ön)képzés, a sokat hangoztatott élethosszig tartó tanulás szerepe. | Through the National Development Plan and the National Rural Development Plan, accession to the European Union gave Hungary a direct access to Structural Funds and to CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) subsidies. Success of rural Hungary depends on the following issues and its positive feedback: - the ability to identify local resources and regional opportunities - the talent to use them innovatively and creatively - the braveness of the local area to a critical approach towards their own fate - the capacity of people and local areas to work together - the power to realize and use the synergism of their interaction - and the way Hungary can use the money comes from the European Union. In our research work, we investigated the factors mentioned above, the interactions among them and their prosperous application in rural development of Hungary. Our research work pointed out particular issues which, in our opinion, shall be considered as perspective approach to development. According to these, we put emphasis on the global innovation, genetically modified organisms, the perception of multiplying knowledge management and its risk. To fights against the rude competition in global market having mostly negative effect on quality, farmers are supposed to apply direct marketing. 'Rural fuel' as an innovative concept affecting rural regions came into consideration in the last years. In our full report, detailed information about these areas of research mentioned above will be provided

Self-assembly of like-charged nanoparticles into Voronoi diagrams

The self-assembly of nanoscopic building blocks into higher order macroscopic patterns is one possible approach for the bottom-up fabrication of complex functional systems. Macroscopic pattern formation, in general, is determined by the reaction and diffusion of ions and molecules. In some cases macroscopic patterns emerge from diffusion and interactions existing between nanoscopic or microscopic building blocks. In systems where the distribution of the interaction-determining species is influenced by the presence of a diffusion barrier, the evolving macroscopic patterns will be determined by the spatiotemporal evolution of the building blocks. Here we show that a macroscopic pattern can be generated by the spatiotemporally controlled aggregation of like-charged carboxyl-terminated gold nanoparticles in a hydrogel, where clustering is induced by the screening effect of the sodium ions that diffuse in a hydrogel. Diffusion fronts of the sodium ions and the induced nanoparticle aggregation generate Voronoi diagrams, where the Voronoi cells consist of aggregated nanoparticles and their edges are aggregation-free and nanoparticle-free zones. We also developed a simple aggregation-diffusion model to adequately describe the evolution of the experimentally observed Voronoi patterns

Effect of the Polarity of Solvents on Periodic Precipitation: Formation of Hierarchical Revert Liesegang Patterns

Liesegang pattern (LP) is one example of self-organized periodic precipitation patterns in nonequilibrium systems. Several studies have demonstrated that the LP morphology can track physicochemical environmental conditions (e.g., temperature); however, the polarity effect has not been explored to date. In this study, a copper chromate system is used to reveal the impact of solvent polarity on the evolving LP structure using water/organic solvent mixtures. In the typical case of using water/dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) mixtures, two drastic changes in LP morphology with increasing DMSO contents were found: (i) increasing frequency of the original structure and (ii) formation of a hierarchical pattern with the appearance of another, lower-frequency structure. Furthermore, the simulation model operating with a bimodal size distribution, allowing both homogeneous and heterogeneous precipitations showed good agreement with the experimental results. Therefore, this study demonstrated that LP can be tailored by solvent polarity and can be used for designing hierarchical precipitation patterns in a straightforward manner

Long-term drug survival and predictor analysis of the whole psoriatic patient population on biological therapy in Hungary

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Urogenitalis lokalizációjú mucosamelanoma primer és áttétes esetei klinikánkon = Mucosal melanoma primary and metastatic cases with urogenital localization in our department

Absztrakt: Bevezetés: Az urogenitalis lokalizációban előforduló mucosamelanomáknak mind a primer, mind az áttétes esetei ritka daganatok. A primer melanomás esetek mindössze 4–5%-a extracutan eredetű, melyek általában későn kerülnek felismerésre, ezért prognózisuk rossz. Betegek és módszer: Intézetünkben az elmúlt években húgy-ivar szervi melanomát 7 esetben észleltünk. Egy amelanoticus húgycső, egy húgyhólyag, két hímvessző melanomás esetet és három metasztatikus daganatot. A megjelenésről, a kezelésről és a klinikai kimenetelről rendelkezésre álló adatokat retrospektív módon értékeltük. Eredmények: Három inoperábilis áttétes esetben palliatív, urológiai-sebészeti beavatkozás és szisztémás daganatellenes terápia történt. Négy primer urogenitalis tumorból kettő lokalizálódott a péniszre. Az egyik esetben helyi recidíva alakult ki műtéti ellátás után, azonban radikális, ismételt műtéttel a beteg másfél éve tünetmentes. A másik, igen elhanyagolt hímvessző-melanoma radikális műtét és inguinalis blokkdissectio után két évvel disszeminálódott. A nőbeteg primer húgycsőmelanomájánál az első szövettani vizsgálat primer mesenchymalis tumort írt le, a másfél évvel később kialakult recidív tumorból igazolódott a melanoma diagnózisa. A húgycsőérintettség miatt elvégzett radikális műtét 5 év tünetmentességet eredményezett, ezt követően alakult ki helyi recidíva és távoli áttét. A negyedik, először primer húgyhólyag eredetű melanomának tartott esetben a rapid progressziót mutató kórlefolyás és a tumor BRAF-pozitivitása alapján felmerült, hogy nem az elsőként húgyhólyagban diagnosztizált melanoma volt a primer tumor. Következtetés: A húgy-ivar szervi melanoma előfordulása igen ritka. Felfedezése sokszor már disszeminált állapotban történik, ezért az esetek várható prognózisa is rossz. A terápiás hatékonyságot növelő legfontosabb tényezők a korai diagnózis és a radikális műtéti beavatkozás. A cutan melanomához képest prognózisuk rosszabb, aminek hátterében a klinikai és patológiai diagnosztikus nehézség állhat. A legújabb célzott és immunterápiás szerek az áttétes betegek túlélését lényegesen javíthatják. Orv Hetil. 2019; 160(10): 378–385. | Abstract: Introduction: Both primary and metastatic cases of mucosal melanoma in urogenital localization are rare tumors. Only 4–5% of all primary melanomas do not arise from the skin. Extracutaneous melanomas have a complex clinical presentation, but these aggressive tumors have a poor prognosis. Materials and method: In our department, we found 7 patients with malignant melanoma of the genitourinary tract in the past few years. The 7 cases were: primary amelanotic melanoma of the female urethra, a primary melanoma of the bladder, two primary melanomas of the penis, a metastatic melanoma of the urethra and another to the testis and a metastatic melanoma of the bladder with melanuria. We retrospectively analyzed the available data to describe the presentation, management, and clinical outcome of the patients. Results: In the three inoperative cases, palliative, urologic surgical procedures and systemic antitumor therapy were performed. Two of the four primary urogenital tumors were localized to the penis. In one case, local recurrence developed after surgical treatment, but with a radical, repeated surgery, the patient has been asymptomatic for a year and a half. In the other, neglected case, the penis melanoma spread through the urethra and the inguinal lymph nodes two years after radical surgery and inguinal block dissection. In the female primary urethral melanoma case, the first histological study reported a primary mesenchymal tumor, and the recurrent tumor that occurred one and a half years later showed melanoma diagnosis. Radical surgery performed because of urethral involvement resulted in a 5-year asymptomatic state, followed by local recurrence and distant metastasis. In the fourth case of a primary bladder melanoma, the rapid progression of the disease and the BRAF positivity of the tumor suggested that not the firstly diagnosed bladder melanoma was the primary tumor. Conclusion: The occurrence of urinary tract melanoma is very rare and its discovery happens often in a disseminated state, so the expected prognosis of the cases is also poor. The most important factors for increasing therapeutic efficacy are early diagnosis and radical surgical intervention. Tumors appearing in different localizations require different urological surgical approaches. The literature recommendations for treatment are not uniform. Their prognosis is worse compared to the cutaneous melanoma, which may be due to clinical and pathological diagnostic difficulties. The latest targeted and immunotherapeutic agents can significantly improve the survival of metastatic patients. Orv Hetil. 2019; 160(10): 378–385

Reducing cardiovascular risk in immune‐mediated inflammatory diseases: Tumour necrosis factor inhibitors compared to conventional therapies—A systematic review and meta‐analysis

Immune‐mediated inflammatory disease (IMID) patients including psoriasis, inflammatory arthritides and bowel diseases have a higher risk of developing cardiovascular (CV) diseases compared to the general population. The increased CV risk may be promoted by tumour necrosis factor (TNF)‐α‐mediated immunological processes, which are present both in the pathomechanism of IMIDs and atherosclerosis. Our objective was to comprehensively investigate the effect of TNF inhibitors (TNFi) on CV risk compared with conventional therapies in IMIDs. The systematic literature search was conducted in three databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Library) on 14 November 2022. Randomized controlled trials, cohort and case–control studies were eligible for inclusion. Outcomes consisted of the incidence of CV events, with major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) as a main endpoint. A random‐effects meta‐analysis was performed by pooling fully adjusted multivariate hazard ratios (HR) and incidence rate ratios (IRR) with a 95% confidence interval (CI) comparing TNFis with conventional systemic non‐biologicals (CSNBs). Of a total of 8724 search results, 56 studies were included overall, of which 29 articles were eligible for the meta‐analysis, and 27 were involved in the systematic review. Including all IMIDs, the TNFi group showed a significantly reduced risk of MACE compared with the CSNB group (HR = 0.74, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.58–0.95, p = 0.025; IRR = 0.77, 95% CI 0.67–0.88, p < 0.001). Subgroup analysis of Pso, PsA patients by pooling IRRs also confirmed the significantly decreased risk of MACE in TNFi‐treated patients compared with CSNB groups (IRR = 0.79, 95% CI 0.64–0.98). The observational nature of most included studies leading to high heterogeneity represents a limitation. Based on the results, TNFis may reduce the risk of CV events compared to CSNBs. Therefore, earlier use of TNFis compared to conventional systemic agents in the therapeutic sequence may benefit CV risk in IMID patients

Significant improvement in melanoma survival over the last decade: A Hungarian nationwide study between 2011 and 2019

Recent real-world studies have reported significant improvements in the survival of malignant melanoma in the past few years, mainly as a result of modern therapies. However, long-term survival data from Central Eastern European countries such as Hungary are currently lacking.This nationwide, retrospective study examined melanoma survival in Hungary between 2011-2019 using the databases of the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) and Central Statistical Office (CSO) of Hungary. Crude overall survival and age-standardized 5-year net survival as well as the association between age, sex, and survival were calculated.Between 2011 and 2019, 22,948 newly diagnosed malignant melanoma cases were recorded in the NHIF database (47.89% male, mean age: 60.75 years (SD: ±16.39)). 5-year overall survival was 75.40% (women: 80.78%; men: 69.52%). Patients diagnosed between 2017-2019 had a 20% lower risk of mortality compared to patients diagnosed between 2011-2012 (HR 0.80, 95% CI 0.73-0.89; p<0.0001). Age-standardized 5-year net survival rates in 2011-2014 and 2015-2019 were 90.6% and 95.8%, respectively (women: 93.1% and 98.4%, men: 87.8% and 92.7%, respectively). The highest age-standardized 5-year net survival rates were found in the 0-39 age cohort (94.6% in the 2015-2019 period).Hungary has similar melanoma survival rates to Western European countries. Based on net survival, the risk of dying of melanoma within 5 years was cut by more than half (55%) during the study period, which coincides with the successful implementation of awareness campaigns and the wide availability of modern therapies