Energetic utilisation of biogases in IC engines

Due to increasing energy demand from the human population and in order to keep the development sustainable there is a major need to utilize alternative energy sources. The use of biogases as a source of renewable energy for combined heat and power generation could provide an effective and alternative way to fulfil remarkable part of this energy demand as a possible solution of decentralized power generation. Therefore the role of utilization of biogases grows rapidly in Europe and all around the world. As biogases have a high inert content, their heating value is low. The energetic utilization of these low heating value renewable gaseous fuels is not fully worked out yet because their combustion characteristics differ significantly from those of natural gases, and in this way they are not usable or their utilization in conventional devices is limited. At the Department of Energy Engineering of BME in cooperation with the Szolnok University College Technical and Agricultural Faculty investigation was made to d etermine the energetic usability of biogases. At Szolnok University experiments were made to increase the quantity and quality of biogas produced from different kind of basic materials and mixtures and at the Department of Energy Engineering of Budapest University of Technology and Economics the IC Engine utilization of biogases was investigated. The power, efficiency, consumption and exhaust emission were measured and in-cylinder pressure data acquisition was made to determine the pressure and heat release in the cylinder at various engine working conditions and CO_2 contents

Investment Decisions in Crises

Private pension funds were thought to be an important pillar of old-age provision when they were introduced throughout (Emerging) Europe. As different as these funds are in different countries with regards to their regulation, their ownership structure and operation, none were immune to the sub-prime led financial crisis. The Hungarian private pension funds are unique amongst the defined contribution (DC) funds. With their decade old recent history, they are maturing to the payout period in a few years’ time; however, their demise appears ever more realistic by means of political decision. This makes uncovering their investment policy during the crises very timely. Examining such a period is of importance in shedding light on the behaviour of traditional financial concepts in periods of stress. In this paper, we assess the optimality of diversification, hedging and short sales decision possibilities of the Hungarian Pension Funds in the equity investments environment. Was the net asset value (NAV) erosion suffered by the Hungarian private pension funds a result of their investment decision? We examine this question of diversification through a hypothetical simulation of model investment portfolios. Our results show that international diversification yields better risk-adjusted returns only in case of perfect hindsight of future market movements. The high correlation of the stock indices globally in times of crises limits the benefits of diversification

Az adverbiumok mondattani és jelentéstani kérdései = The syntax and syntax-semantics interface of adverbial modification

A határozószók és a határozók alaktani, mondattani és funkcionális kérdéseit vizsgáltuk a generatív nyelvelmélet keretében, főként magyar anyag alapján. Olyan leírásra törekedtünk, melyből a különféle határozófajták mondattani viselkedése, hatóköre, valamint hangsúlyozása egyaránt következik. A különféle határozótípusok PP-ként való elemzésének lehetőségét bizonyítottuk. A határozók mondatbeli elhelyezése tekintetében a specifikálói pozíció (Cinque 1999) ellen és az adjunkciós elemzés (Ernst 2002) mellett érveltünk. Megmutattuk, hogy a határozók szórendjének levezetéséhez bal- és jobboldali adjunkció feltételezése egyaránt szükséges. A különféle határozófajták szórendi helyét mondattani, jelentéstani és prozódiai tényezők összjátékával magyaráztuk. A jelentéstani tényezők között pl. a határozók inkorporálhatóságát korlátozó típusmegszorítást, a negatív határozók kötelező fókuszálását előidéző skaláris megszorítást, egyes határozófajták és igefajták komplex eseményszerkezetének inkompatibilitását vizsgáltuk. Az ige mögötti határozók szórendjét befolyásoló prozódiai tényező például a növekvő összetevők törvénye. Megfigyeltük az intonációskifejezés- újraelemzés kiváltódásának feltételeit és jelentéstani következményeit is. A helyhatározói igekötők egy típusát a mozgatási láncok sajátos fonológiai megvalósulásaként (a fonológiailag redukált kópia inkorporációjaként) elemeztük. A tárgykörben mintegy 60 tanulmányt publikáltunk. Adverbs and Adverbial Adjuncts at the Interfaces (489 old.) c. könyvünket kiadja a Mouton de Gruyter (Berlin). | This project has aimed to clarify (on the basis of mainly Hungarian data) basic issues concerning the category "adverb", the function "adverbial", and the grammar of adverbial modification. We have argued for the PP analysis of adverbials, and have claimed that they enter the derivation via left- and right-adjunction. Their merge-in position is determined by the interplay of syntactic, semantic, and prosodic factors. The semantically motivated constraints discussed also include a type restriction affecting adverbials semantically incorporated into the verbal predicate, an obligatory focus position for scalar adverbs representing negative values of bidirectional scales, cooccurrence restrictions between verbs and adverbials involving incompatible subevents, etc. The order and interpretation of adverbials in the postverbal domain is shown to be affected by such phonologically motivated constraints as the Law of Growing Constituents, and by intonation-phrase restructuring. The shape of the light-headed chain arising in the course of locative PP incorporation is determined by morpho-phonological requirements. The types of adverbs and adverbials analyzed include locatives, temporals, comitatives, epistemic adverbs, adverbs of degree, manner, counting, and frequency, quantificational adverbs, and adverbial participles. We have published about 60 studies; our book Adverbs and Adverbial Adjuncts at the Interfaces (pp. 489) is published in the series Interface Explorations of Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin

Effects of subclinical Mycobacterium avium ssp. paratuberculosis infection on some physiological parameters, health status and production in dairy cows

Milk yield, milk ingredients, health and other, production-related parameters of subclinically infected, Mycobacterium avium ssp. paratuberculosis (MAP-) shedding (positive faecal PCR, n = 20) and non-shedding (negative faecal PCR, n = 10) dairy cows were compared in the period from 10 days prepartum to 120 days postpartum. Body condition, rumen fill and faeces scores were lower in the MAP-shedding cows. There was no significant difference in plasma or urine metabolic parameters between the groups. Milk yield and lactose content tended to be lower (P = 0.074 and 0.077, respectively), somatic cell count tended to be higher (P = 0.097), while milk fat content was significantly higher (P = 0.006) in MAP-shedding cows than in the controls. Milk protein content did not differ between the groups. All other health and production parameters [number of reproductive tract treatments, number of udder treatments, number of artificial inseminations (AIs), calving interval, and service period] were significantly better in the control group. It is concluded that MAP infection, even in a subclinical form, has a significant impact on some production and health parameters of dairy cows

Affect matters: positive and negative social stimulation influences dogs’ behaviour in a subsequent situation involving an out-of-reach object

There is ample evidence to suggest that dogs have highly developed, context-dependent social skills. Recent literature also indicates a human-like susceptibility to social influence in dogs. However, it is still unclear how the affective social context affects the way dogs behave in a situation involving an out-of-reach object. The experimental manipulation served to prime the dogs with positive and negative affect in the form of social in-teractions. Dogs (N = 20) participated in both a negative and a positive social interaction with an unfamiliar male experimenter. Having received pretreatment with different social stimuli, subjects were observed in an instrumental task with an unfamiliar female experimenter requesting an out-of-reach object. The analysis of the dogs? tendency to engage in the task revealed that although the type of pretreatment did not influence whether they retrieved the cued object or not, the social interactions had a facilitatory effect on other, more subtle aspects of their behaviour. The positive interaction resulted in longer duration of looking time at the experimenter; shorter latency of moving upon release and of approaching the experimenter. The priming effects of the negative social interaction manifested in longer duration of looking time at the owner after release while gazing more at the target object during the first trial. These behaviours, together with the finding that dogs were more hesitant to approach the experimenter after the negative social interaction, may indicate that a negative emotional stimulation (involving the owner?s and the experimenter?s unresponsive behaviour, separation and a threatening stranger) causes a temporary disruption in the dog-owner bond, motivating the dog to repair it afterwards. These findings suggest that the valence attributed to the social interaction during pretreatment has differential effects on dogs? subsequent behaviour. Possible parallels with and differences from human behaviour are [email protected]

Investigation on transport related biogas utilization

Due to an increase in demand for energy and the mobility of the human population as well as in order to keep sustainable development, there is a major need to utilize alternative energy sources. The use of biogases as a source of renewable energy could provide an effective and alternative way to fulfil a remarkable part of this demand for energy. As biogases have high inert content, their heating value is low. The energetic utilization of these low heating value renewable gaseous fuels is not fully worked out yet because their combustion characteristics significantly differ from the liquid fuels that are used nowadays in transportation, and in this way, they are not usable or their utilization is limited in devices with conventional equipment. Thus, theoretical and experimental analysis was made to investigate the usability of biogases. First published online: 24 Jun 201

Habitat-Dependency of Transect Walk and Pan Trap Methods for Bee Sampling in Farmlands

Bees are the most important group of flower visitors providing an essential ecosystem service, namely pollination. Due to the worldwide decline of bees, there should be standardized sampling methods in place to ensure consistent and comparable results between studies. We compared the two commonly used sampling methods of yellow pan traps and transect walk to determine (i) which habitat variables affect the species composition, abundance and species richness of sampled bee communities, (ii) which method potentially contains sampling bias towards some individuals or groups of bees and (iii) the efficiency of sampling in various habitats. We conducted fieldwork in different agricultural habitats distributed along landscape heterogeneity and topography gradients. Our results showed that the height of vegetation, the average number of flowers and the amount of woody vegetation had the greatest influence on the sampling efficiency. Our survey also demonstrated that sampling by transect walk captured less bees in general, especially in stubble, maize, and cereal fields. We found that Apis mellifera and Bombus spp. were well represented in samples collected by the transect walk method, while the abundance of other genera, especially Dasypoda, Hylaeus and Panurgus was higher in pan traps. Based on the results, we suggest (i) the transect walk method to compare samples of flower-visiting wild bee communities from various habitats of different vegetation and flower characteristics, (ii) application of the transect walk or pan traps to compare similar habitats and (iii) adoption of a comprehensive method which would incorporate both sampling techniques to gain a more complex insight into wild bee species composition