Biomassza-alapú energiák innovációjának genomikai megközelítései

A genomika valódi eszköz a biomassza-alapú energiák innovatív kutatása területén, egyes részterületei (metagenomika, transzkriptomika) ténylegesen alkalmazhatók a biomassza-alapanyag optimalizálása során, illetve a biomassza-konverzió hatékonyságának javításában, ezáltal a megújuló energiatípusok előállítási költségeinek csökkentésében. ------------------------------------------------ Genomics is a useful tool in innovative research into biomass energy. Certain fields of genomics (metagenomics, transcriptomics) have a practical application in biomass optimisation and in improving the efficiency of biomass, and can thus help reduce the costs of renewable energy production.genomika, biomassza, kutatás, innováció, biomass energy, genomics, innovation, research, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Obsah živín a profil mastných kyselín v rôznych druhoch olejnín

The aim of this study was to determine nutrients content of 4 oilseeds (sunflower, soybean, flaxseed and rapessed) and fatty acid profile of oils obtained from the seeds. Dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), nitrogen free extract (NFE) and fat content of the seeds were determined by standard laboratory methods and procedures. Significant (P<0.05) differences in composition of all the analyzed seeds were found. Fatty acid profile analysis was performed using the Agilent 6890 A GC machine. The analyzed oils mainly composed of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), with the exception of rapeseed oil which primarily contained monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA). Flaxseed oil has significantly (P<0.05) proven to be the richest in PUFA content (76.46%), but on the other hand it contained the least amount of MUFA (13.47%). The saturated fatty acid (SFA) content, except for soybean oil, was below 10%. The most optimal ratio between n-6 and n-3 unsaturated fatty acids (USFA) was found in rapeseed oil (2.22:1). From the fatty acid profile of analyzed oils significant (P<0.05) differences in the content of palmitic, stearic, oleic, linoleic, arachidic, eicosenoic, behenic and lignoceric acids were detected.Cieľom práce bolo analyzovať obsah živín rôznych semien olejnín (slnečnicových, sójových, ľanových a repkových) a profil mastných kyselín rastlinných olejov získaných z týchto semien. Analýza obsahu sledovaných živín v semenách olejnín (sušina, dusíkaté látky, bezdusíkaté látky výťažkové a tuk) bola vykonaná prostredníctvom štandardných laboratórnych metód a postupov. Zistili sa preukazné (P<0.05) rozdiely v zložení všetkých analyzovaných semien. Analýza profilu mastných kyselín bola vykonaná pomocou zariadenia Agilent 6890 A GC. Analyzované oleje pozostávali hlavne z polynenasýtených mastných kyselín (PUFA), s výnimkou repkového oleja, ktorý obsahoval najmä mononenasýtené mastné kyseliny (MUFA). Ľanový olej bol preukazne (P<0.05) najbohatší na obsah PUFA (76.46%), ale na druhej strane obsahoval najmenšie množstvo MUFA (13.47%). Obsah nasýtených mastných kyselín (SFA), s výnimkou sójového oleja, bol nižší ako 10%. Najoptimálnejší pomer medzi n-6 a n-3 nenasýtenými mastnými kyselinami (USFA) sa zistil v repkovom oleji (2.22:1). V profile mastných kyselín analyzovaných olejov sa zistili preukazné (P<0,05) rozdiely v obsahu kyseliny palmitovej, steárovej, olejovej, linolovej, arachidónovej, eikosaénovej, behénovej a lignocerovej

The HLS19-COM-P, a New Instrument for Measuring Communicative Health Literacy in Interaction with Physicians: Development and Validation in Nine European Countries

Background: Sufficient communicative health literacy (COM-HL) is important for patients actively participating in dialogue with physicians, expressing their needs and desires for treatment, and asking clarifying questions. There is a lack of instruments combining communication and HL proficiency. Hence, the aim was to establish an instrument with sufficient psychometric properties for measuring COM-HL. Methods: The HLS19-COM-P instrument was developed based on a conceptual framework integrating HL with central communicative tasks. Data were collected using different data collection modes in nine countries from December 2019 to January 2021 (n = 18,674). Psychometric properties were assessed using Rasch analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. Cronbach’s alpha and Person separation index were considered for reliability. Results: The 11-item version (HLS19-COM-P-Q11) and its short version of six items (HLS19-COM-P-Q6) fit sufficiently the unidimensional partial credit Rasch model, obtained acceptable goodness-of-fit indices and high reliability. Two items tend to under-discriminate. Few items displayed differential item functioning (DIF) across person factors, and there was no consistent pattern in DIF across countries. All items had ordered response categories. Conclusions: The HLS19-COM-P instrument was well accepted in nine countries, in different data collection modes, and could be used to measure COM-HL.publishedVersio

Small extracellular vesicles convey the stress-induced adaptive responses of melanoma cells

Exosomes are small extracellular vesicles (sEVs), playing a crucial role in the intercellular communication in physiological as well as pathological processes. Here, we aimed to study whether the melanoma-derived sEV-mediated communication could adapt to microenvironmental stresses. We compared B16F1 cell-derived sEVs released under normal and stress conditions, including cytostatic, heat and oxidative stress. The miRNome and proteome showed substantial differences across the sEV groups and bioinformatics analysis of the obtained data by the Ingenuity Pathway Analysis also revealed significant functional differences. The in silico predicted functional alterations of sEVs were validated by in vitro assays. For instance, melanoma-derived sEVs elicited by oxidative stress increased Ki-67 expression of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs); cytostatic stress-resulted sEVs facilitated melanoma cell migration; all sEV groups supported microtissue generation of MSC-B16F1 co-cultures in a 3D tumour matrix model. Based on this study, we concluded that (i) molecular patterns of tumour-derived sEVs, dictated by the microenvironmental conditions, resulted in specific response patterns in the recipient cells; (ii) in silico analyses could be useful tools to predict different stress responses; (iii) alteration of the sEV-mediated communication of tumour cells might be a therapy-induced host response, with a potential influence on treatment efficacy.Peer reviewe

Fostering global data sharing: Highlighting the recommendations of the Research Data Alliance COVID-19 working group

© 2020 Austin CC et al. The systemic challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic require cross-disciplinary collaboration in a global and timely fashion. Such collaboration needs open research practices and the sharing of research outputs, such as data and code, thereby facilitating research and research reproducibility and timely collaboration beyond borders. The Research Data Alliance COVID-19 Working Group recently published a set of recommendations and guidelines on data sharing and related best practices for COVID-19 research. These guidelines include recommendations for researchers, policymakers, funders, publishers and infrastructure providers from the perspective of different domains (Clinical Medicine, Omics, Epidemiology, Social Sciences, Community Participation, Indigenous Peoples, Research Software, Legal and Ethical Considerations). Several overarching themes have emerged from this document such as the need to balance the creation of data adherent to FAIR principles (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable), with the need for quick data release; the use of trustworthy research data repositories; the use of well-annotated data with meaningful metadata; and practices of documenting methods and software. The resulting document marks an unprecedented cross-disciplinary, cross-sectoral, and cross-jurisdictional effort authored by over 160 experts from around the globe. This letter summarises key points of the Recommendations and Guidelines, highlights the relevant findings, shines a spotlight on the process, and suggests how these developments can be leveraged by the wider scientific community

Children’s and adolescents’ rising animal-source food intakes in 1990–2018 were impacted by age, region, parental education and urbanicity

Animal-source foods (ASF) provide nutrition for children and adolescents’ physical and cognitive development. Here, we use data from the Global Dietary Database and Bayesian hierarchical models to quantify global, regional and national ASF intakes between 1990 and 2018 by age group across 185 countries, representing 93% of the world’s child population. Mean ASF intake was 1.9 servings per day, representing 16% of children consuming at least three daily servings. Intake was similar between boys and girls, but higher among urban children with educated parents. Consumption varied by age from 0.6 at <1 year to 2.5 servings per day at 15–19 years. Between 1990 and 2018, mean ASF intake increased by 0.5 servings per week, with increases in all regions except sub-Saharan Africa. In 2018, total ASF consumption was highest in Russia, Brazil, Mexico and Turkey, and lowest in Uganda, India, Kenya and Bangladesh. These findings can inform policy to address malnutrition through targeted ASF consumption programmes.publishedVersio

Incident type 2 diabetes attributable to suboptimal diet in 184 countries

The global burden of diet-attributable type 2 diabetes (T2D) is not well established. This risk assessment model estimated T2D incidence among adults attributable to direct and body weight-mediated effects of 11 dietary factors in 184 countries in 1990 and 2018. In 2018, suboptimal intake of these dietary factors was estimated to be attributable to 14.1 million (95% uncertainty interval (UI), 13.8–14.4 million) incident T2D cases, representing 70.3% (68.8–71.8%) of new cases globally. Largest T2D burdens were attributable to insufficient whole-grain intake (26.1% (25.0–27.1%)), excess refined rice and wheat intake (24.6% (22.3–27.2%)) and excess processed meat intake (20.3% (18.3–23.5%)). Across regions, highest proportional burdens were in central and eastern Europe and central Asia (85.6% (83.4–87.7%)) and Latin America and the Caribbean (81.8% (80.1–83.4%)); and lowest proportional burdens were in South Asia (55.4% (52.1–60.7%)). Proportions of diet-attributable T2D were generally larger in men than in women and were inversely correlated with age. Diet-attributable T2D was generally larger among urban versus rural residents and higher versus lower educated individuals, except in high-income countries, central and eastern Europe and central Asia, where burdens were larger in rural residents and in lower educated individuals. Compared with 1990, global diet-attributable T2D increased by 2.6 absolute percentage points (8.6 million more cases) in 2018, with variation in these trends by world region and dietary factor. These findings inform nutritional priorities and clinical and public health planning to improve dietary quality and reduce T2D globally.publishedVersio

Effective Leadership in Cross-Cultural Teams - An Experiment

There is a lack of universally applicable team leadership models for cross-cultural work teams. The research on cross-cultural team leadership has mostly been conducted with an ethnocentric or culturally comparative approach. Therefore, the purpose of this study has been to discover a universal leadership theory, leading to high cross-cultural team performance. This dissertation describes the prior research bound to the research topic and the development of a universal, cross-cultural team leadership style. The new, created leadership style, the Integration Oriented Leader, was designed to bring forth high cross-cultural team performance. The suggested theory was empirically tested in a laboratory experiment and received strong support. The conclusion of the conducted research is that the Integration Oriented leadership style may very well be the most suitable leadership style to implement in cross-cultural work teams

Effective Leadership in Cross-Cultural Teams - An Experiment

There is a lack of universally applicable team leadership models for cross-cultural work teams. The research on cross-cultural team leadership has mostly been conducted with an ethnocentric or culturally comparative approach. Therefore, the purpose of this study has been to discover a universal leadership theory, leading to high cross-cultural team performance. This dissertation describes the prior research bound to the research topic and the development of a universal, cross-cultural team leadership style. The new, created leadership style, the Integration Oriented Leader, was designed to bring forth high cross-cultural team performance. The suggested theory was empirically tested in a laboratory experiment and received strong support. The conclusion of the conducted research is that the Integration Oriented leadership style may very well be the most suitable leadership style to implement in cross-cultural work teams

Rabies Encephalitis and the Use of Optic Nerve Sheath Diameter to Detect Elevated Intracranial Pressure

Rabies is a rare but rapidly progressive and almost universally fatal disease. A previously healthy 59-year-old male presented with rabies encephalitis. We measured his optic nerve sheath diameter (ONSD) daily in both eyes using ultrasonography to indirectly monitor for elevated intracranial pressure (ICP). We performed CT and MRI brain on days when his ONSD changed significantly. An increase in ONSD temporally correlated with radiologic findings of cerebral edema and acute subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). ONSD measurement is a fast, inexpensive, and widely-available imaging modality that may serve as a surrogate marker for elevated ICP. It may be especially useful in patients who are difficult to be transported to radiology due to the unstable nature of their disease