And the first shall be the last

This study analyzes the puzzle of Hungarian economic drifting in a long run perspective. The underlying puzzle for the investigation is why bad policies are invariably popular and good policies unpopular, thus why political and economic rationality never overlap. The first part of the article summarizes in eight points the basic features of the postwar period. Then six lessons are offered, which might be useful for other countries in transition or for students of comparative economics and politics, lessons that can be generalized on the basis of the individual country experience

Determination of 24 primary aromatic amines in aqueous food simulants by combining solid phase extraction and salting-out assisted liquid?liquid extraction with liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry

Carcinogenic primary aromatic amines (PAAs) can be released from improperly manufactured food packaging materials. The limit for the sum of PAAs is set to 10 ?gkg- 1 in Commission Regulation No. 10/2011 (FCM Regulation). However, a lower individual limit, 2 ?gkg- 1 has been recently introduced for the carcinogenic PAAs in Commission Regulation No. 2020/1245. As the majority of the previously published methods are no longer compliant with the current regulation, a UHPLC-MS/MS method was developed to enable food packaging compliance testing for PAAs not only from 3% (w/v) acetic acid, but also from 10% (v/v) ethanol food simulant. Since the latest amendment of the FCM Regulation refers to the list of the 22 restricted PAAs of EU Regulation No. 1907/2006, these PAAs were selected as target compounds along with aniline and p-toluidine, the most common impurities of azo colorants and isocyanates. An enrichment factor of 20 could be achieved combining solid phase extraction with salting-out assisted liquid?liquid extraction. The method was successfully validated and applied on real samples. Limit of quantitation (LOQ) and limit of detection (LOD) values were 0.15 ?gL-1 and 0.05 ?gL-1 for both food simulants, respectively; except for 2,4-diaminotoluene, aniline and 4,4?-oxydianiline. However, even these compounds had lower LOD values than the new individual limit of 2 ?gkg- 1. Cumulative LOD values for both food simulants (1.6 ?gL-1 and 1.5 ?gL-1 for 3% (w/v) acetic acid and 10% (v/v) ethanol, respectively) were lower than the 10 ?gkg- 1 specified in the FCM Regulation. Accuracy values were between 70 and 118% for both food simulants for the majority of PAAs. Both within-day and between-day precision values were below 20%. This method proved to be suitable for daily routine analysis enabling compliance testing of food packaging materials according to the latest regulations. The method was successfully applied for the analysis of plastic kitchenware samples

Effect of temperature and plasticizer content of polypropylene and polylactic acid on migration kinetics into isooctane and 95 v/v% ethanol as alternative fatty food simulants

Plasticizers are commonly used plastic additives. Deep understanding of their effect on the migration of other substances is essential, especially for food contact materials. The migration kinetics of four stabilizer-type additives from polypropylene (PP) and polylactic acid (PLA) with different tributyl acetyl citrate plasticizer content were investigated. The results confirm that the presence of plasticizer in the plastics enhances swelling, and thus the migration of additives. The plasticizer content is in strong correlation with migration rate for all additives, except for PLA-Irgafos 168 samples. Migration kinetic experiments conducted at different contact temperatures showed that the role of temperature apparently exceeds that of plasticization. Nevertheless, hierarchical cluster analysis revealed similarity in the migration mechanisms of stabilizers from plastics with low plasticizer content at high temperature, to that at low temperature from plastics with high plasticizer content

Comprehensive frailty assessment with multidimensional frailty domains as a predictor of mortality among vascular and cardiac surgical patients

Purpose: The frailty concept has become a fundamental part of daily clinical practice. In this study our purpose was to create a risk estimation method with a comprehensive aspect of patients’ preoperative frailty. Patients and methods: In our prospective, observational study, patients were enrolled between September 2014 and August 2017 in the Department of Cardiac Surgery and Department of Vascular Surgery at Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary. A comprehensive frailty score was built from four main domains: biological, functional-nutritional, cognitive-psychological and sociological. Each domain contained numerous indicators. In addition, the EUROSCORE for cardiac patients and the Vascular POSSUM for vascular patients were calculated and adjusted for mortality. Results: Data from 228 participants were included for statistical analysis. A total of 161 patients underwent vascular surgery, and 67 underwent cardiac surgery. The preoperatively estimated mortality was not significantly different (median: 2.700, IQR (interquartile range): 2.000–4.900 vs. 3.000, IQR: 1.140– 6.000, P 5 0.266). The comprehensive frailty index was significantly different (0.400 (0.358–0.467) vs. 0.348 (0.303–0.460), P 5 0.001). In deceased patients had elevated comprehensive frailty index (0.371 (0.316–0.445) vs. 0.423 (0.365–0.500), P < 0.001). In the multivariate Cox model an increased risk for mortality in quartiles 2, 3 and 4 compared with quartile 1 as a reference was found (AHR (95% CI): 1.974 (0.982–3.969), 2.306 (1.155–4.603), and 3.058 (1.556–6.010), respectively). Conclusion: The comprehensive frailty index developed in this study could be an important predictor of long-term mortality after vascular or cardiac surgery. Accurate frailty estimation could make the traditional risk scoring systems more accurate and reliable

The Kinetics of Swelling and Migration: A Case Study of Plasticized Polylactic Acid Food Contact Plastics Tested with Ethanolic Food Simulants

The effect of swelling and plasticizer content of a plastic, as well as the ethanol content of the food simulant on the migration kinetics of three stabilizer-type additives from polylactic acid (PLA)-based food contact plastics has been investigated. The results proved that the parameters that affect the diffusion of substances inside the polymer matrix, i.e., swelling, plasticization, and the size of migrants, are the decisive factors in the migration from PLA to ethanolic food simulants. Both swelling and migration were negligible when ethanol 10% (v/v) was used. Contrarily, the specific migration limits of Commission Regulation (European Union, EU) No. 10/2011 were exceeded in ethanol 50% (v/v) for all investigated stabilizers. Migration was promoted by plasticization, but this effect could only be observed when the applied food simulant swelled the plastic (at least 20% (v/v) ethanol content). The dependence of the plasticizer’s migration-enhancing effect on the swelling has not been shown before. When the plasticization caused increased migration, it also led to specific migration limit exceeding within a shorter period of time. It happens even if PLA-based plastics are dedicated to the storage of hydrophilic food, which is the most common application area of these products. These results can support the improvement of both consumer safety and active packaging development