Food Awareness and Transparency: Current Practices and Future Tools

Within the SmartAgriFood project the envisaged functions of Future Internet (FI) were collected and explained to the business users. 135 in depth interviews in 6 countries, and 8 focus group discussions in 5 countries were carried out for identifications and evaluation of the potential applications in the agri-food chain in the Smart Food Awareness area. Privacy was seen as a key function of the FI. The majority of the potential application ideas were rated as applicable to ensure improved awareness for the food chain members. There is a need for systematic explanation of the new enabling functions of the FI to the potential business users in a user-friendly way to foster the identification of new application opportunities. In some cases there is a difference between the priorities set by them and the behaviour of the consumers

Phosphorylated Histone 3 at Serine 10 Identifies Activated Spinal Neurons and Contributes to the Development of Tissue Injury-Associated Pain

Transcriptional changes in superficial spinal dorsal horn neurons (SSDHN) are essential in the development and maintenance of prolonged pain. Epigenetic mechanisms including post-translational mo difications in histones are pivotal in regulating transcription. Here, we report th at phosphorylation of serine 10 (S10) in histone 3 (H3) specifically occurs in a group of rat SSDHN following the activation of nociceptive primary sensory neurons by burn injury, capsaicin application or sustained electrical activation of nociceptive primary sensory nerve fibres. In contrast, brief thermal or mechanical nociceptive stimuli, which fail to induce tissue injury or inflammation, do not produce the same effect. Blocking N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors or activation of extracellular signa l-regulated kinases 1 and 2, or blocking or deleting the mitogen- and stress-activated kinases 1 and 2 (MSK1/2), which phosphorylate S10 in H3, inhibit up-regulation in phosphorylated S10 in H3 ( p - S10H3) as well as fos transcription, a down-stream effect of p -S10H3. Deleting MSK1/2 also inhibits the development of carrageenan-induced inflammatory heat hyperalgesia in mice. We propose that p -S10H3 is a novel marker for nociceptive processing in SSDHN with high relevance to transcriptional changes and the development of prolonged pain

The Effect of Femtosecond Laser Irradiation and Plasmon Field on the Degree of Conversion of a UDMA-TEGDMA Copolymer Nanocomposite Doped with Gold Nanorods

In this work, the effects of femtosecond laser irradiation and doping with plasmonic gold nanorods on the degree of conversion (DC) of a urethane dimethacrylate (UDMA)–triethylene glycol dimethacrylate (TEGDMA) nanocomposite were investigated. The UDMA-TEGDMA photopolymer was prepared in a 3:1 weight ratio and doped with dodecanethiol- (DDT) capped gold nanorods of 25 × 75 or 25 × 85 nm nominal diameter and length. It was found that the presence of the gold nanorods alone (without direct plasmonic excitation) can increase the DC of the photopolymer by 6–15%. This increase was found to be similar to what could be achieved with a control heat treatment of 30 min at 180 °C. It was also shown that femtosecond laser impulses (795 nm, 5 mJ pulse energy, 50 fs pulse length, 2.83 Jcm−2 fluence), applied after the photopolymerization under a standard dental curing lamp, can cause a 2–7% increase in the DC of undoped samples, even after thermal pre-treatment. The best DC values (12–15% increase) were obtained with combined nanorod doping and subsequent laser irradiation close to the plasmon resonance peak of the nanorods (760–800 nm), which proves that the excited plasmon field can directly facilitate double bond breakage (without thermoplasmonic effects due to the short pulse length) and increase the crosslink density independently from the initial photopolymerization process.publishedVersio

Staging of Neurofibrillary Pathology in Alzheimer's Disease: A Study of the BrainNet Europe Consortium

It has been recognized that molecular classifications will form the basis for neuropathological diagnostic work in the future. Consequently, in order to reach a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD), the presence of hyperphosphorylated tau (HP-tau) and β-amyloid protein in brain tissue must be unequivocal. In addition, the stepwise progression of pathology needs to be assessed. This paper deals exclusively with the regional assessment of AD-related HP-tau pathology. The objective was to provide straightforward instructions to aid in the assessment of AD-related immunohistochemically (IHC) detected HP-tau pathology and to test the concordance of assessments made by 25 independent evaluators. The assessment of progression in 7-µm-thick sections was based on assessment of IHC labeled HP-tau immunoreactive neuropil threads (NTs). Our results indicate that good agreement can be reached when the lesions are substantial, i.e., the lesions have reached isocortical structures (stage V–VI absolute agreement 91%), whereas when only mild subtle lesions were present the agreement was poorer (I–II absolute agreement 50%). Thus, in a research setting when the extent of lesions is mild, it is strongly recommended that the assessment of lesions should be carried out by at least two independent observers

Assessment of β-amyloid deposits in human brain: a study of the BrainNet Europe Consortium

β-Amyloid (Aβ) related pathology shows a range of lesions which differ both qualitatively and quantitatively. Pathologists, to date, mainly focused on the assessment of both of these aspects but attempts to correlate the findings with clinical phenotypes are not convincing. It has been recently proposed in the same way as ι and α synuclein related lesions, also Aβ related pathology may follow a temporal evolution, i.e. distinct phases, characterized by a step-wise involvement of different brain-regions. Twenty-six independent observers reached an 81% absolute agreement while assessing the phase of Aβ, i.e. phase 1 = deposition of Aβ exclusively in neocortex, phase 2 = additionally in allocortex, phase 3 = additionally in diencephalon, phase 4 = additionally in brainstem, and phase 5 = additionally in cerebellum. These high agreement rates were reached when at least six brain regions were evaluated. Likewise, a high agreement (93%) was reached while assessing the absence/presence of cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) and the type of CAA (74%) while examining the six brain regions. Of note, most of observers failed to detect capillary CAA when it was only mild and focal and thus instead of type 1, type 2 CAA was diagnosed. In conclusion, a reliable assessment of Aβ phase and presence/absence of CAA was achieved by a total of 26 observers who examined a standardized set of blocks taken from only six anatomical regions, applying commercially available reagents and by assessing them as instructed. Thus, one may consider rating of Aβ-phases as a diagnostic tool while analyzing subjects with suspected Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Because most of these blocks are currently routinely sampled by the majority of laboratories, assessment of the Aβ phase in AD is feasible even in large scale retrospective studies

Inclusive distributions of charged hadrons in pppp collisions at s\sqrt{s} = 0.9 and 2.36~TeV

Measurements of inclusive charged-hadron transverse-momentum ($p_T$) and pseudorapidity ($\eta$) distributions are presented for proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=$~0.9 and 2.36~TeV. For non-single-diffractive interactions, the average $p_T$ of charged hadrons is measured to be $0.46 \pm 0.01$~(stat.)~$\pm$~0.01~(syst.)~GeV/$c$ at 0.9~TeV and $0.50 \pm 0.01$~(stat.)~$\pm$~0.01~(syst.)~GeV/$c$ at 2.36~TeV, for $-2.4<\eta<+2.4$. At these energies, the measured pseudorapidity densities in the central region, $dN_{\rm ch}/d\eta_{-0.5< \eta < 0.5}$, are $3.48 \pm 0.02$~(stat.)~$\pm$~0.13~(syst.) and $4.47 \pm 0.04$~(stat.)~$\pm$~0.16~(syst.), respectively. The results at 2.36~TeV represent the highest-energy measurements ever published at a particle collider at the time of the presentation at the Lake Louise Winter Institute

Processing of unattended facial emotions: A visual mismatch negativity study

Facial emotions express our internal states and are fundamental in social interactions. Here we explore whether the repetition of unattended facial emotions builds up a predictive representation of frequently encountered emotions in the visual system. Participants (n = 24) were presented peripherally with facial stimuli expressing emotions while they performed a visual detection task presented in the center of the visual field. Facial stimuli consisted of four faces of different identity, but expressed the same emotion (happy or fearful). Facial stimuli were presented in blocks of oddball sequence (standard emotion: p = 0.9, deviant emotion: p = 0.1). Event-related potentials (ERPs) to the same emotions were compared when the emotions were deviant and standard, respectively. We found visual mismatch negativity (vMMN) responses to unattended deviant emotions in the 170–360 ms post-stimulus range over bilateral occipito-temporal sites. Our results demonstrate that information about the emotional content of unattended faces presented at the periphery of the visual field is rapidly processed and stored in a predictive memory representation by the visual system. We also found evidence that differential processing of deviant fearful faces starts already at 70–120 ms after stimulus onset. This finding shows a ‘negativity bias’ under unattended conditions. Differential processing of fearful deviants were more pronounced in the right hemisphere in the 195–275 ms and 360–390 ms intervals, whereas processing of happy deviants evoked larger differential response in the left hemisphere in the 360–390 ms range, indicating differential hemispheric specialization for automatic processing of positive and negative affect

Concepts for University developments, focusing on campus of Rokus str., Pécs, Hungary

The university faculties are situated in different parts of the city and they are not connected to each other. The faculties are located in minimal areas, they are surrounded by residential and public functions. The communication between the faculties and the transport network are not solved for the students and for the city. Traditional campuses have not been established around the universities and the development goals of the university to create them were ineffective. The University of Pécs – as a campus – can only work optimally if the faculties and their surroundings are interconnected by suitable transport, infrastructure network. Within the framework of ’Modern Cities’ University Development Program, it is possible to reconsider the existing premises and to regroup the faculties – when the disunity of the Faculty of Engineering was solved, the significant property stock of the campus in Rókus street partly lost its function due to reorganization. The maintenance of the cadastre in its current form is expensive due to its under-utilized operation. However, the existing properties should be considered an opportunity rather than a problem. With the planned increase in the educational capacity of the Faculty of Pharmacy, we are able to create spaces for transparent education of international standards with a functional change in new emerging development areas in the existing buildings

Identification of histidine‐Ni (II) metal complex by Raman spectroscopy

Metal ions such as nickel have a strong binding affinity to amino acids and form metal complexes of different geometry. This complex formation is influ- enced by many factors among others the kind of reactants and their relative concentrations, pH, and its effect on the net charge of the amino acid mole- cule. In this work, the formation of the histidine-nickel (II) complex in differ- ent conditions was examined by Raman spectroscopy. In addition to the experiments, density functional theory (DFT) calculations on histidine-nickel complexes were performed in order to elucidate the complex formation mecha- nism and optimal geometry of the structures as well as to investigate their vibrational properties. The Raman measurements showed double peaks at 1272 and 1297 cm�1 , and triple peaks at 1322, 1336, and 1355 cm�1 that belong to the metal complex. The geometry optimizations and total energy cal- culations of His-Ni (II) complex revealed that the octahedral geometry and the triplet spin state of Ni ion is the energetically favorable structure. This metal complex is formed through the nitrogen atom of the imidazole side chain, the nitrogen atom of the terminal amino group, and the oxygen atom of the car- boxyl group. Experiments with pH revealed that the alkaline pH favors while the change of the concentration of the metal ions does not affect the the His-Ni (II) complex formation