Peierls substitution in the energy dispersion of a hexagonal lattice

The method of the Peierls substitution in studying the magnetic subband structure of a hexagonal lattice is re-examined. Several errors in the formalism of a couple of recent papers are pointed out and rectified so as to describe the effect of the magnetic field pertinently.Comment: 3 pages (two-columns), 2 EPS figures, submitted to J. Phys.: Condens. Matte

case of Hungary

The main purposes of the academic research commissioned by the Rural Development Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development were: to examine the interrelation between long-term unemployment and individual as well as family life strategies, the regional characteristics of the labour market and the territorial development of rural areas, as well as explore governmental and local ambitions to alleviate long-term unemployment and evaluate their efficiency. The basic issues of the research were as follows: 1) Which are the regions where the concentrations of long-term unemployment can be found and what are the reasons for it? 2) What kind of interrelation can be observed between long-term unemployment and the potential of the social and economic development of the regions? 3) What central and local attempts have there been to alleviate long-term unemployment? 4) What results did these initiatives have and what were the reasons for their success or failure? 5) What foreign models can be followed when trying to alleviate long-term unemployment? 6) Which are the economic sectors, in which employment of those long-term unemployed is the most possible? The research was carried out by the horizontal work-team of rural development of the Centre for Studies Research of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.repor

life-long learning among the Romany ethnic groups

repor

Extreme-Point-based Heuristics for the Three-Dimensional Bin Packing problem

One of the main issues in addressing three-dimensional packing problems is finding an efficient and accurate definition of the points at which to place the items inside the bins, because the performance of exact and heuristic solution methods is actually strongly influenced by the choice of a placement rule. We introduce the extreme point concept and present a new extreme point-based rule for packing items inside a three-dimensional container. The extreme point rule is independent from the particular packing problem addressed and can handle additional constraints, such as fixing the position of the items. The new extreme point rule is also used to derive new constructive heuristics for the three-dimensional bin-packing problem. Extensive computational results show the effectiveness of the new heuristics compared to state-of-the-art results. Moreover, the same heuristics, when applied to the two-dimensional bin-packing problem, outperform those specifically designed for the proble

Delineation of the Pannonian vegetation region

Phytogeographical regions have been set up traditionally on the basis of the flora. Several examples indicate that the potential natural vegetation is also suitable for this purpose although the flora- and vegetation-based boundaries do not necessarily overlap. We define a vegetation region as an area where the physical geographic features are rather uniform, and which consists of landscapes with floristically/structurally similar vegetation and/or their repetitive mosaics. In this paper, we delimited the boundaries of the Pannonian region based on the distribution of characteristic plant communities. The line runs most often on the border between Quercus cerris-Quercus petraea and Carpinus betulus/Fagus sylvatica dominated landscapes. We provided descriptions of the potential vegetation on both sides of the boundary. The region has an area of 167,012 km2. The region is either in direct contact with the neighboring regions (e.g., Western Carpathians), or is separated from them by transitional areas (towards the Eastern Alps), and character-poor areas with non-Pannonian, non-Alpine, non-Dinaric vegetation (in the southwest to the Western Balkan). Often, the boundary does not coincide with the boundary of the Pannonicum floristic province. We found that vegetation region boundaries can help reevaluate long-established floristic region boundaries. The boundary of the ’floristic Pannonian region’ also requires revision based on integrated distribution databases and statistical analyses. We argue that the method applied here is simple, repeatable and falsifiable. Our map provides an opportunity to the European Union to use a scientifically more sound biogeographical circumscription of the Pannonian region in her Natura 2000 and other programs

Steppe woodlands with Tatarian Maple (Aceri tatarici-Quercetum pubescentis-roboris) on the great Hungarian plain and its neighbourhood. An unfinished synthesis with supplementary notes

This paper presents the so far only partially published research material of the late Bálint Zólyomi on one of his major fields of interest, the forest steppe vegetation. The phytosociological tables presented here were found in his bequest indicating that he was going to publish a grand synthesis on this topic, which, however, has not come true. Since no written text accompanied the original tables, a historical overview and a short explanation to the tables are also provided

Crystal balls into the future: are global circulation and water balance models ready?

Abstract. Variabilities and changes due to natural and anthropogenic causes in the water cycle always presented a challenge for water management planning. Practitioners traditionally coped with variabilities in the hydrological processes by assuming stationarity in the probability distributions and attempted to address non-stationarity by revising this probabilistic properties via continued hydro-climatological observations. Recently, this practice was questioned and more reliance on Global Circulation Models was put forward as an alternative for water management plannig. This paper takes a brief assessment of the state of Global Circulation Models (GCM) and their applications by presenting case studies over Global, European and African domains accompanied by literature examples. Our paper demonstrates core deficiencies in GCM based water resources assessments and articulates the need for improved Earth system monitoring that is essential not only for water managers, but to aid the improvements of GCMs in the future

Investigation of the relation between the colorant content and the colour characteristics of the edible oil based extracts of the paprika grist

During our work we performed the color measurements of the oily extracts from the Hungarian paprika grist. We defined a color index from the C'lELab color coordinates, by means of which the rank in the redness sequence of the oily colorant extract can be evaluated. Wc established that there was a tight linear relation between the colorant content of the grist expressed in ASTA value and the color index of the oily extract. In case of the oily extracts the coloi index calculated from the data of the color measurement is adaptable to evaluate the coloring capability and via this ii is appropriate for the color classification of the paprika grist

Endothelial nitric oxide synthase gene T-786C and 27-bp repeat gene polymorphisms in retinopathy of prematurity

PURPOSE: Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), which is associated with abnormal retinal vessel development, is the leading cause of visual loss in preterm infants. Endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) is believed to play a central role in both retinal angiogenesis and vasculogenesis. The aim of this study was to investigate functional genetic polymorphisms of eNOS in the pathogenesis of ROP. METHODS: eNOS T(−786)C and 27-bp repeat (eNOS, b: wild-type, a: mutant) genotypes were determined using allele-specific polymerase chain reaction in 105 low birth weight (LBW) preterm infants treated for ROP (treated group). A control group was set up and composed of 127 LBW infants with stage 1 or 2 ROP that did not not require treatment (untreated group). RESULTS: The genotype distribution of eNOS 27-bp repeat polymorphism was found to significantly differ (p=0.015) between the two groups, whereas the genotype distribution of eNOS T(−786)C did not differ (p=0.984) between the groups. There was no difference in the distribution of either the “a” allele (p=0.153) nor of the C allele (p=0.867) in a groups comparison. Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that male gender (p=0.046) and eNOS aa genotype (p=0.047 versus ab genotype and p=0.022 versus bb genotype) were significantly associated severe ROP that required treatment. The haplotype estimations based on the detected genotype distributions showed that the prevalence of aT and bT haplotypes was significantly increased in the group treated for ROP. CONCLUSIONS: Functional eNOS 27-bp repeat polymorphism might be associated with the risk of severe ROP, however we found no association between the eNOS T(−786)C and the pathogenesis of ROP

A természet, kultúra és részvétel alapú posztmodern fejlődés helyi társadalmi feltételei elmaradott rurális térségekben = Conditions of rural communities for postmodern (nature, culture and social participation based) revitalization of rural spaces

A vidéki térségekben zajló változások megértésére és a vidékfejlesztés feltételrendszerének feltárására irányuló empirikus kutatásunkat három posztmodern értékre: a természeti környezetre, a kultúrára és a társadalmi részvételre fókuszáltuk. A helyi társadalmak értékrendjének mérésére kifejlesztett eszközökkel sikerült igazolnunk, hogy a helyi társadalom viszonya a posztmodern értékekhez a környező terület gazdasági fejlettségétől és a külső kapcsolatrendszer működésétől függően változik. A nyitottabb térségekben – jellemzően külső hatásra – megjelentek a posztmodern kultúra elemei. A zárt térségekben pedig a tradicionális kultúra fennmaradt elemei nyújtanak alapot a posztmodernizációhoz. A nyitott és a zárt vidéki társadalmak kulturális sajátosságainak, erőforráskészletének és intézményi struktúráinak összehasonlítása segít megérteni a vidékfejlesztés stratégiáinak és eddigi eredményességének különbségeit. A vidék lehetséges fejlődési irányainak elfogadottsága és az azokhoz való kapcsolódási szándékok, valamint az erőforráskészlet és az azok hasznosításához szükséges képességek közötti különbségek a fejlesztésben a motiválás és a kultúraközvetítés szerepére, valamint a differenciált, a gazdasági versenyképesség új értelmezésére épülő vidékpolitika létjogosultságára világítanak rá. | The aims of this empirical research project were to understand processes going in rural areas and exploration of conditions of rural development policies. We focused on three post-modern values like environmental sustainability, cultural determination and social participation. Tools to indentify dominant values of local communities were developed and using these tools we verified that the relation between a local society and post modern values were various due to the stage of economic development and the function of external relationships. Elements of post-modern culture were presented – mainly affected by external effects - in “open” local societies. Whereas in “closed” local societies the sustained elements of traditional culture gave basis to post-modernisation. Comparing cultural characteristics, local resources and institutional structures of both societies helped understanding differences in results of rural development strategies. Differences of acceptance of possible rural development directions and the motivations to participate within them as well as the stock of local resources and the capability to utilize them reflect the role of motivation and culture intermediation as well as the reason of a differentiated rural development policy based on a new interpretation of economic competition