Conserving Crop Genetic Resources on Smallholder Farms in Hungary: Institutional Analysis

Hungary is home to a great diversity of plant and animal species, whose preservation is of global value. This paper focuses on the institutional aspects of the research project on on-farm conservation of crop genetic resources in three Environmentally Sensitive Areas of Hungary (Dévaványa, Orség-Vendvidék, Szatmár-Bereg). Implemented by the Institute of Environmental Management, St. István University and the Institute for Agrobotany in partnership with the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute, the project consists of an interdisciplinary institutional, economic, and scientific analysis. The main goal of the project is to develop a scientific understanding about the current and potential socio-economic role of agrobiodiversity maintained in home gardens. The first aim of the institutional analysis carried out by this paper is to identify the institutions and organisations that have significant impact on the seed choices and seed maintenance practices of farmers, and hence, on their access to genetic resources. The second aim is to identify and analyse different stakeholders’ perceptions of the issue at hand, as well as their interests and the values they ascribe to them.Crop genetic resources, Agro-biodiversity, Institutional analysis, Stakeholder analysis, New institutional economics, Qualitative research methods

Non-invasive research on the Neolithic settlement of Mezőkeresztes, Lapos-halom

The aim of this publication is to present the non-invasive research on the Neolithic hill at the Mezőkeresztes, Lapos-halom site. The site is a late ALP period settlement hill with unknown stratigraphic relations. Based on geophysical surveys, it was a densely built-in area with an artificial boundary. In terms of typology, the assemblages of the northern Szakálhát and formerly known as Szilmeg groups are the most similar to the finds excavated at this site, which also show a few late Neolithic characteristics. Data suggesting the artificial land use of surrounding area around the site proves the conscious land usage of the area’s former inhabitants

Bio-nanocomposites - optoelectronics, energy conversion, biosensors

Biological materials are developed by Nature for extremely efficient, specific and sensitive functions. There are more and more demonstrations recently that it is possible to attach them to nanomaterials combining the advantageous properties of both components. These new types of materials, called bio-nanocomposites, open possible directions for new generations of practical applications, e.g. energy conversion and storage, integrated optoelectronics in memory and micro imaging, or sensitive components of analytical (biosensor) devices, etc. In our laboratory recently we have successfully bound representatives of redox proteins (photosynthetic reaction centers and horse radish peroxidase) to inorganic nanostructures and the optoelectronic properties and possible directions of applications are investigated. Examples for applications in environmental field are presented here

The differential diagnosis of Rickettsia prowazeki infection

Introduction: We describe a rare case of Rickettsia prowazeki infection in male prisoners. Objective: Our aim was to demonstrate a case of R. prowazeki infection in male prisoners presenting fever, dermatitis, and significant weight loss. Case: We report the cases of male prisoners, aged 46, who developed progressive dermatitis, fever, and weight loss. Due to dermatitis and 38.4 degrees C fever, we transferred the prisoners to the Department of Dermatology and Allergology, University of Szeged. The examination of the antigen test was negative for Plasmodium vivax, and biopsy was performed to exclude the vasculitis. For the potentially autoimmune cause of disease choloquine, antihistamine, methyl-prednisolone treatment was ordered. The dermaticological symptoms had progressed; therefore, we sent the patients to the Department of Infectology of Szeged and St Laszlo Hospital for further diagnosis. The serological tests were positive for R. prowazeki. Following 10-day course of doxycycline treatment, the patients displayed a significant clinical improvement. Conclusion: According to our knowledge, this is the first study to report the case of R. prowazeki in Central Europe. Copyright (C) 2017 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved

Monoclonal antibody proteomics: Use of antibody mimotope displaying phages and the relevant synthetic peptides for mAb scouting

Monoclonal antibody proteomics uses nascent libraries or cloned (Plasmascan™, QuantiPlasma™) libraries of mAbs that react with individual epitopes of proteins in the human plasma. At the initial phase of library creation, cognate protein antigen and the epitope interacting with the antibodies are not known. Scouting for monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) with the best binding characteristics is of high importance for mAb based biomarker assay development. However, in the absence of the identity of the cognate antigen the task represents a challenge. We combined phage display, and surface plasmon resonance (Biacore) experiments to test whether specific phages and the respective mimotope peptides obtained from large scale studies are applicable to determine key features of antibodies for scouting. We show here that mAb captured phage-mimotope heterogeneity that is the diversity of the selected peptide sequences, is inversely correlated with an important binding descriptor; the off-rate of the antibodies and that represents clues for driving the selection of useful mAbs for biomarker assay development. Carefully chosen synthetic mimotope peptides are suitable for specificity testing in competitive assays using the target proteome, in our case the human plasma. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved