Xuuč Yaria: A specific genre of Mongolian folklore

The expression xuuč yaria can be translated as ‘story’ or ‘gossip’, and indeed, they are short stories about interesting, extraordinary or sometimes fearful events heard or seen by the storyteller. As far as their content is concerned, the stories are colourful and ramifying, and it is beyond doubt that the xuuč yaria has some connections with domogs, tales and even heroic epics. Unfortunately, research into this field has begun relatively recently, so these connections are far from being clear. Moreover, the xuuč yaria stories are interesting not only from the point of view of folklore, but they also shed light on the history of ideas, since the first ones were collected in the 1950s, and thus some of them reflect the political atmosphere of the socialist era. In this article an attempt is made to give the broader outlines of the xuuč yaria as a genre of Mongolian folklore, and establish a typology in the hope that it will be helpful for further research

The impact of high density receptor clusters on VEGF signaling

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) signaling is involved in the process of blood vessel development and maintenance. Signaling is initiated by binding of the bivalent VEGF ligand to the membrane-bound receptors (VEGFR), which in turn stimulates receptor dimerization. Herein, we discuss experimental evidence that VEGF receptors localize in caveloae and other regions of the plasma membrane, and for other receptors, it has been shown that receptor clustering has an impact on dimerization and thus also on signaling. Overall, receptor clustering is part of a complex ecosystem of interactions and how receptor clustering impacts dimerization is not well understood. To address these questions, we have formulated the simplest possible model. We have postulated the existence of a single high affinity region in the cell membrane, which acts as a transient trap for receptors. We have defined an ODE model by introducing high- and low-density receptor variables and introduce the corresponding reactions from a realistic model of VEGF signal initiation. Finally, we use the model to investigate the relation between the degree of VEGFR concentration, ligand availability, and signaling. In conclusion, our simulation results provide a deeper understanding of the role of receptor clustering in cell signaling.Comment: In Proceedings HSB 2013, arXiv:1308.572

Állami intézmények hatékonyság-elemzése Magyarországon = Efficiency analysis of state institutions in Hungary

A rendszerváltás óta folyamatosan napirenden lévő strukturális államháztartási reformhoz újra kell gondolni az állam szerepvállalásának szükségességét a gazdaság és az élet minden területén. Azokon a területeken pedig, amelyeken ezek után is úgy gondoljuk, hogy az adott szükséglet kielégítéséhez közösségi források bevonására van szükség, meg kell fontolni, hogy annak elköltése milyen módon hozza a legmagasabb társadalmi hasznot. Minden bizonnyal ilyen tevékenység marad a közutak fenntartása, hiszen nagyon jelentősek a pozitív extern hatások, ami pedig a tipikus közjavak fontos jellemzője. Kutatásunk szempontjából pedig fontos volt, hogy tevékenysége üzemi szinten pontosan meghatározott, jól mérhető, ezért ennek a tevékenységnek az ellátását vizsgáltuk. Az alsórendű közutak fenntartását 2005-ig megyei szinten szervezett közhasznú társaságok végezték, melyek az egyik fő módszerként alkalmazott Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) terminológiájában döntéshozó egységeknek (Decision Making Unit:DMU) tekinthetők. Ezek tevékenységét vizsgálva, számos modell alkalmazásával érdekes eredményekre jutottunk, ami által a módszer alkalmazhatósága megkérdőjelezhetetlenné vált. | After the transition in Hungary the structural reform of state budget has always been part of public debate. In order to achieve a real reform, the role of the state in economy, other fields of life and the scope of its interventions have to be revised. Following this reconsideration, it shall be examined in which fields and by what methods the government income, i.e. taxpayers? money would be used most efficiently. Our study focuses on investment in a typical public good, the state road network development as it is an activity that can be measured at decision-making level and data available are comparable in time. Until 2005 maintenance and development of state roads were responsibilities of 19 county-level public utility companies. In our analysis these companies represented decision making units (DMU) for the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Many models have been applied in our analysis. Based on these models very interesting results have been found and it has been verified that the DEA is a very powerful and useful tool even for state owned companies

Bio-Inspired Group Behaviors for the Deployment of a Swarm of Robots to Multiple Destinations

We present a methodology for characterizing and synthesizing swarm behaviors using both a macroscopic model that represents a swarm as a continuum and a microscopic model that represents individual robots. We develop a systematic approach for synthesizing behaviors at the macroscopic level that can be realized on individual robots at the microscopic level. Our methodology is inspired by a dynamical model of ant house hunting [1], a decentralized process in which a colony attempts to emigrate to the best site among several alternatives. The model is hybrid because the colony switches between different sets of behaviors, or modes, during this process. At the macroscopic level, we are able to synthesize controllers that result in the deployment of a robotic swarm in a predefined ratio between distinct sites. We then derive hybrid controllers for individual robots using only local interactions and no communication that respect the specifications of the global continuous behavior. Our simulations demonstrate that our synthesis procedure yields a correct microscopic model from the macroscopic description with guarantees on performance at both levels

Finite state abstraction of a stochastic model of the lactose regulation system of \u3cem\u3eEscherichia coli\u3c/em\u3e

This paper focuses on the lactose regulation system in Escherichia coli bacteria, one of the most extensively studied examples of positive feedback in a naturally occurring gene network. State-of-the-art nonlinear dynamical system models predict a bi-stability phenomenon that is confirmed in experiments. However, such deterministic models fail to explain experimental observations of spontaneous transition between the two stable states in the system and the simultaneous occurrence of both steady states in a population of cells. In this paper, we propose a stochastic model that explains this phenomenon. Furthermore, we also extract a coarser two-state continuous-time Markov chain as a higher level abstraction of this model, and show that macroscopic properties are retained in the abstraction

Experimental modelling of the venous muscle pump

One of the most interesting phenomena in the venous circulatory system is the vein pump mechanism in the legs. The veins in this area are surrounded by the calf muscle, which periodically deforms the vein walls and squeezes blood out of the section. Venous valves prevent the bloodfrom backflow. A measuring rig was designed to model and measure the periodic pulsation of the veins. The device contains a chamber containing a collapsible tube. In this paper the diameter of the tube was examined under periodically varying chamber pressure. Pictures were taken of the viscoelastic tube during the pulsation. The diameter as a function of time is calculated and compared with the pressure-time series. Also the operation of the check valves of the measuring rig is observed. The results are presented and discussed. DOI: 10.17489/biohun/2010/2/0

From Discrete to Continuous and Back: Abstractions and Mesoscopic Phenomena in Cells

We discuss the interplay between stochasticity and multistability in bio-molecular networks. The resulting cell-level stochastic behavior reflects the fundamentally discrete and random nature of the underlying molecular processes. These ideas are illustrated on the well studied example of the lac operon. We first describe the switching behavior predicted by a differential-equation based model and then show how cell-level stochastic behavior emerges. Finally we point out that the observed macroscopic behavior may not be enough to determine both the dynamic and stochastic parameters

Stochastic Modeling and Control of Biological Systems: The Lactose Regulation System of Escherichia Coli

In this paper, we present a comprehensive framework for stochastic modeling, model abstraction, and controller design for a biological system. The first half of the paper concerns modeling and model abstraction of the system. Most models in systems biology are deterministic models with ordinary differential equations in the concentration variables. We present a stochastic hybrid model of the lactose regulation system of E. coli bacteria that capture important phenomena which cannot be described by continuous deterministic models.We then show that the resulting stochastic hybrid model can be abstracted into a much simpler model, a two-state continuous-time Markov chain. The second half of the paper discusses controller design for a specific architecture. The architecture consists of measurement of a global quantity in a colony of bacteria as an output feedback and manipulation of global environmental variables as control actuation. We show that controller design can be performed on the abstracted (Markov chain) model and implementation on the real model yields the desired result

Az EU tagállamainak közigazgatási rendszere = Public Administration in the EU Member States

A kutatás célkitűzése abban állott, hogy az Európai Unió 27 tagállamának belső közigazgatási rendszerét mutassuk be. Módszertanilag a feldolgozás egy előzetesen kialakított egységes vázlat alapján történt, mivel a közigazgatási összehasonlítás, mint minden komparatisztikai tevékenység, csak egységes és azonos elvek alapján lehetséges. Ezen a bázison a következő témák kerültek elemzésre: Az ország általános jellemzése (az ország legfontosabb adatai, az ország közigazgatás-története, az ország közigazgatása általában, modellbe sorolás); A közigazgatás jelenlegi felépítése, szervezete (kormányzati rendszer, miniszteriális szint és egyéb országos hatáskörű közigazgatási szervek, helyi igazgatás); A közigazgatás működése (közigazgatási eljárás, a működés hibáit javító korrekciós eszközök, tárgyi feltételek és informatika); A közigazgatás személyzete. A közigazgatási rendszerek bemutatására saját hazai történelmi és politikai kontextusukban került sor. E tárgyalásmód lehetővé tette a rendszerek egymással való egybevetését, és fejlődési tendenciáik érzékeltetését is. A vállalkozás legnagyobb erénye teljes körűségében, és összehasonlító jellegében rejlik, mivel ilyen irányú kutatás még a legfejlettebb közigazgatásokat tömörítő OECD, és IIAS keretei között sem folyt az elmúlt két évtizedben. A kutatás legfőbb megállapítása az, hogy a történeti eredetre építő modellképzés a jelenkor közigazgatásainak rendszerezésére ma már csak módjával alkalmas, mivel a rendszerképző elemek a globalizáció és az EU hatása következtében keverednek az egyes államok gyakorlatában. | The goal of the research was to demonstrate the internal administrative systems of the 27 EU member states. Methodologically the implementation of research was built on a common draft plan. On this basis the following issues were analyzed: General characteristics of the country (the country's most important data, government characteristics, history, of the country's public administration in general, and on this basis the classification of the countries into different models); The current government structure, organization (system of government, ministerial and other levels of national scope to public administrations, local government); The functioning of public administration (administrative procedures, improve operational errors correction tools, facilities and information technology); The administrative staff (civil service). The administrative systems are presented in their own historical and political contexts. This method is enabled the comparison of the systems with each other (as well as perceived trends in their developments). The greatest advantage of this approach lies in its most comprehensive and comparative nature, because such a research has not been realized within the last two decades, even in such important international organisations as OECD, or IIAS. The most important conclusion on the basis of the research is the influence of globalisation and the formation of new models within the EU whose characteristics are becoming increasingly mixed