Technológiai Előretekintési Program

Az Országos Mûszaki Fejlesztési Bizottság döntése alapján 1998-ban átfogó elemzés kezdôdött Technoló- giai Elôretekintési Program (TEP) néven. A program célja, hogy a piaci és technológiai lehetôségek feltá- rásával hozzájáruljon a hosszú távú versenyképesség növeléséhez és ezen keresztül az életminôség javításá- hoz. A TEP a gazdasági, társadalmi folyamatok, a tudo- mány és technika eredményeinek elemzésével megje- löli azon kulcskérdéseket, döntési pontokat, amelyek meghatározzák az egyes szakmai területek illetve az ország jövôjét a következô 15-25 évben. Az Irányító Testület és a munkacsoportok elemezték a jelenlegi helyzetet, eltérô jövôképeket vázoltak fel, és a legked- vezôbbnek ítélt – de a mai feltételek mellett, tudatos, összehangolt erôfeszítések nélkül nem feltétlenül a leg- valószínûbb – jövôkép megvalósítását célzó ajánlásokat fogalmaztak meg. A legkedvezôbb jövôképbôl leve- zetett ajánlások tehát mindazoknak szólnak, akik köz- vetlenül vagy közvetve hatással lehetnek az egyes szakterületek vagy a magyar társadalom és gazdaság egészének jövôjére

The Inverse Variational Problem for Autoparallels

We study the problem of the existence of a local quantum scalar field theory in a general affine metric space that in the semiclassical approximation would lead to the autoparallel motion of wave packets, thus providing a deviation of the spinless particle trajectory from the geodesics in the presence of torsion. The problem is shown to be equivalent to the inverse problem of the calculus of variations for the autoparallel motion with additional conditions that the action (if it exists) has to be invariant under time reparametrizations and general coordinate transformations, while depending analytically on the torsion tensor. The problem is proved to have no solution for a generic torsion in four-dimensional spacetime. A solution exists only if the contracted torsion tensor is a gradient of a scalar field. The corresponding field theory describes coupling of matter to the dilaton field.Comment: 13 pages, plain Latex, no figure

DERBI: A Digital Method to Help Researchers Offer “Right-to-Know” Personal Exposure Results

Summary: Researchers and clinicians in environmental health and medicine increasingly show respect for participants and patients by involving them in decision-making. In this context, the return of personal results to study participants is becoming ethical best practice, and many participants now expect to see their data. However, researchers often lack the time and expertise required for report-back, especially as studies measure greater numbers of analytes, including many without clear health guidelines. In this article, our goal is to demonstrate how a prototype digital method, the Digital Exposure Report-Back Interface (DERBI), can reduce practical barriers to high-quality report-back. DERBI uses decision rules to automate the production of personalized summaries of notable results and generates graphs of individual results with comparisons to the study group and benchmark populations. Reports discuss potential sources of chemical exposure, what is known and unknown about health effects, strategies for exposure reduction, and study-wide findings. Researcher tools promote discovery by drawing attention to patterns of high exposure and offer novel ways to increase participant engagement. DERBI reports have been field tested in two studies. Digital methods like DERBI reduce practical barriers to report-back thus enabling researchers to meet their ethical obligations and participants to get knowledge they can use to make informed choices

Evaluation of sleep, puberty and mental health in children with long-term melatonin treatment for chronic idiopathic childhood sleep onset insomnia

OBJECTIVES: To establish whether long-term use of melatonin influences pubertal development, sleep quality and mental health development in children as compared with the normal Dutch population of the same age. METHODS: This follow-up research study was conducted in children included in a previous melatonin dose-finding trial. Outcomes were measured using questionnaires (Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ) and Tanner Stages) adopted for Dutch children. Mean duration of therapy, persistence of effect, adverse events and (other) reasons leading to cessation of therapy were additional objectives of this study. RESULTS: Mean years of usage (n = 51) was 3.1 years (min 1.0 year, max 4.6 years), mean dose 2.69 mg (min 0.3 mg, max 10 mg). Mean SDQ score, mean CSHQ score and Tanner Stages standard deviation scores did not differ in a statistically significant way from published scores of the general Dutch population of the same age and sex. CONCLUSIONS: This follow-up study demonstrates that melatonin treatment in children can be sustained over a long period of time without substantial deviation of the development of children with respect to sleep quality, puberty development and mental health scores, as compared with the general Dutch population

Positional variations among heterogeneous nucleosome maps give dynamical information on chromatin

Although nucleosome remodeling is essential to transcriptional regulation in eukaryotes, little is known about its genome-wide behavior. Since a number of nucleosome positioning maps in vivo have been recently determined, we examined if their comparisons might be used for obtaining a genome-wide profile of nucleosome remodeling. Using seven yeast maps, the local variability of nucleosomes, measured by the entropy, was significantly higher in a set of reported unstable nucleosomes. The binding sites of four transcription factors, known as the remodeling factors, were distinctively high both in entropy and linker ratio, whereas those of Yhp1, their potential inhibitor, showed the lowest values in both of them. Taken together, our map shows the general information of nucleosome dynamics reasonably well. The “nucleosome dynamics” map provides the new significant correlation with the degree of expression variety instead of their intensity. Furthermore, the associations with gene function and histone modification were also discussed here

The Yin and Yang of Yeast Transcription: Elements of a Global Feedback System between Metabolism and Chromatin

When grown in continuous culture, budding yeast cells tend to synchronize their respiratory activity to form a stable oscillation that percolates throughout cellular physiology and involves the majority of the protein-coding transcriptome. Oscillations in batch culture and at single cell level support the idea that these dynamics constitute a general growth principle. The precise molecular mechanisms and biological functions of the oscillation remain elusive. Fourier analysis of transcriptome time series datasets from two different oscillation periods (0.7 h and 5 h) reveals seven distinct co-expression clusters common to both systems (34% of all yeast ORF), which consolidate into two superclusters when correlated with a compilation of 1,327 unrelated transcriptome datasets. These superclusters encode for cell growth and anabolism during the phase of high, and mitochondrial growth, catabolism and stress response during the phase of low oxygen uptake. The promoters of each cluster are characterized by different nucleotide contents, promoter nucleosome configurations, and dependence on ATP-dependent nucleosome remodeling complexes. We show that the ATP:ADP ratio oscillates, compatible with alternating metabolic activity of the two superclusters and differential feedback on their transcription via activating (RSC) and repressive (Isw2) types of promoter structure remodeling. We propose a novel feedback mechanism, where the energetic state of the cell, reflected in the ATP:ADP ratio, gates the transcription of large, but functionally coherent groups of genes via differential effects of ATP-dependent nucleosome remodeling machineries. Besides providing a mechanistic hypothesis for the delayed negative feedback that results in the oscillatory phenotype, this mechanism may underpin the continuous adaptation of growth to environmental conditions

A cluster randomised trial of a telephone-based intervention for parents to increase fruit and vegetable consumption in their 3- to 5-year-old children: study protocol

Background: Inadequate fruit and vegetable consumption in childhood increases the risk of developing chronic disease. Despite this, a substantial proportion of children in developed nations, including Australia, do not consume sufficient quantities of fruits and vegetables. Parents are influential in the development of dietary habits of young children but often lack the necessary knowledge and skills to promote healthy eating in their children. The aim of this study is to assess the efficacy of a telephone-based intervention for parents to increase the fruit and vegetable consumption of their 3- to 5-year-old children. Methods/Design: The study, conducted in the Hunter region of New South Wales, Australia, employs a cluster randomised controlled trial design. Two hundred parents from 15 randomly selected preschools will be randomised to receive the intervention, which consists of print resources and four weekly 30-minute telephone support calls delivered by trained telephone interviewers. The calls will assist parents to increase the availability and accessibility of fruit and vegetables in the home, create supportive family eating routines and role-model fruit and vegetable consumption. A further two hundred parents will be randomly allocated to the control group and will receive printed nutrition information only. The primary outcome of the trial will be the change in the child's consumption of fruit and vegetables as measured by the fruit and vegetable subscale of the Children's Dietary Questionnaire. Pre-intervention and post-intervention parent surveys will be administered over the telephone. Baseline surveys will occur one to two weeks prior to intervention delivery, with follow-up data collection calls occurring two, six, 12 and 18 months following baseline data collection. Discussion: If effective, this telephone-based intervention may represent a promising public health strategy to increase fruit and vegetable consumption in childhood and reduce the risk of subsequent chronic disease. Trial registration: Australian Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12609000820202