Geoecological mapping in a Kis-Sárrét study area

Nowadays, the main aim of landscape research is to find out how a land use type of a given area suits the land potential and what sort of social activities can take place there with the minimum risk. Humans, as determinant factors of the landscape, have more and more influence on the functioning and shape of the landscape. The goal of the research is to explore the antropogenic-technogenic processes along with the structure and function of the landscape. The study area is part of the Körös-Maros National Park and it can be found in the North of the park, near the village Biharugra. It is an important bird and wildlife habitat, protected since 1997. It is a peripheral rural landscape near the frontier, which means peculiar tasks for both sides of the border. The most important of these are raising the environmental awareness of the inhabitants, the handling of environmental conflicts, the harmonisation of agricultural and rural development with environment protection and nature conservation and to find out how the natural state of the settlements affect the wider environment. While using the land particular attention must be gave to nature protection, which means conscious land use. The most adequate land use can be chosen on the basis of the principles of environmental management and sustainable development. This study tries to specify the present landscape ecological state of the research area and to provide some guidelines for future nature conservation and landscape planning. By using the results of this research there is a possibility to extend nature conservation area and the unified European network of green corridors could be established (Natura 2000). Comparing the map of actual and limited land use we can determine all those suggested interventions wich will help to form the optimal land use for the inhabitants, the agricultural organizations and the National Park

Challenges and Possibilities of Overtaking Strategies for Autonomous Vehicles

This paper present three distinct probability-based methods for decision making and trajectory planning layers of overtaking maneuvering functionality for autonomous vehicles. The computation time of the proposed decision-making algorithms may be high, because the number of describing parameters of the traffic situations may vary in a high range. The presented clustering-based, graph-based and dynamic-based methods differ in the complexity of their computation algorithms. Since the decision-making process may require considerable online computation effort, a neural-network-based approach is presented for implementation purposes

K-Ras prenylation as a potential anticancer target

KRAS is one of the most commonly mutated oncogene and a negative predictive factor for a number of targeted therapies. Therefore, the development of targeting strategies against mutant KRAS is urgently needed. One potential strategy involves disruption of K-Ras membrane localization, which is necessary for its proper function. In this review, we summarize the current data about the importance of membrane-anchorage of K-Ras and provide a critical evaluation of this targeting paradigm focusing mainly on prenylation inhibition. Additionally, we performed a RAS mutation-specific analysis of prenylation-related drug sensitivity data from a publicly available database (https://depmap.org/repurposing/) of three classes of prenylation inhibitors: statins, N-bisphosphonates, and farnesyl-transferase inhibitors. We observed significant differences in sensitivity to N-bisphosphonates and farnesyl-transferase inhibitors depending on KRAS mutational status and tissue of origin. These observations emphasize the importance of factors affecting efficacy of prenylation inhibition, like distinct features of different KRAS mutations, tissue-specific mutational patterns, K-Ras turnover, and changes in regulation of prenylation process. Finally, we enlist the factors that might be responsible for the large discrepancy between the outcomes in preclinical and clinical studies including methodological pitfalls, the incomplete understanding of K-Ras protein turnover, and the variation of KRAS dependency in KRAS mutant tumors

Characterization of Human Pituitary Adenomas in Cell Cultures by Light And Electron Microscopic Morphology And Immunolabeling

The morphology and hormone production of pituitary adenoma cell cultures were compared in order to highlight their characteristic in vitro features. Cell suspensions were prepared from 494 surgical specimens. The 319 viable monolayer cultures were analyzed in detail by light microscopy and immunocytochemistry within two weeks of cultivation. Some cultures were further characterized by scanning, transmission and immunogold electron microscopy. The viability and detailed in vitro morphology of adenoma cells were found to be characteristic for the various types of pituitary tumors. The sparsely granulated growth hormone, the corticotroph and the acidophil stem cell adenomas provided the highest ratio of viable cultures. Occasionally, prolonged maintenance of cells resulted in long-term cultures. Furthermore, a variety of particular distributions of different hormone-containing granules were found in several cases. Both light microscopic and ultrastructural analyses proved that the primary cultures of adenoma cells retain their physiological features during in vitro cultivations. Our in vitro findings correlated with the routine histopathological examination. These results prove that monolayer cultures of pituitary adenoma cells can contribute to the correct diagnosis and are valid model systems for various oncological and neuroendocrinological studies