Spectral characteristics of phase sensitivity and discharge rate of neurons in the ascending tectofugal visual system

Drifting gratings can modulate the activity of visual neurons at the temporal frequency of the stimulus. In order to characterize the temporal frequency modulation in the cat's ascending tectofugal visual system, we recorded the activity of single neurons in the superior colliculus, the suprageniculate nucleus, and the anterior ectosylvian cortex during visual stimulation with drifting sine-wave gratings. In response to such stimuli, neurons in each structure showed an increase in firing rate and/or oscillatory modulated firing at the temporal frequency of the stimulus (phase sensitivity). To obtain a more complete characterization of the neural responses in spatiotemporal frequency domain, we analyzed the mean firing rate and the strength of the oscillatory modulations measured by the standardized Fourier component of the response at the temporal frequency of the stimulus. We show that the spatiotemporal stimulus parameters that elicit maximal oscillations often differ from those that elicit a maximal discharge rate. Furthermore, the temporal modulation and discharge-rate spectral receptive fields often do not overlap, suggesting that the detection range for visual stimuli provided jointly by modulated and unmodulated response components is larger than the range provided by a one response component

A versengés jutalmazásának hatása a nyáltesztoszteronszintre és a teljesítményre fiatal felnőtt férfiakban: A hiperversengés szerepe

Korábbi kutatások megmutatták, hogy versengő helyzetben a nagyobb jutalom megnövekedett fiziológiai arousallal jár. Mégis kevés tanulmány érintette a jutalmazás hatását a tesztoszteron (T) szintre, annak ellenére, hogy ez a hormon érzékenyen reagál a versengő helyzetekre és státuszváltozásokra. A jelen kutatás versengő helyzetben vizsgálta a nyáltesztoszteron és fiziológiai arousal (szívritmus, szívritmusvariabilitás) változásait fiatal felnőtt férfi mintán (N = 40, átlag életkor = 21.7 ± 2.3 év). A résztvev ők egy videojátékban versengtek egymással, ahol a páros egyik tagja nyert, a másik veszített a képességeknek és erőfeszítésnek megfelelően. A párosok véletlenszerű csoportosítása alapján résztvevők vagy egyenlő pénzjutalmat kaptak, vagy a győztes több jutalmat kapott, mint a vesztes (egyenlőtlen jutalom). A pszichofiziológiai és endokrinológiai méréseken túl a résztvevők versengéssel kapcsolatos attitűdjeit (hiperversengés, önfejlesztő versengés) és a versengő helyzetben mutatott hangulati változásait is felmértük kérdőívek segítségével. Az eredmények azt mutatták, hogy a versengés mindkét csoportban növelte mind a szubjektív, mind a fiziológiai arousalszintjét, ám a jutalom mértéke nem volt szignifikáns hatással a T szintre. A T szint csak a vesztes hiperversengőkben növekedett szignifikánsan. A kompetitív teljesítmény korrelált a győztesek és vesztesek T szintjével, illetve annak változásával, alátámasztva azt a korábbi megfigyelést, hogy a versengő teljesítmény és a T egymást kölcsönösen meghatározó kapcsolatban állnak. A kapott eredmények összefüggésben vannak a státuszinstabilitás-hipotézissel

ACTIVATED CARBON FROM WASTE MATERIALS

Waste materials of various origin, such as domestic waste, agricultural by-product (grain husk), tyre rubber, and the light fraction of shredded interiors of cars ('autoshredder light') were converted into final products of active carbon properties by pyrolysis and subsequent steam activation of the waste. Products were tested using the standard measurements for adsorption of iodine and methylene blue. The porous structure was characterized by small angle X-ray scattering, low-temperature nitrogen adsorption measurements and mercury porosimetry. The extent of gasification (burn-off) on activation, the adsorption characteristics, and the pore-size distribution were found to reflect the composition and the fine structure of the waste used as raw material. High surface area microporous active carbon was obtained from agricultural wastes. The burn-off of the pyrolyzed rubber consisting mainly of chemically resistant carbon black was relatively small and activation resulted in essentially meso- and macroporous carbon. Organics in the domestic waste and in the 'autoshredder light' were converted into high surface area active carbon, however, the mass related adsorption capacity of the products was small due to the high fraction of inert inorganic components in the preparations

Revised calculation of Kalinowski's ancestral and new inbreeding coefficients

To test for the presence of purging in populations, the classical pedigree-based inbreeding coefficient (F) can be decomposed into Kalinowski's ancestral (FANC) and new (FNEW) inbreeding coefficients. The FANC and FNEW can be calculated by a stochastic approach known as gene dropping. However, the only publicly available algorithm for the calculation of FANC and FNEW, implemented in GRain v 2.1 (and also incorporated in the PEDIG software package), has produced biased estimates. The FANC was systematically underestimated and consequently, FNEW was overestimated. To illustrate this bias, we calculated FANC and FNEW by hand for simple example pedigrees. We revised the GRain program so that it now provides unbiased estimates. Correlations between the biased and unbiased estimates of FANC and FNEW, obtained for example data sets of Hungarian Pannon White rabbits (22,781 individuals) and Dutch Holstein Friesian cattle (37,061 individuals), were high, i.e., >0.96. Although the magnitude of bias appeared to be small, results from studies based on biased estimates should be interpreted with caution. The revised GRain program (v 2.2) is now available online and can be used to calculate unbiased estimates of FANC and FNEW.</p

SNP-based genetic diversity assessment among hungarian bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) genotypes

World’s food supply will be a great challenge due to the rapid growth of human population. Therefore, wheat breeders are facing a great task to improve further the crop quality and quantity. Genetic improvement could be the key in this progression, which is based on the exploitation of genetic resources. So it is important to hold exact information about the wheat population structure, especially the genetic diversity of elite crop germplasm. Here, we provide the characterisation of 85 Hungarian wheat varieties from 3 different Hungarian breeding programmes (Szeged, Martonvásár and Karcag) trough Competitive Allele-Specific PCR (KASP) technique. Population structure of these accessions were examined by STRUCTURE software and the ΔK values were calculating by the STRUCTURE HARVESTER. These investigations revealed 3 subgroups in our wheat population with 21, 19 and 45 genotypes in GrI, GrII and GrIII, respectively. We could conclude that the GrI and GrIII subgroups contained genotypes from all three origins while GrII contained genotypes only from Szeged. We also examined the allele distribution of the Xgwm261 locus since the 192 bp allele is reported to be linked to semi-dwarfing gene Rht8, which has important role in the breeding process. Altogether we could observe 5 size variant products, but the 174 bp (22.35%), 192 bp (55.29%), and 198 bp (12.94%) long fragments could be found the most frequently. The present study confirms that population structure and genotype relatedness, based on molecular data, are consistent with the geography origin and available pedigree data. Moreover, this study could be the starting point of a following association mapping work

Flow cytometry-based FRET identifies binding intensities in PPAR[gamma]1 protein-protein interactions in living cells

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Revival and Multiplatform Presentation of Forgotten Religious Heritage Sites in the Project Named “Sacred Past”

The objective of the paper is to shed light on the importance of the digital presentation of religious heritage and present the multimedia documentation of a chapel developed within the “Oltári Múlt” (“Sacred Past”, in Hungarian) project. It aims to preserve the values of medieval churches through video documentation. Walls and stones come alive for contemporary visitors, connecting the present with the past. The paper showcases an example of a chapel and how video documentation, virtual tours, and other ICT tools are applied in the project to create a digital narrative with a creative vision and mastermind approach