Város és reprezentáció = City, urbanity and representation

A 2004-ben induló, több önálló projektet magában foglaló kutatás középpontjában annak vizsgálata állt, hogy miképpen fonódik egybe egy város fizikai valósága kulturális képekkel, képzetekkel, történetekkel és társadalmi imaginációkkal. Azt vizsgáltuk meg, hogyan jelennek meg a városi terek irodalmi szövegekben, élettörténetekben, emlékezési rítusokban, a térhasználatban, különböző performance-okban. Elemeztük a térhasználat, azaz a terek kulturális jelentéssel telítésének folyamatait. Vizsgáltuk, hogy milyen térhasználati módok léteznek, ezek milyen összefüggéseket mutatnak konkrét történeti, társadalmi időszakokkal, a kollektív, vagy a személyes emlékezet síkjaival, az egyéni, vagy a közösségi identitás gyakorlataival. Célkitűzésünk kettős volt. Egyrészt azoknak az általános szimbolikus mechanizmusoknak és reprezentációs stratégiáknak a megmutatására törekedtünk, amelyek révén egy adott földrajzi térből belakott, bejárt, használt, leírt, eljátszott, emlékezett, azaz kulturálisan létrehozott tér, város lesz. Másrészt azt térképeztük föl, hogy milyen az a konkrét kulturális kontextus, melyek azok a sajátos tartalmak, képek és mítoszok, társadalmi és szimbolikus gyakorlatok, amelyek a szimbolikus értelemben vett Pécset megalkotják. Ez a kettős perspektíva az egyes projekteken belül, de azok egymásraépülésén, a különböző témák, módszerek és nézőpontok között létrejövő "dialógusban" is érvényesült. A támogatott időszakban a kutatómunka eredményeit konferenciákon, tanulmányokban, tanulmánykötetekben, és kiállítások létrehozásával prezentáltuk. | This project has been started in 2004. The project has focused on the issue of relationship between physical reality of cities and its cultural images, imaginations, histories. We have investigated how urban spaces appear in literary texts, biographies, rites of memories and in different performances. We analysed different processes of use of urban space, and of its cultural meanings. We dissect the different forms of use of urban space, and its relationships to given historical and social periods, to different aspects of collective and personal memory, to practices of collective and individual identity. The project had a double aim. We were going to describe those symbolic mechanisms and strategies of representations which turned geographical space into lived, used, memorized cultural space, into a city. At the same time we analysed and described the cultural context of contents, images, and myths, which create symbolically the city of Pécs. This double perspective in each parts of the project, its interconnection, the relationship between different themes, methods, and approaches has been expressed in "dialogs" between the projects. During this time we presented the products of our research on conferences, in volumes, books, and exhibitions

Virulence Traits of Inpatient Campylobacter jejuni Isolates, and a Transcriptomic Approach to Identify Potential Genes Maintaining Intracellular Survival

There are still major gaps in our understanding of the bacterial factors that influence the outcomes of human Campylobacter jejuni infection. The aim of this study was to compare the virulence-associated features of 192 human C. jejuni strains isolated from hospitalized patients with diarrhoea (150/192, 78.1%), bloody diarrhoea (23/192, 11.9%), gastroenteritis (3/192, 1.6%), ulcerative colitis (3/192, 1.5%), and stomach ache (2/192, 1.0%). Traits were analysed with genotypic and phenotypic methods, including PCR and extracellular matrix protein (ECMP) binding, adhesion, and invasion capacities. Results were studied alongside patient symptoms, but no distinct links with them could be determined. Since the capacity of C. jejuni to invade host epithelial cells is one of its most enigmatic attributes, a high throughput transcriptomic analysis was performed in the third hour of internalization with a C. jejuni strain originally isolated from bloody diarrhoea. Characteristic groups of genes were significantly upregulated, outlining a survival strategy of internalized C. jejuni comprising genes related (1) to oxidative stress; (2) to a protective sheath formed by the capsule, LOS, N-, and O- glycosylation systems; (3) to dynamic metabolic activity supported by different translocases and the membrane-integrated component of the flagellar apparatus; and (4) to hitherto unknown genes

Protein cross-linking by chlorinated polyamines and transglutamylation stabilizes neutrophil extracellular traps.

Neutrophil extracellular trap (NET) ejected from activated dying neutrophils is a highly ordered structure of DNA and selected proteins capable to eliminate pathogenic microorganisms. Biochemical determinants of the non-randomly formed stable NETs have not been revealed so far. Studying the formation of human NETs we have observed that polyamines were incorporated into the NET. Inhibition of myeloperoxidase, which is essential for NET formation and can generate reactive chlorinated polyamines through hypochlorous acid, decreased polyamine incorporation. Addition of exogenous primary amines that similarly to polyamines inhibit reactions catalyzed by the protein cross-linker transglutaminases (TGases) has similar effect. Proteomic analysis of the highly reproducible pattern of NET components revealed cross-linking of NET proteins through chlorinated polyamines and varepsilon(gamma-glutamyl)lysine as well as bis-gamma-glutamyl polyamine bonds catalyzed by the TGases detected in neutrophils. Competitive inhibition of protein cross-linking by monoamines disturbed the cross-linking pattern of NET proteins, which resulted in the loss of the ordered structure of the NET and significantly reduced capacity to trap bacteria. Our findings provide explanation of how NETs are formed in a reproducible and ordered manner to efficiently neutralize microorganisms at the first defense line of the innate immune system

Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes identify nuanced dietary changes from the Bronze and Iron Ages on the Great Hungarian Plain

The Great Hungarian Plain (GHP) served as a geographic funnel for population mobility throughout prehistory. Genomic and isotopic research demonstrates non-linear genetic turnover and technological shifts between the Copper and Iron Ages of the GHP, which influenced the dietary strategies of numerous cultures that intermixed and overlapped through time. Given the complexities of these prehistoric cultural and demographic processes, this study aims to identify and elucidate diachronic and culture-specific dietary signatures. We report on stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios from 74 individuals from nineteen sites in the GHP dating to a ~ 3000-year time span between the Early Bronze and Early Iron Ages. The samples broadly indicate a terrestrial C 3 diet with nuanced differences amongst populations and through time, suggesting exogenous influences that manifested in subsistence strategies. Slightly elevated δ 15 N values for Bronze Age samples imply higher reliance on protein than in the Iron Age. Interestingly, the Füzesabony have carbon values typical of C 4 vegetation indicating millet consumption, or that of a grain with comparable δ 13 C ratios, which corroborates evidence from outside the GHP for its early cultivation during the Middle Bronze Age. Finally, our results also suggest locally diverse subsistence economies for GHP Scythians

Gyermekkori Langerhans-sejtes histiocytosissal szerzett magyarországi tapasztalataink

BACKGROUND: Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) in children is relatively rare, and the long-term analysis of therapy results has not been done yet in Hungary. PURPOSE: In this review we summarise the incidence, clinical features, prognostic risk factors and treatment results of children's LCH in Hungary, using data from the National Childhood Cancer Registry in Hungary in a 20-year period between 1981 and 2000. RESULTS: From January 1981 to December 2000, 111 children under 18 years of age were newly diagnosed with LCH in Hungary. The male-female ratio was 1.36:1, the mean age: 4 years 11 months. The minimal and median follow-up time was 3.48 years and 10.98 years respectively. 38 children had single-system disease, while in 73 cases we found systemic dissemination already at the time of diagnosis. Twenty-two patients were treated only by local surgery, 7 by surgery with local irradiation and 5 children received only local irradiation. In two cases remission was obtained with local steroid administration. 75 patient received chemotherapy. During the twenty years 14 children died, 9 due to the progression of the disease. Sixteen of the 111 patients had relapse with a mean of 2.16+/-1.29 years after the first diagnosis. Three patients with relapse got chemotherapy generally used in lymphoma and remission was achieved. The overall survival of all patients (n=111) was 88.3+/-3.1% at 5 years and 87.3+/-3.2% at 10 and 20 years. CONCLUSION: Childhood LCH is a well treatable disease and the survival rate is high. Even disseminated diseases have a quite good prognosis in childhood

Disturbance and stress - different meanings in ecological dynamics?

There is an increasing frequency of papers addressing disturbance and stress in ecology without clear delimitation of their meaning. Some authors use the terms disturbance and stress exclusively as impacts, while others use them for the entire process, including both causes and effects. In some studies, the disturbance is considered as a result of a temporary impact, which is positive for the ecosystem, while stress is a negative, debilitating impact. By developing and testing simple theoretical models, the authors propose to differentiate disturbance and stress by frequency. If the frequency of the event enables the variable to reach a dynamic equilibrium which might be exhibited without this event, then the event (plus its responses) is a disturbance for the system. If frequency prevents the variable’s return to similar pre-event dynamics and drives or shifts it to a new trajectory, then we are facing stress. The authors propose that changes triggered by the given stimuli can be evaluated on an absolute scale, therefore, direction of change of the variable must not be used to choose one term or the other, i.e. to choose between stress and disturbance

A multilab study of bilingual infants: Exploring the preference for infant-directed speech

From the earliest months of life, infants prefer listening to and learn better from infant-directed speech (IDS) compared with adult-directed speech (ADS). Yet IDS differs within communities, across languages, and across cultures, both in form and in prevalence. This large-scale, multisite study used the diversity of bilingual infant experiences to explore the impact of different types of linguistic experience on infants’ IDS preference. As part of the multilab ManyBabies 1 project, we compared preference for North American English (NAE) IDS in lab-matched samples of 333 bilingual and 384 monolingual infants tested in 17 labs in seven countries. The tested infants were in two age groups: 6 to 9 months and 12 to 15 months. We found that bilingual and monolingual infants both preferred IDS to ADS, and the two groups did not differ in terms of the overall magnitude of this preference. However, among bilingual infants who were acquiring NAE as a native language, greater exposure to NAE was associated with a stronger IDS preference. These findings extend the previous finding from ManyBabies 1 that monolinguals learning NAE as a native language showed a stronger IDS preference than infants unexposed to NAE. Together, our findings indicate that IDS preference likely makes similar contributions to monolingual and bilingual development, and that infants are exquisitely sensitive to the nature and frequency of different types of language input in their early environments