Integrated policy analysis to identify transformation paths to more-sustainable legume-based food and feed value-chains in Europe

The food- and feed-value systems in the European Union are not protein self-sufficient. Despite their potential to improve the well-being of arable cropping systems, sufficient production of high-protein legume grains in Europe has not been achieved due to multiple barriers. The reasons are multiple and span economic, agronomic, research, and extension services, as well as aspects of culture and traditional dietary habits. Given the well-documented advantages of legume-supported production systems and diets, that include ecosystem and health provisions, acknowledging and promoting legumes as cornerstone species for more sustainable agri-food systems is a necessary and logical step. This paper provides an integrated analysis of case studies and current policies that shape the production and consumption of legumes in Europe. This study identified three key pathways, which can be integrated into sustainable farming systems to support current and future food security challenges via the use of legumes and legume-based products. At each pathway, we identified several enablers that support the sustainability transformation of legume production and consumption in Europe.N/

Gyeptelepítés elmélete és gyakorlata az ökológiai szemléletű gazdálkodásban

Az utóbbi években egyre nagyobb az igény mind hazánkban, mind Európában a szántóföldi művelés alól kivett területek alternatív, fenntartható hasznosítására, melyre jó lehetőséget biztosít az ökológiai szemléletű gyepgazdálkodás. A gyepesítéssel szemben támasztott legfontosabb elvárás egy főképp füvek dominálta évelő gyep létrejötte, amely visszaszorítja a nemkívánatos gyomfajokat. Ökológiai célú gyeptelepítés esetén rendkívül fontos a megfelelő szaporítóanyagok, a megfelelő fűfajok kiválasztása és a természetkímélő technológia alkalmazása. A telepítendő fajokat a terület ökológiai jellemzőinek (talajtípus, vízgazdálkodás, hőmérséklet és csapadék viszonyok) figyelembe vételével és a későbbi hasznosítás (legeltetés, kaszálás) szempontjait szem előtt tartva kell kiválasztani. A telepítés időpontját és technológiáját szintén össze kell hangolni a termőhelyi adottságokkal és a későbbi hasznosítással. Legújabb kiadványunk olyan tudományos igényességgel kidolgozott, de a mindennapi gazdálkodásban alkalmazható szakanyag, amely felhívja a figyelmet az ökológiai szempontú gyeptelepítés legfontosabb szempontjaira, a gyeptelepítéshez használt magkeverékkel szemben támasztott kívánalmakra, a telepítés gyakorlati kivitelezésére, valamint várható gép- és költségigényére. A kiadvány a Debreceni Egyetem Ökológiai Tanszéke közreműködésével, Dr. Török Péter szerkesztésében valósult meg. A projekt a Magyar Nemzeti Vidéki Hálózat Elnökségének értékelése és javaslata alapján, az Európai Mezőgazdasági és Vidékfejlesztési Alap társfinanszírozásában, a Nemzeti Vidékfejlesztési Program Irányító Hatóságának jóváhagyásával válhatott valóra

Volatile anaesthetics inhibit the thermosensitive nociceptor ion channel transient receptor potential melastatin 3 (TRPM3)

BACKGROUND: Volatile anaesthetics (VAs) are the most widely used compounds to induce reversible loss of consciousness and maintain general anaesthesia during surgical interventions. Although the mechanism of their action is not yet fully understood, it is generally believed, that VAs depress central nervous system functions mainly through modulation of ion channels in the neuronal membrane, including 2-pore-domain K+ channels, GABA and NMDA receptors. Recent research also reported their action on nociceptive and thermosensitive TRP channels expressed in the peripheral nervous system, including TRPV1, TRPA1, and TRPM8. Here, we investigated the effect of VAs on TRPM3, a less characterized member of the thermosensitive TRP channels playing a central role in noxious heat sensation. METHODS: We investigated the effect of VAs on the activity of recombinant and native TRPM3, by monitoring changes in the intracellular Ca2+ concentration and measuring TRPM3-mediated transmembrane currents. RESULTS: All the investigated VAs (chloroform, halothane, isoflurane, sevoflurane) inhibited both the agonist-induced (pregnenolone sulfate, CIM0216) and heat-activated Ca2+ signals and transmembrane currents in a concentration dependent way in HEK293T cells overexpressing recombinant TRPM3. Among the tested VAs, halothane was the most potent blocker (IC50 = 0.52 ± 0.05 mM). We also investigated the effect of VAs on native TRPM3 channels expressed in sensory neurons of the dorsal root ganglia. While VAs activated certain sensory neurons independently of TRPM3, they strongly and reversibly inhibited the agonist-induced TRPM3 activity. CONCLUSIONS: These data provide a better insight into the molecular mechanism beyond the analgesic effect of VAs and propose novel strategies to attenuate TRPM3 dependent nociception.status: publishe

Talajápolás a szőlőben – fókuszban a fajgazdag sorköztakarás

Hazai szőlőültetvényeinkben szemlélődve, a korábbi évtizedekben megszokott „tisztán tartott”, mechanikai művelésű sorközök helyett egyre többször látunk olyan parcellákat, ahol valamilyen sorköztakarást alkalmaznak

Proteomic analysis enables distinction of early- versus advanced-stage lung adenocarcinomas

BACKGROUND: A gel-free proteomic approach was utilized to perform in-depth tissue protein profiling of lung adenocarcinoma (ADC) and normal lung tissues from early and advanced stages of the disease. The long-term goal of this study is to generate a large-scale, label-free proteomics dataset from histologically well-classified lung ADC that can be used to increase further our understanding of disease progression and aid in identifying novel biomarkers.METHODS AND RESULTS: Cases of early-stage (I-II) and advanced-stage (III-IV) lung ADCs were selected and paired with normal lung tissues from 22 patients. The histologically and clinically stratified human primary lung ADCs were analyzed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. From the analysis of ADC and normal specimens, 4863 protein groups were identified. To examine the protein expression profile of ADC, a peak area-based quantitation method was used. In early- and advanced-stage ADC, 365 and 366 proteins were differentially expressed, respectively, between normal and tumor tissues (adjusted P-value < .01, fold change ≥ 4). A total of 155 proteins were dysregulated between early- and advanced-stage ADCs and 18 were suggested as early-specific stage ADC. In silico functional analysis of the upregulated proteins in both tumor groups revealed that most of the enriched pathways are involved in mRNA metabolism. Furthermore, the most overrepresented pathways in the proteins that were unique to ADC are related to mRNA metabolic processes.CONCLUSIONS: Further analysis of these data may provide an insight into the molecular pathways involved in disease etiology and may lead to the identification of biomarker candidates and potential targets for therapy. Our study provides potential diagnostic biomarkers for lung ADC and novel stage-specific drug targets for rational intervention

Competing perceptions on biodiversity and its benefits: theoretical and methodological implications of a focus group study

The paper presents the first-hand results of a biodiversity assessment process carried out within the BioBio project. Focus group methodology was used to explore how farmers relate to biodiversity and what kind of benefits they realize. In each of the three case study areas one focus group was dedicated to organic farmers and another one to conventional farmers in order to compare their perceptions. Our results suggest that biodiversity is not an independent, purely scientific concept for farmers, but it is considered through their everyday life and farming practices. When farmers think about biodiversity they address species and habitat diversity the most frequently. Complexity is also an important component of biodiversity for them, and the complex nature of biodiversity is often linked to their personal philosophical and spiritual commitments. Farmers – regardless of being organic or conventional ones – attribute a mixture of values to biodiversity. Beside economic benefits, the ethical and social values attached to biodiversity are also crucial and are often more directly acknowledged. These results warn us that scientific concepts become inherently value-laden when we put them into the local context. Hence, scientists should be aware of the various contexts of valuation and should understand how participants conceptualize the subject of valuation before choosing the appropriate method of valuation. Furthermore, the large variety of different values farmers attached to biodiversity reinforces that monetary valuation methods may have limits in biodiversity valuation because they may restraint the range of benefits acknowledged by farmers

Assessement of economic benefits linked to organic and low input farmland in 4 BIOBIO case study areas

This report (BioBio Deliverable 3.4) gives a detailed overview of the non-monetary valuation of biodiversity carried out in four countries (France, Hungar y, Italy and Uganda) and provides a comparative analysis of the results. We se lected the focus group methodology to carry out this task because this method is useful to unde rstand the way of thinking of a group of people, and because earlier resear ch projects also applied this method successfully. We involved only farmers in the research (and did not involve general citizens) partly because the existing literature provides already some findings on the perceptions of the gene ral public and partly because of time and resource constraints. Two fo cus groups were organized in each country to get to know how organic and conventional farmers perceive biodiversity, what kind of values they attribute to biodiversity, and how they de fine the range of beneficiaries who enjoy the positive effects of biodiversity. Focus group data ga thered in this research are more suitable for the comparison of organic and conventio nal focus groups than for a cross-country comparison due to the limited size and other specificities of the sample..