A fűrészlábú szöcske (Saga pedo) előkerülése kisalföldi homokpusztagyepben

Abstract: Predatory Bush Cricket is one of the largest and most characteristic Orthopteran species of Europe. The main habitats of the species are natural mosaics of steppe grasslands, low scrubs and open rocky grasslands occurring between 200 and 400 m a.s.l. Occurrences of Saga pedo on flatlands are very rare. This paper reports about finding specimens of the species in open sandy grassland of Little Hungarian Plain (~100 m a.s.l.). This is the second known population in Hungary and third population in the Carpathian Basin of Saga pedo which have been found in flatland sandy grasslands

A New Combined European Permanent Network Station Coordinates Solution

The EUREF (International Association of Geodesy (IAG) Reference Frame Sub-Commission for Europe) network of continuously operating GPS stations (EPN) was primarily established for reference frame maintenance, and also plays an important role for geodynamical research in Europe. The main goal of this paper is to obtain an independent homogeneous time-series of the EPN station coordinates, which is also available in SINEX format. A new combined solution of the EPN station coordinates was computed. The combination was performed independently for every week, in three steps: 1. the stated constraints on the coordinates were removed from the individual solutions of the Analysis Centers; 2. the de-constrained solutions were aligned to ITRF2000; 3. the resulting solutions were combined using the Helmert block-ing technique. All the data from GPS week 900 to week 1302 (April 1997 - December 2004) were used. We investigated in detail the behavior of the transformation parameters aligning the new combined solution to ITRF2000. In general, the time-series of the transformation parameters show a good stability in time although small systematic effects can be seen, most likely caused by station instabilities. A comparison of the new combined solution to the official EUREF weekly combined solution is also presented

Expression of invasion-related extracellular matrix molecules in human glioblastoma versus intracerebral lung adenocarcinoma metastasis

Tumor cell invasion into the surrounding brain tissue is mainly responsible for the failure of radical surgical resection, with tumor recurrence in the form of microdisseminated disease. Extracellular matrix (ECM)-related molecules and their receptors predominantly participate in the invasion process, including cell adhesion to the surrounding microenvironment and cell migration. The extent of infiltration of the healthy brain by malignant tumors strongly depends on the tumor cell type. Malignant gliomas show much more intensive peritumoral invasion than do metastatic tumors. In this study, the mRNA expression of 30 invasion-related molecules (twenty-one ECM components, two related receptors, and seven ECM-related enzymes) was investigated by quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. Fresh frozen human tissue samples from glioblastoma (GBM), intracerebral lung adenocarcinoma metastasis, and normal brain were evaluated. Significant differences were established for 24 of the 30 molecules. To confirm our results at the protein level, immunohistochemical analysis of seven molecules was performed (agrin, neurocan, syndecan, versican, matrix metalloproteinase 2 [MMP-2], MMP-9, and hyaluronan). Determining the differences in the levels of invasion-related molecules for tumors of different origins can help to identify the exact molecular mechanisms that facilitate peritumoral infiltration by glioblastoma cells. These results should allow the selection of target molecules for potential chemotherapeutic agents directed against highly invasive malignant gliomas

Data to the microclimate of some characteristic grassland associations of the Transdanubian mountains

In order to examine the complex role of the vegetation structure determining microclimate, the authors carried out temperature and relative humidity measurements in beany fens, drying fens, semidry grasslands, hayfields, steppe grasslands, rocky grasslands and open sandy grasslands of the Transdanubian mountains. In the course of this process, measurement and data recording took place annually with four repetitions (June, July, August, September) per sampling area in identical weather conditions, resulting in altogether 162 sampling occasions in 84 sampling areas on the ground surface and at a height of 10, 20, 30 and 120 cm in the grassland. In the present paper measurement data concerning the humidity of grasslands researched to a lesser extent in previous works are assessed. The comparative study ascertains that based on the relative humidity curves depicting microclimate, the samples of the examined types of grassland should be handled as separate groups in each sampling period. A further result to be seen is that in the case of several grasslands (semidry grasslands, drying fens) aspect change can also be detected in the change of microclimate (decrease of the relative humidity). The shift in relative humidity curves towards drying can be most conspicuously seen in the case of semidry grasslands

Mapping of mosquito (Culicidae) breeding sites using predictive geographic information methods

Application of remote sensing and other GIS methods in the subject of mapping mosquito breeding sites has not been premised accordingly. Despite the facts that the duration of field surveys would be shortened and the effectiveness of action plans would be higher with the supportance of computer modelling techniques. This work aimed to evaluate the applicability of digital elevation models and aerial photographs in the prediction of mosquito breeding sites. Relief analysis was carried out seeking depressions based on elevation models created with TIN and kriging interpolation methods. Spectral analysis was performed on aerial photographs to identify the patches of higher water content or moisture. The results show that terrain analysis can not give acceptable results due to its resolution and accuracy. Spectral analysis of normal (visible range) photographs can be a useful tool in predicting of breeding sites. On grasslands the verificitaion revealed 91% correct results

A comparison of cluster analysis and diversity-ordering in community classification

We investigated how cluster analysis and diversity-ordering can be used for the classification of geographically and historically distinct plant and insect communities. The study sites include fens and Brachypodium pinnatum dominated grasslands. The stands of the fen vegetation type could be arranged into similar groups by cluster analysis, principal component analysis and diversity ordering techniques. In the case of the B. pinnatum dominated grasslands of diverse development, however, no groups could be differentiated on the basis of either diversity ordering or ordination. Of the various cluster analyses, the result of global optimisation was similar to those of PCA ordination and diversity ordering techniques