Climate or rural development policy?

Being heavily energy dependent, it is not much of a surprise that Europe pays special attention to reducing the use of fossil fuels. Each one of the ten new member states is characterized by relatively low per capita energy consumption and relatively low energy efficiency, and the share of renewables in their energy mix tends to be low, too. The paper examines the problem when policy measures create a decrease in environmental capital instead of an increase. In this case it hardly seems justified to talk about environmental protection. The authors describe a case of a Hungarian rapeseed oil mill which would not be of too much interest on its own but given that almost all similar plants went bankrupt, there are some important lessons to learn from its survival. The enterprise the authors examined aimed at establishing a micro-regional network. They completed a brown-field development to establish a small plant on the premises of a former large agricultural cooperative. By partnering with the former employees and suppliers of the sometime cooperative, they enjoyed some benefits which all the other green-field businesses focusing on fuel production could not. The project improved food security, energy security and population retention as well

Happiness, environmental protection and market economy

The manufacturing sector is leaving the West for Asia’s low wages and good working culture. Europe would be better off keeping these manufacturing activities, slowing down wage inflation and what is more, letting a young, cheaper workforce from the East settle down within their borders. This would aid in preserving the diverse economic structure which has been characteristic for Europe.Beside the economic growth there are two more concepts which have turned into the “holy cows” of economics during the last fifty years. One is the need to constantly improve labor productivity and the other is increasing competitiveness of nations. The high labor productivity of some countries, induces severe unemployment in the globalized world. In the other hand it is high time we understood that it is not competition, but cooperation that brings more happiness to humanity.Should we still opt for “happiness” and “sanity”, it is quite obvious that we all should, in economists’ terms, define our individual welfare functions corresponding to our own set of values, staying free from the influence of media, advertisements and fashion. The cornerstone to all this is the intelligent citizen who prefers local goods and services

Analysis of VvMybA1 and VvMybA2 genes in grape bud sports

Berry skin colour is a fundamental qualitative trait of grape varieties, which has become largely diversified during the centuries of viticulture. Colour mutations in grape berry, resulting in black, red, pink, grey, green and yellow fruits, were relatively frequent events. In the Carpathian Basin there are several berry colour variant groups named conculta, members of which contain bud sports differing in skin colour. In most cases, this difference cannot be detected by microsatellite analysis, therefore we examined the variations of the VvMybA1 and VvMybA2 genes related to anthocyanin biosynthesis. Based on the results of the allelic polymorphisms, we have discriminated the conculta members among the old Hungarian and several other foreign varieties. Based on our results, it was possible to find molecular differences in 10 out of 14 concultas

Comparisons Between Spectral Quality Metrics and Analyst Performance in Hyperspectral Target Detection

Quantitative methods to assess or predict the quality of a spectral image continue to be the subject of a number of current research activities. An accepted methodology would be highly desirable for use in data collection tasking or data archive searching in ways analogous to the current prediction of panchromatic image quality through the National Imagery Interpretation Rating Scale (NIIRS) using the General Image Quality Equation (GIQE). A number of approaches to the estimation of quality of a spectral image have been published, but most capture only the performance of automated algorithms applied to the spectral data. One recently introduced metric, however, the General Spectral Utility Metric (GSUM), provides for a framework to combine the performance from the spectral aspects together with the spatial aspects. In particular, this framework allows the metric to capture the utility of a spectral image resulting when the human analyst is included in the process. This is important since nearly all hyperspectral imagery analysis procedures include an analyst. To investigate the relationships between candidate spectral metrics and task performance from volunteer human analysts in conjunction with the automated results, simulated images are generated and processed in a blind test. The performance achieved by the analysts is then compared to predictions made from various spectral quality metrics to determine how well the metrics function. The task selected is one of finding a specific vehicle in a cluttered environment using a detection map produced from the hyperspectral image along with a panchromatic rendition of the image. Various combinations of spatial resolution, number of spectral bands, and signal-to-noise ratios are investigated as part of the effort

Parentage analysis in Hungarian grapevine cultivars of 'Seibel'-'Seyve-Villard' origin

Viticulture is worldwide endangered by powdery (Erysiphe necator) and downy mildew (Plasmopara viticola) fungal diseases. These pathogens derive from North America and got into Europe with infected grape cuttings in the 19th century. Because of the vulnerability of the traditional European grapevine cultivars an interspecific hybrid breeding program was started in France with crossing Vitis species originating from North America and V. vinifera L. varieties. The results of this activity pioneered by Albert Seibel, Bertille Seyve and Victor Villard were hybrids having good quality and carrying partial resistance against fungal pathogens. 'Seibel' and 'Seyve-Villard' grapes were applied in the resistance breeding programs in Hungary, too. We analyzed 22 out of these hybrids, their putative parents and international reference varieties (altogether  40 genotypes) with microsatellite  and ScORA7-760 resistance QTL-linked marker

Phenotyping under extreme weather conditions and microsatellite based genotyping of some Hungarian grape cultivars

Phenology is an indicator of plant response to the environment. In viticulture growth stages timing is important for site and cultivar selection, vineyard planning and cultural practices management. In the last years, autochthonous cultivars obtained an increased interest and, therefore, in this work we studied the phenological performances of Hungarian old varieties. The data recorded in 2012 were compared with the ones published 60 years ago. The examined genotypes were identified by SSR markers. Extremely high temperature and low precipitation occurred during the 2012 vintage. The uncommon weather conditions affected the length of the vegetation period less than expected. However, the time period between flowering and harvest decreased significantly. In general, minor varieties seem to be more sensitive to extreme conditions than international cultivars, according to their eno-carpological characteristics

Matched Filter Stochastic Background Characterization for Hyperspectral Target Detection

Algorithms exploiting hyperspectral imagery for target detection have continually evolved to provide improved detection results. Adaptive matched filters can be used to locate spectral targets by modeling scene background as either structured (geometric) with a set of endmembers (basis vectors) or as unstructured (stochastic) with a covariance or correlation matrix. These matrices are often calculated using all available pixels in a data set. In unstructured background research, various techniques for improving upon scene-wide methods have been developed, each involving either the removal of target signatures from the background model or the segmentation of image data into spatial or spectral subsets. Each of these methods increase the detection signal-to-background ratio (SBR) and the multivariate normality (MVN) of the data from which background statistics are calculated, thus increasing separation between target and non-target species in the detection statistic and ultimately improving thresholded target detection results. Such techniques for improved background characterization are widely practiced but not well documented or compared. This paper provides a review and comparison of methods in target exclusion, spatial subsetting and spectral pre-clustering, and introduces a new technique which combines these methods. The analysis provides insight into the merit of employing unstructured background characterization techniques, as well as limitations for their practical application

Origin of 'Csillám', a promising source for black rot resistance

Resaerch Not

Marker assisted selection for berry colour in a ‘Nektár’ x ‘Jacquez’ grape progeny

Research Not