The Feasibility of Cooperation to Comply with Land Use Change Obligations in the Marosszög Area of South Hungary

In many years excess water inundations generate a major obstacle to farming in the lowland part of Hungary, including the Marosszög area. Diverting water to large distances requires an infrastructure that is costly to develop and maintain. Alternatively, low-lying local land segments could be withdrawn from cultivation and utilized to collect the surplus water. The Ecological Focus Area (EFA) requirement of the EU points to the same direction: it requires that 5% of arable land is converted to other, ecologically more beneficial uses. During the research project it was tested if it is feasible to apply a novel economic policy instrument, an auction to trade land use change obligations, to achieve the EFA requirement in a cost effective way through the cooperation of farmers, while also creating a practical solution to manage the seasonal surplus water cover on land. The research was carried out in an interdisciplinary way: a dynamically coupled fully integrated hydrological model, including surface and subsurface modules, was applied by engineers to better understand the interconnections of land use, local hydrology and the role of the water diversion infrastructure; while a pilot auction exercise was conducted by economists with the participation of farmers to understand if cost reductions can be achieved through cooperation, as opposed to individual fulfilment of EFA obligations. The analysis also revealed which segments of the water diversion network are economic to maintain. It was confirmed that it is possible to improve local water management and satisfy the EFA requirements at a reduced cost if appropriate economic incentives are applied to trigger the cooperation of farmers

Szteroidok hatása a központi idegrendszeri neuronok aktivitására, plaszticitására, a kéreg reorganizációjára = The effects of steroids on the neural activity, plasticity and cortical reorganization of the CNS

A pályázat első évében sikeresen bevezettük a fokális agyi ischémia egyik modelljét a hidegléziót, és segítségével a dehidroepiandroszteron szulfát (DHEAS) és a 17béta-ösztradiol hatását vizsgáltuk. Mindkét szteroid szignifikánsan csökkentette a lézió nagyságát, és a DHEAS egyszeri alkalmazása utókezelésként is védőhatású volt. In vivo elektrofiziológiai kísérleteinkben a DHEAS-kezelés hatását vizsgáltuk az agykérgi kiváltott aktivitásra hideglézióval kombinálva. A hideglézió hatására nagyfokú és kiterjedt kérgi diszinhibíciót tapasztaltunk vizsgált kérgi területeken. A DHEAS-kezelés önmagában a kiváltott válaszok amplitúdójának nagyfokú növekedését eredményezte. A DHEAS és a hideglézió kombinációjakor a kérgi diszinhibíció nagymértékben lecsökkent, ezzel párhuzamosan a válaszok amplitúdóinak szórása is lecsökkent, és felgyorsult a recovery. A hideglézió során az érintett agyi régióban sérül a véragy-gát. Új módszerként leírtuk azt, hogy az Evans kékkel történő in situ festés alkalmas a penumbrában lévő sérült neuronok megjelölésére, és azok kvantitatív elemzésére. Globális ischémia (2VO) alkalmazása során elektrofiziológiai kísérletben leírtuk a Harlan és Charles River patkányok alapvetően különböző ischémiás toleranciáját a hippocampus CA1 régiójában. Kiegészítve legelső kísérletünket 5 mg/kg DHEAS valamint 4 és 40 mg/kg progeszteron protektív hatását teszteltük hidegléziós modellünkben: egyik esetben sem tapasztaltunk védőhatást. A progeszteron és THDOC a vizsgált koncentrációkban facilitálta a motoros kérgi mezőpotenciálokat in vitro elektrofiziológiai kísérleteinkben.. | During the first year of this grand we standardized the cortical cold lesion and tested with its help the neuroprotective effects of dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) and 17beta-estradiol. Both steroids were effective, even as a single posttraumatic administration. In in vivo electrophysiological experiments the effects of peripherally administered DHEAS were studied on the evoked cortical potentials in combination with cold lesion. DHEAS administration resulted in an increase in amplitudes. After focal cold lesion a high level of disinhibition in extended cortical areas were seen. In the course of combined intervention the disinhibition was decreased and the recovery period of cortical responses was significantly shorter. Cold lesion causes enhanced permeability of the blood-brain barrier. As a new method it was described that in situ administration of Evans blue is a suitable tool for detecting injured neurons in the perilesion rim. During global cerebral ischemia (2VO) we described the extremely high difference in the ischemic tolerance within Wistar rats (Harlan vs Charles River). These observations draw attention to the importance of the careful choice of the laboratory rats. In a comparative study the lower doses of DHEAS treatment (5 mg/kg) and 4 and 40 mg/kg progesterone treatment were studied: no neuroprotection was seen in the cold lesion model. Progesterone and tetrahydrodesoxycorticosterone (THDOC) facilitated the motor cortical fEPSPs in the studied concentrations in our in vitro electrophysiological experiments

Weak if any effect of estrogen on spatial memory in rats

In a number of species, males appear to have spatial abilities that are superior to those of females. The favored explanation for this cognitive difference is hormonal: higher testosterone levels in males than in females. An alternative explanation focuses on the role of varying levels of estrogens in females during the estrus cycle; females perform as well as males on days of low estrogen, but more poorly on days of high estrogen. Other investigators have reported that estrogens improve both types of memory processes, which depend on the striatal (nonspatial navigation) and hippocampal (spatial) memory systems. Additionally, estrogens have been found to protect the working memory. These contradictory results initiated the present study, in which ovariectomized female rats were trained to escape in a Morris water maze. The daily trials were preceded by estradiol application in low doses (Experiment I) or in higher doses (Experiment II). In Experiment I, no differences at all were found between the latencies of the treated and control groups to reach a submerged platform in a Morris water maze. In Experiment II, however, the animals treated with the higher dose of estradiol showed a small deficit in the acquisition of the Morris water maze task. This study indicates that estradiol at around the physiological level has no effect on spatial learning and memory functions

Use of a recombinant pseudorabies virus to analyze motor cortical reorganization after unilateral facial denervation

A unilateral facial nerve injury (n7x) was found to influence the transcallosal spread of the attenuated strain of pseudorabies virus (PRV Bartha) from the affected (left) primary motor cortex (MI) to the contralateral MI of rats. We used Ba-DupLac, a recombinant PRV strain, for the tracing experiments since this virus was demonstrated to exhibit much more restricted transportation kinetics than that of PRV Bartha, and is therefore more suitable for studies of neuronal plasticity. Ba-Duplac injection primarily infected several neurons around the penetration channel, but hardly any transcallosally infected neurons were observed in the contraleral MI. In contrast, after right facial nerve injury, Ba-DupLac was transported from the primarily infected neurons in the left MI to the contralateral side, and resulted in the labeling of several neurons due to a transneuronal infection. These results reveal that a peripheral nerve injury induces changes in the Ba-DupLac infection pattern in the related cortical areas. These findings and the literature data suggest that this phenomenon may be related to the changes in the expression or to the redistribution of cell-adhesion molecules, which are known to facilitate the entrance and/or transmission of PRV into neurons

Temperature characteristics over the Carpathian Basin ‐ projected changes of climate indices at regional and local scale based on bias‐adjusted CORDEX simulations

The present research focuses on temperature change signals over the Carpathian Basin with a special focus on selected lowland and mountainous subregions. High-resolution (0.11 degrees) EURO-and Med-CORDEX regional climate model (RCM) simulations of near-surface air temperature are analysed based on raw and bias-adjusted data. The mini-ensemble consists of eight RCM simulations driven by five different general circulation models for the period 1976-2099 under the high-end RCP8.5 scenario. The high-resolution, homogenized and quality controlled CARPATCLIM was used as a reference dataset. The selected subregions cover eight municipalities located at diverse altitudes: Bratislava, Budapest, Brassov, Debrecen, Hoverla, Novi Sad, Pecs and Poprad. The following climate indices are assessed: summer days, ice days, frost days, tropical nights, the coldest day, the warmest day, the coldest night and the warmest night. In general, for the reference period (1976-2005) bias adjusted RCM data showed almost perfect match with observations. Accordingly, no best performing RCM is found for all indices. The ensemble mean of the bias-adjusted RCM simulations projects an increase (decrease) of 32% and 112% (18% and 25%) in the annual number of summer days and tropical nights (frost days and ice days) for the period 2021-2050. For 2070-2099 we can expect more frequent tropical nights (about five times) with respect to the reference period and the frequency of frost days can be halved. Profound warming manifests in the increase of the warmest temperature of day of up to 2-3 degrees C by the near future and of 5-7 degrees C by the end of the 21st century, which means the absolute maximum temperature can reach 44-47 degrees C for the period 2070-2099. Our results also highlight the need for bias-adjusted data adapted by different sectors (human health, agriculture, transport, disaster management, heritage conservation) under the national adaptation strategies