Business services in Hungary during the transition

Examples of Western developed economies show a strict correlation between the state of services sector and the level of economic development. Services should be considered as a catalysator in a modern economy. Services play a key role in macroeconomic development, in reducing unemployment, in relieving economic crisis and a key role in knowledgebased economy. Efficiencies of service provisions enable the growth of all other sectors which rely on services as inputs, while neglecting of vital service branches doom many other sectors to failure. Starting from the above thesis a general picture of the state of services, particularly business services is given before and after the transition, in order to pinpoint the effect of the transition process from socialism to capitalism.business services

Biasing Factors of the Consumer Price Index

Studies conducted in the United States came to the conclusion that the annual average inflationary rate of 3 percent measured during the interval beginning in the early 1990’s through the mid-1990’s overestimates by 1.1 percentage points the changes in the cost of living. As a result, throughout the world, not just in the United States, many countries are reconsidering the supposed bias of the Consumer Price Index, its consequences, and consequences related to economic decision making. The purpose of this study is to analyze in detail the biasing factors theoretically occurring during the calculation of the Consumer Price Index, based on international literature, and the possible outcome of such biases. Out of biasing factors substitution effect empirically is investigated on Hungarian data.

Trayectorias laborales y de vida de jóvenes: un análisis cualitativo

Los efectos negativos de la flexibilización del mercado laboral tienden a afectar en mayor medida a los jóvenes. La transición hacia la vida adulta en un contexto mar-cado por la inseguridad hace que se convierta en un proceso más prolongado, no lineal, diferenciado e individualizado. Por esta razón se opta por una perspectiva cualitativa basada en informaciones obtenidas mediante entrevistas semiestructura-das a jóvenes en el área metropolitana de Lisboa. Se presenta una tipología con cuatro tipos de trayectorias de transición de trabajo y de vida. Los diversos tipos se ejemplifican con biografías cercanas a los respectivos tipos ideales de trayectoria. Los diferentes tipos de transición indican las desigualdades y la acumulación de ventajas y desventajas en los diversos aspectos analizados.Young people’s employment and life pathways: a qualitative analysisYoung people tend to be more affected by the negative effects of labour market flexibility. The transition to adulthood, in a context marked by uncertainty, tends to become a more prolonged process, not linear, differentiated and individualized. Hence the choice of a qualitative approach based on information obtained by means of semi-structured interviews with young people in the metropolitan area of Lisbon. It presented a typology of four types of transition pathways. Each type is exemplified with a biography close to their ideal types of trajectory. The various types of transition indicate inequality and accumulation of advantages and disad-vantages in different aspects analyzed.</p

Adherence of family medicine physicians to therapy based on medicinal plants in a Greater Lisbon sample: a first survey.

The aim of this study was to verify the adherence of general practitioners to the therapy with medicinal plants, and the constraint underlying the acceptance of their therapeutic value and use in clinical practice. An observational-transversal exploratory study was carried out through the application of a questionnaire to physicians of the National Health System in the Greater Lisbon area. A total of 80 valid questionnaires were obtained. The doctors’ ages ranged from 29 to 64 years (51.85 ± 9.95), 71.4% of whom were female, and 52.6% with more than 30 years of clinical practice. There was a general lack of knowledge regarding phytotherapy legislation. Of the sample of physicians interviewed, it was verified that 33.8% never and 28.85% only a few times recommended/prescribed any type of herbal therapy. Concerning their own use, 61.25% indicated that they never, and 21.08% rarely, used herbal medicines, primarily as self-medication. There is a poor adherence on the use of herbal medicines or medicinal plants by physicians. This underuse may underlie the lack of training on both herbal medicinal products and legislative aspects more than rejection of this therapeutic approach. Education in phytotherapy can prevent misuse and reduce risks linked to herbal-drug interactions, dealing with patient´s preference in behalf of a healthy physician-patient interaction

PRMT1 and PRMT8 regulate retinoic acid-dependent neuronal differentiation with implications to neuropathology.

Retinoids are morphogens and have been implicated in cell fate commitment of embryonic stem cells (ESCs) to neurons. Their effects are mediated by RAR and RXR nuclear receptors. However, transcriptional cofactors required for cell and gene-specific retinoid signaling are not known. Here we show that protein arginine methyl transferase (PRMT) 1 and 8 have key roles in determining retinoid regulated gene expression and cellular specification in a multistage neuronal differentiation model of murine ESCs. PRMT1 acts as a selective modulator, providing the cells with a mechanism to reduce the potency of retinoid signals on regulatory "hotspots." PRMT8 is a retinoid receptor target gene itself and acts as a cell type specific transcriptional coactivator of retinoid signaling at later stages of differentiation. Lack of either of them leads to reduced nuclear arginine methylation, dysregulated neuronal gene expression, and altered neuronal activity. Importantly, depletion of PRMT8 results in altered expression of a distinct set of genes, including markers of gliomagenesis. PRMT8 is almost entirely absent in human glioblastoma tissues. We propose that PRMT1 and PRMT8 serve as a rheostat of retinoid signaling to determine neuronal cell specification in a context-dependent manner and might also be relevant in the development of human brain malignancy

Vision First? The Development of Primary Visual Cortical Networks Is More Rapid Than the Development of Primary Motor Networks in Humans

The development of cortical functions and the capacity of the mature brain to learn are largely determined by the establishment and maintenance of neocortical networks. Here we address the human development of long-range connectivity in primary visual and motor cortices, using well-established behavioral measures - a Contour Integration test and a Finger-tapping task - that have been shown to be related to these specific primary areas, and the long-range neural connectivity within those. Possible confounding factors, such as different task requirements (complexity, cognitive load) are eliminated by using these tasks in a learning paradigm. We find that there is a temporal lag between the developmental timing of primary sensory vs. motor areas with an advantage of visual development; we also confirm that human development is very slow in both cases, and that there is a retained capacity for practice induced plastic changes in adults. This pattern of results seems to point to human-specific development of the “canonical circuits” of primary sensory and motor cortices, probably reflecting the ecological requirements of human life

Fluorescence activated cell sorting followed by small RNA sequencing reveals stable microRNA expression during cell cycle progression.

BACKGROUND: Previously, drug-based synchronization procedures were used for characterizing the cell cycle dependent transcriptional program. However, these synchronization methods result in growth imbalance and alteration of the cell cycle machinery. DNA content-based fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS) is able to sort the different cell cycle phases without perturbing the cell cycle. MiRNAs are key transcriptional regulators of the cell cycle, however, their expression dynamics during cell cycle has not been explored. METHODS: Following an optimized FACS, a complex initiative of high throughput platforms (microarray, Taqman Low Density Array, small RNA sequencing) were performed to study gene and miRNA expression profiles of cell cycle sorted human cells originating from different tissues. Validation of high throughput data was performed using quantitative real time PCR. Protein expression was detected by Western blot. Complex statistics and pathway analysis were also applied. RESULTS: Beyond confirming the previously described cell cycle transcriptional program, cell cycle dependently expressed genes showed a higher expression independently from the cell cycle phase and a lower amplitude of dynamic changes in cancer cells as compared to untransformed fibroblasts. Contrary to mRNA changes, miRNA expression was stable throughout the cell cycle. CONCLUSIONS: Cell cycle sorting is a synchronization-free method for the proper analysis of cell cycle dynamics. Altered dynamic expression of universal cell cycle genes in cancer cells reflects the transformed cell cycle machinery. Stable miRNA expression during cell cycle progression may suggest that dynamical miRNA-dependent regulation may be of less importance in short term regulations during the cell cycle

Global maps of soil temperature

Research in global change ecology relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature in open areas at around 2 m above the ground. These climatic grids do not reflect conditions below vegetation canopies and near the ground surface, where critical ecosystem functions occur and most terrestrial species reside. Here, we provide global maps of soil temperature and bioclimatic variables at a 1-km² resolution for 0–5 and 5–15 cm soil depth. These maps were created by calculating the difference (i.e., offset) between in-situ soil temperature measurements, based on time series from over 1200 1-km² pixels (summarized from 8500 unique temperature sensors) across all the world’s major terrestrial biomes, and coarse-grained air temperature estimates from ERA5-Land (an atmospheric reanalysis by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts). We show that mean annual soil temperature differs markedly from the corresponding gridded air temperature, by up to 10°C (mean = 3.0 ± 2.1°C), with substantial variation across biomes and seasons. Over the year, soils in cold and/or dry biomes are substantially warmer (+3.6 ± 2.3°C) than gridded air temperature, whereas soils in warm and humid environments are on average slightly cooler (-0.7 ± 2.3°C). The observed substantial and biome-specific offsets emphasize that the projected impacts of climate and climate change on near-surface biodiversity and ecosystem functioning are inaccurately assessed when air rather than soil temperature is used, especially in cold environments. The global soil-related bioclimatic variables provided here are an important step forward for any application in ecology and related disciplines. Nevertheless, we highlight the need to fill remaining geographic gaps by collecting more in-situ measurements of microclimate conditions to further enhance the spatiotemporal resolution of global soil temperature products for ecological applications