Conference on fiscal responsibility

Organized by the State Audit Office and the National Bank of Hungary with assistance from the Ministry of Finance on May 19 2006, the conference on a Fiscal Responsibility Framework (FRF) responded to the topical issue of the lasting grievances and the continuous deterioration of the transparency of budget processes as well as the strengthening social demand (rather than pressure) for change. The participants of the conference included high-ranking foreign experts and recognized professionals from domestic financial and scientific circles. An overview of Hungary's fiscal problems with international experts was expected to provide useful contribution to avoiding the onset of a crisis and to determining possible courses of action

Wisket rat model of schizophrenia : Impaired motivation and, altered brain structure, but no anhedonia

It is well-known that the poor cognition in schizophrenia is strongly linked to negative symptoms, including motivational deficit, which due to, at least partially, anhedonia. The goal of this study was to explore whether the schizophrenia-like Wisket animals with impaired motivation (obtained in the reward-based hole-board test), also show decreased hedonic behavior (investigated with the sucrose preference test). While neurochemical alterations of different neurotransmitter systems have been detected in the Wisket rats, no research has been performed on structural changes. Therefore, our additional aim was to reveal potential neuroanatomical and structural alterations in different brain regions in these rats. The rats showed decreased general motor activity (locomotion, rearing and exploration) and impaired task performance in the hole-board test compared to the controls, whereas no significant difference was observed in the sucrose preference test between the groups. The Wisket rats exhibited a significant decrease in the frontal cortical thickness and the hippocampal area, and moderate increases in the lateral ventricles and cell disarray in the CA3 subfield of hippocampus. To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the hedonic behavior and neuroanatomical alterations in a multi-hit animal model of schizophrenia. The results obtained in the sucrose preference test suggest that anhedonic behavior might not be involved in the impaired motivation obtained in the hole-board test. The neuropathological changes agree with findings obtained in patients with schizophrenia, which refine the high face validity of the Wisket model

Proteolízis az idegrendszerben: a humán agyi tripszin szerkezetének és funkciójának vizsgálata = Proteolysis in central nervous system: investigations of the structure and function of human brain trypsin

Klónoztunk a humán tripszinogén 4 teljes kódoló szekvenciáját. Bakterális expressziós rendszerben kifejeztük a két alternatív iniciációval keletkező izoformáját. Expresszáltuk és enzimatikusan karakterizáltuk az a tripszin 4-et. Meghatároztuk az aktív enzim benzamidin komplexének térszerkezetét. Feltérképeztük a mRNS és a fehérje eloszlását a humán agy 17 különböző régiójában. Vizsgáltuk az agyban előforduló potenciális szubsztrátjait. Megállapítottuk, hogy számos, a citoszkeletális váz felépítésében és regulálásában szereplő fehérje és a mielin bázikus fehérje szubsztrátja lehet a tripszin 4-nek. Izoláltuk a tripszinogén 4-et emberi agyszövetből és meghatároztuk amino terminális szekvenciáját. Tranziens szövettenyészetben megfelelően tervezett expressziós vektorok segítségével megállapítottuk, hogy az amino terminális leucin beépülését nem-konvencionális CTG iniciátor kodon irányítja. Meghatároztuk a tripszin - metilubellireril guanidinobenzoáttal történő reakciójának elemi sebességi állandóit. Vizsgáltuk számos természetes és szintetikus inhibitor gátló képességét, és valószínű magyarázatot adtunk arra, miért lehetetlen kanonikus mechanizmus alapján gátolni a tripszin 4-et. | We have isolated the complete coding sequence of human trypsinogen 4. In bacterial expression system we expressed and purified the two putative isoforms of the enzyme. We isolated the active enzyme as well, and characterized its enzymatic properties. We determined the X-ray structure of the trypsin 4 ? benzamidine complex. By quantitative real time PCR and sandwich ELISA we determined the determined the distribution of the mRNA and protein in 17 different regions of the human brain. By sequencing the zymogen isolated from human brain we concluded that predominant form in the human brain possesses leucine amino terminus. Using human tissue cultures transiently transfected with appropriately designed expression vectors we proved that the incorporation of the amino terminal leucine is directed by a non-conventional CTG initiation codon. We determined the elementary kinetic constants of the trypsin 4 - methylumbelliferyl guanidine benzoate reaction. We studied the inhibitory potential of several natural and synthetic polypeptides, and we reasoned why is it impossible to inhibit trypsin 4 by a canonical inhibitor

Automating, Analyzing and Improving Pupillometry with Machine Learning Algorithms

The investigation of the pupillary light reflex (PLR) is a well-known method to provide information about the functionality of the autonomic nervous system. Pupillometry, a non-invasive technique, was applied to study the PLR alterations in a new, schizophrenia-like rat substrain, named WISKET. The pupil responses to light impulses were recorded with an infrared camera; the videos were automatically processed and features were extracted from the pupillograms. Besides the classical statistical analysis (ANOVA), feature selection and classification were applied to reveal the significant differences in the PLR parameters between the control and WISKET animals. Based on these results, the disadvantages of this method were analyzed and the measurement setup was redesigned and improved. The pupil segmentation method has also been adapted to the new videos. 2564 images were annotated manually and used to train a fully-convolutional neural network to produce pupil mask images. The method was evaluated on 329 test images and achieved 4% median relative error. With the new setup, the pupil detection became reliable and the new data acquisition offers robustness to the experiments

Automating, analyzing and improving pupillometry with machine learning algorithms

The investigation of the pupillary light reflex (PLR) is a well-known method to provide information about the functionality of the autonomic nervous system. Pupillometry, a non-invasive technique, was applied to study the PLR alterations in a new, schizophrenia-like rat substrain, named WISKET. The pupil responses to light impulses were recorded with an infrared camera; the videos were automatically processed and features were extracted from the pupillograms. Besides the classical statistical analysis (ANOVA), feature selection and classification were applied to reveal the significant differences in the PLR parameters between the control and WISKET animals. Based on these results, the disadvantages of this method were analyzed and the measurement setup was redesigned and improved. The pupil segmentation method has also been adapted to the new videos. 2564 images were annotated manually and used to train a fully-convolutional neural network to produce pupil mask images. The method was evaluated on 329 test images and achieved 4% median relative error. With the new setup, the pupil detection became reliable and the new data acquisition offers robustness to the experiments

Feature extraction and classification for pupillary images of rats

The investigation of the pupillary light reflex (PLR) is a well-known method to provide information about the functionality of the autonomic nervous system. Pupillometry, a non-invasive technique, was applied in our lab to study the schizophrenia-related PLR alterations in a new selectively bred rat substrain, named WISKET. The pupil responses to light impulses were recorded with an infrared camera; the videos were automatically processed and features were extracted. Besides the classical statistical analysis (ANOVA), feature selection and classification were applied to reveal the significant differences in the PLR parameters between the control and WISKET animals