The Violence of Others: 'Eastern' and 'Western' Press Discourses

This article investigates distinctions in press discourse about violence. It compares ‘The Economist’ and ‘Heti Világgazdaság’ (HVG), a Hungarian publication very similar to The Economist. The investigation focuses on the discourses of violence in the coverage of the two publications. To avoid discourses where either publication would be talking about its own milieu, the analysis involves only articles about the Middle East and Africa in January 2008. The method of analysis involves Atlas.ti, a discourse analysis software. The findings reveal that The Economist has a professional discourse focused on the politics of Africa and the Middle East, while it also emphasizes that these regions are places of violence and inferiorizes them. HVG has a more respectful construal of Africa and the Middle East and neither inferiorizes nor Others those regions in ways that would be problematic. At the same time, HVG reifi es ‘the West’ in ways that raise questions about its concept of the self. The conclusion is that it is not the journal with the clearer sense of self and clearer professionalism (The Economist) that construes Africa and the Middle East in more just ways, but the journal with the more hesitant and uncertain discourse (HVG)

A tápcsatorna fejlődésének vizsgálata egyes anatómiai és emésztés-élettani paraméterek meghatározásával házinyúlban = Investigations into the digestive maturation of the young rabbits by determination of certain anatomical and physiological parameters

A projekt célja a tápcsatorna fejlődését, az emésztés-élettani folyamatokat befolyásoló tényezők pontosabb megismerése volt az emésztőszervi megbetegedések hatékony megelőzése érdekében. Így vizsgáltuk a házinyúl bélflórájának kialakulását a megszületést követően tíznapos életkorig, az elválasztási életkor (21 28 és 35 nap) hatását, valamint a Bacillus cereus var. toyoi, a fermentált búzacsíra tartalmú prebiotikus anyag és az inulin, mint prebiotikum hatását a nyulak növekedésére, a tápcsatorna növekedésére, és egyes emésztés-élettani paraméterekre, különös tekintettel a vakbélfermentációra (pH, vakbélflóra összetétele, illózsírsav termelés, cellulolitikus aktivitás). A bacteroidesek betelepedése a megszületést követő 3. napon megindult. Ezek a baktériumok részben az anyai bélsárból, részben pedig az anya nemi szerveiből származtak. A korai (21 napos) elválasztás nem okozott jelentős veszteséget, még gyógyszermentes táp fogyasztása esetén sem, viszont az állatok növekedése elmaradt a később elválasztott társaikétól. A bélflóra összetételét döntően az életkor határozza meg, arra az elválasztásnak nem volt jelentős hatása. A táplálék (tej/táp) ugyanakkor jelentősen befolyásolta a mikrobiális aktivitást, a fermentáció irányát. A pre- és probiotikus anyagokkal végzett eddigi kísérletek eredményei azt mutatják, hogy kísérleti (kiváló higiéniás, tartási és takarmányozási) viszonyok között ezek nem eredményeztek mindig egyértelmű változást a tápcsatorna működésében. A hatásmechanizmusra vonatkozó eredmények sokszor ellentmondásosak, tisztázásuk további in vivo és in vitro kísérleteket igényel. | The aim of the project was to examine effects influencing the development and function of the digestive tract for the sake of efficient prevention of enteric diseases in rabbits. Development of the caecal flora after birth, effect of weaning age (21, 28, 35 days), and effect of certain pre- and probiotics (Bacillus cereus var. toyoi, fermented wheat germ and inulin) on growth of the animals and the GI tract, and certain digestive physiological parameters with special regard to caecal fermentation processes (pH, VFA production, composition of the microflora, fibrolytic activity) were examined. Colonisation of the caecum by Bacteroides commenced already on day 3 after birth. These bacteria originated from the maternal faeces and the does? reproductive organs. Early weaning (age 21 d) did not cause detrimental changes in the digestive physiological parameters examined, but resulted in lower production. Composition of the caecal flora is determined mainly by age, however microbial activity (and VFA production) was highly dependent on nutrition (milk or solid feed). It seems that supplementation of the diet with pro- and prebiotics does not result in unequivocal changes in the GI tract in experimental circumstances (good hygienic, nutritional and management conditions). Results concerning mode of action are often controversial, more in vivo and in vitro experiments are needed

Seeing the World From Others’ Perspective: 14-Month-Olds Show Altercentric Modulation Effects by Others’ Beliefs

Humans have a propensity to readily adopt others’ perspective, which often influences their behavior even when it seemingly should not. This altercentric influence has been widely studied in adults, yet we lack an understanding of its ontogenetic origins. The current studies investigated whether 14-month-olds’ search in a box for potential objects is modulated by another person’s belief about the box’s content. We varied the person’s potential belief such that in her presence/absence an object was removed, added, or exchanged for another, leading to her true/false belief about the object’s presence (Experiment 1, n = 96); or transformed into another object, leading to her true/false belief about the object’s identity (i.e., the objects represented under a specific aspect, Experiment 2, n = 32). Infants searched longer if the other person believed that an object remained in the box, showing an altercentric influence early in development. These results suggest that infants spontaneously represent others’ beliefs involving multiple objects and raise the possibility that infants can appreciate that others encode the world under a unique aspect.Published versio

T-2 mycotoxin slows down the development of mouse blastocysts, decreases their blastomere number and increases chromatin damage

The mycotoxin T-2 has many harmful effects on mammalian cells and reproductive functions. In the present study, the in vitro effect of T-2 toxin on mouse blastocysts was examined. Embryos were cultured in media supplemented with 0.5, 0.75 and 1 ng/ml T-2. Different exposure times were applied [96 h (treatment I) or 24 h following 72 h in toxin-free media (treatment II)]. Blastomere number, nuclear chromatin status and blastocoel formation were investigated in blastocysts. Our data show that the effect of T-2 toxin may vary depending on the stage of the embryo at the start of exposure. At 96 h of exposure, the blastocysts had blastomeres with normal chromatin quality but their developmental potential was decreased. After 24 h of exposure applied following a 72-h culture, blastomeres had a higher level of chromatin damage, although their developmental potential was the same as in the control embryos. In both cases, decreased mitotic rate was found, which resulted in decreased blastomere number even at low toxin concentration

Mycotoxins in the food chain

The paper is the written version of the scientific presentation given on the 17th meeting of the Alps-Adria Scientific Workshop (on 10 April of 2018 in Hnanice, Czech Republic). Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites of fungi, found all around the world as natural contaminants, still unavoidable in the human food chain. This review gives a summary of the occurrence of the most important mycotoxins in Europe, the predicted effect of climate change on their production and the problem of the co-occurrence of these toxins causing multitoxic effects. Experimental results of the research group confirm the complexity of interactions and the fact that interactive effects are hardly predictable

The Effect of Atrophic Rhinitis (AR) on the Weight-gain of Swine

Atrophic rhinitis (AR) is an infectious disease of swine. Besides the most characteristic clinical symptom, nasal turbinate atrophy, it is presumed to result retarded growth rate as well. The present paper gives a brief overview of the scientific literature concerning the correlation between AR and weightgain. Pointing out some of the possible reasons of contradictory results on the topic is also attempted

Mikotoxinok hatása az életminőségünkre

The paper is a written version of the scientific presentation given on the annual meeting of the Regional Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Pécs (on 22 February of 2018 in Pécs). The number of people dying as a result of foodborne diseases is about 420.000. The global burden of foodborne diseases caused in 2010 was 33 million DALYs (Disability-Adjusted Life Year). Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites of fungi, found all around the world as natural contaminants, still unavoidable in the human food chain. This paper provides current data on the worldwide occurrence of mycotoxins and introduces their human health and food safety risks. It summarizes human exposure data in Europe determined by multi-biomarker analyses using human urine samples. It highlights the importance of multi-mycotoxin exposure assessments because of the complexity of mycotoxin interactions. Multi-mycotoxin contamination, the co-contamination of emerging and masked mycotoxins makes the continuous monitoring and revision of limit values necessaryA közlemény az MTA Pécsi Területi Bizottsága (PAB) éves közgyűlésén (Pécs, 2018. február 22.) elhangzott tudományos előadás anyaga. Az élelmiszer eredetű megbetegedéseknek évente kb. 420 000 halálos áldozata van, a megbetegedések gazdasági hatása is jelentős, kb. 33 millió egészséges életév veszteséget (Disability-Adjusted Life Year, DALYs) okoz. A mikotoxinok a penészgombák szekunder anyagcsere termékei, természetes környezetszennyező anyagok, amelyeket ma még nem lehet kiiktatni az élelmiszerláncból. A közlemény adatokat mutat be takarmányok mikotoxin szennyezettségére vonatkozón, ismerteti a mikotoxinok élelmiszerbiztonsági kockázatát. Példákat szolgáltat európai országok lakosságának mikotoxin expozíciójára, vizeletmintákban biomarkerek mérése alapján. Kiemeli a multitoxikus hatások jelentőségét, az egyes mikotoxinok interakciójának bonyolultságát. A multitoxikus hatások, a módosított és kötött (maszkolt), valamint az ún. emerging mikotoxinok együttes szennyezése szükségessé teszi a folyamatos monitorozást és a határértékek időszaki felülvizsgálatát