Brain State Dependent Activity in the Lateral Geniculate Nucleus

Brain state dependent thalamocortical (TC) activity plays and important role in sensory coding, oscillations and cognition. The lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) relays visual information to the cortex, but the state dependent spontaneous and visually evoked activity of LGN neurons in awake behaving animals remains controversial. In awake head-restrained mice, using a combination of pupillometry, extracellular and intracellular recordings from morphologically and physiologically identified LGN neurons we show that TC neurons and putative local interneurons are inversely related to arousal forming two complementary coalitions with TC cells being positively correlates with wakefulness, while local interneuron activity is negatively correlated. Additionally, the orientation tuning of visually evoked thalamic cell responses is altered during various brain states. Intracellular recordings indicated that the membrane potential of LGN TC neurons was tightly correlated to fluctuations in pupil size. Inactivating the corticothalamic feedback by GABAA agonist muscimol applied on the dural surface significantly diminishes the correlation between brain states and thalamic neuronal activity. Additional investigations show that by photostimulating GABAergic axons (expressing Channelrhodopsin-2 in a Cre-dependent manner) that project from the lateral hypothalamus (LH) to the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN), neurons in the DRN increase their action potential output, presumably through disinhibition. Taken together our results show that LGN neuronal membrane potential and action potential output are dynamically linked to arousal dependent brain states in awake mice and this fact might have important functional implications

Off to market: but which one? Understanding the participation of small-scale farmers in short food supply chains—a Hungarian case study

The research described in this paper was designed to identify the factors that influence the importance small-scale farmers place on different marketing channels of short food supply chains. The focus concerns two entirely different types of market that are present in the bigger cities in Hungary: 'conventional' markets where there are no restrictions on locality but the farmer-market relationship is based on binding contracts, and newly-emergent farmers' markets at which only local growers can sell ad hoc, using their own portable facilities. Results are based on a survey that was conducted in 2013 among 156 Hungarian market oriented farmer-vendors at different types of market and confirm that different markets are visited by different types of farmers. Farmers who favour conventional markets are typically less educated, operate on smaller scales and are more committed to their chosen markets via long-term contracts (which reduce the probability of their trying other outlets). The preference for farmers' markets is stronger with farmers who are more open to cooperation, have specific investment plans for developing their farms and among those who are specifically looking to directly interact with their customers to avoid middlemen. The relevance of the findings is highlighted by the ongoing Short Food Supply Chain Thematic Sub-programme in the present European Union financing period; farmers' profiles in any given marketing channel must be understood if short food supply chains are to be effectively promoted. Different types of small-scale farmers will benefit from different supporting frameworks, interventions, and initiatives

Geokémiai folyamatok vizsgálata prompt-gamma aktivációs analízis segítségével: a bór szerepe szubdukciós övekhez kapcsolódó magmás kőzetekben = The role of boron in geochemical processes affecting subduction-related magmatic rocks: a case study using prompt-gamma activation analysis

A Kárpát-Pannon térség neogén-kvarter vulkáni sorozatából 145 kőzetminta bór koncentrációját határoztuk meg prompt-gamma neutronakivációs analízissel. Az adatok megbízhatóságát GSJ nemzetközi standardokkal ellenőriztük. A vizsgált mészalkáli magmás kőzetek bór koncentrációja 2 és 80 ppm között változik, ami összhangban van a Föld különböző szubdukciós övezeteiben vizsgált vulkáni kőzetek adataival. Ezen belül az alacsony B/Nb arányú csoporthoz tartoznak. A Pannon-medence északi részén található andezitek bór koncentrációja nem mutat térbeli változást. Ugyanakkor időben fokozatos bór koncentráció csökkenést tapasztalunk, ami a vizes fluidumok magmaképződésben játszott csökkenő szerepére utal. Mindezek alapján úgy véljük, hogy e területen a magmaképződés egy elvékonyodó litoszféra lemez alatt, alapvetően nyomáscsökkenés következtében zajlott és nem volt lényeges szerepe a dehidratációs olvadásnak. A Keleti Kárpátokban éles változást tapasztalunk a bór koncentráció változásában a vulkáni ív délkeleti részén. Mindez kapcsolatban van a terület alatti mélyszerkezeti (Trotus vonal helyzete), ami kihat a kollízió és a magmaképződés körülményeire egyaránt. A mészalkáli vulkáni területek alatt a bór részben alábukó üledékes anyagból, részben az átalakult óceáni kéregből származott. A Pannon-medence belsejében megjelenő andezitek és ultrakáli magmás kőzetek alacsony bór tartalma arra utal, hogy a vizes fluidumoknak nem volt lényeges szerepe a magmaképződésben. | We determined the boron content of 145 samples with various lithology in the Carpathian-Pannonian Region (CPR). We checked the reliability of the results by international standards (GSJ). The boron concentration of the studied calc-alkaline volcanic rocks is in the range of 2 to 80 ppm, which is consistent with the B content of the subduction-related volcanic rocks worldwide. Among these, the CPR rocks belong to the low B/Nb group. No spatial variation of the boron data was observed in the Northern Pannonian Basin. However, a gradual temporal decrease can be recognized that is interpreted as a decreasing role of aqueous fluids in the magmagenetic process. The magma generation occurred due to the decompressional melting beneath a progressively thinning lithosphere rather than due to flux melting. In the eastern Carpathians an abrupt change in the boron content can be seen at the southeastern part of the volcanic chain. This geochemical change is consistent with the location of the Trotus line that influences the style of the collision and also the magma generation processes. The recycled B could be derived both from subducted sediments and from the altered oceanic crust. The relatively low B concentration of the andesites and ultrapotassic rocks in the inner part of the Pannonian Basin indicates that aqueous fluids had no significant role in the magma formation beneath this area

A változó mezőgazdaság hatása termesztett növényeink természetes megporzó rovarnépességeire = Impact of changing agriculture on the native pollinating insect assemblages of cultivated crop plants

Négy egymás utáni évben a lucerna, vöröshere, bükköny, napraforgó, vöröshagyma és gyümölcsfajok (alma, meggy) megporzó rovarnépességeit vizsgáltuk. Lucernásokban 113 vadméh fajt mutattunk ki. A lucernások Apoidea megporzó népessége átstrukturálódott. A poszméhek, a Bombus fajok váltak leggyakoribbá, a korábbi évtizedekben jelentős Melitta, Andrena, Halictus fajok visszaszorultak. Az Eucera fajok denzitása drasztikusan lecsökkent, viszont a korábbi évtizedekhez képest mérsékelten nőtt a Megachile fajok előfordulása. A vöröshagyma esetében fajgazdag viráglátogató rovar együttest találtuk, különösen a vadméhek fajszáma jelentős. A napraforgón a tömeges mézelő méheken kívül a Bombus terrestris L., Bombus lapidarius L., és egyes Halictus fajok fordultak elő nagyobb sűrűséggel. A gyümölcsfajokon több korai rajzású vadméh megfigyelhető (Bombus, Osmia, Halictus, Andrena fajok), de a megporzásban a mézelő méhek szerepe a döntő. Elsőként mutattunk ki kvantitatív összefüggéseket a különböző viráglátogatási viselkedésű mézelő méhek és a kötődés között. Bizonyítható, hogy a vadméh népességek szerkezetének átalakulása és létszámuk csökkenése a gyomflóra átalakulásával függ össze. A kutatási témából eddig 13 lektorált tudományos folyóiratcikk, 5 teljes terjedelemben megjelent konferencia előadás, további 2 abstract és 2 ismeretterjesztő szakcikk jelent meg. Eredményeinkből ezen kívül 8 tudományos előadást tartottunk, amelyek nyomtatásban nem jelentek meg. | Pollinating insect assemblages of lucerne, red clover, hairy vetch, sunflower, seed onion fields and fruit (apple, sour cherry) plantations were investigated thoroughly during 4 consecutive years. 113 wild bee species were registered at flowering lucerne fields but the structure of wild bee assemblages has changed significantly. Bumblebees have became the most common wild bees at lucerne fields. The density of Melitta, Andrena, Halictus has been reduced significantly. Density of Eucera species decreased dramatically but Megachile species have become somewhat more frequent. The pollinating insect assemblages at seed onion fields are fairly rich in species, the number of wild bee species is especially high. Besides very abundant honeybee populations a Bombus terrestris L., Bombus lapidarius L. and some Halictus species were numerous at flowering sunflower crops. Besides abundant honeybee populations some early spring Osmias, bumblebees and a few Halicids and Adrenids appear at flowering fruit trees. Quantitative relationships have been established at the first time between the activity of individual behaviour classes of flower visiting honeybees and the fruit set of apple. Results have been published in 13 scientific papers in referred journals, in 5 papers in conference proceedings, in 2 abstracts and in 2 papers in extension publications. Additionally 8 more scientific lectures have been presented

4D Scene Reconstruction in Multi-Target Scenarios

In this report, we introduce a complex approach on 4D reconstruction of dynamic scenarios containing multiple walking pedestrians. The input of the process is a point cloud sequence recorded by a rotating multi-beam Lidar sensor, which monitors the scene from a fixed position. The output is a geometrically reconstructed and textured scene containing moving 4D people models, which can follow in real time the trajectories of the walking pedestrians observed on the Lidar data flow. Our implemented system consists of four main steps. First, we separate foreground and background regions in each point cloud frame of the sequence by a robust probabilistic approach. Second, we perform moving pedestrian detection and tracking, so that among the point cloud regions classified as foreground, we separate the different objects, and assign the corresponding people positions to each other over the consecutive frames of the Lidar measurement sequence. Third, we geometrically reconstruct the ground, walls and further objects of the background scene, and texture the obtained models with photos taken from the scene. Fourth we insert into the scene textured 4D models of moving pedestrians which were preliminary created in a special 4D reconstruction studio. Finally, we integrate the system elements in a joint dynamic scene model and visualize the 4D scenario