LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF FRUIT AND VEGETABLE CONSUMPTION IN HUNGARY

Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Work-based learning and lifelong guidance policies

This Concept Note discusses the relationship between lifelong guidance and work-based learning. While these are distinct activities, they are often advanced as approaches to answering similar broad policy challenges, such as developing a skilled and socially inclusive population, ensuring engagement with education and work, and helping people to progress and live happy and useful lives. This paper argues that lifelong guidance can be particularly useful in relation to work-based learning in three main ways: • Engagement. Increasing citizens’ understanding of work-based learning, the routes into it and the rewards of participation. • Achievement. Helping participants (learners, employers and learning providers) in workbased learning to remain engaged and consider how best to enhance their skills and employability. • Transition. Assisting the effective utilisation of the skills developed within work-based learning by supporting individuals in transitions from work-based learning programmes to sustainable employment

The Youth Guarantee and lifelong guidance

The European Youth Guarantee is an initiative to help link young people aged 16 - 14 to the labour market across all member states. The paper is a Concept Note commissioned by the policy network to explore how guidance activities are being implemented in a range of ways across national youth support programmes and includes practical evidence from 17 member countries. The paper contends that successful and sustainable implementation of the Youth Guarantee Initiative can only be secured through effective integration of lifelong guidance practice into national programmes.European Lifelong Policy Guidance Networ

Parallel changes of the spontaneous and stimulus-evoked cortical activity elicited by acute treatment with inorganic mercury in rats

Mercury is known to affect the activity of the nervous system of animals and humans, as indicated by the multitude of neurological signs following e.g. occupational exposure. In animal experiments, heavy metals cause a variety of alterations in the central and peripheral nervous system activity but an explanation as to mechanism of action is missing in a number of cases. The aim of the work presented was to find correlation between the changes of spontaneous cortical activity (electrocorticogram, ECoG) and cortical sensory evoked potentials (EPs) recorded from rats acutely treated with mercuric chloride. Adult male Wistar rats were anesthesized with urethane. Silver recording electrodes were placed on the exposed left somatosensory projection area of the whiskers and of the tail. The corresponding peripheral sites were stimulated by electric pulses. During tail stimulation, compound action potentials of the tail nerve were also recorded. After at least 4 control records, mercury (HgCl2, 7 mg/kg) was administered via a peritoneal cannula and the recording was continued for further ca. 2 hours. In the spontaneous activity, increased activity of the low and decreased activity of the high frequency bands was seen Simultaneously, the amplitude of the EPs increased. On the tail nerve potential, Hg caused an amplitude decrease and a latency increase. Latency increase of the cortical EP and the decrease of nerve conduction velocity evolved simultaneously. The alterations are likely due to some specific, and not to a general toxic, effect of Hg

Sikertörténet az élelmiszeriparban - Esettanulmány a Nutricia Csoportról ----- Its title in English: Success story in the food industry - Case Study on the Nutrica Group

A magyarországi élelmiszeripar, azon belül a tejipar, egyik legsikeresebb vállalatának a Nutricia Csoportnak közel egy évtizedes fejlődését mutatja be az esettanulmány. A rendszerváltást követő tejipari változások, a tejfogyasztási és termelési tendenciák, a piaci szereplők összetételének változása és egyéb környezeti tényezők is helyt kapnak a tanulmányban. A vállalat ahhoz, hogy Magyarországon, és a kelet-európai piacon is, megszilárdítsa pozícióját, a gyors növekedést állította stratégiája fókuszába, amit elsősorban vállalatfelvásárlások útján valósított meg. Az évtized végére a versenytényezők gyökeresen átalakultak, ami a tejpiaci szereplők stratégiáinak módosítását követeli meg. ----------------------------- This case study presents almost one decade of the evolution of the Nutricia Group, which is one of the most successful firms of the Hungarian dairy industry within the food industry. The changes in the dairy industry after the change of regime, the trends of milk consumption and production, the change in the composition of market participants and other environmental factors are discussed in this paper. The Nutricia Group’s strategy focused on growth, primarily via acquisitions, in order to consolidate its position in the markets of Hungary and Eastern Europe. By the end of the decade competition factors have changed radically requiring a modification of strategies in the dairy industry

Nanoparticles as potential clinical therapeutic agents in Alzheimer’s disease: focus on selenium nanoparticles

In etiology of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), involvement of amyloid β (Aβ) plaque accumulation and oxidative stress in the brain have important roles. Several nanoparticles such as titanium dioxide, silica dioxide, silver and zinc oxide have been experimentally using for treatment of neurological disease. In the last decade, there has been a great interest on combination of antioxidant bioactive compounds such as selenium (Se) and flavonoids with the oxidant nanoparticles in AD. We evaluated the most current data available on the physiological effects of oxidant and antioxidant nanoparticles.Areas covered: Oxidative nanoparticles decreased the activities of reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging enzymes such as glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase in the brain of rats and mice. However, Se-rich nanoparticles in small size (5–15 nm) depleted Aβ formation through decreasing ROS production. Reports on low levels of Se in blood and tissue samples and the low activities of GSH-Px, catalase and SOD enzymes in AD patients and animal models support the proposed crucial role of oxidative stress in the pathogenesis of AD.In conclusion, present literature suggests that Se-rich nanoparticles appeared to be a potential therapeutic compound for the treatment of AD

Akutni učinci olova, žive i mangana u kombinaciji s alkoholom na središnji i periferni živčani sustav u štakora

Heavy metals, due to their numerous applications in industrial processes, agrochemicals and household articles, have caused a widespread pollution and can be found in different foods. One of their target organs is the central nervous system. The toxic effects of heavy metals can be modified by lifestyleoriginated factors such as consumption of alcohol. The aim of this study was to investigate the changes in spontaneous cortical activity (ECoG), cortical sensory evoked potentials (EPs) and peripheral nerve action potentials, recorded in rats pre-treated with alcohol and acutely treated with lead, mercury and manganese by intraperitoneal injection. In the ECoG, Hg2+ caused a massive shift to lower frequencies while the effect of Mn2+ and Pb2+ was slight, and alcohol pre-treatment altered the effect of the metals minimally. The amplitude of EPs increased upon the application of heavy metals, and the peak latency lengthened. The effect of Hg2+ was the strongest and that of Pb2+ the weakest, and these effects were potentiated by alcohol. Exposure to heavy metals, together with alcohol consumption, can aggravate the known neurotoxic effects.Teški metali, zbog velike primjene u industrijskim procesima, kao agrokemikalije i u predmetima za domaćinstvo, mogu uzrokovati vrlo opsežno onečišćenje i mogu se naći u raznim uzorcima hrane. Jedan od ciljnih organa za metale je središnji živčani sustav. Toksični efekti teških metala mogu biti izmijenjeni utjecajem čimbenika povezanih s načinom života, kao što je konzumiranje alkoholnih pića. Svrha je ovog rada istražiti promjene spontane kortikalne aktivnosti (ECoG), potencijale izazvane osjetljivošću korteksa (EP) i potencijale aktivnosti perifernih živaca. Ispitivanja su provedena na štakorima koji su prethodno tretirani alkoholom i zatim intraperitonealno teškim metalima kao što su olovo, živa i mangan. Živa izaziva smanjenje ECoG, dok mangan i olovo slabije djeluju, a prethodni tretman alkoholom minimalno mijenja učinak. Amplituda EP povećana je pod djelovanjem metala. Utjecaj žive je najjači, a olova najslabiji, ali oba su efekta pojačana alkoholom. Konzumiranje alkohola može pogoršati poznate neurotoksične efekte pri izlaganju teškim metalima

Molecular surgery concept from bench to bedside: a focus on TRPV1+ pain-sensing neurons

“Molecular neurosurgery” is emerging as a new medical concept, and is the combination of two partners: (i) a molecular neurosurgery agent, and (ii) the cognate receptor whose activation results in the selective elimination of a specific subset of neurons in which this receptor is endogenously expressed. In general, a molecular surgery agent is a selective and potent ligand, and the target is a specific cell type whose elimination is desired through the molecular surgery procedure. These target cells have the highest innate sensitivity to the molecular surgery agent usually due to the highest receptor density being in their plasma membrane. The interaction between the ligand and its receptor evokes an overactivity of the receptor. If the receptor is a ligand-activated non-selective cation channel, the overactivity of receptor leads to excess Ca2+ and Na+ influx into the cell and finally cell death. One of the best known examples of such an interaction is the effect of ultrapotent vanilloids on TRPV1- expressing pain-sensing neurons. One intrathecal resiniferatoxin (RTX) dose allows for the receptor-mediated removal of TRPV1+ neurons from the peripheral nervous system. The TRPV1 receptor-mediated ion influx induces necrotic processes, but only in pain-sensing neurons, and usually within an hour. Besides that, target-specific apoptotic processes are also induced. Thus, as a nano-surgery scalpel, RTX removes the neurons responsible for generating pain and inflammation from the peripheral nervous system providing an option in clinical management for the treatment of morphine-insensitive pain conditions. In the future, the molecular surgery concept can also be exploited in cancer research for selectively targeting the specific tumor cell