COMPUTER PROGRAM FOR STEEL FRAMES TAKING INITIAL IMPERFECTIONS AND LOCAL BUCKLING INTO CONSIDERATION

Computer technique suits state change analysis of plane steel bar systems. Investigations considered several effects and iufluences such as plastic deformation, geometrical and mechanical imperfections, plate buckling. The analysis relies on modelling the structural member such as to involve several effects and iufluences

Electroconvulsive therapy in a Hungarian academic centre (1999-2010).

BACKGROUND: Since the 1930s, the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at Semmelweis University (DPPSU) in Budapest has played a leading role in convulsive therapy in Hungary. The aim of this study was to describe the pattern of ECT use at the DPPSU over an 11-year period. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Analysis of the medical notes of all patients treated with ECT in this academic centre between 1999 and 2009. RESULTS: During the study period, 28,230 patients were admitted to the DPPSU, of whom 457 (1.6%) received ECT. More than 50% of patients receiving ECT were diagnosed with schizophrenia. The percentage of female patients receiving ECT significantly exceeded that of the male patients, above what was expected in view of the diagnostic mix. CONCLUSION: The data indicate that in the first decade of the 21(th) century, ECT use shows a declining tendency in this Hungarian academic centre. The mean number of treatment sessions was relatively low and nearly the same across diagnostic groups. ECT was mainly used as a last resort for treatment-resistant patients. In the majority of cases, bifronto-temporal brief pulse stimulation was applied. Seizures were monitored with EEG and EMG

Hungarian International Development Cooperation: Context, Stakeholders and Performance

This paper explores the domestic and international context of Hungary's emerging international development policy. Specifically, it looks at three factors that may influence how this policy operates: membership in the European Union (EU) and potential ‘Europeanization’, Hungary's wider foreign policy strategy, and the influence of domestic stakeholders. In order to uncover how these factors affect the country's international development policy, semi-structured interviews were carried out with the main stakeholders. The main conclusions are: (1) While accession to the EU did play a crucial role in restarting Hungary's international development policy, the integration has had little effect since then; (2) international development policy seems to serve mainly Hungary's regional strategic foreign policy and economic interests, and not its global development goals; and (3) although all the domestic development stakeholders are rather weak, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) still seems to play a dominating role. Convergence with European requirements and best practices is, therefore, clearly hindered by foreign policy interests and also by the weakness of non- governmental stakeholders

Spillovers from Foreign Direct Investment in Central and Eastern Europe. An index for measuring a country’s potential to benefit from technology spillovers

In the paper, we construct a composite indicator to estimate the potential of four Central and Eastern European countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) to benefit from productivity spillovers from foreign direct investment (FDI) in the manufacturing sector. Such transfers of technology are one of the main benefits of FDI for the host country, and should also be one of the main determinants of FDI incentives offered to investing multinationals by governments, but they are difficult to assess ex ante. For our composite index, we use six components to proxy the main channels and determinants of these spillovers. We have tried several weighting and aggregation methods, and we consider our results robust. According to the analysis of our results, between 2003 and 2007 all four countries were able to increase their potential to benefit from such spillovers, although there are large differences between them. The Czech Republic clearly has the most potential to benefit from productivity spillovers, while Poland has the least. The relative positions of Hungary and Slovakia depend to some extent on the exact weighting and aggregation method of the individual components of the index, but the differences are not large. These conclusions have important implication both the investment strategies of multinationals and government FDI policies

Is Transition Experience Enough? The Donor-side Effectiveness of Czech and Polish Democracy Aid to Georgia

The paper examines the democracy aid practices of the Czech Republic and Poland in Georgia. These two countries have recently emerged as promoters of democracy, and have argued that their own transition experience puts them in a unique position to support democratization and the consolidation of democracy in the EU’s Eastern Neighbourhood. The paper evaluates how these two countries provide democracy aid to Georgia along three criteria, derived from the aid effectiveness literature: supporting locally driven change, learning from results and coordination. The results indicate that both countries have plenty of space to improve the way their democracy aid is delivered. Neither country has formal systems in place to ensure that they actually support Georgian priorities; evaluations are ad hoc and feedback loops missing; and there is significant scope to improve coordination with other donors. Nonetheless, there seems to be a general perception among stakeholders that the democracy aid provided by the Czech Republic and Poland is relevant to Georgia’s needs

Small donors in world politics: The role of trust funds in the foreign aid policies of Central and Eastern European donors

The Central and Eastern European (CEE) EU member states have emerged as new donors of international development assistance since the turn of the millennium. The literature has tended to focus on the bilateral components of these policies, and neglected CEE multilateral aid. This paper contributes to filling this gap by examining how and why CEE donors contribute to trust funds operated by multilateral donors. The aim of the paper is twofold: First, it provides a descriptive account of how CEE countries use trust funds in the allocation of their foreign aid. Second, it explains this allocation using data from qualitative interviews with CEE officials. CEE countries make much less use of trust funds than might be expected. This is due not only to the loss of visibility and control over their resources, but also to how CEE companies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) rarely achieve funding successes at multilateral organisations

Complement lectin pathway activation is associated with COVID-19 disease severity, independent of MBL2 genotype subgroups

IntroductionWhile complement is a contributor to disease severity in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections, all three complement pathways might be activated by the virus. Lectin pathway activation occurs through different pattern recognition molecules, including mannan binding lectin (MBL), a protein shown to interact with SARS-CoV-2 proteins. However, the exact role of lectin pathway activation and its key pattern recognition molecule MBL in COVID-19 is still not fully understood.MethodsWe therefore investigated activation of the lectin pathway in two independent cohorts of SARS-CoV-2 infected patients, while also analysing MBL protein levels and potential effects of the six major single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) found in the MBL2 gene on COVID-19 severity and outcome.ResultsWe show that the lectin pathway is activated in acute COVID-19, indicated by the correlation between complement activation product levels of the MASP-1/C1-INH complex (p=0.0011) and C4d (p<0.0001) and COVID-19 severity. Despite this, genetic variations in MBL2 are not associated with susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection or disease outcomes such as mortality and the development of Long COVID.ConclusionIn conclusion, activation of the MBL-LP only plays a minor role in COVID-19 pathogenesis, since no clinically meaningful, consistent associations with disease outcomes were noted