Modeling of the Connection Between the Ecological Farming and Farm Sizes under Hungarian Conditions

Nowadays, the spread of ecological farming occurs in an ever-accelerating rate in Europe. In the beginning of the 1990s, this process started in Hungary too. Primarily, horticultural bioproduct have appeared on the market; however, farms, which can be regarded as a sample, formed out relatively fast, and made products qualified as plough-land bulk goods, first of all for export, but a stratum in Hungary also starts to interest for these products. In our research, we looked for an answer to the question, how the economic condition system of ecological production forms out in Hungarian circumstances, on which farm sizes farming can be made profitably. We started by adapting the earlier model researches that current farm sizes in Hungary, are too small yet, so that one could make profitable production, at the same time, farmers, who affiliate in time, may reach extra sales revenues in comparison to the traditional (factory-) farming, by producing bio-products, which, however, can ensure the capacity of living of such farms, which were in unliveable under the earlier circumstances. Simultaneously with the spread of ecological farming, this advantage will decrease, therefore the time factor has an important role, at the same time, the capacity expansion not confirmed with consumers' demands, takes this income advantage away. Under Hungarian circumstances, according to the present conditions 1) depending on the extent of the bio extra price 2) the income level covering the costs, reduces the profitable farm size from about 100 ha to 20-60 ha. This gives hope for farmers, whose farm size is considerably smaller (under 10 ha) that the farm size, on which profitably production can be made, is in a relatively reachable distance. To realize this, the state should definitely urge the farms on this, by the available direct and indirect tools.Farm Management,

Some ideas of economic aspects of precision plant production (protection)

Precision farming – besides other aspects – enables the reduction of use of chemical substances in crop production while decreases farming risks, contributes to specific field-crop-plant applications, makes production processes more designable and increases profitability. The introduction of a new technology requires complex farm-management decisions, including the consideration of economic correlations (costs-yield-income). Considering the three basic meanings of sustainability, the farming strategies have to meet these requirements. There are several alternatives to reduce artificial chemical use (applying new chemicals with lower doses, chemical-free ways like organic farming, negative environmental taxes, precision farming, etc.). In Hungary the farm structure is polarized, there are large crop producing farms (operating over 1000 ha), a lot of small farms (working less then 50 ha), but the number of middle sized farms is growing up, fortunately. Precision plant production could be a real alternative for them in their efforts to optimize chemical use, but the capital investment required for shifting to this technology, should also be considered. It is necessary to examine the conditions under which it will be a viable decision from economic point of view. It can be stated that the extra investment will be returned above 150-160 ha crop producing farm. Risk of return depends on soil conditions, weed coverage and could be decreased by increasing the utilization of machinery. The objective of the study is to examine the economic consequences of precision plant protection, to find the answers to the questions which may occur when the farmer turns to precision farming.changes in profitability, viable size, Crop Production/Industries,

Land use and land reform in former Central and East European countries

The importance of agriculture is decreasing all over the world. The aim of the paper is to compare the ownership structure and land use in some selected former Central and Eastern European countries. The property structure and land use is in dichotomy, the production is performed simultaneously on small-size farms which produce primarily for self-consumption. The importance of farm land leases is increasing. The present paper tries to identify the main differences and similarities in land ownership and property structure, the changes in the last fifteen years, what happened and whether the expectations had been met. Furthermore the paper compares the main regulations of land ownership and tenancy in different countries, explains land market protection, and the need of a real valuation system of land.property structure, land prices, land use, land use and ownership, Land Economics/Use,

Precíziós növénytermelés növényvédÅ‘szer-használatának gazdasági hatásai

A mezÅ‘gazdaság műszaki fejlesztése lehetÅ‘séget nyújt a korszerű technológiák széles körű alkalmazására. Ilyen a precíziós növényvédelem, amely egyben a fenntarthatóság kritériumai érvényesítését is szolgálja. Gyakorlati alkalmazása érdemi vegyszer megtakarítást eredményez. Modellszámítás segítségével vizsgáltam a lehetséges megtakarítás közgazdasági összefüggéseit makrogazdasági szinten. A precíziós növénytermelésre történÅ‘ átállás utáni kemikália-felhasználásban az EU-25-ökben – optimista szcenáriót feltételezve – változatlan hozamszint 340 ezer tonnával kevesebb műtrágya hatóanyaggal, míg növényvédÅ‘ szerbÅ‘l – jelenlegi dózisszinten – 30 ezer tonnával kevesebb kijuttatásával érhetÅ‘ el. Amennyiben az átálló gazdaságok aránya 30–60% között alakul, a teljes felületkezeléses intenzív technológiában felhasznált mennyiséghez képest az üzemenkénti átlagos megtakarítás 30–60% közöttire becsülhetÅ‘ növényvédÅ‘ szerek hatóanyagaiból. Ha a 10–35%-os hatóanyag-csökkentés változatlan hozam mellett valósul meg, nemzetgazdasági szinten 10–35%-kal csökken a környezet terhelése. Ebben az esetben az egyéni és a társadalmi hasznosság egybeesik, ami a fenntarthatóságot szolgálja. A mezÅ‘gazdaságban üzemi szinten minden olyan technológiai eljárás széles körű elterjedése, amely pozitív hatást gyakorol a természeti erÅ‘források megÅ‘rzésére, „újratermelésére†és üzemi szinten jövedelmezÅ‘en a technológiához szükséges fejlesztések megtérülésével (gazdasági hatékonyság) valósítható meg, a fenntarthatóság irányába hat. E mellett a precíziós növénytermelés elterjedése elÅ‘mozdítja a társadalmi fenntarthatóságot is a környezetterhelés csökkentésével és az élelmiszerek, valamint ipari nyersanyagok, illetve energetikai célú alapanyagok előállításával. ----------------------------------------------- Advances in agricultural technology offer a wide range of modern technologies. One of these is precision pesticide use, which also serves to meet the requirements of sustainability. When used in practice, it results in appreciable savings of chemicals. I used model calculations to look at the economic aspects of potential savings at a macro-economical level. By switching to precision farming – in an optimistic scenario –, the same yield can be achieved by 340,000 tons less fertilizer and 30,000 tons less pesticide (at the current dosing level) in the EU-25. Assuming that 30 to 60% of farms switch to precision farming, the average savings on pesticide agents per farm in full-surface intensive technology can be estimated to reach 30-60%. If 10-35% less active ingredient is used while yields remain unchanged, environmental emissions in the national economy will also be reduced by 10 to 35%. In this case, personal benefits coincide with social benefits, which is a step towards sustainability. The spreading of any technology procedure in agriculture which has a positive impact on the preservation and regeneration of natural resources and can be implemented profitably at the farm level (economic feasibility) promotes sustainability. Additionally, the adoption of precision farming methods will also facilitate social sustainability by reducing pollution and by producing food, industrial base materials and fuels.növényvédÅ‘szer-környezetterhelés, megtakarítás, versenyképesség, fenntarthatóság, pesticide emission, savings, competitiveness, sustainability, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy, Production Economics,

Economic Modeling of Hungarian Farms Incorporating Nature Conservation

Hungary's imminent entrance into the EU calls for a farm-level financial support system aiming at combining agricultural production with nature conservation targets. Within the Hungarian National Agri-environmental Programme (NAEP) for the Environmentally Sensitive Areas, a payment system was developed. For each individual region the amount of support for every environmentally friendly farming prescription package (tier) was established using the support calculation methodology of the EU. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of the packages on the income of an individual mixed farm. In contrast to many other studies, in the current study the analysis was carried out with the context of the whole farm, taking into consideration the entire production structure. The amount of support which the farmer needs to sign up for a contract turned out to be quite different from the actual payments done by the Hungarian government.Farm Management, Land Economics/Use,

Altruistic CEOs can be as risky as greedy ones

The most successful leaders exhibit moderate self-interest, argue Katalin Takacs-Haynes, Matthew Josefy and Michael A. Hit

Experiences of aiding autobiographical memory Using the SenseCam

Human memory is a dynamic system that makes accessible certain memories of events based on a hierarchy of information, arguably driven by personal significance. Not all events are remembered, but those that are tend to be more psychologically relevant. In contrast, lifelogging is the process of automatically recording aspects of one's life in digital form without loss of information. In this article we share our experiences in designing computer-based solutions to assist people review their visual lifelogs and address this contrast. The technical basis for our work is automatically segmenting visual lifelogs into events, allowing event similarity and event importance to be computed, ideas that are motivated by cognitive science considerations of how human memory works and can be assisted. Our work has been based on visual lifelogs gathered by dozens of people, some of them with collections spanning multiple years. In this review article we summarize a series of studies that have led to the development of a browser that is based on human memory systems and discuss the inherent tension in storing large amounts of data but making the most relevant material the most accessible

Cellular architecture and transmitter phenotypes of neurons of the mouse median raphe region

The median raphe region (MRR, which consist of MR and paramedian raphe regions) plays a crucial role in regulating cortical as well as subcortical network activity and behavior, while its malfunctioning may lead to disorders, such as schizophrenia, major depression, or anxiety. Mouse MRR neurons are classically identified on the basis of their serotonin (5-HT), vesicular glutamate transporter type 3 (VGLUT3), and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) contents; however, the exact cellular composition of MRR regarding transmitter phenotypes is still unknown. Using an unbiased stereological method, we found that in the MR, 8.5 % of the neurons were 5-HT, 26 % were VGLUT3, and 12.8 % were 5-HT and VGLUT3 positive; whereas 37.2 % of the neurons were GABAergic, and 14.4 % were triple negative. In the whole MRR, 2.1 % of the neurons were 5-HT, 7 % were VGLUT3, and 3.6 % were 5-HT and VGLUT3 positive; whereas 61 % of the neurons were GABAergic. Surprisingly, 25.4 % of the neurons were triple negative and were only positive for the neuronal marker NeuN. PET-1/ePET-Cre transgenic mouse lines are widely used to specifically manipulate only 5-HT containing neurons. Interestingly, however, using the ePET-Cre transgenic mice, we found that far more VGLUT3 positive cells expressed ePET than 5-HT positive cells, and about 38 % of the ePET cells contained only VGLUT3, while more than 30 % of 5-HT cells were ePET negative. These data should facilitate the reinterpretation of PET-1/ePET related data in the literature and the identification of the functional role of a putatively new type of triple-negative neuron in the MRR

Calpain-Catalyzed Proteolysis of Human dUTPase Specifically Removes the Nuclear Localization Signal Peptide

Calpain proteases drive intracellular signal transduction via specific proteolysis of multiple substrates upon Ca(2+)-induced activation. Recently, dUTPase, an enzyme essential to maintain genomic integrity, was identified as a physiological calpain substrate in Drosophila cells. Here we investigate the potential structural/functional significance of calpain-activated proteolysis of human dUTPase.Limited proteolysis of human dUTPase by mammalian m-calpain was investigated in the presence and absence of cognate ligands of either calpain or dUTPase. Significant proteolysis was observed only in the presence of Ca(II) ions, inducing calpain action. The presence or absence of the dUTP-analogue α,β-imido-dUTP did not show any effect on Ca(2+)-calpain-induced cleavage of human dUTPase. The catalytic rate constant of dUTPase was unaffected by calpain cleavage. Gel electrophoretic analysis showed that Ca(2+)-calpain-induced cleavage of human dUTPase resulted in several distinctly observable dUTPase fragments. Mass spectrometric identification of the calpain-cleaved fragments identified three calpain cleavage sites (between residues (4)SE(5); (7)TP(8); and (31)LS(32)). The cleavage between the (31)LS(32) peptide bond specifically removes the flexible N-terminal nuclear localization signal, indispensable for cognate localization.Results argue for a mechanism where Ca(2+)-calpain may regulate nuclear availability and degradation of dUTPase