Plant growers' environmental consciousness may not be enough to mitigate pollinator declines : a questionnaire‐based case study in Hungary

BACKGROUND: Pesticides are one of the most important anthropogenic-related stressors. In times of global pollinator decline, the role of integrated farming and urban gardens in supporting wild pollinators is becoming increasingly important. We circulated an online questionnaire to survey plant protection practices among Hungarian farmers and garden ownerswith a particular emphasis on pollinator protection. RESULTS: We found that plant growers rely heavily on pesticide use, and pesticides are used widely in otherwise pollinatorfriendly gardens. Whether pesticide use practices were driven by expert opinion and respondent gender were the best predictors of pesticide use. Although most respondents supported pollinators, pesticides are also used widely among home garden owners, which can pose a non-evident ecological trap for pollinator populations in the gardens. CONCLUSION: Special attention should be paid to implementing measures to reduce pesticide use not only in farmland, but also in home gardens. Environmental education and financial support through agroecological schemes could efficiently promote the transition away from pesticide use. However, whereas farmers can be encouraged to reduce pesticide use mostly by expert advice, garden owners are likely to rely on more conventional information channels. The attitudes of Hungarian plant growers can provide an insight into pesticide use practices of Central and Eastern European countries, but similar surveys are needed across Europe for a complete understanding of broad-scale processes. This work lays the foundations for similar studies that can inform and facilitate the transformation to pesticide-free farming and gardening.Zsofia Varga-Szilay was supported by the UNKP20-3 New National Excellence Program of the Ministry for Innovation and Technology from the source of the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund. Gabor Pozsgai was supported by FCT-UIDP/00329/2020 funding and research pluriannual funds for cE3c (FCT-UIDB/00329/2020).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

On Renyi entropies characterizing the shape and the extension of the phase space representation of quantum wave functions in disordered systems

We discuss some properties of the generalized entropies, called Renyi entropies and their application to the case of continuous distributions. In particular it is shown that these measures of complexity can be divergent, however, their differences are free from these divergences thus enabling them to be good candidates for the description of the extension and the shape of continuous distributions. We apply this formalism to the projection of wave functions onto the coherent state basis, i.e. to the Husimi representation. We also show how the localization properties of the Husimi distribution on average can be reconstructed from its marginal distributions that are calculated in position and momentum space in the case when the phase space has no structure, i.e. no classical limit can be defined. Numerical simulations on a one dimensional disordered system corroborate our expectations.Comment: 8 pages with 2 embedded eps figures, RevTex4, AmsMath included, submitted to PR

Bridging biodiversity and gardening: Unravelling the interplay of socio-demographic factors, 3 garden practices, and garden characteristics.

ABSTRACT: The expansion of urban areas threatens biodiversity, disrupts essential ecological relationships and jeopardises fragile ecological networks, thereby impedes key ecosystem services. To avert irreversible consequences, there is a focus on improving the biodiversity value of domestic gardens for both human well-being and conservation and a global imperative for well-planned and sustainable urban environments. Here, we employ machine learning and network analysis and examine gardening practices and garden owners’ environmental consciousness in Hungary through a questionnaire-based study to untangle the interplay among socio-demographic factors, garden management, and garden characteristics. We found that the activities determined as biodiversity-positive were widespread among respondents, but a lack of undisturbed areas (n = 624, 49.52%), mowing several times a month (n = 404, 32.06%) and ubiquitous pesticide use (n = 783, 62.14%) were also present. Middle-aged respondents demonstrated more biodiversity-supporting activities than those over 55, who had long-term gardening experience and were predominantly conventional gardeners. Residents of towns showed the least biodiversity-positive activities, whereas those living in cities and the countryside fared better. Additionally, multiple interconnected garden characteristics revealed various types of gardens distinguished by care practices and use, such as gardens for food self-provisioning, ornamental gardens, or those prioritizing biodiversity support. Our results show that garden owners use pesticides, and within them herbicides, independently of socio-demographic parameters, gardening practices, or garden characteristics, suggesting a widespread pesticide use in Hungary. Our findings suggest that strategies, to promote biodiversity-friendly gardening practices may not be equally suitable for all European countries with different cultural backgrounds, environmental consciousness and pesticide use. In particular, factors like differences between societal groups underscore the preference for in-person programs over online information transfer in several cases, for instance, among the elderly and those living in the countryside. This study offers fresh perspectives on the intricate connections between garden diversity, characteristics, and practices, and it lays the groundwork for future research into the sociological drivers of gardening practices in Eastern Europe. Our work also emphasises that optimizing gardens for multiple ecosystem services, including biodiversity conservation and enhancing well-being across diverse societal groups, requires a nuanced understanding of both ecological and socio-demographic factors.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Horizontal scraped surface heat exchanger — Experimental measurements and numerical analysis

This paper deal with the overall heat transfer process and confrontation of experimental measurements and their numerical solutions on simplified model, inside the horizontal scraped surface heat exchanger. The experimental measurements were done on two horizontal scraped surface heat exchangers connected in series. As a product was thermally treated water, heated by vapor in the first stage and cooled by cold water in the second stage. Applied mass flow of the product: m=250, 500, 750, 1000 kgh−1 and rotary velocity of the shaft, scraper blades: rpm=20, 30, (45), 60, 90 min−1. For numerical analyses the simplified model was used, with taking only the area between the heat transfer tube, and the shaft with an aim to compare the result to experimental measurements and validate the obtained overall heat exchange, as justify the simplification. As a results from experimental measurements were obtained the correlations for Nusselt number in a form of Nu=f(Re,Pr,ηf/ηw). Based on the confrontation of results, it can be stated that the level of simplification used at numerical solutions, gives still an acceptable accuracy of overall heat transfer values. From numerical simulations were obtained further results as the velocity, temperature fields, which were used to make certain adaptation on proposed construction and their examination by additional numerical simulations. All these acquired results lead to better understanding the overall process inside the horizontal scraped surface heat exchangers and the proposed construction of mutators can increase the efficiency of heat transfer process for many products in a real processing

Tilted pillar array fabrication by the combination of proton beam writing and soft lithography for microfluidic cell capture Part 2: Image sequence analysis based evaluation and biological application

As a continuation of our previously published work, this paper presents a detailed evaluation of a microfabricated cell capture device utilizing a doubly tilted micropillar array. The device was fabricated using a novel hybrid technology based on the combination of proton beam writing and conventional lithography techniques. Tilted pillars offer unique flow characteristics and support enhanced fluidic interaction for improved immuno-affinity based cell capture. The performance of the microdevice was evaluated by an image sequence analysis based in-house developed single cell tracking system. Individual cell tracking allowed in-depth analysis of the cell-chip surface interaction mechanism from hydrodynamic point of view. Simulation results were validated by using the hybrid device and the optimized surface functionalization procedure. Finally, the cell capture capability of this new generation microdevice was demonstrated by efficiently arresting cells from a HT29 cellline suspension

Invasive lobular carcinoma with extracellular mucin production-a novel pattern of lobular carcinomas of the breast. Clinico-pathological description of eight cases

Invasive lobular carcinoma of the breast is known to produce intracellular mucin and has been recognized in single-case reports to show extracellular mucin production, as well. This latter morphology is not only rare but must also be under- or misdiagnosed. The aim was to better characterize this entity. Cases of lobular cancers demonstrating extracellular mucin formation were identified in a multi-institutional effort and their clinical and morphologic features were assessed. Immunohistochemistry was used to characterize the E-cadherin-membrane complex, neuroendocrine differentiation, and to some extent, mucin formation. All but one of the eight cases occurred in postmenopausal patients. Extracellular mucin production was present in 5 to 50% of the tumour samples and rarely also appeared in nodal and distant metastases. The tumours were completely E-cadherin negative and showed cytoplasmic p120 positivity. The majority (n = 6/8) was also completely negative for beta-catenin, but two tumours displayed focal beta-catenin positivity in the mucinous area. MUC1 and MUC2 expression was observed in all and 7/8 tumours, respectively; neuroendocrine differentiation was present in only one. Invasive lobular carcinoma with extracellular mucin formation is a rare morphologic variant of lobular carcinoma prone to be misdiagnosed and warranting further studies.Peer reviewe

Investigation of changes in thickness and reflectivity from layered retinal structures of healthy and diabetic eyes with optical coherence tomography

OCT is usually employed for the measurement of retinal thickness. However, coherent reflected light carries more information characterizing the optical properties of tissue. Therefore, optical property changes may provide further information regarding cellular layers and early damage in ocular diseases. We investigated the possibility of OCT in detecting changes in the optical backscattered signal from layered retinal structures. OCT images were obtained from diabetic patients without retinopathy (DM, n = 38 eyes) or mild diabetic retinopathy (MDR, n = 43 eyes) and normal healthy subjects (n = 74 eyes). The thickness and reflectivity of various layered structures were assessed using a custom-built algorithm. In addition, we evaluated the usefulness of quantifying the reflectivity of layered structures in the detection of retinal damage. Generalized estimating equations considering within-subject inter-eye relations were used to test for differences between the groups. A modified p value of <0.001 was considered statistically significant. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were constructed to describe the ability of each parameter to discriminate between the eyes of DM, MDR and healthy eyes. Thickness values of the GCL + IPL and OPL showed a significant decrease in the MDR eyes compared to controls. Significant decreases of total reflectance average values were observed in all layers in the MDR eyes compared with controls. The highest AUROC values estimated for the total reflectance were observed for the GCL + IPL, OPL and OS when comparing MDR eyes with controls. Total reflectance showed a better discriminating power between the MDR eyes and healthy eyes compared to thickness values. Our results suggest that the optical properties of the intraretinal layers may provide useful information to differentiate pathological from healthy eyes. Further research is warranted to determine how this approach may be used to improve diagnosis of early retinal neurodegeneration