Hungary's place on Eurasian rail land bridges and the eastern opening

In the early 21st century the global financial crisis changed the economic position of many states, including the EU, which is only slowly recovering, and the quickly emerging economies of Asia. Several factors in global transportation have driven countries to fi nd alternative transport links and methods, including between Europe and Asia. Since 2010 government of Hungary has shift ed the focus of Hungarian foreign policy towards "the East", which can be perceived as an interest-based real policy. The above factors and Hungary's landlocked position gave a renewed impetus to the so-called Eurasian land bridge issue, which intends to connect Central and Eastern Europe and East Asia on land. As the authors argue, after comparing foreign strategies of CEE countries, "eastern opening" of Hungary is not a unique move in the region, neither is the renewed interest in rail land bridges. However, aft er examining all the possible land routes towards East Asia, the authors agree with those who see these routes as unsustainable in the short run. On the other hand, the moves of Chinese private and state-owned companies in Southeast Europe and CEE, the "New Silk Road" concept of the Chinese diplomacy and expansion of the Suez Canal may foresee the establishment of micro land-bridges from SEE ports via Hungary towards Western Europe, significantly shortening the routes and avoiding congested northwestern ports. In this regard Hungary may play an important role on these alternative routes providing economic and geopolitical benefits

Experimental increase in baseline corticosterone level reduces oxidative damage and enhances innate immune response

Glucocorticoid (GC) hormones are significant regulators of homeostasis. The physiological effects of GCs critically depend on the time of exposure (short vs. long) as well as on their circulating levels (baseline vs. stress-induced). Previous experiments, in which chronic and high elevation of GC levels was induced, indicate that GCs impair both the activity of the immune system and the oxidative balance. Nonetheless, our knowledge on how mildly elevated GC levels, a situation much more common in nature, might influence homeostasis is limited. Therefore, we studied whether an increase in GC level within the baseline range suppresses or enhances condition (body mass, hematocrit and coccidian infestation) and physiological state (humoral innate immune system activity and oxidative balance). We implanted captive house sparrows Passer domesticus with either 60 days release corticosterone (CORT) or control pellets. CORT-treated birds had elevated baseline CORT levels one week after the implantation, but following this CORT returned to its pre-treatment level and the experimental groups had similar CORT levels one and two months following the implantation. The mass of tail feathers grown during the initial phase of treatment was smaller in treated than in control birds. CORT implantation had a transient negative effect on body mass and hematocrit, but both of these traits resumed the pre-treatment values by one month post-treatment. CORT treatment lowered oxidative damage to lipids (malondialdehyde) and enhanced constitutive innate immunity at one week and one month post-implantation. Our findings suggest that a relatively short-term (i.e. few days) elevation of baseline CORT might have a positive and stimulatory effect on animal physiology

Possibilities for using agricultural areas for the cultivation of poplars in the hilly and mountainous regions of the Republic of Serbia

Brojni manji ili već vodotoci rijeka i rječica u Republici Srbiji obrasli su fragmentima aluvijalno higrofilnih šuma i predstavljaju potencijal za proširenje šumskog fonda. Problem predstavlja usitnjenost parcela koje su korištene za uzgajanje poljoprivrednih kultura i u privatnom su vlasništvu. Poseban značaj podizanja aluvijalnih-higrofilnih šuma uz ove vodotoke je u povećanju ukupne površine pod šumama u Republici Srbiji, čime se posredno pospješuje održivi razvoj šumskih ekosistema, stabilnost poljoprivredne proizvodnje i zaštita životne sredine. Uz međe okolnih parcela od prirode se javljaju fragmenti nekadašnjih šuma, koji ukazuju na visok stupanj utjecaja antropogenog čimbenika, kao i na činjenicu da je na tim površinama bila autohtona šumska vegetacija. U radu su istraživana svojstva tala od značaja za uzgajanje selektiranih sorti crnih topola u plićaku rijeke Rasine. Izdvojena je pjeskovita i ilovasta forma fluvisola. Izdvojene sistematske jedinice tala su formirane u priobalnom genetičkom dijelu plićaka ove rijeke. Razlika između izdvojenih sistematskih jedinica tla je u sadržaju praha i gline, teksturnoj klasi i sadržaju odnosno tipu akumulacije organske tvari u tlu.Numerous smaller and larger river streams in Serbia are covered by the fragments of alluvial hygrophillous forests presenting a potential for an extension of the forest stock. Along with the private ownership of the land, there is also the problem of land fragmentation due to the use of the land for agriculture. The establishment of alluvial hygrophillous forests along these streams would enlarge the total forest area in the Republic, which would indirectly promote the sustainable development of the forest ecosystems, the stability of agriculture, and the protection of the environment. Along the margins of the surrounding land areas, the fragments of the past forests naturally return. This confirms a high degree of influence of the anthropogenetic factor, and the fact that autochthonous forest vegetation used to cover these areas. A special place in the enlargement of the growing stock of the Republic of Serbia is taken by the selected species of black poplars due to their fast growth, height increment and the multiple purpose of poplar timber. The many years of the research on the numerous factors influencing the production of the poplar wood mass resulted in the conclusion that a successful production requires the following most important steps: choice of species, choice of habitat (particularly soil), and the selection of the suitable technologies for the establishment, growth, and protection of the plantations

Antioxidant, polyphenol and sensory analysis of cherry tomato varieties and landraces

Among vegetables produced both for raw consumption and processing, tomato is one of the most important one in Europe, by production area and by yield as well. In the past years several study dealt with the investigation of the inner content of tomato, with special regards to antioxidant content. In this paper cherry tomato varieties and landraces from conventional and organic production were compared. Besides basic investigations sensory analysis were designed and Antioxidant Capacity (AOC) and Total Phenol Content (TPC) were measured. The aim of the research was to compare varieties and to study the effect of variety and production methods on antioxidant capacity and sensory profiles

Antioxidant, polyphenol and sensory analysis of cherry tomato varieties and landraces

Among vegetables produced both for raw consumption and processing, tomato is one of the most important one in Europe, byproduction area and by yield as well. In the past years several study dealt with the investigation of the inner content of tomato, with specialregards to antioxidant content. In this paper cherry tomato varieties and landraces from conventional and organic production were compared.Besides basic investigations sensory analysis were designed and Antioxidant Capacity (AOC) and Total Phenol Content (TPC) weremeasured. The aim of the research was to compare varieties and to study the effect of variety and production methods on antioxidant capacityand sensory profiles

Gyermekkori pancreatitis. A Magyar Hasnyalmirigy Munkacsoport bizonyitekon alapulo kezelesi iranyelvei.

Pediatric pancreatitis is a rare disease with variable etiology. In the past 10-15 years the incidence of pediatric pancreatitis has been increased. The management of pediatric pancreatitis requires up-to-date and evidence based management guidelines. The Hungarian Pancreatic Study Group proposed to prepare an evidence based guideline based on the available international guidelines and evidences. The preparatory and consultation task force appointed by the Hungarian Pancreatic Study Group translated and complemented and/or modified the international guidelines if it was necessary. In 8 topics (diagnosis; etiology; prognosis; imaging; therapy; biliary tract management; complications; chronic pancreatitis) 50 relevant clinical questions were defined. (Evidence was classified according to the UpToDate(R) grading system. The draft of the guidelines was presented and discussed at the consensus meeting on September 12, 2014. All clinical questions were accepted with total (more than 95%) agreement. The present Hungarian Pancreatic Study Group guideline is the first evidence based pediatric pancreatitis guideline in Hungary. This guideline provides very important and helpful data for tuition of pediatric pancreatitis in everyday practice and establishing proper finance and, therefore, the authors believe that these guidelines will widely serve as a basic reference in Hungary. Orv. Hetil., 2015, 156(8), 308-325

Bacterial microevolution and the Pangenome

The comparison of multiple genome sequences sampled from a bacterial population reveals considerable diversity in both the core and the accessory parts of the pangenome. This diversity can be analysed in terms of microevolutionary events that took place since the genomes shared a common ancestor, especially deletion, duplication, and recombination. We review the basic modelling ingredients used implicitly or explicitly when performing such a pangenome analysis. In particular, we describe a basic neutral phylogenetic framework of bacterial pangenome microevolution, which is not incompatible with evaluating the role of natural selection. We survey the different ways in which pangenome data is summarised in order to be included in microevolutionary models, as well as the main methodological approaches that have been proposed to reconstruct pangenome microevolutionary history

Local conservation scores without a priori assumptions on neutral substitution rates

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Comparative genomics aims to detect signals of evolutionary conservation as an indicator of functional constraint. Surprisingly, results of the ENCODE project revealed that about half of the experimentally verified functional elements found in non-coding DNA were classified as unconstrained by computational predictions. Following this observation, it has been hypothesized that this may be partly explained by biased estimates on neutral evolutionary rates used by existing sequence conservation metrics. All methods we are aware of rely on a comparison with the neutral rate and conservation is estimated by measuring the deviation of a particular genomic region from this rate. Consequently, it is a reasonable assumption that inaccurate neutral rate estimates may lead to biased conservation and constraint estimates.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We propose a conservation signal that is produced by local Maximum Likelihood estimation of evolutionary parameters using an optimized sliding window and present a Kullback-Leibler projection that allows multiple different estimated parameters to be transformed into a conservation measure. This conservation measure does not rely on assumptions about neutral evolutionary substitution rates and little a priori assumptions on the properties of the conserved regions are imposed. We show the accuracy of our approach (KuLCons) on synthetic data and compare it to the scores generated by state-of-the-art methods (phastCons, GERP, SCONE) in an ENCODE region. We find that KuLCons is most often in agreement with the conservation/constraint signatures detected by GERP and SCONE while qualitatively very different patterns from phastCons are observed. Opposed to standard methods KuLCons can be extended to more complex evolutionary models, e.g. taking insertion and deletion events into account and corresponding results show that scores obtained under this model can diverge significantly from scores using the simpler model.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our results suggest that discriminating among the different degrees of conservation is possible without making assumptions about neutral rates. We find, however, that it cannot be expected to discover considerably different constraint regions than GERP and SCONE. Consequently, we conclude that the reported discrepancies between experimentally verified functional and computationally identified constraint elements are likely not to be explained by biased neutral rate estimates.</p