Cultural value perception in the memorable tourism experience

Tourism management curriculum, if its ultimate objective is to give an introduction to the modern trends in tourism management and marketing and to prepare future destination managers, must inevitably incorporate – together with all their theoretical and practical implications - the phenomena of experiential consumption and value co-creation

Entrepreneurship education – the way to reach active citizenship

One of tourism education's chief objectives must be the ability to bring forth progressive social change. Our economies tend to grow from employee societies to entrepreneurs societies where autonomous and independent business activity is required of the individuals. Universities' fundamental role is to educate and train young generations capable of adapting to the changing world around them and to acquire the attitude of autonomous entrepreneurs. The inclusion of entrepreneurship skills and competencies – namely, autonomy, creativity, the ability to innovate and future orientation - in the curriculum can make a difference in how young people adapt to change. Entrepreneurs, creating value that is not only economic, but also social - are significant pillars of civil societies. In their role as financiers and organisers they can impersonate the active citizen and therefore become role models for ambitious youth. Universities' responsibility to society at large is to educate and train generations of active citizens. Active citizenship education is especially important in societies where the practice of democratic participation is unsatisfactory or missing, like in the case of Central and Eastern Europe. Engagement of students can be enhanced by entrepreneurship education in as much as it serves as a tool and method to introduce and spread proactive and autonomous behaviour, future orientation and abandon passivity, so frequent in societies with democratic deficit. 'Proactivity involves taking the initiative to address problems in one's service domain and a commitment to excellence in one's domain of expertise.' (TEFI White Paper 2008, p.16). Active citizenship education could contribute to TEFI objectives by integrating it to stewardship value pillar that incorporates sustainability, responsibility and service to the community. Before designing an appropriate curriculum incorporating active citizenship, it is worth while exploring the attitude and perception of tourism students. This paper will look at the perception and assessment of active citizenship and of the figure and status of entrepreneur. It is important to understand what the students think about active citizenship, to what extent is this notion familiar to them and for those that are aware of the term – do they practice it? Initially, the pilot survey was carried out among tourism and hospitality undergraduates in the Budapest Business School, but will be extended internationally to cover a wider population of tourism undergraduates

Education for sustainable development in tourism: empowering future generations

Political and economic transformation and the policies of the often changing governments of the Central and Eastern European countries coupled with the general deception of the reforms have resulted in the erosion of the formerly existing social ties, thus weakening the social capital of these nations. Subjective well-being is at the lowest level in Hungary where a series of measures and phenomena led to the general feeling of being excluded from policy-making is reflected in the hopelessness and depression of the population. It would be of utmost importance to encourage future generations to become active and take the reins of future in their own hands. This can be done by the general introduction of Education for Sustainability (EfS) the concept of which can reinforce faith and hope in a sustainable future. This paper attempts to demonstrate how Education for Sustainability can positively influence future expectations of tourism and hospitality students

Tolerance and Cultural Diversity Discourses in Hungary

Work Package 1: Overview of National Discourses on Tolerance and Cultural diversity (Literature and Realities)The ACCEPT PLURALISM project (2010-2013) is funded by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme, Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities. (Call FP7-SSH-2009-A, Grant Agreement no: 243837). Coordinator: Prof. Anna Triandafyllidou, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute

WT1 GENE EXPRESSION IN THE PERIPHERAL BLOOD OF PATIENTS SUFFERING FROM HEMATOLOGICAL MALIGNANCIES

The WT1 gene, localized on the 11p13 region of the human genome has an important role in the development of the urogenital system, but also in the regulation of cell proliferation and differentiation. WT1 gene is overexpressed in 70-90% of leukemic cells, irrespective of the type of leukemia. WT1 gene expression in peripheral blood may detect minimal residual disease in all types of leukemias. We measured the WT1 gene expression level with qRT-PCR in the peripheral blood of 34 patients with malignancies, mainly leukemias (2 AML, 2 CML, 2 NHL, 1 HD and 27 ALL) under cytostatic treatment, 13 oncological patients who completed their chemotherapy and were in remission and 21 patients suffering from non-malignant diseases. We found WT1 gene expressions in 19 PB samples out of 47 oncological patients: 17 WT1 expressions appeared in ALL patients (15 cases under treatment and 2 post treatment) and 1-1 in a CML and NHL patient. We found a significant inverse relationship between WT1 gene positivity and time elapsed between diagnosis and blood sample examination. We did not find any relationship between WT1 gene expression and age, gender, WBC at diagnosis, FAB type of lymphoblasts, immunophenotype, risk groups, survival rate and relapse. Repeated measurements of WT1 gene expression may become a useful tool in MRD monitoring, especially in leukemias which lack specific DNA markers

Exploration of active citizenship, entrepreneurial behaviour and calling in career

In light of the research gap in the entrepreneurship literature on the contextual variables and values impacting the entrepreneurial career decision-making, this thesis had been designed to combine - by means of rapprochement – threads of thought from three seemingly distinct disciplines: career development, entrepreneurial psychology and active citizenship. In order to resolve the gap, the research presented ‘borrows’ from vocational psychology into the entrepreneurship enquiry in order to understand more about: 1) how entrepreneurship may help express different career orientations and personal goals and 2) the consequences of these orientations and goals for business behaviours and success. It also addresses the research into the contextual variables and values by introducing two concepts which are new to the domain: calling and active citizenship behaviour. Active citizenship can be regarded as a distal personal variable in the Social Cognitive Career Theory model and is comparable to the construct of social justice. This thesis is pioneer in its way of approaching and handling the construct of active citizenship behaviour in the SCCT model. The research advances an integrative, theoretically-based conceptualization of flourishing as a perceived result or consequence of choosing the entrepreneurial path that is not only testable but also links the generated distal contextual variables such as calling and active citizenship behaviour constructs to rich conceptual accounts of self-efficacy, outcome expectations, interest and flourishing. It also extends the existing Social Cognitive Career Theory research and specifically its module on career decision-making by investigating, for the first time, the direct and indirect roles of calling and active citizenship behaviour. The research method adopted a three-stage solution whereby conceptual models were developed from a simpler to a more sophisticated model, and were presented in three distinct Studies. Both the first and the second studies draw on archival databases (N1 = 197; N2 = 5677). In the third study, the proposed conceptual models were tested in a sequential design with a sample of graduate students (N = 336). In Partial Least Square structural equation analyses focusing on predictive relationships between constructs, calling has been found to be a strong and significant predictor of entrepreneurial and career-decision self-efficacy, outcome expectation and furthermore, as demonstrated in the detailed analyses, it also predicts flourishing by the mediating means of outcome expectations. Active citizenship proved to be a significant and strong predictor of calling, outcome expectations and to a lesser extent, of vocational self-efficacy. It did predict entrepreneurial self-efficacy via the mediating role of vocational self-efficacy, as demonstrated in the decomposed model analyses. Taken together, the studies constituting the present research have provided new perspectives and a great deal of data on the role and relevance of active citizenship behaviour and calling as new constructs in the extended SCCT career decision-making model

Investigation of the Antihypertrophic and Antifibrotic Effects of Losartan in a Rat Model of Radiation-Induced Heart Disease

Radiation-induced heart disease (RIHD) is a potential late side-effect of thoracic radiotherapy resulting in left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) and fibrosis due to a complex pathomechanism leading to heart failure. Angiotensin-II receptor blockers (ARBs), including losartan, are frequently used to control heart failure of various etiologies. Preclinical evidence is lacking on the anti-remodeling effects of ARBs in RIHD, while the results of clinical studies are controversial. We aimed at investigating the effects of losartan in a rat model of RIHD. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were studied in three groups: (1) control, (2) radiotherapy (RT) only, (3) RT treated with losartan (per os 10 mg/kg/day), and were followed for 1, 3, or 15 weeks. At 15 weeks post-irradiation, losartan alleviated the echocardiographic and histological signs of LVH and fibrosis and reduced the overexpression of chymase, connective tissue growth factor, and transforming growth factor-beta in the myocardium measured by qPCR; likewise, the level of the SMAD2/3 protein determined by Western blot decreased. In both RT groups, the pro-survival phospho-AKT/AKT and the phospho-ERK1,2/ERK1,2 ratios were increased at week 15. The antiremodeling effects of losartan seem to be associated with the repression of chymase and several elements of the TGF-beta/SMAD signaling pathway in our RIHD model.Peer reviewe

Colon cancer cell-derived 12(S)-HETE induces the retraction of cancer-associated fibroblast via MLC2, RHO/ROCK and Ca2+ signalling

Retraction of mesenchymal stromal cells supports the invasion of colorectal cancer cells (CRC) into the adjacent compartment. CRC-secreted 12(S)-HETE enhances the retraction of cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) and therefore, 12(S)-HETE may enforce invasivity of CRC. Understanding the mechanisms of metastatic CRC is crucial for successful intervention. Therefore, we studied pro-invasive contributions of stromal cells in physiologically relevant three-dimensional in vitro assays consisting of CRC spheroids, CAFs, extracellular matrix and endothelial cells, as well as in reductionist models. In order to elucidate how CAFs support CRC invasion, tumour spheroid-induced CAF retraction and free intracellular Ca2+ levels were measured and pharmacological-or siRNA-based inhibition of selected signalling cascades was performed. CRC spheroids caused the retraction of CAFs, generating entry gates in the adjacent surrogate stroma. The responsible trigger factor 12(S)-HETE provoked a signal, which was transduced by PLC, IP3, free intracellular Ca2+, Ca(2+)calmodulin-kinase-II, RHO/ROCK and MYLK which led to the activation of myosin light chain 2, and subsequent CAF mobility. RHO activity was observed downstream as well as upstream of Ca2+ release. Thus, Ca2+ signalling served as central signal amplifier. Treatment with the FDA-approved drugs carbamazepine, cinnarizine, nifedipine and bepridil HCl, which reportedly interfere with cellular calcium availability, inhibited CAF-retraction. The elucidation of signalling pathways and identification of approved inhibitory drugs warrant development of intervention strategies targeting tumour-stroma interaction

Phenotypic convergence of Menkes and Wilson disease.

Menkes disease is an X-linked multisystem disorder with epilepsy, kinky hair, and neurodegeneration caused by mutations in the copper transporter ATP7A. Other ATP7A mutations have been linked to juvenile occipital horn syndrome and adult-onset hereditary motor neuropathy.1,2 About 5%-10% of the patients present with "atypical Menkes disease" characterized by longer survival, cerebellar ataxia, and developmental delay.2 The intracellular copper transport is regulated by 2 P type ATPase copper transporters ATP7A and ATP7B. These proteins are expressed in the trans-Golgi network that guides copper to intracellular compartments, and in copper excess, it relocates copper to the plasma membrane to pump it out from the cells.3ATP7B mutations cause Wilson disease with dystonia, ataxia, tremor, and abnormal copper accumulation in the brain, liver, and other organs.4