Local Scale Wind Regime Changes and their Consequences on Sustainability in the Carpathian Basin (Hungary)

The Carpathian basin is facing significant threats to its unique biogeography and the sustainability of its human society due to climate change. While studies have extensively analyzed temperature and precipitation changes, little attention has been given to the analysis of wind regime changes despite their potential correlation with diverse climatic effects. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of long-term observational wind data at both local and regional scales of the basin. The study aims to identify trends in wind speed and direction and raises some implications for sustainability aspects such as forest health, agricultural potential, and availability of wind energy. To track the decadal trends in wind speed, two indexes were utilized: the number of calm days and the number of windy days. In addition to traditional wind roses, fine changes in wind direction distribution were visualized using heat maps. The dominance of local winds was also examined through aggregated wind roses. Our research findings reveal that contrary to predictions and reanalysis data, there has been a noteworthy rise in wind resources in the Hungarian Great Plain, accompanied by a decrease in the number of calm days. It is evident that there are variations among different geographical regions within Hungary regarding changes in wind regimes. These trends have the potential to impact current dominant climatic influences, leading to possible modifications in climate change patterns and necessitating a reassessment of main forest and agricultural species

Opioid peptidek sejtproliferációt gátló hatásmechanizmusának további vizsgálata uterusban = Further studies on the mechanism of the cell proliferation-inhibitory action of opioid peptides in the uterus

Az opioid peptidek sejtproliferációt gátló hatását vizsgáltuk tenyésztett patkány és humán uterus sejtekben. Méréseinkhez sejtszámlálást, DNS meghatározást, MTT sejtproliferációs assay-t és immunoblot módszereket alkalmaztunk. Adataink alapján az opioid peptidek patkány uterus sejtek osztódását gátló hatásában két eltérő fázis különíthető el az egyedfejlődés alatt, melyeket egy érzéketlen periódus választ el egymástól. Az opioid peptid és progeszteron receptor rendszerek között kétirányú kapcsolat működik felnőtt patkány uterus sejtek, valamint humán myometrium és endometrium sejtek szaporodásának gátló jellegű szabályozásában. Fiatal, éretlen patkányok uterus sejtjeiben e molekuláris kapcsolat még nem mutatható ki. A naloxon- és az RU486-hatás időfüggésének eltérései alapján e kétirányú kapcsolat eltérő támadáspontokon keresztül valósulhat meg. Az opioid peptidek sejtosztódást gátló mechanizmusa és az ópiát-progeszteron kölcsönhatás működőképes humán leiomyoma sejtekben is. Azonban [D-Met2-Pro5]-enkefalinamid (ENK) a leiomyoma sejtek nem-stimulált szaporodását is gátolta, és az ENK és DAMGO mellett itt [Met5]-enkefalin is hatásosnak bizonyult a 7 napos patkány uterusban leírtakhoz hasonlóan. A myometrium sejtekben találtakkal ellentétben, RU486 önmagában nem serkentette a leiomyoma sejtek a szaporodását, azonban az ENK gátló hatását kivédte. Az eltérések a sejtosztódás szabályozásának részleges dedifferentációját mutathatják, ami a pathomechanizmusban is szerepet játszhat. | The inhibitory action of opioid peptides on the proliferation of cultured rat and human uterine cells was investigated. Cell counting, DNA determination, MTT cell proliferation assay and immunoblot technique were used to obtain data. Our data demonstrate two different phases of the inhibitory action of opioid peptides on rat uterine cell proliferation during ontogeny with an insensitive interval in between. A bidirectional interaction exists between the opioid peptide and progesterone signaling systems in the inhibitory regulation of cell proliferation in adult rat uterus and in human myometrium and endometrium. Uteri of immature rats lack this molecular connection. The difference between the time dependence of naloxon and RU486 actions suggests that, this bidirectional action is realized by targeting different elements in the mechanism of action. The opioid peptides' growth inhibitory system and the opiate-progesterone interaction are functional in human uterine leiomyoma cells. However, [D-Met2-Pro5]-enkephalinamide (ENK) inhibited the non-stimulated proliferation of leiomyoma cells and, besides ENK and DAMGO, [Met5]-enkephalin was effective as well, similar to that of found in 7-day-old rats. In contrast to myometrial cells, RU486 alone did not stimulate the proliferation of leiomyoma cells however; it antagonized the inhibitory effect of ENK. These alterations suggest a partial dedifferentiation of cell-division regulation and, might play a role in the pathomechanism

Membran ösztrogén receptorok sejtszintű hatásainak vizsgálata human uterus hormonális szabályozásában és daganatos elváltozások patomechanizmusában = Cellular function of membrane estrogen receptors in hormonal control of human uterus and in pathomechanism of tumor formation

Patkány uterusban E2 kezelés hatására az Akt foszforilációja a Ser473 és a FOXO1 Ser 256 csoportokon fokozódik, amit ICI 182, 780 és Wortmannin gátol. Az Akt expresszió nem változott, a pAkt myomában jelentősen fokozódott. A pAkt a proliferációs fázisban volt a legmagasabb. Myomákban a ciklus alatti Akt foszforiláciő fokozódásával párhuzamosan az ER foszforilációja, a cyclin D1 és Bcl-2 proteinek expressziója is fokozódott. Myomában az inaktív pPTEN-Ser380 fokozódott a pAkt változásokkal megegyező módon. A myometriumokban pPTEN szintekben ciklus fázisoktól függő és pAkt-tól független változásokat találtunk. A PTEN ínaktivációja és Akt aktivációja myomában a menstruációs ciklus alatt párhuzamosan változott. A pFOXO1 (Ser256) protein szintje magasabb volt myomában és változott a menstruációs ciklus alatt ill. menopauzában. Myomában a pFOXO-Ser256 elsősorban a magban volt kimutatható, feltehetően a nucleocytoplasmatikus transport zavara miatt, aminek az oka valószínűleg a párhuzamosan meghatározott 14-3-3 protein expresszió csökkenése.Myomában a megváltozott PTEN/ER/PI3K/Akt/FOXO1 jelátvitel a sejtekben sejttúlélést biztosító (prosurvival) programok előtérbe kerülését serkenti. Az ERalpha expresszió postmenopauzás endometriumban irregulárisan változott. Az ER(Ser167) és Akt foszforilációja magasabb vér E2 szintnél (>50pmol/L) fokozódott. A pAkt pozitívan korrelált se E2 koncentrációval (r: 0.811, p50pmol/L). The pAkt (Ser473) was abundant in endometrium of women with higher (>50 pmol/L) E2 concentration. The pAkt significantly correlated with Se E2 (r: 0.811, p<0.001) and pERalpha (r: 0.879, p< 0.001)

Nonequilibrium critical dynamics of the two-dimensional Ising model quenched from a correlated initial state

The universality class, even the order of the transition, of the two-dimensional Ising model depends on the range and the symmetry of the interactions (Onsager model, Baxter-Wu model, Turban model, etc.), but the critical temperature is generally the same due to self-duality. Here we consider a sudden change in the form of the interaction and study the nonequilibrium critical dynamical properties of the nearest-neighbor model. The relaxation of the magnetization and the decay of the autocorrelation function are found to display a power law behavior with characteristic exponents that depend on the universality class of the initial state.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Numerical Examination of a Forest Area Fire

An important task of sustainability is the protection of Earth's forests and the prevention of forest fires. In this paper, the numerical examination of a typical Hungarian ash forest fire is presented. The connection between sustainability and forest fire simulations is also discussed. For the simulation, a Fire Dynamics Simulator was selected, and a particle-based model was used. The simulation setup, which includes a random location of trees following Poisson distribution, is also explained. Then, the simulation of a 10x10 m area of ash forest is presented. It was found that in case of arson, the fire spreads rapidly among the trees, and there will be a high-intensity fire in which the forest area burns down in 4 min. The mass loss rate, the temperature, and the heat release rate also increased fast (above 50 kg/s, above 2,000 °C and above 800,000 kW). The aerosol concentration reached a high pollutant concentration (1.3x10-6), and the carbon dioxide concentration also increased significantly (above 14,000 ppm). These changes have a direct effect on climate change. Therefore, it is important to examine them in a simulation environment. The simulation was compared to a pine tree forest simulation, and it could be observed that in the case of the pine tree, the values are similar, but phenomena occur faster. With the computer simulation, it is easier to determine the areas affected by the fire, which also helps fire prevention and firefighting. The aim of the research is to contribute to the prevention and more efficient extinguishment of wildfires and the sustainability of the Earth

Versatility of microglial bioenergetic machinery under starving conditions

Microglia are highly dynamic cells in the brain. Their functional diversity and phenotypic versatility brought microglial energy metabolism into the focus of research. Although it is known that microenvironmental cues shape microglial phenotype, their bioenergetic response to local nutrient availability remains unclear. In the present study effects of energy substrates on the oxidative and glycolytic metabolism of primary - and BV-2 microglial cells were investigated. Cellular oxygen consumption, glycolytic activity, the levels of intracellular ATP/ADP, autophagy, mTOR phosphorylation, apoptosis and cell viability were measured in the absence of nutrients or in the presence of physiological energy substrates: glutamine, glucose, lactate, pyruvate or ketone bodies. All of the oxidative energy metabolites increased the rate of basal and maximal respiration. However, the addition of glucose decreased microglial oxidative metabolism and glycolytic activity was enhanced. Increased ATP/ADP ratio and cell viability, activation of the mTOR and reduction of autophagic activity were observed in glutamine-supplemented media. Moreover, moderate and transient oxidation of ketone bodies was highly enhanced by glutamine, suggesting that anaplerosis of the TCA-cycle could stimulate ketone body oxidation. It is concluded that microglia show high metabolic plasticity and utilize a wide range of substrates. Among them glutamine is the most efficient metabolite. To our knowledge these data provide the first account of microglial direct metabolic response to nutrients under short-term starvation and demonstrate that microglia exhibit versatile metabolic machinery. Our finding that microglia have a distinct bioenergetic profile provides a critical foundation for specifying microglial contributions to brain energy metabolism