A Dumuzi és Ĝeštinanna című mítosz

A Dumuzi és Ĝeštinanna című szöveg a sumer elbeszélő költemények problémás darabjai közé tartozik. A szokatlan megfogalmazások hátterében az állhat, hogy a szöveg ókori szerkesztője Dumuzi isten történetének problémáit a narratíván belül próbálta kommentálni. A szöveg „szerzője” nem explicit módon fogalmazta meg a teológiai kérdéseket, hanem hermeneutikai technikákkal juttatta ezeket kifejezésre: például mely ékjelekkel írjon szavakat, hogy azok Dumuzi lényegére utaljanak. Több helyen szokatlan fordulatokat használtak, amelyeknek intertextuális vonatkozásai lehetnek: ezek Dumuzi isten és a király, illetve Dumuzi és a felesége kapcsolatával hozhatók összefüggésbe

Dumuzi and Ĝeštinanna

The present article contains the philological edition of the Old Babylonian Sumerian composition Dumuzi and Ĝeštinanna (UET 6, 11), a study of its literary characteristics, intertextual elements, allusions, and early hermeneutic techniques

Differential Changes in Expression of Stress- and Metabolic-related Neuropeptides in the Rat Hypothalamus during Morphine Dependence and Withdrawal

Chronic morphine treatment and naloxone precipitated morphine withdrawal activates stress-related brain circuit and results in significant changes in food intake, body weight gain and energy metabolism. The present study aimed to reveal hypothalamic mechanisms underlying these effects. Adult male rats were made dependent on morphine by subcutaneous implantation of constant release drug pellets. Pair feeding revealed significantly smaller weight loss of morphine treated rats compared to placebo implanted animals whose food consumption was limited to that eaten by morphine implanted pairs. These results suggest reduced energy expenditure of morphine-treated animals. Chronic morphine exposure or pair feeding did not significantly affect hypothalamic expression of selected stress- and metabolic related neuropeptides - corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), urocortin 2 (UCN2) and proopiomelanocortin (POMC) compared to placebo implanted and pair fed animals. Naloxone precipitated morphine withdrawal resulted in a dramatic weight loss starting as early as 15-30 min after naloxone injection and increased adrenocorticotrophic hormone, prolactin and corticosterone plasma levels in morphine dependent rats. Using real-time quantitative PCR to monitor the time course of relative expression of neuropeptide mRNAs in the hypothalamus we found elevated CRH and UCN2 mRNA and dramatically reduced POMC expression. Neuropeptide Y (NPY) and arginine vasopressin (AVP) mRNA levels were transiently increased during opiate withdrawal. These data highlight that morphine withdrawal differentially affects expression of stress- and metabolic-related neuropeptides in the rat hypothalamus, while relative mRNA levels of these neuropeptides remain unchanged either in rats chronically treated with morphine or in their pair-fed controls

Soil CO2 efflux and production rates as influenced by evapotranspiration in a dry grassland

Aims Our aim was to study the effect of potential biotic drivers, including evapotranspiration (ET) and gross primary production (GPP), on the soil CO2 production and efflux on the diel time scale. Methods Eddy covariance, soil respiration and soil CO2 gradient systems were used to measure the CO2 and H2O fluxes in a dry, sandy grassland in Hungary. The contribution of CO2 production from three soil layers to plot-scale soil respiration was quantified. CO2 production and efflux residuals after subtracting the effects of the main abiotic and biotic drivers were analysed. Results Soil CO2 production showed a strong negative correlation with ET rates with a time lag of 0.5 hours in the two upper layers, whereas less strong, but still significant time-lagged and positive correlations were found between GPP and soil CO2 production. Our results suggest a rapid negative response of soil CO2 production rates to transpiration changes, and a delayed positive response to GPP. Conclusions We found evidence for a combined effect of soil temperature and transpiration that influenced the diel changes in soil CO2 production. A possible explanation for this pattern could be that a significant part of CO2 produced in the soil may be transported across soil layers via the xylem

Diatom-based evidence for abrupt climate changes during the Late Glacial in the Southern Carpathian Mountains

Abstract A high-resolution paleolimnological record from Lake Brazi (TDB-1; 45°23’47″N, 22°54’06″E, 1740 m a.s.l.), a small, glacial lake in the Retezat (South Carpathian Mountains, Romania) provides a sensitive record of the impacts of late glacial climatic change on siliceous algal assemblages. The sequence, ranging from 15,700 cal yr BP to 9500 cal yr BP, suggests that the most significant changes in diatom assemblages took place at 12,800 and 10,400 cal yr BP, when alkaliphilous fragilarioid taxa were replaced by acidophilous diatoms. Altogether eight zones were distinguished with sharp and rapid changes of diatom assemblages. The paper discusses the application of siliceous algae in multi-proxy paleolimnological analyses, demonstrates the advantages and disadvantages of this proxy and presents the story of floristic discovery of unique diatom assemblages, the closest recent analogs of which are found in the arctic region

Gyepvegetáció CO2-gázcsere komponensei és reflektancia-sajátságau közötti kapcsolatok vizsgálata = Relationships between the CO2 gas exchange components and reflectance properties of a grassland vegetation

Az ökoszisztéma léptékű CO2-gázcsere (NEE) alkotó folyamatainak jellemzésében elért fontos - a kutatócsoport saját fejlesztésű automata talajlégzés-mérő rendszere, illetve a grádiens módszer együttes alkalmazásával kapott - eredmény, hogy a csapadékesemények után a talajban jelentős, lefelé irányuló CO2-áramok fordulnak elő (Nagy et al. 2011). Ezek - az eddig nem leírt - áramok szignifikánsan hozzájárulnak a valós idejű ökoszisztéma-fluxusok és az örvény-kovarianciával mért fluxusok eltéréséhez, módosítják az adathiányos periódusok pótlására használt függvénykapcsolatokat, s ezzel növelik a szénmérleg becslésének bizonytalanságát. Hazánkban különösen fontos a talajok szénforgalmának vizsgálata, hiszen a talaj széntartalom csökkenése a tápanyagtartalom csökkenésével jár, illetve, ha ez a folyamat hosszú időn keresztül fennáll – aszályos évek, melegedés hatására –, sivatagosodási folyamatokkal kell számolnunk. A különböző talajtípusokon végzett CO2 forgalmi mérések alapján úgy tűnik, hogy a talajok magasabb szerves széntartalma nem jár együtt magasabb hőmérséklet-érzékenységgel (Balogh et al. 2011). A választ a fotoszintézis és a légzési aktivitások szoros kapcsolatában, illetve az erős forrásoldali meghatározottságban kereshetjük. | Important result in the characterization of the components of net ecosystem exchange is the occurrence of significant downward CO2 fluxes after rain events which was measured by applying together the research groups self-developed automated soil respiration measuring system and the gradient method (Nagy et al. 2011). These not yet described fluxes are contributing significantly the difference between the real time ecosystem fluxes and the fluxes measured by eddy covariance technique and are modifying the functions used to fill the data gaps, so they are increasing the uncertainty in carbon balance estimations. Investigation of soil carbon dynamics is important when considering that declining nutrient status of the soil is generally linked to organic carbon content decrease. The process may well lead to desertification, if persisting for a longer period due to droughts and increased temperatures. Higher soil carbon contents seem not to coincide with larger sensitiviy of soil respiration to temperature (Balogh et al. 2011), a response probably also mediated by the strong link between ecosystem carbon uptake and soil respiration