EFFECT OF AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT ON THE GDP OF EU MEMBER STATES

Scientific research, together with technological development and innovation, is a key issue of knowledge-based economies. Having recognized this important role, the European Union has identified the increasing of its research budget to be one of its most important aims. The objective of the common programming of agricultural research is to examine the extent to which society is able to answer the challenges resulting from the Community-level development of renewable raw materials. Joining in the spirit of these endeavours, the aim of our research is to analyze the links between agricultural R&D expenditure and agricultural GDP in the EU member states, relying on the Eurostat database. Our computations were made using constant prices of 2000. The results of our calculations can be summarized as follows: â— The C-D type functions are useful for measuring the approximate impact of the production factors we analyzed. â— In 2000 it was the agricultural assets, and in 2007 the labour, which had a greater contribution to the agricultural GDP. This change indicates that in the meantime, the labour force had acquired more technical expertise, i.e. had accumulated a greater knowledge, and its significance as a production factor had increased. â— The share of agricultural R&D in the production of GDP was approximately 11% in 2000 and 14% in 2007, thus the development efforts are essential from the point of view of agricultural production. ---------------------------------------------------- A tudományos kutatás a műszaki fejlesztéssel és az innovációval együtt a tudásalapú gazdaság kulcsfontosságú eleme. Ezt felismerve az Európai Unió elsÅ‘ számú céljai közé emelte kutatási költségvetése növelését. A mezÅ‘gazdasági kutatás közös programozásának célja annak vizsgálata, hogy a társadalom képes-e választ adni azokra a kihívásokra, amelyek a megújuló nyersanyagok közösségi szintű fejlesztésébÅ‘l erednek. Hasonló szellemben fogant kutatásunk célja az EU-tagállamok mezÅ‘gazdasági K+F ráfordítá-sai és agrár GDP-je között fennálló összefüggések vizsgálata az Eurostat adatbázis alapján. Számí¬tásainkat 2000-es állandó árak alapján végeztük. A számítások eredményei az alábbiakban foglal¬hatók össze: â— A C-D típusú függvények jól használhatók az elemzett termelési tényezÅ‘k közelítÅ‘ hatásának mérésére. â— 2000-ben a mezÅ‘gazdasági eszközök, míg 2007-ben a munkaerÅ‘ járult hozzá nagyobb mérték¬ben az agrár GDP-hez. Ez a változás azt jelzi, hogy idÅ‘közben a munkaerÅ‘ nagyobb szakmai tudást tett magáévá, azaz több szakmai ismeretet szerzett, ezért jelentÅ‘sebb termelési tényezÅ‘vé vált. â— A mezÅ‘gazdasági K+F részesedése a GDP-bÅ‘l 2000-ben 11%, míg 2007-ben 14% volt, ezért a fejlesztési törekvések az agrártermelés szempontjából nélkülözhetetlenek.EU, R&D intensity, production functions, combination of production factors, EU, K&Fintenzitás, termelési funkciók, termelési tényezÅ‘k kombinációja, Agricultural and Food Policy, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Safety and efficacy of nateglinide/metformin combination therapy in the treatment of type 2 diabetes

The increasing prevalence of type 2 diabetes provides impetus for both development of new drugs to improve glycemic control and for reconsideration of treatment strategies with existing agents. Combination therapy with complementary drug classes that act on different aspects of glycemic control has been a particularly effective strategy. This work reviews the published literature reporting efficacy and safety/tolerability of nateglinide, a rapid-onset insulinotropic agent with a predominant effect to reduce postprandial glucose, when combined with metformin, a first-line agent that suppresses hepatic glucose production and thereby reduces fasting plasma glucose. The nateglinide/metformin combination has consistently been found to be both efficacious and well tolerated, whether given as initial combination therapy in drug-naïve patients or when added to metformin monotherapy. Maximum efficacy (Δ glycosylated hemoglobin [HbA1c]= −1.4% to −1.9%, sustained for up to 2 years of treatment) was seen in studies of drug-naïve patients in whom pharmacotherapy was initiated with the combination of nateglinide and metformin, and modest reductions in HbA1c (Δ = −0.5% to −1.2%, sustained for up to 24 weeks) were found when nateglinide was added to ongoing metformin monotherapy

MalDA, accelerating malaria drug discovery

The Malaria Drug Accelerator (MalDA) is a consortium of 15 leading scientific laboratories. The aim of MalDA is to improve and accelerate the early antimalarial drug discovery process by identifying new, essential, druggable targets. In addition, it seeks to produce early lead inhibitors that may be advanced into drug candidates suitable for preclinical development and subsequent clinical testing in humans. By sharing resources, including expertise, knowledge, materials, and reagents, the consortium strives to eliminate the structural barriers often encountered in the drug discovery process. Here we discuss the mission of the consortium and its scientific achievements, including the identification of new chemically and biologically validated targets, as well as future scientific directions

Prioritization of molecular targets for antimalarial drug discovery

There is a shift in antimalarial drug discovery from phenotypic screening toward target-based approaches, as more potential drug targets are being validated i

The Plasmodium falciparum ABC transporter ABCI3 confers parasite strain-dependent pleiotropic antimalarial drug resistance

Widespread Plasmodium falciparum resistance to first-line antimalarials underscores the vital need to develop compounds with novel modes of action and identify new druggable targets. Here, we profile five compounds that potently inhibit P. falciparum asexual blood stages. Resistance selection studies with three carboxamide-containing compounds, confirmed by gene editing and conditional knockdowns, identify point mutations in the parasite transporter ABCI3 as the primary mediator of resistance. Selection studies with imidazopyridine or quinoline-carboxamide compounds also yield changes in ABCI3, this time through gene amplification. Imidazopyridine mode of action is attributed to inhibition of heme detoxification, as evidenced by cellular accumulation and heme fractionation assays. For the copy-number variation-selecting imidazopyridine and quinoline-carboxamide compounds, we find that resistance, manifesting as a biphasic concentration-response curve, can independently be mediated by mutations in the chloroquine resistance transporter PfCRT. These studies reveal the interconnectedness of P. falciparum transporters in overcoming drug pressure in different parasite strains

Reaction hijacking inhibition of Plasmodium falciparum asparagine tRNA synthetase

Malaria poses an enormous threat to human health. With ever increasing resistance to currently deployed drugs, breakthrough compounds with novel mechanisms of action are urgently needed. Here, we explore pyrimidine-based sulfonamides as a new low molecular weight inhibitor class with drug-like physical parameters and a synthetically accessible scaffold. We show that the exemplar, OSM-S-106, has potent activity against parasite cultures, low mammalian cell toxicity and low propensity for resistance development. In vitro evolution of resistance using a slow ramp-up approach pointed to the Plasmodium falciparum cytoplasmic asparaginyl-tRNA synthetase (PfAsnRS) as the target, consistent with our finding that OSM-S-106 inhibits protein translation and activates the amino acid starvation response. Targeted mass spectrometry confirms that OSM-S-106 is a pro-inhibitor and that inhibition of PfAsnRS occurs via enzyme-mediated production of an Asn-OSM-S-106 adduct. Human AsnRS is much less susceptible to this reaction hijacking mechanism. X-ray crystallographic studies of human AsnRS in complex with inhibitor adducts and docking of pro-inhibitors into a model of Asn-tRNA-bound PfAsnRS provide insights into the structure-activity relationship and the selectivity mechanism

Modelling and Assessing Energy Performance of an Urban Transport System with Electric Drives

Energy conservation is one of the key priorities of sustainable development strategy. Transport systems are responsible for about one third of energy consumption. As result, the identification of solutions to reduce energy consumption in these systems is essential for the implementation of the sustainable development strategies. The present work is dedicated to identifying the possibilities for a reduction in the consumption of electric energy in electric urban public transport systems, using the audit of their electricity system. After justifying the importance of these concerns, a mathematical model of the electrical energy balance of the electric urban public transport system and its components is presented. The analysis is applied to determine the losses in the system components and useful energy, based on the evaluation and energy consumption measurements. The measurements to reduce energy losses are identified and characterized under technical and economic aspect, optimal electrical energy balances being done on this basis