Modelling and Forecasting Health Expectancy

Life expectancy of a human population measures the expected (or average) remaining years of life at a given age. Life expectancy can be defined by two forms of measurement: the period and the cohort life expectancy. The period life expectancy represents the mortality conditions at a specific moment in time, in comparison to the cohort life expectancy, which depicts the life history of a specific group of individuals (born in the same year). Period life expectancies are frequently utilized when assessing and monitoring the health status of a population over time. Currently, the life expectancy of the Western world population is much greater than in prior decades. The dramatic increase over the last century is considered as one of the great achievements of modern societies. Between 1970 and 2009 the average length of life in the old EU member states increased from 68.7 to 78.0 among men and from 74.9 to 83.5 among women. Similar trends were witnessed among the elderly. Although there are many differences in the health service organization, national wealth, culture and associated individual behaviours between these countries, within a broader European perspective the upward trends are remarkably alike. In the first half of the twentieth century eradication of infectious diseases caused unprecedented improvements in mortality, particularly at young ages. As the risk of dying from infectious diseases was reduced, those saved from dying at younger ages survived to middle and older ages. A second wave of mortality improvement was achieved mainly at the adult life. Since the 1970s ischemic heart disease mortality has decreased in most Western countries contributing to the majority of the declines in age-specific death rates. It has been suggested that the decline in cardiovascular disease mortality is due to the combination of better treatment and changes in risk factors such as: lower blood pressure, reduced tobacco consumption, diets containing lower cholesterol, and increased physical activity within the population. There are of course more distal influences that contributed to the gains in overall mortality. The most important elements include increasing welfare, greater access to and better quality of health care, rising living standards and improvements in the level of education. In comparison with mortality, health is difficult to measure and estimates of population health are usuall

Initial temperature and EoS of quark matter from direct photons

The time evolution of the quark gluon plasma created in gold-gold collisions of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) can be described by hydrodynamical models. Distribution of hadrons reflects the freeze-out state of the matter. To investigate the time evolution one needs to analyze penetrating probes, such as direct photon spectra. Distributions of low energy photons was published in 2010 by PHENIX. In this paper we analyze a 3+1 dimensional solution of relativistic hydrodynamics and calculate momentum distribution of direct photons. Using earlier fits of this model to hadronic spectra, we compare photon calculations to measurements and find that the initial temperature of the center of the fireball is at least 519+-12 MeV, while for the equation of state we get c_s= 0.36+-0.02.Comment: Talk at the VI Workshop on Particle Correlations and Femtoscopy, Kiev, September 14-18, 2010. 6 pages, 1 figure. This work was supported by the OTKA grant NK73143 and M. Csanad's Bolyai scholarshi

Szénhidrát-szulfonsav típusú sziálsav-mimetikumok szintézise és neuraminidáz gátló hatásuk vizsgálata = Synthesis of sulfonic acid analogues of sialic acids and investigation of their neuraminidase inhibitory effect

Előállítottuk az N-acetil-neuraminsav szulfonsav mimetikumait L-fukózból kiindulva; az egyik analogon mérsékelten gátolta a Clostridium perfringens neuramidázt. Előállítottuk a szialil Lewis X és szialil Lewis A tetraszacharidok új szulfonsav-mimetikumait különböző módszerekkel (glikozilezés 1-dezoxi-1-etoxiszulfonátometil heptulózokkal; nukleofil szubsztitúció tioacetáttal majd oxidáció). Elsőként szintetizáltunk tio-click reakcióval sziálsav-tartalmú oligoszacharidokat. Az alkin-tiol addícióval nyert, egy vagy két tio-sziálsav egységet hordozó galaktozid és laktozid származékok potenciálisan antivirális és antibakteriális hatásúak. Új típusú antikoaguláns hatású heparinoid pentaszacharid-szulfonsavakat szintetizáltunk, melyek a természetes szulfátészterek helyett bioizoszter szulfonátometil-csoportokat tartalmaznak. Előállítottunk egy heparinoid pentaszacharid-diszulfonsavat, és egy pentaszacharid-triszulfonsavat. Humán plazmán végzett in vitro vizsgálatokban a diszulfonsav kiváló antikoaguláns hatást mutatott, felülmúlva az irodalomból ismert legjobb véralvadásgátló szer hatását. Difenilmetilén-acetálok LiAlH4-AlCl3 reagenssel végrehajtott regioszelektív nyitását vizsgáltuk kinetikai és in silico módszerekkel, és javaslatot tettünk a reakció mechanizmusára. Tanulmányoztuk naftilmetilén- és antracenilmetilén-acetálok rekcióit; a naftilmetilének regioszelektív gyűrűnyitásával nyálkagomba-glikoprotein pentaszacharidok szintézisét valósítottuk meg. | Sulfonic acid mimetics of N-acetyl-neuraminic acid were prepared from L-fucose, one of them displayed a moderate neuraminidase inhibitory activity. New sulfonic acid analogues of the sialyl Lewis X and Lewis A tetrasaccharides were prepared using different methods such as glycosylation with 1-deoxy-1-sulfonatomethyl heptuloses and substitution with thioacetate followed by oxidation. Thio-click reaction was utilised for the first time to prepare sialylated oligosaccharides. The applied alkyne-thiol addition reaction resulted in galactosides and lactosides carrying one or two 2-thio-sialic acid residues, the products might possess antiviral and antibacterial activities. Novel blood-anticoagulant heparionid pentasaccharides were prepared by substituting the natural sulfate ester groups with bioisosteric sulfonatomethyl moieties. The anticoagulant activity of the prepared pentasaccharide disulfonic acid and pentasaccharide trisulfonic acid was tested in an in vitro assay using human plasma. The disulfonic acid derivative displayed higher activity than idraparinux, the best synthetic anticoagulant pentasaccharide. Kinetic and in silico studies on regioselective ring-opening reaction of diphenylmethylene acetals using LiAlH4-AlCl3 reagents were carried out to lay down the mechanism. Transformation of naphthylmethylene and anthracenylmethylene acetals of carbohydrates were investigated and applied for the synthesis of pentasaccharides of mould glycoprotein origin

Reconstruction of Parental SSR Haplotypes from a Single Grape Seed

Microsatellite (‘single sequence repeats’, SSR) markers were widely used in the last decade for the identification of parents of a given grapevine variety or for pedigree reconstruction as well. By now the pedigree of the majority of the most important varieties is established. At the same time, knowing both of the parents gives information about which one was the mother plant and which one was the pollinator. Analyses of archaeological grapevine seeds can give new opportunities in the research of the evolution of varieties. In most of the angiosperms, the endosperm is triploid with two genome equivalents from the maternal line and one from the paternal line. Our presumption was that this numeral difference in the maternal and paternal alleles causes measureable difference in the amplification of SSR alleles from grapevine seeds. To validate our method, pre-experiments were carried out on 12 ‘Pinot gris’ seeds, which verified our theory

Szénhidrát alapú C- és CH2-szulfonsavak szintézise és biológiai vizsgálata, továbbá cukorszulfopeptidek előállítása = Synthesis and biological investigation of carbohydrate containing C- and CH2- sulfonic and that of the sugar sulfopeptides

Ötéves célkitűzésünk alatt 16 nemzetközi közleményt publikáltunk. Mindenekelőtt a szénhidrátszulfonsavak előállításának különböző lehetőségeit vizsgáltuk. Eredményesen valósítottuk meg az intra- és intermolekuláris nukleofil reakciókat. Legfontosabb célkitűzésünk, a a cukorszulfonsavak előállítására alkalmas reakciók vizsgálata, pl. az 1-tio-2-O-mezil-beta-D-glükozidok és 1-tio-2-O-mezil-alfa-D-mannozidok transzformációja 1,2-transz-D-manno- ill. glükopiranoziddá. Kiemelhető az exo-metilén csoport bevezetése és szulfonometil-csoporttá alakítása szulfit addícióval. Az izolált vegyületek konfigurációjának és konformációjának meghatározása 1H- és 13C-NMR segítségével, ill. oldat és szilárd fázisú chiroptikai módszerrel történt. Az N-acetilneuraminsav analógok szinétzisét L-fukózból kiindulva valósítottuk meg. A vegyület gyűrű-rendszere biológiai aktivitást mutat. A vegyületek hiányzó anomer protona következtében távolható NMR mérések és molekuláris számítások (QM) elengedhetetlenül szükségesek voltak. Magasabb tagszámú 3,6 elágazású arabinogalaktán oligoszacharidok (tetra és hexa) előállítását megvalósítottuk. A Mycobacterium avium 19-es szerovariáns sejtfelszíni pentaszacharidjának szintézisét a közelmúltban valósítottuk meg. A legvonzóbb eredmény a szulfonsavtartalmú heparinoid mono- és oligoszacharidok szintézise. Valamennyi építőelem alkalmas védőcsoportként kezelhető. Jelenleg 6 diszacharid egység a közeli jövőben pentaszacharidig teljesíthető. | As a result of our OTKA project, aimed, primarily, at the investigation of the possibilities for the preparation carbohydrate sulfonic acids, 16 papers were published in international journals. We realized the transformation of 1-thio-2-O-mesyl-beta-D-glucopyranosides and 1-thio-2-O-mesyl-alpha-D-mannopyranosides into 1,2-trans-D-manno- and glucopyranosides. An important result is the introduction of the exo-methylene group and its conversion into sulfonatomethyl moiety by sulfit addition. The determination of the configuration and conformation of the isolated compounds was carried out with NMR techniques, as well as by means of solution- and solid-phase chiroptical methods. The N-acetylneuraminic acid analogues were synthesized from L-fucose. The prepared compounds, carrying the demanded ring-system, showed biological activity. Due to the missing anomeric proton of such ketoses, long-range NMR coupling measurements and molecular calculatios (QM) were established. Our research group performed the preparation of 3.6-branched arabinogalactan oligosaccharides. The synthesis of the pentasaccharide of the Mycobact. avium serovar 19 was recently accomplished. Our most attractive results include those which are in connection with the sulfonatomethyl mono- and oligosaccharide analogues of heparin. The disaccharides of the required heparin-pentasaccharides have been synthesized

Sustainable soil management in the Badacsony Wine District

Agricultural landscapes with historical hillside vineyard cultivation have a touristic, economic, and environmental value in the Balaton uplands. However, sustainable cultivation methods are becoming increasingly important within today's adaptation to climate change impacts on these lands much exposed to erosion. Our long-term field experiment compared the effects of several soil-cover methods in several aspects. We recorded and examined the consequent changes in the physical (soil moisture), chemical (absorbable nitrogen content), biological (enzyme activity: fluorescein diacetate hydrolysis and dehydrogenase), the most probable number of bacteria and fungi), and economic (yield) parameters of soils. According to our results in 2017, mulching with organic plant wastes achieved the most positive effect on the parameters studied and also efficiently reduced erosion in the plantation