Translation as the mutual reflection of neighbouring nations (About the cultural activity of Kornél Szenteleky)

In the context of Kornél Szenteleky’s volumes of short stories, novels and essays, this essay examines the types of disposition, life experience, typical topographies and genres of the author’s epic works. The roles, stock of phrases and experiences of deprivation present in the world of Szenteleky’s short stories, novels and essays relate his prose to several authors of a significant trend in Croatian, Serbian and Slovenian literature. The essay observes the existential spaces and boundaries of Szenteleky’s oeuvre, viewing it as going along the trails of existential experience of multiethnicity, m inority identity, peripheral existence, cultural crossroads and traumas. Ključne besede: Kornél Szenteleky, kulturni aktivizem, regionalna identiteta, multietničnost, izkušnja pomanjkanja, vzajemna refleksivnos

The Late Pleistocene microvertebrate fauna of the Vaskapu Cave (North Hungary) and its taphonomical, biostratigraphical and palaeoecological implications

About 60 years later than the systematic excavation in 1933 carried out by Dr. Mária Mottl and her coworkers, the Vaskapu locality in North Hungary was rediscovered by Dr. János Hír. In the following 15 years, several different field surveys were take place at the site and a rich microvertebrate assemblage were found. The aims of the present study were to review the vertebrate fauna (paying particular attention to the previously poorly studied herpetofauna) and to summarize its taphonomical, biostratigraphical and palaeoecological implications. The slightly mixed assemblage with elements of the forest as well as the grassland habitat is interpreted here as the result of a mosaic or quickly shifting environment left behind a retractive glaciation in the late Würm (namely at the time of the transition between the Pilisszántóian and Palánkian local biochronological stages around 15 000 years ago)

Application of algal biomass for enhanced acclimatization of orchids

Algae produce plant growth regulators (PGRs), similar to higher plants. To study this feature, freeze-dried and ultrasonicated algal biomass was applied to support the development of certain orchids. An in vitro and an ex vitro experiment were carried out. In case of Phalaenopsis and Paphiopedilum, the nutrition medium was supplemented with the biomass of five algal strains at a concentration of 0.5 gL-1 in the in vitro experiment. This treatment enhanced the development of plants, but different strains depending on orchid species proved to be efficient. In Oncidium cultures different concentrations of MACC-612 were applied as a supplementation of nutrition media. Results showed, that higher concentrations (0.5 – 1 gL-1) evolved a salutary effect on the plant growth. In the ex vitro experiment orchids were grown on algal free media under sterile conditions. After that they were potted into the greenhouse and treated eleven times with different concentrations of algal suspension. After three months of acclimatization the lower concentrations (0.1 – 0.2 gL-1) of algal biomass applied in the cultures of Phalaenopsis, Paphiopedilum and Oncidium exerted a positive effect

Natural substances in tissue culture media of higher plants

Plant cell and tissue cultures are characterized by the use of isolated parts of plant obtained from an intact plant body and kept on, or in a suitable nutrient medium. This nutrient medium functions as replacement for the cells, tissue, or conductive elements originally neighbouring the explant. The exact conditions required to initiate and sustain plant cells in culture, or to regenerate intact plants from cultured cells, are different for each plant species. The empirical approach has shown that three factors, namely explant choice, medium composition, and control of the physical environment are important in successful cultures. When the completely defined plant culture media did not give the desired results, employing natural substances have beneficial effects on in vitro plant cell and tissue cultures. The composition of different culture media and the effects of natural compounds, including the supernatant and freeze-dried biomass of well-growing algal strains of Mosonmagyaróvár Algal Culture Collection (MACC), are presented in this short review