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Found 6289 publications

Anti-inflammatory activity of melampyrum barbatum and isolation of iridoid and flavonoid compounds

Anita Sztojkov-Ivanov Gergely Király Edit Wéber Gyula Pinke Laura Fási Judit Hohmann Róbert Gáspár Erzsébet Háznagy-Radnai

Publication Name: Natural Product Communications

Publication Date: 2018-03-01

Volume: 13

Issue: 3

Page Range: 235-236

Description:

Melampyrum barbatum Waldst. & Kit. Ex Willd. (Scrophulariaceae) has been used in traditional medicine for the treatment of rheumatic complaints and different skin diseases. In the course of our study the anti-inflammatory activity of the aerial parts of M. Barbatum was evaluated. A MeOH extract was prepared and consecutively partitioned with CHCl3, EtOAc and n-BuOH. The fractions were assayed in in vivo carrageenan-induced rat paw oedema model. The intraperitoneally administered n-BuOH phase exerted marked inhibitory effect (33.6 %, p < 0.01). Multistep chromatographic separation afforded mussaenoside and aucubine from n-BuOH fraction. Moreover, 8-epiloganin, loganic acid and mussaenoside were obtained from EtOAc fraction and apigenin, luteolin, benzoic acid and galactitol from CHCl3 fraction. These data validate the ethnomedicinal use of M. Barbatum for the treatment of inflammatory diseases and reveal that iridoids and flavonoids could be responsible for the anti-inflammatory effect of this species.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.1177/1934578x1801300301

Examining the renewable energy investments in Hungarian rural settlements: The gained local benefits and the aspects of local community involvement

Patrícia Honvári Irén Szörényiné Kukorelli

Publication Name: European Countryside

Publication Date: 2018-03-01

Volume: 10

Issue: 1

Page Range: 74-88

Description:

The results of the paper are based on a research project which examines the renewable energy investments carried out in Hungarian rural settlements. The study will focus on the municipality-led renewable energy developments, determining the most important local benefits and the aspects of the local community involvement. Altogether 748 rural settlements have been identified, which have implemented at least one renewable energy project through the Environmental and Energy Operative Program between 2007 and 2013. A questionnaire has been sent out to these municipalities, and 159 full answers have been collected and analysed. We have investigated the importance and presence of local benefits deriving from renewable energy investments, and examined what effort is put into the information and involvement of the local community. The study concludes that although several local benefits occur at local level while implementing renewable energy projects, the effect of direct benefits remain at a low level. Furthermore, it can also be stated, that only moderate effort is put into the issue of local community involvement. The study also determines several major threats that can endanger the successfulness of the previous investments, and prevent the further renewable energy developments at local level.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.2478/euco-2018-0005

Morphological examination of young adults related to obesity

Ferenc Ihász Éva Borsos Rita Horák Szabolcs Halasi Josip Lepes Géza Czékus Anita Stajer

Publication Name: International Journal of Morphology

Publication Date: 2018-03-01

Volume: 36

Issue: 1

Page Range: 121-129

Description:

This study presents a cross-board comparison of the morphological characteristic of students of the Hungarian Language teacher training faculty in Subotica, Serbia based on their nutritional status estimate of their nourishment state. The sample was composed by 146 young adults from all four study years of the faculty, ranging from age 19 to 23. The following anthropometric measurements were carried out: body weight, height, skin fold thickness (skin folds measured at the scapula, triceps, biceps, ilium, hip, thigh and abdomen) and circumferences (waist, hip). The authors calculated and analyzed the data, including: the BMI (body mass index) with the formula, skin fold thickness and with 4-Site Skin fold Equation and waist hip ratio. Descriptive statistic was used to describe the morphological characteristics. Independent T-test and ANOVA analysis was performed to compare the students according to sex and age. The main results of the present study are: (1) no significant difference is found between the age groups in the case of either height or body weight, not for the young men or the young women in the study; (2) the differences between height and weight in the case of the male and female as characteristic for this age group can be observed; (3) the female students are more often found to be overweight or obese than the male students; (4) the majority of participant students can be classified into the normal nutritional status’ category, which holds true for both the young men and women of the study; (5) the fat percentages calculated based on skin fold values show that in terms of weight, the majority of the female students fall under the ‘acceptable’ category, while the majority of the young men are classed as ‘thin’; (6) in the case of abdominal overweight 20.0 % of men and 19.48 % of women belong to the category ‘obese’. This information about the students of the teacher training program is vital, as these young men and women will play an important role as future teachers and thereby, as role models helping to prevent childhood obesity and guiding children throughout their education towards a healthy life style.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.4067/S0717-95022018000100121

Biostimulant properties of cyanobacterial hydrolysate related to polyamines

Guiseppina Pace Pereira Lima Gilda Mógor Átila Francisco Mógor Zoltán Molnár Vince Ördög

Publication Name: Journal of Applied Phycology

Publication Date: 2018-02-01

Volume: 30

Issue: 1

Page Range: 453-460

Description:

Developing new and natural sources of plant growth promotors is essential to ensure the safe and sustainable production of vegetables for human consumption. In recent years, the potential of microalgae as plant biostimulants has been investigated. Arthrospira platensis (Spirulina platensis) biomass is a recognized protein source and its enzymatic hydrolysis contains molecules such as polyamines with potential to promote plant growth. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the biostimulant properties of hydrolyzed biomass of A. platensis. Bioassays were performed to determine auxin-like and cytokinin-like bioactivity of the hydrolysates. In addition, its effect on lettuce seedling growth was investigated and an organic system field trail performed where yield and free polyamine levels in leaves quantified. The hydrolysates had a cytokinin-like effect in the bioassay. Foliar applications promoted the growth of lettuce seedlings with the 4-h reaction hydrolysate (Sph4) being the most effective at promoting growth and increasing the spermine content by 64% in the lettuce leaves. The polyamine concentration was also compared in non-hydrolyzed A. platensis and Sph4. Hydrolysis resulted in a 34% increase in spermine content. It was concluded that Sph4 is a natural plant growth promoter that can be used as a raw material for biostimulants, and spermine could be an active compound and a metabolic indicator of Sph4 bioactivity.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.1007/s10811-017-1242-z

On the constrained OWA aggregation problem with single constraint

Lucian Coroianu Robert Fuller

Publication Name: Fuzzy Sets and Systems

Publication Date: 2018-02-01

Volume: 332

Issue: Unknown

Page Range: 37-43

Description:

In this note we present a simple proof for the constrained OWA aggregation problem with a single constraint but with variable coefficients.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.1016/j.fss.2017.04.013

Weed species composition of small-scale farmlands bears a strong crop-related and environmental signature

A. M. Csergő D. Türei Gyula Pinke A. J. Kovács K. Nagy A. Lengyel

Publication Name: Weed Research

Publication Date: 2018-02-01

Volume: 58

Issue: 1

Page Range: 46-56

Description:

Weed species loss due to intensive agricultural land use has raised the need to understand how traditional cropland management has sustained a diverse weed flora. We evaluated to what extent cultivation practices and environmental conditions affect the weed species composition of a small-scale farmland mosaic in Central Transylvania (Romania). We recorded the abundance of weed species and 28 environmental, management and site context variables in 299 fields of maize, cereal and stubble. Using redundancy analysis, we revealed 22 variables with significant net effects, which explained 19.2% of the total variation in species composition. Cropland type had the most pronounced effect on weed composition with a clear distinction between cereal crops, cereal stubble and maize crops. Beyond these differences, the environmental context of croplands was a major driver of weed composition, with significant effects of geographic position, altitude, soil parameters (soil pH, texture, salt and humus content, CaCO3, P2O5, K2O, Na and Mg), as well as plot location (edge vs. core position) and surrounding habitat types (arable field, road margin, meadow, fallow, ditch). Performing a variation partitioning for the cropland types one by one, the environmental variables explained most of the variance compared with crop management. In contrast, when all sites were combined across different cropland types, the crop-specific factors were more important in explaining variance in weed community composition.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.1111/wre.12281

Necessary and sufficient conditions for the equality of interactive and non-interactive extensions of continuous functions

Lucian Coroianu Robert Fuller

Publication Name: Fuzzy Sets and Systems

Publication Date: 2018-01-15

Volume: 331

Issue: Unknown

Page Range: 116-130

Description:

In this contribution we find the class of n-dimensional joint possibility distributions with the property that the interactive extension principle coincides with the non-interactive extension principle as long as the interactive operations are determined by continuous functions strictly increasing in each argument. This result completes recent studies by the authors, where the particular case of interactive additions and multiplications versus non-interactive additions and multiplications were investigated. In addition, this time we propose results that also cover the cases when we know the fuzzy numbers only from their membership functions. It means that we eliminated the limitations that appear when we cannot pass from membership function representation to parametric representation of fuzzy numbers. As important new applications, we mention the study on the completely correlated fuzzy numbers. Also of note is that we propose two simple methods to extend bidimensional joint possibility distributions to n-dimensional joint possibility distributions. One method is based on an inductive construction while the other one is based on a pairwise construction.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.1016/j.fss.2017.07.023

Efficiency and accuracy investigation of the Craig-Bampton method through continuum vibration tests

Péter Horváth

Publication Name: Aip Conference Proceedings

Publication Date: 2018-01-05

Volume: 1922

Issue: Unknown

Page Range: Unknown

Description:

The paper investigates and shows the efficiency and accuracy of the Craig-Bampton model order reduction method on the analysis of a cantilever beam and rod with harmonic excitation. The results of different finite element- and Craig-Bampton models are compared to the analytical (closed-form) continuum vibration results as reference.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.1063/1.5019121

Analytical approach to determine vertical dynamics of a semi-trailer truck from the point of view of goods protection

Renáta Pidl

Publication Name: Aip Conference Proceedings

Publication Date: 2018-01-05

Volume: 1922

Issue: Unknown

Page Range: Unknown

Description:

The overwhelming majority of intercontinental long-haul transportations of goods are usually carried out on road by semi-trailer trucks. Vibration has a major effect regarding the safety of the transport, the load and the transported goods. This paper deals with the logistics goals from the point of view of vibration and summarizes the methods to predict or measure the vibration load in order to design a proper system. From these methods, the focus of this paper is on the computer simulation of the vibration. An analytical method is presented to calculate the vertical dynamics of a semi-trailer truck containing general viscous damping and exposed to harmonic base excitation. For the purpose of a better understanding, the method will be presented through a simplified four degrees-of-freedom (DOF) half-vehicle model, which neglects the stiffness and damping of the tires, thus the four degrees-of-freedom are the vertical and angular displacements of the truck and the trailer. From the vertical and angular accelerations of the trailer, the vertical acceleration of each point of the platform of the trailer can easily be determined, from which the forces acting on the transported goods are given. As a result of this paper the response of the full platform-load-packaging system to any kind of vehicle, any kind of load and any kind of road condition can be analyzed. The peak acceleration of any point on the platform can be determined by the presented analytical method.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.1063/1.5019118