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The evaluation of cultural ecosystem services based on the exploration of social values (SV) is a powerful tool to describe visitors’ perceptions of a natural landscape. A natural setting in the southwest of Mexico City lacks effective management due to insufficient understanding of visitors’ behavior and their interactions with natural resources. We profiled two visitor groups, rock climbers and non-rock climbers, assessed the SV they ascribed to a popular natural recreational park, and explored associations between SV and particular landscape features. Data collection was based on field observations, questionnaires, and a photograph-based approach. Cross tabulations, chi-square tests, and basic map algebra were used to process data. Results showed statistical differences between the two visitor groups concerning park use, but not in the perception of SV. The main SV people ascribe to the park are natural, recreational, and productive values, although results differ depending on the location of the park. Landscape features such as forest cover, remoteness, elevation, and rock formations are strongly interlinked to specific SV. This study can contribute towards an understanding of differentiated park use and perceptions of cultural ecosystem services by visitor groups. This can be integrated into management plans for recreational parks in Mexico.

Diverse demands for contemporary forest management require greater consideration to cultural ecosystem services. Given the circumstances, understanding how forest elements are perceived can provide...

Objective To investigate the effects of dopamine on the adverse pulmonary changes after cardiopulmonary bypass. Design A prospective, nonrandomized clinical investigation. Setting A university hospital. Participants One hundred fifty-seven patients who underwent elective cardiac surgery that required cardiopulmonary bypass. Interventions Fifty-two patients were administered intravenous infusion of dopamine (3 µg/kg/min) for five minutes after weaning from cardiopulmonary bypass; no intervention was applied in the other 105 patients. Measurements and Main Results Measurements were performed under general anesthesia and mechanical ventilation before cardiopulmonary bypass, after cardiopulmonary bypass, and after the intervention. In each protocol stage, forced oscillatory lung impedance was measured to assess airway and tissue mechanical changes. Mainstream capnography was performed to assess ventilation- and/or perfusion-matching by calculating the normalized phase-3 slopes of the time and volumetric capnograms and the physiologic deadspace. Arterial and central venous blood samples were analyzed to characterize lung oxygenation and intrapulmonary shunt. After cardiopulmonary bypass, dopamineinduced marked improvements in airway resistance and tissue damping, with relatively small decreases in lung tissue elastance. These changes were associated with decreases in the normalized phase-3 slopes of the time and volumetric capnograms. The inotrope had no effect on physiologic deadspace, intrapulmonary shunt, or lung oxygenation. Conclusion Dopamine reversed the complex detrimental lung mechanical changes induced by cardiopulmonary bypass and alleviated ventilation heterogeneities without affecting the physiologic deadspace or intrapulmonary shunt. Therefore, dopamine has a potential benefit on the gas exchange abnormalities after weaning from cardiopulmonary bypass.

People living in mountains tend to be more vulnerable in their livelihoods. In Mexico, the pandemic of COVID-19 hit hard and has raised challenges in trying to prevent parts of the population from falling back into extreme poverty. To better understand these challenges, we explore how federal government policy on the containment of COVID-19 has been applied in mountain regions during the first half-year of 2020 and describe how stakeholders working and living in the Valley of Mexico are coping with the situation (status: September 2020). Results from a systematic literature review and eight semi-structured interviews indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic underlined existing problems such as high rates of informal labor and income insecurity. We find that sources of contagion were linked to the organization of the food supply chain between city and mountain regions or to socio-cultural practices, and there are no specific strategies for helping people living and working in mountain regions to deal with the socio-economic effects of the pandemic. All respondents in our pilot study have been affected in some way by the pandemic: income loss, food security, or access/restriction to their workplaces. The majority of the respondents do not agree with the measures for containment of COVID-19 implemented by the federal government. We could identify coping mechanisms of our respondents, which include the reduction of consumption, diversification of income sources, and claiming support from the government. However, there is a legitimate threat of falling back to (extreme) poverty or experiencing social deprivation, if the challenges of the current pandemic will not be addressed quickly and more efficiently in the rural mountain areas of the Valley of Mexico.

Mountain landscapes provide a variety of cultural ecosystem services (CES), but recent developments such as land-use and climate changes, population growth or urbanization seem to lead more frequently to conflicts among users or restrict the use of natural resources. An enhanced understanding of such conflicts and limitations may improve decision-making and management of mountain landscapes and maintain high levels of CES supply. However, conceptual and empirical research on identifying and evaluating conflicts and limitations of use in qualitative, quantitative and spatial terms as well as interdependencies in socio-ecological systems (SES) is still rare, and suitable methods are underdeveloped. Therefore, this paper elaborates the outcomes of an expert workshop and presents eleven case studies related to different CES and various contexts to conceptualise conflicts and limitations of CES use in mountain regions, complemented by assessment approaches to facilitate their identification and management. Using a multidimensional framework, we find that conflicts were mostly related to socio-economic changes and an increasing recreational use, whereas limitations of use greatly depended on accessibility and legal issues. Our findings contribute to the advancement of research on CES and are particularly useful for landscape management and decision-making to develop sustainable solutions and maintain CES in mountain landscapes.

Background: To evaluate the monthly incidence rate of patients with diabetes requiring heart surgery at a tertiary-care university hospital in East-Central Europe with a temperate climate zone. We also assessed whether additional factors affecting small blood vessels (smoking, aging, and diabetes) modulate the seasonal variability of diabetes.Methods: Medical records were retrospectively analyzed for all 9837 consecutive adult patients who underwent surgery at our institution between 2007 and 2018. Individual seasonal variations of diabetes, smoking, and elderly patients were analyzed monthly. Potential additive or subtractive effects of the coexistence of these factors in seasonal changes in incidence rates were also examined. In the absence of a waiting list, incidence rates accurately reflect the frequency of exacerbation of cardiovascular symptoms requiring surgical intervention.Results: Significant seasonal variations in the monthly incidence rate of diabetes (p < 0.02), smoking (p < 0.001), and elderly (p < 0.001) patients were observed at the cardiac surgery unit. The peak incidence of non-elderly and smoking patients with diabetes was during winter, whereas heart surgery in elderly patients without diabetes and smoking was most frequently required in summer. Concomitant occurrence of diabetes and smoking had an additive effect on the relative incidence rate of requirement for cardiac surgery (p < 0.001), while the simultaneous presence of older age and diabetes or smoking eliminated seasonal variations.Conclusions: Scheduling regular cardiovascular control in accordance with periodicities in diabetes, elderly, and smoking patients more than once a year may improve patient health and social consequences.Trial registration: NCT03967639

In the frame of substrate specificity, CAL-B-catalysed asymmetric N-alkoxycarbonylations of 1-substituted tetrahydro-s-carbolines (Me, Et, Pr, iPr) have been studied. High enantioselectivities (>200) were observed, when alkoxycarbonylation of racemic compounds (±)-1,3,5,7 were performed in DIPE in the presence of phenyl allyl carbonate and Et3N at 60 °C using ultrasound shaking method. The reaction time increased considerably with increasing substituent size on C1; however, the isopropyl-substituted compound proved to be too bulky for the optimum activity of CAL-B. The (R)-carbamate enantiomers were hydrolysed using Pd2(dba)3.CHCl3 and the enantiomers of the free amines were obtained with excellent ee (>99%).

Racemic 1-methyl-6,7-dimethoxy-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinoline 1 and 1-methyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-s-carboline 3 were resolved through lipase-catalysed asymmetric acylation on the secondary amino group. High enantioselectivities (E >200) were observed when the acylation of racemic 1 was performed with phenyl allyl carbonate in the presence of Candida rugosa lipase in toluene at 40 °C or with Candida antarctica lipase B in tert-butyl methyl ether at 50 °C. Excellent enantioselectivity (E >200) characterised the CAL-B-catalysed acylation of racemic 3 with phenyl allyl carbonate in the presence of triethylamine in tert-butyl methyl ether at 50 °C. The product (R)-carbamates (ee >97%) were hydrolysed into the corresponding (R)-enantiomers of the free amines 1 and 3 (ee = 99%) with the use of Pd2(dba)3·CHCl3 catalyst.

There is ample evidence to suggest that dogs have highly developed, context-dependent social skills. Recent literature also indicates a human-like susceptibility to social influence in dogs. However, it is still unclear how the affective social context affects the way dogs behave in a situation involving an out-of-reach object. The experimental manipulation served to prime the dogs with positive and negative affect in the form of social in-teractions. Dogs (N = 20) participated in both a negative and a positive social interaction with an unfamiliar male experimenter. Having received pretreatment with different social stimuli, subjects were observed in an instrumental task with an unfamiliar female experimenter requesting an out-of-reach object. The analysis of the dogs? tendency to engage in the task revealed that although the type of pretreatment did not influence whether they retrieved the cued object or not, the social interactions had a facilitatory effect on other, more subtle aspects of their behaviour. The positive interaction resulted in longer duration of looking time at the experimenter; shorter latency of moving upon release and of approaching the experimenter. The priming effects of the negative social interaction manifested in longer duration of looking time at the owner after release while gazing more at the target object during the first trial. These behaviours, together with the finding that dogs were more hesitant to approach the experimenter after the negative social interaction, may indicate that a negative emotional stimulation (involving the owner?s and the experimenter?s unresponsive behaviour, separation and a threatening stranger) causes a temporary disruption in the dog-owner bond, motivating the dog to repair it afterwards. These findings suggest that the valence attributed to the social interaction during pretreatment has differential effects on dogs? subsequent behaviour. Possible parallels with and differences from human behaviour are discussed.agoston.galambos89@gmail.com

The sulfuric acid-catalyzed conversion of paper wastes in gamma-valerolactone (GVL) or dioxane leads to the formation of levulinic acid (LA) and formic acid (FA), which can be converted to GVL by transfer-hydrogenation using the Shvo catalyst in situ or separately. The isolation of LA and FA was assisted by the neutralization of the sulfuric acid with ammonia to form a biphasic system. While the ammonium sulfate and most of FA and some of LA were in the aqueous phase, the organic solvent-rich phase contained most of the LA and some of the FA. GVL was used as an illuminating liquid in glass lamps for hours without the formation of noticeable smoke and/or odor even in a small room. While neat GVL can be used for the safe but somewhat slow lighting of charcoal, the ignition with different mixtures of GVL (95 or 90 vol %) and ethanol (5 or 10 vol %) was reduced to a convenient few seconds. Ignition tests of charcoal combined with emission analyses revealed that by increasing the ethanol content to 10 vol % th...

Stress sensitivity of three related phytopathogenic Fusarium species (Fusarium graminearum, Fusarium oxysporum and Fusarium verticillioides) to different oxidative, osmotic, cell wall, membrane, fungicide stressors and an antifungal protein (PAF) were studied in vitro. The most prominent and significant differences were found in oxidative stress tolerance: all the three F. graminearum strains showed much higher sensitivity to hydrogen peroxide and, to a lesser extent, to menadione than the other two species. High sensitivity of F. verticillioides strains was also detectable to an azole drug, Ketoconazole. Surprisingly, no or limited differences were observed in response to other oxidative, osmotic and cell wall stressors. These results indicate that fungal oxidative stress response and especially the response to hydrogen peroxide (this compound is involved in a wide range of plant-fungus interactions) might be modified on niche-specific manner in these phylogenetically related Fusarium species depending on their pathogenic strategy. Supporting the increased hydrogen peroxide sensitivity of F. graminearum, genome-wide analysis of stress signal transduction pathways revealed the absence one CatC-type catalase gene in F. graminearum in comparison to the other two species.

The paper presents results and discussion on syngas combustion in a spark ignited internal combustion engine driving a power generator (16 kW/1500 rpm). The syngas applied as the engine fuel is produced by gasifying municipal sewage sludge. Unlike fermentation biogas, the syngas obtained from sewage sludge gasification is found a fuel, which generates several difficulties (non-stable combustion, misfiring events) while burning in the SI engine. The analysis of cycle-by-cycle engine run shows that the engine working on syngas features will run unsteadily due to the occurrence of misfiring events caused by the relatively low calorific value of the syngas. Thus, combustion of such a syngas in the SI IC engine can generate malfunctions. Therefore, the syngas was enriched with methane at various ratios starting from 0% up to 60% by volume. The impact of methane addition on the engine performance and exhaust emission was also presented in the paper. As investigated, 40% methane enrichment in the syngas was found sufficient amounts to obtain satisfactory engine run. Thus, in practice, the syngas from sewage sludge gasification is a troublesome fuel, but can satisfactorily be applied to the SI engine when enriched with natural gas or biogas.

Due to increase in demand for fossil fuels and aspects of natural environment protection, there is a major need to utilize alternative and renewable energy sources in order to promote sustainable development. The use of biogas as a source of renewable energy could provide effective and alternative way to satisfy a remarkable part of this demand for the transportation sector. As biogas has high inert content of carbon dioxide, its heating value is lower compared to CNG. Applying these low heating value renewable gaseous fuels for means of transport is not fully worked out yet because their combustion characteristics significantly differ from liquid fuels that are currently used or propane, or natural gas based systems that are becoming more and more popular in transportation. Biogas is not in common use, thus its utilization is recently limited for engines with conventional equipment burning other fuels. Thus, theoretical and experimental analysis was made to investigate the usability of biogas. On the basis of conducted investigation, it was found that effective biogas utilization as a fuel for means of transport can be achieved in a serial hybrid system consisted of internal combustion reciprocating engine.

The β-lactam producing filamentous fungus Penicillium chrysogenum secretes a 6.25 kDa small molecular mass antifungal protein, PAF, which has a highly stable, compact 3D structure and is effective against a wide spectrum of plant and zoo pathogenic fungi. Its precise physiological functions and mode of action need to be elucidated before considering possible biomedical, agricultural or food technological applications. According to some more recent experimental data, PAF plays an important role in the fine-tuning of conidiogenesis in Penicillium chrysogenum. PAF triggers apoptotic cell death in sensitive fungi, and cell death signaling may be transmitted through two-component systems, heterotrimeric G protein coupled signal transduction and regulatory networks as well as via alteration of the Ca(2+) -homeostasis of the cells. Possible biotechnological applications of PAF are also outlined in the review.

The hydroformylation activity of various 5- and 6-membered P -heterocycles was investigated in platinum-catalysed hydroformylation of styrene. All of the tested ligands, such as the phosphole-, oxaphosphorine- and phoshinine-based ligands proved to be catalytically active. Especially good aldehyde selectivities were obtained with the chelating diphenylphosphino-tetrahydrophosphinine and diphenylphosphino-hexahydrophosphinine ligands. While the two aldehyde regioisomers were formed close to equimolar amounts with the monodentate ligands, high branched selectivities were observed with the chelating ones. The effect of the 4-substitution of the parent styrene on chemo- and regioselectivity was investigated.

New platinum complexes of the type cis-Pt(L)(2)Cl-2 have been synthesized from five- and six-membered cyclic phosphines, which were prepared after deoxygenating a series of phosphine oxides (3-phospholene oxides, phospholane oxides, a 1,4-dihydrophosphinine oxide, and a 1,2,3,6-tetrahydrophosphinine oxide). The complexes were characterized by NMR and mass spectral data, and their stereostructures were elucidated by B3LYP/6-31G(d)-LANL2DZ ECP calculations. The phosphine intermediates were characterized as the corresponding phosphine-boranes. (C) 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heteroatom Chem 21:63-70, 2010; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/hc.20579

This paper focuses on the global warming potential (GWP) of primary aluminum production analyzing the hotspots of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission. The major GHG emission of primary aluminum production is caused by aluminum smelting. Inert anodes or non-consumable anodes are considered as a solution to mitigate GHG emission of the Hall-Heroult process.

Different types of platinum(II) complexes incorporating heterocyclic P-ligands were synthesized.

PAF, which is produced by the filamentous fungus Pencicillium chrysogenum, is a small antifungal protein, triggering ROS-mediated apoptotic cell death in Aspergillus nidulans. In this work, we provide information on the function of PAF in the host P. chrysogenum considering that carbon-starving cultures of the Δpaf mutant strain showed significantly reduced apoptosis rates in comparison to the wild-type (wt) strain. Moreover, the addition of PAF to the Δpaf strain resulted in a twofold increase in the apoptosis rate. PAF was also involved in the regulation of the autophagy machinery of this fungus, since several Saccharomyces cerevisiae autophagy-related ortholog genes, e.g. those of atg7, atg22 and tipA, were repressed in the deletion strain. This phenomenon was accompanied by the absence of autophagosomes in the Δpaf strain, even in old hyphae.

The β-lactam producing filamentous fungus Penicillium chrysogenum secretes a 6.25 kDa small molecular mass antifungal protein, PAF, which has a highly stable, compact 3D structure and is effective against a wide spectrum of plant and zoo pathogenic fungi. Its precise physiological functions and mode of action need to be elucidated before considering possible biomedical, agricultural or food technological applications. According to some more recent experimental data, PAF plays an important role in the fine-tuning of conidiogenesis in Penicillium chrysogenum. PAF triggers apoptotic cell death in sensitive fungi, and cell death signaling may be transmitted through two-component systems, heterotrimeric G protein coupled signal transduction and regulatory networks as well as via alteration of the Ca(2+) -homeostasis of the cells. Possible biotechnological applications of PAF are also outlined in the review.

Due to an increase in demand for energy and the mobility of the human population as well as in order to keep sustainable development, there is a major need to utilize alternative energy sources. The use of biogases as a source of renewable energy could provide an effective and alternative way to fulfil a remarkable part of this demand for energy. As biogases have high inert content, their heating value is low. The energetic utilization of these low heating value renewable gaseous fuels is not fully worked out yet because their combustion characteristics significantly differ from the liquid fuels that are used nowadays in transportation, and in this way, they are not usable or their utilization is limited in devices with conventional equipment. Thus, theoretical and experimental analysis was made to investigate the usability of biogases. First published online: 24 Jun 2011

Due to increasing energy demand from the human population and in order to keep the development sustainable there is a major need to utilize alternative energy sources. The use of biogases as a source of renewable energy for combined heat and power generation could provide an effective and alternative way to fulfil remarkable part of this energy demand as a possible solution of decentralized power generation. Therefore the role of utilization of biogases grows rapidly in Europe and all around the world. As biogases have a high inert content, their heating value is low. The energetic utilization of these low heating value renewable gaseous fuels is not fully worked out yet because their combustion characteristics differ significantly from those of natural gases, and in this way they are not usable or their utilization in conventional devices is limited. At the Department of Energy Engineering of BME in cooperation with the Szolnok University College Technical and Agricultural Faculty investigation was made to d etermine the energetic usability of biogases. At Szolnok University experiments were made to increase the quantity and quality of biogas produced from different kind of basic materials and mixtures and at the Department of Energy Engineering of Budapest University of Technology and Economics the IC Engine utilization of biogases was investigated. The power, efficiency, consumption and exhaust emission were measured and in-cylinder pressure data acquisition was made to determine the pressure and heat release in the cylinder at various engine working conditions and CO_2 contents.