Search

BackgroundThe emergence of novel SARS-CoV-2 variants that resist neutralizing antibodies drew the attention to cellular immunity and calls for the development of alternative vaccination strategies to combat the pandemic. Here, we have assessed the kinetics of T cell responses and protective efficacy against severe COVID-19 in pre- and post-exposure settings, elicited by PolyPEPI-SCoV-2, a peptide based T cell vaccine.Methods75 Syrian hamsters were immunized subcutaneously with PolyPEPI-SCoV-2 on D0 and D14. On D42, hamsters were intranasally challenged with 102 TCID50 of the virus. To analyze immunogenicity by IFN-γ ELISPOT and antibody secretion, lymphoid tissues were collected both before (D0, D14, D28, D42) and after challenge (D44, D46, D49). To measure vaccine efficacy, lung tissue, throat swabs and nasal turbinate samples were assessed for viral load and histopathological changes. Further, body weight was monitored on D0, D28, D42 and every day after challenge.ResultsThe vaccine induced robust activation of T cells against all SARS-CoV-2 structural proteins that were rapidly boosted after virus challenge compared to control animals (~4-fold, p

Industrial symbiosis is an eco-innovative system concept that is based on a circular economy and industrial ecology ideas. This process comprises the movement of materials, energy, and skills across enterprises located within eco-industrial parks, and strives to provide economic, environmental, and social competitive advantages for all the involved parties. Considering that the agri-food system creates a vast quantity of by-products along the supply chain, it is a sector that has huge potential within material and energy recovery systems and fits well into eco-industrial parks. The current study is a literature review that aims to evaluate the interest exhibited so far by scientific research in the topic of industrial symbiosis in the agri-food sector and to highlight the primary analytical techniques that have been used for this topic. Using the paradigm of multiple correspondence analysis, a content analysis was conducted from which the major themes of the researched phenomena emerged. The results indicate that the topic areas are unrelated and somewhat distant from each other. The analyzed case studies have revealed that the authors had neglected the communicative and collaborative elements among stakeholders, and instead focused on the potential use of some tools and approaches. Furthermore, it has been hypothesized that the hiding of information within a supply chain prevents industrial symbiosis procedures from being implemented. This research suggests the necessity of creating communication and cooperation platforms among stakeholders, which would promote the introduction of new techniques and tools for the development of circular production systems.

Eco-innovations that reduce the environmental effect of manufacturing and consumption are seen as critical components of sustainable development and a critical component of the transition to a circular economy. Food systems address the issue of food waste, which is generally acknowledged as a cost to the economy, the environment, and society. Eco-innovations seem to be critical for the food system's transformation to a more circular model centered on sustainable food production and processing. The goal of this paper was to determine the variables that influenced the introduction of product, process, organizational, and marketing innovations in European Union agri-food enterprises between 2012 and 2014. According to a preliminary analysis of the data, 57.40% of agribusinesses did not implement any form of innovation, which prompted the authors to study the difficulties surrounding innovation development over the 3-year reference period. Several key factors emerge as significant influences on the introduction of product innovations (0.055**); contractual requirements as significant influences on the introduction of process innovations (−0.081***); and environmental incentives as significant influences on the introduction of marketing innovations (0.062***). Additionally, product (0.704***) and process (1.051***) innovations tend to have a greater influence on enterprises' views of circular benefits. The investigation also demonstrates how enterprises and end users interpret the effect of various forms of innovation differently. Indeed, end users, in contrast to how enterprises understand it, believe that organizational (0.611***) and marketing (0.916***) innovations are critical in pursuing circular benefits.

Sustainable agricultural solutions have emerged as feasible options for mitigating the negative environmental impacts created by agricultural production or adapting to inevitable climate change. Organic food production has become one of the most popular sustainable solutions among these. There is also a clear scientific consensus that transformative changes in agricultural systems and practice are needed as a response to the effects of climate change. A great variety of factors that influence the transition to organic farming have been found and identified over time. To understand the dynamics that lead farmers to move to organic farming, it is necessary to examine the relationship between these factors. In this study, we investigated the impacts of certain factors on the possibility of Hungarian farmers’ conversion to organic production in the context of climate change adaptation. This dynamic was studied using descriptive and exploratory techniques on a cross-sectional sample. While the study supported certain well-established facts, it also yielded some surprising findings. One of our findings is that the transition to organic farming does not seem to be motivated by the perception of bad weather events, which is somewhat surprising. This outcome contradicts the frequently claimed idea that organic farming may be a successful adaptation strategy.

Long-term immunity to coronaviruses likely stems from T cell activity. We present here a novel approach for the selection of immunoprevalent SARS-CoV-2-derived T cell epitopes using an in silico cohort of HLA-genotyped individuals with different ethnicities. Nine 30-mer peptides derived from the four major structural proteins of SARS-CoV-2 were selected and included in a peptide vaccine candidate to recapitulate the broad virus-specific T cell responses observed in natural infection. PolyPEPI-SCoV-2-specific, polyfunctional CD8+ and CD4+ T cells were detected in each of the 17 asymptomatic/mild COVID-19 convalescents' blood against on average seven different vaccine peptides. Furthermore, convalescents' complete HLA-genotype predicted their T cell responses to SARS-CoV-2-derived peptides with 84% accuracy. Computational extrapolation of this relationship to a cohort of 16,000 HLA-genotyped individuals with 16 different ethnicities suggest that PolyPEPI-SCoV-2 vaccination will likely elicit multi-antigenic T cell responses in 98% of individuals, independent of ethnicity. PolyPEPI-SCoV-2 administered with Montanide ISA 51 VG generated robust, Th1-biased CD8+, and CD4+ T cell responses against all represented proteins, as well as binding antibodies upon subcutaneous injection into BALB/c and hCD34+ transgenic mice modeling human immune system. These results have implications for the development of global, highly immunogenic, T cell-focused vaccines against various pathogens and diseases.

In the European Union and in Hungary, the food and beverage industry is the leading manufacturing one. By contrast, food industry is seen less innovative compared to other branches of the economy, especially in the European Union. The level of the R&D spending is very low in the Hungarian food sector. Our paper applies Schmookler's demand pull innovation model in order to explore how external impetuses and internal knowledge resources influence the innovation development in the Hungarian agrifood industry. We applied OLS and hurdle regressions on a large and representative sample of Hungarian food SMEs, covering the whole supply chain. Results show that tacit knowledge is more prominent than explicit one. The use of internal tacit knowledge is significant and relevant in the innovation production process. On the other hand, R&D spending has a negative influence on innovation's success among the food SMEs. JEL classification: O30, O32, Keywords: Schmookler's innovation model, Hungarian food SMEs, University and chain cooperation

Mixture Temperature-Controlled (MTC) combustion is a novel combustion concept for steady-operating applications, such as gas turbines, boilers, and furnaces. Compared to lean premixed burners, it offers significantly lower NOX emission. In order to reduce fossil fuel consumption, alternative fuels can be used as a substitute. Currently, coconut and palm biodiesels were evaluated. Besides the NO and CO emissions, the chemiluminescent signal was also evaluated. It was concluded that this favorable operation mode is easier to achieve with fuels having higher volatility.

The brewing industry generates a substantial amount of by-products rich in polyphenols, carbohydrates, sugars, sulfates, nitrogen compounds, organic carbon, and several elements, including chlorine, magnesium, and phosphorus. Although limited quantities of these by-products are used in fertilizers and composts, a large amount is discarded as waste. Therefore, it is crucial to identify different ways of valorizing the by-products. Research regarding the valorization of the brewery by-products is still in its nascent stage; therefore, it still has high potential. Herein, we report the valorization of the brewery by-product from the filtration stage of the brewing process (BW9) to synthesize silver nanocomposites as this waste has remained largely unexplored. The BW9 nanocomposites have been compared to those obtained from the brewery product B. The chemical composition analysis of BW9 and B revealed several organic moieties capable of reducing metal salts and capping the formed nanoparticles. Therefore, the brewery waste from stage 9 was valorized as a precursor and added to silver-based precursor at various temperatures (25, 50, and 80 °C) and for various time periods (10, 30, and 120 min) to synthesize silver nanocomposites. The nanocomposites obtained using BW9 were compared to those obtained using the main product of the brewing industry, beer (B). Synthesized nanocomposites composed of AgCl as a major phase and silver metal (Agmet) was incorporated in minor quantities. In addition, Ag3PO4 was also found in B nanocomposites in minor quantities (up to 34 wt.%). The surface morphology depicted globular nanoparticles with layered structures. Small ball-like aggregates on the layer representative of Ag3PO4 were observed in B nanocomposites. The surface of nanocomposites was capped with organic content and functional groups present in the brewery products. The nanocomposites demonstrated high antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli (E. coli), with BW9 nanocomposites exhibiting a higher activity than B nanocomposites.

Over 30 years after the first cancer vaccine clinical trial (CT), scientists still search the missing link between immunogenicity and clinical responses. A predictor able to estimate the outcome of cancer vaccine CTs would greatly benefit vaccine development. Published results of 94 CTs with 64 therapeutic vaccines were collected. We found that preselection of CT subjects based on a single matching HLA allele does not increase immune response rates (IRR) compared with non-preselected CTs (median 60% vs. 57%, p = 0.4490). A representative in silico model population (MP) comprising HLA-genotyped subjects was used to retrospectively calculate in silico IRRs of CTs based on the percentage of MP-subjects having epitope(s) predicted to bind ≥ 1–4 autologous HLA allele(s). We found that in vitro measured IRRs correlated with the frequency of predicted multiple autologous allele-binding epitopes (AUC 0.63–0.79). Subgroup analysis of multi-antigen targeting vaccine CTs revealed correlation between clinical response rates (CRRs) and predicted multi-epitope IRRs when HLA threshold was ≥ 3 (r = 0.7463, p = 0.0004) but not for single HLA allele-binding epitopes (r = 0.2865, p = 0.2491). Our results suggest that CRR depends on the induction of broad T-cell responses and both IRR and CRR can be predicted when epitopes binding to multiple autologous HLAs are considered.

Brewery wastes from stage 5 (Wort precipitate: BW5) and stage 7 (Brewer’s spent yeast: BW7) were valorized for the synthesis of silver phosphate nanocomposites. Nanoparticles were synthesized by converting silver salt in the presence of brewery wastes at different temperatures (25, 50, and 80 °C) and times (10, 30, and 120 min). Unexpectedly, BW7 yielded Ag3PO4 nanoparticles with minor contents of AgCl and Ag metal (Agmet). Contrastingly, BW5 produced AgCl nanoparticles with minor amounts of Ag3PO4 and Agmet. Nanocomposites with different component ratios were obtained by simply varying the synthesis temperature and time. The morphology of the nanocomposites contained ball-like structures representative of Ag3PO4 and stacked layers and fused particles representing AgCl and Agmet. The capping on the nanoparticles contained organic groups from the brewery by-products, and the surface overlayer had a rich chemical composition. The organic overlayers on BW7 nanocomposites were thinner than those on BW5 nanocomposites. Notably, the nanocomposites exhibited high antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli ATCC 25922. The antibacterial activity was higher for BW7 nanocomposites due to a larger silver phosphate content in the composition and a thin organic overlayer. The growth of Agmet in the structure adversely affected the antimicrobial property of the nanocomposites.

This study aims to examine the impact of social tolerance of cultural diversity, and the ability to speak widely spoken languages, on economic performance. Based on the literature, the evidence is still controversial and unclear. Therefore, the study used panel data relating to (99) non-English speaking economies during the time period between 2009 and 2017. Following the augmented Solow model approach, the related equation was expanded, in this study, to include (besides human capital) social tolerance, the English language (as a lingua franca) and the level of openness. The model was estimated using the two-step system GMM approach. The results show that social tolerance of diversity and English language competence have a positive, but insignificant impact on the economy. Regarding policy implications, government and decision-makers can avoid the costs deriving from cultural diversity by adopting democratic and effective institutions that aim to achieve cultural justice and recognition, which, in turn, enhance the level of tolerance, innovation and productivity in the economy. Moreover, to ease intercultural communication within heterogeneous communities, it is necessary to invest in enhancing the quality of second language education which is necessary to make society more tolerant and the country more open to the global economy.

Innovation plays a key role in the success and sustainable development of businesses. The innovation process derives from the combination of personal skills and company resources that influence food company managers in their choices on innovation (the decision-making process). This study is an attempt to try to understand which psychological constructs affect innovation decision-making in the Hungarian food sector, using the empirical data from a 2017 survey conducted in Hungary among the largest food processing companies. Planned behavior theory (TPB) was applied to the study of factors affecting innovation decision-making. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used for data analysis. The results show that the positive attitude of Hungarian food business leaders towards innovation, evaluation of innovation and the strategic intention of placing innovative products and processes on the market have a positive relationship with innovation performance; however, the lack of adequate research skills, plus specific knowledge and skills is hindering the development of the hoped for process.

The paper examines the relationship between the use of specific knowledge and economic success among Hungarian grape growers and wine makers. In the last decade, Hungary has been left behind by world trends as represented by the increasing share of the premium and super-premium wines (which utilise higher knowledge) in the export development. According to our survey, one cause of this might be the inappropriate use and management of knowledge and skills which is 'conditio sine qua non' for wine making. The Hungarian wine regions (usually with resource-based, fordist type resource endowment) are rather knowledge users. We have found (based on the PCA estimation) that two principal components cover 77% of the total variance: 'Size' and 'Innovation capabilities'. However, although the use and spread of skills is a basic component in explaining the differences of variation among the companies, it is not unambiguous in formulating the business success measured in different indicators. Because the small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) have limited resources in capital accumulation and knowledge creation, they need to maintain living network connections in order to expand their constrained innovation capabilities. Instead of the 'closed' type of innovation and knowledge accumulation, they utilise the 'open' way of acquiring knowledge, where they necessarily share their specific information with their partners, but at the same time, they are supplied with new knowledge which might be vital for their own progress. The majority of the Hungarian vine- and wine makers are not open enough in the different phases of the innovation process. However, our analysis proves that if they showed up mutuality especially in knowledge sharing with their competitors, they could improve their positions significantly. We conclude that the Hungarian wine enterprises - keeping the idea generation as well as its further development, elaboration and the adequate use within the frame of the company - can achieve market success.

The professional and political debate on the superficial or in-depth reorganization and re-form of Hungary 's administrative regions – which has been a constant feature on the agenda, albeit with varying levels of importance since the regime change of 1990 – has today been revived. The reforms carried out in Hungary during the part decade, although affecting area organization at many levels, have failed within the modified conditional system to provide a viable and comprehensive system. The internal structure of a state is determined by the state boundaries. To speak of state borders with regard to a uniting Europe is no easy task, since the import of the expression is changing within the framework of this integration. The outer borders of the EU lie along natural boundaries, and therefore may be clearly de-fined, while serving as protective enclosures for achievements which present inhabitants reached over many decades. In recent decades this produced a predominantly isolating tendency, and its liberalization in relation to penetrability may be mainly interpreted as a result of the expansion process. It seems appropriate to emphasise this notion, since after enlargement in 2004, today’s Schengen border will partly become an internal one, and in parallel will be gradually pushed eastwards, creating a wall or barrier in regions where it was traditionally desirable to maintain penetrability.

Članek obravnava vprašanja državnih meja znotraj združene Evrope in izpostavlja vprašnje konfliktnih meja ter funkcijo regij v konceptu Evropa regij. Na različnih primerih predstavlja ustreznost meja skozi čas in njihovo funkcionalnost, kar še posebej izstopa v regionalnem okviru.

The coordination plays central role in the economics. The conventional economic theory looks at the market and enterprise (or hierarchy) as two different, separated manner of coordination of economic goods and services. However the modern organization theory, price theory and institutional economics show that different types (not only market and enterprise, but also several types of hybrid forms) of coordination (or governance structure) necessarily live together in the current economic system. Based on my previous research on the field of regional clusters in the food industry I came to the conclusion that the cluster is one of the spheres where economic coordination can occur.At the same time I pointed out that the ways of coordination can be ordered on an ordinary scale according to its normative or positive nature. I’ve also found that the choice between the coordination spheres (market, enterprise or cluster) is not arbitrary, but instead depends on the interest’s dimension which is represented by the exchange of goods and services in question.

Polydopamine has the capacity to adhere to a large variety of materials and this property offers the possibility to bind nanoparticles to solid surfaces. In this work, magnetite nanoparticles were deposited on gold substrates coated with polydopamine films. The aim of this work was to investigate the effects of the composition and morphology of the PDA layers on the sticking of magnetite nanoparticles. The polydopamine coating of gold surfaces was achieved by the oxidation of alkaline solutions of dopamine with various reaction times. The length of the reaction time to form PDA was expected to influence the composition and surface roughness of the PDA films. Magnetite nanoparticles were deposited on these polydopamine films by immersing the samples in aqueous dispersions of nanoparticles. The morphology at the nanometric scale and the composition of the surfaces before and after the deposition of magnetite nanoparticles were investigated by means of AFM and XPS. We found that the amount of magnetite nanoparticles on the surface did not vary monotonically with the reaction time of PDA formation, but it was at the minimum after 20 min of reaction. This behavior may be attributed to changes in the chemical composition of the coating layer with reaction time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Iskolakultúra is the property of University of Szeged, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Aeronautical Science Bulletins / Repüléstudományi Közlemények is the property of National University of Public Service and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Aeronautical Science Bulletins / Repüléstudományi Közlemények is the property of National University of Public Service and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Aeronautical Science Bulletins / Repüléstudományi Közlemények is the property of National University of Public Service and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)