Hungarian Academy Of Sciences Research Articles

Pisma Šaćira Sikirića Ignazu Goldziheru / The Letters of Šaćir Sikirić to Ignaz Goldziher

This paper presents 18 letters and one postcard that Šaćir Sikirić, a Bosnian-Herzegovinian student, sent to his mentor and professor Ignaz Goldziher in Budapest between 1916 and 1921. The letters are preserved in Goldziher’s extensive legacy, housed at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Magyar Tudományos Akadémia). The introductory section of the paper provides biographical details about Sikirić, while the main part consists of the aforementioned letters. Each letter is offered with its signature, a detailed description of the content in Bosnian, and the original text in Hungarian. The appendix includes digital reproductions of two letters.

COVID-19 and SMEs: An umbrella review of systematic literature (2020–2024) and future directions for entrepreneurship

AbstractThis special issue addresses the impact of COVID-19 on entrepreneurship. It builds on insights shared at the dedicated session – supported by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences' Post-COVID research grant (MTA PC-II-17/1/2022) – of the 2nd Danube Cup Conference in Belgrade in November 2023, featuring three papers presented there, along with four additional contributions. The goal of this issue is to advance scholarly understanding of post-COVID dynamics in entrepreneurship and share valuable findings with a broad academic audience. To provide a comprehensive overview of current research on this topic, we include an umbrella review examining the COVID-19 crisis' impact on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from 2020 to 2024. Drawing on 26 systematic literature reviews identified through Scopus, Google Scholar, and Elicit, this review captures key challenges, strategies, and emerging trends affecting SMEs. Major research themes identified include resilience, supply chain management, digitalization, crisis management, and the financial impact of COVID-19.

Csokonai és Debrecen

The paper asks how the literary legacy of Mihály Csokonai Vitéz (1773–1805) has been handed down: why did Csokonai’s legacy remain so intact that it is still accessible to modern research (a significant part of the material is currently housed in the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), and how did Csokonai become such a timeless marker of Debrecen’s urban space and local identity in the 19th century and later? The answer lies in the fact that there were people in Csokonai’s immediate Debrecen environment (his family and circle of acquaintances) who, immediately after his death, considered it important to preserve his intellectual legacy. The role played by Csokonai’s mother in this process should be highlighted. Later, after his mother’s death, there was a person (László Gaál) who not only preserved his own memories, but also passed on Csokonai’s legacy and his own memories to the persons and institutions of the slowly centralising scientific community in Pest, who were able to shape the outlook and canon. In other words, the survival of Csokonai’s legacy and its emphatic inclusion in the literary historical canon was the result of the cooperation of local and central factors. This did not mean, however, that Csokonai was discovered by the city of Debrecen itself: the discrepancy between the preservation of manuscripts and the preservation of the Csokonai-related material world is striking. While the former reaches the most important places of the institutionalised literary memory almost as fast as lightning, the musealisation of objects does not follow, and the Csokonai Circle (Csokonai Kör), which was founded in Debrecen only much later, in 1890, vainly tried to collect such relics, but could hardly find anything that could be authentically connected to Csokonai.

The Core of Housing Markets from an Agent’s Perspective: Is It Worth Sprucing up Your Home?

We study housing markets as introduced by Shapley and Scarf. We investigate the computational complexity of various questions regarding the situation of an agent a in a housing market H: we show that it is [Formula: see text]-hard to find an allocation in the core of H in which (i) a receives a certain house, (ii) a does not receive a certain house, or (iii) a receives a house other than a’s own. We prove that the core of housing markets respects improvement in the following sense: given an allocation in the core of H in which agent a receives a house h, if the value of the house owned by a increases, then the resulting housing market admits an allocation in its core in which a receives either h or a house that a prefers to h; moreover, such an allocation can be found efficiently. We further show an analogous result in the Stable Roommates setting by proving that stable matchings in a one-sided market also respect improvement. Funding: This work was supported by the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund [Grants K124171, K128611]. I. Schlotter is supported by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences under its Momentum Programme (LP2021-2) and its János Bolyai Research Scholarship. The research reported in this paper and carried out by T. Fleiner at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics was supported by the “TKP2020, National Challenges Program” of the National Research Development and Innovation Office [BME NC TKP2020 and OTKA K143858] and by the Higher Education Excellence Program of the Ministry of Human Capacities in the frame of the Artificial Intelligence research area of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME FIKP-MI/SC). P. Biró gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund, OTKA [Grant K143858] and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences [Momentum Grant LP2021-2].

Body Position Dependent Participation of Abdominal and Thoracic Breathing Movements During the Breathing Cycle

Aims: Both abdominal and thoracic breathing movements play important roles in the mechanics of breathing, participating differently in various body positions with abdominal breathing having a greater role. Recent studies showed that an early proning position of awake, non-intubated patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, even during pregnancy (PMID: 32320506, PMID: 33309507, PMID: 34915799) significantly affected the ventilatory parameters and mortality of SARS-CoV-2 patients. Thus, we hypothesized that in different body positions the participation of abdominal (AB) and thoracic breathing (TB) during the complete respiratory cycle (CRC) is different. To test this, we measured the participation of AB and TB to the CRC in different body positions under resting conditions. Methods: In young participants (N=26) age between 18 and 24 (M=21.3±1.6), changes in abdominal and chest circumferences were measured using plethysmography respiratory belts, during inhalation and exhalation in standing (ST), sitting (SI), supine (SU), prone (PR), and all on fours (AF) body positions. Respiratory frequency was also measured. Results: In different positions, the contribution of AB and TB to CRC were significantly different (F(4,100)=4.999, p=0.004, η2p=0.17). AB was significantly higher than TB in all positions (p<0.001). More specifically, AB gradually increased, while TB gradually decreased in the following order: SU(AB/TB) = 74.8±12.9%/25.2%, ST = 69±16%/31%, PR = 66.8±20.2%/33.2%, SI = 65.5±14.8%/34.5%, AF = 61.1±15.1%/38.9%. A significantly higher value was measured in the SU position compared to AF (p<0.001) and SI (p=0.011) positions; PR and ST positions showed intermediate values, which were not significantly different from those yielded by either of the other positions. Respiratory frequency was similar in different body positions. Conclusions: These data show that different body positions significantly affect the participation of abdominal and thoracic breathing during resting condition, underscoring not only the importance of respiratory distress patients positioning during hospitalization, but its usefulness in developing a respiratory training plan for elite athletes to optimize their physical and mental performance in competitive sports. AK: Ministry of Innovation and Technology (MIT) of Hungary-NRDI TKP2020-NKA-17, TKP2021-EGA-37, and National Research, Development, and Innovation Offce (NKFIH) OTKA K 132596 K_19, and Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Post-Covid 2021-34, and HUN-REN-SU: 02068 of Hungary, JT: ÚNKP-22-4-II-SE-4 (JT), TKP2021-EGA-25. This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2024 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.

Molecular Basis of Different Flow-Induced Responses of Small Intra- and Extracranial Cerebral Arteries: Role of Arachidonic Acid and Nitric Oxide Pathways

Background / Objectives. Previous studies showed that increases in intraluminal flow elicit primarily dilations in isolated rat extracranial basilar arteries (BA), whereas constrictions in the intracranial middle cerebral arteries (MCA) (Koller A, Toth P. J Vasc. Res. 2012, PMID: 22739136). These responses are most likely due to the absence or presence of physical constraints (rigid cranium). Thus, we hypothesized that the underlying molecular pathways are also different, corresponding to the functional vasomotor responses. Material and Methods. Protein and gene expression of key AA-pathway enzymes and receptors, such as cyclooxygenase (COX1 and COX2) and thromboxane A2 receptor (TxA2R), and vasodilator enzymes, such as prostacyclin synthase (PGIS) were measured in isolated BA and MCA from male rats (3 months old, n=18). Results. By western blotting protein expression of vasoconstrictor metabolites COX1/2, Cyp4A and receptor TBXA2R were significantly higher whereas expression of dilator PGIS was significantly lower in MCA than in BA. Using qPCR we found that expression of genes coding vasoconstrictor enzymes COX1/2, Cyp4A and receptor TBXA2R was significantly higher, whereas gene coding dilator PGIS was significantly lower in intracranial compared to extracranial arteries. In addition, RNAseq analysis demonstrated that expression of multiple genes coding vasoconstrictor molecules is higher in intracranial compared to extracranial arteries. Conclusions. These findings provide mechanistic basis for the observed different functional, vasomotor responses of BA and MCA to increases in flow, by showing the different expression of enzymes (COX1/2, Cyp) producing constrictor prostanoids (such as 20-HETE), receptors (TxA2R) and dilator prostanoid (PGIS). In addition, these findings reinforce the importance of regional differences in the regulation of cerebral arterial resistance, thereby providing appropriate blood flow to the brain, and at the same time, autoregulation of cerebral blood flow. Ministry of Innovation and Technology (MIT) of Hungary-NRDI TKP2020-NKA-17, TKP2021-EGA-37, and National Research, Development, and Innovation Offce (NKFIH) OTKA K 132596 K_19, and Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Post-Covid 2021-34, and HUN-REN-SU: 02068 of Hungary. This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2024 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.

Importance of both Hemidiaphragms in Maintaining Optimal Breathing Mechanics, Respiratory Rate, and Hemoglobin Oxygen Saturation: a Case Study

Background: The mechanical process of breathing consists of the abdominal breathing (AB) driven/generated by the diaphragm, and thoracic breathing (TB) generated by the intercostal muscles. The coordinated movements of the two portions of diaphragm account for 80% of the inspiration, although their exact roles are still investigated. While bilateral diaphragmatic paralysis causes severe shortness of breath, unilateral hemidiaphragm paralysis is asymptomatic at rest, making it challenging to diagnose. Objective: To measure and compare the amplitudes of abdominal and chest movements in different body positions between a healthy individual and an individual with unilateral diaphragmatic paralysis (phrenic nerve injury). Methods: Changes in the circumference of the abdomen and chest were measured during inhalation and exhalation with respiratory plethysmography belts (placed on standardized reproducible positions on the chest, and abdomen) in different body positions: sitting (SI), standing (ST), lying (SU) and prone (PR) in a healthy (H) individual and an individual with unilateral diaphragmatic paralysis. (Ph). Breathing frequency and other parameters were calculated from the measured signals. Furthermore, the blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) was measured with a pulse oximeter. Results: Percent (%) contribution of abdominal breathing H/Ph: SI: 29.6/16.0; ST: 72.8/50.3; SU: 90.6/-53.5; PR: 32.8/1.1. A negative sign shows paradoxical breathing. Respiratory rate (1/min) H/Ph: SI:18.7/19.4; ST: 19.0/15.0; SU: 15.9/37.5; PR: 16.6/35.9. Phase angle of abdominal and thoracic breathing curves (degrees) H/Ph: SI: 4.09/-5.73; ST: -20.82/-9.48; SU: 3.68/184.29; PR: 25.08/-26.51. In case of a negative sign, chest breathing precedes abdominal expansion, and vice versa in the case of a positive sign. A value around 180 degrees indicates paradoxical breathing, seen in Ph, when SpO2 significantly decreased: SI: 93% vs. SU: 82%. Conclusions: In different body positions, the amplitude changes of the abdomen and chest differed substantially during the complete respiratory cycle. Both portions of diaphragm are important because in unilateral phrenic nerve injury, abdominal breathing markedly decreased in most body positions compared to a healthy individual. Furthermore, paradoxical breathing occurred in a supine position, as indicated by a change in the phase angle. The lowest respiratory rate was measured in standing position (15/min), in which the participation of the abdomen/chest ratio was 50.3%, / 49.7%, while the highest value was obtained in supine position (38 breaths/min), which coincided by a decreased hemoglobin oxygen saturation / i.e. oxygen intake. In case of hemidiaphragm paralysis, the diminished mechanical breathing effciency requires a higher respiratory rate to sustain/maintain hemoglobin oxygen saturation. However, this elevated respiratory rate also increases energy consumption, potentially resulting in dyspnea during physical exertion / exercise. Ministry of Innovation and Technology (MIT) of Hungary-NRDI TKP2020-NKA-17, TKP2021-EGA-37, and National Research, Development, and Innovation Offce (NKFIH) OTKA K 132596 K_19, and Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Post-Covid 2021-34, and HUN-REN-SE: 02068 of Hungary. This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2024 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.

Shapley–Scarf Housing Markets: Respecting Improvement, Integer Programming, and Kidney Exchange

In a housing market of Shapley and Scarf, each agent is endowed with one indivisible object and has preferences over all objects. An allocation of the objects is in the (strong) core if there exists no (weakly) blocking coalition. We show that, for strict preferences, the unique strong core allocation “respects improvement”—if an agent’s object becomes more desirable for some other agents, then the agent’s allotment in the unique strong core allocation weakly improves. We extend this result to weak preferences for both the strong core (conditional on nonemptiness) and the set of competitive allocations (using probabilistic allocations and stochastic dominance). There are no counterparts of the latter two results in the two-sided matching literature. We provide examples to show how our results break down when there is a bound on the length of exchange cycles. Respecting improvements is an important property for applications of the housing markets model, such as kidney exchange: it incentivizes each patient to bring the best possible set of donors to the market. We conduct computer simulations using markets that resemble the pools of kidney exchange programs. We compare the game-theoretical solutions with current techniques (maximum size and maximum weight allocations) in terms of violations of the respecting improvement property. We find that game-theoretical solutions fare much better at respecting improvements even when exchange cycles are bounded, and they do so at a low efficiency cost. As a stepping stone for our simulations, we provide novel integer programming formulations for computing core, competitive, and strong core allocations. Funding: P. Biró gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund, OTKA [Grant K143858] and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences [Grant LP2021-2]. F. Klijn gratefully acknowledges financial support from AGAUR–Generalitat de Catalunya [Grants 2017-SGR-1359 and 2021-SGR-00416] and the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación [Grants ECO2017-88130-P and PID2020-114251GB-I00] (funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) and the Severo Ochoa Programme for Centres of Excellence in R&D (Barcelona School of Economics) [Grant CEX2019-000915-S]. Research visits related to this work were financed by COST Action [Grant CA15210 ENCKEP], supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology), http://www.cost.eu/ .

The Time Hides It Deceptively

At the same time, the Pázmány Péter University stated as the reasons for the loss of employment that Dr. Orsós: “gave a series of false forensic opinions”, “gave a false expert opinion in the excavation of the Katyn mass graves”, “himself became a member of the SS”. The Verification Committee of the Hungarian Pázmány Péter University filed a denunciation on 13 July 1945 against “the war criminal university professors Dr. Ferenc Orsós, Dr. Károly Burger, Dr. József Boros, Dr. Gyula Darányi, who had escaped to Germany. On 28 May 1946, the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Budapest issued a letter of inquiry against Dr. Ferenc Orsós. In my opinion, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences should set an example to the current generations in respecting the high standards, in objectively appreciating the past generation of scientists and in having the moral fibre to be able to expose the mistakes of the past not only in form but also in substance. Cynical cowards, the great powers (the Soviet Union, the United States of America, England, France) have a huge responsibility in the Orsós affair. As can be seen from the above list, no academics from the Department of Medical Sciences have been rehabilitated. In my opinion, it must be clearly stated that this must never happen again, that the recognition of scientific and professional achievements is subordinated to the winds of politics.In my opinion, financial support should be sought from them to give Orsós the recognition he deserves in Hungarian and international public opinion. We propose that his ashes be brought home and reburied with military honours as an outstanding Hungarian personality of World War II.

Scientific Excellence and Publication Patterns: The Winning Applicants of the Bolyai János Research Scholarship in Hungary in 2021

The following paper examines some of the publishing habits observed among the winning applicants of the Bolyai János Research Scholarship. As an academic support programme, the Bolyai Research Scholarship forms a bridge between scholars with the title of doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS) and the young generation of researchers with an academic degree. The winning applicants in 2021 were researchers under the age of 45, cooperating with international co-authors, having highly cited publications and showing a continuous publication history of 15 years on average. The scholarship holders come primarily from research centres and universities. The paper argues that the achievements of scholarship holders follow the international patterns of academic excellence and publication as well as the requirements for international cooperation and publishing mainly in open access journals. In doing so, they prefer journals under the umbrella of Elsevier for performing their publication activities; however, there has been a significant increase in those publishing in MDPI journals, recently. The results show that one-third of the applicants had published before and a fifth of them had published in one of the journals of MDPI two months after announcing the list of the winning applicants. At the same time, differences in publication traditions and award systems reveal marked differences in publication strategies and evaluation criteria across fields of science. Based on this, the descriptive statistics presented in this paper contribute to our understanding of the conscious career planning of young scholars in line with international standards.

Compilation of an International Journal List in the HAS IX. Section of the Doctoral Committee for Economics and Management

Only some of the Sections of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS) compile a list of journals. One of these is the IX Section of Economics and Law of the MTA. The section›s doctoral committees evaluate candidates for the title of Doctor of the Academy of Sciences on the basis of eight lists of journals. The lists are generally stable in the sense that they remain unchanged for about five years, but renewal of the lists becomes necessary from time to time. In this publication, we describe the process of renewing the list of journals of the Qualification Committee for Doctoral Candidates in Economics and Management, Section IX of the Academy of Sciences, from the method of compiling the list of journals to the statistical methods used to determine the journal categories A, B, C, and D.

10-LB: Activation of Sigma-1 Receptor as a Novel Therapeutic Target in Diabetic Kidney Disease

Introduction and aims: Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is a major health concern among diabetic patients. Current therapies cannot halt the progression of renal failure; thus, the development of additional novel therapies is of paramount importance. We previously showed that the Sigma-1 receptor (S1R) agonism is protective in acute kidney injury (AKI). Inflammation and tubular hypoxia are key processes in the pathogenesis of DKD. S1R agonist treatment inhibits these pathologic pathways in AKI, therefore we assume that a similar protective effect can be shown in DKD as well. Methods: Diabetes mellitus (DM) was induced by streptozotocin (65 mg/bwkg, ip.) in adult, male Wistar rats and they were treated for seven weeks with fluvoxamine (D+FLU, 20 mg/bwkg/day, po.). Metabolic parameters, renal function, and histology were evaluated. Inflammation was tested in lipopolysaccharide-stimulated (LPS, 1 µg/mL) human proximal tubular epithelial cells (HK-2). To test hypoxia cells were placed in a hypoxic chamber (1% O2, 2h). Cells were treated with 10 µM FLU. Proinflammatory and hypoxia markers were measured. Results: Renal function (BUN: DM: 26.6±2.42 vs. DM+FLU: 17.3±2.30 mmol/L; Serum creatinine: DM: 42.0±2.39 vs.DM+FLU: 34.5±2.74 µmol/L; Proteinuria: DM: 42.5±6.38 vs. DM+FLU: 21.5±4.99 mg/mL; p<0.05), structural damage (PAS staining), and fibrotic tissue accumulation (Masson’s trichrome staining) were reduced by FLU. FLU decreased LPS-induced IL6, TLR4, and NFKB1 expressions in HK-2 cells. Hypoxia-induced HIF1A and HIF2A elevation were suspended by FLU treatment. Moreover, VEGFA and SLC2A1 expressions were also increased in hypoxia and FLU prevented their elevation. Conclusions: Activation of S1R slows the progression of chronic renal impairment in DKD. Moreover, S1R agonist FLU prevents hypoxic and inflammatory damage in HK-2 cells, which may explain the molecular mechanisms behind its renoprotective effect. We propose S1R as a novel target for the prevention of DKD. Disclosure D. B. Balogh: None. L. Lenart: None. A. Hosszu: None. A. Saeed: None. J. Hodrea: None. A. R. Toth: None. A. J. Szabo: None. A. Fekete: None. Funding National Research, Development and Innovation Fund (UNKP-22-4-II-SE-2, TKP2021-EGA-24); Hungarian Academy of Sciences (LP2021-3/2021)

Photon-counting detector CT enables more precise assessment of coronary artery stenosis

Abstract Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: Public grant(s) – National budget only. Main funding source(s): Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Introduction In contrast to conventional energy-integrating detectors, photon-counting detector (PCD) CT translates the photon energy directly to electric signal, which allows image acquisition with lower noise and improved spatial resolution. Objective The aim of our study was to assess coronary stenosis by comparing conventional CT and PCD-CT. Method In our retrospective study, we included patients who underwent coronary CT angiography (CCTA) performed by PCD-CT between January and December 2022. The control population consisted of consecutive patients who underwent coronary CCTA with a 280-slice CT. In our study, heart transplanted patients, patients with stent, pacemaker or valve implantation, or non-diagnostic image quality were excluded. The degree of coronary stenosis was evaluated according to the following classification: normal coronary artery (0%), minimal (1–24%), mild (25–49%), moderate (50–69%), severe stenosis (70–99%) or occluded coronary artery (100%). Results A total of 812 consecutive patients were included in our study (n=401 control, n=412 PCD-CT). There was no difference between the two groups in mean age (58.1±11.9 vs. 58.7±12.8 years) and sex (48.4% vs. 42.6% female). We found a significant difference in the degree of CAD between conventional CT and PCD-CT as follows: normal coronary arteries 29 vs 26%; minimum 23 vs 31%; mild 20 vs 23%; moderate 15 vs 10%; severe 12 vs 9%; occluded 3 vs 2%, respectively (all p<0.001). Conclusions According to our preliminary results, PCD-CT is less likely to overestimate the degree of stenosis and can detect smaller plaques more precisely.

Conversations with Gábor J. Székely

Gábor J. Székely was born in Budapest, Hungary on February 4, 1947. He graduated from Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) with an M.S. degree in 1970, and a Ph.D. degree in 1971. He received his Candidate Degree from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1976, and the Doctor of Science Degree (D. Sc.) from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1986. Székely joined the Department of Probability Theory of ELTE in 1970. In 1989, he became the founding chair of the Department of Stochastics of the Budapest Institute of Technology (Technical University of Budapest). In 1995, he moved to the United States as a tenured full professor at Bowling Green State University (BGSU) in Bowling Green, Ohio. Before that, in 1990–1991, he was the first Lukacs Distinguished Professor at BGSU. Székely had several visiting positions, for example, at the University of Amsterdam in 1977 and at Yale University in 1989. Between 2006 and 2022, he served as a Program Director in the Statistics Program of the Division of Mathematical Sciences at the U.S. National Science Foundation. Székely has about 250 publications, including 6 books in several languages. In 1988, he received the Rollo Davidson Prize from Cambridge University, jointly with Imre Z. Ruzsa for their work on algebraic probability theory. In 2010, Székely became an Elected Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics mostly for his works dealing with physics concepts in statistics like energy statistics and distance correlation. He had the fortune to know and work with world-class mathematicians and statisticians like (in chronological order of their first meetings): P. Erdős, A. Rényi, Y. Linnik, B. de Finetti, A. N. Kolmogorov, H. Robbins, G. Pólya, L. Shepp, G. Wahba, C. R. Rao, B. Efron, P. Bickel and E. Seneta.

THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY IN DIGITAL WORLD – MISKOLC INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE / PRAVO NA PRIVATNOST U DIGITALNOM SVIJETU – MEĐUNARODNA NAUČNA KONFERENCIJA U MISKOLCU

This text is review of the International scientific conference The Right to Privacy in the Digital Age – in specific terms, which was held in Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest on 1st December 2022

The Porta speciosa of Esztergom •

This essay was carried out in the framework of a research programme (Thesaurus Mediaevalis, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, 2017–2022) funded by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and deals with one of the most complex but hardly accessible works of the Árpád period, the former main portal of the Esztergom Cathedral, which was decorated with sculptures and inlaid marble images. It was built in the last decade of the 12th century under King Béla III (1172–1196) and survived the Turkish invasion, but its remains were destroyed during the 19th century construction works. Since then, it exists only in textual sources, depictions and museum fragments. The present work aims primarily to collect and catalogue the fragments, but also to examine the structure of this work of exceptional quality, the artistic orientation of its workshop and the content of the images. It examines questions such as the history of the construction of the building, the sculptural quality of the fragments, which European art centres are related to them (including, in addition to the dominant role of the centres in northern Italy, the Byzantine influence conveyed by the various forms of transport), the circumstances under which the artists could have arrived in the Kingdom of Hungary, the inspiration for their art, what their knowledge and the needs of their clients reveal, and whether there were any interruptions, changes of plan or new beginnings during the construction.

A new monitoring system for nutritional status assessment in children at home

Regular monitoring of children’s nutritional status is essential to prevent micronutrient deficiencies, nutritional status abnormalities as stunting, wasting, overweight and obesity. Nutritional status assessment is usually performed by paediatricians by using anthropometry (body mass index, weight to height indices) and/or by body fat-mass measurement (bioimpedance analysis, dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry, computer tomography, etc.). Parents are also interested in but usually fail to evaluate their child’s nutritional status. To help the sufficient collaboration between the physician and parents a new nutritional status monitoring method is developed for families. The new monitoring system was developed under a paediatrician’s supervision by considering national and international recommendations, references as well as the anthropometric measurement possibilities at home. The model requires age, sex, body mass, height, waist circumference and hand circumference as predictor (input) variables of nutritional status, while (1) the centile values of the measured body dimensions, (2) body fat percentage and the centile of body fat percentage, (3) the nutritional status category (undernutrition, normal nutritional status, overfat/obese) can be predicted (outcome variables) by the new method. The predictive accuracy of the model for nutritional status category was 94.88% in boys and 98.66% in girls. The new model was developed for nutritional status assessment in school-aged children and will be incorporated in the healthy lifestyle module of ‘Teenage Survival Guide’ educational package to be developed by the Health Promotion and Education Research Team, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary. The new monitoring system could help the families to identify the early signs of malnutrition in children. Nutritional status assessment in children at home is suggested twice a year, and in case of suspicious nutritional status abnormality it is recommended to visit the general practitioner.

Report on the International Scientific Conference on “The Right to Privacy in the Digital Age – in Specific Terms” held by the Central European Professors’ Network on the 1 December 2022 in Budapest, Hungary

On 1 December 2022, an international conference titled “The right to privacy in the digital age – in specific terms” was held at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The conference marked the completion of a year-long collaboration between several researchers from seven Central European countries (namely: Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, and Slovenia), who had been working under the guidance of Marcin Wielec to conduct research on the subject of the right to privacy in the digital age with an emphasis on specific terms. The book titled “The Right to Privacy in the Digital Age. Perspective of Analysis on Certain Central European Countries” is one of the above-mentioned research’s most important results. Other results of the research group’s significant work include an international conference, and various scholarly publications, as well as dissemination events. The research group on the right to privacy is one of the five research teams presently operating under the guidance of the Central European Professors’ Network. This contribution summarizes the conference presentations and the work of the research group.

„Mindig azt csináltam, ami érdekelt.” Beszélgetés Gábris Gyula professzorral [Interjú

Gyula Gábris was born on July 22, 1942 in Miskolc. He graduated from the Eötvös Loránd University as a secondary school teacher specializing in Biology and Geography, and then as a Cartographer the following year. He holds a Doctorate from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and is currently a professor emeritus. His research interests include geomorphology, Quaternary research, and the geomorphological processes of rivers. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the reader to the most important stages of the professor’s life, his relationship to geography, and the factors shaping his career. The article is based on a series of online and personal interviews as well as written communication between October 2022 and January 2023. The research topics of Gyula Gábris are diverse; the directions have changed many times over the years, but he often returned to certain topics, building a very rich and colorful research oeuvre.

Elindult a Magyar Nemzeti Helynévtár Program

The Hungarian National Toponym Registry Program Launched The paper reports on the launch of a comprehensive toponomastics program supported by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and based on extensive scholarly collaboration aimed at collecting, documenting, and publishing contemporary and historical Hungarian toponyms. The main objective of the first year of the program was to establish the operative framework and involve the adequate group of scholars. All university departments providing programs in Hungarian linguistics in the Carpathian Basin participate in the work with institutional representatives coordinating the activities. There are regional coordinators outside Hungary and the Advisory Board of the Academy facilitates high-quality work. University students have a key role in the collection and processing of the toponymic corpus and they are prepared for such a work with the help of university courses, online materials, collection trips, and joint database building activities. The work completed in the first year has provided a sound foundation for the implementation of the decade-long research program.