Danube Research Institute

The effect of a dietary butyrate supplementation on the production of fattening rabbits was examined. The control group (n=70 rabbits) was fed with granulated diet whereas the diet of butyrate group (n=70 rabbit) was supplemented with 0.2% of butyrate. The mortality rate was examined on a larger population (n=1050 rabbits/group). Butyrate group had lower weight gain at the ages of 46-52 and 60-66 days (-20 and 17 %, respectively; P>0.001) but higher weight gain at 53-59 days of age (+13%; P<0.05). Butyrate group consumed less feed than the control group between 38-45, 46-52 and 60-66 days (-2.4%, P<0.001; -5.7%, P<0.01; -4.9%, P<0.05, respectively). The feed conversion ratio of the butyrate group was worse between 46-52 days of age (+19%; P<0.01) but favourable at the ages of 53-59 and 67-73 days (-15% and -9%, respectively; P<0.05). Concerning the whole fattening period the weight gain, the feed intake and the feed conversion ratio of the groups did not differ. In the larger examined population, 4.0% and 6.3 % mortality was observed in the control and butyrate groups, respectively. The parasitological tests resulted only negative samples independently of groups. It can be concluded that dietary butyrate supplementation has not improved the performance of the growing rabbits.

ABSTRACT 9/11 continues to influence a new generation of jihadists who were not even born or were very young children in 2001. The attack gave the al-Qaeda brand a lustre that would not be dimmed until the deaths of Osama Bin Laden and most recently Ayman Al Zawahiri. Drawing on interviews with three jihadists who acted in the name of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), this article demonstrates that post 9/11 terrorists do not observe al-Qaeda or ISIS mimicking tribal patterns, but—consciously or not— they adopt tribal motifs. The article highlights the ideological path that these jihadists took and examines their tribal system’s desire to be accepted—or seek some accommodation—with terrorist organizations that behave like tribes. Through an examination of these cases involving converts to radical Islam in the United States, this article seeks to shed light on tribal motifs which serve as a contemporary factor for radicalization.

The effluent of wastewater treatment plants applying conventional three steps treatment procedure contains non-degradable organic micro-pollutants, mostly pharmaceutical residues. In Germany and Switzerland granulated activated carbon is used to reduce the concentration of these contaminants by about 80%. Another way to treat biologically treated wastewater is the fotooxidation using a photoreactor operating with a low pressure VUV light source. In framework of a laboratory scale project the degradation of diclofenac, naproxen and carbamazepin was studied in pure and wastewater matrices. The by-products formed during the fotooxidation were determined by UHPLC-Q-TOF system. The mineralization of organic pollutants was followed by measurement of total organic content of the treated solutions. In pure water matrix the degradation of diclofenac, naproxen and carbamazepin at concentration of 5 10-6 M needed 1: 5 and 10 minutes, however , in presence of treated wastewater matrix these time demand values increased to 5, 10 and 30 minutes, respectively. In order to reduce the treatment time oxygen or ozone was bubbled through the photoreactor resulting in mixing of water to be treated and higher number of OH• radicals.

Objectives Carotid bodies (CBs) play an important role in regulating sympathetic nervous system activity. Thus, they are likely to be enlarged in patients with certain cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. The aim of this case-control study was to verify this hypothesis using computed tomography angiography (CTA). Methods We retrospectively analysed 141 CTAs including 16 controls, 96 patients with only hypertension (HT), 12 with HT and previous acute myocardial infarction (AMI), 9 with HT and heart failure (HF), and 8 with HT and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We assessed the data using analysis of variance, with p < 0.05 indicating significance. Results CB average areas in the controls were 2.31 mm2 (right side (RS)) vs. 2.34 mm2 (left side (LS)). CB size was significantly enlarged in patients with HT: 3.07 mm2 (RS) (p=0.019) vs. 2.91 mm2 (LS) (p=0.002). If AMI (RS: 3.5 mm2; LS: 3.44 mm2) or HF (RS: 4.01 mm2; LS: 4.55 mm2) was associated with HT, the CB size was even more enlarged. COPD did not affect CB size (RS: 2.40 mm2; LS: 2.29 mm2). Conclusions Our data showed that certain diseases with increased activity of the sympathetic nervous system were associated with significantly enlarged CBs.

The current pattern of the Danube is a result of human activity as well as natural changes. Throughout history, different riverine transformations have affected the urban structure of Bratislava. The paper deals with the period of regulations between the years 1772 and 1896. To analyze the river as a natural and cultural phenomenon, a hybrid method was used. Selected aspects of historiographic research were interpreted on the basis of historical maps in the form of mapping. The method shows that local interventions were mainly part of the greater vision of the navigable waterway in Austria-Hungary.

This study was conducted with the aim to assess the effect of land use on chemical properties (organic carbon; pH; electrical conductivity; available P, K, Ca, Mg, Na), microbiological properties (basal soil respiration, microbial biomass carbon, dehydrogenase activity and phosphatase activity), and physical property (moisture content) of salt-affected soils developed under different geographical locations and climate i.e. Hungary and India. In Hungary, soil samples were taken from two different soil types with different land uses such as arable land (Solonetz—HSNA) and pasture land (Solonetz—HSNP; Solonchak—HSCP) while in India samples were collected from Solonetz soil of different land uses, namely, arable (ISNA), pasture (ISNP) and bare land (ISNB). Based on chemical properties and moisture content, one-way ANOSIM (Analysis of similarities) proved that all six sites were statistically different from each other. The results of PCA showed that soil samples from Hungary and India must be separated unambiguously from each other; furthermore the Hungarian ones differing in soil type and land use could be also differentiated. Cluster analysis (Bray-Curtis) gave similar results for microbiological properties in Hungarian sites while in Indian sites, three land use practices were grouped into two clusters where the pasture land was grouped to both arable land and bare land. CCA results revealed that more than 86% of variation in microbiological properties were explained by the environmental factors.

Diatoms, eukaryotic algae with silica cell wall have been proved to be reliable bioindicators and are applied in ecological status assessment of aquatic ecosystems using indices calculated from pollution sensitivity and indicator values of species. Traditional method of identification of diatom species is based on morphological features of frustule that requires in-depth taxonomical knowledge and expertise. Metabarcoding that combines barcodes and high-throughput sequencing offers a promising alternative. In this pilot study we tested the applicability of metabarcoding of benthic diatom assemblages for ecological status assessment of water bodies in Hungary comparing its performance to that of morphology-based identification of species. Samples from 78 rivers and streams arranged along a trophic gradient and 14 soda pans representing unique types of habitats were investigated. Sequences of the barcode region of rbcL gene suggested by Vasselon et al. (2017) were acquired revealing 1135 diatom amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) of which 54% could be assigned at species level using Diat.barcode (Rimet et al. 2019) as reference database. Morphological investigation detected more species and intraspecific taxa in the lotic and lentic samples (413 and 78, respectively) than metabarcoding (190 and 75). Correspondence between taxa detected based on morphology and DNA sequences was relatively low (on average 24% in lotic and 26% in lentic samples) but considerably increased (on average 66% and 56%, respectively) when taking into account only the taxa reaching higher than 5% relative abundance in microscopy counting. The differences mainly derived from that a considerable portion (59% and 32%, respectively) of the morphologically identified taxa were not recorded in the reference database. Community structure of samples from both running and standing waters based on microscopy and DNA sequence analysis showed significant correlation as revealed using Mantel test. For rivers and streams diatom index IPS (Specific Pollution Sensitivity Index, (Coste in Cemagref, 1982) for soda pans indices H (Ziemann et al., 2001) and IBD (Indice Biologique Diatomées, Lenoir and Coste, 1996) were calculated from the results of the two aspects. Strong correlation was found between morphology- and sequence-based indices and in about half of the samples, the ecological status class obtained with the two methods coincided. Our results suggest that metabarcoding inheres a great opportunity and could be successfully applied in benthic diatom-based ecological status assessment of Hungarian waters after the reference database is supplemented with taxa frequently occurring in these habitats. References Cemagref, 1982. Etude des méthodes biologiques quantitativesd’appréciation de la qualité des eaux, Rapport Division Qualité des Eaux Lyon. Agence financière de Bassin Rhône-Méditerranée-Corse, Pierre-Bénite, France. Lenoir, A., Coste, M., 1996. Development of a practical diatom index of overall water quality applicable to the French National Water Board Network. Presented at the International symposium, Volksbildungsheim Grilhof Vill, AUT, 17-19 September 1995, Universität Innsbruck, pp. 29–43. Rimet, F., Gusev, E., Kahlert, M., Kelly, M.G., Kulikovskiy, M., Maltsev, Y., Mann, D.G., Pfannkuchen, M., Trobajo, R., Vasselon, V., Zimmermann, J., Bouchez, A., 2019. Diat.barcode, an open-access curated barcode library for diatoms. Sci. Rep. 9, 15116. Vasselon, V., Rimet, F., Tapolczai, K., Bouchez, A., 2017. Assessing ecological status with diatoms DNA metabarcoding: Scaling-up on a WFD monitoring network (Mayotte island, France). Ecol. Indic. 82, 1–12. Ziemann, H., Kies, L., Schulz, C.-J., 2001. Desalinization of running waters: III. Changes in the structure of diatom assemblages caused by a decreasing salt load and changing ion spectra in the river Wipper (Thuringia, Germany). Limnologica 31, 257–280.

Abstract During winter, Long-eared Owls (Asio otus) usually roost in groups in urban areas, but their nocturnal movement patterns are less known. The aim of our study is to provide insight into the local-scale urban movement habits of Long-eared Owls. Our study was carried out between 2015 and 2019 in the autumn and winter period, by observations in the early evening and by ringing and recapture of owls in the town of Sombor (NE Serbia). We observed owls when leaving the roosting site located in the town centre following the greenery of the larger avenues towards the outskirts. Owls were sporadically observed in densely built areas of the town, narrow streets with less greenery. Ringing and recapture data suggest that owls were closely linked to the green corridors. They probably used these corridors for easier orientation and to prey on birds roosting in trees in the town, such as sparrows (Passer domesticus, P. montanus), Common Blackbirds (Turdus merula) or Fieldfares (T. pilaris) appearing in harsh winters, and sometimes also pigeons.