Articles

• Croatia – the path from Yugoslavia to the EU – Future: Success or wash-out?

  5-8

  Tamás Borbély

  Views:

  136

  Croatia joined to the European Union as the 28^th member state on June the 1^th 2013. With this it became the second ex-yugoslavian country to be part of the European elite. Croatia’s long road from being part of a socialist state conglomerate to become the newest member of the EU was not just winding but often and still it is shaky.

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  177

• The measurement of successfully completed projects funded by the European Union

  9-12

  Laura Siposné Sinóros-Szabó

  Views:

  152

  Projects funded by the European Union contribute significantly to the socio-economic development of Hungary, its increasing competitiveness, thereby the local people's general level of satisfaction, their ”happiness and prosperity”. Successful spending from the Union's funds, successful project implementation directly impacts all actors in the Hungarian economy and society. Therefore, to examine the factors that support or jeopardize the implementation of the projects is a priority at EU and national levels. My research and doctoral dissertation aims to develop a methodology to assess the management efficiency of projects supported by the European Union, implemented in Hungary taking into account all measurable factors (technical and special expertise) and the "suspected" factor (EU thinking learning).

  I intend to draw up guidelines for future EU funded project management teams to realize projects successfully for the benefit of Hungary.

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  186

• Effects of the development of production factors on productivity

  13-18

  András Vántus

  Views:

  139

  In every economic sector, the enacted and expected quality of the products strongly affects its market entry and subsistence. The aim of management is success, competitiveness and subsistence that require adequate human and material resources and enough production stock. We must also notice that the quality of tools and instruments significantly influences work productivity. This applies to both plant production and animal husbandry.

  The author researched milk production factors with methodical observation, document analysis and interviews. Data were collected with a ten-year interval, thus this assay can highlight the field, volume and sources of investments during this period and that the production stock increased in most farms and decreased in few. The data also shows the influence of investments on work productivity - there are differences between farms of equal size, so there are still ways of development.

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  181

• Slovenian economy in the grip of credit crisis – How to proceed?

  19-25

  Imre Balogh

  Views:

  167

  The Slovenian economy has been through steep ups and downs post-EU accession (2004), and is at the crossroads again. The period 2004–2008 was characterized by balanced monetary and fiscal policies resulting in the adoption of the Euro (2007), coupled with overheated economic growth and propelling corporate indebtedness, fuelled by rapid credit expansion from cheap and abundant foreign funding.

  The global financial crisis has exposed the “home-grown” vulnerability of the Slovenian economy, bringing about the second largest GDP fall (9.4%) in the Eurozone after Greece, with a double-dip recession (2009, 2012–13). Growth rebounced in 2014 to 2.6% from its low, but the competitiveness of the Slovenian economy continued to slide in international rankings. For further recovery Slovenia, squeezed by high public debt at 82% of GDP, credit contraction despite EUR 5bn state aid injected into the 70% domestically (basically state) owned banking sector, and the continued threat of massive bankruptcy and debt overhang in the corporate sector, has 3 fundamentally different policy options.

  − Profound restructuring of the banking system and the real sector, on the basis of earnest privatization and voluminous FDI inflow.

  − Slow creditless recovery due to half-hearted reforms in the financial system and corporate sector.

  − Substituting wide-ranging micro level restructuring with Government-stimulated credit expansion, reproducing current tensions in even higher magnitudes in the future.

  In the current state of the Slovenian economy, equity-led growth, combined with far-reaching institutional reforms seems the only choice in laying the foundation for long-term sustainable economic development. This study outlines the critical further steps in re-invigorating the financial system, utilizing also the proposals elaborated by the author and his banking team for the Slovenian macro policy decision-makers.

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  186

• Sour cherry seed as an industrial gamma tocopherol source

  27-33

  Attila Bíró

  Andrea Nemes

  Judit Remenyik

  Views:

  199

  In our experiments sour cherry kernels were investigated. The kernels of different sour cherry cultivars were originated from Újfehértói Gyümölcstermesztési Kutató és Szaktanácsadó Nonprofit Közhasznú Kft. Tocopherol profile, oil yields and nutritional value were stood in focus of examinations.

  We started processes preparing of sour cherry kernels. After the preparation recovered non-polar fraction was investigated. We worked with formerly developed chromathographic system, which is capable to separate different tocopherol isomers efficiently. We measured concentration of each tocopherol isomers and registered those and their relation in different oil samples.

  According to received data, alpha-, gamma- and delta-tocopherol appeared in samples, but beta-tocopherol could not be detected. It became clear that level of gamma-tocopherol is far higher than alfa- or gamma-isomer, it is concentration exceeded 1–1.5 mg ml^-1.

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  241

• Modelling forestation alternatives

  35-41

  Éva Bozsik

  Péter Riczu

  Bernadett Gálya

  János Tamás

  Charles Burriel

  Herman Helilmeier

  Views:

  252

   

  Agroforestry systems are part of the history of the European Union rural landscapes, but the regional increase of size of agricultural parcels had a significant effect on European land use in the 20th century, thereby it has radically reduced the coverage of natural forest. However, this cause conflicts between interest of agricultural and forestry sectors. The agroforestry land uses could be a solution of this conflict management. One real – ecological – problem with the remnant forests and new forest plantation is the partly missing of network function without connecting ecological green corridors, the other problem is verifiability for the agroforestry payment system, monitoring the arable lands and plantations.

  Remote sensing methods are currently used to supervise European Union payments. Nowadays, next to use satellite imagery the airborne hyperspectral and LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) remote sensing technologies are becoming more widespread use for nature, environmental, forest, agriculture protection, conservation and monitoring and it is an effective tool for monitoring biomass production.

  In this Hungarian case study we made a Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS) to create agroforestry site selection model. The aim of model building was to ensure the continuity of ecological green corridors, maintain the appropriate land use of regional endowments. The investigation tool was the more widely used hyperspectral and airborne LiDAR remote sensing technologies which can provide appropriate data acquisition and data processing tools to build a decision support system.

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  214

• Complexity of ecosystem services in agricultural fields, in particular the biodiversity

  43-51

  Ibolya Csíder

  Views:

  149

  Since the Convention on Biological Diversity a lot of papers have been published how to measure and value biodiversity. In the last decades publications on agro-ecosystems become more frequent and play a significant role in the provision of ecosystem services. There is a uniform definition for biodiversity in general, however, in terms of agro-ecosystems and their services (including biodiversity) many weaknesses can be identified. The objective of this paper is to explore some of these problems with special regard to different definitions and terms and to the farmland ecosystem services. One solution could be to adopt a more complex system which has some ecological and environmental components (air, water and soil pollution) and also takes in to consideration the efficiency of agricultural production.

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  164

• Effect of cropyear on the different agrotechnical parameters and yield of asparagus (Asparagus officinalis L.)

  53-58

  Zsuzsa Erdős

  Views:

  138

  The experiments were performed in the University of Debrecen Centre fog Agricultural Research Institute of Nyíregyháza of 1500 m² asparagus plantation in 2011. We were determine the number of shoots, plant height, fold thickness and yield of asparagus hybrids. I observe in the effects of three different asparagus genotypes (Vitale, Cumulus, Grolim) growth and development of the data sets are required. Compared to previous years, the year 2014 was also an unusually warm and rainy weather, which makes the plantation produced outstanding development. Effect of the early warming, this year the harvest was to begin one month then in 2013.

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  181

• Comparison of Pálfai’s drought index and the Normalised Precipitation Index in the North Great Plain region

  59-64

  Bernadett Gálya

  Attila Nagy

  Lajos Blaskó

  Boglárka Dályai

  János Tamás

  Views:

  237

  Agriculture has always been an important role in economy, food supplies, sustainability of society and creation of job opportunities in Hungary. Our country has resource-related strength of agriculture, because we have more than 4.5 million ha for agricultural production. Agricultural production can be influenced by several factors, including climate, hydrology, soil conditions and antropogenic impacts. Climate determines the quality and quantity of the crop yields. The climate conditions in Hungary are variable and it shows spatial and temporal extremes. As a result of this, drought have become more frequent in our country (2003, 2007, 2009, 2012), which is reflected in the decline in yields as well. In the present study, Pálfai's Drought Index (PAI) and the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) were compared 2003–2012 in Debrecen. The temperature and precipitation data were calculated from data provided by a local meteorological station to work out PAI, while the SPI-3 index values were downloaded from the database of the European Drought Observatory. This allowed to drought assessment in a local and regional scale. Our study was supplemented with SPI-3, soil moisture anomalies, PAI and yields of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and maize (Zea mays L.) to evaluating the impact of drought on agriculture.

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  230

• New wonder of an old hormone: Hungarian sour cherry varieties as natural melatonin sources

  65-72

  Judit Homoki

  Gyöngyi Gyémánt

  Judit Remenyik

  Views:

  222

  Agriculture has always been an important role in economy, food supplies, sustainability of society During our experimental work an effective extraction procedure has been developed for melatonin. Further chromatography was developed the quantitative and qualitative determination of melatonin. A compound that was equal to the standard was purified from the extract by preparative HPLC technique and the structure of the purified sample was confirmed by MALDI-TOF-MS and NMR analysis. Based on our measurements, harvested in the state of biological maturity Hungarian sour cherry cultivars contain high levels of melatonin.

  Our results show that "VN4" variety has extremely high melatonin content, 9.893 ug g^-1 and suggest that "VN4" which were selected from the "Bosnyák" varieties is melatonin accumulating. The average value of the melatonin content of Hungarian sour cherry cultivars is 2.319 ug g^-1.

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  262

• Dilemmas of interpreting folk culture in the cross-border regions of Hajdú-Bihar and Bihor counties

  73-78

  Péter Horváth

  Views:

  129

  Identity connected to the dwelling-place has been, and still is, shaped by many (regional, natural, cultural, administrative, and historical) factors. The Euro region of Hajdú-Bihar–Bihor can be considered as a sort of transitional region, which has a strong impact on the cultural identity of both individuals and small communities. The identity construction of local inhabitants, however, does not necessarily follow the different geographical, ethnographical and historical borders of subregions. As a result, several transitional zones exist, which are now divided by a national border, too. Consequently, although many research theories and aspects have been conceived, no uniform method of approach has been created, which would define exactly the classification of folk culture in terms of small, medium and large region. The present short study examines problems posed by this question.

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  186

• Agricultural biogas plants in Eastern Hungary

  79-81

  Károly Kith

  Views:

  174

  In the scope of the article, agricultural biogas plants which operate within the region have been analysed together with their linked livestock plants. The study attempts to describe the current condition and future opportunities of the sites. It also covers the description of energy production/use efficiency. The study contains the list of factors determining the economic operation of biogas plants. In the course of the analysis, types, amount and quality of energy produced of different raw materials have been determined within the decentralised energy production.

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  412

• The role of economic information technology in the use of functional foods and herbaria and the development of microregional spaces

  83-86

  Sándor Kmeth

  Views:

  141

  This study aims to define the concept and significance of herbarium in space and time. It compares the basic ideas of traditional and modern paradigms paying special attention to medicine and nutrition. It examines the notion and role of functional foods in the light of paradigm changes, health preservation, and healing. Concerning the improvement of microregional areas, it evaluates the possible role of herbaria in creating social cohesion, community building, education, and economy improvement.

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  210

• Herbaria and foods in the development of microregional spaces

  87-89

  Sándor Kmeth

  Views:

  190

  This study aims to define the concept and significance of herbarium in space and time. It compares the basic ideas of traditional and modern paradigms paying special attention to medicine and nutrition. It examines the notion and role of functional foods in the light of paradigm changes, health preservation, and healing. Concerning the improvement of microregional areas, it evaluates the possible role of herbaria in creating social cohesion, community building, education, and economy improvement.

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  253

• The situation and role of higher education in the North Hungary region

  91-96

  Mónika Lőrincz

  Views:

  149

  Northern Hungary is one of the most disadvantageous regions of Hungary and the European Union; "keeping force" is extremely week. The regional spatial inequalities – despite the national and EU convergence program – have been increasing year by year. The social and economic situation of the region shows negative trends. Negative features of the migration processes are manifested in the candidates' choice for tertiary education has increased in the region in the past three years parallel with the proportion of those who are not on site, but primarily in the Central Hungarian region to continue their studies. An intensification of the negative trends is experienced in the economic processes both in jobs and the structure and performance of the local economy in respect of per capita income.

  The transition from the nineties has decisively influenced the social and economic processes and the status of tertiary education institutions and their constantly changing role in the region. The role of education has become a key point of their activities as financing of the sector encouraged the institutions to increase the number of students and training offer, while R&D as form of cooperation in the economic sphere overshaded. Nowadays and over the past decade the increasing demand to transform their educational profile has increased in accordance with the social and economic situation of the region, adjusted to the catch-up and development opportunities of the region.

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  211

• Examining the operational aspects of a composting plan using Bartee’s method

  97-100

  Orsolya Nagy

  Views:

  169

  This study aims to provide knowledge about a problem-solving system and its basic components. Along the directions, it is easier to delineate the main characteristics which help Bartee’s model, the problem-solving space to come alive. I fitted the compost heap’s questions of establishing and operating into Bartee’s model.

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  247

• The significance of sour cherry in iron supplementation

  101-104

  Andrea Nemes

  Edina Baranyai

  Judit Remenyik

  Views:

  195

  The iron concentration of ’Csengődi csokros’, ’Debreceni- and ’Érdi bőtermő’ , ‘Éva’, ’Kántorjánosi’ ,’Petri’ and the ’Újfehértói fürtös’ cultivars was determined by ICP-MS. Furthermore the Vitamin C, L-Malis acid and Citric acid concentration of samples were measured.

  Our results show that large amount Fe²⁺ (average 20.5 mg kg^-1) accumulates in the pulp of sour cherry. Besides, the concentration of Vitamin C, L-Malis acid, that increase the absorption of iron, are high. Based on these results, the sour cherry and the products of sour cherry play an important role in the forming of iron content in body.

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  189

• Development of a new measurement method to determine plant antioxidant status

  105-112

  Andrea Nemes

  Éva Stefanovitsné Bányi

  Judit Remenyik

  Views:

  217

   

  The antioxidant capacity of 12 cultivar that were harvested in 2014, were determined by FRAP (Ferric Reducing Ability of Plasma), DPPH (1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical-scavenging activity) TEAC (Trolox Equivalent Antioxidant Capacity) and photochemiluminescence method. In sour cherry, the most antioxidant effects of natural bioactive compounds are anthocyanins. Our results show that the photochemiluminescence method is the most suitable to determine the antioxidant capacity of red soft fruits and tart cherries

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  283

• The change of the inner content parameters of table beet (Beta vulgaris L. ssp. esculenta Gurke var. rubra L.) as a result of storage

  113-119

  Viktória Raczkó

  Tímea Rubóczki

  Mária Borbélyné Varga

  Mária Takácsné Hájos

  Views:

  223

  The stored vegetables play a key role in the vegetable consumption. After harvesting, the storage conditions greatly affect nutritional parameters of the crop. The red beet is a root vegetable, which is manufactured mainly fresh in our county, therefore we do not have enough information about the storage. In our experiment, 5 varieties (Rubin, Akela, Larka, Libero, Mona Lisa) were examined in prismatic structure (0–5 °C and 95–97% RH) through 5 mounths.

  Our measurements proved that under the appropriate storage conditions water loss was also occurs, which increased the dry matter content (average of 0.5 g 100 g^-1). The bioactive compounds, like pigments (betanine and vulgaxanthin) and the quantity of flavonoids, were significantly increased during the experiment.

  The results showed that the nutritional parameters of the 5 types was positive during the prismatic structure. However, this storage method negatively affected the bioactive compounds of the Akela genotype. Further studies are recommended for proper storage parameter adjustment, which is justified by the need of the different varieties. The optimal conditions enable us to preserve and to increase the best nutritional index.

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  273

• Measuring projectmanagement efficiency by Data Envelopment Analysis

  121-124

  Laura Siposné Sinóros-Szabó

  Views:

  171

  I suppose that there is a relation between the success of EU-funded projects and the effectiveness of project management teams which implement them. To examine the accuracy of the assumption and the nature of the relationship I needed a measurement method that was suitable for measuring the effectiveness of project management teams implementing EU funded projects in a given construction. Since Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) has already been used to measure the efficiency of decision making units in other areas, it seems suitable for measuring project management effectiveness and indirectly measuring project efficiency.

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  215

• The economicalness of apple production in view of post harvest technology

  125-131

  Viktor Szabó

  Views:

  208

  This study analyses how the level of postharvest technology’s development influences the economic efficiency of apple production with the help of a deterministic simulation model based on primary data gathering in producer undertakings. To accomplish our objectives and to support our hypotheses three processing plant types are included in the model: firstly apple production with no postharvest and prompt sale after the harvest, secondly parallel production and storage combined with an extended selling period and thirdly production and entire postharvest infrastructure (storage, sorting-ranking, packing) with the highest level of goods production and continuous sales. Based on our results it can be stated that the parallel production (plantation) and cold storage, so the second case is proved to be totally inefficient, considering that the establishment of a cold storage carries enormously high costs with resulting a relative low plus profit compared to the first type of processing plant. The reason for this is that this type is selling bulk goods without sorting-grading or packaging; storage itself – as a means of continuously servicing the market - is not covered properly by the consumers. Absolute efficiency ranking cannot be established regarding the other two processing plants: plantation without post-harvest infrastructure resulting lower NPV, but a higher IRR, DPP and PI as developing a plantation and a whole post-harvest infrastructure. Former processing plant type is favourable considering efficiency ratios describing capital adequacy, while the latter is in terms of income generating capacity.

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  202

• Seasonal changes of photosynthetical parameters as a results of forest gap model

  133-136

  Árpád Szalacsi

  Gergely Király

  Szilvia Veres

  Views:

  193

  Photosynthetic parameters of English oak (Quercus robur L.) as a member of Querco robori-Carpinetum were investigated in two different habitat in terms of gap forest management: in the gap and in the host forest. The artifical opening process of the forest resulted in more light for growing saplings and need for acclimatization. Photosynthesis is one of the most important way for plant life and plant production. In the centre of photosynthetic efficiency the quality and quantity traits of photosynthetic pigments are standing. During our work some photosynthetic parameters of plants (in the gap and in the forest as well) were measured: relative chlorophyll content as SPAD index, chlorophyll a and b content, total chlorophyll content and ratio of chlorophyll a and b. Based on our results no significant differences among our data in early spring. Although, during the summer significant differences occurred between the measured values in the gap and in the forest area. Lower total chlorophyll content was experienced in the gap, than in the forest area due to the lower chlorophyll-b content. Because of the high light intensity higher chla/chlb ratio was measured in the gap. The lower chlorophyll contents of gap habitat may have a part of the acclimatization process of photosynthetic apparatus against high light stress, which can determinate the survival chance of individual.

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  178

• Impact assesment of soil conditioners on a high clay content soil

  137-141

  Lilla Szűcs

  Géza Tuba

  József Zsembeli

  Views:

  174

  Our measurements were done in a soil conditioner experiment started in 2014 which was set in conventional tillage system at the Karcag Research Institute where a soil conditioner was used from 2010. Effect of two different soil conditioners on compaction, moisture content of the soil and on CO₂-emission was studied. Measurements were done after sowing of maize and millet, and on stubble after harvesting. It can be established that less degree of compaction was characteristic to the soil of the plots treated for several years with the soil conditioner during the vegetation period than in case of untreated plots. Higher CO₂-emission values were observed on the plots treated for several years than on the control plots. This effect can’t be established in case of soil conditioners used for first time in this year.

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  189

• Opportunities of renewable energy use in Hajdú-Bihar and Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg counties

  143-146

  András Tamás

  Views:

  140

  Today it's an important role of the renewable energy resources, improving energy efficiency, thereby contributing to sustainable, ecofriendly use of local energy resources. Globally intensify the requirements and considerations related to environmental conservation. In this light, the main objective of the Hungarian energy concept is to maintain long-term security of supply, the economy and the environment occurring contradictions. So there is a need for systems that, in compliance with EU environmental directives, acceptable cost level will ensure the desired and expected security of supply. In the study, three companies and other technical parameters of these are examined. For each undertaking, different results were observed. For two undertakings, we are talking about realized investments, in one case a prognosis was examined. All three companies contributed to the requirement of renewable energy sources reaching 13% in Hungary by 2020.

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  168

• Energy efficiency in Hungary and abroad

  147-150

  Imre Török

  Views:

  132

  Nowadays decentralized energy supply and the energy security are becoming more involved. We should increase the share of renewable in the energy mix, addition to improve the energy efficiency. Hungary is not an abundance of fossil resources it is particularly important in the materials and energy-saving technologies, waste recovery, increasing the share of environmental energy. Our country has outstanding opportunities many areas for example, solar energy, geothermal energy, so we need to devote more attention to renewables in the future.

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  179

• Renewables in higher education

  151-154

  Imre Török

  Views:

  153

  Unfortunately Hungary is not too rich in natural resources, so particularly important the materials and energy-saving technologies, waste recovery, increasing the share of renewable energy. It is a complex ecological strategy which priorities of the Hungarian education and calls on the student’s attention to ecological issues, pollution and the environmental load and look for specific opportunities for the realization of sustainable development. I consider, in addition to the specific operating continuously reduce costs of the campuses we should integrate the practical experience in to engineering education.

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  189