Péter Lengyel

Anti-Atherogenic Properties of Allium ursinum Liophylisate: Impact on Lipoprotein Homeostasis and Cardiac Biomarkers in Hypercholesterolemic Rabbits

The present investigation evaluates the capacity of Allium ursinum (wild garlic) leaf lyophilisate (WGLL; alliin content: 0.261%) to mitigate cardiovascular damage in hypercholesterolemic rabbits. New Zealand rabbits were divided into three groups: (i) cholesterol-free rabbit chow (control); (ii) rabbit chow containing 2% cholesterol (hypercholesterolemic, HC); (iii) rabbit chow containing 2% cholesterol + 2% WGLL (hypercholesterolemic treated, HCT); for eight weeks. At the zero- and eight-week time points, echocardiographic measurements were made, along with the determination of basic serum parameters. Following the treatment period, after ischemia-reperfusion injury, hemodynamic parameters were measured using an isolated working heart model. Western blot analyses of heart tissue followed for evaluating protein expression and histochemical study for the atheroma status determination. WGLL treatment mediated increases in fractional shortening; right ventricular function; peak systolic velocity; tricuspidal annular systolic velocity in live animals; along with improved aortic and coronary flow. Western blot analysis revealed WGLL-associated increases in HO-1 protein and decreases in SOD-1 protein production. WGLL-associated decreases were observed in aortic atherosclerotic plaque coverage, plasma ApoB and the activity of LDH and CK (creatine kinase) in plasma. Plasma LDL was also significantly reduced. The results clearly demonstrate that WGLL has complex cardioprotective effects, suggesting future strategies for its use in prevention and therapy for atherosclerotic disorders.

The Effectiveness Of The E-Learning Application: Impact Assessment Of The Quality

The success and the efficiency of e-Learning should be measured by a reliable method in order to use it effectively. Although, there are several studies about the success of e-Learning systems, only a few of them are about the measurement of this success within the institutions. There is a study of DeLone and McLean (2003) which examines the success of the introduction of e-Learning system with the help of ELSS model (e-Learning System Success). We made two questionnaires to evaluate the application of e-Learning at University of Debrecen, Faculty of Economics and Business. One of them was for the students and the other one asked the lecturers. The aim was to develop such questionnaires which are suitable for both the evaluation of the e-Learning’s quality and its economic benefits. The basis of the e-Learning’s quality questions was Wang’s article (2007), in which he measured the success of the e-Learning systems, therefore the questions of the students’ and the lecturers’ questionnaires were the same. The aim of this survey was to compare the opinions of the students and the teachers regarding the application of e-Learning. The role of the questionnaire for quality development is to give guidance for the University of Debrecen in the e-Learning application. We have used the Mann-Whitney test to evaluate the questionnaires of the students who use the e-Learning system. This method is used to compare the means of two groups in case of ordinal scales or not normally distributed variables. We have also used factor analysis and binominal logistic regression. We have examined whether the background variables manipulating the variables are possible to be developed on the basis of the answers. We used factor analysis to demonstrate this since it contracts the coherent factors into one common factor. Factor analysis is used to compress data and explore data structure. In most cases, factor analysis is used foremost in order to filter out multicollinearity.

Collaborative working environment and knowledge databank for agroforestry training and education

The aim of the AgroFE project (http://www.agrofe.eu) is to develop vocational training in the field of agroforestry in six countries. Several levels of training are targeted by the project, levels N3-N4 relate to farmers and future farmers, levels N5-N6 affect (future) advisors, trainers, teachers, and technicians who are working in the domain. In the context of ICT related to the AgroFE project there are four components: the collaborative tools, the knowledge databank, the tools for training and a portal that integrates the tools. The Agrof-MM Erasmus+ project reinforces the AgroFE project that ended in December 2015. The objective of the Agrof-MM project is to train European agricultural stakeholders in agroforestry practices. The project will give them the opportunity to familiarise themselves with agroforestry, and to improve their knowledge of it, in order to work towards the development of agroforestry in the Mediterranean and mountain regions of Europe.

Advantages of Open Source Based e-learning Tools in the Collaboration and Training in the Agricultural Education

One of the primary benefits of open source software is that it reduces the costs to produce systems and services. Traditional proprietary software vendors are realizing this fact, and are beginning to build their closed software products quietly using lots of open source software. In the long-run, competition will force these cost savings to be passed to the consumer. In this paper the most important free and commercial e-Learning systems and their functional features, modules, standards, hardware and software requirements by Vendor’s Web sites and different e-Learning service portals are shortly summarized and compared. We selected the Moodle system within an European projects, which is a software package for producing Internet-based courses and web sites. It is an ongoing development project designed to support a social constructionist framework of education. The aim of our European project was to promote the use of multimedia knowledge in adult training / lifelong learning in order to facilitate competitiveness, employability and mobility of adults who are victims of the digital divide or of some of its components such as distance, initial level of knowledge, language, use of complex technologies. One of the results of the NODES project is that we introduced the Moodle system into the graduate, postgraduate PhD, adult trainings programmes and it is a very successful system as an educational portal system for our faculty. We are using some extended tools in Moodle such as the Word templates for easy making Moodle questionnaires, Covcell Audio/Video Conferencing Tool, Inwicast Mediacenter, Audio recorder, AutoView Presenter which allows you to put video on-line with synchronised slides.