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Copyright of Belügyi Szemle is the property of Ministry of Interior of Hungary 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 Administrative Science / KözigazgatásTudomány is the property of Universitas-Gyor Nonprofit Ltd. 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 Historia Ecclesiastica is the property of Vydavatelstvo Presovskej Univerzity 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 Military Science Review / Hadtudományi Szemle 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 Military Engineer / Hadmérnök 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 Lege Artis Medicine (LAM) is the property of LifeTime Media Kft. 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 Annales Musei historico-naturalis hungarici is the property of Hungarian Natural History Museum 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.)

This paper provides the description and the analysis of some key aspects of the reception of European TV crime narratives in order to show how the circulation of popular narratives across the continent might provide instrumental for the deepening of European cultural integration. This document focuses in particular on the research conducted on the reception of TV series, one of the most successful and influential form of contemporary popular culture. By analysing the reception of European TV crime series, the research described in this report took into consideration three interrelated questions: 1. How can we study the way in which readers and viewers make sense of European popular narratives? 2. How do TV crime narratives European contribute to the viewers’ perception of their belonging to a European community? 3. What are the differences and similarities in the reception of the works in different areas, countries and regions? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Területi Statisztika is the property of Hungarian Central Statistical Office 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.)

This paper summarizes lead firms' reactions to crisis in global automotive value chains. The paper advances five theses. Author argues that crisis is not over yet, the global restructuring of the industry continues. Actors in the CEE automotive cluster have successfully become integrated into global value chains and have thereby been the winners of past restructuring processes. Nevertheless, technological and market uncertainties prevail: entry of new economic actors and the diffusion of new business models may, in the long run, disrupt the current status quo and jeopardise the world economic position of CEE countries that have been relying solely on their labour cost advantages to sustain direct investment inflows in their automotive industries. In the long run the automotive industries of Central and Eastern European (CEE) economies may become threatened by the transformation of the prevailing automotive business model, the outsourcing of manufacturing and related support activities to complex manufacturing services providers, which could lead to the closure of lead firms' manufacturing facilities in CEE. Lead firms' increased focus on high quality high value adding activities strategy can and should be followed by local subsidiaries through a continuous strive for upgrading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bocskai's revolt was the first political event in Hungary in which public political propagan-da was an essential activity, which was discussed often and in several articles in the early modern European press, and of which both posterity and historical research can get a pic-ture mainly through broadly defined propaganda texts. On the one hand, the paper makes an attempt to outline the problems of information history that can be raised in relation to the revolt as well as its communication historical context, primarily the communication and propaganda challenge posed by the propaganda machine of the Habsburg court. On the other hand, it endeavors to show what answers Bocskai's revolt gave to this challenge, but not only by delineating information and communication historical connections and in-terpreting the texts along these lines, but by a thorough textological analysis necessitated by the uncertainty of the source base. Third, it gives an outlook on the European reception of the rebellion's propaganda documents. The authors do not undertake to reconstruct the whole text and information cycle, mainly because there are no archival sources available (these will hopefully turn up in further foreign research) and there are quite a few factors that are not clear yet, including the circumstances around the genesis of the texts, the channels of their dissemination as well as the relationship between the various texts and text variants. As a result, the analysis primarily endeavors to reconstruct the genesis of the texts, and it is only in the case of the Netherlands that it can provide a more detailed de-scription of the texts and the reception of the political messages carried in them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to explain what academic and national libraries can do to continue to offer services and facilities at a time of economic difficulties. It identifies a number of methodologies and opportunities that are open to libraries and takes the view that it is never wise to waste a good crisis, because all threats are really opportunities in disguise. This paper draws on themes used in both presentations, and introduces a new one on the topic of copyright reform. The paper looks at the initial economic context for European research libraries and then examines ways in which libraries can tackle the threats which the current financial crisis poses. Joint procurement is one way in which libraries can achieve value for money, and the paper examines the role of JISC Collections in the UK. Innovation through collaboration, and shared services, are also ways in which libraries can innovate/make savings in a cost-effective way by sharing the burden of costs around the partnership. The paper gives two examples one which is now well established, the DART-Europe portal for Open Access e-theses; and one which is in the early stages of being discussed a cloud-based solution for true collaborative cataloguing amongst the UK's research and national libraries. The European Research Area (ERA) and the contributions that libraries can make to this infrastructure through innovative EU project funding are analysed in some detail by looking at LIBER's EU project portfolio. Finally, change and growth can come through changes to legal frameworks, and the paper looks at the Hargreaves review of copyright frameworks in the UK and the launch of the new library-based EU lobbying group for copyright reform, Information Sans Frontières (ISF). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Tudomanyos es Muszaki Tajekoztatas is the property of BME OMIKK 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 Tudomanyos es Muszaki Tajekoztatas is the property of BME OMIKK 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.)

Coastlines have always played a major role in Europe's history. From antiquity through the early stages of colonialism and the advent of the Industrial Revolution, seashores were the economic centres of the continent. Though industrialization marked the beginning of the decreasing importance of these areas, it has been in recent decades that the significance and economic structure of coastal regions has changed completely. The importance of fisheries has declined, the hubs of the marine trade have moved to the Far East, and the significance of the tourism has increased. This article examines how the social and economic role of the European seashores--which used to have a central role in trade and the world economy--has changed in the last 10-15 years. In addition, the article studies the differences between the coastal and terrestrial regions of the European Union based on existing literature and statistics. Finally, the paper analyses some coastal areas, and examines what has led to increases or decreases of population and the economy in certain regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Szociologiai Szemle is the property of Hungarian Sociological Association 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 Hungarian Statistical Review / Statisztikai Szemle is the property of Hungarian Central Statistical Office 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.)

The review article deals with school librarianship, the position and problems of school libraries in Great Britain, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Germany, based on abstracts from the period 2006 through 2013 published in the From foreign library and information science journals (Abstracts) section of Könyvtári Figyelő. (The paper was originally read at the 2013 Autumn Conference of Librarian-Teachers; this is an edited version complemented with cited and recommended literature.) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the well known Cartesio case, the conflict-of-laws issues concerning company law seem to be fixed in the European Union. The article tries to give a draft about such rules. The work is divided to two main parts. Firstly, it tries to review the relevant provisions of the primary legislation, included the anti-discrimination backround and the free movement of persons and companies. Moreover, it examines the connection between tax law and company law and the rules of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) on the primary and secondary settlement of companies/natural persons. In connection with the problem, the author gives a summary, of the most important case law of the European Court of Justice, shortly reviewing the fundamental cases like Centros, Daily Mail Cartesio, Überseering, etc.. Secondly, there are numerous conflict-of-laws provisions to be found in the secondary legislation that are examined as well. Such rules are usually "hidden" in the different company law rules, but they form a part of EU private international law as well. Beyond, the paper tries to give examples that may help practicing lawyers to have a clear picture on the law applicable to the sale contracts of companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the beginning of the 3rd millennium the low rates of natural increase in population arise as problems to be solved only in European countries. However, there are differences within our continent in this respect: while stagnating rates have been produced by the west European countries since the 1980s, the Eastern States have suffered spectacular decrease in the population since the crisis and disorganization of the East Block. The low birth rates being peculiar for two decades foreshadow the deepening of the problem as it is accompanied by the process of aging. Bulgaria is similar to the other post-communist countries in respect of demographic features; however, it rises above the other European countries regarding the natural decrease in population. This problem in itself lies as a serious burden on the Bulgarian society; however, there are ethnical and religious differences beyond the existential reasons. This paper aims to examine the reasons for decrease in population, aging and its territorial appearance as well as to describe the ethnic background of this problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on the spatial structure of the European Union. In a lot of studies the social and economic characteristic of the macroregions of Europe is described. One type of them focuses on the developed regions: where are they and what kind of spatial form is characteristic for them. The results often give a model. The aim of the research is to analyse the geometric and other models of Europe's core area. We have a lot of flat shapes for the spatial structure: we have axes, polygons (triangles, squares, a pentagon) and other forms, and they have a lot of different geographical extensions in Europe. These formations have been collected from numerous studies (books, reports, papers, articles) and they have been compared based on different methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The president of the European Bureau of Library, Information and Documentation Associations initiated a discussion on the creation of a common library policy in Europe at the conference of the European Centre for Parliamentary Research and Documentation in Vienna (May 30, 2008). The European library landscape is heterogeneous, only the two-thirds of the 27 EU-countries have legislation governing the library sector. A common policy guideline was published by EBLIDA and the Council of Europe in 2000, but it has not proved to be very effective. It would be important to concentrate on compiling a White Paper that describes the role of libraries in Europe and recommends the member states to act on behalf of the libraries.To provide relevant information about European library issues the EBLIDA Executive Committee has decided to establish a Knowledge and Information Centre (KIC) to collect, mediate and disseminate information about the library, information and documentation sector in Europe. The president describes the aims of KIC, and characterises the tasks of five expert groups (on information law, digitization and online access, life-long learning and education, culture and information society, professional education). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to examine the relationship between supply chain position and level of servitization in European manufacturing companies. The analysis shows that globalization and internationalization of production has dramatic impact on both phenomena. Due to the globalization trends different business models became dominant in the less developed Eastern-European and the more developed Western European countries, which can be characterized by different supply chain position and servitization level. Certainly other business models can also be successful in the two regions. Involving facility location motivations and business performance indicators the article shed light on the reasons of why these business models came alive and how sustainable they can be. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Szociologiai Szemle is the property of Hungarian Sociological Association 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 Hungarian Statistical Review / Statisztikai Szemle is the property of Hungarian Central Statistical Office 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.)

In our study, we give an overview of the most important models describing the spatial structure of Europe. We introduce the diversity of these models and point out the main differences with visualized map comparison. After this, we attempt to model how these results can be verified on the basis of three methodological approaches, the spatial moving average, the potential model and the bidimensional regression calculations based on the gravity model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Összefoglaló. Nemzetközi kutatások szerint a deréktáji fájdalom 2019-ben 568 millió embert érintett világszerte. Magyarországon a lakosság 20%-a él krónikus derékfájdalommal, ami nemcsak egészségügyi, de szociális és ökonómiai krízist is jelent. A probléma aktualitását jól mutatja az is, hogy a Nemzetközi Fájdalomkutatási Társaság a 2021. évet a derékfájdalomról szóló globális évnek kiáltotta ki. A derékfájdalmak megfelelő kezelése és a krónikussá válás megelőzése tehát kiemelten fontos. Ebben nyújthatnak segítséget az evidenciákon alapuló irányelvek. Magyarországon azonban jelenleg nincs hatályos, egységes irányelv, mely a derékfájdalmakkal, azon belül is a krónikus derékfájdalom kezelésével foglalkozna. A jelen közleményben a krónikus derékfájdalom evidenciákon alapuló diagnosztikai és kezelési lehetőségeinek áttekintését tűztük ki célul. Az irodalomkutatást követően, a jelenleg is hatályos, AGREE II. rendszer szerinti magas minőségű besorolást elérő, krónikus deréktáji fájdalomra vonatkozó, angol nyelvű nemzetközi irányelvek ajánlásainak összehasonlítását végeztük el. Tanulmányunkban hét irányelvet dolgoztunk fel (négy európai, kettő amerikai, egy kanadai), melyek mindegyikében a következő közös ajánlások kerültek megfogalmazásra: a súlyos patológiák kizárása az alarm tünetek alapján, a pszichoszociális tényezők figyelembevétele, a szükségtelen képalkotó vizsgálat visszaszorítása, az elsősorban aktív, nem gyógyszeres terápiák preferálása és a nemszteroid gyulladáscsökkentők körültekintő felírása. Az európai irányelvekben új elemként szerepelt a krónikussá válás korai rizikóbecslése. Orv Hetil. 2021; 162(49): 1951-1961. Summary. In 2019, low back pain caused the highest burden globally, among musculoskeletal disorders, affecting 568 million people. According to Hungarian sociodemographic data, 20% of the Hungarian adults live with chronic low back pain that is a global health priority. Therefore, the International Association for the Study of Pain announced 2021 as the global year about back pain. Evidence-based guidelines about the appropriate treatment of acute low back pain and prevention of chronic low back pain are therefore of paramount importance. However, there are currently no valid, uniform treatment guidelines in Hungary about acute and chronic lower back pain. In this paper, we aimed at summarizing up-to-date, evidence-based diagnostic and treatment recommendations for chronic low back pain. Using a literature review, we identified seven international treatment guidelines (four from Europe, two from the United States and one from Canada) in English for the management of chronic low back pain that were previously assessed by the AGREE II quality assessment tool. We found consistent recommendations in the guidelines such as exclusion of alarm symptoms, assessment of psycho-social factors, reduction of unnecessary imaging, initialization of primarily active, non-pharmacological therapies, and careful and cautious prescription of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications. A new recommendation in the European guidelines is the early risk assessment of low back pain becoming chronic. Orv Hetil. 2021; 162(49): 1951-1961.

Összefoglaló. A tudomány jelenlegi állása szerint - csoportok összehasonlítására épülő matematikai-statisztikai eszközökkel - a leginkább hatékonynak és hatásosnak vélt kezelési módszerek szisztematikus elemzése mentén, a bizonyítékokon alapuló irányelveken nyugvó gyógyító munkát tekintjük követendőnek. A nyaki verőérszűkület ellátása esetén az utóbbi években elkészült mind a hazai, mind az európai irányelv, mindemellett a társszakmák irányelveiben is megjelentek kezelési javaslatok. Közleményünkben összehasonlítottuk a témában publikált magyar, angol, német és olasz nyelvű, valamint az európai társaságok által kiadott irányelveket. Az irányelvek alapelveikben hasonlóak, formailag és tartalmilag azonban jelentős (időnként egymásnak ellentmondani látszó) különbségeket találhatunk. Az ellentmondások három leggyakoribb oka: 1) az egyes irányelvek által kitűzött célok különbözősége, 2) az aszimptomatikus és szimptomatikus betegcsoport definíciói, valamint 3) az eltérő evidenciaszintek. Az irányelvek összevetése alapján a tünetes, szignifikáns nyaki verőérszűkületek sebészi ellátása evidenciának tekinthető. A szimptomatikus nyaki verőérszűkület a definíció szerint ellenoldali cerebralis ischaemia okozta, tranziens vagy definitív plegia, paresis, aphasia és az azonos oldali arteria centralis retinae embolisatiója miatti amaurosis fugax. A tünetmentes nyaki verőérszűkületek ellátása tekintetében az európai és a nemzeti irányelvek nem azonosak, ezen esetek terápiás döntése egyéni mérlegelést igényel. Tünetmentes, 70%-os stenosis esetén vascularteam-konzílium javasolt. Orv Hetil. 2020; 161(51): 2139-2145. Summary. The correct practice is the one that is proven to be the most effective based on systematic statistical analyses of different treatment methods, and is applied according to evidence-based principles. In recent years, not only has the European Society of Vascular Surgery created a guideline about the management of supra-aortic steno-occlusive disease, but some nations' vascular surgical societies and related disciplines have also developed their own guidance. In this paper, the guidelines by the European societies on the clinical care of patients with carotid artery luminal narrowing is compared to national guidelines published in Hungarian, English, German, and Italian. Although the fundamental points of the guidelines are similar, there are some important differences among them both in presentation and in content; as a result, they sometimes appear to be contradictory. The three main sources of inconsistency are the various goals, the discrepancy in the definition of symptomatic and asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis, and the bias arising from the use of distinct evidence levels. A comparison of guidelines suggests that the treatment of symptomatic significant carotid artery stenosis with surgery can be considered evidence. Symptomatic carotid artery stenosis is defined as transient or definite plegia, paresis, aphasia due to cerebral ischemia, and monocular blindness caused by embolism in the central retinal artery. However, in the case of asymptomatic 70% or greater carotid artery stenosis, the guidelines are quite heterogeneous, and these patients require individual consideration and a vascular team decision is recommended. Orv Hetil. 2020; 161(51): 2139-2145.

International migration is a current and growing phenomenon, which has become an increasingly critical issue in Europe since 2013 and this has posed new challenges to the healthcare systems of the European Union (EU). The need for 'culturally competent' healthcare systems that can adapt and respond to the needs of a changing population while taking into account cultural, religious, linguistic and gender diversity, has become more and more an agenda across Europe. Nowadays, it is widely accepted that inequalities in health conditions are mainly due to socio-economic factors, and disparities are particularly evident among certain ethnic and cultural minority groups. Additionally, minorities often face difficulties during their attempts in accessing healthcare, including linguistic and cultural barriers. These barriers are primarily manifested in communication and other interactions between the patient and the healthcare provider. Communication difficulties and misunderstandings may lead to frustration and prejudice among caregivers and also to a lack of cooperation from patients, and consequently, may contribute to poorer health outcomes. Therefore, in order to ensure the highest quality of care for migrants, ethnic or other minority populations in our increasingly diverse societies, it is of crucial importance to overcome the difficulties arising from linguistic, cultural and religious differences. To achieve these goals, an important step is the development of intercultural competences within the healthcare system. Our paper discusses the concept, content and opportunities for the development of intercultural competence in clinical and healthcare settings. Orv Hetil. 2020; 161(32): 1322-1330.

Sudden cardiac death is one of the leading causes of mortality in developed countries. When happens only immediate action can save the patient's life. A rather simple sequence of interventions (CPR - cardiopulmonary resuscitation) by the bystander witnessing the collapse could significantly increase the chance of survival yet it happens less than in half of the cases. One of the most important initiatives of the last decade was the simplification of basic life support guidelines and its trainings along with widely publicising its simplicity, importance and its effect on survival. The success of the initiative has been published by several studies showing an increasing number of bystander CPR worldwide, in Europe and in Hungary, too. Survival data have also increased moderately but by far not as much as it could be expected under ideal circumstances. This paper reviews the potential issues to be considered for increasing the numbers and improving the quality of bystander resuscitation. Orv Hetil. 2019; 160(46): 1810-1815.

Measles is one of the most serious preventable infectious diseases, which in our country were among the rare diseases in the last 10 to 20 years. One of the reasons for this is that the Hungarian population born after 1969 was vaccinated in almost 99 percent. The other reason is that in the period prior to vaccination era, the often-occurring measles epidemics left life-long immunity in the affected persons. Thus, natural and artificial immunizations provided extensive herd immunity. However, the ongoing measles epidemics in Europe have highlighted the fact that the symptoms and differential diagnosis related to measles have been relegated to the negligible category for the last 20 years. In addition to reviewing the consequences of the European measles pandemics in Hungary, the purpose of this paper is to revise and summarize the clinical and laboratory knowledge required to establish a definitive epidemiological control of measles. Orv Hetil. 2019; 160(20): 767-773.

This analysis is based on papers published in periodicals, in the period 1975-2013 with title words referring to diagnosis or therapy. The literature of both topics is growing dynamically and in an ever accelerating pace. At the same time, the two topics appear to get more and more separated, except for a part of the German-language literature. The share of therapy-oriented literature is increasing and its citation rate is higher, although 9 of the 10 most cited papers are from the topic of diagnostics. The Hungarian literature (papers having at least one Hungarian author) appeared to be proportional and balanced.

This paper presents the history, the achievements and the current status in the research performed by family physicians in Hungary and makes suggestions for the future. The comparative analysis of research domains, results infrastructural differences and perspectives between Hungary and other European countries is also performed. A wide range of primary care bibliography is also offered for readers who are interested in this topic.

The anatomy of the human body based on a special teleological system is one of the greatest miracles of the world. The skull's primary function is the defence of the brain, so every alteration or disease of the brain results in some alteration of the skull. This analogy is to be identified even in the human embryo. Proportions of the 22 bones constituting the skull and of sizes of sutures are not only the result of the phylogeny, but those of the ontogeny as well. E.g. the age of the skeletons in archaeological findings could be identified according to these facts. Present paper outlines the ontogeny and development of the tissues of the skull, of the structure of the bone-tissue, of the changes of the size of the skull and of its parts during the different periods of human life, reflecting to the aesthetics of the skull as well. "Only the human scull can give me an impression of beauty. In spite of all genetical colseness, a skull of a chimpanzee cannot impress me aesthetically"--author confesses. In the second part of the treatise those authors are listed, who contributed to the perfection of our knowledge regarding the skull. First of all the great founder of modern anatomy, Andreas Vesalius, then Pierre Paul Broca, Jacob Benignus Winslow are mentioned here. The most important Hungarian contributors were as follow: Sámuel Rácz, Pál Bugát or--the former assistant of Broca--Aurél Török. A widely used tool for measurement of the size of the skull, the craniometer was invented by the latter. The members of the family Lenhossék have had also important results in this field of research, while descriptive anatomy of the skull was completed by microsopical anatomy thanks the activity of Géza Mihálkovits.

The Bologna Declaration aims at harmonizing the European higher education structure. In accordance with the Declaration, biomedical engineering will be offered as a master (MSc) course also in Hungary, from year 2009. Since 1995 biomedical engineering course has been held in cooperation of three universities: Semmelweis University, Budapest Veterinary University, and Budapest University of Technology and Economics. One of the latter's faculties, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics, has been responsible for the course. Students could start their biomedical engineering studies - usually in parallel with their first degree course - after they collected at least 180 ECTS credits. Consequently, the biomedical engineering course could have been considered as a master course even before the Bologna Declaration. Students had to collect 130 ECTS credits during the six-semester course. This is equivalent to four-semester full-time studies, because during the first three semesters the curriculum required to gain only one third of the usual ECTS credits. The paper gives a survey on the new biomedical engineering master course, briefly summing up also the subjects in the curriculum.

Surgical robotics is one of the most dynamically advancing areas of biomedical engineering. In the past few decades, computer-integrated interventional medicine has gained significance internationally in the field of surgical procedures. More recently, mechatronic devices have been used for nephrectomy, cholecystectomy, as well as in orthopedics and radiosurgery. Estimates show that 70% of the radical prostatectomies were performed with the da Vinci robot in the United States last year. Robot-aided procedures offer remarkable advantages in neurosurgery both for the patient and the surgeon, making microsurgery and Minimally Invasive Surgery a reality, and even complete teleoperation accessible. This paper introduces surgical robotic systems developed primarily for brain and spine applications, besides, it focuses on the different research strategies applied to provide smarter, better and more advanced tools to surgeons. A new system is discussed in details that we have developed together with the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. This cooperatively-controlled system can assist with skull base drilling to improve the safety and quality of neurosurgery while reducing the operating time. The paper presents the entire system, the preliminary results of phantom and cadaver tests and our efforts to improve the accuracy of the components. An effective optical tracking based patient motion compensation method has been implemented and tested. The results verify the effectiveness of the system and allow for further research.

With the explosion of insurance contracts in the last two hundred years both in Europe and around the rest of the world, there is a temptation to think that the financing and insuring on projects on limited or non-recourse terms is a relatively novel concept. This is, however, far from being true. Indeed, there is an early evidence of project financing techniques and insurance contracts being actively used during the ancient times. The first examples come from the Roman law but there are similar legal institutions even in the ancient Greek legal system. - The essay analyses the legal history of assurances on lives and health in the Roman law, especially the question of the collegium tenuiorum and the collegium funeraticium. In the centre of the studies are the analyses of their legal personality, the changes in the regulation concerning their foundation, the purpose and the internal organisation. The treatment of the main topics begins with fragments from the material of the Corpus Iuris Civilis by Justinian. After that the views of the most important authors and the contemporary investigations in the Roman law found the statements of the paper. As a result of these analyses we can see the process of development in the ancient legal systems, especially in the Roman law. And although these results have no immediate influence on the present legal regulation, it can demonstrate original tendencies in the field of insurances. This way we can prove that the Roman law is a still existing basis for the development in contractual law.

The significant growth of the online literature usage, and the conspicuously differing interest of publishers, procurers and users raise the question whether the electronic or the paper journals will be the primary information sources in the future. The price of the scientific literature has gotten out of control in the last two decades. At the same time websites showed up providing open access, and this may make all participants of the market to change their marketing policy. Instead of the extra-profit accumulation strategy, publishers should take individual users' interests into consideration. Although the technical conditions of value-added option-enriched online services to surpass the paper journals are given already, there is still a demand for the latter, due to ingrained user habits. At the same time, the electronic version is attracting the users with e-versions, three-dimensional images, video records, sound, hypertext, content and relation analysis, which are limited only by the imagination. According to the authors, the development of information media is unstoppable, and the main challenge in the future will be still to find the most effective way of processing information, make it available for professional research and preserve it for the scientific heritage.

In the authors' opinion modern biological psychiatry in Hungary started with the investigations into the biological mechanism of atropine coma therapy. Atropine coma was used in the period between 1950 and 1975 mainly in the treatment of various psychoses and obsessive compulsive disorder. In a previous communication the method, indications and adverse effects of atropine coma were outlined and the professional and broader social reasons for its eventual disappearance were discussed. In this paper the therapeutic effectiveness and research into the biological mode of action of atropine coma are summarized. Although thousands of patients received atropine coma therapy in the United States and in several Central-Eastern European countries including Hungary, this therapeutic modality is hardly ever features even in papers on the history of psychiatry. This is all the more surprising because initial therapeutic results with atropine coma were favourable and it seemed to be a more safe and efficient treatment than the more widely used insulin coma.

Babesia microti and Anaplasma phagocytophilum was recently reported with a minimum prevalence of 0.9 and 1.3% in Hungary based on the PCR-sequencing analysis of 452 European sheep ticks (Ixodes ricinus). These results and the epidemiological data of the neighbouring countries indicate that human cases caused by these pathogens may occur in the country. The aim of the present paper is to summarise the current knowledge on the morphology, life cycle and distribution of B. microti and A. phagocytophilum, and the epidemiology, clinical features, diagnosis, treatment and control of babesiosis and granulocytic anaplasmosis.

Background: Meta-analyses evaluated several aspects of Helicobacter pylori eradication based on the randomised controlled trials., Aim: to perform a meta-analysis of the papers presented at the European Helicobacter Pylori Study Group and United European Gastroenterology Week meetings from 1997 to 2002., Methods: Abstracts dealing with the eradication of Helicobacter pylori have been reviewed and the randomised, controlled studies from European countries were included. The studies were classified into groups based on eradication schedules, antibiotics used and country of provenience. The pooled eradication rates were calculated and the differences were assessed by multiple variance analysis., Results: One-hundred and two studies were accepted comprising 25,644 cases and 398 treatment arms. The eradication rate of proton pump inhibitor-based first line triple therapies was 80.4% (confidence interval: 78.9-81.8); no difference was observed between the five proton pump inhibitors (p > 0.05). Ranitidine bismuth citrate based regimens were efficient in 79.9% (75.7-84.0) (p = 0.95 vs PPI). H2 blockers-based therapies achieved 68.6% (59.0-78.1) (p = 0.0007 vs proton pump inhibitor and p = 0.005 vs ranitidine bismuth citrate-based regimens). Proton pump inhibitor-based double combinations were efficient in 47.1 (31.9-62.4) (p = 0.001 vs triple regimens). Clarithromycin+amoxicillin/nitroimidazole combinations achieved rates of 79.6% and 84.1%, respectively, while amoxicillin-nitroimidazole regimens were less efficient (72.5%, 66.6-78.5) (p = 0.006). The pooled eradication rate of second-line triple regimens was 75.5% (69.9-86.4)(p = 0.08 vs primary treatment). Quadruple therapies were successful in 81.1% (76.6-85.6) of cases as first-line and 73.8% (61.2-86.4) as second-line regimens (p = 0.77 and p = 0.02 vs triple regimens). The pooled eradication rates varied from 58% to 92% in the European countries., Conclusions: The pooled eradication rate of the primary proton pump inhibitor/ranitidine bismuth citrate-based triple regimens are comparable with the results of meta-analyses. H2 blocker-based triple and proton pump inhibitor-based double regimens are of lower efficacy. Quadruple regimens were not better than triple therapies. The eradication rates per country varied, approaching 80% in most places. The results confirm in part post-hoc the validity of the Maastricht consensus recommendations.

Human alveolar echinococcosis, caused by the metacestode stage of Echinococcus multilocularis, is one of the most dangerous zoonoses in the temperate and arctic areas of northern hemisphere. The mortality of the disease exceeds 95% in untreated or inadequately treated patients. In the past three decades, the spread of this parasite was observed in Europe as a consequence of human interventions resulting in the population size increase of foxes. The authors demonstrated the presence of E. multilocularis in foxes in all northern counties of Hungary and the existence of hyperendemic regions in the Counties Nógrád and Gyor-Moson-Sopron. The aim of the present paper is to summarize the current knowledge on the life cycle and distribution of E. multilocularis, and the epidemiology, clinical features, diagnosis, treatment and control of human alveolar echinococcosis.

Hungary joined the Ovideo Treaty (a bioethical health agreement signed by EU countries in 1997), as declared by Law Nr. VI in 2002. In July 1 2002 two departmental orders were enacted: departmental order Nr. [23/2002 (V. 9.)] about the biomedical research in humans and departmental order Nr. [24/2002 (V. 9.)] about the human use and clinical trials of investigational products and the adaptation of Good Clinical Practice (GCP). Both were based on the Health Law. The departmental order on the Medical Research Council [(16/2001 (IV. 28.)] together with these two orders contains the national rules of biomedical research performed in Hungary and also the Hungarian adaptation of various, bioethical principles and directives published by EU or other internationally accepted organisations. According to these regulations from 2002 biomedical research in Hungary could be in agreement with the Oviedo Treaty. Ethical approval and supervision can be obtained from research ethical committees of three types: central, regional and local superimposed upon one another. There are three, central, ethical committees within the frames of the Medical Research Council with national responsibility: Scientific and Research Ethical Committee, Clinical Pharmacological Ethical Committee, Human Reproduction Committee. In some cases regional research ethical committees are entitled to hand out ethical approval and ethical supervision. In those research sites, where the regional research ethical committee is not existent a local committee should be organized for the local ethical control of the research investigations and experiments. This way the ethical requirements and clinical practice by the GCP can be performed in clinical research in Hungary with a special respect to the vulnerable persons possibly involved. The paper gives an overview on recent developments and major ethical principles of the Hungarian biomedical research.

January 1, 2003 Hungary became a member of the Munich Convention on the Grant of European Patents (European Patent Convention, EPC). As from January 1, 2003 European patents may be claimed and obtained also for Hungary and European applications may be filed with the Hungarian Patent Office as well. This paper focuses on the exceptional generic R&D possibilities which can harmonize in harmony with all the claims of the Union in spite of the fact that it does not follow general European limitations and practises. Based on the amended Hungarian Patent Law (No. XXXIII of 1995 on the Protection of Inventions by Patents; Article 19 (6)b)) the exclusive right of exploitation shall not extend to acts done for experimental purposes relating to the subject matter of the invention, including experiments and tests necessary for the registration of medicines as well. The national and international legal history and background of the operative Hungarian Patent Law are also presented roughly. The paper deals with the divergence of the originator-generic industry and the EU-USA industry and with the incoherence within the EU itself on the early testing permissions and limitations.

A brief review is presented on the chromatographic separation techniques used in the European Pharmacopoeia (Ph.Eur.). The corresponding general chapters and the application of each technique in the individual monographs are covered. Special attention is paid to the discussion of the efforts of the Ph.Eur. aiming at the improvement of the reproducibility and reliability of the chromatographic methods in the monographs. In addition to showing the present policy of Ph.Eur. in the application of chromatographic techniques for different analytical purposes the paper also gives an overview on the changes to be expected in the near future.

The authors give an overview on the present role of the 7th Edition of the Hungarian Pharmacopoeia in the assurance of the good quality of medicines in Hungary. The reasons for the more and more limited applicability of the pharmacopoeia conflicting with its legal validity are shown for the most important groups of medicines. The authors, members of the presidium of the Hungarian Pharmacopoeia Commission, outline the future face and the timing of the publication of the 8th edition of the Hungarian Pharmacopoeia, which is intended to consist of the translations of the general chapters and monographs of the 3rd and 4th Editions of European Pharmacopoeia as well as of the so called national volume with monographs not included in the EP but harmonized with its general chapters. The impact of the new pharmacopoeia on the different fields of pharmacy and the necessary measures to be taken to make the switch-over from Ph. Hg. VII to Ph. Hg. VIII as smooth as possible are also summarised in the paper.

The Ruland family of German origin played an important role both in Hungarian and European medical history. Being a rather numerous family, and moreover, due to their habit of preferring to give the same first names to their children and because they worked in a relatively short period (ca. between 1550 and 1650), researchers often confuse one Ruland with the other. The present paper based on source-criticism, makes successful attempts to put the genealogy in order, presenting the history of the family, giving detailed biographies of each single Ruland and bringing together the bibliography of their works as well. As a result of her efforts the author puts a new light on the biographical data of the best known Ruland, namely of John David and at the same time she revisits the activity of John Ruland, who lived and worked in Hungary.

The European Society of Cardiology, the European Atherosclerosis Society and the European Society of Hypertension published in 1994 a joint statement and recommendation on prevention of coronary heart disease in clinical practice. The EUROASPIRE study intended to investigate the present clinical practice in this respect in 9 European countries. The present paper deals with the Hungarian leg of the collaborative study. Hospital data of 546 patients below the age of 70 were reviewed of whom 29% were women. Consecutive patients were identified retrospectively with the following discharge-diagnoses: coronary bypass grafting, PTCA, acute myocardial infarction and angina pectoris. Minimum 6, in the average 18 month after the index event, patients were interviewed and examined. The participation rate was 77%. During the index hospitalisation an incomplete documentation of the main risk factors was found: blood pressure values were missing in 12%, lipid values in 48%, smoking status in 34%, body weight in 22% and family history in 46% of the cases, with wide variation between diagnostic categories. At follow-up 23% of the patients were obese (BMI > or = 30 kg/m2), 49% had elevated blood pressure (140/90 > or = Hgmm), 46% had total cholesterol above 5.5 mmol/l, 23% smoked and 27% were diabetic. 75% of the patients were on antiplatelet, 14% on anticoagulant, 58% on beta-blocking, 22% on lipid lowering, 32% on ACE-inhibitor and 44% on calcium channel blocking medication. The screening of first degree relatives was recommended in only 18% of the patients. The results speak for a substantial neglect of secondary prevention of coronary patients in the Hungarian clinical practice. However without complex detection, evaluation and management of risk factors it is impossible to reduce the recurrence and high mortality of coronary heart disease.