Summary

Piperine is the bioactive constituent of black pepper (Piper nigrum). For quality control of piperine content, expensive instruments are usually used. A simple and inexpensive TLC image-analysis method for quantification of the piperine content of the traditional medicinal preparations of Bhutan has been established in this study. An image of the TLC chromatogram, under UV light at 254 nm, was taken by use of a digital camera and was further transformed to a density profile plot, along the direction of development, by use of Scion Image software. The concentration of piperine was calculated by comparing its peak area with a calibration plot established by chromatography of piperine standards on the same TLC plate. Linear regression analysis of the calibration data revealed a good linear relationship (R ² = 0.9962) between response and amount of piperine in the range 0.34–1.03 μg per spot. The specificity, precision, accuracy, and recovery of the method are satisfactory. The analytical results obtained by use of the method were not significantly different from those obtained by use of densitometric TLC. A disadvantage of the method is its low sensitivity — the limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) were 15.36 and 46.54 ng per spot, respectively.

Summary

A simple, rapid, and specific thin layer chromatographic (TLC) method has been developed and validated for the simultaneous estimation of icariin and l-arginine from commercial polyherbal formulations for sexual dysfunction. The separation of the methanol extract of these formulations was achieved on silica gel 60 F²⁵⁴ aluminum backed TLC plates by using ethyl acetate-acetone-glacial acetic acid-formic acid-water 12:2:1:2:2 (υ/υ) as mobile phase. Densitometric analysis of icariin and l-arginine was monitored in absorbance mode at 270 and 195 nm, respectively. The linear regression analysis data for the calibration plots for icariin and l-arginine showed good linear relationship with r ² = 0.9984 +- 0.01 and 0.9968 +- 0.02, in the concentration ranges of 250–750 and 500–1500 ng/spot, respectively. The method was validated for precision, robustness, and recovery. The average percentage recovery was found to be 98.26% for icariin and 99.63% for l-arginine. The limits of detection and quantitation were 72, 116 and 238, 383 ng/spot, respectively, for icariin and l-arginine. Statistical analysis proves that the method is repeatable and selective for the estimation of the targeted drugs. Since the proposed mobile phase effectively resolves the icariin and l-arginine, this method can be applied for the identification and quantitation of these components in herbal extracts and marketed formulations.

The practical challenge of creating a Hungarian e-mail reader has initiated our work on statistical text analysis. The starting point was statistical analysis for automatic discrimination of the language of texts. Later it was extended to automatic re-generation of diacritic signs and more detailed language structure analysis. A parallel study of three different languages-Hungarian, German and English-using text corpora of a similar size gives a possibility for the exploration of both similarities and differences. Corpora of publicly available Internet sources were used. The corpus size was the same (approximately 20 Mbytes, 2.5-3.5 million word forms) for all languages. Besides traditional corpus coverage, word length and occurrence statistics, some new features about prosodic boundaries (sentence initial and final positions, preceding and following a comma) were also computed. Among others, it was found that the coverage of corpora by the most frequent words follows a parallel logarithmic rule for all languages in the 40-85% coverage range, known as Zipf's law in linguistics. The functions are much nearer for English and German than for Hungarian. Further conclusions are also drawn. The language detection and diacritic regeneration applications are discussed in detail with implications on Hungarian speech generation. Diverse further application domains, such as predictive text input, word hyphenation, language modelling in speech recognition, corpus-based speech synthesis, etc. are also foreseen.

Research of the manuscript hitherto known and labeled as the "Liber sequentiarum and sacramentarium" (“LS”), stored today in Šibenik, has shown that this chant book is the earliest missal copied in the monastery of Tegernsee for the St Thomas Basilica in medieval Pula, Istria.Indications for its provenance are drawn from its codicological, palaeographical and repertorial features. Beside the detailed comparison of its script, notation, sequence and trope repertory, this article shows up to date not analyzed repertory of the saints venerated in its sacramentary and in the list of relicts to be mentioned at the end of missal (Haec sunt reliquiae). Particularly, this portions of the “LS” repertory were a clue toward detection that the “Leitheiliger” of this chant book is St Thomas Apostle, a patron of the bishopric of Parenzo/Pula, to whom also the “unicum” sequence Armonia concinnans was dedicated. St Thomas Basilica in medieval Pula is place of usage where this “commissioned book” has been meant for liturgical usage. In the broader Aquileian context this manuscript is important as a “new source” from Aquileia and its eastern province of Istria.

Imre Steindl (1839–1902) is thought to be one of the most prominent architects of the Hungarian Historicism, whose active contribution to the Hungarian Neo-gothic architecture and restoration practices can hardly be overestimated. Albeit, his activity as an architect of the renowned late chief work of the international Gothic Revival, the Hungarian Parliament, as a leader of a prosperous atelier and as a driving force in the public life of the Hungarian architects has been studied intensively, to his work as professor at the Joseph Technical University of Budapest has been so far less attention given. Steindl began to teach as an ordinary professor of medieval architecture in 1870 and shaped the curriculum and educational methods following the traditions of his former alma mater, the Academy Fine Arts of Vienna. In this study, beyond the outline of the long 19th-century Hungarian architectural education and analysis the educational principals typical of Steindl’s methods, the manuscript of the professor’s lecture notes is published and analyzed, with special regard to his historiographical orientation and scholarly reference points. The philological reading of the text points out, that Steindl compiled his lectures in question from the ‘great syntheses’ of the Berlin School of Art History, above all that of Wilhelm Lübke and Karl Schnaase. The detection of this kind of historiographical influence may contribute to the scholarship’s image of Steindl’s, furthermore the late 19th-century Hungarian architectural intelligentsia’s erudition.

Summary

Ezetimibe is the first in a new class of antihypercholesterolemic drugs. Since it has not long been available on the market, many of its properties may still be revealed. Analytical methods for its determination are scarce, especially regarding serum samples. A simple, fast, and effective high-performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet (HPLC-UV) method for the determination of ezetimibe concentration in human serum has therefore been developed. Three mobile phases were analysed, and original modifications to the concentration and flow parameters were made. Of five potential internal standards (IS), only nitrendipine was found to be suitable. The analytical wavelength was chosen based on the absorption spectrum of ezetimibe in the mobile phase. Finally, an extraction analysis was performed using two different solvents, and the extrahent volume was optimised. The final method developed was as follows. Single extraction of 1 mL serum sample, spiked with IS, was performed using 10 mL of methyl-t-butyl ether. Separation was obtained at ambient temperature on a Waters C18 Symmetry Shield (4.6 mm × 250 mm, 5 μm) column. The isocratic mobile phase was composed of acetonitrile and 0.1 M ammonium acetate aqueous solution 55:45 (v/v), set at flow rate of 0.75 mL min⁻¹. Ezetimibe was detected at a wavelength of 232 nm after 5.49 min, and the IS was detected at 8.05 min. The developed method has been validated according to ICH standards. It was found to be specific, precise, accurate and linear over the range 10–800 ng mL⁻¹ with R ² > 0.998, and detection and quantification limits of 4.60 ng mL⁻¹ and 13.94 ng mL⁻¹, respectively. The method has been applied to clinical serum samples. The developed technique allowed for successful in vivo assessment of ezetimibe concentrations in samples obtained from hypercholesterolemia patients who are chronically receiving the drug.

The Hungarian painter Lajos Vajda left little in terms of documentation for posterity. His witten legacy is largely confined to three notebooks and a variety of scribbled notes that complement the letters saved by his wife.

Despite the scarcity of documentation, the three “chequered notebooks” (named after their chequered covers) provide a considerable insight into the scope of Vajda’s reading especially when analysed in conjunction with the letters.

After initially attempting to “reconstruct” Vajda’s intellectual background through his reading, I discovered an important gap in the academic research conducted into Vajda to date.

This related to the drawings of houses and streets in the small town of Szentendre that Vajda produced between 1935 and 1938 – contemporaneously with the writing of the Chequered Notebooks. These drawings have largely been seen as part of a larger project. However, my reading of these notes leads me to believe that they were selfstanding experiments in the depiction of space influenced by his concurrent reading and reflection on Egyptian and Persian ideas of the depiction of space.

Of especial interest is the role of Vajda’s line drawings and the possibility of exchanging positive and negative forms. This problematic had already appeared in his earlier montage works but – despite the similarities in style – he now experimented with new solutions to the depiction of space.

The shapes do not mark overlapping layers of space but rather they enclose a special form through distortions projected onto the plane. Vajda did not use the usual systems of geometrical depiction (the Monge type depiction system, axonometric or one and two-point directional perspective) or depict the motifs from a single point of view, but drew the contours by following the detection and the direction of the gaze.

In summary, my research aimed at discovering the extent to which knowledge of the artist’s reading material assists in the analysis of works created at the same time. In the comparison with the experiments in the depiction of space of that era, I was interested in how Vajda’s experiments with space were different and what relationship they had with his reading material (Egyptian, Persian Art).

В статье сравнивается два художественных произведения как два медицинских случая. В романе венгерского писателя Фридьеша Каринти «Путешествие вокруг моего черепа» (1936) рассказывается об обнаружении, диагностизации и операции опухоли мозга, а в романе А. Солженицына «Раковый корпус» (1966) – о лечении рака горла и других онкологических случаев. Болезнь в них рассматривается как нарративная структура, а ее повествовательное осмысление – как способ бытия. Повествователем в обоих романах является пациент, противопоставленный традициям медицинского нарратива, в котором пациент лишен компетенции для рассказывания. В этом состоит новизна художественного подхода исследуемых авторов, которые, при всем их различии, совершают некий «онтологический поворот» в истории медицинского нарратива, создав две его новые модели в литературе ХХ века.

Теоретическая база исследования разработана по концепциям М. Фуко, С. Сонтаг о «гуманистическом повороте» во взаимоотношениях «власть – медицина», по которому пациент перестает быть лишь «контролируемым телом» в качестве бессловесного заложника системы, а, с завоеванием биоэтического права высказаться о своем теле, приобретает компетенцию автонаррации, фиксируемой в новых моделей медицинского нарратива.

В статье анализируется предыстория и процесс создания этих новых моделей, а также и сам изменяющийся теоретический и методологический контекст исследовательской стратегии медицинского нарратива как таковой. Согласно гипотезе статьи, нарратив для пациента, оказавшегося в системе здравоохранения, может рассматриваться не только как социальный акт, но и как речевой акт для утверждения целостной личности и идентичности. В таком смысле, он функционирует также и в качестве ментального инструмента для воссоздания (регенерации) разъединенной связи «сознание – тело».

На этой стадии, ключевым методологическим сдвигом оказалось введение концепта «моральный ландшафт» как комплекса моральных дилемм, сопутствующих социальному явлению. Оно позволило выявить категориальную дихотомию статусов «быть человеком» и «быть пациентом», нарративное осмысление которых является центральной нарративной осью в анализируемых моделях, а человеческое «Я» пациента оказывается нарративным центром тяжести.

В этом последнем аспекте и может заключаться источник для прагматического прочтения данных текстов, предоставляя свежие аргументы для дискуссии в гуманитарных науках о современных принципах медицинской этики. В этом же моменте проявляется самый актуальный вывод анализа об «олитературивании» медицинского дискурса, в результате которого восстанавливаются и признаются права пациента на рефлексии и автонаррации.

The paper compares two works of art as two medical cases. The novel by the Hungarian writer Frigyes Karinthy A Journey Round My Skull (1936) tells about the detection, diagnosis, and operation of a brain tumour, while A. Solzhenitsyn’s novel Cancer Ward (1966) is about the treatment of throat cancer and other oncological cases. Disease in them is seen as a narrative structure, and its narrative comprehension is viewed as a way of being. In both novels, the narrator is a patient opposed to the tradition of medical narrative, in which the patient is deprived of the competence to narrate. This is the novelty of the literary approach of the authors under study, who, despite all their differences, perform a kind of “ontological turn” in the history of medical narrative, creating two new models in 20th-century literature.

The theoretical basis of the study was developed in the conceptual frame of the “humanistic turn” in the “power – medicine” relationships (M. Foucault and S. Sontag), when the patient ceases to be only a “controlled body” as a wordless hostage of the system. Instead, acquiring the bioethical right to speak about his own body, he gains the competence of autonarration fixed in the new models of medical narrative.

The paper analyzes the prehistory and the process of creating these new models. Then evaluating the research strategies of medical narrative as such, the changing theoretical and methodological context is also examined. According to the hypothesis of the paper, a narrative of a patient who finds himself in the health care system can be defined not only as a social act but also as a speech act confirming the personal integrity and identity. In this sense, the patient’s narrative can also be considered as a mental instrument for recreating (regenerating) the disconnected “mind – body” connection.

At this point, the concept of “moral landscape” was introduced as a complex of moral dilemmas of accompanying the social phenomenon. This methodological shift allowed the identification of the categorical dichotomy of the status “being human” and “being a patient”. The narrative interpretation of this dichotomy proved to be the central narrative axis in the analyzed models, and the patient’s human self is found to be the centre of narrative gravity.

This latter aspect reveals a source for a pragmatic reading of the studied texts, providing fresh arguments for the discussion in the humanities about modern principles of medical ethics. At the same time, it leads to the most relevant conclusion of the analysis about the “literary transformation” of medical discourse as a way to restore and recognize the patient’s rights to autonarration and reflections.