showing 36 of ~574560 from 574555 documents
Sustainable Working Life in a Swedish Twin Cohort—A Definition Paper with Sample Overview
2021
Background: A unified or consensus definition of “sustainable working life” remains lacking, although studies investigating risk factors for labour market exit are numerous. In this study, we aimed (1) to update the information and to explore a definition of “sustainable working life” via a systematic literature review and (2) to describe the working life trajectories via the prevalence of sickness absence (SA), disability pension (DP), and unemployment in a Swedish twin cohort to provide a sample overview in our Sustainable Working Life-project. Methods: A systematic literature review was conducted to explore the studies with the search phrase “sustainable working life” in PubMed, PsycInfo…
Laparoscopy in low-income countries: 10-years experience and systematic literature review
2021
Laparoscopy is a procedure that ultimately reduces hospital stay time and speeds up post-operative recovery. It is mainly performed in high-income countries but its implementation in many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is increasing. However, no aggregate data exist regarding the outcomes of this procedure in resource-limited settings. We retrospectively reviewed all cases of laparoscopy recorded from January 2007 to March 2017 at the Department of Surgery of Beira to assess the related outcomes. Moreover, we performed a systematic review of the laparoscopic practices and outcomes in low-income countries. Data from the Department of Surgery of Beira identified 363 laparoscopic pro…
The effects of an education-leave program on educational attainment and labor-market outcomes
2021
Abstract I study the effect of an education leave subsidy for the employed on labor-market outcomes and educational attainment using Finnish administrative linked employer-employee panel data and matching methods. The adult education allowance is available to employees with at least eight years of work experience and allows them to take a leave for 2–18 months to participate in an education program while being compensated for a substantial part of their forgone earnings. I find large positive treatment effects on educational attainment and changing occupation. The treatment effects on earnings and employment are negative during the lock-in period and close to zero afterward. Treatment effec…
GNPS-guided discovery of xylacremolide C and D, evaluation of their putative biosynthetic origin and bioactivity studies of xylacremolide A and B
2021
Targeted HRMS2-GNPS-based metabolomic analysis of Pseudoxylaria sp. X187, a fungal antagonist of the fungus-growing termite symbiosis, resulted in the identification of two lipopeptidic congeners of xylacremolides, named xylacremolide C and D, which are built from d-phenylalanine, l-proline and an acetyl-CoA starter unit elongated by four malonyl-CoA derived ketide units. The putative xya gene cluster was identified from a draft genome generated by Illumina and PacBio sequencing and RNAseq studies. Biological activities of xylacremolide A and B were evaluated and revealed weak histone deacetylase inhibitory (HDACi) and antifungal activities, as well as moderate protease inhibition activity …
VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY OF THE FLOURISHING SCALE: LATVIAN VERSION
2021
The objective of this study was to assess the psychometric properties of the Latvian version of the Flourishing Scale (FS), created by Diener et al. (2010). FS is a brief self-report measure of the respondent’s well-being and success in areas of relationships, self-esteem, purpose, and optimism. The scale provides a single score across 8 items. The original FS was translated to Latvian and then back to English. The Satisfaction with Life Scale and Meaning in Life Questionnaire was applied for testing the convergent validity of the FS. Participants of the study were 191 people, ranged in age from 19 to 68 (159 women, mean age M = 30.62, SD = 9.50). Reliability analysis, exploratory and confi…
WORK-BASED STUDIES IN HIGHER PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION OF LATVIA AND EUROPE: THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL ASPECTS
2021
Work-based learning has been developing rapidly in Latvia for the last three years. Since 2017, the Employers’ Confederation of Latvia has been implementing a project of the European Social Fund, which provides for a tripartite learning implementation agreement between the educational institution, the student, and the employer. The project targets vocational learners, but equivalent opportunities are also spoken of in higher vocational education. Such an approach would help the employer direct the future employees in the direction of acquiring the necessary knowledge and skills. The publication aims to give a short overview of the historical development of learning opportunities in the work…
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK FOR TEACHERS SELF- ASSESSMENT TO TEACH 21ST CENTURY SKILLS
2021
The context of educational reforms taking place in many countries gives special relevance, as the curriculum enters the 21st century skills or so-called transversal skills. It is necessary to ascertain how successful the teaching of these skills is already so that the school management together with teachers develop evidence-based or data-driven professional development solutions. The aim of the research is to create a theoretical framework and corresponding self-assessment tools, how the teacher can assess for himself to what extent he has succeeded in achieving the competence to teach students in the 21st century skills required to achieve the goals set by the school in the context of the…
UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ GROWTH GOALS, OPPORTUNITIES FOR GOAL FULFILLMENT, AND PERCEIVED UNIVERSITY AND MESOSYSTEM SUPPORT
2021
This study assessed the relationship between students’ growth goals and perceived opportunities to achieve these goals in Latvia and the perceived support from the university and the mesosystem. Socialization models emphasize that the setting of personal goals occurs in continuous interaction with the sociocultural context, which includes perceived opportunities to achieve these goals and the interpersonal environment. Both – perceived support from close people (mesosystems) and perceived support from the university – are significant for students. The study involved 432 university students between 18 and 49. We have assessed the extent to which students’ goals regarding education, work, and…
Numerical evaluation of iterated integrals related to elliptic Feynman integrals
2021
We report on an implementation within GiNaC to evaluate iterated integrals related to elliptic Feynman integrals numerically to arbitrary precision within the region of convergence of the series expansion of the integrand. The implementation includes iterated integrals of modular forms as well as iterated integrals involving the Kronecker coefficient functions g^(k) (z, τ). For the Kronecker coefficient functions iterated integrals in dτ and dz are implemented. This includes elliptic multiple polylogarithms.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE VS DESIGNER: THE IMPACT OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ON DESIGN PRACTICE
2021
Technological advances, including the use of possibilities offered by artificial intelligence (AI), have become an area of strategic importance and a key driver of economic development. AI today has been integrated into a variety of economies, the design industry is no exception: AI is being increasingly applied in the development of design products and services. However, as technological breakthroughs rapidly shift the borders between the work tasks performed by humans and those performed by machines and algorithms, global labor markets are undergoing major transformations. This raises the question: how are these changes affecting and will continue to affect designers’ work in the future? …
The Diversification of Sicilian Farms: A Way to Sustainable Rural Development
2021
Rural areas still suffer from a lack of sustainable development, and the diversification of farms may be a step in the right direction. The paper provides a detailed picture of the diversification of Sicilian farms into tourism services. Specifically, we propose a simple indicator of localization intensity of agritourism farms and explore their spatial distribution at municipality level. Our study highlights that Sicilian farms rarely diversify into tourism services, despite being situated in attractive areas. That said, some significant spatial clusters of municipalities where agritourism farms are highly concentrated do emerge from the study.
Consensus among preference rankings: a new weighted correlation coefficient for linear and weak orderings
2021
AbstractPreference data are a particular type of ranking data where some subjects (voters, judges,...) express their preferences over a set of alternatives (items). In most real life cases, some items receive the same preference by a judge, thus giving rise to a ranking with ties. An important issue involving rankings concerns the aggregation of the preferences into a “consensus”. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the consensus between rankings with ties, taking into account the importance of swapping elements belonging to the top (or to the bottom) of the ordering (position weights). By combining the structure of $$\tau _x$$ τ x proposed by Emond and Mason (J Multi-Criteria Decis…
Searching for the antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and neuroprotective potential of natural food and nutritional supplements for ocular health in the …
2021
Adherence to a healthy diet offers a valuable intervention to compete against the increasing cases of ocular diseases worldwide, such as dry eye disorders, myopia progression, cataracts, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, or age macular degeneration. Certain amounts of micronutrients must be daily provided for proper functioning of the visual system, such as vitamins, carotenoids, trace metals and omega-3 fatty acids. Among natural foods, the following have to be considered for boosting eye/vision health: fish, meat, eggs, nuts, legumes, citrus fruits, nuts, leafy green vegetables, orange-colored fruits/vegetables, olives-olive oil, and dairy products. Nutritional supplements have received muc…
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CIVIC FACTORS AND THE MIDDLE PROFICIENCY LEVEL OF CIVIC KNOWLEDGE
2021
This study explores the relationship between civic and citizenship factors and the middle proficiency level of students’ civic knowledge in the Baltic countries: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The study uses large scale data from the IEA’s International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) 2016. According to ICCS 2016, 39% of students from the three Baltic countries and only 26% of students from the Nordic countries had a middle proficiency level of civic knowledge. This middle proficiency level is the largest group in comparison to other levels. Therefore, the study aims to recognise the differences between the highest and lowest achievements in the middle proficiency level of civi…
Thematic vent opening probability maps and hazard assessment of small-scale pyroclastic density currents in the San Salvador volcanic complex (El Sal…
2021
The San Salvador volcanic complex (El Salvador) and Nejapa-Chiltepe volcanic complex (Nicaragua) have been characterized by a significant variability in eruption style and vent location. Densely inhabited cities are built on them and their surroundings, including the metropolitan areas of San Salvador (∼2.4 million people) and Managua (∼1.4 million people), respectively. In this study we present novel vent opening probability maps for these volcanic complexes, which are based on a multi-model approach that relies on kernel density estimators. In particular, we present thematic vent opening maps, i.e., we consider different hazardous phenomena separately, including lava emission, small-scale…
Fuzzy Control Strategy for Cooperative Non-holonomic Motion of Cybercars with Passengers Vibration Analysis
2021
The cybercars are electric road wheeled non-holonomic vehicles with fully automated driving capabilities. They contribute to sustainable mobility and are employed as passenger vehicles. Non-holonomic mechanics describes the motion of the cybercar constrained by non-integrable constraints, i.e. constraints on the system velocities that do not arise from constraints on the configuration alone. First of all there are thus with dynamic nonholonomic constraints, i.e. constraints preserved by the basic Euler-Lagrange equations (Bloch, 2000; Melluso, 2007; Raimondi & Melluso, 2006-a). Of course, these constraints are not externally imposed on the system but rather are consequences of the equations…
Le circuit automobile n’existe pas. Regards sur un champ d’acteurs aux cadrages divergents
2021
International audience
Authoritarian exclusion and laissez‐faire inclusion: Comparing the punishment of men convicted of sex offenses in England & Wales and Norway*
2021
Abstract: Comparative penologists have described neoliberal and social democratic jurisdictions as though they exist at opposite ends of a continuum of inclusion and exclusion, and as though neoliberal states are inactive and social democratic states are invasive. This article, which is based on more than 129 interviews with men convicted of sex offenses in England & Wales and Norway, uses Cohen's work on inclusion and McNeill's typology of rehabilitative forms to complicate this simplistic binary. It argues that the punishment of men convicted of sex offenses in England & Wales was demanding but exclusionary; it imposed strict legal restrictions on these men during and after their imprison…
Improved State Estimation of Stochastic Systems via a New Technique of Invariant Embedding
2021
In this paper we construct the minimum risk estimators of state of stochastic systems. The method used is that of the invariant embedding of sample statistics in a loss function in order to form pivotal quantities, which make it possible to eliminate unknown parameters from the problem. This method is a special case of more general considerations applicable whenever the statistical problem is invariant under a group of transformations, which acts transitively on the parameter space.
La représentation des corps malades dans les films "Le Salut" (1972) et "l’Hôpital de la transfiguration" (1978) d'Edward Zebrowski
2021
Comité d'honneur : Jean-Luc Nancy, Judith Butler, Loïc Wacquant, Reinaldo Laddaga, Roberto Esposito; International audience
EXPLORATION OF EURASIAN PRISON CHAPLAINS’ PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING TO RAISE THEIR JOB SATISFACTION
2021
The article aims to attract the attention of policymakers, educators, business-affiliated bodies, and community to the psychological well-being of such prison staff members as chaplains whose job satisfaction will directly influence inmates’ rehabilitation and the health of the society in general. A phenomenological research was carried out in a non-profit organization Good News Jail and Prison Ministry whose mission is to provide spiritually mature, equipped, and motivated chaplains serving in 22 states, one American territory and 25 countries. The research sample was the participants of six Eurasian regions. The data were collected using interviews, diary notes and reports of stakeholder …
Dimensions of invasiveness: Links between local abundance, geographic range size, and habitat breadth in Europe's alien and native floras.
2021
Understanding drivers of success for alien species can inform on potential future invasions. Recent conceptual advances highlight that species may achieve invasiveness via performance along at least three distinct dimensions: 1) local abundance, 2) geographic range size, and 3) habitat breadth in naturalized distributions. Associations among these dimensions and the factors that determine success in each have yet to be assessed at large geographic scales. Here, we combine data from over one million vegetation plots covering the extent of Europe and its habitat diversity with databases on species' distributions, traits, and historical origins to provide a comprehensive assessment of invasive…
Comparison of Inorganic Chlorine in the Southern Hemispheric lowermost stratosphere during Late Winter 2019
2021
Inorganic chlorine (Cly) is the sum of the degradation products of long-lived chlorinated source gases. These include the reservoir species (HCl and ClONO2) and active chlorine species (i.e. ClOx). The active chlorine species drive catalytic cycles that deplete ozone in the polar winter stratosphere. This work presents calculations of inorganic chlorine (Cly) derived from chlorinated source gas measurements on board the High Altitude and Long Range Research Aircraft (HALO) during the Southern hemisphere Transport, Dynamic and Chemistry (SouthTRAC) campaign in late winter and early spring 2019. Results are compared to Cly of the Northern Hemisphere derived from measurements of the POLSTRACC-…
BILATERAL SOCIAL DIALOGUE IN THE EDUCATION SECTOR IN LATVIA DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
2021
In 2020, the world was unprepared for the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. , . In Latvia, respective decisions and restrictions were made at the national, municipal and educational institution’s level, as it was important to respond promptly, flexibly and in accordance with the individual’s health security to ensure safe educational process. During the Covid-19 pandemic, distance learning was provided at most educational institutions, which was not a common practice until now. It facilitated the digitalisation of education, led to rapid adaptation to change and learning to work in times of crisis and limited resources. In the paper, theoretical findings of human capital and the agent net…
DISTANCE LEARNING AND COVID-19 FROM STUDENTS’ PERSPECTIVE: DO THEY HAVE THE SKILLS TO DEAL WITH THE UNPRECEDENTED SITUATION?
2021
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 1,6 billion children worldwide were forced to discontinue face-to-face education and continue with distance learning (OECD, 2020). To many students as well as teachers this was their first experience with distance learning. Students' ability to adapt to distance learning varies and depends on different factors, including individual factors such as the ability to cope with new situations, solve problems and manage their own learning process. In order to successfully deal with the new circumstances in education, it is necessary to work at all levels - including the level of policy development, level of schools as organizations, and at the indivi…
NIR laser scanning microscopy for photophysical characterization of upconversion nanoparticles and nanohybrids
2021
Photophysical characterization of upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) and nanohybrids (UCNHs) is more challenging than that of down-conversion nanomaterials. Moreover, it is still difficult to gain knowledge about the homogeneity of the sample and colocalization of emissive chromophores and nanoparticles in nanohybrids. Near infrared laser scanning microscopy (NIR-LSM) is a well-known and useful imaging technique, which enables excitation in the NIR region and has been extensively applied to optical fluorescence imaging of organic fluorophores and nanomaterials, such as quantum dots, which exhibit a short-lived emission. NIR-LSM has recently been used to determine the empirical emission life…
OVERCOMING SOCIAL ISOLATION WITH DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES AMONG AGEING POPULATIONS DURING COVID-19
2021
During Covid-19 social isolation has become more common worldwide, however, some groups, especially elderly people, might have experienced dramatically limited communication due to the lack of skills and access to digital technologies. In this paper, we examined if education was associated with the use of digital technologies to maintain contacts with a family, friends, other social networks and services. The survey was conducted in June-August 2020 by doing 1089 computer-assisted telephone interviews. The questions examined how people aged 50 years and older coped with socioeconomic and health-related impact of COVID-19.We used logistic regression analysis to study the association between …
LINKING TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT NEEDS WITH APPROPRIATE SOLUTIONS: INSIGHTS FROM AN INIATIVE IN LATVIA
2021
International surveys have stated that each year teachers spend, on average, more than 10 days engaged in different professional development activities. The purpose for this investment in teacher professional development (TPD) is clear: teachers’ competence must develop according to changes in curriculum and 21st century requirements. In previous research we have developed a theoretical teacher competence framework, implemented it to identify teacher (N=263) groups competence gaps and professional development needs. The goal of this research is to link identified professional development needs related to the instruction of 21st century skills (criteria - instructional design, learning goals…
ACTIVE LEARNING METHODS IN STUDIES: STUDENTS’ OPINIONS AND EXPERIENCES
2021
Rapid changes in education and pedagogy are related not only to the global crisis caused by COVID-19, but also to other changes determined by globalization and technological convergence—labour mobility, changes in different professions and changes in teacher–student relations—that are also affected by intergenerational differences. Changes in the pedagogical paradigm, which are included in the content of the Paris Communiqué (2018) and outlined in many important educational development and planning documents, emphasise students’ transition from being mere recipients of information to being participants actively engaged with new information in a learning environment. Following the identifica…
‘E-TAP’ CURRICULUM FOR VIRTUE EDUCATION: A FIT ANALYSIS TO THE ‘SKOLA-2030’ CURRICULUM
2021
The virtue education curriculum ‘e-TAP’ is one of the recent efforts for improving character and virtue education at school in Latvia from preschool till grade nine. The objective of this research was to provide evidence regarding whether this curriculum is appropriate (‘fits’) to the Latvian context, in particular in reference to the Skola-2030 curriculum. Based on fit and feasibility theory, this work addressed the research question: “How does the treatment of virtues of the e-TAP curriculum fit to the treatment of virtues of the new Skola-2030 curriculum?”. The analysis used statistical descriptive frequency analysis of the virtues of each programme and comparative analysis between the t…
Rhizosphere Bacterial Networks, but Not Diversity, Are Impacted by Pea-Wheat Intercropping
2021
International audience; Plant-plant associations, notably cereal-legume intercropping, have been proposed in agroecology to better value resources and thus reduce the use of chemical inputs in agriculture. Wheat-pea intercropping allows to decreasing the use of nitrogen fertilization through ecological processes such as niche complementarity and facilitation. Rhizosphere microbial communities may account for these processes, since they play a major role in biogeochemical cycles and impact plant nutrition. Still, knowledge on the effect of intecropping on the rhizosphere microbiota remains scarce. Especially, it is an open question whether rhizosphere microbial communities in cereal-legume i…
THE IMPACT OF FAMILY AND INDIVIDUAL FACTORS ON 4TH GRADE STUDENTS’ SELF-CONFIDENCE IN READING LITERACY: RESULTS FROM PIRLS 2016
2021
The self-confidence of a child and an adult is associated with performance and achievement results. It is well-studied, and the correlation has been proved that higher self-efficacy leads to higher achievements and performance, including better performance in reading literacy. It is also known that both a family and a home environment have a tremendous impact on the child’s development and academic performance. This article focuses on the 4 th graders and their family factor impact on the development of a child’s self-confidence and concepts related to self-confidence. The purpose of this article is to define concepts that are closely related to self-confidence and to identify family factor…
All N=(8,0) AdS3 solutions in 10 and 11 dimensions
2021
We classify AdS(3) solutions preserving N = (8, 0) supersymmetry in ten and eleven dimensions and find the local form of each of them. These include the AdS(3)xS(6) solution of [1] and the embeddings of AdS(3) into AdS(4)xS(7), AdS(5)xS(5), AdS(7)/Z(k)xS(4) and its IIA reduction within AdS(7). More interestingly we find solutions preserving the superconformal algebras f4, su(1,1|4), osp(4*|4) on certain squashings of the 7-sphere. These solutions asymptote to AdS(4)xS(7) and are promising candidates for holographic duals to defects in Chern-Simons matter theories.
Case report: Control of intestinal nematodes in captive Chlorocebus sabaeus
2021
Funding was provided by the Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine via the One Health Center for Zoonoses and Tropical Veterinary Medicine.
Group epistemic value
2021
AbstractSometimes we are interested in how groups are doing epistemically in aggregate. For instance, we may want to know the epistemic impact of a change in school curriculum or the epistemic impact of abolishing peer review in the sciences. Being able to say something about how groups are doing epistemically is especially important if one is interested in pursuing a consequentialist approach to social epistemology of the sort championed by Goldman (Knowledge in a social world. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1999). According to this approach we evaluate social practices and institutions from an epistemic perspective based on how well they promote the aggregate level of epistemic value ac…
INSTITUTIONALISATION OF RETURN MIGRATION IN LATVIA: THE CASE OF REGIONAL COORDINATORS
2021
Emigration countries such as Latvia institutionally should address the negative consequences of the ageing populations' economic and demographic challenges. To this aim, in 2018 network of five regional return migration coordinators was established to foster and nationally encourage return migration. The primary function of the regional coordinator is to foster and facilitate requests of potential return migrants.Drawing on interview materials collected in 2020 with return migration coordinators at the regional level – Latgale, Vidzeme, Zemgale, Kurzeme and Riga, we illustrate good-practice of return migration institutionalisation in Latvia.Our study focuses on three main fields of interest…