European Science Research Articles

Finding the needle in the haystack: archival research in European political science

Finding the needle in the haystack: archival research in European political science

New times in old forests: How the past matters in European forest science

This article tracks changing conceptions of time in European forest science over recent decades, and accounts for how they can affect forest conservation and management. Through semiotic analysis of 62 peer-reviewed articles published in ecology and forestry, we (1) characterize the temporal features of old European forests as they evolve over our study period (1997–2017), and (2) trace how new and changing temporalities in forest science have reconfigured what constitutes a problem for conservationists and managers. We describe in particular how two articulations of forest time and forest management—Forest Continuity and Forest Maturity—have evolved, identifying the emergence of two new temporalities in old forest science. Over the study period, changing conceptions of forest pasts have increasingly led to consider forests as complex and evolving ecosystems from which humans cannot be excluded.

Redesigning Humans in the Nano-Age

The blurring boundaries between therapy and human enhancement raise a lot of ethical questions that need to be addressed. Therapy is healing and restoring the sick to health; enhancement is improving the normal functioning of the body. With nanomedicine, the boundary becomes even hazier. Nanomedicine refers to the application of nanotechnology to the prevention and treatment of diseases. The European Science Foundation defines it as the science and technology of diagnosing, treating, and preventing disease and traumatic injury, relieving pain, and preserving and improving human health using molecular tools and knowledge of the human body (ESF, 2005). While nanomedicine delivers numerous and unprecedented benefits to the health and general well-being of individuals, nano- enabled human enhancement technologies will be the gateway to the transhumanist vision of immortality. Transhumanism contends that through the advancements in science and technology, we can overcome our physical and cognitive limitations, extend human lifespan, and attain perpetual existence. The blurring boundaries between enhancement will have remarkable consequences on what it means to be a human being. The study will make use of New and Emerging Science and Technology (NEST) Ethics as a framework for addressing dichotomous approaches and polarizing perspectives on human enhancement.

Post-COVID-19 assessment of the use of Open Educational Resources at five European Library and Information Science higher education institutions

This article presents an analysis of the impact of Open Educational Resources (OER) during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as their potential use in the post-pandemic, in Library and Information Science (LIS) higher education institutions. The research explored how OER were used and created, what were the main barriers and drivers in practice and some main lessons learned that can help to improve the quality and increase the use of OER beyond times of crisis. The research was based on fieldwork carried out in the LIS departments of the universities of Barcelona (Spain), Hildesheim (Germany), Osijek and Zagreb (Croatia) and the University of Library Studies and Information Technologies in Sofia (Bulgaria). The methodology approach was qualitative and was based on interviews with faculty and focus groups with students. Results show that faculty members were still hesitant to adopt OER since they generally did not consider them. Moreover, those who did use them did so on their own initiative and as additional resources. We discuss the different speeds of OER implementation that have been observed depending on the faculty’s prior level of knowledge, and on whether their institutions and countries are prepared to support the use of OER. The promotion of post-pandemic OER involves greater capacity building, as well as collaboration and institutional support. Students’ attitudes about the usefulness of OER focus on their availability. The large number of teachers and students who participated in the study, as well as the international scope of the study, constitute a strength in the treatment of a topic such as the use of OER where the user perspectives and LIS context have been little addressed in the literature.

There, across the border – political scientists and their boundary-crossing work

AbstractScholars may be diversely engaged in boundary-crossing work, either staying more confined in academic settings, or reaching out to the policy world. Despite growing theoretical attention, there is little empirical knowledge on the extent to which scholars indeed engage in boundary-crossing activities, and the conditions that foster or jeopardize this. We use original survey data from European political scientists to investigate how frequently they ‘travel’ to the policy world, what patterns of engagement are visible, and how these are determined. The article introduces a typology capturing different boundary-crossing profiles and shows that political scientists are rather frequent travelers across the border between academia and the policy world. Yet, individual characteristics matter. Having (had) a position outside of academia has an especially strong effect on the likelihood of boundary-crossing. Our results also reveal that not every scholar has the same chance to be involved, depending on gender or seniority.

AZƏRBAYCANIN BOLONYA PROSESİNƏ QOŞULMASI ZƏRURƏTİ

The Need for Azerbaijan to Join the Bologna Process Summary The Bologna process will push our universities to a pragmatic modernization of education, a comparative analysis of their curricula and programs with single-disciplinary European universities, and real benefits from the latest achievements of European science in the educational process. Academic mobility of professorial and pedagogical life will become a more effective form of advanced training for the teaching staff of our universities. Key words: internationalization of education, globalization of education, opportunities for globalization, global educational space, international cooperation

Methods for fungiform papillae assessment: A collaborative study among European research units

Fungiform papillae (FP) are the anatomical structures dedicated to gustatory and somatosensory signal triggering. Whether the density of FP (FPD = FP/cm2) is associated with oral responsiveness is controversial, and the disparity in previous findings may be partially due to the diversity in methods used to quantify FP. The present study aims at mapping methods used to estimate FPD and at tentatively assessing the impact of the main procedure variables in FPD estimation. An on-line survey was specifically developed and launched among the European Sensory Science Society members to collect information on methods and procedure variables and to share datasets on FP counting. Seven European research centres responded to the survey. Manual counting was the most popular methodology, and a merged dataset of 1006 observations was obtained. The type of device used for tongue picture acquisition (low-resolution - LR vs high-resolution - HR) was the main procedure variable. FPD mean values were lower when assessed by LR (35.8) than with HR devices (41.5). Distribution of FPD for LR and HR datasets were similar thus comparisons among studies in which different resolution devices have been used are reliable. Picture modifications and data validation did not significantly affect FPD estimation obtained from HR devices, while both these variables significantly affected FPD values collected with LR devices. Both HR and LR procedures were able to capture the differences in FPD due to age and gender. Overall, measures from HR devices appear the best option to depict the inter-individual variability in FPD. Automated procedures appear underutilised.

Seeds of the Settler Colony: How Peasant and Kazakh Knowledge, Environment, and Bureaucracy Shaped Steppe Agronomy in the Late Russian Empire.

At the turn of the twentieth century, Russian imperial officials hoped to transform the Kazakh Steppe from a zone of pastoral nomadism into a zone of sedentary grain farms. They planned to accomplish this transformation by importing peasants from European Russia and settling them in the steppe along with advanced scientific agricultural practices, equipment, and infrastructure. It was a project that linked steppe settlement and the Russian Empire to a global story of settler colonialism, science, and technology in the first decades of the twentieth century. An examination of this project through the lens of the expansion of grain farming reveals that the changes it wrought were not solely due to European science and technology but were contingent, dependent on local knowledge, the vagaries of climate, and adaptation to the realities of the steppe environment.

АЛКАЛОИДТАРДЫ ТАЗАЛАУ ЖӘНЕ БӨЛІП АЛУ

Natural products and their derivatives have been used for medical purposes for many years. Plants are the main source of new medicinal compounds, since herbal medicines are widely used to maintain and improve human health. The main advantages of using herbal medicines are that they are relatively safe compared to synthetic alternatives, providing profound therapeutic benefits and accessibility. Over the past 30 years, the process of finding and developing medicines, especially natural products, has increasingly been carried out in template ways. According to the data, alkaloid plants began to be used since 2000 BC throughout Asia, Europe and Africa. In the nineteenth century, Friedrich Serturner isolated morphine. This led to the successful isolation and discovery of individual compounds by several European scientists, including the secretion of xanthine, strychnine, atropine, quinine and caffeine [1].Alkaloids were initially identified as alkaline substances secreted by a plant with biological activity. This definition has been repeatedly refined to define compounds that do not belong to the plant kingdom, and compounds that have a biosynthetic origin in common with alkaloids, but do not contain basic nitrogen.

Pediatrician Tactics In The Treatment Of Acute Gastroenteritis In Children

The high frequency of acute intestinal infections in children, most of which occur in young patients, determines the need to develop modern recommendations for their diagnosis and treatment. This article provides data on the etiology of intestinal infections, as well as the results of research by domestic and European scientists regarding the effectiveness of treatment of acute gastroenteritis, including information on the use of sorbents, probiotics, antiemetic and antibacterial drugs.

Bringing Europe's early career plant scientists back together: Meeting report on the 12th European Plant Science Retreat, 12-15 September 2023, Wageningen University, Wageningen, the Netherlands.

Bringing Europe's early career plant scientists back together: Meeting report on the 12th European Plant Science Retreat, 12-15 September 2023, Wageningen University, Wageningen, the Netherlands.

Praskovya Nikolayevna Tarnovskaya and her contribution to the Russian, European and global criminology: historical and criminological research

Objective: to describe and evaluate the contribution of Praskovya Nikolayevna Tarnovskaya to the Russian, European and world criminology based on the analysis of her works and expert opinions.Methods: general scientific (analysis, synthesis, comparison, grouping, modeling, interpretation) and special (historical-legal, content analysis of media publications) scientific methods, which are used in modern criminological science.Results: new literary sources were identified and introduced into the scientific turnover, i.e. Praskovya Nikolayevna Tarnovskaya’s works published in the late 19th – early 20th century in Russian and foreign languages and devoted to the issues of combating female criminality. The significant contribution of P. N. Tarnovskaya to the formation and development of the Russian, European and world criminological science was established.Scientific novelty: for the first time in criminological science, the content of a maximum number of literary sources by P. N. Tarnovskaya, one of the founders of the world criminology, published in Russian, French and Italian languages, was assessed. Based on the reviews, commentaries and other information published in scientific periodicals, the author monitored how P. N. Tarnovskaya’s contemporaries assessed her works. A proposal is made to develop a new branch of Russian criminology – historical criminology.Practical significance: the work can be used to prepare textbooks, manuals and other teaching materials on the course “Criminology” and to fill with new content the section “History of the Russian criminology”. It may also be useful for the theoretical development of a new scientific area of the world, European and Russian criminology – historical criminology.

Towards a Terminologia Anatomica Humana.

Unfortunately, the long-awaited revision of the official anatomical nomenclature, the Terminologia Anatomica 2 (TA2), which was issued in 2019 and after a referendum among the Member Societies officially approved by the General Assembly of the International Federation of Associations of Anatomists in 2020, is built on a new version of the Regular Anatomical Terminology (RAT) rules. This breaks with many traditional views of terminology. These changes in the Terminologia Anatomica of 1998 (TA98) met great resistance within many European Anatomical Societies and their members are not willing to use terms following the RAT rules. European anatomy teachers and scientists using traditional Latin in their teaching, textbooks and atlases will keep using the TA98. The German Anatomical Society (Anatomische Gesellschaft) recently announced the usage of the TA2023AG in curricular anatomical media such as textbooks and atlases, based on the TA98 and the Terminologia Neuroanatomica (TNA). We are preparing a more extensive improvement of the TA98, called Terminologia Anatomica Humana (TAH). This project is fully based on the noncontroversial terms of TA98, incorporating the recent digital version (2022) of the TNA from 2017. Further, it is completed with many new terms, including those in TA2, along with their definitions and relevant references, clinical terms, and correcting inconsistencies in the TA98. The TAH is still in process, but many chapters are already freely available at the IFAA Website in Fribourg ( https://ifaa.unifr.ch ) as is the digital version of the TNA.

European genetic resources conservation in a rapidly changing world: three existential challenges for the crop, forest and animal domains in the 21st century

Even though genetic resources represent a fundamental reservoir of options to achieve sustainable development goals in a changing world, they are overlooked in the policy agenda and severely threatened. The conservation of genetic resources relies on complementary in situ and ex situ approaches appropriately designed for each type of organism. Environmental and socioeconomic changes raise new challenges and opportunities for sustainable use and conservation of genetic resources. Aiming at a more integrated and adaptive approach, European scientists and genetic resources managers with long experience in the agricultural crop, animal and forestry domains joined their expertise to address three critical challenges: (1) how to adapt genetic resources conservation strategies to climate change, (2) how to promote in situ conservation strategies and (3) how can genetic resources conservation contribute to and benefit from agroecological systems. We present here 31 evidence-based statements and 88 key recommendations elaborated around these questions for policymakers, conservation actors and the scientific community. We anticipate that stakeholders in other genetic resources domains and biodiversity conservation actors across the globe will have interest in these crosscutting and multi-actor recommendations, which support several biodiversity conservation policies and practices.

The use of injectable orthobiologics for knee osteoarthritis: A European ESSKA-ORBIT consensus. Part 1-Blood-derived products (platelet-rich plasma).

The aim of this European Society of Sports Traumatology, Knee Surgery and Arthroscopy (ESSKA) consensus is to provide recommendations based on evidence and expert opinion to improve indications, decision-makingand administration-related aspects when using blood-derived orthobiologics (for simplicity indicated as PRP-platelet-rich plasma-with PRP being the most common product) for the management of knee osteoarthritis (OA). Leading European expert clinicians and scientists were divided into a steering group, a rating group and a peer review group. The steering group prepared 28 question-statement sets divided into three sections: PRP rationale and indications, PRP preparation and characterisationand PRP protocol. The quality of the statements received grades of recommendation ranging from A (high-level scientific support)to B (scientific presumption), C (low-level scientific support) or D (expert opinion). The question-statement sets were then evaluated by the rating group, and the statements scored from 1 to 9 based on their degree of agreement with the statements produced by the steering group. Once a general consensus was reached between the steering and rating groups, the document was submitted to the peer review group who evaluated the geographic adaptability and approved the document. A final combined meeting of all the members of the consensus was held to produce the official document. The literature review on the use of blood-derived products for knee OA revealed that 9 of 28 questions/statements had the support of high-level scientific literature, while the other 19 were supported by a medium-low scientific quality. Three of the 28 recommendations were grade A recommendations: (1) There is enough preclinical and clinical evidence to support the use of PRP in knee OA. This recommendation was considered appropriate with a strong agreement (mean: 8). (2) Clinical evidence has shown the effectiveness of PRP in patients for mild to moderate degrees of knee OA (KL ≤ 3). This recommendation was considered appropriate with a strong agreement (mean: 8.1). (3) PRP injections have been shown to provide a longer effect in comparison to the short-term effect of CS injections. They also seem to provide a safer use profile with less potential related complications. This recommendation was considered appropriate with a very strong agreement (mean: 8.7). Six statements were grade B recommendations, 7 were grade C and 12 were grade D. The mean rating score was 8.2 ± 0.3. The consensus group reached a high level of agreement on all the questions/statements despite the lack of clear evidence for some questions. According to the results from this consensus group, given the large body of existing literature and expert opinions, PRP was regarded as a valid treatment option for knee OAand as a possible first-line injectable treatment option for nonoperative management of knee OA, mainly for KL grades 1-3. Level II.

Functions of Protecting the Principle of University Autonomy

This paper explores various dimensions of the legal principle of university autonomy as defined within the framework of studies conducted by the EUA. These are organisation, financial, staffing and academic autonomy. Their essential features are questioned from the angle of their formative concretisation in the legal system of the Republic of Croatia. In the context of the foundation of the EHEA, which necessarily includes the need for harmonisation of the autonomy principle as the supreme legal principle in European (national) higher education and science systems, such harmonisation, in addition to the perspective of normativism, is also discussed in the context of social objectives and functions placed before universities as a measure of accomplishment of their autonomy and public responsibility.

Participatory soil citizen science: An unexploited resource for European soil research

AbstractSoils are key components of our ecosystems and provide 95%–99% of our food. This importance is reflected by an increase in participatory citizen science projects on soils. Citizen science is a participatory research method that actively involves and engages the public in scientific enquiry to generate new knowledge or understanding. Here, we review past and current citizen science projects on agricultural soils across Europe. We conducted a web‐based survey and described 24 reviewed European citizen science projects in the light of the 10 principles of citizen science and identified success factors for citizen science. Over 66% of the projects generated soil biodiversity data; 54% and 42% of the projects generated data on vegetation cover and soil organic carbon, respectively. Our findings show that soil citizen science projects aligned with the 10 principles of citizen science offer an unexploited resource for European soil health research. We conclude that promoting co‐creation, fostering knowledge‐sharing networks and enabling long‐term communication and commitment with citizens are success factors for further development of citizen science on soils.

Світоглядно-філософські засади педагогічних поглядів К. Д. Ушинського

The article is dedicated to the memory of Kostiantyn Dmytrovych Ushynskyi (1823-1871), an outstanding Ukrainian teacher-philosopher, founder and developer of the theoretical foundations of education based on the cooperation of pedagogy and psychology (the middle of the 19th century). In general, the purpose of the article is to update the scientific achievements of prominent compatriot. The article’s goal is detailed in such tasks: the assertion of Ukrainianness as the source or origin of K. Ushynskyi’s personality and creativity; the substantiation of the features of his life philosophy, mentality (the priority of the value of the human soul, heartcentred meaning of human being in the comprehension of life; high personal emotionality, but subject to will; love for the native foundations), which total combination nourished the thinker’s ideas about pedagogical anthropology; substantiation of the peculiar intertextuality of the K. Ushynskyi’s book “Man as an object of education. An attempt at pedagogical anthropology” (1868–1869); an attempt to characterize the worldview and philosophical meanings of K. Ushynskyi’s construction of the psychological and pedagogical foundations of the educational process (cultural conformity, nature conformity, activity as the basis of education), which remains not only the historical heritage of Ukrainian humanitarian thought, but also a variant of an anthropologically sharpened worldview landmark for modern educators. It has been established that in the documentary substantiation of K. Ushynskyi’s belonging to Ukrainian culture, the contribution of the modern local historian and teacher V. Terletskyi became the most important. It is shown that the appeals made by K. Ushynskyi to the thoughts, ideas, opinions of numerous European scientists, writers, historical figures, polemics and dialogues with them on the pages of the book ensured the transition to the creation of a text as a stereophonic intersection with other texts. The author of the article tries to substantiate this feature of the book as a kind of intertextuality of the analyzed scientific work.

Action and understanding in the semi-structured research interview: Using CA to analyse European research scientists’ attitudes to linguistic (dis)advantage

The semi-structured research interview is commonly used in EAP research to gain emic or insider perspectives. However, critics suggest that simplistic approaches to interview are pervasive, and that interview data is over-used and under-analysed by qualitative researchers. In this study, I consider the interactional nature of the EAP research interview by using the Conversation Analysis (CA) lens of action and understanding to enhance a more traditional qualitative analysis of interview data from semi-structured interviews with six European research scientists. I examine how the scientists position attitudes to the proposition that non-native English speakers are disadvantaged in writing for publication compared to their native speaker counterparts. The analysis focuses on how the scientists use pronominal subject + cognitive verb discourse markers (e.g., you know, I mean, I guess) to mark stance, shift focus, and renegotiate the linguistic (dis)advantage proposition. In doing so, they move beyond the native/non-native binary and introduce non-discursive factors as barriers to research publication success. The study highlights how an analysis of both the structure and the content of interview talk can enrich understanding of the worldviews of interview participants. It also illustrates how EAP researchers might address existing methodological critiques concerning the simplistic use of interview data.

Husain Faizkhanov (1823–1866) on Modernity: an Analysis of Correspondence Between 1855 and 1866

The article is devoted to the views of Husain Faizkhanov on the realities of Modern times, which were reflected primarily in his correspondence in 1855–1866. We investigate how Husain- Hazrat reflects the geopolitical situation, that is, the Crimean War (1853–1856) and the subsequent expansion of Russian borders in Kazakhstan and Central Asia in the 1850s and the half of the 1860s. In the conditions of competition between Russia and the West, H. Faizkhanov analyzes the system of organization of European science, its connection with reality. We examined his reflection of the Great Reforms of the 1860s and to the opportunities that opened up as it’s result for Muslim Tatars. At the same time, we considered his attitude to similar modernization reforms in the Muslim world, primarily in the Ottoman Empire and Egypt.