Free University Research Articles

Impact of free later life formal university education on longitudinal modifiable risk factors, cognition and plasma phosphorylated tau 181

Impact of free later life formal university education on longitudinal modifiable risk factors, cognition and plasma phosphorylated tau 181

Preface

The International scientific conference “Civil Engineering Design and Construction” (DCB), which began in 2000 as a national conference organized by the Union of Bulgarian Construction Engineers and the Bulgarian Scientific and Technical Union of Civil Engineering, is held biennially. This conference holds significant importance for Bulgaria, providing a platform for scientists, researchers, and experts to showcase their achievements, share their experiences, and present innovative ideas in various fields of design, construction, and architecture. This international scientific forum has been a platform for in-depth discussions and fruitful meetings since 2006. The DCB conference was held at Varna Free University “Chernorizets Hrabar” in Bulgaria on September 12-13, 2024. In its thirteenth iteration, is a premier international event organized by the Scientific and Technical Union of Civil Engineering in Bulgaria (NTSSB), with strong supporting from the Federation of Bulgarian Scientific and Technical Unions, Chamber of Engineers in Investment Design, Bulgarian Construction Chamber, Varna Free University, and the “Evrika” Foundation. A key focus of this year’s conference was the transformative role of digitalization and Building Information Modeling (BIM) in the construction industry. Participants presented their work on-site, and their presentations were screened in the conference halls. The conference program featured five sessions, including two plenary sessions and 58 specialized reports. In addition to the primary Bulgarian scientific organizers and representatives from the University of Architecture, Civil Engineering, and Geodesy, the University of Structural Engineering and Architecture “Lyuben Karavelov”, Varna Free University “Chernorizets Hrabar”, New Bulgarian University, the University of Transport “Todor Kableshkov”, European Polytechnical University, the University of Mining and Geology “St. Ivan Rilski”, and the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS), scientists from Northern Ireland, Lithuania, Turkey, and Syria participated in the scientific forum. In addition to thematic discussions on the main topics, a special session for young scientists was organized, supported by the “Evrika” Foundation. Leading companies working in the building and construction sectors were actively presented. List of Scientific Committees are available in this Pdf.

University students’ strikes and moral decadence in public Universities in mount Kenya region, Kenya

University students’ strikes reduce the number of lecture hours and interrupt learning instructions. Low performing students are significantly less likely to graduate after a strike. Persistent university students’ strikes may lead to low morals in both students and lecturers. Therefore, the study concentrated on relationship between university students’ strikes and moral decadence in public university in Mount Kenya region, Kenya. The study adopted correlational research design. The researcher utilized Krejcie and Morgan table of sample determination to determine a sample size of 379 from 30000 target population. The 312 university students and 67 lecturers were selected using simple random technique and purposive sampling technique respectively. The researcher made questionnaires were used to collect data from the 379 respondents. A reliability coefficient of 0.741 was obtained using person’s product correlation coefficient. The data collected from respondents was quantitatively and qualitatively analysed. Regression statistical technique was used to test null hypothesis at 0.05 significant level. The findings of the study revealed that there was significant relationship between university students’ strikes and moral decadence in public university in Mount Kenya region. Based on the findings, the researcher concluded that students’ lecture disruption has significant relationship with moral decadence in public university in Mount Kenya region. Students’ demonstrations have significant relationship with moral decadence in public university in Mount Kenya region. Therefore university students’ strikes have significant relationship with moral decadence in public university in Mount Kenya region. The researcher recommended that Ministry of education should ensure free strike university atmosphere for quality education and environment conducive for learning in university set up. The researcher further recommended that university managements should be trained to avoid challenges which gradually lead to strikes in universities. Welfare for university students and lecturers should be observed to ensure strike free atmosphere in the university.

Photodocumentary collection from fond No. 381 “Ukrainian Free University in Munich” in Institute of Manuscript of V.I. Vernadskyi National Library of Ukraine: provenance and consist

Photodocumentary collection from fond No. 381 “Ukrainian Free University in Munich” in Institute of Manuscript of V.I. Vernadskyi National Library of Ukraine: provenance and consist

Sound insulation of access floors on CLT

The acoustic performance of access floors resting on concrete slabs has been long investigated. When such flooring solutions are used on lightweight construction systems, estimates of impact sound insulation improvements cannot be transferred without relevant loss of accuracy. To gain understanding on such behaviour, an experimental campaign has been carried out at the Building Envelope Lab of the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano on 16 access floors mounted on a 200 mm CLT slab. Three different panels (calcium silicate, encapsulated calcium silicate and encapsulated chipboard panels), two different pedestals (standard and resilient), and three flooring solutions (bare, carpet tiles, acoustic carpet tiles) were studied. Impact sound insulation measurements were carried out using both the tapping machine and the rubber ball as source. The results discuss in detail the outcomes of the measurement campaign as well as the relation between the two impact sources chosen.

The Legal Education in Bulgaria and the Possible Forms of Practical Teaching

After a short introduction about the legal education in Bulgaria the author presents and analyses through her personal experience two forms of practical legal education applied for more than a decade in the Legal Faculty of Burgas Free University: the circle on civil and trade law and the Annual National Students’ Competition for solving of civil law cases.

Multilingualism and English: how does L1 affect language attitudes at a trilingual university?

ABSTRACT This study investigates attitudes towards multilingualism and the role of English at the trilingual Free University of Bozen-Bolzano in South Tyrol, Italy. South Tyrol is unusual in that the local minority language, German, holds significant international prestige. This study thus contributes to the literature by filling a gap in studies examining multilingual contexts where the minority language is an important international language beyond the local setting. The research investigates results of a questionnaire yielding 1538 responses administered to students, academic staff and administrative staff, considering in particular how respondents’ L1 influences their responses. The analysis reveals widespread support for English and multilingualism at unibz, consistent with the institution’s longstanding multilingual policy. However, significant differences in support for English are observed across language groups, particularly among speakers of local minority languages, who exhibit comparatively lower levels of support, highlighting a nuanced relationship between language identity and perceptions of language policy. The exception was for responses to questionnaire items addressing multilingualism holistically, which did not vary in a statistically significant way according to the first language. This study contributes to the understanding of language attitudes in multilingual contexts, considering both attitudes to an individual language and to multilingual policies as a whole.

Citizen science initiatives for soil literacy

Citizen science initiatives for soil literacy Alba Peiro and Francisco Sanz from the Ibercivis Foundation, Claudia Cappello and Tanja Mimmo from the Free University of Bolzano, guide us through citizen science initiatives for soil literacy that are integral to the ECHO project, Citizen science projects offer an effective framework for increasing participants’ knowledge in specific scientific fields. They also play a crucial role in reshaping participants’ perspectives on the scientific process and attitudes towards science and environmental issues. To ensure a significant increase in literacy, citizen science initiatives require meticulous design that extends beyond merely involving participants in scientific studies. This involves facilitating interactions with scientists and providing high-quality educational materials (Bonney et al., 2009).

Archive of the Ukrainian Free University as a source for studying Ukrainian scientific life in displaced persons camps (1945-1952)

Archive of the Ukrainian Free University as a source for studying Ukrainian scientific life in displaced persons camps (1945-1952)

Creating a Self-Access Academic Writing Centre at a Trilingual University: What Have We Learned in the First Three Years?

The Centre for Academic Writing at the trilingual (German–Italian–English) Free University of Bozen-Bolzano was created in 2021 as a means of supporting student writing at the institution and for carrying out research in academic writing and communication in plurilingual contexts. It offers a number of self-access services, specifically credit-bearing courses, writing groups, and a Helpdesk service. This paper provides an outline of these services, discussing challenges encountered, how they have been addressed and how the services have evolved as a result. It offers a particular focus on the Helpdesk service, with an analysis of the kinds of queries most commonly received from the students. The data suggests that students most frequently access the helpdesks having received negative feedback from a supervisor on their writing, and most generally have queries relating to structure and citations, with linguistic issues rarely addressed.

Віктор Даниленко, Олександр Даниленко, Олександр Добржанський.Степан Смаль-Стоцький. «Заслужений перед усієї Україною». – Київ:Парламентське видавництво, 2023, 336 с.

The purpose of the article is to analyze the monograph of the famous modern Ukrainian historians V. Danylenka, O. Dobrzhansky and O. Danylenka, which highlights the life and activities of academician Stepan Yosypovych Smal-Stotsky, a well-known Ukrainian cultural and socio-political figure, teacher, Slavic scholar, who made a significant contribution to the development of Ukrainian history, literary studies, and journalism. Professor of Chernivtsi and Ukrainian Free University in Prague. Honorary member of the Shevchenko Scientific Society in Lviv. Member of the Bukovyna Diet and the Austrian Parliament. In 1918, he became one of the first academicians of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. Ambassador of the West Ukrainian People's Republic in Czechoslovakia. Founder and first president of the Ukrainian Mohyla-Mazepin Academy of Sciences. The author of school textbooks on his native language, as well as scientific research on I. Franko, Yu. Fedkovich, I. Kotlyarevskyi, T. Shevchenko, and others. He left extensive correspondence and memories rich in information for scientists.

Dutch inspiration for an engaged pluralist historiography of geography

This paper introduces to an international audience the ‘encyclopaedic approach’ to geographical historiography. This approach was developed at the Free University of Amsterdam between 1961 and 1987 by Marcus Heslinga and Andries Kouwenhoven. Signalling how contemporary geography is hampered by the silofication of different subdisciplines and how a better understanding of our shared and pluriform histories can help overcome these silos, the encyclopaedic approach demonstrates how an ‘engaged pluralist’ historiography of geography could take shape. Testifying to its bridge-building character, the approach was developed in response to decades of acerbic conflict between rivalling schools of human geography in the Netherlands. Its central premises involve an acknowledgement that geography is a dynamic discipline with shifting formal and material objects and an empirical strategy to map and relate these different conceptual fields.

The Cold War in pharmacology: a bibliometric analysis of Berlin’s contributions to Naunyn‑Schmiedeberg’s Archives of Pharmacology (1947–1974)

After World War II, Berlin was divided into the West, controlled by The United States, the UK, and France, and the East, controlled by the Soviet Union, resulting in a Cold War for decades. This bibliometric study analyzes the influence of the Cold War on pharmacological research in Berlin by evaluating publication patterns in Naunyn-Schmiedeberg’s Archives of Pharmacology from 1947 to 1974 (n = 383). The publications highlight the political disparities in scientific output, exacerbated by the founding of the Free University of Berlin (FUB) as a countermeasure to Soviet repression, promoting academic freedom in West-Berlin. Researchers in West-Berlin published many more papers in Naunyn-Schmiedeberg’s Archives of Pharmacology than researchers in East-Berlin and received much more citations. West-Berlin adopted English as a scientific language much more rapidly than East-Berlin. West-Berlin and East-Berlin focused on totally different research topics. This paper demonstrates how political freedom, financial support, and internationalization boosted research productivity in West-Berlin. In contrast, political suppression, financial scarcity, and restricted international ties hindered scientific development in East-Berlin.

Unknown Manuscript of “Bandura Playing Handbook” From DP Period

The purpose of the research is to introduce the manuscript of the “Bandura Playing Handbook” by an unknown author (Augsburg, Germany, 1951) into scientific circulation in the context of providing educational and methodological publications on the Ukrainian art of bandura playing abroad. The research methodology is based on the principles of historical, cultural, textual, and axiological approaches. Methods such as historical and typological, analysis and synthesis, music textual method, and musicological analysis were used, which made it possible to identify not only trends in the evolution of teaching and methodological approaches to teaching bandura playing but also the personological aspects of their formation. Particular attention is paid to the need to systematise not only the methods in printed editions of handbooks and self-tutorials on bandura but also manuscript rarities that remain in public and private archives and require proper scientific and methodological understanding. The scientific novelty of the study is determined by the introduction of the analysis of the manuscript “Bandura Playing Handbook” by an unknown author (Augsburg, Germany, 1951), created during the so-called camp period in Germany, where displaced persons (DP – Displaced Persons) were kept. The music manuscript is part of the documentary materials of the Archives of the Ukrainian Free University (Munich, Germany). Conclusions. The study analyses the handbook materials from the methodological and fingering points of view, the sequence of mastering the instrument, the formation of the bandura repertoire, and its comparison with similar examples in Ukrainian musical art. It determines the value of the handbook from the point of view of popularising the Ukrainian national musical instrument in the conditions of emigration and spreading the performing traditions of bandura art.

Health, home and hearth: how war nurses negotiated their place at the table during the dawn of Francoist Spain

ABSTRACT During the Spanish Civil War, around 15,000 women were deployed as nurses or auxiliaries in the military health service of the Francoist army. Many of them worked behind the firing lines and came close to the combat and destruction. When the war drew to an end, these frontline nurses were demobilized and sent home to hearth and family. For some of them, returning home was a relief; for others, it meant the end to a professional career and meaningful vocation outside family control. Some of them used the tumultuous ‘post-war’ months to raise their voices, demanding the same treatment as male veterans. They wanted the same privileges these men enjoyed, such as free university access or ex-combatant status. Rallying together in support of such interests, they transcended several social borders, like Francoist ideas of complementary gender roles, concepts of nurses being acquiescent angels at sickbeds, and values of unconditional subordination and obedience. By pushing marriage into the future, they further violated Francoist expectations of a woman’s ‘proper’ biographical trajectory. In all these endeavours to gain a place at the table of Francoist Spain, they found support from their male colleagues and superiors. Drawing from sources of the Francoist military health service, this paper argues that their petitions echoed the elitist and gendered views concerning the making of the victor’s society. These perspectives reflected the intricate integration processes within the heterogeneous support base from which the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco drew his legitimacy and backing both during and after the war.

First Fit Algorithm: A Graph Coloring Approach to Conflict-Free University Course Timetabling

Aims: Tackling scheduling issues with the most optimal graph coloring algorithm has consistently posed significant difficulties. The university scheduling problem can be expressed as a graph coloring problem, where courses are depicted as vertices and the connections between courses that have common students or teachers are represented as edges. Subsequently, the task at hand is to assign the vertices with the minimum number of colors. In order to accomplish this task, this paper present a graph coloring technique to conflict free university course timetabling using first fit algorithms.
 Methodology: The conflict graph is partitioned into a set of independent color classes to be assigned time slots and transformed into a conflict-free timetable. The Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) University Course Timetabling Data was adopted. The allocation of venue based on the allotted time slots is done using first fit packing algorithm. The proposed model is implemented using Python programming language. The developed model had courses being represented as vertices and edges. The course conflict graph was created based on the acquired dataset using vertices-edges relationship diagram. The implemented model is evaluated in terms of Halstead complexity metrics: Program Volume (PV), Program Length (PL), Program Effort (PE), Program Difficulty (PD) and Execution Time (ET). The PV, PL, PE, PD and ET values obtained for the implemented model are 18.45kbits, 0.51, 1037684, 1.97 and 20.45 secs, respectively.
 Conclusion: The proposed model shows a significant improvement over the existing models by producing conflict-free course timetabling problem with better evaluation results. This work will be highly useful in solving various scheduling, optimization and NP-hard related computational problems.

The history of the Vienna Protocol on dealing with Holocaust era human remains and its resonance with ethical considerations in African American bioarcheology.

The Vienna Protocol on How to Deal with Holocaust Era Human Remains describes what to do when possibly Jewish human remains are found. Based on Jewish medical ethics, it responds to the 2014-2017 discoveries of human remains stemming from biomedical contexts of the Nazi period. Among the finding sites were the Dahlem campus of the Free University of Berlin, the Medical University of Strasbourg, and Max Planck Institute archives. The Vienna Protocol is unique among similar recommendations on Nazi era human remains in its representation of the voices of those who suffered violence and were targeted as victims by Nazi persecution. In addition to discussing the ethics of dealing with physical human remains, these recommendations address the use of images (i.e., visual data) from the bodies of victims of Nazi violence. This paper presents the historical background of the Vienna Protocol and its impact. It also offers a first analysis as to why, at the time of the protocol's formulation, its authors were unaware of its resonance with ethical considerations from African American bioarcheology and a new ethical culture in bioanthropology. Potential reasons for this disconnect may include the historic marginalization of the voices of black scholars in anthropology within the wider scientific community. However, more detailed studies are needed to analyze similarities and differences between the histories and continuities of antisemitism and racism in Europe and the U.S.A., and their ties with scientific theories and practices of disciplines that gain knowledge from human remains.

Digital competences in terms of socio-cultural education

The purpose of this paper is to present a model for the digital culture development of the students from the International Free University, the Computer Graphics Programming specialty, second year, first cycle, bachelor's degree. The results of the study carried out during the classes using programs and information technologies according to the digital skills training program are analyzed. The study focused on the development of sociocultural values, essential for the growth and training of young people as qualified personalities and specialists. Digital skills are not only the core of students' digital culture, but a complex, interdisciplinary phenomenon, therefore requiring a comprehensive analysis through the prism of different fields of science (philosophy, sociology, psychology, pedagogy, study of arts). Values of digital culture are indispensable for organizing social and cultural activities within society, promoting the products of non-commercial organizations, etc. The work capitalizes on the idea of students` collaboration and motivation in the development of fundamental products through digital tools in the teaching-learning-evaluation process.

In Case You Haven't Heard…

A new study suggests that eating pasta makes you happier. The Behavior & Brain Lab at the Free University of Languages and Communication (IULM) in Milan conducted a study to determine whether eating pasta could improve one's mood, New Jersey Digest reported on Jan. 26. Not only were their results positive, but researchers even concluded that eating a bowl of your favorite pasta produces similarly positive emotions to hearing your favorite song. According to Food & Wine, IULM recruited 40 participants ages 25 to 55. Researchers then measured their physical and neurological changes as they ate bowls of pasta — specifically, their favorite types. Comparatively, IULM also measured the neurological and physical changes that occurred while listening to their favorite music or watching their favorite sports teams. The researchers found that eating pasta causes a positive emotional‐cognitive state with the same results (if not higher) than those recorded while listening to music and watching sports. Similarly, pasta outperformed on the positive emotions front. Studying each participant's facial expressions, pasta produced the best results.

Preface

Preface The present volume constitutes the proceedings of the First workshop on Soliton Theory, Nonlinear Dynamics and Machine Learning held in Varna (Bulgaria) from 12 to 17 August 2023 which is organized by the Institute for Advanced Physical Studies (Bulgaria) and the Institute for Physical and Mathematical Studies of the Varna Free University (VFU).The purpose of the workshop was to bring together qualified scientists, young researchers and students with expertise and interests in mathematics and physics. In this way the workshop was intended to offer an opportunity to discuss recent developments and achievements, as well as future perspectives in these modern and fast developing areas and their interface.Contemporary science, mainly due to its complexity, uses more and more elaborate techniques and methods, thus achieving sometimes amazing results. The numerous conferences often involve large number of scientists which should be able to explain their results in rather short time. Hence, only a limited number of participants, who already have mastered the relevant field, are able to understand these results. A beginner in the field has practically no chances to understand which are the main ideas and techniques in it. Our aim with this workshop was to avoid these difficulties and to help a group of beginners do their start in science. In order to achieve practical results with our Workshop to have more young people as participants. Every speaker had 45 minutes for presentation and 15 minutes for questions and discussions. This is an ample time to explain in detail the main ideas in the talk so that even a beginner could understand it. In addition there was extra time during the coffee and lunch breaks for contacts among the people on site. Of course for the online participants this was more difficult, though they were given optimal chances to ask questions during and after the reports.It is our belief that in such atmosphere the beginners will have the best chance to understand a certain subject and get introduced to a given scientific field. During the Workshop we had 28 reports (see the list of reports and the list of participants). Some of the younger participants were also given the chance to report on their results and to gain experience for their future participation in conferences.The workshop greatly benefited from the dedicated involvement of the renowned experts in their fields of science Vladimir Gerdjikov (Institute of Mathematics and Informatics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences), Peter Hristov (CERN), Radu Constantinescu (University of Craiova, Romania), Rossen Ivanov (Technological University Dublin, Ireland), Stoytcho Yazadjiev (St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia, Bulgaria) who were the scientific committee members.We would like to thank the President of VFU Dr. Krasimir Nedyalkov and the Rector of VFU Prof. Dr. Peter Hristov for the collaboration and continuous attention.The success of every conference is based on the activity and the competence of its participants. We are grateful to all participants for their efforts to produce high quality reports and for their activity in the discussions after every talk.The Workshop was held at the VFU campus, close to the Black Sea with the financial support of the Bulgarian National Science Fund contract BG-175467353-2023-02-0006 and Varna Free University.The Editors:R. Constantinescu, V. Gerdjikov, S. Mishev, S. YazadjievList of Scientific Committee, Local Organizing Committee are available in this pdf.