Special Sciences Research Articles

Hacking on Unity, or How to Pluralize the History and Philosophy of the Sciences

In this paper, we analyze Ian Hacking’s conception of unity regarding the sciences and try to use his categorization to reinterpret some of the major unitarian philosophies of science of the twentieth century. In two of his papers, Hacking (1992a, 1996) proposed a dual notion of unity – “singleness” and “harmonious integration” –, which, although apparently simple, help us complexify the very notion of unity and its counterpart, plurality. To do so, and after a short review of unity qua ideology (section 2), we shall look into Hacking’s classification of unities and its relation to plurality in the sciences (section 3); then, we shall describe and qualify the notions of scientific unity in some of the most relevant philosophies of science (section 4); finally (section 5), we shall use this analysis to engage with and criticize the notion of “special sciences” and its relationship to the notion of “general science”. One of the main conclusions will be that a pluralist conception of unity is possible through the notion of integration.

Improving the Professional Competencies of Students of the Specialty 029 IBAS (ILAS) in the Process of Practice Performing

The aim of the article is to determine step-by-step improving the professional competences of the first education level students in specialty 029 “Information, Library and Archival Studies” in conditions of the practice process, and in accordance with the standard, educational and professional programs elaborated by the Department of Information Technologies at Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts (KNUKiM/KNUCA).
 Research methods are based on both general scientific methods and special ones. The use of analysis and synthesis makes it possible to analyze the theoretical research foundation. Systemic and structural-functional methods make it possible to comprehensively study the peculiarities of the practice organization at different educational levels. Argumentation of conclusions and scientific ideas is carried out using the method of generalization and content analysis.
 The scientific novelty consists in substantiating the step-by-step competences formation in practice conditions by students of the first education level, in accordance with the Standard of Higher Education of Ukraine: the first level (a Bachelor’s degree), a field of study 02 Culture and Art, specialty 029 “Information, Library and Archival Studies”, as well as educational and professional programs developed at the Department of Information Technologies, namely, “Manager of Library and Information Systems and Technologies”, “Documentation Science Specialist, Manager of State and Local Authorities”.
 Main conclusions. The first Bachelor’s degree of higher education requires students to master an educational and professional program. A mandatory component of this program is introductory, educational, productional and pre-diploma practice. The process of practice performing is aimed at improving, deepening and developing professional competencies that are formed during the assimilation of theoretical material and practical classes.
 The organization of practice in appropriate bases, particularly, in libraries, archives, information and analytical institutions, and other documentary and communication establishments has a number of advantages, contributes to the development of integral, general and professional competences.
 The effectiveness of the students’ acquisition of professional competencies depends on a variety of factors, which include these ones: the quality of practice, the training program and the tutors’ support, the students’ activity, the relevance of practice to educational goals, feedback and self-evaluation, which, in turn, help future specialists to prepare for a successful career, expand their opportunities, and increase confidence in their own abilities.

ФОРМУВАННЯ КОМПЕТЕНТНОСТЕЙ ЗДОБУВАЧІВ ОСВІТИ ЗАСОБАМИ ІННОВАЦІЙНИХ ПРИРОДНИЧО-НАУКОВИХ ТЕХНОЛОГІЙ

The article substantiates the effectiveness of the use of innovative technologies for the formation of competences among students of natural and scientific specialties. The main types of innovative technologies used for the formation of competencies among students of education considered, in particular, interactive technologies, remote technologies, virtual and augmented reality technologies, artificial intelligence technologies, big data technologies and media technologies. The following research methods used in the article as for as theoretical – analysis of scientific literature; comparative analysis; generalization; empirical – pedagogical experiment (approbation). Based on the conducted research, the following conceptual propositions formulated as innovative technologies are an effective and efficient means of forming competences among students of education. The author of the article describes the methodology of formation of competencies of education seekers in the natural and scientific field of knowledge and presents it in the form of a table for easy of understanding. The conclusions of the study indicate that innovative technologies have a significant potential for increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the formation of competences among students of education in natural and scientific specialties.

Neural Network Estimators for Optimal Tour Lengths of Traveling Salesperson Problem Instances with Arbitrary Node Distributions

It is essential to solve complex routing problems to achieve operational efficiency in logistics. However, because of their complexity, these problems are often tackled sequentially using cluster-first, route-second frameworks. Unfortunately, such two-phase frameworks can suffer from suboptimality due to the initial phase. To address this issue, we propose leveraging information about the optimal tour lengths of potential clusters as a preliminary step, transforming the two-phase approach into a less myopic solution framework. We introduce quick and highly accurate Traveling Salesperson Problem (TSP) tour length estimators based on neural networks (NNs) to facilitate this. Our approach combines the power of NNs and theoretical knowledge in the routing domain, utilizing a novel feature set that includes node-level, instance-level, and solution-level features. This hybridization of data and domain knowledge allows us to achieve predictions with an average deviation of less than 0.7% from optimality. Unlike previous studies, we design and employ new instances replicating real-life logistics networks and morphologies. These instances possess characteristics that introduce significant computational costs, making them more challenging. To address these challenges, we develop a novel and efficient method for obtaining lower bounds and partial solutions to the TSP, which are subsequently utilized as solution-level predictors. Our computational study demonstrates a prediction error up to six times lower than the best machine learning (ML) methods on their training instances and up to 100 times lower prediction error on out-of-distribution test instances. Furthermore, we integrate our proposed ML models with metaheuristics to create an enumeration-like solution framework, enabling the improved solution of massive-scale routing problems. In terms of solution time and quality, our approach significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art solver, demonstrating the potential of our features, models, and the proposed method. History: This paper has been accepted for the Transportation Science Special Issue on Machine Learning Methods and Applications in Large-Scale Route Planning Problems. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/trsc.2022.0015 .

QUALITY OF TRAINING OF SPECIALISTS OF THE "SECONDARY EDUCATION (NATURAL SCIENCES)" EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM AT THE POLTAVA NATIONAL PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY NAMED BY V. G. KOROLENK: PROBLEMS AND PERSPECTIVES

The article examines the state of higher science education at V.G. Korolenko National Pedagogical University. Scientific developments within the scope of the investigated problem are analyzed. The peculiarities of the formation of bachelor's and master's levels of higher education in the specialty 015.15 "Secondary education (Natural sciences)" are highlighted. The key aspects of ensuring the process of quality training of specialists in natural sciences are analyzed. It was found that natural sciences are the leading specialty for entrants, and V.G. Korolenko National Pedagogical University is the only educational institution in the Poltava region that implements training under the OP "Secondary Education (Natural Sciences)". During teaching at this OP, modern didactic tools and various forms of pedagogical interaction are used, which are necessary for solving complex problems in professional activity. Auditory classes of students are held in specialized offices in compliance with safety rules. Students combine studies with research, participate in scientific and scientific-practical conferences, have the right to academic mobility, and are regular participants in excursions. The training of education seekers is provided by financial, material and technical resources and educational and methodological support. The main source of information support for the educational process and scientific activity of the applicants is the library named after M. A. Zhovtobryukha of V.G. Korolenko National Pedagogical University. Participants of the educational process have free access to international scientometric databases. The safety of the educational environment of V.G. Korolenko National Pedagogical University is ensured by the activities of the University's divisions: the labor protection service, the civil protection headquarters, the economic department, psychological and legal services, and an interesting student life is ensured by student self-government - the "Student Council of V.G. Korolenko National Pedagogical University" .About 20 amateur art groups and sports sections function for students to realize their creative potential in extracurricular time. Continuous professional development of scientific and pedagogical workers takes place, and priority tasks are self-education and self-improvement. In addition, the article provides prospects for improving the educational process at V.G. Korolenko National Pedagogical University.

The Tractors and Agricultural Machinery journal increases the level of publications

Based on the results of re-registration and based on the results of 2022, the Higher Attestation Commission of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia included the journal Tractors and Agricultural Machinery in the list of peer-reviewed scientific publications in which the main scientific results of dissertations for the scientific degree of Candidate of Sciences, for the scientific degree of Doctor of Science should be published (information message ref. No. 02-1198 dated 12/06/2022).
 And according to the coefficient of scientific significance, our journal is classified in category K1 (that is, in the top 25% of the total list of 2587 peer-reviewed scientific publications).
 Tractors and Agricultural Machinery simultaneously expanded the list of scientific specialties in the branches of science in which academic degrees are awarded: six new specialties were added to the previous four.

The open science culture: World programs and learning platforms

The dynamic academic and educational environment needs the specialists capable to work in the intensively developing open science information infrastructure, to retrieve, analyze and synthesize heterogeneous information, to process structured and unstructured research data; to document research findings, to represent them in the open access; to be engaged in social media, and to be aware of many aspects of the open science concept. The programs, forms, approaches and practice of training specialists in open science within the global initiative projects and organizations (FOSTER, Creative Commons, Digital Curation Center, COS, etc.), and individual organizations/universities (Humboldt university, Delft University of Technology) are explored. The best experience of educating open science culture online is discussed. The author also suggests the program of advanced training course “The open science culture” for scientists, post-graduatestudents, lecturers, and librarians. The program may be used in professional training and practice-oriented extended professional programs and specialized professional retraining. The study makes the background for building the system for teaching the principles and procedures of open science. The system may be implemented in academic and educational institutions.

Dynamic Courier Capacity Acquisition in Rapid Delivery Systems: A Deep Q-Learning Approach

With the recent boom of the gig economy, urban delivery systems have experienced substantial demand growth. In such systems, orders are delivered to customers from local distribution points respecting a delivery time promise. An important example is a restaurant meal delivery system, where delivery times are expected to be minutes after an order is placed. The system serves orders by making use of couriers that continuously perform pickups and deliveries. Operating such a rapid delivery system is very challenging, primarily because of the high service expectations and the considerable uncertainty in both demand and delivery capacity. Delivery providers typically plan courier shifts for an operating period based on a demand forecast. However, because of the high demand volatility, it may at times during the operating period be necessary to adjust and dynamically add couriers. We study the problem of dynamically adding courier capacity in a rapid delivery system and propose a deep reinforcement-learning approach to obtain a policy that balances the cost of adding couriers and the cost-of-service quality degradation because of insufficient delivery capacity. Specifically, we seek to ensure that a high fraction of orders is delivered on time with a small number of courier hours. A computational study in the meal delivery space shows that a learned policy outperforms policies representing current practice and demonstrates the potential of deep learning for solving operational problems in highly stochastic logistic settings. History: This paper has been accepted for the Transportation Science Special Issue on Machine-Learning Methods and Applications in Large-Scale Route Planning Problems. Funding: This work was supported by Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo [72180404]. Supplemental Material: The e-companion is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/trsc.2022.0042 .

Trends in the Development of Scientific Directions in the Field of Road Construction Materials in Russia (Review)

The presented article analyzes the research topics for the period from 2000 to 2023, the result of which was the defense of dissertations for the degree of Candidate and Doctor of Sciences in order to identify trends in the development of scientific directions in the field of road construction materials. Open sources, including electronic ones, were used as the research base, from which articles with the results published in the preparation of at least 100 dissertations defended in the scientific specialty “Building Materials and Products” were analyzed. For the convenience of the analysis, the works are summarized in tables: by the object of research; by the type of technical solution. It is concluded that during the period under review, there was a transformation of research directions from traditional types of materials to multicomponent composites with a complex improved structure. It is shown that in order to test the results of research in the preparation of dissertations in the period under review, the average number of publications increased from 5-6 to 13-23. The generalized tasks of further development of scientific directions in the field of road construction materials are formulated. A list of topical issues of modern science in the field of road construction materials has been identified.

Рассуждение о понятии «художественный замысел»

The subject of the article is the content of the concept, answering the question of what an artistic intention is and clarifying its nature. Coupled with a number of concepts in textual criticism, art criticism, aesthetics (author’s intention, plan, idea, teleology, purpose, completeness, integrity), the concept of “artistic intent” does not duplicate any of them. To this day, Dmitry S. Likhachev’s judgment has not lost its relevance, according to which “The will of the author and his plan are extremely complex phenomena and, in their very essence, still little studied. Representatives of different scientific specialties should take part in studying them in the future.” The article makes an attempt to cover the morphological and etymological aspects of the concept; its definitions and approaches to understanding available in the research of domestic humanities are compared.

Feminism against Progress

Feminism against Progress

Technology of improving foreign language communication skills of master’s students majoring natural and technical sciences

The rapid development of the Internet, as well as the digitalization of almost all spheres of human life, marked the transition from an industrial to an information-technogenic society, as predicted by futurologists in the middle of the last century. The growth of the information and technological space and the intensification of production electronization put forward increased requirements for the training of specialists in the natural sciences and technical profiles, primarily engineers. The given study is focused on the actual problem of improving foreign language skills of Master’s students at Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology that participates in the federal project «Advanced Engineering Schools». Despite the fact that this project is aimed at training highly qualified personnel for the exclusively Russian economy, it seems that it could be further developed within the scientific and professional cooperation between Russia and the BRICS and SCO states, which is impossible without a sufficiently high level of foreign language. As a result, we have identified the advantages of a communicative approach in linguodidactics (orientation to the practical component of the educational content, motivation for communication, maximum development of thinking skills, etc.). Besides, we have established the requirements for exercises aimed at developing students' communication skills, intellectual and cognitive abilities, and forming stable positive motivation to master a foreign language for professional, research, and teaching activities.

Pierre Gassendi: Humanism, Science, and the Birth of Modern Philosophy

Pierre Gassendi: Humanism, Science, and the Birth of Modern Philosophy

A Nurse-Led Implementation Science Specialist Program.

A well-known challenge in health care is integrating evidence into practice. Implementation science (IS) is a growing field that promotes the sustainable application of evidence-based practice (EBP) to clinical care. Health care organizations have an opportunity to support sustainable change by creating robust IS infrastructures that engage nurses in the clinical environment. Integrating IS into a nursing shared governance model is an ideal vehicle to empower direct care nurses to sustain EBP. Importantly, an IS infrastructure may also promote nurse retention and increase interdisciplinary collaboration. This article, the first in a series on applying IS, describes how a multisite health care organization developed a systemwide nurse-led IS Specialist program within a shared governance model.

Guest Editor’s Note

The process of writing review articles originally materialized as a component of the student evaluation process during the final year of their research projects, coinciding with the closure of universities due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In these challenging times, final-year honors degree students dedicated themselves to extensive literature research from their homes. As the evaluation phase concluded, it became evident to the Chemistry department that several of the review articles had reached a remarkable level of quality, making them suitable for publication in a reputable scientific journal.
 Thus, the idea emerged to compile and publish these outstanding articles in a special edition of our esteemed journal, Current Scientia, formerly known as the Vidyodaya Journal of Science. This endeavor involved meticulous scrutiny and enhancement of both the content and coverage of the articles, a collaborative effort between the students and their dedicated supervisors. The contributions of the supervisors were invaluable in this process.
 Reflecting upon the circumstances, one might consider the period of house arrest during the pandemic as a blessing in disguise. It provided an opportunity for students and supervisors to invest more time and effort into refining their work. The synergy that emerged between them during this challenging time is truly commendable.
 With the publication of this special issue, we hope that it will set a new precedent and ignite the academic curiosity of scholars from various departments within the faculty. We aspire to encourage academics to craft their own high-quality review articles in their respective fields for potential publication in this journal in the future, fostering a culture of scholarly contribution and collaboration.
 Dr. Mahesh KarunarathneGuest EditorSpecial Issue Current Scientia (formerly Vidyodaya Journal of Science Special Issue)

Analysis of the correlation between critical thinking and metacognitive skills of senior high school students in biology Jeneponto Regency, South Sulawesi, Indonesia

There is a need to map the connection between critical thinking and metacognitive skills of high school students so that educators can determine learning steps to help students obtain optimal learning outcomes and 21st-century skills. The research objective is to Examine the relationship between high school biology students' metacognitive abilities and critical thinking education. It is a quantitative-correlational study. The research sample was 230 grade XI students pursuing science specialization obtained by purposive random sampling from Jeneponto Regency, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. The research instrument used is an examination formatted as an essay that has been confirmed by professionals. The research data is the value of critical thinking and metacognitive skills from the results of taking tests in the form of essays. The method of data analysis was used through linear regression analysis using SPSS 23 for Windows. The study's findings indicate a strong correlation between critical thinking and metacognitive abilities of high school students in biology education with a significance value of 0.000 (p ˂ 0.05). It can be seen that critical thinking skills contribute 68.6% to students' metacognitive skills. Therefore, this research finds that there is a substantial correlation between high school biology students' metacognitive abilities and critical thinking. Teachers can use the research findings to identify instructional strategies that foster critical thinking in order to help students become more independent and metacognitive.

The “Soil Skills” Pedagogical Approach Conjugated With Soil Judging Contests

The inherent complexity of soil and its interactions with Earth’s diverse spheres, including the atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere within the ecosphere, and anthroposphere, requires that soil science specialists and students develop not only a profound understanding of soil science, but also the ability to collaborate across various disciplines to address these complex challenges. Equipping students with the necessary knowledge, skills, and attitudes to tackle the intricate and dynamic issues of the 21st century, spanning soil science, water sciences, hydropedology, geology, agronomy, geotechnical engineering, sedimentation, waste management, recycling, and environmental management, is of paramount importance. In response, innovative pedagogical approaches that integrate classroom learning from diverse soil science courses with practical skills and field-based competencies are needed. This paper suggests merging our own “Soil Skills” (SSK) pedagogical method with the “Soil Judging Contest” (SJC), a teaching approach supported by the American Society of Agronomy and the Soil Science Society of America since 1961. This integration aims to enhance the holistic, harmonized, interdisciplinary, and enthusiastic nature of soil science education. Both the SSK and SJC approaches received positive feedback from students and demonstrated significant improvements in academic performance. Our study begins with an in-depth exploration of the SSK contest, followed by an overview of the pertinent aspects of the SJC. Subsequently, we offer a comparative analysis of the complementarity of these two approaches. Finally, in the concluding remarks, we summarize the strengths of the implemented SSK and outline prospective applications. Our findings underscore the unique advantages of combining SSK and SJC approaches in delivering comprehensive, problem-based, and practical field-learning experiences. This combination approach closely aligns with applied scenarios that demand multidisciplinarity and interdisciplinarity perspectives, preparing students for their future professional careers, and enabling the practical application of their soil science knowledge in real-world contexts.

Стратегическое планирование в государственном управлении как система институциональных инструментов и механизмов целеполагания

The article is devoted to the subject field of political science research within the scientific specialty “Public Administration and sectoral policies” and the analysis of the practice of state strategic planning as a political system of institutional instruments and goal-setting mechanisms in the Russian Federation. The article discusses public political and legal mechanisms for combining values and goals with the choice of ways and methods to achieve them. The constitutional exclusivity and independence of each branch of government as the basis of its strategic resource and strategic planning potential is highlighted as the fundamental public political and legal mechanism for combining values and goals with the choice of ways and methods to achieve them. A general description of the architecture of the unified system of public power in accordance with the amendments to the Constitution of Russia and the current configuration of the public administration system is given. The importance of political factor of the effectiveness of the administration of strategic management system and the implementation of sectoral policies in modern Russia on the basis of the mechanisms of coordinated functioning and interaction of public authorities and local self-government in a single system of public authority is shown. Fundamental changes are highlighted that make it possible to significantly increase the efficiency of the federal government in a unified system of public authority with an emphasis on the implementation of national development goals of both the Russian Federation as a whole and the regions based on the sectoral structure of the economy. Attention is focused on the political goals of the regional factor of socio-economic development of territories on the basis of mechanisms and tools of strategic planning, the directions of fundamental political, legal, administrative and managerial decisions on the implementation of the regional investment standard are determined. The role of federal institutions of innovative development and provision of infrastructure projects and programs for solving the tasks of ensuring sustainable economic growth and diversification of the modern Russian economy, which cannot be optimally implemented by market mechanisms, was demonstrated. Conclusions are drawn about the importance of the interpretative understanding of politics as a system of institutional tools and goal-setting mechanisms in the political and legal practice of state strategic planning for determining promising directions in the subject field of scientific research within the specialty “Public Administration and sectoral policies”, for solving problems of improving the quality of public administration through the introduction of a management model based on big data and artificial intelligence, the transition of the public authority system to a data-based management model using a platform approach.

PredictONCO: a web tool supporting decision-making in precision oncology by extending the bioinformatics predictions with advanced computing and machine learning.

PredictONCO 1.0 is a unique web server that analyzes effects of mutations on proteins frequently altered in various cancer types. The server can assess the impact of mutations on the protein sequential and structural properties and apply a virtual screening to identify potential inhibitors that could be used as a highly individualized therapeutic approach, possibly based on the drug repurposing. PredictONCO integrates predictive algorithms and state-of-the-art computational tools combined with information from established databases. The user interface was carefully designed for the target specialists in precision oncology, molecular pathology, clinical genetics and clinical sciences. The tool summarizes the effect of the mutation on protein stability and function and currently covers 44 common oncological targets. The binding affinities of Food and Drug Administration/ European Medicines Agency -approved drugs with the wild-type and mutant proteins are calculated to facilitate treatment decisions. The reliability of predictions was confirmed against 108 clinically validated mutations. The server provides a fast and compact output, ideal for the often time-sensitive decision-making process in oncology. Three use cases of missense mutations, (i) K22A in cyclin-dependent kinase 4 identified in melanoma, (ii) E1197K mutation in anaplastic lymphoma kinase 4 identified in lung carcinoma and (iii) V765A mutation in epidermal growth factor receptor in a patient with congenital mismatch repair deficiency highlight how the tool can increase levels of confidence regarding the pathogenicity of the variants and identify the most effective inhibitors. The server is available at https://loschmidt.chemi.muni.cz/predictonco.

Bibliographical Subjects in the Scientific Work of Central Libraries of the Constituent Entities of the Russian Federation

Bibliography is one of the main areas in the range of scientific specialties of the Higher Attestation Commission in section 5.10 “Art History and Cultural Studies”, specialty 5.4.10 “Library Science, Bibliography and Bibliology”. The article is devoted to the problem of reflecting bibliographic subjects in the scientific activities of the central libraries of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. The purpose of the article is to consider the problems of creating bibliographic resources, conducting applied scientific research on bibliographic topics and how trends in the development of bibliographic activities of libraries are presented in the publications of specialists. The author concludes that not only conducting bibliographic research itself, but also creating bibliographic resources of various types and genres is scientific work, and libraries rightfully account for their scientific activities by their creation.By carrying out activities to create bibliographic resources, libraries solve historical and cultural problems: preserving the cultural, historical and scientific heritage of the peoples of Russia through bibliography.Research activities to study systems for the formation of bibliographic resources in libraries of different types and for bibliographic services to different categories of users are actually bibliographic studies, they are aimed at improving bibliographic activities themselves. By conducting such research, bibliographers determine the prospects for the development of their activities.