European Parliament member's activism: the case of the Baltic States.

The main aim of this thesis is to discern the activism of the European Parliament Members (MEPs) representing the Baltic states, with a secondary aim to find out the differences of activism between European Union founding states and Central-Eastern European countries that joined the union in 2004. The argumentation for the research stems from finding out, which of the MEPs representing any of the Baltic states can be considered the most active, as a common misconception in modern Europe is that MEPs are inactive in their day-to-day duties in the European Parliament. Additionally, the secondary aim attempts at comparing the aforementioned country groups to see whether or not countries with greater experience in the union are more active than relative newcomers. The research utilizes 9 different parameters that depict parliamentary activities in the EP by which activism of each MEP is measured in this research. To display the activism of both countries and individual MEPs, a suite of methods is designed to discern the relevant results. The research includes the collection of required data on every MEP currently serving in the current European Parliament that is later used for necessary calculations. The results for both the analysis of countries and Baltic MEPs are gathered in several graphs and relevant conclusions are drawn from them. Based on the available results, the Baltic MEPs are further classified into two divisions of parliamentary activities inspired by Bíró-Nagy (2016).https://www.ester.ee/record=b5193863*es

FACTORS AFFECTING LEVELS OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IN SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT

Person's attitude, belief and health behavioral patterns are directly and indirectly influenced by many social and physical factors. Scientific researches point out that The Social Ecological Model is a theory-based framework used both: in the development of behavioral programs and in the theoretical background of the research. There are four global factors that can characterize interactions between the individual and the environment: intrapersonal, interpersonal, environmental and political. Using the socially-ecological model, there can be observed the manifestations of physical activity at different levels that interact with each other. Making changes at one level influences other aspects. The goal of the article is to conduct a scientific literature review of the factors influencing physical activity in the school environment

Tunneling luminescence in long lasting afterglow of SrAl2O4:Eu,Dy

The publication is prepared with the financial support of National Research Programme IMIS2.A long lasting (afterglowing) luminescent material SrAl2O4: Eu2+, Dy3+ was prepared by high temperature solid-state reaction method. The processes responsible for long lasting luminescence were studied by means of luminescence spectra, thermally stimulated luminescence and afterglow kinetics. Two processes are found to contribute in excited Eu 2+ creation – the thermally released electrons recombination and electron tunneling from trap to Eu3+. The possible scheme of long lasting luminescence mechanism is proposed.IMIS2; Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia as the Center of Excellence has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme H2020-WIDESPREAD-01-2016-2017-TeamingPhase2 under grant agreement No. 739508, project CAMART

Project 1: Investigating the role of ligand flexibility in the binding of myristate to I-FABP And Project 2: Studying the effect of the bacterial NDK proteins on haemopoietic stem cells

The first project is based on investigating the role of ligand flexibility in the binding of myristate to IFABP. Myristate and palmitate bind the protein I-FABP with affinities orders of magnitude higher than similar sized less flexible ligands. This seems to contradict the medicinal chemistry textbooks where making a ligand less flexible is an accepted method for increasing binding affinity. Here computer simulations were used to investigate myristate flexibility and its free energy of binding to I-FABP, to see what role flexibility has in the recognition of myristate by 1-FABP. The second project is based on studying the effect of the bacterial NDK proteins on haemapoietic stem cells. Leukaemia patients lack immunity; thus bacterial infections worsen leukaemia prognosis. It might be that bacterial invasion can affect leukaemia cells, by rendering the latter more aggressive, or even by stimulating cell proliferation. Bacterial and eukaryotic NDK proteins are highly conserved indicating that they may also be functionally similar. Previously it was shown that additional rNM23-Hl indirectly promotes leukaemia and healthy stem cell survival and proliferation. Here it was investigated if bacterial NDK proteins can show a similar effect

X-ray excited luminescence of SrAl2O4:Eu,Dy at low temperatures

This research project was supported financially by ERDF Project No 1.1.1.1/16/A/182.ERDF Project No 1.1.1.1/16/A/182; Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia as the Center of Excellence has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme H2020-WIDESPREAD-01-2016-2017-TeamingPhase2 under grant agreement No. 739508, project CAMART

The Relationship Between Head Posture and Level of Physical Activity in Office Workers

The purpose of this study was to discover the relationship between head and neck posture and level of physical activity for office workers.In our study, 66 subjects (women 28-49 age old) who work in office longer than one year, sitting would total about 6 hours per 8 hour workday. Exclusion criteria were self-report of previous significant back injury; current neck or upper back pain; or referred pain into the upper extremity (i.e. cervical radiculopathy). Informed consent was obtained from all participants. Physical activity levels were evaluated using the International PhysicalActivity Questionnaireshort form. The head posture and the craniovertebralangle wasmeasured using photogrammetry, Protractor mobile application using iPhone 6s cell phone. The cervical Range of Motion was analyzed using the inclinometer and the Neck Disability Index as an instrument for self-rated disability. The collected data were analyzed using the methods of mathematical statistics. Pearson correlation was used to determine the relationship of level of physical activity with craniovertebral angle and Neck Disability Index.The results showed physical activity levelhas no correlations at all, a weak correlation to the craniovertebral angle.There is a correlation between all other head posture indicatorspublishersversionPeer reviewe

Explaining potentially unfair clauses to the consumer with the claudette tool

This paper presents the latest developments of the use of memory network models in detecting and explaining unfair terms in online consumer contracts. We extend the CLAUDETTE tool for the detection of potentially unfair clauses in online Terms of Service, by providing to the users the explanations of unfairness (legal rationales) for five different categories: Arbitration, unilateral change, content removal, unilateral termination, and limitation of liability

Novel method of phosphorescent strontium aluminate coating preparation on aluminum

This work was supported by the ERDF , European-Union Project No. 1.1.1.1/16/A/182 .This study presents a novel approach to produce phosphorescent coatings on metal surfaces. Strontium aluminates are the most popular modern phosphorescent materials exhibiting long afterglow at room temperature and a broad spectral distribution of luminescence in the visible range. However, despite a large amount of research done, methods for synthesis of such materials remain relatively energy inefficient and environmentally unfriendly. A long-afterglow luminescent coating containing SrAl2O4:Eu2+, Dy3+ is prepared by the plasma electrolytic oxidation on the surface of commercial aluminum alloy Al6082. During the electrical discharges in this process, the strontium aluminate is formed in a similar way to the solid-state reaction method. X-ray powder diffraction analysis confirms that the monoclinic SrAl2O4 phase is present in the coating. Optical properties of the obtained coating were analyzed with luminescence methods classically used for studies of luminophores. The performance of the coating was compared with commercially available strontium aluminate powder. The proposed method of coating synthesis may be of value for the development of energy-efficient and long-lasting automotive and public safety infrastructure.European Regional Development Fund 1.1.1.1/16/A/182; Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia as the Center of Excellence has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme H2020-WIDESPREAD-01-2016-2017-TeamingPhase2 under grant agreement No. 739508, project CAMART

GDPR Privacy Policies in CLAUDETTE: Challenges of Omission, Context and Multilingualism

The latest developments in natural language processing and machine learning have created new opportunities in legal text analysis. In particular, we look at the texts of online privacy policies after the implementation of the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). We analyse 32 privacy policies to design a methodology for automated detection and assessment of compliance of these documents. Preliminary results confirm the pressing issues with current privacy policies and the beneficial use of this approach in empowering consumers in making more informed decisions. However, we also encountered several serious issues in the process. This paper introduces the challenges through concrete examples of context dependence, omission of information, and multilingualism

Development of rapid antigen test prototype for detection of SARS-CoV-2 in saliva samples

Funding Information: This study was supported by VPP Program, Republic of Latvia Ministry of Education and Science, project No. VPP-COVID-2020/1-0025. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 Taylor and Francis Ltd. All rights reserved.Background: The development of easy-to-perform diagnostic methods is highly important for detecting current coronavirus disease (COVID-19). This pilot study aimed at developing a lateral flow assay (LFA)- based test prototype to detect severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus in saliva samples. Methods: Mice were immunized using the recombinant receptor-binding domain (rRBD) of SARS-CoV-2 virus spike protein. The combinations of the obtained mouse anti-receptor-binding domain (RBD) polyclonal antibodies (PAbs) and several commercial antibodies directed against the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein were used for enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to select antibody pairs for LFA. The antibody pairs were tested in a LFA format using saliva samples from individuals with early SARS-CoV-2 infection (n = 9). The diagnostic performance of the developed LFA was evaluated using saliva samples from hospitalized COVID-19 patients (n = 111); the median time from the onset of symptoms to sample collection was 10 days (0-24 days, interquartile range (IQR): 7-13). The reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) was used as a reference method. Results: Based on ELISA and preliminary LFA results, a combination of mouse anti-RBD PAbs (capture antibody) and rabbit anti-spike PAbs (detection antibody) was chosen for clinical analysis of sample. When compared with rRT-PCR results, LFA exhibited 26.5% sensitivity, 58.1% specificity, 50.0% positive prediction value (PPV), 33.3% negative prediction value (NPV), and 38.7% diagnostic accuracy. However, there was a reasonable improvement in assay specificity (85.7%) and PPV (91.7%) when samples were stratified based on the sampling time. Conclusion: The developed LFA assay demonstrated a potential of SARS-CoV-2 detection in saliva samples. Further technical assay improvements should be made to enhance diagnostic performance followed by a validation study in a larger cohort of both asymptomatic and symptomatic patients in the early stage of infection.Peer reviewe