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An Empirical Study of Latvian Consumers’ Attitudes and Perceptions Towards Genetically Modified Organisms

Author(s): Inese Aleksejeva / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2016

Genetic modification and genetically modified organisms (GMO) remains a controversial issue. Latvian consumers’ attitude towards genetic modification and GMO have been characterized as negative using Eurobarometer data, but so far no specific investigation of Latvian consumers has been done in this field. The aim of this study was to analyse Latvian consumers’ attitude towards genetic modification and GMO, the subjective and objective knowledge about this questions and acceptability of use of GMO in different application areas. Main task in frame of this research is to summarize different literature and data available to outline some of factors that influence attitudes towards GMO: mainly public subjective and objective knowledge, perception on risk and benefits, and ethical concerns. The survey method was chosen as a tool to collect data and elicit Latvian consumers’ attitude towards use of GMO in different industries. The survey was composed of 18 questions; seven of them have been structured on one to ten–point scale.The survey data of Latvia’s inhabitants (N = 1184) were collected by the telemarketing company from September 2014 until June 2015. To select the units to be included in the sample systematic sampling was applied – every twentieth inhabitant was approached by phone call and invited to answer on survey questions. The results of Latvian consumers’ survey showed that Latvians’ acceptability of genetic modification varies by application area; genetically modified (GM) non–food products are more accepted than GM food and feed products. Ethical and moral aspects play essential role among Latvian consumers. Respondents’ subjective and objective knowledge of genetic modification and GMO differs. The findings would be essential to policy makers when designing risk–communication strategies targeting different consumer segments to ensure proper discussion and addressing potential concerns about genetic modification.

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2.50 €

Around the Bloc: Georgian Anti-Hep C Project an Overwhelming Success

Author(s): TOL TOL / Language(s): English / Issue: 05/16/2017

Large-scale elimination of virus is the result of pilot program launched by U.S. pharmaceutical manufacturer, which offered free treatment to hepatitis patients.

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BESLENMENİN ÖNEMİ VE ERGOJENİK BESLENME TAKVİYELERİNİN BESLENMEDEKİ YERİ İLE SPORDA KULLANIMI

Author(s): Onur Oral,Kerim Bakan,Anna Suza,Solmaz P. Hasdemir,George Nomikos,Nuray Öztasan / Language(s): Turkish / Issue: 31/2016

Sports activities in science and technology has brought great success. The distorting the concept of fair play by the strain of the limits of the athletes physical borders leads a new industry. It should be noted that in sports science should be used correctly and equitable. While it has been discovered the secrets of human physiology, scientists are trying to determine the limits of the right amount and form of nutrition and supplements. These studies are in line with the coach and athlete is necessary to define the limits of ergogenic supports the concept of fair play within the framework of this science.

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Biosphere as semiosphere: Variations on Lotman

Author(s): Anton Markoš / Language(s): English / Issue: 4/2014

Th e analogy between semiosphere (world of cultures) and biosphere (world of life), coined by J. Lotman, is a courageous attempt to interconnect two seemingly incompatible worlds. In congruence with his view, I would like to convince the reader that the only possible general definition of life is “a system born, endowed with semiosis, with history”. Such a view requires considering biosphere and semiosphere as coextensive, which requires merging the cultural, scientific, historical, and linguistic approaches into a coherent whole.

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3.00 €

Ciało w kulturze wizualnej – wybrane konteksty

Author(s): Karina Leksy / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 2/2015

Modern man is exposed to countless images, mainly products of the pop culture. Generally, the reception of these does not require a great intellectual effort; visual content is easily absorbed by a mass recipient. Dominant in this visual content is the body whose “shape” is determined by social and cultural processes. A repeated exposure to images of an ideal body propagated by the western culture results in this image being internalized and conceived as a model, especially by young people. Consequently, young people define and evaluate themselves by the appearance of their body, simultaneously making many efforts to improve this appearance and social presentation. This behaviour can, however, cause various negative consequences both for an individual and society. The author’s awareness that the images of the body presented by the media usually do not reflect reality makes her emphasize the need to develop a strategy in media education promoting critical interpretation and evaluation of the visual coverage.

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3.00 €

City Dwellers and Institutions: What lies at the Back of the Stray-Dogs Debate in Bulgaria

Author(s): Yavor Lilov / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 2009

The homeless dogs debate presents an interesting phenomenon. The heated exchanges, the arguments, the examples used often shift the attention away from animals to humans, social groups, models for structuring society.

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2.50 €

Conectare emoţională şi iertare în cuplurile romantice: testarea relaţiilor cu modelul interdependenţei actor-partener

Author(s): Simona Herb,Gabriela liliana Horea-Lungu / Language(s): Romanian / Issue: 15/2015

The current study based on the premise that the level of emotional connection and each partener's trait forgiveness contribute to the engagement in behaviourss witch support the resolution of attachment injuries within a romantic couple. Parteners from 85 couples completed a protocol which included four standardised questionnaires. The raw data was analysed using both univariate and multivariate techniques (path analysis). The unit of analysis was the romantic dyad. The multivariate data analysis used the interdependence actor-partner model. For both females and males, emotional connection was associated with the partener's level of engagement in forgiveness-oriented behaviours. For both females and males, the actor-partner effect was stronger than the actor-actor effect. These findings suggest the importance that the emotional connection of one partener has when it comes to choices and behaviours of the other partner. The results are discussed considering their implications for the emotionally focused couple therapy.

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Cultural semiotics, translatability, and informational loss in visual texts of the biotech industry

Author(s): Charikleia Yoka,Evangelos Kourdis / Language(s): English / Issue: 4/2014

The paper examines a specific advertising campaign of a biotech company characteristic of the whole biotech industry and discusses how the evocation of universal values, such as the protection and correct management of the planet’s resources, the struggle against poverty and against the shortage of raw materials, the support of farmers and their families, distorts information about nature, global agriculture and the biotech industry’s products. This distortion is a necessary and vital part of this industry’s existence. Th e rhetorical techniques of conscious informational repression and distortion, which are often discussed only in terms of informational loss, are expressly evident and even taken to their extremes in the case of biotechnology. Yet on the other hand they are characteristic of a translation process that takes place in the rhetoric of advertisement in general, as is evident in the use of Göran Sonesson’s translation model which we suggest is appropriate for the definition and study of advertising codes.

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Czy zasadne jest stosowanie „antropologicznej” koncepcji „rasy”?

Author(s): Miroslaw Twardowski / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 1/2014

The term “race” was introduced to the scientific vocabulary in the mid-eighteenth century by the French philosopher, scientist and mathematician Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon. In anthropology, this concept settled primarily through the German scientist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach. From the outset, the concept has aroused controversy among scholars. Even Charles Darwin himself expressed clear skepticism towards using the concept of race in reference to people. Clear doubts about the scientific basis of racial typology were reported in the early twentieth century by the American anthropologist Franz Boas, and later, in the 1940s, by the British-American anthropologist Ashley Montagu. In the 1960s, the American anthropologist and geneticist Frank Livingstone, on the basis of genetic evidence, sought to undermine the concept of human races. At the same time, a prominent American geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky expressed a similar opinion, claiming that there were no races which would be “discrete units”. In the 1970s, the American geneticist Richard Lewontin, on the basis of his own research, proved that there is no possibility of isolating races based on genetic criteria. In this article, we refer to the achievements of modern biology, especially genetics, to find out whether it is appropriate to use the “anthropological” concept of race. For a fuller picture of the issues of interest, we refer also to the historical sources, recalling the arguments put forward by various authors over the centuries against the concept of race in relation to human beings.

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Disruption and the Changing Concept of Leadership

Author(s): M S S El Namaki / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2017

Leadership is a catch all concept and the subject attracts intensive attention. Yet the concept, as it stands today, is obsolete. The prime parameters of people and tasks have lost content with people performance parameters going through palpable change and the fundamentals of the task seriously disrupted. Those developments are rendering concepts of leadership in their current professional and conceptual framework, blurred. Gamely and fashion prone colourful presentation of “leadership” are taking over. A serious search into the heart and soul of leadership and a formulation of building blocks is, therefore, needed. It should be serious and it should be conceptual and operationally cogent.

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2.00 €

Dwujądrowe Rhizoctonia spp. jako patogeny roślin

Author(s): Ewa Moliszewska,Dagna Maculewicz / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 3/2016

The Rhizoctonia complex is a large, heterogenuous group of filamentous fungi including multinucleate R. solani with Thanatephorus teleomorph, binucleate Rhizoctonias (BNR) with Ceratobasidium teleomorph and other „Rhizoctonialike” species. They can be saprotrophs as well as crop pathogens or orchid mycorrhizal symbionts. Basics characteristics for Rhizoctonia genus is uniform hyphal structure, possibility to form undifferentiated into rind and medulla sclerotia, hyphae long, branched with dolipore septa, hyphae with branches growing almost on right angle, a bit narrower in the point of branching and with septum near the point of branching, no possibility to form mitospores, forming short and wider cells named monilioid cells, lack of clump connections and rhizomorphs. One of the basic criteria of dividing into genus Rhizoctonia is the number of nuclei in young, vegetative and actively growing hyphae as well as the diameter of vegetative hyphae. This allow to distinguish the group with narrow hyphae (5-7 μm) with the average number of nuclei less than four, mostly it is two and sometimes three, but it is also possible to find one or four nuclei in a separate cell.

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5.00 €

Dynamics of Mixed Unions in Transylvania, Romania

Author(s): Mihaela Haragus / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2015

In this work, mixed union formation and dissolution of Hungarian ethnics in Transylvania have been investigated, with the aim of finding which characteristics of individuals were connected with the tendency towards exogamy, and whether inter-ethnic unions are more fragile than endogamous ones. The analysis showed that the language of studies makes a clear difference between endogamous and exogamous union formation: persons that had studied at least one educational level in Romanian language had visible higher risks to form an inter-ethnic union, both marriage and cohabitation. In case of marriage dissolution, higher divorce risks for exogamous than for endogamous marriages have been found, and in case of formation of a second union, the results showed that persons who had a first exogamous union exhibit twice the risk of entering a second exogamous union compared with persons that had a first endogamous union.

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Ecosemiotic aspects of zoomorphic metaphors: The human as a predator

Author(s): Ariel Gómez Ponce / Language(s): English / Issue: 1-2/2016

Through history, predatory features are used to constructs when constructing textual representations on the human/animal frontier. The predatory act has remained a recurring motif that emerges from a metaphoric system in cultural imagination. An ecosemiotic approach to this topic allows us to understand how specific predatory behaviours constitute a source of meaning: in other words, how an alleged “animal tendency” is appropriated (translated) into various cultural texts through metaphors, creating a rhetorical order. To illustrate this, some features of metaphors of predatoriness in certain texts in Argentinian culture will be reviewed. A particularly vivid example is provided by two species, the cougar and the jaguar, that have generated cultural translations which expand and proliferate into contemporaneity. These translations constitute a form in which culture metaphorizes aggressiveness and interprets certain species from a historical and ideological perspective. The Argentinian cases suggest a revision of how history has treated the cultural other in terms of cultural and biological inferiority.

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3.00 €

Edukacja seksualna w doświadczeniach nastoletnich matek. Studium przypadku

Author(s): Sylwia Maria Polcyn-Matuszewska / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 2/2015

The knowledge regarding sexuality, fertility and reproduction should be given to young people in generational families and, later, in educational institutions, such as schools. Properly implemented sex education should provide reliable information on the psycho-physical development of people, the available methods of contraception and sexually transmitted diseases. In Polish homes and schools this type of education is marginalized, which in turn can bring about the phenomenon of a growing number of teenage mothers. This paper presents the results of a study in which information was gathered by the method of a diagnostic survey with the use of the technique of an interview. A structured interview was conducted with teenage mothers who gave birth to their first child before the age of 18.

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EVOLIUCINĖS ETIKOS TRADICIJA NŪDIENOS KONTEKSTE

Author(s): Ceslovas Kalenda / Language(s): Lithuanian / Issue: 72/2007

The article discusses the role performed by evolutionary ethics in the specification of causes of the emergence of present-day ecology problem and in the determination of methodological foundations for relevant solutions. The formulation of such particular goal was prompted by the universally inadequate human responses to the unfavourable ecological condition on the planet indicating the obvious underdevelopment of moral abilities compared to the development of technological changes. The article seeks to treat this problem from the point if view of evolutionary ethics focusing on the circumstances and the character of the formation of cognitive and moral qualities in a human determined, possibly, not only by the characteristics of his historical and cultural development. Drawing on the history of philosophy (D. Hume, A. Smith, H. Spencer, P. Kropotkin) and research findings (Ch. Darwin, E.O. Wilson), the sources, the development, and the current contents of evolutionary ethics is revealed (H. Mohr). Having started from the premise that ethics must have emerged from social instincts inherent in human nature, the evolutionary ethics has reached the point of a sociobiological project seeking to base the objective quality of ethical value of human behaviour on the genetic arguments. Criticising the extremely challenging ideas, the present article gives a positive evaluation to the attempts to explain the development of moral abilities demonstrated by Homo sapiens sapiens by biological or culturally-interacting factor models. This particular methodological approach, as is indicated by the findings of Roman Club members, enables a more profound and clear understanding of the causes of current ecological crisis, and to give a more precise definition and prognosis of the ways and tempo of its fighting.

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52.00 €

FEMINIZING WORLD POWER: A NEW CONSTELLATION OF WOMEN IN POLITICS?

Author(s): Michael A. Peters / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2016

This article charts the emergence of women leaders currently in power, the highest it has ever been with 22 female heads of state and political leaders in 2015. It canvases Fukuyama’s (1988) sociobiology arguments and those of feminists on questions of women’s political representation. It briefly investigates the “critical mass” argument of Kanter (1977) and others to ask whether there is a new constellation of women in politics, especially with Hillary Clinton’s possible ascendancy to the US presidency, leading to the possibility of feminizing world power.

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Fishing for Smelt, Osmerus eperlanus (Linnaeus, 1758) A traditional food fish – possible cuisine in postmodern Sweden?

Author(s): Ingvar Svanberg,Madeleine Bonow,Stanislaw Cios / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2016

For the rural population in Sweden, fishing in lakes and rivers was of great importance until recently. Many fish species served as food or animal fodder, or were used to make glue and other useful products. But the receding of lakes in the nineteenth century, and the expansion of hydro-power and worsening of water pollution in the twentieth, contributed to the decline of inland fisheries. At the same time, marine-fish became more competitive on the Swedish food market. In some regions, however, certain freshwater species continued to be caught for household consumption well into the twentieth century. One such species was the smelt (Osmerus eperlanus), which fifty years ago was still of economic importance. Nowadays, however, smelt is only caught in very low volumes; its role is therefore insignificant. In neighboring countries, however – such as Estonia, Lithuania, and Russia – it is still being exploited commercially. In Germany, where water quality has improved in rivers and restaurants have shown increasing interest in smelt, a successful revival for the fish as a regional and seasonal food can be seen. Smelt fishing has dimensions which are not only culinary, but social and cultural as well. Traditional ways of food preparation can be transformed into modern haute cuisine. Smelt fishing has the potential to develop commercially in Sweden also.

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Funkcjonowanie w szkole wyższej studentów ze specyficznymi trudnościami w uczeniu się

Author(s): Izabela Pietrowska / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 01/2016

The subject of my consideration is functioning of students with specific learning difficulties in higher education institution. The article presents the Polish and foreign source materials review. It has been concluded that the undertaken problem is rarely raised by researchers. My own pilot research carried out for the needs of my future PhD thesis showed that more than half of all respondents (academic staff and students with diagnosed specific learning difficulties, as well as without such diagnosis) believe that in their higher education institution should exist systemic solutions concerning students with specific learning difficulties. Unfortunately, only 10% of respondents said that in their higher education institution have been introduced these systemic solutions.

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KAKAOLU SÜTÜN SPORCU BESLENMESİNDE TAKVİYE GIDA OLARAK KULLANIMI

Author(s): Kerim Bakan,Anna Suza,Onur Oral,George Nomikos,Berkcan Boz,Nuray Öztasan / Language(s): Turkish / Issue: 31/2016

Increasing industrialization and lead to an increase in the production of new sports supplement products.But such products are discovered on behalf of the losses no longer tolerate the loss of products is increasing orientation given to the traditional diet. In the beginning of the required nutritional value of traditional foods as well as secondary reasons to show a protective effect of milk has come to the fore. Probiotic products in the milk that may stop carcinogenic formation after making sports.And also, cocoa has positive feature large in the recovery process in milk with cocoa. The consumption of chocolate milk wil give many benefit to the recovery process and prevent ion of muscle damage after training is important. It contains it is common among athletes with its the nutritional value

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