Summary of the ‘Dialogue on the Future of Europe: Building a Digital European Union’ Conference Organised by the Ministry of Justice and the Ferenc Mádl Institute of Comparative Law as Part of the ‘Conference on the Future of Europe’ Series

On June 21, 2021, the Hungarian Ministry of Justice (Deputy State Secretariat for EU Relations) and the Ferenc Mádl Institute of Comparative Law (MFI) organised a high-profile international conference entitled ‘Dialogue on the Future of Europe: Building a Digital European Union’ as part of a series in which two previous conferences were held on June 25 and September 21, 2020. By organising these events, Hungary is among the first Member States to launch a dialogue as part of a series of discussions on the future of Europe. As a proactive actor, Hungary has contributed to the ongoing exchange of views offering a comprehensive assessment of and approach to the digital developments and perspectives of the European Union. The June 21, 2021 conference – composed of three thematic panel discussions – focused on the future of digitalisation and competitiveness in the European Union. Highly accomplished national speakers such as Hungarian Minister of Justice Judit Varga and Hungarian Member of Parliament and President of the Economic Committee Erik Bánki and international speakers such as Commissioner Mariya Gabriel and State Secretary Ana Paula Zacarias gave presentations outlining their visions. This article summarizes those presentations. In addition to public officials and economic actors, academic experts and researchers on digital transition also gave presentations at the conference. The conclusions drawn from their exchanges of views seek to contribute to the creation of sensible decisions leading towards a digital future, while also raising public awareness regarding digitalisation, a realm of growing influence on policymaking.

Issues of anesthesiology at the 2nd All-Union Conference of Surgeons, Traumatologists and Anesthesiologists

On the subject of anesthesia at the stage of analgesia, a keynote speech was made by prof. P. L. Kupriyanov with colleagues (Leningrad).

PHENOMENON OF DEMIKHOV. In the Sklifosovsky Institute (1960–1986). Approaches to solving the problem of organ and tissue transplantation in the USSR and abroad (1967)

Analysis of the materials of the 2nd All-Union conference on the problem of tissue incompatibility, conservation and transplantation of tissues and organs (Odessa, 1967) showed that Soviet and foreign scientists had similar approaches to solving the problem of organ and tissue transplantation. Soviet scientists spoke about overcoming tissue incompatibility by hybridization of plants and chimerization of animals, about the effect of drug sleep on transplant immunity, about neurohumoral immunological shifts and the role of the central and peripheral nervous systems in the engraftment of grafts, about the influence of external factors on immunity. They also discussed the characterization of the antigenic structure of grafts, the role of DNA in immunity, the genetic transformation of homomaterial, the use of pharmacological agents to suppress immunogenesis, the cryopreservation of auto- and homo-organs and tissues with perfusion of their vascular bed, and the study of immunogenesis at the molecular level. A year earlier, the Americans discussed immunological paralysis, the effect on the recipient's immunity of the donor's blood transfused to him and its components, and biochemical studies of immunity. At the same time, without any ethical doubts, American scientists conducted experiments, including clinical ones, with multiple passages of homosexual skin, with exchange transfusion of blood to newborns and subsequent transplantation of homosexual donors to them, with irradiation of recipients with powerful doses of X-rays. It is shown that most of the trends that had been developed by V.P. Demikhov, were approved by the 2nd All-Union Conference. But what he lacked was close and comprehensive integration with morphologists, physiologists, immunologists, biochemists, pharmacologists and, sadly, with clinical surgeons. Based on the research conducted, an unambiguous conclusion can be drawn: Soviet scientists should not have criticized V.P. Demikhov for his "misunderstanding" of immunology, and to help him in every possible way, directing his energy in the right direction.

Final Chords of M.N. Pokrovsky’s “Brainchild”: Society of Marxist Historians in the Early 1930s

Introduction. The Society of Marxist Historians established in 1925 went down in the history of Soviet historiography as a militant organization that did much to combat “old school” historians, assert the monopoly position of the Marxist-Leninist methodology, and draw a party line in historical science. Methods and materials. The research is based on traditional methods of historiographical analysis. It uses materials from historical journals of the 1920s and 1930s and archival documents. Analysis. The first all-Union conference of Marxist Historians (December 28, 1928 – January 4, 1929) became the apogee in the history of the Society. In the future, despite the growth in numbers and the creation of local structures, in the conditions of the “great turning point” it loses the features of an amateur organization and a number of functions of the scientific nature. The priority is to “actively participate in the socialist construction” by deploying mass propaganda of historical knowledge and fighting “distortions of Marxism-Leninism”, including in the ranks of the organization itself. The last debate and “study” of Stalin’s famous letter to “Proletarian revolution” journal had a negative impact on the internal state of the Society and strengthened the distrust of the results of his work from the government. In 1931–1932, the Society management unsuccessfully tried to make its work more popular, hold a plenum and re-registered a new charter. Results. However, at that time, the Central Committee of the CPSU(b) embarked on the path of reformatting the structure of societies and unions in the country and eliminating those of them that had exhausted their mobilization potential and did not meet the new ideological course. In addition to this circumstance, the rapid curtailment of the Society of Marxist historians by the end of 1932 was influenced by the position of the leadership of the Communist Academy and the death of M.N. Pokrovsky, the undisputed leader of Soviet historians.

Teacher Retention in Secondary Schools of Seventh-day Adventist Church in East Kenya Union Conference

The study aimed at examining retention of teachers in secondary schools of the Seventh-Day Adventist (SDA) Church in East Kenya Union Conference (EKUC). It employed a concurrent mixed methods research design and adopted an exploratory approach using a descriptive survey. Out of the twenty secondary schools in the Union, the researcher targeted eleven which sat for the national exams since 2008. The subjects of the study included teachers, principals, the Conferences/Field Education Directors and the BoM chairpersons. The instruments used for data collection were questionnaires for teachers. Interview schedules were organized for education directors, the school BoM chairpersons, the principals and teachers for triangulation. Observation schedule was also organized. This targeted the school infrastructure and generally all what goes on in the school. The school learning facilities and the behavior of teachers in school was also captured here. The other instrument used was the tool for document analysis to collect data for 8 years. Ninety-eight (98) teachers were required to fill the provided questionnaire, but the eleven principals, five education directions and eleven Boards of Management (BoM ) chairpersons were subjected to interviews. Three teachers per school were also interviewed for triangulation purpose. Observations were also done during the visits in schools. Documentary analysis method was also used to gather information on the turnover trends of teachers for eight years. The data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations. Documentary analysis was done on records about teacher retention. Content analysis was done on responses from interviews and in open-ended questions to identify the emerging themes. The findings show that more teachers were leaving schools than those being employed in most of the years. Generally, it is evident that some teachers left church employment. The turnover was experienced annually. However, teachers intended to remain in the school as long as the administration was cooperative, understanding, appreciative, recognizes their efforts, was caring and was ready to treat them with dignity. The study recommends that the school administration should be cooperative to teachers, by treating them with dignity and appreciating their efforts. There should be stringent measures for motivating teachers, ensuring that they had access to housing and transport and that they were adequately remunerated.

Determinants of Teacher and Student Retention in Secondary Schools of Seventh-day Adventist Church in East Kenya union Conference

The study aimed at establishing the factors which influence the low retention of teachers and students in secondary schools of the SDA Church in EKUC. It employed a concurrent mixed methods research design and adopted an exploratory approach using a descriptive survey. This was to investigate the factors which influenced the retention of teachers and students in EKUC schools. Out of the twenty secondary schools in the Union, the researcher targeted eleven which sat for the national exams since 2008. The subjects of the study included teachers, students, principals, the Conferences/Field Education Directors and the BoM chairpersons. The study was based on the expectancy theory of motivation which states that certain behaviour leads to the expected outcome. In the research, certain behaviours by the relevant authorities should lead to high retention of students and teachers. Teachers should be availed bursary funds for career advancement, given incentives for motivation and be made to believe that they are appreciated by the school administration. The administration should assist the needy students to get financial support. The findings showed that two independent variables (school administration and motivation strategies) commonly contributed to the retention of teachers and students. School administration was the most common factor which contributed to low retention, among the two groups. It was found important to carry out exhaustive studies on each of the study variables for comparative purposes in public schools and undertake exploratory and in-depth studies on the same.

Determinants of Teacher and Student Retention in Secondary Schools of Seventh-day Adventist Church in East Kenya union Conference

The study aimed at establishing the factors which influence low retention of teachers and students in secondary schools of the SDA Church in EKUC. It employed a concurrent mixed methods research design and adopted an exploratory approach using a descriptive survey. This was to investigate the factors which influenced the retention of teachers and students in EKUC schools. Out of the twenty secondary schools in the Union, the researcher targeted eleven which sat for the national exams since 2008. The subjects of the study included teachers, students, principals, the Conferences/Field Education Directors and the BoM chairpersons. The study was based on expectancy theory of motivation which states that certain behavior leads to expected outcome. In the research, certain behaviors by the relevant authorities should lead to high retention of students and teachers. Teachers should be availed bursary funds for career advancement, given incentives for motivation and be made to believe that they are appreciated by the school administration. The administration should assist the needy students to get financial support. The findings showed that two independent variables (school administration and motivation strategies) commonly contributed to retention of teachers and students. School administration was the most common factor which contributed to low retention, among the two groups. It was found important to carry out exhaustive studies on each of the study variables for comparative purposes in public schools and undertake exploratory and in-depth studies on the same.

Teacher Retention in Secondary Schools of Seventh-Day Adventist Church in East Kenya Union Conference

The study aimed at examining retention of teachers in secondary schools of the Seventh-Day Adventist (SDA) Church in East Kenya Union Conference (EKUC). It employed a concurrent mixed methods research design and adopted an exploratory approach using a descriptive survey. Out of the twenty secondary schools in the Union, the researcher targeted eleven which sat for the national exams since 2008. The subjects of the study included teachers, principals, the Conferences/Field Education Directors and the BoM chairpersons. The instruments used for data collection were questionnaires for teachers. Interview schedules were organized for education directors, the school BoM chairpersons, the principals and teachers for triangulation. Observation schedule was also organized. This targeted the school infrastructure and generally all what goes on in the school. The school learning facilities and the behavior of teachers in school was also captured here. The other instrument used was the tool for document analysis to collect data for 8 years. Ninety-eight (98) teachers were required to fill the provided questionnaire, but the eleven principals, five education directions and eleven Boards of Management (BoM ) chairpersons were subjected to interviews. Three teachers per school were also interviewed for triangulation purpose. Observations were also done during the visits in schools. Documentary analysis method was also used to gather information on the turnover trends of teachers for eight years. The data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations. Documentary analysis was done on records about teacher retention. Content analysis was done on responses from interviews and in open-ended questions to identify the emerging themes. The findings show that more teachers were leaving schools than those being employed in most of the years. Generally, it is evident that some teachers left church employment. The turnover was experienced annually. However, teachers intended to remain in the school as long as the administration was cooperative, understanding, appreciative, recognizes their efforts, was caring and was ready to treat them with dignity. The study recommends that the school administration should be cooperative to teachers, by treating them with dignity and appreciating their efforts. There should be stringent measures for motivating teachers, ensuring that they had access to housing and transport and that they were adequately remunerated.

Academic Historiography in Azerbaijan at the Crossroads of Time (1989-1991)

The scientific development in the USSR has come a long way. Despite all the obstacles posed during its formation and development, it has reached a reasonably high level by the mid-1980s. This achievement was mainly in the natural and technical sciences. The progress was determined by the USSR’s desire to keep the palm in space exploration, nuclear physics, petrochemistry, and other sciences of strategic importance for the country’s development. In these areas, contacts were established with world scientific centers and exchange of scientific achievements took place. As a result, Soviet scientists became winners of prestigious international awards, including the Nobel Prizes. As for the humanities and especially the social sciences, the dominance of Marxist-Leninist ideology and the corresponding interpretation of historical events significantly affected the development of Soviet sciences and reaching the world level quality. Until the mid-1990s, political history as an area of science of history, practically, did not exist. The “History of the CPSU” and the “History of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan” virtually monopolized the multifaceted nature of political themes, reducing it to the apologetics of the party history. Everything changed with the beginning of ‘Perestroika’ and ‘Glasnost’ (the officially announced publicity policy). As a result, the previously unknown pages of the past of the country and national republics became public. Almost every day, there were sensational publications of various authors published by popular magazines and newspapers, which also printed previously classified documents from historical archives. Traditional historical researchers and academicians were in shock. It was not easy for historians to abandon the 70-year-old account of history tied to ideological dogmas; the crisis associated with the loss of orientation was overcome with great difficulty and mainly by young historians. In the late 1980s, foreign historians, who studied the history of Azerbaijan, began visiting the country. Until that time, their existence was known only to a narrow circle of historians, who worked with foreign literature in specialized repositories of local and central libraries. For the first time, Azerbaijani historians left the USSR in 1990, when a conference was held at the University of London on the history of the South Caucasus. The event was attended by historians from Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia, as well as the so-called Sovietologists - scientists from Great Britain, the USA, and France. It is symbolic that in the same year in Moscow the last all-Union conference on political history was held. The event was attended by scientists from the Soviet republics, which declared independence the following year.

The Path to the Institute of Man

The article describes the main stages of the formation of the scientific direction of complex interdisciplinary human research in our country in the 1980s. These stages include: the Second All-Union Conference on the Comprehensive Research of Man (1988), the First All-Union Conference “Man, Science, Society” (1989), the first meeting of the Council of the All-Union Interdepartmental Center for Human Sciences (1989). During these scientific forums, the scientific program of the Institute of Man was discussed. The discussion was attended by philosophers, psychologists, sociologists, historians, physicians, physiologists, geneticists, specialists in the field of technical sciences. During the discussions, proposals were made about the goals and objectives of the research work of the Institute of Man. The problems of man and his future have become aggravated, and ideas for their comprehensive study continue to remain relevant. An overview of documentary materials found in the archive of I.T. Frolov by the Group for the Study of his Creative Legacy of the RAS Institute of Philosophy. The materials are devoted to the main events on the way of the formation of the RAS Institute of Man. These include the transcript of the round table on the topic “Is a Unified Science of Man Possible? Institute of Man — Idea and Reality”, which took place in 1988 within the framework of the Second All-Union Conference on the Comprehensive Research of Man. During the discussion, various conceptual proposals were made for the development of anthropological topics in the country. In addition, the transcripts of the First All-Union Conference “Man, Science, Society”, organized in 1989 by the All-Union Interdepartmental Center for Human Sciences, were studied to discuss the work on the implementation of the State General Academic Program “Man, Science, Society: Comprehensive Research”. Within the framework of the conference, the first meeting of the Council of the All-Union Interdepartmental Center for Human Sciences was held in the Red Hall of the Institute of Philosophy of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, at which the structure and forms of work of the Center, the Institute of Man and the journal “Chelovek” were discussed.