Research News
Human Rights Activists Are Being Locked Up in Psychiatric Hospitals
Have you shared a picture online mocking the authorities? Your bank account may be frozen and the court may order to place you in a psychiatric hospital. According to a report published by the foundation Human Rights in Mental Health (FGIP), such methods of silencing political opponents, religious believers, human rights activists and dissidents are still employed by the Russian authorities to this day, continuing the practices that began during the Soviet era. One of the authors of the report, Chief Executive of FGIP, Professor Robert van Voren of Vytautas Magnus University (VMU), says that psychiatry is a convenient cover for repressions against the critics of the authorities.
“Rural Development 2021”: Focus on Bioeconomy and Climate Change
The 10th anniversary international scientific conference “Rural Development 2021” took place on the 21st – 23rd of September at the Vytautas Magnus University Agriculture Academy (VMU Agriculture Academy). In relation to bioeconomy development in response to the challenges of climate change, the participants of the conference all agreed that pro-active decisions reducing the climate change and securing protection of the depleting biological resources would be necessary with the view towards sustainable development of the world and quality, secure, and clean life of the humankind.
Invitation to a Conference about Baltics-East Asia ties
This and next year Baltic states will celebrate multiple anniversaries commemorating the establishment of diplomatic relations with East Asian states: 100 years since the first bilateral relations and 30 years since re-establishment. On this occasion, the Centre for Asian studies is inviting researchers interested in East Asia and Baltic states, to submit proposals to academic conference “A Century of Connections: Historical ties Between the Baltic and East Asia Regions”, which will be taking place at Vytautas Magnus University on March 11-12, 2022.
Digital Sea Conference will hold discussions about Blue Economy
The importance of the blue economy is growing in the European Union: its contribution to the national budgets is increasing, the number of jobs created is growing, and the importance of sustainable aquaculture for nature, people and their food chain is becoming increasingly clear. In addition, the blue energy from the sea represents a huge unrealised potential for energy that will in the near future attract a large amount of investment, generate significant economic returns for society, help protect the environment and strengthen energy independence. The political and business leaders will discuss effective digital solutions to enable Lithuania’s blue economy at the Digital Sea Conference on the 8th of July.
Prof. Avižienis: Boeing Airplanes Crashed Due to Lack of Extra Sensors
Two new Boeing 737 MAX airplanes crashed with the loss of 346 lives because Boeing did not install a pair of redundant Angle-of-Attack (AoA) sensors in addition to the original two AoA sensors that are on both sides of the 737 MAX nose. This assertion has been presented on June 22 at DSN 2021, the 51st Annual IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks that is being held virtually from Taipei, Taiwan on June 21-24, 2021. The author is Algirdas Avižienis, Ph.D. (U. of Illinois, 1960), who is a Senior Researcher and Rector Emeritus at Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) in Kaunas, Lithuania as well as Distinguished Professor Emeritus of University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
VMU hosted a conference about sustainable development of bioeconomy
On May 20-21, the second online conference Sustainable Bioeconomy Development 2021: Adaptation to Climate Change took place in Vytautas Magnus University (VMU). The event was organised by the Faculty of Bioeconomy Development of VMU Agriculture Academy in cooperation with the Faculty of Economics and Social Development of Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies. The plenary and panel discussions and seminars welcomed the experts of social sciences from Azerbaijan, Belarus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Nigeria, the Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Russia, and Slovakia.
