Yearbook 2020

LATVIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES YE A R B O O K 2020 EDITORIAL BOARD OF THE LATVIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES YEARBOOK 2020: Ojārs Spārītis, President of the Latvian Academy of Sciences Ilze Trapenciere, Advisor to the President of the Latvian Academy of Sciences Namejs Zeltiņš, Professor, Corresponding Member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences, Head of the Energy Efficiency Centre, Institute of Physical Energetics

THE ISSUE WAS PREPARED BY: Editor-in-chief: Ojārs Spārītis Project manager: Ilze Trapenciere Editor: Antra Legzdiņa Design: Līga Sarkane

On the front cover: Džemma Skulme. CARYATID. 1998. Acrylic on canvas. 70×60 cm From the book: “Džemma Skulme.” Neputns, Rīga, 2015

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2 2020 policy policy . Baltic Biomaterials Biomaterials Baltic . Rīga Technical University’s collaboration with the Centre for European Nuclear for with the Centre collaboration University’s Technical Rīga

MANAGEMENT AND RESEARCH IN TECHNOLOGIES AND ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGIES IN RESEARCH AND MANAGEMENT CURRENT RESEARCH TOPICS IN HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES SOCIAL AND HUMANITIES IN TOPICS RESEARCH CURRENT LIFE SCIENCES LIFE SCIENCE POLICY SCIENCE CONTENTS Aija Rūse. . Gotthard Friedrich Stender as a Latvian and a European scholar as a Latvian Friedrich Stender Gotthard Grudule. Māra heritage and future Latvian National research programme, . Maiga Krūzmētra Baiba Rivža, 2019–2021 INTERFRAME-LV the state, of the sustainability challenges for 2018 operational documents in Latvia, KGB of a collection of Publication . Zālīte Indulis Centre of Excellence project will boost biomaterial research in the region will boost biomaterial project Excellence of Centre noninvasive early for device Portable Bļizņuks. Dmitrijs Aleksejs Ļihačovs, Ļihačova, Ilze skin cancer diagnosis of role the – science forest Opportunities Latvian and challenges for Gaitnieks. Tālis Jurģis Jansons, scientists in forestry forest of Research neural machine translation technology Tilde’s Bergmanis. Toms Mārcis Pinnis, Artem Sukharev, Pauliks, Romass Juris Kalvāns, Boris Ryabov, Aberfelds, Artis Juris Freimanis, Astronomy Radio International “Ventspils Institute Research Engineering . Šķirmante Karina research and its broad-scope Applied Sciences of University Ventspils the of Centre” Association: activities and perspective Hydrogen Latvian . Aivars Starikovs expedition Antarctic Latvian scientific The first . Jānis Karušs Lamsters, Kristaps made significant have University Technical Rīga Scientists of Linards Lapčinskis. Andris Šutka, nanogenerators triboelectric of research in the development Sciences of Academy and the Latvian The Stradiņš family . Trapencieris Pēteris 2019 in science Achievements Values of Latvia’s nature in focus of research: from basic science to applications to science from basic research: of nature in focus Latvia’s of Māris Kļaviņš. Values in industry to inflammation ageing fitness: from healthy mitochondrial of Research Marina Makrecka-Kūka. Matteo Alini, Mauro Logviss, Konstatins Salma, Ilze Edgars Liepiņš, Maija Dambrova, Jānis Ločs, Dubnika Arita, Dagnija Loča, Liliana Liverani, Boccaccini, Aldo R. D’Este, . 100 years of legal history – Latvia’s Constitution and Civil Code Constitution Latvia’s – history legal of years 100 Philipp Schwartz. between Convention Science 1920 and a Draft of Conference (Bulduri) The Rīga Ojārs Spārītis. States the Baltic European dimension policy: science Latvian . Eugene Eteris valued partner a science for – Scientists Young Latvian of Association . Jaudzems Kristaps making in Latvia of Academy the Latvian of Economics of the Institute between Cooperation Ņina Linde. Social Sciences of Academy the Chinese of Economics of and the Institute Sciences . President of Latvia of President . Egils Levits Sciences of Academy the Latvian of President . Ojārs Spārītis Sciences of Academy the Latvian of cooperation international Glimpses on . Trapenciere Ilze accompany, support, empower, – programme in Science Women For Dimanta. Ilze Laar, Karin change perceptions 3 5 6 92 94 83 88 79 73 65 70 60 54 44 48 41 36 28 32 19 23 13 102 106 100

Yearbook 2020

EGILS LEVITS, PRESIDENT OF LATVIA

Dear members of the scientific community, Dear academicians,

I see the Latvian Academy of Sciences as a socially itiveness of the national science sector and I wish responsible knowledge institution. We expect the you endless energy in pursuit of this goal. Academy to be modern and open. Its tasks range I am extremely happy to see that the lines of Latvi- from raising of public awareness on current scien- an Academy of Sciences’ full members are getting tific developments to inspiring youth to pursue a younger. It promotes academic continuity and ever career in science. Privilege of being a scientist closer cooperation between ‘seasoned’ scientists comes with responsibility towards Latvian society and young scientific minds. United scientific com- or our taxpayers. Responsibility to disseminate the munity is a great force and resource, a real catalyst latest Latvian scientific research results, give infor change in the sector in terms of better legal sights into their applicability and raise public framework and funding opportunities. awareness on specific aspects of science. Composed Science is one of priorities of my presidency. I am of the most experienced Latvian scientists, Acade- delighted to follow all the inventions and global my should serve as the source of inspiration and success of Latvian scientists. I celebrate our young knowledge to youth. science stars who have reached new scientific Latvian higher education and science is currently heights and am pleased about the input of indus- going through major changes. Change is always tries and government sector in improving the gov- hard. However, there is no growth without change. ernance of science. Our country needs bright, modern academia. I wel- I wish you a productive year in advancing science come all changes that raise the quality and compet- for better Latvia! Let the work begin!

Yearbook 2020

OJĀRS SPĀRĪTIS, PRESIDENT OF THE LATVIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

Dear colleagues throughout the broad world of science,

Trying to imagine the scale of cosmic dimensions investigating, how we look at global challenges in and comparing these to the scale of the Earth and IT, advances in the fields of translation, infographics its sub-units, even the time our planet has existed and artificial intelligence. Latvian energy specialists might subjectively seem to be small. Why? Because are successfully developing energy saving pro- today the rate at which information is doubling and grammes and are researching alternative forms of technology is advancing is surprisingly rapid; this energy. Our scientists participate in the internation- engenders a feeling that time is “tightening up”, or al investigation of how to mitigate climate change that it has started to pass faster. There is some truth and reduce CO2 emissions, obtaining thereby new in this view. insights; they have also made new discoveries in Today we spend a significant part of our working the fields of smart materials, biomedicine, genetics life devoted to science, such that we may feel privi- and pharmacology, as well as in space exploration. leged to belong to a particular social group, to be Shortages of healthy food and its uneven distribu- part of a special community that has the privilege tion throughout the world is no secret. However, of being at the epicentre of the birth of new theo- Latvia, as one of the Baltic States, is a country with ries, new experiences, experiments without end, and long-standing agricultural and horticultural tradi- new knowledge. This feeling is unusually appealing, tions and is making great strides in the develop- since it allows us to be present at events described ment of organic food technology. Study of the phys- in Genesis, Chapter 1, to experience these and our- ical and chemical properties of wood, as well as selves to write a continuation of this chapter. Our understanding bacterial protection issues, has al- enthusiasm, furthermore, is fuelled by awareness lowed the development of promising building and that our work is progressing not only at one insti- insulating materials, as well as medicines and prod- tute, university, or even at national level, but also ucts for plant protection. that, through global collaboration, we are collec- Science in the 21st century transcends national tively augmenting the knowledge pool of all man- borders and has become an evolving international kind. challenge for civilization. Thus, the goal of prosper- This new issue of the Yearbook of the Latvian Acad- ity of a science-educated society applies not only emy of Sciences will reach its recipients early in for our country, but also for all humanity, on whose 2020, and with it we wish to reach out to scientists behalf we address everyone as potential partners in and other partners – administrators in education solving common scientific problems. It is only and science, both in Europe and elsewhere through- through cooperation that science can advance in a out the world – to inform them what our country is globalised world.

Translated by Eduards Bruno Deksnis 7 Latvian Academy of Sciences

GLIMPSES ON INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION OF THE LATVIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

Ilze Trapenciere, Advisor to the President on the International Affairs; Head of the International Department, Latvian Academy of Sciences

International relations are probably the only focus States, Norway and Switzerland. The objective of the work of the Latvian Academy of Sciences (LAS), of the EASAC is to direct the joint competencies where many activities are carried on in an almost of the academies in advising to EU governmen- unchanged manner and where the description of tal bodies and politicians in decisions that re- our partners has experienced no changes. For this quire scientific expertise. EASAC takes on the reason, parts of this section follow the information role of independent academic experts, bringing presented in the previous issue of this collection [1]. together the top-level competencies and experiences of European Academies. Expert net- PARTICIPATION IN THE INTERNATIONAL AC- works have been formed in the three main pro- ADEMIC ORGANISATIONS grammes (biosciences, energy and environment). EASAC also engages in a dialogue with national The Latvian Academy of Sciences represents Latvia policy-makers, striving to promote evi- in the following scientific organisations that join dence-based decision making in Europe. Academies in Europe or across the world: – The InterAcademy Partnership (IAP) is a global – The European Federation of National Academies network of more than 130 National Academies of of Sciences and Humanities (ALLEA). “All Europe- Science, Medicine and Engineering. IAP was found- an academies” or ALLEA (founded in 1994) brings ed in 2016, uniting three global academy net- together classic European academies of natural works, the oldest of which was founded in 1990. In sciences and academies of humanities and so- IAP, the academies work together to support the cial sciences. The objective of ALLEA is to facili- role of science and its efforts to seek solutions to tate the exchange of information and experienc- address the world’s most challenging problems. es between academies to achieve high standards in research and ethics, and to promote inde- IAP harnesses the expertise of the world’s scien- pendent discussion on strategy and policy of sci- tific, medical and engineering leaders to advance ence at the European level. Latvian Academy of sound policies, improve public health, promote Sciences in ALLEA is represented by Full Mem- excellence in science education, and achieve oth- ber of the LAS Ojārs Spārītis, President of the er critical development goals. IAP also uses the Latvian Academy of Sciences. expertise of its leading members to assist in – European Academies Science Advisory Council building the capacity of its less-experienced and (EASAC) is the voice of independent science ad- newest members, thus strengthening their abili- vice, mobilising Europe’s leading scientists to ty to take on an advisory role in their own na- guide EU policy for the benefit of society. The tions and to contribute to global discussions. EASAC is a relatively young organisation (found- – The International Science Council (ISC) is a ed in 2001). EASAC is the association of the Na- non-governmental organisation with a unique tional Academies of Science of the EU Member global membership that brings together 40 in-

8 Yearbook 2020

ternational scientific Unions and Associations BILATERAL AGREEMENTS BETWEEN THE and over 140 national and regional scientific ACADEMIES organisations including Academies and Re- search Councils. The ISC was founded in 2018 The encouragement of international contacts has as the result of a merger between the Interna- always been one of the priorities of the Latvian tional Council for Science (ICSU) and the Inter- Academy of Sciences. Every year, the LAS refreshes national Social Science Council (ISSC). The the existing collaboration links and creates new Council’s activities focus on three principal are- ones with academies of sciences from different as of work: science-for-policy to stimulate and countries. In 2019, new cooperation agreements support international scientific research and were made with Hamburg Academy of Sciences and scholarship, and to communicate science that is Humanities and Kazakhstan National Academy of relevant to international policy issues; poli- Sciences. cy-for-science to promote developments that As of January 2020, LAS has concluded bilateral enable science to contribute more effectively to agreements on scientific cooperation with foreign major issues in the international public domain; partner academies: Austrian Academy of Sciences, and scientific freedom and responsibility to de- Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, National fend the free and responsible practice of sci- Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Bulgarian Academy ence. ICS activities include a broad range of is- of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, sues, from global sustainability, poverty, urban the Czech Academy of Sciences, Estonian Academy health and wellbeing and disaster risk reduc- of Sciences, Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, tion, to data, observing systems. Academy of Sciences – Institute of France, Georgian – Since 2016, the Latvian Academy of Sciences regu- National Academy of Sciences, Berlin–Branden- larly participates in workshops, conferences and burg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Saxon other activities of the Scientific Advice for Policy Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Hamburg by European Academies or SAPEA project on a va- Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Hungarian riety of issues. The SAPEA project enables to share Academy of Sciences, National Academy of the knowledge and expertise from across Europe as it Linsey, Italy, Israel Academy of Sciences and Hu- is part of the European Commission’s Scientific manities, Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, Kazakh- Advice Mechanism. SAPEA brings together out- stan National Academy of Sciences, Montenegrin standing expertise in engineering, humanities, Academy of Sciences and Arts, Polish Academy of medicine, natural and social sciences from over Sciences, Russian Academy of Sciences, Slovak 100 academies, young academies and learned so- Academy of Sciences, Slovenian Academy of Sciences cieties across Europe. Together with the Group of and Arts, Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History Chief Scientific Advisors, SAPEA provides inde- and Antiquities, Swiss Academy of Sciences, Ministry pendent scientific advice to European Commis- of Science and Technology, National Academy of sioners to support their decision-making. SAPEA Sciences of Ukraine, Academy of Sciences of the aims to stimulate debate in Europe about the role Republic of Uzbekistan. of evidence in policy-making. SAPEA is funded by grant from the EU Horizon 2020 programme. INTERNATIONAL MOBILITY OF RESEARCHERS – Latvia is represented in Academia Europaea and Academia Scientiarum et Artium Europaea The Latvian Academy of Sciences supports short through individual membership of outstanding -term international mobility of researchers. The in- Latvian scientists, full and corresponding mem- ternational mobility is based on cooperation agree- bers of the LAS. Five outstanding scientists of ments between the Latvian Academy of Sciences and Latvia are members of the Academia Europaea, its partner academies. In 2020, the LAS has 17 active and 17 prominent Latvian scientists are mem- agreements on the exchange mobility of research- bers of Academia Scientiarum et Artium Europaea. ers. The mobility is open to all Latvian scientists.

9 Latvian Academy of Sciences

The grants are modest, but every little bit helps. The educational opportunities provided by the coopera- budget of the LAS also covers the reception expens- tion: “The project has provided opportunities for es of foreign researchers in Latvia. The expenses of modernisation of the content of education and our scientists abroad are borne by the academy’s training at the Latvia Culture College, as undertak- partners in target countries. The work of the pro- en research activities regarding digitization of cul- gramme is directed by the International Depart- tural heritage and analysis of process of interaction ment of the Academy. International mobility fellow- between different cultures and new technologies is ships offer valuable opportunities for international directly related to the development of technologi- researchers and postgraduate students to work and cal programmes in college. The research topics dis- do research at the Latvian Academy of Sciences, cover the latest trends in the digitization of cultural Universities and research institutions. Fellowships heritage and use of the outcomes in the study pro- provide for 350 mobility days per annum. cess, thus promoting the quality of contents of the There are cooperation project activities with the study programmes and competitiveness of college Polish Academy of Sciences, Bulgarian Academy of in educational arena.” Sciences and the Czech Academy of Sciences. The Inese Runce (Institute of Philosophy and Sociolo- cooperation project agreements provide the possi- gy, University of Latvia) has a long cooperation bilities of cooperation during the time period of with the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences: “Our pro- three years. ject of collaboration launches the third phase of collaboration between the Bulgarian and Latvian Professor Jānis Spīgulis, Full Member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences. The team of project had al- Academy of Sciences, head of the cooperation pro- ready the long-lasting collaboration experience, ject between the Latvian Academy of Sciences and which resulted in top-level international scientific the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, tells about the forums organised in the Baltics and Bulgaria, pro- cooperation project “Multispectral and fluorescent ject seminars held in Rīga and Sofia, various publi- imaging of skin tumours”: “This project facilitates cations and new established links with the experts new technologies for non-contact early diagnostics of many countries outside the scope of our collab- of skin malformations, including cancers. Develop- oration. We are publishing our results in the Year- ment of multispectral (field of expertise of Latvian book of Balkan and Baltic Studies (YBBS), which is a partners) and fluorescent (field of expertise of Bul- peer-reviewed (SCOPUS un DOAJ) annual English garian partners) imaging techniques and their com- language journal for the study of humanities (incl. bination allow increasing both sensitivity and spec- ethnology, folklore, religiosity, and migration stud- ificity of diagnostics.” ies), global relations and influences of the past Professor Jurijs Dehtjars, Full Member of the Latvi- events and modern developments in the area. It an Academy of Sciences, introduces to the results will be a joint publication of Bulgarian, Lithuani- of his cooperation project with the Bulgarian Acad- an, Estonian, and Latvian Academies of Sciences, emy of Sciences: “The project deals with sponge- Centre of Excellence in Estonian Studies, Institute like nanoporous aluminum films (black aluminium, of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethno- BA) that absorb optical radiation (OR) extremely graphic Museum, Estonian Literary Museum, Lithu- effectively. BA are targeted to harvest OR radiation anian Institute of History, Institute of Philosophy and convert it to heat and electricity. Thermal sta- and Sociology, University of Latvia. Besides, we bility of BA was explored, the BSc thesis was devel- also organise a conference in Rīga, Latvia, “Balkan oped (defended 2019, June). BA capacity for nano- and Baltic States in the United Europe – History, dosimetry, when alpha particles and protons are Religion, and Culture IV. Religiosity and Spirituality absorbed by a nanovolume, was tested.” in the Baltic and Balkan Cultural Space: History Gita Seņķa, Vice Rector of the Latvian Culture Col- and Nowadays” on June 19–20”. lege, head of the cooperation project with the Bul- Professor Anna Stafecka, Corresponding Member of garian Academy of Sciences, highly appreciates the the LAS, leader of the cooperation project between

10 Yearbook 2020

the Latvian Academy of Sciences and the Czech Academy of Sciences, “Latvian – West Slavic Lin- guistic and Cultural Connections: Past, Present, Per- spectives” tells about the project: “The aim of the project is to establish wider scientific cooperation between researchers from the Czech Republic and Latvia. The project participants work on common research topics, relevant research methods and preparation of the concept of a multi-author monograph, in which an important aspect is the investigation of the linguistic vitality of the dialects functioning on the borderlands. A special attention is paid also to the multilingual- ism on the borderlands.” Scientific conference and project workshop was organised by the Fig. 1. Dr. pharm. Institute of the Slavic languages of the Czech Acad- Maija Dambrova emy of Sciences in Prague. A project workshop and a scientific conference “Language in society” is organised in Latvia in February 2020, commemorating activity and her remarkable inventions that have the 147th anniversary of the linguist Jānis Endzelīns, received recognition on a global level. Dr. pharm. academician of the Latvian Academy of Sciences” Maija Dambrova is among the most renowned in- (Principal investigator Professor Anna Stafecka, In- ventors of her generation in the Baltic States. In ad- stitute of the Latvian Language, University of Latvia). dition, M. Dambrova has developed new pharmacological in vitro and in vivo methods to determine the INTERNATIONAL AWARDS active mechanisms of potential medicines. The Pro- fessor has also invented new perspective substanc- In partnership with international organisations, es that help the human body to deal with cardiovas- academies, research institutions and companies the cular diseases and act on the receptors in the central Latvian Academy of Sciences organises the award- nervous system. The World International Property ing of a number of prizes, among them the Walter Organisation database contains 118 registered in- Zapp Prize (since 2004), the L`ORÉAL Baltic – UNE- ventions with M. Dambrova as author or co-author. SCO fellowship “For Women in Science” (since 2005), L’Oreal Baltic scholarship “For Women in Science” the European Prize of the European Academy of is the support programme for female scientists. Sciences and Arts or Felix Award (since 2001), as It promotes the professional development of Baltic well as a Medal of the Baltic Academies of Sciences female scientists, helping achieve new goals and (since 1999). enhance the contribution to both science and soci- Walter Zapp [2] prize is awarded by the Latvian Acad- ety. The programme was brought to Latvia by the emy of Sciences, the Patent Office of the Republic of L ́Oréal Baltic For Women in Science Programme Latvia, and the company Minox. The prize is awarded Honorable Patroness, Professor, Dr. Vaira Vīķe-Frei- for an outstanding invention or a complex of inven- berga (President of Latvia, 1999–2007). tions. The prize was awarded for the first time in The scholarship programme is implemented in coop- 2005, celebrating Walter Zapp’s 100th birthday. eration with the academies of sciences of the three In 2019, the Walter Zapp prize was awarded to Pro- Baltic States and the Latvian, Estonian, and Lithuani- fessor Maija Dambrova (Fig. 1), Full Member of the an National UNESCO Commissions. Since the imple- LAS. The academician received the award in recog- mentation of the scholarship programme in Latvia nition of her outstanding contribution to the devel- 15 years ago, 45 female scientists received the award opment of new medicines and determining their for their contribution to science. Since 2017, the

11 Latvian Academy of Sciences

scholarship programme has been expanded, and four tists, public figures (ex-ministers, ambassadors), and scientists from Lithuania and four from Estonia have politicians. By the end of the 1930s, six Conferences been awarded. One prize in each country is awarded on Intellectual Cooperation have been held. The to a women scientist up to 40 years old with a doc- last conference was the “Baltic Week” in Tallinn (Es- toral degree for research in the fields of life, environ- tonia) in 1940. In the 1990s, Royal Swedish Acade- mental sciences, physics and engineering. my of Sciences and the Norwegian Academy of Two prizes in Latvia, one in Lithuania and one in Sciences and Letters together with the Baltic Acad- Estonia are awarded to PhD candidate up to 33 emies organised legal conferences in order to dis- years old to finalise thesis research in the fields of cuss legal and constitutional issues with special life, environmental sciences, physics and engineer- focus on the Baltic States. In 1990, Estonian, Latvian, ing. Each of the Baltic countries has its own sepa- and Lithuanian Academies of Sciences issued a rate Programme Jury that will carefully assess ap- communique on cooperation. It was then decided plications from candidates from that country. that the Academies would encourage scientific col- In 2019, the scholarships were granted to Latvian laboration. However, only in 1999 the tradition of researchers: Dr. pharm. Marina Makrecka-Kūka, Mg. historic Baltic Conferences on Intellectual Coopera- sc. ing. Jana Vecstaudža and Mg. sc. ing. Laura Dem- tion was revived at the 7th Conference held in Rīga. bovska, Lithuanian scientist Jurgita Skiecevičiene The 16th Baltic Conference on Intellectual Cooper- and Milda Alksne, and the scholarships for Estonian ation took place in Vilnius, the Lithuanian Academy researchers – to Karina Parta and Tuula Sepa. of Sciences, on 2–3 May 2019. The topic of the con- Dr. pharm. Marina Makrecka-Kuka was awarded the ference was “Genes: from the Past to the Future”. fellowship for her work in the field of pharmaceuti- Conference mostly focused on biomedical sciences. cal research: “Acylcarnitines, mitochondrial fitness & Internationally recognised scholars from the Baltic immunometabolism: novel target for healthy aging”. academies of sciences and from Germany and Fin- Mg. sc. ing. J. Vecstaudža received the fellowship for land presented their research results. The presenta- her research in the field of materials science “Nano- tions of the first day of the conference focused on structured and biomimetic amorphous calcium the impact of modern genetics and genomics on phosphate biomaterials for bone tissue engineering” plant selection, medical practice, and the emer- and Mg. sc. ing. Laura Dembovska (engineering) re- gence and development of novel scientific disci- ceived the fellowship for her project “Alkali-activat- plines. The ways of how the latest achievements in ed aluminosilicate composites with heat-resistant genetics and genomics are changing the perception aggregates for industrial applications”. of the history of human populations had been demonstrated on the example of Lithuania on the COOPERATION BETWEEN THE BALTIC second day of the event. ACADEMIES OF SCIENCES The latest technologies of biomedical research – bioinformatics, medical biotechnologies, genome The tradition of holding the Baltic Conferences on editing tools for the analysis of the human ge- Intellectual Cooperation takes its history back to nome – enable research into and the development the 1920s. In the beginning, conferences were or- of ethnogenesis-related issues. Studies into varia- ganised by the Institute of Intellectual Cooperation tions in DNA sequence make it possible to recon- at the League of Nations (Paris). Estonia, Latvia, struct the evolutionary history, origin, and structure Lithuania, and Finland, were regularly participating of the human populations and to detect differences at the Congresses, and conferences occasionally and similarities between individuals or popula- were attended by Sweden and Denmark. tions. Modern ethnogenetic research is developed The 1st Baltic Congress on Intellectual Cooperation by collating archaeological, genomic, and linguistic took place in Kaunas (Lithuania) in 1935, and subse- data. Comparison of results produced by separate quently the conferences were held on annual basis branches of science is interesting to the general with participation of university academics, scien- public as it facilitates a better understanding and

12 Yearbook 2020

Fig. 2. Dr. habil. biol. Isaak Rashal, Full Member of the LAS, receives the Award of the Baltic Academies of Sciences in Vilnius, May 2019 clarification of the theory of the origin of nations. netic research between Estonia, Latvia and Lithua- The next Baltic Intellectual Cooperation Conference nia; and to the Lithuanian geneticist Professor is to be held in Tallinn (Estonia) in 2021, and it will Vaidutis Kučinskas for seminal results in research address technical sciences. that have enabled essential reconsideration of the histories of the origin of the Baltic populations and BALTIC ACADEMY AWARD identification of their genome diversity and similarities, performed jointly with Latvian and Estonian Since 1999, also an international award – Medal of scientists. the Baltic Academies of Sciences is awarded during the Baltic Conferences on Intellectual Cooperation. INNOVATION - THE DRIVING FORCE OF THE Medals and diplomas of the three Baltic Academies 21ST CENTURY IN THE BALTIC SEA of Sciences for the development of intellectual relations between the Baltic countries are awarded to The conference “Innovation – Power of the 21st Cen- scientists and intellectuals. In 2019, the Baltic tury” (24–26 February 2020, Rīga) discussed the chal- awards were presented to the Latvian geneticist lenges and opportunities in the Baltic Sea countries Professor Isaak Rashal (Fig. 2) for essential research in terms of science, technological development and in genetics and important pedagogical and organi- innovation. The conference was organised with the sational input into development and strengthening support of the INTERREG project “Smart-Up Baltic of basic and applied research in plant genetics in Sea Region”, aiming at improved cooperation between Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia; to the Estonian ge- the countries of the Baltic Sea to address social chal- neticist Professor Maris Laan for major input into lenges by seeking methods to build the capacity to cooperation in basic and clinical reproductive ge- implement regional innovation and RIS3 strategies.

13 Latvian Academy of Sciences

The main keynote speakers at the opening of the Conference “Innovation – Power of the 21st Century”, Rīga, 24 February 2019. From the left: I. Muižnieks, Elected Rector, University of Latvia; R. Nieminen, President, Finnish Academy of Sciences and Letters; S. Kilin, Deputy Chairman, Presidium, National Academy of Sciences, Belarus; M. D’Hooge, Senior Head of Unit, European Investment Bank; A. Kužnieks, Head, Representation of the European Commission in Latvia; T. Tukiainen, Professor, Alto University; A. Ērglis, Vice President, Latvian Academy of Sciences; V.Vīķe-Freiberga, Patroness of the Conference, President, Republic of Latvia (1999–2007); O. Spārītis, President, Latvian Academy of Sciences; K. Ploka, Advisor to the Minister of Finances; J. Banys, President, Lithuanian Academy of Sciences

During the conference, more than 15 experts from environmental sustainability through circular eco- the Baltic Sea region shared their ideas and experi- nomic methods; public health through life sciences, ence on possible initiatives for innovation coopera- biotechnology and medical research; increased eco- tion. Participants discussed the development and nomic potential and increased overall security specialisation of the Baltic Sea Smart Specialisation through cooperation with the Baltic Sea countries. Strategy (RIS3), the European Union’s research and “The Rīga Declaration has provided the basis for a innovation objectives and national cooperation in shared vision among national academies of sciences research, technological development and innovation, on how and in what direction science needs to de- the region’s biggest challenges and common chal- velop,” stresses academician Ojārs Spārītis, President lenges. The conference also discussed the establish- of the Latvian Academy of Sciences. “The common ment of the Innovation Platform in the Baltic Sea objective of the countries of the Baltic Sea region is Region. The conference adopted “Rīga Declaration” to develop a knowledge based society and economy. for the cooperation of the science academies of the In order to achieve this goal, it is essential for all region and the universities in the pursuit of scientific partners to be committed to academic autonomy and projects, as well as the development of a scientific integrity, to implement the principles of “open sci- innovation platform for the Baltic Sea region. The ence”, to develop all forms of institutional and scien- declaration might become a starting point for im- tific cooperation, and to find and develop different proved cooperation on the so-called “principle 3S”: support instruments to ensure cooperation. “

REFERENCES

1. Latvian Academy of Sciences, Yearbook of the Academy of Sciences, 2019; www.lza.lv

2. Walter Zapp (1905, Rīga, Latvia – 2003, Binningen, Switzerland) was a Baltic German engineer, the “inventor of a camera smaller than a cigar and weighing less than a cigarette lighter” that started the production of camera in Rīga, in 1938. Zapp invented a number of photographic improvements. Zapp moved to Germany (1941) and established Minox GmbH (in 1945) to manufacture improved versions of his camera. After 1950, he served as a consultant to the Minox company. https://www.minox.com/en/about/walter-zapp/

14 2020 15 - - Urte Yearbook Urtė Dr. Dr. al Baltic For é al-UNESCO al-UNESCO For é promising research projects in 54 national and re- 118 countries. gional programmes covering After the national 15 competitions out year, every standing young researchers are identified asna- 275 the of winners the among the science of future receive They worldwide. awarded fellowships tional an additional grant, thus giving them greater visi- community, scientific international the among bility it is designed to of one as accelerate 2019, In the globally. science in women advancement young of - devel brains our how researching is who Neniškytė op in early childhood (6 months to 6 years), with particular reference to anomalies that can lead to serious mental illness. She is currently exploring rather synapses sometimes remain, excessive why than being removed or for “pruned” optimum effi- Aberrations ciency. in this “synaptic pruning” process can result in neurodevelopmental and epilepsy. schizophrenia such as autism, diseases Simultaneously, each year, the L’Or fe eminent five recognises award Science in Women forworld the of regions five the from scientists male their remarkable contribution to the ment advance 15 International Rising L´Or Talents, Women in Science winner from Lithuania was selected – Vilnius University scientist Neniskyte’s aims to uncover what determines which determines what uncover to aims Neniskyte’s synapses should be maintained and which should modified be could process the how and removed, be a disease can develop. before errors, any correct to - - - - al in partnership é al Poland Baltic HUB Baltic al Poland é al-UNESCO al-UNESCO For Women in Science é al-UNESCO al-UNESCO For Women in Science initia

é al Poland Baltic HUB Baltic al Poland

é tions. tions. The L’Or awards Programme fellowships to female PhD stu dents and PhD holders each year in national and regional competitions. Each year there are 6500 over applications, and more than young 250 women scientists talented are supported to pursue with UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Sci- with (the UNESCO United Nations Educational, In Women For the Organisation), Cultural and entific Science programme seeks in strong to careers, scientific in women of resentation improve the rep- the conviction that the world needs science, and science needs women. The programme works - to gether with the National Science Academies who wish and worlds inclusive more for vision the share to highlight the work of women scientists by care- - competi national the of winners the selecting fully managed by the Foundation L’Or The L’Or ented, ented, young, and already experienced scientists, de- Globally, society. our to value significant adding spite of many women leading groundbreaking re research- of 29% only represent still women search, ers [1]. In the Baltic countries gender we parity; are however, as closer the to world hurdles - to wards a future threatened by climate change, dis- we must eases lose and no resources scarcity, time in recognising and promoting science, especially scientists. women of achievements putting forward The multifaceted scientific landscape gathers tal Science programme Manager for programme Manager for Women In Science For Affairs Manager, Regulatory and Scientific , biol. Dimanta, Dr. Ilze L´Or countries, Baltic , Corporate Communication Manager, For Women In Science programme Manager for Baltic countries, countries, Baltic programme Manager for In Science Women For Manager, Communication Corporate Laar, Karin L´Or CHANGE PERCEPTIONS SUPPORT, ACCOMPANY, PROGRAMME – EMPOWER, FOR WOMEN IN SCIENCE tive tive began 21 years ago. Established in 1998 and Latvian Academy of Sciences

of research. As role models for future generations, Baltic, the Latvian Academy of Sciences and Latvian brilliant and committed in the most competitive National Commission for UNESCO began imple- fields of research of our time, the global laureates menting the programme For Women in Science in illustrate the remarkable contributions that women Latvia, and the first three talents were recognised in can bring to science. To date, 107 laureates have 2004. been honoured, distinguished for the excellence of In 2019, the Programme celebrated the 15th anni- their scientific work. Three of them: Ada Yonath, versary in Latvia and was proud to have recognised Elizabeth H. Blackburn and Christiane Nüsslein-Vol- 45 scientists in Latvia and to have expanded coop- hard have won Nobel Prizes for science. eration to Estonia and Lithuania since 2017, up to date four scientists have been awarded from Esto- LÓRÉAL BALTIC FOR WOMEN IN SCIENCE nia and four – from Lithuania. Latvian, Estonian, and YOUNG TALENTS PROGRAMME Lithuanian Academies of Science, National Commis- sions of UNESCO and LÓréal Baltic are working to- In 2004, led by strong initiative from the Baltic gether to empower more women scientists to Young Talents Programme Honourable Patroness, achieve scientific excellence and participate equal- ex-President of Latvia Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga, LÓréal ly in solving the great challenges of science.

L’Oréal Baltic For Women in Science ceremony, 15th anniversary in 2019 at the University of Latvia. All winners (Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania), with, from the left: Lithuanian Science Academy president Prof. Jūras Banys, Regional Jury of Latvia member Prof. Mārcis Auziņš, Regional Jury of Latvia member Prof. Vija Kluša, President of the the Latvian Academy of Sciences Prof. Ojārs Spārītis, Latvian National Commission for UNESCO General Secretary Baiba Moļņika, Assel Utegenova, Deputy Coordinator of the Network of National Commissions for UNESCO, Regional Jury of Latvia president Prof. Ivars Kalviņš, Baltic Young Talents Programme Honourable Patroness, ex-President of Latvia Dr. Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga, L´Oréal Poland Baltic HUB Country General Manager Niels W. Juhl Photo: Jānis Saliņš

16 Yearbook 2020

Winners of 2019 are currently working on their pro- 5) Alkali-activated aluminosilicate composites posed topics: with heat-resistant aggregates for industrial ap- 1) Onco-Multi-Omics approach in gastric cancer plications, Mg. sc. ing. Laura Dembovska (Faculty research, Dr. Jurgita Skiecevičienė (Faculty of of Civil Engineering, Institute of Materials and Medicine, Institute for Digestive Research, Lith- Structures, Rīga Technical University, Latvia); uanian University of Health Sciences); 6) The effects of air humidification and irrigation 2) Acylcarnitines, mitochondrial fitness & immu- on ectomycorrhizal colonizers of silver birch, nometabolism: novel target for healthy aging, Mg. sc. Kaarin Parts (Institute of Ecology and Dr. pharm. Marina Makrecka-Kūka (Latvian Insti- Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, Estonia); tute of Organic Synthesis); 7) Angiogenic potential promotion by constructs 3) Adaptations to polluted oncogenic aquatic en- designed for bone tissue regeneration, Mg. sc. vironments: a study of contemporary evolution Milda Alksnė (Life Sciences Centre, Institute of in Baltic Sea flounders, Dr. Tuul Sepp (Depart- Biochemistry, Department of Biological Models, ment of Zoology, University of Tartu, Estonia); Vilnius University, Lithuania). 4) Nanostructured and biomimetic amorphous During the 15 years of programme existence, vari- calcium phosphate biomaterials for bone tissue ous scientific research topics have been completed engineering. Mg. sc. ing. Jana Vecstaudža (Bio- and valuable outcome has been made in the form of materials Innovations and Development Centre, scientific publications, products, patents for discov- Rīga Technical University/Institute of General eries and, of course, in tremendous development of Chemical Engineering, Latvia); scientific careers.

17 Latvian Academy of Sciences

Table 1. A few of research topics by Latvian scientists For Women in Science Programme 2005–2018

The role of melanocortins and plant antioxidants for inhibiting Latvian Academy of Sciences Full Member, neuroinflammation and oxidative stress in the early stages of neurodegenerative Professor, Dr. habil. biol. Ruta Muceniece processes (2005) The role of genetic factors in the effectiveness of cisplatin therapy in lung cancer Latvian Academy of Sciences Full Member, patients (2005) Professor, Dr. biol. Aija Linē The role of nuclear factor kB in cardiac cell survival under ischemic conditions Latvian Academy of Sciences Full Member, (2006) Professor, Dr. pharm. Maija Dambrova Modification of fullerene and its derivatives for electrochemical studies and Asoc. Prof. Dr. chem. Māra Plotniece improvement of solubility (2006) The role of peptidergic and non-peptidic regulation in manifestations of stress Dr. med. Baiba Jansone and depression (2007) Synthesis and characterisation of potential gene transfection agents – self- Latvian Academy of Sciences Corresponding assembling polyfunctional pyridinium derivatives (2007) Member, Dr. chem. Aiva Plotniece Hydrogen storage in lanthanum nickel alloys and composite material Latvian Academy of Sciences Corresponding development, improvement of their physical and chemical properties to increase Member, Dr. phys. Līga Grīnberga an amount of absorbed / desorbed hydrogen in metal hydrides (2007) The application of autoantibodies in the development of cancer serodiagnostic, Dr. biol. Karina Siliņa prognostic and novel therapeutic approaches (2009) An effect of vitamin A on molecular mechanism in human heart forming cells in Dr. biol. Inese Čakstiņa vitro (2009) Properties and diffusion of tritium accumulated in fusion reactor materials (2010) Dr. chem. Elīna Pajuste Genetics of rheumatoid arthritis in Latvian population (2011) Dr. med. Liene Ņikitina-Zaķe Phase transitions and physical properties of Na1/2Bi1/2TiO3-based solid Dr. phys. Marija Dunce solutions (2011) Development of calcium phosphate bone cements / biodegradable polymer Dr. sc. ing. Dagnija Loča composites for local drug delivery (2012) Role of nitric oxide metabolism in the pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy in Dr. med. Jelizaveta Sokolovska Latvian population (2013) Identification of individuals at high risk of developing melanoma (2014) Latvian Academy of Sciences Corresponding Member, Dr. biol. Dace Pjanova Synthesis and properties of news fluorescent probes comprising lipid-type Dr. chem. Laura Beķere amphiphilic self-assembling moiety as theranostics (2015) Development of nanostructured biocomposites with antiosteoporotic properties Dr. sc. ing. Kritīne Šalma-Ancāne (2016) Microbiome of different tick species in Latvia: exploring possible impacts on the Dr. biol. Renāte Ranka ecology of tick-borne diseases (2017) Determination of pigments used in the traditional dyeing processes of textiles Dr. chem. Ilva Nakurte using chromatography (2018)

For women to flourish in science, excellence in re- learning and education, reaching young women search is just the first step. We know that leader- and girls by creating awareness on scientific edu- ship is vital to banishing the discrimination that cational programmes. too often prevents women from progressing. That Moreover, this plays an important role in our coun- is why, in addition to vital funding and recogni- tries. In Latvia L´Oréal Baltic For Women in Science tion, we offer our fellows the opportunity to build fellows, during a survey and interviews conducted strong leadership skills, and a network with fellow in May 2018, emphasised that a large number of women scientists. We must encourage mentorship, challenges is not connected to gender roles, but collaboration and strong role models as key rather to the overall scientific landscape in the means to help more young women break the glass country, and the same challenges are faced by men ceiling. We need further to promote the value of daily. On personal level, the biggest challenge is

18 Yearbook 2020

time planning and finding time both for science and the key drivers for participation are encouragement for family. Less of fellows are concerned of compe- by colleagues, recognition acquired and prestige of tition, prejudice, or lack of financing. When speak- the fellowship. Financing plays an important role as ing about discrimination in the field, the scientists well, 25% of fellows say. indicate that it is rare or non-existent. The non-ex- At the 15th anniversary of the programme L’Oréal istence of women in leading positions in all fields Baltic For Women in Science, we must remember of science is the main cause of inequality in science there is still much more to be done to achieve true and it depends on the field of study. For majority of gender equality in science. We want to accelerate fellows (90%) receiving L’Oréal Baltic For Women In this transformation, undertaking our initiative to Science rewards has been a true career achieve- support, train and raise awareness of women, in ment, 10% view it as recognition and acknowledg- the service of science. We remain determined, and ment, even as bonus to their existing work. Emo- we are moving steadily towards making our vision tional impact of the reward is to be emphasised, as a reality.

REFERENCE

1. UNESCO Science report, 2015

L’Oréal Baltic For Women in Science 15th anniversary in 2019 in the University of Latvia. Winners representing 2005–2019 with L´Oréal Poland Baltic HUB Country General Manager Niels W. Juhl Photo: Jānis Saliņš

19 SCIENCE POLICY

2020 21 - - - Yearbook

–

DIFFERENT DIFFERENT – recognition in 1921. in 1921. de jure recognition JOINT STARTING POINT POINT STARTING JOINT FINALISATION teresting from an international perspective – asking asking – perspective international an from teresting questions which could be taken up by the - interna tional research community. tution and the The Civil drafting Code. of the Con stitution was a relatively quick process, especially compared to the somewhat never-ending work on the Latvian Civil Code. On 17–18 April 1920, the parlia own ever first its elected population Latvian As the Assembly. the so-called Constitutional ment, name Constitutional Assembly already indicates, one of the main tasks was to work out a - constitu bit a took This Latvia. of Republic young the for tion On 18 November the 1918, of Republic Latvia was declared. Naturally, a newborn the with state – foundation (legal) own its build to needs wants and constitution laying out what this newborn state is all about and a civil law regulating the relationships between the individuals. And naturally, this foundation is not built within one day. Especially - territo Latvian on ones the as circumstances in not de- had Latvia Although 1918. November 18 after ry than more bit a took still it independence, its clared two years until the full Before that, the years 1918 military until a Independence, of 1920 War Latvian the were of years the conflict on the territory of- over was situation the this once But newly established Latvia. of Republic an and constitution own an both on work the come, started. civil code own show already duration its and work codification The Consti Latvian the between differences substantial -

ber 1918, ber the 1918, Latvian state with all its institutions, legal system etc. needed to be established. When system legal the of cornerstones two the at looking and hence the Latvian state, the Constitution and four and respectively, it further, took the Civil Code, 20 years for these laws to enter into Hence, force. their 100th anniversaries are still to come in 2022 (Civil Code). and 2038 (Constitution) starting 1918 and This process on 18 November is indeed lasting until 1922 respectively, and 1938, an interesting Although process. having started in the same situation, the codification work of both very took Latvia of system legal the of cornerstones have laws both enough, Interestingly ways. different in other and are different some things in common aspects. These parallels and differences are then not only of interest for those interested in Latvian They have (legal) to history. be seen in the overall World First the after period the of context historical into coming Europe Central in states many with War being. It is a development which can neither seen be independent from global developments nor within the had bor- did an this impact process only this ar- Hence Latvia. of Republic ders young the of between differences and parallels the about is ticle both laws and those aspects which make them in- 100th anniversary of the Republic of Latvia in 1918. 1918. in Latvia of Republic the of anniversary 100th - Novem 18 with over not were celebrations the But ber 2018 and – more 100th anniversaries followed establish- the of anniversary 100th the 2019, in e.g., the University Foreign Service, the Latvian ment of Latvian the or Library National Latvian the Latvia, of as surprise a as come not does This Academy. Music even if independence was declared on 18 Novem Big celebrations were held on the occasion of the , Turku, Finland Turku, , jur. Dr. Philipp Schwartz, C IVIL C O D E LATVIA’S CONSTITUTION AND 100 YEARS OF LEGAL HISTORY Latvian Academy of Sciences

Caption (in Latvian): “Dromedary in the Constitutional Assembly” (The dromedary being the Constitutional law squeezed through the mill stones of the opposition) [1]

less than two years with the Constitution being periment to imagine which civil law system Latvia adopted on 15 February 1922 and entering into would have adopted after regaining its independ- force on 7 November of the same year. The codifica- ence in 1990 if the Latvian Civil Code of 1937 had tion history of the Latvian Civil Code is actually a not existed. It would be equally interesting to fur- much longer one. It also started in 1920 with the ther research why the one law took only two years first codification committee being set up. But it while the other one took 18 years although both should take 17 more years and in total three com- started at the same time in the same circumstanc- mittees until eventually on 28 January 1937 the fi- es? One answer could be that for the civil law, it is nal Civil Code was adopted and entered into force possible to operate for a while on the basis of the on 1 January 1938. Two years to have an own consti- existing civil law. At least as long as it does not con- tution versus 18 years for having an own civil code. tradict the basic principles and values of the new The Constitution was drafted and entered into force state. While a constitution as the basis of a state has shortly after a period of war (not only the First World to be created specifically for this state and previous War, but also the already mentioned Latvian War of constitutions can hardly be used, not even tempo- Independence from 1918 to 1920). The Latvian Civil rarily. Code, on the other hand, obviously needed a period of peace and stability between 1920 and 1937 to be THE LATVIAN PERSPECTIVE – HOW “LATVIAN” developed and adopted. The Latvian Constitution ARE THE LATVIAN CONSTITUTION AND CIVIL was adopted by a democratically elected legislative CODE? body (the Constitutional Assembly) while the Latvi- an Civil Code was adopted by the Cabinet of Minis- Both the Latvian Constitution and the Latvian Civil ters in times of the authoritarian regime of Kārlis Code are not only the cornerstones of the Latvian Ulmanis (1877–1942). It was actually after the legal system, but cornerstones of the Latvian coup d’état in 1934 that the government under self-understanding. Until 2014, the Constitution Kārlis Ulmanis suspended the Latvian Constitution. had only a simple introductory sentence stating “The It can only be speculated if the Latvian Civil Code of people of Latvia, in freely elected Constitutional As- 1937 had ever been finalised, if Latvia had ever got sembly, have adopted the following State Constitu- its own Civil Code before it was occupied by the tion”. In 2014, the Constitution was complemented Soviet Union in 1940. It could be an interesting ex- with a new preamble describing the foundations of

22 Yearbook 2020

the Latvian state and the identity of the Latvian tic German Helmuth Stegman (1892–1983). How- State, its history and values in an explicit way. This ever, this draft did not get the necessary majority. new preamble serves as the “business card of Lat- The Latvian Constitutional Court was eventually es- via’s constitutional system.” [2] Interestingly enough tablished in 1996. The last and decisive (third) cod- the father of this new preamble is today’s Latvian ification committee of the Latvian Civil Code, work- State President Egils Levits who considered that the ing from 1933 to 1936, consisted of seven Latvians, new preamble helps in creating a joint understand- two Baltic Germans and one Russian. A more thor- ing of the Latvian identity [3]. What makes the new ough analysis using the method of network analysis preamble unique is that “Usually preambles com- could provide further interesting findings [6]. prise issues that are relevant at the moment when The German Weimar Constitution of 1919 is often the constitution is created, whereas in the case of referred to as basis for the Latvian Constitution [7]. Latvia the Preamble reflects the constitutional real- But the Weimar Constitution was not the only ity spanning almost 100 years.” [4] source of inspiration. The members of the Constitu- The importance of the Latvian Civil Code has to do tional Assembly in their discussions actually re- with the political and ideological aspects of having ferred to many more countries (without that the an own civil code. But not so much with the content respective constitution necessarily had a direct im- itself which to a large extent is the old civil law pact on the Latvian Constitution). According to the from 1864 (internal continuity) only “wrapped” in a Constitutional Assembly’s transcripts they referred new “dress” in the form of the Latvian Civil Code 30 times to the United States of America, 29 times (external discontinuity). The politicisation and ideol- to England, 25 times each to Switzerland and Ger- ogisation of the Latvian Civil Code (over)emphasis- many and 22 times to France. But also to many oth- ing its ‘Latvianness’ is a very interesting aspect of its er countries around the world including, e.g., Japan codification history [5]. One of the most obvious and Peru. And also modern research draws a wider signs is that the Latvian Civil Code was quite quick- circle than referring only to the Weimar Constitu- ly called “President Ulmanis Civil Code” after the tion [8]. time of Latvian State President Kārlis Ulmanis. It is interesting that the Latvian Constitution origi- When it comes to the name, parallels to the Code nally did not include fundamental human rights. Napoléon are obvious. Only after Latvia regained its independence in 1990, the reinstated Constitution was complemented in THE INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE – 1998 with an own chapter on the fundamental hu- INFLUENCES FROM ABROAD AND man rights. However, the Latvian Constitution INFLUENCES ABROAD should have had from the very beginning, in 1922, a part on fundamental human rights and freedoms. Despite being the Latvian Constitution and the Lat- This part was drafted together with the (first) part vian Civil Code, an international influence cannot on the foundations and organisation of the state be neglected. Especially when looking at the per- and its governance. But in the final vote the (sec- sons which were involved in shaping and drafting ond) part on the fundamental human rights did not both the Latvian Constitution and Civil Code. Out of receive the necessary majority. the 152 members of the Constitutional Assembly 16 Both the Latvian Constitution and the Latvian Civil belonged to political parties or groups representing Code stick out. The Latvian Civil Code was in certain minorities: six Baltic Germans, six Jews and four aspects well ahead of its time. Worth mentioning in Russians. And it was the Baltic German lawyer and this context are the introduction of the principle of politician, member of Parliament Paul Schiemann irretrievable marital breakdown as a justification (1876–1944) who in 1930 brought up the necessity for divorce and that the Civil Code was prohibiting of an institution protecting the Constitution. The the operation of enterprises endangering human first draft law on the establishment of a constitu- health. And together with the Greek Civil Code of tional court was presented in 1934 by another Bal- 1946, the Latvian Civil Code is the last one based on

23 Latvian Academy of Sciences

Roman law [9]. What is equally remarkable for the today. Not least the shortness of the Latvian Consti- Latvian Civil Code of 1937 is that it was actually the tution and its ‘laconism’ require to look by (historic) only civil code in Central Europe which got beyond interpretation at the ideas behind the words writ- the status of a draft getting adopted and entered ten down a long time ago – especially since this into force during the interwar period. Many, most laconism was intended by the Latvian Constitution- other countries in Central Europe did not manage al Assembly [12]. to get beyond a draft civil code before the upheav- als caused by the Second World War [10]. While in an overall European and even global con- REFERENCES

text, the Latvian Constitution of 1922, reinstated 1. Cartoon published on 7 October 1921 in the satirical art magazine after Latvia regained its independence in 1990 after Svari (Scales). Available digitally at https://periodika.lndb.lv. Viewed on 50 years of Soviet (and German) occupation and 16 Oct 2019. hence in force still today, is remarkable for being 2. Balodis R. Latvijas Republikas Satversmes ievads. In: Latvijas Republikas Satversmes komentāri, Ievads, I. nodaļa, Vispārējie noteikumi. “the oldest Eastern or Central European constitu- Rīga: Latvijas Vēstnesis, 2014, pp. 91–135: p. 93.

tion still in force and the sixth oldest still-function- 3. Gailīte D., Levits E. Satversmes preambulā būtu jāatsedz Latvijas ing republican basic law in the world” and one of valsts jēga un būtība. Jurista vārds, 2013, No. 39 (790), pp. 4–7: pp. 5–7. the shortest [11]. Neighbouring countries like Esto- 4. Balodis R. Preamble to the Constitution. In: Latvijas Republikas nia and Lithuania, equally affected by an illegal So- Satversmes komentāri, Ievads, I. nodaļa, Vispārējie noteikumi. Rīga: Latvijas Vēstnesis, 2014, pp. 344–345: p. 345. viet occupation and being challenged with (re)es- 5. Schwartz P. Das Lettländische Zivilgesetzbuch vom 28. Januar 1937 tablishing an own legal system after regaining their und seine Entstehungsgeschichte. Aachen: Shaker Verlag, 2008, pp. independence, however did not reintroduce their 47–50 and 245–264; Švarcs F. Latvijas 1937. gada 28. janvāra Civillikums un tā rašanās vēsture. Rīga: Tiesu namu aģentūra, 2011. pre-war constitutions. Both adopted in 1992 a new constitution. One reason being that Lithuania (in 6. A first attempt in this direction by Schwartz P. Das Lettländische Zivilgesetzbuch vom 28. Januar 1937. In: Löhnig M., Wagner S. (eds.) 1928) and Estonia (in 1938) had adopted a new Nichtgeborene Kinder des Liberalismus? Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2018, constitution under the authoritarian regimes of An- pp. 317–358: pp. 333–342. tanas Smetona (1874–1944) and Konstantin Päts 7. Pleps J. Par Latvijas Republikas Satversmi: vēsture un mūsdienas. In: Latvijas Republikas Satversme. Rīga: Latvijas Vēstnesis, 2012, pp. 47–54: (1874–1956). Ironically, the Latvian Constitution p. 51. had remained the constitution of a democratic state 8. Blūzma V. Rietumu konstitucionālo tiesību kultūras ietekme uz especially because the Latvian authoritarian regime Latvijas Republikas Satversmes tapšanu (1920–1922). In: Latvijas of Kārlis Ulmanis had suspended it after the coup valstiskuman 90. Latvijas valsts neatkarība: ideja un realizācija. Rīga: Latvijas vēstures institūta apgāds, 2012, pp. 129–156: pp. 136–137); d’état in 1934. English summary: pp. 155–156.

9. Loeber D. Latvia’s 1937 Civil Code: A Quest for Cultural Identity. In: CONCLUSIONS – THE INTERPRETATION AND Comparative and Private International Law. Essays in Honor of John Henry Merryman on his Seventieth Birthday. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1990, RELEVANCE OF THE CODIFICATION HISTORY pp. 197–204: pp. 200, 203. FOR TODAY 10. This is one of the findings from the conference “Unborn children of liberalism?” organised at the University of Regensburg (Germany) One might ask why the (codification) history of the by Prof. Dr. Martin Löhnig and Dr. Stephan Wagner in October 2016. The proceedings from this conference have been published (in Latvian Constitution and the Latvian Civil Code German) in: Löhnig M., Wagner S. (eds.) Nichtgeborene Kinder des should be of interest today, a bit less than 100 years Liberalismus? Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2018. after they were created. The Latvian Constitution 11. Jarinovska K. Popular initiatives as means of altering the core of the Republic of Latvia. Juridica International, 2013, Vol. XX, pp. 152–159 and Civil Code came into being in an overall Euro- (p. 152). Brikmane E. Latvijas Republikas Satversmei – 95. Available at: pean and global historical context. But only once a https://lvportals.lv/norises/285196-latvijas-republikas-satversmei-95-2017. Viewed on 16.10. 2019. law enters into force and is applied it proves its readiness for everyday reality. At the same time the 12. Pleps J. Par Latvijas Republikas Satversmi: vēsture un mūsdienas. In: Latvijas Republikas Satversme. Rīga: Latvijas Vēstnesis, 2012, pp. understanding of how a law actually was created, 47–54: p. 53. Extensively about the interpretation of the Latvian what was the historical background and what were Constitution: Pleps J. Satversmes iztulkošana. Rīga: Latvijas Vēstnesis, 2012, and here extensively on the interpretation according to the will the motives behind, is essential for its application of the constitutional legislator pp. 167–183.

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THE R ĪGA (BULDURI) CONFERENCE OF 1920 AND A DRAFT SCIENCE CONVENTION BETWEEN THE BALTIC STATES

Ojārs Spārītis, President of the Latvian Academy of Sciences

In the context of the year 2019 occasion of the Bal- tic Conference on Intellectual Cooperation, special attention needs to be drawn to the Draft of a Sci- ence Convention which was developed in 1920 shortly after the independent states of Latvia, Lith- uania and Estonia were founded. The document was drawn up during the Rīga (Bulduri) Conference that had been convened on the initiative of the Lat- vian Foreign Minister Zigfrīds Anna Meierovics, the Latvian Foreign Minister. It has not lost its relevance today – almost a century later. I, therefore, propose that the text (translated into English from the original French version) of this forward-looking policy document be included in the Proceedings of this Conference, together with some reflections on the substance of the draft Convention and the manner in which it was created. The title “Letonika” of the State Research Pro- gramme of Latvia shows that our thoughts and feelings focus on two basic political concepts: “state” and “Latvia” (in 1920, Latvia was identified in diplomatic circles by the French noun “Lettonie”, whence the term “Letonika”). What is ordering or hierarchy that applies to these concepts, given that we are presently commemorating Aspazija (Elza Rozenberga) and Rainis (Jānis Pliekšāns), poets who returned to Rīga from exile in Switzerland to a warm welcome on 10 April 1920? What is the place for the two hundred years of Latvian academic science in this commemoration of the sesquicente- Original cover page of the Convention on Science, “Projet de Convention Scientifique” nary of the two poets that we celebrate as well as the UNESCO calendar of historic events and anniversaries of eminent personalities? It can be said

25 Latvian Academy of Sciences

that in awaiting a new stage production by the Lat- Conference as early as April 1920 wherein he hoped vian National Theatre of the play by Rainis, “Uguns to draw up and subsequently to ratify a military al- un Nakts” (Fire and Night), we have had to update liance and mutual assistance treaty to counter Rus- the place of Rainis and Aspazija in our cultural con- sian aggression, to create an Entente. Unfortunately, sciousness. It will be an opportunity for the public the Scandinavian countries ignored an invitation to to recall the power of Rainis’ ideas and spirit, the attend, and the Bulduri conference, which lasted national and universal nature of Aspasia’s high eth- from August 6 to 6 September 1920, saw only six ical imperatives, as well as to celebrate, whilst participant states: Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, awaiting the centenary of the founding of our state, Finland and Ukraine. Inasmuch as the majority of the global altruism of both geniuses and compare representatives did not hold the requisite rank to their contribution in the light of modern day hu- agree a significant foreign policy objective, nor any man values. official mandate, discussion of other issues ofa By linking the notions of “Latvia”, “state” and “Rainis”, much wider scope were included in the conference we can add a fourth – science – so as to arrive at the agenda. Five working committees were set up for unifying event – the Rīga or Bulduri Conference, the duration of the conference: 1) Mandate, 2) Edi- which engaged Rainis, just months after his return torial, 3) Economic, 4) National economy, and 5) Cul- from Switzerland, in defining science development ture, Social Affairs and Health. A total of 21 econom- goals and objectives. The first Latvian Foreign Min- ic resolutions, seven draft agreements and 11 draft ister, Zigfrīds Anna Meierovics, began preparations conventions resulted from intensive work of the for the forthcoming Baltic–Scandinavian Political committees.

Opening of the Rīga (Bulduri) Conference by the Prime Minister of Latvia, Dr. Kārlis Ulmanis, 6 August 1920

26 Yearbook 2020

We shall pay special attention to the work of the tion and science strategy. Up to now such theses Committee on Cultural, Social and Health Affairs. have been only partially realised, and therefore, Jānis Pliekšāns (Rainis), was elected Chairman at they are still relevant even as Latvia approaches a the 7 August 1920 meeting of this committee. In- hundred years of its existence. To date, the full text terests of the Republic of Latvia were represented of the Convention has not been published; however, in this committee by the Minister of Education Kārlis the Washington Minutes of the Baltic Conference Kasparsons, but on the part of the Allies: Finland – Held at Bulduri in Latvia 1920 (Washington, D.C. Leonard Aström and Erkki Reijonen, Poland – Vitold 1960), provided an abbreviated version of the Con- Kamenecki, Lithuania – Vladislavas Natkevičius, Es- vention. The full text of the Convention can be tonia – Alfred Möttus. Working over the period of found in the Conference Proceedings, located at the 7–20 August this committee drafted four conven- Latvian State Historical Archives (LVVA, 1313 f., apr. tions: (1) on art, (2) science, (3) copyright protection 2, 70, p. 98, p. 98, p. 99). On 21 August, Minister Kārlis for literary and artistic works, and (4) a convention Kasparsons presented the content of the science on health issues, in addition to a project on state convention to the plenary session of the Bulduri guarantees to safeguard national cultural interests. Conference. The text, which featured many strategi- Researchers studying the history of literature are cally important tasks in a modern way, according to most certainly aware of the importance to their Z. A. Meierovics’ definition of the goal of this Confer- field of the study of the 20 August plenary session ence, was to create and strengthen an “Entante” of of the Bulduri Conference, wherein Jānis Pliekšāns the Baltic States. presented a draft Convention on legal protection of I will mention several theses of the draft conven- literary and artistic works, i.e. copyright. At a second tion in which an evaluation of the real situation was meeting in September, Jānis Pliekšāns, as chair of coupled to tasks that needed to be performed. the Committee for Culture, Social Affairs and Health, These included a commitment to bring the new outlined the convention on art as drafted by the Baltic States closer together through intellectual said committee. Its text has been published and culture, and to establish mutual contacts between evaluated by art historian Ginta Gerharde-Upeniece scientists. The shortage of teaching staff at Baltic (Art and Diplomacy in the Republic of Latvia 1918– universities was addressed by inviting short-term 1928, in Latvia Transformed from de facto to de jure. lecturers from Western European countries to stim- Art and Epoch. Rīga, LNMM, Neputns, 2008). So far, ulate students’ interest in the scientific achieve- however, the role played by the Bulduri Conference ments of the major European nations, fostering col- in the creation of a unified Baltic education and sci- laboration between research institutes and ence space has not been investigated by research- laboratories, and training local professionals to ers studying the history of science in Latvia, nor has study at national universities. The Convention pro- the text of the convention on science been pub- vided for the rotation of guest lecturers at Baltic lished, notwithstanding the contemporary rele- universities in order to promote intellectual conver- vance of this convention disclosed at the threshold gence between countries. of the centenary of the Latvian state. The commission chaired by Jānis Pliekšāns had in- It is in the context of Rainis’ 150th birthday and the corporated into the science convention a number of VI Congress of Letonica (Latvian Studies) that the provisions related to education, including promo- text and content of the science convention may be tion of national college-like institutions in Europe- of great interest to us, both because of the involve- an science centres – Paris and Edinburgh – to intro- ment of our major intellectuals of our country, Kār- duce Latvian students to the culture of nations. The lis Kasparsons, Minister of Education of Latvia from idea of establishing joint scientific institutions in 1918 to 1920, and the poet, lawyer and public figure the Baltic States, which may not be viable for each Jānis Pliekšāns (Rainis). This document contains individual country, is a modern one. In this con- such forward-looking theses of the national educa- text, the Convention encouraged the Baltic States

27 Latvian Academy of Sciences

to establish a joint Louis Pasteur Institute, which as resources for joint budgeting. The call in the Sci- a science centre in the early 20th century has prov- ence Convention for creating new tools sounds con- en its effectiveness in research and development of temporary as is the thesis of commercialisation of vaccines and training to handle epidemics, con- innovative scientific inventions. Encouraging hold- trolling imported drugs, treating locally outbreaks ing regular conventions and congresses was the fi- of rabies. It was intended that joint publication nal provision of the science convention as drawn up would take the place of scientific periodicals. by the Baltic delegates in 1920. From today’s standpoint, the goal set 95 years ago At the concluding session of the month-long Bul- has been achieved, of establishing contacts be- duri Conference, held in Rīga Castle on 6 September tween the Baltic States, both in science and educa- 1920, Latvian Prime Minister Kārlis Ulmanis would tion, to bring university programmes closer togeth- sum up: “This conference, triggered by the need for er and enable university degrees and degrees to be unity, does not yet mean complete consensus on aligned. In order to bring together the Baltic peo- the issues that have been thoroughly debated. … ples in the cultural and political spheres, the Con- but it has demonstrated an ability to agree content vention recommended opening Baltic and Finnish and spirit The will for Baltic unity will serve as a language departments in the universities of the powerful plan of action, coordinating our individual Baltic States. The Convention provided for setting and collective efforts.” Unfortunately, when the del- up and maintaining a science information and coor- egates returned home, ratification of the agree- dination office in one university city in the Baltic ments, conventions and protocols drawn up at the States to deal with rotation of teachers, funding ed- conference did not follow, but in the face of the ucation shortfalls, financial sharing, and pooling of tense international situation and individual diplo-

The Latvian Delegation to the Rīga (Bulduri) Conference assembled in Rīga Castle. From left to right: Kārlis Ramats, Pēteris Radziņš, Zigfrīds Anna Meierovics, Dr. Kārlis Ulmanis, Jānis Pliekšāns (Rainis), Kārlis Kasparsons, Voldemārs Zāmuēls, Hermanis Albats. August 1920. Original held by the Museum of Literature, Theatre, and Music

2020 29 Yearbook Eduards Bruno Deksnis Translated by by Translated intellectual, intellectual, economic and political giv- today, space relevance its lost not in has idea This the Baltic. en the ongoing visible and invisible competition between various political and economic powers to space political and economic spiritual, the dominate States. the Baltic of onsolidating a single c eration, based on the idea of eration, matic matic struggles in each these country, documents remained at the level of The goodwill. author and chief organiser of the conference – Zigfrīds Anna Meierovics, the first Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia, viewed the States Baltic political, the of - co-operation eco cultural and nomic vision his indeed and perspective, long-term a from of a Baltic Union was far-sighted. After his death, nobody fought however, so fiercelyfor theBulduri conference results to be ministers, implemented government cases, some and In forgotten. partly it was when planning their sectorial development - strate - elab conventions the of theses the to returned gies, orated at the Bulduri Conference. Jānis Pliekšāns had the opportunity to the occupy post of Minister Latvia. of the Republic Education of of In August Jānis 1920, Pliekšāns and the delegates, Kārlis A. Meierovics, Kasparsons as Z. well as other participants of the Bulduri Conference, succeeded coop- in creating vision a of international scientific Latvian Academy of Sciences

LATVIAN SCIENCE POLICY: EUROPEAN DIMENSION

Eugene Eteris, LAS Senior Adviser

Science, research and innovation activities are the smaller and different: e.g., about 1.5% in Latvia, main driving force for the Latvian socio-economic 1.9% in Lithuania, and 3% in Estonia. Thus, among development as the country’s prospective growth main difficulties for Latvian R&I is “an obvious lack depends on scientific research and knowledge-like of cooperation and dialogue among business and smart specialisation. National potentials are great scientific communities, as well as with the govern- in elaborating perspective visions for Latvian inno- ment”. Latvian experts also acknowledged that “na- vative research and a science’s component in Latvi- tional entrepreneurs lack information on how to go an political economy will provide a solid back- successfully from an idea to the creation of an inno- ground for both national innovative growth and vative product”. productive research. More in: Latvijas Zinātņu Akadēmijas Vēstis (Section A. However, it has to be a political decision aimed at Humanities and Social Sciences). 2018, Vol. 72, No. 4, supporting Latvian science and innovation policy to p. 66. See also http://innovation.lv/inovacija/. show the most progressive directions; no doubt One of the strategic guidelines for Latvian growth that Latvian science policy will show the most opti- is through an active role of science, research and mal perspectives for political choices. innovation. It seems that combined and coordinated efforts among Latvian decision-makers are CHALLENGING ROLE OF SCIENCE, RESEARCH needed in order for Latvian business gaining ad- AND INNOVATION vanced positions in Europe and globally. It is in this direction that contemporary debates about the role Modern European science and technology policy di- of science and innovation in the national so- rections are presently slowly turning towards “re- cio-economic development shall take place to gain search, innovation and investment”, called R&I, and the necessary competitive advantages. Such de- oriented towards European prospective positions in bates shall include “future and emerging technolo- a world of science and technologies. Some ideas in gies”, which represent short- and long-term re- these policies are already under discussion within search directions’ inclusion into science and the Latvian growth strategy (e.g., mainly concerning technology areas. future and emerging technologies, FET). Innovation in Significant changes have already occurred - inap science and technology will play a key role in recon- proaches to science and research policy (SRP) in ciling the Latvian optimistic objectives for a welfare numerous EU states: main shifts on the European society. science policy’s level are from research and develop- Latvian experts are unanimous about FET: ade- ment (R&D) directions, which were dominant in the quate development can be reached by intensive in- last century into research, innovation and investment vestment; however, the share of GDP for R&I has (R&I) schemes to combine national and the EU sci- been at about 0.5% in Latvia, which is even lower entific potentials. compared to 0.85% in Lithuania and 1.28% in Esto- Latvian science policy after regaining independ- nia and the EU’s aims for science and research in ence was marked by establishment of the Latvian national funding for 2020 shall be about 3 per cent. Council of Science in 1991. In accordance with the The three Baltic States’ long-term goals are still Law on Scientific Activity, the Latvian Council of

30 Yearbook 2020

Science was created as a “collective institution” of In the first place, it is important to underline Latvi- Latvian scientists and researchers under the super- an SRP’s role within the European “scientific envi- vision of the Ministry of Education and Science. ronment”, which includes researchers’ efforts from Besides, the Council serves as an advisory body to all EU member states. As soon as the research, inno- the Latvian Government on research and training vation and technology are within the EU’s shared issues, on formulation and implementation of sci- and supporting competences, the Baltic States and entific achievements, on higher education and gen- Latvia are heavily relying on the EU’s financial as- erally, on R&I policy in the country. The Council sistance; the EU’s financial priorities for the next takes part in competitive R&I funding, as well as in seven years’ budget include “maximizing the impact promotion of Latvian scientific resources and fos- of EU research and innovation in the member states tering international scientific cooperation. progressive development”. It is expected that the More in: https://rio.jrc.ec.europa.eu/en/organisa- EU’s post-2020 budget for research will be signifi- tions/latvian-council-science cantly increased. Since the Baltic States lack adequate financial recourses, some serious funding is SCIENCE POLICY AS PART OF THE NATIONAL required to maintain these states’ excellence in sci- GROWTH STRATEGY entific research to turn scientific discoveries into a number of practical industrial and developmental Latvian science policy is broadly discussed in the applications. Several countries globally have al- book: Ojārs Spārītis, Eugene Eteris. Latvia in Europe ready done so: China has already overtaken the EU and the World: Modern European Science Policy: Chal- in terms of R&D spending as a share of GDP; South lenges and Opportunities for Latvian Perspective Korea, Japan and the United States are at the top of Growth [1]. the global ranking. Some new R&I directions have already appeared in the EU and the Baltic States, e.g. “human brain project”, which provides additional understanding of the human brain and its diseases, as well as perspective directions in graphene and quantum research. But the Baltic States and Latvia have to figure out their own specific and progressive R&I spheres corresponding to the existing national needs and priorities. Latvian experts are striving to “fill the gap” through more extensive use of various forms of support and assistance from the EU institutions, which are providing necessary information on the process of “leading research process” into innovative goods and services. Secondly, it is about the role of Latvian science policy in the state’s “smart growth perspective”, which is becoming one of the most important parts of the country’s perspective strategy. It is evident that the digital transformation in the Baltic States is going to change the old-fashioned policy-making “instrumental approaches” and provide benefits as more optimal and efficient policy instruments. In this sense it is clear: by reducing administrative costs (and workforce involved) in the public sector, use of

31 Latvian Academy of Sciences

the digital options can result in more effective pol- Science and research activity in Latvia is generally icy’s settings for corporate entities and governmen- connected to universities; however, presently, with tal structures. the overwhelming intrusion of information and Latvian government has to strengthen scientific communications technology (ICT) and digital agen- and research activities though rejecting an aca- da into almost all spheres of socio-economic de- demic misconduct and refraining from needless velopment, several other focal points emerged in “over-theoretic” research, in particular with a limit- the Baltic States and Latvia which are greatly ex- ed national research budget. In this regard, closer tending research and innovation spheres in these ties between the education and research activi- countries. ties – particularly in the universities – are needed; However, it is still for the policy-makers to decide not only in the demand for enlarged up-skilling (ac- the ways Latvia can achieve its vision of “inclusive cording to fast changes in present workforce) but innovation” and identify which policy options are also with the more creative approach in universities really aimed at achieving innovative growth. More to supplement the academic degrees with profes- on the “specialisation” issues in: sional qualifications. https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/glos- The new science policy is more about the next gen- sary#letter_g eration of scientists in Latvia rather than about the Fourth, it is highly important to approach the na- need for increased research funding. Existing ten- tional science policy as a vital component of Latvi- sions and contradictions in the Latvian academic an prospective growth, which is primarily to main- community are only making a negative impact on tain a high level of well-being. To reach this research activities and careers of young and per- objective, structural reforms restoring competitive- spective scientists. A strong emphasis on quantifiable ness, raising productivity and boosting employment research outputs is needed with closer connections will be needed. to modern and prospective Latvian socio-economic For example, the labour market needs to function issues. Contemporary researchers and educators’ better and incentives for workers need to be further dependence on the EU’s funding for research, inno- strengthened. Science, technology and innovation vation and development only tarnish individual re- are more than ever crucial to boosting growth and search and R&I institution-building. jobs, and to addressing global and European chal- It was planned to allocate in 2019 more than €770 lenges: from socio-economic development to cli- million from the budget to Latvian Ministry of Edu- mate change, environmental quality, and health. cation and Science, which is €25 million more than Therefore, support and sufficient financial resourc- a year before; the main share of these funds (47%) es from the budget will be needed for research, in- will go to teachers’ salaries, the action co-financed novation and education. The task is to maintain the through EU funds. willingness for structural reforms, while keeping Thirdly, Latvian science-research-innovation policy national economy constantly growing: civil society (SRI) shall be aimed at launching a new strategic shall inspire Latvian efforts towards well-being. path for the country’ growth towards the next level The EU institutions have provided Latvian scientific of modern issue in finding Latvia’s “specialisation” community with some ideas towards prospective niche in global and European competitiveness. research directions. Among most prominent direc- Finding such a specific Latvian strategy in “smart tions could be included quantum technologies: the growth” is required by the EU-2020 strategy: it is first phase began in 2018 and will last at least three going to be a new direction in Latvian prospective years under the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme. The growth, the path which is not going to be easy both quantum project aims to turn European research in finding and implementing, with the use of sci- activity into industrial implementation within most ence, research and innovation activities; the latter promising technological developments. Quantum can facilitate the process. research has a short but fruitful history: the first

32 2020 33 - - - Yearbook thousands thousands of European universities, research - cen work By industries. manufacturing leading and tres disciplines, and sectors borders, across together ing the member states can push the boundaries of sci- that applications practical developing towards ence lives. people’s to difference can make The EU institutions have already formulated political cio-economic, so- and financialcommitments for the member states facing future and emerging de- a) following: the are priorities The technologies. veloping a dynamic environment for research and innovation; b) allowing ideas to progress smoothly from laboratories to market; c) attracting and re- that sure making d) and talents; world-class taining lead- science remain states member the and EU the ers in the world. Latvia is In having some ex spheres of knowledge, cellent, EU- and world-wide scientific researchers. nec the on based is potentials Latvian in belief LAS’ sci- to approach general the in both changes essary in aspects legal the to changes adequate with ence research and education and the way the academic - com LAS The functioning. currently are institutions munity hopes that this approach will instigate the needed radical changes in the Latvian academic landscape, with a view of “greater science” in national education and research institutions. REFERENCES Modern European World: in Europe and the Latvia E. Eteris Spārītis O., Perspective Latvian Policy: Challenges and Opportunities for Science 123 pp. 2019, apgāds, Sia Medicīnas Rīga, Growth. ------CONCLUSION quantum quantum revolution expanded global scientific ho National decision-makers will have im an as community to research and scientific Latvian approach rizons rizons to lasers and transistors used in computers, mobile phones and modern internet. The second has quantum startedrevolution in the 21st century and is based on the growing ability to sense and systems customised in effects quantum manipulate and materials. This includes totally new concepts for various practical with devices the real practical impact in such spheres as ultra-precise synchroni- zation and enhanced sensitivity devices; guaran- teed data privacy and computing modern in power computing high-speed communication security; technologies. portant part of the whole national socio-economic transition towards sustainable growth. Several ex sustaina- UN the strategy, EU the e.g., factors, ternal ble development goals and climate change agree ment play a government’s approaches to the vital national science role policy. in potentials economic and political national forming However, Latvian shall be used growth more actively “green” in, e.g., solu- digital/ICT of use active economy, circular and tions and supporting progressive SMEs. Scientific shall “component” be decisive in the political and economic approaches in defining progressive specialisation It sectors in Latvian prospective growth. eco Latvian form going to that are is these sectors “industrial re with Latvian “immune system”, nomic naissance” including all spheres of manufacturing and green economy. Besides, Latvian firms better have to order in assistance public more have shall opportunities for Latvian companies to compete in Europe and other parts the world. of national science’s comprehensive the first However, (!) ago decade a about 2009, in only appeared concept the and strong by only influence from the EU insti- More in: tutions. https://www.lzp.gov.lv/index.php?option=com_con tent&task=view&id=148&Itemid=112 There are about 1.8 million researchers working in Latvian Academy of Sciences

ASSOCIATION OF LATVIAN YOUNG SCIENTISTS – A VALUED PARTNER FOR SCIENCE POLICY MAKING IN LATVIA

Kristaps Jaudzems, Chair of ALYS Work Group on Science and Education Policy

Association of Latvian Young Scientists (ALYS) is a tion to the general public as well as to the industry non-governmental organisation founded in 2005 and governmental sector. By communicating the with the aims of 1) representing young scientists in stories and research achievements of young re- science policy making, 2) promoting networking searchers from different science disciplines, the as- and exchange of ideas between researchers, and 3) sociation aims to promote the prestige of research- developing and popularising science in Latvia. ALYS er’s profession, engage students in research projects is governed and funded by its approx. 250 members, and strengthen the role of science in Latvian socie- which include both doctoral students and early ca- ty. Active use of social media tools such as Twitter reer researchers within 10 years of their doctorate. and Facebook has allowed it to reach several thou- The members are affiliated with universities, re- sands of people. Besides, within the past few years search institutes and other organisations located in ALYS has organised several direct engagement out- Rīga and Latvia’s regions. reach activities, such as “Forum for future scientists” While its members are mostly from Latvian research (aimed at pupils), discussions “Ask me anything” and institutions, the activities of ALYS go far beyond our “What are Latvian scientists researching?” as part of national borders, as the organisation is an active the 100th anniversary of the National Library of member of EURODOC (European Council of Doctor- Latvia (aimed at general public), ALYS Summer al Candidates and Junior Researchers) and a nation- camp (partly aimed at industry), and social events al representative at Global Young Academy. ALYS is “Science brunches” and “Pint of science” (partly also a partner of European Young Academies and aimed at science administrators working in the gov- Northern-Baltic Young Academies cluster. Interna- ernmental sector). The latter three events also pro- tional cooperation provides the possibility to dis- mote networking and cooperation among research- cuss the diverse challenges faced by young scien- ers, which is another aim of ALYS activities. In tists all over the world and to exchange experiences addition to those mentioned, ALYS has organised a on how to tackle them. Furthermore, participation series of events dedicated to exchange of experi- in international young scientist events gives ALYS ences between doctoral students “Young researcher members the opportunity to contribute to the solv- get-together”, the event “How to succeed in science” ing of global science problems such as achievement to share experiences and tips on researcher career of the United Nations Sustainable Development advancement, and “ALYS Canoe trip” and hiking Goals or gender equality in academia. tours to enhance social relations between the asso- Nationally the association’s activities are focused in ciation members in a non-formal environment. three areas: science communication, organisation of However, in the author’s opinion, the most impor- networking events and science policy making. ALYS tant focus area of ALYS activities is science and recognises the importance of science communica- higher education policy, because the decisions

34 Yearbook 2020

made today will affect the development of science responsible governmental institution or to the me- in Latvia and will be felt by the current and future dia based on the outcome of these discussions. Fur- generation of young scientists for years or even thermore, representatives of the work group are decades. Participation in science policy has been regularly invited to the meetings of Committee of the focus of the organisation in the last decade re- Education, Culture and Science of the Parliament of sulting in numerous initiatives. The association the Republic of Latvia, events organised by the Min- unites the voices of the young researchers from dif- istry of Education and Science etc. The chair of ALYS ferent disciplines and brings their views and ideas Work Group on Science and Education Policy is also to the stakeholders of science policy making. This is an official member of the Latvian Council of Science the task of ALYS Work Group on Science and Educa- (LCS). tion Policy, which is introduced in the next section. Within the past few years, the ALYS Work Group on Science and Education Policy has been involved in ALYS WORK GROUP ON SCIENCE AND the rulemaking for numerous initiatives, the most EDUCATION POLICY important being LCS Fundamental and Applied Re- search grant programme and PostDoc Latvia grant Science and higher education policy and govern- programme. The proposals have been extensively ance has been one of ALYS priorities since its estab- discussed and negotiated with most of the govern- lishment. ALYS strives to actively participate in the ment representatives and research sector stake- discussion and improvement of science policy initi- holders. However, the greatest efforts in recent atives and research programmes proposed by the years have been invested in the formulation of a Latvian government as well as to develop its own new funding model for research institutions. initiatives aimed at systemic improvements in science governance. The goal of these activities is not THREE-PILLAR RESULT-ORIENTED MODEL only to advocate for and help solve the problems of FOR THE ALLOCATION OF INSTITUTIONAL young researchers, but also to contribute to our (BASE) FUNDING country’s development and transformation into knowledge-based economy. For this purpose, ALYS Latvia’s expenditure on research and development has established the Work Group on Science and Ed- (R&D) lags far behind other European countries (ac- ucation Policy, which is responsible for organising cording to Eurostat data for 2018: Latvia invests internal discussions and surveys, preparing of opin- 0.64% of GDP in R&D, Lithuania 0.88%, Estonia ion papers and articles as well as communicating 1.40%, EU-average 2.11%). As suggested by a study them to the government and other stakeholders. of the Bank of Latvia (https://www.makroekonomi- The Ministry of Education and Science of the Re- ka.lv/ieguldijumi-izglitiba-un-zinatne-atslega-iz- public of Latvia has acknowledged ALYS as the ma- klusanai-no-zemu-ienakumu-slazda) this may re- jor organisation representing the opinion of young sult in slow growth of productivity and the country’s scientists by signing a memorandum of cooperation economy getting stuck in the low-income trap. In- in 2009. Thus, ALYS is currently one of the most im- vesting in education and science in Latvia is the key portant social partners of the ministry in the area of to getting out of the low-income trap. However, the science and higher education policy. investment needs to be allocated and managed ef- The members of ALYS Work Group on Science and ficiently in a result-oriented way, as in the more ad- Education Policy meet at least monthly to discuss vanced countries we want to resemble. matters as well as legislative aspects of science and In summer 2018, the ALYS Work Group on Science higher education policy initiatives, research pro- and Education Policy started work on a proposal for grammes etc. on the political agenda. Discussions a new institutional (base) funding model that would between the meetings are facilitated by active use enable these preconditions to be implemented on of cloud services. Opinion documents and/or com- the road to a higher standard of living in the coun- mentary articles are prepared and submitted to the try. A model comprising three pillars was proposed:

35 Latvian Academy of Sciences

the first should ensure institutional stability and to develop the three-pillar model to a widely ac- growth of the R&D personnel, the second should be cepted initiative across the R&D sector. based on performance indicators and the third The model was introduced to politicians of the Sub- should allow the development of world class infra- committee on Higher Education, Science and Inno- structures and research initiatives. The conception vation of the Commission of Education, Culture and involved regular consultations with representatives Science of the Parliament of the Republic of Latvia of the Ministry of Education and Science. Although on 22 January 2019. ALYS was asked to present its our views were often different, discussions and rea- proposal, and the members of the Subcommittee soning led to the current version of the model that showed their support and willingness to change takes into account both the needs of the research- the current system. The meeting ended with a plan ers and the important points of the ministry. The for future meetings to further develop the model. developed concept was discussed with the most The final model of the institutional (base) funding outstanding scientists of Latvia – visionaries, as allocation mechanism is based on three pillars: 1) well as other players in the field – representatives stability component proportional to a limited num- of the Latvian Academy of Sciences, Latvian Council ber of group leaders at the institution, 2) perfor- of Science, Latvian Chamber of Commerce and In- mance component calculated based on the results dustry, Latvian Trade Union of Education and Sci- of the institution’s scientific performance, and 3) ence, Latvian Student Union and multiple largest development component. Each state-owned scien- research institutions. All the parties involved pro- tific institution shall qualify for and receive institu- posed ideas, additions and criticisms, which allowed tional (base) funding depending on its numerical

ALYS’ three-pillar result-oriented model for allocation of institutional (base) funding. In the three-pillar model, the first and second pillar funding represent 45% each of the total institutional (base) funding. The funding received from first pillar shall be proportional to the group leader positions allocated to an institution based on its capacity. Performance indicators in the second pillar shall be calculated based on the number of doctoral dissertations defended in the organisation (10% weight), the number and quality of publications produced (30% weight), the amount of research grant funding (30% weight) and the amount of private sector funding (30% weight). The proportion of the third pillar for development initiatives is 10%

2020 37 Yearbook - - - indicators indicators (number of group scientificleaders, performance indicators and participation in - develop ment projects). In order to create a core of highly qualified and independently funded scientific staff sta- receive shall institutions the institution, each at ble funding for six years for a limited The number leaders. team research recruited of internationally optimal number of group leaders at the institution shall be evaluated by international experts (within the framework of the regular international - evalua tion of an Every six institutions). years, assessment of group leaders is to be institu- of number the planned. excellent, and good is If mance the - perfor tional group leaders shall be increased. If not, the number of positions The shall second be reviewed. pillar funding component shall be allocated based on the performance of sci- of quality the and (number years three scientificpast the over institutions entific articles published, amount of funding obtained through grants and through prepared). doctors collaboration new of number industry, the with Unlike the funding of project competitions, where scientific groups and institutionscompete with the ideas that they intend to realise in the future, the institutional (base) funding shall be allocated on the previ over achievements existing of basis the ous Funding three years. from the third pillar shall be planned as an investment in initiatives that are crucial to the Latvian research community (for ex ample, joint infrastructure development and shar- purposes). specific ing for Representatives of the Ministry of Education and Science have acknowledged the need to revise the current institutional funding model and have com legislation necessary the on startworking to mitted changes for implementation of ALYS’ three-pillar institutional (base) funding. allocation of model for Latvian Academy of Sciences

COOPERATION BETWEEN THE INSTITUTE OF ECONOMICS OF THE LATVIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES AND THE INSTITUTE OF ECONOMICS OF THE CHINESE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

Ņina Linde, Dr. paed., Associate Professor, Director of the Institute of Economics of the Latvian Academy of Sciences

Cooperation between two Academies – the Latvian and China’s foreign direct investment flow. Latvian Academy of Sciences (LAS) and the Chinese Academy scientists emphasised current scientific coopera- of Social Sciences (CASS) – began already in 2016, tion of Latvia and China and prospects of its devel- when Academies’ Presidents Prof. Ojārs Spārītis and opment, but the LIAA representative described in- Prof. Wang Weiguang signed the Agreement of Scien- vestment environment in Latvia and showed the tific Cooperation recognising the importance of in- best examples of the projects with China. During ternational scientific cooperation in both countries. the discussion, representatives of both the Latvian In 2019, the Institute of Economics of the LAS took and Chinese science sectors discussed the future important steps to strengthen mutual relations possibilities of cooperation opportunities between with the Institute of Economics of the CASS. the two countries in the field of research and in- On 6 June 2019, the Institute of Economics of the vestment, including European grant programmes, LAS, together with the Institute of Economics of the and talked about future project ideas in economic CASS, and in cooperation with Investment and De- and educational fields. The meeting was marked by velopment Agency of Latvia (LIAA) organised the the signing of Cooperation memorandum between international round table discussion on “Coopera- the Institute of Economics of the LAS and the Insti- tion of China and Latvia in scientific and investment tute of Economics of the CASS. field”, which took place at the Latvian Academy of Chinese delegation was represented by Prof. Pei Sciences. In order to introduce a wider audience Changhong, former director of the Institute of Eco- with the current economic situation in China and nomics of the CASS, Prof. Liu Xiahui, chief editor of scientific contribution to China’s economic growth, the Journal of Economic Research, Dr. Xie Qian, asso- as well as to discuss and define scientific coopera- ciate chief editor of the Journal of Economic Research, tion opportunities between Latvia and China, the and Dr. Chen Xin, assistant professor of the Institute event brought together entrepreneurs and re- of Economics. searchers, municipality representatives and public Prof. Pei Changhong presented Chinese foreign in- authorities, policy-makers responsible for science vestment flows and Chinese investment in coun- and investment policy, and journalists. Chinese sci- tries involved in the Silk Road initiative. The profes- entists introduced the audience to the issues of Chi- sor mentioned the need to improve the information nese economic growth, “One Belt, One Road” policy platform on Silk Road’s external investments and to

38 Yearbook 2020

The international round-table discussion “Cooperation of China and Latvia in scientific and investment field” was opened with welcoming speeches by the President of the Latvian Academy of Sciences Dr. Ojārs Spārītis (in the middle), by Director of the Institute of Economics of the Latvian Academy of Sciences Dr. Ņina Linde (on the left) and by former director of the Institute of Economics of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) Prof. Pei Changhong (on the right), 6 June 2019

Director of the Institute of Economics of the Latvian Academy of Sciences Dr. Ņina Linde together with delegation of researchers from China during the III International Economic Forum, 31 October 2019

39 Latvian Academy of Sciences

Prof. , Dr. Chen Xin, Deputy Director General of the Institute of European Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, welcome speech during the III International Economic Forum, 31 October 2019

reduce information asymmetry, meaning to obtain Forum guests with an inspiring speech. Pei Chang- sufficient information from all interested parties. hong, Professor of the University of Chinese Academy The discussion raised interest in scientific coopera- of Social Sciences, who has a broad range of experi- tion with China and joint projects, while represent- ence in the field of science, spoke about the newest atives of the Institute of Economics of the CASS ex- trends of Chinese economic growth, digital economy, pressed their interest in launching scientific and and Asian experience. Prof. Pei Changhong is also academic cooperation with the Baltic States, and in president of the Academic Association for China’s particular, with Latvia. Commerce and a member of the National Commit- To give more insight to Chinese researchers on tee on the 13th of CPPC. He has engaged in the re- business environment in Latvia, participants of the search on Political Economics and China’s Open round table discussion visited the company “Madara Economy fields in the long run. Cosmetics”, which is the leading company in Latvia His representative works include 60-years of Chi- in the field of cosmetics, with innovative production na’s Foreign Trade, China’s Open Economy in approaches. Post-crisis Era, Building an Open Economy for 40 Institute of Economics of the LAS invited Chinese years in China. As Prof. Pei Changhong’s typical es- colleagues to visit and speak at the III International says include Global Economy Governance, Public Economic Forum, which covered topics such as Goods and China’s Opening Up, Quantitative Esti- business support, disruptive factors, science-based mation of Public Ownership’s Dominant Position solutions, and international cooperation. and its Development Trend in China, and the Analy- The International Economic Forum is annually organ- sis of Political Economics on the Digital Economy, ised by the Institute of Economics of the LAS, bringing his presentation was a great way of exchange of together scientists, entrepreneurs, politicians from experience and gave a broad view for the partici- more than 20 different countries. On 31 October pants of III Economic Forum about the development 2019, a delegation of researchers from China came to of economics in China. In his presentation, Dr. Pei Latvia in the lead of Pei Changhong and Dr. Chen Xin Changhong introduced the newest economic strat- to present and discuss China’s positive experience in egy in China and how the development of China’s the digital economy. At the opening ceremony of the e-commerce and mobile payment is going on the III Economic Forum. Dr. Chen Xin welcomed the front rank around the world and as well as how it

2020 41 Yearbook Prof. Pei Changhong took an active part in the experts’ discussion part an active in the experts’ Changhong took Pei Prof. 2019 31 October Forum, Economic during the III International has changed the structure of enterprises and organ- and enterprises of structure the changed has isations and created new challenges. Members of the delegation of the Institute participatedlater on, in CASS, of the discus- overview Economics at and experts. sion with the speakers In addition, in 2019, the Institute of Economics of Eu- and Eastern and the China-CEE (Central the LAS - on rope) agreed strengthening institute the cooper Academy Chinese the As science. of field the in ation of Social Sciences had established a think-tank at Budapest (China-CEE Institute) and is weekly publishing briefings on the countries in CentralEastern as Europe, well as it on was Greece, agreed and to going is LAS the of Economics of Institute the that provide briefingsweekly to the China-CEE Institute - social develop economy, regarding policy, domestic Weekly as well as relations ment, external in Latvia. website the at available and published are briefings (www.china-cee.eu). the China-CEE Institute of LIFE SCIENCES 2020 43 Yearbook related to climate change problems, analysis the of change climate problems, to related climate of past – studies of paleoclimate. Bogs in this respect can serve as living archives of the past and reflect the climate change character (natural climate change) over past 10 000 years as well as contemporary, human-induced changes, and provide - not temper the to reconstruct only possibility but drought also ature, and precipitation, other cli- region Baltic whole part the the of of impacts mate [1] Kalniņa in as Laimdota studies demonstrated of of archives As others. and [2] Stivriņš Normunds and his- the about also information store bogs past, the - com peat the analysing when and pollution of tory position we can see the impact of recent human pollution, the presence trace of of accumulation tests, radionuclides nuclear Soviet first from coming elements in the upper layers of bogs of (Inese intensification of impacts Sila- adverse and [3]) miķele agriculture on bog ecosystems. The use of pollen plant remains (palynology) can be used to study the changes of 12th– in landscape, crusaders, of impacts the agricultural example, for and, practices in Latvia. on agricultural practices 13th centuries, Of bogs course, are not only the past but also the landmark unique a are landscapes bog and present, can we science branches of in many Not Latvia. for but speak “Rīga about this research is school”, true about landscape science represented by Professor Aija OļģertsProfessor Melluma, As- Nikodemus [4], sistant Professor Anita Zariņa [5] and others. The Rīga Landscape School studies it from the spective per- of human–nature interactions, and recently new remote sensing technologies (studies - - - -

search “smart areas”, specialisation” etc., actually the discussion touches on something fashionable science, in fashion However, moment. current the at just as everywhere, is changing quite rapidly, the Thus, on. goes time as survive always not ideas new for a like Latvia it country is of importance to keep research that directions are forsignificant local so- contrib can Latvia in made studies the where ciety, ute to the field of where research Latvia is internationally, and just the right place to problem. study the bogs of studies is research of directions such of One and peat. The first point: Latvia is if not only the but one one, of not where so bogs, many countries, their ecosystems and other related aspects can be studied – as in Western Europe and many countries these other are fully destroyed or significantly altered. Secondly, there are good traditions huge experience accumulated in and this kind of stud startingies, from first Baltic German scientists de- dur- studies with continuing Latvia, in bogs scribing period, independence Latvia’s of ing the first period by Pēteris Nomals (1876–1949), who worked with modern methods in bog research, continuing with studies coordinated by the and defi- presence State history, have we in Latvia Hence Peat Institute. bog and peat research. a future of nitely fac bog and peat research has diverse of Presence es: both researchers working on different and topics significantly differing targets of the research. directly is research bog in directions key the of One The science as nearly everything has fashionable re problems and if “priority the discussion handles , Head of the Department of Environmental Science, University of Latvia of University the Department of Head Environmental Science, of , chem. habil. Māris Kļaviņš, Dr. IN INDUSTRY BASIC SCIENCE TO APPLICATIONS FOCUS OF RESEARCH: FROM VALUES OF LATVIA’S NATURE IN Latvian Academy of Sciences

Peat profile sampling –Dr. geogr. Oskars Purmalis at field work. Photo: L. Arbidāns

Researcher Linda Ansone-Bērtiņa is studying properties of peat humic substances

of Zigmārs Rendenieks) are applied to identify com- lysing biodiversity and elaborating biological di- plex effects in nature. A special object of landscape versity conservation measures to protect it. The studies in Latvia are bog, e.g. by Anita Namatēva re- next level of bog biodiversity includes studies of vealing the need to protect natural bogs and their bog ecosystem services. Since bogs and wetlands significance also from the perspective of national cover more than 10 per cent of the territory of Lat- identity. via, they are really important in stabilising of hy- Unique bog ecosystems are the topic of studies for drological regime, microclimate and many species biologists, covering all levels of living nature, ana- of living organisms. One of plant species in bogs

44 Yearbook 2020

are mosses – a unique group of lower plants. Re- Thus, traditional research directions in Latvia con- cent studies of moss composition demonstrate a centrating on a nationally significant study object is huge potential of their application in biomedicine, of importance for rational use of national resources, agriculture and food industry [6]. Bog berries are a their protection, and confirm a high level of science rich source of biologically active substances with a in Latvia and international visibility in scientific wide application potential in biomedicine, thus un- community. Peat and bog studies are attracting stu- veiling a new dimension of the significance of nat- dents and will provide the continuity of this direc- ural resources [7]. tion of research. Not only bog biota, but also peat is a significant natural resource, and peat mining in limited amounts to produce growth substrates is of importance for national economy as well as for regional development of Latvia. Nowadays, traditional peat mining as a result of close cooperation between scientists and peat producers is transformed into REFEERENCES sustainable and wise use of bog resources: mining 1. Kalnina L., Stivrins N., Kuske E., Ozola I., Pujate A., Zeimule S., includes bog restoration (renaturalisation of ex- Grudzinska I., Ratniece V. Peat stratigraphy and changes in peat hausted sites), redevelopment and support to semi- formation during the Holocene in Latvia. Quaternary International, natural use of bogs – paludiculture: growth of ber- 2015, Vol. 383, pp. 186–195. ries and other cultures in peat mining sites. Thus, 2. Aakala T., Pasanen L., Helama S., Vakkari V., Drobyshev I., Seppä H., Kuuluvainen T., Stivrins N., Wallenius T., Vasander T., Holmström L. research contributes to mitigating adverse impacts Multiscale variation in drought controlled historical forest fire activity of intensive mining, but at the same time support- in the boreal forests of eastern Fennoscandia. Ecological Monographs, 2018, Vol. 88, pp. 74–91; ing creation of job positions and sustainability of Feurdean A., Veski S., Florescu G., Vanniere B., Pfeiffer M., O’Hara R., the country [8]. Stivrins N., Amon L., Heinsalu A., Vassiljev J., Hickler T. Broadleaf deciduous forest counterbalanced the direct effect of climate on Peat is a rich source of humic substances, and their Holocene fire regime in hemiboreal/boreal region (NE Europe). Quater- research is of importance to study living organic nary Science Reviews, 2017, Vol. 169, pp. 378–390. matter transformation (humification) process with- 3. Silamikele I., Klavins M., Nikodemus O. Major and trace element in the carbon biogeochemical cycle, properties and distribution in the peat from ombrotrophic bogs in Latvia. Journal of Environmental Science and Health Part A, 2011, Vol. 46, No. 7, pp. structure of humic substances, but also perspectives 805–812. of their application in industry and agriculture [9]. 4. Vinogradovs I., Nikodemus O., Elferts D., Brūmelis G. Assesment of Peat humic substances as the refractory element of site-specific drivers of farmland abandonment in mosaic-type landscapes: A case study in Vidzeme, Latvia. Agriculture, Ecosystems & carbon flows is one of major storage of carbon com- Environment, 2018, Vol. 253, pp. 120–121. pounds on the Earth, and their studies can help to 5. Zariņa A., Vinogradovs I., Šķiņķis P. Towards (dis)continuity of understand of CO2 release from organic matter dur- agricultural wetlands: Latvia’s polder landscapes after Soviet ing its decay. Their studies can enrich knowledge on productivism. Landscape Research, 2018, Vol. 43, No. 3, pp. 455–469. organic carbon flows and impacts on the environ- 6. Klavina L., Springe G., Nikolajeva V., Martsinkevich I., Nakurte I., Dzabijeva D., Steinberga I. Chemical composition analysis, antimicrobi- ment in the context of climate change process. On al activity and cytotoxicity screening of moss extracts (moss the other hand, peat humic substances have the phytochemistry). Molecules, 2015, Vol. 20, No. 9, pp. 17221–17243. ability to bind metals and toxic trace elements and 7. Trivedi P., Karppinen K., Klavins L., Kviesis J., Sundqvist P., Nguyen N., Remes, J. (2019). Compositional and morphological analyses of wax thus can be used in medicine and technologies, in northern wild berry species. Food Chemistry, Vol. 295, pp. 441–448. their application improves fertility of soils and have 8. Sustainable and responsible after-use of peat extraction areas. Eds. huge potential for applications as biostimulants in A. Priede, A. Gancone. Baltijas krasti: Rīga, 2019. agriculture. This part of research is going on in 9. Klavins M., Purmalis, O. (2013). Properties and structure of raised close cooperation with industrial enterprises that bog peat humic acids. Journal of Molecular Structure, 2013, Vol. 1050, pp. 103–113. are interested in the production of humic substances and have a direct application potential in various 10. Klavins M., Purmalis, O. (2010). Humic substances as sur- factants. Environmental Chemistry Letters, 2010, Vol. 8, No. 4, pp. fields [10]. 349–354.

45 Latvian Academy of Sciences

RESEARCH OF MITOCHONDRIAL FITNESS: FROM HEALTHY AGEING TO INFLAMMATION

Marina Makrecka-Kūka, Dr. pharm., Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis, Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Pharmacology

ENERGY, MITOCHONDRIA AND HEALTHY While a growing number of studies focuses on ge- AGEING nome, including mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), pro- teome, metabolome and other “-omics” to explore The energy is vital. For our every movement or the “secret” of healthy ageing, the mitochondrial thought cells rely on energy generated by mito- function remains comparatively unexplored, but chondria. Organism uses energy in a “non-stop” may turn out to provide key information for healthy mode, thus, the maintenance of normal mitochon- ageing and to prevent diseases. For example, a phys- drial function is essential. Every research that deals ically active and nutritionally healthy lifestyle in- with living organisms meets energy requirement duces mechanisms that maintain aerobic perfor- aspect and, thus, faces mitochondria. As Dr. Nick mance and support mitochondrial health. Functional Lane from the Department of Genetics, Evolution mitochondrial competence and aerobic fitness re- and Environment, University College London, said, duce several age-related health risks, including type “The underlying principles are universal. Even al- 2 diabetes, depression and Alzheimer’s disease; iens need mitochondria.” whereas a sedentary lifestyle not only has a negative More and more researchers aim to address the fol- impact on mitochondrial function, but also is a ma- lowing questions of mitochondrial research: jor risk factor for the development of metabolic and – Since the child inherits mitochondria from his neurodegenerative disorders. Overall, how well we mother, the aspect of gender gets even more in- feel is directly dependent on how fit and well are our triguing in mitochondrial research; is there any mitochondria. The measurements of mitochondrial difference between male and female mitochon- physiology provide novel insight not only into differ- dria? ent disease pathogenesis, but also gives an opportu- – The population of the world is ageing rapidly, nity to identify novel targets for intervention (nutri- and this sets social and economic challenges. tional, physical, pharmacological) to improve the Quality of life becomes an important aspect in quality of life and find treatment against diseases. ageing society. Healthy ageing is one of the most important topics in the nowadays re- MITOCHONDRIA AND IMMUNE CELLS search. Do mitochondria get old together with us? Or mitochondria determine that we are get- Like each type of tissues has it own characteristics, ting old? mitochondria from different tissues differ. They – The environment and lifestyle are key factors in have their own specific needs, abilities and capaci- the quality of life. These factors determine mi- ties. For example, heart has enormous energy de- tochondrial health – how fit are our mitochon- mands and is fully “packed” with mitochondria that dria; thus, determine our fit and well-being. Can normally are working at their highest capacity. On we, by changing lifestyle, improve our mito- the other hand, adipose tissues, the main function chondrial fitness? of which is storage of lipids, have only few mito-

46 Yearbook 2020

chondria per cell that normally are not working at and how much cell “consumes/utilizes” to get ener- their maximal rate. Although studies into mitochon- gy as ATP) are recognised as characteristics and dria and metabolism of immune cells date back a controllers of immune cell activation. Collectively, few decades, it has only been in recent years that studies on immune cell energy metabolism state the tight link between bioenergetics and function that the pro-inflammatory immune cells have re- has become apparent. Immune cells have a unique programming of metabolism from mitochondrial ability to rapidly respond to inflammation, infection, oxidative phosphorylation to glycolysis, while an- and other perturbations (like Western high fat and/ ti-inflammatory-activated cells rely on oxidative or high carbohydrate diet and sedentary lifestyle). phosphorylation and fatty acid oxidation. However, This “fast response” ability is bioenergetically ex- data on time-dependent changes in metabolic pensive and should be supported by a unique and choices of immune cells are lacking (Fig. 1). Under- flexible way how cell gets energy to support its standing of how a cell gets energy at each state of functioning. Metabolic choices (which substrates activation could provide the basis for metabo-

Fig. 1. Energy metabolism pattern in immune cells

47 Latvian Academy of Sciences

lism-targeting therapies to restore/support cell ACKNOWLEDGEMENT functioning, thus, ensuring better recovery and outcome after acute inflammation (like sepsis). The research is supported by ERDF project Nr. 1.1.1.2/VIAA/1/16/246 “Novel treatment strategy MITOCHONDRIA, IMMUNE CELLS AND for the correction of energy metabolism in sepsis” HEALTHY AGEING and L’Oréal Baltic For Women in Science Fellowship Programme. Special thanks to Dr. pharm. Edgars Unhealthy diet, sedentary lifestyle, and ageing re- Liepiņš, Full Member of the Latvian Academy of sult in the loss of mitochondrial function, chronic Sciences, for help with the artworks. inflammation and subsequent development of diseases like diabetes mellitus, atherosclerosis, heart failure and neurodegenerative disorders. Changes REFERENCES

in the mitochondrial function and energy metabo- 1. Boeck C. et al. Inflammation in adult women with a history of child lism pathways are associated with the response of maltreatment: The involvement of mitochondrial alterations and oxidative stress. Mitochondrion, 2016, Vol. 30, pp. 197–207; Karabatsi- immune cells to stimulus (like inflammation). Meta- akis A. et al. Mitochondrial respiration in peripheral blood mononu- bolic diseases (like diabetes, atherosclerosis) are clear cells correlates with depressive subsymptoms and severity of major depression. Transl. Psychiatry, 2014, Vol. 4, e397; Li P. et al. characterised by both altered mitochondrial func- Mitochondrial respiratory dysfunctions of blood mononuclear cells tion and chronic inflammation status, thus indicat- link with cardiac disturbance in patients with early-stage heart failure. Sci. Rep., 2015, Vol. 5, 10229; Shirakawa R. et al. Mitochondrial reactive ing that there is a possible link between immunity oxygen species generation in blood cells is associated with disease and mitochondrial function. severity and exercise intolerance in heart failure patients. Sci. Rep. , Vol. 9, 14709. A growing number of studies on mitochondrial 2. Boeck C. et al. Inflammation in adult women with a history of child function in human blood cells have showed associ- maltreatment: The involvement of mitochondrial alterations and ation of impairment in bioenergetics of immune oxidative stress. Mitochondrion, 2016, Vol. 30, pp. 197–207; Li P. et al. Mitochondrial respiratory dysfunctions of blood mononuclear cells cells neurodegenerative diseases, depression and link with cardiac disturbance in patients with early-stage heart failure. heart failure [1]. Moreover, studies showed that Sci. Rep., 2015, Vol. 5, 10229; Clere-Jehl R. et al. Septics shock alters mitochondrial respiration of lymphoid cell-lines and human there is a strong link between alterations in mito- peripheral blood mononuclear cells: The role of plasma. Shock, 2019, chondrial function of immune cells and inflamma- Vol. 51, pp. 97–104; Weiss S. L. et al. Mitochondrial dysfunction in peripheral blood mononuclear cells in pediatric septic shock. Pediatr. tion status [2]. Altogether, these data indicate that Crit. Care Med., 2015, Vol. 16, pp. e4–e12. there is a crosstalk between mitochondrial fitness in immune cells, inflammation and functioning of other organ systems. Since it is well documented that a physically active and nutritionally healthy lifestyle supports normal mitochondrial functioning, immunity status and reduces the risk for the development of diabetes, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative disease, the questions arise if immune cells are ensuring crosstalk between organs on bioenergetics level (Fig. 2).

CONCLUDING REMARK

Research of immune cell bioenergetics provides the basis for novel approaches for treatment of acute and chronic inflammation-related diseases, as well as shows that immune cells can act as an organ-to-organ communication tool on bioenergetics level.

48 Yearbook 2020

Fig 2. Mitochondrial fitness and bioenergetic crosstalk

49 Latvian Academy of Sciences

BALTIC BIOMATERIALS CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE PROJECT WILL BOOST BIOMATERIAL RESEARCH IN THE REGION

Jānis Ločs, Rīga Technical University, Latvia Maija Dambrova, Dr. pharm., Professor of Rīga Stradiņš University, Head of Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Pharmacy of Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis Edgars Liepiņš, Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis, Latvia Ilze Salma, LLC Institute of Stomatology, Rīga Stradiņš University, Latvia Konstantins Logviss, Rīga Stradiņš University, Latvia Mauro Alini, AO Research Institute Davos, Switzerland Matteo D’Este, AO Research Institute Davos, Switzerland Aldo R. Boccaccini, Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany Liliana Liverani, Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany Dagnija Loča, Rīga Technical University, Latvia Arita Dubnika, Rīga Technical University, Latvia

On 1 January 2020, the Baltic Biomaterials Centre of tween leading scientific institutions and partner in- Excellence (BBCE) for advanced biomaterials re- stitutions in low R&I performing countries. EUR 15 search and development will be launched based on million has been awarded to finance the establish- the long-term strategic cooperation between Rīga ment of the centre through the EU’s programme Technical University (RTU), Latvian Institute of Or- Horizon 2020. Raised EU funding is only a half of ganic Synthesis (LIOS), Rīga Stradiņš University the total funding ensured for the establishment of (RSU) and LLC Rīga Stradiņš University Institute of the BBCE. Another EUR 15 million for infrastructure Stomatology (RSU IS), on the one part, and AO Re- development will be provided by the Government search Institute Davos, Switzerland (ARI) and Frie- of Latvia, European Regional Development Fund drich-Alexander University of Erlangen, Nuremberg, and the project partners in Latvia themselves. Germany (FAU), on the other part. Europeans are an aging population, and although The strategic direction of the BBCE is research and the number of lived years increases, the number of development of patient-specific personalised solu- “healthy life years” stays at the same level or grows tions for bone tissue regeneration. BBCE will ensure slower, leading to an increased demand for health a full cycle of bone regeneration biomaterial devel- care services. Especially, the need for bone joint re- opment starting from the materials, preclinical in- placement implants and bone replacement im- vestigations, and finally, the clinical trials. The BBCE plants is increasing with older age. Musculoskeletal project will be implemented under the European conditions are the second largest contributor to dis- Commission’s Horizon 2020 Spreading Excellence ability worldwide (affecting, e.g., joints (osteoarthri- and Widening Participation Teaming Phase 2 pro- tis, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, gout, an- gramme that funds actions to create new centres of kylosing spondylitis) and bones (osteoporosis, excellence in low Research and Innovation (R&I) osteopenia and associated fragility fractures, trau- performing countries, built on partnerships be- matic fractures)). These are not just conditions of

50 Yearbook 2020

Fig. 1. Below: the agreement on the establishment of the Baltic Biomaterials Centre of Excellence (BBCE), signed by Jānis Ločs, Coordinator of the BBCE, and Director General DG RTD Mr Jean-Eric Paquet. Photo: His excellency President of Latvia Egils Levits, First Lady of Latvia Andra Levite, BBCE project partners and EC representatives at the BBCE kick-off meeting on 29 January 2020, Rīga, Latvia

older age – they are relevant across the life-course, typically characterised by pain and limitations in mobility, dexterity and functional ability, reducing people’s ability to work and participate in social roles with associated impacts on mental wellbeing, and at a broader level – impacts on the prosperity of communities. Joint disorders, for example, consti- tute for more than a half of all the chronic conditions of persons aged 60 and over, while back pain is the second leading cause of sick leave. The data of the Latvian Central Statistical Bureau show that in 2013, 36% of Latvian population was older than 50 years and 14.2% – older than 70 years. The prog- nosis for 2050 is alarming – 52% of the population will be older than 50 years and 23% will be older than 70 years. Increased longevity leads to: 1) a higher number of bone joint implants and bone replacement; 2) increase of healthcare costs for drugs and surgery, and 3) loss of productivity. Osteoarthri- tis currently affects over 40 million Europeans and 80% of people with osteoarthritis have restricted movement, and 25% of them cannot even perform their main daily life activities. For example, annual

51 Latvian Academy of Sciences

costs in United Kingdom for the topical and oral Therefore, the first seeds for the foundation of BBCE nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs that are pre- have been put in the ground already more than 20 scribed after surgeries were estimated to be EUR years ago through joint multidisciplinary research 26.8 million and EUR 35.8 million, respectively. As project between RTU, RSU, and RSU IS on biomate- the world’s population is ageing, the extent of the rials development and bone tissue regeneration, problem will increase, causing a huge burden on which resulted in translation of biomaterials re- the societies and health care systems. search into the clinic. Development and implemen- Dental health is one of the most important factors tation of Teaming Phase 1 was the “catalyst” to ini- for healthy ageing. Technological advances in the tiate establishment of BBCE, and in June 2018, the dental implantation are the milestone for the ex- agreement between BBCE core partner consortium cellent results, sustaining patient’s life quality and (RTU, LIOS, RSU, and RSU IS) was signed. aesthetic self-esteem. Additionally, from the begin- Based on the RIS3 in Latvia and Germany, as well as nings of the modern dental implantology, numerous of the Switzerland’s research strategy directions, it projects regarding the selection of patients, treat- is clear that establishment of BBCE in Latvia will ment protocols, surgical technology and bone sub- have national support in all project partner coun- stitute materials have been implemented, indicat- tries; therefore, the success rate for the implemen- ing the lack of the ideal method and material. One tation of the project is very high and credible. The of the most topical issues related to this multi-fac- linkage between the project partners and RIS3 is tor problem is the selection of the best-performing summarised in Figure 2. bone substituting materials and its clinical appro- EU Structural Funds Programme for Research and bation. This is also one of the major issues in perio- Innovation for the period of 2014–2020 that is di- dontology, where bone replacing materials are used rectly targeted at promotion of RIS3 fields in Latvia to promote the bone formation and periodontal re- (total budget of EUR 115.3 million) as well as many generation. other state budget and EU funds financed pro-

Fig. 2. Linkage between BBCE partners and RIS3 in Latvia

52 Yearbook 2020

grammes, aimed at RIS3 facilitation, contribute to um-sized enterprises) bringing the high achieving RIS3 micro level indicators. However, the performance products into the market, increasing planned outcome indicators (e.g., investment in scientific excellence, elevating the impact factor of R&D as a percentage of GDP, private sector invest- peer-reviewed publications and Hirsch index in ments in R&D, the number of R&D personnel) may the field of biomaterials. Collecting the “critical not be achieved by the current policy mix, indicat- mass” of high-level scientists and/or technology ing a need for a revision of incentives created by the developers will be achieved ensuring career de- programmes. Hence BBCE will ensure sustainable velopment to provide highly-qualified staff at quality of the research and technology transfer po- BBCE core partners able to work in a multinational tential in the field of biomaterials for medical appli- and interdisciplinary environment and capable to cations, mainly focusing on areas possessing the cope with their future career demands in an effi- best available scientific and research capacities cient and innovative way. (identified in the National RIS3) – in particular on The BBCE headquarters will be located at the RTU research of biomaterials, advanced materials, nano- campus in Ķīpsala (Fig. 3), and will be based on the technology, biomedicine and biopharmacy. Rūdolfs Cimdiņš Rīga Biomaterial Innovation and The activities of the BBCE will provide an opportu- Development Centre (RBIDC). Furthermore, the re- nity to combine existing expertise and infrastruc- search infrastructure of LIOS, RSU, and RSU IS will ture to create critical mass and excellence in the be expanded to provide a full-fledged platform for development of biomaterials for bone regenera- the full development cycle of new biomaterials. tion and solutions for creative biomedical applica- Significant impact of the BBCE on all national tions. The expected impact of the BBCE project in partners is foreseen in the development of infra- the long term will be achieved through fruitful co- structure, strengthening research excellence, cooperation between the BBCE core partners in Lat- operation ability with industry and valorisation via and industry (including small and medi- intensity (Fig. 4).

Fig. 3. BBCE headquarters at the RTU campus in Ķīpsala (Rīga, Latvia)

53 Latvian Academy of Sciences

Fig. 4. Impact of BBCE on the national development

Fig. 5. Full cycle of biomaterials development for bone regeneration

2020 55 ------Yearbook for the development of BBCE and by adding the cru- the adding by and BBCE of development the for cial experience of RSU FDF, RSU IS, and LIOS LPP research full-cycleof development fields, - biomate be covered. rials will leading Two research organisations with an - inter national reputation in research and innovation ex will cellence towards contribute the establishment and growth of BBCE: fosters ARI, in excellence ap- within and Development Research plied Preclinical trauma and disorders of the musculoskeletal system and translation of this knowledge to achieve more effective patient care worldwide; and characterisa and fabrication FAU, design, the on focuses includes which biomaterials, of range wide a of tion bioceramics, bioactive glasses, composites, for tis sue engineering nanoscale scaffolds, drug delivery coatings. bioactive and systems bio- BBCE scientists new will research and develop as oral well and as materials facial, for bone repair, jaw orthopaedics surgery, and in other areas. The the strengths bring together to is intended project exper- scientific the partners each of of in strategic - compre for excellence of centre a creating and tise hensive biomaterial with research, an emphasis on knowledge The 5). (Fig. materials bone regenerative a high tech have to BBCE is expected by generated nology transfer potential and contribute to the de velopment of an innovative industry in It Latvia. is intended that the BBCE in Latvia will facilitate the bioma- and technology medical the of development terials research industry by providing a complete product development cycle from the laboratory to the clinic. The BBCE will also make a significant contribution to the development of national sci attract prominent foreign search infrastructure, re- strengthen researcher and students, faculty, entists, collaboration with the industry and attract foreign research. in the area of investment - - - - - systems and ADME-tox studies. studies. ADME-tox and systems vitro in and vivo in In future LIOS plans to implement the Good - Labo - toxicol general the for system (GLP) Practice ratory ogy studies in rodents. LIOS combines search basic practices re- with applied research to ensure impactful management of between cooperation long-lasting a intellectual been has There property. biomate of investigations and LIOS on RBIDC RTU rials developed in RTU RBIDC. RSU is the leading academic and research institution in the holds It fieldLatvia. in pharmacy and dentistry medicine, of a providing field, scientific Latvian in place unique a full research translation cycle from bench to bed RSU is running a project Currently, to set side. up a pro to (FDF) Laboratory Form Dosage Finished new mote research in pharmaceutical It technology. is planned that the lab will be set up in 2022 and it will gradually expand its research area from oral solid pharmaceutical dosage forms to biomaterials at developed Biomaterials systems. delivery drug as in cooperation with clinicians RBIDC, from RTU the more in practice clinical in tested been have IS, RSU than 400 patient cases. RSU IS is the only dental - institu surgery maxillofacial and oral and medicine tion in Latvia that, in addition to multidisciplinary clinical work, also fosters academic and scientific activity in the fieldRTUof RBIDC re stomatology. core the be will capacity scientific and fields search The RBIDC is a part of RTU. RTU RBIDC scientists are scientists RBIDC RTU is a part RTU. of The RBIDC research science materials well-defined on working areas for bone tissue replacement and - regenera such Materials as calcium ceramics phosphate tion. and glasses phosphate as well as cements bone and glass-ceramics are historically developed research More years. more than 20 for RBIDC areas in RTU recent research fields include also calcium phos- microencapsulation composites, polymer and phate of scaffolds biologically active for - substances, con trolled drug delivery and nanostructured RBIDC implant RTU properties. eluting drug with composites re- biomaterial modern most the and biggest the is cen leading the is LIOS Baltics. the in centre search the in discovery drug and chemistry medicinal in tre and the Baltic of states, Pharmaceutical Laboratory - in preclin vast (LPP) experience has Pharmacology ical testing of biological/pharmacological activity in Latvian Academy of Sciences

PORTABLE DEVICE FOR EARLY NONINVASIVE DIAGNOSIS OF SKIN CANCER

Ilze Ļihačova, University of Latvia, Institute of Atomic Physics and Spectroscopy Aleksejs Ļihačovs, University of Latvia, Institute of Atomic Physics and Spectroscopy Dmitrijs Bļizņuks, Rīga Technical University, Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology

Currently, there are several issues that make early diagnosis of skin melanoma difficult: – patients’ low awareness of skin melanoma, its risks and prevalence; – low availability of specialists in rural areas; – high cost of dermatologist or oncologist’s consultation; – long queues for state-funded specialist’s (dermatologist, oncologist) consultation; – subjectivity of experienced professionals during diagnostics (sensitivity and specificity for melanoma detection varies from 58–73% and 53– 69%, respectively) [2]; – additional diagnostics with expensive equipment by trained technicians. To solve these problems, it is necessary to create an easy-to-use and inexpensive skin diagnostic device that could be used by general physicians in routine From the left: Aleksejs Lihačovs, Ilze Lihačova, Dmitrijs Blizņuks patient screening. The development of such an equipment is the aim of our groups scientific work. TOPICALITY AND AIM OF THE RESEARCH METHOD AND DEVICE DEVELOPMENT Skin melanoma is a malignant skin cancer whose incidence is increasing every year worldwide. Espe- Method using optical density images. The portable cially it is widespread in industrialised countries, device developed for early contactless diagnosis of where most of all are fair-skinned people. It is esti- skin cancer is based on the methodology developed mated that the incidence of skin melanoma will in- by I. Lihačova (ex. Diebele), which was first pub- crease by 22% in 2019 [1]. Early diagnosis is very lished in 2012 [3]. The method was developed important for skin melanoma patients – the sooner based on differences in the average optical density melanoma is detected, the more likely it could be (OD) spectra of skin lesions obtained with a mul- cured completely. However, it is not easy to distin- tispectral imaging camera (see Fig. 2) [4]. The mela- guish skin lesions even by experienced profession- noma diagnostic parameter p’ was created by com- als. For example, Figure 1 shows various skin forma- bining three optical density images at the following tions that are not so easily distinguished visually. wavelengths: 540 nm, 650 nm, and 950 nm. It was

56 Yearbook 2020

Fig. 1. RGB images of a) basal cell carcinoma, b) nevus, and c) melanoma

Fig. 2. Multispectral imaging setup and average OD spectra from melanoma, benign pigmented lesions, vascular lesions and normal skin [6] possible to distinguish melanomas from nevi with described in an article by A. Lihačovs in 2018 [7]. high-sensitivity (97%) and specificity (96%) and dif- Adapting methods to a portable device. By simplify- ferentiate pigmented basal cell carcinomas from ing the previously developed method now diffuse nevi and melanomas with 100% sensitivity and reflectance images were used instead of optical 95% specificity [5]. density images for the melanoma diagnostic pa- Method using autofluorescence intensity. To in- rameter p’ calculations. Based on the above decrease the number of studied lesion groups, the scribed methods (diffuse reflection and autofluo- method was supplemented with skin autofluores- rescence) and combining them, a portable device cence (AF) measurements. By measuring the inten- (Fig. 4) was created using 405 nm, 526 nm, 663 nm, sity of skin autofluorescence (405 nm excitation) in and 964 nm light-emitting diodes (LEDs), diffuser, the spectral range of 515–700 nm, it was possible orthogonal placed linear polarisers, 515 nm long to distinguish seborrheic keratoses from basal cell pass filter, lens, and IDS camera [8]. The diodes were carcinomas, melanomas, pigmented and dysplastic selected as close as possible to the wavelengths nevi. It was obtained that seborrheic keratoses un- used in the developed methodology. like the other lesion groups show higher fluores- Using developed device clinical measurements cence intensity than the surrounding skin (see Fig. were initiated and the first results were promising – 3). Results showed that it is possible to discriminate melanomas can be distinguished from basal cell seborrheic keratoses from other lesions with 100% carcinomas, nevi, seborrheic keratoses, hyperkera- sensitivity and 100% specificity. These results were toses, and hemangiomas with 100% sensitivity and

57 Latvian Academy of Sciences

Fig. 3. Autofluorescence under 405 nm excitation in the 515–700 nm spectral range of a) pigmented nevus, b) dysplastic nevus, c) seborrheic keratosis, d) basal cell carcinoma, and e) melanoma [7]

Fig. 4. The prototype for data acquisition. Device consists of 4 × 405 nm, 4 × 526 nm, 4 × 663 nm, 4 × 964 nm LEDs, 2 linear polarisers placed at right angles, diffuser, 515 nm long pass filter, 5Mpix IDS camera [8]

58 Yearbook 2020

100% specificity (Fig. 5). These results were- pub where t is time, I(t) – AF intensity at a given mo- lished by I. Lihačova in 2018 [9]. However, this ment, A – residual intensity or background intensity, method currently does not distinguish basal cell τ – time constant and a fitting constant. Pho- carcinomas from other benign skin lesions. tobleaching parameters (A, τ and a) were calculated Another method to apply to the portable device: using non-linear least-square regression analysis. skin autofluorescence photobleaching for skin can- The planar distribution of fitting parameters (Fig. 6) cer diagnostics. As it is known, photo-bleaching is a was performed using MatLab software. Obtained re- process that involves the conversion of fluorescent sults demonstrate promising perspectives for skin dye molecules into fluorophores that are unable to diagnostics; however, the interpretation of the fluoresce. However, the possible mechanism of tis- achieved results is still under discussion. Probably sue autofluorescence photo-bleaching is still un- proposed technology could be reflected in the de- clear. The main hypotheses describing the pho- velopment of new approaches for analysis of tis- to-bleaching phenomenon considered in literature sue/cells response on optical excitation. These are: a) spontaneous fluorophore decomposition (af- methodologies will lead to development of new ter a certain amount of cycles of absorption/emis- cost-effective approaches for evaluation of tissue sion), b) photo-bleaching due to interactions with metabolic activity and tissue diagnostics. We as- other dye-molecules, and c) photo-bleaching due to sume that evaluation of cells/tissue “wellness” interaction with oxygen molecules and their deriv- (metabolic activity) hypothetically could be meas- atives – reactive oxygen species. For parametric ured by analysis of fluorescence recovery time after mapping of skin AF intensity decrease (photobleach- photobleaching. Insofar, as photobleaching cause ing) rates a sequence of filtered AF imaging under an oxidative stress of exposed cells/tissue, measur- 405 nm LED excitation for 20 seconds at a power ing of fluorescence recovery could be related to density of ~7 mW/cm2 with a frame rate 0.5 fps was cells/tissue ability to restoration, directly indicating recorded by cloud-based prototype device (Fig. 4). In on their metabolic activity. Additional studies are order to visualize the skin AF decrease rates during required to find correlations between tissue meta- the 20 seconds of continuous 405 nm LED excita- bolic states and photobleaching parameters. Recov- tion, the following image processing expression ery time after photobleaching further should be in- were applied: vestigated at different tissue/cells metabolic I(t) = a∙ exp(-t/τ ) + A (1) conditions.

Fig. 5. Distribution of AF and melanoma diagnostic parameter p’ for different groups of skin lesions and p’ and AF image examples for melanoma and seborrheic keratosis [9]

59 Latvian Academy of Sciences

Fig. 6. a) Filtered RGB autofluorescence image of pigmented benign lesion, b) G-band signal of RGB autofluorescence image, c) photobleaching parameter A distribution image. Parameter A is obtained from G-bands image sequence under continuous 20 sec. 405 nm LED excitation

Cloud computing service as a provider of easy to The main users of the system are general practice use access to diagnosis results. Figure 7 presents doctors who directly communicate with patients the general structure of the cloud computing sys- and operate the device. For each patient, the system tem [10]. The main node (www.checkyourskin.eu) creates a personal profile that holds complete his- acts as load balancer by redistributing incoming tory of all analyses. Each device is used by one spe- skin images between available computation nodes. cific doctor, as a result, in his digital profile the doc- Computation nodes (CN) are launched and deacti- tor sees a list of all the scans received from the vated based on the actual number of incoming device and can correlate each of them with one of analysis requests. Each CN provides the Applica- his patients. In order to protect personal data, the tion Programming Interface (API) as a set of stand- patient’s personal code is converted to hash code ard programming interfaces for receiving requests that allows finding specific patient in future but from the main node. To standardise diagnostic al- prevents from restoring the original personal code. gorithm coding, Matlab scripts are used. All com- During the patient’s admission, the doctor performs munications between nodes and skin image trans- a scan, and the device automatically sends skin im- fer from the devices are performed over a secure ages to the main www.checkyourskin.eu service HTTPS channel. node. Then the doctor is able to evaluate diagnosis

Fig. 7. General structure of the system created

2020 61 - Yearbook Eur. J. J. Eur. tral imaging methods. Rīga: University of Latvia, 2015; Lihacova I., I., 2015; Lihacova Latvia, of University Rīga: tral imaging methods. diagnostics non-invasive Semi-automated A. Lihachev K., Bolocko basal and pigmented from nevi melanoma differentiation method for The Second 10592: Vol. 2017, SPIE, of In: Proceedings carcinomas. cell 1059206. Riga 2017”, – “Biophotonics Conference International Kapostinsh L., Valeine Spigulis J., D., Jakovels Diebele I., I., Kuzmina 6. by skin melanoma selection noncontact Towards A. Berzina J., 6, No. 16, Vol. 2011, Opt ., Biomed. J. imaging analysis. multispectral 060502. A., Spigulis J. Derjabo M., Lange V., Plorina E. I., A., Lihacova Lihachev 7. nevi carcinoma, from basal cell keratosis seborrheic of Differentiation Express, Opt. Biomed. imaging. autofluorescence RGB and melanoma by 1852–1858. pp. 4, No. 9, Vol. 2018, skin Cloud infrastructure for A. Lihachev Bliznuks D., P., Osipovs 8. Vol. 2018, SPIE, of In: Proceedings system. scalable detection cancer Imaging for Technologies and Digital Photonics, 10679: Optics, I., Lihacova D., Bliznuks K., 1067905; Bolochko V, Applications, skin images for multispectral of enhancement Quality A. Lihachov 10679: Vol. 2018, SPIE, of Proceedings optical diagnostics. cancer V, Applications Imaging for Technologies and Digital Photonics, Optics, 1067903. A., Lihachev M., Lange V., Plorina E. K., Bolochko I., Lihacova 9. classification skin malformation method for A A. Derjabo Bliznuks D., In: imaging. and skin autofluorescence multispectral combining by 1068535. 10685, Vol. 2018, SPIE, of Proceedings skin Cloud infrastructure for A. Lihachev Bliznuks D., P., Osipovs 10. Vol. 2018, SPIE, of In: Proceedings system. scalable detection cancer Imaging for Technologies and Digital Photonics, 10679: Optics, 1067905. V, Applications, REFERENCES Available Facts and Figures 2019. Cancer Society. Cancer American 1. at: https://www.cancer.org/research/cancer-facts-statistics/all-cancer- accessed (last facts-figures/cancer-facts-figures-2019.html Stat Facts. Cancer SEER Institute, 20.01.2020); National Cancer at: http://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/ Available the Skin. Melanoma of 20.01.2020). html/melan.html (last accessed Hauschild S., Haferkamp Berking C., H., A. A., Enk Hekler J., T. Brinker 2. Kalle von T., Holland-Letz D., Schadendorf Klode J., M., Weichenthal A., are neural networks Deep S. Utikal J. B., Schilling Fröhling S., C., in melanoma image classification. dermatologists superior to 11–17. pp. 119, Vol. 2019, , Cancer Valeine A., Derjabo J., A., Kapostinsh Lihachev I., Kuzmina Diebele I., 3. by nevi melanomas and common of Clinical evaluation Spigulis J. L., 467–472. pp. 3, No. 3, Vol. 2012, Express, Opt. Biomed. imaging. spectral Kapostinsh L., Valeine Spigulis J., D., Jakovels Diebele I., I., Kuzmina 4. by skin melanoma selection noncontact Towards A. Berzina J., 6, No. 16, Vol. 2011, Opt. , Biomed. J. imaging analysis. multispectral 060502. multispec by pathologies skin oncologic Evaluation of I. Lihacova 5. - - - - - CONCLUSIONS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The potential impact of the developed prototype for device multimodal skin imaging on was society demonstrated during Dur- the clinical approbation. test was device prototype the study, clinical the ing - Region European supportedby been has work This al Development Fund projects “Development and clinical validation of a novel cost effective ti-modal methodology for mul- early diagnostics of skin cancers” (No. 1.1.1.2/16/I/001, 1.1.1.2/VIAA/1/16/052), “Time-resolved agreement - autofluo No. skin non-invasive cancer for methodology rescence diagnostics” (No. 1.1.1.2/16/I/001, agreement No. 1.1.1.2/VIAA/1/16/014) and “Portable Device for Non-contact Early Diagnostics of Skin (No. Cancer” 1.1.1.1/16/A/197). results and original images from his personal web page. Each image is attached either to an already existing analysis or a new analysis can be created. Cloud-based approach combines a virtually unlim ited amount allowing of to resources, create scala and inexpensive being while system, diagnostic ble since the currently only robust, required amount of resources are acquired An from ad- cloud provider. ditional advantage is the centralised management of the algorithms used for analysis, which allows promptly implementing changes in diagnostic al gorithm. ed in primary care level (prototype was approbation tested device During by GP). Practitioner, General at GP two practice, melanoma cases at early stage and - were suspected forward patients were quickly ed to the Centre for Oncology accurate diagnostics There- confirmed). was diagnosis (the treatment and patients by, involved to the study received an opportunity for free and fast examination of skin lesions with subsequent (in the case of malignancy) suspected fast forwarding to the oncologist. To summarise, the proposed technique has good perspective as a counselling for device skin lesion ex amination on possible malignancy. Latvian Academy of Sciences

OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES FOR LATVIAN FOREST SCIENCE – THE ROLE OF FOREST SCIENTISTS IN FORESTRY

Jurģis Jansons, Dr. silv., Director of the Latvian State Forest Research Institute “Silava”, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Joint Stock Company “Latvian State Forests” Tālis Gaitnieks, Dr. silv., Scientific Director of the Latvian State Forest Research Institute “Silava”, Full Member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences

The basis for the development of the Latvian state ing a stable knowledge centre for the development is and will be the rational and meaningful use of its and competitiveness of the Latvian forest sector, as resources. In terms of resources, two of them are well as to promote its international growth and rec- particularly significant – the Latvian people and the ognition. Often these challenges are contradictory – land of Latvia. Neither of these is in particular abun- Latvia is a competitor with other nations in the in- dance. Earth’s resources are limited and severely ternational timber market, while the national forest constrained – we cannot increase them, therefore industry is not interested in theoretical ideas that we should strive to use them more effectively. are of interest to the international scientific com- Latvian forest scientists operate according to the munity, but in practical solutions and recommenda- accepted definition of forest science – forest sci- tions applicable in Latvia. ence is the study of forest ecosystems and their re- In order to obtain precise information on the state lationship with human society. Scientists working of Latvian forest resources, a statistical forest in- within this definition of forest science are less nu- ventory, known as the National Forest Inventory merous than scientists who study forests solely as (NFI), has been conducted in Latvia since 2004. It is an ecosystem. Often we also find other views in the an independent, scientifically implemented forest forestry sector – that forest science is an instrument assessment system using 16 157 permanent circular to support the forestry business, while forestry busi- plots (PL) in Latvia, evenly distributed in tracts over ness is based on rational land use. a 4×4 km grid, four PL per tract. Each plot has an The Latvian State Forest Research Institute “Silava” area of 500 m2 and each plot is assessed every five (LSFRI Silava) was established in 1946 and will cel- years. If trees are growing in the plot, each tree is ebrate its 75th anniversary next year. LSFRI Silava measured and its coordinates are fixed. The plot was originally called the “Forestry Problems Insti- centre is secret and no forest owner knows if a plot tute” – thereby including the basic condition that is on their property. In 2018, the third five-year cycle there are problems that need to be solved. One of ended, and in 2019, LSFRI Silava initiated the fourth the problems at the time was moving sand – knowl- NFI measurement cycle. edge was needed on how to prevent dunes from Results of National Forest Monitoring show that in spreading. Scientists solved this situation by learn- 2019, Latvia’s forests contained the largest amount ing how to establish pine stands on pure sand that of wood resources in the foreseeable past – 679 are now 60–80 years old. Currently, Latvian forest million m3 (+/– 1.15%) of standing stock in Latvian science has progressed from problem solving to forests. Forest land in Latvia occupies 3.59 million meeting new challenges. There are two main chal- hectares or 55.6% of the country’s territory, includ- lenges for Latvian forest science – to continue being forest stands, clearings, swamps, glades and for-

62 Yearbook 2020

est infrastructure. Every year, felling by humans oc- curs in 4.6% of the forest area in Latvia, including 1.4% in regeneration fellings, resulting in 17.3 million m3 of timber. 16.7 million m3 of timber is removed from the forest and used for both industrial and domestic consumption. Every year 6.3 million m3 of timber are lost due to natural factors, mainly wind, insect and fungi damage, of which 0.3 million m3 are utilised by humans. During the last five years, the amount of standing stock in Latvian forests has increased by 3.2 million m3, which means that each year at least 26.8 million m3 of timber is produced in forests as a result of tree growth. Latvian forests have a considerable stock of wood resources in relatively old forests – in stands that Dynamics of standing stock in forests over 5-year cycles. (Source: Latvian National Forest Inventory, www.silava.lv) have reached the parameters when final felling is allowed in Latvia and where there are no restrictions on tree felling in the interests of nature pro- 2018, 26.8% of business sector funding for Latvian tection, standing stock has increased by 20.2 mil- science was invested directly in LSFRI Silava. The lion m3 over the past five years and has reached memorandum signed in 2011 between LSFRI Sila- 278.6 million m3 (www.silava.lv). va and Joint Stock Company “Latvian State Forests” The state of Latvia’s forest resources and its grow- states that the knowledge created jointly by the ing dynamics is influenced by two factors. On the institute and the company is freely available to the one hand, Latvian forest management policies, Latvian forestry sector in order to promote its compared to other forestry nations in the region, overall competitiveness. Such a strategic step has are strictly regulated, cautious and prohibitive. For significantly contributed to the development of example, Finland does not regulate the forest own- Latvian forest science, including international ers’ decision on the main felling, but in Latvia con- competitiveness. cepts inherited from the former USSR regarding Twelve research programmes lasting 4–6 years sawlog dimensions when permitting final felling or have been implemented within the partnership of regeneration cuttings are still utilised. Forest scien- LSFRI Silava and JSC Latvian State Forests. The re- tists support forestry sector initiatives to liberalise search is carried out in accordance with the re- and renew legislation to promote efficient land use search directions defined in the LSFRI Silava opera- and increase practical implementation of knowl- tional and development strategy. The most extensive edge generated by forest scientists. For example, studies were carried out in forest breeding (Mg. Ar- allowing forest owners to produce marketable logs nis Gailis, Dr. Martins Zeps), forest adaptation and before the tree reaches the felling age as set during climate mitigation (Dr. Āris Jansons, Dr. Una Nei- the Soviet era, while also requiring a higher re- mane), forest biotic risks (Dr. Tālis Gaitnieks, Dr. Ag- forestation quality, are prerequisites for increasing nis Šmits), improvement of forest tree growth con- timber resources as well as intensifying carbon se- ditions (Dr. Andis Lazdiņš), research and adaptation questration in Latvian forests in the future. of forest regeneration technologies (Dr. Dagnija The second aspect resulting in the increase in the Lazdiņa) and tree growth modelling (Mg. Jānis Don- amount of timber in Latvian forests is purposeful, is, Mg. Guntars Šņepsts). Research on the interaction science-based forestry. Research and knowledge of between forestry and the environment has a signif- LSFRI Silava in improving the productivity, quality icant role in the cooperation between the commer- and health of Latvian forests are in demand in the cial sector and forest science. The influence of sus- Latvian business sector. According to the Ministry of tainably intensive forestry on environmental Education and Science (MoES) (www.izm.gov.lv), in parameters in model territories (Dr. Zane Lībiete),

63 Latvian Academy of Sciences

the role of broadleaved forest stands (Dr. hab. Māris significant deterioration of growth potential in pre- Laiviņš) and the impact of human activity on the viously overly densely planted stands that are cur- population of capercaillie (Dr. Jānis Ozoliņš) are in- rently 40–50 years old. After repeated measure- vestigated. The importance of national knowledge ments (after 11 years) of 285 initially high-yielding on the role of forestry in climate change mitigation, spruce stands, their growth was found to be signifi- including carbon sequestration in forests, is increas- cantly impaired. In such a situation, decaying stands ing (Dr. Andis Lazdiņš, Dr. Āris Jansons, Dr. Kaspars should be allowed to be felled and purposefully Liepiņš). This knowledge will become more and restored, rather than being required to be managed more relevant due to the forecast economic growth by sanitary felling. The research was compiled in a in Latvia, which will generate additional GHG emis- monograph published in 2019 entitled Even aged sions, requiring compensatory mechanisms. In co- spruce forests in Latvia. operation with JSC “Latvijas Finieris”, LSFRI Silava The development of forest science in Latvia was has long-term research programmes on growth significantly influenced by the financing ofEU processes of birch forest stands and plywood plan- structural funds and direct programmes available tations and production technologies (Dr. Kaspars to science. The “Competence Centres” programme, Liepiņš). developed by the Ministry of Economics, enabled In addition to business-supported research pro- efficient transfer of forest breeding results to plant grammes, LVMI Silava is developing research pro- production (Dr. Āris Jansons), use of stand manage- grammes within other financial instruments. One of ment technologies and remote sensing in forestry the ten achievements of Latvian science in 2019 (Dr. Andis Lazdiņš), as well as for control of root rot is the study “Even-aged spruce forests in Latvia”, (Dr. Tālis Gaitnieks, Dr. Natālija Burņeviča). Early which was carried out by LSFRI Silava within the stage researchers at LSFRI Silava are implementing framework of the MoES state research programme eight ERDF postdoctoral research support pro- (Dr. Jurģis Jansons, Dr. Janis Donis, Dr. Tālis Gaitnieks, gramme studies. Internationally significant Dr. Āris Jansons, Dr. Dagnija Lazdiņa, Dr. Zane Lībiete, ERDF-funded studies on the effects of wind on Dr. Dainis E. Ruņģis). Opportunities and risks for the spruce and birch forests have been launched under management of planted even-aged spruce stands, the leadership of leading researcher Āris Jansons. In which occupy at least 200 thousand hectares of the 2019, LSFRI Silava became the lead partner in the most fertile Latvian forest land, were investigated. EU LIFE Programme study OrgBalt: Demonstration This interdisciplinary study included forest man- of climate change mitigation measures in the Baltic agement, genetic, phytopathological and techno- States and Finland (managed by leading researcher logical aspects. Forestry industry was provided with Andis Lazdiņš). a rational spruce cultivation model by renewing Significant opportunities for the development of in- stands, as well as by information on the risks and terdisciplinary research are the expertise of LSFRI

Repeated surveys of 283 even aged spruce stands after 11 years have shown a significant decrease in the ratio of stable stands and an increase in the ratio of declining stands (Zane Lībiete, 2019)

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Silava in molecular genetics, which is increasingly being integrated into the traditional LSFRI Silava research directions (Dr. biol. Dainis E. Ruņģis). The scientific achievements of the LSFRI Silava wildlife management group, especially in the study of Latvi- an large carnivore populations, are gaining international importance (Dr. biol. Jānis Ozoliņš, Dr. biol. Guna Bagrade). In 2019, improvement and supplementation of the scientific infrastructure, as foreseen in the LSFRI Silava Operational and Development Strategy, was continued. In 2019, the renovation of the institute’s central building was completed, a technical laboratory was established and 84 sets of scientific equipment were purchased. Reconstruction of the LSFRI Silava central building in Salaspils in the LSFRI Silava continued its active cooperation with summer of 2019. Photo: Agnis Šmits the forestry sector, which was highly valued and widely appreciated. In 2019, two Latvian Forest Sci- ence Days were held, with more than 120 participants each. In the past year, LSFRI Silava scientists twice received the forest sector award “Zelta Čiekurs” (“Gold Cone”) – for the contribution of science to the development of the forest sector received by the forest breeding team led by researcher Arnis Gailis, and in December 2019, leading researcher Dagnija Lazdiņa received the award for scientific communication with society. In 2019, focussed cooperation with the Latvian Uni- versity of Life Sciences and Technologies (LULST) Participants in the Latvian Forest Science Day “Forests and forestry in a changing climate”, 17 November 2019 at Jaunkalsnava. Photo: Ilze Zepa continued. LSFRI Silava scientists at the Forest Fac- ulty teach bachelor and master courses as well as participate in the study process with guest lectures and presentations in forest field and experimental trials. LSFRI Silava leading researcher Āris Jansons is leading the PhD programme in Forestry. The For- estry Doctoral studies Council has successfully operated within the framework of LULST, where the participants have been delegated on parity principles by LSFRI Silava, the Latvian Institute of Wood Chemistry, LULST and SIA Forest and Wood Prod- ucts Research and Development Institute. Opportu- nities for collaboration encourage increasing participation of LULST faculty members in research programmes implemented by LSFRI Silava. Forest science and higher education is supported by the Forest Research Station, which was jointly established by LSFRI Silava and LULST in 2014, and man- Forest science and higher education communication centre “Mežmāja” in the Talsi hills, Šķēde Forest District of the Forest Research Station. ages 28 000 ha of national research forests. Photo: Jānis Vilks

65 C U R R E N T R E SE A R C H TO P IC S IN HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES Yearbook 2020

GOTTHARD FRIEDRICH STENDER AS A LATVIAN AND A EUROPEAN SC H O LA R

Māra Grudule, Dr. philol., professor at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Latvia; senior researcher at the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Arts, University of Latvia, Full Member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences

Rīga is considered to have been the ideological centre of the Enlightenment in the Baltic. Neverthe- less, the ideas of the Enlightenment reached the Duchy of Courland during the first half of the 18th century. This was directly related to intellectuals living there who were graduates of the University of Halle, such as Joachim Baumann (1712–1759), Su- perintendent of Courland, and his close friend and colleague, Gotthard Friedrich Stender (1714–1796). The Enlightenment in Courland was characterised by the founding of the Jelgava Peter’s Academy (Ac- ademia Petrina), a modern secondary educational institution (1775), the work of the publishing house G. F. Stender’s silhouette owned by Johann Friedrich Steffenhagen (1744– 1812) – the main centre for Latvian literature up days in 1796. Stender had two sons and three until the mid-19th century (1769) – and activities of daughters, and his eldest son, Alexander Johann the Courland Society for Literature and Art (Kurlän- Stender (1744–1796), actively continued his fa- dische Gesellschaft für Literatur und Kunst, founded ther’s work of bringing enlightenment to the peo- in 1815), recognised to be a precursor to the Latvian ple. His contacts with Latvians and Latvian culture Academy of Sciences. were sustained by other descendants over several Gotthard Friedrich Stender was descended from a generations. His grandson Johann Christian Stender long-established family of Lutheran pastors, and (1787–1862) collected folk songs and published a came into the world in Selonia, at the Lašu Rectory description of Staburags, a scenic cliff on the banks in 1714; he continued the family tradition and stud- of the River Daugava, his great-grandson Karl Gott- ied theology at the Universities of Jena and Halle lob Stender (1830–1897) encouraged choral tradi- (1736–1739). After returning to Courland, Stender tions in Sunākste and organised song festivals. His worked as a private tutor in Lielbērstele, as a teach- great-great-grandson Johannes Carl Ernst August er in Jelgava and, from 1744 onwards, was a pastor Stender (1864–1945) collected Latvian place at Linde-Birzgale, and later at Žeime parish. In 1759, names. Stender travelled abroad with his family, stayed first Gotthard Friedrich Stender had a wide range of in- in the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg, and later in terests. He translated 18th century German poetry Copenhagen, where he taught geography, presuma- into Latvian. As early as in 1753, a translation ap- bly at a cadet school and also produced globes, and peared of Die auf ein starkes Ungewitter erfolgte Stille then briefly stayed in St. Petersburg. In 1766, Stender (The Calm After the Thunderstorm) by the late Baroque returned to Courland and served as a pastor in master Barthold Heinrich Brockes (1680–1747) with Sēlpils and Sunākste parishes until the end of his the poetry recast by Stender. With publication of

67 Latvian Academy of Sciences

German songs, poems and odes, Stender brought to (Vidzeme), names of plants, mushrooms, fish, insects, Latvian poetry the spirit of the Rococo era, anacre- birds and animals. It has been an important source of ontic themes and reinforced the role of sentimen- language studies a hundred, and even two hundred tality; with publication of the collection of fables, years later, as well as for Latvian writers such as Rai- Jaukas pasakas un stāsti (Lovely Tales and Stories, nis (1865–1929) and for students of the history of 1766), and he also laid the foundations for secular language history such as Jānis Endzelīns (1873– prose in Latvian. 1961). The contribution made by Stender to linguis- Gotthard Friedrich Stender paid great attention to tics continues to inspire international interest today. youth education in Courland; he promoted the es- Having attended as a youth lectures given by the tablishment of schools and provided educational German philosopher Siegmund Jakob Baumgarten, reading material for Baltic Latvian and German student of the famous Christian Wolff (1679–1754), youth. In compiling his textbooks, Stender followed Stender was a rather conservative representative of the ideas and practices of 18th-century German theological rationalism. His main philosophical pedagogy. For example, in the collection of stories work, Wahrheit der Religion (The Truth of Religion, from the Old and New Testaments, Maza Bībele jeb 1772, 1784²), was popular with Russian and German Svēti stāsti (The Little Bible, or Sacred Stories, 1766), Freemasons. It was also translated into Russian Stender added poetic summaries and also ques- (1785, 1820²), while its second German edition tions to encourage in-depth reading of the text. which appeared at the suggestion of Freemasons, is This book underwent many editions up until the cited in a number of literary texts written by Ger- end of the 19th century – the Latvian playwright man Freemasons during the 19th century. Rūdolfs Blaumanis (1863–1908) stated in his play Gotthard Friedrich Stender also was interested in Pazudušais dēls (The Prodigal Son) written more than geography. He was commissioned in 1764 by the 100 years later, in 1893, that the book by Stender King of Denmark and the Royal Danish Library to was central to education at home. Stender also rec- produce two large globes, which are still impressive ommended that children’s games, or the so-called today thanks to their accuracy, unexpected for the songs meant for dancing, be adopted as a methodi- mid-18th century, of the contours of Asia and su- cal element at school; he also published recom- perb technical execution. The globes are well pre- mendations for teachers raising literacy (1782) and served and today belong to the Treasury of the Roy- the first illustrated ABC book in Latvian (1787). al Danish Library. Stender also showed interest in Latvian texts published by Stender are character- geography in a number of publications, perhaps the ised by the use of correct, rich language. Although a most notable of which is his Augstas gudrības German by nationality, he grew up and spent most grāmata (Book of High Wisdom, 1774, 1776², 1796³), of his life in Courland, the majority of whose inhab- which was the first popular science publication in itants were Latvians. Stender, like other Baltic Ger- Latvian. It gives broad insight into nature, geogra- mans, was thought to be fluent in Latvian since phy and world history, and through suggested ex- childhood, but unlike his brethren, he did not lose periments, offers the reader an opportunity to en- interest in the Latvian language throughout his life. gage in the study of natural processes and also to In 1761, Stender published a grammar and a dic- compile a calendar. This book presented, for the first tionary of the Latvian language, and became known time in the Baltics (!), a heliocentric view of the among the Baltic Germans as der berühmte Lette [1], world. The odes published in its appendix – transla- or “the famous Latvian”. The grammar by Stender, for tions from the German language and the author’s the first time, described extensively the diversity of own compositions – touch upon ideas of time and languages spoken in Courland and dialectical differ- space, eternity and infinity, and are considered to be ences, as well as the link between the Latvian lan- the beginnings of Latvian philosophical poetry. guage and Lithuanian as a related language. The dic- Promotion by Gotthard Friedrich Stender of a me- tionary Lettisches Lexikon (Latvian Lexicon, 1789), chanical washing machine has to be understood in compiled by Stender, included indexes of given the context of technological enlightenment. Per- names, toponyms found in Courland and Livland haps Stender borrowed the idea of building such a

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Stender was also a skilled draughtsman, as is evident not only by the scheme of the washing machine and the aforementioned globes, but also from the illustration engravings for the third edition of a book of sermons by Georg Mancelius, the title page of the book of songs from Courland and the illustrated Latvian alphabet book. Illustrations for Stender were not only a tool for entertainment but also a didactic tool, with the illustrations accompanying the Courland Latvian Lutheran Songbook and inspirational couplets at the beginning of each chapter being striking examples. The contribution made by Gotthard Friedrich Stender to Latvian music has been barely studied. While Stender himself was not a composer, never- theless, he transplanted German musical traditions to Latvian culture. Stender translated the cantata Der Tod Jesu (The Death of Jesus, 1755), music composed by Carl Heinrich Graun (1703 or 1704–1759) with words written by Karl Wilhelm Ramler (1725– 1798). It is a good translation, suitable for musical performance. It is not known whether the cantata was sung in Latvian during the life of Stender. The full cantata was performed on Good Friday, 31 March 2015, in Rīga at St. Mary Magdalene Church, under the direction of Māris Kupčs, an early music expert. The cantata testifies to appreciation by the translator of how the text complements the musical score. In addition, translations by Stender of Ger- man songs, although published without sheet mu- Title page of Augstas gudrības grāmata [Book of High Wisdom] by G. F. sic, often include an indication of melody in lieu of Stender (1776) a subtitle and are to be appreciated within the musical tradition of the Enlightenment, whereby music machine from the Gentleman’s Magazine, popular in becomes an additional element in the education Europe in the 18th century. His publication Bes- and training of singers. chreibung einer neuen höchst bequemen Wasch Stender translated a collection of songs by a fellow maschine (Description of a New Extremely Comfort- resident of Courland, the poetess, Elisa von der able Washing Machine, 1765) was the first Recke (1754–1833) a half-sister of the Duchess description in German of how to wash clothes me- Dorothea (von Biron, born von Medem, 1761–1821), chanically. It was reviewed and reissued in Konigs- XII von Elisens geistlichen Liedern beym Clavier zu berg, Brunswick and Berlin. Later, Christian Schäffer singen (12 spiritual songs by Elisa for piano accom- (1718–1790), a teacher in Regensburg, using the paniment, 1784) into Latvian, Ielīzes divpadesmit description and construction details provided by svētas dziesmas (The Twelve Sacred Songs of Elisa, Stender turned manufacturing washing machines 1789). Although the translation contains no indica- into a profitable business. Stender obviously had no tion of how they should be sung, the fact is note- interest in making profits. Subsequently Stender worthy that the German original was arranged by showed no interest in the subject of washing ma- the German composer Johann Gottlieb Naumann chines or any other technical devices. (1741–1801) and also that Naumann composed all

69 Latvian Academy of Sciences

12 songs of von der Recke. In the Latvian edition, worked in return for food was a real test case for Stender maintains the sequence of texts corre- new teaching methods, observing how a child’s sponding to the original, follows exactly the origi- curiosity is stimulated by images, sound, and even nal form of the song and also dedicates his collec- the presence of physical objects. Working as a tion to the Duchess of Courland, addressing her professor of geography at a school for young ca- directly in the introduction to the book. The ques- dets in Copenhagen, however, may have been tion of whether Stender hoped that the Duchess helpful later when finalising the text of the Book might sing the songs of Elisa von der Recke in Lat- of High Wisdom (1774). vian must be left unanswered. Stender has been associated with several societies The personality of Stender reveals how European in various ways, no doubt that Freemasonry took on science and culture at that time, just like today, a prominent role in his life, and it was with their was united, how focused it was on overcoming support that he received a well-paid commission language and political barriers, and its role as a to produce both of these globes for the King of medium of communication and dissemination of Denmark and the Royal Library (1764). Despite nev- news. Stender was directly involved at all levels of er having been to Göttingen, Stender was a full the European network of ideas during the period member of its Royal German Society, as evidenced of the Enlightenment: he travelled widely, he par- by references to his books, a manuscript on reli- ticipated in the work of several societies, pub- gious philosophical issues (1765) and his Latvian lished in German periodicals in Europe and in the grammar, which are kept in the Göttingen Universi- Baltics. Experience gained at the University of ty Science Library, and a review of the Grammar by Halle encouraged Stender to employ new peda- Stender in the Göttingen Collection of Scientific gogical techniques; the orphanage where he Papers (1766) [2].

A globe produced by G. F. Stender for the King of Denmark (1764)

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The trajectory of his life shows that Stender inter- sected with the pietism of Halle and the Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg; freemasons, diplomats, the Royal House and staff of the Royal Library of Den- mark, as well as the British Admiralty; members of the Royal German Society of Göttingen, the Duke of Courland. His works have been published in Königs- berg, Jelgava, Aizpute, Rīga, Brunswick, Berlin and Copenhagen in German, Latvian, Latin and Russian. The Estonian translation of the book Lovely Tales and Stories (1766) by Stender [3] is considered to be one of the cornerstones of Estonian secular literature. In Latvia, the name of Stender has become synonymous with important values associated with the Enlightenment. It is usual to remember him as a populariser of science and a founder of a new era in the history of Latvian literature. Stender pioneered the Enlightenment movement, and by the early 19th century, he had several followers who continued to broaden the horizons of Latvian knowledge, fuelling their thirst for education, and strengthening their national self-esteem. It is in this sense that in the Age of Enlightenment the early beginnings of the Awakening of the Latvian people may be found. Every republication or translation of works by Stender represents a fascinating voyage through time bringing greetings from the brilliant ideas of the Age of Enlightenment –the Latvian edition of his Latvian Grammar (2015), translated by literary historian Zigrīda Frīde, has become a bibliographic rarity; also, the facsimile edition of Stender’s illustrated ABC book has been sold out (2014). Visitors to the National Library of Latvia continue to be at- tracted to viewing a model of the washing machine, proposed by Stender and sited next to a reading room named after Stender. Gotthard Friedrich Stender is still present today in Latvian cultural space – an opinion that is no exaggeration.

REFERENCES

1. Sachen, so zu verkaufen. In: Rigische Anzeigen, 1761, Nr. 19, 12.11.1761, S. 114.

2. Göttingische Anzeigen von gelehrten Sachen unter der Aufsicht der Königl. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, 1766, 70, S. 555–558.

3. Friedrich Willhelm Willmann. Fabeln und Erzählungen zur Ver- beßerung des Wizzes und Sitten der Ehsten / Juttud ja teggud, kui ka Monningad Öppetussed mis majappiddamisse pärrast tarwis lähtwad / Eestima-rahwale heaks on üllespannud. Reval, 1782.

Translated by Eduards Bruno Deksnis 71 Latvian Academy of Sciences

NATIONAL RESEARCH PROGRAMME, LATVIAN HERITAGE AND FUTURE CHALLENGES FOR THE SUSTAINABILITY OF THE STATE, INTERFRAME-LV 2019–2021

Baiba Rivža, Dr. habil. oec., Professor of the Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, NRP project INTERFRAME-LV Project Leader, Full Member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences Maiga Krūzmētra, senior researcher, Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies

The main goal of the national research programme expanding cross-border trade in goods and services. (NRP) is formulated as an intention to develop In the structure of the national economy, the newly guidelines for further sustainable development of perceived segmental formations, such as the circu- the state of Latvia, outlining the main operational lar economy and the bioeconomy, gain importance. models in the context of global change-driven pro- The features of these changes are increasingly evi- cesses. dent in Latvia as well. According to the research aim, the objective of the As a result, structural analyses of the economy are first year of the NRP is to aggregate information on gaining more and more importance as a separate the climate, economic and social changes taking section in statistical information (EUROSTA, OECD). place in the world, the European Union, the Baltic The Central Statistical Bureau (CSB) of Latvia has States, and Latvia in particular, and consider the also started making and publishing data repre- changes to develop the guidelines. senting structural changes both in the CSB year- In 2019, according to the objective of the NRP, the book and in separate information sources on the research work was focused on several priorities. Internet. Firstly, an analysis of structural changes in the Official EU and OECD documents as well as scien- economy was done. tific research papers on structural changes in the The process of structural changes in the world as a economy increasingly emphasise the need for a whole, in the European Union, in the Baltic States more detailed analysis of the effect of structural and particularly in the national economy of Latvia changes on the economy as a system and on socie- was analysed. The information obtained and pro- ty as a community, thereby raising the public’s cessed suggests that the structural adjustment of awareness of the changes and readiness for them. the economic system is increasingly occurring. This Secondly, the digitalisation of the national economy is the result of both geographical and political reor- and society as a multifaceted phenomenon in the ganisation, yet even more so as a result of climate EU, the Baltic States and especially in Latvia – not change and the effect of the 4.0 Industrial Revolu- only in the country as a whole but also in the re- tion, one of the most prominent features of which is gions and administrative territorial units – munici- the digitalisation of the economy and society. Digi- palities – has been analysed in greater detail. talisation is increasing the share of information and An analysis of the information obtained in the communication services as a kind of business and course of the research has led to a conclusion that

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The working-group meeting of the INTERFAME Project, National State Research Programme, September 16, 2019 the creation of the e-environment is the prerequi- An in-depth analysis of digitalisation as a phe- site for expansion of the digitalisation process both nomenon and an assessment of the form it takes in public administration and in the economy. In Lat- in Latvia led to a refined understanding of the via, it is favourable for digitalisation processes. High- phenomenon as such. The introduction of e-com- speed and ultra-fast fixed and mobile broadband merce starts with digitisation, evolves into digi- networks are widely available to institutions and in- talisation, and leads to the creation of a digital dividuals, not only in urban but also in rural areas. At platform, generating maximum returns on the the same time, Latvia is lagging behind the EU aver- techniques, technologies and human labour em- age, as well as the other two Baltic States in terms of ployed. digital business integration. Large national compa- The advancement of the digitalisation process re- nies and foreign companies make most success in quires more IT professionals to be involved in developing and expanding e-business. By contrast, of business. The current education system does not the total small and medium-sized enterprises, (C:\ prepare as many IT professionals as needed, and mvu), only about a tenth is engaged in online mar- the demand for them in the labour market exceeds keting nationally and half of them sell their prod- the supply. The introduction of new technologies ucts outside the country. At the same time, the data and the development of entrepreneurship also re- processed by LURSOFT and the CSB show that small quire enhancing relevant training programmes in and medium-sized businesses operating not only in this specialisation in line with the latest trends cities under state jurisdiction but also in rural areas and technical/technological change and the de- can benefit from these, albeit small, successes in mand of the labour market to improve the quality e-commerce, indicating the potential for economic of communication between entrepreneurs and diversification in the rural areas of the country. employees.

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Thirdly, new research has been launched within selves in ensuring the sustainable existence and INTERFRAME-LV – sociological surveys to identify development of the state of Latvia. It is important public opinions on changes in the public life. to assess the effect of all the three change agents The first of these focuses on the digitalisation pro- on the changes that are currently occurring in the cess in small and medium-sized businesses, which country, and even more so from the perspective of in Latvia and the EU as a whole account for more what is needed. The survey includes representatives than 90% of the total enterprises. As already point- from Rīga as the capital city and five planning re- ed out, the digitisation of economic activity in small gions, allowing for the comparison of aspects also and medium-sized enterprises enters much more across the entire country. slowly than in large enterprises. This is especially Since similar surveys have already been conducted true for e-commerce. In order to explain the factors within the NRP EKOSOC-LV in 2015 and 2017, a very influencing this situation, a set of questions on the important research objective is to compare the data use of the e-environment in a company, its applica- of the survey of 2019 with the results of the surveys tion options and the attitude of the managers, spe- of 2017 and 2015. This gives an opportunity to as- cialists and employees to the process of these sess or take action and change the direction of changes was prepared. The respondents involved in change agents every two years to see what is im- the survey represented three countries – Latvia, Be- proving and what is changing for each change larus, and Romania. A comparison of the views of agent. the respondents from the mentioned countries con- The results obtained indicate that the ratings for all tributes to a deeper understanding of the situation the three change agents become more critical, i.e. in Latvia. decreases. However, national institutions as a whole E-business expansion is seen as a positive phe- receive the lowest rating in all the three surveys, nomenon by the representatives of all the three while the municipality as a local authority has the countries, whether it is a business owner/manager, relatively highest rating. an ICT specialist or simply an employee. The age of The data of all the three surveys have been primary the respondent – a young person (up to 30 years), processed. At the current stage of the research, a middle-aged (30–50 years), or older than 50 does more detailed analysis is being done, revealing the not change the views. The age of the respondent respondents’ views on the situation in nine cities only makes an effect on the requirements of the under state jurisdiction, or, more broadly, in the business owner/manager and employees with re- country’s rural space, further subdivided into its gard to the nature of the employee as such: the constituent regions. older the respondent, the more emphasis is placed Beginning with 2020, research agenda includes on the role of professional knowledge; coopera- the production of a monograph in English on the tion, mutual empathy, etc. Data processing and basis of the research done, work is underway to comparisons of the results to draw conclusions is plan its content in order to produce the publica- still continued. tion by Latvian scientists that is internationally However, increasing the number of respondents recognised. and the involvement of another country in a joint survey on the expansion of digitalisation are not excluded in order to identify common and diver- gent features in the processes that would allow for the transfer of positive experience and to avoid various risk variations. The second survey, which has been launched, is aimed at identifying public opinions in order to assess the activities of national institutions, urban/ rural municipalities and local communities them-

74 Yearbook 2020

PUBLICATION OF A COLLECTION OF KGB OPERATIONAL DOCUMENTS IN LATVIA, 2018

Indulis Zālīte, Consultant at the Centre for the Documentation of the Consequences of Totalitarianism (CDCT), head of the CDCT from 1995 to 2008.

On 20 December 2018, almost 30 years after the operation with the KGB”. The procedure was thereby restoration of Latvian independence and dissolu- established for use of documents, the right of indi- tion of the Latvian SSR KGB, a collection was pub- viduals to obtain all information held about them- lished of operational documents generated by the selves by the KGB and left by Latvia, as well as the Soviet secret service in Latvia and placed on the legal procedure for verifying the fact of cooperation website of the National Archives of Latvia. Public with the KGB. interest focussed most on secret informants card During the following years, the Saeima adopted a files, an automated counter-intelligence database number of special laws that imposed restrictions on of agent reports, “Delta Latvija”. It should be noted former USSR / Latvian SSR security staff and their that only a small part of all KGB card files were left informers, such as denying them the right to hold behind in Latvia. Furthermore, no files were found positions in public administration, the judiciary, the of personal or job details of agents, wherein one public sector, to become naturalised citizens, to ob- could find information on how KGB agents were re- tain security clearance to work with official docu- cruited to gather information, about their motiva- ments containing secret information, to obtain the tion, deployment, and area of operation, which status of a politically repressed person, as well as would permit verifying and refining data contained other laws. The Act on KGB Documents provided the in the card files. right for anyone to apply to the CDCT for any infor- Prior to April 1993, when the said documents were mation about themselves contained in the KGB handed over to the Centre for the Documentation of document collection left in Latvia, thus allowing the Consequences of Totalitarianism (CDCT) follow- former agents not to apply for positions they were ing a decision of the Supreme Council of the Repub- denied. In such cases, the names of these persons lic of Latvia, they had been held in the guarded were not disclosed. From my own experience, I can premises of the Latvian Parliament (Saeima). The report that many individuals took advantage of this first reference to the agency card files was made in opportunity. 1994, when, after elections to the 5th Saeima, the Information from the KGB documents was also used then head of the CDCT, Paulis Kļaviņš, notified the to investigate cases of unlawful repression against Mandate and Petitions Committee of the Saeima the Latvian population during the occupation peri- that the names of five newly elected deputies were od, for example, in cases related to eradication of found among the LSSR KGB card files held by the the national resistance movement. A total of four CDCT. The mandates of these deputies were sus- former members of the security service were con- pended during the period wherein the fact of coop- victed, while a number of criminal cases were aban- eration with the KGB was investigated; the Foreign doned due to death of the suspect. Minister resigned. One month later, the Saeima The law stated explicitly that KGB staff and their adopted the Law “On the Use of Documents of the informers had a duty to provide an explanation to former LSSR KGB and Establishing the Fact of Co- the CDCT about their activities in the KGB and the

75 Latvian Academy of Sciences

general activities of the KGB, but did not provide Latvia. In total, between 1944 and 1991, no less any legal instrument or incentive to implement this than 32 000 to 36 000 agents were registered by obligation, such as the information provided to re- the Latvian SSR KGB. In addition, the USSR Border main confidential for a specified period. Guards and agents of Military Counterintelligence In June 2006 and again in October 2006, the Saeima operated on the territory of the Latvian SSR. The voted to publish the KGB card files that were found Intelligence Service of the Soviet Armed Forces also in Latvia, but on both occasions President Vaira Vīķe operated in the Latvian SSR; in terms of numbers, of Freiberga returned the amendments to the Saeima which we have no knowledge, these agents exceed- for reconsideration. ed those of the Latvian SSR KGB by approximately a The President stressed that the Saeima had not factor of three. Similarly, Latvia does not have the achieved a differentiated approach to the use and names of agents who lived abroad among émigrés publication of KGB documents, such that the public and who cooperated with Soviet state security or- benefit would be commensurate with violation of gans in the occupied Latvia. the rights of certain individuals, rights protected by The existing arrangements for the use of KGB doc- the Satversme and international human rights law uments ensured a balance between the protection binding on Latvia. The letter of the President to In- of the democratic system of the country (denial of grīda Ūdre, Chair of the Saeima, accompanying the office, standing for election, to earn certain status, action of the President indicated that information etc.) and the availability of KGB documents that found in the card files did not allow differentiating could be used legally to prove or disprove the fact between reports submitted by KGB agents about of cooperation. Case law confirms that it has been so-called ideological crimes from those reports largely impossible to prove someone’s cooperation that contributed to the fight against criminal of- with the KGB relying on the KGB card files of agents fenses which are also classified as crimes in the held in Latvia and the “Delta Latvija” database as a contemporary legal space of Latvia. direct source of evidence. Furthermore, the President opined that “the idea In 2014, the Saeima once again addressed the so- that the publication of the card files of KGB agents called “Cheka bags” issue and decided that the KGB would put an end to mutual suspicion, turn a pain- documents would be made public after scientific ful page in Latvian history and establish historical research. In order to achieve this goal, a Committee justice is illusory”. The letter emphasised the fact to Investigate the Committee for State Security that, “according to records held by the Centre for the Committee was established, tasked with evaluating Documentation of the Consequences of Totalitari- the collection of KGB documents and make recom- anism, the Latvian State has in its possession only a mendations to the Saeima for further decisions, as small part of the overall KGB agent card files, so well as to prepare relevant scientific comments that publishing it, and implementing the collective within a four-year period. However, due to the in- responsibility principle for people noted therein, competent management, a chaotic working style cannot be regarded as a just and objective approach and the lack of parliamentary oversight, no study of to dealing with our history. It is therefore not clear the documents was carried out. Without regard to what would be gained or the benefit to the public of other possible solutions the Saeima then took a publishing such incomplete information.” radical decision to publish the documents without The President concluded, “It is possible that honest commentary or assessment. answers to these questions, corresponding to the In October 2018, the Saeima voted to amend the interests of the state, may explain why no post-so- KGB Law, with provision for publication of the col- cialist state in Eastern Europe has acted in the way lection of KGB documents on the Internet home that the Latvian Saeima intended to do.” page of the Latvian National Archives (LNA), insert- For the sake of clarity it should be noted that the ing in the 1994 text a new objective: “develop a names of about 4500 persons registered as agents means to inform the public about the control of so- of state security organs remain at the disposal of ciety, by the totalitarian regime, the mechanism and

76 Yearbook 2020

Electronic data carriers of the KGB, using which the electronic database “Delta Latvija” was compiled. The data carriers were damaged, therefore they had remained in Latvia. The KGB did not anticipate that Latvia had good IT specialists who could read the information contained therein

Statistic card files of the KGB in its original “package” – two attaché cases

77 Latvian Academy of Sciences

instruments employed by this regime, as well as to Lešinskis, or those who worked with the national raise the ability of the public to recognise the con- resistance movement such as Eduards Pleps in the sequences of this regime, how to overcome them post-war period. and further the development of Latvia as a demo- It is important not to ignore those cases when a cratic state, by placing the KGB documents at the person publicly acknowledges the fact of his coop- disposal of Latvia public.” However, during the four eration, but whose name cannot be found in the years of its operation, the Committee set up to en- part of the card files held in Latvia. quire into the Latvian SSR did not assess any fore- One benefit of the amendments to this Law is that, seeable impact of these amendments to the law; thus far, limited access to KGB documents have thus, the question of whether the publication of the been made available for scientific study and that documents would achieve its stated objective was during implementation of the said Act the KGB doc- left unanswered. uments were digitized. In order to head off possible claims against the The professional approach taken by the mass me- state by people who declare information about dia (“Delfi”, “LSM”, “Ir” magazine) is appreciated by themselves to be false, the new amendments to the researching and interviewing the people whose law stated that “information published by the Na- names are mentioned in the register, as well as so- tional Archives of Latvia is informative and without liciting expert opinions of experts. Journalists legal consequences in the absence of a court through their investigations are expanding the in- judgement”. formation base by seeking out and interviewing Following the publication of the card files, several potential eyewitnesses not mentioned in the KGB persons named therein have demanded the prose- documents, thus trying to make up for the lack of cutor’s office to verify information about their al- academic research. However, the lack of alterna- leged cooperation with the KGB, and in all cases tive sources of information often precludes judging courts have not established such conscious cooper- the veracity of the interviewees’ view of historical ation with the KGB. It is safe to predict that this events. trend will continue in the future. Legal consequenc- In the context of the aforementioned amendments es flowing from court rulings in these cases have to the Law, the New Rīga Theatre produced in 2019 been extinguished, but the ethical consequences a play entitled “History Research Commission”, on cannot be ignored. The fact that the KGB card files the extent to which published information could be include the names of true criminals and ideological credible and how it could be used to manipulate whistle-blowers, as well as the names of agents the public. The theatre troupe conducted its own who have helped with criminal investigations and independent research, interviewing people named who have not cooperated or been aware of their in the register, former KGB staff and their contem- name on the files, renders matters even more com- poraries. The show has already gained international plicated. recognition. Likewise, the law does not provide any legal instru- However academic researchers are still silent. This ment to protect the reputation of deceased people can be partly explained by the inertia inherent in solely if their names are included in the KGB card this environment, but alongside the work of investi- files and with no additional information as to why gative journalism, I would also like to see an aca- their names are listed. It is appreciated that the demic study on the general functioning, tasks and dead themselves cannot provide any arguments in working methods of the state security organs of the their defence. However, this information has the Latvian SSR. most direct impact on the lives of relatives of the Therefore, at the moment, there are more questions deceased. than answers. It is still unclear whether before act- There is also the issue of double agents who collab- ing the legislator carried out any assessment of the orated with both the Latvian SSR KGB and Western likely short-term or long-term impact of such legis- secret services during the Cold War, such as Imants lative changes. Has publication of documents with-

78 Yearbook 2020

out prior scientific research, evaluation and scientif- emphasised several times, the most important part ic commentary turned out to be a shot in the foot? of the collection of KGB documents was removed to What is more important to society: to know the in- Russia in the early 1990s, and these documents will dividual names or to understand and evaluate the not be available in the foreseeable future. The part methods of operation of the repressive apparatus of of the card files left in Latvia is fragmentary, selec- the Empire of Lies and forgive those who helped to tively and tendentiously selected, practically unver- reveal it? At a closed session held on 24 August ifiable and, in some cases, also erroneous. This is 1991, in Jēkaba Street, Edmunds Johansons, chair- precisely what allows evaluation of this segment of man of the Latvian SSR KGB, stated that out of 138 the card files to be yet another provocation on the members of the Supreme Council who voted for the part of the KGB. restoration of Latvian independence, 36 were KGB Following publication of the collection of KGB doc- agents. The question is not whether these 36 are uments, new research topics have been identified as villains or heroes. It is important to understand that to whether and how publication has influenced un- without their votes the Declaration of Independ- derstanding how the Soviet secret services operat- ence would not have been accepted. The question ed during the occupation period, the public re- remains: could new injustices be tolerated in the sponse to the revelations, their impact on individual fight against injustice once cultivated by the KGB? relationships and the development of democracy in Thus, before the publication of the “Cheka bags”, the general; additionally how the KGB is still affecting public ought to have known that only a small part Latvian society with this segment of the card files of the agency’s card file collection was found in Lat- left behind in Latvia. via and that there were no documents containing information on the nature and substance of the possible cooperation. A person may also have been made into an agent without his consent. It is known that this was practiced mainly by the units tasked with scientific-technical intelligence gathering and ideological counter-intelligence. However, in the late 1980s, and between 1990 and 1991, operational contacts were often formalised as a way for KGB operatives to “enhance” their performance. It is not without reason that information supplied by informants of the former secret services in other post-communist countries was granted confidential status for a limited period. This allowed valuable information to be saved for further historical research. Unfortunately, the 1994 Act did not provide for this instrument either. Now this opportunity has been lost irretrievably. It should be noted that guidance was ignored for a two-step publication as initially called for in 2014. In the first phase, the information would only have been available to researchers, so that after serious scientific study, information could have been published in the second phase as research findings. Information has been taken from the archives of the CDCT, as well as Given the circumstances in Latvia, such an approach the author’s own archive, and press materials have been used in would have made more sense, because, as has been preparation of this article.

Translated by Eduards Bruno Deksnis 79 MANAGEMENT A N D RESEARCH IN TECHNOLOGIES A N D ENGINEERING Yearbook 2020

R ĪGA TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY’S COLLABORATION WITH THE CENTRE FOR EUROPEAN NUCLEAR RESEARCH

Aija Rūse, Deputy Director, Center of High Energy Physics and Accelerator Technologies, Rīga Technical University Adrián Morales Casas, PhD Student, Centre of High Energy Physics and Accelerator Technologies, Rīga Technical University

The history and the idea of establishing a contact ration related to power electronics and energy, ro- point between CERN (Centre for European Nuclear botics, and material science after the RTU scientific Research) and Latvia was a well-known necessity delegation visited CERN in January 2015. since yesteryears, but the chain of events that In November of the same year, RTU signed the brought HEP RTU (Centre of High Energy Physics Memorandum of Understanding with CERN on and Accelerator Technology, Rīga Technical Univer- membership in the Future Circular Collider (FCC) sity) and Latvia to this point started in 2005 when, research project. Since then, Latvian researchers following the persistent effort and will of the coun- have been contributing actively on the new concept try and the scientific community to cooperate with development for the FCC tunnel, its operation and CERN, Latvian researchers from the University of repair by using robots and telemanipulation, as well Latvia (UL) and the Rīga Technical University united as laser cladding. Furthermore, the FCC research and successfully participated at the Baltic Grid pro- project involves also integration of the existing ject. As a result, in January 2012, the Latvian Ambas- CERN accelerator facilities (SPS, Tevatron, LHC), af- sador to Geneva at that time, Raimonds Jansons, ter being upgraded to reach higher energy levels started direct collaboration with CERN. Conse- and resolution. quently, in the same year, the first meeting between In 2017, RTU agreed to participate in the ARIES (Ac- CERN Director-General and RTU Rector, together celerator Research and Innovation for European Sci- with RTU delegation, took place at CERN where the ence and Society) projects coordinated by CERN, to- next-steps collaboration strategy was set up. Six gether with other European top scientific institutions. months after the meeting, in October 2012, plans In total, three RTU research teams and two industrial were implemented and CERN signed the collabora- application teams took part in the ARIES project to tion agreement with RTU. transfer the advantages and usability of particle ac- The agreement signed between CERN and RTU al- celerators technology to science and society. lowed for the first time in the history opened ex- After the year 2016, there were multiple involve- change of CERN members, and Latvian researchers ments of Latvia in several high-energy particle phys- and students between countries, offering, among ics projects coordinated by CERN, which was the first other things, the chance of organising guest lec- time in 20 years that Latvia worked so extensively tures by various CERN researchers in Latvia, visits of with CERN – to the meeting of the Latvian Minister Latvian doctoral students, teachers, and students to of Education and Science, Kārlis Šadurskis, and Fabi- CERN, and participation in EU-funded projects coor- ola Gianotti, CERN Director-General in October of the dinated by CERN – projects in which the Latvian same year. In the meeting the two authorities signed scientists saw numerous areas of scientific collabo- the agreement on scientific and technical collabora-

81 Latvian Academy of Sciences

tion in high-energy particle physics between the Re- the content of sulphur and nitrogen oxides and of public of Latvia and CERN. The action that followed particulate matter in the exhausts of maritime die- those strategic decisions made in the past resulted in sel engines. However, the solution proposed by ac- several events involving the international organisa- celerator scientists consists in a combination of ir- tion (CERN) and RTU, for the benefit of young stu- radiation by an electron beam accelerator of a few dents, science and industry in Latvia. hundred kilovolts, and subsequent purification in a To help implementing those and new benefits for “wet scrubber”. The electrons induce molecular ex- Latvia, the RTU Senate established, in 2017, the citation, ionization and dissociation, thus breaking Centre of High Energy Physics and Accelerator Tech- the larger NOx and SOx molecules, and easing their nology, which has already been in operation almost removal in a small scrubber placed after the accel- for three years. The centre acts as a contact point erator. The scrubber washes out the polluting mol- between CERN and Latvia and works actively on the ecules using water. implementation of particle accelerators for society. The experience and knowledge gained thanks to One of the most recent remarkable success achieve- collaboration, experimental work performed by all ments is the leadership of the ARIES Prove of Con- the partners, and coordination work by HEP RTU cept (PoC) project in the development of hybrid help in better understanding of this novel gas treat- electron accelerator system for treatment of marine ment technology, which will lead to further devel- diesel exhaust gases, which officially started at the opment of this technology in the year 2020, when same time when the Centre was established. the members of the original ARIES PoC project together with new partners will work on the Horizon CURRENT PROJECTS AT HEP 2020 EU research and innovation programme. In this programme scientists and industrial partners want to boost the technological level of the concept proved in Rīga.

STUDY PROGRAMME TO BRING THE FUTURE

Furthermore, the HEP RTU works on the development of a study programme on fundamental interdisciplinary research in the field of high-energy particles and accelerator technology in the Baltic region, and enrolling Latvian scientific staff, academic staff, students and industry in nuclear re- Fig. 1. search on the national and international levels, in Members of the ARIES PoC at the Rīga Shipyard during the experiment show up on 5 July 2019 particular the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at CERN. Therefore, the CERN Baltic Group (CBG) is an establishment where currently all par- This experiment was performed at the Rīga Ship- ticipants (among them RTU) join their efforts to fos- yard in July 2019, together with other European inter particle physics and accelerator technology re- stitutions, and implies the first test of a particle ac- search, and education community, in the Baltic celerator to clean the exhaust gases of a ship, with States (Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania). The development encouraging results (Fig. 1). The development of of such a multidisciplinary master/doctoral level this innovative solution claims to reduce the con- study programme in High Energy Physics and Accel- tent of harmful pollutants contributed by the mari- erator Technologies strengthens the Baltic High En- time traffic – a single cruise ship emits as much ergy Physics community. particulates as one million cars. Taking CERN as a reference, technology transfer Several technologies are being explored to reduce from particle physics can also add high-value tech-

82 Yearbook 2020

nology in classical industries such as the food in- ties towards CERN and related collaborations/ex- dustry and material science, production, innovative periments, and in addition to strengthening and diagnostic and therapeutic methods, computing development of Baltic High Energy Physics commu- and imaging techniques. These are all proven ex- nity. One of the most recent actions to develop and amples of the way how scientific achievements can strengthen the community was celebrated in Kau- contribute to the benefits of society and on the long nas University of Technology, Lithuania on 9–10 term will benefit Latvia and her citizens. The pro- October 2019. gramme is planned to be developed together with Eight Baltic research institutions and CERN gath- the University of Latvia as a joint study programme ered for a regular meeting to discuss the latest sci- of both universities, with RTU as a responsible part- entific collaboration successes, including joint sci- ner and project applicant, attracting experts from entific projects with CERN, to boost particle physics the University of Latvia based on an employment and accelerator technology expertise in the Baltic contract. It is planned to conclude an agreement (Fig. 3). between the two universities on the creation of In this meeting future joint actions of the CBG were study programme. planned and discussed, e.g., the annual organisation of the CERN Baltic School of High Energy Phys- DEVELOPMENT STATUS OF THE STUDY ics and Accelerator Technologies, starting from PROGRAMME AND DISSEMINATION 2020, or support of continuous expert work for development of the doctoral and master study programme on the above subjects. The group is also working to strengthen Baltic In- dustry engagement in collaboration with CERN in the series of events, and networking opportunities during 2020, and to closely coordinate scientific and industrial engagement in the CERN-based CMS experiment.

PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY OF THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE, ANITA MUIŽNIECE, VISITS CERN

As Latvia continues its path towards membership of Fig. 2. the Centre for European Nuclear Research, a dele- Latvian student group on the Shadow Day at CERN gation from the Ministry of Education and Science visited CERN on 11 October 2019, at the initiative HEP RTU was working even before the official of Toms Torims, Professor of RTU and CERN Scientif- establishment in bringing particle physics, also in ic Associate. Anita Muižniece, Parliamentary Secre- early stages, to the Latvian students. Since 2016, tary of the Ministry of Education and Science, was HEP RTU has organised a scientific mission for introduced with CERN activities and scientific pupils on Latvian Shadow days to CERN (Fig. 2). On achievements. these trips to CERN, every year RTU PhD students They were accompanied by the Ambassador of Lat- and school students are guided around CERN and via to the UN in Geneva, Jānis Kārkliņš, and Toms introduced or get a deeper understanding of Torims. Latvian representatives met a large delega- fundamental physics, research and research tion of CERN scientists and representatives, includ- facilities performance. ing RTU PhD student and CERN Researcher Artūrs On a regular basis, RTU HEP is working on the coor- Ivanovs. During the visit, participation of Latvian dination of the Baltic research institutions’ activi- scientists in CERN experiments, joint scientific

83 Latvian Academy of Sciences

projects and plans for future were discussed. The activities of CERN Baltic Group were discussed and supported. The delegation visited the CMS experiment and CERN laboratories, and met Latvian scientists working at CERN. CERN expert group was invited to visit Latvia on 20 November 2019 to work on the application file and to coordinate the next steps. For 60 years, CERN has been a world’s leading science centre with globally significant scientific breakthroughs. It is CERN that invented the Inter- net, but one of the most well-known inventions is the existence of Higgs boson, proven by the Large

Fig. 3 Hadron Collider six years ago. For Latvian scientists, 4th CERN Baltic Group Meeting in Kaunas membership in CERN will open up new opportunities to conduct research, participate in CERN scientific projects and to collaborate with other countries, and for doctoral students to develop their doctoral thesis at CERN, citadel for world’s physicists. Industry will be able to apply for CERN ten- ders as scientific activities require a variety of technological equipment that can be supplied by Latvian companies (Fig. 4). The opportunities to collaborate in EU-founded projects coordinated by CERN has led to participation of RTU in several ARIES projects, together with other European top scientific institutions. In total, three RTU research teams and two industrial application teams took part in the ARIES project to transfer the advantages and usability of particle accelerators technology to science and society. The research teams focussed their scientific expertise in Fig. 4. Anita Muižniece, Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Education WP 2, Training, Communication and Outreach for Ac- and Science, visits CERN celerator Science in Europe; WP 15, Thin Film for Superconducting RF Cavities (SRF); and WP 16, In- tense RF modulated E-Beams. One of the industrial application teams worked on the development of a hybrid electron accelerator system for treatment of marine diesel exhaust gases while the other worked for the Nuclear Medicine Centre together with Fac- ulty of Medicine of the University of Latvia intend- ing to join CERN MEDICIS.

84 2020 Yearbook The team behind Tilde MT behind The team HISTORICAL BACKGROUND HISTORICAL Although ideas of machine translation date back to to back machine translation date Although ideas of as early as the 17th century [2], the first working prototype of a digital machine translation system was possible only after the introduction of digital IBM from researchers of team a 1952, In computers. and Georgetown University demonstrated the first ever machine translation system that could trans- Russian from words 250 of vocabulary limited a late It into was English [3]. the firstexampleof a direct (or dictionary-based) machine translation system. As translating words in isolation cannot ensure -

Machine translation (MT) that al is the technology ., Tilde ., comp sc. Mārcis Pinnis, Dr. Tilde ., comp sc. Bergmanis, Mg. Toms TRANSLATION TECHNOLOGY TILDE’S NEURAL MACHINE from translation automate to computers using lows enables read us to MT one another language [1]. to and navigate through foreign language web sites and helps us to cross language barriers in mutual increas- It leisure. and work at both communication es the productivity of professional translators and translating alike. of need in everyone we give a In brief what introduction follows, to the We then history continue of with MT. a description with close then We Tilde. at MT approach we how of an outline of future directions of development for in general. and MT Tilde MT Latvian Academy of Sciences

translation quality, during the sixties and seventies span of two decades [10]. As a result, Tilde MT, to- researchers focused on exploring other rule-based gether with its partner organisations from the lead- MT methods that consider the sentence structure ing European universities and MT research groups, and morphological and syntactic agreements be- has contributed significantly to the advancement of tween words. Rule-based methods, however, were modern generations of MT technology. An example impractical as developing them was laborious and is the LetsMT project [11], a joint effort with the demanded linguistic expertise. Thus, during the University of Edinburgh and other partner organisa- eighties, researchers started to explore ways for de- tions, which enabled MT technology to small and veloping MT systems that did not require immense morphologically rich languages and established human effort. This is when the first data-driven MT the Moses statistical machine translation system as methods [5] and statistical MT (SMT) methods were the go-to MT framework at the time. A decade later, proposed [6]. SMT systems learned to translate by our tightly-knit partnership continues [12] with the collecting word and phrase translation statistics advancement of Marian [13] – the fastest neural MT from large translation memories created by human framework today [14]. The affinity to the cutting-edge translators. While being faster to develop and pro- technology gives Tilde MT a natural competitive viding better translations than the rule-based alter- edge. In 2016, for example, Tilde MT rolled out the natives, SMT systems did not analyse the sentence first publicly available neural MT systems for small as a whole, but rather considered phrases of multi- languages (Latvian and Estonian) [15] only shortly ple words in isolation. Thus, better methods were after the technology giant Google rolled out the still necessary. Although the first neural machine first NMT system for large languages [16]. In 2017, translation (NMT) methods were proposed in the most of our competitors chose the computationally nineties [7, 8], it took almost two decades for NMT heavy deep Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) [17] and its supporting technology to mature. Ever since neural MT models, which, while slow, had been 2015, when NMT systems outperformed SMT sys- proven to be highly successful in language process- tems for the first time [9], the focus of MT research ing tasks. To circumvent the long training times of has been on NMT. Since then, Tilde MT has continu- computationally cumbersome deep architectures, ously improved to offer linguistically informed Tilde MT opted for a less known alternative – Mul- state-of-the-art MT technology. tiplicative LSTM (MLSTM) [18] neural models. Tilde MT’s shallow MLSTM models proved to be faster to TILDE MT TECHNOLOGY train and cheaper to deploy, yet yielded results better or on par with the next best alternative [19, 20]. Since the very inception of Tilde MT, our ambition In the fall of 2017, however, a new state-of-the-art has been to be a top-tier international player in our neural network architecture, the Transformer archi- field. Achieving this goal has meant that we have tecture, was proposed [21] – a change that was had to compete with the technology giants of our swiftly integrated in Tilde MT technology [22]. time in delivering MT technology while preserving Technology tailored to language. As Tilde MT start- our core focus on providing high-quality machine ed with the effort to introduce MT technology for translation capabilities for small and morphologi- the Latvian language [11], all our language tech- cally rich languages. In what follows, we describe nology is designed with small and morphologically how continuous innovation, language and cli- rich languages in mind. As a result, the Baltic lan- ent-oriented approach have been paramount in es- guage family rooted perspective has shaped our ap- tablishing Tilde MT as an internationally recognised proach to MT by making our solutions customisable machine translation technology. to account for natural language phenomena and Technology open to innovation. Key to Tilde MT writing conventions of each language. Some of the success in the international arena has been contin- methods we have introduced are: 1) morphological uous innovation of MT technology. Instrumental to structure-aware representation of words which has it has been our industry-academia partnership of a shown improvement over the commonly used lan-

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guage-agnostic methods, 2) special handling of systems often plays a more critical role. The success translation of proper nouns and named entities of Tilde MT at the “Olympic Games” of MT can also which tend to be rare in training data, and 3) train- be partially attributed to the data preparation meth- ing data selection that ensures coverage of topics ods as well as to the MT model training strategies. and writing styles that are relevant to the source Since the launch of Tilde MT platform, we have fo- language speakers. The individual approach, to- cused on developing methods that reduce noise in gether with the cutting-edge technology men- data [11]. Noise in data may be present due to a tioned earlier, has made Tilde MT to stand out number of issues, such as partial translations, incor- among its competitors and has earned the loyalty of rectly aligned sentences, issues in client data pro- our clients. For example, since 2017, Tilde MT has cessing workflows, etc. NMT models are much more provided MT services for the Presidencies of the sensitive to noise [27] than the previous SMT mod- Council of the European Union [23]. Successful de- els, even to an extent where systematic noise can livery of machine translation services for an array of corrupt the whole system, and render it unusable. different European languages such as Latvian, Esto- Therefore, during the last three years, we have im- nian, Bulgarian, German, Romanian, and Finnish proved our methods such that they allow training proves the versatility of our technology. Another ex- state-of-the-art models even when dealing with ample is Tilde MT’s continuous success in the noisy data [25, 27]. “Olympic Games” of MT (or more precisely the Last but not least, when developing MT systems for shared tasks on news translation of the Conference clients (or for specific domains) it is crucial that the on Machine Translation; WMT) in 2017, 2018, and systems achieve superior quality when translating 2019, where Tilde MT’s translations between the data from that particular domain. Therefore, MT sys- English and the languages of the Baltic states were tem domain adherence needs to be ensured. In Til- rated best in human evaluation by professional de MT, this is typically carried out using various do- translators [19, 20, 22, 24, 25, 26]. main adaptation techniques. In domains, where Importance of data. Neural network architectures large amounts of parallel training data are availa- and linguistically motivated methods are not the ble, we train domain-specific systems. These sys- only factors that affect on whether an MT system tems provide high-quality translations as they are will be of high quality or not. The quality [27] and trained to account for the idiosyncrasies of lan- domain adherence [25] of data used for training MT guage as used in each area. There are, however,

Human [26] (y axis; higher is better) and automatic (x axis; higher is better; calculated by Tilde) evaluation results for English–Lithuanian and Lithuanian–English of WMT 2019; systems ranked with the same place are grouped together

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smaller domains for which in-domain data is scarce. Expanding beyond sentence boundaries provides a In such cases, it is not possible to train a high-qual- means to provide access to more contextual infor- ity domain-specific system from scratch. To circum- mation for MT systems. However, there are cases vent problems due to scarce training data, we first where the contextual information that is required to train a high-quality system for a much larger gener- translate a sentence correctly is not found in the al domain and then use the available in-domain text itself but is rather external (i.e., correct transla- data to further adapt the MT system for the specif- tion depends on the gender of the speaker). An ex- ics of the required domain. ample is the translation of “I have been in love” into Building domain-specific systems, however, is not Latvian. It is crucial to know speaker’s gender as oth- always practical as one client depending on their erwise it is unclear whether “been” should be trans- projects might want to translate texts from various lated as “bijis” or “bijusi”. The text alone might not domains. For cases like these, Tilde MT provides contain such information. Thus, integration of addi- systems that are capable to adapt dynamically to tional external knowledge might be required to al- each sentence individually [28; 29] based on similar low MT systems to translate into languages with a sentences from the Tilde Data Library [31] or cli- grammatical gender correctly. Methods for address- ent’s own translation memories. Additionally, these ing issues regarding the translation of grammatical systems readily learn from the user feedback pro- gender are still an emerging area of research in MT. vided in the form of post-edited machine-translat- An area where public MT systems are available only ed sentences [30]. for a couple of large languages is speech transla- Future directions. Machine translation is far from tion (for instance, simultaneous translation of meet- being a solved research problem and, considering ing or conference speeches and offline translation the continuous change of language, it will never be of recorded speeches). Speech translation combines a completely solved problem. There are, however, multiple artificial intelligence technologies. Name- many areas that have already seen significant im- ly, it combines speech recognition, machine transla- provements, and there are areas that will be signif- tion, and speech synthesis, into one solution that icantly improved also in the future. can understand the spoken language from an audio Currently (i.e. up to late 2019) publicly available signal, generate translations, and optionally gener- MT systems all translate isolated sentences. If a ate an audio signal of the translated speech. Cur- system receives a longer paragraph, the system rently, there are no speech translation systems breaks down into individual sentences and trans- available for the languages of the Baltic states, but lates each sentence separately. Such an approach active research is taking place [35] to enable this does not consider cross-sentential dependencies technology also for these languages. and may result in incoherent translations of para- graphs. For instance, when translating the text: “The girls went to a movie. They liked it.”, into Lat- vian, the word “they” must be translated using a feminine pronoun, however, when translating isolated sentences, “they” becomes ambiguous. By not considering cross-sentential dependencies, MT REFERENCES

systems may mistranslate the word using a mascu- 1. Jurafsky D., Martin, J. H. Speech and Language Processing (2nd line pronoun. To address this issue, researchers edition). Pearson Education International, 2009 have started investigating methods that allow us- 2. Hutchins W. J. Machine Translation: Past, Present, Future. Chichester: ing previous sentences as contexts [32, 33], or even Ellis Horwood, 1986. translate the whole paragraph in one go [34]. 3. Dostert L. E. The Georgetown-IBM experiment. In: Machine Translation of Languages. John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1955, pp. When such systems will be widely available, trans- 124–135.

lations of documents will become more coherent 4. Hutchins W. J. Machine Translation: Past, Present, Future. Chichester: and fluent. Ellis Horwood, 1986.

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5. Nagao M. A framework of a mechanical translation between Machine Translation. Brussels: Association for Computational Japanese and English by analogy principle. In: Artificial and Human Linguistics, 2018, pp. 477–485. Intelligence. Elsevier Science Publishers, 1984, pp. 351–354. 23. Pinnis M., Kalniņš R. Developing a Neural Machine Translation 6. Brown P. F., Cocke, J., Della Pietra S. A., Della Pietra V. J., Jelinek F., Service for the 2017–2018 European Union Presidency. In: Proceedings Lafferty J. D., … Roossin P. S. A statistical approach to machine of the 13th Conference of the Association for Machine Translation in the translation. Computational Linguistics, 1990, Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 79–85. Americas (Volume 2: User Papers), 2018, pp. 72–83.

7. Neco R. P., Forcada M. L. Asynchronous translations with recurrent 24. Bojar O., Federmann C., Fishel M., Graham Y., Haddow B., Huck M., neural nets. In: Proceedings of International Conference on Neural … Monz C. (2018). Findings of the 2018 Conference on Machine Networks (ICNN’97), 1997, Vol. 4, pp. 2535–2540. Translation (WMT18). In: Proceedings of the Third Conference on Machine Translation. Brussels: Association for Computational 8. Castano A., Casacuberta F. A connectionist approach to machine Linguistics, pp. 272–307. translation. In: Fifth European Conference on Speech Communication and Technology, 1997. 25. Pinnis M., Krišlauks R., Rikters M. (2019). Tilde’s Machine Translation Systems for WMT 2019. In: Proceedings of the Fourth 9. Bojar O., Chatterjee R., Federmann C., Haddow B., Huck M., Hokamp Conference on Machine Translation. Florence: Association for Computa- C., … Turchi M. Findings of the 2015 Workshop on Statistical Machine tional Linguistics, pp. 526–533. Translation. In: Proceedings of the 10th Workshop on Statistical Machine Translation. Lisbon: Association for Computational Linguistics, 2015, 26. Barrault L., Bojar O., Costa-jussà M. R., Federmann C., Fishel M., pp. 1–46. Graham Y., ... Monz C. Findings of the 2019 conference on machine translation (wmt19). In: Proceedings of the Fourth Conference on 10. https://tilde.com/research/projects Machine Translation (Volume 2: Shared Task Papers, Day 1), 2019, pp. 11. Vasiljevs A., Gornostay T., Skadins R. LetsMT! Online Platform for 1–61. Sharing Training Data and Building User Tailored Machine Translation. 27. Pinnis M. (2018). Tilde’s Parallel Corpus Filtering Methods for WMT In: The Baltic Perspective: Proceedings of the Fourth International 2018. In: Proceedings of the Third Conference on Machine Translation. Conference Baltic HLT, 2010, IOS Press, pp. 133–140. Brussels: Association for Computational Linguistics, 2018, pp. 12. Edinburgh, Tilde, and Unbabel to be carried out from 2020 till 952–958. 2022 has received a grant from the Connecting Europe Facility 28. Li X., Zhang J., Zong, C. One sentence one model for neural programme under the call CEF-TC-2019-1. machine translation. arXiv preprint arXiv:1609.06490, 2016.

13. https://marian-nmt.github.io 29. Farajian M A., Marco T., Matteo N., Marcello F. Multi-Domain 14. Junczys-Dowmunt M., Grundkiewicz R., Dwojak T., Heafield H. H. K., Neural Machine Translation through Unsupervised Adaptation. In: Neckermann T., Seide F., ... Birch A. Marian: Fast Neural Machine Proceedings of the Second Conference on Machine Translation. Copenha- Translation in C+. In: Proceedings of ACL 2018, System Demonstrations, gen: Association for Computational Linguistics, 2017, pp. 127–137. 2018, p. 116. 30. Kothur S. S. R., Knowles R., Koehn, P. Document-level adaptation 15. Tilde (30 November 2016). World’s first neural machine transla- for neural machine translation. In: Proceedings of the 2nd Workshop on tion systems released for smaller languages. Available at: https:// Neural Machine Translation and Generation. Melbourne: Association for www.tilde.com/news/worlds-first-neural-machine-translation-sys- Computational Linguistics, 2018, pp. 64–73. tems-released-smaller-languages (last accessed 26 November 2019). 31. Pinnis M., Vasiļjevs A., Kalniņš R., Rozis R., Skadiņš R., Šics, V. Tilde 16. Turovsky B. (15 November 2016). Found in translation: More MT Platform for Developing Client Specific MT Solutions. In: accurate, fluent sentences in Google Translate. Available at: https:// Proceedings of the Eleventh International Conference on Language www.blog.google/products/translate/found-translation-more-accu- Resources and Evaluation (LREC 2018). Miyazaki: LREC, 2018. rate-fluent-sentences-google-translate (last accessed 26 November 32. Jean S., Lauly S., Firat O., Cho, K. Does neural machine translation 2019). benefit from larger context? arXiv preprint arXiv:1704.05135, 2017.

17. Hochreiter S., Schmidhuber J. Long short-term memory. Neural 33. Wang L., Tu Z., Way A., Liu Q. Exploiting Cross-Sentence Context computation, 1997, Vol. 9, No. 8, pp. 1735–1780. for Neural Machine Translation. In: Proceedings of the 2017 Conference 18. Krause B., Lu L., Murray I., Renals S. Multiplicative LSTM for on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing. Copenhagen: sequence modelling. arXiv preprint arXiv:1609.07959, 2016. Association for Computational Linguistics, 2017, pp. 2826–2831.

19. Pinnis M., Krišlauks R., Miks T., Deksne D., Šics, V. Tilde’s Machine 34. Junczys-Dowmunt M. Microsoft Translator at WMT 2019: Towards Translation Systems for WMT 2017. In: Proceedings of the Second Large-Scale Document-Level Neural Machine Translation. In: Conference on Machine Translation (WMT 2017), Volume 2: Shared Task Proceedings of the Fourth Conference on Machine Translation (Volume 2: Papers. Copenhagen, Denmark: Association for Computational Shared Task Papers, Day 1). Florence, Italy: Association for Computa- Linguistics, 2017, pp. 374–381. tional Linguistics, 2019, pp. 225–233.

20. Bojar O., Chatterjee R., Federmann C., Graham Y., Haddow B., Huang 35. Speech translation is researched and developed in three research S., … Turchi M. Findings of the 2017 Conference on Machine Translation and innovation projects in Tilde: Cost-effective, Multilingual, (WMT17). In: Proceedings of the Second Conference on Machine Privacy-driven voice-enabled Services (COMPRISE, https://www. Translation, Volume 2: Shared Task Papers. Copenhagen, Denmark: compriseh2020.eu), Multilingual Artificial Intelligence Based Human Association for Computational Linguistics, 2017, pp. 169–214. Computer Interaction (https://www.tilde.lv/daudzvalodu-cilveka-dato- ra-komunikacijas-modelesana-izmantojot-maksliga-intelek- 21. Vaswani A., Shazeer N., Parmar N., Uszkoreit J., Jones L., Gomez A. ta-metodes-111118a148), and Adaptive Multimodal Neural Network N., ... & Polosukhin I. Attention is all you need. In: Advances in Neural Based Machine Translation (https://www.tilde.lv/par-tildi/it-kompe- Information Processing Systems, 2017, pp. 5998–6008. tences-centrs/it-kompetences-centrs-2019-2021).

22. Pinnis M., Rikters M., Krišlauks R. Tilde’s Machine Translation Systems for WMT 2018. In: Proceedings of the Third Conference on

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ENGINEERING RESEARCH INSTITUTE “VENTSPILS INTERNATIONAL RADIO ASTRONOMY CENTRE” OF THE VENTSPILS UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES AND ITS BROAD-SCOPE RESEARCH

Juris Freimanis, Dr. phys., Engineering Research Institute “Ventspils International Radio Astronomy Centre”, Ventspils University of Applied Sciences (ERI VIRAC), leading researcher Artis Aberfelds, ERI VIRAC, scientific assistant; University of Latvia, PhD student Boris Ryabov, Dr. phys., ERI VIRAC, leading researcher Juris Kalvāns, Dr. phys., ERI VIRAC, leading researcher Romass Pauliks, Dr. ing., ERI VIRAC, leading researcher Artem Sukharev, Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (Ukraine), ERI VIRAC, guest leading researcher, postdoctor Karina Šķirmante, ERI VIRAC, researcher; University of Latvia, PhD Student

HISTORY, BASIC EQUIPMENT AND PEOPLE 1994 when Russian military left Latvia, in the secret town Irbene on the western coast of Latvia, The scientific institute mentioned in the heading, about 30 km north-east from Ventspils town. shortly VIRAC (http://virac.eu/en/home/), is a Tracking and guidance systems were damaged by multidisciplinary institute – structural part of Russian military. Ventspils University of Applied Sciences (VUAS, In order to refurbish and operate the radio tele- https://venta.lv/en/). VIRAC consists of several de- scopes, the scientific institute – Ventspils Interna- partments. The cornerstone of its research is as- tional Radio Astronomy Centre (VIRAC) was estab- tronomy (mainly astrophysics), but it is involved in lished directly under the Latvian Academy of the remote sensing of the Earth, space communi- Sciences. The first radio astronomical observations cations technology etc. VIRAC has about 80 full- in VIRAC were carried out in 1997. In 2004, VIRAC time and part-time employees; about 26 of them was merged with the Ventspils University College have doctoral degree (both numbers are some- (VUC, recently renamed as Ventspils University of what changing from time to time). The budget is Applied Sciences, VUAS). Along with radio astrono- varying strongly because a large part of it comes my, the preparatory work for remote sensing of the from projects. VIRAC’s budget in 2019 was about Earth was done. 4.5 MEUR. A large part of the basic infrastructure In spring 2010, VIRAC was joined with the Engi- (32 m and 16 m radio antennae) was inherited neering Research Centre of VUC, and it got the cur- from top secret Russian army base overtaken in rent name – Engineering Research Institute “Vent-

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spils International Radio Astronomy Centre” (ERI ASTROPHYSICS AT VIRAC VIRAC). The short name is still VIRAC. Several electronics and mechanics engineers entered VIRAC One of the most intense directions of radio astronom- staff. ical observations at VIRAC is cosmic maser research Very substantial improvement of both the fully (methanol, OH and excited OH at 6.7, 1.6 and 6.0 GHz). steerable radio antennae (RT-32 and RT-16), as well Some peculiar patterns of variability were found, as the receivers, took place in 2012–2015, with the along with some flaring masers. Probably three new investment of about 8.5 MEUR, mainly from EU excited OH masers were discovered in the Galactic structural funds. VIRAC was accepted into EVN (Eu- plane very recently. The whole EVN network observed ropean VLBI network, see https://www.evlbi.org/ three cosmic maser sources on 31 October 2019, ac- home) in autumn 2016; simultaneously Latvia as a cording to VIRAC scientists’ observing proposal. country was accepted into JIV ERIC (https://jive.eu/). Another important object of astronomical radio ob- Currently we have 4.4–8.8 GHz cryogenic receivers servations is the Sun. Nowadays the solar research and 1.6 GHz warm receivers on both telescopes. We at VIRAC embraces two main directions: the sources plan to build new 1.6 GHz and 17–34 GHz cryogen- of slow solar wind and the construction of the up- ic receivers. to-date model of the sunspot atmosphere. Solar ra- The next big step was building of LOFAR station, a dio observations and modelling are used to study completely new type of radio telescope for 10–80 the topology of large coronal magnetic structures. MHz and 110–240 MHz ranges (see http://www.lo- This is the base for solution the set of problems of far.org/), in Irbene during 2017–2019. VIRAC was space weather, in particular, for the interpretation of accepted into ILT (the International LOFAR Tele- forthcoming measurements by Parker Solar Probe scope) on 2 October 2019. and the planned Solar Orbiter probe.

(a) Radio map of the Sun taken with the VIRAC 32-m radio telescope on 18 July 2013. The arrow points to the reduced microwave emission due to open-field region extended from coronal hole towards the active region on the Sun; (b) Modelled magnetic field lines in the solar corona (open field lines in red and green colour; closed field lines – in black). Courtesy of theLatvian Journal of Physics and Technical Sciences, 2017, Vol. 54, Issue 3, p. 58

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VIRAC’s radio telescopes regularly participate in the tions of transfer equation. The general expressions very long baseline interferometric observational for the streaming operator of polarised radiation in sessions of the European interferometric network arbitrary curvilinear coordinate systems, without EVN, targeting galaxies, quasars etc. and reaching and with refraction in the medium, were obtained. the spatial resolution of several milliarcseconds. Studies of mass outflows from post-asymptotic gi- One of such EVN sessions took place on 17 August ant branch (post-AGB) stars have begun recently. 2017, with the participation of VIRAC’s 32 m dish, Monte Carlo computer code for polarised radiative helping to discover and identify the source of grav- transfer modelling has been developed, as polarisa- itational waves. Many interferometric observations tion can reveal fine peculiarities of the structure of together with the Russian satellite RadioAstron circumstellar dust envelopes. (Spektr-R) at 5.6 GHz and 1.6 GHz have been carried One of the research activities is to use the hyperfine out as well; the interferometric baseline was up to transitions of known hydroxyl radical (OH) at its 18 320 000 km, leading to the theoretical spatial reso- cm wavelength as a reflected signal from comets lution of 4×10-5 arcsec and 1.4×10-4 arcsec, corre- using a radar VLBI approach. The research group spondingly. adapted Irbene RT-32 radio telescope for weak In 2017, VIRAC started the observations of fast vari- (~0.1Jy) astronomical object detection at 1665.402 ability of several active galactic nuclei (AGN) – BL MHz and 1667.359 MHz frequencies. Novel data Lac objects, quasars, Seyfert galaxies at 5, 6.1, 6.7 processing methods were used to acquire a weak and 8.4 GHz, with the characteristic times from sev- signal – spectral analysis of signal using Fourier eral hours (intraday variability) to several days and transform and continuous wavelet transform. Multi- tens of days (interday variability). Support with the ple observations of comets (Comet C/2018 W2(AF- related optical observations was provided by the RICANO) and Comet C/2017 T2 (PANSTARRS)) were observatories Mayaki (Odessa, Ukraine), Vihorlat carried out in 2019. (Slovakia) and Baldone (Latvia). Observations of the radio source OJ 287 at frequencies 6.1 and 6.7 GHz SPACE COMMUNICATIONS AND THE OTHER and in V, R, I filters showed significant interconnec- ELECTRONICS tion between quasi-periods of fast variability of this object in radio and optical bands. VIRAC’s Electronics and Satellite Technology Divi- VIRAC performs active research in theoretical astro- sion is a nanosatellite subsystem integrator focused chemistry. Processes in the interstellar ices are of on the research and development of high-speed particular interest. Molecules, such as carbon mon- communication solutions. oxide and water, accumulate on the surfaces of dust As a result of several years of collaboration with the grains in the interstellar and circumstellar medium. Estonian Student Satellite Foundation, we have devel- We have quantified parameters characterising pro- oped a high-speed communications module that is cessing of such icy mantles – photodissociation ef- planned to be used on the ESTCube-2 nanosatellite. ficiency for solid-state molecules in ices and the rate of desorption induced by energetic cosmic-ray particles. Necessary theoretical background was provided to experimental and observational studies, in addition to studies of the formation of organic molecules in the interstellar medium. Studies in the mathematical theory of polarized radiative transfer have resulted in the clear expression for Green’s function of radiative transfer equation in homogeneous infinite medium with cylindrically symmetric radiation field, as well as expressions for cylindrically symmetric eigenfunc- Nanosatellite high-speed communication subsystem (HSCOM)

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Another important direction under way is the de- numerical hydrodynamics (CFD) and mechanics cal- velopment of Internet of Things (IoT) measurement culations (including the effect of wind flow on dif- subsystem for various space applications. ferent types of objects, numerical models of engineering tools); modelling of magnetohydrodynamic HIGH-PERFORMANCE COMPUTING (MHD) phenomena; application of methods of calcu- lation of the physical fields to support local indus- Studies in the VIRAC’s High-Performance Comput- try, such as calculations of mechanical loads of indi- ing Department focus on the processing of high ve- vidual components of newly developed products. locity and high volume numerical data, which includes processing and analysing radio astronomical CONCLUSION data, computer-aided engineering, computer-aided problem solving in physics and mathematics. VIRAC is a developing scientific institute, and it has Multiple astronomical data processing methods gained certain international recognition, due to its with parallel algorithms were developed, tested publications in respected international scientific and applied using VIRAC HPC cluster facilities with journals and participation in European VLBI net- 30 high-performance servers. Multiple information work. It has a great potential for scientific growth; systems related to automatic data correlation, data however, the main precondition for that would be a monitoring and analysis were developed in 2019. substantial increase of funding of fundamental sci- VIRAC’s research in engineering physics is related to ence in Latvia.

Numerical model of the radio telescope RT32 in Irbene – model developed in HPC department using finite element method (FEM)

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LATVIAN HYDROGEN ASSOCIATION: ACTIVITIES AND PERSPECTIVE

Aivars Starikovs, Latvian Hydrogen Association, Chairman of the Board

Latvian Hydrogen Association (H2LV) is an associa- H2LV is an active member of Hydrogen Europe – a tion with the aim to implement zero-emission tech- leading European association promoting hydrogen nologies in Europe to reduce the impact on environ- as the enabler of a zero-emission society. H2LV rep- ment, and to support the development of energy resentative is elected in Hydrogen Europe Board. efficiency usage. Zero-emission transport and promo- Hydrogen Europe is collaborating with the Europe- tion of its necessary infrastructure, and support for its an Commission and the research community in a implementation is set as one of the main pillars for public-private partnership the Fuel Cells and Hy- H2LV, as well as specialising in the development of drogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU). The FCH JU zero-emission strategies and project management drives a funding stream worth €1.3 billion to accel- services in hydrogen as alternative fuel fields. erate the market introduction of these clean tech- During the last years, H2LV staff has gathered nologies in energy and transport. The technical knowledge and experience in energetics, chemistry committees which are made up of Hydrogen Europe and physics and has participated in different stud- and Hydrogen Europe Research members are re- ies on hydrogen as vehicle fuel implementation. sponsible for shaping the annual funding calls for H2LV staff specialises in hydrogen technology inte- proposals. H2LV are participants in: Gas Grid; Mobil- gration in public transport and compilation of pro- ity; Truck; Maritime Working Groups together with ject proposals that could ease the possibilities to representatives of EU institutions and field stake- reach the zero-emission aims for different types of holders. entities. H2LV staff has participated in projects that chal- H2LV has a strong connection with the Latvian lenge low-energy efficiency and zero-emission ve- Academy of Sciences as one of the founders provid- hicle and infrastructure implementation. The most ing the contribution in reaching the following initi- important hydrogen-related activities in Eastern atives: Europe: – To speed-up educational and technological pro- – Study “For the purpose of developing research gress in the implementation of hydrogen tech- about sustainable hydrogen production oppor- nologies in Latvia and to create a bond with tunities in the city of Rīga” as a part of CEF-Trans- enterprises in this specific field across Europe; port project “H2Nodes-evolution of a European – To ease the implementation of hydrogen tech- hydrogen refuelling station network by mobilis- nologies that would result as a reduced impact ing the local demand and value chains” to eval- on environment by increasing energy efficiency uate the hydrogen implementation benefits in and energy production; Rīga; – To combine educational entities, state entities – Primary assessment of Latvian Railway shunting and hydrogen technology producers under a locomotive operational usage and possibilities joint umbrella and to represent H2LV in nation- to deploy hydrogen electric shunting locomo- al and international conferences etc. tives in railway infrastructure;

2020 95 Yearbook gen Association, “Hydrogen and gen Association, Fuel-cell Stud- (2012); Fields” ies and Usage in Different (2013); in Rīga tour 2018 in tests HRS Rīga during states Baltic the in (2015); Cities” for Solutions Development Urban organising a part the of local event” Days 2015, fair “Alternative, environmentally sustainable and economically affordable energy solutions (2015). areas” in functional urban mobility for (2017). ence – International Conference of International the Conference – Latvian Hydro- promo bus electric fuel-cell first the Organising – tour promo Mirai Toyota FCEV first the Organising – and Mobility “Integrated 3rd conference COTER – Open Cities, & Regions of Week European “13th – – Baltic Sea Region Hydrogen Network - Confer Hydrogen Europe; – and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking Fuel Cells – (FCH JU); limited; Element Energy – Hydrogen Sweden; – Germany; of Association Cells Fuel and Hydrogen – Hydrogen; and Cells Fuel for Partnership Danish – Forum; Hydrogen Norwegian – Association; Bulgarian Hydrogen – Ukraine Hydrogen Council. – H2LV staff has experience in organising events and in organising events staff has experience H2LV conferences: Main partners H2LV: of Test refuelling of hydrogen FC range extended trolleybus in Rīga trolleybus range extended hydrogen FC refuelling of Test - - Sciences, participationSciences, in the project “Manage- ment of a Joint Procurement Strategy for Fuel to Cell Buses” coordinate the development and per- to methodology common the of evaluation form joint procurement for transport operators across Northern Europe; search Programme 2010–2013 “LATENERGI”, sub-programme “Hydrogen production, storage and usage; technological solutions, implementation methodology research and prototyping economy”; national for usage transportfor public ogy needs in the city and environmental issues”; economic Rīga, of hydrogen as “HIT-2-corridors”; transport fuel in net core TEN-T implementation on frastructure works North Sea – Baltic sea and Scandinavi- corridors. an–Mediterranean implemen- fuel alternative for framework policy (2016); tation in Latvia fuel cells and hydrogen in the railway environ- (2019); ment” transport (2019). operator gava Public – – In collaboration with the Latvian Academy of Coordination – of the National Priority State - Re - “Hydrogen technol in the study Co-researchers – – Participants of the international project – Invited as experts for developing a national – Participants of the international study “Use of Development of – zero-emission for strategy Jel- Toyota Mirai with full hydrogen tank starts its way from Brussels to from Brussels to starts hydrogen tank its way Mirai with full Toyota Station Hydrogen Refuelling Rīga of tests for Rīga Latvian Academy of Sciences

THE FIRST LATVIAN SCIENTIFIC ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION

Kristaps Lamsters, Dr. geol., University of Latvia Jānis Karušs, Dr. geol., University of Latvia

INTRODUCTION mous explorer Fridtjof Nansen, and geophysicist Leonīds Slaucītājs even led several Antarctic expe- Despite being the coldest, driest, less populated ditions of Argentina. and almost isolated from the rest of the world, Ant- Nowadays, the Antarctic Peninsula (Fig. 1) is consid- arctica holds an enormous amount of fresh water in ered as a region of rapid warming occurring over the the form of the largest Ice Sheet on our planet that last 50 years. Atmospheric temperatures have in- has a power to raise sea level globally, disturb oce- creased around the Antarctic Peninsula rising by ap- anic and atmospheric circulation, and influence our proximately 0.5 °C per decade since 1950. The annu- daily life and economics through climate change al mean surface temperature has increased most of feedback. Still, Antarctica is the less studied conti- all at the Vernadsky station by about 2.5 °C since the nent and the mystery of fast-flowing ice streams, 1950s. Glaciers of the Antarctic Peninsula have been subglacial lakes and changing icy world is far from retreating at least since the 1970s and the ice mass fully understood. Only 200 years have passed since loss is dominated by the West coast of the Antarctic one of the first sightings of Antarctica occurred in Peninsula and Larsen A and B Ice Shelves. It is known 1820 when the first Antarctic Circumnavigation Ex- that glaciers across the Antarctic Peninsula are very pedition led by Captain T. T. Bellingshausen was im- sensitive and respond more directly to climate plemented. Of course, there was a competition for a change. Warming in this region of Antarctica is con- discovery of the white continent and only three siderable and has a substantial influence on glacier days later Antarctica was seen by English naval of- reduction. However, local investigations of small ficer Edward Bransfield during a British expedition, glaciers on islands at the western coast of the Ant- and an American seal hunter and explorer Nathan- arctic Peninsula indeed are very rare. Thus, address- iel B. Palmer saw Antarctica in 1820 as well. Al- ing the lack of knowledge about the ice caps around though Antarctica was discovered, scientific studies the Vernadsky station – probably the most warmed started only a century later. During the 19th century, region of Antarctica, the first Latvian scientific expe- a large number of scientists still stuck to the Great dition was conducted in 2018. Deluge (Biblical Floods) hypothesis instead of the Since 2014, scientists from the Faculty of Geogra- Ice Age theory. The end of the 19th century and the phy and Earth Sciences, University of Latvia, have beginning of 20th century was marked by the first conducted seven scientific expeditions to Polar Re- expeditions to Antarctica organised by several na- gions developing the field of polar studies at the tions, for example, German, Belgian, French and University of Latvia and Latvia in general. Expedi- British expeditions, which made scientific surveys tions have been organised to Iceland (2014, 2015, and mapped for the very first time the territories of 2017, 2018), Greenland (2016), Antarctica (2018) the Antarctic Peninsula. The beginning of 20th cen- and Svalbard (2019). Although the main goal of tury was a birth for Latvian polar research as well these polar expeditions was investigation of glacier because Latvian researchers were involved in the thickness, internal structure and subglacial topog- Arctic exploration through Latvian membership in raphy using ground penetrating radar (GPR) and un- the international association Aeroarctic led by fa- manned aerial vehicles (UAV), interdisciplinary

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Fig. 1. Location of the study area

Fig. 2. The environment of Antartica and used equipment. a) A team of Latvian scientists in Antarctica. From the left: Jānis Karušs, Māris Krievāns and Kristaps Lamsters; b) Vernadsky Station; c) performance of GPR measurements; d) aerial surveying with UAV

97 Latvian Academy of Sciences

studies were performed in the fields of geology, ge- Galindez Island and renamed as Station F (Faraday) omorphology, glaciology, soil science, remote sens- in 1977. After the year of 1996, the former British ing, microbiology and pollution problems. Thereby, Faraday station was transferred to Ukraine. A a new research field in Latvia – polar studies, has symbolic one pound was paid for this transfer and been developed at the University of Latvia. Scientif- the station was renamed as “Akademik Vernadsky”. ic expeditions to the Arctic or Antarctica are organ- The station is scientifically important as it holds the ised each year and the results of polar studies are longest meteorological observations in Antarctica, being published in international scientific journals and other long-term studies as upper atmospheric and presented at international scientific conferenc- physics, geomagnetism, ozone layer, seismology, es. The established goal of these studies is the con- ecology, biology, and glaciology. struction of the Latvian seasonal polar station in Antarctica that is an essential step for long-term METHODS studies in this region. The first expedition to Antarctica is considered as a The expedition to the Argentine Islands, Antarctica, significant step forward starting long-term studies was implemented from 18 February to 4 April 2018. in this region. For realisation of the former and fur- Measurements of ice thickness and structure by ther polar studies, it is substantial to cooperate with ground penetrating radar (GPR) and aerial surveys countries which operate research stations in Ant- with unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) of the ice caps arctica. Therefore, the cooperation agreement was located on the largest Argentine Islands were per- signed between the University of Latvia and the Na- formed including Galindez, Northern Barchan, tional Antarctic Scientific Centre of Ukraine in 2017, Southern Barchan, Winter, Skua, Uruguay, Corner, and the first expedition to the Vernadsky Station and Irizar islands. In total, more than 62 km of GPR was conducted in 2018 by geologists of the Faculty profile lines were recorded in great detail consist- of Geography and Earth Sciences – Jānis Karušs, ing of a dense crosswise grid with a distance be- Kristaps Lamsters and Māris Krievāns (Fig. 2A). tween the profile lines of 25 m. Such an approach was chosen to get the best possible models of the STUDY AREA AND RESEARCH HISTORY subglacial topography which was supposed to be heavily articulated as the exposed rock surfaces on Vernadsky station (Fig. 2B) is situated on the Galindez all of the surveyed islands. The measurements were Island in the group of Argentine Islands, Wilhelm performed by two GPR systems – Zond 12-e with 75 Archipelago, which is opposite Kiev Peninsula of the MHz antenna (developed by a RadSys company in west coast of the Graham Land of the Antarctic Latvia) and VIY3-300 with 300 MHz antenna (Tran- Peninsula (Fig. 1). Administration of the station is sient Technologies, Ukraine). Zond 12-e (Fig. 2C) al- performed by the National Antarctic Scientific Centre lowed reaching best results where the ice thickness of Ukraine under the Ministry of Education and was largest and VIY3-300 were most suitable for Sciences of Ukraine. The history of this research shallow ice measurements. Both used systems station is long and can be traced back even to the proved to be very accurate and fully comparable. year of 1935, when the wintering base of the British The GPR data obtained with Zond GPR were pro- Graham Land Expedition (1934–1937) was built on cessed and interpreted with Prism 2.6 software and the nearby Winter Island. After that it disappeared the data obtained with VIY GPR were processed and mysteriously and the further base was established interpreted with Synchro and Planner software. The by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey in the electromagnetic impulse propagation speed was same place in 1947 and called as Base F. The main determined using englacial hyperbolic reflections hut was named Wordie House and it is still standing allowing more precise determination of the ice and designated as a Historic Site or Monument (HSM thickness. 62) under the United Kingdom Antarctic Heritage Aerial images were obtained with UAV – DJI Phan- Trust. In 1954, a new station was built on the adjacent tom III Advanced Quadcopter (Fig. 2D) which is ca-

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pable of approximately 20 min of flight time during Food Safety, Animal Health and Environment “BIOR”. cold weather. This UAV is equipped with a GPS/ Analyses of bacteria and bacteriophages are being GLONASS satellite positioning system and a 12 carried out in Latvian Biomedical Research and megapixel digital compact camera. The planning Study Centre. The culture-based isolation, whole and execution of flights (automated missions) were genome sequencing and further genomic charac- done with Pix4Dcapture software, and the UAV was terisation of novel bacteriophages, including a first launched from the highest areas of islands at 60 m known Sporosarcina sp. infecting phage, from sam- above the launching point. The images were ob- ples collected from soils of the Antarctic Peninsula tained with 85% overlap allowing the construction are processed by Ņ. Zrelovs et al. Analyses of dia- of accurate digital surface models. Fourteen ground toms are performed by I. Grudzinska at the Institute control points (GCP) were placed on each island on of Plant Sciences, University of Bern. Sedimentary average. During the photogrammetric process, these environments are being characterised by analysing GCP are used for precise referencing of the obtained the micromorphological features of mineral grains images. Frequent storms, strong wind, coldness and by Edyta Kalińska at the Department of Geomor- precipitations were the main external factors influ- phology and Palaeogeography of the Quaternary, encing the use of UAV and making it sometimes dif- Nicolaus Copernicus University, Poland. Results are ficult and even risky. Flights were carried out in the in progress and several scientific publications could time spans when the weather conditions were most be expected in the near future. suitable for better distinguishing of land and ice cover. A total area of 4.48 km2 was covered during ICE THICKNESS AND SUBGLACIAL the successful UAV missions obtaining 10041 aerial TOPOGRAPHY OF THE ARGENTINE ISLANDS photographs in total. Orthomosaics and digital surface models (DSM) were developed in Agisoft We obtained new high-resolution orthophoto maps Metashape Professional software. Models of ice and DSMs of eight of the Argentine Islands are in- thickness and subglacial topography were created cluding Galindez, Winter, Skua, Corner, Uruguay, using ESRI ArcMap software. Irizar, and two of the Barchans. The final pixel size Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers of DSMs is 13.8 cm/px and 3.4 cm/px of orthomosa- Magellan ProMark 3 were used for coordinate and ics on average. Such high-resolution orthomosaics altitude acquisition of GCPs and for positioning of were generated for the first time of the Argentine the start and end points of GPR profile lines. Meas- Islands and can be further used for different scien- urement system consisted of two GNSS receivers – tific and other purposes as monitoring of ice cap one was used as a base station and the other as a changes, vegetation cover, wildlife populations or rover. Post-processing of GNSS data was done in infrastructure. “GNSS solutions” software. The average base station The islands are commonly characterised by a composition accuracy was ~9.3 cm and the precision of plex and undulated topography with steep southern measured GCPs and GPR profile points was 8 cm on slopes of ice caps. The generated 3D models of is- average allowing reaching optimal accuracy for the lands (Fig. 3) are representing these topographical performed study. characteristics in great detail. We have calculated Besides of the aerial and geophysical surveys, ~30 the minimum and maximum elevation, relative kg of cryoconite, soil, sediment, and water samples height, area and perimeter of each island. The high- were collected from glaciers ice-free areas includ- est point reaching 79.08 m above ellipsoid, for ex- ing different environments as vegetated land, moss- ample, is found on Uruguay Island. The islands on es, saltwater, small ponds, streams, and inlets to average are only 34 m high, and the largest is Skua characterise the sedimentary processes, soil devel- Island which area reaches 0.55 km2. opment, pollution and microbial diversity in this The GPR surveys have allowed construction of the part of Antarctica. Analyses of persistent organic subglacial topography and ice thickness models. pollutants are being performed in the Institute of The maximum thickness of studied ice caps reaches

99 Latvian Academy of Sciences

Fig. 3. 3D model of the surface of Galindez Island. Verandsky Station is visible in the foreground

36 m. Almost all GPR data suggest that the subgla- row elongated ice ridge is not supported by any cial topography of the Argentine Islands is quite topographic uplift in the subglacial topography. articulated commonly consisting of numerous This prominent ice ridge has developed in the wind humps. Distinct rock hills are located on the north- shadow of the largest hill. The same situation is ern or central parts of some islands (e.g. Uruguay, true for the largest ice ridge on the southern part of Galindez Islands). Ice caps of the Argentine Islands Irizar Island as well. Ice caps on Galindez, Corner, are comparatively small in general and they cover and Skua islands seem to have developed as ice approximately 50% of the land surface of islands on shadow features as well. average. On Irizar Island ice covers only 23% of the island surface, while on Winter Island ice covers up FUTURE PROSPECTS to 72% of the land. Individual snow and ice patches are found on all islands but they change their shape We have demonstrated that application of small and location from year to year. The maximum ice UAVs in polar glacier mapping is an accurate, af- thickness exceeds 30 m only on two islands (Galin- fordable and available method allowing the gener- dez and Skua), and the average ice thickness of all ation of high-resolution orthomosaics and DSMs. islands is only 5 m. Only on the Galindez Island the Using low-frequency GPR, we have measured ice average ice thickness reaches 11.6 m. The thickest thickness on the largest ice caps on the Argentine and also the largest (by volume) ice caps are ob- Islands and constructed the first ice thickness and served on Galindez, Uruguay and Skua islands. Areas subglacial topography models revealing the peculi- with the highest ice thickness are located in the arities of the geological structure and glacier devel- wind shadow of the largest hills if there is a land in opment. The obtained maps can be used further for the southern direction of the hill. Surprising struc- the monitoring of ongoing changes of ice cap and ture is found on Uruguay Island where a very nar- polar environment. Our collaboration partners from

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2020 101 Yearbook - - - - - several several institutions in Latvia have proved their ca- pability as well to study polar microbial diversity and pollutants, and even to discover new bacteria and bacteriophages. For the future work in Antarctica we realise that it is essential for Latvia to sign the Antarctic Treaty, which regulates the international relations in this - Latvi of ensure in the order involvement to region, From research. Antarctic in value full of scientists an 28 EU Member 20 States, have already signed the stations research 82 the of 22 and Treaty, Antarctic the EU Member by are operated Antarctic in the are We also looking to expand our coopera States. Ant in bases research operating countries with tion essen- is it Antarctica in work future the For arctica. tial to develop carry to capable and collaborative interested are which countries projects between out The polar involvement investigations. of - Latvi strengthen would research Antarctic in scientists an the role of Latvia dealing with global environmental problems that is defined as the aim strategic of Therefore, Latvia would be the a priority EU. of development of National Antarctic research programme and establishment of a seasonal research station in Antarctica. performance-based the by supported was work This funding of the University of Latvia - within “Cli the mate change and sustainable use of natural and sources” re by the specific support objective ac tivity “Post-doctoral Research Aid” 1.1.1.2. (Project fund Latvia, of Republic the of 1.1.1.2/16/I/001) id. ed by the European Regional Development Fund, Kristaps Lamsters research Project VIAA/1/16/118. The No. expedition to 1.1.1.2/ Antarctica was partially financed alsoby the donationof Mikrotik (administered by the University of Latvia Founda- tion) and company “Ceļu būvniecības sabiedrība Ltd. “Igate”” We thank the National Antarctic Scientific Centre (NASC) of Ukraine and crew of the 22nd Ukrainian Antarctic Expedition at the Akademik Station for their help Vernadsky during and our stay fieldwork in Antarctica. Latvian Academy of Sciences

SCIENTISTS OF R ĪGA TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY HAVE MADE SIGNIFICANT RESEARCH IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF TRIBOELECTRIC NANOGENERATORS

Andris Šutka, Dr. sc. ing., Associate Professor, Rīga Technical University (RTU), Head, RTU Research Laboratory of Functional Materials Technologies; Corresponding Member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences Linards Lapčinskis, Mg. sc. ing., researcher, Institute of Technical Physics, RTU, doctoral student, programme “Material sciences”, RTU

Triboelectric nanogenerators that are researched by ple, small sensors that now use low power batteries. RTU scientists is a new type of device that allows Wider use of this technology would allow to dimin- the conversion of ambient mechanical energy into ish the damage done to the environment when electrical. Mechanical energy surrounds us in many used batteries are discarded. Additionally, it is worth forms – as human motions, vibrations, sounds, nois- remembering that batteries are not only harmful to es or wind. “Tribo-” comes from Greek “rub”, so the environment after disposal but are also relatively simplest explanation of this device might be – gen- expensive to fabricate. erator that turns friction into electricity. The prepo- While the first research about nanogenerators dates sition “nano” is used because often functionality is back to 2012, the work of RTU researchers has re- enhanced by nano-sized components. The main sulted in a new type of nanogenerators, where the principle of triboelectric nanogenerators is that two mechanism is similar to one seen in triboelectric materials are contacted and when they are separat- nanogenerators. In the new nanogenerators, con- ed a static charge is formed on the surface. Similar tact layers are replaced by polarised layers of ferro- effect can be seen after rubber balloon is rubbed electric materials allowing to reach a significantly against a sweater. Density of this charge is deter- higher performance. The picture shows one of the mined by bonds formed during contact. So, if the prototypes built on the basis of these materials. Us- surface of material is nanostructured, the total con- ing rectifying circuit and capacitors the electrical tacting surface will be much larger allowing to form energy harvested from mechanical motions can be a higher count of bonds. This way also the density of stored in the battery. Membrane type nanogenera- surface charge will be higher. tor will have a possibility to be integrated in clothes, The list of possible applications for nanogenerators shoes, interior objects and so on. is quite extensive – they can charge various porta- Scientists admit that the greatest challenge is to ble devices, replace batteries in sensors and detec- perceive and explain all aspects of working mecha- tors or even act as sensors themselves. Researchers nism to have full understanding of material suita- emphasise that nanogenerators obviously won’t be bility. There is still an ongoing debate about the a technology to replace wind turbine generators or origin of this effect in polymer materials as differ- hydro electro stations, however, the power generat- ent mechanisms are proposed. RTU researchers ed by these devices will be enough to run, for exam- have shown strong evidence to support the theory

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Triboelectric nanogenerator device using electrically polarized ferroelectric contact layers that charge forms when molecules are broken due chemists, electrical engineers and physicists con- to mechanical actions. This allows small pieces of firming the interdisciplinary nature of the project. polymer to transfer on other surfaces and take the Work on this project was started in 2017 and it has charge with them. Full understanding of the mech- resulted in many highly ranked publications. Papers anism has allowed scientists to identify the best “Inversely polarised ferroelectric polymer contact materials to be used in construction of energy har- electrodes for triboelectric-like generators from vesters. identical materials” and “The role of intermolecular Triboelectric nanogenerators were elaborated as forces in contact electrification on polymer surfaces part of European Regional Development Fund pro- and triboelectric nanogenerators” were published ject “Hybrid energy harvesting systems”. The main in the prestigious journal Energy and Environmental idea of the project was developed by RTU lead re- Science (impact factor – 33.25). In the journal Mate- searcher Dr. sc. ing. Andris Šutka and the core of the rials Horizons (impact factor – 14.36) there was pub- team consists of researchers from RTU Institute of lished the paper “Dramatic increase in polymer tri- Technical Physics and Research Laboratory of Func- boelectrification by transition from a glassy to tional Materials Technologies. The team consists of rubbery state”.

103 Latvian Academy of Sciences

THE STRADINŠ FAMILY AND THE LATVIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

Pēteris Trapencieris, Dr. chem., Chair of the Division of Chemistry, Biology and Medicine, Full Member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences

identified as the Science Commission of the Rīga Latvian Society (1920–1932) and the Science Com- mittee (Academia Scientarium Latviensis, 1932–1940), both headed by the linguist and sinologist Pēteris Šmits, and the linguist Jānis Endzelīns. Pēteris Vales kalns was unable to establish the LAS as a branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences during the first year of Soviet occupation, i.e. in 1940/1941. However, immediately after the end of the Second World War, formation began of the Academy of Sciences in Latvia. All scientists who had remained in Latvia took an active part in this process and, despite a lot of absurd moments, they set up one of the most robust and efficient Academies of Sciences in the USSR. Pauls Stradiņš, as an academician, made a significant contribution to the Academy of Sciences in the field of medicine, laying the foundations for the scientific career of his son, Jānis Stradiņš. P. Stradiņš Jānis Stradiņš speech of welcome at the 150th Anniversary readings “Higher Education of Latvia for the future of Latvia” was an excellent educator, surgeon and oncologist, founder in Latvia of the Museum of Medical History. When the Academy of Sciences of the Latvian SSR The Latvian Academy of Sciences (LAS) is closely (LSSR) was established by a decision taken 7 Febru- linked with the names of three generations of mem- ary 1946 by the Council of People’s Commissars (Min- bers of the Stradiņš family – academician Pauls isters) of the Latvian SSR, the medical doctor Pauls Stradiņš (1896–1958), his son, academician Jānis Stradiņš was one of the first 13 full-time members. Stradiņš (1933–2019), and three grandsons of Pauls The first session of the LSSR Academy of Sciences Stradiņš: academician Andrejs Ērglis, Pēteris was held on 14 February 1946 (and is considered to Stradiņš, Corresponding Member of the LAS, and be the date of when the LAS was founded). The agron- Pauls Stradiņš, Foreign Member of the LAS. I should omist (a specialist in cattle breeding and grazing) like only to outline briefly, how the LAS was found- Paulis Lejiņš, who was held in high regard and trusted ed in 1946, its transformation following 1990, and by the public in Latvia, was elected as its first Presi- its further evolution and how these relate to the dent. However, Pauls Stradiņš benefitted from no family name of Stradiņš. lesser public confidence, which helped in creating an It proved impossible for several reasons to establish excellent hospital with a strong medical staff. This, in an Academy of Sciences in Latvia during the period turn, allowed creation of the first museum of medical following proclamation of the Republic of Latvia on history on the territory of the USSR. Circa 1955, Pro- 18 November 1918, up until the outbreak of the Sec- fessor Pauls Stradiņš, under the auspices of the estab- ond World War. Precursors to the LAS have been lished museum, planned to start publishing regularly

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J. Stradiņš family in 2006 – roots, support and back, all the foundation and sequel collections of articles on medical history; he invited Walden Inversion effect. After his graduation from his son Jānis Stradiņš to write an article on the over- the State University of Latvia, she offered J. Stradiņš all situation of the natural sciences in Latvia during the post of lecturer in the history of chemistry. From the 18th and 19th centuries. At the initiative of Pro- 1956 to 1961, he succeeded in developing his inter- fessor Pauls Stradiņš, a magazine started to be pub- est in history, whilst lecturing on the history of lished in 1957, bearing originally the name, Iz istorii chemistry. During this time, J. Stradiņš became meditsini. Since 1992, this publication is known as convinced that not only the achievements of scien- Acta medico-historica Rigensia and is published by the tists in Russia and large countries should be known, Institute of Medical History of Rīga Stradiņš Universi- but also the historical contribution to world chemis- ty in cooperation with the Pauls Stradiņš Museum of try made by Baltic scientists. This was the beginning Medical History. The magazine continues to be pub- of Professor Stradiņš’ interest in Theodor von Grot- lished today and academician Jānis Stradiņš was its thuss, Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald, and Paul Walden. editor-in-chief until his retirement. Encouraged and supported by his father, J. Stradiņš Encouraged by his father, Jānis Stradiņš studied dared to revise negative perceptions of Baltic Ger- chemistry, and not history, as he appreciated Sovi- mans and their contribution to Latvian science and et-era problems associated with historical research. culture, all rooted in Latvia. A revised view was en- Hence, J. Stradiņš always regarded history as his sec- dorsed and accepted by the 1st Baltic Conference on ond specialty, after chemistry, although history ought the History of Natural Sciences and Medicine, held to be ranked as his first, closest to his heart. Moreo- in Rīga in June 1958, which adopted a resolution on ver, Jānis Stradiņš’ interest in the history of chemistry the basis of a paper by P. Stradiņš and J. Stradiņš. This and his outstanding ability as an orator were noted forward-looking stance helped to facilitate contacts by Professor Emīlija Gudriniece, on the occasion between Latvian scientists and Baltic German col- when J. Stradiņš presented a wide-ranging and pro- leagues already during the Soviet era – with the nat- found report to the Science Student Society on the ural scientist Heinrich von Knorr and the legal chemist Paul Walden, wherein he discussed the scholar Dietrich Andrè Loeber.

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Effective 4 January 1990, academician J. Stradiņš was – in 1984, he started to correspond with Professor Vice-President of the Academy of Sciences and was Edvīns Vedējs (Edwin Vedejs, USA), which culmi- responsible for the history of Latvian science and for- nated with the award of the status of Foreign eign and honorary members of the LAS. Change could Member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences to E. then begin, once on 4 January 1990 the General As- Vedējs in 1992, and the wide-ranging scientific sembly of the Academy of Sciences of the Latvian cooperation by the latter with Latvian chemists SSR empowered the President of the Academy to ad- over 25 years; dress the Council of Ministers of the Latvian SSR, re- – the issue of symbols of the LAS was first raised questing changing the name of the Academy to that at the meeting on 25 October 1990 of the Pre- of the Latvian Academy of Sciences. After collapse of sidium – the LAS coat of arms, colours and flag. the USSR, several problems of science inherited from At its 6 December 1990 meeting, the LAS Gener- the Soviet era had to be overcome – how to combine al Assembly accepted the proposed colours of the work of LAS institutes and that of institutions of the LAS and decided to continue discussions; higher education, how to achieve autonomy of scien- – he encouraged discussion of the LAS could be re- tific institutes, and how to transform the system for organised and transformed into a “personal” West- financing science activities, to stop paying the sala- ern-type Academy of Sciences. In debates at the ries of academicians and revising the system of re- LAS General Meeting in January 1991, J. Stradiņš warding individual scientists. These processes were advanced proposals that were twofold in nature, more or less successful only as a result of active en- those that were implemented in the near future – gagement of and activities by academicians of the to create a personal Academy of Science following LAS. During the early stages of the Awakening, a a foreign model; with it having the role of provid- number of scientists had formed the Latvian Scien- ing expertise; the urgent need to renew its mem- tists’ Union (LSU), which was initially the ideological bership LAS so that the LAS not turn into a geron- driving force for reorganisation of the Latvian Acad- tocracy. The other group of proposals was more emy of Sciences, and which was followed on to a dis- radical and some of these have not come to pass cussion at the LSU Council on 23 March 1990. Dis- – in the future, the LAS might move from its cur- cussions then continued throughout 1990 and 1991. rent premises (a Stalin-era skyscraper originally All scientists at that time espoused a motto best for- intended as temporary lodging for kolkhoz repre- mulated by academician Elmārs Grēns in June sentatives visiting Rīga) to the House of the Black- 1991 – science must be protected! I will touch upon heads, which would be more prestigious, an aca- some of the suggestions offered by J. Stradiņš on the demic at 65 could vacate his seat in favour of a process whereby the Academy of Sciences of the Lat- younger colleague; vian SSR was transformed during the 1990s into the – advanced the concept of a Charter and Statute present-day personal Latvian Academy of Sciences. for the LAS, the draft of a Charter and Statute Academician J. Stradiņš acknowledged in Volume 3 was drafted by the LAS Constitutional Commit- of his biobibliography, written in 2017, that: tee chaired by J. Stradiņš and elected by the LAS “Throughout history, I have striven to be a catalyst General Meeting on 28 March 1991; both of for developments, nudging processes along, with a these were published for discussion in the No- penchant for highlighting and advancing lively and vember 1991 issue of Zinātnes Vēstnesis; progressive ideas that are relevant to evolution.” The – at the 11 April 1991 meeting of the Presidium of most important achievement, where his role of cat- the LAS, J. Stradiņš proposed a review of the LAS alyst was the most important, was transformation of system of awards by establishing medals and the Academy of Sciences of the Latvian SSR into the conferring prizes and medals on outstanding in- present-day LAS. Academician Jānis Stradiņš was the dividuals in the history of science and culture in catalyst for many different processes: Latvia. This proposal evolved over several years – in 1961, he urged academician G. Vanags to write and was finally adopted in 1998, when academi- memoirs recalling his student days and his cian J. Stradiņš was elected President of the LAS; teacher, Paul Walden; – in 1998, he encouraged to restructure the sys-

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tem of awards and stipends conferred by the erovics, Mikhail Dolyach-Dobrovensky, Hugo LAS. On 22 September 1998, the Senate of the Celmiņš, and Ignatius Moscicki (2012); LAS adopted a resolution on organisation of the – J. Stradiņš recognised that the Baltic German awards system of the Academy of Sciences and political, administrative and intellectual elite, setting up new awards of recognition by the LAS. up until the proclamation of Latvian independ- All previously established awards by the LAS ence in 1918, had hindered inclusion of Latvi- were attributed names (Friedrich Zander, Gus- ans in academic life. The first scientists who tavs Vanags, Heinrihs Skuja, Pauls Stradiņš, Pauls were either Latvian or of Latvian origin (D. H. Lejiņš, Jānis Endzelīns, Kārlis Balodis, Vilis Plū- Grindelis, P. Walden) emerged while integrating donis, Arveds Švābe, Fricis Brīvzemnieks) and into the German environment, or who did not were retained. The decision also provided for call attention to their nationality. However, the establishing new awards (the Rainis Prize for role played by J. Stradiņš was also particularly outstanding creative achievement in science or significant for inclusion of Latvian-speaking culture; Edgars Siliņš Prize for fundamental re- Baltic German scientists into Latvian national search in physics; Piers Bohl Prize for excellence cultural heritage. It is thanks to J. Stradiņš, that in mathematics; Eižens Āriņš Prize for excellence the 150th anniversary of P. Walden (2013), the in computer science; Alfrēds Vītols Prize for 300th anniversary of G. F. Stender (2014) and achievements in engineering and energy; Arvīds the 200th anniversary of the foundation of the Kalniņš Prize for the best work in forestry, wood Courland Literary and Art Society (2015) were research and processing; Teodors Celms Prize for included in the list of international commemo- the best work in philosophy; Tālivaldis Vilciņš rations observed by UNESCO; Prize for the best work in sociology; Kārlis Mīlen- – issuing commemorative badges for Nobel Lau- bahs Prize for practical results in Latvian lin- reate Wilhelm Ostwald (2001) and his pupil Paul guistics). The decision reaffirmed that the high- Walden (2003). Stradiņš’ ability was also amaz- est scientific award of the LAS is the LAS Grand ing in finding patrons, who this time were Valdis Medal, and that the Rainis Prize is, in terms of Jākobsons (Grindeks) and Juris Savickis (Itera prestige, the next after the LAS Grand Medal; Latvija), as well as the individual who imple- – suggested replacement of stipends to university mented the idea, the sculptor Andris Vārpa. Pē students with award recognising the achieve- teris Stradiņš, son of J. Stradiņš, is now following ments of young scientists. On 22 September 1998, in his father’s footsteps and has begun the pro- the Senate of the LAS decided that young scien- cess of setting up memorials in the ancestral re- tist awards should be given to master’s and doc- gion of Sēlija. toral students, or to young researchers who have Academician Jānis Stradiņš could rightly be proud of just defended their master’s or doctoral theses, the value of each of his books, but I will mention just setting the maximum age at 30 for nomination two that characterise his great responsibility for Lat- for such an accolade. J. Stradiņš was the initiator via and science: a monograph of 700 pages pub- for two young scientists’ awards named after Lat- lished in 1998, The Latvian Academy of Sciences: Ori- vian chemists. This resulted in the Emīlija Gudri gins, History, Transformations, Part I; Latvians and niece Prize and the Mārtiņš Straumanis and Al- Latvia, Academic Papers, published in 2013 compris- frēds Ieviņš Prize. Mārtiņš Eduards Straumanis, in ing 4 volumes and 2400 pages. This work, supported collaboration with Alfrēds Ieviņš had developed, by the Letonica National Research Programme of in 1935–1937, a new method for precise deter- Latvia, with Jānis Stradiņš heading the team of au- mination of elemental cell parameters of crystals thors including Ilga Jansone, Maija Kūle, Tālavs Jund- (asymmetric method), which is currently widely zis, Viktors Hausmanis, Andrejs Vasks, and Guntis used in x-ray laboratories all over the world. Zemītis, was acclaimed in 2014 by the Cabinet of – proposed nomination of the status of Honorary Ministers of the Republic of Latvia. The extensive Member of the RTU (post mortem) for Paul personal archives of Jānis Stradiņš will continue to Walden (2011), Friedrich Zander, Zigfrīds Mei- be invaluable for researchers in various disciplines.

Translated by Eduards Bruno Deksnis 107 Latvian Academy of Sciences

ACHIEVEMENTS IN SCIENCE 2019

ABO3 perovskite surfaces. The effects of boron (B) and nitrogen (N) substitutions in 4,12,2-graphene on its geometric structure and mechanical as well as electric properties have been calculated from first principles. The piezoelectricity induced by B/N atom substitutions in 4,12,2-graphene owing to the deformation of the pristine graphene symmetry was discovered.

II New reagent for organic synthesis with potential application in medicinal chemistry was discovered Research team: Mg. chem. Renāte Melngaile, Bc. chem. Armands Kazia, Artūrs Sperga, Dr. chem. Jānis Veliks. Latvian Institute of Organic synthesis The award ceremony to honour the best achievements in scientific research of 2019 More than a quarter of the currently used drug molecules contain at least one or more fluorine atoms. Analysis of recent trends in medicinal chemistry THEORETICAL SCIENCE shows that almost a half of the registered drugs by the US Food and Drug Administration contain at I Theoretical calculations allow to explain how least one fluorine atom in their structures. This ten- graphene enhances the photoelectric conversion dency shows that also in the future synthesis of efficiency of dye sensitised solar cells fluorinated derivatives will be a perspective ap- Research team: Corresponding Member of the LAS proach for the design of new pharmaceutical drugs, Roberts Eglītis, LAS academician Juris Purāns, Dr. and an important part of the manufacturing pro- phys. Jānis Kleperis, Dr. phys. Anatolijs Popovs, and cess. This is a constant challange for chemists re- Dr. Ran Jia (PRC). Institute of Solid State Physics, quiring development of new methods and reagents Latvian University, Institute of Theoretical Chemis- for the synthesis of fluoroorganic compounds. We try, University of Jilin (PRC) have developed a new reagent for the fluorometh- One of the 2019 year Nobel Prize winners in chem- ylene – an important organic fluorine containing istry John B. Goodenough (USA) in 1980 discovered buildingblock incorporation. Most of the currently the cathode material for a 4V Li ion batteries; but used methods involve the use of, for example, ozone that it is possible to design also 5 Volt batteries was depleting reagents or gasoeous compounds which demonstrated in the theoretical calculations for the involves various technological issues for their ap- cathode material Li2CoMn3O8 carried out by the plication in the laboratory. Our method and the re- joint Latvian–Chinese research team. Theoretical agent will allow more straignthforward synthesis of calculations allowed to explain how the graphene new fluorine containing molecules and it has a enhances the photoelectric conversion efficiency of good potential for the application in a manufactur- dye sensitised solar cells. A large amount of calcu- ing of active pharmaceuticals. lations were made for eight technologically most important ABO3 perovskite neutral (001) and polar III The new double Volume III of the academic pub- (011) surfaces, and a theory was developed, which lication Art History of Latvia presents the so-far most explains the systematic trends in the behaviour of comprehensive research-based overview of the de-

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velopment of fine art, book art, architecture, profes- The collective monograph Latvia: Migration of Cul- sional applied art, folk art and artistic life in the tures (Latvija: kultūru migrācija. Rīga: LU Akadēmi- territory of Latvia from the late 18th century until skais apgāds, 2019, 808 pp.) is an innovative and 1890 unique interdisciplinary study that represents the Eduards Kļaviņš, Elita Grosmane, Valdis Villerušs, interaction of several cultures since the first people Imants Lancmanis, Inese Sirica, Kristiāna Ābele, Dai- settled in the present day territory of Latvia. Within na Lāce, Silvija Grosa. Art History of Latvia III: 1780– the context of the international academic thought 1890. Edited by Eduards Kļaviņš. Rīga: Institute of the study for the first time defines the notion of the Art History of the Latvian Academy of Art; Art Histo- migration of cultures, its types and relation to dif- ry Research Foundation, 2019. Book 1, 424 pp., 627 ferent approaches in Culture Studies. Researchers ill.; Book 2, 392 pp., 537 ill. ISBN 9789934882401 of the migration of cultures describe various areas (Latvian), 9789934882418 (English) of human activities: material culture (historians), in- The new double Volume III of the academic publi- teraction of languages (linguists), migration of cation Art History of Latvia presents the so-far most myths and other elements of folklore (folklorists, comprehensive research-based overview of the de- literary scholars), history of ideas and religion as a velopment of fine art, book art, architecture, profes- manifestation of the migration of cultures (philoso- sional applied art, folk art and artistic life in the phers, scholars of religion, historians), boundaries territory of Latvia from the late 18th century until between aesthetic culture and national identity, 1890, revealing the particularity, achievements and ideology, politics, and nationhood (philosophers, activities in the period of Classicism and Romanti- historians), reflections of the migration of culture in cism (1780–1840) and the period of Historicism literature and other forms of art. and Realism (1840–1890). The text is illustrated with 1164 images, and a parallel English edition V The monograph discusses the Second World War makes the whole study available to international trauma and historical memory including cross-dis- audience. Supervised by director of the Institute of ciplinary studies and successfully integrating vari- Art History (IAH) of the Latvian Academy of Art (LAA) ous research methods Dr. habil. art. Eduards Kļaviņš, the team of authors Inguna Daukste-Silasproģe. Waiting for the Boat: includes seven other members – IAH senior re- Latvian Authors as Refugees in Sweden (Gaidot laivu. searchers Dr. art. Elita Grosmane, Dr. art. Kristiāna Latviešu rakstnieki bēgļu ceļos. Rīga: LU LFMI, 2019). Ābele and Dr. art. Daina Lāce, LAA teaching staff Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art of the Uni- members Dr. art. Silvija Grosa, Dr. art. Inese Sirica versity of Latvia and Dr. h. c. Valdis Villerušs as well as the ex-direc- The monograph Waiting for the Boat: Latvian Au- tor of the Rundāle Palace Museum Dr. h. c. Imants thors as Refugees in Sweden by LAS corresponding Lancmanis. English translation was prepared by IAH member Dr. philol. Inguna Daukste-Silasproģe fo- senior researcher Dr. art. Stella Pelše. The publica- cusses on a chronologically and geographically tion was supported by the State Culture Capital narrowed view of political and historical develop- Foundation and the Zuzāns family. ments through a prism of an individual’s distress, echoed in documents, correspondence, testimony IV Within the context of the international academic and literary texts. The period covered in the mon- thought, for the first time the notion of the migra- ograph symbolically forms a vector from (1) the tion of cultures, its types and relation to different coast of Kurzeme and the way in a refugee boat approaches in culture studies has been defined across the sea; to (2) the new country of residence The research team includes researchers from the In- in Sweden as a refugee, where one has to reassert stitute of Philosophy and Sociology, Latvian Language their skills and knowledge by leading two parallel Institute, Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art, In- lives – the Swedish and the Latvian. The Latvian life stitute of Latvian History of the University of Latvia turns out to be surprisingly plentiful and allows

109 Latvian Academy of Sciences

the refugee to survive emotionally both the for- on this technology, as part of the move to the green eign land and being cut off from Latvia, where the industry, a new concept factory casing has been Baltic Sea is the border. The everyday and working built – Factory56 in Sindelfingen, which also uses a life, the periodicals, social and cultural events in developed system (DC network and robotic recuper- Latvian writers’ life, even the literary process itself ative energy recovery) to reduce CO2 emissions. It have been characterised. The theoretical basis of will also power the building’s climate systems. the monograph consists of the works of Latvian (https://www.daimler.com/innovation/case/con- and foreign researchers discussing the Second nectivity/industry-4-0.html) World War trauma and historical memory, including cross-disciplinary studies, successfully inte- VII The functionality of visual system has been in- grating various research methods. The author of vestigated for people working with an innovation in the monograph has produced a unique methodol- information visualisation – the volumetric 3D im- ogy for her own research, a set of self-accredited age display produced in Latvia research tools supplemented with a viewpoint Research team: Mg. Tatjana Pladere, Mg. Karola from literary history. The monograph is also ac- Panke, Mg. math. Māra Delesa-Vēliņa, Bc. Viktorija companied by a variety of attachments and exten- Andriksone, Bc. Vita Konošonoka, Bc. Gunita Jank- sive photographic material. In 2019, the mono- ovska, student Kristaps Kļava, student Marina graph received the Egons Līvs Memorial Award Seļezņova, resident Reinis Pitura, Dr. phys. Gunta “Krasta ļaudis” (Coast People). Krūmiņa in collaboration with Dr. sc. ing. Krišs Os- manis, Mg. sc. ing. Ilmārs Osmanis, Dr. phys. Roberts APPLIED SCIENCE Zabels, Mg. sc. comp. Rendijs Smukulis, Mg. sc. ing. Una Kandere. Faculty of Physics, Mathematics and VI The new technology enables better technical Optometry of the University of Latvia, Ltd. “Light- solutions for improving energy efficiency by bi-di- Space Technologies”, Faculty of Medicine, Rīga rectional implementation power flow into the DC Stradiņš University power grid Within the successful collaboration between sci- Research team: LAS academician Leonīds Ribickis, ence and industry, the functionality of visual system Dr. sc. ing. Oskars Krievs, Dr. sc. ing. Pēteris Apse-Apsītis, has been investigated for people working with an Dr. sc. ing. Dāvis Meike, Dr. sc. ing. Andrejs Stepanovs, innovation in information visualisation – the volu- Mg. sc. ing. Ansis Avotiņš, Mg. sc. ing. Armands Šen- metric 3D image display produced in Latvia. The felds, Mg. sc. ing. Kristaps Vītols, Mg. sc. ing. Maksims display opens up new opportunities to use the Vorobjovs, Mg. sc. ing. Mārcis Priedītis, Mg. sc. ing. high-quality spatial images and reduce visual dis- Artūrs Paugurs, Mg. sc. ing. Oskars Bormanis. Rīga comfort. The research explored how the depth per- Technical University, Institute of Industrial Electron- ception, visual functions and work efficiency benefit ics and Electrical Engineering when using the volumetric display compared to The developed and approved unique system is in everyday 2D image displays. Due to the wide sup- cooperation with the German car manufacturer port of Latvian medical professionals and students, Daimler AG for use in the Mercedes-Benz automo- the properties of visual perception of specific users bile industry. The new technology enables better working with the innovative visualisation device technical solutions for improving energy efficiency have been determined. The findings of the research (saving up to 15% of electricity) by bi-directional contribute to the development of innovative 3D im- implementation power flow into the DC power grid. age displays not only in Latvia, but also in the world. This is the first step towards the idea of tomorrow’s The obtained results demonstrate that its imple- factories, where energy-efficient and sustainable mentation and scientifically based application in robotic production through the use of innovative the professional fields can significantly improve the tools, methods, and technologies take place. Based work ergonomics and efficiency.

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VIII Previously unreported pathogenic variants that ting materials and simplify architecture of affect a specific region of the slow Myosin Binding light-emitting devices (e.g. OLEDs), thus significant- Protein-C (sMyBP-C) and are associated with a neu- ly reducing their production costs; 3) create new romuscular disease phenotype – mild myopathy to- optical sensors, luminescent materials for biomedi- gether with a myogenic tremor are found cal applications and sunlight resembling artificial Research team: Mg. biol. Jānis Stāvusis, Dr. med. Baiba light sources. Lāce, Mg. biol. Dita Kidere, Dr. biol. Inna Iņaškina. Lat- vian Biomedical Research and Study Centre X Interdisciplinary study of even-aged spruce stands Within the framework of the Neuromuscular Dis- in Latvia ease Project, the research team has managed to find Research team: Dr. silv. Jurģis Jansons, Mg. silv. Jānis previously unreported pathogenic variants that af- Donis, LAS academician Tālis Gaitnieks, LAS corre- fect a specific region of the slow Myosin Binding sponding member Āris Jansons, Dr. silv. Dagnija Protein-C (sMyBP-C) and are associated with a neu- Lazdiņa, Dr. silv. Zane Lībiete, Corresponding Mem- romuscular disease phenotype – mild myopathy to- ber of the LAS Dainis Edgars Ruņģis, Latvian State gether with a myogenic tremor. Such a combination Forest Research Institute “Silava” of symptoms has not yet been described for any one An interdisciplinary study on spruce forests in Lat- disease, furthermore, until now it was considered via has been completed at the Latvian State Forest that tremor is caused only by neurogenic defects. In Research Institute “Silava”, covering forestry and collaboration with the partners from USA (Universi- breeding, genetics and phytopathology, as well as ty of Maryland, National Institute of Health), data is technological and economic aspects. Opportunities still being gathered from biochemical and molecu- and risks for the management of planted even-aged lar biology experiments, as well as from the evalua- spruce stands growing in at least 200 thousand tion of the created mouse model, in order to fully hectares of the most fertile forest lands of Latvia characterize this novel phenotype. This research is have been studied. In the 1970s and 1980s, overly providing new insights into previously not de- dense spruce stands were extensively planted, scribed biological mechanisms and might help in which currently have grown to be stunted and understanding and solving similar clinical cases. weakened middle-aged stands. Planted spruce forests, as opposed to unmanaged forests, are very pro- IX Conceptually new approach to achieve high solid ductive at a young age, but subsequently tree state emission growth decreases, and trees are damaged by wind Research team: Mg. chem. Kaspars Leduskrasts, and decay. As a result of the research, the Latvian Dr. chem. Artis Kinēns, LAS academician Edgars forest sector was provided with knowledge of opti- Sūna. Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis mal management models when renewing spruce In artificial light sources and in various everyday stands, as well as information about the significant devices (telephones, computer and TV screens) light risks associated with the deterioration of growth is emitted by solid luminophores that typically pos- potential in overly densely-planted 40–50 year old sesses low emission efficiency. A conceptually new stands. By repeatedly assessing (after 12 years) 285 approach to design highly emissive solid state or- spruce stands throughout Latvia, it was confirmed ganic luminophores has been developed at Latvian that their growth has not improved but significantly Institute of Organic Synthesis. The new concept is deteriorated. In such situations, declining stands based on the use of intermolecular electrostatic in- should be cleared and purposefully renewed, ensur- teractions, which are well known in organic chemis- ing regulatory changes to enable this. In correctly try but have not yet been used in the design of or- managed spruce stands, it is possible to grow saw ganic luminophores. This new approach helps to: 1) logs well within a human lifespan – 40–50 years. increase the emission efficiency of solid organic The study was initiated by the Latvian forest sector, luminophores; 2) facilitate the design of light-emit- and was started in 2014 within the framework of the

111 Latvian Academy of Sciences

National Research Programme. The results of the re- II Theoretical modelling of self-assembling pro- search are summarised in a monograph Even-aged cesses in prospective perovskites for green energy spruce stands in Latvia, published in 2019 (Daugavpils applications University Academic Press “Saule”, ISBN 978-9984- Research team: Dr. rer. nat. Jurijs Mastrikovs, Dr. phys. 14-853-3), presented to the Latvian forest sector on Dmitrijs Zablockis, Dr. rer. nat. Guntars Zvejnieks, Dr. Forest Science Day organised by LSFRI “Silava” on phys. Leonīds Rusevičs, Dr. habil. phys. Vladimirs Ku- 30 May 2019 in Gulbene Municipality and zovkovs, LAS academician Jevgēņijs Kotomins. Insti- Jaunkalsnava, attracting more than 120 partici- tute of Solid State Physics of the University of Latvia pants. The scientific team involved in the study re- Functional oxide materials with perovskite struc- ceived a letter of gratitude from the President of the ture and explicit dielectrical, piezoelectrical, pyroe- Latvian Academy of Sciences on Forest Science Day. lectrical and electrochemical properties play an essential role in the technologies of the future. Ap- DIPLOMA OF THE PRESIDENT plying nature-inspired principles of self-assem- OF THE LATVIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES bling, properties of nanodevices can be significantly enhanced, including optimisation of the electro- I Technology for time measurement with pico-sec- chemical processes in such devices. It is of high im- ond precision for use in spacecraft portance to create a truly ordered structure. As a Research team: Dr. comp. Vladimir Bezpalko, Dr. comp. result of the performed research, for the first time, a Eugene Boole, Mg. sc. ing. Vadim Vedin. Institute of systematic description of the topology of the polar Electronics and Computer Science (IECS) perovskite surface, dynamics of the surface defects, The need for very precise recording of time instants molecular and atomic chemisorption, dissociation of events exists in many scientific research and and migration on the surface has been given. A technologies. For example, in the field of signal pro- complex cascade of the surface electrochemical re- cessing, in the satellite laser ranging, in LIDAR sys- actions was discovered and described in details. tems and for time scales synchronisation in distrib- Based on the electron structure of the surface, the uted measuring systems. The technology for study showed how ordering appears in self-assem- measuring the time of events developed in the IECS bling mesoscale objects, growing from a disordered was previously used in these systems only in the solution of nanoparticles, and how surprisingly sen- ground segment. However, measurements of time sitive the thermodynamics of the process to the pe- moments with the possible high precision are also culiarities of the nanophysics of the polar surface necessary in space equipment, including LIDAR sys- appears to be. The obtained results are important tems, ranging systems, as well as time and data for development of new generation devices for transfer systems. Thanks to the project of the Euro- “green” energy such as piezoelements and fuel cells. pean Space Agency (ESA), IECS scientists were able to modernise their time measurement technology III New methods in maxillofacial surgery with the in such a way that it could be used in accordance use of innovative bioceramic materials that pro- with the conditions and requirements of spacecraft vides bone density and volume restoration in pa- engineering. A specialised module has been devel- tients with osteoporosis and bone atrophy oped and, in cooperation with the Czech Space Re- Research team: Corresponding Member of the LAS search Centre, was duly tested. ESA rated it as the Andrejs Skaģers, Dr. med. Ilze Šalma, Dr. med. Ģirts best contender for use in future space missions and Šalms, LAS corresponding member Māra Pilmane, recommended to continue work with potential Dr. med. Ingus Skadiņš, Dr. med. Juta Kroiča, Corre- partners (in Portugal, the UK, and the Netherlands) sponding Member of the LAS Jānis Ločs, Corre- on the development of various versions specialised sponding Member of the LAS Dagnija Loča, Dr. sc. for the respective missions (landing of the space- ing. Līga Bērziņa-Cimdiņa, Dr. sc. ing. Vita Zālīte. Rīga craft on the moon, research of asteroids, etc.). Stradiņš University, Rīga Technical University

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Introduction of new methods in maxillofacial sur- tions of the molecular mechanisms of metformin gery with the use of innovative bioceramic materi- action. In patients with diabetes who are not re- als that provides bone density and volume restora- sponding to metformin therapy, no changes in the tion in patients with osteoporosis and bone atrophy. gut microbiome have been observed during treat- Experimental studies of biomaterials for local ment, thus providing further evidence of the impor- treatment of osteoporosis using morphological, tant role of the microbiome in the functioning of bio mechanical and radiological bone tissue analy- this drug. The unique discovery of potential bio- ses were performed. Clinical trials in oral and max- markers for predicting treatment efficacy is with illofacial surgery demonstrated the efficacy of the widespread use, since on average 20–40% of pa- developed operative methods for alveolar bone tients receiving metformin fail to achieve their gly- augmentation in peri-implant patients using bio- caemic target. In addition, the composition of the materials produced in Latvia. These bone replace- microbiome has been shown to be largely popula- ment materials can be used not only in oral and tion-specific, so the results obtained have the great- maxillofacial surgery, but also in other areas, such est potential for the development of personalised as traumatology and orthopaedics, where bone re- medicine approaches specifically for the Latvian generation is required. population.

IV New mechanisms and efficacy markers for the V Genome-wide association study of diabetic kidney treatment of type 2 diabetes in the gut microbiome disease highlights biology involved in glomerular of patients discovered basement membrane collagen Research team: Mg. biol. Ilze Elbere, Mg. biol. Monta Research team includes international authors and Ustinova, Mg. biol. Ivars Silamiķelis, Mg. biol. Laila Latvian researchers: Dr. med. Jeļizaveta Sokolovska, Silamiķele, Corresponding Member of the LAS Ilze LAS academician Valdis Pīrāgs, Dr. biol. Vita Rovīte. Konrāde, LAS academician Valdis Pīrāgs, LAS acade- Faculty of Medicine of the University of Latvia, Lat- mician Jānis Kloviņš. Latvian Biomedical Research vian Biomedical Research and Study Centre and Study Centre, Human Genetics and Molecular Although diabetic kidney disease demonstrates Medicine Group, Rīga Stradiņš University both familial clustering and single nucleotide poly- The Human Genetics and Molecular Medicine group morphism heritability, the specific genetic factors of the Latvian Biomedical Research and Study Cen- influencing risk remain largely unknown. To identify tre has conducted a complex, multidimensional, and genetic variants predisposing to diabetic kidney several years long study of the effectiveness of type disease, we performed genome-wide association 2 diabetes therapy. It included extensive molecular study (GWAS) analyses. Through collaboration with analysis, as well as obtaining phenotypic and clini- the Diabetes Nephropathy Collaborative Research cal information, in newly diagnosed patients with Initiative, we assembled a large collection of type 1 type 2 diabetes mellitus, for the first time treatment diabetes cohorts with harmonised diabetic kidney has been started with the most commonly used an- disease phenotypes. We used a spectrum of ten dia- tidiabetic drug, metformin. Experiments in the diabetic kidney disease definitions based on albuminu- betic mouse model have also been conducted to ria and renal function. Our GWAS meta-analysis in- obtain more detailed information. The results pro- cluded association results for up to 19 406 vide information on both metformin-induced individuals of European descent with type 1 diabe- changes in intestinal microbiome and RNA expres- tes. We identified 16 genome-wide significant risk sion levels, as well as on genetic and epigenetic loci. The variant with the strongest association background. In addition, the data obtained are used (rs55703767) is a common missense mutation in to identify molecular markers for predicting the fre- the collagen type IV alpha 3 chain (COL4A3) gene, quently observed gastrointestinal side effects of which encodes a major structural component of the metformin, as well as to provide missing explana- glomerular basement membrane (GBM). Mutations

113 Latvian Academy of Sciences

in COL4A3 are implicated in heritable nephropa- VII Unique perspective on the Baltic cultural space thies, including the progressive inherited nephrop- is created where this space is viewed as a united athy Alport syndrome. The rs55703767 minor allele cultural region, the formation of which has been (Asp326Tyr) is protective against several definitions strongly influenced by German culture of diabetic kidney disease, including albuminuria Research team: Dr. phil. Raivis Bicevskis, Jost Eick- and ESKD, and demonstrated a significant associa- meyer, Dr. hist. Andris Levans, Anu Schaper, Björn tion with GBM width; protective allele carriers had Spiekermann, Inga Walter. Faculty of History and thinner GBM before any signs of kidney disease, and Philosophy, Department of Philosophy and Ethics, its effect was dependent on glycemia. Three other Department of History and Archaeology of the Uni- loci are in or near genes with known or suggestive versity of Latvia involvement in this condition (BMP7) or renal biol- For the first time in the history of European and Lat- ogy (COLEC11 and DDR1). The 16 diabetic kidney vian science, a unique perspective has been created disease-associated loci may provide novel insights on the Baltic cultural space, where this space is not into the pathogenesis of this condition and help viewed separately (Latvian/Estonian cultural space identify potential biologic targets for prevention as separate from Lithuanian cultural space), but as and treatment. a united cultural region the formation of which has been strongly influenced by German culture. The VI New approach towards phosphorescent organic study provides a broad insight into previously unex- materials for use in solution processed organic light plored aspects of Baltic cultural history – in the ar- emitting diodes eas of text, institutions, educational institutions, Research team: Dr. chem. Kaspars Traskovskis, LAS everyday material culture, acting persons, music, academician Valdis Kokars, Mg. Ilze Māliņa, Mg. Ar- museums and societal transformation. It was spon- mands Rudušs, Dr. phys. Aivars Vembris, Mg. Natālija sored by the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences. It is a Tetervenoka, Mg. Igors Mihailovs, Corresponding unique and innovative event in the field of human- Member of the LAS Sergejs Beļakovs. Faculty of Ma- ities in Latvia in recent years. Latvian researchers terials Science and Applied Chemistry of Rīga Tech- have made significant contributions to the develop- nical University, Institute of Applied Chemistry, In- ment of new theoretical and conceptual tools to stitute of Solid State Physics of the University of take a new and fresh look at the transfers, contacts, Latvia, Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis and shared history of the Baltic and German cultur- Due to the unmatched image quality, the vast ma- al space (Baltijas–Vācijas kultūru sakari no 16. līdz jority of commercially available mobile smart de- 19. gadsimtam: mediji – institūcijas – personas. Bal- vices use integrated organic light emitting diode tisch-deutsche Kulturbeziehungen vom 16. bis 19. (OLED) displays. Implementation of low-cost solu- Jahrhundert: Medien – Institutionen – Akteure. Bd. II: tion-based production methods would promote the Zwischen Aufklärung und nationalem Erwachen. use of this technology in such areas as OLED TVs Winter Verlag Heidelberg, 2019, 588 seiten). and lighting panels. Chemists of Rīga Technical Uni- versity and physicists of Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia have developed novel organometallic phosphorescent materials that can be integrated in solution processed devices and show competitive performance characteristics. It was demonstrated for the first time that an attracting interaction between the active molecules and attached functional groups can be used to enhance light emission efficiency of the materials.

114 DŽEMMA SKULME HONORARY MEMBER OF THE LATVIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 20.09.1925–9.11.2019

Džemma Skulme. 2008 Photo: Gints Mālderis

Džemma Skulme, a talented painter, public figure, organiser of artistic life, politician, mother, and a strikingly beautiful woman, has been “ours” from 1992 onwards when she was unanimously elected by the Academy as an Honorary Member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences. Džemma Skulme regarded conferral of this status as acknowledging her personal conscience, and also as recognition of her credibility; upon receipt of this title, the artist felt truly honoured, as her work was henceforward equated with academic distinction. In her distinguished career, both as an artist and one who guided artistic life, academicism never featured in her appreciation of cultural processes; nonetheless her rich life experience, talent, intuition, knowledge of man and art, gave academic value to her every observation, word and insight. That is what we loved about her in life, and, despite her passing, we cannot speak of Džemma Skulme in the past tense. Her paintings were flamboyant featuring a full spectrum of colours, her femininity was tinged with extraordinary brilliance, and her mind possessed the breadth and acuity worthy of a scientist. She was, and remains, an outstanding personality in Latvian art, Latvian society, as well as a role model for all of us. Man, the nation and its destiny, woman, a mother and her eternal sacred role in the world, from the birth of mythology to today, were themes central to the art of Džemma Skulme. She supported and cultivated honesty as the highest principle to be followed in life and art. Džemma Skulme has left each and every one of us with the bequest: “The fate of a small nation is important. It often is, or may be, in the hands of others. To that end, the talent of the people and values created by the people in any field, must be built upon and honoured. ”

With an expression of deepest respect and gratitude for the rich life of the artist, one where there was a place for communion with the entire academic family,

Ojārs Spārītis President of the Latvian Academy of Sciences