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In 1935 a politically active physician was exiled from his urban home in northern Italy to the countryside several hundred kilometres away. There he found himself in a world of squabbling petty gentry, overworked peasants and negligent, fornicating clergy. Ordinary people had recourse in their spiritual life more often to folklore, witchcraft and superstition, the exile noted, than to the parish church and its despised priest. The people placed their faith in gnomes and magic spells. They even said of themselves that Christianity (and hence Civilization) had never reached as far as their land. Even so those same apparent pagans did attend Mass on high holidays and venerated the Blessed Virgin Mary. The physician in question was the Italian anti-fascist Carlo Levi; the apparently God-forsaken land was Lucania (Basilicata), in southern Italy, not Lithuania. Similar stories of the remnants of ancient arcane behaviour might be told of peasants in other western European countries. When reading sixteenth-century Protestant polemical literature such as the De diis Samagitiarum caeterorumque sarmatarum et falsorum christianorum of Jan Łaski with its list of the pagan deities and of the Žemaitijans and Sarmatians and other false Christians, or the Annual Reports sent to Rome by Lithuanian Jesuits describing their missionary efforts in the Lithuanian and Livonian countryside, we might wonder whether for them Christ had stopped at the Polish border.

The aim of the article is to study both the magnitude and structure of internal labour reserves in the Baltic countries as well as to discuss potential policy measures that might help to activate these reserves. despite the record-high employment rates recently posted by Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, considerable internal labour reserves can still be found in some population groups. Among upper-middle-aged men, low employment might reflect a low incidence of lifelong learning, inadequate digital skills and rapidly deteriorating health condition. Low employment of youth mirrors the low prevalence of apprenticeships. in Lithuania and Latvia, there is also a postponed entry of young women into the labour market. These internal labour reserves total more than 25,000 people in Estonia, 55,000 in Latvia and 85,000 in Lithuania, corresponding to 4–7% of the total employment. The recent outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic may somewhat increase and change the structure of these labour reserves.

There is no doubt that this exemplary work will remain the reference edition of Paul Friedrich Ruhig’s Anfangsgründe in the years to come. It is not only very informative, philologically and historically impeccable; it is also well-structured, well-written and edited with the utmost care. I am very grateful to the editors for this excellent work, which enriches considerably our knowledge on the development of Lithuanian philology in the course of its history. As I came to Lithuanian studies at the beginning of the 1990s, shortly after the independence of Lithuania, I was immediately fascinated by the mushrooming of philological work on Old Lithuanian texts, as if editing early documents of the Lithuanian language was for that generation of scholars a means of recovering their identity. The present book shows that, even nowadays, in a world of globalization and growing indifference towards the past, it is still rewarding to look back to the legacy of ancient texts such as this one and to devote special attention to their philological survival.

This author analyses the 2013 Lithuanian presidency of the EU in the context of the Ukrainian crisis and evaluates the contribution of Latvia and Estonia (the former Soviet republics set to preside over the EU in 2015 and 2018) to the shift in the power balance in the post-Soviet space. Through assessing the actions of small countries in promoting the Eastern Partnership programme with an emphasis on the anti-Russian agenda, the author concludes that they will inflict harm on the EU in a long-term perspective. These former Soviet republics no longer rely on mere diplomacy, but resort to a whole new problematic narrative, where Russia is described as an “aggressive and unpredictable neighbour” that poses the “threat from the East.” Being more mobile, small countries are able to concentrate power and resources in one or several key areas. This makes it possible for these countries to take advantage of international politics (even if the consequences of such steps are miscalculated) and “feed” on it through - so metimes consciously - creating “conflict nodes” in the relations between major players. This is especially true in the case of states that do not bear responsibility for global stability.

Globalization is certainly a widely debated topic nowadays. It is one of the main features characterizing contemprorary society. This phenomenon affects the most significant social, economic, technological, political and cultural processes. Rising living standarts and technological progress are changing consumer behavior, needs and main priorities. Purchasing decisions are determined not only by price or physical and technical characteristics of the item, but also by global trends which can directly affect consumer behavior. This publication presents analysis of globalization impact on investments. Given the fact that the real estate is one of the most important investments in our life, the study has focused on the European Union residential real estate markets. The methods of scientific literature analysis, statistical data evaluation and synthesis has been applied for the research presented in this paper.

Laisvalaikio paslaugų dalis šiuolaikinėje ekonomikoje nuolat didėja. Straipsnio tikslas yra atskleisti veiksnius, įtakojančius laisvalaikio paslaugų klientų elgesį ir nustatyti, kurie yra svarbiausi. Atlikus tyrimą nustatyta, kad dominuojantys asmeninių veiksnių grupės veiksniai, įtakojantys kliento elgesį yra: individo interesai, motyvacija ir užsiėmimas. Esminiai yra šie socialiniai ir ekonominiai veiksniai: laikas, pajamos ir reikiamos priemonės laisvalaikio paslaugų klientui. Laisvalaikio paslaugų asortimentas ir pasiekiamumas, laisvalaikio alternatyvos, transportas, kurio reikia pasiekti paslaugų teikėją yra svarbiausi galimybių grupės veiksniai. Yra aiškus ryšys tarp praktikos, ar laisvalaikis leidžiamas namie, ar ne namuose (arti ar toli) ir laisvalaikio leidimo motyvų. Naudodamasis komercinėmis ir nekomercinėmis laisvalaikio paslaugomis klientas nori išsivaduoti iš streso ir problemų, susitikti su draugais ir įsigyti naujų. Yra dideli skirtumai tarp naudojimosi laisvalaikio paslaugomis dažnio ir laisvalaikio paslaugų prioritetų. Vartotojas renkasi komercines paslaugas, jei šios paslaugos užtikrina kompetencijų pagerinimą ir leidžia susitikti su draugais. Nekomercinės paslaugos turi pagerinti kliento fizinę savijautą, sveikatą; tai duoda realią vertę. Svarbiausi faktoriai, padidinantys naudojimąsi laisvalaikiu, yra daugiau laiko ir daugiau pinigų. Tačiau tyrimas parodė, kad individai, kurie paprastai laisvalaikį leidžia pasyviai, vertina laisvą paslaugų pasirinkimą pagal savo norą ir ilsisi nuo streso ir sunkių darbo sąlygų. The research paper provides the results of leisure services customers’ behaviour based on the empirical survey done in 2012. The goal of the paper is to disclose the factors, which influence the leisure services customers’ behaviour, and to identify the most urgent. A few of the relations were calculated, such as the relation between frequency of commercial and non-commercial services consuming and motives for leisure, preferences for leisure services paid, and value appreciated by a customer. The correlation between practitioners to spend leisure time at home, not far and far from home (home-based, relax-based and trip-based) and their preferences to different kind of leisure services was measured. Factors for increasing the demand for these services were disclosed, too. The practical implications of the paper could be provided for businessmen who are engaged in the leisure business, as well as Government, deciding on the policy of leisure and guaranteeing non-commercial leisure for a society.

Mokslinių tyrimų, kuriuose nagrinėjami ir vertinami skirtingi bankroto prognozavimo modeliai, geriausiai nusakantys įmonės padėtį ir leidžiantys prognozuoti įmonės bankroto tikimybę, gausa liudija šios temos aktualumą ir atskleidžia mokslinės problemos gilumą. Šiame tyrime, siekiant įvertinti prognozavimo modelių patikimumą Lietuvos įmonėse, sujungti tiesinės diskriminantinės analizės, logistinės regresijos ir sprendimų medžio modeliai. Empirinis tyrimas apima du etapus: pirmame tarpsnyje analizuojamos jau bankrutavusios Lietuvos įmonės taikant Altmano, Springate, Tafflerio ir Tisshaw, Zavgreno, Chesserio ir Grigaravičiaus modelius. Nustatyta, kad tiksliausias penkerių metų laikotarpio modelis - logistinės regresijos - sukurtas Chesserio, o mažiausiai tikslus - tiesinės diskriminantinės analizės modelis, pasiūlytas Tafflerio ir Tisshaw. Antrajame tyrimo tarpsnyje taikant bankroto prognozavimo modelius Lietuvoje veikiančioms akcinėms bendrovėms nustatyta, kad Lietuvos įmonių bankroto prognozavimui rekomenduotina taikyti logistinės regresijos žodelius, Tyrimo metu taikyti sprendimų medžio modeliai įmonių bankroto tikimybes prognozuoja skirtingai: augant ekonomikai rekomenduojama taikyti lietuvių autorių Mackevičiaus ir Silvanavičiūtės (2006) sudarytą sprendimų medį. Tačiau esant dideliam nuosmukiui, vidurkiui artimesni yra Frydmano, Altmano ir Kao (1985) modelio rezultatai, todėl ekonominio sunkmečio sąlygomis geriau taikyti šį modelį. Atliktas tyrimas parodė, kad įmonių bankroto prognozavimo modeliai gali būti laikomi finansinių sunkumų mato modeliais, gauti rezultatai Sali padėti įvertinti įmonių finansinę būklę, o, atsižvelgus įjuos, galima priimti tinkamus sprendimus, adekvačius ekonominės aplinkos pokyčiams. The abundance of research investigating and assessing various bankruptcy prediction models that best characterize the situation of a company and allow to predict probability of its bankruptcy, confirms the relevance of this topic and discloses the depth of the scientific problem. To assess reliability of bankruptcy prediction models in Lithuanian companies, this research applies models of linear discriminant analysis, logistic regression and decision tree. The empirical research consists of two parts. In the first part, Lithuanian bankrupted companies are analyzed applying models of Altman, Springate, Taffler and Tisshaw, Zavgren, Chesser, Grigaravičius. It has been found that during five-year period, logistic regression model developed by Chesser is the most accurate and model of linear discriminant analysis proposed by Taffler and Tisshaw is the least accurate. In the second part, bankruptcy prediction models have been applied in case of operating Lithuanian public companies; the research results allow recommending logistic regression models for bankruptcy prediction in Lithuanian companies. The models of decision tree applied in the second part of the research predict probability of bankruptcy differently, therefore, application of the decision tree developed by Mackevicius and SUvanaviciute (2006) is recommended in case of economy growth. However, in case of economic downturn, model of Frydman, Altman, Kao (1985) is more accurate.

This article examines the linguistic behaviour of Lithuanian city-dwellers in the private sphere and the new trends of urban multilingualism in Lithuania. The linguistic repertoire is analysed - the use of languages at home, in mental processes (such as thinking or counting), and when using the media. The research is based on the data from three large-scale surveys carried out in 2007-12 in Lithuanian cities.

Architectural studies in Kaunas University of Technology shift towards implementation of BIM concept-based approach in design modules, which suggests the use of related software (Revit, ArchiCAD). Implementation of parametric design (3ds Max, Cinema4D) related subjects in the study process is in alarming situation because of the University’s and even national policy. Nevertheless, its wide usage, at least in the visual presentation of architectural projects, strongly suggests that graduates need to have knowledge of these technologies as it is often required in the general practice. However, the different concepts of BIM and parametric design modelling practice makes the study load too heavy for the students. Thus, it is vital to find a balanced solution for both of these subjects to be presented equally during architectural studies at the University. The aim of this paper is to analyse the opportunities and challenges of introducing parallel learning of both software.