Socrates Almanac

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Authors: Michael Steinmann

When thinking of higher education, online and distance education is typically not top-of-mind. Nevertheless, distance education has a great potential to contributing to the European objectives on mobility, lifelong learning and equality – while ultimately supporting universities to reach out to even more students and thus benefitting the individuals. Following the revolutionary developments in online learning in the US such as Massive Open and Online Courses (MOOCs), online and distance education is now also getting increasingly popular in Europe. This article provides an insight into distance education, its advantages as well as recent trends in Europe.

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Authors: Laurel Terry

The Bologna Process is a massive, multi-year project designed to create the ‘European Higher Education Area’ by the year 2010. It began ten years ago, when four European Union (EU) countries signed a relatively vague declaration. It has grown to include forty-six countries, including all of the EU Member States and nineteen non-EU countries. The Bologna Process countries have agreed on ten ‘action lines’ for restructuring European higher education. These action lines are nothing short of revolutionary—they address everything from a three-cycle degree system (e.g., bachelor-master’sdoctorate degrees), European-wide quality assurance efforts, mobility of higher education students and staff, ‘recognition’ in one European country of studies undertaken in another European country, and the suitability of education for the marketplace. Because of the number of countries participating in the Bologna Process, its ambitious goals, and its demonstrated commitment to achieving those goals, the Bologna Process is an extremely significant development that will be important not only in Europe but elsewhere in the world. This Article is designed to provide ‘one-stop shopping’ for understanding the Bologna Process, which will allow the reader to learn about all of its initiatives and action lines, and to understand and place in context future developments. This Article covers developments through the May 2007 London Ministerial meeting. It concludes with an examination of the impact of the Bologna Process on European higher education, including legal education.

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Authors: I. Tarshynov, D. Zaitsev

Nowadays there is no fully successful cure for trophic ulcers. Both conservative (pharmacotherapy, physical therapy) and surgical methods have been used.

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Authors: T. Rysbekov

Today is the time of comprehensive, intelligent revision of historical concepts, revaluation of the whole historical era, but it is necessary to remember that this is only admissible when it corresponds to the historical truth. Always it is necessary to be guided by the fact that history can be ennobled only by truth, be blackened only by lies. A properly scientific, objective and dialectic approach to history means also a truthful assessment of the people who have had an impact on a course of events.

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Authors: B. Shyntemirova

Kazakhstan gained independence on 16 December 1991, and became a full-fledged subject of international cooperation in all arenas. It has great potential for economic development, occupies an important political and strategic position between Europe and Asia, and is a member of various unions and state blocks. Therefore, the international relations of the Republic of Kazakhstan, in particular relations with post-Soviet and neighbouring countries, are of great importance for general security and impact on peace and stability in Asia and the world. One of the priorities of the state policy of Kazakhstan is to promote integration processes in the post-Soviet space.

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Authors: D. Zaitsev, I. Tarshynov

Nowadays we have balloon angioplasty and thrombolysis as well known ways to cure thromboses. Balloon angioplasty is provided in high specialised institutions and needs accurate detection of place and size of thromboses and also x-ray control for efficient manipulation. This may be complicated if vessels are fragile or they have small lumen. Use of thrombolysis is limited in the postsurgical period because of the risk of bleeding. We offer a physiotherapeutic method combining both mechanisms which suffers none of the complaints above.

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Authors: Alexandr Teslenko

This study of Prof. A. Teslenko is focused on a social and cultural analysis of the process of Kazakhstani youth socialisation. The poles (absolute centres) of euro-centralism and pan-Turkism, permitting one to orient oneself within the various ethno-socialisation and socio-cultural dynamics of Kazakhstani society were defined in the Kazakhstani social groupings. The cultural-civilisation typology of socialisation models suggested by the author is a logical abstraction, but an abstraction which permits specification of the socialisation of Kazakhstani youth, to orient it scientifically within the various ranges of inter-cultural differences of its agents and participants.

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Authors: T. Rayfshnayder

Under UNESCO’s ‘Education for All’ initiative, we conducted research on how to best improve the quality of education for children affected by the HIV epidemic and to provide support for educators and school staff with HIV. This paper will describe the work led by our Centre under the support of the UNESCO office in Moscow, including the ‘Recommendations for the implementation of the policy regarding HIV infection in the educational system of the Russian Federation’ and the regional ‘Practical recommendations for the implementation of the policy regarding the educational system of Eastern Europe and central Asia countries’.

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Authors: Maximilian Kravchik

In orthopaedic practice a number of pathologies result in surgical treatment, which is necessary because of the inefficiency of traditional conservative therapy. This is particularly true of diseases of the spine such as protrusion, herniated disc, low back pain, osteoporosis and spondylitis. At present, there are non-surgical treatments for these diseases - manual therapy, skeletal traction, epidural blockade, physiotherapy etc.

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Authors: Vladimir Grachev

Energetics, being one of the integral and most important components of a human civilization, at the same time, is also the most powerful factor of an adverse effect on the environment at all stages of the fuel cycle from the fuel production to energy use.The Russian fuel and energy complex has been the greatest contaminator of the environment.It produces over 30% of polluted wastewater discharge, approximately 50% of hazardous substances emission into the atmosphere, over 30% of solid waste and up to 70% of the total amount of the greenhouse gases emission.