Academic institutions are seeking to attract the most capable and prospective students. Many research studies seek to identify factors determining a successful transition from secondary to tertiary ...education. One of the important issues is the predictive value of national testing/Matura examination results in relation to higher education institutions admission. The aim of our study is to quantify the odds to study at university and the results of centralised student assessments (the 10th grade and Matura) of mathematics and the Lithuanian language and literature for the period of five years (Matura examinations for the period 2014–2018), taking into account the student's gender, the location of the school attended, social support, and special needs indicators. We estimate that the Matura grade in mathematics is almost double more important when compared to the10th grade test results for odds of studying at higher education institutions. Grades of the Lithuanian language and literature obtained to be twice more import for males than females. From 2023 or 2024, we may observe the downward trend of people with tertiary educational attainment in Lithuania.
Currently the world is threatened by a global COVID-19 pandemic and it has induced crisis creating a lot of disruptions in the healthcare system, social life and economy. In this article we present ...the analysis of COVID-19 situation in Lithuania and it's municipalities taking into consideration the effect of non-pharmaceutical interventions on the reproduction number. We have analysed the period from 20/03/2020 to 20/06/2021 covering two quarantines applied in Lithuania. We calculated the reproduction number using the incidence data provided by State Data Governance Information System, while the information for applied non-pharmaceutical interventions was extracted from Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker and the COVID-19 website of Government of the Republic of Lithuania. The positive effect of applied non-pharmaceutical interventions on reproduction number was observed when internal movement ban was applied in 16/12/2020 during the second quarantine in Lithuania.
The MSTN gene is a negative regulator of muscle growth that is attracting attention as a candidate gene for physical performance traits. We hypothesised that variants of MSTN might be associated with ...the status of elite athlete. We therefore sought to study the potential role of MSTN in the physical performance of athletes by analysing the whole coding sequence of the MSTN gene in a cohort of Lithuanian elite athletes (n = 103) and non-athletes (n = 127). Consequently, two genetic variants were identified: the deletion of one of three adenines in the first intron (c.373+90delA, rs11333758) and a non-synonymous variant in the second exon (c.458A>G, p.Lys(K)153Arg(R), rs1805086). Among all samples, the MSTN rs1805086 Lys(K) allele was the most common form in both groups. Homozygous genotype for the less common Arg(R) allele was identified in only one elite canoe rower, and we could find no direct association between rs1805086 and successful results in elite athletes. Surprisingly, the intronic variant (rs11333758) was abundant among all samples. The main finding was that endurance-oriented athletes had 2.1 greater odds of being MSTN deletion genotype than non-athletes (13.6% vs. 0.8%). The present study confirms the association of the polymorphism rs11333758 with endurance performance status in Lithuanian elite athletes.
This paper discusses the problem of educational quality. The definition of quality is very broad; therefore, it is more convenient to use the term “educational effectiveness”. Effectiveness can be ...measured by choosing quantitative indicators that should reflect the level of student achievement as well as equity. It is also important to measure educational efficiency – the output in relation to the input. The current review presents key findings of research conducted in the domain of educational effectiveness and efficiency. The main conclusion of the research paper is that the currently existing mythology of educational quality should be replaced by evidence-based education policy.
The Lithuanian education system, along with many others, might address the problem of educational inequality. One of its strategic educational goals is to narrow the achievement gap in terms of ...socioeconomic status (SES) by ensuring equal opportunities for children from families of different SES backgrounds to optimally develop their competencies during school years. However, the findings suggest that not only did the achievement gap between students not narrow, but it significantly widened between 1995 and 2015 – based on the 20-year Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). Affordable and high-quality preschool education can be seen as one of the most effective policies to reduce differences in competence between children from different SES backgrounds in the early stages of their development. However, the long-lasting effect of preschool education on academic achievement in elementary school is debated, and these effects might differ depending on the elementary school environment to which children are exposed after preschool education. In this study, using Lithuanian data from the TIMSS 2015, we use 2-level random effects models to examine the links between the length of preschool education of students and their mathematics achievement in fourth grade. We ask the following research questions: 1) Is preschool education associated with students’ mathematics achievement in fourth grade in the TIMSS 2015, after controlling for the SES of students’ families? 2) What are the compositional and interactional effects, with respect to preschool education, on student achievement? The TIMSS 2015 results indicate a significant positive effect of preschool education on mathematics achievement at the student level. However, the composition of the school based on preschool education strengthens the relationship within the school between the student’s SES and achievement. It seems that in Lithuania the problem of educational inequality remains and should be further addressed.
In the last decade, one of the biggest challenges in genomics research has been to distinguish definitive pathogenic variants from all likely pathogenic variants identified by next-generation ...sequencing. This task is particularly complex because of our lack of knowledge regarding overall genome variation and pathogenicity of the variants. Therefore, obtaining sufficient information about genome variants in the general population is necessary as such data could be used for the interpretation of
mutations (DNMs) in the context of patient's phenotype in cases of sporadic genetic disease. In this study, data from whole-exome sequencing of the general population in Lithuania were directly examined. In total, 84 (VarScan) and 95 (VarSeq
) DNMs were identified and validated using different algorithms. Thirty-nine of these mutations were considered likely to be pathogenic based on gene function, evolutionary conservation, and mutation impact. The mutation rate estimated per position pair per generation was 2.74 × 10
95% CI: 2.24 × 10
-3.35 × 10
(VarScan) and 2.4 × 10
95% CI: 1.96 × 10
-2.99 × 10
(VarSeq
), with 1.77 × 10
95% CI: 6.03 × 10
-5.2 × 10
indels per position per generation. The rate of germline DNMs in the Lithuanian population and the effects of the genomic and epigenetic context on DNM formation were calculated for the first time in this study, providing a basis for further analysis of DNMs in individuals with genetic diseases. Considering these findings, additional studies in patient groups with genetic diseases with unclear etiology may facilitate our ability to distinguish certain pathogenic or adaptive DNMs from tolerated background DNMs and to reliably identify disease-causing DNMs by their properties through direct observation.
Multiple genetic variants are known to influence athletic performance. These include polymorphisms of the muscle-specific creatine kinase (
) gene, which have been associated with endurance and/or ...power phenotypes. However, independent replication is required to support those findings. The aim of the present study was to determine whether the
(
, c.*800A>G) polymorphism is associated with power athlete status in professional Russian and Lithuanian competitors. Genomic DNA was collected from 693 national and international standard athletes from Russia (
= 458) and Lithuania (
= 235), and 500 healthy non-athlete subjects from Russia (
= 291) and Lithuania (
= 209). Genotyping for the
rs8111989 (A/G) polymorphism was performed using PCR or micro-array analysis. Genotype and allele frequencies were compared between all athletes and non-athletes, and between non-athletes and athletes, segregated according to population and sporting discipline (from anaerobic-type events). No statistically significant differences in genotype or allele frequencies were observed between non-athletes and power athletes (strength-, sprint- and speed/strength-oriented) athletes. The present study reports the non-association of the
rs8111989 with elite status in athletes from sports in which anaerobic energy pathways determine success.
We focus on two types of centralised national examinations (the 10th grade tests and Matura examination) that are being carried out in Lithuania for two decades. The aim of the paper is to analyse ...assessments of mathematics for the entire Lithuanian secondary school population that have no sampling errors while considering the factors of location, school ownership and gender as important indicators when judging about educational effectiveness in terms of quality and equity. We analyse the results of the 10th grade tests for the 2011–2015 period and the results of the same cohorts participating in the Matura examination. We observe that the distribution of the assessments of both exams is asymmetric with a positive skew. The median often is below the middle of the grade scale indicating poor performance or mismatch between knowledge and examination tasks. There are limited differences in assessments with respect to gender and school location, although we detect a tendency to have better mathematics achievement in private schools. The conclusions drawn from national assessment data is somewhat different from international data thus one cannot neglect national information for the development of educational policy. The variables analysed in the analysis has limited predictive power for achievements in mathematics and further analysis is called-for.
This article deals with the problem of the multiplicity of educational goals and their reduction into measurable indicators. The paper debates whether an increasingly predominant student ...performance-centered approach, which is mainly limited to PISA findings, is a manifestation of a changing global educational paradigm; what concept of educational purposes prevails in today’s world; wh
BACKGROUND The high prevalence of cardiovascular diseases cannot be explained completely by conventional risk factors such as older age, smoking, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, obesity, and ...dyslipidemia. Results of recent studies indicate that chronic stress may be an independent risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Thus, the aim of our study was to investigate the associations between the hair cortisol concentration (HCC), which is considered as a potential biomarker of long-term psychosocial stress, and traditional cardiovascular risk factors, including smoking, dyslipidemia, hypertension, and obesity. MATERIAL AND METHODS Fasting blood samples and anthropometric and lifestyle data were collected from 163 apparently healthy men. HCC was determined using high-performance liquid chromatography. Allostatic load (AL) index, defined as an integrated score of multiple interacting systems involved in the adaptation to adverse physical or psychosocial situations, was also calculated. RESULTS We found that many prevalent cardiovascular risk factors, including hypertension, smoking, higher than recommended waist circumference (WC), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) median values, are associated with higher HCC. Hair cortisol level was also positively associated with the manifestation of individual cardiovascular risk factors such as higher-than-recommended total cholesterol, LDL-C, non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, body mass index, and WC median values. Moreover, a significant positive relationship between HCC and AL index was observed. CONCLUSIONS The results of this study suggest that increased prevalence of traditional cardiovascular risk factors is associated with higher HCC. Also, both HCC and AL index might be appropriate markers for the evaluation of chronic stress level.
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