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This chapter explores the sexual violence faced by women during the Soviet occupation of Lithuania (1940–1941, 1944–1990), focusing on its legal and political dimensions. Wartime and occupation periods often highlight the interplay of violence and power, and this study examines how rape was treated within the Soviet legal framework and influenced by the Communist political agenda. The analysis draws on secondary sources, including scholarly works, and primary archival materials such as legal acts, official reports, criminal cases and secret records from Lithuanian archives. The research reveals that the crime of rape held a unique legal status during the Soviet era, often shaped by shifting political priorities. Criminal cases from the Stalinist period, derived from the records of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic’s Supreme Court, highlight challenges in credibility due to the extensive use of coercive interrogation methods by Soviet authorities like the Cheka and the MVD. These cases reflect a broader context of systemic suppression and control, where legal proceedings were frequently intertwined with political objectives. The chapter underscores the importance of understanding sexual violence not only as a social or legal issue but as a tool of political manipulation during the Soviet occupation, shedding light on the broader dynamics of power and oppression in occupied Lithuania.

The aim of this chapter is to examine the challenges and barriers that hinder digital competence among older workers in the Baltic States, with a focus on how age-related disadvantages, gender disparities, and socio-economic factors contribute to digital exclusion.

This book is a call for a more conscious and deliberate approach to a responsible consumption. It contends that while the climate change challenges are immense, the capacity for behavioural change is equally significant. Based on the scientific evidence, historical analysis, and a deep exploration of consumer behaviour, it offers readers a nuanced understanding of the path toward a more sustainable and equitable world. It is a journey that begins with knowledge, is guided by a sense of shared responsibility, and is ultimately realized through the transformative power of our individual and collective choices.

This paper explores Ukraine’s cyber resilience strategies during the full-scale Russian invasion, focusing on the distinction between controlled and uncontrolled cyberattacks and their cascading impacts on critical infrastructure. Uncontrolled cyberattacks, by nature unpredictable, can generate systemic risks extending far beyond the attacker’s initial intent. The study highlights key developments in Ukraine’s cyber defense, including mobile infrastructure, digital backups, and coordinated multi-level responses. The originality of this work lies in introducing a structured approach for differentiating controlled from uncontrolled attacks and in presenting Ukraine’s wartime experience as an empirical contribution to resilience studies. The analysis demonstrates how Ukraine modernized outdated systems, strengthened public-private partnerships, and advanced international cooperation to enhance its cyber defense. At the same time, it identifies critical gaps: the absence of wartime-specific legal frameworks, limited AI integration, and resource constraints. The study concludes with three core findings: uncontrolled cyberattacks amplify risks beyond intended targets, resilience depends on adaptive governance and cross-sector collaboration, and international partnerships provide measurable benefits for sustaining national cyber stability. Our contributions are a taxonomy of controlled vs. uncontrolled cyberattacks (grounded in NIST terminology and wartime case evidence), a synthesis of Ukraine’s wartime cases; policy lessons for cyber resilience.

In scientific research, the search for effective methods of psychological assistance in various hair diseases is gaining momentum. Currently, there is a scarcity of published data on successful cases involving the use of specific psychotherapeutic techniques. The role of interdisciplinary approaches involving physicians, psychologists, social workers, psychotherapeutic groups, and support groups cannot be undermined. This chapter will present the perspective on the possibilities and limitations of psychotherapy based on psychotherapeutic experience, patients with various forms of alopecia, and still fragmentary, but reliable scientific data.

This study addresses the challenges of art investment in geopolitical conflict zones by proposing a framework for a predictive model. Utilizing meta-analysis, Q-sort methodology, and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCP), the research identifies key factors influencing art valuation in unstable regions. The framework integrates political stability indicators, economic factors, cultural significance metrics, and market trends, employing machine learning algorithms to forecast price movements and assess investment risks. Results demonstrate the significant impact of geopolitical factors on art valuation and provide insights for model development. The study concludes that this framework offers a foundation for a robust tool to navigate art investment in conflict zones, fostering a more sustainable approach. Future trends impacting effectiveness include advancements in AI, the growing importance of ESG factors, and increasing art market digitization. Potential barriers to adoption include data availability in conflict zones, resistance from traditional market players, and ethical concerns regarding cultural heritage commodification. These can be mitigated through collaborative data-sharing initiatives, stakeholder education, and ethical guideline development. The framework's successful implementation could revolutionize art investment strategies in volatile regions, contributing to cultural heritage preservation and sustainable economic development.

This study aims at raising translator awareness by highlighting the boundaries and scope of sense shift variation of discourse relations while translating two English TED talk transcripts and their Lithuanian, Portuguese and Turkish translations. We used a coherence-based approach and quantitative and qualitative analyses to explore the overall distribution of relation types across the data for each language set. The study then focused on the differences in sense shifts in translation in the TLs (target languages). Sense shifts mostly occurred while rendering English implicit relations as TL implicit relations. The study claims that despite some common features among TLs, several differences also occur, which might give ground to an understanding of means of transmitting discourse relations in the languages that were analyzed.

This study is cross-linguistically framed to raise translator awareness by illuminating the limits and extent of variation regarding the organization of discourse relations in two English TED talk transcripts and their translation into Lithuanian, Portuguese and Turkish. Within a coherence-based approach and using quantitative and qualitative analyses, the study focused on the differences in the organization of explicit versus other relation types in the TLs (target languages) and then the distribution of relations to senses was explored, showing Portuguese diverged from English. Across languages, Condition, Contrast, and Concession were mostly expressed by explicit means, while Conjunction and to a lesser extent, Result might be implicit. Frequency analyses suggested that implicitation of discourse connectives was not frequent in the target languages, but one Portuguese transcript displayed frequent implicitations, raising the possibility that implicitation may be an option taken by some translators.

This article explores the topic of the efficient use of Artificial Intelligence by judicial bodies. Beginning with the evolution from early digital tools to AI systems, it examines existing European assessment instruments, including frameworks developed by CEPEJ, the Council of Europe Committee on Artificial Intelligence’s HUDERIA methodology, and the fundamental rights impact assessment envisaged by Article 27 of the EU Artificial Intelligence Act. Current frameworks recognise that the use of AI as an element of justice system modernisation can bring benefits but also risks that require mitigation. Grounded in the principle of proportionality, the article suggests a more balanced assessment of the utility of AI linked to the justice system’s objectives. It advocates for context-sensitive evaluation and proposes a benefit-harm assessment framework to guide responsible and justified use of AI in the justice system.

The study aims to improve the quality of the thermal assembly technology of engineering elements by introducing a methodology for determining the size of the closing link in the calculation of assembly dimensional chains, taking into account the influence of temperature gaps. The presented analysis of the technological preparation of production revealed the need to include the calculation of dimensional chains as one of the elements of dimensional analysis, which is determined by a set of calculation and analytical procedures carried out during the development and analysis of structures and technological processes. The effectiveness of dimensional chain calculation using the probabilistic method largely depends on the extent to which the influence of random factors on the values of the component links and the closing link is considered. Studies have confirmed that the calculation of the nominal value of the closing link does not meet the requirements set forth when compared with the results obtained during the calculation without considering the influence of temperature gaps. However, the practical assembly of the feed pump rotor, taking into account the influence of temperature gaps, can lead to an improvement in the axial assembly accuracy by 5% to 13% and a decrease in the gap between the ends of the rotor wheel and the discharge disk by 6% to 10% without the need to use additional technological equipment.