An Online Cross-Sectional Survey of Complementary Feeding Practices during the COVID-19 Restrictions in Poland

This cross-sectional online survey performed in Poland aimed to improve understanding of how COVID-19 pandemic restrictions affected complementary feeding practices among parents of infants aged 4 to 12 months. Self-selected parents were recruited through the internet. The anonymous questionnaire was opened during two intervals during COVID-19 restrictions. The primary outcome was an assessment of sources of information and infant feeding practices in the context of COVID-19 restrictions. Data from 6934 responders (92.2% mothers) were analyzed. Most responders received information from multiple sources, with other parents, family members, or friends being the most frequently reported (48.6%), followed by webinars and experts’ recommendations (40.8%). COVID-19 restrictions largely did not impact the method of feeding, changes in feeding patterns, or complementary feeding introduction, although the latter was more likely to be impacted in families with average versus the best financial situations. Multivariate logistic regression analysis also most consistently showed that parents with a tertiary education and living in a city above 500 k were at higher odds of using webinars/experts’ recommendations, internet/apps, and professional expert guides and lower odds of claiming no need to deepen knowledge. This study clarifies major issues associated with complementary feeding practices during the implementation of COVID-19 restrictions in Poland.

Approaches to Assessing the Performance of Professional Expert Communities

The article proposes the authors’ approach to assessing professional expert communities (PECs), based on the creation of a criteria scale and indicators of community activities. Using the comparative case study method, an analysis of the successful experience of 18 professional communities selected from an array of communities actively represented in cooperation with the institutes of the National Qualifications System is carried out. The content of the research is based on the use of the following research methods: content analysis, interviews with representatives of professional expert communities, case studies. It was found that the most successful communities, leading in the rating according to the results of the assessment, are the most consistent with indicators related to social criteria, and the least - to the material and technical, or economic. In addition, these PECs have a particular impact on socio-economic sustainable development from the viewpoint of the internal and external environment.

The changing role of protocol in the 21st century’s diplomacy and international relations

Protocol has long been considered to be the set of international courtesy rules primarily rooted from the French and Spanish royal courts of the 16–18th century. It has recently become a means of subconscious persuasion not only in diplomacy but also in the business and social world. These long-established rules facilitate not only the official representatives of nations but also for their people their co-existence in peace and harmony. It creates space, and sets the framework where offline and online interactions may take place. One of the most significant instruments that makes complex and delicate mechanisms of foreign policy work successfully. The year of 2020 brought many changes we all must face and react to. Protocol itself and protocol professionals are not exempt. Meetings, delegation programs, conferences and all official and social engagements have become unconventional to the end. The rise of online and hybrid events demands the skill of adaptability both in international relations and in protocol. The present article aims to briefly examine protocol by definitions and to show its complexity from a scientific perspective. Protocol as applied interdisciplinary science: an innovative approach initiated by a professional expert having elaborate practical experience in the field.

Formation of Professional Expert Community Leaders’ Competency Profiles

In the difficult conditions of transformation of socioeconomic and labor relations, professional expert communities (PEC) acquire a special role, ensuring both the development of individual professions, experts, and, in general, affecting the quality of the education system and the national qualifications system in the country. At the same time, community leaders play a key role, often acting as initiators of the creation and locomotives of PEC development. The aim of this study is to systematize the approaches of modern researchers to modeling competencies and develop, on its basis, a competency profile for PEC leaders. The theoretical and methodological basis of the study is a systematic approach based on a multidimensional model of competencies, which involves considering both professional and personal competencies. The empirical basis of the study is a series of in-depth expert interviews with twenty leaders of professional expert communities, selected based on the results of PEC monitoring, implemented in 2019–2020 within the framework of the RFBR grant. The study made it possible to formulate the main goal of the communities’ activities, which is the exchange of experience, the development of the profession and the community of professionals, the dissemination and implementation of best practices, and the transfer of knowledge. Based on this, the community leader must demonstrate a sufficiently high level of intellectual qualities, as well as managerial and expert knowledge. The study shows that one of the key competencies characteristic of PEC leaders is developed skills of expert activity in the framework of the professional activity of the community. In addition, PEC leaders have a high and equal level of the following competencies: continuous development, confidence, self-awareness and control, honesty and ethical behavior; they all have a high level of intellectual abilities, the skill of demonstrating leadership expertise and expert examination. Cognitive competences and meta-competencies are the most pronounced among PEC leaders. Among the socio-ethical competencies, honesty and ethical behavior are the most manifested. Formation of the competence profile of PEC leaders will allow determining the most manifested competencies of community leaders and preparing recommendations regarding the formation of individual development plans for current and future community leaders. The stronger communities become embedded in socioeconomic relations, the more important it is to understand the capabilities of their leaders. In addition, the understanding of PEC managers’ competency profiles will allow integrating them more effectively into the activities of professional qualifications councils, whose activities are aimed, among other things, at standardizing areas of professional activity.

Monitoring of the Presence of Professional Expert Communities in the Russian Federation and Assessment of their Participation in the Development of the National Competence System

The article deals with the results of monitoring of the presence of professional expert communities in the Russian Federation, which have a particular impact on addressing socio-economic issues, including promoting the development of the national qualifications system in the country. The theoretical and methodological basis of the study is a criterial disclosure of the activities of expert communities based on the structure of the National Qualifications System. The study was carried out in 2020 and is a continuation of the previous works by the authors, implemented in 2016-2019, whose purpose was to monitor communities in a separate area of professional activity – personnel management. This study involved 56 communities, which were selected based on the participation of their representatives in one of ten Councils for Professional Competence (25% of all Councils currently operating in the Russian Federation). The results may be of interest to representatives of the institutions of the National Competence System, as well as the education system in the context of the influence of trade communities on the content of educational programs through professional standards created by community representatives, and to the professional expert communities themselves.

Problems of ethical regulation of the use of artificial intelligence technologies

The purpose of the article is to analyze the problem of ethical regulation of artificial intelligence technologies in a modern complex socio-cultural environment and active digital transformation of society. In the world today, the practice of private ethical initiatives is very common, associated with the joining of efforts of a number of companies to develop the use of artificial intelligence technologies and consolidate the basic principles of working with such technologies. The research used such scientific methods as dialectical, logical, historical, predictive, systems analysis, content analysis, as well as private scientific methods, such as comparative legal and the method of legal modeling. The study results in proposals for introducing ethical regulators into the general mechanism for regulating digital technologies, obtained on the basis of an analysis of the main directions and approaches to ethical regulation, as well as identifying key problems of ethical regulation in the field of artificial intelligence that have to be solved by society and the state. The authors support the position of researchers and governments of a number of states that normative regulation should take precedence over ethical, the tasks of any state should be to provide normative support for the use of artificial intelligence technologies and protect the rights of citizens. The novelty of the work lies in the conclusion that at the level of the Government of the Russian Federation today it is advisable to develop Model Rules for the use of artificial intelligence technologies in government and local authorities, as well as in their subordinate organizations. The rules can enshrine ethical principles and norms based on the provisions of acts of international organizations and recommendations of the professional expert community. The rules can also reflect recommendations for their use by non-state legal entities, individual citizens. It is concluded that such an approach would eliminate the possibility of numerous ethical codes and regulations from both the public and commercial sectors and would not be redundant.