In the fish processing sector, the further exploitation of by-products and wastes left after industrial production promotes sustainability of raw materials, access to added value and increased profitability, as well as contributes to environmental protection by reducing the volume of dumped products. Besides obvious value-added features, it also addresses the clear market demand dictated by prospects of the population growth. Given the limitations for further expansion of the husbandry sector, fish-based items available for human consumption represent a major avenue for coping with the pressing demands of increased population and enable the development of innovative food items of high nutritional importance. Current research is focused on the analysis of fish processing by-product utilization possibilities available up to date and introduces empirical findings of innovative food product development made on the basis of by-products left after traditional canned “Sprats in oil” production. In Latvia, “Sprats in oil” production is an integral part of fish processing sector and the rural economy overall. The production accounts for at least 30% of raw material left as by-products (smoked heads and, in some cases, tails) after such technological stage as smoked sprats processing into cans. Efforts were made to prepare value-added and attractive to customer food product made out of this fish-processing by-products, which are typically processed to a fishmeal or just dumped as waste. The study demonstrates a strong potential for its utilization to a range of fish pâté with various flavours and of high nutritious value.

Considering tourism as a driving force in the growth of rural economy, the research in this industry is gaining its popularity. In the era of the Internet, no business is imaginable without having its own website. However, implementing a website does not already mean that customers will like and approve it. Website quality is a necessary task to maintain in line with its functioning. The aim of the research is to assess the quality of the Lithuanian rural tourism homestead websites. Only understanding the website-related factors that are important for consumers may lead to a proper management of a website and customer attraction as well. The research results show that the information on the websites has to be easy findable, clear, and consistent; photos that substantiate the information are necessary; the information and photos have to be managed properly; and the eWOM part has to be included on the website. Proper management of latter factors can enhance the possibility of maintaining a high quality website that encourages consumer intention to visit the homestead.

The preservation and nurturance of national heritage products, which are inherent to particular localities, are very significant for the economic and social vitality, and sustainable development of a country. National handicrafts are a means of maintaining national identity, originality, and distinction in a constantly changing world. For a long time Lithuania was an agrarian country, so its cultural heritage and handicrafts are closely related to the rural environment, culture, traditions, and materials. Nowadays this heritage is a very important source of alternative employment opportunities. In 2007 Lithuania enacted the Law of National Heritage Products; in 2008 and 2011 Programmes for the Protection of National Heritage Products, their Market and Development of Handicrafts were approved. The goal was to provide governmental support to create favourable conditions for the creation, realisation and popularisation of national heritage products. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the situation with traditional handicraft protection in Lithuania within the Programme implementation framework and to submit proposals for better implementation. The analysis shows that not all Programme goals were achieved: those for which municipalities were responsible were implemented better than those implemented by governmental institutions. A presumption could be made that the top-down approach is only partially suitable for the Programme implementation. The partners from the ‘bottom’ (associations, local activity groups) should be involved in the implementation of the Programme to reach better results.

The aim of the study is using systematic literature analysis method – literature overview – identify the factors, which affect the competitiveness of a higher education institution in the conditions of globalization. Qualitative methods, as well as systematic literature analysis method – literature overview have been used in the study. More than 6000 scientific articles were considered to choose 20 full text articles for in-depth analysis. Main conclusions and results – the systematic literature analysis method – literature overview is a convenient tool for systematizing, selecting and collecting information about the research subject, using author’s articles, which have already gathered key information from a number of researchers of a specific topic together; the competitiveness of higher education institution is influenced by the internal factors that are formed by the internal environment of the higher education institution and external factors that are formed by the external micro-environment and macro-environment influenced by the state policy; an analysis of the internal and external factors of an institution is important in order to create competitive advantages in a higher education institution.

Professional self-determination is an important issue for anyone in the course of a lifetime. The dynamic nature of modern social and economic circumstances makes the issue even more topical. It determines the necessity to improve the career development support system currently existing in the field of education, where various specialists, by purposeful and systematic cooperation, help students in setting their career goals, understating the changeable working environment, seeing various alternatives and making deliberate career decisions. The career support is important as it helps learners choose a suitable professional sphere, profession and educational institution for continuation of their self-improvement upon acquiring of general secondary education. The aim of the research is to provide a scientific basis for topicality of career guidance implementation in school educational environment in order to promote the students’ professional self-determination. In Latvia, a number of career development guidance systems, including counselling and student career support methods and forms are being created and approbated in the educational environment, focusing on the career support curriculum and principles, which would ensure a purposeful implementation of students’ professional self-determination at schools.

In educational strategy papers, it is determined that entrepreneurial development should be implemented already in schools. Various methods and approaches can be used for the development. The majority of entrepreneurial competences are developed at the university – subjects devoted to the development of entrepreneurship are included in the study programs. Environment of the university is very friendly to this – not only because of activities devoted to entrepreneurship occurring in the academic environment, plenty seminars and trainings, but also because of the students’ personal maturity and motivation. Scholars actively raise the following questions: how to develop entrepreneurial competences effectively? Which methods are the most applicable? What kind of innovative methods are the most necessary? 104 students, who tried simulation traineeship of entrepreneurial development, were questioned in order to analyse the impact of methods and the change in entrepreneurial competences. The research was carried out in the Faculty of Economics and Management of Aleksandras Stulginskis University. The participants of the research were involved in the business simulation, where they had an opportunity to estimate themselves and improve their backgrounds, abilities and skills. Methods promoting and developing creativity were applied in simulation business enterprises; however, not all methods had worked. The methods of graphic representation were used by the minority and they were not considered to be very effective. The aim of the research was to determine entrepreneurial competences and innovative educational methods theoretically and to test empirically the development of entrepreneurial competences via simulation method.

With the growing demand for e-learning, as well with the striving for excellence, everyone worldwide is encouraged to improve and ensure the quality of e-learning. Quality assurance requires a supportive environment. The purpose of this paper is to propose procedures for evaluating and controlling the quality of e-learning materials. The article reflects on the approach, which is often mentioned in the field of quality assurance, procedures that characterize the processes, helps to sort them, track their progress sequence and identify those responsible. Clearly, the quality of online learning has many dimensions, but this article deals only with the part that relates to the quality of e-learning materials. In January 2018, experts from European Distance Education Secondary School, Riga Distance Education Secondary School and Riga 1st Distance Education Secondary School were interviewed. The questionnaire included questions about the quality assessment of the study materials. Based on the findings of scientific research literature and taking into account the good practice, procedures for the quality control of electronic learning materials were created. The article offers four procedures that include the use of a web-based checklist developed by the author. Activities of procedures can be divided into areas of responsibility that deal with developers of the material, methodological commission, material evaluators and IT administrator. Distance learning program implementers can use the proposed procedures in the process of making and monitoring electronic learning materials. In addition, the checklist helps to identify important conditions and requirements that affect the quality of the study material.

The aim of the study is to determine how successful the initial growth of naturally grown and planted pines is after performing the shelterwood cutting. The research includes tree count and height analysis in Myrtillosa and Hylocomiosa forest types with different regeneration methods in 2018. A total of 10 sites were arranged for the research, each site having 4 sample plots. All naturally regenerated and planted pine (2009, 2012 and 2013) heights were measured. Judging by the number of trees after shelterwood cutting, most sites should not be considered regenerated, additional planting or scarification of soil is required which can improve the efficiency of natural regeneration. In all the sites both in Myrtillosa and Hylocomiosa, after shelterwood cutting it was observed that the height of artificially regenerated trees is higher than the height of naturally regenerated trees, indicating the ability of planted pines to produce more rapid height increment in the first years of life, regardless of forest type. The basal area of the stand has a significant negative impact on the increment, and it indicates the need for the subsequent shelterwood cut to be performed. Although Hylocomiosa is a more fertile forest type than Myrtillosa, the height of the planted pine trees in Myrtillosa is higher than in Hylocomiosa, where, after shelterwood cutting, no sufficiently intensive agro-technical tending has been performed.

Plantation willows are commonly grown plants which are widely used for energetic purposes that does not correspond completely to its potential. To fully integrate this resource into biorefinery scheme, it is necessary to study optimal conditions of willow bark processing, aimed for separation of bark components, their comprehensive characterization and profitable practical application. Extraction of secondary metabolites is well known approach for bark processing. But the separation of the main cell wall components including lignin from the residual biomass is less studied. In this work plantation residual willow bark after extractives separation by two different solvents (acetone and ethanolwater) was used as a feedstock for Organosolv delignification. Effect of temperature and catalyst used on the yield and properties of lignin isolated from residual bark by ethanol-water treatment was studied. It was possible to obtain pure lignin with high yields (up to 41%) that has the potential to be used for bio-plastic producing. Insoluble residue after delignification was carbohydrate rich (up to 80%) feedstock allowing its practical use for bioethanol producing.

Free radicals can rapidly and irreversibly oxidize various structures, including unsaturated fatty acids in vegetable oils, which affect the sensory properties. Spectrophotometry is the most widely used method for the determination of free radical scavenging activity (RSA) using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH). Barrier to the further use of classical analytical methods to analyse biologically active compounds in foodstuffs is that equipment requires high cost and has limited mobility. One of solutions is to replace classical methods, such as spectroscopy, with smartphonebased colorimetry. Huawei P30 Lite smartphone was used for colorimetric detection. The free radical scavenging activity (RSA) in vegetable oil was detected using an application ‘Color Picker’, with image matching algorithm for red, green, and blue (RGB) model. RSA was expressed as percentage and measured by the DPPH method. The aim of the study was to determinate the total free radical scavenging activity with smartphone-based colorimetry. For the data comparison and accuracy spectrophotometer as analytical optical instrument was used. Eleven vegetable oils: sea buckthorn, sunflower, rice, macadamia nut, hemp, corn, grape, linseed, rapeseed, olive and milk thistle oils were selected for analysis. The best results with no significant differences (p is greater than 0.05) compared to smartphone-based colorimetry from spectrophotometry were determined using RG values. The poor results were detected by using B value (p is less than 0.05) and were not suitable for determination of RSA. Smartphone-based colorimetry can be used in the determination of the RSA in vegetable oils.