Regional Formation and Development Studies

European Union support for Lithuania undoubtedly makes a positive impact on economic growth and it structure. But there is even more important that a considerable funds flowing to different regions of Lithuania, and are focused to their economic development, the promotion of cohesion and human resources development. From the beginning of Lithuania’s independence the territorial differences of regional development began to emerge, which progressively deepened over time. These differences affected the sector of human resources: the economic activity of the population, education, knowledge, skills and other areas.The development of human resources is one of the objectives of European Union’s regional policy. Therefore, the aim of the study – to analyze the changes in use of European Union funds in Lithuania’ municipalities over the 2007–2013 period.

This study aims to reveal the evolution of the EU-Japan relations towards a comprehensive and fully formalized strategic partnership, the main determinants of that process, as well the importance of the political and economic alliance. In the evolution of the EU-Japan relations, there were identified four stages – 1960–1990, 1991–2000, 2001–2010, 2011–2018 – which had led up to a strategic partnership regulated under the framework of political and economic agreements. In future, the Strategic Partnership Agreement and the Economic Partnership Agreement might enhance the regional and global influence of the EU and Japan.

Post-Covid rehabilitation deals with properly selected exercises for the respiratory muscles, respiratory rehabilitation, learning to relax, and exercise. The aim of the study was to evaluate the results of post-Covid rehabilitation in pulmonary care patients. The study was performed on a group of 50 patients (15 women, 35 men; the mean age was 59.4 years) undergoing pulmonary rehabilitation in January 2022 in the rehabilitation department of a pulmonary hospital in southern Poland. Patients’ physical activity tolerance was assessed before and after rehabilitation using the walk test, mMRC test, Barthel’s scale, CAT questionnaire and Borg’s scale. The research results show a statistically significant improvement in all patients and in each of the methods for assessing physical activity tolerance. There is an urgent need for a rehabilitation programme aimed specifically at post-Covid patients.

Nowadays, managing co-creation has become an important topic among practitioners and researchers, but there has been little research on addressing and managing the challenges faced by the complexity of co-creation. The paper argues that co-creation should also be understood as a complex, dynamic phenomenon. The purpose of the paper is to summarise and classify extant research into co-creation. The paper reviews complexity as a new way of understanding co-creation processes for corporate social responsibility in business. A review of the literature has established that corporate social responsibility, along with the complexity of co-creation, can produce successful results for businesses.

At present, the Covid-19 pandemic is controlled in many countries by the development of the vaccination and/or the natural immunity of the population. Unfortunately, Lithuania is on the list of the most affected countries in Europe and the world, taking into account the loss of population both from the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus and from increased mortality from other diseases. We will probably not avoid a pandemic in the future, so it is necessary to analyse why Lithuania has been less successful than neighbouring countries in overcoming the pandemic. The aim of this study is to compare the excess mortality of the population of Lithuania and other countries during the Covid-19 pandemic, and to discuss the possible causes and consequences of the exceptionally high excess mortality of the Lithuanian population. Material and methods: analysis of indicators, comparison of data. The results of the analysis show that a number of countries (Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Malta and Germany) not only did not experience significant excess mortality, but their Covid-19 victims per one million population were also incomparably fewer than in Lithuania. In some countries (Luxembourg, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Denmark), life expectancy increased, suggesting that improvements in public health have been possible even during the Covid-19 pandemic. It is recommended that the experience of these countries be analysed, in order to avoid disruption to public health resulting in exceptionally high excess mortality from Covid-19 and other diseases and a decline in life expectancy.