Measuring Public Preferential Polarization

We adapt an axiomatically derived measure of polarization due to Esteban and Ray (1994) to measure polarization of political preferences. Previous work used different measures such as variance, kurtosis, Cronbach's alpha, median distance to median and the mean distance between groups. Yet, none of these measures are theoretically connected to a notion of polarization. Although the initiation of the current one is in the lieu of income inequality measurement, it is conceptually suitable for preferential polarization as well. This paper offers a methodology for that purpose. The second contribution of the paper is that we use the Aldrich-McKelvey Scaling to correct for differential-item functioning in estimating ideal points of the individuals. We use the American National Election Survey Data for years between 1984-2008 to implement the theory offered in the paper. Our findings suggest that there is not a statistically significant increasing trend in polarization in this time period in many issue dimensions but there is an upward trend in the latent ideology dimension which is significant during the 1990s

An Overview of the Construction Sector in Albania

The Construction sector during the last decade has turned out to be an important pillar and one of the most dynamic sectors of the Albanian economy, comprising an average of 10% of GDP and above during this period. Mostly the construction activities are focused in the major urban centers of the country. In the last two years insufficient domestic demand and higher financing costs caused a slowdown on this sector of the economy causing the investment pace to relatively slow down, compared with the previous years. In this paper we will try to give an overview of the construction sector in Albania during the period 2002-2012 by focusing mainly on the contribution share this sector has had on GDP throughout the years and it Gross Value Added, the effect this sector has on employment rates, building permits and their value on periodical basis. After making a thorough literature revising we will give our own insights upon the trend this sector has had and its current and prospective role it will have in the Albanian economy

EVALUATING TOURISM SECTOR IN ALBANIA BY THE VIEW OF THE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

It is clear that there are different studies conducted on the tourism sector of different countries. In contrast, it is quite difficult to find out similar studies thatconducted on Albanian tourism sector that is revealed by the literature review ofthis study. This is one of the main motivations of this study.The purpose of this study is to measure the views and perception of university students on the issue on the basis of empirical data which have been collected for this study. The researchers asked about 24 questions to universities' students.Before conducting the survey, the study had chosen two private and five state run universities from different cities of Albania. The survey conducted by surveyor who had been thought how to conduct survey. These surveyors asked those some 423 students to fill in the survey's questions. After they answered the questions, the surveys had been collected by those surveyors. To investigate which factors have more importance on development of tourism sector including Infrastructure,Transportation, Diversity of Tourism, Promotion, Service Quality and Price.The study are adopting the hypothesis that mean factor ratings are same betweenmale and female, universities and employment status.This study has employed a quantitative method. Within this method, in order toanalyse the data One way Anova Tests is applied. Based on the analysis all factors that has been asked are found as important, however, their contribution level to thetourism development are different. Among factors contributing to tourism,Promotion is considered to have different level of contribution according to different universities' students, while evaluation of factors on other demographic indicators is seen similar within significance level 0.05

TRANS-ADRIATIC PIPELINE PROJECT AND ITS POTENTIAL EFFECTS ON ALBANIA

The aim of this paper is to explain the exploration and the production of natural gas in Albania, which has an important impact on the country's economy. The development of the natural gas sector in Albania is one of the priorities set out inthe National Strategy of Energy. The research on this paper is based on regulatory authority of the energy sector and on our actual data and survey made on Albanian citizens according to socio-economic judgments about the Trans-Adriatic pipeline project (TAP).In the first part of this paper, it will be explained that the development of natural gas production process in Albania. The natural gas production in Albania started in 1968 at Divjaka gas field with an annual domestic production of 70 million Nm3.Up to 1990 this resource was used to furnish different industries as the fertilizer industry, the oil industry, electricity industry and residential sector. Actually it serves only for the oil industry.As Albania is the only country in Europe which is not connected to the international gas network, in the second part of this paper, It will be explained how Albania iscreating a network to international gas supply. Emphasis will be on the TAP projectand the Albanian citizens' perceptions on socio-economic reasoning about this project. TAP is an important project because it will link Albania with other Balkan,European and Asian countries and our analyses will be on Albanian people's perceptions about this project. Collected data analyzed by SPSS package programme

The Effects of Er:YAG, Nd:YAG, and Ho:YAG Laser Surface Treatments to Acrylic Resin Denture Bases on the Tensile Bond Strength of Silicone-Based Resilient Liners

Objective: The present study was to assess the effect of surface treatments of Er:YAG, Nd:YAG, and Ho:YAG lasers on the tensile bond strength of a silicone-based resilient liner to an acrylic denture in an in vitro setting. Methods: Experimental dumbbell-shaped specimens (75mm) were produced by combining two acrylate pieces fabricated from heat-polymerized acrylic resin (36mm) with 3mm of Molloplast((R))-B filling between them. The specimens (n=200) were randomly divided in half for thermocycling, and each 100 specimen set was randomized into five groups (n=20) with different surface treatments: control (no surface treatment), sandblasting, Er:YAG laser, Nd:YAG laser, and Ho:YAG laser. A tensile bond strength test was performed. The effect of the laser surface treatments was examined with scanning electron microscopy. Results: Only the Er:YAG laser increased the tensile bond strength compared with the other treatments. The other laser groups showed lower bond strengths. The Ho:YAG laser resulted in considerably reduced tensile bond strength. The scanning electron microscopy images showed that applying laser surface treatments modified the surface of the denture base resin. Conclusions: There was not an overall improvement with the use of the studied laser modalities in the adhesion quality of resilient denture liner to acrylic resin, although Er:YAG laser showed a potential to improve their adhesion. These laser modalities need to be subjected to further studies to determine optimal setup for use in prosthodontics