Introduction

Since the 1990s, Albania has aimed to introduce democratic values into its legislation. This process can come to fruition only by the recognition and protection of private property. As a result, a new Civil Code was enacted at the beginning of the 1990s through intensive collaboration between Albanian and foreign scholars. Book II of the Albanian Civil Code of 1994 highlights the importance of private property. This book fills the gap in the national and international scientific literature since there is no scientific contribution written in English that examines the development of the Albanian law of property showing the similarities and differences between the Albanian and the Italian civil codes. Another novelty rests on its identification of the rules of the Albanian Civil Codes of 1929 and of 1982 that regulate the various legal institutional parts of the property law. Furthermore, this research summarizes the EU impact on Albanian property law by examining the differences between the legal institutions established at the supranational level such as Dir. 2014/60/EU, Dir. 2008/122/EC, Dir. 1346/2000/EC, and Reg. 2015/848 with the current Albanian system. In the conclusions, this research demonstrates that the Albanian law of property of 1994 is similar, sometimes identical, to the rules established in the Italian Civil Code of 1942

Short- to mid-term follow-up effectiveness of US-guided focal extracorporeal shock wave therapy in the treatment of elbow lateral epicondylitis

BACKGROUND: Lateral epicondylitis of the elbow is a common and disabling overuse syndrome. Several treatment modalities are currently available for this condition, but the optimal treatment method remains undefined. Extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) has been widely used in the last 10 years, although conflicting results are present in the literature. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, we evaluated 36 patients (37 elbows), with a mean follow-up time of 24.8 months. Focal ESWT was administered by means of an electromagnetic generator equipped with in-line ultrasound guidance, during one or more cycles of 3-4 weekly sessions. In the setting of the study, patients were clinically evaluated and subjective satisfaction and rate of relapse were investigated. RESULTS: A positive response was described in 75.7 % of the patients after treatment. Mean quickDASH score and VAS attested at 5.5 and 1.1, respectively. Roles and Maudsley score was rated as I or II in 33 cases. Four patients resulted not responders to the therapy, while 5 patients complained one or more episodes of symptoms relapse. No influence on the final outcome was evident with respect to demographic features and previous therapies as well. Response rate to further ESWT cycles in patients refractory to the first cycle of ESWT was 33.3 %. CONCLUSIONS: Focal ESWT represents a valuable and safe solution in case of elbow lateral epicondylitis, both in newly diagnosed and previously treated cases, representing a definitive treatment in the majority of patients. Patients refractory to a 3- to 4-session ESWT cycle have lower chances of positive response after further ESWT cycles

Tri-axial magnetic field exposure system for a patch-clamp set-up

The patch-clamp, as a sophisticated tool to investigate the electrophysiological activity at the single cell and even at single channel levels, can be used for a systematic study of the effects of electromagnetic fields (EMF) on ion transport across the cell membrane. In the last years some hypotheses were put forward aimed at understanding EMF interaction mechanisms, focusing on the effects on specific ion kinetics such as Ca++, K+ and other ions involved in cell physiology. In order to verify these hypotheses a stable controlled combination of a static and oscillating magnetic fields (MF) is needed. For this purpose we have designed and fabricated a MF exposure system trying to reach a good compromise between MF homogeneity and accessibility to the patch-clamp set-up. The MF exposure system consists of 3 large orthogonal pairs of square coils surrounding the patch-clamp set-up, able to generate different combinations of static and alternating MF, reaching a 1% uniformity level in a 4 cm×4 cm × 4 cm region around the centre for the 3 components of MF

Natural radioactivity in chemical fertilizers used in Albania investigated with a fully automated gamma-ray spectrometer.

A fully automated gamma-ray spectrometer composed by two coupled HPGe detectors p-type with 60% relative efficiency was developed for monitoring the environmental radioactivity. Through fully automation of operational processes, up to 24 samples can be measured without any human attendance. The absolute efficiency of the MCA_Rad system is estimated by using two point sources 152Eu and 56Co, and validated at 5% relative uncertainty by measuring certified reference materials. The MCA_Rad system was employed in the measurement of the activity concentration of 40K, 226Ra and 232Th in different types of chemical fertilizers used in Albania. The results show a clear correlation between the content of K2O measured and that labeled for chemical fertilizers. The presence of phosphorus in the chemical fertilizer is not clearly related to the activity concentration of 226Ra and 232Th. This is mainly due to the different origins of the phosphate ores and/or to the chemical processing of the ore during fertilizers manufacturing. The activity concentrations of 226Ra and 232Th in NPK samples are found to vary from MDA to 253±14 Bq/kg and MDA to 24±4 Bq/kg, respectively. The calculated radium equivalent activity was found to be comparable or higher than the threshold value of 370 Bq/kg varying from 362 Bq/kg to 967 Bq/kg, mainly due to the high concentration of 40K and 226Ra (especially for NPK-3, NPK-8 and NPK-9). Based on these results, no direct estimations on dose rate can be made, but we recommend to monitor the radiation exposure rate of workers in a storage warehouse

Natural radioactivity in clay bricks and cements used in Albania.

This study has the aim to determine the radioactivity content of clay bricks and cements used as building materials in Albania in order to characterize their potential radiological hazard to humans. Up to 60 samples are investigated in order to measure the natural activity concentrations of 226Ra (238U), 232Th and 40K. The measurements were carried out using a fully automated high-resolution gamma-ray spectrometry using two coupled HPGe detectors (MCA_Rad system). The results indicate that the activity concentration in clay bricks ranges between 490.6 ± 19.4 Bq/kg to 820.3 ± 27.0 Bq/kg for 40K, between 25.8 ± 1.4 Bq/kg to 51.9 ± 1.7 Bq/kg for 226Ra and between 29.2 ± 1.9 Bq/kg to 55.1 ± 2.5 Bq/kg for 232Th. While for cement the radioactivity content range between 107.3 ± 6.2 Bq/kg to 250.8 ± 10.6 Bq/kg for 40K, between 40.9 ± 1.2 Bq/kg to 61.4 ± 1.6 Bq/kg for 226Ra and between 11.5 ± 1.0 Bq/kg to 22.9 ± 1.3 Bq/kg for 232Th. The radiological hazards due to the natural radioactivity in the samples were inferred by calculation of the activity concentration index (ACI). The corresponds activity concentration index range between 0.48 ± 0.02 to 0.63 ± 0.04 for clay bricks and 0.29 ± 0.03 to 0.37 ± 0.02 for cements. These values correspond to an annual effective dose rate lower than 1mSv/y. Indeed due to the final utilization of clay bricks and cements in the dwelling the annual effective dose rate was calculated to range between 0.28 ± 0.02 mSv/y to 0.45 ± 0.04 mSv/y and 0.08 ± 0.04 mSv/y to 0.17 ± 0.02 mSv/y respectively. Therefore, these materials are classified as A1 category (according to European Commission recommendations), i.e. materials used as bulk material without restriction