“Nephron Sparing Surgery” in a Tumor Greater than 7 Cm

We present a case of nephron sparing surgery (NSS), in a patient,68 years olld, born in the Prizren, who had a tumor bigger than 7 (8.5 cm), meaning T2a staging tumor.Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is a common malignancy with an increasing incidence1. NSS was proven feasible decades ago for patients with imperative indications to preserve maximum kidney function, for instance solitary kidney, bilateral renal tumors, or moderate/severe chronic kidney disease (CKD)2. The goal of partial nephrectomy is complete excision of potentially malignant tissue without malignant cells at the border of the surgical specimen, with maximum preservation of nearby normal renal parenchyma.It is known that nephron sparing surgery is preferred for T1a and T1b, or when the tumor is limited in kidneys and not greater than 7 cm.In this case, the tumor has passed T1 staging, it belonged to T2 staging .We succeeded doing the “nephron sparing surgery”, saving less than half of the kidney.The approach to a SRM( small renal masses) is based on tumor size, stage, and location.Most NSS requires renal vessel occlusion during the excision, and renal tubular tissue is particularly sensitive to ischemia; the WIT ( warm ischemia time ), therefore, should be minimized. Damage to renal tubular tissue is directly related to WIT. Although the upper limit of WIT is debatable, a limit of 20 minutes is a generally accepted guideline.The kidney can be approached with traditional “open” surgery or laparoscopically. For SRMs appropriate for NSS, open partial nephrectomy represents the gold standard. This approach has the most data regarding oncologic and renal function outcomes, with long-term cancer-specific survival rates exceeding 90%3. We can conclude that “nephron sparing surgery” in specific cases can be used also for patients with T2a staging tumor, for those patients were there is hope that they can benefit from this procedure.The patient has stayed in our clinic for ten days, and is released in a good health condition,unfortunately the remaining renal parenchyma was not sufficient to perform its function, because of the chronic pyelonephritis with an emphasized hypoplasia of the other kidney ( left kidney). So the only benefit of this procedure in this patient was that instead of doing the dialysis three times a week, he could do it two times a week

Decision making based on data analyses using data warehouses

Data warehouses are a collection of several databases, whose goal is to help different companies and corporations make important decisions about their activities. These decisions are taken from the analyses that are made to the data within the data warehouse. These data are taken from data that companies and corporations collect on daily basis from their branches that may be located in different cities, regions, states and continents. Data that are entered to data warehouses are historical data and they represent that part of data that is important for making decisions. These data go under a transformation process in order to accommodate with the structure of the objects within the databases in the data warehouse. This is done because the structure of the relational databases is not similar with the structure of the databases (multidimensional databases) within the data warehouse. The first ones are optimized for transactions on daily basis like: entering, changing, deleting and retrieving data through simple queries, the second ones are optimized for retrieving data through multidimensional queries, which enable us to extract important information. This information helps to make important decisions by learning which are the weak points and the strong points of the company, in order to invest more on the weak points and to strengthen the strong points, increasing the profits of the company. The goal of this paper is to treat data analyses for decision making from a data warehouse by using OLAP (online analytical processing) analysis. For this treatment we used the Analysis Services of Microsoft SQL Server 2016 platform. We analyzed the data of an IT Store with branches in different cities in Kosovo and came to a conclusion for some sales trends. This paper emphasizes the role of data warehouses in decision making

Book review: Free: coming of age at the end of history by Lea Ypi

In her award-winning memoir Free, Lea Ypi reflects on the paradoxes of freedom through her recollections of coming of age at the collapse of communist Albania in December 1990 and its transition from Enver Hoxha’s dictatorship to a presumably freer, capitalist and more democratic nation. This stylistically elegant and thought-provoking book is a significant contribution to understanding a period of Albania’s transition still left underexplored and will be read for many years to come, writes Andi Haxhiu

Closing the Achievement Gap: An Analysis of Equity-Based Educational Interventions

The ongoing differences in academic performance and outcomes between student groups represents a significant problem for educators worldwide. As a possible remedy, equity-based educational interventions have been receiving more and more attention for their focus on removing the structural impediments that contribute to the achievement gap. The purpose of this research is to analyze how well equity-based educational interventions reduce the gap in academic performance. The research technique included both a literature review and case studies of three schools that had already implemented equity-based educational interventions. Schools were chosen as case studies because of their track records of success in reducing the achievement gap through the implementation of various equity-based initiatives. When implemented with fidelity and supported by good leadership and a positive school culture, the results of this study demonstrate that equity-based educational interventions can be beneficial in reducing the achievement gap. Significant gains in student achievement and school atmosphere, as well as improved participation and engagement from traditionally underrepresented student populations, were observed in the case study schools. A lack of resources and support, resistance to change, and the complexity of tackling structural disparities were all highlighted as obstacles to the successful implementation of equity-based interventions in the study. These results stress the importance of continuing to work for equity-based interventions and to guarantee that all children have access to the tools and opportunity they need to achieve

Decision making based on data analyses using data warehouses

Data warehouses are a collection of several databases, whose goal is to help different companies and corporations make important decisions about their activities. These decisions are taken from the analyses that are made to the data within the data warehouse. These data are taken from data that companies and corporations collect on daily basis from their branches that may be located in different cities, regions, states and continents. Data that are entered to data warehouses are historical data and they represent that part of data that is important for making decisions. These data go under a transformation process in order to accommodate with the structure of the objects within the databases in the data warehouse. This is done because the structure of the relational databases is not similar with the structure of the databases (multidimensional databases) within the data warehouse. The first ones are optimized for transactions on daily basis like: entering, changing, deleting and retrieving data through simple queries, the second ones are optimized for retrieving data through multidimensional queries, which enable us to extract important information. This information helps to make important decisions by learning which are the weak points and the strong points of the company, in order to invest more on the weak points and to strengthen the strong points, increasing the profits of the company. The goal of this paper is to treat data analyses for decision making from a data warehouse by using OLAP (online analytical processing) analysis. For this treatment we used the Analysis Services of Microsoft SQL Server 2016 platform. We analyzed the data of an IT Store with branches in different cities in Kosovo and came to a conclusion for some sales trends. This paper emphasizes the role of data warehouses in decision making

Book review: Free: coming of age at the end of history by Lea Ypi

In her award-winning memoir Free, Lea Ypi reflects on the paradoxes of freedom through her recollections of coming of age at the collapse of communist Albania in December 1990 and its transition from Enver Hoxha’s dictatorship to a presumably freer, capitalist and more democratic nation. This stylistically elegant and thought-provoking book is a significant contribution to understanding a period of Albania’s transition still left underexplored and will be read for many years to come, writes Andi Haxhiu

Gender representation in representive and executive bodies through constitutional quotes, legal and political parties

Gender representation in public institutions is an imediate goal in contemporary democracies. These efforts are being implemented through various forms of lobbying such as: international women's mobility for gender equality, international gender equality associations or through the definition of domestic legislation by applying constitutional, legal and party quotas for the representation of women in public institutions. Some states represent gender representation in executive and executive bodies with constitution, while others with laws. Gender representation in representative bodies through constitutional quotas is more advanced than gender mainstreaming in executive bodies. The efforts of women to be represented in public institutions through voluntary contributions from political parties have encouraged women to be an active part of public life through political parties. Today in the contemporary world, by establishing constitutional, legal or party quotas, a sufficiently satisfying percentage of female gender has been actively integrated into public institutions, gaining mandates of MPs in representative bodies as well as senior positions in government and other bodies executive. Through affirmation of female gender representation in public institutions in some countries of the world we have: Speaker of Parliament, President of the State, Prime Minister and Political Party Leaders.The focus of our work is the manner and level of representation of women in representative and executive bodies through constitutional, legal and party quota

Legal Gaps in the Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo in Chapter on the President of the Republic

Legal uncertainties and gaps in the legislation of Kosovo are expressed in constitutions, laws and other legal acts. Usually, these shortcomings are few in constitutions as the highest political legal act of a state. However, these defects are noted in the Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo. They can be explicitly distinguished in the chapter on the President of the Republic of Kosovo. These gaps are particularly evident in the case of resignation or death of the President. The articles in the Constitution does not foresees who should exercise the function of the president when the president resigns or dies. Even more unclear situations we have when the president dies or resigns, at the time when the Kosovo Assembly is dissolved. These two situations occurred in Kosovo in 2006 and 2010

First observations on ecology and distribution of Balkan terrapin, Mauremys rivulata (Valenciennes, 1833) in Vlora Bay, Albania

This study aims to provide for the first time information about morphometrics, habitats, population structure and biology of the Balkan Terrapin, Mauremys rivulata in the understudied area of Vlora Bay, Albania. Two main different habitats, freshwater channels (several channels in different areas) and ponds or swamps (two ponds in different areas) were monitored from March 2013 to October 2015. A high number of M. rivulata were observed basking in or out of the water, while 46 were captured for the first time. All individuals of M. rivulata captured were measured (length and width of carapace and plastron), marked (on marginal scutes), photographed and released again in the same habitat. Mean curved carapacial length was 18.1 cm for adult male (n=6), 19.1 cm for adult female (n=17) and 6.2 cm for juvenile (n=23). Sex ratio was 2.8 : 1 (female : male). 50% of all captured M. rivulata were juveniles