Religious Integration – Adopted Standards for Albania

The religious tolerance is one of the rarest values of the tradition of the Albanian people. It is widely accepted that Albanian people are well known about these values, about an excellent coexistence among the believers of different religious communities that are in Albania, mainly Muslims and Christians. Albania has long aspired being a full-fledged member of the European Union, while its main challenge has been meeting the required standards in several areas. As far as religion is concerned, as Albanians, we feel very proud of the met standards in this very field. If one were to screen the Albanian religious framework, relationships between the Albanian state and all the religious communities, as well as the interreligious relationship, one will conclude the issue of religious belief and its relationship with the state is fully compliant with EU acquis. This paper aims to emphasize and analyze one of the main issues pertaining to this unique situation in Albania; the interfaith tolerance in Albania, which serves as a unique example the whole world. The main issue treated in this paper is the historical religious tolerance and its relationship as regards to the national interests. “A nation cannot have a future without being completely recognizant of its past.” In this study we bring the essentials of this phenomenon, promotional roots of these values, while viewed from a previously untreated point of view, and in an attempt to answer the questions: Where does it stem from the religious coexistence in Albania? What are the main promoters of this phenomenon? What has been the attitude of the religious clergy in Albania? Have they been and are the imams and priests, the promotion of tolerance and religious coexistence in Albania? These are some of the questions answered in this modest study, focusing on how nice and with how much delicacy the lectures of the Clergy have addressed this issue to the faithful or to the world in general. Since they enjoyed undisputable reputation and influence in the majority of the population, in the most critical moments of national history, the leaders of Muslims believers, not only have promoted tolerance and religious coexistence, but they have considered the believers of other faiths as “brothers” preaching this conviction in front of their Muslim believers. These preaching’s were firstly begun by Vehbi Dibra, who was the first Chairman of the Muslims and all clerics without exception to this day. Also unforgettable are the sermons of priests like: Fr. Gjergj Fishta, Fr. Shtjefën Gjeçovi, or Metropolitan Visarion Xhuvani to conclude with pearls of Orthodox priest, Fan S. Noli, who amazed the world with his three speeches in front of world leaders, the League of Nations, being representative of all Albanians, although Orthodox believers were only 20% of the population

La construcción de la identidad y la toma de conciencia sobre el multilingüismo de los docentes en formación: revisión de tres estudios

[EN] This article re-visits three studies that originally focused on beliefs about second language (L2) learning and teaching held by student teachers. The studies have been conducted in the same educational context (that is, at a Finnish university). The participants in the studies are majors or minors in English, Swedish, German, etc., and they range from first-year students to fifth-year students about to graduate as qualified L2 teachers. Data have been collected by a variety of means over the past few years (questionnaires, sentence-completion tasks, drawings), and partly longitudinally. The pools of data (verbal and visual) will be re-analysed from the perspective of identity construction and awareness of aspects of multilingualism and findings critically re-evaluated.[ES] Este artículo revisa tres estudios que originalmente se centraron en las creencias que tienen los futuros docentes sobre el aprendizaje y la enseñanza de una segunda lengua (L2). Los estudios se han realizado en el mismo contexto educativo (es decir, en una universidad finlandesa). Los participantes en los estudios son estudiantes de programas de especialización, o de optatividad, en inglés, sueco, alemán, etc., y van desde estudiantes de primero hasta estudiantes de quinto año, a punto de graduarse como profesores de L2 cualificados. Los datos se han recopilado en los últimos años, utilizando diversos instrumentos (cuestionarios, tareas para completar frases, dibujos) y, en parte, de manera longitudinal. Los datos (verbales y visuales) se volverán a analizar desde la perspectiva de la construcción de la identidad y de la toma de conciencia en relación con aspectos del multilingüismo, y los resultados se reevaluarán de manera crítica.Kalaja, P. (2019). Student teachers and their identity construction and awareness of multilingualism: re-visiting three studies. Lenguaje y Textos. (49):67-84. https://doi.org/10.4995/lyt.2019.11470SWORD678449BARKHUIZEN, G. (2017). Language teacher identity research: An introduction. In G. Barkhuizen (Ed.), Reflections on language teacher identity research (pp. 1-11). New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315643465BORG, S., BIRELLO, M., CIVERA, I., and ZANATTA, T. (2014). The impact of teacher education on pre-service primary English language teachers. ELT Research Report 14.03. London: British Council.CANAGARAJAH, S. (2013). Translingual practice: Global Englishes and cosmopolitan relations. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203120293CLARKE, (2008). Language teacher identities: Co-constructing discourse and community. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781847690838COOK, V. (1992). Evidence for a multicompetence. Language Learning 42, 557-591. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-1770.1992.tb01044.xCOUNCIL OF EUROPE (2001). Common European framework of reference for languages: Learning, teaching, assessment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved February 1, 2019, https://rm.coe.int/CoERMPublicCommonSearchServices/DisplayDCTMContent?documentId=0900001680459f97COUNCIL OF EUROPE (2007). From linguistic diversity to plurilingual education: Guide for the development of language education policies in Europe. Strasbourg. Retrieved February 1, 2019, from https://rm.coe.int/16802fc1c4DUFF, P. A. (2007). Case study research in Applied Linguistics. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum.DÖRNYEI, Z., and KUBANYIOVA, M. (2014). Motivating learners, motivating teachers: Building visions in the classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.EDLEY, N. (2009). Analysing masculinity: Interpretative repertoires, ideological dilemmas and subject positions. In M. Wetherell, S. Taylor, & S. Yates (Eds.), Discourse as data: A guide for analysis (pp. 189-228). London: Sage.FINNISH NATIONAL BOARD OF EDUCATION (2003). Lukion opetussuunnitelman perusteet 2003. [National core curriculum for upper secondary schools 2003]. Helsinki. Retrieved February 1, 2019, from https://www.oph.fi/download/47345_lukion_opetussuunnitelman_perusteet_2003.pdfFINNISH NATIONAL BOARD OF EDUCATION (2004). Perusopetuksen opetussuunnitelman perusteet 2004. [National core curriculum for basic education 2004]. Helsinki. Retrieved February 1, 2019, from https://www.oph.fi/download/139848_pops_web.pdfFINNISH NATIONAL BOARD OF EDUCATION (2014). Perusopetuksen opetussuunnitelman perusteet 2014. [National core curriculum for basic education 2014]. Helsinki. Retrieved February 1, 2019, from http://www.oph.fi/download/163777_perusopetuksen_opetussuunnitelman_perusteet_2014.pdfFINNISH NATIONAL BOARD OF EDUCATION (2015). Lukion opetussuunnitelman perusteet 2015. [National core curriculum for upper secondary schools 2015]. Helsinki. Retrieved February 1, 2019, from http://www.oph.fi/download/172124_lukion_opetussuunnitelman_perusteet_2015.pdfGARCIA, O., and WEI, L. (2013). Translanguaging. Language, bilingualism and education. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137385765_4KALAJA, P. (2016a). Student teachers' beliefs about L2 and L2 discursively constructed: A longitudinal study of interpretative repertoires. In P. Kalaja, A. M. F. Barcelos, M. Aro, & M. Ruohotie-Lyhty (Eds.), Beliefs, agency and identity in foreign language learning and teaching (pp. 97-123). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137425959_6KALAJA, P. (2016b). 'Dreaming is believing': The teaching of foreign languages as envisioned by student teachers. In P. Kalaja, A. M. F. Barcelos, M. Aro, & M. Ruohotie-Lyhty (Eds.), Beliefs, agency and identity in foreign language learning and teaching (pp. 124-146). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137425959_7KALAJA, P., and MÄNTYLÄ, K. (2018). 'The English class of my dreams': Envisioning teaching a foreign language. In S. Mercer, & A. Kostoulas (Eds.), Language teacher psychology (pp. 34-70). Bristol: Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781783099467-007KALAJA, P., ALANEN, R., and DUFVA, H. (2013). Experimenting with visual narratives. In G. Barkhuizen (Ed.), Narratives in applied linguistics (pp. 105-131). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.KALAJA, P., ALANEN, R., and DUFVA, H. (2018). ELT in Finland. In J. I. Liontas, & M. DelliCarpini (Eds.), TESOL Encyclopedia of English language teaching. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell. Retrieved February 1, 2019, from https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118784235.eelt0930KRAMSCH, C. (2009). The multilingual subject. What foreign language learners say about their experience and why it matters. Oxford. Oxford University Press.LANTOLF, J. P., and THORNE, S. L. (2006). Sociocultural theory and the genesis of second language development. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263106060037MÄNTYLÄ, K., and KALAJA, P. (2019). 'The class of my dreams' as envisioned by student teachers of English: What is there to teach about the language? In P. Kalaja, & S. Melo-Pfeifer (Eds.), Visualising multilingual lives: More than words (pp. 254-274). Bristol: Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781788922616-018ORTEGA, L. (2014). Ways forward in bi/multilingual turn in SLA. In S. May (Ed.), The multilingual turn: implications for SLA, TESOL and bilingual education (pp. 32-53). New York: Routledge.OTHEGUY, R., GARCÍA, O., and REID, W. (2015). Clarifying translanguaging and deconstructing named languages: A perspective from linguistics. Applied Linguistics Review 6 (3), 281-307. https://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2015-0014SQUIRE, C. (2012). What is narrative? NCRM Working Paper. Retrieved February 1, 2019, from http://eprints.ncrm.ac.uk/3065/1/What_is_Narrative_by_Corinne_Squire_working_paper.pdfTUOMI, J., and SARAJÄRVI, A. (2009). Laadullinen tutkimus ja sisällöllinen analyysi [Qualitative RESEARCH AND CONTENT ANALYSIS] (5th revised edition). Helsinki: Tammi

A journey through the non-Gaussian universe

Over the past three decades, precise measurements have significantly advanced our understanding of the universe, leading to the establishment of a standard cosmological model, known as the $Lambda$CDM. This model has successfully explained a wide range of observations, including the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB), the distribution of galaxies, and the accelerated expansion of the universe. Its robustness and consistency with observational data have made it the foundation of modern cosmology. However, there are several aspects of our universe that are unanswered. This dissertation delves into some of the possible extensions of the $Lambda$CDM model and explores ways to refine constraints on fundamental cosmological parameters. The first part of the thesis presents an extensive review on topics of modern cosmology relevant to the thesis, including cosmic inflation, cosmological perturbations and weak gravitational lensing. The second part is dedicated to the original research work performed by the author. In chapter 5, we discuss fundamental limitations on constraining primordial non-Gaussianity and identify promising observables for upcoming CMB and large scale structure experiments. In chapter 6, we build the groundwork for the reconstruction of the CMB lensing convergence bispectrum, studying, for the first time, some of the observational challenges. In chapter 7, we explore the potential of the cross-correlation between radio cosmic shear and CMB lensing in constraining $Lambda$CDM parameters and the neutrino sector

Programacioni në televizionet me mbulim kombëtar në Shqipëri, në prag të kalimit në transmetimin numerik tokësor

Tema trajton prodhimin e përmbajtjes televizive, programet, emisionet sipas gjinive të prodhimit televiziv për televizionet me mbulim kombëtar në Shqipëri. Programacioni televiziv në Shqipëri ka lëvizur me shpejtësi në drejtim të rritjes sasiore dhe cilësore gjatë një periudhe 10-vjeçare, por ende është i mbizotëruar nga këndvështrimi top-down drejt audiencës, e cila vazhdon të jetë pasive. Televizionet ende imitojnë njëri-tjetrin në strukturat e tyre programore, duke i dhënë një përqidje të lartë programeve informative dhe bizedave politike. Tema prezanton shifrat statistikore të vitit 2013 të tre televizioneve me mbulim kombëtar raportet midis gjinive të ndryshme televizive. Ajo do të fokusohet në kontekstin e zhvillimit të televizioneve në Shqipëri, në prag të kalimit në transmetimin numerik televiziv dhe ecurinë e këtij procesi deri në qershor 2015, sipas afatit të planifikuar për kalimin në transmetime numerike. Menaxhimi i televizioneve, me karakteristikat e tij të veçanta, shprehet edhe nëpërmjet përqindjes programore që zë secili nga zhanret televizivë në strukturën e transmetimit të programeve TV. Ekonomia e televizioneve është pothuajse mbizotëruese mbi programacionet televizive edhe në prag të kalimit në transmetim numerik. Një tregues i prezantuar është edhe evoluimi i treguesit për tregun mediatik si Indeksi i Zhvillimit të Qëndrueshëm, dhe brenda tij faktori i menaxhimit të biznesit

TV program in the Albanian local TV channels

TV programming in the local television in Albania reflect the uncertain development status these local televisions are going through. They are in the eve of analogue switch off and start broadcasting in the digital format. How will they cope with this new way of broadcasting? Will that have an impact on their programming schedule? How is their programming compared to the programming of the national and regional media? The paper will try to address all these issues through a comparing analysis and statistical data on some of the selected local TV

Albanian TV programming management on the eve of the switch over to digital terrestrial broadcasting

The paper addresses the television programs’ production and analyzes this content in a range of 11 years (2003-2013) for national and regional coverage television stations in Albania. The paper set the focus on the development of Albanian TV market on the point of transition to digital terrestrial television broadcasting. Television programming in Albania has moved quickly toward quantitative and qualitative growth over a period of 10 years, but is still dominated by top-down perspective look at the audience, which remains mostly a passive one. Televisions stations mostly imitate each other in their program structures and strategies. Television management, as a specific form of business management, presents some of its characteristics through program percentage occupied by each of the television genres in the structure of TV programming. The “economy of television”, figures and numbers of advertisement revenues and audience seems to take priority over television programming, and this is also present in Albania nowadays on the verge of digital terrestrial TV broadcasting. The television stations remains still with a "limited autonomy" and as such continues to be affected by factors and other systems that operate outside of the media. The paper presents examples from some of the main television stations in Albania for indicators such as cost structures, programs cost, relations between different television genres, forms management televisions. The Sustainable Development Index for the media industry and also the effect of business management factor in Albania are presented in the paper

A theoretical perspective on approaches used to define indicators that measure health quality services

Increased demands on life quality in its every aspect, has impose certain obligations on evaluating health services quality, which has become one of the key prerequisites, not only for health care organizations, but also for governments and society. Quality, serves as an essential factor in defining and evaluating a health care institution, as well as, an indispensable competing tool between private and public sector, offering these kind of services. Consequently given the importance of the argument, numerous studies and analyses, has been carried out through years by various researchers and organizations all over the world, to identify the key indicators used to assess hospital services quality, and to find the most appropriate method to choose them. Therefore this article aims to describe different methods and efforts, made, to evaluate indicators used to measure health service quality, to better understand their point of view, their implications and applications, in order to select and propose most feasible methods, to use in Albanian context

Overview of Ethnic Structure of Dardania during the Roman Period

Pre-Roman Dardania was inhabited by an indigenous Dardanian population. The Roman invasion was followed by the introduction of a number of novelties regarding the administration, political and economic system, but it also reflected in the differentiation of ethnic composition. Consequently, the ethnic structure in Dardania changed significantly and became multi-ethnic inhabited by the local population, the Romanised locals, the Thracians, the Romans, the Celts, the Greeks and the Orientals. This multi-ethnic structure is best reflected by epigraphic monuments discovered throughout the Dardanian territory. A general overview of the ethnic structure living in Dardania during the Roman period will be presented in this paper, based on onomastic data offered by epigraphic sources.Keywords: Dardania, ethnic structure, tria nomina

Adaptive algorithm in differential privacy : comparative analysis of pre-processing methods

Nowadays the amount of data collected on individuals is massive. Making this data more available to data scientists could be tremendously beneficial in a wide range of fields. Sharing data is not a trivial matter as it may expose individuals to malicious attacks. The concept of differential privacy was first introduced in the seminal work by Cynthia Dwork (2006b). It offers solutions for tackling this problem. Applying random noise to the shared statistics protects the individuals while allowing data analysts to use the data to improve predictions. Input perturbation technique is a simple version of privatizing data, which adds noise to whole data. This thesis studies an output perturbation technique, where the calculations are done with real data, but only suffcient statistics are released. With this method smaller amount of noise is required making the analysis more accurate. Yu-Xiang Wang (2018) improves the model by introducing an adaptive AdaSSP algorithm to fix the instability issues of the previously used Sufficient Statistics Perturbation (SSP) algorithm. In this thesis we will verify the results shown by Yu-Xiang Wang (2018) and look in to the pre-processing steps more carefully. Yu-Xiang Wang has used some unusual normalization methods especially regarding the sensitivity bounds. We are able show that those had little effect on the results and the AdaSSP algorithm shows its superiority over SSP algorithm also when combined with more common data standardization methods. A small adjustment for the noise levels is suggested for the algorithm to guarantee privacy conditions set by classical Gaussian Mechanism. We will combine different pre-processing mechanisms with AdaSSP algorithm and show a comparative analysis between them. The results show that Robust private linear regression by Honkela et al. (2018) makes significant improvements in predictions with half of the data sets used for testing. The combination of AdaSSP algorithm with robust private linear regression often brings us closer to non-private solutions