China and Albania: the Cultural Revolution and Cold War Relations

During the central decades of the Cold War, China was Albania’s only ally. The aim of this article is to analyse how the Chinese Cultural Revolution affected Sino-Albanian relations. This article argues that the events in China threatened to undermine the Sino-Albanian alliance, because Albania did not endorse most of the Cultural Revolution’s policies, but supported it only for the sake of relations with China and the benefits received from this alliance. In a time when the Cultural Revolution caused enormous difficulties to the Chinese economy, Albania nonetheless received an increasing amount of aid. Based on recently released archives, this case study sheds light on this underexplored Cold War alliance and adds to our understanding of how the Cultural Revolution had implications beyond China’s borders

The Challenges of Adapting the Syntactic Constructions to the Translation of the Poems of Charles Baudelaire

The translation of poetry has always been a problem and is considered difficult, as it includes a number of language and extraneous factors that make it difficult. Our paper approaches to the translating process of the poetry volume “The Flowers of Evil” by Charles Baudelaire focusing on linguistic and syntactic literary translation. Studies done so far in Albania have focused mostly on the literary aspects of the poems, addressing its stylistic and artistic views. Thus, through this paper we thought to treat the language of the poems, concretely the syntactic challenges of their translation. This paper is conceived as a study of theoretical and practical character in the field of Translation Studies. Through translation theories and translation process strategies as well as grammar and syntax manuals, our study sheds light on the translation of Charles Baudelaire's "The Flowers of Evil" work by basing research and comparative analysis on the theories and views of theorists, researchers and syntaxists such as: Peter Newmark, Umberto Eco, Edmod Tupe, Émile Benveniste, André Lefevere, F. de Saussure etc. Keywords: Challenge, translation, poetry, syntax, comparative analysis etc. DOI: 10.7176/JLLL/52-0

Patent strategy in the digital transformation era

The digital transformation and big data paradigms have expanded across many research fields, including both strategy and innovation. Although existing research attempts to keep up with the pace of these phenomena, more in-depth knowledge of how patent big data can help firms and managers in their decision-making process is still needed. Based on patent co-classification analysis, this paper aims to provide two different but complementary patent tools; the first exploits ex-ante patent information whereas the latter integrates it with ex-post details extracted by patent documents. We further investigate the technology positioning and links as well as examine the industry’s «excellence» technology structure conceived as the combination of the technology elements that has yielded high-impactful inventions

Sino-Albanian relations during the Cold War, 1949-1978 : an Albanian perspective

This thesis is an exploration from the Albanian perspective of the Sino-Albanian relations during the Cold War. Based on primary sources, I look at the Sino-Albanian alliance in the broader context of the Cold War, and international relations’ system. In particular, I explore this alliance as an asymmetric role-based Cold War alliance, in which Albania provided political support to China, whereas China provided economic and military support to Albania. As a small country with little political leverage on the international stage, following the Second World War Albania became first a Soviet satellite and the Soviet outpost in the Southeastern European flank, providing Soviet Union with a strategic position in front of the NATO bases in Italy – around forty miles from Albanian coasts. Eventually, two factors undermined the Albanian-Soviet alliance: Khrushchev’s reformation, reflected in the destalinization process, and the Soviet rapprochement with Yugoslavia – by then Albania’s main antagonist. In this context, China emerged as the new ideal ally for Albania, for political, ideological, and economic support. The Albanian leadership’s decision to intensify relations with Beijing was motivated also by the new Soviet leadership’s refusal to assist Hoxha in his economic plans to prioritize the development of heavy industry. The combination of the economic aspects with those concerning the political reforms after Khrushchev’s model, which undermined Hoxha’s Stalinist rule, pushed Albania to seek in China an alternative to the Soviet Union. For China instead, following the Sino-Soviet split, Albania became the only European country to provide Beijing with support in its claims for leadership in the international communist movement, and to support – although not fully endorsing – Mao’s domestic policies. Albania, arguably, became the only country to provide external support to the Chinese Cultural Revolution, mitigating China’s self-imposed isolation. In the broader context of the Cold War, Albania served as the only European platform for China’s power projection in the western hemisphere. It also became the strongest voice in supporting China and Chinese interests on the international stage, and international organizations, the most important being the United Nations. In this context, for a limited time and for limited tasks, Albania’s diplomatic network, and Albania’s foreign policy, was put at China’s disposal. During the 1960s, between China and Albania developed a surrogate diplomacy: Tirana, acting on behalf of Beijing, provided China with the diplomatic infrastructure Beijing lacked because of its underrepresentation. The Sino-American normalization, however, undermined the ideological axis upon which Albania had allied with China. Later, Deng Xiaoping’s reformation era reshaped China’s foreign aid principles, reducing also the aid to Albania. Finally, towards the end of the 1970s, the Sino-Albanian alliance ended

AGRICULTURE AND THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SUPPORT POLICIES IN ALBANIA ON FOCUS: FRUIT PRODUCTION

This study refers to some very important issues regarding the support policies applied generally on agriculture and mainly on fruit production as a developing strategic sector. It aims to analyze the impact of applied support schemes, for a sustainable agriculture sector and evaluate the development of fruticulture. The application of direct support schemes, aiming to intervene on the improvement of agriculture technology, drainage and irrigation, increased numbers of orchards inventory and storage capacities in order to increase production and quality, it looks to be the main trend of development. The study contributes on the increased knowledge over the impact of actual support schemes in the region and gives recommendations on different options over the effects of agriculture support schemes. The research paper will be conducted based on a detailed review of the available literature, in order to determine clearly the situation of the applied support policies and its effects on the development of agriculture and fruit production

Rural Microcredit: Evidences From Albania

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the issues and concerns of Albanian rural credit, which is a powerful tool for enhancing production and productivity and for poverty alleviation. Further it highlights some of the strategies adopted by the Albanian government to increase the rural credit facilities in the rural area of Albania. The various problems faced by the farmers in applying for loans are analysed in detail. Rural credits serve as a tool for providing a sustainable livelihood for people who lives in these areas. Several organisations and Microfinance Institutions,. are playing a major role in providing rural credit facilities to rural Albania. to make the rural credit facilities available to most of the needy. In spite of several efforts put up by various organisations to increase the rural credit facilities, several challenges will prevail in the years to come.These aspects of the financial sector remain undervalued in mainstream literature on rural credit. With Albania being a nation in which more than 40 percent of people live in rural areas and rural credit being a powerful, and the only, tool for rural people in providing a means of livelihood, its importance and potential should be known to each individual

LA NASCITA E L'EVOLUZIONE DEL WEB MARKETING CON APPLICAZIONE PARTICOLARE AL SETTORE ALBERGHIERO

La parte teorica della tesi tratta la nascita e l’evoluzione del Web con specifico riferimento al Web Marketing alberghiero. La parte sulla ricerca di mercato invece, si pone l’obiettivo di analizzare il livello di conoscenza e di utilizzo del Web come strumento per effettuare le prenotazioni alberghiere da parte dei turisti, focalizzandosi principalmente sulle Online Travel Agency (OTA), e sul sito Web ufficiale dell’albergo

Allopurinol alters the expression of cytokines and mediators of immune cells in the systemic 2 tissue by decreasing plasma urate.

Diminished levels of urate have been linked to oxidative stress in birds and mammals. Urate, a major antioxidant that lowers reactive oxygen/nitrogen species (ROS/RNS), is thought to ameliorate the effects. The relationship between reduced urate, the immune system and the pathogenesis of the intestine, the liver or the brain has not been well characterized in avians. Moreover, recent studies have proposed that an increased permeability in the intestine due to some insult can induce inflammation in peripheral organs such as the brain. Allopurinol, a relatively toxic purine analogue that serves as a xanthine oxidase inhibitor, reduces urate levels which can subsequently induce an inflammation state in the intestine. For this study, White Leghorn Chickens (n=44) were divided into 11 groups, which constituted of six control groups and five allopurinol treatments fed at 15 mg/kg body weight. The dose of allopurinol was increased 5 mg/kg body weight each week for 12 weeks. Blood samples were obtained by from the brachial vein of the wing. Liver panel blood chemistries were performed to characterize the inflammations state. At the end of the study, tissues were removed after cervical dislocation and placed in liquid nitrogen. Expression levels of TNF-α, IL-6, FASLG and COX-2 were subsequently investigated in the intestines, liver and midbrain. The results showed that urate was reduced in all treatment groups regardless of time (p \u3c 0.05), treatment groups exhibited reduced amounts of bile acids throughout time (p \u3c 0.05) and female treatment groups exhibited increased amounts of LDH and AST from week 2 to the end of the experiment (p \u3c 0.05). The effect of allopurinol on the intestines of females showed that expression of IL-6, COX-2, TNF-α expression increased from every other group by 185.93, 211.74 and 107.52 times respectively (p \u3c 0.05). TNF-α expression in the liver decreased in both females and males by 3 and 2-fold respectively (p \u3c 0.05). FASLG expression in the liver decreased 2-fold in both male and females respectively (p \u3c 0.05). The effect of allopurinol on the midbrain of females showed that IL-6 expression decreased by 0.061fold (?) (p \u3c 0.05) whereas in males IL-6 expression increased by almost 2-fold (p \u3c 0.05). COX-2 expression in the midbrain increased in females and males by 7 and 10 times (p \u3c 0.05). The midbrain of treated females reveal that the inflammatory potential was reduced in the brain tissue of female chickens due to decreased IL-6 expression. Females were found respond more intensely to allopurinol administration from an increase of intestinal permeability which could alter the laying quality and reproductive fitness. Lastly, an upregulation of IL-6 in males also induce inflammation and could be used to create a model of neuropathological disorders