The Phraseological Unit as an Expression of Experience: The Case of the Words “Baltë” (Mud) and “Bukë” (Bread)

Phraseological units are syntagmatic unions of elements and also a union of concepts. Investigation in the subsystem of phraseological units is a process that allows the investigation of spiritual structures of a human community. The entirety of phraseological units created with a word creates a cognitive conceptual scheme related to experience and the knowledge system of a society regarding that object/occurrence. It can be said that, in Albanian, phraseological units formed with the word “baltë” build a semantic structure for this object: the phraseological range of the word “baltë”. This manner of observation of the phraseological units is a method that delineates an overview of the collective cognition regarding a certain object or occurrence. Another method is to observe the phraseological units in a system by putting them in relation to one another. This has been done with three phraseological units that denote ethnographic occurrences and are formed with the word “bukë”.Keywords: phraseology, cognition, semantic structure, seme, mud, bread

Length of proceedings as standard of due process of law in the practise of the Constitutional Court of Albania

ECHR, as an international treaty is part of the Albanian legal system. Among international law instruments, the ECHR enjoys a privileged status in the Albanian legal system by virtue of Article 17 paragraph 2 of the Constitution according to which restrictions to human rights and freedoms cannot infringe the substance of those rights and freedoms and in no case can exceed the restrictions provided for in the ECHR. Article 1 of the Convention requires States to secure the substance of the rights to those in their jurisdiction. The effect of Article 13 is thus to require the provision of a domestic remedy to deal with the substance of an arguable complaint under the Convention and to grant appropriate relief. The scope of this paper is to analyse the effectiveness of the complaint to the Constitutional Court with regard to length of proceedings as part of due process of law in terms of proceedings during the court trial and after the process has been finalized and the final decision should be executed

Municipal expected annual loss as an indicator to develop seismic risk maps in Italy

This work presents a risk-targeted indicator called Municipal Expected Annual Loss (MEAL) for a quantitative estimation of the seismic risk at territorial level. With MEAL, it is possible to calculate the impact of earthquakes in terms of direct losses, taking account of a wide set of earthquake scenarios on the built environment at municipal level. MEAL is, therefore, able to summarize scenario loss values of each municipality, and define in such a way a risk-targeted metric that can clearly be understood also by different stakeholders dealing with seismic risk management, mitigation, and transfer. The use of MEAL to map seismic risk for the Italian residential building stock is herein presented as a case-study, leading to the development of several maps able to depict seismic risk at different territorial scale levels

The Politics of Sexual Psychopathy: Washington State\u27s Sexual Predator Legislation

What are the principles that guide this return to indeterminacy? Taken at face value, rehabilitation would seem to be the goal of the civil commitment provisions that make avail- able a treatment program to cure and reintegrate sexual offenders. Of course, rehabilitation was unequivocally rejected by determinate sentencing reformers, who considered it both discriminatory and ineffective.6 An alternative interpretation is that the sexual predator provisions lead in an incapacitative direction-that is, they are designed to predict which offenders are so dangerous that they must be more or less permanently institutionalized to protect the society. Either way, the sexual predator legislation amounts to a repudiation of desert based, determinate sentencing based on the principle that sentencing has to do with past rather than future crimes. How are we to account for this retreat from the principles of determinate sentencing? The retreat may be viewed as an isolated exception or as an indication of a shift in sentencing philosophies. Regardless of which approach best describes the retreat from determinate sentencing, our objective is to under- stand the criminological assumptions and political forces that drive the sexual predator legislation. This Article focuses on the political process and, in particular, on the role of victim advocacy. We also want to situate the sexual predator provisions criminologically-that is, to understand the criminological argument in favor of these provisions and to explore the societal implications of moving sentencing in this direction

Exopolysaccharide protects Vibrio cholerae from exogenous attacks by the type 6 secretion system

The type 6 secretion system (T6SS) is a nanomachine used by many Gram-negative bacteria, including Vibrio cholerae, to deliver toxic effector proteins into adjacent eukaryotic and bacterial cells. Because the activity of the T6SS is dependent on direct contact between cells, its activity is limited to bacteria growing on solid surfaces or in biofilms. V. cholerae can produce an exopolysaccharide (EPS) matrix that plays a role in adhesion and biofilm formation. In this work, we investigated the effect of EPS production on T6SS activity between cells. We found that EPS produced by V. cholerae cells functions as a unidirectional protective armor that blocks exogenous T6SS attacks without interfering with its own T6SS functionality. This EPS armor is effective against both samespecies and heterologous attackers. Mutations modulating the level of EPS biosynthesis gene expression result in corresponding modulation in V. cholerae resistance to exogenous T6SS attack. These results provide insight into the potential role of extracellular biopolymers, including polysaccharides, capsules, and S-layers in protecting bacterial cells from attacks involving cell-associated macromolecular protein machines that cannot readily diffuse through these mechanical defenses

A. Thomson and the History of Books in Albanian

An important part in writing the history of a nation’s culture is also played by the history of this nation’s books. The 1860-1894 period, which corresponds to Alexander Thomson’s years of service among Albanians, is an important period in the history of books in Albanian. This is the stage when this history entered its modern phase. The question arises: How is this historical period and its impact described and registered? This research draws an approach between the reality of books in Europe, not limited to this period, and the situation of publications in the Albanian language. Before Thomson began his work of publications in the Albanian language, the reality of books in Albanian was such that, according to us, they could not reach a sufficient mass of people to be considered an influential factor in the history of the formation of the national identity. When Thomson ended his service among Albanians in the Albanian language, the contribution of the British and Foreign Bible Society and the British Association for Religious Brochures had brought over 20 titles of publications to existence, and one of the greatest merits of this work was bringing books to a broad number of simple readers, books that were the same as ordinary European publications of the era.Keywords: history of books, circulation, document, mother tongue, national identity, the Bible

Place Attachment in Seven Areas of Tirana, Albania

Little is known about place attachment in the Balkans. This study aims to start filling this gap. After a contextualization of place attachment studies in the Balkans and its relevance for research and practice, a brief review of theory is offered. Then the methodology of the empirical part of the study is clarified. Over 300 citizens living in seven different neighborhoods of Tirana have been interviewed on place attachment issues such as sense of belonging, familiarity, self-identification and neighborhood experience. The results of the empirical study show that place attachment in Tirana is quite positive. The findings and analysis indicate that place attachment indicators do not vary significantly according to educational level, gender and age, but do cor-relate with length of residence. It also appeared that place attachment indicators are higher in well-established neighborhoods compared to the new high-rise areas. The study concludes with recommendations for follow-up research, specifically qualitative research on citizens’ meanings of place attachment and study on place attachment related to responsible behavior