The Relationship between Foreign Banking and Credit Access: Panel Analysis Method

After 1990, the crises in planned economies has resulted with accept of the free market system and disintegration of this country blocks. The transition economies are defined as process of approaching work to the free market system of markets. Privatization efforts especially in finance markets of transition economies have increased interest to these markets of foreign banks. From the studies concern with enter of foreign banks to the market show that there are both advantages and disadvantages. In this study, the relationship between the allocation of credit and the presence of foreign banks in transition economies examined for the period of 1995-2010. In the study panel data method is used. The aim of the study is examine aspects and effects between the presence of the foreign banks and the loans to the private sector. Also the effect of foreign bank on accessing to credit in transition economies examined in macroeconomic level. Findings obtained from the study empirical applications and theoretical supports from literature supports that when the existence share of foreign banks numerically and in the banking sector is examined, it is observed that foreign banks make the credit accessibility of the firms more difficult

The changes of social structure and migration in cities in Albania

Dramatic revolution in Eastern Europe were culminated with the most in self closed country Albania that started to protest against the communism government's power. At1986's in Eastern Europe started to live in a new pool of thoughts that the fundamental onewas liberalism. Liberalism thought gets revolutions that were not be seen before. Theserevolutions did not contain only political aim, but also their aim was to get new changes insocial, cultural and economic structures.Also in Albania liberal movements started after 1986, and had aim to collapse the system ofcommunism and to create a new democratic-liberal political system. In this paper we willexplain the political and social changes, urbanization and social problems that were appear inAlbanian society after 1990's. Also the effect that have appear to social values by the changeof the social structure and the formation of new conscious in Albanian society

Učinak trotjednog davanja suplemenata cinka i melatonina na oksidacijski-antioksidacijski sustav u eksperimentalnoj bubrežnoj ishemiji-reperfuziji kod štakora

Renal ischemia-reperfusion directly affects glomerular and tubular epithelium. Oxygen free radicals have a significant part in the pathophysiology of renal ischemia-reperfusion injury. The present study aimed to identify the effects of 3-week zinc, melatonin, and zinc + melatonin supplementation on malondialdehyde (MDA) levels in tissue and plasma and glutathione levels (GSH) in erythrocytes and tissue of rats with experimentally induced renal ischemia-reperfusion injury. The study included Wistar albino rats with a mean weight of 250 g. Study groups were formed as follows: control, sham-control, ischemia + reperfusion, zinc + ischemia-reperfusion, melatonin + ischemia-reperfusion, and zinc + melatonin + ischemia-reperfusion. Animals were supplemented with zinc and melatonin 3 mg/kg/day i.p. for 3 weeks before the induction of ischemia-reperfusion. Renal ischemia-reperfusion was induced in the left kidney under general anesthesia and consisted of ischemia for 45 minutes and reperfusion for 1 hour. After the procedure, animals were sacrificed and blood and kidney samples were collected to analyze MDA and GSH levels. GSH values in kidney tissues and erythrocytes were found to be elevated in the groups supplemented with zinc and melatonin (p<0.005). When MDA values in renal tissue and plasma were examined, it was seen that ischemia significantly elevated this parameter, while zinc and melatonin supplementation significantly inhibited MDA values (p<0.002). The results of the study indicated that oxidative injury of the blood and renal tissues of rats increased in association with ischemia-reperfusion, but zinc and melatonin supplementation before ischemia-reperfusion markedly reduced this oxidative damage.Bubrežna ishemija-reperfuzija izravno djeluje na glomerularni i tubularni epitel. Slobodni radikali kisika imaju značajnu ulogu u patofiziologiji bubrežne ishemijsko-reperfuzijske ozljede. Cilj ovoga ispitivanja bio je utvrditi učinke trotjednog davanja suplemenata cinka, melatonina i cinka + melatonina na tkivne i plazmatske razine malondialdehida (MDA) te na razine razine glutationa (GSH) u eritrocitima i tkivu štakora s eksperimentalno izazvanom bubrežnom ishemijsko-reperfuzijskom ozljedom. Ispitivanje je provedeno na Wistar albino štakorima srednje težine 250 g podijeljenim u sljedeće skupine: kontrolna, lažno kontrolna, ishemija + reperfuzija, cink + ishemija-reperfuzija, melatonin + ishemija-reperfuzija i cink + melatonin + ishemija-reperfuzija. Životinje su dobivale suplemente cinka i melatonina, 3 mg/kg/dan i.p. kroz 3 tjedna prije negoli je izazvana ishemija-reperfuzija. Bubrežna ishemija-reperfuzija izazvana je u lijevom bubregu u općoj anesteziji, a sastojala se od ishemije u trajanju od 45 minuta i reperfuzije u trajanju od 1 sata. Nakon zahvata životinje su žrtvovane, a uzorci krvi i bubrega uzeti su za analizu razina MDA i GSH. Vrijednosti GSH u bubrežnom tkivu i eritrocitima bile su povišene u skupinama koje su dobivale suplemente cinka i melatonina (p<0,005). Ispitivanje vrijednosti MDA u bubrežnom tkivu i plazmi pokazalo je da je ishemija značajno povisila ovaj parametar, dok je davanje suplemenata cinka i melatonina značajno inhibiralo vrijednosti MDA (p<0,002). Rezultati ove studije pokazali su da se oksidativno oštećenje u krvi i bubrežnom tkivu štakora povećalo uz ishemiju-reperfuziju, ali je davanje suplemenata cinka i melatonina prije ishemije-reperfuzije znatno smanjilo oksidativno oštećenje

Analysis of Teacher Candidates’ Educational Internet Self-efficacy Beliefs in Terms of Various Variables

AbstractNowadays, the rapid developments in informational technologies result in significant changes in the field of education as well as other fields. One of the most important changes is the use of internet for educational aims. In this sense, a new competence is now among the competencies expected from teachers; moreover, educational use of Internet has become a concept regarded for an efficient teaching process. The aim of this study is to analyze teacher candidates’ educational use of Internet self-efficacy beliefs in terms of various variables. The sample of the study conducted in descriptive model consists of teacher candidates at a state university. Educational Use of Internet Self-Efficacy Beliefs Scale and Personal Information Form were used as data collection tools. It is concluded that teacher candidates’ educational Internet self-efficacy beliefs have meaningful differences in terms of gender, departments they study on, how long they have used the Internet, duration of daily Internet use, the place they get online, and whether they desire to take their lessons online

Modern-day Slavery in Everywhere: Poland V Albania

This paper highlights the seriousness of modern-day slavery which is in everywhere. Special attention will be given to Poland and Albania, because these two countries have similar political past and economic conditions. Poland is a member of the EU and tries to regulate its law and policies in order to comply with the EU regulation on the one hand. On the other hand, it tries to improve its economic conditions and wealth distributions. Since the joining of the EU, millions of Poles have immigrated to other European countries and other part of the world in order to find a better live. Some these people journey might not be voluntary. Albania is not a member of the EU but is a candidate country of the EU. It is poor and more than 25% of population lives out of Albania. In other words, since 1990, millions of Albanian has immigrated into European countries and other part of world in order to find a better live. Some these people were forced by trafficker to get out of the country. The study will focus on ‘sexual exploitations’, child labor and ‘organ trafficking’ in these countries. After providing enough evidence about the seriousness of the problem, then the paper will examine existing prevention policies and legal frame work of these countries. Then the study will finish with conclusion

Traffic monitoring using video analytics in clouds

Traffic monitoring is a challenging task on crowded roads. Traditional traffic monitoring procedures are manual, expensive, time consuming and involve human operators. They are subjective due to the very involvement of human factor and sometimes provide inaccurate/incomplete monitoring results. Large scale storage and analysis of video streams were not possible due to limited availability of storage and compute resources in the past. Recent advances in data storage, processing and communications have made it possible to store and process huge volumes of video data and develop applications that are neither subjective nor limited in feature sets. It is now possible to implement object detection and tracking, behavioural analysis of traffic patterns, number plate recognition and automate security and surveillance on video streams produced by traffic monitoring and surveillance cameras. In this paper, we present a video stream acquisition, processing and analytics framework in the clouds to address some of the traffic monitoring challenges mentioned above. This framework provides an end-to-end solution for video stream capture, storage and analysis using a cloud based GPU cluster. The framework empowers traffic control room operators by automating the process of vehicle identification and finding events of interest from the recorded video streams. An operator only specifies the analysis criteria and the duration of video streams to analyse. The video streams are then automatically fetched from the cloud storage, decoded and analysed on a Hadoop based GPU cluster without operator intervention in our framework. It reduces the latencies in video analysis process by porting its compute intensive parts to the GPU cluster. The framework is evaluated with one month of recorded video streams data on a cloud based GPU cluster. The results show a speedup of 14 times on a GPU and 4 times on a CPU when compared with one human operator analysing the same amount of video streams data

Pre- and post-estrogen administration in global cerebral ischemia reduces blood-brain barrier breakdown in ovariectomized rats

The aim of present study was to determine the effect of estrogen treatment on blood-brain barrier permeability in rats with induced global cerebral ischemia. The study included six-month-old female Sprague-Dawley rats which were divided into the following groups: Control-Ischemia-Reperfusion (C + I-R); Ovariectomy-Ischemia-Reperfusion (Ovx + I-R); Ovariectomy + Estrogen + Ischemia-Reperfusion (Ovx + E + I-R); Ovariectomy + Ischemia-Reperfusion + Estrogen (Ovx + I-R + E). Ischemia-reperfusion was induced by clamping two carotid arteries, then opening the clamp. Blood-brain barrier permeability was visualized by Evans Blue extravasation and quantified by spectrophotometry. Our results indicate that following ischemia-reperfusion the BBB permeability is increased in ovariectomized rats (Evans Blue extravasation) compared to the control group in the cortex, thalamus, hippocampus, cerebellum and brain stem, while in the midbrain no significant increase was detected. In contrast, BBB permeability in the groups treated with estrogen, administered either before or after ischemia-reperfusion, was significantly lower than in ovariectomized animals. In conclusion, the increase in BBB permeability resulting from experimentally induced cerebral ischemia was prevented by exogenous estrogen treatment. The study results indicate that estrogen may be used for therapeutic purposes in ischemia-reperfusion

Development of a modular dual engine hybrid electric vehicle simulation model

Depleting resources of fossil fuel, climate change impacts, high oil prices, and strict emission requirements are leading to the research on efficient, environmentally friendly, and lowered fossil fuel dependent solutions in the transportation field. While a number of studies used computer modeling and simulation tools to investigate hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), very few attempted to model and simulate a dual-engine hybrid vehicle. Designing a vehicle engine to meet energy needs in the fully loaded condition is not an optimal solution for manufacturers and customers. The larger the engine, the higher the manufacturing costs for companies, and higher fuel consumption for customers. The integration of dual-engine hybrid technology can help to solve this problem. The objective of this study was to design and simulate a dual-engine hybrid electric vehicle (DE-HEV) model to investigate whether it can be a fuel efficient and environmentally friendly solution without sacrificing vehicle performance. The simulated DE-HEV uses two small engines instead of one large engine. In the simulated design, a smaller single engine supplies the power if the energy need is not more than a single engine can provide. The second engine turns on when the power demand is greater than the single engine can supply. Working models for the DE-HEV components, such as an electric motor, generator, battery, and the controller have been developed using the Matlab/Simulink™ simulation package. Each model was validated with test data from the literature. Appropriate power management strategy has been developed to accommodate the dual engine design. Fuel-efficiency, overall performance, and manufacturing cost for the simulated DE-HEV model have been compared against current commercial models. Simulation results showed that DE-HEV has between a 2% to 6% higher efficiency than comparable HEVs. Cost analysis results showed that the manufacturing cost of DE-HEV is 11% higher. Performance of the vehicle was tested with standard drive cycles. Test results are satisfactory; although there was significant increase in fuel-efficiency, because of its higher initial manufacturing cost, maintenance, and complexity, DE-HEVs may have challenges in the short term. However, with expected decreases in manufacturing costs of battery storage and power electronics technology, the implementation of DE-HEVs can be feasible transportation options in the near future

COVID-19: DETERMINING THE CHANGING MOTIVATIONS OF INTERNATIONAL SECOND HOME TOURISTS IN COASTAL TURKEY

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought dramatic changes in all the areas of life, and has inflicted many societal costs. The negativities in the field of health and economy are the prominent ones. The whole process significantly affected human behavior, preferences, and priorities. The aim of this study is to determine the impact of COVID-19 on the motivations of international second home tourists (ISHOT). In addition, motivations for buying or renting a second home in the pre-pandemic period, the push and pull factors affecting their decision to stay in a destination, and the emotional experience they had during the pandemic were also interpreted in the study. Qualitative data research method was used with semi-structured interview forms. In-depth interviews were conducted with 26 ISHOTs living in Alanya, coastal Turkey. The results proved that there were significant differences between pre-pandemic and post-pandemic motivations of ISHOTs for second homes. In the pre-pandemic period, increasing the quality of life, being happy, providing mental health and well-being, emotional relaxation, and getting away from stress were in the frame among the reasons that pushed ISHOTs to acquire second homes. During the pandemic, it was determined that these motivations were replaced by feelings such as anxiety, complaint, protection instinct, uncertainty, and a trust pledge. Low risk, information provision, hygiene, and health system were important reasons that pulled ISHOTs to their second homes during the pandemic process. Insecurity, late intervention, the health system, the risk of being infected, and inadequate precautions were the reasons pushing them away from their home countries