Critical thinking in the Albanian school reality

It is largely stated that schools are the inventions of human society, designed tooperate in accordance with the requirements and needs of the society. Therefore, in orderto bring about and cope with the challenges of any time, the teachers and professors, todayand at all times, need to know not only how schools are now, but how they will be in thefuture.Hence, among a great number of school problems, it remains imperative the issueof changing and improving such methods as aiming at developing students' thinking.Thinking is defined in different ways, but the most common and acceptable is theone which determines it as a psychological process, a form of general reflection of reality in human consciousness through concepts, judgments and justifications.Thinking is something we carry out at any time and often without realizing whatwe are doing. In the meantime, it might occur that we stop and "wonder" about the issuewe are thinking or we need to think. For example, we come across a problem and need tomake a decision; we write a paper and need to think deeply about what we have to say; astudent is called for during a class and he/she thinks deeply when dealing with an issue,etc.. Different authors call it "conscious thought" which can be influenced by the pedagogicalwork of the educators

An insight into Green/ Ecological Architecture and Natural building

It is the beginning of a view which incorporates an improved mindset regarding the relationship between construction and environment, the discovery of new forms and contents, as well as the claim that the art of construction is at a new phase which will without doubt change our lifestyle, always in accordance with the spirit of nature

Arkitektura si shprehje politike/ Pasqyrimi i identitetit kombëtar në ndërtesat e ambasadave/ Përvoja e Berlinit

Nuk duhet anashkaluar fakti se pas rënies së “Murit të Berlinit”, ai u bë një lokacion me kritika të ndryshme dhe me serë mundësish në fushën e dizajnit dhe arkitekturës, kryesisht në arkitekturën diplomatike e cila pati dhe akoma do të ketë një mundësi për të simbolizuar qartë secilin komb. Ajo çka mund të dallohet në kuadër të këtij studimi është fakti se një grup i kombeve janë në gjendje të përshtaten me qasjet dhe konceptet bashkëkohore, më konkretisht çfarë ka nevojë bota/toka për momentin dhe mënyrën se si të tjerët e tregojnë fuqinë e tyre me anë të ndërtimit të këtyre fortifikimeve (kjo e fundit nuk mund as të quhet fuqi, por mënyrë për t’u mbrojtur nga të tjerët). Për fat të keq duket se arkitektura do të gjendet gjithmonë në dilemën se çfarë bëhet dhe çfarë do të mund të bëhej. Si rezultat, analiza e objekteve të studimit tregon përfaqësimin e një shteti, vendi apo rajoni në kontekstin e arkitekturës, megjithatë mund të dallohet se këto struktura shkojnë në drejtime të ndryshme ose më mirë të themi, mundohen të shprehin botëkuptime të ndryshme se si duhet të përfaqësohen konkretisht në këtë mjedis dhe çfarë përbën (Kombi) interes më të madh për ta

Kosovo - An Atypical Parliamentary Republic

The topic of this comparative study is the republican character of the system of governance in Kosovo. In the public discourse and political communication, as well as in academic discourse Kosovo is considered a Parliamentary Republic, based on the principle “of the separation of powers and checks and balances between them.” Although the constitutional definition of the relationship between the executive and legislative favors parliamentary republicanism, the constitutional powers of the president, the government and especially the constitutional and political power of the prime minister, significantly weaken the parliamentary character, in favor of a semi-presidential system. However, neither the current theories of government, nor constitutional provisions can rank Kosovo among semi-presidential systems, or pure parliamentary systems. Comparisons of competence powers relations in Kosovo, with similar relations and competences of the countries of the region and beyond, testify to the specific nature of parliamentary democracy in Kosovo. It is precisely the comparison of the Kosovo constitutional-legal system of governance with similar systems and theoretical analysis of parliamentary models facing Kosovo model which will be the basis of support of the hypothesis that Kosovo is not a typical parliamentary republic

Architecture as Political Expression/ the Expression of national identity in embassy buildings; Berlin experience

We should never leave behind the fact that after the “Wall” went down in Berlin, it became a location with various judgments and possibilities in the sphere of design and architecture, especially in the architecture of diplomacy which had and still has a chance to clearly symbolize the particular nation. What could be noticed in this particular work is the fact of a group of nations being able to adapt to openness and contemporary concepts, concretely, what the world/ earth needs for the moment and the way others try to show their power by building fortresses (this might not even be considered power, but the way to be protected from others). It seems to be unfortunate that architecture will always be in the dilemma of what can be done and what should be done. As a result, the analysis of the study object shows the representation of a State, Country or Region in an architectural context, however, it can be noticed that they all go in different directions or better say, try to express different understanding of how should they be represented in this particular environment and what is for them (the Nation) of a greater importance

Një vështrim në arkitekturën e gjelbër/ ekologjike dhe ndërtimi natyror

Është një nismë e vështrimit i cili përfshinë mendimin e korrigjuar në lidhje me marrëdhënien në mes të ndërtimit dhe mjedisit, zbulimin e formave dhe përmbajtjeve të reja, si dhe pohimin se arti i ndërtimit është në një fazë të re e cila padyshim do të ndryshoj mënyrën tonë të jetesës, gjithmonë në përputhshmëri me gjuhën e natyrës

Automatic inverted pendulum control system

This project is about developing of an Inverted Pendulum that been control by PID controller. The Inverted Pendulum is a classical control system problem due its nonlinear characteristic and unstable behavior. It is have same concept like the hand (broom) to maintain the stick upright. An inverted pendulum is a pendulum attach directly with the sensor (potentiometer) at pivot point. The cart mounted directly on the tire to move horizontal either forward or backward. The movement of mechanical part can be determining using PID controller and implement to microcontroller.Microcontroller used in this project is Arduino UNO. PID controller is obtained using MATLAB through Simulink. Lastly, the performances of PID controller are test on hardware to maintain the pendulum upright. Based on the result, the inverted pendulum manages to reach stability

TURKISH LOANWORDS AND THEIR IMPACT IN THE ALBANIAN HOMONYMOUS LEXICAL ITEMS CORPUS

In principle, the line separating polysemy from homonymy is clear, but in practice the criteria for identifying distinct senses can be problematic. It is not always easy to decide at which point two meanings of one polysemic word merit separate entries in the dictionary. Homonymy is often spoken of side by side with polysemy especially in traditional accounts of how meanings originate and multiply. Over and over again, words which possibly started out with one coherent meaning develop new senses; then these senses get differentiated and loose connection with one another.  The central problem we need to tackle is how homonymy is outlined in Albanian and more specifically how to analyze the entire process throughout which the homonyms appeared as a result of the historical evolution of the language system and the continuous interrelation of the Albanian and the other Indo-European languages. Homonymy as a process represents one of the most controversial issues in modern lexicological and semantic studies because of the complexity of single lexical forms being associated with multiple distant senses. Focusing on the most crucially debated issues related to homonymy we would like to point out some basic problems such as the concept of homonymy, types of homonyms and the sources, types of homonyms and the degree of consistency, their importance and use in everyday communicative interaction. Among the most productive sources of homonymy such as disintegration (split of polysemy) and the convergent sound development we intentionally selected a very interesting way of obtaining perfectly new lexical items accidentally having the same outer form, as a result of a pure coincidence between a native word and a borrowed one. Dealing more concretely with the Albanian language homonymous corpus in term of statistic data we notice that there are about 500 homonymous pairs and lines (1050 words in total) which have been listed so far and the classification of the most important types of homonyms requires nothing but purely etymological analysis and interpretations. Based on the number of homonyms we have exploited there do namely exist three main types of direct or indirect relations, all of them lacking any possible historical and etymological trace and relation (native, native borrowed, mixed)   Exploiting the abundant number of borrowings from Turkish we found out that the adoption and the assimilation of these loanwords has contributed in the process of enlarging the Albanian language lexicon and at the same has influenced in the enrichment of the homonymous lexical items corpus due to early contacts and as a consequence of historical, social and cultural relations between two language communities. Analyzing  Albanian and Turkish homonymous lexical items we found out many reliable means of backing up the claims we made and sustain our arguments  that  constant and frequent interactions between the given languages have contributed in sense relation and meaning development processes as well.In principle, the line separating polysemy from homonymy is clear, but in practice the criteria for identifying distinct senses can be problematic. It is not always easy to decide at which point two meanings of one polysemic word merit separate entries in the dictionary. Homonymy is often spoken of side by side with polysemy especially in traditional accounts of how meanings originate and multiply. Over and over again, words which possibly started out with one coherent meaning develop new senses; then these senses get differentiated and loose connection with one another.  The central problem we need to tackle is how homonymy is outlined in Albanian and more specifically how to analyze the entire process throughout which the homonyms appeared as a result of the historical evolution of the language system and the continuous interrelation of the Albanian and the other Indo-European languages. Homonymy as a process represents one of the most controversial issues in modern lexicological and semantic studies because of the complexity of single lexical forms being associated with multiple distant senses. Focusing on the most crucially debated issues related to homonymy we would like to point out some basic problems such as the concept of homonymy, types of homonyms and the sources, types of homonyms and the degree of consistency, their importance and use in everyday communicative interaction. Among the most productive sources of homonymy such as disintegration (split of polysemy) and the convergent sound development we intentionally selected a very interesting way of obtaining perfectly new lexical items accidentally having the same outer form, as a result of a pure coincidence between a native word and a borrowed one. Dealing more concretely with the Albanian language homonymous corpus in term of statistic data we notice that there are about 500 homonymous pairs and lines (1050 words in total) which have been listed so far and the classification of the most important types of homonyms requires nothing but purely etymological analysis and interpretations. Based on the number of homonyms we have exploited there do namely exist three main types of direct or indirect relations, all of them lacking any possible historical and etymological trace and relation (native, native borrowed, mixed)   Exploiting the abundant number of borrowings from Turkish we found out that the adoption and the assimilation of these loanwords has contributed in the process of enlarging the Albanian language lexicon and at the same has influenced in the enrichment of the homonymous lexical items corpus due to early contacts and as a consequence of historical, social and cultural relations between two language communities. Analyzing  Albanian and Turkish homonymous lexical items we found out many reliable means of backing up the claims we made and sustain our arguments  that  constant and frequent interactions between the given languages have contributed in sense relation and meaning development processes as well

The Challenges of Collecting the Immovable Property Tax: The Case of the Republic of Kosovo

Property tax is the only tax in Kosovo which can be collected by municipalities as a result of fiscal decentralization. Key services at the local level are expected to be delivered by the revenues collected from the Property Tax, thus, delay or no payment of it impedes the delivery of these key services. The purpose of this project was to analyze the property tax collection in Kosovo and the factors that influence it. The analysis has been carried out through a triangular method of a legal overview, descriptive analysis of property tax collection rates, and qualitative analysis of the sources of low collection rates in Kosovo. Property Tax collection rate is still low at 40.46% and has been slowly increasing over the previous years. As to the sources of low collection rates this thesis concludes that the problems concerning property tax collection are of a systemic nature, including improperly designed laws, lack of institutional capacities, interference of politics, and decreasing citizen tax morale. The recommendations following the study are increasing the number of workers in Property Tax Departments, social-welfare oriented policies, enhanced accountability and transparency in local governments, dispersed investment combined with adequate campaigning, and adequately channeled foreign aid resources

Liability of the multimodal transport operator – the case of Kosovo

This paper gives a particular attention to the handling of the multimodal transport operator’s liability in view of the new legislation in Kosovo, in terms of comparison with international legislation. From the research carried out in this area of transport, it has been found that, over the last decades, the international transport of goods has become more sophisticated and effective, and has increased rapidly because of the increased use of containers. Containers have advanced the flexibility to focus more on an integrated movement of goods instead of the movement specifically associated with a certain mode of transport. Unfortunately, this technical flexibility has been accompanied by a severe rigidity in the legal field in Kosovo as well. Although the transfer of goods from one type of transport to another type of transport has been greatly facilitated as a result of the container revolution, developments in the area of international and Kosovo legislation in the field of transport have not followed this pace. The recommendations on the necessity of a better regulation of the liability of the multimodal transport operator in the new legislation in Kosovo have been given at the end of this paper