Issue 10 (2014)http://dspace.epoka.edu.al/handle/1/14642024-03-29T08:09:57Z2024-03-29T08:09:57ZA Critique of the Philosophical UnderpinningsOppong, Sethhttp://dspace.epoka.edu.al/handle/1/14812016-04-22T19:49:04Z2014-07-01T00:00:00ZA Critique of the Philosophical Underpinnings
Oppong, Seth
The progress of the social science disciplines depends on conducting relevant research. However, research methodology adopted and choices made during the course of the research project are underpinned by varying ontological, epistemological and axiological positions that may be known or unknown to the researcher. This paper sought to critically explore the philosophical underpinnings of the social science research. It was suggested that a “multiversal” ontological position, positivist-hermeneutic epistemological position and value-laden axiological position should be adopted for social science research by non-western scholars as alternative to the dominant naïve realist, positivist, and value-free orientation. Against the backdrop of producing context-relevant knowledge, non-western scholars are encouraged to re-examine their philosophical positions in the conduct of social science research.
2014-07-01T00:00:00ZThe Albanian mechanism for guaranteeing the right to compensation for unjust imprisonment and wrongful conviction, in the light of obligations arising from international actsHajdini, Bojanahttp://dspace.epoka.edu.al/handle/1/14802016-04-22T19:47:36Z2014-07-01T00:00:00ZThe Albanian mechanism for guaranteeing the right to compensation for unjust imprisonment and wrongful conviction, in the light of obligations arising from international acts
Hajdini, Bojana
Punishment with imprisonment and the security measureof detention on remand, are among the most severe sanctions and convictions provided by the albanian criminal legislation. The unjust serving of such measures or punishments implies serious psychological and economic consequences for both the convicted person and his/her family members. Similar to the infringement of any right and freedom, the unjust infringement of the right to liberty, induces the obligation to return the person in the previous state and to provide compensation for related consequences. Besides the right to effective remedy, the international human rights acts provide, specifically, for the right to compensation of the person in cases of an unlawful arrest or detention, as well as in the case of serving an unjust punishment as a result of the miscarriage of justice. In both hereof mentioned cases, these acts acknowledge the right to compensation for unjust imprisonment, while leaving it to the member states to establish a special mechanism under the domestic legislation which would enable actual fulfillment of such right for the citizens of the said country. This paper is an attempt to present an overview of the Albanian legislation regarding the mechanism established toward the effective implementation of the right to compensation, in the case of decisions of the respective state institutions causing the unlawful or unjust imprisonment, from the point of view of respective international obligations.
2014-07-01T00:00:00ZCorruption and innovation in the Albanian public procurement systemKashta, Reidahttp://dspace.epoka.edu.al/handle/1/14792016-04-22T19:46:02Z2014-07-01T00:00:00ZCorruption and innovation in the Albanian public procurement system
Kashta, Reida
This paper examines the measures and means used to fight against corruption in public procurement in Albania. Because public procurement is one of the key areas where the public sector and the private sector interact financially and this interaction is based on public money, it is a prime candidate for corrupt activity, cronyism and favoritism as well as outright bribery. The question marks that this paper raises are: what are the means used in the war against corruption in the public procurement field in Albania? Did they had any real impact or they just reshaped the ways of doing corruption? The main finding of this paper is that introduction of e-procurement system was one of the most appropriate means to fight corruption in Albania, because this system fixed one of the biggest problems of the Albanian Public Procurement system; lack of transparency. The electronic system is transparent, since it provides the increasing of information passing through it, and the most important, it enhances the responsibility in relations between the contracting authorities and economic operators, enabling a more effective and efficient use of the tax payers’ money.
2014-07-01T00:00:00ZArtificial neural networks in forecasting tourists’ flow, an intelligent technique to help the economic development of tourism in AlbaniaGjylapi, DezdemonaDurmishi, Veronikahttp://dspace.epoka.edu.al/handle/1/14782016-04-22T19:44:43Z2014-07-01T00:00:00ZArtificial neural networks in forecasting tourists’ flow, an intelligent technique to help the economic development of tourism in Albania
Gjylapi, Dezdemona; Durmishi, Veronika
Tourism plays an important role in many economies and contributes greatly to the Gross Domestic Product. In the past eight years, the number of tourist arrivals in Albania has increased rapidly, which resulted in increasing the number of tourist nights and revenue from tourism. Tourism also provides new sources of income for the country, without having that local citizen to pay more taxes. This can be achieved by income from parking, tourist taxes, leased apartments, sales information, etc. Early prediction on the tourist inflow mainly focuses on econometric models that have as a main feature the tourism demand being predicted by analysing factors that affect the tourists’ inflow. This approach results in being difficult, time-consuming and also expensive to determine econometric models. Traditional time series methods, such as exponential smoothing method, grey prediction method, linear regression method, ARIMA method etc., are more appropriate for the prediction of the tourist inflow. However, since they don’t apply a learning process on sample data, it is difficult for them to realize complicated and non-linear prediction on tourist inflow. The aim of this paper is to present the neural network usage in the tourists’ number forecasting and to determine the trends of the future tourist inflow, thus helping tourism management agencies in making scientific based financial decisions.
2014-07-01T00:00:00Z