The thesis is focused on the issue of the Squalius genus phylogeography in Albania in the Balkan region. Phylogenetic analyses of sequence variation at mitochondrial genes (cytochrome b) were used to examine these issues for the freshwater fish genus Squalius from various river systems in the Adriatic Sea region. There were identified 3 genetic lineages of vague taxonomic position where the genetic variation amount to 1.6-2.1 %. The first lineage is distributed in north of Albania and in the whole Periadriatic region, the second lineage is especially spread to northern part of Albania and the third lineage covers especially the zone of the European ancient lake systems on the Balkan Peninsula (Lake Ohrid and Prespa), from where expands to the southern part of Albania. There sympatrically coincide the both lineage in the hydrological river-lake system of Drin and Skadar. The phylogenetic and taxonomic position of the Squalius genus in the region seems to be interesting topic for subsequent and more detailed study. Keywords: Squalius, Albania, cytochrome b, phylogeography

Water resources information in Albania is very scarce. The country does not have a consolidated monitoring network to collect hydrological and other related data and the quantity and quality of the carried out measurements carried out is limited. The water institutions are very fragmented and the monitored and collected data are being stored in different databases, and non-standardized formats, making it hard for the data to be easily retrieved and exchanged. This thesis explores the available water resources and related data that there is in Albania, and also in the European and Global level. The thesis provides some recommendations as to a way of establishing a water resources geodatabase for Albania focusing on some relevant guidelines from the European Commission and the World Meteorological Organization. In the second part of the thesis, a mean annual precipitation map is compiled as a demonstration of one of the uses of a geodatabase. / text

Thesis (M.S.P.H.)--University of Michigan, 1935.

Thesis (M.S.P.H.)--University of Michigan, 1935.

No description available.

Yes

This thesis is an historical examination of the most radical antireligious policy in Eastern Europe under Communism. It will document the Albanian government's religious policy during the Communist period between 1944--1991, devoting special attention to the policy initiated during the Albanian Cultural Revolution (1967) which outlawed all religious practice of Islam and Christianity, public and private, for a period of twenty-three years. Historical factors which had bearing on the Albanian regime's militant atheism will be surveyed. The ideology of the Albanian Communist Party, the main component of which is nationalism, will be cited as the foundation of the "World's First Atheist State." This research will further address the he vulnerabilities of Albanian religious institutions, making possible their vulnerabilities of Albanian religious institutions, making possible their abolition by the state, as well as the significant amount of popular resistance to the state's official atheism, ensuring the return of Islam and Christianity to Albanian society.

No description available.

Participatory budgeting is a tool that can be used to improve social accountability within public institutions through increasing the participation of citizens in decision-making processes about the distribution of public funds. The global experiences from the use of participatory budgeting indicate that the impact of the initiatives has ranged from very weak to highly successful, and that the successfulness depends on certain factors in the environment where it is implemented – even though there is no agreement on what these factors are. Albania is one of the countries where a range of civil society organizations are implementing participatory budgeting initiatives and is at the same time a country that faces one of the highest corruption levels in Europe. Despite the fact that these initiatives could bring very important impacts, very little academic research is done on this topic. The purpose of this thesis was therefore to investigate to what extent the participatory budgeting initiatives in Albania have improved social accountability in the Albanian societies, as well as what factors that have affected this impact and how. The investigation was carried out as a case study in Albania where nine different participatory budgeting initiatives were examined through conducting semi-structured interviews with the organizations implementing these projects, as well as one expert organization that has helped the other organizations to improve their knowledge on the tool and one public official from a municipality involved in one of the initiatives. The research of this thesis found that the Albanian participatory budgeting initiatives have succeeded to do minor improvements on social accountability through strengthening the voice of the citizens and the enforcement mechanism, while formal answerability still is low and negatively affects the sustainability of these improvements. It was further found that seventeen factors from five different categories have affected the ability of the initiatives to improve social accountability – some more than others. These categories were: formal and informal political systems, supportive legal and policy frameworks, local capacity and knowledge, free media institutions, and availability of information. The contributions of the thesis included also the finding of a factor that was not mentioned by the theory (trust by local governments in civil society organizations), as well as a structure on how these influencing factors interact with each other.

No description available.