The provision of services by companies in specific domains requires continuous commitment and a constructive approach to meet customer requirements, however, it is often challenging to determine the level of customer satisfaction without their feedback. Therefore, this paper attempts to provide a solution to this problem by using comments from social networks and evaluating their sentiment using the VADER model. In order to accomplish the aim of our research, a lexicon has been built with more than 9500 adjectives and verbs (...) from the Albanian language based on VADER which is just in the initial form and the sentiments are evaluated as positive, neutral, or negative. The lexicon was constructed for the Albanian language and two companies of the Republic of Kosovo were researched as case studies. Furthermore, the sentiment estimation, using the VADER model, in case of our datasets, we obtained a high accuracy, approximately between 89% and 95%. This level of accuracy has been primarily attributed to the application of all preprocessing steps within the dataset, which significantly enhances the model’s performance. (shrink)

There are multiple positive effects of internationalization of Higher Education (HE) on enriching students’ experiences in general and providing opportunities for exchange and development of all segments of university functioning. This paper aims to contribute to determining the role of institutional QA in promotion of the international cooperation in HE by analysing undergraduate students’ perceptions on their international experience and comparing them to their home University. Individual experiences of students from the Southeast European University (SEEU) in North Macedonia, who participated (...) in Erasmus exchange program in the last two academic years (2021/22 and 2022/23), with regard to the main quality assurance (QA) principles and measurements applied at their home University, are being considered. Their academic progress at the international universities is also taken into consideration. The aim is to collect firsthand information from the main stakeholders in the QA process about areas that can be further developed, as well as to position SEEU and self-check where it stands comparing and benchmarking it with some reputable European universities in order to better prepare its students for the international job market. SEEU has one of the most developed QA systems in the wider region, created and constantly being developed based on the international standards and guidelines and the long institutional experience. Thus, the paper also aims to contribute to defining some basic standards of internationalization of QA which would be recommended to the institutions from less developed, ITC (inclusiveness target countries) in order to assist them to place and welcome international students more successfully. (shrink)

Road accidents have increased rapidly in recent years for a variety of reasons. Analyzing and visualizing road accidents through heatmaps can help improve policies for their prevention by informing about areas with a high-risk of road accidents. The purpose of this research is to build a model for the analysis and visualization of road accidents through heatmaps. Information about road accidents is extracted from the news of the main online media portals through scripts in the Python language and Web Scraping (...) techniques. From the extraction of about 30,000 articles from news portals for one year, only 829 were selected in the end that provided information about road accidents. As a result, and contribution of this research, a corpus was built with the geographic coordinates of road accidents and on this data our model was applied for the analysis and visualization of high-risk areas of road accidents using heatmaps. The visualization of heatmaps was done through a Python script, where it was applied to the geographic coordinates of road accidents. (shrink)

This paper explores some of the basic similarities and differences between fault-based and no-fault systems of automobile accident insurance from the perspective of a U.S. state and the laws of Macedonia. The majorities of U.S. states have adopted an at-fault system of compensation and therefore share more similarities with Macedonia than the laws of a dozen U.S. states that have adopted a no-fault system. Whereas Macedonia employs a system of nearly universal health care, such is not the case in the (...) United States. The respective states have adopted either a fault-based system or a no-fault system, but in either case issues of coverage for automobile accidents is more complicated for the lack of a nationalized health care system that at minimum acts as a safety net for treatment of injuries related to automobile accidents. It is posited that complications relating to the lack of universal health care coverage in the United States has led to significantly heightened regulatory intervention by the several states such that the similarities between the free-market approach of the states and of civil law (code) systems are greater than the differences. The paper is not based on empirical data of the legal systems or the medical systems, nor is the undeniable interrelation between a medical system and the corresponding legal system with regard to insurance coverage of primarily health-based issues considered other than to highlight how both may play a part in regulation of the automobile accident insurance industry in light the involvement of public health, safety and welfare. (shrink)

The objective of this research paper is to examine the impact of monetary policy conditions on bank risk-taking in the Western Balkan countries. The paper tries to identify if monetary policy conditions, especially money interest rates, may induce a greater appetite for bank risk-taking in the Western Balkan countries. The impact of macroeconomic and banking indicators on bank risk-taking will be examined, too. For this purpose, we apply pooled OLS techniques, Fixed and Random effects panel, and Hausman-Taylor Instrumental IV model. (...) The econometric results show a negative correlation between the monetary policy rate and bank risk-taking, rejecting the hypothesis that monetary policy rates indicate bank risk increase. However, expansive credit policies or loan portfolio growth have a positive impact on bank risk-taking in the Western Balkans. The study is original, and its findings will be of value to Central Banks and other policymakers in the Western Balkan countries. (shrink)

The purpose of the study is to investigate the impact of stock market development on economic growth for nine developed European countries. In many countries, the stock market (SM), is considered. one of the crucial elements for promoting sustainable economic growth and development. By analysing data from nine developed European countries over 21 years, from 2000 to 2020, including Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Turkey, and Poland, this study seeks to determine the effect of the (...) stock. market. on economic growth. The years 2021 and 2022 are not included due to the lack of data, mainly as a result of the pandemic period. The dataset, extracted from the World Bank database, is used to generate results by applying different econometric models such as OLS, OLS Robust, Fixed, and the Random Effect, which turned out to be more suitable in this study. According to research, macroeconomic factors such as stock. market development (SMD), and inflation (INF), have a significant positive impact while, domestic credit to the private sector (DC), has a negative significant impact on economic growth, in respective periods and countries. Therefore, new research on this topic could help better understand the stock market’s impact on economic growth, and new conclusions might greatly benefit developed European countries. (shrink)

This research paper emphasizes the importance of NATO’s adaptation to non-traditional threats in maintaining stability and security in the changing security environment. It highlights the need for NATO allies to prioritize the development of strategies and action plans that address emerging issues such as new technologies, energy security, climate change, hybrid threats, and cyber threats. The paper suggests that in order to effectively counter these non-traditional threats, NATO must remain current with the latest technological advancements. As such, the paper recommends (...) that NATO allies develop new strategies and action plans without delay to counter these threats and ensure security. The relevance of NATO can only be ensured through its transformation and adaptation, which in turn makes its existence self-justified. (shrink)

The subject of the research refers to the aspect of digital forensics and computer crime and the latter is one of the reasons for the evolution of crime in general. Based on the growing trend of technology development and the increase in the number of digital crimes, a special emphasis is given to the statistical aspect of computer crime as well as measures to reduce the impact of computer crime, including the ethical and legal aspects in the Republic of North (...) Macedonia (RNM). To conduct this research, statistical data on computer crime in RNM from 2011 to 2020 were used, based on historical data of analysis, as well as comparison, correlation, and the ANOVA-test. The highest number of crimes were registered in 2020 and a special feature is that a positive linear trend can be observed during the last decade. “Damage and unauthorized access to a computer system” took the first place in computer crimes according to the Criminal Procedure Law. (shrink)

Two phenomena have been present in multiethnic/multinational Bosnia and Herzegovina since its independence from SFR Yugoslavia: massive depopulation and strong nationalism(s). Although nationalism influences which nation/ethnic group should produce and how, the links connecting these nationalistic ideologies and pronatalist population policies in the country/entity have been, almost paradoxically, left on the margins of the previous studies. This paper asks to what extent nationalist ideologies are present in the pronatalist population policy discourse in the Serb-dominated entity Republic of Srpska and what (...) nationalism it is. After developing Spectrum of Nationalism(s), a framework underlined by Siniša Malešević’s views on nationalism and ethnicity as ideologies, the paper provides an overview of Bosnia’s demographic processes and brief insights into Republic of Srpska pronatalist policies through a semi-structured literature review. Keeping in mind that media profoundly influences public opinion, discursively moulding policy debates, two most recent cases of pronatalist campaigns and programs in the Republic of Srpska: Let Our Children Be Born and National Programme of Demographic Revival, are analysed via critical discourse analysis (CDA). Selected media articles predominantly cover the period from 2018 onwards, concentrating on the commentaries of the ruling SNSD political nomenklatura. The analysis displays the powerful influence of nationalism on the discourse on population policies. However, on the spectrum of nationalism(s), civic nationalism seems only to be pro forma defined, while in RS’s reality, the abovementioned path has continued toward an ethnonationalism direction. (shrink)

This paper explores the “triangulation approach” in social science research methods. Triangulation is an emerging method specifically in qualitative and multi-method studies. Researchers in the social sciences have increased their use of the triangulation approach recently due to the merits of this approach, especially to conduct in-depth studies through multiple inquiries. Simultaneously, this method has criticism and misconceptions among social researchers in terms of what it is, how it can be used, and the credibility of the findings when used. Therefore, (...) this paper analyses in depth what triangulation is, the types of triangulations and how they can be applied in the social sciences. The study basically adopted systematic literature review and used 30 articles published in scientific journals. The paper critically reviewed journal articles related to triangulation, revealed how different types of triangulation methods have been applied in the social sciences and highlighted the merits and cautions of applying this method. The paper theoretically contributes to understanding the phenomenon of the triangulation approach and how it connects with qualitative and multi-method studies. In addition, it revealed that the following data collection techniques from multiple sources can be exploited: in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, literature, documents, and surveys on the triangulation method to improve the credibility and reliability of the research. Furthermore, the study empirically contributes to social science researchers applying this approach with proper understanding. (shrink)

This research paper aims to investigate. the impact of inflation. on financial sector performance in Western. Balkan. countries. The topic was chosen considering the financial sector’s fundamental role and its. impact on sustainable economic growth. This impact is measured through the effect that macroeconomic determinants of financial. performance such. as inflation, GDP. growth, general government final consumption expenditure, trade, and the lending interest rate have on credit to private sector as a share of GDP and broad definition of money as (...) a ratio of GDP, which were used to proxy financial sector development. The data are provided by the World Bank as well as the Central. Banks. of the respective countries, for the period 2002–2021. The research methodology consists of different panel regression models such as OLS, OLS robust, Fixed effects, Random effects, and Generalized method of moments (GMM). Findings indicate that domestic credit to the private sector and inflation are positively correlated, whereas broad money and inflation are negatively correlated. (shrink)

This research explores the nuanced realm of verbal violence, investigating its manifestations, consequences, and broader societal impact. Inspired by Albanian proverbs like “Words kill more than bullets” and “The tongue has no bones but can break them,” the study employs a multidimensional approach, integrating linguistic, sociological, and psychological perspectives. Analyzing various cultural definitions, the research unveils the complex nature of verbal violence, extending beyond simple exchanges to acts that seek to control, coerce, and inflict emotional pain. Emphasizing the urgent need (...) for awareness, understanding, and mitigation in today’s communication-centric world, the study navigates linguistic landscapes, revealing nuances reflective of the universal struggle to communicate without causing harm. Drawing on works by different authors, the research highlights verbal violence’s multifaceted nature, encompassing acts of force, contempt, and challenges to honesty. The paper concludes by underlining the hidden, yet potent wounds caused by verbal violence, advocating for collective efforts to foster communication promoting understanding, empathy, and positive change. (shrink)

The aim of this research is to find out the effect of green Human Resources Management and employee performance on work-life balance, in small and medium enterprises operating in transition economies, specifically in Kosovo. Additionally, this paper presents a comprehensive conceptual framework for green human resources management and work-life balance. In order to find out this relation, a questionnaire was delivered to employees of small and medium enterprises in Kosovo. The data collected was analyzed using STATA 14. To test the (...) hypothesis, a linear model was constituted, and a regression analysis was conducted using the OLS technique. The model results indicate positive linear correlation between green human resource management, work-life balance, and employee performance, which means that green HRM and employee performance have significant impact on work-life balance of employees in small and medium enterprises in transition countries. This study contributes to practical level, as it provides important information to companies in Kosovo, who should take into consideration the importance of incorporating new green strategies in their human resource practices to facilitate work-life balance for employees, consequently leading to enhance company performance. (shrink)

The research paper elaborates on the main concepts and terminology of strategic planning in education, including all the steps of building a strategic plan with mission and vision statements. Furthermore, it analyses and compares some successful strategic planning case studies in education by identifying the strengths and some weaknesses. The final results of this inquiry serve as recommendations for positive changes and reforms in North Macedonian education. Furthermore, this research paper emphasizes the importance of the SMART strategic goals for improving (...) education, articulated via the mission and vision statements. It is quite interesting that internationally accredited educational organizations like NOVA IS of Skopje have more successful improvement plans based on shared values and goals via their mission and vision. The implementation of their strategic plans is closely monitored and evaluated. Moreover, some successful educational reforms happened in Finland, Singapore, and Victoria, Australia, and their ministries of education are dedicated and accountable to aligning their mission and vision with all public schools in these countries. On the contrary, although the Ministry of Education of North Macedonia has clearly published the mission and vision statements, there is still a huge gap in the reality of implementation of those in all public schools, and rarely any school has a shared mission and vision on their web page. Browsing around, one primary school in North Macedonia, “Jan Amos Komenski” has recently started sharing their school’s mission and vision, values, and goals with the community which is a positive change toward SMART reforms. Strategic planning affects the improvement of learning and teaching; therefore it needs to be built inclusively and wisely. (shrink)

The purpose of this study was to explore teachers’ beliefs about multilingualism at universities in North Macedonia. Multilingualism as a concept is related to an individual’s ability to speak three or more languages. Given the educational and cultural globalization, multilingualism is crucial in many countries in the world. North Macedonia is an excellent example of multilingualism where different cultures live together and learn the languages of each other. At Universities across the country, teachers face different challenges while teaching multilingual classes. (...) Linguistic competence in many local languages allows students to learn foreign languages easily and thus raises students’ global awareness and deepens knowledge about their future teaching career. The study analysed data collected from thirty EFL teachers from four different universities, Southeast European University, University of Tetova, Mother Teresa University and International Balkan University in North Macedonia. The research instrument used was the teacher survey which contained five domains: Teachers’ perspective on multilingualism; Students’ language learning knowledge; Language teacher collaboration; Learning materials, and other topics related to L2 learning and teaching. The study results revealed that teachers view multilingualism as a positive asset for the students, and they expressed that they have developed an approach which helps multilinguals to achieve their learning goals. One area which needs improvement is teacher collaboration, as they tend to collaborate regarding materials and textbooks, however, not willing to share their experience on teaching methods/strategies and challenges faced. (shrink)

The educational process undergoes continuous evolution each year. These methods and tools have yielded positive outcomes, complementing the modern teaching practices being implemented in post-war Kosovo. It is noteworthy that our country has dedicated special attention to the field of education, actively seeking the best teaching methods that effectively bridge theory and practice. Consequently, the purpose of this research is to analyze the influence of auditory tools on the recognition of new vocabulary during English language classes. Additionally, this paper sheds (...) light on the impact of auditory tools in motivating students to enhance their English vocabulary. This small-scale research employed both qualitative and quantitative methods. The qualitative approach involved ten English language teachers, while the quantitative method encompassed one hundred students. The Likert scale was utilized, consisting of ten questions, to gather responses from fifth-grade students. The researcher aimed to include both high and low English proficiency students to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the results regarding the use of auditory tools for English vocabulary acquisition. In conclusion, the final results indicate that English teachers utilize auditory tools to teach English vocabulary to a certain extent, highlighting the need for increased investment in supplying the targeted schools with such tools. (shrink)

The phenomenon of domestic violence is as old as humanity itself, but legal protection against violence both internationally and nationally begins to be provided very late. In the Republic of North Macedonia, until 2004, there was no legal protection of victims of domestic violence, nor was adequate sanctioning of perpetrators. Only since 2004, with the amendments and additions to the Criminal Code in the criminal sphere, and the Law on the Family in the civil sphere, the phenomenon of domestic violence (...) began to receive due legal attention, with the application of provisions for the sanctioning of perpetrators and temporary measures protection for victims. The adoption of the Istanbul Convention (The Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence) and its ratification in 2018 undoubtedly contributed to the Republic of North Macedonia undertaking a series of reforms in the field of domestic violence. So initially, in 2021, the new Law on domestic violence was adopted in harmony with the principles of the Istanbul Convention, whereas in 2023 the Law on the amendment of the Criminal Code was adopted. This law focused on changes in criminal offenses related to domestic violence and gender-based violation, as well as the incorporation of new criminal offenses in this regard. These legislative reforms, especially the amendments approved in February 2023 which are of particular importance in the prevention and fight against domestic violence and violence against women in the Republic of North Macedonia are the focus of this research. Here we have analyzed and commented the approved changes to the Criminal Code of RNM. (shrink)

Knowing that language is often used as a classifier of human intelligence and the development of systems that understand human language remains a challenge all the time (Kryeziu & Shehu, 2022). Natural Language Processing is a very active field of study, where transformers have a key role. Transformers function based on neural networks and they are increasingly showing promising results. One of the first major contributions to transfer learning in Natural Language Processing was the use of pre-trained word embeddings in (...) 2010 (Joseph, Lev, & Yoshua, 2010). Pre-trained models like ELMo (Matthew, et al., 2018) and BERT (Delvin, et al., 2019) are trained on large corpora of unlabeled text and as a result learning from text representations has achieved good performance on many of the underlying tasks on datasets from different domains. Pre-training in the language model has proven that there has been an improvement in some aspects of natural language processing, based on the paper (Dai & Le, 2015). In present paper, we will pre-train BERT on the task of Masked Language Modeling (MLM) with the Albanian language dataset (alb_dataset) that we have created for this purpose (Kryeziu et al., 2022). We will compare two approaches: training of BERT using the available OSCAR dataset and using our alb_dataset that we have collected. The paper shows some discrepancies during training, especially while evaluating the performance of the model. (shrink)

Aquaculture plays a significant role in both economic development and food production. Maintaining an ecological environment with good water quality is essential to ensure the production efficiency and quality of aquaculture. Effective management of water quality can prevent abnormal conditions and contribute significantly to food security. Detecting anomalies in the aquaculture environment is crucial to ensure that the environment is maintained correctly to meet healthy and proper requirements for fish farming. This article focuses on the use of deep learning techniques (...) to detect anomalies in water quality data in the aquaculture environment. Four deep learning anomaly detection techniques, including Autoencoder, Variational Autoencoder, Long-Short Term Memory Autoencoder, and Spectral-Residual Convolutional Neural Network, were analysed using multiple real-world sensor datasets collected from IoT aquaculture systems. Extensive experiments were conducted for temperature, dissolved oxygen, and pH parameters, and the evaluation analysis revealed that the Long-Short Term Memory Autoencoder anomaly detection method showed promising results in detecting anomalies for the temperature and oxygen datasets, while the Spectral-Residual Convolutional Neural Network demonstrated the best performance on the pH datasets. (shrink)

This study investigates the effectiveness of integrating short stories with task-based learning activities in English as a foreign language (EFL) class to promote vocabulary development and motivation among L2 learners. Six short stories were selected by the participants based on their interests, pre- and post-tests were conducted to evaluate vocabulary acquisition and a questionnaire was used to gather information about the perception of task-based activities after reading short stories among students. The study involved 60 intermediate level English students at the (...) SEEU Language Center, assigned to either the control or experimental group. The experimental group completed post-reading tasks such as keeping vocabulary notebooks, reading circle discussions, sequencing activities, plot structure understanding, and group poster presentations after reading each story. The findings suggest that the incorporating engaging reading activities had a favorable effect on language learning. The experimental group exhibited greater vocabulary acquisition and comprehension than the control group. The follow-up tasks created a sense of achievement, improved communication and interaction among the students. According to the study, including comprehensible input through extensive reading along with constructive output from task-oriented exercises can effectively promote language progress and enhance students’ motivation thus effectively facilitating language development in L2 learners. (shrink)

Education, innovation, the labour force, and new businesses are considered the key important sectors (factors) for developed and emerging economies. The paper analyses are performed by using the Cobb Douglas production function for analysing the impact and correlation of these factors (variables) on the economic growth of Kosova during the period 2013 - 2021. The variables of public expenditures on education as a percentage of GDP and the labour force have shown a negative impact on growth and they have operated (...) under decreasing returns to scale (based on the Cobb-Douglas function), while the variables of information, computer and telecommunication services (which refer to innovation technology) and new business creation have indicated a positive impact on growth and they have operated under increasing returns to scale (based on the Cobb-Douglas function). In addition, this paper summarized a few useful conclusions: first, public expenditure on education should provide an important contribution on growth; second, enhancing the role of education to improve and develop new knowledge for the labour force in Kosova, and at the same time, to adapt with new labour market demand; third, information, computer and telecommunication is one of the leading export sectors and this sector should provide higher potential and contributions on the economic growth of Kosova; fourth, new businesses creation should provide a significant contribution to increase economic growth. These variables in many countries have made a key value contribution to the economy by driving it toward sustainability, development, and growth. (shrink)