Albania's Central Bank's Monetary Policy Has Failed

The subject of this paper will be the Central Bank's monetary policy in terms of the Albanian monetary market. Its purpose will be to determine the effects of monetary policy, its consequences on some of the key macroeconomic indicators. From the analysis of data, it was found that the Central Bank's policy, which has its main objective, "achieving and preserving the level of prices", is applied in the conditions of an unequal monetary market, because the money market is almost divided equal to 50/50 between currency and local currency (All). These main internal factors, and other external factors, have made the monetary policy applied by the Central Bank to have no impact or have negative consequences on key macroeconomic indicators. Central Bank monetary policy is currently smothered. Some of the negative consequences are: the decline of the impact on the inflation indicator, the transition of the Albanian economy to the "liquid trap", the change in the structure of deposit usage in favor of debt instruments, decrease of deposits in total and deposits in lek, the decline in purchasing power of deposits, the reduction of credit and the change of their structure, consequently the reduction of productive investments, euro depreciation, trade deficit growth, etc. Under these conditions, only fiscal policies have an impact. In order for the Central Bank's policies to become effective, with concrete implications on the economic indicators, fundamental changes need to be made. First, change its main objective by having the main objective "currency stability and economic growth" secondly, to establish a fully state-owned commercial bank in order to support the monetary policies and key sectors of the economy. The methods used in this paper are the method of description, comparison, analysis and synthesis, statistical methods etc.

Description and evaluation of a peracetic acid air sampling and analysis method

Peracetic acid (PAA) is a corrosive chemical with a pungent odor, which is extensively used in occupational settings and causes various health hazards in exposed workers. Currently, there is no US government agency recommended method that could be applied universally for the sampling and analysis of PAA. Legacy methods for determining airborne PAA vapor levels frequently suffered from cross-reactivity with other chemicals, particularly hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Therefore, to remove the confounding factor of cross-reactivity, a new viable, sensitive method was developed for assessment of PAA exposure levels, based on the differential reaction kinetics of PAA with methyl p-tolylsulfide (MTS), relative to H2O2, to preferentially derive methyl p-tolysulfoxide (MTSO). By quantifying MTSO concentration produced in the liquid capture solution from an air sampler, using an internal standard, and utilizing the reaction stoichiometry of PAA and MTS, the original airborne concentration of PAA is determined. After refining this liquid trap high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method in the laboratory, it was tested in five workplace settings where PAA products were used. PAA levels ranged from the detection limit of 0.013 parts per million (ppm) to 0.4 ppm. The results indicate a viable and potentially dependable method to assess the concentrations of PAA vapors under occupational exposure scenarios, though only a small number of field measurements were taken while field testing this method. However, the low limit of detection and precision offered by this method makes it a strong candidate for further testing and validation to expand the uses of this liquid trap HPLC method.

A horizontally polarizing liquid trap enhances the tabanid-capturing efficiency of the classic canopy trap

Host-seeking female tabanid flies, that need mammalian blood for the development of their eggs, can be captured by the classic canopy trap with an elevated shiny black sphere as a luring visual target. The design of more efficient tabanid traps is important for stock-breeders to control tabanids, since these blood-sucking insects can cause severe problems for livestock, especially for horse- and cattle-keepers: reduced meat/milk production in cattle farms, horses cannot be ridden, decreased quality of hides due to biting scars. We show here that male and female tabanids can be caught by a novel, weather-proof liquid-filled black tray laid on the ground, because the strongly and horizontally polarized light reflected from the black liquid surface attracts water-seeking polarotactic tabanids. We performed field experiments to reveal the ideal elevation of the liquid trap and to compare the tabanid-capturing efficiency of three different traps: (1) the classic canopy trap, (2) the new polarization liquid trap, and (3) the combination of the two traps. In field tests, we showed that the combined trap captures 2.4–8.2 times more tabanids than the canopy trap alone. The reason for the larger efficiency of the combined trap is that it captures simultaneously the host-seeking female and the water-seeking male and female tabanids. We suggest supplementing the traditional canopy trap with the new liquid trap in order to enhance the tabanid-capturing efficiency.

The Distribution of Cigarette Smoke Components between Mainstream and Sidestream Smoke: III. Middle and Higher Boiling Components

Yields in sidestream smoke (SS) and mainstream smoke (MS) and sidestream smoke to mainstream smoke distribution ratios (SS/MS) of middle and higher boiling compounds, including neutral ones, were investigated for four types of unblended cigarette (bright, Burley, Turkish and domestic (cv. Matsukawa)). Both sidestream and mainstream smokes were separately collected with a combination of a glass fiber filter assembly, a small Elmenhorst cold trap and a liquid trap containing acetone cooled by dry ice - methanol. Of the 31 components quantitatively determined by gas chromatography, nicotine and acetic acid were the predominant components in both sidestream and mainstream smokes from all types of tobacco, followed by limonene, phenol, 3-vinylpyridine and 2-furaldehyde in sidestream smoke and neophytadiene, 3-hydroxypyridine, phenol and acetamide in mainstream smoke. The SS/MS ratios of the major compounds were as follows: pyridine, 10.2-13.3; limonene, 4.3-2.1; 3-picoline, 5.2-10.1; 2-cyclopentenone, 2.9-3.8; 2-furaldehyde, 4.9-7.4; pyrrole, 9.0-13.7; furfuryl alcohol, 3.0-4.8; acetamide, 0.8-1.7; 2.4-pentadien-4-olide, 5.2-8.9; neophytadiene, 1.0-1.8.