Gender-Based Analysis of Locus of Control among University Teachers

The purpose of the present study was to analyze the gender difference with the locus of control among university teachers. The major objective of this research was to explore gender-based analysis among university teachers regarding the locus of control. All public sector university teachers of Islamabad were the population of this study. A simple random sampling technique was applied in order to select a representative sample from the population. The study sample consisted of 100 teachers (51 males and 49 females) from 5 public sector universities. The researcher developed locus of control instrument consisting of twenty-seven items. For data tabulation and analysis, appropriate statistical tools were used. The analysis of data showed that there was a significant difference exist between locus of control and gender. It may be recommended that awareness programs of internal locus of control should be conducted by the higher authorities in the universities for female educators.

Community Perspectives on the Implementation of Building Permits (IMB) for Environmental Sustainability in South Jakarta, Indonesia

Building construction will increase along with the increase in population in urban areas. For maintaining the carrying capacity of the environment to remain in balance, it is necessary to have a control instrument in the development of urban areas, one of which is through a Building Permit (IMB). To increase the effectiveness of the policy for implementing the IMB, it is essential to know the public’s perception of the IMB and experts regarding their views. Through interviews, questionnaires, spatial analysis, and AHP, this research is expected to be a material consideration for stakeholders in deciding policies for implementing IMB in South Jakarta. Spatial analysis was used to compare land cover, questionnaires were used to see people’s perceptions of building permits as an instrument for controlling and protecting urban areas, and AHP was used to validate the expert team’s opinion regarding IMB. The increase in green land in South Jakarta, the perception of public awareness in South Jakarta regarding the obligation to build a IMB and its impact on the environment is still high, and the accountability factor of the implementing licensing organization is one of the factors that can increase the effectiveness of the application of a building permit (IMB) in South Jakarta.

Field evaluation of the combination of larvicide and rice stem immersion to improve lethal ovitrap effectiveness in dengue vector control

The combination of temephos and attractants from O.sativa was effective for lethal ovitrap in laboratory testing. However, the effectiveness of the field application needs further investigation. The study’s objective was to determine the influence of ovitrap installation sites, season variation, and attractant on lethal ovitrap efficacy. The study used a quasi-experimental design. Lethal ovitraps were installed indoors and outdoors in 102 houses and observed for 14 weeks. Statistical analysis was conducted with univariate analysis, independent t-test, and Mann-Whitney Test. The statistical analysis results showed no significant difference in positive ovitraps between LOA and LONA on indoor and outdoor applications. The number of positive ovitraps and trapped eggs was not affected by the attractant applied to the LO during indoor and outdoor observations. Lethal ovitrap can be used as a vector control instrument without the addition of attractants. The application of lethal ovitrap is more effective in the dry season when the mosquito population is lower than in the rainy season

Opportunities and Pitfalls of Fluorescent Labeling Methodologies for Extracellular Vesicle Profiling on High-Resolution Single-Particle Platforms

The relevance of extracellular vesicles (EVs) has grown exponentially, together with innovative basic research branches that feed medical and bioengineering applications. Such attraction has been fostered by the biological roles of EVs, as they carry biomolecules from any cell type to trigger systemic paracrine signaling or to dispose metabolism products. To fulfill their roles, EVs are transported through circulating biofluids, which can be exploited for the administration of therapeutic nanostructures or collected to intercept relevant EV-contained biomarkers. Despite their potential, EVs are ubiquitous and considerably heterogeneous. Therefore, it is fundamental to profile and identify subpopulations of interest. In this study, we optimized EV-labeling protocols on two different high-resolution single-particle platforms, the NanoFCM NanoAnalyzer (nFCM) and Particle Metrix ZetaView Fluorescence Nanoparticle Tracking Analyzer (F-NTA). In addition to the information obtained by particles’ scattered light, purified and non-purified EVs from different cell sources were fluorescently stained with combinations of specific dyes and antibodies to facilitate their identification and characterization. Despite the validity and compatibility of EV-labeling strategies, they should be optimized for each platform. Since EVs can be easily confounded with similar-sized nanoparticles, it is imperative to control instrument settings and the specificity of staining protocols in order to conduct a rigorous and informative analysis.

Non-extensive value-at-risk estimation during times of crisis

Value-at-risk (VaR) is a crucial subject that researchers and practitioners extensively use to measure and manage uncertainty in financial markets. Although VaR is a standard risk control instrument, there are criticisms about its performance. One of these cases, which has been studied in this research, is the VaR underestimation during times of crisis. In these periods, the non-Gaussian behavior of markets intensifies, and the estimated VaRs by typical models are lower than the real values. A potential approach that can be used to describe the non-Gaussian behavior of return series is the Tsallis entropy framework and nonextensive statistical methods. This paper has used the nonextensive models for analyzing financial markets’ behavior during crisis times. By applying the q-Gaussian probability density function for emerging and mature markets over 20 years, we can see a better VaR estimation than the regular models, especially during crisis times. We have shown that the q-Gaussian models composed of VaR and Expected Shortfall (ES) estimate risk better than the standard models. By comparing the ES, VaR, [Formula: see text]-VaR and [Formula: see text]-ES for emerging and mature markets, we see in confidence levels more than 0.98, the outputs of q models are more real, and the [Formula: see text]-ES model has lower errors than the other ones. Also, it is evident that in the mature markets, the difference of VaR between normal condition and nonextensive approach increases more than one standard deviation during times of crisis. Still, in the emerging markets, we cannot see a specific pattern. The findings of this paper are useful for analyzing the risk of financial crises in different markets.

De functionele waarde van het lokale enquêterecht: Een onderzoek naar waarheidsvinding met en proportioneel gebruik van het lokale enquêterecht ter versterking van de controlerende rol van de gemeenteraad

Since the dualization of the municipal administration in 2002, the municipal council has access to the right of local inquiry to strengthen its supervisory role. This control instrument gives the municipal council extensive control powers, such as the possibility to hear witnesses under oath. These powers are a means for the municipal council to obtain - whether or not under duress - all factual information regarding the conduct of the council and the mayor. Thus, right of local inquiry serves as a tool with which the council and the mayor can be monitored to ensure the best interest of the population. A precondition for the local right of inquiry is that the control instrument is used proportionally. There has not been much research to determine the extent to which local right of inquiry actually strengthens the supervisory role of the municipal council. This paper, aims to address this gap hence it forms the basis of the thesis. In order to answer this question, the local right of inquiry has been examined normatively and empirically. The normative study, in which the regulations of the local right of inquiry were compared with the expectations of the control instrument, shows that the summary regulation contains many bottlenecks. The consequences of these bottlenecks have been empirically investigated by (among others) examining all local inquiries up to 2019. This revealed that municipal councils rely on obtaining information through local inquiries which do not present factual information. This hinders the process of obtaining the actual on ground information. Moreover, the control instrument is only sporadically used proportionally. Another fact that came to light was that the local right of inquiry is of value for various (political) accountability relationships. This is a gross misuse as the control instrument is not intended for this purpose. In light of the summarized aforementioned findings, it has been established that the local right of inquiry does not strengthen the supervisory role of the municipal council as expected, but legal amendments can be implemented to rectify this.

Financial Analysis and Value Creation

The business environment is increasingly complex and demanding, and companies now face a pandemic situation with severe repercussions for the global economy. With this in mind, it is clear that the information provided by financial analysis is more than ever an essential instrument for management control, for decision making. Value creation is considered one of management's primary objectives; however, there is still no consensus on the superiority of value-based measures over traditional measures based on profit. The study intends to highlight the importance of complementing the financial analysis, based on traditional valuation measures, using value creation as an essential management control instrument. Thus, using the case study methodology, an analysis of historical performance will be performed using data from a company listed on Euronext Lisbon from 2014 to 2018. Economic Value Added (EVA®) was used to measure value creation.