Impact of Online Learning of Economics in Lebanon on Acquiring Essential Skills in Light of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The sudden and recent outbreak of the Covid-19 had its impact on the way of life around the entire world; it challenged the education systems around the globe and forced schools and universities to switch to online education overnight. Several schools and universities that were formerly hesitant to change their pedagogical approach had to switch completely to online education. The current paper explores the impact of online learning of Economics on acquiring essential skills in light of the Coronavirus outbreak from the economics teachers’ perspective. The researchers utilized a descriptive-analytical approach and constructed a quintet Likert style questionnaire which was electronically sent to a sample of Economics teachers working at Lebanese schools. The sample is made up of 153 teachers all of whom responded, and their responses were valid for analysis. The study rendered some noteworthy findings, mainly that through online learning of Economics, learners are not acquiring all of the 21st-Century skills. Based on the results, the researchers had some recommendations

Do Lebanese Banks Apply Balanced Scorecard in Evaluating Their Performance? An Exploratory Study

After the development in the administrative work and the focus on quality in its internal and external dimensions, in addition to the undesirable results of financial performance measures that are directed towards knowing past events and not what will be the case in the future, a new management concept appeared close to the end of the last century called the Balanced Scorecard, that balances financial and non-financial measures of performance, to assess short-term as well as long-term performance in a single report. The current research examines whether or not Lebanese banks apply the Balanced Scorecard by its four main dimensions (financial, client, internal operations, and learning-growth perspectives) in evaluating their performance. To achieve the objective of the study the researchers adopt the descriptive-analytical approach utilizing a five-point Likert style questionnaire as the study tool to collect information from the sample that consisted of 165 executives who work in different managerial positions of various departments at branches of banks listed in the Lebanese stock market. The study reached some important findings, mainly that there are potentials for applying the Balanced Scorecard with its four perspectives—primarily the financial perspective—in varying degrees in commercial banks listed in the Lebanese stock market. Based on the findings, the researchers had a set of recommendations directed to decision-makers in the banking sector

Measurements of the differential cross sections of the production of Z + jets and γ + jets and of Z boson emission collinear with a jet in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV

Measurements of the differential cross sections of Z + jets and γ + jets production, and their ratio, are presented as a function of the boson transverse momentum. Measurements are also presented of the angular distribution between the Z boson and the closest jet. The analysis is based on pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb−1 recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC. The results, corrected for detector effects, are compared with various theoretical predictions. In general, the predictions at higher orders in perturbation theory show better agreement with the measurements. This work provides the first measurement of the ratio of the differential cross sections of Z + jets and γ + jets production at 13 TeV, as well as the first direct measurement of Z bosons emitted collinearly with a jet. [Figure not available: see fulltext.]SCOAP