Characteristics, Perceived Skills and Leadership Styles of Female Executives in the Senior Executive Service

Recent studies have expressed considerable interest in the representation of women in the upper-level management in the federal government. Yet, very little is known about the characteristics and attributes of women in the executive level of the federal services. Most of the studies are undertaken to examine how women are different from the established male standards, or have used different models or variables to explain the slow career advancement of the women. Using a 1991 survey of 278 female executives in the Senior Executive Service (SES) this study examines the characteristics, personal attributes, barriers, experiences, and leadership styles of women who achieved executive status in the federal government. The findings suggest that various factors play a role in the representation of the women in the SES. This research also underscores the barriers that female executives in the SES have encountered as they pursued their career growth to the top-level administrative position. The results further suggest that the majority of women executives in the federal government identify their executive style as advocates, but display characteristics of different types of executives

The effectiveness of positive psychological capital training on health-enhancing lifestyle and rumination in depressed adolescent girls

Background and Aim: The positive approach emphasizes the ability to expand, nurture, flourish, and perfect human beings and become what they can be, and instead of focusing on diseases and disorders, it emphasizes on abilities. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to determine the effect of positive psychological capital on health-promoting lifestyle and rumination in depressed adolescent girls. Methods: This research is applied in terms of purpose and quasi-experimental in terms of method with a pre-test, post-test design with a control group; The statistical population of this research was the female students of middle school 1 and 2 in Tehran in the academic year 2018-2019. By the available sampling method, using the Health Development Lifestyle Questionnaire (1997) and Nolen Hoeksma's rumination, 30 depressed adolescent girls were selected and randomly placed in two experimental groups (15 girls) and group (15 girls). The experimental group received 8 sessions of 90 minutes as a group intervention based on Luthans and Youssef's (2004) positive psychological capital training. Data were analyzed using multivariate and univariate one-way analysis of covariance.  Results: The results showed that positive psychological capital intervention is effective on healthy lifestyle and rumination. Conclusion: The results of this research showed that the eight sessions of positive psychological capital have been able to significantly improve the health-developing lifestyle of adolescents; Although it was not very effective in the field of rumination. Due to the effectiveness of this treatment method, its widespread use is recommended

Dynamic linkages among equity markets in the Middle East and North African countries

The relaxation of security laws and regulations in emerging markets in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) provides abundant opportunities for foreign investors. These markets exhibit high-expected returns and substantial volatility. In this paper, we investigate the lead/lag relationship between the MENA countries and regions. We find no market causality or spillover from one country to another in the North Africa region. Our results for the Levant region reveal that there are linkages between stock markets in this region. The results for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region show that there is more interaction and linkage in the GCC region than in the North Africa and Levant regions. An unexpected result is that UAE's stock market leads all the markets in this region. Finally, we investigate linkages among the three regions. We find that GCC influences the other two regions.Emerging markets MENA capital markets State space models

A Mixed Integer Linear Programming Approach for Optimal DER Portfolio, Sizing, and Placement in Multi-Energy Microgrids:

Optimal microgrid design is a challenging problem, especially for multi-energy microgrids with electricity, heating, and cooling loads as well as sources, and multiple energy carriers. To address this problem, this paper presents an optimization model formulated as a mixed-integer linear program, which determines the optimal technology portfolio, the optimal technology placement, and the associated optimal dispatch, in a microgrid with multiple energy types. The developed model uses a multi-node modeling approach (as opposed to an aggregate single-node approach) that includes electrical power flow and heat flow equations, and hence, offers the ability to perform optimal siting considering physical and operational constraints of electrical and heating/cooling networks. The new model is founded on the existing optimization model DER-CAM, a state-of-the-art decision support tool for microgrid planning and design. The results of a case study that compares single-node vs. multi-node optimal design for an example microgrid show the importance of multi-node modeling. It has been shown that single-node approaches are not only incapable of optimal DER placement, but may also result in sub-optimal DER portfolio, as well as underestimation of investment costs