The current COVID-19 pandemic and the previous SARS/MERS outbreaks of 2003 and 2012 have resulted in a series of major global public health crises. We argue that in the interest of developing effective and safe vaccines and drugs and to better understand coronaviruses and associated disease mechenisms it is necessary to integrate the large and exponentially growing body of heterogeneous coronavirus data. Ontologies play an important role in standard-based knowledge and data representation, integration, sharing, and analysis. Accordingly, we initiated the (...) development of the community-based Coronavirus Infectious Disease Ontology in early 2020. -/- As an Open Biomedical Ontology (OBO) library ontology, CIDO is open source and interoperable with other existing OBO ontologies. CIDO is aligned with the Basic Formal Ontology and Viral Infectious Disease Ontology. CIDO has imported terms from over 30 OBO ontologies. For example, CIDO imports all SARS-CoV-2 protein terms from the Protein Ontology, COVID-19-related phenotype terms from the Human Phenotype Ontology, and over 100 COVID-19 terms for vaccines (both authorized and in clinical trial) from the Vaccine Ontology. CIDO systematically represents variants of SARS-CoV-2 viruses and over 300 amino acid substitutions therein, along with over 300 diagnostic kits and methods. CIDO also describes hundreds of host-coronavirus protein-protein interactions (PPIs) and the drugs that target proteins in these PPIs. CIDO has been used to model COVID-19 related phenomena in areas such as epidemiology. The scope of CIDO was evaluated by visual analysis supported by a summarization network method. CIDO has been used in various applications such as term standardization, inference, natural language processing (NLP) and clinical data integration. We have applied the amino acid variant knowledge present in CIDO to analyze differences between SARS-CoV-2 Delta and Omicron variants. CIDO's integrative host-coronavirus PPIs and drug-target knowledge has also been used to support drug repurposing for COVID-19 treatment. -/- CIDO represents entities and relations in the domain of coronavirus diseases with a special focus on COVID-19. It supports shared knowledge representation, data and metadata standardization and integration, and has been used in a range of applications. (shrink)

Philosophy, social problems, and global environmental change.

1. Chosŏn sidae Kyŏnghak ŭi kwanchŏm kwa yŏnbyŏn -- 2. Han'guk Kyŏnghak yŏn'gu ŭi hoego wa chŏnmang -- 3. Han'guk Kyŏnghak ŭi chŏn'gae wa t'ŭkching -- 4. "Taehak" haesŏk ŭi yŏn'gu hyŏnhwang kwa hyangbang -- 5. Chosŏn sidae "Chungyong" haesŏk ŭi yangsang kwa t'ŭching : Tosŏl ŭl chungsim ŭro -- 6. Chosŏn chŏn'gi kyŏngsŏ haesŏk kwa Yi Hwang, Cho Sik ŭi Kyŏnghak -- 7. Chosŏn hugi Yŏngnam ŭi Kyŏnghak yŏn'gu wa sot'ong ŭi mosaek -- 8. Paekho Yun Hyu ŭi kyŏnghakkwan (...) -- 9. 18-segi ŭi haksul tonghyang kwa Yi Ik ŭi Kyŏnghak -- 10. Sŏngho Yi Ik "Taehak", "Chungyong" haesŏk. (shrink)

Adolescence is a crucial time for social development, especially for helping and compassionate behaviors; yet brain networks involved in adolescent prosociality and compassion currently remain underexplored. Here, we sought to evaluate a recently proposed domain-general developmental network model of prosocial cognition by relating adolescent functional and structural brain networks with prosocial and compassionate disposition. We acquired resting state fMRI and diffusion MRI from 95 adolescents along with self-report questionnaires assessing prosociality and compassion. We then applied the Network-Based Statistic to inductively (...) investigate whether there is a significant subnetwork related to prosociality and compassion while controlling for age and sex. Based on the Do-GooD model, we expected that this subnetwork would involve connectivity to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex from three domain-general networks, the default mode network, the salience network, and the control network, as well as from the DMN to the mirror neuron systems. NBS revealed a significant functional subnetwork related to prosociality and compassion connecting 31 regions, showing DMN and DLPFC connectivity to the VMPFC; DMN connectivity to mirror neuron systems; and connectivity between the DMN and cerebellum. These findings largely support and extend the Do-GooD model of prosocial cognition in adolescents by further illuminating network-based relationships that have the potential to advance our understanding of brain mechanisms of prosociality. (shrink)

This paper describes the Electronic Schoolbag, a digital workspace developed at the University of Savoie (France) and analyses its usages. This online environment is dedicated to the educational world: it offers pupils, students, teachers, school staff, or parents, personal and group workspaces in which individual or collaborative activities can take place. The flexibility of this software, allowing synchronous or asynchronous activities, lies in the “participation model”. This model allows groups themselves to describe and organise their activities. The architecture that permits (...) its implementation in the Electronic Schoolbag workspace is described. The study of the practices of the workspace is then presented. This requires different observation methods, according to the different procedures chosen: real practices provided by quantitative methods (analysis of the logs of the actions and questionnaires) and imagined practices provided by qualitative methods (semi-directive interviews). The results obtained from the university users allow us to assess the evolution of the usages for different periods and on different university sites. The observatory also lets us list the main uses of the Electronic Schoolbag for educative communication (collaborative vs. individual, informative vs. communicative). (shrink)

Over recent years, the issue of corruption in the public construction sector has attracted increasing attention from both practitioners and researchers worldwide. However, limited efforts are available for investigating the underlying factors of corruption in this sector. Thus, this study attempted to bridge this knowledge gap by exploring the underlying factors of corruption in the public construction sector of China. To achieve this goal, a total of 14 structured interviews were first carried out, and a questionnaire survey was then administered (...) to 188 professionals in China. Two iterations of multivariate analysis approaches, namely, stepwise multiple regression analysis and partial least squares structural equation modeling were successively utilized to analyze the collected data. In addition, a case study was also conducted to triangulate the findings obtained from the statistical analysis. The results generated from these three research methods achieve the same conclusion: the most influential underlying factor leading to corruption was immorality, followed by opacity, unfairness, procedural violation, and contractual violation. This study has contributed to the body of knowledge by exploring the properties of corruption in the public construction sector. The findings from this study are also valuable to the construction authorities as they can assist in developing more effective anti-corruption strategies. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:A View of Life:Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, and the NovelYi-Ping OngI"My general task," Nietzsche scrawled, in the margins of his own copy of Cervantes's Don Quixote: "to show how life philosophy and art can have a deeper and affinitive relationship with each other."1 This enigmatic inscription commands a second reading not only because it seems to articulate the thread that links many of Nietzsche's philosophical projects together, but also because of (...) the very book in which it appears. The book is not a lofty tome of Schopenhauer's philosophy, as might be expected, but a mere novel: a fact which suggests that the novel itself was the art form that precipitated reflection on the relation of art to what Nietzsche calls here "life philosophy." In this essay, my aim is to deepen critical understanding of the novel's influence on Nietzsche and Kierkegaard, the two philosophers who are widely considered the fathers of existentialism. By means of a comprehensive overview of the novelistic reading and writing of these thinkers, I will show that both Nietzsche and Kierkegaard were profoundly influenced by the literary form of the novel and by its techniques for representing consciousness, subjectivity, and worldview.My focus in the analysis that follows is on the question of why Nietzsche and Kierkegaard read novels, and not on the more specific question of what they gained from particular novels. Isolating form from theme has three main advantages. First, it elucidates an important aspect of the intellectual context for these philosophers that has received little scholarly attention, namely the issue of why Nietzsche and Kierkegaard were drawn to fictional novelistic prose and how this literary form [End Page 167] affected their philosophy. Second, it allows the "deeper... affinitive" relationship between existentialist philosophy and the novel form to emerge, revealing the way in which existentialism and realism in the novel share a distinctive stylistic approach to the understanding of lived experience. Finally, it illuminates an intellectual precedent for the work of later existentialist thinkers such as Heidegger, Sartre, Beauvoir, and Camus, who drew increasingly on novelistic forms as both vehicle and inspiration for their philosophy.There are no previous studies devoted entirely to the novels read by Nietzsche and Kierkegaard, despite the fact that Nietzsche lists Stendhal and Dostoevsky as two of the greatest influences upon his thinking and that Kierkegaard's first published work is the review of a novel. Why did Nietzsche read the works not only of "philosophical" novelists like Stendhal, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy, but also of Eliot, Twain, Sterne, and Flaubert? Why did Kierkegaard's interest in the "life-view" of the individual crystallize through his reflections on Hans Christian Andersen's novel Only a Fiddler? How did both of these existentialist thinkers link the task of connecting life and philosophy with their reading of novels, and how is their reading of novels related to their attempt to write philosophy in novel and increasingly novelistic ways?These questions lead us to address anew the issue of how philosophy and literature are related in a way that is not simply thematic or allegorical. Furthermore, they ask us to take into account the importance of the novel to thinkers whose work has primarily been studied in the context of other "serious" philosophical texts, despite the stylistic and formal affinity of their work to the novels they read. As Thomas Brobjer points out in his recently published work on Nietzsche's reading habits and intellectual sources, Nietzsche's Philosophical Context: An Intellectual Biography (2008), none of the standard works on Nietzsche comment on his reading or library despite the fact that his private library has been more or less preserved in its entirety.2 Brobjer's work is the only large-scale study of Nietzsche's reading to date; however, it limits itself to "the philosophical influences on Nietzsche," even as it acknowledges that he "often was influenced by some who cannot conventionally be regarded as philosophers: by authors and literary critics" (NPC, p. 3). Although Brobjer mentions several of these authors and critics, even noting some of the marginalia found in these texts, he places them largely in the context of influences upon Nietzsche... (shrink)

Between 1946 and 1965, a period during which her contemporaries are calling into question the value of traditional novelistic realism, Simone de Beauvoir develops an extended and nuanced account of the philosophical significance of the realist novel in essays such as “Littérature et métaphysique”, “An American Renaissance in France”, and “Que peut la littérature?”. Beauvoir’s central claim is that novels do philosophical work not by articulating theoretical positions or illustrating abstract themes but by reorienting philosophical ways of understanding truth, world, (...) and reality in and through their very form. Her analysis delineates key.. (shrink)

1. Yŏn'gyŏngjae Sŏng Hae-ŭng. "Yŏn'gyŏngjae chŏnjip", innŭn sasil ŭl kŭdaero kirok hada -- 2. P'ungsŏk Sŏ Yu-gu. "Imwŏn kyŏngjeji", hŭlkuk kwa chongittŏk in hangmun ŭn anŭrira -- 3. Oju Yi Kyu-gyŏng. "Ojuyŏn munjang chŏnsan'go", pakhak kwa kojŭnghak ŭro modŭn kŏt ŭl pyŏnjŭng hara -- 4. Tasan Chŏng Yag-yong. "Mongmin simsŏ", sidae rŭl ap'ahago paeksŏngdŭl ŭi pich'am han sam e punno haeya handa -- 5. Ch'ujae Cho Su-sam. "Ch'ujae chip", nara ka mangharyŏmyŏn pandŭsi yomul i naonda -- 6. Nakhasaeng Yi Hak-kyu. (...) "Yŏngnam akpu", mal hanŭn cha nŭn choe ka ŏpta -- 7. Kuhwajae Hong Sŏng-mo. "Tongguk sesigi", sot e kadŭkhan kuk ŭl han sutkal ro mat poda -- 8. Hosan Cho Hŭi-ryong. "Sŏgu mangnyŏllok", hanŭl arae kajang t'ongk'wae han il ida -- 9. Sŏp'a Yu Hŭi. "Munt'ong", ilsaeng ŭl nŭl sibi sok esŏ saranne -- 10. Hyegang Ch'oe Han-gi. "Kihak", taedong ilt'ong ŭi isang segye rŭl kuhyŏn hada -- 11. Kosanja Kim Chŏng-ho. "Taedong yŏjido", chido ro ch'ŏnha ŭi hyŏngse rŭl salp'il su itta -- 12. Paegun Sim Tae-yun. "Pongni chŏnsŏ", mani ilgŭlsurok pongni ka tŏuk manajinda -- 13. Suun Ch'oe Che-u. "Tonggyŏng taejŏn", hangmun ŭro marhajamyŏn 'tonghak' irago haeya handa -- 14. Tongmu Yi Che-ma. "Kyŏkch'igo", i ch'aek i ch'ŏllima ka toeji ank'ennŭn'ga? (shrink)

The Art of Being: Poetics of the Novel and Existential Philosophy offers an account of the poetics of the realist novel, based on how the novel reorients philosophy in the nineteenth and twentieth century. Philosophers such as Kierkegaard, Sartre, and Beauvoir not only read novels and use novelistic techniques of representation in their work, but also discover a radically new way of thinking about the relation between the form of the novel and the nature of self-knowledge, freedom, and world. Drawing (...) upon a rich archive of existentialists writing on the novel, Ong argues that for these thinkers the poetics of the novel in its classic phase - the nineteenth- and twentieth-century realist novel - discloses the conditions for thinking about the meaning of existence. Bringing together philosophy, novel theory, and intellectual history with groundbreaking readings of the novels of Tolstoy, Eliot, Austen, James, Flaubert, and Zola, this study reveals how the novel engages with philosophically rich notions of freedom, world, and the unfinished character of human life in its very form. (shrink)

1. Naemyŏnjŏk ŭro pyŏng ŭl alk'o innŭn munmyŏngsa ilmannyŏn -- 2. Yangsŏng ŭn pondi taedŭng sangbojŏk kwan'gye -- 3. Sŏng ch'abyŏl ŭi pyŏng ch'iyu nŭn ŏttŏk'e? -- 4. Chagakto e ŭihan kyohwa yobŏpchŏk sŏng p'yŏngdŭng ŭisik kaehyŏk undong -- 5. Chagakto : sunsu Chagakto -- 6. Sunsu ŭi segye, uwŏrham (ttwiŏnam) i hyŏngsŏng toenŭn segye -- 7. Kungmin Chagagwŏn mandŭlgi mit iltae kŏjokchŏk in Chagakto munhwa kyoyuk undong chŏn'gae -- 8. Sangjogye.

언제까지 답 없는 삶을 살 것인가! 인류의 위대한 스승에게 묻고, 대한민국 대표 지성이 답하다! ◎ 출판사 서평 위대한 스승, 퇴계에게 묻고 싶은 삶에 대한 질문과 답 29 누구나 인생을 살다 보면 삶에 대한 본질적인 질문들을 품게 된다. 이러한 고민들을 인류의 위대한 스승 퇴계에게 묻는다면, 그는 우리에게 어떤 대답을 해줄 수 있을까? 『인생교과서 퇴계』(21세기북스 펴냄)는 퇴계에게 묻고 싶은 29개의 질문을 통해 그의 삶과 철학을 살펴보고, 현대를 살아가는 우리에게 필요한 퇴계의 정신이 무엇인지 알아보고자 한다. ‘퇴계’ 하면 고지식한 유학자, 건조하기 짝이 없는 이기심성론의 (...) 철학자라는 이미지가 있다. 그래서 지금 시대와는 불협화한 인물이라는 선입견을 갖기 쉬우나 그가 강조하는 외경의 정신은 오늘에도 칼날처럼 삶의 본질을 꿰뚫는 성성함을 지니고 있다. 그야말로 ‘어짊’을 삶으로 실천한 그의 면면을 돌이키는 일은 산만 방종하여 공허하고 들뜬 우리들 삶을 치유하는 매우 효과적인 처방책이 될 수 있는 것이다. 사람됨의 크기와 삶의 깊이는 수양 정도에 따라 달라질 것이니, 일상생활에서 마음을 샘물처럼 ‘맑고 깨끗하게’ 유지할 것을 당부한 퇴계가 우리들에게 간곡히 들려주고 싶은 바가 이 책 속에 들어 있다. 퇴계와의 만남이 ‘뜻밖의 나’를 향하는 길이 될 수 있을 것이다. 퇴계가 생각한 인간의 ‘도’란 무엇인가! 사랑과 공경의 정신으로 ‘사람 된 도리’를 밝혀야만 한다! 사람으로 태어났다 해서 모두 사람이 아니다. 퇴계에 따르면 ‘하늘의 소명’을 받들어 실천하려는 노력 속에서만 사람이 될 수 있다. 그러므로 자신의 내면 깊은 곳에서 울려나오는 참자아의 목소리에 귀를 기울여야 한다. 사람됨의 차이가 여기에서 결정난다. 이것은 물론 좌선하듯 가만히 앉아서 되는 일은 아닌바 밥을 먹고 출근길에 나서는 등 일상생활의 모든 자리가 다 수양의 도량이다. 사람됨은 바로 거기에서 드러나기 때문이다. 그리하여 자기 안에 갇혀 입신출세와 부귀영화의 욕망만을 추구하려는 이기심을 ‘닦아내고’, 남들을 나의 품안에 아우르며 그들을 보살피려는 마음을 ‘길러야’ 한다. 이것이 평생에 걸쳐 수행해야 할 사람됨의 과제다. 이러한 사람됨의 과제를 모두가 소중히 여기게 될 때 현대사회의 많은 병폐들이 해소될 수 있을 것이다. 그러니 우리는 퇴계의 정신을 역사의 화석이 아닌 오늘의 문제를 치유하는 자기성찰과 자아향상의 자료로 삼을 필요가 있다. 나는 과연 무엇을 위해 살고 있는가, 근본적으로 인간이란 어떠한 존재인가? 하는 등의 물음을 자신에게 수시로 던져보아야 한다. 거기에는 고통과 방황이 뒤따르겠지만, 그것은 아름다운 인생의 좋은 자양분이 될 것이다. 같은 질문, 다른 해석! 대한민국 대표 학자들이 빚어내는 통찰의 향연 이 책은 삶과 죽음, 나와 우리, 생각과 행동, 철학과 사상이라는 4개의 키워드와 29개의 질문으로 구성되어 있다. 1부는 ‘산다는 것은 무엇인가’, ‘행복이란 무엇인가’ 등의 질문을 통해 퇴계가 바라본 인간 삶의 의미와 죽음에 관한 그의 철학 등을 살펴보고, 2부는 ‘나는 누구인가’ ‘이웃이란 누구인가’의 질문을 중심으로 존재의 근원과 공동체정신에 대해 살펴본다. 3부는 ‘바른 직업윤리는 무엇인가’, ‘의로움이란 무엇인가’ 등 구체적인 삶 속에서의 인간 행위에 관한 퇴계의 생각을 들여다보고, 4부에서는 ‘왜 자기성찰이 필요한가’, ‘윤리란 무엇인가’ 등의 질문을 통해 퇴계가 생각한 삶의 질서에 대해 살펴본다. 이 책의 독특한 점은 같은 질문에 대한 두 저자의 다른 해석을 비교하며 살펴볼 수 있다는 것이다. 퇴계에게 묻고 싶은 29개의 질문 중 한 질문에 두 저자가 답한 경우도 있고, 한 저자가 답한 경우도 있다. 퇴계를 오랜 시간 연구해온 두 저자는 각자의 관점을 반영하여 삶에 대한 통찰과 지혜를 풀어내고 있다. 우주적인 심흉 속에서 사랑과 공경의 정신으로 삶을 산 위대한 인격, 퇴계와의 만남은 분명 독자 여러분들 삶에 적지 않은 울림을 줄 것이다. 『인생교과서』 시리즈 위대한 현자 19人의 삶과 철학을 대한민국 각 계의 대표 학자들이 풀어낸 총 19권의 시리즈이다. 인생을 살면서 누구나 한번쯤은 고민하게 되는 본질적인 질문에 대해 현자들은 어떻게 생각했는지 비교하며 살펴볼 수 있다. 역사상 가장 위대한 멘토 19명의 치열한 사유와 통찰은 삶과 죽음에 대한 질문을 자아내고, 시대를 넘어 현답의 길로 안내할 것이다. 『인생교과서』 시리즈는 호메로스 | 플라톤 | 아리스토텔레스 | 아우구스티누스 | 장자 | 이황 | 간디 | 데카르트 | 니체 | 칸트 | 헤겔 | 미켈란젤로 | 베토벤 | 톨스토이 | 아인슈타인 편으로 총 19권이 발간될 예정이다. 01 예수 | 차정식, 김기석 지음 | 15,000원 | 2015년 7월 10일 02 부처 | 조성택, 미산 스님, 김홍근 지음 | 15,000원 | 2015년 7월 15일 03 공자 | 신정근, 이기동 지음 | 15,000원 | 2015년 7월 15일 04 무함마드 | 최영길 지음 | 13,000원 | 2015년 7월 10일 05 퇴계 | 김기현, 이치억 지음 | 15,000원 | 2015년 12월 28일 14 칸트 | 김진, 한자경 지음 | 15,000원 | 2015년 11월 3010일 ◎ 본문 중에서 우리는 퇴계를 도덕적으로 완벽한 위인으로 상정하는 경향이 있다. 그러나 그의 위대함은 도덕성보다는 오히려 절대자유의 경지에서 자연과 하나 되어 분수를 지킨, 그의 일관된 삶에 있는 것 같다. 그것이 우리로 하여금 삶의 진정한 의미를 더 곰곰이 생각하게 하는 것이 아닐까. - 33쪽 아무리 험한 상황을 만나더라도 자기성찰 속에서 겸손하게 세상사를 배우면서 자신의 존재를 “옥과도 같이 아름답게 성취”하려는 뜻을 버려서는 안 된다. “하늘을 원망하지도 않고 사람들을 탓하지도 않으며, 아래로 세상사를 배워 위로 하늘의 이치를 깨친다”는 공자의 삶의 자세를 배워야 한다. 사람이 꽃보다 아름답다면 그러한 노력 때문일 것이다. - 60쪽 퇴계뿐만 아니라 모든 유학자들 사상에 따르면, 불행에서 벗어날 수 있는 근본적인 능력은 모든 사람의 내면에 갖추어져 있다. 사람은 누구나 우주적 대아의 씨앗을 타고난 존재이기 때문이다. 우리 마음속에 간직된 본성, 어떻게 보면 그것의 다른 이름은 ‘희망’이 아닐까? 그렇다. 불행의 반대말은 ‘행복’이라는 완료형이기보다 ‘희망’이라는 진행형이 가까울 것 같다. - 67쪽 갖가지 욕망으로 ‘흐려진’ 마음이 수많은 번민과 괴로움, 고통을 지어내는 것과 달리 맑은 마음은 깊은 샘의 깨끗하고 시원한 물처럼 삶의 희열을 누리게 해줄 것이다. 우리는 여기에서 퇴계의 좌우명을 큰 교훈으로 삼아봄직도 하다. “생각을 조금도 불순하게 갖지 말고, 마음을 경건하지 않음이 없게 하라.” - 119쪽 즉 나의 근원이 리理임을 알고, 학문을 통해 그것을 이 세상에서 실현하는 일이 바로 나를 알고 삶을 아는 것이 아니었을까? 그렇다면 이로 인해 퇴계는 죽음조차도 극복할 수 있었을 것이다. 대아大我인 나는 시작도 끝도 없이 흘러가는 시간의 어떤 한 시점에 태어나서 살다가 죽어서 사라지는 사람이 아닌, 영원을 사는 사람이기 때문이다. - 146~147쪽 타인의 의견에 뇌동하지 않고 스스로의 생각을 충분히 펼쳤을 때 그것이 모여 옳은 의견이 된다. 그 독립된 생각들이 모였을 때 그것이 세상을 움직이는 가장 정당하고 강한 힘이 된다. 그렇기 때문에 더더욱 자기의 목소리를 내는 것이 중요한 것이다. 옳은 목소리를 낼 수 있도록 나의 수신修身이 바탕이 되어야 함은 물론이다 - 201쪽 모두가 잘사는 세상은 누가 만들어주는 것이 아니라 내가 만드는 것이다. 그렇게 깨어 있는 사람들이 밝힌 빛으로 인해 이 세상은 밝아져왔다. 그러니 앞으로의 세상을 밝히는 것은 또 우리들에게 넘겨진 숙제다. 이는 퇴계가 가장 간절히 바라던 일이기도 하다. - 209쪽 그는 단순히 ‘착한 사람’에 그치지 않고 ‘하늘’이 인간에게 부여한 사람됨의 뜻을, 인간의 고결한 정신을 자신의 삶과 사회에서 밝히려 했다. 오늘날 사람들이 자신의 생명을 보전하고 이익을 쟁취하기 위해 ‘야수’와도 같이 살아가는 ‘정글’사회에서 그의 삶이 위대하게 여겨지는 까닭이 여기에 있다. - 254쪽. (shrink)

Over recent years, the issue of corruption in the public construction sector has attracted increasing attention from both practitioners and researchers worldwide. However, limited efforts are available for investigating the underlying factors of corruption in this sector. Thus, this study attempted to bridge this knowledge gap by exploring the underlying factors of corruption in the public construction sector of China. To achieve this goal, a total of 14 structured interviews were first carried out, and a questionnaire survey was then administered (...) to 188 professionals in China. Two iterations of multivariate analysis approaches, namely, stepwise multiple regression analysis and partial least squares structural equation modeling were successively utilized to analyze the collected data. In addition, a case study was also conducted to triangulate the findings obtained from the statistical analysis. The results generated from these three research methods achieve the same conclusion: the most influential underlying factor leading to corruption was immorality, followed by opacity, unfairness, procedural violation, and contractual violation. This study has contributed to the body of knowledge by exploring the properties of corruption in the public construction sector. The findings from this study are also valuable to the construction authorities as they can assist in developing more effective anti-corruption strategies. (shrink)

When making decisions, governments can and should strive consciously to balance the demands of the present with the needs of future generations. Various advocates for greater governmental foresight have created new processes or institutions within existing systems of democratic government. These include long-range planning departments, futures commissions, impact statements on proposed legislation, environmental protection agencies, and formal technology assessment. But, much more remains to be done. Based on their extensive scholarly and practical experience, the contributors to this volume propose a (...) variety of techniques that will enable foresight to be effectively incorporated into governmental institutions and practices. (shrink)