Corruption in the construction industry is a serious problem in China. As such, fighting this corruption has become a priority target of the Chinese government, with the main effort being to discover and prosecute its perpetrators. This study profiles the demographic characteristics of major incidences of corruption in construction. It draws on the database of the 83 complete recorded cases of construction related corruption held by the Chinese National Bureau of Corruption Prevention. Categorical variables were drawn from the database, and (...) ‘association rule mining analysis’ was used to identify associations between variables as a means of profiling perpetrators. Such profiling may be used as predictors of future incidences of corruption, and consequently to inform policy makers in their fight against corruption. The results signal corruption within the Chinese construction industry to be correlated with age, with incidences rising as managers’ approach retirement age. Moreover, a majority of perpetrators operate within government agencies, are department deputies in direct contact with projects, and extort the greatest amounts per case from second tier cities. The relatively lengthy average 6.4-year period before cases come to public attention corroborates the view that current efforts at fighting corruption remain inadequate. (shrink)

The construction industry consistently ranks amongst the highest contributors to global gross domestic product, as well as, amongst the most corrupt. Corruption therefore inflicts significant risk on construction activities, and overall economic development. These facts are widely known, but the various sources and nature of corruption risks endemic to the Iranian construction industry, along with the degree to which such risks manifest, and the strength of their impact, remain undescribed. To address the gap, a mixed methods approach is used; with (...) a questionnaire, 103 responses were received, and these were followed up with semi-structured interviews. Results were processed using social network analysis. Four major corruption risks were identified: procedural violations in awarding contracts, misuse of contractual arrangements, neglect of project management principles, and, irrational decision making. While corruption risks in Iran align with those found in other countries, with funds being misappropriated for financial gain, Iran also shows a strong inclination to champion projects that serve the government’s political agenda. Root cause identification of corruption risks, namely, the noticeable impact of authoritarianism on project selection in Iran, over criterion of economic benefit or social good, is a significant outcome of this study. (shrink)

The central conflicts of the world today are closely related to cultural, traditional, and religious differences between nations. As we move to a globalized world, these differences often become magnified, entrenched, and the cause of bloody conflict. Growing out of a conference of distinguished scholars from the Middle East, Europe, and the United States, this volume is a singular contribution to mutual understanding and cooperative efforts on behalf of peace. The term paideia, drawn from Greek philosophy, has to do with (...) responsible education for citizenship as a necessary precondition for effective democracy. (shrink)

In the context of the digital economy development, the priority component of the economic security of an enterprise is changing from material to digital, constituting an independent element of enterprise security. The relevance of the present research is driven by the need to solve the issue of modernizing the economic security of the enterprise taking into account the new risks and opportunities of digitalization. The purpose of the academic paper lies in identifying the features of preventing internal and external negative (...) influences (threats) in order to guarantee the effective and stable functioning and dynamic social development of the enterprise in the context of digitalization. The research methods are as follows: general scientific research methods, in particular, logical analysis, theoretical substantiation, methods of induction and deduction, formalization and generalization, statistical observation. Results. It has been proposed to introduce the concept of “digital security of the enterprise” for replacing the concept of “information component of economic security” in order to bring the terminology in line with new economic realities. The implementation of the “black box” model has made it possible to identify the latest risks and threats to the economic security of an enterprise within the conditions of the digitalization that differs from the existing ones. The assessment of enterprises’ digital security of the European Union member states has revealed that the digital security level does not depend on the size of the country, however, it is influenced by the institutional environment (in particular, digital development tools in the EU) and the size of enterprises. Also, within the research framework, an assessment of the digital security level of enterprises in the context of digitalization has been proposed. In order to characterize enterprises by the level of digital security, a calculation procedure using the coefficient method has been proposed. (shrink)

Mindwandering is associated with both positive and negative outcomes. Among the latter, negative mood and negative cognitions have been reported. However, the underlying mechanisms linking mindwandering to negative mood and cognition are still unclear. We hypothesized that MW could either directly enhance negative thinking or indirectly heighten the accessibility of negative thoughts. In an undergraduate sample we measured emotional thoughts during the Sustained Attention on Response Task which induces MW, and accessibility of negative cognitions by means of the Scrambled Sentences (...) Task after the task. We also measured depressive symptoms and rumination. Results show that in individuals with elevated levels of depressive symptoms MW during SART predicts higher accessibility of negative thoughts after the task, rather than negative thinking during the task. These findings contribute to our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of MW and provide insight into the relationship between task-involvement and affect. (shrink)

In 2008 pharmaceutical companies spent over $12 billion on product promotion and detailing aimed at U.S. health care practitioners. Drug and device manufacturers rely on a workforce of detailers and physician speakers to reach health care practitioners and nudge their prescribing habits. To prevent undue influence and protect the public fisc, a number of states began regulating these marketing practices, requiring companies to disclose all gifts to practitioners, prohibiting the commercialized sale of prescription data, and prohibiting certain gifts altogether. The (...) 2010 enactment of the Physician Payment Sunshine Act marks the first Congressional involvement in the regulation of disclosure related to pharmaceutical marketing. Overall, the Act improves transparency in pharmaceutical marketing to physicians and expands the regulation of disclosure of pharmaceutical marketing activities in important substantive ways. (shrink)

We introduce a general representation of unary hyperintensional modalities and study various hyperintensional modal logics based on the representation. It is shown that the major approaches to hyperintensionality known from the literature, that is state-based, syntactic and structuralist approaches, all correspond to special cases of the general framework. Completeness results pertaining to our hyperintensional modal logics are established.

Background: The guarantee of human rights in the healthcare of individuals with mental disorders is a global challenge. Health practices frequently fail to integrate relational ethical principles in the promotion of holistic and inclusive care. It is therefore crucial to investigate how healthcare professionals perceive and conduct their practices in this context. Objective: To understand, in the light of Relational Ethics, the perceptions and conduct of healthcare professionals regarding the guarantee of human rights and the recovery process of individuals with (...) mental disorders. Research Design: An exploratory study was conducted using ideas storming techniques and field notes for data recording, which were analyzed through Thematic Analysis and discussed in the light of the core elements of Relational Ethics. Participants and Research Context: The study involved 26 healthcare professionals (15 community health workers, 5 nurses, 3 nursing assistants, 2 doctors, and 1 pharmacy assistant) from a primary healthcare unit in a municipality in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, during the application of the module “Recovery and Right to Health” of the WHO QualityRights training. Ethical Considerations: The research project to which this study belongs was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the School of Nursing at Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo (report number 6.257.303). Findings: Three themes were identified: (1) Feeling worthless when facing the lack of structure of mental health services: appearance, accessibility, and privacy; (2) dealing with barriers to the recovery of individuals with psychosocial, intellectual, or cognitive disabilities; and (3) an ethical duty: to understand the roles of families and other supporters in promoting recovery. These themes primarily explored resource scarcity, social stigma, and emotional support. Conclusions: The study reinforces the need for practices that integrate ethical care, respect for autonomy, and dialogue, which are fundamental to ensuring human rights and facilitating the recovery process. (shrink)

Neste artigo procura-se responder ao desafio da leitura de Heidegger no que concerne à possibilidade de uma relação entre ontologia e ética.O autor investiga a possibilidade da colocação do problema de tal relação,privilegiando a noção heideggeriana de liberdade.

The problem of history and the development of national theological education is one of the most urgent in our time. This is the sphere of the spiritual life of a human society that is constantly undergoing reform. Therefore, the study of the history of theological education, when it was due to the specificity of historical events in the pan-European space, in particular the territory of Bukovina in the late XIX - early XX century, require a more specific study than it (...) was today. (shrink)

Ce travail a pour objet d’examiner comment sont articulés deux thèmes centraux de l’oeuvre philosophique de Poincaré : la question de la nature mathématique de la physique et la critique des questionnements « métaphysiques » relatifs aux théories scientifiques. En s’appuyant sur la dimension linguistique du traitement de ces thèmes par Poincaré et en analysant certains aspects de ses réflexions sur le continu et la mesure des grandeurs physiques, notre examen sera poursuivi en suivant le fil conducteur de la distinction (...) entre les notions d’identité numérique et d’égalité, dont nous tâcherons de montrer qu’elle sous-tend tout à la fois la caractérisation par Poincaré de la métaphysique et ses considérations sur la géométrie et le continu.The purpose of this study is to examine the link between two main topics of Poincaré’s philosophical work : the question of the mathematical nature of physics and the criticism of “metaphysical” questions about physical theories. By focusing on the linguistic dimension of Poincaré’s treatment of these subjects and by analysing some aspects of his reflections about continuum and physical measurement, our inquiry will be pursued following the vital lead of the distinction between numerical identity and equality, which appears to underlie both Poincaré’s characterisation of metaphysics and his reflections about geometry and the continuum. (shrink)

The article is based on own methods of tourist estimation of historical and cultural potential of castle buildings in the Ivano-Frankivsk region to determine their level of attractiveness and prospects for needs of tourism and recreation industry. In the Ivano-Frankivsk region are five castles: in Halych Mariiampil, Rakovets, Chernelytsia and Pniv, which have great historical and cultural potential and all of these buildings can be used for the tourist adaptation. Criteria of the tourist estimation of potential of castle complexes are (...) built on an integrated approach that includes four groups of indicators: the natural and geographical location, historical and cultural features, infrastructure and advertising criteria. The tourist analysis of historical and cultural potential of castle constructions in the Ivano-Frankivsk region showed that 4 castles are at an average level of tourist adaptation and just castle in Halych has higher level of tourist and recreational adaptation. The author proposed following options for optimizing of the recreational use of castles, which are based on the tourist estimation: organization of new event activities, development of new tourist and recreational routes with castles and museumification. (shrink)

Natural language provides motivation for studying modal backwards-looking operators such as “now”, “then” and “actually” that evaluate their argument formula at some previously considered point instead of the current one. This paper investigates the expressive power over models of both propositional and first-order basic modal language enriched with such operators. Having defined an appropriate notion of bisimulation for first-order modal logic, I show that backwards-looking operators increase its expressive power quite mildly, contrary to beliefs widespread among philosophers of language and (...) formal semanticists. That in turn presents a strong argument for the use of operator-based systems in the semantics of natural language, instead of systems with explicit quantification over worlds and times that have become a de-facto standard for such applications. The popularity of such explicit-quantification systems is shown to be based on the misinterpretation of a claim by Cresswell, which led many philosophers and linguists to assume that introducing “now” and “then” is expressively equivalent to explicitly quantifying over worlds and times. (shrink)

Ifeel that Iam apartof, but separatefrom an 'out there' world. 2. Ifeel that my perception of the world mingles with feelings of past experience. 3. My experienceof the world is selective and purposeful. 4. I am thinking ahead allthe timeintrying ...

The conceptual spaces approach has recently emerged as a novel account of concepts. Its guiding idea is that concepts can be represented geometrically, by means of metrical spaces. While it is generally recognized that many of our concepts are vague, the question of how to model vagueness in the conceptual spaces approach has not been addressed so far, even though the answer is far from straightforward. The present paper aims to fill this lacuna.

This paper aims to contribute to our understanding of the notion of coherence by explicating in probabilistic terms, step by step, what seem to be our most basic intuitions about that notion, to wit, that coherence is a matter of hanging or fitting together, and that coherence is a matter of degree. A qualitative theory of coherence will serve as a stepping stone to formulate a set of quantitative measures of coherence, each of which seems to capture well the aforementioned (...) intuitions. Subsequently it will be argued that one of those measures does better than the others in light of some more specific intuitions about coherence. This measure will be defended against two seemingly obvious objections. (shrink)

A defense of the rationality of adductive inference from the criticisms of Bayesian theorists.

We provide a complete binary implicational axiomatization of the positive fragment of propositional dynamic logic. The intended application of this result are completeness proofs for non-classical extensions of positive PDL. Two examples are discussed in this article, namely, a paraconsistent extension with modal De Morgan negation and a substructural extension with the residuated operators of the non-associative Lambek calculus. Informal interpretations of these two extensions are outlined.

Various authors have recently argued that you cannot rationally stick to your belief in the face of known disagreement with an epistemic peer, that is, a person you take to have the same evidence and judgmental skills as you do. For, they claim, because there is but one rational response to any body of evidence, a disagreement with an epistemic peer indicates that at least one of you is not responding rationally to the evidence. Given that you take your peer (...) to have the same judgmental skills as you do, and thus regard her to be equally good at assessing the evidence as you are, you will have as much reason for thinking that it is you who is not responding rationally to the evidence as for thinking that it is her. You thus have reason for thinking that your belief on the disputed matter is not a rational response to the evidence. Hence, you cannot rationally stick to your belief. (shrink)

Los Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) son Sistemas de Información caracterizados por tener una base de datos común para todos los departamentos de la empresa y son utilizados por las organizaciones para administrar sus datos con el fin de tomar mejores decisiones. Sin embargo, estudios recientes demuestran que el 92% de los proyectos ERP no terminan con éxito (De Pablos Heredero y De Pablos Heredero, 2009). El objetivo de este artículo es diseñar una guía de selección de ERP en las Pymes (...) mexicanas. En primera instancia se realizó un examen de la literatura científica, el cual se dividió en: propuestas metodológicas, casos de estudio, estudios microsociológicos y factores críticos de éxito para proyectos ERP. Para complementar nuestro estudio teórico se entrevistaron consultores, utilizadores y expertos en proyectos ERP, los cuales apoyaron nuestra concepción de esta problemática en el ámbito local. Finalmente se diseñó la guía de selección de ERP. (shrink)

Dentro de las organizaciones encontramos limitantes que hacen del proceso de generación de efectivo un largo y penoso camino. Nuestro objetivo en este artículo es hacer una revisión teórica sobre los limitantes de generación de efectivo (LGE), desde el proceso de transformación hasta el valor añadido. Esta revisión establece un punto de vista diferente a aquella establecida por la teoría clásica del management y está enfocada a las pequeñas y medianas empresas (Pymes) de manufactura que no sean de reciente creación. (...) Finalmente, el escrito menciona pautas para proponer una mejora continua, con respecto a la generación de efectivo: El análisis retrospectivo y la identificación del proceso crítico; La definición de parámetros clave y el pilotaje estratégico; La identificación dentro del proceso crítico del principal elemento que limita la generación de efectivo; La definición de un plan de acción para poder reducir, controlar o eliminar el limitante de generación. El establecer los pasos anteriores como un ciclo continuo. (shrink)

Neste artigo, analisamos postagens do Instagram da Bela Gil sobre alimentação saudável e comentários publicados pelos usuários. Partimos de uma observação sistemática do perfil entre janeiro de 2015 e julho de 2016 que nos permitiu identificar posições de sujeito da/à alimentação saudável presentes no processo de aconselhamento ali existente e nas formas de reconhecimento engendradas. Concluímos que as declarações produzidas por Bela Gil concebem a saúde, sobretudo, como responsabilidade individual e que sua autoridade é reconhecida mais pela identificação com sua (...) experiência e convicção pessoal do que com os conhecimentos científicos eventualmente mobilizados. (shrink)

O objetivo deste artigo é mostrar como as reconfigurações na estrutura de significação da peça O Pagador de Promessas no cinema e na televisão permitiram diferentes fusões dos indícios temporais e espaciais (cronotopo), novas “zonas de contato” com a realidade cotidiana, novas imagens do indivíduo e do espaço e um novo tipo de acabamento axiológico do herói pelo autor (exotopia).

Neste artigo, analisamos, a partir de grupos focais realizados em Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, Salvador e Manaus, as transformações nas dinâmicas de trabalho de profissionais de comunicação em cenários de desinformação pós-covid-19. Observamos como o local configura modos específicos de lidar com a desinformação e realizar o trabalho de comunicação. Concluímos que, além das experiências sociais diversas, há uma demanda comum pela necessidade de formação específica em comunicação e saúde, bem como pela reversão dos processos acelerados de precarização do trabalho.

Tradução do texto originalmente intitulado "Dissertation sur la politique des Romains dans la religion", de Charles-Louis de Secondat, barão de La Brède e de Montesquieu. Trata-se de trabalho apresentado no dia 18 de junho de 1716 à Academie Royale des Sciences, Belles-Lettres et Arts de Bordeaux e somente publicado após a sua morte.

I have had occasion to hear that your interest in Eurasianism, Lev Nikolaevich, manifested itself very early, practically in your student years, and in any case before Eurasianism became the fashion. Could you tell us how exactly you became familiar with these ideas, or, in other words, how you discovered Eurasianism?

While some argue that the only way to make a place for Philosophy for Children in today's strict, standardised classroom is to measure its efficacy in promoting reasoning, we believe that this must be avoided in order to safeguard what is truly unique in P4C dialogue. When P4C acquiesces to the very same quantitative measures that define the rest of learning, then the philosophical dimension drops out and P4C becomes yet another progressive curriculum and pedagogy for enhancing argumentation skills that (...) can easily be appropriated by any content area. What we want to offer in this article is a reevaluation of P4C that remains faithful to a radical kernel that we find when we do philosophy with children and young adults. To theorise the potential for P4C, we draw heavily on Agamben's work, and in particular his reflections on speech and infancy. We propose that the redemption of P4C necessitates a shift from a community of inquiry to a community of infancy. Such a community is not a community that operates according to predefined rules or standardised assessment protocols but rather is an inoperative community that is defined by letting ends idle. On our account, a community of infancy is an example of dialogic studious play that is neither ritual nor just play, thus avoiding the extreme polarities of the ritualised classrooms of high-stakes testing and the ‘ludic’ postmodern classroom of free play. What is at stake here is to preserve the last vestige of freedom within the school. (shrink)

This paper is concerned with formal solutions to the lottery paradox on which high probability defeasibly warrants acceptance. It considers some recently proposed solutions of this type and presents an argument showing that these solutions are trivial in that they boil down to the claim that perfect probability is sufficient for rational acceptability. The argument is then generalized, showing that a broad class of similar solutions faces the same problem. An argument against some formal solutions to the lottery paradox The (...) argument generalized Some variations Adding modalities Anticipated objections. (shrink)

A paper on how to adapt your probabilisitc beliefs when learning a conditional.

ABSTRACTIn two experiments, we examined the resolution of confidence judgments in syllogistic reasoning and their heuristic bases. Based on the assumptions of Koriat's Self-Consistency Model of confidence, we expected the confidence judgments to be related to conclusion consensuality, reflecting the role of consistency as a heuristic cue to confidence. In Experiment 1, the participants evaluated 24 syllogisms with conclusions that varied with respect to validity and consensuality. In Experiment 2, the participants produced conclusions to 64 pairs of premises. The correlation (...) between confidence and reasoning accuracy was low. In both experiments confidence was related to the consensuality of the responses. For consensually correct items, correlation between confidence and accuracy was positive; however, for consensually incorrect items it was negative. In Experiment 2, confidence was lower for syllogisms with higher response cardinality, or syllogisms that elicited a greater variety of conclusions. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Neue Zeitschrift für Systematische Theologie und Religionsphilosophie Jahrgang: 61 Heft: 2 Seiten: 149-164.

This article opposes a view widely accepted in studies concerning the history of modal logic, according to which (i) the approach of C. I. Lewis towards constructing modern modal logic was purely syntactical (i.e. limited to the construction of axiomatic systems S1-S5 of propositional modal logic), and (ii) the notion of a possible world was incorporated into modern logic and philosophy mainly by authors such as Rudolf Carnap and Saul Kripke. The article presents Lewis' definition of a possible world, and (...) his formulation of the truth-conditions of statements containing strict implication as their main connective in terms of possible worlds. The main question of the article is whether it is possible to consider Lewis' work in this area as an early stage of the development of possible world semantics, and if so, in what sense? The article concludes by answering affirmatively, due to soundness and completeness proofs with respect to S5 using Lewis' semantics. (shrink)

The sequent system LDJ is formulated using the same connectives as Gentzen's intuitionistic sequent system LJ, but is dual in the following sense: (i) whereas LJ is singular in the consequent, LDJ is singular in the antecedent; (ii) whereas LJ has the same sentential counter-theorems as classical LK but not the same theorems, LDJ has the same sentential theorems as LK but not the same counter-theorems. In particular, LDJ does not reject all contradictions and is accordingly paraconsistent. To obtain a (...) more precise mapping, both LJ and LDJ are extended by adding a "pseudo-difference" operator which is the dual of intuitionistic implication. Cut-elimination and decidability are proved for the extended systems and , and a simply consistent but -inconsistent Set Theory with Unrestricted Comprehension Schema based on LDJ is sketched. (shrink)

According to what is now commonly referred to as “the Equation” in the literature on indicative conditionals, the probability of any indicative conditional equals the probability of its consequent of the conditional given the antecedent of the conditional. Philosophers widely agree in their assessment that the triviality arguments of Lewis and others have conclusively shown the Equation to be tenable only at the expense of the view that indicative conditionals express propositions. This study challenges the correctness of that assessment by (...) presenting data that cast doubt on an assumption underlying all triviality arguments. (shrink)

Encontramos linguagens e códigos de todos os tipos e em todas as esferas na natureza. No entanto, quando chegamos no homem vemos esses códigos aplicados não como algo mecânico, como é notado na natureza, mas como articulações para o social. A partir disso, é apresentado à psicanálise, que tem como sua coluna vertebral a escuta que é voltada para a natureza discursiva do homem. Iremos explorar neste artigo qual seria a escuta servida para o discurso na clínica, pois não é (...) colocado uma regra no discurso do analisando, este é livre para dizer o que quer dizer e como ele entender, sendo que tal liberdade é evitada nas relações sociais, pois ele (o analisando) não a exerce por ter consciência das leis sociais que são, desde sua infância, aglutinadas a ele, as quais, seu cumprimento é cobrado.Para se ter esse ouvir a psicanálise trabalha para tornar os ouvidos do analista um órgão apropriadamente de escuta e compreensão, pois a fala do analista vem dessa escuta do discurso que não é seu durante aquele tempo, mas que vem a ser depois de completo para ser matéria de análise. (shrink)

Van Fraassen (1989) argues that Inference to the Best Explanation is incoherent in the sense that adopting it as a rule for belief change will make one susceptible to a dynamic Dutch book. The present paper argues against this. A strategy is described that allows us to infer to the best explanation free of charge.

The possibility of formal representation of Aristotle’s discussion about singular predication in Categories 10, 13b27-35 is investigated through three symbolic idioms: the first-order language with identity, with and without definitive description, and through the languages of free logics. I show that such representations are not fully adequate. According to the first option, we are committing Aristotle with some (meta)logical implications he is not willing to accept. According to the second option, we are burdening Aristotle with Russell’s theory of names. Finally, (...) the third option leaves us with the assumption that ‘exist(s)’ could be represented with a predicate. This assumption, however, Aristotle emphatically rejects. (shrink)

Desde el inicio de los _Troubles_ la situación en Irlanda del Norte estuvo marcada por la violencia del IRA y la confrontación sectaria entre las comunidades católicas y protestantes. En el inicio de la década de los años 90 se abrió un nuevo panorama de esperanza a la hora de poner fin al terrorismo, gracias a los Acuerdos del Viernes Santo (10 de abril de 1998). Este artículo analiza las claves y el contexto del filme _The Boxer_ (1997), del reconocido (...) director dublinés Jim Sheridan, desde la metodología de las relaciones de historia y cine. La película, previa a los acuerdos, establece como el cine de ficción puede ser una manera de influir (positivamente) en la sociedad, además de convertirse en un retrato real y simbólico sobre la crudeza y afección de la violencia y la sinrazón más manifiesta que tanto daño provocó en la sociedad norirlandesa. (shrink)