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China's recent education reforms are a result of selective policy borrowing from 'the West'. Although comparativists have highlighted the importance of cultural context in policy borrowing in China, what remains relatively under-explored is the epistemological basis for cultural views that mediate policy transfer. This article argues that the dominant cultural factors ('cultural scripts') for teaching in China - students' respect for the teacher, student attention and discipline in class, and the importance of practice - find their genesis and justification in a Confucian worldview. Focussing on a Chinese classic text, Xueji (Record of Learning), this article elucidates the ancient Chinese views on the nature and transmission of knowledge and explains why the 'teacher-dominated' pedagogy is believed by many Chinese educators to be indispensable for 'good' teaching. An appreciation of the epistemological foundation of culture, it is argued, is salutary in enhancing our understanding of policy divergence across societies despite their apparent convergence of global/'Western' educational ideas and practices.

This article analyses and compares the responses of parents to education policy initiatives in Singapore, Shanghai and Hong Kong. The education reform in three localities converges on changing an exam-centric culture and equipping students to thrive in a globalised world. Through a discussion of three representative policy initiatives—Direct School Admission in Singapore, extended and inquiry/research curricula in Shanghai and Liberal Studies in Hong Kong—this article contends that the parents variously make sense of, negotiate, support and circumvent the policy initiatives. Their strategies, it is argued, are grounded in and shaped by their shared habitus, manifesting the four processes identified by Zhao, Selman and Luke (Bourdieu and Chinese education: Inequality, competition, and change, Routledge, Oxon, 2018) for understanding the formation of habitus. A major implication arising from the study is the usefulness of the concept of habitus in illuminating the educational expectations and proposed actions of parents when confronted with educational changes.

Human enteroviruses (HEV) are frequent human pathogens and, associated in particular with large outbreaks of aseptic meningitis. Here, we have compiled a database of clinical HEV isolates from the Public Hospitals of Marseille, from 1985 to 2005. Amongst 654 isolates that could be characterized by complete sequencing of the VP1 gene, 98% belonged to species HEV-B; the most frequently isolated serotypes were Echovirus E30, E11, E7, E6 and E4. The high incidence of E30 and the recent emergence of E13 are consistent with reports worldwide and peak HEV isolation occurred mostly in the late spring and summer months. The proportion of echoviruses has decreased across the years, while that of coxsackieviruses has increased. Stool (the most frequent sample type) allowed detection of all identified serotypes. MRC5 (Human lung fibroblasts) cell line was the most conducive cell line for HEV isolation (84.9% of 10 most common serotype isolates, 96.3% in association with BGM (Buffalo green monkey kidney cells)). Previous seroneutralization-based serotype identification demonstrated 55.4% accuracy when compared with molecular VP1 analysis. Our analysis of a large number of clinical strains over 20 years reinforced the validity of VP1 serotyping and showed that comparative p-distance scores can be coupled with phylogenetic analysis to provide non-ambiguous serotype identification. Phylogenetic analysis in the VP1, 2C and 3D regions also provided evidence for recombination events amongst clinical isolates. In particular, it identified isolates with dissimilar VP1 but almost identical nonstructural regions.

Tuberculosis remains a leading cause of death worldwide. Transmission is the dominant mechanism sustaining the multidrug-resistant tuberculosis epidemic. Tuberculosis infection prevention and control (TBIPC) guidelines for healthcare facilities are poorly implemented. This systematic review aimed to explore the barriers and facilitators of implementation of TBIPC guidelines in low- and middle-income countries from the perspective of healthcare workers. Two separate reviewers carried out an electronic database search to select qualitative and quantitative studies exploring healthcare workers attitudes towards TBIPC. Eligible studies underwent thematic synthesis. Derived themes were further organised into a macro-, meso- and micro-level framework, which allows us to analyse barriers at different levels of the healthcare system. We found that most studies focused on assessing implementation within facilities in accordance with the hierarchy of TBIPC measures-administrative, environmental and respiratory protection controls. TBIPC implementation was over-estimated by self-report compared with what researchers observed within facilities, indicating a knowledge-action gap. Macro-level barriers included the lack of coordination of integrated HIV/tuberculosis care, in the context of an expanding antiretroviral therapy programme and hence increasing opportunity for nosocomial acquisition of tuberculosis; a lack of funding; and ineffective occupational health policies, such as poor systems for screening for tuberculosis amongst healthcare workers. Meso-level barriers included little staff training to implement programmes, and managers not understanding policy sufficiently to translate it into an IPC programme. Most studies reported micro-level barriers including the impact of stigma, work culture, lack of perception of risk, poor supply and use of respirators and difficulty sensitising patients to the need for IPC. Existing literature on healthcare workers' attitudes to TBIPC focusses on collecting data about poor implementation at facility level. In order to bridge the knowledge-action gap, we need to understand how best to implement policy, taking account of the context.

This article clarifies the relationship between moral personhood and moral management in ethical leadership from a Confucian perspective. Drawing from four Confucian classics, this study integrates the leader’s ethical values and activities undertaken to promote virtues in followers. The harmonisation of moral personhood and moral management is facilitated by two cardinal Confucian beliefs: innate human nature and moral self-cultivation. From a Confucian viewpoint, all human beings are endowed with a good nature that enables them to become virtuous persons and leaders. Ethical leaders subdue their selfish desires and extend their natural moral feelings of true goodness, righteousness, propriety and wisdom to others. Moral personhood and moral management are inseparable because to cultivate oneself morally is to help others to become moral persons. By synthesising moral personhood and moral management, a Confucian worldview of ethical leadership contributes to leadership studies in two main ways: safeguarding against the leader’s abuse of power, and advancing organisational change through path-shaping.

It’s not just the models, techniques, or technologies that improve building performance; the digital skills of built environment professionals also play a significant part. The deluge of data from buildings, intelligent systems, and simulation tools is well-documented, and like other domains, building design, construction, and operations professionals are keen to learn skills like Python scripting that are common to the data science communities. This paper analyzes a massive open online course on the edX platform called Data Science for Construction, Architecture, and Engineering . This course was launched in April 2020, and it combines building science concepts with beginner-level data science skills, such as using Python and the essential libraries of Pandas, Scikit Learn, and Seaborn. This paper presents an analysis of the demographics and geographic data from 18,600 participants and survey results from 126 out of 1,561 verified course users. The survey focused on the experience of course participants and suggestions for improvement. This information can aid other data science educators in developing content to better educate built environment professionals.

Among the challenges faced by educators in promoting critical thinking is that of cultural compatibility. Using Singapore as an illustrative case study, this paper explores the cultural challenges and recommended strategies for the teaching of critical thinking in schools. The research for this study is based on a theoretical framework that focuses on two dominant practices of critical thinking: confrontational and individualistic on the one hand, and collegial and communal on the other. Research data shows that the main cultural challenges are the social expectations of teachers as knowledge transmitters and a perception that critical thinking is essentially adversarial. The recommended strategies are the utilisation of cooperative learning strategies and the provision of a safe learning environment. There are two major implications arising from this research study. The first is a need for policymakers and educators to be cognisant of cultural constraints in the teaching of critical thinking. The second is the significance of teacher efficacy to engender student engagement and successful learning within socio-cultural constraints. The Singapore experience adds to the existing literature by highlighting the existence and significance of communitarian practices of critical thinking in an Asian context.

This study investigates the design of the royalty rate in a first-price auction across three types of investments: incremental and lumpy with or without an exogenously given intensity. A bidder’s investment cost comprises private information. This, together with the stochastic evolution of the price of the output generated from the auctioned project, precludes the seller from setting the exact dates of investment with the winner. However, the seller can set the royalty rate to equate the winner’s royalty payment with the winner’s information rent so that the winner acts as if to maximize the seller’s revenue. We derive two main conclusions. First, compared with the case in which investment is lumpy with an exogenously given intensity, the seller can set a lower royalty rate on incremental investment because she can collect additional royalty payments from the winner, who has the option to later expand capacity. Second, the impact of output price uncertainty on the optimal royalty rate for the three types of investments exhibits two different patterns. When investment is either incremental or lumpy with an exogenously given intensity, greater output price uncertainty reduces the royalty rate. When investment is lumpy with variable intensity, greater output uncertainty raises the royalty rate. Our results imply that auctioneers may charge differential royalty rates for different types of investments.

Enterovirus A71 (EV-A71) has recently become an important public health threat, especially in South-East Asia, where it has caused massive outbreaks of Hand, Foot and Mouth disease every year, resulting in significant mortality. Rapid detection of EV-A71 early in outbreaks would facilitate implementation of prevention and control measures to limit spread. Real-time RT-PCR is the technique of choice for the rapid diagnosis of EV-A71 infection and several systems have been developed to detect circulating strains. Although eight genogroups have been described globally, none of these PCR techniques detect all eight. We describe, for the first time, a SYBR Green real-time RT-PCR system validated to detect all 8 EV-A71 genogroups. This tool could permit the early detection and shift in genogroup circulation and the standardization of HFMD virological diagnosis, facilitating networking of laboratories working on EV-A71 in different regions.