The role of intermediaries in facilitating e-government diffusion in Saudi Arabia

Recent studies of e-government activity have highlighted adoption and diffusion issues as important subjects for rating e-government success. However in developing countries inadequate resources and limited citizens’ capabilities regarding new e-government have resulted in low diffusion and adoption of e-government services. This paper examines the role of intermediaries, which can be played by a third party; in bridging the gap between e-government implementation and social reality, and looks at the roles a third party can add within the e-government services mechanism. This paper uses a case study approach in order to reflect e-government progress within the context of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) as one developing country. The result of this paper shows that intermediaries play an important role in the diffusion of e-services in relation to improving the availability, accessibility and enhancing privacy and security

Understanding information needs of Australian business organisations

Over the past decade, universities have used repositories as channels to create access to research outputs. Increasingly government and universities are seeking to optimise the impact of their research, particularly to improve public policy. This study looks at the impact of access to research from the perspective of business associations and researchers. It finds that business organisations value trusted timely, relevant research. Accessibility and peer-reviewed research outputs are highly valued but little used. Barriers to use of the research include availability (material not openly accessible), discoverability (ranking on search engines) and knowledge by trusted mediators and connectivity (presentation as part of a cohort of scholarly knowledge). Barriers for researchers include lack of rewards and recognition for research outputs focused on these organisations. The theories used in the study include triple helix, Kautto-Koivula and Huhtaniemi’s model for knowledge and competence management and actor network theory. The study concludes that significant work is required to improve the accessibility and discoverability of research. In particular, the search paradigm is insufficient to provide optimal awareness of and impact of research.Australian Library and Information Associatio

Chromatin accessibility underlies synthetic lethality of SWI/SNF subunits in ARID1A-mutant cancers.

ARID1A, a subunit of the SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex, is frequently mutated in cancer. Deficiency in its homolog ARID1B is synthetically lethal with ARID1A mutation. However, the functional relationship between these homologs has not been explored. Here, we use ATAC-seq, genome-wide histone modification mapping, and expression analysis to examine colorectal cancer cells lacking one or both ARID proteins. We find that ARID1A has a dominant role in maintaining chromatin accessibility at enhancers, while the contribution of ARID1B is evident only in the context of ARID1A mutation. Changes in accessibility are predictive of changes in expression and correlate with loss of H3K4me and H3K27ac marks, nucleosome spacing, and transcription factor binding, particularly at growth pathway genes including MET. We find that ARID1B knockdown in ARID1A mutant ovarian cancer cells causes similar loss of enhancer architecture, suggesting that this is a conserved function underlying the synthetic lethality between ARID1A and ARID1B

Spatial patterns of knowledge-intensive business services in cities of various sizes, morphologies and economies

We compare intra-urban localization patterns of advertising and IT companies in three large Czech cities. The main aim of our analysis is an empirically-based contribution to the question to what extent do knowledge bases affect the spatial distribution of various knowledge-intensive business industries. The central research question is: To what extent is the localization of these two industries influenced by different modes of innovation/knowledge bases (symbolic vs. synthetic) and to what extent by contextual factors, such as urban size, morphology, position in the urban hierarchy and economic profile of the given city. We found that the urban contexts shape the localization patterns of advertising and IT companies more than differences in knowledge bases-both industries cluster primarily in the inner cities and urban cores. Formation of more suburban IT "scientific neighborhoods" is limited.Web of Science125art. no. 184

Productivity Growth, Technological Progress, and Technical Efficiency in the Heartland and Southern Cotton States:1996-1999.

Given recent concerns expressed about the structural transformation of agriculture and the health of the family farm this study provides a measure of the economic health of small and large farms at the state level. We use nonparametric frontier methods to measure and explain changes in the efficiency, productivity, and technological change of U.S. farms, employing USDAs annual 1996 to 1999 surveys of farms. Our results for the corn and cotton states analyzed identify particularly weak economic performance of small farms in Iowa, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin and of large farms in Missouri, Oklahoma, and South Carolina. Our results also indicate strong performance of small farms in several states. Thus, these results give policy makers a more detailed and up to date view of the overall economic health of the agricultural sector in the states analyzed than has previously been possible with aggregate state level analyses.Productivity Analysis, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Embedding Requirements within the Model Driven Architecture

The Model Driven Architecture (MDA) brings benefits to software development, among them the potential for connecting software models with the business domain. This paper focuses on the upstream or Computation Independent Model (CIM) phase of the MDA. Our contention is that, whilst there are many models and notations available within the CIM Phase, those that are currently popular and supported by the Object Management Group (OMG), may not be the most useful notations for business analysts nor sufficient to fully support software requirements and specification. Therefore, with specific emphasis on the value of the Business Process Modelling Notation (BPMN) for business analysts, this paper provides an example of a typical CIM approach before describing an approach which incorporates specific requirements techniques. A framework extension to the MDA is then introduced; which embeds requirements and specification within the CIM, thus further enhancing the utility of MDA by providing a more complete method for business analysis

The complexities of electronic services implementation and institutionalisation in the public sector

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Information & Management. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2013 Elsevier B.V.Electronic service implementation (ESI) in the public sector attempts to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency of governmental departments. Despite having provided the necessary infrastructure and investment, many governments have struggled to realise such aims due to the various forces that challenge implementation and institutionalisation. Using institutional theory as a lens, we explored the forces influencing the implementation and institutionalisation of ESI in the public sector. While our results reinforced previous research in IT implementation and organisational transformation, they showed that the dynamic nature of technology poses unanticipated pressures, and that these can impede the implementation and institutionalisation process