Digital Government and Public Health

Digital government is typically defined as the production and delivery of information and services inside government and between government and the public using a range of information and communication technologies. Two types of government relationships with other entities are government-to-citizen and government-to-government relationships. Both offer opportunities and challenges. Assessment of a public health agency's readiness for digital government includes examination of technical, managerial, and political capabilities. Public health agencies are especially challenged by a lack of funding for technical infrastructure and expertise, by privacy and security issues, and by lack of Internet access for low-income and marginalized populations. Public health agencies understand the difficulties of working across agencies and levels of government, but the development of new, integrated e-programs will require more than technical change — it will require a profound change in paradigm

Issues surrounding drug use and drug services among the South Asian

This is the first of a series of publications to inform drug service planning and provision by presenting results from the Department of Health’s Black and minority ethnic drug misuse needs assessment project that was conducted throughout England in thre

A RESEARCH OF E-GOVERNMENT WEBSITE PERFORMANCE AND ITS RELATIONS WITH ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

The e-government websites (EGWS) provide comprehensive government information contents and online services for residents and become an important interactive platform between province authorities and residents. In this article, we construct a set of systematic, objective, effective, and service-oriented EGWS performance evaluation model, and utilize the quantization methods, analytic hierarchy process(AHP) to evaluate Chinese province EGWS. We have shown the applicability of the EGWS evaluating method using 31 provincial case study. The results indicate that there remains significant variation in the extent to which EGWS deliver government information, online service, interact with residents and using information technology. Furthermore, we utilized correlation analysis to determine whether the EGWS performance has any relations with the economic development level. This research provide e-government policy makers with the ability to make more informed decisions on these issues so residents can be better served

The Future of Government: Lessons Learned from around the World

The report provides a summary of the discussions that have taken place within the framework of Forum activities on how the strategies, structures and practices of governments must change in the coming years, and how new networks and technologies can be leveraged to transform government capacity. It includes a series of policy briefs, which distils some of the most current and vital information for government modernization available, and concludes with case studies from around the world

Transfection of primary human skin fibroblasts by electroporation

Primary human skin fibroblasts are an accessible source of phenotypically and karyotypically normal human cells, but are difficult to transfect with exogenous DNA. Here we demonstrate that both transient expression and stable transformation can be carried out by the method of electroporation. Highly efficient transient chloramphenicol acetyltransferase expression was shown after transfection with plasmid pRSVCAT. Stable transformation of human skin fibroblasts to G418 resistance was obtained after electroporation with neo-containing plasmids at an efficiency of approximately 1.4 x 10-5/[mu]g DNA. The ability to easily transfect these cells with exogenous DNA may have important applications in the study of human genetic diseases and cancer.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/27179/1/0000177.pd

Are youth mentoring programs good value-for-money? An evaluation of the Big Brothers Big Sisters Melbourne Program

Background : The Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) program matches vulnerable young people with a trained, supervised adult volunteer as mentor. The young people are typically seriously disadvantaged, with multiple psychosocial problems.Methods : Threshold analysis was undertaken to determine whether investment in the program was a worthwhile use of limited public funds. The potential cost savings were based on US estimates of life-time costs associated with high-risk youth who drop out-of-school and become adult criminals. The intervention was modelled for children aged 10&ndash;14 years residing in Melbourne in 2004.Results : If the program serviced 2,208 of the most vulnerable young people, it would cost AUD 39.5 M. Assuming 50% were high-risk, the associated costs of their adult criminality would be AUD 3.3 billion. To break even, the program would need to avert high-risk behaviours in only 1.3% (14/1,104) of participants.Conclusion : This indicative evaluation suggests that the BBBS program represents excellent \u27value for money\u27.<br /