e-Government in Greece: opportunities for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of local government

Currently in Greece, the Operational Programme for the Information Society (OPIS) is promoting ICT in the public sector. However, a content study of Greek government websites reveals that at local level e-government has generally not progressed beyond the information presentation stage. The findings of an online survey of government employees and interviews with key government officials suggest reasons for this. Recommendations are made for facilitating the development and implementation of full interactive local e-government

Safety net? Trust and e-government

Although the use of e-government by citizens is uneven, states are pressing ahead with e-government programmes despite the concerns of online users about areas such as privacy, the security of online transactions and fraud. Issues of trust and e-government are explored by looking at the Greek experience. Evidence is presented of a mismatch between the perceived importance of the trustworthiness of e-government websites and the actual priorities set by the authorities. Recommendations are made for the enhancement of public trust and confidence in government, and a model is proposed for determining the trustworthiness of e-government sites

e-Government in Greece: bridging the gap between need and reality

Increased use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in all layers of society, and especially in the public sector, is being promoted by the EU through various programmes and frameworks. Although Greece is keen to promote the information society, e government appears shyly on the horizon, mainly with the establishment of citizen service centres’. The reasons why full interactive online presence is still in its infancy in Greece, at least at a local government level, are considered and recommendations made for further research

Acoustic characterization of crack damage evolution in sandstone deformed under conventional and true triaxial loading

We thank the Associate Editor, Michelle Cooke, and the reviewers, Ze'ev Reches and Yves Guéguen, for useful comments which helped to improve the manuscript. We thank J.G. Van Munster for providing access to the true triaxial apparatus at KSEPL and for technical support during the experimental program. We thank R. Pricci for assistance with technical drawings of the apparatus. This work was partly funded by NERC award NE/N002938/1 and by a NERC Doctoral Studentship, which we gratefully acknowledge. Supporting data are included in a supporting information file; any additional data may be obtained from J.B. (e-mail: [email protected]).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Boronic acid inhibitors of the class A beta-lactamase KPC-2

The rapid rise of antimicrobial resistance is one of the greatest challenges currently facing medical science. The most common cause of resistance to β-lactam antibiotics is the expression of β-lactamase enzymes, such as KPC-2. As such the development of novel inhibitors of KPC-2 and related enzymes is of the upmost importance. We report the design and synthesis of novel boronic acid transition state analogs containing a 1,4-substituted 1,2,3-triazole linker based on the known inhibitor 3-nitrophenyl boronic acid and demonstrate that they are promising scaffolds for the development inhibitors of KPC-2 with the ability to recover sensitivity to the antibiotic cefotaxime

Quantum Monte Carlo calculations of H2_2 dissociation on Si(001)

We present quantum Monte Carlo calculations for various reaction pathways of H$_2$ with Si(001), using large model clusters of the surface. We obtain reaction energies and energy barriers noticeably higher than those from approximate exchange-correlation functionals. In improvement over previous studies, our adsorption barriers closely agree with experimental data. For desorption, the calculations give barriers for conventional pathways in excess of the presently accepted experimental value, and pinpoint the role of coverage effects and desorption from steps.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

A molecular theory for two-photon and three-photon fluorescence polarization

In the analysis of molecular structure and local order in heterogeneous samples, multiphoton excitation of fluorescence affords chemically specific information and high-resolution imaging. This report presents the results of an investigation that secures a detailed theoretical representation of the fluorescence polarization produced by one-, two-, and three-photon excitations, with orientational averaging procedures being deployed to deliver the fully disordered limits. The equations determining multiphoton fluorescence response prove to be expressible in a relatively simple, generic form, and graphs exhibit the functional form of the multiphoton fluorescence polarization. Amongst other features, the results lead to the identification of a condition under which the fluorescence produced through the concerted absorption of any number of photons becomes completely unpolarized. It is also shown that the angular variation of fluorescence intensities is reliable indicator of orientational disorder