5,842 research outputs found
Factors affecting e-government adoption in the state of Qatar
Electronic government (e-government) initiatives are in their early stages in many developing countries and faced with various issues pertaining to their implementation, adoption and diffusion. Although e-government has increased transparency and improved communication and access to information for citizens, digital diffusion of information is often achieved at high cost to government agencies. Conversely, citizensâ adoption of e-government services has been less than satisfactory in most countries. While studies by researchers continue to outline the most salient adoption constructs, as well as various frameworks and models for understanding adoption, research by independent consultancy/research organisations has produced a host of statistics and league tables of good and bad practices of service delivery. Like many other developing countries, the e-government initiative in the state of Qatar has faced a number of challenges since its inception in 2000. This study utilises the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) to explore the adoption of e-government services in the state of Qatar. 1179 citizens were surveyed to collect primary data. A regression analysis was conducted to examine the influence of the factors adapted from the UTAUT on e-government adoption. Reliability test reported values of the various constructs vary between (0.74) and (0.91). The findings reveal that effort expectancy and social influences determine citizensâ behavioural intention towards e-government. Additionally, facilitating conditions and behavioural intention were found to determine citizensâ use of e-government services in Qatar. Implications for practice and research are discussed
Coherent States for Unusual Potentials
The program to construct minimum-uncertainty coherent states for general
potentials works transparently with solvable analytic potentials. However, when
an analytic potential is not completely solvable, like for a double-well or the
linear (gravitational) potential, there can be a conundrum. Motivated by
supersymmetry concepts in higher dimensions, we show how these conundrums can
be overcome.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, added info in Ref.
On the nature of bias and defects in the software specification process
Implementation bias in a specification is an arbitrary constraint in the solution space. This paper describes the problem of bias. Additionally, this paper presents a model of the specification and design processes describing individual subprocesses in terms of precision/detail diagrams and a model of bias in multi-attribute software specifications. While studying how bias is introduced into a specification we realized that software defects and bias are dual problems of a single phenomenon. This was used to explain the large proportion of faults found during the coding phase at the Software Engineering Laboratory at NASA/GSFC
Application of higher harmonic blade feathering on the OH-6A helicopter for vibration reduction
The design, implementation, and flight test results of higher harmonic blade feathering for vibration reduction on the OH-6A helicopter are described. The higher harmonic control (HHC) system superimposes fourth harmonic inputs upon the stationary swashplate. These inputs are transformed into 3P, 4P and 5P blade feathering angles. This results in modified blade loads and reduced fuselage vibrations. The primary elements of this adaptive vibration suppression system are: (1) acceleration transducers sensing the vibratory response of the fuselage; (2) a higher harmonic blade pitch actuator system; (3) a flightworthy microcomputer, incorporating the algorithm for reducing vibrations, and (4) a signal conditioning system, interfacing between the sensors, the microcomputer and the HHC actuators. The program consisted of three distinct phases. First, the HHC system was designed and implemented on the MDHC OH-6A helicopter. Then, the open loop, or manual controlled, flight tests were performed, and finally, the closed loop adaptive control system was tested. In 1983, one portion of the closed loop testing was performed, and in 1984, additional closed loop tests were conducted with improved software. With the HHC system engaged, the 4P pilot seat vibration levels were significantly lower than the baseline ON-6A levels. Moreover, the system did not adversely affect blade loads or helicopter performance. In conclusion, this successful proof of concept project demonstrated HHC to be a viable vibration suppression mechanism
Cognitive outcome and gamma noise power unrelated to neuregulin 1 and 3 variation in schizophrenia
Background
Neuregulins are a family of signalling proteins that orchestrate a broad range of cellular responses. Four genes encoding Neuregulins 1â4 have been identified so far in vertebrates. Among them, Neuregulin 1 and Neuregulin 3 have been reported to contribute to an increased risk for developing schizophrenia. We hypothesized that three specific variants of these genes (rs6994992 and rs3924999 for Neuregulin 1 and rs10748842 for Neuregulin 3) that have been related to this illness may modify information processing capacity in the cortex, which would be reflected in electrophysiological parameters (P3b amplitude or gamma noise power) and/or cognitive performance.
Methods
We obtained DNA from 31 patients with schizophrenia and 23 healthy controls and analyzed NRG1 rs6994992, NRG1 rs3924999 and NRG3 rs10748842 promoter polymorphisms by allelic discrimination with real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). We compared cognitive outcome, P300 amplitude parameters and an electroencephalographic measure of noise power in the gamma band between the groups dichotomized according to genotype.
Results
Contrary to our hypothesis, we could not detect any significant influence of variation in Neuregulin 1/Neuregulin 3 polymorphisms on cognitive performance or electrophysiological parameters of patients with schizophrenia.
Conclusions
Despite our findings, we cannot discard that other genetic variants and, more likely, interactions between those variants and with genetic variation related to different pathways may still influence cerebral processing in schizophrenia
Fusion process of Lennard-Jones clusters: global minima and magic numbers formation
We present a new theoretical framework for modelling the fusion process of
Lennard-Jones (LJ) clusters. Starting from the initial tetrahedral cluster
configuration, adding new atoms to the system and absorbing its energy at each
step, we find cluster growing paths up to the cluster sizes of up to 150 atoms.
We demonstrate that in this way all known global minima structures of the
LJ-clusters can be found. Our method provides an efficient tool for the
calculation and analysis of atomic cluster structure. With its use we justify
the magic number sequence for the clusters of noble gas atoms and compare it
with experimental observations. We report the striking correspondence of the
peaks in the dependence on cluster size of the second derivative of the binding
energy per atom calculated for the chain of LJ-clusters based on the
icosahedral symmetry with the peaks in the abundance mass spectra
experimentally measured for the clusters of noble gas atoms. Our method serves
an efficient alternative to the global optimization techniques based on the
Monte-Carlo simulations and it can be applied for the solution of a broad
variety of problems in which atomic cluster structure is important.Comment: 47 pages, MikTeX, 17 figure
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