The E-Government Revolution in Tax Agencies: A Case Study of Critical Implementation Issues

Tax agencies in the U.S. are under pressure to maximize their operations with their constrained budgets. While taxpayers welcome the benefits of electronic government (e-government) services, the true motivation may lie in improving the efficiency of providing government services. Tax agencies transitioning from traditional brick-andmortar operations to e-government services and systems need to reengineer their business processes, redefine individual roles within the agency and relationship with taxpayers, and redesign organization structures around the new electronic technologies implemented. This paper presents and discusses six critical issues involved with this transition based on a case study of a state tax agency. They include managing expectations, articulating strategy, reengineering business processes and organization structure, managing the technology infrastructure and resources, training, and recruiting

Electronic Theory for Bilayer-Effects in High-T_c Superconductors

The normal and the superconducting state of two coupled CuO_2 layers in the High-T_c superconductors are investigated by using the bilayer Hubbard model, the FLEX approximation on the real frequency axis and the Eliashberg theory. We find that the planes are antiferromagnetically correlated which leads to a strongly enhanced shadow band formation. Furthermore, the inter-layer hopping is renormalized which causes a blocking of the quasi particle inter-plane transfer for low doping concentrations. Finally, the superconducting order parameter is found to have a d_{x^2-y^2} symmetry with significant additional inter-layer contributions.Comment: 5 pages, Revtex, 4 postscript figure

E-Government and Lessons from E-Commerce: A Preliminary Study

As businesses become more involved and savvy with electronic commerce (e-commerce), electronic government (e-government) can learn many lessons from them. The tremendous growth in e-commerce will spur many governments to launch comparable e-government services. The recent passage of federal law in the US has institutionalized e-government. Thus, many government bodies will become greatly involved with the Internet and its associated technologies in providing an array of government services that were once confined to brick and mortar operations. However, in deciding which applications will be most effective in serving their constituents and given their limited resources, governments might learn from the practices of businesses. As in the case of business to business (B2B) e-commerce, the exchange of information within and between government agencies will comprise the bulk of interactions or transactions. The results of a preliminary e-commerce survey suggest several areas that may prove to be more effective for e-government Extranet and Intranet applications

Influence of chemical treatment on the recycling of composites before pyrolysis

Recycling of carbon fibers is one of the upcoming global research topics in composite engineering. This work investigates the influence of chemical treatment on the recovery of carbon fibers from carbon fiber reinforced plastic before pyrolysis. The chemical pretreatment was achieved using a zinc chloride/ethanol solution. The pyrolysis process was conducted in a sliding furnace. The effect of such pre-treatment on thermal degradation behaviour was determined by a thermogravimetric analyser (TGA). An original sample was also investigated for benchmarking. After the thermal pyrolysis process, the fiber tensile properties were measured using a single fiber tester. The surface functional groups and graphitization degree recovered carbon fiber were characterized using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Raman spectroscopy. The surface morphology of recycled carbon fibers was investigated by SEM. Pristine carbon fibers were also included in the study for benchmarking. During the pyrolysis process, the devolatilisation temperature of the pre-impregnated prepregreduced by around 40-50°C and the peak temperature was 40-50°C lower compared to that of the original prepreg. The chemical pre-treatment process reduces the pyrolysis temperature compared to the conventional pyrolysis process. After pyrolysis in nitrogen with a small amount of air, loose carbon fibers were recovered, and their surface was clean. The similar surface functional groups and the decrease of degree of graphitization were detected on the recycled carbon fiber

Shredding energy consumption of GFRP composite waste

This work investigated effect of glass fibre fabric structures, feedstock feed rate and screen size on specific shredding energy of glass fibre reinforced plastics (GFRP) waste via a two-level factorial design of experiment study. Four types of fabric structure, i.e. unidirectional (UD), biaxial (BIAX), triaxial (TRIAX) and chopped strand mat (CSM), were impregnated separately with unsaturated polyester resin to manufacture GFRP plates. The shredding energy was measured using a two-wattmeter approach. During shredding, CSM demonstrated a relatively flat power consumption curve compared to other fabric types. It was also noticed that the GFRP plate reinforced with more complex woven structure, i.e. TRIAX, required higher energy for shredding, especially with a combination of high feed rate and small screen size. It was found that mechanical efficiency was only around 8.2-15.7% and 0.8-2.2% for shredding at feed rate of 60 kg/hr and 10 kg/hr respectively. It was also found that adopting a larger screen size and lower feed rate could reduce the specific shredding energy

Grooming of Dynamic Traffic in WDM Star and Tree Networks Using Genetic Algorithm

The advances in WDM technology lead to the great interest in traffic grooming problems. As traffic often changes from time to time, the problem of grooming dynamic traffic is of great practical value. In this paper, we discuss dynamic grooming of traffic in star and tree networks. A genetic algorithm (GA) based approach is proposed to support arbitrary dynamic traffic patterns, which minimizes the number of ADM's and wavelengths. To evaluate the algorithm, tighter bounds are derived. Computer simulation results show that our algorithm is efficient in reducing both the numbers of ADM's and wavelengths in tree and star networks.Comment: 15 page

Optical Evidence of Multiphase Coexistence in Single Crystalline (La,Pr,Ca)MnO3

We investigated temperature (T)- and magnetic field-dependent optical conductivity spectra (\s\w) of a La_5/8-yPr_yCa_3/8MnO_3 (y~0.35) single crystal, showing intriguing phase coexistence at low T. At T_C < T < T_CO, a dominant charge-ordered phase produces a large optical gap energy of ~0.4 eV. At T < T_C, at least two absorption bands newly emerge below 0.4 eV. Analyses of (\s\w) indicate that the new bands should be attributed to a ferromagnetic metallic and a charge-disordered phase that coexist with the charge-ordered phase. This optical study clearly shows that La_5/8-yPrCa_3/8MnO_3 (y~0.35) is composed of multiphases that might have different lattice strains.Comment: A single file with 9 figures embedded, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Molecular evidence of the haploid origin in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) with Aegilops kotschyi cytoplasm and whole genome expression profiling after haploidization

Aegiolops kotschyi cytoplasmic male sterile system often results in part of haploid plants in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). To elucidate the origin of haploid, 235 wheat microsatellite (SSR) primers were randomly selected and screened for polymorphism between haploid (2n = 3x = 21 ABD) and its parents, male-sterile line YM21 (2n = 6x = 42 AABBDD) and male fertile restorer YM2 (2n = 6x = 42 AABBDD). About 200 SSR markers yielded clear bands from denatured PAGE, of which 180 markers have identifiable amplification patterns, and 20 markers (around 8%) resulted in different amplification products between the haploid and the restorer, YM2. There were no SSR markers that were found to be distinguishable between the haploid and the male sterile line YM21. In addition, different distribution of HMW-GS between endosperm and seedlings from the same seeds further confirmed that the haploid genomes were inherited from the maternal parent. After haploidization, 1.7% and 0.91% of total sites were up- and down-regulated exceeding twofold in the shoot and the root of haploid, respectively, and most of the differentially expressed loci were up/down-regulated about twofold. Out of the sensitive loci in haploid, 94 loci in the shoot, 72 loci in the root can be classified into three functional subdivisions: biological process, cellular component and molecular function, respectively

Melting of Charge/Orbital Ordered States in Nd1/2_{1/2}Sr1/2_{1/2}MnO3_3: Temperature and Magnetic Field Dependent Optical Studies

We investigated the temperature ($T=$ 15 $\sim$ 290 K) and the magnetic field ($H=$ 0 $\sim$ 17 T) dependent optical conductivity spectra of a charge/orbital ordered manganite, Nd$_{1/2}$Sr$_{1/2}$MnO$_3$. With variation of $T$ and $H$, large spectral weight changes were observed up to 4.0 eV. These spectral weight changes could be explained using the polaron picture. Interestingly, our results suggested that some local ordered state might remain above the charge ordering temperature, and that the charge/orbital melted state at a high magnetic field (i.e. at $H=$ 17 T and $$ 4.2 K) should be a three dimensional ferromagnetic metal. We also investigated the first order phase transition from the charge/orbital ordered state to ferromagnetic metallic state using the $T$- and $H$% -dependent dielectric constants $\epsilon_1$. In the charge/orbital ordered insulating state, $\epsilon_1$ was positive and $d\epsilon_1/d\omega \approx 0$. With increasing $T$ and $H$, $\epsilon_1$ was increased up to the insulator-metal phase boundaries. And then, $\epsilon_1$ abruptly changed into negative and $d\epsilon_1/d\omega >0$, which was consistent with typical responses of a metal. Through the analysis of $\epsilon_1$ using an effective medium approximation, we found that the melting of charge/orbital ordered states should occur through the percolation of ferromagnetic metal domains.Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev.