Pushing Open Government Through Social Media

E-government aims to enhance the interaction between citizens, business, and government. Recently, the term open government is increasingly used to emphasize the importance of co-creation in governmental issues. In this study, the social media activities of the municipalities of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, are investigated with regard to the topic “open government” as one pillar of e-government. The findings show that user interaction is mostly represented through likes and shares and rarely by comments. A topic detection of the posted content reveals that different terms are covered by the municipalities and shows that open government is getting more and more diverse in recent years. The number of posts is still increasing each year on the social media platforms Facebook and Twitter, but the topic of open government is still a peripheral phenomenon

Digitale Transformation in der Verwaltung : An Open Data geht kein Weg vorbei

Digitalisierung findet in allen Bereichen unseres Lebens statt: der Umbruch von althergebrachten Systemen und Arten von Arbeit auf neue, digitale Systeme und Verfahren stellt dabei einen Teil der digitalen Transformation dar. Diese Prozesse finden auch im Bereich von öffentlichen Institutionen wie Verwaltungen von Städten und Kommunen statt. Der Übergang von papiergetriebenen Verfahren hin zu digitalen Verfahren und Möglichkeiten (E-Government) und einer Öffnung der Verfahren hin zu höherer Transparenz und verbesserten Teilhabemöglichkeiten von Bürgern (Open Government) hat bereits begonnen. Dieses Kapitel thematisiert die digitale Transformation in der Verwaltung mit besonderer Berücksichtigung von Open Data. Welche Rolle kann dabei Open Data spielen und welche Chancen und Risiken ergeben sich durch die Veröffentlichung von Daten? Welche Ideen stecken dahinter, wer profitiert davon und welche Akteure sind in der Erzeugung, Veröffentlichung und Verarbeitung solch offener Datenbestände eingebunden? Im Fokus stehen dabei sowohl die Systeme, über welche Daten und Informationen zur Verfügung gestellt werden, als auch die Nutzer auf den unterschiedlichen Seiten. Die Einführung, die Adaption und die fortwährende Nutzung von Open Data und Open Government durch unterschiedliche Akteure sind die zentralen Forschungsaspekte, die hier berücksichtigt werden

Finding emotional-laden resources on the World Wide Web

Some content in multimedia resources can depict or evoke certain emotions in users. The aim of Emotional Information Retrieval (EmIR) and of our research is to identify knowledge about emotional-laden documents and to use these findings in a new kind of World Wide Web information service that allows users to search and browse by emotion. Our prototype, called Media EMOtion SEarch (MEMOSE), is largely based on the results of research regarding emotive music pieces, images and videos. In order to index both evoked and depicted emotions in these three media types and to make them searchable, we work with a controlled vocabulary, slide controls to adjust the emotions’ intensities, and broad folksonomies to identify and separate the correct resource-specific emotions. This separation of so-called power tags is based on a tag distribution which follows either an inverse power law (only one emotion was recognized) or an inverse-logistical shape (two or three emotions were recognized). Both distributions are well known in information science. MEMOSE consists of a tool for tagging basic emotions with the help of slide controls, a processing device to separate power tags, a retrieval component consisting of a search interface (for any topic in combination with one or more emotions) and a results screen. The latter shows two separately ranked lists of items for each media type (depicted and felt emotions), displaying thumbnails of resources, ranked by the mean values of intensity. In the evaluation of the MEMOSE prototype, study participants described our EmIR system as an enjoyable Web 2.0 service

Dünndarmschonung bei der IMRT des Rektumkarzinoms: Dosimetrische Studie zur Bauch- und Rückenlagerung

Background: This treatment planning study analyzes dose coverage and dose to organs at risk (OAR) in intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) of rectal cancer and compares prone vs. supine positioning as well as the effect of dose optimization for the small bowel (SB) by additional dose constraints in the inverse planning process. Patients and methods: Based on the CT datasets of ten male patients in both prone and supine position, a total of four different IMRT plans were created for each patient. OAR were defined as the SB, bladder, and femoral heads. In half of the plans, two additional SB cost functions were used in the inverse planning process. Results: There was a statistically significant dose reduction for the SB in prone position of up to 41% in the high and intermediate dose region, compared with the supine position. Furthermore, the femoral heads showed a significant dose reduction in prone position in the low dose region. Regarding the additional active SB constraints, the dose in the high dose region of the SB was significantly reduced by up to 14% with the additional cost functions. There were no significant differences in the dose distribution of the planning target volume (PTV) and the bladder. Conclusion: Prone positioning can significantly reduce dose to the SB in IMRT for rectal cancer and therefore should not only be used in 3D conformal radiotherapy but also in IMRT of rectal cancer. Further protection of the SB can be achieved by additional dose constraints in inverse planning without jeopardizing the homogeneity of the PTV

Idiopathic Mast Cell Activation Syndrome With Associated Salicylate Intolerance

Idiopathic mast cell activation syndrome can be a rare cause for chronic abdominal pain in children. It remains a diagnosis by exclusion that can be particularly challenging due to the vast variety of possible clinical manifestations. We present a 13-year-old boy who suffered from a multitude of unspecific complaints over a long period of time. In this case, an assessment of mast cell-derived metabolites and immunohistochemical analysis of bioptic specimen was worthwhile. After ruling out, primary (oncologic) and secondary causes for mast cell activation, pharmacologic treatment adapted to the patient’s salicylate intolerance resulted in a major relief of symptoms

Reconstruction of displaced acromio-clavicular joint dislocations using a triple suture-cerclage: description of a safe and efficient surgical technique

Abstract Purpose In this retrospective study we investigated the clinical and radiological outcome after operative treatment of acute Rockwood III-V injuries of the AC-joint using two acromioclavicular (AC) cerclages and one coracoclavicular (CC) cerclage with resorbable sutures. Methods Between 2007 and 2009 a total of 39 patients fit the inclusion criteria after operative treatment of acute AC joint dislocation. All patients underwent open reduction and anatomic reconstruction of the AC and CC-ligaments using PDS® sutures (Polydioxane, Ethicon, Norderstedt, Germany). Thirty-three patients could be investigated at a mean follow up of 32±9 months (range 24–56 months). Results The mean Constant score was 94.3±7.1 (range 73–100) with an age and gender correlated score of 104.2%±6.9 (88-123%). The DASH score (mean 3.46±6.6 points), the ASES score (94.6±9.7points) and the Visual Analogue Scale (mean 0.5±0,6) revealed a good to excellent clinical outcome. The difference in the coracoclavicular distance compared to the contralateral side was Conclusion Open AC joint reconstruction using AC and CC PDS cerclages provides good to excellent clinical results in the majority of cases. However, radiographically, the CC distance increased significantly at final follow up, but neither the amount of re-dislocation nor calcifications of the CC ligaments or osteoarthritis of the AC joint had significant influence on the outcome. Level of evidence Case series, Level IV</p