T-government for benefit realisation

This paper proposes a model for t-Government and highlights the research agenda needed to increase understanding of transformational government and the processes involved in furthering the agenda of the t-Government. In particular, both an operational and a conceptual model for the effective involvement of citizens and businesses in government functioning have been proposed. This will help to define an agenda for t-Government research that emerges from national UK strategy and policy for e-Government. The main threads of t- Government encompass: (1) A citizen-centric delivery of public services or e-inclusion, (2) A shared services culture to maximize value added to clients, (3) The effective delivery and management of resources and skills within government or professionalism. All three threads should be addressed principally from the perspectives of delivery, evaluation and participation in view of benefit realisation as envisioned by Government strategic planning and policy directives (CabinetOffice, 2005). The management of change dimension of these phenomena have been included in the research agenda. In particular, research is needed to reshape the discourse towards emphasising a citizen centric approach that defines, develops, and benefits from public service. Decision makers in Government will need models of Governance that fulfil transformational objectives. They will also need models of benefits realisation within a strategic Governance framework. It has been argued that t-Government research should be addressing these relative voids

The Effects of Aerosolized Lead on the Immune and Hematopoietic Systems

The immunological responsiveness of two groups of mice exposed to 2.5 mg/m3 aerosolized Pb(N03)2 either since birth or for 14 days prior to immunization were compared with mice receiving equivalent quantities Pb(N03)2 (125 ~g/mouse/day) by gastric intubation for 1~ days. Each group was immunized at 5 weeks of age with 108 sheep red blood cells to examine both primary and secondary antibody responses. Lead immunotoxicity was evaluated by comparing total and differential leukocyte counts, cellulose acetate electrophoretic serum profiles, phagocytic index, hemolytic complement activity, hemagglutination antibody titers and organ (lung, thymus, spleen, kidney and liver) to body weight ratios. Atomic absorption spectrophotometry was used to determine the concentration of lead in serum, blood and tissues. None of the immunological parameters examined were significantly affected by lead ingestion. However, aerosolized lead resulted in significant decreases in antibody titers; hemolytic complement activity; phagocytic indices; thymus to body and spleen to body weight ratios; and reduced numbers of monocytes as well as a neutrophilic shift to lymphocytes. Effects were greatest in mice born and reared in the aerosolization chamber. These results indicate the greater immunotoxicity of aerosolized lead compared with ingested lead and thus the daily health hazard aerosolized lead presents. The goal of this research was to compare the chronic immunological effects of aerosolized lead with that of injested lead. An outbred strain of Swiss Webster mice originally obtained from Charles River Laboratories was used throughout this project. Each litter was sexed, distributed equally among groups, and cross-fostered. The effects of chronic aerosolized lead exposure were determined using mice exposed either for 14 days or since birth to aerosolized lead in an aerosolization chamber. Mice which received orally administered lead received an equivalent amount of lead by gastric intubation for 14 days. Both groups of mice had separate control groups. Since the immune and hematopoietic systems are extremely sensitive to chemical toxicity, immunological alteration was deemed to be an effective means of measuring the potential pollutant health hazards caused by lead

Supersymmetric Backgrounds and Black Holes in N=(1,1){\cal N}=(1,1) Cosmological New Massive Supergravity

Using an off-shell Killing spinor analysis we perform a systematic investigation of the supersymmetric background and black hole solutions of the ${\cal N}=(1,1)$ Cosmological New Massive Gravity model. The solutions with a null Killing vector are the same pp-wave solutions that one finds in the ${\cal N}=1$ model but we find new solutions with a time-like Killing vector that are absent in the ${\cal N}=1$ case. An example of such a solution is a Lifshitz spacetime. We also consider the supersymmetry properties of the so-called rotating hairy BTZ black holes and logarithmic black holes in an $AdS_3$ background. Furthermore, we show that under certain assumptions there is no supersymmetric Lifshitz black hole solution.Comment: 27 pages, v2: Typos Corrected, Version appeared in JHE

The Conflict Resolution and Counterterrorism Dilemma: Turkey Faces its Kurdish Question

Cataloged from PDF version of article.This article considers the relationship between two processes-conflict resolution and counterterrorism-which conceptually share many common points, yet in practice do not necessarily proceed together easily towards a common goal. Considering particular cases of ethnic conflict in which terrorist factions exist, the article argues that while neither conflict resolution nor counterterrorism alone can adequately address the problem, simultaneously conducting both must keep in mind the processes' inherent differences and avoid excessive prioritizing of one over the other. By exploring recent Turkish governmental initiatives to address the Kurdish question, the article attempts to provide an outline for how to successfully cope with the two processes simultaneously. © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

Inverse nodal problem for Dirac operator with integral type nonlocal boundary conditions

In this paper, Dirac operator with some integral type nonlocal boundary conditions is studied. We show that the coefficients of the problem can be uniquely determined by a dense set of nodal points. Moreover, we give an algorithm for the reconstruction of some coefficients of the operator