Factors influencing intention to use e-government services among citizens in Malaysia

This study is an exploratory study on the e-government in Malaysia. With the liberalization and globalization, Internet has been used as a medium of transaction in almost all aspects of human living. This study investigates the factors that influencing the intention to use e-government service among Malaysians. This study integrates constructs from the models of Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) which been moderated by culture factor and Trust model with five dimensions. The study was conducted by surveying a broad diversity of citizens in Malaysia community. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 195 respondents but only 150 of the respondents with complete answers participating in the study. The result of the analysis showed that trust, perceived usefulness, perceived relative advantage and perceived image, respectively, has a direct positive significant relationship towards intention to use e-government service and perceived complexity has a significant negative relationship towards intention to use e-government service. While perceived strength of online privacy and perceived strength of non-repudiation have a positive impact on a citizen's trust to use e-government service. However, the uncertainty avoidance (moderating factor) used in the study has no significant effect on the relationship between the innovation factors (complexity, relative advantage and image) and intention to use e-government service. Finally in comparing the explanatory power of the entire intention based model (TAM, DOI and Trust) with the studied model, it has been found that the DOI model has a better explanatory power.     

美国创新战略变化的三个阶段及对中国的启示

克林顿时期美国创新战略强调技术是经济增长的引擎,而科学是燃料。这一战略为美国带来10年"新经济"发展。小布什时期,保守创新战略偏向国防和反恐,但基础研究投入为美国经济复苏奠定一定基础。奥巴马时期,创新战略强调创新是美国赢得未来的关键。这一战略使得美国从金融危机中加快复苏。美国创新战略的演变给中国的创新战略具有重要的启示:一是要继续坚持自主创新战略,并与时俱进;二是加大基础研究的投入是加快推动创新的关键之一;三是实施专项科技计划是实现跨越式发展的有效方式,最后要加强对美国创新战略的影响研究。     

Event-based discrete-time multi-agent consensus over signed digraphs with communication delays

The ability to ensure the desired performance of the cooperative-antagonistic multi-agent networks (MANs) in the presence of communication constraints is an important task in many applications of real systems. In this paper, under the proposed event-triggered condition (ETC), different types of consensus are obtained under different network topology. We concentrates on the event-based bipartite consensus. It is shown that under the proposed ETC (i) the addressed cooperative-antagonistic network with arbitrary communication delays reaches bipartite consensus provided that the network is balanced; (ii) the network model reaches zero if the network is unbalanced. Further, to avoid the continuously verifying the triggering condition, a self-triggered algorithm is proposed for realizing the bipartite consensus of the network model. A numerical example is given to illustrate the effectiveness of the theoretical results.     

An examination of the jump-and-lift factors influencing the time to reach peak catch height during a Rugby Union lineout

The goal of an offensive Rugby Union lineout is to throw the ball in a manner that allows your team to maintain possession. Typically, the player catching the ball jumps and is lifted upwards by two teammates, reaching above the opposing player who is competing for the ball also. Despite various beliefs regarding the importance of the jumper’s mass and attempted jump height, and lifters’ magnitude and point of force application, there is negligible published data on the topic. The squeeze technique is one lifting method commonly employed by New Zealand teams during lineout plays, whereby the jumper initiates the jump quickly and the lifters provide assistance only once the jumper reaches 20–30 cm. While this strategy may reduce cues to the opposition, it might also constrain the jumper and lifters. We developed a model to explore how changes in the jumper’s body mass and attempted jump height, and lifters’ magnitude and point of force application influence the time to reach peak catch height. The magnitude of the lift force impacted the time-to-reach peak catch height the most; followed by the jumper’s (attempted) jump height and body mass; and lastly, the point of lift force application.     

An institutional analysis of an e-government system for anti-corruption: The case of OPEN

E-government is increasingly being used to improve transparency in the government sector and to combat corruption. Using institutional theory as an analytical perspective, this study documents and evaluates the development of an anti-corruption system called OPEN (Online Procedures ENhancement for civil application) in the Seoul Metropolitan Government. Incorporating three distinctive (yet interrelated) dimensions of institutionalization (regulatory/coercive, cognitive/mimetic, and normative), and four anti-corruption strategies embedded in the system, this study investigates how an e-government system for anti-corruption in a local government has evolved and become a prototype of a national system to be used for the same purpose. The findings show that in implementing OPEN, a system for anti-corruption, the regulatory dimension was most effective, and (as in many IS implementations) strong leadership was crucial to its success.     

Who goes to a library for cancer information in the e-health era? A secondary data analysis of the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS)

This study identifies characteristics of Americans who chose the library as their primary cancer information source over the Internet by examining demographic characteristics, online use experience, concerns of information quality, and perceptions of cancer information seeking. A secondary data analysis is conducted using the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) of the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Findings reveal that people who are more likely to choose the library are, compared to their Internet counterparts, people who lack online experience, are distrustful of online cancer information, and are more aware of cancer sources. However, they are not necessarily more adept cancer information seekers and do not have a greater expectation of getting quality information from the library. These findings suggest how the library plays its role as an information source for cancer information consumers in the e-health environment. Implications of the findings are discussed in a way that libraries could invest their efforts to reduce the digital health divide and to advance consumer health information literacy.     

Evaluation of query expansion using MeSH in PubMed

This paper investigates the effectiveness of using MeSH^® in PubMed through its automatic query expansion process: Automatic Term Mapping (ATM). We run Boolean searches based on a collection of 55 topics and about 160,000 MEDLINE^® citations used in the 2006 and 2007 TREC Genomics Tracks. For each topic, we first automatically construct a query by selecting keywords from the question. Next, each query is expanded by ATM, which assigns different search tags to terms in the query. Three search tags: [MeSH Terms], [Text Words], and [All Fields] are chosen to be studied after expansion because they all make use of the MeSH field of indexed MEDLINE citations. Furthermore, we characterize the two different mechanisms by which the MeSH field is used. Retrieval results using MeSH after expansion are compared to those solely based on the words in MEDLINE title and abstracts. The aggregate retrieval performance is assessed using both F-measure and mean rank precision. Experimental results suggest that query expansion using MeSH in PubMed can generally improve retrieval performance, but the improvement may not affect end PubMed users in realistic situations.     

A Study of Rubisco through Western Blotting and Tissue Printing Techniques

We describe a laboratory exercise developed for a cell biology course for second-year undergraduate biology majors. It was designed to introduce undergraduates to the basic molecular biology techniques of Western blotting and immunodetection coupled with the technique of tissue printing in detecting the presence, relative abundance, and distribution of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase in various plant materials. Pre- and postlab surveys indicated significant postlab gains in student understanding of all three lab techniques and relevant lecture topics. Additional postlab survey questions on student perception of the lab modules suggested that the laboratory exercises successfully met a series of pedagogical goals set by the instructors. The combination of these techniques provided a basis for quantitative and qualitative (visual) analysis of a biologically important enzyme and can be applied or modified readily to study other proteins and biological molecules in lab exercises for an introductory cell biology course or molecular biology course.     

The structural relationships of social support, mother’s psychological status, and maternal sensitivity to attachment security in children with disabilities

The purpose of this study was to explore how social support, mother’s psychological status, and maternal sensitivity affected attachment security in children with disabilities by using the structural equation model (SEM). Subjects were 141 pairs of children with disabilities and theirs mothers. Empirical data was obtained through a series of questionnaires such as marital satisfaction, support from people around, maternal depression, and parenting stress. In addition, maternal sensitivity and attachment security were obtained through a Maternal Behavior Q-set and an Attachment Behavior Q-set. The results were as follows: first, mother’s psychological status was fully mediated by social support and maternal sensitivity. Secondly, mother’s psychological status had a negative effect on maternal sensitivity, while her maternal sensitivity, in turn, had a positive effect on the child’s attachment security. However, maternal sensitivity did not fully mediate between a mother’s psychological status and the child’s attachment security. These structural relationships were not different between children with pervasive developmental disorders and mental retardation. There were also no significant differences in the structural paths according to children’s developmental age.