The telecommunications content of state public utility commission Web sites: Remaining relevant in a changing marketplace

The role and continued relevance of state telecommunications regulators have been challenged by the development of competition, the introduction of new technologies, and the increasing dominance of federal authority. An important role that state utility commissions can play in the current telecommunications environment is to provide consumer education and information about consumer protection, competition, and universal service. Commissions can use their Web sites as effective tools in educating and informing consumers. This study analyzes the consumer-related telecommunications information included on the Web sites of the commissions in the 50 states and the District of Columbia to determine whether, and how well, state commissions are using their Web sites to educate and inform.     

Evaluation of Oxidative Stress and hsCRP in Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome in a Tertiary Care Hospital

PCOS is a heterogeneous endocrine disorder with diverse clinical presentation. Oxidative stress plays a key role in the pathophysiology of this disease. Serumhigh sensitive C-reactive protein (hsCRP), a marker of chronic low grade inflammation, is indicative of future development of cardiovascular disease. Our aim is to evaluate the oxidant status and hsCRP levels in PCOS. The study involved 61 cases and 61 controls in the age group of 18–40 years diagnosed with PCOS. Erythrocyte malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), serum hsCRP, gonadotrophins, thyroid stimulating hormone, prolactin, glycemic status and lipid profile were estimated. Erythrocyte MDA (p < 0.001), SOD (p = 0.007) and serum hsCRP (p < 0.001) were significantly elevated in PCOS patients than controls. Oxidative stress is present in women with PCOS along with elevated hsCRP.     

The 2001 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Earth Science presented to Rob Van der Voo

The Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, awarded the 2001 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Earth Science to Rob Van der Voo for his outstanding contributions to the field of paleomagnetism and his reconstruction of ancient continental positions that have lead to a better understanding of plate tectonic processes for the past billion years of Earth history.     

In search of query patterns: A case study of a university OPAC

A transaction log analysis of the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) OPAC was conducted to identify query and search failure patterns with the goal of identifying areas of improvement for the system. One semester’s worth of OPAC transaction logs were obtained and from these, 641,991 queries were extracted and used for this work. Issues investigated included query length, frequency and type of search options and Boolean operators used as well as their relationships with search failure. Among other findings, results indicate that a majority of the queries were simple, with short query lengths and a low usage of Boolean operators. Failure analysis revealed that on average, users had an almost equal chance of obtaining no records or at least one record to a submitted query. We propose enhancements and suggest future areas of work to improve the users’ search experience with the NTU OPAC.     

Does Felt Gender Compatibility Mediate Influences of Self‐Perceived Gender Nonconformity on Early Adolescents’ Psychosocial Adjustment?

This study evaluated the hypothesis that self-perceived gender nonconformity is distressing to children because it undermines a confident sense of gender compatibility. Participants were 357 early adolescents (180 boys, M age = 12.68 years) in England who responded to questionnaires measuring friendship styles (preoccupied, avoidant), gender compatibility (typicality, contentedness), and adjustment (self-esteem, peer social competence, depression, narcissism). Sex differences in friendship styles indicated that preoccupied and avoidant styles were typical for girls and boys, respectively. Gender-atypical friendship styles predicted poor adjustment, and their impact on adjustment was partially mediated by felt gender compatibility. Results suggest that perceiving gender-atypical attributes in the self undermines adjustment partly because it leads children to feel incompatible with their gender collective.     

Accessibility of U.S. federal government home pages: Section 508 compliance and site accessibility statements

U.S. federal websites are required to be accessible for people with impairments. However, despite the existing regulations and guidelines, many federal websites continue to be inaccessible, and accessibility policy statements available on federal websites often do not provide any useful information. This paper provides three contributions to the research literature: (1) an accessibility evaluation of 100 federal home pages using both human and automated methods, (2) a content analysis of existing website accessibility policy statements, and (3) a discussion of the relationship between actual Section 508 compliance and the existing accessibility policy statements on a website. The paper concludes with recommendations for improving policy related to Section 508 compliance for websites.     

How do congressional members appear on the web? Tracking the web visibility of South Korean politicians

The web visibility of politicians has substantial implications for the internet and politics. In this regard, the present paper examines the web visibility of South Korea's 18th National Assembly members. This study identifies those members with the highest web visibility and determines the factors affecting their web visibility by using a set of socio-demographic variables indicating web visibility. The concept of web visibility is operationally defined as the number of web mentions of each congressional member. Web mentions of the name of each congressional member were collected across many platforms, including blogs, images, news, and websites, by using a Naver search tool based on the API, and relationships between the web visibility of the members and their socio-demographic attributes (their gender, age, term, constituency, and party affiliation) were analyzed using Kruskal–Wallis, Median, and Mann–Whitney U tests. The most visible politicians in the Korean webosphere had highly qualified political careers and prominence, and the difference in politicians' web visibility depended on their political attributes (their term, constituency, and party), not on their demographic attributes (their gender and age). These findings suggest that politicians who build political power and influence through their political career in the offline world are likely to be more visible in the webosphere. Further, an integrated indicator based on politicians' web visibility status can reflect their “ubiquitous presence” in Korea's digitalized society.     

E-Government readiness index: A methodology and analysis

E-Government has received significant attention as digital technologies transcend private businesses and serve as a basic source of transformation in government functions. One most notable project is the United Nations Public Administration Network (UNPAN) that assesses the e-Government readiness of the 192 member nations according to a quantitative composite index involving website assessment, telecommunication infrastructure, and human resource endowment. However, the UNPAN index, though rich in depth and breadth of data collection, relies on a method that is a simple mathematical average of the values of the variables measured. This paper revisits the UNPAN index and proposes alternative indices based on principal components analysis (PCA). Using the UNPAN survey data, four different versions of the index are presented and the resulting rankings of the nations are examined vis-à-vis the existing ranking. The theoretical and policy implications of the proposed methodology and its results are discussed.     

The forgotten promise of e-government maturity: Assessing responsiveness in the digital public sector

Assessing e-government responsiveness is one of the major gaps in the currently dominant e-government maturity models. While we have a relatively large pool of models focusing on technological and organizational integration from a supply side perspective, measures of responsiveness of e-government systems from a user perspective are still lacking. Replicating a study from New Zealand and Australia, this study explores the response time and quality of e-mail response in Danish local and central governments (N = 175). Despite that Denmark is high ranking in international benchmark studies, we find that one third of central government agencies did not respond at all, and close to 80% of the ministries provided none or incomplete answers. Local government responds faster and provides answers that are more complete and accurate than those provided by central government. Implications for e-government are discussed.     

e-Government services for faith-based organizations: Bridging the organizational divide

In this paper, we examine the challenges faced by faith-based institutions in a low-income, predominantly Black community seeking to take advantage of grants provided through the White House Office of Community and Faith-Based Initiatives (FBCI). FBCI is an e-Government program that assists nonprofit organizations in competing for Federal dollars with fewer bureaucratic barriers. Informed by the design-actuality framework, we interviewed clergy at seven faith-based organizations. The intent of this analysis is to juxtapose the design intentions of the government officials with the actualities expressed by the intended benefactors of the initiative. Our findings suggest that this e-Government initiative may unwittingly exacerbate existing disparities in the strategic use of information and communication technologies (ICT).