bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Providing Rational and Normative Policy Evaluation with Hedonic Estimation in Developing and Emerging Market Economies
Authors: Erakovich Rodney , Poppe Gerald , Shampton John F. , Pai Kalpana
Published: May 2015

Market economy and democratic evolution in public policy requires a shift from a comprehensive rational and positivism approach to including normative considerations through a social participatory thesis. The key question of this chapter's examination is: Do the fundamental ideas of econometric evaluation of land value as a basis for public policy contribute worth for the society as a whole? Policy that exploits market mechanisms cannot be developed in isolation of the larger societal needs that are required to enrich democracy. To do this, the authors provide an econometric model of valuation of land to test and predict policy outcomes to enhance democratic transition. Establishing market value is a tool that supports policy economic development goals and normative outcomes desired through political transparency in the emergence to democratic processes. The authors conclude with recommendations for implementation to support stakeholders in the policymaking process.
Transitioning to Government Shared Services Centres
Authors: Tambo Torben , Bækgaard Lars
Published: May 2015

Services are fundamental to the provisioning of business activities. Enterprise Architecture (EA) is maintaining the relationship between strategy, business, and technology. A clear definition and agreed understanding of services is critical to realising information technology artefacts. Services, however, tend to be more complex than the mere act of interaction or working processes, and should be seen out of the cultural, organisational, and managerial factors surrounding them. This chapter uses a service model consisting of execution, context, and intention with an underlying claim that all three elements must be present to make services meaningful. EA must be seen in the light of this. This chapter addresses the issues related to combined transformation of organisations, service systems, and consequently, EA. The transformation changes loosely coupled, distributed organisations into Shared Service Centres (SSCs). A case study of a far-reaching SSC transformation from Denmark is presented where eGovernment services are moved from local government level into a national SSC structure referred to as Udbetaling Danmark (lit. PayDK). Major findings include: (1) When eGovernment reaches a certain level of maturity, it dissolves its original reason and no longer follows a progressive maturity model. Instead, it leads to a more radical reorganisation emphasising operational efficiency. (2) Development and management of complexities and uncertainties in governmental administrative services are closely associated with the development of eGovernment through ongoing refinement of EA and service frameworks. (3) The policy-driven reshaping of governmental services, originally themselves being SSCs, can lead to iterative SSC formations, each seeking to establish a professional logic of its own. (4) The systemic perception connected to EA and service science provides valuable insight into service transformation before, during, and after the transformation. This chapter aims at a deeper understanding and discussion of services in developing eGovernment policies and architectures, but findings are readily applicable in general business environments.
Policy Modeling Methodologies
Authors: Burkhardt Dirk , Nazemi Kawa , Kohlhammer Jörn
Published: May 2015

The process to develop sustainable public policies is done by public authorities ensuring the involvement of all stakeholders. ICT is rarely included in most of the today's applied policymaking processes. Other process definitions with a focus on ICT inclusion in policy modeling still exist, but they are not well defined. This chapter gives an overview of the existing policy modeling process types and explains their major foci and how they consider ICT and the practical process in public authorities. Afterwards, based on these descriptions, the general requirements on a new ICT-oriented policy modeling process that allows the inclusion of ICT into a valid and useful process for public authorities is given.
Towards an Integrated Research Framework in Public Policy-Focused Investigations
Authors: Aslani Alireza
Published: May 2015

Today researchers help governments to make rational and evidence informed decisions in their public policies. Thereby, practices and studies of public policies should be guided by high quality investigations especially in healthcare and energy sectors. Due to the importance of public policy-focused research and existing research gaps, this article aims to introduce a new framework with special focus on system identification and conceptualization. The framework seeks to integrate advantages of the action, systematic, quantitative, and qualitative research in an innovative structure.
E-Government Service Research Development
Authors: Hasan M. Mahmudul
Published: May 2015

Electronic service in the domain of e-Government has been gaining research attention over past two decades. This paper reports on a literature review of the published e-Government service research and provides an analysis of the research development in terms of research themes, regional context, research perspective, data analysis method, and research approach. The results of this analysis can serve the e-Government research communities as a means of understanding the e-Government service research development and future research agenda. The finding of this paper shows that e-Government service research is conducted in the theme of adoption, evaluation, interoperability, etc. The research is conducted both in the context of economic developed and developing countries mainly in citizen perspective. Empirical data analysis method and descriptive approach are mostly employed in the research.
E-Guidelines for the Effectiveness of E-Government Process
Authors: Şentürk Burçak
Published: May 2015

Computers, the Internet, smart phone technology and other innovations have come about through the developments in technology which have helped to increase the type and number of facilities available to mankind. E-government applications have led the way in the development of these facilities. Today, transactions that used to take a great deal of time can be done in hours, even minutes, with the aid of e-government applications. In e-government processes it is essential that citizens, especially those who are of a certain age and not very familiar with the Internet, can carry out the relevant e-government applications with ease. At this point, e-guidelines that explain the e-government process and applications take on a strategic importance. In this chapter, e-guidelines in the e-government process will be examined; to date, this topic has not been examined in many studies. By emphasizing the importance of developing e-guidelines, the characteristics, usage areas and importance of e-guidelines will be examined and an example e-guideline for the Turkish e-government process, which provides 562 different services from 70 different institutions, will be examined.
Authentication Mechanisms for E-Voting
Authors: Abu-Shanab Emad , Khasawneh Rawan , Alsmadi Izzat
Published: May 2015

The e-government paradigm became an essential path for governments to reach citizens and businesses and to improve service and public performance. One of the important tools used in political and administrative venues is e-voting, where ICT tools are used to facilitate the process of voting for electing representatives and making decisions. The integrity and image of such applications won't be maintained unless strict measures on security and authenticity are applied. This chapter explores the e-voting process, reviews the authentication techniques and methods that are used in this process and proposed in the literature, and demonstrates few cases of applying e-voting systems from different countries in the world. Conclusions and proposed future work are stated at the end of the chapter.
Electronic and Mobile G2C Services
Authors: Exarchou Maria , Karatzika Paraskevi , Zarmpou Theodora , Vlachopoulou Maro
Published: May 2015

Electronic and mobile government services represent a tremendous impetus to move forward in the 21st Century with the potential to bring about a higher quality and more cost effective services to enhance the relationship between citizens and government. In this chapter, the municipalities' electronic services provided to citizens are examined based on the literature review and the assessment of their websites. As a result, a typology of electronic and mobile services is proposed. Furthermore, the users' perspective is inquired in order to depict the awareness, the usage and the attitude of citizens in relation to the electronic and mobile services provided by the municipalities in Northern Greece. Therefore, electronic services are used only by a small percentage of Greek citizens due to lack of awareness and trust in electronic government. Mobile services are regarded to be beneficial, while high cost and lack of network connection seem to be barriers for their usage.
Cloud Computing
Authors: Juiz Carlos , Alexander de Pous Victor
Published: May 2015

Cloud computing evolved as a key delivery model for Information Technology (IT) and data provision for both the private and public sectors. Addressing its governance, legal, and public policy aspects is a condition sine qua non for successful deployment, whether done by the in-house IT department or outsourced. Stakeholders ask for new applications that consumerization is providing. Therefore, IT governance should be adapted to consider this new business pressure. However, the law plays a double role in respect to cloud computing; it functions as a legal framework set by mandatory regulations and as a contractual instrument to manage the cloud technology and information provisioning in an effective way, based on the strategic objectives of any organization. This chapter is devoted to where IT governance frameworks should consider the decisions about specific cloud computing compliance, how to measure them through several indicators, and which are their general legal and public policy aspects.
Investigating Factors Inhibiting e-Government Adoption in Developing Countries
Authors: Kamal Muhammad M. , Hackney Ray , Sarwar Kashif
Published: May 2015

Researchers in the discipline of electronic government (e-Government) have historically presented several factors impeding the adoption and implementation of these systems. This paper is uniquely aimed at investigating the factors inhibiting e-Government adoption in a developing country – Pakistan. The literature indicates that the move towards integrated service provision and transactional e-Government is considered as an immense challenge for developing countries as compared to developed regions. Moreover, the progress towards realising the full potential of e-Government using digital technologies to improve public services and government-citizen engagements has been slower and less effective in the developing countries. Pakistan, over many years, has experienced similar lethargic e-Government growth due to economic and political instability, poor governance and deteriorating government institutions. Thus, the ever increasingly weakening state of government structures in Pakistan calls for the need to deliver end-to-end ‘joined-up' public services to key stakeholders (i.e. citizens, businesses, government employees and other government agencies). The contribution of this research is twofold – firstly, identifying factors inhibiting e-Government adoption in Pakistan – here the focus is to identify the significant problems of meeting demands which are attributed to several issues within organisational, strategic, technological, political, operational, stakeholders and social structures. Secondly, the authors propose an achievable approach to enacting e-Government enabled delivery of services. The conceptual findings, as noted, are validated through qualitative based research in the context of Pakistan government organisations.
An Investigation of the Critical Factors for Evaluating the Public Value of e-Government
Authors: Karunasena Kanishka , Deng Hepu , Harasgama Kushanthi Sajeewani
Published: May 2015

This chapter aims to investigate the critical factors for evaluating the public value of e-government in Sri Lanka. A comprehensive review of the relevant literature on the scope of e-government, the sources of public value creation, and the kinds of public value is conducted for developing the theoretical framework of the study. Using the qualitative data collected from Sri Lanka, a thematic analysis is performed for identifying the critical factors for evaluating the public value of e-government. The analysis reveals that the quality of public information online, functionalities of electronic services, provision of information and services through e-enabled counters, user orientation of public service delivery, improving organisational efficiency, openness and responsiveness, enhancing trust, ensuring confidentiality of citizens' information, achieving social equity, and environmental sustainability are critical for evaluating the public value of e-government.
E-Government in Less Developed Countries
Authors: Eid Riyad , Alsharief Raja Yahya
Published: May 2015

In recent years, e-Government has been the favourable theme for numerous studies and reports. Yet, there is a lack of systematic evidence regarding the key challenges for the e-Government implementation in less developed countries. Consequently, This chapter is devoted to a comprehensive review of literature relevant to shed light on the e-Government in less developed countries, its importance, and finally the effect of the e-Government on the government activities. It also discusses some applications which have been tried by a number of less developed countries and the results they have achieved.
Taxonomy of IT Intangible Assets for Public Administration Based on the Electronic Government Maturity Model in Uruguay
Authors: Garbarino Helena , Delgado Bruno , Carrillo José
Published: May 2015

This chapter presents a taxonomy of IT intangible asset indicators for Public Administration, relating the indicators to the Electronic Government Maturity Model proposed by the Uruguayan Agency for Electronic Government and Information Society. Indicators are categorized according to a consolidated intellectual capital model. The Taxonomy is mapped at the indicator level against the EGMM subareas covering all of the relevant aspects associated with the intangible IT assets of the Public Administration in Uruguay. The main challenges and future lines of work for building a consolidated maturity model of IT intangible assets in Public Administration are also presented.
Factors Influencing Citizen Adoption of E-Government in Developing Countries
Authors: Al Hujran Omar , Aloudat Anas , Altarawneh Ikhlas
Published: May 2015

The main purposes of this study are to investigate citizen adoption of e-government services in Jordan and to explore factors affecting the level of adoption of e-government services. Importantly, this study aims to develop a conceptual framework that is based on previous literature of Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) in order to examine the relationships between certain factors (government trustworthiness, service quality and citizen satisfaction) and citizen adoption of e-government services. A self-administered questionnaire was used to capture data from 356 Jordanian citizens across the country randomly. The findings indicate that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, citizen satisfaction and trustworthiness are significant predictors of the Jordanian intention to use an e-government service. The results also showed that the service quality dimensions: responsiveness, reliability, and empathy have significant impacts on the citizen satisfaction. The study has made significant contributions to the body of knowledge at academic and practical levels as an important exploratory study that was conducted in the context of Jordan, a developing country with genuine need for more research works on e-government issues. In addition, this study provides some valuable insights into the performance and adoption of e-government in Jordan that could help government agencies to improve the effectiveness of their services.
A Positive Hegemony?
Authors: Bhusan Amlan
Published: May 2015

Amlan Bhusan raises important questions in this chapter. To him, there is a growing academic consciousness, regarding the use of e-governance, to deliver social goods in a better way. This voice advocates that more needs to be done by public institutions, governments, and more importantly, the academia, to develop e-governance as an enabler for social efficiency. Such developments would help reach debates and discussions on this area to the grassroots of the policy system. His chapter is neither a commentary of the application of e-governance to deliver social change nor a study of how different governments have handled this area around the world. Rather, it is a practicing consultant's views of the power of e-governance to refine public choice and social decision making and how this process was enriched by a more vigorous role of the academia. Taking specific examples from the education sector, particularly universities, this chapter is a comment on some of the ways in which e-governance ‘can' be handled across the education system and how lessons from the developed countries can be used to inspire similar revolutionary changes to the status quo in the developing world. His objective is to promote a greater role for the academia in the public policy making process. The idea is to support a more constructive engagement of the academia with the more vulnerable parts of the social system. Above all, he argues for the benefits of spreading the values of information democracy, right to access to information, among the people. He envisages that the power of a more vocal and active academia would be profound in how it could positively affect the information apartheid affecting many large sections of the developing world. He proposes greater research and development on the means of engaging with e-governance and to establish the mechanisms to enhance, converge, simplify, homogenize, and structuralize the knowledge and information enterprise of the global political and social systems.
E-Government and Public Service Delivery
Authors: Abdelsalam Hisham M. , Reddick Christopher G. , ElKadi Hatem A. , Gamal Sara
Published: May 2015

This chapter aims to better understand what citizens think regarding the currently available e-government public services in Egypt. This is done through an analysis of a public opinion survey of Egyptian citizens, examining citizens' use and associated issues with usage of e-government portals. This chapter is different from existing research in that most of the studies that examine e-government and citizens focus on developed countries. This study focuses on a developing country, Egypt, as an emerging democracy, which has very unique and important challenges in the delivery of public services to its citizens. The results revealed that only gender, daily use of the internet, and the desire to convert all of the services to electronic ones were important factors that affected the use of the Egyptian e-government portal. On the other hand, age, education, trust in information confidentiality on the internet, and believing in e-government did not play any role in using e-government.
Assessing Jordan's e-Government Maturity Level
Authors: Al-Yaseen Hussein , Al-Soud Anas Ratib , Al-Jaghoub Saheer
Published: May 2015

Similar to other developing countries, Jordan started a national e-government initiative aiming to streamline government procedures and make information and government services available to business and citizens online. This paper presents the results of a study that assessed factors which could influence the awareness level, acceptance and use of e-government services in Jordan. It investigated issues such as: accessibility of e-government, citizen's attitude toward various privacy and security, the required services and costs. A survey has been distributed in one of the largest governorates of Jordan. The results of this preliminary study suggest that awareness of e-government has not reached the required level. These findings are hoped to be useful for researchers, practitioners and policy makers.
Social Media and Youth Interest in Politics in Kenya
Authors: Otieno Auma Churchill Moses , Mukhongo Lusike Lynete
Published: May 2015

The youth in Kenya are by far the majority age-group, yet their role in politics is hampered by their inability to access mainstream political information. The objective of the study is to determine whether there is any relationship between the level of youth engagement on social media and their level of interest in politics. The study uses the post-test quasi experiment to compare political interest between a naturally occurring group of Facebook users and a naturally occurring group of non-Facebook users. The findings of the study reveal that Facebook has provided the youth with a platform where they can access political information in formats that are appealing to them. Consequently, young people have been able to mobilise themselves online and push for a political agenda. There is, therefore, need to open up online exchanges in order to create a place for young people in mainstream political discourse in Kenya.
E-Government Innovations and Work Transformations
Authors: Ben Esther Ruiz , Schuppan Tino
Published: May 2015

In this article the authors address the question of how IT innovations affects public organizations concretely exploring the emerging attitudes of public government employees towards new forms of work with electronic tools. The authors bring our analysis and theoretical discussion beyond the widely applied technology acceptance models to examine the introduction of electronic tools too focused on technology functionality and short time analysis sights. Organizational and socioeconomic aspects together with the functionality of new concrete technological tools influence the innovation processes including work transformations. Based on the model of innovation proposed by Ebbers and Van Dijk (2007) the article focuses on the analysis of employees' resistance and support in innovation processes of the introduction of public government electronic tools. The authors apply the model to the case of the introduction of the Electronic Records System (ERS) (an electronic tool for the document management of unemployed persons) in a public organization in Germany. The analysis reveals that technology driven innovation ignoring work habits and transformations leads to employees` resistance to change. A conceptual redefinition of Ebbers and Van Dick's model based on the analysis results of the ERS including an extension of the resistance and support concepts as well as indicators is proposed.
Cultural Policy, Administration, and Info-Communication Landscape
Authors: Gantzias George K.
Published: May 2015

In the recent economic crisis, some of the most important and widely debated issues in the areas of digitalization of cultural policy and cultural management are the protection of cultural diversity, cultural rights, cultural freedom, cultural capital, and cultural goods (products and services). A new digital revolution is coming, this time not only in cultural management of cultural goods but also in the administration systems of cultural organizations and institutions. New technologies exert strong pressure on traditional cultural organizations and institutions to digitalize their cultural management and administration structures. This article examines and analyses cultural management, administration, new technologies, and info-communication globalization. In addition, it examines cultural heritage as a very important issue of cultural diversity in the info-communication landscape. It explores digitalisation of cultural management and administration structures and proposes a new dynamic cultural management model, the Info-Communication Cultural Management (ICCM).
Evaluating the Validity of IS Success Models for the Electronic Government Research
Authors: Rana Nripendra P. , Dwivedi Yogesh   K. , Williams Michael D.
Published: May 2015

The purpose of this paper is to compare and evaluate the validity of Information systems (IS) success models such as DeLone and McLean's (1992), Seddon's (1997), and DeLone and McLean's (2003) IS success models for an e-government application called the Online Public Grievance Redressal System (OPGRS) in context of India. The paper also provides an integrated model of IS success based on the comparison of the three well-known IS success models. All the existing models of IS success are not considered in their original shapes as this research is not using the variables such as use, individual impact, organizational impact from DeLone and McLean (1992) IS success model, use and net benefits from DeLone and McLean (2003) IS success model, and other measures of net benefits of IS use including net benefits to individuals, organizations, and society, and expectations about the net benefits of future IS use from Seddon's (1997) IS success model. The proposed model contains the additional constructs relevant to e-government research including complexity, trust, and facilitating conditions and found that the model performs quite satisfactorily as far as the success of the OPGRS system is concerned. The paper also discusses its limitations, provides implications for theory and practice, and proposed future lines of research which will allow the researchers, practitioners, and government to leverage the full potential of the OPGRS system to curb and eradicate corruption and to build a transparent and sanitized society.
A Comparative Study of Governmental One-Stop Portals for Public Service Delivery
Authors: Kohlborn Thomas , Korthaus Axel , Peters Christoph , Fielt Erwin
Published: May 2015

The continuing need for governments to radically improve the delivery of public services has led to a new, holistic government reform strategy labeled “Transformational Government” that strongly emphasizes customer-centricity. Attention has turned to online portals as a cost effective front-end to deliver services and engage customers as well as to the corresponding organizational approaches for the back-end to decouple the service interface from the departmental structures. The research presented in this paper makes three contributions: Firstly, a systematic literature review of approaches to the evaluation of online portal models in the public sector is presented. Secondly, the findings of a usability study comparing the online presences of the Queensland Government, the UK Government and the South Australian Government are reported and the relative strengths and weaknesses of the different approaches are discussed. And thirdly, the limitations of the usability study in the context of a broader “Transformational Government” approach are identified and service bundling is suggested as an innovative solution to further improve online service delivery.
Implementation of E-Government and Reforms in Public Administrations in Crisis Periods
Authors: Muñoz Laura Alcaide , Sánchez Raquel Garde
Published: May 2015

The importance of e-Government in the reform of public administrations has made it an essential element on political agendas and an important question to be addressed in the current economic crisis that we are witnessing. The consequent drastic reduction in public revenue has made e-Government a key element in the promotion of renewed and sustainable growth with the aim of increasing efficiency and effectiveness in the management of procedures and boosting service provision. In this respect, the considerable amount of research that currently exists in academic literature requires a comprehensive review that allows for improvement in this field of knowledge, offering a broad vision of the current situation and the research possibilities for the future. The authors believe that their findings will allow public managers to be more aware of the need for a cost-benefit analysis of the new technological initiatives proposed.
Community-Driven Health-Impact Assessment
Authors: Coady Maureen
Published: May 2015

Highly participatory local health impact assessment processes can be used to identify and encourage practices and policies that promote health. They also foster community learning that can increase a community's capacity to improve local conditions for a healthier community. This chapter examines a Community-Driven form of Health Impact Assessment (CHIA) practiced in rural Nova Scotia, Canada since 1997. Experience suggests that informal learning in these processes is often transformative; ordinary citizens learn to identify factors that influence their health, to think beyond the illness problems of individuals, and to consider how programs and policies can weaken or support community health. They learn that that they can identify directions for future action that will safeguard the health of their community.
The New Interdisciplinary Fields of Political Engineering and Computational Politics
Authors: Solo Ashu M. G.
Published: May 2015

This chapter describes two new interdisciplinary fields defined by Ashu M. G. Solo called “political engineering” and “computational politics.” Political engineering is the application of engineering, computer science, mathematics, or natural science to solving problems in politics. Computational politics is the application of computer science or mathematics to solving problems in politics. Political engineering and computational politics include, but are not limited to, principles and methods for political decision making, analysis, modeling, optimization, forecasting, simulation, and expression. The definition of these two new fields will greatly increase the pace of research and development in these important fields.
The Potential for ICT Tools to Promote Public Participation in Fighting Corruption
Authors: Neupane Arjun , Soar Jeffrey , Vaidya Kishor , Aryal Sunil
Published: May 2015

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have been seen as pioneering tools for the promotion of the better delivery of government programmes and services, enabling the empowerment of citizens through greater access to information, delivery of more efficient government management processes, better transparency and accountability, and the mitigation of corruption risks. Based on a literature survey of previous research conducted on ICT systems implemented in various countries, this chapter discusses the potential of different ICT tools that have the capacity to help to promote public participation for the purpose of reducing corruption. The chapter specifically reviews the different ICT tools and platforms and their roles as potential weapons in fighting corruption. This chapter also evaluates different ICT tools, including e-government and public e-procurement. Finally, the authors develop a theoretical research model that depicts the anti-corruption capabilities of ICT tools, which in turn, has implications for academics, policy makers, and politicians.
Three dimensional hydrostratigraphic model of the Nanoose - Deep Bay area, Nanaimo Lowland, British Columbia
Authors: Benoit N , Paradis D , Bednarski J
M , Hamblin T , Russell H A J
Published: May 2015

To support improved sustainable groundwater management of the Nanaimo Lowland, British Columbia (BC), a three-dimensional (3D) hydrostratigraphic model was developed for the Nanaimo Lowland aquifer system. The study area is a coastal strip running from Nanoose to
Deep Bay on eastern Vancouver Island (~580 km2). The 3D model was developed using existing driller's logs, published cross-sections and new data which include rotosonic coring, borehole geophysics logs, seismic reflection profiles and surficial geology mapping. The detailed surficial geology
consists of 31 different units which, for modelling, are grouped into 9 major hydrostratigraphic units (from youngest to oldest): Capilano-Salish (sand aquifer), Capilano glaciomarine (silty clay aquitard), Vashon-Capilano (coarse sand and gravel aquifer), Vashon (till aquitard), Quadra (sand
aquifer), Cowichan-Dashwood (compact silt aquitard), Dashwood-Mapleguard (sand aquifer), sedimentary bedrock and metamorphic bedrock (aquifer near surface with potential decreasing with depth). This succession of Late Pleistocene to Holocene sediments is up to 140 m thick and is present over most of
the study area, thinning to the southwest with rising topography and bedrock outcrops. Capilano-Salish and Vashon-Capilano deposits are shallow and contain unconfined aquifers with relatively high vulnerability to surface contamination and low groundwater resource potential due to their limited
thicknesses. Quadra Sand is the most exploited aquifer unit. It underlies the ubiquitous and low permeability Vashon till and it overlies Cowichan-Dashwood aquitard or bedrock. Quadra sediment has an average thickness of 19 m and it is generally above sea and river levels. This would minimize the
potential of seawater intrusion and direct surface water extraction, respectively, in the event of intensive groundwater extraction in Quadra unit. The Quadra is an important aquifer, however only about one-third of its thickness is saturated likely due to the overlying Vashon till aquitard that
limits groundwater replenishment. Dashwood-Mapleguard sand is a lower confined aquifer unit that extends below sea level. It may have hydrogeological properties and resource potential similar to the Quadra sand, but it is present only in areas where the bedrock elevation is low, generally closer to
the coastline. It may be more vulnerable to sea water intrusion, and remains poorly understood. The relatively low permeability regional bedrock aquifers of the Nanaimo Group are generally exploited only where the Quadra aquifer is not present. Their hydrogeological potential is poorly understood
due to lack of subsurface data. This hydrostratigraphic model will be used to support groundwater flow modelling.
The Effects of Celecoxib or Naproxen on Blood Pressure in Pediatric Patients with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis
Authors: Falkner B. , Berger M. , Brown P. Bhadra , Iorga D. , Nickeson R.W. , Zemel L.
Published: May 2015

Background

Selective and nonselective nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are indicated for the treatment of juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). However, the effect of NSAIDs on blood pressure (BP) in children has not been rigorously examined.

Methods

In this randomized, double-blind, multicenter, active-controlled, 6-week trial, the safety and efficacy of celecoxib (50 mg twice daily [bid] or 100 mg bid) or naproxen (7.5 mg/kg bid) was evaluated in patients aged 2–17 years with JIA.

Results

The least squares (LS) mean difference (celecoxib – naproxen) in change from baseline to week 6/final visit in systolic BP was 1.10 (90% confidence interval, -0.56, 2.76). No significant LS mean differences in diastolic BP relative to baseline were reported. Treatment-emergent adverse events occurred in 48% of patients in each treatment group.

Conclusion

Both celecoxib and naproxen had no impact on BP, and both treatments had comparable safety profiles. Celecoxib, or naproxen, could be seen as suitable treatment options for pediatric patients with JIA.
Choline and Fructooligosaccharide: Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, Cardiac Fat Deposition, and Oxidative Stress Markers
Authors: Haubert Nadia Juliana Beraldo Goulart Borges , Marchini Julio Sergio , Cunha Selma Freire Carvalho , Suen Vivian Marques Miguel , Padovan Gilberto Joao , Junior Alceu Afonso Jordao , Alves Claudia Maria Meirelles Marchini , Marchini Julio Flavio Meirelles , Vannucchi Helio
Published: May 2015

This study investigates the treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in rats with choline and fructooligosaccharide (FOS). The healthy control group received standard diet. The other three groups consisted of animals with NAFLD. Group Estr received standard diet; group Echo received standard diet plus choline (3 g/100 g diet); and group Efos received standard diet plus FOS (10 g/100 g diet). Food intake, weight, urinary nitrogen, urinary ammonia, total cholesterol, serum triacylglyceride, liver and heart weights, tissue nitrogen, tissue fat, vitamin E, TBARS, and reduced glutathione (GSH) were measured in hepatic and heart tissue. Choline and FOS treatments resulted in total mean fat reduction in liver and heart tissue of 0.2 and 1.7 g, respectively. Both treatments were equally effective in reducing hepatic and cardiac steatosis. There were no differences in the TBARS level among experimental and control groups, indicating that the proposed treatments had no added protection against free radicals. While all experimental groups had increased vitamin E and GSH levels, choline treatment led to a significant increase compared to control.
Multiple bilateral variations in urogenital vasculature-A clinico-embryological perspective
Authors: Thakur A. , Loh H. , Mehta V. , Suri R. , Rath G.
Published: May 2015

Precise knowledge of urogenital vascular anomalies has become extremely important in the past decade with increasing numbers of renal transplantations, minimally invasive vascular surgeries and numerous radiologic procedures. We report the presence of multiple variations in urogenital vasculature bilaterally in a 52 year old male Indian cadaver. Twin renal arteries were encountered bilaterally. Main renal artery was originating bilaterally at L1 vertebral level and accessory renal arteries were originating as ventral branches of abdominal aorta at L3 vertebral level and were travelling to the lower part of the respective kidneys. Twin renal veins were draining the right kidney independently whereas the left renal vein was bifurcating into two tributaries and draining separately into the inferior vena cava. Multiple testicular veins were found bilaterally. This report will prove to be helpful in various surgical and radiological interventions performed in the field of urology.
Anatomy of sciatic nerve bifurcation in popliteal fossa: a fetal study
Authors: Sinha M. , Gupta R. , Aggarwal A. , Sahni D. , Sinha H.
Published: May 2015

Background: We studied the bifurcation of sciatic nerve into two components which change their position throughout the early period of life. We proposed dimensions that would help reducing failure rates of anesthesia in popliteal fossa region and screening of malignancy related to sciatic nerve. Methods: The back of thigh and popliteal fossa of both sides of 50 fetuses (24 male and 26 female) were dissected. Skin over the gluteal region was dissected upto back of the knee. Sciatic nerve was traced from gluteal region to back of the thigh. The level where common fibular nerve and tibial nerve diverge from sciatic nerve and the diameter of sciatic nerve at various levels were evaluated. Results: In 97.7% (41/42) specimens,the bifurcation was above (5.1-20.86 mm) and in 2.3% (1/42) specimens, it was below (2.37 mm) the lateral condyle of femur. In 66% cases, sciatic nerve splits into two at or within 11 mm proximal to lateral condyle, while in 75% cases within 13mm, and in 100% cases within 21mm proximal to lateral condyle. Conclusion: This study provides quantitative data about the sciatic nerve in the gluteal region and back of the thigh. This data has a significant implication in diagnostic and anesthetic practice.
Comparison among native floating aquatic macrophytes for bioconcentration of heavy metals
Authors: Filho Pedro José Sanches , Nunes Lucinéia , Rosa Nathalu da , Betemps Glauco Rasmussem , Pereira R S
Published: May 2015

This work was aimed to show the development of a comparative study of the capability of bioindicators to reveal the presence of heavy metals among species of floating aquatic macrophytes such as Spirodela sp (giant duckweed), Pistia stratiotes (water lettuce), Salvinia sp used as a parameter for bioconcentration factors plant / sediment. We performed a simple sampling at six sites in the region of Pelotas, southern Brazil, in which it was collected sediments and plants. The plants experienced the nitric perchloric acid digestion method, while the sediment suffered pseudo total acid digestion method. The determination of Cr, Cu, Pb and Zn in the extracts was conducted by atomic absorption spectrophotometry in flame. In general, the floating aquatic macrophytes studied showed better bioconcentration factor for metals from the sediment in the following order: Cu>Zn>Pb>Cr. For copper, the figures obtained with Pistia stratiots ranged from 5.7 to 82.8. The BCF for Zn ranged from 3.0 to 11.6 and Salvinia sp. For the Pb bioconcentration factor, it ranged from 5.4 to 0.6 in Spirodela sp. The in situ study showed that all species had high bioaccumulation potential, especially Pistia stratiotes that was employed to remove copper.
Characterization of satellite-based proxies for estimating nucleation mode particles over South Africa
Authors: Sundström A.-M. , Nikandrova A. , Atlaskina K. , Nieminen T. , Vakkari V. , Laakso L. , Beukes J. P. , Arola A. , van Zyl P. G. , Josipovic M. , Venter A. D. , Jaars K. , Pienaar J. J. , Piketh S. , Wiedensohler A. , Chiloane E. K. , de Leeuw G. , Kulmala M.
Published: May 2015

Abstract. Proxies for estimating nucleation mode number concentrations and further simplification for their use with satellite data have been presented in Kulmala et al. (2011). In this paper we discuss the underlying assumptions for these simplifications and evaluate the resulting proxies over an area in South Africa based on a comparison with a suite of ground-based measurements available from four different stations. The proxies are formulated in terms of sources (concentrations of precursor gases (NO2 and SO2) and UVB radiation intensity near the surface) and a sink term related to removal of the precursor gases due to condensation on pre-existing aerosols. A-Train satellite data are used as input to compute proxies. Both the input data and the resulting proxies are compared with those obtained from ground-based measurements. In particular, a detailed study is presented on the substitution of the local condensation sink (CS) with satellite aerosol optical depth (AOD), which is a column-integrated parameter. One of the main factors affecting the disagreement between CS and AOD is the presence of elevated aerosol layers. Overall, the correlation between proxies calculated from the in situ data and observed nucleation mode particle number concentrations (Nnuc) remained low. At the time of the satellite overpass (13:00–14:00 LT) the highest correlation is observed for SO2/CS (R2 = 0.2). However, when the proxies are calculated using satellite data, only NO2/AOD showed some correlation with Nnuc (R2 = 0.2). This can be explained by the relatively high uncertainties related especially to the satellite SO2 columns and by the positive correlation that is observed between the ground-based SO2 and NO2 concentrations. In fact, results show that the satellite NO2 columns compare better with in situ SO2 concentration than the satellite SO2 column. Despite the high uncertainties related to the proxies calculated using satellite data, the proxies calculated from the in situ data did not better predict Nnuc. Hence, overall improvements in the formulation of the proxies are needed.
Quantifying sources of black carbon in Western North America using observationally based analysis and an emission tagging technique in the Community Atmosphere Model
Authors: Zhang R. , Wang H. , Hegg D. A. , Qian Y. , Doherty S. J. , Dang C. , Ma P.-L. , Rasch P. J. , Fu Q.
Published: May 2015

Abstract. The Community Atmosphere Model (CAM5), equipped with a technique to tag black carbon (BC) emissions by source regions and types, has been employed to establish source-receptor relationships for atmospheric BC and its deposition to snow over Western North America. The CAM5 simulation was conducted with meteorological fields constrained by reanalysis for year 2013 when measurements of BC in both near-surface air and snow are available for model evaluation. We find that CAM5 has a significant low bias in predicted mixing ratios of BC in snow but only a small low bias in predicted atmospheric concentrations over the Northwest USA and West Canada. Even with a strong low bias in snow mixing ratios, radiative transfer calculations show that the BC-in-snow darkening effect is substantially larger than the BC dimming effect at the surface by atmospheric BC. Local sources contribute more to near-surface atmospheric BC and to deposition than distant sources, while the latter are more important in the middle and upper troposphere where wet removal is relatively weak. Fossil fuel (FF) is the dominant source type for total column BC burden over the two regions. FF is also the dominant local source type for BC column burden, deposition, and near-surface BC, while for all distant source regions combined the contribution of biomass/biofuel (BB) is larger than FF. An observationally based Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) analysis of the snow-impurity chemistry is conducted to quantitatively evaluate the CAM5 BC source-type attribution. While CAM5 is qualitatively consistent with the PMF analysis with respect to partitioning of BC originating from BB and FF emissions, it significantly underestimates the relative contribution of BB. In addition to a possible low bias in BB emissions used in the simulation, the model is likely missing a significant source of snow darkening from local soil found in the observations.
Uncertainties of satellite-derived surface skin temperatures in the polar oceans: MODIS, AIRS/AMSU, and AIRS only
Authors: Kang H.-J. , Yoo J.-M. , Jeong M.-J. , Won Y.-I.
Published: May 2015

Abstract. Uncertainties in the satellite-derived Surface Skin Temperature (SST) data in the polar oceans during two periods (16–24 April and 15–23 September) of 2003–2014 were investigated and the three datasets were intercompared as follows: MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer Ice Surface Temperature (MODIS IST), the SST of the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder/Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-A (AIRS/AMSU), and AIRS only. AIRS only algorithm was developed in preparation for the degradation of the AMSU-A. MODIS IST was systematically up to 1.65 K warmer at the sea ice boundary and up to 2.04 K colder in the polar sea ice regions of both the Arctic and Antarctic than that of the AIRS/AMSU. This difference in the results could have been caused by the surface classification method. The spatial correlation coefficient of the AIRS only to the AIRS/AMSU (0.992–0.999) method was greater than that of the MODIS IST to the AIRS/AMSU (0.968–0.994). The SST of the AIRS only compared to that of the AIRS/AMSU had a bias of 0.168 K with a RMSE of 0.590 K over the Northern Hemisphere high latitudes and a bias of −0.109 K with a RMSE of 0.852 K over the Southern Hemisphere high latitudes. There was a systematic disagreement between the AIRS retrievals at the boundary of the sea ice, because the AIRS only algorithm utilized a~less accurate GCM forecast over the seasonally-varying frozen oceans than the microwave data. The three datasets (MODIS, AIRS/AMSU and AIRS only) showed significant warming rates (2.3 ± 1.7 ~2.8 ± 1.9 K decade−1) in the northern high latitude regions (70–80° N) as expected from the ice-albedo feedback. The systematic temperature disagreement associated with surface type classification had an impact on the resulting temperature trends.