e-Government systems differ from commercial information systems (IS) in that they frequently encompass strategic goals that go beyond efficiency, effectiveness and economy, and include political and social objectives such as trust in government, social inclusion, community regeneration, community well-being and sustainability. Designing e-Government systems that help to meet these objectives is a significant challenge for the future. This paper develops an evaluative design framework for e-Government projects that complements traditional approaches to IS evaluation. The framework is based upon Moor's concept of public value. It focuses upon citizens' and clients' experiences of service provision and service outcomes as contributors to the formation of public trust. Trust is shown to be related to the extent to which people feel that an e-Government service enhances their sense of being wellinformed, gives them greater personal control, and provides them with a sense of influence or contingency. The framework's development and validation are founded upon analyses of a two live case studies in south-east England and London, U.K.

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An interactive computer program written for IBM-compatible microcomputers, which simulates the physiological response to graded exercise in healthy individuals, is described. The program presents high-resolution graphic data (heart rate, pulmonary ventilation, oxygen consumption, and blood lactate concentration) in a form comparable to that of a chart recorder display. Data are derived from an empirical model that allows users to select certain parameters of the subject they wish to investigate, including sex, age, height, weight, and level of training. Measurements may be taken directly from the monitor screen by use of the cross-hair cursor facility provided. The program has been positively evaluated in use by undergraduate students and shown to be an effective teaching aid. The potential use of the software in light of these findings is discussed.

We describe the design and implementation of an integrated neural architecture, modelled on human executive attention, which is used to control both automatic (reactive) and willed action selection in a simulated robot. The model, based upon Norman and Shallice's supervisory attention system, incorporates important features of human attentional control: selection of an intended task over a more salient automatic task; priming of future tasks that are anticipated; and appropriate levels of persistence of focus of attention. Recognising that attention-based learning, mediated by the limbic system, and the hippocampus in particular, plays an important role in adaptive learning, we extend the Norman and Shallice model, introducing an intrinsic, attention-based learning mechanism that enhances the automaticity of willed actions and reduces future need for attentional effort. These enhanced features support a new level of attentional autonomy in the operation of the simulated robot. Some properties of the model are explored using lesion studies, leading to the identification of a correspondence between the behavioural pathologies of the simulated robot and those seen in human patients suffering dysfunction of executive attention. We discuss briefly the question of how executive attention may have arisen due to selective pressure. LaBerge identifies three characteristics traditionally associated with executive attention and considers that they should be evident in any model [36]. Grounding these three properties in the domain of action selection, we have: Keywords1. selection of a willed action over a more salient, automatically selected, action. Here, the notion of salience is intimately connected to environmentally derived stimuli in the degree to which they accord with the relevance of contending actions. However, it may also derive from internal/innate drives. For example, the salience of feeding behaviour is determined both by the availability of food in the environment and by a sense of hunger/satiation. Willed action selection involves the application of an internally derived attentional signal which results in the (more likely) performance of a less salient act in preference to a more salient act. The attentional effort needed to will one familiar action in place of another is usually intermittent, or even momentary. The willing of wholly unfamiliar actions may require more persistent attention.2. priming of an anticipated future action. Priming, too, is associated with an internally derived attentional signal. On this occasion, the potentiation does not result in the immediate expression of the behaviour, rather it enhances the salience of the behaviour so that, when the appropriate anticipated circumstances arise, there is a greater likelihood that the anticipated task will be selected. Priming is associated with enhanced speed of task switching.3. use of memory for sustained task focus. Memory is particularly important when resumption of a suspended task requires recall of some past state or stimulus...

Three interactive computer-assisted learning programs based on simulations of simple experiments in physiology (frog sciatic nerve, frog sciatic nerve-gastrocnemius muscle and frog heart) are described. The programs use experimental data to generate realistic, high-resolution graphic simulations of results and present these either on a simulated oscilloscope or on a continuously scrolling display to simulate a chart recorder. Students can thus conduct an experiment and take measurements directly from the monitor, as they would in the real situation. The programs fulfil most of the main objectives of practical physiology teaching and offer an alternative to animal experiments. They are most suitable either for students of biology and health-related subjects, where physiology is an essential component but dissection and tissue handling skills are of minor importance, or in institutions (for example schools, and colleges of further education) where animal experiments are not permitted or the expensive equipment or technical expertise required are lacking. The feasibility of using computer simulation programs to replace animal experiments in teaching is discussed in relation to the teaching objectives of practical physiology classes.