Electronic Government (e-government) is growing in popularity across the globe. Given the increasing relevance of electronic services in the public sector, there is a need for a global agreement on a consistent framework for assessing e-government. This study uses a cross-cultural comparison to assess the fundamentals of e-government adoption in the United States (USA) and Spain. In particular, the authors explore the effects of perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, compatibility and trust on intentions to use e-government services. A survey was administered to citizens in both countries to test the hypotheses derived from adoption literature and Hofstede's dimensions of culture. Results indicate that there are differences in the relationship between compatibility and use intention, with stronger effects in the USA sample. Furthermore, while perceived ease of use significantly impacts intentions for the USA sample, it does not for the Spain sample; and, while trust is not significant in the USA sample, it is for the Spain sample. The implications of these results, mostly consistent with the hypotheses as suggested by the dimensions of culture, are discussed for both research and practice.

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The effect of catalyst film thickness on the magnitude of the effect of electrochemical promotion was investigated for the model catalytic reaction of C 2 H 4 oxidation on porous Pt paste catalyst-electrodes deposited on YSZ. It was found that the catalytic rate enhancement q is up to 400 for thinner (0.2 lm) Pt films (40,000% rate enhancement) and gradually decreases to 50 for thicker (1 lm) films. The Faradaic efficiency L was found to increase moderately with increasing film thickness and to be described semiquantitatively by the ratio 2Fr o /I 0 , where r o is the unpromoted rate and I 0 is the exchange current of the catalyst-electrolyte interface. The results are in good qualitative agreement with model predictions describing the diffusion and reaction of the backspillover O 2-species, which causes electrochemical promotion.