“互联网+”背景下的地方政府信息公开的建设与优化

“互联网+”代表一种新的社会形态。在这种新形态下,地方政府也尝试以互联网为基础设施和实现工具进行行政活动。在信息化时代,拥有绝大部分信息资源的政府进行信息公开成为公众了解与监督政府行为的重要途径。但在信息公开过程中,地方政府面临着不同领域信息公开失衡、公民参与不足、时效性差、缺乏科学流程设置与监督机制的问题。地方政府可以借助“互联网+”的最新实践成果,寻找解决问题的有效途径。

一个幸亏得到纠正的错误

当非典“瘟神”已经在北京肆虐之时，3月26日，北京市卫生局新闻发言人声称，北京输入性非典型肺炎得到有效控制，病源没有向社会扩散，本地没有发现原发性非典型肺炎病例。这是首次有关北京非典型肺炎的官方报道。

The Relevance of Nigeria＇s Freedom of Information Act （2011） to the Country＇s Anti-corruption War

This essay is centred on Nigeria＇s Freedom of Information Act, with special interest in its relevance in the country＇s anti-corruption war. The paper reiterates that the law was passed to enable the public to access certain government information, in order to ensure transparency and accountability. The FOI Act aims to make public records and information more freely available and to protect public records and information, in accordance with the public interest and protection of personal privacy. It enables citizens to hold the government accountable in the event of the misappropriation of public funds or failure to deliver public services. It also seeks to protect serving public officers against any adverse consequences from the unauthorized disclosure of certain kinds of official information, and to establish procedures for the achievement of these purposes. The Act further regulates conflicts between its provisions and those of other legislations. The paper contends that Freedom of Information is a fundamental indicator of economic development and progress, civic engagement and a properly functional democracy in every economy, describing it as a promising start in ensuring good governance and rule of law in Nigeria. The paper stresses the need for vigorous implementation of the FOI Act if the country is to make any significant breakthrough in the enthronement of good governance, transparency and accountability, adding that a strengthened FOI regime will enhance citizens＇ demand for accountability and check corruption in Nigeria.

Therapeutic and Immunomodulatory Effects of Raw Maize ＂OGI＂ on Rats Infected with Escherichia coil 0157：H7

Escherichia coli O157：H7 is known to cause food borne illness globally. Treatment of infections caused by this organism is difficult because the administration of antibiotics might precipitate kidney complications; therefore there is the need to search for alternative therapy. In this study, the therapeutic and immunomodulatory effects of raw maize ＂ogi＂ was investigated on rats infected with Escherichia coli 0157：H7. Infected rats treated with maize ＂ogi＂ slurry 1.0 mL once or twice daily and maize ＂ogi＂ liquor, 1.0 mL twice daily recovered 72 h while those that were treated with less than 1.0 mL recovered by 96 h. Without treatment with ＂ogi＂ however, the rats started recovering by 120 h. The treatment caused the white blood cells which had already gone up as a result of the infection to reduce significantly （P 〈 0.05） by 24 h of administration of raw fermented maize ＂ogi＂ components to the infected rats. It also caused a significant decrease in the lymphocyte counts of the infected and treated rats by 24 h. On the other hand, there was an increase in the neutrophil count irrespective of the different volumes and different components of raw ＂ogi＂ used by 24 h but by the 72 h of treatment, it started to decrease and by 120 h reduced to normal levels. Since the administration of raw maize ＂ogi＂ either slurry or liquor caused the duration of infection in rats infected with Escherichia coli 0157：H7 to reduce from 120 h to 72 h, it is therefore suggested that people having diarrhoea caused by this organism could drink fermented raw maize ＂ogi＂ slurry or liquor to treat the infection.

Weighing the Public Interest in the Disclosure of Government Information

Disclosure of government information involves the interests of the applicant, third parties and the public. Both systems for assessment of the public interest and the lessening importance of the applicant＇s qualifications make public interest the principal driver for disclosure of information. Exemptions to disclosure contain an implicit public interest. In conflicts between opposing interests over disclosure and non-disclosure, public interest is the key to balancing interests. Public interests supporting disclosure are related to such values as the right to know, democracy and public participation, whereas the interests supporting non-disclosure tend to be implicit in the exemptions to disclosure. Multiple interest entities and the two-sidedness of public interest increase the complexity of weighing the interests involved. Full and comprehensive analysis of interests and the exclusion of unrelated considerations are the premise for assessment of interests. Prioritizing the public interest and prioritizing openness are institutional values of the laws on disclosure of information and the fundamental principle for assessing interests.

Open Access and the Developing World

Till about 15 years ago, almost all information exchange among scientists and scholars was mediated by print and even then researchers in the developing countries were at a great disadvantage as their libraries did not have the resources to subscribe in comparison with even a small fraction of journals libraries in advanced countries. But the Internet and the World Wide Web initially exacerbated the gap between the rich and the poor countries, as many poor countries were slow to acquire these technologies and the infrastructure (especially bandwidth). Soon it became clear that thanks to these technologies we now have the unprecedented opportunity of having a level playing field in the matter of accessing scientific and scholarly information. Transforming this opportunity into reality is entirely in the hands of the researchers themselves. Imagine a world where every scientist places his/ her research papers, which (s)he wants to give away so others can read and make use of, in a public archive. Anyone anywhere in the world, of course having an Internet connection, can access, download, and read those papers. This is a win-win situation for all: the reader gets to read what he wants to read at very little cost; the author gains greater visibility for his work and the work reported is likely to have greater impact than if it were to be made available only through a toll-access journal. Although the logic is so simple, in reality such archives were not coming up for a very long time. In spite of the fact that computer scientists and physicists had shown about 15 years ago the great advantages of such archives. Recent studies by Alma Swan and others have shown that a very large proportion of scientists are not aware of open access and therefore what we need is focused advocacy. Even among those who know of OA, many are not depositing their papers in archives but say they would if they are asked by their bosses or their funding agencies. Clearly the ball is in the court of scientists and policy makers. OA is especially advantageous to the developing countries as the current access to literatures is poorest in these countries.

Public-key encryption and authentication of quantum information

Public-key cryptosystems for quantum messages are considered from two aspects:public-key encryption and public-key authentication.Firstly,we propose a general construction of quantum public-key encryption scheme,and then construct an informationtheoretic secure instance.Then,we propose a quantum public-key authentication scheme,which can protect the integrity of quantum messages.This scheme can both encrypt and authenticate quantum messages.It is information-theoretic secure with regard to encryption,and the success probability of tampering decreases exponentially with the security parameter with regard to authentication.Compared with classical public-key cryptosystems,one private-key in our schemes corresponds to an exponential number of public-keys,and every quantum public-key used by the sender is an unknown quantum state to the sender.