The purpose of the present prospective study was to evaluate whether Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans, Bacteroides gingivalis and Bacteroides intermedius can be used to predict periodontal tissue destruction in sites with clinical signs of inflammation; 44 periodontal pockets in 30 adult patients were selected on the basis of (i) a probing depth of ≥6 mm and (ii) bleeding upon pocket probing. Assessments of oral hygiene and gingival conditions, probing pocket depths, probing attachment levels and bleeding upon probing were carried out at baseline and once every 3 months during a 1‐year period without periodontal treatment. Subgingival bacterial samples were collected from each site at baseline, at the 1‐year examination and at the intervening examinations if a site demonstrated ≥2 mm loss of probing attachment as compared with the baseline value. Following cultivation of the samples the proportions of A. actinomycetemcomitans, B. gingivalis and B. intermedius were determined in relation to the total viable count. The results demonstrated that at sites with an absence of A. actinomycetemcomitans and B. gingivalis or presence of less than 5%B. intermedius, no clinically significant loss of probing attachment (≥2 mm) occurred during the 1‐year observation period. In 25 sites where A. actinomycetemcomitans, B. gingivalis or ≥5%B. intermedius were present, only 5 showed loss of probing attachment of 2 mm or more. Thus, within the limitations of the study, it appeared that the absence of these “indicator” bacteria is a better predictor of no further loss of attachment than the presence of them for disease progression.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate career change intention and its predictors among career change seekers interested in a career opportunity in the information technology (IT) industry.Design/methodology/approachAjzen's theory of planned behavior (TPB) was used to predict career change intention in this group. In addition, we examined the role of professional identity in predicting career change intention. Data were collected in a sample of 225 aspiring IT professionals from four European countries: Austria, Greece, Italy and The Netherlands.FindingsThe findings showed that among four variables assumed to predict career change intention, only professional identity appeared to be a significant predictor.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is limited by the use of career change seekers registered in one web‐based recruiting system.Originality/valueThe paper suggests a higher importance of professional identity in prediction of career change intention compared to other factors that constitute Ajzen's theory of planned behavior.

This article presents an overview of the recent literature on gendered patterns of academic choice in mathematics, science, and technology. It distinguishes in this literature microlevel, macro-level, and institutional explanations. Micro-level explanations focus primarily on psychological constructs, that is, variables at the level of the individual students. Macro-level explanations focus primarily on socioeconomic conditions and cultural understandings of gender roles. Institutional explanations focus on design characteristics of (national) education systems. After a presentation of these perspectives and of recent research progress that has been made, the authors critically discuss the lacunae that still exist in explaining cross-national variety, and provide suggestions for designing future research in this field.Keywords: gender; education; academic choice; mathematics; science and technology Introduction Female participation in higher tertiary education has increased rapidly over the past decades.1 Currently, about 56% of all students in the European Union are women, and this figure is still rising (Eurostat, 2010). Yet, this increase in female student participation does not apply to all academic fields. In mathematics, science, and technology (MST), where women have always been underrepresented, their participation rate has actually decreased over the last years, from 41% at the end of the 1990s, to 38% in 2010 (Eurostat, 2010). The relative decline of women in MST is generally regarded as undesirable as it contrasts with European ambitions of achieving gender equality and a highly skilled, innovative society (European

Recent technological developments have opened up the possibility of electronic voting and this clearly provides some opportunities and threats. On the one hand, the new technology may help to make voting more cost effective and more convenient for the voter and may even increase voter turnout. On the other, e-voting may introduce new risks and affect electoral values, such as the secrecy of the vote and the place of voting as an observable institution in modern democracies.At present various countries and different electoral systems are confronted with these opportunities and threats and the question is what will happen. Will the new technology, with its international standards and its seemingly objective opportunities and threats determine the development and lead to a convergence in voting practices which optimise the benefits? Or, will decisions concerning the application of ICT in the voting process vary as a result of differences in social context and varying democratic institutions?In this paper we claim that, based on social theory regarding technology adoption, different countries may very well differ in their attitudes and actual decisions regarding e-voting. When we look at the current developments in 13 Western-European countries, this claim is supported. Decision-making concerning the introduction of e-Voting in these rather similar countries is clearly structured by diverging democratic institution and as a result e-voting developments actually differ.

Proactive policing aims at suppressing delinquency at an early stage. In the Netherlands, it is applied, inter alia, to youths and youth groups to prevent them from slipping off into delinquent behaviour and crime. Proactive policing implies that police officers keep in touch with local youths and monitor their behaviour. Furthermore, it entails police officers applying discretion in giving warnings, in asking for identification and in conducting stop and search. This contribution reports on an empirical investigation among 231 youths, interviewed on the street and in youth centres, to establish whether this proactive policing results in unequal treatment of ethnic minority youths. The main finding is that although proactive policing in the Netherlands is associated with considerable outcome inequality, the extent of unequal treatment of ethnic minority youths is surprisingly limited.

The term eDemocracy refers to the usage of information and communication technology in the democratic process. This usage can vary in form and extent. This paper distinguishes three types of explanations for this variation: explanations based on the suggestion of objective rationalisation, explanations based on political evaluation and discretion and explanations based on the assumption that technology itself is a driving force of institutional change.Taking the case of eDemocracy development in Dutch municipalities, these three types of explanation are subjected to an empirical test. A quantitative analysis leads to the conclusion that the perspective of technology as driving force behind eDemocracy finds most support, and that the rationalisation perspective has some merits as well. There is no evidence, however, that differential political traditions play any significant role in the development of local eDemocracy in the Netherlands.

Jörgen Svensson is an assistant professor of sociology in the School of Management and Governance, University of Twente, the Netherlands. The authors have worked together on several topics in public governance research, especially in the fi eld of welfare state policies.

Abstract. The development of e-government in the Netherlands shows two different worlds. The large national organisations implement Electronic Service Delivery (ESD) fairly successfully, while municipalities are slow to adopt ESD. This is a pity, since municipalities account for over 70% of the public services. They are expected to implement ESD on their own although they lack the necessary resources and distributed development is inefficient. In this paper we address the role of municipalities in the real and virtual world and argue that development of electronic (local) public services may be organized on a larger scale, depending on the type of service in question.