Challenges common service centers (CSCs) face in delivering e-government services in rural India

Many developing countries across the world are allocating a significant share of their budgets for e-government initiatives. Common service centers (CSCs) are e-government initiatives that aim to increase access to public services and promote easy and direct interaction with the government. These e-government initiatives are largely underutilised, especially in rural areas in developing countries. This study attempts to identify the key challenges facing CSCs and determine their hierarchical relationships in the context of rural India. A set of 15 challenges was identified through a rigorous literature review and by surveying experts and CSC owners. Data were collected on the identified challenges and were analysed using interpretive structural modeling (ISM)-MICMAC-fuzzy MICMAC analysis. Subsequently, we developed a hierarchical model of challenges. The findings revealed that “longer travel time and transaction cost”, “low digital literacy”, and “low awareness” of e-government services are among the key challenges CSCs face in rural India. This study suggests several recommendations to all the stakeholders involved in the management of CSCs to improve the delivery of e-government services in rural India.     

Critical Time

A politics of time is hidden in the way we approach our objects and areas of inquiry. This includes media, organizations, social movements, technologies, publics, social spaces, identity politics and the environment. Claims upon time are made when we locate power and the various possibilities for social change. In this moment, marked by technological speed up, there is a pervading cultural sense of being short on time. Increasingly time figures within the field and across the disciplines as a problem of better management and control. Time is understood as tension that individuals and institutions wrestle with and must solve. A critical perspective on time should ask a different set of questions. To take a critical perspective is to look beyond individual time and consider time as uncompromisingly tethered, in common while disparate. This paper outlines the possibility of a critical time perspective in communication studies - one where time is understood as multiple, relational, and deeply uneven.     

Arsenic-Induced Hepatic Toxicity and Its Attenuation by Fruit Extract of Emblica officinalis (Amla) in Mice

Arsenic a metalloid and environmental contaminated has been found to be associated with public health problems in the affected areas. It is naturally occurred in groundwater and its accumulation in plant and animals leads to toxicity in several tissues most notably hepatic organ. Arsenic exposures (3 mg/kg body weight/day for 30 days) in mice exhibited increased arsenic and Zn levels in hepatocytes associated with enhanced oxidative stress in hepatocytes while there were no significantly changes were observed in Cu level. An increase in the lipid peroxidation and decrease in the levels of reduced glutathione and activity of superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione peroxidase were observed in arsenic treated mice as compared to controls. Arsenic exposure in mice also caused a significant change in serum biomarkers in the SGOT, SGPT and creatinine as compared to the controls. There were no significant changes in the serum levels of total protein in these mice. Co-administration of arsenic and fruit extract of amla (500 mg/kg body weight/day for 30 days) caused a significant reduction of arsenic transference associated with significantly decreases hepatic arsenic levels and balanced the antioxidant enzyme and levels of serum hepatic enzymes like SGOT and SGPT. The results of the present study clearly demonstrate the antioxidant property of amla that could be responsible for its protective efficacy in arsenic induced hepatic toxicity.     

PCT as a Prognostic Marker in Cardiac Patients with Neutropenic Sepsis: Two Case Reports

Procalcitonin (PCT) is an innovative and highly specific marker for diagnosis of clinically relevant bacterial infection and sepsis. PCT supports early diagnosis and Clinical decision making. A retrospective study of two classical cases of neutropenic sepsis with elevated PCT levels in cardiac ICU was done. PCT was analyzed using Elecsys Brahms PCT kit. Serum PCT levels <0.5 ng/ml and ANC <1,000/mm³ was taken as cutoff. The first patient had initial high levels of PCT 100 ng/ml, TLC 13,600/mm³ and ANC 12,250/mm³. It was followed by drop with subsequent rise in PCT levels and drop in TLC 1,000/mm³ and ANC 70/mm³. The second patient had normal PCT 0.116 ng/ml, TLC 5,600/mm³ and ANC 4,420/mm³ levels followed with sharp increase in all the values with subsequent drop in TLC 2,000/mm³ and ANC 880 cells/mm³. Both the patients died of neutropenic sepsis with multiorgan failure. The case reports showed the correlation of PCT with TLC and ANC levels in predicting the mortality of patients with neutropenic sepsis in cardiac ICU.     

A group of nurses experience open learning—further explorations of the impact

The ideological moorings of distance education, both as a discipline and as a mode, rest on cognisance of multiple and varying contexts of learners, which it aims to address through responsive course content creation and delivery strategies. One of the frames through which the context needs to be understood is gender. There is research stating that gender both structures and influences the world of the learner and learner experience; therefore, learning needs to be contextualised to women’s personal, social, mental and emotional milieux. Through a qualitative inquiry, undertaken within the constructivist framework, aimed at uncovering the perspectives of learners and counsellors associated with five programmes of Indira Gandhi National Open University, the present paper attempts to revisit gender in open and distance learning (ODL). It seeks to uncover the impact of gender on learning through the distance mode; the need and availability of support structures in ODL to address the specific needs of women; the reflection and transaction of gender perspectives in content and pedagogy and, through this, to identify issues that may be relevant in the present‐day context. The findings of the study are not a function of gender alone. A matrix of variables appears to impact learner experience and response to ODL – the structuring of the programme and its requirements, the role(s) played by the counsellors, the motivations and the learning milieux created by the learners – all independently and collectively influence the learners’ – male and female – experience of ODL. While gender is not the independent variable each time, this does not mean that there are no gender‐specific issues any more – only that they need to be examined and answered in a particular context.     

Examining students’ reflective thinking from keywords tagged to blogs: using map analysis as a content analysis method

Reflective learning refers to a learner's purposeful and conscious manipulation of ideas toward meaningful learning. Blogs have been used to support reflective thinking, but the commonly seen blog software usually does not provide overt mechanisms for students' high-level reflections. A new tool was designed to support the reflective thinking process. Beyond writing blog posts, the tool allowed users to attach up to five keywords to each post and link the keywords on a concept map. This study aimed to seek evidence of reflective thinking in participants’ keyword-attaching activities. Data analysis included producing mental maps of the blog texts, calculating nodes of high centrality (most talked-about nodes and most connected nodes) with the help of software including AutoMap and Organizational Risk Analyzer, and comparing student-generated keywords against mental map nodes. Results of keyword analyses revealed that two-thirds of the student-attached keywords matched mental map nodes. Results also indicate that the map analysis method can produce reliable indexes of a given text, which in turn could serve as anchor points for further content analysis. Other findings also uncovered some differences between participant-selected keywords and mental map nodes, indicating different levels of reflective activities.     

Cytokine Gene Polymorphism in Idiopathic Nephrotic Syndrome Children

The pathogenesis of idiopathic nephrotic syndrome is not completely understood. We postulate that cytokine gene polymorphisms may influence susceptibility or clinical course in Idiopathic Nephrotic Syndrome. Polymorphisms of IL-4, IL-6, and TNF-α cytokines were investigated in 150 children with Idiopathic Nephrotic Syndrome and 569 healthy controls by using polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism. On comparing patient with controls strong association were found for IL-6, TNF-α and IL-4 at allelic level (IL-6-G174C (G vs. C): P = <0.001; OR = 6.33, TNF-α-G308A (G vs. A): P = <0.001; OR = 1.99, IL-4-C590T (C vs. T): P = 0.048; OR = 1.38). Further when SR group was compared with SS group significant association was found at genotypic level in all the studied genetic polymorphisms. Studied cytokine gene polymorphisms may influence susceptibility to idiopathic nephrotic syndrome and might affect steroid response in INS patients.     

Exploring Kid Space in the wild: a preliminary study of multimodal and immersive collaborative play-based learning experiences

Educational technology research and development - Parents recognize the potential benefits of technology for their young children but are wary of too much screen time and its potential deficits in...