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.     

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.     

What improves citizens’ privacy perceptions toward RFID technology? A cross-country investigation using mixed method approach

Privacy is a serious concern to radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. Worldwide, several companies scrapped RFID projects because of high resistance from consumers and their advocacy groups – which actually demand RFID-specific privacy policies. This concern is even more acute when RFID is used in public applications; because, in general case, citizens cannot refuse to provide data, and the data collected by a government agency would offer serious threats if are shared among third parties. Limited research has been performed in this specific issue; they all agree that perceived privacy increased RFID acceptance. But, what drives privacy perceptions are yet to be researched – this study closes this research gap. In order to conduct the current research, mixed method of research approach has been adopted. In the qualitative research stage, the authors conducted two focused-group discussion sessions and eight in-depth interviews in two different countries: Australia and Bangladesh; arguing that the status, and the perceptions and tolerance of the citizens on privacy are different in these two regions. The explored factors have been examined with empirical data obtained from these two countries. It is found that, there are distinct differences in perceptions in developed and developing countries. The detail findings offer practical suggestions to the agency managers so that they can ensure better privacy of the citizens. As a significant theoretical contribution, this study enhances existing literature identifying the antecedents of privacy, which play even different roles in different cultural backgrounds.     

Global crisis management and higher education: Agency and coupling in the context of wicked COVID-19 problems

Campus crisis management remains an understudied topic in the context of COVID-affected higher education. In this paper, we contrasted the ability to tame the wicked problems brought by the pandemic of COVID-19 in private and public universities in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Colombia, India, Kazakhstan, Uganda, and Ukraine. The cross-country analysis and diversity of institutional types allowed us to consider a wide range of challenges faced by academic leaders and their institutions during the global pandemic. By drawing on institutional policy reviews and interviews with university administrators, we have examined tensions between the human and institutional agencies on these crisis-stricken campuses given differing institutional coupling, sizes, resources, and missions. The focus on agential co-dependencies and institutional coupling lays the ground for conceptualizing campus crisis management as a culturally specific construct in the context of higher education affected by the global pandemic.     

Electrostatics in chemistry

Electrostatics plays an important role in weakintermolecular interactions. The present series is aimed at understanding these electrostatic aspects. This article presents the fundamental concepts of electrostatics as applied to atoms and molecules. The electric field and potential due to a set of discrete as well as continuous charge distributions are discussed along with their graphic visualization. Fundamental theorems in electrostatics are also summarized