E-government Services Adoption and Interdependence: Granger Causality Analysis

Adoption of e-government services varies across the different categories of services: government to citizen services, utility services, commercial services, informational services, social benefit services and mobile based services. Faced with constraint of resources, policy makers devising strategies for better adoption of these services face the challenge of prioritizing among these categories of services. This paper attempts to address this challenge by showing the applicability of Granger causality analysis in studying the causation analysis between the categories of e-government services. We prove the applicability of Granger causality analysis in understanding the independence between e-government service categories by analyzing real transactions data of six categories of e-government services in India. Our analysis shows that the growth of inquiry services in positively impacting the growth of government to citizen transactions is statistically significant. Besides this, both utility services and mobile based services show significant bi-directional Granger causality with government to citizen services. We also discuss policy implications of our analysis

Social Participation among the Elderly: Moderated Mediation Model of Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

Researchers have identified social participation for the elderly as a salient activity that benefits their wellbeing. Along that vein, prior studies have reported that ICT use increases the extent to which the elderly participate socially with one another. However, the literature remains silent on the mechanisms by which ICT use leads to social participation. In this paper, we draw on two prominent IS theories, actor-network theory (ANT) and activity theory (AT), to develop a conceptual framework by incorporating four social participation-oriented factors: ICT use, social participation, social isolation, and loneliness. We used a quantitative approach based on the cross-sectional survey to collect data from 240 elderly people. We analyzed the data using structural equation modeling based on SmartPLS 3.0. We found that the size of the social network constituted the critical factor in the association between ICT use and social participation. The outcome of the model suggests that ICT use does not impact the social participation directly. Rather, social isolation (absence of social network) mediates the relationship between the ICT use and social participation. Additionally, loneliness, one of the commonly observed psychological states in the elderly, weakens the influence of ICT use on social isolation. Our research advances our theoretical understanding about social participation among seniors and helps governments and businesses prepare ICT plans for the elderly appropriately

Current challenges and opportunities in computation and simulation to align 4iR paradigm shift

With the advent of 4th Industrial Revolution (4iR or Industry 4.0), the current industry sector is highly automated to increased productivity, flexibility, and quality of products & services. The technology, machinery, materials, inputs, and approaches are radically transforming in the traditional manufacturing companies using several enabling technologies, tools, and systems in this digitization era. Industry 4.0 is the game changer to the end of the conventional applications where computation and simulation play a pivotal role in forecasting and evaluating methodically intractable systems' performance. In this paper, the authors describe the prominence of computation and simulation technology in this industrial transformation and analyze the current challenges and opportunities of computational simulation technologies and tools to uphold the effectiveness

Integrating Wearable Devices and Recommendation System: Towards a Next Generation Healthcare Service Delivery

Researchers have identified lifestyle diseases as a major threat to human civilization. These diseases gradually progress without giving any warning and result in a sudden health aggravation that leads to a medical emergency. As such, individuals can only avoid the life-threatening condition if they regularly monitor their health status. Health recommendation systems allow users to continuously monitor their health and deliver proper health advice to them. Also, continuous health monitoring depends on the real-time data exchange between health solution providers and users. In this regard, healthcare providers have begun to use wearable devices and recommendation systems to collect data in real time and to manage health conditions based on the generated data. However, we lack literature that has examined how individuals use wearable devices, what type of data the devices collect, and how providers use the data for delivering solutions to users. Thus, we decided to explore the available literature in this domain to understand how wearable devices can provide solutions to consumers. We also extended our focus to cover current health service delivery frameworks with the help of recommender systems. Thus, this study reviews health-monitoring services by conglomerating both wearable device and recommendation system to come up with personalized health and fitness solutions. Additionally, the paper elucidates key components of an advanced-level real-time monitoring service framework to guide future research and practice in this domain

Performance Evaluation of GaN based Thin Film Transistor using TCAD Simulation

As reported in past decades, gallium nitride as one of the most capable compound semiconductor, GaN-based high-electron mobility transistors are the focus of intense research activities in the area of high power, high-speed, and high-temperature transistors. In this paper we present a design and simulation of the GaN based thin film transistor using sentaurus TCAD for the extracting the electrical performance. The resulting GaN TFTs exhibits good electrical performance in the simulated results, including, a threshold voltage of 12-15 V, an on/off current ratio of 6.5×107 ~8.3×108, and a sub-threshold slope of 0.44V/dec. Sentaurus TCAD simulations is the tool  which offers study of comprehensive behavior of semiconductor structures with ease. The simulation results of the TFT structure based on gallium nitride active channel have great prospective in the next-generation flat-panel display applications

Vitamin A Administered with measles vaccine to nine-month-old infants does not reduce vaccine immunogenicity

After a report of reduced seroconversion to measles in infants, aged 6 mo, given vitamin A with their measles vaccination, serious concerns were raised regarding the safety of the WHO's recommendation that infants be supplemented with vitamin A at the time of measles immunization. To determine the impact of coadministered vitamin A on the antibody response to measles vaccine given to infants aged 9 mo, the more common age for immunization in developing countries, we conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in an urban slum community in Delhi. Infants (618) were randomly allocated to receive 30 mg vitamin A or a placebo with the measles immunization. Antibodies to measles were measured by ELISA in serum samples obtained at before (baseline) and 12 wk after immunization. Overall, the seroconversion rates did not differ between vitamin A (89.5%) and placebo (87.6%) groups. There were no significant differences in the geometric mean titers in the two groups (ratio of geometric means, 1.19; 95% confidence interval, 0.97-1.46). Among malnourished infants, the geometric mean titer was significantly greater in the vitamin A group compared to the placebo group (ratio of geometric means, 1.57; 95% confidence interval, 1.18-2.0), but seroconversion rates did not differ. There were no differences in seroconversion rates and geometric mean titers in the two study groups among the well-nourished children. These results indicate that 30 mg vitamin A does not reduce the immune response to the coadministered vaccine and, therefore, can be continued to be given safely in public health programs

Challenges in setting up a large population-based prospective cohort study in India – learnings from the LoCARPoN cohort

Population-based prospective cohort studies can yield vital new evidence. However, they are difficult to setup especially in non-western contexts such as India. We describe our experience in establishing the Longitudinal Cognition and Aging Research on Population of the National Capital Region (LoCARPoN) cohort, which was the first-of-its-kind public-funded study with target sample size of 15,000, 3 sites, and funds of approx. US$ five million for eight years (2014–2022). LoCARPoN aimed to study incident stroke and dementia in adults aged ≥50 years in urban and rural populations of north India. Among the numerous challenges encountered, important were inadequate funding, lack of adequate space for medical and field sites, difficulty in hiring manpower, lack of IT infrastructure, non-availability of storage facility for biological samples, and absence of dedicated MRI machines. Meticulous planning, adequate funding, trained personnel, institutional and community support are critical for establishing such cohorts in the non-western contexts. Funding: The LoCARPoN cohort study was funded by the Department of Biotechnology (Grant No. BT/IN/Netherlands/03/KP/2012 dated 14/02/2014); and Department of Health Research (Grant No. R.11012/15/2018-HR, dated 09/08/2018), Government of India. The Erasmus component was funded through the Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and the Erasmus University, Rotterdam ( Alzheimer Nederland WE.15-2014-09).</p

Influence of Adult Education Program on Agricultural Wages: Moderating Effect of Village Size

This paper studies the influence of adult education program on to the prevalent agricultural wages in villages of India. Adult education program in India is conducted by various state governments irrespective of the consideration of village characteristics. We argue village characteristics as an important variable towards the success of any government program. The objective of any government program in villages is to improve the economic status of villagers. Prevalent agricultural wages are a good indicator of the economic well-being of rural inhabitants. Therefore, as an indicator of economic development of Indian rural population, we have selected agricultural wages as the dependent variable. In earlier studies, there are predominantly four significant determinants of agricultural wages. They are non-agricultural, transportation, regional, and local factors. After controlling for these factors, we have found that adult education has significant positive influence on the larger size of villages and in a smaller size of villages, it does not have any influence. We have used robust regression technique in our analysis due to the presence of outliers in the data

Role of Shirodhara in the Management of Depression

Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behaviour, tendencies, feelings, and sense of well-being. It is also a symptom of some physical diseases and a side effect of some drugs and medical treatments. It is one of the most common mental disorder affecting a large number of people worldwide. It can be caused due to various factors including unfavourable environmental conditions, psychological conditions, biological causes or some genetic cause. Overwhelming sadness or isolation, headaches or migraine, anxiety over everyday activities, moodiness, irritability and agitation, chronic fatigue, low self-esteem are main symptoms of depression. On reviewing the symptoms of depression, we can say that according to Ayurveda there are two conditions which can be correlated to Depression- namely- Vishada and Avsada. Sometimes it has also been correlated to Kaphaj Unmada. Modern medicine use antidepressants which on long term use have serious side effects. On the other hand, Ayurveda follows a multidimensional approach with the use of proper diet, lifestyle, Yoga, Rasayana therapy along with classical medications. Panchakarma therapies especially Shirodhara play an important role in enhancing the patient’s condition with depression. Shirodhara is a Panchakarma therapy that is quite popular nowadays, and this review article has focused on how it can be used to treat mental illnesses like depression. In numerous investigations, Shirodhara was found effective on subjective as well objective criteria