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Background: Iron-deficiency anaemia (IDA) is the most common nutritional disorder observed in India particularly in under-five- year-old children, adolescent girls and pregnant women. Objective: The present study pioneered an investigation, into one of the varieties of paddy (IR-64) and their fortification with sodium iron EDTA salt, its physical properties, cooking characteristics, color, texture and characterization studies. Methods: Fortification was done at two concentrations 1.88g/kg and 3.39g/kg (250 & 450 mg/kg corresponding iron content), it was found that the iron content increased three to four-fold after fortification when compared to their corresponding controls. Results: The results revealed that, there was significant difference in the physical properties of rice in the control, fortified brown and milled rice. Cooking characteristics revealed, that water uptake and volume expansion were higher for fortified milled rice as compared to brown rice. The texture of fortified brown rice was hard as compared to fortified milled rice, although the taste was found satisfactory. The colour was significantly different in brown and milled rice. Conclusion: X-ray diffraction results revealed the polycrystalline nature of the fortified sample, was somewhat less crystalline as compared to control sample.

Summary Rheological properties of black gram batter as a function of soaking time, and effect of flour from native and thermally modified rice on black gram batter have been studied. Greater increase in hydration capacity of black gram dhal was observed during 5–15 min of soaking, a gradual increase up to 90 min and a marginal increase beyond this period. Apparent viscosity of batter showed 100% increase up to 90 min and less than 20% increase beyond 120 min, and shear-thinning nature of batter indicated that they were pseudo-plastic in nature. Yield stress and consistency index showed greater changes after 90 min, while flow behaviour index did not show significant change beyond 90 min of soaking. Compared with the addition of native rice flour, incorporation of flaked rice flour and expanded rice flour into black gram batter significantly increased the cold paste viscosity of the batter, probably because of their greater water-holding capacity, compared with that from native rice. Differences in physicochemical characteristics and pasting behaviour of these flour slurries, as studied by Rapid Visco Analyser, corroborated these results by the typical profile of pregelatinised products for flaked rice and expanded rice in comparison to native rice.

Automating government to citizen (G2C) interactions will help in achieving transparency and combating corruption. However, in the case of post-communist transitioning countries such as Armenia, the challenges are unique. These countries are struggling with the transformation of their legacy bureaucratic and administrative processes. In addition, almost every post- Soviet country has inherited systemic corruption that is built in to the ‘modus operandi’ of both the public and private sectors. The process of automating G2C interactions using information and communication technology (ICT) needs to be analyzed as a socio-technical information processing system. Automating existing bureaucratic processes that are defective will not yield results. Improving the enforcement of rules through automation is clearly the best way to combat corruption. The introduction of e-Government plays a major role in this context as it automates several processes. To deliver public service in a more transparent and efficient way, it is necessary to categorize, assess, and modify existing administrative processes. In this paper, we propose a methodology to render transparency in governance using information and communication technology that goes beyond mere automating existing citizen-government interactions.

The lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are found to produce bacteriocins with enhanced nutritive properties in the fermented foods. In the present study, the ability of LAB cultures (Pediococcus acidilactici NCIM 5424, Enterococcus faecium NCIM 5423 and Lactobacillus plantarum Acr2) to produce pediocin PA-1 like bacteriocin was evaluated during soymilk fermentation. The isolates E. faecium NCIM 5423 and Lb. plantarum Acr2 were able to produce bacteriocin as well as ferment soymilk within 6 h of incubation. Upon plating the cultures E. faecium NCIM 5423 and Lb. plantarum Acr2 in soymilk were found to be viable even after 15 days of storage at 4 °C. No significant variation was observed in the viable counts of E. faecium NCIM 5423 and Lb. plantarum Acr2 (P>0.05). The effect of crude bacteriocin on Listeria cells was evidenced through scanning electron microscope (SEM) photographs wherein cell membrane damage was observed. On co-cultivation of E. faecium NCIM 5423 and Lb. plantarum Acr2 individually with Listeria monocytogenes ScottA a decrease in the Listeria count was observed within 24 h of incubation. However, during co-cultivation of ScottA with P. acidilactici NCIM 5424, no significant difference was observed in the viable counts (P>0.05). The pH, titratable acidity, pediocin activity, anti-oxidant property and sensory attributes for E. faecium NCIM 5423 were studied. It was observed that E. faecium NCIM 5423 fermented soymilk had an acceptable sensory score during storage period. Hence, such culture can be an ideal starter for development of functional foods with longer shelf life.

The implementation of e-government is a challenging task in any developed political context, but all the more uniquely so in the postcommunist transitioning countries. These factors surpass the indubitabl benefits of automation as an output and information technology as a tool, and take into account elements of context and capacity that should not be overlooked. The degree of resistance to change due to organizational, structural, and social factors varies depending upon differences in each of these critical dimensions. In postcommunist countries such as Armenia, e-transformation is considered in some quarters as a second disruption, the first being the fall of the Soviet rule. In this chapter, we develop a comprehensive framework which is needed for successful implementation of e-government initiatives. This framework combines not only the critical dimensions of e-government interactions but also the various sociotechnical aspects that are particularly relevant to the special challenges of transitioning countries.

Videotex refers to computer-based interactive systems that are capable of electronically delivering screen text, numbers and graphics via telephone or two-way cable for display on television sets or video monitors. This technology allows computer-naive users to easily access general interest or highly specialized information stored in on-line databases in the amount and sequence (s)he desires. Over the past decade, there has been considerable interest in videotex systems, and a number of them have already been implemented in different countries. With the proposed implementation of Integrated Services Digital Networks, the interest in videotex systems is expected to grow even further. This paper provides a brief overview of commercial videotex systems in various countries, and discusses possible organizational usage of these systems. In addition, we formulate a 0/1 integer programming model for allocating videotex files in a geographically distributed videotex system. A Lagrangian relaxation based solution procedure is developed for solving the videotex file allocation problem. Results of extensive numerical experiments performed using the proposed heuristic solution procedure are reported.