Quality Websites: An Application of the Kano Model to Website Design

In the emerging global electronic market, the creation of customer centered websites will become increasingly important. This paper uses Kano\u27s Model of Quality to develop a conceptual framework for investigating features in the web environment that satisfy basic, performance, and excitement needs of potential customers. The researchers classify features commonly used in the web environment according to Kano’ s three quality dimensions for products and services. Plans to empirically test this conceptually based classification are forthcoming. Among the possible implications and contributions of this research are the differentiation of web design features that customers take for granted from those that add value in the performance of web specific tasks and those that generate delight, motivation, and loyalty of website users

Ion beam analysis techniques: a powerful set ge tools for identification and sourcing of ancient gems

Gemstones are defined as rare minerals having a high clarity, a high hardness and showing a bright colour and a nice shining. The most important gems are diamond, sapphire and emerald. These gems are callad precious stones. Gems have fascinated man since the earliest times. They have always been sought out by man for their aesthetic and symbolic valué. Due to their scarceness and high '^alue, gems were appreciated by the mighty ones as a sign of their power (emperors ^nd kings, dignitaries of religions ...). Their high hardness and henee strong resismnce to deterioration symbolised the everlastingness of their reign. This last property is interesting from an archaeological point of view: gemstones travel through time without noticeable alteration, even buried in aggressive environment. On the other hand, gems oiay be used several times on different jewels, possibly cut and polished again. Like spices and other precious and sought-after items, gems were brought back from long distance. Accordingly, they are good tracers for ancient trading routes and influence of civilisations. Each civilisation had its own favourite gemstones: lapis lazuli in Egypt; amber and emerald in the Román Empire; gamet in early Middle Ages westem civil isations; jade, ruby and sapphire in Far-East cultures. Moreover, the provenance of some ancient gems such as emeralds or gamets is still debated. For all these reasons, the study of gems kept in museum collections is a promising research fíeld

Panel: Interdisciplinary Paradigms for IS Education: The Information School

Education for the information profession is in a state of radical change and re-design. Academic units are being reorganized around new interdisciplinary paradigms, while new curriculums are being developed to address the needs of a growing and diverse information profession. Existing schools, which offer multiple information degrees and are based upon interdisciplinary models, such as Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Drexel and Rutgers universities have been or are now joined by others, such as the University of Michigan and the University of California at Berkeley. Plans are in place to create new “information schools” at Penn State, Indiana University, UNC Charlotte, and other universities. New information colleges are being considered from the University of Arizona to the University of Rhode Island - and many points between

El oro de Guarrazar

Se presentan los primeros resultados analíticos del oro del Tesoro visigodo de Guarra/ar (Guadamur. Toledo) enmarcado en un proyecto para caracterizar estas producciones orfebres y su nivel tecnológico. Así mismo, se pretende acla rar ciertos aspectos sobre su estado actual, como las asociaciones entre materia les o la identificación de partes originales y reconstruidas. Los análisis de com posición se han realizado mediante PIXE

AGLAE au cœur du programme européen Eu-ARTECH

L’accélérateur de particules AGLAE du C2RMF a eu un rôle majeur dans l’émergence du projet européen Eu-ARTECH. Après un bref rappel des propriétés des méthodes d’analyse par faisceau d’ions, la spécificité d’AGLAE est soulignée. Les activités impliquant l’accès transnational (TNA) à cette installation sont alors présentées, révélant la grande diversité des thèmes scientifiques abordés. Des exemples d’études sont donnés, qui illustrent la contribution d’AGLAE à la connaissance des œuvres d’art et d’archéologie et tout particulièrement celles en céramique et en métal.C2RMF’s AGLAE ion beam accelerator has played a major role in the emergence of the European project Eu-ARTECH (Access, Research and Technology for the Conservation of the European Cultural Heritage). After a brief reminder of the properties of ion beam analysis, AGLAE’s specific characteristics are highlighted. Activities open to transnational access (TA) in this laboratory are then presented, attesting to the broad diversity of scientific subjects available to researchers. Examples of studies are given, illustrating AGLAE’s contribution to greater knowledge about works of art and archaeology, especially ceramics and metal artefacts

Towards truly simultaneous PIXE and RBS analysis of layered objects in cultural heritage

For a long time, RBS and PIXE techniques have been used in the field of cultural heritage. Although the complementarity of both techniques has long been acknowledged, its full potential has not been yet developed due to the lack of general purpose software tools for analysing the data from both techniques in a coherent way. In this work we provide an example of how the recent addition of PIXE to the set of techniques supported by the DataFurnace code can significantly change this situation. We present a case in which a non homogeneous sample (an oxidized metal from a photographic plate -heliography- made by Niepce in 1827) is analysed using RBS and PIXE in a straightforward and powerful way that can only be performed with a code that treats both techniques simultaneously as a part of one single and coherent analysis. The optimization capabilities of DataFurnace, allowed us to obtain the composition profiles for these samples in a very simple way.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure

Meta-tirosina. Un poderoso agente anti-metastásico sin efectos tóxicos colaterales detectables

La resistencia concomitante antitumoral (RC) es el fenómeno según el cual un individuo portador de tumor inhibe el crecimiento de implantes tumorales secundarios y metástasis. Si bien desde hace tiempo se sabe que la RC inducida por tumores inmunogénicos de pequeño tamaño es generada por mecanismos inmunológicos dependientes de células T, por otro lado, la manifestación más universal de la RC, generada tanto por tumores inmunogénicos como no-inmunogénicos de gran tamaño, había sido asociada con un (unos) factor sérico antitumoral cuya naturaleza permaneció elusiva por años. En un trabajo reciente, nuestro grupo de trabajo identificó este factor como la mezcla equi-molar de meta-tirosina y orto-tirosina, dos isómeros de tirosina que no están presentes en proteínas normales y que demostraron ser responsables del 90% y 10%, respectivamente, de la actividad antitumoral total del suero. En este trabajo, continuamos nuestras investigaciones demostrando que la administración periódica de meta-tirosina reducía drásticamente el número de metástasis pulmonares y hepáticas en ratones portadores de dos tumores murinos altamente metastásicos y disminuía dramáticamente la mortandad (de 100% a 25%) de ratones con metástasis ya establecidas al momento de la extirpación quirúrgica del tumor. Estos efectos anti-metastásicos se lograron aun con muy bajas concentraciones de meta-tirosina y sin efectos tóxicos perceptibles, lo que sugiere que su uso puede ayudar a diseñar nuevas y menos nocivas estrategias para el tratamiento del cáncer, especialmente aquellas destinadas a controlar el crecimiento metastásico, que es el problema más grave en la enfermedad oncológica.Concomitant tumor resistance (CR) is a phenomenon in which a tumor-bearing host is resistant to the growth of secondary tumor implants and metastasis. While former studies have indicated that T-cell dependent processes mediate CR in hosts bearing immunogenic small tumors, the most universal manifestation of CR induced by immunogenic and non-immunogenic large tumors had been associated with an antitumor serum factor that remained an enigma for many years. In a recent paper, we identified that elusive factor(s) as an equi-molar mixture of meta-tyrosine and ortho-tyrosine, two isomers of tyrosine that are not present in normal proteins and that proved to be responsible for 90% and 10%, respectively, of the total serum anti-tumor activity. In this work, we have extended our previous findings demonstrating that a periodic intravenous administrationof meta-tyrosine induced a dramatic reduction of lung and hepatic metastases generated in mice bearing two different metastatic murine tumors and decreased the rate of death from 100% up to 25% in tumor-excised mice that already exhibited established metastases at the time of surgery. These anti-metastatic effects were achieved even at very low concentrations and without displaying any detectable toxic-side effects, suggesting that the use of meta-tyrosine may help to develop new and less harmful means of managing malignant diseases, especiallythose aimed to control the growth of metastases that is the most serious problem in cancer pathology.Fil: Machuca, Damián Gabriel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Medicina Experimental. Academia Nacional de Medicina de Buenos Aires. Instituto de Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Chiarella, Paula. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Medicina Experimental. Academia Nacional de Medicina de Buenos Aires. Instituto de Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Montagna, Daniela Romina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Medicina Experimental. Academia Nacional de Medicina de Buenos Aires. Instituto de Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Dran, Graciela Isabel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Medicina Experimental. Academia Nacional de Medicina de Buenos Aires. Instituto de Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Meiss, Roberto P.. Academia Nacional de Medicina de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Ruggiero, Raul Alejandro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Medicina Experimental. Academia Nacional de Medicina de Buenos Aires. Instituto de Medicina Experimental; Argentin

Presencia de células B con propiedades regulatorias en ganglios drenantes de un tumor murino

En cáncer, las células B han sido clásicamente asociadas a la presentación antigénica, secreción de anticuerpos y activación de células T. Recientemente se comenzó a investigar un posible rol negativo de los linfocitos B sobre la respuesta inmune antitumoral, debido a que se describieron ciertas subpoblaciones B con capacidad de afectar negativamente la respuesta inmune en enfermedades autoinmunes. El tumor murino MCC es altamente inmunogénico en estadios tempranos; a medida que crece pierde su inmunogenicidad e induce inmunosupresión sistémica y tolerancia. En este modelo hemos demostrado previamente que el crecimiento tumoral induce un marcado y progresivo aumento en el número y proporción de células B en los ganglios drenantes del tumor (TDLN) y un aumento menos marcado de células T regulatorias. El objetivo fue estudiar las características y función de las células B en los ganglios que drenan el tumor MCC y analizar si éstas podrían inhibir la respuesta contra el tumor favoreciendo su progresión. Encontramos que las células B en los TDLN presentan expresión aumentada de las moléculas CD86 y MHCII indicando su activación, y expresión intracelular de IL-10, FASL y Granzima B, moléculas con función inmunosupresora. Además, mostraron alta actividad inhibitoria de la proliferación T ex vivo y moderada secreción de anticuerpos. Los resultados indican que aun cuando persisten marcadores de activación de la respuesta inmune, las células B presentes en los ganglios drenantes del tumor muestran fenotipo regulatorio y actividad inhibitoria, sugiriendo que las mismas contribuirían al estado de tolerancia inmunológica característico del estadio de tumor avanzado.In cancer, B cells have been classically associated with antibody secretion, antigen presentation and T cell activation. However, a possible role for B lymphocytes in impairing antitumor response and collaborating with tumor growth has been brought into focus. Recent reports have described the capacity of B cells to negatively affect immune responses in autoimmune diseases. The highly immunogenic mouse tumor MCC loses its immunogenicity and induces systemic immune suppression and tolerance as it grows. We have previously demonstrated that MCC growth induces a distinct and progressive increase in B cell number and proportion in the tumor draining lymph nodes (TDLN), as well as a less prominent increase in T regulatory cells. The aim of this research was to study B cell characteristics and function in the lymph node draining MCC tumor and to analyze whether these cells may be playing a role in suppressing antitumor response and favoring tumor progression. Results indicate that B cells from TDLN expressed increased CD86 and MHCII co-stimulatory molecules indicating activated phenotype, as well as intracellular IL-10, FASL and Granzyme B, molecules with regulatory immunosuppressive properties. Additionally, B cells showed high inhibitory upon T cell proliferation ex vivo, and a mild capacity to secrete antibodies. Our conclusion is that even when evidence of B cell-mediated activity of the immune response is present, B cells from TDLN exhibit regulatory phenotype and inhibitory activity, probably contributing to the state of immunological tolerance characteristic of the advanced tumor condition.Fil: Maglioco, Andrea Florencia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Medicina Experimental; Argentina;Fil: Machuca, Damián Gabriel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Medicina Experimental; Argentina;Fil: Camerano, Gabriela Veronica. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Medicina Experimental; Argentina;Fil: Costa, Hector Luis. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Medicina Experimental; Argentina;Fil: Ruggiero, Raul Alejandro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Medicina Experimental; Argentina;Fil: Dran, Graciela Isabel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Medicina Experimental; Argentina