The Value of Online Information Privacy: An Empirical Investigation

Concern over online information privacy is widespread and rising. However, prior research is silent about the value of information privacy in the presence of potential benefits from sharing personally identifiable information. We analyzed individuals' trade-offs between the benefits and costs of providing personal information to websites. We found that benefits - monetary reward and future convenience - significantly affect individuals' preferences over websites with differing privacy policies. We also quantified the value of website privacy protection. Among U.S. subjects, protection against errors, improper access, and secondary use of personal information is worth US$30.49 - 44.62. Finally, we identified three distinct segments of Internet consumers - privacy guardians, information sellers, and convenience seekers.Information privacy, conjoint analysis, cost-benefit tradeoff, privacy concern, monetary reward, time-saving service

The Motion of Slender Particles in Shear Flow

A model was developed for calculating the motion of dilute suspensions of rigid, slender particles in a uniformly sheared viscous liquid, taking into ac count interactions between particles. The model was applied to the plane Couette flow problem in which particles are suspended in a liquid moving parallel to a plane with a uniform, shearing motion. The results of the model were compared to existing data, and good agreement was found between the calculated and experimental results. Using the model, results were also ob tained which illustrate the major effects of particle-particle interactions on the angular motion of the particles.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68541/2/10.1177_073168448200100401.pd

The Value of Online Information Privacy: An Empirical Investigation

Concern over online information privacy is widespread and rising. However, prior research is silent about the value of information privacy in the presence of potential benefits from sharing personally identifiable information. Analyzing individuals' trade-offs between the benefits and costs of providing personal information to websites revealed that benefits, monetary reward and future convenience, significantly affect individuals' preferences over websites with differing privacy policies. Quantifying the value of website privacy protection revealed that among U.S. subjects, protection against errors, improper access, and secondary use of personal information is worth US $30.49 - 44.62. Finally, three distinct segments of Internet consumers were determined: privacy guardians, information sellers and convenience seekers.

Heat of Reaction, Degree of Cure, and Viscosity of Hercules 3501-6 Resin

The heat of reaction, degree of cure, and viscosity of Hercules 3501-6 resin were measured using a differential scanning calorimeter and a disc and plate type viscometer. Expression were developed for correlating the rate of degree of cure and the viscosity with the degree of cure. Viscosities calculated by these ex pressions were compared with data reported previously, and good agreement was found between the present results and the previous data.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68202/2/10.1177_002199838201600605.pd

Structures of Staphylococcus aureus peptide deformylase in complex with two classes of new inhibitors

Peptide deformylase (PDF) catalyzes the removal of the formyl group from the N-terminal methionine residue in newly synthesized polypeptides, which is an essential process in bacteria. Four new inhibitors of PDF that belong to two different classes, hydroxamate/pseudopeptide compounds [PMT387 (7a) and PMT497] and reverse-hydroxamate/nonpeptide compounds [PMT1039 (15e) and PMT1067], have been developed. These compounds inhibited the growth of several pathogens involved in respiratory-tract infections, such as Streptococcus pneumoniae, Moraxella catarrhalis and Haemophilus influenzae, and leading nosocomial pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumoniae with a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) in the range 0.1-0.8 mg ml(-1). Interestingly, the reverse-hydroxamate/nonpeptide compounds showed a 250-fold higher antimicrobial activity towards S. aureus, although the four compounds showed similar K-i values against S. aureus PDF enzymes, with Ki values in the 11-85 nM range. To provide a structural basis for the discovery of additional PDF inhibitors, the crystal structures of S. aureus PDF in complex with the four inhibitors were determined at resolutions of 1.90-2.30 angstrom. The inhibitor-bound structures displayed distinct deviations depending on the inhibitor class. The distance between the Zn2+ ion and the carbonyl O atom of the hydroxamate inhibitors (or the hydroxyl O atom of the reverse-hydroxamate inhibitors) appears to be correlated to S. aureus inhibition activity. The structural information reported in this study should aid in the discovery of new PDF inhibitors that can be used as novel antibacterial drugs

J/psi hadron interaction in vacuum and in QGP

Motivated by the recent lattice data that $J/\psi$ will survive up to 1.6$T_c$, we calculate the thermal width of $J/\psi$ at finite temperature in perturbative QCD. The inputs of the calculation are the parton quarkonium dissociation cross sections at the NLO in QCD, which were previously obtained by Song and Lee, and a gaussian charmonium wave function, whose size were fitted to an estimate by Wong by solving the schrodinger equation for charmonium in a potential extracted from the lattice at finite temperature. We find that the total thermal width above 1.4$T_c$ becomes larger than 100 to 200 MeV, depending on the effective thermal masses of the quark and gluon, which we take it to vary from 600 to 400 MeV.Comment: 4 pages, Talk at Quark Matter 200

The Globular Cluster System of M60 (NGC 4649). I. CFHT MOS Spectroscopy and Database

We present the measurement of radial velocities for globular clusters in M60, giant elliptical galaxy in the Virgo cluster. Target globular cluster candidates were selected using the Washington photometry based on the deep 16\arcmin \times 16\arcmin images taken at the KPNO 4m and using the $VI$ photometry derived from the HST/WFPC2 archive images. The spectra of the target objects were obtained using the Multi-Object Spectrograph (MOS) at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT). We have measured the radial velocity for 111 objects in the field of M60: 93 globular clusters (72 blue globular clusters with $1.0\le(C-T_1)<1.7$ and 21 red globular clusters with $1.7\le(C-T_1)<2.4$), 11 foreground stars, 6 small galaxies, and the nucleus of M60. The measured velocities of the 93 globular clusters range from $\sim 500$ km s$^{-1}$ to $\sim 1600$ km s$^{-1}$, with a mean value of $1070_{-25}^{+27}$ km s$^{-1}$, which is in good agreement with the velocity of the nucleus of M60 ($v_{\rm gal}=1056$ km s$^{-1}$). Combining our results with data in the literature, we present a master catalog of radial velocities for 121 globular clusters in M60. The velocity dispersion of the globular clusters in the master catalog is found to be $234_{-14}^{+13}$ km s$^{-1}$ for the entire sample, $223_{-16}^{+13}$ km s$^{-1}$ for 83 blue globular clusters, and $258_{-31}^{+21}$ km s$^{-1}$ for 38 red globular clusters.Comment: 29 pages, 8 figures. To appear in Ap

Expression of Heterologous OsDHAR Gene Improves Glutathione (GSH)-Dependent Antioxidant System and Maintenance of Cellular Redox Status in Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942.

An excess of reactive oxygen species (ROS) can cause severe oxidative damage to cellular components in photosynthetic cells. Antioxidant systems, such as the glutathione (GSH) pools, regulate redox status in cells to guard against such damage. Dehydroascorbate reductase (DHAR, EC 1.8.5.1) catalyzes the glutathione-dependent reduction of oxidized ascorbate (dehydroascorbate) and contains a redox active site and glutathione binding-site. The DHAR gene is important in biological and abiotic stress responses involving reduction of the oxidative damage caused by ROS. In this study, transgenic Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942 (TA) was constructed by cloning the Oryza sativa L. japonica DHAR (OsDHAR) gene controlled by an isopropyl β-D-1-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG)-inducible promoter (Ptrc) into the cyanobacterium to study the functional activities of OsDHAR under oxidative stress caused by hydrogen peroxide exposure. OsDHAR expression increased the growth of S. elongatus PCC 7942 under oxidative stress by reducing the levels of hydroperoxides and malondialdehyde (MDA) and mitigating the loss of chlorophyll. DHAR and glutathione S-transferase activity were higher than in the wild-type S. elongatus PCC 7942 (WT). Additionally, overexpression of OsDHAR in S. elongatus PCC 7942 greatly increased the glutathione (GSH)/glutathione disulfide (GSSG) ratio in the presence or absence of hydrogen peroxide. These results strongly suggest that DHAR attenuates deleterious oxidative effects via the glutathione (GSH)-dependent antioxidant system in cyanobacterial cells. The expression of heterologous OsDHAR in S. elongatus PCC 7942 protected cells from oxidative damage through a GSH-dependent antioxidant system via GSH-dependent reactions at the redox active site and GSH binding site residues during oxidative stress

Development of selective inhibitors of transglutaminase: phenylthiourea derivatives

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