Explicitly Stated Security Policies of Web Sites of Global Banks of Europe, Australia, Asia and the U.S

This paper is the latest component of a research project conducted by the authors over a three-year period. The first phase emphasized the privacy policies of global banks and other businesses engaged in E-commerce. Over 600 individualized web-sites were visited and evaluated. This, the second phase of the research project, focuses on the security policies in place for global financial institutions. The purpose of this research study is to review, compare and summarize the security policies of global banks as they are expressed on their web sites. A total of over 300 web sites of global banks were included in this phase of the study. The study was conducted during the month of June, 2005. This paper reports on the results of a total of 180 banks representing Europe (40), Australia (20), Asia (60) and the U.S. (60)

An Empirical Review of Industry Preferences in the Design of E-Commerce Web Sites

This paper discusses several theoretical factors underlying successful Web-site design based on the research literature. Factors such as navigation strategies, animation, search capability, multilingual capability, and the use of color, graphics and icons are included. After identifying the significance of these Web characteristics, the paper reports on the results of an empirical study on Web-site design characteristics based on over 400 e-commerce Web sites that included six industry classifications. While some companies utilize traditional Web-site design approaches, others relied on different factors in their design

A Case Study in Implementing Second Life in a Graduate Distance Learning E-Commerce Class

Second Life is the most popular 3-D virtual world in use worldwide. The authors describe the complete process that was employed in incorporating the use of virtual world technologies in a graduate level course on e-commerce corporate strategy. A description is given of the genre of virtual world simulations, the traditional way the course was given startup issues, course project, milestones ,the assessment process and feedback

An Evaluation of the Use of a Virtual World Experiential Case Study to Teach Information Systems Auditing Skills

The paper presents the results of student feedback on the use of an experiential case study of the site audit of a technology and data center constructed in the 3-D virtual world of Second Life. The unique aspect of this case study was that the entire audit was conducted in a virtual world environment. The results of the assessment were extremely favorable and the exercise was recommended to be utilized in future classes. The results include both quantitative as well as qualitative feedback

A Comprehensive Analysis of the H-IB and L-1 Visa Programs in the U.S. From An IT Perspective

This paper analyzes the experience of the H-IB and L-1 visa programs and their impact on information technology in the United States. The topics discussed are as follows: initial justification of the programs, the relationship of the programs to outsourcing and off-shoring, who is covered by the H-IB and L-1 visa programs, utilization of the visa programs by various constituencies, the impact of the visa programs on the prevailing wage, the arguments pro and con for the program, who is on either side of the lobbying effort, protectionist legislation regarding the visa programs, fraud within the visa programs, the alleged role of body shops and the visa programs, and the impact on homeland security as related to the visa programs

Privacy Policies on Global Banks\u27 Websites: Does Culture Matter?

Information privacy, the ability to control the information about oneself, is increasingly relevant as advancing technologies provide opportunities for ever faster and more extensive data collection. Electronic business continues to see the collection and storage of various types of customer information for use in increasingly innovative ways, resulting in enhanced marketing and services as well as concern from the customer about privacy. Online banking, in particular, is strongly impacted by customers\u27 concerns for privacy due to the sensitivity of the information it handles. Previous research has examined privacy concerns, including the impact of culture. This study is a global examination of global banks\u27 privacy policies as promulgated on their websites designed to gain insight into the communication of privacy practices throughout the world. Results indicate that there is a great deal of variation among what is disclosed on banks\u27 websites in different countries

Discovering Tau and Muon Solar Neutrino Flares above backgrounds

Solar neutrino flares astronomy is at the edge of its discover. High energy flare particles (protons, alpha) whose self scattering within the solar corona is source of a rich prompt charged pions are also source of sharp solar neutrino "burst" (at tens-hundred MeV) produced by their pion-muon primary decay in flight. This brief (minute) solar neutrino "burst" at largest peak overcome by four-five order of magnitude the steady atmospheric neutrino noise at the Earth. Later on, solar flare particles hitting the terrestrial atmosphere may marginally increase the atmospheric neutrino flux without relevant consequences. Largest prompt "burst" solar neutrino flare may be detected in present or better in future largest neutrino underground neutrino detectors. Our estimate for the recent and exceptional October - November 2003 solar flares gives a number of events above or just near unity for Super-Kamiokande. The neutrino spectra may reflect in a subtle way the neutrino flavour mixing in flight. A surprising tau appearance may even occur for a hard ({E}_{nu}_{mu}--> {E}_{nu}_{tau} > 4 GeV) flare spectra. A comparison of the solar neutrino flare (at their birth place on Sun and after oscillation on the arrival on the Earth) with other neutrino foreground is here described and it offer an independent road map to disentangle the neutrino flavour puzzles and its secret flavour mixing angles .Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, Noon 2004 Conference, Februry 200

Muon and Tau Neutrinos Spectra from Solar Flares

Solar neutrino flares and mixing are considered. Most power-full solar flare as the ones occurred on 23th February 1956, September 29th 1989, 28th October and on 2nd-4th November 2003 are sources of cosmic rays, X, gamma and neutrino bursts. These flares took place both on front or in the edge and in the hidden solar disk. The observed and estimated total flare energy should be a source of a prompt secondary neutrino burst originated, by proton-proton-pion production on the sun itself; a more delayed and spread neutrino flux signal arise by the solar charged flare particles reaching the terrestrial atmosphere. Our first estimates of neutrino signals in largest underground detectors hint for few events in correlation with, gamma,radio onser. Our approximated spectra for muons and taus from these rare solar eruption are shown over the most common background. The muon and tau signature is very peculiar and characteristic over electron and anti-electron neutrino fluxes. The rise of muon neutrinos will be detectable above the minimal muon threshold of 113 MeV. The rarest tau appearence will be possible only for hardest solar neutrino energies above 3.471 GeVComment: 14 pages, 4 figures, Vulcano Conference 200

Unveiling Clusters of RNA Transcript Pairs Associated with Markers of Alzheimer's Disease Progression

Background: One primary goal of transcriptomic studies is identifying gene expression patterns correlating with disease progression. This is usually achieved by considering transcripts that independently pass an arbitrary threshold (e.g. p<0.05). In diseases involving severe perturbations of multiple molecular systems, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), this univariate approach often results in a large list of seemingly unrelated transcripts. We utilised a powerful multivariate clustering approach to identify clusters of RNA biomarkers strongly associated with markers of AD progression. We discuss the value of considering pairs of transcripts which, in contrast to individual transcripts, helps avoid natural human transcriptome variation that can overshadow disease-related changes. Methodology/Principal Findings: We re-analysed a dataset of hippocampal transcript levels in nine controls and 22 patients with varying degrees of AD. A large-scale clustering approach determined groups of transcript probe sets that correlate strongly with measures of AD progression, including both clinical and neuropathological measures and quantifiers of the characteristic transcriptome shift from control to severe AD. This enabled identification of restricted groups of highly correlated probe sets from an initial list of 1,372 previously published by our group. We repeated this analysis on an expanded dataset that included all pair-wise combinations of the 1,372 probe sets. As clustering of this massive dataset is unfeasible using standard computational tools, we adapted and re-implemented a clustering algorithm that uses external memory algorithmic approach. This identified various pairs that strongly correlated with markers of AD progression and highlighted important biological pathways potentially involved in AD pathogenesis. Conclusions/Significance: Our analyses demonstrate that, although there exists a relatively large molecular signature of AD progression, only a small number of transcripts recurrently cluster with different markers of AD progression. Furthermore, considering the relationship between two transcripts can highlight important biological relationships that are missed when considering either transcript in isolation. © 2012 Arefin et al

Screening of at-risk blood donors for Chagas disease in non-endemic countries: Lessons from a 2-year experience in Tuscany, Italy

Background: Chagas disease (CD) is caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi and is transmitted by blood-sucking triatomine insects in endemic areas of Latin America. Transmission can also occur via blood transfusion and is a major cause of CD in non-endemic areas. Objectives: The aim of the study was to assess the prevalence of anti-T. cruzi antibodies in blood donors at risk of infection in Tuscany, Italy, following the introduction of blood safety Italian legislation. Material and methods: Donors (N = 1985) were tested in 2016 to 2018 for anti-T. cruzi IgG using an immunochromatographic test (ICT). Chemiluminescent immunoassay (CLIA) was performed on ICT-positive donors to exclude CD, whereas enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and Western blot were performed in case of discordant results. All assays were performed on CD patients (N = 10) for validation. Results: Ten blood donors had a positive ICT result, with a resulting T. cruzi seroprevalence of 0.5% but demonstrates negative results to CLIA, as well as to the other serological assays. The comparison of serological assays suggested a lower relative sensitivity of ICT. Conclusion: The results of this study confirm the significance of serological testing in the screening strategy for TT CD. However, they provide evidence for discontinuing the use of ICT as a screening test and suggest that a sensitive, specific and multi-sample format assay should be used at the national level for uniformity of results