Internet transaction anxiety & recognition of assurance services

Many recent surveys and articles have shown that consumers have “Internet transaction anxiety.” This study explores specific transaction anxieties related to the services provided by several prominent e-commerce assurance services. Results indicate that consumers are most concerned about their personal information both as it is being transmitted over the Internet and when it is being handled remotely by an e-commerce vendor. However, there is no significant relationship between having major reservations about purchasing via the Internet and actually doing so. Also, the majority of subjects in this study did not recognize assurance service seals designed to alleviate transaction anxieties. A personal safe shopping guarantee from a reputable e-commerce vendor (e.g. Amazon.com) appears to be as effective at alleviating consumer anxiety as a Web assurance seal from an assurance service.Muchos estudios y artículos han demostrado que los consumidores tienen “ansiedad ante las transacciones en Internet”. Este estudio explora la ansiedad a las transacciones relacionadas en específico con los servicios proporcionados por varios comercios online con servicios de seguros. Los resultados indican que los consumidores están preocupados por su información personal siendo transmitida tanto cuando a través de internet como cuando se maneja de manera remota por un vendedor de comercio virtual. Sin embargo, no existe una relación palpable entre albergar dudas y desconfianza al comprar por internet, y acabar haciéndolo de verdad. La mayoría de sujetos en este estudio no reconocieron las garantías de los servicios de seguridad como beneficiosos en aliviar sus ansiedades de transacción. Una garantía de compra segura proveniente de un respetado vendedor online (como por ejemplo, Amazon), parece ser tan efectiva en aliviar la ansiedad del consumidor como una garantía de seguridad proveniente de un servicio de seguros

The Effect of Globalization on Domestic Legal Services

Globalization, in the context of this panel, refers to international, trans-border processes which are not regulated by the international legal framework, either private law or public international law. These processes, these unregulated influences, are having both positive and negative effects and affecting aspects of culture and society which had previously been considered domestic or wholly domestic concerns. This is creating a tension within both the domestic and international environments, and it is this particular tension that this panel seeks to address. E. Clinton Bamberger, Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Maryland Law School, will speak about how domestic systems in one country can serve as surrogates or supplements, providers of access to justice, for persons denied access to justice in their own country. Lucie White, Professor of Law, Harvard will talk about how legal aid is affected when different cultures and different communities immigrate or immigrant communities are set up in a country. Filipe Gonzalez Morales, Director, Public Interest Action Program, Deigo Portales University, Chile, will talk about how globalization and other forces are coming together and affecting developing economies of scale in providing legal aid across national borders. Dorchen Leidholdt, Director, Center for Battered Women's Legal Services, Sanctuary for Families, New York will talk about how globalization and enlarging immigrant communities in New York City have affected her work in providing protection for battered women

Accounting Information Systems (AIS) Course Design: Current Practices and Future Trajectories

The accounting information systems (AIS) course is a core component of most accounting programs, but what it typically covers and how it’s typically taught is as varied as the number of instructors. As the AACSB Standard A7 indicates: “accounting degree programs include learning experiences that develop skills and knowledge related to the integration of information technology in accounting and business”. In this panel presentation, we looked at the approach of five experienced AIS instructors and compared and contrasted them. We highlight lessons learned and best practices

The Trail To Long Ago

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/6297/thumbnail.jp

A cell based high-throughput screening approach for the discovery of new inhibitors of respiratory syncytial virus

Background: Human respiratory syncytial virus (hRSV) is a highly contagious pathogen and is the most common cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia for infants and children under one year of age. Worldwide, greater than 33 million children under five years of age are affected by hRSV resulting in three million hospitalizations and 200,000 deaths. However, severe lower respiratory tract disease may occur at any age, especially among the elderly or those with compromised cardiac, pulmonary, or immune systems. There is no vaccine commercially available. Existing therapies for the acute infection are ribavirin and the prophylactic humanized monoclonal antibody (Synagis® from MedImmune) that is limited to use in high risk pediatric patients. Thus, the discovery of new inhibitors for hRSV would be clinically beneficial. Results: We have developed and validated a 384-well cell-based, high-throughput assay that measures the cytopathic effect of hRSV (strain Long) in HEp-2 cells using a luminescent-based detection system for signal endpoint (Cell Titer Glo®). The assay is sensitive and robust, with Z factors greater than 0.8, signal to background greater than 35, and signal to noise greater than 24. Utilizing this assay, 313,816 compounds from the Molecular Libraries Small Molecule Repository were screened at 10 μM. We identified 7,583 compounds that showed greater than 22% CPE inhibition in the primary screen. The top 2,500 compounds were selected for confirmation screening and 409 compounds showed at least 50% inhibition of CPE and were considered active. We selected fifty-one compounds, based on potency, selectivity and chemical tractability, for further evaluation in dose response and secondary assays Several compounds had SI50 values greater than 3, while the most active compound displayed an SI50 value of 58.9. Conclusions: A robust automated luminescent-based high throughput screen that measures the inhibition of hRSV-induced cytopathic effect in HEp-2 cells for the rapid identification of potential inhibitors from large compound libraries has been developed, optimized and validated. The active compounds identified in the screen represent different classes of molecules, including aryl sulfonylpyrrolidines which have not been previously identified as having anti-hRSV activity

(S)-N-(2,5-Dimethylphenyl)-1-(quinoline-8-ylsulfonyl)pyrrolidine-2-carboxamide as a Small Molecule Inhibitor Probe for the Study of Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection

A high-throughput, cell-based screen was used to identify chemotypes as inhibitors for human respiratory syncytial virus (hRSV). Optimization of a sulfonylpyrrolidine scaffold resulted in compound 5o that inhibited a virus-induced cytopathic effect in the entry stage of infection (EC50 = 2.3 ± 0.8 µM) with marginal cytotoxicity (CC50 = 30.9 ± 1.1 µM) and reduced viral titer by 100-fold. Compared to ribavirin, sulfonylpyrrolidine 5o demonstrated an improved in vitro potency and selectivity index

Realistic measurement uncertainties for marine macronutrient measurements conducted using gas segmented flow and Lab-on-Chip techniques

Highlights • Accounting for systematic bias is required for a realistic analytical uncertainty • Gas segmented flow techniques achieved a combined uncertainties of 1-4 % • Lab-on-Chip nitrate + nitrite analysers achieved a combined uncertainties < 5% Abstract Accurate and precise measurements of marine macronutrient concentrations are fundamental to our understanding of biogeochemical cycles in the ocean. Quantifying the measurement uncertainty associated with macronutrient measurements remains a challenge. Large systematic biases (up to 10 %) have been identified between datasets, restricting the ability of marine biogeochemists to distinguish between the effects of environmental processes and analytical uncertainty. In this study we combine the routine analyses of certified reference materials (CRMs) with the application of a simple statistical technique to quantify the combined (random + systematic) measurement uncertainty associated with marine macronutrient measurements using gas segmented flow techniques. We demonstrate that it is realistic to achieve combined uncertainties of ~1-4 % for nitrate + nitrite (ΣNOx), phosphate (PO43-) and silicic acid (Si(OH)4) measurements. This approach requires only the routine analyses of CRMs (i.e. it does not require inter-comparison exercises). As CRMs for marine macronutrients are now commercially available, it is advocated that this simple approach can improve the comparability of marine macronutrient datasets and therefore should be adopted as ‘best practice’. Novel autonomous Lab-on-Chip (LoC) technology is currently maturing to a point where it will soon become part of the marine chemist’s standard analytical toolkit used to determine marine macronutrient concentrations. Therefore, it is critical that a complete understanding of the measurement uncertainty of data produced by LoC analysers is achieved. In this study we analysed CRMs using 7 different LoC ΣNOx analysers to estimate a combined measurement uncertainty of < 5%. This demonstrates that with high quality manufacturing and laboratory practices, LoC analysers routinely produce high quality measurements of marine macronutrient concentrations

Nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations of the I-mode high confinement regime and comparisons with experimenta)

For the first time, nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations of I-mode plasmas are performed and compared with experiment. I-mode is a high confinement regime, featuring energy confinement similar to H-mode, but without enhanced particle and impurity particle confinement [D. G. Whyte et al., Nucl. Fusion 50, 105005 (2010)]. As a consequence of the separation between heat and particle transport, I-mode exhibits several favorable characteristics compared to H-mode. The nonlinear gyrokinetic code GYRO [J. Candy and R. E. Waltz, J Comput. Phys. 186, 545 (2003)] is used to explore the effects of E × B shear and profile stiffness in I-mode and compare with L-mode. The nonlinear GYRO simulations show that I-mode core ion temperature and electron temperature profiles are more stiff than L-mode core plasmas. Scans of the input E × B shear in GYRO simulations show that E × B shearing of turbulence is a stronger effect in the core of I-mode than L-mode. The nonlinear simulations match the observed reductions in long wavelength density fluctuation levels across the L-I transition but underestimate the reduction of long wavelength electron temperature fluctuation levels. The comparisons between experiment and gyrokinetic simulations for I-mode suggest that increased E × B shearing of turbulence combined with increased profile stiffness are responsible for the reductions in core turbulence observed in the experiment, and that I-mode resembles H-mode plasmas more than L-mode plasmas with regards to marginal stability and temperature profile stiffness.United States. Department of Energy (Contract No. DE-FC02-99ER54512-CMOD)United States. Department of Energy. Office of Science (Contract No. DE-AC02- 05CH11231

A Radiomics Model Based on Synthetic MRI Acquisition for Predicting Neoadjuvant Systemic Treatment Response in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

Purpose To determine if a radiomics model based on quantitative maps acquired with synthetic MRI (SyMRI) is useful for predicting neoadjuvant systemic therapy (NAST) response in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Materials and Methods In this prospective study, 181 women diagnosed with stage I–III TNBC were scanned with a SyMRI sequence at baseline and at midtreatment (after four cycles of NAST), producing T1, T2, and proton density (PD) maps. Histopathologic analysis at surgery was used to determine pathologic complete response (pCR) or non-pCR status. From three-dimensional tumor contours drawn on the three maps, 310 histogram and textural features were extracted, resulting in 930 features per scan. Radiomic features were compared between pCR and non-pCR groups by using Wilcoxon rank sum test. To build a multivariable predictive model, logistic regression with elastic net regularization and cross-validation was performed for texture feature selection using 119 participants (median age, 52 years [range, 26–77 years]). An independent testing cohort of 62 participants (median age, 48 years [range, 23–74 years]) was used to evaluate and compare the models by area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Results Univariable analysis identified 15 T1, 10 T2, and 12 PD radiomic features at midtreatment that predicted pCR with an AUC greater than 0.70 in both the training and testing cohorts. Multivariable radiomics models of maps acquired at midtreatment demonstrated superior performance over those acquired at baseline, achieving AUCs as high as 0.78 and 0.72 in the training and testing cohorts, respectively. Conclusion SyMRI-based radiomic features acquired at midtreatment are potentially useful for identifying early NAST responders in TNBC

Crystal structure of rhodopsin bound to arrestin by femtosecond X-ray laser.

G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) signal primarily through G proteins or arrestins. Arrestin binding to GPCRs blocks G protein interaction and redirects signalling to numerous G-protein-independent pathways. Here we report the crystal structure of a constitutively active form of human rhodopsin bound to a pre-activated form of the mouse visual arrestin, determined by serial femtosecond X-ray laser crystallography. Together with extensive biochemical and mutagenesis data, the structure reveals an overall architecture of the rhodopsin-arrestin assembly in which rhodopsin uses distinct structural elements, including transmembrane helix 7 and helix 8, to recruit arrestin. Correspondingly, arrestin adopts the pre-activated conformation, with a ∼20° rotation between the amino and carboxy domains, which opens up a cleft in arrestin to accommodate a short helix formed by the second intracellular loop of rhodopsin. This structure provides a basis for understanding GPCR-mediated arrestin-biased signalling and demonstrates the power of X-ray lasers for advancing the frontiers of structural biology