Search

The advent of the Internet has made the transmission of personally identifiable information more common and often unintended by the user. As personal information becomes more accessible, individuals worry that businesses misuse the information that is collected while they are online. Organizations have tried to mitigate this concern in two ways: (1) by offering privacy policies regarding the handling and use of personal information and (2) by offering benefits such as financial gains or convenience. In this paper, we interpret these actions in the context of the information-processing theory of motivation. Information-processing theories, also known as expectancy theories in the context of motivated behavior, are built on the premise that people process information about behavior--outcome relationships. By doing so, they are forming expectations and making decisions about what behavior to choose. Using an experimental setting, we empirically validate predictions that the means to mitigate privacy concerns are associated with positive valences resulting in an increase in motivational score. In a conjoint analysis exercise, 268 participants from the United States and Singapore face trade-off situations, where an organization may only offer incomplete privacy protection or some benefits. While privacy protections (against secondary use, improper access, and error) are associated with positive valences, we also find that financial gains and convenience can significantly increase individuals' motivational score of registering with a Web site. We find that benefits--monetary reward and future convenience--significantly affect individuals' preferences over Web sites with differing privacy policies. We also quantify the value of Web site privacy protection. Among U.S. subjects protection against errors, improper access, and secondary use of personal information is worth $30.49--$44.62. Finally, our approach also allows us to identify three distinct segments of Internet... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Internet can make markets more competitive, but whether this holds for on-line price levels and price dispersion is unclear, perhaps because the maturity, or level of development, of Internet markets has not been widely studied. This paper explores how the maturity of an Internet market affects on-line market pricing in relation to types of products and retailers. It analyzes the pricing differences between pure on-line retailers (e-tailers) and hybrid retailers (multichannel retailers) for three categories of products (books, CDs, digital cameras) in two countries with different levels of Internet maturity (China and the United States). The results show that (1) e-tailer price dispersion is lower in the United States than in China, (2) price levels in the two countries vary with product types, and (3) in both countries, e-tailers have lower price levels and price dispersion than hybrid retailers. These findings suggest that the maturation of Internet markets may lead to lower prices and price dispersion, but with variations dependent on type of product and retailer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines tax clienteles for corporate bonds in a competitive financial equilibrium in the United States. Despite much recent progress, financial theory has yet to explain the connection, if any, between the U.S. tax code and many observed characteristics of corporate bonds. The resulting tax equilibrium has the following properties. For each state, firms with higher pretax cash inflows per dollar of nondebt tax shield issue state contingent bonds solely to investors in lower tax brackets. Implicitly priced at lower marginal tax rates, these bonds yield positive, tax-induced surpluses to all buyers. By contrast, all remaining bonds are implicitly priced at the highest marginal rate--typically, the corporate rate. On these bonds many investors earn no tax-induced surpluses. This equilibrium has a simple, intuitive explanation. By assumption, interest expenses precede corporate taxes, while firms pay taxes only on corporate income exceeding interest expense plus nondebt tax shields.

The section of "Energy Consumption and Conservation in the Fibre-producing and Textile Industries," focuses on the uses of energy in the fibre-producing industry and the textile industry. It is reported that energy conservation has been the most important element of world energy policy since the energy crisis of 1973-74. The textile industry in the U.S., is one of the ten major energy-consuming manufacturing industries. It consumes about 3.7% of the energy used by all industry. In the textile industry, about 60% of the energy is used by dyeing and finishing operations. As stated, to achieve large savings, improvement of the efficiency of the operating technology in textile manufacturing processes is necessary.

Background: The purpose of this study was to assess whether delayed enhancement (DE) on MRI is associated with ventricular tachycardia (VT)/ventricular fibrillation or death in patients with cardiac sarcoidosis and left ventricular ejection fraction >35%., Methods and Results: Fifty-one patients with cardiac sarcoidosis and left ventricular ejection fraction >35% underwent DE-MRI. DE was assessed by visual scoring and quantified with the full-width at half-maximum method. The patients were followed for 48.0 ± 20.2 months. Twenty-two of 51 patients (63%) had DE. Forty patients had no prior history of VT (primary prevention cohort). Among those, 3 patients developed VT and 2 patients died. DE was associated with risk of VT/ventricular fibrillation or death (P=0.0032 for any DE and P<0.0001 for right ventricular DE). The positive predictive values of the presence of any DE, multifocal DE, and right ventricular DE for death or VT/ventricular fibrillation at mean follow-up of 48 months were 22%, 48%, and 100%, respectively. Among the 11 patients with a history of VT before the MRI, 10 patients had subsequent VTs, 1 of whom died., Conclusions: RV DE in patients with cardiac sarcoidosis is associated with a risk of adverse events in patients with cardiac sarcoidosis and preserved ejection fraction in the absence of a prior history of VT. Patients with DE and a prior history of VT have a high VT recurrence rate. Patients without DE on MRI have a low risk of VT., (© 2014 American Heart Association, Inc.)

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignancies worldwide. Although some epidemiologic and etiologic differences between Asian and Western HCC are known, detailed comparative studies with pathologic correlations have not been performed., Methods: Paraffin sections of resected HCC specimens from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Korea University Medical Center were used to construct tissue microarrays. Immunohistochemical staining of microarray sections was performed using antibodies against markers of proliferation and regulators of cell cycle. Patient data were correlated with staining results., Results: When comparing both cohorts, significant differences were found in expression of p53 and MDM2. In the Asian group, more frequent positive staining for p53 (24%) was observed compared with the American group (9%; P = 0.037). For MDM2, 26% of American cases stained positive compared with 2% of Asian cases (P = 0.0003). No significant differences were found in expression of Ki67, p21, p27, cyclin D1, or bcl2. Female gender, vascular invasion, and lack of viral hepatitis infection correlated with positive MDM2 staining., Conclusion: These data likely correlate with differences in molecular pathogenesis of HCC based on racial and regional differences. These findings may have implications in choice of molecular targeted therapies based on patient ethnicity., (Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)