Service Oriented IT Management: Benefit, Cost and Success Factors

Due to an enhanced customer focus in the planning, development and delivery of IT services, service-oriented IT management has become increasingly important. This paper investigates to what effect service-oriented IT management has already been put into place in European companies. Benefit and cost categories of integrating service-oriented principles into IT management processes are analyzed. Additionally success factors for implementing serviceoriented IT management are investigated. For this purpose, six case studies were conducted. The situation of IT management before and after implementation was analyzed and comments are made on the corresponding transformation projects. Based on the case studies, this paper shows three typical benefit categories of service-oriented IT management. Eight cost categories for implementing and operating service-oriented IT management processes are discussed and six success factors of pertinent re-organization projects are identified. Findings can serve as guidelines for other IT organizations and can be used as enabler for getting informed decisions regarding the initiation of service-oriented IT management. Finally, the article highlights four current trends for service-oriented IT management and further research is outlined

Letters

Fred Hoyle articl

Sensitive high-performance liquid chromatographic fluorescence assay for the quantitation of topotecan (SKF 104864-A) and its lactone ring-opened product (hydroxy acid) in human plasma and urine

A sensitive reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic fluorescence method is described for the simultaneous determination of topotecan (I) and the hydrolysed lactone ring-opened product hydroxy acid (II) in plasma and for the determination of I in urine. To 250 μl of plasma, a 750-μl volume of cold methanol was added to stabilize the pH-dependent conversion of I into II. In plasma, the lower limit of quantitation (LLQ) for both compounds was 0.10 ng/ml. The between-day variation for I at the LLQ was 7.1% and for II was 5.5%. Prior to injection, urine samples were acidified with orthophosphoric acid and diluted with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS). In urine, the calibration curve for I was linear in the range of 10 to 250 ng/ml and the LLQ was 10 ng/ml. The assay was developed to enable pharmacological analysis of I, in on-going phase I and II studies, in patients with solid tumors

Determination of the lactone and lactone plus carboxylate forms of 9-aminocamptothecin in human plasma by sensitive high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection

Two sensitive reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic fluorescence methods, with simple sample handling at the site of the patient, are described for the determination of the lactone and lactone plus carboxylate forms of g-aminocamptothecin (9AC). For 9AC lactone, the sample preparation was a liquid-liquid extraction with acetonitrile-n-butyl chloride (1:4, v/v), whereas the sample preparation for 9AC total (lactone plus carboxylate) was a simple deproteinization with 5% perchloric acid-methanol (1:1, v/v), which results in the conversion of the carboxylate into the lactone form. The lower limits of quantitation were 50 pg/ml and 100 pg/ml for 9AC lactone and 9AC total, respectively. The within-run precisions at four tested concentrations were ≤6.3% for 9AC lactone and ≤5.3% for 9AC total. The between-run precisions were ≤8.9% and ≤5.6%, respectively. The assays were developed to enable pharmacological analysis of 9AC in a bioavailability and oral phase I study in patients with solid tumors

On the representation of cells in bone marrow pathology by a scalar field: propagation through serial sections, co-localization and spatial interaction analysis

Background: Immunohistochemical analysis of cellular interactions in the bone marrow in situ is demanding, due to its heterogeneous cellular composition, the poor delineation and overlap of functional compartments and highly complex immunophenotypes of several cell populations (e.g. regulatory T-cells) that require immunohistochemical marker sets for unambiguous characterization. To overcome these difficulties, we herein present an approach to describe objects (e.g. cells, bone trabeculae) by a scalar field that can be propagated through registered images of serial histological sections. Methods: The transformation of objects within images (e.g. cells) to a scalar field was performed by convolution of the object’s centroids with differently formed radial basis function (e.g. for direct or indirect spatial interaction). On the basis of such a scalar field, a summation field described distributed objects within an image. Results: After image registration i) colocalization analysis could be performed on basis scalar field, which is propagated through registered images, and - due to the shape of the field – were barely prone to matching errors and morphological changes by different cutting levels; ii) furthermore, depending on the field shape the colocalization measurements could also quantify spatial interaction (e.g. direct or paracrine cellular contact); ii) the field-overlap, which represents the spatial distance, of different objects (e.g. two cells) could be calculated by the histogram intersection. Conclusions: The description of objects (e.g. cells, cell clusters, bone trabeculae etc.) as a field offers several possibilities: First, co-localization of different markers (e.g. by immunohistochemical staining) in serial sections can be performed in an automatic, objective and quantifiable way. In contrast to multicolour staining (e.g. 10-colour immunofluorescence) the financial and technical requirements are fairly minor. Second, the approach allows searching for different types of spatial interactions (e.g. direct and indirect cellular interaction) between objects by taking field shape into account (e.g. thin vs. broad). Third, by describing spatially distributed groups of objects as summation field, it gives cluster definition that relies rather on the bare object distance than on the modelled spatial cellular interaction

Determination of irinotecan (CPT-11) and its active metabolite SN-38 in human plasma by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection

Sensitive high-performance liquid chromatographic assays have been developed to determine the levels of the lactone and lactone plus carboxylate (total) forms of the antitumor agent irinotecan (CPT-11) and its active metabolite SN-38, in human plasma. The related compound camptothecin was used as the internal standard. The selective sample pretreatment for the lactone forms involved a single solvent extraction with acetonitrile-n-butyl chloride (1:4, v/v), whereas the sample clean-up for the total forms was a simple protein precipitation with aqueous perchloric acid-methanol (1:1, v/v), which results in the conversion of the carboxylate to the lactone forms. Chromatography was carried out on a Hypersil ODS column, with detection performed fluorimetrically. The methods have been validated, and stability tests under various conditions have been performed. The lower limits of quantitation are 0.5 and 2.0 ng/ml for the lactone and total forms, respectively. The assays have been used in a single pharmacokinetic experiment in a patient to investigate the applicability of the method in vivo

An inhaled sGC modulator can lower PH in COPD patients without deteriorating oxygenation

This study uses a highly fidelity computational simulator of pulmonary physiology to evaluate the impact of a soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC) modulator on gas exchange in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and pulmonary hypertension (PH) as a complication. Three virtual COPD patients were configured in the simulator based on clinical data. In agreement with previous clinical studies, modeling systemic application of a soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC) modulator results in reduced partial pressure of oxygen (PaO2) and increased partial pressure of carbon dioxide (PaCO2) in arterial blood, if a drug-induced reduction of pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) equal to that observed experimentally is assumed. In contrast, for administration via dry powder inhalation (DPI), our simulations suggest that the treatment results in no deterioration in oxygenation. For patients under exercise, DPI administration lowers PH while oxygenation is improved with respect to baseline values

ESeC - Kurzbericht zur Validierung und Operationalisierung einer Europäischen Sozioökonomischen Klassifikation

Die europäische und die deutsche Ungleichheitsforschung stehen in der Tradition, in erster Linie kategoriale Konzepte zur Identifikation der sozioökonomischen Position von Individuen oder Haushalten zu verwenden (z.B. Klassen, Schichten, Milieus, Berufsgruppierungen). Während sich im nationalen Kontext einige Deutschland-spezifische Konzepte etablieren konnten (z.B. Stellung im Beruf / Betrieb), wird in internationalen Untersuchungen vor allem das Erikson-Goldthorpe-Klassenschema (EGP) verwendet, welches jedoch im Wesentlichen nur für Großbritannien explizit validiert wurde. Ziel des im vorliegenden Beitrag vorgestellten Projekts zur Entwicklung der neuen Europäischen Sozio-ökonomischen Klassifikation (ESeC) ist es, die vergleichende Analyse sozialer Disparitäten in Europa durch eine Systematisierung der Operationalisierung zu verbessern und die neue Klassifikation einer gründlichen Validierung in mehreren Ländern mit unterschiedlichen, nationalen wie internationalen Datensätzen zu unterziehen. Während die theoretische Fundierung von ESeC den grundlegenden Vorstellungen von EGP folgt, stellt ESeC durch die harmonisierte Operationalisierung und eine umfangreiche Validierung einen erheblichen Fortschritt dar, wie anhand von Beispielen kurz gezeigt wird. (ICI2