Big Data & Analytics as a sustainable Customer Loyalty Instrument in Banking and Finance

A strong technological change and changed customer expectations influence the banking sector in Germany. Banks have more data about their customers than other industries. Innovative methods and solutions have been developed on the basis of mathematical-statistical models. This knowledge is used to focus on the customer and is termed as "Big Data & Analytics" and to be able to offer products that fit exactly from the information gained

Big Data Analytics as an elementary Customer Loyalty Instrument for German banks – an empirical approach from a banker’s perspective

The German banking sector is undergoing a massive transformation phase due to increasing digitalization. This challenge is enormously influenced by demographic change, the low-interest phase, technological progress as well as supervision and regulation. As a result, banks in Germany are forced to deal with strategies for customer centricity. In this context, Big Data analytics can be seen as a useful tool to better understand customers, e.g. by predicting product affinities, purchase probabilities or distribution channel preferences. The consolidated view of Big Data Analytics and Customer Centricity is already considered in the scientific literature. The studies on the combination of Big Data Analytics and the German banking sector, on the other hand, are rudimentary so far. The main purpose of this research is to answer the following research questions: [I: “Does Big Data Analytics improve the quality of advice (measured by the principles of client advisory services) from an advisor’s perspective and does it have an influence on customer loyalty?”] and [II: To what extent can Big Data Analytics make a positive contribution to the situation of banks in the age of digitalization?”]. To answer the research questions, the results of a survey of banking experts (N = 43) form the backbone of this empirical research. The findings of this paper can be of benefit to researchers and practitioners alike, in order to make the potential of big data analytics recognizable and usable for banks in the context of customer centricity

Subclass restriction pattern of antigen-specific antibodies in donors with defective expression of IgG or IgA subclass heavy chain constant region genes

We have developed a method for the measurement of the IgG and IgA subclass distribution of antigen-specific human antibodies. The controls for the specificity of the assay include the use of a number of monoclonal human antibodies and sera from individuals with deletions of particular immunoglobulin heavy chain constant region genes. The system was used to determine the shift in immunoglobulin subclass patterns of specific antibodies against a variety of protein and polysaccharide antigens in individuals with a regulatory deficiency of a given IgG or IgA subclass. Normally, the pattern is quite distinct and antibodies against protein antigens are mainly of the IgG1 subclass, whereas antibodies against polysaccharide antigens are mainly of the IgG2 subclass. The results on serum from an IgG1 deficient donor suggested that IgG3 and IgG4 appear to compensate for a lack of IgG1, whereas isolated deficiencies of IgG3, IgG4, or IgA2 do not markedly influence the expected distribution of specific antibodies. In IgG2-deficient individuals a more complex pattern was observed where antibodies against protein antigens were retained, whereas levels of antibodies against polysaccharide antigens could vary markedly between donors, which appeared to be dependent on whether the IgG2 deficiency was an isolated defect or combined with IgG4/IgA deficiency. However, all the IgG2-deficient donors had a skewed pattern of anti-polysaccharide antibodies with a shift to IgG1 to IgG3

Covalently linked ruthenium(II) - manganese(II) complexes:Distance dependence of quenching and electron transfer

Continuing our development of artificial models for photosystem II in green plants, a series of compounds have been prepared in which a Ru(bpy)32+ photosensitizer is covalently linked to a manganese(II) electron donor. In addition to a trispicolylamine ligand, two other manganese ligands, dipicolylamine and aminodiacetic acid, have been introduced in order to study ligands that are appropriate for the construction of manganese dimers with open coordination sites for the binding of water. Coordination equilibria of the manganese ions were monitored by EPR. The interactions between the ruthenium and manganese moieties were probed by flash photolysis, cyclic voltammetry and steady-state and time-resolved emission measurements. The quenching of the RuII excited state by MnII was found to be rapid in complexes with short Ru-Mn distances. Nevertheless, each RuII species could be photo-oxidized by bimolecular quenching with methylviologen, and the subsequent electron transfer from MnII to RuIII could be monitored

Reciprocal Interactions between Human T-Lymphotropic Virus Type 1 and Prostaglandins: Implications for Viral Transmission

Human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1), the etiologic agent of adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma, is transmitted through breast milk and seminal fluid, which are rich in prostaglandins (PGs). We demonstrate that PGE(2) upregulates the HTLV-1 long terminal repeat promoter through the protein kinase A pathway, induces replication of HTLV-1 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) derived from asymptomatic carriers, and enhances transmission of HTLV-1 to cord blood mononuclear cells (CBMC). Furthermore, HTLV-1 Tax transactivates a promoter for cyclooxygenase 2, a PG synthetase, and induces PGE(2) expression in PBMC or CBMC. Thus, HTLV-1 interacts with and benefits from PGs, constituents of its own vehicle for transmission