User, Use & Utility Research - The Digital User as New Design Perspective in Business and Information Systems Engineering

Business and Information Systems Engineer- ing (BISE) is at a turning point. Planning, de- signing, developing and operating IT used to be a management task of a few elites in pub- lic ad-ministrations and corporations. But the continuous digitization of nearly all areas of life changes the IT landscape fundamentally. Success in this new era requires putting the human perspective – the digital user – at the very heart of the new digitized service-led economy. BISE faces not just a temporary trend but a complex socio-technical phenomenon with far-reaching implications. The challenges are manifold and have major consequences for all stakeholders, both in information systems and management research as well as in practice. Corporate processes have to be re-designed from the ground up, starting with the user’s perspective, thus putting usage experience and utility of the individual center stage. The digital service economy leads to highly personalized application systems while orga- nizational functions are being fragmented. Entirely new ways of interacting with infor- mation systems, in particular beyond desk- top IT, are being invented and established. These fundamental challenges require novel approaches with regards to innovation and development methods as well as adequate concepts for enterprise or service system ar- chitectures. Gigantic amounts of data are be- ing generated at an accelerating rate by an in- creasing number of devices – data that need to be managed. In order to tackle these extraordinary chal- lenges we introduce ‘user, use & utility’ as a new field of BISE that focuses primarily on the digital user, his or her usage behavior and the utility associated with system usage in the digitized service-led economy. The research objectives encompass the de- velopment of theories, methods and tools for systematic requirement elicitation, sys- tems design, and business development for successful Business and Information Systems Engineering in a digitized economy – infor- mation systems that digital users enjoy us- ing. This challenge calls for leveraging in- sights from various scientific disciplines such as Design, Engineering, Computer Science, Psychology and Sociology. BISE can provide an integrated perspective, thereby assuming a pivotal role within the digitized service led economy

IL-2 Stimulated but Not Unstimulated NK Cells Induce Selective Disappearance of Peripheral Blood Cells: Concomitant Results to a Phase I/II Study

In an ongoing clinical phase I/II study, 16 pediatric patients suffering from high risk leukemia/tumors received highly purified donor natural killer (NK) cell immunotherapy (NK-DLI) at day (+3) +40 and +100 post haploidentical stem cell transplantation. However, literature about the influence of NK-DLI on recipient's immune system is scarce. Here we present concomitant results of a noninvasive in vivo monitoring approach of recipient's peripheral blood (PB) cells after transfer of either unstimulated (NK-DLI(unstim)) or IL-2 (1000 U/ml, 9–14 days) activated NK cells (NK-DLI(IL-2 stim)) along with their ex vivo secreted cytokine/chemokines. We performed phenotypical and functional characterizations of the NK-DLIs, detailed flow cytometric analyses of various PB cells and comprehensive cytokine/chemokine arrays before and after NK-DLI. Patients of both groups were comparable with regard to remission status, immune reconstitution, donor chimerism, KIR mismatching, stem cell and NK-DLI dose. Only after NK-DLI(IL-2 stim) was a rapid, almost complete loss of CD56(bright)CD16(dim/−) immune regulatory and CD56(dim)CD16(+) cytotoxic NK cells, monocytes, dendritic cells and eosinophils from PB circulation seen 10 min after infusion, while neutrophils significantly increased. The reduction of NK cells was due to both, a decrease in patients' own CD69(−) NCR(low)CD62L(+) NK cells as well as to a diminishing of the transferred cells from the NK-DLI(IL-2 stim) with the CD56(bright)CD16(+/−)CD69(+)NCR(high)CD62L(−) phenotype. All cell counts recovered within the next 24 h. Transfer of NK-DLI(IL-2 stim) translated into significantly increased levels of various cytokines/chemokines (i.e. IFN-γ, IL-6, MIP-1β) in patients' PB. Those remained stable for at least 1 h, presumably leading to endothelial activation, leukocyte adhesion and/or extravasation. In contrast, NK-DLI(unstim) did not cause any of the observed effects. In conclusion, we assume that the adoptive transfer of NK-DLI(IL-2 stim) under the influence of ex vivo and in vivo secreted cytokines/chemokines may promote NK cell trafficking and therefore might enhance efficacy of immunotherapy

Allosteric Modulators of Steroid Hormone Receptors : Structural Dynamics and Gene Regulation

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

User, Use & Utility Research: The Digital User as New Design Perspective in Business andInformation Systems Engineering

Business and Information Systems Engineering (BISE) is at a turning point. Planning, designing, developing and operating IT used to be a management task of a few elites in public ad-ministrations and corporations. But the continuous digitization of nearly all areas of life changes the IT landscape fundamentally. Success in this new era requires putting the human perspective - the digital user - at the very heart of the new digitized service-led economy. BISE faces not just a temporary trend but a complex socio-technical phenomenon with far-reaching implications. The challenges are manifold and have major consequences for all stakeholders, both in information systems and management research as well as in practice. Corporate processes have to be re-designed from the ground up, starting with the user's perspective, thus putting usage experience and utility of the individual center stage. The digital service economy leads to highly personalized application systems while organizational functions are being fragmented. Entirely new ways of interacting with information systems, in particular beyond desktop IT, are being invented and established. These fundamental challenges require novel approaches with regards to innovation and development methods as well as adequate concepts for enterprise or service system architectures. Gigantic amounts of data are being generated at an accelerating rate by an increasing number of devices - data that need to be managed. In order to tackle these extraordinary challenges we introduce ‘user, use & utility' as a new field of BISE that focuses primarily on the digital user, his or her usage behavior and the utility associated with system usage in the digitized service-led economy. The research objectives encompass the development of theories, methods and tools for systematic requirement elicitation, systems design, and business development for successful Business and Information Systems Engineering in a digitized economy - information systems that digital users enjoy using. This challenge calls for leveraging insights from various scientific disciplines such as Design, Engineering, Computer Science, Psychology and Sociology. BISE can provide an integrated perspective, thereby assuming a pivotal role within the digitized service led economy

The influence of methylphenidate on the power spectrum of ADHD children – an MEG study

BACKGROUND: The present study was dedicated to investigate the influence of Methylphenidate (MPH) on cortical processing of children who were diagnosed with different subtypes of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). As all of the previous studies investigating power differences in different frequency bands have been using EEG, mostly with a relatively small number of electrodes our aim was to obtain new aspects using high density magnetoencephalography (MEG). METHODS: 35 children (6 female, 29 male) participated in this study. Mean age was 11.7 years (± 1.92 years). 17 children were diagnosed of having an Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder of the combined type (ADHDcom, DSM IV code 314.01); the other 18 were diagnosed for ADHD of the predominantly inattentive type (ADHDin, DSM IV code 314.0). We measured the MEG during a 5 minute resting period with a 148-channel magnetometer system (MAGNES™ 2500 WH, 4D Neuroimaging, San Diego, USA). Power values were averaged for 5 bands: Delta (D, 1.5–3.5 Hz), Theta (T, 3.5–7.5 Hz), Alpha (A, 7.5–12.5 Hz), Beta (B, 12.5–25 Hz) and Global (GL, 1.5–25 Hz).). Additionally, attention was measured behaviourally using the D2 test of attention with and without medication. RESULTS: The global power of the frequency band from 1.5 to 25 Hz increased with MPH. Relative Theta was found to be higher in the left hemisphere after administration of MPH than before. A positive correlation was found between D2 test improvement and MPH-induced power changes in the Theta band over the left frontal region. A linear regression was computed and confirmed that the larger the improvement in D2 test performance, the larger the increase in Theta after MPH application. CONCLUSION: Main effects induced by medication were found in frontal regions. Theta band activity increased over the left hemisphere after MPH application. This finding contradicts EEG results of several groups who found lower levels of Theta power after MPH application. As relative Theta correlates with D2 test improvement we conclude that MEG provide complementary and therefore important new insights to ADHD

Das Kindeswohl bei Sorgerechtsentscheidungen - Kriterien aus entwicklungspsychologischer Sicht

Das deutsche Familienrecht hebt die Bindungen des Kindes als Kriterium bei Sorgerechtsentscheidungen hervor. Der vorliegende Beitrag soll zu einem besseren Verständnis der Terminologie und des Wesens von Bindungen beitragen und die Relevanz des Bindungskriteriums bei Sorgerechtsentscheidungen hervorheben. Der Vorteil des Bindungskonzeptes, wie es von Bowlby und Ainsworth entwickelt wurde, wird im Hinblick auf die praktische Arbeit diskutiert. In einem zweiten Schritt wird die Notwendigkeit eines systemischen Ansatzes zur Bestimmung des Kindeswohls aufgezeigt: Gesunde Anpassung des Kindes in der Nachscheidungsphase ist eng mit der Entwicklung des gesamten Familiensystems verbunden. Ein systemischer Ansatz erfordert eine Beurteilung des Kindeswohls eher in dynamischen als in statischen Begriffen. Laufende Forschungsarbeiten und Erfahrungen aus der praktischen Arbeit auf dem Gebiet der Sorgerechtsbegutachtung ergänzen das Theorienkonzept

Das psychologische Sachverständigengutachten als Intervention bei Sorgerechtskonflikten während der Scheidung

Die Diskussion um einen angemessenen Umgang mit Scheidungsfamilien wird auch unter psychologischen Sachverständigen seit Jahren geführt. Im vorliegenden Beitrag wird das psychologische Gutachten bei einer Scheidung als Interventionsmöglichkeit im bestehenden Trennungskonflikt skizziert. Ausgehend von einer prozeßorientierten und systemischen Sichtweise werden entsprechende Grundprinzipien und Vorgehensweisen dargestellt, die wesentlich sind für eine an der Konfliktbewältigung orientierten Sachverständigentätigkeit