Differences in In Vitro Properties of Pancreatin Preparations for Pancreatic Exocrine Insufficiency as Marketed in Russia and CIS

BACKGROUND: Pancreatic enzyme-replacement therapy (PERT), provided as pancreatin to patients with pancreatic exocrine insufficiency (PEI), is considered an essential substitute for the pivotal physiological function the pancreas fulfills in digestion. PEI involves a reduction in the synthesis and secretion of pancreatic enzymes (lipase, protease, amylase), which leads to an inadequate enzymatic response to a meal and consequently to maldigestion and malabsorption of nutrients. The efficacy of PERT is strongly dependent on enzyme activity, dissolution, and pancreatin particle size. OBJECTIVE: The physiological properties of eight pancreatin preparations (nine batches; five different brands) available in Russia and CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan) were investigated. METHODS: The lipase activity, dissolution, and particle size distribution of samples from multiple batches of pancreatin of different strengths were measured. RESULTS: Regarding lipase activities, all pancreatin preparations except Micrazim(R) matched the labeled content. Considerable differences were observed in particle size and dissolution. CONCLUSION: Pancreatin preparations available in Russia and CIS demonstrate product-to-product and batch-to-batch variability regarding the measured properties of lipase activity, dissolution, and particle size. This may impact the efficacy of PERT and therefore clinical outcomes

ASEAN's unchanged melody? The theory and practice of 'non-interference' in Southeast Asia

This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published as Jones, Lee. (2010). ASEAN's unchanged melody? The theory and practice of 'non-interference' in Southeast Asia. Pacific Review 23:4, 479-502 as published in PACIFIC REVIEW 2010 © Taylor & Francis, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/09512748.2010.49599

Properties that influence business process management maturity and its effect on organizational performance

Abstract BPM maturity is a measure to evaluate how professionally an organization manages its business processes. Previous research provides evidence that higher BPM maturity leads to better performance of processes and of the organization as a whole. It also claims that different organizations should strive for different levels of maturity, depending on their properties. This paper presents an empirical investigation of these claims, based on a sample of 120 organizations and looking at a selection of organizational properties. Our results reveal that higher BPM maturity contributes to better performance, but only up to a point. Interestingly, it contradicts the popular belief that higher innovativeness is associated with lower BPM maturity, rather showing that higher innovativeness is associated with higher BPM maturity. In addition, the paper shows that companies in different regions have a different level of BPM maturity. These findings can be used as a benchmark and a motivation for organizations to increase their BPM maturity

Product focused process improvement in the embedded systems industry

Software specific problems have been handled in the software community through focusing on the software process, and continuous improvement of that software process. However, the contribution of software process improvement (SPI) to product quality has not been proven yet. The PROFES project customised successful approaches into one embedded systems specific SPI methodology fucused on improving product quality. This PROFES improvement methodology has been fully applied in three embedded systems developing organisations: Dräger Medical Technology, Ericsson and Tokheim. in three different industries (telecommunication, medical systems, and petrolem retailing). The main message from these applicalions is that PROFES realiy helps in focusing to product areas that have a priority for improvement. The companies strongly support that only effort is spent on product attributes that are relevant. Quality of the final product is the central objective, which is highly appreciated, since the embedded system itself is being sold and not the development process that created it