An empirical study of information technology enabled business process redesign and corporate competitive strategy

Business process redesign (BPR) has been widely touted as a means for leveraging the power of information technology to change business processes radically, resulting in substantial improvements in organizational effectiveness and efficiency. This study represents an early attempt at examining the strategic nature of the phenomenon. Because BPR is radical change and has the ability to alter both the competitive and operational nature of the corporation, it is critical that BPR be coordinated with corporate strategy. Through a survey of information system executives, the relationships between corporate competitive strategy and three types of BPR – intrafunctional, interfunctional and interorganizational – were examined. It was found that organizations following a cost strategy tended to do more BPR projects on interfunctional processes. Furthermore, the positive effect of a cost strategy on interfunctional BPR was found to be strengthened by the degree of integration of IS and business planning. It was also found that while interorganizational BPR was not related to a specific strategy, it was strongly related directly with IS–business planning integration.     

The region Ser333-Arg356 of the alpha-chain of human C4b-binding protein is involved in the binding of complement C4b

Human C4b-binding protein (C4BP) functions as a cofactor to factor I in the degradation of C4b and accelerates the decay rate of the C4b2a complex. In this study we describe a monoclonal antibody directed against the alpha-chain of C4BP that inhibits the binding of C4b to C4BP. In order to identify the structural domain of the alpha-chain of C4BP that interacts with C4b, tryptic fragments of C4BP were generated. Amino acid sequence analysis of the fragments revealed that the residues Ser333-Arg356 of the alpha-chain of C4BP contain the epitope of this antibody, and as a consequence, that this part of the alpha-chain of C4BP is likely to be involved in the interaction with C4b.     

Late onset peripheral seronegative spondyloarthropathy: report of two additional cases

Two more cases of late onset peripheral seronegative spondyloarthropathy (SpA) are reported. Like the patients reported by Dubost and Sauvezie, they had extensive pitting edema of the lower limbs, constitutional symptoms, elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate and minimal involvement of the axial skeleton with marked signs of diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperstosis.     

Attitudes of women of childbearing age towards prenatal diagnosis in southeastern France

The objective of this study was to explore women's attitudes towards prenatal diagnosis of trisomy 21 and to examine some of the factors possibly responsible for these attitudes before implementing in real practice serological screening of pregnant women at risk for trisomy 21. We carried out a telephone survey on a representative sample of women who had recently had a normal livebirth delivery in the Marseille district in 1990. The participation rate was 80 per cent and the average age of the mothers was 28.9 years. Among the 514 women interviewed, 78 per cent stated that they would ask for an amniocentesis for a 1 per cent risk of trisomy 21 at their next pregnancy. When adjusting for confounding factors, the decision to have or not to have an amniocentesis was found to depend not only on the women's attitude towards induced abortion, but also on their understanding of the risk involved and on the social context (knowing a handicapped child, discussion with the father). It also depended on the women's age and on what they knew about amniocentesis from the medical point of view. The risk of miscarriage can influence a woman's choice but this objection was not found to affect the women's decisions significantly in our survey. The data showed the existence of a high potential demand for fetal karyotyping.     

DNA analysis in hepatoblastoma by flow and image cytometry

BACKGROUND: In several types of tumors, including hepatocellular carcinoma, prognosis could be correlated with DNA ploidy. Few studies have been performed on hepatoblastoma with contradictory results. METHODS: Twenty-nine cases of nonpretreated hepatoblastoma were studied with flow cytometry and image cytometry for DNA index and proliferation index using paraffin-embedded tissue. RESULTS: Twenty-three (79.9%) tumors were diploid, and 6 (20.7%) were aneuploid (hyperdiploid). Patients with diploid tumors were younger than those with aneuploid tumors. With regard to stage, diploid tumors were almost equally distributed among stages (tumor, lymph node metastases, distant metastases), whereas aneuploid tumors tended to occur in higher stages (tumor, lymph node metastases, distant metastases). Diploid tumors had clearly a better prognosis than aneuploid tumors, although the difference was not statistically significant (flow cytometry, P = 0.06; image cytometry, P = 0.16). A more favorable prognosis was also noted for hepatoblastomas with low-proliferation index (< or = 7%), but the difference from tumors with high-proliferation index (> 7%) again was not statistically significant (P = 0.16). CONCLUSIONS: Although no statistically significant differences in prognosis between hepatoblastomas with diploid and aneuploid DNA content, respectively, were found, there is a clear tendency that diploid hepatoblastomas behave more favorably. The same is true for hepatoblastomas with low-proliferation index.     

Large reference displacement analysis of composite plates. Part II: Computer implementation

This investigation concerns itself with the computer implementation of the dynamic formulation of thin laminated composite plates consisting of layers of orthotropic laminae that undergo large arbitrary rigid body displacements and small elastic deformations. A finite element preprocessor computer program is developed to automatically generate the invariants of the laminae, which may have arbitrary orientations. The laminae invariants are then used to obtain the invariants of the elements and the composite laminated plate. The consistent and lumped mass formulations of the invariants of motion of composite plates are compared and it is concluded that the two methods are comparable, if a fine enough finite element mesh is used. The structure of the dynamic equations of motion, based on the formulation presented in Part I of this paper, is examined. Non-linear centrifugal and Coriolis forces arising as the result of the finite rotations of the laminae are defined, and the solution schemes of the resulting non-linear differential equations of motion are discussed. Numerical examples illustrating the differences between homogeneous isotropic and laminated composite plates are presented. An RSSR (Revolute-Spherical-Spherical-Revolute) mechanism is used in the numerical examples, with the coupler modelled as a laminated plate flexible body. It is found that the inertia of the plate contributed greatly to the transverse deformation. The effects of laminae orientation is also investigated.     

ON THE USE OF BUFFER INVENTORIES TO MINIMIZE COSTS WITH AN UNRELIABLE MACHINE

In this paper, we discuss the problem of quality control with an unreliable machine which produces defects at a rate of Λ₀, per unit when in-control and a rate of Lambda; ₁, when out-of-control (where Λ₁ Λ ₀). Every h time periods, we sample n units, count the number of defects, and (using a process based on a Shewart c-chart) test the hypothesis that the machine is in control by comparing the total number of defects to an upper control limit (UCL). More important, we introduce the concept that a buffer inventory which immediately follows the unreliable machine may reduce expected total costs. This buffer serves to delay the movement of items from the unreliable machine to the next stage of the production process. In this way, we can isolate and repair most defective items before they are embedded in a product downstream or sold to customers where repair is more costly. To search for the optimal control policy, we find bounds for n, h, and UCL; given values for these variables, we show how the optimal buffer size can be determined directly. Numerical results illustrate the magnitude of potential savings.     

Diseases of the intracranial meninges: MR imaging features

Although the meninges are often thought of simplistically as a connective tissue sac that contains the CSF and the contents of the CNS, they are far more complex. Anatomically, they comprise several layers. Pathologically, numerous disease processes may affect the meninges; different processes may even involve different areas of the meninges. These factors all influence the MR imaging characteristics of meningeal lesions. This review briefly discusses the anatomy of the meninges, the MR imaging technique when meningeal disease is suspected, and the appearance of the normal meninges. It then focuses on tumors, infections, cysts, and other lesions that primarily involve the meninges, excluding lesions that secondarily involve the meninges.