Based on experience from applying the Common Warehouse Metamodel to metadata management at a large Swiss bank, the applicability of metadata reference models in complex application domains is analyzed. In order to explain the context of the case, the state-of-the-art of the Common Warehouse Metamodel and its application for data warehouse management are summarized. Based on the project experience documented in this paper, benefits of the reference model approach are described and recommendations for future developments of the Common Warehouse Metamodel are proposed.

Customer investigations in the banking industry are carried out in connection with prosecutions, administration of estates or other legal actions. The Investigation & Inquiries department of Credit Suisse has to handle approximately 5'000 customer investigations per year. So far, the investigation process was very complex, time consuming and costly: Several redundant query-processes needed to be performed to achieve necessary results. In the last few years, new regulatory requirements led to a massive increase of investigations to be performed. This case study describes how these requirements could be met by redesigning the process and building a data warehouse based application that automates most parts of the process. These two measures significantly improved the customer investigation process, resulting in considerable cost and time savings for Credit Suisse. The case is structured using a theory based information quality framework proposed by Liu and Chi (2002).

Data warehouse projects can be characterized as very complex, cross-functional and long lasting. Slogans like ‘think big start small’ or ‘act local - think global’ can be found in literature. But most methodologies for data warehousing only focus on technical aspects or short-term project management and do not provide applicable recommendations for coping with the evolution of data warehouse systems. Sponsorship models are often proposed to support long-term data warehouse success, but most descriptions are shallow and do not consider data warehouse characteristics or other factors, which influence the organizational design of the sponsorship structures. Therefore, this paper presents a two-tier sponsorship committee structure for mature data warehouse systems. Based on two descriptive case studies, underlying data warehouse characteristics as well as contextual conditions are illustrated and the appropriate organizational setup of the committee structures is specified in detail. This setup comprises duties, competencies and responsibilities as well as recommendations for business and IT representatives to be included into the committees.

The "European Guidelines on Quality Criteria for Diagnostic Radiographic Images" do not address the choice of the film characteristic (H&D) curve, which is an important parameter for the description of a radiographic screen-film system. The image contrast of clinical lumbar spine and chest radiographs was altered by digital image processing techniques, simulating images with different H&D curves, both steeper and flatter than the original. The manipulated images were printed on film for evaluation. Seven experienced radiologists evaluated the clinical image quality by analysing the fulfilment of the European Image Criteria (ICS) and by visual grading analysis (VGA) of in total 224 lumbar spine and 360 chest images. A parallel study of the effect of the H&D curve has also been made using a theoretical model. The contrast (DeltaOD) of relevant anatomical details was calculated, using a Monte Carlo simulation-model of the complete imaging system including a 3D voxel phantom of a patient. Correlations between the calculated contrast and the radiologists' assessment by VGA were sought. The results of the radiologists' assessment show that the quality in selected regions of lumbar spine and chest images can be significantly improved by the use of films with a steeper H&D curve compared with the standard latitude film. Significant (p<0.05) correlations were found between the VGA results and the calculations of the contrast of transverse processes and trabecular details in the lumbar spine vertebrae, and with the contrast of blood vessels in the retrocardiac area of the chest.

Ein kritischer Erfolgsfaktor zur dauerhaften Etablierung von Data-Warehouse-Systemen in Unternehmen ist eine ausreichende Qualität der dadurch zur Verfügung gestellten Daten. Um ein hohes Datenqualitätsniveau langfristig zu sichern, reichen punktuelle Datenbereinigungsmassnahmen nicht aus. Stattdessen gilt es, ein umfassendes Datenqualitätsmanagement einzuführen, welches kontinuierlich die Qualität der Daten & #x00FC;berwacht und bei Qualitätsabweichungen Massnahmen zur Beseitigung der Fehlerursachen einleitet. Am Beispiel der Credit Suisse wird ein solches Datenqualitätsmanagement sowohl aus technischem wie auch aus organisatorischem Blickwinkel betrachtet und detailliert erläutert.

Recent studies show, that due to the rapid technological progress, the growing globalisation of markets and the increasing availability of information long-term and valuable relationships became more important than the permanent acquisition of new customers. As a consequence of this, the focus shifted from a transaction-oriented economy to a relationship-based economy. Concepts like customer relationship management, which involves the attracting and keeping of valuable customers and eliminating ‘invaluable’, are frequently discussed. But regardless its importance, so far only little attention has been paid on how to regain already ‘lost’ customers. Recent research often only concentrates on building and maintaining individualized relationships, lacking of integrated management processes and measures particular for regain management. Therefore current article proposes a concept for customer regain management in e-business. Based on a theoretical foundation a process framework and measures for identifying, selecting and reactivating terminated relationships are explained. The concept of web usage mining is introduced and options for supporting customer regain management in the context of an online shop are illustrated.

Vorgehensmodelle im Software Engineering werden zur Strukturierung des Entwicklungsprozesses sowie zur Reduktion der Komplexität herangezogen. In diesem Artikel wird die Entwicklung eines an die W&W-spezifischen Verhältnisse angepassten Vorgehensmodells für Data-Warehouse-Projekte erläutert. Als Basis dienen die Erfahrungen dreier, teilweise abgeschlossener Data-Warehouse-Projekte, eine Schwächenanalyse vorhandener und angewandter Vorgehensmodelle sowie Ergänzungen aus der Literatur. Das entwickelte Soll-Vorgehensmodell für die W&W AG berücksichtigt darüber hinaus die speziellen Rahmenbedingungen und Vorgaben des Konzerns.

Der vorliegende Beitrag beschreibt das Vorgehen zur Realisierung eines integrierten Metadatenmanagements im Data-Warehouse-Projekt einer Schweizer Universalbank. Untersucht wurde insbesondere, inwieweit das Common Ware­house Metamodell der Object Management Group geeignet ist, als Referenzmodell fur die Metadatenbasis herangezogen zu werden. Nach einem Uberblick uber das Referenzmodell werden das Vorgehen zu seiner Anwendung sowie die dabei identifizierten Starken und Schwachen beschrieben.

Data warehousing has captured the attention of practitioners and researchers for a long time, whereas aspects of data quality is one of the crucial issues in data warehousing. Still, ensuring high level data quality is one of the most expensive and time-consuming tasks to perform in data warehousing projects. Many data warehouse projects are discontinued due to insufficient data quality. The following article describes an approach for managing data quality in data warehouse systems through a metadata based data quality system. The results are integrated in a comprehensive management approach and are based on practical experiences within a Swiss bank.

Data warehousing has captured the attention of practitioners and researchers for a long time, whereas aspects of data quality is one of the crucial issues in data warehousing (ENG99; HEL00). Still, ensuring high level data quality is one of the most expensive and time-consuming tasks to perform in data warehousing projects (HAE98). Many data warehouse projects are discontinued due to insufficient data quality (HEL00). The following article describes an approach for managing data quality in data warehouse systems through a metadata based data quality system. The results are integrated in a comprehensive management approach and are based on practical experiences within a Swiss bank.

Der Artikel beschreibt die konzeptionelle Architektur eines Datenqualitätssystems unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Rahmenbedingungen der Credit Suisse. Es hat sich gezeigt, dass insbesondere das Metadatenmanagement eine entscheidende Rolle im Datenqualitätsmanagement einnimmt. Die wesentlichen Daten fir ein Datenqualitätssystem stellen die Regelmenge, die Benachrichtigungsregeln und die Qualitätsaussagen dar. Diese sind allesamt im Metadatenmanagement anzusiedeln. Neben den einzelnen Komponenten beschreibt das Konzept den idealtypischen Ablauf eines proaktiven Datenqualitätsmanagements. Die zentrale Stellung hierbei nimmt der Datenqualitätsverantwortliche ein, der bei Regelverletzungen benachrichtigt wird, adäquate Verbesserungsmassnahmen koordiniert bzw. einleitet und die vorhandene Regelbasis pflegt und aktualisiert. Dies zeigt deutlich, dass ein funktionierendes Datenqualitätsmanagement sowohl auf technischer als auch organisatorischer Ebene etablirt werden muss. Weiterhin wird die erste Realisierungsstufe des konzeptionell beschriebenen Datenqualitätssystems bei der Credit Suisse beschrieben. Hierbei wird insbesondere auf die Regelbasis und deren Verwaltung eingegangen

The Commission of the European Communities (CEC) research project "Predictivity and optimisation in medical radiation protection" addressed fundamental operational limitations in existing radiation protection mechanisms. The first part of the project aimed at investigating (1) whether the CEC image quality criteria could be used for optimization of a radiographic process and (2) whether significant differences in image quality based on these criteria could be detected in a controlled project with well known physical and technical parameters. In the present study, chest radiographs on film were produced using healthy volunteers. Four physical/technical parameters were varied in a carefully controlled manner: tube voltage (102 kVp and 141 kVp), nominal speed class (160 and 320), maximum film density (1.3 and 1.8) and method of scatter reduction (grid (R=12) and air gap). The air kerma at the entrance surface was measured for all patients and the risk-related dose H(Golem), based on calculated organ-equivalent dose conversion coefficients and the measured entrance air kerma values, was calculated. Image quality was evaluated by a group of European expert radiologists using a modified version of the CEC quality criteria. For the two density levels, density level 1.8 was significantly better than 1.3 but at the cost of a higher patient radiation exposure. The correlation between the number of fulfilled quality criteria and H(Golem) was generally poor. An air gap technique resulted in lower doses than scatter reduction with a grid but provided comparable image quality. The criteria can be used to highlight optimum radiographic technique in terms of image quality and patient dose, although not unambiguously. A recommendation for good radiographic technique based on a compromise between image quality and risk-related radiation dose to the patient is to use 141 kVp, an air gap, a screen-film system with speed 320 and an optical density of 1.8.

The 'European Guidelines on Quality Criteria for Diagnostic Radiographic Images' do not address the choice of film characteristic (H/D) curve, which is an important parameter for the description of a radiographic screen-film system. Since it is not possible to investigate this influence by taking repeated exposures of the same patients on films with systematically varied H/D curves, patient images of lumbar spine were digitised in the current study. The image contrast was altered by digital image processing techniques, simulating images with H/D curves varying from flat over standard latitude to a film type steeper than a mammography film. The manipulated images were printed on film for evaluation. Seven European radiologists evaluated the clinical image quality of in total 224 images by analysing the fulfilment of the European Image Criteria and by visual grading analysis of the images. The results show that the local quality can be significantly improved by the application of films with a steeper film H/D curve compared to the standard latitude film. For images with an average optical density of about 1.25, the application of the steeper film results in a reduction of patient absorbed dose by about 10-15% without a loss of diagnostically relevant image information. The results also show that the patient absorbed dose reduction obtained by altering the tube voltage from 70 kV to 90 kV coincides with a loss of image information that cannot be compensated for by simply changing the shape of the H/D curve.

For image evaluation in clinical routine, techniques like contrast-detail diagrams are commonly used. However, it is difficult to make an interpolation from these test results to real patient images. This problem can be solved by observer studies on the detection of certain pathology, which is often simulated by fixing external objects to healthy volunteers. This approach is relatively simple and rather successful in chest imaging. For lumbar spine images, however, the situation is different because nodule-like rumours in the spine can present themselves being osteosclerotic (producing bony material) or being osteolytic (destroying bone). Such a behaviour is extremely hard to simulate by fixing an external object to the patient. Therefore, this paper presents a computer model for the simulation of nodules in lumbar spine images, which has been applied to digital radiographic data within a study to investigate the influence of MTT and noise power spectra on the diagnostic quality.

The Imix radiography system (Oy Imix Ab, Finland) consists of an intensifying screen, optics, and a CCD camera. An upgrade of this system (Imix 2000) with a red-emitting screen and new optics has recently been released. The image quality of Imix (original version), Imix 2000, and two storage-phosphor systems, Fuji FCR 9501 and Agfa ADC70 was evaluated in physical terms (DQE) and with visual grading of the visibility of anatomical structures in clinical images (141 kV). PA chest images of 50 healthy volunteers were evaluated by experienced radiologists. All images were evaluated on Siemens Simomed monitors, using the European Quality Criteria. The maximum DQE values for Imix, Imix 2000 Agfa and Fuji were 11%, 14%, 17% and 19%, respectively (141 kV, 5 (mu) Gy). Using the visual grading, the observers rated the systems in the following descending order: Fuji, Imix 2000, Agfa, and Imix. Thus, the upgrade to Imix 2000 resulted in higher DQE values and a significant improvement in clinical image quality. The visual grading agrees reasonably well with the DQE results; however, Imix 2000 received a better score than what could be expected from the DQE measurements.

Optimization of radiographic procedures require solid tools for evaluation of the image quality in order to ensure that it is sufficient to answer the clinical question at the lowest possible absorbed dose to the patient. Lumbar spine radiography is an examination giving a relatively high dose and good methods for evaluation of image quality as well as dose are needed. We have developed and used a method for the addition of artificial pathological structures into clinical images. The new images were evaluated in a study of detectability (free-response forced error experiment). The results from the study showed that the methodology can be used to detect differences in the screen-film systems used to produce the images, indicating that the method can be used in a study of image quality. The results of the study of detectability were compared with the outcome of a visual grading analysis based on the structures mentioned in the European Quality Criteria. The comparison indicated that a linear correlation exists between the two methods. This means that the simple VGA can be used in the evaluation of clinical image quality.

BACKGROUND:Recent studies have shown that ionizing radiation reduces neointima formation after balloon angioplasty and stent implantation in experimental models of restenosis and first clinical trials. The objective of this study was to determine the dose distribution of a new beta-particle-emitting radioactive gold stent and to evaluate the dose-dependent vascular response in the coronary overstretch pig model.METHODS AND RESULTS:Sixteen Göttinger minipigs underwent placement of 11 nonradioactive and 36 beta-particle-emitting stents with activity levels of 10.4+/-0.6, 14.9+/-2.4, 22.8+/-1.3, 35.8+/-2. 8, and 55.4+/-5.3 microCi of (198)Au. Three months after implantation, the percent area stenosis, neointimal thickness, neointimal area, and vessel injury were analyzed by quantitative histomorphometry. The lifetime radiation doses at a depth of 1 mm were 3.3+/-0.2, 4.7+/-0.5, 7.2+/-0.4, 11.4+/-0.9, and 17.6+/-1.7 Gy for the different activity groups. No dose-response relationship was observed in the radioactive stents with respect to percent area stenosis (P=0.297), mean neointimal thickness (P=0.82), or mean neointimal area (P=0.65). Significantly lower neointima formation and less luminal narrowing was seen in the control group than in the beta-particle-emitting stents (P<0.001). Multilinear regression analysis revealed that only radioactivity made a significant independent contribution to the degree of percent area stenosis (P<0. 001).CONCLUSIONS:Neointima formation in pigs is markedly increased by beta-particle-emitting stents with (198)Au as the radioisotope. This study provides evidence that dosages of 3 to 18 Gy of low-dose-rate beta-particle irradiation via endovascular stents cause pronounced luminal narrowing in the animal model at 3 months.