Issue Publication Information

Business processes and information systems mutually affect each other in non-trivial ways. Frequently, the business process design and the information system design are not well aligned. This means that business processes are designed without taking the information system impact into account, and vice versa. Missing alignment at design time often results in quality problems at runtime, such as large response times of information systems, large process execution times, overloaded information systems or interrupted processes. Aligning business process quality and information system quality at design time requires to
\nsolve the following problems (P). Business process quality and information system quality have to be characterized. P1: In contrast to information system quality, which is specified in the ISO/IEC 9126 standard, for example, there is no common and comprehensive understanding of business process quality. P2: Beyond that, current business process
\nmodeling notations do not aim to represent quality aspects. The impact of a business process on the quality of an information system, and vice versa, is unknown at design
\ntime. P3: The mutual impact between business processes and information systems must be predicted at design time.
\nIn this thesis, the Business Process Quality Reference-Model (BPQRM), a quality model for business processes, is introduced. The model allows for a comprehensive characterization of business process quality (P1). The BPQRM is applied successfully in a case study to
\nidentify potential for process quality improvement in practice. Based on the BPQRM an existing process modeling notation is extended by model elements to represent quality
\naspects (P2). Simulation is a powerful means to predict the impact of a business process on the quality of an information system, and vice versa, at design time. This thesis proposes two simulation approaches to predict the mutual impact between business processes and information systems, in terms of performance (P3). The approach Business
\nIT Impact Simulation (BIIS) defines interfaces between the business process simulation and the information system simulation. Performance-relevant information is exchanged
\nvia the interfaces between both simulations. Using business process simulation and information system simulation in isolation, workload burstiness is not adequately reflected.
\nThis is especially true for occasional, volatile peak loads. Workload burstiness can significantly affect the performance of business processes and information systems. The approach Integrated Business IT Impact Simulation (IntBIIS) for the integration of business processes and information systems in a single simulation allows for reflecting workload burstiness correctly. The simulation approaches support the comparison of design alternatives and the verification of a certain design against requirements. A case study confirms the feasibility in practice and the acceptance from practitioners’ point of
\nview.

Rapid advances in information processing, communication and sensing technologies have enabled more and more devices to be provided with embedded processors, networking capabilities and sensors. For the field of estimation and control, it is now possible to consider an architecture in which many simple components communicate and cooperate to achieve a joint team goal. This distributed (or networked) architecture promises much in terms of performance, reliability and simplicity of design; however, at the same time, it requires extending the traditional theories of control, communication and computation and, in fact, looking at a unified picture of the three fields. A systematic theory of how to design distributed systems is currently lacking. This dissertation takes the first steps towards understanding the effects of imperfect information flow in distributed systems from an estimation and control perspective and coming up with new design principles to counter these effects. Designing networked systems is difficult because such systems challenge two basic assumptions of traditional control theory - presence of a central node with access to all the information about the system and perfect transmission of information among components. We formulate and solve many problems that deal with the removal of one, or both, of these assumptions. The chief idea explored in this dissertation is the joint design of information flow and the control law. While traditional control design has concentrated on calculating the optimal control input by assuming a particular information flow between the components, our approach seeks to synthesize the optimal information flow along with the optimal control law that satisfies the constraints of the information flow. Thus besides the question of 'What should an agent do?', the questions of 'Whom should an agent talk to?', 'What should an agent communicate?', 'When should an agent communicate?' and so on also have to be answered. The design of the information flow represents an important degree of freedom available to the system designer that has hitherto largely been ignored. As we demonstrate in the dissertation, the joint design of information flow and the optimal control input satisfying the constraints of that information flow yields large improvements in performance over simply trying to fit traditional design theories on distributed systems. We begin by formulating a distributed control problem in which many agents in a formation need to cooperate to minimize a joint cost function. We provide numerical algorithms to synthesize the optimal constrained control law that involve solving linear equations only and hence are free from numerical issues plaguing the other approaches proposed in the literature. We then provide and analyze a model to understand the issue of designing the topology according to which the agents interact. The results are very surprising since there are cases when allowing communication to happen between two agents may, in fact, be detrimental to the performance. We then move on to consider the effects of communication channels on control performance. To counter such effects, we propose the idea of encoding information for the purpose of estimation and control prior to transmission. Although information theoretic techniques are not possible in our problem, we are able to solve for a recursive yet optimal encoder / decoder structure in many cases. This information flow design oriented approach has unique advantages such as being optimal for any packet drop pattern, being able to include the effect of known but random delays easily, letting us escape the limits set by reliability for transmission of data across a network by using intermediate nodes as 'repeaters' similar to a digital communication network and so on. We finally take a look at combining the effects of multiple sources of information and communication channels on estimation and control. We look at a distributed estimation problem in which, at every time step, only a subset out of many sensors can transmit information to the estimator. This is also a representative resource allocation problem. We propose the idea of stochastic communication patterns that allows us to include the effects of communication channels explicitly during system design. Thus, instead of tree-search based algorithms proposed in the literature, we provide stochastic scheduling algorithms that can take into account the random packet drop effect of the channels. We also consider a distributed control problem with switching topologies and solve for the optimal controller. The tools that we develop are applicable to many other scenarios and we demonstrate some of them in the dissertation. Along the way, we look at many other related problems in the dissertation. As an example, we provide initial results about the issue of robustness of a distributed system design to a malfunctioning agent. This notion is currently lacking in the control and estimation community, but has to be a part of any effective theory for designing networked or distributed systems.

Objective Current study used quantitative research methods to reveal the regional medical information research in hotspots, and summarize the mainstream knowledge base to provide the reference for researchers in the field. Methods A systematic search was conducted to find publications in CNKI, Wanfang Database and PubMed. Bibliometrics method, social network analysis, co-word analysis, principal component analysis and multidimensional scaling analysis were used in this study. Results ① total 11, 482 articles published from 1984 to 2013 were screened out. The development of research publications showed an increasing trend, and the papers were distributed in 1233 types of journals. The number of authors who located in Beijing, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Shandong ranked top five. ② The top 59 high-frequency key words were identified that representing the hot contents in regional health information technology research field, and was used to build knowledge network map. Among them, HIS, electronic medical records, hospital information technology, information technology were at the core of this research area. ③ We summarized research and development in the field of nine major mainstream knowledge base include: research on electronic medical records, medical personnel, information systems, information security, information networks, information sharing, information integration, information technology, and information management, resident’s health record related studies; qualitative analysis and problem-oriented research; HIS and telemedicine-related research; community-related research, two-way referral related research, health care reform and cloud computing-related research, telemedicine related research and V43 related research. Conclusions The development of regional medical information research has good momentum and closely follow the international trend, but the research contents and methods are still distance from international standard.. Research mostly focused on hospital information system construction, regional research and applied research are weak and need to be further improved. Key words: Regional medical information; Bibliometrics, co-word analysis; Social network analysis; Knowledge Network; Quantitative research

Because natural resource exploration and development are inherently risky undertakings, information can be a valuable commodity in these processes. A survey of the literature concerning information and resources is contained in Chapter 1, and the areas of interest for this thesis are introduced. Aspects of the role of information early in the exploration process are considered in Chapter 2, as the public and private provision and valuation of exploratory information are examined. The role of information in market performance is not independent of the allocation institutions under consideration, so several are examined. Furthermore, the role of publicly provided information as a remedy for problems in information provision is critically evaluated. It is shown that if the publicly provided information is not perfect, its potential for eliminating, or even reducing, private overvaluation can not be assured. Next, in Chapter 3, consequences of the joint provision of resources and information are examined in the context of problems of information inexcludability. This essay presents the case in which more than one firm owns land in a geologically related area. Each firm can provide valuable information to the other, and each firm recognizes this predicament. The problem is developed first as one of noncooperative play of a two person game, with particular attention then given to the theory and performance of cooperative institutions for sharing the resource,information. This essay is not merely an abstract conjecture, for such cooperative institutions are quite common in the oil industry. Finally, in Chapter 4, the observation that information is a valuable commodity in natural resource markets is once again combined with the fact that such information is often produced jointly with the oil and gas product to demonstrate that price controls on petroleum properties can produce unintended results. This follows from the alteration in firm optimal extraction paths when price controls are present.

Mining people's semantic trajectory behaviours from geotagged photographs

In 1967, a task for analysis of the depth of processing in simple classification was published (Posner & Mitchell, 1967, p. 392). This task has become known as the Posner task for long-term memory retrieval of information. In the original experiment, pairs of items (letters, nonsense forms, digits) were presented to the participants who were supposed to respond as fast as possible by indicating either or different. In completing the trials of this task the participants had to perform according to different rules that constituted three experimental conditions. (1) Under the instruction they had to check whether the two items presented on a screen showed physical identity (e.g., A A). (2) The instruction required the participants to compare the two items with respect to their semantic meaning. More precisely, either the same name (e.g., a A) or different names (e.g., a B) applied to both items. (3) Finally, there was the rule instruction that utilized the possibility to classify letters as vowels or consonants, i.e., the participants had to decide whether both items belonged to the same group. The depth-of-processing idea guiding Posner and Mitchell's work suggested that there are different levels of information processing. While the first level demanded mere processing of feature information in the sense of the instruction, the second level necessitated access to stored information, as is demanded by the instruction. Finally, the rule instruction additionally required the recovery of rules and their application.To a considerable extent, Posner and Mitchell's (1967) depth-of-processing idea is in line with another, even more influential notion in cognitive research, namely Craik and Lockhard's levels-of-processing model that was first published in 1972. According to this model, the accessibility of information stored in memory is considered a function of the depth of mental processing when storing information in memory. 'Deep' mental processing produces memory traces that are more elaborated, longer lasting, and stronger than those formed by 'shallow' mental processing. Furthermore, deep and shallow mental processing are proposed to represent two anchor points of a continuum. Hence, deep processing involves the identification and elaboration of semantic contents, linking contents and learnt items, and creating links for embedding new information in an already available web of information. In contrast, shallow processing is restricted to establishing links between one or a few obvious and easily accessible features of a learnt item and corresponding conceptual information in the web. As a consequence, information stored by deep mental processing can be accessed and retrieved in many ways, whereas only one or very few routes to access information exist for information stored by shallow processing. Finally, there are consequences with regard to the long-term availability of learnt items stored in long-term memory: the more links lead to a learnt item, the smaller the probability of losing access to this item in the long run.In the years following the publication of the Posner task (Posner, Boies, Eichelmann, & Taylor, 1969; Posner & Mitchell, 1967), the research interest concentrated on the physical and name identity conditions whereas the rule-identity condition was neglected. It was Hunt (1978) who especially highlighted the importance of the qualitative difference between the mental processes underlying performance elicited by the physical- and name-identity instructions. According to Hunt, the physical-identity instruction stimulates processes that are mechanistic and occur unconsciously. These processes are to be seen as a kind of background activity that occurs in combination with other kinds of cognitive processes. In contrast, the name-identity instruction is assumed to be associated with memory processes that conduct a search in the web of information also referred to as knowledge base or long-term memory. …

Objective To explore the effect of using the PDCA (plan, do, check, action) cycle theory in biobank information management system. Methods On the basis of PDCA cycle theory, quantity data of stored specimens in Biobank of Northern Jiangsu People's Hospital from 2015 to 2017 was obtained. The integrity of clinical information acquisition and the change of response time of the functional modules were analyzed. Results Compared with pre-execution PDCA, the implementation of PDCA increased the storage samples from 3485 to 22 241 (5118 liver cancer samples, 6343 lung cancer samples, 2870 prostate cancer samples, 4294 pancreatic cancer samples, 3616 gastrointestinal carcinoma samples). Clinical information, admission information, surgical information, inspection information, pathological information, image information and follow-up information had been collected normalization and integrity. Response time of each function module was significantly shortened: the time for all sample retrieval function reduced from 17 s to 2 s, the time for all the patients search function reduced from 7 s to 0.5 s. The time for questionnaire management, container management and follow-up management response is also shorten greatly (form 5 s to 0.3 s, 4 s to 0.5 s and 8 s to 0.2 s, respectively). Conclusion The application of PDCA cycle theory in biobank management information system can improve the normative and integrity of clinical information collection, it can also reduce the response time of the function modules. Key words: Biobank; Information system; Plan do check action cycle

Visual information is taking a predominant place in our society. With the advent of digital technologies, visual information will find new applications in domains ranging from communication, commerce to entertainment. New functionalities will be required that permit an extended interaction with the visual information. In particular, this is the case for digital television and the related problem of video sequence compression. The extent of possible interactions depends on the manner in which the visual information is represented. Up to now, the canonical representation is used. Also referred to as the waveform representation, it is a technical artifact of the image capture procedure. This representation severely restricts the functionalities available to the end-user. The latter is unable to freely manipulate or customize the received visual information. In this dissertation, we propose to describe the visual information through a semantically meaningful representation. This representation directly derives from the scene content, which is decomposed in terms of its constituting objects. Consequently, the viewing process is totally disconnected from the image capture procedure. This permits full interactivity with the visual information, leading to enhanced functionalities for the end-user. The essence of this dissertation is to automatically define the objects forming the scene arid to automatically track them through the video sequence. Two main issues are identified: the initial segmentation of the objects and their tracking. The first issue deals with segmenting the scene into its constituent objects. This has to be performed on the basis of the information available in two consecutive frames. In order to solve the problem, a split-and-merge approach is used. First, the image is segmented into small, spatio-temporally homogeneous regions. This is achieved through a top-down approach where spatial, temporal and change information is combined. These regions are used as a starting point to define the objects forming the scene. A bottom-up approach is used which iteratively merges the regions. The propensity of the regions to form an object is assessed in terms of both spatial and temporal information. The second issue deals with segmenting and tracking the objects in the successive frames. The coherence between the successive segmentations is ensured by using past and current information. Also, the different objects composing the scene are identified throughout the video sequence. This identification relies on temporal, spatial and spatio-temporal features of the objects. The proposed representation of the visual information finds a natural application in video coding. A second generation video coding scheme is presented which combines compression efficiency with extended functionalities. In particular, scalable coding is achieved in terms of both scene content and object coding quality.

This article uses the idea of informed learning, an interpretation of information literacy that focuses on people’s information experiences rather than their skills or attributes, to analyse the character of using information to learn in diverse communities and settings, including digital, faith, indigenous and ethnic communities. While researchers of information behaviour or information seeking and use have investi- AU :2 gated people’s information worlds in diverse contexts, this work is still at its earliest stages in the information literacy domain. To date, information literacy research has largely occurred in what might be considered mainstream educational and workplace contexts, with some emerging work in community settings. These have been mostly in academic libraries, schools and government workplaces. What does information literacy look like beyond these environments? How might we understand the experience of effective information use in a range of community settings, from the perspective of empirical research and other sources? The article concludes by commenting on the significance of diversifying the range of information experience contexts,for information literacy research and professional practice.

The brain represents the state of the world around us based upon a stream of ambiguous sensory data. This requires the integration of different sources of information, including information received from different sense modalities, and information drawn from past experience. Bayesian theories of perception provide an approach to characterising how systematic differences in the probabilistic integration of information in the brain may underlie the differences that occur between individuals in their perceptual experience. The present thesis explores how perceptual, motor and social aspects of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may emerge from variation in the neurocognitive processes described by Bayesian theories. A focus is on the predictive processing model of brain function, which links Bayesian theories of perception to neural mechanisms. The thesis includes empirical studies that examine perceptual, sensorimotor and cognitive aspects of ASD. ASD and nonclinical autistic traits are first examined in the context of body perception; concerning, specifically, how the brain represents the state of the limbs based on visual, tactile and proprioceptive information, and how this sensory information is integrated with prior expectations regarding the body. These processes are investigated using a multisensory perceptual illusion: the rubber hand illusion. ASD is associated with a largely typical perceptual experience of this illusion, indicating intact multisensory integration in the context of body representation. A reduced influence of the illusion on motor function, however, supports a difference in ASD in the integration of expectations for limb position (influenced by the illusion) with conflicting sensory (proprioceptive) signals. The integration of incoming information with existing expectations about the environment is also examined in the context of statistical learning. A computerised task is developed to assess the integration of iterative feedback with prior information as participants predict the location of a noisy set of visual markers. The hypothesis tested is that features of ASD are associated with a persistently higher weighting of incoming information in driving inference, at the expense of expectations developed from recent experience; in this more cognitive context, these data provide evidence against this hypothesis, suggesting that a more context-dependent atypicality in information processing in ASD is more likely than that initially hypothesised. The thesis also develops theoretical and philosophically-relevant treatments of how the symptoms of ASD may emerge from differences in brain function characterised within a Bayesian framework. This includes drawing on recent theoretical developments regarding the role of volatility processing and action in maintaining optimal inference on the environment. In addition, models of Bayesian inference in the brain can be extended to the social domain. For instance, the process of representing the mental states of other people (i.e., theory of mind) can be cast in terms of implicit inference on the external causes of sensory signals. In light of these expanded models of predictive processing, the differences in information processing hypothesised to occur in ASD have implications not just for perception, but also for motor behaviours, social cognition and social interaction. The overall view that emerges is that diverse aspects of ASD may be captured in terms of how incoming sensory signals are integrated, in a probabilistic manner, with the brain’s hierarchical and multimodal model of its environment. A promising direction for this field is in developing this idea in the context of action (i.e., active inference) and more recent models of how the brain estimates the optimal weighting of sensory information. This area of research has the potential to provide a nuanced perspective on the neurocognitive basis of ASD and the relationship between sensory mechanisms and autistic behaviours.

A sample of 944 junior high school students of Naxi and Han minorities completed the information consciousness questionnaire. The analysis supported that minority and grade were factors affecting information consciousness of students. First, information consciousness of Naxi was slightly lower than the average, whereas Han's was slightly higher than the average. Second, information consciousness of grade eight students was lower than that of grade seven's. The findings implied that high-score group had stronger information needs, more information communications, and was easier to get good information feelings during information activities than low-score group. It also implied that information communication phases of Han were relatively weak, but for Naxi, the most important thing was to improve their information needs.

Introduction: The introduction of Clinical Information Systems (CIS) to manage and store patient information has deeply modified the workflow of caregivers. As the information is no longer stored on a physical medium, caregivers depend on the presence of a computer to access patient data. This constraint has built up an invisible barrier between the source of information and the place of its use. The popularisation of mobile devices offers an oportunity to break this barrier by providing a ubiquitous access to information. The use of a mobile platform merges the advantages of a modern CIS and the mobility offered by paper. We have developed an application on a mobile device that nurses can carry along on all their visits. It allows the information gathered during their visits to be entered directly into the system. Method: The tool we present aims to manage the daily interventions of nurses. The interventions concern all kinds of treatments provided by nurses to patients. In the current organisation, nurses start their day by printing out all the daily interventions and use it as a procedure to follow. Every time a nurse performs an intervention, she takes a note indicating that the task has been done properly. When they have some spare time, nurses enter all the gathered information in the CIS. Once nurses are equipped with mobile devices, paper becomes useless. Consequently, the process is simplified. Replacing the paper by a mobile device application is not straightforward. In order to access patient information, the tool must be linked to the existing CIS of the hospital without creating too strong dependencies. Moreover, the mobile interface must be adapted to the specificities of the mobile device such as a smaller display size, a reduced computational power, a tactile-based interaction and a real-time usage. Results: In order to link the mobile application to the existing CIS, we relied on a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). It was mandatory to think of a software architecture that would not create a dependency with any legacy system. Thus, we defined a gateway server providing centralised access for the mobile application to any required information to or from the CIS. Integrating any mobile application would only require integrating this bridge. The gateway server also clearly separates the services that are available remotely from the ones proposed as usual Web services. The developed application not only allows the validation of the interventions and the input of measures, but it also offers a simple way to define the context in which nurses are working. This context is necessary to identify the specific list of interventions for the patients under the caregiver’s responsibility. The current CIS of the HUG includes a module that provides information concerning the interventions. Its interface is adjusted for a personal computer screen. Since caregivers are accustomed to this organisation of the information, we aimed to develop an interface on a mobile device that guarantees a certain level of homogeneity with the existing PC application. However, a mobile device’s screen is of limited size, therefore the interface has been completely rebuilt to be adapted to the new display. To deal with the limited display size, we rely on hierarchy and indexicality principles. For instance, based on the hypothesis that all tasks belonging to one category and planned at the same time can be regrouped under a single item; we regroup the interventions of similar top level in a common item. Moreover, to minimise user manipulations, relevant items are automatically moved to the top. Conclusion: The current daily workflow of nurses cannot be managed consistently using a unique tool. The need to switch from paper to computer induces work overload and is a source of errors. Therefore, we have developed a program running on a mobile device that nurses can carry during their visits. This program allows to manage nurses' daily interventions in real-time. The development of such a tool has required a complete reconstruction of the classical personal computer interface. This new interface takes into account a smaller display size, an innovative interaction paradigm, and real-time constraints.

Though literature on information and knowledge management is vast, there is much confusion concerning the meaning of these terms. According to the literature review, technology-oriented information management includes data management, information technology management and strategic information technology management. The main emphasis of these approaches is the effective and efficient use of information technology. In contrast, content-oriented approaches focus on information and its use. They can be distinguished in records management, provision of external information, human-centered information management, and information resources management. The reading of the literature on knowledge management reveals that this term is either used synonymously for information management or for the management of work practices with the goal of improving the generation of new knowledge and the sharing of existing knowledge. This article identifies various aspects that are embraced by the terms information and knowledge management. Thus, it should contribute to more terminological clarity and finally improve communication both in science and in professional practice. In this sense, the author hopes that this article will not only contribute to more terminological clarity but have further positive implications.

Information about the uncertainty associated with Earth science observational data is fundamental to use, re-use, and overall evaluation of the data being used to produce science and support decision making. The associated uncertainty information leads to a quantifiable level of confidence in both the data and the science informing decisions produced using the data. The current breadth and cross-domain depth of understanding and application of uncertainty information, however, are still evolving as the practices associated with quantifying and characterizing uncertainty across various types of Earth observation data are diverse. Since its re-establishment in 2015, the Information Quality Cluster (IQC) of the Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) has convened numerous sessions within the auspices of ESIP and the American Geophysical Union (AGU) to help collect expert-level information focusing on key aspects of uncertainty of Earth science data and addressed key concerns such as: 1) how uncertainty is quantified (UQ) and characterized (UC), 2) understanding the strengths and limitations of common techniques used in producing and evaluating uncertainty information, 3) implications using uncertainty information as a quality indicator 4) impacts of uncertainty on data fusion/assimilation, 5) various methods for documenting and conveying the uncertainty information to data users, and 6) understanding why certain user communities care about uncertainty and others do not. A key recommendation and action item from the ESIP Summer Meeting 2017 was for the IQC to develop a white paper to establish a clearer understanding of the concept of uncertainty and its communication to data users. The information gathered for this white paper has been provided by Earth science data and informatics experts spanning diverse disciplines and observation systems in the cross-domain Earth sciences. The intention of this white paper is to provide a diversely sampled exposition of both prolific and unique policies and practices, applicable in an international context of diverse policies and working groups, made toward quantifying, characterizing, communicating and making use of uncertainty information throughout the diverse, cross-disciplinary Earth science data landscape.

Stimulation of the human T-lymphocyte cell line Jurkat via the T-cell receptor/CD3 complex by an anti-CD3 antibody (OKT3) induced time-dependent changes in the intracellular concentrations of multiple inositol polyphosphate (InsPn) isomers. Quantitative mass analysis by anion-exchange HPLC and a recently developed postcolumn dye system (Mayr, G. W. (1988) Biochem. J. 254, 585-591) revealed basal intracellular concentrations between less than 5 pmol/10(9) cells for Ins(1,3,4,5)P4 and 6380 +/- 355 pmol/10(9) cells for InsP6. Time course analysis of samples from stimulated Jurkat T-cells showed an increase of Ins(1,3,4,5)P4 to 1125 +/- 125 pmol/10(9) cells within 10 min and remained elevated over more than 30 min. Moreover, increases of the intracellular concentrations of Ins(1,3,4,6)P4, Ins(1,4,5,6)P4, and/or Ins(3,4,5,6)P4 (determined as the enantiomeric mixture), Ins(1,3,4,5,6)P5, Ins(1,2,3,4,6)P5 and InsP6 were observed. In contrast, the concentration of Ins(1,2,4,5,6)P5 and/or Ins(2,3,4,5,6)P5 (determined as the enantiomeric mixture) decreased after stimulation. Using cytosolic extracts from Jurkat T-lymphocytes incubated with purified Ins(1,3,4,5,6)P5, Ins(1,2,3,4,6)P5, or Ins(1,2,4,5,6)P5/Ins(2,3,4,5,6)P5 three enzyme activities were observed. Ins(1,3,4,5,6)P5 was dephosphorylated by a phosphatase removing a phosphate group at the 1 and/or 3 position resulting in the formation of Ins(1,4,5,6)P4 and/or Ins(3,4,5,6)P4 (determined as the enantiomeric mixture). Ins(1,2,3,4,6)P5 was metabolized by a specific phosphatase that cleaved the phosphate group at the 2 position, thereby generating the product Ins(1,3,4,6)P4. On the other hand, Ins(1,2,4,5,6)P5/Ins(2,3,4,5,6)P5 was phosphorylated by a 1/3-kinase activity to InsP6. Together novel receptor-mediated metabolic pathways of inositol polyphosphates were demonstrated in human T-lymphocytes, and corresponding enzyme activities for the inositol pentakisphosphate metabolism were found in cell lysates.