The efficacy and safety of a selective NK 1 antagonist, L-759274, was investigated in outpatients with diagnosis of major depressive disorder with melancholic features, following evidence obtained with the novel compound aprepitant that Substance P (NK 1 ) antagonists may provide a unique mechanism of antidepressant activity. A randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled study was carried out. Patients, male or female, aged 18-60, scoring X25 points on total of first 17 items of 21-item Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD), and scoring X4 (moderately ill) on Clinical Global Impressions-Severity Scale were randomized to oral L-759274 40 mg daily (n ¼ 66) or placebo (n ¼ 62) for 6 weeks. For patients receiving L-759274, improvement (mean decrease from baseline) in HAMD-17 total score was 10.7 points, compared with a mean 7.8 point improvement in patients receiving placebo (po0.009). Mean scores for item 1 of HAMD-17 (depressed mood) also improved to a greater extent in the active group compared with the placebo group (0.3 points, po0.058). Compared with placebo, mean scores on Clinical Global Impressions-Improvement Scale improved significantly by the end of the trial (p ¼ 0.009). L-759274 was generally safe and well-tolerated. The incidence of sexual side effects was on par with that observed in patients receiving placebo, and the incidences of gastrointestinal effects were low. Antidepressant actions have now been observed with two different highly selective NK 1 antagonists (aprepitant and L-759274). NK 1 antagonism is a replicated and generally welltolerated antidepressant mechanism.

A longitudinal case study evaluating the effects of adopting the Extreme Programming (XP) methodology was performed at Sabre Airline Solutions™. The Sabre team was a characteristically agile team in that they had no need to scale or re-scope XP for their project parameters and organizational environment. The case study compares two releases of the same product. One release was completed just prior to the team's adoption of the XP methodology, and the other was completed after approximately two years of XP use. Comparisons of the new release project results to the old release project results show a 50% increase in productivity, a 65% improvement in pre-release quality, and a 35% improvement in post-release quality. These findings suggest that, over time, adopting the XP process can result in increased productivity and quality.

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With the recent emergence of agile software development technologies, the software community is awaiting sound, empirical investigation of the impacts of agile practices in a live setting. One means of conducting such research is through industrial case studies. However, there are a number of influencing factors that contribute to the success of such a case study. In this paper, we describe a case study performed at Sabre Airline Solutions evaluating the effects of adopting Extreme Programming (XP) practices with a team that had characteristically plan-driven risk factors. We compare the team's business-related results (productivity and quality) to two published sources of industry averages. Our case study found that the Sabre team yielded above-average post-release quality and average to above-average productivity.We discuss our experience in conducting this case study, including specifics of how data was collected, the rationale behind our process of data collection, and what obstacles were encountered during the case study. We also identify four factors that potentially impact the outcome of industrial case studies: availability of data, tool support, co-operative personnel and project status. We believe that recognizing and planning for these factors is essential to conducting industrial case studies, and that this information will be helpful to researchers and practitioners alike.

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