Let (R,m) be a commutative Noetherian local ring. In this paper we show that a finitely generated R-module M of dimension d is Cohen-Macaulay if and only if there exists a proper ideal I of R such that depth($M/I^nM$) = d for $n{gg}0$. Also we show that, if dim(R) = d and $I_1{subset};{cdots};{subset}I_n$ is a chain of ideals of R such that $R/I_k$ is maximal Cohen-Macaulay for all k, then $n{leq}{ell}_R(R/(a_1,{ldots},a_d)R)$ for every system of parameters $a1,{ldots},a_d$ of R. Also, in the case where dim(R) = 2, we prove that the ideal transform $D_m(R/p)$ is minimax balanced big Cohen-Macaulay, for every $p{in}Assh_R$(R), and we give some equivalent conditions for this ideal transform being maximal Cohen-Macaulay.