Psychological factors influencing technology adoption: a case study from the oil and gas industry.

People have the power to make an innovation a success or a failure. Corporate decision makers act as both facilitators and barriers to the introduction of technologies into their organisations. Psychological factors clearly have an impact on their decisions and acceptance behaviours, but these have not been fully explored. Consequently, an understanding of these factors is essential for organisations who wish to accelerate technology adoption as well as for innovators who face numerous barriers when introducing their new products to the industrial market. The upstream oil and gas (O&G) industry has been characterised as reluctant to adopt new technology. The analysis of three technology introduction case studies in the UK offshore O&G sector (including interviews with 22 personnel involved in developing and commercially buying new technology) confirmed the influence of 15 psychological factors on organisational technology adoption decision making. These have been organized into a framework (P-TAF) consisting of six categories of psychological constructs, namely: personality, attitudes, motivation, social, cognitive, and organisational factors. With further development, this preliminary framework can be used to develop interventions that support the successful technology uptake in O&G and in other sectors experiencing resistance to the introduction of new technology

Understanding and overcoming the resistance of cancer to PD-1/PD-L1 blockade

Greater understanding of tumour immunobiology has led to a new era of cancer treatment in which immuno-oncology (IO) therapies are used to boost anti-cancer immune responses. Prominent among these therapies are immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), antibody-based drugs that can unleash the power of tumour-specific CD8 + T-cells. ICIs targeting the Programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) cell surface receptor or its ligand PD-L1 are particularly effective, with clinical studies reporting powerful and durable therapeutic impact against many cancer types, including melanoma and non-small cell lung cancer. ICIs have the potential to transform the landscape of cancer treatment, and their development was recognised by the award of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to James Allison and Tasuku Honjo. However, the proportion of patients responding to anti-PD-1/PD-L1 monotherapy can be low. The next major challenge involves understanding and overcoming the innate and acquired resistance that prevents most patients from responding to PD-1/PD-L1 blockade. In this review, we outline the physiological function of PD-1 and its exploitation by developing tumours. We give an overview of current FDA-approved drugs targeting PD-1 or PD-L1 and summarise clinical progress so far. We then discuss key mechanisms thought to underpin resistance to PD-1/PD-L1 blockade, describing biomarkers that could allow patient responses to be predicted before treatment, and tracked once treatment has started. We also present clinical and pre-clinical combination therapies that have been developed to overcome resistance and which have the potential to substantially extend the therapeutic reach of these revolutionary drugs

What use is technology if no one uses it? The psychological factors that influence technology adoption decisions in oil and gas.

What use is technology if no one uses it? This question underscores the critical interaction between people and the technology, highlighting the importance of understanding the underlying psychological factors that influence technology uptake. This study focuses on the corporate decision makers who are the ‘gatekeepers’ to the introduction of new technologies by their organizations. The offshore oil and gas industry has been characterized as reluctant to adopt new technology. Our thematic analysis of an interview study with 37 innovation technology stakeholders from this sector identified a set of six categories encompassing 15 psychological factors that influence the organizational decision-maker. The categories were labelled personality, attitudes, motivations, cognitive factors, social factors, and organizational factors set in a Psychological Technology Adoption Framework. This is the first attempt to focus exclusively on the main psychological factors that relate to this key decision maker in the adoption of new technology. With further development, this preliminary psychological technology adoption framework can be used to develop interventions that support the successful technology uptake in the oil and gas business and similar industries

The MSP-RON axis stimulates cancer cell growth in models of triple negative breast cancer

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is the most aggressive subtype of breast cancer with poor prognosis and high rates of relapse. The lack of actionable targets for TNBC has contributed to the high mortality rates of this disease, and new candidate molecules for potential manipulation are urgently required. Here, we show that macrophage‐stimulating protein (MSP) and its tyrosine kinase receptor, RON, are potent drivers of cancer cell growth and tumor progression in a mouse model of TNBC driven by the loss of Trp53 and Brca1 . After comparison of two genetically engineered mouse models of TNBC, we found that mammary tumors from K14‐Cre;Brca1 F/F;Trp53 F/F (KB1P) mice exhibit high endogenous levels of MSP and RON expression. We show that MSP stimulates AKT and ERK1/2 activation as well as cancer cell growth in cell lines derived from the two mouse models, while genetic and pharmacological inhibition of RON prevents these effects. Similarly, KB1P tumor progression in mice was robustly attenuated by treatment with a RON inhibitor with accompanied reduction in the proliferation marker, Ki‐67. Analysis of human gene expression data confirmed that the genes encoding MSP and RON are robustly expressed in human TNBC as well as other subsets of breast cancer. Our findings uncover a mouse model where MSP and RON expression are naturally increased, and they provide evidence that this receptor and its ligand are viable candidate molecules for targeted treatment of breast cancer