Facing disruptive technologies: aligning purchasing maturity to contingencies

Purpose This paper aims to explore how purchasing could respond to disruptive technologies by examining the assumptions underlying purchasing strategic alignment and purchasing maturity through a contingency lens. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a systematic review across purchasing maturity and purchasing strategic alignment literature. This is supplemented with exploratory case studies to include practitioners’ views. Findings This research demonstrates that neither purchasing maturity nor purchasing strategic alignment are suitable approaches to respond to disruptive technologies. Purchasing maturity does not allow purchasing managers to select relevant practices. It also shows no consideration of any contingencies, which practitioners highlight as important for the selection of practices. Purchasing strategic alignment includes the company strategy as a contingency but does not provide any practices to choose from. It does not include any other contextual contingencies considered important by practitioners. The findings indicate that linking the two research streams may provide a more suitable approach to responding to disruptive technologies. Research limitations/implications This research demonstrates the requirement to develop a new approach to responding to disruptive technologies, by linking purchasing maturity and purchasing strategic alignment to contextual contingencies. This is a currently unexplored approach in academic literature, which refutes the generally accepted premise that higher maturity unilaterally supports a better positioning towards technological disruption. This research also highlights a requirement for practitioners to shift their approach to “best practices”. Originality/value This is the first research to systematically review the relationships between purchasing maturity and purchasing strategic alignment. It adds to contingency theory by suggesting that purchasing maturity models can support the achievement of strategic alignment. Also, future research directions are suggested to explore these relationships

Gene Ontology (GO)-driven inference of candidate proteomic markers associated with muscle atrophy conditions

This research was funded by a grant from Highlands & Islands Enterprise, UK (AS and HH).Skeletal muscle homeostasis is essential for the maintenance of a healthy and active lifestyle. Imbalance in muscle homeostasis has significant consequences such as atrophy, loss of muscle mass, and progressive loss of functions. Aging-related muscle wasting, sarcopenia, and atrophy as a consequence of disease, such as cachexia, reduce the quality of life, increase morbidity and result in an overall poor prognosis. Investigating the muscle proteome related to muscle atrophy diseases has a great potential for diagnostic medicine to identify (i) potential protein biomarkers, and (ii) biological processes and functions common or unique to muscle wasting, cachexia, sarcopenia, and aging alone. We conducted a meta-analysis using gene ontology (GO) analysis of 24 human proteomic studies using tissue samples (skeletal muscle and adipose biopsies) and/or biofluids (serum, plasma, urine). Whilst there were few similarities in protein directionality across studies, biological processes common to conditions were identified. Here we demonstrate that the GO analysis of published human proteomics data can identify processes not revealed by single studies. We recommend the integration of proteomics data from tissue samples and biofluids to yield a comprehensive overview of the human skeletal muscle proteome. This will facilitate the identification of biomarkers and potential pathways of muscle-wasting conditions for use in clinics.Peer reviewe

The tip of the iceberg: a giant pelvic atypical lipoma presenting as a sciatic hernia

BACKGROUND: This case report highlights two unusual surgical phenomena: lipoma-like well-differentiated liposarcomas and sciatic hernias. It illustrates the need to be aware that hernias may not always simply contain intra-abdominal viscera. CASE PRESENTATION: A 36 year old woman presented with an expanding, yet reducible, right gluteal mass, indicative of a sciatic hernia. However, magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated a large intra- and extra-pelvic fatty mass traversing the greater sciatic foramen. The tumour was surgically removed through an abdomino-perineal approach. Subsequent pathological examination revealed an atypical lipomatous tumour (synonym: lipoma-like well-differentiated liposarcoma). The patient remains free from recurrence two years following her surgery. CONCLUSION: The presence of a gluteal mass should always suggest the possibility of a sciatic hernia. However, in this case, the hernia consisted of an atypical lipoma spanning the greater sciatic foramen. Although lipoma-like well-differentiated liposarcomas have only a low potential for recurrence, the variable nature of fatty tumours demands that patients require regular clinical and radiological review

Longitudinal characterisation of cachexia in patients undergoing surgical resection for cancer

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The complexity of the cancer cachexia phenotype has undoubtedly hindered researchers' understanding of this devastating syndrome. The presence and magnitude of host-tumour interactions are rarely considered during clinical decision-making within the current staging paradigm. Furthermore, treatment options for those patients who are identified as suffering from cancer cachexia remain extremely limited.RECENT FINDINGS: Previous attempts to characterise cachexia have largely focussed on individual surrogate disease markers, often studied across a limited timeframe. While the adverse prognostic value of clinical and biochemical features is evident, the relationships between these are less clear. Investigation of patients with earlier-stage disease could allow researchers to identify markers of cachexia that precede the refractory stage of the wasting process. Appreciation of the cachectic phenotype within 'curative' populations may aid our understanding of the syndrome's genesis and provide potential routes for prevention, rather than treatment.SUMMARY: Holistic, longitudinal characterisation of cancer cachexia, across all at-risk and affected populations, is of vital importance for future research in the field. This paper presents the protocol for an observational study aiming to create a robust and holistic characterisation of surgical patients with, or at risk of, cancer cachexia.</p

Adipose depot gene expression identifies intelectin-1 as potential mediator of the metabolic response to cancer and cachexia

Background Cancer cachexia is a poorly understood metabolic consequence of cancer. During cachexia, different adipose depots demonstrate differential wasting rates. Animal models suggest adipose tissue may be a key driver of muscle wasting through fat–muscle crosstalk, but human studies in this area are lacking. We performed global gene expression profiling of visceral (VAT) and subcutaneous (SAT) adipose from weight stable and cachectic cancer patients and healthy controls. Methods Cachexia was defined as >2% weight loss plus low computed tomography‐muscularity. Biopsies of SAT and VAT were taken from patients undergoing resection for oesophago‐gastric cancer, and healthy controls (n = 16 and 8 respectively). RNA was isolated and reverse transcribed. cDNA was hybridised to the Affymetrix Clariom S microarray and data analysed using R/Bioconductor. Differential expression of genes was assessed using empirical Bayes and moderated‐t‐statistic approaches. Category enrichment analysis was used with a tissue‐specific background to examine the biological context of differentially expressed genes. Selected differentially regulated genes were validated by qPCR. Enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for intelectin‐1 was performed on all VAT samples. The previously‐described cohort plus 12 additional patients from each group also had plasma I = intelectin‐1 ELISA carried out. Results In VAT vs. SAT comparisons, there were 2101, 1722, and 1659 significantly regulated genes in the cachectic, weight stable, and control groups, respectively. There were 2200 significantly regulated genes from VAT in cachectic patients compared with controls. Genes involving inflammation were enriched in cancer and control VAT vs. SAT, although different genes contributed to enrichment in each group. Energy metabolism, fat browning (e.g. uncoupling protein 1), and adipogenesis genes were down‐regulated in cancer VAT (P = 0.043, P = 5.4 × 10−6 and P = 1 × 10−6 respectively). The gene showing the largest difference in expression was ITLN1, the gene that encodes for intelectin‐1 (false discovery rate‐corrected P = 0.0001), a novel adipocytokine associated with weight loss in other contexts. Conclusions SAT and VAT have unique gene expression signatures in cancer and cachexia. VAT is metabolically active in cancer, and intelectin‐1 may be a target for therapeutic manipulation. VAT may play a fundamental role in cachexia, but the down‐regulation of energy metabolism genes implies a limited role for fat browning in cachectic patients, in contrast to pre‐clinical models