Prevalence and Management of Anaemia in Renal Transplant Recipients: Data from Ten European Centres.

Background: Although it is a known predictor of mortality, there is a relative lack of recent information about anaemia in kidney transplant recipients. Thus, we now report data about the prevalence and management of post-transplant anaemia (PTA) in Europe 5 years after the TRansplant European Survey on Anemia Management (TRESAM) study. Methods: In a cross-sectional study enrolling the largest number of patients to date, data were obtained from 5,834 patients followed at 10 outpatient transplant clinics in four European countries using the American Society of Transplantation anaemia guideline. Results: More than one third (42%) of the patients were anaemic. The haemoglobin (Hb) concentration was significantly correlated with the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) (r = 0.4, p < 0.001). In multivariate analysis, eGFR, serum ferritin, age, gender, time since transplantation and centres were independently and significantly associated with Hb. Only 24% of the patients who had a Hb concentration <110 g/l were treated with an erythropoiesis-stimulating agent. The prevalence of anaemia and also the use of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents were significantly different across the different centres, suggesting substantial practice variations. Conclusions: PTA is still common and under-treated. The prevalence and management of PTA have not changed substantially since the TRESAM survey.

The determinants of knowledge transfer within collaborative new product development projects

Purpose – This paper explores the factors which determine the degree of knowledge transfer in inter-firm new product development projects. We test a theoretical model exploring how inter-firm knowledge transfer is enabled or hindered by a buyer’s learning intent, the degree of supplier protectiveness, inter-firm knowledge ambiguity, and absorptive capacity. Design/methodology/approach – A sample of 153 R&D intensive manufacturing firms in the UK automotive, aerospace, pharmaceutical, electrical, chemical, and general manufacturing industries were used to test the framework. Two-step structural equation modeling in AMOS 7.0 was used to analyse the data. Findings – Our results indicate that a buyer’s learning intent increases inter-firm knowledge transfer, but also acts as an incentive for suppliers to protect their knowledge. Such defensive measures increase the degree of inter-firm knowledge ambiguity, encouraging buyer firms to invest in absorptive capacity as a means to interpret supplier knowledge, but also increase the degree of knowledge transfer. Practical implications – Our paper illustrates the effects of focusing on acquisition, rather than accessing, supplier technological knowledge. We show that an overt learning strategy can be detrimental to knowledge transfer between buyer-supplier, as supplier’s react by restricting the flow of information. Organisations are encouraged to consider this dynamic when engaging in multi-organisational new product development projects. Originality/value – This paper examines the dynamics of knowledge transfer within inter-firm NPD projects, showing how transfer is influenced by the buyer firm’s learning intention, supplier’s response, characteristics of the relationship and knowledge to be transferred.

A framework for collaborative working environments

To utilize the advantages of existing and emerging Internet techniques and to meet the demands for a new generation of collaborative working environments, a framework with an upperware–middleware architecture is proposed, which consists of four layers: resource layer, middleware layer, upperware layer and application layer. The upperware contains intelligent agents and plug/play facilities; the former coordinates and controls multiple middleware techniques such as Grid computing, Web-services and mobile agents, while the latter are used for the applications, such as semantic CAD, to plug and loose couple into the system. The method of migrating legacy software using automatic wrapper generation technique is also presented. A prototype mobile environment for collaborative product design is presented to illustrate the utilization of the CWE framework in collaborative design and manufacture.