Transparency and sustainability in global commodity supply chains.

Over the last few decades rapid advances in processes to collect, monitor, disclose, and disseminate information have contributed towards the development of entirely new modes of sustainability governance for global commodity supply chains. However, there has been very little critical appraisal of the contribution made by different transparency initiatives to sustainability and the ways in which they can (and cannot) influence new governance arrangements. Here we seek to strengthen the theoretical underpinning of research and action on supply chain transparency by addressing four questions: (1) What is meant by supply chain transparency? (2) What is the relevance of supply chain transparency to supply chain sustainability governance? (3) What is the current status of supply chain transparency, and what are the strengths and weaknesses of existing initiatives? and (4) What propositions can be advanced for how transparency can have a positive transformative effect on the governance interventions that seek to strengthen sustainability outcomes? We use examples from agricultural supply chains and the zero-deforestation agenda as a focus of our analysis but draw insights that are relevant to the transparency and sustainability of supply chains in general. We propose a typology to distinguish among types of supply chain information that are needed to support improvements in sustainability governance, and illustrate a number of major shortfalls and systematic biases in existing information systems. We also propose a set of ten propositions that, taken together, serve to expose some of the potential pitfalls and undesirable outcomes that may result from (inevitably) limited or poorly designed transparency systems, whilst offering guidance on some of the ways in which greater transparency can make a more effective, lasting and positive contribution to sustainability.

A comparison of approaches for association studies of polymorphisms and colorectal cancer risk.

AIM: Meta-analyses have been used to evaluate associations between polymorphisms and colorectal cancer risk, but the quality of individual studies used to inform them may vary substantially. Our aim was to apply well-established quality-control criteria to individual association studies and then compare the results of meta-analyses that included or excluded studies that did not meet these criteria. METHOD: We used meta-analyses of studies reporting a relationship between polymorphisms and colorectal cancer published between 1996 and 2008. Polymorphism-cancer associations were derived in separate meta-analyses including only those meeting the quality-control criteria. RESULTS: Relative ORs varied substantially between the open and restricted group meta-analyses for all variants except MTHFR 677 CT. However, the associations were modest and the direction of relative risk did not change after applying criteria. Publication bias was detected for all associations, except the restricted set of studies for GSTP1 GG. CONCLUSION: We observed variation in calculated relative risk and changes in tests for publication bias that were dependent on the inclusion criteria used for association studies of polymorphisms and colorectal cancer. Standardizing study inclusion criteria may reduce the variation in findings for meta-analyses of gene-association studies of common diseases such as colorectal cancer.

Patterns of blood product use among patients with myelodysplastic syndrome.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Most patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) require blood product support to manage the severe anaemias, which frequently accompany MDS. Our objective was to show the feasibility of linking the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database with records from Puget Sound Blood Center (PSBC) to characterize blood product use over time in successive cohorts of patients with MDS. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We identified patients with MDS in the SEER registry. The cohort was then linked to PSBC records to discern blood product use. RESULTS: Included in the analysis were 783 patients with MDS entered in the SEER database from 2001 to 2007 for whom data were also available in the PSBC database. Among patients with MDS who received transfusions, 97% received packed red blood cells; 52% received platelets. The proportion of patients with MDS receiving blood products declined from 2001 to 2007. CONCLUSION: These data show a recent decline in blood product use for patients with MDS. Future studies are needed to further evaluate the reasons for this finding, specifically exploring the impact of newer medications on blood product use in patients with MDS.