Reviews

Review of The working class and welfare: reflections on the political development of the welfare state in Australia and New Zealand 1890- 1980, Dismissed, The new working class? White-collar workers and their organisations, White-collar unionism, Full employment without inflation : Manifesto for a governed economy, Labour relations: a student handbook, Dismissal and redundancy procedures, Comparative industrial relations: an introduction to cross/national perspectives, and The Mediator

Regulating services

No abstract available

Pandemics, vulnerability and prevention: time to fundamentally reassess how we value and communicate risk?

Pandemics have long been recognised on the UK’s National Risk Register as both the likeliest and most severe of threats. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as obesity, heart failure and mental ill-health was already crippling our healthcare services and our economy. The quality of the places in which we live and to which we have access, most especially in deprived populations, compound that vulnerability significantly. When vulnerable, as we are now, we are forced to acknowledge what has weakened us, and to fundamentally reassess our actions and priorities

Ten-year mortality, disease progression, and treatment-related side effects in men with localised prostate cancer from the ProtecT randomised controlled trial according to treatment received

Background The ProtecT trial reported intention-to-treat analysis of men with localised prostate cancer randomly allocated to active monitoring (AM), radical prostatectomy, and external beam radiotherapy. Objective To report outcomes according to treatment received in men in randomised and treatment choice cohorts. Design, setting, and participants This study focuses on secondary care. Men with clinically localised prostate cancer at one of nine UK centres were invited to participate in the treatment trial comparing AM, radical prostatectomy, and radiotherapy. Intervention Two cohorts included 1643 men who agreed to be randomised and 997 who declined randomisation and chose treatment. Outcome measurements and statistical analysis Analysis was carried out to assess mortality, metastasis and progression and health-related quality of life impacts on urinary, bowel, and sexual function using patient-reported outcome measures. Analysis was based on comparisons between groups defined by treatment received for both randomised and treatment choice cohorts in turn, with pooled estimates of intervention effect obtained using meta-analysis. Differences were estimated with adjustment for known prognostic factors using propensity scores. Results and limitations According to treatment received, more men receiving AM died of PCa (AM 1.85%, surgery 0.67%, radiotherapy 0.73%), whilst this difference remained consistent with chance in the randomised cohort (p = 0.08); stronger evidence was found in the exploratory analyses (randomised plus choice cohort) when AM was compared with the combined radical treatment group (p = 0.003). There was also strong evidence that metastasis (AM 5.6%, surgery 2.4%, radiotherapy 2.7%) and disease progression (AM 20.35%, surgery 5.87%, radiotherapy 6.62%) were more common in the AM group. Compared with AM, there were higher risks of sexual dysfunction (95% at 6 mo) and urinary incontinence (55% at 6 mo) after surgery, and of sexual dysfunction (88% at 6 mo) and bowel dysfunction (5% at 6 mo) after radiotherapy. The key limitations are the potential for bias when comparing groups defined by treatment received and changes in the protocol for AM during the lengthy follow-up required in trials of screen-detected PCa. Conclusions Analyses according to treatment received showed increased rates of disease-related events and lower rates of patient-reported harms in men managed by AM compared with men managed by radical treatment, and stronger evidence of greater PCa mortality in the AM group. Patient summary More than 95 out of every 100 men with low or intermediate risk localised prostate cancer do not die of prostate cancer within 10 yr, irrespective of whether treatment is by means of monitoring, surgery, or radiotherapy. Side effects on sexual and bladder function are better after active monitoring, but the risks of spreading of prostate cancer are more common

Functional and quality of life outcomes of localised prostate cancer treatments (prostate testing for cancer and treatment [ProtecT] study)

Objective To investigate the functional and quality of life (QoL) outcomes of treatments for localised prostate cancer and inform treatment decision-making. Patients and Methods Men aged 50–69 years diagnosed with localised prostate cancer by prostate-specific antigen testing and biopsies at nine UK centres in the Prostate Testing for Cancer and Treatment (ProtecT) trial were randomised to, or chose one of, three treatments. Of 2565 participants, 1135 men received active monitoring (AM), 750 a radical prostatectomy (RP), 603 external-beam radiotherapy (EBRT) with concurrent androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) and 77 low-dose-rate brachytherapy (BT, not a randomised treatment). Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) completed annually for 6 years were analysed by initial treatment and censored for subsequent treatments. Mixed effects models were adjusted for baseline characteristics using propensity scores. Results Treatment-received analyses revealed different impacts of treatments over 6 years. Men remaining on AM experienced gradual declines in sexual and urinary function with age (e.g., increases in erectile dysfunction from 35% of men at baseline to 53% at 6 years and nocturia similarly from 20% to 38%). Radical treatment impacts were immediate and continued over 6 years. After RP, 95% of men reported erectile dysfunction persisting for 85% at 6 years, and after EBRT this was reported by 69% and 74%, respectively (P < 0.001 compared with AM). After RP, 36% of men reported urinary leakage requiring at least 1 pad/day, persisting for 20% at 6 years, compared with no change in men receiving EBRT or AM (P < 0.001). Worse bowel function and bother (e.g., bloody stools 6% at 6 years and faecal incontinence 10%) was experienced by men after EBRT than after RP or AM (P < 0.001) with lesser effects after BT. No treatment affected mental or physical QoL. Conclusion Treatment decision-making for localised prostate cancer can be informed by these 6-year functional and QoL outcomes

Price forecasting for U.S. cattle feeders: which technique to apply?

Due to the character of the original source materials and the nature of batch digitization, quality control issues may be present in this document. Please report any quality issues you encounter to [email protected], referencing the URI of the item.Includes bibliographical references.Issued also on microfiche from Lange Micrographics.The price uncertainty associated with cattle feeding is the catalyst of a volatile economic environment that has exposed U.S. cattle feeders to increased risk levels, thus increasing a need for more accurate price forecasting techniques. This price uncertainty faced by cattle feeders is concentrated in the two main inputs, corn and feeder cattle, and one output, fed cattle. The interrelationship of these components forces cattle feeders to constantly adhere to the basic cattle feeding formula: minimizing both feeder cattle costs and corn costs, and maximizing fed cattle prices. This research strives to evaluate the accuracy of six distinct price forecasting techniques over an eleven year period. The forecast techniques selected for this analysisare the following:1. FAPRI3. AO S5. Univariate Time Series7. Composite 2. WASDE4. Futures Market6. Multivariate Time Series The characteristics of each of the aforementioned forecast techniques are explained within the appropriate chapter. Furthermore, it should be noted that all forecasts from FAPRI, WASDE, and AOS were obtained through their respective published material. The author constructed the futures market forecast by the simple average of certain futures contract average settlement prices. In addition, the author constructed the univariate time series model which provided the univariate forecasts. The multivariate forecasts are obtained from a cointegrated, error-correction multivariate time series model. The composite forecast is the simple average of forecasts for the respective period. The results of twelve forecast comparisons provide an accuracy measurement by the mean squared error (MSE) and the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE). Results from this research conclude that the univariate time series forecast is the most accurate technique overall among the twelve forecast competitions