Shop stewards’ leadership, left-wing activism and collective workplace union organisation

Providing an account of the dynamic interrelationship between shop steward leadership and membership interaction, Ralph Darlington focuses particular attention on the much-neglected crucial role that left-wing political activists can play in shaping the nature of collective workplace relations

Invasive fungal infections in neutropenic enterocolitis: A systematic analysis of pathogens, incidence, treatment and mortality in adult patients

BACKGROUND: Neutropenic enterocolitis is a life-threatening complication most frequently occurring after intensive chemotherapy in acute leukaemias. Gramnegative bacteria constitute the most important group of causative pathogens. Fungi have also been reported, but their practical relevance remains unclear. The guidelines do not address concrete treatment recommendations for fungal neutropenic enterocolitis. METHODS: Here, we conducted a metaanalysis to answer the questions: What are frequency and mortality of fungal neutropenic enterocolitis? Do frequencies and microbiological distribution of causative fungi support empirical antimycotic therapy? Do reported results of antimycotic therapy in documented fungal neutropenic enterocolitis help with the selection of appropriate drugs? Following a systematic search, we extracted and summarised all detail data from the complete literature. RESULTS: Among 186 articles describing patients with neutropenic enterocolitis, we found 29 reports describing 53 patients with causative fungal pathogens. We found no randomised controlled trial, no good quality cohort study and no good quality case control study on the role of antifungal treatment. The pooled frequency of fungal neutropenic enterocolitis was 6.2% calculated from all 860 reported patients and 3.4% calculated from selected representative studies only. In 94% of the patients, Candida spp. were involved. The pooled mortality rate was 81.8%. Most authors did not report or perform antifungal therapy. CONCLUSION: In patients with neutropenic enterocolitis, fungal pathogens play a relevant, but secondary role compared to bacteria. Evidence concerning therapy is very poor, but epidemiological data from this study may provide helpful clues to select empiric antifungal therapy in neutropenic enterocolitis

Political Activism and Workplace industrial relations in a UK failing school

‘The definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.com '. Copyright Blackwell Publishing. DOI: 10.1111/1467-8543.00263Peer reviewe

Clinical implications and pathological associations of circulating mitochondrial DNA

Mitochondria are membrane-enclosed organelles, the energy-producing centers in almost all eukaryotic cells. The evolutionary emergence of mitochondria is a result of the endocytosis of a-proteobacteria. There are several characteristic features which refer to its prokaryotic ancestors including its independent sets of double-stranded mitochondrial DNA, which is uniquely circular in form and contains a significant amount of unmethylated DNA as CpG islands. Resent research has proven that free mitochondrial DNA found in blood was associated with innate immunomodulation in a broad-range of clinical conditions. Upon release, mitochondrial DNA acts as a danger-associated molecular pattern in the circulation, it is recognized by pattern recognition receptors and it facilitates inflammatory responses. Besides its high receptor activation potential, mitochondrial DNA is likely to perform direct crosstalk with activated leukocytes and to be contributed to other anti-microbial activities. Here we highlight the pathological conditions where cell free mtDNA is involved, describe the potential sources and mechanisms of extracellular mtDNA release and explore evidence for its mechanism of action after being excreted and potential therapeutic strategies