Tawney and the third way

From the 1920s to the 1950s R. H. Tawney was the most influential socialist thinker in Britain. He articulated an ethical socialism at odds with powerful statist and mechanistic traditions in British socialist thinking. Tawney's work is thus an important antecedent to third way thinking. Tawney's religiously-based critique of the morality of capitalism was combined with a concern for detailed institutional reform, challenging simple dichotomies between public and private ownership. He began a debate about democratizing the enterprise and corporate governance though his efforts fell on stony ground. Conversely, Tawney's moralism informed a whole-hearted condemnation of market forces in tension with both his concern with institutional reform and modern third way thought. Unfortunately, he refused to engage seriously with emergent welfare economics which for many social democrats promised a more nuanced understanding of the limits of market forces. Tawney's legacy is a complex one, whose various elements form a vital part of the intellectual background to current third way thinking

Caring for the patient, caring for the record: an ethnographic study of 'back office' work in upholding quality of care in general practice

© 2015 Swinglehurst and Greenhalgh; licensee BioMed Central. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.Additional file 1: Box 1. Field notes on summarising (Clover Surgery). Box 2. Extract of document prepared for GPs by summarisers at Clover Surgery. Box 3. Fieldnotes on coding incoming post, Clover (original notes edited for brevity).This work was funded by a research grant from the UK Medical Research Council (Healthcare Electronic Records in Organisations 07/133) and a National Institute of Health Research doctoral fellowship award for DS (RDA/03/07/076). The funders were not involved in the selection or analysis of data nor did they make any contribution to the content of the final manuscript

Sequential or alternating administration of docetaxel (Taxotere®) combined with FEC in metastatic breast cancer: a randomised phase II trial

The aim of this study, using a Fleming single-stage design, was to explore the efficacy and safety of Taxotere® 100 mg m−2 docetaxel and FEC 75 cyclophosphamide 500 mg m−2, fluorouracil 500 mg m−2 and epirubicin 75 mg m−2, in alternating and sequential schedules for the first-line treatment of metastatic breast cancer. One hundred and thirty-six women were randomly allocated, to one of three treatment regimens: DTX 100 plus FEC 75, alternated for eight courses (ALT); four courses of DTX 100 followed by four courses of FEC 75 (SEQ T); or four courses of FEC 75 followed by four courses of DTX 100 (SEQ F). One hundred and thirty-one women were evaluable for tumour response. Although the treatment outcome was equivalent in the two sequential arms and the alternating regimen (P=0.110, not significant), the response rate was less encouraging in the SEQ F arm (52.3%) than in the other two arms (71.1% for ALT and 70.5% for SEQ T), in which docetaxel was administered first. Time to progression was similar in the ALT, SEQ T and SEQ F arms (9.5, 9.3 and 10.4 months respectively). Grade 3–4 neutropenia was observed in nearly all patients; febrile neutropenia occurred in 9% (ALT), 16% (SEQ T) and 2% (SEQ F) of patients. Few patients (⩽9%) developed grade 3–4 non-haematological toxicities. Relative dose intensity was 97–99% for all regimens. All treatment regimens were active and well tolerated

Action sport media consumption trends across generations: Exploring the Olympic audience and the impact of action sports inclusion

The ageing demographics of Olympic viewers is a key concern for the International Olympic Committee. The inclusion of action sports into the Olympic programmes has been a key strategy to try and connect with youth consumers, most recently through the inclusion of skateboarding, surfing, and sport climbing into the Tokyo 2020 summer games. Drawing on a questionnaire distributed online in nine languages, and contextualized with analysis of the action sport media, our research explores international and multigenerational action sport consumers’ sport viewing preferences and attitudes to the Olympic inclusion of action sports. Our findings suggest that action sport participants across different countries, ages, and genders are avid consumers of action sport media but also keen consumers of the Olympics. The majority of survey participants were enthusiastic about the inclusion of action sports (and particularly skateboarding) into the Olympic Games, although there were important trends across nationalities and ages. Nonetheless, reflecting debates in the subcultural media, participants also have concerns about the processes and politics of action sports inclusion. Action sports may well provide the International Olympic Committee with new lucrative markets, but to maximise the engagement of complex intergenerational audiences, their viewing preferences will need continued attention and understanding

Prognostic model to predict postoperative acute kidney injury in patients undergoing major gastrointestinal surgery based on a national prospective observational cohort study.

Background: Acute illness, existing co-morbidities and surgical stress response can all contribute to postoperative acute kidney injury (AKI) in patients undergoing major gastrointestinal surgery. The aim of this study was prospectively to develop a pragmatic prognostic model to stratify patients according to risk of developing AKI after major gastrointestinal surgery. Methods: This prospective multicentre cohort study included consecutive adults undergoing elective or emergency gastrointestinal resection, liver resection or stoma reversal in 2-week blocks over a continuous 3-month period. The primary outcome was the rate of AKI within 7 days of surgery. Bootstrap stability was used to select clinically plausible risk factors into the model. Internal model validation was carried out by bootstrap validation. Results: A total of 4544 patients were included across 173 centres in the UK and Ireland. The overall rate of AKI was 14·2 per cent (646 of 4544) and the 30-day mortality rate was 1·8 per cent (84 of 4544). Stage 1 AKI was significantly associated with 30-day mortality (unadjusted odds ratio 7·61, 95 per cent c.i. 4·49 to 12·90; P < 0·001), with increasing odds of death with each AKI stage. Six variables were selected for inclusion in the prognostic model: age, sex, ASA grade, preoperative estimated glomerular filtration rate, planned open surgery and preoperative use of either an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor or an angiotensin receptor blocker. Internal validation demonstrated good model discrimination (c-statistic 0·65). Discussion: Following major gastrointestinal surgery, AKI occurred in one in seven patients. This preoperative prognostic model identified patients at high risk of postoperative AKI. Validation in an independent data set is required to ensure generalizability

Local political marketing in the context of the conservative party

Local political marketing can be defined as marketing related strategy, activities, and tactics implemented by a political party in a local geographic constituency, in order to attempt to maximise aggregate potential voter satisfaction, and therefore maximise total number of votes and electoral support in the constituency. Through 12 in-depth interviews with Local Constituency Party representatives from the Conservative Party, the study found that local political marketing was acknowledged by a majority of respondents although this was not unequivocal, and was frequently conflated with campaigning. Local political marketing was associated with: visual identity, language/messages, values, image, communication devices, awareness raising, data management and targeting, and simplification. The support from higher levels of the party in local political marketing was varied across constituencies. There was evidence of growing coordination /influence by higher levels of the party in local political marketing. However, this tended to be in seats judged as ‘winnable’