491 research outputs found
Robert Malcolm Waugh Correspondence
No full textEntries include brief biographical information, a typed biographical excerpt, a typed letter from the Maine State Library introducing Waugh to the Maine Author Collection on reading of his forthcoming French literature textbook, a typed letter from Waugh presenting his book with some biographical information, and a typed letter from the Maine State Library to Waugh on receipt of his book gift of En Amèrique for the Maine Author Collection
I remember teaching English at Seabrook
No full textIn this "I remember" memoir, Isabell Waugh, a former teacher at Seabrook, compares and constrasts the different groups of students she taught. She remembers that native-born American teenagers tended to be more concerned with athletics and social activities, than academic matters. In comparison, Estonian and Japanese parents did not tolerate low academic performance, so students from the two groups often competed intensely with each other for academic achievement and recognition. Isabelle recalls that the Estonians were, in general, more sophisticated and better educated. Most of the children knew 3-5 languages, and were more advanced in math and science. She sensed that some Estonian parents felt that their homes at Seabrook were temporary, and that they would be returning to Estonia at some point. The Seabrook Educational and Cultural Center has been soliciting current and past residents of Seabrook Farms for an "I remember" project. Residents are asked to create narratives regarding their experiences at Seabrook Farms. These memories help preserve the history and multi-cultural heritage of Seabrook Farms
The Waugh Factor
No full textA new biography of Evelyn Waugh, based in part on a treasure trove gathered by his grandson, tries to unravel 'distortions and misconceptions' about the famous author, writes Donat Gallagher
The Waugh Factor
No full textA new biography of Evelyn Waugh, based in part on a treasure trove gathered by his grandson, tries to unravel 'distortions and misconceptions' about the famous author, writes Donat Gallagher
A rapid and systematic review of the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of paclitaxel, docetaxel, gemcitabine and vinorelbine in non-small-cell lung cancer
No full textBACKGROUND:
The incidence of lung cancer is declining following a drop in smoking rates, but it is still the leading cause of death from cancer in England and Wales, with about 30,000 deaths a year. Survival rates for lung cancer are poor everywhere, but they appear to be better in the rest of the European Community and the USA than in the UK. Only about 5 per cent of people with lung cancer survive for 5 years, and nearly all of these are cured by surgery after fortuitously early diagnosis. At present, only a small proportion of patients (probably about 5 per cent) with non-small-cell lung cancer are being given chemotherapy. Some centres treat a greater proportion.
OBJECTIVES:
This review examines the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of four of the newer drugs - vinorelbine, gemcitabine, paclitaxel and docetaxel - used for treating the most common type of lung cancer (non-small-cell lung cancer). The first three drugs are used for first-line treatment, but at present docetaxel is used only after first-line chemotherapy has failed.
METHODS:
This report was based on a systematic literature review and economic modelling, supplemented by cost data. RESULTS - NUMBER AND QUALITY OF STUDIES: A reasonable number of randomised trials were found - three for docetaxel, six for gemcitabine, five for paclitaxel and 13 for vinorelbine. The quality of the trials was variable but good overall. There was a wide range of comparators. Some trials compared chemotherapy with best supportive care (BSC), which involves care that aims to control symptoms, with palliative radiotherapy if needed, but not to prolong life. Others compared the newer drugs against previous drugs or combinations. RESULTS - SUMMARY OF BENEFITS: The gains in duration of survival with the new drugs are modest - a few months - but worthwhile in a condition for which the untreated survival is only about 5 months. There are also gains in quality of life compared with BSC, because on balance the side-effects of some forms of chemotherapy have less effect on quality of life than the effects of uncontrolled spread of cancer. RESULTS - COSTS: The total cost to the NHS of using these new drugs in England and Wales might be about GBP 10 million per annum, but is subject to a number of factors. There would be non-financial constraints on any increase in chemotherapy for the next few years, such as staffing; the number of patients choosing to have the newer forms of chemotherapy is not yet known; and the costs of the drugs may fall, for example, as generic forms appear. RESULTS - COST PER LIFE-YEAR GAINED: The available data did not provide an entirely satisfactory basis for cost-effectiveness calculations. The main problem was the lack of direct comparisons of the new drugs. In order to strengthen the analysis, three different modelling approaches were used: pairwise comparisons using trial data; cost-minimisation analysis, as if all the new regimens were of equal efficacy; and cost-effectiveness analysis pooling the results of several trials with different comparators, giving indirect comparisons of the new drugs by using BSC as the common comparator. A number of different scenarios were explored through extensive sensitivity analysis in each model. Outcomes were expressed in incremental cost per life-year saved or incremental cost, versus BSC. There was insufficient evidence from which to derive cost per quality-adjusted life-year. In first-line treatment, vinorelbine, gemcitabine, and the lower-dose paclitaxel plus cisplatin combinations generally performed well against BSC under a range of different scenarios and especially when given as a maximum of 3 cycles. Incremental cost per life-year gained (LYG) versus BSC varied depending on scenario, but baseline figures based on trial data and protocols were: single-agent vinorelbine, pound 2194 per LYG; vinorelbine plus cisplatin, pound 5206; single-agent gemcitabine, pound 5690; gemcitabine plus cisplatin, pound 10,041; and paclitaxel plus cisplatin, pound 8537. In second-line chemotherapy, docetaxel gave a cost per LYG of pound 17,546, again well within the range usually accepted as cost-effective. However, in routine care, the impact of therapy would be regularly reviewed, and continuation would depend on response, side-effects, patient choice and clinical judgement. Chemotherapy would be stopped in non-responders, making chemotherapy more cost-effective. A 'real-life' scenario in which 60 per cent of patients receive only 1 or 2 cycles of chemotherapy gives much lower costs per LYG, with single-agent gemcitabine, single-agent vinorelbine, and paclitaxel plus platinum appearing to be cost-saving compared with BSC; the incremental cost of gemcitabine plus cisplatin would be pound 2478 per LYG, and of vinorelbine plus cisplatin, pound 2808. At the very least, gains in duration of survival were achieved without diminution of quality of life (at best, they improved quality) and with relatively low incremental cost. Comparisons among the individual drugs should be viewed with caution because they have had to be based on indirect comparisons. RESULTS - LIMITATIONS OF THE ANALYSIS: Each of the three models had limitations. The cost-effectiveness estimates from the pairwise comparisons were based on single studies. The cost-minimisation analysis assumed that the regimens have equal efficacy in practice. The cost-effectiveness analysis had to be based on pooling data from individual trials. The costs of BSC, inpatient stay and outpatient visits were from Scottish data. Median rather than mean data on duration of survival have been used in the analysis, because most of the trials reported only median data. Median survival and number of drug cycles were calculated by averaging across a number of studies, rather than being reliant on one particular study. The costs of the less expensive antiemetics cited in the trials were omitted. The use of more modern and costly antiemetics would have a modest detrimental effect on cost-effectiveness. In the absence of published data, an estimate was made of the cost of side-effects of chemotherapy, in particular hospital admissions, and applied to all the new regimens. In practice, admissions related to side-effects and their respective costs are likely to vary by regimen.
CONCLUSIONS:
The new drugs for non-small-cell lung cancer extend life by only a few months compared with BSC, but appear to do so without net loss in quality of life and at a cost per LYG that is much lower than for many other NHS activities. Depending on assumptions used, these new drugs range from being cost-effective, as conventionally accepted, to being cost-saving. CONCLUSIONS - IMPLICATIONS OF THE NEWER DRUGS: One of the present constraints on chemotherapy is availability of inpatient beds. The advent of newer and gentler forms of chemotherapy given on an outpatient basis would not only overcome this, but it would allow more patients to be treated. This might apply particularly to older patients. The treatment of more patients would increase workload for oncologists, cancer nurses and pharmacists. The Government has already announced increased expenditure on staff for cancer care. The previously pessimistic attitudes to chemotherapy in non-small-cell lung cancer are changing in the wake of the newer agents, and this shift is likely to increase referral. CONCLUSIONS - NEED FOR FURTHER RESEARCH: Recent advances in chemotherapy are welcome, but their effects remain small for patients with non-small-cell lung cancer. Much more research is needed into better drugs, better combinations, new ways of assessing the likelihood of response and especially direct comparisons between the new regimens. This research would be aided by having a greater proportion of patients involved in trials, but there will be infrastructure implications of increased participation
Evelyn Waugh and the Pursuit of Permanence
No full text本論文探討伊夫林‧沃 (Evelyn Waugh) 在其人生及寫作裡反映出的一種對「永恆」(permanence) 的嚮往與追尋。作者的寫作風格及主題皆受其於1930年開始信奉天主教的影響，由早期廣受讀者歡迎的針對英國上流社會的諷刺小說，轉而多寫有關宗教與人之關係。本論文從作者的寫作風格、題材及生平的角度切入研究，除小說作品外，還參考了大量作者的書信、日記、書刊文稿及評論，以及其他有關作者的文學評論及報導。本論文共分五章，旨於提出一個把作者的生平、世界觀及寫作與其宗教觀連繫的論述，並把傳統上把作者的寫作分水嶺定為 > (1945) 的日期推前至1939年。論文中探討了伊夫林‧沃 對「好藝術」(“Good Art”) 及相對的「混亂與絕望之訊息」(“Message of Chaos and Despair”) 的概念，巴洛克建築對其發展有關「結構性」寫作 (structural/ architectural writing) 的影響。另外，伊夫林‧沃對「永恆」的追尋可透過其作品的重要象徵與主題而看到，包括：他主張現代社會及他自己正面臨「基督教與混亂」之間的抉擇，而當代世界正需要重回超自然力量的秩序，否則只能淪為「沒有恩典的權力」(“power without grace”)。其作品也探討「惡魔的迷人」與「基督的美」，及「背棄神的憂鬱」(“sadness in the face of God”) 與「神愛裡的喜樂」(“joy in the love of God”) 之區別，從而建立一套他個人的、獨特的通向永恆的方法，即是「眾人皆可成聖人」，只要每人盡力做好神所安排其份的差事(vocation)，兼有大愛之心 (compassion)，即可成「完人」(“complete man”)，甚至成聖。This thesis explores Waugh’s pursuit of permanence in his life and writing, using formal, thematic, and biographical approaches. It adopts close textual analyses alongside readings of his non-fictional writing. It also considers critics’ and friends’ accounts of both Waugh and his writing. This thesis explores the pursuit of permanence through giving narrative logic to Waugh’s vision of the affinity between his Catholicism and his writing. The primary conclusion of this thesis is accordingly that there is a consistent train of thought motivating and expressed by Waugh’s writing, a thought which is heavily informed by his Catholic religiosity. In order, the thesis explores Waugh’s ideas of “Good Art,” by contrast with what he calls the “message of Chaos and Despair”; his aesthetics of the baroque and its impact on his idea of “structural/ architectural writing” and his own literary transformations; concepts of the point versus the whirling world and the waste land; his choice between Christianity and Chaos and his belief in the power of the supernatural order; the difference between “sadness in the face of good” (i.e. sloth) and “joy in the love of God”; the difference between devilish “charm” and Christian beauty; how his uniquely personalised ideals of vocation, supernatural order, compassion, the complete man and the saint help him to achieve a personal sense of permanence, which is expressed by and reflected in his works. The thesis also argues that 1939, a date that is neglected, is a much earlier watershed and one which separates the earlier Waugh from the later Waugh, when compared to Brideshead, marking Waugh’s change in terms of worldview and literary direction. The five central chapters pay close attention to individual works in order to demonstrate and explore their underlying consistency, while biographical details provide further evidence that Waugh consistently pursued permanence.Chan, Sze Man.Thesis Ph.D. Chinese University of Hong Kong 2016.Includes bibliographical references (leaves ).Abstracts also in Chinese.Title from PDF title page (viewed on …).Detailed summary in vernacular field only.Detailed summary in vernacular field only
« Sur les rivages d’un autre âge » : Timothy Findley et Evelyn Waugh
No full textDavid Harvey, auteur de The Condition of
Postmodernity , n'est pas le seul à critiquer le postmodernisme, et à prétendre
que l'idéologie réactionnaire (comme toute idéologie) peut être à la fois sapée et
confirmée. Cet article explore les duplicités de l'éthique postmoderne par une comparaison
détaillée des écrits de Waugh et de Findley. Plusieurs uvres de Findley posent la question
du rapport entre l'éthique et l'esthétique, tel qu'il apparaît dans le discours fasciste, et
proposent des relectures postmodernes de textes et d'oeuvres d'art modernes qui, comme ceux
de Waugh, parent une idéologie réactionnaire de l'éclat d'une esthétique élitiste. Dans
certaines de ses uvres, cependant, Findley répète bien plus qu'il ne les corrige bon nombre
de problèmes aperçus dans le modernisme.David Harvey, author of The Condition of
Postmodernity (1987), and others have criticized postmodernism for pretending
that reactionary ideologies (or, for that matter, any ideology) can be simultaneously
undermined and endorsed. This paper explores the duplicities of postmodern ethics, using a
detailed comparison between Waugh and Findley's uvre. Many of Findley's works confront the
question of ethics vs. aesthetics as revealed in fascist discourse; they do so by proposing
postmodernist re-readings of modernist texts and artifacts such as Waugh's which endow
reactionary ideology with the glamour of elitist aesthetics. In some of his works, however,
Findley duplicates rather than corrects several of the problems he perceives in modernism
Was Evelyn Waugh in danger of being shot by his men?
No full text[Extract] I am very conscious that many Waughians, perhaps the majority, believe that Colonel Robert (Bob) Laycock had to place a guard over Evelyn Waugh's sleeping quarters to prevent his men shooting him; and that, if he went into action, he was liable to be murdered. But both beliefs are entirely baseless. In response to my essay "I am Trimmer, you know" (see EWNS 41.2), Michael Barber, author of Anthony Powell: A Life, cites Noel Annan as an "authority" on this matter, but Noel Annan is an extremely intelligent critic who places Waugh's oeuvre within a meaningful twentieth-century context; he has no independent knowledge of the detail of Waugh's life. On the matter under review, he merely quotes Christopher Sykes.[1] And as the evidence presented below will demonstrate, Sykes is a most unreliable guide
Prior Adjustment: An Extension of the Frisch-Waugh Theorem to the Method of Two-Stage Least Squares
No full textThe problems of seasonal adjustment and other forms of prior adjustment have seldom been integrated into a general framework of estimation. A well-known result, due to Frisch and Waugh, has been used to demonstrate how linear seasonal influences might be treated in the context of the general linear statistical model. In this paper, the author establishes a proposition that one form of prior adjustment is consistent with two different estimating techniques that are in common use.
Prior Adjustment: An Extension of the Frisch-Waugh Theorem to the Method of Two-Stage Least Squares
No full textThe problems of seasonal adjustment and other forms of prior adjustment have seldom been integrated into a general framework of estimation. A well-known result, due to Frisch and Waugh, has been used to demonstrate how linear seasonal influences might be treated in the context of the general linear statistical model. In this paper, the author establishes a proposition that one form of prior adjustment is consistent with two different estimating techniques that are in common use
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