Music, Civil Rights, and Counterculture: Critical Aesthetics and Resistance in the United States, 1957-1968

This dissertation explores the role of music within the politics of liberation in the United States in the period of the late 1950s and the 1960s. Its focus is on the two dominant, but very different (and, it is argued, interconnected) mass political and cultural movements that converged in the course of the 1960s: civil rights and counterculture. Divergent tendencies in the popular musics of the period, which were drawn into the orbits of these two movements, are considered in the context of tensions between political commitment and aesthetic autonomy, between the call for collective political action and the pull of individualism, and between existing political reality and the utopian perspectives offered by art. The theoretical approach derives largely from critical theory (in particular Adorno, Bloch, and Marcuse), and the thesis argues that by tending toward autonomy and individualism popular musics in this period articulated a vision of society that was radically different from existing political realities. The study situates itself in the existing literature on protest music, but seeks to take this further by examining the complexity of responses in music of this period to protest and liberation movements beyond protest songs and politically committed music to discuss issues of social critique and critical reflection. After an initial consideration of what might be meant by the categories ‘protest music’ and socially or politically engaged music, considering among others the work of Eyerman and Jamison (1998), Mattern (1998), Roy (2010), Street (2011), and in particular Denisoff (1968), notions of political engagement and autonomy are discussed in relation to Adorno (1970) and Marcuse (1977). Subsequent chapters then function as case studies of particular tendencies as well as considering significant figures in the music of the period in the context of liberation, civil rights, Black Power, the counterculture, and the New Left. The Highlander Folk School is considered for the ways that it used music to foreground a collective political identity that was subverted by the needs of individual activists; Bob Dylan is examined in light of his retreat from collective political projects and his move toward aesthetic individualism that was nevertheless met with an increase in his perceived relevance to the liberation movements; John Coltrane for his experiments with autonomous music, despite the bitter political realities faced by many African Americans; and Frank Zappa, whose music, it is argued, attempted to stimulate a form of critical self-reflection amongst his audience

Sulphur and Carbon Isotopes as Tracers of Past Sub-seafloor Microbial Activity

Microbial life below the seafloor has changed over geological time, but these changes are often not obvious, as they are not recorded in the sediment. Sulphur (S) isotope values in pyrite extracted from a Plio- to Holocene sequence of the Peru Margin (Ocean Drilling Program, ODP, Site 1229) show a down-core pattern that correlates with the pattern of carbon (C) isotopes in diagenetic dolomite. Early formation of the pyrite is indicated by the mineralogical composition of iron, showing a high degree of pyritization throughout the sedimentary sequence. Hence, the S-record could not have been substantially overprinted by later pyrite formation. The S- and C-isotope profiles show, thus, evidence for two episodes of enhanced microbial methane production with a very shallow sulphate-methane transition zone. The events of high activity are correlated with zones of elevated organic C content in the stratigraphic sequence. Our results demonstrate how isotopic signatures preserved in diagenetic mineral phases provide information on changes of past biogeochemical activity in a dynamic sub-seafloor biosphere

Financial interests of patient organisations contributing to technology appraisal at England's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE): a policy review

Objectives: To investigate the prevalence of financial interests among patient organisations contributing to health technology assessment at the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in England, and the extent to which current disclosure policy ensures decision-making committees are aware of these interests. Design: Policy review using annual accounts, reports and websites of patient organisations, a database of payments declared by pharmaceutical manufacturers (Disclosure UK), other manufacturer declarations, responses from patient organisations, and declarations of interests by nominated representatives of patient organisations. Setting: Appraisals of medicines and treatments for use in the English and Welsh National Health Service. Participants: 53 patient organisations contributing to 41 NICE technology appraisals published in 2015 and 2016, with 117 separate occasions that a patient organisation contributed to the appraisal of a technology. Main outcome measures: (i) Prevalence of specific interests, i.e. funding from manufacturer(s) of a technology under appraisal or competitor products; (ii) Proportion of specific interests of which NICE decision-making committees were aware; (iii) Proportion of specific interests for which disclosure was not required by current NICE policy. Results: 38/53 (71.7%) patient organisations had accepted funding from the manufacturer(s) of a technology or a competitor product in the same or previous year that they had contributed to the appraisal of that technology. Specific interests were 46 present on 92 out of 117 (78.6%) occasions that patient organisations contributed to appraisals in 2015 and 2016. NICE decision-making committees were aware of less than a third of specific interests (36/115, 31.3%). For over half of the specific interests of which committees were unaware (42/79, 53.2%), disclosure by patient organisations was not required by current NICE policy. Conclusions: Specific interests are highly prevalent among patient organisations contributing to health technology assessment. NICE is reviewing its disclosure policy to ensure that decision-making committees are aware of all relevant interests

An Instructional Approach for Improving the Writing of Literature Reviews

The authors engaged in a team-teaching approach to foster improvements in the writing and evaluation of scholarly literature reviews by their graduate students in music education. A focal point of the semester-long project was the analysis and public critique of each author\u27s dissertation literature review by the other author, using a variant of a rubric for evaluating literature reviews by Boote and Beile. Students further refined the rubric by evaluating literature reviews in current music education journals and then used the rubric to guide their own writing. Student reflections and responses were gathered through questionnaires and interviews, with indications that the process had a twofold effect: (a) improved skills in conceptualizing, writing, and analyzing literature reviews and (b) increased collegiality as students perceived their instructors as peer scholars

The Evaluation Self-Efficacy scale

The Evaluation Self-Efficacy Scale(ESE)was developed as an outcomes assessment instrument for social work courses focusing on evaluation. In the two studies on the scale to date, the results regarding its psychometric properties have been encouraging

An assessment of the predictive validity of impact factor scores: Implications for academic employment decisions in social work

Citation for final version: Holden, G., Rosenberg, G., Barker, K., & Onghena, P. (2006). An assessment of the predictive validity of impact factor scores: Implications for academic employment decisions in social work. Research on Social Work Practice, 16, 6, 613-624.Objective: Bibliometrics is a method of examining scholarly communications. Concerns regarding the utility of bibliometrics in general, and the impact factor score (IFS) in particular, have been discussed across disciplines including social work. While there are frequent mentions in the literature of the IFS as an indicator of the impact or quality of scholars’ work, little empirical work has been published regarding the validity of such use. Method: A proportionate, stratified, random sample, of n=323 articles was selected from 17 Web of Science listed social work journals published during the 1992-1994 period. Results: The relationship between journals’ impact factor scores and the actual impact of articles published in those journals (predictive validity) was r = .41 (short term) and r = .42 (long term). Conclusion: The practice of using the IFS as a proxy indicator of article impact merits significant concern as well as further empirical investigation. The final, definitive version of this article has been published in Research on Social Work Practice, 16, 6 © SAGE Publications Ltd at the Research on Social Work Practice page: http://rswp.sagepub.com/ on SAGE Journals Online: http://online.sagepub.com

Scanning electrochemical microscopy as a local probe of oxygen permeability in cartilage

The use of scanning electrochemical microscopy, a high-resolution chemical imaging technique, to probe the distribution and mobility of solutes in articular cartilage is described. In this application, a mobile ultramicroelectrode is positioned close (not, vert, similar1 μm) to the cartilage sample surface, which has been equilibrated in a bathing solution containing the solute of interest. The solute is electrolyzed at a diffusion-limited rate, and the current response measured as the ultramicroelectrode is scanned across the sample surface. The topography of the samples was determined using Ru(CN)64−, a solute to which the cartilage matrix was impermeable. This revealed a number of pit-like depressions corresponding to the distribution of chondrocytes, which were also observed by atomic force and light microscopy. Subsequent imaging of the same area of the cartilage sample for the diffusion-limited reduction of oxygen indicated enhanced, but heterogeneous, permeability of oxygen across the cartilage surface. In particular, areas of high permeability were observed in the cellular and pericellular regions. This is the first time that inhomogeneities in the permeability of cartilage toward simple solutes, such as oxygen, have been observed on a micrometer scale