Representation of transport: A Rural Destination Analysis

Moscovici’s social representations perspective is applied to a study of transport in a rural destination. The principles are demonstrated using empirical data from a questionnaire survey, developed following in-depth qualitative research. The data analysis strategy was founded on inductive reasoning, by employing cluster analysis and correspondence analysis. A social representations analysis demonstrates how individuals draw on socially accepted explanations of transport where they have little or no direct knowledge or experience of the actual transport modes (notably the alternatives to the car). By so doing, ideas are further perpetuated. Importantly there is ambiguity surrounding responsibility to take positive action yet a key to addressing transport issues is acknowledgement of responsibility. Keywords: social representations, transport, rural destinations

Using the Car in a Fragile Rural Tourist Destination: A Social Representations Perspective

The visitor experience of place is inextricably linked to our ability to travel around an area at will, yet this mobility creates many problems especially in scenic rural areas of the UK. The study presented here attempts to unravel visitors’ experiences of mobility using Moscovici’s social representations approach. Travel diaries were employed to explore visitors’ transport choices and mobility patterns during the peak season in Purbeck, Dorset, UK. Analysis focuses on how such patterns reflect a social representation of mobility and the implications this has for visitor travel at destinations

From Le savant et le politique (Weber, int. Aron, 1959) to Le savant et le populaire (Grignon & Passeron, 1989) from an English perspective

Aron published as Le savant et le politique (1959) [the scientist and the politician] a long introduction to the first French translations of Weber’s two lectures of 1918 – Wissenschaft als Beruf [Science as vocation] and Politik als Beruf [Politics as vocation]. This article comments on Aron’s introduction. It then looks at the divergent responses to Aron’s work of Jean-Claude Passeron and Pierre Bourdieu, both of whom were ‘mentored’ by Aron. Bourdieu and Passeron developed a sociology of education and culture in the 1960s. Passeron retained the Weberian distinction whereas Bourdieu saw social research as an instrument for political action. I comment on the political implications of the comparable development of Cultural Studies in England in the 1960s and 70s, and I come back to France to consider Passeron’s introduction to the translation of Hoggart’s The Uses of Literacy (1959) as La culture du pauvre (1970). I focus next on the situation in 1979 at the year of the publication of Bourdieu’s La distinction and Lyotard’s La condition postmoderne, before discussing Le savant et le populaire [the scientist and the ordinary person] (Grignon & Passeron, 1989) and trying to draw out some conclusions which relate sociology to popular culture and populist politic

Retroviral replicating vector-mediated gene therapy achieves long-term control of tumor recurrence and leads to durable anticancer immunity.

BackgroundProdrug-activator gene therapy with Toca 511, a tumor-selective retroviral replicating vector (RRV) encoding yeast cytosine deaminase, is being evaluated in recurrent high-grade glioma patients. Nonlytic retroviral infection leads to permanent integration of RRV into the cancer cell genome, converting infected cancer cell and progeny into stable vector producer cells, enabling ongoing transduction and viral persistence within tumors. Cytosine deaminase in infected tumor cells converts the antifungal prodrug 5-fluorocytosine into the anticancer drug 5-fluorouracil, mediating local tumor destruction without significant systemic adverse effects.MethodsHere we investigated mechanisms underlying the therapeutic efficacy of this approach in orthotopic brain tumor models, employing both human glioma xenografts in immunodeficient hosts and syngeneic murine gliomas in immunocompetent hosts.ResultsIn both models, a single injection of replicating vector followed by prodrug administration achieved long-term survival benefit. In the immunodeficient model, tumors recurred repeatedly, but bioluminescence imaging of tumors enabled tailored scheduling of multicycle prodrug administration, continued control of disease burden, and long-term survival. In the immunocompetent model, complete loss of tumor signal was observed after only 1-2 cycles of prodrug, followed by long-term survival without recurrence for >300 days despite discontinuation of prodrug. Long-term survivors rejected challenge with uninfected glioma cells, indicating immunological responses against native tumor antigens, and immune cell depletion showed a critical role for CD4+ T cells.ConclusionThese results support dual mechanisms of action contributing to the efficacy of RRV-mediated prodrug-activator gene therapy: long-term tumor control by prodrug conversion-mediated cytoreduction, and induction of antitumor immunity