'Scotland the Real':the representation of traditional music in Scottish tourism

This thesis explores how Scottish traditional music has been represented to tourist audiences, through systems of representation such as travel literature, recordings and traditional music events (including folk festivals, tourist shows and sessions). It argues that an explicit concern with the “real” has been a recurrent, although contested, discursive trope in such representations. In particular, the thesis demonstrates how paradigmatic shifts in conceptions of authenticity have wrought ideological changes on tourist-oriented depictions of Scottish folk music. The thesis identifies four generic categories of authenticity which have mediated touristic representations of Scottish traditional music, namely: authenticity of text; authenticity of performer; authenticity of context; and authenticity of locality. The first of these was of significance throughout the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth century, as folksong collectors, travel writers and guidebooks authors based their judgements of musical authenticity upon the printed text. The folk revival of the 1950s resulted in a fundamental rupture in discursive formations of authenticity, leading to assessments of the “real” being based upon performers, their backgrounds and musical upbringings. As the folk revival developed, such assessments became predicated upon the context of the musical performance, and, in particular, the extent to which events succeeded in minimising the performer-audience stratification and facilitating communal participation. Finally, the geographical scope of the musical expression has recently become particularly significant in this regard: practitioners frequently regard localised musical identities as “real”, while deriding the homogeneity and commercial connotations of transnational musical identities such as “Celtic music"

A novel 3D human glioblastoma cell culture system for modeling drug and radiation responses

Background. Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common primary brain tumor, with dismal prognosis. The failure of drug–radiation combinations with promising preclinical data to translate into effective clinical treatments may relate to the use of simplified 2-dimensional in vitro GBM cultures. Methods. We developed a customized 3D GBM culture system based on a polystyrene scaffold (Alvetex) that recapitulates key histological features of GBM and compared it with conventional 2D cultures with respect to their response to radiation and to molecular targeted agents for which clinical data are available. Results. In 3 patient-derived GBM lines, no difference in radiation sensitivity was observed between 2D and 3D cultures, as measured by clonogenic survival. Three different molecular targeted agents, for which robust clinical data are available were evaluated in 2D and 3D conditions: (i) temozolomide, which improves overall survival and is standard of care for GBM, exhibited statistically significant effects on clonogenic survival in both patient-derived cell lines when evaluated in the 3D model compared with only one cell line in 2D cells; (ii) bevacizumab, which has been shown to increase progression-free survival when added to standard chemoradiation in phase III clinical trials, exhibited marked radiosensitizing activity in our 3D model but had no effect on 2D cells; and (iii) erlotinib, which had no efficacy in clinical trials, displayed no activity in our 3D GBM model, but radiosensitized 2D cells. Conclusions. Our 3D model reliably predicted clinical efficacy, strongly supporting its clinical relevance and potential value in preclinical evaluation of drug–radiation combinations for GBM

'Scotland the Real' : the representation of traditional music in Scottish tourism

This thesis explores how Scottish traditional music has been represented to tourist audiences, through systems of representation such as travel literature, recordings and traditional music events (including folk festivals, tourist shows and sessions). It argues that an explicit concern with the “real” has been a recurrent, although contested, discursive trope in such representations. In particular, the thesis demonstrates how paradigmatic shifts in conceptions of authenticity have wrought ideological changes on tourist-oriented depictions of Scottish folk music. The thesis identifies four generic categories of authenticity which have mediated touristic representations of Scottish traditional music, namely: authenticity of text; authenticity of performer; authenticity of context; and authenticity of locality. The first of these was of significance throughout the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth century, as folksong collectors, travel writers and guidebooks authors based their judgements of musical authenticity upon the printed text. The folk revival of the 1950s resulted in a fundamental rupture in discursive formations of authenticity, leading to assessments of the “real” being based upon performers, their backgrounds and musical upbringings. As the folk revival developed, such assessments became predicated upon the context of the musical performance, and, in particular, the extent to which events succeeded in minimising the performer-audience stratification and facilitating communal participation. Finally, the geographical scope of the musical expression has recently become particularly significant in this regard: practitioners frequently regard localised musical identities as “real”, while deriding the homogeneity and commercial connotations of transnational musical identities such as “Celtic music".EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Erratum to: The clinical and cost effectiveness of group art therapy for people with non-psychotic mental health disorders: a systematic review and cost-effectiveness analysis.

Background The majority of mental health problems are non-psychotic (e.g., depression, anxiety, and phobias). For some people, art therapy may be a more acceptable alternative form of psychological therapy than standard forms of treatment, such as talking therapies. This study was part of a health technology assessment commissioned by the National Institute for Health Research, UK and aimed to systematically appraise the clinical and cost-effective evidence for art therapy for people with non-psychotic mental health disorders. Methods Comprehensive literature searches for studies examining art therapy in populations with non-psychotic mental health disorders were performed in May 2013. A quantitative systematic review of clinical effectiveness and a systematic review of studies evaluating the cost-effectiveness of group art therapy were conducted. Results Eleven randomised controlled trials were included (533 patients). Meta-analysis was not possible due to clinical heterogeneity and insufficient comparable data on outcome measures across studies. The control groups varied between studies but included: no treatment/wait-list, attention placebo controls and psychological therapy comparators. Art therapy was associated with significant positive changes relative to the control group in mental health symptoms in 7 of the 11 studies. A de novo model was constructed and populated with data identified from the clinical review. Scenario analyses were conducted allowing comparisons of group art therapy with wait-list control and group art therapy with group verbal therapy. Group art-therapy appeared cost-effective compared with wait-list control with high certainty although generalisability to the target population was unclear; group verbal therapy appeared more cost-effective than art therapy but there was considerable uncertainty and a sizeable probability that art therapy was more cost effective. Conclusions From the limited available evidence art therapy was associated with positive effects compared with control in a number of studies in patients with different clinical profiles. The included trials were generally of poor quality and are therefore likely to be at high risk of bias. Art therapy appeared to be cost-effective versus wait-list but further studies are needed to confirm this finding in the target population. There was insufficient evidence to make an informed comparison of the cost-effectiveness of group art therapy with group verbal therapy. Trial registration HTA project no. 12/27/16; PROSPERO registration no. CRD42013003957