Freedom in mundane mobilities: caravanning in Denmark

Freedom is a widely discussed and highly elusive concept, and has long been represented in exoticised, masculinised and individualised discourses. Freedom is often exemplified through the image of a solitary male explorer leaving the female space of home and familiarity and going to remote places of the world. Through in-situ interviews with families caravanning in Denmark, the primary aim of this study is to challenge existing dominant discourses surrounding the subject of freedom within leisure and tourism studies. Secondly, we shed further light on an under-researched medium of mobility, that of domestic caravanning. This serves to not only disrupt representations of freedom as occurring through exoticised, masculinised and individualised practices, but to give attention to the domestic, banal contexts where the everyday and tourism intersect, which are often overlooked. This novel repositioning opens up new avenues in tourism studies for critical research into the geographies of freedom in mundane, everyday contexts

Nutrient composition of selected emergent macrophytes in Northern Prairie wetlands

North Dakota's seasonal wetlands, covering 1.3 million ha, are an important forage resource especially during dry years. A study was initiated in south central North Dakota to determine forage quality of dominant emergent macrophytes. Ten species, American sloughgrass (Beckmannia syzigachne (Steud.) Fern.), tall mannagrass (Glyceria grandis S. Wats. ex A. Gray), common reed (Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. ex. Steud.), whitetop or sprangletop (Scolochloa festucacea (Willd.) Link), prairie cordgrass (Spartina pectinata Link), slough sedge (Carex atherodes Spreng.), spikerush (Eleocharis macrostachya Britt.), baltic rush (Juncus balticus Willd.), hardstem bulrush (Scirpus acutus Muhl.), and three square (Scirpus pungens Vahl.) were collected twice a month, from mid-May until mid-August then after first frost. After drying at 60 degree C, samples were separated to leaf and stem where applicable. Analyses included in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD), crude protein (CP), and phosphorus (P). Although species and season differences occurred, IVDMD, CP, and P declined linearly with season in each plant species and part. Depending upon the species mix, wetland hay harvested between bloom and mature stages would be expected to average 47-49% IVDMD, 7.6-14.0% CP, and .17-.29% P. Harvested early, mixed species wetland hays would provide adequate nutrients for dry pregnant cows. However, energy and P supplementation may be necessary for late harvested wetland hays.This material was digitized as part of a cooperative project between the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries.The Journal of Range Management archives are made available by the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact [email protected] for further information.Migrated from OJS platform August 202

Australian newspapers online: Four business models revisited

This article revisits four online news business models, first documented in 1997, to discuss current worldwide newspaper website trends and new research data on Australian newspaper websites. The data are from a survey of Australian newspapers and their websites, and show that the Australian experience mirrors international experience in terms of the growth of newspapers online and their lack of profitability. The survey shows that, while there is international evidence that providing news content online reduces offline newspaper subscriptions, a third of the newspapers studied registered circulation increases after setting up their websites. While there is international evidence that generating revenue through online advertising is difficult, for nearly half of the newspapers studied, overall advertising revenue increased after setting up their websites. The survey also found that, while newspaper publishers worldwide continue to rely mainly on the subscription and advertising business models to generate revenue online, there is evidence that Australian newspapers are forming online alliances with other media and non-media businesses to facilitate their online business activitie

Leishmania major Infection in Humanized Mice Induces Systemic Infection and Provokes a Nonprotective Human Immune Response

Background Leishmania (L.) species are the causative agent of leishmaniasis. Due to the lack of efficient vaccine candidates, drug therapies are the only option to deal with cutaneous leishmaniasis. Unfortunately, chemotherapeutic interventions show high toxicity in addition to an increased risk of dissemination of drug-resistant parasites. An appropriate laboratory animal based model is still missing which allows testing of new drug strategies in the context of human immune cells in vivo. Methodology/Principal Findings Humanized mice were infected subcutaneously with stationary phase promastigote L. major into the footpad. The human immune response against the pathogen and the parasite host interactions were analyzed. In addition we proved the versatility of this new model to conduct drug research studies by the inclusion of orally given Miltefosine. We show that inflammatory human macrophages get infected with Leishmania parasites at the site of infection. Furthermore, a Leishmania-specific human-derived T cell response is initiated. However, the human immune system is not able to prevent systemic infection. Thus, we treated the mice with Miltefosine to reduce the parasitic load. Notably, this chemotherapy resulted in a reduction of the parasite load in distinct organs. Comparable to some Miltefosine treated patients, humanized mice developed severe side effects, which are not detectable in the classical murine model of experimental leishmaniasis. Conclusions/Significance This study describes for the first time L. major infection in humanized mice, characterizes the disease development, the induction of human adaptive and innate immune response including cytokine production and the efficiency of Miltefosine treatment in these animals. In summary, humanized mice might be beneficial for future preclinical chemotherapeutic studies in systemic (visceral) leishmaniasis allowing the investigation of human immune response, side effects of the drug due to cytokine production of activated humane immune cells and the efficiency of the treatment to eliminate also not replicating (“hiding”) parasites