Niche Markets for Natural Fibers: Strategies for Connecting Farmers Who Raise Fiber Animals with Textile Artists—A New England Perspective

Farmers annually harvest natural fibers from alpacas, goats, llamas, rabbits, and sheep. However, they have seen a decline in consumer demand due to the increased production of synthetics. Despite global trends of decline, New England farms involved in fiber production have increased. This article identifies niche markets for these natural fibers and provides farmers with marketing/sales strategies to successfully target these markets. Data from 2007 and 2013 suggest that the niche market of textile artists can help farmers increase their profits through direct marketing strategies. Extension professionals can use these strategies to develop educational materials and workshops

CittaSlow, Slow Cities, Slow Food: Searching for a Model for the Development of Slow Tourism

Slow Tourism, a new trend that originated in Italy, is now traversing the globe. This study traces its evolution, synthesizes existing definitions, and develops a conceptual model for the stages of Slow Tourism development. It uses a qualitative, exploratory framework situated in the paradigms of constructivism and critical theory and a critical, interpretative form of inquiry and analysis. Data sources included various types of secondary data as well as primary data collected during personal interviews conducted in November of 2010 with key leaders in the first two CittaSlow designated cities in the U.S. Findings suggest that Slow Tourism, which can occur in both rural and urban settings, is an outgrowth of the Slow Food Movement and is tied to CittaSlow through the explicit guarantee of unique slowness offered by these officially designated cities. The presence of Slow Food Convivia, a critical mass of CittaSlow designated cities, and practices of socio-political consumption emerged as important stages in its development

Qualitative Research Methods for Critical Inquiry: An Emergent Method of Analysis from the Social Sciences

Elizabeth A. Cartier is a Doctoral Candidate in the Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management in the Isenberg School at UMass-Amherst. Her research interests include: host and tourist behavior, tourism culture, and the critical aspects of power and control. Human resources, leadership and tourism are the focus of her teaching

Associations of Trying to Lose Weight, Weight Control Behaviors, and Current Cigarette Use Among US High School Students

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72289/1/j.1746-1561.2009.00421.x.pd

Genotoxicity of multi-walled carbon nanotubes at occupationally relevant doses

Carbon nanotubes are commercially-important products of nanotechnology; however, their low density and small size makes carbon nanotube respiratory exposures likely during their production or processing. We have previously shown mitotic spindle aberrations in cultured primary and immortalized human airway epithelial cells exposed to single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT). In this study, we examined whether multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) cause mitotic spindle damage in cultured cells at doses equivalent to 34 years of exposure at the NIOSH Recommended Exposure Limit (REL). MWCNT induced a dose responsive increase in disrupted centrosomes, abnormal mitotic spindles and aneuploid chromosome number 24 hours after exposure to 0.024, 0.24, 2.4 and 24 μg/cm2 MWCNT. Monopolar mitotic spindles comprised 95% of disrupted mitoses. Three-dimensional reconstructions of 0.1 μm optical sections showed carbon nanotubes integrated with microtubules, DNA and within the centrosome structure. Cell cycle analysis demonstrated a greater number of cells in S-phase and fewer cells in the G2 phase in MWCNT-treated compared to diluent control, indicating a G1/S block in the cell cycle. The monopolar phenotype of the disrupted mitotic spindles and the G1/S block in the cell cycle is in sharp contrast to the multi-polar spindle and G2 block in the cell cycle previously observed following exposure to SWCNT. One month following exposure to MWCNT there was a dramatic increase in both size and number of colonies compared to diluent control cultures, indicating a potential to pass the genetic damage to daughter cells. Our results demonstrate significant disruption of the mitotic spindle by MWCNT at occupationally relevant exposure levels