The São Paulo Declaration (1998): Nothing dates more rapidly than the present

The Sao Paulo Declaration (1998) committed leisure professionals to extending Rights, Inclusion and Social Order in leisure customs and practice. The engine for this intervention consisted of the twin processes of globalization and cosmopolitanism. Both were seen as dissolving economic and political barriers. The Declaration did not make use of the term 'world society'. On the other hand it clearly defined itself to be part of a global movement that addressed leisure for all. In the last 20 years, the progress made n fulfilling the terms of the Declaration has been disappointing. Economic barriers of wealth inequality and uneven development in globalization and cosmopolitanism have blocked many aspects of the Rights, Inclusion and Order articulated in the Declaration. This paper examines how far globalization and cosmopolitanism have progressed in achieving the principle that 'all persons have the right to leisure.' It examines data on wealth inequality, debt and unemployment rates to consider some of the concrete impediments. It concludes by maintaining that there is a need to go beyond the Sao Paulo Declaration by addressing the economic and political barriers that currently prevent leisure from being a right for all

Prolonged starvation causes up-regulation of AQP1 in adipose tissue capillaries of AQP7 knock-out mice

Aquaporins (AQPs) are membrane proteins involved in the regulation of cellular transport and the balance of water and glycerol and cell volume in the white adipose tissue (WAT). In our previous study, we found the co-expression of the AQP1 water channel and AQP7 in the mouse WAT. In our present study, we aimed to find out whether prolonged starvation influences the AQP1 expression of AQP7 knock-out mice (AQP7 KO) in the WAT. To resolve this hypothesis, immunoperoxidase, immunoblot and immunogold microscopy were used. AQP1 expression was found with the use of immunohistochemistry and was confirmed by immunogold microscopy in the vessels of mouse WAT of all studied groups. Semi-quantitative immunoblot and quantitative immunogold microscopy showed a significant increase (by 2.5- to 3-fold) in the abundance of AQP1 protein expression in WAT in the 72 h starved AQP7 KO mice as compared to AQP7+/+ (p < 0.05) and AQP7−/− (p < 0.01) controls, respectively. In conclusion, the AQP1 water channel located in the vessels of WAT is up-regulated in response to prolonged starvation in the WAT of AQP7 KO mice. The present data suggest that an interaction of different AQP isoforms is required for maintaining proper water homeostasis within the mice WAT

'Mine's a Pint of Bitter': Performativity, gender, class and representations of authenticity in real-ale tourism

Leisure choices are expressive of individual agency around the maintenance of taste, boundaries, identity and community. This research paper is part of a wider project designed to assess the social and cultural value of real ale to tourism in the north of England. This paper explores the performativity of real-ale tourism and debates about belonging in northern English real-ale communities. The research combines an ethnographic case study of a real-ale festival with semi-structured interviews with organisers and volunteers, northern English real-ale brewers and real-ale tourists visiting the festival. It is argued that real-ale tourism, despite its origins in the logic of capitalism, becomes a space where people can perform Habermasian, communicative leisure, and despite the contradictions of preferring some capitalist industries over others on the basis of their perceived smaller size and older age, real-ale fans demonstrate agency in their performativity

The eventization of leisure and the strange death of alternative Leeds

The communicative potential of city spaces as leisure spaces is a central assumption of political activism and the creation of alternative, counter-cultural and subcultural scenes. However, such potential for city spaces is limited by the gentrification, privatization and eventization of city centres in the wake of wider societal and cultural struggles over leisure, work and identity formation. In this paper, we present research on alternative scenes in the city of Leeds to argue that the eventization of the city centre has led to a marginalization and of alternative scenes on the fringes of the city. Such marginalization has not caused the death of alternative Leeds or political activism associated with those scenes—but it has changed the leisure spaces (physical, political and social) in which alternative scenes contest the mainstream

Nazi Punks Folk Off: Leisure, Nationalism, Cultural Identity and the Consumption of Metal and Folk Music

Far-right activists have attempted to infiltrate and use popular music scenes to propagate their racialised ideologies. This paper explores attempts by the far right to co-opt two particular music scenes: black metal and English folk. Discourse tracing is used to explore online debates about boundaries, belonging and exclusion in the two scenes, and to compare such online debates with ethnographic work and previous research. It is argued that both scenes have differently resisted the far right through the policing of boundaries and communicative choices, but both scenes are compromised by their relationship to myths of whiteness and the instrumentality of the pop music industry

The equivalent amplitude stress as a solution of mean stress effect problem in fatigue analysis

У роботі представлено числовий алгоритм, який дозволяє вибирати різні схеми навантаження конструкції, наприклад, гідроциліндра, відповідно до заданих кривих Велера, що характеризують опір матеріалу на втомне руйнування. Проаналізовано гідроциліндри, які розглянуті в проекті E. C. \"PROHIPP\", і запропоновано деякі розв'язки задачі про тріщину в області штуцера. Показано, що просочування олії в зоні з’єднання штуцера може бути усунуто після деяких модифікацій конструкції.In this paper a numerical algorithm is presented to make possible adopting different loading sche­mes of specific structure at hand for instance hydraulic cylinders, to specific Wцhler curves cha­racterizing fatigue resistance of given material. Hydraulic cylinders investigated under E. C. project \"PROHIPP\" are analyzed and some solutions of the crack problem in oil port area are proposed. Oil penetration in an oil port connection zone can be eliminated after some design modifications.В работе представлен численный алгоритм, позволяющий выбирать различные схемы нагружения конструкции, например, гидроциллиндра, в соответствии с заданными кривыми Вёлера, характеризующими сопротивление материала усталостному разрушению. Проанализированы гидроциллиндры, рассматриваемые в проекте E. C. \"PROHIPP\", и предложены некоторые решения задачи о трещине в области штуцера. Показано, что просачивание масла в зоне соединения штуцера может быть устранено после некоторых модификаций конструкции

Binge flying: Behavioural addiction and climate change

Recent popular press suggests that ‘binge flying’ constitutes a new site of behavioural addiction. We theoretically appraise and empirically support this proposition through interviews with consumers in Norway and the United Kingdom conducted in 2009. Consistent findings from across two national contexts evidence a growing negative discourse towards frequent short-haul tourist air travel and illustrate strategies of guilt suppression and denial used to span a cognitive dissonance between the short-term personal benefits of tourism and the air travel’s associated long-term consequences for climate change. Tensions between tourism consumption and changing social norms towards acceptable flying practice exemplify how this social group is beginning to (re)frame what constitutes ‘excessive’ holiday flying, despite concomitantly continuing their own frequent air travels

Respectable Drinkers, Sensible Drinking, Serious Leisure: Single-Malt Whisky Enthusiasts and the Moral Panic of Irresponsible Others

In the public discourse of policy-makers and journalists, drinkers of (excessive) alcohol are portrayed either as irresponsible, immoral deviants or as gullible victims. In other words, the public discourse engenders a moral panic about alcohol-crazed individuals, who become what Cohen [1972. Folk devil and moral panics. London: Routledge] identifies as folk devils: the Other, abusing alcohol to create anti-social disorder. However, alcohol-drinking was, is and continues to be an everyday practice in the leisure lives of the majority of people in the UK. In this research article, I want to explore the serious leisure of whisky-tasting to provide a counter to the myth of the alcohol-drinker as folk devil, to try to construct a new public discourse of sensible drinking. I will draw on ethnographic work at whisky-tastings alongside interviews and analysis of on-line discourses. I show that participation in whisky-tasting events creates a safe space in which excessive amounts of alcohol are consumed, yet the norms of the particular habitus ensure that such drinking never leads to misbehaviour. In doing so, however, I will note that the respectability of whisky-drinking is associated with its masculine, white, privileged habitus – the folk devil becomes someone else, someone Other

New psychoactive substance Α-PVP in a traffic accident case

The problems of new psychoactive substances (NPSs), especially related to drivers, constitute an open research area. In this case report, we present a traffic accident case, in which two passengers of five individuals died instantly, while the other three persons survived the accident with minor injuries only. From the blood samples of the driver and the passengers, α-pyrrolidinovalerophenone (α-PVP), an NPS belonging to the category of cathinone derivatives, was disclosed. Therefore, we established a detailed procedure for analysis of α-PVP in blood samples by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. After careful validation tests of this method, α-PVP concentration in blood samples from the surviving driver and passengers, and from the two deceased, were measured. The concentrations varied from 20 to 650 ng/mL. Access to detailed information originating from the court files and from explanations provided by the driver and eye witnesses revealed extremely valuable illustrative details addressing the symptoms and pharmacological effects of α-PVP on the human organism, thus contributing to enriching the body of knowledge of α-PVP abuse

There is (almost) no alternative: the slow ‘heat death’ of music subcultures and the instrumentalization of contemporary leisure

In this paper, the metaphor of the ‘heat death’ is used in understanding the transformation of the alternative music scene(s) since the 1980s. Popular music is a key leisure space of modernity, and has been used as a space for negotiations of identity, conformity and transgression. Since the 1960s, alternative popular music has shaped the evolution of an authentic, communicative counter-cultural leisure space. The paper will use new research on on-line fan communities of black metal and extreme metal, and goth and post-punk, to demonstrate that the ideal of the alternative music scene as a communicative leisure space is not matched by the reality of the instrumentalization of contemporary leisure. Rather, there has been a slow metaphorically entropic shift in alternative music, from a shared subcultural and counter cultural leisure space into one part of a globalized entertainment industry that has colonized the Habermasian lifeworld of leisure