Documenting Flyover Land

Fueled by images of flat plains, small towns, and harsh winters, the midwestern United States is often perceived as nothing more than “flyover land” by outsiders. Though the political climate of the last several years has brought increased attention to the region, it has also reinforced the notion that the Midwest’s small towns and industries have been forgotten. Featuring speakers from Minnesota, Kansas, Iowa, and Missouri, this session will explore the relationship between archives and rural life in the Midwest. Together, the speakers will address how archivists can capture and share stories that challenge the notion that the Midwest is nothing more than “flyover land.” Mark Anderson will explore the connection between documenting rural life in the Midwest and digital collections curation. Jackie Beckey will talk about the availability of resources related to various aspects of rural life in the Midwest, including resources available at her institution that document radical rural midwestern politics, as well as the lack of available documentation for American Indian genealogy research. Volodymyr Chumachenko will present on the ways his institution has done outreach work around records documenting agricultural communities and ranching in Kansas. Roxanne Dunn will talk about overcoming challenges to acquire a collection about a farmer’s rights, which had a direct effect on federal bankruptcy code. Carissa Hansen will speak about her efforts to promote and work with members of a rural community in Minnesota to build awareness for literary manuscript collections that capture small-town life in ways that are often unexpected

Refinement of three-layer model of a damaged human body for the case of changing the moisture of the banding material

The object of study is a three-layer model of a damaged human body. In the course of the study, it was found that the generally accepted three-layer model of a damaged human body is built, in particular, on the assumption that the characteristics of dressings remain unchanged over time. Therefore, the vast majority of modern research in the field of passive radiometry requires the removal of such materials from the human body during the measurement or considers their characteristics to be unchanged and insignificant. Questions of a possible change in the results of measuring the radiation of the human body due to the use of plaster casts of varying degrees of humidity remain almost unexplored. As a result of the study, the mathematical three-layer model of the damaged human body was refined. An element was introduced into the model that describes the dependence of the attenuation of radio wave energy on the relative humidity of the plaster cast. The refined model makes it possible to increase the accuracy of measuring the temperature of the human body, taking into account the time of applying a plaster cast to it. Unlike the existing ones, the proposed model is based on an experimental study that simulates the measurement of the radiation of a human body with a plaster cast of different degrees of humidity. To refine the model, the obtained experimental data were processed by regression analysis methods. The results of processing the experimental data made it possible to establish the specific type and value of the coefficients of the desired dependence. The use of the obtained results of the study proves the possibility of remote non-invasive express diagnostics of the state of the human body in the presence of plaster-gauze bandages. Providing such an opportunity allows disaster medicine workers to increase the ability to fulfill the so-called “golden hour rule”, as well as to clarify the requirements for a medical radiothermal mapping syste

Literary Dimensions of National Identity: The Historical Novel of the Late Soviet Period (1960s--1980s)

233 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2008.The dissertation examines the changes that took place in the popular and ideologically "safest" genre of historical novel in the post-Stalin period in two Soviet literatures, Russian and Ukrainian. In this comparative study the author analyzes a set of novels by Russian and Ukrainian writers which center on Kievan Rus', medieval Muscovy, and the period of imperial expansion. These texts are analyzed within several interrelated theoretical frameworks. In particular, the author's approach is informed by Benedict Anderson's theory of the nation as an "imagined community", Clifford Geertz's concept of "local knowledge", and Rumina Sethi's postcolonial interpretation of the historical novel. This theoretical grounding allows conceptualizing the Soviet historical novel as an active element in a state-sponsored identity construction process where the official doctrines of the existing political system often played only minor roles. The theoretical tools of cultural anthropology highlight the possibilities that are offered by such an approach for the study of popular literary genres, particularly historical fiction. This methodology provides the basis for the main argument that historical novels in Russian and Ukrainian literatures culturally and ideologically were moving in different directions, thereby subverting one of the core principles of the Soviet identity model---the notion of a common transnational past. The dissertation helps in better understanding of how popular fictional texts about the past shaped national and cultural identities of the last Soviet generation.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD

Literary Dimensions of National Identity: The Historical Novel of the Late Soviet Period (1960s--1980s)

233 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2008.The dissertation examines the changes that took place in the popular and ideologically "safest" genre of historical novel in the post-Stalin period in two Soviet literatures, Russian and Ukrainian. In this comparative study the author analyzes a set of novels by Russian and Ukrainian writers which center on Kievan Rus', medieval Muscovy, and the period of imperial expansion. These texts are analyzed within several interrelated theoretical frameworks. In particular, the author's approach is informed by Benedict Anderson's theory of the nation as an "imagined community", Clifford Geertz's concept of "local knowledge", and Rumina Sethi's postcolonial interpretation of the historical novel. This theoretical grounding allows conceptualizing the Soviet historical novel as an active element in a state-sponsored identity construction process where the official doctrines of the existing political system often played only minor roles. The theoretical tools of cultural anthropology highlight the possibilities that are offered by such an approach for the study of popular literary genres, particularly historical fiction. This methodology provides the basis for the main argument that historical novels in Russian and Ukrainian literatures culturally and ideologically were moving in different directions, thereby subverting one of the core principles of the Soviet identity model---the notion of a common transnational past. The dissertation helps in better understanding of how popular fictional texts about the past shaped national and cultural identities of the last Soviet generation.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD

Documenting Flyover Land

Fueled by images of flat plains, small towns, and harsh winters, the midwestern United States is often perceived as nothing more than “flyover land” by outsiders. Though the political climate of the last several years has brought increased attention to the region, it has also reinforced the notion that the Midwest’s small towns and industries have been forgotten. Featuring speakers from Minnesota, Kansas, Iowa, and Missouri, this session will explore the relationship between archives and rural life in the Midwest. Together, the speakers will address how archivists can capture and share stories that challenge the notion that the Midwest is nothing more than “flyover land.” Mark Anderson will explore the connection between documenting rural life in the Midwest and digital collections curation. Jackie Beckey will talk about the availability of resources related to various aspects of rural life in the Midwest, including resources available at her institution that document radical rural midwestern politics, as well as the lack of available documentation for American Indian genealogy research. Volodymyr Chumachenko will present on the ways his institution has done outreach work around records documenting agricultural communities and ranching in Kansas. Roxanne Dunn will talk about overcoming challenges to acquire a collection about a farmer’s rights, which had a direct effect on federal bankruptcy code. Carissa Hansen will speak about her efforts to promote and work with members of a rural community in Minnesota to build awareness for literary manuscript collections that capture small-town life in ways that are often unexpected.</p

Cefuroxime-Loaded Hydrogels for Prevention and Treatment of Bacterial Contamination of Open Wounds

Dextran/Sulfodextran-graft-polyacrylamide- and polyacrylamide-based hydrogels were synthesized by radical polymerization and loaded with cefuroxime to obtain antimicrobial wound dressings. Antibiotic release from the antibiotic-loaded hydrogels into an aqueous solution was studied by the HPLC-UV method. It is shown that cefuroxime-loaded Dextran/Sulfodextran-graft-polyacrylamide hydrogels release the antibiotic more slowly compared to polyacrylamide hydrogel with the same density of cross-links. Antibacterial activity of the synthesized materials was tested in vitro against wild strains of S. aureus, E. coli, and Klebsiella spp. The possibility of using the obtained antimicrobial hydrogels for the treatment of infected wounds was confirmed in vivo in a rat model

Semi-Refined Carrageenan Attenuates Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Reactive Oxygen Species Production in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells and Cell Membrane Alterations in Leukocytes

Aim: To assess the effects of semi-refined carrageenan (E407a) on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and LPS-mediated cell membrane alterations in leukocytes. Methods: Blood samples collected from 8 intact rats were incubated with E407a (10 mg/ml), E407a (50 mg/ml), LPS (1 µg/ml), E407a (10 mg/ml) + LPS (1 µg/ml), E407a (50 mg/ml) + LPS (1 µg/ml) and without those compounds (controls) for 2 h in RPMI 1640 medium enriched with 5% fetal bovine serum. ROS generation in PBMCs obtained from the incubated samples was estimated by flow cytometry using 2',7'-dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate (H2DCFDA) staining. The impact of E407a, LPS and their mixture on leukocyte cell membranes was evaluated spectrofluorimetrically using the fluorescent probe 2-(2¢-hydroxy-phenyl)-5-phenyl-1,3-oxazole. Results: Expectedly, incubation with LPS induced ROS generation in PBMCs and decreased the lipid order of cell membranes in leukocytes. E407a alone was found to alter neither ROS production in PBMCs, nor membrane lipid order in leukocytes. Semi-refined carrageenan partially reduced LPS-mediated ROS overproduction in PBMCs and cell membrane alterations in leukocytes. Conclusion: E407a attenuates LPS-induced alterations of redox homeostasis in rat PBMCs and LPS-mediated modifications of cell membrane lipid order in leukocytes

Gadolinium Orthovanadate GdVO4:Eu3+ Nanoparticles Ameliorate Carrageenan-Induced Intestinal Inflammation

Gadolinium orthovanadate GdVO4:Eu3+&nbsp;nanoparticles (VNPs) have been shown to scavenge reactive oxygen species (ROS), making them a promising therapeutic agent in inflammation. This study aims to assess the effects of VNPs administered orally on E407a-induced inflammation. Materials and Methods: Fragments of the small intestine of 8 rats treated orally with a carrageenan-containing food additive E407a at a dose of 140 mg / kg of weight during 2 weeks, 8 animals orally exposed to both E407a and VNPs at a dose of 20 μg / kg of weight during the same period of time, and 8 control rats were stained routinely and immunostained for CD3 and CD68 with the subsequent immunohistochemical scoring. Moreover, analysis of viability and cell death modes of granulocytes was performed by flow cytometry using Annexin V and 7-aminoactinomycin D (7-AAD). Results: Oral exposure to the food additive E407a resulted in the development of enteritis associated with altered small intestinal morphology, infiltration of the lamina propria with macrophages and T-lymphocytes, and activation of peripheral blood granulocyte apoptosis. VNPs administered against the background of E407a-induced slight intestinal inflammation improved small intestinal morphology, decreased infiltration rate of the immune cells mentioned above without affecting the intensity of granulocyte apoptosis. Conclusion: Oral administration of VNPs ameliorates E407a-induced enteritis