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Repatriation Beyond the Borderlands: The Impact of the Depression of 1921 on Kansas City's Mexican Immigrants During the Great Depression
Get PDFSubmitted to the Department of History of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for departmental honors.During the Great Depression, federal, state, and local authorities throughout the United States utilized large-scale deportation raids and repatriation to eject an estimated 400,000 Mexicans and Mexican-Americans from the country. While previous studies of Mexican repatriation during the Great Depression focus on larger communities near the U.S.-Mexico border, there are very few academic discussions of what repatriation looked like in the Midwest and beyond. The Kansas City metropolitan area contains one of the largest communities of Mexican immigrants in the United States outside of the borderlands. Unlike in Los Angeles, San Antonio, or even Chicago, authorities in Kansas City used large-scale Mexican repatriation in Kansas City prior to the Great Depression, and ultimately learned that repatriation is a temporary solution to a perennial issue. This senior thesis analyzes how Kansas City authorities used repatriation during the Depression of 1921, the ineffectiveness of repatriation in slowing the growth of the Kansas City barrio, and the community-building that took place between 1921 and 1929 that proved crucial to the staying power of Mexicans in Kansas City through the Great Depression
Writing a Modern Land: Discourses of Environmental Modernity in Twentieth-century Xinjiang
No full textThis dissertation argues that Xinjiang’s human history cannot be fully understood apart from its non-human history. It explores a ‘problematic of environmental modernity’ in the context of Xinjiang, and, through discourse analysis of Chinese and Uyghur-language state newspapers and other elements of state discourse, argues that Xinjiang’s environments served in the twentieth century as a canvas onto which (and with which) modernizers painted their conception of a new, modern society. Thus, in the case of Xinjiang, discourses on the environment were inextricably intertwined with modern human politics and society.The mid-twentieth-century (1930s-1950s) state newspapers that serve as this dissertation’s foundations—from the Xinjiang Daily (Xinjiang Ribao) and Xinjiang Gazette (Shinjang Géziti), to the Kashgar Gazette (Qeshqer Géziti) and Xinjiang Youth (Shinjang Yashliri)—cover one of Xinjiang (and China’s) most important recent time periods. In Xinjiang the form of the modern that was reflected in these newspapers was often experienced as an abrupt and traumatic crisis of identity and community. Xinjiang’s early and mid-twentieth century also saw a dizzying number of political regimes, for which the above newspapers served as both accounts of record and sympathetic, state-linked ‘actors.’ From at least the mid-1930s, all such regimes and their newspapers were deeply involved in the politics of modernization; indeed, and more than any individual ideology, it was the politics of modernization that undergirded change to state and society in Xinjiang during this period. Far from representing a hindrance to the researcher, the state-influenced discourse present in these newspapers is therefore invaluable for uncovering state and societal attitudes regarding the modern, as well as the political, social, and environmental change that such attitudes justified.The seemingly disparate themes and features of Xinjiang’s ‘natural’ environments examined in the body chapters of the dissertation are thus tied together by the modern state-led discourses in which they were enmeshed. Chapter 1 examines the Chinese-language Xinjiang Daily’s coverage of snow in Ürümchi in the 1930s and 1940s, finding the modern state, citizen, and nation present in articles on snow (and post-snow mud) published in the paper. Chapter 2 picks up the story of non-human environments once more in the early PRC, demonstrating that the portrayal of animal husbandry as a modern form of production allowed newspapers to depict Xinjiang’s ‘remote’ regions, peoples, and environments as modern, integral parts of Xinjiang and the nation through a science and statistics-founded discourse of production increase. Chapter 3 examines discourses in Uyghur-language state newspapers regarding non-humans during the early Great Leap Forward, arguing for the Maoist party-state’s broad, deep-rooted engagement with everything from animals to trees to fertilizer in both discourse and action during this critical period. Chapter 4 examines state media discourse on the Heavenly Mountains and Ürümchi River in the 1930s-40s and post-2000 period, tracing the importance of each of these landscape features to Han Chinese travelers, sojourners, and residents as well as to various governments; the chapter also demonstrates the manner in which the Heavenly Mountains were important, officially sanctioned symbols of Xinjiang in both of these periods, while the Ürümchi River became increasingly neglected in both discourse and reality over the course of this nearly century-long span.Consideration of these non-human environments also points toward a major finding of the dissertation: newspaper discourses of modernity positioned Xinjiang’s natural environments not just in a local context, but also in broader regional, national, and global contexts. So, for example, snow removal in the 1930s and 1940s was tied to conceptions of modern citizen and state formed through influences from China, the Soviet Union, and even more distant locales; the Heavenly Mountains became representative not just of Xinjiang but of the Chinese nation; even early PRC newspaper depictions of Xinjiang’s distant hinterlands and animal husbandry sector were tied to a Maoist discourse of heroic production inseparable from the broader, centuries-long history of global capitalism. In newspaper discourse, Xinjiang’s unique non-human environments thus became situated in a discursive space in which local and broader influences met and overlapped. This dissertation further demonstrates that the influence of the modern contributed significantly to the dramatic increase in the scale, organization, and homogenization of environmental and human transformation in Xinjiang from at least the 1930s on.In accessing the recent history of Xinjiang through non-human environments, this dissertation contributes new, important insights into both the human and non-human history of Xinjiang. It argues that Xinjiang’s last century (including projects of power) cannot be fully understood without reference to its non-human environments. And, the dissertation provides a compelling methodology for historians of the environment to ‘speak to’ historians working in other fields, arguing for increased attention to the discursive techniques whereby local landscapes and non-humans are turned into doppelgangers of global ideologies, as well as to the human and environmental effects of such transformations. In twentieth-century Xinjiang, humans and non-humans could be separated neither from one another nor from the influence of the modern
Anthropogenic uranium signatures in turtles, tortoises, and sea turtles from nuclear sites
No full textChelonians (turtles, tortoises, and sea turtles) grow scute keratin in sequential layers over time. Once formed, scute keratin acts as an inert reservoir of environmental information. For chelonians inhabiting areas with legacy or modern nuclear activities, their scute has the potential to act as a time-stamped record of radionuclide contamination in the environment. Here, we measure bulk (i.e. homogenized scute) and sequential samples of chelonian scute from the Republic of the Marshall Islands and throughout the United States of America, including at the Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range, southwestern Utah, the Savannah River Site, and the Oak Ridge Reservation. We identify legacy uranium (235U and 236U) contamination in bulk and sequential chelonian scute that matches known nuclear histories at these locations during the 20th century. Our results confirm that chelonians bioaccumulate uranium radionuclides and do so sequentially over time. This technique provides both a time series approach for reconstructing nuclear histories from significant past and present contexts throughout the world and the ability to use chelonians for long-term environmental monitoring programs (e.g. sea turtles at Enewetok and Bikini Atolls in the Republic of the Marshall Islands and in Japan near the Fukushima Daiichi reactors)
Defining Misinformation and Related Terms in Health-Related Literature: Scoping Review
No full textA grant from the One-University Open Access Fund at the University of Kansas was used to defray the author's publication fees in this Open Access journal. The Open Access Fund, administered by librarians from the KU, KU Law, and KUMC libraries, is made possible by contributions from the offices of KU Provost, KU Vice Chancellor for Research & Graduate Studies, and KUMC Vice Chancellor for Research. For more information about the Open Access Fund, please see http://library.kumc.edu/authors-fund.xml.Background:
Misinformation poses a serious challenge to clinical and policy decision-making in the health field. The COVID-19 pandemic amplified interest in misinformation and related terms and witnessed a proliferation of definitions.
Objective:
We aim to assess the definitions of misinformation and related terms used in health-related literature.
Methods:
We conducted a scoping review of systematic reviews by searching Ovid MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane, and Epistemonikos databases for articles published within the last 5 years up till March 2023. Eligible studies were systematic reviews that stated misinformation or related terms as part of their objectives, conducted a systematic search of at least one database, and reported at least 1 definition for misinformation or related terms. We extracted definitions for the terms misinformation, disinformation, fake news, infodemic, and malinformation. Within each definition, we identified concepts and mapped them across misinformation-related terms.
Results:
We included 41 eligible systematic reviews, out of which 32 (78%) reviews addressed the topic of public health emergencies (including the COVID-19 pandemic) and contained 75 definitions for misinformation and related terms. The definitions consisted of 20 for misinformation, 19 for disinformation, 10 for fake news, 24 for infodemic, and 2 for malinformation. “False/inaccurate/incorrect” was mentioned in 15 of 20 definitions of misinformation, 13 of 19 definitions of disinformation, 5 of 10 definitions of fake news, 6 of 24 definitions of infodemic, and 0 of 2 definitions of malinformation. Infodemic had 19 of 24 definitions addressing “information overload” and malinformation had 2 of 2 definitions with “accurate” and 1 definition “used in the wrong context.” Out of all the definitions, 56 (75%) were referenced from other sources.
Conclusions:
While the definitions of misinformation and related terms in the health field had inconstancies and variability, they were largely consistent. Inconstancies related to the intentionality in misinformation definitions (7 definitions mention “unintentional,” while 5 definitions have “intentional”). They also related to the content of infodemic (9 definitions mention “valid and invalid info,” while 6 definitions have “false/inaccurate/incorrect”). The inclusion of concepts such as “intentional” may be difficult to operationalize as it is difficult to ascertain one’s intentions. This scoping review has the strength of using a systematic method for retrieving articles but does not cover all definitions in the extant literature outside the field of health. This scoping review of the health literature identified several definitions for misinformation and related terms, which showed variability and included concepts that are difficult to operationalize. Health practitioners need to exert caution before labeling a piece of information as misinformation or any other related term and only do so after ascertaining accurateness and sometimes intentionality. Additional efforts are needed to allow future consensus around clear and operational definitions.
J Med Internet Res 2023;25:e45731
doi:10.2196/4573
Cnidofest 2022: hot topics in cnidarian research
No full textThe second annual Cnidarian Model Systems Meeting, aka “Cnidofest”, took place in Davis, California from 7 to 10th of September, 2022. The meeting brought together scientists using cnidarians to study molecular and cellular biology, development and regeneration, evo-devo, neurobiology, symbiosis, physiology, and comparative genomics. The diversity of topics and species represented in presentations highlighted the importance and versatility of cnidarians in addressing a wide variety of biological questions. In keeping with the spirit of the first meeting (and its predecessor, Hydroidfest), almost 75% of oral presentations were given by early career researchers (i.e., graduate students and postdocs). In this review, we present research highlights from the meeting
SINGLET FISSION FOR PEROVSKITE SOLAR CELL
No full textThe perovskite solar cell has recently gained momentum within the renewable energy industry due to its unique advantages such as high efficiency and cost-effectiveness. However, its instability remains a challenge to its commercialization. In this study, a singlet fission material, namely tetracene, is coupled with the perovskite solar cell to simulate its effect on the solar cell. The amount of thermalization loss and the temperature of the perovskite layer are simulated and analyzed to indicate the mechanism’s effectiveness. We found that coupling the tetracene layer resulted in a drastic reduction in thermalization loss and a slower slope in perovskite layer temperature. This indicates that tetracene would stabilize the perovskite solar cell and minimize its potential losses. The thickness of the solar cell layers is also analyzed as a factor of the overall effectiveness of singlet fission on solar cells
The Fergana Valley Is an Isolate of Biodiversity: A Discussion of the Endemic Herpetofauna and Description of Two New Species of Alsophylax (Sauria: Gekkonidae) from Eastern Uzbekistan
No full textThe high level of endemism in Fergana Valley has been well documented in numerous studies for various groups of animals and plants. In a relatively small area, there are 45 endemic plant species, five endemic insect species, and five endemic reptile species. In surveying this area for data on distribution, abundance, acoustics, and genetic samples for species of reptiles, we discovered two new species of gecko from the genus Alsophylax. Phylogenetic analyses of mitochondrial DNA sequences indicate the relatives of these new species are the even-fingered gecko, Alsophylax pipiens, and the southern even-fingered gecko, Alsophylax laevis, located hundreds of kilometers to the northwest and southwest of the Fergana Valley. The threats to these new endemic species are significant given the amount of continued agricultural development that involves new territories previously considered “unsuitable” for any species of significance that is leading to the further reduction in, fragmentation of, and degradation of the remaining natural ecosystems in the Fergana Valley. The conservation of these rare and locally endemic species depends directly on the readiness of the state to create areas with IUCN I and II protection. The many studies documenting levels of endemism, along with the data published in this study, are the basis for the justification for state-protected areas in the Fergana Valley
Repeated passive visual experience modulates spontaneous and non-familiar stimuli-evoked neural activity
No full textFamiliarity creates subjective memory of repeated innocuous experiences, reduces neural and behavioral responsiveness to those experiences, and enhances novelty detection. The neural correlates of the internal model of familiarity and the cellular mechanisms of enhanced novelty detection following multi-day repeated passive experience remain elusive. Using the mouse visual cortex as a model system, we test how the repeated passive experience of a 45° orientation-grating stimulus for multiple days alters spontaneous and non-familiar stimuli evoked neural activity in neurons tuned to familiar or non-familiar stimuli. We found that familiarity elicits stimulus competition such that stimulus selectivity reduces in neurons tuned to the familiar 45° stimulus; it increases in those tuned to the 90° stimulus but does not affect neurons tuned to the orthogonal 135° stimulus. Furthermore, neurons tuned to orientations 45° apart from the familiar stimulus dominate local functional connectivity. Interestingly, responsiveness to natural images, which consists of familiar and non-familiar orientations, increases subtly in neurons that exhibit stimulus competition. We also show the similarity between familiar grating stimulus-evoked and spontaneous activity increases, indicative of an internal model of altered experience
Correlating Surface Chemistry to Surface Relaxivity via TD-NMR Studies of Polymer Particle Suspensions
No full textThis study elucidates the impact of surface chemistry on solvent spin relaxation rates via time-domain nuclear magnetic resonance (TD-NMR). Suspensions of polymer particles of known surface chemistry were prepared in water and n-decane. Trends in solvent transverse relaxation rates demonstrated that surface polar functional groups induce stronger interactions with water with the opposite effect for n-decane. NMR surface relaxivities (ρ2) calculated for the solid–fluid pairs ranged from 0.4 to 8.0 μm s–1 and 0.3 to 5.4 μm s–1 for water and n-decane, respectively. The values of ρ2 for water displayed an inverse relationship to contact angle measurements on surfaces of similar composition, supporting the correlation of the TD-NMR output with polymer wettability. Surface composition, i.e., H/C ratios and heteroatom content, mainly contributed to the observed surface relaxivities compared to polymer % crystallinity and mean particle sizes via multiple linear regression. Ultimately, these findings emphasize the significance of surface chemistry in TD-NMR measurements and provide a quantitative foundation for future research involving TD-NMR investigations of wetted surface area and fluid-surface interactions. A comprehensive understanding of the factors influencing solvent relaxation in porous media can aid the optimization of industrial processes and the design of materials with enhanced performance