Through the power of diplomacy and the influence of neutrality, China freed the four unconvicted airmen in May 1955. The remaining eleven were freed on August 1 st . This event solidified the power and prestige of the UN and established the organization as an independent actor, neutral in its own right. Commonly, neutral countries are popularly defined as countries without an opinion. I disagree with this definition and believe by examining the opinions and papers of government officials, the people, and Dag Hammarskj ö ld during this tense time, we can begin to dissect the truth of neutrality and better understand it.

I am going to visit the Swedish Foreign Ministry archives within the next week to look at files from the Swedish government point of view. Recently, I have been reading and examining files from the Eisenhower and Dulles files of the Eisenhower Library archives and other scholarly articles on this subject. In July, I will be visiting Uppsala, Sweden and the Dag Hammarskj ö ld Library, which includes archived papers of the former Secretary-General and is also a UN archive.

Lauren Argo
Department of Theatre
Mentor: Dr. Barbara Lewis

Carolyn Taylor's Red memory

Develop interest in life as you see it; in people, things, literature, music — the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself. — Henry Miller

My summer research and creativity grant is being used to fund research for a play I am writing based on three dairies I purchased at a yard sale in Danville, Kentucky. The diaries roughly span from 1914 to 1933 and were kept by Carolyn Taylor from Augusta, Kentucky. My summer work deals with transcribing the antique text and researching Carolyn's life in regard to the role of Kentucky women in the twenties. I will be traveling to Augusta, Kentucky to find other remains of her life and record some images of her home. Carolyn Taylor's Red Memory will not only deal with Ms. Taylor's life and writings, but also my search for her through the remains of memory I have stumbled upon. As a playwright, I want to explore the connection between myself and the author of these intricate works, using the diaries as a vehicle to find my own red memory.

Jessica Miller
Advisor: Dr. Paul Trawick
Department of Anthropology

Cultivating the Global Market for Local Sustainability: A Study of Agroecotourism on a Costa Rican Farm

Traveling is a means of communication — a conversation that engages all five senses, and opens roads of understanding among its participants. The search for that dialogue is what drives millions of travelers every year to the most beautiful and pristine examples of earth's self-expression. The ecotourism movement has endeavored to utilize that yearning to protect natural treasures from development by selling travelers the opportunity to observe, admire, and study preserved locations. The demand that this creates for preservation of natural resources, and the money that ecotourism generates for preservation ostensibly protects the land from development, and thus protects the culture of its inhabitants.

Though ecotourism proposes ambitious ideals for

sustainability, there are currently many holes in its implementation. In many cases, international non-governmental organizations (NGO's) have sponsored ecotourist projects in order to integrate undeveloped communities into the international market. However, due to a lack of international regulations, and a frequent lack of consultation with the indigenous groups, the local community becomes vulnerable to foreign interests instead of the environmental or social impact of the projects.

New forms of ecotourism have taken root in local communities that hope to answer such problems. Agrotourism, for example, is a form of rural tourism, in which visitors have the opportunity to participate in the functioning of the system that they visit, and thus become participants in the local culture. My study will concentrate on La Flor de Para í so, an agro-ecotourism farm in Costa Rica that combines the ideas of eco and agrotourism. La Flor offers tours of the farm and nearby natural treasures, lodging, and meals to travelers. It also invites volunteers to help with sustainable, organic agricultural practices, with the projects for reforestation, and with the education of the local community regarding sustainable development. The sponsoring NGO, ASODECAH, or the Association for the Development of Environmental and Human Consciousness was constituted in 1998 in order to incorporate the local community into agricultural and social sustainability projects.

Before visiting the farm, I will visit Heredia, where I will be staying with a family and utilizing the resources at the School of Geographic Sciences, Natural Resources, and Tourism in order to gather preliminary research on the history of eco and agrotourism in Costa Rica. From there, I will travel to La Flor de Para í so, where I will conduct participatory observation as a volunteer, noting the influence of the farm and its participants on the natural resources, and mapping its effect on the local culture. I will converse with the volunteers and the ecotourists in order to understand their backgrounds, their incentives for visiting the farm, and what they will take home with them from their experience. Likewise, I will speak with the managers of the farm, and the people of the nearby town of La Flor de Santiago in order trace the footprints that agrotourism leaves in the sand of this small community.

Jennifer Konopa
Advisor: Dr. John Thompson
University of Kentucky Chandler Medical Center
Department of Internal Medicine

Absence of the p50 Subunit of NF- k B Significantly Alters TNF a and IL-5 Protein Levels In Vitro

Nuclear factor- k B (NF- k B) can be activated by a variety of stimuli and serves as a transcriptional activator for a variety of inflammatory cytokines. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that the p50 subunit of NF- k B is necessary for the expression of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF a ) and interleukin-5 (IL-5) following in vitro activation . Lymphocytes were isolated from p50 negative mice (p50-/-) and wild-type (B6.129) control mice. Both groups of cells were then stimulated in vitro with PHA, 3 Gy gamma radiation, radiation plus PHA or received no treatment. Supernatant samples were collected on days 1, 4, and 7 post treatment and IL-5 and TNF a protein levels determined using ELISA and Search Light arrays.

It was found that cells lacking the p50 gene demonstrated higher levels of TNF a production than did the wild-type controls. P50-/- cells produced 4 to 5 times higher levels of TNF a after stimulation with radiation plus PHA when compared to the wild-type controls cells. Twice as much TNF a was produced by p50-/- cells after receiving radiation alone or PHA alone. IL-5 protein levels in p50-/- cells were in contrast to TNF a . Little to no IL-5 protein was produced by the p50-/- cells. Wild-type control protein levels were up to 50 times higher than that of the p50-/- mice when treated with radiation plus PHA. PHA alone elicited IL-5 levels over 70 times higher in the B6.129 control cells than in the p50-/- cells.