“I WISH I COULD FLY TO THE SKY AND BRING CHILDREN SOME BREAD”: MYTHOPOETICS OF YULIA NOVOSELOVA

Works of contemporary Ural poet Yulia Novoselova (1973) are considered in regards to the way she constructs the poetic world of rhymes and in the light of "female poetry". The collection of poems “The spell of realism” (2018) has provided a ground for further study. The study has revealed that specific nature of Yulia Novoselova's individuality is determined primarily by her creative interpretation of such archetypal images as water and wood. Traditional complex of archetype meanings is actualized in Yulia Novoselova's works: here water is interpreted as life and death, renewal, purification, rebirth; tree acts as connection of earth and sky, living and dead, light and darkness. However, the images of wood and water in Yulia’s lyrics are often associated with "female" focus in the lyrical subject. It is the water the heroine associates her identity with. The article outlines the dialogue of the poet with Russian folklore: she addresses to folklore intonation-rhythmic, lexical expressiveness, and to the genre models of lamentation, callings (so-called zaklichki). In the course of poem study, we reveal the connection of Yulia Novoselova's lyrics with myths and folklore as well as with the works of Russian poets starting from Alexander S. Pushkin to Vera Pavlova. As a result, it is concluded that the 1990-2010-ies lyrics of Yulia Novoselova fits into the “female poetry” of the “second wave” (I.V. Kukulin), which is characterized by a combination of opposite complexes: weakness, vulnerability and strength, energy. However, the poet's craving for archaic nature (myth, folklore, dialectal words, obsolete words) and the tendency to loosen the syllabic-tonic system of versification make Yulia Novoselova unique among female poets of 1990-2000-ies.

TONIC ACTIVITY AND GRAVITATIONAL CONTROL OF THE POSTURAL MUSCLE

The review is an attempt to describe and give a meaning to the accumulated data about the mechanisms controlling the structure and functionality of the postural muscle the almost continuous work of which makes it possible for the humans and animals to exist actively on Earth's surface. A great bulk of these data was obtained, described and systematized by professor I.B. Kozlovskaya and her pupils. A body of the most interesting facts and regularities was documented in other laboratories and research centers, quite often under the influence of ideas suggested by I.B. Kozlovskaya. The concept of the tonic system, that is, an integral physiological apparatus comprising not only slow and fast muscular fibers and small controlling motoneurons but also a complex of the brain (up to and including the striatum and motor cortex) and sensory mechanisms, constitutes the most important parts of her theoretical legacy. The fundamental conclusion of this review is that the gravity-dependent tonic contracting activity of the postural muscle controlled by the nervous system and afferent mechanisms is key to maintaining its structure, signal pathways and mechanic properties crucial for its constant anti-gravity activity.

The Different Connections and Motor Outputs of Lateral and Medial Giant Fibres in the Crayfish

1. High-speed cinematography was used to analyse the abdominal movements of crayfish in response to separate stimulation of medial and lateral giant axons. These films showed that the medial giant fibres command complete abdominal flexions with little flaring of the tail appendages. The lateral giants, in contrast, evoked a relatively weak flexion of the middle abdominal segments, accompanied by promotion of the exopodites of the uropods. 2. An examination of the muscles activated by the two types of giant fibres shows that differences in the connexions between the giant fibres and specific motor neurones can account for the behavioural differences observed. 3. The output of the giant fibres was determined in the sixth abdominal ganglion, where their differential effects are most pronounced. The medial giants activate motor neurones whose axons emerge from root 6 of the sixth ganglion. The lateral giants activate motor neurones whose axons emerge via roots 2 and 3, as well as those emerging via root 6. 4. The larger motor neurones associated with the giant axons in the sixth root of the sixth ganglion have been mapped by Procion Yellow injection, and the terminations of the central giant axons in the sixth ganglion have also been determined. The connexions revealed by this technique are consistent with the physiological findings. 5. The evidence suggests that root 6 of the sixth ganglion is homologous with root 3 of the more anterior ganglia. However, the giant motor neurone of the sixth ganglion has not been identified. 6. The medial and lateral giant fibres, and perhaps other specific ‘command’ interneurones, can thus drive specific ensembles of phasic motor neurones to provide a range of stereotyped quick movements. In this respect the organization of the phasic system of interneurones and motor neurones resembles that in the tonic system.

ERREGUNGSPHYSIOLOGISCHE REGELWIRKUNGEN VON 17β-OESTRADIOL AM MYOMETRIUM

ABSTRACT Investigations have been carried out as to the effect of 17β-oestradiol on the mechanism of excitation of the single uterine muscle fibre of spayed rats. In preliminary experiments aqueous solutions of oestradiol monophosphate and oestrone sulphate succeded in the inhibition of the frequency of contraction, of the amplitude and of the tonus of the uterus in noncastrated rats. Preceding this effect there was a short transient increase of the amplitude lasting for one or two contractions. Action potentials of the uterus disappear in spayed animals as do the two kinds of shortening of the hormonal stimulated uterus. While the normal uterus has a tonic system, which is induced by the membrane potential and a phasic system, stimulated by tetanic excitements, the uterus of castrated rats exhibits flat, tonic contractions maintained by fluctuations of the membrane potential. This potential has a mean value of −57.3± 1.2 mV. The membrane potential increases to −75.4 ±1.4 mV after treatment with 2.5 μg oestradiol-3-monophosphate for 10 days. Higher doses as 10 or 50 μg oestradiol are not able to increase the potential to any further extent. Therefore we can demonstrate a steep decline in the dose-effect relationship between 0.0 and 0.4 μg oestradiol. After treatment with the hormone the uterus comes into a position to form action potentials. Therefore the Na-carrier system of the muscle fibre must be depending on oestrogens. The amplitude of the action potentials, however, is still smaller than in pregnancy. The spontaneous fluctuations of the membrane potential of castrated animals are suppressed by a membrane stabilizing effect of oestradiol.

The spindle and extrafusal innervation of a frog muscle

In the frog muscle, ext. long. dig. IV, there are two or three spindle systems. Each consists of a bundle of intrafusal muscle fibres with two, three or four discrete encapsulated sensory regions distributed in mechanical series along it. A sensory region is usually comprised of the coiled branches of one afferent axon. These embrace the intrafusal fibres and ultimately form long fine varicose endings on or near them. The intrafusal striations appear to be lost for a short distance within the sensory region, and in this region the intrafusal fibre nuclei crowd together. The ‘small’ extrafusal efferents break up into trusses of fine unmyelinated axons and terminate as ‘grape’ end-plates, several of which can occur on the same muscle fibre. This is the ‘tonic’ system. The ‘large’ extrafusal efferents terminate as ‘Endbiischel’ end-plates on muscle fibres not supplied by grape endings. This is the ‘twitch’ system. Both ‘grape' and ‘twitch’ end-plates occur on the intrafusal bundle (probably on separate fibres) between the sensory regions. They are supplied by branches of ‘small’ or ‘large’ axons respectively, which also innervate extrafusal fibres. Thus like the extrafusals the intrafusal bundle is composed of ‘tonic’ and ‘twitch’ muscle fibres. This situation contrasts with that of the mammal, where extrafusals are exclusively ‘twitch’ fibres and intrafusals ‘tonic’.