Ukrainian \yii-'kra-ne-3n\ language formerly Ruthenian \ru-'the-ne-9n\ language Slavic language spoken by about 41 million people in Ukraine, Poland, Slovakia, Russia, and in enclaves around the world. Only about three-quarters of Ukrainians are first-language speak¬ ers of Ukrainian, but there are millions of first-language speakers in Rus¬ sia, Belarus, and the Central Asian republics. Ukraine’s premodem literary language was Church Slavonic (see Old Church Slavonic lan¬ guage). Ukrainian was one component in the chancery language of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which also mixed Church Slavonic, Belaru-
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sian, and Polish. With the fall of the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks in the 18th century, Ukrainian speakers were stateless and the status of the language, thought of as peasant speech by the nobility, was low. The language and orthography (using a form of the Cyrillic alphabet) were gradually stan¬ dardized in the 19th century.
ukulele \,yu-k3-'la-le\ Small Hawaiian four-stringed guitar. It developed out of a similar Portuguese instrument introduced to Hawaii by sailors in the 1870s. It became highly popular in the U.S. after World War I, when it was used in jazz and bluegrass ensembles and more widely as an ama¬ teur solo instrument.
UI a an baa tar or Ulan Bator \ 1 u- 1 lan- , ba- 1 tor\ City (pop., 2002 est.: mun., 812,500), capital of Mongolia. Situated on a windswept plateau, it was founded in the mid-17th century as the residence of the bodgo-gegen, the high priest of Tibetan Buddhism. It subsequently became a trading centre on caravan routes between Russia and China; it remains the prin¬ cipal junction of Mongolian transportation routes. The Outer Mongolian revolt for independence was centred there in 1911. Ulaanbaatar became the capital when the Mongolian People’s Republic was established in 1924 and remained the capital when the country’s name was changed to Mongolia in 1992. It is the country’s main industrial centre.
Ulaid cycle See Ulster cycle
Ulam Vu-lomV, Stanislaw M(arcin) (b. April 13, 1909, Lemberg, Pol., Austria-Hungary —d. May 13, 1984, Santa Fe, N.M., U.S.) Polish- born U.S. mathematician and atomic physicist. He received his doctoral degree in 1933 and was invited by John von Neumann to Princeton Uni¬ versity’s Institute for Advanced Study in 1936. In 1943 he moved to Los Alamos, N.M., where his early work included development (with von Neumann) of the Monte Carlo method of finding approximate solutions to problems. Later, while working on a fusion bomb, he and Edward Teller developed a two-stage radiation implosion design (the “Teller-Ulam con¬ figuration”) that could generate an explosion capable of initiating nuclear fusion, a design that led to the creation of the hydrogen bomb.
Ulan Bator See Ulaanbaatar
Ulanova Vu-Ta-no-voV Galina (Sergeyevna) (b. Jan. 8, 1910, St. Petersburg, Russia—d. March 21, 1998, Moscow) Russian ballet dancer, the first prima ballerina assoluta of the Soviet Union. She trained with Agrippina Vaganova in Leningrad and in 1928 joined the Kirov Theatre (formerly Mariinsky Theatre) company, where she began to dance leading roles and to develop the unique lyrical, dramatic style that won her wide acclaim. In 1944 she moved to the Bolshoi Ballet, and during the 1950s she toured to great acclaim with the company in Europe and the U.S. She retired from dancing in 1962 but continued as ballet mistress and coach at the Bolshoi.
Ulbricht \'ul-,brikt,\ English \'ul-,brikt\, Walter (b. June 30, 1893, Leipzig, Ger.—d. Aug. 1, 1973, East Berlin, E.Ger.) German communist leader and head of East Germany (1960-73). He joined the German Com¬ munist Party after World War I and was elected to its central committee in 1923. He led the party in Berlin (1929-33), then fled abroad after the Nazi takeover. As an agent for the Comintern, he persecuted Trotskyites and other deviationists. In 1945 he returned to the Soviet-occupied zone of Germany, helped form the Socialist Unity Party (SED) in East Ger¬ many, and served as its general secretary (1950-71). He served as deputy premier of East Germany (1949-60) and as chairman of its council of state (1960-73). A constant foe of West Germany, he built the Berlin Wall in 1961. He exercised rigid control over East Germany while developing its industrial strength. He was forced to retire as first secretary of the SED in 1971 when the Soviet Union opened new relations with West Germany, but he retained his position as head of state until his death.
ulcer Concave sore on the skin or lining of an organ, with well-defined, sometimes raised edges. Erosion of surface tissue may extend to deeper layers. The main symptom is pain. The term most often refers to peptic ulcer but also includes skin ulcer, common on legs with varicose veins and the feet of people with diabetes mellitus (when nerve damage has reduced sensation), and decubitus ulcer (bedsore or pressure sore). Other causes include infec¬ tion, trauma (e.g., burn, frostbite), improper nutrition (e.g., thiamine defi¬ ciency), and cancer (likely in ulcers hard to the touch). Skin ulcers over a month old should be checked for cancer, especially after middle age.
ulcerative colitis \ko-'H-t3s\ Inflammation of the colon, especially of its mucous membranes. The inflamed membranes develop patches of tiny
ulcers, and the diarrhea contains blood and mucus. It often becomes chronic, with sustained fever and weight loss; complications and death may result. Specific causes, such as amoebic or bacillary dysentery, are rarer than unknown or multiple causes. If treatment with sulfasalazine, corticosteroids, immunosuppressive drugs, or antibiotics does not control it, part or all of the colon may have to be removed.
Ullmann, Liv (b. Dec. 16, 1939, Tokyo, Japan) Norwegian film actress. Raised mainly in Canada and the U.S., she returned to Norway and made her stage debut in Oslo. She became internationally famous in the films of Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, including Persona (1966), The Pas¬ sion of Anna (1969), Cries and Whispers (1972), Scenes from a Marriage (1973), and Autumn Sonata (1978). Noted for her expressive face, natu¬ ral beauty, and intelligent performances, she also starred in other Swed¬ ish and international films, including The Emigrants (1971) and The New Land (1973), and appeared on stage in the U.S. and Europe. She directed and cowrote Sofie (1993) and directed Private Confessions (1999) from Bergman’s screenplay.