Reserve Component Personnel Issues: Questions and Answers

[Excerpt] The term “Reserve Component” is used to refer collectively to the seven individual reserve components of the armed forces: the Army National Guard of the United States, the Army Reserve, the Navy Reserve, the Marine Corps Reserve, the Air National Guard of the United States, the Air Force Reserve, and the Coast Guard Reserve. The purpose of these seven reserve components, as codified in law at 10 U.S.C. 10102, is to “provide trained units and qualified persons available for active duty in the armed forces, in time of war or national emergency, and at such other times as the national security may require, to fill the needs of the armed forces whenever more units and persons are needed than are in the regular components.” During the Cold War era, the reserve components were a manpower pool that was rarely tapped. For example, from 1945 to 1989, reservists were involuntarily activated by the federal government only four times, an average of less than once per decade. Since the end of the Cold War, however, the nation has relied more heavily on the reserve components. Since 1990, reservists have been involuntarily activated by the federal government six times, an average of once every three years, including two large-scale mobilizations: for the Persian Gulf War (1990-91) and in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks (2001-present) . This increasing use of the reserves has led to greater congressional interest in the various issues, such as funding, equipment, and personnel policy, that bear on the vitality of the reserve components. This report is designed to provide an overview of key reserve component personnel issues. This report provides insight to reserve component personnel issues through a series of questions and answers: how many people are in different categories of the reserve component (question 3); how reserve component personnel are organized (questions 2 and 4); how reserve component personnel have been and may be utilized (questions 1, 5, 6, 7, 9, and 11); how reserve component personnel are compensated (questions 8 and 10); the type of legal protections that exist for reserve component personnel (question 12); recent changes in reserve component pay and benefits made by Congress (question 13); and reserve component personnel issues that might be of particular interest in the second session of the 110th Congress (question 14). This report will be updated as needed

Granulocyte-activating mediators (GRAM)

In the present study we investigated the capability of human epidermal cells to generate granulocyte-activating mediators (GRAM). It could be shown that human epidermal cells as well as an epidermoid carcinoma cell line (A431) produce an epidermal cell-derived granulocyte-activating mediator (EC-GRAM) which stimulates human granulocytes to release significant levels of toxic oxygen radicals as measured by a lucigenin-dependent chemiluminescence (CL). For further characterization of EC-GRAM the A431 cell line was used. Supernatants of A431 cells usually contained maximal EC-GRAM levels within 24 h of incubation. Factor production was enhanced by bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS), but not by silica particles and PHA. Moreover, freeze-thaw lysates of A431 cells and extracts of heat-separated human epidermis contained significant levels of EC-GRAM. Preincubation of granulocytes with EC-GRAM resulted in an enhanced response to subsequent stimulation with the chemotactic peptide f-met-phe. In contrast EC-GRAM did not affect the response to PMA or zymosan particles. However, EC-GRAM treated granulocytes were unresponsive to restimulation with EC-GRAM. Upon high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) gel filtration EC-GRAM eluted within two major peaks exhibiting a molecular weight of 17 kD and 44 kD. According to its biochemical and biological properties EC-GRAM can be separated from other cytokines such as ETAF/-interleukin 1, interleukin 2, interferons, granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) and tumor necrosis factor (TNF). However, an antibody to human GM-CSF neutralized about 75% of the activity. These results indicate that EC-GRAM activity stimulating the generation of reactive oxygen species by granulocytes is probably due to GM-CSF

Real Output Costs of Financial Crises: A Loss Distribution Approach

We study cross-country GDP losses due to financial crises in terms of frequency (number of loss events per period) and severity (loss per occurrence). We perform the Loss Distribution Approach (LDA) to estimate a multi-country aggregate GDP loss probability density function and the percentiles associated to extreme events due to financial crises. We find that output losses arising from financial crises are strongly heterogeneous and that currency crises lead to smaller output losses than debt and banking crises. Extreme global financial crises episodes, occurring with a one percent probability every five years, lead to losses between 2.95% and 4.54% of world GDP.Comment: 31 pages, 10 figure

Military Pay: Key Questions and Answers

[Excerpt] The military compensation system is complex and includes an array of cash compensation elements, non-cash compensation (benefits), deferred compensation (retirement pay and benefits), and tax advantages. This report focuses primarily on the cash compensation provided to members of the active component armed forces. Other CRS reports cover military retirement and health care. Military compensation is a critical tool for sustaining recruiting, retention and the overall quality of the force. Over the years of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, particularly during times of major combat operations, robust compensation has been an important mechanism by which Congress helped the services, and particularly the Army, meet their recruiting and retention goals. Today, the average cost to compensate an active duty servicemember—to include cash, benefits, and contributions to retirement programs—is estimated at about $90,000-$100,000 per year, although some estimates are higher (methodologies vary). As a result, some analysts believe that the military compensation is now too high and is impeding efforts to modernize equipment and sustain readiness, particularly given the budgetary limits imposed by the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA; P.L. 112-25). Others argue that robust compensation is essential to maintaining a high-quality force that is vigorous, well-trained, experienced, and able to function effectively in austere and volatile environments. The availability of additional funding to prosecute wars in Iraq and Afghanistan mitigated the pressure to trade-off personnel and equipment costs for many years, but the current budgetary environment appears to have brought these trade-offs to the fore again

The making of the institutional theory of social costs: Discovering the K. W. Kapp and J. M. Clark Correspondence

This article reconstructs the making of the often "overlooked" institutional theory of social costs based on the unexploited correspondence between John Maurice Clark and Karl William Kapp. The reconstruction demonstrates that the institutional argument on social costs was developed as a critique of neoclassical economics and of post-WWII neoliberalism. © 2013 American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Inc

Stability periods between financial crises : The role of macroeconomic fundamentals and crises management policies

The aim of this paper is to identify which factors explain why some countries are more prone to enjoy long durations of stability, while others experience crises in shorter intervals. To this end, we analyze the duration of stability periods between currency, debt, and banking crises from 1980 to 2008. We find that durations of tranquility between currency and debt crises are bimodally distributed, making conventional econometric models unsuitable. Therefore, we introduce an innovative econometric strategy, the Finite Mixture Model. Real and financial variables are found to have high predictive power for the spell of stability between currency crises, while for debt crises, the real interest rate is observed to be the best predictor. The time between the occurrence of systemic financial crises is prolonged through large-scale government interventions and IMF aid programs, while recapitalization turns out to have a negative impact.Financial crises, Finite mixture model, duration, bimodality.

FY2018 National Defense Authorization Act: Selected Military Personnel Issues

[Excerpt] Military personnel issues typically generate significant interest from many Members of Congress and their staffs. This report provides a brief synopsis of selected sections in the National Defense Authorization Act for FY2018 (H.R. 2810), as passed by the House on July 14, 2017, and the Senate on September 18, 2017. The FY2018 NDAA conference report was passed by the House on November 14, 2017, and the Senate on November 16, 2017. On December 12, President Donald J. Trump signed the bill into law (P.L. 115-91). Issues include military end-strengths, pay and benefits, and other personnel policy issues. This report focuses exclusively on the NDAA legislative process. It does not include language concerning appropriations, or tax implications of policy choices, topics that are addressed in other CRS products. Issues that have been discussed in the previous year’s defense personnel reports are designated with an asterisk in the relevant section titles of this report

Noise Pollution? What\u27s the solution?: Understanding Traffic Noise Pollution in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

Noise pollution can be damaging to a community by impacting its atmosphere as well as the health of its residents, local quality of life, and local economy. Our study sought to gain insight into the level of noise pollution in Gettysburg, both in-town and on the Gettysburg College campus, and how noise pollution may be affecting the local residents and students. We selected 9 sampling sites, 6 in-town and 3 on the college campus, and measured the noise pollution in dBA with portable sound meters three days a week and three times a day over a three week period. Our data showed no major trends in terms of time of day or day of the week, but there were clear differences in noise pollution levels between the different sites in that town sites were generally louder than on campus sites. Noise pollution in town was often louder than 70 dBA, the noise threshold that indicates possible hearing damage overtime set by the World Health Organization. Gettysburg has recently enacted a noise ordinance; our study suggests the Borough possibly could do more to mitigate traffic noise by repairing roads and manipulating road design