4B2: Men, Military, and the Law: An Examination of Conscription During World War I and Its Legal Challenges

As in the case of the American Civil War, conscription was implemented during World War I to serve the military needs of the nation. As voluntary enlistment had again decreased, the US Congress responded with another conscription bill to institute another federally controlled system of conscription to require the service of America’s male population. Republican Representative Julius Kahn introduced the Selective Service Act. A conscription call, and registration for conscription, would be a joint effort by the US Congress and President Woodrow Wilson. The members of Congress, that supported conscription, expressed their belief that men were required to serve the nation in times of need. They additionally expressed a desire to ensure an effective plan would be in place to muster in the requisite number of men rather than rely on volunteerism. Opponents to conscription expressed concern with the growing expanse of the military since they viewed conscription as an extension of power beyond what is granted in the US Constitution. Wilson supported the measure, and signed the bill into law on May 18, 1917. President Wilson issued a proclamation on May 18, 1917. This proclamation, Proclamation 1370, outlined the requirements of self-registration of men, the penalties for those that did not register, and the penalties for men that committed fraud. President Wilson, similar to President Abraham Lincoln, made pleas to a man’s patriotism. Both of these presidents used patriotism as a measure to determine the loyalty and obedience of men for their compliance and support of this military policy. Wilson took this idea a step farther to discuss how compliance for this military policy illustrated how the nation was now united to serve as an army. While conscription was not new, Wilson explained that this moment was significant for the United States since it ushered in a new sense of duty among all Americans (including civilians) for a common purpose. The legality of conscription was challenged during World War I. Unlike the American Civil War, the US Supreme Court heard a case regarding the legality of conscription. Among the legal challenges, the litigants questioned conscription as being inconsistent with the Thirteenth Amendment. The case is known as the Selective Draft Law Cases 245 U.S. 366 (1917). This project will explore the legal challenges to expose the anti-war and anti-conscription efforts in the United States. Wilson, fearful of resistance against this policy, ordered that this measure be called Selective Service. Wilson believed the term ‘conscription’ bore such a negative connotation, which would cause resistance. Despite the change in terminology, Americans resisted against conscription during this conflict. The case presented to the Court highlights the main arguments of those against conscription policies. The Court’s ruling reaffirmed its supports arguments of conscription’s legal grounding

With Malice toward Some: Treason and Loyalty in the Civil War Era

Review of: "With Malice toward Some: Treason and Loyalty in the Civil War Era," by William A. Blair

Optimising poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) microparticle fabrication using a Taguchi orthogonal array design-of-experiment approach

© 2019 Mensah et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.The objective of this study was to identify, understand and generate a Taguchi orthogonal array model for the formation of 10–50 μm microparticles with applications in topical/ocular controlled drug delivery. Poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) microparticles were fabricated by the single emulsion oil-in-water method and the particle size was characterized using laser diffraction and scanning electronic microscopy (SEM). Sequential Taguchi L 12 and L 18 orthogonal array (OA) designs were employed to study the influence of ten and eight parameters, respectively, on microparticle size (response). The first optimization step using the L 12 design showed that all parameters significantly influenced the particle size of the prepared PLGA microparticles with exception of the concentration of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) in the hardening bath. The smallest mean particle size obtained from the L 12 design was 54.39 μm. A subsequent L 18 design showed that the molecular weight of PLGA does not significantly affect the particle size. An experimental run comprising of defined parameters including molecular weight of PLGA (89 kDa), concentration of PLGA (20% w/v), concentration of PVA in the emulsion (0.8% w/v), solvent type (ethyl acetate), organic/aqeuous phase ratio (1:1 v/v), vortexing speed (9), vortexing duration (60 seconds), concentration of PVA in hardening bath (0.8% w/v), stirring speed of hardening bath (1200 rpm) and solvent evaporation duration (24 hours) resulted in the lowest mean particle size of 23.51 μm which was predicted and confirmed by the L 18 array. A comparable size was demonstrated during the fabrication of BSA-incorporated microparticles. Taguchi OA design proved to be a valuable tool in determining the combination of process parameters that can provide the optimal condition for microparticle formulation. Taguchi OA design can be used to correctly predict the size of microparticles fabricated by the single emulsion process and can therefore, ultimately, save time and costs during the manufacturing process of drug delivery formulations by minimising experimental runs.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

SNTF immunostaining reveals previously undetected axonal pathology in traumatic brain injury

Diffuse axonal injury (DAI) is a common feature of severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) and may also be a predominant pathology in mild TBI or “concussion”. The rapid deformation of white matter at the instant of trauma can lead to mechanical failure and calcium-dependent proteolysis of the axonal cytoskeleton in association with axonal transport interruption. Recently, a proteolytic fragment of alpha-II spectrin, “SNTF”, was detected in serum acutely following mild TBI in patients and was prognostic for poor clinical outcome. However, direct evidence that this fragment is a marker of DAI has yet to be demonstrated in either humans following TBI or in models of mild TBI. Here, we used immunohistochemistry (IHC) to examine for SNTF in brain tissue following both severe and mild TBI. Human severe TBI cases (survival <7d; n = 18) were compared to age-matched controls (n = 16) from the Glasgow TBI archive. We also examined brains from an established model of mild TBI at 6, 48 and 72 h post-injury versus shams. IHC specific for SNTF was compared to that of amyloid precursor protein (APP), the current standard for DAI diagnosis, and other known markers of axonal pathology including non-phosphorylated neurofilament-H (SMI-32), neurofilament-68 (NF-68) and compacted neurofilament-medium (RMO-14) using double and triple immunofluorescent labeling. Supporting its use as a biomarker of DAI, SNTF immunoreactive axons were observed at all time points following both human severe TBI and in the model of mild TBI. Interestingly, SNTF revealed a subpopulation of degenerating axons, undetected by the gold-standard marker of transport interruption, APP. While there was greater axonal co-localization between SNTF and APP after severe TBI in humans, a subset of SNTF positive axons displayed no APP accumulation. Notably, some co-localization was observed between SNTF and the less abundant neurofilament subtype markers. Other SNTF positive axons, however, did not co-localize with any other markers. Similarly, RMO-14 and NF-68 positive axonal pathology existed independent of SNTF and APP. These data demonstrate that multiple pathological axonal phenotypes exist post-TBI and provide insight into a more comprehensive approach to the neuropathological assessment of DAI

Decentralization in Argentina

Human development, reflected in the status of people's levels of health and education, affects future growth and, in turn, is affected by decentralization. Unlike earlier exclusive emphasis on budgetary issues, this study focuses on the impact of fiscal decentralization on the level of human development. It traces the origin and recent development of revenue-sharing arrangements across Argentina's provinces over time (1970-94). The study regresses two indicators of health and educational status on two decentralization measures. It highlights the link between decentralization and human development outcomes and suggests that devolutionary decentralization has a positive influence on the effectiveness of public policy directed towards an improvement in the level of human development. Decentralization is shown to reduce intra- regional disparities and increase levels of human development. While the paper also recognizes problems associated with decentralization, including addressing inter-regional disparities, the positive impact of decentralization schemes on human development is seen to be of relevance in evaluating the Argentine co-participation regime which is currently under negotiation.Fiscal Decentralization, Human Development, Argentina

Selective Foraging For Anthropogenic Resources By Black Bears: Minivans In Yosemite National Park

Black bears (Ursus americanus) forage selectively in natural environments. To determine if bears also forage selectively for anthropogenic resources we analyzed data on vehicles broken into by bears from Yosemite National Park, California. We classified vehicles into 9 categories based on their make and model and collected data on use (2001–2007) and availability (2004–2005). From 2001 to 2007 bears broke into 908 vehicles at the following rates: minivan (26.0%), sport–utility vehicle (22.5%), small car (17.1%), sedan (13.7%), truck (11.9%), van (4.2%), sports car (1.7%), coupe (1.7%), and station wagon (1.4%). Only use of minivans (29%) during 2004–2005 was significantly higher than expected (7%). We discuss several competing hypotheses about why bears selected minivans

King y su juguete favorito

Victoria Rodrigo, PhD- Serie Leamos’ EditorProfessor of Spanish World Languages and Cultures DepartmentGeorgia State Universityhttps://scholarworks.gsu.edu/wcl_leamos/1007/thumbnail.jp

Yo no fumo

Victoria Rodrigo, PhD- Serie Leamos’ EditorProfessor of Spanish World Languages and Cultures DepartmentGeorgia State Universityhttps://scholarworks.gsu.edu/wcl_leamos/1035/thumbnail.jp

Action Research in The Time of COVID-19

This study provides a picture of the impact the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) had on action research performed by graduate students at a small Midwest university. A qualitative case study was conducted to examine how the participants’ abilities to implement their research, gather data, and analyze the results was impacted by COVID-19. Participants were asked a series of questions regarding modifications made, the impact to the research that was done, the impact to their findings, and implications for future research. Based on the responses to these surveys, researchers determined four prominent themes; altered timelines, limited access to data and materials, quality of academic work, and long term impacts. Overall, while most participants were impacted by COVID-19, few were discouraged. Considering the research findings of this study, education can greatly be enhanced by a shift in mindset about the processes of teaching and lessons learned by the pandemic

How Receiving Communities Structure Refugee Settlement Experiences: The Case of Burmese Immigrants in DFW

The Dallas-Forth Worth Metroplex (DFW) serves as a diverse resettlement location for globally displaced refugees. While research examines how the nation impacts refugee resettlement, studies that examine the role of the city and community in placemaking are still lacking. In city resettlement investigations, research often focuses broadly on advocacy and political movements rather than the impacts of local-level structures and policies. In this paper, I develop an evaluation model using Jenny Phillimore's categories for successful refugee resettlement that examines how structural barriers, community interactions, and resource accessibility affect space and place for refugee populations. Through an ethnography of Chin and Rohingya refugee communities in DFW, I explore the differences between community-settled and state-settled refugee groups and the idea of an integrated resettlement program. Additionally, I argue that refugees who choose their settlement location in the United States are empowered and thus have a stronger connection to their host community than state-settled refugees. For example, in interviews, the Chin emphasized their ownership of Lewisville and feelings of home, while the Rohingya expressed feelings of placelessness and dispossession in Dallas. As governments push towards an entirely privatized system of refugee resettlement, this research argues for an integrated method that draws upon federal resources and community connections. Through the experiences of Lewisville's Chin community, this research demonstrates the potential of such a program in the United States