Slavery Under the Thirteenth Amendment: Race and the Law of Crime and Punishment in the Post-Civil War South

The article discusses how the Thirteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution expressly permitted a recurrence of slavery, provided only that such enslavement constitutes a punishment for violating a criminal statute. It reports new forms of slavery that spread across the South in ways more or less consistent with the language of the Thirteenth Amendment

Law and the Boundaries of Place and Race in Interracial Marriage: Interstate Comity, Racial Identity, and Miscegenation Laws in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia, 1860s-1960s

This essay draws from case materials in three states to explore two of the main problems in enforcing—or escaping conviction under—laws in the United States against interracial marriage during the hundred years after the Civil War. Questions of interstate comity and racial identity, though not both involved in every miscegenation case, would remain issues in many such cases as long as laws against interracial marriage remained in effect. Only in 1967, when the U.S. Supreme Court decided Loving v. Virginia and declared such laws unconstitutional, would the boundaries of race and place no longer have any bearing on the law of marriage between a man of one race and a woman of anothe

Southern Nation: Congress and White Supremacy after Reconstruction

In Southern Nation: Congress and White Supremacy after Reconstruction, three generations of political scientists or political historians offer a rewarding reexamination of a critical half-century of the history of race and policymaking in the South and the nation. Ira Katznelson, the author of Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time (2013), was the dissertation advisor to John S. Lapinski, author of The Substance of Representation: Congress, Lawmaking, and American Political Development (2013), and he in turn was the graduate advisor to James A. Bateman, author of Disenfranchising Democracy: Constructing a Mass Electorate in the United States, the United Kingdom, and France (2018). To this project they bring their prodigious and complementary strengths, as they examine the mechanics of Congress, of how—and which—legislation got pushed through or thwarted

Phosphorus mobilizing consortium Mammoth P enhances plant growth

Global agricultural productivity may be constrained by the finite and limited supply of phosphorus (P), adding to the challenges in meeting the projected needs of a growing human population in the coming decades. In addition, when P fertilizers are added to soils, they can become bound to soils resulting in low fertilizer efficiency. However, P-mobilizing bacteria could potentially liberate soil-bound P, resulting in a higher plant P uptake and increased yield. Bacteria can mobilize P through several mechanisms, suggesting that consortia of P-bacteria may be more effective than single species. Species diversity can have a synergistic, or non-additive, effect on ecosystem functioning ("the whole is more than the sum of its parts") but rarely is the microbial community structure intentionally managed to improve plant nutrient uptake. We investigated whether inoculation of soils with a four-species bacterial community developed to mobilize soil P could increase plant productivity. In wheat and turf trials, we found that Mammoth P was able to deliver yields equivalent to those achieved using conventional fertilizer applications. Herbs and fruits showed that the combination of fertilizer with Mammoth P significantly increased productivity -in some cases productivity doubled. Metabolites produced by the Mammoth P consortium led to increased yields in some cases, suggesting that microbial products (produced in the absence of plants) played a role in enhancing plant productivity. Results from these trials indicate substantial potential of Mammoth P to enhance P supply to plants, improving P fertilizer use-efficiency and increasing agricultural productivity. 19 Agricultural productivity may be constrained in the 21 st Century by the finite supply of global a 20 phosphorus (P), adding to the challenges in meeting the projected needs of a growing human population 21 in the coming decades. In addition, when P fertilizers are added to soils, they can become bound to soils 22 resulting in low fertilizer efficiency. However, bacteria have the ability to mobilize soil bound P through 23 several mechanisms potentially resulting in a higher plant P uptake and increased yield. Furthermore, 24 species diversity can have a synergistic effect on ecosystem functioning ("the whole is more than the sum 25 of its parts") suggesting that bacterial communities, or consortia, may be more effective than single 26 species. However, in agriculture management practices, rarely is the soil microbial community structure 27 effectively manipulated to improve plant nutrient uptake. We investigated whether inoculation of soils 28 with a bacterial consortium developed to mobilize soil P named Mammoth P could increase plant 29 productivity. In turf, herbs and fruits, we showed that the combination of conventional inorganic fertilizer 30 combined with Mammoth P increased productivity up to twofold compared to the fertilizer treatments 31 without the Mammoth P inoculant. In wheat trials, we found that Mammoth P by itself was able to deliver 32 yields equivalent to those achieved with conventional inorganic fertilizer applications. The metabolites 33 produced by the consortium in Mammoth P likely played a role in enhancing plant productivity. Results 34 from this study indicate the substantial potential of Mammoth P to enhance P supply to plants, improving 35 P fertilizer use-efficiency and increasing agricultural productivity. 3

Vasoactive agents affect growth and protein synthesis of cultured rat mesangial cells

Vasoactive agents affect growth and protein synthesis of cultured rat mesangial cells. Mesangial cell (MC) proliferation and extracellular matrix (ECM) formation are hallmarks of chronic glomerular disease. The present in vitro study examined the effects of the vasoactive agents angiotensin II (Ang II), arginine vasopressin (AVP), and serotonin (5-HT) on growth and protein biosynthesis of cultured rat MCs after 72 hours of incubation. AVP and 5-HT (10-6 M) significantly increased DNA synthesis and growth of quiescent subconfluent MCs to levels of 25 and 45%, respectively, of the optimal stimulatory effect of 10% fetal calf serum (FCS) (both P < 0.001). The mitogenic effect of Ang II was 10% of the 10% FCS effect (P < 0.01). ECM production was studied by ELISA assay for fibronectin (FN) secreted into the culture medium (SeFN) and cell-associated FN, that is, intra- and pericellular FN (CaFN). In all incubations, highly significant negative linear relationships were found between the numbers of MCs per well and quantities of both SeFN and CaFN after normalization of the data by logarithmic transformation (SeFN: r values > -0.9705; CaFN: r < -0.9620; P < 0.001). Thus, increasing cell densities progressively suppressed ECM formation by MCs. The ECM production was found to be independent of growth activity. AVP significantly increased SeFN (P < 0.05) and decreased CaFN (P < 0.001) in subconfluent cultures; Ang II and 5-HT had no effect. Metabolic labeling with 35S-methionine (18 hr, 200 µCi/ml medium) and 2-D electrophoresis of MC lysates resulted in resolution of >500 different radiolabeled intracellular proteins in molecular weight from 110 to 20 Kd over an isoelectric interval of 5.0 to 7.0. Computerized video densitometry and scintillation counting of excised spots revealed prominent upregulation of 10 different MC proteins in response to AVP, and enhanced expression of five proteins in response to 5-HT, events characteristic of cellular activation. Ang II caused weakly increased expression of only one protein. The stimulatory effects of AVP and 5-HT on growth and protein synthesis of MCs in-vitro imply a possible in vivo role for these factors in glomerular disease

Forschungsinformationsmanagement

Die Bedeutung von Forschungsberichterstattung für Universitäten nimmt kontinuierlich zu. So müssen Universitäten Berichtspflichten gegenüber Geldgebern und Ministerien erfüllen, Informationen zur internen Entscheidungsfindung und Steuerung bereithalten sowie Rechenschaft über ihre Geldgeber gegenüber der Öffentlichkeit ablegen. Forschungsberichterstattung ist somit von hoher strategischer Bedeutung für die Steuerungs- und Wettbewerbsfähigkeit der Universitäten sowie für die Sichtbarkeit und Transparenz ihrer Forschungsleistungen nach außen. Gleichzeitig stellen die steigenden Anforderungen an die Forschungsberichterstattung die Universitäten in Baden-Württemberg vor schwierige Aufgaben, da die benötigten Daten zu Forschungsaktivitäten oft nur verteilt und in uneinheitlicher Form in den Institutionen vorliegen. Dies führt zu einem hohen administrativen Aufwand in der Forschungsberichterstattung. Aus diesem Grund empfiehlt auch der Wissenschaftsrat den Hochschulen, ihre Forschungsberichterstattung zu professionalisieren. Dieses Papier des Think Tank Forschungsinformationsmanagement schlägt daher vor, dass sich die baden-württembergischen Universitäten zu einem Verbund zum Thema Forschungsinformationssysteme („BW.CRIS“) zusammenschließen. Ziel des Verbundes ist, Kompetenzen in diesem Bereich zu bündeln, gemeinsame Lösungen für gemeinsame Herausforderungen zu erarbeiten und im gegenseitigen Austausch von den Erfahrungen der anderen Universitäten zu lernen. Im Verbund erhalten die Landesuniversitäten zudem eine starke Stimme und können so die Landesinteressen gegenüber Softwareanbietern, der KFiD oder weiteren Akteuren auf Bundesebene erfolgreich vertreten. Ein zentraler Erfolgsfaktor für den Anschub und die nachhaltige Arbeit eines solchen Verbundes wäre seine gezielte Unterstützung auf Landesebene. Eine solche baden-württembergische Landesinitiative zum Thema Forschungsinformationssysteme würde die baden-württembergischen Universitäten in der Digitalisierung ihrer Forschungsberichterstattung erheblich voranbringen und so die strategische Steuerungsfähigkeit der Hochschulleitungen maßgeblich erhöhen