“As an American, may I have the privilege of pulling the switch?” : The Fate of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg During the Second Red Scare in Cold War America

The Cold War escalated at the end of World War II when the tension between the United States and Soviet Union significantly increased. The stakes of the Cold War were considerably high, especially during the atomic age. Hence the creation of the Venona Project, which began in 1943 and was originally a small project intended to break down Soviet diplomatic communications, but later expanded to be a full-blown counterintelligence operation. The project’s American cryptologists took nearly two years to decode the first Soviet coded telegraph cable. The project exposed multiple Soviet Spies in the United States, some of the most famous being Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. The Rosenbergs were implicated when Ethel Rosenberg’s brother, David Greenglass alerted the FBI to their involvement in a Soviet spy ring. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg never confessed to conspiracy to provide atomic secrets to the Soviet Union, and both were ultimately executed by electric chair in 1953. David Greenglass, who turned his family into the FBI, did not experience the same fate as his sister and brother-in-law. Through analysis of court documents, decoded cables, and media coverage of the trial, I discuss the four factors that led to the execution of the Rosenbergs and the legitimacy of their trial and its outcome. These factors include the location of the Rosenbergs, their Communist party membership, Ethel Rosenberg’s submissive position as a woman in the 1950s, and anti-semitism in the United States

Forgotten Women: The Involuntary Sterilization of American Indian Women during the Twentieth Century

This thesis explores the marginalization of American Indian women, specifically in mainstream media and social movements. From 1970 to 1980 it is estimated that at least 25% of indigenous women between the ages of 15 to 44 were sterilized, with some speculating the number to be as high as 50%. American Indian women were not the only targets of sterilization abuse; African American women and Latina women also had similar experiences. The public was more aware of these women’s experiences than those of American Indian women because the mainstream media was more likely to cover the involuntary procedures of women of color who initiated lawsuits, a strategy which very few American Indian chose to pursue. The American Indian Movement (AIM) discovered the involuntary sterilization of American Indian women in records they removed after occupying the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in 1972. It would take nearly two years for information on the sterilization of American Indian women to be made public in 1974 by the Akwesasne Notes, a newspaper published by the Mohawk Nation. Mainstream media, such as the New York Times and the Washington Post, would take another two years to publish an article on the matter in 1976. Their articles appeared after the General Accounting Office (GAO) released a report investigating allegations against the IHS. The report revealed that 3,406 sterilization procedures were performed on American Indian females between the ages of 15 to 44 in the Aberdeen, Albuquerque, Oklahoma City, and Phoenix areas alone from 1973 to 1976. American Indian women’s issues were clearly present but insufficiently recognized not only in news coverage, but also in the American Indian and feminist social movements’ agendas. American Indian women played an active role in AIM, but it was ultimately dominated by men, and thus didn’t focus on female concerns. Mainstream media diminished women’s roles in major AIM events, such as the Trail of Broken Treaties and siege at Wounded Knee. Hence the creation of Women of all Red Nations (WARN), which was intended to focus exclusively on American Indian women’s issues. American Indian women attended the 1975 World Congress for Women in Mexico City and the 1977 National Women’s Conference in Houston, but the conflicting views of white feminists and women of color on the matter of sterilization and abortion made it difficult for their voices to be heard. This thesis ends with The Longest Walk in 1978, which included WARN members marching to Washington D.C. to shed light on issues such as sterilization abuse and environmental justice. The examination of news coverage on sterilization abuse of minority women, and American Indian activism in mainstream media and the limited attention given by regional newspapers illuminates the invisibility of American Indian women during this period. The analysis of American Indian activists and feminist activists’ agendas through personal accounts, AIM manifestos, and National Women’s Conference proceedings show the lack of focus on American Indian women’s concerns from 1968 to 1978

Indians Once Roamed This Land…

The sun sat high in the cloudless, early summer sky. Jerry held his breath as Ryan punched the gas, jumping onto Route 3 a few feet ahead of an incoming tractor-trailer. Ryan laughed as the angry truck driver blasted his air horn at them as the ’79 Aspen rocketed up the highway. The ramp onto Route 3 didn’t leave much room for traffic to merge; leaving the brave to shoot out onto the highway and the timid to sit and wait for an opening, often to the angry blaring of horns behind them, pushing them to jump onto the highway. Tommy, Reg, and Avery were in the back seat, laughing along with Ryan… well, at least Reg was

Genetic and Morphological Variation in Taeniatherum Caput-Medusae (Medusahead): Taxomonic Diversity, Geographic Origins, Multiple Introductions and Founder Effects

Invasive species are novel to a region, thus their timely and accurate identification is a critical first step in recognizing and managing the threats that they may present in their new habitats. Accurate identification of an introduced species in its new range can prove difficult however for a species that displays taxonomic complexity in its native range, i.e. consists of multiple, morphologically similar subspecies. Across its native range, Taeniatherum caput-medusae (medusahead) exhibits taxonomic complexity. Three subspecies have been recognized: T. caput-medusae ssp. caput-medusae, T. caput-medusae ssp.asperum, and T. caput-medusae ssp. crinitum. While subspecies caput-medusae is found in the western Mediterranean and subspecies crinitum occurs from eastern Europe to Central Asia, subspecies asperum is distributed across the geographic distribution of the species. Only subspecies asperum is believe to occur in the United States, where it is now invasive in portions of California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington. As part of ongoing research to better understand and manage this invasion, genetic analyses of both native and invasive populations of medusahead were conducted. An important prerequisite to these analyses is the proper identification of the three subspecies. In the current study, plants from each native population were grown in a greenhouse common garden, harvested at maturity, and measured using previously described morphological characters. After Bonferroni correction, three characters, glume length, glume angle, and palea length, were found to be statistically significant. Thus, these three characters were quite useful in assigning plants to each of the three subspecies. I found that two other characters, lemma hairs and conical cells, were less informative. Differentiation among native populations of medusahead was further assessed using a molecular genetic marker. The results of a UPGMA cluster diagram based on allozyme data indicates that subspecies crinitum is genetically differentiated from the other two, some populations of subspecies caput-medusae and asperum co-occur within different clusters, and subspecies asperum is the most variable. Results of the analysis of multilocus genotypes are generally consistent with the UPGMA diagram (e.g., subspecies caput-medusae and asperum share six multilocus genotypes). This research confirms the need of such studies to disentangle the taxonomic complexity that can be found in the native range of invasive species. The results of an earlier allozyme analysis were consistent with the genetic signature associated with multiple introductions, although this finding can only be confirmed with the analysis of native populations. In the current study, I compared allozyme diversity in native and invasive populations of medusahead to: identify the geographic origin(s) for the U.S. invasion, test the multiple introduction hypothesis, and determine the genetic consequences of these events. Five of the seven homozygous multilocus genotypes previously observed in the western U.S. have been detected in native populations. The geographic origins for these introductions appear to have been drawn from France, Sardinia, Greece, and Turkey, although additional analyses are ongoing. These findings provide support for the multiple introduction hypothesis. Results of this study have implications for the biological control of medusahead: i) the search for effective and specific biological control agents will have to occur broadly across the species’ native range, ii) multiple agents may be required to control invasive populations that are admixtures, and iii) because invasive population are genetically depauperate, highly adapted biocontrol agents are likely to be quite effective

Methodological issues in LCA of wastewater treatment combined with PHA biopolymer production

Production of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) by mixed microbial cultures utilising the organic content of wastewaters is one of the technologies studied in the EU project ROUTES. When comparing the life-cycle environmental impacts of simultaneous wastewater treatment and production of PHA-rich biomass to traditional wastewater and solids treatment, the handling of this multi-functionality is critical for the results. Only one LCA of such a system has been found in the literature. The current paper identifies substitution and allocation based on chemical oxygen demand removal as two possible options to account for the multi-functionality of the system. Examples based on literature data were used to show that for global warming potential, the choice of allocation method can substantially affect the results

Detailed Numerical Simulations on the Formation of Pillars around HII-regions

We study the structural evolution of turbulent molecular clouds under the influence of ionizing radiation emitted from a nearby massive star by performing a high resolution parameter study with the iVINE code. The temperature is taken to be 10K or 100K, the mean number density is either 100cm^3 or 300cm^3. Besides, the turbulence is varied between Mach 1.5 and Mach 12.5 and the main driving scale between 1pc and 8pc. We vary the ionizing flux by an order of magnitude. In our simulations the ionizing radiation enhances the initial turbulent density distribution and thus leads to the formation of pillar-like structures observed adjacent to HII regions in a natural way. Gravitational collapse occurs regularly at the tips of the structures. We find a clear correlation between the initial state of the turbulent cold cloud and the final morphology and physical properties of the structures formed. The most favorable regime for the formation of pillars is Mach 4-10. Structures and therefore stars only form if the initial density contrast between the high density unionized gas and the gas that is going to be ionized is lower than the temperature contrast between the hot and the cold gas. The density of the resulting pillars is determined by a pressure equilibrium between the hot and the cold gas. A thorough analysis of the simulations shows that the complex kinematical and geometrical structure of the formed elongated filaments reflects that of observed pillars to an impressive level of detail. In addition, we find that the observed line-of sight velocities allow for a distinct determination of different formation mechanisms. Comparing the current simulations to previous results and recent observations we conclude that e.g. the pillars of creation in M16 formed by the mechanism proposed here and not by the radiation driven implosion of pre-existing clumps.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Dimension and bases for geometrically continuous splines on surfaces of arbitrary topology

We analyze the space of geometrically continuous piecewise polynomial functions, or splines, for rectangular and triangular patches with arbitrary topology and general rational transition maps. To define these spaces of G 1 spline functions, we introduce the concept of topological surface with gluing data attached to the edges shared by faces. The framework does not require manifold constructions and is general enough to allow non-orientable surfaces. We describe compatibility conditions on the transition maps so that the space of differentiable functions is ample and show that these conditions are necessary and sufficient to construct ample spline spaces. We determine the dimension of the space of G1 spline functions which are of degree less than or equal to k on triangular pieces and of bi-degree less than or equal to (k, k) on rectangular pieces, for k big enough. A separability property on the edges is involved to obtain the dimension formula. An explicit construction of basis functions attached resspectively to vertices, edges and faces is proposed; examples of bases of G1 splines of small degree for topological surfaces with boundary and without boundary are detailed

Effects of Sensory Garments on Sleep of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

A grant from the One-University Open Access Fund at the University of Kansas was used to defray the author's publication fees in this Open Access journal. The Open Access Fund, administered by librarians from the KU, KU Law, and KUMC libraries, is made possible by contributions from the offices of KU Provost, KU Vice Chancellor for Research & Graduate Studies, and KUMC Vice Chancellor for Research. For more information about the Open Access Fund, please see http://library.kumc.edu/authors-fund.xml.Objective. The purpose of this study is to assess the effectiveness of the use of sensory garments for improving sleep in children with autism spectrum disorder. Method. Using a single-subject ABAB reversal design, the researchers evaluated the effectiveness of a sensory garment on sleep duration, sleep latency, and parental stress related to a child’s sleep. Four children aged 4–10 participated. We measured sleep duration and sleep latency using the Garmin watches and parent-report sleep logs, parent stress using the Parenting Stress Index Short Form, and sleep behaviors using the Children’s Sleep Habits Questionnaire. Results/Discussion. Data showed variable effects on sleep duration and latency across children. The oldest child with the hyposensitive sensory patterns experienced the greatest sleep improvements. All parents experienced stress from daily life, and some reported increased stress due to study participation. Future research is recommended to further investigate the effectiveness of sensory garments on sleep for children with ASD. Therapists are encouraged to evaluate children’s development and sensory preferences prior to recommending sensory garments for sleep

Writing Arguments in STEM

A team of faculty at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, curated the contents to support instructors teaching first-year courses in critical thinking and communication