Australian Christian Conscientious Objectors during the Vietnam War Years 1964–72

Many young Christian men faced a moral dilemma when selective military conscription was introduced in Australia during the Vietnam War from 1964–72. The legislation was the National Service Act in 1964 (NSA). Some believed that their Christian conscience did not allow them to kill or serve in the army. Most of them sought exemption as a conscientious objector decided at a court hearing. Others chose non-compliance with the NSA. All exercised nonviolent Holy Disobedience in their individual opposition to war and conscription for it. Holy disobedience stresses the importance of nonviolent individual action, which was an idea of A.J. Muste, a great Christian pacifist. The research reported here is strongly influenced by his approach. It is believed to be the first study which explicitly considers Christian conscientious objectors. A data set was compiled of known Christian conscientious objectors during the Vietnam War years from authoritative sources. Analysis allowed identification of these men, the grounds on which their conscientious beliefs were based and formed and how they personally responded to their moral dilemma. Many of their personal stories are told in their own words. Their Holy Disobedience contributed to ending Australia’s participation in the Vietnam War and military conscription for it.

Fitness, strength and severity of COVID-19: a prospective register study of 1 559 187 Swedish conscripts

ObjectiveTo investigate the possible connection between cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and muscle strength in early adulthood and severity of COVID-19 later in life.DesignProspective registry-based cohort study.Participants1 559 187 Swedish men, undergoing military conscription between 1968 and 2005 at a mean age of 18.3 (SD 0.73) years.Main outcome measuresHospitalisation, intensive care or death due to COVID-19 from March to September 2020, in relation to CRF and muscle strength.ResultsHigh CRF in late adolescence and early adulthood had a protective association with severe COVID-19 later in life with OR (95% CI) 0.76 (0.67 to 0.85) for hospitalisation (n=2 006), 0.61 (0.48 to 0.78) for intensive care (n=445) and 0.56 (0.37 to 0.85) for mortality (n=149), compared with the lowest category of CRF. The association remains unchanged when controlled for body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, chronic diseases and parental education level at baseline, and incident cardiovascular disease before 2020. Moreover, lower muscle strength in late adolescence showed a linear association with a higher risk of all three outcomes when controlled for BMI and height.ConclusionsPhysical fitness at a young age is associated with severity of COVID-19 many years later. This underscores the necessity to increase the general physical fitness of the population to offer protection against future viral pandemics.

Growth in children conceived by ART

STUDY QUESTION Is the growth pattern of children conceived by ART different compared to naturally conceived children. SUMMARY ANSWER Both ART and underlying parental subfertility may contribute to differences in early childhood growth between children conceived with and without the use of ART. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY Children conceived by ART weigh less and are shorter at the time of delivery. The extent to which differences in growth according to mode of conception persist during childhood, and the role of underlying parental subfertility, remains unclear. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION We conducted a prospective study population-based study. We studied 81 461 children participating in the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa) and 544 113 adolescents screened for military conscription. PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS Conception by ART as registered in the Medical Birth Registry. We compared maternally reported length/height and weight among children in MoBa from mid-pregnancy to age 7 according to mode of conception using mixed-effects linear regression. Differences in self-reported height and weight at 17 years of age at screening for military conscription were assessed with linear regression. MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE At birth, children conceived by ART were shorter (boys −0.3 cm; 95% CI, −0.5 to −0.1), girls −0.4 cm; 95% CI, −0.5 to −0.3) and lighter (boys −113 grams; 95% CI, −201 to −25, girls −107 grams; 95% CI, −197 to −17). After birth, children conceived by ART grew more rapidly, achieving both greater height and weight at age 3. Children conceived by ART had a greater height up to age 7, but did not have a greater height or weight by age 17. Naturally conceived children of parents taking longer time to conceive had growth patterns similar to ART children. Children born after frozen embryo transfer had larger ultrasound measures and were longer and heavier the first 2 years than those born after fresh embryo transfer. LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTIONS Selection bias could have been introduced due to the modest participation rate in the MoBa cohort. Our reliance on self-reported measures of length/height and weight could have introduced measurement error. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS : Our findings provide reassurance that offspring conceived by ART are not different in height, weight or BMI from naturally conceived once they reach adolescence. STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTEREST(S) Research Council of Norway; Medical Research Council; National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The authors have no competing interest. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER N/A.

Alawites Rebellion in Syria Against Egyptian Rule (1834-1835)

The history of Alawites in Syria witnessed an important stage, when they rebelled against Egyptian rule 1834-1835, after centuries of living under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. This research deals with an introduction to the Alawites and their lives in Syria during the period of Ottoman rule until Muhammad Ali Pasha took control as part of starting a new era of Egyptian rule in Syria in 1832. This research also examines the reasons for the rebellion of the Alawites against the Egyptians in 1834: Disarm, Military Conscription, Cotton Press Machine, and Cutting Down Forests and Trees. The research also deals with the first beginnings of the rebellion and the most important events therein, in addition to the operations of the Alawite rebels in controlling the territories involved including Yunus rebellion, the robberies, the release of prisoners, and the execution of Druze soldiers. This is while also considering the efforts made by the Egyptian authorities to suppress the rebellion. The research also deals with the problem of the selling of Alawites women, the Egyptian reaction to it, and how the Ottomans dealt with the rebellion as a whole. The reasons behind the rebellion’s failure have also been discussed. The conclusion addresses the most important results of this research. This research relied on many contemporary Arab documents that recorded the details of the events of the rebellion, in addition to recent references that approach the rebellion through a form of analysis in terms of the circumstances of the rebellion and the reasons for its failure. This research is based on a descriptive historical method and the analytical method as much as possible, which is appropriate for this type of research.

The Conscription of Greek Ottomans into the Sultan's Army, 1908–1912

With the reinstatement of the parliament in 1908, the Ottoman state faced new challenges connected to citizenship. As a policy to finally make citizens equal in rights as well as duties, military conscription figured prominently in this new context. For the first time in Ottoman history, the empire's non-Muslims began to be drafted en masse. This article explores meanings of imperial citizenship and equality through the lens of debates over the conscription of Greek Ottomans, the largest non-Muslim population of the Ottoman Empire. In contrast to the widespread suggestion of the Turkish nationalist historiography on these matters, Greek Ottomans and other non-Muslim populations enthusiastically supported the military service in principle. But amidst this general agreement was a tremendous array of views on what conscription ought to look like in practice. The issue came to center on whether Greek Ottomans should have separate battalions in the army. All units would eventually come to be religiously integrated, but the conscription debates in the Ottoman parliament as well as in the Turkish and Greek language press reveal some of the crucial fissures of an empire as various actors were attempting to navigate between a unified citizenship and a diverse population.

Introduction

This introduction provides a framework for considering America’s military conscription of gender, racial, and sexual difference in the early to mid-twentieth century, and the unique role Black military workers played in the extension of U.S. empire. Beginning with the definition of militarism as conceived by Alfred Vagts, the author makes an appeal for both conservative and progressive scholars to focus on the study of the military. Immunity and contagion are introduced as key terms used to analyze the movement of African American soldiers around the world, and to show how their quests for citizenship rights was burdened by antiblack racism. A chapter breakdown demonstrates how race, nation, masculinity, and sexuality are important subjects in the archive of American militarism, and argues that a new chapter of African American life was brought into being through the imperial conscription of racial, gender, and sexual difference.

Higher body mass index at ages 16 to 20 years is associated with increased risk of a multiple sclerosis diagnosis in subsequent adulthood among men

Background: Evidence for the association between body mass index (BMI) and multiple sclerosis (MS) among men remains mixed. Objective and methods: Swedish military conscription and other registers identified MS after age of 20 years and BMI at ages 16–20 years ( N = 744,548). Results: Each unit (kg/m2) BMI increase was associated with greater MS risk (hazard ratio and 95% confidence interval = 1.034, 1.016–1.053), independent of physical fitness (1.021, 1.001–1.042). Categorised, overweight and obesity were associated with statistically significant raised MS risk compared to normal weight, but not after adjustment for physical fitness. Conclusion: MS risk rises with increasing BMI, across the entire BMI range.