MS-148: John Alexander Kinnear WWI Letters

The letters of John Alexander Kinnear consist of 7 postcards and 92 letters which were written by Kinnear to his family living near Lexington Virginia. The letters range in dates from November of 1916 (before Kinnear joined the service) to May of 1919 (after he arrived home from Europe). The letters are mainly addressed to his mother, Mrs. J. J. L. Kinnear, but there are some that are addressed to his father and siblings.https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/findingaidsall/1151/thumbnail.jp

Water, Bison, and Horses: Natural Resources and Their Impacts on Native Raids and Relations in Late, Spanish Colonial New Mexico

During the Spanish colonial period in New Mexico’s history, the area became a place where cultural, social, and economic mixing of various Native American groups and Spanish settlers frequently occurred. Certain peoples, such as the Pueblo, lived in an agrarian society and worked in close proximity to the Spanish. Other peoples, such as the Comanche, Apache, and Navajo, developed hostile relationships with these foreigners, and their raids on the Spanish, Pueblo, and each other changed the dynamic of their settlements. Sources from Spanish and Church officials, along with travel logs, discuss the effects of natural resources, such as water and animals – including the bison and horse – on the causes of raids and subsequent effects these hostilities had on Spanish-Indian relations. The importance of water created a strong desire for nomadic societies to obtain and maintain horse-herds and for settled societies to create tight communities near water sources. The need for horses created a cycle of raiding, motivated by the need and competition for natural resources

The Melting ‘Crown of the Continent’: Visual History of Glacier National Park

Glacier National Park (GNP), located in northwest Montana, US, was signed into existence on 11 May 1910 by then President William Howard Taft. Conservationist George Bird Grinnell was instrumental in lobbying for the park’s creation and negotiated the sale with the Blackfeet Indians. As an editor of the outdoor magazine Field and Stream, Grinnell learned about the region from writer James Willard Schultz and made his first visit there in 1885. Enticed and amazed by the glaciers of the area, the high Rocky Mountain alpine terrain, and the flora and fauna that thrived here, Grinnell advocated for the creation of the park, nicknaming it the “Crown of the Continent.” Grinnell recognized glaciers as a geological wonder. As historian Gerald Diettert records in his 1992 book, Grinnell called the glaciers the “jewels” in the crown. Setting aside land to enjoy the glaciers seemed like a logical means to conserve the landscapes and ecosystems that they supported. Yet today, just about a hundred years from when the park was founded, the glaciers that form GNP’s snow-capped crown are close to extinction. [excerpt

Interdisciplinary Education in Emergency Preparedness: Assuring the Safety of Aging Populations

Aging is a global phenomenon. It impacts unequally, with this inequality attributable to such factors as gender, culture, education, socioeconomic status and access to primary and preventive care. Access to care and the quality of that care are significantly impacted by governmental support and regulations. Most elderly live in developed countries; however, for a significant number life is not free of stress and struggle to meet basic needs. Elders in developing countries face even more challenges. Natural and man-made disasters increase the vulnerability of these populations through potential disruption of critical services. Currently there is a paucity of health and social services professionals educationally prepared to meet the various health and illness needs of aging populations. There is also a lack of new and practicing professionals trained for practice in emergency situations. Disasters can, have and will overwhelm existing resources thus requiring effective and efficient responses to emergencies. This paper will address the need for interdisciplinary education in emergency preparedness to assure the safety of aging populations. Arguments will be made for educational initiatives that are competency based, threaded from preparatory to graduate education, intra- and interdisciplinary in design and developed from a standardized curriculum resulting in ongoing dialogue among health and social service disciplines

Hematopoietic Stem and Progenitor Cells as Effectors in Innate Immunity

Recent research has shed light on novel functions of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPC). While they are critical for maintenance and replenishment of blood cells in the bone marrow, these cells are not limited to the bone marrow compartment and function beyond their role in hematopoiesis. HSPC can leave bone marrow and circulate in peripheral blood and lymph, a process often manipulated therapeutically for the purpose of transplantation. Additionally, these cells preferentially home to extramedullary sites of inflammation where they can differentiate to more mature effector cells. HSPC are susceptible to various pathogens, though they may participate in the innate immune response without being directly infected. They express pattern recognition receptors for detection of endogenous and exogenous danger-associated molecular patterns and respond not only by the formation of daughter cells but can themselves secrete powerful cytokines. This paper summarizes the functional and phenotypic characterization of HSPC, their niche within and outside of the bone marrow, and what is known regarding their role in the innate immune response

Horses with equine recurrent uveitis have an activated CD4+ T-cell phenotype that can be modulated by mesenchymal stem cells in vitro.

Equine recurrent uveitis (ERU) is an immune-mediated disease causing repeated or persistent inflammatory episodes which can lead to blindness. Currently, there is no cure for horses with this disease. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are effective at reducing immune cell activation in vitro in many species, making them a potential therapeutic option for ERU. The objectives of this study were to define the lymphocyte phenotype of horses with ERU and to determine how MSCs alter T-cell phenotype in vitro. Whole blood was taken from 7 horses with ERU and 10 healthy horses and peripheral blood mononuclear cells were isolated. The markers CD21, CD3, CD4, and CD8 were used to identify lymphocyte subsets while CD25, CD62L, Foxp3, IFNγ, and IL10 were used to identify T-cell phenotype. Adipose-derived MSCs were expanded, irradiated (to control proliferation), and incubated with CD4+ T-cells from healthy horses, after which lymphocytes were collected and analyzed via flow cytometry. The percentages of T-cells and B-cells in horses with ERU were similar to normal horses. However, CD4+ T-cells from horses with ERU expressed higher amounts of IFNγ indicating a pro-inflammatory Th1 phenotype. When co-incubated with MSCs, activated CD4+ T-cells reduced expression of CD25, CD62L, Foxp3, and IFNγ. MSCs had a lesser ability to decrease activation when cell-cell contact or prostaglandin signaling was blocked. MSCs continue to show promise as a treatment for ERU as they decreased the CD4+ T-cell activation phenotype through a combination of cell-cell contact and prostaglandin signaling

Allogeneic Mesenchymal Stem Cell Treatment Induces Specific Alloantibodies in Horses

Background. It is unknown whether horses that receive allogeneic mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) injections develop specific humoral immune response. Our goal was to develop and validate a flow cytometric MSC crossmatch procedure and to determine if horses that received allogeneic MSCs in a clinical setting developed measurable antibodies following MSC administration. Methods. Serum was collected from a total of 19 horses enrolled in 3 different research projects. Horses in the 3 studies all received unmatched allogeneic MSCs. Bone marrow (BM) or adipose tissue derived MSCs (ad-MSCs) were administered via intravenous, intra-arterial, intratendon, or intraocular routes. Anti-MSCs and anti-bovine serum albumin antibodies were detected via flow cytometry and ELISA, respectively. Results. Overall, anti-MSC antibodies were detected in 37% of the horses. The majority of horses (89%) were positive for anti-bovine serum albumin (BSA) antibodies prior to and after MSC injection. Finally, there was no correlation between the amount of anti-BSA antibody and the development of anti-MSC antibodies. Conclusion. Anti allo-MSC antibody development was common; however, the significance of these antibodies is unknown. There was no correlation between either the presence or absence of antibodies and the percent antibody binding to MSCs and any adverse reaction to a MSC injection