World War II: On the Home Front - M. Francis Coulson Interview

Americans love anniversaries. The fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War has afforded citizens an opportunity to remember with pride the great men and events of a war that saved the world from totalitarian tyranny. Happily, memories of World War II have not been restricted to recalling battlefield heroics or diplomatic intrigues. Across the United States, public libraries and local historical societies have commemorated the Home Front during the war years with exhibits that recapture the texture of life on farms, factories, in classrooms, and at home during what Studs Terkel has labeled the Good War. These exhibits remind us what we know instinctively: that experiencing wartime is not simply the province of men and women in uniform. Anyone over the age of fifty-five has some vivid memories of America at war from 1941-1945. Millions of Americans who never put on a military uniform made their own contributions to the war effort. Their contributions mattered, and so do their memories. At Gettysburg College, in recognition of this basic truth, students in Historical Methods courses have for several years been interviewing senior citizens about their wartime memories. Perhaps two dozen or more of these interviews were conducted with Adams countians, across a broad spectrum of experience. Among the interview subjects were farmers, housewives, nurses, schoolteachers, businessmen, college students, and seminarians. One subject, a conscientious objector, provided a most distinctive perspective on a war that mythology suggests was supported fervently by all Americans. In fact, most Americans did enthusiastically support the war effort, as testimony from Adams Countians suggests. In the following interview, conducted by Gettysburg College student Jenny Sonnenberg with Francis Coulson, readers will learn some of the ways that average citizens were affected by the war and contributed to a remarkable home-front effort to support the boys overseas. A teacher in a one-room school in the county for much of the war, Mr. Coulson recounts his experiences with rationing and civil defense, and offers a persuasive picture of a populace that was willing to make sacrifices in order to help American soldiers bring the war to a quicker end. It is an important story, not because Francis Coulson\u27s experiences were spectacular, much less unique, but rather, because they were commonplace. As the interview itself suggests, the war years marked a time when Americans had much less materially than they would in the boom times following the war. It was still a time of simple habits and old fashioned values. In bringing to life the experiences of these years and the habits of everyday life, oral histories like those Ms. Sonnenberg conducted with Francis Coulson make an important contribution to local history and can help spark other conversations with individuals who had their own distinctive experiences during the war years. What follows is an edited transcription of a taped interview that is available in its entirety at the Adams County Historical Society Library. [excerpt

Marriage, social integration and loneliness in the second half of life: A comparison of Dutch and german men and women

Contains fulltext : 55589.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)Although marriage is usually considered to be socially integrative, some studies indicate that it can be privatizing, enclosing couples in isolated dyads. This study compared the availability of support, companionship, and negative relational experiences in various types of relationships for married men and women aged 40 to 85 years in the Netherlands and Germany. The Dutch demonstrated a more varied pattern of relationships beyond the nuclear family than the Germans but also reported worrying about a greater variety of people. In both countries, men relied more strongly on their partners, whereas women had more varied networks and experienced more worries. A continuum of social involvement can be drawn with German men, for whom marriage is privatizing, at one end and Dutch women, for whom marriage is highly socially integrating, at the other. Loneliness was related to the provisions of social relations, but no national and gender differences in predictors of loneliness were found.17 p

The Nanoscale Geometrical Maturation of Focal Adhesions Controls Stem Cell Differentiation and Mechanotransduction

We show that the nanoscale adhesion geometry controls the spreading and differentiation of epidermal stem cells. We find that cells respond to such hard nanopatterns similarly to their behavior on soft hydrogels. Cellular responses were seen to stem from local changes in diffusion dynamics of the adapter protein vinculin and associated impaired mechanotransduction rather than impaired recruitment of proteins involved in focal adhesion formation

Epsilon toxin-producing Clostridium perfringens colonize the MS gut and epsilon toxin overcomes immune privilege

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a complex disease of the CNS thought to require an environmental trigger. Gut dysbiosis is common in MS, but specific causative species are unknown. To address this knowledge gap, we used sensitive and quantitative PCR detection to show that people with MS were more likely to harbor and show a greater abundance of epsilon toxin-producing (ETX-producing) strains of C. perfringens within their gut microbiomes compared with individuals who are healthy controls (HCs). Isolates derived from patients with MS produced functional ETX and had a genetic architecture typical of highly conjugative plasmids. In the active immunization model of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), where pertussis toxin (PTX) is used to overcome CNS immune privilege, ETX can substitute for PTX. In contrast to PTX-induced EAE, where inflammatory demyelination is largely restricted to the spinal cord, ETX-induced EAE caused demyelination in the corpus callosum, thalamus, cerebellum, brainstem, and spinal cord, more akin to the neuroanatomical lesion distribution seen in MS. CNS endothelial cell transcriptional profiles revealed ETX-induced genes that are known to play a role in overcoming CNS immune privilege. Together, these findings suggest that ETX-producing C. perfringens strains are biologically plausible pathogens in MS that trigger inflammatory demyelination in the context of circulating myelin autoreactive lymphocytes

Human IL-25- and IL-33-responsive type 2 innate lymphoid cells are defined by expression of CRTH2 and CD161

International audienceInnate lymphoid cells (ILCs) are emerging as a family of effectors and regulators of innate immunity and tissue remodeling. Interleukin 22 (IL-22) and IL-17−producing ILCs, which depend on RORγt, express CD127 and CD161. We describe another Lin− CD127+CD161+ ILC population found in humans that express the chemoattractant receptor CRTH2. These cells responded in vitro to IL-2 plus IL-25 and IL-33 by producing IL-13. CRTH2+ ILCs were found in fetal and adult lung and gut. In fetal gut these cells expressed IL-13 but not IL-17 or IL-22. CRTH2+ ILCs were enriched in nasal polyps of chronic rhinosinusitis, a typical type 2 inflammatory disease. These data identify a unique human ILC type, which provides an innate source of TH2 cytokines