Alien Registration- Milbury, George H. (Easton, Aroostook County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/26465/thumbnail.jp

Examining the Brand Image of Paul College

The idea of a company’s brand image is a marketing subject that many companies need to consider. How consumers see or feel about a company is extremely important especially for higher education. Business schools are very competitive and in order to succeed, they need to understand how their students, alumni, faculty, and staff feel about their school. The results of the brand image survey are compared to those from a recent study completed in 2016. There are a few changes made to this survey, including adding alumni, faculty, and staff to the respondent pool. In doing so, this research will examine how all stakeholders view Paul College. Questions in this research survey probe a variety of factors regarding Paul College and its opportunities. Students and alumni are asked specifically about their decision to attend UNH. All respondents are then asked to answer how they feel about specific aspects of Paul College including the opportunities, facilities, and people within Paul College. Questions also ask respondents to rate their level of pride and likelihood of recommendation for the school. The results from this research show that there is a still strong brand loyalty towards Paul College. However, while many things have proven to stay the same over the years, there are several themes and ideas that have changed or evolved. Respondents show that there are themes which are now more important or have improved since 2016. However, on the contrary, there are also several topics in which the results decreased showing a less positive trend in specific areas. Additionally, examination of how the past 2.5 years of the pandemic are considered and its influence on these key drivers for Paul College

Alien Registration- Milbury, Edward E. (Easton, Aroostook County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/26464/thumbnail.jp

Cellular uptake and actions of bilberry anthocyanins in retinal pigment epithelial cells

Inflammation and oxidative stress play a significant role in the pathogenesis of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). In AMD, retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells are damaged by oxidative stress and die via the process of apoptosis. Anthocyanins from fruits and berries, such as bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus), possess significant antioxidant activity in vitro and have been used in traditional medicine to treat AMD. It is not clear whether intracellular concentrations of anthocyanins are sufficient to quench radical species and mitigate oxidative stress in vivo. In this research project, human RPE cells in vitro were used to establish an oxidative stress model in which the effects of anthocyanin and phenolics from a bilberry extract could be tested for their antioxidant potential and ability to inhibit hydrogen peroxide-induced apoptosis. High-pressure liquid chromatography with ultraviolet, electrochemical, and mass spectroscopic detection was used to characterize the bilberry extract and to measure uptake, transport, and metabolism in RPE cells. Results suggest that RPE cells internalize and metabolize anthocyanins. Although ineffective in preventing apoptosis, bilberry extract inhibited intracellular radical generation by as much as 60%. Western blot analysis revealed that physiological concentrations of bilberry anthocyanins up-regulate the oxidative stress protective enzymes heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) and glutathione S-transferase (GSTP1) proteins in RPE cells by 1.5- to 2-fold over untreated cells in 6 hours and, at pharmacologic doses, up-regulate HO-1 as much as 10-fold over a 24-hour period. Bilberry anthocyanins and phenolics were shown to induced increases in HO-1 and GSTP1 messenger RNA. The observed increases were similar to that observed for protein. Bilberry anthocyanin induction of phase II detoxifying and oxidative stress protective enzymes suggest more significant protective effects than direct radical quenching suggesting these phytochemicals may thus enhance glutathione levels or altered cellular redox states

I\u27d Like To Have You Do A Little Something For Me

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/4719/thumbnail.jp

Sweetheart Time

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/4316/thumbnail.jp

Ice-COLD-PCR enables rapid amplification and robust enrichment for low-abundance unknown DNA mutations

Identifying low-abundance mutations within wild-type DNA is important in several fields of medicine, including cancer, prenatal diagnosis and infectious diseases. However, utilizing the clinical and diagnostic potential of rare mutations is limited by sensitivity of the molecular techniques employed, especially when the type and position of mutations are unknown. We have developed a novel platform that incorporates a synthetic reference sequence within a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) reaction, designed to enhance amplification of unknown mutant sequences during COLD-PCR (CO-amplification at Lower Denaturation temperature). This new platform enables an Improved and Complete Enrichment (ice-COLD-PCR) for all mutation types and eliminates shortcomings of previous formats of COLD-PCR. We evaluated ice-COLD-PCR enrichment in regions of TP53 in serially diluted mutant and wild-type DNA mixtures. Conventional-PCR, COLD-PCR and ice-COLD-PCR amplicons were run in parallel and sequenced to determine final mutation abundance for a range of mutations representing all possible single base changes. Amplification by ice-COLD-PCR enriched all mutation types and allowed identification of mutation abundances down to 1%, and 0.1% by Sanger sequencing or pyrosequencing, respectively, surpassing the capabilities of other forms of PCR. Ice-COLD-PCR will help elucidate the clinical significance of low-abundance mutations and our understanding of cancer origin, evolution, recurrence-risk and treatment diagnostics

Enrichment of Mutations in Multiple DNA Sequences Using COLD-PCR in Emulsion

Background: Multiplex detection of low-level mutant alleles in the presence of wild-type DNA would be useful for several fields of medicine including cancer, pre-natal diagnosis and infectious diseases. COLD-PCR is a recently developed method that enriches low-level mutations during PCR cycling, thus enhancing downstream detection without the need for special reagents or equipment. The approach relies on the differential denaturation of DNA strands which contain Tm-lowering mutations or mismatches, versus ‘homo-duplex’ wild-type DNA. Enabling multiplex-COLD-PCR that can enrich mutations in several amplicons simultaneously is desirable but technically difficult to accomplish. Here we describe the proof of principle of an emulsion-PCR based approach that demonstrates the feasibility of multiplexed-COLD-PCR within a single tube, using commercially available mutated cell lines. This method works best with short amplicons; therefore, it could potentially be used on highly fragmented samples obtained from biological material or FFPE specimens. Methods: Following a multiplex pre-amplification of TP53 exons from genomic DNA, emulsions which incorporate the multiplex product, PCR reagents and primers specific for a given TP53 exon are prepared. Emulsions with different TP53 targets are then combined in a single tube and a fast-COLD-PCR program that gradually ramps up the denaturation temperature over several PCR cycles is applied (temperature-tolerant, TT-fast-eCOLD-PCR). The range of denaturation temperatures applied encompasses the critical denaturation temperature $(T_c)$ corresponding to all the amplicons included in the reaction, resulting to a gradual enrichment of mutations within all amplicons encompassed by emulsion. Results: Validation for TT-fast-eCOLD-PCR is provided for TP53 exons 6–9. Using dilutions of mutated cell-line into wild-type DNA, we demonstrate simultaneous mutation enrichment between 7 to 15-fold in all amplicons examined. Conclusions: TT-fast-eCOLD-PCR expands the versatility of COLD-PCR and enables high-throughput enrichment of low-level mutant alleles over multiple sequences in a single tube

Identifying the Most Prevalent Psychosocial Concerns in Lung Cancer Patients and their Caregivers

https://openworks.mdanderson.org/sumexp23/1111/thumbnail.jp

Identification of a Rare 3 bp BRAF Gene Deletion in a Thyroid Nodule by Mutant Enrichment with 3'-Modified Oligonucleotides Polymerase Chain Reaction

Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is the most common malignant thyroid tumor, and 36-69% of PTC cases are caused by mutations in the BRAF gene. The substitution of a valine for a glutamic acid (V600E) comprises up to 95-100% of BRAF mutations; therefore, most diagnostic methods, including allele-specific PCR and real-time PCR, are designed to detect this mutation. Nevertheless, other mutations can also comprise the genetic background of PTC. Recently, a novel and sensitive technique called mutant enrichment with 3'-modified oligonucleotides (MEMO) PCR has been introduced. When we applied allelespecific PCR and MEMO-PCR for the detection of the BRAF V600E mutation, we found an unusual 3' bp deletion mutation (c.1799_1801delTGA) only when using MEMO-PCR. This deletion results in the introduction of a glutamic acid into the B-Raf activation segment (p.V600_K601delinsE), leading to an elevated basal kinase activity of BRAF. This is the first report of a rare 3 bp BRAF deletion in a PTC patient that could not be detected by allele-specific PCR