Cloning of Bovine Placental Lactogen and Production in Vitro

Bovine placental lactogen (bPL) is a hormone produced by the fetal portion of the placenta during gestation. Although there is little known about the structure and function of the protein, it is thought to play a role in the growth of the fetus and in mammary growth and differentiation. Attempts have been made to heighten the understanding of bPL through the use of recombinant DNA technology. Thus far, researchers have been able to produce the recombinant molecule in bacteria cells. Bacteria, however, are incapable of carrying out some of the post-translational modifications characteristic of mammalian proteins. For example, unlike native bPL, recombinant bPL is non-glycosylated. Other examples of post-translational modifications include disulfide bond formation and correct folding of the proetin. The aim of this study, therefore, was to clone the bPL cDNA into a mammalian expression vector, amplify the recombinant molecule in E. coli cells, and transfect the rbPL into mouse fibroblast cells. The idea behind this research was that the mouse cells would be able to produce the bPL complete with the post-tanslational modifications seen in the native protein. Attempts were made to transfect the pcDNA3.1-bPL into mouse L929 cells. Media was collected post-transfection and awwayed (Wallace, 1993) for the presence of pBL. An average concentration of 1 ng/mL bPL was measured. It was also noted that the transfected cells, as compared to control non-transfected cells, grew at a slower rate. Initially, it was suspected that the L929 cells were infected with mycoplasma. Transfection of a new batch of mouse cells showed improved growth rate, but did not produce a higher transfection efficiency. Studies with ovine placental lactogen have shown that the 5\u27 flanking sequence of the PL gene is important in the production of the protein. In this study, the 5\u27 flanking region of the bPL gene was removed during the making of the recombinant bPL molecule. It is therefore hypothesized that the 5\u27 flanking sequence of the bPL gene is important to the production of the protein due to the low transfection efficiency observed

Alien Registration- Doucette, Fred A. (Van Buren, Aroostook County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/33440/thumbnail.jp

Alien Registration- Doucette, Daniel A. (Portland, Cumberland County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/24039/thumbnail.jp

Attributions of school children and their relationship to depression

Hypothesized relationships between students\u27 attributions for academic and social success and failure on two newly developed attribution scales were examined and compared to students\u27 general attributions for success and failure on an established attribution scale, the Children\u27s Attribution Style Questionnaire (CASQ). The newly developed scales were used to assess students\u27 academic attributions (Student Academic Attribution Scale, SAAS) and social attributions (Student Social Attribution Scale, SSAS)The SAAS and SSAS were developed to allow students to rate success and failure due to internal causes, ability and effort, or external causes, chance and task difficulty, for typical school situations; also, optimism and pessimism global scales were calculatedBoth the SAAS and the SSAS and the CASQ were used to predict depression in 70 4th through 6th grade students using the Depression subscale of the Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC). Results support anticipated relationships between the SAAS and SSAS subscales and global scales of the CASQ subscales and global scales. For example, math success ability is positively correlated with all but one of the positive subscales of the CASQ (P \u3c.05) as well as the overall attributional style of the CASQ (P\u3c.01). When global scales from the SAAS, SSAS and the CASQ were evaluated for predictive capability, only the global scale from the SAAS and SSAS combined (Failure Internal, consisting of Failure Ability and Effort from both the SAAS and the SSAS) demonstrated the ability to predict the BASC Depression Scale to a significant degree (P \u3c.05). Similarly, when global optimism and pessimism scales from the three instruments were compared for predictive utility, both Pessimism Failure Social (SSAS) and Pessimism Failure Academic (SAAS) predicted depression scores to a significant degree (P \u3c.05), the Optimism-Pessimism global scales from the CASQ did not predict depression to a significant degree in this study. The fact that the SAAS and SSAS subscales correlated significantly with the well- established, but more clinically oriented CASQ demonstrates the utility of the SAAS and the SSAS to assess attribution style with a general population from a school setting. The ability of the SAAS and SSAS global scores to predict significantly depressive symptoms in school children indicate a link between attributions and depression

Alien Registration- Doucette, Joseph A. (Jefferson, Lincoln County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/12931/thumbnail.jp

Nationalism and Patriotic Idealism as Thematic Aspects in Art

This thesis has a two-fold purpose: (1) to provide an historical outline of the incidence of patriotic thematic material in Western art by presenting examples of works from dominant Western cultures beginning with Greece and Rome and including Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the United States. Examples given are in sequence from the eleventh century to the present excluding the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries. Greek and Roman examples are from two major epochs—the Hellenistic period of Greece, 323 to 146 B.C. (Greek period of nationalism) and the period 27 to 117 A.D. in Roman history (the period in which Rome achieved great power and prosperity). The outline is limited in the sense that each culture or time period is not covered in depth; an attempt is not made to trace influences in style or techniques or to give an extensive critique on the works. Rather, by the presentations of the examples it is intended to demonstrate that patriotic imagery does exist in art throughout history, it does exist in cultures of Western man, and by the nature of the content in the works (and through our knowledge of history and the artists) it does present a culture\u27s viewpoint toward national imagery (in some cases viewpoints of segments of the population and in other cases viewpoints of a large majority). Examples given were chosen on the basis of their status as major historical works and because of the extensive amount of national imagery employed in each. (2) To present a discussion of my personal artistic involvement with the patriotic theme and to present selected examples of my works in which national imagery has been employed. Discussion of my work is confined to art work produced in the period 1969-1971 and is intended to provide a comprehensive survey of work completed during this interval

Alien Registration- Doucette, Marie A. (Bangor, Penobscot County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/10385/thumbnail.jp

Primary Care Physicians' Experience with Electronic Medical Records: Barriers to Implementation in a Fee-for-Service Environment

Our aging population has exacerbated strong and divergent trends between health human resource supply and demand. One way to mitigate future inequities is through the adoption of health information technology (HIT). Our previous research showed a number of risks and mitigating factors which affected HIT implementation success. We confirmed these findings through semistructured interviews with nine Alberta clinics. Sociotechnical factors significantly affected physicians' implementation success. Physicians reported that the time constraints limited their willingness to investigate, procure, and implement an EMR. The combination of antiquated exam room design, complex HIT user interfaces, insufficient physician computer skills, and the urgency in patient encounters precipitated by a fee-for-service remuneration model and long waitlists compromised the quantity, if not the quality, of the information exchange. Alternative remuneration and access to services plans might be considered to drive prudent behavior during physician office system implementation