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Written by Patrick R. McElhiney

Category: Articles

Published: 23 December 2019

DURHAM, N.H. – Researchers at the University of New Hampshire have reported the first structural model for a key enzyme, and its activating protein, that can play a role in some genetically inherited eye diseases like retinitis pigmentosa and night blindness.

“There has been substantial research on the biochemical the pathway involving this enzyme, known as PDE6, but defining atomic-level models is important for locating PDE6 mutations in order to understand why they cause disease and how we can develop new therapeutic interventions to manage retinal diseases,” said Rick Cote, director of Center of Integrated Biomedical and Bioengineering Research and principal investigator on the study.

Vision starts in the photoreceptor cells of the retina which contains rods, responsible for low light vision, and cones, which are active in brighter light and capable of color vision. When light is absorbed by the rods and cones, it triggers a pathway which activates the enzyme phosphodiesterase 6, or PDE6. This generates a nerve impulse to the brain that ultimately results in visual perception. Some genetically inherited eye diseases are caused by mutations to PDE6, or its activating protein, transducin, that can lead to disruptions of normal vision or even total blindness.

In the study, recently published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, researchers reported how they were able to use chemical cross-linking combined with mass spectrometric analysis to resolve the structure of PDE6 in its nonactivated and transducin-activated states. This approach permitted visualization of flexible regions of individual PDE6 catalytic and inhibitory subunits that were poorly resolved in previous work as well as the overall molecular architecture of the activated protein complex.

“Determining the structure of these visual signaling proteins has always been a challenge because of their complexity,” said Michael Irwin, doctoral student in biochemistry and lead author. “Having detailed structural information about how PDE6 is activated by transducin will help us understand the molecular causes of visual disorders and blinding diseases resulting from mutations in these proteins.”

Current medical treatment for such genetically inherited retinal diseases may include gene therapy or drugs meant to inhibit the disease process. However, they are not always successful in restoring the balance of PDE6 and preventing blindness. Scientists believe that knowing the molecular structures of these visual signaling proteins and how they interact with each other can offer clues for the development of new drugs to restore vision and prevent blindness.

The research was funded by the National Eye Institute, the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Science Foundation, and the UNH Research Office.

The University of New Hampshire inspires innovation and transforms lives in our state, nation, and world. More than 16,000 students from all 50 states and 71 countries engage with an award-winning faculty in top-ranked programs in business, engineering, law, health and human services, liberal arts and the sciences across more than 200 programs of study. As one of the nation’s highest-performing research universities, UNH partners with NASA, NOAA, NSF and NIH, and receives more than $110 million in competitive external funding every year to further explore and define the frontiers of land, sea and space. 

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Written by Patrick R. McElhiney

Category: Articles

Published: 20 December 2019

Several Barrington residents have complained to us that the Town of Barrington isn’t properly notifying its taxpayers about upcoming meetings and the contents of those meetings in advance. Certainly, the Town has an events calendar on its website that lists upcoming events, but we’ve found that it doesn’t actually list all of the upcoming events – for an instance, it doesn’t list the Select Board meetings that have been scheduled for February, March, and April of 2020. We’ve included these meetings in the event calendar in our Print Edition of our newspaper, that we distributed to four locations in town this week – First Seacoast Bank, Barrington Public Library, Millo’s Pizza and Grill, and Kozy’s Pizza. We have also added the Town events that the Town isn’t listing yet to our own event calendar.

The Town also isn’t including agendas in upcoming meetings on its website, so, for instance, the Select Board meeting on January 6^th, 2020 has no further information about what will be discussed at the meeting in the event calendar on the Town’s website. The Town has the capability to include an agenda and other documents that pertain to the meeting in their events calendar, but they simply aren’t, so taxpayers won’t know what will be discussed at upcoming meetings unless they are in direct contact with the Town in advance, which most taxpayers work full-time jobs and have families to feed – they need the Town to do its due diligence and post the information to its website.

We’ve also had a problem with getting notifications from the Town, through its notifications subscription service. Town Administrator Conner MacIver said that there is currently an IT problem with the Town’s website that the subscription service does not work, and the Town is waiting for CivicPlus, the company that designed the website, to respond and fix the problem. It’s been about a month so far, and it’s still not fixed. Barrington Town News would like to be updated every time the Town modifies something on its website, however, currently, we do not have this privilege. We could be providing the community with so much more news about the Town, however if we don’t get notified about the Town’s activities, we can’t follow-up on them.

Small town newspapers serve the purpose of keeping their local governments in check, and that is exactly what we are doing. If we see or hear about something that isn’t quite right, we’re going to publish it online so that the entire community can learn about it. We hope that the Town of Barrington will improve its transparency and openness in the future. We don’t hold a grudge towards the Town – we just want to make sure that the community stays informed about upcoming events and Town business, and the issues that we’ve pointed out need major corrections from the Town of Barrington.

Do you know about something that isn’t quite right with the Town of Barrington? You can report these problems to us as an anonymous source (i.e. we won’t print your name or identifying information) by emailing us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We follow-up on every inquiry that we get. If you, as a taxpayer, don’t agree with something that the Town is doing, or you believe they’re doing something wrong, please let us know so we can give your issue a voice in this newspaper. We’ll use investigative journalism to bring the truth to light about what is really going on.

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Written by Patrick R. McElhiney

Category: Articles

Published: 23 December 2019

Kat Roedell’s Chocolate Cherry Pound Cake

Ingredients:

• 1 Box Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix
• 3 Eggs
• ½ Cup Vegetable Oil
• 1 Box Fudge Pudding
• 1 Small Jar Maraschino Cherries (reserve liquid)
• 1 Bag Semisweet Chocolate Chips
• Less than 1 ¼ cup of Black Coffee

Directions:

1. Heat over to 350 degrees Fahrenheit for shiny metal or glass pan, or 325 degrees Fahrenheit for a dark or nonstick pan.
2. Grease bottom only of 13” x 9” pan, or the bottom and sides of any other types of pan.
3. Instead of the water that the cake mix calls for, use the juice from the jar of Maraschino Cherries in a measuring cup. Fill the rest of the measuring cup up to 1 ¼ cups with coffee. Mix the two liquids together.
4. Mix the cake mix, the cherry juice and coffee, oil, and eggs in a large bowl with mixer on medium speed or beat vigorously by hand for 2 minutes. Then fold in cherries and chocolate chips. Finally, pour the mix into the pan.
5. Bake as directed below, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes before removing from pan. Cool completely before frosting.
6. For a 13” x 9” pan, bake for 30-35 minutes. For two 8” Rounds, bake for 30-35 minutes. For two 9” Rounds, bake for 25-30 minutes. For a Bundt pan, cook for 40-45 minutes. For cupcakes (makes 24), bake for 14-19 minutes.
7. If using a dark or nonstick pan, bake 3-5 minutes longer than times above.

Grandma McElhiney’s Corn Chowder Recipe

Ingredients:

• A 1-pound package of Leidy’s Maple cured bacon.
• 1 medium-sized onion.
• 1 Green Pepper
• 8 Medium-sized Potatoes
• 3 Cans of Cream Corn
• Milk

Directions:

1. Use a whole pound of Leidy's Maple cured bacon. Cut the package in half, and then cut the strips up into small pieces. Place bacon pieces into very large pan - 2+ gallon size.
2. Turn on medium heat. Use a large strainer spoon. Stir the bacon a lot to keep it from sticking to the pan.
3. Cut up half of the medium-sized onion. Take the skin of the onion off, throw away the skin. Create about 1 cup of cut-up onion.
4. Cut up one whole green bell pepper - throw away the inside with seeds.
5. Bacon should be cooked within the time that it takes to cut up the onion and bell pepper.
6. Add onion to cook.
7. After a few minutes, add bell pepper.
8. Continue stirring every few minutes.
9. Remove potato peals from approximately 8 medium-sized potatoes. Cut up potatoes into small pieces. Add cut up potatoes in batches when cut up is completed. If the potato has a brown spot(s), cut out and salvage good parts of potato.
10. Potatoes will turn glossy to absorb oil.
11. Scrape along bottom & edge with a spatula with wooden handle to get off anything stuck on the pan.
12. Put a cover on to steam potatoes, to help work faster.
13. 10-15 minutes total to cook potatoes.
14. Add 3 cans of cream corn. Store brand, i.e. Market Basket. Allow cooking.
15. Add Milk - Whole Milk for creamy. Don't fill all the way to the top of the pan. Don't overdo with the milk - allow the soup to thicken up. You can always add more milk later.

For more recipes from both sides of Patrick McElhiney’s family, visit his personal website, where he has uploaded more recipes:

http://www.patrickmcelhiney.com/pm.php/en/personal/family/recipes

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Written by Patrick R. McElhiney

Category: Articles

Published: 20 December 2019

New Hampshire's 2.6% preliminary seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for November 2019 was ranked fifth-lowest in the nation, tied with Colorado, Hawaii, Iowa, and Virginia, based on data released this morning by BLS.

 

Lowest were: 

Vermont --- 2.3%

South Carolina --- 2.4%

Utah --- 2.4%

 

New England states -- seasonally adjusted:

Vermont --- 2.3% -- lowest

New Hampshire --- 2.6% -- 5th lowest (tie)

Maine --- 2.8% -- 11th lowest

Massachusetts --- 2.9% -- 12th lowest (tie)

Rhode Island --- 3.5% -- 28th lowest

Connecticut --- 3.7% -- 31st lowest (tie)

 

Highest rates:

Alaska --- 6.1%

Mississippi --- 5.6%

District of Columbia --- 5.3%

 

https://www.bls.gov/web/laus/laumstrk.htm

 

For additional Economic and Labor Market Information please contact ELMI.

 

New Hampshire Employment Security Economic and Labor Market Information Bureau

 

General Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (603) 228-4124 www.nhes.nh.gov/elmi

Research Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228-4173

Economist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229-4427

Covered Employment & Wages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228-4060

Current Employment Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228-4175

Local Area Unemployment Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228-4167

Occupational Employment Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229-4315