Child Care, Money and Maine: Implications for Federal and State Policy

Child Care, Money and Maine was chosen as the title for this document because, as we enter into the new century, child day care services have become an essential component to a healthy economy in Maine and in the nation. The availability of good child care has a major impact on a family’s ability to find, train for, and sustain employment. Child care is also crucial to modern businesses being able to recruit, retain and sustain employees. Lack of dependable and appropriate child care will be a critical barrier to the movement of low-income families from welfare to work. The quality of the care being provided has a profound effect on the lives of our children, which in turn has major implications for state education, social services, juvenile justice and Medicaid budgets.https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/facbooks/1093/thumbnail.jp

Breast cancer detection using automated whole breast ultrasound and mammography in radiographically dense breasts

PurposeMammography, the standard method of breast cancer screening, misses many cancers, especially in dense-breasted women. We compared the performance and diagnostic yield of mammography alone versus an automated whole breast ultrasound (AWBU) plus mammography in women with dense breasts and/or at elevated risk of breast cancer.MethodsAWBU screening was tested in 4,419 women having routine mammography (Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00649337). Cancers occurring during the study and subsequent 1-year follow-up were evaluated. Sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive value (PPV) of biopsy recommendation for mammography alone, AWBU and mammography with AWBU were calculated.ResultsBreast cancer detection doubled from 23 to 46 in 6,425 studies using AWBU with mammography, resulting in an increase in diagnostic yield from 3.6 per 1,000 with mammography alone to 7.2 per 1,000 by adding AWBU. PPV for biopsy based on mammography findings was 39.0% and for AWBU 38.4%. The number of detected invasive cancers 10 mm or less in size tripled from 7 to 21 when AWBU findings were added to mammography.ConclusionAWBU resulted in significant cancer detection improvement compared with mammography alone. Additional detection and the smaller size of invasive cancers may justify this technology's expense for women with dense breasts and/or at high risk for breast cancer

Second Generation of Antisense Oligonucleotides: From Nuclease Resistance to Biological Efficacy in Animals

From efforts to improve the biophysical properties of antisense oligonucleotides by incorporating backbone- or sugar-modified nucleoside analogs, 2'-O-methoxyethyl ribonucleosides 8b were identified as building blocks for a second generation of antisense oligonucleotides. Compounds containing these modifications were demonstrated to combine the benefit of a high binding affinity to the RNA complement with a large increase in nuclease resistance, allowing the use of regular phosphodiester linkages. Chimeric oligonucleotides with 2'-O-methoxyethyl ribonucleosides, 8b, in the wings and a central DNA-phosphorothioate window were shown to efficiently downregulate C-'raf' kinase and PKC-α messenger-RNA in tumor cell lines resulting in a profound inhibition of cell proliferation. The same compounds were able to effectively reduce the growth of tumors in animal models at low concentrations indicating the potential utility of these second generation antisense oligonucleotides for therapeutic applications

Breast cancer detection: radiologists’ performance using mammography with and without automated whole-breast ultrasound

ObjectiveRadiologist reader performance for breast cancer detection using mammography plus automated whole-breast ultrasound (AWBU) was compared with mammography alone.MethodsScreenings for non-palpable breast malignancies in women with radiographically dense breasts with contemporaneous mammograms and AWBU were reviewed by 12 radiologists blinded to the diagnoses; half the studies were abnormal. Readers first reviewed the 102 mammograms. The American College of Radiology (ACR) Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BIRADS) and Digital Mammographic Imaging Screening Trial (DMIST) likelihood ratings were recorded with location information for identified abnormalities. Readers then reviewed the mammograms and AWBU with knowledge of previous mammogram-only evaluation. We compared reader performance across screening techniques using absolute callback, areas under the curve (AUC), and figure of merit (FOM).ResultsTrue positivity of cancer detection increased 63%, with only a 4% decrease in true negativity. Reader-averaged AUC was higher for mammography plus AWBU compared with mammography alone by BIRADS (0.808 versus 0.701) and likelihood scores (0.810 versus 0.703). Similarly, FOM was higher for mammography plus AWBU compared with mammography alone by BIRADS (0.786 versus 0.613) and likelihood scores (0.791 versus 0.614).ConclusionAdding AWBU to mammography improved callback rates, accuracy of breast cancer detection, and confidence in callbacks for dense-breasted women

“A very orderly retreat”: Democratic transition in East Germany, 1989-90

East Germany's 1989-90 democratisation is among the best known of East European transitions, but does not lend itself to comparative analysis, due to the singular way in which political reform and democratic consolidation were subsumed by Germany's unification process. Yet aspects of East Germany's democratisation have proved amenable to comparative approaches. This article reviews the comparative literature that refers to East Germany, and finds a schism between those who designate East Germany's transition “regime collapse” and others who contend that it exemplifies “transition through extrication”. It inquires into the merits of each position and finds in favour of the latter. Drawing on primary and secondary literature, as well as archival and interview sources, it portrays a communist elite that was, to a large extent, prepared to adapt to changing circumstances and capable of learning from “reference states” such as Poland. Although East Germany was the Soviet state in which the positions of existing elites were most threatened by democratic transition, here too a surprising number succeeded in maintaining their position while filing across the bridge to market society. A concluding section outlines the alchemy through which their bureaucratic power was transmuted into property and influence in the “new Germany”

Introductory programming: a systematic literature review

As computing becomes a mainstream discipline embedded in the school curriculum and acts as an enabler for an increasing range of academic disciplines in higher education, the literature on introductory programming is growing. Although there have been several reviews that focus on specific aspects of introductory programming, there has been no broad overview of the literature exploring recent trends across the breadth of introductory programming. This paper is the report of an ITiCSE working group that conducted a systematic review in order to gain an overview of the introductory programming literature. Partitioning the literature into papers addressing the student, teaching, the curriculum, and assessment, we explore trends, highlight advances in knowledge over the past 15 years, and indicate possible directions for future research