Addressing the Needs of Young Children and Families:Early Childhood Education and Services in Catholic Schools and Catholic Charities

Nationally, focus is increasing on the developmental experiences of young children (birth to age 8). Twenty four (arch)dioceses in large metropolitan areas participated in a survey identifying the extent and nature of services provided by Catholic schools and Catholic Charities programs to young children and their families. Six hundred and seventy Catholic schools and 100 Catholic Charities programs completed surveys. Key findings suggest that Catholic schools and Catholic Charities programs are engaged in a plethora of early childhood services and educational activities with young children and families. Both entities provide direct education and services to young children, are engaged in supporting families through a variety of initiatives, and have complementary as well as distinctive approaches. Opportunities were identified within Catholic Schools and within Catholic Charities programs. The potential benefits of increasing collaborations between Catholic schools and Catholic Charities programs, and with others, were highlighted to comprehensively meet the varied (and, at times, extensive) needs of young children and families. Abordando las necesidades de los niños y sus familias: educación en la primera infancia y servicios en las escuelas católicas y los centros católicos de beneficencia A nivel nacional, el foco se incrementa en las experiencias de desarrollo de niños pequeños (desde el nacimiento hasta los ocho años). Veinticuatro diócesis y archidiócesis en grandes zonas metropolitanas participaron en una encuesta con el objetivo de identificar el alcance y la índole de los servicios ofrecidos por las Escuelas católicas y los programas católicos de beneficencia a los niños pequeños y sus familias. Completaron la encuesta seiscientas setenta escuelas católicas y cien programas católicos de beneficencia. Los resultados clave sugieren que las escuelas católicas y los programas católicos de beneficencia están comprometidos en un sinfín de servicios para la primera infancia y actividades educativas para niños y familias. Ambas entidades proveen educación y servicios directos a niños y están comprometidas en el apoyo a las familias mediante una variedad de iniciativas, y disponen de planteamientos complementarios así como distintivos. Se identificaron oportunidades en las escuelas católicas y en los programas católicos de beneficencia. Se resaltaron las ventajas potenciales del aumento de colaboración entre las escuelas católicas y los programas católicos de beneficencia con otros para cumplir de manera comprensiva con las necesidades variadas (y a veces extensas) de los niños pequeños y las familias. Palabras clave: escuelas católicas, centros católicos de beneficencia, primera infancia, servicios a la familia, colaboración Répondre aux besoins des jeunes enfants et des familles : éducation et services à la petite enfance dans les écoles et organisations caritatives catholiques Au plan national, l’attention est de plus en plus axée sur le développement et les expériences vécues par les jeunes enfants (de la naissance à huit ans. Dans les grandes zones métropolitaines, 24 diocèses et archidiocèses ont participé à des enquêtes pour établir l\u27étendue et la nature des services rendus aux jeunes enfants et à leurs familles par les écoles et programmes caritatifs catholiques. 670 écoles catholiques et 100 programmes caritatifs ont répondu aux enquêtes. Les principales constatations montrent que les écoles et organisations caritatives catholiques sont impliquées dans une pléthore de services et activités éducatives pour la petite enfance, destinés aux jeunes enfants et aux familles. Les deux entités fournissent directement un enseignement et des services aux jeunes enfants, agissent pour aider les familles par le biais d\u27initiatives diverses et adoptent des approches complémentaires bien que distinctes. Des possibilités d’action ont été établies au sein des écoles catholiques et des programmes caritatifs. L\u27accent a été mis sur les avantages potentiels qu\u27apporterait une collaboration accrue entre les écoles et organisations caritatives catholiques, et autres, en vue de satisfaire totalement les besoins variés (parfois substantiels) des jeunes enfants et des familles. Mots-clés : Écoles catholiques, organisations caritatives, petite enfance, services familiaux, collaboratio

Assessing the discordance rate between local and central HER2 testing in women with locally determined HER2-negative breast cancer.

BackgroundThe importance of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) as a prognostic and predictive marker in invasive breast cancer is well established. Accurate assessment of HER2 status is essential to determine optimal treatment options.MethodsBreast cancer tumor tissue samples from the VIRGO observational cohort tissue substudy that were locally HER2-negative were retested centrally with both US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved immunohistochemistry (IHC) and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) assays, using FDA-approved assay cutoffs; results were compared.ResultsOf the 552 unique patient samples centrally retested with local HER2-negative results recorded, tumor samples from 22 (4.0%) patients were determined to be HER2-positive (95% confidence interval [CI] = 2.5%-5.7%). Of these, 18 had been tested locally by only one testing methodology; 15 of 18 were HER2-positive after the central retesting, based on the testing methodology not performed locally. Compared with the 530 patients with centrally confirmed HER2-negative tumors, the 22 patients with centrally determined HER2-positive tumors were younger (median age 56.5 versus 60.0 years) and more likely to have ER/PR-negative tumors (27.3% versus 22.3%). These patients also had shorter median progression-free survival (6.4 months [95% CI = 3.8-15.9 months] versus 9.1 months [95% CI = 8.3-10.3 months]) and overall survival (25.9 months [95% CI = 13.8-not estimable] versus 27.9 months [95% CI = 25.0-32.9 months]).ConclusionsThis study highlights the limitations of employing just one HER2 testing methodology in current clinical practice. It identifies a cohort of patients who did not receive potentially efficacious therapy because their tumor HER2-positivity was not determined by the test initially used. Because of inherent limitations in testing methodologies, it is inadvisable to rely on a single test to rule out potential benefit from HER2-targeted therapy

Human TRMT2A methylates tRNA and contributes to translation fidelity

5-Methyluridine (m5U) is one of the most abundant RNA modifications found in cytosolic tRNA. tRNA methyltransferase 2 homolog A (hTRMT2A) is the dedicated mammalian enzyme for m5U formation at tRNA position 54. However, its RNA binding specificity and functional role in the cell are not well understood. Here we dissected structural and sequence requirements for binding and methylation of its RNA targets. Specificity of tRNA modification by hTRMT2A is achieved by a combination of modest binding preference and presence of a uridine in position 54 of tRNAs. Mutational analysis together with cross-linking experiments identified a large hTRMT2A–tRNA binding surface. Furthermore, complementing hTRMT2A interactome studies revealed that hTRMT2A interacts with proteins involved in RNA biogenesis. Finally, we addressed the question of the importance of hTRMT2A function by showing that its knockdown reduces translation fidelity. These findings extend the role of hTRMT2A beyond tRNA modification towards a role in translation

Medical Students’ Views and Ideas About Palliative Care Communicatio Training

This study focused on the undergraduate medical student to identify views and ideas held toward palliative care communication training, pedagogical approaches to this training, and its perceived effectiveness and use in the medical field. Two focus groups consisting of fourth-year medical students were conducted, and their responses were analyzed using grounded theory categorization. Results indicated that students: (a) prefer to learn nonverbal communication techniques, (b) believe that natural ability and experience outweigh communication curriculum, (c) view the skill of breaking bad news as largely dependent on knowledge and expertise, and (d) prefer curriculum on palliative care and hospice to consist of information (eg, advance directives) rather than communication skills. Implications for these interpretive themes are discussed as well as future research and practice.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

Gene content evolution in the arthropods

Arthropods comprise the largest and most diverse phylum on Earth and play vital roles in nearly every ecosystem. Their diversity stems in part from variations on a conserved body plan, resulting from and recorded in adaptive changes in the genome. Dissection of the genomic record of sequence change enables broad questions regarding genome evolution to be addressed, even across hyper-diverse taxa within arthropods. Using 76 whole genome sequences representing 21 orders spanning more than 500 million years of arthropod evolution, we document changes in gene and protein domain content and provide temporal and phylogenetic context for interpreting these innovations. We identify many novel gene families that arose early in the evolution of arthropods and during the diversification of insects into modern orders. We reveal unexpected variation in patterns of DNA methylation across arthropods and examples of gene family and protein domain evolution coincident with the appearance of notable phenotypic and physiological adaptations such as flight, metamorphosis, sociality, and chemoperception. These analyses demonstrate how large-scale comparative genomics can provide broad new insights into the genotype to phenotype map and generate testable hypotheses about the evolution of animal diversity

"i'm not really afraid of Osama Bin Laden!" fear of terrorism in dutch children

We examined to what extent children in The Netherlands are affected by the threat of terrorism. For this purpose, a sample of school children living in Rotterdam or adjacent satellites (N = 216) completed a fear survey that included a number of terrorism-related items, and were confronted with ambiguous vignettes to measure threat-related interpretation bias. The results demonstrated that although a number of terrorism-related items (i.e., bombing attacks, explosions in a bus or subway) listed high in a ranking of most intense childhood fears, very few children made terrorist-related interpretations of ambiguous situations

Systematics and evolution of predatory flower flies (Diptera Syrphidae) based on exon-capture sequencing

Flower flies (Diptera: Syrphidae) are one of the most species-rich dipteran families and provide important ecosystem services such as pollination, biological control of pests, recycling of organic matter and redistributions of essential nutrients. Flower fly adults generally feed on pollen and nectar, but their larval feeding habits are strikingly diverse. In the present study, high-throughput sequencing was used to capture and enrich phylogenetically and evolutionary informative exonic regions. With the help of the baitfisher software, we developed a new bait kit (SYRPHIDAE1.0) to target 1945 CDS regions belonging to 1312 orthologous genes. This new bait kit was successfully used to exon capture the targeted loci in 121 flower fly species across the different subfamilies of Syrphidae. We analysed different amino acid and nucleotide data sets (1302 loci and 154 loci) with maximum likelihood and multispecies coalescent models. Our analyses yielded highly supported similar topologies, although the degree of the SRH (global stationarity, reversibility and homogeneity) conditions varied greatly between amino acid and nucleotide data sets. The sisterhood of subfamilies Pipizinae and Syrphinae is supported in all our analyses, confirming a common origin of taxa feeding on soft-bodied arthropods. Based on our results, we define Syrphini stat.rev. to include the genera Toxomerus and Paragus. Our divergence estimate analyses with beast inferred the origin of the Syrphidae in the Lower Cretaceous (125.5-98.5 Ma) and the diversification of predatory flower flies around the K-Pg boundary (70.61-54.4 Ma), coinciding with the rise and diversification of their prey.Peer reviewe

The state of the Martian climate

60°N was +2.0°C, relative to the 1981–2010 average value (Fig. 5.1). This marks a new high for the record. The average annual surface air temperature (SAT) anomaly for 2016 for land stations north of starting in 1900, and is a significant increase over the previous highest value of +1.2°C, which was observed in 2007, 2011, and 2015. Average global annual temperatures also showed record values in 2015 and 2016. Currently, the Arctic is warming at more than twice the rate of lower latitudes

A compilation of charged-particle induced thermonuclear reaction rates

Low-energy cross section data for 86 charged-particle induced reactions involving light (1 less than or equal to Z less than or equal to 14), mostly stable, nuclei are compiled. The corresponding Maxwellian-averaged thermonuclear reaction rates of relevance in astrophysical plasmas at temperatures in the range from 10(6) K to 10(10) K are calculated. These evaluations assume either that the target nuclei are in their ground state, or that the target states are thermally populated following a Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution, except in some cases involving isomeric states. Adopted values complemented with lower and upper limits of the rates are presented in tabular form. Analytical approximations to the adopted rates, as well as to the inverse/direct rate ratios, are provided. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved

Evolution of the Stellar Mass Tully-Fisher Relation in Disk Galaxy Merger Simulations

There is a large observational scatter toward low velocities in the stellar mass Tully-Fisher relation if disturbed and compact objects are included. However, this scatter can be eliminated if one replaces rotation velocity with $\rm S_{\rm 0.5}$, a quantity that includes a velocity dispersion term added in quadrature with the rotation velocity. In this work we use a large suite of hydrodynamic N-body galaxy merger simulations to explore a possible mechanism for creating the observed relations. Using mock observations of the simulations, we test for the presence of observational effects and explore the relationship between $\rm S_{\rm 0.5}$ and intrinsic properties of the galaxies. We find that galaxy mergers can explain the scatter in the TF as well as the tight $\rm S_{\rm 0.5}$-stellar mass relation. Furthermore, $\rm S_{\rm 0.5}$ is correlated with the total central mass of a galaxy, including contributions due to dark matter.Comment: ApJ accepte