Breastfeeding Monitoring Improves Maternal Self-Efficacy and Satisfaction.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of an interactive web-based breastfeeding monitoring system on breastfeeding self-efficacy and satisfaction among mothers of full-term infants at 1, 2, and 3 months after hospital discharge. STUDY DESIGN: We conducted a secondary data analysis of our two-arm, repeated-measures randomized controlled trial that took place in three Midwestern hospitals. Participants were assigned to either control or intervention groups using random numbers. Of the 141 mother-baby dyads enrolled and randomized, 35 dropped out of the study, leaving 57 mothers in the control group and 49 in the intervention group. Mothers in both groups received care based on the hospital protocol, but mothers in the intervention group were also given access to an interactive web-based breastfeeding monitoring system prior to discharge. Participants were asked to enter breastfeeding data, receive educational messages for 30 days, and complete the Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy Scale (BFSE) at 1, 2, and 3 months and the Maternal Breastfeeding Evaluation Scale (MBFES) at 3 months. Mothers received feedback in case of breastfeeding problems. RESULTS: A significant difference between groups in BFSE at the 2 and 3 months (p = 0.04; p = 0.04) with medium effect size (0.52, 0.53) was found. There was a significant difference between groups in the total score of MBFES (p = 0.02, effect size 0.53). Mean scores were 122.2, SD = 17.68 for intervention and 112.8, SD = 18.03 for control group. The MBFES scores were positively correlated to BFSE scores among intervention group at all time points (r = .714, n = 45, p < .00; r = .611, n = 41, p < .00; r = .637, n = 39, p < .00). CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Interactive web-based breastfeeding monitoring improved maternal breastfeeding self-efficacy and satisfaction and may be a promising innovation to promote maternal breastfeeding self-efficacy and satisfaction.

BioNetApp: An interactive visual data analysis platform for molecular expressions.

MOTIVATION: Systems biology faces two key challenges when dealing with large amounts of disparate data produced by different experiments: the integration of results across different experiments, and the extraction of meaningful information from the data produced by these experiments. An ongoing challenge is to provide better tools that can mine data patterns that could not have been discovered through simple visualization. Such mining capabilities also need to be coupled with intuitive visualization to portray those findings. We introduce a software toolbox entitled BioNetApp to mine these patterns and visualize them across all experiments. RESULTS: BioNetApp is an interactive visual data mining software for analyzing high-volume molecular expression data obtained from multiple 'omics experiments. By integrating visualization, statistical methods, and data mining techniques, BioNetApp can perform interactive correlative and comparative analysis along time-course studies of molecular expression data. Correlation analysis provides several visualization features such as Kamada-Kawai, Fruchterman-Reingold Spring embedding network layouts, in addition to single circle, multiple circle and heatmap layouts, whereas comparative analysis presents expression-data distributions across samples, groups, and time points with boxplot display, outlier detection, and data curve fitting. BioNetApp also provides data clustering based on molecular concentrations using Self Organizing Maps (SOM), K-Means, K-Medoids, and Farthest First algorithms. CONCLUSION: BioNetApp has been utilized in a metabolomics study to investigate the metabolite abundance changes in alcohol induced fatty liver, where pair-wise analyses of metabolome concentration revealed correlation networks and interesting patterns in the metabolomics dataset. This study case demonstrates the effectiveness of the BioNetApp software as an interactive visual analysis tool for molecular expression data in systems biology. The BioNetApp software is freely available under GNU GPL license and can be downloaded (including the case-study data and user-manual) at: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2563129.

Changes in the Proteome of Langat-Infected Ixodes scapularis ISE6 Cells: Metabolic Pathways Associated with Flavivirus Infection.

BACKGROUND: Ticks (Family Ixodidae) transmit a variety of disease causing agents to humans and animals. The tick-borne flaviviruses (TBFs; family Flaviviridae) are a complex of viruses, many of which cause encephalitis and hemorrhagic fever, and represent global threats to human health and biosecurity. Pathogenesis has been well studied in human and animal disease models. Equivalent analyses of tick-flavivirus interactions are limited and represent an area of study that could reveal novel approaches for TBF control. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: High resolution LC-MS/MS was used to analyze the proteome of Ixodes scapularis (Lyme disease tick) embryonic ISE6 cells following infection with Langat virus (LGTV) and identify proteins associated with viral infection and replication. Maximal LGTV infection of cells and determination of peak release of infectious virus, was observed at 36 hours post infection (hpi). Proteins were extracted from ISE6 cells treated with LGTV and non-infectious (UV inactivated) LGTV at 36 hpi and analyzed by mass spectrometry. The Omics Discovery Pipeline (ODP) identified thousands of MS peaks. Protein homology searches against the I. scapularis IscaW1 genome assembly identified a total of 486 proteins that were subsequently assigned to putative functional pathways using searches against the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) database. 266 proteins were differentially expressed following LGTV infection relative to non-infected (mock) cells. Of these, 68 proteins exhibited increased expression and 198 proteins had decreased expression. The majority of the former were classified in the KEGG pathways: "translation", "amino acid metabolism", and "protein folding/sorting/degradation". Finally, Trichostatin A and Oligomycin A increased and decreased LGTV replication in vitro in ISE6 cells, respectively. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Proteomic analyses revealed ISE6 proteins that were differentially expressed at the peak of LGTV replication. Proteins with increased expression following infection were associated with cellular metabolic pathways and glutaminolysis. In vitro assays using small molecules implicate malate dehydrogenase (MDH2), the citrate cycle, cellular acetylation, and electron transport chain processes in viral replication. Proteins were identified that may be required for TBF infection of ISE6 cells. These proteins are candidates for functional studies and targets for the development of transmission-blocking vaccines and drugs.

The Effect of Interactive Web-Based Monitoring on Breastfeeding Exclusivity, Intensity, and Duration in Healthy, Term Infants After Hospital Discharge.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether a Web-based interactive breastfeeding monitoring system increased breastfeeding duration, exclusivity, and intensity as primary outcomes and decreased symptoms of postpartum depression as a secondary outcome. DESIGN: Two-arm, randomized controlled trial. SETTING: Three hospitals in the Midwestern United States. PARTICIPANTS: One hundred forty one (141) mother-newborn dyads were recruited before discharge. METHODS: Postpartum women were randomly assigned to the control or intervention groups. Women in the control group (n = 57) followed the standard hospital protocol, whereas women in the intervention group (n = 49) were given access to an online interactive breastfeeding monitoring system and were prompted to record breastfeeding and infant output data for 30 days. A follow-up online survey was sent to both groups at 1, 2, and 3 months to assess breastfeeding outcomes and postpartum depression. RESULTS: For mothers and infants, there were no significant differences in demographics between groups. No significant differences in breastfeeding outcomes were found between groups at discharge (p = .707). A significant difference in breastfeeding outcomes was found between groups at 1, 2, and 3 months (p = .027, p < .001, and p = .002, respectively). Members of the intervention group had greater exclusive breastfeeding rates at 1, 2, and 3 months. By the end of the third month, 84% of the intervention group was breastfeeding compared with 66% of the control group. Postpartum depression symptom scores decreased for both groups at 1, 2, and 3 months (control group: 4.9 ± 3.9, 4.3 ± 4.9, and 3.2 ± 3.9, respectively; intervention group: 4.7 ± 4.5, 3.0 ± 3.4, and 2.8 ± 3.6, respectively). However, there was no significant difference between groups at 1, 2, and 3 months (p = .389, .170, and .920, respectively) for depression. CONCLUSION: The Web-based interactive breastfeeding monitoring system may be a promising intervention to improve breastfeeding duration, exclusivity, and intensity.