African American Adolescent Mothers' Childbirth Support From Fathers, Grandmothers, Nurses, Doctors, and Doulas.

The morning after giving birth in a large urban hospital, 121 African American adolescents participating in a community doula program identified the people who had been with them during labor and birth and narrated their birth stories. Besides medical providers, the people most likely to be present for the birth were the infants' fathers ( = 73, 60%), the mothers' mothers ( = 70, 58%), and their doulas ( = 100, 83%). Birth stories were coded to identify types of support provided by different people.

Plasticity of the gastrocnemius elastic system in response to decreased work and power demand during growth.

Elastic energy storage and release can enhance performance that would otherwise be limited by the force-velocity constraints of muscle. Although functional influence of a biological spring depends on tuning between components of an elastic system (the muscle, spring-driven mass and lever system), we do not know whether elastic systems systematically adapt to functional demand. To test whether altering work and power generation during maturation alters the morphology of an elastic system, we prevented growing guinea fowl (Numida meleagris) from jumping.

The national landscape of culminating experiences in master's programs in health and biomedical informatics.

Health and biomedical informatics graduate-level degree programs have proliferated across the United States in the last 10 years. To help inform programs on practices in teaching and learning, a survey of master's programs in health and biomedical informatics in the United States was conducted to determine the national landscape of culminating experiences including capstone projects, research theses, internships, and practicums. Almost all respondents reported that their programs required a culminating experience (97%).

Making meaning of motherhood: Self and life transitions among African American adolescent mothers.

Although adolescent childbearing is widely viewed as a major social problem, and research suggests that young mothers and their children are at risk for poor economic and academic outcomes, these ideas may be in need of revision. Recent scholarship has pointed out that young mothers have been unfairly blamed and stigmatized for problems that should be attributed to social and economic inequality, racism, and poverty. The present study extends that research by listening to the voices of young mothers.

Altering the Mechanical Load Environment During Growth Does Not Affect Adult Achilles Tendon Properties in an Avian Bipedal Model.

Tendon mechanical properties respond to altered load in adults, but how load history during growth affects adult tendon properties remains unclear. To address this question, we adopted an avian model in which we altered the mechanical load environment across the growth span. Animals were divided at 2 weeks of age into three groups: (1) an exercise control group given the opportunity to perform high-acceleration movements (EXE, = 8); (2) a sedentary group restricted from high-intensity exercise (RES, = 8); and (3) a sedentary group also restricted from high-intensity exercise and in which the gastrocnemius muscles were partially paralyzed using repeated bouts of botulinum toxin-A injections (RES-BTX, = 8).

Using big data in pediatric oncology: Current applications and future directions.

Pediatric cancer is a rare disease with a low annual incidence, which presents a significant challenge in being able to collect enough data to fuel clinical discoveries. Big data registry trials hold promise to advance the study of pediatric cancers by allowing for the combination of traditional randomized controlled trials with the power of larger cohort sizes. The emergence of big data resources and data-sharing initiatives are becoming transformative for pediatric cancer diagnosis and treatment.

The integration of sensory feedback in the modulation of anuran landing preparation.

Controlled landing requires preparation. Mammals and bipedal birds vary how they prepare for landing by predicting the timing and magnitude of impact from the integration of visual and non-visual information. Here, we explore how the cane toad an animal that moves primarily through hopping - integrates sensory information to modulate landing preparation.

Eliminating high-intensity activity during growth reduces mechanical power capacity but not submaximal metabolic cost in a bipedal animal model.

Decreases in activity levels in children worldwide are feared to have long-term health repercussions. Yet, because of the difficulty of performing controlled long-term studies in humans, we do not yet understand how decreases in childhood activity influence adult functional capacity. Here, in an avian bipedal model, we evaluated the elimination of all high-intensity activity during growth on adult performance.

Use of Wearable, Mobile, and Sensor Technology in Cancer Clinical Trials.

As the availability and sophistication of mobile health (mHealth) technology (wearables, mobile technology, and sensors) continues to increase, there is great promise that these tools will be transformative for clinical trials and drug development. This review provides an overview of the current landscape of potential measurement options, including the various types of data collected, methods/tools for collecting them, and a crosswalk of available options. The opportunities and potential drawbacks of mHealth in cancer clinical trials are discussed.

The principles of cascading power limits in small, fast biological and engineered systems.

Mechanical power limitations emerge from the physical trade-off between force and velocity. Many biological systems incorporate power-enhancing mechanisms enabling extraordinary accelerations at small sizes. We establish how power enhancement emerges through the dynamic coupling of motors, springs, and latches and reveal how each displays its own force-velocity behavior.

Data Commons to Support Pediatric Cancer Research.

The falling costs and increasing fidelity of high-throughput biomedical research data have led to a renaissance in cancer surveillance and treatment. Yet, the amount, velocity, and complexity of these data have overcome the capacity of the increasing number of researchers collecting and analyzing this information. By centralizing the data, processing power, and tools, there is a valuable opportunity to share resources and thus increase the efficiency, power, and impact of research.

The delivery of heavy menstrual bleeding services in England and Wales after publication of national guidelines: a survey of hospitals.

Background: In 2007-2008, two UK-based organisations, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, published guidelines for the management of care and organisation of outpatient services for women with heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB). In 2010, this study was conducted to provide an update on guideline-related services provided in England and Wales, and whether they are consistent with national clinical guidelines two to three years after publication.

Methods: An organisational survey of outpatient gynaecology clinics was conducted of 221 hospitals in 154 acute National Health Service (NHS) trusts in England and Wales.

Parent relationship quality and infant-mother attachment.

This project examined interrelations between father-mother conflict, father support of mother, maternal behavior, and infant-mother attachment within a sample of 79 African American families living in a highly stressed urban community. Father support of mother was not related to maternal parenting behavior or infant attachment. Conflicted mother-father relationships were associated with problematic maternal behavior, low maternal sensitivity, infant attachment insecurity, and infant attachment disorganization.

Mothers' representations of their infants and parenting behavior: Associations with personal and social-contextual variables in a high-risk sample.

Associations between mothers' psychological distress, experiences of verbal and violent relational conflict, representations of the relationships with their infants, and parenting behavior were examined in 100 African American mothers of 17- to 20-month-old infants. Maternal representations of infants were assessed via the Working Model of the Child Interview (WMCI; Zeanah, Benoit, Hirshberg, & Barton, 1986). Results showed that mothers who experienced more conflict with their own mothers had increased odds of having disengaged representations of the relationship with their infants.

Reliability of a preventability model in maternal death and morbidity.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to measure the reliability of a model that defines preventability in maternal morbidity and death.

Study Design: One hundred cases of serious morbidity and death among peripartum women were reviewed by 2 independent groups of medical experts to identify potentially preventable provider or system events that may have led to the progression of illness.

Results: Seventy-seven percent of the cases had concordant findings in both groups regarding the identification of any preventable events.

Morbidity and mortality in pregnancy: laying the groundwork for safe motherhood.

The Safe Motherhood Initiative is a global effort to reduce deaths and illnesses among women and infants. Despite the relatively low maternal mortality rate in the United States, ensuring safe motherhood is still critical. For several reasons, it is important to study maternal mortality and morbidity.

Disparities in mortality among high risk pregnant women in Illinois: a population based study.

Purpose: Researchers are increasingly studying maternal mortality in the context of maternal morbidity in order to identify risk and protective factors operating at each point along the morbidity-mortality continuum. This study examined factors associated with mortality in pregnant women with severe morbidity. In particular, the Black-White disparity was examined.

The continuum of maternal morbidity and mortality: factors associated with severity.

Objective: The goal of this study was to examine whether sociodemographic, clinical, and other service-related factors, as well as preventability issues affect a woman's progression along the continuum of morbidity and mortality.

Study Design: This was a case-control study of pregnancy-related deaths, women with near-miss morbidity, and those with other severe, but not life threatening, morbidity. Factors associated with maternal outcome were examined.

International Classification of Diseases-9th revision coding for preeclampsia: how accurate is it?

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of the International Classification of Diseases-9th revision codes for preeclampsia and eclampsia.

Study Design: The University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago discharge database was used to identify 135 women from 1999 through 2001 whose disease was coded as having preeclampsia or eclampsia. With American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology criteria as the gold standard, the diagnosis that was determined through chart review was compared with the International Classification of Diseases-9th revision code that was present in the discharge database.

Defining a conceptual framework for near-miss maternal morbidity.

Maternal mortality is the major indicator used to monitor maternal health in the United States. For every woman who dies, however, many suffer serious life-threatening complications of pregnancy. Yet relatively little attention has been given to identifying a general category of morbidities that could be called near misses.