Postpartum women’s perception of antenatal breastfeeding education: a descriptive survey

Abstract Background Antenatal breastfeeding education (ANBE) is provided to all pregnant women attending Ministry of Health (MOH) clinics and some private health facilities in Malaysia, in line with the WHO/UNICEF Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI). However, the 6 month exclusive breastfeeding prevalence remains relatively low in Malaysia, suggesting that there may be a gap between what is currently taught and what is received by the women. Objectives To determine how women perceived their ANBE experience in the first 8 weeks postpartum including what was useful and what they would like to have been included, sources of ANBE and infant feeding practices at the time of survey. Methods Women during their first 8 weeks postpartum who attended MOH clinics in Penang State, Malaysia were surveyed using a self-administered questionnaire in April and May 2015. Categorical responses were presented as numbers and proportions while free text responses were compiled verbatim and categorised into themes. The perceptions of primiparous and multiparous women were compared. Multivariate logistic regression adjusted to known confounders was used to determine if ANBE was associated with exclusive breastfeeding at the time of survey. Results A total of 421 women completed the 15-item questionnaire (84% response rate) of which 282 were complete and available for analysis. Of these, 95% had received ANBE, majority (88%) from MOH clinics. Almost all women found it useful. However, there were areas both in the delivery (e.g. too short) and the content (e.g. nothing new) that were described as not useful; and areas they would like more coverage (e.g. milk expression, storage and overcoming low milk supply). The exclusive breastfeeding prevalence at the time of survey was 61%. ANBE was significantly associated with exclusive breastfeeding even after adjusting for confounders (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 8.1, 95% confidence interval 1.7, 38.3). Conclusions ANBE is widely implemented and perceived as useful and may be associated with exclusive breastfeeding. Our findings give insight into content that women would like more of and how delivery of ANBE could be improved, including individualized sessions and communicating at a suitable level and language. Future studies could focus on the quality of ANBE delivery.

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Perceived enablers of exclusive breastfeeding by teenage mothers in Ghana

South African Family Practice ◽

10.4102/safp.v62i1.5108 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 62 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Angela K. Acheampong ◽

Makombo Ganga-Limando ◽

Lydia Aziato

Keyword(s):

Exclusive Breastfeeding ◽

Age Groups ◽

Teenage Mothers ◽

Care Staff ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Expert Opinions ◽

Contextual Design ◽

Breastfeeding Education ◽

History Of

Background: Exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months can prevent diseases, boost immunity and improve quality of lives of infants. Ghana implemented programmes aimed at reaching the global target of increasing exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months to at least 50% by the year 2025. The country witnessed a decline in the overall rate of exclusive breastfeeding and an increase in the number of teenage mothers. Globally, teenage mothers are less likely to breastfeed than mothers of other age groups. Understanding enablers of exclusive breastfeeding by teenage mothers is important for any intervention aimed at improving exclusive breastfeeding rates and the quality of lives of infants.Method: The study used a qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual design, with focus groups. A total of six group discussions were conducted with 30 pregnant teenagers recruited from six public hospitals.Results: Seven enablers emerged from the analysis of data. These included positive beliefs about the benefits of breast milk, family history of positive exclusive breastfeeding outcomes, support of the intimate partner, approval of closed-family members, expert opinions of antenatal care staff, teenage-oriented breastfeeding education and community-based breastfeeding education.Conclusion: Health professionals and policy makers could learn from these enablers and use them to promote exclusive breastfeeding practices amongst teenage mothers in Ghana.

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Improving Seed Quality of Soybean Suitable for Growing in Europe

Soybean for Human Consumption and Animal Feed ◽

10.5772/intechopen.89922 ◽

2020 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Aleksandra Sudarić ◽

Maja Matoša Kočar ◽

Tomislav Duvnjak ◽

Zvonimir Zdunić ◽

Antonela Markulj Kulundžić

Keyword(s):

Acid Composition ◽

Seed Quality ◽

Soluble Sugars ◽

Soybean Seed ◽

Trade Deficit ◽

Added Value ◽

Future Production ◽

Almost All ◽

Insight Into

The potential of soybean for food, feed, and pharmaceutical industry arises from the composition of its seed. Since European countries import 95% of the annual demand for soybean grains, meal, and oil, causing an enormous trade deficit, the governments in Europe had started to introduce additional incentives to stimulate soybean cropping. To rebalance the sources of soybean supply in the future, production must be followed by continuous research to create varieties that would make European soybean more appealing to the processing industry and profitable enough to satisfy European farmers. This chapter is giving an overview of the European soybean seed quality research and an insight into soybean seed quality progress made at the Agricultural Institute Osijek, Croatia. The studies presented are mainly considering maturity groups suitable for growing in almost all European regions. The most important traits of soybean seed quality discussed are protein content and amino acid composition, oil content and fatty acid composition, soluble sugars, and isoflavones. Defining quality traits facilitates the parental selection in breeding programs aiming to improve the added value properties of final soybean products and enables the exchange of materials between different breeding and research institutions to introduce diversity, which is a prerequisite for genetic advance.

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Prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding practice in the first six months of life and its determinants in Iran: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BMC Pediatrics ◽

10.1186/s12887-019-1776-0 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 19 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Meysam Behzadifar ◽

Mandana Saki ◽

Masoud Behzadifar ◽

Mahnaz Mardani ◽

Fatemeh Yari ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Exclusive Breastfeeding ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Scientific Information ◽

Cochrane Library ◽

Open Access Journals ◽

Breastfeeding Education ◽

Newcastle Ottawa Scale ◽

The Cochrane Library ◽

Gender Of Child

Abstract Background Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) in the first 6 months of life is the best and most complete option for an infant, in that supplies the vitamins and minerals the baby needs. Several studies in Iran have been conducted concerning the prevalence of EBF. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of EBF in the first 6 months of life and associated factors in Iran synthesizing published studies. Methods We searched PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus, ISI/Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, Directory of Open Access Journals Directory (DOAJ) and Google Scholar as well as Iranian databases (Barakathns, MagIran and the Scientific Information Database or SID) up to November 2018. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used to assess the quality of studies. Analyses were performed by pooling together studies using DerSimonian-Laird random-effects model with 95% confidence interval. To test for heterogeneity, I2 test was used. The Egger’s regression test and funnel plot were used to evaluate the publication bias. The strength of EBF determinants was assessed computing the Odds-ratios (OR) using the Mantel–Haenszel method. Results In the initial search 725 records were found. Finally, 32 studies were selected based on inclusion/exclusion criteria. The sample size of studies varied between 50 and 63,071 subjects. The overall prevalence of EBF in Iran was 53% (CI 95%; 44–62). The OR for breastfeeding education received before pregnancy was 1.13 (0.94–1.36), for mother’s job 1.01 (0.81–1.27), for education level 1.12 (0.89–1.42), for type of delivery 1.16 (0.98–1.37), and for gender of child 1.03 (0.83–1.28). Conclusion In Iran health policy- and decision-makers should try to take interventions that encourage mothers to use their milk to breastfeed the infants.

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EXPRESS: Determination and Monitoring of Quality Parameters: A Detailed Study of Optical Elements of a Lens-Based Raman Spectrometer

Applied Spectroscopy ◽

10.1177/00037028211055148 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 000370282110551

Author(s):

Ashutosh Mukherjee ◽

Anita Lorenz ◽

Marc Brecht

Keyword(s):

Quality Factor ◽

Quality Parameters ◽

Optical Elements ◽

Raman Spectrometer ◽

All Optical ◽

Almost All ◽

Diffraction Effects ◽

Quality Factor Q ◽

Insight Into

A lens-based Raman spectrometer is characterized by studying the optical elements in the optical path and we study the measure of aberration/diffraction effects. This is achieved by measuring the spectral resolution (SR) thus encompassing almost all optical elements of a spectrometer that are mostly responsible for such effects. An equation for SR is used to determine the quality factor Q which measures aberration/diffraction effects occurring in a spectrometer. We show how the quality factor changes with different spectrometer parameters such as grating groove density, the wavelength of excitation, pinhole width, CCD pixel density, etc. This work provides an insight into the quality of a spectrometer and helps to monitor the performance of the spectrometer over a certain period. Commercially available spectrometers or home-built spectrometers are prone to misalignment in optical elements and can benefit from this work that allows maintaining the overall quality of the setup. Performing such experiments over a period helps to minimize the aberration/diffraction effects occurring as a result of time and maintaining the quality of measurements.

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Understanding Cybersecurity Threat Trends Through Dynamic Topic Modeling

Frontiers in Big Data ◽

10.3389/fdata.2021.601529 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 4 ◽

Author(s):

Jennifer Sleeman ◽

Tim Finin ◽

Milton Halem

Keyword(s):

Topic Modeling ◽

Semantic Knowledge ◽

Knowledge Graph ◽

Modeling Process ◽

Document Collection ◽

Critical Insight ◽

Modeling Data ◽

Almost All ◽

Insight Into

Cybersecurity threats continue to increase and are impacting almost all aspects of modern life. Being aware of how vulnerabilities and their exploits are changing gives helpful insights into combating new threats. Applying dynamic topic modeling to a time-stamped cybersecurity document collection shows how the significance and details of concepts found in them are evolving. We correlate two different temporal corpora, one with reports about specific exploits and the other with research-oriented papers on cybersecurity vulnerabilities and threats. We represent the documents, concepts, and dynamic topic modeling data in a semantic knowledge graph to support integration, inference, and discovery. A critical insight into discovering knowledge through topic modeling is seeding the knowledge graph with domain concepts to guide the modeling process. We use Wikipedia concepts to provide a basis for performing concept phrase extraction and show how using those phrases improves the quality of the topic models. Researchers can query the resulting knowledge graph to reveal important relations and trends. This work is novel because it uses topics as a bridge to relate documents across corpora over time.

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Physicochemical and bacteriological characterization of hospital effluents and their impact on the environment

10.31221/osf.io/rbka9 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Chem Int

Keyword(s):

Human Health ◽

Fecal Coliforms ◽

Chemical Pollution ◽

Hospital Effluents ◽

Biological Contaminants ◽

Almost All ◽

Direct Discharge ◽

Significant Chemical

Liquid effluents discharged by hospitals may contain chemical and biological contaminants whose main source is the different substances used for the treatment of patients. This type of rejection can present a sanitary potentially dangerous risk for human health and can provoke a strong degradation of diverse environmental compartments mainly water and soils. The present study focuses on the quality of the liquid effluents of Hassani Abdelkader’s hospital of Sidi Bel-Abbes (West of Algeria). The results reveal a significant chemical pollution (COD: 879 mgO2/L, BOD5: 850 mgO2/L, NH4+ : 47.9 mg/l, NO2- : 4.2 mg/l, NO3- : 56.8 mg/l with respect to WHO standard of 90 mgO2/L, 30 mgO2/L, 0.5 mg/l, 1 mg/l and 1 mg/l respectively). However, these effluents are biodegradable since the ratio COD/BOD5 do not exceeded the value of 2 in almost all samples. The presence of pathogen germs is put into evidence such as pseudomonas, the clostridium, the staphylococcus, the fecal coliforms and fecal streptococcus. These results show that the direct discharge of these effluents constitutes a major threat to human health and the environment.

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Attitudes of Elderly People in the South Moravian Region to Further Education

Lifelong Learning ◽

10.11118/lifele2014040254 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 4 (2) ◽

pp. 54-78

Author(s):

Petr Adamec ◽

Marián Svoboda

Keyword(s):

Quality Of Life ◽

Elderly People ◽

Further Education ◽

The South ◽

The Third ◽

Interesting Insight ◽

Survey Results ◽

Insight Into ◽

Demographic Features

This paper deals with the results of sociological survey focused on identification of the attitudes of elderly people to further education. The research was carried out in September 2010. Experience of elderly people with further education, their readiness (determination) for further education as well as their motivation and barriers in further education were also subjects of this research. Detecting elderly population’s awareness of universities of the third age and finding out their further education preferences were an integral part of the research. Research sample consisted of citizens over 55 years living in the South Moravian region. The survey results are structured by socio-demographic features e.g.: age, sex, educational attainment etc. and provide an interesting insight into the attitudes of the target group to one of the activities that contributes to improvement of their quality of life.

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Comparisons among rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, populations of maternal transcript profile associated with egg viability

BMC Genomics ◽

10.1186/s12864-021-07773-1 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 22 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Gregory M. Weber ◽

Jill Birkett ◽

Kyle Martin ◽

Doug Dixon ◽

Guangtu Gao ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Rainbow Trout ◽

Egg Quality ◽

Transcript Abundance ◽

Differentially Expressed ◽

Rainbow Trout Oncorhynchus Mykiss ◽

Analysis Group ◽

Maternal Transcripts ◽

Single Batch ◽

Insight Into

Abstract Background Transcription is arrested in the late stage oocyte and therefore the maternal transcriptome stored in the oocyte provides nearly all the mRNA required for oocyte maturation, fertilization, and early cleavage of the embryo. The transcriptome of the unfertilized egg, therefore, has potential to provide markers for predictors of egg quality and diagnosing problems with embryo production encountered by fish hatcheries. Although levels of specific transcripts have been shown to associate with measures of egg quality, these differentially expressed genes (DEGs) have not been consistent among studies. The present study compares differences in select transcripts among unfertilized rainbow trout eggs of different quality based on eyeing rate, among 2 year classes of the same line (A1, A2) and a population from a different hatchery (B). The study compared 65 transcripts previously reported to be differentially expressed with egg quality in rainbow trout. Results There were 32 transcripts identified as DEGs among the three groups by regression analysis. Group A1 had the most DEGs, 26; A2 had 15, 14 of which were shared with A1; and B had 12, 7 of which overlapped with A1 or A2. Six transcripts were found in all three groups, dcaf11, impa2, mrpl39_like, senp7, tfip11 and uchl1. Conclusions Our results confirmed maternal transcripts found to be differentially expressed between low- and high-quality eggs in one population of rainbow trout can often be found to overlap with DEGs in other populations. The transcripts differentially expressed with egg quality remain consistent among year classes of the same line. Greater similarity in dysregulated transcripts within year classes of the same line than among lines suggests patterns of transcriptome dysregulation may provide insight into causes of decreased viability within a hatchery population. Although many DEGs were identified, for each of the genes there is considerable variability in transcript abundance among eggs of similar quality and low correlations between transcript abundance and eyeing rate, making it highly improbable to predict the quality of a single batch of eggs based on transcript abundance of just a few genes.

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Moving online: young people and parents’ experiences of adolescent eating disorder day programme treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic

Journal of Eating Disorders ◽

10.1186/s40337-021-00418-4 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Phillipa Louise Brothwood ◽

Julian Baudinet ◽

Catherine S. Stewart ◽

Mima Simic

Keyword(s):

Young People ◽

Day Treatment ◽

Free Text ◽

Treatment Delivery ◽

Therapeutic Practice ◽

Advantages And Disadvantages ◽

Online Treatment ◽

The Everyday ◽

Lost In Translation ◽

Insight Into

Abstract Background This study examined the experiences of young people and their parents who attended an intensive day treatment programme for eating disorders online during the global COVID-19 pandemic. Methods Online questionnaires were completed by 14 adolescents (12–18 years) and their parents (n = 19). The questionnaires included a mixture of rating questions (Likert scale) and free text responses. Free text responses were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Results Three main themes were identified: 1) New discoveries, 2) Lost in translation and 3) The best of a bad situation. This study provides insight into the benefits and pitfalls of online treatment delivery in the adolescent day programme context, which has rapidly had to become part of the everyday therapeutic practice. Results indicate that there are advantages and disadvantages to this, and that parents and young people’s views differed. Conclusions This study suggests that the increased accessibility provided by online working does not necessarily translate to increased connection. Given the importance of therapeutic alliance in treatment outcomes, this will be an important consideration for future developments of online intensive treatments.

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Transformative Learning in Mastery-Oriented CS0 Course

Higher Education for the Future ◽

10.1177/23476311211007255 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 234763112110072

Author(s):

Srinivasan Lakshminarayanan ◽

N. J. Rao ◽

G. K. Meghana

Keyword(s):

Transformative Learning ◽

First Year ◽

Guided Discovery ◽

Engineering Programs ◽

Transformative Experiences ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Cognitive Levels ◽

Almost All ◽

Core Course

The introductory programming course, commonly known as CS1 and offered as a core course in the first year in all engineering programs in India, is unique because it can address higher cognitive levels, metacognition and some aspects of the affective domain. It can provide much needed transformative experiences to students coming from a system of school education that is dominantly performance-driven. Unfortunately, the CS1 course, as practiced in almost all engineering programs, is also performance-driven because of a variety of compulsions. This paper suggests that the inclusion of a course CS0 can bring about transformative learning that can potentially make a significant difference in the quality of learning in all subsequent engineering courses. The suggested instruction design of this course takes the advantage of the unique features of a course in programming. The proposed CS0 course uses “extreme apprenticeship” and “guided discovery” methods of instruction. The effectiveness of these instruction methods was established through the use of the thematic analysis, a well-known qualitative research method, and the associated coding of transformative learning experiences and instruction components.

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