Designing an infographic webtool for public health

OBJECTIVE

To create and evaluate a public health informatics tool, Florence, for communicating information to the public.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This user-centered design study included 3 phases: (1) an interview and survey study with public health practitioners to assess needs for creating infographics; (2) the application of assessment findings and public health-motivated design guidelines to the design and development of a public health-specific infographic design tool; and (3) a feasibility and usability study to evaluate the feasibility and usability of the tool.

RESULTS

In phase 1, participants noted the importance of tailoring infographics to an audience and wanted flexible tools along with design guidance to help make fewer design decisions. In phase 2, we developed a prototype tool with: (1) layout and functionality familiar to PH users, (2) quick and intuitive ways to add and modify data in visualizations, and (3) health-focused visual elements. In phase 3, participants found Florence to be usable, providing an intuitive and straightforward experience, and that the focus on public health was useful.

DISCUSSION

Based on needs assessments and existing literature, we created Florence along with public health practitioners to address their domain specific needs, ultimately leading to a tool that participants in our study deemed useful. Future research can build on our work to develop user-centered tools to meet their needs.

CONCLUSION

Infographics are important for public health communication. Creating user-centered solutions to address the unique needs of public health can support communication efforts.

Parental Perceptions, Experiences, and Desires of Music Therapy

Music therapy (MT) is a therapeutic practice where a therapist uses music to enhance the life quality for their patients. Children have an innate enjoyment of music, making music an effective medium for exploring their potential. In this study, we explore the parental perception of MT through an online survey. Contrary to the public perception that MT only addresses emotional needs, 47 out of 59 parents reported seeing improvements in other areas including behavioral, cognitive, linguistic, and social changes. All but one parent indicated that they would recommend MT to others. The survey results further revealed that even parents of children participating in MT had misconceptions regarding MT, which we describe in the paper. Parents reported inaccessibility and cost as other major limitations surrounding MT adoption. We conclude by discussing how technology solutions could mitigate issues with definition, distance, and cost, while maintaining the benefits of MT.

Plexlines: Tracking Socio-communicative Behaviors Using Timeline Visualizations

In this paper, we visualize children's coordinated gaze, gesture, and vocalization to better understand communicative behaviors and to identify developmental delay, specifically in the domain of Autism Spectrum Disorders. To date, existing behavioral data from clinical assessment instruments are often stored in raw text files or spreadsheets. This wealth of data is then represented as a single number summarizing behavior. Our approach transforms this data into a graphical story of a child's behavior. To do this, we created Plexlines, a graphical record of a child's social and communicative behavior. When presented with Plexlines, clinicians and researchers formed their own strategies for exploring the visualizations and independently identified children in need of further evaluation. Feedback showed that Plexlines has the potential to be integrated into existing behavioral evaluation processes, aid in the detection of developmental delays in young children, and serve as a visual artifact to better communicate with parents.

Abstract P6-08-04: AP-1 Activation and a Functional SNP242 Regulate the LY-6K Gene Expression in Human Breast Cancer Cells

Background: Lymphocyte antigen 6 complex locus K(LY-6K), a member of cancer-testis antigen, is a novel breast cancer biomarker. Elevated LY-6K induces cell invasion and metastasis through activating the Raf-1/MEK/ERK signaling pathway. And in a previous study, breast cancer patients have single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) within promoter of LY-6K. However, the molecular mechanisms that mediate regulation of human LY-6K gene expression are completely unknown. Material and Methods: The human breast carcinoma cells used in these studies include the MCF7 and adriamycin resistant MCF7. Within the pGL3 reporter vector, the -3050/+182 bp fragment and truncated fragment (deleted from -500 to -1 bp and from -1550 to -1050 bp) upstream of the LY-6K gene was subcloned and measured promoter activity. Next, multiple cis elements were identified using several gene tool software (TFSEARCH, TRANSFAC, PROMO and MATCHTM) in the promoter of human LY-6K gene. Substitution of two base pair of transcription factor binding site or single base pair of SNP was subcloned within pGL3 vector using site-directed mutagenesis and measured transcriptional activity. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP), electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) and supershift assays were used to demonstrate in vitro interactions between the transcription factor and transcription factor binding site within the promoter of LY-6K.

Results: We found that a novel AP-1 binding site in the LY-6K promoter. The substitution from C to G at the 242 nucleotide position in the promoter region is a functional LY-6K single nucleotide polymorphism (called SNP242), which increase AP-1 transcription binding affinity to LY-6K promoter. Ongoing studies are investigating to identify the relationship between LY-6K transcription and SNP756 which located at the 756 nucleotide position within LY-6K promoter and to find binding partner of LY-6K. We are also manipulating LY-6K transgenic mouse and knock-out mouse to investigate the mechanism of LY-6K in vivo. Discussion: The activity of the AP-1 transcription factor plays an important role in cell mobility of breast cancer cells via the promoting of LY-6K gene expression. LY-6K expression is dependent on not AP-1 transcription factor, but also SNP242 G allele by increasing AP-1 binding affinity. We demonstrated that metastasis of breast cancer cells depend on LY-6K expression turn on ERK signaling. These results suggested that LY-6K SNP242 G allele increases the risk of cancer and metastasis and LY-6K communicate with integrin-GPCR to cell migration via activating Ras/ERK signaling pathway.

Citation Information: Cancer Res 2010;70(24 Suppl):Abstract nr P6-08-04.