Search results

The purpose of this paper is to examine the uplifting effect of a prototype brassiere that the author developed in Shanghai, China, for Chinese adult females in their early twenties.

The prototype brassiere was designed according to the four breast shapes of Chinese adult females. In total, 40 breast‐related measurement items were used to quantify the body sizes of 20 subjects, who were measured both with and without the brassieres.

The results of the comparison showed significant differences in breast position, the degree of sagging, the distance between the breasts, and the bottom area of the breasts between the two contexts. This study confirms the uplifting effect of the prototype brassiere, which can produce cleavage and elevate breasts.

The findings are based on an experimental method that quantifies the uplifting effect of the prototype brassiere using body measurement data obtained from local women in Shanghai, China. They provide empirical criteria for manufacturing brassieres to the Chinese intimate apparel industry, which lacks a standardized measurement system.

The purpose of this paper is to design a future value stream map of the system and patient pathway with lean health care application tools in terms of quality improvement (QI) in order to decrease the non-value-added activities for patients, doctors, and nurses for a radiology unit in a public hospital based in Istanbul, Turkey.

Data are collected from personal observations, information technologies unit, and authorized employees. In order to measure subprocesses, some qualitative data are transformed into quantitative data via authorized employees’ experiences. Moreover, data tracking and keeping systems are too poor for revealing the current situation.

The current value stream map of the system of the radiology department of a public education and research hospital was analyzed and the future value stream map of the system and patient pathway was redesigned with lean health care application tools in terms of QI.

The greatest limitation is the resistant to change and fear of talking on mistakes and low performances.

This paper states an example of a current and future value stream map showing step by step where the bottlenecks are and how these can be improved and what specific benefits will this analysis bring to the health care system. It will be useful for both academicians and practitioners on how to apply lean to health care.

This study aims to investigate if engineered compression variations using moisture-responsive knitted fabric design can improve breast support in seamless knitted sports bras.

An experimental approach was used to integrate a novel moisture-responsive fabric panel into a seamless knitted bra, and the resulting compression variability in dry versus wet conditions were compared with those of a control bra. Air permeability and elongation testing of between breasts fabric panels was conducted in dry and wet conditions, followed by three-dimensional body scanning of eight human participants wearing the two bras in similar conditions. Questionnaires were used to evaluate perceived comfort and breast support of both bras in both conditions.

Air permeability test results showed that the novel panel had the highest variance between dry and wet conditions, confirming its moisture-responsive design, and increased its elongation coefficient in both wale and course directions in wet condition. There were significant main effects of bra type and body location on breast compression measurements. Breast circumferences in the novel bra were significantly larger than in the control bra condition. The significant two-way interaction between bra type and moisture condition showed that the control bra lost compressive power in wet condition, whereas the novel bra became more compressive when wet. Changes in compression were confirmed by participants’ perception of tighter straps and drier breast comfort.

These findings add to the limited scientific knowledge of moisture adaptive bra design using engineered knitted fabrics via advanced manufacturing technologies, with possible applications beyond sports bras, such as bras for breast surgery recovering patients.

This study aims to develop a sports bra with cosmetic microcapsules that supports the breasts and provides an aesthetically upright and lifted posture by using 28 days period.

A fitting process was carried out on provided seamless sports bras to determine the criteria that have to be improved considering the desired properties. The new sports bras were produced after the pattern design was developed; cosmetic microcapsules were applied to some of the bras and some were used as a control group to compare the real cosmetic effects. Female subjects tried the newly developed sports bras in a 28-day wear trial. Measurements were taken at certain periods during the wear trials, and the obtained data were analyzed statistically.

The findings of this study determined that the product provides a decrease in breast girth and increases skin moisture and nipple height after 28 days of regular use due to the effect of cosmetic ingredients released from microcapsules. A great majority of subjects found the breast lifting and supporting property of the sports bra successful and were satisfied with the new shape of the subjects' breasts.

Fitting studies were carried out directly on the female body, and the designed and developed encapsulating type sports bra has been transformed into a cosmetic textile product that gains also cosmetic properties. The cosmetic effects of the bra were investigated with wear trials. On the other hand, the nipple height measure term was defined for the first time and added to the literature within the scope of the study.

Breast milk has been hypothesized to be a source of bacteria for the infant gut. This paper aims to search for probiotic bacteria among 415 isolates belonging to the Enterococcus, Lactobacillus, Streptococcus and Bifidobacterium genera recovered from breast milk of 50 lactating mothers and their respective infant stools, and then, determine whether their levels in stools vary with different modalities of breast feeding.

To prove that the isolates were probable probiotics, subtractive screening was done using three major selection criteria, namely, resistance to low pH, tolerance against bile salts and testing for their antimicrobial activity.

The three criteria were fulfilled by 31.7 and 31 per cent of the isolates recovered from mothers’ breast milk and infants’ stool specimens, respectively. The majority of probiotic strains, isolated from milk and infants’ stools were phenotypically identical, suggesting breast milk as their probable source. Moreover, there was a positive correlation between exclusive breast milk feeding and the number of probiotics in the infants’ stools.

Viable bacteria could be retrieved from breast milk of healthy women, not suffering from mastitis, by using different types of media and different cultivation conditions. Up to five different species belonging to the same genus could be isolated in the same specimen of whether milk or stools. Breast milk could be a source of probiotic bacteria for intestinal microflora of infants, which help improvement of infants’ gut and growth.

The sequence of stress, distress and somatization has occupied much of the late twentieth-century psychological research. The anatomy of stress can be viewed from interactional and hybrid theories that suggest that the individual relates with the surroundings by buffering the harmful effects of stressors. These acts or reactions are called coping strategies and are designed as protection from the stressors and adaptation to them. Failure to successfully adapt to stressors results in psychological distress. In some individuals, elevated levels of distress and failed coping are expressed in physical symptoms, rather than through feelings, words, or actions. Such “somatization” defends against the awareness of the psychological distress, as demonstrated in the psychosocial literature. The progression of behavior resulting from somatic distress moves from a private domain into the public arena, involving an elaborate medicalization process, is however less clear in sociological discourse. The invocation of a medical diagnosis to communicate physical discomfort by way of repeated use of health care services poses a major medical, social and economic problem. The goal of this paper is to clarify this connection by investigating the relevant literature in the area of women with breast cancer. This manuscript focuses on the relationship of psychological stress, the stress response of distress, and the preoccupation with one’s body, and proposes a new theoretical construct.

Esthetic trend changes with the development of society and cultural differences. A minimizer bra designed to make breasts appear smaller is now popular with large-breasted women in China. To conform to the requirements of modern aesthetics in China, this paper aims to investigate vital features of breast appearance that influence people’s subjective evaluation of breast size and analyze how bra design parameters affect breast shape and make breasts appear smaller.

This study used 3D scanning technology and reverse engineering software to obtain objective breast measurements in detail. A subjective evaluation experiment was conducted to evaluate the overall performance of seven minimizer bras compared to a basic comparison bra. Around 20 design parameters of 8 sample bras were identified to make a further study about the correlation between bra design features and breast shaping effect. To gain a deeper understanding of how bras interact with breast tissue, this study presented heat maps of the breast surface to visualize the deformation of breast shape.

Nine breasts' characteristics, such as the distance between bust points, breast depth, outer breast curvature and slope, etc. have been determined to be highly correlated with the visual reduction effect of breasts. In addition, for the bras in this experiment, the high-performance bra for women with large breasts tends to have a wider side panel, a wider under band, higher gore and a stronger transverse rigidity of the bra cup. According to the observation of heat maps of the breast surface, soft full-figure bras provide a wider range of compression to the breasts and effectively flatten the breasts.

This paper first aimed at the need to shape the ideal breast appearance for large-breasted women and make a further study of several hot-selling minimizer bras in China. The suggestions given in this paper help lingerie manufacturers better understand how design features of bras can affect their shaping effect and improve the wearing effect of minimizer bras for large-breasted women.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the shape change of breast during movement to inform product development of bras and other female wearable products.

Using the latest 4D body scanning technology, the authors monitored the change of seven non-circumferential breast measurements, including four linear measurements (widths, depth, etc.) and three angular measurements, across nine dynamic scans of a complete gait cycle during running. A series of statistical analysis were conducted to thoroughly investigate the measurement values in dynamic states compared with values extracted from static 3D scans.

Major findings are as follows: (1) For width-underbust, chest-depth, vertical-acromion and angle ABD, more than half of the dynamic frames presents a significant difference with the static frame. (2) Width-underbust and chest-depth measured in static can underestimate the actual values under motion. (3) vertical-acromion presents a W-shaped general trend for the nine dynamic frames with peaks observed at the keyframes (i.e. when a participant's right or left knee bends the most and rises to its highest level) and lows at the intermediate frames. (4) Angle ABD and angle BAD both present an M-shaped general trend, the exact opposite of a W-shaped trend.

While 3D body scanning and motion capture systems have both contributed significantly to the study of breast, 4D body scanning incorporates the advantages of both technologies and captures the 3D surface of the body during movement at each instant moment. This is one of the first studies that adopt the new technology for apparel applications.

The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of vacuum tumbling and red beetroot juice (RBJ) incorporation on quality characteristics of marinated chicken breast and leg meat cuts.

Vacuum tumbling of breast and leg meat cuts was carried for a duration of 2 h and compared with control (0 h tumbling) and traditionally marinated (6 h) meat cuts. Vacuum-tumbled treatments were also marinated using RBJ in place of water to assess the combined effect of RBJ and vacuum tumbling. All the cuts were cooked in an oven at 170°C for 40 min. Quality characteristics of fresh and refrigerated products were analysed.

Vacuum tumbling for 2 h resulted in a significant (p < 0.05) increase in marinade pickup, water-holding capacity (WHC), cooking yield, moisture and ash content and a significant (p < 0.05) decrease in hardness, gumminess, chewiness and shear press values in both types of meat. Breast meat treatments had significantly (p < 0.05) higher WHC, moisture, protein, cohesiveness and gumminess and significantly lower fat content, hardness and shear press values than leg meat treatments. Control breast and leg meats had marinade pickup of 9.19 and 9.31 per cent and cooking yield of 69.08 and 68.31 per cent, respectively, whereas corresponding values for treated breast and leg meats varied from 11.28 to 11.98 per cent and 73.32 to 74.94 per cent, respectively. Sensory scores declined significantly (p < 0.05) during refrigerated storage. On the 12th day of storage, control breast and leg meat cuts had acceptability scores of around 5.0, whereas all other treatments had acceptability scores between 6.0 and 7.0 on an eight-point scale, with RBJ-treated products having the highest acceptability. All the products were also microbiologically safe up to the 12th day of refrigerated storage.

The research is valuable to meat processors because vacuum tumbling for 2 h using RBJ as marinade can be used in place of 6 h of traditional marination for developing marinated chicken breast and leg meat products.

During recent years, web technologies and mass media have become prevalent in the context of medicine and health. Two examples of important web technologies used in health are news media and patient forums. Both have a significant role in shaping patients' perspective and behaviour in relation to health and illness, as well as the way that they might choose or change their treatment. In this paper, the authors investigated the application of web technologies using the data analysis approach. The authors did this analysis from the point of view of topics being discussed and disseminated via patients and journalists in breast and lung cancer. The study also investigated the (dis)alignment amongst these two groups and scientists in terms of topics.

Three data sets comprised documents published between 2014 and 2018 obtained from ProQuest and Web of Science Medline databases, alongside data from three major patient forums on breast and lung cancer. The analysis and visualisation in this paper have been done using the udpipe, igraph R packages and VOSviewer.

The study’s findings showed that in general scientists focussed more on prognosis and treatment of cancer, whereas patients and journalists focussed more on detection, prevention and role of social and emotional support. The only exception was for news coverage of lung cancer where the largest cluster was related to treatment, research in cancer treatment and therapies. However, when comparing coverage by scientists and journalists in terms of treatment, the focus of news articles in both cancer types was mainly on chemotherapy and complimentary therapies. Finally, topics such as lifestyle or pain management were only discussed by breast cancer patients.

The results obtained from this study may provide valuable insights into topics of interest for each group of scientists, journalist and patients as well as (dis)alignment among them in terms of topics. These findings are important as scientific research is heavily dependent on communication, and research does not exist in a bubble. Scientists and journalists can gain insights from patients' experiences and needs, which in turn may help them to have a more holistic and realistic view.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-06-2020-0228