Effect of mattress bedding layer structure on pressure relief performance and subjective lying comfort.

Mattresses' pressure relief performance and comfort largely affect sleep quality. Mattress filling materials have been proven to affect the interface pressure distribution and comfort, but the effect of mattress structure is unclear. In this paper, the interface pressure distribution and subjective comfort of 10 subjects were assessed in the different bedding layer structures of mattresses, after mattress support performance was tested. The results show that the mattresses with bedding material hardness gradually increasing from the top layer to the bottom layer (BMH-ITTB) structure have a softer surface layer, a better support core layer, and higher fitness. This enables the mattress to achieve a better decompression effect. The low-pressure area (PAI≤0.67kPa) increased, while the high-pressure area (PAI≥2.67kPa and PAI≥4.00kPa), maximum pressure (P95), average pressure (P50), and pressure index (PI) decreased. This also enables the mattress to achieve higher subjective comfort scores.

The differential expression of alternatively spliced transcripts and imprinting status of MEG9 gene in cows.

Meg9/Mirg (maternally expressed gene 9/microRNA containing gene), a non-coding RNA (ncRNA) comprising many alternatively splicing isoforms, has been identified as maternally expressed in mouse and sheep, but its imprinting status and splicing variants are still unknown in cattle. In this study, we found three splicing variants of the cattle MEG9 gene expressed in a tissue-specific manner. A single nucleotide polymorphism site (SNP c.1354C>G) was identified in exon 3 of cattle MEG9 and used to distinguish between monoallelic and biallelic expression. Our results showed that MEG9 exhibited monoallelic expression in all examined cattle tissues by comparing sequencing results between genomic DNA and cDNA levels at the c.1354C>G SNP site, suggesting that MEG9 is imprinted in cattle.

Impact of the Plastein Reaction of Casein Hydrolysates in the Presence of Exogenous Amino Acids on Their Anti-Inflammatory Effect in the Lipopolysaccharide-Stimulated Macrophages.

In this study, papain-generated casein hydrolysates (CH) with a degree of hydrolysis of 13.7% were subjected to a papain-mediated plastein reaction in the absence or presence of one of the exogenous amino acids-Gly, Pro, and Hyp-to prepare four plastein modifiers, or mixed with one of three amino acids to prepare three mixtures. The assay results confirmed that the reaction reduced free NH2 for the modifiers and caused amino acid incorporation and peptide condensation. When RAW264.7 macrophages were exposed to the CH, modifiers, and mixtures, these samples promoted macrophage growth and phagocytosis in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, the CH shared similar activity in the cells as the mixtures, while the modifiers (especially the PCH-Hyp prepared with Hyp addition) exerted higher potential than CH, the mixtures, and PCH (the modifier prepared without amino acid addition). The plastein reaction thus enhanced CH bioactivity in the cells. When RAW264.7 macrophages were stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS), the inflammatory cells produced more lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release and reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation, and caused more four inflammatory mediators (NO, PGE2, TNF-α, and IL-6) and two anti-inflammatory mediators (TGF-ß1 and IL-10). However, the PCH-Hyp, PCH, and CH at dose levels of 100 µg/mL could combat against the LPS-induced inflammation. Overall, the PCH-Hyp was more active than the CH and PCH in reducing LDH release, ROS formation, and the secretion of these inflammatory mediators, or in increasing the secretion of the anti-inflammatory mediators. The qPCR and Western blot analysis results further confirmed that these samples had anti-inflammatory effects on the stimulated cells by suppressing the LPS-induced activation of the NF-κB signaling pathway, via regulating the mRNA/miRNA expression of iNOS, IL-6, TNF-α, IL-1ß, COX-2, TLR4, IL-10, TGF-ß1, miR-181a, miR-30d, miR-155, and miR-148, as well as the protein expression of MyD88, p-IKKα, p-IκBα, p-NF-κB p65, and iNOS, involved in this signaling pathway. In addition, the immunofluorescence assay results revealed that these samples could block the LPS-mediated nuclear translocation of the p65 protein and displayed the same function as the NF-κB inhibitor BAY 11-7082. It was concluded that CH could be endowed with higher anti-inflammatory activity to the macrophages by performing a plastein reaction, particularly that in the presence of exogenous Hyp.

A novel bamboo sheet chair and its influence on sitting comfort.

BACKGROUND: In today's economy, workers spend increasingly more time in seated positions, leading to a growing scientific interest in chair design. In this study we used body pressure distribution tests to compare a novel bamboo chair with unique structural features to other commonly-used chairs. We studied the bamboo sheet chair's physical characteristics and comfort to provide a scientific theoretical basis for common use seat design. METHODS: A total of 25 (14 male and 11 female) subjects participated in the study. Subjects were divided into six groups according to their body characteristics parameters included stature, weight, shoulder breadth, hip breadth, waist width, popliteal height, buttocks-popliteal length, and buttock-abdomen depth, with three groups for males and three groups for females. Each subject was required to complete specified body pressure tests for three different experimental chairs for three minutes and subjective comfort evaluations were also administered. The pressure indexes were measured from the seat pan and backrest and calculated with MATLAB 2015b, which mainly included maximum pressure (Pm), average pressure (Pa), pressure exponent (Pe) and contact area index (P AI ). Three pressure threshold limits of 0.67 kPa, 4.00 kPa and 9.33 kPa and four contact surface indexes were used in the experiment to reflect the contact area between human and chair. RESULTS: The contact areas in the backrest (52.96 ± 32.94 cm2) and seat pan (307.75 ± 90.31 cm2) in the middle-to-high threshold pressure range, and the contact areas of the backrest (4.34 ± 5.95 cm2) in the high threshold pressure range of bamboo sheet chair were smaller than the corresponding indexes of the common office chair (81.430 ± 45.04 cm2, p = 0.00; 394.39 ± 98.99 cm2, p = 0.02; 13.54 ± 12.00 cm2, p = 0.00, respectively). The pressure index (2.68 ± 0.88 kPa), maximum pressure (6.66 ± 2.05 kPa), and average pressure (2.42 ± 0.59 kPa) values of the bamboo sheet chair backrest were also found to be lower than those of the office chair (4.32 ± 1.62 kPa, p = 0.00; 10.50 ± 3.88 kPa, p = 0.00; 3.43 ± 0.97 kPa, p = 0.00, respectively). The average pressure on the seat pan was greater than 4 kPa for all subjects, while the average pressure on the seat pan was greater than 9.33 kPa for male subjects with a body mass index (BMI) of 27.48. DISCUSSION: The bamboo sheet chair's contact areas within the middle-to-high and high-pressure threshold ranges of the backrest and seat pan were smaller than those of the office chair, indicating that the bamboo sheet chair is effective at relieving pressure. Human body characteristics must be considered in the design of seat functional size. Buttocks-popliteal length, weight, body mass index, body shape and weight distribution, all have important effects on the distribution of body pressure at the human-chair interface.