Explore the vast range of titles available.

Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) used in the battlefield cause damage to vehicles and their occupants. The injury burden to the casualties is significant. The biofidelity and practicality of current methods for assessing current protection to reduce the injury severity is limited. In this study, a finite-element (FE) model of the leg was developed and validated in relevant blast-loading conditions, and then used to quantify the level of protection offered by a combat boot. An FE model of the leg of a 35 years old male cadaver was developed. The cadaveric leg was tested physically in a seated posture using a traumatic injury simulator and the results used to calibrate the FE model. The calibrated model predicted hindfoot forces that were in good correlation (using the CORrelation and Analysis or CORA tool) with data from force sensors; the average correlation and analysis rating (according to ISO18571) was 0.842. The boundary conditions of the FE model were then changed to replicate pendulum tests conducted in previous studies which impacted the leg at velocities between 4 and 6.7 m/s. The FE model results of foot compression and peak force at the proximal tibia were within the experimental corridors reported in the studies. A combat boot was then incorporated into the validated computational model. Simulations were run across a range of blast-related loading conditions. The predicted proximal tibia forces and associated risk of injury indicated that the combat boot reduced the injury severity for low severity loading cases with higher times to peak velocity. The reduction in injury risk varied between 6 and 37% for calcaneal minor injuries, and 1 and 54% for calcaneal major injuries. No injury-risk reduction was found for high severity loading cases. The validated FE model of the leg developed here was able to quantify the protection offered by a combat boot to vehicle occupants across a range of blast-related loading conditions. It can now be used as a design and as an assessment tool to quantify the level of blast protection offered by other mitigation technologies.

A finite-element (FE) model, previously validated for underbody blast (UBB) loading, was used here to study the effect of stature and of mitigation systems on injury risk to the leg. A range of potential UBB loadings was simulated. The risk of injury to the leg was calculated when no protection was present, when a combat boot (Meindl Desert Fox) was worn, and when a floor mat (IMPAXX TM ), which can be laid on the floor of a vehicle, was added. The risk of injury calculated indicates that the floor mat provided a statistically significant reduction in the risk of a major calcaneal injury for peak impact speeds below 17.5 m/s when compared with the scenarios in which the floor mat was not present. The risk of injury to the leg was also calculated for a shorter and a taller stature compared to that of the nominal, 50th percentile male anthropometry; shorter and taller statures were constructed by scaling the length of the tibia of the nominal stature. The results showed that there is a higher risk of leg injury associated with the short stature compared to the nominal and tall statures, whereas the leg-injury risk between nominal and tall statures was statistically similar. These findings provide evidence that the combat boot and the floor mat tested here have an attenuating effect, albeit limited to a range of possible UBB loads. The effect of stature on injury has implications on how vehicle design caters for all potential anthropometries and indeed gender, as women, on average, are shorter than men. The results from the computational simulations here complement laboratory and field experimental models of UBB, and so they contribute to the improvement of UBB safety technology and strategy.

A new crop of models and fashion professionals are influencing designers and the public with their distinctive personal style. Sarah Mower reports

Bubba dared my mom to join the army. It was the fall of 1974, and Bubba had enlisted in 1973—an early African American volunteer to join the U.S. Army as the military transitioned from a conscription military to an all-volunteer force in 1973 (Segal). A specialist 4 (SP4) in the active army and stationed in South Korea, Bubba was a military policeman (MP). Technically, he was my stepuncle, but I had no connection to Bubba. He was on leave, visiting his sister Linda, who was my stepaunt on my stepdad’s side of the family. He sat in a big

Sporty, spunky, polished, or punky. Sarah Harris wears the seasons allimportant new braid

Swinging London meets debutante meets neo-eighties hipster in British It girls Chloe and Poppy Delevingne's free-spirited style.

With a bumper crop of the season's freshest floral frocks and short skirt suits, it's hard to pick just one.