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Abstract: In this communication, the Standardization and Terminology Committee (STC) of the International Society of Biomechanics proposes a definition of a joint coordinate system (JCS) for the shoulder, elbow, wrist, and hand. For each joint, a standard for the local axis system in each articulating segment or bone is generated. These axes then standardize the JCS. The STC is publishing these recommendations so as to encourage their use, to stimulate feedback and discussion, and to facilitate further revisions. Adopting these standards will lead to better communication among researchers and clinicians. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Pressure sensors are good candidates for measuring driver postural information, which is indicative for identifying driver's intention and seating posture. However, monitoring systems based on pressure sensors must overcome the price barriers in order to be practically feasible. This study, therefore, was dedicated to explore the possibility of using pressure sensors with lower resolution for driver posture monitoring. We proposed pressure features including center of pressure, contact area proportion, and pressure ratios to recognize five typical trunk postures, two typical left foot postures, and three typical right foot postures. The features from lower-resolution mapping were compared with those from high-resolution Xsensor pressure mats on the backrest and seat pan. We applied five different supervised machine-learning techniques to recognize the postures of each body part and used leave-one-out cross-validation to evaluate their performance. A uniform sampling method was used to reduce number of pressure sensors, and five new layouts were tested by using the best classifier. Results showed that the random forest classifier outperformed the other classifiers with an average classification accuracy of 86% using the original pressure mats and 85% when only 8% of the pressure sensors were available. This study demonstrates the feasibility of using fewer pressure sensors for driver posture monitoring and suggests research directions for better sensor designs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A long-lived supercell developed in Northwest Bulgaria on 15 May 2018 and inflicted widespread damage along its track. The first part of this article presents a detailed overview of the observed storm evolution. Doppler radar observations reveal that the storm acquired typical supercellular signatures and maintained reflectivity values in excess of 63 dBZ for more than 4 h. The thunderstorm was also analyzed through lightning observations that highlighted important characteristics of the overall supercell dynamics. In its second part, the study investigates the predictability of the severe weather outbreak. In the medium forecast ranges, the global European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) ensemble indicated the presence of favorable conditions for the development of deep moist convection 4 days prior to the event. A set of three convection-allowing ensemble simulations also demonstrated that the practical predictability of the supercell was approximately 12 h, which is considerably higher than some previously reported estimates. Nevertheless, the skill of the convective forecasts appears to be limited by the presence of typical model errors, such as the timing of convection initiation and the development of spurious convective activity. The relevance of these errors to the optimal ensemble size and to the design of future convection-allowing numerical weather prediction (NWP) systems is further discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starches from the bulbils of Dioscoreae opposita Thunb. cv. Tiegun were isolated by aqueous steeping (SBS), enzyme extraction (EBS), and alkaline extraction (ABS) methods, respectively. The physicochemical, mineral composition, thermal and morphological characteristics of these starches were investigated. The starch granules were oval, spherical and kidney-shaped and its crystal type is a mixture of A-type and B-type patterns. The starches having larger average granule size showed more amylose and phosphorus contents than those with smaller average granule size. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) showed that the SBS had an endothermic transition ranging from 65.8 °C to 76.3 °C with an enthalpy of 2.0 J/g. The endothermic transitions of ABS and EBS showed the regions of 67.9 °C to 73.0 °C, and 66.8 °C to 82.0 °C, respectively. The gelationization enthalpies of ABS and EBS were 13.8 and 11.5 J/g, respectively. Additionally, ABS presented greater clarity in comparison with EBS and SBS. Pasting properties indicated that ABS had the highest peak viscosity, breakdown, but SBS had the lowest trough, final viscosity, setback, and pasting temperature. Generally, ABS and EBS could be used as food thickener or frozen food additives. SBS and EBS were potential technological alternatives in quality preservation of frozen starch-based products and other industrial applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PM2.5 is the main particulate air pollutant whose aerodynamic diameter is less than 2.5 micron. The inflammation of various respiratory diseases are associated with PM2.5 inhalation. Pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-1β generated from effected cells usually plays a crucial role in many kinds of lung inflammatory reactions. The exacerbation of Th immune responses are identified in some PM2.5 related diseases. To elucidate the underlying mechanism of PM2.5-induced acute lung inflammation, we exposed Balb/c mice to PM2.5 intratracheally and established a mice model. Acute lung inflammation and increased IL-1β expression was observed after PM2.5 instillation. Regulatory factors of IL-1β (TLR4/MyD88 signaling pathway and NLRP3 inflammasome) participated in this lung inflammatory response as well. Treatment with compound essential oils (CEOs) substantially attenuated PM2.5-induced acute lung inflammation. The decreased IL-1β and Th immune responses after CEOs treatment were significant. PM2.5 may increase the secretion of IL-1β through TLR4/MyD88 and NLRP3 pathway resulting in murine airway inflammation. CEOs could attenuate the lung inflammation by reducing IL-1β and Th immune responses in this model. This study describes a potentially important mechanism of PM2.5-induced acute lung inflammation and that may bring about novel therapies for the inflammatory diseases associated with PM2.5 inhalation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]