Degenerative changes and foot deformities are common when people get older. Foot deformities, such as hallux valgus, bunionettes and pes planus, are commonly found among older people, which may lead to changes in foot anthropometry. A decline in functional mobility and greater risk of falling are linked to foot deformities and footwear. This study therefore aims to evaluate the anthropometric measurements between healthy and deformed feet in order to determine the key foot measurements in relation to the deformed foot which can also act as indicators in current footwear sizing systems. By using a 3D hand- held scanner, 11 foot anthropometric measurements are captured and used to characterise the dimensions and foot shape between healthy and deformed feet. A total of 49 elderly people between the ages of 65-95 years old, including 41 women and 8 men (mean: 81.71; SD: 7.08) are recruited for this study. The results indicate that the foot characteristics of elderly people with foot deformities are different from those without deformities, especially in the larger deformity of the degree of hallux valgus and increased width of the ball for women, and higher instep height for men. The length of the foot and ball, width and girth of the ball, and degree of hallux valgus deformity are common predictors for differentiating between healthy and deformed feet. It is also found that the current footwear sizing systems fail to accommodate the foot dimensions of elderly people in both foot length and width, which may therefore lead to foot discomfort and even limit their daily life activities.

Textiles applications in technical area is one of the imperative subjects in present time. Application of textiles in various fields especially in protective garments application is increasing day by day. The objective of this work is to evaluate and discover the effect of fiber and structure on tensile and dynamic mechanical properties of hybrid and non-hybrid basalt structures. This work deals with the study of the mechanical properties of woven fabrics in relation to fiber and weave. In this study, investigative experiments are carried out to find out the static and dynamic mechanical behaviour of Basalt ⁄ Polyester (B ⁄ PET) and Basalt ⁄ Polypropylen (B ⁄ PP) fibre hybrid woven and non-hybrid woven fabric. Three types of weaves are used i.e. Plain (PW), Matt (MW) and 1 ⁄ 3 Twill (TW) for hybrid and non-hybrid structures respectively. The tensile testing of all the woven fabric specimens is carried out. The discussion of results is in terms of fibre effect and woven geometry. The exposure of fabrics to increasing temperature is beneficial to their mechanical properties and performance. The dynamic mechanical analysis exhibits a rise in storage modulus. It indicates a lower damping and higher stiffness ratio in hybrid fabrics. These fabrics can be used for temperature resistant applications and in composites.

Objective: The sub bandage pressure results from a complex interaction between the bandage types, applied tension, number of layers and surface hardness. In this paper, three parameters i.e. hardness of the limb, stretch (%) and number of bandage layers are changed at three levels and their individual and interactive effect on the sub bandage pressure for different types of high compression bandages is studied. Method: The study has been conducted on two types of high compression bandages (woven and knitted) using the Box-Behnken Design. The data obtained for sub bandage pressure of bandage samples on three plastic tubes with layer of foam of varying hardness is used to carry out response surface regression analysis and analysis of variance to find the contribution of each parameter on the sub bandage pressure for high compression bandages. Results: The effect of hardness is significant specifically in the case of woven bandages with some interactive effects with stretch (%) in knitted bandages. The sub bandage pressure increases with the increase in stretch% for all the samples but larger pressure differences were observed for increase in stretch % for limbs with higher hardness. The sub bandage pressure also increases with the number of bandage layers but a linear relationship was not observed between sub bandage pressure and the number of layers at low stretch %. The regression equations for various responses agree well with the experimental data as indicated by higher values of coefficient of determination. Conclusion: The number of layers and the stretch % contribute substantially towards the sub bandage pressure for both woven and knitted bandages. The contribution of hardness of the limb is found to be insignificant for knitted bandage sample which has the tightest structure and high initial modulus. The regression equations generated for various responses can be used to predict the sub bandage pressure of bandages during application of high stretch bandages.

Recently, electrospun nanofiber membranes (ENMs) have been received an increased attention in personal protective clothing owing to their excellent filtration efficiency and low basis weight as filtering materials. However, high resistance to air flow is a major drawback of ENMs which in turn effect on comfort. In addition, comfort properties such as moisture management of ENMs need to be evaluated for practical applications. It is argued that air permeability and moisture management influenced by selection of electrospinning process parameters. This research studied the effect of collector speed and deposition time on the air permeability of ENMs. Polyacrylonitrile nanofibers that had the diameter in the range of 291--877 nm were fabricated. The deposition time significantly influenced air permeability, unlike collector speed. Hence a short deposition time is desirable. A good correlation was found between the theoretical porosity and experimental air permeability of ENM. Furthermore, it was found that moisture management properties of ENM require improvements for personal protective clothing.

The intimate apparel market is changing towards the personalized consumption environment rapidly. On one hand, consumers' behaviour is more selective; On the other hand, brassiere design and development cycle are getting shorter and shorter. Mould head design is a key process in producing brassieres. A master cone which is the prototype of the mould head can be developed by a novel parametric method. The example-based method can easily make a new mould head style from several existing styles of master cones only by adjusting corresponding weights. Through the remeshing and registration algorithm, designer can characterize the outer surfaces of the mould head and scanned bra cups, aligning them each other at a point with same topology for assessing deviation. The results from this paper provide a scientific, practical and effective solution for intimate apparel manufacturers so that they can improve the development process of mould heads.