A New Automatic Foot Arch Index Measurement Method Based on a Flexible Membrane Pressure Sensor

The foot arch index is an important index to evaluate the health of human feet and the biomechanics line, aiming at addressing the shortcomings of the low efficiency and slow speed of manual foot arch index measurement; in this work, an automatic foot arch index measurement method based on a flexible membrane pressure sensor was proposed. The distribution of plantar pressure data was obtained from the flexible membrane pressure sensor and converted into a digital image. The 8-neighborhood correlation pixel method was proposed to remove the interference of isolated noise points. In order to remove the toes’ data without affecting the foot sole data, the row element association algorithm was proposed. The front and back endpoints of the foot were automatically located to obtain the foot length, and the foot arch index was also automatically obtained based on the foot arch pressure area. Whether it was a high arch foot, flat foot or normal foot, the method proposed in this paper could accurately and quickly distinguish them. The prototype was developed, and its feasibility and validity were verified by a series of tests.

Element association and morphology in some Middle Ordovician platform-equipped conodonts

Conodont elements other than those with platform ledges along the processes have often been unrecognized or disregarded in reconstructions and phylogenetic discussions of Ordovician “platform conodont genera.” The platform elements are larger than the other element types and often exhibit more rapid evolutionary changes in morphology. Nevertheless, to understand the evolution of, and relationships between and among “platform genera,” it is necessary to also consider the associated ramiform and geniculate elements. Thus, on the basis of large collections, together comprising 10,800 elements from Sweden and southern China, all element types of Lenodus antivariabilis (An, 1981), L. variabilis (Sergeeva, 1963), Yangtzeplacognathus crassus (Chen and Zhang, 1993) and Eoplacognathus pseudoplanus (Viira, 1974) are described and discussed. All these species had seven morphologically distinct element types, and probably seventeen individual elements in each apparatus. Ancestors and descendants of these species are discussed more briefly and it is concluded that the ramiform and geniculate elements also are characteristic within each lineage.