Thirty years of anthropometric changes relevant to the width and depth of transportation seating spaces, present and future.

This paper reports the results of an investigation into changes in body shape anthropometry over the past several decades and discusses the impact of those changes on seating in transport, especially airliners. Changes in some body shape dimensions were confirmed in a sample of students at TU Delft; several of the changes, e.g. hip breadth, seated, are relevant to the ongoing design of seating. No change in buttock knee length was observed. The fit between current user anthropometry and current airline seat design, especially regarding seat width, was investigated. A comparison of the average current seat breadth with global anthropometric data suggests that accommodation may be problematic, with less than optimal width for passengers' shoulder and elbow widths.

Templating the 3D structure of conducting polymers with self-assembling peptides.

Self-assembly of a tetrapeptide covalently attached to a thiophene-based monomer produced a gel with a fibrous, porous structure. Conditions were identified in which the thiophene end groups could undergo polymerization while retaining the 3D structure, resulting in the formation of nanofibrous gels with conductivities averaging 10-4 S cm-1.