Sharif Digital Repository

The Calcium ion Ca2+ plays a critical role as an initiator and preserving agent of the cross-bridge cycle in the force generation of skeletal muscle. A new multi-scale chemo-mechanical model is presented in order to analyze the role of Ca2+ in muscle fatigue and to predict fatigue behavior. To this end, a cross-bridge kinematic model was incorporated in a continuum based mechanical model, considering a thermodynamic compatible framework. The contractile velocity and the generated active force were directly related to the force-bearing states that were considered for the cross-bridge cycle. In order to determine the values of the model parameters, the output results of an isometric simulation... 

Background: Functional knee braces are extensively used for partially and completely torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) patients and those who have undergone ACL graft reconstruction, in order to support the healing ACL, improve the joint's functional stability, and restore the normal joint kinematics. Research question: Does wearing braces alter the arthrokinematics of the ACL deficient knees during lung exercise? Methods: For ten male unilateral ACL deficient subjects, 3D knee models were reconstructed from CT images, acquired in rest position. Sagittal plane fluoroscopy was then performed throughout a complete cycle of lunge in braced and non-braced conditions. The 3D kinematics of the... 

During pregnancy, traumas can threaten maternal and fetal health. Various trauma effects on a pregnant uterus are little investigated. In the present study, a finite element model of a uterus along with a fetus, placenta, amniotic fluid, and two most effective ligament sets is developed. This model allows numerical evaluation of various loading on a pregnant uterus. The model geometry is developed based on CT-scan data and validated using anthropometric data. Applying Ogden hyper-elastic theory, material properties of uterine wall and placenta are developed. After simulating the “rigid-bar” abdominal loading, the impact force and abdominal penetration are investigated. Findings are compared... 

This study presents a novel statistical volume element (SVE) for micromechanical modeling of the white matter structures, with histology-informed randomized distribution of axonal tracts within the extracellular matrix. The model was constructed based on the probability distribution functions obtained from the results of diffusion tensor imaging as well as the histological observations of scanning electron micrograph, at two structures of white matter susceptible to traumatic brain injury, i.e. corpus callosum and corona radiata. A simplistic representative volume element (RVE) with symmetrical arrangement of fully alligned axonal fibers was also created as a reference for comparison. A... 

Epidemiological studies are divided over the causative role of body weight (BW) in low back pain. Biomechanical modeling is a valuable approach to examine the effect of changes in BW on spinal loads and risk of back pain. Changes in BW have not been properly simulated by previous models as associated alterations in model inputs on the musculature and moment arm of gravity loads have been neglected. A detailed, multi-joint, scalable model of the thoracolumbar spine is used to study the effect of BW (varying at five levels, i.e., 51, 68, 85, 102, and 119kg) on the L5-S1 spinal loads during various static symmetric activities while scaling moment arms and physiological cross-sectional areas of... 

Background: Females are two times more likely to develop patellofemoral pain (PFP) than males. Abnormal trunk and pelvis kinematics are thought to contribute to the pathomechanics of this condition. However, there is a scarcity of evidence investigating proximal segments kinematics in females with PFP. Research question: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether females with PFP demonstrate altered trunk, pelvis, and knee joint kinematics compared with healthy controls during running. Methods: Thirty-four females (17 PFP, 17 controls) underwent a 3-dimensional motion analysis during treadmill running at preferred and fixed speeds, each trial for 30 s. Variables of interest... 

In this study, a nonlinear poroelastic model of intervertebral disc as an infrastructure was developed. Moreover, a new element was defined consisting a disc (Viscoelastic Euler Beam Element) and a vertebra (Rigid Link) as a unit element. Using the new element, three different viscoelastic finite element models were prepared for lumbar motion segment (L4/L5). Prolonged loading (short-term and long-term creep) and cyclic loading were applied to the models and the results were compared with results of in vivo tests. Simplification of the models by using the new element leads to reduction of the runtime of the models in dynamic analyses to few minutes without losing the accuracy in the results  

Due to the complexity of the human spinal motion segments, the intervertebral joints are often simulated in the musculoskeletal trunk models as pivots thus allowing no translational degrees of freedom (DOFs). This work aims to investigate, for the first time, the effect of such widely used assumption on trunk muscle forces, spinal loads, kinematics, and stability during a number of static activities. To address this, the shear deformable beam elements used in our nonlinear finite element (OFE) musculoskeletal model of the trunk were either substantially stiffened in translational directions (SFE model) or replaced by hinge joints interconnected through rotational springs (HFE model). Results... 

Measurements of spinal segment ranges of motion (RoMs), movement coordination, and three-dimensional kinematics during occupational activities have implications in occupational/clinical biomechanics. Due to the large amount of adipose tissues, obese individuals may have different RoMs, lumbopelvic coordination, and kinematics than normal-weight ones. We aimed to measure/compare trunk, lumbar, and pelvis primary RoMs in all anatomical planes/directions, lumbopelvic ratios (lumbar to pelvis rotations at different trunk angles) in all anatomical planes/directions and three-dimensional spine kinematics during twelve symmetric/asymmetric statics load-handling activities in healthy normal-weight... 

An essential input to the musculoskeletal (MS) trunk models that estimate muscle and spine forces is kinematics of the thorax, pelvis, and lumbar vertebrae. While thorax and pelvis kinematics are usually measured via skin motion capture devices (with inherent errors on the proper identification of the underlying bony landmarks and the relative skin-sensor-bone movements), those of the intervening lumbar vertebrae are commonly approximated at fixed proportions based on the thorax-pelvis kinematics. This study proposes an image-based kinematics measurement approach to drive subject-specific (musculature, geometry, mass, and center of masses) MS models. Kinematics of the thorax, pelvis, and... 

Recent advances in medical imaging techniques have allowed pure displacement-control trunk models to estimate spinal loads with no need to calculate muscle forces. Sensitivity of these models to the errors in post-imaging evaluation of displacements (reported to be ∼0.4–0.9° and 0.2–0.3 mm in vertebral displacements) has not yet been investigated. A Monte Carlo analysis was therefore used to assess the sensitivity of results in both musculoskeletal (MS) and passive finite element (FE) spine models to errors in measured displacements. Six static activities in upright standing, flexed, and extended postures were initially simulated using a force-control hybrid MS-FE model. Computed vertebral... 

Background: Studying the kinematics of the ACL deficient (ACLD) knees, during different physiological activities and muscle contraction patterns, can improve our understanding of the joint's altered biomechanics due to ACL deficiency as well as the efficacy and safety of the rehabilitations exercises. Methods: Twenty-five male volunteers, including 11 normal and 14 unilateral ACLD subjects, participated in this study. The kinematics of the injured knees of the ACLD subjects was compared with their intact knees and the healthy group during passive flexion and isometric leg press with the knees flexed from full extension to 45° flexion, with 15° intervals. An accurate registration algorithm... 

In this research, the nonlinear elastic behavior of human extensor apparatus was investigated. To this goal, firstly the best material parameters of hyperelastic strain energy density functions consisting of the Mooney–Rivlin, Ogden, invariants, and general exponential models were derived for the simple tension experimental data. Due to the significance of stress response in other deformation modes of nonlinear models, the calculated parameters were used to study the pure shear and balance biaxial tension behavior of the extensor apparatus. The results indicated that the Mooney–Rivlin model predicts an unstable behavior in the balance biaxial deformation of the extensor apparatus, while the... 

Adjacent segment disorders are prevalent in patients following a spinal fusion surgery. Postoperative alterations in the adjacent segment biomechanics play a role in the etiology of these conditions. While experimental approaches fail to directly quantify spinal loads, previous modeling studies have numerous shortcomings when simulating the complex structures of the spine and the pre/postoperative mechanobiology of the patient. The biomechanical effects of the L4–L5 fusion surgery on muscle forces and adjacent segment kinetics (compression, shear, and moment) were investigated using a validated musculoskeletal model. The model was driven by in vivo kinematics for both preoperative (intact or... 

Inter-segmental coordination can be influenced by chronic low back pain (CLBP). The sagittal plane lower extremities inter-segmental coordination pattern and variability, in conjunction with the pelvis and trunk, were assessed in subjects with and without non-specific CLBP during free-speed walking. Kinematic data were collected from 10 non-specific CLBP and 10 non-CLBP control volunteers while the subjects were walking at their preferred speed. Sagittal plane time-normalized segmental angles and velocities were used to calculate continuous relative phase for each data point. Mean absolute relative phase (MARP) and deviation phase (DP) were derived to quantify the trunk-pelvis and bilateral... 

Traditional load-control musculoskeletal and finite element (FE) models of the spine fail to accurately predict in vivo intervertebral joint loads due mainly to the simplifications and assumptions when estimating redundant trunk muscle forces. An alternative powerful protocol that bypasses the calculation of muscle forces is to drive the detailed FE models by image-based in vivo displacements. Development of subject-specific models, however, both involves the risk of extensive radiation exposures while imaging in supine and upright postures and is time consuming in terms of the reconstruction of the vertebrae, discs, ligaments, and facets geometries. This study therefore aimed to introduce a... 

Background: Superior biomechanical performance of tapered interference screws, compared with non-tapered screws, with reference to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction process, has been reported in the literature. However, the effect of tapered interference screw’s body slope on the initial stability of ACL is poorly understood. Thus, the main goal of this study was to investigate the effect of the interference screw’s body slope on the initial stability of the reconstructed ACL. Methods: Based on the best screw-bone tunnel diameter ratios in non-tapered screws, two different tapered interference screws were designed and fabricated. The diameters of both screws were equal to... 

Motor abundance allows reliability of motor performance despite its variability. The nature of this variability provides important information on the flexibility of control strategies. This feature of control may be affected by low back pain (LPB) and trunk flexion/extension conditions. Goal equivalent manifold (GEM) analysis was used to quantify the ability to exploit motor abundance during repeated trunk flexion/extension in healthy individuals and people with chronic non-specific LBP (CNSLBP). Kinematic data were collected from 22 healthy volunteers and 22 CNSLBP patients during metronomically timed, repeated trunk flexion/extension in three conditions of symmetry, velocity, and loading;... 

In this study, the effects of an exercise therapy comprising yoga exercises and medial-thrust gait (YogaMT) on lower-extremity kinetics, pain, and function in patients with medial knee osteoarthritis were investigated. Fifty-nine patients were randomly allocated to three treatment groups: (a) the YogaMT group practiced yoga exercises and medial thrust gait, (b) the knee-strengthening group performed quadriceps-and hamstring-strengthening exercises, and (c) the treadmill walking group practiced normal treadmill walking in 12 supervised sessions. The adduction and flexion moments of the hip, knee, and ankle; pain intensity; and 2-min walking test were assessed before and after treatment and at... 

Gating of mechanosensitive (MS) channels is driven by a hierarchical cascade of movements and deformations of transmembrane helices in response to bilayer tension. Determining the intrinsic mechanical properties of the individual transmembrane helices is therefore central to understanding the intricacies of the gating mechanism of MS channels. We used a constant-force steered molecular dynamics (SMD) approach to perform unidirectional pulling tests on all the helices of MscL in M. tuberculosis and E. coli homologs. Using this method, we could overcome the issues encountered with the commonly used constant-velocity SMD simulations, such as low mechanical stability of the helix during...