Sharif Digital Repository

In the last decade, magnesium alloy has been developed owing to it’s low density, high specific strength, good castability and damping property. AZ91 alloy is proved to be the most common and most important magnesium casting alloy. It is shown that, rheocasting process is a proper way which increases the mechanical properties of the products. Since 28 years, so many new methods for preparing Semi-Solid alloy slurry and rheoforming process have been suggested. Electromagnetic Stirring ( EMS ) method was used for making globular structures. In this research, the semi-solid slurry of AZ91 magnesium alloy was prepared by electromagnetic stirrer under different conditions of stirring current and... 

80% of people in all over the world, experience Low Back Pain (LBP) once in their lives. LBP leads to dysfunction of spine. About 25% of LBP relates to the intervertebral disks which in the critical cases, a Posterior Lumbar Surgery (PLS) on the one or more lumbar disks should be done. Due to the some procedure such as retracting, cutting or denervation of muscles, PLS can hurt trunk muscles and spine. Thus, investigation of LBP and postoperative complications of PLS can help us in recognition of causes of LBP and PLS complications and modification of PLS approaches. The objective of this research was investigation of effects of LBP and PLS on the biomechanical function of spine. Pattern of... 

pain is one of the most common musculoskeletal (MS) disorders and the most important cause of functional disability in developed and developing countries. Several studies showed that the most important factor in development of the low back pain is loads and stresses in different parts of the spine. While non-invasive measurement of these internal loads and stresses, as a tool to estimate the risk of injury, is very difficult and costly, biomechanical models of the spine are the best meansfor analyzing the risk of injury in various in-vivo activities. In order to develop a spine model, it is necessary to measure the kinematics of the vertebrae for the specified activity. In previous studies,... 

We consider a special class of Congestion Games enhanced with a notion of time.Network Routing problems, such as road traffic networks, computer neworks, and evacuation problems are some applications of this class of games. Two subclasses of these games, namely atomic and non-atomic is considered in this article, both of them introduced in 2009. Some of the existing results are Nash equilibria existence proof for “single-source single-sink” case, and a mechanism for improving price of anarchy in the non-atomic subclass. There are also some results in the atomic subclass of this game.We extend both models of atomic and non-atomic subclasses to “multi-source,multi-sink” configurations. We call... 

Direct in vivo measurements of spinal loads and muscle forces are invasive. Investigators have thus used musculoskeletal biomechanical models that require kinematic data including trunk and pelvis angular movements as their inputs. . Novel devices measure anglular movements using both inertial sensors (such as gyroscopes and accelerometers) and miniature magnetometers. Relative low cost, portability, and accuracy are among specific characteristics of inertial tracking devices. The main objective of the present study was set to measure spinal kinematics including the lumbopelvic rhythm as the ratio of total lumbar rotation over pelvic rotation during trunk sagittal movement which is essential... 

The 1991 NIOSH Lifting Equation (NLE) is widely used to assess risk of injury to the spine by providing estimates of the recommended weight limit (RWL) in hands. The present study uses two biomechanical models of the spine to verify whether the RWL generates L5-S1 loads within the limits (e.g., 3400 N for compression recommended by NIOSH and 1000 N for shear recommended in some studies).Severallifting activities are simulated here to evaluate the RWL by the NLE and the L5-S1 loads by the models. In lifting activities involving moderate to large forward trunk flexion, the estimated RWL generates L5-S1 spine loads exceeding the recommended limits. The NIOSH vertical multiplier is the likely... 

Range of motion (ROM) of the thoracic spine has implications in patient discrimination for diagnostic purposes and in biomechanical models for predictions of spinal loads. Few previous studies have reported quite different thoracic ROMs. Total (T1-T12), lower (T5-T12) and upper (T1-T5) thoracic, lumbar (T12-S1), pelvis, and entire trunk (T1) ROMs were measured using an inertial tracking device as asymptomatic subjects flexed forward from their neutral upright position to full forward flexion. Correlations between body height and the ROMs were conducted. Effect of measurement errors of the trunk flexion (T1) on the model-predicted spinal loads was investigated. Mean of peak voluntary total... 

Etiological studies proves the fact that Low Back Pain (LBP) is one of the most expensive and prevalent desease all over the world. This fact illustrates the reqiurment of the special effort in ordet to reducing the pain due to this problem. Finite element modeling of human spine is one the suitable methods to simulate the behavior of human spine in different loading conditions. These conditions could be different daily occupational tasks. There is two general viewpoint toward finite element modeling of human spine. The fisrt method focuses on the detailed geometry and mechanical properties of spine, while the other complexities such as detailed muscle forces are overlooked. The latter... 

Low back pains (LBP) are prevalent and costly. One of the important factors causing LBP is excessive axial compression and shear forces that are applied on the intervertebral discs during different activities. Due to lack of direct in vivo measurement methods for estimating these loads, musculoskeletal biomechanical models have been emerged as indispensable tools under various activities. Different biomechanical models have been suggested to estimate muscle forces and spinal loads base on optimization, EMG and hybrid (EMG assisted optimization, EMGAO) methods. Although there have been a number of studies on the differences between various optimization and EMG-based methods, there has been no... 

Posterior lumbar surgery is often associated with extensive injuries to back muscles. In this thesis, the effect of such iatrogenic injuries in some patients was examined. For this purpose, the CSA of back muscles in 6 patients were measured using MR scan. To examine any natural change in CSAs of healthy people or instrument errors, same measurement were carried out on 10 healthy volunteers. In addition, a detailed anatomical model of an intact human spine was developed. With the aim of experimental studies and intact model, the post-operative model of patients was also developed. These two models were used to quantizing the change in activity of back muscles during some symmetric, normal... 

Musculoskeletal abnormalities affect joints and change their range of motion (RoM). Correcting these abnormalities thoroughly depends on the information related to the normal spine movement. Therefore, spine motion analysis can be used as an important tool to distinguish between healthy and patient individuals as well as to determine the intensity of such diseases. Additionally, existing biomechanical models need kinematics data in order to analyze spinal forces. The present study hence aims to measure 3D range of motion of thoracic and lumbar spine using inertial sensors. Their small size, portability, low weight, and relatively low cost make inertial sensors as indispensable tools in... 

The spine like every other mechanical pillar, is exposed to buckling and loss of stability. While existing biomechanical models emphasize the pressure force on the disk as the main cause of injury, there is also a possibility of local buckling phenomenon in vertebral discs. Because of the prevalence and high cost of lower back pain, it is essential to evaluate the forces carried by disks and lumbar muscles during occupational activities more accurately. In this regard, hybrid EMG-assisted optimization (EMGAO) approaches are most common methods for estimation of spinal loads. These models, not only use EMG data to be physiologically creditable, but also satisfy equilibrium requirements at all... 

We have recently designed/fabricated novel bilateral vertebra- and patient-specific drill guides for pedicle screw (PS) placements and tested their accuracy for both nondeformed and deformed thoracic spines. PS placement deviations from their preplanned positions significantly reduced when guide template were used; the success rate improved from ~72% (freehand placements) to 94% (guided placements). In the present study, we aim to use finite element (FE) analyses to evaluate the pull-out strength of these PSs inserted via either the freehand technique or our drill-guide templates. Two 3D-printed T1-T12 thoracic models of a severe scoliosis patient with a 47° thoracic dextro-scoliotic curve... 

Objective: To assess adequacy of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Lifting Equation (NLE) in controlling lumbar spine loads below their recommended action limits during load-handling activities in the stoop and squat using a detailed musculoskeletal model,that is, the AnyBody Modeling System.Background: The NIOSH committee employed simplistic biomechanical models for the calculation of the spine compressive loads with no estimates of the shear loads. In addition, NLE does not include the posture of the knee during manual material handling. It is therefore unknown whether the NLE would adequately control lumbar compression and shear loads below their... 

Biomechanical models require body posture to evaluate the risk of musculoskeletal injuries during daily/occupational activities like manual material handling (MMH). The procedure to measure body posture via motion-analysis techniques is complex, time-consuming, and limited to equipped laboratories. This study aims to develop an easy-to-use yet accurate model that predict human whole-body static posture (3D body coordinates and anatomical joint angles) during different MMH activities. Twenty healthy male right-handed individuals with body mass index between 18 and 26 performed 204 symmetric and asymmetric MMH activities. Each person reached (i.e., without any load in hands) the destinations... 

Body posture is an essential input of musculoskeletal models that evaluate spinal loads in occupational activities. Posture is either measured in vivo via video-camera motion capture systems or predicted via artificial neural networks (ANNs) [1]. As video-camera measurements are impractical for use in real workstations, we have recently developed an ANN that predicts full-body posture during one- and two-handed static load-handling activities. This ANN, trained based on the posture data of 20 subjects each performing 204 static load-handling activities, uses 3D coordinates of the hand-load, body weight, and body height of the worker to predict 3D coordinates of 41 full-body skin markers. The...