The effects of asymmetrical lifting versus symmetrical lifting on muscle activation

Back pain is the most common and costly musculoskeletal problem in the workplace around the world. No previous study has compared the effects of asymmetrical lifting (lifting with a twist) on both upper body and lower body skeletal muscles with multiple lifting loads. It was hypothesized that the asymmetrical lifts of 20, 35, and 50 pounds could require a significantly higher muscle activation on the nine measured muscles when compared to symmetrical lifts of the same load. The dependent variables were the mean EMG activation of twelve selected muscles during the concentric upward lifting phase. The independent variables were the lifting method with two levels: symmetrical versus asymmetrical, and the lifting load with three levels of 20, 35, and 50 pounds. The results were analyzed with twelve two by three ANOVAs. The results from the twenty-two participants showed no statistical significant differences among the different conditions on mean EMG muscle activation between symmetrical and asymmetrical lifts. These results suggest that untrained individuals that lift heavy objects during their profession may exert the same muscular effort among multiple lifting loads and twisting while lifting may not alter the activation of certain muscles.California State University, Northridge. Department of Kinesiology.Includes bibliographical references (pages 29-31

Understanding Age and Sex-Related Differences in the Biomechanics of Road Traffic Associated Injuries Through Population Diversity Analyses

Editorial on the Research TopicUnderstanding Age and Sex-Related Differences in the Biomechanics of Road Traffic Associated Injuries Through Population Diversity Analyse

Evaluation of a diverse population of morphed human body models for prediction of vehicle occupant crash kinematics

Morphing can be used to alter human body models (HBMs) to represent a diverse population of occupants in car crashes. The mid-sized male SAFER HBM v9 was parametrically morphed to match 22 Post Mortem Human Subjects, loaded in different configurations. Kinetics and kinematics were compared for the morphed and baseline HBMs. In frontal impacts, the morphed HBMs correlated closer with the kinematics of obese subjects, but lower to small females. In lateral impacts HBM responses were too stiff. This study outlines a necessary evaluation of all HBMs that should be morphed to represent the diverse population in vehicle safety evaluations

Impact Response Comparison Between Parametric Human Models and Postmortem Human Subjects with a Wide Range of Obesity Levels

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138906/1/oby21947_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138906/2/oby21947.pd

Interview with Leon S. Forman

For transcript, click the Download button above. For video index, click the link below. Leon S. Forman ((L\u2739) was an authority on bankruptcy and creditors\u27 rights. He practiced law for more than sixty years and served as chairman of the Philadelphia Bar Association\u27s corporation, banking and business law section, and as chairman of the Pennsylvania Bar Association\u27s bankruptcy committee. He was a member of the American Law Institute. He taught bankruptcy and creditors\u27 rights at the Law School of the University of Pennsylvania and at Temple University School of Law. He died in 2006

THE KINEMATICS OF HEAD IMPACTS IN CONTACT SPORT: AN INITIAL ASSESSMENT OF THE POTENTIAL OF MODEL BASED IMAGE MATCHING

Model Based Image Matching (MBIM) has potential to assess three-dimensional linear and rotational motion patterns from multiple camera views of head impact events in contact sports. The goal of this study is to assess the accuracy of the MBlM method for estimating 6DOF head kinematics in a vehicle-cadaver impact scenario for which Vicon motion analysis data are available as an independent measure. A three camera view MBlM reconstruction yielded RMS errors between 0.14-0.26 mls for change in head linear velocities ranging from 0.56-5.70 m/s, and 0.27-1.38 rad/s for change in head angular velocities ranging from 6.1041 -90 rad/s. The results from this study indicate that the MBlM method is a useful approach for measuring the kinematics of head impacts in sport

Determinants of spread in an urban landscape by an introduced lizard

Context: Urban landscapes are a mixture of built structures, human-altered vegetation, and remnant semi-natural areas. The spatial arrangement of abiotic and biotic conditions resulting from urbanization doubtless influences the establishment and spread of non-native species in a city. Objectives: We investigated the effects of habitat structure, thermal microclimates, and species coexistence on the spread of a non-native lizard (Anolis cristatellus) in the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida (USA). Methods: We used transect surveys to estimate lizard occurrence and abundance on trees and to measure vegetation characteristics, and we assessed forest cover and impervious surface using GIS. We sampled lizard body temperatures, habitat use, and relative abundance at multiple sites. Results: At least one of five Anolis species occupied 79 % of the 1035 trees surveyed in primarily residential areas, and non-native A. cristatellus occupied 25 % of trees. Presence and abundance of A. cristatellus were strongly associated with forest patches, dense vegetation, and high canopy cover, which produced cooler microclimates suitable for this species. Presence of A. cristatellus was negatively associated with the ecologically similar non-native A. sagrei, resulting in reduced abundance and a shift in perch use of A. cristatellus. Conclusions: The limited spread of A. cristatellus in Miami over 35 years is due to the patchy, low-density distribution of wooded habitat, which limits dispersal by diffusion. The presence of congeners may also limit spread. Open habitats—some parks, yards and roadsides—contain few if any A. cristatellus, and colonization of isolated forest habitat appears to depend on human-mediated dispersal

Vault-1 - A Mission Architecture for Human Exploration of Near-Earth Objects

In 2011, the Keck Institute for Space Studies hosted the Caltech Space Challenge, a week long workshop/competition directed towards the President's initiative of sending astronauts to an asteroid by 2025. Two teams composed of 16 students each, representing 12 different nations, competed to prepare a mission proposal by the end of the week. This report highlights some of the work done by Team Voyager. Not only is this work useful in showing that a manned mission to a Near-Earth Object is feasible by 2025, but it also demonstrates the utility of intense, relatively short student competitions. This study is an outline of Vault-1, a proposed human mission to a Near-Earth Object. In addition to continuing human exploration, Vault-1 aims to make new discoveries about the origins of the Solar System, to develop technologies geared towards deep space exploration and a manned Mars mission, and to gain critical knowledge and experience to better protect Earth from future asteroid impacts. The primary target of this endeavor is 1999AO10, an asteroid that is larger than 30 m that also has an achievable mission duration of less than 200 days. 2000SG344 is a viable secondary target. Vault-1 will nominally carry 3 crew members to 1999AO10; after 14 days at the asteroid, the astronauts will return safely to the Earth with samples from the asteroid

Radiation Imaging of Dry-Storage Casks for Spent Nuclear Fuel

The authors report the results of a measurement campaign conducted on six dry-storage, spent-nuclear-fuel storage casks at the Idaho National Laboratory. a gamma-ray imager, a thermal-neutron imager and a Ge-spectrometer were used to collect data. The campaign was conducted to examine the feasibility of using cask radiation signatures as unique identifiers for individual casks as part of a safeguards regime. The results clearly show different morphologies for the various cask types although the signatures are deemed insufficient to uniquely identify individual casks of the same type. Based on results with the Ge-spectrometer and differences between thermal neutron images and neutron-dose meters, this result is attributed to the limitations of the extant imagers used, rather than of the basic concept