From Stress to Strain for Damage Prediction in Atherosclerotic Plaques: A Twelve-Metric Sensitivity Study using Plaque-Specific Fibre Architectures

Examination of shoulder muscles’ activity during a baseball pitch using musculoskeletal modeling

A baseball pitch is an explosive and dynamic motion during which one of the highest angular rates achieved by the human body in sports activity was noted. The nature of the baseball pitch puts shoulder structures at risk, and one of the most common injuries among pitchers is a rotator cuff tear, frequently connected with internal impingement. It...

Sensor fusion for estimating joint kinematics and kinetics of biomechanical systems: Validation using a robotic manipulator

The study of human motion consists of the analysis of kinematics, dealing with joint angles, velocities and accelerations, and kinetics, which deals with joint torques and interaction forces. Traditionally, kinematics and kinetics are estimated from optical marker data and sometimes measured interaction forces. Inertial measurement units (IMUs)...

Global and local analysis of the mechanical and structural characteristics of carotid atherosclerotic plaques for rupture risk assessment

The rupture of atherosclerotic plaques present in vital arteries is the main trigger of fatal cardiovascular events, such as heart attacks and strokes. Plaque rupture is a mechanical failure of the fibrous plaque tissue that ensues upon large deformations of the tissue, induced by the blood pressure. Current knowledge on the rupture...

Pitch type classification based on pelvis and trunk IMU data

Classification of pitch types outside the laboratory or game environment provide benefits in designing and outlining training routines to reduce injury and improve performance. Current classification approaches are based on vision-based optical data, however these optical data is often not available in training sessions. The aim of the current...

The effects of local fibre organization on the elastic and rupture behaviour of tissue engineered fibrous cap models

Atherosclerosis is a cardiovascular disease in the arteries and a primary cause of death in the industrialized world. Most deaths due to atherosclerosis occur when the fibrous cap covering the necrotic core ruptures, leading to a blood clot. To determine whether an atherosclerotic plaque will rupture requires the development of accurate...

Utilizing crosswise self-growing connection as load-bearing element in building design

Within the context of utilizing alternative materials to promote sustainable construction in the building industry, Living Architecture is a concept that uses living organisms as the building materials. As a rather unconventional approach, it possesses benefits such as low cost, not requiring considerable workforce or industrial material, carbon...

Large bone-implants for osteochondral regeneration, fabrication and ex-vivo testing

The high frequency of osteoarthritis in those aged above 60 years combined with the observing trend of overpopulation leads to increased healthcare costs. To date, clinical treatments seem to be insufficient to restore cartilage and underlying bone degeneration. Bioprinting fabrication techniques constitute a promising approach to mimic and...

Towards prevention of overuse lower limb injury with a smart wearable for military use

This thesis explains the research into and implementation of overuse lower-limb injury prediction among military recruits, using wearable plantar-pressure sensing and biomechanical gait algorithms. The research has been done with the purpose of designing a usable, affordable and accurate injury-prevention tool, increasing both military wellbeing...

Inflicted Head Injury by Shaking Trauma in Infants: Part I: The potential effect of spatiotemporal variation of the rotation center on injury mechanisms. Part II:The importance of spatiotemporal variation of the rotation center when modeling external head-dynamics

Part I:<br/>Inflicted head injury by shaking trauma (IHI-ST) is often simulated to better understand the injury mechanisms and to analyze whether violent shaking can cause head injury in infants. Computational models are usually subjected to linear and rotational inputs to simulate shaking scenarios. In existing studies, the head’s rotation...

Inertia compensation for perturbations on instrumented treadmills: Optimization and validation

Instrumented treadmills and perturbations of the treadmill are commonly used for gait analysis and can provide real time biomechanical information and feedback of gait patterns and abnormalities. Force plates in the treadmill are combined with motion capture data and fed into a musculoskeletal model. High accuracy of the force plates is needed...

Assessment of soft tissue tension during total hip arthroplasty: Measuring the forces in the neck of a prosthesis

The goal of this thesis is: ''To create a sterilizable instrument that measures the compressive force in the axial direction of the neck of the hip implant during surgery''. This measured axial force in combination with a standardized ROM test could be used to objectively assess the soft tissue tension during surgery. It is expected that this...

The effects of different control methods on human biomechanics during exoskeleton walking

Ever since human ancestors picked up rocks and used them as tools, technology has enhanced human capabilities. Over the last decades more and more research has been done in trying to enhance strength and endurance by means of an exoskeleton. Reducing the metabolic cost of human walking using lower extremity exoskeletons is one of the challenges...

Musculoskeletal modelling of the shoulder during baseball pitching: A research combining 3D kinematic measurements with musculoskeletal modelling

A musculoskeletal model of the shoulder region, which uses kinematic data as an input an estimates muscle forces and joint loads as an output, can give valuable information on the pitching motion. This helps us to get more insight into the pitching motion and its biomechanical interactions and may also help in reducing the injury risk and...