Empirical Quantification and Computational Modeling of Contributions to Knee Joint Exposures

深膝弯曲（高屈曲）姿势，如蹲和跪，是日常生活中许多常见活动的一部分，包括家务，与孩子玩耍，以及宗教和文化上重要的实践，如祈祷。 对于贸易工人（地毯铺设者，手工材料处理者，矿工），完成地板水平任务所需的高屈曲与膝关节损伤和组织损伤的风险增加有关，使行业和个人损失时间，生产力和生活质量。 拟议的研究计划将量化已知有助于全范围屈曲的膝关节暴露的因素，然后使用这些发现来完善适用于所有膝关节屈曲角度的人类膝关节生物力学模型。准确的生物力学建模对于很好地理解人类膝关节的功能和故障是必不可少的，但是我们缺乏为高屈曲任务创建生理学上准确的膝关节模型所需的构建块。拟议的研究将系统地量化参数，这些参数定义了膝关节的组成部分如何在日常生活的高屈曲活动中发挥作用并相互作用以产生膝关节运动。 此外，还将研究高屈曲任务所特有的大腿后部和小腿之间的接触，以确定其在减轻膝关节负荷方面的作用及其与体型的关系。 这些发现将有助于预测膝关节暴露，可能导致损伤的高屈曲活动的日常生活。 通过提供膝关节在高屈曲时所暴露的详细了解，我的研究将有助于在工作任务和工具修改，生物材料和假体设计以及损伤预防和治疗方面的应用发现，这将减少与膝关节损伤和疾病相关的个人和经济负担。

Deep knee bending (high flexion) postures, such as squatting and kneeling, are part of many common activities of daily living, including household chores, playing with children, and religiously and culturally significant practices such as prayer. For trade workers (carpet layers, manual materials handlers, miners), the high flexion needed to accomplish floor-level tasks has been associated with increased risk of knee injury and tissue damage, costing the industry and the individual in lost time, productivity, and quality of life. The proposed research program will quantify factors that are known to contribute to knee joint exposures for the full range of flexion and then use these findings to refine a biomechanical model of the human knee joint that is applicable to all knee flexion angles.****Accurate biomechanical modeling is essential to a good understanding of the function and malfunction of the human knee joint, but we are lacking the building blocks required to create a physiologically accurate knee joint model for high flexion tasks. The proposed research will systematically quantify parameters that define how the components of the knee joint act and interact to create knee joint motion during high flexion activities of daily living. In addition, the contact between the back of the thigh and calf that is unique to high flexion tasks will be studied to determine its effect in off-loading the knee joint and its relationship with body size. These findings will facilitate the prediction of knee joint exposures that may lead to injury for high flexion activities of daily living. By providing this detailed understanding of what the knee joint is exposed to in high flexion, my research will contribute to applied discoveries in work task and tool modification, biomaterials and prosthetics design, and injury prevention and treatment that will reduce the personal and econonical burdens associated with knee joint injury and disease.****