Relating the mechanical responses of the lumbar spine during sudden impacts to preceding mechanical exposures

我的研究计划旨在探索腰椎在意外撞击、扰动和急性负荷事件中的力学。意外冲击、扰动和突然加载事件引起的亚故障机械暴露经常发生，从手工搬运材料时的滑倒、绊倒、跌倒和绊倒，到操作机械或机动车辆时的颠簸和撞击。迄今为止，对这些亚失效机械暴露如何导致潜在的下背部机械损伤知之甚少。在这些冲击情景中建立损伤机制的困难可能是由于冲击前暴露史、个体特征（如年龄增长、BMI升高）和腰椎冲击后力学变化导致的关节力学特性改变，这些变化可能延续到继发性损伤途径。我的总体研究计划将评估这些围绕急性负荷的相互作用，并将提供一个独特的和多方面的方法来确定负荷暴露和脊柱组织生物力学反应之间的基本联系。我的研究计划的总体目标是根据腰椎的能力和急性突然冲击暴露时的损伤风险制定增强的损伤风险阈值和指南。为了实现这一目标，将解决三个短期研究目标：1)评估暴露史和年龄如何改变急性负荷对下背部的需求。2)探索暴露于突然载荷如何改变运动策略，并与未来的损伤启动和检测联系起来。3)在组织水平上评估急性负荷下脊柱结构损伤发生和进展的原因。总的来说，这项工作将通过提供响应急性负荷的下背部需求的数据，并结合组织水平的研究来评估脊柱组织的反应和微损伤的启动，从而使多个科学领域受益。参加该研究项目的学生将获得宝贵的经验，从应用人体生物力学研究到先进机械组织测试技术的发展，参与灵活的培训环境，以支持学术和行业的职业发展道路。重点将放在损伤力学的基础知识和创造性的研究设计上，以针对腰椎损伤生物力学的特定方面。在明确的长期目标和以学生为中心的训练计划的激励下，本研究项目旨在发展腰椎生物力学的一个新分支——研究亚失效冲击加载事件下腰椎的力学变化和损伤。

My research program aims to explore the mechanics of the lumbar spine during unanticipated impacts, perturbations, and acute loading events. Sub-failure mechanical exposures from unanticipated impacts, perturbations, and sudden loading events frequently occur, ranging from slips, trips, falls and stumbles during manual materials handling tasks to bumps and impacts when operating machinery or motor vehicles. To date, there is little understanding in how these subfailure mechanical exposures result in potential mechanical injury to the low back. The difficulty in establishing a mechanism for damage in these impact scenarios may be explained by altered mechanical joint properties stemming from preimpact exposure history, individual characteristics (e.g. advancing age, higher BMI), and postimpact mechanical changes in the lumbar spine, which can perpetuate to secondary injury pathways. My overall research program will evaluate these interacting effects surrounding acute loading and will provide a unique and multifaceted approach to identify fundamental links between loading exposures and biomechanical responses of spine tissues. The overall goal of my research program is to develop enhanced injury risk thresholds and guidelines based on the lumbar spine's capacity and injury risk during acute sudden impact exposures. To achieve this goal, three short-term research objectives will be addressed: 1) Assess how exposure history and age alters the demands on the low back in response to acute loading. 2) Explore how exposure to sudden loading alters movement strategies and link to future damage initiation and detection. 3) Evaluate the causes of injury initiation and progression in the structures of the spine at the tissue level in response to acute loading. Overall, this work will benefit multiple scientific domains by providing data on the demands on the low back in response to acute loading, combined with investigations at the tissue level to assess responses of spinal tissues and micro-damage initiation. Students who participate in this research program will gain valuable experience spanning applied human biomechanics research to the development of advanced mechanical tissue testing techniques, engaging in a flexible training environment to support both academic and industry track career paths. Emphasis will be placed on a strong fundamental knowledge base in injury mechanics and creative study design to target specific aspects of lumbar spine injury biomechanics. Motivated by a clear long-term objective, and a student focused training plan, centered around recruitment of a diverse team of HQP, this research program seeks to develop a new branch of lumbar spine biomechanics-investigating mechanical changes and damage in the lumbar spine in response to sub-failure impact loading events.