The Pathomechanics Of Tissue Injury And Disease And The Mechanophysiology Of Healing

Over the last decade, it became clear that mechanical factors, such as deformations, forces and stiffness properties have critical influence on a wide spectrum of diseases. Traditionally, since the 1960's, mechanics has been associated mainly with orthopaedics, trauma and rehabilitation as well as with cardiovascular problems, and so, the work of biomechanists was mostly related to these areas. This led, for example, to good understanding of the loading conditions at which bone fractures occur, and how bone fractures can be healed more quickly if their mechanical environment is adequately controlled (e.g. via compression plate-screw systems). However, more recently, on the 1980's-1990's, it was discovered that mechanics has much more fundamental roles and effects on biological processes, as many cell types appeared to be responsive to mechanical stimuli. This boosted biomechanical research on the effects of mechanical factors at the microscopic scale of tissues, and the fields of mechanobiology and mechanotransduction emerged. Most recently, on the 2000's, there were studies, e.g. by Dr. Valerie Weaver and colleagues (as described in this book), reporting that at the cell scale, inadequate mechanical stimuli may even provoke cancer. Hence, the role of integration between mechanics, life sciences and medicine is growing rapidly, and becomes more important by the day. What allows this integration to expand so fast is the development of sophisticated bioengineering research and analysis tools. These include highly realistic computer simulations, small animal MRI, micro-sensors, bio-reactors and many other recent breakthroughs that allow precision measurements of the mechanical conditions that apply in tissues at different levels of architectural hierarchy, whereas at the same time, close monitoring of the biological responses to these mechanical conditions became possible. This exciting atmosphere is at the background of the present book, which contains perspectives from leading scientists worldwide on the role of mechanics in injury, disease and healing. The topics covered span from bone tumors to pressure ulcers and from osteoarthritis to breast cancer, which illustrates how mechanics is now identified as the common denominator in so many important chronic conditions, as opposed to just trauma. In view of the multi-disciplinary and diverse nature of this book, I expect it to be appealing to a broad readership, obviously including biomechanists but also medical doctors, physiologists, cell biologists, physiotherapists, nurses and all those who are interested in reading on the latest developments in our journey towards understanding the complex connections between mechanics and biology.

Military Injury Biomechanics: The Cause and Prevention of Impact Injuries is a reference manual where information and data from a large number of sources, focussing on injuries related to military events, has been critically reviewed and discussed. The book covers the cause and prevention of impact injuries to all the major body regions, while topics such as the historical background of military impact biomechanics, the history and use of anthropomorphic test devices for military applications and the medical management of injuries are also discussed. An international team of experts have been brought together to examine and review the topics. The book is intended for researchers, postgraduate students and others working or studying defence and impact injuries.

Damage to the central nervous system resulting from pathological mechanical loading can occur as a result of trauma or disease. Such injuries lead to significant disability and mortality. The peripheral nervous system, while also subject to injury from trauma and disease, also transduces physiological loading to give rise to sensation, and mechanotransduction is also thought to play a role in neural development and growth. This book gives a complete and quantitative description of the fundamental mechanical properties of neural tissues, and their responses to both physiological and pathological loading. This book reviews the methods used to characterize the nonlinear viscoelastic properties of central and peripheral neural tissues, and the mathematical and sophisticated computational models used to describe this behaviour. Mechanisms and models of neural injury from both trauma and disease are reviewed from the molecular to macroscopic scale. The book provides a comprehensive picture of the mechanical and biological response of neural tissues to the full spectrum of mechanical loading to which they are exposed. This book provides a comprehensive reference for professionals involved in pre prevention of injury to the nervous system, whether this arises from trauma or disease.

Military Injury Biomechanics: The Cause and Prevention of Impact Injuries is a reference manual where information and data from a large number of sources, focussing on injuries related to military events, has been critically reviewed and discussed. The book covers the cause and prevention of impact injuries to all the major body regions, while topics such as the historical background of military impact biomechanics, the history and use of anthropomorphic test devices for military applications and the medical management of injuries are also discussed. An international team of experts have been brought together to examine and review the topics. The book is intended for researchers, postgraduate students and others working or studying defence and impact injuries.

How did flying birds evolve from running dinosaurs, terrestrial trotting tetrapods evolve from swimming fish, and whales return to swim in the sea? These are some of the great transformations in the 500-million-year history of vertebrate life. And with the aid of new techniques and approaches across a range of fields—work spanning multiple levels of biological organization from DNA sequences to organs and the physiology and ecology of whole organisms—we are now beginning to unravel the confounding evolutionary mysteries contained in the structure, genes, and fossil record of every living species. This book gathers a diverse team of renowned scientists to capture the excitement of these new discoveries in a collection that is both accessible to students and an important contribution to the future of its field. Marshaling a range of disciplines—from paleobiology to phylogenetics, developmental biology, ecology, and evolutionary biology—the contributors attack particular transformations in the head and neck, trunk, appendages such as fins and limbs, and the whole body, as well as offer synthetic perspectives. Illustrated throughout, Great Transformations in Vertebrate Evolution not only reveals the true origins of whales with legs, fish with elbows, wrists, and necks, and feathered dinosaurs, but also the relevance to our lives today of these extraordinary narratives of change.

This edited volume collects the research results presented at the 14th International Symposium on Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering, Tel Aviv, Israel, 2016. The topical focus includes, but is not limited to, cardiovascular fluid dynamics, computer modeling of tissue engineering, skin and spine biomechanics, as well as biomedical image analysis and processing. The target audience primarily comprises research experts in the field of bioengineering, but the book may also be beneficial for graduate students alike.