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Body Systems: The Basics
Published in Karen L. LaBat, Karen S. Ryan, Human Body, 2019
The adult skeleton consists of 206 linked bones that give the body both stability and the ability to move. Parts of the skeleton are impact-resistant structures that encase and protect vital organs. For example, the skull (the bones of the head) surrounds and safeguards the brain. The rib cage shields the heart and lungs. The bony pelvis contains the intestines and bladder. In women the bony pelvis forms a “cradle” for the unborn child. The female bony pelvis is broader than the male’s to facilitate birth. While the skull (without the jaw), ribs, and pelvis have relatively little motion, the bones of the spine (backbone) and limbs (arms and legs) are essential to mobility. The spine or vertebral column protects the spinal cord; much like the skull protects the brain. With its segmented structure, the vertebral column allows us to survey the surrounding environment and reposition the head and the body. In adults, there are 33 individual vertebrae (bony segments of the vertebral column) named by the body region where they are found; the upper 25 are movable (Moore, Agur, & Dalley, 2011).
Occupational Health Hazards of Nanoparticles
Published in Chaudhery Mustansar Hussain, Gustavo Marques da Costa, Environmental, Ethical, and Economical Issues of Nanotechnology, 2022
Sandra Magali Heberle, Michele dos Santos, Gomes da Rosab
Chest: The lungs are located inside the chest. The ribs, which form the rib cage and make a framework protecting the lungs and heart, lean forward by the action of the intercostal muscle, causing an increase in the volume of the thoracic cavity. The volume of the chest also increases by contraction down the diaphragm muscles. When the thorax expands, during inspiration, the lungs begin to fill with air (Adamec et al. 2019 b).
Effect of geometrical and mechanical parameters of ribs submitted to high velocity impact. A numerical investigation
Published in Mechanics of Advanced Materials and Structures, 2022
Thoracic injuries happen frequently in various frameworks of impact biomechanics such as automotive industries, sports and high-velocity ballistic impacts, second fatal injury behind head injury [1–5]. Rib fractures are common in thoracic injuries that can lead to life-threatening injuries, such as bone fragments of ribs perforating the lung pleural surface, lung parenchyma, liver or heart, which may result in pneumothorax, hemothorax or death [6, 7]. Specifically, the elderly who are more likely to encounter rib fractures, they need longer recovery time or even face higher mortality owe to the decreased thoracic injury tolerance [8, 9]. In consequence, it is of importance to investigate the dynamic responses of ribs under dynamic loadings, which can help understand the mechanisms of rib fractures and corresponding injury criterion.
Comparative anatomy of quadruped robots and animals: a review
Published in Advanced Robotics, 2022
Akira Fukuhara, Megu Gunji, Yoichi Masuda
While the trunks of sprawling animals and robots consist of homogeneous segments in a bead-like structure, the trunks of animals and robots with erect limbs consist of heterogeneous segments (i.e. rigid and flexible segments). In mammals, the thoracic part of the trunk forms a stiff box with the sternum and rib cage, which houses the heart and lungs. In contrast, the lumbar part of the trunk possesses no ribs and can bend flexibility in the sagittal plane as shown in Figure 5(B). This sagittal bending of the trunk enhances the locomotor speed. A good example is the high running speed of a cheetah [105–108]. Some robotics studies have employed a heterogeneous trunk structure to realize this natural sagittal bending [109,110] (Figure 5(F) and (G)), while other studies have designed a trunk with single pitch joints for simplicity [111–113] (Figure 5(H)–(J)). In the various implementations of trunks with sagittal bending, the limbs and trunk usually coordinate in galloping or bounding gaits. In the running of both animals and robots, the pitch joint in the spine unit usually flexes after the forelimbs' stance phase and extends after the hindlimbs' stance phase for faster and more efficient running [109–113].
Functional outcomes of motor vehicle crash thoracic injuries in pediatric and adult occupants
Published in Traffic Injury Prevention, 2018
Samantha L. Schoell, Ashley A. Weaver, Jennifer W. Talton, Ryan T. Barnard, Gretchen Baker, Joel D. Stitzel, Mark R. Zonfrillo
Individual thoracic injuries were grouped into 8 groups based on structure of injury and injury type to increase sample sizes and highlight differences across general injury groups. Overall, older adults had higher associated disability for the majority of the injury groups, with pediatric patients having higher associated disability for flail chest injuries and with middle-aged adults having higher associated disability for pneumomediastinum injuries. With rib fractures being the most frequent AIS 3+ chest injury in MVCs and the decrease in injury tolerance due to structural and material changes with age, older adults exhibiting higher disability risk falls in line with the given trends (Kent et al. 2005; Leport et al. 2011). Rib fractures can also result in hemothorax, pneumothorax, and lung contusions and can lead to further disability. Blunt thoracic aortic injuries, though not heavily prevalent, have been shown to lead to high rates of morbidity and mortality due to the inability of patients to undergo aortic repair (Arthurs et al. 2009). Similar to the findings in this study, the most prevalent disability associated with patients with blunt thoracic aortic injuries was locomotion.