[Biomechanical significance of arm length and body mass for a suspended manner of locomotion].
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to H Preuschoft.
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For an expert opinion in a lawsuit regarding the suspicion of self-mutilation the physical data of an accident on a circular saw bench have been investigated. The result was as follows: The time required for severing a human forearm of 6 cm diameter is 40 to 80 ms depending on the feeding power. The impulse of 13 to 15 Ns necessary for severing an arm in only 1/10 to 2/10 of the impulse a slipping person exerts when striking the disk. The standard time data for such accidents indicated in the scientific literature are much too high.
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PROBLEM: The interdependencies between movements of the thighs and the lumbar vertebral shape are of high practical interest. Which are the normals of this phenomenon? METHOD: In an experiment on 107 volunteers without before known spinal disorders and complaints of back pain (47 f, 60 m, 17 a-30 a), the interdependencies between movements of the thighs in the sagittal and the lumbar back profile were analysed. Hip joint movements were provoked by a lift jack, elevating the feet to the volunteers, which sat on a bicycle chair. The hip joint flexion was measured by a Zebris CMS 50. The sagittal profile of the lower back was sensed by a comb of steel needles with low friction support. RESULTS: At 30 degrees of hip flexion, 68% of the volunteers demonstrated a kyphotic, 17% a straight and 15% a lordotic lumbar shape. Starting at 90 degrees of hip flexion, "definitively kyphosating movements" of the lumbar motion segments occur. At the end of the motion, 89% of the volunteers had a kyphotic, 3% a straight and 8% a lordotic lumbar configuration. Each 2 degrees of additional hip joint flexion caudo-cranially one more lumbar motion segment is recruited for the definitive kyphosation of the lumbar spine. CONCLUSIONS: Instead of a "physiological shape of the lumbar spine" its "physiological function" or its "physiological interaction between shape und function" should be in the focus of future discussions. In the sitting, hip joint flexion leads to a coupled motion of the thighs, the pelvic girdle and the lumbar vertebral column with the consequence of a kyphosation of the lumbar back shape.
The zygomatic arch of mammals is usually considered a phylogenetic relic of the fenestrations of the skull roof which may be observed in morphological sequences of primitive vertebrate skulls. If this concept is correct, the element is comparable (though not homologous) to the jugal arches of diapsid reptiles. Two major questions then remain unanswered: why different elements are maintained in reptiles and mammals during evolution, and why the arches are maintained as relics of ancestral forms. It is tempting to respond to the latter question with a very simple answer, namely that the elements function in order to sustain mechanical stresses. In this paper, we raise the questions which quality of stresses occurs in a primate skull within the zygomatic arches and what relationship these stresses hold to the morphology of these bony elements. An answer has been sought by means of finite element stress analysis. We found that the zygomatic arch in primate skulls represents a structure which carries, under all biologically relevant conditions, either compressive or tensile stresses. In a very simple model of the human skull under bite forces, a strip of stresses occurs lateral to the orbits, which seems roughly comparable to the zygomatic arch. Once such a structure exists and is used as an insertion of adductor muscles, it will be exposed to bending stress in side view and in frontal view. Morphological details of the zygomatic arch (curvature, profile, suture) are well suited to sustain the evoked stresses by a minimum of material.
Finite elements stress analysis (FESA) was used to investigate the flow of compressive forces which occur if a homogenous, three-dimensional body representing the skull is loaded by simulated bite forces against the tooth row. Model 1 represents the snout alone. Bite forces are applied simultaneously, but increase rearward. Stresses in the model concentrate along the anterior contour and the lower surface of the model, leaving unstressed a nasal opening and a wide naso-oral connection. Model 2 represents the facial region, as far as the temporomandibular joint. The orbits and the nasal cavity are assumed to be present a priori. Model 3 applies reactions to the bite forces in the temporal fossa, corresponding to the origins of the masticatory muscles. Regions of the model under compressive stress correspond closely to the arrangement of bony material in a hominoid skull. If only the stress-bearing finite elements on each section are combined, and the stress-free parts neglected, the resulting three-dimensional shape is surprisingly similar to a hominoid skull. If bite forces are applied to parts of the tooth row only, the stress patterns are lower, asymmetrical and do not spread into all regions that are stress-bearing in simultaneous biting on all teeth. In model 2, the highest stresses occur at the tooth roots and along the forehead on top of the nasal roof. There are no marked stress concentrations on top of the orbits. The resulting shape resembles that of an orang-utan. In model 3, the highest stresses also occur at the tooth roots, but the circles of force mostly close below the brain case, so that the stress concentration in the forehead region remains much less marked. In this model, however, the stress concentrations are very similar to hollow brow ridges. The entire resulting shape resembles that of gorilla or chimpanzee skulls. A typical gracile australopithecine skull (STS-5) also shows clear similarities to the patterns of stress flow in our models. Compared to our earlier study of the modern human skull, differences relate to: the relative length and width of the dental arcade, the relative size of the brain case and the position of the arcade relative to the brain case. It seems that these traits are the points of attack of selective pressures, while all other morphological details are simply consequences of stress flow.