Retrospective Analysis of Injuries in Underbody Blast Events: 2007-2010.

Underbody Blast (UBB) exposure emerged as a substantial cause of morbidity and mortality of Service Members in Iraq and Afghanistan, which was unique to OIF/OEF due to the frequent use of improvised explosive devices. Improvised explosive devices under the vehicle delivered high-rate vertical loading to the vehicle translating energy to the occupant(s) resulting in injuries. Injury mitigating technologies needed to be developed; however, technologies rely on biomechanical human response data for research and development.

Preliminary Investigation of Skull Fracture Patterns Using an Impactor Representative of Helmet Back-Face Deformation.

Military combat helmets protect the wearer from a variety of battlefield threats, including projectiles. Helmet back-face deformation (BFD) is the result of the helmet defeating a projectile and deforming inward. Back-face deformation can result in localized blunt impacts to the head.

Evaluation of Environmental Sensors During Laboratory Direct and Indirect Head Exposures.

With the prevalence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the military and athletics, several commercial and military environmental sensors (ES) have been developed to quantify head impact exposures. The performance of five ES in controlled laboratory exposures from direct and indirect loadings, and the effect on impact protection and dynamic retention of the worn Advanced Combat Helmet (ACH) was evaluated. Direct impacts were conducted on a drop tower and indirect impacts used a mini-sled.

An ethnography on perceptions of pain in Dutch "Natural" childbirth.

Objective: this study offers insight into how women perceive childbirth pain and how they make decisions about whether to use an epidural during childbirth in the low technology context of the Netherlands maternity care system.

Design: ethnographic research consisting of participant observation at births and prenatal and postnatal appointments; semi-structured interviews with a sample of recently post-partum women; coding and triangulation of data to determine key themes in the interviews.

Setting And Participants: the study was carried out with participants in thirteen urban cities around the Netherlands.