Simulative investigation of the required level of geometrical individualization of the lumbar spines to predict fractures.

Injury mechanisms of the lumbar spine under dynamic loading are dependent on spine curvature and anatomical variation. Impact simulation with finite element (FE) models can assist the reconstruction and prediction of injuries. The objective of this study was to determine which level of individualization of a baseline FE lumbar spine model is necessary to replicate experimental responses and fracture locations in a dynamic experiment.

Odds ratios for reclined seating positions in real-world crashes.

It is widely believed that with higher levels of vehicle automation and especially with the advent of fully automatic vehicles, the currently typical forward-facing, upright position will give way to a more relaxed and reclined seating posture. Therefore, the current study investigates the influence of a reclined sitting position on crash injury severity by analyzing real-world crash data from the German in-depth accident study (GIDAS). We compared reclined to upright occupants and focused on effect sizes regarding odds ratios at different injury severity levels.

The association between vehicle rim type and risk of occupant injury.

Objectives: Modern vehicles generally use steel fabricated or alloy blended rims. The manufacturing process and atomic structure of the rim both yield different responses under destructive loading. The aim of this research was to investigate to what extend the type of vehicle rim may influence occupant injury risk.

Injury patterns within clusters of seriously injured occupants comparing real-world crashes in the United States and the European Union.

Objective: Crashworthiness assessments in the United States (U.S.) and the European Union (EU) include a large number of safety regulations and consumer testing programs.

Cluster analysis of seriously injured occupants in motor vehicle crashes.

Permanent monitoring of real-world crashes is important to identify injury patterns and injury mechanisms that still occur in the field despite existing regulations and consumer testing programs. This study investigates current injury patterns at the MAIS 3+ level in the accident environment without limiting the impact direction. The approach consisted of applying unsupervised clustering algorithms to NASS-CDS crash data in order to classify seriously injured, belted occupants into clusters based on injured body regions, biomechanical characteristics and crash severity.

Injury Severity for Hazard & Risk Analyses:Calculation of ISO 26262 S-parameter Values from Real-World Crash Data.

Our goal was the development of a robust and data-driven approach to ISO 26262 injury severity (S-parameter) estimation, replacing the current heuristic methods. The situations investigated as part of an ISO 26262 hazard & risk analysis are broken down into crash configurations. These crashes are analyzed from the perspective of the ADAS-equipped vehicle with the failing system as well as from the crash opponent's point of view.

A priori prediction of the probability of survival in vehicle crashes using anthropomorphic test devices and human body models.

In the development of restraint systems, anthropomorphic test devices (ATDs) and human body models (HBMs) are used to estimate occupant injury risks. Due to conflicting objectives, this approach limits an injury severity risk tradeoff between the different body regions. Therefore, we present and validate a protocol for the aggregation of injury risks of body regions to a probability of survival (PoS).

Population-based assessment of a vehicle fleet with seat belts providing lower shoulder belt forces than today.

The objective of this study was to quantify the population-based effects of a lower shoulder belt load limit on front row occupants in frontal car crashes. Crashes of modern vehicles from the GIDAS (German In-Depth Accident Study) are corrected for bias and projected to the national level. Injury risk functions are computed for the injury severity levels Maximum Abbreviated Injury Scale (MAIS) 2+, MAIS 3+, and fatal, stratified by 2 age cohorts (16-44 years of age and 45 years or older).

Injury risk functions for frontal oblique collisions.

Objective: The objective of this article was the construction of injury risk functions (IRFs) for front row occupants in oblique frontal crashes and a comparison to IRF of nonoblique frontal crashes from the same data set.

Method: Crashes of modern vehicles from GIDAS (German In-Depth Accident Study) were used as the basis for the construction of a logistic injury risk model. Static deformation, measured via displaced voxels on the postcrash vehicles, was used to calculate the energy dissipated in the crash.

Cross-correlation between the controlled collision environment and real-world motor vehicle collisions: Evaluating the protection of the thoracic side airbag.

Objective: Thoracic side airbags (tSABs) were integrated into the vehicle fleet to attenuate and distribute forces on the occupant's chest and abdomen, dissipate the impact energy, and move the occupant away from the intruding structure, all of which reduce the risk of injury. This research piece investigates and evaluates the safety performance of the airbag unit by cross-correlating data from a controlled collision environment with field data.

Method: We focus exclusively on vehicle-vehicle lateral impacts from the NHTSA's Vehicle Crash Test Database and NASS-CDS database, which are replicated in the controlled environment by the (crabbed) barrier impact.

Efficacy of seat-mounted thoracic side airbags in the German vehicle fleet.

Objective: Thoracic side airbags (tSABs) deploy within close proximity to the occupant. Their primary purpose is to provide a protective cushion between the occupant and the intruding door. To date, various field studies investigating their injury mitigation has been limited and contradicting.

Detection of the toughest: Pedestrian injury risk as a smooth function of age.

Objective: Though it is common to refer to age-specific groups (e.g., children, adults, elderly), smooth trends conditional on age are mainly ignored in the literature.

Pedestrian injury risk and the effect of age.

Older adults and pedestrians both represent especially vulnerable groups in traffic. In the literature, hazards are usually described by the corresponding injury risks of a collision. This paper investigates the MAIS3+F risk (the risk of sustaining at least one injury of AIS 3 severity or higher, or fatal injury) for pedestrians in full-frontal pedestrian-to-passenger car collisions.

Expanding pedestrian injury risk to the body region level: how to model passive safety systems in pedestrian injury risk functions.

Objective: Assessment of the effectiveness of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) plays a crucial role in accident research. A common way to evaluate the effectiveness of new systems is to determine the potentials for injury severity reduction. Because injury risk functions describe the probability of an injury of a given severity conditional on a technical accident severity (closing speed, delta V, barrier equivalent speed, etc.

Pedestrian injury risk functions based on contour lines of equal injury severity using real world pedestrian/passenger-car accident data.

Injury risk assessment plays a pivotal role in the assessment of the effectiveness of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) as they specify the injury reduction potential of the system. The usual way to describe injury risks is by use of injury risk functions, i.e.

A scanning electron microscopy-based approach to quantify resorption lacunae applied to the trabecular bone of the femoral head.

Resorption lacunae (RL) are discussed as stressors that can increase the risk of mechanical failure in a trabecular network. Quantification of RL has previously been described through the parameter eroded surface/bone surface (ES/BS) as established by light microscopy (LM) analysis, but the results have been inconsistent and contradictory. Using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), a new study design for quantitative evaluation is introduced.

Postmortem in situ diagnosis of pacemakers and electrodes to detect dysfunction.

Cardiac pacemakers usually are very reliable, but sometimes malfunctions of the system occur. We conceived and developed a method to judge the functionality of pacemaker systems in deceased patients. The idea was to verify the hypothesis that more dysfunctions of implanted pacemaker systems go undetected than are detected and corrected.

"Natural death" of a patient with a deactivated implantable-cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD)?

A 66-year-old patient with terminal heart insufficiency (NYHA IV) received maximum medical therapy, but was also in need of an implantable-cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD). The ICD functioned flawlessly for the whole duration of implantation. It reverted several ventricular tachycardias with anti-tachycardial pacing alone, whereas some needed cardioversion as well.