RESEARCH
- The research plan and goals for SCIB
- Projects and investigators currently active in SCIB research
- SCIB researchers: News and Activities
The research plan and goals for SCIB
The SCIB was established at UAB to improve research on human injury resulting from motor vehicle crashes, and that remains its primary goal. Since 2002, 21 projects (16 completed/5 ongoing) across three research domains have soughtseeking to improve our understanding of human interaction with machines in vehicle crashes. Some of the research projects are not something that an average person might recognize immediately as having a vehicle crash focus. However, all the SCIB’s research taken together promises to improve the understanding of what happens to the human body in a vehicle crash and thus improve research into better safety standards and more accurate post-injury treatment both on the scene and in the hospital setting. It is foundational research, critical to lowering injury rates, increasing survival statistics, and improving human performance and function after injury.
Said simply, the primary goals of SCIB are to lessen the chances you will die or be injured in a vehicle crash, and to improve the chances that if you are injured, you will have as few long-term impairments as possible. The primary focus currently is on injuries to the head, neck and extremities among children and adults.
Research Domain One deals with head and brain injury; the domain director is Dr. David Meaney of the University of Pennsylvania. The main focus of this Domain is to improve the predictive capabilities of a Simulated Injury Monitor, or SIMon, a “next generation” (G2) injury assessment tool developed by Dr. Rolf Eppinger of the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA). Essentially, SIMon takes a wide range of data on how the body reacts to a deceleration event, and predicts what type of injuries a specific set of factors (such as speed and point of impact) will cause. A computational model relies on good data, without which its calculations will not be accurate or helpful. The various research projects under Research Domain One are working together to improve the data used to make calculations and to refine and improve the computational power of SIMon.
The overall goal of work in Research Domain Two is to enhance the understanding of neck injury mechanisms. The research projects in this Domain focus specifically on catastrophic neck injury, pediatric neck injuries, and whiplash injuries. One prominent feature in several of the research projects is determining the load tolerances of various configurations of the neck and spine; that is, what level of pressure, impact or deceleration causes injury, and how the interaction of parts of the neck and spine during an injury event result in greater or lesser injury in response to the loading. Some of the projects look at only one facet of the equation, such as the mechanical properties of the cervical spine or the way children’s bodies respond to deceleration and impact events as opposed to the way adult bodies respond. Some of these data will also be used in improving SIMon’s predictive accuracy.
Research Domain Three deals with measuring and assessing human tolerances and looking at the ways the human body responds to traumatic loading. Recognizing that much of the current data on human tolerances – on how varying loads affect muscles, bones, brain and integrated body systems during a deceleration event – are not based on a representative sample of the entire population, this Domain emphasizes assessment of the effects of such variables as aging and population demographics, on load responses. Research in this domain includes projects on both body system responses to injury events and computational assessment tools for increasing the scope and accuracy of future biomechanics research.
Projects and investigators currently active in SCIB research
Projects By Research Domain, Title, Principal Investigator(s) and Institution
Research Domain One: Head and Brain Injury
Domain Director: David Meaney, University of Pennsylvania
Evaluating and Enhancing the Predictive Capabilities of SIMon (Completed)
King Yang & Albert King, Wayne State University
Measuring Brain Tissue Injury Thresholds (Completed)
Susan Margulies & David Meaney, University of Pennsylvania
Impact Acceleration Tests and Material Properties of Rat Brain (Completed)
Kurosh Darvish, Temple University & Jeff Crandall, University of Virginia
Small Animal Model of Diffuse Axonal Injury (Completed)
Evangelos Eleftheriou, Jean Peduzzi-Nelson and Jay Mythaler, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Brain Cell and Tissue Tolerance to Traumatic Loading (Completed)
Michelle LaPlaca, Georgia Institute of Technology
Biomechanics of Brain Injury: Experimental Studies (Completed)
Philip Bayly, Washington University in St. Louis
Data Archive of Non-Human Primate Brain Injury Studies (Completed)
Susan Margulies, University of Pennsylvania
Research Domain Two: Neck and Whiplash Injury
Domain Director: Barry Myers, Duke University
Quantitative Tolerance Criteria for SIMon: Cell Death and Dysfunction (Completed)
Barclay Morrison, III, Columbia University
Prevention of Head and Neck Impact Injury by Improved Helmet Design (Completed)
Barry Myers, Duke University
Pediatric Head and Neck Impact Injury
Barry Myers, Duke University
Computational Modeling of the Cervical Spine Musculature
Marcus Pandy, University of Texas at Austin (thru 01.05)
Barry Myers, Duke University
Determination of Cervical Spine Substructure Mechanical Properties (Completed)
J. Marcus Hollis, University of South Alabama
Injury Mechanism of Facet Mediated Whiplash Neck Pain (Completed)
Beth Winkelstein, University of Pennsylvania
Research Domain Three: Human Tolerance
Domain Director: Jeff Crandall, University of Virginia
Effects of Impact Loading on Articular Cartilage (Completed)
Final Report: Effects of Impact Loading on Articular Cartilage
Kerry Athanasiou, Rice University
The Effects of Orbital Muscles on Eye Injury Biomechanics (Completed)
Stefan Duma, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech)
Evolutionary Design of Finite Element Meshes for Injury Biomechanics Research (Completed)
Lewis Payton, Auburn University
Brian Carnahan (2003-2004)
Feasibility Study for a Miniature 9-Axis Accelerometer Array (Completed)
William Mills, Konigsberg Instrument Company
Numerical and Emperical Investigations of Automotive Related Aortic Injury
King Yang , Wayne State University
The SCIB's Digital Child Project
Numerical Model Development: Phase 1 and 2 Overview
Russ Fine and Jay Goldman, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Numerical Model Development: Phase 1
Identifying Pediatric Anatomy for Model Development
Al King, Wayne State University
Numerical Model Development: Phase 2
Development of Finite Element Meshes for Child Models
Bharat Soni, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Editors: Salena Zellers-Schmidtke,BioInjury, LLC. , Barry Myers, Duke University, Jeff Crandall, University of Virginia, David Meaney, University of Pennsylvania
UAB INJURY CONTROL RESEARCH CENTER
UAB UNIVERSITY TRANSPORTATION CENTER
