In this chapter, a series of biomechanics simulations were conducted to reconstruct a specific movement – spine flexion/extension in sagittal plane of a subject. The motion capture was used to collect the kinematics information of the subject. These motions were used to drive a customized musculoskeletal model in OpenSim. Additionally, the muscle actuation forces and joint reactions were comput...

[Purpose] This study examined age-related differences in muscle control for support and propulsion during walking in both males and females in order to develop optimal exercise regimens for muscle control. [Subjects and Methods] Twenty elderly people and 20 young people participated in this study. Coordinates of anatomical landmarks and ground reaction force during walking were obtained using a...

Little prior research has empirically examined anonymity in learning. In this study, we manipulated learner identity by experimentally assigning learners to participate in online discussion either anonymously or using their actual name, crossed with learning medium (OpenSim/Second Life vs. real-time chat), with the goal of determining if anonymous discussion in multi-user virtual environments (...

OBJECTIVE This study calculated knee contact forces (KCF) and its relations with knee external knee adduction moments (KAM) and/or flexion moments (KFM) during the stance phase of gait in patients with early osteoarthritis (OA), classified based on early joint degeneration on Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). We aimed at assessing if altered KCF are already present in early structural degenerat...

Background: We aimed to study the contribution of upper limb movements to propulsion during walking in typically developing (TD) children (n = 5) and children with hemiplegic and diplegic cerebral palsy (CP; n = 5 and n = 4, respectively). Methods: Using integrated three-dimensional motion capture data and a scaled generic musculoskeletal model that included upper limbs, we generated torque dri...

Recent technological developments concerning Web 2.0 have enabled the use of three-dimensional virtual platforms for educational purposes. In this paper, focus is placed on the modifi cation of an OpenSimulator based 3D environment for its reuse in a different fi eld of medical education; developments are presented alongside the associated effort to reconstruct and repurpose this environment so...

Backward walking (BW) is a common technique employed in the treatment of a variety of orthopedic and neurological diseases. BW training may offer some benefits especially in balance and motor control ability beyond those experienced through forward walking (FW). The purpose of this study was to determine whether BW represented a simple reversal of FW and, hence muscle force distribution is the ...

Recent advances in computational technology have dramatically increased the use of muscle-driven simulation to study accelerations produced by muscles during gait. Accelerations computed from muscle-driven simulations are sensitive to the model used to represent contact between the foot and ground. A foot-ground contact model must be able to calculate ground reaction forces and moments that are...

The main objective of the study was to investigate and simulate skeletal muscle force production during and after isometric contractions, active muscle lengthening and active muscle shortening. The motivation behind this work was to improve the dominant model of muscle force generation based on the theories of Hill from 1938. Effects of residual force enhancement and force depression were obser...

The kinematic mechanisms associated with elevated externally applied valgus knee moments during non-contact sidestepping and subsequent anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury risk are not well understood. To address this issue, the residual reduction algorithm (RRA) in OpenSim was used to create nine subject-specific, full-body (37 degrees of freedom) torque-driven simulations of athletic male...