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Maternal trauma is the leading non-obstetric cause of maternal and fetal death. Because the anatomy of a pregnancy is distinct, and highly transient, the pregnant woman and her fetus are both susceptible to injuries which are not seen in the typical trauma patient. The pregnant uterus, the placenta, and the fetus are all relatively poorly supported, as compared with non-transient abdominal or thoracic organs, which can lead to injuries such as uterine rupture, placental abruption, and fetal trauma or death. The leading cause of maternal trauma is automotive collision, and other common causes include violence, falls, and other accidents. Automotive collision is often researched with more traditional physical experiments such as post-mortem crash testing, but this form of study is exceedingly difficult with the pregnant subject due to ethical and logistical issues. Computational simulations of automotive collisions have received much attention as a method of performing experiments without the use of physical specimens, and have been successful in modeling trauma. These simulations benefit from constitutive relationships which effectively describe the biomechanical and structural behaviors of biological tissues. Internal state variable models driven by microstructural data offer the potential for capturing a myriad of material behaviors intrinsic to many biological tissues. The studies presented include many advances in the existing research of maternal trauma. These studies include advanced biomechanical and microstructural characterization of the placenta, the organ commonly injured in maternal trauma, to capture stress state and strain rate dependencies, as well as microstructural evolution across stress states. The studies also describe the construction of a finite element mesh of a near-term pregnant woman and fetus from medical images. This finite element mesh was implemented in a simulation of maternal trauma based on one of the only post mortem studies of pregnant cadavers ever reported in the literature. The results are a significant advancement for trauma simulation research.

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No / This paper presents a framework for life prediction modelling and illustrates it with a case study of a plastic automotive component subjected to competing failure mechanisms: wear, leading to a soft failure-degradation of functional performance, and fatigue, leading to loss of function through fracture of a main sub-component. The paper focuses on developing a life prediction model for the fatigue failure mechanism. Structural and kinematic analysis of the component was conducted to identify a suitable substitute load characteristic for the failure mechanism. The aim is to develop an approximate model using limited testing data and when a baseline stress-life model is not available. The issues highlighted by the case study are generic to development of life models for non-critical automotive components, thus providing potentially wide scope for practical application of the approach.

Virginia and other states recognize the need for a technically trained workforce and have implemented directives that promote student credentialing. Certifications and other forms of credentialing are used to prove that the recipient has met a predetermined level of competence or mastery of a skill or subject. This study looks specifically at the automotive industry's Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) certification. The primary research question is: Is there a perceived benefit of ASE certification? In addition, two subset questions are explored. The first subset question is (1) Does the ASE certification provide benefits to the employers? And second, (2) do the employers see a benefit of ASE certification to the technicians as compared to those without credentials? This study attempts to answer these questions by polling Virginia automobile service managers regarding their perceptions of the benefits of ASE certification. A sample of 130 dealership service managers was selected at random from the 2006 Virginia Automobile Dealer Association (VADA) Membership Directory. The VADA has 602 franchised dealerships within the Commonwealth of Virginia. A corresponding sample of 130 independent service managers was selected by matching the zip codes of chosen dealerships with an internet phone directory search. The dealership service manager group had four surveys returned as undeliverable or the dealership was out of business. This leaves them with 126 potential participants. The independent service manager group had seven surveys returned as undeliverable or the service center was no longer in business. This leaves them with 123 potential participants. One hundred seventy-eight surveys were returned giving a 71% overall return rate. Automotive technicians are employed at either dealerships or independent service centers. It is hypothesized that the perceptions of ASE certification benefits by the two groups are significantly different from each other. A t test was conducted regarding the difference between the unweighted composite mean scores of dealership service managers and independent service managers regarding both benefits to the employers and again regarding benefits to the technicians. The tests support the hypothesis that there was a significant difference between the perceptions of the two groups. The study concludes that these groups perceive there are moderate benefits to the employer and moderate benefits to the technician; however, the dealership and independent service managers differ in their level of agreement in both categories. Dealership service managers agreed more than independent service managers that there were benefits. / Ph. D.