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Sacks' real-world talk is very interesting in pointing out that sometimes a problem is "over-analyzed" by having too many papers concentrating on too much detail and forgetting about essential simplifications for a real-world solution. He used his development of a simple device for self-measurement of blood pressure on one's finger as an example. Many intriguing questions are raised for a bioengineer in his/her function as an academic researcher, inventor, developer, and businessman. The volume contains a number of original research published for the first time. For example, Downing's paper on the maximum expiratory gas flow in the lung explores a unique point of view first stated by C. A. Jacobs in his 1971 PhD thesis at USC. Jacobs and Downing feel that the flow limitation arises because of "selective merging" of confluent flow from small branches into larger ones. When two tubes converge at one point, the one with larger flow and higher pressure can effectively block the flow in the other tube. Hence the effective total tube area in each generation of bronchi is smaller than the anatomical value. The reviewer finds that the general scientific level of the papers is high. There are many very good papers on experimental and computational biofluid mechanics. There are papers providing data on pressure and flow relations in the bronchial airways, (Hardin, et al., Reynolds). There are excellent theoretical papers on unsteady flow by Lion, Clark, Robertson and Cheng, and by O'Brien and Ehrlich. Experimental investigations by Walburn, Schneck, Balasubramanian, Giddens, and Mabon on flow separation and carotid bifurcation are superior. There are several very good papers on heart valves. An unusual paper by B. W. Vorhauer on the bioengineering aspects on contraction applied to the development of a new female contraceptive device documents the various considerations and research efforts that went into the development of a practical device. But the reader would miss the interesting motion picture which was shown at the meeting. These volumes testify the vigorous state of development of biomechanics in the United States.

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The APS Journal Legacy Content is the corpus of 100 years of historical scientific research from the American Physiological Society research journals. This package goes back to the first issue of each of the APS journals including the American Journal of Physiology, first published in 1898. The full text scanned images of the printed pages are easily searchable. Downloads quickly in PDF format.

To establish a mathematical model of the tree like arteries for the purpose of hemodynamic analysis, a complete set of morphometric data of pig coronary arteries is presented. For the purpose of mathematical modeling, three innovations in morphometry are introduced: 1) a rule for assigning the order numbers of the vessels on the basis of diameter ranges, 2) a connectivity matrix to describe asymmetric branching, and 3) a measurement of the fraction of vessel segments connected in series. The morphometric measurements were made with the silicone elastomer-casting method. Data on smaller vessels were obtained from histological specimens by optical sectioning. Data on larger vessels were obtained from vascular casts. The order number, diameter, length, connectivity matrix, and fractions of the vessels of a given order connected in series were measured for all orders of vessels of the right coronary artery and the left anterior descending and left circumflex branches. The data can be used to analyze the longitudinal distribution of blood pressure and volume and spatial distribution of perfusion in myocardium.

This book is the second edition of the first volume in a series of three volumes by Y. C. Fung on biomechanics. The first edition was published in 1981. The second volume in the series was Biodynamics: Circulation (1984) and the third was Biomechanics: Motion, Flow, Stress, and Growth (1990). In these three books Professor Fung describes the constitutive behavior of biological tissues, the functional mechanics of the body's organs and related engineering problems. The series of three volumes summarizes the application of an enormously wide spectrum of mechanics and thermodynamics to physiology and the engineering of biologically related problems. The mechanics applied includes rigid-body mechanics, mechanical vibration theory, viscous and perfect fluid theory, linear and nonlinear elasticity and viscoelasticity, wave propagation in fluid and solid media, multiphase mixture theory, chemical thermodynamics, and numerous subtopics of mechanics. The problems addressed cover the spectrum from birds flying and fish swimming to oxygen transport, human impact tolerance, cell behavior, and the engineering of activities at the cellular level. The reviews of the first edition of this volume were "rave" reviews. In this journal (Journal of Applied Mechanics, 1982, Vol. 49, p. 464) Richard Skalak wrote that "Professor Fung is one of the few people who has kept up with the development of biomechanics on so many different fronts in the last decade and could single-handedly write this book for us." James McElhaney closed his review (Medical Physics, Vol. 9, 1982) with "For those of you interested in analysis of the mechanical properties of biologically derived tissues, this book is a must buy. Professor Fung has organized, consolidated, and unified this difficult field in an elegant and erudite textbook." In the dozen years between the first and second edition of this book Professor Fung has both widened and deepened his knowledge of the field of biomechanics and that enhanced vision is reflected in this new edition. The accolades appropriate for the first edition should be increased by 1/3 and applied to the second edition, for the second edition is 4/3 times the length of the first edition. This review is focused on the new 135 pages and the rewriting of the original 433 pages as the excellent and positive reviews of James McElhaney and Richard Skalak more than adequately covered the 1st edition.

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