• Therapeutic Science for Rehabilitation
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.95-108
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• 2021

Objective : This study aimed to develop prototypes of "smart stacking cones" by combining ICT to evaluate and train the upper extremity function and dual task performance in patients with central nervous system impairment, and to identify the complementary point to the completion of the device through a usability test. Methods : This prototype comprised of a hardware and software system that enabled the evaluation and training of patients and the management of data obtained from patients' performance. Specific measurement variables were established so that patient performance could be measured correctly. Based on the measurement variables, a the prototype included a 'single task evaluation modes', 'dual task evaluation mode', 'single task training mode', and 'dual task training modes'. Additionally, a usability test was conducted to assess clinical applicability and overall satisfaction for the prototype. Results : The results of the usability test were generally found to be appropriate. The 'content adequacy' in the usability test was the area with the highest level of adequacy and the lowest level of inadequacy. Additionally, overall 'satisfaction' in the usability test was the area with the highest appropriate and inappropriate levels. Hence, the overall satisfaction results were unstable. Conclusion : Future studies should be conducted to identify the clinical effectiveness of the device by applying an upgraded smart stacking cone to an actual patient group.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.18 no.9
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• pp.1263-1270
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• 2008

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of exercise mode and anti-hypertensive drug responding status on the cardiovascular response and perceived exertion in acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients. Seventy-five patients who participated in six-week exercise rehabilitation therapy performed a treadmill running and a cycle ergometer exercise at intensities of 60%HRR and 85%HRR respectively. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure, mean arterial blood pressure (MAP), rate pressure production (RPP), and ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) were measured. The results of cardiovascular response by the different exercise modes with moderate and intensive intensity of anti-hypertensive drug responder and nonresponder ACS patients were following: First cycle ergometer exercise induced significantly higher SBP, DBP, MAP, RPP and MAP than treadmill running exercise at the intensities of 60%HRR and 85%HRR in both anti-hypertensive responder and nonresponder ACS patients (p<0.05). Secondly anti-hypertensive nonresponder ACS patients had significantly higher DBP and MAP that anti-hypertensive responder ACS patients at all the exercise modes (p<0.05). Finally there was no difference of RPP between anti-hypertensive responder and nomresponder ACS patients, although anti-hypertensive nonresponder ACS patients showed higher blood pressure and RPP than anti-hypertensive responder ACS patients. In conclusion, cycle ergometer induced increased cardiovascular response at same intensities of treadmill running exercise and anti-hypertensive nonresponder ACS patients had even more increased cardiovascular response than anti-hypertensive responder ACS patients with no difference in perceived exertion during exercise. These results suggested that cycle ergometer exercise should be greatly careful with the risk of higher blood pressure, especially for those who are patients with hypertensive blood pressure.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.7-13
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• 2009

Recently, the interest on walking assistances in order to assist aged people has increased due to the increase of the aged. However, most walking aid systems have a weakness for a slope because they don't have power. So, they have a weak point which makes users difficult to move when they are weak in the legs. That is why the interest on walking assistances with power has increased. The use of the walking aid systems should be easy because most users are old people. Thus, we produce module to grasp walking intent of users by using various sensors such as potentiometer, FSR(Force Sensing Resistance) Sensor and Stretch Sensor and calculate the response time to the module. Firstly, the response time of handlebar which is a kind of potentiometer is 420ms and Resilience of it is 140ms. Secondly, the response time of handlebar which use FSR Sensor is 320ms and Resilience of it is 220ms. Finally, the response time of the Stretch Sensor is 160ms and Resilience of it is 140ms. The performance of Stretch Sensor is the best among the three kind of sensors.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.247-253
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• 2005

This study investigated the effects on foot and ankle roll-over characteristics according to different heel heights during walking. Fifteen female volunteers who have neither musculoskeletal nor foot problems were participated in gait analyses, wearing four different pairs of shoes in different heel heights. To obtain roll-over shape of foot/ankle complex, we used trajectories of knee and ankle joints as well as the renter of pressure between initial contact and opposite initial contact. Results revealed that the entire roll-over shape moved distally as the heel height increased but roll-over characteristics showed uniformly with different heel heights. In addition, we found that nondisablea persons automatically adapted to their foot/ankle complex to varying heel heights within 6cm, by moving the origin of roll-over shape distally to maintain roll-over characteristics. However, since the balance of the gait only by the ankle joint could not be achieved beyond the heel height of 6cm, compensations at the knee and the hip joints occurred simultaneously. Roll-over characteristics in human walking would provide simpler and wider understanding of human walking, and furthermore could be applied to the wide understanding of prosthetics and orthotics of the lower extremity as well as orthopaedic shoes.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.10
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• pp.415-424
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• 2019

In this paper, a minimum rotation radius was designed and fabricated to overcome the threshold so that elderly or disabled people who have difficulty moving can move and transfer safely and conveniently in a narrow room. In the indoor environment, where the sedentary culture develops, this study aimed to provide convenience for passengers with fracture diseases, geriatric diseases, and other knee and waist diseases. First, links, seats, armrests, covers, motors, batteries, chargers, controllers, etc. were attached to the frame so that they could be moved and lifted indoors. The product design and structure were designed considering the user's environment and physical characteristics, and IoT functions were added. A driving experiment was performed to confirm the operating performance of the manufactured indoor moving and lifting wheelchair. The performance tests, such as continuous running time, turning radius, maximum actuator load, maximum lift height, sound pressure level, minimum sensing distance of the driving aid sensor, interworking of server and app programs, device compatibility, and duty cycle error rate, were performed. As a result of the test, the built-in wheelchair could achieve the performance test target of each item and operate successfully.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.26-34
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• 2012

Recently, the recovery of resources from waste material of manufacturing electric and electronic equipment has been investigated. It is very important to extract metallic components from electric and electronic manufacturing processes with the view point of recycling of the used resources as well as an environmental protection. In this paper, open/registered patents of US, JP, EP, and KR and SCI journal related to metal recovery technologies from wastes produced in the electric and electronic manufacturing processes between 1975~2011 were reviewed. Patents and papers were collected using key-words searching and filtered by filtering criteria. The trends of the patents and papers were analyzed by the years, countries, companies, and technologies.

• The Journal of Korean society of community based occupational therapy
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.23-30
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• 2015

Objective : The aim of this study is to analyze the telemedicine in Japan and discuss the role of the community-based occupational therapy. Methods : This study was collected and analyzed data on telemedicine status in Japan. It examined the definition and forms of telemedicine and analyzed for the appearance to the background telemedicine in Japan. Thus, we discussed the role of the community-based occupational therapy. Results : Due to increased medical costs, low fertility rate and aging in Japan, it had provided the telemedicine as a more efficient form of health care services. Also, telemedicine emerged due to the lack of doctors, development of medical technology, and regional deviation between rural and urban area. In the case of Korea, similar to Japan, therefore, there is a demand for the telemedicine. Conclusion : With regard to telemedicine, occupational therapy in community-based rehabilitation is expected to be able to treat for patients as health care professionals. Therefore the reform of the educational system is needed for this.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.35 no.11
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• pp.1213-1217
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• 2011

Electric stimulators are used for various treatments, such as for pain relief and to improve rehabilitation in and out of the hospital. However, if the stimulation pulse affects the patient's heart, it can cause critical cardiac disorders such as arrhythmia or ventricular fibrillation. As a result, it must be ensured that the transmission length of the stimulation pulse does not exceed the proper range in the design of an electric stimulator. Furthermore, every anticipated risk factor must be monitored in in-vitro and in-vivo experiments. A new stimulator was designed to supply continuous 0.001 J stimulation pulses at a rate of 60 pulses per second. To evaluate the safety of the new electric stimulator and to measure its energy transfer and pulse transmission length, we built a conduction model that was filled with saline and measured the electric field at various positions in response to real stimulations. In an animal experiment with two pigs, heart disorders were induced by applying electric stimulation to tissues near the heart. These heart disorders were different from the result obtained with 9 V DC stimulation.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.24 no.6 s.81
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• pp.501-507
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• 2003

Medical devices for helping the rehabilitation of the patients such as orthoses and prostheses should be designed to be strong enough. For the strength design, operational load should be identified first. Furthermore. medical devices are susceptible to dynamic load or shock frequently due to its characteristics. These type of the load may be identified by installing the sensors directly. However, it can modify the natural properties of the structures. Therefore, operational load should be identified indirectly from the system characteristics and responses such as vibrations. In this paper, the basic formulation of the indirect load identification is reviewed and the problems of conventional approach are checked. Then, the new approach based upon the principal component analysis is proposed and the validity of the proposed method is demonstrated using experiments.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.147-196
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• 2023

Advances in brain science have made it possible to stimulate the brain to treat brain disorder or to connect directly between the neuron activity and an external devices. Non-invasive neurotechnologies already exist, but invasive neurotechnologies can provide more precise stimulation or measure brainwaves more precisely. Nowadays deep brain stimulation (DBS) is recognized as an accepted treatment for Parkinson's disease and essential tremor. In addition DBS has shown a certain positive effect in patients with Alzheimer's disease and depression. Brain-computer interfaces (BCI) are in the clinical stage but help patients in vegetative state can communicate or support rehabilitation for nerve-damaged people. The issue is that the people who need these invasive neurotechnologies are those whose capacity to consent is impaired or who are unable to communicate due to disease or nerve damage, while DBS and BCI operations are highly invasive and require informed consent of patients. Especially in areas where neurotechnology is still in clinical trials, the risks are greater and the benefits are uncertain, so more explanation should be provided to let patients make an informed decision. If the patient is under guardianship, the guardian is able to substitute for the patient's consent, if necessary with the authorization of court. If the patient is not under guardianship and the patient's capacity to consent is impaired or he is unable to express the consent, korean healthcare institution tend to rely on the patient's near relative guardian(de facto guardian) to give consent. But the concept of a de facto guardian is not provided by our civil law system. In the long run, it would be more appropriate to provide that a patient's spouse or next of kin may be authorized to give consent for the patient, if he or she is neither under guardianship nor appointed enduring power of attorney. If the patient was not properly informed of the risks involved in the neurosurgery, he or she may be entitled to compensation of intangible damages. If there is a causal relation between the malpractice and the side effects, the patient may also be able to recover damages for those side effects. In addition, both BCI and DBS involve the implantation of electrodes or microchips in the brain, which are controlled by an external devices. Since implantable medical devices are subject to product liability laws, the patient may be able to sue the manufacturer for damages if the defect caused the adverse effects. Recently, Korea's medical device regulation mandated liability insurance system for implantable medical devices to strengthen consumer protection.