• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• 제9권1호
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• pp.45-51
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• 2015

This study was to verify effect on muscle strength of trunk and body composition for elderly according to spinal stability exercise with three dimension. We recruited forty elderly participants(twenties as training group, the other twenties as control group) over sixty five aged. The participant performed muscle strength estimation to exercise of eight direction using spinal stability training system. Also, we estimated body composition in participants using inbody 720. Trining group performed direction exercise(F, FOR, R, BOR, B, BOL, L, FOL) and multiple exercise with band exercise, strengthening gym and walking during thirty minute. But control group only performed multiple exercise without direction exercise. All training progressed three days a week for eight weeks. The results showed that muscle strength of trunk in training group increased significantly from 79.9 point to 85.6 point with reducement of body weight, body fat and BMI. However, control group showed a few exercise effect with increasement of amount of muscles and reducement of body fat without muscle strength of trunk. These results means that spinal stability exercise could be helped to prevent obey and fall of elderly caused by muscle strengthening and improving body composition. This could be applied to develop rehabilitation program efficiently based these data.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• 제9권1호
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• pp.17-21
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• 2015

There have been sustained developments of advanced technologies using traffic safety facilities recently and techniques for identifying failure modes and devices which could result in fatal outcomes. The purpose of this research is aimed at improving the driving conditions in advance through analyzing the IT convergence, driving education, researches for vehicles, field of construction and robotics. The researchers evaluate on usability tests of the driving with 26 candidates through focusing on safety, convenience, efficiency, effectiveness. Using specialized LED panel to enhance driving performances of disabled people are for cautious road conditions like foggy weather or heavy rain. As a result, there were improvements in the driving conditions, and candidates reported this system was helpful. It allows them for maintaining proper driving all times and was especially informative for people with low vision or visually impaired. This system plays a pivotal role as a prevention mechanism not only for regular drivers but also for further delict of traffic violations or accident offenders who already have former record on tort.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• 제6권1호
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• pp.45-50
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• 2012

Thoracolumbar orthosis has been used for the rehabilitation of the patients with senile kyphosis. Recently, a number of different thoracolumbar orthosis designs have been introduced but its biomechanical effectiveness still remain unknown. In this study, we compared the pressure distribution on the surface of the trunk and stresses on the orthosis in relation to changes in connecting frame designs (Type 1, one-connecting frame type; Type 2, two-connecting frame type; Type 3, all-in-one type) using finite element (FE) models under different motions of the trunk. The results showed that Type 3 distributed the pressure on the trunk most evenly followed by Type 2 and Type 1 and the difference between Type 1 and Type 2 was negligible. ROM was limited most effectively by Type 3 ($8.5{\sim}9.4^{\circ}$), followed by Type 2 ($11.3{\sim}13.9^{\circ}$) and Type 1 ($12.1{\sim}15.4^{\circ}$). The ratio between the peak von Mises stress and yield strength of each material remained less than 20% regardless of orthosis type indicating low likelihood of component failure. In conclusion, our study found that all-in-one type of orthosis was the most effective design for the conservative treatment of spinal deformity in terms of function and comfort.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• 제12권1호
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• pp.1-9
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• 2018

This study is intended to identify how horseback riding affect the bone density of the elderly. A total of 31 normal senior citizens participated in the research, who were randomly divided into two groups: 15 in horseback riding exercise group and 16 in horseback riding machine exercise group. A horseback riding exercise program was carried out for 25 minutes twice a week for 12 weeks. A pre-test was conducted before starting the program and two post-tests were conducted 6 weeks and 12 weeks after exercises in the same way as the pre-test. Measured items were bone density of lumbar vertebrae and femur. In order to identify the changes in measurement variables before exercises and 6 weeks and 12 weeks after exercises, two-way repeated analysis of variance were used. The comparison of changes in the bone density in both groups revealed that there were significant differences in lumbar vertebrae L3, L4, femur trochanter in both groups over time. This study suggests that three-dimensional movements of horses through horseback riding exercises induce normal movements of senior citizens, providing positive effects on their bone density. If appropriate horse riding exercise programs are used considering the health status, time and economic conditions, and preferences of senior citizens, it would improve their quality of life.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• 제12권1호
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• pp.10-19
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• 2018

The present study was to investigated the effects of motion-based virtual reality training on cognitive function and activities of daily living in patients with stroke. This study was participated in forty one patients with acute stroke. All subjects were randomly assigned into either the experimental group(n=20) or the control group(n=21). The both groups received the conventional occupational therapy during 30 min a day, 5 a week, 4 a weeks. Additionally, experimental group performed motion-based virtual reality training on each session during 30 min/day, and control group conducted conventional occupational therapy on each session during 30 min/day. The outcome measures were the LOTCA(Loewenstein Occupational Therapy Cognitive Assessment), TMT(Trail Making Test), VM(Visual Memory), K-MBI(Korean Modified Barthel Index). In comparison of change score of cognitive function, the experimental group showed a significantly greater improvements in attention and visual working memory than the control group(p<.05). As a result for change score of activities of daily living, the experimental group showed a significant greater improvement in self care than the control group(p<.05). Our findings suggest that motion-based virtual reality training may have a effects of the improvements of cognitive function and activities of daily living than conventional therapy in patients with acute stroke.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• 제10권1호
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• pp.47-57
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• 2016

In this paper, we measured human body signals in order to verify a active harness system that we developed for gait and balance training. The experimental procedure was validated by tests with 20 healthy male subjects. They conducted motions of Activities of Daily Living(ADL)(Normal Walking, Stand-to-Sit, Sit-to-Stand, Stair Walking Up, and Stair Walking Down) according to body weight support rates (0%, 30%, 50% of subjects' body weight). The effectiveness of the active harness system is verified by using the results of foot pressure distribution. In normal walking, the decrease of fore-foot pressure, lateral soleus muscle and biceps femoris muscle were remarkable. The result of stand-to-sit results motion indicated that the rear-foot pressure and tibialis anterior muscle activities exceptionally decreased according to body weight support. The stair walking down show the marked drop of fore-foot pressure and rectus femoris muscle activities. The sit-to-stand and stair walking up activities were inadequate about the effect of body weight support because the velocity of body weight support system was slower than male's activity.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• 제10권1호
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• pp.37-45
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• 2016

The purpose of this study was to assess the intra-rater, inter-rater and test-retest reliability and validity of frontal plane lower extremity alignment estimated from a rasterstereographic method using ABW-Mapper. Eighteen subjects participated in this study. The S angle (stereographic angle-frontal plane lower extremity alignment estimated from a rasterstereographic method) in standing was measured throughout the two sessions with one week interval by two different readers. In the first session, a reader measured S angle twice per subject with a short break in-between. The Q-angle (quadriceps angle) was measured using a standard goniometer from a photography taken through digital camera with the participant standing in the same position as in the S angle measurement. The HKA(hip-knee-ankle) angle was measured from a computer based digital radiograph with the computerized measurement software. Reliability was tested using intraclass correlation coefficients(ICC). Validity was tested using a Pearson's correlation coefficient. Excellent intra-rater(ICC=0.956~0.974), inter-rater(ICC=0.962), test-retest reliability (ICC=0.945) were demonstrated. There were strong negative correlations between S angle and Q-angle (r=-0.739), and between S angle and HKA angle (r=-0.702). Therefore, the S angle measured using a rasterstereographic mapper may be used to as a preliminary or supplementary tool to evaluate and study LE alignment in the frontal plane in relation to HKA angle or Q-angle.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• 제10권1호
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• pp.9-18
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• 2016

This study reported a case study that showed educational usefulness of SAFMEDS (Say All Fast a Minute Every Day Shuffled) on the improvement of Fluency. The participants were 3 experts with special teacher and speech and pathology, who enrolled a graduate level course, Research in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The SAFMEDS strategy was employed as a study tool for the participants to acquire fluent verbal repertoires related to the key terminologies of Skinner's (1957) analysis of verbal behavior, list 60 pairs of terms. The participants developed 60 term flash cards which presented a target term on the front of the card, and its definition on the back. During the intervention, the participants were required to see the definition and says its term. The results of this study indicated that the SAFMEDS was effective to improve participants' fluent verbal repertoires in terms of both accuracy and fluency. The results of this study would be able to contribute for education professionals to improve certain target operant's accuracy and fluency.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• 제9권3호
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• pp.185-193
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate clinical effects on cognition, visual perception, depression, anxiety, and activities of daily living by applying the N-BACK program, a brain stimulated training program, which is used for the clinical purpose. To prove this, subjects suspected of cognitive impairment with 18-23 points in a Korean version of mental status examination (MMSE-K) were recruited among the population who had been diagnosed with stroke duration and suffered from it for six months of duration, and 10 of the subjects were selected into the experimental group and the control group, respectively. A total of 20 sessions were carried out for 30 minutes per day 5 times for 4 weeks. As a result, the experimental group who has been applied the N-BACK program showed positive results in the improvement of cognition, visual perception, depression, anxiety, and daily living skills. The results obtained from this study expect us that applying the N-BACK program for the improvement of cognition, visual perception, depression, and anxiety to stroke patients has a positive effect on the rehabilitation of patients and will lead them to improve daily living activities more independently.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• 제11권4호
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• pp.339-348
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to verify the validity and reliability of the computerized general neurocognitive test using intuitive evaluation techniques to reflect the needs of the elderly and to validate neurocognitive function appropriately. The subjects were 100 elderly people who were over 60 healthy people. To evaluate the comprehensive neurocognitive function of the elderly, Computerized Neuro-cognitive Function Test (CNT, cybermedic. Co., Korea) developed by CyberMedic was used. The test consist of attention test, memory test and the problem solving ability test. As a result of correlation analysis of CNT test items, it was possible to confirm the characteristics of measuring single domain of attention and memory test. The problem-solving ability test also showed a high level of significant correlation, although the purpose of measurement was different, but a comprehensive cognitive function test for problem solving was possible. In the reliability analysis, the half reliability and internal consistency of test - retest were significantly higher. As a result of the above study, we conclude that the comprehensive neurocognitive test items constituted in this study have achieved reproducibility and effectiveness.