• Journal of International Academy of Physical Therapy Research
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.2229-2236
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• 2020

Background: Few comparative studies have been conducted on strengthening the anterior and posterior muscles of the trunk via lumbar stabilization exercises. Objectives: To compare the effects of forward leaning exercise and supine bridging exercise in stability exercise. Design: Randomized controlled clinical trial (single blind). Methods: Thirty subjects with spondylolisthesis were participated in this study. Fifteen subjects performed the bridging exercises and fifteen subjects performed the forward leaning exercises. Each exercise was held for ten seconds per repetition, and four repetitions were considered one sub-session. A total of four sub-sessions were performed in one full exercise session. The full exercise session required thirty minutes, including rest time. Trunk strength and range of motion and Oswestry disability index were measured. Results: Two weeks later, trunk flexion strength and trunk extension range of motion were significantly increased in the forward leaning exercise group than in the supine bridging group, trunk extension strength were significantly increased in the supine bridging exercise group than in the forward leaning group. After two weeks, the pain score was significantly lower in the forward leaning exercise group than in the supine bridging group. Conclusion: This study has shown that stabilization exercises are effective in increasing range of motion and strength in spondylolisthesis subjects. It was especially confirmed that the method of strengthening the anterior muscles of the trunk is more effective than the standard stabilization exercise method.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.264-271
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• 2020

Background: Because a forward-leaning posture can cause increased back muscle activity and pain. Therefore, an innovative method to reduce back muscle activity and pain is required. Objects: This study aimed to investigate the effects of a head support on muscle activity and pain in a forward-leaning posture. Methods: A total of 14 male and 16 female students (average age, 21.65 ± 2.37 years; height, 166.15 ± 7.90 cm; and weight, 60.65 ± 9.00 kg) were recruited for the experiment. Two of them were excluded due to musculoskeletal disorders. The muscle activity and pain in the forward-leaning posture were assessed while participants washed dishes for 7 minutes with and without a head support. The condition of using a head support was randomly performed with a 5-minutes break. To confirm a lumbar flexion angle of 30° during the experiment, myoVIDEO was used, and surface electromyography was used to measure muscle activity. Pain was assessed using a 10-point visual analog scale (VAS). The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to analyze the data, with p < 0.05 indicating statistical significance. Results: The cervical, thoracic, and lumbar erector spinae muscle activities significantly decreased with the use of the head support, but there was no significant change in the gluteus maximus. There was a significant decrease in the VAS score for the lumbar erector spinae (p < 0.05), but there was no significant change in the VAS score for the cervical region. Conclusion: The use of a head support in a forward-leaning posture reduced cervical, thoracic, and lumbar erector muscle activity and pain. Therefore, it could be recommended during working in a forward-leaning posture, such as during dishwashing, cooking, and working as a factory employee.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.35-55
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to analyze the somatotypes of women in the early 20's, which were likely to deform due to bad posture in growth period. Accordingly, bodies of women aged 20 to 24, whose growth stopped, were measured directly and indirectly, and factors related to body shapes were extracted, body shapes were categorized based on the data, and the characteristics of each body shape were analyzed. As a result, 10 factors related to body shapes were extracted in the factor analysis, and body shapes were categorized into 6 types. Type 1 was the volume of body that was big and the longest; and the general frame was large. The straight body shape with small back protrusion; the shoulder is relatively thick and the width of the shoulder was normal. Type 2 was the volume of body that was the biggest and the upper body was the longest; the general frame was of average height. The forward body shape with the back flat; the shoulder was very thick, wide, and serious leaning forward. Type 3 was a body that was thin and the shortest. The sway-back body shape with big curvature at the back; the shoulder was thin, narrow, and straight. Type 4 was a body that was short stature, and the general frame was of average build. The forward body shape with the most serious back protrusion; the shoulder was normally thick, narrow, and straight. Type 5 was a group with small body, and the lower body and general frame are long. The sway-back body shape with protrusion at the upper shoulder and the sides leaning backward; the shoulder was thin, wide, and leaning forward. Type 6 was a thin and short body; and the general frame was small. The lean-back body shape with the smallest back protrusion and leaning backward; the shoulder was thin, narrow, and leaning backward. Characteristics of the classified body shapes can be used in producing ready-made clothes, and it is hoped that there will be follow-up studies on clothing pattern design and production based on this result.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.41 no.11
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• pp.1-9
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• 2003

The somatotype classification of this study was to manufacture well-fitted clothes for middle-aged women. The somatotype classification of the upper body of lateral view was based on previous studies, and 4 postures, straight posture, leaning back posture, bent forward posture, and swayback posture were selected for this study. The front of leaning back posture was longer and wider than that of straight posture, and its front neck depth was deeper. Its front interscye breadth was wider and back interscye breadth was narrower. S.N.P. B.P. front waistline length, waist front length, front diagonal length, chest shedder length, front waistline shoulder line length were longer, and S.N.P. scapular back waistline length, back length, back shoulder length, back diagonal length, shoulder line back waistline length were shorter. On the contrary, the front of bent forward posture was shorter and narrower than that of straight posture, and its back neck depth was deeper. The properties of swayback posture were similar to those of bent forward posture. Its front was shorter and narrower, but the results of front neck depth and back neck depth were like those of straight posture.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.105-116
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• 2009

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to describe nonverbal behaviors of nurses in communication with patients with dementia in an elderly care institution in Korea. Methods: Conversation analysis was utilized to analyze the data which were collected using video camera to capture non-verbal as well as verbal behaviors. A total of 66 episodes of everyday conversations were analyzed using seven nonverbal categories: affirmative head nodding; illustrative gestures; patient-directed eye gaze; smiling and/or laughing; forward leaning; affective touch; and instrumental touch. Results: Among seven categories, patient-directed eye gaze(94%) was the most frequently utilized among nurses followed by affirmative head nodding(67%) and forward leaning(67%), while smiling was the least used(32%). Affective touch was identified in 39 episodes(59%). Among them, the most frequently touched area was hand or handshaking(59%) followed by shoulder or back, arm, and face. There were wide differences among nurses in terms of using affective touch, ranging from 0% to 98%. Nonverbal behaviors were more frequently identified in effective episodes than in ineffective episodes. Conclusion: Actively utilizing effective nonverbal behaviors may help geriatric nurses in promoting communication and in establishing rapport with patients with dementia.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.385-390
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• 2000

The alignment of the prosthetics is very important in an amputee's gait. In the present study. a static prosthesis-alignment device was developed. It consisted of a force plate with four load cells, a laser beam controlled by a step motor, and a control part programmed by PCBASIC. Using the static prosthesis-alignment device, we measured the distance between the load line and various joints of 24 normal volunteers in three standing postures. such as neutral, forward leaning, and backward leaning. Only neutral postures were evaluated on four trans-tibial amputees. The load line for the normal person's neutral position located anterior to the ankle, the knee, and the greater trochanter, but posterior to the shoulder joint. Forward and backward leaning of the normal person resulted in a significant anterior and posterior movements of the load line, respectively. The load line for the amputated side of the trans-tibial amputee also located anterior to the ankle, the extremity prostheses, providing a good relative locations of the load line with respect to various joints.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.137-144
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to provide basic data for the development of a prototype of a garment that allows middle aged men to look idealized by examining the type of perception of middle aged men based on their subjective evaluation and their characteristics. This study used the Q methodology, which is a subjective research method that finds correlations among middle aged men across subjective attributes. The types of perception of body shape of middle aged men were analyzed as three types: leaning forward shape with bird legs, developed upper body shape with thick legs, protruding abdomen obesity body shape. The leaning forward shape with bird legs was recognized as the lowest in the BMI index, and the shoulder and chest were sagging, legs were thinner than the body and leaned forward. And that the hip were protruding and had a flat rectangular shape. Developed upper body shape with thick legs was the second overweight type of BMI index. It was recognized that the ankle and calf thighs were thick and the upper abdomen protruded upper body development body. Protruding abdomen obesity body shape was the most obese type with BMI index. In this type, the height was the smallest, and the upper abdomen came out and the abdomen protruded, and the abdomen was more exuded than the chest, and the neck was thick and the hips were recognized as the big body. The middle aged men's recognitive body shape was classified as a similar to actual body shape. However, in the recognition type, the frontal and side body types were mixed and classified. It is necessary to study the ergonomic pattern considering the features of each body type. This suggests that psychological effects can be obtained that allow the body shape that changes with age to be accepted more positively.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems Conference
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• 1998.03a
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• pp.49-52
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• 1998

Neural Network has good performance in pattern classification, control and many other fields by learning ability. However, there is effective rule or systematic approach to determine optimal structure. In this paper, we propose a new method to find optimal structure of feed-forward multi-layer neural network as a kind of pruning method. That eliminating redundant elements of neural network. To find redundant elements we analysis error and weight changing with Rough Set Theory, in condition of executing back-propagation leaning algorithm.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.15 no.7
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• pp.181-192
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• 2015

Nonverbal immediacy plays a key role in interpersonal communication, inducing closeness and another interaction. This case study investigates the nonverbal behaviors in Human-Robot Interaction(HRI) focusing on immediacy, and how they affect perception of a robot. The results show that nonverbal immediacy, such as nodding and leaning forward, affect perceived interactivity. Nonverbal immediacy can be interpreted their meaning clearly when verbal feedback or other communication channel reinforcing them. Also, touch is found to affect come up with similar ones to the robot, because it is associated with concrete and discrete context. People tend to apply social rules to the robot, but they are more open to the unfamiliar robot compared to strangers. The findings in this study provide future HRI studies with heuristic implications by showing a direction and clarifying principles for composition of verbal and nonverbal expression.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.49-54
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• 2016

Background: Prolonged sitting leads to low back discomfort and lumbopelvic muscle fatigue. This study examined the characteristics of body perceived discomfort and trunk muscle fatigue during 1 hour of sitting in three postures in office workers. Methods: Thirty workers sat for 1 hour in one of three sitting postures (i.e., upright, slumped, and forward leaning postures). Body discomfort was assessed using the Body Perceived Discomfort scale at the beginning and after 1 hour of sitting. Electromyographic (EMG) signals were recorded from superficial lumbar multifidus, iliocostalis lumborum pars thoracis, internal oblique (IO)/transversus abdominis (TrA), and rectus abdominis muscles during 1 hour of sitting. The median frequency (MDF) of the EMG power spectrum was calculated. Results: Regardless of the sitting posture, the Body Perceived Discomfort scores in the neck, shoulder, upper back, low back, and buttock significantly increased after 1 hour of sitting compared with baseline values ($t_{(9)}=-11.97$ to -2.69, p < 0.05). The MDF value of the EMG signal of rectus abdominis, iliocostalis lumborum pars thoracis, and multifidus muscles was unchanged over time in all three sitting postures. Only the right and left IO/TrA in the slumped sitting posture was significantly associated with decreased MDF over time (p = 0.019 to 0.041). Conclusion: Prolonged sitting led to increased body discomfort in the neck, shoulder, upper back, low back, and buttock. No sign of trunk muscle fatigue was detected over 1 hour of sitting in the upright and forward leaning postures. Prolonged slumped sitting may relate to IO/TrA muscle fatigue, which may compromise the stability of the spine, making it susceptible to injury.