• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.1-10
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• 2007

The purpose of this experiment was to investigate the applicability of audio-visual modeling for improving the efficiency of rehabilitative programs by analyzing the effects of observing these various models on the capacity of stroke patients to perform upper limb activities. Twenty-one stroke patients participated in the experiment and were randomly assigned to either task modeling, sport modeling, or control group. During 2 weeks of intervention, subjects in all groups participated in the physical practice of experimental tasks. These tasks comprised of a Nine Hole Peg Test, the Jebsen-Taylor Hand Function tests, and locomotion. These tasks were performed 5 days a week, 30 min per day. In addition to the physical practice, the task modeling group observed a model performing experimental tasks and locomotive activities for 20 min, while the sport modeling group observed a model performing various sport activities for 20 min. Subjects' ability to perform the experimental tasks was measured 3 times, before, immediately after, and 1 week after the intervention. Analyses of the capacity to perform upper extremity activities displayed significant improvement from the pre-test to immediate and delayed post-tests in all groups. However, the amount of improvement was the highest in the task modeling group. The task modeling group was superior to the control group in the post-test of all experimental tasks, whereas the sport modeling group did not display significant differences from the control group. These results suggest that audio-visual modeling can be used as an effective cognitive intervention for facilitating the rehabilitation of stroke patients, and its rehabilitative effect can be maximized when the program is comprised of performance scenes directly related to the target task.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.231-236
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• 2019

Background/Objectives: This paper proposes a dual mode feedback-controlled cycling system for children with spastic cerebral palsy to rehabilitate upper extremities. Repetitive upper limb exercise in this therapy aims to both reduce and analyze the abnormal torque patterns of arm movements in three- dimensional space. Methods/Statistical analysis: We designed an exercycle robot which consists of a BLDC motor, a torque sensor, a bevel gear and bearings. Mechanical structures are customized for children of age between 7~13 years old and induces reaching and pulling task in a symmetric circulation. The shafts and external frames were designed and printed using 3D printer. While the child performs active/passive exercise, angular position, angular velocity, and relative torque of the pedal shaft are measured and displayed in real time. Findings: Experiment was designed to observe the features of a cerebral palsy child's exercise. Two children with bilateral spastic cerebral palsy participated in the experiment and conducted an active exercise at normal speed for 3 sets, 15 seconds for each. As the pedal reached 90 degrees and 270 degrees, the subject showed minimum torque, in which the child showed difficulty in the pulling task of the cycle. The passive exercise assisted the child to maintain a relatively constant torque while visually observing the movement patterns. Using two types of exercise enabled the child to overcome the abnormal torque measured in the active data by performing the passive exercise. Thus, this system has advantage not only in allowing the child to perform the difficult task, which may contribute in improving the muscle strength and endurance and reducing the spasticity but also provide customizable system according to the child's motion characteristic. Improvements/Applications: Further study is needed to observe how passive exercise influences the movement characteristics of an active motion and how customized experiment settings can optimize the effect of pediatric rehabilitation for spastic cerebral palsy.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2011.06a
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• pp.421-422
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• 2011

• PNF and Movement
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.189-196
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• 2015

Purpose: This study aimed to examine the effects of proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) upper and lower limb coordinated exercises on balance in elderly women. Methods: The study was conducted with 27 elderly women who were at least 65-year-old. The subjects were randomly assigned to a PNF upper and lower limb coordinated exercise group consisting of 14 subjects and an aero step balance exercise group consisting of 13 subjects, and the exercises were performed for 30 minutes, three times per week, for eight weeks. One Leg Stance Tests (OLST), Functional Reaching Tests (FRT), Four Square Step Tests (FSST), and Timed Up and Go (TUB) tests were conducted before and after the exercises to evaluate the subjects' static balance ability and dynamic balance ability. Among the collected data, the subjects' general characteristics were evaluated using descriptive statistics, the intra-group differences of the test results before and after the intervention were compared using paired sample t-tests, and the inter-group differences in the results before and after the intervention were evaluated using independent sample t-tests. The statistical significance level was set to 0.05. Results: Among the OLST, FRT, FSST, and TUG tests, the experimental group showed positive FSST results that were statistically significantly greater than the control group; the results of the other tests were also more positive for this group, but the differences between the groups were not statistically significant. The magnitude of the effects for both groups was clinically significant. Conclusion: Since inter-limb coordinated exercises for PNF applied to elderly women were found to produce good results for both static balance ability and dynamic balance ability, these exercises can be used in exercise programs to improve balance in elderly women.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.267-272
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• 2016

In the era of ultra high speed information communication technology represented by Smart phone and Tablet PC, the disable and the aged people came to be in a position of so-called 'relatively weak people' in the field of information communication due to inconvenience of use and difference in information acquisition and processing ability. Thus, a survey was conducted on Smart phone accessibility items based on previous studies of the disabled with crippled disorder, brain lesions, myelopathy and muscular disabilities having more inconvenience relatively in their use of smart phone due to upper limb dysfunctions. Especially, people with upper limb dysfunctions with relatively weak grip had big inconvenience in the conditions of uses requiring actions such as grabbing and rotating the devices, and due to the characteristics of touch screen input method of Smart phone, they had big inconvenience due to a lack of a guidance for keyboard in input. As a result of questionnaires by the type of disability, it turned out that severe myelopathy causes the most inconvenience in using smart phone.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.264-271
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• 2020

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of active vibration exercise of upper limb on physical capacity index (endurance, grip strength, balance, and flexibility) and vasomotor index (capillary length and body surface temperature) in middle aged women. 20 participants randomly divided into two groups: vibro-swing exercise (VSE) and non vibro-swing exercise (NVSE). Subjects in each group measured the 30 second arm curl test, hand dynamometer, one leg standing test, back scratch test, nail fold capillary microscope (NFM), and digital infrared thermal imaging (DITI) before and after exercise. The results showed that active vibration exercise of upper limb with vibro-swing equipment increased the endurance, balance ability, and the capillary length. In addition, changes in body temperature immediately after exercise were predicted to affect vasomotor. Active vibration exercise of upper limb has the advantage of being able to exercise anywhere regardless of the location by inducing different frequency changes in movement of various ranges and velocity. For this reason, the combination of vibration and active movement can be expected the physiological effects when producing exercise programs for middle aged women.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.953-954
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• 2010

• Therapeutic Science for Rehabilitation
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.11-22
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• 2016

Objective: This study is executed systematic review targeted at international journals intended to investigate on effect of peripheral sensory nerve stimulation on upper extremity function for stroke patients. Method: After literature search, researchers selected for 10 studies registered up to October 2015 based on PubMed database, using the following search terms: peripheral nerve stimulation, electrical stimulation, sensory stimulation, somatosensory stimulation, stroke, hemiplegia, hemiparesis and hand, arm, upper limb. Result: There were significant improves of upper extremity function and positive effect on the cortical activation in the use of peripheral sensory nerve stimulation. Conclusion: domestic studies in future requires a study of the method for measuring more accurately the effect of peripheral sensory nerve stimulation in RCT studies applying various intervention.

• Journal of Music and Human Behavior
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.1-19
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• 2014

The purpose of this study was to investigate the immediate effect of Patterned Sensory Enhancement (PSE) technique on the motor function of the affected upper limb in hemiplegic stroke patients by comparing the use of PSE and simple rhythmic cue. A total of 16 stroke patients were recruited from rehabilitative hospitals. The participants were assigned to the experimental group (n = 8) and control group (n = 8). While performing six different upper limb motions, musical stimuli applying the PSE technique was presented for the experimental group and simple rhythmic cue using the metronome was applied for the control group. The results showed that while the significantly increased range of motion (ROM) was found in the experimental group with the immediate use of PSE (p < .05), the control group did not show no significant change. This study implies that the use of musical elements in cueing for upper limb motion immediately leads to significant improvement in ROM by providing sufficient temporal, spatial, and dynamic information for expected motor performance.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.710-720
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• 2014

Movements of the upper and lower limb muscles during five common gardening tasks were analyzed by using electromyography (EMG). Twenty adults aged in their twenties (mean age, $24.8{\pm}2.4$ years) were recruited. On two separate occasions, subjects visited a garden plot to perform digging, raking, troweling, weeding, and hoeing; all tasks were performed three times with 20 s intervals for each trial. To measure muscle activation during the five gardening tasks, surface EMG was used. Bipolar surface EMG electrodes were attached to eight upper limb muscles (bilateral anterior deltoid, biceps brachialis, brachioradialis, and flexor carpi ulnaris) or eight lower limb muscles (bilateral vastus lateralis, vastus medialis, biceps femoris, and gastrocnemius) on both sides of the body, for a total of 16 muscles. During the five tasks, photographs were taken of movement phases using a digital video camera. The right flexor carpi ulnaris and brachioradialis showed higher activation than the other upper and lower limb muscles measured during the tasks. All 16 upper and lower limb muscles were actively used only during digging. According to movement analysis of each activity, digging was classified into four movement phases, whereas raking, troweling, weeding, and hoeing each were divided into three movement phases. In each activity, there were high-impact phases in terms of muscle activation; the flexor carpi ulnaris and brachioradialis were identified as major muscles in each impact phase. This analysis may be used to generate biomechanical profiles of gardening tasks for practitioners when designing efficient gardening interventions for physical health or rehabilitation.