• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2010

Purpose: Stretching exercises are commonly used in conjunction with sports and rehabilitation. Weassessed the immediate effects of stretching on passive stiffness of the hamstring muscles and knee range of motion (ROM) using three stretching techniques. Methods: A total of 45 participants were recruited. Isokinetic equipment was used to measure the passive stiffness of hamstring muscles and an inclinometer was used to measure active and passive ROM of the knee joint pre and post stretching. Stiffness was then calculated based on the incline of the torque-angle relationship. The test conditions for Group I were $3{\times}30$ seconds of static stretches using the hamstring muscle, Group II were $3{\times}30$ seconds of static stretches using the hamstring muscle with ankle dorsiflexion, and Group IIII had $3{\times}30$ seconds of active stretching. Results: Group II had significantly higher excursion of active ROM and Group IIIhad significantly higher excursion of passive muscle stiffness. All of the groups had significantly higher active and passive ROM and significantly lower muscle stiffness after stretching. The participants showed no change in hamstring muscle stiffness on the following day. Conclusion: Stretching has significant acute effects on ROM and muscle stiffness and canbe used in warm-up protocols for reducing muscle stiffness before a variety of exercise programs.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.51-64
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• 2013

Objectives : This study is performed to develop the oriental medical rating scale of knee pain and to assess its validity. Methods : 250 knee pain patients completed the previously accepted rating scale of knee pain(VAS, WOMAC(pain, function, stiffness), 6 minute walk test(number of steps, distance)) and oriental medical rating scale of knee pain which was developed by Hwang et al at 2012, before and after the 6 weeks acupuncture treatment. Comparing these results, we assessed the validity of oriental medical rating scale. Results : Comparing oriental medical rating scale of knee pain before acupuncture treatment with VAS, WOMAC(pain, function, stiffness) and 6 minute walk test(number of steps, distance), oriental medical rating scale showed correlation with VAS, WOMAC(pain, function, stiffness) and showed the highest correlation with WOMAC(function). Comparing the change of oriental medical rating scale of knee pain after 6 weeks of acupuncture treatment with the change of VAS, WOMAC(pain, function, stiffness) and 6 minute walk test(number of steps, distance) after 6 weeks, change of oriental medical rating scale showed correlation with the change of VAS, WOMAC(pain, function, stiffness) and showed the highest correlation with the change of WOMAC(function). Through factor analysis of oriental medical rating scale items, 4 factors(pain, swelling, deformation of the knee, thermal sense of the knee), 17 items were extracted. Conclusions : Oriental medical rating scale of knee pain reflected the patient's pain, functional limitation and stiffness well. And oriental medical rating scale reflected the patient's functional improvement after the treatment well.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.194-202
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• 2006

In the present study, stiffness prediction methodologies for flat-plate structures were evaluated in comparison with the experimental results on the full-scale slab-column connections of flat-plate structures. The methodologies are as follows: the methodology proposed by Jacob S. Grossman and the methodology proposed by Choi & Song. The former does not predict the stiffness change of the slab-column connection due to the change in the column section shape and the latter overestimates the stiffness when edge length of the column section in the loading direction is long. In the present study, the equation to calculate the effective width of slabs was modified to reflect the effect of the change in the column section shape.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.57-65
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• 2007

Effects on the stiffness of the embankment and sandmat on the construction safety of road embankment was investigated in this study by the numerical experiments using FEM. Two points was mainly focused in this study especially. First the deformation characteristics by the change of the stiffness of sand mat and embankment was investigated by the analyzing the consolidation settlement at the center of the embankment and the lateral displacement at the toe of the embankment. And, the effect of the stiffness on the stress distribution characteristics was also investigated in this study. Furthermore, slope stability analysis was carried out to gain the safe factor by change the stiffness of the sandmat and the embankment. The objective of the study is supplying the result of the numerical experiments for the geotechnical engineers who use the FEM for the safety design of the soil structures. As a result, the stiffness of the superstructures greatly affects on the deformation characteristics both in consolidation settlement and lateral displacement. However, it can be aware that it is not dominants to the stress distribution in the aspect that the no changes in the residual excess pore water pressure. Therefore, the decision of the stiffness has to be carried out deliberately considering not only the consolidation the magnitude of the settlement and the lateral displacement, but the slope stability.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.14 no.10
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• pp.2317-2323
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• 2010

When the muscle is contracted by continuous and same, the force takes fatigue and stiffness. The aim of this study was to know how the fatigue and muscle stiffness change during an isometric contraction. Surface Electro myography(EMG) signal monitoring system and ultrasonic transducer set up the same muscle stem, subjects contract his right femoris muscle by submaximal isometric contraction(50% of MVC) until exhaustion. Before and after the test, muscle stiffness was measured and EMG was measured during the contraction. As time goes by, muscle fatigue was increased. and the stiffness was shown strongly after the contraction. These results show if the muscle becomes more and more fatigued, the circulation of muscle is delayed although the contraction doesn't happen. So muscle stiffness is increased.

• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.135-141
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• 2018

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of functional ankle instability (FAI) and surgical treatment (ST) on postural stability and leg stiffness during vertical-drop landing. Method: A total of 21 men participated in this study (normal [NOR]: 7, FAI: 7, ST: 7). We estimated dimensionless leg stiffness as the ratio of the peak vertical ground reaction force and the change in stance-phase leg length. Leg length was calculated as the distance from the center of the pelvis to the center of pressure under the foot. Furthermore, the analyzed variables included the loading rate and the dynamic postural stability index (DPSI; medial-lateral [ML], anterior-posterior [AP], and vertical [V]) in the initial contact phase. Results: The dimensionless leg stiffness in the FAI group was higher than that of the NOR group and the ST group (p = .018). This result may be due to a smaller change in stance-phase leg length (p = .001). DPSI (ML, AP, and V) and loading rate did not show differences according to the types of ankle instability during drop landing (p > .05). Conclusion: This study suggested that the dimensionless leg stiffness was within the normal range in the ST group, whereas it was increased by the stiffness of the legs rather than the peak vertical force during vertical-drop landing in the FAI group. Identifying these potential differences may enable clinicians to assess ankle instability and design rehabilitation protocols specific for the impairment.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2001.03a
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• pp.397-404
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• 2001

Sand pile is one of the widely used ground improvement methods. Sand pile improved ground will have composite ground effects, even though the primary purpose is the accelerated consolidation. However, the consolidation of sand pile improved ground as a composite ground is substantially under developed. This study investigate the effect of composite ground for relatively low volume displacement sand piles. Plate bearing tests and earth pressure cell measurements are performed. It turned out that the contribution of sand pile as a load bearing mechanism is not substantial. However the bearing capacity of the surrounding clayey soil is increased by sixty percent, and it cause the stiffness change during consolidation. Therefore it is expected that, the effect of increased stiffness of sand pile improved ground is influenced by change of ground stiffness.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.16 no.5 s.110
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• pp.470-478
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• 2006

An efficient method for change of eigenvectors and eigenvalues due to the modifying proportional damping structure using sensitivity coefficients is presented. Sensitivity coefficients are determined by iteration with eigenvalue and eigenvectors before modification of system. The proposed method is applied to examples of 3 degrees of freedom system and plate by modifying mass and stiffness. The predicted change of eigenvectors and eigenvalues are in a good agreement with these from the structural re-analysis after modification of mass and stiffness.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.77-82
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• 2014

The air spring is widely used in various fields such as a suspension system and an anti-vibration system because the natural frequency is kept constant regardless of the change in the load, spring constant is easy to change, and, vibration and shock isolation performance are excellent. The purpose of this study is to derive a nonlinear governing equation of an air spring, to analyze the effect of the various parameters on the dynamic stiffness of the air spring, and, to suggest a more efficient design method of an air spring system. In order to do so, this study investigates the impact of all the parameters that could affect the dynamic stiffness of the air spring while changing the excitation amplitude and the frequency with a developed governing equation.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.20 no.10
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• pp.177-182
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• 2003

The front-end side members of automobiles absorb most of the energy in a case of front-end collision. The front-end side members are required to have a high stiffness together with easiness to collapse sequentially to absorb more impact energy. The axial static collapse test (5mm/min) was conducted by using UTM for form different types of members which have different cross section shapes; single hat, single cap, double cap, and double hat. The single hat shaped section member has the typical standard section, which the double hat shape section has a symmetry in the center to have more stiffness. As a result of the test, the energy absorbing characteristic was analyzed for different section shapes. It turned out that the change of section shape influence the absorbing energy, the mean collapse load and the maximum collapse load, and the relation between the change of section shape and the collapse mode.