• Journal of the Korean Society of Physical Medicine
• /
• v.12 no.2
• /
• pp.129-136
• /
• 2017

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to compare the gait of elderly patients with and without dementia to investigate the possibility of an ambulation assessment test as a diagnostic tool for dementia. METHODS: A total of 96 subjects were included with 60 participants without dementia (control group) and 36 patients with dementia (dementia group). To compare the walking ability of the two groups, a 4-m walking test (4MWT) and Groningen Meander Walking Test (GMWT) were conducted. The GMWT is graded by amount of time in seconds and by number of oversteps outside the track. Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare the gait between the groups and the area under the curve (AUC) with Received Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve was analyzed. Statistical significance was considered at a p<.05, with a 95% confidence interval. RESULTS: There were statistically significant differences (p<.05) between the dementia group and the control group for the 4MWT, GMWTSEC, and GMWTSTEP scores. The AUC was .95 for 4MWT, .92 for GMWTSEC, and .96 for GMWTSTEP with the 95% confidence interval. The cut-off values of the ROC curve were 1.03m/s for 4MWT, 10.8 second for GMWTSEC, and 3.75 steps for GMSTEP. CONCLUSION: In our study, we investigated the utility of ambulatory assessment tools to predict dementia. The results of this study suggest that the 4MWT and the GMWT used in this study are appropriate assessment tools for dementia prediction.

• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
• /
• v.31 no.3
• /
• pp.176-182
• /
• 2021

Objective: The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the athletic knee show greater rotation and translation movement than non-athletic knee during the treadmill walking with their preferred speed in a complete gait cycle. Method: Thirty young and healthy male subjects participated in the study, fifteen handball players (mean age: 19.6 ± 1.4 years old, mean weight: 85 ± 11.9 Kg, mean height: 179.8 ± 4.7) and fifteen non-athletes (mean age: 22.8 ± 1.2 years old, mean weight: 74.5 ± 8.6 Kg, mean height: 175 ± 5.9). Three-dimensional positional coordinate of lower limb during treadmill walking were analyzed. Results: There were significant differences (t (22.014)=1.585, p=0.127 in the range of internal and external rotation with mean value for handball player (M=14.4513, SD=2.3839) was higher than non-athletes (M=13.3327, SD=1.337). The magnitude of the difference in the means (mean difference=1.11867, 95% CI: -0.34489 to 2.5822) was significant. There were also significant differences (t (17.956)=1.654, p=0.116 in the max abduction and adduction with mean value for handball player (M=5.7160, SD=2.49281) was higher than non-athletes (M=4.5773, SD=0.94667). The magnitude of the difference in the means (mean difference=1.138, 95% CI: -0.30805 to 2.58539) was significant. At significance level 0.05. Conclusion: Finding of this study suggest that to understand the actual characteristic of knee motion studies have to be done in different walking and running trial at variable speed.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
• /
• v.21 no.3
• /
• pp.101-116
• /
• 2004

Korea has the highest traffic accident occurrence rate in the world. It means that we are forced to face a tremendous amount of economic loses and great cost of life. Even though this phenomenon consistently has arose as a public issue every year and many researchers have emphasized the importance of safety education as the fundamental solution, we are still trying to make a long-lasting and effective traffic safety education programs for children and adolescents. The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of web-based learning for traffic safety in Korea middle school. For this purpose, the instructive model was constructed based on the ASSURE model and a special web-site of education was developed on behalf of practical use of multi-media learning materials for the traffic safety. The research subject was represented by 259 students from second grade in 2 middle schools located in Seoul Korea. The traffic safety education program using web-site was preceded to the 136 students as a case group for 45 minutes total 3 times. Other 126 students are control group those who did not get with this program. The survey was conducted before and after the education. The results of this study were as follow: 1. The knowledge analysis from the comparison between before and after of the lesson showed case group and control group scored average at 11.25 points and 10.97 points. However, after they attended programs, case group scored 13.57 points and control group scored 10.85 points. The difference from the result of the case group was statistically significant(p<0.001). 2. The attitude analysis from the comparison between before and after of the lesson showed case group and control group scored averages at 29.59 points and 28.21 points. However, after they attended program, case group scored 37.23 points and control group scored 32.71 points. The difference from the result of the case group was statistically significant(p<0.05). 3. Regarding the domain analysis by means of web-based traffic safety education, only the case group had a statistically significant score in the case of knowledge 'safe utilization of bicycle' and 'The Characteristic of Automobile and Safer Mode of Walking for Pedestrian'(p<0.01, p< 0.001), and in the case of attitude 'safe walking and crossing' 'The Characteristic of Automobile and Safer Mode of Walking for Pedestrian'(p<0.01, p<0.001). 4. Web based instruction for traffic safety was effective in terms of improving students' knowledge and attitude for traffic safety.

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

• Transactions on Control, Automation and Systems Engineering
• /
• v.4 no.2
• /
• pp.147-155
• /
• 2002

In this paper, the regular rotational gaits of the quadruped crawling robot are studied. It is assumed that the proposed regular rotational gaits starts from one of six support patterns in a translational gaits and end up with one of six support patterns in a translational gaits. Noting that six support patterns in a regular translational gait belong to two different groups with respect to regular rotational gait, the static stability margin and the maximum rotational displacement during one rotational stride period for the two representative support patterns are investigated. It is expected that the proposed regular rotational gaits will enhance the omni-directional characteristics of the quadruped crawling robot.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.66 no.5
• /
• pp.595-608
• /
• 2018

This paper deals with the lateral - torsional motion of bridges provided with external cables acting as dampers under the action of horizontal dynamic loads or of walking human crowd loads. A three dimensional analysis is performed for the solution of the bridge models. The theoretical formulation is based on a continuum approach, which has been widely used in the literature to analyze bridges. The resulting equations of the uncoupled motion are solved using the Laplace Transformation, while the case of the coupled motion is solved through the use of the potential energy. Finally, characteristic examples are presented and useful results are obtained.

• The Journal of Sustainable Design and Educational Environment Research
• /
• v.9 no.3
• /
• pp.34-40
• /
• 2010

In this study, vibration characteristics of reinforced concrete slab in large span educational facilities were evaluated. A 21.75m X 14.4m full scale reinforced concrete slab specimen was constructed with pre-flex hybrid beams. Vibrations were generated by three different methods such as free falling method of a 6kg sand bag, a 70kg person walking method and impact method by impulse hammer. Vibrations were generated more than 3 times at single location. Vibration characteristic data were collected by SA390 signal analyzer machine at 5 different locations.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
• /
• v.12 no.2
• /
• pp.144-151
• /
• 2017

An important characteristic of people with partially impaired walking ability, such as incomplete paraplegics, is that they are able to generate voluntary motion of lower-limbs. Therefore, wearable robots for the incomplete paraplegic patients require a different assistance method compared to those of complete paraplegics. First, the wearable robot should be controlled to not resist wearer's motion. Second, it should be able to generate assistive torque accurately when needed. In this paper, a wearable robot, called EROWA, for the incomplete paraplegic patients is introduced. EROWA utilizes compact rotary series elastic actuators (cRSEAs) and a control method called the zero impedance control to reduce the mechanical resistance. An assistive torque trajectory is proposed to assist gait in this paper. The proposed method is verified by simulation and experimental studies.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
• /
• v.24 no.8 s.179
• /
• pp.2065-2073
• /
• 2000

In this paper, we present a wall climbing robot whose gate pattern takes after those of specialized climbing animals such as spiders. Characteristic features of the biological locomotion are partly realized in the design of the mechanism. The robot has two legs and a trunk. Each one-dof leg with suction pads is driven by a motor which employs a closed loop linkage mechanism, and the trunk with suction pads steers the whole body of the robot using a motor. By generating adequate trajectories of the leg and simultaneously alternating the suction pattern between the legs and the trunk, we can achieve the spider like motion. The proposed idea is implemented in a robot and some tests are performed to evaluate its performance.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
• /
• 1996.11a
• /
• pp.815-819
• /
• 1996

In this work, regular rotational gaits of the quadruped crawling robot required to change its moving direction without affecting be its orientation and its static stability margin are studied. The regular rotational gaits provide the quadruped crawling robot with omnidirectional characteristics. However, the ideal foothold region for each of legs of the quadruped crawling robot is assumed for simplicity. Nonetheless, it is expected that the results of this paper will provide the insight for both design of legs of the crawling robot with omnidirectional characteristics as well as its operation of the crawling robot system with specified stability margin.