• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.187-196
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• 2022

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate factors related to the levels of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in elderly women based on Wilson and Cleary's HRQoL model. Methods: This study analyzed data from the eighth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2019 on 868 women over the age of 65 years. Based on the HRQoL model, parameters were categorized as personal, environmental, and physiological characteristics; symptom status; functional status; and perception of health status. The data were analyzed by quantile regression. Results: The overall level of HRQoL was 0.87. Factors related to HRQoL in the 10% quantile were higher education level, higher economic status, economic activity, more walking days, fewer diseases, lower stress, less activity limitation, and higher perceived health status. Factors related to the 25% quantile of HRQoL were more walking days, fewer diseases, less activity limitation, and higher perceived health status. Factors related to the 50% quantile were age, economic activity, more walking days, fewer disease, lower stress, less activity limitation, and higher perceived health status. Factors related to the 75% quantile of HRQoL were smoking, more walking days, fewer diseases, lower stress, less activity limitation, and higher perceived health status. Conclusion: While differing parameters were identified according to the level of HRQoL of elderly women in Korea, there were five common factors. Interventions that focus on increasing walking, mitigating diseases, stress, and activity limitations, and improving perceived health status can improve HRQoL.

• 한국노년학
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.543-563
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• 2020

As people age and their physical functions are declined, they stay longer in the home, thus being more affected by the home environment. Many studies have shown the association between the home environment and health. However, little is known about the effect of the home environment on disability and depression of older people with functional limitation. This study, therefore, aimed to examine the moderating effect of the home environment on the pathway between walking limitation and instrumental activity of daily living(IADL) disability, and the relationship between IADL disability and depression. We performed logistic regression and multiple linear regression analyses with data on 3,027 participants from the 2018 Seoul Aging Survey. As results, first, older people who lived home with poor conditions showed a higher risk of walking limitation(OR=1.487, 95% CI: 1.250 - 1.770), IADL disability(OR=1.594, 95% CI: 1.303 - 1.949), and depression(OR=1.943, 95% CI: 1.553 - 2.430). Second, the home environment moderated the relationship between walking limitation and IADL disability. Older people with walking limitation who lived in poor housing condition experienced more IADL disability than others. Third, after controlling for walking limitation, the home environment had significant moderating effect on the relationship between IADL disability and depression. Elderly with IADL disability living in poor home experienced higher risk of depression. Based on these results, the study suggests the necessity of home modification intervention targeting functional limitation of older adults as strategy for preventing disability and depression, and enabling aging in place.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.2142-2148
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• 2015

This paper proposes novel real-time footstep planning and following methods for the navigation of humanoid robots. A footstep command is defined by a walking direction and step lengths for footstep planning. The walking direction is determined by a uni-vector field navigation method, and the allowable yawing range caused by hardware limitation is considered. The lateral step length is determined to avoid collisions between the two legs while walking. The sagittal step length is modified by a binary search algorithm when collision occurs between the robot body and obstacles in a narrow space. If the robot body still collides with obstacles despite the modification of the sagittal step length, the lateral step length is shifted at the next footstep. For footstep following, a walking pattern generator based on a 3-D linear inverted pendulum model is utilized, which can generate modifiable walking patterns using the zero-moment point variation scheme. Therefore, it enables a humanoid robot to follow the footstep command planned for each footstep. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified through simulation and experiment.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.67 no.5
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• pp.663-668
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• 2018

A combined CPG (Central Pattern Generator) based foot trajectory and GA (Genetic Algorithm) based joint compensation method is presented for adaptive humanoid walking. In order to increase an adaptability of humanoid walking for rough terrains, the experiment for rolling terrains are introduced. The CPG based foot trajectory method has been successfully applied to basic slops and variable slops, but has a limitation for the rolling terrains. The experiments are conducted in an ODE based Webots simulation environment using humanoid robot Nao to verify a stability of walking for various rolling terrains. The proposed method is compared to the previous CPG foot trajectory technique and shows better performance especially for the cascade rolling terrains.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2000.11d
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• pp.123-126
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• 2000

In this paper, the portable game machine called W"alking Beat" is designed and implemented not only to propose the new possibilities for the peripheral equipment market of portable acoustic machine but also to overcome the limitation of the acoustic simulation game machine such as the existing Beat Mania. The old game machine can be used only in a particular place, where it is installed. However, in order to get over the constraint on this space problem "Walking Beat Game Machine" is designed to facilitate the portability. In addition, the frequency analysis method using FFT algorithm is employed by regarding the music data for the portable digital acoustic machine as source so that the limitation that the existing game machine depends heavily on the previously registered game contents can be overcome. By making it possible to play games for all the music and putting an emphasis on multimedia trend only to listen to the music, it is speculated that it can contribute to the development of the new culture in the near future.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers D
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.131-140
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• 2005

Fault-tolerant gait generation of a hexapod robot with crab walking is proposed. The considered fault is a locked joint failure, which prevents a joint of a leg from moving and makes it locked in a known position. Due to the reduced workspace of a failed leg, fault-tolerant crab walking has a limitation in the range of heading direction. In this paper, an accessible range of the crab angle is derived for a given configuration of the failed leg and, based on the principles of fault-tolerant gait planning, periodic crab gaits are proposed in which a hexapod robot realizes crab walking after a locked joint failure, having a reasonable stride length and stability margin. The proposed crab walking is then applied to path planning on uneven terrain with positive obstacles. i.e., protruded obstacles which legged robots cannot cross over but have to take a roundabout route to avoid. The robot trajectory should be generated such that the crab angle does not exceed the restricted range caused by a locked joint failure.

• Journal of the Architectural Institute of Korea Planning & Design
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• v.35 no.7
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• pp.119-126
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• 2019

The active living of the elderly leads to improve their lives and enhance social networks. In the view of the active living, the walkability is an essential factor for the elderly's daily life. To support the active living, making age-friendly environment is important. Considering that the elderly mainly carry out activities through walking, making the age-friendly walking environment is a preliminary action. The existing studies applied various methods such as surveys by experts. In spite of the benefits in theirs, there is still a limitation that current walkability measurement methods did not incorporate the actual elderly's walking activity. Thus, the purposes of this study is to measure the elderly's walking quantitatively using a wearable sensor, and to investigate the feasibility of comparing several walking environments based on the data collected from the actual elderly's walking. To do this, experiment was conducted in four types environments with 22 senior subjects. The walkability was measured by walking stability represented quantitatively as Maximum Lyapunov Exponent (MaxLE). Through the experiment results, it was confirmed that the stability of the elderly walking was different according to the walking environment, which also meant that bodily responses (walking stability) is highly related to walkability. The results will provide an opportunity for the continuous diagnosis of walking environments, thereby enhancing the active living of the elderly.

• Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.1-14
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• 2023

Due to the 3 years and 4 months of corona, many things have changed throughout society, such as social activities, free movement, and lifestyle. One of them is the increasing public interest and demand for walking tours. Public awareness of health and leisure activities has increased due to lifestyle changes, aging, and urbanization following the spread of infectious diseases such as COVID-19, and demand for walking tour services is also increasing. As of 2019, nationwide About 560 'Walking Trails' of 1,849 courses were created, with a total length of 18,000 km. In this study, in a situation where social interest and necessity for walking tours are increasing, studies related to walking tours are reviewed, and sustainable management plans for walking tours are proposed. To this end, the concept and research trends of walking tours were examined through literature related to walking tours, and in-depth interviews were conducted with a total of 17 people, 8 visitors and 9 officials, with Ansan Daebudo Haesol-gil as the target. Visitors In-depth interviews with 180 contents were coded, and 147 effective contents were divided into 20 subcategories and organized into 7 upper categories. In-depth interviews with 101 stakeholders were individually coded, 96 effective contents were divided into 14 subcategories, and organized into 5 upper categories. After that, it was reviewed based on the contents organized through qualitative content analysis, and the Five implications were derived. The significance of this study is that the study was conducted on specific Haesol-gil in the suburbs of the metropolitan area. The limitation of this study was that more detailed investigations and considerations were not conducted on the positive and negative effects of walking tours on the Daebudo area. As a follow-up study, academic arrangements and case studies on regional regeneration through walking tours are required.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.43-50
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• 2002

This study was designed to identify the effects of walking conditions (normal walking vs. toe-walking) on electromyographic (EMG) activity of gastrocnemius, tibialis anterior, and soleus muscle. Seven healthy adult males participated in this study. The exclusion criteria were orthopedic or neurologic disease, congenital anomaly or acquired deformity, or pain in low back or lower extremities. The maximal voluntary isometric contraction for each muscle was used for the reference contraction, and EMG activity of each muscle during normal walking and toe-walking was expressed as a percentage of reference contraction. The gait cycle was determined with two foot switches, and gait was normalized as 100% gait cycle for each condition. The maximal values of EMG activity in terminal stance (30~50% of gait cycle) of each condition were compared for data analysis. No significant differences were found in EMG activity of the tibialis anterior and soleus (p>.05), whereas significant decrement was found in EMG activity of gastrocnemius during toe-walking compared to normal walking (p<.05). There is a limitation to generalize the results of this study, because small number of subjects participated for this study and only EMG was used for data collection. The treatment methods should be developed to improve gait efficiency by substituting the weakened muscles secondary to upper motor neuron, or by strengthening the distal muscles in lower extremity.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.65 no.9
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• pp.1551-1556
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• 2016

A combined CPG (Central Pattern Generator) based foot trajectory and GP (Genetic Programming) based joint compensation method is presented for the adaptive humanoid walking. The CPG based foot trajectory methods have been successfully applied to basic slops and variable slops with slow rates, but have a limitation for the steep slop terrains. In order to increase an adaptability of humanoid walking for the rough terrains, a GP based joint compensation method is proposed and combined to the CPG (Central Pattern Generator) based foot trajectory method. The experiments using humanoid robot Nao are conducted in an ODE based Webots simulation environmemt to verify a stability of walking for the various aslope terrains. The proposed method is compared to the previous CPG foot trajectory technique and shows better performances especially for the steep varied slopes.