• PNF and Movement
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.25-30
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• 2015

Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine the effects of abdominal muscle contraction thickness using real-time ultrasound imaging while applying an abdominal draw-in maneuver (ADIM) and pelvic floor muscle contraction (PFC) to low back pain patients and healthy subjects. Methods: The subjects were 21 young adults; a group of 10 low back pain patients and a control group of 11 healthy subjects. Measurements were made with the subjects on a pillow in a supine position, with the knee joints flexed at 60 degrees. While the two groups conducted ADIM and PFC, their transverse abdominal muscle (TrA), internal abdominal oblique muscle (IO), and external abdominal oblique muscle (EO) thicknesses were measured using an ultrasound imaging system. Result: The TrA muscle contraction thickness ratio during PFC and ADIM was significantly lower in the low back pain group than in the healthy group (p<0.05). The EO muscle contraction thickness ratio during ADIM was also significantly lower in the low back pain group than in the healthy group. The healthy group's muscle contraction thickness ratio was significantly lower during PFC than during ADIM in the TrA, IO, and EO (p<0.05). The low back pain group's muscle contraction thickness ratio was lower during PFC than during ADIM in the TrA, IO, and EO, but the difference was not statistically significant. Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that oral direction during ADIM induced an appropriate contraction of the TrA. Therefore, the procedure reported here may be applied during rehabilitation for appropriate contraction of the TrA.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.378-387
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• 2016

This study sought to investigate interrelationships and differences of brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV), body composition and cardiovascular variables between genders who have been exercised or not in elderly. One hundred fifty participants were classified four groups. Especially out of variables, in male elderly group who had participated in exercise program the PWV range were significantly correlated with muscle mass (r=0.357, p=0.026), SBP (r=0.468, p=0.003), right baPWV (r=0.406, p=0.010), and left baPWV (r=0.333, p=0.038). In male elderly group who had not participated in exercise program, the PWV range were significantly correlated with heart rate (r=0.395, p=0.014), right baPWV (r=0.598, p=0.000), and left baPWV (r=0.602, p=0.000). In female elderly group who had participated in exercise program, the PWV range were significantly correlated with name of diagnosis (r=0.321, p=0.044), SBP (r=0.399, p=0.011), DBP (r=0.545, p=0.000), right baPWV (r=0.648, p=0.000), and left baPWV (r=0.676, p=0.000). In female elderly group who had not participated in exercise program, the PWV range were significantly correlated with age (r=0.471, p=0.003), right baPWV (r=0.836, p=0.000), and left baPWV (r=0.801, p=0.000). The PWV among four groups were not significant different after experiment. However, there were significant differences in the waist/hip ratio (F=9.197, p=0.000), muscle mass (F=74.295, p=0.000), and %fat (F=35.045, p=0.000) from body composition. And there were significant differences in the SBP (F=3.525, p=0.017) after experiment. In conclusion, these data show that regular exercise is associated with arterial compliance (PWV range, right or left PWV) and differed from genders. In other words, this paper may support the concept that regular exercise program may exert a protective effect on arterial compliance, body composition and cardiovascular systems.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.213-220
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• 1992

The sciatic nerves of anesthetized rabbits were exposed and stimulated by a nerve stimulator in order to observe the myoneural response. These rabbits were divided into three groups and respectively injected with morphine (Group 1), meperidine(Group 2) and pentazocine (Group 3). The sciatic nerves were stimulated periodically and gait changes were observed to see the myoneural activity after the injections. When the distal part of the sciatic nerves were stimulated by the nerve stimulator after the respective drug injections, the normal muscle twitch responses were observed in all the progressional stages of Group 1. However, in Group 2 and 3, the muscle twitch responses decreased gradually, finally disappearing after approximately 10 minutes in these two groups. Complete motor paralysis continued for about 60 minutes. The muscle reactions returned to normal approximately 90 minutes after injection. Specimens drug-injected tissues were severed 4 hours, 24 hours and 1 week after injection respectively. These tissue were investigated under light as well as electron microscopy. The tissue revealed rare to moderate vacuolizations scattered in the axons of the myelinated and unmyelinated nerves of some of the specimens; however, there were no significant pathologic lesions. These results provide evidence that neurophysiologically, meperidine and pentazocine have a local anesthetic-like effect such as motor paralysis, but morphine does not. In addition, the results indicated that neurohistologically, the three narcotics have no significant toxic effects on the nerve tissue.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.57-62
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• 1993

The influence of the storage temperature at $15^{\circ}C$ on the biochemical and structural changes in the red muscles (M. sternomandibularis) of korean native cattle postmortem were studied. The results obtained were summarized as follows; 1.5 to 2 hours postmortem the pH-value had dropped to $6.7{\sim}6.8$, after 18 or 20 hours at $15^{\circ}C$ it had reached its final pH-value (5.5). The irreversible loss of extensibility, i.e. the onset of rigor mortis, arose at $15^{\circ}C$ between 9 and 10 hours postmortem at pH 6.1 to 6.0 and R-value between 1.05/1.10. The complete loss of extensibility postmortem was reached after 18 to 20 hours at pH 5.5/5.6. Muscle and sarcomere length of korean native cattle were contracted about 20% and 15%, respectively at $15^{\circ}C$. Meat of korean native cattle had the highest shear force (4.7 kg) on 1 day after slaughter. The tenderness was increased with the ripening period prolonged and was highest at the end of the 9 day ripening period.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.858-864
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• 2015

Developmental changes in the vocal signals of serotine bats (Eptesicus serotinus) during their infancy were examined in this study. The analysis was conducted on 4 infant serotine bats from 1 to 40 days after their birth. Pulse duration (PD), pulse interval (PI), peak frequency (PF), maximum frequency ($F_{MAX}$), minimum frequency ($F_{MIN}$), and bandwidth (BW) were measured. As the bats grew, their vocalizations became increasingly consistent and similar to those of adults. For infant bats, PD and PI decreased as they grew older, whereas PF, $F_{MAX}$, $F_{MIN}$, and BW increased. The greatest change in vocalizations was observed between the $10^{th}$ and $20^{th}$ days after birth. Also, PF, $F_{MAX}$, $F_{MIN}$ and BW, which describe sound frequency, increased dramatically during the period between the $10^{th}$ and the $20^{th}$ days. In contrast, the greatest change in PD occurred between the $30^{th}$ and $40^{th}$ days after birth. The results collected in this study suggest that frequency increased as the contraction ability of the muscles developed by around 20 days of age. Muscle relaxation ability, which is related to PD, was found to develop significantly at 30 to 40 days of age. According to the results of this study, although 40 day-old infant bats are not yet able to fly, their vocal signals were similar to those of adults. This indicates that vocal development and flying activity develop separately in young bats.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.461-469
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• 1999

In this paper, an ECG-NIBP patient monitor is designed. This is an essential equipment to measure and monitor patient's physical condition - electrocardiogram(ECG) wave, heart rate(HR), and noninvasive blood pressure(NIBP) - in ICU, CCU, and operating room. The ECG is an electrical waveform produced by relaxation and contraction of the cardiac muscle. Most physicians diagnose patient's cardiac states from ECG pattern. A blood pressure is one of the clinical indexes measured in a emergency room or operating room. In this paper, the blood pressure is measured in artery by using the nonivasive oscillometric method. The developed patient monitor was inspected and compared with other instruments in operating rooms. The results were 1bpm of maximum difference in the heart rate, 15mmHg in the systolic pressure, 16mmHg in the diastolic pressure, and 25mmHg in the mean blood pressure. But the total results were 0.15bpm of the mean difference in the heart rate, 5mmHg in the systolic pressure, 10mmHg in the diastolic pressure, and 9mmHg in the mean blood pressure. The designed ECG-NIBP patient monitor can measure the ECG wave, HR, and BP. And the multi-tasking module of pulse oximetry . respiration . temperature monitor will be added in the near future.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.46-55
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• 2005

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of concurrent and reciprocal isometric contraction and angle of ankle joint on fatigue of concentrically contracting contralateral dorsiflexor and plantar flexor. Seventeen able-bodied subjects participated in the study. Concurrent and reciprocal isometric contraction were performed under three different ankle joint angles (dorsiflexion, neutral position, plantar flexion). During concurrent or reciprocal isometric contraction. fatigue of concentrically contracting contralateral tibialis anterior, gastrocnemius, and soleus was investigated and compared. There was no interaction between different ankle joint angles and direction of isometric contraction (p<.05). No significant differences were found among three different ankle joint angles (p<.05). Contralateral muscle fatigability was lower in reciprocal isometric contraction than that in concurrent isometric contraction (p<.05). Therefore, the findings of this study suggest that reciprocal isometric contraction is more beneficial than concurrent isometric contraction inducing less fatigability during contralateral concentric contraction.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.28 no.11
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• pp.1234-1241
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• 2011

In this work the potential, and the perspectives of the dielectric elastomer actuator are overviewed briefly. As an exemplary work, we introduce a novel contractile artificial muscle actuator based on Synthetic Elastomer(SE). SE is the name of new dielectric elastomer material we have developed and its synthesis procedures and evaluations are described in the first. The contractile artificial muscle actuator is made by stacking the actuator unit one by one along the in thickness direction and finished up by bonding the multi-stacked actuator. Its possibility for the robotic actuator is discussed and demonstrated via experiments.

• Korean Journal of Computational Design and Engineering
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.62-70
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• 2012

This paper proposes a novel discomfort assessment method for truck ingress and egress motions based on the maximum-voluntary-contraction (MVC) ratios of muscles obtained by biomechanical analysis of human musculoskeletal models. In this study, a human motion to enter and exit a truck cabin with different types and heights of footsteps is first measured using an optical motion capture system and load sensors. Next, in a biomechanical analysis system, a human musculoskeletal model with contacting conditions on footsteps and handles is modeled, and then joint torques and muscles forces are calculated by inverse dynamics of the musculoskeletal model with the motion data. Finally, the MVC ratios for the muscles are calculated and their statistical values are used as the measure of discomfort. To ensure the feasibility of our method, subjective discomfort levels have been investigated through the participants' experiments and questionnaires and compared to the results of our method. Comparing to the existing methods based on joint angles or torques, our approach provide a more essential criterion for discomfort because it is based on the muscle contraction by which an active human motion is basically generated.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Physical Medicine
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.199-203
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• 2012

Purpose : Bridging exercise was used most frequently of lumbar stabilization exercise. There has been no reserch regarding the bridging exercise according to hip abductor activation or hip adductor activation. The purpose of this study is to determine correlation of hip abductor, adductor and abdominal muscles, lower limb muscle. Methods : Participants who met the criteria for this study (n=45). Participants performs bridging exercise on three types (normal bridging exercise, bridging exercise with hip abductor contraction, bridging exercise with hip adductor contraction) for evaluate correlation of each muscles. Results : There was a significant negative correlation between adductor magnus and gluteus medius, adductor magnus and rectus femoris. And there was a positive correlation between gluteus medius and rectus femoris on normal bridging exercise (p<0.05). There was a significant positive correlation between adductor magnus and gluteus medius, transverse abdominis, and between gulteus medius and transverse abdominis on bridging exercise with adductor magnus activation (p<0.05). There was a significant positive correlation between adductor magnus and gluteus medius, rectus femoris, and between gulteus medius and rectus femoris on bridging exercise with gluteus medius activation (p<0.05). Conclusion : When we perform bridging exercise for transverse abdominis activation and increase pressure in the abdmen, bridging exercise with hip adductor contraction is more effective than normal bridging exercise and bridging exercise with hip abductor contraction.