• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.22 no.11 s.176
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• pp.16-23
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• 2005

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.24 no.12
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• pp.20-28
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• 2007

• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.21-30
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to investigate changes in mechanical properties of human tibialis anterior following eccentric exercise. Healthy subjects (n=12) performed 120 maximum eccentric contraction of ankle dorsiflexor. Before and 1- and 24- hour after the eccentric exercise, ankle dorsiflexion moment-angle relationships were obtained. Along with significant decrease in maximum isometric muscle strength, the shift of the optimum ankle joint angle toward the longer muscle length direction was observed, independent of the ranges of motion of the eccentric exercise. The results of this study demonstrated that eccentric exercise-induced micro muscle damage(Morgan & Allen, 1999) does rut seem to be a sole mechanism of eccentric contraction-induced muscle damage, suggesting further investigation for the better understandings of this phenomenon.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.844-851
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• 2010

Purpose: This study was conducted to assess optimal needle length for gluteal intramuscular injections (IM) via simple skinfold thickness (SFT). Methods: For this study, 190 healthy adults were recruited and grouped into eight groups according to gender and body mass index (BMI) (kg/$m^2$). The Korean Society for the Study of Obesity criteria defines a BMI under 20 as underweight, 20.1-22.9 as normal, 23-24.9 as overweight and over 25 as obese. For each participant, the SFT of dorsoguteal (DG) and ventrogluteal (VG) sites were measured using a caliper. Subcutaneous tissue thickness was acquired through ultrasonic images. Results: For men in the overweight and obese groups at the DG site, for the obese group at the VG site, and for women in the normal weight, overweight and obese groups at both sites, the mean subcutaneous tissue thickness exceeded 1.84 cm, the minimal length for a 1 inch needle used for IM. At the DG site, optimal intramuscular needle length (OINL) was 1.4 times in women and 1.0 times in men compared to SFT. At the VG site, OINL was 1.3 times in women and 0.9 times in men compared to SFT. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that SFT is a reliable index to determine optimal needle length with minimal effort prior to IM.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.69-80
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• 1998

This research was designed to investigate how the exercise program affects paraplegic standing and walking employing functional electrical stimulation(FES). Emphasis was also given to fatigue of major lower extremity muscles induced by different types of electrical stimulation. We applied continuous and intermittent rectangular pulse trains to quadriceps of 10 normal subjects and 4 complete paraplegic patients. The frequencies were 20Hz and 80Hz, and the knee angle was fixed at 90$^{\circ}$and 150$^{\circ}$to investigate how muscle fatigue is related to muscle length. The knee extensor torque was measured and monitored. We have been training quadriceps and gastrocnemius of a male paraplegic patient by means of electrical stimulation for the past two year. FES standing was initiated when the knee extensors became strong enough to support the body weight, and then the patient started FES walking utilizing parallel bars and a walker. We used an 8-channel constant-voltage stimulator and surface electrodes. The experimental results indicated that paralyzed muscles fatigued rapidly around the optimal length contrary to normal muscles and confirmed that low frequency and intermittent stimulation delayed fatigue. Our exercise program increased muscle force by approximately 10 folds and decreased the fatigue index to half of the initial value. In addition, the exercise enabled the patient to voluntarily lift each leg up to 10cm, which was of great help to the swing phase of FES walking. Both muscle force and resistance to fatigue were significantly enhanced right after the exercise was applied every day instead of 6 days a week. Up to date, the patient can walk for more than two and half minutes at 10m/min while controlling the on/off time of the stimulator by pushing the toggle switch attached to the walker handle.

• Journal of Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.9-16
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• 2014

Electrode contact resistance is a crucial factor in physiological measurements and can be an accuracy limiting factor to perform electrical impedance measurements. The electrical bio-impedance values can be calculated by the conductivity and permittivity of underlying tissue using implant electrode in human skin. In this study we focus on detecting physiological changes in the human skin layers such as the sebum layer, stratum corneum layer, epidermis layer, dermis layer, subcutaneous fat and muscle. The aim of this paper is to obtain optimal design for implantable electrode at subcutaneous fat layer through the simulation by finite element methods(FEM). This is achieved by evaluating FEM simulations geometrically for different electrodes in length(50 mm, 70 mm), in shape(rectangle, round square, sexangle column), in material(gold) and in depth(22.325 mm) based on the information coming from the subcutaneous fat layer. In bio-impedance measurement experiments, according to electrode shapes and applied voltage, we have ascertained that there was the highest difference of bio-impedance in subcutaneous fat layer. The methodology of simulation can be extended to account for different electrode designs as well as more physical phenomena that are relevant to electrical impedance measurements of skin and their interpretation.