• The Journal of Korean Academy of Orthopedic Manual Physical Therapy
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.65-72
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• 2012

Background: The purpose of this study is on finding the effects of the lumbar stabilization exercise applied with the proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation technique (PNF) to the balance and the gait of chronic stroke patients. Methods: An experiment was conducted using two sets of behavioral measures with 30 chronic stroke hospitalized patients in the rehabilitation center located in Incheon city. The 15 participants in group A were instructed to apply the traditional exercise therapy. And the other 15 participants were assigned to apply the lumbar stabilization exercise with the PNF technique. It was conducted for 30 minutes per three days for six weeks, which had eighteen times. Using the balance system, it was checked about the static and dynamic balance. Using the Gaitrite, it was checked about the ability of the gait. Results: There was a better effect on both groups especially with the static balance. Those who were applied the lumbar stabilization exercise with the PNF technique had a better result on the dynamic balance and the gait than those applied the traditional exercise therapy. Conclusion: This research shows that the Lumbar Stabilization Exercise applied with the PNF technique is more effective on dynamic balance and the gait performance ability of the chronic stroke patients.

• Journal of Korean Physical Therapy Science
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.1-13
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• 2022

Background: This research was conducted to understand balance training in trunk control, balance, and walking in stroke patients. Design: Randomized controlled trial. Methods: The subjects included 40 stroke patients, of whom 20 undertook balance training using visual information and the other 20 undertook balance training using balance boards. Using visual feedback, the balance training group used a training program within the static balanced evaluation tool, while the balance training group trained using a balance board. All subjects underwent 20 mins of neurodevelopmental treatment, and both target groups underwent 10 mins each of balance training by using either visual feedback or a balance board. The treatment period lasted a total of 4 weeks, twice a day. Trunk control before and after training was evaluated with the Trunk Impairment Scale. Balance capability was assessed by the Berg Balance Scale, Functional Reach Test, Timed Up and Go test, and Static balance measurement tool. Walking capacity was measured using gait measuring equipment, and cadence and velocity were measured. Results: Both groups showed a significant improvement in their interstitial control, balance, and gait ability after the experiments compared to before the experiments (p<0.05). The difference between the two groups was not significant. The visual feedback balance training group showed a more substantial improvement than the balance board training group. Conclusion: In this study, we found that the balance training combined with visual feedback contributes to improving trunk control, balance, and gait in patients with hemiplegia due to stroke. In addition to this, I believe that balanced training combined with visual feedback can be used as a training method when considering patients who lack interstitial control, balance, and gait ability.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers D
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• v.52 no.12
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• pp.689-695
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• 2003

Fault-tolerance is an important design criterion for robotic systems operating in hazardous or remote environments. This paper addresses the issue of tolerating a locked joint failure in gait planning for hexapod walking machines which have symmetric structures and legs in the form of an articulated arm with three revolute joints. A locked joint failure is one for which a joint cannot move and is locked in place. If a failed joint is locked, the workspace of the resulting leg is constrained, but hexapod walking machines have the ability to continue static walking. A strategy of fault-tolerant tripod gait is proposed and, as a specific form, a periodic tripod gait is presented in which hexapod walking machines have the maximum stride length after a locked failure. The adjustment procedure from a normal gait to the proposed fault-tolerant gait is shown to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed scheme.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.359-368
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• 2001

A new knee-ankle-foot-orthosis(KAFO) which uses an automatically-controlled electromechanical wrap spring clutch for the knee joint was developed in the present study. It was found that the output voltage from the foot switches of the developed KAFO was proportionally increased with respect to the applied load. The output voltage from the infrared sensor also decreased as the knee flexion angle increased. The knee joint system for the new KAFO weighs only 780g lighter than any other commercially available developed system. In addition, the solenoid reduces the reaction time for the automatic control of the knee joint. The static torque of the clutch was measured for three persons, and it satisfied the normal knee extension moment during the pre-swing. Three-dimensional gait analyses for three different gait patterns (normal gait, locked-knee gait, controlled-knee gait) from five normal subjects were conducted. Controlled-knee gait showed the maximum knee flexion angle of 40.56$\pm9.55^{\circ}$ and the maximum knee flexion moment of 0.20$\pm$0.07Nm/kg at similar periods in the normal gait. Our KAFO system satisfies both stability during stance phase and free knee flexion during the swing phase at the proper period during the gait cycle. Therefore, our KAFO system would be very useful in various low extremity orthotic applications.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.489-494
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• 2013

Objective: This study compared the effects of streamlined shoes on dynamic gait and foot plantar pressure in healthy young adults. Background: With the importance of ankle and lower extremity mechanism, streamlined shoes are contributing to a static gait factors. However, the study of dynamic gait factor is still insufficient. Method: Sixty subjects were randomly allocated to two groups: experimental group(n=30) and control(n=30), respectively. The experimental group performed streamlined shoes, whereas the control group applied usual shoes. Main outcome measurements were assessed contact time, step length and foot plantar pressure using gait analysis with the treadmill. Independent t-test was used to compare the both groups. Results: Compared with control group, contact time of forefoot, midfoot and hindfoot decreased significantly in experimental group(p<.05), Step length increased significantly in experimental group(p<.05). Foot plantar pressure of midfoot and hindfoot increased significantly in experimental group(p<.05), whereas that of forefoot did not show significantly in experimental group(p>.05). Conclusion: Our findings suggest that streamlined shoes was more effective than usual shoes in dynamic gait change including contact time and step length and foot plantar pressure in healthy young adults. Application: The results of streamlined shoes might help to control for the gait of industrial workers.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers D
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• v.53 no.8
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• pp.585-593
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• 2004

Fault-tolerant gait planning in legged locomotion is to design gaits with which legged robots can maintain static stability and motion continuity against a failure in a leg. For planning a robust and deadlock-free fault-tolerant gait, kinematic constraints caused by a failed leg should be closely examined with respect to remaining mobility of the leg. In this paper, based on the authors's previous results, deadlock avoidance scheme for fault-tolerant gait planning is proposed for a hexapod robot walking over even terrain. 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. It is shown that for guaranteeing the existence of the previously proposed fault-tolerant tripod gait of a hexapod robot, the configuration of the failed leg must be within a range of kinematic constraints. Then, for coping with failure situations where the existence condition is not satisfied, the previous fault-tolerant tripod gait is improved by including the adjustment of the foot trajectory. The foot trajectory adjustment procedure is analytically derived to show that it can help the fault-tolerant gait avoid deadlock resulting from the kinematic constraint and does not make any harmful effect on gait mobility. The post-failure walking problem of a hexapod robot with the normal tripod gait is addressed as a case study to show the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.

• Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Science
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.105-112
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• 2022

Objective: Nonspecific low back pain (NS-LBP) causes pain and disability, affecting the neuromuscular system and altering gait patterns. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of improvement of low back pain symptoms through physical therapy on foot pressure and spatiotemporal gait parameters. Design: A pilot study. Methods: Participants received manual therapy and supervised therapeutic exercise, which consisted of 12 sessions for 6 weeks. Participants were assessed for pain intensity (a numeric pain rating scale), disability index (oswestry disability index), and spatiotemporal gait parameters before and after intervention. Wilcoxon signed rank test was used to analyze the before-and-after differences in a single group. Results: All seven NS-LBP patients completed the study without dropout. After six weeks of physical therapy, the numeric pain rating scale and oswestry disability index showed significant improvement (Z= -2.388, P=0.017). There was no significant improvement in both static and dynamic conditions in foot pressure (P>0.05). However, in the spatiotemporal gait parameters, there were significant differences in all variables except the right stance phase and left mid stance (P<0.05). Conclusions: In our pilot study, 12 sessions of physical therapy in NS-LBP patients improved gait quilty in spatiotemporal gait parameters. Similarly, it has resulted in clinically positive improvements in pain and disability.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.1-10
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• 2001

The purpose of this study was to compare the static pressure, dynamic pressure, dynamic pressure-time integral, relative impulse, and contact time between the sound lower limb and amputated lower limb in trans-tibial amputee subjects using Parotec system. Seventeen trans-tibial amputee subjects wearing endoskeletal trans-tibial prosthesis voluntarily participated in this study. The results were as follows: 1) In static standing condition, there were significantly higher static pressure in sound lower limb insole sensor of 10, 14, 15, 18, 19, 23, and 24 and in amputated lower limb insole sensor of 9, 12, and 16 (p<.05). 2) In dynamic gait condition, there were significantly higher dynamic pressure in sound lower limb insole sensor of 2, 18, 22, 23, and 24 and in amputated lower limb insole sensor of 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, and 16 (p<.05). 3) In dynamic gait condition, there were significantly higher pressure-time integral in sound lower limb insole sensor of 2, 4, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, and 24 and in amputated lower limb insole sensor of 5, 11, 12, and 15 (p<.05). 4) In dynamic gait condition, there were significantly higher relative impulse in sound lower limb insole sensor of 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, and 24 and in amputated lower limb insole sensor of 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 15 (p<.05). 5) In dynamic gait condition, there was significantly higher percentage of contact time in push off phase of sound lower limb and in support phase of amputated lower limb (p<.05). These results suggest that trans-tibial amputee subjects had characteristics of shortened push off phase due to unutilized forefoot and of lengthened support phase with higher pressure in the midfoot.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.217-218
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• 2010

• Journal of Korean Physical Therapy Science
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.89-98
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• 2013

Purpose : The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the aquatic exercise program on lower muscle strength, balance and gait activity on 12 weeks aquatic exercise program in the elderly women. Methods : The Subjects in this study were 20 aged 70s who were long-term residents admitted to elderly nursing home of S, Gyeongsangnam province. They performed aquatic exercise programs 60-minute sessions, 3 times a week for 12 weeks. The physical evaluation was used for measuring lower muscle strength, balance activity was used for measuring balance testing, and gait activity was used for measuring gait velocity and maximal step length evaluation. All data were analyzed by paired t-Test by SPSS(version18.0). P-values of <.05 were considered significant. Results : Lower extremity muscle strength, static dynamic balance and gait activity were significantly increased both in the exercise group and between groups. Conclusion : This study suggests that aquatic exercise program has an effect on lower extremity muscle strength, balance and gait activity of the elderly women. Therefore, it is considered as a safe and helpful self-support activity for the elderly people.