The effectiveness of core stabilization exercise using ultrasound biofeedback on motor function, balance control, gait speed and activities of daily living in stroke patients.

Background: Patients with hemiparetic stroke experience diminished motor function, dynamic balance, and gait speed, which influence their activities of daily living (ADL).

Objective: This study aimed to determine the therapeutic effects of ultrasound biofeedback core exercise (UBCE) on Fugl-Meyer assessment (FMA), Time up and go (TUG), 10-meter walking test (10MWT) and functional independent measure (FIM) in participants with stroke.

Methods: Twenty-four stroke survivors consistently underwent UBCE or abdominal draw-in maneuver (ADIM) for 30 min/session, 3 days a week for 4 weeks.

Effectiveness of Proprioceptive Body Vibration Rehabilitation on Motor Function and Activities of Daily Living in Stroke Patients with Impaired Sensory Function.

Stroke patients experience impaired sensory and motor functions, which impact their activities of daily living (ADL). The current study was designed to determine the best neurorehabilitation method to improve clinical outcomes, including the trunk-impairment scale (TIS), Berg balance scale (BBS), Fugl-Meyer assessment (FMA), and modified Barthel index (MBI), in stroke patients with impaired sensory function. Forty-four stroke survivors consistently underwent proprioceptive body vibration rehabilitation training (PBVT) or conventional physical therapy (CPT) for 30 min/session, 5 days a week for 8 weeks.

Untacted automated robotic upper-trunk- lower reciprocal locomotor training for knee osteoarthritis: A randomized controlled trial.

Background: Although millions of people with osteoarthritis (OA) have altered biomechanical alignment, movement, and knee joint pain during gait, there are no effective and sustainable interventions. To mitigate such impairments, we developed an untacted self-automated robotic and electromyography (EMG)-augmented upper-trunk-lower reciprocal locomotor training (SRGT) intervention.

Objective: To compare the effects of SRGT and conventional treadmill gait training (CTGT) on the medial knee joint space width (JSW), hip adduction moment (HAM), knee varus deformity, pain, and physical function in community-dwelling older adults with OA.

Versatile Mesoporous Microblocks Prepared by Pattern-Induced Cracking of Colloidal Films.

Mesoporous microparticles have the potential to be used in various fields, such as energy generation, sensing, and the environmental field. Recently, the process of making homogeneous microparticles in an economical and environmentally friendly way has gained much attention. Herein, rectangular mesoporous microblocks of various designs are produced by manipulating the fragmentation of colloidal films consisting of micropyramids while controlling the notch angles of pyramidal edges.

COVID-19 Case Tracking System in Quarantine Policy: Focus on the Privacy Shift Concept and Application in South Korea.

This study analyzed how Korea's quarantine policy manages personal information to prevent and control COVID-19. Korea effectively halted the spread of COVID-19 through epidemiological investigations and cell-broadcast systems. In this process, the route of infection is presented without identifying the patient, and the necessary participants are selected only through authentication.

Investigation on photopolymerization of PEGDA to fabricate high-aspect-ratio microneedles.

Microneedles (MNs) are micron-sized needles that can penetrate the stratum corneum, enabling the non-invasive and painless administration of drugs and vaccines. In this work, fabrication conditions for high-aspect-ratio MNs by the photopolymerization of polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA) were investigated. Ultraviolet (UV) light was used to crosslink photocurable prepolymers in specific areas defined by a photomask.

Cracking of Colloidal Films to Generate Rectangular Fragments.

Cracks are common in nature. Cracking is known as an irreversible and uncontrollable process. To control the cracking patterns, many researchers have proposed methods to prepare notches for stress localization on films.

Comparative accuracy of a shoulder range motion measurement sensor and Vicon 3D motion capture for shoulder abduction in frozen shoulder.

Background: Although patients with frozen shoulders have the range of motion (ROM) of their shoulder's abduction movements measured at hospital and the physical therapy visits, multiple visits to check for progress is often difficult. Thus, we developed an artificial intelligence-based image recognition detectable sensor (AIRDS) intended for easy use at home.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the accuracy of a sensor (AIRDS) measuring shoulder abduction angle, thus offering a valid and feasible system for monitoring patients with frozen shoulder.

A precision neurorehabilitation using SSEP for early detection of sensory deficit and restoration of the motor recovery in balance, gait and activities of daily living in acute stroke.

Background: Impaired sensory in acute stroke patients results in dynamic balance, gait and activities of daily living (ADL) impairment.

Objective: The aim of present study was to examine the correlation between somatosensory-evoked potential (SSEP) parameters and motor recovery in balance, gait and ADL performance in hemiparetic stroke survivors.

Methods: One hundred and one participants with hemiparetic stroke (43 males, 58 females; mean age, 6538 ± 1222 years; post-stroke duration, 199 ± 0.

Electronic effects of nano-confinement in functional organic and inorganic materials for optoelectronics.

When various optically and/or electronically active materials, such as conjugated polymers, perovskites, metals, and metal oxides, are confined at the nanoscale, they can exhibit unique nano-confined behavior that significantly differs from the behavior observed at the macroscale. Although controlled nano-confinement of functional materials can allow modulation of their electronic properties without the aid of any synthetic methodologies or additional chemical treatments, limited assembly approaches for nano-confinement and insufficient analytical tools for electronic characterization remain critical challenges in the development of novel optoelectronic materials and the investigation of their modulated properties. This review describes how the nano-confined features of organic and inorganic materials are related to the control and improvement of their optoelectronic properties.

Manipulation of light transmission from stable magnetic microrods formed by the alignment of magnetic nanoparticles.

Due to the increasing energy consumption, smart technologies have been considered to automatically control energy loss. Smart windows, which can use external signals to modulate their transparency, can regulate solar energy by reflecting excess energy and retaining the required energy in a building without using additional energy to cool or heat the interiors of the building. Although many technologies have been developed for smart windows, they still need to be economically optimised.

Estimating System State through Similarity Analysis of Signal Patterns.

State prediction is not straightforward, particularly for complex systems that cannot provide sufficient amounts of training data. In particular, it is usually difficult to analyze some signal patterns for state prediction if they were observed in both normal and fault-states with a similar frequency or if they were rarely observed in any system state. In order to estimate the system status with imbalanced state data characterized insufficient fault occurrences, this paper proposes a state prediction method that employs discrete state vectors (DSVs) for pattern extraction and then applies a naïve Bayes classifier and Brier scores to interpolate untrained pattern information by using the trained ones probabilistically.

Dielectrophoretic Manipulation of Janus Particle in Conductive Media for Biomedical Applications.

Janus particles are applied to many fields including biomedical applications. To expand the usability of Janus particles, a technique to manipulate the particle movement is required. A dielectrophoresis (DEP) method can be a promising candidate; however, independent manipulation or separation of Janus particle by DEP is still challenging.

Enhanced Vertical Charge Transport of Homo- and Blended Semiconducting Polymers by Nanoconfinement.

The morphology of conjugated polymers has critical influences on electronic and optical properties of optoelectronic devices. Even though lots of techniques and methods are suggested to control the morphology of polymers, very few studies have been performed inducing high charge transport along out-of-plane direction. In this study, the self-assembly of homo- and blended conjugated polymers which are confined in nanostructures is utilized.

Transfer Tiling of Nanostructures for Large-Area Fabrication.

The fabrication of nanoscale patterns over a large area has been considered important but difficult, because there are few ways to satisfy both conditions. Previously, visually tolerable tiling (VTT) for fabricating nanopatterns for optical applications has been reported as a candidate for large area fabrication. The essence of VTT is the inevitable stitching of the nanoscale optical component, which is not seen by the naked eye if the boundary is very narrow while the tiles are overlapped.

Mechanoresponsive Tuning of Anisotropic Wetting on Hierarchically Structured Patterns.

Here, we propose a simple mechanoresponsive system on patterned soft surfaces to manipulate both anisotropy and orientation of liquid wetting. On the poly(dimethylsiloxane) embedding line patterned structures, additional topographies, such as wrinkles and cracks, can be provided by applying compressive and tensile stress, respectively. This tunable hierarchy of structures with the different scales and directions of lines, wrinkles, and cracks allow the mechanoresponsive control of anisotropic wetting in a single platform.

Mechano-responsive lateral buckling of miniaturized beams standing on flexible substrates.

We fabricate an elastomeric beam standing on a flexible substrate using 3D printing and soft lithography and investigate lateral buckling generated in the part of the wall when this beam is under pure bending. We also observe changes in the morphology of wrinkling along the applied strain and geometry of the wall, and then analyze it with scaling concepts. Furthermore, the degree of lateral buckling is controlled through the tip design in the ratchet structure and it is verified with finite element simulation.

Isolated Mesoporous Microstructures Prepared by Stress Localization-Induced Crack Manipulation.

Cracks observed in brittle materials are mostly regarded as defects or failures. However, they can be a valuable tool when implemented in a controlled way. Here, we introduce a strategy to control the crack propagation of mesoporous micropatterns (prisms and pyramids), which leads to the isolation of well-defined microstructures.

Separation of multiple images via directional guidance using structured prism and pyramid arrays.

We propose a new concept of separating images through a directional guide of multi-visuals by using structured prism or pyramid arrays. By placing prism arrays onto two different image arrays, the two collective images below the facets are guided to different directions. Using optical calculations, we identify a condition for successful image separation.

The formation and control of highly crumpled metal surfaces on a photocurable viscous liquid.

Folds, highly deformed structures, have received extensive attention for their nonlinear responses due to a large strain on soft matters. To investigate the folding phenomena, here, we exploit residual tensile stress during metal deposition, which is large enough to compress a thin film coating and introduce a photocurable viscous fluid to decrease the resistance of the substrate against compressive stress. The system has the advantages of the abilities for freezing the highly deformed surfaces by post-UV exposure to the UV-crosslinkable substrate and manipulating the substrate effect by controlling the thickness of the substrate.

Directional Clustering of Slanted Nanopillars by Elastocapillarity.

The unidirectional clustering induced by capillary force of drying liquids between pillars is investigated and a theoretical model to set a criterion of the unidirectional clustering of the slanted nanopillars is proposed.

Effects of Fluorine Doping on Structural and Optical Properties of Hydrothermally Grown ZnO Nanorods.

Pure and fluorine-doped ZnO nanorods were hydrothermally grown on quartz substrates. The nanorod thickness and density were changed by varying the fluorine concentration. The full width at half-maximum and position of the diffraction peak corresponding to the ZnO (002) plane were used to calculate the decreased residual stress and increased c-axis lattice constant of the FZO nanorods.

Effect of Co doping concentration on structural properties and optical parameters of Co-doped ZnO thin films by sol-gel dip-coating method.

The structural and optical properties of Co-doped ZnO thin films prepared by a sol-gel dip-coating method were investigated. X-ray diffraction analysis showed that the thin films were grown with a c-axis preferred orientation. The position of the (002) peak was almost the same in all samples, irrespective of the Co concentration.

Optical parameters of boron-doped ZnO nanorods grown by low-temperature hydrothermal reaction.

Sol-gel spin-coating was used to deposit ZnO seed layers onto quartz substrates, and ZnO nanorods doped with various concentrations of B (i.e., BZO nanorods) ranging from 0 to 2.

In situ realization of asymmetric ratchet structures within microchannels by directionally guided light transmission and their directional flow behavior.

An asymmetric ratchet structure within microchannels is demonstrated by directionally guided light transmission for controlled liquid flow. A direct and facile method is presented to realize programmed asymmetric structures, which control the fluid direction and speed.