PurposeThe purpose of the present study was to examine the validity and reliability of the Korean version of the Eating Disorder Inventory-2 (EDI-2) in Korean patients with eating disorders and healthy controls, and to investigate cultural differences of EDI-2 between a Korean group and a North American standardization sample.Materials and MethodsThe Korean version of the EDI-2 was prepared after comprehensive clinical assessment of Korean patients with eating disorders (n=327) as well as female undergraduates (n=176). Results were compared between eating disorder subgroups (anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and eating disorders not otherwise specified) and those of a North American standardization sample and healthy controls.ResultsThe results showed that the Korean EDI-2 had adequate internal consistency (0.77-0.93) and discriminated well between patients with eating disorders and healthy controls on all subscales. Significant differences in EDI-2 subscale scores between the eating disorder groups and the healthy control group were observed; however, there was no discernible difference among the eating disorder subgroups. When compared with a North American standardization sample, the Korean control group showed significantly higher scores for drive for thinness and asceticism. When patient groups were compared, the Korean group showed significantly lower scores for perfectionism.ConclusionAs expected, the results accurately reflected psychometric properties of the Korean version of EDI-2 for eating disorder patients in Korea. These findings also suggest that common characteristics for the eating disorder exist as a whole rather than with significant difference between each subgroup. In addition, significant differences between the Korean and the North American groups for both patients and controls also demonstrated specific cultural differences.

Electric wheelchairs developed so far have difficulties for elderly people to use, because of their bulkiness and heavy weight. To address this problem, this study presents a design for the construction of an electric wheelchair with an application of light duty materials at frame and a foldable structure that can be easily loaded in a narrow space. A structural analysis was performed to evaluate the structural safety of the foldable wheelchair. For the purpose of analysis, a carbon composite was used as the material for the frame; Structure Mechanics Module of COMSOL Multiphysics was used as the analysis software; and for the boundary condition, the lower part of the body frame was fixed, and a load of 150 kg was applied to the upper part of the wheelchair. According to the results of the structural analysis, a maximum displacement of 2.869 mm occurred at the handle where the carbon composite was applied, and tensile and compressive stress of 103 MPa and 107.3 MPa, respectively, were measured at the seat part of the wheelchair where the load was applied. The safety factors were 7.5 and 5.5 for tensile stress and compressive stress, respectively. A maximum variation of 0.0872 mm occurred at the aluminum wheel shaft, and a maximum variation of 0.2046 mm occurred at the joint. The maximum stress was 116.3 MPa that corresponded to a safety factor of 2.66; this indicates that the wheelchair can be considered to be structurally safe as the safety factor exceeds the initial target of 2.

No abstract

BACKGROUND: With the improvement in the standard of living, there has been increasing interest in facial skin care. In particular, it has been observed that people pay extra attention to eye-skin when they visit skin care parlors for special treatment and care. OBJECTIVE: There is a need for skin care devices that would enable convenient skin care anywhere, including at home and on the move. In this research, we developed a prototype of a glasses-type skin care device with a LED (Light-Emitting Diode) irradiation function and performed injection molding analysis of the skin care device model for mass production. METHODS: First, the product was designed using a universal design to improve the wearability of the glasses-type skin care device. The first prototype of the skin care device was produced using an integrated LED optical module capable of irradiating at three LED wavelengths to investigate the structural function of the product. The prototype was classified into three mechanisms and injection molding analysis was performed. The fill time, temperature at flow front, injection pressure, clamp force, and deflection values were analyzed according to the appropriate number and location of gates into which the PC + PBT (Polycarbonate + Polybutylene terephthalate) resin was introduced. RESULTS: We found that all the other parts except the temple section of the device were inferior in moldability. CONCLUSION: In further studies, the 3D prototype will be modified to enhance moldability, and injection molding analysis with other materials as well as with PC + PBT resin will be performed.

Appropriate motion assistance based on understanding the patient’s exact intention plays an important role in improving the patient’s rehabilitation ability. This paper is a study on the development of user intention technology for a rehabilitation training system that performs dynamic rehabilitation training related to lower extremities such as posture balance and walking. The rehabilitation training system consists of a rail platform installed on the ceiling and a trolley with autonomous driving, weight support, and detection of user intention. When performing dynamic rehabilitation training such as posture balance and walking, the motion intention detection function of the patient knows the direction in which the patient is going to move in advance, and the trolley can be moved to prevent a risk such as a fall of the patient. To this end, the rehabilitation training system can measure the motion in all directions of 360∘, and visually inform the therapist or guardian by blinking the LED under the trolley whenever motion intent in each direction is detected. The user intention function of this system was tested for weight-bearing stability when performing the user’s walking motion and sitting–standing motion. As a result of the experiment, it was confirmed that the RMS error was within 4% and 2%, and the peak-to-peak error was within 8% and 5%. In the future, it is expected that these results will contribute to increase the rehabilitation effect of the walking disabled. However, the results of this study were limited in their application to actual patients because they were values measured under limited experimental conditions targeting healthy subjects, so in future studies, usability tests for various users such as healthy adults, elderly people, and stroke patients will be conducted.