• KIPS Transactions on Software and Data Engineering
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.141-148
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• 2023

Accurate overlay metrology is essential to achieve high yields of semiconductor products. Overlay metrology performance is greatly affected by overlay target design and measurement method. Therefore, in order to improve the performance of the overlay target, measurement methods applicable to various targets are required. In this study, we propose a new algorithm that can measure image-based overlay. The proposed measurement algorithm can estimate the sub-pixel position by using a motion vector. The motion vector may estimate the position of the sub-pixel unit by applying a quadratic equation model through polynomial expansion using pixels in the selected region. The measurement method using the motion vector can calculate the stacking error in all directions at once, unlike the existing correlation coefficient-based measurement method that calculates the stacking error on the X-axis and the Y-axis, respectively. Therefore, more accurate overlay measurement is possible by reflecting the relationship between the X-axis and the Y-axis. However, since the amount of computation is increased compared to the existing correlation coefficient-based algorithm, more computation time may be required. The purpose of this study is not to present an algorithm improved over the existing method, but to suggest a direction for a new measurement method. Through the experimental results, it was confirmed that measurement results similar to those of the existing method could be obtained.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.192-207
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• 2023

Commercialization of level-4 (Lv.4) autonomous driving applications requires the definition of a safe road environment under which autonomous vehicles can operate safely. Thus, a risk assessment model is required to determine whether the operation of autonomous vehicles can provide safety to is sufficiently prepared for future real-life traffic problems. Although the risk factors of autonomous vehicles were selected and graded, the decision-making method was applied as qualitative data using a survey of experts in the field of autonomous driving due to the cause of the accident and difficulty in obtaining autonomous driving data. The fuzzy linguistic representation of decision-makers and the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP), which converts uncertainty into quantitative figures, were implemented to compensate for the AHP shortcomings of the multi-standard decision-making technique. Through the process of deriving the weights of the upper and lower attributes, the road alignment, which is a physical infrastructure, was analyzed as the most important risk factor in the operation risk of autonomous vehicles. In addition, the operation risk of autonomous vehicles was derived through the example of the risk of operating autonomous vehicles for the 5 areas to be evaluated.

• Animal Bioscience
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.710-719
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• 2023

Objective: The present study investigated whether protodioscin (PD), a steroidal saponin mainly found in rhizome of Dioscorea species, alleviates oxidative stress-induced damage of porcine oocytes during in vitro maturation. Methods: Oocytes were treated with different concentrations of PD (0, 1, 10, 100, and 200 µM) in the presence of 200 µM H₂O₂ during in vitro maturation. Following maturation, spindle morphology and mitogen-activated protein kinase activity was assessed along with reactive oxygen species level, GSH activity, and mRNA expression of endogenous antioxidant genes at the MII stage. On the day 7 after parthenogenetic activation, blastocyst formation rate was calculated and the quality of embryo and mRNA expression of development-related genes was evaluated. Results: Developmental competence was significantly poorer in the 0 µM PD-treated (control) group than in the non-treated (normal) and 10 µM PD-treated (10PD) groups. Although the reactive oxygen species level did not significantly differ between these three groups, the glutathione level and mRNA expression of antioxidant genes (superoxide dismutase 1 [SOD1], SOD2, nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 [Nrf2], and hemo oxygenase-1 [HO-1]) were significantly higher in the normal and 10PD groups than in the control group. In addition, the percentage of oocytes with defective spindle and abnormal chromosomal alignment was significantly lower and the ratio of phosphorylated p44/42 to total p44/42 was significantly higher in the normal and 10PD groups than in the control group. The total cell number per blastocyst was significantly higher in the 10PD group than in the control group. The percentage of apoptotic cells in blastocysts was highest in the control group; however, the difference was not significant. mRNA expression of development-related genes (POU domain, class 5, transcription factor 1 [POU5F1], caudal type homeobox 2 [CDX2], Nanog homeobox [NANOG]) was consistently increased by addition of PD. Conclusion: The PD effectively improves the developmental competence and quality of blastocysts by protecting porcine oocytes against oxidative stress.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.24 no.8
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• pp.25-34
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• 2008

A new hybrid oedometer cell is designed and manufactured to investigate a behavior of soft soils by using elastic and electromagnetic waves during consolidation test. Bender elements, which generate and detect shear waves, are placed in the top cap and the bottom plate and mounted on the oedometer wall. Double wedge type electrical resistance probe, which measures local void ratio change, is positioned onto the top cap of the oedometer cell. The bender elements and the electrical resistance probe are anchored into a nylon set screw with epoxy resin. The nylon set screw with epoxy resin minimizes directly transmited elastic waves through the oedometer cell due to impedence mismatch and allows for easy replacement of defected bender elements and electrical resistance probe. Primary consolidation time can be estimated from the slope of electrical resistance versus log time curve and the evolution of shear wave velocity. The shear wave velocity can be used to assess inherent anisotropy when disturbance effects are minimized because particle alignment affects the shear wave velocity. The void ratios evaluated by the electrical resistance probe are similar to those by the settlement during consolidation. This study suggests that the shear wave velocity and the electrical resistance can provide complementary imformations to understand consolidation characteristics such as primary consolidation, anisotropy, and void ratio.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.22 no.11
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• pp.47-54
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• 2006

Shear wave velocity of uncemented soil can be expressed as the function of effective stresses when capillary phenomena are negligible. However, the terms of effective stresses are divided into the direction of wave propagation and polarization because stress states are generally anisotropy. The shear wave velocities are affected by ${\alpha}$ parameters and ${\beta}$ exponents that are experimentally determined. The ${\beta}$ exponents are controlled by contact effects of particulate materials (sizes, shapes, and structures of particles) and the ${\alpha}$ parameters are changed by contact behaviors among particles, material properties of particles, and type of packing (i.e., void ratio and coordination number). In this study, consolidation tests are performed by using clay, mica and sand specimens. Shear wave velocities are measured during consolidation tests to investigate the stress-induced and inherent anisotropies by using bender elements. Results show the shear wave velocity depends on the stress-induced anisotropy for round particles. Furthermore, the shear wave velocity is dependent on particle alignment under the constant evvective stress. This study suggests that the shear wave velocity and the shear modulus should be carefully estimated and used for the design and construction of geotechnical structures.

• Asia-pacific Journal of Multimedia Services Convergent with Art, Humanities, and Sociology
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• v.8 no.10
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• pp.63-70
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• 2018

Biomedical signal measurement technology using images has been developed, and researches on respiration signal measurement technology for maintaining life have been continuously carried out. The existing technology measured respiratory signals through a thermal imaging camera that measures heat emitted from a person's body. In addition, research was conducted to measure respiration rate by analyzing human chest movement in real time. However, the image processing using the infrared thermal image may be difficult to detect the respiratory organ due to the external environmental factors (temperature change, noise, etc.), and thus the accuracy of the measurement of the respiration rate is low.In this study, the images were acquired using visible light and infrared thermal camera to enhance the area of the respiratory tract. Then, based on the two images, features of the respiratory tract region are extracted through processes such as face recognition and image matching. The pattern of the respiratory signal is classified through the k-nearest neighbor classifier, which is one of the statistical classification methods. The respiration rate was calculated according to the characteristics of the classified patterns and the possibility of breathing rate measurement was verified by analyzing the measured respiration rate with the actual respiration rate.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.341-350
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• 2023

The templated grain growth (TGG) method has gained significant attention for its ability to produce highly textured piezoelectric ceramics with significantly enhanced performance, making it a promising method for transducer and actuator applications. However, the texturing process using the TGG method requires the optimization of multiple steps, which can be challenging for beginners in this field. Therefore, in this tutorial, we provide an overview of the TGG method mainly based on our previous published works, including its various processing steps such as synthesizing anisotropic-shaped templates with size and size distribution control using the molten salt synthesis technique, tape casting, and identifying key factors for proper alignment of the templates in the target matrix system. Our goal is to provide a resource that can serve as a basic reference for researchers and engineers looking to improve their understanding and utilization of the TGG method for producing textured piezoelectric ceramics.

• Journal of Veterinary Science
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.51.1-51.17
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• 2023

Background: To date, various genotypes of infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) have co-circulated and in Korea, GI-15 and GI-19 lineages were prevailing. The spike protein, particularly S1 subunit, is responsible for receptor binding, contains hypervariable regions and is also responsible for the emerging of novel variants. Objective: This study aims to investigate the putative major amino acid substitutions for the variants in GI-19. Methods: The S1 sequence data of IBV isolated from 1986 to 2021 in Korea (n = 188) were analyzed. Sequence alignments were carried out using Multiple alignment using Fast Fourier Transform of Geneious prime. The phylogenetic tree was generated using MEGA-11 (ver. 11.0.10) and Bayesian analysis was performed by BEAST v1.10.4. Selective pressure was analyzed via online server Datamonkey. Highlights and visualization of putative critical amino acid were conducted by using PyMol software (version 2.3). Results: Most (93.5%) belonged to the GI-19 lineage in Korea, and the GI-19 lineage was further divided into seven subgroups: KM91-like (Clade A and B), K40/09-like, QX-like (I-IV). Positive selection was identified at nine and six residues in S1 for KM91-like and QX-like IBVs, respectively. In addition, several positive selection sites of S1-NTD were indicated to have mutations at common locations even when new clades were generated. They were all located on the lateral surface of the quaternary structure of the S1 subunits in close proximity to the receptor-binding motif (RBM), putative RBM motif and neutralizing antigenic sites in S1. Conclusions: Our results suggest RBM surrounding sites in the S1 subunit of IBV are highly susceptible to mutation by selective pressure during evolution.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.26 no.9
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• pp.558-568
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• 2023

Vibrio vulnificus is an aquatic bacterium causing septicemia and wound infection in humans. To understand this pathogen at the genomic level, it was performed whole genome sequencing of a cefoxitin-resistant strain, V. vulnificus 1908-10 possessing virulence-related genes (vvhA, viuB, and vcgC) isolated from Gadeok island coastal seawater in South Korea. The genome of V. vulnificus 1908-10 consisted of two circular contigs and no plasmid. The total genome size was estimated to be 5,018,425 bp with a guanine-cytosine (GC) content of 46.9%. We found 119 tRNA and 34 rRNA genes respectively in the genome, along with 4,352 predicted protein sequences. Virulence factor (VF) analysis further revealed that V. vulnificus 1908-10 possess various virulence genes in classes of adherence, antiphagocytosis, chemotaxis and motility, iron uptake, quorum sensing, secretion system, and toxin. In the comparison of the presence/absence of virulence genes, V. vulnificus 1908-10 had fur, hlyU, luxS, ompU, pilA, pilF, rtxA, rtxC, and vvhA. Of the 30 V. vulnificus comparative strains, 80% of the C-genotype strains have all of these genes, whereas 40% of the E-genotype strains have all of them. In particular, pilA were identified in 80% of the C-type strains and 40% of the E-type strains, showing more difference than other genes. Therefore, V. vulnificus 1908-10 had similar VF characteristics to those of type C strains. Multifunctional-autoprocessing repeats-in-toxin (MARTX) toxin of V. vulnificus 1908-10 contained 8 A-type repeats (GXXGXXXXXG), 25 B.1-type repeats (TXVGXGXX), 18 B2-type repeats (GGXGXDXXX), and 7 C-type repeats (GGXGXDXXX). The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) showed that the RtxA protein of V. vulnificus 1908-10 had the effector domain in the order of cross-liking domain (ACD)-C58_PaToxP-like domain- α/β hydrolase-C58_PaToxP-like domain.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.78-82
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• 2023

A fabrication of smart windows with controllable visible light transmittance in three steps by using λ/2 retardation films based on a reactive mesogen (RM) material and polarizing films is demonstrated. The phase retardation films with a Δn·d value of λ/2 (λ: wavelength) convert the direction of a traveling light to the optical axis of the film symmetrically. In this work, the retardation characteristics according to the RM thickness were evaluated and henceλ/2 phase retardation film can be fabricated. The phase retardation film with Δn·d of 276.1 nm, which is close to λ/2 (=275 nm @550 nm), was fabricated. The light transmittance of a smart window with the structure of (polarizing film)/(glass)/(alignment layer)/(λ/2 retardation film) was measured in the transmission mode, half mode and blocking mode. The evaluation results show that the transmittance of the smart window can be controlled in three steps with 35.8%, 27.8%, and 18.2% at each mode, respectively. In addition, by fabricating a smart window with a size of 15×200 mm², the feasibility of use in various fields such as buildings and automobiles was verified.