• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.23 no.7
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• pp.645-653
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• 2013

Seoul National University flap(SNUF) blade is a small-scale rotor blade incorporating a small trailing-edge flap control surface driven by piezoelectric actuators at higher harmonics for vibration attenuation. Initially, the blade was designed using two-dimensional cross-section analysis and geometrically exact one-dimensional beam analysis, and its material configuration was finalized. A flap-deflection angle of ${\pm}4^{\circ}$ was established as the criterion for enhanced vibration reduction based on an earlier simulation. The flap-linkage mechanism was designed and static bench tests were conducted for verifying the performance of the flap-actuation mechanism. Different versions of test beds were developed and tested with the designed flap and the selected APA 200M piezoelectric actuators. Through significant improvements, a maximum deflection of ${\pm}3.7^{\circ}$ was achieved. High-frequency experiments were conducted for evaluating the performance, and the transfer function of the test bed was determined experimentally. With the static tests almost complete, the rotor power required for testing the blade in a whirl tower (centrifugal environment) was calculated, and further preparations are underway.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.49-61
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• 2014

Purpose: With the aging of the population, the attack rate of osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture is in the increasing trend, and percutaneous vertebroplasty (PVP) is the most commonly performed standardized treatment. Although there is a research report of the excellence of usefulness of the SPECT/CT examination in terns of the exact diagnosis before and after the procedure, the bone cement material used in the procedure influences the image quality by forming an artifact in the CT image. Therefore, the objective of the research lies on evaluating the effect the bone cement gives to a SPECT/CT image. Materials and Methods: The images were acquired by inserting a model cement to each cylinder, after setting the background (3.6 kBq/mL), hot cylinder (29.6 kBq/mL) and cold cylinder (water) to the NEMA-1994 phantom. It was reconstructed with Astonish (Iterative: 4 Subset: 16), and non attenuation correction (NAC), attenuation correction (AC+SC-) and attenuation and scatter correction (AC+SC+) were used for the CT correction method. The mean count by each correction method and the count change ratio by the existence of the cement material were compared and the contrast recovery coefficient (CRC) was obtained. Additionally, the bone/soft tissue ratio (B/S ratio) was obtained after measuring the mean count of the 4 places including the soft tissue(spine erector muscle) after dividing the vertebral body into fracture region, normal region and cement by selecting the 20 patients those have performed PVP from the 107 patients diagnosed of compression fracture. Results: The mean count by the existence of a cement material showed the rate of increase of 12.4%, 6.5%, 1.5% at the hot cylinder of the phantom by NAC, AC+SC- and AC+SC+ when cement existed, 75.2%, 85.4%, 102.9% at the cold cylinder, 13.6%, 18.2%, 9.1% at the background, 33.1%, 41.4%, 63.5% at the fracture region of the clinical image, 53.1%, 61.6%, 67.7% at the normal region and 10.0%, 4.7%, 3.6% at the soft tissue. Meanwhile, a relative count reduction could be verified at the cement adjacent part at the inside of the cylinder, and the phantom image on the lesion and the count increase ratio of the clinical image showed a contrary phase. CRC implying the contrast ratio and B/S ratio was improved in the order of NAC, AC+SC-, AC+SC+, and was constant without a big change in the cold cylinder of the phantom. AC+SC- for the quantitative count, and AC+SC+ for the contrast ratio was analyzed to be the highest. Conclusion: It is considered to be useful in a clinical diagnosis if the application of AC+SC+ that improves the contrast ratio is combined, as it increases the noise count of the soft tissue and the scatter region as well along with the effect of the bone cement in contrast to the fact that the use of AC+SC- in the spine SPECT/CT examination of a PVP performed patient drastically increases the image count and enables a high density of image of the lesion(fracture).

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.245-251
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• 2017

This study measured the exposure dose during abdominal-pelvic CT exam which occupies 70% of CT exam and tried to propose a protocol for optimized exposure dose in abdomen and pelvis without affecting the imagery interpretation. The study scanned abdomen-pelvis using the current clinical scan method, the 120 kVp, auto exposure control(AEC), as 1 phase. As for the newly proposed 2 phase scan method, the study divided into 1 phase abdomen exam and 2 phase pelvis exam and each conducted tube voltage 120 kVp, AEC for abdomen exam, and fixed tube current method in 120 kVp, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 350, 400 mA for pelvis exam. The exposure dose value was compared using $CTDI_{VOL}$, DLP value measured during scan, and average value of CT attenuation coefficient, noise, SNR from each scan image were obtained to evaluate the image. As for the result, scanning of 2 phase showed significant difference compared to 1 phase. In $CTDI_{VOL}$ value, the 2 phase showed 26% decrease in abdomen, 1.8~59.5% decrease in pelvis for 100~250 mA, 12.7%~30% increase in pelvis for 300~400 mA. Also, DLP value showed 53% decrease in abdomen and 41~81% decrease in pelvis when scanned by 2 phase compared to 1 phase, but it was not statistically significant. As for the SNR, when scanning 2 phase close to heart, scanning 1 phase close to pelvis, scanning and scanning 1 phase at upper and lower abdomen, it was higher when scanning 2 phase for 200~250 mA. Also, the CT number and noise was overall similar, but the noise was high close to pelvis. However, when scanning 2 phase for 250 mA close to pelvis, the noise value came out similar to 1 phase, and did not show statistically significant difference. It seems when separating pelvis to scan in 250 mA rather than 400 mA in 1 phase as before, it is expected to have reduced effect of exposure dose without difference in the quality of image. Thus, for patients who often get abdominal-pelvic CT exam, fertile women or children, this study proposes 2 phase exam for smaller exposure dose with same image quality.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.603-620
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• 2021

A land nodal seismic system was employed to acquire seismic reflection data using stand-alone cable-free receivers in a land-river area. Acquiring reliable data using this technology is very cost effective, as it avoids topographic problems in the deployment and collection of receivers. The land nodal airgun system deployed on the mouth of the Hyungsan River (in Pohang, Gyeongsangbuk Province) used airgun sources in the river and receivers on the riverbank, with subparallel source and receiver lines, approximately 120 m-spaced. Seismic data collected on the riverbank are characterized by a low signal-to-noise (S/N) and inconsistent reflection events. Most of the events are represented by hyperbola in the field records, including direct waves, guided waves, air waves, and Scholte surface waves, in contrast to the straight lines in the data collected conventionally where source and receiver lines are coincident. The processing strategy included enhancing the signal behind the low-frequency large-amplitude noise with a cascaded application of bandpass and f-k filters for the attenuation of air waves. Static time delays caused by the cross-offset distance between sources and receivers are corrected, with a focus on mapping the shallow reflections obscured by guided wave and air wave noise. A new time-distance equation and curve for direct and air waves are suggested for the correction of the static time delay caused by the cross-offset between source and receiver. Investigation of the minimum cross-offset gathers shows well-aligned shallow reflections around 200 ms after time-shift correction. This time-delay static correction based on the direct wave is found essential to improving the data from parallel source and receiver lines. Data acquisition and processing strategies developed in this study for land nodal airgun seismic systems will be readily applicable to seismic data from land-sea areas when high-resolution signal data becomes available in the future for investigation of shallow gas reservoirs, faults, and engineering designs for the development of coastal areas.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.624-633
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• 2021

Objective: To evaluate the reliability of CT measurements of muscle quantity and quality using variable CT parameters. Materials and Methods: A phantom, simulating the L2-4 vertebral levels, was used for this study. CT images were repeatedly acquired with modulation of tube voltage, tube current, slice thickness, and the image reconstruction algorithm. Reference standard muscle compartments were obtained from the reference maps of the phantom. Cross-sectional area based on the Hounsfield unit (HU) thresholds of muscle and its components, and the mean density of the reference standard muscle compartment, were used to measure the muscle quantity and quality using different CT protocols. Signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) were calculated in the images acquired with different settings. Results: The skeletal muscle area (threshold, -29 to 150 HU) was constant, regardless of the protocol, occupying at least 91.7% of the reference standard muscle compartment. Conversely, normal attenuation muscle area (30-150 HU) was not constant in the different protocols, varying between 59.7% and 81.7% of the reference standard muscle compartment. The mean density was lower than the target density stated by the manufacturer (45 HU) in all cases (range, 39.0-44.9 HU). The SNR decreased with low tube voltage, low tube current, and in sections with thin slices, whereas it increased when the iterative reconstruction algorithm was used. Conclusion: Measurement of muscle quantity using HU threshold was reliable, regardless of the CT protocol used. Conversely, the measurement of muscle quality using the mean density and narrow HU thresholds were inconsistent and inaccurate across different CT protocols. Therefore, further studies are warranted in future to determine the optimal CT protocols for reliable measurements of muscle quality.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.13 no.9
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• pp.431-437
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• 2015

This convergence study analyzed the effectiveness of contrast agent reduction by normal saline solution dilution in the computed tomography of arteries of lower limb. 48 patients of 125 cc contrast agent and 30 patients of the same amount divided at a ratio of 7:3 for the contrast agent and normal saline solution were studied. The average attenuation coefficient(HU) and signal to noise ratio(SNR) of abdominal aorta, femoral artery, popliteal artery and posterior tibial artery at each image were evaluated quantitatively and the four criteria in the five point scale was conducted qualitatively by two radiologists and four radiological technologists. In the quantitative evaluation, both HU and SNR had high average score before dilation but there were no statistical significance by independent t-test(p>0.05). In the qualitative evaluation, there were a little differences in the average scores between 4.86~4.77 of original contrast agent and 4.83~4.67 of dilated contrast agent but there were no statistical significance(p>0.05). In the computed tomography of arteries of lower limb, the dilated contrast agent doesn't influence image quality and reduces overall contrast agent and lowers iodine content per unit of molecular therefore will contribute to decrease side effect of contrast agent.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.98-105
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• 2013

This paper presents a finite-difference time-domain(FDTD) simulation and a data processing technique for radar sensing of the internal structure of a wall using an ultra-wide band antenna. We first designed an ultra-wide band anti-podal vivaldi antenna with a frequency range of 0.3~7 GHz which is chosen to be relatively low after considering the characteristics of wave attenuation, wall penetration, and range resolution. In this study the two-dimensional FDTD technique was used to simulate a wall-penetration-radar experiment under practical conditions. The next, the measured radiation pattern of the practical antenna is considered as an equivalent source in the FDTD simulation, and the reflection data of a concrete wall and targets are obtained by using the simulation. Then, a data processing technique has been applied to the FDTD reflection data to get a radar image for remote sensing of the internal structure of the wall. We compared the two different source excitations in the FDTD simulation; (1) commonly-used isotropic point sources and (2) polynomial curve fitting sources of the measured radiation pattern. As a result, when we apply the measured antenna pattern into the FDTD simulation, we could obtain about 2.5 dB higher signal to noise level than using a plane wave incidence with isotropic sources.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.171-181
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• 2013

Recently, ground penetrating radar(GPR) has been widely used in detecting metallic and nonmetallic buried landmines and a number of related researches have been reported. A novel preprocessing method is proposed in this paper to flag potential locations of buried mine-like objects from GPR array measurements. GPR operates by measuring the reflection of an electromagnetic pulse from discontinuities in subsurface dielectric properties. As the GPR pulse propagates in the geologic medium, it suffers nonlinear attenuation as the result of absorption and dispersion, besides spherical divergence. In the proposed algorithm, a logarithmic transformed regression model which successfully represents the time-varying signal amplitude of the GPR data is estimated at first. Then, background signals may be densely distributed near the regression model and candidate signals of targets may be far away from the regression model in the time-amplitude space. Based on the observation, GPR signals are decomposed into candidate signals of targets and background signals using residuals computed from the estimated value by regression and the measurement of GPR. Candidate signals which may contain target signals and noise signals need to be refined. Finally, targets are detected through the refinement of candidate signals based on geometric signatures of mine-like objects. Our algorithm is evaluated using real GPR data obtained from indoor controlled environment and the experimental results demonstrate remarkable performance of our mine-like object detection method.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.16 no.8
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• pp.592-600
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• 2016

AAPM CT performance for special medical equipment quality control checks using a standard phantom for evaluation, using the evaluator's subjective assessment as to minimize errors due computerized assessment program to evaluate their usefulness. Phantom for evaluation AAPM CT Performance Phantom: was used, the default shooting conditions are the same as quality control checks. And, we use IMAGE J to evaluate the program. Quantitative evaluation with CT attenuation coefficient and the noise measurement, the uniformity measurement, the slice thickness measurement, contrast resolution of the measurement, a phantom image of the spatial resolution determined by the evaluation program is evaluated as self-extracting the result after processing the image, CT uniformity measurement for the evaluation that was smaller and the standard deviation of a video image processing more uniform slice thickness measurements it is difficult to evaluate due to the difference of the ratio of the measured value of the phantom image. Contrast resolution was measured cylindrical diameter 6th evaluate the shape of a circle obtained a mean value and a standard deviation of diameters, the spatial resolution of the group of source, including acceptance criteria automatically extracted result as a result of both the number of the extracted circularIt appeared. Evaluate the source image and video processing, and video to qualitative evaluation by gross were processed video image is shown excellent results. If the evaluators in order to minimize the errors of subjective judgment based on the results of the above should be done with a quantitative evaluation and qualitative evaluation utilizes a computerized assessment program is considered that further evaluation be made more efficient.

• The Proceeding of the Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.20-40
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• 2003

Since unloaded Q-value of a high-temperature superconductor(HTS) filter is very high, a bandpass filter(BPF) and a lowpass filter(LPF) with an increase of pole numbers can be fabricated without an increase of an insertion loss(IL) ; recently a 70-pole BPF is developed in USA. They have an abrupt skirt property and an excellent attenuation level for out-of band. Moreover, they can be miniaturized when lumped element resonators or the slow-wave characteristic are used. Technology of fabricating a HTS epitaxial film as well as a film of a 4 inch area also makes the planar type filter with a various structure and an enhanced power handling capability possible. Recently, the HTS filter subsystems composed of a planar-type HTS filters, a GaAs-based LNA and a mini-cryocooler are developed. The extended receiver front- end subsystems for mobile radio communications decrease the noise-figure level of the communication system and the frequency interference interacted adjacent bands, and increase the efficiency of frequency and the capacity of communication system. In this paper, theory for developing the HTS filter, its kinds, its design rules, its characteristics are reviewed. The feature of the research and market trends related to the HTS filter systems for the receiver front-end subsystem of mobile base station are surveyed.