• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.197-200
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• 2006

We analyzed total protein (TP), albumin (AL), aspartic aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), urea nitrogen (UN), creatinine (CRE) and serum protein electrophoretic fractions in sera of rural elderly patients to evaluate the health status in rural elderly patients. We observed that the frequencies of patients showed lower level of total protein, albumin, and both total protein and albumin than them of reference range were 20.3%, 22.8% and 19.0%, respectively. The rates of patients showed higher level of AST, ALT, both of AST and ALT, UN, creatinine and both of UN and creatinine than them of reference range were 33.8%, 40.0%, 30.0%, 17.7%, 15.2% and 7.9%, respectively. Comparison of protein fractions of each patient to reference range showed that 77.2% of patients showed normal in all of patterns. Few of patients showed abnormal pattern in albumin (13.6%), ${\alpha}1-globulin (0.0%),\;{\alpha}_2-g10bulin(1.1%),\;{\beta}-globulin(1.9%)\;and\;{\gamma}-globulin(6.2%)$. These data suggest that many of rural elderly patients may suffer from heart, liver and kidney diseases. The serum protein fractions are not typical criterion to evaluate the disease, but production of proteins in rural elderly patients may be affected by liver disease and kidney disease.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.167-176
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• 2004

Background: Electromagnetic fields (EMF) are ubiquitous in modern society including medical field. As the technology of medical instruments and telecommunications has developed rapidly, it has influenced on our lives in many ways. Modern medical practice requires high quality medical equipments, which have a great deal of electromagnetic interference and susceptibility. The purpose of this study were to evaluate electromagnetic condition under usual clinical condition and to suggest a practical guideline in general hospital. Materials and Methods: The actual state of the electromagnetic interference in the medical field was studied under usual clinical conditions including operating rooms, intensive care units, magnetic resonance imaging unit, and hyperthermia unit. Results: There was considerable noise as a result of electromagnetic fields from medical equipments including electrosurgical units and hyperthermia unit, and cellular phones, which could induce serious functional derangements of functioning medical devices. Conclusion: It will be necessary to evaluate the individual electromagnetic situations under various medical conditions and to define a limited zone for cellular phone as well as reposition medical equipments to secure a safer medical practice and to minimize electromagnetic interference.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.423-429
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• 2005

In this paper, we proposed the fabrication process of the stable e-beam evaporation and the patterning of metals layer on the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrate. The metal layer was deposited under the various deposition rate, and its effect to the electrical and mechanical properties (e.g.: adhesion-strength of metal layer) was investigated. The influence of surface roughness to the adhesion-strength was also examined via the tape test. Here, we varied the roughness by changing the reactive ion etching (RIE) duration. The electrode patterning was performed through the conventional photolithography and chemical etching process after e-beam deposition of $200{\AA}$ Ti and $1000{\AA}$ Au. As a result, the adhesion strength of metal layer on the PDMS surface was greatly improved by the oxygen plasma treatment. The e-beam evaporation on the PDMS surface is known to create the wavy topography. Here, we found that such wavy patterns do not effect to the electrical and mechanical properties. In conclusion, the metal patterns with minimum $20{\mu}m$ line width was produced well via the our fabrication process, and its electrical conductance was almost similar to the that of metal patterns on the silicon or glass substrates.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.434-438
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• 2011

A portable surface plasmon resonance(SPR) based immunosensor using thiolated protein G and protein G was developed for the detection of immunoglobulin G(IgG). The protein G has specific affinity with Fc fragment of IgG and was thiolated by 2-Iminothiolane for introduction of thiol groups. Anti-IgG, bovine serum albumin(BSA), and IgG have been sequently injected after surface modification of gold sensor chip with protein G and thiolated protein G. The output signal was increased with the injection of each protein and the actual signal was measured by subtracting signal of reference channel from signal of sample injected channel. The experimental results showed the higher detection capability of IgG using thiolated protein G compared with protein G. From these results, we can conclude that the current surface modification technique and the portable SPR sensor system can be applied to various immunosensors for diagnosis.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.179-186
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• 2007

Uroflowmetry is non-invasive and easily performed to diagnose benign prostate hypertrophy (BPH) frequent in aged men. Weight change during urination is usually measured to estimate the urinary flow rate by a load cell, but sensitive to any impacts against the bottom of the container, leading to unnecessary noise generation. Moreover, load cells are relatively expensive raising the production cost. The present study proposed a new technique, measuring hydraulic pressure on the bottom of the urine container to evaluate the urinary flow rate. Low cost pressure transducer enabled almost perfectly linear relationship between the urine volume and the hydraulic pressure. During both the simulated and human urination experiment, variance of the pressure signal was more than 50 % smaller than the weight signal acquired by a load cell, which demonstrated that the impact noise was decreased to a great degree by pressure compared to weight measurement.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.576-583
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• 2008

In this study, we attempt to design a real-time autonomic nervous system(ANS) evaluation system usable during exercise using heart instantaneous frequency(HIF). Although heart rate variability(HRV) is considered to be a representative signal widely used ANS evaluation system, the R-peak detection process must be included to obtain an HRV signal, which involves a high sampling frequency and interpolation process. In particular, it cannot accurately evaluate the ANS using HRV signals during exercise because it is difficult to detect the R-peak of electrocardiogram(ECG) signals with exposure to many noises during exercise. Therefore, in this study, we develop the ground for a system that can analyze an ANS in real-time by using the HIF signal circumventing the problem of the HRV signal during exercise. First, we compare the HRV and HIF signals in order to prove that the HIF signal is more efficient for ANS analysis than HRV signals during exercise. Further, we performed real-time ANS analysis using HIF and confirmed that the exerciser's ANS variation experiences massive surges at points of acceleration and deceleration of the treadmill(similar to HRV).

• Journal of Advanced Navigation Technology
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.926-932
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• 2009

The whole-body massager among healthcare devices is under being popularized in a large scale as times goes by. It is critical to measure, analyze and judge the stress relaxsation trend from HRV signal using PPG in case of massager operation with such relaxsation device for removing stress of human being. There may be artifact in HRV measured signal because the measured object is under shaking with that massager in this case. We present the methodology to remove such artifact from those measured HRV signal, and then measure and analyze the desired HRV successfully in this paper.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.250-257
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• 2005

Respiratory tubes with the length of 35 mm and the diameter of 10, 15, and 20 mm were made and both the static($P_{S}$) and dynamic($P_{D}$) pressures were measured for steady flow rates ranging 1-12 l/sec. Regression analysis resulted successful fitting of $P_{S}$ and $P_{D}$ data with quadratic equations with correlation coefficients higher than 0.99. The measurement standards of the American Thoracic Society (ATS) were applied to $P_{S}$ data, which demonstrated the smallest tube diameter of 15 mm to satisfy the ATS standards. The maximum $P_{D}$ value of the velocity type transducer with the diameter of 15 mm was estimated to be 75 cm$H_{2}O$, implying approximately 7 times larger sensitivity than the widely used pneumotachometer. These results showed that the velocity type respiratory air flow transducer is a unique device accomplishing miniaturization with the sensitivity increased, thus would be of great advantage to develop portable devices.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.213-217
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• 2004

The general method to find a H. pylori in the stomach is the rapid urease test but it is only used to decide the infection with H. pylori. In this study, it is tried to develope fiber-optic pH sensor which can be used with gastroscop to quantify H. pylori. To measure the degree of infection with H. pylori, the color change of phenol red according to the degree of pH is measured by optical fibers with different light sources and the optimum distance from a sample to the end of sensor tip is decided by measuring the maximum reflectivity from a sample. Also the sensitivity study is carried out to decide the optimum light source which has sensitive change of reflectivity to the change of pH. It is expected that the fiber-optic pH sensor which measures the degree of infection with H. pylori exactly can be developed.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.82-86
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• 2014

This paper reports the development of a platform for tracking and analysis of animal locomotion. The platform is composed of a commercial webcam, a metal stand for the webcam, and a plastic bathtub as a cage. Using it, researchers can track and analyze an animal's movement within the plastic bathtub's dimensions of $100cm{\times}100cm{\times}55cm$ in a cost-effective manner. After recording the locomotion of an animal with $1920{\times}1080$ resolution at a rate of 30 frames per second, finding the position of the animal in each frame and analyzing the ambulation pattern were executed with custom software. To evaluate the performance of the platform, movements of imprinting control region mice and transgenic mice were recorded and analyzed. The analysis successfully compared velocity, moving pattern, and total moving distance for the two mouse groups. In addition, the developed platform can be used not only in simple motion analysis but also in various experimental conditions, such as a water maze, by easy customization of the platform. Such a simple and cost-effective platform yields a powerful tool for animal ambulatory analysis.