• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.23-29
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• 2023

Microfluidic reactors have been made to achieve significant development for the generation of new functional materials to apply in a variety of fields. Over the last decade, microfluidic reactors have attracted attention as a user-friendly approach that is enabled to control physicochemical parameters such as size, shape, composition, and surface property. Here, we develop a centrifugal microfluidic reactor that can control the flow of fluid based on centrifugal force and generate multifunctional particles of various sizes and compositions. A centrifugal microfluidic reactor is fabricated by combining microneedles, micro- centrifuge tubes, and conical tubes, which are easily obtained in the laboratory. Depending on the experimental control param- eters, including centrifuge rotation speed, alginate concentration, calcium ion concentration, and distance from the needle to the calcium aqueous solution, this strategy not only enables the generation of size-controlled microparticles in a simple and reproducible manner but also achieves scalable production without the use of complicated skills or advanced equipment. Therefore, we believe that this simple strategy could serve as an on-demand platform for a wide range of industrial and academic applications, particularly for the development of advanced smart materials with new functionalities in biomedical engineering.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.57-64
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• 2022

This study investigated the structural performance of the RC boundary beam-wall system subjected to axial loads that required lesser construction quantity and smaller floor height in comparison with the conventional RC transfer girder system. Four specimens of 1/2 scale were constructed, and their peak strengths under axial loads and failure characteristics were compared and analyzed. Test parameters included the ratio of the lower to the upper wall length, lower wall thickness, and stirrup details of the lower wall. In addition, three-dimensional nonlinear finite element analysis was performed to verify the effectiveness of the boundary beam-wall system. The peak strength of each specimen was similar to the nominal axial strength of the lower wall, indicating that the axial load was transferred smoothly from the upper to the lower wall. The contribution of the lower wall cross-section was high if the ratio of the lower to the upper wall length was small; the contribution was low if the out-of-plane eccentricity existed in the lower wall. The specimen with smaller stirrup distance and cross-ties in the lower wall showed higher initial stiffness and peak load than other specimens.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.555-562
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• 2022

This study measured and analyzed the propagation characteristics at frequencies 6, 10, and 17 GHz to discover the new propagation demands in a semi-basement indoor corridor environment for meeting the 4th industrial revolution requirements. The measured indoor environment is a straight corridor consisting of three lecture rooms and glass windows on the outside. The measurement scenario development and measurement system were constructed to match this environment. The transmitting antenna was fixed, and the frequency domain and time domain propagation characteristics were measured and analyzed in the line-of-sight environment based on the distance of the receiving antenna location. In the frequency domain, reliability was determined by the parameters of the floating intercept (FI) path loss model and an R-squared value of 0.5 or more. In the time domain, the root mean square (RMS) delay spread and the cumulative probability of K-factor were used to determine that 6 GHz had high propagation power and 17 GHz had low propagation power. These research results will be effective in providing ultra-connection and ultra-delay artificial intelligence services for WIFI 6, 5G, and future systems in a semi-basement indoor corridor environment.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.25-31
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• 2023

In order to estimate the radial speed of an underwater object so-called target with active sonar, Continuous Wave (CW) pulse is generally used, but if a target is slow and at near distance, it is not easy to estimate the radial velocity of the target due to acoustic reverberation in the ocean. In 2017, Wang et al. utilized broadband signal of two Hyperbolic Frequency Modulation (HFM) pulses, which is known as a doppler-invariant pulse, with equal frequency band and in opposite sweep directions to overcome this problem and successfully estimate the radial speed of slow-moving nearby target. They demonstrated the estimation of the radial velocity with computer simulation using the parameters of two HFM starting time differences and receiving times. However, for it uses two HFM pulses with equal frequency, cross-correlation between the two pulses negatively affect the detection performance. To mitigate this cross-correlation effect, we suggest using two different band HFM with the opposite sweep directions. In this paper, a method of radial velocity estimation is derived and simulated using two HFM pulses with the pulse length of 1 second and bandwidth of 400 Hz. Applying the suggested method, the radial velocity was estimated with approximately 6 % of relative error in the simulation.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.357-371
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• 2023

In cable tunnel construction using TBM, the vertical shaft is an essential structure for entrance and exit of TBM equipment and power lines. Since a shaft penetrates the ground vertically, it often encounters rock mass. Blasting or rock splitting methods, which are mainly used to the rock excavation, cause public complaints due to the noise, vibration and road occupation. Therefore, mechanical excavation using vertical shaft excavation machine are considered as an alternative to the conventional methods. However, at the current level of technology, the vertical excavation machine has limitation in its performance when applied for high strength rock with a compressive strength of more than 120 MPa. In this study, the potential utilization of waterjet technology as an excavation assistance method was investigated to improve mechanical excavation performance in the hard rock formations. Rock cutting experiments were conducted to verify the cutting performance of the abrasive waterjet. Based on the experimental result, it was found that ensuring excavation performance with respect to changing in ground conditions can be achieved by adjusting waterjet parameters such as standoff distance, traverse speed and water pressure. In addition, based on the relationship between excavation performance, uniaxial compressive strength and RQD, it was suggested that excavation performance could be improved by artificially creating joints using the abrasive waterjet. It is expected that these research results can be utilized as fundamental data for the introduction of vertical shaft excavation machines in the future.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Next Generation Computing
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.29-39
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• 2017

Various electronic warfare situations drive the need to develop an integrated electronic warfare simulator that can perform electronic warfare modeling and simulation on radar threats. In this paper, we analyze the components of a simulation system to reversely model the radar threats that emit electromagnetic signals based on the parameters of the electronic information, and propose a method to gradually maintain the reverse extrapolation model of RF threats. In the experiment, we will evaluate the effectiveness of the incremental model update and also assess the integration method of reverse extrapolation models. The individual model of RF threats are constructed by using decision tree, naive Bayesian classifier, artificial neural network, and clustering algorithms through Euclidean distance and cosine similarity measurement, respectively. Experimental results show that the accuracy of reverse extrapolation models improves, while the size of the threat sample increases. In addition, we use voting, weighted voting, and the Dempster-Shafer algorithm to integrate the results of the five different models of RF threats. As a result, the final decision of reverse extrapolation through the Dempster-Shafer algorithm shows the best performance in its accuracy.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.60 no.5
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• pp.375-387
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• 2023

The subsea power cables are increasingly important for harvesting renewable energies as we develop offshore wind farms located at a long distance from shore. Particularly, the continuous flexural motion of inter-array dynamic power cable of floating offshore wind turbine causes tremendous fatigue damages on the cable. As the subsea power cable consists of the helical structures with various components unlike a mooring line and a steel pipe riser, the fatigue analysis of the cables should be performed using special procedures that consider stick/slip phenomenon. This phenomenon occurs between inner helically wound components when they are tensioned or compressed by environmental loads and the floater motions. In particular, Vortex-induced vibration (VIV) can be generated by currents and have significant impacts on the fatigue life of the cable. In this study, the procedure for VIV fatigue analysis of the dynamic power cable has been established. Additionally, the respective roles of programs employed and required inputs and outputs are explained in detail. Demonstrations of case studies are provided under severely sheared currents to investigate the influences on amplitude variations of dynamic power cables caused by the excitation of high mode numbers. Finally, sensitivity studies have been performed to compare dynamic cable design parameters, specifically, structural damping ratio, higher order harmonics, and lift coefficients tables. In the future, one of the fundamental assumptions to assess the VIV response will be examined in detail, namely a narrow-banded Gaussian process derived from the VIV amplitudes. Although this approach is consistent with current industry standards, the level of consistency and the potential errors between the Gaussian process and the fatigue damage generated from deterministic time-domain results are to be confirmed to verify VIV fatigue analysis procedure for slender marine structures.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.22 no.12
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• pp.1974-1984
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• 2021

Objective: This study aimed to compare the efficacy between no-touch (NT) radiofrequency ablation (RFA) and conventional RFA using twin internally cooled wet (TICW) electrodes in the bipolar mode for the treatment of small hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC). Materials and Methods: In this single-center, two-arm, parallel-group, prospective randomized controlled study, we performed a 1:1 random allocation of eligible patients with HCCs to receive NT-RFA or conventional RFA between October 2016 and September 2018. The primary endpoint was the cumulative local tumor progression (LTP) rate after RFA. Secondary endpoints included technical conversion rates of NT-RFA, intrahepatic distance recurrence, extrahepatic metastasis, technical parameters, technical efficacy, and rates of complications. Cumulative LTP rates were analyzed using Kaplan-Meier analysis and the Cox proportional hazard regression model. Considering conversion cases from NT-RFA to conventional RFA, intention-to-treat and as-treated analyses were performed. Results: Enrolled patients were randomly assigned to the NT-RFA group (37 patients with 38 HCCs) or the conventional RFA group (36 patients with 38 HCCs). Among the NT-RFA group patients, conversion to conventional RFA occurred in four patients (10.8%, 4/37). According to intention-to-treat analysis, both 1- and 3-year cumulative LTP rates were 5.6%, in the NT-RFA group, and they were 11.8% and 21.3%, respectively, in the conventional RFA group (p = 0.073, log-rank). In the as-treated analysis, LTP rates at 1 year and 3 years were 0% and 0%, respectively, in the NT-RFA group sand 15.6% and 24.5%, respectively, in the conventional RFA group (p = 0.004, log-rank). In as-treated analysis using multivariable Cox regression analysis, RFA type was the only significant predictive factor for LTP (hazard ratio = 0.061 with conventional RFA as the reference, 95% confidence interval = 0.000-0.497; p = 0.004). There were no significant differences in the procedure characteristics between the two groups. No procedure-related deaths or major complications were observed. Conclusion: NT-RFA using TICW electrodes in bipolar mode demonstrated significantly lower cumulative LTP rates than conventional RFA for small HCCs, which warrants a larger study for further confirmation.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.22 no.11
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• pp.1850-1857
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• 2021

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess whether a deep learning (DL) algorithm could enable simultaneous noise reduction and edge sharpening in low-dose lumbar spine CT. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study included 52 patients (26 male and 26 female; median age, 60.5 years) who had undergone CT-guided lumbar bone biopsy between October 2015 and April 2020. Initial 100-mAs survey images and 50-mAs intraprocedural images were reconstructed by filtered back projection. Denoising was performed using a vendor-agnostic DL model (ClariCT.AI^TM, ClariPI) for the 50-mAS images, and the 50-mAs, denoised 50-mAs, and 100-mAs CT images were compared. Noise, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and edge rise distance (ERD) for image sharpness were measured. The data were summarized as the mean ± standard deviation for these parameters. Two musculoskeletal radiologists assessed the visibility of the normal anatomical structures. Results: Noise was lower in the denoised 50-mAs images (36.38 ± 7.03 Hounsfield unit [HU]) than the 50-mAs (93.33 ± 25.36 HU) and 100-mAs (63.33 ± 16.09 HU) images (p < 0.001). The SNRs for the images in descending order were as follows: denoised 50-mAs (1.46 ± 0.54), 100-mAs (0.99 ± 0.34), and 50-mAs (0.58 ± 0.18) images (p < 0.001). The denoised 50-mAs images had better edge sharpness than the 100-mAs images at the vertebral body (ERD; 0.94 ± 0.2 mm vs. 1.05 ± 0.24 mm, p = 0.036) and the psoas (ERD; 0.42 ± 0.09 mm vs. 0.50 ± 0.12 mm, p = 0.002). The denoised 50-mAs images significantly improved the visualization of the normal anatomical structures (p < 0.001). Conclusion: DL-based reconstruction may enable simultaneous noise reduction and improvement in image quality with the preservation of edge sharpness on low-dose lumbar spine CT. Investigations on further radiation dose reduction and the clinical applicability of this technique are warranted.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.1-14
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• 2024

The most optimal route-search algorithm thus far has introduced a method of applying node labels and link labels. Node labels consider two nodes simultaneously in the optimal route-search process, while link labels consider two links simultaneously. This study proposes a turn-label-based optimal route-search technique that considers two turns simultaneously in the process. Turn-label-based optimal route search guarantees the optimal solution of dynamic programming based on Bellman's principle as it considers a two-turn search process. Turn-label-based optimal route search can accommodate the advantages of applying link labels because the concept of approaching the limit of link labels is applied equally. Therefore, it is possible to reflect rational cyclic traffic where nodes allow multiple visits without expanding the network, while links do not allow visits. In particular, it reflects the additional cost structure that appears in two consecutive turns, making it possible to express the structure of the travel-cost function more flexibly. A case study was conducted on the metropolitan urban railway network consisting of transportation card terminal readers, aiming to examine the scalability of the research by introducing parameters that reflect psychological resistance in travel with continuous pedestrian transfers into turn label optimal path search. Simulation results showed that it is possible to avoid conservative transfers even if the travel time and distance increase as the psychological resistance value for continuous turns increases, confirming the need to reflect the cost structure of turn labels. Nevertheless, further research is needed to secure diversity in the travel-cost functions of road and public-transportation networks.