• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.429-440
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• 2007

A coded excitation has been studied to improve the performance for ultrasound imaging in term of SNR, imaging frame rate, contrast to tissue ratio, and so forth. However, it requires a complicated arbitrary waveform transmitter for each active channel that is typically composed of a multi-bit Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC) and a linear power amplifier (LPA). Not only does the LPA increase the cost and size of a transmitter block, but it consumes much power, increasing the system complexity further and causing a heating-up problem. This paper proposes an optimized 1.5bit fourth order sigma-delta modulation technique applicable to design an efficient arbitrary waveform generator with greatly reduced power dissipation and hardware. The proposed SDM can provide a required SQNR with a low over-sampling ratio of 4. To this end, the loop coefficients are optimized to minimize the quantization noise power in signal band while maintaining system stability. In addition, the decision level for the 1.5 bit quantizer is optimized for a given input waveform, which results in the SQNR improvement of more than 5dB. Computer simulation results show that the SQNR of a FM(frequency modulated) signal generated by using the proposed method is about 26dB, and the peak side-lobe level (PSL) of its compressed waveform on receive is -48dB.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.105-119
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• 2015

Structural damage detection using modal strain energy (MSE) is one of the most efficient and reliable structural health monitoring techniques. However, some of the existing MSE methods have been validated for special types of structures such as beams or steel truss bridges which demands improving the available methods. The purpose of this study is to improve an efficient modal strain energy method to detect and quantify the damage in complex structures at early stage of formation. In this paper, a modal strain energy method was mathematically developed and then numerically applied to a fixed-end beam and a three-story frame including single and multiple damage scenarios in absence and presence of up to five per cent noise. For each damage scenario, all mode shapes and natural frequencies of intact structures and the first five mode shapes of assumed damaged structures were obtained using STRAND7. The derived mode shapes of each intact and damaged structure at any damage scenario were then separately used in the improved formulation using MATLAB to detect the location and quantify the severity of damage as compared to those obtained from previous method. It was found that the improved method is more accurate, efficient and convergent than its predecessors. The outcomes of this study can be safely and inexpensively used for structural health monitoring to minimize the loss of lives and property by identifying the unforeseen structural damages.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.345-355
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• 2020

In this paper, vibration characteristics of double-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is studied based upon nonlocal elastic shell theory. The significance of small scale is being perceived by developing nonlocal Love shell model. The wave propagation approach has been utilized to frame the governing equations as eigen value system. The influence of nonlocal parameter subjected to diverse end supports has been overtly analyzed. An appropriate selection of material properties and nonlocal parameter has been considered. The influence of changing mechanical parameter Poisson's ratio has been investigated in detail. The dominance of boundary conditions via nonlocal parameter is shown graphically. The results generated furnish the evidence regarding applicability of nonlocal shell model and also verified by earlier published literature.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.30 no.9A
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• pp.814-821
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• 2005

When there are many tags using the same frequency around the reader in RFID system, they disturb each other and in the end their response cannot be received by the reader. To solve this disturbance and fast identify the tags, the anti-collision algorithm, which is the core technology in RFID system, is needed. We propose two ALOHA-type Dynamic Framed Slotted ALOHA(DFS-ALOHA) algorithms using Dynamic Slot Allocation(DSA), which dynamically allocates the frame size in accordance with the number of tags and Tag Estimation Method(TEM), which estimates the number of tags around the reader. We also compare the performance of the proposed DFS-ALOHA algorithms with that of the conventional Framed Slotted ALOHA (FS-ALOHA) algorithms and the algorithms proposed by Vogt using OPNET simulation. According to the analysis, the two proposed DFS-ALOHA algorithms(DFS-ALOHA I and DFS-ALOHA II) show better performance than the conventional ALOHA-based algorithms regardless of the number of tags. Although the two proposed DFS-ALOHA algorithms show the similar performance, BFS-ALOHA ll is better because it is easier to be implemented in the system and the complexity is lower.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.741-751
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• 2010

An experimental study was performed to investigate the earthquake resistance of the beam-column connections as a part of a precast concrete moment-resisting frame that uses precast concrete U-shaped shells for the beams. Five full-scale precast concrete specimens and one conventional monolithic concrete specimen were tested under cyclic loading. The parameters for this test were the reinforcement ratio, stirrup spacing, and end-strengthening details of the precast beam shell. The test results showed that regardless of the test parameters, the precast concrete beam-column connections showed good load-carrying capacity and deformation capacity, which were comparable to those of conventional monolithic concrete specimen. However, at large deformations, the beam-column connections of the precast concrete specimens were subjected to severe strength degradation due to diagonal shear cracks and the bond-slip of re-bars at the joint region. For this reason, the energy dissipation capacity and stiffness of the precast concrete specimens were significantly less than those of the cast-in-place specimen.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.89-92
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• 2008

The seismic behavior of the lightly reinforced concrete frames (LRCFs) was controlled by the nonductile behavior of the critical regions. These critical regions require retrofit to improve the seismic behavior of the lightly reinforced concrete frames. Critical column end regions must be retrofit to increase the global ductility capacity. The objective of this research is to evaluate structural strengthening performance of lightly reinforced concrete frame with Strain hardening cement composite(SHCC) experimentally. The experimental investigation consisted of a cyclic load tests on 1/3-scale models of precast infill walls. Reinforcement detail of infill wall was variables in the experiment. The experimental results, as expected, show that the multiple crack pattern, strength, ductility and energy dissipation capacity are superior for specimen with SHCC infill wall due to bridging of fibers and stress redistribution in cement matrix.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.811-819
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• 2017

A behavior pattern analysis algorithm based on descriptors consists of information of a moving object and temporal histogram is proposed. Background learning is performed first for detecting, tracking and analyzing moving objects. Each object is identified using an association of the center of gravity of objects and tracked individually. A temporal histogram represents a motion pattern using positions of the center of gravity and time stamp of objects. The characteristic and behavior of objects are figured out by comparing each coordinates of a position history in the histogram. Behavior information which is comprised with numbers of a start and end frame, and coordinates of positions of objects is stored and managed in the linked list. Descriptors are made with the stored information and the video retrieval algorithm is designed. We confirmed the higher retrieval accuracy compare with conventional methods.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.276-287
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• 2017

RcsA is a positive activator of extracellular polysaccharide (EPS) synthesis in the Enterobacteriaceae. The rcsA gene of the soft rot pathogen Pantoea sp. strain PPE7 in Pleurotus eryngii was cloned by PCR amplification, and its role in EPS synthesis and virulence was investigated. The RcsA protein contains 3 highly conserved domains, and the C-terminal end of the open reading frame shared significant amino acid homology to the helix-turn-helix DNA binding motif of bacterial activator proteins. The inactivation of rcsA by insertional mutagenesis created mutants that had decreased production of EPS compared to the wild-type strain and abolished the virulence of Pantoea sp. strain PPE7 in P. eryngii. The Pantoea sp. strain PPE7 rcsA gene was shown to strongly affect the formation of the disease symptoms of a mushroom pathogen and to act as the virulence factor to cause soft rot disease in P. eryngii.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.305-312
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• 2010

The objective of this paper is to examine the structural performance of steel moment-resisting frames on the various connection details of Seismic Wide-flanged Beam-to-Rectangular Steel Tube Column connections. Although compared to an H-shaped steel tube, a rectangular steel tube has many advantages and is more efficient, its application is limited due to the lack of experience in using it and the connection details. Existing steel moment connections using the rectangular steel tube are mainly used through plate diaphragms. The processing of construction of the rectangular steel tube is so complicated that it is hard to apply it in the field. In this study, the structural performance and the earthquake capacity of the connection details that do not cut the rectangular steel tube column were investigated. A comparative analysis of the strength, rigidity, and energy absorption capacity of the welded connection details using an end-plate and a haunch was also performed.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.723-727
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• 2005

Ghrelin is a novel growth-hormone-releasing acylated peptide, which has been purified and identified in rat stomach. In the present study, the full-length sequence of bovine ghrelin cDNA was cloned by RT-PCR. The bovine ghrelin cDNA sequence derived in the present study included a 348 bp open reading frame and a 137 bp 3'UTR. The putative amino acid sequence of bovine prepro-ghrelin consisted of 116 amino acids, which contained the 27-amino acid ghrelin. The sequence analysis of the bovine ghrelin gene revealed that an intron existed between Gln$^{13}$ and Arg$^{14}$ of ghrelin. This exon-intron boundary matched the GT-AG rule of the splicing mechanism. Compared with rats, which have two tandem CAG sequences in the 3'end of intron, bovine ghrelin genome has only one CAG sequence. Therefore, although rats can produce 28 amino acid-ghrelin and 27 amino acid-des-Gln$^{14}$-ghrelin by alternative splicing, ruminant species, including bovines, might be able to produce only one type of ghrelin peptide, des-Gln$^{14}$-ghrelin. The influence of aging on plasma ghrelin concentration was also examined. Plasma ghrelin concentration increased after birth to approximately 600 days of age, and then remained constant.