• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.179-190
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• 2020

In this paper, we estimated the Direction of Arrival (DOA) using Conventional BeamForming (CBF), adaptive beamforming and compressive beamforming. Minimum Variance Distortionless Response (MVDR) and Multiple Signal Classification (MUSIC) are used as the adaptive beamforming, and grid-free compressive sensing is applied for the compressive sensing beamforming. Theoretical background and limitations of each technique are introduced, and the performance of each technique is compared through simulation and real experiments. The real experiments are conducted in the presence of reflected signal, transmitting a sound using two speakers and receiving acoustic data through a linear array consisting of eight microphones. Simulation and experimental results show that the adaptive beamforming and the grid-free compressive beamforming have a higher resolution than conventional beamforming when there are uncorrelated signals. On the other hand, the performance of the adaptive beamforming is degraded by the reflected signals whereas the grid-free compressive beamforming still improves the conventional beamforming resolution regardless of reflected signal presence.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.72-81
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• 2014

Even though two-hands lifting/lowering activity of manual materials handling tasks are prevalent at the industrial site, many manual materials handling tasks which require the worker to perform one-hand lifting/lowering are also very common at the industrial site, forestry, farming, and daily life. The objective of this study was to compare one-hand lowering activity to lifting activity in terms of biomechanical stress for the range of lowering heights from knuckle height to 10cm above floor level with two workload 7.5kg and 15.0kg. Eight male subjects with LMM were asked to perform lifting/lowering tasks using both a one-handed (left-hand and right-hand) as well as a two-handed technique. Spinal loading was estimated through an EMG-assisted free-dynamic biomechanical model. The biomechanical stress of one-hand lowering activity was shown to be 43% lower than that of one-hand lifting activity. It was claimed that the biomechanical stress for one-hand lifting/lowering activity is almost twice (194%) of the one for two-hands lifting/lowering activity. It was also found that biomechanical stress by one-hand lowering/lifting activity with the half workload of two-hands lowering/lifting activity was greater than that of the two-hands lowering/lifting activity. Therefore, it might be a risk to consider the RWL of one-hand lowering/lifting activity to simply be a half of the RWL of two-hands lowering/lifting activity recommended by NIOSH.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.413-420
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• 2013

Objective: The objective of this study was to compare one-hand and two-hands lowering activity in terms of biomechanical stress for the range of lowering heights from knuckle height to 10cm above floor level. Background: Even though two-hands lifting/lowering activity of manual materials handling tasks are prevalent at the industrial site, many manual materials handling tasks which require the worker to perform one-hand lifting/lowering are also very common at the industrial site and forestry and farming. Method: Eight male subjects were asked to perform lowering tasks using both a one-handed as well as a two-handed lowering technique. Trunk muscle electromyographic activity was recorded while the subjects performed the lowering tasks. This information was used as input to an EMG-assisted free-dynamic biomechanical model that predicted spinal loading in three dimensions. Results: It was shown that for the left-hand lowering tasks, the values of moment, lateral shear force, A-P shear force, and compressive force were increased by the average 6%, as the workload was increased twice from 7.5kg to 15kg. For the right-hand lowering task, these were increased by the average 17%. For the two-hands lowering tasks, these were increased by the average 14%. Conclusion: Even though the effect of workload on the biomechanical stress for both one-hand and two-hands lowering tasks is not so significant for the workload less than 15kg, it can be claimed that the biomechanical stress for one-hand lowering is greater than for two-hands lowering tasks. Therefore, it can be concluded that asymmetrical lowering posture would give greater influence on the biomechanical stress than the workload effect for one-hand lowering activity. Application: The result of this study may be used to provide guidelines of recommended safe weights for tasks involved in one-hand lowering activity.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.146-151
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• 2018

Background A persistent problem in autologous breast reconstruction in skin-sparing mastectomies is skin restoration after skin necrosis or secondary oncological resection. As a solution to facilitate reconstruction, skin banking of free-flap skin has been proposed in cases where the overlying skin envelope must be resected, as this technique spares the patient an additional donor site. Herein, we present the largest series to date in which this method was used. We investigated its safety and the possibility of skin banking for prolonged periods of time. Methods All skin-sparing mastectomies and immediate autologous breast reconstructions from December 2009 until June 2013 at our institution were analysed. Results We identified 31 patients who underwent 33 free flap reconstructions in which skin banking was performed. Our median skin banking period was 7 days, with a maximum duration of 171 days. In 22.5% of cases, the banked skin was used to reconstruct overlying skin defects, and in 9.6% of cases to reconstruct the nipple-areolar complex. Microbiological and histological investigations of the banked skin revealed neither clinical infections nor malignancies. Conclusions In situ skin banking, even for prolonged periods of time, is a safe and cost-effective method to ensure that skin defects due to necrosis or secondary oncological resection can be easily reconstructed.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.345-350
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• 2018

Background The radial forearm free flap (RFFF) has remained a leading choice of many plastic surgeons as a fasciocutaneous flap due to its versatility, pedicle length, and simple elevation technique. However, donor site morbidity has led many reconstructive surgeons to limit their use of the RFFF and to use other flaps instead. We propose that using a narrow RFFF (nRFFF) decreases the aesthetic and functional morbidity of the donor site. Methods We report our experiences with the nRFFF from April 2012 through May 2015 at the Department of Plastic, Reconstructive, and Hand Surgery at Liaquat National Hospital, Karachi. The donor defects were closed primarily. The Stony Brook Scar Evaluation Scale and comparison with the contralateral hand were used to assess aesthetic and functional outcomes, respectively. Results A total of 24 patients underwent nRFFF procedures during the study period. The donor arm showed excellent motor function in 22 cases (91.7%), and very good function in the remaining two cases (8.3%). The aesthetic outcomes were excellent in four patients (16.6%), very good in eight patients (33.3%), good in 10 patients (41.6%), and fair in two patients (8.3%) who developed a hypertrophic scar. All flaps were successful and there were no cases of partial or complete loss. Conclusions For small to medium-sized soft tissue defects, the nRFFF had acceptable outcomes due to its thinness, pliability, and major reduction in donor site aesthetic and functional morbidity.

• International journal of advanced smart convergence
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.169-173
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• 2018

Iris diagnosis based on the color and texture information is one of a novel approach which can represent the current state of a certain organ inside body or the health condition of a person. In analysis of the iris images, there are critical image artifacts which can prevent of use interpretation of the iris textures on images. Here, we developed the iris diagnosis system based on a hand-held typed imaging probe which consists of a single camera sensor module with 8M pixels, two pairs of 400~700 nm LED, and a guide beam. Two original images with different light noise pattern were successively acquired in turns, and the light noise-free image was finally reconstructed and demonstrated by the proposed artifact removal approach.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.61-65
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• 2012

Air-water flow measurements are of importance for the coastal and ocean engineering fields. Although kinematic investigations of the multi-phase flows have been conducted for long time, velocity measurements still are concerned with many researchers and engineers in coastal and ocean areas. In the present study, an imaging technique using shadowgraphy and fiber optic probe for velocity measurements of air bubbles is introduced. The shadow graphy image technique is modified from the typical image velocimetry methods, and optical fibers are used for the well-known intrusive coupled phase-detection probe system. Since the imaging technique is a non-intrusive optical method from the air, it is usually applied for 2D flows. On the other hand, the double fiber optic probes touch flows regardless of flow patterns. The results of the flow measurements by both methods are compared and discussed. The methods are also applied to the measurements of overtopping flows by a breaking wave over the structure fixed on the free surface.

• Archives of Reconstructive Microsurgery
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 1998

From January 1985 to February 1997, 96 patients had undergone the free vascularized groin flap on the upper and lower extremities with microsurgical technique at the department of orthopaedic surgery, Yonsei University College of Medicine. The results were as follows: 1. Average age at the time of operation was 24.9 years. and there were 71 men and 25 women and mean follow up was 62.4 months. 2. The lesion site was 82 cases on the lower extremity: foot(40), leg(20), ankle(13), and 14 cases on the upper extremity: forearm(6), elbow(3), hand(3), wrist(2). 3. The anatomical classification of the superficial circumflex iliac artery was as follows: 1) 39.8% of common origin with superficial inferior epigastric artery, 2) 30.1% of isolated origin and absent superficial inferior epigastric artery, 3) 13.3% of separate origin, 4) 16.9% of origin from the deep femoral artery. 4. There was no statistical significance on arterial anastomosis between end to end and end to side, and on venous anastomosis(end to end) between one vein and two veins. 5. The success rate was average 84.4% in 81 of 96 cases. 6. In the 15 failed cases, the additional procedures were performed: 5 cases of free vascularized scapular flap, 6 cases of full thickness skin graft, 2 cases of cross leg flap, 1 case of latissimus dorsi flap, 1 case of split thickness skin graft. In conclusion, the free vascularized groin flap can be considered as the treatment of choice for the reconstruction of the extensive soft tissue injury on the extremities, and show the higher success rate with the experienced surgeon.

• International Journal of Control, Automation, and Systems
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• v.5 no.6
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• pp.674-680
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• 2007

The probabilistic roadmap (PRM) method, which is a popular path planning scheme, for a manipulator, can find a collision-free path by connecting the start and goal poses through a roadmap constructed by drawing random nodes in the free configuration space. PRM exhibits robust performance for static environments, but its performance is poor for dynamic environments. On the other hand, reinforcement learning, a behavior-based control technique, can deal with uncertainties in the environment. The reinforcement learning agent can establish a policy that maximizes the sum of rewards by selecting the optimal actions in any state through iterative interactions with the environment. In this paper, we propose efficient real-time path planning by combining PRM and reinforcement learning to deal with uncertain dynamic environments and similar environments. A series of experiments demonstrate that the proposed hybrid path planner can generate a collision-free path even for dynamic environments in which objects block the pre-planned global path. It is also shown that the hybrid path planner can adapt to the similar, previously learned environments without significant additional learning.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.104-111
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• 1997

The freezing phenomenon of saturated water with the supercooled region in a horizontal circular cylinder has been studied experimentally by using the holographic real time interferometry technique. From the experiments, it was found that there were three types of freezing patterns. The first is the annular ice layer growing from the cylinder surface at a high cooling rate; the next is the asymmetric ice layer at a moderate cooling rate; and the last is the instantaneous ice layer growth over the full region at lower cooling rate. As the water was coolde from room temperature to the subfreezing point passing through the density inversion point, the freezing pattern was largely affected by the inversion phenomenon, which had much effected the free convection and was susceptible to influences from the cooling rate. When the cooling rate is high, supercooling energy is released before the water is sufficientry mixed by free convection. On the other hand, when the cooling rate is low, there is much time for the water to be mixed by free convection. This seems to be the reason why the different ice layer growths occur.