• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.1A
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• pp.61-69
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• 2010

Unbonded precast concrete piers have better seismic performances than conventional reinforced concrete piers. In this research, seismic performances of unbonded precast prestressed concrete piers are analyzed using OpenSEES. Main parameters of analysis are concrete strength, jacking force ratio, ratio of tendon, and size of precast segment. In results, as the ratio of tendon and jacking force ratio increase, the flexural strength increases at softening state and ultimate state. Concrete strength and size of precast segment are negligible. But initial jacking force ratio leads to early yielding of prestressing tendon. Since compressive strain in core concrete is much less than ultimate strain, it can be expected that the amount of transverse steel reinforcement is to be reduced in comparison with conventional reinforced concrete column.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.328-339
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• 2010

This study was conducted to develop a service quality measurement scale suitable for the fast food restaurant segment. After reviewing the relevant literature, it was decided that the current service quality measurement scales (SERVQUAL, SERVPERF, DINESERV) are not appropriate for the fast food restaurant segment. Based on Cronin & Taylor's (1994) argument, perceived service quality is a form of attitude that represents a long-term overall evaluation of the company. Therefore, this study selected SERVPERF items for the initial pool of service quality items. Through a systematic scale development process, the SERVPERF instrument was then refined and a new concise scale was produced. Specifically, a focus group discussion with a group of patrons who are very familiar with fast food restaurants was conducted and the new service quality measure was refined so that it would be more realistic and closely describe service operation in the fast food industry. Moreover, the data collected from 112 college students who visit fast food restaurants frequently were used to statistically evaluate each of the items again via EFA (Exploratory Factor Analysis) and three sub-dimensions were derived: (1) responsiveness, (2) tangibles, and (3) reliability. Additionally, the data collected from 179 fast food restaurant consumers was used to conduct CFA (Confirmatory Factor Analysis). During this process, the convergent validity, discriminant validity, and internal consistency were double-checked. Overall, the newly developed scale achieved validity and reliability on a theoretical and statistical basis. Possible interpretations and managerial implications are also suggested.

• International Journal of Contents
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.1-10
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• 2014

In this paper, we propose a method to build an accurate initial trimap for the GrabCut algorithm without the need for human interaction. First, we identify a rough candidate for the label region of a bottle by applying a saliency map to find a salient area from the image. Then, the Hough Transformation method is used to detect the left and right borders of the label region, and the k-means algorithm is used to localize the upper and lower borders of the label of the bottle. These four borders are used to build an initial trimap for the GrabCut method. Finally, GrabCut segments accurate regions for the label. The experimental results for 130 wine bottle images demonstrated that the saliency map extracted a rough label region with an accuracy of 97.69% while also removing the complex background. The Hough transform and projection method accurately drew the outline of the label from the saliency area, and then the outline was used to build an initial trimap for GrabCut. Finally, the GrabCut algorithm successfully segmented the bottle label with an average accuracy of 92.31%. Therefore, we believe that our method is suitable for product label recognition systems that automatically segment product labels. Although our method achieved encouraging results, it has some limitations in that unreliable results are produced under conditions with varying illumination and reflections. Therefore, we are in the process of developing preprocessing algorithms to improve the proposed method to take into account variations in illumination and reflections.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.458-464
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• 2013

This paper presents an algorithm for autonomous landing approach of a unmanned aerial vehicle. The main purpose of the autonomous landing approach in this study is to help a safe landing at night. From any initial position of the aircraft when this function is engaged, a flight path command is generated from the initial position. The shortest combination of an initial circular arc, a straight line segment, and a final circular arc is chosen for the flight path that will lead the aircraft to one end of runway for a landing. The algorithm is initially validated through numerous simulations with various initial conditions of aircraft. Then it is successfully validated through a number of flight tests.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.213-218
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• 2009

Objective : This study is a retrospective clinical study over more than 4 years of follow up to understand the mechanism of load sharing across the graft-bone interface in the static locking plate (SLP) fixation compared with non-locking plate (NLP). Methods : Orion locking plates and Top non-locking plates were used for SLP fixation in 29 patients and NLP fixation in 24 patients, respectively. Successful interbody fusion was estimated by dynamic X-ray films. The checking parameters were as follows : screw angle (SA) between upper and lower screw, anterior and posterior height of fusion segment between upper and lower endplate (AH & PH), and upper and lower distance from vertebral endplate to the end of plate (UD & LD). Each follow-up value of AH and PH were compared to initial values. Contributions of upper and lower collapse to whole segment collapse were estimated. Results : Successful intervertebral bone fusion rate was 100% in the SLP group and 92% in the NLP group. The follow-up mean value of SA in SLP group was not significantly changed compared with initial value, but follow-up mean value of SA in NLP group decreased more than those in SLP group (p=0.0067). Statistical analysis did not show a significant difference in the change in AH and PH between SLP and NLP groups (p>0.05). Follow-up AH of NLP group showed more collapse than PH of same group (p=0.04). The upper portion of the vertebral body collapsed more than the lower portion in the SLP fixation (p=0.00058). Conclusion : The fused segments with SLP had successful bone fusion without change in initial screw angle, which was not observed in NLP fixation. It suggests that there was enough load sharing across bone-graft interface in SLP fixation.

• Journal of the Institute of Convergence Signal Processing
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.220-232
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• 2012

In this paper, we investigate the correlation result due to the problems of delay tracking and fringe rotation module in the VCS(VLBI Correlation Subsystem). The VCS, FX-type correlator, adopts the delay tracking and fringe rotation module in order to compensate the delay change and fringe phase of wave signal from the radio source by Doppler's effect. The phase of observed data is also compensated by means of delay tracking and fringe rotation in the correlator, but we confirmed that the phase is unstable by applying long integration period of AIPS(Astronomical Image Processing System) rather than correlator. And the delay value of observed data has the errors of several tens nanoseconds than normal case at the analysis of correlation result. In addition, we found that the phase of correlation results is not connected as the unit of FFT-segment because the initial fringe phase at the fringe rotation module is not correctly determined. In this paper, in order to solve these problems, the original direction of 90 degree phase jump is reversely modified when the bit-shift occurred at the delay tracking. And the initial fringe phase at the fringe rotation module is correctly modified by using the initial phase of observed data. In addition, the parameter calculation module was abnormally operated as designed in the fringe rotation. So, the logical program by the VCS is modified so as to calculate the parameters correctly. Through the experiments of correlation processing over the above problems, the modified proposal algorithm is adequately corrected to the data analysis results, so that the experimental results make it clear for us to operate the developed VCS hardware correlator normally.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.52 no.11
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• pp.105-114
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• 2015

This paper proposes methods to remove background area and segment region of interest (ROI) in chest X-ray images. Conventional algorithms to improve detail or contrast of images normally utilize brightness and frequency information. If we apply such algorithms to the entire images, we cannot obtain reliable visual quality due to unnecessary information such as background area. So, we propose two effective algorithms to remove background and segment ROI from the input X-ray images. First, the background removal algorithm analyzes the histogram distribution of the input X-ray image. Next, the initial background is estimated by a proper thresholding on histogram domain, and it is removed. Finally, the body contour or background area is refined by using a popular guided filter. On the other hand, the ROI, i.e., lung segmentation algorithm first determines an initial bounding box using the lung's inherent location information. Next, the main intensity value of the lung is computed by vertical cumulative sum within the initial bounding box. Then, probable outliers are removed by using a specific labeling and the pre-determined background information. Finally, a bounding box including lung is obtained. Simulation results show that the proposed background removal and ROI segmentation algorithms outperform the previous works.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.18 no.7
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• pp.85-91
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• 1999

The purpose of this study is to investigate phonetic realization of flap [r], one of the allophones of Korean /l/. Phonetic realization of a segment is affected by not only its neighboring segments but also its prosodic position in an utterance. This study examined how various prosodic positions affect the phonetic realization of [r]. Effects of the four prosodic positions on the phonetic realization of [r] were examined: utterance initial, Intonation Phrase initial, Accentual Phrase initial, and Accentual Medial positions. Word positional effect was also examined: word initial, medial, and final positions. Acoustic and statistical analyses showed that flap [r] was realized in a variety of phonetic forms: from sonorant(the most reduced form) to short stop(the least reduced form). It was shown that generally. word-initial position is stronger than word-medial position. It was also shown that in many cases, utterance-initial position and intonation-phrase-initial position are stronger than accentual-phrase-initial and accentual-phrase-medial positions. Sonorants were observed more often in the prosodically weaker portions. VOT duration was also shorter in accentual-phrase-initial and accentual-phrase-medial positions.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.131-145
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• 2004

The informative or important entities in utterances are focused and the focused items are usually accompanied by changes in phonetic manifestation. Phonetic realizations triggered by focus include changes of tonal contours as well as segmental strengthening. Focus in Korean is characterized by new phrase initiation, dephrasing, and initial tone contour with an enlarged pitch range in addition to segmentally lengthened initial segment. Focusing on the prosodic cues which play an important role in delivering the speakers' intention, this study aims to find out what intonational characteristics of Korean focus are realized by English learners of Korean. The English learners are divided into two groups according to their fluency in Korean, and the differences in focus realization between each group are discussed. Furthermore, the phonological and phonetic realizations of focus by English learners of Korean are compared to those by Korean native speakers. The results of this study yields two suggestions for Korean intonation education of L2 learners. First, the comparison between the two speaker groups can give better understanding in how and why the Korean intonation of English speakers is different from that of Koreans. Second, each phonological and phonetic characteristic of focus realization can weigh differently and its realization provides a criterion for evaluation of L2 Korean proficiency.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.28-33
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• 2000

This paper investigates the durational difference between syllable final segment and syllable initial one within word level. The Korean consonant (m) and (nn) were focused mainly. It could hardly say that there was significant difference between preceding consonant and following one, but it was observed that the preceding consonant tended to be shorter than the following one in the (mm) case. This might be explained by the fact that bilabial sound should appear at the first step of language acquisition. This leads to the conclusion that the articulation of preceding (m) shall be easier than others. In the case of alveolar geminate (nn), there was considerable statistic difference between preceding and following segments. It tends to be that the preceding consonant has longer duration.