• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.11 no.9
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• pp.1296-1301
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• 2008

Ultrasonography constructs pictures of areas inside the body needs in diagnosis by bouncing high-enorgy sound waves(ultrasound) off internal tissues or organs. In constructing an ultrasonographic image, the weakness of bounding signals induces noises and detailed differences of brightness, so that having a difficulty in detecting and diagnosing with the naked eyes in the analysis of ultrasonogram. Especially, the difficulty is extended when diagnosing muscle areas by using ultrasonographic images in the musculoskeletal test. In this paper, we propose a novel image processing method that computationally extracts a muscle area from an ultrasonographic image to assist in diagnosis. An ultrasonographic image consists of areas corresponding to various tissues and internal organs. The proposed method, based on features of intensity distribution, morphology and size of each area, extracts areas of the fascia, the subcutaneous fat and other internal organs, and then extracts a muscle area enclosed by areas of the fascia. In the extraction of areas of the fascia, a series of image processing methods such as histogram stretching, multiple operation, binarization and area connection by labeling is applied. A muscle area is extracted by using features on relative position and morphology of areas for the fascia and muscle areas. The performance evaluation using real ultrasonographic images and specialists' analysis show that the proposed method is able to extract target areas being approximate to real muscle areas.

• Journal of KIISE:Software and Applications
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.235-247
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• 2002

For an efficient indexing and retrieval of digital video data, research on video caption extraction and recognition is required. This paper proposes methods for extracting artificial captions from video data and enhancing their image quality for an accurate Hangul and English character recognition. In the proposed methods, we first find locations of beginning and ending frames of the same caption contents and combine those multiple frames in each group by logical operation to remove background noises. During this process an evaluation is performed for detecting the integrated results with different caption images. After the multiple video frames are integrated, four different image enhancement techniques are applied to the image: resolution enhancement, contrast enhancement, stroke-based binarization, and morphological smoothing operations. By applying these operations to the video frames we can even improve the image quality of phonemes with complex strokes. Finding the beginning and ending locations of the frames with the same caption contents can be effectively used for the digital video indexing and browsing. We have tested the proposed methods with the video caption images containing both Hangul and English characters from cinema, and obtained the improved results of the character recognition.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.408-422
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• 2000

Multiple geophysical methods were applied over the Manjang cave area in Cheju Island to compare and contrast the effectiveness of each method for exploration of underground cavities. The used methods are gravity, magnetic, electrical resistivity and GPR(Ground Pentrating Radar) survey, of which instruments are portable and operations are relatively economical. We have chosen seven survey lines and applied appropriate multiple surveys depending on the field conditions. In the case of magnetic method. two-dimensional grid-type surveys were carried out to cover the survey area. The geophysical survey results reveal the characteristic responses of each method relatively well. Among the applied methods, the electric resistivity methods appeared to be the most effective ones in detecting the Manjang Cave and surrounding miscellaneous cavities. Especially, on the inverted resistivity section obtained from the dipole-dipole array data, the two-dimensional distribution of high resistivity cavities are revealed well. The gravity and magnetic data are contaminated easily by various noises and do not show the definitive responses enough to locate and delineate the Manjang cave. But they provide useful information in verifying the dipole-dipole resistivity survey results. The grid-type 2-D magnetic survey data show the trend of cave development well, and it may be used as a reconnaissance regional survey for determining survey lines for further detailed explorations. The GPR data show very sensitive response to the various shallow volcanic structures such as thin spaces between lava flows and small cavities, so we cannot identify the response of the main cave. Although each geophysical method provides its own useful information, the integrated interpretation of multiple survey data is most effective for investigation of the underground caves.

• The KIPS Transactions:PartA
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• v.13A no.5 s.102
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• pp.465-472
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• 2006

Recently, many suggestions have been made in image segmentation methods for extracting human organs or disease affected area from huge amounts of medical image datasets. However, images from some areas, such as brain, which have multiple structures with ambiruous structural borders, have limitations in their structural segmentation. To address this problem, clustering technique which classifies voxels into finite number of clusters is often employed. This, however, has its drawback, the influence from noise, which is caused from voxel by voxel operations. Therefore, applying image enhancing method to minimize the influence from noise and to make clearer image borders would allow more robust structural segmentation. This research proposes an efficient structural segmentation method by filtering based clustering to extract detail structures such as white matter, gray matter and cerebrospinal fluid from brain MR. First, coherence enhancing diffusion filtering is adopted to make clearer borders between structures and to reduce the noises in them. To the enhanced images from this process, fuzzy c-means clustering method was applied, conducting structural segmentation by assigning corresponding cluster index to the structure containing each voxel. The suggested structural segmentation method, in comparison with existing ones with clustering using Gaussian or general anisotropic diffusion filtering, showed enhanced accuracy which was determined by how much it agreed with the manual segmentation results. Moreover, by suggesting fine segmentation method on the border area with reproducible results and minimized manual task, it provides efficient diagnostic support for morphological abnormalities in brain.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.39-48
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• 2014

Objective: This entire study has two parts. Study I aimed to develop a psychological assessment scale and the study II aimed to investigate the effects of LFN (low frequency noise) on the psychological responses in humans, using the scale developed in the study I. Background: LFN is known to have a negative impact on the functioning of humans. The negative impact of LFN can be categorized into two major areas of functioning of humans, physiological and psychological areas of functioning. The physiological impact can cause abnormalities in threshold, balancing and/or vestibular system, cardiovascular system and, hormone changes. Psychological functioning includes cognition, communication, mental health, and annoyance. Method: 182 college students participated in the study I in development of a psychological assessment scale and 42 paid volunteers participated in the study II to measure psychological responses. The LFN stimuli consisted of 12 different pure tones and 12 different 1 octave-band white noises and each stimulus had 4 different frequencies and 3 different sounds pressure levels. Results: We developed the psychological assessment scale consisting of 17 items with 3 dimensions of psychological responses (i.e., perceived physical, perceived physiological, and emotional responses). The main findings of LFN on the responses were as follows: 1. Perceived psychological responses showed a linear relation with SPL (sound pressure level), that is the higher the SPL is, the higher the negative psychological responses were. 2. Psychological responses showed quadric relations with SPL in general. 3. More negative responses at 31.5Hz LFN than those of 63 and 125Hz were reported, which is deemed to be caused by perceived vibration by 31.5Hz. 'Perceived vibration' at 31.5Hz than those of other frequencies of LFN is deemed to have amplified the negative psychological response. Consequently there found different effects of low frequency noise with different frequencies and intensity (SPL) on multiple psychological responses. Conclusion: Three dimensions of psychological responses drawn in regard to this study differed from others in the frequencies and SLP of LFN. Negative psychological responses are deemed to be differently affected by the frequency, SPL of the LFN and 'feel vibration' induced by the LFN. Application: The psychological scale from our study can be applied in quantitative psychological measurement of LFN at home or industrial environment. In addition, it can also help design systems to block LFN to provide optimal conditions if used the study outcome, .i.e., the relations between physical and psychological responses of LFN.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.503-524
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• 2000

Intercomparisons between four kinds of data have been done to estimate the accuracy of satellite observations and model reanalysis for middle and lower tropospheric thermal state over regional oceans. The data include the Microwave Sounding Units (MSU) Channel 2 (Ch2) brightness temperatures of NOAA satellites and the vertically weighted corresponding temperature of ECMWF GCM (1980-93). The satellite data for midtropospheric temperatures are MSU2 (1980-98) in nadir direction and SC2 (1980-97) in multiple scans, and for lower tropospheric temperature SC2R (1980-97). MSU2 was derived in this study while SC2 and SC2R were described in Spencer and Christy (1992a, 1992b). Temporal correlations between the above data were high (r${\ge}$0.90) in the middle and high latitudes, but low(r${\sim}$0.65) over the low latitude and more convective regions. Their values with SC2R which included the noises due to hydrometeors and surface emission were conspicuously low. The reanalysis shows higher correlation with SC2 than with MSU2 partially because of the hydrometeors screening. SC2R in monthly climatological anomalies was more sensitive to surface thermal condition in northern hemisphere than MSU2 or SC2. The first EOF mode for the monthly mean data of MSU and ECMWF shows annual cycle over most regions except the tropics. The mode in MSU2 over the Pacific suggests the east-west dipole due to the Walker circulation, but this tendency is not clear in other data. In the first and second modes for the Ch2 anomalies over most regions, the MSU and ECMWF data commonly indicate interannual variability due to El Ni${\tilde{n}$o and La Ni${\tilde{n}$a. The substantial disagreement between observations and model reanalysis occurs over the equatorial upwelling region of the western Pacific, suggesting uncertainties in the model parameterization of atmosphere-ocean interaction.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.36 no.2_2
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• pp.351-363
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• 2020

It is well known that alluvial sediment located in coastal region has been easily affected by geohazard like ground subsidence, marine or meteorological disasters which threaten invaluable lives and properties. The subsidence is a sinking of the ground due to underground material movement that mostly related to soil compaction by water extraction. Thus, continuous monitoring is essential to protect possible damage from the ground subsidence in the coastal region. Radar interferometric application has been widely used to estimate surface displacement from phase information of synthetic aperture radar (SAR). Thanks to advanced SAR technique like the Small BAseline Subset (SBAS), a time-series of surface displacement could be successfully calculated with a large amount of SAR observations (>20). Because the ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 L-band observations maintain higher coherence compared with other shorter wavelength like X- or C-band, it has been regarded as one of the best resources for Earth science. However, the number of ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 observations might be not enough for the SBAS application due to its global monitoring observation scenario. Unfortunately, the number of the ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 Stripmap images in area of our interest, Busan which located in the Southeastern Korea, is only 11 which is insufficient to apply the SBAS time-series analysis. Although it is common that the radar interferometry utilizes multiple SAR images collected from same acquisition mode, it has been reported that the ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 Stripmap-ScanSAR interferometric application could be possible under specific acquisition mode. In case that we can apply the Stripmap-ScanSAR interferometry with the other 18 ScanSAR observations over Busan, an enhanced time-series surface displacement with better temporal resolution could be estimated. In this study, we evaluated feasibility of the ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 Stripmap-ScanSAR interferometric application using Gamma software considering differences of chirp bandwidth and pulse repetition frequency (PRF) between two acquisition modes. In addition, we analyzed the interferograms with respect to spectral shift of radar carrier frequency and common band filtering. Even though it shows similar level of coherence regardless of spectral shift in the radar carrier frequency, we found periodic spectral noises in azimuth direction and significant degradation of coherence in azimuth direction after common band filtering. Therefore, the characteristics of spectral bandwidth in the range and azimuth direction should be considered cautiously for the ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 Stripmap-ScanSAR interferometry.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.199-213
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• 1967

Circulatory and respiratory activities were observed in men exposed to the environment of engine room of a cruising Republic of Korea Navy ship and compared to the control values obtained in an ordinary laboratory room on land. The environment of an engine room of cruising navy ship was presumed to be a multiple stress acting on men. The environment of the engine room included high temperature $(35-42^{\circ}C)$, low relative humidity (20-38% saturation), vibration (about 7 cycles per second), rolling and pitching of ship and noises. Sixteen men were divided into two groups consisted of each 8 subjects. Subjects of sea duty group had experience of continuous on board duty averaging 3.5 years. Men of land duty group had no experience of on board activity. On land observations were made on one day prior to the boarding and leaving the port and four days after landing. In between observations in the engine room were made on the first, 5 th, 9 th, 12 th, and 14 th day of on board activity. The whole experimental period lasted for 20 days. Measurements on circulatory and respiratory parameters were at standing resting state (after 30 minutes standing in the case of on land study and 15 minutes in engine room study) and within one minute after cessation of on the spot running of which rhythm was 30/min. and lasted for 5 minutes. Oxygen consumption and pulmonary function test were done in the period of two minutes from the 3rd to 5th minutes of running. The following results were obtained. 1. Body temperature showed no change regardless of group difference or on land or on board measurements. 2. Pulse rate increased markedly after boarding the ship id both groups. Pulse rate increased from the first day on board at rest and after exercise as compared to the on land control value. This increase in pulse rate was more marked after exercise. Sea duty group showed less increase in pulse rate at rest than the land duty group. Standing and resting pulse rate of sea duty group on lam was 81 and increased to 87 at the 5th day on board and remained smaller than the land duty group throughout the period on board. Control standing and resting pulse rate of land duty group on land was 76 and reached 89 at the 9th day on board and thereafter decreased a little. Pulse rate of land duty group at rest on board remained greater than that of sea duty group throughout the period on board. 3. Systolic blood pressure of sea duty group increased after boarding the ship and remained higher than the control value on land. In the land duty group, however, systolic blood pressure decreased during the period on board the ship. Diastolic blood pressure decreased in both groups. 4. Resting breathing rate of land duty group increased and remained higher than the control value on land. In sea duty group, however, resting breathing rate showed a transient increase on the 1st day on board and decreased thereafter to the control value on land and kept the same level throughout the period of cruise. Absolute value of breathing rate in the sea duty group was greater than the land duty group both at rest and after exercise. 5. There was a lowering of breathing efficiency in both groups. Thus, increases in tidal volume and minute ventilation volume and decreases in maximum breathing capacity, vital capacity, capacity ratio and air velocity Index were observed after boarding the ship. An increase in ventilation equivalent was also observed in both groups. The lowering of breathing efficiency was more marked in the land duty group than the sea duty group. 6. Energy expediture increased in both groups during their stay on the ship and was more marked in the sea duty group. 7, Lactate concentration in venous blood at rest and after exercise increased after boarding the ship and no group difference was observed.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.56 no.8
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• pp.497-508
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• 2023

Agricultural reservoirs are crucial structures for water resources monitoring especially in Korea where the resources are seasonally unevenly distributed. Optical and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites, being utilized as tools for monitoring the reservoirs, have unique limitations in that optical sensors are sensitive to weather conditions and SAR sensors are sensitive to noises and multiple scattering over dense vegetations. In this study, we tried to improve water body detection accuracy through optical-SAR data fusion, and quantitatively analyze the complementary effects. We first detected water bodies at Edong, Cheontae reservoir using the Compact Advanced Satellite 500(CAS500), Kompsat-3/3A, and Sentinel-2 derived Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI), and SAR backscattering coefficient from Sentinel-1 by K-means clustering technique. After that, the improvements in accuracies were analyzed by applying K-means clustering to the 2-D grid space consists of NDWI and SAR. Kompsat-3/3A was found to have the best accuracy (0.98 at both reservoirs), followed by Sentinel-2(0.83 at Edong, 0.97 at Cheontae), Sentinel-1(both 0.93), and CAS500(0.69, 0.78). By applying K-means clustering to the 2-D space at Cheontae reservoir, accuracy of CAS500 was improved around 22%(resulting accuracy: 0.95) with improve in precision (85%) and degradation in recall (14%). Precision of Kompsat-3A (Sentinel-2) was improved 3%(5%), and recall was degraded 4%(7%). More precise water resources monitoring is expected to be possible with developments of high-resolution SAR satellites including CAS500-5, developments of image fusion and water body detection techniques.