• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.17-25
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• 2023

This study examines the fundamental frequency(f0) distribution of 2,740 Korean speakers in a dialogue speech corpus. Praat and R were used for the collection and analysis of acoustical f0 data after removing extreme values considering the interquartile f0 range of the intonational phrases produced by each individual speaker. Results showed that the average f0 value of all speakers was 185 Hz and the median value was 187 Hz. The f0 data showed a positively skewed distribution of 0.11, and the kurtosis was -0.09, which is close to the normal distribution. The pitch values of daily conversations varied in the range of 238 Hz. Further examination of the male and female groups showed distinct median f0 values: 114 Hz for males and 199 Hz for females. A t-test between the two groups yielded a significant difference. The skewness representing the distribution shape was 1.24 for the male group and 0.58 for the female group. The kurtosis was 5.21 and 3.88 for the male and female groups, and the male group values appeared leptokurtic. A regression analysis between the median f0 and age yielded a slope of 0.15 for the male group and -0.586 for the female group, which indicated a divergent relationship. In conclusion, a normative f0 distribution of different Korean age and sex groups can be examined in the conversational speech corpus recorded by a massive number of participants. However, more rigorous data might be required to define a relation between age and f0 values.

• Journal of Music and Human Behavior
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.49-68
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• 2024

This study aims to acoustically analyze Korean language characteristics and convert these findings into musical elements, providing foundational data for evidence-based music-language rehabilitation. We collected voice data from thirty men and thirty women aged 19-25, each providing six-syllable prosodic units composed of two accentual phrases, including both declarative and interrogative sentences. Analyzing this data with Praat, we extracted syllabic acoustic properties and conducted statistical analyses based on acoustic properties, sentence type, gender, and particle presence. Significant differences were found in syllable frequency and duration based on accentual phrases and prosodic units (p < .001), with interrogative showing higher frequencies and declaratives longer durations (p < .001). Female frequencies were significantly higher than males' (p < .001), with longer durations observed (p < .001). Particle syllables also showed significantly stronger intensities (p < .001). Finally, we presented melodies converted from these acoustic properties into musical scores based on pitch, duration, and accent. The insights from this analysis of six-syllable Korean sentences will guide further research on developing a system for melodizing large-scale Korean speech data, expected to be crucial in music-based language rehabilitation.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.119-126
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• 2009

This paper describes the non-stringed guitar composed of laser strings, frets, sound synthesis algorithm and a processor. The laser strings that can depict stroke and playing arpeggios comprise laser modules and photo diodes. Frets are implemented by voltage divider. The guitar body does not need to implement physically because commuted waveguide synthesis is used. The proposed frets enable; players to represent all of chords by the chord glove as well as guitar solo. Sliding, hammering-on and pulling-off sounds are synthesized by using parameters from the voltage divider. Because the pitch shifting corresponds to the time-varying propagation speed in the digital waveguide model, the proposed model can synthesize vibrato as well. After transformation of signals from the laser strings and frets into parameters for synthesis algorithm, the digital signal processor, TMS320F2812, performs the real-time synthesis algorithm and communicates with the DAC. The demonstration movieclip available via the Internet shows one to play a song, 'Arirang', synthesized by proposed algorithm and interfaces in real-time. Consequently, we can conclude that the proposed synthesis algorithm is efficient in guitar solo and there is no problem to play the non-stringed guitar in real-time.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.159-165
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• 2007

In this paper, we propose a new pre-selection of candidate units that is suitable for the unit selection based Japanese TTS system. General pre-selection method performed by calculating a context-dependent cost within IP (Intonation Phrase). Different from other languages, however. Japanese has an accent represented as the height of a relative pitch, and several words form a single accentual phrase. Also. the prosody in Japanese changes in accentual phrase units. By reflecting such prosodic change in pre-selection. the qualify of synthesized speech can be improved. Furthermore, by calculating a context-dependent cost within accentual phrase, synthesis speed can be improved than calculating within intonation phrase. The proposed method defines AP. analyzes AP in context and performs pre-selection using accentual phrase matching which calculates CCL (connected context length) of the Phoneme's candidates that should be synthesized in each accentual phrase. The baseline system used in the proposed method is VoiceText, which is a synthesizer of Voiceware. Evaluations were made on perceptual error (intonation error, concatenation mismatch error) and synthesis time. Experimental result showed that the proposed method improved the qualify of synthesized speech. as well as shortened the synthesis time.

• Journal of Korean Orthopaedic Sports Medicine
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.82-86
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• 2012

Purpose: The purpose of this study was retrospectively to evaluate the results of the modified Kidner procedure for symptomatic accessory navicular in athletes. Materials and Methods: Between July 1999 and December 2004, 26 feet in 22 patients with symptomatic accessory navicular who had underwent modified Kidner procedure were available for clinical follow-up, and 12 cases in 9 patients were available for clinical and radiological follow-up with a minimum follow-up of 5 years were included in this study. All those patients had symptomatic accessory navicular bone who underwent modified Kidner procedure. American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society (AOFAS) midfoot score, Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), and satisfaction rate were investigated. Talo-first metatarsal (T-MT1) angle, talo-calcaneal (TC) angle, and calcaneal pitch (CP) angle were measured in standing lateral radiograms. Results: AOFAS score was improved from $40.8{\pm}7.5$ (32~57) preoperatively to $88.7{\pm}8.0$ (72~100) postoperatively, and the difference was significant (p<0.01). VAS was improved from $7.0{\pm}0.9$ (5~9) preoperatively to $1.8{\pm}0.8$ (1~4) postoperatively, and the difference was significant (p<0.01). At the lastest follow up, 11 feet were very satisfied, 11 feet satisfied, and 4 feet unsatisfied (a satisfaction rate 85.0%). No significant difference was observed for T-MT1 angle (p=0.67), TC angle (p=0.93), and CP angle (p=0.49). Conclusion: Modified Kidner procedure for the symptomatic accessory navicular showed satisfactory results and is appeared to be one of the useful treatments.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.318-325
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• 2011

Pitch pine (Pinus rigida Miller) retaining walls using Steel bar, of which the constructability and strength performance are good at the construction site, were manufactured and their strength properties were evaluated. The wooden retaining wall using Steel bar was piled into four stories stretcher and three stories header, which is 770 mm high, 2,890 mm length and 782 mm width. Retaining wall was made by inserting stretchers into Steel bar after making 18 mm diameter of holes at top and bottom stretcher, and then stacking other stretchers and headers which have a slit of 66 mm depth and 18 mm width. The strength properties of retaining walls were investigated by horizontal loading test, and the deformation of structure by image processing (AlCON 3D OPA-PRO system). Joint (Type-A) made with a single long stretcher and two headers, and joint (Type-B) made with two short stretchers connected with half lap joint and two headers were in the retaining wall using Steel bar. The compressive shear strength of joint was tested. Three replicates were used in each test. In horizontal loading test the strength was 1.6 times stronger in wooden retaining wall using Steel bar than in wooden retaining wall using square timber. The timber and joints were not fractured in the test. When testing compressive shear strength, the maximum load of type-A and Type-B was 130.13 kN and 130.6 kN, respectively. Constructability and strength were better in the wooden retaining wall using Steel bar than in wooden retaining wall using square timber.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.41-50
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• 1981

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the substitutional possibility of new extender instead of wheat flour, which is extending for plywood adhesives in Korea. As the extending materials corn stalk, pine bark, Pitch and Korean pine leaves, wheat, or wood flour were selected and prepared for the extending powders, dried at $103{\pm}2^{\circ}C$ during 24 hours in the drying oven, followed by being pulverized into 60-100 mesh powder. The extenders were mixed with urea formaldehyde resin in the ratio of 5, 10, 15 or 20%. After plywoods were manufactured by the above extended ratios, dry and wet shear strength and wood failures were analyzed and discussed. The results at the study may be summarized as follows ; 1. In urea formaldehyde resin dry shear strength in plywood extended by wheat flour showed the highest value. 2. Among the extenders in 10 and 20% extension of urea formaldehyde resin wet shear strength of wood flour was higher than that of wheat powder. They had no significant difference statistically. 3. Among the extenders of 5% extension of water soluble phenol formaldehyde resin dry shear strength of plywood extended by Korean pine leaf powder showed the highest value, while wheat powder showed the highest value among 10, 15 and 20% extentions. 4. In water soluble phenol formaldehyde resin the best results of wet shear strength showed in wheat powder. 5. Among the extenders in 15 and 20% extension of water soluble phenol formaldehyde resin, dry and wet shear strength in plywood of corn stalk powder were the highest value next to wheat powder.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.102 no.4
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• pp.578-586
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• 2013

This study was performed in Pinus rigida and Larix kaempferi plantations which occupy approximately 60% of artificial forest area in Korea. The objective of this study was to know the differences in soil physical and chemical properties between both plantations. Soil physical and chemical properties from published literature and analyzed soil data in national forest in 2010 and 2011 were analyzed by plantation regions and stand age of 5 years unit. Jeollanamdo in Pinus rigida plantations and Gyeongsangbuk-do in Larix kaempferi plantations showed higher soil chemical properties than those of other regions. Soil texture in both plantations was almost loam and sandy loam. Mean soil pH in Pinus rigida and Larix kaempferi plantations were 4.86 and 4.87, respectively and there was no relationship between soil pH and stand age. The mean concentrations of total nitrogen (%) and available phosphorus (mg $kg^{-1}$) were 0.21 and 11.00 for Pinus rigida plantation and 0.28 and 13.32 for Larix kaempferi plantation. In Larix kaempferi plantation, total nitrogen, available phosphorus and organic matter concentrations and C.E.C. were higher than those in Pinus rigida plantation and showed positive relationship with stand age. This positive relationship was also revealed between the exchangeable cations and soil pH. The results of this study provide an informative data in selecting tree species for planting and contribute to the establishing forest management plan for the maintenance of sustainable forests resources.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.469-477
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• 2008

Purpose: The goal of this paper is to present the design and performance of a position encoding circuit for $16{\times}16$ array of position sensitive multi-anode photomultiplier tube for small animal PET scanners. This circuit which reduces the number of readout channels from 256 to 4 channels is based on a charge division method utilizing a resistor array. Materials and Methods: The position encoding circuit was simulated with PSpice before fabrication. The position encoding circuit reads out the signals from H9500 flat panel PMTs (Hamamatsu Photonics K.K., Japan) on which $1.5{\times}1.5{\times}7.0\;mm^3$ $L_{0.9}GSO$ ($Lu_{1.8}Gd_{0.2}SiO_{5}:Ce$) crystals were mounted. For coincidence detection, two different PET modules were used. One PET module consisted of a $29{\times}29\;L_{0.9}GSO$ crystal layer, and the other PET module two $28{\times}28$ and $29{\times}29\;L_{0.9}GSO$ crystal layers which have relative offsets by half a crystal pitch in x- and y-directions. The crystal mapping algorithm was also developed to identify crystals. Results: Each crystal was clearly visible in flood images. The crystal identification capability was enhanced further by changing the values of resistors near the edge of the resistor array. Energy resolutions of individual crystal were about 11.6%(SD 1.6). The flood images were segmented well with the proposed crystal mapping algorithm. Conclusion: The position encoding circuit resulted in a clear separation of crystals and sufficient energy resolutions with H9500 flat-panel PMT and $L_{0.9}GSO$ crystals. This circuit is good enough for use in small animal PET scanners.

• Journal of Music and Human Behavior
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2004

Being engaged in the musical tasks needs cognitive skills to perceive musical sound, organize them into meaningful unit, store them in the memory and retrieve them when needed. These skills are also required for academic tasks indicating that there is positive correlation between skills for musical and academic tasks. Based on these findings, the study purported to examine whether the developed sessions can enhance cognitive skills which is composed of auditory information skills, which is composed of perceiving sounds, organizing them into groups based on the existing information or organization pattern, and short-term memory skills. Eighteen elementary students in 4, 5, and 6th grades have participated in the study. The study has administered Music Cognitive Skills Test(MCST) before and after implementing music therapy sessions. The MCST consisted of five parts, first one measuring the rhythm imitating skills, second, measuring the melodic imitation skills, third, measuring discriminative skills in identifying higher pitch, fourth, measuring discriminative skills in identifying identical chords, and lastly, measuring the tone retention skills. The results indicated that there was statistical difference between the pre and post test in rhythm and melody imitation skills. Because reproduction of perceived rhythm patterns requires memory skills, imitating patterns are considered cognitive skills. Also melody is defined adding spatial dimension to the rhythm which is temporal concept. Being able to understand melodic pattern and to reproduce the pattern also requires cognitive skills. The subjects have shown significant improvement in these two areas. In other areas, there were definite increase of scores, however, no significant differences. The study also explores interpretation of these results and also observed consistencies among the participants in completing the musical tasks.