• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
• /
• v.34 no.3
• /
• pp.129-134
• /
• 2013

The essential tremor is an involuntary oscillatory movement of body parts. Conventional treatments of essential tremor have little effects in some patients and also leads to significant side effects. Alternative to these treatments, sensory stimulation may have beneficial effects on the essential tremor. The purpose of this study was to analyze an effect of sensory stimulation on essential tremor. Ten patients with essential tremor ($67.4{\pm}8.82$ yrs, 5 men and 5 women) participated in this study. Three-axis gyro sensors were attached on index finger, hand and forearm of patients. Task of 'arms outstretched forward' was performed with and without sensory stimulation. Vectorsum of three dimensional angular velocities (pitch, roll, yaw) was calculated. Outcome measures included root-meansquare (RMS) mean of the vector-sum amplitude, total power, peak power and peak frequency. RMS amplitude, total power and peak power were reduced by sensory stimulation (p < 0.05). Peak frequency was not affected by sensory stimulation. The results indicate that the sensory stimulation is useful to suppress the essential tremor.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.30 no.2
• /
• pp.84-90
• /
• 2016

In this study, a six degree-of-freedom motion analysis of a wind-wave hybrid platform equipped with numerous wave energy converters (WECs) was carried out. To examine the effect of the WECs on the platform, an analysis of one-way coupling was carried out, which only considered the power take-off (PTO) damping of the static WECs on the platform. The equation of motion of a floating platform with mooring lines in the time domain was established, and the responses of the one-way coupled platform were then compared with the case of a platform without any coupling effects from the WECs. The hydrodynamic coefficients and wave exciting forces were obtained from the 3D diffraction/radiation pre-processor code WAMIT based on the boundary element method. Then, an analysis of the dynamic responses of the floating platform with or without the WEC effect in the time domain was carried out. All of the dynamics of a floating platform with multiple wind turbines were obtained by coupling FAST and CHARM3D in the time domain, which was further extended to include additional coupled dynamics for multiple turbines. The analysis showed that the PTO damping effect on platform motions was negligible, but coupled effects between multiple WECs and the platform may differentiate the heave, roll, and pitch platform motions from the one without any effects induced by WECs.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
• /
• v.7 no.3
• /
• pp.179-193
• /
• 2017

Dynamic response analysis of offshore triceratops with stiffened buoyant legs under impact and non-impact waves is presented. Triceratops is relatively new-generation complaint platform being explored in the recent past for its suitability in ultra-deep waters. Buoyant legs support the deck through ball joints, which partially isolate the deck by not transferring rotation from legs to the deck. Buoyant legs are interconnected using equally spaced stiffeners, inducing more integral action in dispersing the encountered wave loads. Two typical nonlinear waves under very high sea state are used to simulate impact and non-impact waves. Parameters of JONSWAP spectrum are chosen to produce waves with high vertical and horizontal asymmetries. Impact waves are simulated by steep, front asymmetric waves while non-impact waves are simulated using Stokes nonlinear irregular waves. Based on the numerical analyses presented, it is seen that the platform experiences both steady state (springing) and transient response (ringing) of high amplitudes. Response of the deck shows significant reduction in rotational degrees-of-freedom due to isolation offered by ball joints. Weak-asymmetric waves, resulting in non-impact waves cause steady state response. Beat phenomenon is noticed in almost all degrees-of-freedom but values in sway, roll and yaw are considerably low as angle of incidence is zero degrees. Impact waves cause response in higher frequencies; bursting nature of pitch response is a clear manifestation of the effect of impact waves on buoyant legs. Non-impact waves cause response similar to that of a beating phenomenon in all active degrees-of-freedom, which otherwise would not be present under normal loading. Power spectral density plots show energy content of response for a wide bandwidth of frequencies, indicating an alarming behaviour apart from being highly nonlinear. Heave, being one of the stiff degrees-of-freedom is triggered under non-impact waves, which resulted in tether tension variation under non-impact waves as well. Reduced deck response aids functional requirements of triceratops even under impact and non-impact waves. Stiffened group of buoyant legs enable a monolithic behaviour, enhancing stiffness in vertical plane.

• Journal of Digital Contents Society
• /
• v.10 no.4
• /
• pp.587-595
• /
• 2009

Domestic competition of Internet shopping malls is becoming more intense everyday. Users prefer an convenient and reliable shopping mall. Thus the design of Internet shopping malls with a strengthened convenience in usage will not only increase the desire of users to purchase, but will also encourage the users to revisit to the website, and it will increase the competitive power of the shopping mall. In this paper, I examined the interface design which users can use conveniently to purchase products, and proposed a design for an Internet shopping mall in which product information is conveniently provided to the user and the convenience in usage for guiding product selection and purchase is strengthened. The results of this study show that the navigation designs which allowed users to conveniently find products on Internet shopping malls included a roll-over menu in which a subdirectory was presented with a large area. If the navigation that guides products to users were designed more conveniently, users would be able to find and purchase products more easily. Since a web interface design with strengthened convenience in usage helps users to satisfactorily select and purchase products on an Internet shopping mall, it would increase the reliability of the shopping mall.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
• /
• v.51 no.4
• /
• pp.203-207
• /
• 2012

Objective: The purpose of this prospective study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of screw fixation without bone fusion for unstable thoracolumbar and lumbar burst fracture. Methods: Nine patients younger than 40 years underwent screw fixation without bone fusion, following postural reduction using a soft roll at the involved vertebra, in cases of burst fracture. Their motor power was intact in spite of severe canal compromise. The surgical procedure included postural reduction for 3 days and screw fixations at one level above, one level below and at the fractured level itself. The patients underwent removal of implants 12 months after the initial operation, due to possibility of implant failure. Imaging and clinical findings, including canal encroachment, vertebral height, clinical outcome, and complications were analyzed. Results: Prior to surgery, the mean pain score (visual analogue scale) was 8.2, which decreased to 2.2 at 12 months after screw fixation. None of the patients complained of worsening of pain during 6 months after implant removal. All patients were graded as having excellent or good outcomes at 6 months after implant removal. The proportion of canal compromise at the fractured level improved from 55% to 35% at 12 months after surgery. The mean preoperative vertebral height loss was 45.3%, which improved to 20.6% at 6 months after implant removal. There were no neurological deficits related to neural injury. The improved vertebral height and canal compromise were maintained at 6 months after implant removal. Conclusion: Short segment pedicle screw fixation, including fractured level itself, without bone fusion following postural reduction can be an effective and safe operative technique in the management of selected young patients suffering from unstable burst fracture.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
• /
• v.44 no.1
• /
• pp.8-14
• /
• 2008

Objective : The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of short segment fixation following postural reduction for the re-expansion and stabilization of unstable burst fractures in patients with osteoporosis. Methods : Twenty patients underwent short segment fixation following postural reduction using a soft roll at the involved vertebra in cases of severely collapsed vertebrae of more than half their original height. All patients had unstable burst fracture with canal compromise, but their motor power was intact. The surgical procedure included postural reduction for 2 days and bone cement-augmented pedicle screw fixations at one level above, one level below and the fractured level itself. Imaging and clinical findings, including the level of the vertebra involved, vertebral height restoration, injected cement volume, local kyphosis, clinical outcome and complications were analyzed. Results : The mean follow-up period was 15 months. The mean pain score (visual analogue scale) prior to surgery was 8.1, which decreased to 2.8 at 7 days after surgery. The kyphotic angle improved significantly from $21.6{\pm}5.8^{\circ}$ before surgery to $5.2{\pm}3.7^{\circ}$ after surgery. The fraction of the height of the vertebra increased from 35% and 40% to 70% in the anterior and middle portion. There were no signs of hardware pull-out, cement leakage into the spinal canal or aggravation of kyphotic deformities. Conclusion : In the management of unstable burst fracture in patients with severe osteoporosis, short segment pedicle screw fixation with bone cement augmentation following postural reduction can be used to reduce the total levels of pedicle screw fixation and to correct kyphotic deformities.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
• /
• v.37 no.6
• /
• pp.352-358
• /
• 2012

Purpose: The inexpensive black box system was developed to acquire and save driving information, to give the slope information, and to transmit SOS and theft signal. Method: The device consists of a main micro controller to acquire and save data, a GPS sensor module, a CDMA module, a touch LCD module, a RF (Radio Frequency) ID module, a SD (Secure Digital) card module, an emergency electric power source, a theftproof circuit, and a sensing device. The sensing device consists of a 8 bit micro controller, a accelerometer to detect impulse, two slope sensors to detect roll and pitch angle and a circuit to detect operation of 6 lighting devices. Results: Test results are as follows: 1) a tractor can be start up only with an electronic key (password or RFID card), 2) theft signal was transmitted when a tractor moved without an electronic key, 3) SOS was transmitted at conditions that rollover or crash happened. 4) 5 more than per 1s data are recorded at 5 minute intervals as new file name in SD card. Conclusions: This system can be used to save travelling record, reduce accident, prevent theft and rescue life in the accidents.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.235-238
• /
• 2017

In this study, the design of a tri-axis micromachined gyroscope is proposed and the vibration characteristic of the structure is analyzed. Tri-axis vibratory gyroscopes that utilize Coriolis effect are the most commonly used micromachined inertial sensors because of their advantages, such as low cost, small packaging size, and low power consumption. The proposed design is a single structure with four proof masses, which are coupled to their adjacent ones. The coupling springs of the proof masses orthogonally transfer the driving vibrational motion. The resonant frequencies of the gyroscope are analyzed by finite element method (FEM) simulation. The suspension beam spring design of proof masses limits the resonance frequencies of four modes, viz., drive mode, pitch, roll and yaw sensing mode in the range of 110 Hz near 21 kHz, 21173 Hz, 21239 Hz, 21244 Hz, and 21280 Hz, respectively. The unwanted modes are separated from the drive and sense modes by more than 700 Hz. Thereafter the drive and the sense mode vibrations are calculated and simulated to confirm the driving feasibility and estimate the sensitivity of the gyroscope. The cross-axis sensitivities caused by driving motion are 1.5 deg/s for both x- and y-axis, and 0.2 deg/s for z-axis.

• Transactions of the Society of Information Storage Systems
• /
• v.5 no.1
• /
• pp.47-52
• /
• 2009

Most hard disk drives that apply the ramp load/unload technology unload the heads at the outer edge of the disk while the disk is rotating. The load/unload includes the benefits as like an increased areal density, a reduced power consumption and an improved shock resistance. A lot of papers investigating the effects of the various load/unload parameters such as a suspension tab, a limiter, a ramp and air-bearing surface designs have been published. However, in previous researches, an effect of the suspension is not considered at each load/unload step. In this paper, we focus that a variation of the state matrix affects the load/unload performance on based on a state matrix that is a stiffness matrix of the suspension. Because the state matrix is related to the suspension at each load/unload step, to change the state matrix means the structural change of the suspension. Therefore, we investigated a range of a pitch static attitude(PSA) and a roll static attitude(RSA) for load/unload performance. We also analyzed an effect of the variation of the state matrix a range of load/unload velocity occurred a slider-disk contact. We determined the variation of the state matrix to improve the load/unload performance through comparison of each factor of state matrix.

• Journal of electromagnetic engineering and science
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.17-24
• /
• 2009

In recent years, OFDMA(orthogonal frequency division multiple access) and SC-FDMA(Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access) have been widely studied for the uplink of a mobile communication system. In this paper, PAPR(Peak-to-Average Power Ratio) and BER(Bit Error Rate) performance of the OFDMA and SC-FDMA systems are studied in relation to the uplink of a mobile communication system. Three kinds of sub-carrier allocation methods in the OFDMA system and 2 kinds of sub-carrier allocation methods in SC-FDMA system are suggested to compare and improve system performance. Simulation results show that in the OFDMA system, the first sub-band allocation method has better PAPR reduction performance than the other methods. In the SC-FDMA system, the distributed allocation method offers similar P APR, compared with the sub-band allocation method. P APR can be further reduced by adding a spectrum shaping filter with an appropriate roll of factor. Furthermore, it is found that on average, SC-FDMA can reduce the PAPR by more than 5 dB compared to OFDMA, when the total sub-carrier number is 1,024 and the sub-carrier number allocated to each user changes trom 8 to 512. Because of the frequency diversity and low PAPR characteristics, SC-FDMA system of the distributed sub-carrier allocation method can achieve better BER performance than the OFDMA system.