• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.55-60
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• 2011

Although sound intensity is considered as one of important factors in auditory processing, its neural mechanism in auditory neurons with limited dynamic range of firing rates is still unclear. In this study, we examined the effect of sound intensity adaptation on the change of glucose metabolism in a rat brain using [F-18] micro positron emission tomography (PET) neuroimaging technique. In the experiment, broadband white noise sound was given for 30 minutes after the [F-18]FDG injection in order to explore the functional adaptation of rat brain into the sound intensity levels. Nine rats were scanned with four different sound intensity levels: 40 dB, 60 dB, 80 dB, 100 dB sound pressure level (SPL) for four weeks. When glucose uptake during the adaptation of a high intensity sound level (100 dB SPL) was compared with that during adaptation to a low intensity level (40 dB SPL) in the experiment, the former induced a greater uptake at bilateral cochlear nucleus, superior olivary complexes and inferior colliculi in the auditory pathway. Expectedly, the metabolic activity in those areas linearly increased as the sound intensity level increased. In contrast, significant decrease interestingly occurred in the bilateral auditory cortices: The activities of auditory cortex proportionally decreased with higher sound intensities. It may reflect that the auditory cortex actively down-regulates neural activities when the sound gets louder.

• Maxillofacial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
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• v.41
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• pp.58.1-58.8
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• 2019

Background: The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between gender-specific and obesity-related airway anatomy in patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) by using cephalometric analyses. Methods: We retrospectively evaluated 206 patients with suspected OSA undergoing polysomnography and anthropometric measurements such as body mass index, neck circumference, and waist-hip ratio. We checked lateral cephalometry to measure tissue landmarks including angle from A point to nasion to B point (ANB), soft palate length (SPL), soft palate thickness (SPT), retropalatal space (RPS), retrolingual space (RLS), and mandibular plane to hyoid (MPH). Results: Male with OSA showed significantly increased SPL (P = .006) compared with controls. SPL and MPH had significant correlation with apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) and central obesity. Female with OSA showed significantly increased ANB (P = .013) and SPT (P = .004) compared with controls. The receiver operating characteristic curves revealed that SPT in male and ANB and SPT in female were significant in model 1 (AHI ≥ 5) and model 2 (AHI ≥ 15). MPH was also significant for male in model 2. Conclusion: Male and female with OSA had distinct anatomic features of the upper airway and different interactions among soft palate, mandible, and hyoid bone.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.185-192
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• 2004

The aeroacoustic characteristics of a centrifugal fan for a vacuum cleaner and its noise reduction method are studied in this paper. The major noise source of a vacuum cleaner is the centrifugal fan. The impeller of the fan rotates at over 30000 rpm, and generates very high-level noise. It was revealed that the dominant noise source is the aerodynamic interaction between the rotating impeller and stationary diffuser. The directivity of acoustic pressure showed that most of the noise propagates backward direction of the fan-motor assembly. In order to reduce the high tonal sound generated from the aerodynamic interaction, unevenly pitched impeller and diffuser, and tapered impeller designs were proposed and experiments were performed. Uneven pitch design of the impeller changes the sound quality while the overall sound power level (SPL) and the performance remains similar. The effect of the tapered design of impeller was evaluated. The trailing edge of the tapered fan is inclined. This reduces the flow interaction between the rotating impeller and the stationary diffuser because of some phase shifts. The static efficiency of the new impeller design is slightly lower than the previous design. However, the overall SPL is reduced by about 4 dB(A). The SPL of the fundamental blade passing frequency (BPF) is reduced by about 6 dB (A) and the 2$\^$nd/ BPF is reduced about 20 dB (A). The vacuum cleaner with the tapered impeller design produces lower noise level than the previous one, and the strong tonal sound was dramatically reduced.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.536-545
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• 2016

Household refrigerator radiates noise of which the pattern is dependent on the operating condition of its parts, such as compressor, flow fans, etc. Thus the refrigerator noise has a variety of frequency characteristics. Therefore, it is required to consider the noise characteristics for evaluating the noise quality and eventually developing the sound quality index of the refrigerator noise. In this study, five units of household refrigerator were selected to measure their noises that were used to generate sound sources for jury test of the study. The measured noises of five refrigerators were divided into ten kinds of sound source by considering operating condition and frequency characteristics. Additionally, the ten sources were each edited to have the same SPL of 30 dBA. Totally twenty kinds of sound sources (10-original SPL, 10-edited SPL 30 dBA) were evaluated by twenty-two subjects, and compared with their sound quality metrics. It was found that only the loudness of the metrics was meaningfully correlated with the subjective evaluation. The rests, sharpness, roughness and fluctuation strength, were not related. The conclusion of this study is that a new sophisticated index is necessary to be developed to qualitatively evaluate the household refrigerator noise.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.195-203
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• 2014

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of phonation types ([+/- aspirated], [+/- fortis]) on aerodynamic measures with Korean bilabial stops. Sixty-three healthy young adults (30 males, 33 females) participated to evaluate the VOEF (Voicing Efficiency) tasks with bilabial stop consonants /$p^h$/, /p/, /p'/ using Phonatory Aerodynamic System (PAS) Model 6600 (Kay PENTAX Corp, Lincoln Park, NJ). All VOEF measures were significantly influenced by phonation types except RANP(pitch range)(p <.01). For sound pressure, maximum SPL, mean SPL, and Mean SPL during Voicing have been shown to be significantly greatest in fortis stop /p'/ than aspirated /$p^h$/ and lenis stop /p/ (p<.001). On the other hand, mean pitch after lenis stop was significantly lower than after aspirated and fortis stops (p<.001). Peak expiratory airflow, Target airflow, and FVC (Expiratory volume) were significantly lowest in fortis stop /p'/ which might be associated with higher aerodynamic resistance while peak air pressure and mean peak air pressure during closure were significantly lower in lenis stop /p/. Additionally, AEFF (Aerodynamic efficiency) was significantly higher in fortis stop /p'/ than lenis stop /p/ as well as aspirated stop /$p^h$/ (p<.001). Thus, sound pressure, airflow parameters, and aerodynamic resistance made crucial roles in distinguishing fortis /p'/ from lenis stop /p/ and aspirated. Additionally, pitch and subglottal air pressure parameters were important aerodynamic characteristics in distinguishing lenis /p/ from fortis /p'/ and aspirated /$p^h$/. Therefore, accurate aspirated /p/ stop consonant should be elicited when collecting the airflow, intraoral pressure related data with patients with voice disorders in order to enhance the reliability and relevance or validity of aerodynamic measures using PAS.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2011.04a
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• pp.808-813
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• 2011

There are hundreds of thousands call center workers wearing acoustic device. However, researches and noise exposure measurements on the noise transmitted from acoustic devices have seldom been performed due to the difficulty of measurement and to the absence of the measuring method in Korea. The aim of this study is to set up management measures to protect hearing loss on the call operator by acquiring measurement data of noise transmitted from the headset Noise exposure measurements of 17 operators were performed in 7 call centers and Head and Torso Simulator method in compliance with the ISO Standard 11904-2 was used for the measurement of noise transmitted from the headset Sound pressure levels(SPL) transmitted from the headset were 73.2~86 dB(A). The operator exposed to the highest SPL set up his volume control at 9 which was the highest volume level. The volume control level, adjustable from 1 to 9, could be identified 12 out of 17 operators and the range of volume levels was 4.5~9. As a result of Pearson Correlation Analysis, the correlation between volume level and SPL transmitted from the headset showed high relation as significance at the 0.672 level(p<0.05). To protect hearing loss of call center operators, it is more practical and effective measure to limit the volume level below the noise exposure level, i.e. 85 dB(A), rather than to carry out noise monitoring considering cost-effective aspect.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.21 no.7
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• pp.615-621
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• 2011

There are hundreds of thousands call center workers wearing acoustic device. However, researches and noise exposure measurements on the noise transmitted from acoustic devices have seldom been performed due to the difficulty of measurement and to the absence of the measuring method in Korea. The aim of this study is to set up management measures to protect hearing loss on the call operator by acquiring measurement data of noise transmitted from the headset. Noise exposure measurements of 17 operators were performed in 7 call centers and head and Torso simulator method in compliance with the ISO standard 11904-2 was used for the measurement of noise transmitted from the headset. Sound pressure levels(SPL) transmitted from the headset were 73.2~86 dB(A). The operator exposed to the highest SPL set up his volume control at 9 which was the highest volume level. The volume control level, adjustable from 1 to 9, could be identified 12 out of 17 operators and the range of volume levels was 4.5~9. As a result of pearson correlation analysis, the correlation between volume level and SPL transmitted from the headset showed high relation as significance at the 0.672 level(p<0.05). To protect hearing loss of call center operators, it is more practical and effective measure to limit the volume level below the noise exposure level, i.e. 85 dB(A), rather than to carry out noise monitoring considering cost-effective aspect.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.265-272
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• 2009

A total of 486 milk records were collected from 16 diary farms in Imsil-gun, Jeollabuk-do. Results obtained were as follows: The average 3MG (amount of milk within the first three minute) was 7.44 kg and 55% of total milk yield was produced within 3 min. The average of SPL (% of foam in milk) was 33.93% and the average of MNG (strip yield) was 0.14 kg, which was less than 1% of total milk yield. The averages of HMF (highest milk flow), HMG (maximum milk flow rate in one minute) and DMHG (average milk flow in the main milking phase) were 3.03 kg/min, 2.94 kg/min and 2.05 kg/min, respectively and the average milking speed in Imsil-gun was slower than other regions. The average of tS500(time to reach 0.5 kg/min at beginning) was 0.23min (about 14 seconds) and that of tMGG (duration of the total milking) was 7.75min. The average tMBG (duration of the dry milking phase) was 0.58 min (35 seconds) and that of tMNG (duration of the stripping phase) was 0.42min (14 seconds). The averages of ELHMF (electrical conductivity at highest milk flow) and ELAP (beginning peak level of the electrical conductivity) were 6.81 mS/cm and 7.58 mS/cm, respectively. The average of ELMAX (maximum electrical conductivity) was 7.48 mS/cm and that of ELAD (beginning peak difference of the electrical conductivity) was 0.61 mS/cm. While the total milk yields for DMHG, tMHG (duration of the main milking phase), tPL (duration of the plateau phase), tAB (duration of the descending phase) and tMGG were positively correlated (0.35~0.54), those for tMBG and SPL were negatively correlated (-0.11 and -0.27). As the DMHG increased, tMHG, tPL, tAB, tMGG and SPL decreased. While the cows with higher electrical conductivity at the beginning of milking had less somatic cell counts, cows with higher electrical conductivity after the peak of milk yield had more somatic cell counts. The results of this experiment indicated that through milking based on milking and lactating standards and the regular checking of milking status, the qualities of milk and milk yields could be improved.

• KIPS Transactions on Software and Data Engineering
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• v.6 no.7
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• pp.337-352
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• 2017

Clone-and-own reuse is an approach to creating new software variants by copying and modifying existing software products. A family of legacy software products developed by clone-and-own reuse often requires high maintenance cost and tends to be error-prone due to patch-ups without refactoring and structural degradation. To overcome these problems, many organizations that have used clone-and-own reuse now want to migrate their legacy products to software product line (SPL) for more systematic reuse and management of software asset. However, with most of existing methods, variation points are embedded directly into design and code rather than modeled and managed separately; variation points are not created ("engineered") systematically based on a variability model. This approach causes the following problems: it is difficult to understand the relationships between variation points, thus it is hard to maintain such code and the asset tends to become error-prone as it evolves. Also, when SPL evolves, design/code assets tend to be modified directly in an ad-hoc manner rather than engineered systematically with appropriate refactoring. To address these problems, we propose a feature-oriented method for extracting a SPL asset from a family of legacy applications. With the approach, we identify and model variation points and their relationships in a feature model separate from implementation, and then extract and manage a SPL asset from legacy applications based on the feature model. We have applied the method to a family of legacy Notepad++ products and demonstrated the feasibility of the method.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2012.04a
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• pp.186-187
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• 2012