• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.141-147
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• 2013

Ultrasonic shears is currently in wide use as an energy device for minimal invasive surgery. There is an advantage of minimizing the carbonization behavior of the tissue due to the vibrational energy transfer system of the transducer by applying a piezoelectric ceramic. However, the vibrational energy transfer system has a pitfall in energy consumption. When the movement of the forceps is interrupted by the tissue, the horn which transfers the vibrational energy of the transducer will be affected. A study was performed to recognize different tissues by measuring the impedance of the transducer of the ultrasonic shears in order to find the factor of energy consumption according to the tissue. In the first stage of the study, the voltage and current of the transducer connecting portion were measured, along with the phase changes. Subsequently, in the second stage, the impedance of the transducer was directly measured. In the final stage, using the handpiece, we grasped the tissue and observed the impedance differences appeared in the transducer To verify the proposed tissue distinguishing method, we used the handpiece to apply a force between 5N and 10N to pork while increasing the value of the impedance of the transducer from 400 ${\Omega}$.. It was found that fat and skin tissue, tendon, liver and protein all have different impedance values of 420 ${\Omega}$, 490 ${\Omega}$, 530 ${\Omega}$, and 580 ${\Omega}$, respectively. Thus, the impedance value can be used to distinguish the type of tissues grasped by the forceps. In the future study, this relationship will be used to improve the energy efficiency of ultrasonic shears.

• Journal of agricultural medicine and community health
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.40-47
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• 1991

Musculoskeletal disorders are a major cause of occupational disabilities. Approximately thirty percent state that the major reason for an inability to work is a musculoskeletal problem. A farm work is associated with increased stress and trauma to joints. Chronic overuse injuries are a result of stresses that exceed the body's adaptive or healing capabilities. They can occur in bone, tendons and muscle-tendon-bone junctions. The aim of the investigation was to the study the frequency of pain, ache, and discomfort in the musculoskeletal system among farmers, to find possible correlations between these symptoms and various working positions and different working actions. A questionnaire was answered by 138 farmers. Of those who answered the questionnaire 82% had pain and discomfort from back, shoulders, arms in orders, The result showed that musculoskeletal pain predominate in the farming seasons, and of those who had pain and discomfort 89% thought that farm works had a correlation with the pain and discomfort of musculoskeletal system. But only 17% of quationnaire were put to periodic medical examinations, and 50% of those who had pain and discomfort consulted a doctor. Education in effective pain treatment should therefore be intensifide to ascertain that farmers in rural areas have satisfactory knowledge of the musculoskeletal pain as a chronic overuse syndrome.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.307-315
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• 2008

Post-tensioned precast concrete system (PPS) consists of U-shaped precast wide beams and concrete column. The continuity of beam-column joint is provided with the topping concrete on the PC shell beam and post-tensioning. Nonlinear analysis was conducted, using ANSYS, a finite-element analysis program, to obtain data for determining the characteristics of the structure and to allow various parametric analyses for post-tensioned wide beam-column connections. In this analysis, the Solid 65 element was used, in which concrete element had 8 nodes and each node had 3 degrees of freedomIn. Solid 65, the shear-transfer factor reflects a decrease of shear strength for the positions with cracks, as an impact factor to make the analysis value approximate the experiment value. In this study, the behavior of test specineus were most closely predicted to the experimental results, when the shear-transfer coefficient 0.85 was used for a closed crack, and 0.2 was used for an open crack.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.282-286
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• 2000

In this paper, magneto-rheological(MR) damper is studied for vibration control of large infra structures under earthquake. Generally, active control devices need a large control force and a high power supply system to reduce the vibration effectively. Large and miss tuned control force may induce the dangerous situation such that the generated large control force acts to amplify the structural vibration. Recently, to overcome the weaknesses of the active control, the semi-active control method is suggested by many researchers. Semi-active control uses the passive control device of which the characteristics can be modified. Control force of the semi-active device is not generated from the actuator with power supply. It is generated as a dynamic reaction force of the device same as in the passive control case, so the control system is inherently stable and robust. Unlike the case of passive control, control force of semi-active control is adjusted depending on the measured response of the structure, so the vibration can be reduced more effectively against various unknown environmental loads. Magneto-rheological(MR) damper is one of the semi-active devices. Dynamic characteristics of the MR material can be changed by applying the magnetic fields. So the control of MR damper needs only small power. Response time of MR to the input voltage is very short, so the high performance control is possible. MR damper has a high force capacity so it is adequate to the vibration control of large infra structure. Because MR damper has a nonlinear property, normal control method used in active control may not be effective. Clipped optimal control, modified bang-bang control etc. have been suggested to MR damper by many researchers. In this study, sliding mode fuzzy control(SMFC) is applied to MR damper. Genetic algorithm is used for the controller tuning. To verify the applicability of MR damper and suggested algorithm, numerical simulation on the aseismic control is carried out. Simulation model is three-story building structure, which was used in the paper of Dyke, et al. The control performance is compared with clipped optimal control. The present results indicate that the SMFC algorithm can reduce the earthquake-induced vibration very effectively.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.611-618
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• 2008

CFRP (carbon fiber reinforced polymer) tendons can be used as an alternative to solve the corrosion problem of steel tendons. Since CFRP tendons are vulnerable to transverse pressure and stress concentration, the conventional anchorage system used for steel tendons can create an unreliable load carrying capacity and may result in a premature failure. Therefore, it is necessary to develop the anchorage system that is well suited for CFRP tendons. There are many types of anchorage systems for CFRP tendons, which can be classified into three types: wedge-type anchorage, bond-type anchorage, and compression-type anchorage. This paper deals with the compression-type anchorage system manufactured through swaging technology. Based on the previous test results performed by the authors, the dimension of anchorage sleeve, the use and non-use of the insert, and the compression pressure on the sleeve have been selected as the major parameters affecting the performance of the compression-type anchorage. Some anchorage sleeves have been tapered to reduce the stress concentration. Test results revealed that the performance of the anchorage system depends mainly on the dimension and the compression pressure. It has been verified that the tapered sleeve can effectively reduce the stress concentration.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.445-452
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• 2010

In this paper an assessment of the internal pressure fragility of the CANDU type containment buildings is performed. The uncertainties of the performance of the containment buildings, material properties and tendon characteristics are referred from the in-service reports of Wolsung Unit 1. The containment buildings are modeled as a three-dimensional finite elements with considering the major opening and penetrations. A new method to evaluate the probabilistic fragility of the massive structural system is developed. The fragility curves of the target containment building are presented with repect to the failure modes and reliability levels. The center of wall is reveled as the most weak structural component of the containment building in the sense of the rupture and catastrophic rupture failure modes.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.279-285
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• 2016

Reliable recording and analysis of peripheral nerve activity is important to recognize the user's intention for controlling a neuro-prosthetic hand. In this paper, we present a peripheral nerve recording system that consisted of an intrafascicular multi-electrode array, an electrode insertion device, and a multi-channel neural amplifier. The 16 channel multi-electrode array was stably implanted into the sciatic nerve of the rat under anesthesia using the electrode insertion device. During passive movements and mechanical stimuli, muscle and cutaneous afferent signals were recorded with the multi-channel neural amplifier. Furthermore, we propose a spike sorting method to isolate individual neuronal unit. The muscle proprioceptive units were classified as muscle spindle afferents or Golgi tendon organ afferents, and the skin exteroceptive units were categorized as slow adapting afferents or fast adapting afferents. Experimental results showed that the proposed method could be applicable to record and analyze peripheral nerve activity in neuro-prosthetic systems.

• Clinics in Shoulder and Elbow
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.221-228
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• 2015

Background: The The purpose of this study was to make a comparative analysis of the clinical outcomes after the operative treatment of refractory medial epicondylitis between the suture anchor group and the non-suture anchor group. Methods: We enrolled 20 patients (7 men and 13 women) with recalcitrant medial epicondylitis who were able to receive operative treatment in a minimum of an 18-month follow-up. The mean age was 48.6 years (range, 36-59 years). The patients were allocated into either the suture anchor group (7 patients) or the non-suture anchor group (13 patients). We evaluated clinical outcomes using the visual analog scale (VAS), the pain grading system of Nirschl and Pettrone, and postoperative grip strength. Results: The VAS score decreased from 8.8 to 2.0 for the suture anchor group and from 8.6 to 1.3 for the non-suture anchor group (p=0.16). The postoperative grip strength was 95%, 93% of the non-treated arm in both groups (p=0.32). The postoperative satisfaction level was good in 5 patients and fair in 2 for the suture anchor group and excellent in 5 patients, good, in 4, and fair, in 4 for the non-suture anchor group (p=0.43). The clinical outcomes did not show a statistically significant difference between the two groups. Conclusions: We found that patients with recalcitrant medial epicondylitis were treated reliably with satisfactory clinical outcomes whether or not suture anchors were used. We believe the use of suture anchors when more than 50% of the tendon origin is affected provides an effective and favorable treatment modality.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.153-160
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• 2017

Gait analysis has been conducted in various environments, but the biomechanics during the transition from uphill walking to downhill walking have not been reported. The purpose of this study is to investigate the knee and ankle joint kinematics and kinetics during walking on a triangle-shaped slope compared with those during level walking. Kinematic and kinetic data of eighteen participants were obtained using a force plate and motion capture system. The greater peak ankle dorsiflexion angle and moment and the peak knee extension moment were observed (p<0.05) during both uphill and downhill walking on the triangle-shaped slope. In summary, uphill walking on a triangle-shaped slope, which showed a peak knee flexion of more than $50^{\circ}$ with greater peak knee extension moment, could increase the risk of patellofemoral pain syndrome. Downhill walking on a triangle-shaped slope, which involved greater ankle dorsiflexion excursion and peak ankle dorsiflexion, could cause gastrocnemius muscle strain and Achilles tendon overuse injury.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.35-45
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• 2008

This study was performed to compare the kinematics among three different safety shoes(type 1: ergonomically designed and high quality shoes, 2: curved and cushioned safety shoes, and 3: regular safety shoes) and to find the effect of insole during walking. Ten healthy subjects were recruited for this study. The range of motion of knee and ankle joint, angle of rear foot and angle of heel contact were measured using a three dimensional motion analysis system. In the second peak, the angle of heel contact showed statistically significant difference between safety shoes and insole, however, there was no statistical significance among three different safety shoes. The angle of ankle increased significantly at initial contact, first peak, the second peak and the toe off phase compared with type 1 and 2 safety shoes, and the angle of ankle showed statistically significant difference between with and without applying the insole. During the first peak, the second peak and the toe off phase, the angle of knee was statistical significance between safety shoes and insole. In heel contact, the angles of Achilles' tendon showed statistically significant difference between safety shoes and insole. The rear foot angles showed statistically significant difference between safety shoes and insole during heel contact and early heel contact. These results suggest that the type 1 safety shoes were superior to others in the statistics, and applying insole could be a possible method to prevent fatigue of lower extremity and musculoskeletal disorders. Further studies are needed to find the effect of ergonomically designed safety shoes and insole on practical value in prevention of musculoskeletal disorder, fatigue and satisfaction of workers.