• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.62 no.6
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• pp.798-802
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• 2013

In a conventional DC power supply used for CO2 laser, the circuit elements such as a rectifier bridge, a current-limiting resistor, a high voltage switch, energy storage capacitors ans a high-voltage isolation transformer using high turn ratio are necessary. Consequently, those supplies are expensive and require a large space. Thus, laser resonator and power supply should be optimally designed. In this paper, we propose a new power supply using high frequency resonance phenomena for CW(Continuous wave) CO2 laser (maximum output of 23W with discharge length of 450mm). It consists of a transformer including leakage inductance, magnetizing inductance and half-bridge converter, a three-stage Cockcroft-Walton and PFC(Power factor correction) circuit. The output ripple voltage can be controlled the minimum of 0.24% under the high frequency switching of 231kHz. Furthermore, the output efficiency was improved to 16.4% and the laser output stability of about 5.6% was obtained in this laser system.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.55-60
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• 2012

This experimental study investigated the characteristics of flow-induced vibration of two elastically supported circular cylinders in a side-by-side arrangement. In particular, the characteristics of the flow-induced vibration of the two cylinders are investigated by changing the flow speed at each spacing ratio L/D (L is the space between two cylinders and D is the diameter of the cylinder). To clarify the mechanism generating the flow-induced vibration of the cylinders, the flow patterns around the two vibrating cylinders are also investigated using a flow visualization test that reproduces the flow-induced vibration of the cylinders with a forced vibration apparatus. As a result, it is clarified that the flow-induced vibration characteristics of the two cylinders arranged side-by-side switch among four patterns as the flow between the two cylinders is switched. Among the three arrangements considered (tandem, staggered, and side-by-side), the arrangement that generates flow-induced vibration of the two cylinders most easily is the side-by-side arrangement.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers D
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• v.55 no.11
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• pp.502-510
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• 2006

In this paper, we describe implementation of a computer access device for the severly motor-disability. Many people with severe motor disabilities need an augmentative communication technology. Those who are totally paralyzed, or 'locked-in' cannot use conventional augmentative technologies, all of which require some measure of muscle control. The forehead is often the last site to suffer degradation in cases of severe disability and degenerative disease. For example, In ALS(Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) and MD(Muscular dystrophy) the ocular motorneurons and ocular muscles are usually spared permitting at least gross eye movements, but not precise eye pointing. We use brain and body forehead bio-potentials in a novel way to generate multiple signals for computer control inputs. A bio-amplifier within this device separates the forehead signal into three frequency channels. The lowest channel is responsive to bio-potentials resulting from an eye motion, and second channel is the band pass derived between 0.5 and 45Hz, falling within the accepted Electroencephalographic(EEG) range. A digital processing station subdivides this region into eleven components frequency bands using FFT algorithm. The third channel is defined as an Electromyographic(EMG) signal. It responds to contractions of facial muscles and is well suited to discrete on/off switch closures, keyboard commands. These signals are transmitted to a PC that analyzes in a time series and a frequency region and discriminates user's intentions. That software graphically displays user's bio-potential signals in the real time, therefore user can see their own bio-potentials and control their physiological signals little by little after some training sessions. As a result, we confirmed the performance and availability of the developed system with experimental user's bio-potentials.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.233-239
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• 2005

In this paper, a new conceptual circuit configuration of a 3-phase voltage source, soft switching AC-DC-AC converter using an IGBT module, which has one ARCPL circuit and one ARDCL circuit, is presented. In actuality, the ARCPL circuit is applied in the 3-phase voltage source rectifier side, and the ARDCL circuit is in the inverter side. And more, each power semiconductor device has a novel clamp snubber circuit, which can save the power semiconductor device from voltage and current across each power device. The proposed soft switching circuits have only two active power semiconductor devices. These ARCPL and ARDCL circuits consist of fewer parts than the conventional soft switching circuit. Furthermore, the proposed 3-phase voltage source soft switching AC-DC-AC power conversion system needs no additional sensor for complete soft switching as compared with the conventional 3-phase voltage source AC-DC-AC power conversion system. In addition to this, these soft switching circuits operate only once in one sampling term. Therefore, the power conversion efficiency of the proposed AC-DC-AC converter system will get higher than a conventional soft switching converter system because of the reduced ARCPL and ARDCL circuit losses. The operation timing and terms for ARDCL and ARCPL circuits are calculated and controlled by the smoothing DC capacitor voltage and the output AC current. Using this control, the loss of the soft switching circuits are reduced owing to reduced resonant inductor current in ARCPL and ARDCL circuits as compared with the conventional controlled soft switching power conversion system. The operating performances of proposed soft switching AC-DC-AC converter treated here are evaluated on the basis of experimental results in a 50kVA setup in this paper. As a result of experiment on the 50kVA system, it was confirmed that the proposed circuit could reduce conduction noise below 10 MHz and improve the conversion efficiency from 88. 5% to 90.5%, when compared with the hard switching circuit.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.115-122
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• 2007

In this paper, a novel fault detection method for fault tolerant control is proposed when the NPC inverter has a open failure in the switching device. The open fault of switching device is detected by checking the variation of a leg-voltage in the neutral-point-clamped inverter and the two phases control method is used for continuously balance the three phases voltage to the load. It can be achieve the fault tolerant control for improving the reliability of the NPC inverter by the fault detection and reconfiguration. This method has fast detection ability and a simple realization for fault detection, compared with a conventional method. Also, this fast detection ability improved the harmful effects such as DC-link voltage unbalance and overstress to other switching devices from a delay of fault detection. The proposed method has been verified by simulation and experiment.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2004.11b
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• pp.190-193
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• 2004

Optimal Power Flow (OPF) is becoming more and more important in the deregulation environment of power pool and there is an urgent need of faster solution technique for on-line application. So this paper presents parallel genetic algorithm-tap search for the solution of the OPF. The control variables modeled unit active power outputs, generator-bus voltage magnitudes and transformer-tap settings. A number of functional operating constraints, such as branch flow limits, load bus boltage magnitude limits and generator reactive capabilities are included as penalties in the fitness function. In parallel GA-TS, GA operators are executed for each process. If best fitness of the GA is not changed for several generations, TS operators are executed for the upper three populations to enhance the local searching capabilities. With migration operation, best string of each node is transferred to the neighboring node after predetermined iterations are executed. For parallel computing, we developed a PC-cluster system consisting of 8 PCs. Each PC employs the 2 GHz Pentium IV CPU and is connected with others through ethernet switch based fast ethernet. To show the usefulness of the proposed method, developed algorithm has been tested and compared on an IEEE 30-bus system in the reference paper. From the simulation results, we can find that the proposed algorithm is efficient for the OPF.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.32-36
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• 2007

We fabricated and tested a novel hybrid superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) of three-phase $24kV_{rms}/630A_{rms}$ rating. In order to apply conventional resistive SFCLs into electric power systems, the urgent issues to be settled are as follows, such as initial installation price of SFCL, operation and maintenance cost due to ac loss of superconductor and the life of cryostat, and high voltage and high current problems. The ac loss and high cost of superconductor and cryostat system are main bottlenecks for real application. Furthermore in order to increase voltage and current ratings of SFCL, a lot of superconductor components should be connected in series and parallel which resulted in extreme high cost. In addition, the method to quench all components at the same instant needs very sophisticated skill and careful operation. Due to these problems, the practical applications of SFCL were pending. Therefore, in order to make practical SFCL, the price of SFCL should be lowered and should meet the demand of utilities. We designed novel hybrid SFCL which combines superconductor and conventional electric equipment including vacuum interrupter, power fuse and current limiting reactor. The main purpose of hybrid SFCL is to drastically reduce total usage of superconductor by adopting current commutation method by use of superconductor and high fast switch. Consequently, it was possible to get the satisfactory test results using this method, and further works for field tests are in the process.

• Medical Lasers
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2019

Background and Objectives A facial laceration is a commonly occurring trauma of children. In addition, appropriate treatment and scar management are very important because the psychosocial impact of facial scars is much greater in children than in adults. Materials and Methods In the authors' hospital, primary closure was conducted targeting a total of 8,924 patients from January 2015 to December 2017. Of these, scar management was conducted on 808 people using a CO₂ fractional laser and Q-Switch Nd:YAG laser. To prove the effectiveness of the laser treatment on the linear scar, the patients were divided retrospectively into children and adults and sub-divided into those who received the treatment and those who did not. The subjective satisfaction of patients was evaluated using the Numeric Rating System (NRS). The objective scar scoring was evaluated using the image panel assessment based on the Vancouver Scar Scale (VSS), and the scoring was made by averaging the evaluations of three plastic surgeons. Results Evaluated NRS showed 8.50 ± 1.83 for adults without a laser, 8.51 ± 1.47 for adults with a laser, 7.93 ± 2.10 for children without a laser, and 8.9 ± 1.24 for children with a laser. The image panel assessment revealed 7.06 ± 1.31 for adults without a laser, 6.40 ± 2.37 for adults with a laser, 6.86 ± 1.45 for children without a laser, and 5.93 ± 1.21 for children with a laser. Conclusion When the linear scar is managed using a CO₂ Fractional laser, it can be managed in children better than adults, which is believed to be useful because it leads to better satisfaction and prognosis.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.343-350
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• 2023

Background: Digital panoramic dental X-ray equipment (PDX) is frequently used by patients and dental workers for diagnosis and examination in dental institutions; however, infection control has not been properly implemented. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to systematically review the potential risk of cross-infection in the dental environment by investigating the contamination level of general aerobic bacteria and Staphylococcus aureus, which are important in hospital infections, in PDX areas that people mainly contact. Methods: This survey was conducted from March to May 2023 and covered one general hospital, three dental hospitals, and nine dental clinics equipped with PDX. Bacteria samples were collected from the left-handle, right-handle, forehead support, and head side support as the patient's contact areas, as well as the X-ray exposure switch and left-click mouse button as the dental hygienist's contact areas of the PDX. The collected bacteria were spread on Petrifilm, and colonies formed after 48 hours of culture were counted. Results: General aerobic bacteria and S. aureus were detected in all areas investigated. Significant differences in bacterial counts between different regions of the PDX were observed in both groups (p<0.001). The detection rates of general aerobic bacteria (p<0.001) and S. aureus (p<0.001) were significantly higher in the contact areas of patients than those of dental hygienists. A positive correlation was observed between the forehead and the temple region in terms of general aerobic bacteria and S. aureus detection (r=1) (p<0.01). Conclusion: Taken together, the presence of many bacteria, including S. aureus, detected in PDX indicates that PDX has a potential cross-infection risk. Our results therefore highlight the need for the development of appropriate disinfection protocols for reusable medical devices such as PDX and periodic infection prevention training for hospital-related workers, including dental hygienists.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.191-201
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• 2011

Soybean has widely grown for its edible bean which has numerous uses. Microwave remote sensing has a great potential over the conventional remote sensing with the visible and infrared spectra due to its all-weather day-and-night imaging capabilities. In this investigation, a ground-based polarimetric scatterometer operating at multiple frequencies was used to continuously monitor the crop conditions of a soybean field. Polarimetric backscatter data at L, C, and X-bands were acquired every 10 minutes on the microwave observations at various soybean stages. The polarimetric scatterometer consists of a vector network analyzer, a microwave switch, radio frequency cables, power unit and a personal computer. The polarimetric scatterometer components were installed inside an air-conditioned shelter to maintain constant temperature and humidity during the data acquisition period. The backscattering coefficients were calculated from the measured data at incidence angle $40^{\circ}$ and full polarization (HH, VV, HV, VH) by applying the radar equation. The soybean growth data such as leaf area index (LAI), plant height, fresh and dry weight, vegetation water content and pod weight were measured periodically throughout the growth season. We measured the temporal variations of backscattering coefficients of the soybean crop at L, C, and X-bands during a soybean growth period. In the three bands, VV-polarized backscattering coefficients were higher than HH-polarized backscattering coefficients until mid-June, and thereafter HH-polarized backscattering coefficients were higher than VV-, HV-polarized back scattering coefficients. However, the cross-over stage (HH > VV) was different for each frequency: DOY 200 for L-band and DOY 210 for both C and X-bands. The temporal trend of the backscattering coefficients for all bands agreed with the soybean growth data such as LAI, dry weight and plant height; i.e., increased until about DOY 271 and decreased afterward. We plotted the relationship between the backscattering coefficients with three bands and soybean growth parameters. The growth parameters were highly correlated with HH-polarization at L-band (over r=0.92).