• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.15 no.11
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• pp.2321-2326
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• 2011

Cervical vertebrae are a complex structure and an important part of human body connecting the head and the trunk. In this paper, we propose a method to extract sternocleidomastoid muscle from ultrasonography images of cervical vertabrae automatically. In our method, Region of Interests(ROI) is extracted first from an ultrasonography image after removing unnecessary auxiliary information such as metrics. Then we apply Ends-in search stretching algorithm in order to enhance the contrast of brightness. Average binarization is then applied to those pixels which its brightness is sufficiently large. The noise part is removed by image processing algorithms. After extracting fascia encloses sternocleidomastoid muscle, target muscle object is extracted using the location information of fascia according to the number of objects in the fascia. When only one object is to be extracted, we search downward first to extract the target muscle area and then search from right to left to extract the area and merge them. If there are two target objects, we extract first from the upper-bound of higher object to the lower-bound of lower object and then remove the fascia of the target object area. Smearing technique is used to restore possible loss of the fat area in the process. The thickness of sternocleidomastoid muscle is then calculated as the maximum thickness of those extracted objects. In this experiment with 30 real world ultrasonography images, the proposed method verified its efficacy and accuracy by health professionals.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.286-291
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• 1997

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of clothing habits wearing cool or warm in daily life on motor ability. A group of ten healthy young females were divided into a cold (C) group and a warm (W) group. From autumn to winter, C group was advised to wear cool clothing, and W group, warm Clothing. The subject's physical fitness were tested in October, initial stage of the clothing training and March of the following year, final stage of the training. The measurements were taken after the subjects rested in a thermoneutral room conditioned at 23$\pm$2$^{\circ}C$ over 1 hour. The test items were weight, skinfold thickness, grip strength (right, left), back-lift strength, vertical jump, sit-ups, Irosmax, side step test, single-foot standing test with eyes closed, and standing trunk flexion. Changes in motor ability of each group between initial stage and final stage of the training were compared. 1. Muscle strength, part of the motor revelation capacity, showed no significant change in the both ,Troops. On the other hand, strength and power showed a decrease in the both groups and C group showed a sharp decrease. 2. Muscular endurance and cardio-pulmonary fitness, part of the motor continuation capacity, were increased after the training and the degree of increase was great in C group. 3. C group showed significant increase in motor coordination capacity including agility, balance, and flexibility after the training, while Wgroup showed significant increases only in balance. 4. Weight and skinfold thickness as a part of the physique showed no significant change.