• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.26 no.5
• /
• pp.657-666
• /
• 2020

A rotational pulse-echo ultrasonic propagation imager that can inspect cylindrical specimens for material nondestructive evaluations is proposed herein. In this system, a laser-generated ultrasonic bulk wave is used for inspection, which enables a clear visualization of subsurface defects with a precise reproduction of the damage shape and size. The ultrasonic waves are generated by a Q-switched laser that impinges on the outer surface of the specimen walls. The generated waves travel through the walls and their echo is detected by a Laser Doppler Vibrometer (LDV) at the same point. To obtain the optimal Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) of the measured signal, the LDV requires the sensed surface to be at a right angle to the laser beam and at a predefined constant standoff distance from the laser head. For flat specimens, these constraints can be easily satisfied by performing a raster scan using a dual-axis linear stage. However, this arrangement cannot be used for cylindrical specimens owing to their curved nature. To inspect the cylindrical specimens, a circular scan technology is newly proposed for pulse-echo laser ultrasound. A rotational stage is coupled with a single-axis linear stage to inspect the desired area of the specimen. This system arrangement ensures that the standoff distance and beam incidence angle are maintained while the cylindrical specimen is being inspected. This enables the inspection of a curved specimen while maintaining the optimal SNR. The measurement result is displayed in parallel with the on-going inspection. The inspection data used in scanning are mapped from rotational coordinates to linear coordinates for visualization and post-processing of results. A graphical user interface software is implemented in C++ using a QT framework and controls all the individual blocks of the system and implements the necessary image processing, scan calculations, data acquisition, signal processing and result visualization.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
• /
• 2013.05a
• /
• pp.93-95
• /
• 2013

The conventional assistive tool for visually impaired people provide Simple service using a ultrasound, or an RFID tag to identify the obstacles. It is impossible to clear guide and has a vulnerability to unforeseen circumstances because of short recognition distance, The ARM Cortex-A9 Platform based implementation of the Portable Navigation System and Service Center will help the visually impaired gait. The Service Center will also provide solution for the lack of jobs due to the increase of the aging population. Navigation System that the visually impaired can carry possessing devices such as a camera, GPS, Audio, Ethernet transmit Image shown at the location of the visually impaired, GPS information and Sound Via TCP / IP. The staff of the service center receives information and can provide directions by communicating with them. So, the system can provide effective guidance to the visually impaired.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
• /
• v.23 no.3
• /
• pp.243-251
• /
• 2002

Synthetic zinc wave employs Pulsed plane wave as transmit beam with linear time delay curve. The received echoes in different transmit directions at different transmit times are superposed at imaging Points with Proper time delay compensation using synthetic focusing scheme. This scheme. which uses full aperture in transmit, obtains a high SNR image, and also features high lateral resolution by using two way dynamic focusing at all imaging depths. In this Paper, we consider the Problems in realization of synthetic zinc wave. Also. we have applied the scheme to obtain phantom and in-vivo images using a linear array of 5 MHz. In phantom test. experimental images show high resolution over a more extended imaging depth than conventional fixed Point transmit and receive dynamic focusing schemes In-vivo images show that the resolution could not overcome conventional focusing systems because of motion blurring and(or) aberration of tissue. but the frame rate tan be increased by a factor of more than 5 compared to conventional focusing schemes. with competitive resolution at all imaging depths .

• Journal of Digital Contents Society
• /
• v.15 no.6
• /
• pp.675-682
• /
• 2014

Prostate is only an organ of men. To diagnose the disease of the prostate, generally transrectal ultrasound(TRUS) images are used. Detecting its boundary is a challenging and difficult task due to weak prostate boundaries, speckle noise and the short range of gray levels. In this paper a method for automatic prostate segmentation in TRUS images using Support Vector Machine(SVM) is presented. This method involves preprocessing, extracting Gabor feature, training, and prostate segmentation. The speckle reduction for preprocessing step has been achieved by using stick filter and top-hat transform has been implemented for smoothing. Gabor filter bank for extraction of rotation-invariant texture features has been implemented. SVM for training step has been used to get each feature of prostate and nonprostate. Finally, the boundary of prostate is extracted. A number of experiments are conducted to validate this method and results shows that the proposed algorithm extracted the prostate boundary with less than 10% relative to boundary provided manually by doctors.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
• /
• v.22 no.3
• /
• pp.288-295
• /
• 2005

Five dogs at the age of 2-13 years, with variant respiratory signs like as dry cough, dyspnea, exercise intorelance and lameness were presented. On thoracic radiographs, all dogs had abnormalities such as soft tissue density, round mass image, increased pulmonary infiltration and pleural effusion. All dogs were diagnosed as adenocarcinoma on cytopathologic examinations by fine needle aspiration with ultrasound guidance. Computed tomography was performed in three cases to evaluate clinical stage. Primary papillary adenocarcinoma was confirmed after necropsy in one case.

• Journal of Digital Contents Society
• /
• v.16 no.5
• /
• pp.717-725
• /
• 2015

Prostate images have been used in the diagnosis of prostate using TRUS images being relatively cheap. Ultrasound images are recorded with 3 dimension and one diagnostic exam is made with a number of the images. A doctor can see 2 dimensional images on the monitor sequentially and 3 dimensional ones to diagnose a disease. To display the images, 2-d images are used with raw 2-d ones, but 3-d images need to be segmented by the prostates and their backgrounds to be seen from different angles and with cut images of inner side. Especially on detecting the boundary, the ones in the middle of all images are easy to find the boundary but the base and apex of the images are hard to do it since there are lots of uncertain boundary. So, in this paper we propose the method that applies an average shape model and detects the boundary, and shows its superiority compared to the existing methods with experiments.

• Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Science
• /
• v.2 no.1
• /
• pp.44-48
• /
• 2013

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate changes of abdominal muscles thickness according to the angle during the active straight leg raise (ASLR) in young healthy subjects. Design: Cross sectional study. Methods: Twenty-three healthy university students (13 men and 10 women) voluntary participated to the study in S University. The ASLR was performed with the subject lying supine with lower extremities straight on a standard plinth, hands resting on the chest, and elbows on the plinth. When one subject performed ASLR from each angles ($30^{\circ}$, $45^{\circ}$, $60^{\circ}$, $90^{\circ}$), compared changes in the thickness of rectus abdominis muscle. Changes in muscle thickness during ASLR test were assessed with ultrasonography. All subjects were to provide enough time of rest after performed ASLR. Rectus abdominis thickness were measured using rehabilitative ultrasound image. Results: Good quality rectus abdominal muscle activation data were recorded during ASLR. The length changes of linea alba showed significantly shorter in between $0^{\circ}$ and $30^{\circ}$ (p<0.05). The thickness of rectus abdominis muscle were significantly different between $0^{\circ}$ and $30^{\circ}$, $0^{\circ}$ and $45^{\circ}$, $0^{\circ}$ and $60^{\circ}$, $0^{\circ}$ and $90^{\circ}$. According to increase of pelvic angle, the thickness of rectus abdominis muscle were more thickening (p<0.05). Conclusions: This result is changes of abdominal muscles thickness according to the angle during the ASLR.

• Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Science
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.49-54
• /
• 2020

Objective: The purposes of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic values of abdominal muscles thickness and sterno-costal angle as the quantitative diagnostic indicators for young adults with rounded shoulders. Design: A observational, cross-sectional study. Methods: This study included thirty-three male participants in order to examine the relationship among thoracic kyphosis, sternocostal angle, and abdominal muscle thickness. We used ultrasound imaging to measure the muscle thickness, two gravity-dependent inclinometers to measure the kyphosis angle, and Image J to measure the sterno-costal angle. Results: There was a significant positive correlation between the amount of thoracic kyphosis angle and muscle thickness of the external oblique (EO) on the right side (r=0.931), and on the left side (r=0.432), and the transverse abdominis (TrA) (r=0.649). There was also a significant negative correlation between the thoracic kyphosis angle and the sterno-costal angle at the right side (r=-0.942) and at the left side (r=-0.860). There was a significant positive relationship with muscle thickness of the EO and TrA on the right side with the thoracic kyphosis angle, and was significant negative relationship with the sterno-costal angle on both sides. Conclusions: The results of the study suggest that the thoracic kyphosis angle is related to muscle thickness of the EO and TrA on the dominant side and the sterno-costal angle. We also suggest that future studies are needed to determine how strengthening the abdominal muscles may contribute to preventing excessive thoracic kyphosis in young adults.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
• /
• v.53 no.5
• /
• pp.545-551
• /
• 2015

Schistosomiasis is one of the important neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) in Tanzania, particularly in Lake Victoria zone. This baseline survey was a part of the main study of integrated control of schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminths (STHs) aimed at describing morbidity patterns due to intestinal schistosomiasis among adults living on Kome Island, Sengerema District, Tanzania. Total 388 adults from Kome Islands (about 50 people from each village) aged between 12 and 85 years, were examined by abdominal ultrasound according to the Niamey protocol. Liver image patterns (LIPs) A and B were considered normal, and C-F as distinct periportal fibrosis (PPF). The overall prevalence of PPF was 42.2%; much higher in males than in females (47.0% in male vs 34.4% in females, P=0.007). Abnormal increase of segmental branch wall thickness (SBWT) and dilated portal vein diameter (PVD) were also more common in males than in females. Hepatosplenomegaly was frequently encountered; 68.1% had left liver lobe hepatomegaly and 55.2% had splenomegaly. Schistosoma mansoni-related morbidity is quite high among adults in this community justifying the implementation of integrated control strategies through mass drug administration, improved water supply (pumped wells), and health education that had already started in the study area.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
• /
• v.30 no.2
• /
• pp.104-109
• /
• 2010

Lap joint friction stir welding(LFSW) is an relatively new solid state joining process. A6061-T6 aluminium alloy has gathered wide acceptance in the fabrication of light weight structures requiring a high strength to weight ratio and good corrosion resistance. Test methods used in this paper, lock-in thermography, a phase difference between the defect area and the healthy area indicates the qualitative location and size of the defect. In this paper, the defects detected from the thermal image of mechanical properties for weld were evaluated and compared by the lock-in infrared thermography technique.