• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.56-64
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• 2021

Leakage due to deterioration and damage is one of the major causes of volume change by freezing and thawing, and it leads micro-cracking and surface scaling in concrete structures. The deterioration of damaged concrete accelerates with the chloride attack. Thus, in the detailed guidelines for facility performance evaluation (2020), the quality of cover concrete and the freeze-thaw (FT) repetition cycle were newly suggested for concrete durability assessment. The quality of cover concrete should be evaluated by the rebound hammer test and the FT repetition cycle should be also considered in the deterioration environmental assessment. This study suggested the application of fast dynamic based nonlinear ultrasound method to monitor initial micro-scale damage under freezing and thawing environment. Concrete specimens were fabricated with different water-cement ratios (40%, 60%) and air contents (1.5% and 3.0%). The compressive strength, rebound number, relative dynamic modulus, and nonlinear ultrasound were measured with different FT cycles. The scanning electron microscopy was also performed to investigate the micro-scale FT damage. As a result, both the rebound number and the relative dynamic modulus had difficulty to detect early damage but the proposed method showed a potential to detect initial micro-scale damage and predict the FT resistance performance of concrete.

• Advances in pediatric surgery
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.57-65
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• 2013

The entity of negative appendectomies still poses a dilemma in chlidren. Focused computed tomography (CT) scanning has become the diagnostic test of choice in many hospitals. However, the impact of CT scans on the diagnosis in children is unknown exactly. The purpose of this study was to critically evaluate CT scans for the evaluation of acute appendicitis in children, to review utilization of this diagnostic test in our appendicitis population and to determine if diagnostic accuracy has improved. A retrospective analysis of efficacy of CT scan for diagnosis of appendicitis in children was conducted. Children undergoing appendectomy for acute appendicitis were reviewed from 2007 to 2012. Perforation and negative appendectomy (removal of a normal appendix) rates were determined by the final pathologic report. Statistical comparison were made using the $x^2$ test and significance was assigned at p < 0.05. Five hundred four appendectomies were performed. Mean age was $10.1{\pm}3.21$ years, and 62.7% were boys. Overall, 308 children (61.1%) underwent CT scanning, 100 (19.8%) had US performed, and 97 (19.2%) had no radiographic study. A pathologically normal appendix was removed in 8.7% (27 of 308) of CT patients, 9.0% (9 of 100) of US patients, and 11.3% (11 of 97) of patients without a study. The frequency of CT scanning increased from 29.7% (27 of 91) of all children in 2007 to 75.6% (59 of 78) in 2012, whereas utilization of US decreased from 30.8% (28 of 91) to 11.5% (9 of 78). During this time period the difference in the negative appendectomy rate did change significantly from 14% to 6%. Liberal use of CT scans in diagnosing appendicitis in children has resulted in a decreased negative appendectomy rate.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.283-292
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• 2009

Laser-based ultrasonic sensing requires the probe with fixed fecal length, but this requirement is not essential in laser-based ultrasonic generation. Based on this fact, we designed a pulsed laser-based ultrasonic wave propagation imaging (UWPI) system with a tilting mirror system for rapid scanning of target, and an in-line band-pass filtering capable of ultrasoaic mode selection. 1D-temporal averaging, 2D-spatial averaging, and 3D-data structure building algorithms were developed far clearer results allowing fur higher damage detectability. The imaging results on a flat stainless steel plate were presented in movie and snapshot formats which showed the propagation of ultrasound visible as a concentric wavefield emerging from the location of an ultrasonic sensor. A hole in the plate with a diameter of 1 mm was indicated by the scattering wavefields. The results showed that this robust UWPI system is independent of focal length and reference data requirements.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.35-42
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• 1982

The objective of this phantom study is to develop a digital method for improving the lateral resolution of B-scan ultrasonographic images irs medical application of ultrasound. By utilizing a discrete state-space modeling approach and Kalman-Buch method for analysis of the transducer's beam profile and the measurement and sampling noise, a stable recursive restoration of the object image was obtained for improved lateral resolution. The point spread function (PSF) was measured for the reflective signals after scanning the small pins located along the depth of interest. One major advantage of the present recursive scheme over the transform method is in its applicability for the space-variant imaging, such as in the case of the rotational movement of transducer.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.55-62
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• 1984

A digital spectrum analysis technique was used to estimate the tissue characteristic parameters (transmission velocity and attenuation coefficient) in the phantom study and the human liver's ultrasound scanning. The soft tissue equivalent phantom was made with the combination materials of agar, water, powdered graphite, and n-propyl alcohol. In the human study, twenty five normal subjects and three patients with liver diseases were studied using the ultrasonic reflection signals and the spectrum analysis method The following results were obtained; 1. The soft tissue-equivalent materical could be produced with various acoustic parameters by changing the composition amount of the powdered graphite and n-propyl alcohol. 2. Attenuation coefficients of normal human liver tissue were estimated to be 0. 36 dB/cm MHz$\pm$0.11. In patients with liver disese, tile attenuation coefficients were shown to be different from the above normal values.

• 전기의세계
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.204-208
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• 1982

The objective of this paper is to present a digital method for improving the lateral resolution of the B-scan images in the medical applications of ultrasound. The method is based upon a mathematical model of the lateral blurring caused by the finite beam width of the transducers. This model provides a simple method of applying a recursive scheme for image restoration with fast computation time. The point spread function (P.S.F.) can be measured by the reflective signals after scanning the small pins located along the depth of interest. From the measured P.S.F., one can compute the coefficient matrices of the inverse discrete-time dynamic state variable equation of the blurring process. Then, a recursive scheme for deblurring is applied to the recorded B-scan to improve the lateral resolution. One major advantage of the present recursive scheme over the transform method is in its applicability for the space-variant imaging, such as in the case of the rotational movement of transducer.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.25-34
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• 2022

The production of geopolymer is considered as a cleaner process due to much lower CO₂ emission than that from the production of Portland cement. This paper presents a study of the potential use of recycled steel fibre (RSF) coming from the recycling process of the old tires in geopolymer mortars. Ground expanded perlite (EP) is used as a source of alumino-silicate and sodium hydroxide (NaOH=5, 10, 15, and 20M) is used as alkaline medium for geopolymer synthesis. RSFs were added to the mortar mixtures in four different volume fractions (0, 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5% of the total volume of mortar). The unit weight, ultrasound pulse velocity, flexural and compressive strength of expanded perlite based geopolymer mortar (EPGM) mixtures were determined. The microstructures of selected EPGMs were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) analyses. The optimum molarity of sodium hydroxide solution was found to be 15M for geopolymer synthesis by EP. The test results revealed that RSFs can be successfully used for fibre-reinforced geopolymer production.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.58 no.4
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• pp.191-200
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• 2023

In this study, MoS₂ nanoparticles were synthesized and analyzed through powder X-ray diffraction, Raman, ultraviolet-visible, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopies. The surface morphologies of the as-synthesized MoS₂ nanoparticles were investigated through scanning and transmission electron microscopies. The sonocatalytic activity of the MoS₂ nanoparticles toward Orange II removal was evaluated by utilizing a Box-Behnken design for response surface methodology in the experimental design. The sonocatalyst dosage, Orange II dye concentration, and ultrasound treatment time were optimized to be 0.49 g/L, 5 mg/L, and 150 min, respectively. The maximum efficiency of Orange II degradation on MoS₂ nanoparticles was achieved, with a final average value of 82.93%. Further, the results of a kinetics study on sonocatalytic Orange II degradation demonstrated that the process fits well with a pseudo-first-order kinetic model.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.298-305
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• 2013

Uniform silica nanobeads were synthesized by St$\ddot{o}$ber method and assembled in the form of monolayer on glass substrate using sonication method. Before the assembly of silica nanobeads, glass substrates were treated with molecular linkers, such as CP-TMS and PEI, and nanobeads were dispersed in toluene. In attachment test, SO (sonication without stacking) method and SS (sonnication with stacking) method was used and sonication time was controled. After the experiment, microbalance was use to measure deviation between before and after the attachment experiment then calculate percent of coverage. Minutely observe with SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy) then select the most close-packed and monolayer assembled cover glass and calculate DOC (Degree of Coverage). In SO method, DOC increased very sharply and reach over 140 percent point, also got lots of multi-layer region. On the other hand, in SS method DOC increased slower than SO method but more close-packed and monolayer assembled.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.49 no.12
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• pp.924-929
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• 2011

It is well known that grain boundary cavitation is the main failure mechanism in austenitic stainless steel under tensile hold creep-fatigue interaction conditions. The cavities are nucleated at the grain boundary during cyclic loading and grow to become grain boundary cracks. The attenuation of ultrasound depends on scattering and absorption in polycrystalline materials. Scattering occurs when a propagation wave encounters microstructural discontinuities, such as internal voids or cavities. Since the density of the creep-fatigue cavities increases with the fatigue cycles, the attenuation of ultrasound will also be increased with the fatigue cycles and this attenuation can be detected nondestructively. In this study, it is found that individual grain boundary cavities are formed and grow up to about 100 cycles and then, these cavities coalesce to become cracks. The measured ultrasonic attenuation increased with the cycles up to cycle 100, where it reached a maximum value and then decreased with further cycles. These experimental measurements strongly indicate that the open pores of cavities contribute to the attenuation of ultrasonic waves. However, when the cavities develop, at the grain boundary cracks whose crack surfaces are in contact with each other, there is no longer any open space and the ultrasonic wave may propagate across the cracks. Therefore, the attenuation of ultrasonic waves will be decreased. This phenomenon of maximum attenuation is very important to judge the stage of grain boundary crack development, which is the indication of the dangerous stage of the structures.