• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.624-633
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• 2021

Objective: To evaluate the reliability of CT measurements of muscle quantity and quality using variable CT parameters. Materials and Methods: A phantom, simulating the L2-4 vertebral levels, was used for this study. CT images were repeatedly acquired with modulation of tube voltage, tube current, slice thickness, and the image reconstruction algorithm. Reference standard muscle compartments were obtained from the reference maps of the phantom. Cross-sectional area based on the Hounsfield unit (HU) thresholds of muscle and its components, and the mean density of the reference standard muscle compartment, were used to measure the muscle quantity and quality using different CT protocols. Signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) were calculated in the images acquired with different settings. Results: The skeletal muscle area (threshold, -29 to 150 HU) was constant, regardless of the protocol, occupying at least 91.7% of the reference standard muscle compartment. Conversely, normal attenuation muscle area (30-150 HU) was not constant in the different protocols, varying between 59.7% and 81.7% of the reference standard muscle compartment. The mean density was lower than the target density stated by the manufacturer (45 HU) in all cases (range, 39.0-44.9 HU). The SNR decreased with low tube voltage, low tube current, and in sections with thin slices, whereas it increased when the iterative reconstruction algorithm was used. Conclusion: Measurement of muscle quantity using HU threshold was reliable, regardless of the CT protocol used. Conversely, the measurement of muscle quality using the mean density and narrow HU thresholds were inconsistent and inaccurate across different CT protocols. Therefore, further studies are warranted in future to determine the optimal CT protocols for reliable measurements of muscle quality.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.319-328
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• 2003

The purpose of this paper is to develop a medical laser system using the semiconductor diode laser in order to photodynamic cancel therapy as a light source. The ideal light source for photodynamic therapy would be a homogeneous nondiverging light with variable spot size and specific wavelength with stability. After due consideration in this point, in this paper, we used a diode laser resonator of 635nm wavelength. The development laser system have a statistical laser out beam with accuracy control using the constant current control of method and clinic-friendly with compact. In order to protect the diode resonator from the over-current, the rush-current and electrical fault, we specially designed. The most importance therapeutic factor are the radiation mode for cancer therapy. So we developed the radiation mode of CW(Continuous Wave), long pulse, short pulse, and burst pulse and can adjust the exposure time from several milli-second to several minute. The experimental result shows that laser beam power was increased linear from 10mW to 300mW according to the increasing input current and the increasing exposure time. The developed new compact diode laser system have a stability of output power and specific wavelength with easy control and transportable for many applications of PDT.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.201-215
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• 1999

Field measurements were made for long- and short-period waves and current velocities at the harbor mouth using pressure-type wave gauges and a current meter, respectively, at the Gamcheon Harbor which has a rectangular shape with a narrow entrance. The measured pressure data were subjected to spectral analyses after removing tidal effects by applying trend removal and high-pass filtering. For the band averaging of the raw spectra, in order to obtain good resolution over the entire frequency, instead of a constant band width, variable band widths were used, which gradually increase as marching from the lowest frequency towards higher frequencies. The Helmholtz resonance mode at the Gamcheon Harbor shows the relative amplification ratio of 9.2 at the wave period of 31.7 minutes, which is quite large compared with those at the harbors located on the east coast of Korea. The second and the third resonance period was 10.3 and 5.4 minute, respectively. On the other hand, the analysis of every 24 hours data shows that during storms the spectral densities are very large compared to those during calm seas and also the second and third resonances are predominant.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.10-18
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• 2018

The primary purposes of this study are to understand a fundamental aspect of current uniformity around a reinforcing bar (rebar) in cement mortar, and to develop an accurate monitoring method in a wet-dry cycling process with the alternative current (AC) impedance method. Three cement mortar specimens with two embedded rebars were prepared in the laboratory. As a main variable, the distance between two rebars was designed to be 10, 20 and 30 mm with the same thickness of 20 mm. To simulate the corrosion of rebars in concrete structures in a marine environment, three cement mortar specimens were exposed to 15 wet-drying cycles (24-hour-immersion in seawater and 48-hour-drying in a room temperature) in the laboratory. It was observed that the potential level shifted to a noble value during corrosion potential monitoring, which is attributed to acceleration of dissolved oxygen diffusion at the drying process. AC impedance was measured in a frequency range from 100 kHz to 1 mHz on a wet-drying process. A theoretical model was proposed to explain the interface condition between the rebars and cement mortar by using the equivalent circuit consisting of a solution resistance, a charge transfer resistance and a CPE (constant phase element). It was observed that the diffusion impedance appeared in a low frequency range as corrosion of rebars progresses. At the drying stage of the wet-drying cycles, the currents line for monitoring tended to be non-uniform at the interface of rebar/mortar, being phase shift, ${\theta}$, close to $-45^{\circ}$.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.174-179
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• 2018

In this paper, design of high-efficiency DC-DC converter is presented for low-power PMIC (power management integrated circuit). As PMIC technologies for IoT and wearable devices have been continuously improved, high-efficiency energy harvesting schemes should be essential. Since the supply voltage resulting from energy harvesting is low and widely variable, design techniques to achieve high efficiency over a wide input voltage range are required. To obtain a constant switching frequency for wide input voltage range, frequency compensation circuit using supply-voltage variation sensing circuit is included. In order to obtain high efficiency performance at very low-power condition, accurate burst-mode control circuit was adopted to control switching operations. In the proposed DC-DC buck converter, output voltage is set to be 0.9V at the input voltage of 0.95~3.3V and maximum measured efficiency is up to 78% for the load current of 180uA.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.46-55
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• 2016

Three small scale hollow circular reinforced concrete columns(4.5 aspect ratio) were tested under cyclic lateral load with constant axial load. Diameter of section is 400 mm, hollow diameter is 200 mm. The selected test variable are transverse steel ratio. Volumetric ratio of spirals of all the columns is 0.302~0.604% in the plastic hinge region. It corresponds to 45.9~91.8% of the minimum requirement of confining steel by Korean Bridge Design Specifications, which represent existing columns not designed by the current seismic design specifications or designed by seismic concept. The final objectives of this study are to provide quantitative reference data and tendency for performance or damage assessment based on the performance levels such as cracking, yielding, steel fracture, etc. In this paper, describes mainly failure behavior, strength degradation behaviour, displacement ductility of circular reinforced concrete bridge columns with respect to test variables.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.194-201
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• 2011

The air flow supplied to a fuel cell system is one of the most significant factors in determining fuel efficiency. The conventional method of controlling the air flow is to fix the oxygen supply at an estimated constant rate for optimal efficiency. However, the actual optimal point can deviated from the pre-set value due to temperature, load conditions and so on. In this paper, the maximum efficiency point tracking (MEPT) algorithm is proposed for finding the optimal air supply rate in real time to maximize the net-power generation of fuel cell systems. The fixed step MEPT algorithm has slow dynamics, thus it affects the overall efficiency. As a result, the variable step MEPT algorithm is proposed to compensate for this problem instead of a fixed one. The complete small signal model of a PEM Fuel cell system is developed to perform a stability analysis and to present a design guideline. For a design example, a 1kW PEM fuel cell system with a DSP 56F807 (Motorola Inc) was built and tested using the proposed MEPT algorithm. This control algorithm is very effective for a soft current change load like a grid connected system or a hybrid electric vehicle system with a secondary energy source.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.499-506
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• 2001

Eight direct tension tests were conducted to study the bond characteristics and crack behavior in high-strength concrete axial members. The main variable was the concrete strength up to 61-63 MPa. The specimens consisted of two different types of the short specimens modeled the part between transverse cracks and the long specimens having numerous transverse cracks. The results obtained show that the bond strength increases in proportion to compressive strength. Thereby, in high-strength concrete the length of stress-disturbed region is shortened and the space of adjacent transverse cracks become smaller. Although the concrete strength varies from 25 MPa to 61 MPa, the split cracking loads remain constant, while transverse cracking loads vary as variation of concrete tensile strength. Accordingly, the current code provisions for development length may need reconsideration in high-strength concrete members, and it is recommended that either thicker cover or transverse reinforcement should be additionally provided for high-strength concrete members.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.73-80
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• 2008

The objective of current study is to develop an optimization technique for the seismic actively controlled building structures using active tendon devices by an efficient solution of LQR control gain. In order to solve the active control system, the Ricatti closed-loop algorithm has been applied, and the state vector has been formulated by the transfer matrix and solved by a numerical technique of the trapezoidal rule. The time-delay problem has been also considered by phase compensation. To optimize the performance index, the ratio of the weighted matrix is the design variable, allowable story drift limits of IBC 2000 and tendon forces have been applied as restraint conditions, and the optimum control program has been developed with the algorithm of the SUMT technique. In examples of the optimization problem of eight stories shear buildings, it is evaluated that the optimum controlled building is more suitable in the control of earthquake response than the uncontrolled system and can reduce the performance index to compare with the controlled system with a constant ratio of the weighted matrix.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.63-71
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• 1989

Four series of reinforced concrete beams were tested to determine their shear cracking strengths and ultimate shear capacities. All beams were singly reinforced without shear reinforcement. The concrete strength was the prime variable which was varied from 247 to $708kg/cm^2$(8500 to 10000 psi). Within each series the shear span-to-depth ratio was varied from 2 to 5, while concrete strength was held constant. Test results indicate that the effect of concrete strength on shear capacities is varied as the shear span-to-depth ratio is changed. Furthermore, the current shear design provisions do not provide a consistency with respect to estimating shear capacities of reinforced concrete beams. By introducing the shear failure mode index, a new equation is proposed to predict ultimate shear strengths of reinforced concrete beams without web reinforcement.