• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.447-453
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• 2008

Respiration rate is one of the important vital signs. Photo-plethysmography (PPG) measurement especially on a finger has been widely used in pulse oximetry and also used in estimating respiration rate. It is well known that PPG contains respiration-induced intensity variation (RIIV) signal. However, the accuracy of finger PPG method has been controversial. We introduced a new technique of enhancing motion artifact by respiration. This was achieved simply by measuring PPG on the thorax. We examined the accuracy of these two PPG methods by comparing with two existing methods based on thoracic volume and nostril temperature changes. PPG sensing on finger tip, which is the most common site of measurement, produced 6.1 % error. On the other hand, our method of PPG sensing on the thorax achieved 0.4 % error which was a significant improvement. Finger PPG is sensitive to motion artifact and it is difficult to recover fully small respiratory signal buried in waveform dominated by absorption due to blood volume changes. Thorax PPG is poor to represent blood volumes changes since it contains substantial motion artifact due to respiration. Ironically, this inferior quality ensures higher accuracy in terms of respiration measurement. Extreme low-cost and small-sized LED/silicon detector and non-constrained reflection measurement provide a great candidate for respiration estimation in ubiquitous or personal health monitoring.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2008.03a
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• pp.437-441
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• 2008

A non-toxic Post Boost Stage(PBS) with LOX/Ethanol engine was successfully demonstrated at the Tomioka Facility of IHI Aerospace. IHI Aerospace has researched and developed the nontoxic propulsion systems and the LOX/Ethanol is one of the most attractive non-toxic bipropellant candidates. ${\rho}ISP$ of LOX/Ethanol is higher than ${\rho}ISP$ of the other non-toxic bipropellants as LOX/HC or $LOX/LH_2$. The authors studied the combustion characteristics of LOX/Ethanol propellant with the engine designed for LOX/LNG propellant. Also the injector with a built-in igniter was designed and examined its feasibility, ignition and combustion characteristics. We have demonstrated Post Boost Stage with future LOX/Ethanol engines. This propulsion system is targeted for expandable vehicle upper stage to accelerate delta-V to reach the required orbit. PBS Demonstration Model is designed as a test stand to evaluate feed system for integrated propulsion system and also to demonstrate Integrated Vehicle Health Management(IVHM) technique using local valve control and also valve behavior-monitoring capability.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.525-540
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• 2016

The CFRP-confined circular concrete-filled steel tubular column is composed of concrete, steel, and CFRP. Its failure mechanics are complex. The most important difficulties are lack of an available method to establish a relationship between a specific damage mechanism and its acoustic emission (AE) characteristic parameter. In this study, AE technique was used to monitor the evolution of damage in CFRP-confined circular concrete-filled steel tubular columns. A fuzzy c-means method was developed to determine the relationship between the AE signal and failure mechanisms. Cluster analysis results indicate that the main AE sources include five types: matrix cracking, debonding, fiber fracture, steel buckling, and concrete crushing. This technology can not only totally separate five types of damage sources, but also make it easier to judge the damage evolution process. Furthermore, typical damage waveforms were analyzed through wavelet analysis based on the cluster results, and the damage modes were determined according to the frequency distribution of AE signals.

• Journal of the Korean Geophysical Society
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.269-276
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• 2004

Optical fiber sensors have shown a potential to serve real time health monitoring of the structures. They can be easily embedded or attached to the structures and are not affected by the electro-magnetic field. Furthermore, they have the flexibility of the sensor size and very highly sensitive. In this study, we conducted several laboratory and field tests using a novel optical sensor based on Brillouin scattering. One of the advantages of this technique is that the bare fiber itself acts as sensing element without any special fiber processing or preparation. Test results have shown that BOTDR can be a great solution for sensor systems of Civil Engineering Smart Structures.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.727-739
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• 2018

Crack is the most common typical feature of concrete deterioration, so routine monitoring and health assessment become essential for identifying failures and to set up an appropriate rehabilitation strategy in order to extend the service life of concrete structures. At present, image segmentation algorithms have been applied to crack analysis based on inspection images of concrete structures. The results of crack segmentation offering crack information, including length, width, and area is helpful to assist inspectors in surface inspection of concrete structures. This study proposed an algorithm of image segmentation enhancement, named morphological segmentation based on edge detection-II (MSED-II), to concrete crack segmentation. Several concrete pavement and building surfaces were imaged as the study materials. In addition, morphological operations followed by cross-curvature evaluation (CCE), an image segmentation technique of linear patterns, were also tested to evaluate their performance in concrete crack segmentation. The result indicates that MSED-II compared to CCE can lead to better quality of concrete crack segmentation. The least area, length, and width measurement errors of the concrete cracks are 5.68%, 0.23%, and 0.00%, respectively, that proves MSED-II effective for automatic measurement of concrete cracks.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.1277-1283
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• 2021

It is important for operators of poly-pipelines in petroleum industry to continuously monitor characteristics of transferred fluid such as its type and amount. To achieve this aim, in this study a dual energy gamma attenuation technique in combination with artificial neural network (ANN) is proposed to simultaneously determine type and amount of four different petroleum by-products. The detection system is composed of a dual energy gamma source, including americium-241 and barium-133 radioisotopes, and one 2.54 cm × 2.54 cm sodium iodide detector for recording the transmitted photons. Two signals recorded in transmission detector, namely the counts under photo peak of Americium-241 with energy of 59.5 keV and the counts under photo peak of Barium-133 with energy of 356 keV, were applied to the ANN as the two inputs and volume percentages of petroleum by-products were assigned as the outputs.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.30 no.4A
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• pp.375-382
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• 2010

This paper presents the extraction of natural frequencies and mode shapes of a cable-stayed bridge using data acquired from GNSS. The response signals of 6 GNSS measuring points installed at the Seohae cable-stayed bridge are used for analysis of dynamic characteristics. Using normalization process and a third order Butterworth filter for the measured signals, the related pass band's signals have been isolated. Then, the acceleration data by double differentiation for these signals are obtained. Total five natural frequencies have been extracted by the fast Fourier transform and compared to the results of different studies. For the acceleration obtained from GNSS signals, the mode shapes of the bridge have been successfully extracted by TDD technique.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.225-242
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• 2011

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify students' experiences of performance and their satisfaction with clinical nursing practice in Women's health nursing. Methods: Data was collected using questionnaire consisting of 104; 89,; and 82 nursing activities with 12; 10; and 7 domains for delivery floor, obstetric, and gynecologic wards retrospectively. Five hundred ninety nursing students from 10 four year and one three year colleges, were recruited and selected for data collection. Results: Site specific core nursing activities among top 15 items of performed experience were: interpreting fetal monitoring; massage for pain reduction; breathing technique; perineal pad change; non stress test; manual check for uterine contraction; and position change for the delivery floor. Experiences of clinical nursing practice for the obstetric ward and the gynecologic ward were identified and ranked as well. Observation of delivery, measurement & test during labor and observation of anesthesia and operation were the highest ranked activity domains of satisfaction for delivery floor, obstetric and gynecologic wards retrospectively. Conclusion: Discussions are needed to standardize curriculum for clinical practice in women's health nursing initiated at the level of Korean Society of Womens' Health Nursing by reflecting this result. Strategic approaches are emphasized in order to enhance a collaboration between clinical fields and colleges.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.161-183
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• 2017

This paper investigates the damage identification of the concrete pile element through axial wave propagation technique using computational and experimental studies. Now-a-days, concrete pile foundations are often common in all engineering structures and their safety is significant for preventing the failure. Damage detection and estimation in a sub-structure is challenging as the visual picture of the sub-structure and its condition is not well known and the state of the structure or foundation can be inferred only through its static and dynamic response. The concept of wave propagation involves dynamic impedance and whenever a wave encounters a changing impedance (due to loss of stiffness), a reflecting wave is generated with the total strain energy forked as reflected as well as refracted portions. Among many frequency domain methods, the Spectral Finite Element method (SFEM) has been found suitable for analysis of wave propagation in real engineering structures as the formulation is based on dynamic equilibrium under harmonic steady state excitation. The feasibility of the axial wave propagation technique is studied through numerical simulations using Elementary rod theory and higher order Love rod theory under SFEM and ABAQUS dynamic explicit analysis with experimental validation exercise. Towards simulating the damage scenario in a pile element, dis-continuity (impedance mismatch) is induced by varying its cross-sectional area along its length. Both experimental and computational investigations are performed under pulse-echo and pitch-catch configuration methods. Analytical and experimental results are in good agreement.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.1509-1521
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• 2013

Social demand for the stability of structures lead to the development of the technology to accomplish it. The non-destructive seismic technique, which is able to assess structural integrity of infrastructures, belongs to this category. Seismic technique is focused on the measurement of seismic velocity propagating through the material, and has to utilize sensors coupled to material surface, which does not allow the testing to be performed on the fly. In this paper, a general vocal microphone, which works as a non-contact sensor, was adopted to facilitate seismic testing with mobility and efficiency improved. The target of using microphones was oriented toward quality assessment of compacted subgrade, stiffness evaluation and health monitoring of concrete structures. Experimental parametric study and field applications were performed to investigate reliability and efficiency of microphones. Finally, the optimal test configuration of microphones was suggested for resonance tests and surface-wave tests.