• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.13-22
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• 2014

Esophageal pH monitoring is considered the gold standard for the diagnosis of gastroesophageal reflux disease because of the normal ranges across the pediatric age range. However, this method can only detect acid reflux. Multichannel intraluminal impedance-pH (MII-pH) monitoring has recently been used for the detection of bolus reflux in infants and children. This method allows for the detection of liquid, gas or mixed reflux in addition to acid, weakly acidic or weakly alkaline reflux. MII-pH monitoring can record the direction of flow and the height of reflux, which are useful parameters to identify an association between symptoms and reflux. However, the technique is limited by its high cost and the lack of normative data of MII-pH in the pediatric population. Despite certain limitations, MII-pH monitoring will become more common and gradually replace pH monitoring in the future, because pH monitoring is part of MII-pH.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.1170-1176
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• 2007

The conventional urodynamic monitoring is fulfilled by artificially filling a bladder with saline. Generally. it is difficult to evaluate the physiological functions of the storage and voiding of a bladder. With this aim, we constructed an ambulatory urodynamic monitoring (AUM) system and proposed a novel method estimating abdominal pressure by measuring bio-impedance variations. Our system was clinically evaluated for 10 patients. It turned out to be that as the intensity of the abdomen contraction increased, the amplitude of bio-impedance signal and the RMS value of EMG increased more as compared to those who observed during the rest mode. Also, we determined the optimum electrode pair for estimating the abdominal pressure using bio-impedance method and consequently compared with the conventional methods. Because impedance changes differ from a weight, a height, contractile force, volume of muscle and blood other or whatever of individuals, it was quantified in terms of impedance change, correlation coefficient and SNR Our results showed the optimum electrode pair (1,9) which could detect impedance changes due to the increase of the intensity in the abdominal pressure. The correlation coefficient and quadratic function between the RMS values of EMG and the impedance changes were 0.87 and $y=0.0014x^2+0.0620x+0.6958$, respectively. Thus, our system demonstrated that the abdominal pressure could be measured noninvasively and conveniently by simply estimating bio-impedance values. We propose that this optimum electrode configuration would be useful for the future studies involving the handy measurements of abdominal pressure with our suggested ambulatory urodynamics monitoring system.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.21-31
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• 2010

In this study, a technique that uses wireless impedance sensor nodes is proposed to monitor tensile force of structural cable. To achieve this goal, the following approaches were implemented. First, a wireless impedance sensor node was designed for automated and cost-efficient prestress-loss monitoring. Second, an impedance-based algorithm was embedded in the wireless impedance sensor node for autonomous structural health monitoring of structural cables. Third, a tensile force monitoring technique that uses an interface plate for structural cables was proposed to overcome the limitations of the wireless impedance sensor node such as its narrow-band measurable frequency ranges. Finally, the applicability of the wireless impedance sensor node and the technique that uses the interface washer were evaluated in a lab-scaled prestressed concrete (PSC) girder model with internal and external tendons for which several prestress-loss scenarios were experimentally monitored with the wireless impedance sensor nodes.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.154-158
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• 2012

It is generally known that electrochemical impedance spectroscopy is a powerful technique and its real-time application has been demanded for prompt observations on instantaneous electrochemical changes. Nevertheless, long measurement time and laborious analysis procedures have hindered development of it. Solving the problems, here I report of a new algorithm design for development of a real-time electrochemical impedance monitoring system, which potentially provides a guideline in developing monitoring systems of electric vehicles batteries and other electrochemical power plants. The significant progress in this report is employment of the parallel processing protocol which connects independent sub functions to successfully operate with avoiding mutual interruptions. Therefore, all the processes required to monitor electrochemical impedance changes in realtime are properly operated. To realize the conceptual scheme, a Labview program was coded with sub functions units which conduct their processes individually and only data are transferred between them through the parallel pipelines. Finally, measured impedance spectra and analysis results are displayed, which are synchronized according to the time of change.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2004.04a
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• pp.373-380
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• 2004

This paper presents the feasibility of an impedance-based damage detection technique using piezoelectric (PZT) transducers for civil infrastructures such as steel bridges. The impedance-based damage detection method is based on monitoring the changes in the electrical impedance. Those changes in the electrical impedance are due to the electro-mechanical coupling property of the piezoelectric material and structure. An effective integrated structural health monitoring system must include a statistical process of damage detection that is automated and real time assessment of damage in the structure. Once measured, damage sensitive features from this impedance change can be statistically quantified for various damage cases. The results of the experimental study on three kinds of structural members show that cracks or loosened bolts/nuts near the PZT sensors may be effectively detected by monitoring the shifts of the resonant frequencies. The root mean square (RMS) deviations of impedance functions between before and after damages were also considered as a damage indicator. The subsequent statistical methods using the impedance signature of the PZT sensors were investigated.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.719-743
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• 2011

A hybrid damage monitoring scheme using parallel acceleration-impedance approaches is proposed to detect girder damage and support damage in steel plate-girder bridges which are under ambient train-induced excitations. The hybrid scheme consists of three phases: global and local damage monitoring in parallel manner, damage occurrence alarming and local damage identification, and detailed damage estimation. In the first phase, damage occurrence in a structure is globally monitored by changes in vibration features and, at the same moment, damage occurrence in local critical members is monitored by changes in impedance features. In the second phase, the occurrence of damage is alarmed and the type of damage is locally identified by recognizing patterns of vibration and impedance features. In the final phase, the location and severity of the locally identified damage are estimated by using modal strain energy-based damage index methods. The feasibility of the proposed scheme is evaluated on a steel plate-girder bridge model which was experimentally tested under model train-induced excitations. Acceleration responses and electro-mechanical impedance signatures were measured for several damage scenarios of girder damage and support damage.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.41-55
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• 2015

This study proposes a laser based impedance measurement system and impedance based pipe corrosion and bolt-loosening monitoring techniques under temperature variations. For impedance measurement, the laser based impedance measurement system is optimized and adopted in this paper. First, a modulated laser beam is radiated to a photodiode, converting the laser beam into an electric signal. Then, the electric signal is applied to a MFC transducer attached on a target structure for ultrasonic excitation. The corresponding impedance signals are measured, re-converted into a laser beam, and radiated back to the other photodiode located in a data interrogator. The transmitted impedance signals are treated with an outlier analysis using generalized extreme value (GEV) statistics to reliably signal off structural damage. Validation of the proposed technique is carried out to detect corrosion and bolt-loosening in lab-scale carbon steel elbow pipes under varying temperatures. It has been demonstrated that the proposed technique has a potential to be used for structural health monitoring (SHM) of pipe structures.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.08a
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• pp.123.2-123.2
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• 2013

Etching endpoint detection with plasma impedance monitoring (PIM) is demonstrated for small area dielectric layers inductive coupled plasma etching. The endpoint is determined by the impedance harmonic signals variation from the I-V monitoring system. Measuring plasma impedance has been examined as a relatively simple method of detecting variations in plasma and surface conditions without contamination at low cost. Cluster analysis algorithm is modified and applied to real-time endpoint detection for sensitivity enhancement in this work. For verification, the detected endpoint by PIM and real-time cluster analysis is compared with widely used optical emission spectroscopy (OES) signals. The proposed technique shows clear improvement of sensitivity with significant noise reduction when it is compared with OES signals. This technique is expected to be applied to various plasma monitoring applications including fault detections as well as end point detection.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.501-523
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• 2016

Electromechanical impedance (EMI) based structural health monitoring is performed by measuring the variation in the impedance due to the structural local damage. The impedance signals are acquired from the piezoelectric patches that are bonded on the structural surface. The impedance variation, which is directly related to the mechanical properties of the structure, indicates the presence of local structural damage. Two traditional EMI-based damage detection methods are based on calculating the difference between the measured impedance signals in the frequency domain from the baseline and the current structures. In this paper, a new structural damage detection approach by analyzing the time domain impedance responses is proposed. The measured time domain responses from the piezoelectric transducers will be used for analysis. With the use of the Time Frequency Autoregressive Moving Average (TFARMA) model, a damage index based on Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) is defined to identify the existence of the structural local damage. Experimental studies on a space steel truss bridge model in the laboratory are conducted to verify the proposed approach. Four piezoelectric transducers are attached at different locations and excited by a sweep-frequency signal. The impedance responses at different locations are analyzed with TFARMA model to investigate the effectiveness and performance of the proposed approach. The results demonstrate that the proposed approach is very sensitive and robust in detecting the bolt damage in the gusset plates of steel truss bridges.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2007.04a
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• pp.46-48
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• 2007

In this study, we determined the optimum electrode pair for measuring the abdominal pressure using bio-impedance method. Because impedance changes differ from a weight, a height, contractile force, volume of muscle and blood other or whatever of individuals, it was quantified using values of impedance change, correlation coefficient and SNR. Our results showed the optimum electrode pair (1, 9) which could detect impedance changes due to an increase of the intensity of the abdominal pressure. The correlation coefficient and quadratic function between the RMS values of EMG and the impedance changes were 0.87 and $y=0.0014x^2$+0.0620x+0.6958, respectively. It demonstrated that the abdominal pressure could be measured non-invasively and simply using bio-impedance method. We propose that this optimum electrode configuration would be useful for future studies involving the convenient measurement of abdominal pressure by ambulatory urodynamics monitoring study.