• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.61 no.2
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• pp.277-281
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• 2018

Objective : Craniovertebral junctional anomalies constitute a technical challenge. Surgical opening of atlantoaxial joint region is a complex procedure especially in patients with nuchal deformity like basilar invagination. This region has actually very complicated anatomical and functional characteristics, including multiple joints providing extension, flexion, and wide rotation. In fact, it is also a bottleneck region where bones, neural structures, and blood vessels are located. Stabilization surgery regarding this region should consider the fact that the area exposes excessive and life-long stress due to complex movements and human posture. Therefore, all options should be considered for surgical stabilization, and they could be interchanged during the surgery, if required. Methods : A 53-year-old male patient applied to outpatients' clinic with complaints of head and neck pain persisting for a long time. Physical examination was normal except increased deep tendon reflexes. The patient was on long-term corticosteroid due to an allergic disease. Magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography findings indicated basilar invagination and atlantoaxial dislocation.The patient underwent C0-C3-C4 (lateral mass) and additional C0-C2 (translaminar) stabilization surgery. Results : In routine practice, the sites where rods are bound to occipital plates were placed as paramedian. Instead, we inserted lateral mass screw to the sites where occipital screws were inserted on the occipital plate, thereby creating a site where extra rod could be bound.When C2 translaminar screw is inserted, screw caps remain on the median plane, which makes them difficult to bind to contralateral system. These bind directly to occipital plate without any connection from this region to the contralateral system.Advantages of this technique include easy insertion of C2 translaminar screws, presence of increased screw sizes, and exclusion of pullout forces onto the screw from neck movements. Another advantage of the technique is the median placement of the rod; i.e., thick part of the occipital bone is in alignment with axial loading. Conclusion : We believe that this technique, which could be easily performed as adjuvant to classical stabilization surgery with no need for special screw and rod, may improve distraction force in patients with low bone density.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.23 no.9
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• pp.483-488
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• 2013

Over the past few decades, high-nitrogen austenitic steels have steadily received greater attention since they provide a unique combination of high strength and ductility, good corrosion resistance, and non-magnetic properties. Recently, highnitrogen 18Mn-18Cr austenitic steels with enhanced strength have been developed and widely used for generator retaining rings in order to prevent the copper wiring from being displaced by the centrifugal forces occurring during high-speed rotation. The high-nitrogen austenitic steels for generator retaining ring should be expanded at room temperature and then stress relief annealed at around $400^{\circ}C$ to achieve the required mechanical properties. In this study, four kinds of high-nitrogen 18Mn-18Cr austenitic steels with different nitrogen content were fabricated by using a pressurized vacuum induction melting furnace, and then the effects of nitrogen content, cold working, and stress relieving on tensile properties were investigated. The yield and tensile strengths increased proportionally with increasing nitrogen content and cold working, and they further increased after stress relieving treatment. Based on these results, a semi-empirical equation was proposed to predict the tensile strength of highnitrogen 18Mn-18Cr austenitic steels for generator retaining rings. It will be a useful for the effective fabrication of high-nitrogen 18Mn-18Cr austenitic steels for generator retaining rings with the required tensile properties.

• Progress in Superconductivity
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.133-138
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• 2011

To reduce the processing cost of the single grain REBCO (RE: Rare-earth elements) bulk superconductors, a cost-effective process should be developed. One possible way of developing the cost-effective process is the use of low-cost precursor powders. In this study, the single grain YBCO superconductors were fabricated using a home made powder. $YBa_2Cu_3O_{7-y}$ (Y123) powders were synthesized at $850-900^{\circ}C$ in air by the powder calcination method with repeated crushing and heat treatment steps. The processing parameters for the fabrication of single grain Y123 bulk superconductors, $T_{max}$ (maximum temperature), $T_p$ (peritectic temperature) and a cooling rate through $T_p$ were optimized. To enhance the flux pinning capacity of the single grain Y123 samples, $Y_2BaCuO_5$ (Y211) particles were dispersed in the Y123 matrix by adding $Y_2O_3$ powder to the calcined Y123 powder. Applying the optimized processing condition, the single grain Y123 superconductors with $T_c=91\;K$ and $J_c=1.5{\times}10^4\;A/cm^2$ at 2 T were successfully fabricated using a home made powder. The levitation forces and trapped magnetic field at 77 K measured using a Nd-B-Fe permanent magnet of 5300 G were 47 N and 3000 G, respectively, which are comparable to those obtained for the samples fabricated using a commercial grade Y123 powders.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.545-552
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• 2001

Nondestructive methods such as ultrasonic and magnetic resonance imaging systems have many advantages but still much expensive. And they do not give exact color information and may miss some details. If it is allowed to destruct a biological object to obtain interior and exterior informations, 3D image visualization model from a series of sliced sectional images gives more useful information with relatively low cost. In this paper, a PC based automatic 3D visualization system is presented. The system is composed of three modules. The first module is the handling and image acquisition module. The handling module feeds and slices a cylindrical shape paraffin, which holds a biological object inside the paraffin. And the paraffin is kept being solid by cooling while being handled. The image acquisition modulo captures the sectional image of the object merged into the paraffin consecutively. The second one is the system control and interface module, which controls actuators for feeding, slicing, and image capturing. And the last one is the image processing and visualization module, which processes a series of acquired sectional images and generates a 3D volumetric model. To verify the condition for the uniform slicing, normal directional forces of the cutting edge according to the various cutting angles were measured using a strain gauge and the amount of the sliced chips were weighed and analyzed. Once the 3D model was constructed on the computer, user could manipulate it with various transformation methods such as translation, rotation, and scaling including arbitrary sectional view.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.334-340
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• 2000

This paper presents the fabrication of a micro electromagnetic flow sensor for the liquid flow rate measurement. The micro electromagnetic flow sensor has some advantages such as a simple structure, no heat generation, a rapid response and no pressure loss. The principle of the micro electromagnetic flow sensor is based on Faraday's law. If conductive fluid passes through a magnetic field, the electromotive force is generated and detected by two electrodes on the wall of the flow channel. The flow sensor consists of two permanent magnets and a silicon flow channel with two electrodes. The dimension of the flow sensor is $9\;mm\;{\times}\;9\;mm\;{\times}\;1\;mm$. The micro flow channel is mainly fabricated by anisotropic etching of two silicon wafers, and the detection electrodes are fabricated by metal evaporation process. The characteristic of the fabricated flow sensor is obtained experimentally. When the flow rates of water with the conductance of $100-200\;{\mu}S/cm$ are 9.1 ml/min and 62 ml/min, the generated electromotive forces are $261\;{\mu}V$ and 7.3 mV, respectively.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.11-18
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• 2020

Carbon nanotubes are used in various industries with their excellent mechanical properties and electrical conductivity. In the construction industry, research is being conducted to give self-sensing capabilities to structures, but the results of experiments vary among researchers, and the analysis is insufficient. Therefore, in this study, the hydration and electrical properties of MWCNT-added cement pastes were measured. The electrical resistance values of hydration heat, porosity, Rietveld quantitative analysis, compressive strength, and distance were measured.. The heat resistance, porosity, Rietvelt quantitative analysis, compressive strength and distance were measured according to electrical resistance. Experimental results showed that the heat of hydration decreased with increasing MWCNT. XRD Rietveld quantitative analysis showed that there was no significant difference in the amount of hydration products with increasing addition rate of MWCNT. As a result of SEM analysis, the MWCNT is agglomerated by van der Waals forces, and this area is considered to be caused by voids and weak areas. The electrical resistance value decreases as the addition rate is increased, and thus may play a role for magnetic sensing in the future.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.12 no.9
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• pp.926-934
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• 2006

This paper proposes intelligent control of a virtual walking machine that can generate infinite floor for various surfaces and can provide proprioceptive feedback of walking to a user. This machine allows users to participate in a life-like walking experience in virtual environments with various terrains. The controller of the machine is implemented hierarchically, at low-level for robust actuator control, at mid-level fur platform control to compensate the external forces by foot contact, and at high-level control for generating walking trajectory. The high level controller is suggested to generate continuous walking on an infinite floor for various terrains. For the high level control, each independent platform follows a man foot during the swing phase, while the other platform moves back during single stance phase. During double limb support, two platforms manipulate neutral positions to compensate the offset errors generated by velocity changes. This control can, therefore, satisfy natural walking conditions in any direction. Transition phase between the swing and the stance phases is detected by using simple switch sensor system, while human foot motions are sensed by careful calibration with a magnetic motion tracker attached to the shoe. Experimental results of walking simulations at level ground, slope, and stairs, show that with the proposed machine, a general person can walk naturally on various terrains with safety and without any considerable disturbances. This interface can be applied to various areas such as VR navigations, rehabilitation, and gait analysis.

• Biomaterials and Biomechanics in Bioengineering
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.27-35
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• 2016

Anterior knee pain is a major problem among adolescents and young adults especially those who participates in sports. The most common pathogenesis of anterior knee pain can arise from compression and shear forces in the patellofemoral joint. It is also caused by impingement of infrapatellar fat pad. Fat pad impingement can occur when the fat pad becomes swollen and inflamed due to a direct blow or chronic irritation. As a result, the bottom tip (or inferior pole) of the patella can pinch the fat pad. One of the many causes of swollen fat pad can be secondary to anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury. The aim of this study was to compare the infrapatellar fat pad volume in patients with acute ACL injury and a group of age-, gender-, and activity- matched controls with intact ligament. Axial magnetic resonance (MR) images have been performed on 32 patients with torn ACL and 40 control patients. The volume of the fat pad was measured digitally from MR image by using a 3d Reconstruction software, ellipsoidal approximation, and a MATLAB code. The results were compared between patients with torn ACL and control group. Patients with a torn ACL had a significantly larger fat pad than the controls (P=0.01). There was no significant difference between the methods used to measure the infrapatellar fat pad volume (P=0.83-0.87). Thus, lesions of the infrapatellar fat pad is often associated with ACL injury.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.66 no.12
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• pp.1852-1865
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• 2017

The vibration of the structures with restrained motion has long been observed in various engineering fields. When the motion of vibrating structure is restrained due to the adjacent objects, the frequencies and the mode shapes of the structure change and its vibration characteristics becomes unpredictable, in general. Although the importance of the study on this type of vibration model increases in many engineering areas, most studies conducted so far are limited to the theoretical study on dynamic responses of the structure with stops, including some experimental works. Specially, the study on the nonlinear phenomena due to the impact between the structure and the stops have been mainly performed theoretically. In the paper, both numerical analyses and experiments are conducted to study the chaotic vibration characteristics of the nonlinear motion and the dynamic response of a cantilevered beam which has restrained motion at the free end by the stops. Results are presented for various magnetic forces and gaps between the beam and stops. The conclusions are as follows : Firstly, Numerical simulation results have a good agreement with experimental ones. Secondly, the effect of higher modes of beams are increased with increasing magnitude of exciting force, and displacement and velocity curves become more complicated shapes. Thirdly, nonlinear characteristics tend to appear greatly with increasing magnitude of exciting force, and fractal dimension is increased.

• Biomaterials Research
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.235-248
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• 2018

Background: Injectable hydrogels have been extensively researched for the use as scaffolds or as carriers of therapeutic agents such as drugs, cells, proteins, and bioactive molecules in the treatment of diseases and cancers and the repair and regeneration of tissues. It is because they have the injectability with minimal invasiveness and usability for irregularly shaped sites, in addition to typical advantages of conventional hydrogels such as biocompatibility, permeability to oxygen and nutrient, properties similar to the characteristics of the native extracellular matrix, and porous structure allowing therapeutic agents to be loaded. Main body: In this article, recent studies of injectable hydrogel systems applicable for therapeutic agent delivery, disease/cancer therapy, and tissue engineering have reviewed in terms of the various factors physically and chemically contributing to sol-gel transition via which gels have been formed. The various factors are as follows: several different non-covalent interactions resulting in physical crosslinking (the electrostatic interactions (e.g., the ionic and hydrogen bonds), hydrophobic interactions, ${\pi}$-interactions, and van der Waals forces), in-situ chemical reactions inducing chemical crosslinking (the Diels Alder click reactions, Michael reactions, Schiff base reactions, or enzyme-or photo-mediated reactions), and external stimuli (temperatures, pHs, lights, electric/magnetic fields, ultrasounds, or biomolecular species (e.g., enzyme)). Finally, their applications with accompanying therapeutic agents and notable properties used were reviewed as well. Conclusion: Injectable hydrogels, of which network morphology and properties could be tuned, have shown to control the load and release of therapeutic agents, consequently producing significant therapeutic efficacy. Accordingly, they are believed to be successful and promising biomaterials as scaffolds and carriers of therapeutic agents for disease and cancer therapy and tissue engineering.