• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.28-30
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• 2008

The problem of voice restoration after total laryngectomy has existed ever since Billroth's first total laryngectomy in 1873. Since then, all the efforts to restore the voice was tried to divert the tracheal air to the pharynx to produce voice, which became the tracheo-esophageal shunt voice currently used. With the intact pharyngoesophagus, however, there are two basic options for speech rehabilitation : the artificial larynx and esophageal voice. The artificial larynx is an electrically driven buzzer or a sound transducer and its most common type is placed against a supple point on patient's neck and introduces a mechanical sound into the tissues and air spaces of the neck. This sound, emanating form the mouth, is articulated by the intact structures of the remaining vocal tract as understandable speech. Esophageal voice is a commonly recommended method for alaryngeal speech rehabilitation, which can be successfully done by regurgitating the air stored in the esophagus. Successful esophageal voice is preferable to the artificial larynx but, most patients usually adapt only one of those methods according to their needs and feasibility to learn.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.550-551
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• 2012

Physically responsive field-effect transistors (physi-FETs), which are sensitive to physical stimuli, have been studied for decades. However, the primary issue of separating responses by sensing materials from interferences by other subcomponents in a FET transducer under global physical stimuli has not been completely resolved. Recent challenges of structural design and employing smart materials with a large electro-physical coupling effect for flexible physi-FETs still remain. In this article, we propose directly integrating nanocomposites of barium titanate (BT) nanoparticles (NPs) and highly crystalline poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) (P(VDF-TrFE)) as gate dielectrics into flexible organic FETs to precisely separate and quantify tiny variations of remnant polarization caused by mechanical stimuli. Investigations under static stimuli resulted in first-reported giant-positive piezoelectric coefficients of d33 up to 960 pC/N, presumably due to significant contribution of the intrinsic piezoelectricity of BT NPs and P(VDF-TrFE) crystallites. This approach provides a general research direction, and not limited to physic-FETs.

• International Journal of Oral Biology
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.135-140
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• 2006

Temperature signaling can be initiated by members of transient receptor potential (thermo-TRP) channels. Hot and cold substances applied to teeth usually elicit pain sensation. Since odontoblasts constitute a well-defined layer between the pulp and the mineralized dentin, being first to encounter thermal stimulation from oral cavity, they may be involved in sensory transduction process, in addition to their primary function as formation of dentin. We investigated whether thermo-TRP channels are expressed in a odontoblast cell line, MDPC-23. The expressions of thermo-TRP channels were examined using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), immunohistochemistry, fluorometric calcium imaging. Analysis of RT-PCR revealed mRNA expression of TRPV1, TRPV2, TRPV4 and TRPM8, but no TRPV3, TRPA1. Immunohistochemical approach failed to detect TRPV1 expression. Whereas the application of 4-phorbol-12,13-didecanoate($10\;{\mu}M$, a TRPV4 agonist), menthol(1 mM, a TRPM8 agonist) and icilin($10\;{\mu}M$, a TRPM8 agonist) produced the enhancement of intracellular calcium concentration, capsaicin($1\;{\mu}M$, a TRPV1 agonist) did not. Our results suggest that subfamily of thermo-TRP channels expressed in odontoblasts may serve as thermal or mechanical transducer in teeth.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.106-113
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• 2009

This paper presents a surface acoustic wave(SAW) micro-electro-mechanical-systems(MEMS) interdigital transducer (IDT) gyroscope with 80MHz central frequency on a $128^{\circ}\;YX\;LiNbO_3$, which is consisted of a two-port SAW resonator, metallic dots and dual delay lines for the sensor and reference oscillators. Reason for using two delay line oscillators is to extract the gyroscope effect by comparing the resonant frequencies between two oscillators and to compensate the temperature effect. Based on the coupling of modes(COM) simulation, an 80MHz two ports SAW resonator and dual delay line were fabricated and characterized by the network analyzer. Obtained sensitivity was $109Hz/deg{\cdot}s^{-1}$ in the angular rate range of $0{\sim}1000deg/s$. Good Linearity and superior directivity were observed.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2000.07c
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• pp.1658-1660
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• 2000

Simple signs were usually exchanged as the means of underwater communications. As people recently, need more informations for underwater activities, necessities of underwater communication systems exchanging hunman voice are increased. The purpose of this paper is understanding the ordinary characteristics of underwater communication and investigating the necessary conditions for a good underwater communication system by making a basic communication module. The experiment is achieved by applying AM (Amplitude Modulation) which is mainly used for the underwater communication systems and using common ultrasonic transducers. Ultrasonic transducers usually have narrow bandwidth for transducing electrical energy to mechanical energy. For improvement of sound reconstruction, transducers need more bandwidth which covers voice's frequency range, and goof linearity characteristics in this frequency range. As underwater transmissions have many factors to distort signals. Amplitude Modulation is not a proper way for underwater communications. Using digital signal by sampling human voice should be a good way for this systems, because digital communication simplify transmitting signals.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.335-354
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• 2016

This contribution presents an extended one-dimensional theory for piezoelectric beam-type structures with non-ideal electrodes. For these types of electrodes the equipotential area condition is not satisfied. The main motivation of our research is originated from passive vibration control: when an elastic structure is covered by several piezoelectric patches that are linked via resistances and inductances, vibrational energy is efficiently dissipated if the electric network is properly designed. Assuming infinitely small piezoelectric patches that are connected by an infinite number of electrical, in particular resistive and inductive elements, one obtains the Telegrapher's equation for the voltage across the piezoelectric transducer. Embedding this outcome into the framework of Bernoulli-Euler, the final equations are coupled to the wave equations for the longitudinal motion of a bar and to the partial differential equations for the lateral motion of the beam. We present results for the wave propagation of a longitudinal bar for several types of electrode properties. The frequency spectra are computed (phase angle, wave number, wave speed), which point out the effect of resistive and inductive electrodes on wave characteristics. Our results show that electrical damping due to the resistivity of the electrodes is different from internal (=strain velocity dependent) or external (=velocity dependent) mechanical damping. Finally, results are presented, when the structure is excited by a harmonic single force, yielding that resistive-inductive electrodes are suitable candidates for passive vibration control that might be of great interest for practical applications in the future.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.257-264
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• 1994

Experimental studies hate been peformed to investigate vapor explosion phenomena which may threaten the containment integrity during severe accidents in nuclear power plants. In this study, experimental equipment is constructed for vapor explosion experiments, and the vapor explosion experiments were conducted using water/R22. During the experiments, water/R22 interaction phenomena were observed using the high speed camera, and the explosion pressure and released mechanical energy were measured with pressure transducer and pressure relief tube. And the effects of some important parameters-hot liquid temperature, hot liquid injection velocity, hot liquid injection velocity, hot liquid injection time, and cold liquid depth-were investigated on the vapor explosion. Also, the experiment with grid was conducted to study reactor -vessel-lower-structure effect on fuel/coolant interaction. Water/R22 explosion conversion ratios were measured between 0.5∼1.6%.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.55-63
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• 2005

A novel imaging system for High-resolution Ultrasonic Transmission Tomography (HUTT) and soft tissue differentiation methodology for the HUTT system are presented. The critical innovation of the HUTT system includes the use of sub-millimeter transducer elements for both transmitter and receiver arrays and multi-band analysis of the first-arrival pulse. The first-arrival pulse is detected and extracted from the received signal (i.e., snippet) at each azimuthal and angular location of a mechanical tomographic scanner in transmission mode. Each extracted snippet is processed to yield a multi-spectral vector of attenuation values at multiple frequency bands. These vectors form a 3-D sinogram representing a multi-spectral augmentation of the conventional 2-D sinogram. A filtered backprojection algorithm is used to reconstruct a stack of multi-spectral images for each 2-D tomographic slice that allow tissue characterization. A novel methodology for soft tissue differentiation using spectral target detection is presented. The representative 2-D and 3-D HUTT images formed at various frequency bands demonstrate the high-resolution capability of the system. It is shown that spherical objects with diameter down to 0.3㎜ can be detected. In addition, the results of soft tissue differentiation and characterization demonstrate the feasibility of quantitative soft tissue analysis for possible detection of lesions or cancerous tissue.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.163-167
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• 1993

We developed a ventricular assist device(VAD) to be used as a bridge to heart transplantation or a circulatory assist device for patients with end-stage heart disease or poor myocardial function after cardiac surgery. It is a pneumatic and diaphragm-type VAD and its stroke volume is 90 cc. The upper housing and diaphragm is made of a segmented polyurethane and the lower back plate is made of a polycarbonate. Two Carbomedics$^R$ mechanical valves are used as inlet and outlet valves. It was tested in vitro and the cardiac output of the VAD was 7 L/min at a heart rate of 70 bpm. The line pressure from a pressure transducer inserted in the pneumatic line was recorded and compared with the ideal pressure tracing.

• Korean Journal of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery
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• v.61 no.12
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• pp.705-709
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• 2018

It is challenging to achieve sufficient hearing gain in patients with mixed hearing loss. In chronic middle ear diseases, conventional passive reconstructive surgeries often result in suboptimal hearing gain and additional hearing aids may have limitations due to insufficient sound amplification, occlusion effect, acoustic feedback, and skin irritation. Middle ear implantation (MEI) using Vibrant Soundbridge (VSB) is another option for auditory rehabilitation in mixed hearing loss as well as sensorineural hearing loss. The floating mass transducer of VSB can be placed on various middle ear structures either directly or using different types of couplers in order to deliver vibratory mechanical energy to the cochlea. We report a patient who presented with bilateral mixed hearing loss due to chronic otitis media and had limitations using conventional hearing aids in the worse hearing ear. The patient was successfully treated with MEI using the Bell coupler together with middle ear surgery in a single step.