• Journal of Animal Reproduction and Biotechnology
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.193-201
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• 2022

Subgroups of sperm which share similar motility features documented in mammals indicate between-subject variations that might be related to fertilizing potential of the respective ejaculates. The objectives of this study were to define subpopulations of motile sperm in Gyr falcon semen using kinematic parameters driven by Computer Assisted Semen Analysis (CASA) and to investigate the subject-related variations in these subpopulations. A total of 24 fresh ejaculates from 6 falcons were used to assign each of the 20473 sperms into 3 subpopulations by a multivariate cluster analysis. The proportion of sperms in different sub-populations were compared among subjects by a generalized linear model and repeatability of sperm frequency in different subpopulations was investigated by corelation analysis. The resulting 3 categories of sperm indicated significant differences in all kinematic parameters (p < 0.05). Subpopulation 1 (15.91%) contained sperms with the highest velocity and progressiveness of movement trajectory while subpopulation 3 (6.4%) included the least progressively motile sperms. Proportion of rapid and medium progressive sperm were consistently higher in the ejaculate of three falcons compared to the two other birds which also had the highest proportion of slow non-progressive sperms (p < 0.05). Respective proportion of sperms in each subpopulations indicated significant repeatability over multiple measurements (p < 0.05). In conclusion, subpopulations of motile sperm in Gyr falcon can be identified using kinematic parameters generated by CASA. Individual differences in the proportion of these subpopulations might have potential application for identifying the males with higher fertilizing capacity.

• Medical Lasers
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.159-165
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• 2020

Background and Objectives The ultimate goal in current skin rejuvenation practice is to achieve a good result with minimal pain and downtime. Nonablative skin rejuvenation (NSR) is one technique. The efficacy of the long-pulsed 1064 nm Nd:YAG laser (LPNDY) has not been assessed in NSR. Materials and Methods Three target areas were selected (bilateral cheeks and glabellar region) in six volunteer subjects. A LPNDY with an integral skin temperature monitor delivered three stacked shots to each target area (1064 nm, 12 mm spot, 13 J/cm², 1 Hz) without any skin cooling or anesthesia. The skin temperature was recorded before, during, and after each set of shots using the system monitor and in real-time using a high-sensitivity (±0.001℃) near-infrared video camera. The skin reaction was observed with the naked eye, and pain and discomfort were assessed by the subjects during and after treatment. Results The subjects reported a mild feeling of heat with no discomfort during or after the test treatments. Mild erythema was observed around the treatment areas, without noticeable edema. A series of three ascending skin temperature stepwise peaks, with a decrease in skin temperature towards the baseline after the third shot, was observed consistently. The mean temperatures for shots 1, 2, and 3 for the cheeks were 39.5℃, 42.0℃, and 44.4℃, respectively, and for the glabella, 40.8℃, 43.9℃, and 46.2℃, respectively. Similar ranges were indicated on the system integral temperature monitor. Conclusion A set of three stacked pulses with the LPNDY at a low fluence achieved ideal dermal temperatures to achieve some dermal remodeling but without any downtime or adverse events. The temperature data from the integral thermal sensor matched the video camera measurements with practical accuracy for skin rejuvenation requirements. These data suggest that LPNDY would satisfy the necessary criteria to achieve effective NSR, but further studies will be needed to assess the actual results in clinical practice.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.50-61
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• 2021

Objectives: The object of this study was to examine whether there was a significant difference between morning and afternoon in heart rate variability(HRV) in healthy Korean adults. In addition, the correlation between the characteristics of the subjects and the test results was analyzed. Methods: From January 8, 2021 to January 29, 2021, twenty healthy subjects received short-term HRV test once in the morning(6:00~12:00) and twice in the afternoon(12:00~18:00). We used IBM SPSS Statistics 27 to test for statistical significance. Results: The mean heart rate and PSI decreased significantly and SDNN increased significantly in the morning compared to the afternoon. There was no significant difference except RMSSD in HRV conducted at 2 hours intervals in the afternoon. Age had a significant difference in SDNN and TP, and exercise in average heart rate. Age, weekly exercise frequency, and monthly drinking frequency showed significant correlations with HRV indicators. As a result of multiple regression analysis, monthly drinking frequency was a variable that had a significant influence on TP. Conclusions: The results of the tests performed with short interval were relatively consistent, and when comparing the results of the afternoon and the next morning, there were significant differences in several indicators. In the future, the number of HRV measurements should be increased and a larger-scale follow-up study including more subjects will be needed.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.25 no.7
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• pp.986-992
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• 2021

To stabilize closed-loop wireless control systems, the state-of-the-art approach receives the individual sensor measurements at the controller and then sends the computed control signal to the actuators. We propose an over-the-air controller scheme where all sensors attached to the plant transmit scaled sensing signals simultaneously to the actuator, and the actuator then computes the feedback control signal by scaling the received signal. The over-the-air controller essentially adopts the over-the-air computation concept to compute the control signal for closed-loop wireless control systems. In contrast to the state-of-the-art sensor-to-controller and controller-to-actuator communication approach, the over-the-air controller exploits the superposition properties of multiple-access wireless channels to complete the communication and computation of a large number of sensing signals in a single communication resource unit. Therefore, the proposed scheme can obtain significant benefits in terms of low actuation delay and low resource utilization with a simple network architecture that does not require a dedicated controller.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.8
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• pp.3030-3038
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• 2023

Nowadays, mobile robots have been used to search for uncontrolled radioactive source in indoor environments to avoid radiation exposure for technicians. However, in the indoor environments, especially in the presence of obstacles, how to make the robots with limited sensing capabilities automatically search for the radioactive source remains a major challenge. Also, the source search efficiency of robots needs to be further improved to meet practical scenarios such as limited exploration time. This paper proposes an automatic source search strategy, abbreviated as ACA: the location of source is estimated by a convolutional neural network (CNN), and the path is planned by the A-star algorithm. First, the search area is represented as an occupancy grid map. Then, the radiation dose distribution of the radioactive source in the occupancy grid map is obtained by Monte Carlo (MC) method simulation, and multiple sets of radiation data are collected through the eight neighborhood self-avoiding random walk (ENSAW) algorithm as the radiation data set. Further, the radiation data set is fed into the designed CNN architecture to train the network model in advance. When the searcher enters the search area where the radioactive source exists, the location of source is estimated by the network model and the search path is planned by the A-star algorithm, and this process is iterated continuously until the searcher reaches the location of radioactive source. The experimental results show that the average number of radiometric measurements and the average number of moving steps of the ACA algorithm are only 2.1% and 33.2% of those of the gradient search (GS) algorithm in the indoor environment without obstacles. In the indoor environment shielded by concrete walls, the GS algorithm fails to search for the source, while the ACA algorithm successfully searches for the source with fewer moving steps and sparse radiometric data.

• Current Optics and Photonics
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.38-46
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• 2023

Optical Fourier-domain reflectometry (OFDR) sensors have been widely used to measure distances with high resolution and speed in a noncontact state. In the electroplating process of a printed circuit board, it is critically important to monitor the copper-plating thickness, as small deviations can lead to defects, such as an open or short circuit. In this paper we employ a phase-based OFDR sensor for in situ relative distance sensing of a sample with nanometer-scale resolution, during electroplating. We also develop an optical-path difference (OPD)-regulated sensing probe that can maintain a preset distance from the sample. This function can markedly facilitate practical measurements in two aspects: Optimal distance setting for high signal-to-noise ratio OFDR sensing, and protection of a fragile probe tip via vertical evasion movement. In a sample with a centimeter-scale structure, a conventional OFDR sensor will probably either bump into the sample or practically out of the detection range of the sensing probe. To address this limitation, a novel OPD-regulated OFDR system is designed by combining the OFDR sensing probe and linear piezo motors with feedback-loop control. By using multiple OFDR sensors, it is possible to effectively monitor copper-plating thickness in situ and uniformize it at various positions.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.485-500
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• 2023

Machine learning-based structural health monitoring (ML-based SHM) methods are researched extensively in the recent decade due to the availability of advanced information and sensing technology. ML methods are well-known for their pattern recognition capability for complex problems. However, the main obstacle of ML-based SHM is that it often requires pre-collected historical data for model training. In most actual scenarios, damage presence can be detected using the unsupervised learning method through anomaly detection, but to further identify the damage types would require prior knowledge or historical events as references. This creates the cold-start problem, especially for new and unobserved structures. Modal-based methods identify damages based on the changes in the structural global properties but often require dense measurements for accurate results. Therefore, a two-stage hybrid modal-machine learning damage detection scheme is proposed. The first stage detects damage presence using Principal Component Analysis-Frequency Response Function (PCA-FRF) in an unsupervised manner, whereas the second stage further identifies the damage. To solve the cold-start problem, mode shape assessment using the first mode is initiated when no trained model is available yet in the second stage. The damage identified by the modal-based method would be stored for future training. This work highlights the performance of the scheme in alleviating the cold-start issue as it transitions through different phases, starting from zero damage sample available. Results showed that single and multiple damages can be identified at an acceptable accuracy level even when training samples are limited.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.54.4-55
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• 2021

The Seoul National University AGN Monitoring Project (SAMP) is a welldesigned long-term AGN reverberation mapping project. SAMP focuses on the luminous AGNs out to z~0.5 with relative long time lags between AGN continuum and broad emission lines and aims to probe the high-end of the AGN broad line region (BLR) size-luminosity (R-L) relation. The pilot observations started in October 2015 for 100 AGNs to confirm the variability and the H and [O III] emission line strengths. Based on the initial variability test, 48 quasars has been continued spectroscopic monitoring since Feb. 2016 with Lick 3m and MDM 2.4m telescopes with a cadence of ~20 days. Supporting photometric monitoring in B and V band was conducted at multiple facilities including the MDM 1.3m, LOAO, and DOAO telescopes with a cadence of ~10 days. By the time of Feb. 2021, we have obtained five years spectroscopic and photometric data. More than 30 AGNs shows significant variability in five-year baseline and 16 of them show well detected lags between B-band and H. Here, we report some examples of SAMP light curves and lag detections using the first five-year data as well as the location of our 16 targets in the AGN BLR R-L relation. These measurements are consistent with the existing R-L relation and located at the high-end. With the coming data, SAMP are hopefully to report more AGNs with well detected lags. Our results demonstrate the general feasibility and potential of long-term reverberation project with medium cadence for luminous AGNs.

• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.149-154
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• 2022

Due to high power capabilities and high linearity of GaN devices, GaN Low-Noise Amplifiers (LNAs) without a limiter can be implemented in order to improve noise figure and reduce chip area in radar receivers. In this paper, a GaN LNA is presented for Ka-band radar receivers. The designed LNA was realized in a 150-nm GaN HEMT process and measurement results show that the voltage gain of >23 dB and the noise figure of <6.5 dB including packaging loss in the target frequency range. Under the high-power stress test, measured gain and noise figure of the GaN LNA is degraded after the first stress test, but no more degradation is observed under multiple stress tests. Through post-stress noise and s-parameter measurements, we verified that the GaN LNA is resilient to pulsed input power of ~40 dBm.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.401-408
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• 2023

Thyroid uptake measurements can be subject to measurement errors due to the scoping and positioning of the thyroid gland. To compensate for these limitations, the clinical utility of the thyroid simultaneous counting method as an alternative to thyroid uptake measurement was analyzed and evaluated experimentally through quantitative analysis of images acquired after thyroid scanning. Experimental data were obtained using a Gamma camera (GE infinia), a thyroid uptake system (KOROID 1), and a thyroid neck phantom. Based on the thyroid uptake rate of 1-5% according to the protocol of thyroid scan test (^99mTcO₄ - , 370 MBq) in normal results, ^99mTcO₄ - was set in the range of 3.7-18.5 MBq (Matrix: 256×256, Scan time: 1 min, collimator: pin hole, phantom-collimator distances: 7 cm). The acquired images were corrected for the attenuation of isotopes due to the set-up time and half-life by applying the Auto Region of interest (ROI) drawing system, and the significance of the experimental results was evaluated by Multiple linear regression analysis (SPSS, ver. 22, IBM). The thyroid uptake rate showed a significant correlation between the dose and the measured counts when using the thyroid uptake system equipment. Meanwhile, the quantitative analysis counts of phantom images using Gamma camera also showed a significant correlation. Thus confirmed that the correlation between these two experiments was statistically significant (P<0.05). The simultaneous counting protocol, which indirectly measures thyroid uptake from thyroid scans, is likely to be clinically relevant if complemented by additional studies with different variables in patients with thyroid disease.