• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.269-275
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• 2004

Different biological tissues have different values of electrical resistivity. In EIT (electrical impedance tomography), we try to provide cross-sectional images of a resistivity distribution inside an electrically conducting subject such as the human body mainly for functional imaging. However, it is well known that the image reconstruction problem in EIT is ill-posed and the quality of a reconstructed image highly depends on the measurement error. This requires us to develop a high-performance EIT system. In this paper, we describe the development of a 16-channel digital EIT system including a single constant current source, 16 voltmeters, main controller, and PC. The system was designed and implemented using the FPGA-based digital technology. The current source injects 50KHz sinusoidal current with the THD (total harmonic distortion) of 0.0029% and amplitude stability of 0.022%. The single current source and switching circuit reduce the measurement error associated with imperfect matching of multiple current sources at the expense of a reduced data acquisition time. The digital voltmeter measuring the induced boundary voltage consists of a differential amplifier, ADC, and FPGA (field programmable gate array). The digital phase-sensitive demodulation technique was implemented in the voltmeter to maximize the SNR (signal-to-noise ratio). Experimental results of 16-channel digital voltmeters showed the SNR of 90dB. We used the developed EIT system to reconstruct resistivity images of a saline phantom containing banana objects. Based on the results, we suggest future improvements for a 64-channel muff-frequency EIT system for three-dimensional dynamic imaging of bio-impedance distributions inside the human body.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.16-23
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• 2006

This paper presents a novel single-stage high frequency resonant inverter link type DC-DC converter using zero voltage switching with high power-factor. The proposed topology is integrated half-bridge boost rectifier as power factor corrector(PFC) and half-bridge high frequency resonant converter into a single-stage. The input stage of the half-bridge boost rectifier works in discontinuous conduction mode(DCM) with constant duty cycle and variable switching frequency. So that a boost converter makes the line current follow naturally the sinusoidal line voltage waveform. Simulation results have demonstrated the feasibility of the proposed high frequency resonant converter. Characteristics values based on characteristics analysis through circuit analysis is given as basis data in design procedure. Also, experimental results are presented to verify theoretical discussion. This proposed inverter will be able to be practically used as a power supply in various fields as induction heating applications, fluorescent lamp and DC-DC converter etc.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.117-126
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• 2006

The Diurnal variation of galactic cosmic ray (GCR) flux intensity observed by the ground Neutron Monitor (NM) shows a sinusoidal pattern with the amplitude of $1{\sim}2%$ of daily mean. We carried out a statistical study on tendencies of the local times of GCR intensity daily maximum aad minimum. To test the influences of the solar activity and the location (cut-off rigidity) on the distribution in the local times of maximum and minimum GCR intensity, we have examined the data of 1996 (solar minimum) and 2000 (solar maximum) at the low-latitude Haleakala (latitude: 20.72 N, cut-off rigidity: 12.91 GeV) and the high-latitude Oulu (latitude: 65.05 N, cut-off rigidity: 0.81 GeV) NM stations. The most frequent local times of the GCR intensity daily maximum and minimum come later about $2{\sim}3$ hours in the solar activity maximum year 2000 than in the solar activity minimum you 1996. Oulu NM station whose cut-off rigidity is smaller has the most frequent local times of the GCR intensity maximum and minimum later by $2{\sim}3$ hours from those of Haleakala station. This feature is more evident at the solar maximum. The phase of the daily variation in GCR is dependent upon the interplanetary magnetic field varying with the solar activity and the cut-off rigidity varying with the geographic latitude.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.259-268
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• 2014

In this paper, we suggest a method of extracting circuit parameters of the insulating transformer using S-parameter measurement, especially in high frequency range. At 60 Hz, conventionally, no load test and short circuit test are used to extract the circuit parameters. In this paper S-parameters measured from VNA(Vector Network Analyzer) were used to extract the transformer parameters using data fitting method (optimization). The S-parameters from the equivalent circuit using the extracted parameters showed good agreement with those from measurement. Furthermore, the transformer secondary voltages from the equivalent circuit model also coincide quite exactly to the measured secondary voltages in sinusoidal forms. Finally we assert that the proposed method to extract the parameters for the insulating transformer using S-parameter is valid especially in high frequency.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.221-229
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• 2018

Tenofovir nanoparticles are novel therapeutic intervention in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection reaching the virus in their sanctuary sites. However, there has been no systemic toxicity testing of this formulation despite global concerns on the safety of nano drugs. Therefore, this study was designed to investigate the toxicity of Tenofovir nanoparticle (NTDF) on the liver and kidney using an animal model. Fifteen adult male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats maintained at the animal house of the biomedical resources unit of the University of KwaZulu-Natal were weighed and divided into three groups. Control animals (A) were administered with normal saline (NS). The therapeutic doses of Tenofovir (TDF) and nanoparticles of Tenofovir (NTDF) were administered to group B and C and observed for signs of stress for four weeks after which animals were weighed and sacrificed. Liver and kidney were removed and fixed in formal saline, processed and stained using H/E, PAS and MT stains for light microscopy. Serum was obtained for renal function test (RFT) and liver function test (LFT). Cellular measurements and capturing were done using ImageJ and Leica software 2.0. Data were analysed using graph pad 6, p values < 0.05 were significant. We observed no signs of behavioural toxicity and no mortality during this study, however, in the kidneys, we reported mild morphological perturbations widening of Bowman's space, and vacuolations in glomerulus and tubules of TDF and NTDF animals. Also, there was a significant elevation of glycogen deposition in NTDF and TDF animals when compared with control. In the liver, there were mild histological changes with widening of sinusoidal spaces, vacuolations in hepatocytes and elevation of glycogen deposition in TDF and NTDF administered animals. In addition to this, there were no significant differences in stereological measurements and cell count, LFT, RFT, weight changes and organo-somatic index between treatment groups and control. In conclusion, NTDF and TDF in therapeutic doses can lead to mild hepatic and renal histological damage. Further studies are needed to understand the precise genetic mechanism.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Surveying, Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.599-605
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• 2009

Changes of atmospheric pressures cause short- and long-term crustal deformations and thus become error sources in the site positions estimated from space geodesy equipments. In this study, we computed daily displacements due to the atmospheric pressure loading (ATML) at the 14 permanent GPS sites operated by National Geographic Information Institute. And the 10-year GPS data collected at those stations were processed to create a continuous time series of the height estimate. Then, we corrected for the ATML from the GPS height time series to see if the correction changes the site velocity and improves the precision of the time series. While the precision improved by about 4% on average, the velocity change was not significant at all. We also investigated the overall characteristics of the ATML in the southern Korean peninsula by computing the ATML effects at the inland grid points with a $0.5^{\circ}{\times}0.5^{\circ}$ spatial resolution. We found that ATML displacements show annual signals and those signals can be fitted with sinusoidal functions. The amplitudes were in the range of 3-4 mm, and they were higher at higher latitudes and lower at the costal area.

• The Journal of Engineering Research
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.113-123
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• 1997

The purpose of this paper is an optimum design of the shaped Cassegrainian antenna system for the base station. The process of the shaped Cassegrainian antenna design is as follows : 1) the aperture field distribution is determined so as to meet design specifications, 2) a proper design parameter is selected, 3) extracting of the dimension data for the main and sub-reflector antenna To do these, Hansen's distribution is chosen as the aperture field, and the far-field pattern from the aperture is predicted by the angular spectrum. Firstly, the aperture field distribution is designed to satisfy the specification for design frequency, it is confirmed if this distribution meet the specification for another frequency band. The main- and the sub-reflectors are synthesized so as for the given beamwaveguide feed pattern to be transformed into the prescribed aperture distribution. The designed system has circular aperture, left-right symmetry and no tilted structure. The continuous surface functions of reflectors are obtained by adopting the global interpolation technique to the discrete reflector profiles. Jacobi polynomial-sinusoidal is used as the basis function. A Ka-band Cassegrainian antenna operates over 17.7 – 20.2 GHz for down-link band and 27.5 – 30 GHz for up-link band is designed.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.119-129
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• 2004

A three dimensional (3D) method of analysis is presented for determining the free vibration frequencies and mode shapes of thick, circular and annular plates with nonlinear thickness variation along the radial direction. Unlike conventional plate theories, which are mathematically two dimensional (2D), the present method is based upon the 3D dynamic equations of elasticity. Displacement components u/sub s/, u/sub z/, and u/sub θ/ in the radial, thickness, and circumferential directions, respectively, are taken to be sinusoidal in time, periodic in θ, and algebraic polynomials in the s and z directions. Potential (strain) and kinetic energies of the plates are formulated, and the Ritz method is used to solve the eigenvalue problem thus yielding upper bound values of the frequencies by minimizing the frequencies. As the degree of the polynomials is increased, frequencies converge to the exact values. Convergence to four digit exactitude is demonstrated for the first five frequencies of the plates. Numerical results we presented for completely free, annular and circular plates with uniform linear, and quadratic variations in thickness. Comparisons are also made between results obtained from the present 3D and previously published thin plate (2D) data.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.44-58
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• 1997

The BVR CCD photometric observations of W UMa-type eclipsing binary SS Ari were made on ten nights from November 1996 to December 1996. Eight new times of minimum lights were derived. The analysis of times of minima of SS Ari confirms the suggestions of other previous investigators that the orbital period of SS Ari have been suffering from a sinusoidal varition. The amplitude and period for the cyclic period changes were calculated as about $58^{y}$ and $0.^{d}053$, respectively. The period variation has been discussed in terms of two potential mechanisms: 1) the light-time effect due to a hypothetical third body and 2) deformations in the convective envelope of a magnetically active component. In the earlier case, the third body has a mass of $1.3M_{\odot}$, if exist, in the form of a white dwarf or a binary system. It seems that the system velocities from the spectroscopic observations supports this interpretation. Meanwhile in the latter case, the primary component is mainly responsible for the magnetic activity of this system with a theoretical amplitude of $\pm0.^{m}08$. However, we cannot make a conclusion which is reasonable explanation at this point, due to lack of observational data. Moreover, the period variation of SS Ari shows duplication about $14^y$, cyclic period with an amplitude of about $0.^d001$ to the above periodic change. We also cannot make an acceptable conclusion for it at this time.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.17-24
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• 2023

A post-processing technique for the measurement signal of a solenoid-type sensor is introduced. The solenoid-type sensor nondestructively evaluates an external tendon of prestressed concrete using the total flux leakage (TFL) method. The TFL solenoid sensor consists of primary and secondary coils. AC electricity, with the shape of a sinusoidal function, is input in the primary coil. The signal proportional to the differential of the input is induced in the secondary coil. Because the amplitude of the induced signal is proportional to the cross-sectional area of the tendon, sectional loss of the tendon caused by ruptures or corrosion can be identified by the induced signal. Therefore, it is important to extract amplitude information from the measurement signal of the TFL sensor. Previously, the amplitude was extracted using local maxima, which is the simplest way to obtain amplitude information. However, because the sampling rate is dramatically decreased by amplitude extraction using the local maxima, the previous method places many restrictions on the direction of TFL sensor development, such as applying additional signal processing and/or artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, the proposed method uses amplitude demodulation to obtain the signal amplitude from the TFL sensor, and the sampling rate of the amplitude information is same to the raw TFL sensor data. The proposed method using amplitude demodulation provides ample freedom for development by eliminating restrictions on the first coil input frequency of the TFL sensor and the speed of applying the sensor to external tension. It also maintains a high measurement sampling rate, providing advantages for utilizing additional signal processing or artificial intelligence. The proposed method was validated through experiments, and the advantages were verified through comparison with the previous method. For example, in this study the amplitudes extracted by amplitude demodulation provided a sampling rate 100 times greater than those of the previous method. There may be differences depending on the given situation and specific equipment settings; however, in most cases, extracting amplitude information using amplitude demodulation yields more satisfactory results than previous methods.