• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.77-83
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• 2009

This paper proposes a new noise-biased compensation of minimum statistics(MS) method using a nonlinear function and a priori speech absence probability(SAP) for speech enhancement in non-stationary noisy environments. The minimum statistics(MS) method is well known technique for noise power estimation in non-stationary noisy environments. It tends to bias the noise estimate below that of true noise level. The proposed method is combined with an adaptive parameter based on a sigmoid function and a priori speech absence probability (SAP) for biased compensation. Specifically. we apply the adaptive parameter according to the a posteriori SNR. In addition, when the a priori SAP equals unity, the adaptive biased compensation factor separately increases ${\delta}_{max}$ each frequency bin, and vice versa. We evaluate the estimation of noise power capability in highly non-stationary and various noise environments, the improvement in the segmental signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and the Itakura-Saito Distortion Measure (ISDM) integrated into a spectral subtraction (SS). The results shows that our proposed method is superior to the conventional MS approach.

• Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
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• v.35
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• pp.38.1-38.10
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• 2023

Background: Hearing loss (HL) is linked to an elevated risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). The pathogeneses of HL and CVD commonly involve inflammatory responses. Previous studies investigated elevated levels of inflammatory biomarkers in subjects with HL, however, their findings did not demonstrate statistical significance. In our cross-sectional and longitudinal study, we investigated the correlation between HL and increased high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) levels to determine how HL is associated with CVDs. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study with workers aged over 18 years who underwent health check-ups at our institution between 2012 and 2018 (n = 566,507), followed by conducting a longitudinal study of workers aged > 18 who underwent health checkups at least twice at our institution between 2012 and 2018 (n = 173,794). The definition of HL was as an average threshold of ≥ 20 dB in pure-tone air conduction at 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 kHz in both ears. The incidence of increased hsCRP levels throughout the follow-up period was defined as a level exceeding 3 mg/L. Logistic regression and generalized estimating equations were performed to estimate the risk of increased hsCRP levels according to the occurrence of HL in groups stratified by age. Results: In the cross-sectional study, the multivariate-adjusted odds ratio (OR) was 1.17 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.02-1.34); the OR was 0.99 (95% CI: 0.80-1.22) in those under 40 and 1.28 (1.08-1.53) in those over 40. In the longitudinal study, the multivariable-adjusted OR was 1.05 (95% CI: 0.92-1.19); the OR was 1.10 (95% CI: 0.90-1.35) in those under 40 and 1.20 (1.01-1.43) in those over 40. Conclusions: This cross-sectional and longitudinal study identified an association between HL and increased hsCRP levels in workers aged over 40 years.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.400-405
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• 2024

When cavitation noise occurs in ship propellers, the level of underwater radiated noise abruptly increases, which can be a critical threat factor as it increases the probability of detection, particularly in the case of naval vessels. Therefore, accurately and promptly assessing cavitation signals is crucial for improving the survivability of submarines. Traditionally, techniques for determining cavitation occurrence have mainly relied on assessing acoustic/vibration levels measured by sensors above a certain threshold, or using the Detection of Envelop Modulation On Noise (DEMON) method. However, technologies related to this rely on a physical understanding of cavitation phenomena and subjective criteria based on user experience, involving multiple procedures, thus necessitating the development of techniques for early automatic recognition of cavitation signals. In this paper, we propose an algorithm that automatically detects cavitation occurrence based on simple statistical features reflecting cavitation characteristics extracted from acoustic signals measured by sensors attached to the hull. The performance of the proposed technique is evaluated depending on the number of sensors and model test conditions. It was confirmed that by sufficiently training the characteristics of cavitation reflected in signals measured by a single sensor, the occurrence of cavitation signals can be determined.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.223-252
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• 2008

In this study, we attempt to propose a choice-based diffusion model with switching cost, which can be used to forecast the dynamic substitution and competition among previous and new products at both individual-level and aggregate level, especially when market data for new products is insufficient. Additionally, we apply the proposed model to the empirical case of substitution and competition among Analog Cable TV that represents previous fixed charged broadcasting service and Digital Cable TV and Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) that are new ones, verify the validities of our proposed model, and finally derive related empirical implications. For empirical application, we obtained data from survey conducted as follows. Survey was administered by Dongseo Research to 1,000 adults aging from 20 to 60 living in Seoul, Korea, in May of 2007, under the title of 'Demand analysis of next generation fixed interactive broadcasting services'. Conjoint survey modified as follows, was used. First, as the traditional approach in conjoint analysis, we extracted 16 hypothetical alternative cards from the orthogonal design using important attributes and levels of next generation interactive broadcasting services which were determined by previous literature review and experts' comments. Again, we divided 16 conjoint cards into 4 groups, and thus composed 4 choice sets with 4 alternatives each. Therefore, each respondent faces 4 different hypothetical choice situations. In addition to this, we added two ways of modification. First, we asked the respondents to include the status-quo broadcasting services they subscribe to, as another alternative in each choice set. As a result, respondents choose the most preferred alternative among 5 alternatives consisting of 1 alternative with current subscription and 4 hypothetical alternatives in 4 choice sets. Modification of traditional conjoint survey in this way enabled us to estimate the factors related to switching cost or switching threshold in addition to the effects of attributes. Also, by using both revealed preference data(1 alternative with current subscription) and stated preference data (4 hypothetical alternatives), additional advantages in terms of the estimation properties and more conservative and realistic forecast, can be achieved. Second, we asked the respondents to choose the most preferred alternative while considering their expected adoption timing or switching timing. Respondents are asked to report their expected adoption or switching timing among 14 half-year points after the introduction of next generation broadcasting services. As a result, for each respondent, 14 observations with 5 alternatives for each period, are obtained, which results in panel-type data. Finally, this panel-type data consisting of $4{\ast}14{\ast}1000=56000$observations is used for estimation of the individual-level consumer adoption model. From the results obtained by empirical application, in case of forecasting the demand of new products without considering existence of previous product(s) and(or) switching cost factors, it is found that overestimated speed of diffusion at introductory stage or distorted predictions can be obtained, and as such, validities of our proposed model in which both existence of previous products and switching cost factors are properly considered, are verified. Also, it is found that proposed model can produce flexible patterns of market evolution depending on the degree of the effects of consumer preferences for the attributes of the alternatives on individual-level state transition, rather than following S-shaped curve assumed a priori. Empirically, it is found that in various scenarios with diverse combinations of prices, IPTV is more likely to take advantageous positions over Digital Cable TV in obtaining subscribers. Meanwhile, despite inferiorities in many technological attributes, Analog Cable TV, which is regarded as previous product in our analysis, is likely to be substituted by new services gradually rather than abruptly thanks to the advantage in low service charge and existence of high switching cost in fixed charged broadcasting service market.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.69-74
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• 2013

This study has been performed for 150 days from February 1 - June 31, 2012 aiming at analyzing biologically hazardous factors in order to develop HACCP system for the vinegared pickle radishes. A process chart was prepared as shown on Fig. 1 by referring to manufacturing process of manufacturer of general vinegared pickle radishes regarding process of raw agricultural products of vinegared pickle radishes, used water, warehousing of additives and packing material, storage, careful selection, washing, peeling off, cutting, sorting out, stuffing (filling), internal packing, metal detection, external packing, storage and consignment (delivery). As a result of measuring Coliform group, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella spp., Bacillus cereus, Listeria Monocytogenes, E. coli O157:H7, Clostridium perfringens, Yeast and Mold before and after washing raw radishes, Bacillus cereus was $5.00{\times}10$ CFU/g before washing but it was not detected after washing and Yeast and Mold was $3.80{\times}10^2$ CFU/g before washing but it was reduced to 10 CFU/g after washing and other pathogenic bacteria was not detected. As a result of testing microorganism variation depending on pH (2-5) of seasoning fluid (condiment), pH 3-4 was determined as pH of seasoning fluid as all the bacteria was not detected in pH3-4. As a result of testing air-borne bacteria (number of general bacteria, colon bacillus, fungus) depending on each workplace, number of microorganism of internal packing room, seasoning fluid processing room, washing room and storage room was detected to be 10 CFU/Plate, 2 CFU/Plate, 60 CFU/Plate and 20 CFU/Plate, respectively. As a result of testing palm condition of workers, as number of general bacteria and colon bacillus was represented to be high as 346 $CFU/Cm^2$ and 23 $CFU/Cm^2$, respectively, an education and training for individual sanitation control was considered to be required. As a result of inspecting surface pollution level of manufacturing facility and devices, colon bacillus was not detected in all the specimen but general bacteria was most dominantly detected in PP Packing machine and Siuping machine (PE Bulk) as $4.2{\times}10^3CFU/Cm^2$, $2.6{\times}10^3CFU/Cm^2$, respectively. As a result of analyzing above hazardous factors, processing process of seasoning fluid where pathogenic bacteria may be prevented, reduced or removed is required to be controlled by CCP-B (Biological) and threshold level (critical control point) was set at pH 3-4. Therefore, it is considered that thorough HACCP control plan including control criteria (point) of seasoning fluid processing process, countermeasures in case of its deviation, its verification method, education/training and record control would be required.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.154-158
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• 1999

Purpose : The purpose of this study was to find the optimum TE value for enhancing $T_2^{*}$ weighting effect and minimizing the SNR degradation and to compare the BOLD effects according to the changes of TE in 1.5T and 3.0T MRI systems. Materials and Methods : Healthy normal volunteers (eight males and two females with 24-38 years old) participated in this study. Each volunteer was asked to perform a simple finger-tapping task (sequential opposition of thumb to each of the other four fingers) with right hand with a mean frequency of about 2Hz. The stimulus was initially off for 3 images and was then alternatively switched on and off for 2 cycles of 6 images. Images were acquired on the 1.5T and 3.0T MRI with the FLASH (fast low angle shot) pulse sequence (TR : 100ms, FA : $20^{\circ}$, FOV : 230mm) that was used with 26, 36, 46, 56, 66, 76ms of TE times in 1.5T and 16, 26, 36, 46, 56, 66ms of TE in 3.0T MRI system. After the completion of scan, MR images were transferred into a PC and processed with a home-made analysis program based on the correlation coefficient method with the threshold value of 0.45. To search for the optimum TE value in fMRI, the difference between the activation and the rest by the susceptibility change for each TE was used in 1.5T and 3.0T respectively. In addition, the functional $T_2^{*}$ map was calculated to quantify susceptibility change. Results : The calculated optimum TE for fMRI was $61.89{\pm}2.68$ at 1.5T and $47.64{\pm}13.34$ at 3.0T. The maximum percentage of signal intensity change due to the susceptibility effect inactivation region was 3.36% at TE 66ms in 1.5T 10.05% at TE 46ms in 3.0T, respectively. The signal intensity change of 3.0T was about 3 times bigger than of 1.5T. The calculated optimum TE value was consistent with TE values which were obtained from the maximum signal change for each TE. Conclusion : In this study, the 3.0T MRI was clearly more sensitive, about three times bigger than the 1.5T in detecting the susceptibility due to the deoxyhemoglobin level change in the functional MR imaging. So the 3.0T fMRI I ore useful than 1.5T.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.1210-1230
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• 1997

In this paper, we suggest an architecture of DS/CDMA tranceiver composed of one pilot channel used as reference and multiple traffic channels. The pilot channel-an unmodulated PN code-is used as the reference signal for synchronization of PN code and data demondulation. The coherent demodulation architecture is also exploited for the reverse link as well as for the forward link. Here are the characteristics of the suggested DS/CDMA system. First, we suggest an interlaced quadrature spreading(IQS) method. In this method, the PN coe for I-phase 1st channel is used for Q-phase 2nd channels and the PN code for Q-phase 1st channel is used for I-phase 2nd channel, and so on-which is quite different from the eisting spreading schemes of DS/CDMA systems, such as IS-95 digital CDMA cellular or W-CDMA for PCS. By doing IQS spreading, we can drastically reduce the zero crossing rate of the RF signals. Second, we introduce an adaptive threshold setting for the synchronization of PN code, an initial acquistion method that uses a single PN code generator and reduces the acquistion time by a half compared the existing ones, and exploit the state machines to reduce the reacquistion time Third, various kinds of functions, such as automatic frequency control(AFC), automatic level control(ALC), bit-error-rate(BER) estimator, and spectral shaping for reducing the adjacent channel interference, are introduced to improve the system performance. Fourth, we designed and implemented the DS/CDMA MODEM to be used for variable transmission rate applications-from 16Kbps to 1.024Mbps. We developed and confirmed the DS/CDMA MODEM architecture through mathematical analysis and various kind of simulations. The ASIC design was done using VHDL coding and synthesis. To cope with several different kinds of applications, we developed transmitter and receiver ASICs separately. While a single transmitter or receiver ASC contains three channels (one for the pilot and the others for the traffic channels), by combining several transmitter ASICs, we can expand the number of channels up to 64. The ASICs are now under use for implementing a line-of-sight (LOS) radio equipment.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.375-380
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• 2014

The sweetpotato whitefly (SPW), Bemisia tabaci Gennadius, is a major pest in tomato greenhouses on Jeju Island because they transmit viral diseases. To develop practical sampling methods for adult SPWs, yellow-color sticky traps were used in commercial tomato greenhouses throughout the western part of Jeju Island in 2011 and 2012. On the basis of the size and growing conditions in the tomato greenhouses, 20 to 30 traps were installed in each greenhouse for developing a sampling plan. Adult SPWs were more attracted to horizontal traps placed 60 cm above the ground than to vertical trap placed 10 cm above the plant canopy. The spatial patterns of the adult SPWs were evaluated using Taylor's power law (TPL) and Iwao's patchiness regression (IPR). The results showed that adult SPWs were aggregated in each surveyed greenhouse. In this study, TPL showed better performance because of the coefficient of determination ($r^2$). On the basis of the fixed-precision level sampling plan using TPL parameters, more traps were required for higher precision in lower SPW densities per trap. A sequential sampling stop line was constructed using TPL parameters. If the treatment threshold was greater than 10 maximum adult SPWs on a trap, the required traps numbered 15 at a fixed-precision level of 0.25. In estimating the mean density per trap, the proportion of traps with two or more adult SPWs was more efficient than whole counting: ${\ln}(m)=1.19+0.90{\ln}(-{\ln}(1-p_T))$. The results of this study could be used to prevent the dissemination of SPW as a viral disease vector by using accurate control decision in SPW management programs.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.267-278
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• 2011

Objectives: A great number of hazardous agents can be emitted from various types of art-creation in a fine arts college, but little data on exposure assessment has been published. A variety of processes encompassing toxic or non-toxic materials, tools, and components are involved in a sculptor work at a fine art college. The aim of this study was to assess exposure levels to particulates and noise during sculpture classes in a college of fine arts. Methods: Students in sculpture classes participated in this study. Mass, number, and surface area concentrations of particulates, noise level, temperature and relative humidity were monitored by both personal and area sampling during the tasks of metal, wood, and stone sculpting. Results: The number and surface concentration of particulates was the highest in the task of wood sculpting, followed by metal and stone work. The mass concentration of particulates was the highest in stone sculpting (personal GM 3.0 mg/$m^3$, GSD 3.0), followed by wood (personal GM 1.5 mg/$m^3$, GSD 1.8) and metal work (personal GM 0.95 mg/$m^3$, GSD 1.51) in that order. Occupational exposure limits (OEL) for particulates depends on the type of particulate. For wood dust, 86% (six subjects) of the personal samples and all area samples exceeded the Korean OEL for wood dust (1 mg/$m^3$), while 20% (two subjects) among stone sculpting students were exposed above the Korean OEL (10 mg/$m^3$). In contrast, metal sculpting did not exceed the OEL (5 mg/$m^3$). For noise level, metal sculpting students (Leq 95.1 dB(A) in the morning, 85.3 dB(A) in the afternoon) were exposed the most, followed by stone sculpting (88.3 dB(A)), and wood sculpting (84.8 dB(A)) in that order. Compared with the 90 dB(A) of the Korean OEL and 85 dB(A) of the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists' threshold limit value (ACGIH-TLV) for noise, 100% of the subjects (five subjects) and area samples during metal sculpting in the morning session exceeded both OELs, but only three subjects (60%) exceeded the ACGIH-TLV in the afternoon session. For stone sculpting, 50% (one subject) and 100% (two subjects) exceeded the Korean OEL and ACGIH-TLV, respectively, but the area sample did not exceed either OEL. During wood sculpting, two subjects (40%) exceeded ACGIH TLV. Conclusions: This work evaluated the sculptors' exposure to particulate matter and noise in fine art college, and revealed a poor working environment for the participating students. Effective measures should be supplemented by the administration of colleges.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.71-81
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• 2013

Trace metal concentration in sediment cores from the outer sea of Lake Shihwa were determined to study the vertical profiles of metal concentrations and to evaluate the levels of metal contamination. Sediment pollution assessment was carried out using enrichment factor (EF) and geo-accumulation index (Igeo). The mean concentration of metals were 58.8 mg/kg for Cr, 10.3 mg/kg for Co, 22.8 mg/kg for Ni, 18.1 mg/kg for Cu, 74.0 mg/kg for Zn, 6.75 mg/kg for As, 0.14 mg/kg for Cd, 27.4 mg/kg for Pb and 0.026 mg/kg for Hg, respectively. The mean EF values for Cu, Zn, As, Cd and Hg were greater than 1.5 in sediment cores, indicating that these metals in sediments are slightly enriched by anthropogenic activities. The geo-accumulation index (Igeo) suggested unpolluted status for metals of sediments collected from outer see of Lake Shihwa. Igeo values for Cu and Hg nearby LNG station (site C, D, E) ranged from 1 to 2, indicating moderately to unpolluted pollution status for those metals. Even if the higher concentrations of trace metals nearby LNG station were observed, there is significantly positive relationship between Al and trace metals. Thus, the sediment grain size plays an important roles in influencing the distribution of trace metals in sediment cores from the outer sea of Lake Shihwa. Based on the comparison with sediment quality guidelines such as threshold effect level and probable effect level in Korea, the concentration of metals in sediments from outer sea of Lake Shihwa are likely to result in no harmful effects on sediment-dwelling organisms.