The main purpose of this study is to derive a regression equation that predicts the individual differences in activity energy expenditure (AEE) using accelerometer during different types of activity. Two subject groups were recruited separately in time: One is a homogeneous group of 94 healthy young adults with age ranged from $20\sim35$ yrs. The other subject group has a broad spectrum of physical characteristics in terms of age and fat ratio. 226 adolescents and adults of age ranged from $12\sim57$ yrs and fat ratio from $4.1\sim39.7%$ were in the second group. The wireless 3-axis accelerometers were developed and carefully fixed at the waist belt level. Simultaneously the total calorie expenditure was measured by gas analyzer. Each subject performed walking and running at speeds of 1.5, 3.0, 4.5, 6.0, 6.5, 7.5, and 8.5 km/hr. A generalized sensor-independent regression equation for AEE was derived. The regression equation was developed fur walking and running. The regression coefficients were predicted as functions of physical factors-age, gender, height, and weight with multivariable regression analysis. The generalized calorie estimation equation predicts AEE with correlation coefficient of 0.96 and the average accuracy of the accumulated calorie was $89.6{\pm}7.9%$.

Extensive research with polarimetry and Mueller matrix has been done for chemical measurements and possible cancer detection. However, the effect of thermally denatured biological tissue on polarization changes is not well known. The purpose of this study is to characterize polarization changes in collagen due to thermal denaturation. The variations in polarized state caused by thermal damage were investigated by obtaining the Mueller matrix elements of collagen sample at multiple thermal damage levels. The changes in birefringence of denatured collagen were also investigated. This information could be used to determine the extent of thermal damage level of clinically heat treated tissues.

The purpose of this study is to examine differences between 20s and 40s in visuospatial performance and brain activation areas using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). Eight male college students in their twenties ($21.5{\pm}2.3$ years old) and six male adults in their forties ($45.7{\pm}2.6$ years old) who were graduated from college participated in the study. A visuospatial task was presented while brain images were acquired by a 3T fMRI system. Compared to the 20s the 40s showed lower visuospatial performance. There were more activations observed at the parietal and superior frontal areas at 20s compared to 40s. There were more activations observed at the middle frontal and occipital areas at 40s compared to 20s. The results of this study show that the lowering of visuospatial performance with aging was correlated to the decrease of activation area at the parietal lobe and the change of activation area at the frontal lobe.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of performing a cognitive task during treadmill walking on the stride rate variability. Ten university students(age $24.0{\pm}0.25$, height $172{\pm}3.1cm$, weight $66{\pm}5.3kg$) were participated in dual task experiments which consist of both walking alone and walking with a cognitive task. Two-back task was selected for the cognitive task since it did not have learning effect during the experimental procedure.3D motion analysis system was used to measure subject's position data by changing walking speed with 4.8, 5.6, 6.4, 6.8, and 7.2 km/hr. Stride rate was calculated by the time between heel contact and heel contact. Accuracy rate of a cognitive task during walking, coefficient of variance, allometric scaling methods and Fano factor were used to estimated the stride rate variability. As the walking speed increased, accuracy rate decreased and the logarithmic value of Fano factor increased which showed the statistical difference. Thus it can be concluded that the gait control mechanism is distracted by the secondary attention focus which is the cognitive task ie. two-back task. Further study is needed to clarify this by increasing the number of subject and experiment time.

In this study, we have fabricated a fiber-optic radiation sensor using an organic scintillator for high energy electron beam therapy. The intensities of scintillating light from a fiber-optic radiation sensor are measured with different field size, electron beam energy and monitor unit of a clinical linear accelerator. To obtain percent depth dose(PDD), the amount of scintillating light is measured at different depth of polymethylmethacrylate(PMMA) phantom. Also the intensity of Cerenkov light is measured and characterized as a function of incident angle of electron beam and a subtraction method is investigated using a background optical fiber to remove a Cerenkov light.

We have developed a noncontact temperature sensor using a silver halide optical fiber. The infrared collimator and focus head are connected both ends of a silver halide optical fiber with SMA connectors and used to collimate radiations of a heat source and to focus them to infrared sensors such as a pyroelectric sensor and a thermopile sensor, respectively. The relation ships between the temperatures of a heat source and the output signals of the infrared sensors are determined to measure the surface temperature of a heat source. The measurable temperature range is from 25 to $60^{\circ}C$. It is expected that a noncontact temperature sensor using a silver halide optical fiber can be developed for medical usages such as temperature monitoring during hyperthermia, cryosurgery, laser surgery and diagnostic procedure based on the results of this study.

Medical magnetic stimulator generates strong magnetic field pulses. Clinical applications of the magnetic pulse are the stimulation of nervous system and the contraction of muscle. The unique source of the strong magnetic pulse is a capacitor-inductor resonator and this inductor generates a strong sinusoidal magnetic pulse by discharging the capacitor with high initial voltage. Continuous muscle contraction needs sequential generation of the magnetic pulses. However, to keep the magnitude of sequential pulses identical, an expensive high-voltage power supply have to support voltage drop of the capacitor between the pulses. A protection circuit between the supply and the resonator is necessary to protect the supply from reverse current caused by capacitor voltage reversal. In this paper, a new circuit structure of the magnetic stimulator adopting a low-frequency fly-back switching is proposed. The new circuit supports sequential pulse generation and allows the reverse current without damage. Performance of the new circuit is examined and a low-cost magnetic stimulator for urinary incontinence therapy is being developed using the presented method.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the gait characteristics in Parkinson's disease patients. Specifically, the total stance time and the ratio of each stance phase (heel strike, mid-stance, propulsion) are analyzed from the foot-pressure measurement system which requires low cost and small space compared to the conventional gait analysis system. The gait characteristics were analyzed in 23 Parkinson's disease patients (before and after L-dopa medication), 34 elderly (sixties) normal subjects and 21 young (twenties) normal subjects. Bradykinesia global score (self-developed score of slowness of body movement) of patients before medication was determined to see the relationship between the score and the gait characteristics. The total stance time was greater in the erde. of patients, elderly, youngs (p<0.05). The phase ratio of heel strike and propulsion was smaller and that of mid-stance was greater in the order of patients, elderly, youngs (p<0.05). However, there was no significant difference in the above gait characteristics of patients before and after medication. There was a tendency, though statistically non-significant, that the total stance time is longer and the propulsion phase ratio is shorter in patients with greater Bradikinesia global scale, and this tendency was relieved after medication.

Microwave Radiometry is the spectral measurement of eleclromagnetic radiation at frequency bands in the microwave region. One particular application of Microwave Radiometry is for analyzing temperature difffrentials of inside of human body to detect and diagnose pathologic conditions in which the temperature differentials are related with the symptoms of certain diseases. To accomplish this aim, we propose a new calibration method for estimating subcutaneous temperature by Microwave Radiometer and we also suggest a tumor-imitator phantom structure for simulating heat diffusion propagated by tissues around tumors to evaluate the discernment of brighuless temperature difffrentials.

According to the IIHS (Insurance Institute fur Highway Safety), side impacts are made up 30% of all accidents (reported 1998). In the case of auto accidents, head and neck injuries were most common as 58%, injuries to the body's trunk equaled 32%, and injuries to the abdomen were 21%. Therefore in this study, injury of wheelchair occupant in frontal and side impact of wheelchair loaded vehicle was analyzed using computer simulation method. The occupant was restrained at the rear of wheelchair by the lap belt. The detailed fixation and restrain conditions of the wheelchair occupant are referred to SAR J2249's recommendation. We estimated HIC(Head Injury Criteria) and HNIC (Head and Neck Injury Criteria) based on measured data.

The purpose of this work is to predict the systolic blood pressure (BP) during exercise from pulse transit time (PTT) for warning of possible danger. PTT was calculated as the time between R-peak of ECG and the peak of differential photoplethysmograph (PPG). For the PTT-BP model, we used regress equations from previous studies and 3 kinds of new models combining linear and nonlinear regress equation. The model parameters were estimated with the data measured under low to middle intensity exercise, and then was tested with the data measured under high intensity exercise. Predicted BP values after high intensity exercise were compared with those measured by cuff-type sphygmomanometer. The results showed that the error between measured and predicted values were acceptable for the monitoring BP. We tested PTT-BP models 1 month after the identification without further calibration. Models could predict the BP and the errors between measured and predicted BP were about 5mmHg. The suggested system is expected to be helpful in recognizing any danger during exercise.

Noise induced hearing loss (NIHS), the well-known occupational disease, is caused by continuous excessive noise. The prevention of NIHS is very important, because it is unrecoverable. There are some kinds of hearing protection device (HPD), and those are effective in preventing NIHS. But workers in noisy environment often resist to wearing them. Because they are ready - made products, so workers feel uncomfortable to wear. Also, they didn't maintain the conversation frequency range, so workers are hard to communicate in wearing them. To prevent hearing loss effectively, it is important that workers keep wearing HPD. Therefore, a HPD is needed to be comfortable to wear and be effective not only in hearing protection but also in preserving communication ability. So we proposed a custom - made hearing protection device in which a small acoustic filter is inserted. We designed several kinds of small acoustic filters and carried out some acoustic experiments for measuring characteristics of filters. We confirmed that acoustic transmission characteristic can be adjusted from experimental results using designed small acoustic filters. And we researched for the actual efficiency of a new developed custom - made hearing protection device using a small size acoustic filter. Also, we found out that workers are more satisfied with the new development than a former protection device from a workers' response.

Variation of brain dynamics under Zen meditation has been one of our major research interests for years. One issue encountered is the inaccessibility to the actual meditation level or stage as a reference. In this paper, we propose an alternative strategy for investigating the human brain in response to external flash stimuli during Zen meditation course. To secure a consistent condition of the brain dynamics when applying stimulation, we designed a recording of flash visual evoked potentials (F-VEPs) based on a constant background EEG (electroencephalograph) frontal $\alpha-rhythm$ dominating activities that increase significantly during Zen meditation. Thus the flash-light stimulus was to be applied upon emergence of the frontal $\alpha-rhythm$. The alpha-dependent F-VEPs were then employed to inspect the effect of Zen meditation on brain dynamics. Based on the experimental protocol proposed, considerable differences between experimental and control groups were obtained. Our results showed that amplitudes of P1-N2 and N2-P2 on Cz and Fz increased significantly during meditation, contrary to the F-VEPs of control group at rest. We thus suggest that Zen meditation results in acute response on primary visual cortex and the associated parts.

Image Guided Surgery (IGS) system which has variously tried in medical engineering fields is able to give a surgeon objective information of operation process like decision making and surgical planning. This information is displayed through 3D images which are acquired from image modalities like CT and MRI for pre-operation. The technique of image registration is necessary to construct IGS system. Image registration means that 3D model and the object operated by a surgeon are matched on the common frame. Major techniques of registration in IGS system have been used by recognizing fiducial markers placed on the object. However, this method has been criticized due to additional trauma, its invasive protocol inserting fiducial markers in patient's bone and generating noise data when 2D slice images are acquired by image modality because many markers are made of metal. Therefore, this paper developed shape-based registration technique to improve the limitation of fiducial marker based IGS system. Iterative Closest Points (ICP) algorithm was used to match corresponding points and quaternion based rotation and translation transformation using closed form solution applied to find the optimized cost function of transformation. we assumed that this algorithm were used in Total Knee replacement (TKR) operation. Accordingly, we have developed region-based 3D registration technique based on anatomical landmarks and this registration algorithm was evaluated in a femur model. It was found that region-based algorithm can improve the accuracy in 3D registration.

The choice of suitable hip implant is one of important factors in the total hip arthroplasty (THA). In clinical view point, an improper adaptation of hip implant might induce abnormal stress distribution to the bone, which can shorten the lifespan of replaced hip implant. Currently, interest in the custom-designed hip implants has increased as studies reveal the significance of geometric shape of patient's femur in modeling and designing the implants. In this study, we have developed custom-designed hip implant models with various sizes, and analyzed the stress distribution in the bone and bone cement using the Finite Element Method. It was found that minimizing the gap between implant stem and femoral cavity is crucial to minimize the stress concentration in the bone.

Research on neural circuit is a difficult area due to complexity and inaccessibility. Due to recent developments, the research using multi-electrode array of cells or tissues has become an important research area. However, there are some difficulties to decode the submerged meaning from huge and complex neural data. Moreover, it needs a harmonic collaboration between informatics and bioscience. In this paper, we have developed a custom-designed signal processing technique for multi-electrode array measured neural responses induced by electrical stimuli to the hippocampal tissue slices of the rat brain. The raw data from hippocampal slice using the multi-electrode array system were saved in a computer. Then we estimated characteristic points in each channel and calculated the total activity. To estimate the points, we used the Polynomial Fitting Approximation Method. Using the calculated total activity, we could provide the histogram or pseudo-image matrix to help interpretation of results.

In the artificial heart application, productivity and hemodynamic properties of artificial heart valves are crucial in successiful application to long term in vivo trials. This paper is about manufacture and assessment of trileaflet polymer heart valves using vacuum forming process(VFP). The VFP has many advantages such as reduced fabrication time, reproducibility due to relatively easy and simple process for manufacturing. Prior to VFP of trileaflet polymer heart valves, polyurethane(Pellethane 2363 80AE, Dow Chemical) sheet was prepared by extrusion. The sheets were heated and formed to mold shape by vacuum pressure. The vacuum formed trileaflet polymer heart valves fabrication is composed of two step method, first, leaflet forming and second, conduit forming. This two-step forming process made the leaflet-conduit bonding stable with any organic solvents. Hydrodynamic properties and hemocompatibility of the vacuum formed trileaflet polymer heart valves was compared with sorin bicarbon bileaflet heart valve. The percent effective orifice area of vacuum formed trileaflet polymer heart valves was inferior to bileaflet heart valve, but the increase of plasma free hemoglobin level which reflect blood damage was superior in vacuum formed trileaflet polymer heart valves Vacuum formed trileaflet polymer heart valves has high productivity, and superior hemodynamic property than bileaflet heart valves. Low manufacturing cost and blood compatible trileaflet polymer heart valves shows the advantages of vacuum forming process, and these results give feasibility in in vivo animal trials in near future, and the clinical artificial heart development program.