• Journal of the Korea Computer Graphics Society
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.1-7
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• 2011

Recently, various researches have been proposed to accelerate GPU-based volume ray-casting. However, those researches may cause several problems such as bottleneck of data transmission between CPU and GPU, requirement of additional video memory for hierarchical structure and increase of processing time whenever opacity transfer function changes. In this paper, we propose an efficient GPU-based empty space skipping technique to solve these problems. We store maximum density in a brick of volume dataset on a vertex element. Then we delete vertices regarded as transparent one by opacity transfer function in geometry shader. Remaining vertices are used to generate bounding boxes of non-transparent area that helps the ray to traverse efficiently. Although these vertices are independent on viewing condition they need to be reproduced when opacity transfer function changes. Our technique provides fast generation of opaque vertices for interactive processing since the generation stage of the opaque vertices is running in GPU pipeline. The rendering results of our algorithm are identical to the that of general GPU ray-casting, but the performance can be up to more than 10 times faster.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.236-244
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• 2022

BACKGROUND: Liquid fertilizers can provide nutrients to crops effectively and quickly. Amino acid liquid fertilizers produced by decomposing the residues of rendered livestock carcasses are expected to be effective in improving the productivity and quality of crops. METHODS AND RESULTS: The treatment conditions for maize cultivation were control (Cn), inorganic fertilizer (IF), inorganic fertilizer and rendering residue liquid fertilizer (IF+RALF), compost (CP), compost and rendering residue liquid fertilizer (CP+RALF). Crop productivity, sugar content, and nutrient uptake were investigated after maize harvest in the field applied with liquid fertilizers. Maize yields ranged from 87.6-158 g/plant, and the yield increased by 7.9% and 12.9% in IF+RALF IF+RALF and CP+RALF than in IF and CP, respectively. The maize sugar content increased in the range of 0.1-0.5 brix % by rendering residue liquid fertilizer (RALF) fertilization, and the sugar content was the highest in CP+RALF. There was no significant change in soil chemical properties of the soil due to liquid fertilizer treatment. CONCLUSION(S): RALF increased yield and sugar content in maize cultivation, and fertilization with organic fertilizers was more effective for maize cultivation than inorganic fertilizers. Residues of rendered livestock carcass can be recycled as amino acid fertilizers, which can be effectively used for crop production and quality improvement.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.265-270
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• 2014

Hearing-impaired people have difficulty in hearing, so it is also hard for them to learn letters that represent sound and text that conveys complex and abstract concepts. Therefore it has been natural choice for the hearing-impaired people to use sign language for communication, which employes facial expression, and hands and body motion. However, the major communication methods in daily life are text and speech, which are big obstacles for the hearing-impaired people to access information, to learn and make intellectual activities, and to get jobs. As delivering information via internet become common the hearing-impaired people are experiencing more difficulty in accessing information since internet represents information mostly in text forms. This intensifies unbalance of information accessibility. This paper reports web-based text-to-sign language translating system that helps web designer to use sign language in web page design. Since the system is web-based, if web designers are equipped with common computing environment for internet browsing, they can use the system. The web-based text-to-sign language system takes the format of bulletin board as user interface. When web designers write paragraphs and post them through the bulletin board to the translating server, the server translates the incoming text to sign language, animates with 3D avatar and records the animation in a MP4 file. The file addresses are fetched by the bulletin board and it enables web designers embed the translated sign language file into their web pages by using HTML5 or Javascript. Also we analyzed text used by web pages of public services, then figured out new words to the translating system, and added to improve translation. This addition is expected to encourage wide and easy acceptance of web pages for hearing-impaired people to public services.

• Anatomy & Biological Anthropology
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.133-142
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• 2018

3D histology is a imaging system for the 3D structural information of cells or tissues. The synchrotron radiation propagation phase contrast micro-CT has been used in 3D imaging methods. However, the simple phase contrast micro-CT did not give sufficient micro-structural information when the specimen contains soft elements, as is the case with many biomedical tissue samples. The purpose of this study is to develop a new technique to enhance the phase contrast effect for soft tissue imaging. Experiments were performed at the imaging beam lines of Pohang Accelerator Laboratory (PAL). The biomedical tissue samples under frozen state was mounted on a computer-controlled precision stage and rotated in $0.18^{\circ}$ increments through $180^{\circ}$. An X-ray shadow of a specimen was converted into a visual image on the surface of a CdWO4 scintillator that was magnified using a microscopic objective lens(X5 or X20) before being captured with a digital CCD camera. 3-dimensional volume images of the specimen were obtained by applying a filtered back-projection algorithm to the projection images using a software package OCTOPUS. Surface reconstruction and volume segmentation and rendering were performed were performed using Amira software. In this study, We found that synchrotron phase contrast imaging of frozen tissue samples has higher contrast power for soft tissue than that of non-frozen samples. In conclusion, synchrotron radiation propagation phase contrast cryo-microCT imaging offers a promising tool for non-destructive high resolution 3D histology.