• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.6 no.6
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• pp.923-930
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• 2002

This study aims at developing dialog system to improve the quality of life of the elderly with a dementia. The proposed system mainly consists of three modules including speech recognition, automatic search of the time-sorted dialog database, and agreeable responses with the recorded voices of caregivers. For the first step, the dialog that dementia patients often utter at a nursing home is first investigated. Next, the system is organized to recognize the utterances in order to meet their requests or demands. The system is then responded with recorded voices of professional caregivers. For evaluation of the system, the comparison study was carried out when the system was introduced or not, respectively. The occupational therapists then evaluated a male subjects reaction to the system by photographing his behaviors. The evaluation results showed that the dialog system was more responsive in catering to the needs of dementia patient than professional caregivers. Moreover, the proposed system led the patient to talk more than caregivers did in mutual communication.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.99-108
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• 2012

These days, spontaneous ignition phenomena by oxidizing heat frequently occur in the circumstances of processing and storing waste tires. Therefore, to examine the phenomena, in this work, this researcher conducted the tests of fires of fragmented waste tires (shredded tire), closely investigated components of the fire residual materials collected in the processing and storing place, and analyzed the temperature of the starting of the ignition, weight loss, and heat of reaction. For the study, this researcher conducted fire tests with fragmented waste tires in the range of 2.5 mm to 15 mm, whose heat could be easily accumulated, and performed heat analysis through DSC and TGA, DTA, DTG, and GC/MS to give scientific probability to the possibility of spontaneous ignition. According to the tests, at the 48-hour storage, rapid increase in temperature ($178^{\circ}C$), Graphite phenomenon, smoking were observed. And the result from the DTA and DTG analysis showed that at $166.15^{\circ}C$, the minimum weight loss occurred. And, the result from the test on the waste tire analysis material 1 (Unburnt) through DSC and TGA analysis revealed that at $180^{\circ}C$ or so, thermal decomposition started. As a result, the starting temperature of ignition was considered to be $160^{\circ}C$ to $180^{\circ}C$. And, at $305^{\circ}C$, 10 % of the initial weight of the material reduced, and at $416.12^{\circ}C$, 50 % of the intial weight of the material decreased. The result from the test on oxidation and self-reaction through GC/MS and DSC analysis presented that oxidized components like 1,3 cyclopentnadiene were detected a lot. But according to the result from the heat analysis test on standard materials and fragmented waste tires, their heat value was lower than the basis value so that self-reaction was not found. Therefore, to prevent spontaneous ignition by oxidizing heat of waste tires, it is necessary to convert the conventional process into Cryogenic Process that has no or few heat accumulation at the time of fragmentation. And the current storing method in which broken and fragmented materials are stored into large burlap bags (500 kg) should be changed to the method in which they are stored into small burlap bags in order to prevent heat accumulation.