• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.36-43
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• 2007

Purpose: The ultrasonography (USG) and computed tomography (CT) are popular diagnostic tools for the diagnosis of acute appendicitis in children, but there are many debates about their clinical significance. The purpose of this study is to clarify the clinical significance of USG, CT and follow-up CT performed subsequently to USG, especially in perforated acute appendicitis in children. Methods: We have reviewed 419 cases of surgically confirmed acute appendicitis in children under the age of sixteen, who had been treated in Inje University Ilsan Paik Hospital from March 2002 to February 2006. All the clinical data including the results of USG and CT were collected and analyzed. Results: Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of USG were 98.7%, 96.8%, 98.1%, 97.8% in non-perforation group and 90.8%, 100%, 100%, 81.9% in perforation group. Those of CT were 96.4%, 100%, 100%, 96.5% and 86.6%, 100%, 100%, 87.5% respectively. Those of follow-up CT after USG were 100%, 100%, 100%, 100% and 87.5%, 100%, 100%, 92.0% respectively. The duration of using antibiotics in seven patients showed positive correlation with the interval between two imaging studies (r=0.0472, p=0.019). There was no statistical significance of correlation when these imaging studies performed within 30 hours together. Conclusion: In most of the cases, single choice between USG and CT would be enough to diagnose the acute appendicitis in children. But, it may be helpful to perform CT as early as possible subsequently to USG when there is discrepancy between initial USG and clinical impression.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.246-253
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• 2002

This paper describes the development and the field application of the ultrasonic gas flowmeter for accurate measurement of the volumetric flow rate of gases in a harsh environmental conditions in iron & steel making company. This ultrasonic flowmeter is especially suited for measuring LDG, COG, BFG gases produced in iron & steel making process. This is a transit time type ultrasonic flowmeter. We have developed the transmitting & receiving algorithm of ultrasonic wave and the ultrasonic signal processing algorithm to develope a transit time type ultrasonic flowmeter. We have evaluated the performance of ultrasonic flowmeter by the calibration system with Venturi type standard flowmeter. We has confirmed its reliability by extensive field tests for a year in POSCO, iron & steel making company. Now we have developed the commercial model of ultrasonic flowmeter and applied to the POSCO gas line.

• Composites Research
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.356-364
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• 2017

Composite lattice structures are tried to be used in various fields because of its benefit in physical properties. With increase of demand of the composite lattice structure, nondestructive testing technology is also required to certificate the quality of the manufactured structures. Recently, research on the development of the composite lattice structure in Republic of Korea was started and accordingly, fast and accurate non-destructive evaluation technology was needed to finalize the manufacturing process. This paper studied non-destructive testing methods for composite lattice structure using laser ultrasonic propagation imaging systems. Pulse-echo ultrasonic propagation imaging system was able to inspect a rib structure wrapped with a skin structure. To reduce the time of inspection, a band divider, which can get signal in different frequency bands at once, was developed. Its performance was proved in an aluminum sandwich panel. In addition, to increase a quality of results, curvature compensating algorithm was developed. On the other hand, guided wave ultrasonic propagation imaging system was applied to inspect delamination in a rib structure. To increase an area of inspection, multi-source ultrasonic wave propagation image was applied, and defects were successfully highlighted with variable time window amplitude mapping algorithm. These imply that ultrasonic propagation imaging systems provides fast and accurate non-destructive testing results for composite lattice structure in a stage of the manufacturing process.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.154-161
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• 1997

Purpose: Traumatic rupture of the diaphragm is not easy to diagnose and often delayed. Delayed diagnosis of diaphragmatic rupture accompanied by higher chances of strangulation of herniated viscera which may result in higher morbility and mortality. The purpose of this study was to evaluate diagnostic accuracy of spiral CT, MRI and US for the diagnosis of diaphragmatic rupture in an animal model. Materials and Methods: Small, medium, and large sized transabdominal diaphragmatic ruptures were surgically made in experimental rabbits and then followed up with spiral CT, MR!, and US at 1 day, 3 day, and 1 week after operation. Results: US was superior to MR! or spiral CT in diagnosis of diaphragmatic rupture(P(0.05). The sensitivity and specificity were 94.4% and 92.9% for US, 54.0% and 85.7% for MRI, and 46.0% and 78.6% for spiral CT, respectively. The size of laceration was not related to diagnostic sensitivity in US. Sensitivity of MRI and spiral CT increased as the size of laceration were larger, but no statistical significance was present(P>0.05). All experimental animals developed pleural effusion or hemothorax one day after operation. In acute phase, US and MRI were more sensitive than spiral CT in detecting diaphragmatic rupture. Spiral CT was more sensitive than US and MRI in delayed phase but without statistical significance(P>0.05). In the experimental rabbits with accompanying visceral hernia through the diaphragmatic defect, diagnostic accuracy was found equally high among three image modalities(P>0.05). Conclusion: This study indicates that US is the most accurate diagnostic method in detecting injury to the diaphragm in a rabbit model. The findings obtained in this experimental study can be applied to the diaphragmatic rupture of human being.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.241-247
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• 2014

This study presents the ultrasonic nonlinearity of AISI316 austenitic stainless steels subjected to longterm isothermal aging. These steels are attractive materials for use in industrial mechanical structures because of their strength at high-temperatures and their chemical stability. The test materials were subjected to accelerated heat-treatment in an electrical furnace for a predetermined aging duration. The variations in the ultrasonic nonlinearity and microstructural damage were carefully evaluated through observation of the microstructure. The ultrasonic nonlinearity stiffly dropped after aging for up to 1000 h and, then, monotonously decreased. The polygonal shape of the initial grain structures changed to circular, especially as the annealing twins in the grains dissolved and disappeared. The delta ferrite on the grain boundaries could not be observed at 1000 h of aging, and these continuously transformed into their sigma phases. Consequently, in the intial aging period, the rapid decrease in the ultrasonic nonlinearity was caused by voids, dislocations, and twin annihilation. The continuous monotonic decrease in the ultrasonic nonlinearity after the first drop resulted from the generation of $Cr_{23}C_6$ precipitates and ${\sigma}$ phases.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.270-276
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• 1999

Fourier transform has been one of the most commonly used tools in study of frequency characteristics of signal. However, based on the Fourier transform. it is hard to tell whether a signal's frequency contents evolve in time or not. Recently, to overcome Fourier transform fault. not to represent non-stationary signal, time-frequency analysis methods are developed and those can represent informations of signal's time and frequency at the same time. In this study we analysed ultrasonic signal for degraded SUS 316 with time-frequency analysis method. In particular the methods such as short time Fourier(STFT) and Wigner-Ville distribution(WVD) were used to extract frequency contents and characteristics from ultrasonic signals.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.180-185
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• 2004

Conventional ultrasonic examination to detect micro and small surface cracks is based on the pulse-echo technique using a normal immersion focused transducer with high frequency, or an angle-beam transducer generating surface waves. It is difficult to make an automatic ultrasonic system that can detect micro and small surface cracks and position in a large structure like steel and ceramic rolls, because of the huge data of inspection and the ambiguous position data of the transducer. In this study, a high-precision scanning acoustic microscope with a 10MHz large-aperture transducer has been used to assess the existence, position and depth of a surface crack from the real-time A, B, C scans obtained by exploiting the ultrasonic diffraction. The ultrasonic method with large aperture transducer has improved the accuracy of the crack depth assessment and also the scanning speed by ten times, compared with the conventional ultrasonic methods.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.292-303
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• 2002

This paper presents experimental results for early-age properties of concrete such as the setting time and strength, evaluated via the ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV). Developing and using an automatically-recording monitoring system, the UPV's of mortar and concrete with various water to binder ratios (W/B) were measured during the first 24 hours. In addition, probe penetration and compression tests were conducted to measure the setting time and compressive strength, respectively. It was observed that the UPV's of mortar with high W/B remained constant during the first 6.5 hours and then abruptly began to increase at constant rates. On the other hand, the UPV of mortar with low W/B increased relatively slowly and gradually due to the setting retardation caused by the use of high range water reducing agent (HRWR). It was found that setting of concrete occurs when the UPV reaches a certain value. Moreover, it was concluded that the estimation formulas should incorporate the effects of W/B to more accurately estimate the early-age strength of concrete from the UPV.

• Proceedings of the Korea Information Processing Society Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.1623-1626
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• 2005

초음파 영상 기법은 장기, 연조직, 혈류를 검사하는데 쓰이는 영상 진단법이다. 초음파 장비를 통해 얻어진 초음파 볼륨 데이터는 장비 특성상 많은 잡음(speckle noise)을 포함하기 때문에, 깨끗한 영상을 얻기 위해서는 잡음 필터링(noise filtering)이 필요하다. 그런데, 볼륨 데이터 모든 영역에 대해 잡음 필터링을 적용할 경우 전처리 시간이 길어져 실시간으로 초음파 볼륨 데이터를 렌더링하기 어렵다. 본 논문에서는 실시간으로 입력되는 초음파 볼륨 데이터를 가시화 하기위하여 전처리 시간 없이 잡음을 제거하는 방법을 제안한다. 전처리 시간에 전체 볼륨 데이터에 대해 잡음 필터링을 적용하지 않고, 영상을 생성하는 동안 참조되는 복셀(voxel)에 대해서만 잡음 필터를 적용하여 얻은 값을 사용한다. 이때 필터링에 소요되는 시간을 최소화하기 위해 가장 단순한 평균화 필터를 사용한다. 그리고 복셀에 적용되는 3차원 필터를 3단계의 1차원 필터 연산 단계로 분할 한 후, 각 단계별 연산을 거친 복셀들에 대해서는 다시 연산을 하지 않도록 하여 중복을 피한다. 이를 통해 전처리 시간 없이 기존 방법과 동일한 화질을 유지하는 최종 영상을 만들어 낸다.

• The Journal of Korean Orthopaedic Ultrasound Society
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.98-104
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• 2014

Purpose: To evaluate the incidence of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) before hip fracture by duplex color Doppler ultrasonography. Materials and Methods: From June 2013 to May 2014, 27 patients who had agreed to perform color Doppler ultrasonography before hip fracture surgery were evaluated for the incidence of DVT. Patients who had history of DVT were excluded. Five patients were men and 19 patients were women. The mean age was 74.3 years old (41-87). There were 15 cases of femoral neck fracture, 11 cases of intertrochanteric fractures and one case of acetabular fracture. Surgical intervention underwent within 48 hours from admission and duplex color Doppler ultrasonography was carried out at the day of admission. Results: DVT occurred in six cases (22.2%). Four cases (14.8%) occurred in proximal deep vein and two cases (7.4%) occurred in distal deep vein. The mean period of immobilization was longer in patients who had DVT. But there was no significant difference. The mean age was 79 years old (75-87) in patients who had DVT and 72 years old (65-86) in patients who had not. There was significant difference (p=0.038). Conclusion: The incidence of DVT which was diagnosed by duplex color Doppler ultrasonography before hip fracture surgery was relatively high (22.2%). So it is necessary to undergo duplex color Doppler ultrasonography more aggressively to rule out DVT before hip fracture surgery.