• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.223-227
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• 2007

A rapid, simple and sensitive LC/MS/MS method for the determination of lercanidipine in human serum was validated and applied to the pharmacokinetic study of lercanidipine. Lercanidipine and internal standard, amlodipine, were extracted from human serum by liquid-liquid extraction with hexan-isoamyl alcohol (100: 1, v/v) and analyzed on a $Symmetry^{(R)}$ MS $C_{18}$ column with the mobile phase of acetonitrile-0.2% aqueous formic acid (70: 30, v/v). Using MS/MS with multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode, lercanidipine and amlodipine were detected without severe interferences from human serum matrix. Lercanidipine produced a protonated precursor ion ($[M+H]^+$) at m/z 612.3 and a corresponding product ion at m/z 280.0. Internal standard produced a protonated precursor ion ($[M+H]^+$]) at m/z 409.0 and a corresponding product ion at m/z 238.0. The ruggedness of this method was investigated using quality control (QC) samples. This method showed linear response over the concentration range of 0.05-20 ng/mL with correlation coefficient greater than 0.999. The lower limit of quantitation using 0.5 mL of serum was 0.05 ng/mL, which was sensitive enough for pharmacokinetic studies. The overall accuracy of the developed method ranged from 85.51 to 112.2% for lercanidipine with overall precision (% C.V.) being 3.56-13.1%. This method showed good ruggedness (within 15% C.V.) and was successfully applied for the analysis of lercanidipine in human serum samples for the pharmacokinetic studies, demonstrating the suitability of the method.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.217-226
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• 2010

The lower limb orthosis with a pneumatic rubber actuator, which is intended for the assistance and the enhancement of muscular activities of lower limbs was developed in this study. Compared to other knee extension assistive devices being developed by other researchers, our device is designed especially for the elderly people and intended only for slight assistance so that the subjects can keep their muscular strength. For the effectiveness of system, muscular activities of major muscles in lower limbs during sit-to-stand (STS) and squat motion were measured and analyzed. Subjects were performed the STS and squat motion with and without lower limb orthosis. We made comparison muscular activities between with and without lower limb orthosis. Lower limb orthosis was controlled using muscular stiffness force feedback that is controlled by muscular activities of the measured muscle from force sensor. For analysis of muscular activities, electromyography of the subjects was measured during STS and squat motion, and these were measured using MP 150(BIOPAC Systems, Inc.). Muscles of interest were rectus femoris(RF), vastus lateralis(VL), vastus medialis(VM) and vastus intermedius(VI) muscles in lower limbs of the right side. A biodex dynamometer was used to measure the maximal concentric isokinetic strength of the knee extensors of wearing and not wearing orthosis on right side. The test were performed using the concentric isokinetic mode of test with the velocity set at 60°/s for muscles around the knee joints. The experimental result showed that muscular activities in lower limbs wearing orthosis using muscular stiffness force of a vastus medialis muscle was reduced and knee extension torque of an knee joint wearing lower limb orthosis was increased. With this, we confirmed the effectiveness of the developed lower limb orthosis.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.2430-2434
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• 2005

Automatic FPC punching instrument for the improvement of working condition and cost saving is introduced in this paper. FPC(flexible printed circuit) is used to detect the contact position of K/B and button like a cellular phone. Depending on the quality of the printed ink and position of reference punching point to the FPC, the resistance and current are varied to the malfunctioning values. The size of reference punching point is 2mm and the above. Because the punching operation is done manually, the accuracy of the punching degree is varied with operator's condition. Recently, The punching accuracy has deteriorated severely to the 2mm punching reference hall so that assembly of the K/B has hardly done. To improve this manual punching operation to the FPC, automatic FPC punching system is introduced. Precise mechanical parts like a 5-step stepping motor and ball screw mechanism are designed and tested and low cost PC camera is used for the sake of cost down instead of using high quality vision systems for the FA. 3D Mechanical design tool(Pro/E) is used to manage the exact tolerance circumstances and avoid design failures. Simulation is performed to make the complete vision based punching machine before assembly, and this procedure led to the manufacturing cost saving. As the image processing algorithms, dilation, erosion, and threshold calculation is applied to obtain an exact center position from the FPC print marks. These image processing algorithms made the original images having various noises have clean binary pixels which is easy to calculate the center position of print marks. Moment and Least square method are used to calculate the center position of objects. In this development circumstance, Moment method was superior to the Least square one at the calculation of speed and against noise. Main control panel is programmed by Visual C++ and graphical Active X for the whole management of vision based automatic punching machine. Operating modes like manual, calibration, and automatic mode are added to the main control panel for the compensation of bad FPC print conditions and mechanical tolerance occurring in the case of punch and die reassembly. Test algorithms and programs showed good results to the designed automatic punching system and led to the increase of productivity and huge cost down to law material like FPC by avoiding bad quality.

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Prosthodontics
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.419-430
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• 2007

Purpose: This in vitro study evaluated shear bond strengths of surface treatment porcelains with four porcelain repair systems simulating intraoral bonding of composite resin to feldspathic porcelain or pressable porcelain. Material and methods: Eighty Porcelain disks were prepared. Group A: forty disk specimens were fabricated with Feldspathic Porcelain($Omega^{(R)}900$, Vident, Menlo Park, CA, USA). Group B: forty disk specimens were fabricated with Pressable Porcelain(IPS Empress 2 ingot, Ivoclar-Vivadent, Schaan, Liechtenstein, Germany). Each groups was divided into 4 subgroups and composite resin cylinders were bonded to specimen with one of the following four systems: Clearfil Porcelain Bond(L. Morita, Tustin, CA, USA), Ulradent Porcelain Etch. (Ultradent, Salt Lake City UT, USA), Porcelain Liner-M(Sun Medical Co., Kyoto, Japan), Cimara Kit(Voco, Germany). After surface conditioning with one of the four porcelain repair systems substrate surfaces of the specimen were examined microscopically(SEM). Shear bond strengths of specimens for each subgroup were determined with a universal testing machine (5mm/min crosshead speed) after storing them in distilled water at $37{\pm}1^{\circ}C$ for 24 hours. Stress at failure was measured in $MP_a$, and mode of failure was recorded. Differences among four repair systems were analyzed with two way ANOVA and Duncan test at the 95% significance level. Results: In the scanning electron photomicrograph of the treated porcelain surface, hydrofluoric acid etched group appeared the highest roughness. The shear bond strength of the phosphoric acid etched group was not significantly(p>0.05) different between feldspathic porcelain and pressable porcelain. But in no treatment and roughened with a bur group, the shear bond strength of the feldspathic porcelain was significantly higher than that of the pressable porcelain. In hydrofluoric acid etched group, the shear bond strength of the pressable porcelain was significantly higher(p<0.05). Conclusion: 1. Treatment groups showed significantly greater shear bond strengths than no treatment group(p<0.05). 2. Group with more roughened porcelain surface did not always show higher shear bond strengths. 3. In phosphoric acid etched group, there was no significant difference in shear bond strength between feldspathic porcelain and pressable porcelain(p>0.05). However in the other groups, there were significant differences in shear bond strengths between feldspathic porcelain and pressable porcelain(p<0.05).

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.261-269
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• 2013

In this study, it was developed eco-friendly inorganic binding material concrete using ground granulated blast furnace slag and alkali activator (water glass, sodium hydroxides). Eight reinforced concrete beam using inoganic binding material concrete were constructed and tested under monotonic loading. The major variables were mixture ratio of alkali activator, type of admixture and admixture. Experimental programs were carried out to improve and evaluate the flexural performance of such test specimens, such as the load-displacement, the failure mode, the maximum load carrying capacity, and ductility capacity. All the specimens were modeled in scale-down size. The eco-friendly concrete using inorganic binding material encouraged alkali activation reaction was rapidly hardening speed and showed possibility as a high strength concrete. Also, the RC beams using new materials showed similar behavior and failed similarly with RC beam used portland cement. It is thought that eco-friendly inorganic binding material concrete can be used with construction material and product as a basic research to replace cement concrete. If there is application to structures in PC member as well as production of 2nd concrete product, it could be improved the productivity and reduction of construction duration etc.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.21-32
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• 2011

Using six-year (2004-2009) SKYNET measurements, MODIS-derived AOTs were validated at five SKYNET sites (Seoul, Chiba, Etchujima, Fukuejima, and Hedomisaki), in addition to climatological analysis of MODIS-derived optical properties over the East Asian domain ($20-50^{\circ}N$, $90-150^{\circ}E$). In so doing MODIS-SKYNET collocated AOT data were constructed if two measurements are taken within 25 km distance and within 30 minute time difference. From the comparison of two measurements, it is demonstrated that aerosol type insignificantly affects the accuracy of MODIS AOT. It is because the aerosol model combining predefined fine aerosol model and coarse aerosol model is used for the retrieval. However, positive bias between MODIS and SKYNET increases as fraction of the coarse aerosol model increases. In addition, MODIS AOT appears to be overestimated in case of lower aerosol loading while the overestimation tends to decrease with increased aerosol loading. Regression analysis between MODIS AOT and SKYNET AOT for 550 nm band yields 0.86, 0.16, and 0.61 of regression slope, intercept, and coefficient of determination, respectively. Those statistical results may draw a conclusion that MODIS AOTs over East Asia carry a reasonable accuracy compared to ground-based SKYNET measurements.

• Journal of electromagnetic engineering and science
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.85-97
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• 2009

As operating frequency is raised and as more integration with active and passive elements is required, it becomes difficult to fabricate more than 120 ${\Omega}$ characteristic impedance of a mierostrip line. To solve this problem, an equivalent high impedance transmission-line section is suggested, which consists mainly of a pair of coupled-line sections with two shorts. However, it becomes a transmission-line section only when its electrical length is fixed and its coupling power is more than half. To have transmission-line characteristics(perfect matching), independently of coupling power and electrical length, two identical open stubs are added and conventional design equations of evenand odd-mode impedances are modified, based on the fact that the modified design equations have the linear combinations of conventional ones. The high impedance transmission-line section is a passive component and therefore should be perfectly matched, at least at a design center frequency. For this, two different solutions are derived for the added open stub and two types of high impedance transmission-line sections with 160 ${\Omega}$ characteristic impedance are simulated as the electrical lengths of the coupled-line sections are varied. The simulation results show that the determination of the available bandwidth location depends on which solution is chosen. As an application, branch-line hybrids with very weak coupling power are investigated, depending on where an isolated port is located, and two types of branch-line hybrids are derived for each case. To verify the derived branch-line hybrids, a microstrip branch-line hybrid with -15 dB coupling power, composed of two 90$^{\circ}$ and two 270$^{\circ}$ transmission-line sections, is fabricated on a substrate of ${\varepsilon}_r$= 3.4 and h=0.76 mm and measured. In this case, 276.7 ${\Omega}$ characteristic impedance is fabricated using the suggested high impedance transmission-line sections. The measured coupling power is -14.5 dB, isolation and matching is almost perfect at a design center frequency of 2 GHz, showing good agreement with the prediction.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.49-58
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• 2010

The traffic signal controllers being used in the domestic currently are being manufactured based on the korean national police standard which was developed for controlling the quad-light traffic signal having the red, yellow, left-turn arrow, and green lights. But according to the national policy for the traffic operation, they have to be changed to be able to switch the tri-light signal having red, yellow and green lights. In this study, a new tri-light traffic signal controller was designed and developed by the way improving the Signal Control Unit of the existing quad-light standard traffic controller. The Load Signal Unit(LSU) was improved to output 6 signals which are the two assemblies of three signal indications having the red, yellow, and green lights. To enough traffic signals output to control each directional movements and the various transport modes which are car, bus, bike, and pedestrian etc., the connector bus system was designed to be able to accommodate maximum 96 signals outputs being constructed by 16 LSUs. Flasher device was developed to be able to support maximum 32 red signals. In the software, the communication protocol between traffic control center and the traffic signal controller was improved and new signal map code values were defined for the developed LSU controlling the quad-light traffic signal. A model of the quad-light traffic signal controller developed and was tested three operations, protocol-operation, remote-command and control-mode. The test result operated all of them successfully.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.671-679
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• 2008

The near surface mounted (NSM) FRP strengthening method has been conventionally applied for strengthening the deteriorated concrete structures. The NSM strengthening method, however, has been issued with the problem of limitation of the cutting depth which is usually considered as concrete cover depth. This may be related with degradation of bonding performance in long-term service state. To improve the debonding problem, in this study, the Stirrup partial-cutting NSM (SCNSM) strengthening method using CFRP plate was newly developed. SCNSM strengthening method can be effectively applied to the deteriorated concrete structure without any troubles of insufficient cutting depth. To experimentally verify the structural behavior, the flexural test of the concrete beam by using the SCNSM strengthening method was conducted with the test variable as the strengthening length (32%, 48%, 70%, 80%, 96% of span length). In the result of the test, the NSM and SCNSM strengthened specimen showed similar structural behavior with load-deflection, mode of failure. Additionally, there was no apparent structural degradation by the stirrup partial-cutting. Consequently, it was evaluated that the SCNSM strengthening method can be useful for seriously damaged concrete structures that is hard to apply the conventional NSM strengthening method for increasing the structural capacity.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.53-60
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• 2016

Objectives: Preservatives are commonly used in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and other products to extend the expiration date and prevent the growth of microorganisms. Preservatives are generally effective in controlling mold and inhibiting yeast growth, and against a wide range of bacterial attacks as well. They also adversely affect the quality of sperm and cause precocious puberty in children. This study was performed to analyze seven preservatives used in pharmaceuticals and personal care products. Methods: Five kinds of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) were examined for analysis with a high performance liquid chromatography-diode array detector. Each sample was homogenized and the targeted compounds were extracted with methanol. The suspended particulate was removed by syringe filter. Next, the sample was injected into an HPLC system. The separation of the seven preservatives was achieved with a C18 column and gradient mode. The accuracies were between 73% and 120% and precision was lower than 11.58% (RSD). Results: All of the calibration curves showed good linearity with a coefficient of determination ($r^2$) over 0.999. Among the PPCP samples, the detection rate of preservatives was 32.5% for pharmaceuticals, 44.8% for toothpaste, 76.9% for mouthwash, 40.0% for body lotion and 56.0% for wet tissues. The average concentrations of the preservatives in PPCPs were BA 1141.0 mg/kg, MP 709.8 mg/kg, EP 624.9 mg/kg, PP 216.9 mg/kg, BP 167.8 mg/kg, and TCS 538.2 mg/kg. The most frequently detected preservatives in pharmaceuticals and personal care products were BA, MP and PP. The concentrations of preservatives exceeded Korean regulatory standards in 11 samples of medicines, three of mouthwash and two of body lotion. Conclusion: We found that most of the PPCP samples contained various preservatives. It is necessary to identify which preservatives were used and to determine the level of preservatives in PPCPs and to assess the health risk to susceptible populations such as children.