• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.245-249
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• 2007

The alternation of extracellular matrix (ECM) protein in aging process is associated with symptoms such as wrinkling and loss of elasticity in skin. Now, the major target proteins for anti-aging have been metalloproteases and the structural proteins such as collagen and elastin. Recently, the interaction of cell and ECM proteins (collagen, fibrillin, and fibronectin) is reported to have an important role in survival, proliferation and tissue reconstruction. Fibronectin is a matrix adhesion protein which binds to collagen and integrin and degraded by serine proteases. It has been reported that fragments of fibronectin (Fn-fr's) were involved in matrix metalloproteases (MMPs) expression in osteoblast. But, the role of Fn-fr's in human skin and in skin cells has not been reported yet. Therefore, we investigated the differences of fibronectin fragmentation pattern between young and aged human skin, and demonstrated that the fragmentation of fibronectins is significantly increased in aged human skin. Also, treatment of Fn-fr's (70, 45 kDa) increased MMP-1 expression and MMP-2 activity in human dermal fibroblasts. Our results suggest that Fn-fr's as a potential new factor to accelerate skin aging.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.337-343
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• 2014

Background The reconstruction of large skin and soft tissue defects on the lower extremities is challenging. The skin graft is a simple and frequently used method for covering a skin defect. However, poor skin quality and architecture are well-known problems that lead to scar contracture. The collagen-elastin matrix, Matriderm, has been used to improve the quality of skin grafts; however, no statistical and objective review of the results has been reported. Methods Thirty-four patients (23 male and 11 female) who previously received a skin graft and simultaneous application of Matriderm between January 2010 and June 2012 were included in this study. The quality of the skin graft was evaluated using Cutometer, occasionally accompanied by pathologic findings. Results All 34 patients showed good skin quality compared to a traditional skin graft and were satisfied with their results. The statistical data for the measurement of the mechanical properties of the skin were similar to those for normal skin. In addition, there was no change in the engraftment rate. Conclusions The biggest problem of a traditional skin graft is scar contracture. However, the dermal matrix presents an improvement in skin quality with elastin and collagen. Therefore, a skin graft along with a simultaneous application of Matriderm is safe and effective and leads to a significantly better outcome from the perspective of skin elasticity.

• Archives of Craniofacial Surgery
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.14-21
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• 2014

Background: There are several options for replacement of the dermal layer in fullthickness skin defects. In this study, we present the surgical outcomes of reconstruction using acellular dermal substitutes by means of objective and subjective scar assessment tools. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 78 patients who had undergone autologous split-thickness skin graft with or without concomitant acellular dermal matrix (CGDerm or AlloDerm) graft. We examined graft survival rate and evaluated postoperative functional skin values. Individual comparisons were performed between the area of skin graft and the surrounding normal skin. Nine months after surgery, we compared the skin qualities of CGDerm graft group (n=25), AlloDerm graft group (n=8) with skin graft only group (n=23) each other using the objective and subjective measurements. Results: The average of graft survival rate was 93% for CGDerm group, 92% for AlloDerm group and 86% for skin graft only group. Comparing CGDerm grafted skin to the surrounding normal skin, mean elasticity, hydration, and skin barrier values were 87%, 86%, and 82%, respectively. AlloDerm grafted skin values were 84%, 85%, and 84%, respectively. There were no statistical differences between the CGDerm and AlloDerm groups with regard to graft survival rate and skin functional analysis values. However, both groups showed more improvement of skin quality than skin graft only group. Conclusion: The new dermal substitute (CGDerm) demonstrated comparable results with regard to elasticity, humidification, and skin barrier effect when compared with conventional dermal substitute (AlloDerm).

• Archives of Reconstructive Microsurgery
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.92-100
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• 2006

Radial forearm free flap (RFFF) has been established itself as a versatile and widely used method for reconstruction of the head and neck, although it is still criticized for high mortality of donor site. Delayed wound healing, cosmetic deformity, vascular compromise and potentially reduced wrist function have many plastic surgeons hesitate to adapt it as a first choice in micro-reconstruction. To overcome these drawbacks, some techniques for donor-site repair such as V-Y advancement with full thickness skin graft (FTSG), application of artificial dermis ($Terudermis^{(R)}$) or acellular dermal matrix ($AlloDerm^{(R)}$), and double-opposing rhomboid transposition flap have been reported. Authors performed 4 cases of RFFF in old-aged patients of the head and neck cancer from April 2005 to February 2006. We compared the outcomes of donor site of RFFF which were resurfaced with split thickness skin graft (STSG) only and STSG overlying an $AlloDerm^{(R)}$. Patients were all males ranging from 59 to 74 years old (mean, 67.5). Three of them had tongue cancers, and the other showed hypopharyngeal cancer. All cases were pathologically confirmed as squamous cell carcinomas. We included the deep fascia into the flap, so called subfascially elevated RFFF in three cases, and in the other one, we dissected the RFFF suprafascially leaving the fascia intact. The donor site of the suprafascially elevated RFFF was resurfaced with STSG only. Among three of subfascially elevated RFFFs, donor-sites were covered with thin STSG only in one case, and STSG overlying $AlloDerm^{(R)}$ in two cases. All RFFFs were survived completely without any complication. The donor site of the suprafascially elevated RFFF was taken well with STSG only. But, the partial graft loss exposing brachioradialis and flexor carpi radialis muscle was unavoidable in all the subfascially elevated RFFFs irregardless of $AlloDerm^{(R)}$ application. Considering that many patients of the head and neck cancer are in old ages, we believe the RFFF is still a useful and versatile choice for resurfacing the head and neck region after cancer ablation. Its reliability and functional characteristics could override its criticism for donor site in old-aged cancer patients.

• Journal of KIISE:Software and Applications
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• v.35 no.12
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• pp.789-799
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• 2008

For the communication between human and computer in an interactive computing environment, the gesture recognition has been studied vigorously. The algorithms which use the 2D features for the feature extraction and the feature comparison are faster, but there are some environmental limitations for the accurate recognition. The algorithms which use the 2.5D features provide higher accuracy than 2D features, but these are influenced by rotation of objects. And the algorithms which use the 3D features are slow for the recognition, because these algorithms need the 3d object reconstruction as the preprocessing for the feature extraction. In this paper, we propose a method to extract the 3D features combined with the 3D object reconstruction in real-time. This method generates three kinds of 3D projection maps using the modified GPU-based visual hull generation algorithm. This process only executes data generation parts only for the gesture recognition and calculates the Hu-moment which is corresponding to each projection map. In the section of experimental results, we compare the computational time of the proposed method with the previous methods. And the result shows that the proposed method can apply to real time gesture recognition environment.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.513-522
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• 2008

The fiber dispersion performance in fiber-reinforced cementitious composites is a crucial factor with respect to achieving desired mechanical performance. However, evaluation of the fiber dispersion performance in the composite PVA-ECC (Polyvinyl alcohol-Engineered Cementitious Composite) is extremely challenging because of the low contrast of PVA fibers with the cement-based matrix. In the present work, an enhanced fiber detection technique is developed and demonstrated. Using a fluorescence technique on the PVA-ECC, PVA fibers are observed as green dots in the cross-section of the composite. After capturing the fluorescence image with a Charged Couple Device (CCD) camera through a microscope. The fibers are more accurately detected by employing a series of process based on a categorization, watershed segmentation, and morphological reconstruction.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.118-125
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• 2014

An approximation of speed of sound in the measurement plane is essential for the inverse estimation of temperature. To this end, an inverse problem relating the measured retarded time data in between set of sensors and actuators array located on the wall is formulated. The involved transfer matrix and its coefficient vectors approximate speed of sound of the measurement plane by using the radial basis function with finite number of interpolation points deployed inside the target field. Then, the temperature field can be reconstructed by using spatial interpolation technique, which can achieve high spatial resolution with proper number of interpolation points. A large number of retarded time data of acoustic paths in between sensors and arrays are needed to obtain accurate reconstruction result. However, the shortage of interpolation points due to practical limitations can cause the decrease of spatial resolution and deterioration of the reconstruction result. In this works, a regeneration for obtaining the additional retarded time data for an arbitrary acoustic path is suggested to overcome the shortage of interpolation points. By applying the regeneration technique, many interpolation points can be deployed inside the field by increasing the number of retarded time data. As a simulation example, two rectangular duct sections having arbitrary temperature distribution are reconstructed by two different data set: measured data only, combination of measured and regenerated data. The result shows a decrease in reconstruction error by 15 % by combining the original and regenerated retarded time data.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.4 no.5
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• pp.997-1003
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• 2000

When finite length signal is the input of QMF banks which are composed of the M-band orthogonal wavelet filter, the boundaries of reconstructed signal are not reconstructed perfectly. For boundary signals to be reconstructed perfectly, different type filters or methods are applied to them. In this paper, the design method of boundary filters which can be reconstructed the boundary signal perfectly was proposed, in case the dimension of M-band decomposed signal is the same as that of input signal. The boundary filters were designed using the perfect reconstruction condition of paraunitary matrix. In an application of subband coding of still image, the proposed boundary filters achieve better PSNR about 5% in reconstructed image than reflected method at the same bit rate.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.379-386
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• 2016

Puncturing is the most common way of increasing the rate of convolutional codes. The puncturing process is done to the original code called the mother code by a specific puncturing pattern. In this article, we investigate into the question whether any convolutional code is obtainable by puncturing some (n, 1) mother codes. We present two sufficient conditions for the mother code and the puncturing pattern to satisfy in order that the punctured code is equivalent to the given (N, K) convolutional code.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics B
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• v.31B no.2
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• pp.45-55
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• 1994

In this paper, a block based image approximation technique using the Self Affine System(SAS) from the fractal theory is suggested. Each block of an image is divided into 4 tiles and 4 affine mapping coefficients are found for each tile. To find the affine mapping cefficients that minimize the error between the affine transformed image block and the reconstructed image block, the matrix euation is solved by setting each partial differential coefficients to aero. And to ensure the convergence of coding block. 4 uniformly partitioned affine transformation is applied. Variable block size technique is employed in order to applynatural image reconstruction property of fractal image coding. Large blocks are used for encoding smooth backgrounds to yield high compression efficiency and texture and edge blocks are divided into smaller blocks to preserve the block detail. Affine mapping coefficinets are found for each block having 16$\times$16, 8$\times$8 or 4$\times$4 size. Each block is classified as shade, texture or edge. Average gray level is transmitted for shade bolcks, and coefficients are found for texture and edge blocks. Coefficients are quantized and only 16 bytes per block are transmitted. Using the proposed algorithm, the computational load increases linearly in proportion to image size. PSNR of 31.58dB is obtained as the result using 512$\times$512, 8 bits per pixel Lena image.