• The Journal of Korean Medicine Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology and Dermatology
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.134-145
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• 2001

Introduction: Noises in the ear, whether real or imagined, are called tinnitus. Subjective causes of tinnitus(which is heard only by the patient) are extremely common and the majority of them are treated conservatively. For certain individuals their tinnitus is a major handicap; for others a trivial concern. The most common from of subjective tinnitus is a rushing, hissing or buzzing noise; it is frequently associated with sensorineural heanng loss. The patient may be unaware of the hearing loss, especially if it is a high frequency deficit of moderate severity. The character of the tinnitus may give a clue to the etiology. But the patient often has difficulty in explaining his/her tinnitus in absolute terms, as they have no other tinnitus with which to compare it but their own Tinnitus, like pain, is a subjective state and trying to objectively assess the severity is problematic. Audiological techniques to match subjective loudness to machine-produced noise may offer some help, in that sound intensity matches can bear little correspondence to subjective complaint. In spite of many studies, most patients presently seen complaining of tinnitus are told by their doctors that there is no treatment and that they will have to learn to live with this symptom. Objectives: To perform a clinical analysis of tinnitus and estimate the efficacy of Oriental Medical treatment according to the Byeonjeung(辨證). Subject: We studied 34 patients with complaints of tinnitus who had visited Pundang Cha Oriental Medicine Hospital Department of Otorhinolaryngology from March 1998 to February 2000. All of them had been treated 2 or 3 times a week with acupuncture treatment and had taken herbs according to the Byeonjeung(辨證) method. It was therefore possible for me to know whether their symptoms improved or not. Parameters Observed and Method: We treated them with acupuncture & herb-medication. Sometimes we gave them moxibustion or negative therapy with bloodletting at the acupuncture points(耳門, 聽宮, 聽會). Parameters Observed 1) Distribution of age & sex 2) Chief complaints 3) The sites of tinnitus 4) The quality of tinnitu 5) The duration of disease 6) The problem induced tinnitus 7) Factors increasing disease severity 8) The classification of the Byeonjeung(辨證) 9) The efficacy of treatments Results: 1. Age and sex distribution: The most common occurrence was found in males in their twenties: 6 males($17.7\%$), and in females in their thirties and over sixty: 8 females($23.5\%$). Total patient numbers for men and women were 20 men($58.8\%$), 14 women ($41.2\%$). 2. The most frequent major complaints were hearing disturbances related to tinnitus; and dizziness with tinnitus; each comprising 10 cases($29.4\%$). There were also 7 patients($20.6\%$) with only tinnitus. 3. Tinnitus sites: 13($38.2\%$) said that they felt tinnitus in both ears, equally. In the right ear, 9($26.5\%$), in the left, 6($17.7\%$). 4. The most frequent descriptive symptoms of tinnitus were: humming, hissing, buzzing etc. 5. The duration of disease. 14cases($41.2\%$) had a duration of less than 1 year. 6. 15cases($44.1\%$) complained that it was hard to watch TV or make a phone call because of tinnitus. 10 cases($29.4\%$) complained about depression. 7. Factors increasing severity of tinnitus: ⅰ) fatigue: 18cases($52.9\%$) ⅱ) stress/ tension: 10 cases($29.4\%$) ⅲ) alcohol and tobacco: 5cases($l4.7\%$) 8. Classification through Byeonjeung : ⅰ) 19 cases($55.9\%$) were classified as showing Deficiency syndrome. ⅱ) 15 cases($44.l\%$) were classified as showing Excess syndrome. The deficiency of Qi was 7($20.6\%$), deficiency of Xue, 8($23.5\%$) and insufficiency of the Kidney Yin & Yang, 4($11.8\%$). The flare of Liver fire was 8($23.5\%$) and phlegm-fire, 7($20.6\%$), 9. The efficacy of treatments showed: an improvement in 17cases($50.0\%$); no real improvement or changes in 13 cases($38.2\%$); and some worsening in 4 cases($11.8\%$). In the group with deficiency in Qi, 4($57.1\%$) improved, 1($14.3\%$) showed no change and 2($28.6\%$) were aggravated. In the cases of deficiency in Xue, 6($75.0\%$) improved, 2($25.0\%$) showed no change. In the cases of insufficiency of Kidney Yin & Yang, 3($75.0\%$) showed no change and 1($25.0\%$) were aggravated. In the group of flare of Liver fire, 4($50.0\%$) improved, 3($37.5\%$) no change and 1($12.5\%$) were aggravated. In the cases of phlegm-fire, 3($42.9\%$) improved, 4($57.1\%$) showed no change. Conclusion: We would recommend that any further studies of tinnitus utilize trial treatments of longer than 2 months duration, as any positive effects observed in our study showed that improvement occurred fairly slowly. And we suggest that this study could be utilized as a reference for clinical Oriental Medical treatment of tinnitus. If we try to apply music or sound therapy treatment properly combined with ours, we expect it to provide psycological stability in addition to inducing masking effects, even though it may not directly decrease or completely remove tinnitus.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.52 no.11
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• pp.156-163
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• 2015

In the using of FBG(Fiber Bragg Grating) developed in home land, we designed and manufactured united FBG acoustic transducers the first in Korea. they are being applied to multi-point signal detection of FBG Hydrophone used Hopper WDM(national patent NO 10-1502954) in the underwater. On united FBG transducers manufactured, we made an demonstrated on respective frequency response peculiarities in the underwater and analyzed the special characters. As the experimental result on frequency response peculiarities, we made it possible underwater acoustic detection on united FBG acoustic transducers type to maximum 30Hz~2.5KHz. it's the optimum conditions of 1.2KHz frequency in detection. And for the purpose of realization on multi-point signal detection on wide scope in the underwater, in the using of WDM(Wavelength Division Multiplexing) method and passive band-pass filter system, established arrays system and succeeded in multi-point underwater acoustic signal detection to the frequency 200Hz~1.3KHz out of the two united type FBG transducers. Additionally, it would be possible directivity detection for the object of its source as the intensity of detection signal varies with the sound source's direction and angle. From now on we prepared a new moment on the practical use study on FBG hydrophone in the future.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.528-535
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• 2004

Ultrasonic Vibrator is designed to achieve the maximum vibration amplitude at 30 kHz by in-cluding a horn (diameter, 40 mm), mechanical vibration amplifier at the top of the ultrasonic vibrator in the system and making the complete system resonate. In addition, it is experimentally visualized by particle imaging velocimetry (PIV) that the acoustic streaming velocity in the gap is at maximum when the gap between the ultrasonic vibrator and stationary plate agrees with the multiples of half-wavelength of the ultrasonic wave. This fact results from the resonance of the sound wave and the theoretical analysis of that is also accomplished and verified by experiment. It is observed that the magnitude of the acoustic streaming dependent upon the gap between the ultrasonic vibrator and stationary plate possibly changes due to the measurement of the average velocity fields of the acoustic streaming induced by the ultrasonic vibration at resonance and non-resonance. There exists extremely small average velocity at non-resonant gaps while the relatively large average velocity exists at resonant gaps compared with non-resonant gaps. It also reveals that there should be larger axial turbulent intensity at the hub region of the vibrator and at the edge of it in the resonant gap where the air streaming velocity is maximized and the flow phenomena is conspicuous than that at the other region. Because the variation of the acoustic streaming velocity at resonant gap is more distinctive than that at non-resonant gap, shear stress increases more in the resonant gap and is also maximized at the center region of the vibrator except the local position of center (r〓0). At the non-resonant gap there should be low values of vorticity distribution, but in contrast to the non-resonant gap, high and negative values of it exist at the center region of the vibrator with respect to the radial direction and in the vicinity of the middle region with respect to the axial direction. Acoustic streaming is noise-free due to the ultrasonic vibration and maintenance-free because of the absence of moving parts. Moreover, the proposed method by acoustic streaming can be utilized to the nano and micro-electro mechanical systems as a driving mechanism in addition to the augmentation of the streaming velocity.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.39-48
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• 2014

Objective: This entire study has two parts. Study I aimed to develop a psychological assessment scale and the study II aimed to investigate the effects of LFN (low frequency noise) on the psychological responses in humans, using the scale developed in the study I. Background: LFN is known to have a negative impact on the functioning of humans. The negative impact of LFN can be categorized into two major areas of functioning of humans, physiological and psychological areas of functioning. The physiological impact can cause abnormalities in threshold, balancing and/or vestibular system, cardiovascular system and, hormone changes. Psychological functioning includes cognition, communication, mental health, and annoyance. Method: 182 college students participated in the study I in development of a psychological assessment scale and 42 paid volunteers participated in the study II to measure psychological responses. The LFN stimuli consisted of 12 different pure tones and 12 different 1 octave-band white noises and each stimulus had 4 different frequencies and 3 different sounds pressure levels. Results: We developed the psychological assessment scale consisting of 17 items with 3 dimensions of psychological responses (i.e., perceived physical, perceived physiological, and emotional responses). The main findings of LFN on the responses were as follows: 1. Perceived psychological responses showed a linear relation with SPL (sound pressure level), that is the higher the SPL is, the higher the negative psychological responses were. 2. Psychological responses showed quadric relations with SPL in general. 3. More negative responses at 31.5Hz LFN than those of 63 and 125Hz were reported, which is deemed to be caused by perceived vibration by 31.5Hz. 'Perceived vibration' at 31.5Hz than those of other frequencies of LFN is deemed to have amplified the negative psychological response. Consequently there found different effects of low frequency noise with different frequencies and intensity (SPL) on multiple psychological responses. Conclusion: Three dimensions of psychological responses drawn in regard to this study differed from others in the frequencies and SLP of LFN. Negative psychological responses are deemed to be differently affected by the frequency, SPL of the LFN and 'feel vibration' induced by the LFN. Application: The psychological scale from our study can be applied in quantitative psychological measurement of LFN at home or industrial environment. In addition, it can also help design systems to block LFN to provide optimal conditions if used the study outcome, .i.e., the relations between physical and psychological responses of LFN.