• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• 제22권11호
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• pp.1841-1849
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• 2021

Objective: To prospectively investigate the feasibility of shear wave elastography (SWE) as a new quantitative and objective method for evaluating the stiffness of the gastrocnemius medialis (GM) muscle during passive stretching in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Materials and Methods: SWE of the GM muscle was performed in 28 patients with PD [13 female and 15 male; mean age ± standard deviation (SD): 63.0 ± 8.5 years] and 12 healthy controls (5 female and 7 male; mean age ± SD: 59.3 ± 6.4 years) during passive ankle rotation. A Young's modulus-ankle angle curve was constructed. The GM slack angle and baseline Young's modulus (E₀) were compared between the markedly symptomatic and mildly symptomatic sides of patients with PD, and healthy controls. Additionally, the correlation between the GM slack angle and the severity of rigidity, and the observer reproducibility of SWE in determining the GM slack angle were evaluated. Results: The GM slack angle was smaller on both the markedly and mildly symptomatic sides in patients with PD than in healthy controls (mean ± SD of -29.13° ± 3.79° and -25.65° ± 3.39°, respectively, vs. -21.22° ± 3.52°; p < 0.001 and p = 0.006, respectively). Additionally, in patients with PD, the GM slack angle on the markedly symptomatic side was smaller than that on the mildly symptomatic side (p = 0.003). The E0 value was lower on both the markedly and mildly symptomatic sides in patients with PD than in healthy controls (mean ± SD of 10.11 ± 2.85 kPa and 10.08 ± 1.88 kPa, respectively, vs. 12.23 ± 1.02 kPa; p = 0.012 and p < 0.001, respectively). However, no significant difference was found between the markedly and mildly symptomatic sides in patients with PD (p = 0.634). A negative linear relationship was observed between the GM slack angle and lower limb rigidity score on the markedly symptomatic side in patients with PD (r = -0.719; p < 0.001). The intraclass correlation coefficients for observer reproducibility of SWE ranged from 0.880 to 0.951. Conclusion: The slack angle determined by SWE may be a useful quantitative and reproducible method for evaluating muscle stiffness in patients with PD.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• 제23권2호
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• pp.180-188
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• 2022

Objective: To validate the performance of 3T spin-echo echo-planar imaging (SE-EPI) magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) for staging hepatic fibrosis in a large population, using surgical specimens as the reference standard. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study initially included 310 adults (155 undergoing hepatic resection and 155 undergoing donor hepatectomy) with histopathologic results from surgical liver specimens. They underwent 3T SE-EPI MRE ≤ 3 months prior to surgery. Demographic findings, underlying liver disease, and hepatic fibrosis pathologic stage according to METAVIR were recorded. Liver stiffness (LS) was measured by two radiologists, and inter-reader reproducibility was evaluated using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). The mean LS of each fibrosis stage (F0-F4) was calculated in total and for each etiologic subgroup. Comparisons among subgroups were performed using the Kruskal-Wallis test and Conover post-hoc test. The cutoff values for fibrosis staging were estimated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. Results: Inter-reader reproducibility was excellent (ICC, 0.98; 95% confidence interval, 0.97-0.99). The mean LS values were 1.91, 2.41, 3.24, and 5.41 kPa in F0-F1 (n = 171), F2 (n = 26), F3 (n = 38), and F4 (n = 72), respectively. The discriminating cutoff values for diagnosing ≥ F2, ≥ F3, and F4 were 2.18, 2.71, and 3.15 kPa, respectively, with the ROC curve areas of 0.97-0.98 (sensitivity 91.2%-95.9%, specificity 90.7%-99.0%). The mean LS was significantly higher in patients with cirrhosis (F4) of nonviral causes, such as primary biliary cirrhosis (9.56 kPa) and alcoholic liver disease (7.17 kPa) than in those with hepatitis B or C cirrhosis (4.28 and 4.92 kPa, respectively). There were no statistically significant differences in LS among the different etiologic subgroups in the F0-F3 stages. Conclusion: The 3T SE-EPI MRE demonstrated high interobserver reproducibility, and our criteria for staging hepatic fibrosis showed high diagnostic performance. LS was significantly higher in patients with non-viral cirrhosis than in those with viral cirrhosis.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• 제27권7호
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• pp.47-57
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• 2011

The p-y curve has been used to design pile foundations subjected to lateral loading. Although the p-y curve has a large influence on the pile lateral behavior, p-y curves have not been clearly suggested. In this study, the p-y curve of clay was evaluated for drilled shafts in marine deposits by using 3-dimensional numerical analyses. First, the optimization study was performed to properly determine boundary extent, mesh size, and interface stiffness. The numerical modeling in the study was verified by comparing the calculated and the pile loading test results. Then, the p-y curves of single and group piles were evaluated from the parametric study. The selected parameters were pile diameter, pile Young's modulus and pile head fixed condition for a single pile, and pile spacing for group piles. Finally, the p-multiplier was evaluated by comparing the p-y curves of a single pile and group piles. As a result, the p-multiplier at pile spacing of 3D was 0.83, 0.67 and 0.78 for the front, middle, and back row piles, respectively, and showed values similar to those of O'Neill and Reese (1999). For the pile group with pile spacing larger than 60, the group effect can be ignorable.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• 제10권4호
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• pp.55-66
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• 2006

This paper considers the nonlinear direct spectrum method to estimate seismic performance of mixed building structures without iterative computations, given dynamic property $T_1$ from stiffness skeleton curve and nonlinear pseudo acceleration $A_{1y}/g$ and/or ductility ratio p from response spectrum. Nonlinear response history analysis has been performed and analysed with various earthquakes for evaluation of correctness and confidence of nonlinear direct spectrum method. The conclusions of this study are as follows; (1) Nonlinear direct spectrum method is considered as a practical method which is applicable to compute the structural initial elastic period and the yielding strength from stiffness skeleton owe and calculate the nonlinear maximum response of structure directly from nonlinear response spectrum. (2) The comparison of the analysis results from NDSM and NRHA showed that the average errors were less than 20% in about 3/4 of the analysis cases, and that the results obtained from NDSM turned out to be generally larger than those from NRHA.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• 제5권1호
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• pp.1-8
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• 2014

The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the fatigue life to apply the vibration fatigue analysis considering the stiffness change of the spot welding due to fatigue damage accumulation. For this, the mechanical and fatigue properties of base and spot welded standard specimens were obtained through the tensile and constant amplitude fatigue test. The transfer function of the spot-welded structure was obtained from the frequency response analysis and fatigue analyisis was performed under the condition of PSD=0.11. A vibration fatigue analysis that considered changes in the frequency response due to the fatigue damage that is, failure of some wleding point was conducted on spot-welded structure. The fatigue life of the spot-welded structure was determined by combining the transfer function, the S-N curve of the tensile-shear spot-welded joint and the input PSD.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• 제17권3호
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• pp.432-437
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• 2016

The behavior of a bellows for an electromagnetic control valve was investigated. The bellows consists of an outer metal bellows, inner spring, and metal caps. The bellows needs to have sensitive and precise motion against external loads and pressure loads in order to control the position of the valve accurately. The spring constant of the inner spring and load-displacement curve of the bellows set were measured using a test machine. The inner spring showed a linear relation between load and displacement. The bellows set showed small stiffness at small displacement, and then the stiffness slightly increased upon subsequent displacement. Based on the measured data, finite element analysis was performed. Axisymmetric conditions were applied, and shell elements were used. The effective material properties of the outer bellows material were extracted. Additional analysis was performed, and the behavior of the bellows was analyzed using the finite element model.

• Journal of the Korea Fashion and Costume Design Association
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• 제10권3호
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• pp.173-180
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• 2008

Cotton, wool, cotton/wool blended (80:20) and tencel fabrics were treated with low temperature oxygen plasma, enzymes (cellulase or protease), or oxygen plasma-enzyme and they were examined for dyeing and handling properties for environment friendly finishing. The appropriate conditions for cellulase treatment were enzyme concentration of 3g/l, pH of 5, and $60^{\circ}C$ for one hour, and for protease treatment were enzyme concentration of 4g/l, pH of 8, and $60^{\circ}C$ for one hour. The equilibrium uptake of a direct dye on cotton changed with plasma treatment and plasma-cellulase treatment, and the rate of dyeing slightly decreased. When wool was dyed with acid dye, the equilibrium dye uptake did not change with plasma, protease treatment nor plasma-protease treatment, however, the rate of dyeing had increased with plasma-protease treatment. From these results, it is assumed that plasma attacks the surface of the fiber, and enzyme mainly affects the inner part of the fiber. Plasma treatment did not affect mechanical properties related to the handling of fabrics. The handling test showed increased extension at maxmum load(EM), tensile energy(WT) with decreased tensile resilience (RT), and the fabrics became softer but resilience decreased slightly with enzyme treatment. The bending recidity(B), hysteresis of bending moment(2HB), and hysteresis of shear force at five degrees(2HG5) decreased, however, shear stiffness(G) increased. I knew the plasma pre-treatment made fabrics softer with lower koshi(stiffness). The handling of plasma pre-treated fabrics was better than that of enzyme-treated fabrics. When we pre-treated fabrics, the handling test showed decreased coefficient of friction(MIU), geometrical roughness(SMD), while the surface of fabrics became smoother and numeri increased. Even though compression resilience(RC) increased, fukurami(bulky property) and compressive elasticity, decreased due to the linearity of compression-thickness curve(LC) and compression energy(WC).

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• 제34권6호
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• pp.757-762
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• 2010

Owing to the high specific strength and stiffness of composite materials, they are extensively used in mechanical systems and in vehicle industries. However, most mechanical structures experience repeated load and fatigue. Therefore, it is important to perform fatigue analysis of fiber-reinforced composites. The properties of composite laminates vary depending upon the stacking sequence and stacking direction. Fatigue damage of composite laminates occurs according to the following sequence: matrix cracking, delamination, and fiber breakage. In this study, fatigue tests were performed for damage analysis. Fatigue damages, which have to be considered in fatigue analysis, are determined by using the stiffness values calculated from hysteresis loops, and the obtained fatigue damage curve is examined using Mao's equation and Abdelal's equation.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• 제21권6호
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• pp.619-626
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• 2009

The use of thin-walled flexural members has proven to be a practical way to achieve the lowest cost in the construction of prefabricated long-span, low-rise building frames in steel. On the other hand, most of these structures are subjected to corrosion due to environmental exposure, which can reduce their carrying capacity. Corrosion damage is a serious problem for these structures as it causes thickness loss. That is, the class of a section (plastic, compact, non-compact, or slender) may change from one to another due to the loss of thickness of the compression flange and web due to corrosion. In this study, the effects of corrosion on thin-walled members in long-span steel frames were evaluated with regard to the moment-rotation curve, initial stiffness, maximum load capacity, stiffness in the post-maximum capacity, and energy absorption.

• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• 제9권3호
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• pp.45-54
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• 2009

This study was developed the metallic plate for bone fixation in the neurosurgery and general surgery and plates has a finn place in bone operating and treatment. The plates can be realized to bending strength and stiffness for strength estimation. Maximum point of bending curves has a bending point(P) with maximum load which to applied nearly 0.2% offset displacement. The device's sizing has a ${\Phi}13$ and ${\Phi}18$, and algorithm of strength estimation compared a plate(${\Phi}13$, ${\Phi}18$, ${\Phi}13-{\Phi}18$). The bending strength of the curved metallic plate has to evaluate maximum of a 311N, 387N, 410N, 474N. When a displacement preserve with a load, tensile stress through to press a plate is 274N, 324N, 382N, 394N. The algorithm of strength estimation can be used to support estimation of bending strength and stiffness. Their tool bring to settlement in the new basic algorithm for evidence with varied adjustment.