• Journal of Advanced Engineering and Technology
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.245-251
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• 2018

Terahertz waves (T-ray) was extensively studied for the NDE (nondestructive evaluation) of characterization of trailing edges for a use of turbines composed with composite materials. The used NDE system were consisted of both CW(Continuous wave) and TDS (Time domain spectroscopy). The FRP composites were utilized for two kinds of both trailing edges of wind energy (non-conducting polymeric composites) and carbon fiber composites with conducting properties. The signals of T-ray in the TDS (Time domain spectroscopy) mode resembles almost that of ultrasound waves; however, a terahertz pulse could not penetrate a material with conductivity unlike ultrasound. Also, a method was suggested to obtain the "n" in the materials, which is called the refractive index (n). The data of refractive index (n) could be solved for the trailing edges. The trailing edges were scanned for characterization and inspection. C-scan and B-scan images were obtained and best optimal NDE techniques were suggested for complicated geometry samples by terahertz radiation. Especially, it is found that the defect image of T-ray corresponded with defect locations for the trailing edges of wind mill.

• International Journal of Vascular Biomedical Engineering
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.25-30
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• 2006

We intended to measure the IT, MT, and the IMT of carotid artery separately and tried to analyze the clinical significance. Two hundred and fifty consecutive patients (125 males, 125 females) underwent carotid artery scanning using high-resolution ultrasound. The images were off-line analyzed using B-mode ultrasound image processing, devised in our research. We measured the IT, MT, and IMT semi-automatically at the far wall of designated 1cm length of the right common carotid and calculated the average values over the 200 points. The IT (p < 0.05), MT (p < 0.05) as well as IMT (p < 0.01) of patients with atherosclerotic disease were significantly thicker than that of the patients without atherosclerotic disease. Patients with hypertension showed significantly thicker IT (p < 0.05), MT (p < 0.01), and IMT (p < 0.01) than that of the patients without hypertension. However, only IT was thicker in patients with smoking (p < 0.05) than that of the patients without smoking. Smoking was associated only with intima while hypertension was associated with the all three layer's thickness. This result suggests the atherosclerotic process can be different by cardiovascular risk factors.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.419-430
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• 2002

In this paper. we propose an efficient method for implementing hi-directional pixel-based focusing(BiPBF) based on a sparse array imaging technique. The proposed method can improve spatial resolution and frame rate of ultrasound imaging with reduced hardware complexity by synthesizing transmit apertures with a small number of sparsely distributed subapertures. As the distance between adjacent subapertures increases, however. the image resolution tends to decrease due to the elevation of grating lobes. Such grating lobes can be eliminated in conventional synthetic aperture imaging techniques. On the contrary, grating lobes arisen from employing sparse synthetic transmit apertures can not be eliminated, which has been shown analytically in this paper. We also propose the condition and method for suppressing the grating lobes below -40dB, which is generally required in practical imaging. by placing the transmit focal depth at a near depth and properly selecting the subaperture distance in Proportion to receive aperture size. The results of both the Phantom and in vivo experiments show that the proposed method implements two-wav dynamic focusing using a smaller number of subapertures, resulting in reduced system complexity and increased frame rate.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.235-241
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• 2009

Composite wood materials are very sensitive to water and inspection without any coupling medium of a liquid is really needed to wood materials due to the permeation of coupling medium such as water. However, air-coupled ultrasound has obvious advantages over water-coupled experimentation compared with conventional C-scanner. In this work, it is desirable to perform contact-less nondestructive evaluation to assess wood material homogeneity. A wood material was nondestructively characterized with non-contact and contact modes to measure ultrasonic velocity using automated data acquisition software. We have utilized a proposed peak-delay measurement method. Also through transmission mode was performed because of the main limitation for air-coupled transducers, which is the acoustic impedance mismatch between most materials and air. The variation of ultrasonic velocity was found to be somewhat difference due to air-coupled limitations over conventional scan images. However, conventional C-scan images are well agreed with increasing the resin-infiltrated time as expected. Finally, we have developed a measurement system of an ultrasonic velocity based on data acquisition software for obtaining ultrasonic quantitative data for correlation with C-scan images.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.443-449
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• 2015

An ultrasound probe has a big impact on Doppler images even though it has very high risk of frequent function-breakdowns occurring in medical ultrasound scanners. This study experimentally analyses the impacts of an ultrasonic probe's defected elements on power & color Doppler images. The results show that, the bigger the size of defected probe elements is, and the closer a group of action elements is to the center, the more the brightness of images and the velocity of Doppler diminish. When elements' defects increase in color & power Doppler images, false images are formed to be mistaken for blood-vessel plaque in neighboring regions. Accordingly, whenever element defects are suspected, we need check-up process in B-mode. From this respective, it is advisable to have primary interest in a probe and carry out continuous probe QA for ultrasonography.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.484-493
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• 2012

Since the 1980s, there have been many research activities devoted to quantitatively characterizing and imaging human tissues based on sound speed, attenuation coefficient, density, nonlinear B/A parameter, etc., but those efforts have not yet reached the stage of commercialization. However, a new imaging technology termed elastography, which was proposed in the early 1980s, has recently been implemented in commercial clinical ultrasound scanners, and is now being used to diagnose prostates, breasts, thyroids, livers, blood vessels, etc., more quantitatively as a complementary adjunct modality to the conventional B-mode imaging. The purpose of this article is to introduce and review various elastographic algorithms for use in quasistatic or static compression type elasticity imaging modes. Most of the algorithms are based on the crosscorrelation or autocorrelation function methods, and the fundamental difference is that the time shift is estimated by changing the lag variable in the former, while it is directly obtained from the phase shift at a fixed lag in the latter.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.470-475
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• 2013

The objective of this study was to estimate genetic parameters that are to be used for across-herd genetic evaluations of seed stock pigs at GGP level. Performance data with pedigree information collected from swine breeder farms in Korea were provided by Korea Animal Improvement Association (AIAK). Performance data were composed of final body weights at test days and ultrasound measures of back fat thickness (BF), rib eye area (EMA) and retail cut percentage (RCP). Breeds of swine tested were Landrace, Yorkshire and Duroc. Days to 90 kg body weight (DAYS90) were estimated with linear function of age and ADG calculated from body weights at test days. Ultrasound measures were taken with A-mode ultrasound scanners by trained technicians. Number of performance records after censoring outliers and keeping records pigs only born from year 2000 were of 78,068 Duroc pigs, 101,821 Landrace pigs and 281,421 Yorkshire pigs. Models included contemporary groups defined by the same herd and the same seasons of births of the same year, which was regarded as fixed along with the effect of sex for all traits and body weight at test day as a linear covariate for ultrasound measures. REML estimation was processed with REMLF90 program. Heritability estimates were 0.40, 0.32, 0.21 0.39 for DAYS90, ADG, BF, EMA, RCP, respectively for Duroc population. Respective heritability estimates for Landrace population were 0.43, 0.41, 0.22, and 0.43 and for Yorkshire population were 0.36, 0.38, 0.22, and 0.42. Genetic correlation coefficients of DAYS90 with BF, EMA, or RCP were estimated to be 0.00 to 0.09, -0.15 to -0.25, 0.22 to 0.28, respectively for three breeds populations. Genetic correlation coefficients estimated between BF and EMA was -0.33 to -0.39. Genetic correlation coefficient estimated between BF and RCP was high and negative (-0.78 to -0.85) but the environmental correlation coefficients between these two traits was medium and negative (near -0.35), which describes a highly correlated genetic response to selection on one or the other of these traits. Genetic Trends of all three breeds tend to be towards bigger EMA or greater RCP and shorter DAYS90 especially from generations born after year 2000.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.33-39
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• 1999

This paper included a data analysis of the unit of medical devices using mainternance recording card that had medical devices of unit failure mode, hospital of failure mode and MTBF. The results of the analysis were as follows : 1. Medical devices of unit failure mode was the highest in QC/PM such A hospital as 33.9%, B hospital 30.9%, C hospital 30.3%, second degree was the Electrical and Electronic failure such A hospital as 23.5%, B hospital 25.3%, C hospital 28%, third degree was mechanical failure such A hospital as 19.5%, B hospital 22.5%, C hospital 25.4%. 2. Hospital of failure mode was the highest in Mobile X-ray device(A hospital 62.5%, B hospital 69.5%, C hospital 37.4%), and was the lowest in Sono devices(A hospital 16.76%, B hospital 8.4%, C hospital 7%). 3. Mean time between failures(MTBT) was the highest in SONO devices and was the lowest in Mobile X-ray devices which have 200 - 400 failure hours. 4. Anverage failure ratio was the highest in Mobile X-ray devices(A hospital 31.3%, B hospital 34.8%, C hospital 18.7%), and was the lowest in Sono(Ultrasound) devices (A hospital 8.4%, B hospital 4.2%, C hospital 3.5%). 5. Failure ratio results of medical devices according to QC/PM part of unit failure mode were as follows ; A hospital was the highest part of QC/PM (50%) in Mamo X-ray device and was the lowest part of QC/PM(26.4%) in Castro X-ray. B hospital was the highest part of QC/PM(56%) in Mobile X-ray device, and the lowest part of QC/PM(12%) in Gastro X-ray. C hospital was the highest part of QC/PM(60%) in R/F X-ray device, and the lowest a part of QC/PM(21%) in Universal X-ray. It was found that the units responsible for most failure decreased by systematic management. We made the preventive maintenance schedule focusing on adjustement of operating and dust removal.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.28 no.12
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• pp.1696-1702
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• 2015

The objective of this study was to compare the effects of body weight growth adjustment methods on genetic parameters of body growth and tissue among three pig breeds. Data collected on 101,820 Landrace, 281,411 Yorkshire, and 78,068 Duroc pigs, born in Korean swine breeder farms since 2000, were analyzed. Records included body weights on test day and amplitude (A)-mode ultrasound carcass measures of backfat thickness (BF), eye muscle area (EMA), and retail cut percentage (RCP). Days to 90 kg body weight (DAYS90), through an adjustment of the age based on the body weight at the test day, were obtained. Ultrasound measures were also pre-adjusted (ABF, EMA, AEMA, ARCP) based on their test day measures. The (co)variance components were obtained with 3 multi-trait animal models using the REMLF90 software package. Model I included DAYS90 and ultrasound traits, whereas model II and III accounted DAYS90 and pre-adjusted ultrasound traits. Fixed factors were sex (sex) and contemporary groups (herd-year-month of birth) for all traits among the models. Additionally, model I and II considered a linear covariate of final weight on the ultrasound measure traits. Heritability ($h^2$) estimates for DAYS90, BF, EMA, and RCP ranged from 0.36 to 0.42, 0.34 to 0.43, 0.20 to 0.22, and 0.39 to 0.45, respectively, among the models. The $h^2$ estimates of DAYS90 from model II and III were also somewhat similar. The $h^2$ for ABF, AEMA, and ARCP were 0.35 to 0.44, 0.20 to 0.25, and 0.41 to 0.46, respectively. Our heritability estimates varied mostly among the breeds. The genetic correlations ($r_G$) were moderately negative between DAYS90 and BF (-0.29 to -0.38), and between DAYS90 and EMA (-0.16 to -0.26). BF had strong $r_G$ with RCP (-0.87 to -0.93). Moderately positive $r_G$ existed between DAYS90 and RCP (0.20 to 0.28) and between EMA and RCP (0.35 to 0.44) among the breeds. For DAYS90, model II and III, its correlations with ABF, AEMA, and ARCP were mostly low or negligible except the $r_G$ between DAYS90 and AEMA from model III (0.27 to 0.30). The $r_G$ between AEMA and ABF and between AEMA and ARCP were moderate but with negative and positive signs, respectively; also reflected influence of pre-adjustments. However, the $r_G$ between BF and RCP remained non-influential to trait pre-adjustments or covariable fits. Therefore, we conclude that ultrasound measures taken at a body weight of about 90 kg as the test final should be adjusted for body weight growth. Our adjustment formulas, particularly those for BF and EMA, should be revised further to accommodate the added variation due to different performance testing endpoints with regard to differential growth in body composition.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics S
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• v.35S no.6
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• pp.66-71
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• 1998

High spatial resolution ultrasonic imaging is necessary in several fields of investigation, in order to permit greater precision of clinical diagnosis in the dermatology, ophthalmology etc. We present a B-mode scan system using sector scanning probe of 20MHz center frequency. This developed system allow the high resolution image of 250${\mu}m$ in lateral and 80${\mu}m$ in axial, which of display the size of a $5mm {\times} 5mm$ image with 20 frames/sec. We have shown the images of various structural elements of the human skin and of the nail. We have compared the skin images obtained for each of the different age and we have shown in a general with the age, the atrophy of the skin thickness and the appearance of the abnormal hypoechogene band under epidermis (named SENEB : Sub Epidermal Non Echogene Band).