• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.89-95
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• 2004

Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) often uses small beam segments. The heterogeneity effect is well known for relatively large field sizes used in the conventional radiation treatments. However, this effect is not known in small fields such as the beamlets used in IMRT. There are many factors that can cause errors in the small field i.e. electronic disequilibrium and multiple electron scattering. This study prepared geometrically regular heterogeneous phantoms, and compared the measurements with the calculations using the Convolution/Superposition algorithm and Monte Carlo method for small beams. This study used the BEAM00/EGS4 code to simulate the head of a Varian 2300C/D. The commissioning of a 6MV photon beam were performed from two points of view, the beam profiles and depth doses. The calculated voxel size was 1${\times}$1${\times}$2$\textrm{cm}^2$ with field sizes of 1${\times}$1$\textrm{cm}^2$, 2${\times}$2$\textrm{cm}^2$, and 5${\times}$5$\textrm{cm}^2$. The XiOTM TPS (Treatment Planning System) was used for the calculation using the Convolution/Superposition algorithm. The 6MV photon beam was irradiated to homogeneous (water equivalent) and heterogeneous phantoms (water equivalent ＋ air cavity, water equivalent ＋ bone equivalent). The beam profiles were well matched within :t1 mm and the depth doses were within ${\pm}$2%. In conclusion, the dose calculations of the Convolution/Superposition and Monte Carlo simulations showed good agreement with the film measurements in the small field.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.119-127
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• 2004

In this paper, an automatic external biphasic defibrillator that removes ventricular fibrillation efficiently with a low discharging energy has been developed. The system is composed of software including a fibrillation detection algorithm and a system control algorithm, and hardware including a high voltage charging/discharging part and a signal processing part. The stability of the developed system has been confirmed through continuous charging/discharging test of 160 times and the detection capability of the real-time fibrillation detection algorithm has been estimated by applying a total of 30 various fibrillation signals. In order to verify the clinical efficiency and safety, the system has been applied to five pigs before and after fibrillation inductions. Also, we have investigated the system efficiency in removing fibrillation by applying two different discharging waveforms, which have the same energy but different voltage levels.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.137-144
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• 2004

ECG signals are often contaminated with high-frequency noise such as muscle artifact, power line interference, and others. In the ECG signal processing, especially during a pre-processing stage, numerous noise removal techniques have been used to reduce these high-frequency noise without much distorting the original signal. This paper proposes a new type of digital filter with a continuously variable cutoff frequency to improve the signal quality This filter consists of a cutoff frequency controller (CFC) and variable cutoff frequency lowpass filter (VCF-LPF). From the noisy input ECG signal, CFC produces a cutoff frequency control signal using the signal slew rate. We implemented VCF-LPF based on two new filter design methods called convex combination filter (CCF) and weight interpolation fille. (WIF). These two methods allow us to change the cutoff frequency of a lowpass filter In an arbitrary fine step. VCF-LPF shows an excellent noise reduction capability for the entire time segment of ECG excluding the rising and falling edge of a very sharp QRS complex. We found VCF-LPF very useful and practical for better signal visualization and probably for better ECG interpretation. We expect this new digital filter will find its applications especially in a home health management system where the measured ECG signals are easily contaminated with high-frequency noises .

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.151-156
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• 2004

The purpose of this study was to develop EMG triggered FES system for restoration of upper extremity function in chronic hemiplegic patients and to identify the optimal location of electrode application for the EMG triggered FES system which produces effective muscle contraction and detects EMG activity for extension in the wrist and finger joints. The stimulus system was composed of EMG measuring component, constant current component and the program for muscle contraction by EMG triggered FES and passive FES. Parameter of electrical stimulation was 35 ㎐ in frequency, 150 ${\mu}\textrm{s}$ in pulse width and symmetric bi-phasic wave. In 15 hemiplegic patients, EMG triggered FES was applied to the proximal half of forearm which was divided into 12 areas. The most sensitive area for measuring EMG activities during extension of the wrist and fingers was area 4, 5 and the optimal location of electrical stimulation for producing extension of the wrist and fingers was area 4, 5, 7, 8. These results suggest that the area 4 and 5 was considered as the most optimal location of electrode application for measuring EMG activities as well as producing extension of the wrist and fingers by EMG triggered FES system.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.90-103
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• 2016

This research was aimed to analyze load sharing ratios between cortical shell and trabecular bone of a degraded lumbar vertebra with aging, and also evaluate elastic moduli assigned into an FE model, using finite element method. For the better analysis of trabecular bone, effective elastic moduli, that is, nominal elastic moduli divided by the volumetric porosities was used. The elastic moduli of the cortical shell suitable for the trabecular bone were obtained from the equations on the basis of idealized stress-strain relations, including areal porosities. To minimize numerical errors, p-element was used. Using eight parameters that refer to some published papers, the geometry of L3 with a removed posterior part. After the constant compressive displacement was applied, the load sharing ratios were obtained by using both every elastic strain energy and every vertical force between two bones in each 8-volume. As results, 1) according to an increase in age from 20-year to 80-year, load sharing ratios of trabecular bone decreased from 55% to 49%; 2) the maximal ratios of each bone were occurred in the mid-plane of centrums and the endplate of cortical shells, respectively; 3) effective elastic moduli assigned into a porous centrum/cortex were found to be adequate; 4) for load sharing ratios, the difference of two methods showed that the total ratios were almost same within less than 1% but the partial ratios at every depth were more or less different each other.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.26-33
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• 2017

Background The purpose of this study was to assess the correlation between the 2-dimensional (2D) extent of orbital defects and the 3-dimensional (3D) volume of herniated orbital content in patients with an orbital wall fracture. Methods This retrospective study was based on the medical records and radiologic data of 60 patients from January 2014 to June 2016 for a unilateral isolated orbital wall fracture. They were classified into 2 groups depending on whether the fracture involved the inferior wall (group I, n=30) or the medial wall (group M, n=30). The 2D area of the orbital defect was calculated using the conventional formula. The 2D extent of the orbital defect and the 3D volume of herniated orbital content were measured with 3D image processing software. Statistical analysis was performed to evaluate the correlations between the 2D and 3D parameters. Results Varying degrees of positive correlation were found between the 2D extent of the orbital defects and the 3D herniated orbital volume in both groups (Pearson correlation coefficient, 0.568-0.788; $R^2=32.2%-62.1%$). Conclusions Both the calculated and measured 2D extent of the orbital defects showed a positive correlation with the 3D herniated orbital volume in orbital wall fractures. However, a relatively large volume of herniation (>$0.9cm^3$) occurred not infrequently despite the presence of a small orbital defect (<$1.9cm^2$). Therefore, estimating the 3D volume of the herniated content in addition to the 2D orbital defect would be helpful for determining whether surgery is indicated and ensuring adequate surgical outcomes.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.286-293
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• 2009

The implantable middle ear hearing devices(IMEHDs) have been developed to overcome the conventional hearing aid's problem(ringing effect caused by the acoustic feedback, cosmetic problem, etc.). In the IMEHDs, the vibrating transducer is a key component because its vibration enables to hear for hearing impaired people. The vibrating transducer is implanted on ossicular chain by surgical operation. The coupling status between implanted transducer and ossicular chain has an effect on delivering vibrating force from transducer to stapes. Noninvasive method is required to investigate the output characteristics of IMEHDs after implementation. Recently, emitted sound pressure measuring method of tympanic membrane is proposed to investigate the output characteristics of IMEHDs. However, the relationship between displacement of stapes and sound pressure by tympanic membrane was not cleared. In this paper, displacement of stapes and sound pressure by tympanic membrane were measured using the differential floating mass transducer(DFMT) that implanted on the ossicular chain of the human temporal bone and physical ear model. Through the experiments results, the relationship between displacement of stapes and sound pressure by tympanic membrane was investigated.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.471-480
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• 2007

Negative emotions play an important function as to human's existence. In this research, we employed the audio-visual film clips to induce negative emotions and examined the classified responses in the autonomic nervous system(ANS) due to each negative emotion.30 adults(22.6 years $old{\pm}1.24$, 15 males and 15 females) took part in this experiment. Through the preliminary experiment, 2 minutes film's stimuli were selected as the emotion-induced stimuli. During the period when participants were viewing and listening to the selected movie, EDA and ECG were examined as soon as one stimulus was displayed, participants were tested by completing the psychological appraisals of their experienced emotion due to each emotional stimulus. With regard to the result of analyzing the psychological responses, each negative emotion appropriately and effectively induced its target emotion. While concerning the result of analyzing ANS responses, each negative emotion induced its respective activation in ANS. What is more, compared with other types of negative emotional stimuli, the scaring stimulus induced higher activation of the sympathetic nervour system(SNS) as to the indexes in EDh and ECG. This research made segmentation of ANS responses to each negative emotion, which has its significance.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.117-121
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• 1994

In spite of remarkable improvement of surgical skills and anesthesia, local failure still occurred in 36-45$ \% $ of locally advanced colorectal cancer after curative resection with or without pre-or post-operative irradiation. Intraoperative radiation therapy(IORT) is the ideal modality which resectable lesions are removed surgically 3nd the remaining cancer nests are sterilized by irradiation during a surgical procedure. Therefore, the excellent local control without the damage of the adjacent normal tissues can be achieved. In IORT, judicious set up of the treatment cone on the treatment surface of the patient is required for accurate and homogenous dose distribution within treatment field, especially on the slopping surface of sacrum and pelvic sidewall which are the common sites of the local recurrence in rectal cancer. For this purpose, adequate co-ordination of gantry rotation and table tilting are essential. Adjusting gantry rotation is not difficult but tilting of the table is impossible inconventional treatment couch. Department of Therapeutic Radiology in Yeungnam University Medical Center developed the IORT table for colorectal cancer which is easy to set up and detach on the Linac treatment couch within 5 minutes. The range of tilting with head-up and head-down is about 30 degree which is efficient and easy-to-use, not only for IORT but also for colorectal surgery. So far, authors performed IORT with newly developed treatment table in 2 patients with rectal cancer and we found that this newly developed table could contribute in improving the dose distribution of IORT and surgical procedure for colorectal cancer.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 2005

Seroprevalence of feline leukemia virus (FeLV) and feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) infections were surveyed in 875 domestic cats derived from 4 major cities and 4 provinces in Korea. Of those tested, 715 were healthy and 160 were sick. FeLV and FIV were tested with AGEN/sup ⓡ/ FeLV-FIV, a commercial combo test kit. Ten out of 875 cats (1.1 %) were seropositive for FeLV and none out of 875 cats (0%) was positive for FIV, respectively. The positive rates for FeLV were 3.8% in sick cats and 0.6% in healthy cats. The cats at the age of more than 1 year showed higher incidence rates than the younger ones. There were no significant relationships either with the environment or with the sex. The prevalence of seropositive FeLV was 0.7% in mixed cats and 1.6% in pedigree cats. With respect to the regional prevalence of the FeLV, the highest seroprevalence (9.5%) was found in Gyeongsang province.