• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.19 no.7
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• pp.41-51
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• 2020

This paper presents the development of a robotic system for rehabilitation of the trunk's ability to maintain postural control under different balance conditions. The system, developed with extensive input from rehabilitation and biomedical engineering experts, consists of a seat mounted on a robotic mechanism capable of moving it with four degrees of freedom (3 rotational and 1 translational). The seat surface has built in instrumentation to gauge the movements of the user's center of pressure (COP) and it can be moved either to track the movements of the COP or according to operator given commands. The system allows two types of leg support. A ground mounted footrest allows participation of legs in postural control while a seat connected footrest constrains the leg movement and limits their involvement in postural control. The design evolution over several prototypes is presented and computer aided structural analysis is used to determine the feasibility of the designed components. The system is pilot tested by a stroke patient and is determined to have potential for use as a trunk rehabilitation tool. Future works involve more detailed studies to evaluate the effects of using this system and to determine its efficacy as a rehabilitation tool.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.32 no.1 s.120
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• pp.30-36
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• 2007

Geothermal heat pump systems use the earth as a heat source in heating mode and a heat sink in cooling mode. These systems can be used for heating or cooling systems in farm facilities such as greenhouses for protected horticulture, cattle sheds, mushroom house, etc. A horizontal type means that a geothermal heat exchanger is laid in the trench buried in 1.2 to 1.8 m depth. Because a horizontal type has advantages of low installation, operation and maintenance costs compared to a vertical type, it is easy to be adopted to agriculture. In this study, to heat and cool farm facilities and obtain basic data for practical application of horizontal geothermal heat pump systems in agriculture, a horizontal geothermal heat pump system of 10 RT scale was installed in greenhouse. Heating performance of this system was estimated. The horizontal geothermal heat pump used in this study had heating COP of 4.57 at soil temperature of 14$^{\circ}C$ for depth of 1.75m and heating COP of 3.75 at soil temperature of 7$^{\circ}C$ for the same depth. The stratification of water temperature in heat tank appeared during the whole heat rejection period.

• Korean Journal of Applied Biomechanics
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.293-301
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• 2016

Objective: The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of freezing of gait and visual information on the static postural control ability in patients with Parkinson's Disease (PD) during the bipedal stance with feet together. Method: This study included a total of 36 patients with PD; the freezer group included 17 PD patients (age: $69.3{\pm}6.2yrs$, height: $159.6{\pm}9.0cm$, weight: $63.4{\pm}9.78kg$) and the nonfreezer group included 19 PD patients (age: $71.4{\pm}5.6yrs$, height: $155.8{\pm}7.1cm$, weight: $57.7{\pm}8.6kg$). Static postural control ability was analyzed using variables of center of pressure (COP) and dividing by mediolateral, anteroposterior, and integration factors during a bipedal stance with the eyes open and closed. Results: Freezers and nonfreezers showed increases in anteroposterior velocity, mediolateral velocity, averaged velocity, and mediolateral 95% edge frequency when visual information was blocked. Additionally, freezers had greater anteroposterior range, 95% confidence ellipse area, and COP anteroposterior mean position than nonfreezers. Conclusion: Freezers and nonfreezers showed a reduction in static postural control ability when visual information was blocked. Additionally, the results of this study found a significant difference in static postural control ability between freezers and nonfreezers with PD. In particular, anteroposterior range, 95% confidence ellipse area, and COP anteroposterior mean position might be used to distinguish between freezers and nonfreezers with PD.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.1006-1013
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• 2014

Wastewater organic compounds, that is, nonylphenolic compounds (NPs) and fecal sterols, were measured in surface sediments from Busan Suyeong Estuary, where two wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are located, to assess contamination from municipal effluents. The NPs analyzed were nonylphenol, and nonylphenol mono- and di-ethoxylates, all synthetic endocrine disruptors. The fecal sterols analyzed were coprostanol (COP), cholestanol, and epicoprostanol. Concentrations of NPs in the sediments ranged from 146 to 3,723 ng/g, and those of COP ranged from 366 to 13,018 ng/g. Their detection in all of the sediments analyzed indicates widespread pollution by municipal effluents. The highest concentrations of NPs and COP were detected at stations close to outfalls of WWTPs. Their levels in sediments are categorized in the higher range of those previously reported in Korean coastal areas. Moreover, in comparison with screening values of NPs in the Netherlands, Norway, and Canada, more than 50% of the sampling stations exceeded the guidelines. This indicates that the estuary may be adversely influenced by municipal effluents.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.19-27
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• 2007

The previous study was conducted to develop an air source multi heat pump system that could be operated with the solar collector and air source heat exchangers as heat source of the system. There is a winter-sowing problems in air source multi heat pump system when the outdoor temperature goes down under freezing point. The winter-sowing problem was solved by adapting R-22 refrigerant as working fluid in the previous study. However, when the system operated at high temperature, another problems are come out such as overheating of the solar collector outlet which lead to the superheat of the compressor inlet of the heat pump system. The condition could deteriorates a compressor in some case. In this study, we installed the anti-superheating devices on the previously developed system. As results of system performance test, COP of the system with anti-superheating technique is 2.4. It is a little improved COP compare to previous study's 2.23. In the results of multi heat source heating system, during operating solar collector, COP is relatively high between $200\;W/m^2$ and $400\;W/m^2$ solar intensity. It is recommended to extend the study on performance optimization with balancing the solar collect and capacity of compressor at higher solar irradiation conditions.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.26 no.11
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• pp.497-503
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• 2014

The performances of refrigeration truck systems using R404A and R134a were investigated by experimental testing, and compared. The optimal COPs of the R404A and R134a systems were 2.96 and 3.42, when the refrigerant charge amount was 1.3 kg and 1.4 kg, respectively. When the indoor side air temperature increased from $5^{\circ}C$ to $9^{\circ}C$, the total exergy destruction rate of the R404A system was on average 39.1% higher than that of the R134a system. In addition, the exergy efficiency of the R404A system was 12.9% higher than that of R134a system, for various indoor air temperatures. When the outdoor side air temperature increased from $25^{\circ}C$ to $35^{\circ}C$, the total exergy destruction rate of the R404A and R134a systems decreased by 18.9% and 19.5%, respectively. In addition, the exergy efficiency of the R404A and R134a systems increased by 25.2% and 30.7%, respectively. As the compressor rotating speed increased, the COP of the R404A and R134a systems decreased by 23.6% and 18.4%. The total exergy destruction rate and exergy efficiency of the R404A system were 27.2% and 15.7% higher than those of R134a system, respectively. Compared to the R404A system, the R134a system showed a higher COP and a lower exergy destruction rate; thus it can be concluded that the R134a system has the better performance.

• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.1341-1346
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• 2008

This paper presents the heating performance of a water-to-refrigerant type ground source heat pump system (GSHP) installed in a school building. The evaluation of the heating performance has been conducted under the actual operating conditions of GSHP system in the winter. Ten units with the capacity of 10 HP each were installed in the building. Also, a closed vertical typed-ground heat exchanger with 24 boreholes of 175 m in depth was constructed for the GSHP system. For analyzing the heating performance of the GSHP system, we monitored various operating conditions, including the outdoor temperature, the ground temperature, and the water temperature of inlet and outlet of the ground heat exchanger. Simultaneously, the heating capacity and the input power were evaluated for determining the heating performance of the GSHP system. The average heating coefficient of performance (COP) of the heat pump was found to be 5.1 at partial load of 46.9%, while the overall system COP was found to be 4.2.

• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.788-793
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• 2008

This paper presents the heating performance of a water-to-refrigerant type ground source heat pump system (GSHP) installed in a school building. The evaluation of the heating performance has been conducted under the actual operating conditions of GSHP system in the winter. Ten units with the capacity of 10 HP each were installed in the building. Also, a closed vertical typed-ground heat exchanger with 24 boreholes of 175 m in depth was constructed for the GSHP system. For analyzing the heating performance of the GSHP system, we monitored various operating conditions, including the outdoor temperature, the ground temperature, and the water temperature of inlet and outlet of the ground heat exchanger. Simultaneously, the heating capacity and the input power were evaluated for determining the heating performance of the GSHP system. The average heating coefficient of performance (COP) of the heat pump was found to be 5.1 at partial load of 46.9%, while the overall system COP was found to be 4.2.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.77-84
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• 2011

Korea and some other countries located in the northern hemisphere employ the air conditioner for the space cooling in the hot summer season and also some kinds of heaters for the space heating in the cold winter season. Especially in Korea, a great number of air conditioners of about 12,700,000 sets have been used these days. However, they are used for a short operation period of only 58 days a year, which results in the material and economic losses. To solve this problem and employ this system for the emergency shelter, a new conversion unit which could convert the existing air conditioner to a heat pump system for simultaneous heating and cooling was developed in this study, and the thermal performance was tested. The results indicated that the indoor air could be heated from $27^{\circ}C$ to $39^{\circ}C$ by the air conditioner converted to a heat pump system with the ambient temperature variation of $-10^{\circ}C{\sim}10^{\circ}C$, and cooled from $20^{\circ}C$ to $15^{\circ}C$ by the converted system with the ambient temperature variation of $20^{\circ}C{\sim}35^{\circ}C$. And also the heating COP increased from 3.3 to 5.3 in case of the heat exchange of the super cooling(HESC) circuit and from 3.0 to 4.0 in case of the By-pass with the ambient temperature variation of $-10^{\circ}C{\sim}10^{\circ}C$, respectively, whereas the cooling COP decreased from 3.1 to 2.1with the increase of the ambient temperature from $20^{\circ}C$ to $35^{\circ}C$.

• Annals of Clinical Neurophysiology
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.31-35
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• 2018

Background: Although postural instability is one of the major symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD), dopaminergic treatment is ineffective for treating postural instability. Recent reports have shown that somatosensory deficit is associated with postural instability, and that somatosensory input improved postural instability. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of lateral wedges for quiet standing postural control in people with PD. Methods: Twenty-two patients who were diagnosed with PD were enrolled in this study. The participants stood on a force plate under two conditions (wedge and no wedge) with or without having their eyes open or closed. The center of pressure (COP) range and velocity were analyzed using a two-way repeated-measures analysis of variance. Results: The range and velocity of COP in the anterioposterior and mediolateral (ML) directions were significantly improved after the patients stood on the lateral wedge with their eyes closed (p < 0.05). The range in ML direction and velocity in both directions of COP were significantly decreased when their eyes were open (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Regardless of vision, standing on lateral wedges improved postural sway in people with PD.