• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
• /
• v.25 no.5
• /
• pp.421-430
• /
• 2004

Clinically, it is almost impossible for a physician to distinguish subtle changes of frequency spectrum by using a stethoscope alone especially in the early stage of thrombus formation. Considering that reliability of mechanical valve is paramount because the failure might end up with patient death, early detection of valve thrombus using noninvasive technique is important. Thus the study was designed to provide a tool for early noninvasive detection of valve thrombus by observing shift of frequency spectrum of acoustic signals with computer aid diagnosis system. A thrombus model was constructed on commercialized mechanical valves using polyurethane or silicon. Polyurethane coating was made on the valve surface, and silicon coating on the sewing ring of the valve. To simulate pannus formation, which is fibrous tissue overgrowth obstructing the valve orifice, the degree of silicone coating on the sewing ring varied from 20％, 40％, 60％ of orifice obstruction. In experiment system, acoustic signals from the valve were measured using microphone and amplifier. The microphone was attached to a coupler to remove environmental noise. Acoustic signals were sampled by an AID converter, frequency spectrum was obtained by the algorithm of spectral analysis. To quantitatively distinguish the frequency peak of the normal valve from that of the thrombosed valves, analysis using a neural network was employed. A return map was applied to evaluate continuous monitoring of valve motion cycle. The in-vivo data also obtained from animals with mechanical valves in circulatory devices as well as patients with mechanical valve replacement for 1 year or longer before. Each spectrum wave showed a primary and secondary peak. The secondary peak showed changes according to the thrombus model. In the mock as well as the animal study, both spectral analysis and 3-layer neural network could differentiate the normal valves from thrombosed valves. In the human study, one of 10 patients showed shift of frequency spectrum, however the presence of valve thrombus was yet to be determined. Conclusively, acoustic signal measurement can be of suggestive as a noninvasive diagnostic tool in early detection of mechanical valve thrombosis.

• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
• /
• v.43 no.1
• /
• pp.61-68
• /
• 2017

The key quality attributes of the pressed powder, one of base makeup products, are skin-affinity and spreadability. In general, there was a limit to meet skin-affinity and spreadability simultaneously, which are opposite attributes each other. In this study, air jet mill process was tried to satisfy two main properties. Skin-affinity was improved by a wet coating of sericite with a mixture of lauroyl lysine (LL) and sodium cocoyl glutamate (SCG). The application of mono-dispersed polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) and diphenyl dimethicone/vinyl diphenyl dimethicone/silsesquioxane crosspolymer (DDVDDSC) improved both qualities. Air jet mill process has been mainly applied in the pharmaceutical and food industries, and is a method used for processing powder materials in cosmetic field. In this study, we were able to complete makeup cosmetics with an optimum particle size $6.8{\mu}m$ by combining the air jet mill process at the manufacturing stage. It was confirmed that the Ti element was uniformly distributed throughout the cosmetics by EDS mapping, and that the corners of the tabular grains were rounded by SEM analysis. It is considered that this can provide an effect of improving the spreadability when the cosmetic is applied to the skin by using a makeup tool. LL with excellent skin compatibility and SCG derived from coconut with little skin irritation were wet coated to further enhance the adhesion of sericite. SEM images were analyzed to evaluate effect of the dispersion and uniformity of PMMA on spreadability. With the spherical shapes of similar size, it was found that the spreading effect was further increased when the distribution was homogeneously mono-dispersed. The dispersion and spreadability of PMMA were confirmed by measuring the kinetic friction and optimal content was determined. The silicone rubber powder, DDVDDSC, was confirmed by evaluating the hardness, spreading value, and drop test. Finally, it was found that the dispersion of PMMA and silicone rubber powder affected spreadability. Such makeup cosmetics have excellent stability in drop test while having appropriate hardness, and good stability over time. Taken together, it is concluded that air jet mill process can be utilized as a method to improve skin-affinity and spreadability of the pressed powder.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.48 no.5
• /
• pp.660-667
• /
• 2010

In this research polyimide, Matrimid 5218, hollow fiber membrane was used to recover sulfur hexafluoride($SF_6$) which is one of the six greenhouse gases from $N_2/SF_6$ mixture gas. Fibers were spun from using dry-wet phase inversion method. The module was manufactured by fabricating fibers after surface coating with silicone elastomer. The scanning electron microscopy(SEM) studies showed that the produced fibers typically had an asymmetric structure; a dense top layer supported by a sponge-like substructure. The developed module had a permeance of 0.78-1.36 GPU for $N_2$ with $N_2/SF_6$ selectivity of 2.44-5.08 at various pressure and temperature. For recovery of $SF_6$, a membrane module and 10 vol.% $SF_6$ from $N_2/SF_6$ mixture gas was used. The effects of various operating condition such as pressure, temperature, and retentate side flow rate were tested. When pressure and temperature were increased and retentate flow rate was decreased, the $SF_6$ purity in recovered gas was increased up to 37.5 vol.% with decreasing recovery ratio. When retentate flow rate was increased pressure and temperature was decreased, the $SF_6$ recovery ratio in retentate side was increased up to 89% with decreasing the $SF_6$ purity in retentate side.

• Membrane Journal
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.147-156
• /
• 2005

It is well-known that polyethersulfone (PES) has high $CO_2$ selectivity over $N_2\;(or\;CH_4)$ and excellent pressure resistance of $CO_2$ plasticization among muy commercialized engineering plastics[1-4]. Asymmetric PES hollow fiber membranes for flue gas separation were developed by dry-wet spinning technique. The dope solution consists of PES, NMP and acetone. Water and water/NMP mixtures are used in outer and inner coagulants, respectively. Gas permeation rate (i.e., permeance) and $CO_2/N_2$ selectivity were measured with pure gas, respectively and the micro-structure of hollow fiber membranes was characterized by scanning electron microscopy. The effects of polymer concentration, ratio of NMP to acetone, length of air gap, evaporation condition and silicone coating were investigated on the $CO_2/N_2$ separation properties of the hollow fibers. Optimized PES hollow fiber membranes exhibited high permeance of $25\~50$ GPU and $CO_2/N_2$ selectivity of $30\~40$ at room temperature and have the apparent skin layer thickness of about $0.1\;{\mu}m$. The developed PES hollow fiber membranes, would be a good candidate suitable for the flue gas separation process.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.49 no.2
• /
• pp.250-255
• /
• 2011

In this study, by using the polymeric membrane separation process, the $CO_{2}/CH_{4}$ separation and $H_{2}S$ removal from biogas were performed in order to $CH_{4}$ purification and enrichment for the fuel cell energy source application. Fibers were spun by dry/wet phase inversion method. The module was manufactured by fabricating fibers after surface coating with silicone elastomer. The scanning electron microscopy(SEM) studies showed that the produced fibers typically had an asymmetric structure; a dense top layer supported by a porous, sponge substructure. The permeance of $CO_{2}$ and $CO_{2}/CH_{4}$ selectivity increased with pressure and temperature. Mixture gas with increasing pressure and temperature, removal efficiency of the $CO_{2}$ and $H_{2}S$ were decreased while concentration of $CH_{4}$ was increased up to 100%. When retentate flow rate was increased with the decreasing of pressure and temperature the $CH_{4}$ recovery ratio in retentate side was increased while the $CH_{4}$ purity in retentate side was decreased.

• The Korean Journal of Blood Transfusion
• /
• v.23 no.2
• /
• pp.162-168
• /
• 2012

Background: Potassium, the most common cation in the intracellular space, plays a critical role in our physiology. Potassium imbalance may cause life-threatening problems, ranging from general weakness to cardiac arrest due to ventricular fibrillation. For emergency physicians, detection of such derangement within a short period of time is of critical importance. In this study, we wanted to determine whether analysis of whole blood samples can be used as a screening tool for potassium imbalance by comparative analysis of whole blood and serum samples. Methods: Two samples were drawn from 227 patients. The whole blood sample was taken from the radial artery and contained in a commercially available arterial blood collection syringe with a lithium-heparin coating. The serum sample was contained in a commercially available vacuum bottle in a non-additive silicone coated tube and transported to the laboratory. The study population was divided into three groups, patients with normal whole blood potassium, patients with decreased whole blood potassium, and patients with elevated whole blood potassium. Potassium levels for each group were coupled with serum potassium levels and compared. Results: No significant difference in potassium values was observed between whole blood and serum samples (P<0.05). Strong associations were observed among the three groups (normal range, hypokalemia, and hyperkalemia group). Compared to the normal group (r=0.851), the hyperkalemia group showed a stronger association between variables (r=0.897), and the hypokalemia group showed a weaker association (r=0.760). Their correlation coefficients were highly significant (P<0.05). Conclusion: Our study illustrates that point-of-care testing using whole blood with whole blood can be a reliable screening tool when treating patients with suspicious potassium abnormality, especially in hyperkalemia patients.

• Journal of the Society of Cosmetic Scientists of Korea
• /
• v.32 no.1 s.55
• /
• pp.45-51
• /
• 2006

In the field of makeup cosmetics, especially, powder-based foundations such as two-way cake, pact and face powder, the quality of which is known to be strongly influenced by the properties of powder, surface treatment technology is widely used as a method to improve the various characteristics of powder texture, wear properties, dispersion ability and so on. The two-way cake or pressed-powder foundation is one of the familiar makeup products in Asian market for deep covering and finishing purpose. In spite of the relent progress in surface modification method such as composition of powders with different characteristics and application of a diversity of coating ingredient (metal soap, amino acid, silicone and fluorine), this product possess a technical difficulty to enhance both of the adhesion power and spreadability on the skin in addition to potential claim of consumer about heavy or thick feeling. This article is covering the preparation and coating method of nano-vesicle that mimic the double-layered lipid lamellar structure existing between the corneocytes of the stratum corneum in the skin for the purpose of improving both of two important physical characteristic of two-way cake, spreadability and adhering force to skin, and obtining better affinity to skin. Nano-vesicle was prepared using the high-pressure emulsifying process of lecithin, pseudo ceramide, butylene glycol and tocopheryl acetate. This nano-sized emulsion was added to powder-dispersed aqueous phase together with bivalent metal salt solution and then the filtering and drying procedure was followed to yield the nano-vesicle coated powder. The amount of nano-vesicle coated on the powder was able to regulated by the concentration of metal salt and this novel powder showed the lower friction coefficient, more uniform condition of application and higher adhesive powder comparing with the alkyl silane treated powder from the test result of spreadability and wear properties using friction meter and air jet method. Two-wav cake containing newly developed coated powder with nano-vesicle showed the similar advantages in the frictional and adhesive characteristics.