• Journal of the Korea Computer Graphics Society
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.1-16
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• 2016

In this paper, we propose and efficient curve reconstruction method based on the classical least-square fitting scheme. Specifically, given planar sample points equipped with normals, we reconstruct the objective curve as the zero set of a hierarchical implicit ZP(Zwart-Powell)-spline that can recover large holes of dataset without loosing the fine details. As regularizers, we adopted two: a Tikhonov regularizer to reduce the singularity of the linear system and a discrete Laplacian operator to smooth out the isocurves. Benchmark tests with quantitative measurements are done and our method shows much better quality than polynomial methods. Compared with the hierarchical bi-quadratic spline for datasets with holes, our method results in compatible quality but with less than 90% computational overhead.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.533-542
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• 2015

Little human tissue data are available for slow waves and migrating motor complexes, which are the main components of small bowel motility. We investigated the electrophysiological and mechanical characteristics of human ileal motility, in vitro. Ileum was obtained from patients undergoing bowel resection. Electrophysiological microelectrode recordings for membrane potential changes and mechanical tension recordings for contraction from smooth muscle strips and ileal segments were performed. Drugs affecting the enteric nervous system were applied to measure the changes in activity. Slow waves were detected with a frequency of 9~10/min. There were no cross-sectional differences in resting membrane potential (RMP), amplitude or frequency between outer and inner circular muscle (CM), suggesting that electrical activities could be effectively transmitted from outer to inner CM. The presence of the interstitial cell of Cajal (ICC) at the linia septa was verified by immunohistochemistry. Contractions of strips and segments occurred at a frequency of 3~4/min and 1~2/min, respectively. The frequency, amplitude and area under the curve were similar between CM and LM. In segments, contractions of CM were associated with LM, but propagation varied with antegrade and retrograde directions. Atropine, $N^W$-oxide-L-arginine, and sodium nitroprusside exhibited different effects on RMP and contractions. There were no cross-sectional differences with regard to the characteristics of slow waves in CM. The frequency of contractions in smooth muscle strips and ileal segments was lower than slow waves. The directions of propagation were diverse, indicating both mixing and transport functions of the ileum.

• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.345-355
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• 2010

Background: Extracellular and intracellular pH ($pH_o$ and $pH_i$), which can be changed in various pathological conditions such as hypoxia, affects vascular contractility. To elucidate the mechanism to alter vascular contractility by pH, the effects of pH on reactivity to vasocontracting agents, intracellular $Ca^{2+}$ influx, and $Ca^{2+}$ sensitivity in vascular smooth muscle were examined. Material and Method: Isometric contractions in rat superior mesenteric arteries (SMA) were observed. Intracellular $Ca^{2+}$ concentration ($[Ca^{2+}]_i$) was recorded by microfluorometer using Fura-2/acetoxylmethyl ester in muscle cells. $pH_o$ was increased from 7.4 to 7.8 or decreased to 6.9 or 6.4. $pH_i$ was decreased by applying $NH_4^+$ or propionic acid or modulated by changing $pH_o$ after increasing membrane permeability using $\beta$-escin. Result: Decreases in $pH_o$ from 7.4 to 6.9 or 6.4 shifted concentration-response curve by norepinephrine (NE) or serotonin (SE) to the right and significantly increased half maximal effective concentration (EC50) to NE or SE. Increase in $pH_o$ from 7.4 to 7.8 shifted concentration-response curve by norepinephrine (NE) or serotonin (SE) to the left and significantly reduced EC50 to NE or SE. NE increased $[Ca^{2+}]_i$ in cultured smooth muscle cells from SMA and the increased $[Ca^{2+}]_i$ was reduced by decreases in $pH_o$. NE-induced contraction was inhibited by $NH_4^+$, whereas the resting tension was increased by $NH_4^+$ or propionic acid. When the cell membrane of SMA was permeabilized using ${\beta}$-escin, SMA was contracted by increasing extracellular $Ca^{2+}$ concentration from 0 to $10{\mu}M$ and the magnitude of contraction was decreased by a decrease in $pH_o$ and vice versa. Conclusion: From these results, it can be concluded that a decrease in $pH_o$ might inhibit vascular contraction by reducing the reactivity of vascular smooth muscle to vasoactive agents, $Ca^{2+}$ influx and the sensitivity of vascular smooth muscle to $Ca^{2+}$.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.92-100
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• 2011

The main goal of this paper is to provide the theoretical background for the fracture phenomena in marine structural steels. In this paper, various fracture criteria are theoretically investigated: shear failure criteria with constant failure strain and stress triaxiality-dependent failure strain (piecewise failure and Johnson-Cook criteria), forming limit curve failure criterion, micromechanical porosity failure criterion, and continuum damage mechanics failure criterion. It is obvious that stress triaxiality is a very important index to determine the failure phenomenon for ductile materials. Assuming a piecewise failure strain curve as a function of stress triaxiality, the numerical results coincide well with the test results for smooth and notched specimens, where low and high stress triaxialities are observed. Therefore, it is proved that a failure criterion with reliable material constants presents a plastic deformation process, as well as fracture initiation and evolution.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.68-80
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• 1996

When a workpiece is to be arc welded around the outside corner, continuous welding without welding seam in the neighborhood of comer still remains a very difficult technique. Skilled welders weld comers by delicate“hand-eye coordination”while turning the workpiece manually, However, there is not a very clear solution to this problem in robotized arc welding process. In order to solve this problem, the coordination of a robot and a positioner with one or two axes is necessary. This paper presents a method of continuous welding around the corner of workpiece using the coordinated motion of a robot and a positioner. The positioner is either revolute jointed or prismatic jointed. In this paper, a clothoid curve is chosen for welding trajectory. The clothoid curve is excellent in connecting straight and curved weld-lines with good continuity and accommodates various welding conditions. By using this welding trajectory, the deceleration, which leads to widening of the melt and the heat affected zone, at comer area is reduced with strategic rotation of robot torch in coordination with a positioner providing smooth transition of welding torch orientation. Two types of special clothoid curves are developed for different weld slope conditions. These clothoid curves are applied to the case of linear and rotary Positioners at arc welding robot work-cell.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.19 no.11
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• pp.1036-1042
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• 2013

In this paper, an elderly assistance system is developed based on Xenomai, a real-time development framework cooperating with the Linux kernel. A Kinect sensor is used to recognize the behavior of the elderly and A-star search algorithm is implemented to find the shortest path to the person. The mobile robot also generates a trajectory using a digital convolution operator which is based on a Bezier curve for smooth driving. In order to follow the generated trajectory within the control period, we developed real-time tasks and compared the performance of the tracking trajectory with that of non real-time tasks. The real-time task has a better result on following the trajectory within the physical constraints which means that it is more appropriate to apply to an elderly assistant system.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.20 no.9
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• pp.2744-2751
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• 1996

In case of limited power supply, a rotating shaft system may not reach its operating speed that is greater than its critical speed, but the speed oscillates with small ampllitude near critical speed. As a result, it is considered that the operating mode plays an important role in the smooth start of machines. In order to investigate the dynamic behaviors of the rotating shaft system at the beginning stage, one has derived the equations of motion whose degrees of freedom is three, two translations and one rotation. The simultaneous differential equations are numerically solved by using runge-Kutta method, and thus the small time step length could be required corresponding to the stability of solution. Three types of operating modes dependent upon the driving torque rate have been numerically investigated according to the maximum displacement of shaft center. The first type of relation is linear, the second type is composed of two linear curves recommended by machine manufacturer, and the last one is the proposed torque curve reflecting the frequency response curve of one degree of freedom system. For the second type of modes, it is found that the optimal range of intermediate speed to the critical speed lies between 0.8 and 0.9. In addition to that, the maximum displacement can be reduced more if the third type of mode is utilized.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.588-596
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• 2003

The relationships between evolution of microstructure and mechanical properties of porous Al-3Si-2Mg-2Cu alloy after the foaming and various heat treating were investigated. The foamed alloy having various densities were manufactured by powder compact foaming and heat treated. Then compression test was performed with deformation rate of 0.5/s. The ultimate compression strength was not changed after solution heat treatment but the flow curve after ultimate strength showed very smooth and uniform plateau region. This change of flow curve means that the deformation mechanism is altered from brittle fracture to ductile deformation and the energy absorption property of Al foam is dramatically improved. The improvement of energy absorption without any detriment of mechanical properties is due to that the very brittle precipitation like Al-Cu and Al-Mg was uniformly dissolved in Al matrix after solution heat treatment. And various mechanical properties of Al alloy porous material were improved by 40% with aging of $200^{\circ}C$ and 50min. These improvements are ascribe to the various fine precipitates like $\Omega$ and $\theta$'.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.17 no.10
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• pp.2475-2482
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• 1993

The effects of the hole size(2R) and the specimen width(W) on the fatigue strength and the fatigue life in plain woven glass/epoxy composite plates are experimentally investigated under constant amplitude tensile fatigue loading. It is shown in this study that the notch sensitivity under fatigue loading is lower than that under static loading. It can be explained by the fact that the stress concentration is relaxed by the damage developed at the boundary of circular hole. To predict the fatigue strength at a specific cycle, the modified point stress criterion represented as a function of the geometry of the specimen(2R and W) is applied. It is found that the model used in the prediction of the notched tensile strength predicts the fatigue strength with reasonable accuracy. A model for predicting the fatigue life in the notched specimen, based on the S-$N_f$, curve in the smooth specimen, is suggested.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.1566-1574
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• 2019

Maximum power point tracking (MPPT) under the partial shading condition is a challenging research topic for photovoltaic systems. Shaded photo-voltaic module result in complex peak patterns on the power versus voltage curve which can misguide classical MPPT algorithms. Thus, various kinds of global MPPT algorithms have been studied. These have typically consisted of partial shading detection, global peak search and MPPT. The conventional partial shading detection algorithm aims to detect all of the occurrences of partial shading. This results in excessive execution of global peak searches and discontinuous operation of the MPPT. This in turn, reduces the achievable power for the PV module. Based on a theoretical investigation of power verse voltage curve patterns under various partial shading conditions, it is realized that not all the occurrences of partial shadings require a global peak search. Thus, an intelligent partial shading detection algorithm that provides exact identification of global peak search necessity is essential for the efficient utilization of solar energy resources. This paper presents a new partial shading determinant algorithm utilizing adaptive threshold levels. Conventional methods tend to be too sensitive to sharp shading patterns but insensitive to smooth patterns. However, the proposed algorithm always shows superb performance, regardless of the partial shading patterns.