• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.174-183
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• 2015

The major purpose of this study is to construct a retrospective exposure assessment for benzene through a review of literature on Korea. Airborne benzene measurements reported in 34 articles were reviewed. A total of 15,729 individual measurements were compiled. Weighted arithmetic means [AM(w)] and their variance calculated across studies were summarized according to 5-year period intervals (prior to the 1970s through the 2010s) and industry type. Industries were classified according to Korea Standard Industrial Classification (KSIC) using information provided in the literature. We estimated quantitative retrospective exposure to benzene for each cell in the matrix through a combination of time and KSIC. Analysis of the AM(w) indicated reductions in exposure levels over time, regardless of industry, with mean levels prior to the 1980-1984 period of 50.4 ppm (n = 2,289), which dropped to 2.8 ppm (n = 305) in the 1990-1994 period, and to 0.1 ppm (n = 294) in the 1995-1999 period. There has been no improvement since the 2000s, when the AM(w) of 4.3 ppm (n = 6,211) for the 2005-2009 period and 4.5 ppm (n = 3,358) for the 2010-2013 period were estimated. A comparison by industry found no consistent patterns in the measurement results. Our estimated benzene measurements can be used to determine not only the possibility of retrospective exposure to benzene, but also to estimate the level of quantitative or semiquantitative retrospective exposure to benzene.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.47 no.12
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• pp.39-47
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• 2010

This paper proposes a fully-utilized block-based 2D DWT architecture, which consists of four 1D DWT filters with two-channel QMF PR Lattice structure. For 100% hardware utilization, we propose a new method which processes four input values at the same time. On the contrary to the image-based 2D DWT which requires large memories, we propose a block-based 2D DWT so that we only need 2MN-3N of storages, where M and N stand for filter lengths and width of the image respectively. Furthermore, the proposed architecture processes in horizontal and vertical directions simultaneously so that it computes the DWT for an $N{\times}N$ image within a period of $N^2(1-2^{-2J})/3$. Compared to existing approaches, the proposed architecture shows 100% of hardware utilization and high throughput rate. However, the proposed architecture may suffer from the long critical path delay due to the cascaded lattices in 1D DWT filters. This problem can be mitigated by applying the pipeline technique with maximum four level. The proposed architecture has been designed with VerilogHDL and synthesized using DongbuAnam $0.18{\mu}m$ standard cell.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.51-58
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• 2007

This paper presented an adaptive pipeline architecture for a high-performance and low-power asynchronous processor. The proposed pipeline architecture employed a stage-skipping and a stage-combining scheme. The stage-skipping scheme can skip the operation of a bubble stage that is not used pipeline stage in an instruction execution. In the stage-combining scheme, two consecutive stages can be joined to form one stage if the latter stage is empty. The proposed pipeline architecture could reduce the processing time and power consumption. The proposed architecture supports multi-processing in the EX stage that executes parallel 4 instructions. We designed an asynchronous microprocessor to estimate the efficiency of the proposed pipeline architecture that was synthesized to a gate level design using a $0.35-{\mu}m$ CMOS standard cell library. We evaluated the performance of the target processor using SPEC2000 benchmark programs. The proposed architecture showed about 2.3 times higher speed than the asynchronous counterpart, AMULET3i. As a result, the proposed pipeline schemes and architecture can be used for asynchronous high-speed processor design

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.387-395
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• 2003

Model tests were conducted to study the behavior of the piled raft foundation system on sands. Especially in this study, the method using the triaxial compression apparatus was devised and used to apply the confining pressure which is considered difficult in the existing model test on the soil. Steel rods (6mm dia.) and aluminum plates (8mm thickness, 50mm dia.) were used to simulate piles and rafts respectively. Jumunjin standard sands were used to ensure the homogeneity of the sample. After the sample with the piled raft model was laid inside the triaxial cell, the confining pressure was applied and then the compressive force was applied. The increase and/or decrease ratio of the bearing capacity, the load distribution ratio between raft and piles and the effect of settlements decrease depending on the confining pressure, the number of piles and the length of piles were analyzed and the bearing capacity and skin friction of the pile was calculated. By the results of these experiments, the bearing capacity increased and the settlement decreased with this piled raft foundation system. Especially the effect was larger with the increase of the number of piles than with the increase of length of piles. Hereafter, the study of the load transfer mechanism of piles under confining pressure would be made possible using these small model tester like triaxial compression apparatus.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.49 no.12
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• pp.201-208
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• 2012

In this paper, the hardware design of rate control for real-time video encoded is proposed. In the proposed method, a quadratic rate distortion model with high-computational complexity is not used when quantization parameter values are being decided. Instead, for low-computational complexity, average complexity weight values of frames are used to calculate QP. For high speed and low computational prediction, the MAD is predicted based on the coded basic unit, using spacial and temporal correlation in sequences. The rate control is designed with the hardware for fast QP decision. In the proposed method, a quadratic rate distortion model with high-computational complexity is not used when quantization parameter values are being decided. Instead, for low-computational complexity, average complexity weight values of frames are used to calculate QP. In addition, the rate control is designed with the hardware for fast QP decision. The execution cycle and gate count of the proposed architecture were reduced about 65% and 85% respectively compared with those of previous architecture. The proposed RC was implemented using Verilog HDL and synthesized with UMC $0.18{\mu}m$ standard cell library. The synthesis result shows that the gate count of the architecture is about 19.1k with 108MHz clock frequency.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.59-67
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• 2013

Reed-Solomon (RS) codes are powerful error-correcting codes used in diverse applications. Recently, algebraic soft-decision decoding algorithm for RS codes that can correct the errors beyond the error correcting bound has been proposed. The algorithm requires very intensive computations for interpolation, therefore an efficient VLSI architecture, which is realizable in hardware with a moderate hardware complexity, is mandatory for various applications. In this paper, we propose an efficient architecture with low hardware complexity for interpolation in soft-decision list decoding of Reed-Solomon codes. The proposed architecture processes the candidate polynomial in such a way that the terms of X degrees are processed in serial and the terms of Y degrees are processed in parallel. The processing order of candidate polynomials adaptively changes to increase the efficiency of memory access for coefficients; this minimizes the internal registers and the number of memory accesses and simplifies the memory structure by combining and storing data in memory. Also, the proposed architecture shows high hardware efficiency, since each module is balanced in terms of latency and the modules are maximally overlapped in schedule. The proposed interpolation architecture for the (255, 239) RS list decoder is designed and synthesized using the DongbuHitek $0.18{\mu}m$ standard cell library, the number of gate counts is 25.1K and the maximum operating frequency is 200 MHz.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.43 no.11 s.353
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• pp.26-36
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• 2006

In this paper, we propose a cost-effective color filter may (CFA) demosaicing method for digital still cameras in which a single CCD or CMOS image sensor is used. Since a CFA is adopted, we must interpolate missing color values in the red, green and blue channels at each pixel location. While most state-of-the-art algorithms invest a great deal of computational effort in the enhancement of the reconstructed image to overcome the color artifacts, we focus on eliminating the color artifacts with low computational complexity. Using spatial correlation of the adjacent pixels, the edge-directional information of the neighbor pixels is used for determining the edge direction of the current pixel. We apply our method to the state-of-the-art algorithms which use edge-directed methods to interpolate the missing color channels. The experiment results show that the proposed method enhances the demosaiced image qualify from $0.09{\sim}0.47dB$ in PSNR depending on the basis algorithm by removing most of the color artifacts. The proposed method was implemented and verified successfully using verilog HDL and FPGA. It was synthesized to gate-level circuits using 0.25um CMOS standard cell library. The total logic gate count is 12K, and five line memories are used.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.284-288
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• 2008

Sn-thin film as high capacitive anode for thin film lithium-ion battery was prepared by organic-electrolyte electroplating using Sn(II) acetate. Electrolytic solution including $Li^+$ and $Sn^{2+}$ had 3 reduction peaks at cyclic voltammogram. Current peak at $2.0{\sim}2.5\;V$ region correspond to the electroplating of Sn on Ni substrate. This potential value is lower than 2.91 V vs. $Li^+/Li^{\circ}$, of the standard reduction potential of $Sn^{2+}$ under aqueous media. It is the result of high overpotential caused by high resistive organic electrolytic solution and low $Sn^{2+}$ concentration. Physical and electrochemical properties were evaluated using by XRD, FE-SEM, cyclic voltammogram and galvanostatic charge-discharge test. Crystallinity of electroplated Sn-anode on a Ni substrate could be increased through heat treatment at $150^{\circ}C$ for 2 h. Cyclic voltammogram shows reversible electrochemical reaction of reduction(alloying) and oxidation(de-alloying) at 0.25 V and 0.75 V, respectively. Thickness of Sn-thin film, which was calculated based on electrochemical capacity, was $7.35{\mu}m$. And reversible capacity of this cell was $400{\mu}Ah/cm^2$.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 1999

This study was attempted to generate a monoclonal antibody against human $\alpha$-fetoprotein (AFP) and to produce an immunoassay, recognizing AFP in plasma and amniotic fluid. AFP was purified from human amniotic fluid and used to immunize mice. Spleens were taken from the mice and the cells were fused with mouse myeloma cells (Sp2/0-Ag-14) for the production of monoclonal antibodies by employing the hybridoma technology. As a result, a hybridoma cell line producing anti-AFP monoclonal antibody was cloned out and designated as MabF22. From isotyping analysis, it was found that monoclonal antibody MabF22 was IgG type with IgG1 heavy chain and k light chain. The binding specificity of MabF22 was analyzed by immunoblotting as well as by ELISA. MabF22 was highly specific, reacting with only AFP-containing samples. The binding affinity was determined by ELISA (free-capture mode) and Scatchard analysis. As a result, the value of Kd was 0.8$\times$10$^{-10}$M. The validity of the MabF22 for AFP assay was examined by two kinds of ELISAs, i.e., non-competitive and competitive ELISA. Both assays revealed that MabF22 reacted well with AFP in sample in a concentration-dependent manner. Standard curve and antibody titration curve were obtained by using purified AFP and MabF22. These results indicate that the monoclonal antibody produced in this study would be useful not only for research purposes but also for further development of immune-diagnostic kit for the measurement of AEP concentration.

• Journal of Physiology & Pathology in Korean Medicine
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.464-472
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• 2009

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of Cheonghyul-san on the generation of peroxynitrite ($ONOO^-$), nitric oxide (NO) and superoxide anion radical ( ${\cdot}\;O_2^-$), and on the expression of NF-${\kappa}$B-dependent proinflammatory proteins in ob/ob mice. Mice were grouped and treated for 5 weeks as follows. Both the normal lean (C57BL/6J black mice) and control obese (ob/ob mice) groups have received the standard chow. The experimental groups were fed with a diet of chow supplemented with 7.5, 15 and 30 mg Cheonghyul-san per 1 kg of body weight for 14 days. For this study, the fluorescent probes, namely 2',7'-dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate (DCFDA), 4,5-diaminofluorescein-2 (DAF-2) and dihydrorhodamine 123 (DHR 123) were used. Western blot was performed using anti-IKK-${\alpha}$, anti-phospho I${\kappa}$B-${\alpha}$, anti-NF-${\kappa}$B (p50, p65), anti-COX-2, anti-iNOS, anti-VCAM-1 antibodies, respectively. Cheonghyul-san prevented $H_2O_2$-induced cell death. Cheonghyul-san inhibited the generation of $ONOO^-$, NO and ${\cdot}\;O_2^-$ in the $H_2O_2$-treated LLC-$PK_1$ cells. The generation of $ONOO^-$, NO and ${\cdot}\;O_2^-$ were inhibited in the Cheonghyul-san-administered ob/ob mice groups. The GSH/GSSG ratio was decreased in the ob/ob mice, whereas the ratio was improved in the Cheonghyul-san-administered groups. Cheonghyul-san inhibited the protein expression levels of phospho-I${\kappa}$B-${\alpha}$, IKK-${\alpha}$, NF-${\kappa}$B (p50, p65), COX-2, iNOS and VCAM-1 genes. These results suggest that Cheonghyul-san is an effective scavenger of $ONOO^-$, ${\cdot}\;O_2^-$ and NO, and has an inhibitory effect on the expression of NF-${\kappa}$B-dependent inflammatory genes in ob/ob mice. Therefore, Cheonghyul-san might be used as a potential therapeutic drug against the diabetes- and obesity-related proinflammatory diseases.