• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.529-536
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• 1991

In this paper, the question whether the curvature of the minimum energy path can affect the dynamic threshold was tested using the boundary trajectory method developed by Chesnavich and coworkers. For nonreactive system, the MO EXP model potential surface was used with modified equilibrium distance to control the curvature. The results showed that there is no relation between the curvature and the dynamic threshold. In order to study the reactive system, a generalization of the boundary trajectory method was achieved to apply on the nonsymmetric system. We have found no correspondence between the curvature and the dynamic threshold of the system. It was also shown that the fate of the trajectories strongly depends on the shape of potential surface around the turning points along the symmetric stretch line.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2007.03a
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• pp.721-728
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• 2007

The prediction of quality characteristics during the design phase of a construction project was fragmented, because no particular method exists. One of the most important key responses is the total displacements (horizontal and vertical). A brainstorming session produces the quality parameters i.e. the control factors which here are identified as: the steel joint, the pile's length, the excavation depth and angle, the distance between the piles, the anchor stretch and length to name just some of the most engaging in the design. The purpose of this study is to optimise these parameters to minimize the total displacements following a methodology based on Taguchi method. For this reason, a 2-level, L₈ orthogonal array has been employed to organize the experimentation. Data is obtained from a real-life excavation project designed on the Plaxis v.8 CAE package. Taguchi analysis is performed in the statistical package Minitab.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.19-25
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• 1999

Sleep alters both breathing pattern and the ventilatory responses to external stimuli. These changes during sleep permit the development or aggravation of sleep-related hypoxemia in patients with respiratory disease and contribute to the pathogenesis of apneas in patients with the sleep apnea syndrome. Fundamental effects of sleep on the ventilatory control system are 1) removal of wakefulness input to the upper airway leading to the increase in upper airway resistance, 2) loss of wakefulness drive to the respiratory pump, 3) compromise of protective respiratory reflexes, and 4) additional sleep-induced compromise of ventilatory control initiated by reduced functional residual capacity on supine position assumed in sleep, decreased $CO_2$ production during sleep, and increased cerebral blood flow in especially rapid eye movement(REM) sleep. These effects resulted in periodic breathing during unsteady non-rapid eye movement(NREM) sleep even in normal subjects, regular but low ventilation during steady NREM sleep, and irregular breathing during REM sleep. Sleep-induced breathing instabilities are divided due primarily to transient increase in upper airway resistance and those that involve overshoots and undershoots in neural feedback mechanisms regulating the timing and/or amplitude of respiratory output. Following ventilatory overshoots, breathing stability will be maintained if excitatory short-term potentiation is the prevailing influence. On the other hand, apnea and hypopnea will occur if inhibitory mechanisms dominate following the ventilatory overshoot. These inhibitory mechanisms include 1) hypocapnia, 2) inhibitory effect from lung stretch, 3) baroreceptor stimulation, 4) upper airway mechanoreceptor reflexes, 5) central depression by hypoxia, and 6) central system inertia. While the respiratory control system functions well during wakefulness, the control of breathing is commonly disrupted during sleep. These changes in respiratory control resulting in breathing instability during sleep are related with the pathophysiologic mechanisms of obstructive and/or central apnea, and have the therapeutic implications for nocturnal hypoventilation in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or alveolar hypoventilation syndrome.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.765-784
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• 2014

In comparison with conventional shape memory actuated structures, antagonistic shape memory alloy (SMA) actuators permits a fully reversible two-way response and higher response frequency. However, excessive internal stress could adversely reduce the stroke of the actuators under repeated use. The two-way shape memory effect might further decrease the range of the recovered strain under actuation of an antagonistic SMA actuator unless additional components (e.g., spring and stopper) are added to regain the overall actuation capability. In this paper, the performance of all four possible types of SMA actuation schemes is investigated in detail with emphasis on five key properties: recovered strain, cyclic degradation, response frequency, self-sensing control accuracy, and controllable maximum output. The testing parameters are chosen based on the maximization of recovered strain. Three types of these actuators are antagonistic SMA actuators, which drive with two active SMA wires in two directions. The antagonistic SMA actuator with an additional pair of springs exhibits wider displacement range, more stable performance under reuse, and faster response, although accurate control cannot be maintained under force interference. With two additional stoppers to prevent the over stretch of the spring, the results showed that the proposed structure could achieve significant improvement on all five properties. It can be concluded that, the last type actuator scheme with additional spring and stopper provide much better applicability than the other three in most conditions. The results of the performance analysis of all four SMA actuators could provide a solid basis for the practical design of SMA actuators.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.451-456
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• 2005

This paper describes three kinds of experiments and analysis of their results related to human tactile sensitivity using an integrated tactile display system. The device can provide vibration, normal pressure and lateral slip/stretch which are important physical quantities to sense texture. We have tried to find out the efficient method of stimulating, limitation of surface discrimination by kinesthetic farce feedback and the effectiveness of the combination of kinesthetic force and tactile feedback. Seven kinds of different stimulating methods were carried out and they are single or combination of the kinesthetic force, normal static pressure, vibration, active/passive shear and moving wave. Both prototype specimen and stimulus using tactile display were provided to all examinees and they were allowed to answer the most similar sample. The experimental results show that static pressure is proper stimulus for the display of micro shape of the surface and vibrating stimulus is more effective for the display of fine surface. And the sensitivities of active touch and passive touch are compared. Since kinesthetic force feedback is appropriate to display shape and stiffness of an object, but roughness display has a limitation of resolution, the concurrent providing methods of kinesthetic and tactile feedback are applied to simulate physical properties during touching an object.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.123-131
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• 2004

Purpose: This study was aimed to identify the effects of a ten-week stretching exercise program on physiological, psychological functions, and activities of daily living(ADL) among elderly women. Methods: Using a quasi-experimental design, the experimental group received a ten-week stretching exercise program 3 times a week from March to May in 2002. They were divided into 22 persons in the experimental groups in 2 halls where the program was incorporated, and 22 persons in the control group in 2 halls, where the program wasnot incorporated. Data was analyzed with descriptive statistics, the chi-square test, Fisher's Exact test, and ANCOVA was considered significant as a 2-tailed test. Results: There was a significant improvement in diastolic blood pressure(P=0.023), total cholesterol (P=0.019), triglycerides (P=0.002), spine ROM(P=0.000), trunk and hip-joint ROM(P=0.000), percent of body fat(P=0.039) as physiological functions, depression(P=0.041) as a psychological function, and activities of daily living(P=0.001) in the experimental group compared to the control group. Conclusion: A stretching exercise program showed good effects on improving physiological functions, psychological functions and activities of daily living among the elderly women in a city. Therefore, we recommend this program be utilized as a health promoting program for the elderly in the community.

• Advances in nano research
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.155-164
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• 2023

Grain size in sheet metals in one of the main parameters in determining formability. Grain size control in industry requires delicate process control and equipment. In the present study, effects of grain size on the formability of steel sheets is investigated. Experimental investigation of effect of grain size is a cumbersome method which due to existence of many other effective parameters are not conclusive in some cases. On the other hand, since the average grain size of a crystalline material is a statistical parameter, using traditional methods are not sufficient for find the optimum grain size to maximize formability. Therefore, design of experiment (DoE) and artificial intelligence (AI) methods are coupled together in this study to find the optimum conditions for formability in terms of grain size and to predict forming limits of sheet metals under bi-stretch loading conditions. In this regard, a set of experiment is conducted to provide initial data for training and testing DoE and AI. Afterwards, the using response surface method (RSM) optimum grain size is calculated. Moreover, trained neural network is used to predict formability in the calculated optimum condition and the results compared to the experimental results. The findings of the present study show that DoE and AI could be a great aid in the design, determination and prediction of optimum grain size for maximizing sheet formability.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.841-845
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• 2003

In order for engineered tissues to find clinical utility, the engineered tissues must function appropriately. However, smooth muscle (SM) tissues engineered in vitro with a conventional tissue engineering technique may not exhibit contractile functions, because smooth muscle cells (SMCs) cultured in vitro typically revert from a contractile, differentiated phenotype to a synthetic, nondifferentiated phenotype and lose their ability to contract. SMCs in vivo typically reside in mechanically dynamic environments. We hypothesized that cyclic mechanical stretch induces the features of SMCs in in vitro engineered tissues to be similar to those of SMCs in native tissues. To test the hypothesis, aortic SMCs were seeded onto elastic, three-dimensional scaffolds and cultured in vitro under a cyclic mechanical stretching condition for 4 weeks. A significant cell alignment in a direction parallel to the cyclic stretching direction was found in the SM tissues exposed to cyclic stretching. The cellular alignment and alignment direction were consistent with those of native vascular SM tissues, in which SMCs in vivo align in the radial direction (parallel to stretching direction). In control tissues (SM tissues engineered without stretching), cells randomly aligned. The expression of SM ${\alpha}-actin$ and SM myosin heavy chain, phenotypic markers of SMCs in a contractile state, was upregulated in the stretched tissues by 2.5- and 2.0-fold, respectively, compared to SMCs in the control tissues. The cellular features of alignment and contractile phenotype of SMCs in the SM tissues engineered under a mechanically dynamic environment could allow the engineered SM tissues to exhibit contractile functions.

• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.57-66
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• 1989

66 patients with temporomandibular disorders were selected for experimental group, and 45 normal subjects who were Dental students were selected for control group. Average age of experimental group was 30.5 years, Male to Female ratio was 2 : 3, and their age distribution were teen-ages to seventh decades. Transcranial radiography (TR) with Denar Accurad 100 was used for each group to get the values of width in joint spaces and to investigate the bony changes of articular surfaces and relative condylar position to articular fossa. In addition to TR, clinical interview and routine charting about amount of mandibular movements and occlusal variations were carried out in experimental group. The obtained results were as follows : 1. The mean values of joint space with in control group were 2.15mm to anterior, 2.98mm to superior and 2.29mm to posterior and the value of relative condylar position to the deepest portion of articular fossa was 0.21mm to anterior. In experimental group, those values were 2.01mm, 2.14mm 2.22mm and 0.12mm to posterior in sequence, respectively. Joint spaces in experimental group, therefore, were inclined to decreased, and relative condylar position was inclined to retrude. Joint space in control group showed symmetric condylar position, but in experimental group showed asymmetry. 2. Non-affected joints with no bony changes in experimental group showed the narrowest joint spaces which were thought to manifest the abnormal stress to non-affected side to dysfunctional state of contralateral affected joints. 3. Amount of mandibular movements in experimental group were within normal values in lateral movements and in protrusive movement but in opening movement with or without passive stretch, those were lower than normal values. Frequency of occlusal variation, for example, protrusive posterior contacts, open bite, median line shift to lateral side were inclined to increase with bony changes and with crepitus.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.19-29
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• 2020

Background: Stretch-oriented home exercise programs are often used as treatments for patients with adhesive capsulitis; however, there is lack of research on home exercise programs to strengthen rotator cuffs. Objects: The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of home exercise programs for rotator cuff strengthening on pain, range of motion (ROM), disability level, and quality of life in patients with adhesive capsulitis. Methods: Twenty-two patients with adhesive capsulitis volunteered to participate in this study. The subjects were randomly divided into an experimental group (n = 11) and control group (n = 11). For the experimental group, manual therapy and home exercise programs for rotator cuff strengthening were applied for 6 weeks; for the control group, only manual therapy was applied for 6 weeks. Shoulder pain (quadruple visual analogue scale, QVAS), ROM, disability (shoulder pain and disability index-Korean version, SPADI), and quality of life (world health organization quality of life scale-Korean version, WHOQOL-BREF) were evaluated at baseline, after 3 weeks, and after 6 weeks of intervention. The changes in the measurement variables were analyzed by using repeated measure analysis of variance. Results: Significant differences were observed between the experimental group and control group in the QVAS; SPADI-pain scores; SPADI-disability scores; SPADI-total scores; flexion, abduction, internal and external rotation ROM of the glenohumeral joint; and WHOQOL-BREF total, overall, physical health, and psychological scores. All groups displayed statistically significant improvements as observed in the QVAS, SPADI, flexion, abduction, external and internal rotation ROM of the glenohumeral joint, and WHOQOL-BREF. Conclusion: Home exercise programs for rotator cuff strengthening had a positive impact on shoulder pain, shoulder ROM, disability level, and quality of life in patients with adhesive capsulitis. Therefore, we propose the use of home exercise programs for rotator cuff strengthening in the exercise rehabilitation of patients with adhesive capsulitis.