• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.270-279
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• 2005

Under the research project supported by Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), we have conducted the development of GPR systems for landmine detection. Until 2005, we have finished development of two prototype GPR systems, namely ALIS (Advanced Landmine Imaging System) and SAR-GPR (Synthetic Aperture Radar-Ground Penetrating Radar). ALIS is a novel landmine detection sensor system combined with a metal detector and GPR. This is a hand-held equipment, which has a sensor position tracking system, and can visualize the sensor output in real time. In order to achieve the sensor tracking system, ALIS needs only one CCD camera attached on the sensor handle. The CCD image is superimposed with the GPR and metal detector signal, and the detection and identification of buried targets is quite easy and reliable. Field evaluation test of ALIS was conducted in December 2004 in Afghanistan, and we demonstrated that it can detect buried antipersonnel landmines, and can also discriminate metal fragments from landmines. SAR-GPR (Synthetic Aperture Radar-Ground Penetrating Radar) is a machine mounted sensor system composed of B GPR and a metal detector. The GPR employs an array antenna for advanced signal processing for better subsurface imaging. SAR-GPR combined with synthetic aperture radar algorithm, can suppress clutter and can image buried objects in strongly inhomogeneous material. SAR-GPR is a stepped frequency radar system, whose RF component is a newly developed compact vector network analyzers. The size of the system is 30cm x 30cm x 30 cm, composed from six Vivaldi antennas and three vector network analyzers. The weight of the system is 17 kg, and it can be mounted on a robotic arm on a small unmanned vehicle. The field test of this system was carried out in March 2005 in Japan.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.417-426
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• 2002

Inductively Coupled Plasma Dynamic Reaction Cell Quadrupole Mass Spectrometry (ICP-DRC-QMS) was characterized for the detection of the six naturally occurring calcium isotopes. The effect of the operating conditions of the DRC system was studied to get the best signal-to-noise ratio. This experiment shows that the potentially interfering ions such as $Ar^+$, ${CO_2}^+$, ${NO_2}^+$, $CNO^+$ at the calcium masses m/z 40, 42, 43, 44 and 48 were removed by flowing $NH_3$ gas at the rate of 0.7 mL/min $NH_3$ as reactive cell gas in the DRC with a RPq value (rejection parameter) of 0.6. The limits of detection for $^{40}Ca$, $^{42}Ca$, $^{43}Ca$, $^{44}Ca$, and $^{48}Ca$ were 1, 29, 169, 34, and 15 pg/mL, respectively. This method was applied to the determination of calcium in synthetic food digest samples (CCQM-P13) provided by LGC for international comparison. The isotope dilution method was used for the determination of calcium in the samples. The uncertainty evaluation was performed according to the ISO/GUM and EURACHEM guidelines. The determined mean concentration and its expanded uncertainty of calcium was ($66.4{\pm}1.2$) mg/kg. In order to assess our method, two reference samples, Riverine Water reference sample (NRCC SLRS-3) and Trace Elements in Water reference sample (NIST SRM 1643d), were analyzed.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.51-59
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• 2010

We developed an analysis software that automatically detects incoming isotopes for multi-purpose gamma-ray detectors. The software is divided into three major parts; Network Interface Module (NIM), Spectrum Analysis Module (SAM), and Graphic User Interface Module (GUIM). The main part is SAM that extracts peak information of energy spectrum from the collected data through network and identifies the isotopes by comparing the peaks with pre-calibrated libraries. The proposed peak detection algorithm was utilized to construct libraries of standard isotopes with two peaks and to identify the unknown isotope with the constructed libraries. We tested the software by using GammaPro1410 detector developed by NuCare Medical Systems. The results showed that NIM performed 200K counts per seconds and the most isotopes tested were correctly recognized within 1% error range when only a single unknown isotope was used for detection test. The software is expected to be used for radiation monitoring in various applications such as hospitals, power plants, and research facilities etc.