• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.181-186
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• 2016

Cardiac angiography(CA) or cardiac intervention(CI) is one of the major examination methods applied to the detection of cardiovascular diseases using X-rays. These CA and CI procedures require radiation exposure to patients and physicians. We evaluated the radiation dose to cardiac operator during the each case of CA and CI procedures. The number of patients is 113 patients in CA and 34 patients in CI. Mean fluoroscopy time, mean cine time, and mean total cumulative dose area product(DAP) in patients during CA and CI was 165.9 sec vs. 1200.0 sec, 30.31 sec vs 107.5 sec, and $37130.3mGy.cm^2$ vs $213312.6mGy.cm^2$, respectively. Mean dose of thyroid, over chest apron and under chest apron in operator during CA and CI was 15.84 uSv vs 89.81 uSv, 20.16 uSv vs 123.20 uSv, and 0.30 uSv vs 2.40 uSv, respectively. Mean effective dose of operator during CI was about 6 times greater than during CA. Also there was significant inter-relationship between fluoroscopy or cine time and effective dose in operator during CA and CI(p=0.001 and p=0.001, respectively).

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.7-15
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• 2019

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to evaluate beam delivery accuracy for small sized lung SBRT through experiment. In order to assess the accuracy, Eclipse TPS(Treatment planning system) equipped Acuros XB and radiochromic film were used for the dose distribution. Comparing calculated and measured dose distribution, evaluated the margin for PTV(Planning target volume) in lung tissue. Materials and Methods : Acquiring CT images for Rando phantom, planned virtual target volume by size(diameter 2, 3, 4, 5 cm) in right lung. All plans were normalized to the target Volume=prescribed 95 % with 6MV FFF VMAT 2 Arc. To compare with calculated and measured dose distribution, film was inserted in rando phantom and irradiated in axial direction. The indexes of evaluation are percentage difference(%Diff) for absolute dose, RMSE(Root-mean-square-error) value for relative dose, coverage ratio and average dose in PTV. Results: The maximum difference at center point was -4.65 % in diameter 2 cm size. And the RMSE value between the calculated and measured off-axis dose distribution indicated that the measured dose distribution in diameter 2 cm was different from calculated and inaccurate compare to diameter 5 cm. In addition, Distance prescribed 95 % dose($D_{95}$) in diameter 2 cm was not covered in PTV and average dose value was lowest in all sizes. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that small sized PTV was not enough covered with prescribed dose in low density lung tissue. All indexes of experimental results in diameter 2 cm were much different from other sizes. It is showed that minimized PTV is not accurate and affects the results of radiation therapy. It is considered that extended margin at small PTV in low density lung tissue for enhancing target center dose is necessary and don't need to constraint Maximum dose in optimization.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.257-270
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• 2022

This study evaluated the hydraulic factors contributing to the decreasing groundwater levels across Jeju island. Time-series data for groundwater level, precipitation, and groundwater usage and information on land use were acquired, and the correlations among them were analyzed to evaluate the causes of the decreasing groundwater. The effects of precipitation and groundwater usage on the fluctuations of groundwater level were quantified using response surface analysis and sensitivity analysis, and methods for groundwater quantity management by region were proposed. The results showed that the rate of groundwater decrease in the western region was larger than that in the eastern region. For the eastern region, the influence of precipitation was large and the rate of decrease in the groundwater level was relatively small. The geological formation of this part of the island and continuous seawater intrusion suggest that although the absolute amount of groundwater extracted for use was large, the decrease in the groundwater level was not seen to be great due to an increase in pressure by seawater intrusion. Overall, precipitation and groundwater usage had the greatest effect on the amount of groundwater in the western region, and thus their data would be most useful for informing groundwater management, whereas other factors (e.g., sea level and the location of the freshwater-seawater transition zone) must be considered when understanding Jeju's eastern region. As the characteristics of groundwater level fluctuations in the eastern and western regions are distinct, an optimal management plan for each region should be proposed to ensure the efficient management of groundwater quantity.

• Journal of Appropriate Technology
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.127-135
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• 2021

To respond to the threat of global warming, countries around the world are promoting the spread of renewable energy and reduction of carbon emissions. In accordance with the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goal to combat climate change and its impacts, global automakers are pushing for a full transition to electric vehicles within the next 10 years. Electric vehicles can be a useful means for reducing carbon emissions, but in order to reduce carbon generated in the stage of producing electricity for charging, a power generation system using eco-friendly renewable energy is required. In this study, we propose a smart electric mobility operating system integrated with off-grid solar power plants established in Tanzania, Africa. By applying smart monitoring and communication functions based on Arduino-based computing devices, information such as remaining battery capacity, battery status, location, speed, altitude, and road conditions of an electric vehicle or electric motorcycle is monitored. In addition, we present a scenario that communicates with the surrounding independent solar power plant infrastructure to predict the drivable distance and optimize the charging schedule and route to the destination. The feasibility of the proposed system was verified through test runs of electric motorcycles. In considering local environmental characteristics in Tanzania for the operation of the electric mobility system, factors such as eco-friendliness, economic feasibility, ease of operation, and compatibility should be weighed. The smart electric mobility operating system proposed in this study can be an important basis for implementing the SDGs' climate change response.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.373-379
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• 2022

The radiation source used for non-destructive testing have permeability and cause a scattered radiation through collisions of surrounding materials, which causes changes in the surrounding spatial dose. Therefore, this study attempted to evaluate and analyze the distribution of spatial dose by source in the working environment during the non-destructive test using monte carlo simulation. In this study, Using FLUKA, a simulation code, simulates ⁶⁰Co, ¹⁹²Ir, and ⁷⁵Se source used in non-destructive testing, The reliability of the source term was secured by comparing the calculated dose rate with the data of the Health and Physics Association. After that, a non-destructive test in the radiation safety facility(RT-room) was designed to evaluate the spatial dose according to the distance from the source. As a result of the spatial dose evaluation, ⁷⁵Se source showed the lowest dose distribution in the frontal position and ⁶⁰Co source showed a dose rate of about 15 times higher than that of ⁷⁵Se and about 2 times higher than that of ¹⁹²Ir. In addition, the spatial dose according to the distance tends to decrease according to the distance inverse square law as the distance from the source increases. Exceptionally, ⁶⁰Co, ¹⁹²Ir, and ⁷⁵Se sources confirmed a slight increase within 2 m of position. Based on the results of this study, it is believed that it will be used as supplementary data for safety management of workers in radiation safety facilities during non-destructive testing using radioactive isotopes.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.167-176
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• 2022

We designed a borehole deviation survey tool applicable for steel-cased holes, K-DEV, and developed a prototype for a depth of 500 m aiming to development of own equipment required to secure deep subsurface characterization technologies. K-DEV is equipped with sensors that provide digital output with verified high performance; moreover, it is also compatible with logging winch systems used in Korea. The K-DEV prototype has a nonmagnetic stainless steel housing with an outer diameter of 48.3 mm, which has been tested in the laboratory for water resistance up to 20 MPa and for durability by running into a 1-km deep borehole. We confirmed the operational stability and data repeatability of the prototype by constantly logging up and down to the depth of 600 m. A high-precision micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) gyroscope was used for the K-DEV prototype as the gyro sensor, which is crucial for azimuth determination in cased holes. Additionally, we devised an accurate trajectory survey algorithm by employing Unscented Kalman filtering and data fusion for optimization. The borehole test with K-DEV and a commercial logging tool produced sufficiently similar results. Furthermore, the issue of error accumulation due to drift over time of the MEMS gyro was successfully overcome by compensating with stationary measurements for the same attitude at the wellhead before and after logging, as demonstrated by the nearly identical result to the open hole. We believe that the methodology of K-DEV development and operational stability, as well as the data reliability of the prototype, were confirmed through these test applications.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.490-496
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• 1998

Purpose: We evaluated brain perfusion SPECT findings of MELAS syndrome and mitochondrial myopathy in correlation with MR imaging in search of specific imaging features. Materials and Methods: Subjects were five patients (four females and one male; age range, 1 to 25 year) who presented with repeated stroke-like episodes, seizures or developmental delay or asymptomatic but had elevated lactic acid in CSF and serum. Conventional non-contrast MR imaging and Tc-99m-ethyl cysteinate dimer (ECD) brain perfusion SPECT were Performed and imaging features were analyzed. Results: MRI demonstrated increased T2 signal intensities in the affected areas of gray and white matters mainly in the parietal (4/5) and occipital lobes (4/5) and in the basal ganglia (1/5), which were not restricted to a specific vascular territory. SPECT demonstrated decreased perfusion in the corresponding regions of MRI lesions. In addition, there were perfusion defects in parietal (1 patient), temporal (2), and frontal (1) lobes and basal ganglia (1) and thalami (2). In a patient with mitochondrial myopathy who had normal MRI, decreased perfusion was noted in left parietal area and bilateral thalami. Conclusion: Tc-99m ECD SPECT imaging in patients with MELAS syndrome and mitochondrial myopathy showed hypoperfusion of parieto-occipital cortex, basal ganglia, thalamus and temporal cortex, which were not restricted to a specific vascular territory. There were no specific imaging features on SPECT. The significance of abnormal perfusion on SPECT without corresponding MR abnormalities needs to be evaluated further in larger number of patients.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.259-267
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• 2004

Purpose: NEMA NU2-2001 was proposed as a new standard for performance evaluation of whole body PET scanners. in this study, system performance of Siemens CTI ECAT EXACT 47 PET scanner including spatial resolution, sensitivity, scatter fraction, and count rate performance in 2D and 3D mode was evaluated using this new standard method. Methods: ECAT EXACT 47 is a BGO crystal based PET scanner and covers an axial field of view (FOV) of 16.2 cm. Retractable septa allow 2D and 3D data acquisition. All the PET data were acquired according to the NEMA NU2-2001 protocols (coincidence window: 12 ns, energy window: $250{\sim}650$ keV). For the spatial resolution measurement, F-18 point source was placed at the center of the axial FOV((a) x=0, and y=1, (b)x=0, and y=10, (c)x=70, and y=0cm) and a position one fourth of the axial FOV from the center ((a) x=0, and y=1, (b)x=0, and y=10, (c)x=10, and y=0cm). In this case, x and y are transaxial horizontal and vertical, and z is the scanner's axial direction. Images were reconstructed using FBP with ramp filter without any post processing. To measure the system sensitivity, NEMA sensitivity phantom filled with F-18 solution and surrounded by $1{\sim}5$ aluminum sleeves were scanned at the center of transaxial FOV and 10 cm offset from the center. Attenuation free values of sensitivity wire estimated by extrapolating data to the zero wall thickness. NEMA scatter phantom with length of 70 cm was filled with F-18 or C-11solution (2D: 2,900 MBq, 3D: 407 MBq), and coincidence count rates wire measured for 7 half-lives to obtain noise equivalent count rate (MECR) and scatter fraction. We confirmed that dead time loss of the last flame were below 1%. Scatter fraction was estimated by averaging the true to background (staffer+random) ratios of last 3 frames in which the fractions of random rate art negligibly small. Results: Axial and transverse resolutions at 1cm offset from the center were 0.62 and 0.66 cm (FBP in 2D and 3D), and 0.67 and 0.69 cm (FBP in 2D and 3D). Axial, transverse radial, and transverse tangential resolutions at 10cm offset from the center were 0.72 and 0.68 cm (FBP in 2D and 3D), 0.63 and 0.66 cm (FBP in 2D and 3D), and 0.72 and 0.66 cm (FBP in 2D and 3D). Sensitivity values were 708.6 (2D), 2931.3 (3D) counts/sec/MBq at the center and 728.7 (2D, 3398.2 (3D) counts/sec/MBq at 10 cm offset from the center. Scatter fractions were 0.19 (2D) and 0.49 (3D). Peak true count rate and NECR were 64.0 kcps at 40.1 kBq/mL and 49.6 kcps at 40.1 kBq/mL in 2D and 53.7 kcps at 4.76 kBq/mL and 26.4 kcps at 4.47 kBq/mL in 3D. Conclusion: Information about the performance of CTI ECAT EXACT 47 PET scanner reported in this study will be useful for the quantitative analysis of data and determination of optimal image acquisition protocols using this widely used scanner for clinical and research purposes.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.43-50
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• 2014

In case of all patients who receive radiation therapy, a treatment plan is established and all steps of treatment are planned in the same geometrical condition. In case of head and neck cancer patients who undergo simulated treatment through computed tomography (CT), patients are fixed onto a table for planning, but laid on the top of the treatment table in the radiation therapy room. This study excogitated and fabricated an adjustable holder for head and neck cancer patients to fix patient's position and geometrical discrepancies when performing radiation therapy on head and neck cancer patients, and compared the error before and after adjusting the position of patients due to difference in weight to evaluate the correlation between patients' weight and range of error. Computed tomography system(High Advantage, GE, USA) is used for phantom to maintain the supine position to acquire the images of the therapy site for IMRT. IMRT 4MV X-rays was used by applying the LINAC(21EX, Varian, U.S.A). Treatment planning system (Pinnacle, ver. 9.1h, Philips, Madison, USA) was used. The setup accuracy was compared with each measurement was repeated five times for each weight (0, 15, and 30Kg) and CBCT was performed 30 times to find the mean and standard deviation of errors before and after the adjustment of each weight. SPSS ver.19.0(SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL,USA) statistics program was used to perform the Wilcoxon Rank test for significance evaluation and the Spearman analysis was used as the tool to analyze the significance evaluation of the correlation of weight. As a result of measuring the error values from CBCT before and after adjusting the position due to the weight difference, X,Y,Z axis was $0.4{\pm}0.8mm$, $0.8{\pm}0.4mm$, 0 for 0Kg before the adjustment. In 15Kg CBCT before and after adjusting the position due to the weight difference, X,Y,Z axis was $0.2{\pm}0.8mm$, $1.2{\pm}0.4mm$, $2.0{\pm}0.4mm$. After adjusting position was X,Y,Z axis was $0.2{\pm}0.4mm$, $0.4{\pm}0.5mm$, $0.4{\pm}0.5mm$. In 30Kg CBCT before and after adjusting the position due to the weight difference, X,Y,Z axis was $0.8{\pm}0.4mm$, $2.4{\pm}0.5mm$, $4.4{\pm}0.8mm$. After adjusting position was X,Y,Z axis was $0.6{\pm}0.5mm$, $1.0{\pm}0mm$, $0.6{\pm}0.5mm$. When the holder for the head and neck cancer was used to adjust the ab.0ove error value, the error values from CBCT were $0.2{\pm}0.8mm$ for the X axis, $0.40{\pm}0.54mm$ for Y axis, and 0 for Z axis. As a result of statistically analyzing each value before and after the adjustment the value was significant with p<0.034 at the Z axis with 15Kg of weight and with p<0.038 and p<0.041 at the Y and Z axes respectively with 30Kg of weight. There was a significant difference with p<0.008 when the analysis was performed through Kruscal-Wallis in terms of the difference in the adjusted values of the three weight groups. As it could reduce the errors, patients' reproduction could be improved for more precise and accurate radiation therapy. Development of an adjustable device for head and neck cancer patients is significant because it improves the reproduction of existing equipment by reducing the errors in patients' position.