• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.205-214
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• 2014

Purpose: Phytosanitary irradiation treatment can effectively control regulated pests while maintaining produce quality. The objective of this study was to establish the best irradiation treatment for mangosteen, a popular tropical fruit, using a Monte Carlo simulation. Methods: Magnetic resonance image (MRI) data were used to generate a 3-D geometry to simulate dose distributions in a mangosteen using a radiation transport code (MCNP5). Microsoft Excel with visual basic application (VBA) was used to divide the image data into seed, flesh, and rind. Radiation energies used for the simulation were 10 MeV (high-energy) and 1.35 MeV (low-energy) for the electron beam, 5 MeV for X-rays, and 1.25 MeV for gamma rays from Co-60. Results: At 5 MeV X-rays and 1.25 MeV gamma rays, all areas (seeds, flesh, and rind) were irradiated ranging from 0.3 ~ 0.7 kGy. The average doses decreased as the number of fruit increased. For a 10 MeV electron beam, the dose distribution was biased: the dose for the rind where the electrons entered was $0.45{\pm}0.03$ kGy and the other side was $0.24 {\pm}0.10$ kGy. Use of an electron kinetic energy absorber improved the dose distribution in mangosteens. For the 1.35 MeV electron beam, the dose was shown only in the rind on the irradiated side; no significant dose was found in the flesh or seeds. One rotation of the fruit while in front of the beam improved the dose distribution around the entire rind. Conclusion: These results are invaluable for determining the ideal irradiation conditions for phytosanitary irradiation treatment of tropical fruit.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.1037-1048
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• 2022

A radioactive isotope identification algorithm is a prerequisite for a low-resolution scintillation detector applied to an unmanned radiation monitoring system. In this paper, a sparse representation with dictionary learning approach is proposed and applied to plastic gamma-ray spectra. Label-consistent K-SVD was used to learn a discriminative dictionary for the spectra corresponding to a mixture of four isotopes (¹³³Ba, ²²Na, ¹³⁷Cs, and ⁶⁰Co). A Monte Carlo simulation was employed to produce the simulated data as learning samples. Experimental measurement was conducted to obtain practical spectra. After determining the hyper parameters, two dictionaries tailored to the learning samples were tested by varying with the source position and the measurement time. They achieved average accuracies of 97.6% and 98.0% for all testing spectra. The average accuracy of each dictionary was above 96% for spectra measured over 2 s. They also showed acceptable performance when the spectra were artificially shifted. Thus, the proposed method could be useful for identifying radioisotopes in gamma-ray spectra from a plastic scintillation detector even when a dictionary is adapted to only simulated data. Furthermore, owing to the outstanding properties of sparse representation, the proposed approach can easily be built into an insitu monitoring system.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2017.06a
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• pp.240-240
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• 2017

Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) is one of the ancient crops cultivated in the Andes region at an altitude of 3,500-4000m in Chile and Bolivia from 5000 BC. It contains a large amount of protein, minerals and vitamins in comparison with other crops. The cultivation area has been increasing worldwide because of its excellent resistance to various abiotic stress such as salinity, drought and low temperature. ${\gamma}$-Ray radiation of high dose is often used as a tool to induce mutations in plant breeding, but it has a deleterious effect on organisms. However, the radiation may have a positive stimulatory effect of 'hormesis' in the low dose range. This experiment was carried out to investigate the optimum dose range for creating the quinoa genetic resources and to investigate the hormesis effect at low dose on the quinoa. This experiment was performed for 120 days from November, 2016 to February, 2017 in the greenhouse of Gyeongsang National University. ${\gamma}$-Ray radiation was irradiated to seeds at 0 Gy, 50 Gy, 100 Gy, 200 Gy, 300 Gy, 400 Gy, 600 Gy, 800 Gy and 1000 Gy for 8 hours. (50 Gy) using the low level radiation facility ($Co^{60}$) of Cooperative Research Institute of Radiation Research Institute, KAERI. Fifty seeds were placed on each petri dish lined with wet filter paper and germination rate was measured at a time interval of 2 hours for 40 hrs. The length of the root length was measured one week after germination. Each treatment was carried out in 3 replicates. The growth of seedlings were investigated for 10 days after transplanting of 30 day-old seedlings. The plant height, NDVI, SPAD, Fv/Fm, and panicle weight were measured. The germination rate was highest at 50Gy and 0Gy and the rate of seeds treated with 400Gy or higher rate decreased to 25% of the seeds treated with 50Gy. The emergence rate of seedling in pot experiment was higher at the dose of 200 Gy, 300 Gy and 400 Gy than at 0 and 50Gy. However, the rate was lower at strong radiation higher than 600Gy at which $1^{st}$ leaf was not expanded fully and dead due to extreme overgrowth at 44 days after treatment (DAT). The highest value of panicle weight was observed at 50Gy (6.15g) and 100Gy (5.57g). On the other hand, the weight at high irradiated dose of 300Gy and 400Gy was decreased by about 55% compared to low dose (50 Gy). NDVI measurement also showed the highest value at 50 Gy as the growth progressed. SPAD was the highest at 400 Gy and showed positive correlation with irradiation dose except 0 Gy. Fv/Fm was high at 50 Gy up to 30 DAT and no difference between treatments was observed except for 400 Gy from 44 DAT. The plant height was the highest in 50Gy during the growing period and was higher in the order of 50Dy, 100Gy, 0Gy, 200Gy, 300Gy and 400Gy in 88 DAT. In this experiment, the optimal radiation dose for hormesis was 50Gy and 100Gy, and the optimal radiation dose for mutagenesis seems to be 400 Gy.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.35-42
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• 1993

The dose response of the number of micronuclei in cytokinesis-blocked (CB) lymphocytes after in vitro irradiation with $\gamma$-rays and neutrons in the 5 dose ranges was studied for a heterogeneous population of 4 donors. One thousand binucleated cells were systematically scored for micronuclei. Measurements performed after irradiation showed a dose-dependent increase in micronuclei (MN) frequency in each of the donors studied. The dose-response curves were analyzed by a linear-quadratic model, frequencies per 1000 CB cells were ($0.31{\pm}0.049$)D+($0.0022{\pm}0.0002)D^2+(13.19{\pm}1.854) (r^2=1.000,\;X^2=0.7074,\;p=0.95$) following $\gamma$ irradiation, and ($0.99{\pm}0.528$)\;D+(0.0093{\pm}0.0047)\;D^2+(13.31{\pm}7.309)\;(r^2=0.996,\;X^2=7.6834,\;p=0.11) following neutrons irradiation (D is irradiation dose in cGy). The relative biological effectiveness (RBE) of neutrons compared with $\gamma$-rays was estimated by best fitting linear-quadratic model. In the micronuclei frequency between 0.05 and 0.8 per cell, the RBE of neutrons was $2.37{\pm}0.17$. Since the MN assay is simple and rapid, it may be a good tool for evaluating the $\gamma$-ray and neutron response.

• The Microorganisms and Industry
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.34-41
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• 1993

Industrial strain improvement is concerned with developing or modifying microorganisms used in production of commercially important fermentation products. The aim is to reduce the production cost by improving productivity of a strain and manipulating specific characteristics such as the ability to utilize cheaper raw materials or resist bacteriophages. The traditional empirical approach to strain improvement is mutation combined with selection and breeding techniques. It is still used by us to improve the productivity of organisms in amino acids, organic acids and enzymes production. The breeding of high L-lysine-producing strain Au112 is one of the outstanding examples of this approach. It is a homoserine auxotroph with AEC, TA double metabolic analogue resistant markers. The yield reaches 100 g/l. Besides, the citric acid-producing organism Aspergillus niger, Co827, its productivity reaches the advanced level in the world, is also the result of a series mutations especially with $^60Co{\gamma}$-radiation. The thermostable .alpha.-amylase producing strain A 4041 is the third example. By combining physical and chemical mutations, the strain A 4041 becomes an asporogenous, catabolite derepressed mutant with rifamycin resistant and methionine, arginine auxotroph markers. The .alpha.-amylase activity reaches 200 units/ml. The fourth successful example of mutation in strain improvement is the glucoamylase-producing strain Aspergillus niger SP56, its enzyme activity is 20,000 units/ml, 4 times of that of the parental strain UV-11. Recently, recombinant DNA approach provides a worthwhile alternative strategy to industrial strain improvement. This technique had been used by us to increase the thermostable .alpha.-amylase production and on some genetic researches.

• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.371-375
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• 2009

Electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy was used to detect radiation-induced signals from irradiated spices and ESR parameters were analyzed to define specific signals. Four powdered spices (red pepper, garlic, onion, and black pepper) were irradiated with 0, 1, 5, or 10 kGy at room temperature using a [60Co] gamma-ray irradiator prior to ESR analysis. Radiation-induced triplet signals, including those from the cellulose radical, which are center signals ($g_2=2.00673$) within the range of 3.0455 mT, were observed in all irradiated spice samples. The parameters g-value, center field, and signal range of hyperfine triplet ESR signals were constant in all irradiated samples, being specific for cellulose radicals and thereby distinguishing these signals from those of nonirradiated control samples. High positive correlation coefficients ($R^2=0.8452-0.9854$) were obtained between irradiation doses and corresponding ESR signal intensities. Thus, reliable detection of irradiated dried spices by measurement of ESR cellulose signals was confirmed by parameter analysis for the cellulose radical.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Medical Physics Conference
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• 2002.09a
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• pp.241-243
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• 2002

New types of protocols have been recently in development, all based on an absorbed dose-to-water with the aim of improving the accuracy of measurements of absorbed dose to water. IAEA TRS-277, the air-kerma standard-based present protocol, and IAEA TRS-398 and AAPM TG-51, the absorbed dose-to-water standard-based new one, were studied and compared theoretically and experimentally for photon beams of 6, 10, and 15 MV. NE 2571 and 3 Farmer types of ionization chambers in widely commercial use were used to determine an absorbed dose to water at the reference depth in water. Two different kinds of calibration factors were given respectively for every chamber calibrated in $\^$60/CO gamma ray beams from a Korean Secondary Standard Dosimetry Laboratory (KFDA). This work shows that there is around 1 % of difference of absorbed doses measured between two different types of calibration systems owing to different physical parameters and reference conditions used. We hope this work to help form the basis on development of new type of protocol in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.19-24
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• 2001

Agricultural pesticides may cause certain biological risks since they are widely used to eradicate pests. Agricultural disasters may arise even from the possibility of their synergistic interaction with other harmful enviromnetal factors. The effect of pesticide on radiation-induced DNA damage in human blood lymphocytes was evaluated by the single cell gel electrophoresis (SCGE) assay. The lymphocytes, with or without pretreatment of the pesticide, were exposed to 0-2.0 Gy of $^60 CO$ gamma ray. Significantly increased tail moment, which was a marker of DNA strand breaks in SCGE assay, showed an excellent dose-response relationship. The present study confirms that the pesticide has the cytotoxic effect on lymphocytes and that it shows the synergistic interaction with radiation on DNA damage as well. The results may have a role of providing biological information necessary for the prevention of environmental disaster.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.99-104
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• 2001

To determine if micronucleus (MN) assay could be used to predict the absorbed dose of victims after accidental radiation exposure, we carried out to assess the absorbed dose depending on the numerical changes of MN in human peripheral blood lymphocytes after $^{60}Co\;{\gamma}-rays$ exposure in the range of 0.25 to 1 Gy, respectively. The MNs were observed at very low doses, and the numerical changes according to doses. Satisfactory dose-effect calibration curve is observed after low dose irradiation of human lymphocytes in vitro. When plotting on a linear scale against radiation dose, the line of best fit was $Y=(0.02{\pm}0.0009)+(0.033{\pm}0.010)D+(0.012{\pm}0.012)D^2$. The dose-response curve for MN induction immediately after irradiation was linear-quadratic and has a significant relationship between the frequencies of MN and dose. These data show a trend towards increase of the numbers of MN with increasing dose. The number of MN in lymphocytes that were observed in the control group is $0.1610{\pm}0.0093/cell$. Accordingly, MN assay in human peripheral lymphocytes could be a useful in viva model for studying radio-protective drug sensitivity or screening test, microdosimertic indicator and radiation-induced target organ injury. Since MN assay is simple, rapid and reproducible, it will also be a biodosimetric indicator for individual dose assessment after accidental exposure.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.42 no.11
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• pp.981-987
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• 2014

DC/DC switching power converters are commonly used to generate a regulated DC output voltage with high efficiency. The DC/DC converter is composed of a MOSFET (metal-oxide semiconductor field effect transistor), a PWM-IC (pulse width modulation-integrated circuit) controller, inductor, capacitor, etc. It is shown that the variation of threshold voltage and the breakdown voltage in the electrical characteristics of MOSFET occurs by radiation effects in TID (Total Ionizing Dose) testing at the low energy ${\gamma}$ rays using $^{60}Co$, and 5 heavy ions make the gate of MOSFET broken in SEGR (Single Event Gate Rupture) testing. TID testing on MOSFET is accomplished up to the total dose of 40 krad, and the cross section($cm^2$) versus LET(MeV/mg/$cm^2$) in the MOSFET operation is studied at SEGR testing after implementation of the controller board.