• Journal of Ginseng Research
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.469-476
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• 2012

Raw ginseng root of Panax ginseng is graded according to its shape and the quality of its internal tissue. A variety of grades are sold with prices according to grade. If an inferior raw ginseng is purchased, the consumer experience an economic loss. This research was conducted in order to explore the possibility of developing a noninvasive method for investigating raw ginseng's internal tissue. It has been determined that computed tomography (CT) scanner images agreed with actual cross-sections of raw ginseng. CT images were obtained to assess the internal portions of raw ginseng, and CT scans of raw ginseng were thoroughly measured using the Hounsfield unit (HU) system, since it allows for a more detailed analysis compared to nuclear magnetic resonance imaging. HU is a measure of attenuation used for CT images, with each pixel being assigned a value using a scale on which air is defined as -1000, water as 0 and compact bone as +1000. It takes about one second to process are slice and produce an image of the raw ginseng by a one channel CT scanner. An image good enough to discriminate the internal tissues can be obtained in 1/24 seconds with a one-channel CT scanner. Using this method, images of raw ginseng can be obtained and the characteristics of the internal tissues can be observed in a short time.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.86-90
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• 2012

Purpose: Quantification of myocardial blood flow (MBF) using dynamic PET imaging has the potential to assess coronary artery disease. Rb-82 plays a key role in the clinical assessment of myocardial perfusion using PET. However, MBF could be overestimated due to the underestimation of left ventricular input function in the beginning of the acquisition when the scanner has non-linearity between count rate and activity concentration due to the scanner dead-time. Therefore, in this study, we evaluated the count rate linearity as a function of the activity concentration in PET data acquired in list mode. Materials & methods: A cylindrical phantom (diameter, 12 cm length, 10.5 cm) filled with 296 MBq F-18 solution and 800 mL of water was used to estimate the linearity of the Biograph 40 True Point PET/CT scanner. PET data was acquired with 10 min per frame of 1 bed duration in list mode for different activity concentration levels in 7 half-lives. The images were reconstructed by OSEM and FBP algorithms. Prompt, net true and random counts of PET data according to the activity concentration were measured. Total and background counts were measured by drawing ROI on the phantom images and linearity was measured using background correction. Results: The prompt count rates in list mode were linearly increased proportionally to the activity concentration. At a low activity concentration (<30 kBq/mL), the prompt net true and random count rates were increased with the activity concentration. At a high activity concentration (>30 kBq/mL), the increasing rate of the prompt net true rates was slightly decreased while the increasing rate of random counts was increased. There was no difference in the image intensity linearity between OSEM and FBP algorithms. Conclusion: The Biograph 40 True Point PET/CT scanner showed good linearity of count rate even at a high activity concentration (~370 kBq/mL).The result indicates that the scanner is useful for the quantitative analysis of data in heart dynamic studies using Rb-82, N-13, O-15 and F-18.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.33 no.9
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• pp.930-937
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• 2009

The estimation method of the fracture resistance curve for the pipe specimen was proposed using the load ratio method for the standard specimen. For this, the calculation method of the load - CMOD curve for the pipe specimen with the common format equation(CFE) was proposed by using data of the CT specimen. The proposed method agreed well with experimental data. The J-integral value and the crack extension were calculated from the estimated load - CMOD data. The fracture resistance curve was estimated from the calculated J-integral and the crack extension. From these results, it have been seen that the proposed method is reliable to estimate the J-R curve of the pipe specimen.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.165-175
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• 2017

Nuclear medicine imaging is widely used in pain medicine. Low back pain is commonly encountered by physicians, with its prevalence from 49% to 70%. Computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are usually used to evaluate the cause of low back pain, however, these findings from these scans could also be observed in asymptomatic patients. Bone scintigraphy has an additional value in patients with low back pain. Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is defined as a painful disorder of the extremities, which is characterized by sensory, autonomic, vasomotor, and trophic disturbances. To assist the diagnosis of CRPS, three-phase bone scintigraphy is thought to be superior compared to other modalities, and could be used to rule out CRPS due to its high specificity. Studies regarding the effect of bone scintigraphy in patients with extremity pain have not been widely conducted. Ultrasound, CT and MRI are widely used imaging modalities for evaluating extremity pain. However, SPECT/CT has an additional role in assessing pain in the extremities.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers A
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.275-278
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• 2001

This paper presents an algorithm for detecting current transformer (CT) saturation. At the instants of beginning (or end) of saturation, as a magnetizing inductance of the core is changed significantly, the shapes of the secondary current are also changed significantly though secondary currents are continuous the instants. At the instants, the second-order of third-order difference of the secondary current has big values. Thus, the third difference of the current is used to detect the beginning/end of CT saturation in this paper. If the magnitude of third-order difference of the secondary current is larger than a threshold value, the CT begins of ends saturation at the instants. The proposed detection method is unaffected by the amount of residual flux. The results of various tests with residual flux from -80% to +80% indicate satisfactory performance of the method.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.185-193
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• 2007

This review focuses on the use of $^{18}F-FDG$ PET/CT to evaluate second primary cancers. The emergence of a second primary cancer is an important prognostic factor in cancer patients. The early detection of a second primary cancer and the appropriate treatment are essential for reducing the morbidity and mortality associated with these tumors. Integrated $^{18}F-FDG$ PET/CT, which can provide both the metabolic and anatomic information of a cancer, has been shown to have a better accuracy in oncology than either CT or conventional PET. The whole body coverage and high sensitivity of $^{18}F-FDG$ PET/CT along with its ability to provide both metabolic and anatomic information of a cancer make it suitable for evaluating a second primary cancer in oncology. Whole body $^{18}F-FDG$ PET/CT is useful for screening second primary cancers with a high sensitivity and good positive predictive value. In order to rule out the presence of a second primary cancer or an unexpected metastasis, further diagnostic work-up is essential when abnormal findings indicative of a second primary cancer are found on the PET/CT images. PET/CT is better in detecting a second primary tumor than conventional PET.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.9 no.12
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• pp.1588-1595
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• 2006

In this paper, we proposed a liver extracting procedure for computer aided liver diagnosis system. Extraction of liver region in an abdominal CT image is difficult due to interferences of other organs. For this reason, liver region is extracted in a region of interest(ROI). ROI is selected by the window which can measure the distribution of Hounsfield Unit(HU) value of liver region in an abdominal CT image. The distribution is measured by an existential probability of HU value of lever region in the window. If the probability of any window is over 50%, the center point of the window would be assigned to ROI. Actually, liver region is not clearly discerned from the adjacent organs like muscle, spleen, and pancreas in an abdominal CT image. Liver region is extracted by the watershed segmentation algorithm which is effective in this situation. Because it is very sensitive to the slight valiance of contrast, it generally produces over segmentation regions. Therefore these regions are required to merge into the significant regions for optimal segmentation. Finally, a liver region can be selected and extracted by prier information based on anatomic information.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.797-802
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• 2015

Background: The purpose of this study was to prospectively evaluate the predictive value of perfusion computed tomography (CT) for response of local advanced esophageal carcinoma to radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Materials and Methods: Before any treatment, forty-three local advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinomas were prospectively evaluated by perfusion scan with 16-row CT from June 2009 to January 2012. Perfusion parameters, including perfusion (BF), peak enhanced density (PED), blood volume (BV), and time to peak (TTP) were measured using Philips perfusion software. Seventeen cases received definitive radiotherapy and 26 received concurrent chemo-radiotherapy. The response was evaluated by CT scan and esophagography. Differences in perfusion parameters between responders and non-responders were analyzed, and ROCs were used to assess predictive value of the baseline parameters for treatment response. Results: There were 25 responders (R) and 18 non-responders (NR). Responders showed significantly higher BF (R:34.1 ml/100g/min vs NR: 25.0 ml/100g/min, p=0.001), BV (23.2 ml/100g vs 18.3 ml/100g, p=0.009) and PED (32.5 HU vs 28.32HU, P=0.003) than non-responders. But the baseline TTP (R: 38.2s vs NR: 44.10s, p=0.172) had no difference in the two groups. For baseline BF, a threshold of 36.1 ml/100g/min achieved a sensitivity of 56%, and a specificity of 94.4% for detection of clinical responders from non-responders. Conclusions: The results suggest that the perfusion CT can provide some helpful information for identifying tumors that may respond to radio-chemotherapy.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.165-171
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• 2021

Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of collimator width on effective atomic number (EAN), relative electron density (RED), and stopping power ratio (SPR) measured by dual-layer dual-energy computed tomography (DL-DECT). Methods: CIRS electron density calibration phantoms with two different arrangements of material plugs were scanned by DL-DECT with two different collimator widths. The first phantom included two dense bone plugs, while the second excluded dense bone plugs. The collimator widths selected were 64 mm×0.625 mm for wider collimators and 16 mm×0.625 mm for narrow collimators. The scanning parameters were 120 kVp, 0.33 second gantry rotation, 3 mm slice thickness, B reconstruction filter, and spectral level 4. An image analysis portal system provided by a computed tomography (CT) manufacturer was used to derive the EAN and RED of the phantoms from the combination of low energy and high energy CT images. The EAN and RED were compared between the images scanned using the two different collimation widths. Results: The CT images with the wider collimation width generated more severe artifacts, particularly with high-density material (i.e., dense bone). RED and EAN for tissues (excluding lung and bones) with the wider collimation width showed significant relative differences compared to the theoretical value (4.5% for RED and 20.6% for EAN), while those with the narrow collimation width were closer to the theoretical value of each material (2.2% for EAN and 2.3% for RED). Scanning with narrow collimation width increased the accuracy of SPR estimation even with high-density bone plugs in the phantom. Conclusions: The effect of CT collimation width on EAN, RED, and SPR measured by DL-DECT was evaluated. In order to improve the accuracy of the measured EAN, RED, and SPR by DL-DECT, CT scanning should be performed using narrow collimation widths.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.166-170
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• 2006

Soybean oil (SBO) was carried out deodorization at 4 factors as controlled maximum deodorizing temperature (DT), vacuum degree (VD), cycle time (CT) and treating amount of stripping steam (TASS). The results were as follows, acid value (AV), peroxide value (PV) and trans fatty acid content (TFAC) in produced deodorized SBO. Obtained deodorized SBO at high DT had the lower AV, PV, but TFAC was increased relatively. A suitable level of VD and TASS was 4.0 torr and 2.0%(w/w), than the longer CT was appeared a superior quality level. As a result, the best deodorizing conditions in SBO for lower TFAC were maximum DT; $235^{\circ}C$, VD;4.0torr, CT; $14{\sim}15min$ and TASS; 2.0% (w/w). Deodorizing conditions for lower TFAC in deodorizing of SBO was the major factor, more than lower DT was difficult because of the others quality factors.