• Title/Summary/Keyword: Nuclear Program

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Radiation attenuation and elemental composition of locally available ceramic tiles as potential radiation shielding materials for diagnostic X-ray rooms

  • Mohd Aizuddin Zakaria;Mohammad Khairul Azhar Abdul Razab;Mohd Zulfadli Adenan;Muhammad Zabidi Ahmad;Suffian Mohamad Tajudin;Damilola Oluwafemi Samson;Mohd Zahri Abdul Aziz
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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    • v.56 no.1
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    • pp.301-308
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    • 2024
  • Ceramic materials are being explored as alternatives to toxic lead sheets for radiation shielding due to their favorable properties like durability, thermal stability, and aesthetic appeal. However, crafting effective ceramics for radiation shielding entails complex processes, raising production costs. To investigate local viability, this study evaluated Malaysian ceramic tiles for shielding in diagnostic X-ray rooms. Different ceramics in terms of density and thickness were selected from local manufacturers. Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence (EDXRF) and X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) characterized ceramic compositions, while Monte Carlo Particle and Heavy Ion Transport code System (MC PHITS) simulations determined Linear Attenuation Coefficient (LAC), Half-value Layer (HVL), Mass Attenuation Coefficient (MAC), and Mean Free Path (MFP) within the 40-150 kV energy range. Comparative analysis between MC PHITS simulations and real setups was conducted. The C3-S9 ceramic sample, known for homogeneous full-color structure, showcased superior shielding attributes, attributed to its high density and iron content. Notably, energy levels considerably impacted radiation penetration. Overall, C3-S9 demonstrated strong shielding performance, underlining Malaysia's potential ceramic tile resources for X-ray room radiation shielding.

An Application Effect of Rhythmic Movement Program for the Health Promotion in the Elderly (노인의 건강증진을 위한 율동적 운동프로그램의 적용효과)

  • 이숙자
    • Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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    • v.30 no.3
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    • pp.776-790
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    • 2000
  • Every year the number of the elderly increases in Korea thanks to the improvemen of social and economical levels and the development of medicine. However, many problems such as insufficent care and the isolation of the elderly have been commonplace. This trend exists not only because of increased lifespan but also the changing social structure of the nuclear family. Accordingly, inspite of the development of medicine, geriatric diseases including circulatory diseases are increasing in proportion of elderly population, as well as the severity. Therefore, it is important to emphasize that health care programs provide the best possible health care and functional capacities in terms of healthy elderly lifestyles. Especially, the phenomena of aging and geriatric diseases taking place with the elderly naturally are affected by lifestyle and the drastic changes in exercise patterns. This study aims to improve geriatric health by introducing a rhythmic movement program for the elderly to estabilish a health-promoting self-care system and by developing quality of life, perceived health status, their physical and physiological functions and emotional state. The theoretical framework used in this dissertation is derived from the Health-Promoting Self-Care System Model (Simmons, 1990), which integrates the Self-Care Deficit Nursing Theory (Orem, 1985), the interaction model of Client Health Behavior (Cox, 1982) and the Health Promotion Model (Pender, 1987). As a quasi-experimental design, the nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design is utilized for this study. The subjects of this study consist of 64 people, over 65 years old who live in 2 nursing homes for the aged located in S city , Kyong-gi province and volunteered for this study from July, 12, 1999 to September, 17, 1999. They are divided into two groups:33 in the experimental group and 31 in the control group. The experimental group particpated in the Rhythmic Movement Program at the nursing home, which was comprised of 45 minutes a session, 5 sessions a week during 9 weeks. In order to measure the results of the Rhythmic Movement Program, aspects of perceived health status, balance, flexibility, grip strength, leg strength, heart rate, blood pressure, depression, anxiety and the quality of life were measured before and after participating in the Rhythimic Movement Program for the experimental group after 9 weeks, as well as the control group. The collected data were processed by SPSS PC+ and analyzed by the X2 test, t-test, ANCOVA and the Pearson Correlation Coefficient. The results of this study are as follows: 1. The perceived health status conditions in the experimental group show statistically significant improvement when compared to the control group (F=17.51, p=.000). 2. The physical and physiological functions, that is, balance (F=17.51, p=.000), flexibility (F=8.01, p=.006), grip strength (F=3.21, p=.018) and leg strength (F=25.78, p=.000) in the experimental group are higher than the control group. The vital signs, that is, the number of heart rate (F=.022, p=.884), systolic pressure (F=1.73 p=.193), and diastolic pressure (F=2.74, p=.103) in the experimental group compared to the control group decreased, but doesn't show statistically significant differences. Immune responses (F=5.13, p=.003) showed statistically significant increases in the experimental group when compared to the control group. 3. The emotional state are improved, that is, degree of depression (F=11.56, p=.001) and degree of anxiety (F=9.14, p=.004) in the experimental group showed statistically significant decreases. 4. The quality of life in the experimental group (F=3.03, p=.037) showed statistically significant differences compared to the control group. 5. The observations of the relationships among the perceived health status, emotional state , the quality of life, the relationships between the perceived health status, the degree of depression (r=-.653, p=.000) and the degree of anxiety (r=-.786, p=.000) were in contrary propotions, while the relationships between the perceived health status and the quality of life (r=.234, p=.008) were in direct propotion. In conclusion, the Rhythmic Movement Program used in this study for geriatric nursing care is simple and safe for application to the elderly and shows significant effects by implementing 5 sessions a week for 9 weeks. The Rhythmic Movement Program improves the quality of life, maintains as well as improves the physical and physiological fuctions and emotional state, therefore this program is strongly recommended for positive applications for independant geriatric nursing health care.

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Growth Inhibition of Human Hepatoma and Bladder Carcinoma Cells by DNA Topoisomerae Inhibitor β-lapachone (DNA topoisomerase 억제제인 β-lapachone에 의한 인체 간암 및 방광암세포 증식억제에 관한 연구)

  • Choi Da Yean;Lee Jae Il;Chung Hyun Sup;Seo Han Gyeol;Woo Hyun Joo;Choi Yung Hyun
    • Journal of Life Science
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    • v.15 no.3 s.70
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    • pp.323-331
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    • 2005
  • The objective of the present study was to investigate the effect of $\beta-lapachone$, a quinone obtained from the bark of the lapacho tree (Tabebuia avellanedae) in South America, on the cell growth of human hepatoma (HepG2) and bladder (T24) carcinoma cells. Exposure of cancer cells to $\beta-lapachone$ resulted in growth inhibition, morphological changes and apoptosis in a concentration-dependent manner, which could be proved by MTT assay and flow cytometry analysis. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blot analyses revealed that $\beta-lapachone$ did not affect the levels of tumor suppressor p53 and cyclin-dependent kinase (Cdk) inhibitor p21 (WAFl/CIPl) expression. However, the transcriptional factor Sp-l and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) protein levels were significantly down-regulated by $\beta-lapachone$ in both cell lines. Moreover, $\beta-lapachone$ treatment caused a dose-dependent inhibition of the expression of telomere regulatory gene products such as human telomere reverse transcriptase (hTERT) and telomerase-associated protein-l (TEP-l). Taken together, these findings suggest that $\beta-lapachone$-induced inhibition of human hepatoma and bladder carcinoma cell proliferation is associated with the induction of apoptotic cell death via modulation of several major growth regulatory gene products, and provide important new insights into the additional mechanisms of the anti-cancer activity of $\beta-lapachone$.

Intermediate-Representation Translation Techniques to Improve Vulnerability Analysis Efficiency for Binary Files in Embedded Devices (임베디드 기기 바이너리 취약점 분석 효율성 제고를 위한 중간어 변환 기술)

  • Jeoung, Byeoung Ho;Kim, Yong Hyuk;Bae, Sung il;Im, Eul Gyu
    • Smart Media Journal
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    • v.7 no.1
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    • pp.37-44
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    • 2018
  • Utilizing sequence control and numerical computing, embedded devices are used in a variety of automated systems, including those at industrial sites, in accordance with their control program. Since embedded devices are used as a control system in corporate industrial complexes, nuclear power plants and public transport infrastructure nowadays, deliberate attacks on them can cause significant economic and social damages. Most attacks aimed at embedded devices are data-coded, code-modulated, and control-programmed. The control programs for industry-automated embedded devices are designed to represent circuit structures, unlike common programming languages, and most industrial automation control programs are designed with a graphical language, LAD, which is difficult to process static analysis. Because of these characteristics, the vulnerability analysis and security related studies for industry automation control programs have only progressed up to the formal verification, real-time monitoring levels. Furthermore, the static analysis of industrial automation control programs, which can detect vulnerabilities in advance and prepare for attacks, stays poorly researched. Therefore, this study suggests a method to present a discussion on an industry automation control program designed to represent the circuit structure to increase the efficiency of static analysis of embedded industrial automation programs. It also proposes a medium term translation technology exploiting LLVM IR to comprehensively analyze the industrial automation control programs of various manufacturers. By using LLVM IR, it is possible to perform integrated analysis on dynamic analysis. In this study, a prototype program that converts to a logical expression type of medium language was developed with regards to the S company's control program in order to verify our method.

Cracking Behavior of Containment Wall of Nuclear Power Plant Reactor (원자력 발전소 격납건물 벽체의 균열거동)

  • Cho, Jae-Yeol;Kim, Nam-Sik;Cho, Nam-So;Choi, In-Kil
    • Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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    • v.15 no.1
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    • pp.60-68
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    • 2003
  • Tension tests of six half-thickness concrete containment wall elements were conducted as a part of Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) program. The aim of the KAERI test program is to provide a test-verified analytical method for estimating capacities of concrete reactor containment buildings under internal overpressurization from postulated degraded core accidents. The data from the tests reported herein should be useful for benchmarking analytical method that require modeling of material behavior including concrete cracking behavior and reinforcement/concrete interaction exhibited by the test. Major test variable is compressive strength of concrete, and its effect on the behavior of prestressed concrete panel subjected to biaxial tension is investigated.

Spiral Structure and Mass Inflows in Barred-Spiral Galaxies

  • Kim, Yonghwi;Kim, Woong-Tae
    • The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • v.38 no.2
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    • pp.39.1-39.1
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    • 2013
  • We use high-resolution hydrodynamic simulations to study nonlinear gas responses to imposed non-axisymmetric stellar potentials in barred-spiral galaxies. The gas is assumed to be infinitesimally thin, isothermal, and unmagnetized. We consider various spiral-arm models with differing strength and pattern speed, while fixing the bar parameters. We find that the extent and shapes of spiral shocks as well as the related mass drift depend rather sensitively on the pattern speed. In models where the arm pattern is rotating more slowly than the bar, the gaseous arms extend from the bar ends all the way to the outer boundary, with a pitch angle slightly smaller than that of the stellar counterpart. The arms drive mass inflows at a rate of ${\sim}0.5-2.5M{\odot}/yr$ to the bar region to which the shock dissipation, external torque, and self-gravitational torque contribute about 50%, 40%, and 10%, respectively. About 85% of the inflowing mass is added to bar substructures such as an inner ring, dust lanes, and a nuclear ring. while the remaining 15% encircles the bar region. On the other hand, models where the arms corotate with the bar exhibit mass outflows, rather than inflows, over most of the arm region. In these models, spiral shocks are much more tightly wound than the stellar arms and cease to exist in the region where $M{\bot}/sinp*{\geq}25-40$, where $M{\bot}$ denotes the Mach number of a rotating gas perpendicular to the arms with pitch angle p*. We demonstrate that the distributions of line-of-sight velocities and densities can be a useful diagnostic tool to distinguish if the arms and bar corotate or not.

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Enhanced macrophage uptake of radiolabeled liposome triggered by ginseng extracts

  • Lee, Woonghee;Rhee, Man Hee;Yoo, Jeongsoo
    • Journal of Radiopharmaceuticals and Molecular Probes
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    • v.5 no.2
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    • pp.113-119
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    • 2019
  • During tumor progression various immunosuppressive cells are recruited to a tumor microenvironment (TME). Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are particularly abundant in TME. Based on their function, macrophages are categorized into two phenotypes: tumoricidal M1 and tumor-supportive M2. Generally, TAMs closely resemble M2-macrophages and lead to tumor growth. However, their phenotype can be changed by immune activator from M2 to M1 and thus promote tumor immunotherapy. Ginseng extracts are well known for its anti-tumor and anti-inflammatory effects from numerous reported studies. However, the mechanism of their effects is still not clear. Recently, some studies suggested that ginseng extracts induced immune activation as well as anti-tumor activities by a repolarization of activated macrophage from M2 phenotype to M1 phenotype. But, further verification about the mechanism as to how ginseng extracts can stimulate the immune response is still needed. In this study, we investigated whether ginseng extracts can alter the phenotype from M2 macrophages to M1 macrophages in mice by using a radiolabeled liposome. And we also evaluated the potential of radiolabeled liposome as a nuclear imaging agent to monitor the transition of phenotype of TAMs. In conclusion, the ginseng extracts seem to change the phenotype of macrophages from M2 to M1 like as lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in mice.

The Evaluation of Childbirth Class and Eductional Need of Pregnant Women (출산교실에 참여한 임부의 교육 평가 및 교육)

  • Park, Young-Sook;Kim, Young-Im;Park, Yeon-Hwan
    • Women's Health Nursing
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    • v.2 no.1
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    • pp.125-137
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    • 1996
  • This study was conducted to identify the educational need of pregnant women, and to evaluate the effect of the 2-hour childbirth class provided by researchers. The subjects were composed of 183 pregnant women who participated voluntarily in the 2-hour childbirth class, and the data were collected by self reporting structured questionnaire designed by researchers. The data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, paired t test, and McNemar test by SPSS pc program. The results were as follows ; 1. Mean age of th subjects was 27 and most subjects graduated from the high school and the college. 80.3% of the subjects had nuclear family. 82.5% of the subjects were full time housewives. 2. 85.8% of the subjects were ipara. Though 71.6% of the subjects might have antepartal care in the clinic, 67.2% of the subjects had no chance to participate in the childbirth class before this study. 3. Subject's health and lifestyle, especially related to eating habits, were changed in the antepartum period. We found that the pregnancy affected positively on health and lifestyle of the women. Over 75% of the subjects became to understand the progress of labor, breath methods during the labor, and perineal exercise. Most subjects changed to think that they could control their body more actively and positively during the labor after participating in the childbirth class. 93.4% answered that 'childbirth class was necessary and important'. Most subjects wanted to be taught the contents, such as postpartum care, breast feeding, and infant care in the childbirth class. In conclusion, pregnant women to attend the childbirth educational program with their husband, and the 2-hour childbirth class provided by the researchers very effective in many aspects. Therefore we anticipated that the childbirth class on basis of pregnant women's needs will contribute to improvement of pregnant women's health and well-being during the labor.

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A Case Study for Mutation-based Fault Localization for FBD Programs (FBD 프로그램 뮤테이션 기반 오류 위치 추정 기법 적용 사례연구)

  • Shin, Donghwan;Kim, Junho;Yun, Wonkyung;Jee, Eunkyoung;Bae, Doo-Hwan
    • KIISE Transactions on Computing Practices
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    • v.22 no.3
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    • pp.145-150
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    • 2016
  • Finding the exact location of faults in a program requires enormous time and effort. Several fault localization methods based on control flows of a program have been studied for decades. Unfortunately, these methods are not applicable to programs based on data-flow languages. A recently proposed mutation-based fault localization method is applicable to data-flow languages, as well as control-flow languages. However, there are no studies on the effectiveness of the mutation-based fault localization method for data-flow based programs. In this paper, we provided an experimental case study to evaluate the effectiveness of mutation-based fault localization on programs implemented in Function Block Diagram (FBD), a widely used data-flow based language in safety-critical systems implementation. We analyzed several real faults in the implementation of FBD programs of a nuclear reactor protection system, and evaluated the mutation-based fault localization effectiveness for each fault.

A method on integrity evaluation with high reliability for superheater structure in a supercritical thermal power plant (초임계압 화력 과열기 구조의 고신뢰도 건전성 평가 방법)

  • Lee, Hyeong-Yeon;Ju, Yong-Sun;Choi, Hyun-Sun;Won, Min-Gu;Huh, Nam-Su
    • Transactions of the Korean Society of Pressure Vessels and Piping
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    • v.16 no.1
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    • pp.65-73
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    • 2020
  • Integrity evaluations on a platen superheater were conducted as per ASME Section VIII Division 2(hereafter 'ASME VIII(2)') which was originally used for design with implicit consideration of creep effects. A platen superheater subjected to severe loading conditions of high pressure and high temperature at creep regime in a supercritical thermal plant in Korea was chosen for present study. Additional evaluations were conducted as per nuclear-grade high-temperature design rule of RCC-MRx that takes creep effects into account explicitly. Comparisons of the two results from ASME VIII(2) and RCC-MRx were conducted to quantify the conservatism of ASME VIII(2). From present analyses, it was shown that the design evaluation results exceeded allowable limits of RCC-MRx for the plant design conditions although limits of ASME VIII(2) were satisfied regardless of operation time, which means that design as per ASME VIII(2) might be potentially non-conservative in case of operation in creep range. A high-temperature design evaluation program as per RCC-MRx, called 'HITEP_RCC-MRx' has been used and it was shown that pressure boundary components can be designed reliably with the program especially for the loading conditions of long-term creep conditions.