• Journal of Magnetics
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.220-226
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• 2017

SNR (signal to ratio) is a criterion for providing objective information for evaluating the performance of a magnetic resonance imaging device, and is an important measurement standard for evaluating the quality of MR (Magnetic Resonance) image. The purpose of our study is to evaluate the correct SNR measurement for multi-channel coil and parallel imaging. As a result of research, we found that both T1 and T2 weighted images show the narrowest confidence interval of the method recommended by NEMA (The National Electrical manufacturers Association) 1 having a single measurement method, whereas the ACR (American College of Radiology) measurement method using a multi-channel coil and a parallel imaging technique shows the widest confidence interval. There is a significance in that we quantitatively verified the inaccurate problems of a signal to noise ratio using a ACR measurement method when using a multi-channel coil and a parallel imaging technique of which method does not satisfy the preconditions that researchers could overlook.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.222-228
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• 2023

This study aimed to analyze the applicability of the improved median filter in positron emission tomography (PET)/magnetic resonance (MR) fusion images based on parallel imaging using generalized autocalibrating partially parallel acquisition (GRAPPA). In this study, a PET/MR fusion imaging system based on a 3.0T magnetic field and ¹⁸F radioisotope were used. An improved median filter that can set a mask of the median value more efficiently than before was modeled and applied to the acquired image. As quantitative evaluation parameters of the noise level, the contrast to noise ratio (CNR) and coefficient of variation (COV) were calculated. Additionally, no-reference-based evaluation parameters were used to analyze the overall image quality. We confirmed that the CNR and COV values of the PET/MR fusion images to which the improved median filter was applied improved by approximately 3.32 and 2.19 times on average, respectively, compared to the noisy image. In addition, the no-reference-based evaluation results showed a similar trend for the noise-level results. In conclusion, we demonstrated that it can be supplemented by using an improved median filter, which suggests the problem of image quality degradation of PET/MR fusion images that shortens scan time using GRAPPA.

• International Journal of Contents
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.30-34
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• 2009

Many studies have been done on the integral imaging pickup whose objective is to get efficiently elemental images from a lens array with respect to three-dimensional (3D) objects. In the integral imaging pickup process, it is necessary to render an elemental image from each elemental lens in a lens array for 3D objects, and then to combine them into one total image. The multiple viewpoint rendering (MVR) is one of various methods for integral imaging pickup. This method, however, has the computing and rendering time problem for obtaining element images from a lot of elemental lens. In order to solve the problems, in this paper, we propose a parallel MVR (PMVR) method to generate elemental images in a parallel through distribution of elemental lenses into multiple threads simultaneously. As a result, the computation time of integral imaging using PMVR is reduced significantly rather than a sequential approach and then we showed that the PMVR is very useful.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.1-16
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• 2019

Dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE) magnetic resonance (MR) imaging plays an important role in non-invasive detection and characterization of primary and metastatic lesions in the liver. Recently, efforts have been made to improve spatial and temporal resolution of DCE liver MRI for arterial phase imaging. Review of recent publications related to arterial phase imaging of the liver indicates that there exist primarily two approaches: breath-hold and free-breathing. For breath-hold imaging, acquiring multiple arterial phase images in a breath-hold is the preferred approach over conventional single-phase imaging. For free-breathing imaging, a combination of three-dimensional (3D) stack-of-stars golden-angle sampling and compressed sensing parallel imaging reconstruction is one of emerging techniques. Self-gating can be used to decrease respiratory motion artifact. This article introduces recent MRI technologies relevant to hepatic arterial phase imaging, including differential subsampling with Cartesian ordering (DISCO), golden-angle radial sparse parallel (GRASP), and X-D GRASP. This article also describes techniques related to dynamic 3D image reconstruction of the liver from golden-angle stack-of-stars data.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.161-197
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• 2020

Total variation minimization is standard in mathematical imaging and there have been numerous researches over the last decades. In order to process large-scale images in real-time, it is essential to design parallel algorithms that utilize distributed memory computers efficiently. The aim of this paper is to illustrate recent advances of domain decomposition methods for total variation minimization as parallel algorithms. Domain decomposition methods are suitable for parallel computation since they solve a large-scale problem by dividing it into smaller problems and treating them in parallel, and they already have been widely used in structural mechanics. Differently from problems arising in structural mechanics, energy functionals of total variation minimization problems are in general nonlinear, nonsmooth, and nonseparable. Hence, designing efficient domain decomposition methods for total variation minimization is a quite challenging issue. We describe various existing approaches on domain decomposition methods for total variation minimization in a unified view. We address how the direction of research on the subject has changed over the past few years, and suggest several interesting topics for further research.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.659-666
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• 2015

In this paper, we propose a novel reconstruction method of spatially filtered 3D images in integral imaging based on parallel lens array. The parallel lens array is composed of two lens arrays, which are positioned side by side through longitudinal direction. Conventional spatial filtering method by using convolution property between periodic functions has drawback that is the limitation of the position of target object. this caused the result that the target object should be located on the low depth resolution region. The available spatial filtering region of the spatial filtering method is depending on the focal length and the number of elemental lens in the integral imaging pickup system. In this regard, we propose the parallel lens array system to enhance the available spatial filtering region and depth resolution. The experiment result indicate that the proposed method outperforms the conventional method.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.6-13
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• 2016

Fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) has been considered an effective technique to investigate chemical properties of the specimens, especially of biological samples. Despite of this advantageous trait, researchers in this field have had difficulties applying FLIM to their systems because acquiring an image using FLIM consumes too much time. Although analog mean-delay (AMD) method was introduced to enhance the imaging speed of commonly used FLIM based on time-correlated single photon counting (TCSPC), a real-time image reconstruction using AMD method has not been implemented due to its data processing obstacles. In this paper, we introduce a real-time image restoration of AMD-FLIM through fast parallel data processing by using Threading Building Blocks (TBB; Intel) and octa-core processor (i7-5960x; Intel). Frame rate of 3.8 frames per second was achieved in $1,024{\times}1,024$ resolution with over 4 million lifetime determinations per second and measurement error within 10%. This image acquisition speed is 184 times faster than that of single-channel TCSPC and 9.2 times faster than that of 8-channel TCSPC (state-of-art photon counting rate of 80 million counts per second) with the same lifetime accuracy of 10% and the same pixel resolution.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.95-122
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• 2020

In this article, we evaluated the performance of radiofrequency (RF) coils in terms of the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) and homogeneity of magnetic resonance images when used for ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) 7T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). High-quality MRI can be obtained when these two basic requirements are met. However, because of the dielectric effect, 7T magnetic resonance imaging still produces essentially a non-uniform magnetic flux (|B₁|) density distribution. In general, heterogeneous and homogeneous RF coils may be designed using electromagnetic (EM) modeling. Heterogeneous coils, which are surface coils, are used in consideration of scalability in the |B₁| region with a high S/N as multichannel loop coils rather than selecting a single loop. Loop coils are considered state of the art for their simplicity yet effective |B₁|-field distribution and intensity. In addition, combining multiple loop coils allows phase arrays (PA). PA coils have gained great interest for use in receiving signals because of parallel imaging (PI) techniques, such as sensitivity encoding (SENSE) and generalized autocalibrating partial parallel acquisition (GRAPPA), which drastically reduce the acquisition time. With the introduction of a parallel transmit coil (pTx) system, a form of transceiver loop arrays has also been proposed. In this article, we discussed the applications and proposed designs of loop coils. RF homogeneous coils for volume imaging include Alderman-Grant resonators, birdcage coils, saddle coils, traveling wave coils, transmission line arrays, composite right-/left-handed arrays, and fusion coils. In this article, we also discussed the basic operation, design, and applications of these coils.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.116-124
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• 2021

It is important to differentiate between the target tissue (or organ) and the rest of the tissue before incision during surgery. And when it is necessary to preserve the differentiated tissues, the blood vessels connected to the tissue must be preserved together. Various non-invasive medical imaging methods have been developed for this purpose. We aimed to develop a medical imaging system that can simultaneously apply fluorescence imaging using indocyanine green (ICG) and laser speckle contrast imaging (LSCI) using laser speckle patterns. We designed to collect images directed to the two cameras on a co-axial optical path and to compensate equal optical path length for two optical designs. The light source used for fluorescence and LSCI the same 785 nm wavelength. This system outputs real-time images and is designed to intuitively distinguish target tissues or blood vessels. This system outputs LSCI images up to 37 fps through parallel processing. Fluorescence for ICG and blood flow in animal models were observed throughout the experiment.

• International Journal of Contents
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.1-6
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• 2018

For 3D display applications, auto-stereoscopic display methods that can provide 3D images without glasses have been actively developed. This paper is concerned with developing a display system for elemental images of real space using integral imaging. Unlike the conventional method, which reduces a color image to the level as much as a generated depth image does, we have minimized original color image data loss by generating an enlarged depth image with interpolation methods. Our method was efficiently implemented by applying a GPU parallel processing technique with OpenCL to rapidly generate a large amount of elemental image data. We also obtained experimental results for displaying higher quality integral imaging rather than one generated by previous methods.