• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.65-70
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• 2018

The objective of this study was to describe a radiofrequency (RF) coil design for in vivo sodium magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for use in small animals. Accumulating evidence has indicated the importance and potential of sodium imaging with improved magnet strength (> 7T), faster gradient, better hardware, multi-nucleus imaging methods, and optimal coil design for patient and animal studies. Thus, we developed a saddle-shaped sodium volume coil with a diameter/length of 30/30 mm. To evaluate the efficiency of this coil, bench-level measurement was performed. Unloaded Q value, loaded Q value, and ratio of these two values were estimated to be 352.8, 211.18, and 1.67, respectively. Thereafter, in vivo acquisition of sodium images was performed using normal mice (12 weeks old; n = 5) with a two-dimensional gradient echo sequence and minimized echo time to increase spatial resolution of images. Sodium signal-to-noise ratio in mouse kidneys (renal cortex, medulla, and pelvis) was measured. We successfully acquired sodium MR images of the mouse kidney with high spatial resolution (approximately 0.625 mm) through a combination of sodium-proton coils.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.27-35
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• 1991

An interstitial radiofrequency needle electrode system was constructed for interstitial heating of brain tissue. Radiofrequency electrodes with Thermotron RF 8 were tested in an agar phantom and in a normal canine brain to determine how variations in physical factors affected temperature distributions. Temperature distributions were checked after heating with 1 mm diameter needle electrode implants on the corners of 1 and 2 cm squares in a phantom and plot isotherms for various electrodes arrangement. We observed that the 1 cm square array would heat a volume with a 1.25 cm radius circular field cross section to therapeutic temperatures ($90\%$ relative SAR using Tm) and the 2 cm square array with a 1.75 cm radius rectangular field with central inhomogeneity. With 2 cm long electrode implants, we observed that the 1 cm square array would heat a 3 cm long sagittal section to therapeutic temperature ($90\%$ relative SAR using Tm). We found that radiofrequency electrodes could be selected to match the length of the heating area without affecting its performance. The histopathological changes associated with RF heating of normal canine brains have been correlated with thermal distributions. RF needle electrode heating was applied for 50min to generate tissue temperatures of $43^{\circ}C$. We obtained a quarter of the heated tissue material immediately after heating and sacrificed at intervals from $7\sim30$days. The acute stage (immediately after heating) was demonstrated by liquefactive necrosis, pyknosis of neuronal element in the gray matter and by some polymer-phonuclear leukocytes infiltration. The appearance of lipid-laden macrophages surrounding the area of liquefaction necrosis was demonstrated in all three sacrificed dogs. Mild gliosis occurring around the necrosis was demonstrated in the last sacrificed (Days 30) canine brain.

• Journal of electromagnetic engineering and science
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.181-184
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• 2015

Evaluation of radiating radiofrequency fields from hand-held and body-mounted wireless communication devices to human bodies are conducted by measuring the specific absorption rate (SAR). The uncertainty of system validation and probe calibration in SAR measurement depend on the variation of RF power used for the validation and calibration. RF input power for system validation or probe calibration is controlled manually during the test process of the existing systems in the laboratories. Consequently, a long time is required to reach the stable power needed for testing that will cause less uncertainty. The standard uncertainty due to this power drift is typically 2.89%, which can be obtained by applying IEC 62209 in a normal operating condition. The principle of the Automatic Input Power Level Control System (AIPLC), which controls the equipment by a program that maintains a stable input power level, is suggested in this paper. The power drift is reduced to less than ${\pm}1.16dB$ by AIPLC, which reduces the standard uncertainty of power drift to 0.67%.

• Journal of Magnetics
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.155-160
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• 2014

The heating produced by the absorption of radiofrequency (RF) has been considered a secondary undesirable effect during MRI procedures. In this work, we have measured the power absorbed by distilled water, glycerol and egg-albumin during NMR and non-NMR experiments. The samples are dielectric and examples of different biological materials. The samples were irradiated using the same RF pulse sequence, whilst the magnetic field strength was the variable to be changed in the experiments. The measurements show a smooth increase of the thermal power as the magnetic field grows due to the magnetoresistive effect in the copper antenna, a coil around the probe, which is directly heating the sample. However, in the cases when the magnetic field was the adequate for the NMR to take place, some anomalies in the expected thermal powers were observed: the thermal power was higher in the cases of water and glycerol, and lower in the case of albumin. An ANOVA test demonstrated that the observed differences between the measured power and the expected power are significant.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.73-78
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• 2004

A highly sensitive detecting method has been developed for determining part per billion of sulfur in $H_2S$/Ar plasma. The method is based on the excitation of Ar/$H_2S\;or\;Ar/H_2S/O_2$ mixture in hollow cathode glow discharge sustained by radiofrequency (RF) or 60 Hz AC power and the spectroscopic measurement of the intensity of emission lines from electronically excited $S_2^*\;or\;SO_2^*$ species, respectively. The RF or AC power needed for the excitation did not exceed 30 W at a gas pressure maintained at several mbar. The emission intensity from the $SO_2^*$ species showed excellent linear response to the sulfur concentration ranging from 5 ppbv, which correspond to S/N = 5, to 500 ppbv. But the intensity from the $S_2^*$ species showed a linear response to the $H_2S$ only at low flow rate under 20 sccm (mL/min) of the sample gas. Separate experiments using $SO_2$ gas as the source of sulfur demonstrated that the presence of $O_2$ in the argon plasma is essential for obtaining prominent $SO_2^*$ emission lines.

• Journal of Information Processing Systems
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.394-406
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• 2023

In this study, a real-time surveillance system using Internet of Things technology is proposed for vaccine cold chains. This system fully visualizes vaccine transport and storage. It comprises a 4G gateway module, lowpower and low-cost wireless temperature and humidity collection module (WTHCM), cloud service software platform, and phone app. The WTHCM is installed in freezers or truck-mounted cold chain cabinets to collect the temperature and humidity information of the vaccine storage environment. It then transmits the collected data to a gateway module in the radiofrequency_physical layer (RF_PHY). The RF_PHY is an interface for calling the bottom 2.4-GHz transceiver, which can realize a more flexible communication mode. The gateway module can simultaneously receive data from multiple acquisition terminals, process the received data depending on the protocol, and transmit the collated data to the cloud server platform via 4G or Wi-Fi. The cloud server platform primarily provides data storage, chart views, short-message warnings, and other functions. The phone app is designed to help users view and print temperature and humidity data concerning the transportation and storage of vaccines anytime and anywhere. Thus, this system provides a new vaccine management model for ensuring the safety and reliability of vaccines to a greater extent.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.49-58
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• 1987

Hypertermia for the treatment of cancer has been introduced for a long time and the biological effect for the use of hyperthermia to treat malignant tumors has been well established and encouraging clinical results have been obserbed. Unfortunately, however, the engineering or technical aspects of hyperthermia for the deep seated tumors has not been satisfactory. We developed the radiofrequency capactive hyperthermia device (Greenytherm-GY8) in cooperation with Yonsei Cancer Center and Green Cross Medical Corporation. It was composed with $8{\sim}10MHz$ RF generator, capacitive electrode, matching system, cooling system, temperature measuring system and control PC computer. The thermal profile was investigated in agar phantom, animals and in human tumors, heated with capactivie RF device. Deep and homogeneous heating could be achieved in a large phantom of 25cm diameter and 19cm thick when heated with a pair of 23cm diameter electrodes, coupled to both bases of the phantom, when the size of the two electrodes was not the same, the region near the smaller electrode was preferentially heated. It was, therefore, possible to control the depth of heating by choosing proper size of electrodes. Therapeutic temperature $(42^{\circ}C{\sim}43^{\circ}C)$ could be obtained in the living animal experiments. Indications are that deep heating of humn tumors might be achieved with the capacitive method, provided that subcutaenous fat layer is cooled by temperature controlled bolus and large size of electrodes.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• v.22 no.7
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• pp.1077-1086
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• 2021

Objective: To investigate the diagnostic performance of quantitative ultrasound (US) parameters for the assessment of hepatic steatosis in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) using magnetic resonance imaging proton density fat fraction (MRI-PDFF) as the reference standard. Materials and Methods: In this single-center prospective study, 120 patients with clinically suspected NAFLD were enrolled between March 2019 and January 2020. The participants underwent US examination for radiofrequency (RF) data acquisition and chemical shift-encoded liver MRI for PDFF measurement. Using the RF data analysis, the attenuation coefficient (AC) based on tissue attenuation imaging (TAI) (AC-TAI) and scatter-distribution coefficient (SC) based on tissue scatter-distribution imaging (TSI) (SC-TSI) were measured. The correlations between the quantitative US parameters (AC and SC) and MRI-PDFF were evaluated using Pearson correlation coefficients. The diagnostic performance of AC-TAI and SC-TSI for detecting hepatic fat contents of ≥ 5% (MRI-PDFF ≥ 5%) and ≥ 10% (MRI-PDFF ≥ 10%) were assessed using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. The significant clinical or imaging factors associated with AC and SC were analyzed using linear regression analysis. Results: The participants were classified based on MRI-PDFF: < 5% (n = 38), 5-10% (n = 23), and ≥ 10% (n = 59). AC-TAI and SC-TSI were significantly correlated with MRI-PDFF (r = 0.659 and 0.727, p < 0.001 for both). For detecting hepatic fat contents of ≥ 5% and ≥ 10%, the areas under the ROC curves of AC-TAI were 0.861 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.786-0.918) and 0.835 (95% CI: 0.757-0.897), and those of SC-TSI were 0.964 (95% CI: 0.913-0.989) and 0.935 (95% CI: 0.875-0.972), respectively. Multivariable linear regression analysis showed that MRI-PDFF was an independent determinant of AC-TAI and SC-TSI. Conclusion: AC-TAI and SC-TSI derived from quantitative US RF data analysis yielded a good correlation with MRI-PDFF and provided good performance for detecting hepatic steatosis and assessing its severity in NAFLD.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.193-198
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• 2001

Background: Anterior atlantoaxial subluxation (AAS) is a frequent phenomenon in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). AAS compresses the C2 ganglion or nerve and is a cause of posterior neck pain or occipital headache. Methods: We selected RA patients that had developed posterior neck pain or occipital headache caused by AAS. AAS was diagnosed by an increase of ADI (atlantodental interval). A distance of 3 mm or more was considered significant. Patients with vertical subluxation or symptoms suggestive of myelopathy were excluded. Before C2 RF ganglionotomy, we proceeded with a C2 ganglion block or greater occipital nerve block used by local anesthetics. For C2 RF ganglionotomy, the patient was placed in the supine position on a fluoroscopic table. A 100 mm, 4 mm active tip electrode was chosen. Following sensory stimulation at 0.2 to 0.6 V, the lesion was performed at a temperature of $60^{\circ}C$ to $65^{\circ}C$ for 60 sec. We followed up the patient after 6 months later. Results: All cases were female and the average duration of RA was 8.5 years. The duration of posterior neck pain or occipital headache was 1-8 months. The average ADI was 4.2 mm and the McGregor index was 3.3 mm on the average. In all cases, the score on the 4 point Likert scale was 4 (pain free) during the follow-up period. Conclusions: We found that the occipital headache or posterior neck pain caused by AAS in rheumatoid arthritis patients was alleviated over a short term follow up. C2 RF ganglionotomy is suggested as an effective palliative treatment for AAS in RA patients.

• Journal of electromagnetic engineering and science
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.199-205
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• 2016

We present a novel schematic using a 3-dB coupler to transmit radiofrequency (RF) power to two receivers selectively. Whereas previous multiple receiver supporting schemes used hardware-switched methods, our scheme uses a soft power-allocating method, which has the advantage of variable power allocation in real time to each receiver. Using our scheme, we can split the charging area and focus the RF power on the targeted areas. We present our soft power-allocating method in three main points. First, we propose a new power distribution hardware structure using a FPGA (field-programmable gate array) and a 3-dB coupler. It can reconfigure the transmitting power to two receivers selectively using accurate FPGA-controlled signals with the aid of software. Second, we propose a power control method in our platform. We can variably control the total power of transmitter using the DC bias of the drain input of the amplifier. Third, we provide the possibility of expansion in multiple systems by extending these two wireless power transfer systems. We believe that this method is a new approach to controlling power amplifier output softly to support multiple receivers.