• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2015

Compton cameras overcome several limitations of conventional mechanical collimation based gamma imaging devices, such as pin-hole imaging devices, due to its electronic collimation based on coincidence logic. Especially large-scale Compton camera has wide field of view and high imaging sensitivity. Those merits suggest that a large-scale Compton camera might be applicable to monitoring nuclear materials in large facilities without necessity of portability. To that end, our research group have made an effort to design a large-scale Compton camera for safeguard application. Energy resolution or position resolution of large-area detectors vary with configuration style of the detectors. Those performances directly affect the image quality of the large-scale Compton camera. In the present study, a series of Geant4 Monte Carlo simulations were performed in order to examine the effect of those detector parameters. Performance of the designed large-scale Compton camera was also estimated for various monitoring condition with realistic modeling. The conclusion of the present study indicates that the energy resolution of the component detector is the limiting factor of imaging resolution rather than the position resolution. Also, the designed large-scale Compton camera provides the 16.3 cm image resolution in full width at half maximum (angular resolution: $9.26^{\circ}$) for the depleted uranium source considered in this study located at the 1 m from the system when the component detectors have 10% energy resolution and 7 mm position resolution.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.497-505
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• 2011

Natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery is a newly emerging technique recently, with its many potential advantages in clinical practice. Cholecystectomy by Hybrid NOTES in this work, performed with single working channel endoscope in conjunction with a laparoscopic grasping forceps in dogs, is a "bridge" between laparoscopic procedure and pure NOTES. Three different approaches for cholecystectomy were carried out; transgastric, transcolonic and transvaginal. In all three approaches, abdominal opening was made by a 5 mm trocar, followed by making pneumoperitoneum of 4 mmHg with $CO_2$ insufflator. Transgastric cholecystectomy, single working channel endoscope was advanced to the peritoneal cavity through gastric incision in antral region made by endoscopic needle knife. Endoscope was retroflexed to visualize the gall bladder. Transcolonic access, incision for endoscopic entry was done at right ventral wall of descending colon, 15 cm inside from the anus. Incision in transvaginal access was made at right-ventral region, just caudal to the caudal tubercle. With the simple traction by the laparoscopic grasping forceps, good visualization of surgical field was obtained in all three groups. Cystic duct and artery were ligated with endoclips; for complete gall bladder dissection from liver, L-knife was used. Closure of incision sites were done in transgastric and transcolonic cholecystectomy by endoclips, not in transvaginal approach.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.270-279
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• 2005

Under the research project supported by Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), we have conducted the development of GPR systems for landmine detection. Until 2005, we have finished development of two prototype GPR systems, namely ALIS (Advanced Landmine Imaging System) and SAR-GPR (Synthetic Aperture Radar-Ground Penetrating Radar). ALIS is a novel landmine detection sensor system combined with a metal detector and GPR. This is a hand-held equipment, which has a sensor position tracking system, and can visualize the sensor output in real time. In order to achieve the sensor tracking system, ALIS needs only one CCD camera attached on the sensor handle. The CCD image is superimposed with the GPR and metal detector signal, and the detection and identification of buried targets is quite easy and reliable. Field evaluation test of ALIS was conducted in December 2004 in Afghanistan, and we demonstrated that it can detect buried antipersonnel landmines, and can also discriminate metal fragments from landmines. SAR-GPR (Synthetic Aperture Radar-Ground Penetrating Radar) is a machine mounted sensor system composed of B GPR and a metal detector. The GPR employs an array antenna for advanced signal processing for better subsurface imaging. SAR-GPR combined with synthetic aperture radar algorithm, can suppress clutter and can image buried objects in strongly inhomogeneous material. SAR-GPR is a stepped frequency radar system, whose RF component is a newly developed compact vector network analyzers. The size of the system is 30cm x 30cm x 30 cm, composed from six Vivaldi antennas and three vector network analyzers. The weight of the system is 17 kg, and it can be mounted on a robotic arm on a small unmanned vehicle. The field test of this system was carried out in March 2005 in Japan.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.379-388
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• 2002

For the success of dental implant, accurate radiographic evaluation is prerequisite for planning the location of the osseointegrated implants and avoiding injury to vital structures. CT/MPR(computed tomography/multiplanar reformation) shows improved visualization of inferior alveolar canal. In order to obtain cross-sectional images parallel to the teeth, the occlusal plane is used to orientate for the axial plane. If the direction of axial plane is not parallel to the occlusal plane, the reformatted cross-sectional scans will be oblique to the planned fixture direction and will not show the actual dimension of the planned fixture's location. If the available bone height which measured in the cross-sectional view is much greater than the actual available bone height, penetration of canal may occur. The aim of this study is to assess the effect of the axial plane to measurement of available bone height for dental implant in computed tomography of the mandible. 40 patients who had made radiographic stents and had taken CT were selected. The sites that were included in the study were 45 molar regions. In the central panoramic scan, the length from alveolar crest to superior border of inferior alveolar canal(available bone height, ABH) was measured in direction of reformatted cross-sectional plane(uncorrected ABH). Then, length from alveolar crest to superior border of canal was measured in direction of stent(corrected ABH). The angle between uncorrected ABH and corrected ABH was measured. From each ABH, available fixture length was decided by $Br{{\aa}}nemark$ system. The results were following ; the difference between two ABHs was statistically significant in both first and second molar(p< 0.01). The percentage of difference more than 1 mm was 8.7% in first molar and 15.5% in second molar. The percentage of difference more than 2 mm was 2.0% in first molar and 6.6% in second molar. The maximum value of difference was 2.5 mm in first molar and 2.2 mm in second molar. The correlations between difference of 2 ABHs and angle was positive correlations in both first and second molar. The correlation coefficient was 0.534 in first molar and 0.728 in second molar. The second molar has a stronger positive correlation. The percentage of disagreement between 2 fixture lengths from two ABHs was 24.4% in first molar and 28.9% in second molar.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.18-23
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• 2010

Purpose: PET/CT combines functional and morphologic data and increases diagnostic accuracy in a variety of malignancies. Especially reconstructed Fusion PET/CT images or MIP (Maximum Intensity Projection) images from a 2-dimensional image to a 3-dimensional one are useful in visualization of the lesion. But in Fusion & MIP 3D reconstruction image, due to hot uptake by urine or urostomy bag, lesion is overlapped so it is difficult that we can distinguish the lesion with the naked eye. This research tries to improve a distinction by removing parts of hot uptake. Materials and Methods: This research has been conducted the object of patients who have went to our hospital from September 2008 to March 2009 and have a lot of urine of remaining volume as disease of uterus, bladder, rectum in the result of PET/CT examination. We used GE Company's Advantage Workstation AW4.3 05 Version Volume Viewer program. As an analysis method, set up ROI in region of removal in axial volume image, select Cut Outside and apply same method in coronal volume image. Next, adjust minimum value in Threshold of 3D Tools, select subtraction in Advanced Processing. It makes Fusion & MIP images and compares them with the image no using Region Cut Definition. Results: In Fusion & MIP 3D reconstruction image, it makes Fusion & MIP images and compares them by using Advantage Workstation AW4.3 05's Region Cut Subtraction, parts of hot uptake according to patient's urine can be removed. Distinction of lesion was clearly reconstructed in image using Region Cut Definition. Conclusion: After examining the patients showing hot uptake on account of volume of urine intake in bladder, in process of reconstruction image, if parts of hot uptake would be removed, it could contribute to offering much better diagnostic information than image subtraction of conventional method. Especially in case of disease of uterus, bladder and rectum, it will be helpful for qualitative improvement of image.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.41 no.2 s.113
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• pp.212-226
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• 2006

Surface data generally represent continuous distribution of geographical or social phenomena of a region in urban analysis. Instances include distribution of temperature, population of region, and various distributions related to human activities. When spatial data are given in the form of surface, surface comparison is required as a way of comprehending the surface change or the relationship between two surfaces. As for previous approaches of surface comparison, there are visualization, quantitative methods and qualitative method. All those approaches, however, show the difference between two surfaces in a limited way. Especially, they are not able to distinguish spatial difference between two surfaces. To overcome such problem, this paper proposes a method of comparing two surfaces in terms of their spatial structure. Main concept of the method comes from earth moving problem and the method is named minimum surface transformation, here. When a surface is transformed into another, total surface volume moved in the process of transformation should be the minimum. Both quantitative and spatial differences between two surfaces are evaluted by total surface volume moved and the distribution of moved surface volume of each cell respectively. The method is applied to hypothetical and actual data. From the former, it is understood that the method explains how two surfaces are quantitatively and spatially different. The result of the latter shows that moved total surface volume decreases as time goes by which fits the actual situation that population change rate gets smaller. Concerning the other measure of surface difference, the distribution of $X_{ij}$ describes detailed flow of surface volume than that of simply subtracting surface volume by indicating to what direction the population change occurs.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.96-103
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• 1998

Purpose : To assess the clinical utility of turbo contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography(CE MRA) in the evaluation of the aortic arch and its major branches and to compare the image quality of CE MRA among different coils used. Materials and Methods : Turbo three-phase dynamic CE MRA encompassing aortic arch and its major branches was prospectively performed after manual bolus IV injection of contrast material in 29 patients with suspected cerebrovascular diseases at 1.0T MR unit. the raw data were obtained with 3-D FISH sequence (TR 5.4ms, TE 2.3ms, flip angle 30, slab thickness 80nm, effective slice thickness 4.0mm, matrix size $100{\times}256$, FOV 280mm). Total data acquisition time was 4. to 60 seconds. We subjectively evaluated the imge quality with three-rating scheme : "good" for unequivocal normal finding, "fair" for relatively satisfactory quality to diagnose 'normal' despite intravascular low signal, and "poor" for equivocal diagnosis or non-visualization of the origin or segment of the vessels due to low signal or artifacts which needs catheter angiography. At the level of the carotid bifurcation, it was compared with conventional 2D-TOF MRA image. Overall image quality was also compared visually and quantitatively by measuring signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of the ascending aorta, the innominate artery and both common carotid arteries among the three different coils used(CP body array(n=12), CP neck array(n=9), and head-and-neck(n=8). Results : Demonstration of the aortic arch and its major branches was rated as "good" in 55% (16/29) and "fair" in 34%(10/29). At the level of the carotid bifurcation, image quality of turbo CE MRA was same as or better than conventional 2D-TOF MRA in 65% (17/26). Overall image quality and SNR were significantlygreater with CP body array coil than with CP neck array or head-and-neck coil. Conclusions : Turbo CE MRA can be used as a screening exam in the evaluation of the major branches of the aortic arch from their origin to the skull base. Overall imagequality appears to be better with CP body array coil than with CP neck array coil or head-and-neck coil.