• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.897-902
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• 2023

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the characteristics of Silicon Photomultiplier (SiPM) for the realization of high-sensitivity radiation detection in portable detectors. Portable X-ray detectors offer the advantage of quickly accessing the patient's location and obtaining real-time images, allowing physicians to perform rapid diagnoses. However, this mobility comes with challenges in achieving accurate radiation detection. In existing detectors, SiPM is used for a simple purpose of detecting X-ray triggers. To verify the feasibility of high-sensitivity X-ray detection through SiPM, seven types of SiPM sensors were compared and selected, and their characteristics were analyzed. The SiPM used in the final test demonstrated the ability to distinguish signals at the ultra-low radiation level of 10 nGy, and it was observed that the slope of the signal rise curve varies with the X-ray tube voltage. Utilizing the characteristics of SiPM, which exhibits changes in signal level and duration with X-ray dose, it appears possible to achieve high-sensitivity measurements for X-ray detection.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.17 no.1 s.50
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• pp.101-113
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• 2007

A landslide was occurred due to soil cutting for construction to expand the Donghae express highway in Dong-hae-City, Korea. The total area of the landslide was about $9,550m^2$ with 100 m of width and 87m of height. The landslide was occurred due to the internal factor of the unstable geological structure including the clay layer and the external factor of continuous heavy rainfalls. As the result of field instrumentation during the landslide, the horizontal displacement of the slope ground increases with increasing the accumulated rainfall by continuous rainfall during the rainy season. Also, the depth of sliding failure was decided by the horizontal displacement distribution during landslide occurrence. It makes sure that the horizontal displacement starts from the depth of sliding failure and the depth of sliding failure matches well with the location of the clay layer. As the slope stability analysis using Bishop's Simplified Method at the landslide area, the safety factor of slope during the rainy season was 0.53. This safety factor of slope was enough to trigger the landslide at this area. The depth of sliding failure obtained by analytical method matches well with the depth of the clay layer.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.29 no.12
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• pp.11-24
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• 2013

This study presents a design method for typical rainfall-induced landslide considering in-situ matric suction. Actual landslide data are used to validate the proposed method. The soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) and unsaturated permeability are experimentally determined to estimate hydraulic properties of testing site. The field measurement of matric suction is carried out to monitor in-situ matric suction in a natural slope subjected to rainfall infiltration, which is incorporated in the landslide analysis. The wetting band depth and safety factor of the slope are assessed to clarify the effect of domestic rainfall pattern. Especially, the effect of antecedent rainfall on the slope stability is investigated and discussed in terms of wetting band depth using parametric study. It is found from the result of this study that proposed design method can consider the characteristic of unsaturated soil and effect of antecedent rainfall. The location of the scarp zone is fairly well predicted by proposed design method. Moreover, heavy rainfall, concentrated in the backward part with time, causes the lowest safety factor of the slope. These results demonstrate that decrease in matric suction due to antecedent rainfall may trigger slope instability. After the antecedent rainfall, additional rainfall may cause the slope failure due to increasing wetting band depth.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.117-129
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• 2020

Background: Radiation portal monitors (RPMs) involving plastic scintillators installed at the border inspection sites can detect illicit trafficking of radioactive sources in cargo containers within seconds. However, RPMs may generate false alarms because of the naturally occurring radioactive materials. To manage these false alarms, we previously suggested an energy-weighted algorithm that emphasizes the Compton-edge area as an outstanding peak. This study intends to evaluate the identification of radioactive sources using an improved energy-weighted algorithm. Materials and Methods: The algorithm was modified by increasing the energy weighting factor, and different peak combinations of the energy-weighted spectra were tested for source identification. A commercialized RPM system was used to measure the energy-weighted spectra. The RPM comprised two large plastic scintillators with dimensions of 174 × 29 × 7 ㎤ facing each other at a distance of 4.6 m. In addition, the in-house-fabricated signal processing boards were connected to collect the signal converted into a spectrum. Further, the spectra from eight radioactive sources, including special nuclear materials (SNMs), which were set in motion using a linear motion system (LMS) and a cargo truck, were estimated to identify the source identification rate. Results and Discussion: Each energy-weighted spectrum exhibited a specific peak location, although high statistical fluctuation errors could be observed in the spectrum with the increasing source speed. In particular, ¹³⁷Cs and ⁶⁰Co in motion were identified completely (100%) at speeds of 5 and 10 km/hr. Further, SNMs, which trigger the RPM alarm, were identified approximately 80% of the time at both the aforementioned speeds. Conclusion: Using the modified energy-weighted algorithm, several characteristics of the energy weighted spectra could be observed when the used sources were in motion and when the geometric efficiency was low. In particular, the discrimination between ⁶⁰Co and ⁴⁰K, which triggers false alarms at the primary inspection sites, can be improved using the proposed algorithm.

• Journal of KIISE
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.434-441
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• 2015

Next generation memory technologies, which we denote as 'new memory', have both non-volatile and byte addressable properties. These characteristics are expected to bring changes to the conventional computer system structure. In this paper, we propose a fast boot technique for hybrid main memory architectures that have both new memory and DRAM. The key technique used for fast booting is write-tracking. Write-tracking is used to detect and manage modified data detection and involves setting the kernel region to read-only. This setting is used to trigger intentional faults upon modification requests. As the fault handler can detect the faulting address, write-tracking makes use of the address to manage the modified data. In particular, in our case, we make use of the MMU (Memory Management Unit) translation table. When a write occurs to the boot completed state, write-tracking preserves the original state of the modified address of the kernel region to a particular location, and execution continues. Upon booting, the fast booting process restores the preserved data to the original kernel region allowing rapid system boot-up. We develop the fast booting technique in an actual embedded board equipped with new memory. The boot time is reduced to less than half a second compared to around 15 seconds that is required for the original system.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.33-38
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• 2008

Purpose: The Gated cardiac blood pool scan is non-invasive method that a quantitative evaluation of left ventricular function. Also this scan have shown the value of radionuclide ejection fraction measurements during the course of chemotherapy as a predictor of cardiac toxicity. Therefore a reliable method of monitoring its cardiotoxic effects is necessary. the purpose of this study is to minimize the overestimate of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) by modified body position to reduce the influence of scattered rays from surrounding organs of the heart in the background region of interest. Materials and Methods: Gated cardiac blood pool scan using in vivo $^{99m}Tc$-red blood cell (RBC) was carried out in 20 patients (mean $44.8{\pm}8.6$ yr) with chemotherapy for a breast carcinoma. Data acquisition requires about 600 seconds and 24 frames of one heart cycle by the multigated acquisition mode, Synchronization deteriorates toward the end of the cycle and with the distance from the trigger signal (R-wave) by ECG gating. Gated cardiac blood pool scan was studied with conventional method (supine position and the detector head in $30-45^{\circ}$ left anterior oblique position and caudal $10-20^{\circ}$ tilt) and compared with modified method (left lateral flexion position with 360 mL of drinking water). LVEF analysis was performed by using the automatically computer mode. Results: The ROI counts of modified scan method were lower than LV conventional method ($1429{\pm}251$ versus $1853{\pm}243$, <0.01). And LVEF of modified method was also decrease compared with conventional method ($58.3{\pm}5.6%$ versus $65.3{\pm}6.1%$, <0.01). Imaging analysis indicated that stomach was expanded because of water and spleen position was changed to lateral inferior compared with conventional method. Conclusion: This study shows that the modified method in MUGA reduce the influence of scattered rays from surrounding organs. Because after change the body position to left lateral flexion and drinking water, the location of spleen, left lobe of liver and stomach had changed and they could escaped from background ROI. Therefore, modified method could help to minimize the overestimate LVEF (%).