• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.65-71
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• 2024

To achieve high resolution and sensitivity of positron emission tomography (PET) for small animals, the detector is constructed using very thin and long scintillation pixels. Due to the structure of these scintillation pixels, spatial resolution deterioration occurs outside the system's field of view. To solve this problem, we designed a detector that could improve spatial resolution by measuring the interaction depth and improve sensitivity by using a quasi-block scintillator. A quasi-block scintillator size of 12.6 mm x 12.6 mm x 3 mm was arranged in four layers, and optical sensors were placed on all sides to collect light generated by the interaction between gamma rays and the scintillator. DETECT2000 simulation was performed to evaluate the performance of the designed detector. Flood images were acquired by generating gamma-ray events at 1 mm intervals from 1.3 mm to 11.3 mm within the scintillator of each layer. The spatial resolution and peak-to-peak distance for each location were measured in an 11 x 11 array of flood images. The average measured spatial resolution was 0.25 mm, and the average distance between peaks was 1.0 mm. Through this, it was confirmed that all locations were separated from each other. In addition, because the light signals of all layers were measured separately from each other, the layer of the scintillator that interacted with the gamma rays could be completely separated. When the designed detector is used as a detector in a PET system for small animals, it is considered that excellent spatial resolution and sensitivity can be achieved and image quality can be improved.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.170-178
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• 2024

Adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) are capable of differentiation into multiple lineages of cells, which has attracted attention for clinical therapy. However, ADSCs have poor proliferation capacity and a short life span in culture, which is an impediment in the application to clinical use. Previously, to overcome growth disadvantages, we had established an immortalized ADSC line (ADSC-T) by introducing the SV40 T antigen coding gene into primary human ADSC. In the present study, we evaluated the differentiation potential of this cell line and assessed the anti-inflammatory effect of its conditioned medium (CM). ADSC-T appeared to maintain the differentiation potential into adipocyte and chondrocyte. The CM of ADSC-T suppressed the NF-κB activity and its target gene expression of COX-2 and iNOS. Furthermore, the phosphorylations of MAPKs, including ERK, JNK and p38, were suppressed by the ADSC-T CM. The expressions of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as TGF-β, TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-13 were also suppressed by the CM of ADSC-T. In the Nc/Nga atopic model mice, the CM showed therapeutic effect on DNCB-induced atopic dermatitis. These results indicate that the immortalized ADSC-T maintains the beneficial properties of primary ADSC and could be a versatile cell source for not only research into ADSC but also for production of CM suitable for clinical application.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.235-243
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• 2009

The purpose of this experiment is to know the relation of the detection and characterization of liver's diseases as comparison of finding at MR imaging using a Ferucarbotran (SPIO) and Gd-EOB-DTPA (Primovist) agents in diffuse liver disease. A total of 50 patients (25 men and 25 women, mean age: 50 years) with liver diseases were investigated at 3.0T machine (GE, General Electric Medical System, Excite HD) "with 8 Ch body coil for comparison of diseases and contrast's uptake relation, which used the LAVA, MGRE." All images were performed on the same location with before and after Ferucarbotran and Gd-EOB-DTPA administrations (p<0.05). Contrast to noise ratio of Ferucarbotran and Gd-EOB-DTPA in the HCC were $3.08{\pm}0.12$ and $7.00{\pm}0.27$ with MGRE and LAVA pulse sequence, $3.62{\pm}0.13$ and $2.60{\pm}0.23$ in the hyper-plastic nodule, $1.70{\pm}0.09$ and $2.60{\pm}0.23$ in the meta, $2.12{\pm}0.28$ and $5.86{\pm}0.28$ in the FNH, $4.45{\pm}0.28$ and $1.73{\pm}0.02$ in the abscess and ANOVA test was used to evaluate the diagnostic performance of each disease (p<0.05). In conclusions, two techniques were well demonstrated with the relation of the detection and characterization of liver's diseases.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.09a
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• pp.125-153
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• 2005

It has been widely known that the seismic piezo-cone penetration test (SCPTU) is one of the most useful techniques for investigating the geotechnical characteristics including dynamic soil properties. As the practical applications in Korea, SCPTU was carried out at two sites in Busan and four sites in Incheon, which are mainly composed of alluvial or marine soil deposits. From the SCPTU waveform data obtained from the testing sites, the first arrival times of shear waves were and the corresponding time differences with depth were determined using the cross-over method, and the shear wave velocity profiles (VS) were derived based on the refracted ray path method based on Snell's law and similar to the trend of cone tip resistance (qt) profiles. In Incheon area, the testing depths of SCPTU were deeper than those of conventional down-hole seismic tests. Moreover, for the application of the conventional CPTU to earthquake engineering practices, the correlations between VS and CPTU data were deduced based on the SCPTU results. For the empirical evaluation of VS for all soils together with clays and sands which are classified unambiguously in this study by the soil behavior type classification Index (IC), the authors suggested the VS-CPTU data correlations expressed as a function of four parameters, qt, fs, $\sigma$, v0 and Bq, determined by multiple statistical regression modeling. Despite the incompatible strain levels of the down-hole seismic test during SCPTU and the conventional CPTU, it is shown that the VS-CPTU data correlations for all soils clays and sands suggested in this study is applicable to the preliminary estimation of VS for the Korean deposits and is more reliable than the previous correlations proposed by other researchers.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.269-275
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• 2008

Although MR imaging is generally applicable to depict knee joint deterioration it, is sometimes occurred to mis-read and mis-diagnose the common knee joint diseases. In this study, we employed magnetization transfer ratio (MTR) method to improve the diagnosis of the various knee joint diseases. Spin-echo (SE) T2-weighted images (TR/TE 3,400-3,500/90-100 ms) were obtained in seven cases of knee joint deterioration, FSE T2-weighted images (TR/TE 4,500-5,000/100-108 ms) were obtained in seven cases of knee joint deterioration, gradient-echo (GRE) T2-weighted images (TR/TE 9/4.56/$50^{\circ}$ flip angle, NEX 1) were obtained in 3 cases of knee joint deterioration, In six cases of knee joint deterioration, fat suppression was performed using a T2-weighted short T1/tau inverse recovery (STIR) sequence (TR/TE =2,894-3,215 ms/70 ms, NEX 3, ETL 9). Calculation of MTR for individual pixels was performed on registration of unsaturated and saturated images. After processing to make MTR images, the images were displayed in gray color. For improving diagnosis, three-dimensional isotropic volume images, the MR tristimulus color mapping and the MTR map was employed. MTR images showed diagnostic images quality to assess the patients' pathologies. The intensity difference between MTR images and conventional MRI was seen on the color bar. The profile graph on MTR imaging effect showed a quantitative measure of the relative decrease in signal intensity due to the MT pulse. To diagnose the pathologies of the knee joint, the profile graph data was shown on the image as a small cross. The present study indicated that MTR images in the knee joint were feasible. Investigation of physical change on MTR imaging enables to provide us more insight in the physical and technical basis of MTR imaging. MTR images could be useful for rapid assessment of diseases that we examine unambiguous contrast in MT images of knee disorder patients.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.127-132
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• 2013

The position of the internal organs can change continually and periodically inside the body due to the respiration. To reduce the respiration induced uncertainty of dose localization, one can use a respiratory gated radiotherapy where a radiation beam is exposed during the specific time of period. The main disadvantage of this method is that it usually requests a long treatment time, the massive effort during the treatment and the limitation of the patient selection. In this sense, the combination of the real-time position management (RPM) system and the volumetric intensity modulated radiotherapy (RapidArc) is promising since it provides a short treatment time compared with the conventional respiratory gated treatments. In this study, we evaluated the accuracy of the respiratory gated RapidArc treatment. Total sic patient cases were used for this study and each case was planned by RapidArc technique using varian ECLIPSE v8.6 planning machine. For the Quality Assurance (QA), a MatriXX detector and I'mRT software were used. The results show that more than 97% of area gives the gamma value less than one with 3% dose and 3 mm distance to agreement condition, which indicates the measured dose is well matched with the treatment plan's dose distribution for the gated RapidArc treatment cases.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.101-108
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• 2005

Purpose : Early detection of small brain metastases is important. The purpose of this study was to compare the detectability of brain metastases according to the size between 1.5 T and 3.0 T MRI. Materials and Methods : We reviewed 162 patients with primary lung cancer who were examined for TNM staging. After administration of double dose of Gd-DTPA, MR imaging was performed with SPGR by 3.0 T MRI and then with T1 SE sequence by 1.5 T MRI. In each patient, three readers performed qualitative assessment. Sensitivity, positive predictive value, and diagnostic accuracy were calculated in 3.0 T and 1.5 T MRI according to size. Using the signal intensity (SI) measurements between the metastatic nodules and adjacent tissue, nodule-to-adjacent tissue SI ratio was calculated. Results : Thirty-one of 162 patients had apparent metastatic nodules in the brain at either 1.5 T or 3.0 T MR imaging. 143 nodules were detected in 3.0 T MRI, whereas 137 nodules were detected at 1.5 T MRI. Six nodules, only detected in 3.0 T MRI, were smaller than 3.0 mm in dimension. Sensitivity, positive predictive value, and diagnostic accuracy in 3.0 T MRI were 100 %, 100 %, and 100 % respectively, and in 1.5 T MRI were 95.8%, 88.3%, and 85.1% respectively. SI ratio was significantly higher in the 3.0 T MRI than 1.5 T MRI (p=0.025). Conclusion : True positive rate of 3.0 T MRI with Gd-DTPA was superior to 1.5 T MRI with Gd-DTPA in detection of metastatic nodules smaller than 3.0 mm.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.120-128
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• 2002

Purpose : To demonstrate that the relaxographic method provides additional information such as the distribution of relaxation times and water content which are poentially applicable to clinical medicine. Materials and Methods : First, the computer simulation was performed with the generated relaxation data to verify the accuracy and reliabilility of the relaxographic method (CONTINI). Secondly, in or der to see how well the CONTIN quantifies and resolves the two different ${T_1}$ environments, we calculated the oil to water peak area ratios and identified peak positions of ${T_1}-distribution$ curve of the phantom solutions, which consist of four centrifugal tubes (10 ml) filled with the compounds of 0, 10, 20, 30% of corn oil and distilled water, using CONTIN. Finally, inversion recovery MR images for a volunteer are acquired for each TI ranged from 40 to 1160 msec with TR/TE=2200/20 msec. From the 3 different ROIs (GM, WM, CSF), CONTIN analysis was performed to obtain the ${T_1}$-distribution curves, which gave peak positions and peak area of each ROI location. Results : The simulation result shows that the errors of peak positions were less in the higher peak (centered ${T_1}=600$ msec) than in the lower peak (centered ${T_1}=150$ msec) for all SNR but the errors of peak areas were larger in the higher peak than in the lower peak. The CONTIN analysis of the measured relaxation data of phantoms revealed two peaks between 20 and 60 msec and between 500 and 700 msec. The analysis gives the peak area ratio as oil 10%: oil 20%: oil 30% = 1:1.3:1.9, which is different from the exact ratio, 1:2:3. For human brain, in ROI 3 (CSF), only one component of -distributions was observed whereas in ROI 1(GM) and in ROI 2 (WM) we observed two components of ${T_1}-distribution$. For the WM and CSF there was great agreement between the observed ${T_1}-relaxation$ times and the reported values. Conclusion : we demonstrated that the relaxographic method provided additional information such as the distribution of relaxation times and water content, which were not available in the routine relaxometry and ${T_1}/{T_2}$ mapping techniques. In addition, these additional information provided by relaxographic analysis may have clinical importance.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.347-358
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• 2016

Brassinosteroid (BR), a plant steroid hormone, plays key roles in numerous growth and developmental processes as well as tolerance to both abiotic and biotic stress. To understand the biological networks involved in BR-mediated signaling pathways and stress tolerance, we performed comparative genome-wide transcriptome analysis of a constitutively activated BR bes1-D mutant with an Agilent Arabidopsis $4{\times}44K$ oligo chip. As a result, we newly identified 1,091 (562 up-regulated and 529 down-regulated) significant differentially expressed genes (DEGs). The combination of GO enrichment and protein network analysis revealed that stress-related processes, such as metabolism, development, abiotic/biotic stress, immunity, and defense, were critically linked to BR signaling pathways. Among the identified gene sets, we confirmed more than a 6-fold up-regulation of NB-ARC and FLS2 in bes1-D plants. However, some genes, including TIR1, TSA1 and OCP3, were down-regulated. Consistently, BR-activated plants showed higher tolerance to drought stress and pathogen infection compared to wild-type controls. In this study, we newly developed a useful, comprehensive method for large-scale identification of critical network and gene sets with global transcriptome analysis using a microarray. This study also showed that gain of function in the bes1-D gene can regulate the adaptive response of plants to various stressful conditions.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.73-77
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• 2012

Recently, Interest to the photoconductor, which is used to flat form X-ray detector such as a-Se, $HgI_2$, PbO, CdTe, $PbI_2$ etc. is increasing. In this study, the film layer by using the photoconductive material with particle sedimentation was fabricated and evaluated. The quantization efficiency of the continuous X-ray with the 70 kVp energy bandwidth was analyzed by using the Monte Carlo simulation. With the results, the thickness of film with 64 % quantization efficiency was 180 ${\mu}m$ which is similar to the efficiency of 500 ${\mu}m$ a-Se film. And $HIg_2$ film has the high quantization efficiency of 74 % on 240 ${\mu}m$ thickness. The electrical characteristics of the 239 ${\mu}m$ $Hgl_2$ films produced by particle sedimentation were shown as very low dark current(under 10 $pA/mm^2$), and high sensitivity(19.8 mC/mR-sec) with 1 $V/{\mu}m$ input voltage. The SNR, which is influence to the contrast of X-ray image, was shown highly as 3,125 in low driving voltage on 0.8 $V/{\mu}m$. With the results of this study, the development of the low-cost, high-performance image detector with film could be possible by replacing the film produced by particle sedimentation instead to a-Se detector.