• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.401-409
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• 2008

Purpose: Recently multi-modal imaging system has become widely adopted in molecular imaging. We tried to fabricate animal-specific positioning molds for PET/MR fusion imaging using easily available molding clay and rapid foam. The animal-specific positioning molds provide immobilization and reproducible positioning of small animal. Herein, we have compared fiber-based molding clay with rapid foam in fabricating the molds of experimental animal. Materials and Methods: The round bottomed-acrylic frame, which fitted into microPET gantry, was prepared at first. The experimental mice was anesthetized and placed on the mold for positioning. Rapid foam and fiber-based clay were used to fabricate the mold. In case of both rapid foam and the clay, the experimental animal needs to be pushed down smoothly into the mold for positioning. However, after the mouse was removed, the fabricated clay needed to be dried completely at $60^{\circ}C$ in oven overnight for hardening. Four sealed pipet tips containing $[^{18}F]FDG$ solution were used as fiduciary markers. After injection of $[^{18}F]FDG$ via tail vein, microPET scanning was performed. Successively, MRI scanning was followed in the same animal. Results: Animal-specific positioning molds were fabricated using rapid foam and fiber-based molding clay for multimodality imaging. Functional and anatomical images were obtained with microPET and MRI, respectively. The fused PET/MR images were obtained using freely available AMIDE program. Conclusion: Animal-specific molds were successfully prepared using easily available rapid foam, molding clay and disposable pipet tips. Thanks to animal-specific molds, fusion images of PET and MR were co-registered with negligible misalignment.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.167-173
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• 2003

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether a GafChromic film applied to stereotactic radiosurgery with a linear accelerator could provide information on the value for acceptance testing and quality control on the absolute dose and relative dose measurements and/or calculation of treatment planning system. Materials and methods: A spherical acrylic phantom, simulating a patient's head, was constructed from three points. The absolute and relative dose distributions could be measured by inserting a GafChromic film into the phantom. We tested the use of a calibrated GafChromic film (MD-55-2, Nuclear Associate, USA) for measuring the optical density. These measurements were achieved by irradiating the films with a dose of 0-112 Gy employing 6 MV photon. To verify the accuracy of the prescribed dose delivery to a target isocenter using a five arc beams (irradiated in 3 Gy per one beam) setup, calculated by the Linapel planning system the absolute dose and relative dose distribution using a GafChromic film were measured. All the irradiated films were digitized with a Lumiscan 75 laser digitizer and processed with the RIT113 film dosimetry system. Results: We verified the linearity of the Optical Density of a MD-55-2 GafChromic film, and measured the depth dose profile of the beam. The absolute dose delivered to the target was close to the prescribed dose of Linapel within an accuracy for the GafChromic film dosimetry (of $\pm$3$\%$), with a measurement uncertainty of $\pm$1 mm for the 50$\~$90$\%$ isodose lines. Conclusion: Our results have shown that the absolute dose and relative dose distribution curves obtained from a GafChromic film can provide information on the value for acceptance. To conclude the GafChromic flim is a convenient and useful dosimetry tool for linac based radiosurgery.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.62-68
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• 2014

Purpose: After I-131 therapy, SPECT/CT is useful in identifying location of thyroid remnants and metastasis of thyroid cancers. An excessive uptake of thyroid leads to a ringing artifact in the SPECT images. The aim of this study is to investigate and suggest a proper post filters to remove ringing artifact and produce better image quality. Materials and Methods: A low-cost, customized thyroid-mimicking phantom, consisting of an acrylic bottle and a hollow sphere was used for SPECT/CT Discovery (GE Healthcare, USA). It was filled with I-131 solution. The ratio of hollow sphere to background were varied as 50:1, 200:1, 1000:1 and 4000:1. Acquired images were reconstructed by OSEM (2 iterations, 10 subsets) with and without Evolution (resolution recovery correction, GE). Three different post-filters were applied; Butterworth (cut off: 0.38 to 0.58 with intervals of 0.05), Hanning (cut off: 0.8 to 1 with intervals of 0.05) and Gaussian (FWHM: 3 to 5 with intervals of 0.5) filters. Contrast, background variability, air area variability, and full width half maximum (FWHM) were compared. Results: Higher contrasts were obtained from the SPECT images with Evolution than without Evolution. In the case of images without Evolution, image distortion such as star artifact was generated. For all sphere-to-background ratio, the Butterworth filter showed better constrasts and FWHMs than other two filters, but the ringing artifact was still generated in all studies except 50:1 and it was decreased as cutoff value was increased. The ringing artifact didn't appear with Hanning and Gaussian filters at all studies, however constrats and FWHMs with Gaussian was worse than Hanning filter. For the images having ringing artifacts, the background variability and air area variability were increased. Conclusion: In this study, we suggested that it is desirable to use Hanning filter when the ringing artifact is generated and to use Butterworth filter when ringing artifact is not generated in I-131 SPECT.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.352-359
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• 1997

The visual acuity of filefish Stephanolepis cirrhifer was studied through a series of experiments by observing their responses to target plates. The fish were trained to respond to the target plates made of white acrylic resin with a vertical black line 5cm long in the center. The width of the black line ranged from 0.2mm to 8.0 mm. The line width was diminished unto the fish could no longer distinguish the line at a distance of 100 cm from the target plate. This was repeated under light intensities of 400, 20, 5, 3 and 1 lx at the water surface. Fish were rewarded with bait in front of the target plate if the fish went to the target date (i.e., success).The results show that the training effect of 1lensh had a success rate of over 80% and that the reach times to the target plates were 4~5 seconds over 210 experimental tunes. The success rate was high using the thick line with strong apparent contrast, but was low at the 1 lx. The visible critical width of line became thick with decreasing light intensity, 0.24mm at 400 lx, followed by 0.30mm at 20 lx, 0.40mm at 5 lx, 0.46 mm at 3 lx and 2.87mm at 1 lx. The apparent contrast for visible critical width of line increased with decreasing light intensity, 0.01 at 400 and 20 lx, 0.02 at 5 lx, 0.03 at 3 lx and 0.09 at 1 lx. The line acuity of filefish was best 1.21 at the 400 lx, followed by 0.97 at 20 lx, 0.73 at 5 lx, 0.63 at 3 lx and sharply decreased to 0.10 at 1 lx. The visible ranges for 1mm and 6mm in width of line were about 4.2 m and 25.0 m at the 400 lx light intensity and decreased m 1/14 times and 1/12 times of the 400 lx at 1 lx, respectively.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.41 no.spc
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• pp.77-85
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• 2008

Grazing rates (GR) and pseudofaeces production (PFP) of native snail, Chinese mystery snail (Cipangopaludina chinensis malleata Reeve) on natural colonial morphs of Microcystis aeruginosa was measured. C. chinensis was collected from the upstream of the Geum River (Boryeong, Korea), where they co-habituated with Unio douglasiae and Lanceolaria acrorhyncha. The experiments were performed to evaluate the GR and PFP at different conditions such as; incubation time (1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11 hr), body size (3 to 6.1 cm, n=28), snail density (0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2.0 ind. $L^{-1}$) and prey concentration (168.3, 336.7, 505.0 and $673.0{\mu}g\;Chl-{\alpha}L^{-1}$). All experiments were triplicated, and conducted in transparent acrylic vessel (3L in volume). Regarding feeding time, a highest GR (0.538L $gAFDW^{-1}h^{-1}$) and PFP $(7.18mgAFDW^{-1})$ appeared at 1hr and 7hr after snail stocking, respectively. Interestingly, the snail, smaller than 4.5cm in body size, showed a wide range of GR ($-4.173{\sim}1.087L\;gAFDW^{-1}h^{-1}$) for the initial period (1 and 4hrs of stocking), compared to those greater than 4.5cm, which showed a stable FR, higher than 0.5L $gAFDW^{-1}h^{-1}$. Upon density effect, the density of 1.5 ind. $L^{-1}$ induced the most effective inhibition on Microcystis biomass with highest PFP. On the prey concentration, highest GR (0.897L $gAFDW^{-1}h^{-1}$) and PFP (3.67 mg $gAFDW^{-1}h^{-1}$) were induced at the level of $168.3{\mu}g\;Chl-{\alpha}L^{-1}$ and $673{\mu}g\;Chl-{\alpha}L^{-1}$, respectively. GR and PFP of this freshwater snail on the cyanobacterial bloom (M. aeruginosa) varied with the feeding conditions, and they were comparatively high for a short period of time less than 7hrs regardless of the stocking condition. Our results suggest that this freshwater snail has a potential to control cyanobacterial bloom when provided with suitable condition.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.41 no.spc
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• pp.68-76
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• 2008

This study examined the inhibition effects of a freshwater bivalve (Unio douglasiae) and a submerged plant (Potamogeton crispus) on the cyanobacterial bloom (Oscillatoria sp.). The experiment were conducted in aquarium $(50cm{\times}65cm{\times}120cm)$ with lake sediments in the bottom of the aquarium in 10 cm thick. Before the experiments, artificial cyanobacterial bloom was induced with the addition of lake sediment and CB medium. Total 12 transparent acrylic cylinders (${\Phi}19cm$, height 40 cm) were placed in the aquarium, and within which bivalves and plants were placed in various conditions such as the control (C), plant addition (P:5 stems), mussel addition (U:2 individuals), and both mussel and plant addition (PU: the same quantity as used in each treatment). The experiment was conducted in triplicate during 7 days. pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), electric conductivity (EC), salinity, cyanobacterial cell density, chlorophyll-${\alpha}$ concentration, and mussel filtering rate were monitored daily. At the end of the experiment, total phosphorus (TP), total nitrogen (TN), and plant height and weight were measured. Overall, a large degree of cyanobacterial growth inhibition appeared in both P and U treatments, and the effect was highest in the U treatment, followed by P and PU. The combined treatment of both U and P did not show any synergic effects compared to the effect in separated treatment. In all enclosures of the treatments chlorophyll-${alpha}$ (Chl-${alpha}$) concentration decreased until 36 hours after the additions of the plants and mussels. In contrast, Chl-${alpha}$ concentrations increased in PU enclosures after 36 hours. The same trend was shown in the cell density of Oscillatoria. pH and DO gradually decreased until 120 and 144 hours, respectively, in the P and PU enclosures. TP concentration increased in the mussel enclosures (U and PU), while TN concentration largely decreased in the plant enclosures (P and PU). Our results suggest that applied bivalve (Unio) and submerged plant (Potamogeton) seemed to have a potential effect on the growth inhibition of cyanobacteria, but their combined application may have an antagonistic effect to diminish the degree of the inhibition.

• Restorative Dentistry and Endodontics
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.80-88
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• 2003

Object The purpose of this study were to evaluate the microtensile bond strength of resin fiber reinforced post to radicular dentin using resin cement according to various dentin surface treatment and to observe the inter face between post and root dentin under SEM Material and Method A total 16 extracted human single rooted teeth were used. A lingual access was made using a #245 carbide bur in a high-speed handpiece with copious air water spray. The post space was mechanically enlarged using H-file(up to #60) and Gates Glidden bures(#3). This was followed by refining of the canal space using the calbrating drill set provided in ER Dentinpost(GEBR, BRASSELER GmbH&Co. KG). The 16 teeth were randomly distributed into 4 group of 4 teeth. Group 1 teeth had their post space prepared using 10% phosphoric acid as root canal surface treatment agent during 20s. The canal was then rinsed with saline and dried with paper point. Group 2 teeth had their post space prepared using 3% NaOCl as root canal surface treatment agent during 30min. The canal was then rinsed with saline and dried with paper point. Group 3 teeth had their post space prepared using 17% EDTA as root canal surface treatment agent during 1min. The canal was then rinsed with saline and dried with paper point. Group 4 teeth had their post space prepared using 17% EDTA as root canal surface treatment agent during 1min. After rinsing with saline, the canal was rinced 10m1 of 3% NaOCl for 30min. After drying with paper point, the post(ER Dentinpost, GEBR, BRASSELER GmbH&Co. KG) was placed in the treated canals using resin cement. Once the canal was filled with resin cement(Super bond C&B sunmedical co. Ltd.), a lentulo was inserted to the depth of the canal to ensure proper coating of the root canal wall. After 24 hours, acrylic resin blocks($10{\cdot}10{\cdot}50mm$) were made. The resin block was serially sectioned vertically into stick of $1{\cdot}1mm$. Twenty sticks were prepared from each group. After that, tensile bond strengths for each stick was measured with Microtensile Tester. Failure pattern of the specimen at the interface between post and dentin were observed under SEM. Results 1. Tensile bond strengths(meen{\pm}SD$) ) were expressed with ascending order as follows group 4, $12.52{\pm}6.60$ ; group 1, $7.63{\pm}5.83$ ; group 2, $4.13{\pm}2.31$ ; group 3, $3.31{\pm}1.44$. 2. Tensile bond strengths of Group 4 treated with 17% EDTA +3%NaOCl were significant higher than those of group 1, 2 and 3 (p<0.05). 3. Tensile bond strengths of Group 1 treated with 10% phosphoric acid were significant higher than those of group 2 (p<0.05). Tensile bond strengths of Group 4 treated with 17% EDTA +3% NaOCl was significant higher than those of other groups.

• Proceedings of the KACD Conference
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.177-183
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• 2008

It was reported that esthetic composite resin restoration reinforces the strength of remaining tooth structure with preserving the natural tooth structure. However, it is unknown how much the strength would be recovered. The purpose of this study was to compare the fracture resistance of three types of undermined cavity filled with composite resin with that of non-cavitated natural tooth. Forty sound upper molars were allocated randomly into four groups of 10 teeth. After flattening occlusal enamel. undermined cavities were prepared in thirty teeth to make three types of specimens with various thickness of occlusal structure (Group $1{\sim}3$). All the cavity have the 5 mm width mesio-distally and 7 mm depth bucco-lingually. Another natural 10 teeth (Group 4) were used as a control group. Teeth in group 1 have remaining occlusal structure about 1 mm thickness, which was composed of mainly enamel and small amount of dentin. In Group 2, remained thickness was about 1.5 mm, including 0.5 mm thickness dentin. In Group 3, thickness was about 2.0 mm, including 1 mm thickness dentin. Every effort was made to keep the remaining dentin thickness about 0.5 mm from the pulp space in cavitated groups. All the thickness was evaluated with radiographic Length Analyzer program. After acid etching with 37% phosphoric acid, one-bottle adhesive (Single $Bond^{TM}$, 3M/ESPE, USA) was applied following the manufacturer's recommendation and cavities were incrementally filled with hybrid composite resin (Filtek $Z-250^{TM}$, 3M/ESPE, USA). Teeth were stored in distilled water for one day at room temperature, after then, they were finished and polished with Sof-Lex system. All specimens were embedded in acrylic resin and static load was applied to the specimens with a 3 mm diameter stainless steel rod in an Universal testing machine and cross-head speed was 1 mm/min. Maximum load in case of fracture was recorded for each specimen. The data were statistically analyzed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and a Tukey test at the 95% confidence level. The results were as follows: 1. Fracture resistance of the undermined cavity filled with composite resin was about 75% of the natural tooth. 2. No significant difference on fracture loads of composite resin restoration was found among the three types of cavitated groups. Within the limits of this study, it can be concluded the fracture resistance of the undermined cavity filled with composite resin was lower than that of natural teeth, however remaining tooth structure may be supported and saved by the reinforcement with adhesive restoration, even of that portion consists of mainly enamel and a little dentin structure.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.133-142
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• 2009

In order to understand the present environmental condition and future impingement of Changjiang(Yangtze River) outflow upon the adjacent seas after the scheduled completion of the Sanxia (Three Gorges) Dam in 2009, we tried to estimate the mixing ratios among surface waters of three end-members: Changjiang Water (CW), Kuroshio Water (KW), and East China Sea Water (ECSW) using $^{228}Ra/^{226}Ra$ activity ratio and salinity as tracers. Water samples were collected from 32 stations in November 2005 (R/V Tamgu 3), from 20 stations in July 2006 (R/V Ocean 2000) and from 17 stations in August 2006 (R/V Ieodo) in the northern part of the East China Sea. Radium isotopes in ~300 liters of surface seawater were extracted onboard by filtering through manganese impregnated acrylic fibers and following coprecipitation as $Ba(Ra)SO_4$. Activities of radium isotopes were determined by a high purity germanium detector. Results show that the fraction of CW was in the range of 1-23% in the study area, while KW was in the range of 0-30 % and ECSW 58-100 %. The eastward plume of Changjiang outflow, commonly observed in satellite images during summer and also displayed by the eastward-decreasing CW fraction in this study, could be attributed to Ekman transport caused by the SE monsoon prevailing in this region during summer. Results of this study showed that in the drought season, there was a little or no fraction of CW in the study area. Concentration of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) showed strong positive relationship with the fraction of CW, suggesting Changjiang as the major source of nitrogen. The mixing curve of DIN indicates the removal of nitrate by biological uptake during the mixing of CW with ambient seawater in the study area.

• Restorative Dentistry and Endodontics
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.178-183
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• 2005

This study was done to evaluate whether vital bleaching agents could influence on the translucency of the bovine enamel. The anterior bovine teeth that were extracted one day before and without any gross discoloration were obtained and then were preserved in physiologic saline. 6 mm cylindrical tooth specimens were fabricated with diamond puncher perpendicularly on labial surface of bovine tooth. After embedded in transparent acrylic resin with labial surface being exposed, they were cut to a thickness of 1.2 mm with low speed diamond saw (Isomat, Buehler Co., Lake Bluff, IL, USA). They were smoothly ground to 1 mm thickness of enamel with sandpaper. 24 specimens were randomly divided into 3 groups and control group respectively. Opalescence (10% carbamide peroxide, Ultradent, South Jordan, USA), Rembrandt (10% carbamide peroxide, DenMat, USA) and Opalescence F (15% carbamide peroxide with fluoride, Ultradent, USA) were applied on labial sides of the bovine enamel for 7 days (bleaching agents were reapplied every 24 hours) and the opposite surface was contacted to cotton that soaked in distilled water. The control group was soaked in distilled water. Three stimulus value X, Y and Z were evaluated with colorimeter (Color ' Color Differencerneter, Model TC-6FX, Tokyo Denshoku Co., Japan) on the labial surface of all specimen three times on white and black background plate before the bleaching agents were applied and on 3rd, 5th and 7th day after applied. The degree of translucency was normally assessed by measuring the inverse property, opacity (contrast ratio). 10% Opalescence, 15% Opalescence-F, and control group showed no significant variation in the translucency of bovine enamel, However Rembrandt decreased the translucency of it (p < 0.01).