• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.61-69
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• 2008

Purpose: Micro-pinhole SPECT system with conventional multiple-head gamma cameras has the advantage of high magnification factor for imaging of rodents. However, several geometric factors should be calibrated to obtain the SPECT image with good image quality. We developed a simplified geometric calibration method for rotating triple-head pinhole SPECT system and assessed the effects of the calibration using several phantom and rodent imaging studies. Materials and Methods: Trionix Triad XLT9 triple-head SPECT scanner with 1.0 mm pinhole apertures were used for the experiments. Approximately centered point source was scanned to track the angle-dependent positioning errors. The centroid of point source was determined by the center of mass calculation. Axially departed two point sources were scanned to calibrate radius of rotation from pinhole to center of rotation. To verify the improvements by the geometric calibration, we compared the spatial resolution of the reconstructed image of Tc-99m point source with and without the calibration. SPECT image of micro performance phantom with hot rod inserts was acquired and several animal imaging studies were performed. Results: Exact sphere shape of the point source was obtained by applying the calibration and axial resolution was improved. Lesion detectibility and image quality was also much improved by the calibration in the phantom and animal studies. Conclusion: Serious degradation of micro-pinhole SPECT images due to the geometric errors could be corrected using a simplified calibration method using only one or two point sources.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.130-134
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• 2016

How does $CO_2$ affect on the stomatal mechanism? The mechanism of stomatal opening by $CO_2$ is not clear as it is difficult to see $CO_2$ effect on light-induced stomatal opening. Furthermore, stomata may react differently according to the concentration of $CO_2$. The significance of the possible endogenous rhythms must consider to understand on $CO_2$-related response. It is clear that $CO_2$ has an effect on the accumulation of osmotic materials which determines the degree of stomatal apertures because it is known that stomata open in the condition of the reduced $CO_2$ concentration. However, it is not fully understood how $CO_2$ leads to the stomatal opening. It has been thought that $CO_2$ can not affect on the ion fluxes which determines the increase of osmotic potential in guard cells. However, in this study, the changes of guard cell membrane permeability by $CO_2$ have been focused on. There are many reports that $CO_2$ related reactions are dominant when the leaf is exposed to certain a mount of $CO_2$. The hypothesis of the stomatal opening by light is based on the increase of osmotic materials in guard cells including $K^+$, $Cl^-$, sucrose and $malate^{2-}$. It was reported that $CO_2$ induced a big hyperpolarization indicating that $H^+$ was extruded to the cell outside. It was also found that $CO_2$ caused guard cell membrane hyperpolarization in the intact leaf up to 3 or 4 times higher than that of light induced membrane hyperpolarization. These results represent that $CO_2$ can affect on the change of physical characteristics which affects on the change of the membrane permeability.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.29 no.9
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• pp.1027-1034
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• 2007

This research was focused on the selective separation of $CO_2$ or $CH_4$ from mixture of these gases, by controlling the size of pore or pore gate. Pitch based activated carbon fibers(ACF) were used as adsorbents. The size of pore gate was controlled by the molecule having similar size to that of pore opening. After the adsorption of adsorbate on pore surface, planar molecules such as benzene and naphthalene covered the pore gate. The slow release of adsorbate from the pores covered by planar molecules makes apertures between planar molecules covering pore gate and this structure can be fixed by rapid pyrolysis. The control of pore gate using benzene as covering molecules could not accomplished due to the simultaneous volatilization of benzene and adsorbate$(CO_2)$ caused by similar temperatures of benzene volatilization and adsorbate desorption. Therefore we replaced benzene with naphthalene looking for the stability at a $CO_2$ desorption temperature. The naphthalene molecule was adsorbed on the ACF up to 15% of ACF weight and showed no desorption until $100^{\circ}C$, indicating that the molecule could be used as a good cover molecule. Naphthalene could cover almost all the pore gate, reducing BET surface area from 753 $m^2/g$ to 0.7 $m^2/g$. A mixed gas$(CO_2:CH_4=50:50)$ was adsorbed on the naphthalene treated OG-7A ACF. The amount of $CO_2$ adsorption increased with total pressure, whileas thai of $CH_4$ was not so much influenced on the pressure, indicating that $CO_2$ made more compounds on the ACF surface along with total pressure increase. The most $CO_2$ and the least $CH_4$ were adsorbed in the condition of 0.4 atm, resulting in the highly pure $CH_4$ left in ACF.