• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.173-182
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• 1999

Contrast-enhanced CT has an important role in assessing liver lesions, the optimal protocol to get most effective result is not clear. The mein goal when deciding injention protocol is to optimize lesion detectability with rapid scanning when lesion to liver contrast is maximum. For this purpose, we developed a physiological model of the contrast medium enhancement based on the compartment modeling and pharmacokinetics. Blood supply to liver is achieved in two paths. This dual supply characteristic distinguishes the CT enhancement of liver from that of the other organs. The first path is by hepatic artery and to second, by portal vein. However, it is assumed that only gepatic artery can supply blood to hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC) compartment, thus, the difference of contrast enhancement is resulted between normal liver tissue and hepatic tumor. By solving differential equations for each compartment simultaneously using the computer program Matlab, CT contrast-enhancement curves were simulated. The simulated enhancement curves for aortic, hepatic, portal vein, and HCC compartments were compared with the mean enhancement curves from 24 patients exposed to the same protocols as the simulation. These enhancement curves showed a good agreement. Furthermore, we simulated lesion-to-liver curves for various injection protocols, and the effects were analyzed. The variables to be considered in the injection protocol were injection rate, dose, and concentration of contrast material. These data may help to optimize scanning protocols for better diagnosis.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.173-206
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• 2019

This research examines the characteristic of regulation on Japanese clinical research in recent years. First, Japan has had a severe punishment policy on research misconduct like Korea, but, in recent days, Japan has changed the direction of research ethics policy from restriction to research publicness securement by educational training, in addition, Act of Clinical Research, effected April 2018, has recruited excellent researchers, and then integrated clinical research and medicine clinical trial through raising transparency of funding and integrating ethics screening by mandating announcement on funding information of clinical research. Second, Japan has integrated and organized ethics guideline from dual system that consists of ethics guideline on dynamic research(here after, referred to as 「dynamic guideline」) and ethics guideline on clinical research(here after, referred to as 「clinical guideline」) to ethics guideline on medical research aimed at human(here after, referred to as 「integrated guideline」), thus, it complements repetition and deficit of ethics guideline needed in clinical research and dynamic research, and it has risk evaluation system for protecting human subjects, and also it clarifies the concept of 「invasiveness」, a preliminary consideration of evaluation. 「Evaluation issue of risk and profit」, common contents of international regulation related clinical research, is the method to check whether the research is designed appropriately or not, this is the method for Institutional Review Board to decide whether the risk on human subjects could be justified, and also this is the important standard for future human subjects to participate in clinical trial. Therefore, it is meaningful to define 「invasiveness」 concept, a preliminary consideration of risk evaluation for human subjects. This research examines Japanese clinical trial focusing on change of awareness on prevention of research misconduct, efficiency improvement of research through research screening and integration of human subjects, and clarification and extension of range of 「invasiveness」 concept, a preliminary of risk evaluation to protect human subjects.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.166-173
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• 1985

The multiple ear and tiller line (MET), which was selected from a local maize collection and has been selected for earliness by selfing for five generations, was compared its plant characteristics with four U.S. leading hybrids. 1. The general plant growth was a little retarded by poor soil fertility and structure. 2. The fresh weight of the MET line was about 97.8% of the U.S. check varieties. 3. The dry weight of the MET line was also about 94.5% of the check U.S. hybrids (1,695 kg / 10a.). 4. The tillering and eating habits of the MET line had contributed toward increasing fresh and dry weight of the MET line. 5. The average plant height of the MET line was much less than those of the check varieties, due to the selfing depression manifested by the MET line, (234.7cm. of the MET vs 250.7cm. of the check) 6. Apparent differences of disease resistance was observed among varieties studied. The degree of plants infected with the black stripe mosaic virus was over 20% for the check U.S. hybrids, while less than 5% of the MET line was infected with the disease. 7. The grain yield per 10 a of the MET line was far below the check hybrids due to the inbreeding depression of the MET line. However, the kernel number per unit area of the MET line with small size kernel was much greater than that of the check hybrids. The 100 kernel weight of the MET line was around 10 grams. 8. The average fresh and dry matter weight of the three ($sorghum{\times}sudan$ grass) varieties was very much alike with those of the MET line. 9. In conclusion, the use of the MET line for silage production may have dual adventages because of its low seed price and of its small size kernels, which may reduce the amount of seeds required for planting in an unit area.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.163-173
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• 1998

Nuclear medicine emission computed tomography(ECT) can be very useful to diagnose early stage of neuronal diseases and to measure theraputic results objectively, if we can quantitate energy metabolism, blood flow, biochemical processes, or dopamine receptor and transporter using ECT. However, physical factors including attenuation, scatter, partial volume effect, noise, and reconstruction algorithm make it very difficult to quantitate independent of type of SPECT. In this study, we quantitated the effects of attenuation and scatter using brain SPECT and three-dimensional brain phantom with and without applying their correction methods. Dual energy window method was applied for scatter correction. The photopeak energy window and scatter energy window were set to 140ke${\pm}$10% and 119ke${\pm}$6% and 100% of scatter window data were subtracted from the photopeak window prior to reconstruction. The projection data were reconstructed using Butterworth filter with cutoff frequency of 0.95cycles/cm and order of 10. Attenuation correction was done by Chang's method with attenuation coefficients of 0.12/cm and 0.15/cm for the reconstruction data without scatter correction and with scatter correction, respectively. For quantitation, regions of interest (ROIs) were drawn on the three slices selected at the level of the basal ganglia. Without scatter correction, the ratios of ROI average values between basal ganglia and background with attenuation correction and without attenuation correction were 2.2 and 2.1, respectively. However, the ratios between basal ganglia and background were very similar for with and without attenuation correction. With scatter correction, the ratios of ROI average values between basal ganglia and background with attenuation correction and without attenuation correction were 2.69 and 2.64, respectively. These results indicate that the attenuation correction is necessary for the quantitation. When true ratios between basal ganglia and background were 6.58, 4.68, 1.86, the measured ratios with scatter and attenuation correction were 76%, 80%, 82% of their true ratios, respectively. The approximate 20% underestimation could be partially due to the effect of partial volume and reconstruction algorithm which we have not investigated in this study, and partially due to imperfect scatter and attenuation correction methods that we have applied in consideration of clinical applications.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.165-173
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• 2010

A cloud detection method is introduced to improve the reliability of NOAA/AVHRR Sea Surface Temperature (SST) data processed during the daytime and nighttime in the TeraScan System. In daytime, the channels 2 and 4 are used to detect a cloud using the three tests, which are spatial uniformity tests of brightness temperature (infrared channel 4) and channel 2 albedo, and reflectivity threshold test for visible channel 2. Meanwhile, the nighttime cloud detection tests are performed by using the channels 3 and 4, because the channel 2 data are not available in nighttime. This process include the dual channel brightness temperature difference (ch3 - ch4) and infrared channel brightness temperature threshold tests. For a comparison of daytime and nighttime SST images, two data used here are obtained at 0:28 (UTC) and 21:00 (UTC) on May 13, 2009. 6 parameters was tested to understand the factors that affect a cloud masking in and around Korean Peninsula. In daytime, the thresholds for ch2_max cover a range 3 through 8, and ch4_delta and ch2_delta are fixed on 5 and 2, respectively. In nighttime, the threshold range of ch3_minus_ch4 is from -1 to 0, and ch4_delta and min_ch4_temp have the fixed thresholds with 3.5 and 0, respectively. It is acceptable that the resulted images represent a reliability of SST according to the change of cloud masking area by each level. In the future, the accuracy of SST will be verified, and an assimilation method for SST data should be tested for a reliability improvement considering an atmospheric characteristic of research area around Korean Peninsula.