• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.2204-2212
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• 2022

Recently, the demand for alpha imaging detectors for quantifying the distributions of alpha particles has increased in various fields. This study aims to reconstruct a high-resolution image from an alpha imaging detector by applying a super-spatial resolution method combined with the maximum-likelihood expectation maximization (MLEM) algorithm. To perform the super-spatial resolution method, several images are acquired while slightly moving the detector to predefined positions. Then, a forward model for imaging is established by the system matrix containing the mechanical shifts, subsampling, and measured point-spread function of the imaging system. Using the measured images and system matrix, the MLEM algorithm is implemented, which converges towards a high-resolution image. We evaluated the performance of the proposed method through the Monte Carlo simulations and phantom experiments. The results showed that the super-spatial resolution method was successfully applied to the alpha imaging detector. The spatial resolution of the resultant image was improved by approximately 12% using four images. Overall, the study's outcomes demonstrate the feasibility of the super-spatial resolution method for the alpha imaging detector. Possible applications of the proposed method include high-resolution imaging for alpha particles of in vitro sliced tissue and pre-clinical biologic assessments for targeted alpha therapy.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.207-210
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• 2013

We report the construction of a MALDI imaging mass spectrometer equipped with a specially designed laser focusing lens, a compact aspherical singlet lens, that obtains a high-lateral imaging resolution in the microprobe mode. The lens is specially designed to focus the ionization laser (${\lambda}$ = 355 nm) down to a $1{\mu}m$ diameter with a long working distance of 34.5 mm. With the lens being perpendicular to the sample surface and sharing the optical axis with the ion path, the imaging mass spectrometer achieved an imaging resolution of as good as $5{\mu}m$ along with a high detection sensitivity of 100 fmol for peptides. The mass resolution was about 900 (m/${\Delta}m$) in the linear TOF mode. The high-resolution capability of this instrument will provide a new research opportunity for label-free imaging studies of various samples including tissues and biochips, even for the study at a single cell level in the future.

• Journal of applied mathematics & informatics
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.603-613
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• 2023

In this paper, the concept of geodesic centered tractography is explored for diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). In DTI, where geodesics has been tracked and the inverse of the fourth-order diffusion tensor is inured to determine the diversity. Specifically, we investigated geodesic tractography technique for High Angular Resolution Diffusion Imaging (HARDI). Riemannian geometry can be extended to a direction-dependent metric using Finsler geometry. Euler Lagrange geodesic calculations have been derived by Finsler geometry, which is expressed as HARDI in sixth order tensor.

• Proceedings of the KOSOMBE Conference
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• v.1990 no.11
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• pp.48-51
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• 1990

A new in vivo high resolution imaging method which is performed with a newly developed three channel surface gradient coil (SGC) is described. The surface gradient coil can produce more than an order of magnitude stronger gradient fields with good linearity within a limited imaging region. To increase the signal to noise ratio (SNR), we have developed an RF coil integrated surface gradient coil set. In this paper, the geometrical structures and characteristics of the proposed surface gradient coil are discussed and experimentally obtained high resolution images ($50\;{\mu}m$ to $100\;{\mu}m$) of a water filled phantom and a human volunteer's knee using the new surface RF coil integrated SGC set are presented for the demonstration of the in vivo high resolution imaging capability of the new imaging method.

• International Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.49-55
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• 2000

The semiconductor industry relies on digital optical imaging for the overlay metrology of integrated circuit patterns. One critical performance demand in the particular application of digital imaging is placed on the edge resolution that is defined as the smallest detectable displacement of an edge from its image acquired in digital from. As the critical feature size of integrated circuit patterns reaches below 0.35 micrometers, the edge resolution is required to be less than 0.01 micrometers. This requirement is so stringent that fundamental behaviors of digital optical imaging need to be explored especially for the precision coordinate metrology. Our investigation reveals that the edge resolution shows quasi-random characteristics, not being simply deduced from relevant opto-electronic system parameters. Hence, a stochastic upper bound analysis is made to come up with the worst edge resolution that can statistically well predict actual indeterminate edge resolutions obtained with high magnification microscope objectives.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.1259-1265
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• 2021

In the present study, a large-area hybrid gamma imaging system was designed by adopting coded aperture imaging on the basis of a large-area Compton camera to achieve high imaging performance throughout a broad energy range (100-2000 keV). The system consisting of a tungsten coded aperture mask and monolithic NaI(Tl) scintillation detectors was designed through a series of Geant4 Monte Carlo radiation transport simulations, in consideration of both imaging sensitivity and imaging resolution. Then, the performance of the system was predicted by Geant4 Monte Carlo simulations for point sources under various conditions. Our simulation results show that the system provides very high imaging sensitivity (i.e., low values for minimum detectable activity, MDA), thus allowing for imaging of low-activity sources at distances impossible with coded aperture imaging or Compton imaging alone. In addition, the imaging resolution of the system was found to be high (i.e., around 6°) over the broad energy range of 59.5-1330 keV.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.95-101
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• 2007

Recently, small-animal imaging technology has been rapidly developed for longitudinal screening of laboratory animals such as mice and rats. One of newly developed imaging modalities for small animals is an x-ray micro-CT (computed tomography). We have developed two types of x-ray micro-CT systems for small animal imaging. Both systems use flat-panel x-ray detectors and micro-focus x-ray sources to obtain high spatial resolution of $10{\mu}m$. In spite of the relatively large field-of-view (FOV) of flat-panel detectors, the spatial resolution in the whole-body imaging of rats should be sacrificed down to the order of $100{\mu}m$ due to the limited number of x-ray detector pixels. Though the spatial resolution of cone-beam CTs can be improved by moving an object toward an x-ray source, the FOV should be reduced and the object size is also limited. To overcome the limitation of the object size and resolution, we introduce zoom-in micro-tomography for high-resolution imaging of a local region-of-interest (ROI) inside a large object. For zoom-in imaging, we use two kinds of projection data in combination, one from a full FOV scan of the whole object and the other from a limited FOV scan of the ROI. Both of our micro-CT systems have zoom-in micro-tomography capability. One of both is a micro-CT system with a fixed gantry mounted with an x-ray source and a detector. An imaged object is laid on a rotating table between a source and a detector. The other micro-CT system has a rotating gantry with a fixed object table, which makes whole scans without rotating an object. In this paper, we report the results of in vivo small animal study using the developed micro-CTs.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.217-232
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• 1999

The ability to see the internal organs of the human body in a noninvasive way is a powerful diagnostic tool of modern medicine. Among these imaging modalities such as X-ray, MRI, and ultrasound. MRI and ultrasound are presenting much less risk of undesirable damage of both patient and examiner. In fact, no deleterious effects have been reported as a result of clinical examination by using MRI and ultrasound diagnostic equipment. As a result. their market volume has been rapidly increased. MRI has a good resolution. but there are a few disadvantages such as high price. non-real-time imaging capability. and expensive diagnostic cost. On the other hand, the ultrasound imaging system has inherently poor resolution as compared with X-ray and MRI. In spite of its poor resolution, the ultrasound diagnostic equipment is lower in price and has an ability of real-time imaging as compared with the others. As a result. the ultrasound imaging system has become general and essential modality for imaging the internal organs of human body. In this review various researches and developments to enhance the resolution of the ultrasound images are explained and future trends of the ultrasound imaging technology are described.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.197-200
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• 2005

Super resolution image reconstruction method refers to image processing algorithms that produce a high resolution(HR) image from observed several low resolution(LR) images of the same scene. This method is proved to be useful in many practical cases where multiple frames of the same scene can be obtained, such as satellite imaging, video surveillance, video enhancement and restoration, digital mosaicking, and medical imaging. In this paper we applied super resolution reconstruction method in spatial domain to video sequences. Test images are adjacently sampled images from continuous video sequences and overlapped for high rate. We constructed the observation model between the HR images and LR images applied by the Maximum A Posteriori(MAP) reconstruction method that is one of the major methods in the super resolution grid construction. Based on this method, we reconstructed high resolution images from low resolution images and compared the results with those from other known interpolation methods.

• Journal of the Optical Society of Korea
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2010

This paper describes a development of a fiber optic common-path optical coherence tomography (OCT) based imaging and guided system that possess ability to reliably identify optically transparent targets that are on the micron scale; ability to maintain a precise and safe position from the target; ability to provide spectroscopic imaging; ability to imaging biological target in 3-D. The system is based on a high resolution fiber optic Common-Path OCT (CP-OCT) that can be integrated into various mini-probes and tools. The system is capable of obtaining >70K A-scan per second with a resolution better than $3\;{\mu}m$. We have demonstrated that the system is capable of one-dimensional real-time depth tracking, tool motion limiting and motion compensation, oxygen-saturation level imaging, and high resolution 3-D images for various biomedical applications.