• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.207-215
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• 1998

There have been many radiation measurement methods so far among which film dosimetry, TLD, and ion chamber are the most frequently used methods. But this study describes a new radiation measurement method which uses polymer gel and magnetic resonance imaging(MRI). The objective of this study is to fabricate a polymer gel sensitive to radiation and to generate a dose to MRI contrast relationship, and to apply this results to the radiation measurement for the brachytherapy. To do this, 12 cm diameter cylindrical gel phantom was made, and the phantom was irradiated using the 30 mm diameter circular collimator which was used for radiosurgery. And this irradiated phantom was scanned with MRI. To find out the relationship between the radiation dose and the transversal relaxation time, an image processing software(IDL) was used. From this study it is found out that the radiation dose showed linear relationship to the transversal relaxation time of the gel up to 17 Gy($R^2$=0.993) and they had a different relationship above 17 Gy. The dose distributions were calculated using these results for the Ir-192 sources, one for the HDR afterloading system and the other for a 2 mCi seed source. And these calculated dose distributions were compared to the ones from the treatment planning computers. From this study the dose to the irradiated gel's transversal relaxation time relationship was examined, and this result was tried for the measurement of the brachytherapy.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.2-8
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• 2005

Purpose : The purpose of this study was to implement a software to visualize tumor and its surrounding fiber tracts simultaneously using diffusion tensor imaging and examine the feasibility of our software for investigating the influence of tumor on its surrounding fiber connectivity. Material and Methods : MR examination including T1-weigted and diffusion tensor images of a patient with brain tumor was performed on a 3.0 T MRI unit. We used the skull-striped brain and segmented tumor images for volume/surface rendering and anatomical information from contrast-enhanced T1-weighted images. Diffusion tensor images for the white matter fiber-tractography were acquired using a SE-EPI with a diffusion scheme of 25 directions. Fiber-tractography was performed using the streamline and tensorline methods. To correct a spatial mismatch between T1-weighted and diffusion tensor images, they were coregistered using a SPM. Our software was implemented under window-based PC system. Results : We successfully implemented the integrated visualization of the fiber tracts with tube-like surfaces, cortical surface and the tumor with volume/surface renderings in a patient with brain tumor. Conclusion : Our result showed the feasibility of the integrated visualization of brain tumor and its surrounding fiber tracts. In addition, our implementation for integrated visualization can be utilized to navigate the brain for the quantitative analysis of fractional anisotropy to assess changes in the white matter tract integrity of edematic and peri-edematic regions in a number of tumor patients.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.26 no.3 s.43
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• pp.387-399
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• 1993

This study was conducted to analyze blood lipid profile and other risk factors among crew members who are currently active and had more than 10 years of experience as crew members. Data was analyzed using medical record files in an airline medical department. The results are as follows. 1. The total number of crew members studied was 392. Among age groups, those below age 40 consisted of 26(6.9% of the total), those in age $41{\sim}50$ were 135 (34.4%) and those over age 51 were 230 (58.7%). 263 were former air force pilots consisting 66.9%. Those who had captain status numbered 21 I comprising 53.7% of the total. The type of aircraft most of the crew members involved were large size aircraft which totaled 268 (68.2%). With respect to the number of working years as crew members, 488(48.9%) comprised the largest group with $11{\sim}15$ years. 2. The rate of smoking among crew members has shown gradual decrease with 50.3% smoking in 1983 to 33.6% in 1993. Among $41{\sim}50$ age group the rate has shown a decrease from 20.9% to 13.3% In those group over age 51 it decreased from 25.5% to 16.6%. But group below age 40 were within the range of 3.6~3.8% with no significant change in the rate of smoking. 3. Body Mass Index in age group over 51 was slightly higher than other age groups. On the whole, BMI over 25 was not found. 4. The total cholesterol levels of those below age 40 were $196.9{\pm}38.5mg/dl,\;216.2{\pm}39.2mg/dl$ in ages $41{\sim}50$, and $225.1{\pm}42.5mg/dl$ in age group over 51. No significant difference was found among age groups. 5. HDL-cholesterol levels of over age 50 were higher than other age group and ranged from $40{\sim}55mg/dl$. 6. LDL-cholesterol levels of those over 51 were $126.7{\pm}37.7mg/dl$ higher than other age groups. But there were no significant changes in all age during 10 years of follow up. 7. Cardiac index of age group below age 40 was 3.8, 4.3 in age group $41{\sim}50$ and 4.5 in those over age 51 group. No significant changes among groups were found during the follow up period. 8. Triglyceride levels of age group below age 40 was $142.2{\pm}70.1,\;167.3{\pm}77.5$ in age group of $41{\sim}50$ and $113.6{\pm}897$ in age group over 50 showing that triglyceride levels increased with age. No significant changes in pattern were noted.

• Journal of the Korean Regional Science Association
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.79-91
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• 1995

As an exit to solve the economic depression of the development countries in the early twentieth century, the 'old international division of labor' developed. The economic crisis(i.e., under-consumption crisis) was due to the absence of the mode of regulation compatible with the extensive regime of accumulation(i.e., "Fordist" regime). The crisis was solved by the state intervention through the creation on institutions in order to increase the level of consumption. Until the late 1960s when "high Fordism" reached(i.e., a harmonious relation between the monopoly mode of regulation and the intensive accumulation of capital), the developed core countries enjoyed a remarkable economic growth. The external market was not a necessity for the economic growth because there were increases in labor productivity and proportional increases in real wages and thus increases in consumption level. In the 1970s, however, the core faced with economic crisis again. Due to the breakdown of the postwar "Fordist" regime of capital accumulation and the post 1973 world depression, the core needed the Third World as a solution for their internal and international economic crisis. Thus the 'new international division of labor'(NIDL) arose. The "Fordist" method of production(i.e., the divisions of production process) led to the territorial division of labor and to the detailed division of labor. The aim of the NIDL is to exploit reserve armies of labor on a world scale and thus to reduce production costs. According to the NIDL model, the Third World countries have been developing by the core countries' investment on mainly labor-intensive industries and thus have been playing an important role in the global economy. And the NIDL theorists argue that multinational corporations have increasingly invested in the Third World nations and contributed to the economic growth in those regions. Tables presented in the paper show that the global trend since the 1970s does not follow the argument exactly as the NIDL theorists predicted. On the contrary, the core countries focus on developing technology, adopting the automation of production process, and trading within the core countries rather than on investing in the periopheral countries. The continuing investment of multinational corporations into the periphery is not because of cheap labor force but because of the market potentials in the regions. Majority of corporations of the core tries to reduce production costs by investing in technological development more intensively and also by changing regional strategies (i.E., investment from metropolitan areas to medium - or small - size cities, focusing on agglomeration economy, boosting regional diversification, etc.) within their own countries. The main purpose of the paper is to review and to criticize the NIDL theory based on some empirical data.IDL theory based on some empirical data.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.224-228
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• 2002

Myocardial tagging technique such as spatial modulation of magnetization (SPAMM) allows the study of myocardial motion with high accuracy. However, the accuracy of the estimation of tag intersection can be affected by tagline spacing. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between tagline spacing of SPAMM image and tagging contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) in in-vivo study. Two healthy volunteers were undergone electrocardiographically triggered MR imaging with SPAMM-based tagging pulse sequence at a 1.5T MR scanner. Horizontally modulated stripe patterns were imposed with a range from 3.6 to 9.6 mm of tagline spacing. Images of the left ventricle(LV) wall were acquired at the mid-ventricle level during cardiac cycle with FE-EPI (TR/TE = 5.8/2.2 msec, FA= 10$^{\circ}$. Tagging CNR for each image was calculated with a software which developed in our group. During contraction, tagging CNR was more rapidly decreased in case of narrow tagline spacing than in case of wide tagline spacing. In the same heart phase, CNR was increased corresponding with tagline spacing. Especially, at the fully contracted heart phase, CNR was more rapidly increased than the other heart phases as a function of tagline spacing. The results indicated that the optimization of tagline spacing provides better tagging CNR in order to analyze the myocardial motion more accurately.

• Proceedings of the KSMRM Conference
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• 2002.11a
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• pp.133-133
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• 2002

Purpose： The purpose of paper is to implement software to visualize brain fiber tract using a 24-bit color coding scheme and to test its feasibility. Materials and Methods： MR imaging was performed on GE 1.5 T Signa scanner. For diffusion tensor image, we used a single shot spin-echo EPI sequence with 7 non-colinear pulsed-field gradient directions： (x, y, z)：(1,1,0),(-1,1,0),(1,0,1),(-1,0,1),(0,1,1),(0,1,-1) and without diffusion gradient. B-factor was 500 sec/$\textrm{mm}^2$. Acquisition parameters are as follows： TUTE=10000ms/99ms, FOV=240mm, matrix=128${\times}$128, slice thickness/gap=6mm/0mm, total slice number=30. Subjects consisted of 10 normal young volunteers (age：21∼26 yrs, 5 men, 5 women). All DTI images were smoothed with Gaussian kernel with the FWHM of 2 pixels. Color coding schemes for visualization of directional information was as follows. HSV(Hue, Saturation, Value) color system is appropriate for assigning RGB(Red, Green, and Blue) value for every different directions because of its volumetric directional expression. Each of HSV are assigned due to (r,$\theta$,${\Phi}$) in spherical coordinate. HSV calculated by this way can be transformed into RGB color system by general HSV to RGB conversion formula. Symmetry schemes： It is natural to code the antipodal direction to be same color(antipodal symmetry). So even with no symmetry scheme, the antipodal symmetry must be included. With no symmetry scheme, we can assign every different colors for every different orientation.(H =${\Phi}$, S=2$\theta$/$\pi$, V=λw, where λw is anisotropy). But that may assign very discontinuous color even between adjacent yokels. On the other hand, Full symmetry or absolute value scheme includes symmetry for 180$^{\circ}$ rotation about xy-plane of color coordinate (rotational symmetry) and for both hemisphere (mirror symmetry). In absolute value scheme, each of RGB value can be expressed as follows. R=λw｜Vx｜, G=λw｜Vy｜, B=λw｜Vz｜, where (Vx, Vy, Vz) is eigenvector corresponding to the largest eigenvalue of diffusion tensor. With applying full symmetry or absolute value scheme, we can get more continuous color coding at the expense of coding same color for symmetric direction. For better visualization of fiber tract directions, Gamma and brightness correction had done. All of these implementations were done on the IDL 5.4 platform.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.511-517
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• 2007

Purpose: The aim of this study is to determine whether a difference in the amount of bone graft material is needed between edentulous patients and dentulous patients and to calculate the amount of augmentation for a sinus lift procedure. Methods: 19 patients(20 sinuses) were included to measure maxillary sinus volume. Facial CT scanning was performed using MX 8000 IDT CT devices(Philips, USA). And it was used for IDLvm(The IDL Virtual Machine) 6.0, CT Volume Analyzer Ver 2.3 program to measure maxillary sinus volumes Results: At edentulous patients, volumes(mean${\pm}SD$) of the inferior portion of the sinuses were $0.56{\pm}0.13cm^3$(5mm height), $2.35{\pm}0.57cm^3$(10mm height), $4.85{\pm}1.10cm^3$(15mm height). At dentulous patients, volumes(mean${\pm}SD$) of the inferior portion of the sinuses were $0.41{\pm}0.18cm^3$(5mm height), $1.76{\pm}0.42cm^3$(10mm height), $3.80{\pm}0.84cm^3$ (15mm height). A significant correlation was found between augmentation height(5mm, 10mm, 15mm) and the calculated sinus volume.(p=0.027, p=0.018, p=0.044) Conclusions: A significant correlation was found between augmentation height(5mm, 10mm, 15mm) and the calculated sinus volume. Detailed preoperative knowledge of sinus lift augmentation volume is helpful in determining the appropriate amount of the bone graft material.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.388-394
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• 2003

Background : Monoclonal antibodies directed against well-known epitopes on cytokeratin (CK) 8, 18 and 19 (Monototal) have been used in the development of a new diagnostic tool for lung cancer. In the mid-1990s, CK 19 fragments (Cyfra 21-1) became popular and widely used for such diagnosis. This is the first study specifically designed to compare these two markers. Method : The serum levels of CK 8, 18 and 19 were measured using two-site monoclonal/polyclonal immunoradiometric assay kit in 57 healthy adults and 289 patients who were admitted to Seoul National University Hospital from May to September, 2002. The lung cancer group comprised 129 primary lung cancer patients; 116 with non-small cell lung cancer(NSCLC) and 13 with small cell lung cancer (SCLC). The control group comprised 160 non-malignant pulmonary lung disease patients and 57 healthy adults. A total of 166 twin Monototal and Cyfra 21-1 serum assays were obtained; 76 with lung cancer, 70 with non-malignant pulmonary lung disease and 20 healthy adults. Results : The mean serum value of Monototal was $412.47{\pm}455.45U/L$ in NSCLC, $237.08{\pm}145.15U/L$ in SCLC, $126.54{\pm}95.72U/L$ in non-malignant pulmonary lung disease, and $63.68{\pm}31.66U/L$ in healthy adults. The serum values of the lung cancer groups were significantly higher than those of the control group (p<0.01). Using a cut off value of 188U/L, sensitivity and specificity was 66.4% and 81.9% in NSCLC, and 43.8% and 81.9% in SCLC, respectively. The serum levels of CK 8, 18 and 19 were higher in advanced NSCLC than in early stage disease. Conclusion : The serum levels of CK 8, 18 and 19 may be useful in the diagnosis of NSCLC.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.264-273
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• 2002

Purpose : Three-dimensional radiation dosimetry using magnetic resonance imaging of polymer gel was recently introduced. This dosimetry system is based on radiation induced chain polymerization of acrylic monomers in a muscle equivalent gel and provide accurate 3 dimensional dose distribution. We planned this study to evaluate the clinical value of this 3-dimensional dosimetry. Materials and Methods: The polymer gel poured into a cylindrical glass flask and a spherical glass flask. The cylindrical test tubes were for dose response evaluation and the spherical flasks, which is comparable to the human head, were for isodose curves. T2 maps from MR images were calculated using software, IDL. Dose distributions have been displayed for dosimetry. The same spherical flask of gel and the same irradiation technique was used for film and TLD dosimetry and compared with each other. Results : The R2 of the gel respond linearly with radiation doses in the range of 2 to 15 Gy. The repeated dosimetry of spherical gel showed the same isodose curves. These isodose curves were identical to dose distributions from treatment planning system especially high dose range. In addition, the gel dosimetry system showed comparable or superior results with the film and TLD dosimetry. Conclusion : The 3-dimensional dosimetry for conformal radiation therapy using MRI of polymer gal showed stable and accurate results. Although more studies are needed for convenient clinical application, it appears to be a useful tool for conformal radiation therapy.