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Synthesis and Preliminary Evaluation of $9-(4-[^{18}F]Fluoro-3-hydroxymethylbutyl)$ Guanine $([^{18}F]FHBG)$ in HSV1-tk Gene Transduced Hepatoma Cell (9-(4-$[^{18}F]Fluoro-3-hydroxymethylbutyl)$guanine $([^{18}F]FHBG)$의 합성과 헤르페스 단순 바이러스 티미딘 키나아제 이입 간암 세포주에서의 기초 연구)

  • Moon, Byung-Seok;Lee, Tae-Sup;Lee, Myoung-Keun;Lee, Kyo-Chul;An, Gwang-Il;Chun, Kwon-Soo;Awh, Ok-Doo;Chi, Dae-Yoon;Choi, Chang-Woon;Lim, Sang-Moo;Cheon, Gi-Jeong
    • Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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    • v.40 no.4
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    • pp.218-227
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    • 2006
  • Purpose: The HSV1-tk reporter gene system is the most widely used system because of its advantage that direct monitoring is possible without the introduction of a separate reporter gene in case of HSV1-tk suicide gene therapy. In this study, we investigate the usefulness of the reporter probe (substrate), $9-(4-[^{18}F]Fluoro-3-hydroxymethylbutyl)$guanine ($[^{18}F]FHBG$) for non-invasive reporter gene imaging using PET in HSV1-tk expressing hepatoma model. Materials and Methods: Radiolabeled FHBG was prepared in 8 steps from a commercially available triester. The labeling reaction was carried out by NCA nucleophilic substitution with $K[^{18}F]/K2.2.2.$ in acetonitrile using N2-monomethoxytrityl-9-14-(tosyl)-3-monomethoxytritylmethylbutyl]guanine as a precursor, followed by deprotection with 1 N HCl. Preliminary biological properties of the probe were evaluated with MCA cells and MCA-tk cells transduced with HSV1-tk reporter gene. In vitro uptake and release-out studies of $[^{18}F]FHBG$ were performed, and was analyzed correlation between $[^{18}F]FHBG$ uptake ratio according to increasing numeric count of MCA-tk cells and degree of gene expression. MicroPET scan image was obtained with MCA and MCA-tk tumor bearing Balb/c-nude mouse model. Results: $[^{18}F]FHBG$ was purified by reverse phase semi-HPLC system and collected at around 16-18 min. Radiothemical yield was about 20-25%) (corrected for decay), radiochemical purity was >95% and specific activity was around >55.5 $GBq/{\mu}\;mol$. Specific accumulation of $[^{18}F]FHBG$ was observed in HSV1-tk gene transduced MCA-tk cells but not in MCA cells, and consecutive 1 hour release-out results showed more than 86% of uptaked $[^{18}F]FHBG$ was retained inside of cells. The uptake of $[^{18}F]FHBG$ was showed a highly significant linear correlation ($R^2=0.995$) with increasing percentage of MCA-tk numeric cell count. In microPET scan images, remarkable difference of accumulation was observed for the two type of tumors. Conclusion: $[^{18}F]FHBG$ appears to be a useful as non-invasive PET imaging substrate in HSV1-tk expressing hepatoma model.

Performance Characteristics of 3D GSO PET/CT Scanner (Philips GEMINI PET/DT) (3차원 GSO PET/CT 스캐너(Philips GEMINI PET/CT의 특성 평가)

  • Kim, Jin-Su;Lee, Jae-Sung;Lee, Byeong-Il;Lee, Dong-Soo;Chung, June-Key;Lee, Myung-Chul
    • The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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    • v.38 no.4
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    • pp.318-324
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    • 2004
  • Purpose: Philips GEMINI is a newly introduced whole-body GSO PET/CT scanner. In this study, performance of the scanner including spatial resolution, sensitivity, scatter fraction, noise equivalent count ratio (NECR) was measured utilizing NEMA NU2-2001 standard protocol and compared with performance of LSO, BGO crystal scanner. Methods: GEMINI is composed of the Philips ALLEGRO PET and MX8000 D multi-slice CT scanners. The PET scanner has 28 detector segments which have an array of 29 by 22 GSO crystals ($4{\times}6{\times}20$ mm), covering axial FOV of 18 cm. PET data to measure spatial resolution, sensitivity, scatter fraction, and NECR were acquired in 3D mode according to the NEMA NU2 protocols (coincidence window: 8 ns, energy window: $409[\sim}664$ keV). For the measurement of spatial resolution, images were reconstructed with FBP using ramp filter and an iterative reconstruction algorithm, 3D RAMLA. Data for sensitivity measurement were acquired using NEMA sensitivity phantom filled with F-18 solution and surrounded by $1{\sim}5$ aluminum sleeves after we confirmed that dead time loss did not exceed 1%. To measure NECR and scatter fraction, 1110 MBq of F-18 solution was injected into a NEMA scatter phantom with a length of 70 cm and dynamic scan with 20-min frame duration was acquired for 7 half-lives. Oblique sinograms were collapsed into transaxial slices using single slice rebinning method, and true to background (scatter+random) ratio for each slice and frame was estimated. Scatter fraction was determined by averaging the true to background ratio of last 3 frames in which the dead time loss was below 1%. Results: Transverse and axial resolutions at 1cm radius were (1) 5.3 and 6.5 mm (FBP), (2) 5.1 and 5.9 mm (3D RAMLA). Transverse radial, transverse tangential, and axial resolution at 10 cm were (1) 5.7, 5.7, and 7.0 mm (FBP), (2) 5.4, 5.4, and 6.4 mm (3D RAMLA). Attenuation free values of sensitivity were 3,620 counts/sec/MBq at the center of transaxial FOV and 4,324 counts/sec/MBq at 10 cm offset from the center. Scatter fraction was 40.6%, and peak true count rate and NECR were 88.9 kcps @ 12.9 kBq/mL and 34.3 kcps @ 8.84 kBq/mL. These characteristics are better than that of ECAT EXACT PET scanner with BGO crystal. Conclusion: The results of this field test demonstrate high resolution, sensitivity and count rate performance of the 3D PET/CT scanner with GSO crystal. The data provided here will be useful for the comparative study with other 3D PET/CT scanners using BGO or LSO crystals.

Stress/Rest Tc-99m-MIBI SPECT in Comparison with Rest/Stress Rubidium-82 PET (휴식/부하 심근 Rubidium-82 양전자단층촬영과 부하/휴식 심근 Tc-99m-MIBI 단일광자단층촬영의 비교)

  • Lee, D.S.;Kang, K.W.;Lee, K.H.;Jeong, J.M.;Kwark, C.;Chung, J.K.;Lee, M.C.;Seo, J.D.;Koh, C.S.
    • The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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    • v.29 no.1
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    • pp.31-40
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    • 1995
  • We compared stress/rest myocardial Tc-99m-MIBl tomographic image findings with rest/stress rubidium-82 tomographic images. In 23 patients with coronary artery disease (12 of them received bypass grafts before) and 6 normal subjects, rest rubidium PET study was performed : rubidium-82 and Tc-99m-MIBI were injected simultaneously to each patient after dipyridamole stress for rubidium PET and MIBI SPECT; and rest MIBI SPECT was performed 4 hours thereafter. We scored segmental decrease of rubidium or MIBI uptakes into 5 grades for 29 segments from 3 short-axis, vertical and horizontal slices. Scores were summed for each major arterial territory. When more score than two grade-2's or one grade-3 was considered as the cue for significant stenosis for major arterial territories, 67% of 46 stenosed arteries were found with MIBI studies and 78% of them by rubidium studies. Fourteen among 28 grafted arterial territories of 12 post-CABG patients were found normal with both rubidium and MIBI. Segmental scores were concordant between rubidium and MIBI in 72% of 709 stress segments and in 80% of 825 rest segments. Stress rubidium segmental scores were less than stress MIBI scores in 9%, so were rest rubidium scores. Stress rubidium scores were more than stress MIBI scores in 20% of segments, and rest rubidium segmental scores were more than rest MIBl scores in 11%. Rank correlations (Spearman's rho's more than 0.7(stress) and 0.5(rest), slopes (MIBI/rubidium) around 0.7(stress) and 0.9 (rest)) suggested deeper and wider defects in stress with rubidium. Slope over 1 (MIBI/rubidium) with LAD segemental scores at rest and 7 territories which had much larger score with MIBI revealed exaggeration of rest defects with rest MIBI in same-day stress/rest study. Difference scores (stress-rest for each territory) suggesting Ischemia were larger with rubidium (slope of MIBI/rubidium around 0.45). As has been implied by animal or separate-day-human studies, these segmental analyses with simultaneous examination in patients told that rubidium PET flow studies disclose ischemia more often than MIBI studies and that rest MIBI studies in same-day stress/rest-sequence gave a little larger rest defect than they would have shown.

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Diagnostic Accuracy of $^{99m}Tc$-DISIDA Scintigraphy in Biliary Atresia (선천성 담도폐쇄증에서 $^{99m}Tc$ DISIDA 신티그라피의 진단정확성)

  • Hyun, In-Young;Lee, Dong-Soo;Lee, Kyung-Han;Kim, Jong-Ho;Chung, June-Key;Suh, Jung-Key;Lee, Myung-Chul;Koh, Chang-Soon
    • The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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    • v.28 no.3
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    • pp.357-363
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    • 1994
  • We evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of $^{99m}Tc$-DISIDA scintigrauhy as a mean of differentiating biliary atresia from neonatal hepatitis. $^{99m}Tc$-DISIDA scintigraphy was visually interpreted by assessing the presence or absence of radioactivity in the intestine or gall bladder. In patients without intestinal radioactivity, we measured the hepatic retention index and the hepatic uptake index. The hepatic retention Index was expressed as the amount of change of liver activity from 5 minutes to 30 minutes postinjection. The hepatic uptake Index was graded visually with 5 minute images using the following scoring scheme : grade 0(normal hepatic uptake), grade 1(decreased hepatic uptake), grade 2(hepatic uptake equal to cardiac uptake), and grade 3(hepatic uptake less than cardiac uptake). Age, total bilirubin, and hepatic uptake index were compared between the biliary atresia and the neonatal hepatitis group, between neonatal hepatitis patients with and without intestinal radioactivity, and between the biliary atresia and neonatal hepatitis patients with absent intestinal radioactivity. The results were as follows ; 1) None of the 30 biliary atresia patients showed intestinal radioactivity, while 31/40 neonatal hepatitis patients showed intestinal radioactivity. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of the presence of intestinal radioactivity ?or the diagnosis of biliary atresia was 100%, 78%, and 87%, respectively. 2) In patients with absent intestinal radioactivity the mean hepatic retention index was $1.5{\pm}0.6$ in the 16 biliary atresia patients, and $1.1{\pm}0.2$ in the 7 neonatal hepatitis patients(p<0.01). All 7 patients with hepatic retention index over 1.5 had biliary atresia. But there were 9 patients with biliary atresia below 1.5. 3) No significant differences were found in age, total bilirubin, or hepatic uptake Index between biliary atresia and neonatal hepatitis patients. However there were differences in age, total bilirubin, and hepatic uptake index between neonatal hepatitis patients with and without intestinal radioactivity. The hepatic uptake index was significantly lower, age was old, and total bilirubin was low in the group with intestinal radioactivity compared the group without intestinal radioactivity(p<0.05). Relation between total bilirubin and the hepatic uptake index was that total bilirubin was relatively low at normal hepatic uptake index in biliary atresia and neonatal hepatitis patients. 4) When hepatic uptake index and hepatic retention index were high it suggest that biliary atresia is more likely, considered relation between hepatic uptake Index and the hepatic retention index. Thus, we conclude that $^{99m}Tc$-DISIDA scintigraphy is accurate in the differential diagnosis of biliary atresia and neonatal hepatitis. In patients without intestinal radioactivity, the hepatic retention index and hepatic uptake index, along with the patient's age and total bilirubin level may supplement diagnosis and improve diagnostic accuracy.

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Usefulness Evaluation of Artifacts by Bone Cement of Percutaneous Vertebroplasty Performed Patients and CT Correction Method in Spine SPECT/CT Examinations (척추 뼈 SPECT/CT검사에서 경피적 척추성형술 시행 환자의 골 시멘트로 인한 인공물과 CT보정방법의 유용성 평가)

  • Kim, Ji-Hyeon;Park, Hoon-Hee;Lee, Juyoung;Nam-Kung, Sik;Son, Hyeon-Soo;Park, Sang-Ryoon
    • The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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    • v.18 no.1
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    • pp.49-61
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    • 2014
  • Purpose: With the aging of the population, the attack rate of osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture is in the increasing trend, and percutaneous vertebroplasty (PVP) is the most commonly performed standardized treatment. Although there is a research report of the excellence of usefulness of the SPECT/CT examination in terns of the exact diagnosis before and after the procedure, the bone cement material used in the procedure influences the image quality by forming an artifact in the CT image. Therefore, the objective of the research lies on evaluating the effect the bone cement gives to a SPECT/CT image. Materials and Methods: The images were acquired by inserting a model cement to each cylinder, after setting the background (3.6 kBq/mL), hot cylinder (29.6 kBq/mL) and cold cylinder (water) to the NEMA-1994 phantom. It was reconstructed with Astonish (Iterative: 4 Subset: 16), and non attenuation correction (NAC), attenuation correction (AC+SC-) and attenuation and scatter correction (AC+SC+) were used for the CT correction method. The mean count by each correction method and the count change ratio by the existence of the cement material were compared and the contrast recovery coefficient (CRC) was obtained. Additionally, the bone/soft tissue ratio (B/S ratio) was obtained after measuring the mean count of the 4 places including the soft tissue(spine erector muscle) after dividing the vertebral body into fracture region, normal region and cement by selecting the 20 patients those have performed PVP from the 107 patients diagnosed of compression fracture. Results: The mean count by the existence of a cement material showed the rate of increase of 12.4%, 6.5%, 1.5% at the hot cylinder of the phantom by NAC, AC+SC- and AC+SC+ when cement existed, 75.2%, 85.4%, 102.9% at the cold cylinder, 13.6%, 18.2%, 9.1% at the background, 33.1%, 41.4%, 63.5% at the fracture region of the clinical image, 53.1%, 61.6%, 67.7% at the normal region and 10.0%, 4.7%, 3.6% at the soft tissue. Meanwhile, a relative count reduction could be verified at the cement adjacent part at the inside of the cylinder, and the phantom image on the lesion and the count increase ratio of the clinical image showed a contrary phase. CRC implying the contrast ratio and B/S ratio was improved in the order of NAC, AC+SC-, AC+SC+, and was constant without a big change in the cold cylinder of the phantom. AC+SC- for the quantitative count, and AC+SC+ for the contrast ratio was analyzed to be the highest. Conclusion: It is considered to be useful in a clinical diagnosis if the application of AC+SC+ that improves the contrast ratio is combined, as it increases the noise count of the soft tissue and the scatter region as well along with the effect of the bone cement in contrast to the fact that the use of AC+SC- in the spine SPECT/CT examination of a PVP performed patient drastically increases the image count and enables a high density of image of the lesion(fracture).

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Development of Adjustable Head holder Couch in H&N Cancer Radiation Therapy (두경부암 방사선 치료 시 Set-Up 조정 Head Holder 장치의 개발)

  • Shim, JaeGoo;Song, KiWon;Kim, JinMan;Park, MyoungHwan
    • The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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    • v.26 no.1
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    • pp.43-50
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    • 2014
  • In case of all patients who receive radiation therapy, a treatment plan is established and all steps of treatment are planned in the same geometrical condition. In case of head and neck cancer patients who undergo simulated treatment through computed tomography (CT), patients are fixed onto a table for planning, but laid on the top of the treatment table in the radiation therapy room. This study excogitated and fabricated an adjustable holder for head and neck cancer patients to fix patient's position and geometrical discrepancies when performing radiation therapy on head and neck cancer patients, and compared the error before and after adjusting the position of patients due to difference in weight to evaluate the correlation between patients' weight and range of error. Computed tomography system(High Advantage, GE, USA) is used for phantom to maintain the supine position to acquire the images of the therapy site for IMRT. IMRT 4MV X-rays was used by applying the LINAC(21EX, Varian, U.S.A). Treatment planning system (Pinnacle, ver. 9.1h, Philips, Madison, USA) was used. The setup accuracy was compared with each measurement was repeated five times for each weight (0, 15, and 30Kg) and CBCT was performed 30 times to find the mean and standard deviation of errors before and after the adjustment of each weight. SPSS ver.19.0(SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL,USA) statistics program was used to perform the Wilcoxon Rank test for significance evaluation and the Spearman analysis was used as the tool to analyze the significance evaluation of the correlation of weight. As a result of measuring the error values from CBCT before and after adjusting the position due to the weight difference, X,Y,Z axis was $0.4{\pm}0.8mm$, $0.8{\pm}0.4mm$, 0 for 0Kg before the adjustment. In 15Kg CBCT before and after adjusting the position due to the weight difference, X,Y,Z axis was $0.2{\pm}0.8mm$, $1.2{\pm}0.4mm$, $2.0{\pm}0.4mm$. After adjusting position was X,Y,Z axis was $0.2{\pm}0.4mm$, $0.4{\pm}0.5mm$, $0.4{\pm}0.5mm$. In 30Kg CBCT before and after adjusting the position due to the weight difference, X,Y,Z axis was $0.8{\pm}0.4mm$, $2.4{\pm}0.5mm$, $4.4{\pm}0.8mm$. After adjusting position was X,Y,Z axis was $0.6{\pm}0.5mm$, $1.0{\pm}0mm$, $0.6{\pm}0.5mm$. When the holder for the head and neck cancer was used to adjust the ab.0ove error value, the error values from CBCT were $0.2{\pm}0.8mm$ for the X axis, $0.40{\pm}0.54mm$ for Y axis, and 0 for Z axis. As a result of statistically analyzing each value before and after the adjustment the value was significant with p<0.034 at the Z axis with 15Kg of weight and with p<0.038 and p<0.041 at the Y and Z axes respectively with 30Kg of weight. There was a significant difference with p<0.008 when the analysis was performed through Kruscal-Wallis in terms of the difference in the adjusted values of the three weight groups. As it could reduce the errors, patients' reproduction could be improved for more precise and accurate radiation therapy. Development of an adjustable device for head and neck cancer patients is significant because it improves the reproduction of existing equipment by reducing the errors in patients' position.

Dose verification for Gated Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy according to Respiratory period (호흡연동 용적변조 회전방사선치료에서 호흡주기에 따른 선량전달 정확성 검증)

  • Jeon, Soo Dong;Bae, Sun Myung;Yoon, In Ha;Kang, Tae Young;Baek, Geum Mun
    • The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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    • v.26 no.1
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    • pp.137-147
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    • 2014
  • Purpose : The purpose of this study is to verify the accuracy of dose delivery according to the patient's breathing cycle in Gated Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy Materials and Methods : TrueBeam STxTM(Varian Medical System, Palo Alto, CA) was used in this experiment. The Computed tomography(CT) images that were acquired with RANDO Phantom(Alderson Research Laboratories Inc. Stamford. CT, USA), using Computerized treatment planning system(Eclipse 10.0, Varian, USA), were used to create VMAT plans using 10MV FFF with 1500 cGy/fx (case 1, 2, 3) and 220 cGy/fx(case 4, 5, 6) of doserate of 1200 MU/min. The regular respiratory period of 1.5, 2.5, 3.5 and 4.5 sec and the patients respiratory period of 2.2 and 3.5 sec were reproduced with the $QUASAR^{TM}$ Respiratory Motion Phantom(Modus Medical Devices Inc), and it was set up to deliver radiation at the phase mode between the ranges of 30 to 70%. The results were measured at respective respiratory conditions by a 2-Dimensional ion chamber array detector(I'mRT Matrixx, IBA Dosimetry, Germany) and a MultiCube Phantom(IBA Dosimetry, Germany), and the Gamma pass rate(3 mm, 3%) were compared by the IMRT analysis program(OmniPro I'mRT system software Version 1.7b, IBA Dosimetry, Germany) Results : The gamma pass rates of Case 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 were the results of 100.0, 97.6, 98.1, 96.3, 93.0, 94.8% at a regular respiratory period of 1.5 sec and 98.8, 99.5, 97.5, 99.5, 98.3, 99.6% at 2.5 sec, 99.6, 96.6, 97.5, 99.2, 97.8, 99.1% at 3.5 sec and 99.4, 96.3, 97.2, 99.0, 98.0, 99.3% at 4.5 sec, respectively. When a patient's respiration was reproduced, 97.7, 95.4, 96.2, 98.9, 96.2, 98.4% at average respiratory period of 2.2 sec, and 97.3, 97.5, 96.8, 100.0, 99.3, 99.8% at 3.5 sec, respectively. Conclusion : The experiment showed clinically reliable results of a Gamma pass rate of 95% or more when 2.5 sec or more of a regular breathing period and the patient's breathing were reproduced. While it showed the results of 93.0% and 94.8% at a regular breathing period of 1.5 sec of Case 5 and 6, it could be confirmed that the accurate dose delivery could be possible on the most respiratory conditions because based on the results of 100 patients's respiratory period analysis as no one sustained a respiration of 1.5 sec. But, pretreatment dose verification should be precede because we can't exclude the possibility of error occurrence due to extremely short respiratory period, also a training at the simulation and careful monitoring are necessary for a patient to maintain stable breathing. Consequently, more reliable and accurate treatments can be administered.

Usefulness of Gated RapidArc Radiation Therapy Patient evaluation and applied with the Amplitude mode (호흡 동조 체적 세기조절 회전 방사선치료의 유용성 평가와 진폭모드를 이용한 환자적용)

  • Kim, Sung Ki;Lim, Hhyun Sil;Kim, Wan Sun
    • The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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    • v.26 no.1
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    • pp.29-35
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    • 2014
  • Purpose : This study has already started commercial Gated RapidArc automation equipment which was not previously in the Gated radiation therapy can be performed simultaneously with the VMAT Gated RapidArc radiation therapy to the accuracy of the analysis to evaluate the usability, Amplitude mode applied to the patient. Materials and Methods : The analysis of the distribution of radiation dose equivalent quality solid water phantom and GafChromic film was used Film QA film analysis program using the Gamma factor (3%, 3 mm). Three-dimensional dose distribution in order to check the accuracy of Matrixx dosimetry equipment and Compass was used for dose analysis program. Periodic breathing synchronized with solid phantom signals Phantom 4D Phantom and Varian RPM was created by breathing synchronized system, free breathing and breath holding at each of the dose distribution was analyzed. In order to apply to four patients from February 2013 to August 2013 with liver cancer targets enough to get a picture of 4DCT respiratory cycle and then patients are pratice to meet patient's breathing cycle phase mode using the patient eye goggles to see the pattern of the respiratory cycle to be able to follow exactly in a while 4DCT images were acquired. Gated RapidArc treatment Amplitude mode in order to create the breathing cycle breathing performed three times, and then at intervals of 40% to 60% 5-6 seconds and breathing exercises that can not stand (Fig. 5), 40% While they are treated 60% in the interval Beam On hold your breath when you press the button in a way that was treated with semi-automatic. Results : Non-respiratory and respiratory rotational intensity modulated radiation therapy technique absolute calculation dose of using computerized treatment plan were shown a difference of less than 1%, the difference between treatment technique was also less than 1%. Gamma (3%, 3 mm) and showed 99% agreement, each organ-specific dose difference were generally greater than 95% agreement. The rotational intensity modulated radiation therapy, respiratory synchronized to the respiratory cycle created Amplitude mode and the actual patient's breathing cycle could be seen that a good agreement. Conclusion : When you are treated Non-respiratory and respiratory method between volumetric intensity modulated radiation therapy rotation of the absolute dose and dose distribution showed a very good agreement. This breathing technique tuning volumetric intensity modulated radiation therapy using a rotary moving along the thoracic or abdominal breathing can be applied to the treatment of tumors is considered. The actual treatment of patients through the goggles of the respiratory cycle to create Amplitude mode Gated RapidArc treatment equipment that does not automatically apply to the results about 5-6 seconds stopped breathing in breathing synchronized rotary volumetric intensity modulated radiation therapy facilitate could see complement.

A Study on the Various Attributes of E-Sport Influencing Flow and Identification (e-스포츠의 다양한 속성이 유동(flow)과 동일시에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구)

  • Suh, Mun-Shik;Ahn, Jin-Woo;Kim, Eun-Young;Um, Seong-Won
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.18 no.1
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    • pp.59-80
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    • 2008
  • Recently, e-sports are growing with potentiality as a new industry with conspicuous profit model. But studies that dealing with e-sports are not enough. Hence, proposes of this paper are both to establish basic model that is for the design of e-sport marketing strategy and to contribute toward future studies which are related to e-sports. Recently, the researches to explain sports-sponsorship through the identification theory have been discovered. Many researches say that somewhat proper identification is a requirement for most sponsors to improve the their images which is essential to sponsorship activity. Consequently, the research for sponsorship associated with identification in the e-sports, not in the physical sports is the core sector of this study. We extracted the variables from online's major characteristics and existing sport sponsorship researches. First, because e-sports mean the tournaments or leagues in the use of online game, the main event of the game is likely to call it online game. Online media's attributes are distinguished from those of offline. Especially, interactivity, anonymity, and expandibility as a e-sport game attributes are able to be mentioned. So, these inherent online attributes are examined on the relationship with flow. Second, in physical sports games, Fisher(1998) revealed that team similarity and team attractivity were positively related to team identification. Wann(1996) said that the result of former game influenced the evaluation of the next game, then in turn has an effect on the identification of team supporters. Considering these results in the e-sports side, e-sports gamer' attractivity, similarity, and match result seem to be important precedent variables of the identification with a gamer. So, these e-sport gamer attributes are examined on the relationship with both flow and identification with a gamer. Csikszentmihalyi(1988) defined the term flow as feeling status for him to be making current positive experience optimally. Hoffman and Novak(1996) also said that if a user experienced the flow he would visit a website without any reward. Therefore flow might be positively associated with user's identification with a gamer. And, Swanson(2003) disclosed that team identification influenced the positive results of sponsorship, which included attitude toward sponsors, sponsor patronage, and satisfaction with sponsors. That is, identification with a gamer expect to be connected with corporation identification significantly. According to the above, we can design the following research model. All variables used in this study(interactivity, anonymity, expandibility, attractivity, similarity, match result, flow, identification with a gamer, and identification with a sponsor) definitely were defined operationally underlying precedent researches. Sample collection was carried out to the person who has an experience to have enjoyed e-sports during June 2006. Much portion of samples is men because much more men than women enjoy e-sports in general. Two-step approach was used to test the hypotheses. First, confirmatory factor analysis was committed to guarantee the validity and reliability of variables. The results showed that all variables had not only intensive and discriminant validity, but also reliability. Then, research model was examined with fully structural equation using LISREL 8.3 version. The fitness of the suggested model mostly was at the acceptable level. Shortly speaking about the results, first of all, in e-sports game attributes, only interactivity which is called a basic feature in online situation affected flow positively. Secondly, in e-sports gamer's attributes, similarity with a gamer and match result influenced flow positively, but there was no significant effect in the relationship between the attractivity of a gamer and flow. And as expected, similarity had an effect on identification with a gamer significantly. But unexpectedly attractivity and match result did not influence identification with a gamer significantly. Just the same as the fact verified in the many precedent researches, flow greatly influenced identification with a gamer, and identification with a gamer continually had an influence on the identification with a sponsor significantly. There are some implications in these results. If the sponsor of e-sports supports the pro-game player who absolutely should have the superior ability to others and is similar to the user enjoying e-sports, many amateur gamers will feel much of the flow and identification with a pro-gamer, and then after all, feel the identification with a sponsor. Such identification with a sponsor leads people enjoying e-sports to have purchasing intention for products produced by the sponsor and to make a positive word-of-mouth for those products or the sponsor. For the future studies, we recommend a few ideas. Based on the results of this study, it is necessary to find new variables relating to the e-sports, which is not mentioned in this study. For this work to be possible, qualitative research seems to be needed to consider the inherent e-sport attributes. Finally, to generalize the results related to e-sports, a wide range of generations not a specific generation should be researched.

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Analyzing the User Intention of Booth Recommender System in Smart Exhibition Environment (스마트 전시환경에서 부스 추천시스템의 사용자 의도에 관한 조사연구)

  • Choi, Jae Ho;Xiang, Jun-Yong;Moon, Hyun Sil;Choi, Il Young;Kim, Jae Kyeong
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.18 no.3
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    • pp.153-169
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    • 2012
  • Exhibitions have played a key role of effective marketing activity which directly informs services and products to current and potential customers. Through participating in exhibitions, exhibitors have got the opportunity to make face-to-face contact so that they can secure the market share and improve their corporate images. According to this economic importance of exhibitions, show organizers try to adopt a new IT technology for improving their performance, and researchers have also studied services which can improve the satisfaction of visitors through analyzing visit patterns of visitors. Especially, as smart technologies make them monitor activities of visitors in real-time, they have considered booth recommender systems which infer preference of visitors and recommender proper service to them like on-line environment. However, while there are many studies which can improve their performance in the side of new technological development, they have not considered the choice factor of visitors for booth recommender systems. That is, studies for factors which can influence the development direction and effective diffusion of these systems are insufficient. Most of prior studies for the acceptance of new technologies and the continuous intention of use have adopted Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Extended Technology Acceptance Model (ETAM). Booth recommender systems may not be new technology because they are similar with commercial recommender systems such as book recommender systems, in the smart exhibition environment, they can be considered new technology. However, for considering the smart exhibition environment beyond TAM, measurements for the intention of reuse should focus on how booth recommender systems can provide correct information to visitors. In this study, through literature reviews, we draw factors which can influence the satisfaction and reuse intention of visitors for booth recommender systems, and design a model to forecast adaptation of visitors for booth recommendation in the exhibition environment. For these purposes, we conduct a survey for visitors who attended DMC Culture Open in November 2011 and experienced booth recommender systems using own smart phone, and examine hypothesis by regression analysis. As a result, factors which can influence the satisfaction of visitors for booth recommender systems are the effectiveness, perceived ease of use, argument quality, serendipity, and so on. Moreover, the satisfaction for booth recommender systems has a positive relationship with the development of reuse intention. For these results, we have some insights for booth recommender systems in the smart exhibition environment. First, this study gives shape to important factors which are considered when they establish strategies which induce visitors to consistently use booth recommender systems. Recently, although show organizers try to improve their performances using new IT technologies, their visitors have not felt the satisfaction from these efforts. At this point, this study can help them to provide services which can improve the satisfaction of visitors and make them last relationship with visitors. On the other hands, this study suggests that they managers along the using time of booth recommender systems. For example, in the early stage of the adoption, they should focus on the argument quality, perceived ease of use, and serendipity, so that improve the acceptance of booth recommender systems. After these stages, they should bridge the differences between expectation and perception for booth recommender systems, and lead continuous uses of visitors. However, this study has some limitations. We only use four factors which can influence the satisfaction of visitors. Therefore, we should development our model to consider important additional factors. And the exhibition in our experiments has small number of booths so that visitors may not need to booth recommender systems. In the future study, we will conduct experiments in the exhibition environment which has a larger scale.