• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.178-185
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• 2008

Living donor liver transplantation is increasingly performed as an alternative to cadaveric transplantation. Preoperative screening of the donor candidates is very important. The quality, size, and vascular and biliary anatomy of the liver are best assessed with magnetic resonance (MR) imaging or computed tomography (CT). In particular, the volume of the potential graft must be measured to ensure sufficient liver function after surgery. Preoperative liver segmentation has proved useful for measuring the graft volume before living donor liver transplantations in previous studies. In these studies, the liver segments were manually delineated on each image section. The delineated areas were multiplied by the section thickness to obtain volumes and summed to obtain the total volume of the liver segments. This process is tedious and time consuming. To compensate for this problem, automatic segmentation techniques have been proposed with multiplanar CT images. These methods involve the use of sequences of thresholding, morphologic operations (ie, mathematic operations, such as image dilation, erosion, opening, and closing, that are based on shape), and 3D region growing methods. These techniques are complex but require a few computation times. We made a phantom for volume measurement with pig and evaluated actual volume of spleen and liver of phantom. The results represent that our semiautomatic volume measurement algorithm shows a good accuracy and repeatability with actual volume of phantom and possibility for clinical use to assist physician as a measuring tool.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.133-137
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• 2010

Purpose: Breast cancer is known to be more vulnerable to bone metastasis and lymph node metastasis than other types of cancer, and nuclear examinations whole body bone scan and lymphoscintigraphy are performed commonly before and after breast cancer operation. In case whole body bone scan is performed on the day before lymphoscintigraphy, the radiopharmaceutical taken into and remaining in the bones provides anatomical information for tracking and locating sentinel lymph nodes. Thus, this study purposed to examine how much bone density affects in locating sentinel lymph nodes. Materials and Methods: The subjects of this study were 22 patients (average age $52{\pm}7.2$) who had whole body bone scan and lymphoscintigraphy over two days in our hospital during the period from January to December, 2009. In the blind test, 22 patients (average age $57{\pm}6.5$) who had lymphoscintigraphy using $^{57}Co$ flood phantom were used as a control group. In quantitative analysis, the relative ratio of the background to sentinel lymph nodes was measured by drawing ROIs on sentinel lymph nodes and the background, and in gross examination, each of a nuclear physician and a radiological technologist with five years' or longer field experience examined images through blind test in a five-point scale. Results: In the results of quantitative analysis, the relative ratio of the background to sentinel lymph nodes was 14.2:1 maximum and 8.5:1 ($SD{\pm}3.48$) on the average on the front, and 14.7:1 maximum and 8.5:1 ($SD{\pm}3.42$) on the average on the side. In the results of gross examination, when $^{57}Co$ flood phantom images were compared with images containing bones, the score was relative high as 3.86 ($SD{\pm}0.35$) point for $^{57}Co$ flood phantom images and 4.09 ($SD{\pm}0.42$) for bone images. Conclusion: When whole body bone scan was performed on the day before lymphoscintigraphy, the ratio of the background to sentinel lymph nodes was over 10:1, so there was no problem in locating lymph nodes. In addition, we expect to reduce examination procedures and improve the quality of images by indicating the location of sentinel lymph nodes using bone images as body contour without the use of a source.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.1095-1101
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• 2012

As the amount of data increases explosively, a large scale database system is emerged to store, retrieve and manipulate it. There are several issues in this environments such as, consistency, availability and fault tolerance. In this paper, we address a efficient range-query method where data management services are separated from transaction management services in large-scale database systems. A study had been proposed using partitions to protect independence of two modules and to resolve the phantom problem, but this method was efficient only when range-query is specified by a key. So, we present a new method that can improve the efficiency when range-query is specified by a key attribute as well as other attributes. The presented method can guarantee the independence of separated modules and alleviate overheads for range-query using partial index.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.53-60
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• 2003

I. Purpose It is essential to have the correct body contour information for the calculation of dose distribution. The role of CT images in the radiation oncology field has been increased. But there still exists a method to use cast or lead wire for the body contour drawing. This traditional method has drawbacks such as in accurate and time consuming procedure. This study has been designed to overcome this problem. II. Materials and Methods A digital camera is attached to a pole which stands on the opposite side of the gantry. Positional information was acquired from an image of the phantom which is specially designed for this study and located on the isocenter level of the simulator Laser line on the patients skin or on the phantom surface was digitized and reconstructed as the contour. Verification of usefulness this technique has been done with various shape of phantoms and a patients chest III. Results and Conclusions Contours from the traditional method with the cast or lead wire and the digital image method showed good agreement within experimetal error range. This technique showed more efficiente in time and convenience. For irregular shaped contour, like H&N region, special care are needed. The results suggest that more study is needed. To use of the another photogrammatory techinique with two camera system may be better for the actual clinical application

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.565-577
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• 2018

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to construct and test a hypothetical model about impact of parents' problem drinking on suicidal ideation of their children who are university students and the multiple mediating effects of childhood trauma, experiential avoidance, and depression based on stress-vulnerability model. Methods: A purposive sample of 400 university students was recruited from three universities in provincial areas and the data were collected between October and November 2016. The collected data were then analyzed using SPSS 20.0 and AMOS 20.0 programs. For data analysis, descriptive statistics, factor analysis, and structural equation modeling were performed. Multiple mediating effects analysis using phantom variable and bootstrapping were implemented to verify the mediating effect of the research model. Results: We found no significant direct effect on depression and suicidal ideation of parents' problem drinking, but multiple mediating effects of childhood trauma and experiential avoidance between parents' problem drinking and depression (B=.38, p=.001). The path from parents' problem drinking to suicidal ideation was significantly mediated by childhood trauma and depression (B=.02, p=.016) and by childhood trauma, experiential avoidance, and depression (B=.05, p=.011), but experiential avoidance did not have a significant direct effect on suicidal ideation (B=.02, p=.616). Conclusions: Based on the results of this study, it can be suggested that in order to decrease depression and prevent suicide of university students, considering of parents' problem drinking and childhood trauma, intervention methods that decreased chronic use of experiential avoidance and strengthen acceptance should be developed and made available to them.

• Journal of East-West Nursing Research
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.171-181
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• 2018

Purpose: The study aimed to validate a structural model of self-concept among children and adolescents from multicultural families. Methods: Data were collected from 325 mothers of multicultural families and their 417 children. Confirmatory factor analysis, path analysis and multiple mediation analysis with a phantom variable approach were used to assess construct validity and relations between model variables. Results: Goodness of fit indices of the modified theoretical model, the standardized ${\chi}^2$ (2.75), RMR (.02), RMSEA (.07), NFI (.90), TLI (.92), CFI (.94), GFI (.89), and AGFI (.87), met criteria. Social support and mental health problem had significant direct effects on self-concept, whereas residential environment and school adjustment had significant indirect effects, accounting in combination for 53% of the variance in self-concept. Conclusion: Based on the results, mental health problem mediated the relationships of self-concept and parenting stress.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.17-22
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• 2004

Multileaf collimator (MLC) is now rapidly replacing the lead ahoy block to shape the radiation treatment field. In addition to its defect of rectangular field shaping and increased penumbra width, it has another possible problem, and that is of radiation transmission between leaves, which needs to be maintained at as low a level as is permissible. The authors measured and analyzed the inter-leaf and cross-leaf transmissions of MLC by Varian Associates Inc, before its clinical application. The inter-leaf and cross-leaf transmissions were calculated by comparing the measured point doses in the polystyrene phantom in the open field and in a total closure of MLC. The beam profile of the inter-leaf and cross-leaf transmissions were depicted by using a water phantom. A photon beam of 6 MV was used in the measurement. The inter-leaf transmission was 1.63∼1.67%, indicating that the shielding effect of MLC is excellent. However, the cross-leaf transmission in the central area was 18.4∼18.7% and this is well over the clinically acceptable limitation of 5%. The beam profile of cross-leaf transmission displayed 80∼90% transmission near the field edge, so that the cross-leaf transmission was 14∼17% in this area. The multileaf collimator has an excellent shi디ding effect and the inter-leaf transmission is negligible so that it can be used in clinic as a good replacement of the conventional lead alloy block. However, care must be taken to avoid the cross-leaf transmission in the radiation field.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Medical Physics Conference
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• 2002.09a
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• pp.237-240
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• 2002

Knowing the dose distribution in a tissue is as important as being able to measure exposure or absorbed dose in radiotherapy. Since the Dry Imager spread, the wet type automatic processor is no longer used. Furthermore, the waste fluid after film development process brings about a serious problem for prevention of pollution. Therefore, we have developed a measurement method for the dose distribution (CR dosimetry) in the phantom based on the imaging plate (IP) of the computed radiography (CR). The IP was applied for the dose measurement as a dosimeter instead of the film used for film dosimetry. The data from the irradiated IP were processed by a personal computer with 10 bits and were depicted as absorbed dose distributions in the phantom. The image of the dose distribution was obtained from the CR system using the DICOM form. The CR dosimetry is an application of CR system currently employed in medical examinations to dosimetry in radiotherapy. A dose distribution can be easily shown by the Dose Distribution Depiction System we developed this time. Moreover, the measurement method is simpler and a result is obtained more quickly compared with film dosimetry.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.113-121
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• 1989

The inclusion of air filled cavities in treatment fields creates a potential dosimetric problem due to the rebuildup phenomenon near the air-tissue interface using a simulated phantom, such as air gap, air cylinder, and air cavity, the amount of rebuldup along the various field sizes and air cavity dimensions was measured. The results are as follows. 1. As the field size becomes larger in comparison with the cavity size, or as the cavity size gets bigger when the field size is equal to the cavity size, rebuildup decreases. 2. When the distance between the phantom surface and the air cavity is less than 1.5cm, there is prominent rebuildup. And when the distance is more than 1.5cm, rebuildup is relatively constant, 3. The change according to the depth of the cavity is affected by the field size and the cavity size, rebuildup usually increases when the depth of the cavity increases. 4. It is suggested that tissue equivalent material should be applied on the skin to make tissue thickness over the air cavity more than 1.5cm and that the field size should include the air cavity with at least 1cm margin.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.114-120
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• 2022

Purpose: Particle beam therapy is advantageous over photon therapy. However, adequately delivering therapeutic doses to tumors near critical organs is difficult. Nanoparticle-aided radiation therapy can be used to alleviate this problem, wherein nanoparticles can passively accumulate at higher concentrations in the tumor tissue compared to the surrounding normal tissue. In this study, we investigate the dose enhancement effect due to gold nanoparticle (GNP) when Carbon-12, He-4, and proton beams are irradiated on GNP. Methods: First, monoenergetic Carbon-12 and He-4 ion beams of energy of 283.33 MeV/u and 150 MeV/u, respectively, and a proton beam of energy of 150 MeV were irradiated on a water phantom of dimensions 30 cm×30 cm×30 cm. Subsequently, the secondary-particle information generated near the Bragg peak was recorded in a phase-space (phsp) file. Second, the obtained phsp file was scaled down to a nanometer scale to irradiate GNP of diameter 50 nm located at the center of a 4 ㎛×4 ㎛×4 ㎛ water phantom. The dose enhancement ratio (DER) was calculated in intervals of 1 nm from the GNP surface. Results: The DER of GNP computed at 1 nm from the GNP surface was 4.70, 4.86, and 4.89 for Carbon-12, He-4, and proton beams, respectively; the DER decreased rapidly with increasing distance from the GNP surface. Conclusions: The results indicated that GNP can be used as radiosensitizers in particle beam therapy. Furthermore, the dose enhancement effect of the GNP absorbed by tumor cells can aid in delivering higher therapeutic doses.