• Applied Microscopy
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.122-126
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• 2013

The heterogeneous nucleation of the ${\Theta}^{\prime}$ phase on nanoscale precipitates has been investigated using a combination of three-dimensional atom probe tomography and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. Two types of ${\Theta}^{\prime}$ phases were observed, namely small (~2 nm thick) cylindrical precipitates and larger (~100 nm) globular precipitates and both appear to be heterogeneously nucleated on the nanoscale precipitates. The composition and crystal structure of precipitates were directly analyzed by combination of two advanced characterization techniques.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.142-150
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• 2014

The key to model-based iterative reconstruction (MBIR) algorithms for transmission computed tomography lies in the ability to accurately model the data formation process from the emitted photons produced in the transmission source to the measured photons at the detector. Therefore, accurately modeling the system matrix that accounts for the data formation process is a prerequisite for MBIR-based algorithms. In this work we compared quantitative performance of the three representative ray-driven methods for calculating the system matrix; the ray-tracing method (RTM), the distance-driven method (DDM), and the strip-area based method (SAM). We implemented the ordered-subsets separable surrogates (OS-SPS) algorithm using the three different models and performed simulation studies using a digital phantom. Our experimental results show that, in spite of the more advanced features in the SAM and DDM, the traditional RTM implemented in the OS-SPS algorithm with an edge-preserving regularizer out-performs the SAM and DDM in restoring complex edges in the underlying object. The performance of the RTM in smooth regions was also comparable to that of the SAM or DDM.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.55-63
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• 2005

A novel imaging system for High-resolution Ultrasonic Transmission Tomography (HUTT) and soft tissue differentiation methodology for the HUTT system are presented. The critical innovation of the HUTT system includes the use of sub-millimeter transducer elements for both transmitter and receiver arrays and multi-band analysis of the first-arrival pulse. The first-arrival pulse is detected and extracted from the received signal (i.e., snippet) at each azimuthal and angular location of a mechanical tomographic scanner in transmission mode. Each extracted snippet is processed to yield a multi-spectral vector of attenuation values at multiple frequency bands. These vectors form a 3-D sinogram representing a multi-spectral augmentation of the conventional 2-D sinogram. A filtered backprojection algorithm is used to reconstruct a stack of multi-spectral images for each 2-D tomographic slice that allow tissue characterization. A novel methodology for soft tissue differentiation using spectral target detection is presented. The representative 2-D and 3-D HUTT images formed at various frequency bands demonstrate the high-resolution capability of the system. It is shown that spherical objects with diameter down to 0.3㎜ can be detected. In addition, the results of soft tissue differentiation and characterization demonstrate the feasibility of quantitative soft tissue analysis for possible detection of lesions or cancerous tissue.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.17 no.10
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• pp.2563-2573
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• 1993

The measurements of monochromatic line-of-sight flame emission and light transmission in the same path having small spatial resolution were performed in an axisymmetric laminar propane $C_{3}H_{8}$ diffusion flame. The light wavelengthes of 632 nm, 800nm, 900nm were used. From these measurements, local point soot radiances (by Kirchhoff's law) and absorption coefficients were reconstructed by tomography. Thus local point soot temperatures and concentrations were obtained. The reconstructed soot temperatures and concentrations of local points have no differences between the case of visible range (632 nm) and the case of infrared range (800 nm and 900 nm). In these ranges, the scattering coefficient is much lower than the absorption coefficient. Soot mean temperature over the path also matches well with local soot temperature in outer region of the flame. Temperature measurement by thermocouple with different bead diameters $(222{\mu}m and 308{\mu}m)$ was carried in the same flame. Rapid insertion technique was used and radiation effect was considered. Radiation correction in the sooting region was carried out and the corrected result was in good agreement with the local soot temperature.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.211-220
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• 2015

Recently, model-based iterative reconstruction (MBIR) has played an important role in transmission tomography by significantly improving the quality of reconstructed images for low-dose scans. MBIR is based on the penalized-likelihood (PL) approach, where the penalty term (also known as the regularizer) stabilizes the unstable likelihood term, thereby suppressing the noise. In this work we further improve MBIR by using a more expressive regularizer which can restore the underlying image more accurately. Here we used a spline regularizer derived from a linear combination of the two-dimensional splines with first- and second-order spatial derivatives and applied it to a non-quadratic convex penalty function. To derive a PL algorithm with the spline regularizer, we used a separable paraboloidal surrogates algorithm for convex optimization. The experimental results demonstrate that our regularization method improves reconstruction accuracy in terms of both regional percentage error and contrast recovery coefficient by restoring smooth edges as well as sharp edges more accurately.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.219-226
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• 2017

Penalized-likelihood (PL) reconstruction methods for transmission tomography are known to provide improved image quality for reduced dose level by efficiently smoothing out noise while preserving edges. Unfortunately, however, most of the edge-preserving penalty functions used in conventional PL methods contain at least one free parameter which controls the shape of a non-quadratic penalty function to adjust the sensitivity of edge preservation. In this work, to avoid difficulties in finding a proper value of the free parameter involved in a non-quadratic penalty function, we propose a new adaptive method of space-variant smoothing with a simple quadratic penalty function. In this method, the smoothing parameter is adaptively selected for each pixel location at each iteration by using the image roughness measured by a pixel-wise standard deviation image calculated from the previous iteration. The experimental results demonstrate that our new method not only preserves edges, but also suppresses noise well in monotonic regions without requiring additional processes to select free parameters that may otherwise be included in a non-quadratic penalty function.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.275-278
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• 2008

Electron tomography (ET) is an electron microscopic technique for obtaining a 3-D image from any electron microscopy specimen and its application in biomedical science has been increased thanks to development of electron microscopy and related technologies during the last decade. There are few researches on ET in Korea during this period. Although the importance of ET has been recognized recently by many researchers, initial approach to electron tomographic research is not easy for beginners. The 4th International Congress on Electron Tomography (4 ICET) was held on Nov $5{\sim}8$, 2006, at San Diego. The program dealt instrumentation, reconstruction algorithm, visualization/quantitative analysis and electron tomographic presentation of biological specimen and nano particles. 1 have summarized oral presentations and analyzed the posters presented on the meeting. Cryo-electron microscopic system was popular system for ET and followed conventional transmission electron microscopic system. Cultured cell line and tissue were most popular specimens analyzed and microorganisms including bacteria and virus also constituted important specimens. This analysis provides a current state of art in ET research and a guide line for practical application of ET and further research strategies.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.171-175
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• 2017

Negative staining has been traditionally used for exosome imaging; however, the technique is limited to surface topology only and can cause staining artifacts. Therefore, to analyze the internal structure of exosomes, we employed a method of block preparation, thin sectioning, and electron tomography. In addition, an automatic serial sectioning technique with 15-nm thickness through focused ion beam was employed to observe the three-dimensional structure of exosomes of various sizes. Cryo-transmission electron microscopy revealed the near-to-native structure of exosomes.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.268-273
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• 2004

A method of reflection-transmission type ultrasonic inverse scattering image was presented using linearly arrayed transducers in inner surface of half-cylinder. In this method, to reduce the number of data, the mirror effect using a reflector behind object and pulse wave with finite frequency band, To verify the proposed method, a computer simulation was performed for organic phantom specimen, As the results. it was verified that the reconstructed image was satisfactory even when the limitation view angle was limited to around 30 deg.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.398-407
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• 2013

Optical tomography was used to measure the pattern of spray cross-section. The maximum-likelihood estimation (MLE) algorithm was used to reconstruct the spray cross-section from the measured transmission rate of the spray. A swirl-type injector was used to form an optically dense spray, and the test was carried out in a high-pressure chamber, to control the pressure condition of the test site. Before the experiment, the reliability of the MLE-based reconstruction algorithm was verified, by comparing it with a conventional filtered back projection reconstruction (FBP) method. The MLE algorithm showed superior reconstruction of the image. In the spray patternation experiment, the results of the optical tomography and optical line patternator, which uses Mie scattering signal information, were compared. While measuring the cross-section of optically dense spray, the intensity of the scattering signal had attenuated to an uncorrectable level, which led to incorrect spray pattern measurement by the optical line patternator. However, reliable results were obtained by optical tomography, under the same condition. Finally, the pattern of the optically dense spray was measured at various chamber pressures, of up to 3 MPa. As the chamber pressure increased, the hollow cone-shaped swirl spray shrank, and the attenuation coefficient value of the inner region increased.