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Film Dosimetry for Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy : Dosimetric Evaluation (필름을 사용한 세기변조치료법에 대한 선량측정)

  • Ju Sang Gyu;Yeo Inhwan Jason;Huh Seung Jae;Choi Byung Ki;Park Young Hwan;Ahn Yong Chan;Kim Dae Yong;Kong Young Kun
    • Radiation Oncology Journal
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    • v.20 no.2
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    • pp.172-178
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    • 2002
  • Purpose : X-ray film over responds to low-energy photons in relative photon beam dosimetry because its sensor is based on silver bromide crystals, which are high-Z molecules. This over-response becomes a significant problem in clinical photon beam dosimetry particularly in regions outside the penumbra. In intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), the radiation field is characterized by multiple small fields and their outside-penumbra regions. Therefore, in order to use film dosimetry for IMRT, the nature the source of the over-response in its radiation field need to be known. This study is aimed to verify and possibly improve film dosimetry for IMRT. Materials and Method : Modulated beams were constructed by a combination of five or seven different static radiation fields using 6 MeV X-rays. In order to verify film dosimetry, we used X-ray film and an ion chamber were used to measure the dose profiles at various depths in a phantom. In addition, in order to reduce the over-response, 0.01 inch thick lead filters were placed on both sides of the film. Results : The measured dose profiles showed a film over-response at the outside-penumbra and low dose regions. The error increased with depths and approached 15% at a maximum for the field size of $15{\times}15cm^2$ at 10 cm depth. The use of filters reduced the error to 3%, but caused an under-response of the dose in a perpendicular set-up. Conclusion : This study demonstrated that film dosimetry for IMRT involves sources of error due to its over-response to low-energy Photons. The use of filers can enhance the accuracy in film dosimetry for IMRT. In this regard, the use of optimal filter conditions is recommended.

Effects of Partial or Total Replacement of Maize with Alternative Feed Source on Digestibility, Growth Performance, Blood Metabolites and Economics in Limousin Crossbred Cattle

  • Shi, F.H.;Fang, L.;Meng, Q.X.;Wu, H.;Du, J.P.;Xie, X.X.;Ren, L.P.;Zhou, Z.M.;Zhou, B.
    • Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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    • v.27 no.10
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    • pp.1443-1451
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    • 2014
  • Increasing cost and scarcity of maize has stimulated the use of alternative feed sources (AFS) in the diets of cattle. In this study, we investigated the effects of partial or total replacement of maize on nutrient digestibility, growth performance, blood metabolites, and economics in Limousin crossbred feedlot cattle. Forty-five $Limousin{\times}Luxi$ crossbred bulls were randomly assigned to the three treatment groups, orthodox diet (OD; 45.0% maize), partial replacement diet (PRD; 15% maize, 67% AFS), total replacement diet (TRD; 0% maize, 100% AFS). The growth feeding trial lasted for 98 days. Dry matter intake (DMI) and average daily gain (ADG) were recorded. The digestion trial was carried out after the end of the growth trial. Total faeces and feed samples were measured daily. Digestibilities of dry matter (DM) and organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and acid detergent fiber (ADF) were calculated. After the feeding trial, blood metabolites were measured in 12 animals from each group. Initial and final body weights did not differ significantly among treatment groups (p>0.05). The ADG and DMI were 1.72 and 8.66, 1.60 and 9.10, and 1.40 and 9.11 kg/d for OD, PRD, and TRD, respectively. The PRD and TRD exhibited lower ADG (p<0.01) and higher DMI (p<0.01) than OD. The DMI (%body weight) was comparable between groups (p>0.5). Feed efficiency of PRD and TRD were lower than OD (p<0.01). The DM digestibility decreased with reduced level of maize (p = 0.10), OM digestibility was higher in OD (p<0.05), and CP, NDF and ADF digestibilities were similar for all groups (p>0.05). Blood urea nitrogen (mg/dL) in PRD and TRD was higher than OD (p<0.01), while other blood parameters did not differ significantly. Feed costs ($/head/d) were 1.49, 0.98, and 0.72 for OD, PRD, and TRD, respectively (p<0.01). Feed costs per kg gain ($) were significantly lower for PRD (0.63) and TRD (0.54) than OD (0.89; p<0.01). Overall profit ($/head) and daily profit ($/head/d) did not differ significantly between treatments (p>0.05), although TRD showed the highest economic benefits overall (p<0.01). While a traditional diet maximized the growth rate, partial or total replacement of dietary maize with AFS proved economically feasible due to their lower costs and comparable nutrient digestibilities of DM, CP, NDF, and ADF. Partial replacement may prove economically competitive in the current situation of China.

Studies on the Vegetation around the Industrial Complexes (사대공단(四大工團) 주변(周邊)의 식생(植生)에 대(對)한 연구(硏究))

  • Kim, Tae Wook;Kim, Su In
    • Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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    • v.57 no.1
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    • pp.8-13
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    • 1982
  • The present study was conducted during the period July 18-August 11, 1981, at the four industrial complexes(Pohang, Ulsan, Onsan, and Yeochon) using the naked eye method. The study included the survey of plant species growing within a 2km from the area of pollution source, selection of plants tolerant to air pollution and effects of pollution on their growth. The results obtained are as follows; 1) Vascular plants surveyed as to industrial complexes consist of 90 families, 6 subfamilies, 213 genera and 290 species. Major plant families and species for each area are as follows: 1) Pohang area: 54 families, 102 genera and 126 species Leguminosae(16) Graminae(11), Compositae(9) Rosaceae(9) 2) Ulsan area: 61 families, 131 genera, and 158 species Compositae(17) Gramineae(16) Leguminosae(15) Rosaceae(9) Polygonaceae(9) Solanaceae(6) 3) Onsan area: 46 families, 98 genera, and 158 species Compositae(12) Gramineae(12) Leguminosae(12) Rosaceae(6) Polygonaceae(6) 4) Yeochon: 71 families, 150 genera, and 188 species Rosaceae(15) Leguminosae(15) Compositae(14) Graminese(14) Polygonaceae(8) Salicaceae(6) 2. Table 1 shows tolerant plants to air pollution in this study. 3. The following plants may be recommended as planting species at the industrial complex area. Leguminosae: Amorpha fruticosa L. Lespedeza bicolor Turcz. Lespedeza maximowiczii Schneider Robinia pseudoacacia L. Sophora japonica L. Fagaceae: Quercus acutissima Carr. Quercus serrata Thunb. Quercus variabilis Bl. Salicaceae: Populus tomentiglandulosa T. Lee Salix Pseudo-lasiogyne Leveille Oleaceae: Ligustrum japonicum Thunb. Ligustrum obtusifolumn S. et Z. Betulaceae: Alnus hirsuta (Space) Ruprecht Celastraceae: Euonymus japonicus thunb. Cparifolicceae: Viburnum awabucki K. Koch. Pinaceae: Cedrus deodara Loundon.

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A Study of Water Quality and Fish Community in Lake Doam (도암호의 수질과 어류군집 특성 연구)

  • Lee, Sang-Ha;Lee, Kwang-Yeol;Jang, Young-Su;Lim, In-Soo;Heo, Woo-Myung;Kim, Jai-Ku;Kim, Bom-Chul;Choi, Jae-Seok
    • Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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    • v.39 no.2 s.116
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    • pp.167-177
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    • 2006
  • Both fish community and water quality in Lake Doam were investigated from September 2004 to August 2005. The turbidity of Lake Doam located in the upper region of the Songchun River in the South River system, Korea was high whole year due to the effects of distributed non point source pollutions in the watersheds. During the experimental periods, mean concentration of chlorophyll-a in epilimnetic layer (0 ${\sim}$ 5 m) was 18.5 ${\mu}g\;L^{-1}$ and transparency ranged from 0.3 m to 2.4 m. Average TP and TN concentrations were 111 ${\mu}g\;L^{-1}$ and 4.1 $mg\;L^{-1}$, respectively. Lake was classified as eutrophic state based on the nutrient concentrations suggested by U.S.EPA (1976). Total number of fish collected in Lake Doam was 9,600 individuals in 26 species of 6 family. Both dominant and subdominant species in the lake were P. herzi (34.9%) and Z. platypus (22.5%), respectively. Occurrence of water column species was high at upper region of the lake, whereas benthic type of species highly ,appeared in downstream area. The different fish assemblage between upper and lower area would be considered as the difference of bottom substrate and concentrations of suspended solids. In addition high appearance of Comat type of fish that is hybrid between gold fish (C, auratus) and C. auratus was found in the lake. It was unclear the reasons that high proportion of mutant species appeared in the lake. More researches are required in this area in future.

Mature Market Sub-segmentation and Its Evaluation by the Degree of Homogeneity (동질도 평가를 통한 실버세대 세분군 분류 및 평가)

  • Bae, Jae-ho
    • Journal of Distribution Science
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    • v.8 no.3
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    • pp.27-35
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    • 2010
  • As the population, buying power, and intensity of self-expression of the elderly generation increase, its importance as a market segment is also growing. Therefore, the mass marketing strategy for the elderly generation must be changed to a micro-marketing strategy based on the results of sub-segmentation that suitably captures the characteristics of this generation. Furthermore, as a customer access strategy is decided by sub-segmentation, proper segmentation is one of the key success factors for micro-marketing. Segments or sub-segments are different from sectors, because segmentation or sub-segmentation for micro-marketing is based on the homogeneity of customer needs. Theoretically, complete segmentation would reveal a single voice. However, it is impossible to achieve complete segmentation because of economic factors, factors that affect effectiveness, etc. To obtain a single voice from a segment, we sometimes need to divide it into many individual cases. In such a case, there would be a many segments to deal with. On the other hand, to maximize market access performance, fewer segments are preferred. In this paper, we use the term "sub-segmentation" instead of "segmentation," because we divide a specific segment into more detailed segments. To sub-segment the elderly generation, this paper takes their lifestyles and life stages into consideration. In order to reflect these aspects, various surveys and several rounds of expert interviews and focused group interviews (FGIs) were performed. Using the results of these qualitative surveys, we can define six sub-segments of the elderly generation. This paper uses five rules to divide the elderly generation. The five rules are (1) mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive (MECE) sub-segmentation, (2) important life stages, (3) notable lifestyles, (4) minimum number of and easy classifiable sub-segments, and (5) significant difference in voices among the sub-segments. The most critical point for dividing the elderly market is whether children are married. The other points are source of income, gender, and occupation. In this paper, the elderly market is divided into six sub-segments. As mentioned, the number of sub-segments is a very key point for a successful marketing approach. Too many sub-segments would lead to narrow substantiality or lack of actionability. On the other hand, too few sub-segments would have no effects. Therefore, the creation of the optimum number of sub-segments is a critical problem faced by marketers. This paper presents a method of evaluating the fitness of sub-segments that was deduced from the preceding surveys. The presented method uses the degree of homogeneity (DoH) to measure the adequacy of sub-segments. This measure uses quantitative survey questions to calculate adequacy. The ratio of significantly homogeneous questions to the total numbers of survey questions indicates the DoH. A significantly homogeneous question is defined as a question in which one case is selected significantly more often than others. To show whether a case is selected significantly more often than others, we use a hypothesis test. In this case, the null hypothesis (H0) would be that there is no significant difference between the selection of one case and that of the others. Thus, the total number of significantly homogeneous questions is the total number of cases in which the null hypothesis is rejected. To calculate the DoH, we conducted a quantitative survey (total sample size was 400, 60 questions, 4~5 cases for each question). The sample size of the first sub-segment-has no unmarried offspring and earns a living independently-is 113. The sample size of the second sub-segment-has no unmarried offspring and is economically supported by its offspring-is 57. The sample size of the third sub-segment-has unmarried offspring and is employed and male-is 70. The sample size of the fourth sub-segment-has unmarried offspring and is not employed and male-is 45. The sample size of the fifth sub-segment-has unmarried offspring and is female and employed (either the female herself or her husband)-is 63. The sample size of the last sub-segment-has unmarried offspring and is female and not employed (not even the husband)-is 52. Statistically, the sample size of each sub-segment is sufficiently large. Therefore, we use the z-test for testing hypotheses. When the significance level is 0.05, the DoHs of the six sub-segments are 1.00, 0.95, 0.95, 0.87, 0.93, and 1.00, respectively. When the significance level is 0.01, the DoHs of the six sub-segments are 0.95, 0.87, 0.85, 0.80, 0.88, and 0.87, respectively. These results show that the first sub-segment is the most homogeneous category, while the fourth has more variety in terms of its needs. If the sample size is sufficiently large, more segmentation would be better in a given sub-segment. However, as the fourth sub-segment is smaller than the others, more detailed segmentation is not proceeded. A very critical point for a successful micro-marketing strategy is measuring the fit of a sub-segment. However, until now, there have been no robust rules for measuring fit. This paper presents a method of evaluating the fit of sub-segments. This method will be very helpful for deciding the adequacy of sub-segmentation. However, it has some limitations that prevent it from being robust. These limitations include the following: (1) the method is restricted to only quantitative questions; (2) the type of questions that must be involved in calculation pose difficulties; (3) DoH values depend on content formation. Despite these limitations, this paper has presented a useful method for conducting adequate sub-segmentation. We believe that the present method can be applied widely in many areas. Furthermore, the results of the sub-segmentation of the elderly generation can serve as a reference for mature marketing.

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Performance Evaluation of Siemens CTI ECAT EXACT 47 Scanner Using NEMA NU2-2001 (NEMA NU2-2001을 이용한 Siemens CTI ECAT EXACT 47 스캐너의 표준 성능 평가)

  • Kim, Jin-Su;Lee, Jae-Sung;Lee, Dong-Soo;Chung, June-Key;Lee, Myung-Chul
    • The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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    • v.38 no.3
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    • pp.259-267
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    • 2004
  • Purpose: NEMA NU2-2001 was proposed as a new standard for performance evaluation of whole body PET scanners. in this study, system performance of Siemens CTI ECAT EXACT 47 PET scanner including spatial resolution, sensitivity, scatter fraction, and count rate performance in 2D and 3D mode was evaluated using this new standard method. Methods: ECAT EXACT 47 is a BGO crystal based PET scanner and covers an axial field of view (FOV) of 16.2 cm. Retractable septa allow 2D and 3D data acquisition. All the PET data were acquired according to the NEMA NU2-2001 protocols (coincidence window: 12 ns, energy window: $250{\sim}650$ keV). For the spatial resolution measurement, F-18 point source was placed at the center of the axial FOV((a) x=0, and y=1, (b)x=0, and y=10, (c)x=70, and y=0cm) and a position one fourth of the axial FOV from the center ((a) x=0, and y=1, (b)x=0, and y=10, (c)x=10, and y=0cm). In this case, x and y are transaxial horizontal and vertical, and z is the scanner's axial direction. Images were reconstructed using FBP with ramp filter without any post processing. To measure the system sensitivity, NEMA sensitivity phantom filled with F-18 solution and surrounded by $1{\sim}5$ aluminum sleeves were scanned at the center of transaxial FOV and 10 cm offset from the center. Attenuation free values of sensitivity wire estimated by extrapolating data to the zero wall thickness. NEMA scatter phantom with length of 70 cm was filled with F-18 or C-11solution (2D: 2,900 MBq, 3D: 407 MBq), and coincidence count rates wire measured for 7 half-lives to obtain noise equivalent count rate (MECR) and scatter fraction. We confirmed that dead time loss of the last flame were below 1%. Scatter fraction was estimated by averaging the true to background (staffer+random) ratios of last 3 frames in which the fractions of random rate art negligibly small. Results: Axial and transverse resolutions at 1cm offset from the center were 0.62 and 0.66 cm (FBP in 2D and 3D), and 0.67 and 0.69 cm (FBP in 2D and 3D). Axial, transverse radial, and transverse tangential resolutions at 10cm offset from the center were 0.72 and 0.68 cm (FBP in 2D and 3D), 0.63 and 0.66 cm (FBP in 2D and 3D), and 0.72 and 0.66 cm (FBP in 2D and 3D). Sensitivity values were 708.6 (2D), 2931.3 (3D) counts/sec/MBq at the center and 728.7 (2D, 3398.2 (3D) counts/sec/MBq at 10 cm offset from the center. Scatter fractions were 0.19 (2D) and 0.49 (3D). Peak true count rate and NECR were 64.0 kcps at 40.1 kBq/mL and 49.6 kcps at 40.1 kBq/mL in 2D and 53.7 kcps at 4.76 kBq/mL and 26.4 kcps at 4.47 kBq/mL in 3D. Conclusion: Information about the performance of CTI ECAT EXACT 47 PET scanner reported in this study will be useful for the quantitative analysis of data and determination of optimal image acquisition protocols using this widely used scanner for clinical and research purposes.