• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.17-29
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• 2015

Purpose For nuclear medicine technologists, it is difficult to stay away from or to separate from radiation sources comparing with workers who are using radiation generating devices. Nuclear medicine technologists work is recognized as an optimized way when they are familiar with work practices. The aims of this study are to measure radiation exposure of technologists working in PET and to evaluate the occupational radiation dose after implementation of strategies to lower exposure. Materials and Methods We divided into four working types by QC for PET, injection, scan and etc. in PET scan procedure. In QC of PET, we compared the radiation exposure controlling next to $^{68}Ge$ cylinder phantom directly to controlling the table in console room remotely. In injection, we compared the radiation exposure guiding patient in waiting room before injection to after injection. In scan procedure of PET, we compared the radiation exposure moving the table using the control button located next to the patient to moving the table using the control button located in the far distance. PERSONAL ELECTRONIC DOSEMETER (PED), Tracerco$^{TM}$ was used for measuring exposed radiation doses. Results The average doses of exposed radiation were $0.27{\pm}0.04{\mu}Sv$ when controlling the table directly and $0.13{\pm}0.14{\mu}Sv$ when controlling the table remotely while performing QC. The average doses of exposed radiation were $0.97{\pm}0.36{\mu}Sv$ when guiding patient after injection and $0.62{\pm}0.17{\mu}Sv$ when guiding patient before injection. The average doses of exposed radiation were $1.33{\pm}0.54{\mu}Sv$ when using the control button located next to the patient and $0.94{\pm}0.50{\mu}Sv$ when using the control button located in far distance while acquiring image. As a result, there were statistically significant differences(P<0.05). Conclusion: From this study, we found that how much radiation doses technologists are exposed on average at each step of PET procedure while working in PET center and how we can reduce the occupational radiation dose after implementation of strategies to lower exposure. And if we make effort to seek any other methods to reduce technologist occupational radiation, we can minimize and optimize exposed radiation doses in department of nuclear medicine. Conclusion From this study, we found that how much radiation doses technologists are exposed on average at each step of PET procedure while working in PET center and how we can reduce the occupational radiation dose after implementation of strategies to lower exposure. And if we make effort to seek any other methods to reduce technologist occupational radiation, we can minimize and optimize exposed radiation doses in department of nuclear medicine.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.47-73
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• 2020

KTX rolling stocks are a system consisting of several machines, electrical devices, and components. The maintenance of the rolling stocks requires considerable expertise and experience of maintenance workers. In the event of a rolling stock failure, the knowledge and experience of the maintainer will result in a difference in the quality of the time and work to solve the problem. So, the resulting availability of the vehicle will vary. Although problem solving is generally based on fault manuals, experienced and skilled professionals can quickly diagnose and take actions by applying personal know-how. Since this knowledge exists in a tacit form, it is difficult to pass it on completely to a successor, and there have been studies that have developed a case-based rolling stock expert system to turn it into a data-driven one. Nonetheless, research on the most commonly used KTX rolling stock on the main-line or the development of a system that extracts text meanings and searches for similar cases is still lacking. Therefore, this study proposes an intelligence supporting system that provides an action guide for emerging failures by using the know-how of these rolling stocks maintenance experts as an example of problem solving. For this purpose, the case base was constructed by collecting the rolling stocks failure data generated from 2015 to 2017, and the integrated dictionary was constructed separately through the case base to include the essential terminology and failure codes in consideration of the specialty of the railway rolling stock sector. Based on a deployed case base, a new failure was retrieved from past cases and the top three most similar failure cases were extracted to propose the actual actions of these cases as a diagnostic guide. In this study, various dimensionality reduction measures were applied to calculate similarity by taking into account the meaningful relationship of failure details in order to compensate for the limitations of the method of searching cases by keyword matching in rolling stock failure expert system studies using case-based reasoning in the precedent case-based expert system studies, and their usefulness was verified through experiments. Among the various dimensionality reduction techniques, similar cases were retrieved by applying three algorithms: Non-negative Matrix Factorization(NMF), Latent Semantic Analysis(LSA), and Doc2Vec to extract the characteristics of the failure and measure the cosine distance between the vectors. The precision, recall, and F-measure methods were used to assess the performance of the proposed actions. To compare the performance of dimensionality reduction techniques, the analysis of variance confirmed that the performance differences of the five algorithms were statistically significant, with a comparison between the algorithm that randomly extracts failure cases with identical failure codes and the algorithm that applies cosine similarity directly based on words. In addition, optimal techniques were derived for practical application by verifying differences in performance depending on the number of dimensions for dimensionality reduction. The analysis showed that the performance of the cosine similarity was higher than that of the dimension using Non-negative Matrix Factorization(NMF) and Latent Semantic Analysis(LSA) and the performance of algorithm using Doc2Vec was the highest. Furthermore, in terms of dimensionality reduction techniques, the larger the number of dimensions at the appropriate level, the better the performance was found. Through this study, we confirmed the usefulness of effective methods of extracting characteristics of data and converting unstructured data when applying case-based reasoning based on which most of the attributes are texted in the special field of KTX rolling stock. Text mining is a trend where studies are being conducted for use in many areas, but studies using such text data are still lacking in an environment where there are a number of specialized terms and limited access to data, such as the one we want to use in this study. In this regard, it is significant that the study first presented an intelligent diagnostic system that suggested action by searching for a case by applying text mining techniques to extract the characteristics of the failure to complement keyword-based case searches. It is expected that this will provide implications as basic study for developing diagnostic systems that can be used immediately on the site.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.21-43
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• 2008

The task network which is formed of different individuals can be recognized as a social network. Therefore, the way to communicate with people inside or outside the network has considerable influence on their outcome. Moreover, the position on which a member stands in a network shows the different effects of the information systems supporting communication with others. In this paper, it is to be studied how personal CMC (computer-mediated communication) tools affect the mission that those who work for a network perform through diverse task networks. Especially, we focused on synchronicity of CMC. On this score, the perspective of Media Synchronicity Theory was taken that had been suggested by criticizing Media Richness Theory. It is the objective, from this perspective, to find which characteristics of networks make the value of IT supporting synchronicity high. In the research trends of social networks, there have been two traditional perspectives to explain the effect of network: embeddedness and diversity ones. These differ from the aspect which type of social network can provide much more economic benefits. As similar studies have been reported by various researchers, these are also divided into the bonding and bridging views which are based on internal and external tie, respectively, Size, density, and centrality were measured as the characteristics of personal task networks. Size means the level of relationship between members. It is the total number of other colleagues who work with a specific member for a certain project. It means, the larger the size of task network, the more the number of coworkers who interact each other through the job. Density is the ratio of the number of relationships arranged actually to the total number of available ones. In an ego-centered network, it is defined as the ratio of the number of relationship made really to the total number of possible ones between members who are actually involved each other. The higher the level of density, the larger the number of projects on which the members collaborate. Centrality means that his/her position is on the exact center of whole network. There are several methods to measure it. In this research, betweenness centrality was adopted among them. It is measured by the position on which one member stands between others in a network. The determinant to raise its level is the shortest geodesic that represents the shortest distance between members. Centrality also indicates the level of role as a broker among others. To verify the hypotheses, we interviewed and surveyed a group of employees of a nationwide financial organization in which a groupware system is used. They were questioned about two CMC applications: MSN with a higher level of synchronicity and email with a lower one. As a result, the larger the size of his/her own task network, the smaller its density and the higher the level of his/her centrality, the higher the level of the effect using the task network with CMC tools. Above all, this positive effect is verified to be much more produced while using CMC applications with higher-level synchronicity. Among the a variety of situations under which the use of CMC gives more benefits, this research is considered as one of rare cases regarding the characteristics of task network as moderators by focusing ITs for the operation of his/her own task network. It is another contribution of this research to prove empirically that the values of information system depend on the social, or comparative, characteristic of time. Though the same amount of time is shared, the social characteristics of users change its value. In addition, it is significant to examine empirically that the ITs with higher-level synchronicity have the positive effect on productivity. Many businesses are worried about the negative effect of synchronous ITs, for their employees are likely to use them for personal social activities. However. this research can help to dismiss the concern against CMC tools.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.109-117
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• 2017

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the change of body shape and the patient alignment state during image-guided volumetric modulated arc therapy in head and neck cancer patients, Materials and Methods: We performed a image-guided volumetric modulated arc therapy plan for 89 patients with head and neck cancer who underwent curative radiotherapy. Ten of them were evaluated for set up error. The landmarks of the ramus, chin, posterior neck, and clavicle were specified using ARIA software (Offline review), and the positional difference was analyzed. Results: The re-CT simulation therapy was performed in 60 men with $17{\pm}4$ cycles of treatment. The weight loss rate was $-6.47{\pm}3.5%$. 29 women performed re-CT simulation at $17{\pm}5$ cycles As a result, weight loss rate was $-5.73{\pm}2.7%$. The distance from skin to C1, C3, and C5 was measured, and both clavicle levels were observed to measure the skin shrinkage changes. The skin shrinkage standard deviations were C1 (${\pm}0.44cm$), C3 (${\pm}0.83cm$), and C5 (${\pm}1.35cm$), which is about 1 mm shrinkage per 0.5 kg reduction. Skin shrinkage according to the number of treatments was 1 ~ 4 fractions (no change), 5 ~ 13 fractions (-2 mm), 14 ~ 22 fractions (-4 mm) and 23 ~ 30 fractions (-6 mm). Conclusion: When the body shape changes about 5 mm, the central dose starts to differ about 3 % or more. Therefore, the CT simulation treatment for the adaptive therapy should be additionally performed. In addition, it is necessary to actively study the CT simulation therapy method and set up method of the lower neck and to examine the use of a new immobilization device.

• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.337-344
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• 2005

A tactile sensor employs a piezoelectric element to detect contact frequency shifts and thereby measure the stiffness or softness of material such as tissue, which allows the sensor to be used in many fields of research for urology, cardiology, gynecology, sports medicine and caner detection and especially for cosmetics and skin care. In this study, reliability of the tactile sensor system was investigated with its manual application to the muscles susceptible to temporomandibular disorders. Stiffness and elasticity of anterior temporalis, masseter and trapezius muscles were calibrated bilaterally from 5 healthy men with an average of 24.5$\pm$0.94 years. The tactile sensor used in this study had a computer-controlled and motor-driven sensor unit which automatically pressed down on the skin surface over the muscles being measured and retracted, thereby providing the hysteresis curve. The slope of the tangent of the hysteresis curve (${\Delta}f/{\Delta}x$) is defined as stiffness of the muscle being measured and the distance between the two parts of the curve as its elasticity. To determine inter-examiner reliability, all the measurements were performed by the two examiners A and B, respectively and the same examination were repeated with an interval of 2 days for intra-examiner reliability. The results from this study demonstrated high reliability in measuring stiffness and elasticity of anterior temporalis, masseter and upper trapezius muscles using a tactile sensor system. It is suggested that the tactile sensor system can be a highly reproducible and effective instrument for quantitative evaluation of the muscle in head and neck region.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.15-19
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• 2003

High dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy for treating a cervix carcinoma has become popular, because it eliminates many of the problems associated with conventional brachytherapy. In order to improve the clinical effectiveness with HDR brachytherapy, a dose calculation algorithm, optimization procedures, and image registrations need to be verified by comparing the dose distributions from a planning computer and those from a phantom. In this study, the phantom was fabricated in order to verify the absolute doses and the relative dose distributions. The measured doses from the phantom were then compared with the treatment planning system for the dose verification. The phantom needs to be designed such that the dose distributions can be quantitatively evaluated by utilizing the dosimeters with a high spatial resolution. Therefore, the small size of the thermoluminescent dosimeter (TLD) chips with a dimension of <1/8"and film dosimetry with a spatial resolution of <1mm used to measure the radiation dosages in the phantom. The phantom called a pelvic phantom was made from water and the tissue-equivalent acrylic plates. In order to firmly hold the HDR applicators in the water phantom, the applicators were inserted into the grooves of the applicator holder. The dose distributions around the applicators, such as Point A and B, were measured by placing a series of TLD chips (TLD-to-TLD distance: 5mm) in the three TLD holders, and placing three verification films in the orthogonal planes. This study used a Nucletron Plato treatment planning system and a Microselectron Ir-192 source unit. The results showed good agreement between the treatment plan and measurement. The comparisons of the absolute dose showed agreement within $\pm$4.0 % of the dose at point A and B, and the bladder and rectum point. In addition, the relative dose distributions by film dosimetry and those calculated by the planning computer show good agreement. This pelvic phantom could be a useful to verify the dose calculation algorithm and the accuracy of the image localization algorithm in the high dose rate (HDR) planning computer. The dose verification with film dosimetry and TLD as quality assurance (QA) tools are currently being undertaken in the Catholic University, Seoul, Korea.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.12-16
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• 2012

Purpose : In conventional PET image reconstruction, iterative reconstruction methods such as OSEM (Ordered Subsets Expectation Maximization) have now generally replaced traditional analytic methods such as filtered back-projection. This includes improvements in components of the system model geometry, fully 3D scatter and low noise randoms estimates. SharpIR algorithm is to improve PET image contrast to noise by incorporating information about the PET detector response into the 3D iterative reconstruction algorithm. The aim of this study is evaluation of SharpIR reconstruction method in PET/CT. Materials and Methods: For the measurement of detector response for the spatial resolution, a capillary tube was filled with FDG and scanned at varying distances from the iso-center (5, 10, 15, 20 cm). To measure image quality for contrast recovery, the NEMA IEC body phantom (Data Spectrum Corporation, Hillsborough, NC) with diameters of 1, 13, 17 and 22 for simulating hot and 28 and 37 mm for simulating cold lesions. A solution of 5.4 kBq/mL of $^{18}F$-FDG in water was used as a radioactive background obtaining a lesion of background ratio of 4.0. Images were reconstructed with VUE point HD and VUE point HD using SharpIR reconstruction algorithm. For the clinical evaluation, a whole body FDG scan acquired and to demonstrate contrast recovery, ROIs were drawn on a metabolic hot spot and also on a uniform region of the liver. Images were reconstructed with function of varying iteration number (1~10). Results: The result of increases axial distance from iso-center, full width at half maximum (FWHM) is also increasing in VUE point HD reconstruction image. Even showed an increasing distances constant FWHM. VUE point HD with SharpIR than VUE point HD showed improves contrast recovery in phantom and clinical study. Conclusion: By incorporating more information about the detector system response, the SharpIR algorithm improves the accuracy of underlying model used in VUE point HD. SharpIR algorithm improve spatial resolution for a line source in air, and improves contrast recovery at equivalent noise levels in phantoms and clinical studies. Therefore, SharpIR algorithm can be applied as through a longitudinal study will be useful in clinical.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Medical Physics Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.122-125
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• 2004

In radiotherapy of tumors in liver, enough planning target volume (PTV) margins are necessary to compensate breathing-related movement of tumor volumes. To overcome the problems, this study aims to obtain patients' body movements by using a moving phantom and an ultrasonic sensor, and to develop respiration gating techniques that can adjust patients' beds by using reversed values of the data obtained. The phantom made to measure patients' body movements is composed of a microprocessor (BS II, 20 MHz, 8K Byte), a sensor (Ultra-Sonic, range 3 cm ${\sim}$3 m), host computer (RS232C) and stepping motor (torque 2.3Kg) etc., and the program to control and operate it was developed. The program allows the phantom to move within the maximum range of 2 cm, its movements and corrections to take place in order, and x, y and z to move successively. After the moving phantom was adjusted by entering random movement data(three dimensional data form with distance of 2cm), and the phantom movements were acquired using the ultra sonic sensor, the two data were compared and analyzed. And then, after the movements by respiration were acquired by using guinea pigs, the real-time respiration gating techniques were drawn by operating the phantom with the reversed values of the data. The result of analyzing the acquisition-correction delay time for the three types of data values and about each value separately shows that the data values coincided with one another within 1% and that the acquisition-correction delay time was obtained real-time (2.34 ${\times}$ 10$^{-4}$sec). This study successfully confirms the clinic application possibility of respiration gating techniques by using a moving phantom and an ultra sonic sensor. With ongoing development of additional analysis system, which can be used in real-time set-up reproducibility analysis, it may be beneficially used in radiotherapy of moving tumors.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.86-92
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to measure curvature contour skin dose using radiochromic film and TLD for a conventional open field. We also attempted to quantify the degradation of skin sparing associated with use of immobilization devices for high energy photon beams and to calculate the skin dose with a help of Monte Carlo (MC) simulation. To simulate head-and-neck and shoulder treatment, a cylindrical solid water phantom 11 cm in diameter was irradiated with 6 MV x-rays using $40{\times}40\;cm^2$ field at 100 cm source axis distance (SAD) to the center of the phantom. Aquaplastic mesh mask was placed on the surface of the cylindrical phantom that mimicked relevant clinical situations. The skin dose profile was obtained by taking measurements from $0^{\circ}$ to $360^{\circ}$ around the circumference of the cylindrical phantom. The skin doses obtained from radiochromic film were found to be 47% of the maximum dose of $D_{max}$ at the $0^{\circ}$ beam entry position and 61% at the $90^{\circ}$ oblique beam position without the mask. Using the mask (1.5 mm), the skin dose received was 59% at $0^{\circ}$ incidence and 78% at $80^{\circ}$ incidence. Skin dose results were also gathered using thin thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLD). With the mask, the skin dose was 66% at $0^{\circ}$ incidence and 80% at $80^{\circ}$ incidence. This method with the mask revealed the similar pattern as film measurement. For the treatments of the head-and-neck and shoulder regions in which immobilization mask was used, skin doses at around tangential angle were nearly the same as the prescription dose. When a sloping skin contour is encountered, skin doses may be abated using thinner and more perforated immoblization devices which should still maintain immoblization.

• The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.53-60
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• 2010

Purpose: We try to calculate EDW-factor easily with the formula applies essential data of EDW-factor and evaluate the validity through a measurement. Materials and Methods: We used the given value of GSTT (Golden Segmented Treatment Table) for the calculation of the EDW-factor. As to the experimental device, 0.6 cc farmer-type ion-chamber, an electrometer and water- phantom were used. A measurement was made at the maximum dose depth of the photon beam energy 6 MV and 15 MV under the condition that SSD (Source to Surface Distance) was 100 cm. The angle of the EDW (Enhanced Dynamic Wedge) which we use in an experiment was 60 degree, 30 degree, 20 degree in the Y1-OUT direction. We used Eclipse planning system (Varian, USA) as RTP system and the EDW-factor was calculated about all fields and EDW direction. In order to show the EDW-factor feature, a measurement was made at the selected field that verify the influence of the dependability about X, Y jaw and off-axis field. Results: When we change the Y1 field, it influence on the EDW-Factor and measured value. But the error between measured values and calculated values was less than 1%. The experimental result indicated the tendency that the error of the result of calculation and measured value becomes smaller as the EDW angle become smaller whether the calculation point (measurement point) and iso-center are same or not. The influence of the field size and energy did not show up. We simulated with the same condition using the RTP system. And we found that it makes no difference between the MU which is calculated manually by applying the EDW-Factor obtained from the commercial program and the value which is calculated by using RTP system. Conclusion: We excluded fitting value from well-known EDW-Factor formula and calculated EDW-factor with the formula applies essential data of EDW-factor only. As a result, there are no significant difference between the measured value and calculated value and it showed errors less than 1%. Also, we implemented the commercial program to calculate EDW-Factor conveniently without measure a factor on each field.