• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.143-150
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• 2014

In general radiotherapy, mega-voltage (MV) x-ray images are widely used as the unique method to verify radio-therapeutic fields. But, the image quality of MV images is much lower than that of kilo-voltage x-ray images due to scatter interactions. Since 1990s, studies for the scatter correction have performed with digital-based MV imaging systems. In this study, a novel method for the scatter correction is suggested using scatter to primary ratio (SPR), instead of conventional methods such as digital image processing or scatter kernel calculations. We measured two MV images with and without a solid water phantom describing a patient body with given imaging conditions, and calculated un-attenuated ratios. Then, we obtained SPR distributions for the scatter correction. For experimental validation, a line-pair (LP) phantom using several Al bars and a clinical pelvis MV image was used. As the result, scatter signals of the LP phantom image were successfully reduced so that original density distribution of the phantom was restored. Moreover, image contrast values increased after SPR correction at all ROIs of the clinical image. The mean value of increases was 48%. The SPR correction method suggested in this study has high reliability because it is based on actually measured data. Also, this method can be easily adopted in clinics without additional cost. We expected that the SPR correction can be an effective method to improve the quality of MV image guided radiotherapy.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.524-531
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• 2012

Soybean is one of the most common food materials causing food hypersensitivity reactions in Korea. In this study, we have investigated the effect of roasting and fermentation on the allergenicity of soybean. Three kinds of soybean ($Daepung$, $Daewon$, and $Taegwang$) were prepared as raw, roasted, and fermented by $Bacillus$ $subtilis$ GSK 3580, and then their proteins were extracted. The proteins were separated using SDS-PAGE, and the detection of IgE specific to soybean proteins was performed by immunoblotting using 7 sera of soybean allergy patients and non-allergic control individuals. Serum specific IgE to soybean was measured by ELISA. The SDS-PAGE of raw soybean proteins showed various-sized bands ranging from 9 to 76 kDa, which are known as major allergens. In particular, 9, 21, 34, 52, 72, and 76 kDa proteins are known as LTP, Kunits trypsin inhibitor, $Gly$ m Bd 30K, ${\beta}$-subunit, ${\alpha}$-subunit, and ${\alpha}$'-subunit of ${\beta}$-conglycinin, respectively; these are major allergens in soybean. In contrast, only peptides of less than 35 kDa were found in roasted and fermented soybeans. IgE immunoblot analysis of three roasted species of soybeans commonly detected at 38-40 kDa and 10-15 kDa. The protein bands in fermented soybean showed very weak signals or were not detected. In addition, the reactivity of most patients' sera to soybean was decreased after roasting and fermentation. With these results, it may be concluded that the allergenicity of soybeans is reduced by the roasting and fermentation processes. It is supposed that allergenic proteins in soybean were degraded by heat treatment methods and proteolytic enzymes were secreted from fermenting microorganisms.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.301-310
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• 2009

For the comparing of mortality of the resistance and susceptible population of Myzus persicae, etofenprox was treated in the recommended concentration of 200ppm. Mortalities of resistance population were 16.7 and 36.7%, and susceptible population were 86.7 and 86.7% after 24 and 48 hours treatment, respectively. For the detect of cross resistance to other pyrethroids, 6 pyrethroids were examined. Mortalities of susceptible and resistance populations were 90 and 31% to deltamethrin, 92 and 23% to lambda cyhalothrin, 81 and 14% to cypermethrin, 70 and 20% to $\alpha$-cypermethrin, 29 and 28% to fenpropathrin, 84 and 29% to fenvalerate, respectively. It was showed that resistance populations were generally resistive to other pyrethroids. On the other hands, for recognized ecological characteristic of M. persicae susceptible and resistance populations life table was tested on the pepper leaves in the petri dish and on the plant in the pot. This results were showed that intrinsic rate of increase ($r_m$), net reproduction number ($R_0$) and generation time in day ($T_c$) were significantly different between two population in both tested. However, life span and reproduction period were slightly different between them. Otherwise, feeding behaviors were tested using EPG technique with non- and treated etofenprox. First potential drop time of susceptible and resistance population was 73.5 and 257.9 sec with non-treated and 93.3 and 1076.2 sec after treated, respectively. Electrical probing signals were 8.2 and 48.8 times with susceptible and resistance individuals after treated etofenprox, respectively. It was supposed that the resistance is more probings than susceptible population. After treated, total feeding time have more 6,728.9 sec on resistance than 965.5 sec on susceptible population. So, total non penetration time of susceptible population was 3,000 sec longer than resistance population.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.25-33
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• 2011

This work proposes a skinny-type 10b 50MS/s 0.13um CMOS three-step pipeline ADC for CIS applications. Analog circuits for CIS applications commonly employ a high supply voltage to acquire a sufficiently acceptable dynamic range, while digital circuits use a low supply voltage to minimize power consumption. The proposed ADC converts analog signals in a wide-swing range to low voltage-based digital data using both of the two supply voltages. An op-amp sharing technique employed in residue amplifiers properly controls currents depending on the amplification mode of each pipeline stage, optimizes the performance of op-amps, and improves the power efficiency. In three FLASH ADCs, the number of input stages are reduced in half by the interpolation technique while each comparator consists of only a latch with low kick-back noise based on pull-down switches to separate the input nodes and output nodes. Reference circuits achieve a required settling time only with on-chip low-power drivers and digital correction logic has two kinds of level shifter depending on signal-voltage levels to be processed. The prototype ADC in a 0.13um CMOS to support 0.35um thick-gate-oxide transistors demonstrates the measured DNL and INL within 0.42LSB and 1.19LSB, respectively. The ADC shows a maximum SNDR of 55.4dB and a maximum SFDR of 68.7dB at 50MS/s, respectively. The ADC with an active die area of 0.53$mm^2$ consumes 15.6mW at 50MS/s with an analog voltage of 2.0V and two digital voltages of 2.8V ($=D_H$) and 1.2V ($=D_L$).

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.582-587
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• 2011

Holdup characteristics of bubble, wake and continuous liquid phases were investigated in bubble columns with viscous liquid media. Effects of column diameter(0.051, 0.076, 0.102 and 0.152 m ID), gas velocity($U_G$=0.02~0.16 m/s) and liquid viscosity(${\mu}_L$=0.001~0.050 $Pa{\cdot}s$) of continuous liquid media on the holdups of bubble, wake and continuous liquid phases were discussed. The three phase such as bubble, wake and continuous liquid phases were classified successfully by adapting the dual electrical resistivity probe method. Compressed filtered air and water or aqueous solutions of CMC(Carboxy Methyl Cellulose) were used as a gas and a liquid phase, respectively. To detect the wake as well as bubble phases in the bubble column continuously, a data acquisition system(DT 2805 Lab Card) with personal computer was used. The analog signals obtained from the probe circuit were processed to produce the digital data, from which the wake phase was detected behind the multi-bubbles as well as single bubbles rising in the bubble columns. The holdup of bubble and wake phases decreased but that of continuous liquid media increased, with an increase in the column diameter or liquid viscosity. However, the holdup of bubble and wake phases increased but that of continuous media decreased with an increase in the gas velocity. The holdup ratio of wake to wake to bubble phase decreased with an increase in the column diameter or gas velocity, however, increased with an increase in the viscosity of con-tinuous liquid media. The holdups of bubble, wake and continuous liquid media could be correlated in terms of operating variables within this experimental conditions as: ${\varepsilon}_B=0.043D^{-0.18}U_G^{0.56}{\mu}_L^{-0.13}$, ${\varepsilon}_W=0.003D^{-0.85}U_G^{0.46}{\mu}_L^{-0.10}$, ${\varepsilon}_C=1.179D^{0.09}U_G^{-0.13}{\mu}_L^{0.04}$.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.161-170
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• 2009

Purpose : A parallel imaging method provides us to improve temporal resolution to obtain three-dimensional (3D) MR images. The objective of this study was to optimize three 3D MRI techniques by adjusting 2D SESNE factors of the parallel imaging method in phantom and human brain. Materials and Methods : With a 3 Tesla MRI system and an 8-channel phase-array sensitivity-encoding (SENSE) coil, three 3D MRI techniques of 3D T1-weighted imaging (3D T1WI), 3D T2-weighted imaging (3D T2WI) and 3D fluid attenuated inversion recovery (3D FLAIR) imaging were optimized with adjusting SESNE factors in a water phantom and three human brains. The 2D SENSE factor was applied on the phase-encoding and the slice-encoding directions. Signal-to-noise ratio(SNR), percent signal reduction rate(%R), and contrast-to-noise ratio(CNR) were calculated by using signal intensities obtained in specific regions-of-interest (ROI). Results : In the phantom study, SENSE factor = 3 was provided in 0.2% reduction of signals against without using SENSE with imaging within 5 minutes for 3D T1WI. SENSE factor = 2 was provided in 0.98% signal reduction against without using SENSE with imaging within 5 minutes for 3D T2WI. SENSE factor = 4 was provided in 0.2% signal reduction against without using SENSE with imaging around 6 minutes for 3D FLAIR. In the human brain study, SNR and CNR were higher with SENSE factors = 3 than 4 for all three imaging techniques. Conclusion : This study was performed to optimize 2D SENSE factors in the three 3D MRI techniques that can be scanned in clinical time limitations with minimizing SNR reductions. Without compromising SNR and CNR, the optimum 2D SENSE factors were 3 and 4, yielding the scan time of about 5 to 6 minutes. Further studies are necessary to optimize 3D MRI techniques in other areas in human body.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.59-68
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• 1998

Digital hearing aids offer many advantages over conventional analog hearing aids. With the advent of high speed digital signal processing chips, new digital techniques have been introduced to digital hearing aids. In addition, the evaluation of new ideas in hearing aids is necessarily accompanied by intensive subject-based clinical tests which requires much time and cost. In this paper, we present an objective method to evaluate and predict the performance of hearing aid systems without the help of such subject-based tests. In the hearing impairment simulation(HIS) algorithm, a sensorineural hearing impairment medel is established from auditory test data of the impaired subject being simulated. Also, the nonlinear behavior of the loudness recruitment is defined using hearing loss functions generated from the measurements. To transform the natural input sound into the impaired one, a frequency sampling filter is designed. The filter is continuously refreshed with the level-dependent frequency response function provided by the impairment model. To assess the performance, the HIS algorithm was implemented in real-time using a floating-point DSP. Signals processed with the real-time system were presented to normal subjects and their auditory data modified by the system was measured. The sensorineural hearing impairment was simulated and tested. The threshold of hearing and the speech discrimination tests exhibited the efficiency of the system in its use for the hearing impairment simulation. Using the HIS system we evaluated three typical hearing aid algorithms.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.58 no.3
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• pp.267-276
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• 2005

Background : The transforming growth $factor-{\beta}1$ ($TGF-{\beta}1$) plays a key role in lung fibrosis. However, the molecular mechanisms involved in $TGF-{\beta}1$-induced lung fibrosis are unclear. $TGF-{\beta}1$ is the key inducer of myofibroblast transdifferentiation via de novo synthesis of ${\alpha}-smooth$ muscle actin (${\alpha}-SMA$). Since $TGF-{\beta}1$ signals through reactive oxygen species (ROS) and ROS have been shown to induce accumulation of extracellular matrix (ECM) in various tissues, this study examined if ROS play a role in $TGF-{\beta}1$-induced fibronectin secretion and ${\alpha}-SMA$ expression in human lung fibroblasts, MRC-5 cells. Methods : Growth arrested and synchronized MRC-5 cells were stimulated with $TGF-{\beta}1$ (0.2-10 ng/ml) in the presence or absence of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) or diphenyleneiodonium (DPI) for up to 96 hours. Dichlorofluorescein (DCF)-sensitive cellular ROS were measured by FACScan and secreted fibronectin and cellular ${\alpha}-SMA$ by Western blot analysis. Results : $TGF-{\beta}1$ increased the level of fibronectin secretion and ${\alpha}-SMA$ expression in MRC-5 cells in a dosedependent manner. Both NAC (20 and 30 mM) and DPI (1 and $5{\mu}M$) significantly inhibited $TGF-{\beta}1$-induced fibronectin and ${\alpha}-SMA$ upregulation. The $TGF-{\beta}1$-induced cellular ROS level was also significantly reduced by NAC and DPI. Conclusions : The results suggest that NADPH oxidase-dependent ROS play an important role in $TGF-{\beta}1$-induced fibronectin secretion and ${\alpha}-SMA$ expression in MRC-5 cells, which leads to myofibroblast transdifferentiation and progressive lung fibrosis.

• BMB Reports
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.293-300
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• 1995

The radical centers detected in the reaction of metmyoglobin (MetMb) with hydrogen peroxide ($H_2O_2$) have been studied by using a spin trapping technique. A broad 5-line asymmetric electron spin resonance (ESR) spectrum, with $2A_{max}=4.07\;mT$ and $2A_{min}=2.97\;mT$, obtained after incubation of MetMb with $H_2O_2$ in the presence of a spin trap, 5,5-dimethyl pyrroline-N-oxide (DMPO) was gradually weakened with time and disappeared completely by 6 min after addition of guanidine-HCl (14 M). When a higher concentration (6 M) of the agent was added, the signal disappeared within 40 see and the DMPO/OH signal appeared immediately. Then, a new 8-line signal with similar intensities grew gradually and was fixed by 45 min, coexisting with the DMPO/OH signal. This new signal was found to be composite, consisting of two different radical species. One of the 6-line signals, with $a_N$ 1.49 mT and $a_H$ 0.988 mT, was assigned to the DMPO/phenoxyl radical adduct. The second 6-line signal with $a_N$ 1.55 mT and $a_H$ 2.22 mT was assigned to carbon-centered radical adduct. When 3,3,5,5-tetramethylpyrrolin-N-oxide (TMPO), was employed in the place of DMPO, another broad asymmetric 5-line signal was detected with $2A_{max}=3.99\;mT$ and $2A_{min}=3.04\;mT$, which is virtually identical to that obtained from the DMPO system The shape of the spectrum of the TMPO adduct changed drastically, with lapse of time resulting in a broad singlet after 40 min. The broad singlet was assigned to the porphyrin radical adduct. Incubation of globin with Fenton reagent in the presence of DMPO initially gave a DMPO/OH signal. Then, a new 12-line signal began to grow after one minute and fixed after 15 min. coexisting with the DMPO/OH signal, This 12-line signal was assigned to DMPO/phenoxyl with $a_N$ 1.47 mT, $a_{{\beta}H}$ 0.99 mT and $a_{{\gamma}H}$ 0.13 mT. A minor concentration of carbon-centered radical adduct was also detected. This radical composition is identical to that of guanidine HCl treated MetMb/DMPO/$H_2O_2$ system, indicating that the radical producing conditions are somehow common in both systems. Heme iron can be released by excess $H_2O_2$ in the MetMb/$H_2O_2$ system, providing for Fenton reagent. When MetMb was pretreated with tyrosine blocking agent, $KI_3$ the broad 5.line MetMb-derived signal was not detected in the MetMb/DMPO/$H_2O_2$ system, whereas no such effect was detected on such system of Hb in which the radical center was assigned to cysteine residue not tyrosine, indicating that tyrosine residue is a main radical center produced in the MetMb/$H_2O_2$ system Thus, the present data strongly support the previous indication that the apomyoglobin-derived radical center formed in the reaction of MetMb with $H_2O_2$ is a tyrosine residue.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.469-477
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• 2008

Purpose: The goal of this paper is to present the design and performance of a position encoding circuit for $16{\times}16$ array of position sensitive multi-anode photomultiplier tube for small animal PET scanners. This circuit which reduces the number of readout channels from 256 to 4 channels is based on a charge division method utilizing a resistor array. Materials and Methods: The position encoding circuit was simulated with PSpice before fabrication. The position encoding circuit reads out the signals from H9500 flat panel PMTs (Hamamatsu Photonics K.K., Japan) on which $1.5{\times}1.5{\times}7.0\;mm^3$ $L_{0.9}GSO$ ($Lu_{1.8}Gd_{0.2}SiO_{5}:Ce$) crystals were mounted. For coincidence detection, two different PET modules were used. One PET module consisted of a $29{\times}29\;L_{0.9}GSO$ crystal layer, and the other PET module two $28{\times}28$ and $29{\times}29\;L_{0.9}GSO$ crystal layers which have relative offsets by half a crystal pitch in x- and y-directions. The crystal mapping algorithm was also developed to identify crystals. Results: Each crystal was clearly visible in flood images. The crystal identification capability was enhanced further by changing the values of resistors near the edge of the resistor array. Energy resolutions of individual crystal were about 11.6%(SD 1.6). The flood images were segmented well with the proposed crystal mapping algorithm. Conclusion: The position encoding circuit resulted in a clear separation of crystals and sufficient energy resolutions with H9500 flat-panel PMT and $L_{0.9}GSO$ crystals. This circuit is good enough for use in small animal PET scanners.