• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.160-167
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• 2015

Radiation exposure from medical diagnostic imaging procedures to patients is one of the most significant interests in diagnostic x-ray system. A miniature x-ray intraoral tube was developed for the first time in the world which can be inserted into the mouth for imaging. Dose evaluation should be carried out in order to utilize such an imaging device for clinical use. In this study, dose evaluation of the new x-ray unit was performed by 1) using a custom made in vivo Pig phantom, 2) determining exposure condition for the clinical use, and 3) measuring patient dose of the new system. On the basis of DRLs (Diagnostic Reference Level) recommended by KDFA (Korea Food & Drug Administration), the ESD (Entrance Skin Dose) and DAP (Dose Area Product) measurements for the new x-ray imaging device were designed and measured. The maximum voltage and current of the x-ray tubes used in this study were 55 kVp, and 300 mA. The active area of the detector was $72{\times}72mm$ with pixel size of $48{\mu}m$. To obtain the operating condition of the new system, pig jaw phantom images showing major tooth-associated tissues, such as clown, pulp cavity were acquired at 1 frame/sec. Changing the beam currents 20 to $80{\mu}A$, x-ray images of 50 frames were obtained for one beam current with optimum x-ray exposure setting. Pig jaw phantom images were acquired from two commercial x-ray imaging units and compared to the new x-ray device: CS 2100, Carestream Dental LLC and EXARO, HIOSSEN, Inc. Their exposure conditions were 60 kV, 7 mA, and 60 kV, 2 mA, respectively. Comparing the new x-ray device and conventional x-ray imaging units, images of the new x-ray device around teeth and their neighboring tissues turn out to be better in spite of its small x-ray field size. ESD of the new x-ray device was measured 1.369 mGy on the beam condition for the best image quality, 0.051 mAs, which is much less than DRLs recommended by IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) and KDFA, both. Its dose distribution in the x-ray field size was observed to be uniform with standard deviation of 5~10 %. DAP of the new x-ray device was $82.4mGy*cm^2$ less than DRL established by KDFA even though its x-ray field size was small. This study shows that the new x-ray imaging device offers better in image quality and lower radiation dose compared to the conventional intraoral units. In additions, methods and know-how for studies in x-ray features could be accumulated from this work.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2002

High energy photon beams from medical linear accelerators produce large scattered radiation by various components of the treatment head, collimator and walls or objects in the treatment room including the patient. These scattered radiation do not provide therapeutic dose and are considered a hazard from the radiation safety perspective. Scattered dose of therapeutic high energy radiation beams are contributed significant unwanted dose to the patient. ICRP take the position that a dose of 500mGy may cause abortion at any stage of pregnancy and that radiation detriment to the fetus includes risk of mental retardation with a possible threshold in the dose response relationship around 100 mGy for the gestational period. The ICRP principle of as low as reasonably achievable (ALARA) was recommended for protection of occupation upon the linear no-threshold dose response hypothesis for cancer induction. We suggest this ALARA principle be applied to the fetus and testicle in therapeutic treatment. Radiation dose outside a photon treatment filed is mostly due to scattered photons. This scattered dose is a function of the distance from the beam edge, treatment geometry, primary photon energy, and depth in the patient. The need for effective shielding of the fetus and testicle is reinforced when young patients ate treated with external beam radiation therapy and then shielding designed to reduce the scattered photon dose to normal organs have to considered. Irradiation was performed in phantom using high energy photon beams produced by a Varian 2100C/D medical linear accelerator (Varian Oncology Systems, Palo Alto, CA) located at the Yonsei Cancer Center. The composite phantom used was comprised of a commercially available anthropomorphic Rando phantom (Phantom Laboratory Inc., Salem, YN) and a rectangular solid polystyrene phantom of dimensions $30cm{\times}30cm{\times}20cm$. the anthropomorphic Rando phantom represents an average man made from tissue equivalent materials that is transected into transverse 36 slices of 2.5cm thickness. Photon dose was measured using a Capintec PR-06C ionization chamber with Capintec 192 electrometer (Capintec Inc., Ramsey, NJ), TLD( VICTOREEN 5000. LiF) and film dosimetry V-Omat, Kodak). In case of fetus, the dosimeter was placed at a depth of loom in this phantom at 100cm source to axis distance and located centrally 15cm from the inferior edge of the $30cm{\times}30cm^2$ x-ray beam irradiating the Rando phantom chest wall. A acryl bridge of size $40cm{\times}40cm^2$ and a clear space of about 20 cm was fabricated and placed on top of the rectangular polystyrene phantom representing the abdomen of the patient. The leaf pot for testicle shielding was made as various shape, sizes, thickness and supporting stand. The scattered photon with and without shielding were measured at the representative position of the fetus and testicle. Measurement of radiation scattered dose outside fields and critical organs, like fetus position and testicle region, from chest or pelvic irradiation by large fie]d of high energy radiation beam was performed using an ionization chamber and film dosimetry. The scattered doses outside field were measured 5 - 10% of maximum doses in fields and exponentially decrease from field margins. The scattered photon dose received the fetus and testicle from thorax field irradiation was measured about 1 mGy/Gy of photon treatment dose. Shielding construction to reduce this scattered dose was investigated using lead sheet and blocks. Lead pot shield for testicle reduced the scatter dose under 10 mGy when photon beam of 60 Gy was irradiated in abdomen region. The scattered photon dose is reduced when the lead shield was used while the no significant reduction of scattered photon dose was observed and 2-3 mm lead sheets refuted the skin dose under 80% and almost electron contamination. The results indicate that it was possible to improve shielding to reduce scattered photon for fetus and testicle when a young patients were treated with a high energy photon beam.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.93-114
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• 1978

The purpose of the study was to find out possible ways for increasing farm income through the sheep and Korean native goats farming, and to investigate meat productivity, wool productivity; woolskin utility, physiological characteristics and correlation between economical college animal farm of the Chungnam National University and sample farms in the suburbs of Dae jeon City were selected for feeding 20 heads of Corriedale wethers and another 20 heads Korean native kids as research materials for the periods of 5th May-26th November, 1977. The data such as growth rate, carcass, viscera weight, blood picture and plamsa components, hebage intake and economic traits were obtained and analysed. The result of the study are summarized as follows: 1. Meat production and quality 1) After 196days of feeding, the body weight of sheep and Korean native goats was increased by two times of those at the beginning of the trial, i.e. 20kg and 8kg respectively. 2) There was no significance of growth rates of sheep in housing and grazing. 3) The growth rate of Korean native goats were excellent at the mountainous areas of Gong ju-Gun where infectious diseases were not found 4) Accroding to the body measurements of 18-month-old sheep, percentages of hip height, body length, rump length, chest depth, chest width, hip width, chest girth and forearm circumference to the withers height were 103,%, 104%, 33%, 44%, 31%, 23%, 135% and 15% respectively, and those of hip height, body length, chest depth and chest girth of 8-month-old native goats to the withers height were 106%, 109%, 46% and 122,% respecitively. As a result, it was found that the percentage of hip height, body length and chest depth of Korean native goats were higher than those of sheep while that of the chest girth of goats was lower. 5) In the carcass data, 47, $52{\pm}2.27%$ of carcass percentage, $34.61{\pm}1.62%$ of lean meat, $26.07{\pm}2.51%$ of viscera, $9.75{\pm}1.4%$ of bone, and $20.95%{\pm}2.14%$ of woolskin for sheep, and $45.58{\pm}5.63%$ of carcass percentage, $27.62{\p}3.81%$ of meat, $34.86{\pm}4.16%$ of viscera, $11.66{\pm}1.83%$ of bone, $3.63{\pm}1.61%$ of skull and $9.26{\pm}2.41%$ of woolskin for native goats were obtained. 6) The contents of moisture, crude protein, crude fat and crude ash in native goat meat were much similar in both plots of housing and grazing. It was, however, known that the contents of moisture and protein were higher in grazinrg than in housing, while fat content was lower in grazing plots. 7) The weights of visceral organs shown similar tendency for both of sheep and native goats. For the weights of liver, heart, kidney and spleen, significance was not reconized among the treatments. Those of rumen, reticulum, small and large intestine were heavier in grazing than in housing, while the amount of visceral fat was heavier in housing. 2. Wool productivity and woolskin 1) The wool production of sheep for 7 months was $3.88{\pm}1.02kg$, and wool percentage, staple length, straighten length, wool growth per day and number of crimps were $9.27{\pm}1.48%$, 8. $47{\pm}1.00cm$, $10.63{\pm}0.99cm$, $0.40{\pm}0.04cm$ and $2.78{\pm}0.40$ respecitively. 2) The tensile strength and tear strength of woolskin treated by alum tanning were highest on the skin obtained from rump, i.e. $1,351kg/mm^2$ and $2,252kg/mm^2$ respectively, and they are in order of loin and shoulder. 3. Utilization and improvement of pasture. 1) The difference of herbage intake of native goats was not recognized between grazing and tethering, but the intake in the afternoon was s lightly higher than that in the morning. However the hervage intake of sheep was superior in grazing and in the afternoon. 2) The cultivation effect was lower in the native goat plots due to their cultivation abilities, in other words, the establishment rates of pasture by hoof cultivation were 60.25% in the goat plots and 77.35% in the sheep plots. 4. Correlation among economical traits. 1) The correlation between live weight of sheep and daily gain was higher. On the other hand, the correlation between other traits was not significant except that live weight, daily gain and lean meat percentage to the length of thoracic vertebrae. The live weight of native goats and meat production were highly correlated, and high correlation was also found between weights of carcass and meat. However, negative correlation was shown between viscera weight and live weight as well as daily gain. 2) The correlatoin between fleece weight of sheep and other traits such as live weight, daily gain and fleece percentage is very high at the 1% siginficant level, and this means that rapid-growth individuals can produce much fleece. 3) The correlation between the factors such as weights of live body, lean meat and viscera of sheep and body measurements, i. e. chest girth and body length was highest, and weights, of carcass and lean meat was highly correlated to chest width and depth. It will be therefore reasonable that the meat productivity estimates will have to be made on the basis of chest girth and body length. The meat production traits of native goats were highly correlated to the most of body measurement data, and the correlation coefficient between chest girth and weights of live body, carcass, lean meat and bone percentage was very high, i. e. 0.992-0.974 in particular. The correlations of meat production traits to chest depth, forearm circumference, body length were 0.759-0.911, 0.759-0.909 and 0.708-0.872 respectively. Therefore, the meat production of native goats will have to be estimated on the basis of chest data. 5. Blood picture and plasma components. 1) The number of erythrocyte and MCHC of native goats were $12.93{\times}10^6/mm^3$ and 36.14%, and those of sheep were $10.68{\times}10^6/mm^3$ and 36.26 respectively. The values of native goats were significantly higher than those of sheep. 2) The hemoglobin concentration, PVC, MCV and MCR of native goats were 10.92 g/100ml, $23.40{\mu}^3$ and 10.94 pg, and those of sheep were 11.73 g/100ml, 36.25 ml/100ml, $33.97{\mu}^3$ and 30.2 ml/100ml 8.43 pg respectively. The values of native goats were significantly lower those of sheep. 3) The number of leukocytes of native goats was significantly higher than that of sheep, that is, $11.64{\times}10^3/mm^3$ in native goats and $9.32{\times}10^3/mm^3$ in sheep. 4) In differential count of leukocyte, neutrophil was significantly high in native goats while lympocyte in sheep. On the other hand, the basophil, eosinophil and monocyte were not significant between native goats and sheep. 5) The amounts of total protein and glucose in the plasma of native goats were 6.2g/100ml and 53.6mg/100ml, and those of sheep were 5.6g/100ml and 45.7mg/100ml, which means that the values of native goats were significantly higher that those of sheep. The amount of total-lipid of native goats(127.6mg/100ml) was significantly than that of sheep(149.6mg/100ml). 6) The amount of non-protein nitrogen, cholesterol, Ca, P, K, Na and Cl were not different between native goats and sheep. 6. Economic analysis. 1) The gross revenue of a farm which fed native goats and sheep was 4,000won per head and the optimum size for feeding them in a farm as a subsidiary work is 5-10 heads. 2) Since there was no difference between housing and grazing, they can be fed in group for farm's subsidiary work. 3) They can be also fed by youths and house wives in the suburbs of cities, because labour requirement is estimated as only two hours per days for feeding 5 heads of native goats and sheep.