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Nowaday, beyond the time of wellbeing and LOHAS, many people have great interest in self therapy, so it is called healing era. As the folk medicine fields are actively industrialized and the interest in health improvement, not disease cure, is increased, many researches about the alternative medicine and therapy in various fields are being performed. In the times of the interest in health improvement and spontaneous, natural healing ability of human body is getting increase, it is very meaningful to search the factors which consist of recognition to folk medicine. So in this study, we developed the questionaries on the basis of previous studies, researched the factors affecting the recognition to folk medicine using factor analysis, and tested statistically the difference of recognition character according to demo-statistical traits. As the result, the twenty-four measurable variables related to folk medicine are sorted to four factors, ie, health improvement factor, safety factor, psycholocial factor, and substitutional factor. And overall, the middle and senior ages, the forties to sixties, and higher-educated peoples have more experiences in folk medicine than the younger ages, below thirties and lower-educated peoples. The distiction of sex makes little differences.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the anti-allergy activities of persimmon leaf extract (PLE) on a phthalic anhydride (PA)-induced allergic mouse model. A human leukemic mast cell line (HMC-1) was used to examine the inhibitory activity of PLE on the histamine release by human leukemic mast cells. PLE inhibited histamine release from HMC-1 cells in response to cross-linkage of high-affinity IgE receptor-α (FceRIα). Additionally, a PA-induced allergic mouse model was used to investigate the effects of PLE in vivo. Mice were orally administrated with or without PLE of single dose (250 mg/kg/day) for 31 days. Oral intake of PLE significantly inhibited passive cutaneous reactions. Oral administration of PLE to PA-induced allergic mice also led to a striking suppression of the development of contact dermatitis, ear swelling and lymph node weight. In addition, PA-specific IL-4 production of draining lymph node cells was markedly diminished by PLE oral administration, but not IFN-γ. Furthermore, PLE treatment suppressed PA-induced thymus and activation-regulated chemokine (CCL17) and cutaneous T cell-attracting chemokine (CCL27) expressions in ear tissues. Based on these results, we suggest that PLE may have therapeutic potential as an effective material for management of irritant contact dermatitis or related inflammatory diseases.

Coronary artery CT angiography has short scanning length, the exposure dose is high. Therefore, it is required to study on the organ dose when using MDCT. We compared the differences between the absorbed dose and effective dose in the major organs assessing the absorbed dose in the major organs by 16-MDCT and 64-MDCT in the subjects with coronary artery CT angiography, the same protocol by 16-MDCT and 64-MDCT. As a result, the great orders of absorbed dose when conducting coronary artery CT angiography had been shown as heart, stomach, liver, pancreas, kidney, spleen, large intestine, lung, small intestine, thyroid gland, ovary, bladder, and orbit with the absorbed dose distribution of in 16-MDCT, and heart, stomach, pancreas, spleen, liver, kidney, small intestine, large intestine, lung, thyroid gland, ovary, bladder, and orbit with the absorbed dose distribution of in 64-MDCT, demonstrating some different distributions. The exposed doses to the patient per one time scanning with coronary artery CT angiography were in 16-MDCT as the absorbed dose based on the heart and in 64-MDCT. The effective doses were 7.41 mSv and 12.11 mSv in 16 and 64-MDCT, respectively. Taking into account the results of brain CT with 2.8 mSv that has comparatively large scanning length and size, facial CT 0.8 mSv, chest CT 5.7 mSv, pelvic CT 7.2 mSv, and abdominal and pelvic CT 14.4 mSv, it is very high considering the scanning length of 13 cm limited to the heart for the scanning range.

The use of cone-beam computed tomography(CBCT) has been proposed for guiding the delivery of radiation therapy. A kilovoltage imaging system capable of radiography, fluoroscopy, and cone-beam computed tomography(CT) has been integrated with a medical linear accelerator. A standard clinical linear accelerator, operating in arc therapy mode, and an amorphous-silicon (a-Si) with an on-board electronic portal imager can be used to treat palliative patient and verify the patient`s position prior to treatment. On-board CBCT images are used to generate patient geometric models to assist patient setup. The image data can also, potentially, be used for dose reconstruction in combination with the fluence maps from treatment plan. In this study, the accuracy of Hounsfield Units of CBCT images as well as the accuracy of dose calculations based on CBCT images of a phantom and compared the results with those of using CT simulator images. Phantom and patient studies were carried out to evaluate the achievable accuracy in using CBCT and CT stimulator for dose calculation. Relative electron density as a function of HU was obtained for both planning CT stimulator and CBCT using a Catphan-600 (The Phantom Laboratory, USA) calibration phantom. A clinical treatment planning system was employed for CT stimulator and CBCT based dose calculations and subsequent comparisons. The dosimetric consequence as the result of HU variation in CBCT was evaluated by comparing MU/cCy. The differences were about 2.7% (3-4MU/100cGy) in phantom and 2.5% (1-3MU/100cGy) in patients. The difference in HU values in Catphan was small. However, the magnitude of scatter and artifacts in CBCT images are affected by limitation of detector`s FOV and patient`s involuntary motions. CBCT images included scatters and artifacts due to In addition to guide the patient setup process, CBCT data acquired prior to the treatment be used to recalculate or verify the treatment plan based on the patient anatomy of the treatment area. And the CBCT has potential to become a very useful tool for on-line ART.)

This study suggested that the table of CT-simulator and the laser alignment system using diagnostic CT scanner have an efficient method for improvement in alignment between the planned target center of traverse image with CT scanner. It was conducted on the daily QA when presented in the AAPM TG66 with correcting the laser alignment system using geometric trigonometric functions and investigated the effectiveness of correction methods as compared with those before and after correction. Before correction error was 3.82mm between the planned target center of image, the table longitudinal axis was twisted with 0.436o. The laser alignment system using geometric trigonometric functions in after correction was satisfied with tolerance limits of when occurred about 0.7mm in errors between the planned target center. The table correction to satisfy the geometric accuracy is very inefficient over against the time and economic loss as well as technical limits in the case of application as only radiation therapy associated with CT-simulator with diagnostic CT scanner in use. But, the method which corrects the laser alignment system is economic and relatively simple with possibility of getting well geometric accuracy and we suppose that it is efficient method for applying in the clinic.

There is increasing demand for moving from batch immersion tools to single-wafer spin tools for silicon wafer cleaning, etching, and photoresist/residue removal in advanced semiconductor manufacturing. However, high-dose ion-implanted photoresist removal using a conventional single-wafer spin tool is very difficult. We have developed a novel single-wafer single-chamber dry and wet hybrid system in combination with dry ashing and moderate-temperature wet-cleaning treatments by implementing an atmospheric-pressure plasma unit into a conventional single-wafer spin cleaning tool. This compact single-wafer single-chamber system can completely remove the hardened photoresist due to high-dose ion-implantation by an atmospheric-pressure plasma ashing process followed by an in situ wet chemical process in the same single chamber within 2 min. This single-wafer single-chamber dry/wet hybrid system offers less than 1/3 smaller footprint, less than 1/4 shorter cycle time (for 50 wafer processing), and potentially better process control and less contamination risk, as well as lower equipment cost, compared to the conventional combination of two separate dry- and wet-processing systems.

The study is to measure a variation of exposed dose on genital glands (ovary, testis) which are exposed to radiation during the defecography to diagnosis domain according to use of filters and to look into its utility. whose results are as follows: The measured values of dose were the left ovary 23.4mGy, the right ovary 7.5mGy, the testis 10.3mGy in case of not using filter at all, the left ovary 22.4mGy the right ovary 7.0mGy, the testis 9.5mGy in case of using an additional filter only, the left ovary 26.7mGy, the right ovary 8.4mGy, the testis 11.5mGy in case of using a defeco filter only and the left ovary 20.5mGy, the right ovary 6.2mGy, the testis 7.5mGy in case of using both an additional filter and a defeco filter, respectively. When comparing with the value in case of not using filter at all, the dose to the left ovary decreased by 10%, the dose to right ovary by 5% and the testis by 8% respectively in case of using an additional filter only. While the dose to the left ovary increased by 33%, the dose to right ovary by 9% and the testis by 12% respectively gonad a defeco filter only. And in case of using both an additional filter and a defeco filter, the dose to the left ovary decreased by 29%, the dose to right ovary by 13% and the testis by 28% respectively. In other words, the dose increased in case of using a defeco filter only while the dose decreased markedly on the rest conditions such as using an additional filter only, using a defeco filter only and using both an additional filter and a defeco filter.

This research attempted to find risk factors of alcoholic liver diseases by ultrasonography at the K image medicine clinic center located in Kwangju city, Kyunggi-Do from March to May, 2007. Six risk factors were selected for this study, age, sex, frequency of alcohol drinking, body mass index(BMI), cholesterol and GPT. The data collected from 353 patients of aged between 20 and 69. This study found the relationships between liver diseases and alcohol drinking style by liver ultrasonography. The results of the analyses showed that the male were 2.12 times more likely to have liver diseases than the female. The persons drinking alcohol more than 3 times per week had 2.37 times higher likelihood of showing liver diseases than below 2 times per week or non drinking at all.. The persons with normal body mass index have 0.52 times lower probability of liver diseases than the persons with abnormal BMI. The persons with abnormal cholesterol level have 9.13 times higher probability of liver diseases. The persons with abnormal GPT have 4.66 times higher probability of liver diseases. The results of this study suggested applying ultrasonography in health promotion programs for diagnosis of liver diseases.

Ten plans for Ir 192 high-dose-rate ICR after 30–40 Gy external beam radiotherapy were investigated. The ICR prescription dose for an each insertion was 4 or 5 Gy to point A, twice weekly, and the total dose of ICR ranged from 24 to 30 Gy (median, 24). A fractional 100% dose was prescribed to point A. Two sets of CT images before and after packing were acquired at the first ICR session with artifact-free applicators in place. The International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements Report 38 (ICRU-38) rectal and bladder points, and the percentage of volumes receiving 50%, 80%, and 100% of the prescribed dose were also analyzed and compared. Conventional point A plans were performed. The mean values of the bladder and rectal ICRU-38 point doses before packing, 109.93 % and 117.80%, were decreased after packing to 98.85 % and 94.93 %, respectively, with the difference being marginally significant (p=0.013) (Ed-this p value is not significant at all). The maximum point doses of the bladder and rectum were decreased by 20.12% and 16.01%, respectively. The mean-volume fractions of the bladder receiving 50%, 80%, and 100% of the reference dose were decreased by 8.29 %, 4.48 % and 2.64 %, while the decrease of the mean-volume fractions for the rectum were relatively small at 4.44 %, 1.52 % and 1.20 %, respectively. However, this reduction was not significant based on a p value of about 0.15∼0.81. While the dose at the reference point was decreased significantly due to the packing effects, the presence or absence of packing had little effect on volumetric doses because the volumes enlarged by the packing effects were relatively small compared to the volume of the entire bladder and rectum itself. The packing is still needed as it could reduce the complications caused by the high point dose and decrease the maximum dose.

The interest in male osteoporosis is increasing as the incidence of osteoporotic fractures has increased not only in female but also in male due to the increase of old age population thanks to the development of medical science and science in general. Therefore, this study is to find factors related to bone mineral density of male older than 40 years old, to investigate the incidence of the male osteoporosis and to provide a basic result for prevention and medical treatment for the male osteoporosis. The incidence of the osteopenia and the osteoporosis at L-spine was 45% and 12.9% respectively and the incidence of them at femur was 51.9% and 7.63% respectively, among male older than 40 years old who took a medical examination. It was higher than the existing study results conducted to male older than 50 years old in USA and Europe. The incidence of them at both of L-spine and femur showed a significant difference depending the age groups. As the age increases, the average bone mineral density decreases at both of L-spine and femur. And as the weight increases and the body mass index is higher, the incidence of the osteoporosis decreases. There was no significant relation with the incidence of the osteoporosis depending on the exercise, the smoking and the drinking, but the number of exercise, smoking and drinking changes the quantity of bone and are factors influencing the bone mineral density of male person.

A glandular breast tissue is a radio-sensitive tissue. So during the evaluation of an X-ray mammography device, Average Glandular Dose (AGD) measurement is a very important part. In reality, it is difficult to measure AGD directly, Monte Carlo simulation was used to analyze the correlation between the AGD and breast thickness. As a result, AGDs calculated through the Monte Carlo simulation were 1.64, 1.41 and 0.88 mGy. The simulated AGDs mainly depend on the glandular ratio of the breast. With the increase of glandular breast tissue, absorption of low photon-energy increased so that the AGDs increased, too. In addition, the thicker the breast was, the more the AGD became. Consequently, this study will be used as basic data for establishing the diagnostic reference levels of mammography.

SUMMARYIn the authors' previous paper,10 an input shaping method was presented to reduce motion-induced vibrations effectively for various classes of flexible systems. In this paper, the effectiveness of the shaping method is experimentally demonstrated with a two-link flexible manipulator systemThe manipulator for experiments includes two revolute joints and two flexible links, and moves on a vertical plane under gravity. An analytic model is developed considering the flexibility of the system and its joint stiffness in order to derive an appropriate estimation of dynamic modal properties. The input shaping method used in this work utilizes time-varying modal properties obtained from the model instead of the conventional input shaping method which employs time-invariant modal properties. A point-to-point motion is tested in order to show the effectivess of the proposed shaping method in vibration reduction during and after a given motion. The given reference trajectories are shaped to suppress the motion induced vibration. The test results demonstrate that the link vibration can be greatly suppressed during and after a motion, and the residual vibration reduction was observed more than 90% by employing this time-varying impulse shaping technique.

SummaryAn input shaping technique using a time-varying impulse sequence is presented to reduce the motion-induced vibration of flexible systems in a feedforward way.The decoupled modal responses for a general linear time-varying system are firstly approximated. Upon this approximation, the time-varying impulse sequences to suppress the vibrational modes are found. The reference inputs to the systems are shaped by convolving with the time-varying impulse sequence to suppress the multimode vibrations. This technique can be also applied to suppress the vibration of nonlinear time-varying systems.The performance of this method is demonstrated with two practical examples: a moving overhead crane and a two-link robot manipulator. Consequently, this study provides an input shaping technique applicable to the vibration suppression of broader classes of flexible systems.

In a previous study, our group showed that the effective microorganism substance (EM-S) produced by fermentation of medicinal plants with effective microorganisms has an antiinflammatory effect on atopic dermatitis-like lesions in NC/Nga mice. However, the possible antiinflammatory effect and skin barrier function of EM-S for inflammatory cell infiltration, Interleukin-4 (IL-4) production, C-C chemokine receptor 10 (CCR10), and filaggrin (FLG) expression were not reported. Therefore, effects of EM-S on the development of atopic dermatitislike skin lesions in NC/Nga mice were evaluated. Efficacy of EM-S was judged by measurement of scratching behavior, T-cell subset infiltration, cytokine production, and FLG expression. Topical application of EM-S significantly reduced scratching behavior in NC/Nga mice caused by house dust mite antigen (Dermatophagoides farinse extract, DfE) sensitization. IL-4 production and CD4+ and CD45+ cell infiltrations were significantly reduced by EM-S. CCR10 expression was also significantly inhibited by EM-S. EM-S treatment also increased the level of FLG reduced by DfE sensitization. These results demonstrate EM-S, when applied topically, may be an effective substance for management of atopic dermatitis patients.

It is required to evaluate the effective dose rate that may influence the family and caregivers of patients in order to realize the radiation protection for people around thyroid cancer patients when treating them with the administration of I-131. To this end, this study measured the surrounding effective dose rate that is emitted in accordance with the rotation angle of patients. For accurate measurement, this study analyzed the height, rotation angle and elapsed time at the distance of 90 cm by manufacturing a wooden frame of geometric form. The surrounding effective dose rate distribution for vertical plane was the highest at the distance of 100 cm and height of 90 cm from the patients 24 hours after the oral administration of I-131 with the mean of 80.77±4.2 μSv/h. This study conducted the experiment based on the three groups, which were the control group of normal fluid intake (2 liter/day), the experimental group A (1 liter/day) with a small amount of fluid intake and the experimental group B (3 liter/day) with a larger amount of fluid intake than the normal fluid intake, in relation to the reduction degree of surrounding effective dose rate through fluid intake. AS for the dose distribution at the distance of 100 cm and the height of 90 cm 24 hours after the oral administration of I-131, the experimental group A had 101.2 μSv/h, whereas the experimental group B had 37.24 μSv/h and the control group had 72.58 μSv/h. As a result of comparing the control group with the experimental group A and B, this study confirmed the reduction effect of radiation exposure by approximately 51 percent depending on the extent of fluid intake when treating thyroid cancer patients with I-131.

Assuming that the posture of patients is fixed until the completion of treatment only with confirmation of treatment site before the treatment due to the network of radiation therapy system, there is a concern that radiation dose may be administered into a normal tissue rather than a lesion. To continue to observe the motion of patients that might occur during treatment, the system to detect the motion of patients was developed through leveraging the high-definition video camera, C++ programming language and open CV with 2-evolution technique and BLOB technique. The reproducibility of patient posture was very practical since it allowed us to evaluate the change in the posture of patients in real-time by acquiring video in real-time during the treatment. It is essential to develop a system to detect a motion that may take place voluntarily and control the treatment equipment by tracking the motion of patients in a stable and natural posture suitable for the location of treatment. The purpose of this study is to contribute to the implementation of precise radiation therapy by developing a system to consistently observe the motion of patients based on the aforementioned technology.

To perform an intracavitary radiotherapy (ICR) plan comparison between the conventional point A plan (conventional plan) and computed tomography (CT)-guided clinical target volume-based plan (CTV plan) by analysis of the quantitative dose-volume parameters and irradiated volumes of organs at risk in patients with cervical cancer.Thirty plans for 192Ir high-dose-rate ICR after 30-40-Gy external beam radiotherapy were investigated. CT images were acquired at the first ICR session with artifact-free applicators in place. The gross tumor volume, clinical target volume (CTV), point A, and International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements Report 38 rectal and bladder points were defined on reconstructed CT images. A fractional 100% dose was prescribed to point A in the conventional plan and to the outermost point to cover all CTVs in the CTV plan. The reference volume receiving 100% of the prescribed dose (V(ref)), and the dose-volume parameters of the coverage index, conformal index, and external volume index were calculated from the dose-volume histogram. The bladder, rectal point doses, and percentage of volumes receiving 50%, 80%, and 100% of the prescribed dose were also analyzed.Conventional plans were performed, and patients were categorized on the basis of whether the 100% isodose line of point A prescription dose fully encompassed the CTV (Group 1, n = 20) or not (Group 2, n = 10). The mean gross tumor volume (11.6 cm3) and CTV (24.9 cm3) of Group 1 were smaller than the corresponding values (23.7 and 44.7 cm3, respectively) for Group 2 (p = 0.003). The mean V(ref) for all patients was 129.6 cm(3) for the conventional plan and 97.0 cm3 for the CTV plan (p = 0.003). The mean V(ref) in Group 1 decreased markedly with the CTV plan (p0.001). For the conventional and CTV plans in all patients, the mean coverage index, conformal index, and external volume index were 0.98 and 1.0, 0.23 and 0.34, and 3.86 and 2.15, respectively. Statistical analysis showed that the conformal index and external volume index improved significantly with the CTV plan, and this improvement was more marked in Group 1. The mean values of the bladder and rectal point doses and volume fractions receiving 50%, 80%, and 100% of the reference dose did not differ between plans for all patients. The reduction in the mean rectal and bladder point doses and irradiated volumes for the CTV plan was statistically significant in Group 1.Computed tomography-guided CTV planning of ICR is superior to conventional point A planning in terms of conformity of target coverage and avoidance of overdosed normal tissue volume. To ascertain the potential benefit of treatment outcome, ICR with image-guided three-dimensional plans will be pursued and correlated with the dose-volume parameters.

Background We measured and assessed ways to reduce the secondary neutron dose from a system for proton eye treatment. Methods Proton beams of 60.30 MeV were delivered through an eye-treatment snout in passive scattering mode. Allyl diglycol carbonate (CR-39) etch detectors were used to measure the neutron dose in the external field at 0.00, 1.64, and 6.00 cm depths in a water phantom. Secondary neutron doses were measured and compared between those with and without a high-hydrogen–boron-containing block. In addition, the neutron energy and vertices distribution were obtained by using a Geant4 Monte Carlo simulation. Results The ratio of the maximum neutron dose equivalent to the proton absorbed dose (H(10)/D) at 2.00 cm from the beam field edge was 8.79 ± 1.28 mSv/Gy. The ratio of the neutron dose equivalent to the proton absorbed dose with and without a high hydrogen-boron containing block was 0.63 ± 0.06 to 1.15 ± 0.13 mSv/Gy at 2.00 cm from the edge of the field at depths of 0.00, 1.64, and 6.00 cm. Conclusions We found that the out-of-field secondary neutron dose in proton eye treatment with an eye snout is relatively small, and it can be further reduced by installing a borated neutron absorbing material.