Search

Safety Lifecycle is described in IEC61508 and IEC61511, but more detailed engineering procedure than IEC61508 and IEC61511 is required for real design and manufacture of safety system for offshore project. For the turret national research project, more detailed design procedure was applied for the design of turret. First of all, the nodes are defined based on EUC (Equipment Under Control) units and the hazards are analysed by 3 methodologies — Hazard Checklist, HAZOP and FMEA during hazard analysis phase. Then the risk are analysed quantitatively by LOPA methodology. To produce the safety requirement specification for function, the cause & effect, the logic diagram and IO list will be produced. The isolation countermeasures in case of explosion and fire and the SIFs (Safety Instrumented Function) in LOPA report and the process shutdown interlocks will be included in the cause & effect and the logic diagram will be developed based on this cause & effect. The safety requirement specification for safety will be developed by exSILentia from exida. Based on the safety requirement specification, the Functional Design Specification, the Safety Validation Plan including the test specification and test plan, the system configuration will be developed during the Basic Design phase and then IO list & terminal allocation, application software implementation, panel drawing will be developed during the detailed design.

Weinvestigatedeffectofoxidizersonchemicalmechanicalplanarization(CMP)ofruthenium(Ru).Severalcommonlyusedoxidizers withdifferentstandardreductionpotentialswereusedintheRuCMPtest,andtheircorrosionbehaviorsandstatesofsurfaceoxidation were analyzed. We found that Ru only had a high polishing rate with slurries containing sodium periodate and sodium hypochlorite. We also observed that Ru film underwent severe pitting corrosion with these slurries, and formed a porous RuO3/RuO2 oxide layer. Ru film was unable to achieve high corrosion current density as well as form a porous RuO3/RuO2 oxide layer except for these two oxidizers. Both the corrosion and oxidation (formation of RuO3/RuO2 layer) processes influenced the Ru polishing rate, but the oxidation process was assumed to play a more decisive role in the Ru CMP. The mechanism for the types of oxidizers in Ru corrosion and oxidation processes is discussed and explained through a diagram of the equilibrium electronic band of Ru metal electrodes and oxidizers in an aqueous solution.

During the formation of the top electrode (T.E.) in spin-transfer torque magnetic random access memory, a slurry with a high polishing rate of SiO 2 and a low polishing rate of metal (T.E. material) is required in the chemical mechanical planarization application area. We used a ceria-based slurry with a polymeric additive to maintain the high polishing rate of SiO 2 while it suppresses the polishing rate of the T.E. material, tantalum and ruthenium. We found ruthenium showed a significantly higher selectivity than tantalum in the ceria-based slurry. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy was used to investigate the adsorption characteristics of the polymeric additive on the T.E. material. Except for the adsorbed polymeric additive, we found that zeta potential of the T.E. material played a critical role in determining the polishing selectivity of SiO 2 -to-T.E. material.

This is a quantitative and objective study using spirometry to verify that the airway is maintained in the case of intranasal packing with a Doyle Combo Splint (Boston Medical Products, Westborough, MA, USA) [1]. The patient's discomfort during the nasal packing was scored on a survey using a visual analogue scale. Thus, the topic of this study is not a new one in which the airway was maintained after the nasal packing with the Doyle Combo Splint, and patient's discomfort was reduced because nasal respiration was possible. The researchers evaluated the patients using plain X-ray images postoperatively and immediately after removing the nasal packing. They reported that there was no difference in the degree of support for the reduced bone in the control group and experimental group using a Doyle Combo Splint with. Considering the purpose of the nasal packing, this result is the main point of this study. However, the research method is insufficient for producing objective scientific results. Plain X-ray images can be changed depending on the angle because they are two-dimensional images. Some simple fractures can be displayed well on dedicated X-ray projections. On the other hand, complex fractures can only be partially evaluated because of the overlap of the various structures in the craniofacial skeleton, the complexity of which demands considerable expertise in evaluation [2]. Using computed tomography (CT) is limited due to the cost and radiation exposure; however, studies with CT are necessary for objective evaluation. Another limitation of this study is that the short-time progress was only observed for the evaluation of the patient's discomfort during the nasal packing. A significant conclusion could be drawn if patient satisfaction, nasal deformities, and possible complications after removal of the nasal packing had been compared in the control and the experimental groups over an extended period of observation [3,4].

Purpose: This paper describes a new gamma-ray imaging method, “gamma electron vertex imaging (GEVI),” which can be used for precise beam range verification in proton therapy. Methods: In GEVI imaging, the high-energy gammas from a source or nuclear interactions are first converted, by Compton scattering, to electrons, which subsequently are traced by hodoscopes to determine the location of the gamma source or the vertices of the nuclear interactions. The performance of GEVI imaging for use in-beam range verification was evaluated by Monte Carlo simulations employinggeant4 equipped with the QGSP_BIC_HP physics package. Results: Our simulation results show that GEVI imaging can determine the proton beam range very accurately, within 2–3 mm of error, even without any sophisticated analysis. The results were obtained under simplified conditions of monoenergetic pencil beams stopped in a homogeneous phantom and on the basis of the obtained results it is expected to achieve submillimeter accuracy in proton beam range measurement. Conclusions: If future experimental work confirms the simulated results presented in this paper, the use of GEVI imaging is expected to have a great potential in increasing the accuracy of proton beam range verification in a patient, resulting in significant improvement of treatment effectiveness by enabling tight conformation of radiationdose to the tumor volume and patient safety.

Free tissue transfer is a useful method to cover soft tissue defects following trauma or tumor excision. At the time of transfer of the pedicle, its status is not investigated. Therefore, kinking of the pedicle can occur, and pedicle injuries can result from surgical instruments. The authors would like to introduce a simple, safe, and effective method to overcome these problems using a Penrose drain. The present method can help reconstructive microsurgeons with the transfer of pedicle vessels through a tunnel without torsion or injury.

Purpose A radiologic examination is required in the treatment of nasal bone fracture to determine the fracture condition. Thus, there is an increasing need for radiologic classification of nasal bone fractures that can be applied to clinical practice. Materials and Methods Computed tomography was performed in 125 patients with nasal bone fractures to determine which axial view best showed the entire nasal view. The obtained axial view was then used as a reference for classification. The length from the top to the base of the nasal bone was divided into upper, middle, and lower levels, after which the fracture location was determined. If the fracture spanned the boundaries of these levels, it was classified as the total level. Subsequently, the fracture was subclassified based on the fracture direction and pattern and the concurrent fracture. Results Radiologic examination of patients with nasal bone fracture showed that nasal bone fracture was frequently found at the total, middle, upper, and lower levels, in that order. Nasal bone fractures at the upper level showed lower frequencies of complication and reoperation than the fractures at the other levels, whereas nasal bone fractures at the total level showed the highest frequencies of complication and reoperation. Conclusion Radiologic classification can be useful for preoperative and postoperative evaluations of nasal bone fractures and can be helpful in understanding such fractures because it can efficiently predict the prognosis of a fracture.

Closed reduction is commonly conducted for the treatment of a nasal bone fracture unless a concurrent fracture or a severe nasal septum fracture is observed. As the reduction, however, is not conducted through the direct gross observation of the fracture site, it is difficult to obtain a good result from it. Accordingly, a supplementary process is required. Closed reduction with a C-arm was conducted within the period from March 2009 to January 2010 on 50 patients with nasal bone fractures, to treat these fractures or to evaluate the postoperative conditions of such. The usefulness of the C-arm was evaluated by comparing the aforementioned closed reduction with a C-arm with the closed reduction without a C-arm that was conducted on 64 patients with nasal bone fractures within the period from January 2008 to February 2009. The complication morbidity and re-operation rate were significantly lower in the patient group with closed reduction with a C-arm, and the radiologic examination also showed a significant difference. If closed reduction is conducted on patients with nasal bone fractures using a C-arm, an accurate result can be obtained by observing the fractured bone indirectly with continuous imaging during the operation, and the operation result can be immediately assessed in the operating room, thereby reducing the frequencies of complications and re-operation.

We investigated the chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) mechanism of nitrogen-doped polycrystalline Ge2Sb2Te5 (pc-GST) using nitric acid slurry without or with 1.0 wt % hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Without H2O2, the pc-GST film surface undergoes selective corrosion of Ge and Sb, resulting in pitting corrosion. Otherwise, with H2O2, the pc-GST film surface produces a Ge, Sb, Te oxide layer, thereby introducing a cyclic polishing process such as chemical oxidation, chemical and mechanical polishing, and sequential chemical oxidation. As a result, the polishing rate increased up to ∼1000 Å/min and the surface roughness decreased to 0.858 nm.

The risk of secondary cancers after radiation therapy has become an important issue, mainly because advanced treatment techniques such as 3-D conformal radiation therapy (CRT) and intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) tend to increase the radiation dose to out-of-field organs. Moreover, cancer patients’ average survival period, following those advances in treatment techniques, also has increased, effectively raising the risks for the same levels of radiation exposure. In the present study, the secondary cancer risks to out-of-field organs were determined for some representative cases of 3-D CRT by measuring organ doses with LiF thermoluminescence (TL) dosimeters and an ATOM TM male phantom. Our results show that the secondary cancer risks are similar (difference: < 20%) for 6 and 10 MV X-ray beams for the same prostate treatment case. The total secondary cancer risks of the out-of-field organs were on the order of 2-4% for the treatment cases considered in the present study.

Nuclear parameters such as lifetimes and masses of the waiting point nuclei of r-process nucleosynthesis are significant to investigate its astrophysical environment. However, the difficulty in the production of extremely neutron-rich nuclei at the 126 neutron closed shell makes their experimentalstudies unfeasible. Therefore, the theoretical nuclear models play crucial roles in the simulation of the r-process nucleosynthesis. The systematic nuclear spectroscopy of the neutron-rich nuclei around the 126 neutron closed shell provides significant inputs to those theoretical models to improve their predictability for the waiting point nuclei. We are developing KEK Isotope Separation System (KISS) to perform the systematic nuclear spectroscopy of those neutron-rich nuclei. The nuclei of interest are produced by multi-nucleon transfer reactions between 136Xe and 198Pt. The experimental study demonstrated its promising potential to produce them. We have successfully performed the β­γ spectroscopy and the laser ionization spectroscopy at KISS using the nuclear production by the multi-nucleon transfer reactions.

Purpose We report a Korean case of concomitant keratoconus and granular corneal dystrophy type II. Methods Case report. Results A 29-year-old man visited our clinic for a routine ocular check-up. Slit-lamp examination revealed a few well-circumscribed, greyish-white, discrete granular opacities in the central corneal stromae of both eyes. Direct sequencing of exon 4 of the BIGH3 gene revealed a heterozygous transversion from G to A in the second-nucleotide position of codon 124. In addition, a Fleischer ring and Vogt's striae were evident in the cornea. The corneal topography was suggestive of keratoconus. Conclusion Granular corneal dystrophy type II can co-exist with keratoconus and should be included in the differential diagnosis.

We previously reported that quercetin and rutin have potent, anti-asthmatic activity, but the structure-activity relationships of flavonoids and anti-asthmatic agents are still poorly understood. In the current study, the effects of kaempferol, fisetin, and morin on the immediate-phase response (IAR) and late-phase response (LAR) caused by exposure to aerosolized-ovalbumin (OA) in OA-sensitized guinea pigs were evaluated by determining the specific airway resistance (sRaw), recruitment of leukocytes and chemical mediators in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), histopathological surveys, and determination of neutrophil chemotaxis. Fisetin and kaempherol (30 mg/kg, p.o.) significantly (P0.01) inhibited sRaw by 47.93% and 30.05% in IAR, and 54.45% and 40.50% in LAR, when compared to vehicle control, respectively. Furthermore, all three studied flavonols (30 mg/kg, p.o.) significantly (P0.05) inhibited the recruitment of total, as well as subtypes of, leukocytes into the lung BALF. This recruitment inhibition corresponded to the inhibition of leukocyte infiltration, particularly of eosinophils and neutrophils, into the lung in pathological surveys and formly-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (FMLP)-induced neutrophil chemotaxis studies. Kaempferol inhibited FMLP-induced neutrophil chemotaxis in a concentration-dependent manner in a tested range of 1-100 μM. Fisetin inhibited histamine content and peroxidase (EPO) activity in BALF in a dose-dependent manner. All three tested flavonols significantly (P0.01) inhibited histamine content at 10 mg/kg, and phospholipase A(2) (PLA(2)) and EPO activities at 30 mg/kg (p.o.) in BALF. Kaempherol had a greater anti-asthmatic effect than other flavonols. Fisetin demonstrated the greatest inhibition of sRaw, whereas morin had lesser effects. These results indicate that the lower the molecular weight, the greater the anti-asthmatic activities of these compounds.

Background: Maintenance of brain cell viability is the most important goal of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in cardiac arrest. We have developed an non-invasive and single-channel EEG-based B...

The SiO2-film chemical-mechanical-polishing (CMP) is essential process for Shallow Trench Isolation (STI) and Inter Layer Dielectric (ILD) CMP. The key performance parameters are high polishing rate and scratch-less in SiO2-film CMP. In SiO2-film CMP, wet-ceria was widely used for scratch-less SiO2-film CMP. However, the wet-Ceria abrasive has crystalline sharp , , and facet, which resulted in generating scratches on SiO2-film by stick and slip mechanism after SiO2 CMP, as shown in Fig.1. Thus the scratches induced by wet-ceria abrasives can be a major cause of poor device operation and yield drop in the memory device manufacturing. In our study, therefore, we designed a novel SiO2-film CMP slurry using the PS/ceria core/shell as an abrasive to enhance SiO2-film polishing rate and scratch-less after SiO2-film CMP. PS/ceria core/shell particles were synthesized, which are relatively soft and round by using polystyrene and ceria particles. Figure 2(a) shows the synthesis mechanism of PS/ceria core/shell, illustrating that Ce4+ ion was added in the PS of negative charge to form Ce4+ seed on the surface and grow it during 7 h with 70 ℃. The TEM image of the synthesized PS/ceria core/shell was shown in Fig. 2(b). First, we investigated the polishing rate of SiO2-film using PS/ceria core/shell abrasives. The polishing rate of SiO2-film was 564 Å/min when using PS/ceria core/shell and 350 Å/min when using wet-ceria as abrasives, as shown in Fig.3. This result means that the real contact area of PS/ceria core/shell is larger than that of 70 nm size wet-ceria. Second, we measured the surface roughness [root-mean-square (RMS) at 10 x 10-um scanning area] of SiO2-film and the surface defect such as scratch after CMP. The surface roughness of SiO2-film was 0.327 nm using wet-ceria and 0.202 nm using PS/ceria core/shell, respectively, as shown in Fig. 4(a). The number of scratch was 51-ea in 10-mm2 area and the deepest depth of scratch was 18 nm using 70 nm size wet ceria. However, the number of scratch was 10-ea in 10-mm2 area and the deepest depth of scratch was 2.3 nm using PS/ceria core/shell, as shown in Fig. 4(b). These results indicate that the hardness of PS/ceria core/shell is smaller than that of 70 nm size wet-ceria. In our presentation, we will review the mechanism for improving CMP performance such as high polishing rate, low surface roughness and scratch-less after CMP when using the PS/ceria core/shell abrasive based slurry. * This research was supported by the MOTIE(Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy (10085643) and KSRC(Korea Semiconductor Research Consortium) support program for the development of the future semiconductor device. This work was financially supported by the Brain Korea 21 Plus Program in 2018 and Research & Business Development Program Announcement funded by the MOTIE (N0002026). Figure 1

The Compton camera can provide 3-D images of radioactive material distribution based on a single measurement at a fixed position. The Compton camera also can image several different kinds of radioactive materials simultaneously, by means of the “multitracing” capability. In the present study, this multitracing capability was tested for a double-scattering-type Compton camera, or Double-Scattering Compton Imager (DOCI), which utilizes two double-sided silicon strip detectors (DSSDs) and one NaI(Tl) scintillation detector. Our experimental result shows that the 137Cs and 60Co gamma sources can be clearly distinguished in 2-D and 3-D Compton images, and that there is no significant interference between the two gamma sources. The imaging resolutions were determined to be 6.2 and 4.7 mm FWHM for the 137Cs (662 keV) and 60Co (1332 keV) point sources at 4 cm, respectively. The angular resolutions, determined from the angular resolution measure (ARM) distributions, were 7.3° and 6.5° for the source energies of 662 and 1332 keV, respectively. The DOCI remains under development; its imaging resolution will be further improved with the incorporation of more sophisticated detectors and the related electronics, including a faster scintillation detector (LYSO) and higher-spatial-resolution position-sensitive detectors.

In the present study, a double-scattering-type Compton camera, which incorporates two double-sided silicon strip detectors (DSSDs) as the scatterer detectors and an NaI(Tl) detector as the absorber detector, was constructed as a proof-of-principle system for a compact high-imaging-resolution Compton camera. The energy and timing resolutions of the component detectors were determined accurately for effective Compton imaging. Then, the Compton camera was used to image an 22 Na point source at 3.7 cm. The imaging resolutions of the current system were 9.0 and 4.8 mm FWHM for 511 and 1275 keV, respectively, which are fairly good considering the limitations of the detectors and data acquisition (DAQ) electronics employed. Given the characteristics of the component detectors, it is believed that the double-scattering Compton camera can be developed as a very compact system (similar in size to a hand-held radiation survey meter) providing very high imaging resolution.

We have investigated the polishing rates and selectivity between Cu and TaN films with H2O2 and complexing agents, organic amine such as Alanine and polyacrylamide (PAM) are given as an alkaline pH, and the role of amine functional groups on the possible mechanism is discussed.

We have studied the effects of varying the size and the concentration of the abrasive in colloidal silica slurry and the concentration of different alkaline agent with organic polymer were investigated. We found that the surface roughness of the polysilicon film with TMAH was better than other alkaline agent. In addition, with increasing TMAH concentration, the polishing rate of polysilicon and the polysilicon-to-oxide polishing rate selectivity were reduced after an initial increase. And the organic polymer suppresses the polishing rate of the oxide film. We explained the reason by difference of hydrophobicity between polysilicon and oxide film with addition of alkaline agent and PAM in order to elucidate the mechanism of increase in polysilicon-to-oxide polishing rate selectivity.

It has been reported that wafer nanotopography has a substantial impact on oxide film thickness variation after chemical mechanical polishing (CMP). Currently, shallow trench isolation (STI) is the preferred isolation scheme for device manufacturing, where STI CMP has become an essential process. Studies on nanotopography effects when using fumed silica slurries have been reported. This research examines the impact of nanotopography on the remaining oxide film thickness variation with varying surfactant concentrations in and molecular weights of the nano-ceria slurries used in STI CMP. Higher surfactant concentration and molecular weight lead to higher remaining oxide film thickness variation induced by wafer nanotopography.

The purpose of this study is to reveal the mechanism of wafer touch polishing by high purity colloidal silica slurry containing organic surfactants such as HEC (hydroxyl-ethyl cellulose). The effect of surfactant concentration on wafer touch polishing was studied with the aim of improving roughness on wafer surface after polishing. As a result, the level of haze and micro-roughness are decreased with the decrease of surfactant concentration.

Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors have been reported to inhibit fibrogenesis, and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitors, to reduce scarring by reducing the initial inflammation. The authors reasoned that the topical application of these 2 agents may have a complementary effect on scar reduction.Captopril (ACE inhibitor), celecoxib (COX-2 inhibitor), or a combination of captopril and celecoxib were topically applied to a skin wound in a rabbit ear, and investigated for the effects on scar formation.The level of scar elevation decreased in the captopril group and the level of infiltration of inflammatory cells decreased in the celecoxib group. In the group where a combination of the 2 drugs was used, the level of scar elevation decreased the most, and collagen deposition and organization returned to normal most rapidly. Celecoxib was found to inhibit the initial inflammation in the ear wound of the rabbit, and captopril inhibited scar elevation.Clinical application of these drugs will require further studies with regard to adverse events and their absorptivity as topical agents. However, these findings suggest that the combined topical administration of an ACE inhibitor and COX-2 inhibitor to a skin wound could be an effective treatment for the prevention of hypertrophic scarring. .

A study on the species composition and seasonal variations of fishery creatures caught by a funnel net was carried out in the coastal water off Dolsan Island, Yeosu from 2002 to 2003. During the study period, a total of 23 fishery creatures species were caught. Seabream(Acanthopagrus schlegeli), sea bass(Lateolabrax japonicus), mullet(Mugil cephalus), puffer(Takifugu niphobles) and rockfish(Sebastes inermis) predominated. These five species accounted for 85.1% of the total number of fishery creatures caught. Seasonal peaks of number of species occurred in summer, while those of number of individuals occurred in autumn. The lowest number of species and individuals were observed in winter. The large annual variation of diversity indices were observed from May to August. These large annual variation of diversity indices were mainly due to predominance of seabream, sea bass and mullet which accounted for most of all fishery creatures caught. The seasonal variations of fishery creatures showed that sea bass and mullet were caught mainly from spring to summer, seabream and puffer were caught mainly in autumn, and rockfish and brotula(Hoplobrotula armata) were caught mainly in winter.

The maritime casualties lead to loss of life, property and environmental pollution. The possibility of large amount of loss of life will be increased in case of passenger ship casualty especially. To reduce loss of life, therefore, evacuation analysis is very import in ship design stage. This paper presents development of intelligent ship evacuation model, which can solve problems caused by complex configuration and motion of ship. It consists of general features of evacuation models, dynamics model, and intelligent human behaviour model. All these features of the evacuation model can be summarized as “the integration of intelligent human behaviour model and dynamics model”.

Walking speed is a very important factor in evacuation analysis for human safety. To provide against emergencies such as abandonment of ship due to accident, the authority body required evacuation analysis for passenger ships. To develop a simulation tool for the evacuation analysis, human behavior data for evacuation situations are fundamentally necessary. In this paper, onboard experiments were carried out twice, once with ship motion and another without ship motion. They were performed assuming the situation where subjects are evacuating under instructions from the crew without panic. Not only individual movement but also group movement with and without motion based on inclination was covered.

This study was performed to obtain basic information on the ecology of Zostcra marina and to promote efficient conservation of this species which has been decline in Gamak Bay, Yeosu, Korea. Whater column characteristics and eelgrass morphology at Anpori, Jangsuri and Wonpori were investigated every month from December 1999 to November 2000. The water temperature, salinity and pH at the three sites were 10.0-27.0,29.4-34.7% and 8.1-8.5, respectively. The water temperature at Anpori tended to be slightly lower than that at the other locations; the salinity at Wonpori from July to November was a little lower than that of the other locations. The concentrations of -N, _N, -N, -P and -Si at the three sites were 0.9-1.3, 2.0-6.2, 7.8-9.0, 3.0-3.6 and 22.2-30.2 uM, respectively. The concentration of -N at Wonpori from June to November was somewhat lower than that at the other locations; that of NH4-N at Jansuri was somewhat lower than the others. The mean shoot height and leaf width of the Anpori, Jangsuri and Wonpori populations were 80.6 cm and 0.9 mm, 90.0 cm and 1.0 mm, and 95.3 cm and 1.0 mm, respectively. The mean total shoot weight of the Anpori, Jangsuri and Wonpori ones was 24.5,31.0 and 29.7 & respectively. The mean leaf and branch numbers of the Anpori, Jangsuri and Wonpori populations were 16.5 and 2.6, 16.1 and 2.4 and 15.4 and 2.6 individuals, respectively. The correlation coefficients between shoot height and water temperature, leaf width and total shoot weight, leaf number and branch number, and -Si and -N were 0.726, 0.692, 0.862, and 0.693, respectively. The coefficients between shoot height and -N, total shoot weight and NO_3$-N, water temperature and -Si, water temperature and salinity, and water temperature and -N were -0.716, -0.536, -0.775, -0.685 and -0.685, respectively. The first four principal components explain 71.1% of the total sample variance. For axis 1, shoot height and water temperature tended to correlate with the population of Jansuri, followed by the Wonpori population, and -Si and -N tended to correlated strongly with the Anpori population. For axis 2, total weight, leaf width, leaf number and branch number showed a tendency to correlate with the Anpori and Jangsuri populations. For axis 3, the Anpori population tended to be influenced by -N and -P. For axis 4, the Wonpori and Jangsuri populations tended to be affected by salinity. The tendency, however, differed according to season.

A lateral thoracic artery perforator propeller flap is advantageous because it does not require microvascular anastomosis, only rarely involves donor-site morbidity and provides sufficient blood flow. Moreover, by rotating the flap, remote tissues with less radiation-induced damage can be used at the site of the defect. In this article, we report the use of a lateral thoracic artery perforator propeller flap to treat a radiation ulcer.

Accurate energy calibration of double-sided silicon strip detectors (DSSDs) is very important, but challenging for high-energy photons. In the present study, the calibration was improved by considering the Compton edge additionally to the existing low-energy calibration points. The result, indeed, was very encouraging. The energy-calibration errors were dramatically reduced, from, on average, 15.5% and 16.9% to 0.47% and 0.31% for the 356 ( 133 Ba) and 662 keV ( 137 Cs) peaks, respectively. The imaging resolution of a double-scattering-type Compton camera using DSSDs as the scatterer detectors, for a 22 Na point-like source, also was improved, by ∼9%.

In order to investigate the metal–insulator transition characteristics of VO2 devices annealed in reducing atmosphere after device fabrication at various temperature, electrical, chemical, and thermal characteristics are measured and analyzed. It is found that the sheet resistance and the insulator–metal transition point, induced by both voltage and thermal, decrease when the devices are annealed from 200 to 500 °C. The V 2p3/2 peak variation in X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) characterization verifies the reduction of thin-films. A decrease of the transition temperature from voltage hysteresis measurements further endorse the reducing effects of the annealing on VO2 thin-film.

Background Fat is widely used in soft tissue augmentation. Nevertheless, it has an unpredictably high resorption rate. Clinically, external expansion with negative pressure is used to increase fat graft survival. In this study, fat graft recipient sites were preconditioned by external application of negative pressure in order to test for improvements in vascularity and fat graft survival. Methods Negative pressure was applied randomly to either the left or right dorsal ear of 20 New Zealand male white rabbits at a pressure of -125 mm Hg. The negative pressure was removed one week after the skin perfusion was measured. The skin flap at each ear was elevated, and 1 g of fat was grafted above the dorsal perichondrium. After one week, the fat weight, microvessel density, mature vessel density of the skin and fat, and amount of glycerol released were measured. Three months after the grafting, the same measurements were performed, with the exception of glycerol release. Results The fat survival rate of the experimental group (75.4%±3.9%) was higher than that of the control group (53.1%±4.3%) (P Conclusions Negative pressure prior to fat grafting increased the vascularity of the recipient site, and, accordingly, enhanced fat graft survival.

Background Administration of growth factors has been associated with increased viability of composite grafts greater than 1-cm in diameter. Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) contains many of the growth factors studied. In this study, we evaluate the effect of PRP injection on composite graft viability and the proper time for injection. Methods A total of 24 New Zealand White rabbits were divided into four groups. Autologous PRP was injected into the recipient sites three days before grafting in group 1, on the day of grafting in group 2, and three days after grafting in group 3. Group 4 served as control without PRP administration. Auricular composite grafts of 3-cm diameter were harvested and grafted back into place after being rotated 180 degrees. Median graft viability and microvessel density were evaluated at day 21 of graft via macroscopic photographs and immunofluorescent staining, respectively. Results The median graft survival rate was 97.8% in group 1, 69.2% in group 2, 55.7% in group 3, and 40.8% in the control group. The median vessel counts were 34 (per ×200 HPF) in group 1, 24.5 in group 2, 19.5 in group 3, and 10.5 in the control group. Conclusions This study demonstrates that PRP administration is associated with increased composite graft viability. All experimental groups showed a significantly higher survival rate and microvessel density, compared with the control group. Pre-administration of PRP was followed by the highest graft survival rate and revascularization. PRP treatments are minimally invasive, fast, easily applicable, and inexpensive, and offer a potential clinical pathway to larger composite grafts.

According to analysis on recent changes in network users’ values and their usage patterns, simple web information and one-way data transfer have declined. Instead, there have been rise in the use of multimedia, rising demand for security and personalization and increase in needs for liberal mobility. It is forecasted that thanks to these changes, current individual services would be gradually integrated in a converged form, and individual networks would evolve into an integrated intelligent network which meets users’ diverse needs. As the Optical Transport Networks become more important, and network traffic is concentrated in the communication network components, it’s been urgent to secure the survivability of the OTN. Therefore, it is critical to provide connectivity that end users want to the network service provider through optimal path allocation between the networks. As federation among international research networks becomes important, and there have been attempts to share a great volume of network resources in optimum conditions these days, it’s been essential to select optimal path and share resources through information sharing among multi-domains. Considering these diversities, therefore, this study has tried to examine architecture and protocol to select optimal path among multi-domains.

The spatial resolution from Compton cameras suffers from measurement uncertainties in interaction positions and energies. The degree of degradation in spatial resolution is shift-variant (SV) over the field-of-view (FOV) because the imaging principle is based on the conical surface integration. In our study, the shift-variant point spread function (SV-PSF) is derived from point source measurements at various positions in the FOV and is incorporated into the system matrix of a fully three-dimensional, accelerated reconstruction, i.e. the listmode ordered subset expectation maximization (LMOSEM) algorithm, for resolution recovery. Simulation data from point sources were used to estimate SV and asymmetric parameters for Gaussian, Cauchy, and general parametric PSFs. Although little difference in the fitness accuracy between Gaussian and general parametric PSFs was observed, the general parametric model showed greater flexibility over the FOV in shaping the curve between that for Gaussian and Cauchy functions. The estimated asymmetric SV-PSFs were incorporated into the LMOSEM for resolution recovery. For simulation data from a single point source at the origin, all LMOSEM-SV-PSFs improved the spatial resolution by 2.6 times over the standard LMOSEM. For two point-source simulations, reconstructions also gave a two-fold improvement in spatial resolution and resulted in a greater recovered activity ratio at different positions in the FOV.

This paper describes a new gamma-ray imaging method, "gamma electron vertex imaging (GEVI)," which can be used for precise beam range verification in proton therapy.In GEVI imaging, the high-energy gammas from a source or nuclear interactions are first converted, by Compton scattering, to electrons, which subsequently are traced by hodoscopes to determine the location of the gamma source or the vertices of the nuclear interactions. The performance of GEVI imaging for use in-beam range verification was evaluated by Monte Carlo simulations employing geant4 equipped with the QGSP_BIC_HP physics package.Our simulation results show that GEVI imaging can determine the proton beam range very accurately, within 2-3 mm of error, even without any sophisticated analysis. The results were obtained under simplified conditions of monoenergetic pencil beams stopped in a homogeneous phantom and on the basis of the obtained results it is expected to achieve submillimeter accuracy in proton beam range measurement.If future experimental work confirms the simulated results presented in this paper, the use of GEVI imaging is expected to have a great potential in increasing the accuracy of proton beam range verification in a patient, resulting in significant improvement of treatment effectiveness by enabling tight conformation of radiation dose to the tumor volume and patient safety.

The novel cancer/testis antigen gene, NY-SAR-35, is expressed exclusively in normal testis and in various histological types of tumor. However, the NY-SAR-35 gene expression is observed to be aberrant in several cancer cell lines and tissues. The analysis of methylation status of the NY-SAR-35 gene promoter in various cancer cell lines showed that its expression was related to methylation of the promoter region. Treatment of human cancer cell lines with the demethylating agent 5-aza-2′-deoxycytidine activated the expression of the NY-SAR-35 gene. In addition, transfection experiments on various fragments of the CpG-rich gene promoter indicate that in vitro methylation of the NY-SAR-35 gene promoter results in the loss of promoter activity. The expression of NY-SAR-35 is therefore activated by hypomethylation of the CpG island in the gene promoter.

A Compton camera is an imaging system for three-dimensional (3D) distribution of gamma emitting sources based on Compton scattering interaction. The measurement error on energies and positions directly leads to uncertainties on the formation of cones and degrades the spatial resolution of the reconstructed images. Mostly the limited energy resolution, Doppler broadening and position segmentation of detectors cause angular and positional uncertainties on measurements. Since the conical surfaces are delocalized by angular and positional uncertainties into image space, degradation of spatial resolution may be severe depending on the distance (or depth) from the Compton camera. In order to enhance the deteriorated spatial resolution due to angular and positional uncertainties, this study investigates 3D Gaussian point spread function (PSF) incorporable into listmode ordered subset expectation maximization (LMOSEM) as a part of system matrix. Especially the depth-dependent PSF is applied as resolution recovery (RR) technique by image-space convolution operation. We investigated two different RR approaches: one (denoted by LMOSEM-RR-F) is when the convolution is performed in forward projection step only, and the other (denoted by LMOSEM-RR-FB) is when it is performed in both forward and backward projection steps. Using Monte Carlo data for 7 point sources at different depth from the Compton camera, the fitted axial and radial FWHM functions were obtained as FWHM axial (i)=0.2442i+1.054 and FWHM radial (i)=0.2369i–1.005, respectively. The simulation results showed that both RR approaches with depth dependent PSF gave an improvement on spatial resolution comparing to LMOSEM without RR techniques. Although LMOSEM-RR-F provided better resolution than LMOSEM-RR-FB, LMOSEM-RR-FB could still be useful for low counting statistics in measurement.

A new methodology - Aerial Plane Inspection (API) - has been developed to inspect advanced photomasks used for the 45 nm node and beyond. Utilizing images from a high resolution mask inspection system, a mask image is recovered by combining the transmitted and reflected images. A software transformation is then performed to replicate the aerial image planes produced in a photolithography exposure system. These aerial images are used to compare adjacent die in a Die-Die inspection mode in order to find critical defects on the photomask. The mask recovery process and modeling of the aerial plane image allows flexibility to simulate a wide range of lithographic exposure systems, including immersion lithography. Any source shape, Sigma, and numerical aperture (NA) can be used at all common lithographic wavelengths. Sensitivity of the inspection can be fully adjusted to match photomask specifications for CD control, lineend shortening, OPC features, and for small and large defective areas. An additional adaptive sensitivity option can be utilized to automatically adjust sensitivity as a function of MEEF. Using the Aerial Plane Inspection to compare pattern images has the benefit of filtering out non-printing defects, while detecting very small printing defects. In addition, defects that are not printing at ideal exposure condition, but may be reducing the lithographic process window, can also be detected. Performing defect detection at the aerial image plane is more tolerant to small Optical Proximity Correction (OPC) sub-resolution assist features (SRAFs) that are difficult to inspect at the reticle image plane.

Ubiquitous sensor networks have become one of the most popular areas for indoor location systems. This paper addresses the problem of tracking a moving object on-line, where location sensors provide position information about a moving object. All of these applications require the position of a device moving at human speeds to be tracked. This scheme presents a cheap and enhanced ranging technique using RSSI, which is achieved by considering the speed variance of the moving object. This proposed scheme applied the method of a sliding window which was used to track a mobile object on-line. The aim of the proposed system is to provide a low cost, simple technique based on RSSIs, provided by ZigBee modules. This paper considers the issues of user privacy, security, and accurate and robust indoor RF location. The analytical results of experimental data demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed RF-based indoor positioning.