본 연구는 코마개의 사용 여부에 따라 MRI 영상을 분석함으로써 숨 참기의 정확도를 향상할 도구로써 코마개가 실 효성이 있는지 검증하고자 하였다. 이를 위해 수검자에게 코마개가 없는 자연 호흡과 코마개를 사용한 구강 호흡 상태에서 호기 후 숨 참기를 지시하고 MRI 영상을 획득하였다. 영상은 2D 경사 자기장 에코 시퀀스로 획득하였고 초당 1장씩, 총 15장을 얻어 숨 참기 상태를 분석하였다. 숨 참기의 상태를 정량적으로 평가하기 위해 우측 폐 면적 을 측정하였다. 그리고 첫 번째 영상의 폐 면적을 기준으로 나머지 영상들에서 폐 면적의 절대 오차값을 구해 비교하 였다. 더불어 첫 번째 영상을 기준으로 나머지 영상들의 기하학적 유사도를 평가하기 위해 SSIM 값을 계산하였다. 실험 결과, 자연 호흡 상태에서 절대 오차는 평균 216.79 ㎟로 나타났다. 반면, 코마개를 사용한 구강 호흡의 경우 평균 55.94 ㎟로 나타나 자연 호흡과 비교하여 약 74.19% 감소하였다. SSIM 값은 자연 호흡 시 평균 0.7, 구강 호흡 시 0.76으로 나타나 기하학적 유사도가 약 6% 향상되었다. 이는 코마개 사용 시 호흡의 초기 상태를 잘 유지함 으로써 숨 참기의 정확도가 향상되어 능동적으로 호흡 상태를 조절할 수 있는 도구로써 충분한 가치가 있음을 증명한 다. 따라서 복부 MRI 검사에서 호흡에 따른 인공물을 개선하는 데 코마개가 도움을 줄 수 있으며 영상 개선 및 업무 효율을 높이는 도구로써 충분히 활용할 수 있다.

Heavy water (D2O) is a coolant as well as a moderator of pressurized heavy water reactors (PHWRs). During operation of PHWRs, deuterium (H-2, D) in heavy water is gradually converted to tritium (H-3, T), which is a radioactive nuclide with a half-life of 12.3 years, by capturing neutron. Various radioactive wastes contaminated by T are generated upon the PHWR operation. Owing to the similarity of D and T, they behave together a form of water (either liquid or vapor) in a normal circumstance. To handle D and T with the water form is quite difficult because it is not a solid and is highly mobile in nature. In this study, a mineralization technique to fix D and T in a solid form is suggested. It is considered that hydroxide minerals, which have low solubility in water, might tightly bind D and T in non-mobile, solid-state media. Feasibility of this strategy is studied by using a copper-based hydroxide mineral, atacamite. Atacamite is a natural mineral found in copper deposits with chemical formula of Cu2Cl(OH)3. Atacamite can be simply synthesized in laboratories by a precipitation method using copper chloride and calcium carbonate as precursors. Both chemicals were added into heavy water to obtain pale-green precipitates. Heavy water is the only source for D in this reaction and thus deuterated mineral is expected to be form. The obtained deuterated mineral, suspected to be Cu2Cl(OD)3, was then immersed in natural deionized water (extremely low D2O concentration) for several days to identify how fast D in Cu2Cl(OD)3 dissolves into water. In a preliminary Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, absorption peaks related to HDO and D2O were not observed in the deionized water which is recovered after the immersion test, suggesting that D remained stable in the synthesized mineral. However, owing to low detection limit of FTIR, more precise analysis should be taken to clearly identify the stability of D of the deuterated atacamite. If deuterated hydroxide minerals are found to have sufficiently high D stability in natural water, they can be further treated with cement or other stabilization media to form a final wasteform for underground disposal.

The objective of the study is to assess the water quality improvement resulted from the rearrangement ofthe irrigation water supply systems at Mankyeong River Basin in Korea. There is a mixed type of watershed composed of urban and rural areas in the region. When the current intake of irrigation water installed at the Eo-u weir is moved downward to the confluence of Jeon-ju stream, it was expected that the water quality of main stream could be significantly improved