During decommissioning of a nuclear power plant, a large amount of radioactive waste is produced, and it is known to cost more than 300 billion won to dispose the waste. To reduce the disposal cost, it is essential to minimize the number of radioactive waste drums, which can be achieved by detecting and removing hotspot contaminations in the radioactive waste drums. Therefore, a Compton CT system for radioactive waste monitoring is under development, which provides the images of both the internal structure of the drum and the radioactive hotspot(s) in the drum. Based on the acquired information, the activity of hotspots can be estimated. The performance of the system is affected by various geometry factors. Therefore, it is essential to determine optimal configuration by evaluating the effects of the factors on the performance of the system. In the present study, we determined the optimum value of the factors and then predicted the performance of the optimized system by using a simulator based on the Geant4 Monte Carlo simulation. For optimization, the factors were evaluated in terms of structural similarity index measure (SSIM) and measurement time. The considered factors were the activity of the CT source, source to object distance (SOD), object to detector distance (ODD), and projection angle. The simulation result showed that the activities of the CT sources were determined as 23 mCi for 137Cs and 9.6 mCi for 60Co. The optimal SOD and ODD were 180 cm and 40 cm, respectively. The optimal projection angle was evaluated as 4° since it achieves the SSIM of 0.95 faster than other projection angles. With the optimized parameters, the performance of the system was evaluated using the IAEA gamma CT standard phantom containing a hotspot of 137Cs (7.02 μCi). The Compton image was reconstructed using the back-projection algorithm, and the CT image was reconstructed using the filtered back-projection algorithm. The result showed that the location of the hotspot in the Compton image was well identified at the true position. The acquired CT image also well represented the internal structure of the phantom, and the estimated mean linear attenuation coefficient value (μ= 0.0789 cm−1) of the phantom was close to the true value (μ= 0.0752 cm−1). In addition, the hotspot activity estimated by combining the information of the Compton image and CT image was 8.06 μCi. Hence, it was found that the Compton CT system provides essential information for radioactive waste drums.

Olfactory receptors (OR) are primarily responsible for the detection of odorant molecules. We previously demonstrated that OR7D4, an OR for androstenone, is expressed in the vomeronasal organ and olfactory epithelium tissue of stallions. Recently, the expression of OR1I1 in the human testes was reported and the possible roles of OR1I1 in the testicular cells were suggested. The objectives of this study were 1) to explore the expression of OR7D4 and OR1I1 in stallion testes, and 2) to define the specific localization of OR7D4 and OR1I1 in the testicular tissues. Stallion testicular tissue samples were used for this study. Western blot was performed to confirm the cross-reactivity of OR7D4 and OR1I1 antibody with stallion testicular tissue samples. OR7D4 and OR1I1 gene expressions were investigated using reverse transcriptionpolymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in stallion testes. Immunofluorescence was performed to investigate the expression of OR7D4 and OR1I1 in stallion testicular tissues. The protein bands for OR7D4 and OR1I1 from the testes were observed at approximately 38 kDa and 43 kDa, respectively. The mRNA of OR7D4 and OR1I1 were detected in stallion testes. Immunolabeling of OR7D4 and OR1I1 in the cytoplasm of both spermatogonia and Leydig cells was observed. In conclusion, androstenone and another odorant chemical, which is recognized by OR1I1, may play an important role in stallion testes.

Autophagy is an evolutionarily well-conserved cellular homeostasis program that responds to various cellular stresses and degrades unnecessary or harmful intracellular materials in lysosomes. Accumulating evidence has shown that autophagy dysfunction often results in various human pathophysiological conditions, including metabolic disorders, cancers, and neurodegenerative diseases. The discovery of an autophagy machinery protein network has revealed underlying molecular mechanisms of autophagy, and advances in the understanding of its regulatory mechanism have provided novel therapeutic targets for treating human diseases. Recently, reports have emerged on the involvement of autophagy in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Although the role of autophagy in cancer therapy is controversial, the beneficial use of the induction of autophagic cell death in OSCC has drawn significant attention. In this review, the types of autophagy, mechanism of autophagosome biogenesis, and modulating molecules and therapeutic candidates affecting the induction of autophagic cell death in OSCC are briefly described.

In this study, the physicochemical characteristics and fluoride adsorption capacity of the bone char pyrolyzed at different temperatures; 200℃, 300℃, 350℃, 400℃, 500℃, 600℃, and 700℃ were investigated. Analytical studies of the synthesized bone char including; SEM-EDS, XRD, BET and FT-IR, showed the presence of hydroxyapatite(HAP), which is the main substance that adsorbs fluoride from aqueous solutions containing high fluoride concentrations. Bone char pyrolyzed from 350∼700℃ specifically revealed that, the lower the temperature, the higher the fluoride adsorption capacity and vice versa. The loss of the fluoride adsorption function of HAP (OH- band in the FTIR analysis) was interpreted as the main reason behind this inverse correlation between temperature and fluoride adsorption. Bone char produced at 350°C hence exhibited a fluoride adsorption capacity of 10.56 mgF/g, resulting in significantly higher adsorption compared to previous studies.

The conformational characteristics and performance of the horse breed should be evaluated to establish the breeding goals for a riding horse breed. Halla horses are cross-bred from Thoroughbred horses and Jeju ponies. Halla horses have been bred for speed as racing horses in Jeju Island in South Korea. However, some horses have also been used for riding purposes. Thus, the main purpose of this study was to evaluate the characteristics of Halla horses for riding purposes, which can be used as a guideline to define the breeding goals of Halla horses. Therefore, we evaluated the athletic performance of Halla horses by analyzing 3-year records of dressage (from S-3 Class to F Class) and show-jumping competitions (from S-2 Class to G Class) held in South Korea. We also examined the conformational characteristics of 15 Halla horses and compared them with those of 15 Thoroughbred and 15 Warmblood horses. In the results of dressage competitions over 3 years, Halla horses were awarded in D Class dressage only. In contrast, in the show-jumping competition, Halla horses were awarded in the D, E, F, and G classes. Overall, most body parts measured were smaller than those of Thoroughbred and Warmblood horses. When the rate of body parts per the average height of each breed was compared, Halla horses showed a higher rate of head length, head perimeter, and lumbar back length and croup length. In contrast, Halla horses had a shorter neck length. Based on the results of horse competition and conformation analysis, it is concluded that Halla horses are suitable for youth show-jumping competitions and have the potential to be representative riding horses in South Korea.

흉부 디지털 단층영상합성장치는 기존 DR의 낮은 깊이 해상도, CT의 높은 피폭선량 문제를 해결할 수 있는 획기적인 영상장치로 대두되고 있다. 그러나 제한된 스캔 각도로 인해 프로젝션이 X 선 소스 동작 방 향으로 흉부를 완전히 포함 할 수 없어 재구성 된 슬라이스의 위, 아래 방향 경계를 따라 강도의 불연속성 이 발생하게 되는데 이러한 현상을 잘림 아티팩트 (Truncation artifact)라고 한다. 이 연구의 목적은 가중 정규화 접근법을 사용하여 잘림 아티팩트를 줄이고 리스템에서 개발한 프로토 타입 흉부 디지털 단층영상합 성장치 시스템에 대한 이 접근법의 성능을 평가하는 것이다. 이 시스템의 source-to-image distance는 1100 m m 이고 X 선원의 회전 중심은 검출기 표면에서 100mm 위로 설정되었다. LUNGMAN 팬텀을 사용하여 ± 20 °의 투영 뷰를 1 ° 간격으로 41장을 얻은 후, filtered back projection 알고리즘으로 재구성했다. 정량적 평가를 위하여 시뮬레이션을 이용하여 기준영상을 재구성 후 peak signal to noise ratio와 structure similarity ind ex 값을 평가하였으며 실제 실험 데이터를 이용하여 mean value of specific direction 값을 평가하였다. 시뮬 레이션 결과로 아티팩트 보정 전 일반적인 filtered back projection 알고리즘으로 재구성 한 영상과 비교하여 peak signal to noise ratio값과 structure similarity index값 모두 각각 증가하였으며, 실제 실험 재구성 영상의 mean value of specific direction 결과는 아티팩트의 영향이 감소됨을 확인할 수 있었다. 결론적으로, 가중 정규화 방법은 잘림 아티팩트를 줄임으로써 진단의 어려움을 발생시키는 가능성을 개선시킬 수 있는 방법으로 사료된다.