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IntroductionAlthough transarterial radioembolization (TARE) using yttrium-90 (90Y) is a treatment option for large hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a fraction of patients are ineligible for TARE due to high lung shunt fraction (LSF).MethodsWe evaluated if treatment with transarterial chemoembolization (TACE), owing to TARE ineligibility was associated with early HCC progression. Consecutive patients with HCC who were initially TARE candidates were included. Patients with vascular invasion or metastasis were excluded. Primary endpoints were time-to-progression (TTP) and overall survival (OS). The secondary endpoint was objective response rate.ResultsIn total, 175 patients were included: 144 underwent TARE (TARE-eligible group) and 31 underwent TACE due to high LSF (TARE-ineligible group). This latter group had larger tumors (13.8 cm vs. 7.8 cm, Pvs. 413.3, P=0.002) than the TARE-eligible group. After balancing baseline characteristics with an inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW), the TARE-ineligible group showed shorter TTP [adjusted hazard ratio (aHR)=2.16, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.14–4.07, P=0.02] and OS (aHR=1.80, 95% CI=0.85–3.80, P=0.12), although the latter was not statistically significant. The TARE-ineligible group had a significantly lower objective response rate than the TARE-eligible group (9.7% vs. 56.9%, PConclusionTARE-ineligible patients had larger tumors and higher MoRAL scores than TARE-eligible patients. Treatment with TACE, owing to high LSF, was associated with a shorter TTP even after balancing tumor size and MoRAL scores.

Background: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection remains a threat to global public health. Serum hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) has been used in screening for HBV infection. Quantitative HBsAg assays are useful for monitoring the natural history of HBV infection and its response to therapy. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between quantitative (qHBsAg; IU/mL) and semi-quantitative (sqHBsAg; signal-to-cutoff ratio [S/Co]) HBsAg titers in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB). Methods: We retrospectively included 284 samples with HBV DNA < 20 IU/mL from patients who had simultaneous qHBsAg (using electrochemiluminescence assay) and sqHBsAg tests. Patients were grouped according to their serum HBV-envelope antigen (HBeAg) status (HBeAg-negative, n = 239 and HBeAg-positive, n = 45). The Spearman test was used to analyze the correlation between the quantitative and semi-quantitative assays. Results: There was a significant linear correlation between sqHBsAg and qHBsAg in the HBeAg-negative patients (qHBsAg [IU/mL] = 0.0094 × sqHBsAg [S/Co]1.323; adjusted R2 = 0.8445; p < 0.001). There was a substantial hook effect in the assays from the HBeAg-positive patients, so we performed a stratified analysis according to qHBsAg

Menopause is characterized by rapid decreases in bone mineral density, aerobic fitness, muscle strength, and balance. In the present study, we investigated the effects of new sports tennis type exercise on aerobic capacity, follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and N-terminal telopeptide (NTX) in the postmenopausal women. Subjects were consisted of 20 postmenopausal women, who had not menstruated for at least 1 yr and had follicle-stimulating hormone levels > 35 mIU/L, estradiol levels< 40 pg/mL. The subjects were randomly divided into two groups: control group (n= 10), new sports tennis type exercise group (n= 10). New sports tennis type exercise was consisted of warm up (10 min), new sports tennis type exercise (40 min), cool down (10 min) 3 days a per week for 12 weeks. The aerobic capacities were increased by 12 weeks new sports tennis type exercise. New sports tennis type exercise significantly increased FSH and NTx levels, indicating biochemical markers of bone formation and resorption. These findings indicate that 12 weeks of new sports tennis type exercise can be effective in prevention of bone loss and enhancement of aerobic capacity in postmenopausal women.

Antiphospholipid antibody syndrome is a newly-defined clinical entity of arterial thrombosis, venous thrombotic events, recurrent spontaneous abortion and thrombocytopenia in the presence of antiphospholipid antibodies. We have experienced a 23-year-old male SLE patient with positive anticardiolipin antibody who presented with left hemiparesis and paresthesia. The clinical and laboratory findings were compatible with the criteria for SLE and he was found to have anticardiolipin antibody, thrombocytopenia, prolonged partial thromboplastin time and cerebral thrombosis. Initially, he was treated with high dose steroid and warfarin and now he is being followed up with warfarin and steroid.

Recently, the importance of a water resource is highly concerned. Therefore, Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UASNs) technologies are vigorously studied for monitoring underwater environment. The UASNs gather various underwater environmental data that should be delivered to a Monitoring Center where nearby or far from UASNs are deployed. To deliver data form underwater to the Monitoring Center or vice versa, a surface gateway should change acoustic signal to RF (Radio Frequency) signal. Depends on the service requirement, the surface gateway can adopt various wireless communication channels such as Cellular network, Zigbee and so on. In this paper, we propose the architecture of surface gateway that has several wireless communication channels and communication protocol.

The conventional sensor MAC is unconcerned with data aggregation. Therefore, this paper proposes a new MAC level Data Aggregation (MDA). The goal is to reduce energy consumption in WSN (Wireless Sensor Network). The MDA has two functions that are discriminative to the conventional sensor MAC, in that it achieves efficient aggregation and the avoidance of Network beacon collisions. The MDA is designed considering the type of sensing data used in the network. Therefore, a node sleeps during its active period dependent on the sensing data since the node does not contain the sensor hardware itself. This means that energy consumption is reduced by preventing unnecessary transmission in the active time. Also, the MDA achieves effective aggregating, because it processes aggregation at the same range of active duration as that of the same sensing data type. Therefore, the energy-efficiency of the whole sensor network increases.