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Exosomes are extracellular vesicles that play a role in intercellular communication through the transportation of their cargo including mRNAs, microRNAs, proteins, and nucleic acids. Exosomes can also regulate glucose homeostasis and insulin secretion under diabetic conditions. However, the role of exosomes in insulin secretion in islet β-cells under physiological conditions remains to be clarified. The aim of this study was to investigate whether exosomes derived from pancreatic islet β-cells could affect insulin secretion in naïve β-cells. We first confirmed that exosomes derived from the RIN-m5f β-cell line interfered with the glucose-stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS) of recipient β-cells without affecting cell viability. The exosomes significantly reduced the protein expression levels of phosphorylated Akt, phosphorylated GSK3α/β, CaMKII, and GLUT2 (insulin-related signaling molecules), and they increased the protein expression levels of phosphorylated NFκB-p65 and Cox-2 (inflammation-related signaling molecules), as determined by a Western blot analysis. A bioinformatics analysis of Next-Generation Sequencing data suggested that exosome-carried microRNAs, such as miR-1224, -122-5p, -133a-3p, -10b-5p, and -423-5p, may affect GSIS in recipient β-cells. Taken together, these findings suggest that β-cell-derived exosomes may upregulate exosomal microRNA-associated signals to dysregulate glucose-stimulated insulin secretion in naïve β-cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Pseudomonas aeruginosa is the predominant bacterial pathogen colonizing the cystic fibrosis (CF) lung. Mixed populations of nonmucoid and mucoid variants of P. aeruginosa have been isolated from the CF airway. While the association between mucoid variants and pulmonary function decline is well-established, their impact on inflammation and tissue damage in advanced CF lung disease remains unclear. Methods: This pilot study utilized 1 non-CF and 3 CF lung explants to examine lobar distribution, inflammation, and histopathology related to nonmucoid and mucoid P. aeruginosa infection. To study tissue damage, we developed a novel lung histopathology scoring system, the first applied to human CF lung biopsies, which is comprised of five indicators: bronchiolar epithelial infiltrate, luminal inflammation, peribronchial/bronchiolar infiltrate, peribronchiolar fibrosis, and alveolar involvement. Results: Mucoid P. aeruginosa variants were distributed throughout the CF lung but associated with greater concentrations of proinflammatory cytokines, IL-1β, TNF-α, IL-6, IL-8, and IFN-γ, and one anti-inflammatory cytokine, IL-10, compared to nonmucoid variants. CF lung explants exhibited higher histopathology scores compared to a non-CF lung control. In mixed-variant infection, nonmucoid constituents associated with increased bronchiolar epithelial infiltration, one indicator of histopathology. Conclusion: This pilot study suggests ongoing interplay between host and bacterial elements in late-stage CF pulmonary disease. Mucoid P. aeruginosa infection correlates with inflammation regardless of lung lobe, whereas nonmucoid P. aeruginosa is associated with increased inflammatory cell infiltration. The development of a novel lung histopathology scoring system lays the groundwork for future large-cohort investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the constituent stocks of the iShares MSCI US ESG Select Index ETF, a matrix of technical indicators, returns, and covariance is incorporated to represent the inherent information characteristics of the stock market. In this study, based on the proposed Deep Reinforcement Learning for Portfolio Management on Environmental, Social, and Governance (DRLPMESG) architecture model, investors who use active portfolio management reap the greatest rewards, as the portfolio with 5 stocks performing the best, with an annualized return of 46.58%, a Sharpe ratio of 1.37, and a cumulative return of 115.18%, indicating that the results have the potential to win the market and generate excess profits. In contrast to the efficient market hypothesis, this new understanding of proven effectiveness in obtaining satisfactory rewards would help improve investment strategies for portfolio management. Furthermore, this study proposed that holding 5 stocks in a portfolio can lead to higher returns, laying the foundation for future research on the number of holdings. Moreover, when compared to previous static strategies, this model offering a dynamic strategy may generate a more stable return in the face of market fluctuations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the expansion of network bandwidth and the rise of social networks, image sharing on open networks has become a trend. The ensuing privacy leakage events have aroused widespread concerns. Therefore, image sharing that protects privacy is desired. Progressive Secret Image Sharing (PSIS), a multilevel privacy protection technology for images, offers a promising solution. However, the progressivity of the majority of PSIS schemes depends on the preprocessing of a secret image, which increases the calculation costs. In addition, a block-based PSIS may have information leakage security risks when processing highly confidential images. Many existing PSIS schemes use a single operation to share secret images, which makes the schemes inflexible and limits the application scenarios. Therefore, we propose a PSIS based on Boolean operations and Polynomial interpolations (PSIS-BP). The proposed scheme divides the bit-plane of the pixel into two parts. One part is utilized to perform the Boolean operation, and the other part is used to perform the polynomial interpolation. Different assignment strategies can produce different progressive reconstruction levels and expand the application scenarios of the scheme. Theoretical analyses and experimental results demonstrate that the proposed scheme is secure, low-cost, and flexible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital image has been used in various fields as an essential carrier. Many color images have been constantly produced since their more realistic description, which takes up much storage space and network bandwidth. Thus, color image compression has become an essential key technology. Absolute Moment Block Truncation Coding (AMBTC) has been widely studied as one of the classical image compression methods. However, in the existing methods, the visual quality of the reconstructed images and the compression rate are all relatively low. Therefore, this paper proposes an enhanced AMBTC for color image compression using a color palette. In the proposed method, the K-means clustering algorithm is utilized for training the image's palette pattern. The color palette obtained by K-mean will be more suitable for reconstructing this image than the standard color palette, and the visual quality will be higher. The six clustered central pixels are matched with the palette through a color difference formula, and the obtained index values are used as the quantization levels. Huffman coding is used to build a bitmap to achieve a higher compression rate, that is, a lower bit rate. At last, a block of a color image can be represented by six index values and a bitmap. Experimental results and theoretical analysis demonstrate that the proposed method has better visual quality and bit rate than similar schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-object detection and occlusion tracking in the computer vision field is an important research topic on the modern surveillance system. These studies largely rely on computer vision work. However, most algorithms are too complex and not practical to be used as real-time systems. This paper proposes a real-time surveillance system. The proposed method mainly improves the foreground detection to get low-complexity and high-quality effects of tracking. A novel occlusion-adaptive tracking method is also applied. It can immediately track multi-objects in successive positions without color cues and an appearance model. To track moving objects, the proposed method uses labeling information to eliminate noises and group moving objects. Additionally, we are also concerned about several cases of occlusions to increase the tracking efficiency. The comparison has been performed with other algorithms of background subtraction. Experimental results show that the proposed method has better performance than other foreground detection methods in terms of both computation speed and detection rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Sepsis is characterized by a dysregulated host response to infection that leads to multiple organ dysfunction and often complicated with metabolic acidosis. However, the associations between serum total carbon dioxide level (TCO2) and long-term clinical outcomes in sepsis survivors remains unknown. Methods: A total of 7212 sepsis survivors aged ≥ 20 years who were discharged from January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2018 were included in our analyses. The sepsis survivors were further divided into high TCO2 (≥ 18 mmol/L) and low TCO2 (< 18 mmol/L) groups, comprising 5023 and 2189 patients, respectively. The following outcomes of interest were included: all-cause mortality, myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke, hospitalization for heart failure, ventricular arrhythmia, and end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Results: After propensity score matching, the low TCO2 group was at higher risks of all-cause mortality (hazard ratio [HR] 1.28, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] 1.18–1.39), myocardial infarction (HR 1.83, 95% CI 1.39–2.43), and ESRD (HR 1.38, 95% CI 1.16–1.64) than the high TCO2 group. The results remained similar after considering death as a competing risk. Conclusion: Patients discharged from hospitalization for sepsis have higher risks of worse long-term clinical outcomes. Physicians may need to pay more attention to sepsis survivors whose TCO2 was low. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Staphylococcus aureus infections are a major public health issue, and a vaccine is urgently needed. Despite a considerable promise in preclinical models, all vaccines tested thus far have failed to protect humans against S. aureus. Unlike laboratory mice, humans are exposed to S. aureus throughout life. In the current study, we hypothesized that prior exposure to S. aureus "imprints" the immune response to inhibit vaccine-mediated protection. We established a mouse model in which S. aureus skin and soft tissue infection (SSTI) is followed by vaccination and secondary SSTI. Unlike naïve mice, S. aureus-sensitized mice were incompletely protected against secondary SSTI by vaccination with the inactivated α-hemolysin (Hla) mutant HlaH35L. Inhibition of protection was specific for the HlaH35L vaccine and required hla expression during primary SSTI. Surprisingly, inhibition occurred at the level of vaccine-elicited effector T cells; hla expression during primary infection limited the expansion of T cells and dendritic cells and impaired vaccine-specific T cell responses. Importantly, the T cell-stimulating adjuvant CAF01 rescued inhibition and restored vaccine-mediated protection. Together, these findings identify a potential mechanism for the failure of translation of promising S. aureus vaccines from mouse models to clinical practice and suggest a path forward to prevent these devastating infections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: KRAS is a frequently mutated oncogene in human cancer. Clinical studies on the covalent inhibitors of the KRASG12C mutant have reported promising results. However, primary and acquired resistance may limit their clinical use. Methods: Sotorasib-resistant cell lines were established. We explored the signalling pathways activated in these resistant cell lines and their roles in sotorasib resistance. Results: The resistant cells exhibited increased cell–matrix adhesion with increased levels of stress fibres and focal adherens. p21-activated kinases (PAKs) were activated in resistant cells, which phosphorylate MEK at serine 298 of MEK and serine 338 of c-Raf to activate the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway. The PAK inhibitors FRAX597 and FRAX486 in synergy with sotorasib reduced the viability of KRASG12C mutant cancer cells. Furthermore, the PI3K/AKT pathway was constitutively active in sotorasib-resistant cells. The overexpression of constitutively activated PI3K or the knockdown of PTEN resulted in resistance to sotorasib. PI3K inhibitor alpelisib was synergistic with sotorasib in compromising the viability of KRASG12C mutant cancer cells. Moreover, PI3K and PAK pathways formed a mutual positive regulatory loop that mediated sotorasib resistance. Conclusions: Our results indicate that the cell–matrix interaction-dependent activation of PAK mediates resistance to sotorasib through the activation of MAPK and PI3K pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to compare survival of patients with advanced major salivary gland cancers treated with adjuvant chemoradiation therapy (CRT) versus radiotherapy (RT) alone, after surgical resection. The Taiwan Cancer Registry database was used to identify patients (2009–2017) with advanced (T3–4 or nodal positivity) major salivary gland cancers, treated post-surgically with adjuvant CRT or RT alone. Overall survival (OS) and disease-specific survival (DSS) evaluated using Kaplan–Meier. Stratified analyses conducted on clinicopathological features. A total of 395 patients were analyzed: 178 (45.1%) received adjuvant CRT; 217 (54.9%) received adjuvant RT alone. Median radiation dose was 66 Gy in 33 fractions. Cisplatin was most common chemotherapy regimen. After a median follow-up of 3.37 years, there was no significant difference in OS or DSS (p = 0.1354 and 0.3361, respectively) between groups. Adding chemotherapy to adjuvant RT was not significantly associated with improved OS (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 0.94; 95% CI 0.72–1.23) and DSS (aHR 0.96; 95% CI 0.72–1.28). Stratified analysis of clinicopathological features found no significant advantages for improved OS or DSS from adding chemotherapy to adjuvant RT. Thus, in this population database, the use of chemotherapy provided limited survival benefits in advanced major salivary gland cancers after surgical resection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The neurogenetic basis of variability in human olfactory function remains elusive. This study examined olfactory performance and resting-state functional neuroimaging results from healthy volunteers within the context of the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) val66met polymorphism with the aim of unraveling the genotype-associated intrinsic reorganization of the olfactory network. We found that the presence of the Met allele is associated with better olfactory identification and additional engagement of semantic memory system within the olfactory network, in an allele dosage-dependent manner. This suggests that the Met allele may promote adaptive neural reorganization to augment olfactory capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Influences of nutritional status on hip fractured persons with diabetes mellitus (DM) following surgery have not been reported. Aims: To explore the trajectory groups of nutritional status and their influences on post-operative recovery for older persons with hip fracture and DM. Methods: A total of 169 patients with DM and hip fracture from a clinical trial were included in this analysis. Mini Nutritional Assessment was used to assess the nutritional status of the participants. Outcome variables included self-care ability, muscle strength, depressive symptoms, health related quality of life, and cognitive function, which were collected before discharge and 1-, 3-, 6-, 12-, 18-, and 24-months following hospital discharge. Results: Among hip fractured older persons with DM, within two years following surgery there were three nutritional trajectory groups: malnourished (28.3%), at-risk of malnutrition (41.9%) and well-nourished (29.8%). A decline in nutritional status, especially for the malnourished group, was seen in the second year. A better nutritional trajectory was associated with better recovery outcomes, including self-care ability, health related quality of life, cognitive function and less depressive symptoms. Discussion: Close to 30% of hip fractured persons with DM were considered to have a malnourished trajectory over 2 years following surgery. A poor nutritional trajectory was associated with poor mental health and physical recovery. Conclusions: Continuous nutrition assessment during the first 2 years following hip fracture surgery for older persons with DM is important. Development and implementation of interventions targeting the malnourished trajectory group are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exposure to a single metal has been reported to damage renal function in humans. However, information regarding the association between multiple-metal exposure and markers for early renal impairment in different sexes among the young adult Taiwanese population is scarce. We assessed the association between exposure to arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), and lead (Pb), and early renal impairment markers using urinary microalbumin (MA), β2-microglobulin (β2MG), and N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase (NAG) by analyzing 157 young adults aged 20‒29 years, in Taiwan. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry was used to determine urinary As, Cd, and Pb levels. Regression models were applied to different sex groups. The results showed that after adjusting for potential confounding factors and each metal, urinary Cd levels were significantly positively associated with urinary MA (β = 0.523, 95% CI: 0.147–0.899) and β2MG (β = 1.502, 95% CI: 0.635–2.370) in males. However, the urinary Cd level was significantly positively associated with only urinary NAG (β = 0.161, 95% CI: 0.027–0.296) in females. This study thus indicates that the effect of exposure to metals (especially Cd) on early renal impairment among young adults in Taiwan is sex-specific. Our study results could contribute toward developing early intervention programs for decreasing the incidence of renal dysfunction. Further studies are warranted to confirm our findings and clarify the potential mechanisms involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: There have been few studies using mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) to improve sexual function in Asian women with breast cancer. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of mindfulness intervention on female sexual function, mental health, and quality of life in patients with breast cancer. Methods: Fifty-one women with breast cancer were allocated into 6-week MBSR (n=26) sessions or usual care (n=25), without differences in group characteristics. The research tools included the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI), the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21 (DASS-21), and the EuroQol instrument (EQ-5D). The Greene Climacteric Scale (GCS) was used to verify the foregoing scale. The effects of MBSR were evaluated by the differences between the post- and pre-intervention scores in each scale. Statistical analyses consisted of the descriptive dataset and Mann-Whitney ranked-pairs test. Results: Although MBSR did not significantly improve sexual desire and depression in patients with breast cancer, MBSR could improve parts of female sexual function [i.e., Δarousal: 5.73 vs. -5.96, Δlubrication: 3.35 vs. -3.48, and Δsatisfaction: 8.48 vs. 1.76; all p <.005], with a range from small to medium effect sizes. A significantly benefits were found on mental health [Δanxiety: -10.92 vs.11.36 and Δstress: -10.96 vs.11.40; both p <.001], with large effect sizes, ranging from 0.75 to 0.87. Conclusion: Our study revealed that MBSR can improve female sexual function and mental health except for sexual desire and depression in women with breast cancer. Medical staff can incorporate MBSR into clinical health education for patients with breast cancer to promote their overall quality of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We characterize a new chaos lidar system configuration and demonstrate its capability for high-speed 3D imaging. Compared with a homodyned scheme employing single-element avalanche photodetectors (APDs), the proposed scheme utilizes a fiber Bragg grating and quadrant APDs to substantially increase the system throughput, frame rate, and field-of-view. By quantitatively analyzing the signal-to-noise ratio, peak-to-standard deviation of the sidelobe level, precision, and detection probability, we show that the proposed scheme has better detection performance suitable for practical applications. To show the feasibility of the chaos lidar system, while under the constrain of eye-safe regulation, we demonstrate high-speed 3D imaging with indoor and outdoor scenes at a throughput of 100 kHz, a frame rate of 10 Hz, and a FOV of 24.5 ∘ × 11.5 ∘ for the first time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies in the field of neuroscience and psychology have hypothesized that a causal association exists between atopic diseases and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Previous systematic reviews and meta-analyses have reported a higher risk of ADHD in children with atopic diseases; however, the relationship between ADHD symptoms and atopic diseases remains unclear. We systematically reviewed observational cross-sectional and longitudinal studies to investigate the relationship between atopic diseases and ADHD symptom severity (hyperactivity/impulsivity and inattention). The majority of studies showed a statistically significant association between atopic diseases and both ADHD symptoms, with substantial heterogeneity in the outcome of hyperactivity/impulsivity. Remarkably decreased heterogeneity and statistical significance were observed in the second meta-analysis of ADHD-related behavior symptoms in atopic patients without ADHD. Our study indicated that atopic diseases not only associated with ADHD but also ADHD symptoms severity. This association was even observed in children with subthreshold ADHD, indicating that atopic diseases may play a role in the spectrum of ADHD symptom severity. Trial registration: This study was registered on PROSPERO (registration ID: CRD42020213219). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A fan page is a kind of a social network. Social network marketing (SNM) is a form of Internet marketing involving the creation and sharing of content on social media networks to achieve marketing and selling goals. In addition, precise SNM requires sufficient data and analysis in terms of making accurate online recommendations. This study examines the experience of various Taiwanese fan page users utilizing a market survey, a total of 1032 valid questionnaire data, and the questionnaire is divided into five sections with 33 items in terms of a big data structure based on a relational database on the first research stage. All questions use nominal and ordinal scales. In the second stage, this study develops a personalized recommendation system (PRS) using big data analytics approach, including cluster analysis and association rules. This study shows how the research results can obtain fans behavior knowledge by examining different group profiles and develop rule-based recommendation approach to generate personalized recommendations for building a SNM mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To evaluate the potential benefit of HyperArc (HA) fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy (FSRT) for the benign brain lesion. Sixteen patients with a single deep-seated, centrally located benign brain lesion treated by CyberKnife (CK, G4 cone-based model) were enrolled. Treatment plans for HA with two different optimization algorithms (SRS NTO and ALDO) and coplanar RapidArc (RA) were generated for each patient to meet the corresponding treatment plan criteria. These four FSRT treatment plans were divided into two groups—the homogeneous delivery group (HA-SRS NTO and coplanar RA) and the inhomogeneous delivery group (HA-ALDO and cone-based CK)—to compare for dosimetric outcomes. For homogeneous delivery, the brain V5, V12, and V24 and the mean brainstem dose were significantly lower with the HA-SRS NTO plans than with the coplanar RA plans. The conformity index, high and intermediate dose spillage, and gradient radius were significantly better with the HA-SRS NTO plans than with the coplanar RA plans. For inhomogeneous delivery, the HA-ALDO exhibited superior PTV coverage levels to the cone-based CK plans. Almost all the doses delivered to organs at risk and dose distribution metrics were significantly better with the HA-ALDO plans than with the cone-based CK plans. Good dosimetric distribution makes HA an attractive FSRT technique for the treatment of benign brain lesions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most lethal diseases which lack an early diagnostic marker. We investigated whether serum ferritin (SF) reflects risk for pancreatic cancer and potential genes that may contribute ferritin and pancreatic cancer risks. We performed a meta-analysis of relevant studies on SF and pancreatic cancer risk by searching articles in PUBMED and EMBASE published up to 1 March 2020. We also collected serum samples from Taipei Medical University Joint Biobank and compared SF levels in 34 healthy controls and 34 pancreatic cancer patients. An Oncomine database was applied as a platform to explore a series of genes that exhibited strong associations between ferritin and pancreatic cancer. Herein, we show that high levels of SF can indicate risk of pancreatic cancer, suggesting SF as the new tumor marker that may be used to help pancreatic cancer diagnosis. We also found that expressions of iron homeostasis genes (MYC, FXN) and ferroptosis genes (ALOX15, CBS, FDFT1, LPCAT3, RPL8, TP53, TTC35) are significantly altered with pancreatic tumor grades, which may contribute to differential expression of ferritin related to pancreatic cancer prognosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is an FDA-approved therapy in major depressive disorder. However, its treatment efficacy on depression after traumatic brain injury (TBI) remains inconclusive. We conducted a meta-analysis to assess the effectiveness of executing rTMS over dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) on depression, cognitive impairment and post-concussion syndrome in individuals with traumatic brain injury. This study contained seven randomized controlled trials that published before April 5, 2020 in PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Cochrane, and Web of Science databases. The rTMS had significant anti-depressant effect (SMD = 1.03, p = 0.02), but the effects dissipated at 1-month follow-up (SMD = 0.39, p = 0.62). In the subgroup analysis, only applying rTMS to left DLPFC area of post-TBI patients showed significant anti-depressant effect (SMD = 0.98, p = 0.04). Moreover, current data observed that rTMS on post-TBI patients possessed substantial improvement in visuospatial memory (SMD = 0.39, p < 0.0001), but wasn't in processing speed (SMD = − 0.18, p = 0.32) and selective attention (SMD = 0.21, p = 0.31). In addition, the effect of rTMS is not superior to sham on postconcussion syndrome. In conclusion, the short-term antidepressant effect of left DLPFC rTMS in patients with TBI was significant. However, the effectiveness of rTMS on cognition and postconcussion syndrome in patients with post-TBI depression was limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Complexities of biotic-abiotic interactions in soils result in the lack of integrated understanding of environmental variables that restrict the survival of shiga toxin-producing E. coli O157:H7. Herein, we reanalyzed previously published data and highlighted the influence of soil abiotic factors on E. coli O157:H7 survivability and elucidated how these factors took effect indirectly through affecting indigenous bacterial community. Interaction network analysis indicated salinity and pH decreased the relative abundances of some bacterial taxa (e.g., Acidobacteria_Gp4, Acidobacteria_Gp6, and Deltaproteobacteria) which were positively correlated with the survival of E. coli O157:H7 in soils, and vice versa (e.g., Gammaproteobacteria and Flavobacteria) (P < 0.05). An array of multivariate statistical approaches including partial Mantel test, variation partition analysis (VPA), and structural equation model (SEM) further confirmed that biotic and abiotic factors interactively shaped the survival profile of E. coli O157:H7. This study revealed that some bacterial taxa were correlated with survival of E. coli O157:H7 directly, and salinity and pH could affect E. coli O157:H7 survival through changing these bacterial taxa. These findings suggest that salinity in soil might benefit the control of fecal pathogenic E. coli invasion, while soil acidification caused by anthropogenic influences could potentially increase the persistence of E. coli O157:H7 in agro-ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sorafenib is the standard treatment for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. This study aims to determine whether combining radiotherapy with sorafenib administration increases its efficacy. The study cohort included 4763 patients with diagnosed advanced HCC who received sorafenib between January 2012 and December 2015, as reported in medical records in the Taiwan Cancer Registry database. The effect of sorafenib with or without radiotherapy on survival was calculated using the Kaplan–Meier method and compared using the log-rank test. A Cox proportional hazards model was used for multivariate analysis. Patients receiving sorafenib plus radiotherapy had greater 1-year survival than did those receiving sorafenib alone (P < 0.001). Uni- and multivariate analyses also showed that radiotherapy increased survival after adjusting for confounders (adjusted HR 0.57; 95% CI 0.51–0.63). Further stratified analysis according to the timing of radiotherapy relative to sorafenib treatment revealed that patients who underwent radiotherapy after sorafenib had greater 1-year survival than did those undergoing radiotherapy within sorafenib use or sorafenib alone (adjusted HR 0.39; 95% CI 0.27–0.54). Combined treatment with sorafenib and radiotherapy results in greater HCC patient survival and should be considered an option for treating this challenging disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing secret image sharing (SIS) schemes with steganography and authentication are only suitable for uncompressed grayscale images. To make it more practical, a scheme for sharing and hiding a secret image in color palette images with authentication is proposed in this paper. Three commonly used system color palettes are considered. In sharing phase, a secret image is encoded into shared bits by polynomial based SIS. The shared bits are concealed into the color palette cover image to form the stego images. Meanwhile, the authentication parity bits are generated and embedded as well. Two embedding strategies are developed for the color palette images. In authentication and recovery phase, the integrity of each stego image is verified. Then, the secret image are reconstructed by sufficient authentic stego images. Experimental results are demonstrated to show the effectiveness and merits of the proposed scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the processing of one-dimensional fast discrete cosine transform (1D FDCT) coefficients, we present an efficient reversible data hiding method for electrocardiogram (ECG) signal. The proposed method is implemented in two phases. The purpose of phase-I is to classify the FDCT (host) bundles, where each input bundle will be attributed to one of four different bundles. The aim of phase-II is to embed data bits in the selected coefficients of the classified bundles according to a predetermined bit-index table (which generated from phase-I) via adaptive least significant bit (LSB) technique. Simulations confirmed that hidden bits were extracted without distortion and the original ECG signal can be completely recovered. Furthermore, a good perceived quality and a hiding capacity superior to existing techniques were achieved. Moreover, our method is robust against attacks such as noise addition, inversion, truncation, translations, and so on. Notice that the robustness is rarely seen in conventional reversible ECG steganography methods. Since this method has a fast computation speed, it is feasible for real-time applications and can be installed in the health care devices such as the wearable ECG measure equipment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A high capacity partial reversible data hiding (PRDH) is introduced in this paper. First of all, an original image is converted to a cover image by the proposed image transformation algorithm. The image transformation algorithm adopts (7,4) Hamming code and minimal pairwise square error to ensure that the generated cover image is an almost distortion-free original image. The secret bits are embedded into the cover image by flipping and modifying the cover bits with respect to the syndrome generated by Hamming code. When the secret bits are extracted from the stego image, it can be transformed back to a cover image by the error-correcting ability provided by Hamming code. And this is the so-called partial reversible property. The visual performance and embedding capacity of the proposed method are theoretical analyzed. According to the experimental and theoretical results, high embedding capacity with acceptable visual performance is achieved by the proposed method. More specifically, the embedding rate is 10.5 times of Jana et al.'s method and Yang et al.'s proposed PRDH, and 3.5 times of Yang et al. 's modified PRDH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Q-Switched laser devices have been a standard treatment modality for dermal pigmentary disorders since the 1990s. However, the adverse events are sometimes intolerable even if the efficacy has been well accepted. These adverse events stop the patient from continuing the treatment and cause other cosmetic issues. Since 2012, the first picosecond laser for cosmetic applications was approved; it seems promising for treating pigmentary disorders in a new way, but lack strong evidence. We evaluated the efficacy and safety of a 755-nm picosecond laser for treatment of dermal pigmentary disorders in Asians. This is a 2-year retrospective study. We reviewed 36 female cases, including 8 cases of nevus of Ota and 28 cases of acquired bilateral nevus of Ota-like macules. Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval was granted by the Chang Gung Memorial Hospital medical research ethics committee (IRB 201900833B0). The epidemiologic data was collected. These patients have been treated with the 755-nm picosecond laser for 1 to 4 sessions at variable treatment interval. Our parameter settings were fluence of 2.73–3.98 J/cm2, with a spot size of 2.9 to 2.4 mm under the 650-ps mode. The pulse duration is 650 ps and fluence range is from 2.73 to 3.98 J/cm. Photographs were taken prior to every treatment and 1 month following the treatment. Two dermatologists conducted the clinical evaluation independently. Clinical improvement was observed in all with a minimal side effect. A total of 88.89% of patients had moderate to marked improvement in following 1 to 4 sessions. Transient swelling and erythema were observed in all patients but resolved within 24 h. Only one patient (2.78%) developed hypopigmentation and two patients (5.56%) had hyperpigmentation temporarily. Faster clearance could be achieved by the picosecond 755-nm laser for treating dermal pigmentary disorders in Asians. The treatment course is well tolerable and has minimal side effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the crystallization process in a directional solidification furnace is studied by using the transient numerical simulation. The flow field in melt silicon in conjunction with different solidification stages is investigated. A separated side-heater design is proposed, showing a pronounced improvement on temperature gradient in axial direction normal to the solidification interface at late period. Result shows that the Voronkov ratio which can reflect the crystal quality is reduced by 16.5–24.8% and the energy consumption can be saved by 6% simultaneously. On the other hand, the airflow management for argon gas in the crucible chamber, which contains advantage to reduce chemical impurity in crystal during solidification process, is also numerically studied. By installing a guiding plate beneath the graphite cover can appreciably lower the oxygen mass fraction in contact with the cover plate and reduce the potential chemical reaction accordingly. The plate diameter and the spacing between the plate and graphite cover are optimized. Compared to the original design, the oxygen mass fraction at the graphite cover can be pronouncedly reduced by 10.6–33.3%, which can be further improved by combining a corner outlet configuration. Meanwhile, under the same volumetric flow rate of argon gas, yet the argon gas could be saved by almost half (e.g., from 40 SLM to 20 SLM) for the same chemical concentration with the optimized configuration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The aim of this study was to analyze changes in renal function in HBsAg-positive renal transplant recipients receiving lamivudine who did or did not switch to telbivudine. Methods: In this prospective randomized clinical trial (RCT), HBsAg-positive renal transplant recipients who had received lamivudine prophylaxis for at least 6 months were 1:2 randomized to receive either lamivudine or telbivudine for another 24 months. Renal function was evaluated by creatinine level and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) at the time of randomization (baseline), 6, 12, 18, and 24 months respectively. Results: This RCT was prematurely terminated after recruiting only 17 patients due to a high incidence (61.5%; 8/13) of clinical myalgia in the telbivudine group. Cox's proportional hazards model revealed that there was no independent predictor of myalgia. Based on intention-to-treat and per protocol analyses using generalized estimating equations, the patients in the randomized telbivudine group had a significantly increased eGFR and the patients in the lamivudine group had a significantly decreased eGFR at the end of follow-up compared to the values at study enrollment. However, there was no significant difference between the lamivudine and telbivudine groups. Conclusions: The renal protective effect of telbivudine for HBsAg positive renal transplant recipients was uncertain for high incidence of myalgia and only patients who were on telbivudine for 24 months had renal function maintenance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new energy harvesting circuit for battery-less IoT beacon tags is developed herein to maximize power conversion efficiency as well as high throughput power with a wide input–output range. This design energy harvest (EH) circuit incorporates a charge pump (CP) with shoot-through current suppression, a body selector circuit, a maximum power point tracking circuit (MPPT), a timing control circuit, a hysteresis control circuit and a low dropout regulator. Also in this MPPT circuit is a gated clock tuned in a self-adaptive fashion to match the input impedance of the EH circuit to the output impedance of the photovoltaic (PV) panel, thus achieving successfully maximum power point. The circuit is implemented in an integrated chip in an area of 1.2 mm2 via the TSMC 0.18 process. Experiments on the chip are conducted and the results show that the input voltage range is allowed from 0.55 to 1.7 V to effectively harvest the solar power from a flexible dye-sensitized solar cell. The achieved peak power conversion efficiency (PCE) is 77% at the input power of 52 μW. For a wide range of lighting luminance (300–1300 lx,) the achieved average PCE is more than 70%. The achieved wide input–output range and the maximum throughput power of 200 μW is much larger than others reported, while the 77% of PCE is close to that best power conversion efficiency reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is known that the analysis to tackle with non-symmetric cone optimization is quite different from the way to deal with symmetric cone optimization due to the discrepancy between these types of cones. However, there are still common concepts for both optimization problems, for example, the decomposition with respect to the given cone, smooth and nonsmooth analysis for the associated conic function, conic-convexity, conic-monotonicity and etc. In this paper, motivated by Chares's thesis (Cones and interior-point algorithms for structured convex optimization involving powers and exponentials, 2009), we consider the decomposition issue of two core non-symmetric cones, in which two types of decomposition formulae will be proposed, one is adapted from the well-known Moreau decomposition theorem and the other follows from geometry properties of the given cones. As a byproduct, we also establish the conic functions of these cones and generalize the power cone case to its high-dimensional counterpart. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contamination of feed by mycotoxins is a global epidemic that has a sizeable impact on animal health and causes economic losses. Mycotoxins, including aflatoxins (AFs), zearalenone (ZEN), fumonisins (FUMs), deoxynivalenol (DON), and ochratoxin A (OTA), lead to acute and chronic adverse effects in pigs. Animal feed and feed ingredients are commonly contaminated by one or more mycotoxins worldwide; however, the prevalence of mycotoxin contamination in feed and feed ingredients in Taiwan remains unclear. A total of 820 cornmeal and corn-based swine feed (pregnancy and nursery diets) samples provided by feed and animal producers were analyzed using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method between January 2015 and December 2017 to determine the presence of mycotoxins. The results revealed that the most prevalent mycotoxin in Taiwan was DON, with 91.4% of positive samples between 2015 and 2017, followed by ZEN, AFs, and FUMs, with 70.2%, 58.0%, and 50.4% of positive samples, respectively. A similar prevalence of mycotoxins was observed in cornmeal and corn-based swine feed. Furthermore, 7.7% of the analyzed feed samples contained one mycotoxin, and 91.3% contained multiple mycotoxins. DON was the most prevalent mycotoxin in cornmeal and corn-based swine feed in Taiwan. Moreover, a high incidence of contamination by multiple mycotoxins was observed in swine feed. Awareness of mycotoxin presence in feed and development of mycotoxin detoxification strategies are unmet needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, Jana et al. proposed the partial reversible data hiding (PRDH) based on (7, 4) Hamming code, which deals with three images: the original image (OI), the cover image (CI), and the stego image (SI). The CI is obtained by slightly modifying OI. After that, one can embed secret into CI to generate SI. The so-called partial reversible feature is that we can reconstruct the CI faultlessly, which is almost the same to the OI. However, in Jana et al.'s PRDH, the authors only adjust redundant bits by using (7, 4) Hamming code with even (or odd) parity. This simple approach may modify 3 redundant bits at most in 7 least significant bit (LSBs) to obtain CI from OI, and this degrades the CI quality seriously. In this paper, we construct two schemes: the proposed PRDH (PPRDH) and the modified PRDH (MPRDH). PPRDH enhances the partial reversible property that improves the visual quality of CI. And, MPRDH enhances PPRDH to achieve the high embedding capacity. Theoretical estimations of average mean square errors for these PRDH schemes are given to demonstrate the advantage of our PRDH schemes. In addition, we also point out two inaccurate descriptions in Jana et al.'s PRDH about position of embedded secret to more simplify the procedure of embedding secret. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In previous (k,n) secret image sharing scheme, the threshold k is decided by dealer according to the security requirement, and this threshold value is fixed without considering the dynamic secure environment in future. In this work, we propose a novel threshold changeable secret image sharing scheme where the threshold value can be changed according to the changeable security requirement. In our scheme, each participant only needs to keep one initial shadow. When reconstructing image, the dealer decides the threshold according to security level. If the threshold is unchanged, any k or more initial shadows can recover the image; else if the threshold is increased or decreased, dealer publishes additional information, each participant update their shadows accordingly such that the threshold of updated shadows is changed correspondingly. The contribution of our work is that the threshold of shadows can be changed flexibly to satisfy the dynamic secure environment, and each participant only need to keep one initial shadows. The feature of threshold changeable makes our scheme more practical than previous secret image sharing in some complicated applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Matrix coding based data hiding (MCDH) using linear codes (syndrome coding) is an efficient coding method for steganographic schemes to improve their embedding efficiency. Hamming code data hiding (HDH) is a well-known MCDH using a covering function COV (1, n = 2k − 1, k). Afterwards, Hamming+ 1 DH (H1DH) was proposed with good embedding efficiency. However, these two previous approaches, HDH and H1DH, are not efficient for a large amount of messages. To tackle this problem, Yang et al.'s proposed Hamming+ k DH (Hk DH), which enhance the extra one embedded bit in H1DH to k embedded bits in the Hk DH. In this paper, we extended the Hk DH to the Hamming+ k with m overlapped pixels (Hk_mDH). The proposed Hk_mDH adopted pixel overlapping approach, optimal pixel adjustment process (OPAP), and Least Significant Bit (LSB) substitution. Experimental results demonstrate that our Hk_mDH has better embedding rate (ER) compared with previous schemes. In addition, we have proved that our Hk_mDH has excellent theoretical estimation of average mean square error. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A steganographic scheme, matrix coding-based data hiding (MCDH), is constructed from covering function to enhance embedding efficiency, and, meanwhile, decrease the required changed bits. However, the MCDH may be compromised when using it as steganography over lossy channel. In this paper, we consider the so-called error spreading problem that one-bit error in MCDH may give rise to multi-bit errors when extracting the hidden data. In this paper, we present new MCDH to overcome error spreading problem based on constant weight code. Our new approach uses small lookup table to reduce embedding/extracting complexity. Experimental results demonstrate a better performance than previously proposed MCDHs in terms of spreading errors against lossy channel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Patients with periampullary cancer frequently suffer obstructive jaundice and commonly require preoperative biliary drainage (PBD) for relief and to avoid related complications. Although research has established a correlation between PBD and surgical wound infection, the impact of PBD on major infectious complications (intra-abdominal abscess [IAA]) and overall mortality remains debatable. We hypothesized that PBD could lead to IAA and mortality, and evaluated their correlation in patients undergoing pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD).Methods: We enrolled patients undergoing PD at an Asian academic medical center between 2007 and 2016. The types of PBD included endoscopic retrograde biliary drainage (ERBD) and percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography and drainage (PTCD). The primary outcome was IAA, defined as the presence of pus or infected fluid inside the abdominal cavity and with documented infectious pathogens.Results: There was one (0.1%) 30-day mortality and eight (0.9%) 90-day mortalities among 899 consecutive patients examined. More than one-quarter of patients had PBD (n = 237, 26.4%; 165 ERBD, 72 PTCD). In the ERBD, PTCD, and non-PBD groups, the IAA rates were 37.0%, 16.7%, and 10.6%, respectively. On multivariate analysis, ERBD (odds ratio 3.67; 95% confidence interval 2.22-6.06; p < 0.001) was the only significant factor associated with IAA. No significant factor was found to analyze variables associated with mortality.Conclusions: ERBD, but not PTCD, is associated with an increased risk of IAA in patients undergoing PD, which suggests that ERBD should be avoided whenever possible to prevent IAA. Further randomized clinical trials should be conducted to validate this relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subcutaneous panniculitis-like T-cell lymphoma (SPTL) is a rare form of cytotoxic T-cell lymphoma. It is believed that SPTL in patients without hemophagocytic syndrome (HPS) follows an indolent course; in contrast, SPTL in patients with HPS has been associated with unfavorable survival. To provide more clinical data on SPTL in Asian populations and to identify optimal therapeutic strategies for SPTL, we assessed the clinicopathological features and long-term follow-up data of 10 Taiwanese SPTL patients diagnosed at a single center. Our study demonstrates a group of patients with high incidence of HPS (50%), rather aggressive courses, and early progression. A total of eight patients underwent hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT), including one autologous HSCT and seven allogeneic HSCT. Seven of eight patients receiving HSCT achieved durable remission and maintained in remission for over 30 months (range 30-132 months). There was no difference in 3-year survival of patients with HPS (80%) compared with patients without HPS (80%). Of long-term survivors in the HPS group, three of four received HSCT (autologous HSCT, n = 1; allogeneic HSCT, n = 2). Our study indicated that HSCT is a curative option for eligible SPTL patients with HPS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Pulmonary peripheral-type squamous cell carcinoma (p-SqCC) has been increasing in incidence. However, little is known about the clinicopathologic features of p-SqCC. This study aimed to investigate the clinicopathologic characteristics and clinical outcomes of p-SqCC compared with central-type SqCC (c-SqCC) in a large cohort of surgically resected lung SqCC patients with long-term follow-up results.Methods: The study included 268 patients with SqCC who underwent surgical resection at the authors' institute from January 1990 to September 2013. The mean follow-up period was 67.1 months. The clinicopathologic and genetic characteristics were investigated in relation to their association with progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) based on tumor location.Results: The study cohort included 120 patients with p-SqCC and 148 patients with c-SqCC. Compared with c-SqCC, p-SqCC was correlated with older age (p = 0.002), female sex (p = 0.033), better performance status (p < 0.001), smaller tumor (p = 0.004), less lymph node metastasis (p < 0.001), and an earlier pathologic stage (p < 0.001). Despite the clinicopathologic differences, tumor location was not significantly correlated with clinical outcomes. For the p-SqCC patients, the multivariate analysis showed a significant correlation of lymphovascular invasion (PFS, p < 0.001; OS, p < 0.001) and lymph node metastasis (p = 0.007; OS, p = 0.022) with poor PFS and OS, but a significant correlation of incomplete tumor resection (PFS, p = 0.009) only with poor PFS.Conclusions: The clinicopathologic features differed between the p-SqCC and c-SqCC patients. Lymphovascular invasion and lymph node metastasis were independent prognostic factors of p-SqCC. These prognostic factors may be potentially used as indicators for adjuvant therapies to be used with patients who have p-SqCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present a simple and robust watermarking scheme for color images. The scheme is based on the square-root-modulus technique employed in the integer wavelet domain, which allows a large number of data bits to be embedded in a host image. Simulations confirmed that marked images generated by the proposed scheme are tolerant to various attacks such as blurring, brightness, contrast, cropping, edge sharpening, inversion, JPEG/JPEG2000 compressions, noise-additions, and truncation. Additionally, the payload of the proposed method is significantly larger than that of existing watermarking techniques and the resulting perceived quality is not bad. Because the code is quite simple, it is suitable for the proposed method implemented in the mobile equipments or smart devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Our aim was to investigate factors that influenced bacterial and fungal community composition in the cucumber rhizosphere with the addition of Bacillus subtilis B068150 in soils.Methods: Using pyrosequencing, we tracked changes in total bacterial and fungal community composition and structures in cucumber rhizosphere planted in clay, loam and sandy soils and inoculated with B. subtilis B068150.Results: B. subtilis B068150 colonized the rhizosphere of cucumber without altering the indigenous microbial community composition. B068150 strain did not significantly affect microbial diversity in cucumber rhizosphere, but both soils texture and chemistry did, based on principal coordinates analysis (PCoA), hierarchical clustering in UniFrac, and canonical correspondence analysis (CCA). Shannon diversity values (H′) suggest that rhizosphere diversity varied among the three soils with the significant highest diversity observed in loamy soil. Fungi were dominated by Ascomycota, Chytridiomycota, Basidiomycotina, with Ascomycota accounting for 29.1%. Fusarium was found only in cucumber rhizosphere grown in loamy soil; however, this did not affect the health of cucumber in three loamy soils during the three months study.Conclusion: Bacillus subtilis B068150 could be an environmental compatible plant protective agent in soils depending on the soil type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Driving under the influence (DUI) of alcohol (“drunk driving”) is dangerous and may cause serious harm to people and damage to property. To address this problem, this study developed a system for identifying excess alcohol consumption. Electrocardiogram (ECG) and photoplethysmography (PPG) sensors and intoxilyzers were used to acquire signals regarding the ECG, PPG, and alcohol consumption levels of participants before and after drinking. The signals were preprocessed, segmented, and subjected to feature extraction using specific algorithms to produce ECG and PPG training and test data. Based on the ECG, PPG, and alcohol consumption data we developed a fast and accurate identification scheme using the support vector machine (SVM) algorithm for identifying alcohol consumption. Optimized SVM classifiers were trained using the training data, and the test data were applied to verify the identification performance of the trained SVMs. The identification performance of the proposed classifiers achieved 95% on average. In this study, different feature combinations were tested to select the optimum technological configuration. Because the PPG and ECG features produce identical classification performance and the PPG features are more convenient to acquire, the technological configuration based on PPG is definitely preferable for developing smart and wearable devices for the identification of DUI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Habitability is defined as an ability of an organism to inhabit different environments. Habitability of organisms, however, cannot be inferred from analyses such as a whole genome or community structures. A recently developed database, the MetaMetaDB, gives us information from what kind of environments one particular 16S rRNA sequence data has ever been obtained, and thus enables us to infer the habitability of the bacterium in question. In order to check the applicability of this database to study the habitability of aquatic bacteria, samples collected at two Naka River stations, one estuarine station from Naka River Estuary, two coastal stations at Oarai in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan and one station in the Kuroshio Current of the western North Pacific were examined. The phylotypes were tracked against the MetaMetaDB and it was reasonably found that the low-salinity stations were dominated by sequences with “freshwater and groundwater”, “human” and “wastewater” habitat identities, while the high-salinity stations were dominated by those with a “marine” identity. The phylotypes of low-salinity stations with a particular habitat identity were absent or rare in the high-salinity stations and vice versa. The MetaMetaDB also showed that sequences of Cyanobacteria or related phylogenetic groups may be present in the human gut, as well as the probable distribution of the relatives (ancestors/descendants/siblings) of some bacteria. These overall findings proved that the MetaMetaDB is useful as a new tool to infer microbial habitability and it gives us new information on the possible origin and ecology of microorganisms in the environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cybercriminals are learning to harness the power of simpler devices like connected cameras. In September of 2016, Mirai software was used to infect more than 100,000 devices and unleash one of the largest distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks up to that time. After this incident, many people identified multiple large attacks coming from Internet of Things (IoT) devices, like CCTV cameras, and described these attacks as a new trend. A technique to detect whether a signal source is counterfeited in the initial stage of a DDoS attack is important. This paper proposes a method for the quick detection of a spoofed Internet protocol (IP) during a DDoS attack based on a DDoS shelter that is established to defend against DDoS attacks. In order to achieve this goal, we evaluate the number of time-to-live hops in normal traffic as a reference for the bandwidth of each network that is accessible to the DDoS shelter. In this study, we conduct an experiment using cases of actual DDoS attacks. As a result of this experiment, we prove that our proposed method quickly detects a spoofed IP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of digital forgeries has become more and more serious in various fields like entertainment, digital forensics, and journalism. This paper proposes a self-embedding watermarking scheme for the restoration of an image after tampering by digital forgery. In this study, an absolute moment block truncation coding image was used as a watermark, in which the image was a compressed version of the original cover image and contained the content features of the cover image. Therefore, it was perfectly possible to perform self-embedding. The watermark was embedded using the LSB and 2LSB for the pixels of the cover image. This procedure made it possible to recover the original watermarked image from a tampered watermarked image. Furthermore, there was no problem in reconstructing it when the rate of tampering was more than 80%. In addition, we verified our proposed self-embedding scheme through an experiment. As a result of the experiment, the recovered image showed good perceptual quality compared to that of the previous scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]