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Spinal myoclonus following neuraxial anesthesia is rare. This report describes a case of myoclonus-like involuntary movement that occurred during the recovery from epidural anesthesia for a cesarean delivery. The patient's symptom improved with the administration of benzodiazepine, and the patient recovered with no neurological sequelae. In conclusion, epidural anesthesia can cause spinal myoclonus, which can be treated with a benzodiazepine.

The directed self-assembly (DSA) of block copolymers (BCPs) has emerged as an alternative method to replace or complement conventional photolithography as a result of the approximately 10 nm scale of microdomain ordering, the variety of microstructures that can be obtained and its compatibility with current lithographic processes. In DSA, BCP microdomains are controlled via guide patterns and two main techniques are popular: graphoepitaxy and chemoepitaxy assembly. We have demonstrated a simple and feasible technology for a DSA process by combining graphoepitaxy with “inexpensive” chemoepitaxial assembly to improve the alignment of the lamellar microdomains. For chemoepitaxial assembly, the hexagonal surface patterns from cross-linkable, cylinder-forming BCP were used to guide the graphoepitaxial assembly of the overlying BCP lamellar film. When the guiding patterns were prepared on the hexagonal patterns, it was found that the degree of lamellar alignment was significantly improved compared with the lamellar alignment on the homogeneous neutral layers. Simulation results suggested that the underlying hexagonal pattern can assist the lamellar alignment by reducing the large number of orientation states of the lamellar layers. This strategy is applicable to various nanofabrication processes that require a high degree of fidelity in controlling the nanopatterns over large areas with reduced costs.

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a primary cause of mortality and morbidity in dialysis patients. However, it is difficult to select the proper point for coronary angiographic procedure, because dialysis patients frequently do not display typical symptoms. Vascular calcification (VC) scores of artery or aorta on plain radiographs are associated with CAD events and may be predictive of CAD in dialysis patients. Therefore, we evaluated whether high or meaningful VC scores on plain radiographs are related with the severity of lesions detected by coronary angiography (CAG) in dialysis patients. We retrospectively enrolled dialysis patients who underwent CAG and checked several plain radiographs within one year before or after CAG. Significant VC is defined as high or meaningful VC scores, such as long abdominal aortic calcification and medial artery calcification on feet. Of all 55 patients, 41 patients (74.5%) exhibited significant VC on plain radiographs and 23 patients (41.8%) underwent stent insertion. Among the 23 patients, longer stents were used in 18 patients with significant VC (34.1 ± 19.5 mm vs. 16.6 ± 15.2 mm, P = 0.029). Patients with significant VC showed higher prevalence rate of severe coronary artery calcification (P = 0.007) and diffuse/tubular stenosis (P = 0.012), detected by CAG, than those without significant VC. Thus, high or meaningful VC scores on plain radiographs were associated with the degree of calcification or stenosis detected by CAG. In conclusion, VC scores on plain radiographs may be predictive of calcification or stenosis of coronary artery before CAG in dialysis patients.

Diabetic nephropathy is the leading cause of end-stage renal disease and is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events. Dietary omega-3 fatty acid (FA) has cardioprotective effect and is associated with a slower deterioration of albumin excretion in patients with diabetic nephropathy. In this study, we evaluated the effect of omega-3 FA on proteinuria in diabetic nephropathy patients who are controlling blood pressure (BP) with angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEi) or angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB). In addition, we identified changes in erythrocyte membrane FA contents. A total of 19 patients who were treated with ACEi or ARB for at least 6 months were treated for 12 weeks with omega-3 FA (Omacor, 3 g/day) or a control treatment (olive oil, 3 g/day). Proteinuria levels were unchanged after 12 weeks compared with baseline values in both groups. The erythrocyte membrane contents of omega-3 FA and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) were significantly increased, and oleic acid, arachidonic acid : EPA ratio, and omega-6 : omega-3 FA ratio were significantly decreased after 12 weeks compared with the baseline values in the omega-3 FA group. Although omega-3 FA did not appear to alter proteinuria, erythrocyte membrane FA contents, including oleic acid, were altered by omega-3 FA supplementation.

Introduction Initial lactate level, lactate clearance, C-reactive protein, and procalcitonin in critically ill patients with sepsis are associated with hospital mortality. However, no study has yet discovered which factor is most important for mortality in severe sepsis patients with lactic acidosis. We sought to clarify this issue in patients with lactic acidosis who were supplementing with sodium bicarbonate. Materials and Methods Data were collected from a single center between May 2011 and April 2014. One hundred nine patients with severe sepsis and lactic acidosis who were supplementing with sodium bicarbonate were included. Results The 7-day mortality rate was 71.6%. The survivors had higher albumin levels and lower SOFA, APACHE II scores, vasopressor use, and follow-up lactate levels at an elapsed time after their initial lactate levels were checked. In particular, a decrement in lactate clearance of at least 10% for the first 6 hours, 24 hours, and 48 hours of treatment was more dominant among survivors than non-survivors. Although the patients who were treated with broad-spectrum antibiotics showed higher illness severity than those who received conventional antibiotics, there was no significant mortality difference. 6-hour, 24-hour, and 48-hour lactate clearance (HR: 4.000, 95% CI: 1.309–12.219, P = 0.015) and vasopressor use (HR: 4.156, 95% CI: 1.461–11.824, P = 0.008) were significantly associated with mortality after adjusting for confounding variables. Conclusions Lactate clearance at a discrete time point seems to be a more reliable prognostic index than initial lactate value in severe sepsis patients with lactic acidosis who were supplementing with sodium bicarbonate. Careful consideration of vasopressor use and the initial application of broad-spectrum antibiotics within the first 48 hours may be helpful for improving survival, and further study is warranted.

Immunoglobulin A (IgA) nephropathy can be complicated by the nephrotic syndrome in rare cases. Although corticosteroid therapy should be recommended in such cases, the response to steroid treatment has been variable, and spontaneous remission also has been reported without steroid treatment in some cases. We report a retrospective analysis of our experience on the clinical outcomes of nephrotic syndrome in patients with IgA nephropathy, in the nephrology department of a provincial hospital in South Korea. Thirty-three patients with biopsy-proven IgA nephropathy with nephrotic syndrome were enrolled between March 1990 and March 2013. We analyzed data according to demographic, clinical, and laboratory records. The mean follow-up duration was 62 ± 45 months (10–204) in 33 patients. Complete remission occurred in 10 steroid-users and two steroid-nonusers. Partial remission occurred in seven steroid-users, and eight steroid-nonusers. During follow-up, six patients showed progressive deterioration of renal function. Among the IgA nephropathy patients with nephrotic syndrome, 36% and 45% of patients had complete and partial remission, respectively. Steroid treatment may effectively reduce proteinuria. However, spontaneous remission occurs in some cases.

The relationship between body fat mass and vitamin D appears to vary by ethnicity, but our understanding of this predisposition in Asians is limited due to the scarcity of prior investigations. Data on 1,697 Korean adults were obtained from the second and third years (2008-2009) of the fourth Korean National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey. Body fat mass was measured using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Both linear regression analysis for serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] and logistic analysis for vitamin D deficiency [25(OH)D20 ng/mL] were performed to determine significant predictors among BMI, waist circumference (WC), and body fat percentage (BF), after adjustment of multiple covariates. To explore a possible non-linear relationship between them, the fractional polynomials method was used. All analyses were conducted following stratification by sex. In linear regression analysis, BMI and WC were not associated with 25(OH)D. However, BF was inversely related to 25(OH)D, irrespective of the fat location (both appendicular and truncal fat) in both sexes. In logistic regression analysis, the highest quartile group of BF had a greater OR for vitamin D deficiency than the lower quartile groups, irrespective of the fat location and sex. However, the quartiles of BMI and WC were not associated with vitamin D deficiency. The linear relationships between BF and 25(OH)D (or vitamin D deficiency) were confirmed despite use of the fractional polynomials method. Body fat mass is inversely associated with serum 25(OH)D in Korean adults. Monitoring of vitamin D deficiency in Korean adults with high fat mass is needed.體脂肪與維生素D 的相關性受到種族的影響，但由於先前研究的缺乏，這個 論點在亞洲人仍未確認。來自於第四次韓國國家健康與營養調查的第二及第三 年(2008-2009)的1697 名韓國成人資料納入本研究。體脂肪量是以雙能量X 光 吸收儀測量的。以直線迴歸分析血清25-羥維生素 D[25(OH)D]，及以邏輯斯迴 歸分析維生素D 缺乏[25(OH)D20 ng/mL]，以評估校正多種共變項後， BMI、腰圍或體脂肪是否為顯著預測因子。以分數多項式法探究它們之間可能 的非線性關係。所有的分析以性別分層。線性迴歸分析結果，BMI 及腰圍與 25(OH)D 沒有相關性。然而，男女性的體脂肪與25(OH)D 為負相關，並與脂 肪部位(四肢及軀幹脂肪)無關。由邏輯斯迴歸分析結果指出，最高四分位的體 脂肪組比起最低四分位組，有較高的維生素D 缺乏風險，與脂肪部位及性別 無關。然而，BMI 及腰圍的四分位與維生素D 缺乏沒有相關性。即使用分數 多項式法分析，體脂肪與25(OH)D(或是維生素D 缺乏)間的直線相關仍然存 在。韓國成人的體脂肪量與血清25(OH)D 呈現負相關。因此有必要監測高體 脂肪量的韓國成人之維生素D 缺乏。

Leptin, which is encoded by the obese gene, is a multifunctional neuroendocrine peptide that regulates appetite, bone formation, reproductive function and angiogenesis. The aims of the present study were to investigate the expression of leptin in 80 patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) and to determine the effects of leptin on the malignant properties of CRC cells. We evaluated the expression of leptin in tissues of 80 patients with CRC. Suspension cultures were used to isolate CRC stem cells following pretreatment with leptin. We analyzed the effects of leptin on the adhesion and invasive capacities of CRC cell lines. The effects of leptin on JAK and ERK activation were examined using western blotting. Leptin expression was associated with CRC progression and increased the number and size of spheroid formation by CRC cell lines. Leptin enhanced cell invasion and adhesion and activated JAK and ERK signaling in the CRC cell lines. The present study demonstrated that leptin influences the growth and survival of CRC stem cells and regulates adhesion and invasion of colorectal carcinoma through activation of the JAK and ERK signaling pathways.

We have developed a new type of enzyme-based glucose biosensor based on a dye couple system. A concentration dependence of glucose on a test strip containing physically adsorbed glucose oxidase, peroxidase and dye couple have been optically measured. The application of this method permits the exploitation of the biosensor during a period of more than 300 days.

The effects of the complexation of a metal ion with an azacrown indoaniline (ACIA) dye on absorption spectra were evaluated using the Pariser–Parr–Pople (PPP-MO) method. The ACIA dye carrying a monoazacrown moiety exhibited sensitivity to metal ion complexation using an optical sensor based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR). A multilayer sensing chip was prepared with the ACIA dye sensing layer coated on a gold layer. Using the ACIA dye as a metal ion sensing molecule, a highly selective response to Li+ was observed.

The complex formation of squarylium (SQ) and dithiosquarylium (DTSQ) dyes with Cu2+ and Ag+ was investigated spectrophotometrically. Their absorption spectra showed cation selective spectral intensity changes in the presence of specific metal ions in CH2Cl2–CH3CN due to cation complexing. Highly selective ion sensing film optodes for the determination of two kinds of ions, Cu2+and Ag+, were prepared with plasticized PVC–PVAc–PVA membranes containing the SQ or DTSQ dye.

The increasing usage of soft x-ray radiations due to the development of synchrotron radiation source and others demands varied optical manipulation in the soft x-ray spectral region. The phase manipulation is important because this leads to the control of the polarization state of a soft x-ray radiation. A new criterion for selecting material pairs for the maximum phase difference between the s and p polarization through a multilayer (ML) structure was proposed and tested theoretically. Transmission characteristics of ideal ML structures in the soft x-ray spectral region have been studied by simulation. The results have been applied to optimize ML structures for quarter-wave plates at 4.4 and 13 nm. It was found that Rh/Si and Co/K MLs are good candidates for quarter-wave plates at 13 and 4.4 nm, respectively.

Helicobacter pylori eradication rates with clarithromycin-based triple therapy are declining, and an alternative strategy is needed urgently. We sought to compare the efficacy of pretreatment antimicrobial susceptibility-guided vs. clarithromycin-based triple therapy for H. pylori eradication in a region with high rates of multiple drug resistance.Consecutive H. pylori-infected patients with gastric epithelial neoplasms were randomized to receive antimicrobial susceptibility-guided therapy or clarithromycin-based triple therapy for 7 days. In patients in whom the infection was not eradicated, antibiotics were given according to an initial antimicrobial susceptibility test as a second-line therapy in both groups. Eradication rates, antibiotics resistance rates, and drug compliance owing to adverse effects were compared between the groups.In total, 114 patients were enrolled, and 112 completed the protocols. Drug compliance and side effects were similar between the groups. The intention-to-treat eradication rates were 94.7% (95% confidence interval (CI)=88.8-100%, 54/57) in the antimicrobial susceptibility-guided group and 71.9% (95% CI=60.2-83.5%, 41/57) in the clarithromycin-based triple therapy group after the initial treatment (P=0.002), whereas the per-protocol (PP) eradication rates were 96.4% (95% CI=91.5-100%, 54/56) in the antimicrobial susceptibility-guided group and 73.2% (95% CI=61.5-84.8%, 41/56) in the clarithromycin-based triple therapy group (P=0.001). In H. pylori with clarithromycin resistance, the eradication failure rate with first-line treatment was lower in the susceptibility-guided therapy group (0%, 0/12) compared with the clarithromycin-based triple therapy group (80.0%, 95% CI=59.7-100%, 12/15) by PP analysis (P0.001).Pretreatment antimicrobial susceptibility-guided therapy is more effective than clarithromycin-based triple therapy for H. pylori eradication in a region with high rates of multiple drug resistance.

Acute kidney injury (AKI) treated with continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) is associated with poor outcome. Plasma B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) is a biomarker related to fluid volume overload, and is elevated in AKI patients. The purpose of the study was to assess whether BNP levels at the time of starting CRRT could be used as a predictor of mortality in patients with AKI receiving CRRT.We conducted a prospective observational cohort study enrolling 149 patients with AKI receiving CRRT. The primary outcome was mortality during CRRT.The median BNP level of 84 (56.3%) patients who expired was significantly higher than that of those who survived (1812.5 vs. 475.0 pg/mL; p = 0.01). Receiver operating characteristic curves demonstrated BNP levels as a predictor of mortality during CRRT with an area under the curve of 0.77 (p = 0.000), and the optimal threshold for BNP was 1054 pg/mL. Patients with BNP levels above 1054 pg/mL had a significantly higher mortality (76.6 vs. 34.7%; p = 0.01).Elevated BNP level is associated with mortality in patients with AKI receiving CRRT.

Background Anemia and vitamin D deficiency are both important health issues; however, the nature of the association between vitamin D and either hemoglobin or anemia remains unresolved in the general population. Methods Data on 11,206 adults were obtained from the fifth Korean National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey. A generalized additive model was used to examine the threshold level for relationship between serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] and hemoglobin levels. A multivariate logistic regression for anemia was conducted according to 25(OH)D quintiles. All analyses were stratified according to sex and menstrual status. Results The generalized additive model confirmed a threshold 25(OH)D level of 26.4 ng/mL (male, 27.4 ng/mL; premenopausal females, 11.8 ng/mL; postmenopausal females, 13.4 ng/mL). The threshold level affected the pattern of association between 25(OH)D and anemia risk: the odds ratio of the 1st quintile but not the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th quintiles were significantly different from the 5th quintile in both premenopausal and postmenopausal females, however there was no obvious trend in males. Conclusions This population-based study demonstrated a non-linear relationship with a threshold effect between serum 25(OH)D and hemoglobin levels in females. Further interventional studies are warranted to determine whether the appropriate level of hemoglobin can be achieved by the correction of vitamin D deficiency.

The prevalence rate of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is increasing worldwide, and cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a main cause of death in patients with CKD. The high incidence of CVD in CKD patients is related to chronic inflammation, dyslipidemia, malnutrition, atherosclerosis, and vascular calcification. Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (ω-3 PUFAs) have been shown to reduce the risk of CVD. In this paper, we review the beneficial effects ofω-3 PUFAs on CVD and the possible cardioprotective mechanisms ofω-3 PUFAs in CKD patients by determining the effect ofω-3 PUFAs in the general population.ω-3 PUFAs have several cardioprotective benefits, such as reducing inflammation, decreasing oxidative stress, inhibiting platelet activity, exerting antiarrhythmic effects, and improving triglyceride levels, in the general population and patients with CKD. Modifications of erythrocyte membrane fatty acid content, including an increasedω-3 index and decreased oleic acid, afterω-3 PUFAs supplementation are important changes related to CVD risk reduction in the general population and patients with CKD. Further basic and clinical studies are essential to confirm the effects ofω-3 PUFAs on vitamin D activation, vascular calcification prevention, cardiovascular events, and mortality in CKD patients.

Introduction Toxic heavy metals have adverse effects on human health. However, the risk of hematuria caused by heavy metal exposure has not been evaluated. Methods Data from 4701 Korean adults were obtained in the Korean National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey (2008–2010). Blood levels of the toxic heavy metals cadmium, lead, and mercury were measured. Hematuria was defined as a result of ≥+1 on a urine dipstick test. The odds ratios (ORs) for hematuria were measured according to the blood heavy metal levels after adjusting for multiple variables. Results Individuals with blood cadmium levels in the 3rd and 4th quartiles had a greater OR for hematuria than those in the 1st quartile group: 3rd quartile, 1.35 (1.019–1.777; P =0.037); 4th quartile, 1.52 (1.140–2.017; P =0.004). When blood cadmium was considered as a log-transformed continuous variable, the correlation between blood cadmium and hematuria was significant: OR, 1.97 (1.224–3.160; P trend =0.005). In contrast, no significant correlations between hematuria and blood lead or mercury were found in the multivariate analyses. Discussion The present study shows that high cadmium exposure is associated with a risk of hematuria.

The survival of patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis (PD) has improved over the past decade, but their mortality rate remains high. The aim of the current study was to identify correctable and uncorrectable factors influencing survival according to the elapsed time in patients undergoing PD. We retrospectively analyzed data from medical records of 118 patients who had undergone PD for >6 months. We analyzed laboratory findings at three time points (point of PD initiation, 6-month point of PD and 3-month point prior to death or last follow-up) during PD treatment and prescribed medications taken for >50% of the follow-up period. Three-year survival group was younger, had lower prevalence rates of ischemic heart disease (p = 0.024) and heart failure (HF) (8.5% vs. 34.6%, p = 0.003), higher serum albumin levels (albumin 2) at the 6-month point of PD, and higher serum albumin (albumin3) and creatinine (creatinine3) levels at the 3-month point prior to death or last follow-up than nonsurvival group. Patients without underlying HF, patients treated with angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin II receptor blockers during the last 6 months (p = 0.0042), and those having creatinine 3 >9.5 mg/dL (p = 0.0029), and albumin 2 (p = 0.0209) and albumin 3 >3.5 g/dL (p = 0.0003) showed significantly higher survival curves. HF and albumin 3 were found to be independent factors for 3-year survival and long-term survival, respectively, by the multivariate Cox regression model. In conclusion, HF was useful information for predicting 3-year survival, and low serum albumin levels according to elapsed time should be corrected for survival of PD patients.

Background/Aim: Diastolic dysfunction is frequently associated with left ventricular hypertrophy, which is indicative of future cardiovascular events. Vascular calcification (VC) is known to be associated with coronary artery disease in dialysis patients. The present study was to determine the interrelationship between LV diastolic dysfunction by tissue Doppler imaging and VC on plain radiographs in dialysis patients. Methods: Fifty-six dialysis patients were recruited and VC scores were evaluated by plain radiographic film. The ratio of early diastolic transmitral inflow velocity (E) to early diastolic mitral annular velocity (E′) was measured by tissue Doppler imaging. We defined diastolic dysfunction as an E/E′ ratio >15 on tissue Doppler imaging. Results: Patients with diastolic dysfunction showed a higher percentage of coronary artery disease history, abdominal aortic calcification (AAC) scores ≥5, high LV mass index, and high left atrium volume compared to patients without diastolic dysfunction. The E/E′ ratio was significantly higher in patients with significant VC, VC scores of the pelvis and hands ≥3, and AAC scores ≥5 on plain radiographs. AAC scores ≥5 were considered an independent predictor of diastolic dysfunction. Conclusion: VC on plain radiographs is associated with the E/E′ ratio and AAC scores ≥5 are important clues for LV diastolic dysfunction in dialysis patients.

These We accomplished truly scalable, low cost, arbitrarily large-area block copolymer lithography, synergistically integrating the two principles of graphoepitaxy and epitaxial self-assembly. Graphoepitaxy morphology composed of highly aligned lamellar block copolymer film that self-assembled within a disposable photoresist trench pattern was prepared by conventional I-line lithography and utilized as a chemical nanopatterning mask for the underlying substrate. After the block copolymer film and disposable photoresist layer were removed, the same lamellar block copolymer film was epitaxially assembled on the exposed chemically patterned substrate. Highly oriented lamellar morphology was attained without any trace of structure directing the photoresist pattern over an arbitrarily large area.

Nano-transfer printing is a soft-lithographic technique which allows the transfer of metal patterns deposited on a polymer stamp to different surfaces. The nano-transfer printing process allows various nanostructures to be formed without using sophisticated methods and expensive equipment. In the present work, we present the formation of gold micro- and nano-structures on a glass surface using a self-assembled monolayer as a transfer agent. A polydimethylsiloxane replica was fabricated from a master chip that has micro- and nano-meter size patterns. A thin gold layer was deposited on the replica stamp and the glass surface was modified with a self-assembled monolayer of 3-mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane, followed by the transfer of the gold patterns from the polydimethylsiloxane stamp to glass by simple contact printing. The patterns sp obtained were characterized using scanning electron microscopy and optical microscopy.

Radio frequency identification(RFID) systems are being used in many applications such as the supply chain. The widespread usage of tags creates new threats of security and privacy in RFID systems. Many schemes have been proposed to provide security and privacy, based on basic cryptographic primitives such as hash function and encryption algorithm. However, it may be a burden on a resource-constrained tag. As considering the requirements on a tag, we propose a lightweight mutual authentication scheme based on trapdoor one-way property and challenge/response approach. Even though the proposed scheme does not perform cryptograhic primitives, it guarantees security and privacy provided by the authentication schemes using cryptographic primitives. We expect this mutual authentication scheme to activate RFID systems in various applications.

All Various defects could be generated in bolts for a use of oil filters for the manufacturing process and then may affect to the safety and quality in bolts. Also, fine defects may be imbedded in oil filter system during multiple forging manufacturing processes. So it is very important that such defects be investigated and screened during the multiple manufacturing processes. Therefore, in order effectively to evaluate the fine defects, the design parameters for bobbin-types were selected under a finite element method (FEM) simulations and Eddy current testing (ECT). Especially the FEM simulations were performed to make characterization in the crack detection of the bolts and the parameters such as number of turns of the coil, the coil size and applied frequency were calculated based on the simulation results.

In this paper, we consider a multi-layer mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) composed of several kinds of networking units (such as ground soldiers, tanks, and unmanned aerial vehicles) with heterogeneous resources to communicate and compute. In this multi-layer MANET, we first propose a password-based authenticated group key exchange scheme with members' different passwords. The proposed scheme only requires constant-round to generate a group session key under the dynamic scenario, hence it is scalable, i.e., the overhead of key generation is independent of the size of a total group. We support the proposed scheme with formal security proof. Namely, our proposed scheme is the first constant-round password-based group key exchange with different passwords for the dynamic setting of MANET.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) system is an important technology in ubiquitous computing environment RFID system should be compatible with most RFID system applications to support the ubiquitous computing environment Recently, researchers had studied about RFID standardization After all, EPCglobal Class-1 Gen-2 (C1G2) RFID is selected as an international standard of RFID systems Unfortunately, it has fatal security problems to be vulnerable to information leakage and traceability since a tag of EPCglobal C1G2 emits its fixed ID(EPC) without hiding or modifying A main goal of our work is to propose the secure protocol well suitable for EPCglobal C1G2 First of all, our protocol exactly follows RFID standard with only current capabilities of a tag approved in the standard, assuring that our protocol is secure against impersonation, information leakage, and traceability etc.

RFID(Radio Frequency Identification) system will play a critical role providing widespread services in a ubiquitous environment. However, widespread use of RFID tags may create new threats to a consumer privacy such as information leakage and traceability. It is difficult to solve the problems because a tag has the limited computing power that lacks of supporting the general encryption. Although the scheme of [2] protects a consumer privacy using an external agent, a tag should perform exponential operation requiring high cost. We propose Self Re-Encryption Protocol(SREP) which provides strong privacy without help of any external agent. SREP is well suitable for low cost RFID systems since it only needs multiplication and exclusive-or operation.

RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology is expected to play a critical role in identifying articles and serving the growing need to combat counterfeiting and fraud. However, the use of RFID tags may cause privacy violation of people holding an RFID tag. The main privacy concerns are information leakage of a tag, traceabiltiy of the person and impersonation of a tag. In this paper, we study authentication as a method to protect privacy, especially for low-cost RFID systems, which have much restrictions in limited computing power, low die-size, and low power requirements. Therefore, cost effective means of authentication is needed to deal with these problems effectively. We propose an authentication protocol, LCAP, which needs only two one-way hash function operations and hence is quite efficient. Leakage of information is prevented in the scheme since a tag emits its identifier only after authentication. By refreshing a identifier of a tag in each session, the scheme also provides a location privacy and can recover lost massages from many attacks such as spoofing attacks.

Password-based authenticated group key exchange (denoted by PGKE) provides n parties holding a common human-memorable password with secure group communication. Most PGKE protocols proposed so far are inefficient since they require O(n) communication rounds where n is the number of group members. In the paper, we propose the first 2-round PGKE protocol with 3-exponentiations required per user and prove its security in the random oracle model and the ideal cipher model under the intractability of the decision Diffie-Hellman problem and computation Diffie-Hellman problem. The proposed protocol also provides forward secrecy.

Idiopathic membranous nephropathy (iMN) is a common cause of nephrotic syndrome in adults. A biomarker to accurately indicate the severity of iMN and predict long-term prognosis is insufficient. Here, we evaluated the clinical significance of circulating tumor necrosis factor receptors (cTNFRs) as prognostic biomarkers of iMN with nephrotic syndrome. A total of 113 patients with biopsy-proven iMN and 43 healthy volunteers were enrolled in this study. Ninety patients with iMN had nephrotic range proteinuria. Levels of cTNFRs were measured by using serum samples collected at the time of initial diagnosis. Levels of cTNFRs were higher in the patients with nephrotic syndrome than in those with subnephrotic range proteinuria or in the healthy volunteers (P for trend

Recently, Jung (2006), proposed an efficient group key agreement protocol over authenticated channel. In this letter, we present a critique of the protocol. In particular, we show that Jung's protocol is vulnerable to attacks of malicious insiders