The Study on RFID Security Method for Entrance Guard System

The RFID technology has been used by industries in recent years, for examples, replacing the traditional two-dimensional barcode, logistics management, military applications, identification. In fact, RFID technology has become one of the new killer technologies. The RFID uses radio frequency to convey information which involves, however, many security problems; Current RFID guidelines do not present solutions to these security problems. The methods put forward in published paper fail to offer complete solutions, either. This study identifies RFID security method for Entrance Guard system. The algorithms used include Hash, AES, random values, XOR four item technology, and use the three-way authentication structure to solve the safety problems of the certification of Entrance Guard system. The experiment showed the algorithms provided better protection on the current RFID systems against attack methods such as Eavesdropping, Traceability, Spoofing and Replay attacking

Multiple Tiny Ectopic Sebaceous Glands Discovered Throughout Entire Esophageal Tract

A 45-year-old woman complaining of abdominal fullness was referred for endoscopic examination. She was a non-smoker and non-drinker. An endoscopic examination revealed the presence of more than 100 tiny, rounded, elevated, yellowish lesions < 0.5 mm in diameter scattered throughout the upper and lower esophagus. Based on the endoscopic examination results, her stomach manifested symptoms of mildly superficial gastritis. Histopathologic examination of the esophagus biopsy specimen revealed that some of the lobules of the cells displayed typical sebaceous differentiation covered by a squamous epithelium. No evidence of inflammatory reaction, hair follicles, or malignancy was found. The patient's blood and serum findings were unremarkable. Our final diagnosis was multiple tiny ectopic sebaceous glands in the esophagus. This is an interesting and rare case of esophageal sebaceous glands distributed throughout the entire esophagus. Because there were no esophageal symptoms or/and eating problems, the patient did not require endoscopic surgery or other treatment. Follow-up examinations were recommended at intervals between 6 months and 1 year. At the 2-year follow-up, an endoscopic examination revealed no change in the size or the number of the tiny ectopic esophageal sebaceous glands

Cost-effectiveness of Clinical Pathway in Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery

Few studies have been devoted to the exploration of the effect of clinical pathways on coronary artery diseases treated with coronary artery bypass (CAB) surgery. This study was aimed to investigate the cost and effectiveness of the clinical pathway on CAB surgery in a medical center. With a retrospective dataset in 2003-2007, 212 CAB surgery patients were included. Data of the costs and postoperative complication occurrence and length of stays were the focus and patient demographics, surgical risk indicator EuroSCORE, surgical conditions were collected. It revealed that there was differentiation across specified cost items in beating heart CAB surgery patients, but not for heart arrest CAB surgery patients with and without clinical pathways enrolled. In addition, there was no difference in postoperative complication occurrence in CAB surgery patients enrolled into clinical pathways. However, robotic beating heart CAB surgery patients enrolled clinical pathways were shown to have less postoperative ordinary ward stay than those not enrolled clinical pathways. CAB surgery patients' age and surgical risks were related to their postoperative lengths of stay to some extent

In vitro shoot induction and plant regeneration from flower buds in Paphiopedilum orchids

Paphiopedilum species are recalcitrant in tissue culture, and no explant from mature plants has been successfully mass propagated in vitro. This study was aimed at inducing shoots and regenerating plants from the flowering plants of a sequentially flowering Paphiopedilum Deperle and a single floral Paphiopedilum Armeni White. By using cross-sectioned flower buds (FBs), we found that in both species, only sections that contained the base tissue of FBs were able to produce shoots and plants. We have also found that sections of FBs between 1.5 and 3.0 cm from Paphiopedilum Deperle were able to produce shoots, but only sections of FBs > 2.5 cm from Paphiopedilum Armeni White were regenerable. Our microscopic observations revealed that the small bract at the FB base harbored a new miniature FB, which further harbored a primitive FB with dome-shaped meristem-like tissues that presumably led to the plant induction. The reiteration of this pattern resulted in a scorpioid cyme inflorescence architecture in the multifloral Paphiopedilum species, and its failure to reiterate resulted in a single flower. The induction rates were 57-75%, and all plants survived in a greenhouse. This method is potentially applicable for the micropropagation and conservation of slipper orchids

Application of simulation technique on debris flow hazard zone delineation: a case study in the Daniao tribe, Eastern Taiwan

Typhoon Morakot struck Taiwan in August 2009 and induced considerable disasters, including large-scale landslides and debris flows. One of these debris flows was experienced by the Daniao tribe in Taitung, Eastern Taiwan. The volume was in excess of 500 000 m(3), which was substantially larger than the original design mitigation capacity. This study considered large-scale debris flow simulations in various volumes at the same area by using the DEBRIS-2D numerical program. The program uses the generalized Julien and Lan (1991) rheological model to simulate debris flows. In this paper, the sensitivity factor considered on the debris flow spreading is the amount of the debris flow initial volume. These simulated results in various amounts of debris flow initial volume demonstrated that maximal depths of debris flows were almost deposited in the same area, and also revealed that a 20% variation in estimating the amount of total volume at this particular site results in a 2.75% variation on the final front position. Because of the limited watershed terrain, the hazard zones of debris flows were not expanded. Therefore, the amount of the debris flow initial volume was not sensitive

Essential role of PKC delta in histone deacetylase inhibitor-induced Epstein-Barr virus reactivation in nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells

Histone deactylase inhibitors (HDACi) are common chemotherapeutic agents that stimulate Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) reactivation; the detailed mechanism remains obscure. In this study, it is demonstrated that PKC delta is required for induction of the EBV lytic cycle by HDACi. Inhibition of PKC delta abrogates HDACi-mediated transcriptional activation of the Zta promoter and downstream lytic gene expression. Nuclear translocation of PKC delta is observed following HDACi stimulation and its overexpression leads to progression of the EBV lytic cycle. Our study suggests that PKC delta is a crucial mediator of EBV reactivation and provides a novel insight to study the regulation of the EBV lytic cycle

Induced circular dichroism of stereoregular vinyl polymers

Stereoregular vinyl polymers, poly(2-vinyl pyridine)s (P2VPs), were synthesized to examine the tacticity effect on the induced circular dichroism (ICD) via association with chiral acids. The ICD was found to be strongly dependent on the isotacticity of the P2VPs and the acidity of chiral acid in addition to its bulkiness

High-throughput avian molecular sexing by SYBR green-based real-time PCR combined with melting curve analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Combination of <it>CHD </it>(chromo-helicase-DNA binding protein)-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with electrophoresis (PCR/electrophoresis) is the most common avian molecular sexing technique but it is lab-intensive and gel-required. Gender determination often fails when the difference in length between the PCR products of <it>CHD-Z </it>and <it>CHD-W </it>genes is too short to be resolved.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here, we are the first to introduce a PCR-melting curve analysis (PCR/MCA) to identify the gender of birds by genomic DNA, which is gel-free, quick, and inexpensive. <it>Spilornis cheela hoya </it>(<it>S. c. hoya</it>) and <it>Pycnonotus sinensis </it>(<it>P. sinensis</it>) were used to illustrate this novel molecular sexing technique. The difference in the length of <it>CHD </it>genes in <it>S. c. hoya </it>and <it>P. sinensis </it>is 13-, and 52-bp, respectively. Using Griffiths' P2/P8 primers, molecular sexing failed both in PCR/electrophoresis of <it>S. c. hoya </it>and in PCR/MCA of <it>S. c. hoya </it>and <it>P. sinensis</it>. In contrast, we redesigned sex-specific primers to yield 185- and 112-bp PCR products for the <it>CHD-Z </it>and <it>CHD-W </it>genes of <it>S. c. hoya</it>, respectively, using PCR/MCA. Using this specific primer set, at least 13 samples of <it>S. c. hoya </it>were examined simultaneously and the Tm peaks of <it>CHD-Z </it>and <it>CHD-W </it>PCR products were distinguished.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In this study, we introduced a high-throughput avian molecular sexing technique and successfully applied it to two species. This new method holds a great potential for use in high throughput sexing of other avian species, as well.</p

A high performance dye-sensitized solar cell with a novel nanocomposite film of PtNP/MWCNT on the counter electrode

An imide-functionalized material, poly(oxyethylene)-segmented polymer, was synthesized from the reaction of poly(oxyethylene) diamine of 2000 g mol(-1) M(w) and 4,4'-oxydiphthalic anhydride and used to disperse hybrid nanomaterials of platinum nanoparticles and multi-wall carbon nanotubes (PtNP/MWCNT). The composite material was spin-coated into film and further prepared as the counter electrode (PtNP/MWCNT-CE) for a dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). The short-circuit current density (J(SC)) and power-conversion efficiency (eta) of the DSSC with PtNP/MWCNT-CE were found to be 18.01 +/- 0.91 mA cm(-2) and 8.00 +/- 0.23%, respectively, while the corresponding values were 14.62 +/- 0.19 mA cm(-2) and 6.92 +/- 0.07% for a DSSC with a bare platinum counter electrode (Pt-CE). The presence and distribution of PtNP/MWCNT on the CE were characterized by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The attachment of PtNPs on MWCNTs was observed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Cyclic voltammetry (CV), incident-photo-to-current efficiency (IPCE) and electrochemical impedance spectra (EIS) were correlated to explain the efficacy of this nanocomposite system

C-reactive protein, sodium azide, and endothelial connexin43 gap junctions

We investigated the effect of C-reactive protein (CRP) and sodium azide (NaN(3)) on endothelial Cx43 gap junctions. Human aortic endothelial cells (HAEC) were treated with (a) detoxified CRP, (b) detoxified dialyzed CRP, (c) detoxified dialyzed CRP plus NaN(3), (d) NaN(3), or (e) dialyzed NaN(3). The concentration of CRP in all preparations was fixed to 25 mu g/ml and that of NaN(3) in the preparations of (c) to (e) was equivalent to that contained in the 25 mu g/ml CRP purchased commercially. The results showed that both the expression of Cx43 protein and gap junctional communication function post-48-h incubation were reduced and inhibited by the detoxified CRP, NaN(3), or detoxified dialyzed CRP plus NaN(3), but not by the detoxified dialyzed CRP or dialyzed NaN(3). Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction analysis of cells treated for 72 h also showed a pattern of transcriptional regulation essentially the same as that for the proteins. We concluded that CRP does not have a significant effect on Cx43 gap junctions of HAEC, but NaN(3) inhibited the viability of cells and downregulate their junctions