A Label Graph Based Verifiable Secret Sharing Scheme for General Access Structures

Ching-Fang Hsu,Bing Zeng,Qi Cheng 한국통신학회 2013 Journal of communications and networks Vol.15 No.4

Secret sharing is that a dealer distributes a piece of information (called a share) about a secret to each participant such that authorized subsets of participants can reconstruct the secret but unauthorized subsets of participants cannot determine the secret. In this paper, an access structure can be represented by a label graph G, where a vertex denotes a participant and a complete subgraph of G corresponds to a minimal authorized subset. The vertices of G are labeled into distinct vectors uniquely determined by themaximum prohibited structure. Based on such a label graph, a verifiable secret sharing scheme realizing general access structures is proposed. A major advantage of this scheme is that it applies to any access structure, rather than only structures representable as previous graphs, i.e., the access structures of rank two. Furthermore, verifiability of the proposed scheme can resist possible internal attack performed by malicious participants, who want to obtain additional shares or provide a fake share to other participants.

A Label Graph Based Verifiable Secret Sharing Scheme for General Access Structures

Hsu, Ching-Fang,Zeng, Bing,Cheng, Qi The Korea Institute of Information and Commucation 2013 Journal of communications and networks Vol.15 No.4

Secret sharing is that a dealer distributes a piece of information (called a share) about a secret to each participant such that authorized subsets of participants can reconstruct the secret but unauthorized subsets of participants cannot determine the secret. In this paper, an access structure can be represented by a label graph G, where a vertex denotes a participant and a complete subgraph of G corresponds to a minimal authorized subset. The vertices of G are labeled into distinct vectors uniquely determined by the maximum prohibited structure. Based on such a label graph, a verifiable secret sharing scheme realizing general access structures is proposed. A major advantage of this scheme is that it applies to any access structure, rather than only structures representable as previous graphs, i.e., the access structures of rank two. Furthermore, verifiability of the proposed scheme can resist possible internal attack performed by malicious participants, who want to obtain additional shares or provide a fake share to other participants.

Scaling up the in-hospital hepatitis C virus care cascade in Taiwan

( Chung-feng Huang ),( Pey-fang Wu ),( Ming-lun Yeh ),( Ching-i Huang ),( Po-cheng Liang ),( Cheng-ting Hsu ),( Po-yao Hsu ),( Hung-yin Liu ),( Ying-chou Huang ),( Zu-yau Lin ),( Shinn-cherng Chen ),( 대한간학회 2021 Clinical and Molecular Hepatology(대한간학회지) Vol.27 No.1

Background/Aims: Obstacles exist in facilitating hepatitis C virus (HCV) care cascade. To increase timely and accurate diagnosis, disease awareness and accessibility, in-hospital HCV reflex testing followed by automatic appointments and a late call-back strategy (R.N.A. model) was applied. We aimed to compare the HCV treatment rate of patients treated with this strategy compared to those without. Methods: One hundred and twenty-five anti-HCV seropositive patients who adopted the R.N.A. model in 2020 and another 1,396 controls treated in 2019 were enrolled to compare the gaps in accurate HCV RNA diagnosis to final treatment allocation. Results: The HCV RNA testing rate was significantly higher in patients who received reflex testing than in those without reflex testing (100% vs. 84.8%, P<0.001). When patients were stratified according to the referring outpatient department, a significant improvement in the HCV RNA testing rate was particularly noted in patients from non-hepatology departments (100% vs. 23.3%, P<0.001). The treatment rate in HCV RNA seropositive patients was 83% (83/100) after the adoption of the R.N.A. model, among whom 96.1% and 73.9% of patients were from the hepatology and non-hepatology departments, respectively. Compared to subjects without R.N.A. model application, a significant improvement in the treatment rate was observed for patients from non-hepatology departments (73.9% vs. 27.8%, P=0.001). The application of the R.N.A. model significantly increased the in-hospital HCV treatment uptake from 6.4% to 73.9% for patients from non-hepatology departments (P<0.001). Conclusions: The care cascade increased the treatment uptake and set up a model for enhancing in-hospital HCV elimination. (Clin Mol Hepatol 2021;27:136-143)

Concrete crack rehabilitation using biological enzyme

How-Ji Chen,Pang-Hsu Tai,Ching-Fang Peng,Ming-Der Yang 사단법인 한국계산역학회 2017 Computers and Concrete, An International Journal Vol.19 No.4

Concrete is a material popularly used in construction. Due to the load-bearing and external environmental factors during utilization or manufacturing, its surface is prone to flaws, such as crack and leak. To repair these superficial defects and ultimately and avoid the deterioration of the concrete’s durability, numerous concrete surface protective coatings and crack repair products have been developed. Currently, studies are endeavoring to exploit the mineralization property of microbial strains for repairing concrete cracks be the repairing material for crack rehabilitation. This research aims to use bacteria, specifically B. pasteurii, in crack rehabilitation to enhance the flexural and compression strength of the repaired concrete. Serial tests at various bacterial concentrations and the same Urea-CaCl2 medium concentration of 70% for crack rehabilitation were executed. The results prove that the higher the concentration of the bacterial broth, the greater the amount of calcium carbonate precipitate was induced, while using B. pasteurii broth was for crack rehabilitation. The flexural and compression strengths of the repaired concrete test samples were the greatest at 100% bacterial concentration. Compared to the control group (bacterial concentration of 0%), the flexural strength had increased by 32.58% for 1-mm crack samples and 51.01% for 2-mm crack samples, and the compression strength had increased by 28.58% and 23.85%, respectively. From the SEM and XRD test results, a greater quantity of rectangular and polygonal crystals was also found in samples with high bacterial concentrations. These tests all confirm that using bacteria in crack rehabilitation can increase the flexural and compression strength of the repaired concrete.

An Unusual Radiologic Pattern of Cryptogenic Organizing Pneumonia: Diffuse Pulmonary Nodules in a Leukemia Patient

Kai-Hsiung Ko,Hsian-He Hsu,Woei-Yau Kao,Ching-Feng Chang,Ming-Fang Cheng,Guo-Shu Huang 대한영상의학회 2009 Korean Journal of Radiology Vol.10 No.1

The radiological appearance of diffuse discrete pulmonary nodules associated with cryptogenic organizing pneumonia (COP) has been rarely described. We describe a case of COP in 49-year-old woman with acute myeloid leukemia who developed diffuse pulmonary nodules during the second course of induction chemotherapy. The clinical status of the patient and imaging findings suggested the presence of a pulmonary metastasis or infectious disease. A video-assisted thoracoscopic lung biopsy resulted in the unexpected diagnosis of COP as an isolated entity. Steroid therapy led to dramatic improvement of the clinical symptoms and the pulmonary lesions. The radiological appearance of diffuse discrete pulmonary nodules associated with cryptogenic organizing pneumonia (COP) has been rarely described. We describe a case of COP in 49-year-old woman with acute myeloid leukemia who developed diffuse pulmonary nodules during the second course of induction chemotherapy. The clinical status of the patient and imaging findings suggested the presence of a pulmonary metastasis or infectious disease. A video-assisted thoracoscopic lung biopsy resulted in the unexpected diagnosis of COP as an isolated entity. Steroid therapy led to dramatic improvement of the clinical symptoms and the pulmonary lesions.

The Effect of a Scenario-Based Spiritual Care Course on Spiritual Care Competence among Clinical Nurses

Suh-Ing Hsieh,Li-Ling Hsu,Hui-Ling Lin,Chen-Yi Kao,Yi-Ping Tseng,Li-Yun Szu,Ching-Yun Lee,Lun-Hui Ho,Shu-Ling Yeh,Shu-Hua Kao,Yen-Fang Chou,Tzu-Hsin Huang 한국성인간호학회 2021 성인간호학회 학술대회 Vol.2021 No.8

Aim(s): Clinical nurses are facing patients’ biopsychosocial and spiritual problems at diverse clinical settings, but they are lack of knowledge, skills, and confidence on providing spiritual care. However, no studies adopted simulated educational program and objective structure clinical examination (OSCE) to educate nurses and to assess the outcomes. Therefore, this study was to validate the effect of a scenario-based spiritual care course on spiritual care competence in clinical nurses. Methods: This non-equivalent quasi-experimental study with a pre-test and two post-tests (end of the intervention and three months later) was conducted between August 2019 and February 2021 (11 sessions). The recruitment posters with a QR code were distributed to different units at three branches of a large medical institute for recruiting clinical nurses, who provided direct patient care. The attendees of one-day scenario-based spiritual care course are the experimental group (n=53) and the control group (n=85) was matched with the experimental group (1:1-3 ratio) by similar units, ages, working experience, and clinical ladder. Instruments include basic information, self-evaluated and head nurses evaluated spiritual care competence scale (SCCS), spiritual perspective scale (SPS), and spiritual care perspective scale-revised (SCPSR) for both groups and reflective log, course satisfaction scale, OSCE checklist, and standardized patient feedback scale for the experimental group. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, repeated measures ANOVA, linear regression, and paired t test. Results: After controlling for pre-test scores and interest in attending spirituality/spiritual care, the experimental group showed significant higher SPS (p=0.012) and self-evaluated SCCS (p=0.002) and lower SCPSR (p=0.015) than the control group at the 2nd post-test. Repeated measure ANOVA also showed significant within-subject effects across three time points of the experimental group on SPS (p<0.001), SCPSR (p<0.001), and self-evaluated SCCS (p<0.001), but paired t test showed non-significant differences on SPS, SCPSR, and self-evaluated SCCS between pre-test and post-test with an exception of head nurse evaluated SCCS (p=0.035). The mean overall course satisfaction of the experimental group was 4.34±0.62. The mean global performance of OSCE was 3.40±0.91 and the majority of experimental group was pass (43.4%) and good (35.8%). 64.5% and 26.1% of standardized patients were partial and strongly agreed with examinees’ performance in spiritual care assessment respectively. Conclusions: The scenario-based spiritual care course is effectively to enhance clinical nurses’ spiritual care competence. It may cultivate clinical preceptors with better spiritual care pedagogy through simulation and OSCE for bedside teaching of nurse post-graduate year.

Safety and Efficacy of Adalimumab for Patients With Moderate to Severe Crohn`s Disease: The Taiwan Society of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (TSIBD) Study

( Chen Wang Chang ),( Shu Chen Wei ),( Jen Wei Chou ),( Tzu Chi Hsu ),( Chiao Hsiung Chuang ),( Ching Pin Lin ),( Wen Hung Hsu ),( Hsu Heng Yen ),( Jen Kou Lin ),( Yi Jen Fang ),( Horng Yuan Wang ),( 대한장연구학회 2014 Intestinal Research Vol.12 No.4

Background/Aims: Only moderate to severe Crohn`s Disease (CD) patients without a satisfactory conventional therapy effect are eligible to get reimbursement from the National Health Insurance of Taiwan for using adalimumab. These are more stringent criteria than in many Western countries and Japan and Korea. We aim to explore the efficacy of using adalimumab in CD patients under such stringent criteria. Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted in nine medical centers in Taiwan and we collected the results of CD patients receiving adalimumab from Sep 2009 to Mar 2014. The clinical characteristics, response measured by CDAI (Crohn`s Disease Activity Index), adverse events and survival status were recorded and analyzed. CR-70, CR-100, and CR-150 were defined as attaining a CDAI decrease of 70, 100 or 150 points compared with baseline. Results: A total of 103 CD patient records were used in this study. Sixty percent of these patients received combination therapy of adalimumab together with immunomodulators. CR-70 was 68.7%, 74.5% and 88.4% after week 4, 8 and 12 of treatment, respectively. The steroid-free rate, complications and survival were 47.6%, 9.7% and 99% of patients, respectively. In considering the mucosal healing, only 25% patients achieve mucosal healing after treatment for 6 to12 months. Surgery was still needed in 16.5% of patients. Combination treatment of adalimumab with immunomodulators further decreased the level of CDAI at week 8 when compared with the monotherapy. Conclusions: Even under the stringent criteria for using adalimumab, the response rate was comparable to those without stringent criteria. (Intest Res 2014;12:287-292)

Core prescription pattern of Chinese herbal medicine for depressive disorders in Taiwan: a nationwide population-based study

Diem Ngoc Hong Tran,I-Hsuan Hwang,Fun-Jou Chen,Yuan-Pu Tseng,Ching-Mao Chang,Shih-Jen Tsai,Jen-Lin Yang,Ta-Peng Wu,Chung-Hua Hsu,Fang-Pey Chen,Yen-Ying Kung 한국한의학연구원 2021 Integrative Medicine Research Vol.10 No.3

Background: Depressive disorders (DD) affect not only mood and behavior but also various physical functions. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been shown to have some benefits in treating DD. However, one formula or one single herb might be not show high efficacy when used to treat depression. Thus, this study aimed to examine the core prescription pattern of Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) among patients with DD in Taiwan as a reference for related research and clinical applications. Methods: All patients, who had been diagnosed with major depressive disorder or minor depression or dysthymia without any other baseline diseases and had at least one CHM outpatient clinical visit from 2002 to 2011, were extracted from three randomly sampled cohorts, namely the 2000, 2005 and 2010 cohorts of the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) of Taiwan. The collected data was analyzed to explore the patterns of herbal products. Results: There were 197,146 patients with a diagnosis of DD and of these 1806 subjects had only a diagnosis of DD and utilized CHM. The most common formula was Gan-Mai-Da-Zao-Tang (12.19%), while Suan-Zao-Ren (3.99%) was the most commonly prescribed single herb. The core pattern of prescriptions consisted of a combination of Gan-Mai-Da-Zao-Tang, Jia-Wei-Xiao-Yao-San, Chai-Hu-Jia-Long-Gu-Mu-Li-Tang, He-Huan-Pi, Yuan-Zhi and Shi-Chang-Pu. Conclusions: This study describes the CHM core prescription pattern used to treat patients in Taiwan with DD and it is a potential candidate for study in future pharmacological or clinical trials targeting DD.