Characterization of Protein Arginine Methyltransferases in Porcine Brain

Hung, Chien-Jen,Chen, Da-Huang,Shen, Yi-Ting,Li, Yi-Chen,Lin, Yi-Wei,Hsieh, Mingli,Li, Chuan Korean Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biol 2007 Journal of biochemistry and molecular biology Vol.40 No.5

Protein arginine methylation is a posttranslational modification involved in various cellular functions including cell signaling, protein subcellular localization and transcriptional regulation. We analyze the protein arginine methyltransferases (PRMTs) that catalyze the formation of methylarginines in porcine brain. We fractionated the brain extracts and determined the PRMT activities as well as the distribution of different PRMT proteins in subcellular fractions of porcine brain. The majority of the type I methyltransferase activities that catalyze the formation of asymmetric dimethylarginines was in the cytosolic S3 fraction. High specific activity of the methyltransferase was detected in the S4 fraction (high-salt stripping of the ultracentrifugation precipitant P3 fraction), indicating that part of the PRMT was peripherally associated with membrane and ribosomal fractions. The amount and distribution of PRMT1 are consistent with the catalytic activity. The elution patterns from gel filtration and anion exchange chromatography also indicate that the type I activity in S3 and S4 are mostly from PRMT1. Our results suggest that part of the type I arginine methyltransferases in brains, mainly PRMT1, are sequestered in an inactive form as they associated with membranes or large subcellular complexes. Our biochemical analyses confirmed the complex distribution of different PRMTs and implicate their regulation and catalytic activities in brain.

A Review of Electrically Tunable Focusing Liquid Crystal Lenses

Lin, Hung-Chun,Chen, Ming-Syuan,Lin, Yi-Hsin The Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic 2011 Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Material Vol.12 No.6

Electrically tunable focusing liquid crystal (LC) lenses are reviewed in this paper. The distribution of the orientations of LC directors which is controlled by electric fields results in a distribution of refractive indices of LC directors. The incident light can be modulated by the electrically tunable lens-like phase difference of the LC lens. We introduce the basic operating principles of LC lenses and discuss the structures of LC lenses. The major challenges of LC lenses are also discussed. We believe this paper provides a guideline for basic understanding of LC lenses.

Development of the Mandarin Phoneme Detection Score Sheet as a Screening Tool

Lin Chun-Yi,Hung Yu-Chen,Chang Hsiu-Wen 대한청각학회 2022 Journal of Audiology & Otology Vol.26 No.1

Background and Objectives: Hearing thresholds across frequencies must be obtained for hearing aid fitting. Narrow-band noise (NBN) and speech sounds are often used as stimuli in pediatric audiologic assessments to elicit children’s attention due to their wider frequency ranges as compared to pure tones. However, obtaining complete responses across frequency ranges is challenging in pediatric practice. Therefore, we developed a frequency-specific phoneme screening tool, the Mandarin Phoneme Detection Score Sheet, to help clinicians evaluate aided performance in pediatric practice.Subjects and Methods: A total of 30 adults with typical hearing and 30 children aged 3-12 years with hearing loss were recruited. Threshold ranges for the aided detection of Mandarin phonemes and NBN were measured using 95% confidence intervals. A stepwise regression analysis was then performed to identify the Mandarin phonemes that can predict NBN detection performance.Results: The Mandarin Phoneme Detection Score Sheet was developed based on the results of the regression analysis. It was shown that the phonemes /ɤ, a, tɕh/ could predict detection performance at different frequencies.Conclusions: The Mandarin Phoneme Detection Score Sheet can allow audiologists and early intervention professionals to determine the benefits of hearing aids for pediatric patients in the early stage of hearing loss conditions.

A Review of Electrically Tunable Focusing Liquid Crystal Lenses

Hung-Chun Lin,Ming-Syuan Chen,Yi-Hsin Lin 한국전기전자재료학회 2011 Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Material Vol.12 No.6

Electrically tunable focusing liquid crystal (LC) lenses are reviewed in this paper. The distribution of the orientations of LC directors which is controlled by electric fields results in a distribution of refractive indices of LC directors. The incident light can be modulated by the electrically tunable lens-like phase difference of the LC lens. We introduce the basic operating principles of LC lenses and discuss the structures of LC lenses. The major challenges of LC lenses are also discussed. We believe this paper provides a guideline for basic understanding of LC lenses.

Integration of in-situ load experiments and numerical modeling in a long-term bridge monitoring system on a newly-constructed widened section of freeway in Taiwan

Yi-Tsung Chiu,Tzu-Kang Lin,Hsiao-Hui Hung,Kuo-Chun Chang,Yu-Chi Sung 국제구조공학회 2014 Smart Structures and Systems, An International Jou Vol.13 No.6

The widening project on Freeway No.1 in Taiwan has a total length of roughly 14 kilometers,and includes three special bridges, namely a 216 m long-span bridge crossing the original freeway, an F-bentdouble decked bridge in a co-constructed section, and a steel and prestressed concrete composite bridge. This study employed in-situ monitoring in conjunction with numerical modeling to establish a real-timemonitoring system for the three bridges. In order to determine the initial static and dynamic behavior of thereal bridges, forced vibration experiments, in-situ static load experiments, and dynamic load experimentswere first carried out on the newly-constructed bridges before they went into use. Structural models of thebridges were then established using the finite element method, and in-situ vehicle load weight, arrangement,and speed were taken into consideration when performing comparisons employing data obtained fromexperimental measurements. The results showed consistency between the analytical simulations andexperimental data. After determining a bridge's initial state, the proposed in-situ monitoring system, which isemployed in conjunction with the established finite element model, can be utilized to assess the safety of abridge's members, providing useful reference information to bridge management agencies.

Arsenic Toxicity on Duck Spermatozoa and the Ameliorating Effect of L-Ascorbic Acid

Lin, Chai-Ching,Huang, Chia-Cherng,Chen, Ming-Cheng,Huang, Andrew Jeng-Fang,Chiou, Hung-Yi Asian Australasian Association of Animal Productio 2002 Animal Bioscience Vol.15 No.1

The objectives of this study were to understand the possible mechanism of duck sperm toxicity induced by arsenic exposure in vivo, and to investigate the roles of the antioxidant L-ascorbic acid in ameliorating the arsenic-induced sperm impairment. To test the acute toxicity, the percentages of mortality of mature drakes treated with different concentrations of trivalent sodium arsenite, As (III), and pentavalent sodium arsenate, As (V) were measured. The LD50 value of As (III) for mature drakes was $4.89{\pm}1.49$ ppm. Although As (V) didn't cause any deaths even at a concentration of 40 ppm, the chronic toxicity of As (V) on sperm quality was shown by a decreased fertilization rate. When the concentrations of As (V) were above 0.4 ppm, fertilization rates were lower than those of 0.04 ppm and control. Drakes treated with 40 ppm of As (V) had the highest malondialdehyde (MDA) level in the testis tissue, $3.100{\pm}0.218{\mu}mole/g$ testis. This showed that 40 ppm of As (V) significantly induced lipid peroxidation in testis tissue. For the 1.2 ppm As (III) treatment, several significant effects were observed: (1) sperm motility was decreased most dramatically by $52.0{\pm}9.1$% after three days of incubation; (2) fertilization rate of artificially inseminated semen was the lowest, $26.4{\pm}15.4$; (3) the MDA concentration in testis tissue, $7.846{\pm}0.246{\mu}mole/g$ testis, was significantly higher than the others (p<0.05); (4) the sperm number, $1.17{\pm}0.40({\times}10^9)$, was significantly lower than with the 60 ppb and control treatments (p<0.05); (5) a black appearance and soft texture was observed in the testis tissue. The antioxidant L-ascorbic acid administered along with 1.2 ppm As (III) decreased the toxicity of arsenic. The ameliorating effects included: improved sperm motility, increased sperm number and fertilization rate, and decreased MDA concentration in the testis tissue. This study suggests that the toxicity of the trivalent arsenic on sperm quality is partly from free radicals generated by its metabolic pathway, and the antioxidant ascorbic acid ameliorates arsenic-caused sperm impairment.

A Robust Estimation/Compensation Scheme of IQ Imbalance with Frequency Offset in Communication Receivers

Yi-Jen Chiu,Szu-Lin Su,Shao-Ping Hung 대한전자공학회 2007 ITC-CSCC :International Technical Conference on Ci Vol.2007 No.7

Direct conversion receiver is widely utilized in today’s communication system. However, it usually faces a common problem of front-end distortions such as IQ imbalance and frequency offset. When treated separately, effective algorithms exist for estimating and compensating for IQ imbalance as well as frequency offset. With both effects present, such algorithms do not lead to useful estimates of the related parameters. OFDM is sensitive to nonidealities in the receiver front-end. This leads either to stringent front-end specifications and, thus, an expensive device, or large performance degradations. A good summary, Guanbin [1] discusses the transmitter calibration briefly and proposes an estimation technique for calculating the imbalance parameters. For the IEEE 802.11a OFDM standard, Tubbax observe that additional effects from OFDM channel estimation and correction can affect the IQ correction circuits and proposes a smoothing procedure to compensate. The above procedure is not effective when the CFO is too small. This paper extends the previous results mentioned above by developing a simple and adaptive least-square (LS) algorithm to estimate and compensate for IQ imbalance assuming the IQ imbalance compensation is not affected by the CFO, then the CFO is estimated using any of several conventional algorithms. With the additional requirement of a known periodic training sequence (see Su and Chiu ) this process extends the results of to practical cases when CFO is small. Our compensation scheme eliminates the IQ imbalance based on one OFDM symbol and performs well in the presence of CFO. The compensation scheme has fast convergence and small residual degradations. The solution is implemented with an adaptive filter to adjust the parameters of estimation and is computationally relatively inexpensive. With the proposed method as shown in Fig. 1, we can estimate the effect of IQ imbalance without knowing CFO exactly by means of an repetitive training sequence as depicted in Fig.2. Two set of I/Q mismatch parameters, (εr=1.5㏈, ?φr=1.5˚) and (εr=3㏈, ?φr=3˚), are used in the simulations. Fig. 3 shows the performance comparison between the systems with and without I/Q imbalance compensation. It shows that the proposed algorithm can give a satisfactory performance for CFO > 5㎑. To reduce the drawback of high sensitivity under low CFO channel, we modify the adaptive scheme and the fine IQ estimation method to solve the problem of performance degradation when CFO is small. Therefore, our IQ imbalance estimation/compensation scheme potentially leads to low-cost and low-complexity receivers. The simulation results show that the modified scheme can achieve much better performance as shown in Fig. 4.

Combined Assessment of Serum Alpha-Synuclein and Rab35 is a Better Biomarker for Parkinson’s Disease

Hung-Li Wang,Chin-Song Lu,Tu-Hsueh Yeh,Yu-Ming Shen,Yi-Hsin Weng,Ying-Zu Huang,Rou-Shayn Chen,Yu-Chuan Liu,Yi-Chuan Cheng,Hsiu-Chen Chang,Ying-Ling Chen,Yu-Jie Chen,Yan-Wei Lin,Chia Chen Hsu,Huang-Li 대한신경과학회 2019 Journal of Clinical Neurology Vol.15 No.4

Background and Purpose It is essential to develop a reliable predictive serum biomarker for Parkinson’s disease (PD). Te accumulation of alpha-synuclein (αSyn) and up-regulated expression of Rab35 participate in the etiology of PD. Te purpose of this investigation was to determine whether the combined assessment of serum αSyn and Rab35 is a useful predictive biomarker for PD. Methods Serum levels of αSyn or Rab35 were determined in serum samples from 59 sporadic PD patients, 19 progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) patients, 20 multiple system atrophy (MSA) patients, and 60 normal controls (NC). Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves were calculated to determine the diagnostic accuracy of αSyn or/and Rab35 in discriminating PD patients from NC or atypical parkinsonian patients. Results The levels of αSyn and Rab35 were increased in PD patients. The serum level of Rab35 was positively correlated with that of αSyn in PD patients. Compared to analyzing αSyn or Rab35 alone, the combined analysis of αSyn and Rab35 produced a larger area under the ROC curve and performed better in discriminating PD patients from NC, MSA patients, or PSP patients. When age was dichotomized at 55, 60, 65, or 70 years, the combined assessment of αSyn and Rab35 for classifying PD was better in the group below the cutof age than in the group above the cutof age. Conclusions Combined assessment of serum αSyn and Rab35 is a better biomarker for discriminating PD patients from NC or atypical parkinsonian patients, and is a useful predictive biomarker for younger sporadic PD patients.

Research on Current Execution of Customer Support Knowledge Management System of Medical Appliances Industry

( Yi Chan Chung ),( Chih Hung Tsai ),( Shiaw Wen Tien ),( Lin Yi Lin ) 한국품질경영학회 2007 The Asian Journal on Quality Vol.8 No.3

A System Dynamics Study of Enterprise Value Creation the Example of Taiwan`s SMEs

( Yi Chan Chung ),( Chih Hung Tsai ),( Shiaw Wen Tien ),( Yu Hsin Lin ),( Ja Lin Lin ) 한국품질경영학회 2006 The Asian Journal on Quality Vol.7 No.1