Effects of Long-term Climate Change on Typhoon Rainfall Associated with Southwesterly Monsoon Flow near Taiwan: Mindulle (2004) and Morakot (2009)

Wang Chung-Chieh,Tseng Li-Shan,Huang Chien-Chang,Chuang Pi-Yu,Su Nan-Chou,Chen Cheng-Ta,Lo Shih-How,Tsuboki Kazuhisa 한국기상학회 2024 Asia-Pacific Journal of Atmospheric Sciences Vol.60 No.3

Typhoons Morakot (2009) and Mindulle (2004) were two of the rainiest and most damaging typhoons to hit Taiwan on record, where both cases are associated with a strong low-level southwesterly monsoon flow. The moisture-rich southwesterly monsoon flow and the typhoon-induced northwesterly current usually converge on Taiwan’s Central Mountain Range to produce catastrophic rainfall. The two storms are simulated with a cloud-resolving model (CRM) using the pseudo-global-warming (PGW) methodology to assess the fraction of precipitation attributable to long-term climate change. For each storm, two scenarios are simulated and compared—the control run in present-day climate and the sensitivity test in a past environment four decades ago, where the climate-change signal (“deltas”) is computed using global reanalysis data as the difference between 1990–2009 and 1950–1969. Being realistically reproduced by the CRM at a 3-km grid size in the control run, both typhoons progress in the sensitivity test with highly similar evolution to their present-day counterpart, even though the background in the sensitivity run is slightly cooler and drier than the present. Under the current climate, Morakot and Mindulle produce more rainfall by about 5 mm per day within 300–400 km from the center during their lifespan (equal to an increase of ~4–8%) compared to their counterparts in past climates. Such results are in close agreement with previous studies, and the shift in mean daily rainfall is tested as statistically significant at a confidence level of 99.5%. The water budget analysis shows that the increased rainfall from past to present climate is accounted for mainly by the low-level convergence of moisture associated with a more vigorous secondary circulation and a higher precipitable water amount.

A Proteomic Analysis of Leaf Responses to Enhanced Ultraviolet-B Radiation in Two Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Cultivars Differing in UV Sensitivity

Xing-Chun Wu,Chang-Xun Fang,Jin-Yang Chen,Qing-Shui Wang,Ting Chen,Wen-Xiong Lin,Zhong-Liang Huang 한국식물학회 2011 Journal of Plant Biology Vol.54 No.4

To determine the proteomic response to UV irradiation, two cultivars, i.e., Lemont (UV tolerant) and Dular (UV sensitive), were exposed to natural and enhanced ultraviolet-B (UV-B) irradiation for 1, 7, and 14 days, and two-dimensional gel electrophoresis in combination with mass spectrometry (MS) and bioinformatics were used to compare the different proteomic responses in the leaves of the two cultivars. Thirty-nine proteins were up- or downregulated following the UV-B treatments. Among them, 30 increased or decreased more than 1.5-fold in abundance. They were further tested by using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight MS and performed a database search. Twentyfour proteins were thus identified. These identified proteins were mostly upregulated in Lemont, whereas only 14 of them upregulated in Dular. Nine proteins involved in glycometabolism and fatty acid metabolisms, signal transduction, and protein synthesis and folding in Dular were not changed. These results suggest that there was a complex regulative mechanism on the proteomes in rice leaves upon UV-B exposure.

Drilling Temperature and Hole Quality in Drilling of CFRP/Aluminum Stacks Using Diamond Coated Drill

Chang-Ying Wang,Yu-Han Chen,Qinglong An,Xiaojiang Cai,Wei-Wei Ming,Ming Chen 한국정밀공학회 2015 International Journal of Precision Engineering and Vol. No.

Composite/metal stack materials, most often consisting of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites and aluminum or titanium alloy (Al or Ti), have been widely used in the aviation industry. It is still a challenge to make holes on the composite/metal stack materials with high quality. This paper aims to investigate the influence of drilling parameters on the drilling of stack materials consisting of T800/X850 CFRP and 7075-T651 Al with regard to drilling force, drilling temperature, hole diameter and hole surface quality. Diamond coated drill bits with double point angles were employed in the drilling tests. The drilling temperature was measured utilizing a rotational motion temperature measuring system. It is indicated that maximum drilling temperature increases with the increase of spindle speed, while, it decreases with increasing feed rate. The thrust force and drilling temperature increase abnormally during drilling of the Al layer, which can be attributed to the evacuation difficulty of the long and flexible Al chips. It is found that sudden drops in the surface profile of CFRP are caused by the cavities owning to the resin degradation effects. The influences of different stack sequences on the drilling temperature and hole surface quality have also been discussed.

Blood lipids and all-cause mortality among old people: the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey 2008-2018

Wang Rongxi,Yu Xiaoyue,Wang Zhiqiang,Liu Yujie,Chen Hui,Liu Shangbin,XU CHENG,Chen Yingjie,Xia Danni,Ge Xin,Chang Ruijie,Xu Gang,Xiang Mi,Wang Ying,Shen Tian,Hu Fan,Cai Yong 한국역학회 2022 Epidemiology and Health Vol.44 No.-

OBJECTIVES: Proper blood lipid levels are essential for survival in older adults, but inconsistent relationships have been reported between blood lipids and all-cause mortality in the elderly. METHODS: This retrospective longitudinal study analyzed data from 1,067 Chinese older adults enrolled in the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey collected in 2008 and followed up until death or December 31, 2018. The outcome was allcause mortality. Multivariate Cox regression analyses were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) with stratification by age (60-80, 80-100, or ≥ 100 years) for further analysis. The survival probability according to lipid profile quartiles was calculated using Kaplan-Meier curves and the log-rank test. RESULTS: The participants’ mean age was 84.84 years, and 57.0% were female. In total, 578 individuals died, and 277 were lost to follow-up. The mean total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels were higher among those who died than among those who survived. Participants in the second HDL-C quartile and the highest LDL-C and triglyceride (TG) quartiles had 28% higher, 23% lower, and 49% lower risks of all-cause mortality, respectively. After further adjustment, the associations remained except for HDL-C, and additional associations were observed between all-cause mortality and the third TC and LDL-C quartiles and the second TG quartile (HR, 1.44; 95% CI, 1.01 to 2.06; HR, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.49 to 0.94; HR, 0.79; 95% CI, 0.62 to 0.99, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Older adults should maintain an LDL-C level of 1.91-2.47 mmol/L and a TG level of no less than 1.66 mmol/L.

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)

Breast density analysis for whole breast ultrasound images : Whole breast ultrasound density analysis

Chen, Jeon-Hor,Huang, Chiun-Sheng,Chien, Kuang-Che Chang,Takada, Etsuo,Moon, Woo Kyung,Wu, Jeffery H. K.,Cho, Nariya,Wang, Yi-Fa,Chang, Ruey-Feng Wiley (John WileySons) 2009 Medical physics Vol.36 No.11

<P>Breast density has been established as an independent risk factor associated with the development of breast cancer. The terms mammographic density and breast density are often used interchangeably, since most breast density studies are performed with projection mammography. It is known that increase in mammographic density is associated with an increased cancer risk. A sensitive method that allows for the measurement of small changes in breast density may provide useful information for risk management. Despite the efforts to develop quantitative breast density measurements from projection mammograms, the measurements show large variability as a result of projection imaging, differing body position, differing levels of compression, and variation of the x-ray beam characteristics. This study used two separate computer-aided methods, threshold-based and proportion-based evaluations, to analyze breast density on whole breast ultrasound (US) imaging and to compare with the grading results of three radiologists using projection mammography. Thirty-two female subjects with 252 images per case were included in this study. Whole breast US images were obtained from an Aloka SSD-5500 ultrasound machine with an ASU-1004 transducer (Aloka, Japan). Before analyzing breast density, an adaptive speckle reduction filter was used for removing speckle noise, and a robust thresholding algorithm was used to divide breast tissue into fatty or fibroglandular classifications. Then, the proposed approaches were applied for analysis. In the threshold-based method, a statistical model was employed to determine whether each pixel in the breast region belonged to fibroglandular or fatty tissue. The proportion-based method was based on three-dimensional information to calculate the volumetric proportion of fibroglandular tissue to the total breast tissue. The experimental cases were graded by the proposed analysis methods and compared with the ground standard density classification assigned by a majority voting of three experienced breast radiologists. For the threshold-based method, 28 of 32 US test cases and for the proportion-based density classifier, 27 of 32 US test cases were found to be in agreement with the radiologist 'ground standard' mammographic interpretations, resulting in overall accuracies of 87.5% and 84.4%, respectively. Moreover, the concordance values of the proposed methods were between 0.0938 and 0.1563, which were less than the average interobserver concordance of 0.3958. The experiment result showed that the proposed methods could be a reference opinion and offer concordant and reliable quantification of breast density for the radiologist.</P>

The changes in the proteolysis activity and the accumulation of free amino acids during chinese traditional dry-cured loins processing

Chang-Yu Zhou,Ying Wang,Dao-Dong Pan,Jin-Xuan Cao,Yin-Ji Chen,Yuan Liu,Yang-Ying Sun,Chang-Rong Ou 한국식품과학회 2017 Food Science and Biotechnology Vol.26 No.3

Twelve pieces of longissimus dorsi were processed into Chinese traditional dry-cured loins. The changes in the proteolylic enzymes activities, myofibrillar proteins degradation, and free amino acids content were investigated during processing. Compared with fresh piece (0 day), the cathepsin B ? L and calpains activities decreased after dry-curing and maintained potential activities values of 23.25 and 15.04% in the final products, respectively. The myosin heavy chain (MHC) and C protein were intensely degraded at the dry-ripened stage; the 50 kDa desmin increased at day 2 and then disappeared at day 11. The total free amino acids content increased from 333.18 mg/100 g in the raw to 1096.54 mg/100 g at the end of the dry-ripening. This work provided a mechanism for the accumulation of free amino acids and predicted the proteolysis extent of myofibrillar proteins by monitoring the changes of three marker proteins (MHC, C protein and 50 kDa desmin) during Chinese traditional dry-cured loins processing. Keywords

MicroRNA analysis reveals the role of miR-214 in duck adipocyte differentiation

Wang Laidi,Hu Xiaodan,Wang Shasha,Yuan Chunyou,Wang Zhixiu,Chang Guobin,Chen Guohong 아세아·태평양축산학회 2022 Animal Bioscience Vol.35 No.9

Objective: Fat deposition in poultry is an important factor in production performance and meat quality research. miRNAs also play important roles in regulating adipocyte differentiation process. This study was to investigate the expression patterns of miRNAs in duck adipocytes after differentiation and explore the role of miR-214 in regulating carnitine palmitoyltransferases 2 (CPT2) gene expression during duck adipocyte differentiation. Methods: Successful systems for the isolation, culture, and induction of duck primary fat cells was developed in the experiment. Using Illumina next-generation sequencing, the miRNAs libraries of duck adipocytes were established. miRanda was used to predict differentially expressed (DE) miRNAs and their target genes. The expression patterns of miR-214 and CPT2 during the differentiation were verified by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and western blot. Luciferase reporter assays were used to explore the specific regions of CPT2 targeted by miR-214. We used a miR-214 over-expression strategy in vitro to further investigate its effect on differentiation process and CPT2 gene transcription. Results: There were 481 miRNAs identified in duck adipocytes, included 57 DE miRNA candidates. And the 1,046 targets genes of DE miRNAs were mainly involved in p53 signaling, FoxO signaling, and fatty acid metabolism pathways. miR-214 and CPT2 showed contrasting expression patterns before and after differentiation, and they were selected for further research. The expression of miR-214 was decreased during the first 3 days of duck adipocytes differentiation, and then increased, while the expression of CPT2 increased both in the transcriptional and protein level. The luciferase assay suggested that miR-214 targets the 3’untranslated region of CPT2. Overexpression of miR-214 not only promoted the formation of lipid droplets but also decreased the protein abundance of CPT2. Conclusion: Current study reports the expression profile of miRNAs in duck adipocytes differentiated for 4 days. And miR-214 has been proved to have the regulator potential for fat deposition in duck. Objective: Fat deposition in poultry is an important factor in production performance and meat quality research. miRNAs also play important roles in regulating adipocyte differentiation process. This study was to investigate the expression patterns of miRNAs in duck adipocytes after differentiation and explore the role of miR-214 in regulating carnitine palmitoyltransferases 2 (CPT2) gene expression during duck adipocyte differentiation.Methods: Successful systems for the isolation, culture, and induction of duck primary fat cells was developed in the experiment. Using Illumina next-generation sequencing, the miRNAs libraries of duck adipocytes were established. miRanda was used to predict differentially expressed (DE) miRNAs and their target genes. The expression patterns of miR-214 and CPT2 during the differentiation were verified by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and western blot. Luciferase reporter assays were used to explore the specific regions of CPT2 targeted by miR-214. We used a miR-214 over-expression strategy in vitro to further investigate its effect on differentiation process and CPT2 gene transcription.Results: There were 481 miRNAs identified in duck adipocytes, included 57 DE miRNA candidates. And the 1,046 targets genes of DE miRNAs were mainly involved in p53 signaling, FoxO signaling, and fatty acid metabolism pathways. miR-214 and CPT2 showed contrasting expression patterns before and after differentiation, and they were selected for further research. The expression of miR-214 was decreased during the first 3 days of duck adipocytes differentiation, and then increased, while the expression of CPT2 increased both in the transcriptional and protein level. The luciferase assay suggested that miR-214 targets the 3’untranslated region of CPT2. Overexpression of miR-214 not only promoted the formation of lipid droplets but also decreased the protein abundance of CPT2.Conclusion: Current study reports the expression profile of miRNAs in duck adipocytes differentiated for 4 days. And miR-214 has been proved to have the regulator potential for fat deposition in duck.

REVIEW : Intestinal Stricture in Crohn`s Disease

( Chen Wang Chang ),( Jau Min Wong ),( Chien Chih Tung ),( I Lun Shih ),( Horng Yuan Wang ),( Shu Chen Wei ) 대한장연구학회 2015 Intestinal Research Vol.13 No.1

Crohn`s disease (CD) is a disease with chronic inflammation of unknown etiology involving any part of the gastrointestinal tract. The incidence and prevalence of CD are increasing recently in Asia. Half of the CD patients will have intestinal complica-tions, such as strictures or fistulas, within 20 years after diagnosis. Twenty-five percentage of CD patients have had at least one small bowel stricture and 10% have had at least one colonic stricture and lead to significant complications. Most of these pa-tients will require at least one surgery during their lifetime. Early diagnosis and evaluation with adequate managements for the patients can prevent disability and mortality of these patient. Here, we reviewed the current incidence of CD with stricture, the etiology of stricture, and how to diagnose and manage the stricture. (Intest Res 2015;13:19-26)

The feasibility of detecting endometrial and ovarian cancer using DNA methylation biomarkers in cervical scrapings

Cheng-Chang Chang,Hui-Chen Wang,Yu-Ping Liao,Yu-Chih Chen,Yu-Chun Weng,Mu-Hsien Yu,Hung-Cheng Lai 대한부인종양학회 2018 Journal of Gynecologic Oncology Vol.29 No.1

Objective: We hypothesized that DNA methylation of development-related genes may occur in endometrial cancer (EC)/ovarian cancer (OC) and may be detected in cervical scrapings. Methods: We tested methylation status by quantitative methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction for 14 genes in DNA pools of endometrial and OC tissues. Tissues of EC/normal endometrium, OC/normal ovary, were verified in training set using cervical scrapings of 10 EC/10 OC patients and 10 controls, and further validated in the testing set using independent cervical scrapings in 30 EC/30 OC patients and 30 controls. We generated cutoff values of methylation index (M-index) from cervical scrapings to distinguish between cancer patients and control. Sensitivity/specificity of DNA methylation biomarkers in detecting EC and OC was calculated. Results: Of 14 genes, 4 (PTGDR, HS3ST2, POU4F3, MAGI2) showed hypermethylation in EC and OC tissues, and were verified in training set. POU4F3 and MAGI2 exhibited hypermethylation in training set were validated in independent cases. The mean M-index of POU4F3 is 78.28 in EC and 20.36 in OC, which are higher than that in controls (6.59; p<0.001 and p=0.100, respectively), and that of MAGI2 is 246.0 in EC and 12.2 in OC, which is significantly higher that than in controls (2.85; p<0.001 and p=0.480, respectively). Sensitivity and specificity of POU4F3/MAGI2 were 83%–90% and 69%–75% for detection of EC, and 61% and 62%–69% for the detection of OC. Conclusion: The findings demonstrate the potential of EC/OC detection through testing for DNA methylation in cervical scrapings.