Contagions and Ways of Seeing

Chung-jen Chen(Chung-jen Chen) 19세기영어권문학회 2011 19세기 영어권 문학 Vol.15 No.2

It is generally agreed that the great discovery of bacteria and a series of related breakthroughs around the mid nineteenth century onward forced a transformation in medical discourse. Doctors and medical scientists decisively transformed the nature of medical examination and human perception. Through microscopic lenses, human eyes saw what was once invisible; through policy making, human hands explored the previously unreachable. In order to highlight uncleanness as a health threat, sources of contamination and transmission were presented in forms perceivable to the observer. This newly constructed narrative of contagion was transnational and transcontinental in its essence as the dominant figure in the formation of such medical breakthroughs came from Louis Pasteur, the French biologist and chemist. In light of Pasteur’s germ theory, this paper attempts to read slum narratives of Charles Booth and examine the formation of how a Pasteurian way of seeing the invisible contagions turned to a set of moralistic criteria in investigating potentially infectious individuals. Just as the visualization of bacterial invasion consolidates boundaries between health and disease, sanitation and filth, morality and immorality, country and the city, domestic and native, disease transmission was endowed with a penetrating moralist vision in which what is foreign and filthy are regarded as intimidating to the health and integrity of the race.

“The Best Thing America Gave Me” : Creative Nostalgia and Identity Politics in A Good Fall

Chen, Chung-jen 21세기영어영문학회 2013 21세기영어영문학회 학술대회 Vol.2013 No.09

Ha Jin’s A Good Fall is a collection of short stories about lives of Chinese immigrants clustered in Flushing, the second largest Chinatown in New York. This book features a cast of Chinese immigrants with diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. Each story presents a unique way of developing lives in a new society and of formulating a new identity. Their diasporic experience is constructed through their varied attempts to seek a new identity. Meanwhile, their bonds with the motherland in the host country are displaced, unsettled, and repositioned. Stories of immigrants lead easily to questions of what to keep, what to adopt and what to discard. If reflection comes with sentimental attachment or emotional associations, this kind of memory is usually called nostalgia. And as nostalgia touches on politicized, historicized, and nationalized concerns, it provides an opportunity to examine the contested and heterogeneous makings of diaspora, as well as its historical experience, and hopefully, it offers a perspective of who they are now and who they are becoming. Nostalgia of this sort is effective, giving rise to agency with self-awareness and self-determination when facing questions of cultural assimilation. Nostalgia may also initiate a constructive process of consolidating identity in diaspora. Nostalgia can be creative in establishing, realizing, or consolidating a diasporic identity; this I call creative nostalgia. This article explores the complicated fabrication of a shared memory among Chinese immigrants in the microcosm of Flushing. I argue that A Good Fall is about a sort of creative nostalgia, where the old life clashes with new routines, and shared memory is recollected in terms of all that has been lost and gained. This paper also examines the shaping of new identity, as memory of the homeland is resurrected culturally through interactions with the living reality of a new world. The common practice of memory sustains a bond to the past in the form of creative nostalgia, while it helps to transform the process of cultural integration into a blend of unsettled new identities.

“The Best Thing America Gave Me”: Diasporic Memory and Creative Nostalgia in A Good Fall

( Chung Jen Chen ) 한국현대영미소설학회 2014 현대영미소설 Vol.21 No.1

Ha Jin`s A Good Fall is a collection of short stories about the lives of Chinese immigrants in Flushing, the second largest Chinatown in New York. This book features a cast of characters with diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, each story presenting one individual`s experience of formulating a new identity in a new society. As the collective diasporic experience of the Chinese immigrants in Flushing is historically, politically, culturally, and economically constructed, bonds with the motherland in the host country are displaced, unsettled, and repositioned. I argue that this collection of short stories presents a form of remembering that I call “creative nostalgia,” in which the Chinese homeland is both resurrected and re-created through interactions with the living reality of a new world. Creative nostalgia, practiced in different ways by the residents of Flushing`s Chinatown, sustains their bonds to the past while facilitating the process of creating new, unsettled identities.

Ultraviolet-assisted synthesis of encapsulating adhesives and their application for lifetime improvement of organic light emitting diodes

Chen-Ming Chen,Ming-Hua Chung,Tsung-Eong Hsieh,Bohr-Ran Huang,Huai-En Hsieh,Fuh-Shyang Juang,Yu-Sheng Tsai,Mark O. Liu,Jen-Lien Lin 한국물리학회 2009 Current Applied Physics Vol.9 No.4

The lifetimes of organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) have been successfully enhanced with the modulation of LiF thickness and the utilization of encapsulating adhesives, which have been successfully and quickly synthesized with UV irradiation. Experimental results demonstrate that LiF and lab-made encapsulating adhesives can block the invasion of moisture as well as oxygen in the atmosphere into the OLEDs so that the lifetimes of devices with their encapsulation are 18-folds longer than those without encapsulation. The lifetimes of organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) have been successfully enhanced with the modulation of LiF thickness and the utilization of encapsulating adhesives, which have been successfully and quickly synthesized with UV irradiation. Experimental results demonstrate that LiF and lab-made encapsulating adhesives can block the invasion of moisture as well as oxygen in the atmosphere into the OLEDs so that the lifetimes of devices with their encapsulation are 18-folds longer than those without encapsulation.

Quercetin-mediated Cell Cycle Arrest and Apoptosis Involving Activation of a Caspase Cascade through the Mitochondrial Pathway in Human Breast Cancer MCF-7 Cells

Chu-Chung Chou,Jai-Sing Yang,Hsu-Feng Lu,Siu-Wan Ip,Chyi Lo,Chih-Chung Wu,Jing-Pin Lin,Nou-Ying Tang,Jing-Gung Chung,Ming-Jen Chou,Ying-Hock Teng,Dar-Ren Chen 대한약학회 2010 Archives of Pharmacal Research Vol.33 No.8

Dietary polyphenols have been correlated with a reduced risk of developing cancer. Quercetin (a natural polyphenolic compound) induced apoptosis in many human cancer cell lines, including breast cancer MCF-7 cells. However, the involvement of possible signaling pathways and the roles of quercetin in apoptosis are still undefined. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of quercetin on the induction of the apoptotic pathway in human breast cancer MCF-7 cells. When MCF-7 cells were treated with quercetin for 24 and 48 h and at various doses (10-175 μM), cell viability decreased significantly in time- and dose-dependent manners. Exposure of MCF-7 cells to 10-175 μM quercetin resulted in an approximate 90.25% decrease in viable cells. To explicate the mechanism underlying the antiproliferative effect of quercetin, cell cycle distribution and apoptosis in MCF-7 cells was investigated after exposure to 150 μM quercetin for 6-48 h. Quercetin caused a remarkable increase in the number of S phase (14.56%to 61.35%) and sub-G1 phase cells (0.1% to 8.32%) in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Quercetin caused S phase arrest by decreasing the protein expression of CDK2, cyclins A and B while increasing the p53 and p57 proteins. Following incubation with quercetin for 48 h, MCF-7 cells showed apoptotic cell death by the decreased levels of Bcl-2 protein and ΔΨ m and increased activations of caspase-6, -8 and -9. Moreover, quercetin increased the AIF protein released from mitochondria to nuclei and the GADD153 protein translocation from endoplasmic reticulum to the nuclei. These data suggested that quercetin may induce apoptosis by direct activation of the caspase cascade through the mitochondrial pathway in MCF-7 cells.

Enhancement of Aggregation-Induced Emission in Dye-Encapsulating Polymeric Micelles for Bioimaging

Wu, Wen-Chung,Chen, Ching-Yi,Tian, Yanqing,Jang, Sei-Hum,Hong, Yuning,Liu, Yang,Hu, Rongrong,Tang, Ben Zhong,Lee, Yi-Ting,Chen, Chin-Ti,Chen, Wen-Chang,Jen, Alex K.-Y. WILEY-VCH Verlag 2010 Advanced Functional Materials Vol.20 No.9

<P>Three amphiphilic block copolymers are employed to form polymeric micelles and function as nanocarriers to disperse hydrophobic aggregation-induced emission (AIE) dyes, 1,1,2,3,4,5-hexaphenylsilole (HPS) and/or bis(4-(N-(1-naphthyl) phenylamino)-phenyl)fumaronitrile (NPAFN), into aqueous solution for biological studies. Compared to their virtually non-emissive properties in organic solutions, the fluorescence intensity of these AIE dyes has increased significantly due to the spatial confinement that restricts intramolecular rotation of these dyes and their better compatibility in the hydrophobic core of polymeric micelles. The effect of the chemical structure of micelle cores on the photophysical properties of AIE dyes are investigated, and the fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) from the green-emitting donor (HPS) to the red-emitting acceptor (NPAFN) is explored by co-encapsulating this FRET pair in the same micelle core. The highest fluorescence quantum yield (∼62%) could be achieved by encapsulating HPS aggregates in the micelles. Efficient energy transfer (>99%) and high amplification of emission (as high as 8 times) from the NPAFN acceptor could also be achieved by spatially confining the HPS/NPAFN FRET pair in the hydrophobic core of polymeric micelles. These micelles could be successfully internalized into the RAW 264.7 cells to demonstrate high-quality fluorescent images and cell viability due to improved quantum yield and reduced cytotoxicity.</P> <B>Graphic Abstract</B> <P>Highly efficient fluorescence probes are achieved through the encapsulation of aggregation-induced emission molecules, 1,1,2,3,4,5-hexaphenylsilole (HPS) and/or bis(4-(N-(1-naphthyl) phenylamino)-phenyl)fumaronitrile (NPAFN) in the core of polymeric micelles. Bright fluorescence cell images are shown with tunable colors of green directly from HPS aggregates and red through efficient fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) from HPS aggregates to NPAFN aggregates. <img src='wiley_img_2010/1616301X-2010-20-9-ADFM200902043-content.gif' alt='wiley_img_2010/1616301X-2010-20-9-ADFM200902043-content'> </P>

Twelve Weeks of Ledipasvir/Sofosbuvir for Patients with Chronic Hepatitis C Genotype 2 Infection: Integrated Analysis of Three Clinical Studies

( Chung-feng Huang ),( Yasuhiro Asahina ),( Chun-jen Liu ),( Edward Gane ),( Yoshito Itoh ),( Norifumi Kawada ),( Yoshiyuki Ueno ),( Jin Youn ),( Chen-yu Wang ),( Joe Llewellyn ),( Anu Osinusi ),( Jen 대한간학회 2018 춘·추계 학술대회 (KASL) Vol.2018 No.1

Aims: HCV genotype (GT) 2 is the second most common genotype in several Asian countries including Taiwan and Korea. Treatment options for GT2 remain limited in these countries. The once-daily fixed-dose combination of ledipasvir/sofosbuvir (LDV/SOF) was evaluated for the treatment of GT 2, in patients with or without compensated cirrhosis, in three phase 2 and 3 studies. Methods: This was a retrospective analysis of subjects treated with LDV/SOF for 12 weeks in the GS-US-337-1655 (Taiwan), GS-US-337-1903 (Japan) and GS-US-1468 (New Zealand) studies. Subjects analyzed in this integrated analysis were either mono-infected with HCV GT2, or co-infected with HCV GT2 and HBV. The data was pooled and safety and efficacy were analyzed. Results: Overall 200 subjects were treated and analyzed; 88% of subjects were Asian, 46% male, 31% had prior treatment failure, 15% were cirrhotic, 25% were IL28B non-CC, 34% were 65 years or older and 22% (n=43) were co-infected with HBV. The overall SVR rate was 97% (194/200), and was 93% (27/29) among patients with cirrhosis and 97% (59/61) in patients who had failed previous therapy. Of the 197 patients with available testing; NS5A resistance-associated substitutions (RASs) were present in 86% (169/197) at baseline. SVR12 rate was 98% (165/169) in patients with baseline NS5A RASs compared with 100% (28/28) in patients without NS5A RASs. No new RASs emerged in patients with virologic failure. Treatment with LDV/SOF for 12 weeks was well tolerated. Overall the most common adverse events AEs were headache and nasopharyngitis. Few subjects experienced serious AEs, none of which were assessed as treatment related. One patient discontinued treatment due to AE. Conclusions: Treatment with LDV/SOF for 12 weeks is highly effective and well tolerated in patients with GT2 HCV infection, including patients who are treatment experienced and/or have compensated cirrhosis, baseline NS5A RASs and with HBV/HCV coinfection.

A phase I/II and pharmacogenomic study of pemetrexed and cisplatin in patients with unresectable, advanced gastric carcinoma

Chen, Jen-Shi,Chao, Yee,Bang, Yung-Jue,Roca, Enrique,Chung, Hyun C.,Palazzo, Felipe,Kim, Yeul H.,Myrand, Scott P.,Mullaney, Brian P.,Shen, Li J.,Linn, Carlos Lippincott Williams Wilkins, Inc. 2010 ANTICANCER DRUGS Vol.21 No.8

This phase I/II study was conducted to determine the maximum recommended dose of pemetrexed when given in combination with a fixed dose of cisplatin, and the efficacy, toxicity and association of 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) variants with this pemetrexed--cisplatin combination, in patients with unresectable, advanced gastric carcinoma. Patients 18–70 years of age, with stage IV disease or post-surgery recurrence, no earlier palliative chemotherapy, 0 or 1 Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status, were included. The cisplatin dose was 75 mg/m. In phase I, the initial dose of pemetrexed was 600 mg/m, escalated in 100 mg/m increments. In phase II, efficacy, including overall response rate, overall survival, as well as toxicity and MTHFR pharmacogenetics were investigated. Phase I enrolled 16 patients; 700 mg/m was defined as pemetrexed recommended dose. Thirteen serious adverse events were reported; the most common grade 3/4 toxicities were haematologic (10 of 13, 76.9%). Phase II enrolled 73 patients, 69 qualified for safety and 68 for efficacy analysis; 65 for pharmacogenomic analysis. Overall response rate was 23.5% (14.1%, 35.4%), disease control rate 55.9%, median overall survival 11.8 months (95% confidence interval, 7.2–18.5 months), progression-free survival 4.9 months (95% confidence interval, 2.8–7.1 months), and median response duration 5.4 months. Patients with MTHFR A1298C variants had median overall survival of 6.6 months, significantly shorter than patients with the wild type (median 18.5 months, P=0.001). The pemetrexed--cisplatin combination in patients with advanced gastric cancer generates modest efficacy and a manageable toxicity profile. The reduced overall survival in patients with MTHFR A1298C polymorphism variants deserves further investigation.

Seismic behavior of structures isolated with a hybrid system of rubber bearings

Chen, Bo-Jen,Tsai, C.S.,Chung, L.L.,Chiang, Tsu-Cheng Techno-Press 2006 Structural Engineering and Mechanics, An Int'l Jou Vol.22 No.6

The enlargement of interest in base isolators as an earthquake-proof design strategy has dramatically accelerated experimental studies of elastomeric bearings worldwide. In this paper, a new base isolator concept that is a hybrid system of rubber bearings is proposed. Uniaxial, biaxial, and triaxial shaking table tests are also performed to study the seismic behavior of a 0.4-scale three-story isolated steel structure in the National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering in Taiwan. Experimental results demonstrate that structures with a hybrid system of rubber bearings composed of stirruped rubber bearings and laminated rubber bearings can actually decrease the seismic responses of the superstructure. It has been proved through the shaking table tests that the proposed hybrid system of rubber bearings is a very promising tool to enhance the seismic resistance of structures. Moreover, it is demonstrated that the proposed analytical model in this paper can predict the mechanical behavior of the hybrid system of rubber bearings and seismic responses of the base-isolated structures.

The association of ambient air pollution with airway inflammation in schoolchildren.

Chen, Bing-Yu,Chan, Chang-Chuan,Lee, Chung-Te,Cheng, Tsun-Jen,Huang, Wen-Chuan,Jhou, Ji-Ci,Han, Yueh-Ying,Chen, Chu-Chih,Guo, Yue Leon School of Hygiene and Public Health of the Johns H 2012 American Journal of Epidemiology Vol.175 No.8

<P>The biologic mechanisms involved in airway inflammatory response to air pollution are not clearly understood. The authors conducted a longitudinal study to investigate whether exposure to ambient air pollutants affected inflammatory cells and mediators from nasal lavage in schoolchildren. Study participants were 100 elementary and middle-school students in New Taipei City, Taiwan. A structured respiratory health questionnaire was administered in September 2007, followed by monthly measurement of nasal inflammation from October 2007 to November 2009. During the study period, daily concentrations of air pollutants were obtained from the Environmental Protection Administration monitoring station and the Aerosol Supersite. Mixed-effects models were applied to examine the association between air pollution and nasal inflammatory cells and mediators, including percentages of neutrophils, eosinophils, and monocytes in lavaged cells and interleukin-8. A total of 824 measurements were obtained from 100 participants over a period of 10 months. The level of particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of 2.5 μm or less (PM(2.5)) was found to be associated with percentage of neutrophils (β = 3.45%, 95% confidence interval: 0.89, 6.01) and interleukin-8 level (β = 29.98 pg/mL, 95% confidence interval: 3.26, 56.69) in the nasal lavage on the day of exposure. In this longitudinal cohort study of schoolchildren, results indicated that exposure to PM(2.5) might induce nasal inflammation.</P>