National Chung Hsing University

A new approach for the design of alloys is presented in this study. These “high‐entropy alloys” with multi‐principal elements were synthesized using well‐developed processing technologies. Preliminary results demonstrate examples of the alloys with simple crystal structures, nanostructures, and promising mechanical properties. This approach may be opening a new era in materials science and engineering.

In 2008 we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, research on this topic has continued to accelerate, and many new scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Accordingly, it is important to update these guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Various reviews have described the range of assays that have been used for this purpose. Nevertheless, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to measure autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. For example, a key point that needs to be emphasized is thatthere is a difference between measurements that monitor the numbers or volume of autophagic elements (e.g., autophagosomes or autolysosomes) at any stage of the autophagic process versus those that measure flux through the autophagy pathway (i.e., the completeprocess including the amount and rate of cargo sequestered and degraded). In particular, a block in macroautophagy that results in autophagosome accumulation must be differentiated from stimuli that increase autophagic activity, defined as increasedautophagy induction coupled with increased delivery to, and degradation within, lysosomes (inmost higher eukaryotes and some protists such as Dictyostelium) or the vacuole (in plants and fungi). In other words, it is especially important that investigators new to the field understand that the appearance of more autophagosomes does not necessarily equate with more autophagy. In fact, in manycases, autophagosomes accumulate because of a block in trafficking to lysosomes without a concomitant change in autophagosome biogenesis, whereas an increase in autolysosomes may reflect a reduction in degradative activity. It is worth emphasizing here that lysosomal digestion is a stage of autophagy and evaluating its competence is a crucial part of the evaluation of autophagic flux, or complete autophagy. Here, we present a set of guidelines for the selection and interpretation of methods for use by investigators who aim to examine macroautophagy and related processes, as well as forreviewers who need to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of papers that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a formulaic set of rules, because the appropriate assays depend in part on the question being asked and the system being used. In addition, we emphasize that no individual assay is guaranteed to be the most appropriate one in every situation, and we strongly recommend the use of multipleassays to monitor autophagy. Along these lines, because of the potential for pleiotropic effects due to blocking autophagy through genetic manipulation, it is imperative to target by gene knockout or RNA interference more than one autophagyrelated protein. In addition, some individual Atg proteins, or groups of proteins, are involved in other cellular pathways implying that not all Atg proteins can be used as a specific marker for an autophagic process. In these guidelines, we consider these various methods of assessing autophagy and what information can, or cannot, be obtained from them. Finally, by discussing the merits and limits of particular assays, we hope to encourage technical innovation in the field.

The iodide/triiodide redox shuttle has limited the efficiencies accessible in dye-sensitized solar cells. Here, we report mesoscopic solar cells that incorporate a Co((II/III))tris(bipyridyl)-based redox electrolyte in conjunction with a custom synthesized donor-π-bridge-acceptor zinc porphyrin dye as sensitizer (designated YD2-o-C8). The specific molecular design of YD2-o-C8 greatly retards the rate of interfacial back electron transfer from the conduction band of the nanocrystalline titanium dioxide film to the oxidized cobalt mediator, which enables attainment of strikingly high photovoltages approaching 1 volt. Because the YD2-o-C8 porphyrin harvests sunlight across the visible spectrum, large photocurrents are generated. Cosensitization of YD2-o-C8 with another organic dye further enhances the performance of the device, leading to a measured power conversion efficiency of 12.3% under simulated air mass 1.5 global sunlight.

High-entropy alloys (HEAs) are alloys with five or more principal elements. Due to the distinct design concept, these alloys often exhibit unusual properties. Thus, there has been significant interest in these materials, leading to an emerging yet exciting new field. This paper briefly reviews some critical aspects of HEAs, including core effects, phases and crystal structures, mechanical properties, high-temperature properties, structural stabilities, and corrosion behaviors. Current challenges and important future directions are also pointed out.

autophagic responses. Here, we critically discuss current methods of assessing autophagy and the information they can, or cannot, provide. Our ultimate goal is to encourage intellectual and technical innovation in the field.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs (typically consisting of 18-25 nucleotides) that negatively control expression of target genes at the post-transcriptional level. Owing to the biological significance of miRNAs, miRTarBase was developed to provide comprehensive information on experimentally validated miRNA-target interactions (MTIs). To date, the database has accumulated >13,404 validated MTIs from 11,021 articles from manual curations. In this update, a text-mining system was incorporated to enhance the recognition of MTI-related articles by adopting a scoring system. In addition, a variety of biological databases were integrated to provide information on the regulatory network of miRNAs and its expression in blood. Not only targets of miRNAs but also regulators of miRNAs are provided to users for investigating the up- and downstream regulations of miRNAs. Moreover, the number of MTIs with high-throughput experimental evidence increased remarkably (validated by CLIP-seq technology). In conclusion, these improvements promote the miRTarBase as one of the most comprehensively annotated and experimentally validated miRNA-target interaction databases. The updated version of miRTarBase is now available at http://miRTarBase.cuhk.edu.cn/.

Thermal activation can induce persulfate (S 2 O 8 2− ) degradation to form sulfate radicals (SO 4 − •) that can undergo radical interconversion to form hydroxyl radicals (HO•) under alkaline conditions. The radicals SO 4 − •/HO• can be present either individually or simultaneously in the persulfate oxidation system. To identify the active radical species, a chemical probe method was developed. An excess of probe compounds was added to the system, and differences between the reactivity of the probes and the potential radical species were observed. The usage of various probes, including tert -butyl alcohol, phenol, and nitrobenzene (NB), for simultaneously identifying SO 4 − •/HO• was investigated. NB can only react with radicals: it cannot react with persulfate. The reaction rate of NB with HO• is 3000−3900 times greater than that of NB with SO 4 − •, which is a good candidate for use as a probe for differentiating between SO 4 − •/HO• reactivity. Furthermore, the effects of pH on the formation of SO 4 − •/HO• were demonstrated by the degradation kinetics of NB at varying pH values. The results indicated that SO 4 − • is the predominant radical at pH <7; both SO 4 − • and HO• are present at pH 9; HO• is the predominant radical at a more basic pH (i.e., pH 12). The use of chemical probe NB is a suitable compound for differentiating HO•/SO 4 − • reactivity.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are noncoding RNAs with 18-26 nucleotides; they pair with target mRNAs to regulate gene expression and produce significant changes in various physiological and pathological processes. In recent years, the interaction between miRNAs and their target genes has become one of the mainstream directions for drug development. As a large-scale biological database that mainly provides miRNA-target interactions (MTIs) verified by biological experiments, miRTarBase has undergone five revisions and enhancements. The database has accumulated >2 200 449 verified MTIs from 13 389 manually curated articles and CLIP-seq data. An optimized scoring system is adopted to enhance this update's critical recognition of MTI-related articles and corresponding disease information. In addition, single-nucleotide polymorphisms and disease-related variants related to the binding efficiency of miRNA and target were characterized in miRNAs and gene 3' untranslated regions. miRNA expression profiles across extracellular vesicles, blood and different tissues, including exosomal miRNAs and tissue-specific miRNAs, were integrated to explore miRNA functions and biomarkers. For the user interface, we have classified attributes, including RNA expression, specific interaction, protein expression and biological function, for various validation experiments related to the role of miRNA. We also used seed sequence information to evaluate the binding sites of miRNA. In summary, these enhancements render miRTarBase as one of the most research-amicable MTI databases that contain comprehensive and experimentally verified annotations. The newly updated version of miRTarBase is now available at https://miRTarBase.cuhk.edu.cn/.

Silicon nanowire possesses great potential as the material for renewable energy harvesting and conversion. The significantly reduced spectral reflectivity of silicon nanowire to visible light makes it even more attractive in solar energy applications. However, the benefit of its use for solar thermal energy harvesting remains to be investigated and has so far not been clearly reported. The purpose of this study is to provide practical information and insight into the performance of silicon nanowires in solar thermal energy conversion systems. Spectral hemispherical reflectivity and transmissivity of the black silicon nanowire array on silicon wafer substrate were measured. It was observed that the reflectivity is lower in the visible range but higher in the infrared range compared to the plain silicon wafer. A drying experiment and a theoretical calculation were carried out to directly evaluate the effects of the trade-off between scattering properties at different wavelengths. It is clearly seen that silicon nanowires can improve the solar thermal energy harnessing. The results showed that a 17.8 % increase in the harvest and utilization of solar thermal energy could be achieved using a silicon nanowire array on silicon substrate as compared to that obtained with a plain silicon wafer.

An evolutionary recurrent network which automates the design of recurrent neural/fuzzy networks using a new evolutionary learning algorithm is proposed in this paper. This new evolutionary learning algorithm is based on a hybrid of genetic algorithm (GA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO), and is thus called HGAPSO. In HGAPSO, individuals in a new generation are created, not only by crossover and mutation operation as in GA, but also by PSO. The concept of elite strategy is adopted in HGAPSO, where the upper-half of the best-performing individuals in a population are regarded as elites. However, instead of being reproduced directly to the next generation, these elites are first enhanced. The group constituted by the elites is regarded as a swarm, and each elite corresponds to a particle within it. In this regard, the elites are enhanced by PSO, an operation which mimics the maturing phenomenon in nature. These enhanced elites constitute half of the population in the new generation, whereas the other half is generated by performing crossover and mutation operation on these enhanced elites. HGAPSO is applied to recurrent neural/fuzzy network design as follows. For recurrent neural network, a fully connected recurrent neural network is designed and applied to a temporal sequence production problem. For recurrent fuzzy network design, a Takagi-Sugeno-Kang-type recurrent fuzzy network is designed and applied to dynamic plant control. The performance of HGAPSO is compared to both GA and PSO in these recurrent networks design problems, demonstrating its superiority.

BACKGROUND: Current staging methods are inadequate for predicting the outcome of treatment of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). We developed a five-gene signature that is closely associated with survival of patients with NSCLC. METHODS: We used computer-generated random numbers to assign 185 frozen specimens for microarray analysis, real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis, or both. We studied gene expression in frozen specimens of lung-cancer tissue from 125 randomly selected patients who had undergone surgical resection of NSCLC and evaluated the association between the level of expression and survival. We used risk scores and decision-tree analysis to develop a gene-expression model for the prediction of the outcome of treatment of NSCLC. For validation, we used randomly assigned specimens from 60 other patients. RESULTS: Sixteen genes that correlated with survival among patients with NSCLC were identified by analyzing microarray data and risk scores. We selected five genes (DUSP6, MMD, STAT1, ERBB3, and LCK) for RT-PCR and decision-tree analysis. The five-gene signature was an independent predictor of relapse-free and overall survival. We validated the model with data from an independent cohort of 60 patients with NSCLC and with a set of published microarray data from 86 patients with NSCLC. CONCLUSIONS: Our five-gene signature is closely associated with relapse-free and overall survival among patients with NSCLC.

Abstract. Recent natural and manmade disasters have had significant regional economic impacts. These effects have been muted, however, by the resilience of individual businesses and of regional markets, which refers to the inherent ability and adaptive responses that enable firms and regions to avoid potential losses. Computable general equilibrium (CGE) analysis is a promising approach to disaster impact analysis because it is able to model the behavioral response to input shortages and changing market conditions. However, without further refinement, CGE models, as well as nearly all other economic models, reflect only “business-as-usual” conditions, when they are based on historical data. This paper advances the CGE analysis of major supply disruptions of critical inputs by: specifying operational definitions of individual business and regional macroeconomic resilience, linking production function parameters to various types of producer adaptations in emergencies, developing algorithms for recalibrating production functions to empirical or simulation data, and decomposing partial and general equilibrium responses. We illustrate some of these contributions in a case study of the sectoral and regional economic impacts of a disruption to the Portland Metropolitan Water System in the aftermath of a major earthquake.

Amborella trichopoda is strongly supported as the single living species of the sister lineage to all other extant flowering plants, providing a unique reference for inferring the genome content and structure of the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) of living angiosperms. Sequencing the Amborella genome, we identified an ancient genome duplication predating angiosperm diversification, without evidence of subsequent, lineage-specific genome duplications. Comparisons between Amborella and other angiosperms facilitated reconstruction of the ancestral angiosperm gene content and gene order in the MRCA of core eudicots. We identify new gene families, gene duplications, and floral protein-protein interactions that first appeared in the ancestral angiosperm. Transposable elements in Amborella are ancient and highly divergent, with no recent transposon radiations. Population genomic analysis across Amborella's native range in New Caledonia reveals a recent genetic bottleneck and geographic structure with conservation implications.

BACKGROUND: Loss-of-function variants in the angiopoietin-like 3 gene (ANGPTL3) have been associated with decreased plasma levels of triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. It is not known whether such variants or therapeutic antagonism of ANGPTL3 are associated with a reduced risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. METHODS: We sequenced the exons of ANGPTL3 in 58,335 participants in the DiscovEHR human genetics study. We performed tests of association for loss-of-function variants in ANGPTL3 with lipid levels and with coronary artery disease in 13,102 case patients and 40,430 controls from the DiscovEHR study, with follow-up studies involving 23,317 case patients and 107,166 controls from four population studies. We also tested the effects of a human monoclonal antibody, evinacumab, against Angptl3 in dyslipidemic mice and against ANGPTL3 in healthy human volunteers with elevated levels of triglycerides or LDL cholesterol. RESULTS: In the DiscovEHR study, participants with heterozygous loss-of-function variants in ANGPTL3 had significantly lower serum levels of triglycerides, HDL cholesterol, and LDL cholesterol than participants without these variants. Loss-of-function variants were found in 0.33% of case patients with coronary artery disease and in 0.45% of controls (adjusted odds ratio, 0.59; 95% confidence interval, 0.41 to 0.85; P=0.004). These results were confirmed in the follow-up studies. In dyslipidemic mice, inhibition of Angptl3 with evinacumab resulted in a greater decrease in atherosclerotic lesion area and necrotic content than a control antibody. In humans, evinacumab caused a dose-dependent placebo-adjusted reduction in fasting triglyceride levels of up to 76% and LDL cholesterol levels of up to 23%. CONCLUSIONS: Genetic and therapeutic antagonism of ANGPTL3 in humans and of Angptl3 in mice was associated with decreased levels of all three major lipid fractions and decreased odds of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. (Funded by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and others; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01749878 .).

To dye for: A porphyrin chromophore, which is integrated into a donor–acceptor dye as a π-conjugated bridge (see picture), exhibits an unprecedented efficiency of 11 % when used as a photosensitizer in a double-layer TiO2 film. A greatly enhanced photovoltaic performance is observed when the porphyrin dye is cosensitized with a metal-free dye that has a complementary spectral response.

Recent studies have demonstrated the important role of plant microRNAs (miRNAs) under nutrient deficiencies. In this study, deep sequencing of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) small RNAs was conducted to reveal miRNAs and other small RNAs that were differentially expressed in response to phosphate (Pi) deficiency. About 3.5 million sequence reads corresponding to 0.6 to 1.2 million unique sequence tags from each Pi-sufficient or Pi-deficient root or shoot sample were mapped to the Arabidopsis genome. We showed that upon Pi deprivation, the expression of miR156, miR399, miR778, miR827, and miR2111 was induced, whereas the expression of miR169, miR395, and miR398 was repressed. We found cross talk coordinated by these miRNAs under different nutrient deficiencies. In addition to miRNAs, we identified one Pi starvation-induced DICER-LIKE1-dependent small RNA derived from the long terminal repeat of a retrotransposon and a group of 19-nucleotide small RNAs corresponding to the 5' end of tRNA and expressed at a high level in Pi-starved roots. Importantly, we observed an increased abundance of TAS4-derived trans-acting small interfering RNAs (ta-siRNAs) in Pi-deficient shoots and uncovered an autoregulatory mechanism of PAP1/MYB75 via miR828 and TAS4-siR81(-) that regulates the biosynthesis of anthocyanin. This finding sheds light on the regulatory network between miRNA/ta-siRNA and its target gene. Of note, a substantial amount of miR399* accumulated under Pi deficiency. Like miR399, miR399* can move across the graft junction, implying a potential biological role for miR399*. This study represents a comprehensive expression profiling of Pi-responsive small RNAs and advances our understanding of the regulation of Pi homeostasis mediated by small RNAs.

We introduce a new class of molecular iodosalt compounds for application in next-generation solar cells. Unlike tin-based perovskite compounds CsSnI3 and CH3NH3SnI3, which have Sn in the 2+ oxidation state and must be handled in an inert atmosphere when fabricating solar cells, the Sn in the molecular iodosalt compounds is in the 4+ oxidation state, making them stable in air and moisture. As an example, we demonstrate that, using Cs2SnI6 as a hole transporter, we can successfully fabricate in air a solid-state dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) with a mesoporous TiO2 film. Doping Cs2SnI6 with additives helps to reduce the internal device resistance, improving cell efficiency. In this way, a Z907 DSSC delivers 4.7% of energy conversion efficiency. By using a more efficient mixture of porphyrin dyes, an efficiency near 8% with photon confinement has been achieved. This represents a significant step toward the realization of low-cost, stable, lead-free, and environmentally benign next-generation solid-state solar cells.

Life history data for Aphidius gifuensis (Ashmead) and Myzus persicae (Sulzer) were collected in the laboratory. To consider both sexes and variable developmental rates among individuals, the raw data were analyzed using the age-stage, two-sex life table. The intrinsic rate of increase (r) for A. gifuensis is 0.264 d−1. The mean parasitism rate is 92.3 aphids per female. The intrinsic rate of increase for M. persicae is 0.252 d−1. For applying the female age-specific life table to a female population, we prove that the relationship between the mean female fecundity (F) and the net reproductive rate (R0) is R0 = saF, where sa is the preadult survival rate. When the female age-specific life table is applied to two-sex populations, the relationship between F and R0 is R0 = sawF, where sa is the preadult survival rate of females, and w is the female proportion in offspring. This is valid when w is a constant for the age-specific fecundity (mx) of all ages. Because sexing preadult individuals is difficult, and obtaining a constant sex ratio in offspring is uncertain, determining preadult mortality of the individual sexes may be problematical. As a result, calculations of the age-specific survival rate (lx) and fecundity and population parameters may be adversely affected. Moreover, if lx and mx are constructed based on adult age, they may also cause errors in population parameters. Because the application of female age-specific life table to stage-structured bisexual population results in inaccuracies, we recommend that the age-stage, two-sex life table should be used in insect demographic studies.

A wide variety of similarity indices for comparing two assemblages based on species incidence (i.e., presence/absence) data have been proposed in the literature. These indices are generally based on three simple incidence counts: the number of species shared by two assemblages and the number of species unique to each of them. We provide a new probabilistic derivation for any incidence-based index that is symmetric (i.e., the index is not affected by the identity ordering of the two assemblages) and homogeneous (i.e., the index is unchanged if all counts are multiplied by a constant). The probabilistic approach is further extended to formulate abundance-based indices. Thus any symmetric and homogeneous incidence index can be easily modified to an abundance-type version. Applying the Laplace approximation formulas, we propose estimators that adjust for the effect of unseen shared species on our abundance-based indices. Simulation results show that the adjusted estimators significantly reduce the biases of the corresponding unadjusted ones when a substantial fraction of species is missing from samples. Data on successional vegetation in six tropical forests are used for illustration. Advantages and disadvantages of some commonly applied indices are briefly discussed.

We recently demonstrated that microRNA399 (miR399) controls inorganic phosphate (Pi) homeostasis by regulating the expression of UBC24 encoding a ubiquitin-conjugating E2 enzyme in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). Transgenic plants overexpressing miR399 accumulated excessive Pi in the shoots and displayed Pi toxic symptoms. In this study, we revealed that a previously identified Pi overaccumulator, pho2, is caused by a single nucleotide mutation resulting in early termination within the UBC24 gene. The level of full-length UBC24 mRNA was reduced and no UBC24 protein was detected in the pho2 mutant, whereas up-regulation of miR399 by Pi deficiency was not affected. Several characteristics of Pi toxicity in the pho2 mutant were similar to those in the miR399-overexpressing and UBC24 T-DNA knockout plants: both Pi uptake and translocation of Pi from roots to shoots increased and Pi remobilization within leaves was impaired. These phenotypes of the pho2 mutation could be rescued by introduction of a wild-type copy of UBC24. Kinetic analyses revealed that greater Pi uptake in the pho2 and miR399-overexpressing plants is due to increased Vmax. The transcript level of most PHT1 Pi transporter genes was not significantly altered, except PHT1;8 whose expression was enhanced in Pi-sufficient roots of pho2 and miR399-overexpressing compared with wild-type plants. In addition, changes in the expression of several organelle-specific Pi transporters were noticed, which may be associated with the redistribution of intracellular Pi under excess Pi. Furthermore, miR399 and UBC24 were colocalized in the vascular cylinder. This observation not only provides important insight into the interaction between miR399 and UBC24 mRNA, but also supports their systemic function in Pi translocation and remobilization.