Institute of Political Science, Academia Sinica

mcl-1, a bcl-2 family member, was originally identified as an early gene induced during differentiation of ML-1 myeloid leukemia cells. In the present study, we demonstrate that Mcl-1 is tightly regulated by the granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) signaling pathway. Upon deprivation of survival factor from TF-1 myeloid progenitor cells, Mcl-1 levels quickly dropped prior to visible detection of apoptosis of these cells. Upon restimulation of these deprived cells with GM-CSF, the mcl-1 mRNA was immediately induced and its protein product was accordingly resynthesized. Analysis with Ba/F3 cells expressing various truncation mutants of the GM-CSF receptor revealed that the membrane distal region between amino acids 573 and 755 of the receptor beta chain was required for mcl-1 induction. Transient-transfection assays with luciferase reporter genes driven by various regions of the mcl-1 promoter demonstrated that the upstream sequence between -197 and -69 is responsible for cytokine activation of the mcl-1 gene. Overexpression of mcl-1 delayed but did not completely prevent apoptosis of cells triggered by cytokine withdrawal. Its down regulation by antisense constructs overcame, at least partially, the survival activity of GM-CSF and induced the apoptosis of TF-1 cells. Taken together, these results suggest that mcl-1 is an immediate-early gene activated by the cytokine receptor signaling pathway and is one component of the GM-CSF viability response.

This is a comprehensive review of the YOLO series of systems. Different from previous literature surveys, this review article reexamines the characteristics of the YOLO series from the latest technical point of view. At the same time, we also analyzed how the YOLO series continued to influence and promote realtime computer vision-related research and led to the subsequent development of computer vision and language models. We take a closer look at how the methods proposed by the YOLO series in the past ten years have affected the development of subsequent technologies and show the applications of YOLO in various fields. We hope this article can play a good guiding role in subsequent real-time computer vision development.

Trichosanthin is a ribosome-inactivating protein from root tubers of Trichosanthes kirilowii Maxim. In this paper, the mechanism of action of trichosanthin on eukaryotic ribosomes was studied. A fragment of about 450 nucleotides was released from 28S ribosomal RNA after treatment of rat liver ribosome with trichosanthin and its isolated ribosomal RNAs were treated with aniline. Analysis of nucleotide sequence of 5' terminus of this fragment revealed that the aniline-sensitive site of the phosphodiester bond was between positions A4324 and G4325 in the 28S rRNA. Adenine was recovered by ion-exchange column chromatography from the 50% ethanol soluble fraction of the reaction mixture in which rat liver ribosomes were treated with trichosanthin. Thin-layer chromatographic analysis indicated that 1 mol of adenine was released from 1 mol of ribosomes. When the ribosomes were incubated with trichosanthin in the presence of inorganic [32P]phosphate, little incorporation of radioactivity into 28S rRNA was observed, indicating that the release of adenine was not mediated by phosphorolysis. These results demonstrate that trichosanthin inactivates the ribosomes by cleaving the N-C glycosidic bond of adenylic acid at 4324 of 28S rRNA in a hydrolytic fashion.

Neither principled believers in independence nor principled believers in unification are numerous enough to give any elected Taiwanese leader a clear mandate for imposing a solution on the question of national identity anytime soon. The existence of a large number of non-committed rationalists would, in the short run, mitigate the polarized conflict and could, over the long run, shift the political equilibrium in either direction, depending on changing external conditions.

A C/EBP-like transcription factor, AGP/EBP, that binds to three distinct motifs in the 5'-flanking region of alpha 1-acid glycoprotein gene (AGP) has been identified. Here we report the cloning and properties of cDNA corresponding to mouse AGP/EBP. AGP/EBP and C/EBP share 87% amino acid sequence homology in the "leucine zipper" and its associated DNA-binding domains, while their sequences outside these domains and the sizes of their mRNAs are different. Unlike the limited expression of C/EBP in tissues and cells, AGP/EBP appears to be ubiquitously expressed in tissues like lung, spleen, kidney, heart, testis, and liver and cell lines like p388D1, 129P (hepatoma cell line of C3H/HeJ), FO (mouse myeloma), and L929. Antibody against cloned and expressed AGP/EBP which was raised in rabbits could recognize AGP/EBP from nuclear extract of a number of cells and tissues. On the basis of our findings about the structural relationship and the similarity of motif recognition, we propose that a family of C/EBP-like transcription factors exists.

BACKGROUND: A high initial or peak severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV) load in nasopharyngeal specimens was shown to be associated with a high mortality rate. Because all infected individuals were devoid of preeexisting protective immunity against SARS-CoV, the biological basis for the variable virus burdens in different patients remains elusive. METHODS: The nationwide SARS database in Taiwan was analyzed, and genotyping of 281 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of 65 genes was performed for 94 patients with SARS, to identify SNPs for which distribution between patients with or without detectable nasopharyngeal shedding of SARS-CoV was biased. RESULTS: Titers of SARS-CoV shed in nasopharyngeal specimens varied widely, ranging from nondetectable to 10(8) SARS-CoV RNA copies/mL, and they were correlated positively with a high mortality rate (P<.0001, by trend test) and with early death (i.e., death occurring within 2 weeks of the onset of illness) (P=.0015, by trend test). Virus shedding was found to be higher among male patients (P=.0014, by multivariate logistic regression) and among older patients (P=.015, by multivariate logistic regression). Detectable nasopharyngeal shedding of SARS-CoV was associated with polymorphic alleles of interleukins 18 (P=.014) and 1A (P=.031) and a member of NF kappa B complex (reticuloendotheliosis viral oncogene homolog B [RelB]) (P=.034), all of which are proinflammatory in nature, as well as the procoagulation molecule fibrinogen-like protein 2 (P=.008). CONCLUSION: The SARS-CoV load is a determinant of clinical outcomes of SARS, and it is associated with polymorphisms of genes involved in innate immunity, which might be regulated in an age- and sex-dependent manner. The findings of the present study provided leads to genes involved in the host response to SARS-CoV infection; if substantiated with functional studies, these findings may be applicable to other newly emerged respiratory viruses (e.g., the influenza pandemic strain).

By comparing results based on expert and popular surveys, this article finds that popular support for democracy was dwindling even in the decade before expert surveys (such as Freedom in the World and V-Dem) began to show the reality of democratic retreat. Decreasing support for democracy is tied to low satisfaction with how democracy works in practice, and it contributes to the rise of populist leaders who concentrate power in the executive branch. These phenomena reflect the waning capacity of the state to improve governance across all countries. As a result, democracy is likely to face another lackluster decade if both structural and institutional problems are left unsolved.

Does network technology weaken the ability of authoritarian regimes to govern their citizens? Arguments and discussion regarding this proposition can be found in existing studies. Scholars who support this point of view believe that certain developments in network technology led to the outbreak of the Jasmine Revolution in Arab countries in 2011. This chain of rebellions provides an obvious and affirmative example of this theory. However, as far as Chinese research is concerned, an ever-increasing number of scholars are of the opinion that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has gradually mastered control of network technology. They believe the CCP actually employs the technology to strengthen its ability to govern Chinese society. This article discusses the CCP’s techniques of public opinion control in the context of new technology networks, and points out that the CCP has manifested the essence of a networked authoritarian regime, thus achieving the purpose of authoritarian consolidation.

This paper presents new findings on ultrasonic spray pyrolysis of zirconium hydroxyl acetate precursor drops whose sizes were precisely measured using laser light diffraction technique. Precursor concentration plays a predominant role in determination of product particle size. At 0.01 wt% precursor concentration, conventional spray pyrolysis at 750°C using precursor drops 5–8 μm in diameter, generated by an ultrasonic nebulizer at 2.66 MHz, yielded uniform spherical yttria‐stabilized zirconia (YSZ) particles 73 nm in diameter measured by scanning electron microscopy. The YSZ particle diameters were much smaller than those predicted by the one‐particle‐per‐drop mechanism. Under similar reaction conditions, the high‐throughput ultrasound‐modulated two‐fluid (UMTF) spray pyrolysis of larger precursor drops (28‐μm peak diameter) also yielded spherical dense particles; they were significantly smaller in size than those produced by the low‐throughput conventional ultrasonic spray pyrolysis of smaller drops (6.8‐μm peak diameter).

Why has China's foreign policy become more assertive since 2009, and what is driving Beijing's foreign policy orientations? Given the significance of China's rise over the past few decades, it is surprising that this question has not been subjected to systematic analysis as well as general investigation within scholarly research. This article serves to examine the sources of China's assertiveness using a system-level, unit-level and individual-level analysis. This article first looks at system-level explanations such as state power, external threats and national interests, and then considers unit-level factors including bureaucratic competition, struggles of the elite and the surge of nationalism. However, both system-level and unit-level explanations alone fail to account for China's more assertive foreign policy. This suggests that individual factors play a major role in explaining the country's more assertive external behaviour. This is especially the case when the perceptions of the political elite are deeply embedded in the state leader's preferences. This finding can enhance our understanding of why traditional explanations, that do not incorporate the role of the state leader, may fail to predict Chinese foreign policy behaviour. To understand better the implications of China's rise, therefore, we must take into account the role of the state leadership and its impact on China's growing influence in international politics.

(1992). Uniqueness Of Positive Solutions Of In A Ball. Communications in Partial Differential Equations: Vol. 17, No. 7-8, pp. 1141-1164.

As China becomes a more prominent international player, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has stepped up its external propaganda in a bid to promote its image as a superpower. The operations of the CCP’s external propaganda system are no longer guided by dogma; rather, these incorporate many Western theories related to “public diplomacy,” which emphasizes the role played by non-governmental actors and the use of a softer approach. However, the CCP’s understanding of the concept of public diplomacy is influenced by the “people’s diplomacy” of the Cold War period. This means that it continues to base its external propaganda on the idea of a struggle against enemies, attempting to establish an international united front with a view to boosting the CCP’s right of discourse in the international arena and weakening anti-China forces in the West.

Two trypsin inhibitor components of the squash family were isolated and purified from the juice of the towel gourd (Luffa cylindrica) using anhydrotrypsin affinity chromatography followed by high pressure liquid chromatography. The inhibitors were sequenced and found to consist of 28 and 29 amino acid residues. The determined sequences show high similarity to other inhibitors of the squash family, especially in the location of disulfide bonds and the reactive site and also in the COOH-terminal region. A cDNA library of towel gourd was constructed and used as a template for polymerase chain reaction amplification of two cDNA fragments of the inhibitor with an overlapping sequence. A full-length cDNA sequence coding for the inhibitor was then completed. The open reading frame codes for a prepro-inhibitor protein with the pre- and pro-peptides consisting of 21 and 13 residues, respectively. The deduced amino acid sequence of 29 residues for the inhibitor is consistent with that determined by primary structure analysis. The genomic sequence of the mature inhibitor was also ascertained using the total DNA of the towel gourd as a polymerase chain reaction template. The genomic sequence is completely identical with that of the cDNA, showing no intervening sequence.

What types of vaccines are citizens most likely to accept? We argue that citizens' identification with their nation may lead them to prefer vaccines developed and produced within their national borders, to the exclusion and/or detriment of vaccines from other nations. We administered a conjoint experiment requesting 15,000 adult citizens across 14 individual countries from around the world to assess 450,000 profiles of vaccines that randomly varied on seven attributes. Beyond vaccine fundamentals such as efficacy rate, number of doses, and duration of the protection, we find that citizens systematically favor vaccines developed and produced in their own country of residence. The extent of preference in favor of vaccines developed and produced within the national borders is particularly large among citizens who identify more strongly with their nation, suggesting nationalism plays a role in explaining the bias in favor of vaccines developed and produced locally. This public opinion bias on vaccine preferences has significant theoretical and practical implications.

The change of national identity in Taiwan is the concern of the international community, for it may lead to Taiwan independence and armed conflict in the Taiwan Strait and entail a showdown between the U.S. and the People's Republic of China. The articles in this special issue concentrate on the origins, nature, and impact of the rise of Taiwanese nationalism. In these concluding remarks, a worst-case scenario based on these articles is presented and the scenario's three main components are examined. These components are: an inexorable rise of Taiwanese nationalism, the translation of exclusive Taiwanese identity into a pro-independence attitude, and political expressions of such attitude in electoral campaigns and government policies. Both structural and contingent explanations are offered for the rise of Taiwanese nationalism. The incongruence of the national identity pattern and future of nation preference is discussed and the mechanisms that translate the latter into political actions are discerned. Finally, the plausibility of the worst-case scenario is gauged.

Concern about rising economic inequality is widespread among ordinary citizens, academics, and policymakers. In particular, income inequality not only intensifies the conflicts between the rich and poor citizens but also leads to political instability. In this article, we investigate how income inequality is related to people’s support for democracy by including both objective and subjective measures of inequality. Using data collected from 28 democracies in East Asia and Latin America during 2013 and 2015, we demonstrate that inequality, measured in either a subjective or objective way, decreases with people’s satisfaction with democracy. In addition, we find that in East Asian countries, subjective measures of inequality, perceived unfairness of income inequality in particular, provide a better explanation of people’s dissatisfaction with democracy than the Gini index, a commonly used objective measure of inequality. Our findings are robust to different model specifications and offer micro-level evidence suggesting that unfair income distribution undermines the consolidation of democracies.

This article argues that, like fashion, national identity may be influenced by “neighbors” in a broadly defined sense. Inspired by models of collective choice, we hypothesize that, in Taiwan, a subethnically divided society facing a dilemma in its relationship with China, township residents and occupational peers are subject to mutual influence in the formation of their national identity. Methodologically, we compare spatial regression with dummy variable regression and hierarchical linear models. Based on spatial regression with survey data, our findings show that the formation of national identity in Taiwan indeed exhibits strong neighborhood influence.

China has become one of the most important trading partners for many Asian countries, and Taiwan is at the forefront of China’s economic coercion. It also leads to the following empirical puzzle: When can Beijing’s economic sanctions and incentives achieve their desired outcomes? Why and how do they often fail? Given the power asymmetry between China and Taiwan, how Taiwan resists China’s coercive measures contributes significantly to theoretical development in international relations. Taiwan has responded to Chinese economic pressure by diversifying its trade with and investment in Southeast Asian and South Asian countries to lessen dependence on China. It also securitizes China–Taiwan relations by raising public awareness about over-reliance on China’s market. Taiwan is not only a target of China’s coercion, but an active actor in its own right as well. This article re-evaluates the literature on East Asian politics and economic statecraft. First, it highlights the salience of power asymmetry to the field of economic statecraft. Second, it offers a three-level analysis of when and how China exercised economic coercion and incentives towards Taiwan. Third, it examines how Taiwan addressed Beijing’s sanctions on Chinese group tourists starting in 2016. The final section discusses some conclusions that can be drawn and suggests some avenues for future research.

A Blue Sephadex G-150 affinity column adsorbs the arginyl-tRNA synthetase of Escherichia coli K12 and purifies it with high efficiency. The relatively low enzyme content was conveniently purified by DEAE-cellulose chromatography, affinity chromatography, and fast protein liquid chromatography to a preparation with high activity capable of catalyzing the esterification of about 23,000 nmol of arginine to the cognate tRNA per milligram of enzyme within 1 min, at 37 degrees C, pH 7.4. The turnover number is about 27 s-1. The purification was about 1200-fold, and the overall yield was more than 30%. The enzyme has a single polypeptide chain of about Mr 70,000 and binds arginine and tRNA with 1:1 stoichiometry. For the aminoacylation reaction, the Km values at pH 7.4, 37 degrees C, for various substrates were determined: 12 microM, 0.9 mM, and 2.5 microM for arginine, ATP, and tRNA, respectively. The Km value for cognate tRNA is higher than those of most of the aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase systems so far reported. The ATP-PPi exchange reaction proceeds only in the presence of arginine-specific tRNA. The Km values of the exchange at pH 7.2, 37 degrees C, are 0.11 mM, 2.9 mM, and 0.5 mM for arginine, ATP, and PPi, respectively, with a turnover number of 40 s-1. The pH dependence shows that the reaction is favored toward slightly acidic conditions where the aminoacylation is relatively depressed.

Will Russia’s invasion of Ukraine bring China and Russia closer together or drive them farther apart, or will it be business as usual? This article addresses this question by conceptualizing the main characteristics of the China–Russia strategic partnership. It argues that a strategic partnership, characterized as it is by informality, equality, and inclusivity, is essentially different from an alliance or alignment. These characteristics allow Beijing to distance itself from Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. This makes it unlikely that China will attempt any simultaneous aggression in East Asia or that it will be able to mediate in the conflict. This effectively rules out the rise of a China–Russia axis. As China strives to balance its close ties with Russia and its economic engagement with the West, Beijing is more likely to maintain, rather than strengthen or weaken, its strategic partnership with Moscow.