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Metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS capacitor-driven silicon modulators have demonstrated exceeding performance in driving voltage, energy efficiency, and bandwidth through heterogeneous integration with other active materials, including III-V compound semiconductors, transparent conductive oxides (TCOs, and graphene. However, a proper quantitative comparison is lacking among various device structures due to the difference in material properties and device designs. In this article, we first briefly reviewed state-of-the-art MOS capacitor-driven silicon modulators. Following that, we modeled the modulation efficiency and optical loss of two most representative device structures by incorporating the optical properties such as plasma dispersion, band-filling, and bandgap shrinkage effects for several heterogeneously integrated materials. The comparative analysis based on simulated results shows that Ge, III-Vs, and TCOs all offer larger index modulation than Si, whereas graphene has the largest index modulation. At the end of this article, we discussed the strategy of heterogeneous integration based on device design and scalable fabrication.

Gilbert’s syndrome is mainly diagnosed through genetic analysis and is primarily detected through a mutation in the promoter region of the UGT1A1 gene. However, most of the research has been conducted on Caucasian populations. In this study, we studied the Han population in Taiwan to investigate the possibility of other mutations that could cause Gilbert’s syndrome. This study comprised a test group of 45 Taiwanese individuals with Gilbert’s syndrome and 180 healthy Taiwanese individuals as a control group. We extracted DNA from the blood samples and then used Axiom Genome-Wide TWB 2.0 array plates for genotyping. Out of 302,771 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from 225 subjects, we detected 57 SNPs with the most significant shift in allele frequency; 27 SNPs among them were located in the UGT1A region. Most of the detected SNPs highly correlated with each other and are located near the first exon of UGT1A1, UGT1A3, UGT1A6, and UGT1A7. We used these SNPs as an input for the machine learning algorithms and developed prediction models. Our study reveals a good association between the 27 SNPs detected and Gilbert’s syndrome. Hence, this study provides a reference for diagnosing Gilbert’s syndrome in the Taiwanese population in the future.

We demonstrated a slotted silicon microring resonator with the waveguide gap filled by high mobility titanium-doped indium oxide (ITiO) MOS capacitor. It experimentally achieved an extremely large electro-optic wavelength tunability of 540 pm/V.

We demonstrated a silicon microring resonator driven by high mobility titanium-doped indium oxide MOS capacitor. It achieved an unprecedented wavelength tunability of 480 pm/V with field-effect mobility of 70 cm2V-1s-1 in the gate.

Muskmelon (Cucumis melo L.) is an economically important fruit crop in Taiwan. In March 2020, the symptoms of fruit rot were observed in approximately 10% of mature muskmelon fruits in a field located in Wuri (24.043585, 120.657588), Taichung City, Taiwan. Symptoms including water-soaked lesions were initially observed on the lwer side of fruit, extending with time to cover most of the fruit area, and internal dissolution with white to brown mycelia on the surface was also observed. Ten rotted fruits were disinfested with 70% ethanol for 1 min followed by 1% NaOCl for 5 min, then rinsed three times with sterile distilled water (SDW). Fifteen sterilized symptomatic fruit fragments were cut into 1-cm3 pieces, placed on potato dextrose agar (PDA) amended with 35 mg/liter of streptomycin sulfate and incubated at 28°C in the dark for 1 week. Ten isolates with similar morphology were obtained and the representative isolate FOS-1 was characterized further. Single-spore isolates were used for morphological and molecular analyses. Isolates grown on PDA had dense, cottony white aerial mycelium, changed to light brown, and with the time yellowish-brown pigmentation appeared. Microconidia were ovoid, fusiform, or slightly curved, 0 to1 septate, and ranged between 7.9 to 16.5 × 2.8 to 3.5 μm. Macroconidia were 3 to 5 septate, with a slightly curved and tapering apical cell, and ranged between 18.7 to 35.1 × 3.3 to 4.1 μm. Spherical chlamydospores with thick walls were abundant and single, being produced in terminal or intercalary position. Based on morphological characteristics, the fungus was identified as Fusarium sp. (Leslie and Summerell 2006). PCR amplification and DNA sequencing were performed using primers ITS1/ITS4 (White et al. 1990) and EF1-728F/EF1-986R (Carbone and Kohn 1999) to amplify the complete internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region and the partial translation elongation factor 1-alpha (TEF1-α) gene, respectively. The ITS and TEF1-α gene sequences of Isolate FOS-1 were deposited in GenBank database with acc. nos. MZ749694.1 and MZ782277.1, respectively. BLAST analysis showed 99.64% and 100% sequence identity with F. incanatum-equiseti species complex (FIESC) with MT563419.1 for ITS and MW034437.1 for EF-1α, respectively. BLAST analysis of TEF1-α gene sequence in FUSARIUM-ID database (Geiser et al. 2004), showed 99.31% sequence identity with FIESC (NRRL34070). Pathogenicity was confirmed by fulfilling Koch's postulates. Three healthy muskmelon fruit were disinfested using 70% ethanol for 30 s and 1% NaOCl for 5 min, and followed by three rinses with SDW. Then, the fruit were wounded using a sterile needle and inoculated with an 8 mm-mycelium agar plug. Three sites per fruit were inoculated, and three other fruits treated with mycelium-free PDA plugs served as the controls. The inoculated and control fruit were placed in a plastic box and incubated at 25°C under a 12 h photoperiod for 1 week. All inoculated fruit showed symptoms similar to those observed in the field, whereas no symptoms occurred on the controls. The fungus was re-isolated from the infected fruit, and identified as FIESC by the morphological and molecular methods described above. This pathogen could cause great losses in muskmelon. Members of the FIESC have been reported to cause leaf spot and fruit rot in muskmelon (Cao et al. 2019; Ismail et al. 2021). To our knowledge, this is the first report of the FIESC causing fruit rot of muskmelon in Taiwan. References: Cao, P., et al. 2019. Plant Dis.103:1768. Carbone, I., and Kohn, L. M. 1999. Mycologia. 91:553. Geiser, D.M., et al. 2004. Eur. J. Plant Pathol. 110:473. Ismail, S. I., et al. 2021. Plant Dis. 105:1197. Leslie, J. F., and Summerell, B. A. 2006. The Fusarium Laboratory Manual. Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, U.K. White, T. J., et al. 1990. PCR Protocols: A Guide to Methods and Applications Academic Press, San Diego, CA. 315.

Background: Mutations in genes encoding sarcomeric proteins lead to failures in sarcomere assembly, the building blocks of contracting muscles, resulting in cardiomyopathies that are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Splicing variants of sarcomeric proteins are crucial at different stages of myofibrillogenesis, accounting for sarcomeric structural integrity. RBM24 (RNA-binding motif protein 24) is known as a tissue-specific splicing regulator that plays an essential role in cardiogenesis. However, it had been unclear if the developmental stage-specific alternative splicing facilitated by RBM24 contributes to sarcomere assembly and cardiogenesis. Our aim is to study the molecular mechanism by which RBM24 regulates cardiogenesis and sarcomere assembly in a temporal-dependent manner. Methods: We ablated RBM24 from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) using CRISPR/Cas9 techniques. Results: Although RBM24 −/− hESCs still differentiated into sarcomere-hosting cardiomyocytes, they exhibited disrupted sarcomeric structures with punctate Z-lines due to impaired myosin replacement during early myofibrillogenesis. Transcriptomics revealed >4000 genes regulated by RBM24 . Among them, core myofibrillogenesis proteins (eg, ACTN2 [α-actinin 2], TTN [titin], and MYH10 [non-muscle myosin IIB]) were misspliced. Consequently, MYH6 (muscle myosin II) cannot replace nonmuscle myosin MYH10, leading to myofibrillogenesis arrest at the early premyofibril stage and causing disrupted sarcomeres. Intriguingly, we found that the ABD (actin-binding domain; encoded by exon 6) of the Z-line anchor protein ACTN2 is predominantly excluded from early cardiac differentiation, whereas it is consistently included in human adult heart. CRISPR/Cas9-mediated deletion of exon 6 from ACTN2 in hESCs, as well as forced expression of full-length ACTN2 in RBM24 −/− hESCs, further corroborated that inclusion of exon 6 is critical for sarcomere assembly. Overall, we have demonstrated that RBM24-facilitated inclusion of exon 6 in ACTN2 at distinct stages of cardiac differentiation is evolutionarily conserved and crucial to sarcomere assembly and integrity. Conclusions: RBM24 acts as a master regulator to modulate the temporal dynamics of core myofibrillogenesis genes and thereby orchestrates sarcomere organization.

We demonstrate a real-time, reusable, and reversible integrated optical sensor for temperature monitoring within harsh environments. The sensor architecture combines the phase change property of chalcogenide glasses (ChG) with the high-density integration advantages of high index silicon waveguides. To demonstrate sensor feasibility, ChG composition Ge40S60, which is characterized by a sharp phase transition from amorphous to crystalline phase around 415 °C, is deposited over a 50 µm section of a single mode optical waveguide. The phase transition changes the behavior of Ge40S60 from a low loss to high loss material, thus significantly affecting the hybrid waveguide loss around the phase transition temperature. A transmission power drop of over 40dB in the crystalline phase compared to the amorphous phase is experimentally measured. Moreover, we recover the amorphous phase through the application of an electrical pulse, thus showing the reversible nature of our compact temperature sensor. Through integrating multiple compositions of ChG with well-defined phases transition temperatures over a silicon waveguide array, it is possible to determine, in real-time, the temperature evolution within a harsh environment, such as within a nuclear reactor cladding.

International audience; Although superior high temperature tensile yield strength of high entropy superalloys (HESAs) arises from their hierarchical microstructure, the precipitation processes driving its formation remains unclear. In the present study, we analyze the kinetics of γ’ and γ precipitations by treating the concurrent nucleation, growth and coarsening using common computational thermodynamic and kinetic tools to simulate the microstructure genesis and evolution in HESA during thermal treatments. The ability of the simulations to reproduce the experimentally observed microstructure parameters is evaluated. Temperature-time-transformation (TTT) diagrams are calculated to serve as guidelines for further optimization of the hierarchical microstructure of HESAs.

Construction management is a complex and time-consuming process, and effective quality management is mandatory to ensure overall project quality. Unfortunately, current methods are cumbersome and rife with error. Therefore, the application of electronic and blockchain-based technology for autonomous inspection operations is proposed, and its advantages to auxiliary management operations are demonstrated. The application of blockchain technology in the construction industry using appropriate electronic aids can improve operational efficiency over traditional paper-based methods, thus reducing the time required by engineers and improving quality management.

Mass spectrometry-based proteomics using isobaric labeling for multiplex quantitation has become a popular approach for proteomic studies. We present Multi-Q 2, an isobaric-labeling quantitation tool which can yield the largest quantitation coverage and improved quantitation accuracy compared to three state-of-the-art methods. Multi-Q 2 supports identification results from several popular proteomic data analysis platforms for quantitation, offering up to 12% improvement in quantitation coverage for accepting identification results from multiple search engines when compared with MaxQuant and PatternLab. It is equipped with various quantitation algorithms, including a ratio compression correction algorithm, and results in up to 336 algorithmic combinations. Systematic evaluation shows different algorithmic combinations have different strengths and are suitable for different situations. We also demonstrate that the flexibility of Multi-Q 2 in customizing algorithmic combination can lead to improved quantitation accuracy over existing tools. Moreover, the use of complementary algorithmic combinations can be an effective strategy to enhance sensitivity when searching for biomarkers from differentially expressed proteins in proteomic experiments. Multi-Q 2 provides interactive graphical interfaces to process quantitation and to display ratios at protein, peptide, and spectrum levels. It also supports a heatmap module, enabling users to cluster proteins based on their abundance ratios and to visualize the clustering results. Multi-Q 2 executable files, sample data sets, and user manual are freely available at http://ms.iis.sinica.edu.tw/COmics/Software_Multi-Q2.html.

Protein termini are determinants of protein stability. Proteins bearing degradation signals, or degrons, at their amino‐ or carboxyl‐termini are eliminated by the N‐ or C‐degron pathways, respectively. We aimed to elucidate the function of C‐degron pathways and to unveil how normal proteomes are exempt from C‐degron pathway‐mediated destruction. Our data reveal that C‐degron pathways remove mislocalized cellular proteins and cleavage products of deubiquitinating enzymes. Furthermore, the C‐degron and N‐degron pathways cooperate in protein removal. Proteome analysis revealed a shortfall in normal proteins targeted by C‐degron pathways, but not of defective proteins, suggesting proteolysis‐based immunity as a constraint for protein evolution/selection. Our work highlights the importance of protein termini for protein quality surveillance, and the relationship between the functional proteome and protein degradation pathways., Proteome‐wide analyses suggest functions of C‐terminal degradation signals in protein quality surveillance as well as interplay with N‐degron‐dependent mechanisms.

This paper presents an overview of the perceived learning engagement of MOOCs supported by various platforms and presents a preliminary examination of the factors that affect the learners’ engagement, which in turn results in persistence. This research provides a qualitative study that uses micro-approach to examine the perceived cognitive and behavioral factors that underlie in the successful completion of MOOC courses. This paper is a study on learners’ who attended at least three online MOOCs in the fields of Language, Science, Arts, and Humanities. For the data analysis, 115 motivated participants who attended the MOOCs agreed to reflect on the survey questionnaire. The results indicate that the following five factors, interactive, in-ferential, integrative, instruction, and involvement, had a significant effect on learning engagement in MOOCs. The core issues pertaining to each factor are also discussed in the paper that will be worthwhile for further validation.

We demonstrated a silicon microring resonator driven by a titanium-doped indium oxide capacitor with 10 nm hafnium oxide insulator, achieving a high quality-factor of 11,700 with a high electro-optic tunability of 120 pm/V.

The effect of solution heat treatment as well as primary and secondary aging treatment conditions on the microstructural evolution of a high-entropy superalloy was investigated. The as-cast sample shows coarsened &gamma, &prime, precipitates and other extra phases at interdendrite region due to microsegregation. This microsegregation makes &gamma, solvus unclear and decreases the solidus. After conducting the solution treatment determined in this study, primary aging conditions showing an aligned cubic &gamma, phase at 1050 &deg, C for 4 h and random spherical &gamma, precipitates at 950 &deg, C for 20 h in similar size were found. By using both samples, secondary aging conditions showing coarsened secondary &gamma, precipitates and &gamma, particles inside the &gamma, precipitates at 800 &deg, C for 20 h and fine secondary &gamma, precipitates at 850 and 870 &deg, C for 20 h were found.

We experimentally demonstrated a novel silicon microring modulator driven by transparent conductive oxide capacitor, achieving a large tuning efficiency of 95 pm/V. Analysis indicates that a potential high-speed operation above 44GHz can be reached.

We demonstrated a compact broadband plasmonic-silicon electro-absorption modulator driven by epsilon-near-zero conductive oxide, covering the entire C-band from 1515nm to 1580nm wavelength. It achieved 3.5 GHz modulation bandwidth and 4.5 Gb/s data rate.

Most disaster responses require manual processing to eliminate errors, which is currently handled by the government. Although this process ensures quality of the information, considerable time delays occur. With the rapid development of the Internet and mobile devices, crowd-based platforms have been developed and used for disaster responses. However, three obvious drawbacks exist with crowdsourcing: errors, duplications, and unstructured formats. This study aims to develop a computational method, called the Artificial and Crowd Intelligence (ACI) filter, to overcome these drawbacks. To verify the ACI filter, 876 responses collected from an actual flood that occurred on June 10th, 2012, in Taiwan, were used; 284 volunteers from the Internet were recruited for the testing. The results show that the ACI filter eliminates 26.25% of the responses. The percentage of mistaken validations was 0.00% and the percentage of mistaken eliminations was 3.91%. This demonstrates that the ACI filter, by combining machine and human intelligence, can successfully improve crowd response accuracy.

Objective Although association studies in the general population may be relevant for determining susceptibility to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), they may be less applicable for pharmacogenetics research in participants who have already acquired the disease. Patients and methods A genome-wide methylation profiling (generated by HumanMethylation450 BeadChips study was performed on peripheral blood mononuclear cells of 24 patients with AECOPD (acute exacerbation COPD), with good and poor responsiveness to standard corticosteroid treatment. Pyrosequencing was used to replicate the selected CpG sites in 50 patients with AECOPD with standard corticosteroid treatment. Results The results showed the patients with AECOPD with good and poor response to standard corticosteroid treatment have a distinct DNA methylation pattern. A total of 23 CpG loci located in 19 known gene regions, including gene-body and promoter, appeared to be significantly differentially methylated. Replication by pyrosequencing revealed that one CpG site in PSMD8 showed the same trend of differential methylation and reached to statistical significance as the microarray result. Conclusion Our preliminary findings provide evidence for molecular heterogeneity in patients with AECOPD, which may contribute to significant differences in their response to COPD treatment.

Heart failure (HF) is a global pandemic public health burden affecting one in five of the general population in their lifetime. For high-risk individuals, early detection and prediction of HF progression reduces hospitalizations, reduces mortality, improves the individual’s quality of life, and reduces associated medical costs. In using an artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted genome-wide association study of a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) database from 117 asymptomatic high-risk individuals, we identified a SNP signature composed of 13 SNPs. These were annotated and mapped into six protein-coding genes (GAD2, APP, RASGEF1C, MACROD2, DMD, and DOCK1), a pseudogene (PGAM1P5), and various non-coding RNA genes (LINC01968, LINC00687, LOC105372209, LOC101928047, LOC105372208, and LOC105371356). The SNP signature was found to have a good performance when predicting HF progression, namely with an accuracy rate of 0.857 and an area under the curve of 0.912. Intriguingly, analysis of the protein connectivity map revealed that DMD, RASGEF1C, MACROD2, DOCK1, and PGAM1P5 appear to form a protein interaction network in the heart. This suggests that, together, they may contribute to the pathogenesis of HF. Our findings demonstrate that a combination of AI-assisted identifications of SNP signatures and clinical parameters are able to effectively identify asymptomatic high-risk subjects that are predisposed to HF.