AN ECONOMY-WIDE ANALYSIS OF GM FOOD LABELING POLICIES IN TAIWAN

The development of agricultural biotechnology offers the opportunity to increase crop production, lowers farming costs, improves food quality and could reduce costs to consumers. For the food importing economies, the import quantities as well as prices will be affected through world market as the production technology of GM crops is adopted by the exporting countries. Many sectors will be affected by the use of these crops through vertical (or backward) and horizontal (or forward) linkages. The purpose of this paper is to develop an economy-wide quantitative assessment of the economic impacts of the introduction of GM products with and without labeling. The modeling framework used in this analysis is TAIGEM (Taiwan General Equilibrium Model), a multi-sectoral computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of the Taiwan¡¦s economy which is derived from ORANI model (Dixon, Parmenter, Sutton and Vincent, 1982). TAIGEM is amended by splitting corn and soybeans into GM and non-GM varieties. It also endogenizes the decision of producers and consumers to use GM vs. non-GM corn and soybeans in their intermediate uses and consumption, respectively. We also consider the consumers¡¦ acceptance of GM food so that the mandatory labeling policy can be examined. Our simulation results indicate that the most extreme import ban on GM crops would be very costly in terms of total production values, ranging from NT$ 40 to 90 billions per year.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

High Serum Estradiol Levels are not Detrimental to In Vitro Fertilization Outcome

SummaryObjectiveTo evaluate the impact of high estradiol (E2) levels and a high number of retrieved oocytes on the outcome of in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycles.Materials and MethodsWe retrospectively reviewed 274 IVF cycles. These patients were divided into five groups according to their peak E2 levels on the human chorionic gonadotropin day: ≤ 2,000 pg/mL (130 cycles); 2,001–3,000 pg/mL (53 cycles); 3,001–4,000 pg/mL (46 cycles); 4,001–5,000 pg/mL (29 cycles); > 5,000 pg/mL (16 cycles). Fertilization, pregnancy, and implantation rates were analyzed between these groups. We also compared the outcome of IVF for high responders (> 15 retrieved oocytes) and normal responders (≤ 15 retrieved oocytes).ResultsThe oocyte fertilization and embryo cleavage rates were not significantly different among these five groups. Although decrease in pregnancy and implantation rates was observed when E2 levels were > 5,000 pg/mL compared with those having lower E2 levels, there were no statistically significant differences between these five groups. In addition, similar IVF outcome was detected for those cycles with > 15 oocytes and ≤ 15 oocytes obtained.ConclusionHigh serum E2 levels and high oocyte yield are not detrimental to IVF outcome. More studies are needed to characterize the threshold E2 levels above which implantation rates are reduced

Modularity of Escherichia coli sRNA regulation revealed by sRNA-target and protein network analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>sRNAs, which belong to the non-coding RNA family and range from approximately 50 to 400 nucleotides, serve various important gene regulatory roles. Most are believed to be <it>trans</it>-regulating and function by being complementary to their target mRNAs in order to inhibiting translation by ribosome occlusion. Despite this understanding of their functionality, the global properties associated with regulation by sRNAs are not yet understood. Here we use topological analysis of sRNA targets in terms of protein-protein interaction and transcription-regulatory networks in <it>Escherichia coli </it>to shed light on the global correlation between sRNA regulation and cellular control networks.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The analysis of sRNA targets in terms of their networks showed that some specific network properties could be identified. In protein-protein interaction network, sRNA targets tend to occupy more central positions (higher closeness centrality, <it>p-val </it>= 0.022) and more cliquish (larger clustering coefficient, <it>p-val </it>= 0.037). The targets of the same sRNA tend to form a network module (shorter characteristic path length, <it>p-val </it>= 0.015; larger density, <it>p-val </it>= 0.019; higher in-degree ratio, <it>p-val </it>= 0.009). Using the transcription-regulatory network, sRNA targets tend to be under multiple regulation (higher indegree, <it>p-val </it>= 0.013) and the targets usually are important to the transfer of regulatory signals (higher betweenness, <it>p-val </it>= 0.012). As was found for the protein-protein interaction network, the targets that are regulated by the same sRNA also tend to be closely knit within the transcription-regulatory network (larger density, <it>p-val </it>= 0.036), and inward interactions between them are greater than the outward interactions (higher in-degree ratio, <it>p-val </it>= 0.023). However, after incorporating information on predicted sRNAs and down-stream targets, the results are not as clear-cut, but the overall network modularity is still evident.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our results indicate that sRNA targeting tends to show a clustering pattern that is similar to the human microRNA regulation associated with protein-protein interaction network that was observed in a previous study. Namely, the sRNA targets show close interaction and forms a closely knit network module for both the protein-protein interaction and the transcription-regulatory networks. Thus, targets of the same sRNA work in a concerted way toward a specific goal. In addition, in the transcription-regulatory network, sRNA targets act as "multiplexor", accepting regulatory control from multiple sources and acting accordingly. Our results indicate that sRNA targeting shows different properties when compared to the proteins that form cellular networks.</p

In Situ Confocal Raman Mapping Study of a Single Ti-Assisted ZnO Nanowire

In this work, we succeeded in preparing in-plane zinc oxide nanowires using a Ti-grid assisted by the chemical vapor deposition method. Optical spatial mapping of the Confocal Raman spectra was used to investigate the phonon and geometric properties of a single ZnO nanowire. The local optical results reveal a red shift in the non-polar E2 high frequency mode and width broadening along the growth direction, reflecting quantum-confinement in the radial direction

Telomerase prevents accelerated senescence in glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD)-deficient human fibroblasts

Fibroblasts derived from glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD)-deficient patients display retarded growth and accelerated cellular senescence that is attributable to increased accumulation of oxidative DNA damage and increased sensitivity to oxidant-induced senescence, but not to accelerated telomere attrition. Here, we show that ectopic expression of hTERT stimulates telomerase activity and prevents accelerated senescence in G6PD-deficient cells. Stable clones derived from hTERT-expressing normal and G6PD-deficient fibroblasts have normal karyotypes, and display no sign of senescence beyond 145 and 105 passages, respectively. Activation of telomerase, however, does not prevent telomere attrition in earlier-passage cells, but does stabilize telomere lengths at later passages. In addition, we provide evidence that ectopic expression of hTERT attenuates the increased sensitivity of G6PD-deficient fibroblasts to oxidant-induced senescence. These results suggest that ectopic expression of hTERT, in addition to acting in telomere length maintenance by activating telomerase, also functions in regulating senescence induction