The Volcanic Earthquake Swarm of October 20, 2009 in the Tatun Area of Northern Taiwan

On October 20, 2009, a series of felt earthquakes with local magnitudes ranging from 2.8 - 3.2 occurred in the Tatun volcanic area off the northern tip of Taiwan. Although there was no damage caused by those earthquakes, many residents in the Taipei metropolitan area, particularly for people who live near the Yangminshan National Park, felt strong ground shaking. In order to know what the possible mechanisms were that generated those earthquakes, we carefully examined seismic data recorded by a dense seismic array in the Tatun volcanic area. During the period between October 18 and 22, 2009 we detected at least 202 micro-earthquakes. Most of the earthquakes were relocated using the double-difference method and were clustered in the shallow crust beneath the Dayoukeng area, which is the strongest fumarole in the Tatun volcanic area. Among these earthquakes, 72 focal mechanisms were determined by polarizing the first P-wave motion. Most earthquakes belonged to normal faulting. An extremely high b-value of 2.17 was obtained from those earthquakes. Based on the seismic variations in both the temporary and spatial distribution as well as an extremely high b-value, we conclude that the earthquake sequence on October 20, 2009 was a typically seismic swarm associated with possible active volcanism in the Tatun volcanic area

Senp1 drives hypoxia-induced polycythemia via GATA1 and Bcl-xL in subjects with Monge's disease.

In this study, because excessive polycythemia is a predominant trait in some high-altitude dwellers (chronic mountain sickness [CMS] or Monge's disease) but not others living at the same altitude in the Andes, we took advantage of this human experiment of nature and used a combination of induced pluripotent stem cell technology, genomics, and molecular biology in this unique population to understand the molecular basis for hypoxia-induced excessive polycythemia. As compared with sea-level controls and non-CMS subjects who responded to hypoxia by increasing their RBCs modestly or not at all, respectively, CMS cells increased theirs remarkably (up to 60-fold). Although there was a switch from fetal to adult HgbA0 in all populations and a concomitant shift in oxygen binding, we found that CMS cells matured faster and had a higher efficiency and proliferative potential than non-CMS cells. We also established that SENP1 plays a critical role in the differential erythropoietic response of CMS and non-CMS subjects: we can convert the CMS phenotype into that of non-CMS and vice versa by altering SENP1 levels. We also demonstrated that GATA1 is an essential downstream target of SENP1 and that the differential expression and response of GATA1 and Bcl-xL are a key mechanism underlying CMS pathology

Prevalence of Helicobacter pylori Infection in High-school Students on Lanyu Island, Taiwan: Risk Factor Analysis and Effect on Growth

Background/PurposeThe Yami inhabit Lanyu Island and are the smallest and most primitive aboriginal tribe in Taiwan. Lanyu Island is a closed environment and little information is available on the prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection there. This study aimed to establish the prevalence of H. pylori infection in high-school students on Lanyu Island and its risk factors and effect on growth.MethodsA cross-sectional population-based study was conducted among high-school students to determine the prevalence of H. pylori infection by using the 13C urea breath test. A questionnaire was administered to the recruited population. Relevant personal and socioeconomic data for risk factors of infection were collected. Body height and weight of the recruited adolescents in relation to H. pylori infection were analyzed.ResultsA total of 106 high-school students (55 boys and 51 girls), with a mean age of 14.3 ± 1.4 years were enrolled. The overall prevalence of H. pylori infection was 54.7%. Those residing in Dongcing village had the highest rate of H. pylori infection (73.3%). There was no difference in the prevalence of H. pylori infection according to sex, ethnicity, socioeconomic level or parental education. Sixty-two students (54.8%) were completely asymptomatic and the others had at least one gastrointestinal symptom. H. pylori infection was asymptomatic in 56.8% and symptomatic in 53.2% of students. There was no significant difference between infected and uninfected children with regard to body weight, height and body mass index.ConclusionThe prevalence of H. pylori infection is high among high-school students on Lanyu Island. There is no evidence that infection is related to growth failure

IMECE2002-33382 SCREAM FOR MULTI-LEVEL MOVABLE STRUCTURES BY INDUCTIVELY COUPLED PLASMA PROCESS

ABSTRACT A novel fabrication process to etch, to passivate, and to release single-crystal silicon structures totally in just only one process by inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etching (ICP-RIE) has been presented in this paper. Several kinds of movable actuators such as relay, comb-drive, and capacitance with thickness of 30 m have been fabricated successfully to demonstrate this fabrication process. Here, experimental investigations about fabrication parameters to get well profile and suspension structures are performed in a STS ICP-RIE system

Ganoderma Lucidum Stimulates Autophagy-Dependent Longevity Pathways in Caenorhabditis Elegans and Human Cells

The medicinal fungus Ganoderma lucidum is used as a dietary supplement and health tonic, but whether it affects longevity remains unclear. We show here that a water extract of G. lucidum mycelium extends lifespan of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. The G. lucidum extract reduces the level of fibrillarin (FIB-1), a nucleolar protein that correlates inversely with longevity in various organisms. Furthermore, G. lucidum treatment increases expression of the autophagosomal protein marker LGG-1, and lifespan extension is abrogated in mutant C. elegans strains that lack atg-18, daf-16, or sir-2.1, indicating that autophagy and stress resistance pathways are required to extend lifespan. In cultured human cells, G. lucidum increases concentrations of the LGG-1 ortholog LC3 and reduces levels of phosphorylated mTOR, a known inhibitor of autophagy. Notably, low molecular weight compounds (\u3c10 kDa) isolated from the G. lucidum water extract prolong lifespan of C. elegans and the same compounds induce autophagy in human cells. These results suggest that G. lucidum can increase longevity by inducing autophagy and stress resistance

Room-temperature biphoton source with a spectral brightness near the ultimate limit

The biphotons, generated from a hot atomic vapor via the process of spontaneous four-wave mixing (SFWM), have the following merits: stable and tunable frequencies as well as linewidth. Such merits are very useful in the applications of long-distance quantum communication. However, the hot-atom SFWM biphoton sources previously had far lower values of generation rate per linewidth, i.e., spectral brightness, as compared with the sources of biphotons generated by the spontaneous parametric down conversion (SPDC) process. Here, we report a hot-atom SFWM source of biphotons with a linewidth of 960 kHz and a generation rate of 3.7$\times$ $10^5$ pairs/s. The high generation rate, together with the narrow linewidth, results in a spectral brightness of 3.8$\times$ $10^5$ pairs/s/MHz, which is 17 times of the previous best result with atomic vapors and also better than all known results with all kinds of media. The all-copropagating scheme together with a large optical depth (OD) of the atomic vapor is the key improvement, enabling the achieved spectral brightness to be about one quarter of the ultimate limit. Furthermore, this biphoton source had a signal-to-background ratio (SBR) of 2.7, which violated the Cauchy-Schwartz inequality for classical light by about 3.6 folds. Although an increasing spectral brightness usually leads to a decreasing SBR, our systematic study indicates that both of the present spectral brightness and SBR can be enhanced by further increasing the OD. This work demonstrates a significant advancement and provides useful knowledge in the quantum technology using photons