Chang Jung Christian University

About: Chang Jung Christian University is a education organization based out in Tainan City, Taiwan. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Apoptosis & Population. The organization has 1214 authors who have published 2241 publications receiving 40972 citations. The organization is also known as: Zhǎngróng Dàxué.

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (3rd edition)

Abstract: 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 that there 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 complete process 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 increased autophagy induction coupled with increased delivery to, and degradation within, lysosomes (in most 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 many cases, 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 for reviewers 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 multiple assays 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 autophagy-related 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.

Reward deficiency syndrome: a biogenetic model for the diagnosis and treatment of impulsive, addictive, and compulsive behaviors.

Abstract: The dopaminergic system, and in particular the dopamine D2 receptor, has been implicated in reward mechanisms. The net effect of neurotransmitter interaction at the mesolimbic brain region induces “reward” when dopamine (DA) is released from the neuron at the nucleus accumbens and interacts with a dopamine D2 receptor. “The reward cascade” involves the release of serotonin, which in turn at the hypothalmus stimulates enkephalin, which in turn inhibits GABA at the substania nigra, which in turn fine tunes the amount of DA released at the nucleus accumbens or “reward site.” It is well known that under normal conditions in the reward site DA works to maintain our normal drives. In fact, DA has become to be known as the “pleasure molecule” and/or the “antistress molecule.” When DA is released into the synapse, it stimulates a number a DA receptors (D1-D5) which results in increased feelings of well-being and stress reduction. A consensus of the literature suggests that when there is a dysfunction in ...

A fuzzy ontology and its application to news summarization

Abstract: In this paper, a fuzzy ontology and its application to news summarization are presented. The fuzzy ontology with fuzzy concepts is an extension of the domain ontology with crisp concepts. It is more suitable to describe the domain knowledge than domain ontology for solving the uncertainty reasoning problems. First, the domain ontology with various events of news is predefined by domain experts. The document preprocessing mechanism will generate the meaningful terms based on the news corpus and the Chinese news dictionary defined by the domain expert. Then, the meaningful terms will be classified according to the events of the news by the term classifier. The fuzzy inference mechanism will generate the membership degrees for each fuzzy concept of the fuzzy ontology. Every fuzzy concept has a set of membership degrees associated with various events of the domain ontology. In addition, a news agent based on the fuzzy ontology is also developed for news summarization. The news agent contains five modules, including a retrieval agent, a document preprocessing mechanism, a sentence path extractor, a sentence generator, and a sentence filter to perform news summarization. Furthermore, we construct an experimental website to test the proposed approach. The experimental results show that the news agent based on the fuzzy ontology can effectively operate for news summarization.

Determinants of Green Practice Adoption for Logistics Companies in China

Abstract: This article aims to analyze the factors influencing the adoption of green practices in Chinese logistics industry. The determinant factors are composed of technological, organizational, and environmental dimensions. A questionnaire survey on the green practice adoption of Chinese logistics companies was conducted, and 322 samples were analyzed. Research results reveal that relative advantage and compatibility of green practices, organizational support, quality of human resources, regulatory pressure, and governmental support have significantly positive influences on the adoption of green practices for Chinese logistics companies. Environmental uncertainty and green practice’s complexity have significantly negative influences on green practice adoption. However, the influence of customer pressure is not significant for Chinese logistics companies. This article also suggests implications and opportunities for future research.