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Flourishing Era: Imperial Authority and Local Governance in the Qing China begins with an edict issued in the 50th year of Emperor Kangxi’s reign for a fixed land tax quota, often known for the quote “the increase in population shall never result in additional taxes.

Proper gene expression relies on finely tuned RNA stability, yet its regulatory mechanisms remain unclear. Dr. Chien-Ling Lin’s group at the Institute of Molecular Biology employed massively parallel reporter assays to dissect the regulatory rules of RNA degradation systematically. Statistical modeling by Dr. Yen-Tsung Huang’s team at the Institute of Statistical Sciences revealed that exposure of UA dinucleotides drives RNA degradation. Consistently, fast-turnover genes, such as those regulating innate immunity and appetite, exhibit high UA-dinucleotide ratios in their untranslated regions (UTRs), and mutations that increase UA content reduce RNA half-life. This simple rule may serve as a screening tool for UTR mutation-mediated pathologies and guide the design of synthetic RNAs for therapeutic applications.

A research team led by Dr. Ko-Hsuan Chen from the Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, discovered an unusual nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium-fungus symbiosis, now named Phyllosymbia. The symbiosis consists of a filamentous cyanobacteria species (Symbiothallus taiwanensis) that constructs the main three-dimensional leaf-like structure, while the fungal species (Serendipita cyanobacteriicola) resides within the transparent sheath of the cyanobacteria. This structure highlights a unique symbiosis in which the cyanobacteria construct the main body and the fungi are embedded within, offering new insights into the complex interactions between organisms. The study was led by Dr. Ko-Hsuan Chen from the Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica. Participants from the Biodiversity Research Center include Dr. Che-Chih Chen (now affiliated with National Museum of Natural Science), Qiao-Yi Xie, Yi-Ying Chien, Wen-Hong Wang, Dr. Sen-Ling Tang, and Dr. Po-Shun Chuang. The Research Center for Applied Sciences supported the study by providing advanced microscopy imaging techniques through its Optical Microscopy Core Facility. Participants from this center include Dr. Bi-Chang Chen, Chiao-Hui Tu, and Xuejiao Tian. Dr. Romain Darnajoux from the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), France, also contributed to the study. The research has been published in Science Advances on February 12, 2025, and was selected as the cover story. Illustration：Yi-Ju Li.

The latest issue of《Bulletin of the Institute of Mathematics Academia Sinica New Series》has been published. Articles in this issue include:

Achieving a full understanding of the most catastrophic cosmic events—like supernovae and neutron star mergers—has long been hampered by the elusive quantum behavior of neutrinos, tiny particles whose collective quantum oscillations play a crucial role. Using advanced quantum kinetic transport simulations, researchers found that the key quantum oscillations at microscopic scales average out over larger scales, enabling this effect to be accurately modeled using a simple effective classical transport framework. This innovative approach significantly reduces computational challenges, paving the way for astrophysicists to conduct detailed simulations that could revolutionize our understanding of these phenomena. This research was conducted by physicists from IoP, including Dr. Meng-Ru Wu and Dr. Manu George, along with collaborators Dr. Zewei Xiong (GSI, Germany) and Dr. Chun-Yu Lin (NCHC, Taiwan). The study was published on February 7, 2025, in Physical Review Letters.

The newest issue of Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica has just been published by the Institute of History and Philology. Articles in this issue (Volume 95 Part 4) include

Using observations from 2017 and 2018, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration, which includes researchers at Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASIAA), National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) and National Sun Yat-san University (NSYSU) in Taiwan, has deepened our understanding of the supermassive black hole at the center of Messier 87 (M87*). This study opens a new window into multi-year analysis at horizon scales by leveraging a new simulation library of super-computer-generated images which is three times larger than the library used for interpreting the 2017 observations, with more than 120,000 additional images compared to the last one. The team confirmed that M87*’s black hole rotational axis points away from Earth and demonstrated that turbulence within the accretion — rotating gas around the black hole — plays an important role in explaining the observed shift in the ring’s brightness peak compared to 2017. This research has been published on January 22, 2025 in Astronomy & Astrophysics, mark a major step forward in unraveling the complex dynamics of black hole environments.

Please see the list of contents below:

We are pleased to announce the new publication of issue 26.1 of Language and Linguistics. This issue includes 5 articles, 1 book review and our annual acknowledgements:

The issue contains 3 articles and 1 book review.

The latest issue of Journal of Social Sciences and Philosophy has just been published by the Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences. Articles in this issue (Vol. 36, No. 5) include: 

The newest issue of the Journal of Social Sciences and Philosophy has just been published by the Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences. Articles in this issue (Vol.36, No.4) include: