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A multidisciplinary research team led by Associate Research Fellow Meng-Chiao Ho at the Institute of Biological Chemistry, in collaboration with Distinguished Professor Peter Chi at National Taiwan University, combined cryo-electron microscopy, computational simulations, and biochemical approaches to determine a series of high-resolution structures of RAD51 bound to homologous DNA.

A cross-laboratory team led by Associate Research Fellow Ho-Ming Chen of the Agricultural Biotechnology Research Center (ABRC), Academia Sinica, in collaboration with National Taiwan University and the TBRI, employed genomic, transcriptomic, and functional analyses to comprehensively elucidate the key differences between these disease-resistant lines and their susceptible parental cultivar, ‘Pei-Chiao’.

Seismic tomographic imaging has revealed numerous heterogeneous structures at Earth’s deepest mantle, ~2900 km depth under our feet. Of particular interest is the small patches of seismic ultralow velocity zones (ULVZs), extending only ~100 km wide and ~tens of km high, with anomalously lower velocity and higher density than the ambient mantle. The impacts of ULVZs on the thermochemical structures of mantle and core, and on geomagnetic evolution, however, remain poorly understood. Recently IES Dr. Wen-Pin Hsieh’s group has precisely determined an exceptionally low thermal conductivity of magnesiowüstite, a candidate constituent for ULVZs, at high pressure-temperature conditions. His team further demonstrated that such ultralow thermal conduction acts as a thermal blanket effect, suppressing heat transfer from the core into the mantle, significantly affecting regional heat flux, thermochemical structures and dynamics, as well as core’s thermal energy to operate the geodynamo. These exciting findings highlight the important roles that the small-scale ULVZs play on the complex, enigmatic geophysical and geodynamical features at both sides of core-mantle boundary. The coauthors include Dr. Frédéric Deschamps and Mr. Yi-Chi Tsao of IES, and Prof. Susannah Dorfman of Michigan State University, USA. These results are recently published in Nature Communications.

The issue contains 3 articles and 1 book review.

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. 37, No. 3) include

A low-dose nutritional supplement combining zinc, branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs), and serine has been found to produce additive effects in improving neurological and behavioral deficits across three different autism mouse models. The research team led by Distinguished Research Fellow Yi-Ping Hsueh at the Institute of Molecular Biology, Academia Sinica, has unveiled a safe and broadly effective strategy that may help counteract the neural and behavioral abnormalities caused by autism-linked genetic mutations.

Researchers at Academia Sinica have combined whole-brain imaging with artificial intelligence (AI) to shed new light on how autism affects the brain. The team led by Distinguished Research Fellow Yi-Ping Hsueh from the Institute of Molecular Biology and Associate Research Fellow Chien-Yao Wang from the Institute of Information Science developed an innovative platform called BM-auto (Brain Mapping with Auto-ROI correction). Using this system, they revealed widespread abnormalities in brain circuits in autism model mice and identified the key role of the olfactory cortex in autism-related behaviors.

Institutum Iurisprudentiae has published the Constitutional Interpretation: Theory and Practice V. 12. This book is edited by Research Professor Dr. Yen-Tu Su.

We are proud to announce the publication of Common Shē and Common Hakka-Shē: A Comparative Study, by Dr. W. South Coblin. An introduction to this book is provided below.

Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, Volume 96 Part 3 is now available online

Asia Major, Volume 37 Part 1 is now available online

A team led by Assistant Research Fellow Yi-Jyun Luo at the Biodiversity Research Center, in collaboration with researchers in Japan and the United Kingdom, has now generated the first chromosome-level genome of a phoronid and compared it with those of bryozoans and brachiopods. The study uncovered seven irreversible chromosome fusion events shared between phoronids and bryozoans, one of which is also shared with brachiopods. These fusions are absent in other lophotrochozoans such as molluscs, annelids, and nemerteans, providing sequence-independent evidence for the monophyly of lophophorates and demonstrating that these three phyla indeed share a recent common ancestor.