National Cheng Kung University

About: National Cheng Kung University is a education organization based out in Tainan City, Taiwan. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Thin film. The organization has 49723 authors who have published 69799 publications receiving 1437420 citations. The organization is also known as: NCKU.

Detection of CYP2C9 polymorphism based on the polymerase chain reaction in Chinese.

Abstract: Cytochrome P450 (CYP) 2C9 catalyses the metabolism of a wide range of drugs Previous studies have shown the differences in the amino acid composition among CYP2C9 variants at Cys144/Arg, Tyr358/Cys, Leu359/Ile, and Gly417/Asp PCR-endonuclease digestion methods have been developed to detect these four possible polymorphisms The T416-->C mutation in exon 3 of CYP2C9 (Cys144-->Arg) creates an Ava II site In the 135 subjects we tested, all leukocyte DNA samples showed a complete Ava II digestion indicating homozygous C416 (Arg144) A Tyr358-->Cys mutation will create a Nsi I site at codon 1057-1063 in exon 7 In 40 subjects tested, all samples showed negative results DNA sequencing on a few samples showed Tyr358Ile359 A mismatched PCR primer pair was then designed to detect codon C1061-->A (Leu359-->Ile) mutation In 115 subjects tested, 111 samples showed a complete Nsi I digestion (Ile359) and four samples showed heterozygous results Another mismatched PCR primer pair was used to confirm the C1061 codon in heterozygous subjects The four heterozygous subjects showed partial digestion with endonuclease Kpn I, which confirmed the heterozygous Ile/Leu at amino acid 359 The G1236-->A mutation in exon 8 of CYP2C9 (Gly417-->Asp) creates a Hph I site In all 46 subjects, homozygous G1236 (Gly417) was found Most Chinese subjects actually have Arg144 Tyr358 Ile359 Gly417 in CYP2C9 as previously reported human-2 Furthermore, we found an A-->T (+12 position in intron 2) mutation in our CYP2C9 sequencing process The mutation creates a NIa III site(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

A controller design framework for telerobotic systems

Abstract: A framework for designing a telerobotic system controller is presented. This controller is designed so the dynamic behaviors of the master robot and the slave robot are functions of each other. These functions, which the designer chooses based upon the application, are described, and a control architecture is proposed to achieve these functions. To guarantee that the specified functions and proposed architecture govern the system behavior, H/sub infinity / control theory and model reduction techniques are used. Several experiments were conducted to verify the theoretical derivations. This control method is unique, because it does not require any transfer of either position or velocity information between the master robot and the slave robot; it only requires the transfer of forces. Although this property leads to a wider communication bandwidth between the master and slave robots, the entire system may still suffer from a positional error buildup between the master robot and slave robot. >

SWEET17, a Facilitative Transporter, Mediates Fructose Transport across the Tonoplast of Arabidopsis Roots and Leaves

Abstract: Fructose (Fru) is a major storage form of sugars found in vacuoles, yet the molecular regulation of vacuolar Fru transport is poorly studied. Although SWEET17 (for SUGARS WILL EVENTUALLY BE EXPORTED TRANSPORTERS17) has been characterized as a vacuolar Fru exporter in leaves, its expression in leaves is low. Here, RNA analysis and SWEET17-β-glucuronidase/-GREEN FLUORESCENT PROTEIN fusions expressed in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) reveal that SWEET17 is highly expressed in the cortex of roots and localizes to the tonoplast of root cells. Expression of SWEET17 in roots was inducible by Fru and darkness, treatments that activate accumulation and release of vacuolar Fru, respectively. Mutation and ectopic expression of SWEET17 led to increased and decreased root growth in the presence of Fru, respectively. Overexpression of SWEET17 specifically reduced the Fru content in leaves by 80% during cold stress. These results intimate that SWEET17 functions as a Fru-specific uniporter on the root tonoplast. Vacuoles overexpressing SWEET17 showed increased [14C]Fru uptake compared with the wild type. SWEET17-mediated Fru uptake was insensitive to ATP or treatment with NH4Cl or carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenyl hydrazone, indicating that SWEET17 functions as an energy-independent facilitative carrier. The Arabidopsis genome contains a close paralog of SWEET17 in clade IV, SWEET16. The predominant expression of SWEET16 in root vacuoles and reduced root growth of mutants under Fru excess indicate that SWEET16 also functions as a vacuolar transporter in roots. We propose that in addition to a role in leaves, SWEET17 plays a key role in facilitating bidirectional Fru transport across the tonoplast of roots in response to metabolic demand to maintain cytosolic Fru homeostasis.