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.

Caffeic acid as active principle from the fruit of Xanthium strumarium to lower plasma glucose in diabetic rats.

Abstract: The antihyperglycemic effect of caffeic acid, one of the phenolic compounds contained in the fruit of Xanthium strumarium, was investigated. After an intravenous injection of caffeic acid into diabetic rats of both streptozotocin-induced and insulin-resistant models, a dose-dependent decrease of plasma glucose was observed. However, a similar effect was not produced in normal rats. An insulin-independent action of caffeic acid can thus be considered. Otherwise, this compound reduced the elevation of plasma glucose level in insulin-resistant rats receiving a glucose challenge test. Also, glucose uptake into the isolated adipocytes was raised by caffeic acid in a concentration-dependent manner. Increase of glucose utilization by caffeic acid seems to be responsible for the lowering of plasma glucose.

Novel mutations of CYP3A4 in Chinese.

Abstract: Human cytochrome P450 3A4 is a major P450 enzyme in the liver and gastrointestinal tract. It plays important roles in the metabolism of a wide variety of drugs, some endogenous steroids, and harmful environmental contaminants. CYP3A4 exhibits a remarkable interindividual activity variation as high as 20-fold. To investigate whether the interindividual variation in CYP3A4 levels can be partly explained by genetic polymorphism, we analyzed DNA samples from 102 Chinese subjects by polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-single-strand conformation polymorphism analysis for novel point mutation in the CYP3A4 coding sequence and promoter region. Using PCR and directed sequencing method to establish the complete intron sequence ofCYP3A4 from leukocytes, the complete genomic sequence from exon 1 through 13 of CYP3A4 was determined and published in the GenBank database (accession no. AF209389). CYP3A4-specific primers were designed accordingly. After PCR-single-strand conformation polymorphism and restriction fragment length polymorphism screening, we found three novel mutations; two are point mutations and one is insertion. The first variant allele (CYP3A4*4), an Ile118Val change, was found in 3 of 102 Chinese subjects. The next allele (CYP3A4*5), which causes a Pro218Arg amino acid change, was found in 2 of 102 subjects. We found an insertion in A17776, designated asCYP3A4*6, which causes frame shift and an early stop codon in exon 9, in one heterozygous subject. We also investigated the CYP3A4 activity in these mutant subjects by measuring the morning spot urinary 6β-hydroxycortisol to free cortisol ratio with the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method. When compared with healthy Chinese population data, the 6β-hydroxycortisol to free cortisol ratio data suggested that these alleles (CYP3A4*4,CYP3A4*5, and CYP3A4*6) may decrease the CYP3A4 activity. Incidences of these mutations in Chinese subjects are rare. The prevalence of these point mutations in other ethnic groups and its effect on the metabolic activity of CYP3A4 remain to be further evaluated.

High accuracy approximate multiplier with error correction

Abstract: Approximate computing has gained significant attention due to the popularity of multimedia applications. In this paper, we propose a novel inaccurate 4:2 counter that can effectively reduce the partial product stages of the Wallace Multiplier. Compared to the normal Wallace multiplier, our proposed multiplier can reduce 10.74% of power consumption and 9.8% of delay on average, with an error rate from 0.2% to 13.76% The accuracy of amplitude is higher than 99% In addition, we further enhance the design with error-correction units to provide accurate results. The experimental results show that the extra power consumption of correct units is lower than 6% on average. Compared to the normal Wallace multiplier, the average latency of our proposed multiplier with EDC is 6% faster when the bit-width is 32, and the power consumption is still 10% lower than that of the Wallace multiplier.