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.

Phase transformation and growth of mullite in kaolin ceramics

Abstract: The phase transformation and growth of mullite (3Al 2 O 3 ·2SiO 2 ) in kaolin ceramics have been investigated using X-ray diffractometer, transmission electron microscope, select area electron diffractometer, energy dispersion spectrometer and differential thermal analysis. The mullite which was transformed from kaolin appears at 1050 °C by XRD and tallies with DTA. The initial mullite crystal showed a plate-like morphology. The Al 2 O 3 content in mullite crystal increased from 49.57 to 71.37 wt.% but the lattice parameters of a , b and c axes decreased from 8.085, 8.106 and 3.215 A to 7.882, 7.974 and 2.946 A, respectively, with the grain width increasing from 20 to 70 nm when the kaolin was sintered at 1300 °C for 30 min. The nonisothermal activation energy of mullite crystallization in kaolin ceramics was 1182.3 kJ mol −1 . The growth morphology parameters n and m were both about 2.0, indicating that the bulk nucleation was dominant in mullitization and the crystal growth was controlled by diffusion. Seemingly, this study has been attempted to provide an integrative presentation of the thermal–structural characterization together with detailed kinetic and mechanistic interpretations.

Species-Level Identification of Isolates of the Acinetobacter calcoaceticus-Acinetobacter baumannii Complex by Sequence Analysis of the 16S-23S rRNA Gene Spacer Region

Abstract: The species Acinetobacter calcoaceticus, A. baumannii, genomic species 3, and genomic species 13TU included in the Acinetobacter calcoaceticus-Acinetobacter baumannii complex are genetically highly related and difficult to distinguish phenotypically. Except for A. calcoaceticus, they are all important nosocomial species. In the present study, the usefulness of the 16S-23S rRNA gene intergenic spacer (ITS) sequence for the differentiation of (genomic) species in the A. calcoaceticus-A. baumannii complex was evaluated. The ITSs of 11 reference strains of the complex and 17 strains of other (genomic) species of Acinetobacter were sequenced. The ITS lengths (607 to 638 bp) and sequences were highly conserved for strains within the A. calcoaceticus-A. baumannii complex. Intraspecies ITS sequence similarities ranged from 0.99 to 1.0, whereas interspecies similarities varied from 0.86 to 0.92. By using these criteria, 79 clinical isolates identified as A. calcoaceticus (18 isolates) or A. baumannii (61 isolates) with the API 20 NE system (bioMerieux Vitek, Marcy l'Etoile, France) were identified as A. baumannii (46 isolates), genomic species 3 (19 isolates), and genomic species 13TU (11 isolates) by ITS sequencing. An identification rate of 96.2% (76 of 79 isolates) was obtained by using ITS sequence analysis for identification of isolates in the A. calcoaceticus-A. baumannii complex, and the accuracy of the method was confirmed for a subset of strains by amplified rRNA gene restriction analysis and genomic DNA analysis by AFLP analysis by using libraries of profiles of reference strains. In conclusion, ITS sequence-based identification is reliable and provides a promising tool for elucidation of the clinical significance of the different species of the A. calcoaceticus-A. baumannii complex.

PlantPAN3.0: a new and updated resource for reconstructing transcriptional regulatory networks from ChIP-seq experiments in plants.

Abstract: The Plant Promoter Analysis Navigator (PlantPAN; http://PlantPAN.itps.ncku.edu.tw/) is an effective resource for predicting regulatory elements and reconstructing transcriptional regulatory networks for plant genes. In this release (PlantPAN 3.0), 17 230 TFs were collected from 78 plant species. To explore regulatory landscapes, genomic locations of TFBSs have been captured from 662 public ChIP-seq samples using standard data processing. A total of 1 233 999 regulatory linkages were identified from 99 regulatory factors (TFs, histones and other DNA-binding proteins) and their target genes across seven species. Additionally, this new version added 2449 matrices extracted from ChIP-seq peaks for cis-regulatory element prediction. In addition to integrated ChIP-seq data, four major improvements were provided for more comprehensive information of TF binding events, including (i) 1107 experimentally verified TF matrices from the literature, (ii) gene regulation network comparison between two species, (iii) 3D structures of TFs and TF-DNA complexes and (iv) condition-specific co-expression networks of TFs and their target genes extended to four species. The PlantPAN 3.0 can not only be efficiently used to investigate critical cis- and trans-regulatory elements in plant promoters, but also to reconstruct high-confidence relationships among TF-targets under specific conditions.