National Chung Hsing University

About: National Chung Hsing University is a education organization based out in Taichung, Taiwan. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Catalysis & Thin film. The organization has 19443 authors who have published 24060 publications receiving 540154 citations. The organization is also known as: NCHU.

Pro-oxidative properties of flavonoids in human lymphocytes.

Abstract: The pro-oxidative properties of the four flavonoids, quercetin, morin, naringenin and hesperetin, in human lymphocyte system were investigated. Naringenin and hesperetin accelerated the oxidation of deoxyribose induced by Fe(3+)/H(2)O(2) in a concentration range of 0-200 microM, but quercetin and morin decreased it when the concentration was greater than 100 microM. The generation of hydrogen peroxide and the superoxide anion and the production of TBARS in lymphocytes were increased with increasing concentration of a flavonoid. Cell membrane protein thiols of the lymphocytes decreased when treated with the four flavonoids. Quercetin and hesperetin had no significant effect (p>0.05) on the activity of glutathione reductase, but morin and naringenin could inhibit the activity of the enzyme at a concentration of 200 microM, when compared to the control group. The glutathione S-transferase activity was slightly decreased by treatment with each of the four flavonoids only at a concentration of 200 microM. Therefore, the DNA damage in lymphocytes induced by the flavonoids in the model system might have been due to their stimulation of oxidative stress in the lymphocytes, which resulted in the decrease of cell membrane protein thiols, increase of lipid peroxidation in cell membrane and in the influence of the antioxidative enzyme activities.

A Recurrent Self-Evolving Interval Type-2 Fuzzy Neural Network for Dynamic System Processing

Abstract: This paper proposes a recurrent self-evolving interval type-2 fuzzy neural network (RSEIT2FNN) for dynamic system processing. An RSEIT2FNN incorporates type-2 fuzzy sets in a recurrent neural fuzzy system in order to increase the noise resistance of a system. The antecedent parts in each recurrent fuzzy rule in the RSEIT2FNN are interval type-2 fuzzy sets, and the consequent part is of the Takagi-Sugeno-Kang (TSK) type with interval weights. The antecedent part of RSEIT2FNN forms a local internal feedback loop by feeding the rule firing strength of each rule back to itself. The TSK-type consequent part is a linear model of exogenous inputs. The RSEIT2FNN initially contains no rules; all rules are learned online via structure and parameter learning. The structure learning uses online type-2 fuzzy clustering. For the parameter learning, the consequent part parameters are tuned by a rule-ordered Kalman filter algorithm to improve learning performance. The antecedent type-2 fuzzy sets and internal feedback loop weights are learned by a gradient descent algorithm. The RSEIT2FNN is applied to simulations of dynamic system identifications and chaotic signal prediction under both noise-free and noisy conditions. Comparisons with type-1 recurrent fuzzy neural networks validate the performance of the RSEIT2FNN.

Spread of hepatitis E virus among different-aged pigs: two-year survey in Taiwan

Abstract: Swine are reservoirs of hepatitis E virus (HEV). In this study, a 2-year survey of HEV in feces and sera of swine was conducted to determine if: 1) HEV has circulated among pigs for some time in Taiwan; 2) the spread of HEV among different-aged pigs; and 3) there exists HEV strains possibly imported through trading. From 1998-2000, 521 serum samples and 54 fecal specimens from pigs were examined by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. None of the 11 pigs in suckling stage (< 2 months) were serum HEV RNA positive. The highest viremia rate (4.5%) was in pigs of 2 months age, followed by 1.2% and 1.8% in pigs of growing (3-4 months) and finishing stages (5-6 months), and none in pigs older than 6 months. Viremia showed little variation in different years and areas. None of the 20 fecal samples from pigs in suckling stage were HEV RNA positive, whereas 9% of the 34 samples from pigs in growing or finishing stages were positive. Most swine HEV isolates in Taiwan clustered within the genotype 4, whereas the three HEV isolates cloned from pigs imported recently from the U.S. belonged to the genotype 3 HEV in the U.S. The results suggest that HEV may infect pigs at an early growing stage and spread unnoticed among pigs and possibly across countries through trading.