To effectively suppress white noise and preserve more useful components of electrocardiogram (ECG) signal, a novel de-noising method based on morphological component analysis (MCA) is proposed. MCA is a method which allows us to separate features contained in an original signal when these features present different morphological aspects. According to the features of ECG, we used the UWT dictionary to sparsely represent mutated component, and used the DCT dictionary to sparsely represent smooth component. The experimental results of the samples choosing from MIT-BIH databases show that the MCA-based method is effective for white noise removal.

Olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs) transplanted into the damaged spinal cord may be considered as a valuable remedy explorations for spinal cord repair. The proliferation of transplanted olfactory ensheathing cells depends on various environmental factors and effective cues, which may include electrical fields (EFs). In this study, we investigated the proliferative capacity, morphologic alterations of olfactory ensheathing cells derived from neonate rat that occurd when exposed to two EFs of 20 Hz, 50 mV and 20 Hz, 100 mV for 6 h. For both EF treatments, the MTT results revealed that the cellular proliferation of exposed group during the last 6 h of the experiment was statistically higher than that of control group. Then, we investigated morphological structure changes in the cells stained by Coomassie brilliant blue. Compared with control group, most of cells were present at intensively proliferating appearance including the microfilaments were long and thick and the accumulated appearance of cells. It is conceivable that electrical fields as a new approach may promote the growth and proliferation of OECs and may be engineered to control the survival of transplanted OECs in injured spinal cord. Although our results have been suggesting that EFs may be non-chemical strategies for cell proliferation, the fundamental mechanisms remain to be elucidated.

Objective: To analyze the heart rate variability in Chinese PLA navy global visiting task group. Methods:We analyzed the heart rate variability in Holter in 77 men and 4 women for 5-15 days before voyage, and 65-75 and 115-125 days after voyage, and 29 men and 3 women for 5-15 days after having finished voyage. Results:NN50 and VLF were lower in 77 men and 4 women for 65-75 days after voyage than that was 5-15 days before voyage (P<0.01). SDANN was lower in 77 men and 4 women for 115-125 days after voyage than that was 65-75 days after voyage (P<0.01). SDNN, SDANN, SDNN index, RMSSD, NN50, PNN50,Triangular index, VLF, HLF, VAI and VLI were lower in 77 men and 4 women for 65-75 days after voyage than that was 5-15 days before voyage (P<0.01).Conclusion: These findings suggest that voyage may reduce heart rate variability for a long time.

Hydrogel materials were prepared by thermopolymerization with different content of glyceryl methacrylate and hydroxyethyl methacrylate. The different states of water in swelling hydrogels were described and studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). It was found that the hydrophilicity of GMA was stronger than HEMA, the water content and bound water of GMA hydrogel are higher than HEMA hydrogel. With the increase of GMA content, the content of free water in hydrogel increased. When GMA content was lower than 50%, the increase of GMA content also increased the content of bound water; but when GMA content was higher than 50%, the increase of GMA content decreased the content of bound water, which was caused by the chain hydrogen bond formed on the GMA chain with hydroxyl group each other.

Objective: To achieve an optimized method for soluble expression of human carboxylesterase 1 (hCE-1) in escherichia coil and purification by Ni2+-NTA agarose affinity chromatography, to get improved protein yield and purity for further development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) diagnosis ELISA kits. Methods: The best antigen epitopes of hCE1 were predicted by comparing secondary structure, flexible regions, hydrophilicity, antigenic index surface probability of residues. Afterwards, pET-42a (+) with a His-tag and a GST-tag was applied to form recombinant plasmid pET-42a (+)/hCE1, which facilitated purification when using Ni2+-NTA agarose affinity chromatography. Protein quality was measured by SDS-PAGE and BCA protein assay. Western-blot identification was also performed to ensure the correct expression of hCE1 protein. Results: The residues from 500 to 567 near C-terminal of hCE1 protein were considered the best epitopes which exhibited high hydrophilicity and high surface probability and relatively flexible secondary structure and low homology compared with hCE2 and hCE3. His-hCE1 500-567 fusion protein was achieved by IPTG-inducted expression with an expected mass of 42 kDa. After purification, the final product was specially identified, which reached over 95%purity and more than 10 mg/L of microbial culture. In Western blot, the purified fusion protein was recognized by anti-hCE1 monoclonal antibody, along with previous sequencing validation, which demonstrated the correct preparation of soluble hCE1 protein. Conclusion: This is an efficacious and affordable strategy to generate fusion hCE1 of high quality in E coli, which facilitates preparation of hCE1 monoclonal antibody and further HCC diagnosis research.

The conventional bypass design is to implant a graft on the stenosed host artery allowing blood to flow bypass the stenotic artery. However, restenosis is a challenging problem which finally results in reoperation. The purpose of this paper is to propose a new bypass graft design of coronary artery with an assistant graft for the treatment of coronary artery stenosis. An additional assistant graft was employed in the new design compared with the conventional ETS anastomosis. Numerical simulations were performed by means of finite volume method using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solver. Results demonstrated that the new anastomoses model provided a more smooth flow at the distal ETS anastomosis without any stagnation point on anastomotic bed and vortex formation in the heel region. Oscillatory shear index (OSI) and time-averaged wall shear stress gradient (TAWSSG) at the artery bed of the distal ETS anastomosis were reduced. The coronary artery bypass graft with an assistant graft is feasible to improve the local hemodynamics and diminish the probability of restenosis in the treatment of coronary artery stenosis.