An Adaptive Respiratory Motion Compensation Algorithm with Singular Value Decomposition for Intracardiac Catheter Tracking.

During radiofrequency catheterization for atrial fibrillation, how to accurately obtain non-X-ray intracardiac catheter position is crucial to successful endocardial mapping and ablation treatment. The major limitation of the cost-effective intracardiac catheter tracking with transthoracic electrical-fields is that the distribution of electrical conductivity within the volume torso remains dynamics and nonlinear and changes with the patient's respiratory motion. Studies have shown respiratory motion-induced catheter localization error over 20 mm. In this study, we present a novel adaptive respiratory motion compensation algorithm with singular value decomposition for reducing the interference of respiration to ensure the accuracy of intracardiac catheter localization. Animal experiments in swine were carried out for assessing the performance of the propose method through a comparison with a traditional filtering method. The obtained results demonstrate that the proposed adaptive filter based on the SVD performed well to track the original information of catheter position by accurately and timely removing the respiratory interference in case of either a fast- or slow- moving catheter operation. Future applications of this algorithm would be potentially useful for intracardiac catheter localization and real-time tracking.

Identification of alleles and genotypes of beta-casein with DNA sequencing analysis in Chinese Holstein cow.

The study reported in this Regional Research Communication aimed to analyse the genetic polymorphisms of ß-casein in Chinese Holstein cows. ß-casein has received considerable research interest in the dairy industry and animal breeding in recent years as a source not only of high quality protein, but also of bioactive peptides that may be linked to health effects. Morever, the polymorphic nature of ß-casein and its association with milk production traits, composition, and quality also attracted several efforts in evaluating the allelic distribution of ß-casein locus as a potential dairy trait marker. However, few data on beta-casein variants are available for the Chinese Holstein cow. In the present paper, one hundred and thirty three Holstein cows were included in the analysis. Results revealed the presence of 5 variants (A1, A2, A3, B and I), preponderance of the genotype A1A2 (0·353) and superiorities of A1/A2 alleles (0·432 and 0·459, respectively) in the population. Sequence analysis of ß-casein gene in the cows showed four nucleotide changes in exon 7. Our study can provide reference and guidance for selection for superior milk for industrial applications and crossbreeding and genetic improvement programmes.

Donkey genome and insight into the imprinting of fast karyotype evolution.

The donkey, like the horse, is a promising model for exploring karyotypic instability. We report the de novo whole-genome assemblies of the donkey and the Asiatic wild ass. Our results reflect the distinct characteristics of donkeys, including more effective energy metabolism and better immunity than horses. The donkey shows a steady demographic trajectory. We detected abundant satellite sequences in some inactive centromere regions but not in neocentromere regions, while ribosomal RNAs frequently emerged in neocentromere regions but not in the obsolete centromere regions. Expanded miRNA families and five newly discovered miRNA target genes involved in meiosis may be associated with fast karyotype evolution. APC/C, controlling sister chromatid segregation, cytokinesis, and the establishment of the G1 cell cycle phase were identified by analysis of miRNA targets and rapidly evolving genes.