Quality, quantity and recovery of DNA content from routine blood samples and genotyping success rate: comparison between phenol chloroform method (PCM) with a new kit-based DNA extraction method (KBM)

Background: DNA extraction has become a baseline method for molecular biology studies. There are a variety of methods available for this purpose. Newer kit-based methods (KBM) are easy and less time consuming than traditional chemical methods of extraction like phenol chloroform method (PCM). Though estimates of quality from different methods are available in labels, this study compared the practical outcomes regarding quantity, quality, DNA recovery rate and assessed the outcomes at two different time points.Methods: This study was done as a secondary analysis from an ongoing project. The quantity and quality of DNA isolated from the same group of 100 deidentified blood samples by PCM and KBM were analysed using Multi analyzer and repeated after a period of 3 months. Genotyping of the samples were done by RT-PCR. The quantity, quality and amplification proportion were compared between two groups to reach the inference.Results: The median (range) concentration of DNA by PCM was 543.27 (960.59) µg/ml and that of KBM was 32.115 (36.73) µg/ml. The quality of DNA as measured by absorbance at 260/280 nm was 1.84 in PCM and 1.81 in KBM (p>0.05). Genotyping success rate was 78% in PCM and 98% in KBM (p = 0.002). The DNA recovery rate was 96% in PCM and 80% in KBM (p=0.014).Conclusions: The median concentration of DNA obtained from PCM was more compared to KBM. The quality of DNA was comparable in both the groups. The genotyping success rate was more in KBM group. The DNA recovery rate at 3 months was more in PCM group.

Increasing the quality of reconstructed signal in compressive sensing utilizing Kronecker technique

Quality of reconstruction of signals sampled using compressive sensing (CS) algorithm depends on the compression factor and the length of the measurement. A simple method to pre-process data before reconstruction of compressively sampled signals using Kronecker technique that improves the quality of recovery is proposed. This technique reduces the mutual coherence between the projection matrix and the sparsifying basis, leading to improved reconstruction of the compressed signal. This pre-processing method changes the dimension of the sensing matrix via the Kronecker product and sparsity basis accordingly. A theoretical proof for decrease in mutual coherence using the proposed technique is also presented. The decrease of mutual coherence has been tested with different projection matrices and the proposed recovery technique has been tested on an ECG signal from MIT Arrhythmia database. Traditional CS recovery algorithms has been applied with and without the proposed technique on the ECG signal to demonstrate increase in quality of reconstruction technique using the new recovery technique. In order to reduce the computational burden for devices with limited capabilities, sensing is carried out with limited samples to obtain a measurement vector. As recovery is generally outsourced, limitations due to computations do not exist and recovery can be done using multiple measurement vectors, thereby increasing the dimension of the projection matrix via the Kronecker product. The proposed technique can be used with any CS recovery algorithm and be regarded as simple pre-processing technique during reconstruction process.

Pharmacognostical evaluation of caesalpinia sappan heartwood

Caesalpinia sappan heartwood is used in folklore in India. The present work attempts to summarize the pharmacognostical characters of the heartwood of this plant. Ash and extractive values; phytochemical tests, HPTLC and fluorescence analysis were carried out. The present work contributes to establishment of the standardization parameters of this medicinally effective heartwood

Surgical outcomes and strategy of hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy / 浙江大学学报（英文版）（B辑：生物医学和生物技术）

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate the surgical clinical results of hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>We retrospectively collected data on 24 patients who underwent surgical management in the past ten years in two hospitals in China and Madras Medical Mission in India. Myomectomy was carried out on all patients. Among them 3 patients underwent mitral valve replacement; 2 patients underwent mitral valve repair (anterior mitral leaflet plication); 2 patients underwent aortic valve replacement; 1 patient underwent aortic valve repair; 2 patients underwent aortic root replacement; 1 patient underwent Bentall's procedure and 1 patient underwent coronary artery bypass grafting because of a breached muscle bridge.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>One patient died of post-operative heart failure. The mean follow-up time was 4.3 years. There was significant improvement in the symptomatic status. Sixteen patients were asymptomatic with good effort tolerance and only four patients had New York heart association (NYHA) Classes I-II due to associated valvular lesions.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Our experience proved that symptomatic hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy or non-symptomatic hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy with combined heart disease is indication for surgery as surgical intervention could get better clinical results in this kind of patients compared with other non-surgical method because it beneficially reduces the systolic anterior motion (SAM) of the mitral valve leaflet, which could not be avoided by other non-surgical treatment.</p>