Intra-operative fluorescence-based detection of positive surgical margins during radical prostatectomy: Lessons learned from a pilot ex vivo translational study.

Objectives: Nerve-sparing techniques during radical prostatectomy have been associated with an increased risk of positive surgical margins. The intra-operative detection of residual prostatic tissue could help mitigate this risk. The objectives of the present study were to assess the feasibility of using an anti-prostate-specific membrane antigen (anti-PSMA) antibody conjugated with a fluorophore to characterize fresh prostate tissue as prostatic or non-prostatic for intra-operative surgical margin detection.

Robust alignment of prostate histology slices with quantified accuracy.

No current imaging technique is capable of detecting with precision tumors in the prostate. To evaluate each technique, the histology data must be precisely mapped to the imaged data. As the histology slices cannot be assumed to be cut along the same plane as the imaged data were acquired, the registration must be considered as a 3-D problem.

Robustness of estimators of long-range dependence and self-similarity under non-Gaussianity.

Long-range dependence (LRD) and non-Gaussianity are ubiquitous in many natural systems such as ecosystems, biological systems and climate. However, it is not always appreciated that the two phenomena may occur together in natural systems and that self-similarity in a system can be a superposition of both phenomena. These features, which are common in complex systems, impact the attribution of trends and the occurrence and clustering of extremes.