Enhancing Expression of Functional Human Sodium Iodide Symporter and Somatostatin Receptor in Recombinant Oncolytic Vaccinia Virus for In Vivo Imaging of Tumors.

Unlabelled: Oncolytic virus (OV) therapy has emerged as a novel tool in our therapeutic arsenals for fighting cancer. As a live biologic agent, OV has the ability to target and selectively amplify at the tumor sites. We have reported that a vaccinia-based OV (Pexa-Vec) has shown good efficacy in preclinical models and in clinical trials.

Dropping behaviour of pea aphid nymphs increases their development time and reduces their reproductive capacity as adults.

Background. Many aphid species, including the pea aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum, exhibit a behaviour where they drop or fall from their host plant, a commonly used strategy to avoid predation, parasitism or physical disturbance. We hypothesised that there was a physiological non-consumptive cost due to such dropping behaviour because aphids would expend energy re-establishing themselves on a host plant and also lose feeding time.

Development and optimization of SPECT gated blood pool cluster analysis for the prediction of CRT outcome.

Purpose: Phase analysis of single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) radionuclide angiography (RNA) has been investigated for its potential to predict the outcome of cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT). However, phase analysis may be limited in its potential at predicting CRT outcome as valuable information may be lost by assuming that time-activity curves (TAC) follow a simple sinusoidal shape. A new method, cluster analysis, is proposed which directly evaluates the TACs and may lead to a better understanding of dyssynchrony patterns and CRT outcome.

SPECT gated blood pool phase analysis of lateral wall motion for prediction of CRT response.

Amplitude, defined as the magnitude of contraction of the myocardium, is obtained from phase analysis but has not been investigated to the same extent as phase-based parameters for predicting the outcome of cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT). The size of scar present in the lateral wall of the left ventricle (LV) has been shown in some studies to predict response to CRT. Scar is associated with impaired regional LV wall motion and is expected to result in a reduction in the corresponding amplitude values derived from phase analysis.

Performance evaluation of real-time motion tracking using positron emission fiducial markers.

Purpose: Tumor motion due to patient breathing is a factor that limits the accuracy of dose distribution in radiotherapy. One of the methods to improve the accuracy is by applying respiratory gating or tumor tracking. Both techniques require a precise determination of the spatial location of the tumor.