Differentiation of genetically modified canine bone mesenchymal stem cells labeled with superparamagnetic iron oxide into neural‑like cells.

The use of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) has been reported to improve outcomes in various types of nervous system diseases, primarily based on their neural regenerative differentiation ability and paracrine effect on different neuroprotective cytokines. Genetically modified MSCs may enhance the paracrine effect and may further improve the cell‑based therapeutic outcome of nervous system diseases. Magnetic resonance imaging has been used to monitor distribution and migration of cells labeled with superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO) nanoparticles.

In vivo MRI detection of atherosclerosis in ApoE-deficient mice by using tenascin-C-targeted USPIO.

Background: Atherosclerosis is the main cause of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Non-invasive molecular imaging to detect and characterize the plaques is essential for reducing life-threatening cardiovascular events.

Purpose: To investigate the possibility of the anti-tenascin-C-USPIO specific probe as a molecular marker of atherosclerotic plaques detected by 7.

A Whole-Tumor Histogram Analysis of Apparent Diffusion Coefficient Maps for Differentiating Thymic Carcinoma from Lymphoma.

Objective: To assess the performance of a whole-tumor histogram analysis of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps in differentiating thymic carcinoma from lymphoma, and compare it with that of a commonly used hot-spot region-of-interest (ROI)-based ADC measurement.

Materials And Methods: Diffusion weighted imaging data of 15 patients with thymic carcinoma and 13 patients with lymphoma were retrospectively collected and processed with a mono-exponential model. ADC measurements were performed by using a histogram-based and hot-spot-ROI-based approach.

Using support vector machine analysis to assess PartinMR: A new prediction model for organ-confined prostate cancer.

Background: Partin tables represent the most widely used predictive tool for prostate cancer stage at prostatectomy but with potential limitations.

Purpose: To develop a new PartinMR model for organ-confined prostate cancer (OCPCA) by incorporating Partin table and mp-MRI with a support vector machine (SVM) analysis.

Study Type: Retrospective.

Joint Content Recommendation and Delivery in Mobile Wireless Networks with Outage Management.

Personalized content retrieval service has become a major information service that consumes a large portion of mobile Internet traffic. Joint content recommendation and delivery is a promising design philosophy that could effectively improve the overall user experience with personalized content retrieval services. Existing research mostly focused on a push-type design paradigm called proactive caching, which, however, has multiple inherent drawbacks such as high device cost and low energy efficiency.

Varicocele due to renal arteriovenous malformation mimicking a renal tumor: a case report.

Background: Renal arteriovenous malformation is an aberrant vascular connection between the renal artery and vein. Acquired renal arteriovenous malformation (arteriovenous fistulae) accounts for approximately 70% of renal arteriovenous abnormalities. Congenital renal arteriovenous malformation, relatively rare, can result in significant hematuria which may require arterial embolization or nephrectomy.

Histogram analysis of apparent diffusion coefficient maps for assessing thymic epithelial tumours: correlation with world health organization classification and clinical staging.

Objective: To investigate the value of apparent diffusion coefficients (ADCs) histogram analysis for assessing World Health Organization (WHO) pathological classification and Masaoka clinical stages of thymic epithelial tumours.

Methods: 37 patients with histologically confirmed thymic epithelial tumours were enrolled. ADC measurements were performed using hot-spot ROI (ADC) and histogram-based approach.

Remodeling of HIV-1 Nef Structure by Src-Family Kinase Binding.

The HIV-1 accessory protein Nef controls multiple aspects of the viral life cycle and host immune response, making it an attractive therapeutic target. Previous X-ray crystal structures of Nef in complex with key host cell binding partners have shed light on protein-protein interactions critical to Nef function. Crystal structures of Nef in complex with either the SH3 or tandem SH3-SH2 domains of Src-family kinases reveal distinct dimer conformations of Nef.

Endovascular Treatment of 12 Cases of Renal Arteriovenous Malformations: The Experience of 1 Center and an Overview of the Literature.

Objectives: Congenital renal arteriovenous malformations (rAVMs) represent rare vascular diseases. The heterogeneous vascular architecture of each rAVM determines the endovascular treatment techniques employed. We reported our experience with the endovascular treatment of a series of rAVMs.

MRI of plaque characteristics and relationship with downstream perfusion and cerebral infarction in patients with symptomatic middle cerebral artery stenosis.

Background: Intracranial plaque characteristics are associated with stroke events. Differences in plaque features may explain the disconnect between stenosis severity and the presence of ischemic stroke.

Purpose: To investigate the relationship between plaque characteristics and downstream perfusion changes, and their contribution to the occurrence of cerebral infarction beyond luminal stenosis.

Dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI in orbital lymphoproliferative disorders: Effects of region of interest selection methods on time efficiency, measurement reproducibility, and diagnostic ability.

Background: Previous studies indicated that dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) could serve as a useful biomarker for differentiating malignant from benign orbital lymphoproliferative disorders (OLPDs).

Purpose: To investigate the influence of different region of interest (ROI) selection methods on the measurements of DCE-MRI parameters, and their diagnostic ability in discriminating malignant from benign OLPDs.

Study Type: Retrospective study.

A Novel Energy-Efficient Approach for Human Activity Recognition.

In this paper, we propose a novel energy-efficient approach for mobile activity recognition system (ARS) to detect human activities. The proposed energy-efficient ARS, using low sampling rates, can achieve high recognition accuracy and low energy consumption. A novel classifier that integrates hierarchical support vector machine and context-based classification (HSVMCC) is presented to achieve a high accuracy of activity recognition when the sampling rate is less than the activity frequency, i.

Simple Light-Triggered Fluorescent Labeling of Silica Nanoparticles for Cellular Imaging Applications.

A simple and mild light-triggered fluorescent labeling approach, based on the photolysis and reactive carbene insertion of diazirine, to rapidly generate fluorescent nanoparticles is reported. Proof of concept studies demonstrated that the non-fluorescent SiNPs could be covalently labeled by diazirine-conjugated fluorescein (dFITC) upon photo irradiation (λ=365 nm) to afford fluorescent SiNPs with good fluorescent stability and low cytotoxicity. In vitro cellular imaging results indicated that the internalization of SiNPs into living cells could be readily visualized based on fluorescein-labeled SiNPs (F-SiNPs) in real time.

Recovery of oculomotor nerve palsy after endovascular treatment of ruptured posterior communicating artery aneurysm.

Purpose: Oculomotor nerve palsy (ONP) may result from Posterior communicating artery (Pcom) aneurysms. Endovascular treatment of ruptured Pcom aneurysms generally is a safe procedure, but the effect of this therapy on ONP is incompletely elucidated. This retrospective study evaluates outcomes of ONP after endovascular treatment for ruptured Pcom aneurysm and with the intention to clarify predictors of recovery.

Preoperative predicting malignancy in breast mass-like lesions: value of adding histogram analysis of apparent diffusion coefficient maps to dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging for improving confidence level.

Objective: This study aims to find out the benefits of adding histogram analysis of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps onto dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) in predicting breast malignancy.

Methods: This study included 95 patients who were found with breast mass-like lesions from January 2014 to March 2016 (47 benign and 48 malignant). These patients were estimated by both DCE-MRI and diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and classified into two groups, namely, the benign and the malignant.

Histogram analysis of apparent diffusion coefficient maps for the differentiation between lymphoma and metastatic lymph nodes of squamous cell carcinoma in head and neck region.

Background To clarify the nature of cervical malignant lymphadenopathy is highly important for the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of head and neck tumors. Purpose To investigate the role of first-order apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) histogram analysis for differentiating lymphoma from metastatic lymph nodes of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) in the head and neck region. Material and Methods Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) data of 67 patients (lymphoma, n = 20; SCC, n = 47) with malignant lymphadenopathy were retrospectively analyzed.

Correlation between Intravoxel Incoherent Motion Magnetic Resonance Imaging Derived Metrics and Serum Soluble CD40 Ligand Level in an Embolic Canine Stroke Model.

Objective: To determine the relationship between intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) imaging derived quantitative metrics and serum soluble CD40 ligand (sCD40L) level in an embolic canine stroke model.

Materials And Methods: A middle cerebral artery occlusion model was established in 24 beagle dogs. Experimental dogs were divided into low- and high-sCD40L group according to serum sCD40L level at 4.

Diffusion Kurtosis Imaging Helps to Predict Upgrading in Biopsy-Proven Prostate Cancer With a Gleason Score of 6.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) is useful for predicting upgrades in Gleason score (GS) in biopsy-proven prostate cancer with a GS of 6.

Materials And Methods: A total of 46 patients with biopsy-proven GS 6 prostate cancer, 3-T DWI results, and surgical pathologic results were retrospectively included in the study. DWI data were postprocessed with monoexponential and DK models to quantify the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), apparent diffusion for gaussian distribution (D), and apparent kurtosis coefficient (K).

Brain Microstructural Abnormalities in Patients With Cirrhosis Without Overt Hepatic Encephalopathy: A Voxel-Based Diffusion Kurtosis Imaging Study.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate whole-brain microstructural abnormalities and their correlation with cognitive impairment in patients with cirrhosis using diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI).

Subjects And Methods: Eighteen patients with cirrhosis and 17 healthy control subjects underwent DKI. Cognition was measured using psychometric hepatic encephalopathy (HE) scores.

Quantitative Evaluation of Diffusion and Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging for Differentiation Between Primary Central Nervous System Lymphoma and Glioblastoma.

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the utility of diffusion and permeability parameters derived from diffusion-weighted imaging and dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) for differentiating primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) and glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) and to assess the correlation among these parameters.

Materials And Methods: Forty-two patients with GBM and 18 patients with PCNSL underwent conventional 3.0-T MRI, diffusion-weighted imaging, and DCE-MRI before surgery.

Prostatic Arterial Embolization Followed by Holmium Laser Enucleation of the Prostate as a Planned Combined Approach for Extremely Enlarged Benign Prostate Hyperplasia.

Objective: This study was aimed at reporting the initial experience with prostatic arterial embolization (PAE) followed by holmium laser enucleation of the prostate (HoLEP) as a planned combined approach for extremely enlarged benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH), and retrospectively estimating the efficacy and safety of this novel technique.

Patients And Methods: Twenty-four BPH patients who underwent PAE and subsequent HoLEP were included. The PAE procedure was performed under local anesthesia at the supine position with polyvinyl alcohol spherical particles and gelatin sponge particles.

Transarterial Chemoembolization Monotherapy Versus Combined Transarterial Chemoembolization-Microwave Ablation Therapy for Hepatocellular Carcinoma Tumors ≤5 cm: A Propensity Analysis at a Single Center.

Purpose: To compare effectiveness of transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) combined with microwave ablation (MWA; TACE-MWA) with TACE alone for treating hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tumors ≤5 cm.

Materials And Methods: We reviewed data of 244 patients treated for HCC by TACE-MWA or TACE from June 2014 to December 2015. Median follow-up period was 505 days (TACE-MWA group: 485 days; TACE group: 542 days).

Disrupted topological organization of brain structural network associated with prior overt hepatic encephalopathy in cirrhotic patients.

Objectives: To investigate structural brain connectome alterations in cirrhotic patients with prior overt hepatic encephalopathy (OHE).

Methods: Seventeen cirrhotic patients with prior OHE (prior-OHE), 18 cirrhotic patients without prior OHE (non-prior-OHE) and 18 healthy controls (HC) underwent diffusion tensor imaging. Neurocognitive functioning was assessed with Psychometric Hepatic Encephalopathy Score (PHES).

Intravoxel incoherent motion magnetic resonance imaging of the normal-appearing parotid glands in patients with differentiated thyroid cancer after radioiodine therapy.

Background Radiation damage to the salivary gland is a common complication of radioiodine therapy (RIT) in the patients with differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC). Purpose To investigate the feasibility of using intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to detect radiation-induced changes of normal-appearing parotid glands in the patients after RIT for DTC. Material and Methods We prospectively enrolled 20 patients with RIT-induced sialoadenitis and 20 healthy control (HC) participants.