The prognosis of advanced stage rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is still sobering. In recent years, outcome has not been further improved by conventional therapy. Therefore, novel treatment options such as macrophage-directed immunotherapy have to be investigated. The aim of this study was to analyze the phagocytosis of RMS cells by macrophages and to modulate the susceptibility using monoclonal antibod...

This paper presents an evaluation of the performance of a three-dimensional Active Shape Model (ASM) to segment the liver in 48 clinical CT scans. The employed shape model is built from 32 samples using an optimization approach based on the minimum description length (MDL). Three different gray-value appearance models (plain intensity, gradient and normalized gradient profiles) are created to g...

Multiecho phase-contrast steady-state free precession (PC-SSFP) is a recently introduced sequence for flow quantification. In this multiecho approach, a phase reference and a velocity-encoded readout were acquired at different echo times after a single excitation. In this study, the sequence is validated in vitro for stationary flow. Subsequently, the sequence was evaluated on cardiac output me...

We have formulated a spatial-gradient model of action potential heterogeneity within the rabbit sinoatrial node (SAN), based on cell-specific ionic models of electrical activity from its central and peripheral regions. The ionic models are derived from a generic cell model, incorporating five background and exchange currents, and seven time-dependent currents based on three- or four-state Marko...

Rhabdomyosarcomas (RMS) bear a morphological resemblance to developing striated muscle. It has been reported that two histologically distinct subtypes of RMS, embryonal and alveolar, behave differently in many clinical aspects, such as age distribution, primary site, and prog nosis. We have investigated the expression of various genes, which are preferentially expressed in normal muscle tissue ...

There have been concerns among Jamaican scholars that students‟ role models (RMs) contribute to gender differences in academic functioning in Jamaica. The current study empirically investigated gender differences in the RMs of 269 fifth form traditional high school students in Jamaica and relations between RM choice and academic attitudes, goals and achievement. Using mixed qualitative/quantita...

Rhabdomyosarcomas (RMS) in children and adolescents are heterogeneous sarcomas broadly defined by skeletal muscle features and the presence/absence of PAX3/7-FOXO1 fusion genes. MicroRNAs are small non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression in a cell context specific manner. Sequencing analyses of microRNAs in 64 RMS revealed expression patterns separating skeletal muscle, fusion gene positi...

The insulin-like growth factor II (IGF2) gene is exclusively silent at the maternal allele in the mouse as well as in normal human tissues and is expressed at a high level in rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS). We report here that the normally imprinted allele of the IGF2 gene is activated in RMS tumors as well as in one RMS cell line. Since overexpression of IGF2 has been shown to be important in the path...

We study the long term evolution of the relationship between the root mean square (rms) variability and flux (the " rms-flux relation ") for the black hole Cygnus X-1 as monitored from 1996 to 2003 with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE). We confirm earlier results by Uttley & McHardy (2001) of a linear relationship between rms and flux in the hard state on time scales > 5 s reflecting in i...