Differentiating treatment-induced necrosis from tumor recurrence is a central challenge in neuro-oncology. These 2 very different outcomes after brain tumor treatment often appear similarly on routine follow-up imaging studies. They may even manifest with similar clinical symptoms, further confounding an already difficult process for physicians attempting to characterize a new contrast-enhancing lesion appearing on a patient's follow-up imaging. Distinguishing treatment necrosis from tumor recurrence is crucial for diagnosis and treatment planning, and therefore, much effort has been put forth to develop noninvasive methods to differentiate between these disparate outcomes. In this article, we review the latest developments and key findings from research studies exploring the efficacy of structural and functional imaging modalities for differentiating treatment necrosis from tumor recurrence. We discuss the possibility of computational approaches to investigate the usefulness of fine-grained imaging characteristics that are difficult to observe through visual inspection of images. We also propose a flexible treatment-planning algorithm that incorporates advanced functional imaging techniques when indicated by the patient's routine follow-up images and clinical condition.
Sustainability in livestock production system is largely affected by climate change. An imbalance between metabolic heat production inside the animal body and its dissipation to the surroundings results to heat stress (HS) under high air temperature and humid climates. The foremost reaction of animals under thermal weather is increases in respiration rate, rectal temperature and heart rate. It directly affect feed intake thereby, reduces growth rate, milk yield, reproductive performance, and even death in extreme cases. Dairy breeds are typically more sensitive to HS than meat breeds, and higher producing animals are, furthermore, susceptible since they generates more metabolic heat. HS suppresses the immune and endocrine system thereby enhances susceptibility of an animal to various diseases. Hence, sustainable dairy farming remains a vast challenge in these changing climatic conditions globally.
A fundamental challenge for bioelectronics is to deliver power to miniature devices inside the body. Wires are common failure points and limit device placement. Wireless power by electromagnetic or ultrasound waves must overcome absorption by the body and impedance mismatches between air, bone, and tissue. Magnetic fields, on the other hand, suffer little absorption by the body or differences in impedance at interfaces between air, bone, and tissue. These advantages have led to magnetically-powered stimulators based on induction or magnetothermal effects. However, fundamental limitations in these power transfer technologies have prevented miniature magneticallypowered stimulators from applications in many therapies and disease models because they do not operate in clinical "high-frequency" ranges above 20 Hz. Here we show that magnetoelectric materials -applied for the first time in bioelectronics devices -enable miniature magnetically-powered neural stimulators that operate at clinically relevant high-frequencies. As an example, we show that ME neural stimulators can effectively treat the symptoms of a Parkinson's disease model in a freely behaving rodent. We also show that ME-powered devices can be miniaturized to sizes smaller than a grain of rice while maintaining effective stimulation voltages. These results suggest that ME materials are an excellent candidate for wireless power delivery that will enable miniature neural stimulators in both clinical and research applications. Wireless neural stimulators have the potential to provide less invasive, longer lasting interfaces to brain regions and peripheral nerves compared to batterypowered devices or wired stimulators. Indeed, wires are a common failure point for bioelectronic devices. Percutaneous wires present a pathway for infection 1 and implanted wires can also limit the ability of the stimulators to move with the tissue, leading to a foreign body response or loss of contact with the target tissue 2,3 . Additionally, chronic stress and strain on wires, particularly for devices in the periphery, can lead to failure in the wire itself or its connection to the stimulator 4 . In small animals like rats and mice, wires used to power neural stimulators can interfere with natural behavior, particularly when studying social interaction between multiple animals 5 .
Minimally invasive neuromodulation technologies seek to marry the neural selectivity of implantable devices with the low-cost and non-invasive nature of transcutaneous electrical stimulation (TES). The Injectrode® is a needle-delivered electrode that is injected onto neural structures under image guidance. Power is then transcutaneously delivered to the Injectrode using surface electrodes. The Injectrode serves as a low-impedance conduit to guide current to the deep on-target nerve, reducing activation thresholds by an order of magnitude compared to using only surface stimulation electrodes. To minimize off-target recruitment of cutaneous fibers, the energy transfer efficiency from the surface electrodes to the Injectrode must be optimized. TES energy is transferred to the Injectrode through both capacitive and resistive mechanisms. Electrostatic finite element models generally used in TES research consider only the resistive means of energy transfer by defining tissue conductivities. Here, we present an electroquasistatic model, taking into consideration both the conductivity and permittivity of tissue, to understand transcutaneous power delivery to the Injectrode. The model was validated with measurements taken from (n = 4) swine cadavers. We used the validated model to investigate system and anatomic parameters that influence the coupling efficiency of the Injectrode energy delivery system. Our work suggests the relevance of electroquasistatic models to account for capacitive charge transfer mechanisms when studying TES, particularly when high-frequency voltage components are present, such as those used for voltage-controlled pulses and sinusoidal nerve blocks.
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