Consensus recommendations for MRI and PET imaging of primary central nervous system lymphoma: guideline statement from the International Primary CNS Lymphoma Collaborative Group (IPCG).

Advanced molecular and pathophysiologic characterization of primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) has revealed insights into promising targeted therapeutic approaches. Medical imaging plays a fundamental role in PCNSL diagnosis, staging, and response assessment. Institutional imaging variation and inconsistent clinical trial reporting diminishes the reliability and reproducibility of clinical response assessment. In this context, we aimed to: (1) critically review the use of advanced positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the setting of PCNSL; (2) provide results from an international survey of clinical sites describing the current practices for routine and advanced imaging, and (3) provide biologically based recommendations from the International PCNSL Collaborative Group (IPCG) on adaptation of standardized imaging practices. The IPCG provides PET and MRI consensus recommendations built upon previous recommendations for standardized brain tumor imaging protocols (BTIP) in primary and metastatic disease. A biologically integrated approach is provided to addresses the unique challenges associated with the imaging assessment of PCNSL. Detailed imaging parameters facilitate the adoption of these recommendations by researchers and clinicians. To enhance clinical feasibility, we have developed both "ideal" and "minimum standard" protocols at 3T and 1.5T MR systems that will facilitate widespread adoption

Consensus recommendations for MRI and PET imaging of primary central nervous system lymphoma: guideline statement from the International Primary CNS Lymphoma Collaborative Group (IPCG).

Advanced molecular and pathophysiologic characterization of primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) has revealed insights into promising targeted therapeutic approaches. Medical imaging plays a fundamental role in PCNSL diagnosis, staging, and response assessment. Institutional imaging variation and inconsistent clinical trial reporting diminishes the reliability and reproducibility of clinical response assessment. In this context, we aimed to: (1) critically review the use of advanced positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the setting of PCNSL; (2) provide results from an international survey of clinical sites describing the current practices for routine and advanced imaging, and (3) provide biologically based recommendations from the International PCNSL Collaborative Group (IPCG) on adaptation of standardized imaging practices. The IPCG provides PET and MRI consensus recommendations built upon previous recommendations for standardized brain tumor imaging protocols (BTIP) in primary and metastatic disease. A biologically integrated approach is provided to addresses the unique challenges associated with the imaging assessment of PCNSL. Detailed imaging parameters facilitate the adoption of these recommendations by researchers and clinicians. To enhance clinical feasibility, we have developed both "ideal" and "minimum standard" protocols at 3T and 1.5T MR systems that will facilitate widespread adoption

Wiring-up Carbon Single Wall Nanotubes to Polycrystalline Inorganic Semiconductor Thin Films: Low-Barrier, Copper-Free Back Contact to CdTe Solar Cells

We have discovered that films of carbon single wall nanotubes (SWNTs) make excellent back contacts to CdTe devices without any modification to the CdTe surface. Efficiencies of SWNT-contacted devices are slightly higher than otherwise identical devices formed with standard Au/Cu back contacts. The SWNT layer is thermally stable and easily applied with a spray process, and SWNT-contacted devices show no signs of degradation during accelerated life testing

‘SILENCE BY MY NOISE'’: AN ECOCRITICAL AESTHETIC OF NOISE IN JAPANESE TRADITIONAL SOUND CULTURE AND THE SOUND ART OF AKITA MASAMI

Modernist musicological discourse is flush with talk of “the musical material,” a rhetorical figure which imbues sound with enigmatically self-inherent tendencies, while simultaneously prefiguring its subjugation to compositional agency. This trope echoes the broader Enlightenment cultural program of establishing mastery over the unruly energies of nature. The noise compositions of Masami Akita, better known as Merzbow, challenge such conceptions of meaningful musical experience as mastery over sound. Twisting the hum of electronic instruments into self-oscillating feedback loops, Merzbow unbinds the inherent momentum of sound, forestalling its subsumption into mere compositional material.  Such explorations of the 'natural right' of sound to be something other than music have important forebears in late 20th century Western aesthetic thought, most notably John Cage.  Despite his professed impartiality toward traditional Japanese music, Merzbow's ambivalent aesthetics also recall the much older classical Japanese poetic tradition, as exemplified by Tokugawa period philologist Motoori Norinaga's concept of mono no aware. In this paper, I interpret Norinaga's aesthetic thought as a riposte to Enlightenment nature-culture dualism, and listen for its echo in Akita's noise. In the final instance, however, I conclude that Akita eviscerates traditional Japanese assumptions of the mutual amenability of culture and nature, music and noise.  Following Akita's recent writings on ecology, I maintain that his compositions reflect a pained awareness of the deterioration of the natural sound-world before the onslaught of human culture and its sonic detritus, and advance a still more radical critique of the inability of either Western modernist or classical Japanese aesthetic thought to address the ballooning potential of humanly organized sound to do violence against human and non-human life

Consensus recommendations for a dynamic susceptibility contrast MRI protocol for use in high-grade gliomas.

Despite the widespread clinical use of dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC) MRI, DSC-MRI methodology has not been standardized, hindering its utilization for response assessment in multicenter trials. Recently, the DSC-MRI Standardization Subcommittee of the Jumpstarting Brain Tumor Drug Development Coalition issued an updated consensus DSC-MRI protocol compatible with the standardized brain tumor imaging protocol (BTIP) for high-grade gliomas that is increasingly used in the clinical setting and is the default MRI protocol for the National Clinical Trials Network. After reviewing the basis for controversy over DSC-MRI protocols, this paper provides evidence-based best practices for clinical DSC-MRI as determined by the Committee, including pulse sequence (gradient echo vs spin echo), BTIP-compliant contrast agent dosing (preload and bolus), flip angle (FA), echo time (TE), and post-processing leakage correction. In summary, full-dose preload, full-dose bolus dosing using intermediate (60°) FA and field strength-dependent TE (40-50 ms at 1.5 T, 20-35 ms at 3 T) provides overall best accuracy and precision for cerebral blood volume estimates. When single-dose contrast agent usage is desired, no-preload, full-dose bolus dosing using low FA (30°) and field strength-dependent TE provides excellent performance, with reduced contrast agent usage and elimination of potential systematic errors introduced by variations in preload dose and incubation time

Consensus recommendations for a dynamic susceptibility contrast MRI protocol for use in high-grade gliomas.

Despite the widespread clinical use of dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC) MRI, DSC-MRI methodology has not been standardized, hindering its utilization for response assessment in multicenter trials. Recently, the DSC-MRI Standardization Subcommittee of the Jumpstarting Brain Tumor Drug Development Coalition issued an updated consensus DSC-MRI protocol compatible with the standardized brain tumor imaging protocol (BTIP) for high-grade gliomas that is increasingly used in the clinical setting and is the default MRI protocol for the National Clinical Trials Network. After reviewing the basis for controversy over DSC-MRI protocols, this paper provides evidence-based best practices for clinical DSC-MRI as determined by the Committee, including pulse sequence (gradient echo vs spin echo), BTIP-compliant contrast agent dosing (preload and bolus), flip angle (FA), echo time (TE), and post-processing leakage correction. In summary, full-dose preload, full-dose bolus dosing using intermediate (60°) FA and field strength-dependent TE (40-50 ms at 1.5 T, 20-35 ms at 3 T) provides overall best accuracy and precision for cerebral blood volume estimates. When single-dose contrast agent usage is desired, no-preload, full-dose bolus dosing using low FA (30°) and field strength-dependent TE provides excellent performance, with reduced contrast agent usage and elimination of potential systematic errors introduced by variations in preload dose and incubation time

MR Imaging Biomarkers in Oncology Clinical Trials

Quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques have the ability to quantitatively report various pathophysiological processes associated with cancer. These measures have been shown to provide complementary information to that typically obtained from standard morphologically based criteria (e.g., size) and, furthermore, have been shown to outperform sized based measures in certain applications. In this review, we discuss eight areas of quantitative MRI that are either currently employed in clinical trials, or are emerging as promising techniques for both diagnosing cancer as well as assessing—or even predicting—the response of cancer to various therapies. The currently employed methods include the response evaluation criteria in solid tumors (RECIST), dynamic susceptibility MRI (DSC-MRI), dynamic contrast enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI), and diffusion weighted imaging (DWI). The emerging techniques covered are chemical exchange saturation transfer MRI (CEST-MRI), elastography, hyperpolarized MRI, and multi-parameter MRI. After a brief introduction to each technique, we present a small number of illustrative applications before noting the existing limitations of each method and what must be done to move each to more routine clinical application