Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in rectal cancer: a comprehensive review

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has established itself as the primary method for local staging in patients with rectal cancer. This is due to several factors, most importantly because of the ability to assess the status of circumferential resection margin. There are several newer developments being introduced continuously, such as diffusion-weighted imaging and imaging with 3 T. Assessment of loco-regional lymph nodes has also been investigated extensively using different approaches, but more work needs to be done. Finally, evaluation of tumours during or after preoperative treatment is becoming an everyday reality. All these new aspects prompt a review of the most recent advances and opinions. In this review, a comprehensive overview of the current status of MRI in the loco-regional assessment and management of rectal cancer is presented. The findings on MRI and their accuracy are reviewed based on the most up-to-date evidence. Optimisation of MRI acquisition and relevant regional anatomy are also presented, based on published literature and our own experience

Managing Cross-Cutting QoS Issues in MULTE Middleware

f existing components and middleware entities. This must also be true for components that encapsulate resources, i.e., APIs to network services. In this position paper, we outline how we handle QoS management issues at application level, middleware level, and resource level, i.e., network and operating system (OS) to approach these problems. The main programming concepts for multimedia provided by the MULTE-ORB are explicit stream bindings, stream interfaces, flows, and associated type checking rules [1]. A binding type identifies the type of stream interfaces which can participate in the binding, the roles they play, and the way behavior at the various stream interfaces are linked. A stream interface consists of a collection of source and/or sink media flows. The binding framework defines a number of entities involved in the binding. A binding factory (BF) is a distributed entity responsible for the creation of bindings of a certain type. Existing bindings can be reconfigured by a b