Aizu Research Cluster for Medical Engineering and Informatics, Center for Advanced Information Science and Technology,The University of Aizu, Aizu-Wakamatsu, Fukushima 965-8580, Japan The theme of this special issue (supplement) is “Current Challenging Medical Image Analysis”. This issue consists of two selected papers presented at the 35 IEEE-EMBC Workshop on Current Challenging Image Analysis...

Upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) of the kidney and ureter is a rare neoplasm with roughly 3000 cases diagnosed in the United States in 2007, compared to approximately 67000 cases of bladder cancer. UTUC accounts for approximately 10% of cancers arising from the kidney and less than 5% of all urothelial malignancies. Predominantly due to the rarity of the disease, there is only limited da...

The B-line presumptive muscle cells of ascidian embryos have extensive potential for self-differentiation dependent on determinants prelocalized in the myoplasm of fertilized eggs. Ascidian larval muscle cells therefore provide an experimental system with which to explore an intrinsic genetic program for autonomous specification of embryonic cells. Experiments with egg fragments suggested that ...

In the article by Jiménez-Ruiz et al., entitled “Neuro-logic manifestations of COVID-19”,1 it was concluded that “we must bear in mind infectious and non-infec-tious complications affect nervous system such as encephalitis, seizures, Guillain-Barre syndrome, dis-seminated encephalomyelitis hemorrhagic leuko-encephalitis, which are disorders can occur during or after viral infections.

Neural stem cells (NSCs) critical for the continued production of new neurons and glia are sequestered in distinct areas of the brain called stem cell niches. Until recently, only two forebrain sites, the subventricular zone (SVZ) of the anterolateral ventricle and the subgranular zone (SGZ) of the hippocampus, have been recognized adult stem cell niches (Alvarez-Buylla and Lim, 2004; Doetsch e...