Mapreduce in computational biology - A synopsis
In the past 20 years, the Life Sciences have witnessed a paradigm shift in the way research is performed. Indeed, the computational part of biological and clinical studies has become central or is becoming so. Correspondingly, the amount of data that one needs to process, compare and analyze, has experienced an exponential growth. As a consequence, High Performance Computing (HPC, for short) is being used intensively, in particular in terms of multi-core architectures. However, recently and thanks to the advances in the processing of other scientific and commercial data, Distributed Computing is also being considered for Bioinformatics applications. In particular, the MapReduce paradigm, to…
Image-Guided Mini-Invasive Treatments for Vascular and Oncologic Diseases: Embolization Therapy
Transcatheter Embolization, also called Embolotherapy, is a mini-invasive, non-surgical therapeutic solution used in Interventional Radiology to close blood vessels deliberately. A wide range of embolic agents is available in clinical practice, including metal coils and liquid agents. More recent advances in biomaterials such as shape-memory foam and in-situ gelling solutions have led to the development of new pre-clinical embolic agents. This review offers a brief overview of current and emerging technologies in the field of endovascular embolization. The focus is on devices, materials and techniques.