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Real-time three-dimensional (3D) ultrasound (US) has attracted much more attention in medical researches because it provides interactive feedback to help clinicians acquire high-quality images as well as timely spatial information of the scanned area and hence is necessary in intraoperative ultrasound examinations. Plenty of publications have been declared to complete the real-time or near real-time visualization of 3D ultrasound using volumetric probes or the routinely used two-dimensional (2D) probes. So far, a review on how to design an interactive system with appropriate processing algorithms remains missing, resulting in the lack of systematic understanding of the relevant technology. In this article, previous and the latest work on designing a real-time or near real-time 3D ultrasound imaging system are reviewed. Specifically, the data acquisition techniques, reconstruction algorithms, volume rendering methods, and clinical applications are presented. Moreover, the advantages and disadvantages of state-of-the-art approaches are discussed in detail.

1 Electromyography (EMG) has been widely used for the assessment of 2 musculoskeletal functions and the control of electrical prostheses, which make use of the 3 EMG signal generated by the contraction of the residual muscles. In spite of the successful 4 applications of EMG in different fields, it has some inherent limitations, such as the 5 difficulty to differentiate the actions of neighboring muscles and to collect signals from 6 deep muscles using the surface EMG. The majority of current EMG controlled prostheses 7 can only provide sequential on-off controls using signals from two groups of muscles, so 8 the users are required to put many conscious efforts in monitoring the speed and range of 9 motion of the terminal devices being controlled. Recently, many alternative signals based 10 on the detection of dimensional changes of muscles or tendons during actions have been 11 reported. The objective of this study was to investigate the potential of the dimensional 12 change of muscles detected using sonography for musculoskeletal assessment and control. 13 A portable B-mode ultrasound scanner was used to collect the dynamic ultrasound images 14 of the forearm muscles of six normally-limbed young adults and three amputee subjects. A 15 motion analysis system was used to collect the movement of the wrist angle during the 16 experiments for the normal subjects. It was demonstrated that the morphological changes of 17 forearm muscles during actions can be successfully detected by ultrasound and linearly 18 correlated (R 2 = 0.876±0.042, mean±SD) with the wrist angle. We named these 19 sonographically detected signals about the architectural change of the muscle as 20 sonomyography (SMG). The mean ratio between the wrist angle and the percentage 21 deformation of the forearm muscle was 7.2±3.7 deg/% for the normal subjects. The 22 intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of this ratio among the three repeated tests was 23 0.868. The SMG signals from the residual forearms were also successfully detected when 24 3 the three amputee subjects contracted their residual muscles. The results demonstrated that 1 SMG had potentials for the musculoskeletal control and assessment. 2 3 4

miRNAs (microRNAs) are frequently and aberrantly expressed in many cancers. MiR-873 has been revealed to be downregulated in colorectal cancer and glioblastoma. However, its function remains unclear. Here we report that miR-873 is downregulated in breast tumor compared with normal tissue. Enforced expression of miR-873 decreases the transcriptional activity of ER (estrogen receptor)-α but not ERβ through the modulation of ERα phosphorylation in ER-positive breast cancer cells. We also found that miR-873 inhibits breast cancer cell proliferation and tumor growth in nude mice. Reporter gene assays revealed cyclin-dependent kinase 3 (CDK3) as a direct target of miR-873. CDK3 was shown to be overexpressed in breast cancer and phosphorylate ERα at Ser104/116 and Ser118. Furthermore, we found that Mir-873 inhibits ER activity and cell growth via targeting CDK3. Interestingly, miR-873 was observed to be downregulated in tamoxifen-resistant MCF-7/TamR cells, while CDK3 is overexpressed in these cells. More importantly, re-expression of miR-873 reversed tamoxifen resistance in MCF-7/TamR cells. Our data demonstrate that miR-873 is a novel tumor suppressor in ER-positive breast cancer and a potential therapeutic approach for treatment of tamoxifen-resistant breast cancer.

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