A novel, mitogen-activated nuclear kinase is related to a Drosophila developmental regulator

Although the ultimate targets of many signal transduction pathways are nuclear transcription factors, the vast majority of known protein kinases are cytosolic. Here, we report on a novel human kinase that is present exclusively in the nucleus. Kinase activity is increased upon cellular proliferation and is markedly elevated in patients with acute and chronic lymphocytic leukemias. We have identified a human gene that encodes this nuclear kinase and find that it is closely related to Drosophila female sterile homeotic (fsh), a developmental regulator with no known biochemical activity. Collectively, these results suggest that this nuclear kinase is a component of a signal transduction pathway that plays a role in Drosophila development and human growth control

A depth-encoding PET detector module with improved spatial sampling

Proceeding of: 1998 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference, Toronto, Ont., 08 - 14 Nov. 1998Detector modules in small ring diameter PET scanners must possess depth-of-interaction (DOI) encoding, increased spatial sampling, high sensitivity and the ability to handle high photon input rates without excessive pulse pileup or random coincidences. We created such a module by optically coupling an entrance array of individual LGSO crystals to an exit array of individual GSO (and other) crystals that was, in turn, optically and directly coupled to a miniature PSPMT. DO1 was determined for each event by delayed charge integration (DCI), a technique that exploits differences in light decay time between GSO and LGSO. Spatial sampling in 3D was increased by introducing a half crystal pitch spatial offset between the entrance and exit arrays in both the X and Y directions. Position detection accuracy in both the LGSO and GSO layers, and the accuracy of DO1 assignment of events to either layer was high. These results suggest that this combination of scintillators and acquisition/processing methods may be particularly useful in the design of high performance, small ring diameter PET scanners for small animal imagingPublicad

Resolution uniformity and sensitivity of the NIH ATLAS small animal PET scanner: comparison to simulated LSO scanners without depth-of-interaction capability

Proceeding of: 2001 Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference, november 4-10, 2001, San Diego, CaliforniaPET scanners designed to image animals the size of rats and mice should possess simultaneously high and uniform spatial resolution and high sensitivity. ATLAS (Advanced Technology Laboratory Animal Scanner), an 11.8 cm diameter aperture, 2 cm axial field-of-view ring-type research scanner seeks these goals by surrounding the animal with eighteen 15 mm deep, LGSO (7 mm) / GSO (8 mm) phoswich detector modules. A Monte Carlo simulation was used to compare the variation of resolution across the field-of-view and the absolute central point source sensitivity (ACS) of ATLAS to similar systems comprised only of LSO arrays of different depths with no depth-of-interaction (DOI) capability. For ATLAS radial spatial resolution deteriorated by 27% from the center to 3 cm off-axis. Scanners comprised of 15 mm deep, 10 mm deep and 7 mm deep LSO crystals deteriorated by 100%, 51%, and 20% respectively, over the same distance. Simulated ACS (absorbed energies > 250 keV) for ATLAS was 2.0% and for the 15 mm, 10 mm deep and 7 mm deep LSO scanners 2.4%, 1.5%, and 0.9%, respectively. Radial resolution loss 3 cm off-axis and ACS measured for the actual ATLAS scanner were similar to the values obtained by simulation (27% resolution loss, 1.8% ACS). The phoswich design thus achieves good resolution uniformity over a 6 cm FOV while preserving sensitivity compared to equivalent non-DOI LSO scanners with a range of crystal depths.Publicad

An inexpensive phantom for evaluating gated blood pool data acquisition/processing systems at heart rates above 400/min

Proceeding of: 1998 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference, Toronto, Ont., 08 - 14 Nov. 1998Equilibrium gated blood pool imaging of the heart is a common diagnostic procedure for visualizing cardiac function in human subjects. Recently, this procedure has been modified to evaluate cardiac function in mice. However, the high heart rates encountered in these animals (often greater than 400 beatdmin) can confound R-wave trigger devices, acquisition systems and image processing software containing default conditions tailored specifically to the lower heart rates of human subjects. In order to determine whether data acquisition and processing components of a commercial or self-generated gated blood pool imaging procedure are performing properly, input of known timing and imaging signals that mimic those generated during high heart rate gated blood pool imaging is required. Here, we describe an inexpensive phantom that is suitable for initial evaluation of an unknown system or for ongoing QC of a previously verified system.Publicad

Metaphase and Interphase Cytogenetics with Alu-PCR-amplified Yeast Artificial Chromosome Clones Containing the BCR Gene and the Protooncogenes c-raf-1, c-fms, and c-erbB-21

A human yeast artificial chromosome (YAC) library was screened by polymerase chain reaction with oligonucleotide primers defined for DNA sequences of the BCR gene and the protooncogenes c-raf-1, c-fms, and c-erB-2. Alu-PCR-generated human DNA sequences were obtained from the respective YAC clones and used for fluorescence in situ hybridization experiments under suppression conditions. After chromosomal in situ suppression hybridization to GTG-banded human prometaphase chromosomes, seven of nine initially isolated YAC clones yielded strong signals exclusively in the chromosome bands containing the respective genes. Two clones yielded additional signals on other chromosomes and were excluded from further tests. The band-specific YACs were successfully applied to visualize specific structural chromosome aberrations in peripheral blood cells from patients with myelodysplasia exhibiting del(5)(q13q34), chronic myeloid leukemia and acute lymphocytic leukemia with t(9;22)(q34;q11), acute promyelocytic leukemia (M3) with t(15;17)(q22;q21), and in a cell line established from a proband with the constitutional translocation t(3;8)(p14.2;q24). In addition to the analysis of metaphase spreads, we demonstrate the particular usefulness of these YAC clones in combination with whole chromosome painting to analyze specific chromosome aberrations directly in the interphase nucleus

D-instanton partition functions

Duality arguments are used to determine D-instanton contributions to certain effective interaction terms of type II supergravity theories in various dimensions. This leads to exact expressions for the partition functions of the finite N D-instanton matrix model in d=4 and 6 dimensions that generalize our previous expression for the case d=10. These results are consistent with the fact that the Witten index of the T-dual D-particle process should only be non-vanishing for d=10.Comment: 20 pages, harvmac, typos corrected, reference adde