Prostacyclin-stimulating factor (PSF) acts on vascular endothelial cells to stimulate the synthesis of the vasodilatory molecule prostacyclin (PGI2). We have examined the expression, regulation, and hemodynamic bioactivity of PSF both in whole retina and in cultured cells derived from this tissue. PSF was expressed in all retinal cell types examined in vitro, but immunohistochemical analysis re...

The multicellular spheroid (MCS) is an in vitro model which is highly representative of the avascular region of solid tumors by reflecting microenvironmental conditions in vivo. Hence, it is considered the most appropriate model for studying drug resistance. We compared chemosensitivity to 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and differential protein expression between the 3D MCS model and the 2D monolayers u...

PURPOSE To compare Buccal Mucosa Graft with Penile Skin Flap techniques in the management of anterior urethral diffuse strictures longer than 3 cm. MATERIALS AND METHODS Thirty seven patients with a mean age of 28.5 (range 5 to 50) years had been treated by these two techniques using the ventral onlay patch from February 1997 to March 2002. Patients' follow-up included physical examination, h...

An amphiphilic graft copolymer, consisting of a polysulfone (PSf) main chain and poly(n-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPM) grafts, was synthesized via combination atom transfer radical polymerization click chemistry. The copolymer's structure characteristics (PNIPM length content) substantially impacts membrane morphology performance, were optimized firstly. resulting copolymer PSf-g-PNIPM with the b...

Point spread function (PSF) models derived from physical optics provide a more accurate representation of real blurs than simpler models based on geometrical optics. However, the physical PSF models do not always result in a significantly better restoration, due to the coarse sampling of the recording device and insufficiently high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) levels. Low recording resolutions r...

Signal-induced alternative splicing of the CD45 gene in human T cells is essential for proper immune function. Skipping of the CD45 variable exons is controlled, in large part, by the recruitment of PSF to the pre-mRNA substrate upon T cell activation; however, the signaling cascade leading to exon exclusion has remained elusive. Here we demonstrate that in resting T cells PSF is directly phosp...

BACKGROUND The point spread function (PSF) of positron emission tomography (PET) depends on the position across the field of view (FOV). Reconstruction based on PSF improves spatial resolution and quantitative accuracy. The present study aimed to quantify the effects of PSF correction as a function of the position of a traceable point-like 22Na source over the FOV on two PET scanners with a dif...

BACKGROUND The clinical validation of the EARL harmonization program for standardised uptake value (SUV) metrics is well documented; however, its potential for defining metabolic active tumour volume (MATV) has not yet been investigated. We aimed to compare delineation of MATV on images reconstructed using conventional ordered subset expectation maximisation (OSEM) with those reconstructed usin...

SIR—Data on pneumonia-related hospitalization days during 1972–93 were collected from the hospital discharge register and population records maintained by Statistics Finland, which covers the entire population of Finland (5 million). The need for hospital services for patients with pneumonia in the coming decades was then evaluated on the basis of population forecasts, age-structure and time-se...