Early Cosmic Formation of Massive Black Holes

The evolution of nonlinear density fluctuations around the Jeans mass shortly after cosmological recombination is analyzed using a 3D hydrodynamics/dark--matter code. The Cosmic Background Radiation (CBR) exerts Compton friction on free electrons due to peculiar velocities. The dynamics therefore depends strongly on the gas ionization history. Under a variety of ionization conditions and in systems with or without non-baryonic components, the baryons lose angular momentum efficiently and collapse to form a compact optically--thick object which would probably quickly evolve into a massive black hole. Attention is concentrated on elucidating some of the novel physical effects in early cosmological collapses, but ways in which more realistic calculations might be made and in which the scenario could be incorporated into a more complete cosmogonic model are discussed.Comment: LaTeX file, figures not included. For hardcopy of figures contact [email protected]. Institute for Advanced Study number AST 93/11-

Mortality secondary to fulminant hepatic failure in patients with prior resolution of hepatitis B virus infection in Japan

© 2006 by [The University of Chicago Press ]ArticleCLINICAL INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 47(5):E52-E56(2008)journal articl

A generalization of determinant formulas for the solutions of Painlev\'e II and XXXIV equations

A generalization of determinant formulas for the classical solutions of Painlev\'e XXXIV and Painlev\'e II equations are constructed using the technique of Darboux transformation and Hirota's bilinear formalism. It is shown that the solutions admit determinant formulas even for the transcendental case.Comment: 20 pages, LaTeX 2.09(IOP style), submitted to J. Phys.

Epidemiology of hepatocellular carcinoma in Japan

The original publication is available at www.springerlink.comArticleJOURNAL OF GASTROENTEROLOGY. 44:102-107 (2009)journal articl

Rational Solutions of the Painleve' VI Equation

In this paper, we classify all values of the parameters $\alpha$, $\beta$, $\gamma$ and $\delta$ of the Painlev\'e VI equation such that there are rational solutions. We give a formula for them up to the birational canonical transformations and the symmetries of the Painlev\'e VI equation.Comment: 13 pages, 1 Postscript figure Typos fixe

CLINICAL AND VIROLOGICAL FEATURES OF PATIENTS WITH FULMINANT HEPATIC FAILURE DUE TO HEPATITIS B VIRUS REACTIVATION FROM HBSAG-NEGATIVE STATUS

ArticleJOURNAL OF HEPATOLOGY. 52(Supplement 1):S286-S286 (2010)conference pape

One-Point Probability Distribution Functions of Supersonic Turbulent Flows in Self-Gravitating Media

Turbulence is essential for understanding the structure and dynamics of molecular clouds and star-forming regions. There is a need for adequate tools to describe and characterize the properties of turbulent flows. One-point probability distribution functions (pdf's) of dynamical variables have been suggested as appropriate statistical measures and applied to several observed molecular clouds. However, the interpretation of these data requires comparison with numerical simulations. To address this issue, SPH simulations of driven and decaying, supersonic, turbulent flows with and without self-gravity are presented. In addition, random Gaussian velocity fields are analyzed to estimate the influence of variance effects. To characterize the flow properties, the pdf's of the density, of the line-of-sight velocity centroids, and of the line centroid increments are studied. This is supplemented by a discussion of the dispersion and the kurtosis of the increment pdf's, as well as the spatial distribution of velocity increments for small spatial lags. From the comparison between different models of interstellar turbulence, it follows that the inclusion of self-gravity leads to better agreement with the observed pdf's in molecular clouds. The increment pdf's for small spatial lags become exponential for all considered velocities. However, all the processes considered here lead to non-Gaussian signatures, differences are only gradual, and the analyzed pdf's are in addition projection dependent. It appears therefore very difficult to distinguish between different physical processes on the basis of pdf's only, which limits their applicability for adequately characterizing interstellar turbulence.Comment: 38 pages (incl. 17 figures), accepted for publication in ApJ, also available with full resolution figures at http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/~klessen/Preprint

A highly efficient transient protoplast system for analyzing defence gene expression and protein–protein interactions in rice

The transient assay system based on mesophyll or cultured cell-derived protoplasts has been exploited in several plant species and has become a powerful tool for rapid gene functional analysis and biochemical manipulations. However, the system has not been widely used in rice owing to the difficulties in large-scale isolation of viable rice protoplasts from leaves or suspension-cultured cells. Here, we describe a significantly improved method to isolate a large number of protoplasts from stem and sheath tissues of both young and mature plants. High-level coexpression of multiple constructs and efficient suppression of exogenous and endogenous genes were observed in the stem- and sheath-derived protoplasts. A transient green fluorescent protein and luciferase-based reporter system for defence-related genes expression analysis has been established, which is useful for screening and characterizing genes involved in rice defence signalling pathways. Furthermore, a protoplast-based bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) system for the detection of protein–protein interactions in living rice cells was developed. The YFP complementation of two split-YFP halves mediated by homodimerization of the GUS and SPIN1, a cell-death related protein, was observed in transfected protoplasts. In combination with genetic, genomic and proteomic approaches, the established versatile protoplast transient assay system will facilitate large-scale functional analysis of defence-related genes in rice

Anti-Helicobacter pylori seropositivity: influence on severity and treatment response in patients with chronic hepatitis C

The definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.comArticleJOURNAL OF VIRAL HEPATITIS. 14(1): 48-54 (2007)journal articl