Nutrition Support for Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma Patients Treated with Chemoradiotherapy: How Often and How Long?

Background. Oral intake of many patients with locally advanced head and neck cancer (LAHNC) decrease during chemoradiotherapy (CRT). Although prophylactic percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) is recommended, not a few patients complete CRT without using PEG tube. Patients and Methods. The subjects were patients with LAHNC who received CRT. We retrospectively investigated the incidence and duration of nutritional support during and after CRT, and predicting factors of nutritional support. For patients who required nutritional support, we also checked the day of initiation and the duration of nutritional support. Results. Of 53 patients, 29 patients (55%) required nutritional support during and/or after CRT. While no clear relation between requirement of nutritional support and variables including age, T stage, N stage, clinical stage and chemotherapy regimen, there could be some relationships between tumor primary sites and the requirement and duration of nutritional support. 17 (77%) of 22 patients with oropharynx cancer(OP) required nutritional support and prolonged for 4.4 months, and 11 (46%) of 24 patients with hypopharynx cancer(HP) required nutritional support and prolonged for 21.9 months. Conclusion. Nutritional support is indicated many HNC patients treated with CRT and primary sites may have some relation to its indication and duration

Exploring the disk-jet connection from the properties of narrow line regions in powerful young radio-loud AGNs

We investigate the optical emission-line flux ratios of narrow-line regions, in order to determine whether the formation of AGN jets requires specific accretion conditions. We find that bright compact radio galaxies, which are powerful radio galaxies in the early stage of the jet activity, exhibit systematically larger flux ratios of [O{\sc i}]$\lambda$6300/[O{\sc iii}]$\lambda$5007 and smaller flux ratios of [O{\sc iii}]$\lambda$5007/[O{\sc iii}]$\lambda$4363 than radio-quiet (RQ) Seyfert 2 galaxies. Comparing the observed line ratios with photoionization models, it is found that the difference in the flux ratio of low- to high-ionization lines (e.g., [O{\sc i}]$\lambda$6300/[O{\sc iii}]$\lambda$5007) can be well understood by the difference in the spectral energy distribution (SED) of ionizing sources. Powerful young radio-loud (YRL) AGNs favor SED without a strong big blue bump, i.e., a radiatively inefficient accretion flow (RIAF), while RQ AGNs are consistent with the models adopting SED with a strong big blue bump, i.e., a geometrically thin, optically thick disk. These findings imply that the formation of powerful AGN jets requires the accretion disk with harder ionizing SED (i.e., a RIAF). We discuss the obscuring structure of YRL AGNs as a plausible origin of the difference in flux ratios of [O{\sc iii}]$\lambda$5007/[O{\sc iii}]$\lambda$4363.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Formation of High-redshift (z>6) Quasars Driven by Nuclear Starbursts

Based on the physical model of a supermassive black hole (SMBH) growth via gas accretion in a circumnuclear disk (CND) proposed by Kawakatu & Wada (2008), we describe the formation of high-$z$ ($z > 6$) quasars (QSOs) whose BH masses are M_{BH}> 10^{9} M_{\odot}. We derive the necessary conditions to form QSOs at z > 6 by only gas accretion: (i) A large mass supply with M_{sup} > 10^{10}M_{\odot} from host galaxies to CNDs, because the final BH mass is only 1-10% of the total supplied mass from QSO hosts. (ii) High star formation efficiency for a rapid BH growth. We also find that if the BH growth is limited by the Eddington accretion, the final BH mass is greatly suppressed. Thus, the super-Eddington growth is required for the QSO formation. The evolution of the QSO luminosity depends on the redshift z_{i} at which accretion onto a seed BH is initiated. In other words, the brighter QSOs at z >6 favor the late growth of SMBHs (i.e., z_{i}=10) rather than early growth (i.e., z_{i}=30). Moreover, we predict the observable properties and the evolution of QSOs at z >6. In a QSO phase, there should exist a stellar rich massive CND, whose gas mass is about 10% of the dynamical mass inside 0.1-1 kpc}. On the other hand, in a phase where the BH grows (i.e., a proto-QSO phase), the proto-QSO has a gas rich massive CNDs whose gas mass is comparable to the dynamical mass (abridged).Comment: 12 pages, 10 pages, accepted by Ap

更年期女性の血清脂質に及ぼす閉経, トレーニング, 女性ホルモンの影響

Fifty-two women studies to determine the effect of menopause, training, estron, and estradiol on serum levels of total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and triglyceride (TG). Subjects were assigned to one of two groups : trained endurance runners (average age=48.5±6.9 years ; training history=12.7±5.9 years ; training frequency per week=4.5±1.3 time ; training distance per day=8.9±4.7 km ; training duration ; n=24) ; control group (average age= 49.4±5.9 years ; n=28) . The post menopausal women undergone natural menopause. None of the subjects smoked, cardiovascular disease, or any from the hormonal replacement. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated : 1) Significant difference between the traind group and the control group in measured of percentage of body fat (%BF : 21.8% ; 26.6%), (p<0.001) and the heart rate at ventilation threshold (HR at VT : 133.6bpm ; 116.5bpm) (p<0.001) and Vo_2 at VT (30.4ml/kg/min;18.9ml/kg/min) (p<0.001) ; and HDL-C (77.8mg/dl; 67.2mg/dl). 2) This %BF, HR at VT, Vo_2 at VT, and HDL-C tendency was identified when age differences on among the groups were statistically controlled. 3) In a simple correlation analysis, age showed a significant positively associated with TC (r=0.409), and %BF was positively associated with TC (r=0.579) and LDL-C (r=0.610), and BMI was positively associated with LDL-C (0.514), and significant positive correlation was found between HR at VT and HDL-C (r=0.514) in trained group. On the other hand, age was positively associated with TG (r=0.419) in control group, and %BF was negatively associated with HDL-C (r=-0.378). 4) Analysis of covariance, HDL-C was affected with training rather than menopause. 5) Estron was significantly and positively correlated with HDL-C (r=0.587) in post menopausal traind group. These data suggested that training prior to menopause had a positive effect on HDL-C levels. This effect continued with training following menopause and HDL-C levels were also maintained. This appears to controlled by hormones such as estrogen

Gravitational Wave Physics and Astronomy in the nascent era

The detections of gravitational waves (GW) by the LIGO/Virgo collaborations provide various possibilities for both physics and astronomy. We are quite sure that GW observations will develop a lot, both in precision and in number, thanks to the continuous work on the improvement of detectors, including the expected new detector, KAGRA, and the planned detector, LIGO-India. On this occasion, we review the fundamental outcomes and prospects of gravitational wave physics and astronomy. We survey the development, focusing on representative sources of gravitational waves: binary black holes, binary neutron stars, and supernovae. We also summarize the role of gravitational wave observations as a probe of new physics