Gauge independence of Abelian and monopole dominance

We formulate a stochastic gauge fixing method to study the gauge dependence of Abelian projection. In this method, one can change the gauge from the maximally Abelian one to no gauge fixing continuously. We have found that the linear part of the heavy quark potential from Abelian contribution depends little on the gauge parameter. Similar results have been obtained for the monopole contribution part.We also investigate the gauge dependence of the length of monopole loop, which is known to be important for the confinement, and monopole density. These results suggest that the picture that monopole plays an important role for the confinement of QCD dose not depend on choice of the gauge.Comment: Lattice 2000 (Topology), 4 pages, 7 figures, LaTe

幼若永久歯小窩裂溝の清掃に関する研究 第2報 EMPAによる裂溝内の元素分析について

The application of fissure sealants have been highly appreciated to prevent the development of caries in immature permanent teeth such as first molars immediately after their eruption. However, the sealant often breaks and peels off due to the insufficient cleansing of the surface and pits and fissures of the teeth. We newly developed diamond fixed scratch point (DFSP) for the cleansing of pits and fissures of immature permanent teeth. In this study we aimed to have good prognosis of the condensation of fissure sealant and to suppress the progress of early fissure caries, and made a comparison of this method with conventional methods using brushcone and air-flow in term of the components of fissure debris after cleansing. The effects of cleaning for the three cleaning methods were examined comparatively by usting EMPA. The results obtained were as follows: 1. It was difficult to remove the contents in deep narrow fissures of types I and IK by the methods using brushcone or air-flow. Cleansing effect could not be recognized in the narrow base, for debris and organic residue were found. 2. DFSP developed by authors removed all of the organic debris in the fissures to result in excellent cleansing effect. 3. It was confirmed that extremely mild mechanical cleansing by use of DFSP brought good cleansing effect in deep narrow fissures which seemed to be unable to be cleansed sufficiently by the conventional methods

Laparoscopic findings of reddish markings predict hepatocellular carcinoma in patients with hepatitis B virus-related liver disease

For patients with chronic hepatitis due to hepatitis B virus (HBV), factors predicting hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) other than high levels of HBV-DNA and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) are needed to prevent HCC development, as many patients with chronic HBV infection fulfill these conditions. The purpose of this study was to clarify factors predictive of HCC development for those patients. The study was a systematic cohort analysis of 303 consecutive patients with hepatitis B e-antigen, receiving laparoscopic examination for assessment of liver disease. Laparoscopic, histological, and clinical characteristics were investigated as related to HCC development. HCC occurred in 27 patients during a mean follow-up of 8.0 +/- A 5.0 years, at the age of 37-72 years. Significant associations with HCC development were shown for liver cirrhosis, histological activity grade, reddish markings, and older age. Multivariate analysis revealed that HCC development was strongly associated with older age and male gender (P = 0.002 and P = 0.043, respectively). HCC occurred more frequently in patients of age a parts per thousand yen30 years even with early stage than in patients of age < 30 years (P = 0.031). Severe reddish markings, a laparoscopic finding of widespread parenchymal destruction, were highly associated with HCC development in patients of age a parts per thousand yen30 years at diagnosis (odds ratio = 1.67, P = 0.034), while histological activity grade and ALT level were not (P = 0.075 and P = 0.69, respectively). HCC development is associated with older age, male gender, and liver cirrhosis. Reddish markings, rather than histological activity or ALT level, can be useful to predict HCC for HBV patients of age a parts per thousand yen30 years

Insights on the Sun birth environment in the context of star-cluster formation in hub-filament systems

Cylindrical molecular filaments are observed to be the main sites of Sun-like star formation, while massive stars form in dense hubs, at the junction of multiple filaments. The role of hub-filament configurations has not been discussed yet in relation to the birth environment of the solar system and to infer the origin of isotopic ratios of Short-Lived Radionuclides (SLR, such as $^{26}$Al) of Calcium-Aluminum-rich Inclusions (CAIs) observed in meteorites. In this work, we present simple analytical estimates of the impact of stellar feedback on the young solar system forming along a filament of a hub-filament system. We find that the host filament can shield the young solar system from the stellar feedback, both during the formation and evolution of stars (stellar outflow, wind, and radiation) and at the end of their life (supernovae). We show that the young solar system formed along a dense filament can be enriched with supernova ejecta (e.g., $^{26}$Al) during the formation timescale of CAIs. We also propose that the streamers recently observed around protostars may be channeling the SLR-rich material onto the young solar system. We conclude that considering hub-filament configurations as the birth environment of the Sun is important when deriving theoretical models explaining the observed properties of the solar system.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letter

Prognostic Model for Hepatocellular Carcinoma with Time-Dependent Factors

The purpose of this study was to build a prognostic model of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) using time-dependent covariates to re-evaluate the prognosis at any stage of the disease. The subjects were consecutive HCC patients who were treated at our institute between 1995 and 2007. We constructed time-fixed and time-dependent prognostic models with a training group (n＝336) and compared the prognostic abilities between conventional Cancer of the Liver Italian Program (CLIP) scores, Japan Integrated Staging (JIS) scores, an Okuda classification, and our prognostic models in the testing group (n＝227) with the c-index. The time-dependent prognostic model consisted of main tumor size, tumor number, portal vein invasion, distant metastasis, alpha-fetoprotein, des-gamma-carboxy prothrombin (DCP), bilirubin, and albumin and the weighted scores were set for each factor depending on the hazard ratio for the prognosis. The prognostic index was determined by summing the scores. The c-index values for the CLIP scores, JIS scores, Okuda classification, and our time-dependent model were 0.741, 0.727, 0.609, and 0.870, respectively. These results indicate that our time-dependent model can estimate the prognosis of HCC more precisely than traditional time-fixed models and can be used to re-predict the prognosis of HCC