Late-Time Entropy Production and Relic Abundances of Neutralinos

Many models possess unwanted relics, which should be diluted by entropy production just before the big-bang nucleosynthesis. A field responsible for the entropy production may produce stable weakly interacting massive particles, if kinematically accessible. We compute their relic abundances by integrating out coupled equations numerically. Applying our results to supersymmetric standard models, we argue that the neutralino lightest superparticles will overclose the universe in most of the parameter space if the reheat temperature is of the order of 10 MeV.Comment: LaTeX2e, 11 pages, 2 figure

The ASTRO-H X-ray Observatory

The joint JAXA/NASA ASTRO-H mission is the sixth in a series of highly successful X-ray missions initiated by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS). ASTRO-H will investigate the physics of the high-energy universe via a suite of four instruments, covering a very wide energy range, from 0.3 keV to 600 keV. These instruments include a high-resolution, high-throughput spectrometer sensitive over 0.3-2 keV with high spectral resolution of Delta E < 7 eV, enabled by a micro-calorimeter array located in the focal plane of thin-foil X-ray optics; hard X-ray imaging spectrometers covering 5-80 keV, located in the focal plane of multilayer-coated, focusing hard X-ray mirrors; a wide-field imaging spectrometer sensitive over 0.4-12 keV, with an X-ray CCD camera in the focal plane of a soft X-ray telescope; and a non-focusing Compton-camera type soft gamma-ray detector, sensitive in the 40-600 keV band. The simultaneous broad bandpass, coupled with high spectral resolution, will enable the pursuit of a wide variety of important science themes.Comment: 22 pages, 17 figures, Proceedings of the SPIE Astronomical Instrumentation "Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2012: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray

Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis in hepatocarcinoma: new insights about its prognostic role in patients treated with lenvatinib

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) treatment remains a big challenge in the field of oncology. The liver disease (viral or not viral) underlying HCC turned out to be crucial in determining the biologic behavior of the tumor, including its response to treatment. The aim of this analysis was to investigate the role of the etiology of the underlying liver disease in survival outcomes. Patients and methods: We conducted a multicenter retrospective study on a large cohort of patients treated with lenvatinib as first-line therapy for advanced HCC from both Eastern and Western institutions. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed. Results: Among the 1232 lenvatinib-treated HCC patients, 453 (36.8%) were hepatitis C virus positive, 268 hepatitis B virus positive (21.8%), 236 nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) correlate (19.2%) and 275 had other etiologies (22.3%). The median progression-free survival (mPFS) was 6.2 months [95% confidence interval (CI) 5.9-6.7 months] and the median overall survival (mOS) was 15.8 months (95% CI 14.9-17.2 months). In the univariate analysis for OS NASH-HCC was associated with longer mOS [22.2 versus 15.1 months; hazard ratio (HR) 0.69; 95% CI 0.56-0.85; P = 0.0006]. In the univariate analysis for PFS NASH-HCC was associated with longer mPFS (7.5 versus 6.5 months; HR 0.84; 95% CI 0.71-0.99; P = 0.0436). The multivariate analysis confirmed NASH-HCC (HR 0.64; 95% CI 0.48-0.86; P = 0.0028) as an independent prognostic factor for OS, along with albumin–bilirubin (ALBI) grade, extrahepatic spread, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, portal vein thrombosis, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status and alpha-fetoprotein. An interaction test was performed between sorafenib and lenvatinib cohorts and the results highlighted the positive predictive role of NASH in favor of the lenvatinib arm (P = 0.0047). Conclusion: NASH has been identified as an independent prognostic factor in a large cohort of patients with advanced HCC treated with lenvatinib, thereby suggesting the role of the etiology in the selection of patients for tyrosine kinase treatment. If validated, this result could provide new insights useful to improve the management of these patients

Hitomi (ASTRO-H) X-ray Astronomy Satellite

The Hitomi (ASTRO-H) mission is the sixth Japanese x-ray astronomy satellite developed by a large international collaboration, including Japan, USA, Canada, and Europe. The mission aimed to provide the highest energy resolution ever achieved at E  >  2  keV, using a microcalorimeter instrument, and to cover a wide energy range spanning four decades in energy from soft x-rays to gamma rays. After a successful launch on February 17, 2016, the spacecraft lost its function on March 26, 2016, but the commissioning phase for about a month provided valuable information on the onboard instruments and the spacecraft system, including astrophysical results obtained from first light observations. The paper describes the Hitomi (ASTRO-H) mission, its capabilities, the initial operation, and the instruments/spacecraft performances confirmed during the commissioning operations for about a month

Search for gravitational-lensing signatures in the full third observing run of the LIGO-Virgo network

Gravitational lensing by massive objects along the line of sight to the source causes distortions of gravitational wave-signals; such distortions may reveal information about fundamental physics, cosmology and astrophysics. In this work, we have extended the search for lensing signatures to all binary black hole events from the third observing run of the LIGO--Virgo network. We search for repeated signals from strong lensing by 1) performing targeted searches for subthreshold signals, 2) calculating the degree of overlap amongst the intrinsic parameters and sky location of pairs of signals, 3) comparing the similarities of the spectrograms amongst pairs of signals, and 4) performing dual-signal Bayesian analysis that takes into account selection effects and astrophysical knowledge. We also search for distortions to the gravitational waveform caused by 1) frequency-independent phase shifts in strongly lensed images, and 2) frequency-dependent modulation of the amplitude and phase due to point masses. None of these searches yields significant evidence for lensing. Finally, we use the non-detection of gravitational-wave lensing to constrain the lensing rate based on the latest merger-rate estimates and the fraction of dark matter composed of compact objects

SOME PROBLEMS ON PASSIVE TRANSFER OF TUBERCULIN SENSITIVITY

この論文は国立情報学研究所の学術雑誌公開支援事業により電子化されました。Many experiments have been carried out on the cellular transfer of the tuberculin sensitivity. The results of the present authors' exprements may call additional attention to (1) the antigens for the sensitization of donors : living tubercle bacilli were more useful for the antigen than dead bacilli, (2) the interval after the sensitizing treatment : the sensitizing ability of donor cells decreases with the lapse of time between sensitization of the animals and the removal of the cells. (3) Skin reactivity of animals : in donors, the skin reactivity does not always go in parallel with their state of hypersensitivity. In recipients, the skin reaction appears sometimes differently to each other, even if they were given with the same material. (4) Contamination of antigens in transferred materials : some of the reactions considered due to the passively transferred sensitivity may be caused by the active sensitization of animals indisputably, and (5) the ability of cell fragments to produce the sensitinity : mitochondria and microsomes of sensitized cells as well as whole cells have the ability to produce skin reactions in recipients. Recently the role of lymphocytes has come into notice in their ability to transfer tumor immunity or homotransplantation immunity from immunized to normal animals as reported by Mitchison (1953) and Billingham (1954). Do lymphocytes take part in the cellular transfer of the tuberculin sensitivity as well as in these immunities, as they are quite similar to each other in the absence of antibodies in sera of sensitized animals? Fukase et al (1953) have already reported the possibility of cellular transfer of the tuberculin sensitivity by lymphocytes from lymph nodes or thoracic lymph of sensitized animals. We could confirm this result in the present experiments, but also recognized that the ability of the lymphocyte was not superior to the other cells, for instance, to splenic cells, peritoneal exudate cells or lung cells of sensitized animals. It may be unreasonable to restrict the ability of the cellular transfer of tuberulcin sensitivity to one type of cells