BACKGROUND AND AIMS Current interferon alfa (IFN) treatment of chronic hepatitis B has limited efficacy. The role of hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotypes for response to IFN was investigated. PATIENTS AND METHODS HBV genotype was determined by direct sequencing of the HBV X gene in 165 consecutive patients with chronic replicative hepatitis B treated with standard IFN. HBV genotype A or D was fo...

BACKGROUND Nine subgenotypes from genotype B have been identified for hepatitis B virus (HBV). However, these subgenotypes were less conclusive as they were often designated based on a few representative strains. In addition, subgenotype B6 was designated twice for viruses of different origin. METHODS All complete genome sequences of genotype B HBV were phylogenetically analyzed. Sequence div...

There is currently intense controversy regarding the use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in postmenopausal women, in relation to its therapeutic efficacy in Alzheimer's disease (AD). It has been suggested that the benefits of HRT may be modified by apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotype (the major genetic risk factor for AD). Here we report the findings of the first study designed to systematica...

We discuss how detection of gamma-ray emission from the decay of r-process nuclei can improve our understanding of r-process nucleosynthesis. We Ðnd that a gamma-ray detector with a sensitivity of D10~7c cm~2 s~1 at keV may detect the emission from the decay of 125Sb, 137Cs, 144Ce, Ec B 100È700 155Eu, and 194Os produced in a future Galactic supernova. In addition, such a detector may determine ...

We present the serendipitous discovery of 16 ms pulsed X-ray emission from the Crab-like supernova remnant N157B in the Large Magellanic Cloud. This is the fastest spinning pulsar associated with a supernova remnant (SNR). Observations with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE), centered on the field containing SN1987A, reveal an X-ray pulsar with a narrow pulse profile. Archival ASCA X-ray da...

Deep, ground based, optical wide-field supernova searches are capable of detecting a large number of supernovae over a broad redshift range up to z ∼ 1.5. While it is practically unfeasible to obtain spectroscopic redshifts of all the supernova candidates right after the discovery, we show that the magnitudes and colors of the host galaxies, as well as the supernovae, can be used to select high...

We study the nucleosyntheses of the light elements Li and B and the rprocess elements in Type II supernovae in the lights of the progress in neutrino spectrum modeling and the studies of galactic chemical evolution. We investigate the influence of total energy, Eν , and decay time, τν of supernova neutrinos on these two nucleosynthesis processes. Common models of the neutrino spectra are adopte...

By using Laplace transformation we developed an approximate solution to describe neutrino oscillation probabilities in arbitrary density matter. We show that this approximation solution is valid when matter potential V satisfy V < ∆m/2E and ∫ V L < 1, where L is the length of the neutrino oscillation . Thus, the formula is useful for propagation of the solar or supernova neutrinos with terrestr...

Neutrinos emitted from a supernova encode useful information about neutrino physics and astrophysics. Interpreting the neutrino signal depends crucially on understanding neutrino production, flavor mixing during propagation, and detection. In this talk, we review the physics potential of a SN neutrino observation.

BACKGROUND For a full understanding of the mechanical properties of a material, it is essential to understand the defect structures and associated properties and microhardness indentation is a technique that can aid this understanding. RESULTS The Vickers hardness on (010), {011} and {110} faces lay in the range of 304-363 MPa. The Knoop Hardnesses on the same faces lay in the range 314-482 M...