Formation of the seed black holes: a role of quark nuggets?

Strange quark nuggets (SQNs) could be the relics of the cosmological QCD phase transition, and they could very likely be the candidate of cold quark matter if survived the cooling of the later Universe, although the formation and evolution of these SQNs depend on the physical state of the hot QGP (quark-gluon plasma) phase and the state of cold quark matter. We reconsider the possibility of SQNs as cold dark matter, and find that the formation of black holes in primordial halos could be significantly different from the standard scenario. In a primordial halo, the collision between gas and SQNs could be frequent enough, and thus the viscosity acting on each SQN would decrease its angular momentum and make it to sink into the center of the halo, as well as heat the gas. The SQNs with baryon numbers less than $10^{35}$ could assemble in the center of the halo before the formation of primordial stars. A black hole could form by merger of these SQNs, and then its mass could quickly become about $10^3\ M_\odot$ or higher, by accreting the surrounding SQNs or gas. The black holes formed in this way could be the seeds for the supermassive black holes at redshift as high as $z\sim 6$.Comment: 15 page

HLA class II expression on tumor cells and low numbers of tumor-associated macrophages predict clinical outcome in oropharyngeal cancer

Background: Human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive oropharyngeal squamous cellcarcinoma (OPSCC) is a highly immunogenic tumor and differences in tumor microen-vironment might contribute to the improved survival of HPV-positive OPSCC patient.Methods: A comprehensive multivariate analysis with clinical and immune vari-ables (human leukocyte antigen [HLA] I/II, programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1),programmed death receptor 1 (PD1), T cells, and macrophages) was performed in142 OPSCC patients.Results: We found an inverse correlation between the expression of HLA class II mole-cules on tumor cells and CD68+ CD163+ tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs). HighHLA-DP/DQ/DR expression and low number of TAMs were associated with longerdisease-specific survival and disease-free survival (DFS). Furthermore, a new populationof CD8+ FoxP3+ T cells was correlated with shorter DFS in multivariate analysis.Conclusions: \We identified new prognostic markers for patients with oropharyngealcancer, which can be used for selecting patients that can benefit from immunotherapy.</p