Observation of the Singly Cabibbo-Suppressed Decay D^{+}→ωπ^{+} and Evidence for D^{0}→ωπ^{0}

Based on 2.93  fb^{-1} e^{+}e^{-} collision data taken at center-of-mass energy of 3.773 GeV by the BESIII detector, we report searches for the singly Cabibbo-suppressed decays D^{+}→ωπ^{+} and D^{0}→ωπ^{0}. A double tag technique is used to measure the absolute branching fractions B(D^{+}→ωπ^{+})=(2.79±0.57±0.16)×10^{-4} and B(D^{0}→ωπ^{0})=(1.17±0.34±0.07)×10^{-4}, with statistical significances of 5.5σ and 4.1σ, where the first and second uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively.

Measurements of Absolute Hadronic Branching Fractions of the Λ_{c}^{+} Baryon

We report the first measurement of absolute hadronic branching fractions of Λ_{c}^{+} baryon at the Λ_{c}^{+}Λ[over ¯]_{c}^{-} production threshold, in the 30 years since the Λ_{c}^{+} discovery. In total, 12 Cabibbo-favored Λ_{c}^{+} hadronic decay modes are analyzed with a double-tag technique, based on a sample of 567  pb^{-1} of e^{+}e^{-} collisions at sqrt[s]=4.599  GeV recorded with the BESIII detector. A global least-squares fitter is utilized to improve the measured precision. Among the measurements for twelve Λ_{c}^{+} decay modes, the branching fraction for Λ_{c}^{+}→pK^{-}π^{+} is determined to be (5.84±0.27±0.23)%, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. In addition, the measurements of the branching fractions of the other 11 Cabibbo-favored hadronic decay modes are significantly improved.

Bifidobacteria possess inhibitory activity against dipeptidyl peptidase-IV

The incretin hormones are extremely rapidly metabolized by the ubiquitous enzyme dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPP-IV). Therefore, DPP-IV inhibitors which can prolong the incretin effect are the newest and promising drugs for management of type 2 diabetes. In this study, we investigated whether Bifidobacteria colonizing the human gut possess DPP-IV inhibitory activity. Cell-free intracellular extracts of 13 Bifidobacterium strains isolated from breast-fed infant faecal samples were prepared and screened for DPP-IV inhibitory activity, and two Bifidobacterium strains-Bif. longum BBMN68 and Bif. lactis Bb12-were used as reference strains. Most of the strains showed varying levels of DPP-IV inhibitory property (7-27%). Strains of Bifidobacterium adolescentis IF1-11 and Bifidobacterium bifidum IF3-211 showed the greatest DPP-IV inhibitory activity (27 and 25%) as well as good in vitro probiotic properties. This initial finding suggested that new beneficial function of Bifidobacteria is strain-dependent and the strains or their components may have the potential application for management of type 2 diabetes via inhibiting gastrointestinal DPP-IV activity. Further investigations into the isolation and identification of the bioactive components of Bifidobacteria are warranted.

SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY

Our results show that Bifidobacteria isolated from breast-fed infants' faecal samples possess DPP-IV inhibitory activity. Strains of Bifidobacterium bifidum IF3-211 and Bifidobacterium adolescentis IF1-11, which showed excellent DPP-IV inhibitory properties as well as good in vitro probiotic properties, are expected to be beneficial for application as anti-diabetic probiotics.

Sn doping induced intermediate band in CuGaS2

As an intermediate band material, the dynamical and phase stability and optoelectronic properties of Sn doped CuGaS₂ are systematically investigated, and suggest that CuGaS₂ that is moderately doped with Sn can be a potential candidate for photovoltaic applications.

Observation of a Neutral Structure near the DD[over ¯]^{*} Mass Threshold in e^{+}e^{-}→(DD[over ¯]^{*})^{0}π^{0} at sqrt[s]=4.226 and 4.257 GeV

A neutral structure in the DD[over ¯]^{*} system around the DD[over ¯]^{*} mass threshold is observed with a statistical significance greater than 10σ in the processes e^{+}e^{-}→D^{+}D^{*-}π^{0}+c.c. and e^{+}e^{-}→D^{0}D[over ¯]^{*0}π^{0}+c.c. at sqrt[s]=4.226 and 4.257 GeV in the BESIII experiment. The structure is denoted as Z_{c}(3885)^{0}. Assuming the presence of a resonance, its pole mass and width are determined to be [3885.7_{-5.7}^{+4.3}(stat)±8.4(syst)]  MeV/c^{2} and [35_{-12}^{+11}(stat)±15(syst)]  MeV, respectively. The Born cross sections are measured to be σ[e^{+}e^{-}→Z_{c}(3885)^{0}π^{0},Z_{c}(3885)^{0}→DD[over ¯]^{*}]=[77±13(stat)±17(syst)]  pb at 4.226 GeV and [47±9(stat)±10(syst)]  pb at 4.257 GeV. The ratio of decay rates B[Z_{c}(3885)^{0}→D^{+}D^{*-}+c.c.]/B[Z_{c}(3885)^{0}→D^{0}D[over ¯]^{*0}+c.c.] is determined to be 0.96±0.18(stat)±0.12(syst), consistent with no isospin violation in the process, Z_{c}(3885)^{0}→DD[over ¯]^{*}.

Measurement of the Absolute Branching Fraction for Λ_{c}^{+}→Λe^{+}ν_{e}

We report the first measurement of the absolute branching fraction for Λ_{c}^{+}→Λe^{+}ν_{e}. This measurement is based on 567  pb^{-1} of e^{+}e^{-} annihilation data produced at sqrt[s]=4.599  GeV, which is just above the Λ_{c}^{+}Λ[over ¯]_{c}^{-} threshold. The data were collected with the BESIII detector at the BEPCII storage rings. The branching fraction is determined to be B(Λ_{c}^{+}→Λe^{+}ν_{e})=[3.63±0.38(stat)±0.20(syst)]%, representing a significant improvement in precision over the current indirect determination. As the branching fraction for Λ_{c}^{+}→Λe^{+}ν_{e} is the benchmark for those of other Λ_{c}^{+} semileptonic channels, our result provides a unique test of different theoretical models, which is the most stringent to date.

Self-reported illnesses and service utilisation among migrants working in small-to medium sized enterprises in Guangdong, China

OBJECTIVES

As one of the most vulnerable populations in China, many migrants work in the small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This study aims to describe the self-reported illnesses and service utilization of the migrants working in the SMEs in Pearl River Delta Areas (PRDA) of Guangdong province, China.

STUDY DESIGN

Cross-sectional survey.

METHODS

We interviewed 856 migrants working in the SMEs of different manufacturing industries in 2012. Descriptive analysis was employed to report self-reported illnesses and service utilisation among migrants in the last two weeks and in the last year. Statistical tests such as χ2 test were used to explore factors influencing their service utilisation.

RESULTS

In the last two weeks, 91(11%) of the respondents reported having any illness. The most reported illness was respiratory problem (69%), while 9.9%, 7.7% and 13% reported having digestive, skin and other problems respectively. The most important symptom was cough (39%). Thirty-seven percent of the respondents who reported any illness had visited health facilities. The lower income group were more likely to visit health facilities than the higher income group (P = 0.006). The most reported reason for not visiting health facilities was 'feeling not serious' (65%). In the last year, 13% reported having respiratory problems and 7.8% reported accidental injuries. Less than 3% received hospitalization care. The proportion of those without hospitalization to those who should have been hospitalized was 31%.

CONCLUSION

Underuse of the health service among migrants working in the SMEs could be associated with the 'healthy migrant' effect. However, when assessed among the ill migrants in the SMEs, the utilisation rate was still low mainly due to their poor health awareness. Improving their risk perception and integration of occupational and general health service is crucial to improve the health conditions and utilisation of service among migrants in the SMES.

Mesenchymal stem cells regulate cytoskeletal dynamics and promote cancer cell invasion through low dose nitric oxide

Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) can be recruited to tumor sites and integrate into the stroma of tumors. When co-cultured with BMSCs, otherwise weakly metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells (NPC) showed improved metastatic ability. BMSCs in the tumor environment displayed the characteristics of macrophages. Nitric oxide produced by BMSCs in tumor environment could translocate caldesmon to podosome in Ca2+/calmodulin manner and promoted metastatic ability of NPC cells through invadopodia formation, with which the NPC cells degrade the extracellular matrix. Thus, we concluded that the BMSCs promoted cell migration and invasion through nitric oxide-induced paracrine signals.

Structural annotation of equine protein-coding genes determined by mRNA sequencing

The horse, like the majority of animal species, has a limited amount of species-specific expressed sequence data available in public databases. As a result, structural models for the majority of genes defined in the equine genome are predictions based on ab initio sequence analysis or the projection of gene structures from other mammalian species. The current study used Illumina-based sequencing of messenger RNA (RNA-seq) to help refine structural annotation of equine protein-coding genes and for a preliminary assessment of gene expression patterns. Sequencing of mRNA from eight equine tissues generated 293,758105 sequence tags of 35 bases each, equalling 10.28 gbp of total sequence data. The tag alignments represent approximately 207 × coverage of the equine mRNA transcriptome and confirmed transcriptional activity for roughly 90% of the protein-coding gene structures predicted by Ensembl and NCBI. Tag coverage was sufficient to refine the structural annotation for 11,356 of these predicted genes, while also identifying an additional 456 transcripts with exon/intron features that are not listed by either Ensembl or NCBI. Genomic locus data and intervals for the protein-coding genes predicted by the Ensembl and NCBI annotation pipelines were combined with 75,116 RNA-seq-derived transcriptional units to generate a consensus equine protein-coding gene set of 20,302 defined loci. Gene ontology annotation was used to compare the functional and structural categories of genes expressed in either a tissue-restricted pattern or broadly across all tissue samples.

Cluster dynamics simulation of deuterium retention behaviors in irradiated beryllium

The long-term dynamics evolution behaviors of deuterium in beryllium under different irradiation conditions are investigated using the cluster dynamics model.

Promotion and nucleation of carbonate precipitation during microbial iron reduction

Iron-bearing early diagenetic carbonate cements are common in sedimentary rocks, where they are thought to be associated with microbial iron reduction. However, little is yet known about how local environments around actively iron-reducing cells affect carbonate mineral precipitation rates and compositions. Precipitation experiments with the iron-reducing bacterium Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 were conducted to examine the potential role of cells in promoting precipitation and to explore the possible range of precipitate compositions generated in varying fluid compositions. Actively iron-reducing cells induced increased carbonate mineral saturation and nucleated precipitation on their poles. However, precipitation only occurred when calcium was present in solution, suggesting that cell surfaces lowered local ferrous iron concentrations by adsorption or intracellular iron oxide precipitation even as they locally raised pH. Resultant precipitates were a range of thermodynamically unstable calcium-rich siderites that would likely act as precursors to siderite, calcite, or even dolomite in nature. By modifying local pH, providing nucleation sites, and altering metal ion concentrations around cell surfaces, iron-reducing micro-organisms could produce a wide range of carbonate cements in natural sediments.

Evaluation of the causality of the low-density lipoprotein receptor gene (LDLR) for serum lipids in pigs

A significant quantitative trait locus (QTL) for low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and total cholesterol (TC) was identified around the LDLR gene on chromosome 2 (SSC2) in a White Duroc × Erhualian F2 resource population and Sutai pigs in our previous study. However, in previous reports, the causality of LDLR with serum lipids is controversial in pigs. To systematically assess the causality of LDLR with serum lipids, association analyses were successively performed in three populations: Sutai pigs, a White Duroc × Erhualian F2 resource population and a Duroc × (Landrace × Large White) population. We first performed a haplotype-based association study with 60K SNP genotyping data and evidenced the significant association with LDL-C and TC around the LDLR gene region. We also found that there is more than one QTL for LDL-C and TC on SSC2. Then, we evaluated the causalities of two missense mutations, c.1812C>T and c.1520A>G, with LDL-C and TC. We revealed that the c.1812C>T SNP showed the strongest association with LDL-C (P = 5.40 × 10(-11) ) and TC (P = 3.64 × 10(-8) ) and explained all the QTL effect in Sutai pigs. Haplotype analysis found that two missense SNPs locate within a 1.93-Mb haplotype block. One major haplotype showed the strongest significant association with LDL-C (P = 4.62 × 10(-18) ) and TC (P = 1.06 × 10(-9) ). However, the c.1812C>T SNP was not identified in the White Duroc × Erhualian intercross, and the association of c.1520A>G with both LDL-C and TC did not achieve significance in this F2 population, suggesting population heterogeneity. Both missense mutations were identified in the Duroc × (Landrace × Large White) population and showed significant associations with LDL-C and TC. Our data give evidence that the LDLR gene should be a candidate causative gene for LDL-C and TC in pigs, but heterogeneity exists in different populations.

Efficacy assessment of cryostorants of donor hearts by ImageJ based image analysis

AIM

Donor organ injury during cold preservation before transplantation negatively impacts graft survival. The current study was to examine available evidences for the efficacy of different cold storage solutions that are used to preserve donor hearts in vitro prior to orthotopic transplantation.

METHODS

A systematic search of full-length articles published from 1980 to August 2012 was performed in PubMed and Google Scholar. Detailed searches were also made for availability of any sourceware for histopathology images of endomyocardial biopsies of stored hearts.

RESULTS

Not even a single controlled trial has been published relating to this topic. However, we assessed all available literature pertaining to this topic, and performed original, simple yet innovative analyses using ImageJ, a Java based image analyses program, to show the tremendous power to objectively examine the efficacy of the storage solution. Our analysis suggest that ImageJ may be conveniently used to obtain evidences (or lack of it) of ischemic injury of donor hearts during cold storage.

CONCLUSION

Even the UNOS database does not provide histopathological evidences of cardiac biopsies of orthotopically transplanted hearts. We, however, make the case of the need for image analyses and making availability of images to allow establishing evidence of the usefulness of these storage solutions. We recommend obtaining endomyocardial biopsy prior to orthotopic transplantation and create a registry of H&E stained slides. This is the only step that will direct us towards evidence based care of such highly critical patients who need the equally challenging surgical intervention of cardiac transplantation.

Genome-wide association study of primary dentition pit-and-fissure and smooth surface caries

Dental caries continues to be the most common chronic disease in children today. Despite the substantial involvement of genetics in the process of caries development, the specific genes contributing to dental caries remain largely unknown. We performed separate genome-wide association studies of smooth and pit-and-fissure tooth surface caries experience in the primary dentitions of self-reported white children in two samples from Iowa and rural Appalachia. In total, 1,006 children (ages 3-12 years) were included for smooth surface analysis, and 979 children (ages 4-14 years) for pit-and-fissure surface analysis. Associations were tested for more than 1.2 million single nucleotide polymorphisms, either genotyped or imputed. We detected genome-wide significant signals in KPNA4 (p value = 2.0E-9), and suggestive signals in ITGAL (p value = 2.1E-7) and PLUNC family genes (p value = 2.0E-6), thus nominating these novel loci as putative caries susceptibility genes. We also replicated associations observed in previous studies for MPPED2 (p value = 6.9E-6), AJAP1 (p value = 1.6E-6) and RPS6KA2 (p value = 7.3E-6). Replication of these associations in additional samples, as well as experimental studies to determine the biological functions of associated genetic variants, are warranted. Ultimately, efforts such as this may lead to a better understanding of caries etiology, and could eventually facilitate the development of new interventions and preventive measures.

Electron transport enhanced by electrode surface reconstruction: a case study of C60-based molecular junctions

At the C₆₀–Cu(111) interface, electrode surface reconstruction (Rec) increases electrical current compared to that for the unreconstructed (Unrec) surface.

The investigation of transition metal doped CuGaS2 for promising intermediate band materials

Metal (Fe, Co and Ni) doped CuGaS₂ systems are systematically investigated by using a screened-exchange hybrid density functional theory, which shows that Fe and Ni doped CuGaS₂ systems are potential candidates for the photovoltaic area.

Tuning the electron transport properties of boron-nitride nanoribbons with electron and hole doping

C chain doped BN nanoribbons can be either metallic or semiconducting, depending on how the C chains are located.

Abstract PD3-8: Whole exome sequencing reveals early mutational change on endocrine and targeted therapy in estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer

Background: Breast cancer treatment is guided by baseline tumor tissue which does not take into account tumor interaction with therapy. We hypothesized that mutational change may occur early after treatment initiation and that “on-treatment” tumor profiling may be more informative of tumor behavior and, ultimately, patient outcome.

Methods: We conducted whole exome sequencing on 49 tumor samples from 2 clinical trials of combined endocrine and targeted therapy (NCT00570921: with fulvestrant/everolimus, and NCT00525161: with tamoxifen/sorafenib). Tumor DNA was subjected to exome capture using Agilent V4+UTR 71Mb and Illumina's HiSeq2000 sequencer was used to generate 2×100bp paired-end reads. After mapping reads to the reference human genome (GRCh37), point mutations and insertions/deletions were detected using the Genome Analysis Tool Kit (GATK 2.6-5). We then retained breast somatic mutations from TCGA and COSMIC databases and excluded germline mutations from dbSNP. Further filtration was then done by removing modifier impact and synonymous mutations based on SnpEff, as well as removing mutations with <15X coverage depth.

Results: Across 8 paired tumors on day 28 vs. day 1, 4-pairs on fulvestrant/everolimus and 4 on tamoxifen/sorafenib, there were a total of 50 mutations lost and 77 gained for an average of 6.25 and 9.6 per tumor pair, respectively. This represented, on average, <5% of the total mutations detected, with >95% similarity in the mutational profile of paired tumors. One consistent mutational change in response to treatment was the gain of MUC2 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in all 8 paired day-28 vs. day-1 biopsies. This MUC2 mutation pattern persisted even with removal of the coverage depth filter. Other MUC genes had SNPs gained or lost on day 28 but these were infrequent events. Additional notable changes were the gain of HLA-DRB1 SNP's in 2/4 everolimus-treated patients, loss of NCOA3 in one, and loss of TP53 in another. Interestingly, across 5-paired primary and metastatic tumors treated with endocrine therapy alone prior to enrollment, there were more mutations lost than gained (68 vs. 34) for an average of 13.6 and 6.8 per tumor pair, respectively. This represented only slightly over 5% of the mutations detected across these tumors with no consistent genomic event observed. One patient with lobular carcinoma on tamoxifen developed a contralateral lobular associated with metastasis and gain of PIK3CA and NCOR2 SNPs in the new tumor.

Conclusion: ER-positive breast tumors undergo early mutational change in response to therapy but the bulk of their mutational profile remains stable, even over long periods of time. MUC2 mutations emerge as a consistent early event which may reflect functional tumor differentiation in response to treatment pressure. Early emergence of mutational events suggests the need for a preoperative treatment window in future trials of this disease in order to interrogate tumor interaction with therapy prior to prolonged adjuvant therapy, which is currently based solely on pretreatment tumor assessment.

Citation Information: Cancer Res 2013;73(24 Suppl): Abstract nr PD3-8.