Weak decays of BcB_c into two hadrons under flavor SU(3) symmetry

A large number of $B_c$ meson events have been recorded at the LHCb detector, especially some two-body hadronic decay modes. We analyzed the weak decays of the $B_c$ meson into two hadron states under the flavor SU(3) symmetry. The relations among amplitudes of $B_c$ into $D+P(V)$, $B+P(V)$, $P(V)+P(V)$, $T_8+\bar T_8$ and $T_{10}+\bar T_{10}$ were investigated systematically, where $P$ ( $V$) denotes a light pseudoscalar (vector) meson and $T_{8,10}$ denotes a light baryon. The $\eta-\eta'$ mixing and $\omega-\phi$ mixing effects are also considered for the phenomenological discussions. We obtained the relations among decay widths of different $B_c$ decay channels. These results are helpful to study the two-body decay properties of the $B_c$ meson and test the flavor SU(3) symmetry.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure and 10 tables. To be published in EPJ

MSIsensor-ct: Microsatellite instability detection using cfDNA sequencing data

MOTIVATION: Microsatellite instability (MSI) is a promising biomarker for cancer prognosis and chemosensitivity. Techniques are rapidly evolving for the detection of MSI from tumor-normal paired or tumor-only sequencing data. However, tumor tissues are often insufficient, unavailable, or otherwise difficult to procure. Increasing clinical evidence indicates the enormous potential of plasma circulating cell-free DNA (cfNDA) technology as a noninvasive MSI detection approach. RESULTS: We developed MSIsensor-ct, a bioinformatics tool based on a machine learning protocol, dedicated to detecting MSI status using cfDNA sequencing data with a potential stable MSIscore threshold of 20%. Evaluation of MSIsensor-ct on independent testing datasets with various levels of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) and sequencing depth showed 100% accuracy within the limit of detection (LOD) of 0.05% ctDNA content. MSIsensor-ct requires only BAM files as input, rendering it user-friendly and readily integrated into next generation sequencing (NGS) analysis pipelines. AVAILABILITY: MSIsensor-ct is freely available at https://github.com/niu-lab/MSIsensor-ct. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary data are available at Briefings in Bioinformatics online

Integrated Profiling of MicroRNAs and mRNAs: MicroRNAs Located on Xq27.3 Associate with Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma

Background: With the advent of second-generation sequencing, the expression of gene transcripts can be digitally measured with high accuracy. The purpose of this study was to systematically profile the expression of both mRNA and miRNA genes in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) using massively parallel sequencing technology. Methodology: The expression of mRNAs and miRNAs were analyzed in tumor tissues and matched normal adjacent tissues obtained from 10 ccRCC patients without distant metastases. In a prevalence screen, some of the most interesting results were validated in a large cohort of ccRCC patients. Principal Findings: A total of 404 miRNAs and 9,799 mRNAs were detected to be differentially expressed in the 10 ccRCC patients. We also identified 56 novel miRNA candidates in at least two samples. In addition to confirming that canonical cancer genes and miRNAs (including VEGFA, DUSP9 and ERBB4; miR-210, miR-184 and miR-206) play pivotal roles in ccRCC development, promising novel candidates (such as PNCK and miR-122) without previous annotation in ccRCC carcinogenesis were also discovered in this study. Pathways controlling cell fates (e. g., cell cycle and apoptosis pathways) and cell communication (e. g., focal adhesion and ECM-receptor interaction) were found to be significantly more likely to be disrupted in ccRCC. Additionally, the results of the prevalence screen revealed that the expression of a miRNA gene cluster located on Xq27.3 was consistently downregulated in at least 76.7% of similar to 50 ccRCC patients. Conclusions: Our study provided a two-dimensional map of the mRNA and miRNA expression profiles of ccRCC using deep sequencing technology. Our results indicate that the phenotypic status of ccRCC is characterized by a loss of normal renal function, downregulation of metabolic genes, and upregulation of many signal transduction genes in key pathways. Furthermore, it can be concluded that downregulation of miRNA genes clustered on Xq27.3 is associated with ccRCC

Optimization of Land-Use Structure Based on the Trade-Off Between Carbon Emission Targets and Economic Development in Shenzhen, China

The approach of choosing an effective low-carbon land-use structure by multi-objective methods is commonly used in land-use planning. A common methodology is to calculate carbon emissions and conduct scenario simulations for the future. However, most Chinese cities have not implemented the methods for monitoring carbon emissions proposed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), especially Shenzhen, which is one of the fastest-growing cities in China. This study first calculated the carbon emissions for a typical year in Shenzhen under the guidance of the IPCC. Second, nighttime light data were used to spatialize the gross domestic product to obtain the economic benefit coefficients of the various land types. Finally, a multi-objective linear programming model was used to optimize the land-use structure under different scenarios for 2020 and 2025. The results show that (i) energy consumption contributed the most to local carbon emissions in 2016, at 94.75%; (ii) carbon emissions from paddy fields, animals, and humans were the second most dominant source; (iii) the intensity of carbon emissions from different land types in 2016 was variable; and (iv) compared with the natural scenario, an optimized land-use structure could reduce carbon emissions by 5.97% by 2020 and 12.61% by 2025. Under ideal simulation conditions, the simulated land-use pattern could not only meet the requirements of economic and social development, but also could effectively reduce carbon emissions, which is of great value to land managers and decision-makers

First-principles study of magnetic properties of stoichiometric and O deficient low-index surfaces of rutile SnO2 and TiO2

In consideration of experimental evidences of O vacancies or/and surface state as the possible origin of d(0) ferromagnetism in SnO2 and TiO2, the electronic structure and magnetic properties of stoichiometric and O deficient (110), (100), (101) and (001) surfaces of rutile SnO2 and TiO2 are investigated using first-principles calculations. The calculations show that the stoichiometric (110), (100), (101) and (001) surfaces of rutile SnO2 and TiO2 are nonmagnetic. The O vacancy at these low-index surfaces of SnO2 do not induce magnetic moment due to extended character of 5s and 5p orbitals of the reduced Sn atom, while the vacancy at the low-index surfaces of TiO2 produce spin splitting defect states in the band gap, resulting in the formation of magnetic moment of 2.0 mu(B). The induced magnetic moment by surface O vacancy is mainly contributed by partially filled 3d orbitals of the reduced Ti atoms. It is noticed that the magnetic coupling between magnetic moments induced by two O vacancies at the low-index surfaces of rutile TiO2 are long-range ferromagnetic which can be explained by the overlap of spin density around the common Ti or O atoms among reduced Ti atoms produced by two O vacancies. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserve

Tuning magnetism of monolayer MoS2 by doping vacancy and applying strain

In view of important role of inducing and manipulating the magnetism in two-dimensional materials for the development of low-dimensional spintronic devices, the influences of strain on electronic structure and magnetic properties of commonly observed vacancies doped monolayer MoS2 are investigated using first-principles calculations. It is shown that unstrained V-S, V-S2, and V-MoS3 doped monolayer MoS2 systems are nonmagnetic, while the ground state of unstrained V-MoS6 doped system is magnetic and the magnetic moment is contributed mainly by six Mo atoms around V-MoS6. In particular, tensile strain can induce magnetic moments in V-S, V-S2, and V-MoS3 doped monolayer MoS2 due to the breaking of Mo-Mo metallic bonds around the vacancies, while the magnetization induced by V-MoS6 can be effectively manipulated by equibiaxial strain due to the change of Mo-Mo metallic bonds around V-MoS6 under strains. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC