Charmed Baryon Weak Decays with SU(3) Flavor Symmetry

We study the semileptonic and non-leptonic charmed baryon decays with $SU(3)$ flavor symmetry, where the charmed baryons can be ${\bf B}_{c}=(\Xi_c^0,\Xi_c^+,\Lambda_c^+)$, ${\bf B}'_{c}=(\Sigma_c^{(++,+,0)},\Xi_{c}^{\prime(+,0)},\Omega_c^0)$, ${\bf B}_{cc}=(\Xi_{cc}^{++},\Xi_{cc}^+,\Omega_{cc}^+)$, or ${\bf B}_{ccc}=\Omega^{++}_{ccc}$. With ${\bf B}_n^{(\prime)}$ denoted as the baryon octet (decuplet), we find that the ${\bf B}_{c}\to {\bf B}'_n\ell^+\nu_\ell$ decays are forbidden, while the $\Omega_c^0\to \Omega^-\ell^+\nu_\ell$, $\Omega_{cc}^+\to\Omega_c^0\ell^+\nu_\ell$, and $\Omega_{ccc}^{++}\to \Omega_{cc}^+\ell^+\nu_\ell$ decays are the only existing Cabibbo-allowed modes for ${\bf B}'_{c}\to {\bf B}'_n\ell^+\nu_\ell$, ${\bf B}_{cc}\to {\bf B}'_c\ell^+\nu_\ell$, and ${\bf B}_{ccc}\to {\bf B}_{cc}^{(\prime)}\ell^+\nu_\ell$, respectively. We predict the rarely studied ${\bf B}_{c}\to {\bf B}_n^{(\prime)}M$ decays, such as ${\cal B}(\Xi_c^0\to\Lambda^0\bar K^0,\,\Xi_c^+\to\Xi^0\pi^+)=(8.3\pm 0.9,8.0\pm 4.1)\times 10^{-3}$ and ${\cal B}(\Lambda_c^+\to \Delta^{++}\pi^-,\,\Xi_c^0\to\Omega^- K^+)=(5.5\pm 1.3,4.8\pm 0.5)\times 10^{-3}$. For the observation, the doubly and triply charmed baryon decays of $\Omega_{cc}^{+}\to \Xi_c^+\bar K^0$, $\Xi_{cc}^{++}\to (\Xi_c^+\pi^+$, $\Sigma_c^{++}\bar K^0)$, and $\Omega_{ccc}^{++}\to (\Xi_{cc}^{++}\bar K^0,\Omega_{cc}^+\pi^+,\Xi_c^+ D^+)$ are the favored Cabibbo-allowed decays, which are accessible to the BESIII and LHCb experiments.Comment: 29 pages, no figure, a typo in the table correcte

Appendiceal pus in a hernia sac simulating strangulated femoral hernia: a case report

Acute appendicitis involving the hernia sac is infrequent but well-documented in medical literature. In most instances, it occurs within the right inguinal (Amyand’s hernia) or right femoral hernia (de Garengeot hernia). The diagnosis is always mistaken for incarcerated groin hernia. During surgery, the appendix itself, either perforated or strangulated, is most commonly encountered within the hernia sac. In very rare occasions, only appendiceal pus is found in the hernia sac. In this paper, we report the case of a 90-year-old woman with acute appendicitis and a tender mass in the right groin. Typical findings of acute appendicitis by computed tomography (CT) and incarcerated femoral hernia with groin cellulitis misled us into preoperative diagnosis of strangulated femoral hernia. Acute phlegmonous inflammation of the incarcerated femoral hernia sac containing pus only and acute suppurative appendicitis were found intraoperatively. This case presents a rare complication of acute appendicitis and the first report of CT-documented appendiceal pus-contained femoral hernia. Knowledge of this rare condition is helpful in establishing preoperative diagnosis and patient management decisions

Wind Noise Reduction using Non-negative Sparse Coding

We introduce a new speaker independent method for reducing wind noise in single-channel recordings of noisy speech The method is based on non-negative sparse coding and relies on a wind noise dictionary which is estimated from an isolated noise recording. We estimate the parameters of the model and discuss their sensitivity. We then compare the algorithm with the clas-sical spectral subtraction method and the Qualcomm-ICSI-OGI noise reduction method We optimize the sound quality in terms of signal-to-noise ratio and provide results on a noisy speech recog-nition task. 1

SU(3) symmetry breaking in charmed baryon decays

We explore the breaking effects of the $SU(3)$ flavor symmetry in the singly Cabibbo-suppressed anti-triplet charmed baryon decays of ${\bf B}_c\to {\bf B}_n M$, with ${\bf B}_c=(\Xi_c^0,\Xi_c^+,\Lambda_c^+)$ and ${\bf B}_n(M)$ the baryon (pseudo-scalar) octets. We find that these breaking effects can be used to account for the experimental data on the decay branching ratios of ${\cal B}(\Lambda_c^+\to \Sigma^{0} K^{+},\Lambda^{0} K^{+})$ and $R'_{K/\pi}$=${\cal B}(\Xi^0_c \to \Xi^- K^+)$/${\cal B}(\Xi^0_c \to \Xi^- \pi^+)$. In addition, we obtain that ${\cal B}(\Xi_{c}^{0} \to \Xi^{-} K^{+},\Sigma^{-} \pi^{+})=(4.6 \pm 1.7,12.8 \pm 3.1)\times 10^{-4}$, ${\cal B}(\Xi_c^0\to pK^-,\Sigma^+\pi^-)=(3.0 \pm 1.0, 5.2 \pm 1.6)\times 10^{-4}$ and ${\cal B}(\Xi_c^+\to \Sigma^{0(+)} \pi^{+(0)})=(10.3 \pm 1.7)\times 10^{-4}$, which all receive significant contributions from the breaking effects, and can be tested by the BESIII and LHCb experiments.Comment: 12 pages, no figure, revised version accepted by EPJ

Genomic sequence of temperate phage Smp131 of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia that has similar prophages in xanthomonads

Stenotrophomonas maltophilia is a ubiquitous Gram-negative bacterium previously named as Xanthomonas maltophilia. This organism is an important nosocomial pathogen associated with infections in immunocompromised patients. Clinical isolates of S. maltophilia are mostly resistant to multiple antibiotics and treatment of its infections is becoming problematic. Several virulent bacteriophages, but not temperate phage, of S. maltophilia have been characterized

Effect of Free-range Rearing on Meat Composition, Physical Properties and Sensory Evaluation in Taiwan Game Hens

Experiments were conducted to evaluate the effect of an outdoor-grazed raising model on meat composition, physical properties and sensory attributes of Taiwan game hens. Six hundred 1-d old female chicks were raised on a floor for 8 weeks. On day 57, 600 healthy birds, with similar body weight, were selected and randomly assigned to three treatment groups (cage, floor-pen and free-range). The results showed that different feeding models had no effect on drip loss, cooking loss, moisture, crude protein, crude fat, crude ash, zinc and calorie contents in breast meat and moisture content in thigh meat. The free-range group had the lowest fat content in both breast and thigh meat, and the lowest calorie content in thigh meat. The firmness and toughness in both thigh and breast of the free-range group were the highest values (p<0.05). The crude protein, total collagen, zinc and iron contents in thigh meat and total collagen content in breast meat of the free-range group were significantly higher than those of the cage-feeding group (p<0.05). The meat sensory scores of flavor, chewiness and overall acceptability of both thigh and breast meat of the free-range group were significantly (p<0.05) better than those of the other two groups. Moreover, the current findings also indicate that the Taiwan game hens of the free-range feeding model displayed well-received carcass traits and meat quality, with higher scores for flavor, chewiness and overall acceptability for greater sensory satisfaction in both breast and thigh meat. In addition, the thigh meat contained high protein and total collage but low fat, offering a healthier diet choice

Light-Independent Inactivation of Dengue-2 Virus by Carboxyfullerene C3 Isomer

AbstractCarboxyfullerene (C60) is known as a photosensitizer for virus inactivation. Its regioisomer with C3 symmetry, named the C3 isomer, could also inactivate the dengue-2 virus without light when the dose of C3 isomer was increased to 40 μM, indicating the possible involvement of a light-independent mechanism. Further analysis showed that the C3 isomer blocked viral replication at the attachment and penetration stages, suggesting that a direct interaction between the C3 isomer and the virion is required for inactivation. The C3 isomer with a bipolar structure showed better lipid interaction and dengue-2 virus suppression than D3, another isomer that contains evenly distributed hydrophilic side chains. Moreover, the C3 isomer selectively inactivated enveloped viruses (viz., dengue-2 virus and Japanese encephalitis virus) instead of nonenveloped viruses (viz., enterovirus 71 and coxsackievirus B3). Collectively, these findings support the hypothesis that C3 isomer suppression of enveloped viruses is effected through its hydrophobic interaction with the viral lipid envelope. Our report, which demonstrates the light-dependent and -independent mechanisms of C60 on viral inactivation, will aid in the development of novel anti-viral agents for use against enveloped viruses

Integration of Chinese Herbal Medicine into Routine Care Was Related to Lower Risk of Chronic Kidney Disease in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Population-Based Nested Case–Control Study in Taiwan

Objective Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are frequently used as the first-line agents for the symptomatic relief of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), but it may insidiously provoke the onset of renal diseases, especially chronic kidney disease (CKD). While Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) has become an increasingly popular adjunctive therapy among RA groups, there are currently no available data on the effect of CHM use towards risk of CKD. This study aimed to explore on a population-level whether CHM use decreases sequent CKD risk among them. Methods In this nested case–control study retrieved from the nationwide insurance database of Taiwan from 2000 to 2012, we looked at the association between CHM use and the likelihood of developing CKD, with a focus on usage intensity. Cases with CKD claims were defined and matched to one randomly selected control case. Conditional logistic regression was then applied to estimate odds ratio (OR) of CKD from CHM treatment measured before the index date. For each OR, we calculated a 95% confidence interval for CHM use relative to the matched control. Results This nested case–control study included 5464 patients with RA, where after matching comprised 2712 cases and 2712 controls. Among them, there were 706 and 1199 cases that ever received CHM treatment, respectively. After the adjustment, CHM use in RA individuals was related to a lower likelihood of CKD, with an adjusted OR of 0.49 (95% CI: 0.44–0.56). Additionally, a dose-dependent, reverse association was found between the cumulative duration of CHM use and risk of CKD. Conclusion Integrating CHM into conventional therapy may reduce the likelihood of developing CKD, which could be a reference in instituting novel preventive strategies to improve treatment outcomes and reduce related fatalities for RA subjects