Selected strong decays of pentaquark State Pc(4312)P_c(4312) in a chiral constituent quark model

The newly confirmed pentaquark state $P_c(4312)$ has been treated as a weakly bound $(\Sigma_c\bar{D})$ state by a well-established chiral constituent quark model and by a dynamical calculation on quark degrees of freedom where the quark exchange effect is accounted for. The obtained mass $4308$ MeV agrees with data. In this work, the selected strong decays of the $P_c(4312)$ state are studied with the obtained wave function. It is shown that the width of the $\Lambda_c\bar{D}^*$ decay is overwhelmed and the branching ratios of the $p\,\eta_c$ and $p\,J/\psi$ decays are both less than 1 percentage.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures, 3 table

Decay width of d∗(2380)→NNπd^*(2380) \to NN \pi process in a chiral constituent quark model

The width of three-body single-pion decay process $d^*\to NN\pi^{0,\pm}$ is calculated by using the $d^*$ wave function obtained from our chiral SU(3) constituent quark model calculation. The effect of the dynamical structure on the width of $d^*$ is taken into account in both the single $\Delta\Delta$ channel and coupled $\Delta\Delta+CC$ two-channel approximations. Our numerical result shows that in the coupled-channel approximation, namely, the hidden-color configuration being considered, the obtained partial decay width of $d^*\to NN\pi$ is about several hundred $\rm {KeV}$, while in the single $\Delta\Delta$ channel it is just about $2\sim 3~\rm{MeV}$. We, therefore, conclude that the partial width in the single-pion decay process of $d^*$ is much smaller than the widths in its double-pion decay processes. Our prediction may provide a criterion for judging different interpretations of the $d^*$ structure, as different pictures for the $d^*$ may result quite different partial decay width.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, and 1 table, typos correcte

Targeting the BRD4/FOXO3a/CDK6 Axis Sensitizes AKT Inhibition in Luminal Breast Cancer

BRD4 assembles transcriptional machinery at gene super-enhancer regions and governs the expression of genes that are critical for cancer progression. However, it remains unclear whether BRD4-mediated gene transcription is required for tumor cells to develop drug resistance. Our data show that prolonged treatment of luminal breast cancer cells with AKT inhibitors induces FOXO3a dephosphorylation, nuclear translocation, and disrupts its association with SirT6, eventually leading to FOXO3a acetylation as well as BRD4 recognition. Acetylated FOXO3a recognizes the BD2 domain of BRD4, recruits the BRD4/RNAPII complex to the CDK6 gene promoter, and induces its transcription. Pharmacological inhibition of either BRD4/FOXO3a association or CDK6 significantly overcomes the resistance of luminal breast cancer cells to AKT inhibitors in vitro and in vivo. Our study reports the involvement of BRD4/FOXO3a/CDK6 axis in AKTi resistance and provides potential therapeutic strategies for treating resistant breast cancer

Absolute-energy-scale calibration of ARGO-YBJ for light primaries in multi-TeV region with the Moon shadow observation

In 2011 ARGO-YBJ experiment has reported a work to study the absolute rigidity scale of the primary cosmic ray particles based on the Moon's shadow observation. Given the progress in high energy hadronic interaction models with LHC data, in cosmic ray chemical composition measurement and in experimental data accumulation, more updates can be researched. This paper aims to further disentangle the composition dependence in absolute-energy-scale calibration by using specific moon-shadow data which mainly is comprised of light component cosmic rays. Results show that, 17% energy scale error is estimated from 3 TeV to 50 TeV. To validate the performance of this technique, the light component cosmic ray spectrum in the same energy region is shown. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Effects of Long-Term Exclosure on Main Plant Functional Groups and Their Biochemical Properties in a Patchily Degraded Alpine Meadow in the Source Zone of the Yellow River, West China

This study aimed to understand the response of vegetation community characteristics in the degraded alpine meadow of the Source Zone of the Yellow River to exclosure of various lengths. Artificial fences were erected to prevent livestock grazing and let the degraded meadow recover naturally as a means of restoration. The research focused on a typical degraded alpine meadow in which four plots were fenced off for three periods of 1 year (E1), 4 years (E4), and 10 years (E10), plus a freely grazed plot as the control. The study compared and analyzed the differences in plant community characteristics, carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) reserves, as well as the stoichiometric characteristics of main functional groups in the alpine meadow over different exclosure durations. The results indicated that E10 long-term exclosure significantly increased the aboveground biomass of gramineous plants but reduced the aboveground biomass of miscellaneous grasses. However, when compared to E4 short-term exclosure, E10 resulted in a reduction in the aboveground biomass of Cyperaceae plants. On the other hand, E4 medium-term exclosure significantly increased the aboveground biomass of Gramineae and Cyperaceae. Exclosure significantly increased the nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) reserves of the aboveground plant communities. Among these communities, the plant communities in the E10 long-term exclosure had the highest N and P reserves. However, this exclosure length also led to a significant reduction in plant diversity. Furthermore, except for Cyperaceae, all functional groups were observed in E10 and E4 plots. The carbon–nitrogen ratio and carbon–phosphorus ratio of these groups were significantly lower than those of groups G and E1. Medium-term exclosure (E4) has a positive impact on the aboveground biomass as well as plants’ nitrogen and phosphorus reserves. However, long-term exclosure (E10) has been observed to decrease species diversity and nutrient utilization efficiency of alpine meadow vegetation, which can be detrimental to the sustainable development of the alpine meadow ecosystem. Therefore, it is not recommended to implement long-term exclosure. Instead, a moderate level of grazing should be adopted after 4 years of exclosure