An improved method to determine the Ξc−Ξc′\Xi_c-\Xi_c' mixing

We develop an improved method to explore the $\Xi_c- \Xi_c'$ mixing which arises from the flavor SU(3) and heavy quark symmetry breaking. In this method, the flavor eigenstates under the SU(3) symmetry are at first constructed and the corresponding masses can be nonperturbatively determined. Matrix elements of the mass operators which break the flavor SU(3) symmetry sandwiched by the flavor eigenstates are then calculated. Diagonalizing the corresponding matrix of Hamiltonian gives the mass eigenstates of the full Hamiltonian and determines the mixing. Following the previous lattice QCD calculation of $\Xi_c$ and $\Xi_c'$, and estimating an off-diagonal matrix element, we extract the mixing angle between the $\Xi_c$ and $\Xi_c'$. Preliminary numerical results for the mixing angle confirm the previous observation that such mixing is incapable to explain the large SU(3) symmetry breaking in semileptonic decays of charmed baryons.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Deep Learning the Effects of Photon Sensors on the Event Reconstruction Performance in an Antineutrino Detector

We provide a fast approach incorporating the usage of deep learning for evaluating the effects of photon sensors in an antineutrino detector on the event reconstruction performance therein. This work is an attempt to harness the power of deep learning for detector designing and upgrade planning. Using the Daya Bay detector as a benchmark case and the vertex reconstruction performance as the objective for the deep neural network, we find that the photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) have different relative importance to the vertex reconstruction. More importantly, the vertex position resolutions for the Daya Bay detector follow approximately a multi-exponential relationship with respect to the number of PMTs and hence, the coverage. This could also assist in deciding on the merits of installing additional PMTs for future detector plans. The approach could easily be used with other objectives in place of vertex reconstruction

The monoclonal antibody Zt/f2 targeting RON receptor tyrosine kinase as potential therapeutics against tumor growth-mediated by colon cancer cells

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Overexpression of the RON receptor tyrosine kinase contributes to epithelial cell transformation, malignant progression, and acquired drug resistance. RON also has been considered as a potential target for therapeutic intervention. This study determines biochemical features and inhibitory activity of a mouse monoclonal antibody (mAb) Zt/f2 in experimental cancer therapy.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Zt/f2 is a mouse IgG2a mAb that is highly specific and sensitive to human RON and its oncogenic variants such as RON160 (ED₅₀= 2.3 nmol/L). Receptor binding studies revealed that Zt/f2 interacts with an epitope(s) located in a 49 amino acid sequence coded by exon 11 in the RON β-chain extracellular sequences. This sequence is critical in regulating RON maturation and phosphorylation. Zt/f2 did not compete with ligand macrophage-stimulating protein for binding to RON; however, its engagement effectively induced RON internalization, which diminishes RON expression and impairs downstream signaling activation. These biochemical features provide the cellular basis for the use of Zt/f2 to inhibit tumor growth in animal model. Repeated administration of Zt/f2 as a single agent into Balb/c mice results in partial inhibition of tumor growth caused by transformed NIH-3T3 cells expressing oncogenic RON160. Colon cancer HT-29 cell-mediated tumor growth in athymic nude mice also was attenuated following Zt/f2 treatment. In both cases, ~50% inhibition of tumor growth as measured by tumor volume was achieved. Moreover, Zt/f2 in combination with 5-fluorouracil showed an enhanced inhibition effect of ~80% on HT-29 cell-mediated tumor growth <it>in vivo</it>.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Zt/f2 is a potential therapeutic mAb capable of inhibiting RON-mediated oncogenesis by colon cancer cells in animal models. The inhibitory effect of Zt/f2 <it>in vivo </it>in combination with chemoagent 5-fluorouracil could represent a novel strategy for future colon cancer therapy.</p