Using (10 087±44)×10^{6} J/ψ events collected with the BESIII detector, the radiative hyperon decay Σ^{+}→pγ is studied at an electron-positron collider experiment for the first time. The absolute ...branching fraction is measured to be (0.996±0.021_{stat}±0.018_{syst})×10^{-3}, which is lower than its world average value by 4.2 standard deviations. Its decay asymmetry parameter is determined to be -0.652±0.056_{stat}±0.020_{syst}. The branching fraction and decay asymmetry parameter are the most precise to date, and the accuracies are improved by 78% and 34%, respectively.
Abstract
Aims
The purpose of study is to evaluate the effect and complication of preoperative short-term daily recombinant human erythropoietin (rhEPO) treatment for blood-saving in patients ...undergoing unilateral primary total knee arthroplasty (TKA).
Methods
This three-arm randomized clinical trial compared three different rhEPO-based treatment protocols for unilateral primary TKA. Group A: application of daily doses of rhEPO combined with iron supplement starting 3 days before surgery; Group B: application of daily doses of rhEPO combined with iron supplement starting the day of surgery; Group C: iron supplement alone. Perioperative hemoglobin (Hb) level gaps, total perioperative blood loss, reticulocyte levels and treatment-related complications were studied.
Results
A total of 102 patients were included (35, 35 and 32 patients in Groups A, B and C, respectively). Total blood loss (TBL) in Groups A, B and C was 490.84, 806.76 and 924.21 ml, respectively. Patients in Group A had a significant lower TBL than Groups B and C (A vs. B: P = 0.010; A vs. C: P < 0.001). There was no difference as for TBL between Groups B and C (P = 0.377). Group A patients had significant smaller Hb decline than Group C on the third and fifth postoperative day (P = 0.049, P = 0.037), as well as than Group B on the fifth postoperative day (P = 0.048). There was no difference as for Hb decline between Groups B and C. No difference was shown in levels of inflammatory biomarkers or blood-saving protocol-related complications among three groups.
Conclusions
Daily dose of rhEPO combined with iron supplement administered 3 days before TKA procedures could significantly decrease perioperative blood loss and improve postoperative Hb levels, without significantly elevating risks of complication, when compared with admission of rhEPO on the day of surgery and iron supplement alone. Preoperative daily rhEPO treatment could be a more effective blood-saving protocol in TKA procedures.
Using 4.7 fb^{-1} of e^{+}e^{-} collision data at center-of-mass energies from 4.661 to 4.951 GeV collected by the BESIII detector at the BEPCII collider, we observe the X(3872) production process ...e^{+}e^{-}→ωX(3872) for the first time. The significance is 7.8σ, including both the statistical and systematic uncertainties. The e^{+}e^{-}→ωX(3872) Born cross section and the corresponding upper limit at 90% confidence level at each energy point are reported. The line shape of the cross section indicates that the ωX(3872) signals may be from the decays of some nontrivial structures.
Helicobacter pylori infects almost half of the world population and is listed as a type I carcinoma factor since 1994. Pogostemon cablin (Blanco) Benth. (Labiatae) has been used to treat ...gastro-intestinal diseases for thousands of years in many east Asian countries, and the key ingredient, patchouli alcohol (PA), has been observed to exert anti-H. pylori and anti-urease activities.
We investigated the effect of PA on H. pylori urease and its subsequent influence on macrophage phagosome maturation and function.
In H. pylori experiment, the berthelot method and pH shock assay were adopted to evaluate the effect of PA on extracellular and intracellular H. pylori urease. And then, Q-PCR and Western blot were carried out to analyze the alterations in the expression of urease-related genes and proteins after PA treatment. In the H. pylori and macrophage cell (RAW264.7) co-culture experiment, the effects of PA on H. pylori-induced phagocytosis and intracellular killing of RAW264.7 were investigated using gentamycin protection assay, and the underlying mechanism was explored by immunofluorescence.
PA at 25 and 50 μM inhibited intracellular H. pylori urease activity but not isolated urease by down-regulating the gene expression levels of ureB, ureE, ureI and nixA and reducing the protein expression level of UreB, thereby inhibiting the acid resistance of H. pylori. PA also recovered the function of macrophage bacterial digestion, and prior treatment with ammonium chloride inhibited the efficacy of PA.
PA suppressed intracellular H. pylori urease function and maturation, which increased macrophage digestion ability.
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We present a measurement of the azimuthal asymmetries of two charged pions in the inclusive process e+ e- arrow right pipiX, based on a data set of 62 pb super(-1) at the center-of-mass energy of ...3.65 GeV collected with the BESIII detector. These asymmetries can be attributed to the Collins fragmentation function. We observe a nonzero asymmetry, which increases with increasing pion momentum. As our energy scale is close to that of the existing semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering experimental data, the measured asymmetries are important inputs for the global analysis of extracting the quark transversity distribution inside the nucleon and are valuable to explore the energy evolution of the spin-dependent fragmentation function.
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate how top executives’ compensation is associated with environmental performance in the Chinese context and how this association varies ...with differing levels of industrial competition.
Design/methodology/approach
– Combining agency and institutional theories, the empirical study is based on a sample of 698 publicly listed firms in China’s manufacturing sector.
Findings
– The authors find that top executives’ cash pay has a positive association, and equity ownership a negative association, with corporate environmental performance. Furthermore, in more competitive industries, both pay and ownership are more strongly associated with environmental performance, indicating that industrial competition plays a moderating role in these relationships.
Practical implications
– The findings imply that different incentive schemes can motivate executives toward environmental management in the Chinese context in opposite directions. They highlight the importance of improving regulation in order to motivate firms to engage in further environmental management.
Originality/value
– Previous work on the relationship between executives’ compensation and socially responsible activities has mainly focussed on developed countries. This study is set in an emerging economy, and identifies new evidence to show that the effect of executive incentives is institutionally specific. In addition, it explores the effect of industrial competition on executives’ incentives to engage in environmental management, suggesting an explanation for the contradictory evidence found in previous research.
Estrogen receptor α (ERα) is a master driver of a vast majority of breast cancers. Breast cancer cells often develop resistance to endocrine therapy via restoration of the ERα activity through ...survival pathways. Thus identifying the epigenetic activator of ERα that can be targeted to block ERα gene expression is a critical topic of endocrine therapy. Here, integrative genomic analysis identified MYST3 as a potential oncogene target that is frequently amplified in breast cancer. MYST3 is involved in histone acetylation via its histone acetyltransferase domain (HAT) and, as a result, activates gene expression by altering chromatin structure. We found that MYST3 was amplified in 11% and/or overexpressed in 15% of breast tumors, and overexpression of MYST3 correlated with worse clinical outcome in estrogen receptor+ (ER+) breast cancers. Interestingly, MYST3 depletion drastically inhibited proliferation in MYST3-high, ER+ breast cancer cells, but not in benign breast epithelial cells or in MYST3-low breast cancer cells. Importantly, we discovered that knocking down MYST3 resulted in profound reduction of ERα expression, while ectopic expression of MYST3 had the reversed effect. Chromatin immunoprecipitation revealed that MYST3 binds to the proximal promoter region of ERα gene, and inactivating mutations in its HAT domain abolished its ability to regulate ERα, suggesting MYST3 functioning as a histone acetyltransferase that activates ERα promoter. Furthermore, MYST3 inhibition with inducible MYST3 shRNAs potently attenuated breast tumor growth in mice. Together, this study identifies the first histone acetyltransferase that activates ERα expression which may be potentially targeted to block ERα at transcriptional level.
We study the process e+e−→π+π−ψ(3686) using 5.1 fb−1 of data collected at 16 center-of-mass energy (s) points from 4.008 to 4.600 GeV by the BESIII detector operating at the BEPCII collider. The ...measured Born cross sections for e+e−→π+π−ψ(3686) are consistent with previous results, but with much improved precision. A fit to the cross section shows contributions from two structures: the first has M=4209.5±7.4±1.4 MeV/c2 and Γ=80.1±24.6±2.9 MeV, and the second has M=4383.8±4.2±0.8 MeV/c2 and Γ=84.2±12.5±2.1 MeV, where the first errors are statistical and the second systematic. The lower-mass resonance is observed in the process e+e−→π+π−ψ(3686) for the first time with a statistical significance of 5.8σ. A charged charmoniumlike structure is observed in the π±ψ(3686) invariant mass spectrum for data at s=4.416 GeV. A fit with an S-wave Breit-Wigner function yields a mass M=4032.1±2.4 MeV/c2, where the errors are statistical only. However, there are still unresolved discrepancies between the fit model and data. The width of the intermediate state varies in a wide range for different kinematic regions within the data set. Therefore, no simple interpretation of the data has been found, and a future data sample with larger statistics and more theoretical input will be required to better understand this issue.
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