Measuring CP violation by low-energy medium-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments

In this talk we discuss the possibility to measure CP violation in neutrino oscillation experiments using the neutrino beam with energy which is lower (E_\nu \gsim 100 MeV) than the one usually considered (typically > 1 GeV) in accelerator experiments. The advantage of using such lower energy neutrino beam is that despite the smaller detection cross sections, the effect of CP violation is larger and the optimal length of baseline can be rather short, 30-50 km, being free from matter effect contamination.Comment: 5 pages with 2 postscript figures, uses espcrc2.sty, Talk presented by H. Nunokawa at ``NuFact'00'' workshop, Monterey, CA, USA, May 22-26, 200

Up-regulation of protein serine/threonine phosphatase type 2C during 1α,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3-induced monocytic differentiation of leukemic HL-60 cells

AbstractTreatment with 20 nM 1α,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25(OH)2D3) caused a progressive increase in the activity of Mg2+-dependent protein serine/threonine phosphatase type 2C (PP2C) in subcellular fractions of HL-60 cells, whereas PP2C activity was relatively constant throughout all-trans retinoic acid-induced (1 μM) granulocytic differentiation. The increase in PP2C activity appeared to parallel the 1,25(OH)2D3-induced phenotypic and functional changes in HL-60 cells. Immunoblot and Northern blot analysis indicated that the increase in PP2C activity corresponded to the increased expression of PP2C protein, which was preceded by an increase in the level of mRNA for PP2Cβ. No mRNA for PP2Cα was detected in resting or 1,25(OH)2D3-stimulated HL-60 cells. These results suggest that the increased expression of PP2C is related with the 1,25(OH)2D3-induced monocytic differentiation of HL-60 cells

Modulation of porcine intestinal epitheliocytes immunetranscriptome response by Lactobacillus jensenii TL2937

In order to evaluate probiotic strains applicable for the beneficial immunomodulation of the porcine gut (immunobiotics), we previously developed a porcine intestinal epitheliocyte cell line (PIE cells). Here, transcriptomic studies using PIE cells were performed considering that this information would be valuable for understanding the mechanisms involved in the protective activity of the immunobiotic strain Lactobacillus jensenii TL2937 against intestinal inflammatory damage in pigs. In addition, those studies would provide criteria for selecting biomarkers for the screening of new immunobiotic strains. We performed microarray analysis to investigate the transcriptomic response of PIE cells to the challenge with heat-stable Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) and, the changes induced by L. jensenii TL2937 in that response. The approach allowed us to obtain a global overview of the immune genes involved in the response of PIE cells to heat-stable ETEC PAMPs. We observed that L. jensenii TL2937 differently modulated gene expression in ETEC PAMPs-challenged PIE cells. Microarray and RT-PCR analysis indicated that the most remarkable changes in PIE cells transcriptomic profile after heat-stable ETEC PAMPs challenge were observed in chemokines, adhesion molecules, complement and coagulation cascades factors. In addition, an anti-inflammatory effect triggered by TL2937 strain in PIE cells was clearly demonstrated. The decrease in the expression of chemokines (CCL8, CXCL5, CXCL9, CXCL10, and CXCL11), complement (C1R, C1S, C3, and CFB), and coagulation factors (F3) by L. jensenii TL2937 supports our previous reports on the immunoregulatory effect of this strain. These results provided clues for the better understanding of the mechanism underlying host-immunobiotic interaction in the porcine host. The comprehensive transcriptomic profiles of PIE cells provided by our analyses successfully identified a group of genes, which could be used as prospective biomarkers for the screening and evaluation of new anti-inflammatory immunobiotics for the prevention of inflammatory intestinal disorders in pigs.Fil: Kobayashi, Hisakazu. Tohoku University; JapónFil: Albarracín, Leonardo Miguel. Tohoku University; Japón. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Centro de Referencia para Lactobacilos; ArgentinaFil: Sato, Nana. Tohoku University; JapónFil: Kanmani, Paulraj. Tohoku University; JapónFil: Kober, Humayun A.K.M.. Tohoku University; Japón. Chittagong Veterinary and Animal Sciences University. Department of Dairy and Poultry Science; BangladeshFil: Ikeda-Ohtsubo, Wakako. Tohoku University; JapónFil: Suda, Yoshihito. Miyagi University; JapónFil: Nochi, Tomonori. Tohoku University; JapónFil: Aso, Hisashi. Tohoku University; JapónFil: Makino, Seiya. Meiji Co., Ltd. Food Science Research Labs.; JapónFil: Kano, Hiroshi. Meiji Co., Ltd. Food Science Research Labs.; JapónFil: Ohkawara, Sou. Meiji Seika Pharma Co., Ltd. Agricultural and Veterinary Division; JapónFil: Saito, Tadao. Tohoku University; JapónFil: Villena, Julio Cesar. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Centro de Referencia para Lactobacilos; Argentina. Tohoku University; JapónFil: Kitazawa, Haruki. Tohoku University; Japó

The Three Neutrino Scenario

I have discussed in my talk several remaining issues in the standard three-flavor mixing scheme of neutrinos, in particilar, the sign of $\Delta m^2_{13}$ and the leptonic CP violating phase. In this report I focus on two topics: (1) supernova method for determining the former sign, and (2) illuminating how one can detect the signatures for both of them in long-baseline (\gsim 10 km) neutrino oscillation experiments. I do this by formulating perturbative frameworks appropriate for the two typical options of such experiments, the high energy and the low energy options with beam energies of $\sim$ 10 GeV and $\sim$ 100 MeV, respectively.Comment: 6 pages, Latex, 2 figures. Talk presented at Europhysics Neutrino Oscillation Workshop (NOW2000), Otranto, Italy, September 9-16, 200

Neutrino Mixing and Quark-Lepton Complementarity

As a result of identification of the solution to the solar neutrino problem, a rather precise relation theta_{sun} + theta_C = pi/4 between the leptonic 1-2 mixing angle theta_{sun} and the Cabibbo angle has emerged. It would mean that the lepton and the quark mixing angles add up to the maximal, suggesting a deep structure by which quarks and leptons are interrelated. We refer the relation ``quark-lepton complementarity'' (QLC) in this paper. We formulate general conditions under which the QLC relation is realized. We then present several scenarios which lead to the relation and elaborate on phenomenological consequences which can be tested by the future experiments. We also discuss implications of the QLC relation for the quark-lepton symmetry and the mechanism of neutrino mass generation.Comment: 22 pages, version to be published in Phys. Rev.

Transcriptomic Analysis of the Innate Antiviral Immune Response in Porcine Intestinal Epithelial Cells: Influence of Immunobiotic Lactobacilli

Lactobacillus rhamnosus CRL1505 and Lactobacillus plantarum CRL1506 are immunobiotic strains able to increase protection against viral intestinal infections as demonstrated in animal models and humans. To gain insight into the host-immunobiotic interaction, the transcriptomic response of porcine intestinal epithelial (PIE) cells to the challenge with viral molecular associated pattern poly(I:C) and the changes in the transcriptomic profile induced by the immunobiotics strains CRL1505 and CRL1506 were investigated in this work. By using microarray technology and reverse transcription PCR, we obtained a global overview of the immune genes involved in the innate antiviral immune response in PIE cells. Stimulation of PIE cells with poly(I:C) significantly increased the expression of IFN-α and IFN-β, several interferon-stimulated genes, cytokines, chemokines, adhesion molecules, and genes involved in prostaglandin biosynthesis. It was also determined that lactobacilli differently modulated immune gene expression in poly(I:C)-challenged PIE cells. Most notable changes were found in antiviral factors (IFN-α, IFN-β, NPLR3, OAS1, OASL, MX2, and RNASEL) and cytokines/chemokines (IL-1β, IL-6, CCL4, CCL5, and CXCL10) that were significantly increased in lactobacilli-treated PIE cells. Immunobiotics reduced the expression of IL-15 and RAE1 genes that mediate poly(I:C) inflammatory damage. In addition, lactobacilli treatments increased the expression PLA2G4A, PTGES, and PTGS2 that are involved in prostaglandin E2 biosynthesis. L. rhamnosus CRL1505 and L. plantarum CRL1506 showed quantitative and qualitative differences in their capacities to modulate the innate antiviral immune response in PIE cells, which would explain the higher capacity of the CRL1505 strain when compared to CRL1506 to protect against viral infection and inflammatory damage in vivo. These results provided valuable information for the deeper understanding of the host-immunobiotic interaction and their effect on antiviral immunity. The comprehensive transcriptomic analyses successfully identified a group of genes (IFN-β, RIG1, RNASEL, MX2, A20, IL27, CXCL5, CCL4, PTGES, and PTGER4), which can be used as prospective biomarkers for the screening of new antiviral immunobiotics in PIE cells and for the development of novel functional food and feeds, which may help to prevent viral infections.Fil: Albarracín, Leonardo Miguel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucuman. Centro de Referencia Para Lactobacilos; Argentina. Tohoku University; JapónFil: Kobayashi, Hisakazu. Tohoku University; JapónFil: Iida, Hikaru. Tohoku University; JapónFil: Sato, Nana. Tohoku University; JapónFil: Nochi, Tomonori. Tohoku University; JapónFil: Aso, Hisashi. Tohoku University; JapónFil: Salva, Maria Susana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucuman. Centro de Referencia Para Lactobacilos; ArgentinaFil: Alvarez, Gladis Susana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucuman. Centro de Referencia Para Lactobacilos; ArgentinaFil: Kitazawa, Haruki. Tohoku University; JapónFil: Villena, Julio Cesar. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucuman. Centro de Referencia Para Lactobacilos; Argentin

How to Measure CP Violation in Neutrino Oscillation Experiments?

We propose a new method for measuring CP violation in neutrino oscillation experiments. The idea is to isolate the term due to the CP-violating phase out of the oscillation probability by taking difference between yields of two (or three) detectors at path-lengths $L = 250 (\frac{E}{1.35 {GeV}}) (\frac{\Delta m^2}{10^{-2}{eV}^2})^{-1} {km}$ and at $L/3$ (and also at $2L/3$ in the case of three detectors). We use possible hierarchies in neutrino masses suggested by the astrophysical and the cosmological observations to motivate the idea and to examine how the method works.Comment: RevTex, 17 pages including 4 ps figure

Evaluation of the immunoregulatory capacities of feed microbial materials in porcine intestinal immune and epithelial cells.

The establishment of drug-free feeding systems has been required for secure and healthy lives- tock production. Although functional feed materials containing microorganisms as alternatives to enhance intestinal immunity are expected to be beneficial for reducing diarrhoea caused by pathogens in weaned piglets, the effects of such materials on porcine intestinal cells have not been investigated in detail. Therefore, this work evaluated the immunoregulatory functions of microbial feed materials in porcine intestinal immune and epithelial cells. Porcine immune cells isolated from Peyer?s patches and mesenteric lymph nodes were stimulated with six different feed materials containing microorganisms, and evaluated for lymphocyte mitogenicity and cytokine inductions. In addition, porcine intestinal epithelial cells were stimulated with the materials before treatment with heat-killed enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC), and analyzed for the proinflammatory cytokine expressions. The material containing Bifidobacterium thermophilum significantly augmented lymphocytes? mitogenicity and also induced a high expression of IL-2, IL-6 and IFN-γ in immune cells, and inhibited ETEC-induced overexpression of IL-6 and IL-8 via regulation of Toll-like receptor signaling. These results suggest that this feed material stimulates intestinal epithelial and immune cells to exert immunoregulation, suggesting that this feed is expected to contribute to promoting the health of piglets without using antimicrobial feed materials.Fil: Kumagae, Naosuke. Tohoku University. Graduate School of Agricultural Science. Laboratory of Animal Products Chemistry. Food and Feed Immunology Group; Japón. Scientific Feed Laboratory Co. Ltd.; JapónFil: Villena, Julio Cesar. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Tucumán. Centro de Referencia para Lactobacilos (i); Argentina. Tohoku University. Graduate School of Agricultural Science. Laboratory of Animal Products Chemistry. Food and Feed Immunology Group; JapónFil: Tomosada, Yohsuke. Tohoku University. Graduate School of Agricultural Science. Laboratory of Animal Products Chemistry. Food and Feed Immunology Group; JapónFil: Kobayashi, Hisakazu . Tohoku University. Graduate School of Agricultural Science. Laboratory of Animal Products Chemistry. Food and Feed Immunology Group; JapónFil: Kanmani, Paulraj. Tohoku University. Graduate School of Agricultural Science. Laboratory of Animal Products Chemistry. Food and Feed Immunology Group; Japón. Japan Society for the Promotion of Science; JapónFil: Aso, Hisashi . Tohoku University. Graduate School of Agricultural Science. Cell Biology Laboratory; JapónFil: Sasaki, Takashi . Scientific Feed Laboratory Co. Ltd.; JapónFil: Yoshida, Motohiko . Scientific Feed Laboratory Co. Ltd.; JapónFil: Tanabe, Hiroshi. Scientific Feed Laboratory Co. Ltd.; JapónFil: Shibata, Isao. Scientific Feed Laboratory Co. Ltd.; JapónFil: Saito, Tadao . Tohoku University. Graduate School of Agricultural Science. Laboratory of Animal Products Chemistry. Food and Feed Immunology Group; JapónFil: Kitazawa, Haruki. Tohoku University. Graduate School of Agricultural Science. Laboratory of Animal Products Chemistry. Food and Feed Immunology Group; Japó

Measuring Leptonic CP Violation by Low Energy Neutrino Oscillation Experiments

We uncover an interesting phenomenon that neutrino flavor transformation in slowly varying matter density imitates almost exactly that of vacuum neutrino oscillation under suitably chosen experimental parameters. It allows us to have relatively large CP violating measure \Delta P \equiv P(\nu_{\mu} \to \nu_e) - P(\bar{\nu}_{\mu} \to \bar{\nu}_e) which is essentially free from matter effect contamination. We utilize this phenomenon to design a low-energy long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment to measure the leptonic CP violating phase.Comment: RevTex file, 13 pages, 2 postscript figures, revised version, some new discussions were added, Fig. 2 was replace

Cancer of Unknown Primary Site:A Review of 28 Cases and the Efficacy of Cisplatin/Docetaxel Therapy at a Single Institute in Japan

We evaluated the efficacy and toxicity of cisplatin/docetaxel (CDDP/TXT) chemotherapy and identified prognostic factors in Japanese patients with cancer of unknown primary site (CUP). Twenty-eight consecutive patients seen at a single institute were reviewed retrospectively. Sixteen patients were treated with TXT 80mg/m2, followed by CDDP 75mg/m2. The overall response rate to CDDP/TXT treatment was 62.5%, with a median survival time (MST) of 22.7 months. Common adverse reactions were myelosuppression and hyponatremia. The MST of all 28 patients with CUP was 8.3 months, and the 1-year overall survival rate was 45.6%. Univariate analysis identified 5 prognostic factors:performance status, liver involvement, bone involvement, pleural involvement, and lymph node involvement. In conclusion, CDDP/TXT chemotherapy is effective with tolerable toxicity in patients with CUP. Japanese patients with CUP might be chemosensitive and may survive longer