The K2K experiment observes indications of neutrino oscillation: a reduction of nu(mu) flux together with a distortion of the energy spectrum. Fifty-six beam neutrino events are observed in Super-Kamiokande (SK), 250 km from the neutrino production point, with an expectation of 80.1(+6.2)(-5.4). Twenty-nine one ring mu-like events are used to reconstruct the neutrino energy spectrum, which is better matched to the expected spectrum with neutrino oscillation than without. The probability that the observed flux at SK is explained by statistical fluctuation without neutrino oscillation is less than 1%.

Background Intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN) is premalignant pancreatic lesion. International guidelines offer limited predictors of individual risk. A nomogram to predict individual IPMN malignancy risk was released, with good diagnostic performance based on a large cohort of Asian patients with IPMN. The present study validated a nomogram to predict malignancy risk and invasiveness of IPMN using both Eastern and Western cohorts. Methods Clinicopathological and radiological data from patients who underwent pancreatic resection for IPMN at four centres each in Eastern and Western countries were collected. After excluding patients with missing data for at least one malignancy predictor in the nomogram (main pancreatic duct diameter, cyst size, presence of mural nodule, serum carcinoembryonic antigen and carbohydrate antigen (CA) 19‐9 levels, and age). Results In total, data from 393 patients who fit the criteria were analysed, of whom 265 were from Eastern and 128 from Western institutions. Although mean age, sex, log value of serum CA19‐9 level, tumour location, main duct diameter, cyst size and presence of mural nodule differed between the Korean/Japanese, Eastern and Western cohorts, rates of malignancy and invasive cancer did not differ significantly. Areas under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve values for the nomogram predicting malignancy were 0·745 for Eastern, 0·856 for Western and 0·776 for combined cohorts; respective values for the nomogram predicting invasiveness were 0·736, 0·891 and 0·788. Conclusions External validation of the nomogram showed good performance in predicting cancer in both Eastern and Western patients with IPMN lesions.

The human leucocyte antigen (HLA) system is the most polymorphic genetic system in humans, and HLA matching is crucial in organ transplantation, especially in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. We investigated HLA-A, HLA-B and HLA-DRB1 allele and haplotype frequencies at allelic level in 10 918 Koreans from bone marrow donor registry in Korea. Intermediate resolution HLA typing was performed using Luminex technology (Wakunaga, Japan), and additional allelic level typing was performed using PCR-single-strand conformation polymorphism method and/or sequence-based typing (Abbott Molecular, USA). Allele and haplotype frequencies were calculated by direct counting and maximum likelihood methods, respectively. A total of 39 HLA-A, 66 HLA-B and 47 HLA-DRB1 alleles were identified. High-frequency alleles found at a frequency of ≥5% were 6 HLA-A (A*02:01, *02:06, *11:01, *24:02, *31:01 and *33:03), 6 HLA-B (B*15:01, *35:01, *44:03, *51:01, 54:01 and *58:01) and 8 HLA-DRB1 (DRB1*01:01, *04:05, *04:06, *07:01, *08:03, *09:01, *13:02 and *15:01) alleles. At each locus, A*02, B*15 and DRB1*14 generic groups were most diverse at allelic level, consisting of 9, 12 and 11 different alleles, respectively. A total of 366, 197 and 21 different HLA-A-B-DRB1 haplotypes were estimated with frequencies of ≥0.05%, ≥0.1% and ≥0.5%, respectively. The five most common haplotypes with frequencies of ≥2.0% were A*33:03-B*44:03-DRB1*13:02 (4.97%), A*33:03-B*58:01-DRB1*13:02, A*33:03-B*44:03-DRB1*07:01, A*24:02-B*07:02-DRB1*01:01 and A*24:02-B*52:01-DRB1*15:02. Among 34 serologic HLA-A-B-DR haplotypes with frequencies of ≥0.5%, 17 haplotypes revealed allele-level diversity and majority of the allelic variation was arising from A2, A26, B61, B62, DR4 and DR14 specificities. Haplotype diversity obtained in this study is the most comprehensive data thus far reported in Koreans, and the information will be useful for unrelated stem cell transplantation as well as for disease association studies.

Ozonation characteristics of bisphenol A were investigated as a function of gaseous ozone dose, initial concentration of bisphenol A, pH, radical scavenger (tert-butanol), and radical initiator (hydrogen peroxide). The ozonation led to a complete removal of bisphenol A in water within a certain period of time. The overall rate of the ozonation linearly increased with the ozone dose. The stoichiometry in the ozonation of bisphenol A was found to be 1.5 - 1.8 mole of ozone per mole of bisphenol A. The direct reaction rate constants were 1.3 x 10(4) M(-1)s(-1) for bisphenol A (at pH = 2) and 1.6 x 10(9) M(-1)s(-1) for dissociated bisphenol A (at pH = 12). Bisphenol A degraded via the direct reaction with molecular ozone in the pH range from 2 to 12. Degradation by OH radical was minor even at pH = 12. The overall degradation rate in heterogeneous conditions was independent of pH as it was limited by ozone mass transfer rate. Use of hydrogen peroxide did not alter the main degradation route and the molecular ozone remained a principal oxidant as a substantial portion of the OH radical is scavenged by hydrogen peroxide. Effective ozone mass transfer may appear essential to enhance the ozonation kinetics of bisphenol A.

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