We report on measurements of neutrino oscillation using data from the T2K long-baseline neutrino experiment collected between 2010 and 2013. In an analysis of muon neutrino disappearance alone, we find the following estimates and 68% confidence intervals for the two possible mass hierarchies: normal hierarchy∶ sin 2 θ 23 ¼ 0.514 þ0.055 −0.056 and Δm 2 32 ¼ ð2.51 AE 0.10Þ × 10 −3 eV 2 =c 4 and inverted hierarchy∶ sin 2 θ 23 ¼ 0.511 AE 0.055 and Δm 2 13 ¼ ð2.48 AE 0.10Þ × 10 −3 eV 2 =c 4 . The analysis accounts for multinucleon mechanisms in neutrino interactions which were found to introduce negligible bias. We describe our first analyses that combine measurements of muon neutrino disappearance and electron neutrino appearance to estimate four oscillation parameters, jΔm 2 j, sin 2 θ 23 , sin 2 θ 13 , δ CP , and the mass hierarchy. Frequentist and Bayesian intervals are presented for combinations of these parameters, with and without including recent reactor measurements. At 90% confidence level and including reactor measurements, we exclude the region δ CP ¼ ½0.15; 0.83 π for normal hierarchy and δ CP ¼ ½−0.08; 1.09 π for inverted hierarchy. The T2K and reactor data weakly favor the normal hierarchy with a Bayes factor of 2.2. The most probable values and 68% one-dimensional credible intervals for the other oscillation parameters, when reactor data are included, are sin 2 θ 23 ¼ 0.528 þ0.055 −0.038 and jΔm 2 32 j ¼ ð2.51 AE 0.11Þ × 10 −3 eV 2 =c 4 .

Background Patients with cancer may be at high risk of adverse outcomes from SARS-CoV-2 infection. We analyzed a cohort of patients with cancer and COVID-19 reported to the COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium (CCC19) to identify prognostic clinical factors, including laboratory measurements and anti-cancer therapies. Patients and Methods Patients with active or historical cancer and a laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis recorded between March 17-November 18, 2020 were included. The primary outcome was COVID-19 severity measured on an ordinal scale (uncomplicated, hospitalized, admitted to intensive care unit, mechanically ventilated, died within 30 days). Multivariable regression models included demographics, cancer status, anti-cancer therapy and timing, COVID-19-directed therapies, and laboratory measurements (among hospitalized patients). Results 4,966 patients were included (median age 66 years, 51% female, 50% non-Hispanic white); 2,872 (58%) were hospitalized and 695 (14%) died; 61% had cancer that was present, diagnosed, or treated within the year prior to COVID-19 diagnosis. Older age, male sex, obesity, cardiovascular and pulmonary comorbidities, renal disease, diabetes mellitus, non-Hispanic Black race, Hispanic ethnicity, worse ECOG performance status, recent cytotoxic chemotherapy, and hematologic malignancy were associated with higher COVID-19 severity. Among hospitalized patients, low or high absolute lymphocyte count, high absolute neutrophil count, low platelet count, abnormal creatinine, troponin, LDH, and CRP were associated with higher COVID-19 severity. Patients diagnosed early in the COVID-19 pandemic (January-April 2020) had worse outcomes than those diagnosed later. Specific anti-cancer therapies (e.g. R-CHOP, platinum combined with etoposide, and DNA methyltransferase inhibitors) were associated with high 30-day all-cause mortality. Conclusions Clinical factors (e.g. older age, hematological malignancy, recent chemotherapy) and laboratory measurements were associated with poor outcomes among patients with cancer and COVID-19. Although further studies are needed, caution may be required in utilizing particular anti-cancer therapies.

The T2K experiment has observed electron neutrino appearance in a muon neutrino beam produced 295 km from the Super-Kamiokande detector with a peak energy of 0.6 GeV. A total of 28 electron neutrino events were detected with an energy distribution consistent with an appearance signal, PRL 112, 061802 (2014) P H Y S I C A L R E V I E W L E T T E R Sweek ending 14 FEBRUARY 2014 061802-2 corresponding to a significance of 7.3σ when compared to 4.92 AE 0.55 expected background events. In the Pontecorvo-Maki-Nakagawa-Sakata mixing model, the electron neutrino appearance signal depends on several parameters including three mixing angles θ 12 , θ 23 , θ 13 , a mass difference Δm 2 32 and a CP violating phase δ CP . In this neutrino oscillation scenario, assuming jΔm 2 32 j ¼ 2.4 × 10 −3 eV 2 , sin 2 θ 23 ¼ 0.5, and Δm −0.037 ) is obtained at δ CP ¼ 0. When combining the result with the current best knowledge of oscillation parameters including the world average value of θ 13 from reactor experiments, some values of δ CP are disfavored at the 90% C.L. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.061802 PACS numbers: 14.60.Pq, 14.60.Lm, 25.30.Pt, 29.40.Ka Introduction.-The discovery of neutrino oscillations using atmospheric neutrinos was made by SuperKamiokande in 1998 [1]. Since then, many other experiments have confirmed the phenomenon of neutrino oscillations through various disappearance modes of flavor transformations. However, to date, there has not been an observation of the explicit appearance of a different neutrino flavor from neutrinos of another flavor through neutrino oscillations. In 2011, the T2K collaboration published the first indication of electron neutrino appearance from a muon neutrino beam at 2.5σ significance based on a data set corresponding to 1.43 × 10 20 protons on target (POT) [2,3]. This result was followed by the publication of further evidence for electron neutrino appearance at 3.1σ in early 2013 [4]. This Letter presents new results from the T2K experiment that establish, at greater than 5σ, the observation of electron-neutrino appearance from a muon-neutrino beam.In a three-flavor framework, neutrino oscillations are described by the Pontecorvo-Maki-Nakagawa-Sakata (PMNS) matrix [5,6] which is parametrized by three mixing angles θ 12 , θ 23 , θ 13 , and a CP violating phase δ CP . In this framework, the probability for ν μ → ν e oscillation can be expressed [7] as where L is the neutrino propagation distance and E is the neutrino energy. The measurement of ν μ → ν e oscillations is of particular interest because this mode is sensitive to both θ 13 and δ CP . The first indication of nonzero θ 13 was published by T2K [3] based on the measurement of ν μ → ν e oscillations. More recently, indications of ν μ → ν e oscillations were also reported by the MINOS experiment [8]. The value of θ 13 is now precisely known to be 9.1°AE 0.6°from measurements ofν e disappearance in reactor neutrino experiments [9][10][11][12]. Using the reactor measurement of θ 13 , the ν μ → ν e appearance mode can be used to ...

The Tokai-to-Kamioka (T2K) experiment studies neutrino oscillations using an off-axis muon neutrino beam with a peak energy of about 0.6 GeV that originates at the J-PARC accelerator facility. Interactions of the neutrinos are observed at near detectors placed at 280 m from the production target and at the far detector -Super-Kamiokande (SK) -located 295 km away. The flux prediction is an essential part of the successful prediction of neutrino interaction rates at the T2K detectors and is an important input to T2K neutrino oscillation and cross section measurements. A FLUKA and GEANT3 based simulation models the physical processes involved in the neutrino production, from the interaction of primary beam protons in the T2K target, to the decay of hadrons 3 and muons that produce neutrinos. The simulation uses proton beam monitor measurements as inputs. The modeling of hadronic interactions is re-weighted using thin target hadron production data, including recent charged pion and kaon measurements from the NA61/SHINE experiment. For the first T2K analyses the uncertainties on the flux prediction are evaluated to be below 15% near the flux peak. The uncertainty on the ratio of the flux predictions at the far and near detectors is less than 2% near the flux peak.

Dendritic cells (DCs) are bone marrow–derived leukocytes that function as potent antigen presenting cells capable of initiating T cell–dependent responses from quiescent lymphocytes. DC pulsed with tumor-associated antigen (TAA) peptide or protein have recently been demonstrated to elicit antigen-specific protective antitumor immunity in a number of murine models. Transduction of DCs with TAA genes may allow stable, prolonged antigen expression as well as the potential for presentation of multiple, or unidentified, epitopes in association with major histocompatibility complex class I and/or class II molecules. To evaluate the potential efficacy of retrovirally transduced DCs, bone marrow cells harvested from BALB/c mice were transduced with either a model antigen gene encoding β-galactosidase (β-gal) or a control gene encoding rat HER-2/neu (Neu) by coculture with irradiated ecotropic retroviral producer lines. Bone marrow cells were differentiated into DC in vitro using granulocyte/macrophage colony-stimulating factor and interleukin-4. After 7 d in culture, cells were 45–78% double positive for DC phenotypic cell surface markers by FACS® analysis, and DC transduced with β-gal were 41–72% positive for β-gal expression by X-gal staining. In addition, coculture of β-gal transduced DC with a β-gal–specific T cell line (CTLx) resulted in the production of large amounts of interferon-γ, demonstrating that transduced DCs could process and present endogenously expressed β-gal. DC transduced with β-gal and control rat HER-2/neu were then used to treat 3-d lung metastases in mice bearing an experimental murine tumor CT26.CL25, expressing the model antigen, β-gal. Treatment with β-gal–transduced DC significantly reduced the number of pulmonary metastatic nodules compared with treatment with Hank's balanced salt solution or DCs transduced with rat HER-2/neu. In addition, immunization with β-gal–transduced DCs resulted in the generation of antigen-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs), which were significantly more reactive against relevant tumor targets than CTLs generated from mice immunized with DCs pulsed with the Ld-restricted β-gal peptide. The results observed in this rapidly lethal tumor model suggest that DCs transduced with TAA may be a useful treatment modality in tumor immunotherapy.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to a declaration of a Public Health Emergency of International Concern by the World Health Organization. As of May 18, 2020, there have been more than 4.7 million cases and over 316,000 deaths worldwide. COVID-19 is caused by a highly infectious novel coronavirus known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), leading to an acute infectious disease with mild-to-severe clinical symptoms such as flu-like symptoms, fever, headache, dry cough, muscle pain, loss of smell and taste, increased shortness of breath, bilateral viral pneumonia, conjunctivitis, acute respiratory distress syndromes, respiratory failure, cytokine release syndrome (CRS), sepsis, etc. While physicians and scientists have yet to discover a treatment, it is imperative that we urgently address 2 questions: how to prevent infection in immunologically naive individuals and how to treat severe symptoms such as CRS, acute respiratory failure, and the loss of somatosensation. Previous studies from the 1918 influenza pandemic have suggested vitamin D's non-classical role in reducing lethal pneumonia and case fatality rates. Recent clinical trials also reported that vitamin D supplementation can reduce incidence of acute respiratory infection and the severity of respiratory tract diseases in adults and children. According to our literature search, there are no similar findings of clinical trials that have been published as of July 1st, 2020, in relation to the supplementation of vitamin D in the potential prevention and treatment for COVID-19. In this review, we summarize the potential role of vitamin D extra-renal metabolism in the prevention and treatment of the SARS-CoV-2 infection, helping to bring us slightly closer to fulfilling that goal. We will focus on 3 major topics here: 1. Vitamin D might aid in preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection: • Vitamin D: Overview of Renal and Extra-renal metabolism and regulation. • Vitamin D: Overview of molecular mechanism and multifaceted functions beyond skeletal homeostasis. • Vitamin D: Overview of local immunomodulation in human infectious diseases.-Anti-viral infection.-Anti-malaria and anti-systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).

New data from the T2K neutrino oscillation experiment produce the most precise measurement of the neutrino mixing parameter θ23. Using an off-axis neutrino beam with a peak energy of 0.6 GeV and a data set corresponding to 6.57 × 10 20 protons on target, T2K has fit the energydependent νµ oscillation probability to determine oscillation parameters. The 68% confidence limit 3 on sin 2 (θ23) is 0.514−0.056 (0.511 ± 0.055), assuming normal (inverted) mass hierarchy. The bestfit mass-squared splitting for normal hierarchy is ∆m 2 32 = (2.51 ± 0.10) ×10 −3 eV 2 /c 4 (inverted hierarchy: ∆m 2 13 = (2.48 ± 0.10) ×10 −3 eV 2 /c 4 ). Adding a model of multinucleon interactions that affect neutrino energy reconstruction is found to produce only small biases in neutrino oscillation parameter extraction at current levels of statistical uncertainty.

The T2K experiment has performed a search for νe disappearance due to sterile neutrinos using 5.9 × 10 20 protons on target for a baseline of 280 m in a neutrino beam peaked at about 500 MeV. A sample of νe CC interactions in the off-axis near detector has been selected with a purity of 63% and an efficiency of 26%. The p-value for the null hypothesis is 0.085 and the excluded region at 95% CL is approximately sin 2 2θee > 0.3 for ∆m 2 eff > 7 eV 2 /c 4 .3 Introduction -In the last two decades, several experiments have observed neutrino oscillations compatible with the hypothesis of neutrino mixing in a three active flavours basis, described by the PMNS matrix [1]. Nevertheless, there exist experimental data that cannot be accommodated in this framework: the deficit of ν e originating from intense radioactive sources in the calibration of the solar neutrino gallium detectors SAGE [2,3] and GALLEX [4] and ν e rates near nuclear reactors [5]. Those experiments cover L/E values of order 1 m/ MeV, where L is the neutrino flight-path and E is the neutrino energy, too large to observe any sizeable effect for the standard neutrino mass differences. These anomalies can be interpreted as neutrino oscillations if the PMNS matrix is extended by introducing a new sterile neutrino ν s (3+1 model) with a mass of order 1 eV/c 2 [5,6]. The