[en] Objective. To assess the utility of CT in the evaluation of pulmonary tuberculosis in patients without AIDS. Patients and methods. Thin-section CT scans for suspicion of pulmonary tuberculosis were obtained from 226 patients. A total of 38 patients were excluded; the reasons were unavailability of final results (n=18), patient unavailability for follow-up (n=13), and coexistence of tuberculosis and aspergilloma (n=7). The results from 188 patients were used for this study. After assessing the patterns of parenchymal lesion, involved segments, and presence of cavity, bronchiectases, and bronchogenic spread of the lesion with CT, tentative diagnosis and disease activity were recorded. Results. With CT, 133 of 146 patients (91%) with tuberculosis were correctly diagnosed as having pulmonary tuberculosis whereas 32 of 42 patients (76%) without tuberculosis were correctly excluded. CT diagnosis of lung cancer (n=8), bacterial pneumonia (n=2), pulmonary metastasis (n=1), chronic hypersensitivity pneumonia (n=1) and diffuse pan-bronchiolitis (n=1) turned out to be tuberculosis. Conversely CT diagnoses of tuberculosis appeared pathologically as lung cancer (n=5), bacterial pneumonia 71/89, 80%) and inactive state (51/57, 89%) of disease respectively could be correctly differentiated by CT. Conclusion. CT can be helpful in the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis in most cases. On the basis of CT findings, distinction of active from inactive disease can be made in most cases. (authors)

[en] Theoretical description of cross-shell states, whose parity is opposite to that of the ground state, in light neutron-rich nuclei represents a difficult task, since they involve transitions encompassing two major shells on a proton-neutron asymmetric system. More specifically obtaining reliable effective interactions in the nuclear shell model for such transitions is a challenge. Scarcity of experimental constraints may be additionally responsible to this. An experimental attempt to furnish new spectroscopic information on cross-shell states in neutron-rich carbon isotopes, ¹⁷C and ¹⁹C, is described, and the applicability of modern shell-model interactions in describing relevant spectroscopy is discussed. Brief description of the experiment utilizing RIKEN-RIBF, SAMURAI spectrometer is provided. (author)

[en] A new plasma/catalyst continuously regenerative hybrid system (PCRHS) is introduced to reduce diesel particulate matter (DPM), NOx, CO, etc., contained in diesel exhaust gas. The catalyst temperature, plasma energy density, and exhaust gas characteristics were investigated with a passenger diesel car (2500cc) at the dynamometer test bed and chassis dynamometer with CVS-75 test mode. It was reported that the smoke removal efficiency was around 70% at the dynamometer test bed with 80 W energy consumption, and that PM removal efficiency was 68% at the chassis dynamometer. The NOx was reduced up to 20% according to the electrode types and temperature, respectively. The hybrid system test shows that DPM and CO were almost removed and NOx reduced to 30% simultaneously by the system. Considering these results, PCRHS could be a promising method to regenerate diesel particulate

[en] The units of the ordinate axis of Fig. 2 on page 506 were given incorrectly as [mb/(GeV/c)]. They should be [mb/(MeV/c)]. This change does not affect any of the results in Table 1, including the cross sections, nor the subsequent discussion. (authors)

[en] The low-lying unbound level structure of the halo nucleus ¹⁹C has been investigated using single-neutron knockout from ²⁰C on a carbon target at 280 MeV/nucleon. The invariant mass spectrum, derived from the momenta of the forward going beam velocity ¹⁸C fragment and neutrons, was found to be dominated by a very narrow near threshold (E-rel = 0.036(1) MeV) peak. Two less strongly populated resonance like features were also observed at E(rel) = 0.84(4) and 2.31(3) MeV, both of which exhibit characteristics consistent with neutron p-shell hole states. Comparisons of the energies, measured cross sections and parallel momentum distributions to the results of shell-model and eikonal reaction calculations lead to spin-parity assignments of 5/2₁⁺ and 1/2₁^- for the levels at E_x = 0.62(9) and 2.89(10) MeV with S_n = 0.58(9) MeV. Spectroscopic factors were also deduced and found to be in reasonable accord with shell-model calculations. The valence neutron configuration of the ²⁰C ground state is thus seen to include, in addition to the known 1s_1/2² component, a significant 0d_5/2² contribution. The level scheme of ¹⁹C, including significantly the 1/2₁^- cross-shell state, is well accounted for by the YSOX shell-model interaction developed from the monopole-based universal interaction. (authors)

[en] First experimental evidence of the population of the first 2⁻ state in ¹⁶C above the neutron threshold is obtained by neutron knockout from ¹⁷C on a hydrogen target. The invariant mass method combined with in-beam γ-ray detection is used to locate the state at 5.45(1) MeV. Comparison of its populating cross section and parallel momentum distribution with a Glauber model calculation utilizing the shell-model spectroscopic factor confirms the core-neutron removal nature of this state. Additionally, a previously known unbound state at 6.11 MeV and a new state at 6.28(2) MeV are observed. The position of the first 2⁻ state, which belongs to a member of the lowest-lying p–sd cross shell transition, is reasonably well described by the shell-model calculation using the WBT interaction

[en] The ¹⁶C nucleus has been investigated by the neutron knockout reaction of ¹⁷C on a liquid hydrogen target. Applying the invariant mass method in inverse kinematics and γ-ray spectroscopy, the energy spectrum was reconstructed by triple-coincidence measurement, in which neutrons, charged fragments, and γ rays from the decay of the reaction residue (¹⁶C^*) were detected. A peak at 0.47 MeV was observed in the invariant mass spectrum in coincidence with a peak at 0.74 MeV in the γ-ray spectrum, which indicates the presence of an unbound state with an excitation energy of 5.46 MeV. Comparison of the experimental cross section with the value derived by a theoretical calculation provided evidence that the spin-parity of this state is 2⁻. (author)

[en] The neutron-rich oxygen isotope ²³O has been investigated via proton inelastic scattering on a liquid hydrogen target at 63.5 MeV/nucleon. The invariant mass method in inverse kinematics was employed to reconstruct the energy spectrum. A sharp resonance state was observed at 42(5) keV above the neutron threshold. A comparison of the differential cross section leading to this state with a microscopic DWBA calculation allowed a J^π assignment of 5/2⁺ for this state. (author)