[en] The impact of the Asian economic crisis on the petrochemical industry was discussed. From 1985 to 1995 East Asian currencies that were pegged to the US dollar experienced a 40 per cent depreciation against other major currencies, such as the Japanese yen. This resulted in strong exports which stimulated rapid economic growth rates. However, during 1995-1997, the US dollar rebounded, appreciating by 20 per cent. For countries such as Indonesia, Thailand and Korea, the sharp appreciation of their US dollar-linked currencies effectively reversed their export advantage vis-a-vis China and Japan, and led to massive devaluation of their currencies. Tightening of the Japanese fiscal policy by increasing taxes produced disastrous results, leading to a drastic reduction in consumer demand. The solution, it was suggested, lies in loosening Japanese fiscal policy and stabilizing the Yen-Dollar rate. Another solution suggested was decisive action to strengthen the Japanese banking system. Despite the current difficulties, it was concluded that the future outlook for the Asian petrochemical market is bright and that steady economic growth can be expected in the long term. It was suggested that the main factor that will determine how quickly East Asian economies recover will be how quickly the Japanese economy emerges from recession. 6 figs

[en] Published in summary form only

[en] Published in summary form only

[en] Published in summary form only

[en] Published in summary form only

[en] Published in summary form only

[en] Activation cross sections for the reactions leading to short-lived nuclei with half-lives between 0.5 and 20 m were measured to provide nuclear data required for fusion reactor technology. Up to now, 32 cross sections for (n,2n), (n,p), (n,n'p) and (n,α) reactions have been obtained at neutron energies of 13.4 to 14.9 MeV by the activation method using the intense 14 MeV neutron source facility of Osaka University (OKTAVIAN). Some attention was paid to measure β⁺ emitters and γ-rays efficiently in a short time. The total errors were within 3.6% when good counting statistics were achieved

[en] A method to determine the β⁺-ray maximum energy with a high purity germanium (HPGe) detector is proposed. The response function of an HPGe detector was determined by measurements of monoenergetic positrons with energy up to 3.8 MeV. The energy dependence of the response function was described in analytical functions including 14 parameters. Using the response function, β⁺-ray maximum energies for ⁶²Cu and ⁶⁸Ga with well-known Q_EC-values were measured. The accuracy of β⁺-ray maximum energy determination in the present method is estimated to be better than 20 keV in good statistics. The method was applied to ⁹¹Mo (T_1/2=15.49 min); its Q_EC-value was measured to be 4.435(23) MeV. (orig.)