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The definitive diagnosis of aseptic meningitis is made by analyzing the cerebrospinal fluid, which requires lumbar puncture (an invasive procedure) that is usually not performed if the patient has mild symptoms. [...]symptomatic management is the mainstay of therapy in aseptic meningitis. [...]it can be concluded that the incidence of mumps vaccine-related meningitis in Japan may be much higher than the frequency currently reported. The funding source had no role in study design, or in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data, in the writing of the report, or in the decision to submit the article for publication.

We have developed a low threshold detector consisting of Bragg curve counter (BCC), two siliconsurface barrier detectors (SSDs) and BGO scintillator to obtain experimental double-differential cross section (DDX) data for low energy proton production. Since the BCC offers advantage of self particle identification capability and a few μ m-thick entrance window, protons produced by nuclear reactions down to 1 MeV have been identified. The capability of the detector is demonstrated in measurements using 70-MeV protons. Measured spectra are compared with calculation results of intra-nuclear cascade (INC) plus evaporation models and nuclear data library.

Double differential cross sections (DDXs) of light mass fragment (LMFs - Li,Be,B,C,N and O) productions were measured for tens of MeV proton, deuteron helium and carbon induced reactions on Be, C, Al, Ti and Cu targets. The incident energies for the measurements were chosen to allow us to compare DDXs with same incident energy but different projectiles on various targets. Systematic data were obtained to see the differences between projectile energies, particles, targets and emitted particles. From the comparison, reaction processes of not only evaporation from complete fusion nucleus, but also scattering, pickup, stripping and projectile fragmentation were observed.

The angular distribution of compound reactions at bombarding energies lower than 10 MeV is known to be 90˚ symmetry. At the higher incident energies, 50-MeV range, the quantization axis tilts from the beam axis due to the particle emission in the cascade or the pre-equilibrium process. Therefore, it is necessary to know the tilted quantization axis for the angular distribution calculation of the evaporated protons from (p, p’x) reactions. In the present work, we applied the intranuclear cascade (INC) model to determine the tilted quantization axis by a classical vector analysis. The proton evaporation was calculated by the generalized evaporation model (GEM). By fitting calculations to experimental angular distributions, we deduced the angular momentum transfer from the equilibrium state.

The intranuclear cascade model was investigated to explain (p, dx) and (p, ax) reactions at incident energies of around 50 MeV. Since these reactions are governed mainly by the direct pickup process, the model was expanded to include exclusive pickup processes leading to hole-state-excitations. The energy of the outgoing clusters is determined with single-particle energies of transferred nucleons, the reaction Q-value, and the recoil of the residual nucleus. The rescattering of the produced cluster inside the nucleus is treated within the intranuclear cascade model. The emission angle is given by the sum of momentum vectors of transferred nucleons in addition to the deflection at the nuclear surface, which was introduced to explain angular distributions of elastic scattering. Double differential cross sections of reactions were calculated and compared with experimental data. The proposed model showed a high predictive power over the wide range of emission energies and angles. The treatment ofthe cluster transport inside the nucleus was also verified.

Background/Aim: To evaluate the safety of colorectomy in elderly colorectal cancer patients with high American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) scores compared to those with low scores. Patients and Methods: Two hundred patients with stage I-IV colorectal cancer aged ≥80 years were retrospectively analyzed. Short- and long-term outcomes were compared between 136 patients with ASA scores ≤2 (low ASA group) and 64 patients with scores ≥3 (high ASA group). Results: The incidence of postoperative complications, duration of postoperative hospital stay, and 5-year overall and cancer-specific survival rates did not differ significantly between the groups. Laparoscopic surgery was significantly associated with a lower incidence of postoperative complications than open surgery in the high ASA score group (p=0.041), whereas no difference was observed in the low ASA score group (p=0.639). In the high ASA group, open surgery (p=0.024) and higher body mass index (p=0.040) were independent risk factors for postoperative complications. Conclusion: Colorectal cancer resection can be safely performed in elderly patients with high ASA scores. Moreover, laparoscopic surgery may have a stronger contribution to the reduction of postoperative complications in elderly patients with colorectal cancer with high ASA scores than in those with low ASA scores.

Two features, a slow slope and a sharp drop, in neutron induced total nonelastic cross-sections are analyzed within the framework of an intra-nuclear cascade (INC) model. First, to reproduce the slow slope from 100MeV to 10 MeV, the original INC is generalized in two points; a method to construct the ground state of the target nucleus, and a method of taking the effective two body cross-sections between two nucleons. Secondly, to analyze the origin of the sharp drop from 10MeV to nearly 1 MeV, the INC is extended to include quantum effects which are originated from the existence of the discrete states in the nuclear potential. It is shown that this extension leads to the sharp drops in the very low energy below around 10MeV. It is concluded that the INC model can be extended to explain the sharp drops in addition to the slow slope in neutron induced nonelastic cross-sections in the energy region from 100MeV down to 1 MeV.