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Background: Insulin-like growth factor (IGF)2 is a potent mitogen. To elucidate the relationship between IGF2 and risk of tumorigenesis, we analyzed associations between serum levels of IGF2 and incidence of liver cancer in a prospective case–control study nested in the Japan Collaborative Cohort study. Methods: A baseline survey was conducted from 1988 using blood samples from 39,242 subjects. Those who had been diagnosed with liver cancer by 1997 were regarded as cases. For each case, we randomly selected two or three controls matched for sex, age, and residential area. Conditional logistic regression was used to estimate ORs for cancer incidence associated with IGF2. Results: This analysis included 86 cases and 294 controls. Low IGF2 was associated with risk of future liver cancer (Ptrend Conclusions: Our findings suggest that low serum IGF2 level, especially below 460 ng/mL, is related to future risk of liver cancer. Impact: Our findings highlight this important biomarker for further analysis in large prospective cohorts and pooled investigation with other cohorts.

An 86-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital with anemia. She had never experienced symptoms of serositis. Colonoscopy revealed colitis with erosions and a friable mucosa. First, she was diagnosed with unclassified inflammatory bowel disease (IBD-U). We suspected familial Mediterranean fever as a differential diagnosis of IBD-U, and MEFV gene analysis showed heterozygosity for Exon2 R202Q. The patient was treated with colchicine 0.5 mg. After 4 months, a follow-up colonoscopy showed remarkable improvement of the mucosal inflammation throughout the entire colon. MEFV gene-associated enterocolitis responding to colchicine may be observed in patients with IBD-U and elucidating the role of MEFV gene mutations in intestinal inflammation is a future challenge.

The future Super-FRS separator-spectrometer at FAIR will provide rare-isotope beams for key experiments in nuclear structure, astrophysics and nuclear reactions. The Super-FRS will use large-aperture magnets, which is important for the acceptance of nuclear reaction products with a large transverse and longitudinal emittance. In the standard ion-optical separator mode, magnetic rigidity analysis in combination with atomic energy-loss will be performed for clean isotopic spatial separation, once in the Pre-Separator and second in the Main-Separator. New ion-optical developments, prepared for different categories of experiments, are presented in this article. The operating modes described in the early publications of the project are updated in the first part of the paper. In the second part, special ion-optical modes mainly for the experiments of the Super-FRS Experiment Collaboration are discussed. This collaboration is the succession of the FRS Collaboration which has concentrated on separator-spectrometer experiments with the present facility at GSI since 1990.

A new-generation radioactive-isotope (RI) beam facility, RI Beam Factory (RIBF), has been operating at the RIKEN Nishina Center for Accelerator-Based Science since 2007. A large variety of RI beams have been produced using the BigRIPS in-flight RI separator. To manage the large amount of data regarding RI-beam production, we have been developing a database system of RI beams produced with the BigRIPS separator. The RI-beam database contains data on the production cross sections and yields along with other detailed experimental conditions. The graphical user interface has been developed as a web application. The RI-beam database system is indispensable when considering RI-beam production procedures, optimizing BigRIPS setting, and implementing particle identification in isotope separation. Further, it is useful in discussing models and formula of the cross section.

BigRIPS is a powerful two-stage in-flight separator for the research with exotic nuclei studied in frontier experiments since more than a decade. The ion-optical system is very versatile due to the multi-stage structure of BigRIPS combined with the ZeroDegree spectrometer or the Superconducting Ring Cyclotron (SRC). Various optical modes can be flexibly realized according to the purpose of experiments. Two categories of developments are presented here. One is a new operating mode of BigRIPS aiming at higher ion-optical resolving power. BigRIPS itself has a two-stage structure. Spatial isotope separation is made at both the first and second stages. In the standard operating mode of BigRIPS, at the second stage the two spatial separations with energy degraders are subtractive in their resolving powers. Here, we present the additive mode. With the resulting increased spatial separation power, the isotopic background can be substantially reduced. Higher ion-optical resolving powers of the first and second BigRIPS degrader stages are also investigated with the goals to reduce further the background and to yield access to new isotopes of heavier elements. The other development is a dispersion-matched system with BigRIPS for high-resolution spectrometer experiments. The BigRIPS and ZeroDegree spectrometer are presently two independent, coupled achromatic systems. A new dispersion-matched mode of BigRIPS and ZeroDegree will enable novel experiments. For high-resolution spectroscopy experiments with high-intensity light projectiles, SRC and BigRIPS can be operated as a dispersion-matched system. The described different ion-optical developments are a base for a new category of experiments exploring exotic nuclei and mesic atoms. Characteristic future experiments with these new ion-optical developments are exemplified in this report.

The separation of heavy RI beams, produced from an 238U primary beam using the fragment separator BigRIPS, was considered by taking into account the charge-state change of the RI beam in beam-line materials. If the charge-state combination of the He-like and fully-stripped ions at the first and second dipole magnets is selected for the 208Rn beam, respectively, it is found that the Li-like or Be-like ions are required at the first dipole magnet for major contaminants which are the in-flight fission fragments of 238U. Because of the low probability of these charge states, the fission fragments are expected to be much suppressed. The experiment of the heavy-RI beam production was performed at RIKEN RI beam factory (RIBF). The fission fragments were successfully eliminated from the RI beam for the first time at RIBF. The RI beam with a narrow slit setting was simulated by applying software gates on the positions measured at two achromatic foci. A purity of 25% was obtained for 208Rn in the simulated RI beam.

The BigRIPS in-flight fragment separator in the RIKEN Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory project has been operated for nine years. Intense beams of heavy ions up to uranium with the beam power of 1-13 kW and the energy of 230-45 MeV/nucleon were used to produce the radioactive isotope beams by the BigRIPS fragment separator. The first superconducting triplet quadrupoles (STQ1) is in close proximity of the production target in the BigRIPS fragment separator and has been exposed to high radiation. The STQ1 consists of three air-core NbTi coils, wound by the wet-winding method, assembled in the liquid-helium bath cryostat. Based on the operation records of the superconducting magnet and its cryogenic system, the accumulated dose to the coils is evaluated to be order of 1 MGy. The observed impurities in the helium gas, such as tritium and hydrocarbons in the STQ1 cryostat, are presented as a possible radiation effect. Based on the excitation data of training ramps, we discuss the movement of the coils and a possible degradation of coils. No distinct degradation in the coil performance can be observed after nine years of operation.

Aim Interval gastric cancers (IGC) are defined as those diagnosed after negative results of endoscopy carried out within the past 10 years. We aimed to investigate the characteristics of IGC and the natural history of gastric cancer (GC) from a retrospective view of endoscopic images of older patients with IGC. Methods We retrospectively reviewed endoscopic images of 240 patients with GC who were aged >60 years. We compared past endoscopic images with newer ones, in which GC was diagnosed. IGC were classified into two categories: missed cancers and new cancers. Results Of the 240 patients with GC, 32 had past endoscopic images that qualified for a precise review. A total of 14 cases involved new cancers, whereas 18 involved missed cancers. Most of the IGC were stage I for at least 2 years; however, a small subset was unresectable at >2 years after a negative endoscopy. Furthermore, the rate of endoscopic treatment was significantly higher for IGC compared with that for non-IGC. Conclusions In people aged >60 years, most IGC remain in an early stage for at least 2 years; however, at >2 years after a negative endoscopy, some are unresectable. These results suggest that most early-stage GC will not develop into advanced cancers within 2 years; thus, a 2-year interval might be within the permissible range for patients with negative endoscopy results for any lesions. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2018; 18: 997-1002.

A 62-year-old man with a chief complaint of dysphagia visited our hospital. Enhanced computed tomography showed the tumor near the duodenal wall and lymphadenopathy in the left supraclavicular fossa and para-aortic lymph node. Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy showed an ulcer accompanied with a fistula in the anterior wall of duodenal bulb, suggesting that the tumor penetrated into duodenal wall. Biopsy from the lymph node in the left supraclavicular fossa indicated diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. Although chemotherapy was planned, massive arterial bleeding occurred from the part of duodenal penetration. Endoscopic hemostasis was unsuccessfully performed. Therefore, we performed transcathether arterial embolization for hemostasis. After the procedure, the patient received six cycles of chemotherapy, and he achieved complete response. He has been alive 5 years without recurrence. There were many cases of gastrointestinal bleeding from primary gastrointestinal lymphomas, while there were few cases with nodal involvement by malignant lymphoma resulting in bleeding from gastrointestinal tract. We herein report a case of duodenal bleeding by nodal involvement of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma with review of literature.

In-flight fission of a 345 MeV per nucleon 238U primary beam on a 2 mm thick 9Be target has been used to produce and study the decays of a range of neutron-rich nuclei centred around the doubly mid-shell nucleus 170Dy at the RIBF Facility, RIKEN, Japan. The produced secondary fragments of interest were identified eventby- event using the BigRIPS separator. The fragments were implanted into the WAS3ABI position sensitive silicon active stopper which allowed pixelated correlations between implants and their subsequent β-decay. Discrete γ-ray transitions emitted following decays from either metastable states or excited states populated following beta decay were identified using the 84 coaxial high-purity germanium (HPGe) detectors of the EURICA spectrometer, which was complemented by 18 additional cerium-doped lanthanum bromide (LaBr3)

Physics letters / B 762, 404 - 408 (2016). doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2016.09.058, Published by North-Holland Publ., Amsterdam

We have combined the low-energy neutron detector WINDS (Wide-angle Inverse-kinematics Neutron Detectors for SHARAQ) and the SAMURAI spectrometer at RIKEN Nishina Center RI Beam Factory (RIBF) in order to perform ( p , n ) reactions in inverse kinematics for unstable nuclei in the mass region around A ∼ 100 . In this setup, WINDS is used for detecting recoil neutrons and the SAMURAI spectrometer is used for tagging decay channel of heavy residue. The first experiment by using the setup was performed to study Gamow–Teller transitions from 132 Sn in April 2014. The atomic number Z and mass-to-charge ratio A / Q of the beam residues were determined from the measurements of time of flight, magnetic rigidity and energy loss. The obtained A / Q and Z resolutions were σ A / Q = 0.14 % and σ Z = 0.22 , respectively. Furthermore, owing to the large momentum acceptance ( 50 % ) of SAMURAI, the beam residues associated with the γ , 1n and 2n decay channel were measured in the same magnetic field setting. The kinematic loci of the measured recoil neutron energy and laboratory angle are clearly seen. It shows that the excitation energy up to about 20 MeV can be reconstructed.

New-generation in-flight separators are being developed worldwide, including the Super-FRS separator at the GSI Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR), the ARIS separator at the Michigan State University (MSU) Facility for Rare Isotopes Beams (FRIB), and the BigRIPS separator at the RIKEN RI Beam Factory (RIBF), each of which is aimed at expanding the frontiers of rare isotope (RI) production and advancing experimental studies on exotic nuclei far from stability. Here, the recent progress of in-flight separators is reviewed, focusing on the advanced features of these three representative separators. The RI beam production that we have conducted using the BigRIPS separator at RIKEN RIBF is also outlined.

The decay of a new four-quasiparticle isomeric state in 160Sm has been observed using γ-ray spectroscopy at the RIBF, RIKEN. The four-quasiparticle state is assigned a 2 π ⊗ 2 ν π 5 2 − [ 532 ] , π 5 2 + [ 413 ] , ν 5 2 − [ 523 ] , ν 7 2 + [ 633 ] configuration. The half-life of this ( 11 + ) state is measured to be 1.8(4) μs. The ( 11 + ) isomer decays into a rotational band structure, based on a ( 6 − ) ν 5 2 − [ 523 ] ⊗ ν 7 2 + [ 633 ] bandhead, consistent with the g K − g R values. This decays to a ( 5 − ) two-proton quasiparticle state, which in turn decays to the ground state band. Potential energy surface and blocked-BCS calculations were performed in the deformed midshell region around 160Sm. They reveal a significant influence from β 6 deformation and that 160Sm is the best candidate for the lightest four-quasiparticle K isomer to exist in this region. The relationship between reduced hindrance and isomer excitation energy for E1 transitions from multiquasiparticle states is considered with the new data from 160Sm. The E1 data are found to agree with the existing relationship for E2 transitions.

The decay of an isomeric state in the neutron-rich nucleus 129 Cd has been observed via the detection of internal conversion and Compton electrons providing first experimental information on excited states in this nucleus. The isomer was populated in the projectile fission of a 238 U beam at the Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory at RIKEN. From the measured yields of γ -rays and internal conversion electrons, a multipolarity of E 3 was tentatively assigned to the isomeric transition. A half-life of T 1 / 2 = 3.6 ( 2 ) ms was determined for the new state which was assigned a spin of ( 21 / 2 + ) , based on a comparison to shell model calculations performed using state-of-the-art realistic effective interactions.

We conducted an inclusive missing-mass spectroscopy of 122Sn (d, 3He) reaction near the π¯ emission threshold at an incident energy of T d = 250 MeV/nucleon. The experiment sets its goals to the research and development of the high precision spectroscopy of pionic atoms at the RI beam factory (RIBF) of RIKEN, which precedes a new project, pionic atom factory project (piAF), to observe pionic atoms systematically. Here, we report the preliminary results of the pilot experiment.

International audience; The one-neutron removal cross section from 29Ne, 33,35,37Mg, and 39,41Si on a Pb target have been measured at around 240 MeV/nucleon at the RIBF (RI-Beam Factory) at RIKEN. This main goal of the experiment was to extract the inclusive Coulomb breakup cross sections in order to probe possible halo structures through their enhanced low-energy E1 strengths - so-called soft E1 excitations. The results showed significant enhancement of the one-neutron removal Coulomb breakup cross section for 37Mg. This in turn provides evidence for the existence of halo structure in 37Mg.

With a new detector setup and the high-resolution performance of the fragment separator FRS at GSI we discovered 57 new isotopes in the atomic number range of 60$\leq Z \leq 78$: \nuc{159-161}{Nb}, \nuc{160-163}{Pm}, \nuc{163-166}Sm, \nuc{167-168}{Eu}, \nuc{167-171}{Gd}, \nuc{169-171}{Tb}, \nuc{171-174}{Dy}, \nuc{173-176}{Ho}, \nuc{176-178}{Er}, \nuc{178-181}{Tm}, \nuc{183-185}{Yb}, \nuc{187-188}{Lu}, \nuc{191}{Hf}, \nuc{193-194}{Ta}, \nuc{196-197}{W}, \nuc{199-200}{Re}, \nuc{201-203}{Os}, \nuc{204-205}{Ir} and \nuc{206-209}{Pt}. The new isotopes have been unambiguously identified in reactions with a $^{238}$U beam impinging on a Be target at 1 GeV/u. The isotopic production cross-section for the new isotopes have been measured and compared with predictions of different model calculations. In general, the ABRABLA and COFRA models agree better than a factor of two with the new data, whereas the semiempirical EPAX model deviates much more. Projectile fragmentation is the dominant reaction creating the new isotopes, whereas fission contributes significantly only up to about the element holmium., 9 pages, 4 figures

We present a scheme to use a fragment separator and profiled energy degraders to transfer longitudinal phase space into transverse phase space while maintaining achromatic beam transport. The first order beam optics theory of the method is presented and the consequent enlargement of the transverse phase space is discussed. An interesting consequence of the technique is that the first order mass resolving power of the system is determined by the first dispersive section up to the energy degrader, independent of whether or not momentum compression is used. The fragment separator at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams is a specific application of this technique and is described along with simulations by the code COSY INFINITY.

The BigRIPS fragment separator in the RIKEN RIBF project is characterized by fourteen superconducting triplet quadrupoles (STQ's) with large apertures and high-field gradients. While the five STQ's on the first stage of the BigRIPS are cooled by a liquid helium cryogenic plant, the nine STQ's on the second stage are cooled by small cryocoolers on their cryostat. This first stage serves to produce and separate RI beams, so that the first two STQs are exposed to the high radiation from the production target and beam dumps, which causes radiation heat loads as well as radiation damages. Measurements of the radiation heat loads to the cryostats of the first two STQs during commissioning operations of the RIBF facility are reported.

The high-resolution SHARAQ spectrometer is now under construction at RI Beam Factory (RIBF) of RIKEN. The spectrometer will be used in nuclear physics experiments in combination with a variety of radioactive isotope (RI) beams. It is designed to achieve a high momentum resolution of δp/p = 1/14,700 and a high angular resolution of δθ ∼ 1 mrad. Details of the ion-optical design and the newly-constructed magnets making up the spectrometer are described.

The high resolution beam line for the SHARAQ spectrometer was designed to satisfy the lateral and angular dispersion matching conditions based on the precise ion optical calculation using the measured magnetic field maps of the beam line magnets. The higher order aberration due to the large emittance of the secondary RI-beams was corrected by employing the three octupole magnets. A Monte Carlo calculation was carried out to examine the beam profile on the SHARAQ target, and it was found that the octupole magnets actually correct the higher order aberration.

The BigRIPS fragment separator in the RIKEN RI beam factory has an air-core type superconducting quadrupole triplet as the first focusing element. The quadrupole triplet consists of three air-core superconducting coils having effective lengths of 500 mm, 800 mm, and 500 mm, and the maximum field gradients of 24 T/m, 20 T/m, and 20 T/m. All three quadrupoles are assembled into a single cryostat and cooled by liquid-helium bath cooling using a cryogenic plant. The coils have a flat racetrack shape and their warm bore radii are 90 mm, 120 mm, and 120 mm. Its cryostat characterized by gas-cooled current leads with multiple electrodes is also discussed.

In the RI beam factory project, heavy ion beams are transported from the K 2500 MeV superconducting ring cyclotron (SRC) to the superconducting fragment separator, called BigRIPS. Magnets for the beam transport line from the SRC to the BigRIPS are reported. All the magnets are resistive type and the beam line consists of two kinds of dipoles and three kinds of quadrupoles. One of the dipole, having the maximum field strength of 2.0 T, a gap height of 60 mm, and a core length of 3.51 m is discussed in detail.

Measurements of the magnetic field distributions of the superconducting triplet quadrupoles (STQs) and the room-temperature dipoles for the BigRIPS separator are performed in order to use ion optics calculations of the BigRIPS. This report describes the results of magnetic field-map measurement of the superferric-typed STQ and dipole magnet including the field mapping device we employed for the measurements.

Superconducting triplet quadrupoles (STQs) with large apertures and high field-gradients are employed for the in-flight radioactive-isotope (RI) beam separator BigRIPS at RIKEN. It consists of fourteen STQs and six room-temperature dipoles. The use of the STQs makes it possible to achieve important features of the BigRIPS separator: large acceptances and a large magnetic rigidity, allowing efficient production of RI beams. The BigRIPS separator is presently under construction and assembly as a major installation in the RIKEN RI-beam factory project, and the commissioning is scheduled in early 2007. In this paper we present the status and overview of the BigRIPS separator, emphasizing the STQs and their liquid-helium cryogenic systems.

Three superferric quadrupoles with a pole-tip radius of 170 mm and a design field gradient of 14.1 T/m have been constructed and mapped for use as spectrometer elements. All three quadrupoles are assembled into a single cryostat and cooled by liquid-He bath cooling method. A small Gifford-McMahon/Joule-Thomson (GM/JT) cooler, mounted on the cryostat, requiries He gas that evaporates in the He vessel. The high-T/sub c/ superconducting current leads and radiation shield surrounding the He-vessel, cooled by a small GM cooler, reduce the heat load of the He vessel. Both cryocoolers operate using separate water-cooled compressors and allow us a stand-alone operation of the quadrupole magnets without big cryoplant. Results of quench protection tests, measured heat loads and mapped results are presented.

Mediators are well-known software components in the construction of distributed systems and applications, with clear advantages when adding functionality to legacy code. However, mediators that must handle dynamic interfaces (i.e. those that may change at run-time such as callback functions) are not easy to build in most imperative languages such as C, due to the many variants implied by the dynamic interfaces. We call this kind of mediators intermediators . We propose a systematic implementation method based on the concept of closures to implement intermediators using the Tempo run-time specializer for C programs. To illustrate this method, we implemented a unified user authentication intermediator for Unix and Windows 2000 called GINA-IM. GINA-IM gets the password entries from a Unix NIS server and performs user authentication based on the Graphical Identification and Authentication (GINA) model of Windows 2000. The code of GINA-IM is a quarter of the code size of a conventional component written without our tools. GINA-IM is in production use at authors' university by two thousands of freshmen in class and several thousands of students daily.

Two kinds of rotating wheel targets for high-power heavy ion reaction have been developed. One is a thick disk target with water-cooling being developed for the in-flight RI beam separator (BigRIPS). An in-beam test was performed using 40Ar beam at 24 AMeV, 1.9 particle μA, with the beam spot size 3 mm in diameter, resulting 0.25 GW/m2 beam power stopped at the surface of carbon disk 2 mm in thickness and 260 mm in diameter. It performed stably without melting. A simulation study has been developed and its possibility for the use of BigRIPS is discussed. The second is a thin target foil mounted on a wheel disk which rotates in He cooling gas of 13.32–133.2 Pa. Its main use is in fusion reactions to search for super-heavy elements by using the gas-filled recoil separator (GARIS). A typical foil is Pb or Bi of 200–300 μg/cm2 in thickness evaporated onto a carbon backing foil of 30 μg/cm2 thickness, and covered by evaporated carbon of 10 μg/cm2 thickness. It can withstand long use under high-intensity 64Ni beam at 311 MeV, and 0.5 particle μA.

Presented are features of the in-flight radioactive isotope (RI) beam separators in Japan as well as of a next-generation separator BigRIPS being built at RIKEN for the RI-beam factory project. Characteristic features and present status of the existing separators are reviewed for the RIPS at RIKEN, the Secondary Beam Line at RCNP, the Secondary Beam Course at NIRS, the CRIB at CNS and the RMS at JAERI. Design features are outlined for the BigRIPS, which is characterized by two major features: large acceptances and a tandem (or two-stage) separator scheme. The large acceptances allow one to produce RI beams efficiently by using in-flight fission of uranium ions, being achieved by using superconducting quadrupoles with a large aperture. The tandem separator scheme allows one to deliver tagged RI beam. The integrated capability of the BigRIPS and the accelerators of the project can significantly enlarge the scope of future RI-beam experiments. A low-energy course following the BigRIPS can provide energy-degraded and -bunched RI beams to be applied for a gas catcher system with an RF ion guide, aiming at realizing a projectile fragmentation based ISOL system.

The projectile fragment separator provides a wide variety of short-lived RI-ions with less restrictions on their chemical property or lifetime limit. The beam energy and quality is, however, not adequate for low-energy beam experiments, in particular for trapping experiments. Recently, one has proposed to obtain a low-energy beam from an energetic RI-beam leaving a projectile fragment separator by using a large gas-catcher and an rf ion-guide system. In off-line and in on-line test experiments, the principle of the rf ion-guide was proven. An overall efficiency of 0.2% for 70 MeV/u 8 Li from the RIKEN projectile fragment separator (RIPS) was obtained so far.

27th International Conference on Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics, NEUTRINO2016, London, England, 4 Jul 2016 - 9 Jul 2016; Journal of physics / Conference Series 888, 012192 - (2017). doi:10.1088/1742-6596/888/1/012192, Published by IOP Publ., Bristol

Two superferric quadrupoles with a pole-tip radius of 170 mm and a maximum pole-tip field of 2.4 T are designed for the BigRIPS projectile fragment separator at RIKEN. Taking the feasibility of coil winding into account, the shape of quadrupole coil has been optimized.

Physics letters / B 760, 641 - 646 (2016). doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2016.07.057, Published by North-Holland Publ., Amsterdam