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Iatrogenic tracheobronchial injury (ITI) is an infrequent but potentially life-threatening disease, with significant morbidity and mortality rates. Its incidence is presumably underestimated since several cases are underrecognized and underreported. Causes of ITI include endotracheal intubation (EI) or percutaneous tracheostomy (PT). Most frequent clinical manifestations are subcutaneous emphysema, pneumomediastinum and unilateral or bilateral pneumothorax, even if occasionally ITI can occur without significant symptoms. Diagnosis mainly relies on clinical suspicion and CT scan, although flexible bronchoscopy remains the gold standard, allowing to identify location and size of the injury. EI and PT related ITIs more commonly consist of longitudinal tear involving the pars membranacea. Based on the depth of tracheal wall injury, Cardillo and colleagues proposed a morphologic classification of ITIs, attempting to standardize their management. Nevertheless, in literature there are no unambiguous guidelines on the best therapeutic modality: management and its timing remain controversial. Historically, surgical repair was considered the gold standard, mainly in high-grade lesions (IIIa-IIIb), carrying high morbi-mortality rates, but currently the development of promising endoscopic techniques through rigid bronchoscopy and stenting could allow for bridge treatment, delaying surgical approach after improving general conditions of the patient, or even for definitive repair, ensuring lower morbi-mortality rates especially in high-risk surgical candidates. Our perspective review will cover all the above issues, aiming at providing an updated and clear diagnostic-therapeutic pathway protocol, which could be applied in case of unexpected ITI.

Tracheal stenosis (TS) is a debilitating disease promoted by pathologic narrowing of the trachea. The acute respiratory distress syndrome caused by COVID-19 has been demonstrated to trigger enhanced inflammatory response and to require prolonged invasive mechanical ventilation as well as high frequency of re-intubation or emergency intubation, thus increasing the rate and complexity of TS. The standard-of-care of COVID-19-related tracheal complications has yet to be established and this is a matter of concern. This review aims at collecting latest evidence on this disease, providing an exhaustive overview on its distinctive features and open issues, and investigating different diagnostic and therapeutic strategies to handle COVID-19-induced TS, focusing on endoscopic versus open surgical approach. The former encompasses bronchoscopic procedures: electrocautery or laser-assisted incisions, ballooning dilation, submucosal steroid injection, endoluminal stenting. The latter consists of tracheal resection with end-to-end anastomosis. As a rule, traditionally, the endoscopic management is restricted to short, low-grade, and simple TS, whereas the open techniques are employed in long, high-grade, and complex TS. However, the critical conditions or extreme comorbidities of several COVID-19 patients, as well as the marked inflammation in tracheal mucosa, have led some authors to apply endoscopic management also in complex TS, recording acceptable results. Although severe COVID-19 seems to be an issue of the past, its long-term complications are still unknown and considering the increased rate and complexity of TS in these patients, we strongly believe that it is worth to focus on it, attempting to find the best management strategy for COVID-19-related TS.

ObjectiveCardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) is currently recommended for all patients undergoing lung resection with either respiratory comorbidities or functional limitations. The main parameter evaluated is oxygen consumption at peak (VO2peak). Patients with VO2peak above 20 ml/kg/min are classified as low risk surgical candidates. The aims of this study were to evaluate postoperative outcomes of low-risk patients, and to compare their outcomes with those of patients without pulmonary impairment at respiratory function testing.MethodsRetrospective monocentric observational study was designed, evaluating outcomes of patients undergoing lung resection at San Paolo University Hospital, Milan, Italy, between January 2016 and November 2021, preoperatively assessed by CPET, according to 2009 ERS/ESTS guidelines. All low-risk patients undergoing any extent surgical lung resection for pulmonary nodules were enrolled. Postoperative major cardiopulmonary complications or death, occurring within 30 days from surgery, were assessed. A case-control study was nested, matching 1:1 for type of surgery the cohort population with control patients without functional respiratory impairment consecutively undergoing surgery at the same centre in the study period.ResultsA total of 80 patients were enrolled: 40 subjects were preoperatively assessed by CPET and deemed at low risk, whereas 40 subjects represented the control group. Among the first, 4 patients (10%) developed major cardiopulmonary complications, and 1 patient (2.5%) died within 30 days from surgery. In the control group, 2 patients (5%) developed complications and none of the patients (0%) died. The differences in morbidity and mortality rates did not reach statistically significance. Instead, age, weight, BMI, smoking history, COPD incidence, surgical approach, FEV1, Tiffenau, DLCO and length of hospital stay resulted significantly different between the two groups. At a case-by-case analysis, CPET revealed a pathological pattern in each complicated patient, in spite of VO2peak above target for safe surgery.ConclusionsPostoperative outcomes of low-risk patients undergoing lung resections are comparable to those of patients without any pulmonary functional impairment; nonetheless the formers represent a dramatically different category of individuals from the latter and may harbour few patients with worse outcomes. CPET variables overall interpretation may add to the VO2peak in identifying higher risk patients, even in this subgroup.

Background and purpose: Clinical outcomes of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients affected by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have been thoroughly investigated, but a further analysis on main signs and symptoms and their risk factors still needs attention. The objective of this study was to group together and describe based on similarity the most common signs and symptoms of COVID-19 in MS patients and identify all factors associated with their manifestation. Method: Logistic and linear regression models were run to recognize factors associated with each pooled group of symptoms and their total number. Results: From March 2020 to November 2021, data were collected from 1354 MS patients with confirmed infection of COVID-19. Ageusia and anosmia was less frequent in older people (odds ratio [OR] 0.98; p=0.005) and more in smoker patients (OR 1.39; p=0.049). Smoke was also associated with an incremental number of symptoms (OR 1.24; p=0.031), substance abuse (drugs or alcohol), conjunctivitis and rash (OR 5.20; p=0.042) and the presence of at least one comorbidity with shortness of breath, tachycardia or chest pain (OR 1.24; p=0.008). Some disease-modifying therapies were associated with greater frequencies of certain COVID-19 symptoms (association between anti-CD20 therapies and increment in the number of concomitant symptoms: OR 1.29; p=0.05). Differences in frequencies between the three waves were found for flu-like symptoms (G1, p=0.024), joint or muscle pain (G2, p=0.013) and ageusia and anosmia (G5, p < 0.001). All cases should be referred to variants up to Delta. Conclusion: Several factors along with the choice of specific therapeutic approaches might have a different impact on the occurrence of some COVID-19 symptoms.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are small spherical particles surrounded by a membrane with an unusual lipid composition and a striking cholesterol/phospholipidic ratio. About 2000 lipid and 3500 protein species were identified in EVs secreted by different cell sources. EVs mediate cell to cell communication in proximity to or distant from the cell of origin. In particular, it was suggested that they represent modulators of multiple processes during pregnancy. The aim of this study was to identify the presence of EVs in canine amnion-derived cells (ASCs) culture and the expression of CD 59 on their surface. Amniotic membrane was collected in PBS with antibiotics added from 2 bitches during elective caesarean section. Cells culture was prepared and EVs were isolated. EVs were used to evaluate CD59 expression by flow cytofluorimetry. We found that the majority of EVs expressed CD59. Our results could increase the knowledge about the complex mechanisms that regulate the pregnancy in the bitch.

11 pags., 16 figs., 1 tab., We report on γ-ray spectroscopy of low-lying excited states in the neutron-rich Kr94,95,96 isotopes measured as part of the "Shell Evolution And Search for Two-plus energies At RIBF"(SEASTAR) campaign at the RIKEN Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory. Excited yrast and non-yrast states were observed, and half-lives extracted via geant4 simulations. In Kr94,96 candidates for the 31- state were identified. For Kr95, the prompt SEASTAR data were combined with delayed spectroscopic data measured with the EURICA array to observe transitions on top of the known (7/2)+ isomer at a level energy of 195.5(3) keV. The comparison of the new experimental results with five-dimensional collective Hamiltonian (5DCH) and mapped interacting boson model (IBM) calculations, both using the Gogny D1M interaction, could suggest oblate-prolate shape coexistence already in Kr96., This work is supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG—German Research Foundation) under Grant No. BL 1513/1-1 and by the BMBF under Grants No. 05P15PKFNA, No. 05P19PKFNA, No. 05P15RDFN1, No. 05P19RDFN1, and No. 05P21RDFN1. We thank the RIKEN Nishina Centre accelerator staff and the BigRIPS team for providing the stable and high-intensity uranium beam and secondary beams, and the STFC (UK). The work of K. Nomura was supported by the Tenure Track Pilot Programme of the Croatian Science Foundation, the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, and Project No. TTP-2018-07-3554, Exotic Nuclear Structure and Dynamics, with funds of the Croatian-Swiss Research Programme. B.D. and Z.L. were supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants No. 12135004, No. 11635003, and No. 11961141004). R.T. was supported by JSPS Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Research Fellows JP14J08718.

The long-lived $^{60}$Fe (with a half-life of 2.62 Myr) is a crucial diagnostic of active nucleosynthesis in the Milky Way galaxy and in supernovae near the solar system. The neutron-capture reaction $^{59}$Fe(n,$��$)$^{60}$Fe on $^{59}$Fe (half-life = 44.5 days) is the key reaction for the production of $^{60}$Fe in massive stars. This reaction cross section has been previously constrained by the Coulomb dissociation experiment, which offered partial constraint on the $E$1 $��$-ray strength function but a negligible constraint on the $M$1 and $E$2 components. In this work, for the first time, we use the surrogate ratio method to experimentally determine the $^{59}$Fe(n,$��$)$^{60}$Fe cross sections in which all the components are included. We derived a Maxwellian-averaged cross section of 27.5 $\pm$ 3.5 mb at $kT$= 30 keV and 13.4 $\pm$ 1.7 mb at $kT$= 90 keV, roughly 10 - 20% higher than previous estimates. We analyzed the impact of our new reaction rates in nucleosynthesis models of massive stars and found that uncertainties in the production of $^{60}$Fe from the $^{59}$Fe(n,$��$)$^{60}$Fe rate are at most of 25%. We conclude that stellar physics uncertainties now play a major role in the accurate evaluation of the stellar production of $^{60}$Fe., 9 pages with 6 figures

8 pags., 2 figs., 2 tabs., Reduced transition probabilities have been measured for the neutron-rich Ni73,74,75 nuclei with relativistic Coulomb excitation performed at the RIKEN Nishina Center. For the even-even Ni isotope the determined B(E2;0+→2+) value is compatible within errors with the result of a previous intermediate energy Coulomb excitation experiment, although being somewhat larger. For the odd Ni isotopes B(E2) values have been determined for the first time. In the middle νg9/2 shell nucleus Ni73 three peak candidates have been observed and tentatively assigned to the (5/2+), (13/2+), and (11/2+) excitations. Two peak candidates have been observed in Ni75 and tentatively assigned to the (13/2+) and (11/2+) levels. The measured B(E2) values are in line with the large B(E2) reported in Ni70 and at variance with the small strength measured in Ni72. Excitation energies compare well with the result of large-scale shell-model calculations, while B(E2) values are larger than predicted. This could indicate an increasing contribution of proton excitations across the Z=28 shell closure when approaching Ni78., The excellent work of the Riken-Nishina Center accelerator staff is acknowledged. We acknowledge the support of Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Italy. We also acknowledge the National Research, Development, and Innovation Fund of Hungary (Project No. K128947); the European Regional Development Fund (Contract No. GINOP-2.3.3-15- 2016-00034); and the National Research, Development, and Innovation Office (NKFIH Contract No. PD124717).

13 pags., 11 figs., 3 tabs., Background: Detailed spectroscopy of neutron-rich odd-A Cu isotopes is of great importance for studying the shell evolution in the region of Ni78. While there is experimental information on excited states in Cu69-73,77,79 isotopes, the information concerning Cu75 is very limited. Purpose: Experimentally observed single-particle, core-coupling, and proton-hole intruder states in Cu75, will complete the systematics of these states in the chain of isotopes. Method: Excited states in Cu75 were populated in the β decay of Ni75 isotopes. The Ni nuclei were produced by the in-flight fission of U238 projectiles, and were separated, identified, and implanted in a highly segmented Si detector array for the detection of the β-decay electrons. The β-delayed γ rays were detected in a HPGe cluster array. Monte Carlo shell model calculations were performed using the A3DA interaction built on the pfg9/2d5/2 model space for both neutrons and protons. Results: A level scheme of Cu75 was built up to ≈4 MeV by performing a γ-γ coincidence analysis. The excited states below 2 MeV were interpreted based on the systematics of neutron-rich odd-A Cu isotopes and the results of the shell model calculations. Conclusions: The evolution of the single-particle, core-coupling, and proton-hole intruder states in the chain of neutron-rich odd-A Cu isotopes is discussed in the present work, in connection with the newly observed level structure of Cu75., This work was carried out at the RIBF operated by RIKEN Nishina Center, RIKEN and CNS, University of Tokyo. The research leading to the results has received funding from the Research Council of Norway under project Grants No. 240104 and No. 213442 and from KAKENHI (under Grants No. 25247045, No. 23.01752, and No. 25800130); U.S. DOE Grant No. DE-FG02-91ER-40609; German BMBF Grant No. 05P19RDFN1 and DFG Grant No. SFB 1245; Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación Contracts No. FPA2009-13377C02 and No. FPA2011-29854- C04; and GINOP-2.3.3-15-2016-00034 and the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund OTKA Contract No. K128947. The Monte Carlo shell-model calculations were performed on K computer at RIKEN AICS (hp140210, hp150224, hp160211). This work was supported in part by the HPCI Strategic Program (The Origin of Matter and the Universe), by “Priority Issue on Post-K computer” (Elucidation of the Fundamental Laws and Evolution of the Universe) (hp160211), and by CNS-RIKEN joint project for large-scale nuclear structure calculations. The authors acknowledge the EUROBALL Owners Committee for the loan of germanium detectors and the PreSpec Collaboration for the readout electronics of the cluster detectors. Part of the WAS3ABi was supported by the Rare Isotope Science Project which is funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) and National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea.

Background: Detailed spectroscopy of neutron-rich odd-A Cu isotopes is of great importance for studying the shell evolution in the region of 78Ni. While there is experimental information on excited states in 69−73,77,79Cu isotopes, the information concerning 75Cu is very limited. Purpose: Experimentally observed single-particle, core-coupling, and proton-hole intruder states in 75Cu, will complete the systematics of these states in the chain of isotopes. Method: Excited states in 75Cu were populated in the β decay of 75Ni isotopes. The Ni nuclei were produced by the in-flight fission of 238U projectiles, and were separated, identified, and implanted in a highly segmented Si detector array for the detection of the β-decay electrons. The β-delayed γ rays were detected in a HPGe cluster array. Monte Carlo shell model calculations were performed using the A3DA interaction built on the pfg9/2d5/2 model space for both neutrons and protons. Results: A level scheme of 75Cu was built up to ≈4 MeV by performing a γ−γ coincidence analysis. The excited states below 2 MeV were interpreted based on the systematics of neutron-rich odd-A Cu isotopes and the results of the shell model calculations. Conclusions: The evolution of the single-particle, core-coupling, and proton-hole intruder states in the chain of neutron-rich odd-A Cu isotopes is discussed in the present work, in connection with the newly observed level structure of 75Cu.

The β-delayed γ-ray spectroscopy of neutron-rich 123;125Ag isotopes is investigated at the Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory of RIKEN and the long-predicted 1/2¯ β-emitting isomers in 123;125Ag are identified for the first time. With the new experimental results, the systematic trend of energy spacing between the lowest 9/2+ and 1/2¯ levels is extended in Ag isotopes up to N = 78, providing a clear signal for the reduction of the Z = 40 subshell gap in Ag towards N = 82. Shellmodel calculations with the state-of-the-art VMU plus M3Y spin-orbit interaction give a satisfactory description of the low-lying states in 123;125Ag. The tensor force is found to play a crucial role in the evolution of the size of the Z = 40 subshell gap. The observed inversion of the single particle levels around 123Ag can be well interpreted in terms of the monopole shift of the π1g9/2 orbitals mainly caused by the increasing occupation of ʋ1h11/2 orbitals.

14 pags., 11 figs-. 3 tabs., The reduced transition probability B(E2;01+→21+) to the first excited 2+ state of the neutron-rich nucleus Te136, with two protons and two neutrons outside the doubly magic Sn132 core, was measured via Coulomb excitation at relativistic energies at the RIKEN Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory. A value of B(E2)=0.191(26) e2b2 was extracted from the measured inelastic scattering cross section on an Au target taking into account the contributions from both Coulomb and nuclear excitations. In addition, an upper limit for the transition strength to a 2+ state of mixed-symmetry character in the excitation energy range of 1.5-2.2 MeV was determined and compared to the predictions of various theoretical calculations. Because of the high statistics gathered in the present experiment the error of the deduced B(E2) value is dominated by the systematic uncertainties involved in the analysis of Coulomb excitation experiments at beam energies around 150 MeV/u. Therefore, the latter are for the first time assessed in detail in the present work., We thank Dirk Weisshaar for valuable discussions and the staff of the RIKEN Nishina Center accelerator complex for providing high-intensity beams to the experiment. This work was supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad under Contracts No. FPA2014-57196-C5-4-P, No. FPA2017-84756-C4-2-P, and No. FIS2014-53448-C2-1-P.

6 pags., 5 figs., The β-delayed γ-ray spectroscopy of neutron-rich Ag123,125 isotopes is investigated at the Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory of RIKEN, and the long-predicted 1/2- β-emitting isomers in Ag123,125 are identified for the first time. With the new experimental results, the systematic trend of energy spacing between the lowest 9/2+ and 1/2- levels is extended in Ag isotopes up to N=78, providing a clear signal for the reduction of the Z=40 subshell gap in Ag towards N=82. Shell-model calculations with the state-of-the-art VMU plus M3Y spin-orbit interaction give a satisfactory description of the low-lying states in Ag123,125. The tensor force is found to play a crucial role in the evolution of the size of the Z=40 subshell gap. The observed inversion of the single-particle levels around Ag123 can be well interpreted in terms of the monopole shift of the π1g9/2 orbitals mainly caused by the increasing occupation of ν1h11/2 orbitals., This work was carried out at the RIBF operated by RIKEN Nishina Center, RIKEN and CNS, University of Tokyo. Part of the WAS3ABi was supported by the Rare Isotope Science Project which is funded by MSIP and NRF of Korea. This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Contract No. 2018YFA0404403), the Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants No. 11775003, No. 11675003, No. 11775316, and No. 11875075, the National Research Foundation of Korea (No. NRF-2016R1A5A1013277 and No. NRF-2013M7A1A1075764), and the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad under Contract No. FPA2017-84756-C4-2-P. This work was partially supported by JSPS KAKENHI (Grants No. 25247045 and No. 17H06090). Work at ANL is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Nuclear Physics, under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357.

The low-lying structures of the midshell $��g_{9/2}$ Ni isotopes $^{72}$Ni and $^{74}$Ni have been investigated at the RIBF facility in RIKEN within the EURICA collaboration. Previously unobserved low-lying states were accessed for the first time following $��$ decay of the mother nuclei $^{72}$Co and $^{74}$Co. As a result, we provide a complete picture in terms of the seniority scheme up to the first $(8^+)$ levels for both nuclei. The experimental results are compared to shell-model calculations in order to define to what extent the seniority quantum number is preserved in the first neutron $g_{9/2}$ shell. We find that the disappearance of the seniority isomerism in the $(8^+_1)$ states can be explained by a lowering of the seniority-four $(6^+)$ levels as predicted years ago. For $^{74}$Ni, the internal de-excitation pattern of the newly observed $(6^+_2)$ state supports a restoration of the normal seniority ordering up to spin $J=4$. This property, unexplained by the shell-model calculations, is in agreement with a dominance of the single-particle spherical regime near $^{78}$Ni.

Excited states in the nucleus 133Sn, with one neutron outside the doubly-magic 132Sn core, were populated following one-neutron knockout from a 134Sn beam on a carbon target at relativistic energies at the Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory at RIKEN. Besides the γ rays emitted in the decay of the known neutron single-particle states in 133Sn additional γ strength in the energy range 3.5-5.5 MeV was observed for the first time. Since the neutron-separation energy of 133Sn is low, Sn=2.402(4) MeV, this observation provides direct evidence for the radiative decay of neutronunbound states in this nucleus. The ability of electromagnetic decay to compete successfully with neutron emission at energies as high as 3 MeV above threshold is attributed to a mismatch between the wave functions of the initial and final states in the latter case. These findings suggest that in the region south-east of 132Sn nuclear structure effects may play a significant role in the neutron vs. γ competition in the decay of unbound states. As a consequence, the common neglect of such effects in the evaluation of the neutron-emission probabilities in calculations of global β-decay properties for astrophysical simulations may have to be reconsidered.

P. Voss et al. -- 11 pags., 12 figs., 2 tabs., At TRIUMF, the TIGRESS Integrated Plunger device and its suite of ancillary detector systems have been implemented for charged-particle tagging and light-ion identification in coincidence with γ-ray spectroscopy for Doppler-shift lifetime studies and low-energy Coulomb excitation measurements. As a test of the device, the lifetime of the first 2+ excited state in Ar36 was measured from the γ-ray line shape of the 21+→0g.s.+ transition using the Doppler-shift attenuation technique following Coulomb excitation. The line-shape signatures, vital for precision lifetime measurements, were significantly improved by enhanced reaction-channel selectivity using a complementary approach of kinematic gating and digital rise-time discrimination of recoiling charged particles in a silicon PIN diode array. The lifetime was determined by comparisons between the data and simulated line shapes generated using our TIGRESS Coulomb excitation code as an input to the Lindhard method, which was then extended and included as a class in geant4. The model-independent lifetime result of 490±50 fs corresponds to a reduced quadrupole transition strength of B(E2;21+→0g.s.+)=56±6e2fm4 and agrees well with previous intermediate energy Coulomb excitation measurements, thereby resolving reported discrepancies in the 21+ level lifetime in this self-conjugate nucleus., The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the ISAC Operations Group at TRIUMF, the TRIUMF Detectors and Engineering Groups, and the TRIUMF Scintillator Shop as well as the invaluable assistance and expertise of the Simon Fraser University Science Machine and Electronics Shops. This work is supported by the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Awards SAPIN/371656-2010 and SAPEQ/390539-2010 and the Simon Fraser University Vice President, Research. TRIUMF receives federal funding via a contribution agreement from the National Research Council of Canada.

K. Nowak et al. ; 10 pags., 12 figs., 1 tab. ; Open Access funded by Creative Commons Atribution Licence 3.0, States in the N=28 nucleus Ar46 have been studied by a two-neutron transfer reaction at REX-ISOLDE (CERN). A beam of radioactive Ar44 at an energy of 2.16 AMeV and a tritium-loaded titanium target were used to populate Ar46 by the H3(Ar44,p) two-neutron transfer reaction. Protons emitted from the target were identified in the T-REX silicon detector array. The excitation energies of states in Ar46 have been reconstructed from the measured angles and energies of recoil protons. Angular distributions for three final states were measured and based on the shape of the differential cross section an excited state at 3695 keV was identified as Jπ=0+. The angular differential cross section for the population of different states are compared to calculations using a reaction model employing both sequential and direct transfer of two neutrons. Results are compared to shell-model calculations using state-of-the-art effective interactions. Published by the American Physical Society, This work was supported by the European Commission within the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) through ENSAR (Contract No. 262010), by the German BMBF (Contracts No. 05P12WOFNF, No. 05P12PKFNE, No. 05P15PKCIA, No. 05P12RDCIA, and No. 05P15RDCIA), by the DFG Cluster of Excellence Origin and Structure of the Universe, by HIC for FAIR, by FWO-Vlaanderen (Belgium), by BOF KULeuven (Grant No.GOA/2010/010), by the Interuniversity Attraction Poles Programme initiated by the Belgian Science Policy Office (BriX network P7/12), by the UK Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC), and in part by the Spanish Consolider-Ingenio 2010 Programme CPAN CSD2007-00042

J. Taprogge et al.; 11 pags.; 8 figs.; 2 tabs.; PACS number(s): 23.20.Lv, 23.40.−s, 21.60.Cs, 27.60.+j, ©2015 American Physical Society. The β decay of 129Cd, produced in the relativistic fission of a 238U beam, was experimentally studied at the RIBF facility at the RIKEN Nishina Center. From the γ radiation emitted after the β decays, a level scheme of 129In was established comprising 31 excited states and 69 γ -ray transitions. The experimentally determined level energies are compared to state-of-the-art shell-model calculations. The half-lives of the two β-decaying states in 129Cd were deduced and the β feeding to excited states in 129In were analyzed. It is found that, as in most cases in the Z < 50, N 82 region, both decays are dominated by the ν0g7/2 → π0g9/2 Gamow–Teller transition, although the contribution of first-forbidden transitions cannot be neglected., This work was supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion under contracts FPA2009-13377-C02 and FPA2011-29854- C04, the Generalitat Valenciana (Spain) under grant PROMETEO/2010/101, the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MEST) (No. NRF-2012R1A1A1041763), the Priority Centers Research Program in Korea (2009-0093817), OTKA contract number K-100835, JSPS KAKENHI (Grant No. 25247045), the European Commission through the Marie Curie Actions call FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF under Contract No. 300096, the US Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Physics, under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357, the “RIKEN foreign research program,” and the German BMBF (No. 05P12RDCIA and 05P12RDNUP) and HIC for FAIR.

E. Sahin et al.; 9 pags.; 8 figs.; 2 tabs.; PACS number(s): 21.10.Tg, 21.60.Cs, 23.20.Lv, © 2015 American Physical Society. The level structure of the neutron-rich 69Cu,71Cu, and Cu73 isotopes has been investigated by means of multinucleon transfer reactions. The experiment was performed at Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro using the AGATA Demonstrator array coupled to the PRISMA magnetic spectrometer. Lifetimes of excited states in Cu nuclei were measured with the recoil-distance Doppler-shift method. The resulting electromagnetic matrix elements for transitions from excited states in Cu69,71,73 nuclei are used to assess the collective or single-particle character of these states. The results are compared with predictions of large-scale shell-model calculations, giving further insight into the evolution of the proton pf shell as neutrons fill the 1g9/2 orbital., This work has been partially supported by the European Union Seventh Framework Program FP7/2007-2013 under Grant Agreement No. 262010, ENSAR and MINECO, Spain, under Grants No. FPA2011-29854-C03 and No. FPA2011- 29854-C04, Generalitat Valenciana, Spain, under Grant No. PROMETEOII/2014/019, and MINECO, Spain, under Grant Consolider-Ingenio 2010 CSD2007-00042.

5 pags., 6 figs., Single-neutron states in the , isotope 79Zn have been populated using the 78Zn(d, p)79Zn transfer reaction at REX-ISOLDE, CERN. The experimental setup allowed the combined detection of protons ejected in the reaction, and of γ rays emitted by 79Zn. The analysis reveals that the lowest excited states populated in the reaction lie at approximately 1 MeV of excitation, and involve neutron orbits above the shell gap. From the analysis of γ-ray data and of proton angular distributions, characteristic of the amount of angular momentum transferred, a configuration was assigned to a state at 983 keV. Comparison with large-scale-shell-model calculations supports a robust neutron shell-closure for 78Ni. These data constitute an important step towards the understanding of the magicity of 78Ni and of the structure of nuclei in the region., This work was supported by the European Commission through the Marie Curie Actions Contracts Nos. PIEFGA-2011-30096 (R.O.) and PIEFGA-2008-219175 (J.P.), by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación under contracts FPA2009-13377-C02 and FPA2011-29854-C04, by the Spanish MEC Consolider – Ingenio 2010, Project No. CDS2007-00042 (CPAN), by FWO-Vlaanderen (Belgium), by GOA/2010/010 (BOF KU Leuven), by the Interuniversity Attraction Poles Programme initiated by the Belgian Science Policy Office (BriX network P7/12), by the European Union Seventh Framework Programme through ENSAR, contract no. RII3-CT-2010-262010, and by the German BMBF under contracts 05P09PKCI5, 05P12PKFNE, 05P12RDCIA and 06DA9036I. R.O., R.C., J.F.W.L., V.L. and J.F.S. also acknowledge support from STFC, Grant Nos. PP/F000944/1, ST/F007590/1, and ST/J000183/2.

G. Larusso et al.; 7 pags.; 5 figs.; 2 tabs.; PACS numbers: 23.40.-s, 26.30.Hj, 27.60.+j, © 2015 American Physical Society. The β-decay half-lives of 110 neutron-rich isotopes of the elements from 37Rb to 50Sn were measured at the Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory. The 40 new half-lives follow robust systematics and highlight the persistence of shell effects. The new data have direct implications for r-process calculations and reinforce the notion that the second (A ≈ 130) and the rare-earth-element (A ≈ 160) abundance peaks may result from the freeze-out of an (n, γ) ⇄ (γ,n) equilibrium. In such an equilibrium, the new half-lives are important factors determining the abundance of rare-earth elements, and allow for a more reliable discussion of the r process universality. It is anticipated that universality may not extend to the elements Sn, Sb, I, and Cs, making the detection of these elements in metal-poor stars of the utmost importance to determine the exact conditions of individual r-process events., Part of the WAS3ABi was supported by the Rare Isotope Science Project which is funded by the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology (MEST) and National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea. This work was partially supported by KAKENHI (Grants No. 25247045, No. 2301752, and No. 25800130), the RIKEN Foreign Research Program, the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Contracts No. FPA2009-13377-C02 and No. FPA2011-29854-C04), the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Nuclear Physics, Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357, the NASA Grant No. NNX10AH78G, and the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund OTKA Contract No. K100835.

A. Illana et al. ; 11 pags. ; 10 figs. ; 3 tabs. ; PACS number(s): 23.20.En, 21.10.Ky, 21.60.Cs, 27.50.+e, The g factor of the first excited 2+ state in 72Zn has been measured using the transient-field (TF) technique in combination with Coulomb excitation in inverse kinematics. This experiment presents only the third successful application of the TF method to a short-lived radioactive beam in 10 y, highlighting the intricacies of applying this technique to present and future isotope separator on-line facilities. The significance of the experimental result, g(21+)=+0.47(14), for establishing the structure of the Zn isotopes near N=40 is discussed on the basis of shell-model and beyond-mean-field calculations, the latter accounting for the triaxial degree of freedom, configuration mixing, and particle number and angular momentum projections. © 2014 American Physical Society., This work has been supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion under Contracts No. FPA2009-13377- ´ C02 and No. FPA2011-29854-C04 and the Spanish Project MEC Consolider-Ingenio 2010, Project No. CDS2007-00042.

J. Taprogge, et al. ; 5 pags. ; 4 figs. ; 1 tab. ; Open Access funded by SCOAP3 - Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publising in Particle Physics, © 2014 The Authors. The decay of an isomeric state in the neutron-rich nucleus 129Cd 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 238U beam at the Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory at RIKEN. From the measured yields of γ-rays and internal conversion electrons, a multipolarity of E3 was tentatively assigned to the isomeric transition. A half-life of T1/2=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., This work was supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación under contracts FPA2009-13377-C02 and FPA2011-29854-C04, the Generalitat Valenciana (Spain) under grant PROMETEO/2010/101, the Japanese government under contract KAKENHI (25247045), the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MEST) (No. NRF-2012R1A1A1041763), the Priority Centers Research Program in Korea (2009-0093817), OTKA contract number K-100835, the European Commission through the Marie Curie Actions call FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF under Contract No. 300096, the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Physics, under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357, STFC (UK), and the German BMBF (Nos. 05P12RDCIA and 05P12RDNUP) and HIC for FAIR.

The level structures of the very neutron-rich nuclei Pd128 and Pd126 have been investigated for the first time. In the r-process waiting-point nucleus Pd128, a new isomer with a half-life of 5.8(8) μs is proposed to have a spin and parity of 8+ and is associated with a maximally aligned configuration arising from the g9/2 proton subshell with seniority υ=2. For Pd126, two new isomers have been identified with half-lives of 0.33(4) and 0.44(3) μs. The yrast 2+ energy is much higher in Pd128 than in Pd126, while the level sequence below the 8+ isomer in Pd128 is similar to that in the N=82 isotone Cd130. The electric quadrupole transition that depopulates the 8+ isomer in Pd128 is more hindered than the corresponding transition in Cd130, as expected in the seniority scheme for a semimagic, spherical nucleus. These experimental findings indicate that the shell closure at the neutron number N=82 is fairly robust in the neutron-rich Pd isotopes. © 2013 American Physical Society.

International Nuclear Physics Conference (INPC 2013), Firenze, Italy, 2-7 June 2013. http://www.inpc2013.it/conference-venue.php

The assumption of an exact isospin symmetry would imply equal strengths for mirror E1 transitions (at least, in the long-wavelength limit). Actually, large violations of this symmetry rule have been indicated by a number of experimental results, the last of which is the 67As - 67Se doublet investigated at GAMMASPHERE. Here, we examine in detail various possible origins of the observed asymmetry. The coherent effect of Coulomb-induced mixing with the high-lying Giant Isovector Monopole Resonance is proposed as the most probable process to produce a large asymmetry in the E1 transitions, with comparatively small effect on the other properties of the parent and daughter levels., Comment: 14 pages, 2 figures

The assumption of an exact isospin symmetry would imply equal strengths for mirror E1 transitions (at least, in the long-wavelength limit). Actually, large violations of this symmetry rule have been indicated by a number of experimental results, the last of which is the 67As-67Se doublet investigated at GAMMASPHERE. Here, we examine in detail various possible origins of the observed asymmetry. The coherent effect of Coulomb-induced mixing with the high-lying giant isovector monopole resonance is proposed as the most probable process to produce a large asymmetry in the E1 transitions, with comparatively small effect on the other properties of the parent and daughter levels. © 2012 American Physical Society., Financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, via the Project Consolider Ingenio (CPAN) (CSD2007-42).