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The total cross sections were measured for coherent double neutral-pion photoproduction on the deuteron at incident energies below 0.9 GeV for the first time. No clear resonancelike behavior is observed in the excitation function for W γd = 2.38-2.61 GeV, where the d * (2380) dibaryon resonance observed at COSY is expected to appear. The measured excitation function is consistent with the existing theoretical calculation for this reaction. The upper limit of the total cross section is found to be 0.034 µb for the dibaryon resonance at W γd = 2.37 GeV (90% confidence level) in the γd → π 0 π 0 d reaction.

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Aim Clinical trials and meta‐analyses have demonstrated the efficacy of high‐frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over the left prefrontal cortex in treatment‐resistant depression. The aim of this study was to prospectively evaluate the effectiveness of the conventional 37.5‐minute vs 18.75‐minute rTMS protocol over the left prefrontal cortex in patients with treatment‐resistant depressive episode. Methods Thirty patients with treatment‐resistant depression or bipolar disorder depressive episode were randomized 1:1 to either 37.5‐minute or 18.75‐minute rTMS protocol groups. rTMS treatment was applied at 120% resting motor threshold with 10 Hz over the left prefrontal cortex. Treatment sessions were delivered for a total of 3000 pulses/d, 5 days a week, for 4‐6 weeks. Patients received a 75 trains with “4 sec on and 26 sec off” for 37.5 minutes or a 75 trains with “4 sec on and 11 sec off” for 18.75 minutes. Severity of depression was rated with the Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology (QIDS) and Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ‐9). Remission was defined as a total score of 5 or less on the QIDS. The primary outcome measure was to compare the remission rate between the both groups. Results Thirteen of 30 patients (43.3%) showed remission at week 6. There were no significant differences in the remission rate between the conventional 37.5‐ and 18.75‐minute protocol groups (46.7% and 40.0%, respectively). No seizures or treatment‐emergent mania/hypomania were occurred. Conclusion These findings suggest that, compared with the conventional one, rTMS with 18.75‐minute protocol might be equally effective and clinically beneficial in saving the treatment session length. Further well‐designed studies are needed.

The purpose of this study was to develop a novel scintillation dosimeter for in vivo dosimetry in Ir-192 brachytherapy via the pulse-counting mode. The new dosimeter was made from a plastic scintillator shaped into a hemisphere of diameter 1 mm and connected to the tip of a plastic optical fiber. The relationship between pulse counts and absorbed dose was derived based on the assumption that scintillation photons from the incident gamma ray are proportional to the absorbed dose. An equation for the conversion of pulse counts to water-equivalent dose was deduced wherein the pulse height spectrum from scintillation photons was assumed to be exponential. To confirm its accuracy, the dose rate distribution in a water phantom was measured by the present dosimeter and this was compared with Monte Carlo simulations, resulting in a discrepancy of less than 1.97%. It was found that the dosimeter has a wide dynamic range of linearity up to an order of magnitude of almost 10(3), including corrections for loss of counts due to pile-up.