-60 -50 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 E [MeV] 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 g ~ (E) [MeV -1 ] p = 6 p = 10 p = 14 FIG. 2: Energy dependence of the smoothed level densities calculated in the generalized Strutinski procedure for p = 6 , 10 , 14 by using a Gaussian weight function for the smoothing functions f$_{p}$ for the nucleus $^{146}$Gd . The lower and upper ends of the interval [ e$_{l}$, e$_{u}$ ] in which the condition of the best linear fit is applied are shown by triangles on the E − axis. 21