  We explore the nuclear responses at intermediate energies, particularly in
the spin longitudinal and spin transverse isovector channels, within the
continuum random phase approximation framework. We also employ an extension of
the standard random phase approximation to account for the spreading width of
the single particle states through the inclusion of a complex and
energy-dependent nucleon self-energy. The nuclear responses are then used as
the basic ingredient to calculate hadronic reactions in the Glauber theory
framework. Here both one and two-step contributions to the multiple scattering
series in the quasi-elastic peak region are taken into account. We find
evidence for shell effects in the one-step response and a strong dependence on
the momentum regime of the two-step contribution.
