The Ursinus Weekly, May 11, 1964

New Lost City Ramblers to perform Friday: Agency sponsors blue grass group • Bombers bombed by MSGA, faculty reviewing • UC scholar wins St. Andrews scholarship • Survey supports APO projects • Loved you Conrad : Spring festival succeeds with new program • Bible fellowship • Two classes elect officers today • Pi Nu Epsilon inducts members • Ursinus Circle • Obituary • Editorial: Attention administration • Mr. Pennypacker stages a remarkable performance: Robbins, Sinclair, Auchincloss and Matusow star in production • Spring hits UC campus with sun, fun and studies • Next President: Johnson • Letter to the Editor • Ursinus thinclads retain MAC crown: Cooper wins two, Dunn ties 440 record; Gladstone, Robart, Walter, relay take 1st • Softballers win; Season undefeated • Batsmen even for week: Defeated Drexel, split with Haverford and lost to LaSalle • Tennis loses 3rd; Bryn Mawr takes 4 • Lacrosse wins 4th; Swamp E-burg 13-3 • MAC summary • Greek gleaningshttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/weekly/3110/thumbnail.jp

Scintillators with potential to supersede lanthanum bromide

New scintillators for high-resolution gamma ray spectroscopy have been identified, grown and characterized. Our development efforts have focused on two classes of high light yield materials: Europium-doped alkaline earth halides and Cerium-doped garnets. Of the halide single crystals we have grown by the Bridgman method - SrI{sub 2}, CaI{sub 2}, SrBr{sub 2}, BaI{sub 2} and BaBr{sub 2} - SrI{sub 2} is the most promising. SrI{sub 2}(Eu) emits into the Eu{sup 2+} band, centered at 435 nm, with a decay time of 1.2 {micro}s and a light yield of up to 115,000 photons/MeV. It offers energy resolution better than 3% FWHM at 662 keV, and exhibits excellent light yield proportionality. Transparent ceramics fabrication allows production of Gadolinium- and Terbium-based garnets which are not growable by melt techniques due to phase instabilities. While scintillation light yields of Cerium-doped ceramic garnets are high, light yield non-proportionality and slow decay components appear to limit their prospects for high energy resolution. We are developing an understanding of the mechanisms underlying energy dependent scintillation light yield non-proportionality and how it affects energy resolution. We have also identified aspects of optical design that can be optimized to enhance energy resolution

The Lunar X-ray Observatory (LXO)

X-ray emission from charge exchange recombination between the highly ionized solar wind and neutral material in Earth's magnetosheath has complicated x-ray observations of celestial objects with x-ray observatories including ROSAT, Chandra, XMM-Newton, and Suzaku. However, the charge-exchange emission can also be used as an important diagnostic of the solar-wind interacting with the magnetosheath. Soft x-ray observations from low-earth orbit or even the highly eccentric orbits of Chandra and XMM-Newton are likely superpositions of the celestial object of interest, the true extra-solar soft x-ray background, geospheric charge exchange, and heliospheric charge exchange. We show that with a small x-ray telescope placed either on the moon, in a similar vein as the Apollo ALSEP instruments, or in a stable orbit at a similar distance from the earth, we can begin to disentangle the complicated emission structure in the soft x-ray band. Here we present initial results of a feasibility study recently funded by NASA to place a small x-ray telescope on the lunar surface. The telescope operates during lunar night to observe charge exchange interactions between the solar wind and magnetosphic neutrals, between the solar wind and the lunar atmosphere, and an unobstructed view of the soft x-ray background without the geospheric component

Brief interventions targeting long-term benzodiazepine and Z-drug use in primary care: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

AIMS: To assess the effectiveness of brief interventions in primary care aimed at reducing or discontinuing long-term benzodiazepine/Z-drug (BZRA) use. METHOD: Systematic review of randomised controlled trials of brief interventions in primary care settings aimed at reducing or discontinuing long-term BZRA use in adults taking BZRAs for ≥3 months. Four electronic databases were searched: PubMed, EMBASE, PsycINFO, CENTRAL. The primary outcome was BZRA use, classified as discontinuation or reduction by ≥25%. The Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) was used to retrospectively code behavioural determinants targeted by the interventions. The Behaviour Change Technique (BCT) Taxonomy was used to identify interventions' active components. Study-specific estimates were pooled, where appropriate, to yield summary risk ratios (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Pearson correlations were used to determine the relationship between intervention effect size and the results of both the TDF and BCT coding. RESULTS: Eight studies were included (n=2071 patients). Compared with usual care, intervention patients were more likely to have discontinued BZRA use at 6 months (8 studies, RR 2.73, 95% CI 1.84-4.06) and 12 months post-intervention (2 studies, RR 3.41, 95% CI 2.22-5.25). TDF domains 'Knowledge', 'Memory, attention and decision processes', 'Environmental context and resources' and 'Social influences' were identified as having been included in every intervention. Commonly identified BCTs included 'Information about health consequences', 'Credible source' and 'Adding objects to the environment'. There was no detectable relationship between effect size and the results of either the TDF or BCT coding. CONCLUSION: Brief interventions delivered in primary care are more effective than usual care in reducing and discontinuing long-term benzodiazepine/Z-drug use