Drinking patterns among medical in-patients with reference to MAST categories: a comparative study.

The aim of the study was to describe the drinking patterns and alcohol consumption of patients screened by the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (MAST) in a sample of medical patients from a general hospital of a French-speaking, wine-drinking country. Data were recorded using a structured interview administered to 103 consecutively admitted 20-75-year-old MAST-positive patients and 103 age-matched and sex-matched MAST-negative controls admitted to the same ward. Relevant differences between MAST-positive and MAST-negative patients included the frequent report of recent and total abstinence in MAST-positive patients (23% versus 4% in controls), their tendency to drink alone, and less often during mealtimes, at home, or with family or friends than MAST-negative patients. Alcohol consumption was significantly higher in MAST-positive patients of both sexes with 250 and 270 g per week being the optimal discriminative cut-off level of consumption for men and women, respectively (kappa coefficient, 0.70 and 0.81, respectively). Regular drinking was the predominant drinking status of both MAST-positive and MAST-negative patients. This study suggests that a screening test such as the MAST, developed in an English-speaking country may be useful in a French-speaking, wine-drinking country. The test identified patients with drinking patterns that are culturally abnormal, yet in certain respects similar to those of alcoholic patients from other drinking cultures. These findings therefore emphasize the worldwide relevance of the concept of the alcohol dependence syndrome in addition to the transcultural usefulness of alcoholism screening tests

Proton-induced degradation of Thin-Film Microcrystalline Silicon Solar Cells

This paper investigates the stability of dilution series of pin and nip microcrystalline silicon solar cells under low-energy proton irradiation (E = 405 keV). Variation of electrical parameters, defect-related absorption and Urbach parameter are investigated as a function of irradiation and annealing steps. Highly microcrystalline cells show a relative efficiency loss of up to 80% after proton irradiation. The efficiency loss is observed not to be completely reversible under thermal annealing. Increase of defect-related absorption and Urbach parameter is also only partially reversible. The electrical parameters (Jsc, Voc, FF) show proton-induced reductions which increase with crystallinity for both pin and nip series; short-circuit current density suffers the largest variations with relative losses of up to 65%. Defect-related absorption is shown to be low for cells of medium crystallinity, before and after irradiation. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

The SPS as accelerator of Pb82+^{82+} ions

In 1994 the CERN SPS was used for the first time to accelerate fully stripped ions of the Pb208 isotope from the equivalent proton momentum of 13 GeV/c to 400 GeV/c. In the CERN PS, which was used as injector, the lead was accelerated as Pb53+ ions and then fully stripped in the transfer line from PS to SPS. The radio frequency swing which is needed in order to keep the synchronism during acceleration is too big to have the SPS cavities deliver enough voltage for all frequencies. For that reason a new technique of fixed frequency acceleration was used. With this technique up to 70% of the injected beam could be captured and accelerated up to the extraction energy, the equivalent of 2.2 1010 charges. The beam was extracted over a 5 sec. long spill and was then delivered to different experiments at the same time

The SPS as lead-ion accelerator

In 1995 the CERN SPS was used during two months to accelerate fully stripped ions of the Pb208 isotope from the equivalent proton momentum of 13 GeV/c to 400 GeV/c. The radio frequency swing which is needed in order to keep the synchronism during acceleration is too big to have the SPS cavities deliver enough voltage for all frequencies. In a first stage, the beam is accelerated from 13 GeV/c to 26 GeV/c using the fixed frequency mode. During this stage the beam is grouped in four 2msec batches, separated by 3msec holes during which the frequency is changed in order to keep synchronism. At 26 GeV the beams are de-bunched and recaptured in order to fill the 3msec holes. From there on the lead ions are then accelerated up to 400 GeV/c with the normal frequency program. The de-bunching and recapture at 26 GeV improved the effective spill at extraction by a factor of three. Intensities up to 3.9 1010 charges could be obtained at 400 GeV/c. The total efficiency of the two RF captures was 64%