Four nucleon pickup studies on medium-weight and heavy nuclei with the (d, 6Li) reaction

This thsis summarizes several years of experimental work performed at the "Kernfysisch Versneller Instituut" in Groningen. Medium-weight and heavy nuclei were studied with the (d,6Li) reaction at a bombarding energy of MeV. The present study will focus on nuclei with mass A > 70 with an emphasis on nuclei in the A = 100 mass region. ... Zie: Summar

Towards simultaneous electrical and optical investigation of BLMS using a novel microfluidic device

We firstly describe the influence of the phospholipid (PL) composition of bilayer lipid membrane on their electrical properties: (i) the more unsaturations in the tail, the earlier the BLM breakdown and (ii) the bulkier the head group, the less stable the membrane. Secondly, we design and fabricate novel devices that couple such electri-cal characterization to optical investigation and that enable the preparation of asym-metrical membranes: a “macro” device including a drilled PMMA plate as well as microfluidic device consisting of a glass-teflon foil-glass sandwich

Integrating refugees in the Rhine-Neckar-Region: Initial evidence from an inclusive soccer project

The study analyses data from a survey conducted in July 2016 in the German Rhine-Neckar region among a group of male refugees who participate in a small inclusive soccer project or are part of a control group. Our main findings with respect to labour market integration and the effect of program participation can be summarized as follows. The total group of 81 responding male asylum seekers is on average 23 years old, has on average spent nearly nine years in education and already accumulated five years of work experience in their home countries or on their way to Germany. They report on average a good health and are fairly optimistic about finding work in Germany. However, although they are on average already nine months in Germany only 36 percent were searching for a job, while 14 percent report that they were working at the time of the survey. Thus, it seems that the responding refugees are equipped with a good health, reasonable work experience and motivation, and a low level of education, comparted to Germans of the same age group. 28 survey participants engaged in the soccer project. Most of them indicated that they would like to participate more frequently. Responding refugees, who participate in the soccer project report that they visit German natives in their homes more often than the control groups, which hints at some initial positive short run integration effects. According to our experience respondents enjoyed collaboration in the survey. Since the number of respondents is small our findings are preliminary in nature. Future research that intends to more deeply assess causal impacts needs to rest on significantly larger samples and panel data.This research has been conducted as part of "Real World Laboratory: Asylum Seekers" - A joint research project of Heidelberg University of Education and ZEW Mannheim

How high schools teach quantum physics – a cross-national analysis of curricula in secondary education

Quantum physics (QP) changed our worldview, it brought us modern electronic devices, and its almost mythical image fascinates. Although QP is relatively new in secondary education, it is now part of the national curricula of many countries. To understand the current state of QP content in high schools, we scrutinised upper secondary school physics curriculum documents in 15 countries. In these countries, we identified a similar core curriculum of QP which contains the following seven main categories: discrete atomic energy levels, interactions between light and matter, wave-particle duality, de Broglie wavelength, technical applications, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, and the probabilistic nature of QP. We also found differences in the focus of the listed topics of individual countries, which indicate different views on teaching QP. The thematic focus of QP items is related to the underlying goal of science education and to the way students' knowledge is tested. This overview shows which QP content is generally feasible at a secondary level and which pedagogical perspectives are possible. Therefore this study might lead to reflections on existing QP curricula, and inspire countries that do not have QP in their curriculum yet

Performance analysis of a dynamic query processing scheme

Traditional query optimizers produce a fixed query evaluation plan based on assumptions about data distribution and processor workloads. However, these assumptions may not hold at query execution time. In this paper, we propose a dynamic query processing scheme and we present the performance results obtained by simulation of a queueing network model of the proposed software architecture

Determination of the anisotropic electrical conductivity of carbon fabric reinforced composites by the six-probe method

Currently, it is challenging to obtain consistent values for the anisotropic electrical conductivity of fabric ply based thermoplastic composites. In this study, the anisotropic electrical conductivity of this type of material was obtained by combining six-probe voltage measurements with a numerical evaluation method to process the voltage measurements. The effect of probe distance and specimen dimensions on the test results was investigated. The measurements show low specimen to specimen variability and the obtained electrical conductivities agree with values obtained by the rule of mixtures and the two-probe measurement method. The conducted research shows that with one experiment, both the in- and the out-of-plane electrical conductivity of polymer composites reinforced with carbon fabrics can be reliably determined, simultaneously.</p