Parallel Evaluation of Multi-join Queries

A number of execution strategies for parallel evaluation of multi-join queries have been proposed in the literature. In this paper we give a comparative performance evaluation of four execution strategies by implementing all of them on the same parallel database system, PRISMA/DB. Experiments have been done up to 80 processors. These strategies, coming from the literature, are named: Sequential Parallel, Synchronous Execution, Segmented Right-Deep, and Full Parallel. Based on the experiments clear guidelines are given when to use which strategy. This is an extended abstract; the full paper appeared in Proc. ACM SIGMOD'94, Minneapolis, Minnesota, May 24–27, 199

Production of Radioactive Nuclides in Inverse Reaction Kinematics

Efficient production of short-lived radioactive isotopes in inverse reaction kinematics is an important technique for various applications. It is particularly interesting when the isotope of interest is only a few nucleons away from a stable isotope. In this article production via charge exchange and stripping reactions in combination with a magnetic separator is explored. The relation between the separator transmission efficiency, the production yield, and the choice of beam energy is discussed. The results of some exploratory experiments will be presented.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, to be submitted to Nucl. Instr. and Met

"Just Imagine ...": Students' perspectives on empathy tasks in secondary history education

Historical empathy can be helpful when learning history. However, we do not know what students do when completing an empathy-task or how they perceive this type of task. In the explorative study presented in this article, we recognized different types of empathy-tasks, we saw students showing cognitive as well as affective elements in their responses on an empathy task, and we learned that students think that empathy-tasks are mainly useful to remember facts. Students also mentioned comparing the past with the present and imagining other people’s lives as goals of empathy-tasks

Fluorescent visualization of a spreading surfactant

The spreading of surfactants on thin films is an industrially and medically important phenomenon, but the dynamics are highly nonlinear and visualization of the surfactant dynamics has been a long-standing experimental challenge. We perform the first quantitative, spatiotemporally-resolved measurements of the spreading of an insoluble surfactant on a thin fluid layer. During the spreading process, we directly observe both the radial height profile of the spreading droplet and the spatial distribution of the fluorescently-tagged surfactant. We find that the leading edge of spreading circular layer of surfactant forms a Marangoni ridge in the underlying fluid, with a trough trailing the ridge as expected. However, several novel features are observed using the fluorescence technique, including a peak in the surfactant concentration which trails the leading edge, and a flat, monolayer-scale spreading film which differs from concentration profiles predicted by current models. Both the Marangoni ridge and surfactant leading edge can be described to spread as $R \propto t^{\delta}$. We find spreading exponents, $\delta_H \approx 0.30$ and $\delta_\Gamma \approx 0.22$ for the ridge peak and surfactant leading edge, respectively, which are in good agreement with theoretical predictions of $\delta = 1/4$. In addition, we observe that the surfactant leading edge initially leads the peak of the Marangoni ridge, with the peak later catching up to the leading edge

Search for the lepton flavour violating decay tau(-) -> mu(-)mu(+)mu(-)

A search for the lepton flavour violating decay tau(-) -&gt; mu(-)mu(+)mu(-) is performed with the LHCb experiment. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb(-1) of proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and 2.0 fb(-1) at 8 TeV. No evidence is found for a signal, and a limit is set at 90% confidence level on the branching fraction, B(tau(-) -&gt; mu(-)mu(+)mu(-)) &lt;4.6 x 10(-8).</p

Angular analysis of the B-0 -&gt; K*(0) e(+) e(-) decay in the low-q(2) region

An angular analysis of the B-0 -&gt; K(*0)e(+) e(-) decay is performed using a data sample, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.0 fb(-1), collected by the LHCb experiment in pp collisions at centre-of-mass energies of 7 and 8TeV during 2011 and 2012. For the first time several observables are measured in the dielectron mass squared (q(2)) interval between 0.002 and 1.120 GeV2/c(4). The angular observables F-L and A(T)(Re) which are related to the K-*0 polarisation and to the lepton forward-backward asymmetry, are measured to be F-L = 0.16 +/- 0.06 +/- 0.03 and A(T)(Re) = 0.10 +/- 0.18 +/- 0.05, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. The angular observables A(T)((2)) and A(T)(Im) which are sensitive to the photon polarisation in this q(2) range, are found to be A(T)((2)) = - 0.23 +/- 0.23 +/- 0.05 and A(T)(Im) = 0.14 +/- 0.22 +/- 0.05. The results are consistent with Standard Model predictions.</p

Characterization of antigen-presenting properties of tumour cells using virus-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes

Immunotherapy of tumours by induction of tumour-specific cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (CTLs) will only be effective for tumours with a functional antigen processing and presentation machinery. However, many tumours are known to down-regulate expression of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules and/or to impair antigen processing. It is therefore desirable to evaluate the ability of a given tumour to present antigenic epitopes before developing an immunotherapy protocol. In this study we have used influenza virus as a tool to determine the antigen-presenting capacities of the murine neuroblastoma C1300 cell line NB41A3, a frequently used model for human neuroblastoma. Immunofluorescence analyses revealed low and moderate expression of MHC class I molecules Ddand Kkrespectively. Nevertheless, infected NB41A3 cells were lysed efficiently by influenza-specific CTLs. These results demonstrate that all steps of the antigen-processing pathway function properly in the NB tumour cells, and that the limited MHC class I expression suffices for efficient recognition by CTLs. In addition, lysis of the NB tumour cells shows that the cells are susceptible to CTL-induced apoptosis, a pathway that is often impaired in tumour cells. These characteristics make neuroblastoma a suitable target for immunotherapy. The presented assay allows evaluation of various immunological properties of tumour cells and, thus, represents a valuable tool to assess whether a given tumour will be susceptible to immunotherapy or not. Copyright 2000 Cancer Research Campaign. © 2000 Cancer Research Campaig

Dual Magnetic Separator for TRIμ\muP

The TRI$\mu$P facility, under construction at KVI, requires the production and separation of short-lived and rare isotopes. Direct reactions, fragmentation and fusion-evaporation reactions in normal and inverse kinematics are foreseen to produce nuclides of interest with a variety of heavy-ion beams from the superconducting cyclotron AGOR. For this purpose, we have designed, constructed and commissioned a versatile magnetic separator that allows efficient injection into an ion catcher, i.e., gas-filled stopper/cooler or thermal ionizer, from which a low energy radioactive beam will be extracted. The separator performance was tested with the production and clean separation of $^{21}$Na ions, where a beam purity of 99.5% could be achieved. For fusion-evaporation products, some of the features of its operation as a gas-filled recoil separator were tested.Comment: accepted by Nucl.Instr. Meth., final versio