1,057 research outputs found
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 . We find spreading exponents, and for the ridge peak and
surfactant leading edge, respectively, which are in good agreement with
theoretical predictions of . 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
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 TRIP
The TRIP 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 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
‘One has to take leave as much as possible of one’s own standards and values’: Improving and measuring historical empathy and perspective reconstruction
Historical empathy or perspective taking has been a bone of contention in studies on history teaching, and the concept remains ill-defined. This may have been caused by a lack of theoretical reflection, as well as by the application of diverse research methods: a more cognitive or ‘rational’ explanation of the concept has often been substantiated by quantitative methods, while the more affective dimension has regularly been explored by qualitative methods. In this contribution,we trace some theoretical backgrounds of ‘empathy’ in historical theory as well as social psychology. Then we present a mixed-methods study employing a quantitative standardized measure developed in previous research in Germany
and the Netherlands, as well as qualitative measurements. Results suggest that while, on the one hand, the standardized measure proved to be unreliable, both
quantitative and qualitative methods can shed more light on what is going on when students try to take the point of view of historical agents. Based on theory,as well as our explorations, our conclusion is that empathy or perspective taking should be seen as a cognitive operation. We propose to see the reconstruction
of historical perspectives as a specific element of historical explanation, not as a separate concept of ‘historical empathy’ or ‘historical perspective taking’
Measurement of the branching ratio for beta-delayed alpha decay of 16N
While the 12C(a,g)16O reaction plays a central role in nuclear astrophysics,
the cross section at energies relevant to hydrostatic helium burning is too
small to be directly measured in the laboratory. The beta-delayed alpha
spectrum of 16N can be used to constrain the extrapolation of the E1 component
of the S-factor; however, with this approach the resulting S-factor becomes
strongly correlated with the assumed beta-alpha branching ratio. We have
remeasured the beta-alpha branching ratio by implanting 16N ions in a segmented
Si detector and counting the number of beta-alpha decays relative to the number
of implantations. Our result, 1.49(5)e-5, represents a 24% increase compared to
the accepted value and implies an increase of 14% in the extrapolated S-factor
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