Extended transition rates and lifetimes in Al I and Al II from systematic multiconfiguration calculations

Multiconfiguration Dirac-Hartree-Fock (MCDHF) and relativistic configuration interaction (RCI) calculations were performed for 28 and 78 states in neutral and singly ionized aluminium, respectively. In Al I, the configurations of interest are $3s^2nl$ for $n=3,4,5$ with $l=0$ to $4$, as well as $3s3p^2$ and $3s^26l$ for $l=0,1,2$. In Al II, the studied configurations are, besides the ground configuration $3s^2$, $3snl$ with $n=3$ to $6$ and $l=0$ to $5$, $3p^2$, $3s7s$, $3s7p$ and $3p3d$. Valence and core-valence electron correlation effects are systematically accounted for through large configuration state function (CSF) expansions. Calculated excitation energies are found to be in excellent agreement with experimental data from the NIST database. Lifetimes and transition data for radiative electric dipole (E1) transitions are given and compared with results from previous calculations and available measurements, for both Al I and Al II. The computed lifetimes of Al I are in very good agreement with the measured lifetimes in high-precision laser spectroscopy experiments. The present calculations provide a substantial amount of updated atomic data, including transition data in the infrared region. This is particularly important since the new generation of telescopes are designed for this region. There is a significant improvement in accuracy, in particular for the more complex system of neutral Al I. The complete tables of transition data are available

An algorithm for two-dimensional mesh generation based on the pinwheel tiling

We propose a new two-dimensional meshing algorithm called PINW able to generate meshes that accurately approximate the distance between any two domain points by paths composed only of cell edges. This technique is based on an extension of pinwheel tilings proposed by Radin and Conway. We prove that the algorithm produces triangles of bounded aspect ratio. This kind of mesh would be useful in cohesive interface finite element modeling when the crack propagation pathis an outcome of a simulation process.Comment: Short version appears in Proceedings of 2004 International Meshing Roundtable at http://www.imr.sandia.go

Greek teachers' personal theory on writing at the elementary level : opportunity for innovation or defense mechanism?

In view of the importance of teachers' personal theories on their education, teaching and in-service education, this study aims to examine Greek elementary school teachers' personal theory on students writing. Forty-two teachers of both genders, varying in years of experience, serving in urban and sub urban schools, filled in a questionnaire. This was made up of closed and open-ended questions concerning their knowledge, attitudes and assessment on (a) conditions surrounding students' writing, (b) the actual teaching of writing in their context, and (c) their evaluation of students' writing. The data was examined through both qualitative and quantitative means. The findings indicated that teachers see good writing not as a teachable skill, but as a gift; their role as only that of a judge and not as a helper or a collaborator; students' writing as a product and not a process and as 'knowledge telling' and 'knowledge transforming'. A discussion of these findings in relation to changing teachers' personal theory follows.peer-reviewe

Phylogeography of Aegean green toads (Bufo viridis subgroup): continental hybrid swarm vs. insular diversification with discovery of a new island endemic

BACKGROUND: Debated aspects in speciation research concern the amount of gene flow between incipient species under secondary contact and the modes by which post-zygotic isolation accumulates. Secondary contact zones of allopatric lineages, involving varying levels of divergence, provide natural settings for comparative studies, for which the Aegean (Eastern Mediterranean) geography offers unique scenarios. In Palearctic green toads (Bufo viridis subgroup or Bufotes), Plio-Pleistocene (~ 2.6 Mya) diverged species show a sharp transition without contemporary gene flow, while younger lineages, diverged in the Lower-Pleistocene (~ 1.9 Mya), admix over tens of kilometers. Here, we conducted a fine-scale multilocus phylogeographic analysis of continental and insular green toads from the Aegean, where a third pair of taxa, involving Mid-Pleistocene diverged (~ 1.5 Mya) mitochondrial lineages, earlier tentatively named viridis and variabilis, (co-)occurs. RESULTS: We discovered a new lineage, endemic to Naxos (Central Cyclades), while coastal islands and Crete feature weak genetic differentiation from the continent. In continental Greece, both lineages, viridis and variabilis, form a hybrid swarm, involving massive mitochondrial and nuclear admixture over hundreds of kilometers, without obvious selection against hybrids. CONCLUSIONS: The genetic signatures of insular Aegean toads appear governed by bathymetry and Quaternary sea level changes, resulting in long-term isolation (Central Cyclades: Naxos) and recent land-bridges (coastal islands). Conversely, Crete has been isolated since the end of the Messinian salinity crisis (5.3 My) and Cretan populations thus likely result from human-mediated colonization, at least since Antiquity, from Peloponnese and Anatolia. Comparisons of green toad hybrid zones support the idea that post-zygotic hybrid incompatibilities accumulate gradually over the genome. In this radiation, only one million years of divergence separate a scenario of complete reproductive isolation, from a secondary contact resulting in near panmixia

Time continuity in cohesive finite element modeling

We introduce the notion of time continuity for the analysis of cohesive zone interface finite element models. We focus on “initially rigid ” models in which an interface is inactive until the traction across it reaches a critical level. We argue that methods in this class are time discontinuous, unless special provision is made for the opposite. Time discontinuity leads to pitfalls in numerical implementations: oscillatory behavior, non-convergence in time and dependence on nonphysical regularization parameters. These problems arise at least partly from the attempt to extend uniaxial traction-displacement relationships to multiaxial loading. We also argue that any formulation of a time-continuous functional traction-displacement cohesive model entails encoding the value of the traction components at incipient softening into the model. We exhibit an example of such a model. Most of our numerical experiments concern explicit dynamics

An algorithm for two-dimensional mesh generation based on the pinwheel tiling ∗

We propose a new two-dimensional meshing algorithm called PINW able to generate meshes that accurately approximate the distance between any two domain points by paths composed only of cell edges. This technique is based on an extension of pinwheel tilings proposed by Radin and Conway. We prove that the algorithm produces triangles of bounded aspect ratio. This kind of mesh would be useful in cohesive interface finite element modeling when the crack propagation path is an outcome of a simulation process.

Extended theoretical transition data in C I - IV

Accurate atomic data are essential for opacity calculations and for abundance analyses of the Sun and other stars. The aim of this work is to provide accurate and extensive results of energy levels and transition data for C I - IV. The Multiconfiguration Dirac-Hartree-Fock and relativistic configuration interaction methods were used in the present work. To improve the quality of the wave functions and reduce the relative differences between length and velocity forms for transition data involving high Rydberg states, alternative computational strategies were employed by imposing restrictions on the electron substitutions when constructing the orbital basis for each atom and ion. Transition data, e.g., weighted oscillator strengths and transition probabilities, are given for radiative electric dipole (E1) transitions involving levels up to 1s$^2$2s$^2$2p6s for C I, up to 1s$^2$2s$^2$7f for C II, up to 1s$^2$2s7f for C III, and up to 1s$^2$8g for CIV. Using the difference between the transition rates in length and velocity gauges as an internal validation, the average uncertainties of all presented E1 transitions are estimated to be 8.05%, 7.20%, 1.77%, and 0.28%, respectively, for C I - IV. Extensive comparisons with available experimental and theoretical results are performed and good agreement is observed for most of the transitions. In addition, the C I data were employed in a reanalysis of the solar carbon abundance. The new transition data give a line-by-line dispersion similar to the one obtained when using transition data that are typically used in stellar spectroscopic applications today.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figure