6,778 research outputs found
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 for with to , as well as and
for . In Al II, the studied configurations are, besides the
ground configuration , with to and to , ,
, and . 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
Impact of forestry practices on fitness correlates and population productivity in an open-nesting bird species
In the boreal forests of Fennoscandia, over 99% of the forest area has been altered by forestry practices, which has created forests of differing age structures and stand characteristics than primary forest stands. Although many researchers have investigated how forestry affects species abundance, few have assessed how forestry affects fitness correlates of species living in altered habitats, and this has negatively affected management efforts. We experimentally addressed the effect of standard forestry practices on fitness correlates of an open-nesting, long-lived bird species typical to boreal forests of Eurasia, the Siberian Jay (Perisoreus infaustus L.). Using a before-after comparison of reproductive data on the level of territories, we found that standard forestry practices had a strong negative effect on the breeding success of jays. Both partial thinning of territories and partial clearcutting of territories reduced future breeding success by a factor of 0.35. Forestry practices reduced territory occupancy. Thus, over the 15 years of the study the productivity of the affected population declined over 50% as a result of territory abandonment and reduced breeding success. Results of previous studies on Siberian Jays suggest that the strong effect of forest thinning on fitness is explained by the fact that most common predators of nests and adults are visually oriented, and thinning makes prey and nests more visible to predators. The consequences of thinning we observed are likely to apply to a wide range of species that rely on understory to provide visual protection from predators. Thus, our results are important for the development of effective conservation management protocols and for the refinement of thinning practices
A nod in the wrong direction : Does nonverbal feedback affect eyewitness confidence in interviews?
Eyewitnesses can be influenced by an interviewer's behaviour and report information with inflated confidence as a result. Previous research has shown that positive feedback administered verbally can affect the confidence attributed to testimony, but the effect of non-verbal influence in interviews has been given little attention. This study investigated whether positive or negative non-verbal feedback could affect the confidence witnesses attribute to their responses. Participants witnessed staged CCTV footage of a crime scene and answered 20 questions in a structured interview, during which they were given either positive feedback (a head nod), negative feedback (a head shake) or no feedback. Those presented with positive non-verbal feedback reported inflated confidence compared with those presented with negative non-verbal feedback regardless of accuracy, and this effect was most apparent when participants reported awareness of the feedback. These results provide further insight into the effects of interviewer behaviour in investigative interviewsPeer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio
Deception and self-awareness
This paper presents a study conducted for the Shades of Grey EPSRC research project (EP/H02302X/1), which aims to develop a suite of interventions for identifying terrorist activities. The study investigated the body movements demonstrated by participants while waiting to be interviewed, in one of two conditions: preparing to lie or preparing to tell the truth. The effect of self-awareness was also investigated, with half of the participants sitting in front of a full length mirror during the waiting period. The other half faced a blank wall. A significant interaction was found for the duration of hand/arm movements between the deception and self-awareness conditions (F=4.335, df=1;76, p<0.05). Without a mirror, participants expecting to lie spent less time moving their hands than those expecting to tell the truth; the opposite was seen in the presence of a mirror. This finding indicates a new research area worth further investigation
The effect of relationship status on communicating emotions through touch
Research into emotional communication to date has largely focused on facial and vocal expressions. In contrast, recent studies by Hertenstein, Keltner, App, Bulleit, and Jaskolka (2006) and Hertenstein, Holmes, McCullough, and Keltner (2009) exploring nonverbal communication of emotion discovered that people could identify anger, disgust, fear, gratitude, happiness, love, sadness and sympathy from the experience of being touched on either the arm or body by a stranger, without seeing the touch. The study showed that strangers were unable to communicate the self-focused emotions embarrassment, envy and pride, or the universal emotion surprise. Literature relating to touch indicates that the interpretation of a tactile experience is significantly influenced by the relationship between the touchers (Coan, Schaefer, & Davidson, 2006). The present study compared the ability of romantic couples and strangers to communicate emotions solely via touch. Results showed that both strangers and romantic couples were able to communicate universal and prosocial emotions, whereas only romantic couples were able to communicate the self-focused emotions envy and pride
Distinguishing Posed and Spontaneous Smiles by Facial Dynamics
Smile is one of the key elements in identifying emotions and present state of
mind of an individual. In this work, we propose a cluster of approaches to
classify posed and spontaneous smiles using deep convolutional neural network
(CNN) face features, local phase quantization (LPQ), dense optical flow and
histogram of gradient (HOG). Eulerian Video Magnification (EVM) is used for
micro-expression smile amplification along with three normalization procedures
for distinguishing posed and spontaneous smiles. Although the deep CNN face
model is trained with large number of face images, HOG features outperforms
this model for overall face smile classification task. Using EVM to amplify
micro-expressions did not have a significant impact on classification accuracy,
while the normalizing facial features improved classification accuracy. Unlike
many manual or semi-automatic methodologies, our approach aims to automatically
classify all smiles into either `spontaneous' or `posed' categories, by using
support vector machines (SVM). Experimental results on large UvA-NEMO smile
database show promising results as compared to other relevant methods.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures, ACCV 2016, Second Workshop on Spontaneous Facial
Behavior Analysi
Automated photoelastic determination of fracture parameters for bimaterial interface cracks
This thesis details an experimental study on the determination of the fracture
parameters for a crack located at the interface between two dissimilar materials using
the method of photoelasticity. The interface is potential1y an inherent weak spot of
any composite material, structure"or adhesively bonded joint. Accurate description of
the state of stress at the crack tip is required for strength prediction. The concept of
the complex stress intensity factor is used to characterise the elastic crack tip stress
field for an interface crack. Complex stress intensity factors and their moduli have
been measured experimental1y for standard bimaterial crack geometries using the wel1
established technique of photo elasticity.
Bimaterial specimens comprising aluminium al10y and epoxy resin components were
used. This creates a large material mismatch at the interface and al10ws data to be
col1ected from the epoxy component of the specimen using transmission
photoelasticity. An automated ful1 field photoelastic technique was developed to
significantly reduce the data col1ection time. The technique comprises elements from
the approaches of three wavelength and phase stepping photoelasticity and is a
significant improvement on techniques previously available.
Stress intensity factors were determined by fitting a theoretical stress field solution
for the bimaterial crack to the experimental data. A computational routine
automatical1y selects the region of best fit between the experimental data and the
theoretical solution. This data is then used to determine the complex stress intensity
factor and its modulus value. In order to provide a robust fit between the experimental
data and the theoretical field solution a weighting function was incorporated into the
routine.
The measured bimaterial stress intensity factors are compared with those determined
experimental1y for equivalent homogeneous specimens made from epoxy resin. The
differences between the two are then discussed. The experimental results agree with
the wel1 known concept that tension and shear effects are inherently coupled at the
crack tip. However, the effects of changing the load angle with respect to the interface
also demonstrate that some contrasts exist with known numerical solutions
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