WASP-80b has a dayside within the T-dwarf range

AHMJT is a Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) fellow under grant number P300P2-147773. MG and EJ are Research Associates at the F.R.S-FNRS; LD received the support the support of the F.R.I.A. fund of the FNRS. DE, KH, and SU acknowledge the financial support of the SNSF in the frame of the National Centre for Competence in Research ‘PlanetS’. EH and IR acknowledge support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) and the ‘Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional’ (FEDER) through grants AYA2012-39612-C03-01 and ESP2013-48391-C4-1-R.WASP-80b is a missing link in the study of exo-atmospheres. It falls between the warm Neptunes and the hot Jupiters and is amenable for characterisation, thanks to its host star's properties. We observed the planet through transit and during occultation with Warm Spitzer. Combining our mid-infrared transits with optical time series, we find that the planet presents a transmission spectrum indistinguishable from a horizontal line. In emission, WASP-80b is the intrinsically faintest planet whose dayside flux has been detected in both the 3.6 and 4.5 $\mu$m Spitzer channels. The depths of the occultations reveal that WASP-80b is as bright and as red as a T4 dwarf, but that its temperature is cooler. If planets go through the equivalent of an L-T transition, our results would imply this happens at cooler temperatures than for brown dwarfs. Placing WASP-80b's dayside into a colour-magnitude diagram, it falls exactly at the junction between a blackbody model and the T-dwarf sequence; we cannot discern which of those two interpretations is the more likely. Flux measurements on other planets with similar equilibrium temperatures are required to establish whether irradiated gas giants, like brown dwarfs, transition between two spectral classes. An eventual detection of methane absorption in transmission would also help lift that degeneracy. We obtained a second series of high-resolution spectra during transit, using HARPS. We reanalyse the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect. The data now favour an aligned orbital solution and a stellar rotation nearly three times slower than stellar line broadening implies. A contribution to stellar line broadening, maybe macroturbulence, is likely to have been underestimated for cool stars, whose rotations have therefore been systematically overestimated. [abridged]Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

INVESTIGATING BIOLOGICAL DISTANCE AND SKELETAL STRESS IN A LATE ANTIQUE AND EARLY MEDIEVAL TUSCAN TOWN

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Michigan State University. Anthropology - Doctor of Philosophy, 2025The Late Antique and Early Medieval eras in the Mediterranean (5th-10th centuries AD) were an extremely turbulent time. In the centuries following the fall of the Western Roman Empire (c. 476 AD), Italy experienced the Gothic War, the plague of Justinian, the Lombard invasion, the rise of the Carolingian dynasty, and the spread of Christianity. The nature of this transitional period has garnered considerable debate in archaeological and historical literature, resulting in some scholars advocating for a \u201cDark Age\u201d of isolation, disease, and cultural stagnation, while others have suggested these eras were marked by adaptation, interconnectivity, and resilience. Notably, there has been relatively little focus on the ways in which bioarchaeology can contribute to this conversation. At present, no studies have used a diachronic, intracemetery analysis with paleopathological and biological distance (biodistance) approaches to understand the effects of this time period on the residents of Tuscany, Italy.In order to address these scholarly gaps, this dissertation focuses on the site of Rusellae (Tuscany, Italy) and its cemetery, which was in use between the 6th and 12th centuries AD. The present study focuses on a sample of 160 adults excavated in a collaboration between the Art and Archaeology Museum of the Maremma and the Archaeological Superintendence of Tuscany between 1987 and 1991. The burials comprise individuals from two archaeologically-defined phases: Phase I (6th-7th centuries AD) and Phase II (8th-12th centuries AD). The primary foci of this study are: an examination of biological distance within Rusellae and among Rusellae and contemporary sites using craniometrics; a craniometric population affinity analysis within Rusellae; an exploration of craniometric variation over time; and the frequency of skeletal stress indicators (cribra orbitalia, porotic hyperostosis, periosteal reaction, and linear enamel hypoplasias) between cemetery phases and population affinities.The results showed that, despite exhibiting an overall greater affinity with contemporary European samples than African references, Rusellae was a biologically heterogeneous site comprising several craniofacially distinct groups. Further, the presence of several individuals consistent with African affinity was preliminarily attested at the site. Notably, when compared with individuals showing greater European affinity, the individuals with a greater affinity to African reference samples showed no significant difference in frequencies of the skeletal stress markers analyzed, with the exception of linear enamel hypoplasia of the maxillary central incisor. In addition, there were no statistically significant differences in either skeletal stress indicators or cranial measurements between the earlier and later phases of the cemetery.Broadly, these results suggest genetic continuity between Rusellae and other European populations, but not to the exclusion of some contribution from the African continent. These findings are consistent with continued circum-Mediterranean trade and migration, including exchange between Tuscany and North Africa, during this period. Additionally, the lack of diachronic change in skeletal stress indicators and craniometrics suggests a degree of biological, ecological, environmental, and psychosocial stability throughout Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages at Rusellae. Further, the findings indicate a generally similar experience between affinities, at least with respect to the stress indicators analyzed, possibly due to a social structure that prioritized religious cohesion over ancestral divisions. Thus, the totality of the evidence supports a view of the transitional period between the 6th and 12th centuries, not as a \u201cDark Age\u201d characterized by collapse, but as an era of continuity, connectivity, and resilience for Rusellae.Description based on online resource. Title from PDF t.p. (Michigan State University Fedora Repository, viewed ).Includes bibliographical references

The thermal emission of the exoplanets WASP-1b and WASP-2b

We present a comparative study of the thermal emission of the transiting exoplanets WASP-1b and WASP-2b using the Spitzer Space Telescope. The two planets have very similar masses but suffer different levels of irradiation and are predicted to fall either side of a sharp transition between planets with and without hot stratospheres. WASP-1b is one of the most highly irradiated planets studied to date. We measure planet/star contrast ratios in all four of the IRAC bands for both planets (3.6-8.0um), and our results indicate the presence of a strong temperature inversion in the atmosphere of WASP-1b, particularly apparent at 8um, and no inversion in WASP-2b. In both cases the measured eclipse depths favor models in which incident energy is not redistributed efficiently from the day side to the night side of the planet. We fit the Spitzer light curves simultaneously with the best available radial velocity curves and transit photometry in order to provide updated measurements of system parameters. We do not find significant eccentricity in the orbit of either planet, suggesting that the inflated radius of WASP-1b is unlikely to be the result of tidal heating. Finally, by plotting ratios of secondary eclipse depths at 8um and 4.5um against irradiation for all available planets, we find evidence for a sharp transition in the emission spectra of hot Jupiters at an irradiation level of 2 x 10^9 erg/s/cm^2. We suggest this transition may be due to the presence of TiO in the upper atmospheres of the most strongly irradiated hot Jupiters.Comment: 10 pages, submitted to Ap

WASP-80b has a dayside within the T-dwarf range

WASP-80b is a missing link in the study of exoatmospheres. It falls between the warm Neptunes and the hot Jupiters and is amenable for characterization, thanks to its host star's properties. We observed the planet through transit and during occultation with Warm Spitzer. Combining our mid-infrared transits with optical time series, we find that the planet presents a transmission spectrum indistinguishable from a horizontal line. In emission, WASP-80b is the intrinsically faintest planet whose dayside flux has been detected in both the 3.6 and 4.5 μm Spitzer channels. The depths of the occultations reveal that WASP-80b is as bright and as red as a T4 dwarf, but that its temperature is cooler. If planets go through the equivalent of an L-T transition, our results would imply that this happens at cooler temperatures than for brown dwarfs. Placing WASP-80b's dayside into a colour-magnitude diagram, it falls exactly at the junction between a blackbody model and the T-dwarf sequence; we cannot discern which of those two interpretations is the more likely. WASP-80b's flux density is as low as GJ436b at 3.6 μm; the planet's dayside is also fainter, but bluer than HD189733Ab's nightside (in the [3.6] and [4.5]Spitzer bands). Flux measurements on other planets with similar equilibrium temperatures are required to establish whether irradiated gas giants, such as brown dwarfs, transition between two spectral classes. An eventual detection of methane absorption in transmission would also help lift that degeneracy. We obtained a second series of high-resolution spectra during transit, using HARPS. We reanalyse the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect. The data now favour an aligned orbital solution and a stellar rotation nearly three times slower than stellar line broadening implies. A contribution to stellar line broadening, maybe macroturbulence, is likely to have been underestimated for cool stars, whose rotations have therefore been systematically overestimate

Identification of rare-disease genes using blood transcriptome sequencing and large control cohorts.

It is estimated that 350 million individuals worldwide suffer from rare diseases, which are predominantly caused by mutation in a single gene1. The current molecular diagnostic rate is estimated at 50%, with whole-exome sequencing (WES) among the most successful approaches2-5. For patients in whom WES is uninformative, RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) has shown diagnostic utility in specific tissues and diseases6-8. This includes muscle biopsies from patients with undiagnosed rare muscle disorders6,9, and cultured fibroblasts from patients with mitochondrial disorders7. However, for many individuals, biopsies are not performed for clinical care, and tissues are difficult to access. We sought to assess the utility of RNA-seq from blood as a diagnostic tool for rare diseases of different pathophysiologies. We generated whole-blood RNA-seq from 94 individuals with undiagnosed rare diseases spanning 16 diverse disease categories. We developed a robust approach to compare data from these individuals with large sets of RNA-seq data for controls (n = 1,594 unrelated controls and n = 49 family members) and demonstrated the impacts of expression, splicing, gene and variant filtering strategies on disease gene identification. Across our cohort, we observed that RNA-seq yields a 7.5% diagnostic rate, and an additional 16.7% with improved candidate gene resolution

Spitzer observations of the thermal emission from WASP-43b

WASP-43b is one of the closest-orbiting hot Jupiters, with a semimajor axis of a = 0.01526 +/- 0.00018 AU and a period of only 0.81 days. However, it orbits one of the coolest stars with a hot Jupiter (Tstar = 4520 +/- 120 K), giving the planet a modest equilibrium temperature of Teq = 1440 +/- 40 K, assuming zero Bond albedo and uniform planetary energy redistribution. The eclipse depths and brightness temperatures from our jointly fit model are 0.347% +/- 0.013% and 1670 +/- 23 K at 3.6 {\mu}m and 0.382% +/- 0.015% and 1514 +/- 25 K at 4.5 {\mu}m. The eclipse timings improved the estimate of the orbital period, P, by a factor of three (P = 0.81347436 +/- 1.4*10-7 days) and put an upper limit on the eccentricity (e = 0.010+0.010 -0.007). We use our Spitzer eclipse depths along with four previously reported ground-based photometric observations in the near-infrared to constrain the atmospheric properties of WASP-43b. The data rule out a strong thermal inversion in the dayside atmosphere of WASP-43b. Model atmospheres with no thermal inversions and fiducial oxygen-rich compositions are able to explain all the available data. However, a wide range of metallicities and C/O ratios can explain the data. The data suggest low day-night energy redistribution in the planet, consistent with previous studies, with a nominal upper limit of about 35% for the fraction of energy incident on the dayside that is redistributed to the nightside.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figure

The Dark Side of Performance Appraisals: A Study of University Librarians Across the U.S.

Performance appraisals are conducted regularly in professional organizations as a means to evaluate employee performance and overall company effectiveness. Employees and employers alike dread appraisal time; appraisals are often time consuming, tedious, and yield minimal positive results. Previous research has shown that employee perceptions of performance appraisals are important to consider when determining their overall effectiveness. In order to build new systems that could be viewed more positively by managers and employees, a deeper examination into the issues of performance appraisals, especially from the manager’s perspective, is needed. Our study looks at data gathered from a survey given to academic library directors, prompting them to evaluate the purposefulness of their current performance appraisal systems. Embedded in this survey is an open-ended response question, asking directors their perceptions of the PA system in their library. Our study seeks to determine if we can use text analytics create a better understanding of manager’s reactions and perceptions of PA systems and formats. We believe that the data gathered from the textual analysis will provide incremental validity into manager perceptions of performance appraisals and further insight into how organizations can improve their own processes

Website Redesign

Redesign is a necessary part of having a news website. The process can be lengthy and costly and there's always some risk involved – will the audience engage with and like the redesigned look? The Center for Media Engagement wanted to test whether online experiments could help news organizations learn more about what their audience wants when going through a redesign.The results show that an online experiment can pick up on many of the same signals as a full deployment of a site redesign. To the extent that these findings continue to replicate, doing an online experiment would provide news organizations with a relatively inexpensive way to test out redesigns before embarking on a full launch

Polymeric nanoparticle drug delivery technologies for oral delivery applications

Introduction: Many therapeutics are limited to parenteral administration. Oral administration is a desirable alternative because of the convenience and increased compliance by patients, especially for chronic diseases that require frequent administration. Polymeric nanoparticles are one technology being developed to enable clinically feasible oral delivery. Areas Covered: This review discusses the challenges associated with oral delivery. Strategies used to overcome gastrointestinal barriers using polymeric nanoparticles will be considered, including mucoadhesive biomaterials and targeting of nanoparticles to transcytosis pathways associated with M cells and enterocytes. Applications of oral delivery technologies will also be discussed, such as oral chemotherapies, oral insulin, treatment of inflammatory bowel disease, and mucosal vaccinations. Expert Opinion: There have been many approaches used to overcome the transport barriers presented by the gastrointestinal tract, but most have been limited by low bioavailability. Recent strategies targeting nanoparticles to transcytosis pathways present in the intestines have demonstrated that it is feasible to efficiently transport both therapeutics and nanoparticles across the intestines and into systemic circulation after oral administration. Further understanding of the physiology and pathophysiology of the intestines could lead to additional improvements in oral polymeric nanoparticle technologies and enable the translation of these technologies to clinical practice

Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV: mapping the Milky Way, nearby galaxies, and the distant universe

We describe the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV (SDSS-IV), a project encompassing three major spectroscopic programs. The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment 2 (APOGEE-2) is observing hundreds of thousands of Milky Way stars at high resolution and high signal-to-noise ratios in the near-infrared. The Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey is obtaining spatially resolved spectroscopy for thousands of nearby galaxies (median ). The extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) is mapping the galaxy, quasar, and neutral gas distributions between and 3.5 to constrain cosmology using baryon acoustic oscillations, redshift space distortions, and the shape of the power spectrum. Within eBOSS, we are conducting two major subprograms: the SPectroscopic IDentification of eROSITA Sources (SPIDERS), investigating X-ray AGNs and galaxies in X-ray clusters, and the Time Domain Spectroscopic Survey (TDSS), obtaining spectra of variable sources. All programs use the 2.5 m Sloan Foundation Telescope at the Apache Point Observatory; observations there began in Summer 2014. APOGEE-2 also operates a second near-infrared spectrograph at the 2.5 m du Pont Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory, with observations beginning in early 2017. Observations at both facilities are scheduled to continue through 2020. In keeping with previous SDSS policy, SDSS-IV provides regularly scheduled public data releases; the first one, Data Release 13, was made available in 2016 July