Understanding Super-Earths with MINERVA-Australis at USQ's Mount Kent Observatory

Super Earths, planets between 5-10 Earth masses, are the most common type of exoplanet known, yet are completely absent from our Solar system. As a result, their detailed properties, compositions, and formation mechanisms are poorly understood. NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will identify hundreds of Super-Earths orbiting bright stars, for the first time allowing in-depth characterisation of these planets. At the University of Southern Queensland, we are host to the MINERVA-Australis project, dedicated wholly to the follow-up characterisation and mass measurement of TESS planets. We give an update on the status of MINERVA-Australis and our expected performance.Comment: Accepted to appear in the peer-reviewed proceedings of the 17th Australian Space Research Conference, held at the University of Sydney, 13th-15th November, 201

Alternative Price Indexes for Medical Care: Evidence from the MEPS Survey

Spending on medical care is a large and growing component of GDP. There are wellknown measurement problems that are estimated to overstate inflation and understate real growth for this sector by as much as 1-1/2 percentage points per year. Because of its size, this would translate into an overstatement of inflation for the overall economy of about ¼ percentage point with an equal understatement in real GDP growth. In this paper, we use data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey to obtain new, more comprehensive estimates for this bias and to explore a possible adjustment to existing official price indexes. The MEPS data show an upward bias to price growth in this sector of 1 percentage point, which translates into an overstatement of overall inflation of .2 percentage point and an understatement of GDP growth of the same amount. We also find that an adjustment recently used in Bradley et al provides a useful approximation to the indexes advocated by health economists.

MOVEMENT VARIABILITY IN ELBOW AND WRIST KINEMATICS OF NEW BALL OUTSWING BOWLING IN CRICKET FAST BOWLERS

This study investigated between-bowler movement variability of wrist and elbow kinematics during new ball swing bowling. A 3D motion analysis system captured the bowling action and ball trajectory of 11 pre-elite and elite fast bowlers delivering outswing. Kinematics were normalised to 100% of the delivery stride between back foot contact and ball release. A statistical parametric mapping approach using one-way ANOVAs investigated inter-individual movement variability. Significant differences were found in all kinematic parameters except for wrist radial/ulnar deviation angular velocity with bowlers using small amounts in either direction at the beginning of the phase. This study highlights that high-level athletic performance can be achieved using different movement variations and future research should include individual analyses of fast bowlers

Differential Gene Expression in Primary Breast Tumors Associated with Lymph Node Metastasis

Lymph node status remains one of the most useful prognostic indicators in breast cancer; however, current methods to assess nodal status disrupt the lymphatic system and may lead to secondary complications. Identification of molecular signatures discriminating lymph node-positive from lymph node-negative primary tumors would allow for stratification of patients requiring surgical assesment of lymph nodes. Primary breast tumors from women with negative (n = 41) and positive (n = 35) lymph node status matched for possible confounding factors were subjected to laser microdissection and gene expression data generated. Although ANOVA analysis (P < .001, fold-change >1.5) revealed 13 differentially expressed genes, hierarchical clustering classified 90% of node-negative but only 66% of node-positive tumors correctly. The inability to derive molecular profiles of metastasis in primary tumors may reflect tumor heterogeneity, paucity of cells within the primary tumor with metastatic potential, influence of the microenvironment, or inherited host susceptibility to metastasis

Composite Fermion Theory, Edge Currents and the Fractional Quantum Hall Effect

We present a mean field theory of composite fermion edge channel transport in the fractional and integer quantum Hall regimes. An expression relating the electro-chemical potentials of composite fermions at the edges of a sample to those of the corresponding electrons is obtained and a plausible form is assumed for the composite fermion Landau level energies near the edges. The theory yields the observed fractionally quantized Hall conductances and also explains other experimental results. We also discuss some experiments that are relevant to the question whether fractional edge states in real devices should be described as Fermi or Luttinger liquids.Comment: 4 pages + 1 figure. Talk presented at EP2DSXI in Nottingham in August, 1995. Self-unpacking uuencoded postscript. Unpacking instructions at beginning of fil

Disentangling Blended K2 Photometry: Determining the Planetary Host Star

The presence of companion stars, whether bound or unbound, make correct identification of the planetary hosting star difficult when a planet has been detected through a photometrically blended transiting event. We present an approach that uses a combination of light curve analysis and stellar modeling to disentangle eight K2 photometrically blended binary systems that have either a confirmed or suspected planet to identify the probable host star. The key to our approach is the use of the mean stellar density, calculated using the transit geometry, as a discriminator. The approach is strongly dependent on the difference in magnitude between the stars and the observed transit depth, which is corrected by the flux ratio between the two stars. While our approach does not lead to a definitive result for all systems, we were able to determine the following for the eight systems in this case study: there are two systems where the primary was highly likely to be the planet-hosting star (>90% likelihood); three systems where the primary was likely to be the hosting star (>55% likelihood); one system where the secondary was likely to be the planet-hosting star (>55% likelihood); and two systems where we were uncertain which star was the planet-hosting star (≈50% likelihood to be either the primary or the secondary). Two systems, denoted by their EPIC number, EPIC 201546283 and EPIC 201862715, had confirmed planets, K2-27b and K2-94b, respectively, with radii of 4.0 ± 0.1 and 16.4 ± 2.9 R⊕, respectively

Detection of Planetary and Stellar Companions to Neighboring Stars via a Combination of Radial Velocity and Direct Imaging Techniques

13 pages, 6 figures, 4 tables, accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal (submitted 25 Feb 2019; accepted 28 April 2019). Machine readable tables and Posteriors from the RadVel fits are available here: http://stephenkane.net/rvfits.tarThe sensitivities of radial velocity (RV) surveys for exoplanet detection are extending to increasingly longer orbital periods, where companions with periods of several years are now being regularly discovered. Companions with orbital periods that exceed the duration of the survey manifest in the data as an incomplete orbit or linear trend, a feature that can either present as the sole detectable companion to the host star, or as an additional signal overlain on the signatures of previously discovered companion(s). A diagnostic that can confirm or constrain scenarios in which the trend is caused by an unseen stellar rather than planetary companion is the use of high-contrast imaging observations. Here, we present RV data from the Anglo-Australian Planet Search (AAPS) for 20 stars that show evidence of orbiting companions. Of these, six companions have resolved orbits, with three that lie in the planetary regime. Two of these (HD 92987b and HD 221420b) are new discoveries. Follow-up observations using the Differential Speckle Survey Instrument (DSSI) on the Gemini South telescope revealed that 5 of the 20 monitored companions are likely stellar in nature. We use the sensitivity of the AAPS and DSSI data to place constraints on the mass of the companions for the remaining systems. Our analysis shows that a planetary-mass companion provides the most likely self-consistent explanation of the data for many of the remaining systems.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

The Grizzly, April 19, 1994

Erdrich Speaks of Cultural Struggles • Friendly Fire Over Iraq • Greeks Participate in Greek Week • U.S.G.A. Responds to Requests for a Wismer Meal Plan • Tropical Conservationist to Speak at Ursinus • President John Bartholomew Speaks Again • Tuning in to Talk Radio • Bands to Perform Saturday • It\u27s Not a Matter of Dryness • Women\u27s Lacrosse Crushes Swarthmore; Falls to Johns Hopkins • Eagles Draft Preview • George White Named New Men\u27s Basketball Coach at Ursinushttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1336/thumbnail.jp