Maximum Angular Separation Epochs for Exoplanet Imaging Observations

Direct imaging of exoplanets presents both significant challenges and significant gains. The advantages primarily lie in receiving emitted and, with future instruments, reflected photons at phase angles not accessible by other techniques, enabling the potential for atmospheric studies and the detection of rotation and surface features. The challenges are numerous and include coronagraph development and achieving the necessary contrast ratio. Here, we address the specific challenge of determining epochs of maximum angular separation for the star and planet. We compute orbital ephemerides for known transiting and radial velocity planets, taking Keplerian orbital elements into account. We provide analytical expressions for angular star--planet separation as a function of the true anomaly, including the locations of minimum and maximum. These expressions are used to calculate uncertainties for maximum angular separation as a function of time for the known exoplanets, and we provide strategies for improving ephemerides with application to proposed and planned imaging missions.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journa

The Feasibility of Implementing Farm to School Programs In Bloomington-Normal Public Schools

Farm to School programs promote partnerships between local farmers and school districts in which farmers can provide fresh organic produce for school meals and education about sustainable agriculture. A focus on local and organic foods has a variety of benefits that affect the environmental, health, and community. This study explores opportunities for Farm to School programs in Bloomington-Normal public schools, and concludes that a this type of program would be feasible in Normal, although there are quite a few barriers to overcome before implementation would be possible

In Their Words: A Phenomenological Study of the Experience of the Mentees in the Citizen Scholars Program

This phenomenological study examined the mentoring experience of five students involved in a community-based mentoring program developed to guide high ability, low-socioeconomic students from sixth grade through high-school graduation and on to college acceptance and graduation. This study explored, from student perspectives, how each student experienced and interpreted their personal mentoring relationship. Additionally, it explored each student’s perception of how the mentoring experience influenced his or her academic achievement and academic self-efficacy. The study followed an interpretative phenomenological analysis approach and was guided by Rhodes’s mentoring model and Bandura’s work with self-efficacy. Following the analysis protocol developed by Jonathan Smith, semi-structured, in-depth interviews were used as the data source. The researcher conducted several readings of the interview transcripts in order to identify emerging themes. Connected themes were organized into higher-level superordinate themes. A complete analysis was conducted for each interview transcript before moving to the next transcript. After all transcripts were analyzed with themes and superordinate themes having been identified, the researcher looked for connections and patterns between the transcripts as a whole. The quality of mentoring relationship emerged as the most significant superordinate theme, as it influenced the other superordinate themes of mentee social-emotional, cognitive, identity, and self-efficacy development. The superordinate theme of external moderating influences included the mentoring program, the individual mentee’s dispositions, and the mentees’ parents shaped the atmosphere that either facilitated or hindered the mentoring relationship. Few studies have examined the mentoring experience from the mentee’s perspective, particularly as it influences self-efficacy and academic outcomes. As such, this study addressed the gap in the literature as it relates to student perspectives of mentoring outcomes

Insuring the Healthy or Insuring the Sick? The Dilemma of Regulating the Individual Health Insurance Market -- Short Case Studies of Six States

Looks at a range of regulatory strategies used to make individual health insurance policies more accessible and affordable. Assesses the effectiveness of regulatory reforms in Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Washington