Make Art Real

The Make Art Real project aims to introduce new audiences to the arts. It supports Theme II of VCU’s Quest for Distinction by promoting and fostering creative expression through innovative collaborations. The project involves displaying existing connections between art and non-art disciplines, as well as making new connections. These unusual pairings are then placed on exhibition through a lunch-time lecture series named “Unexpected_Connections,” which allow faculty, staff, and students to lead and participate in discussions about the reality of art. The lecture series is the first sustainable and reoccurring program to be held in the Depot building, a multidisciplinary facility which is intended to foster interdisciplinary collaborations. The targeted audience includes faculty, staff, students, and members of the greater VCU community

rRNA sequencing in molecular microbiological diagnosis of bacterial infections in the autopsy setting

Diagnosing the aetiology of infectious diseases at autopsy, such as pneumonia, meningitis, sepsis or SUDI, is complicated due to issues including post mortem contamination, difficulty culturing fastidious organisms and subjective interpretation of polymicrobial cultures. Death of organisms may also occur post mortem, especially if antibiotics were given to the patient, but residual DNA from non-viable organisms, amenable to molecular detection, may remain. The 16S rRNA gene is present in all bacteria with conserved and hyper-variable regions along its length, allowing amplification and sequencing of all bacterial 16S sequences present in a sample. 16S sequencing offers potential advantages over culture-based diagnostics and is increasingly used in clinical practice. It has been used to identify bacteria in formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) surgical pathology specimens but its use has not been reported in autopsy diagnosis. This talk will summarise a study aimed to assess the utility of 16S sequencing as an adjunctive microbiological test in the autopsy. Our preliminary work has used post mortem lung tissue samples from children dying with pneumonia as part of the Pneumonia Etiology Research for Child Health (PERCH) project. The technique has identified known pathogens in some cases and provided additional diagnostic information in others. The presentation will discuss the technical aspects of 16S sequencing from FFPE and autopsy material, and the issues surrounding its application to diagnosis in comparison with standard culture based diagnostics on surgical/autopsy material

KELT-3b: A Hot Jupiter Transiting a V=9.8 Late-F Star

We report the discovery of KELT-3b, a moderately inflated transiting hot Jupiter with a mass of 1.477 (-0.067, +0.066) M_J, and radius of 1.345 +/- 0.072 R_J, with an orbital period of 2.7033904 +/- 0.000010 days. The host star, KELT-3, is a V=9.8 late F star with M_* = 1.278 (-0.061, +0.063) M_sun, R_* = 1.472 (-0.067, +0.065) R_sun, T_eff = 6306 (-49, +50) K, log(g) = 4.209 (-0.031, +0.033), and [Fe/H] = 0.044 (-0.082, +0.080), and has a likely proper motion companion. KELT-3b is the third transiting exoplanet discovered by the KELT survey, and is orbiting one of the 20 brightest known transiting planet host stars, making it a promising candidate for detailed characterization studies. Although we infer that KELT-3 is significantly evolved, a preliminary analysis of the stellar and orbital evolution of the system suggests that the planet has likely always received a level of incident flux above the empirically-identified threshold for radius inflation suggested by Demory & Seager (2011).Comment: 12 pages, 12 figures, accepted to Ap

KELT-6b: A P~7.9 d Hot Saturn Transiting a Metal-Poor Star with a Long-Period Companion

We report the discovery of KELT-6b, a mildly-inflated Saturn-mass planet transiting a metal-poor host. The initial transit signal was identified in KELT-North survey data, and the planetary nature of the occulter was established using a combination of follow-up photometry, high-resolution imaging, high-resolution spectroscopy, and precise radial velocity measurements. The fiducial model from a global analysis including constraints from isochrones indicates that the V=10.38 host star (BD+31 2447) is a mildly evolved, late-F star with T_eff=6102 \pm 43 K, log(g_*)=4.07_{-0.07}^{+0.04} and [Fe/H]=-0.28 \pm 0.04, with an inferred mass M_*=1.09 \pm 0.04 M_sun and radius R_star=1.58_{-0.09}^{+0.16} R_sun. The planetary companion has mass M_P=0.43 \pm 0.05 M_J, radius R_P=1.19_{-0.08}^{+0.13} R_J, surface gravity log(g_P)=2.86_{-0.08}^{+0.06}, and density rho_P=0.31_{-0.08}^{+0.07} g~cm^{-3}. The planet is on an orbit with semimajor axis a=0.079 \pm 0.001 AU and eccentricity e=0.22_{-0.10}^{+0.12}, which is roughly consistent with circular, and has ephemeris of T_c(BJD_TDB)=2456347.79679 \pm 0.00036 and P=7.845631 \pm 0.000046 d. Equally plausible fits that employ empirical constraints on the host star parameters rather than isochrones yield a larger planet mass and radius by ~4-7%. KELT-6b has surface gravity and incident flux similar to HD209458b, but orbits a host that is more metal poor than HD209458 by ~0.3 dex. Thus, the KELT-6 system offers an opportunity to perform a comparative measurement of two similar planets in similar environments around stars of very different metallicities. The precise radial velocity data also reveal an acceleration indicative of a longer-period third body in the system, although the companion is not detected in Keck adaptive optics images.Comment: Published in AJ, 17 pages, 15 figures, 6 table

KELT-1b: A Strongly Irradiated, Highly Inflated, Short Period, 27 Jupiter-mass Companion Transiting a mid-F Star

We present the discovery of KELT-1b, the first transiting low-mass companion from the wide-field Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope-North (KELT-North) survey. The V=10.7 primary is a mildly evolved, solar-metallicity, mid-F star. The companion is a low-mass brown dwarf or super-massive planet with mass of 27.23+/-0.50 MJ and radius of 1.110+0.037-0.024 RJ, on a very short period (P=1.21750007) circular orbit. KELT-1b receives a large amount of stellar insolation, with an equilibrium temperature assuming zero albedo and perfect redistribution of 2422 K. Upper limits on the secondary eclipse depth indicate that either the companion must have a non-zero albedo, or it must experience some energy redistribution. Comparison with standard evolutionary models for brown dwarfs suggests that the radius of KELT-1b is significantly inflated. Adaptive optics imaging reveals a candidate stellar companion to KELT-1, which is consistent with an M dwarf if bound. The projected spin-orbit alignment angle is consistent with zero stellar obliquity, and the vsini of the primary is consistent with tidal synchronization. Given the extreme parameters of the KELT-1 system, we expect it to provide an important testbed for theories of the emplacement and evolution of short-period companions, and theories of tidal dissipation and irradiated brown dwarf atmospheres.Comment: 30 pages, 19 figures. Submitted to Ap

KELT-2Ab: A Hot Jupiter Transiting the Bright (V=8.77) Primary Star of a Binary System

We report the discovery of KELT-2Ab, a hot Jupiter transiting the bright (V=8.77) primary star of the HD 42176 binary system. The host is a slightly evolved late F-star likely in the very short-lived "blue-hook" stage of evolution, with \teff=6148\pm48{\rm K}, $\log{g}=4.030_{-0.026}^{+0.015}$ and \feh=0.034\pm0.78. The inferred stellar mass is $M_*=1.314_{-0.060}^{+0.063}$\msun\ and the star has a relatively large radius of $R_*=1.836_{-0.046}^{+0.066}$\rsun. The planet is a typical hot Jupiter with period $4.11379\pm0.00001$ days and a mass of $M_P=1.524\pm0.088$\mj\ and radius of $R_P=1.290_{-0.050}^{+0.064}$\rj. This is mildly inflated as compared to models of irradiated giant planets at the $\sim$4 Gyr age of the system. KELT-2A is the third brightest star with a transiting planet identified by ground-based transit surveys, and the ninth brightest star overall with a transiting planet. KELT-2Ab's mass and radius are unique among the subset of planets with $V<9$ host stars, and therefore increases the diversity of bright benchmark systems. We also measure the relative motion of KELT-2A and -2B over a baseline of 38 years, robustly demonstrating for the first time that the stars are bound. This allows us to infer that KELT-2B is an early K-dwarf. We hypothesize that through the eccentric Kozai mechanism KELT-2B may have emplaced KELT-2Ab in its current orbit. This scenario is potentially testable with Rossiter-McLaughlin measurements, which should have an amplitude of $\sim$44 m s$^{-1}$.Comment: 9 pages, 2 tables, 4 figures. A short video describing this paper is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVS8lnkXXlE. Revised to reflect the ApJL version. Note that figure 4 is not in the ApJL versio

KELT-7b: A hot Jupiter transiting a bright V=8.54 rapidly rotating F-star

We report the discovery of KELT-7b, a transiting hot Jupiter with a mass of $1.28 \pm 0.18$ MJ, radius of $1.53_{-0.047}^{+0.046}$ RJ, and an orbital period of $2.7347749 \pm 0.0000039$ days. The bright host star (HD33643; KELT-7) is an F-star with $V=8.54$, Teff $=6789_{-49}^{+50}$ K, [Fe/H] $=0.139_{-0.081}^{+0.075}$, and $\log{g}=4.149 \pm 0.019$. It has a mass of $1.535_{-0.054}^{+0.066}$ Msun, a radius of $1.732_{-0.045}^{+0.043}$ Rsun, and is the fifth most massive, fifth hottest, and the ninth brightest star known to host a transiting planet. It is also the brightest star around which KELT has discovered a transiting planet. Thus, KELT-7b is an ideal target for detailed characterization given its relatively low surface gravity, high equilibrium temperature, and bright host star. The rapid rotation of the star ($73 \pm 0.5$ km/s) results in a Rossiter-McLaughlin effect with an unusually large amplitude of several hundred m/s. We find that the orbit normal of the planet is likely to be well-aligned with the stellar spin axis, with a projected spin-orbit alignment of $\lambda=9.7 \pm 5.2$ degrees. This is currently the second most rapidly rotating star to have a reflex signal (and thus mass determination) due to a planetary companion measured.Comment: Accepted to The Astronomical Journa

Campaign 9 of the K2 mission: Observational parameters, scientific drivers, and community involvement for a simultaneous space-and ground-based microlensing survey

K2ʼs Campaign 9 (K2C9) will conduct a ∼3.7 deg2 survey toward the Galactic bulge from 2016 April 22 through July 2 that will leverage the spatial separation between K2 and the Earth to facilitate measurement of the microlens parallax πE for ≳170 microlensing events. These will include several that are planetary in nature as well as many short-timescale microlensing events, which are potentially indicative of free-floating planets (FFPs). These satellite parallax measurements will in turn allow for the direct measurement of the masses of and distances to the lensing systems. In this article we provide an overview of the K2C9 space- and ground-based microlensing survey. Specifically, we detail the demographic questions that can be addressed by this program, including the frequency of FFPs and the Galactic distribution of exoplanets, the observational parameters of K2C9, and the array of resources dedicated to concurrent observations. Finally, we outline the avenues through which the larger community can become involved, and generally encourage participation in K2C9, which constitutes an important pathfinding mission and community exercise in anticipation of WFIRST