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Leveraging Precise Space-Based Photometry of Stellar Variability in Pursuit of Holistic Exoplanet System Characterization
Get PDFHigh cadence wide-field photometric surveys, such as the Kepler and Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) missions, have revolutionized observational astronomy in the past decade. For the first time, astronomers are able to study large swaths of the night sky in the time domain at high precision, allowing us to understand how celestial objects evolve on timescales of seconds, hours, days, months, and even years. Stars are not static objects, we now have the tools to study the many nuances of how they rotate, flicker, and flare. This dissertation comprises three projects that characterize different types of stellar activity, in order to improve our ability to study exoplanets and deepen our understanding of stellar physics and evolution. First, I present SpinSpotter, an automated autocorrelation-based pipeline for identifying stellar rotation periods from high cadence light curves (Holcomb+ 2022). I then applied it to the TESS prime mission to create a catalog of 13,000 rotating stars with periods 15 days, including a large fraction of ultra-fast rotating M dwarfs with periods 5 days. Both the pipeline and the catalog are important community resources. SpinSpotter, which is available as an open source software package, has been used by numerous other teams to refine exoplanet host rotation periods and help with target selection for RV surveys. The catalog represents an excellent sample for gyrochronology and cluster membership studies, and is highly complementary to other papers studying TESS rotation to demonstrate the remaining challenges in recovering long period stellar signals from TESS data.Second, I present the work I have done as a member of the Data Processing Team for the upcoming Pandora SmallSat. Launching in 2025, Pandora is equipped with a near-IR spectrograph and a visible light photometer and will be able to simultaneously monitor brightness and wavelength changes as a planet transits the stellar disk. By combining spectroscopic data with photometry, we will be able to extract planetary atmospheres via transmission spectroscopy while simultaneously characterizing the surface inhomogeneities and star spots in the stellar atmosphere. To support this work, I developed methods and tools for characterizing the point spread function (PSF) of the Pandora optical path, and demonstrated that those tools can be retroactively applied to past missions to better characterize the TESS PSF and recover a directly imaged planet in JWST coronagraph data.Third, I combine TESS photometry with high-precision radial velocity (RV) time series to characterize activity relationships for M dwarfs, which make up 80% of stars in the nearby Milky Way. “Flicker”, or short timescale photometric variability, and “jitter”, or RV variability due to stellar activity, have been shown to correlate for Sunlike stars. However, it is unclear whether this relationship extends to late type M dwarfs, for which surface activity is dominated by different astrophysical processes. Using ∼ 70 M dwarfs observed across five years with the Habitable-zone Planet Finder, I search for correlations between photometric activity signals (such as flicker, rotational features, and flares) and RV jitter, with the aim of developing new methods to predict the amplitude of RV variability in M dwarfs and design observing strategies to mitigate the effects of stellar activity on RV planet surveys.These projects demonstrate a variety of approaches to harness photometric data to aid in stellar and planetary characterization. Taken together, they provide a roadmap of how we can continue to harness high-cadence photometry from upcoming missions, such as the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope, the Vera Rubin Observatory, and the Plato Mission, to more fully understand stellar populations and the planets they host
The relationship between students' sense of commitment to the profession of nursing and their perception of powerlessness in the academic setting
No full textCommitment to a profession, particularly the profession of nursing is declining. In 1978 only 50% of the registered nurses in this country were working full-time. This issue of commitment becomes important in light of continuous well-publicized needs for even greater numbers of nurses in the job market. The theoretical framework which evolved from a review of the literature outlined three main causes for this low commitment in the profession of nursing. The variable powerlessness was shown to be an underlying common denominator in all of the identified causes for the low degree of commitment. Thus this study was designed to examine the relationship between students1 sense of commitment to nursing and their perception of powerlessness in the academic setting. The following hypothesis was proposed: There will be an inverse relationship between students1 sense of academic powerlessness and their commitment to nursing. A random sample of 300 subjects was selected from the population of senior female nursing students enrolled at two large southwestern state-supported universities. Data were collected utilizing a questionnaire format. The first section of the questionnaire measured the variables age, race, marital status, grade point average, socioeconomic status, religion, birth order, and mother's work status. Section two consisted of a Guttman scale which measured commitment behaviors. Attitudes of commitment and powerlessness were measured with Likert scale techniques in the third and fourth sections. All scales were examined for reliability and validity using factor analysis, Cronbach's alpha, and Guttman scalogram procedures. Product-moment correlation techniques were used to examine the relationships between powerlessness and commitment. Zero order correlations showed a significant inverse relationship between attitudinal commitment and powerlessness (-.831) and between behavioral commitment and powerlessness (-.781). The research hypothesis was supported. Three variables, age, grade point average, and socioeconomic status were significantly related with the variables commitment and/ or powerlessness. The influence of these three variables was statistically removed from the relationships observed between powerlessness and commitment by partial correlation models. The zero-order and partial correlations were essentially the same which showed that the three extraneous variables had little effect on the basic relationships. A series of multiple regression techniques were performed which revealed that 73% of the variance was accounted for in the variables attitudinal and behavioral commitment by the variable powerlessness. When the eight extraneous variables were controlled for by the regression analysis the variance accounted for remained at 72%. Thus the research hypothesis stating an inverse relationship between students1 sense of academic powerlessness and their commitment to nursing was supported and was unaffected by age, race, marital status, grade point average, socioeconomic status, religion, birth order, and mother's work status.Education, College o
ASL Rhyme, Rhythm, and Phonological Awareness for Deaf Children
Get PDFThe author, who is of multigenerational Deaf heritage, provides a review of the literature on spoken and signed rhyme, rhythm, and phonological awareness used with young children. While a foundation of knowledge has been built with early language approaches in spoken language, little is known about parallel forms of these approaches in American Sign Language (ASL). ASL rhyme, rhythm, and phonological awareness have historically been absent from early childhood classrooms that serve Deaf children. The author explores why this is the case and draws upon historical events to provide answers. An autoethnographic account of the author’s experience with early language approaches as a Deaf child, adult, and early childhood educator is shared. Some directions for future research include examining the effectiveness of ASL rhyme, rhythm, and phonological awareness in improving language and literacy outcomes
Road School Luncheon Keynote
No full textEric Holcomb was elected governor following an unprecedented 106-day campaign and was sworn in on January 9, 2017. Prior to his election as governor, Eric served as Indiana\u27s Lt. Governor.
He is a veteran of the United States Navy and was a trusted advisor to both Governor Mitch Daniels and Senator Dan Coats.
Throughout his career in public service, Eric has earned the reputation of being a consensus builder. He has worked with Hoosiers from all walks of life to build support for a number of initiatives and is the author of the book Leading the Revolution, which outlines the successes of the Mitch Daniels approach to campaigning and governing.
Eric is a graduate of Pike High School in Indianapolis and Hanover College in southeastern Indiana, where he majored in U.S. history with a focus on the Civil War and Reconstruction. A student of history, he is a collector of presidential signatures and currently has documents signed by 41 of our nation\u27s 44 presidents.
A lifelong Hoosier, Eric has traveled extensively throughout Indiana and has made a jump shot in each of the state\u27s 92 counties.
Mitch Daniels became the 12th president of Purdue University in January 2013, at the conclusion of his second term as Governor of the State of Indiana.
At Purdue, President Daniels has launched a series of initiatives called Purdue Moves to provide answers to some of the greatest challenges facing higher education today, including affordability and accessibility, transformative education, world-changing research, and STEM leadership. President Daniels has made student affordability and student success top priorities, pledging to keep a Purdue education within reach for students and families.
Other top priorities of President Daniels include accelerating growth in three areas that are key to the national economy and which support Purdue’s strengths (engineering, technology and computer science); infusing resources in selected areas of research, and facilitating commercialization of research.
Often called a “man of the students,” President Daniels can often be found eating dinner in a dining court, exercising alongside students at the campus recreational center, or chatting with students outside on a nice day. President Daniels is also no stranger to the Purdue Road School. He first addressed the Purdue Road School in 2006 when he was launching Major Moves and again in 2012
The Impact of Mobility on a Chipped Stone Assemblage in the Bootheel Region of New Mexico
No full textThe author has granted permission for their work to be available to the general public.This thesis examines the impact that mobility had on the chipped stone assemblage at the Late Archaic Tom Holcomb site (LA 162023) in the Bootheel region of New Mexico. Thousands of pieces of chipped stone and other artifacts were examined through visual observation and were compared with the published chipped stone analyses from Cerro Juanaquena, an Early Agricultural site located 74 km to the southeast in northwest Chihuahua. The two sites are approximately contemporaneous. The Tom Holcomb site is characterized as a hunting and gathering location with no evidence of maize use and a product of relatively high residential mobility. In contrast, Cerro Juanaquena was a location whose residents made substantial use of maize and engaged in low levels of residential mobility. Building on the work of previous researchers who associate the organization of chipped stone technology to mobility, it was expected that relative to Cerro Juanaquena, the chipped stone at the Tom Holcomb site would be dominated by non-local materials. It was also expected that relative to Cerro Juanaquena, the chipped stone at the Tom Holcomb site would only represent portions of the reduction sequence. Lastly, it was expected that relative to Cerro Juanaquena, the chipped stone at the Tom Holcomb site to be dominated by the production of bifacial tools. The results demonstrated that there was not sufficient data to determine the extent of the use of local versus non-local materials. The results also demonstrated that all stages of the reduction sequence were present at both the Tom Holcomb site and at Cerro Juanaquena. Lastly, the results demonstrated that biface tool production was occurring at a far higher rate at the Tom Holcomb site than at Cerro Juanaquena.Anthropolog
"Railroad iron is a magician's rod" : preserving and presenting historic railroad maps through the "magic" of digitization.
No full textAs digitization projects have become increasingly common, museums of all sizes have fallen under the spell of putting their archival materials online. But the process involves a great deal of advanced planning, sifting through software and hardware options, and finding the scanners and staff to carry them out. Often, small to medium-sized museums lack the resources to carry out a successful digitization project on their own. This project outlines a collaboration between the author and the Railroad and Heritage Museum (RHM) in Temple, Texas. The RHM is home to a collection of late 19th- and early 20th-century railroad engineering survey maps that are often requested by researchers. The RHM had expressed interest in digitizing them and placing them online, but lacked the staff and scanners necessary to do so. Using the resources of the Riley Digitization Center at Baylor University, the author digitized 326 maps and placed them online using Flickr (a digital asset management solution) and Pachyderm (a Flash-based Web site authoring software created for use by museums). This project details the steps involved in that process, as well as some recommendations for museums of modest size that seek to create their own online presence with limited resources.by Eric Ames.M.A
An exploratory study of the effects of extracurricular activities on academic achievement and the self-esteem of African American middle school students, 2000
Get PDFResearch states that involvement in extracurricular activities early in adolescence can build a young person's interest in school and strengthen their identity. The attributes gained through dedicated involvement in extracurricular activities can make lasting impressions on an individual's personality and allow these individuals to develop positive traits that can assist him or her throughout life. This study hypothesizes that involvement in extracurricular activities increases academic achievement and the personal self-esteem of African American adolescents. The setting for this study was the Allen Christian School located in Jamaica, N.Y. From the setting, a sample of 15 males and 14 females was utilized. A guestionnaire was developed and administered to a sample population of students both involved and not involved in extracurricular activities to gain insight on their academic achievements and attitudes relating to their self-esteem. The data were collected, analyzed and recorded. The results were correlated to determine the level of significance. Descriptive and frequency data was reviewed and compared for visual relationships to support or deny the proposed hypothesis. The findings suggest support in favor of participation in extracurricular activities to increase academic achievement and self-esteem. The implications for social work are considered
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