The Minimum of Solar Cycle 23: As Deep as It Could Be?

In this work we introduce a new way of binning sunspot group data with the purpose of better understanding the impact of the solar cycle on sunspot properties and how this defined the characteristics of the extended minimum of cycle 23. Our approach assumes that the statistical properties of sunspots are completely determined by the strength of the underlying large-scale field and have no additional time dependencies. We use the amplitude of the cycle at any given moment (something we refer to as activity level) as a proxy for the strength of this deep-seated magnetic field. We find that the sunspot size distribution is composed of two populations: one population of groups and active regions and a second population of pores and ephemeral regions. When fits are performed at periods of different activity level, only the statistical properties of the former population, the active regions, is found to vary. Finally, we study the relative contribution of each component (small-scale versus large-scale) to solar magnetism. We find that when hemispheres are treated separately, almost every one of the past 12 solar minima reaches a point where the main contribution to magnetism comes from the small-scale component. However, due to asymmetries in cycle phase, this state is very rarely reached by both hemispheres at the same time. From this we infer that even though each hemisphere did reach the magnetic baseline, from a heliospheric point of view the minimum of cycle 23 was not as deep as it could have been

Studying Underlying Characteristics of Computing and Engineering Student Success (SUCCESS) Survey

This survey was developed to measure underlying factors that may influence student success including personality, community, grit, thriving, identity, mindset, motivation, perceptions of faculty caring, stress, gratitude, self-control, mindfulness, and belongingness. We measure these underlying factors because each engineering and computing student admitted to a university has clear potential for academic and personal success in their undergraduate curriculum based upon admissions criteria. However, while some thrive academically, others struggle in a variety of ways. In our NSF-funded project (1626287/1626185/1626148), we posit that some collection of characteristics—apparently not visible on their admission applications and perhaps not related to their talent or intelligence—is an important piece of the student performance puzzle. We developed a survey to measure various non-cognitive and affective factors that we believe are important for student achievement, academically, personally, and professionally. These non-cognitive and affective factors are representative of multifaceted aspects of undergraduate student success in prior literature. Each of the constructs we chose had validity evidence from prior studies, some within an engineering population. An exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis have been conducted on the original list of items to develop this finalized survey (Scheidt et al., 2018). The survey takes approximately 30 minutes for students to complete. Scheidt, M., & Godwin, A., & Senkpeil, R. R., & Ge, J. S., & Chen, J., & Self, B. P., & Widmann, J. M., & Berger, E. J. (2018, June), Validity Evidence for the SUCCESS Survey: Measuring Non-Cognitive and Affective Traits of Engineering and Computing Students. Paper presented at 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Salt Lake City, Utah. https://peer.asee.org/3122

Small-Scale and Global Dynamos and the Area and Flux Distributions of Active Regions, Sunspot Groups, and Sunspots: A Multi-Database Study

In this work we take advantage of eleven different sunspot group, sunspot, and active region databases to characterize the area and flux distributions of photospheric magnetic structures. We find that, when taken separately, different databases are better fitted by different distributions (as has been reported previously in the literature). However, we find that all our databases can be reconciled by the simple application of a proportionality constant, and that, in reality, different databases are sampling different parts of a composite distribution. This composite distribution is made up by linear combination of Weibull and log-normal distributions -- where a pure Weibull (log-normal) characterizes the distribution of structures with fluxes below (above) $10^{21}$Mx ($10^{22}$Mx). We propose that this is evidence of two separate mechanisms giving rise to visible structures on the photosphere: one directly connected to the global component of the dynamo (and the generation of bipolar active regions), and the other with the small-scale component of the dynamo (and the fragmentation of magnetic structures due to their interaction with turbulent convection). Additionally, we demonstrate that the Weibull distribution shows the expected linear behavior of a power-law distribution (when extended into smaller fluxes), making our results compatible with the results of Parnell et al. (2009)

Pain and Nausea Intensity, Social Function, and Psychological Well-Being among Women with Metastatic Breast Cancer

Advances in diagnostics and therapeutics have improved prognosis for metastatic breast cancer (MBC). Yet, treatment and disease burden-including experiences of pain and nausea-present practical and emotional challenges. To better support patients and enhance quality of life, deeper understanding of the pathways linking physical and psychological health is needed. To this end, we examined associations of pain and nausea with depression and anxiety among women with MBC. In doing so, we highlighted social function as a potentially important mechanism in this relationship. This observational, cross-sectional study included 148 predominantly non-Hispanic White, highly educated women living with MBC. Multivariate regression models demonstrated that more intense pain and nausea were significantly associated with higher levels of depression and anxiety (p < .001). Causal mediation analyses confirmed significant indirect effects whereby decreases in social function associated with pain and nausea contributed to depression and anxiety. Thus, our findings illustrate decreased social function as one pathway through which pain and nausea contribute to escalation of depression and anxiety. Our results, therefore, underscore the importance of supporting social function among women with MBC to potentially reduce psychological sequelae of pain and nausea