ACRIM-gap and total solar irradiance revisited: Is there a secular trend between 1986 and 1996?

A gap in the total solar irradiance (TSI) measurements between ACRIM-1 and ACRIM-2 led to the ongoing debate on the presence or not of a secular trend between the minima preceding cycles 22 (in 1986) and 23 (1996). It was recently proposed to use the SATIRE model of solar irradiance variations to bridge this gap. When doing this, it is important to use the appropriate SATIRE-based reconstruction, which we do here, employing a reconstruction based on magnetograms. The accuracy of this model on months to years timescales is significantly higher than that of a model developed for long-term reconstructions used by the ACRIM team for such an analysis. The constructed `mixed' ACRIM - SATIRE composite shows no increase in the TSI from 1986 to 1996, in contrast to the ACRIM TSI composite.Comment: 4 figure

Solar total irradiance in cycle 23

The apparently unusual behaviour of the TSI during the most recent minimum of solar activity has been interpreted as evidence against solar surface magnetism as the main driver of the secular change in the TSI. We test claims that the evolution of the solar surface magnetic field does not reproduce the observed TSI in cycle 23. We use sensitive, 60-minute averaged MDI magnetograms and quasi-simultaneous continuum images as an input to our SATIRE-S model and calculate the TSI variation over cycle 23, sampled roughly twice-monthly. The computed TSI is then compared to the PMOD composite of TSI measurements and to the data from two individual instruments, SORCE/TIM and UARS/ACRIM II, that monitored the TSI during the declining phase of cycle 23 and over the previous minimum in 1996, respectively. Excellent agreement is found between the trends shown by the model and almost all sets of measurements. The only exception is the early, i.e. 1996 to 1998, PMOD data. Whereas the agreement between the model and the PMOD composite over the period 1999-2009 is almost perfect, the modelled TSI shows a steeper increase between 1996 and 1999 than implied by the PMOD composite. On the other hand, the steeper trend in the model agrees remarkably well with the ACRIM II data. A closer look at the VIRGO data, that make the basis of the PMOD composite after 1996, reveals that only one of the two VIRGO instruments, the PMO6V, shows the shallower trend present in the composite, whereas the DIARAD measurements indicate a steeper trend. We conclude that (1) the sensitivity changes of the PMO6V radiometers within VIRGO during the first two years have very likely not been correctly evaluated, and that (2) the TSI variations over cycle 23 and the change in the TSI levels between the minima in 1996 and 2008 are consistent with the solar surface magnetism mechanism

Post-shutdown temperature of a buried reactor system for a lunar based power plant

Post-shutdown temperature of lithium cooled fast reactor assumed to be buried beneath lunar surfac

Health Disparities among Latinx Communities: Issues of Access to Information, Interpreters, and Bilingual Providers

Health Disparities among Latinx Communities: Issues of Access to Information, Interpreters, and Bilingual Providers Shea Wenzler, Depts. of Psychology and Political Science, Roma Kankaria, Sydney Welles, and Anubhav Thapaliya, with Dr. Indira Sultanić, School of World Studies Members of the Latinx community in Richmond and the United States face challenges in obtaining equitable health care access because of socioeconomic and systematic barriers within the healthcare system. This analysis conducted by the Collective Corazón—a VCU student organization that addresses Latinx healthy equity through service and advocacy—examines the underlying causes of Latinx health disparities. Special emphasis is placed on access to just, equitable, and ethical care, information, qualified interpreters, and bilingual healthcare providers—with the objective of proposing viable solutions to alleviate health disparities. This study found that while the U.S. Census Bureau identifies the Latinx population as the fastest growing demographic in the country, the group’s average income and educational attainment fall below the national average, causing increased amounts of stress and thus contributing to poor mental and physical health outcomes. The health disparities created by these socioeconomic factors are further exacerbated by discrimination by healthcare workers and language barriers that result from a lack of qualified interpreters and bilingual providers. This situation creates a cultural divide in which Latinx individuals who are less comfortable speaking English are more likely to turn to alternative forms of support, such as religious and community institutions. This study contends that increasing physician and interpreter training, designing and delivering culturally specific eHealth and Telehealth tools, connecting language access to patient safety and quality of care, and encouraging connections with community leaders are ways to lessen the challenges faced by Latinx individuals in healthcare.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/uresposters/1335/thumbnail.jp

Design of a CO2 laser power control system for a Spacelab microgravity experiment

The surface tension driven convection experiment (STDCE) is a Space Transportation System flight experiment manifested to fly aboard the USML-1 Spacelab mission. A CO2 laser is used to heat a spot on the surface of silicone oil contained inside a test chamber. Several CO2 laser control systems were evaluated and the selected system will be interfaced with the balance of the experimental hardware to constitute a working engineering model. Descriptions and a discussion of these various design approaches are presented

Toxic Power: What the Toxics Release Inventory Tells Us About Power Plant Pollution

Examines nationwide and state electric utility data to show the quantity and nature of toxic pollutants reported by power plants, and describes the potential health damage they can cause. Suggests ways for reducing toxic power plant pollution

Closing talk: Progress and Poverty: The Paradox of Scholarly Communication in the Digital Age

We live in an era of unprecedented scholarly productivity and vastly improved scholarly communication. Academic researchers today have immediate access to an immense volume of scholarly articles and research data that would have amazed a researchers of 25 years ago. Today, my library at a medium-sized Masters institution, offers students and faculty an online Discovery System that provides direct access to millions of articles and nearly 80,000 online journals -- increasing the amount of scholarly information available to our patrons by 20, 30, 40 times? ... I don\u27t know -- compared to what was available to them in 1980. So, why do Academic librarians talk about a crisis in scholarly communication? Why do we consider the current system unsustainable, inequitable or unfair? Why do we worry that we don\u27t have the resources to provide patrons with information that they need? I argue that it comes down to a matter of control. We, as librarians, as the academic community, no longer control the technological platforms used to preserve and distribute scholarly research. The platform has largely been outsourced to for-profit corporations whose goals don\u27t always coincide with academic values. I also argue that academic librarians need to focus on the mission of the academic community as a collective whole rather than on the local needs of their own campuses to resolve this paradox ... anyway, give me about 40 minutes to try to explain myself

Scholarly Communication and the Dilemma of Collective Action: Why Academic Journals Cost Too Much

Why has the rise of the Internet—which drastically reduces the cost of distributing information—coincided with drastic increases in the prices that academic libraries pay for access to scholarly journals? This study argues that libraries are trapped in a collective action dilemma as defined by economist Mancur Olson in The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups. To truly reduce their costs, librarians would have to build a shared online collection of scholarly resources jointly managed by the academic community as a whole, but individual academic institutions lack the private incentives necessary to invest in a shared collection. Thus, the management of online scholarly journals has been largely outsourced to publishers who have developed monopoly powers that allow them to increase subscription prices faster than the rate of inflation. Many librarians consider the open access movement the best response to increased subscription costs, but the current strategies employed to achieve open access also are undermined by collective action dilemmas. In conclusion, some alternative strategies are proposed

Reconstruction of solar UV irradiance since 1974

Variations of the solar UV irradiance are an important driver of chemical and physical processes in the Earth's upper atmosphere and may also influence global climate. Here we reconstruct solar UV irradiance in the range 115-400 nm over the period 1974-2007 by making use of the recently developed empirical extension of the SATIRE models employing SUSIM data. The evolution of the solar photospheric magnetic flux, which is a central input to the model, is described by the magnetograms and continuum images recorded at the Kitt Peak National Solar Observatory between 1974 and 2003 and by the MDI instrument on SoHO since 1996. The reconstruction extends the available observational record by 1.5 solar cycles. The reconstructed Ly-alpha irradiance agrees well with the composite time series by Woods et al (2000). The amplitude of the irradiance variations grows with decreasing wavelength and in the wavelength regions of special interest for studies of the Earth's climate (Ly-alpha and oxygen absorption continuum and bands between 130 and 350 nm) is one to two orders of magnitude stronger than in the visible or if integrated over all wavelengths (total solar irradiance)

Dealing with Diversity: A Qualitative Evaluation of the Program Mentor Migration SALAM

In the project “Mentor Migration SALAM -Spielen Austauschen Lernen Achtsam Miteinander (Playing-Sharing- Learning-Attentively-Together) students mentor a child from a migrant family for a period of 8 months. They spend about three hours of leisure time a week together. The students are assigned to only one child, so they can develop an interpersonal relationship to that child and its family. For the children the project helps to expand their horizons, gaining a wider knowledge of their surroundings, the urban neighborhood they live in, the city itself. The act of students and pupils coming together, offers in itself, lots of learning opportunities: the children are forced to communicate, they negotiate the choice of activities with the students; they explore new places and spaces; they learn something about student life. The students on the other, hand gain a better awareness of how to act in intercultural encounters; they gain insights into milieus they would usually not know or have the opportunity to enter. They can assist the families with any questions regarding the German educational system. 50-70 students per year have been involved since 2009. The Freiburg University of Education, the City of Freiburg and four primary schools are cooperating in the project. The University recruits and selects the students and supports them via supervision. The project is integrated into the curriculum, so that the students can also get credit for taking part. The whole project is regularly evaluated and scientifically escorted. Some of the evaluation results are presented here