Overview of the Power Systems Engineering Branch and Experience with 4D Team Building

This presentation provides a brief overview of a 4-D teambuilding assessment conducted for the Power Systems Engineering Branch

Earthquake Assessment of Critical Structures for Route US 60 Missouri

The Missouri Department of Transportation initiated a study of that segment of Route US 60 that has been officially designated as “emergency vehicle priority access”. The objectives were to establish a current subsurface and earthquake design geographic information systems (GIS) database for the designated US 60 corridor, and to conduct detailed earthquake assessments at two critical bridge sites along US 60. Databases have been established for current subsurface and earthquake data for the US Route 60 corridor in Butler, Stoddard and New Madrid Counties. These databases serve as the beginning of a larger regional or statewide database for future development and usage by MoDOT. Detailed earthquake site assessments have been conducted for two critical US 60 roadway bridge sites (Wahite Ditch and St. Francis River Bridge). Liquefaction potential, slope stability, abutment stability, and structure stability analysis were performed at both sites for selected “worst case scenario synthetic bedrock ground motions” based on New Madrid source zone earthquakes with 2% and 10% probabilities of exceedance in fifty years. Site assessments indicate that both the Wahite Ditch and St. Francis River bridges could be rendered unusable by strong ground motion with a 2% probability of exceedance in the next fifty years. Studies indicate that the bridge themselves would not fail - rather they would probably be rendered unusable because of damage to their abutments and the failure of their approaches (as a result of slope instability and liquefaction). Problems could be exacerbated by the localized flooding as a result of levee failure and/or damage to the Wappapello Dam. A scheme of retrofit of these structures will be developed later

The illusion of competency versus the desirability of expertise: Seeking a common standard for support professions in sport

In this paper we examine and challenge the competency-based models which currently dominate accreditation and development systems in sport support disciplines, largely the sciences and coaching. Through consideration of exemplar shortcomings, the limitations of competency-based systems are presented as failing to cater for the complexity of decision making and the need for proactive experimentation essential to effective practice. To provide a better fit with the challenges of the various disciplines in their work with performers, an alternative approach is presented which focuses on the promotion, evaluation and elaboration of expertise. Such an approach resonates with important characteristics of professions, whilst also providing for the essential ‘shades of grey’ inherent in work with human participants. Key differences between the approaches are considered through exemplars of evaluation processes. The expertise-focused method, although inherently more complex, is seen as offering a less ambiguous and more positive route, both through more accurate representation of essential professional competence and through facilitation of future growth in proficiency and evolution of expertise in practice. Examples from the literature are also presented, offering further support for the practicalities of this approach

The TAOS Project Stellar Variability II. Detection of 15 Variable Stars

The Taiwanese-American Occultation Survey (TAOS) project has collected more than a billion photometric measurements since 2005 January. These sky survey data-covering timescales from a fraction of a second to a few hundred days-are a useful source to study stellar variability. A total of 167 star fields, mostly along the ecliptic plane, have been selected for photometric monitoring with the TAOS telescopes. This paper presents our initial analysis of a search for periodic variable stars from the time-series TAOS data on one particular TAOS field, No. 151 (RA = 17^{\rm h}30^{\rm m}6\fs67, Dec = 27\degr17\arcmin 30\arcsec, J2000), which had been observed over 47 epochs in 2005. A total of 81 candidate variables are identified in the 3 square degree field, with magnitudes in the range 8 < R < 16. On the basis of the periodicity and shape of the lightcurves, 29 variables, 15 of which were previously unknown, are classified as RR Lyrae, Cepheid, delta Scuti, SX Phonencis, semi-regular and eclipsing binaries.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures, accepted in The Astronomical Journa

Mice deficient of Myc super-enhancer region reveal differential control mechanism between normal and pathological growth

The gene desert upstream of the MYC oncogene on chromosome 8q24 contains susceptibility loci for several major forms of human cancer. The region shows high conservation between human and mouse and contains multiple MYC enhancers that are activated in tumor cells. However, the role of this region in normal development has not been addressed. Here we show that a 538 kb deletion of the entire MYC upstream super-enhancer region in mice results in 50% to 80% decrease in Myc expression in multiple tissues. The mice are viable and show no overt phenotype. However, they are resistant to tumorigenesis, and most normal cells isolated from them grow slowly in culture. These results reveal that only cells whose MYC activity is increased by serum or oncogenic driver mutations depend on the 8q24 super-enhancer region, and indicate that targeting the activity of this element is a promising strategy of cancer chemoprevention and therapy.Peer reviewe