JPL VLBI Analysis Center Report for 2012

This report describes the activities of the JPL VLBI Analysis Center for the year 2012. The highlight of the year was the successful MSL rover Mars landing, which was supported by VLBI-based navigation using our combined spacecraft, celestial reference frame, terrestrial reference frame, earth orientation, and planetary ephemeris VLBI systems. We also supported several other missions with VLBI navigation measurements. A combined NASA-ESA network was demonstrated with first Ka-band fringes to ESA's Malargue, Argentina 35 m. We achieved first fringes with our new digital back end and Mark 5C recorders

Nanoscale Voltage Enhancement at Cathode Interfaces in Li-ion Batteries

Interfaces are ubiquitous in Li-ion battery electrodes, occurring across compositional gradients, regions of multiphase intergrowths, and between electrodes and solid electrolyte interphases or protective coatings. However, the impact of these interfaces on Li energetics remains largely unknown. In this work, we calculated Li intercalation-site energetics across cathode interfaces and demonstrated the physics governing these energetics on both sides of the interface. We studied the olivine/olivine-structured LixFePO4/LixMPO4 (x=0 and 1, M=Co, Ti, Mn) and layered/layered-structured LiNiO2/TiO2 interfaces to explore different material structures and transition metal elements. We found that across an interface from a high- to low-voltage material the Li voltage remains constant in the high-voltage material and decays approximately linearly in the low-voltage region, approaching the Li voltage of the low-voltage material. This effect ranges from 0.5-9nm depending on the interfacial dipole screening. This effect provides a mechanism for a high-voltage material at an interface to significantly enhance the Li intercalation voltage in a low-voltage material over nanometer scale. We showed that this voltage enhancement is governed by a combination of electron transfer (from low- to high-voltage regions), strain and interfacial dipole screening. We explored the implications of this voltage enhancement for a novel heterostructured-cathode design and redox pseudocapacitors

Community Building, Community Bridging

A summary document of our research, entitled "Community Building, Community Bridging: Linking Neighborhood Improvement Initiatives and the New Regionalism in the San Francisco Bay Area," discusses the three initiatives and draws general lessons for those interested in how communities and regions could better work together

Software process representation to support multiple views

Current interest in improving the effectiveness and predictability of software development has led to a recent focus on software process modeling and improvement. Process-centered software development environments (PCSDEs), have been examined as a useful adjunct to software process modeling. A number of PCSDEs have been designed and built; an examination of the range of potential users of such environments reveals a wide range of needs with respect to information about an enacted software process and how this information is presented. The paper describes one aspect of a PCSDE supporting multiple simultaneous views: the design of a representation of enacted software processes which is suitable for the generation of multiple simultaneous views

The joint impact of work engagement and burnout on ill-being and turnover intention

Abstract: In the South African business process services (BPS) industry, a number of variables impact employee’s wellbeing [1]. This study examined the joint impact of work engagement and burnout on ill-being and turnover intention. A quantitative survey yielded a sample of n = 498 from 16 BPS organizations. Polynomial regression and response surface analysis were utilized to analyze the data. Work engagement and burnout can be experienced jointly with ill-being increasing as engagement levels increase toward burnout levels; inversely ill-being decreases when work engagement levels increase as burnout levels decrease. Lower levels of engagement congruent with lower levels of burnout have no statistical significant effect on turnover intention. The findings can be applied to improve BPS human capital and management decisions. The BPS industry leans itself strongly towards Innovation for Value Creation and Beyond through the business benefits it yields – the understanding of employee wellbeing is therefore critical in explaining BPS architecture

Improved SAAO–2MASS photometry transformations

Near-infrared photometry of 599 stars is used to calculate transformations from the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) JHK system to the Two-Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS) JHKS system. Both several-term formal regression relations and simplified transformations are presented. Inverse transformations (i.e. 2MASS to SAAO) are also given. The presence of non-linearities in some colour terms is highlighted.Web of Scienc

Reviewing an integrated MBA core course: Working paper series--03-16

Entering the new century, business education must respond to changes in the work environment. The traditional job as we have known it is rapidly becoming rarer, and students find themselves in an environment of higher complexity, more competition, and faster change. Employers state that students are often unprepared to meet challenges of the new work environment. In response to these influences, a team of educators at Northern Arizona University's College of Business Administration redesigned their MBA program. Based on surveys of employers, alumni and others, core courses of the MBA program became functionally integrated, cross-disciplinary, more outcome-oriented, and more rigorous. The program core was integrated in its entirety; then, components of the core were "chunked" to fit traditional time slots for administrative reasons. This paper describes design and implementation efforts for one MBA core component: Individuals, Teams, and Careers. This component presents students with an integrated view of their own strengths and weaknesses as they relate to personal, team, and career issues for students' pursuit of careers after graduation. Course content is strongly based on self-evaluations by students, then moves into group interaction strategies and skills, and finally focuses on reciprocal interactions of the person and the work environment. The multiple foci of this component include students' careers as future managers, management of their own careers and career mentorship of subordinates. Content development for the MBA program core, and thus for this component was a team effort, negotiated among the MBA redesign team. Six team members represented traditional functional areas of economics, finance, accounting, marketing, management, and computer information systems. Development and implementation of Individuals, Teams, and Careers fell to the authors as members of the MBA core faculty representing the management area. Course topics were team-taught by two management faculty members, as well as by economics, marketing, business law, and human resources faculty. In addition, guest presenters included specialists in leadership, arbitration, and a retired career manager who had been President of IBM's General Products Division. In its first iteration, the Individuals, Teams, and Careers component was presented during semester break between the first and second semesters of the MBA program. With this medial position in the core, much of the team content was based on students' retrospective views of team interaction and performance during the first half of the program. The course has since been moved to the beginning of the course sequence. In this current position, this "chunk" appears as one of two initial program components and fulfills the socialization and expectations-setting function for individual and team performance in the program, as well as addressing career management at the start of the program. This paper describes the integrated content of this MBA program component, including its multiple focus and its outcome orientation. In addition, dimensions of the team-teaching experience in this course component are examined. Finally, students' responses to this component are reported, relative to content and pedagogy. We expect other educators will benefit from seeing Northern Arizona University's response to the dramatically changing environment of the 21st century

S5E7: What career opportunities exist in the outdoor recreation industry?

Maine is known as Vacationland to lovers of outdoor recreation from around the world. An industry grew out of Mainers’ and tourists’ passion for hiking, biking, kayaking, skiing and other outside pastimes, and it generates $3 billion in economic activity for the state. The Outdoor Leadership program at UMaine was created to take advantage of this opportunity. Working with an existing program at the University of Maine at Machias and University of Maine Cooperative Extension 4-H camps, this new program is preparing students for careers in tourism, education and other fields that pertain to outside activities and learning. In this episode of “The Maine Question,” we head outside with a roundtable discussion that explores the outdoor recreation industry