Idaho National Laboratory 2015-2023 Ten-Year Site Plan

This Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Ten-Year Site Plan (TYSP) describes the strategy for accomplishing the long-term objective of sustaining the INL infrastructure to meet the Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE) mission: to promote nuclear power as a resource capable of making major contributions in meeting the nation’s energy supply, environmental and energy security needs. This TYSP provides the strategy for INL to accomplish its mission by: (1) linking R&D mission goals to core capabilities and infrastructure requirements; (2) establishing a ten-year end-state vision for INL facility complexes; (3) identifying and prioritizing infrastructure needs and capability gaps; (4) establishing maintenance and repair strategies that allow for sustainment of mission-critical (MC) facilities; and (5) applying sustainability principles to each decision and action. The TYSP serves as the infrastructure-planning baseline for INL; and, though budget formulation documents are informed by the TYSP, it is not itself a budget document

Assessing sustainability education in a transdisciplinary undergraduate course focused on real-world problem solving: a case for disciplinary grounding

Purpose – University sustainability programs intend to provide an integrated education that fosters the key competencies that students need to solve real-world sustainability problems. Translating these key competencies into pedagogical practice in integrated academic programs is not straightforward and the effectiveness of certain teaching methods in fostering sustainability competencies is largely unknown. The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a classroom assessment aimed at determining the extent to which key sustainability competencies develop in students during an introductory transdisciplinary sustainability course. Design/methodology/approach – The paper summarizes three previously identified key sustainability competencies and describes teaching methodologies used in the introductory course described here to foster these competencies in students. The development of these competencies over the course of one semester is assessed using a pre-/post-test based on case analyses. The implications of these findings for academic sustainability programs are discussed. Findings – Based on the assessment used here, the sustainability competencies developed differently in students with different disciplinary affiliations as a result of the introductory sustainability course. Business majors did not improve any of the key competencies, Sustainability majors improved systems thinking competence only, and Sustainability minors who were majoring in another traditional discipline improved all competencies. Practical implications -- Universities incorporate sustainability into their undergraduate curricula in many ways, ranging from infusing sustainability into courses based in traditional disciplines to creating academic programs focused entirely on sustainability that offer stand-alone sustainability courses. The results of this assessment suggest that universities should pay attention to the different preconceptions and disciplinary affiliations of students, as well as the overall structure of their undergraduate curriculum, as they figure out how to make sustainability part of undergraduate education. Originality/value – The paper contributes to undergraduate sustainability education by shedding light on how sustainability might best be incorporated into specific academic programs. This information may help create more effective sustainability courses and academic programs, which may maintain the viability of current sustainability programs and promote the institutionalization of sustainability in higher education in general

Early Warning: Development of Confidential Incident Reporting Systems

Accidents hardly ever happen without warning. The combination, or sequence, of failures and mistakes that cause an accident may indeed be unique but the individual failures and mistakes rarely are. In the USA in 1974 the crews on two different aircraft misunderstood the same aeronautical chart and descended towards their destination dangerously early towards a mountain. The first crew were in good weather conditions and could see the mountain and resolved their misinterpretation of the chart. The second crew six weeks later were not so lucky. In cloud they had no clues to point out their mistake nor the presence of the mountain. The resulting crash and the ensuing inquiry, which brought to light the previous incident, shocked the country but gave it the impetus to instigate a safety reporting system. This system eventually became the NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS). The programme collects incident reports from pilots, controllers, mechanics, cabin attendants and many others involved in aviation operations. By disseminating this safety information the ASRS has helped enormously to give US airlines and airspace the highest safety standards. Accident prevention is a goal sought by everyone in the aviation industry and establishing effective incident reporting programmes can go a long way toward achieving that goal. This article will describe the steps and issues required to establish an incident reporting system. The authors summarize the lessons learned from the ASRS, now in its twentieth year of operation and from the Confidential Human Factors Reporting (HER) Programme run by British Airways, an airline that is a recognized world leader in safety reporting and analysis. The differences between government and airline operation of confidential safety reporting systems will be addressed

Idaho National Laboratory 2015-2023 Ten-Year Site Plan

This Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Ten-Year Site Plan (TYSP) describes the strategy for accomplishing the long-term objective of sustaining the INL infrastructure to meet the Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE) mission: to promote nuclear power as a resource capable of making major contributions in meeting the nation’s energy supply, environmental and energy security needs. This TYSP provides the strategy for INL to accomplish its mission by: (1) linking R&D mission goals to core capabilities and infrastructure requirements; (2) establishing a ten-year end-state vision for INL facility complexes; (3) identifying and prioritizing infrastructure needs and capability gaps; (4) establishing maintenance and repair strategies that allow for sustainment of mission-critical (MC) facilities; and (5) applying sustainability principles to each decision and action. The TYSP serves as the infrastructure-planning baseline for INL; and, though budget formulation documents are informed by the TYSP, it is not itself a budget document

Idaho National Laboratory 2013-2022 Ten-Year Site Plan

The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Ten-Year Site Plan (TYSP) describes the strategy for accomplishing the long-term objective of transforming the laboratory to meet Department of Energy (DOE) national nuclear research and development (R&D) goals, as outlined in DOE strategic plans. The plan links R&D mission goals and INL core capabilities with infrastructure requirements (single- and multi-program), establishs the 10-year end-state vision for INL complexes, and identifies and prioritizes infrastructure needs and capability gaps. The TYSP serves as the basis for documenting and justifying infrastructure investments proposed as part of the FY 2013 budget formulation process

2016 Southern Sociological Society Presidential Address: Are Millennials Cracking the Gender Structure?

In this article, which grew from my presidential address at the 2016 Southern Sociological Society Meetings, I offer a revision of my theoretical argument that we should conceptualize gender as a social structure. This revision includes a differentiation between the material and the cultural dimension at each level of the gender structure. I then briefly present some empirical evidence from a study of American Millennials to illustrate the usefulness of the revision. The research presented helps us understand how today’s young adults are adapting to, and perhaps changing, the gender structure itself. The data are based on interviews with 116 young adults, age 18 to 30, from the Chicagoland area. The findings suggest that some Millennials are rejecting gender as a binary while others are embracing essentialist ideologies. Most of the sample tell stories that are full of contradictions between their identities, the expectations they face, and their worldviews. I conclude with some implications of the research for both social change and academic research. © The Southern Sociological Society 2016

Automated Assay of Telomere Length Measurement and Informatics for 100,000 Subjects in the Genetic Epidemiology Research on Adult Health and Aging (GERA) Cohort.

The Kaiser Permanente Research Program on Genes, Environment, and Health (RPGEH) Genetic Epidemiology Research on Adult Health and Aging (GERA) cohort includes DNA specimens extracted from saliva samples of 110,266 individuals. Because of its relationship to aging, telomere length measurement was considered an important biomarker to develop on these subjects. To assay relative telomere length (TL) on this large cohort over a short time period, we created a novel high throughput robotic system for TL analysis and informatics. Samples were run in triplicate, along with control samples, in a randomized design. As part of quality control, we determined the within-sample variability and employed thresholds for the elimination of outlying measurements. Of 106,902 samples assayed, 105,539 (98.7%) passed all quality control (QC) measures. As expected, TL in general showed a decline with age and a sex difference. While telomeres showed a negative correlation with age up to 75 years, in those older than 75 years, age positively correlated with longer telomeres, indicative of an association of longer telomeres with more years of survival in those older than 75. Furthermore, while females in general had longer telomeres than males, this difference was significant only for those older than age 50. An additional novel finding was that the variance of TL between individuals increased with age. This study establishes reliable assay and analysis methodologies for measurement of TL in large, population-based human studies. The GERA cohort represents the largest currently available such resource, linked to comprehensive electronic health and genotype data for analysis