Leadership After a Tornado Strike: Supply Chain Management Triage

An F2 tornado had tracked less than 100 feet from the Caldwin manufacturing plant, the largest producer of an essential engine value train component in the United States. Bob, Materials Manager at the plant and a member of the senior management team, was at home when the evening storm hit. Bob immediately headed to the plant when he received word of the emergency situation. On his way to the factory a rush of questions nearly overwhelmed him. How bad was the situation? How prepared was his team of employees to handle the situation? What should customers and suppliers be told about the situation? How could Bob best provide the leadership needed in this situation? This critical incident is an actual account of an emergency response situation caused by a tornado that struck near a large manufacturing plant. While the information included in this incident is accurate, the identities of the involved parties have been changed without compromising the educational value of the situation. This emergency situation features several Supply Chain Management (SCM) related challenges related to the coordination and response activities to an unexpected natural disaster. As an experiential activity, this critical incident provides students the opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of supply chain management concepts by developing a proposed plan of action to deal with the first seventy-two hours following the disaster

Atlas of abundance and distribution patterns of ichthyoplankton from the Northeast Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea ecosystems: based on research conducted by the Alaska Fisheries Science Center (1972–1996)

This regional atlas summarizes and illustrates the distribution and abundance patterns of fish eggs and larvae of 102 taxa within 34 families found in the Northeast Pacific Ocean including the Bering Sea, Gulf of Alaska, and U.S. west coast ecosystems. Data were collected over a 20+ year period (1972–1996) by the Recruitment Processes Program of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC). Ichthyoplankton catch records used in this atlas were generated from 11,379 tows taken during 100 cruises. For each taxon, general life history data are briefly summarized from the literature. Published information on distribution patterns of eggs and larvae are reviewed for the study area. Data from AFSC ichthyoplankton collections were combined to produce an average spatial distribution for each taxon. These data were also used to estimate mean abundance and percent occurrence by year and month, and relative abundance by larval length and season. Abundance from each tow was measured as catch per 10 m2 surface area. A larval distribution and abundance map was produced with a geographic information system using ArcInfo software. For taxa with identifiable pelagic eggs, distribution maps showing presence or absence of eggs are presented. Presence or absence of adults in the study area is mapped based on recent literature and data from AFSC groundfish surveys. Distributional records for adults and early life history stages revealed several new range extensions. (PDF file contains 288 pages.

Capacity investigation of brine-bearing sands of the Frio Formation for geologic sequestration of CO2

The capacity of fluvial brine-bearing formations to sequester CO2 is investigated using numerical simulations of CO2 injection and storage. Capacity is defined as the volume fraction of the subsurface available for CO2 storage and is conceptualized as a product of factors that account for two-phase flow and transport processes, formation geometry, formation heterogeneity, and formation porosity. The space and time domains used to define capacity must be chosen with care to obtain meaningful results, especially when comparing different authors’ work. Physical factors that impact capacity include permeability anisotropy and relative permeability to CO2, brine/CO2 density and viscosity ratios, the shape of the trapping structure, formation porosity and the presence of low permeability layering.National Energy Technology LaboratoryBureau of Economic Geolog

webPOISONCONTROL: can poison control be automated?

BACKGROUND: A free webPOISONCONTROL app allows the public to determine the appropriate triage of poison ingestions without calling poison control. If accepted and safe, this alternative expands access to reliable poison control services to those who prefer the Internet over the telephone. This study assesses feasibility, safety, and user-acceptance of automated online triage of asymptomatic, nonsuicidal poison ingestion cases. METHODS: The user provides substance name, amount, age, and weight in an automated online tool or downloadable app, and is given a specific triage recommendation to stay home, go to the emergency department, or call poison control for further guidance. Safety was determined by assessing outcomes of consecutive home-triaged cases with follow-up and by confirming the correct application of algorithms. Case completion times and user perceptions of speed and ease of use were measures of user-acceptance. RESULTS: Of 9256 cases, 73.3% were triaged to home, 2.1% to an emergency department, and 24.5% directed to call poison control. Children younger than 6 years were involved in 75.2% of cases. Automated follow-up was done in 31.2% of home-triaged cases; 82.3% of these had no effect. No major or fatal outcomes were reported. More than 91% of survey respondents found the tool quick and easy to use. Median case completion time was 4.1 minutes. CONCLUSION: webPOISONCONTROL augments traditional poison control services by providing automated, accurate online access to case-specific triage and first aid guidance for poison ingestions. It is safe, quick, and easy to use

Metabolomic study of the LDL receptor null mouse fed a high-fat diet reveals profound perturbations in choline metabolism that are shared with ApoE null mice

Failure to express or expression of dysfunctional low-density lipoprotein receptors (LDLR) causes familial hypercholesterolemia in humans, a disease characterized by elevated blood cholesterol concentrations, xanthomas, and coronary heart disease, providing compelling evidence that high blood cholesterol concentrations cause atherosclerosis. In this study, we used 1H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to examine the metabolic profiles of plasma and urine from the LDLR knockout mice. Consistent with previous studies, these mice developed hypercholesterolemia and atherosclerosis when fed a high-fat/cholesterol/cholate-containing diet. In addition, multivariate statistical analysis of the metabolomic data highlighted significant differences in tricarboxylic acid cycle and fatty acid metabolism, as a result of high-fat/cholesterol diet feeding. Our metabolomic study also demonstrates that the effect of high-fat/cholesterol/cholate diet, LDLR gene deficiency, and the diet-genotype interaction caused a significant perturbation in choline metabolism, notably the choline oxidation pathway. Specifically, the loss in the LDLR caused a marked reduction in the urinary excretion of betaine and dimethylglycine, especially when the mice are fed a high-fat/cholesterol/cholate diet. Furthermore, as we demonstrate that these metabolic changes are comparable with those detected in ApoE knockout mice fed the same high-fat/cholesterol/cholate diet they may be useful for monitoring the onset of atherosclerosis across animal models

McNair Scholars\u27 Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Graduate Experience: A Pilot Study

Nationally, racial and gender disparities persist in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. These disparities are most notable at the doctoral level and are also found in the doctoral outcomes of Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program participants (Scholars) despite opportunities designed to promote their doctoral success. Scholars from three McNair Programs were surveyed. The survey included items related to Scholars’ perceptions of their McNair Program experiences, graduate advisor relationship, and experiences with stereotype threat. Scholars overwhelmingly reported their McNair Program experiences as beneficial to their STEM graduate studies and their graduate research advisors as supportive. However, Black female Scholars also overwhelmingly reported experiences related to stereotype threat. Improvements for survey items and the need for STEM education research to explicitly link educational experiences with institutional oppressions such as racism and sexism are discussed

Sustaining Engineering Education Research: Sharing Qualitative Research Data For Secondary Analysis

The need for secondary data analysis practices emerges from multiple sources. Qualitative researchers often have rich data sets that far exceed the time available for data analysis, and many of us wish that someone could spend more time with the data. We also recognize that local data sets would benefit from further analysis that linked our data with related data collected in different contexts. Many also grapple with increasing data sharing requirements from funding agencies that raise concerns about participant confidentiality and data integrity. This workshop provides a chance to explore potential responses to these concerns through a robust dialogue around secondary data analysis practices and pitfalls

Interoperable Credentials Management for Wholesale Banking

A gap exists between wholesale-banking business practices and security best practices: wholesale banks operate within the boundaries of contract law, while security best practices often relies upon a benevolent trusted party outside the scope of straightforward contracts. While some business domains may be able to bridge this gap, the ultra-high-value transactions used in business-to-business banking substantially increase the size of the gap. The gap becomes most apparent when regarded from the perspective of interoperability. If a single user applies the same credential to sign high-value transactions at multiple banks, then the trusted-party model becomes overly cumbersome and conflicts with an acceptable concept of liability. This paper outlines the business complexities of wholesale banking and proposes a solution called Partner Key Management (PKM). PKM technology manages the credentials required to authenticate users and sign transactions. This paper presents PKM technology by describing an interoperable protocol, requisite data structures, and an interoperable XML definition. The paper uses formal methods to demonstrate a security equivalence between revocation options within PKM against the security offered by the traditional Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), a technology that features the benevolent trusted party

INTERDISCIPLINARY, INDUSTRY-BASED WORK-INTEGRATED LEARNING (WIL): TRANSFORMATIVE EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCES FOR STUDENTS, TEACHERS AND INDUSTRY PARTNERS

The evolving workplace demands a shift from discipline-specific knowledge to capabilities that are transferrable across diverse contexts. Working in interdisciplinary teams, where students are active partners in shaping their learning through engaging in collaborative problem-solving enables profound personal and professional development. The challenge the students were presented with arose from a collaboration with Lab Tests Online Australasia (LTOAU). The industry partner requested assistance with improving web-design, assessing health literacy of online content, user engagement strategy and optimised use of Google analytics. The Curtin University team comprised students and academic supervisors from science, commerce, and media communications. LTOAU actively supported students to scope and define the problem, providing iterative feedback as students progressed. Solving real-world problems in interdisciplinary teams inspired students to take ownership of their learning, consider multiple perspectives, and establish a shared learning culture within a diverse team. All stakeholders described positive, immediate and long-term outcomes from the intense collaboration that took place over the duration of the project. The process for designing and implementing interdisciplinary project-based WIL in partnership with industry will be presented. The industry partner and students will outline personal development the interactive experience enabled. This presentation will highlight transformational learning afforded though interdisciplinary problem-solving