[BNC-all] BNC e-news for the week of Nov. 10th

[Anthrop, Heather L]

Ink Cartridge
Parking
Purchasing
Seminar
Cleanroom


Ink Cartridge
If you have use for ink cartridges HP 97 and 96 please see Heather at the front desk. She was one of each and will give them away on a first come first serve basis.

Parking
On Monday, November 10th 20 parking spaces will be reserved for the Pet Bird Workshop. The workshop will end at 1:30 pm, at that time reserved spaces may be used.

Purchasing
Attached you will find an updated purchase request form from the Birck Business Office. Please do not use any old versions or other department versions from this point forward when ordering for Birck. The form must be filled out COMPLETELY before giving to any clerical staff or entering into Ariba.  If you have any questions or concerns regarding purchasing please see the Business Office or a clerical staff member.

Seminar
Ethics, Policy and Science Lecture series presents Dr. Howarth Bouis, Director of HarvestPlus.
Biofortification: Attenuating the Injustice of Global Malnutrition
Wednesday, November 12th at 5:30 pm in PFEN 24, the Dean's Auditorium
Free pizza and beer (21+) will be served at the event.


For the past four decades, prices for non-staple foods rich in bioavailable minerals and vitamins have risen steadily, while wages have remained relatively stagnant proportional to the cost of living.  This has strongly contributed to high mortality and morbidity rates among women and pre-school children in much of the developing world.  Immune systems are compromised, children's growth is stunted, economic costs are high.  This is a moral bad and if we have the ability to attenuate the negative effects of malnutrition we ought to try.  Biofortification, the process of breeding nutrients into food crops, provides at least a partial solution.  Since farmers grow these crops themselves and provide them to their neighbors, it is a sustainable, cost-effective, highly promising strategy for delivering needed micronutrients to rural populations in developing countries.  This presentation summarizes HarvestPlus's progress to date and identifies challenges in scaling up biofortified crops in target countries, while at the same time highlighting relevant aspects of policy and ethics.

Cleanroom

Spinner Maintenance
We received input that the smaller chucks aren't sealing as well as they usually do.  It was found that PMMA was used on the smallest chuck and it took a greater effort to clean out the material.  We're implementing a preventive maintenance check as well as ordering new parts for the chucks.

MJB3 Aligners
A great suggestion was made to shift the aligners to the right on their air-tables to allow better seated ergonomics.  This is being done today, Friday Nov 7.

Big Screen in Upper Atrium
We're working with the card-reader company to modify the software to dynamically show which users are currently in the cleanroom on the big screen HDTV.  Additionally we will discuss with them the possibility of providing a signal (audible and/or visual) when the second-to-last person swipes out of the cleanroom in the afterhours.  This would enhance the buddy policy for working in acid hoods during nights and weekends.

BNC Student/User Forum
A user suggested we create a forum for users to share ideas, recipes, findings, discoveries, etc about their processes and experiences in the cleanroom.  We've contacted ECN and will set up such a forum in the near future.


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