This Week, June 17 - 21, 2013
Husker Motorsports prepares for Formula SAE competition
UNL's Husker Motorsports hosts the international collegiate Formula SAE race car competition June 19-22 at Air Park in Lincoln. The 2012 event, also held in Lincoln, drew more than 80 teams and 2,000 participants from the United States, Brazil, Mexico and Japan. Admission is free.
The Society of Automotive Engineers organizes the annual racing event. Chris Wilson, a UNL engineering student, leads Husker Motorsports. The team has spent the last year improving its entry, using lessons learned in the 2012 event. Last year, the first time UNL entered the event, Husker Motorsports placed 50th out of the 81 teams competing. The final scores are based on cost, presentation, design and autocross performance. Read more about this competition at the Engineering website.
Libraries dean search to begin
UNL will conduct an internal search for permanent dean of the University Libraries. The search, open to all tenured members of the UNL libraries faculty, begins immediately and is expected to finish by the end of July.
Ellen Weissinger, senior vice chancellor for Academic Affairs, announced the internal search in a June 13 email to library faculty. Weissinger said she made the decision after getting a letter from a significant component of the library faculty, who indicated that an internal dean would be best suited to guide progress the libraries must make in the next few years. Those faculty members also expressed confidence that one or more viable internal candidates exist. Read more about this search in Today@UNL.
Jha studies the Venetian way
Dipra Jha, assistant professor of practice in hospitality, restaurant and tourism management has been selected to be a professor in residence at the Venetian-Palazzo Resort in Las Vegas from July 21 to Aug. 1. With more than 7,000 suites, the Venetian-Palazzo is the largest five-diamond resort in the world. It also has the second largest convention facility in the world offering 2.25 million square feet of meeting space.
As professor in residence, Jha will be researching operational aspects of this complex organization including sustainability practices. He will have the opportunity to engage with key executives and gain first-hand knowledge of processes used to manage large-scale operations in the hospitality industry. Read more about Jha and this selection in Today@UNL/a>.
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Study: Context crucial in genetic evolution mutations
With mutations, it turns out that context can be everything in determining whether or not they are beneficial to their evolutionary fate.
According to the traditional view among biologists, a central tenet of evolutionary biology has been that the evolutionary fates of new mutations depend on whether their effects are good, bad or inconsequential with respect to reproductive success. Central to this view is that "good" mutations are always good and lead to reproductive success, while "bad" mutations are always bad and will be quickly weeded out of the gene pool. However, new research led by evolutionary biologist Jay Storz of UNL has found that whether a given mutation is good or bad is often determined by other mutations associated with it. In other words, genetic evolution is context-dependent.
In a study to be published in the June 14 issue of Science, Storz and colleagues at UNL and Aarhus University in Denmark report that an individual mutation can be beneficial if it occurs in combination with certain other mutations, but the same mutation can detrimental to the organism if it occurs in other combinations. Read more about this study in Today@UNL.
'Before Midnight' plays at the Ross
The films "Before Midnight" and "Frances Ha" are featured at the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center. Both films are rated R. "Before Midnight" ends June 27; "Frances Ha" plays through June 20. Read more about these films at The Ross website.
Seminar, "Studying Gene Regulation and Evolutionary Innovation in the Grasses Using Comparative Genomics"
James Schnable, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center
