[Cuga] JLab Weekly Briefs - a message from the JLab Communications Office

[Kandice Carter]

To access the full version of the JLab Weekly Briefs, visit: https://www.jlab.org/news/briefs/latest 

March 15 Briefs Excerpts: 

12 GeV Upgrade - Hall C Update 
With all equipment installed for the 12 GeV Upgrade of Hall C, the hall was swept and locked. The Counting Room was staffed, and the accelerator started delivering electrons to the hall on March 8. Once the beam was measured and tuned, a thin carbon target was put in position in the scattering chamber, and checkout of the new Super High Momentum Spectrometer began. Everything worked as planned! The five superconducting magnets in the spectrometer were turned on and signals from the detectors showed that high-energy particles were passing through them. Researchers collected and quickly analyzed the data and began to optimize the magnet polarities and currents, detector high voltages, trigger timing and data-acquisition settings. The results of the data analysis, including beam properties, was compiled as a demonstration of the Key Performance Parameter, a critical milestone indicating that the Hall C portion of the 12 GeV Upgrade Project has achieved its performance goals. Concurrence that this milestone has been met was received from the DOE Federal Program Manager and Federal Project Director today. The Hall C staff and users now look forward to using this shiny new tool to study some exciting physics. 

Hall A Update 
Hall A continued taking data on the argon spectral function experiment, which is now roughly half completed. 

Hall D Update 
The GlueX experiment has taken data for about 40 days this spring, which is about 22 percent of the time approved by the Program Advisory Committee for the first stage of the experiment. During this run, the Hall D equipment has been working well, close to the initial specifications. A substantial progress in speeding up the front-end electronics and data acquisition system has been achieved since spring 2016. The experiment is able to run at a slightly higher luminosity than initially planned. Several studies of possible systematic uncertainties have been performed, including a half-day of running at a low luminosity in order to study the rate-driven effects. The GlueX collaboration is planning to finish the necessary calibrations and start the analysis of the full data set by mid-May. 

Last Chance to Submit Your Design Ideas for the 2017 JLab T-shirt Contest! 
The Jefferson Lab Activities Group is seeking entries for the annual T-shirt design contest. Your idea could become the winning design for Jefferson Lab's 2017 T-shirt! New ideas and previously submitted designs are welcome. The winning design will be unveiled at the lab's annual Run-A-Round event, scheduled for May 17. Submit your design online via the JAG webpage by close of business on Friday, March 17. Design requirements and more information may be found in the memo: https://www.jlab.org/memo/jag-seeks-design-ideas-2017-jlab-t-shirt-contest 

IT Maintenance Day Set for Tuesday, March 21, 5-10 p.m. 
The IT Division is planning a maintenance period for 5-10 p.m. on Tuesday, March 21. During this time, there will be a couple of short network outages while the central firewall is upgraded. During these outages, access to central services, such as file servers, will be interrupted. In addition, IT Division staff will be upgrading the external DNS server, the scientific computing name server, the webmail server, and the central scratch file server. These systems should be offline for about 15 minutes each while new servers are put in place. All services will be available by 7 p.m. Core Computer User Environment software updates will also be released to all Windows systems for Firefox, Thunderbird and other centrally managed software packages. Finally, Windows and Linux patches will be released to all CUE-managed desktops and servers, and there may be short outages over night while these servers are rebooted to finalize patch installation. Due to these updates and patches, plan on rebooting your Windows or Linux desktop no later than Friday, March 24, to finalize installation. If you have any questions or concerns about this maintenance period, contact the IT Division Helpdesk at helpdesk at jlab.org or x7155. 

Year-Round Awareness Needed for Tornado Preparedness 
Tornadoes can occur year round in eastern Virginia; they can develop in association with severe weather fronts, seasonal temperature swings, and even in conjunction with hurricanes, and can strike with little warning. Therefore, it is critical to maintain a high level of tornado preparedness. Everyone at Jefferson Lab should take time – at least annually – to review tornado awareness and response actions. For more information, see the full memo: https://www.jlab.org/memo/year-round-awareness-needed-tornado-preparedness 
Note: At approximately 9:45 a.m. on Tuesday, March 21, the National Weather Service will send a test tornado warning over NOAA Weather Radios as part of the 2017 Virginia Tornado Drill. Local radio stations, TV stations and cable outlets will also broadcast the test message via the Emergency Alert System. 

Food Services Contractor: More About Elite 
Elite Management Group is taking over as subcontractor for all Jefferson Lab food services starting on April 3, which includes café, catering and vending. Led by Zeel Desai and Ritesh Patel, Elite is a small business that prides itself on using new and innovative approaches for managing food service operations. According to Elite CEO, Zeel Desai, the management team at Elite has more than 45 years of experience in menu formation, implementation and customer service, and the company strives to serve not only good food but to provide service to all of its clients in every industry. Elite also prioritizes purchasing locally and from small business, such as buying fresh, seasonal produce that is grown nearby, whenever possible. 

ODU Physics Department Open House Set for March 18 
The Old Dominion University Physics Department will hold an open house on Saturday, March 18. The event will include lab tours, an exhibit of meteorites, planetarium shows, and a variety of hands-on activities and live demonstrations. The event is free and open to all ages. R.S.V.P.s are not required, but are appreciated. For more information, the R.S.V.P. utility, parking garage locations and a campus map, visit www.odu.edu/physics. 

To access the full version of the JLab Weekly Briefs, visit: https://www.jlab.org/news/briefs/latest 
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