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Shift accounting, dues for Run 13 and findings

Updated on Tue, 2013-08-20 10:51. Originally created by jeromel on 2013-01-07 14:05.

General

Steps toward the shift opening

Weeks before the shift official opening date, the shift sign-up is available for testing and training. The following banner is then displayed.

    SHIFT SIGNUP TEST MODE, ALL ENTRIES WILL BE WIPED OUT WHEN NORMAL SIGNUP STARTS

As indicated, this means that any entries you see and signing try you make will be removed before the official opening. A side effect of the training mode is that the accounting may also show a "Status" column reflecting the trial sign-up. Please, focus on the dues (and in all cases, refer to your council member for information on your institution's dues).

Days before the opening, the pages are no longer accessible and a count down clock is displayed as follows


Here again, it will do what it says - whenever the opening date/time will be reached, the count down will disappear and the sign-up interface will be opened for business. You do NOT need to refresh the page in countdown mode (the script will do this for you on the exact date/time).

From Run 13 onward, a CAPTCHA or challenge question will appear after the count down is over and/or when you will access the the interface from a brand newly opened Web browser. This was added to prevent scripting of automated sign-up via scripting. An example of the challenge question is showed below:

If you have difficulties answering the challenge question, we suggest you either seek assistance from an eye care specialist ... or consider chosing a different carrier path :-)

Accounting and dues

Run 13, part I

Dues for the first part of the run are available as a PDF at the bottom of this page.

The dues for two institutions were temporarily increased based upon their requests to cover for more shifts than initially alloted. The Run 13 special cases (discussed in the council list) were:

Alikhanov Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics dues = 2 asked for +1 displayed 3
Warsaw University of Technology dues = 5 asked for +2 displayed 7

Upon shift sign-up completion, the dues will be restored to their normal value and those two institutions will then have a shift coverage excess.

Run 13, extension revised dues

New dues are available as this PDF attachment.

Snapshot of shifts occupancy at extension
Week Period Coord. Shift Shift Leader Detector Opr. Detector Opr. Shift Crew Leader Trainee Det.Opr.Trainee
Apr 30th - May 7th Dimitri Smirnov
Brookhaven National Laboratory  		 0:30-7:30 Hao Qiu
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 		 Wangmei Zha
University of Science and Technology of China - USTC 		 Lokesh Kumar
Kent State University 		 Qi-Ye Shou
Shanghai Institue of Applied Physics 		    
7:30-16:30 Ernst Sichtermann
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 		 Thomas Burton
Brookhaven National Laboratory 		 Petr Chaloupka
Czech Technical University in Prague 		 Duncan Prindle
University of Washington 		    
16:30-0:30 Xin Dong
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 		 Yi Guo
University of Science and Technology of China - USTC 		 Robert Vertesi
Nuclear Physics Inst., Academy of Sciences 		 Stanislav Vokal
Joint Institute for Nuclear Research 		   Oleg Eyser
Brookhaven National Laboratory 
 
Week Period Coord. Shift Shift Leader Detector Opr. Detector Opr. Shift Crew Leader Trainee Det.Opr.Trainee
May 7th - May 14th Dimitri Smirnov
Brookhaven National Laboratory  		 0:30-7:30 Leonid Efimov
Joint Institute for Nuclear Research 		 ChengMing Du
Institute of Modern Physics, Lanzhou 		 Sabita Das
Institute of Physics. Bhubaneswar 		 Suvarna Ramachandran
University of Kentucky 		    
7:30-16:30 Gary Westfall
Michigan State University 		 John Cramer
University of Washington 		 Hui Wang
Brookhaven National Laboratory 		 John Novak
Michigan State University 		    
16:30-0:30 Renee Fatemi
University of Kentucky 		 David Grosnick
Valparaiso University 		 Jason Webb
Brookhaven National Laboratory 		 Zillay H Khan
University of Illinois at Chicago 		   Yaping Wang
University of Illinois at Chicago 

Signup distribution as a function of time (historical sign-up graphs)

The following occupancy versus time distributions are available for our records. A significant of available slots remain present within the first 15 mnts. Period cooridnator and training slots excluded, 90% of the shifts are taken however within the first 20 mnts.

Occupancy for all slots Slots without training or period coordinator




Top 15 winners of the Run 13 shift race

The winners for the Run 13 sign-up race: Hal Spinka (ANL), Evan Sangaline (UC-Davis) and Mustafa Mustafa (Purdue).

Place Time Person Institution
1 10:00:12 Hal Spinka Argonne National Laboratory
2 10:00:17 Evan Sangaline University of California - Davis
3 10:00:18 Mustafa Mustafa Purdue University
4 10:00:18 Prashanth Shanmuganathan Kent State University
5 10:00:19
 Petr Chaloupka Czech Technical University in Prague
6 10:00:20 John Novak Michigan State University
7 10:00:20
 Leszek Kosarzewski Warsaw University of Technology
8 10:00:21
 Christopher Anson Ohio State University
9 10:00:22
 Dave Underwood Argonne National Laboratory
10 10:00:22
 Barbara Trzeciak Warsaw University of Technology
11 10:00:22
 Mike Lisa Ohio State University
12 10:00:23
 Hua Pei Central China Normal University
13 10:00:23
 Alexander Schmah Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
14 10:00:23
 Renee Fatemi University of Kentucky
15 10:00:24
 James Drachenberg Valparaiso University


Observation, technical issues and lessons learn

Before opening
  • The process of updating our PhoneBook records remains lengthy and tedious (only 30% of the council answered after a near 2 months lead time + EMail wave from the Spokesperson was made on 2012/12/17 to the remainder)
    • No hope for improvement here, this implies a significant lead time for shift preparation is needed as well as hard deadlines
  • The process of gathering the list of experts was also incomplete (the list provided added "default" members we should not considered and missed several past experts) - the feedback mechanism via mailing list is not working as expected
    • We recommend to start from the DB records and modify from there to avoid confusion and misses
  • Although instructions were sent early, STAR members did not read through the instructions.
    • There are no solution we haven't tried already to resolve this issue
At opening and during sign-up
  • Although in place for now the 4th year, the standard message "oversubcription limit reached" when the insitution reaches its quota of shifts was not understood.
    • TODO: It was suggested to replace (or extend) by a more explicit message "institution has met its quota" 
  • Safari on iPad was reported as not showing the full interface but only the shift instruction frame (too bad those users did not test prior to the sign-up).
    • Safari and Opera (full versions) have been verified as working however.
    • Outcome: This will not be considered as an issue as it is not possible to test all browsers on all smart phone devices, especially with those "cut down browser" versions deliverred with smart devices. Users should simply test prior (this is the purpose of the training week).
  • The institution drop down list mechanism may privilege insitutions well placed (top or bottom) a easier to find (especially without training)
    • 2013/08/16: Idea is to allow users to select their institution/named ahead on the countdown page - when done, a cookie will propagate the institution/username and the next stage will auto-select it (so users will be able to sign-in immediately)
  • ...
Technical
  • The additional shift occupancy plot (without period coordinator and training slots) was correct
    • This was corrected within hours of opening (the denominator was not calculated properly)
  • ...
Possible change
  • Shift dues could be showed a fractional number upon mouse-over. This would allow people to see how close to the round-off they are in case of shift extension
  • ...

Institutions feedback or notes

  • Frankfurt University appears with a (past and current) due but this institution was reformed in 2013 with a totally different team (FIAS). Clock needs to be reset.
  • Cracow noted on 2013/05/08 (Email from Janusz) that they are short of one shift and will make sure to catch up next year
  • Pusan accepted to serve +1 more shift in 2014 run - this was part of the appeal process (the shortage of shift dues in 2013 relates to run extension)
  • We have not heard from Wayne State - all authors are removed at this stage



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