Occupational Health Services and Workers Compensation announced a holiday closure, Dec. 24-Jan. 1.

During this period, in case of medical emergency, employees should go to the emergency room at Sutter Davis Hospital, 2000 Sutter Place, telephone (530) 756-6440.

To report injuries, call Sedgwick Claims Management Services, (877) 682-7778, and notify your regular or acting supervisor. A report should be completed as soon as possible and faxed to Workers Compensation, (530) 752-3439.

More on what’s open, what’s closed for the holidays, and why your office may be chilly.

Beer-for-a-butterfly contest: Can you beat Shapiro?

Cabbage white butterflies, beware! Professor Arthur Shapiro and his graduate students, nets in hand, are coming after you again.

It’s time for Shapiro’s annual beer-for-a-butterfly contest, not just any butterfly, but the first cabbage white (Pieris rapae) of the new year.

Shapiro, a distinguished professor in the Department of Evolution and Ecology, runs the contest to aid in his studies of biological response to climate change. He said the cabbage white is emerging in this region a week or so earlier on average than it did 30 years ago.

The contest is open to anyone, including Shapiro, who, by the way, usually wins. He won the 2012 contest by snagging a cabbage white on Jan. 8, the second earliest catch date in the contest’s 40-year history.

The winner receives a pitcher of beer, or the cash equivalent. If Shapiro wins, you can bet he’ll buy the beer anyway!

The rules state the butterfly must be captured outdoors in the counties of Yolo, Solano or Sacramento, on or after Jan. 1, 2013, and the specimen must be an adult. It must be brought in alive to the Department of Evolution and Ecology, 2320 Storer Hall, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, with full data (exact time, date and location of capture) and your name, address, phone number and-or e-mail.

If you catch a cabbage white on a weekend or holiday, hold the specimen in a refrigerator (do not freeze) until you can get the butterfly to Storer Hall. A few days in the fridge will not harm the butterfly.

The cabbage white occurs in vacant lots, fields and gardens with weedy mustards — the butterfly’s host plant. The cabbage white is is typically one of the first butterflies to emerge in late winter.

Since 1972, the first flight has varied from Jan. 1 to Feb. 22, averaging about Jan. 20. Shapiro attributed 2012’s unusually early first catch, Jan. 8, to the prolonged midwinter dry spell.

For more information, contact professor Shapiro, (530) 752-2176 or amshapiro@ucdavis.edu.

MSAP: 'An investment in management talent'

Application materials are now available for UC’s Management Skills Assessment Program, or MSAP, described by UC as “an investment in management talent.”

The residential program, held annually in Northern and Southern California, offers insight into managerial competencies and potential in the context of the complexities of being a manager in the UC system.

The 2013 MSAP for UC’s Northern California locations is scheduled from April 30 to May 3 at the Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove.

The cost to each participant’s department is $900. The deadline for UC Davis applications is noon Thursday, Feb. 21. More information (including the application materials). The UC Davis contact is Marla Dolcini at Staff Development and Professional Services, (530) 752-9682 or mtdolcini@ucdavis.edu.

Vanpool information sessions

TAPS is suggesting some New Year’s resolutions that are hard to argue with: Cut your stress level, save time and money, and help improve air quality.

You can do all of that by joining a vanpool, and you can learn more at information sessions in January (see details below). Each session will deal with a different commute: San Francisco and East Bay, El Dorado County and Folsom, and Elk Grove.

“Vanpooling is one of the most cost-effective, flexible and convenient commuting alternatives to driving alone to work,” Leslie Mancebo of Transportation and Parking Services wrote in a recent blog post on UC Davis’ Sustainable 2nd Century website.

She goes on to describe the benefits, including complimentary parking passes that you can use when circumstances prevent you from riding in your vanpool; and emergency rides (TAPS will get you home, 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Friday).

The information meetings are scheduled as follows, all from noon to 1 p.m. in the Garrison Room, second floor, Memorial Union:

• Wednesday, Jan. 16 — San Francisco and the East Bay
• Wednesday, Jan. 23 — El Dorado County and Folsom
• Wednesday, Jan. 30 — Elk Grove

For more information prior to the meetings, contact Mancebo, coordinator, Transportation Demand and Marketing, (530) 752-6453 or lmmancebo@ucdavis.edu.