NC State In the News

Chins up, please, at N.C. State

The News & Observer

June 18 – Jim Oblinger used to carry some N.C. State University lapel pins in his pocket. When he would meet someone at one of the multitude of events a chancellor has to attend, he would offer them a pin after he'd gotten to know them a little bit. Now, though it's true that The News & Observer over many years has published on this page far more editorials and columns praising N.C. State than those pieces that have been critical, the fact is that some on the campus staff and many alums believe their university hasn't gotten its due and aren't too crazy about The Old Reliable.....Today, as N.C. State confronts and copes with a difficult moment in its history, it's important to acknowledge what went wrong in what is now known as the Easley experience. But it's also important to elevate some chins and continue to stand behind all that is right with this great university....

Woodward: Sure-footed start at troubled NCSU

charlotteobserver.com

June 18 – He has learned to wear bright-red ties and to give the Wolfpack sign with one hand. He has met with deans and faculty and students, talked frankly with the news media and dealt with some sticky problems. But for all he has had to learn in catching up with the duties of N.C. State University's chancellorship, it is clear that Jim Woodward knows what he is doing. His sure-footed approach is going a long way towards restoring confidence in the state's largest public university. "So far he's beyond even our best hopes," says former N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Burley Mitchell, an NCSU alumnus, former NCSU trustee and new member of the UNC Board of Governors. "It's clear that he knows the duties and responsibilities of a chancellor. He has taken charge with a firm but very calm approach and has gone about the tough decisions that must be made to get N.C. State back on task."....

Interim chancellor nixes ex-provost's pay change

Journal Now (AP), The Chronicle of Higher Education , Triangle Business Journal, News & Observer, Herald-sun.com, MSN Money, Roanoke Rapids Daily HeraldChannel 7 abc, WLOS, News Record (AP), WBTV, WRAL.com, 680 WPTF

June 17 – The interim chancellor of N.C. State University has eliminated the lucrative resignation package given to the former campus provost, saying in a letter released yesterday that the deal was "invalid." Interim chancellor Jim Woodward said in the letter that former Chancellor James Oblinger did not have the authority to "fundamentally alter" the 2005 employment agreement of former provost Larry Nielsen. Woodward said that Oblinger should have sought the approval of the board of trustees. "This approval was not given nor was it sought," Woodward wrote...."It was sloppy work," Woodward said in an interview. "I do not think it was an intentional effort to bypass the normal procedures."...

Is it really safe?

The Miami Herald

June 18 – Leaving foods unrefrigerated for two weeks or more can be disturbing to those who weren't raised with a crock of pickles in the hallway. But U.S. Department of Agriculture research service microbiologist Fred Breidt says properly fermented vegetables are actually safer than raw vegetables, which might have been exposed to pathogens like E. coli on the farm. ''With fermented products there is no safety concern. I can flat-out say that. The reason is the lactic acid bacteria that carry out the fermentation are the world's best killers of other bacteria,'' says Breidt, who works at a lab at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, where scientists have been studying fermented and other pickled foods since the 1930s.....

Study finds reproductive health effects from low doses of bisphenol-A

EurekAlert!, PR-USA.net, Focus Online, Device Space

June 17 – New research from North Carolina State University and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) shows significant reproductive health effects in rats that have been exposed to bisphenol-A (BPA) at levels equivalent to or below the dose that has been thought not to produce any adverse effects. BPA is a chemical found in baby bottles, water bottles, canned foods and an array of other consumer products. The potential health effects of BPA are currently the subjects of intense debate. The study found that female rats exposed to a BPA dose of 50 micrograms per kilogram of body weight (µg /kg) in their first four days of life experienced early onset of puberty. Female rats exposed to 50 milligrams per kilogram of body weight (mg/kg) during their first four days of life developed significant ovarian malformations and premature loss of their estrus cycle. "The 50 mg/kg level is important," says lead researcher Dr. Heather Patisaul, "because it is equivalent to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's 'Lowest Observable Adverse Effect Level' for BPA....

Forestry: If you hug the trees, can you have more renewable energy and protect the forest?

Energy & Environment Daily

June 16 – The role of forests in meeting proposed clean energy mandates has become a sticking point as lawmakers consider broader climate and energy legislation. At issue is a definition of what sources of biomass are "renewable" -- a word that is easy to say but harder to put into practice. Varying interpretations have so far appeared in everything from the tax code to the farm bill. The tension comes from the balancing of interests typical of land-use policy decisions....Forest owners are slow to react to price signals: In the Southeast, however, unlike in the West, much of the forests are already plantations that provide material to the pulp and paper industry. Active plantations in these states would already be able to participate, but much of the logging slash and low-value biomass from these lands is already burned for energy, said Bob Abt, a professor at North Carolina State University. Forest owners are usually slow to react to increasing wood prices and may not necessarily find it worthwhile to supply new energy markets instead of traditional industries, he said....

N.C. Tobacco Farmers Find Friend in State's New Senator

AARP.org

June 16 – Along Highway 581 in this rural hamlet, past the Piggly Wiggly and the Country Doctor Museum and the Baptist church and cemetery, is Pender Sharp's tobacco farm. A sixth-generation farmer who tends to 500 acres, he is part of a dwindling breed whose political influence seems to be waning everywhere -- except in eastern North Carolina....The state's politics are no longer dominated by tobacco interests. "The vote on this particular piece of legislation is indicative that the industry has lost a considerable amount of its influence in North Carolina politics," added Andrew J. Taylor, a political scientist at North Carolina State University....

Cat with heart problem could live many years

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

June 16 – The following questions were answered by expert veterinary specialists attending the ACVIM Forum/Canadian Veterinary Medical Association Convention, June 3-6 at the Palais des Congres de Montreal....Q: My cat, Dundee, was diagnosed with HCM (feline hypertrophic cardiomyopathy) five years ago. He was doing great until his most recent ultrasound, which showed deterioration....A: Flushing medications isn't a good idea. All sorts of drug compounds have been found in drinking water. Dr. Teresa DeFrancesco, board certified in both cardiology and emergency critical care, suggests you contact a local shelter; perhaps they can use the meds....While DeFrancesco, an associate professor at North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine-Raleigh, agrees that HCM is likely the leading cause of death among adult indoor cats under 9 years, she's about to release the results of her long-term study on HCM-diagnosed cats. Her research indicates that about half of cats with no symptoms have a median survival rate of seven years....

A shift to a new line

The News & Observer

June 21 – Behind a fenced-off section in a jet-engine factory on the edge of Research Triangle Park, a handful of skilled technicians are doing something new: repair work. Most of the nearly 300 workers in the GE Aviation plant's two cavernous buildings assemble shiny, pristine new parts into more than 1,000 engines a year. Their labor keeps airplanes aloft for Boeing, Airbus and other customers....It's probably a savvy move for GE, said Don Warsing, assistant professor of supply chain and operations with N.C. State's College of Management. For one thing, GE won't have to rehire and retrain its skilled work force when the economy recovers. "You want to maintain those human assets so that when demand starts to surge again, you have those people on board," Warsing said. "It's unusual to hear about good news in manufacturing, and not just a knee-jerk reaction to cut costs and jobs. "It's kind of the Holy Grail of manufacturing, to maintain a level employment," he added. "It's much easier to keep your costs steady over the long term."...

Growing the next generation of farmers

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

June 22 – As squash, okra and Swiss chard bask on a sunny slope outside town, another crop is also taking root: budding farmers. Cabarrus County's answer to consumers clamoring for locally grown foods is to teach a new generation how to work the land....."Consumer demand has exploded in the past five years. People are looking at where their food is coming from," says Nancy Creamer, director of the Center for Environmental Farming Systems at North Carolina State University. The center is promoting a "farm to fork" local-foods initiative. You're part of that surge when you queue up for fresh tomatoes at one of the region's farmers markets or knife into pasture-raised pork at a restaurant....

The buzz is building for ‘smart grid’ power system

Richmond Times-Dispatch (AP)

June 20 – Thomas Alva Edison, meet the Internet. More than a century after Edison invented a reliable light bulb, the nation's electricity distribution system, an aging spider web of power lines, is poised to move into the digital age. The "smart grid" has become the buzz of the electric power industry, at the White House and among members of Congress. President Barack Obama says it is essential to boost development of wind and solar power, get people to use less energy and tackle climate change...."The meter is only the beginning," said Alex Huang, director of a grid technology center at North Carolina State University. He said that instead of power flowing from a small number of power plants, the smart grid can usher in a system of distributed energy so electricity "will flow from homes and businesses into the grid, neighborhoods will use local power and not just power flowing from a single source."...

His will to give

The News & Observer

June 21 – Push James Giacomo Lecce on any topic and he gently shushes you. "Ahhh, pazienza, pazienza," he says in Italian, his voice slowed by age and Parkinson's disease, his pale hands, still strong, patting down the air. Ahhh, patience. Lecce knows plenty about that. As a scientist, he spent 39 years puzzling over the mysteries of porcine husbandry in the animal science department at N.C. State University.…At 83, Lecce is adding benefactor to his list of avocations. Lecce and his wife, Eileen, recently willed their estate to the Gregg Museum of Art & Design at NCSU. The money will build an ethnic art collection rooted in Africa, the Pacific and the Americas.....