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Golden LEAF weighs options
N.C. State University wants $134,145 to create marketing materials aimed at Japanese investors.
Raising
money can be troublesome
Andrew Taylor, political science
TV clip:
Saturated soil provides basis for potential damage
Ryan Boyles, State Climate Office; Bob Barfon, forestry
Pack
earns certification
Lee Fowler, athletics
Opinion:
Sen. Edwards, we are already doing our part
Michael Walden, agricultural and resource economics
Hit
the Spot
Virtual Advising Center
Manufacturing
News Center
comfort
studies conducted at North Carolina State University
Researchers
Unveil Cutting-Edge Protection For Firefighters
College of Textiles
Grow
and Show
Association
of Specialty Cut Flower Growers
Aug, 31, 2004
News & Observer
By AMY MARTINEZ
© Copyright 2004
A new nonprofit in Orlando, Fla., wants $21 million to train thousands of North Carolinians for jobs making electronic safety devices. Another group wants about $340,000 to help Campbell University in Harnett County build better relations with drug manufacturers.
Those are among the varied requests that the N.C. Golden LEAF Foundation will review during the next few months as it decides how to spend as much as $12 million between now and July.
The foundation will have to do a lot of picking and choosing: It received 212 requests for a total of $98 million this month as part of its annual call for economic development proposals.
Orlando-based 6-M Company Foundation, a nonprofit formed this year by Florida entrepreneurs, says it wants $21 million to prepare 5,000 workers for jobs making electronic devices such as gun and knife detectors in schools. The foundation's for-profit arm hopes to make and sell the devices in North Carolina, said chairman and chief executive Ben Moral Jr. The money from Golden LEAF would pay for a portion of the $8.50-an-hour that workers receive while in training, Moral said.
But $21 million is more than 10 times more than the most Golden LEAF has ever given a single project. In 2001, $1.975 million went to Franklin County to train 1,900 Flextronics workers.
Golden LEAF President Valeria Lee said 6-M's chances of receiving the money are "distant," partly because it's such a large amount, but also because Golden LEAF rarely gives money to out-of-state organizations.
Still, Moral said he is not giving up. "We're going to do this in North Carolina, whether we get any assistance or not," he said. "People need jobs now, and we're prepared to start developing products."
Golden LEAF was formed in 1999 after North Carolina settled health-related claims against cigarette manufacturers. The foundation has $400 million but gives away a small fraction of that each year for economic development projects. It has set a limit of $12 million this fiscal year, as well as $3 million for any special requests that come up between now and June 30.
Others seeking money from Golden LEAF are an economic development group in Lillington, which is asking for $341,400 on behalf of Campbell University's Pharmaceutical Sciences Institute; N.C. State University, which wants $134,145 to create marketing materials aimed at Japanese investors; and AdvantageWest, an economic development group near Asheville helping to bring a sports garment manufacturer to Mitchell County.
Golden LEAF will review these and other requests in the next few months, Lee said. During the fiscal year that just ended, Golden LEAF gave away $12 million for economic development projects. That's in addition to $60 million for a new state initiative to train biotechnology workers.
Golden LEAF's 15-member board of directors will consider a request this week for $300,000 from economic developers in Jones County, near Jacksonville. The county is competing with a site in Maryland for a 50-worker plant making military aircraft parts, Lee said.
Also, in June, developers in Winston-Salem asked Golden LEAF for a record $41 million to attract a Dell manufacturing facility with up to 1,900 jobs. Lee said the board is awaiting more information from Winston-Salem Business Inc.
"If we're going to obligate ourselves for a major amount, we just need more information about the organization actually having a likelihood of using our funds," Lee said.ASKING FOR HELP
Here are some of the requests that Golden LEAF will review:
* An economic development group in Lillington is asking for $341,400 on behalf of Campbell University's Pharmaceutical Sciences Institute to buy equipment for making generic drug capsules. The Harnett Forward Together Committee says the equipment would allow the institute to form new business partnerships.
* N.C. State University wants $134,145 to create brochures and other marketing materials in Japanese, believing they would attract more foreign investment to North Carolina. The university's N.C. Japan Center hopes to begin the project in December.
* AdvantageWest, an economic development group near Asheville, seeks $240,000 for a sports garment maker planning to create 250 jobs in Mitchell County. The money would pay for three screen-printing machines worth $80,000 each.
Aug. 31, 2004
Charlotte Observer
By MICHAEL L. WALDEN
© Copyright 2004
In his speech accepting the Democratic vice presidential nomination, Sen. John Edwards described an America in which millions live in poverty, children starve and lack warm clothing, and families scrape by on the minimum wage. He concluded it was time for the rest of us to do our part to "lift up these families."
I have two messages for Sen. Edwards on behalf of the "rest of us." First, your portrayal of poverty in America is vastly exaggerated and ignores the tremendous progress in reducing true economic hardship in our country during recent decades. Second, your claim that the "rest of us" are not doing our part to help needy families ignores the fortune spent each year by government and charities to help the disadvantaged.
Here are the facts. Poverty rates have been skewed recently by the addition of large numbers of low-income immigrant families to the official counts. When poverty is examined separately for whites, African Americans and Hispanics, poverty rates are 25 percent to 30 percent lower today than a decade ago. Importantly, rates are also significantly lower for single-parent households. And even these numbers give too pessimistic a picture of poverty because they don't factor in the benefits from programs like food stamps, rent vouchers and Medicaid.
What about the necessities of food, clothing and shelter for poor households? Food is more affordable today than ever before, and caloric consumption per person is skyrocketing. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates the number of households experiencing hunger declined 24 percent over the last decade.
Thanks in part to trade agreements now questioned by Sen. Edwards, clothing prices have dropped an average of 1 percent annually during the past decade and double that rate in the last five years. It's now virtually impossible to determine one's income from the clothes worn. Homeownership rates today are at record highs overall (69 percent) as well as for households with less than the median income (53 percent).
Sen. Edwards' picture of families struggling to make ends meet on a minimum wage salary is also a big stretch in modern America. The majority of minimum wage earners are teenagers and the elderly. Most of these workers aren't supporting a family and are working to gain experience, earn "pocket change" or supplement retirement pensions. Also, the majority of minimum wage workers take higher paying jobs within a year.
Yet Sen. Edwards' most egregious claim is that Americans aren't doing enough to assist low-income households. According to the House Ways and Means Committee's well cited Green Book, in 2002 (the latest data available) government at all levels spent $522 billion on "income-tested" programs. This is $15,087 for every poor adult and child or $34,118 for every poor household. Private charities raised another $240 billion in that year. So the total amount of "giving" in the United States, through both taxpayers and private charities, was $762 billion in 2002, or 7.3 percent of total income in the country.
Now, if Sen. Edwards' complaint is that a substantial part of this money doesn't reach poor households because it's eaten up in the bureaucracy and third-party payments, then I'd agree and point him in the direction of an idea like the "negative income tax." The negative income tax would convert all poverty programs to cash grants made directly to eligible households. Importantly, the scale of the grants would be carefully calibrated to preserve the incentive of households to improve their skills and increase their earnings.
I understand presidential campaigns are not meant to be seminars on public issues, and I know candidates will take license with the facts to stake out positions and woo voters. But candidates should also expect to be called on their version of the facts. Sen. Edwards has created a "straw man" with his theme of a downtrodden America and citizen inaction. Citizens are putting up the resources to help the disadvantaged. The better question is whether those resources are being used in the most effective way.
Michael Walden is a Reynolds Distinguished Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics at N.C. State University. Write him at walden@are1.cals.ncsu.edu.
Raising money can be troublesome
Aug. 30, 2004
News 14 Carolina; Associated Press
By Steve Hartsoe
© Copyright 2004
RALEIGH, N.C. - Campaign money and its source are an ongoing conundrum for politicians.
They eternally need to raise money, which then leaves them open to accusations that they're beholden to the groups or individuals that donate those dollars.
Barbara Allen, chairwoman of the state Democratic Party, acknowledged this dichotomy last week while bashing a Republican for his ability to raise lots of money in Congress.
"Now I really want to emphasize this -- all politicians have to raise money," Allen said. "It's a fact that running for office costs money."
Allen then went on to criticize U.S. Rep. Richard Burr for his top ranking as a recipient of contributions from political action committees. Allen charged that Burr's $1.9 million take from PACs this election cycle would negatively influence his votes if he wins his bid for the U.S. Senate.
But she was hard pressed to explain at what amount PAC money begins to sway a politician's votes. Money from PACs and individual donors are the two biggest sources of campaign funds for most members of Congress.
Burr's camp disputed Allen's claim, saying he would be beholden only to North Carolinians.
This year, groups dubbed 527s for the tax code section under which they file are emerging as questionable sources of campaign support.
They collect unlimited amounts of money to run TV commercials, get out the vote and influence issues in elections. The groups materialized to sidestep a ban on unrestricted "soft money" contributions in the campaign finance law signed by President Bush in 2002. Soft money from companies, unions and wealthy individuals formerly flowed to the political parties.
The 527 groups are at the center of the controversial Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and its television ad challenging Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry's military record.
Virginia-based Americans for Job Security this year ran an ad promoting Burr's congressional votes related to business issues.
They're also showing up in the governor's race.
While experts say candidates stand more to gain than lose from outside help, the groups are not allowed to coordinate their campaigns with candidates.
An inability to control a group's message can bring unintended results.
"These outside groups can contradict that message or they can become the story itself, which is obviously something that you don't want," said Andy Taylor, a political scientist at North Carolina State University.
GOP gubernatorial candidate Patrick Ballantine recently experienced the diversion that accompanies some outsider ads.
The Republican Governors Association, which spent an estimated $2.4 million in North Carolina during the 2000 governor's race, launched a commercial in the state's major markets touting Ballantine on the economy and education.
But the ad referred to an article on Ballantine that appeared in The Charlotte Observer. The newspaper called the ad misleading and asked the RGA to remove or revise it. At least one television station pulled the ad.
The state Democratic Party filed a complaint with the State Board of Elections, alleging the ad violated campaign law in part because it advocated for Ballantine and not issues in the campaign.
The RGA denied the charges, but revised the ad and last week released a new version minus references to the newspaper. A new ad began airing late last week.
"We really have nothing to do with those ads, but feel our message is still getting out there and feel very confident where we are," Ballantine's campaign director, Bob Rosser, said last week.
While Ballantine's camp welcomed the support, Taylor notes that fallout over the ad is one of the pitfalls with 527s.
"That hurts, I mean that negative publicity around that hurts because it seems to suggest that you're guilty with association for playing fast and lose with the truth, even though it's not the Ballantine camp that made the ad," he said.
A group called State Capitol Media Project created by former Democratic governors has started running ads attacking Ballantine's record on jobs when he was a state senator. The group, which according to its Web site is based in Washington, D.C., has no listed telephone number.
Scott Falmlen, executive director of the North Carolina Democratic Party, said the ads are different from those the RGA sponsored.
"That ad is clearly an issue ad, which is permissible and the RGA ad is not an issue ad but an expressly advocacy ad ... which crosses the line," Falmlen said.
GOP spokesman Kevin Howell noted that Democratic Gov. Mike Easley denounced third-party advertising during a recent stop in Hendersonville.
"I stand to get a lot more help because I am the incumbent, but I don't want it here," Easley is quoted as saying in the Times-News in Hendersonville. "I don't want any of that corporate money here."
Howell said that if Easley was sincere, he should call on the group to pull the ad.
A message left with the Easley campaign was not immediately returned.
The impact of 527s in the state could be winding down.
After this coming Friday, a new state law that bans the use of corporate money within 60 days of a general election and 30 days of a primary kicks in. That could hinder Ballantine, who is far behind Democratic Gov. Mike Easley in fund-raising.
Ballantine depleted most of his campaign coffers leading up to a six-person GOP primary in July. Easley had more than $4 million to spend at the end of the most recent filing period in June.
Republicans said they can weather the ban on corporate money with individual donations.
"It will be a little more challenging, but we like a challenge," said RGA spokesman Harvey Valentine.
TV clip: Saturated soil provides basis for potential damage
Aug. 30, 2004
WRAL
By Scott Mason
© Copyright 2004
Both Fran and Floyd inflicted billions of dollars in damage on North Carolina, but they did not do it alone. It was not a case of the calm before the storm, but rather the rains before the hurricanes. Story included NC State experts Ryan Boyles, State Climate Office, and Bob Bardon, forestry extension.
Aug. 31, 2004
Charlotte Observer
By staff writer
© Copyright 2004
NC State University is one of 18 NCAA Division I member institutions that was granted Athletics Certification by the organization last week. The purpose of athletics certification is to ensure integrity in the institution's athletics program and to assist institutions in improving their athletics departments. NCAA legislation mandating athletics certification was adopted in 1993 and this marked the second time that NC State has been certified.
"This certification was a result of hard work, long hours and much dedication from a broad base of constituencies across our campus," said Wolfpack Director of Athletics Lee Fowler. "This positive culmination to a year-long process demonstrates the commitment to athletic and academic excellence from our entire university family and also shows the continued progress and success of the NC State athletic program."
Aug. 31, 2004
Town Hall, DC
By Mike S. Adams
© Copyright 2004
“Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, ‘We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will surely overcome it.’ But the men who had gone up with him said, ‘We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us.’” -Numbers 13: 30-31. NASB.
Over the last two years, I have received scores of “atta boy” emails from faculty and staff across the country. While congratulating me for my stand against anti-conservative and anti-Christian policies in higher education, few have showed any interest in joining the fight. Put simply, their fears of reprisal outweigh their principles, not to mention their faith in God.
But my frustration with these faithless high-fivers recently came to an end when I got the following email from a professor at N.C. State University:
Dr. Adams,
Here's a copy of a statement I made to the last open forum of the Chancellor Search committee this afternoon:
My name is Ed Gehringer. I'm an associate professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Computer Science. I'm here on behalf of the Christian Faculty/Staff Community, an organization of 135 faculty and staff who attest to the saving grace of Jesus Christ in their lives. Our group includes most, if not all, of the faculty advisors of Christian student organizations on campus.
In the last two years, the administration at UNC-Chapel Hill has attempted three times to restrict the rights of Christian students on campus. The first time, the university backed down after the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education came to the aid of the students. The second time, the student government tried to withhold funding to religious student groups, in direct violation of a 1995 U.S. Supreme Court decision. The administration did not step in.
At the last hearing, I said that we need an NCSU Chancellor who is sensitive to the religious rights of students. The committee seemed not to sense the danger. Then, three days later, Moeser revoked the recognition of a Christian fraternity at UNC. Thank you, Chancellor Moeser, for making my case.
The complaint charged that requiring religious qualifications for membership was religious discrimination. And even more egregious, it said that the requirement that members abstain from sex outside of marriage discriminated against homosexual students.
What's wrong with placing requirements on members of a fraternity? Isn't that what pledging is all about?
Last week, Congressman Walter Jones asked the U.S. Department of Education to look into the problem, calling it part of "an ongoing problem of censorship of Christian students" at Chapel Hill.
Yesterday, the fraternity, Alpha Iota Omega, filed suit in federal court, naming the Chancellor and Board of Trustees as defendants. There was a story in the News and Observer yesterday, and today it is the top headline in the daily edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education on the Web.
Some people, who seem to be overrepresented among university administrators, do not believe that part of diversity is having organizations of students who hold allegiance to a higher power in their lives. We in the Christian faculty/staff community beg to differ. What we want to know is this: Will the new Chancellor be someone who recognizes the importance of spirituality in the lives of students, or will it be someone who tries to make the university as secular as possible? A policy of enforced secularism is not enlightenment, it is repression.
Now of course, this all happened at Chapel Hill. N.C. State is “not” Chapel Hill. And we don't need a Chancellor like they have at Chapel Hill. These cases show how much the selection of a Chancellor matters.
We do not want a Chancellor whose policies invite Congressmen to demand an investigation of our university by the U.S. Dept. of Education.
We do not want a Chancellor who makes policies that get the university and the Board of Trustees sued in federal court.
We in the Christian faculty/staff community call on you to make sure the next Chancellor is someone who respects, and is sympathetic to, the rights of religious students.
Thank you.
It is difficult to overstate the significance of what Ed Gehringer and the 135 courageous members of the NCSU Christian Faculty/Staff Community have just done.
They have reminded us that a life without principles is not worth living. And, of course, no principle is really our own unless we are willing to defend it in the face of adversity. Most of all, they remind us that injustice thrives only when good people remain silent.
How long will it be before these courageous actions become the rule rather than the exception? And how long will like-minded Christians continue to wander in the desert?
Dr. Mike S. Adams is the host of www.DrAdams.org. Log on to his website to see his first “Book of the Month” selection. And move over Oprah Winfrey!
Sept. 1, 2004
Transform Magazine, NY
By Sam Diamond
© Copyright 2004
Without an effective way to search content, potentially valuable resources remain just that: potentially valuable. Simple keyword search technologies that deliver long lists of references containing a word string fall short because they force end users and contact center agents to wade through too much information.
A new generation of search- and knowledge management-driven customer-service technologies is guiding customers to better, more concise results. These solutions optimize customer service and minimize costs by speeding access to the right content for the problem, thereby lowering contact center costs and enabling Web-based customer self-service.
What's the payoff in faster customer service and self-service? Broadband access provider Advanced Fibre Communications (AFC) is saving an estimated $400,000 per year by resolving more issues on the first call. Employee benefits firm LifeCare has implemented natural-language search, andcan add suggestions that employees might not have considered. North Carolina State University (NCSU) has built a Virtual Advising Center that counsels an average of 185 students each day with only two full-time advisors.
Handling Support With a Single Agent
Customer service calls were no simple matter for agents in AFC's technical
assistance center, which handles some 12,000 calls per year from the broadband
provider's telecommunications company customers. AFC's first-tier agents
entered case information and forwarded calls to highly trained second-tier
agents. Delays were built-in and costs were an estimated $120 per call for
second-tier agents.
To help first-tier agents find the right support information, AFC implemented a knowledge management application from Kanisa in May 2004. The system interfaces with AFC's existing CRM system, and then spiders other repositories, including user documentation, data sheets and PDF files. Content is indexed according to the system's knowledge dictionary, which presents a customizable parameter hierarchy.
Agents narrow searches by selecting from parameters such as activities, products, symptoms or objects. If a customer calls with a specific question, the agent can select specific symptoms from a list. The system responds with a narrowed list of resources that combine the specific symptom and product type. Additional parameters can be added until the agent reaches a tightly focused subset of information that resolves the question.
"[In one recent example,] the agent was initially presented with 300 results," says Mark Fisher, customer service support solutions manager. "After selecting a symptom, the list was narrowed to 40 results. After selecting a second symptom — the third mouse click — nine results were left. These were easily reviewed by the agent, and the customer issue quickly resolved."
First-tier agents are now empowered to resolve cases, so call volume to second-tier agents has been slashed. Customers get quick answers, and the technical assistance center can handle increasing call volumes without hiring. Most importantly, first-tier agents now handle about 50 percent of all calls, and costs are headed toward the $50 per-call average for first-tier agents. Savings of $400,000 per year are expected along with improved customer satisfaction.
Search Adds the Power of Suggestion
Customers searching the Web site of LifeCare, a Connecticut-based employee
benefits organization, were presented with too-long hit lists — even though
the company's full-text search engine couldn't crack the company's frequently
asked questions (FAQs) or PDF-based documentation.
"Our customers [had] no access to resources that could provide them with significant benefit, and [they had] to spend a lot of time wading through volumes of data that had no relevance," says Jay Hartley, chief technology officer.
In early 2004, at a cost of about $150,000, LifeCare implemented OneStep natural language search from iPhrase Technologies. LifeCare's customers can now type in questions rather than keywords. The system responds with a list of potentially relevant content, but also generates a thread of inquiries. If a customer asks about childcare, for example, OneStep responds with a list of all potentially relevant documents along with a question asking if the customer is interested in daycare, babysitting, nursery school or au pair services. With each successive question, the list of potentially relevant content is narrowed.
This self-service-oriented solution also customizes search results. Some customers, for example, don't want employees to have access to au pair services, so OneStep doesn't present questions that could lead to those results.
"We have more than 1,200 companies as clients, and each of their employees can see different information resources," Hartley says. "We can even tailor the way information is provided to reflect current events."
Hartley cites the interest in 529 college savings plans. "Many customers inquiring about 529 plans are completely unaware that there are many other college savings alternatives available," he explains. "When we ... narrow searches, we try to highlight [all college savings] alternatives, even though they would not normally appear in a request for 529 information."
Hartley says this guided search approach lets customers sort through tailored information iteratively in much the same way the company's counselors would during an in-person contact center call.
"The end result is that the information accessed targets the true underlying intent of the customer question," he says.
Students Consult Virtual Advisors
When your customer is a college student, you don't have to worry as much about
resistance to using the Web, but you still have to make sure they can quickly
find the right support information. NCSU didn't have the budget to hire more
full-time student advisors, so it decided to move more of the simple FAQs
to an online environment where its 29,000 undergraduate students could help
themselves.
"The problem we faced was that to keep our Web content manageable, we had always kept our FAQ list short," says Jackie Gottlieb, a Web content developer that supports the university's Virtual Advising Center (VAC) . "Students who couldn't find the information they needed on this abbreviated list [had] to either e-mail us directly, phone us or come in for a face-to-face meeting."
To meet student needs and budgetary restrictions, the university implemented a customer support application called RightNow Web Self-Service from RightNow Technologies. The system was used to build a Web-accessible, easily updated repository of questions and answers.
"We no longer have to worry about keeping our FAQ list short because the system's search capabilities can quickly find whatever specific information students need and deliver a focused answer to a specific question," Gottlieb says.
The VAC is accessed by an average of 185 students per day, and the FAQ system has been so well received, it has been extended to four other departments — Undergraduate Admissions, New Student Orientation, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences and Office of International Scholar and Student Services.
Aug. 31, 2004
Jobwerx, WA
By staff report
© Copyright 2004
August 31, 2004 -- OLD HICKORY, Tenn., USA -- Jobwerx News -- New medical fabrics from DuPont™ are designed to provide high-level protection without compromising comfort for the healthcare industry.
DuPont has opened a new $130 million facility in Tennessee to produce innovative nonwoven fabrics born from a revolutionary composite technology.
Suprel™ is the first in a series of next generation fabrics from DuPont™ that go "Beyond Protection" to meet the evolving needs of the healthcare industry.
More than 20 manufacturing patents were developed by DuPont™ for this proprietary Advanced Composite Technology. ACT blends the ideal properties of two different raw materials to create nonwoven fabrics that meet specific needs. Supreltm is the only medical fabric available that is made of polyester - for strength - and polyethylene - for silk-like softness.
After working closely with operating room nurses who participated in comfort studies conducted at North Carolina State University, Dupont researchers developed Suprel™ for the medical industry. This innovative, high-technology fabric features a silky smooth texture with less surface friction than competitive products, allowing for greater comfort and freedom of movement. It transfers heat away from the body quickly and is made from continuous filament fibers and is very low linting allowing for greater comfort and freedom of movement.
The ACT facility is located at DuPont's Old Hickory, Tennessee manufacturing complex, near Nashville and will produce 110 jobs.
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than with our FREE Gowns for a Day offer. Qualified healthcare professionals
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Gowns made with Suprel™ are now available from Medline Industries.
As reported by Jobwerx News
Search the Web above for information for the following companies discussed
in this news article:
DuPont Medical Fabrics, Medline Industries
Researchers Unveil Cutting-Edge Protection For Firefighters
Aug. 30, 2004
Textileweb.com
By staff report
© Copyright 2004
Researchers at North Carolina State University’s College of Textiles today unveiled a prototype of the next generation of firefighter turnout gear that not only offers increased protection from fire, but also provides protection from chemical and biological agents.
NC State partnered with Globe Manufacturing and DuPont for the project awarded by the Department of Homeland Security and the Technical Support Working Group.
“This prototype incorporates all the aspirations that we had for the original design, which was to develop a suit that not only had the fire protection, but also a level of chemical and biological protection,” said Dr. Roger Barker, head of the Textile Protection and Comfort Center (TPACC) at NC State’s College of Textiles.
To the casual observer, the new suit won’t appear greatly different from other firefighter turnout gear. But looks can be deceiving. The new suit has all the functional features of a traditional suit, but with added protection. The thermal liner, an important component in heat protection, was developed at NC State. According to Barker, it utilizes a new non-woven thermal material that incorporates new fiber technologies offering better protection from heat.
In addition to using their well-known heat-resistant material KEVLAR® in this suit, DuPont also developed a special “breathable” membrane that provides chemical and biological protection. Through the process of selective transport – the diffusion of water across a selectively permeable membrane – this membrane allows sweat evaporation and body heat to escape to keep the firefighter cool. At the same time, the membrane blocks harmful agents from entering the suit. “It’s a new technology that represents quite a large advance over what’s available now,” Barker said.
The best suits today offer protection against several chemicals, like battery acid for example, but Barker says that protection is limited. “Our suit is going to take that protection to an entirely new level with a wider range of chemical resistance at higher levels,” he said.
There are also ergonomically advanced features, such as how the suit moves with the wearer. “When you raise your arm, the rest of the coat doesn’t lift up or move in any way. That helps limit the firefighters’ exposure to a hazardous environment,” Barker said. Other features include cinches at the wrist and ankles to allow the firefighter to close off the suit from the outside world. There’s also a special hood built into the collar that can be deployed to protect against chemicals.
“This suit should not be thought of as a hazardous materials suit. It wasn’t designed to be taken into a known dangerous area. This suit buys the first responders more time at the scene of an event to get victims and themselves out of the dangerous environment. It’s more protection than they currently have,” Barker said.
In addition to the increased protection offered by the new suit, it weighs 5 percent less than the best current suit, and firefighters say they can immediately notice a difference.
NC State was also responsible for material integration – determining how all the elements of the suit work and how they should they work together. “For example, if the fire suit is a three-layer system, how does what I do with the chemical and biological barrier affect the thermal liner and how does that affect the other elements? From an engineering standpoint, that’s a challenging part of the project – figuring out how all the pieces of the puzzle should work together,” Barker said.
NC State’s Textile Protection and Comfort Center will also test the suit to ensure it meets all the required standards for protection, but also test for comfort and ergonomics – making sure it’s easy to put on, wear and take off. Other tests will determine the level of harmful vapor infiltration.
While currently available turnout suits can cost upwards of $1,500, Barker says it’s too early to say how much this new suit might cost, but the team is working hard to minimize increases. “Cost is always an issue, but with a product like this – where safety is the primary issue – balancing cost with performance is also important.”
One of the first six prototype firefighter suits was presented to the Raleigh Fire Department at a ceremony on Tuesday, Aug. 26 at the College of Textiles, located on NC State’s Centennial Campus.
Researchers sought out firefighters around the country, including Raleigh, for input. Capt. A.C. Rich of the Raleigh Fire Department says while firefighters tend to be very traditional, there is great interest in this new product. “The enhancements made to the material of the gear and its protective capability was a definite plus. Our folks are very excited,” he said.
“All the tests we’ve done on the material level have been very promising, but we’ve still got a long way to go in terms of qualifying the exact level of performance,” NC State’s Barker says. “We’ll undoubtedly make changes along the way, but we’ve got a good start.”
Source: North Carolina State University’s College of Textiles
Aug. 31, 2004
The Daily Item (Sunbury, PA)
By Denise Cowie
© Copyright 2004
A class in floral arrangement looked like an easy "A" to Doug Croft when he was wrapping up his horticultural studies at Virginia Tech.
"I thought it wouldn’t tax me too much," he recalled recently, as he led a group of aspiring floral designers through the gardens at Chanticleer in Wayne, N.J..
Though he didn’t expect that class to have any impact on his new career, it turned out to be one of the most valuable.
"The elements of design and the principles of design you learn in floral arranging can be applied to designing a garden, too," he said. And to get the best out of flowers in the garden and the vase, it helps to know a thing or two about plants and their maintenance.
Not all flowers work well as cut flowers, Croft told participants in "The Arranger’s Garden," a class sponsored by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. The class, which sold out so fast it had to be repeated a second evening, explored the joys of using your own cut flowers in floral arrangements.
That’s where the concept of a cutting garden comes in - even if you think you don’t have space for one.
"The philosophy used to be that the cutting garden should be on the ‘back nine,’" Croft said. "The idea was that people didn’t want to put all that effort into a garden and then cut the flowers," so they kept it separate.
But few people today have the luxury of tucking a cutting garden away out of sight, which means they are gradually disappearing.
"I think there has been a pretty steady decline" in the numbers of dedicated cutting gardens over the last 20 or 30 years, said David Ellis, director of communications for the Virginia-based American Horticultural Society, because today’s homeowners have less time and space.
But people still want to be able to pick flowers from their own gardens. "There is a feeling of satisfaction you can get from being able to run out on short notice and gather up ... flowers for your own house, or to take to somebody else’s house," Ellis said.
Croft suggests integrating a cutting garden into the regular garden by planting sweeps of some perennials that can be judiciously thinned and annuals that will bloom again after cutting, and by using garden maintenance to harvest material that can be used for arrangements.
Prunings from a Hydrangea paniculata "Unique," for instance, became part of a fireplace arrangement in the gallery at Chanticleer last week. Or you might use the grasslike trimmings from amsonia when you whack it back by two-thirds after it flowers, or the flower stalks of hosta that are mainly a textural statement in the landscape, or the purple foliage of Physocarpus opulifolius "Diablo," which may be in need of a trim by late summer.
For the last four years, Croft has been in charge of Chanticleer’s cutting garden, which supplies most of the flowers for the displays created by a handful of staff horticulturists for the garden’s public spaces. (Savvy visitors make a point of visiting the rest rooms to check out the imaginative flower arrangements, which feature seasonal fresh flowers.)
"It was always important that the cut-flower garden be aesthetically appealing," Croft said, "but the flowers growing in it weren’t always suitable for arrangements." That has changed under the leadership of R. William Thomas, who took over as director of the garden last year.
Now, Croft said, he is designing the garden in a more formal manner, using rows and blocks, and all the flowers growing in it have to be useful as cut flowers.
What does that mean? They have to be flowers that don’t wilt easily, so they’ll have a long vase life, and they have to have strong, long stems.
It means no more growing morning glories on the garden’s lovely rustic trellises, for example, because their blossoms are fleeting. Instead, Croft is planting clematis and unusual annual vines such as the aromatic Vigna caracalla, or snail flower.
"Those are the biggest criteria," Croft said, but there are also texture, color, and fragrance, "which is not essential, but it certainly does make an arrangement more enjoyable."
To make sure Chanticleer stays on the cutting edge, Croft joined the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers, an industry group that conducts growing trials through North Carolina State University, to see how different species and cultivars perform as cut flowers.
This year, the cutting garden at Chanticleer became a trial garden, giving Croft access to the newest and best - such as Lobelia speciosa "Fan Blue," a floriferous new cultivar he used in last week’s design class.
So what’s growing in the cutting garden? Everything from A (astilbe) to Z (zinnias), including such difficult-to-grow charmers as double lisianthus and workhorses like Helianthus x multiflorus "Flore Pleno," a sturdy double yellow sunflower that usually doesn’t need staking, though the plant is more than 6 feet tall.
This season, there’s also a row of asparagus, which provides great greenery for floral displays (and is also doing a good job of attracting Japanese beetles away from the dahlias).
"Don’t just think of ferns when you’re looking for greenery," Croft told the class, suggesting holly, azalea, yew, helleborus, coleus and hosta as alternative sources. And don’t always go with the obvious. If you’ve trimmed greenery from your Magnolia virginiana, for instance, you can turn it around to feature the leaves’ silvery underside in your arrangement.
Croft doesn’t stop at the cutting garden when he’s looking for design inspiration. The neighboring vegetable garden, also in his charge, provided an entire arrangement for last week’s class: leaves from two kale varieties; rosemary; purple ornamental peppers; rhubarb stalks; and red okra pods, which echoed the color of the rhubarb.
"Some people say that’s the best use ever for okra," joked fellow staffer Laura Aiken. Okra is actually in the hibiscus family, Croft added, but its pretty yellow flowers would close up quickly if cut.
Color is all many gardeners think of when they choose flowers for an arrangement. But that’s just one factor. How about form, texture and line?
Let your structure guide you, urged Croft. Consider the shape of the arrangement you have in mind, its function, and where it might be placed - whether it’s for the table, where guests will see all around it but need to see one another over it, or for the foyer, where they might see just the front. And when you begin creating your design, take your cue from the garden.
"I’m trying to re-create the beauty of what’s in the garden, but on a smaller scale," Croft said. "I am trying to create a combination of flowers, foliage, and container that is pleasing to the eye and accomplishes a sense of balance and harmony throughout. ... I try to do this by combining different plant materials that work well together, and placing them such that the arrangement feels sturdy and each element can be appreciated in its own right and as a whole."
The result doesn’t have to be complex.
Croft told the class of a dinner party he once planned, starring his own floral arrangement in a prized old family vase. When he set it on the table, however, water leaked everywhere - the vase was cracked.
After a frenzied search for an alternative container, Croft settled for a shallow bowl filled with water. He cut the heads off some flowers, floated them in the bowl, and added a candle.
"Everybody loved it," he said.