| |
|
Clinton-Bowles relationship back on airwaves in Senate race
Andrew Taylor, political science
Under
the dome: Tailgating rules backed
tailgating
Map:
New parking rules for N.C. State Games
map showing where to park for football games
Editorial:
UNC should help faculty, not leaders
chancellor pay
Letter
to the editor: Mourn, and let it pass
tailgating shooting
Indian
Americans Patent First Generation Nanostructures
Jagdish Narayan and Ashutosh Tiwari, material science and engineering
Ludacris
to perform at NC State pep rally
The homecoming committee announced Tuesday hip-hop artist Ludacris will be
headlining the pep rally Oct. 1 at North Carolina State University.
Neutron
physics instrument may unlock mysteries of universe
Christopher Gould, physics
God
and Man at Duke University
The Pope Center for Higher Education is planning a gathering for later this
fall at North Carolina State University.
Deal
reached in state seen as union-averse
Walter Wessels, economics
NSF
announces six 'FIBR' awards to tackle some of biology's most challenging
questions
examining how plants weigh the various cues of seasonal change to make timing
choices that are right for their climate
Kansas
State University, other universities to study how climate affects plant
evolution
examining how plants weigh the various cues of seasonal
change to make timing choices that are right for their climate
The
American Phytopathological Society announces 2004 awards
Turner B. Sutton, plant patholgy
Obituary:
RAY M. RITCHIE
Cooperative Extension
Column: Tailgate boozing prevails
Sept. 17, 2004
News & Observer
By BARRY SAUNDERS
© Copyright 2004
The way N.C. State University officials threw up their hands and despaired of banning alcohol from pre-kickoff tailgating parties, you'd think 100-proof Jack Daniel's wafts down from the atmosphere near Carter-Finley Stadium and Coronas spurt from the water fountains.
Strolling through certain sections of the State Fairgrounds hours before a Wolfpack game can indeed make you think the air is composed equally of oxygen and Jack -- so heavy is the smell -- but that is no reason to give up on trying to halt excessive pre-game boozing.
Yet, conceding defeat is just what NCSU officials have done.
"Some have suggested we ban alcohol, but that just isn't practical," Tom Stafford, vice chancellor for student affairs, told The News & Observer days after two men were killed in a parking lot full of tailgating fans. The shootings occurred just after the start of the Pack's first game Sept. 4.
No definitive link has been established between alcohol and the deaths of the two men, but certain parking areas had been frightful places to venture long before that fatal violence. Parking lot hassles were even cited by some fans who gave up their season tickets.
When interim Chancellor Charles [sic] Barnhardt acknowledges that he has been known to knock down a drink in the parking lot, you have to appreciate homey's honesty. You also have to question his judgment for essentially admitting that football and drinking are inseparable, thus giving students the excuse to say, "Hey, if the chancellor has to take a nip to enjoy the game, who am I to fight booze's irresistible pull?"
As usual, I have come up with a solution, one that will make a ban on alcohol not only practical but effective: Breathalyzers.
You read that right. Just as airlines sometimes prohibit people from boarding a plane when they are too high to fly, NCSU officials could prohibit spirited fans from entering Carter-Finley when they are already too full of spirits.
Of course, such a policy would not go down smoothly for those who think getting blitzed on game day is a constitutional prerogative.
SECURITY: Sorry, sir, but could you blow into this before entering the stadium?
FAN: Say, pal, why don't you blow the ... .
SECURITY: WHOMP!!!
Of course, NCSU officials don't just tolerate drinking, they encourage it by, for instance, providing "pass outs" -- which allow fans to leave at halftime, refortify their school spirit from the trunks of automobiles and then return to the game.
Yo, bartender, pour me a shot of hypocrisy with a lemon twist.
If by "impractical," school officials mean there is no way to prevent all drinking in the lots, they're correct. Even at UNC-Chapel Hill, which bans alcohol on campus, fans surreptitiously sip brandy and white wine from Dixie cups or from the head of their commemorative Jim Beam decanters that look like Elvis.
Etiquette maven Emily Post would disapprove: She'd suggest long-stemmed crystal flutes for the white wine.
Alas, if alcohol consumption should be allowed anywhere, it's at -- no, in -- Kenan Stadium, where Tar Heel fans need a cup of something strong to help them forget what's happening on the field.
Sept. 17, 2004
News & Observer
By MATTHEW EISLEY AND KRISTIN COLLINS
© Copyright 2004
Cobb and Troxler also agreed on the handling of a shooting that happened recently in a State Fairgrounds parking lot, during tailgating for an N.C. State University football game. The fairgrounds are managed by the state Department of Agriculture.
Both said they thought it was an isolated incident and agreed with N.C. State's decision to continue to allow tailgating, with more security, and to continue to allow alcohol consumption in the parking lot.
Clinton-Bowles relationship back on airwaves in Senate race
Sept. 17, 2004
Associated Press; Charlotte Observer; WCNC; Wilmington Morning Star; Winston Salem Journal; Kansas.com, KS; Miami Herald; philly.com; San Jose Mercury News, CA; The State, SC; WVEC, VA
By GARY D. ROBERTSON
© Copyright 2004
A television ad released Thursday by Republican Senate candidate Richard Burr accuses Democratic opponent Erskine Bowles of supporting higher taxes and links Bowles to former President Clinton and party nominee John Kerry.
The statewide commercial marks a new phase in the campaign, as Burr, a five-term congressman, reminds voters of Bowles' connection to the former president, who is unpopular with some North Carolinians.
The ad's narrator compares Bowles to Burr, who the narrator says wants lower taxes and "supports making middle class tax cuts permanent."
The Bowles campaign called the ad untrue and said the spot was the reason why Burr turned down a proposal this week by Bowles that both campaigns bar "attack ads" during the remaining 6 1/2 weeks of the campaign.
"I believe the people of North Carolina deserve better," Bowles said in a statement. "They are entitled to an honest and open discussion of the issues that affect them and where we stand on those issues."
The Burr campaign said the ad simply compares the Winston-Salem Republican to Bowles, who ran the Small Business Administration under Clinton and later became his White House chief of staff. Voters need to be reminded of Bowles' Democratic connections, a campaign spokesman said.
"Erskine ran a biographical ad where he showed himself in the Oval Office," spokesman Doug Heye said. "He's ducking from Bill Clinton, he's ducking John Kerry. ... We have to do this, because Erskine Bowles will not."
The Bowles-Clinton relationship was also an issue in Bowles' unsuccessful 2002 Senate campaign against Elizabeth Dole. Dole and a national Republican group ran ads that included images of Clinton and criticized both men for their tax positions.
Like ads that ran during that campaign, Burr's spot repeats a claim that Bowles and Clinton "worked together to pass the largest tax increase in history."
That sparked back-and-forth between the campaigns Thursday, as the Bowles camp countered that the nation's largest tax increase came in a 1982 bill approved during the Reagan administration. The Burr camp responded with its own information supporting its claim.
"What's unfair is for Richard Burr to make attacks that aren't based in fact," Bowles spokesman Carlos Monje said. Bowles also supports some middle-class tax cuts, he added.
The ad also includes side-by-side images of Bowles and Kerry, as the narrator says, "Bowles supports John Kerry's $142 billion tax increase." That's the amount Burr says would be generated by a plan to roll back the tax cuts passed during the Bush administration for those in the top income bracket. Kerry wants to withdraw Bush tax cuts that went to those earning $200,000 or more.
Bowles spokeswoman Susan Lagana said "Erskine has never supported any proposal like that."
The Burr campaign cites for its support Bowles' comment in a 2002 debate with Dole that links freezing tax cuts on the top 1 percent of wage earners to create a prescription drug benefit for older adults. Congress approved a Medicare drug plan last year without new taxes.
As president, Clinton was a divisive figure in North Carolina and the GOP's use of him in the Dole-Bowles race tapped into residual animosity toward the ex-president, said Andrew Taylor, a political science professor at North Carolina State University.
Although many Republicans are still angry about Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky, some of the overall electorate's anti-Clinton fervor may be waning, Taylor said.
"We tend to get more ambivalent about presidents as time goes by," he said. In fact, with difficult economic times in North Carolina, some may feel "Bill Clinton's years don't look quite so bad compared to recent years."
However, the link between Bowles and Kerry, who trails Bush in most North Carolina polls, may resonate with voters, according to Taylor.
Bowles often cites his work with Clinton to get approved a balanced budget through the GOP-controlled Congress in 1997 as evidence of his ability to work with both sides of the political divide.
Bowles "is very proud of what he was able to accomplish" while working in the Clinton administration, Monje said.
The Bowles campaign began running a radio ad Thursday highlighting his request to Burr to ban negative ads. Both candidates have millions of dollars in their coffers to spend on television advertising.
Editorial:UNC should help faculty, not leaders
Sept. 17, 2004
Greensboro News & Record
By staff writer
© Copyright 2004
The University of North Carolina system should be applauded for taking care of its people. The strength of a university is not its handsome brick buildings or a winning football team, but the people who work there.
But the Board of Governors seems most interested in supporting those university employees -- the chancellors -- who do not need extra financial help.
The board last week approved the first pay raises for university chancellors and system President Molly Broad in three years. The percentage increases, which ranged from 2.5 percent to 8 percent, were not all that extravagant. But some chancellors are paid twice as much as the governor, which means the dollar amounts of the raises are eye-popping for the public sector.
Both local chancellors, for instance, got 5 percent raises. For UNCG's Patricia Sullivan, that meant a $10,822 raise and an annual salary of $227,247. N.C. A&T's James Renick got a $9,062 bump to push his salary to $190,287. UNC-Chapel Hill's James Moeser got the biggest raise -- $19,172 -- to put his salary at a system-high $274,797.
There is no doubt that the chancellors, like all university faculty and staff, are overdue for pay raises.
There is also no doubt that the Board of Governors is worried that other colleges might lure away some of this state's talented chancellors. UNC leaders are generally paid less than their counterparts at similar colleges across the country. Five-figure bonuses paid to 12 chancellors in January, just like the recent pay raises, were intended to lessen the temptation to look elsewhere.
The raises came too late to help N.C. State keep Marye Ann Fox, who bolted this summer to the University of California-San Diego and a $100,000 raise.
Aside from Fox, the UNC system has seen little recent job-hopping. Of four other chancellors who stepped down recently, three retired and one resigned. UNC-Charlotte's James Woodward will retire next summer.
Where the Board of Governors needs to put its money is toward faculty pay. When chancellors fretted over budgets and tuition rates this spring, they said they were worried that their professors would jump ship for higher-paying universities outside the state. The UNC system does not track faculty turnover, but every chancellor seemed to have a story about a star professor lured away with the promise of a fatter paycheck.
To be fair, faculty did get their first raises since 2001. All professors and administrators exempt from the state personnel act got raises of at least $1,000. Some got more. But few, if any, professors got Moeser-esque raises.
If the Board of Governors is serious about keeping top talent, it needs to do more for faculty and not so much more for the chancellors. Chancellors do play an important role. But professors are the real brain power of the UNC system.
Letter to the editor: Mourn, and let it pass
Sept. 17, 2004
News & Observer
© Copyright 2004
The deadly shootings at the fairgrounds before the Sept. 4 N.C. State-Richmond football game were sad and tragic. Many lives were destroyed, and even the witnesses will carry the awful experience with them for a long time. But does every tragedy require a response that limits the freedom of others to move about and assemble as they desire?
Of course the response limiting access to the fairground parking lot was expected. What else could be done? I mean, it is the job of our local leaders to do something, right? To do nothing would seem negligent.
Perhaps, but is it possible to guard against every eventuality? Is it ever possible for a tragic event to be an anomaly? Is it possible in this day and age to merely express our outrage at the perpetrators, pray for the victims and move on?
That may sound callous or naive to some, but freedom isn't free or without risk. With ever greater restrictions, at some point what we term freedom will be anything but.
How many times can we react to crime and tragedy by imposing more restrictions on the law-abiding public? Restrictions are rarely, if ever, rescinded. They are just heaped on one another until at some point all we will have accomplished is the construction of a nice, safe prison in which to conduct our lives.
All this security is killing me.
David Prickett
Raleigh
Map: New parking rules for N.C. State Games
Sept. 17, 2004
News & Observer
By staff writer
© Copyright 2004
The free parking lot at the State Fairgrounds off Trinity Road will open at 10:30 a.m. Saturday for permit holders only to accommodate traffic for the 3:30 p.m. football game between N.C. State and Ohio State. The decision by university and fairgrounds officials to limit access was announced last week after the Sept. 4 shooting deaths of two people in the fairgrounds lot.
For a copy of this map, contact News Services at 5-3470.
NC State Receives $465K Grant to Study Swine Marketing
Sept. 17, 2004
The Pig Site (UK); Agriculture.com
By staff report
© Copyright 2004
RALEIGH - North Carolina State University agricultural economists have received $465,000 to study different types of marketing arrangements in the swine and pork industries.
NC State is a part of the consortium of researchers headed by the Research Triangle Institute (RTI), which received a $4.3 million contract from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Grain Inspection Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) to study livestock and meat marketing for hogs, cattle and sheep.
Dr. Tomislav Vukina, NC State professor of agricultural and resource economics, says he and colleagues at NC State – Dr. Michael Wohlgenant, William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor of agricultural and resource economics, and Dr. Nick Piggott, associate professor of agricultural and resource economics – will take a close look at the implications that the changing organizational structure of the swine and pork industries exerts on producers’ and consumers’ costs and benefits.
The researchers will take mounds of data collected by RTI – surveys of all those involved in livestock and meat production and marketing, from farmers and packers to food service firms, exporters and retailers, as well as their individual transaction data – and conduct various economic analyses, including:
Vukina says the study is important to North Carolina because of its multibillion-dollar livestock industry. He’s especially interested in comparing and contrasting the North Carolina model – dominated by vertically integrated companies which own everything involved in producing pork and which often contract out segments of production to independent farmers – with the Midwestern model in which small farms raise pigs and sell them at auctions.
“This study will give us a better understanding of how the industry operates and how all the different segments function,” Vukina said. “Although there will be no policy proposals in this project, it will provide insight about similar changes occurring in other industrial organizations in agriculture.”
Indian Americans Patent First Generation Nanostructures
Sept. 16, 2004
IndoLink, CA
By Francis C. Assisi
© Copyright 2004
Boston, 16 September -- Copper as strong as steel. Ceramics tough enough to be used in car engines. Chips holding 10 terabits of data or five hundred times the existing storage density available today. And lighting that uses one-fifth the energy of standard fluorescent lighting and last for approximately 50 years.
All this has been the promise of Nanotechnology. But, so far, the greatest impediment to developing these advances has been creating usable nanostructures that self-assemble.
Last week, Indian American engineers at North Carolina State University crossed that threshold, receiving patents for two processes that help break that barrier.
Prof Jagdish Narayan and his young colleague Ashutosh Tiwari who together developed and patented two methods for self-assembly of three-dimensional nanostructures say that the promise of nanotechnology will become true in five years, thanks to the new technology.
The September, 2004, issue of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology gives details of this technology breakthrough, with images of the newly created structures appearing on the cover of the journal.
Dr. Jagdish "Jay" Narayan is director of the NSF Center for Advanced Materials and Smart Structures at NCSU, and Dr. Ashutosh Tiwari, is Research Associate in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.
It is worth noting that Tiwari, an expert in Photolithography and thin film preparation using Pulsed Laser Deposition, received all his education in India, including his Ph.D. (2000) from IIT Kanpur. In the case of Narayan, after receiving his B.Tech (1969) in metallurgy from IIT, he went on to receive his M.S. (1970) and Ph.D. (1971) from UC Berkeley.
Narayan is internationally known for his seminal contributions in laser processing of materials including laser annealing and pulsed laser deposition, atomic-scale characterization, and atomistic modeling of dislocations and interfaces.
The scientists report that the new methods are a breakthrough in nanotechnology that opens the door to creating new materials for a myriad of applications, including super-dense data storage, solid-state lighting, super-strong materials and advanced detection systems.
According to Narayan, three-dimensional self-assembly is the key to being able to use the nanostructures.
Their report says that the researchers used a pulsed laser to heat nickel until it turned into plasma - an amorphous form of matter with positively and negatively charged atoms. In this form, the nickel rearranged itself on two different substrates - aluminum oxide and tin titanium nitrate - as uniform dots.
The dots arranged themselves at a density that would, theoretically, allow about five terabytes of data - five thousand gigabytes - to be packed into computer drive roughly the size of postage stamp. "Now the aim should be to integrate these handouts with silicon chips," Narayan told New Scientist.
Perhaps the breakthrough by the two Indian-Americans is the latest example of a general objective of United States´ National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) – the systematic control of the nanoscale in order to obtain new properties and functions
Other scientists note that this is part of the first generation of passive nanostructures that illustrate how one might exploit new phenomena and behavior of materials at the nanoscale for economic advantage.
“The grand challenge is to be able to use the nanounit in the form of nanodot or nanowire,” said Narayan, who is also the John C. C. Fan Family Distinguished Chair in Materials Science at NCSU. “In the past we could make only one layer of the nanostructure with these units. There was only two-dimensional self-assembly, which is not usable for applications. We couldn’t control the properties of the medium. Now, with this development, we can control the medium and do three-dimensional self-organization. More importantly, we can change the size in different layers and change the functionality at different depths.”
He further explained, "Controlled processing and self-assembly in three dimensions is required because you cannot create these structures and then assemble them. They are too small. So to be able to use this technology, you must have self-assembly and it must be 3-D," he elaborates.
According to Narayan, the research provides the basic framework for nanostructured materials for information storage, spin transistors, single-electron transistors and hybrid devices, super hard coatings, and novel biomaterials.
"In the 6-10 nm dots created so far, we have the ability to control the spin patterns – the spin is what stores the bit of information. Assuming a 7nm magnetic nanodot will store one bit of information, we can achieve over 10 trillion bits per square inch, which is close to 500 times the existing storage density,” he said. Mihail C. Roco, Senior Advisor for Nanotechnology, NSF, commented: "Narayan has used the basic concepts of self-assembly to create a 3-D array of nanodots which may have significant applications in lighting, lasers, spintronics, and optical devices. If developed for practical applications in the next 2-3 years, the nanodot lighting systems may have significant environmental, economic and energy-saving advantages."
According to Narayan and Tiwari, the patented processes can be applied to almost any material. To create nanostructures for the different applications, the material used for the nanodots and the matrix are changed. For example, to create structures for data storage, Narayan uses nickel; for solid-state applications, gallium nitride or zinc oxide is used; for superstrong materials, copper, tungsten carbide and nickel aluminide are used; and for ceramics, aluminum oxide is used.
The most interesting application may be the development of energy-efficient, low-cost, solid-state lighting. By creating a matrix of layers of varying sizes of nanodots embedded in a transparent medium such as aluminum oxide, Narayan can create a chip that glows with white light. Solid-state lighting would use about one-fifth the energy of standard fluorescent lighting and last for approximately 50 years.
Another interesting application for the nanodots is the development of a chip that can hold 10 terabits of information - information that equals 10 million million or 10 to the 13th power bits - which is equivalent to 250 million pages of information. Narayan estimates that a chip with this storage capacity represents an increase of more than two orders of magnitude, or five hundred times the existing storage density available today.
According to Narayan, the key to moving nanotechnology from the laboratory to the consumer is keeping the cost of manufacturing low because people will not embrace a new technology if the cost is substantial. He believes that the beauty of these new patented processes is that they make it possible to build a three-dimensional matrix of nanodots that is not only more efficient but also costs less to produce. Using Narayan’s methods, all of the steps can be performed in the same processing chamber, reducing the manufacturing cost and the impact on the environment. With further development of these new processes, copper can be created that is as strong as steel, and ceramics can be made tough enough to be used in automobile engines.
Scientists note that the major difficulty with most materials is the problem of defects. However, when materials are reduced in size to nanoscale, the defects are reduced or eliminated, creating stronger materials that would last much longer and be less likely to fail.
For example, ceramics are excellent performers at high temperatures but are currently too brittle to be used in automobile engines. Applying nanotechnology would create a ceramic material that would be able to withstand the stress that affects an automobile engine. Because ceramics perform at higher temperatures, a ceramic automobile engine could run at a higher temperature and thus run more efficiently - essentially creating a more fuel-efficient vehicle.
Narayan anticipates that the first applications of his nanodots will be available to consumers within the next five years. He predicts that data storage and solid-state lighting will be the most likely consumer applications to be developed during that time.
However, others remain more cautious about the potential of the technique. "It sounds very promising," says Mark Welland, directory of Nanoscale at Cambridge University in the UK. "But there´s a big difference between having 5 nanometer dots and having them in the right structure on a surface that can be used as memory."
Welland says any new memory technology will struggle if it means completely rethinking the way computer memory already works. "Whichever technology can be most easily assimilated will win," he says. Narayan concedes that several problems still need to be overcome. For example, he says, it is important to find an alternative to nickel, as this has to be cooled in order to work effectively as a magnetic memory. But he remains confident that the method has potential.
The researchers are working with Kopin Corporation, which has licensed the patents from NCSU to manufacture next-generation, high-efficiency light-emitting diodes for economical solid-state lighting. Kopin Corporation, in collaboration with the NCSU researchers, has developed high-efficiency LED, known as Kopin’s CyberLite LED, which recently won Electronic Products Magazine’s “Product of the Year” award.
Ludacris to perform at NC State pep rally
Sept. 17, 2004
U-Wire; Daily Lobo, NM
By staff report
© Copyright 2004
(U-WIRE) RALEIGH, N.C. - It's so crazy, one might call it Ludacris.
The homecoming committee announced Tuesday hip-hop artist Ludacris will be headlining the pep rally Oct. 1 at North Carolina State University.
"(Ludacris') music will play across different groups," committee chair Jackie Larson said.
The concert, preceded by a pep rally, will have an admission charge.
A multi-tiered scale for students, alumni and outsiders will be in place. Larson said students would have the lowest rate.
The committee initially requested Big Boi of the hip-hop band OutKast appear. According to Larson, the artist was enthusiastic about coming and even requested that the date be changed to the Saturday of the game so he could appear while fulfilling his commitments to a movie he is a part of there.
Ludacris and Big Boi use the same concert agent, and Ludacris' name was returned to the committee.
Neutron physics instrument may unlock mysteries of universe
Sept. 17, 2004
Astrobiology News; Newswise; physics.about.com; PhysOrg.com; ScienceBlog.com; Space Ref
By staff report
© Copyright 2004
Fundamental questions that particle physicists have pondered for decades might be answered when a $9.2 million neutron physics beam line is built at the Department of Energy's Spallation Neutron Source on Chestnut Ridge.
At the core of physicists' excitement is the fact that the SNS will produce up to 100 times more neutrons than are produced by any comparable source in the world. Tapping in to those neutrons will be the Fundamental Neutron Physics beam line, which will help physicists exploit neutrons to learn more about the Big Bang, left-right symmetry of the universe and the amount of energy produced in the sun. Recently, the beam line project passed a milestone with the approval of the performance baseline -- known as Critical Decision 2.
"This is, in a sense, the formal definition of the scope of the project and represents a detailed agreement between DOE and Oak Ridge National Laboratory as to what will be built, when it will be built, how much it will cost and how the project will be managed," said Geoff Greene, a professor at the University of Tennessee and researcher in the Physics Division at ORNL.
Greene noted that much work lies ahead, but the benefits of having extremely intense beams of neutrons at their disposal should be phenomenal.
"To scientists studying materials -- the main focus of SNS research -- the neutron is merely a tool that helps them probe the structure of condensed matter," Greene said. "But to particle physicists, the neutron holds the key to understanding many of the mysteries of the universe."
The fact physicists will have many more neutrons available to them greatly increases the accuracy of their experiments, one of which is aimed at pinpointing the lifetime of a free neutron. Obtaining a precise answer could help physicists better understand the origin of matter and may help explain the "left-handedness" of the universe at the subatomic level.
A system is said to be "handed," Greene said, when its mirror image differs from its appearance looking at it directly. For example, a sphere is not handed, but a corkscrew is because its image in a mirror is reversed. The sphere viewed in a mirror looks the same.
Greene and others have long been puzzled by the fact that, in an otherwise symmetric universe, radioactivity viewed at the elementary particle level is left-handed. In the world of physics, the phenomenon is known as parity violation.
"So, is the left-handedness of the universe just an accident, a ‚"broken symmetry," or is it a manifestation of a fundamental characteristic of the cosmos"; Greene asked.
Indeed, to have an instrument like the Fundamental Neutron Physics beam line has been the dream of physicists for years, said Greene, who noted that 65 participants from 20 institutions participated in an organizational meeting of the development team at ORNL in 2001.
Greene led the proposal team, which was made up of Vince Cianciolo of ORNL, David Bowman and Martin Cooper of Los Alamos National Laboratory, John Doyle of Harvard University, Christopher Gould of North Carolina State University, Paul Huffman of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and Mike Snow of Indiana University.
The beam line will consist of neutron guides, choppers, secondary shutters and shielding, along with the necessary utilities and safety and radiation protection equipment. The facility will be capable of accommodating a wide variety of experiments, each of which typically takes years to develop and occupies the beam line continuously for many months.
The Fundamental Neutron Physics beam line will be operated as a user facility with all beam time allocated on the basis of independent peer reviews, Greene said. The beam line should be commissioned in mid-2008, about two years after the $1.4 billion SNS comes on line.
Funding for the project is being provided by DOE's Office of Nuclear Physics within the Office of Science. ORNL, which is managed by UT-Battelle, employs 1,500 scientists and engineers and is DOE's largest multipurpose science and energy laboratory.
God and Man at Duke University
Sept. 16, 2004
Opinion Editorials, VA; NCrumors.com
By John T. Plecnik
© Copyright 2004
The issue of liberal bias on campus may seem trivial during an election year dominated by concerns of homeland security. However, September 11 has taught us that in facing great challenges, nothing can substitute for strong, moral leadership. Perhaps former Mayor Rudy Giuliani of New York put it best during his speech at the Republican National Convention. ''On September 11, this city and our nation faced the worst attack in our history,'' recounted Giuliani. ''At the time, we believed we would be attacked many more times that day and in the days that followed. Spontaneously, I grabbed the arm of then Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik and said to Bernie, ‘Thank God George Bush is our President.’ ''
Thank God, indeed. But President Bush is only eligible to serve ''four more years.’' Though this generation has been blessed with Bush, will it produce such presidents? The future leaders of the free world are finding their causes on campus. They prepare for exams, not elections. While politicos debate on Fox News and CNN, they study and go to class. Ivory towers dictate their experience…if liberal bias prevails, who will take up the torch? The hearts and minds of our future hang in the balance.
U.S. Rep. Walter B. Jones (R-N.C.) recognizes this fundamental truth. In an era of apathy, he has stepped outside his district—outside politics—to protect the next generation of conservative leadership.
The 4th congressional district of North Carolina is represented by Professor David Price of Duke University. The poster child of liberal academia, Price went from writing scholarly texts to writing the law. Needless to say, Price sees no imbalance at Duke or the University of North Carolina.
At UNC, a Christian student was lambasted by his professor in a classwide e-mail for expressing his personal view that homosexuality is immoral. Responding to the professor’s proposition that heterosexual men are intimidated by gays, the young UNC-goer was merely engaged in classroom discussion. For expressing his person beliefs, the hapless student was labeled as a sexist bigot. The famed professor-politician could care less, but Jones refused to let this abuse stand. He spoke with UNC’s chancellor and demanded a remedy. Shortly thereafter, the offending professor was assigned a supervisor for all her classes to ensure responsible dialogue.
Now, UNC has revoked recognition from a Christian student organization for limiting its membership to Christians. The university alleges that such limited membership is discriminatory. If the new policy stands, Alpha Iota Omega Christian Fraternity will be denied all university funding and the right to reserve space for meetings. This time, the chancellor refuses to back down.
The fraternity members, also unrelenting, have brought suit in federal court. They seek an injunction against the new, anti-Christian policy. Notably, Jones is back. While our students battle in the courtroom, the Catholic congressman represents them in the court of public opinion.
I met Walter Jones at the first ‘'College Abuse Conference for Free Speech’' in Durham, N.C. The event was hosted by then-congressional candidate ''Whit'' Whitfield, one of the few politicians that stood by Jones against liberal bias. Rachel Lea Hunter, conservative candidate for North Carolina Supreme Court, was also present and helped to coordinate the event. Jones and I were both invited to speak, and I came to appreciate the depth of his passion to protect the defenseless conservative student. Jones recounted the terrible abuses at UNC. He recalled how he had heard the story of the persecuted Christian over the radio, and became determined to right that wrong. His presence at the conference was further proof of his commitment.
The conference itself was heralded by local, state, and national publications. The Pope Center for Higher Education quickly began planning a similar gathering for later this fall at North Carolina State University.
Campus conservatives have chosen their leader in the fight against liberal bias on campus: his name is Walter Jones.
I spent the summer interning up in Washington with U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick (R-N.C.), to whom I owe a great debt of gratitude. Working under the supervision of Rep. Myrick has undoubtedly made me a better Republican. Should I ever to be called to public service, I would strive to emulate her sacrifice and determination.
In Washington, Jones and I bumped into one another in the halls of congress. We recognized each other and he invited me to join him for a meeting. In his office, we discussed the growing discrimination against Christians and conservatives in our society, and the problems created by activist judges and oppressive professors. Jones asked me what I had learned about the courts in Constitutional Law. I responded that I had received a 4.0 in ConLaw, but learned just one thing. Today, the law is what the judges say it is.
I thanked him for defending campus conservatives. I expressed my appreciation for the political risks he continued to endure on our behalf. Jones replied that he had to defend the future. He said that I was the future, joking that I might have to defend him before the Supreme Court someday. I replied, ''I might be the future, but you are the present. Without the present there is no future.''
Afterwards, Jones threw his arm over my shoulder and promised that he would visit Duke University before the fall elections. Jones has made good on his promise and will join us on Monday, October 24. I would invite all campus conservatives to attend.
About the Writer: John T. Plecnik is a law school student at Duke University in Durham, N.C., and exective editor of The Devil's Advocate. John T. receives e-mail at John.Plecnik@law.duke.edu.
Deal reached in state seen as union-averse
Sept. 17, 2004
Toledo Blade, OH
By MARY-BETH McLAUGHLIN
© Copyright 2004
The three-way labor agreement signed yesterday in North Carolina with Mt. Olive Pickle Co. Inc., brokered by Toledo's Farm Labor Organizing Committee, was hailed as an "historic" pact in a state long adverse to unions.
"North Carolina traditionally has been very hostile towards organized labor," said David Mills, executive director of Common Sense, a liberal think tank in Raleigh, N.C.
"This contract is historic in the sense that it could mean a turning of the corner for labor in North Carolina."
But Walter Wessels, a professor of labor economics at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, said he thinks migrant farm workers was an odd group to unionize because their numbers can fluctuate so easily.
"I'm not sure how important this whole thing will be because I can't imagine they're collecting that many dues," he said.
The agreement provides for dues collection by farmers who participate in the contract, and in return, those growers will receive a price increase for their crop from Mt. Olive. No union dues has been collected, as the agreement was just signed.
North Carolina is one of 22 states in the country that are Right To Work states, meaning workers at a company that is unionized can choose whether they want to join the union and pay dues.
James Andrews, president of the North Carolina AFL-CIO in Raleigh, estimated he has 110,000 to 115,000 union members in 260 local unions, or about 3 percent of the state's 4 million workers.
That puts North Carolina dead-last on the list of states with the most union membership. That makes the signing of the Mt. Olive contract and the estimated 8,000 new members it could bring, "a huge deal," he said.
"I don't think there will be mass organization or even increased organizing, but it certainly should give courage to workers who want to join a union," Mr. Andrews said.
Kansas State University, other universities to study how climate affects plant evolution
Sept. 16, 2004
Seed Quest
By staff report
© Copyright 2004
Kansas State University is one of several universities that will share an estimated $5 million federal grant to study how plants respond to environmental changes and how the genetic pathways underlying their responses evolve in different climates.
"K-State is working with some of the premier labs in the world on this project, which is being funded by the National Science Foundation." said Steve Welch, professor in the university's agronomy department and the lead K-State researcher on the project. "We'll be studying ecology and genomics (genetic material) and how they interact -- it's a new area."
The research will examine how a plant's genome integrates environmental signals and evolves so that it blooms when it has the best chance to reproduce successfully, Welch said. Plants' abilities in this regard illustrate an important capacity of many biological systems: the ability to assess multiple signals in responding to complex challenges.
The results of the project will be important for predicting how plants will respond to future climate change and will help to inform conservation management and crop improvement strategists, he said.
"Being on the forefront of the knowledge that will help feed the world of the future is not only gratifying for us personally, but also should be a real benefit for both our state and our country," said R.W. Trewyn, K-State's vice provost for research.
Led by evolutionary ecologist Johanna Schmitt of Brown University, the team includes molecular biologists, evolutionary geneticists, plant modelers and computer scientists. Scientists at North Carolina State University; the University of Wisconsin; and the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, based in Tubingen, Germany, are also part of the project.
Total estimated funding to K-State through September 2009 is $1.4 million.
"It's an emerging discipline," said K-State assistant professor of biology Judy Roe.
Roe and other researchers will study the genetic processes that control flowering time under different weather conditions for the Arabidopsis thaliana, an annual weed closely related to canola and cabbage.
"If you understand the importance of natural variation in different genes, you can predict plant behavior," she said.
William Hsu, assistant professor in computing and information sciences; Sanjoy Das, assistant professor in electrical and computer engineering; and Mary Knapp, climatologist for the State of Kansas will join Welch and Roe as they develop and apply the computer models that will track the gene responses in Arabidopsis plants.
"Arabidopsis is easy to experiment with because it is small and has a short life cycle," Welch said. "Additionally, like the human genome, the structure of Arabidopsis DNA is completely known, providing researchers with important starting information. Yet despite its simplicity, insights gained from Arabidopsis will be relevant to many other plants, including crops."
Working with seven leading laboratories in Europe, the researchers will plant and study Arabidopsis at six diverse sites, ranging from subarctic locales in Finland -- which at times during the year have just three hours of sunlight -- to the Mediterranean coast of southern Spain, Welch said. Sites also will be located in Germany and England.
In addition, the K-State team is working with two private companies to build and package sensors that will be located at each of the research sites. The sensors will be capable of recording soil moisture, air temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation and photo reactivity.
The project is one of six Frontiers in Integrative Biological Research awards granted by the NSF in 2004. Total FIBR awards over the five-year period will be $30 million.
NSF announces six 'FIBR' awards to tackle some of biology's most challenging questions
Sept. 16, 2004
EurekAlert!: Mathematics; U.S. Dept of State
By staff report
© Copyright 2004
ARLINGTON, Va.-- How exactly do animals move? How do organisms adapt to newly acquired genes? What genetic forces draw members of an ecological community together? And does social behavior originate in nature, nurture or both? To tackle these and other major questions in biology, the National Science Foundation (NSF) today announced six new awards totaling nearly $30 million over five years from its Frontiers in Integrative Biological Research (FIBR) program.
Each of the five-year awards brings together scientists from many areas of biology and other fields to draw upon advances in genomics, ecology, enhanced information technology, and other fields -- not to mention a robotic cockroach -- to address significant under-studied or unanswered questions in biology.
"FIBR is one of the premier, crosscutting programs in biology at NSF," said Mary Clutter, head of NSF's Biological Sciences directorate. "By undertaking highly innovative and broadly integrative approaches to research in biology, FIBR projects tackle grand challenges and promote the training of a new and fearless generation of scientists willing and able to bridge conventional disciplinary boundaries."
Several of this year's FIBR awards will focus on the relationship between an organism's genes and the outside world. One project will examine how a plant evaluates the various cues of seasonal change so that it blooms when it has the best chance to reproduce successfully. A second project will try to unravel "ecological genomics," identifying the genetic linkages that draw species together into complex communities and whole ecosystems.
Genes and environment both contribute to behavior, and another project will tackle the hotly debated nature or nurture question by analyzing social behavior as it relates to an entire genome -- that of the honey bee.
Scientists now know that up to a quarter of all genes in many organisms are acquired from completely unrelated species, and a fourth FIBR project will study the processes by which organisms adapt to these newly acquired genes.
To explain the complex signals and feedbacks among neurons, muscles, the skeleton and the whole body that make movement possible and prevent animals from falling over, another project will take a multidisciplinary approach to the study of live, simulated and robotic cockroaches. The sixth FIBR project will undertake a study of photosynthesis to understand how large and complex networks of molecules arise, persist and evolve as modular units throughout biology.
The six FIBR projects integrate varied expertise from several universities and research institutes. Combined, the six projects support dozens of investigators from 15 U.S. states and also involve scientists supported by several other countries.
The FIBR projects announced today include the following (see separate profiles for more detail):
The American Phytopathological Society announces 2004 awards
Sept. 16, 2004
EurekAlert!: Mathematics
By staff report
© Copyright 2004
St. Paul, Minn. (September 16, 2004) - The American Phytopathological Society (APS) is pleased to announce its 2004 award recipients. These awards were presented at the APS Annual Meeting, August 2004, in Anaheim, Calif.
APS grants the Fellow designation to current members in recognition of distinguished contributions to plant pathology or to the Society. The 10 members named Fellows in the Society were: Michael A. Ellis, Ohio State University-Wooster; Bryce W. Falk, University of California-Davis; Thomas C. Harrington, Iowa State University, Barry J. Jacobsen, Montana State University-Bozeman; Harold Corby Kistler, University of Minnesota; Ing-Ming Lee, ARS, USDA, Beltsville, MD; Robert C. Seem, Cornell University; Norman W. Schaad, USDA ARS Foreign Disease-Weed Science Research Unit, Fort Dietrich, MD; John L. Sherwood, University of Georgia; and Turner B. Sutton, North Carolina State University.
James W. Travis, Penn State University, was presented the Excellence in Extension Award. This award recognizes excellence in extension plant pathology.
Karen-Beth Goldberg Scholthof, Texas A&M University, received the Excellence in Teaching Award. This award recognizes excellence in teaching plant pathology.
The International Service Award was presented to Henryk (Hanokh) Czosnek, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. This award honors outstanding contributions to plant pathology by APS members for a country other than his or her own.
The Lee M. Hutchins Award was presented to Mark L. Gleason, Iowa State University. This award honors the best contribution presented in one or more full-length papers reporting basic or applied research of diseases of perennial fruit plants published in a recent, official APS publication.
The Ruth Allen Award for Innovative Research was presented to Howard S. Judelson, University of California-Riverside. This award honors individuals who have made an innovative research contribution that has changed, or has the potential to change, the direction of work in any field of plant pathology.
The Noel T. Keen Award for Research in Molecular Plant Pathology went to Brian J. Staskawicz, University of California-Berkeley. This award recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions in host-pathogen interactions, plant pathogens or plant-associated microbes, molecular biology of disease development, or defense mechanisms.
The Syngenta Award went to Krishna V. Subbarao, University of California-Davis. Syngenta gives this award to an APS member for an outstanding recent contribution to teaching, research, or extension in plant pathology.
Sept. 17, 2004
News & Observer
RAY M. RITCHIE, Jr, Raleigh, Sept. 15. Arrangements by Brown-Wynne Funeral Home, St. Mary's Street.
For a copy of this obituary, contact News Services at 5-3470.