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More bad news for textile jobs as quotas about to end
Michael Walden, agricultural and resource economics
Grant
will aid education efforts
Kenan Institute for Engineering, Technology and Science
Gas line
ruptured near NCSU
Traffic near N.C. State University was disrupted Tuesday afternoon when a
backhoe operator struck and ruptured a natural gas line.
Editorial:
Prudent campus checks
UNC system
North
Carolina To Study Fractional Gravity Plants Signaling Processes
Chris Brown, Kenan Institute; Wendy Boss, Imara Perera, Heike Winter-Sederoff,
botany
Letter:
Support disclosure about pet vaccines
Richard Ford, College of Veterinary Medicine
Engineering
the perfect Christmas tree
Christmas tree research
Court
Papers Name "Tiger" Leak Defendants, Apple Seeks Damages
A college student
from Raleigh, North Carolina is the nucleus of a lawsuit filed Monday by
Apple Computer.
Dec. 22, 2004
Charlotte Observer
By GILLIAN WEE
© Copyright 2004
With 10 days to go before textile quotas expire, an employment statistics expert issued a report showing that North Carolina lost 7 percent of its textile jobs in the year ending in September.
Michael Wald, an economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics in Atlanta, examined the dominant textile category of mill jobs as North Carolina braces for increasing competition from China and other countries. The state shed 5,000 textile mill jobs in the year ending Sept. 30, compared with 12,000 for the same period the previous year.
In South Carolina, textile mill jobs fell from 39,300 to 37,600 in the year ending in September.
"It's no surprise that (North Carolina) lost textile jobs. If there's any surprise, it's that we didn't lose as many. It's relatively good news," Wald said. "Of course this is all prior to Jan. 1. We'll have to wait and see what will happen when the quotas come off."
Wald's study didn't include the 40,000 or so N.C. workers from the textile products and apparel industries, which also are shedding jobs.
Industry observers fear the loss of jobs will accelerate in 2005, when 40 countries gain new rights to export their textiles to the United States.
Wachovia Corp. economist Mark Vitner says North Carolina's textile industry could employ as few as 20,000 to 30,000 workers by the end of the decade. Overall, the industry has more than 100,000 workers now.
"We're going to be left with some design, marketing and specialized lines for the industry which really can't be sent overseas," said Vitner.
North Carolina employs 63,100 textile mill workers, about a quarter of the nation's 234,800. Over the year ending in September, the United States lost 17,000 textile mill positions, said the BLS report.
Just in recent months, textile firms have announced job cuts. WestPoint Stevens will shed 300 workers in a Catawba County bedding plant closure, while Springs Industries Inc. will wipe out 540 jobs with two S.C. plant closures.
"Unfortunately I think textile employment will continue to be eroded," said Michael Walden, an economics professor at N.C. State University. He expects the state to lose 15,000 textiles jobs a year. "The key to transitioning out of those jobs is for (textile workers) to be retrained and acquire other levels of education that will move them into better paying jobs."
The state as a whole isn't doing much better, said Jeff Chapman, economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal Washington think tank.
"In the last three months, North Carolina has added about 8,000 jobs, which is welcome news but at that rate it's going to be a long time before North Carolina works its way out of the hole," Chapman said.
Dec. 22, 2004
News & Observer
By staff report
© Copyright 2004
RALEIGH -- The Wake Education Partnership announced Tuesday it has received a $225,000 federal grant to promote educational leadership and enhance teacher quality in Wake County and the region.
The grant will provide money to extend the work of the Wake Leadership Academy and implement programs to cultivate teacher leadership and quality teaching.
It will also support the Kenan Fellows Program, an initiative of The Kenan Institute for Engineering, Technology and Science at N.C. State University that addresses teacher recruitment and retention by offering quality professional development fellowships for science and math teachers.
The grant was secured by U.S. Rep. David Price, with the help of U.S. Reps. Bob Etheridge and Brad Miller.
The Wake Education Partnership is an independent public education advocacy organization that links community resources to strengthen public schools and improve academic achievement for all students.
Dec. 22, 2004
News & Observer
By staff report
© Copyright 2004
RALEIGH -- Traffic near N.C. State University was disrupted Tuesday afternoon when a backhoe operator struck and ruptured a natural gas line, authorities reported.
No injuries, evacuations or losses of service were reported.
The gas leak occurred about 12:25 p.m. near the intersection of Hillsborough Street and Woodburn Road, said Jim Sughrue, a Raleigh police spokesman.
The four-inch gas line was struck while a private contractor was doing excavation for work the city of Raleigh, said Angie Townsend, a spokeswoman with Public Service North Carolina.
The rupture closed one of the eastbound lanes.
Dec. 22, 2004
News & Observer
By staff report
© Copyright 2004
North Carolina's public universities have tightened admission procedures in a good-faith attempt to make campuses safer. New details in one of the killings of two UNC-Wilmington students earlier this year might suggest that it's not worth the effort -- but it is.
A fuller account of a Cary woman's slaying in May was made public after the prime suspect, Curtis Dixon, 21, recently leapt to his death off a prison stairwell before he could be tried. The newly released records showed that Dixon's application for admission to UNCW had failed to disclose pertinent details of his high school and previous college attendance, as well as his criminal record.
The records show that Dixon's father, while serving as executive assistant to the chancellor at UNC-Charlotte, had contacted the Wilmington campus on his son's behalf. The high school transcript sent in connection with that call showed Dixon had been home-schooled throughout high school without mentioning abortive enrollments at three schools. The younger Dixon also failed to disclose a larceny conviction. If they had known these discrepancies, UNCW officials say, they probably wouldn't have admitted him.
The new policies increase the chances that, in the future, admissions offices would detect a suspicious or dangerous pattern and deny access if necessary to protect students. High school guidance counselors will be asked for comment on applicants' behavior. The names of applicants will be run through computers to verify their academic history and uncover disciplinary records.
When applications reveal a worrisome pattern, a criminal background check will be conducted. That stops short of requiring such a background check for all applicants, but as a response to rare outbreaks of violence, it's a reasonable middle ground. Campuses may not be able to penetrate a deception as determined as Dixon's, but the public's peace of mind surely warrants trying harder.
Dec. 21, 2004
Checkbiotech.com; ABC News; New York Times
By staff report
© Copyright 2004
RALEIGH - NASA has asked four N.C. State University researchers to determine how greens could be grown on the red planet.
The space agency selected biologists at N.C. State's Kenan Institute to design experiments for the international space station to test how plants adapt to life in space or on another planet.
If Americans go to Mars, live plants would greatly aid the mission, but people don't yet know how to grow crops or anything else there.
"Plants support us here on Earth, and plants will support us on Mars," said Chris Brown, director of space programs at the institute.
The experiments look for ways to build on the strengths of plants, which cope well in adverse conditions. When water supplies dry up, they conserve moisture. If they get knocked down, they make their leaves reach toward the sun and their roots toward the ground to stay alive.
In space, those adaptations may be difficult to complete.
"If they get that confused, they are dead," Brown said.
If the molecular mechanisms that make their coping possible can be harnessed and altered, science one day might engineer plants better suited to conditions on other planets, Brown said.
Mars has less than half of Earth's gravity and an atmosphere that's nearly 95 percent carbon dioxide. Winter temperatures plunge as low as minus-180 degrees.
"There are a lot of important things that we have to do" before trips to Mars are feasible, said Terri Lomax, NASA's deputy associate administrator for research. This experiment is one of them, Lomax said.
In the experiments, expected to occur in about two years, Brown and his team will use Arabidopsis, a mustard weed frequently tinkered with in molecular biology labs. The scientists will ship normal weeds, as well as weeds made less sensitive to gravity, to the space station.
Using genomics tools, they will try to capture the molecular means the plants use to try to adapt.
"In the absence of gravity, other factors might become more important. If there is any light, is that how plants will orient?" asked researcher Imara Perera, who created the genetically modified plants for the N.C. team.
The scientists can't be sure when a space shuttle can ferry their experiments to the space station. A shuttle has not flown since Columbia disintegrated during re-entry in February 2003. Discovery is expected to launch next year.
The space station also has had trouble recently. Earlier this month, an American and Russian aboard the station were instructed to eat less to save their dwindling food supplies.
Still, the scientists are confident their projects will get there.
Wendy Boss, another N.C. State team member, said the experiments also could deliver insight on how other creatures, including people, function.
"We need to understand the fundamental biology of all different organisms," Boss said. "They all represent different pieces of the same pie."
Dec. 22, 2004
Kennebec Journal, ME
© Copyright 2004
Rep. Peter Rines, District 53, is sponsoring precedent-setting legislation that will require veterinarians to give clients disclosure forms when prescribing medications and before vaccinating pets.
Veterinary vaccine research scientists Dr. Ronald Schultz of the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine and Dr. Richard Ford of North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine will draft the model disclosure form. Both were members of the American Animal Hospital Association's 15-member task force that came out with vaccination guidelines for dogs in 2003. Ford also served on the American Association of Feline Practitioners task force, which published vaccination recommendation for cats in 2000.
This legislation will ensure that pet owners receive disclosure information detailing the risks, benefits and adverse side effects of veterinary vaccines and prescription medications, as well as the minimum durations of immunity for vaccines based on published challenge studies (in challenge studies, animals are injected with high dose of virulent virus to test immunity). The veterinary disclosure forms will be similar to those pharmacists are required to issue with human prescription medications.
Maine residents have been unwittingly overvaccinating their pets on the advice of veterinarians who vaccinate annually, biennially and triennially with vaccines that actually provide immunity for several years. Because redundant vaccination does not boost immunity and current scientific research increasingly points to overvaccination in triggering autoimmune and chronic disorders in animals, it is essential that pet owners be given full disclosure prior to vaccination in order to make informed choices and to be able to recognize symptoms of adverse reactions to vaccines or medications.
Please contact your local representative or senator and ask him or her to support Rines' veterinary vaccine disclosure legislation and make Maine a healthier state for pets.
Kris L. Christine
Alna
Dec. 22, 2004
CNet News
By Michael Kanellos
© Copyright 2004
There's no such thing as a perfect Christmas tree, but genetic engineering may help keep the needles on the branches longer.
Facing the rising popularity of increasingly realistic fake trees from China, researchers and Christmas tree growers are pouring more energy into manipulating the genetic code of evergreens to create heartier trees that take less time to mature.
"I'd like to see better color,
or trees that hold their needles longer."
--Fletcher Spillman, East North Carolina Christmas Tree Growers AssociationIn
eastern North Carolina, scientists from East Carolina University and growers
such as Brownie Sutherland of Beautancus Christmas Trees and Wreaths are
trying to develop a type of Virginia Pine that will grow straight.
"A Virginia Pine is a vine until you tell it to be a Christmas tree," Sutherland said. The species, native to coastal plain, isn't as popular as some of the species that grow in the mountains, such as the Frasier Fir. It is also subject to insect problems and can be labor-intensive to raise.
Virginia Pines, however, can mature in five to seven years, more than twice as fast as the Frasier, leading to more rapid turnover and higher yields for farmers. The tree can also be grown in land once used for tobacco. The current crop of experimental Virginia Pines should mature in about four years.
"There is a lot of activity to find alternative crops," said Ron Newton, a professor of biology at the university who is conducting the research.
Newton has also isolated a gene inside of a tree from Israel called the Aleppo pine that provides greater tolerance to drought. In six to nine months, Newton hopes to have seedlings of native trees that have been enhanced by the Aleppo gene.
Although it's seasonal, the Christmas tree industry is fairly large. Roughly 25 to 30 million trees get sold annually, according to the National Christmas Tree Association, accounting for more than a billion dollars in revenue. Oregon is the largest producer, followed by North Carolina and Michigan. The tree industry in North Carolina pulls in roughly US$100 million in revenue.
Most of the work in genetically beefing up Christmas trees involves selective breeding. An ongoing program at North Carolina State University in Raleigh is seeking to develop generations of Fraser Firs, one of the most popular Christmas tree breeds, from seeds originally culled from 200 or so trees with desirable genetic traits.
Because the trees only grow naturally at 3,000 feet above sea level, some are also looking at ways to develop a strain that can live at lower altitudes.
Some genetic variants have occurred by accident. The early '80s saw the birth of the Fralsam, a popular tree that's a hybrid between a Frasier and a Balsam fir. Not only does the tree grow 10 to 20 percent more than the parents, it holds it needles well. While the Weir Farm helped breed the tree, the hybrid got started through natural cross-pollination.
It's only recently that growers and researchers have begun to experiment with gene slicing and embryonic experiments in the lab. A gene for increasing resistance to the Tip Moth has already been added to some trees. Newton also added that growers and others are carefully monitoring how modified trees could affect the environment.
"I'd like to see better color, or trees that hold their needles longer," said Fletcher Spillman, president of the East North Carolina Christmas Tree Growers Association. "We'd like to get a cross breed with a starfish so it would come out with a star on top."
Dec. 22, 2004
Mac Observer
By Bryan Chaffin
© Copyright 2004
A college student from Raleigh, North Carolina is the nucleus of a lawsuit filed Monday by Apple Computer. Court documents obtained by The Mac Observer reveal the names of three people being sued by the company for allegedly distributing "Tiger," the company's next major Mac OS X release. Those same documents show that Apple is seeking an injunction against the defendants, as well as unspecified damages.
Apple's court filings indicate the company took a systematic and deliberate approach in finding and tracking the movements of both the Tiger builds and the defendants' alleged actions. The company alleges that the three members of the Apple Developer Connection (ADC) -- Apple's in-house developer network -- violated their membership agreement by downloading and distributing the Tiger builds through BitTorrent, a very popular peer-to-peer file-sharing network.
merkin, desicanuk, and dmsmac
Apple's court filings allege that one Doug Steigerwald, a.k.a. "merkin," a resident of Raleigh, North Carolina, downloaded Tiger Build 8A294 from Apple's ADC Web site, and made it available through BitTorrent, where it was then further distributed by many other people, including the two other defendants.
"To enable faster downloading by others," Apple alleged in its court filings, "Steigerwald used the computing resources of a university in violation of institutional rules and policies. Steigerwald was so eager to distribute the Apple Tiger Build 81294 Software, that he began to transfer the file even before he had installed and tested the software on his own computer."
Apple further provides quotes it alleged Mr. Steigerwald made through BitTorrrent, which Apple refers to as 'the Torrent Website:' "In a posting on the Torrent Website, Steigerwald, using his alias 'merkin,' declared 'I'm trying to spread it [the file containing the Apple Tiger Build 8A294 Software] out before I install. [...] I'll install it once there a few more seeders."
Apple also contended that Mr. Steigerwald "used the computing resources of a university in violation of the institutional rules and policies of that university." Not named is the university itself; Raleigh, North Carolina is the home of some 11 colleges and universities, including North Carolina State University.
Apple further alleges that some 2,500 copies of the Tiger build were distributed starting from Mr. Steigerwald's efforts. Of the more than 2000 people who may have been involved in trading the file, Apple is suing only two others, Vivek "Sunny" Sambhara, a.k.a. "desicanuk," of Atlanta, GA, and David Schwartzstein, a.k.a. "dmsmac," of Norwalk, CT.
Like Mr. Steigerwald, Apple contends that Messrs. Sambhara and Schwartzstein are both ADC members. Unlike Mr. Steigerwald, however, Apple is accusing the other two defendants not of distributing a file obtained directly from Apple, but of redistributing the file first obtained by Mr. Steigerwald.
BitTorrent
BitTorrent is, in effect, the next generation of file sharing technologies. The network functions without a central server, relying instead on its users to both track and provide bandwidth and computing power to distribute files. One user makes available a file, and every user that then downloads that file becomes a server, too. Each user provides different blocks of the file to other users, forming what is known as a "swarm" of mini-servers, and spreading out the load in the process.
For a full and detailed explanation of how BitTorrent works, visit Wikepedia for a description that includes illustrations.
While BitTorrent is commonly known to be a vehicle for trading copyrighted materials, it is also used for many and varied legitimate uses. For instance, one of those uses is the distribution of Linux distributions. Several Linux distributions are officially distributed through BitTorrent, a process that has made it faster and easier for many users to get new Linux builds, and makes it substantially cheaper for the developers in the process. All of the bandwidth is provided by and paid for by the users.
Whether or not Messrs. Samhara and Schwartzstein obtained the file directly from Apple, however, the company's court filings clearly assert that the two violated their ADC membership agreements by allegedly participating in the distribution of the files to third parties.
"An ADC member who received a seed key or Pre-Release Software from an ADC member," Apple wrote in its court filings, "is prohibited by the ADC Agreement from transferring the key or software to any person other than an ADC member who works for the same entity."
For each of the defendants, Apple notes they agreed to not "'transfer, copy, or disseminate' Pre-Release Software to anyone other than '[his] employees and contractors who have an existing ADC membership.'"
Apple obtained the names of the three defendants from posts on a BitTorrent tracking site. Tracking sites, such as SuprNova.com, allow users to post the different files they wish to distribute through BitTorrent. In addition, some BitTorrent clients provide information about the users actively trading any particular file.
In its court filings, Apple offers quotes from each of the three defendants relating to the distribution of the Tiger build.
Damages
Apple is seeking two things from its civil lawsuit, an injunction preventing any (alleged) further distribution from the defendants, and damages.
"Maintaining Pre-Release Software as a trade secret is essential to Apple's ability to compete in the markets for personal computer hardware and software," Apple wrote in its court filings. "If Apple's competitors had access to Apple's Pre-Release Software, those competitors could benefit economically from the knowledge gained from that access by directing their product development or marketing efforts to frustrate Apple's plans. This strategic advantage to Apple's competitors could, in turn, severely harm Apple."
To that end, Apple told the court that it "is entitled to recover from Defendants the damages sustained as a result of these breached of the Agreements. The amount of such damages cannot be determined at this time, but will be proven at trial. Apple is further entitled to recover from Defendants the gains, profits, and advantages that Defendants obtained as a result of these breaches. Apple is currently unable to ascertain the full extend of these gains, profits, and advantages, but will prove the value thereof at trial."
Apple is seeking a jury trial.
Brad Gibson contributed to this article.
Dec. 21, 2004
Space Daily
By staff report
© Copyright 2004
A proposal by North Carolina State University researchers to put genetically modified plants on the International Space Station to study the effects of fractional gravity on the plants' signaling processes has been accepted by NASA.
The project, says Dr. Christopher Brown, a research associate professor of botany at NC State and director of space programs for the Kenan Institute of Engineering, Technology & Science, housed at NC State, will represent an important step toward learning more about how plants respond to the weightless conditions in low earth orbit, or to gravity levels found on the moon or Mars.
The research would entail sending into space Arabidopsis, or mustard weed, plants that have been genetically altered with reduced levels of IP3, a molecule that is critical in converting stimuli into biochemical events.
Arabidopsis is frequently used in scientific experiments because it develops, reproduces and responds to stress and disease in much the same way as many crop plants. The entire genome of Arabidopsis has been sequenced, allowing researchers to delve into the genetic basis for many plant responses.
On Earth, reduced levels of IP3 in modified plants translate into slower and diminished response to changes in the direction of gravity on Earth. "When the modified plants are tipped, the shoots and roots do not re-orient as quickly or as completely as wild-type plants - those that are not genetically modified," Brown says.
Now, the NC State research team, which includes botanists Dr. Wendy Boss, Dr. Imara Perera and Dr. Heike Winter-Sederoff, is looking to see if these responses change under no gravity, or weightlessness; one-sixth gravity, which represents gravity on the moon; and three-eighths gravity, which represents gravitational conditions on Mars.
"One of the earliest plant responses to changes in the direction of gravity on Earth is a change in levels of IP3," Brown says.
"This in turn causes increases in cellular levels of calcium, for instance, and other levels of gene expression starting a cascade of events that eventually leads to the plant response - which is to bend. We want to see if the different gravity levels - weightless, moon and Mars - result in a similar response in our altered and wild-type plants."
To test plant responses at the different gravitational conditions, the NC State plants - both wild-type plants as well as the genetically manipulated plants - will spin inside an International Space Station centrifuge, a machine that accelerates plants to produce artificial gravity.
According to Brown, "Other than being on the surface of the moon, Mars or another smaller planet, this is the only way to get gravity levels between 0 and 1."
But before the plants go into their cosmic spin, the NC State researchers will work to ensure the plants are safe within the centrifuge. Since there's not a lot of room on the International Space Station, the centrifuges are small - "about the size of a small suitcase," Brown says - and the plant-growing chambers are smaller yet, no larger than a brick.
To get to the International Space Station, the plants must travel on a NASA space shuttle. Craft like the Russian "Soyuz" or "Progress," spacecraft that are currently the only way to ferry crew, essential gear and supplies to and from the International Space Station, simply do not have enough room to carry up much else.
The space shuttle's return to flight is scheduled for May or June 2005, and even then it may be one to two years before the experiment can fly. "No problem," Brown says. "There is a lot to do to get ready in the meantime."
NASA's vision for the future of space exploration is "human and robotic exploration of the moon, Mars and beyond," according to Brown.
Plants would provide space travelers with a number of critical life-support basics, including air and water. Besides these basics, plants would also supply fresh food and greenery, which would provide a much-needed psychological lift to the crew, a must on long-term missions.
"NASA wants to know if a plant-based bio-regenerative life-support system is feasible and cost-effective for long-term missions, like a multi-year expedition to Mars, for example," Brown says.
The proposal stems from research in the NC State NSCORT program, the NASA Specialized Center of Research and Training in Gravitational Biology, Brown says. "NC State is a national and international player in NASA-relevant plant research, and this project is a natural progression from our work in the NSCORT program," he says.