<HTML> <HEAD> <META http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-16"> <Title> </Title> <Style> A:Link { COLOR: #0000FF } A:Visited { COLOR: #F77921 } BODY { BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; BORDER-TOP: medium none; FONT-FAMILY: Helvetica, Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 8pt; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 10px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 10px; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #FFFFFF } TD { FONT-FAMILY: Helvetica, Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 8pt; COLOR: #000000 } TH { BORDER-BOTTOM: #a3a7c9 thin outset; BORDER-LEFT: #a3a7c9 thin outset; BORDER-RIGHT: #a3a7c9 thin outset; BORDER-TOP: #a3a7c9 thin outset; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #003063; COLOR: #FFFFFF; FONT-FAMILY: Helvetica, Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-WEIGHT: bold } .ReportTitle { FONT-FAMILY: Helvetica, Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-WEIGHT: Bold; COLOR: #000000; MARGIN-TOP: 5pt; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 5pt } .ReportComment { FONT-FAMILY: Helvetica, Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 8pt; FONT-WEIGHT: Bold; COLOR: #000000; MARGIN-TOP: 5pt; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 5pt } .HeadLine { COLOR: Black; FONT-FAMILY: Helvetica, Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-WEIGHT: Bold } .BodyText { COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 10pt } .FullStory { FONT-FAMILY: Helvetica, Verdana, Arial; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-WEIGHT: Bold } .CategoryTitle { COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; FONT-WEIGHT: Bold; FONT-SIZE: 12pt } .bodyHR { BACKGROUND-COLOR: #003063; } </Style> </HEAD> <BODY> <table width="99%"> <tr> <td bgcolor="FFFFFF" width="10%" valign="top"><img src="http://www.vocus.com/images/pr/citigroup_dot_clear.gif" width="10%" height="580"><td valign="top"> <TABLE Cellspacing="0" CellPadding="0" Border="0" Width="100%"> <TR> <TD Align="Left" Valign="Center" BGColor="#FFFFFF" colspan="2" width="140"><A href="http://www.auburn.edu"><IMG border="0" src="http://www.vocus.com/images/pr/auburn_logo.gif" alt="Auburn University"></A></TD> </TR> </TABLE> <TABLE Cellspacing="0" CellPadding="0" Border="0" Width="90%"> <TR> <TD Width="15"></TD> <TD> Wednesday, May 30, 2007 </TD> <TD Width="15"></TD> </TR> </TABLE> <TABLE Cellspacing="0" CellPadding="0" Border="0" Width="90%"> <TR> <TD Width="15"></TD> <TD> NOTE ON FORMATTING: When stories are transferred from the Web, certain punctuation marks and other marks in this report don't carry over and result in symbols and other formatting errors. To see or print the story in full without these translation errors, simply click on "full story" at the end of each item." </TD> <TD Width="15"></TD> </TR> </TABLE> <table Cellspacing="0" Cellpadding="0" Border="0" Width="700"> <tr> <td align="right" class="CategoryTitle">Total Clips: 7</td> </tr> </table> <TABLE Cellspacing="2" Cellpadding="2" Border="0" Width="700"> <TR> <Th align="left" colspan="2">Headline</Th> <Th align="center">Date</Th> <Th align="left">Outlet</Th> </TR> <TR> <Td align="left" width="5"><a class="newsDivider" href="http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag-w/2007/may/tech/nl_purify.html"><img border="0" src="http://vocuspr.vocus.com/VocusPr30/images/icon_paperclip.gif" alt=""></a></Td> <Td> <a href="#21782389">Tiny filters fix big water problems</a><A name="News21782389"></A></Td> <TD align="center"> 05/30/2007 </TD> <TD align="left"> Environmental Science and Technology </TD> </TR> <TR> <Td align="left" width="5"><a class="newsDivider" href="http://news.vocus.com/click/here.pl?z955746705&z=950239508"><img border="0" src="http://vocuspr.vocus.com/VocusPr30/images/icon_paperclip.gif" alt=""></a></Td> <Td> <a href="#21770174">Senate approves university trustees</a><A name="News21770174"></A></Td> <TD align="center"> 05/30/2007 </TD> <TD align="left"> Montgomery Advertiser </TD> </TR> <TR> <Td align="left" width="5"><a class="newsDivider" href="http://www.newhouse.com/though-treasured,-live-college-mascots-becoming-rarer.html"><img border="0" src="http://vocuspr.vocus.com/VocusPr30/images/icon_paperclip.gif" alt=""></a></Td> <Td> <a href="#21783338">Though Treasured, Live College Mascots Becoming Rarer</a><A name="News21783338"></A></Td> <TD align="center"> 05/30/2007 </TD> <TD align="left"> Newhouse News Service - Times Picayune (New Orleans) </TD> </TR> <TR> <Td align="left" width="5"><a class="newsDivider" href="http://news.vocus.com/click/here.pl?z955455664&z=950239508"><img border="0" src="http://vocuspr.vocus.com/VocusPr30/images/icon_paperclip.gif" alt=""></a></Td> <Td> <a href="#21762668">Gaines Lanier confirmed as AU trustee</a><A name="News21762668"></A></Td> <TD align="center"> 05/30/2007 </TD> <TD align="left"> Opelika-Auburn News </TD> </TR> <TR> <Td align="left" width="5"><a class="newsDivider" href="http://news.vocus.com/click/here.pl?z955455752&z=950239508"><img border="0" src="http://vocuspr.vocus.com/VocusPr30/images/icon_paperclip.gif" alt=""></a></Td> <Td> <a href="#21762670">Camp War Eagle to draw more than 8,000 to Plains</a><A name="News21762670"></A></Td> <TD align="center"> 05/30/2007 </TD> <TD align="left"> Opelika-Auburn News </TD> </TR> <TR> <Td align="left" width="5"><a class="newsDivider" href="http://southeastfarmpress.com/news/052907-hybrid-catfish/"><img border="0" src="http://vocuspr.vocus.com/VocusPr30/images/icon_paperclip.gif" alt=""></a></Td> <Td> <a href="#21783257">Research showing worth of hybrid catfish</a><A name="News21783257"></A></Td> <TD align="center"> 05/29/2007 </TD> <TD align="left"> Southeast Farm Press </TD> </TR> <TR> <Td align="left" width="5"><a class="newsDivider" href="http://www.networkworld.com/news/2006/051706-women-in-it.html"><img border="0" src="http://vocuspr.vocus.com/VocusPr30/images/icon_paperclip.gif" alt=""></a></Td> <Td> <a href="#21782923">Doing something about the lack of women in IT</a><A name="News21782923"></A></Td> <TD align="center"> 05/17/2007 </TD> <TD align="left"> Networkworld.com </TD> </TR> <Table Width="95%" Border="0" Cellspacing="10" Cellpadding="2"> <tr> <td width="10"> </td> </tr> <Tr> <Td Align="left"> <A name="21782389"></A><hr size="5" class="bodyHR"> Tiny filters fix big water problems 05/30/2007 Environmental Science and Technology </Td> <td width="15%"></td> <Td Align="Right"><A href="#News21782389"> Return to Top </A></Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td width="500">**AU researchers are quoted in this story.** Nanosized iron particles can effectively filter arsenic from drinking water. The city of Brownsville, Texas, gets its drinking water from an aquifer that contains naturally elevated concentrations of arsenic about 40 parts per billion (ppb). After the U.S. EPA restricted arsenic loads in drinking water to 10 ppb in January 2001, the city was in a bind: how best to remove the toxic metal from its water? Naturally occurring arsenic is a worldwide phenomenon, and scientists and public-health managers from Bangladesh to Nicaragua to New Hampshire have been working on ways to filter out this toxic metal from drinking water. Many filters use iron because it binds arsenic relatively efficiently. The recently inaugurated Grainger Award honored Abul Hussam of George Mason University for his sand filtration method that incorporates an iron matrix to trap arsenic. This relatively cheap household technology, well tailored to the needs of developing countries with arsenic problems, is already in use in Bangladesh. Larger-scale filtration plants in developed parts of the world, which process thousands of gallons of water a day, use bits of iron to filter arsenic. But the iron flakes can foul filtering membranes, and getting rid of them is difficult. Courtesy of USGS Arsenic contamination in water samples in different parts of the U.S. The idea is that if the amount of iron used in large filtration plants can be scaled down, while maintaining or even increasing the efficiency of arsenic removal, places like Brownville would have a solution to their arsenic problem. Nanomaterials could provide that next-step tool in the arsenal against arsenic. Researchers from Rice University have been tinkering with tiny, magnetic iron nanoparticles for just such a treatment process. They have created a filtering system that uses nanoscale magnetite (Fe3O4) to bind both As(III) and As(V), which can then be removed from water with a magnet. Preliminary tests with Brownsville groundwater and Houston tap water have been encouraging, and now the team is working to scale up its filter for use in the U.S. and elsewhere. Nanomagnetite at work The first and most enthusiastic response may be right here in America, says Mason Tomson, a principal investigator who is part of the team led by Vicky Colvin and others at Rice University s Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology. New England, New Mexico, Texas, and California, among other places, have naturally occurring arsenic in regional groundwater. After 6 years of testing in Bangladesh, Tomson says, some of the things we thought might be a concern , such as interfering ions or natural organic material, might not be as difficult to overcome as we thought they might be. The team s early experiments tested magnetite nanoparticles of various sizes: 12, 16, and 20 nanometers (nm) in diameter. Protocols on manufacturing such materials, established by Colvin s group, could ensure consistency in size. The higher surface-to-volume ratio allows for more efficient capture of arsenic by smaller particles. Experiments in Brownsville, conducted by Rice team member Heather Shipley, showed that 20-nm magnetite nanoparticles could treat 20 liters of water a day for a year, yielding 3.65 kilograms (kg) of magnetite bound with arsenic the waste that would have to be removed or recycled. Only 1.8 kg of waste would be produced with 12-nm magnetite particles, the most efficient size for removal. The move from larger iron-particle flocculants, which require expensive, high-energy magnets that can overcome Brownian motion, to magnetite nanoparticles allowed the team to use lower-energy magnets successfully. Reporting in Science (2006, 314, 964 967) last November, the researchers showed that 16-nm magnetite particles ended up as a black deposit formed on the back wall [of a separator] where the field gradient was the highest. That cheaper option also makes this technology attractive to smaller treatment facilities and for household use. Tomson envisions that users would be treating groundwater from a well that will not need to be filtered. [They would] add a fraction of a teaspoon of black powder magnetite shake it for a few minutes, and put on a magnet and pull the arsenic and iron down to the bottom. Shipley has examined whether a secondary filter could work. Even with something as trivial as a coffee filter, she says, plus a small amount of diatomaceous earth to aid filtration, the process is still very fast, very easy . Although initial tests show that a handheld magnet will work to remove the particles, field tests are necessary because some components, such as phosphate, can interfere with iron oxides adsorption of arsenic. A key feature of the magnetite nanoparticle method is that it removes both As(V) and As(III) with the same efficiency, Tomson emphasizes. This is very important in the business. . . . As(III) generally is the most difficult [and] requires chlorine to oxidize it to As(V). Typical groundwater contains a mix, and Shipley notes that although some wells may contain 70% As(V) and 30% As(III), others have the opposite proportion. Once adsorbed, the arsenic in either form appears to be bound very tightly and does not easily desorb ; this has implications for disposal of the nanomaterial and whether it can be desorbed for reuse. It would be a tremendous advantage to be able to switch on and off the adsorption/desorption processes, Tomson says; that capacity remains to be tested. For an individual household, the team projects that 200 500 milligrams of the magnetite nanoparticles would be necessary to treat a liter of water, at a fraction of a penny a day and less than a kilogram of waste a year, says Tomson. Larger-scale plants, which treat tens of millions of gallons a day, would have to do reuse and regeneration recovery [of the nanomaterials]. Otherwise, the mass of magnetite you would have to separate in a commercial water treatment [plant] is too large to be practical. Shipley, Tomson, and colleagues are still working on ways to scale up the technology for the water treatment facilities in Brownsville. Heechul Choi of the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (South Korea) and colleagues previously used nanoscale, zerovalent iron for groundwater and drinking-water remediation in Nepal, Bangladesh, and India, but their technology has yet to pass in-the-ground testing with mining contamination and natural arsenic occurrences (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2005, 39, 1291 1298; 2006, 40, 2045 2050). Sushil Kanel, a postdoctoral researcher at Auburn University and coauthor of the work on nanoscale, zerovalent iron, thinks Tomson s method could still be affordable and practical in many settings, but more research is needed to apply the techniques using real field groundwater from the U.S., Bangladesh, and elsewhere. He would like to see those tests in place as well as water-column experiments, noting that the Rice team s technology is ready for implementation only for community-scale pilot tests. Expanding nanoparticles reach Nanofilters such as those developed by the Rice team might also prove to be an able platform for the removal of other metals. Crystal Clear Technologies, a company based in Portland, Ore., has been working on a multilayered, nanostructured filtration method to remove copper, lead, uranium, and other toxic elements in addition to arsenic, and they hope to get a product ready for the developing world as soon as possible, potentially in the next few years. The method relies on a substrate of zeolites (which have nanosized pores) and other minerals that have been functionalized with simple organic molecules covalently attached, says Darren W. Johnson, a chemist at the University of Oregon. Johnson comments that iron-oxide substrates also potentially can be modified and that the magnetite method from the Rice team provides larger available surface areas and the possibility of further functionalization. Plus, their point is that down at the smaller nanocrystal size, [nanoscale] properties come into play, contributing to aggregation behavior that allows the magnetic-removal method to work, he emphasizes. NanoMagnetics, Ltd., a U.K.-based company, also has plans to develop a magnetic method of removing arsenic. Called MagnetoFerritin, the system uses osmosis to desalinate water, and the company claims it removes other contaminants as well. MagnetoFerritin and Crystal Clear s methods are only two of many nanotechnology products under development. Johnson notes that the Crystal Clear system has seed money and proof of concept, but further support is necessary to boost it to the next stage. (Some gap funding will come from the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute, or ONAMI.) Remaining challenges Some nanofiltration technologies remain too specific for the larger task of water filtration in general, says Glenn Austin of the PATH Safe Water Project. The Seattle-based nonprofit organization recently received a $17 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to test point-of-use water treatment methods in developing countries. One thing we ve learned in the past 6 months is that [such products have] a very narrow bandwidth in contaminants they address, Austin says. They do a great job with arsenic, or with select pathogens, but they need to combine core technologies to do a [complete] job for the broader purposes of getting clean drinking water. That kind of multicontaminant platform could drive up costs, depending on what it takes to manufacture nanoparticles with specific coatings. Nevertheless, Austin says, nanotechnology offers some really interesting possibilities, and its potential certainly fires up my imagination. Other ideas include an oversized coffee filter made of nanotreated paper, which could change colors once it was no longer working and then be thrown away. Today, it s not a silver bullet, Austin says, but nanotechnology could represent a future breakthrough in price and performance, so it is really a matter of timing. Meanwhile, Shipley and colleagues filtration method is ready to be tested in situations where both small and large volumes of water are treated. They plan to publish results of further tests on Houston tap water and Brownsville groundwater in the near future. The team has also begun introducing the household method to Nicaragua, where volcanic soils contribute low levels of arsenic to groundwater. (The team s Pedro Alvarez, an ES&T associate editor, has been bringing different water filtration solutions to his home country, Nicaragua, for the past decade or so.) Family and community point-of-use sites will serve as a testing ground starting sometime next year. NAOMI LUBICK</Td> </Tr> <tr> <td><a href="http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag-w/2007/may/tech/nl_purify.html">Full Story</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="10"> </td> </tr> <Tr> <Td Align="left"> <A name="21770174"></A><hr size="5" class="bodyHR"> Senate approves university trustees 05/30/2007 Montgomery advertiser </Td> <td width="15%"></td> <Td Align="Right"><A href="#News21770174"> Return to Top </A></Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td width="500">The Alabama Senate unanimously approved the appointment of 10 university trustees on Tuesday, including the selection of Lanett insurance executive Gaines Lanier to the Auburn University board. Lanier, chairman of the J. Smith Lanier & Co. insurance brokerage firm, was chosen by the Auburn trustee selection committee to replace Charles Ball of Gadsden. Lanier was a successful athlete at Auburn, earning letters as a defensive tackle in 1972-74. 'He comes from an east Alabama family that has long supported Auburn University,' Sen. Ted Little, D-Auburn, said. The Senate also confirmed four people selected by Gov. Bob Riley to serve on the Alabama A&M University board of trustees Raymond M. Burse of Prospect, Ky., vice president and general counsel of GE Consumer and Industrial; Huntsville accountant Thomas Beason; former Anniston City Council member James Montgomery; and Dothan insurance agent Velma Tribue. The Senate also approved Riley's selection of four trustees for the University of South Alabama attorney John M. Peek of Andalusia, Dr. Steven P. Furr of Jackson, attorney James Yance of Mobile, and Dr. Scott Ashley Charlton of Enterprise. Also winning Senate approval was Riley's appointment of Tom Walker of Montevallo to the University of Montevallo board. Walker is the founder of the American Village tourist attraction. In addition, the Senate approved the hiring of Gregory Fitch as executive director of the Alabama Commission on Higher Education. The Senate's votes make all the selections official, and no further legislative votes are needed.</Td> </Tr> <tr> <td><a href="http://news.vocus.com/click/here.pl?z955746705&z=950239508">Full Story</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="10"> </td> </tr> <Tr> <Td Align="left"> <A name="21783338"></A><hr size="5" class="bodyHR"> Though Treasured, Live College Mascots Becoming Rarer 05/30/2007 Newhouse News Service - Times Picayune (New Orleans) James Varney </Td> <td width="15%"></td> <Td Align="Right"><A href="#News21783338"> Return to Top </A></Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td width="500">Auburn University has three eagles. (Photo by Todd J. Van Emst)c.2007 Newhouse News Service To those whose hearts pump purple-and-gold blood, a tiger is an ornament for Rudyard Kipling but an essential in Baton Rouge, La. Opinion doesn't come much harder formed than that supporting a new Royal Bengal tiger for Louisiana State University to replace Mike V, the mascot whose kidneys failed May 18. The thought of life without Mike VI strikes these fans as surreal, because to them Mike the Tiger is the undisputed king of college mascots. Not everyone agrees. There are even those, say students in Colorado, who believe a buffalo trumps all. In a ranking based exclusively on pride and subjectivity, officials and students at the University of Colorado rate their wild, hairy bison that charges onto the field ahead of the team at home games in Boulder as roughly the coolest thing around. Still further disagreement rages in Austin, Texas; Auburn, Ala.; Annapolis, Md.; and Athens, Ga. Campuses in these cities continue to value a once-cherished tradition: an honest-to-goodness living animal as the school's mascot that is present at least at home games. But as Colorado Sports Information Director David Plati argues, it doesn't take much more than good hair brushes and strategic caches of Milk Bones to have a pooch represent the football program. As for those flying mascots mostly eagles and occasionally another bird, like a falcon well, how seriously can you take a bolting speck high above the edge of the stadium? They have panache, but hardly the sort of excitement tens of thousands are seeking. No, if you talk to the fine folks of Colorado, they will tell you for spirit you can't beat a snorting, shaggy buffalo charging out with the football players. And if that buffalo, as a cub, was rescued from a coyote's jaws on Ted Turner's Montana ranch and now roams free on a Colorado range? Well, so much the better for everyone. "Now, Mike the Tiger is cool, there's no doubt about that,'' Plati said. "But Ralphie is the only live animal to lead its team on the field. You can't beat that. You look at that steer, Bevo, in Texas. He just stands there and chews his cud.'' Plati is able to rattle off the live mascot competition so quickly because it has become a thin field. The expense and hassle of keeping an animal on campus, which requires various permits and habitats, coupled with shifting ideas about how animals, particularly wild ones, should be treated or housed if they are captive, has made live mascots an endangered species. "We've got no plans to get another one,'' said Bob Pierce, executive director of Southern Mississippi's alumni association. Pierce was referring to "Nugget,'' a golden eagle that was once a mascot on campus at USM, but died. "The primary challenge we face with a golden eagle is it is an endangered species, and that requires special permits for maintenance and caring,'' he said. Which is not to say the matter is permanently settled. "There's always discussion about it because I think there's a lot of romanticism with having a live mascot,'' he said. "But when you look at the priorities of the institution, we just haven't elevated a live eagle to that level.'' Nearly identical factors have come in to play at other schools over the years, and wild animals became scarcer at Saturday football spectacles. Southeastern Louisiana is a case in point. The Lions had a lion, the genuine article, who would travel across Lake Pontchartrain heavily sedated and be on campus for a game, only to return to a New Orleans zoo then infamous for its nonchalant treatment of animals. Some years "Roomie'' stayed on campus in digs so small it made everyone uneasy. That ugly situation, along with the zoo's growing concern about the process, brought it to an end, and Philip, as the feline was known at the zoo, retired to a productive life squiring newborn cubs. "That would definitely never happen here again,'' said Joe Forys, assistant curator of mammals at the Aububon Zoo. "It's the same kind of thing as animal rides. We just don't treat them like novelty acts anymore.'' The philosophical debate over live mascots, such as it is, was spelled out last week in correspondence between People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and LSU Chancellor Sean O'Keefe. PETA, an activist animal rights group, has publicly opposed LSU's plan to obtain a new tiger. The exchange of letters with O'Keefe was a model of politeness, although it was clear neither side persuaded the other. O'Keefe underscored the scariest line for Mike: Tigers might not make it. Although accurate figures on the wild population are hard to fix, no serious tiger expert doubts that the species is teetering on the edge of extinction. Consequently, captive tigers might become the only such cats around, and it is better to have tigers in the world than not, O'Keefe said. What's more, Mike VI, once he or she is acquired, will live in comparative luxury, free of pursuit by poachers who have killed so many branches of his family tree. His doctors will come from a first-class veterinary school, and his digs have been upgraded to the point where his 15,000-square-foot pad with a waterfall and pool rivals those of the best zoos. Finally, O'Keefe said, Mike is an indispensable part of the fabric at LSU, and the university is unwavering in its intention to replace him with a live tiger. PETA's position was equally clear, namely that tigers are hard-wired to roam in areas defined by square acres, not feet. Many tigers, thousands of them, live in less than humane conditions throughout North America, a situation dangerous and immoral. Though the group concedes LSU can legally obtain a tiger without traveling down unsavory back alleys, having a widely respected public institution as one party in the transaction serves to burnish the reputation of the exotic animal trade that should, instead, be condemned, PETA said. Some schools have made a concerted effort to draw a distinction between the two. "I want to be very clear on this. Our eagles aren't mascots, they're symbols,'' said Mike Clardy, a marketing official at Auburn. Auburn has three eagles two goldens and one bald and the birds are associated with the Southeastern Raptor Center at the school's veterinary college. All three of the birds fly at one home football game or another, but that is not their prime function, so far as Auburn is concerned. "We look at them as another way to educate the public about these magnificent animals whose role is much larger than that of a football game,'' Clardy said, noting the predatory birds also make appearances before some 40,000 students annually throughout Alabama. "The biggest thing they do is spread the word on conservation,'' Clardy said. Similarly, LSU has altered Mike's world. Once upon a time, when the tiger made its pregame lap inside Tiger Stadium, the cheerleaders would bang on the cage in an effort to make Mike roar. That practice was discontinued as being beneath the dignity of a Bengal tiger. Forys at the Audubon Zoo would like to see more such steps. "Part of all this is a shift in thought about animals, in that the more we learn about them the more changes we make to meet their needs,'' he said. "It's an improvement that now they are seen as animals and not some kind of novelty on campus.'' Forys also draws a distinction between, say, Navy's goat and Georgia's bulldog, and exotic, wild predators like LSU's tiger or Baylor's bears. "When we move beyond what are basically barnyard animals, I think we should draw a line,'' he said. "I mean, they still trot Mike out there to roll him around on the field, and I'd feel a lot better if he stayed in the exhibit and was part of an educational component at the veterinary school there. The rest sort of takes his dignity away.'' (James Varney is a staff writer for The Times-Picayune of New Orleans. He can be contacted at jvarney(at)timespicayune.com.)</Td> </Tr> <tr> <td><a href="http://www.newhouse.com/though-treasured,-live-college-mascots-becoming-rarer.html">Full Story</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="10"> </td> </tr> <Tr> <Td Align="left"> <A name="21762668"></A><hr size="5" class="bodyHR"> Gaines Lanier confirmed as AU trustee 05/30/2007 Opelika-Auburn News Weaver, Amy </Td> <td width="15%"></td> <Td Align="Right"><A href="#News21762668"> Return to Top </A></Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td width="500">The Auburn University Board of Trustees is finally back up to full staff. After 15 months and a lawsuit, the empty chair around the table will be filled by Gaines Lanier at the June 28-29 meetings. The Alabama Senate confirmed the appointment of 10 university trustees Tuesday, including Lanier, chairman and CEO of J. Smith Lanier & Co., an insurance brokerage operation in West Point, Ga. Lanier, 54, fills the District 5 seat previously held by Charles Ball of Gadsen, who left the board in February 2006 after Attorney General Troy King found he was only meant to serve the remainder of an unexpired term. According to King, trustee terms are for seven years from the date the individual is confirmed by the state Senate, not by the date they were appointed by the governor or when the term of a predecessor ends. Gov. Bob Riley, who is the board president, delayed the search for a new trustee until a lawsuit, filed by Trustee Dwight Carlisle, was settled. Carlisle questioned King s opinion on the length of trustee terms, most notably Montgomery banker Bobby Lowder. After almost a year, the state Supreme Court ruled that Carlisle didn t have the standing to file the suit. The AU Trustee Selection Committee unanimously picked Lanier, an Auburn alumnus, back in March, but, based on King s opinion, had to wait until the Senate confirmed him to make it official. Lanier will serve on the board for seven years. Until his friends approached him about running for the open seat, Lanier admitted Tuesday he never really considered serving as a trustee as a way to give back to his alma mater. More than 20 people applied for the post including a couple of mayors, a few educators and several business people, many of whom are AU alumni. Lanier, who played football for the Tigers in the early 1970s, said his strong Auburn ties - many family members are also alumni - probably didn t hurt his selection. "You gotta have a love for the school," he said. Lanier said he was "honored and humbled" to be in a position to do "great things" for Auburn. The June meeting will be Lanier s first, but the last for AU President Dr. Ed Richardson. Dr. Jay Gogue will take office July 16. "We are both going to be learning a lot," Lanier said. aweaver@oanow.com | 737-2534</Td> </Tr> <tr> <td><a href="http://news.vocus.com/click/here.pl?z955455664&z=950239508">Full Story</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="10"> </td> </tr> <Tr> <Td Align="left"> <A name="21762670"></A><hr size="5" class="bodyHR"> Camp War Eagle to draw more than 8,000 to Plains 05/30/2007 Opelika-Auburn News Weaver, Amy </Td> <td width="15%"></td> <Td Align="Right"><A href="#News21762670"> Return to Top </A></Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td width="500">Just when you think it s safe to return to the Auburn University campus because most students are gone for the summer, Camp War Eagle gets under way and the area is bustling once again. The first of eight sessions of the freshman orientation program wrapped up Friday. The second starts today. Over the course of three days and two nights, incoming first-year students and their parents get familiarized with every aspect of life at AU, from athletics and academics to counseling and dining. The parent program is held simultaneously to each student session. Some programming events are held for both parents and students. Camp Director Mark Armstrong said more than 4,000 freshmen and more than 4,700 parents will participate this year. The number of students is about equal to the amount that has been attending CWE in previous years, he said, but there are more parents this time. "This is typical of the generation of students we see now," Armstrong said. "Their parents are very involved in their lives." Before it s all over, students will have met faculty, academic advisors and registered for fall semester classes. With only 9,000 students on campus for summer classes - considerably less than the 23,000 who gather in the fall - it s an ideal time to welcome an extra 1,100 people each session. However, Armstrong said there are times when current students encounter new ones. "When that happens, those areas are very busy, but we do the best we can to partner with offices around campus to find workable solutions for everyone," he said. The largest impact may be in parking. While students and parents will park in remote lots on the first two days of each session, they are approved to park in the Comer Hall parking lot on the final day of each session from 8 a.m. to noon. Individuals who normally park in this lot are encouraged to seek an alternate location for those mornings. The section of Samford Avenue between Duncan Drive and Mell Street is temporarily closed to thru-traffic, not for CWE, but for the installation of pedestrian improvements. The project is part of the multi-year pedestrian plan on campus and will include three raised crosswalk/speed table units and new roadway with pedestrian lighting. Signs and barricades will be in place to direct oncoming traffic. This phase will be done July 13, when the last CWE ends. Traffic will be detoured north and south on both Duncan and Mell. The portion of Mell between Samford and Garden Drive, in front of the president s home, will be closed today for Family Fun Day. aweaver@oanow.com | 737-2534</Td> </Tr> <tr> <td><a href="http://news.vocus.com/click/here.pl?z955455752&z=950239508">Full Story</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="10"> </td> </tr> <Tr> <Td Align="left"> <A name="21783257"></A><hr size="5" class="bodyHR"> Research showing worth of hybrid catfish 05/29/2007 Southeast Farm Press David Bennett </Td> <td width="15%"></td> <Td Align="Right"><A href="#News21783257"> Return to Top </A></Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td width="500">Researchers at Auburn University have studied hybrid catfish for decades and, for nearly as long, have known it s an outstanding food fish. While it may not be a silver bullet for what ails the catfish industry, the hybrid is capable of greatly enhancing production, sustainability and profitability for U.S. producers. The hybrid is a fabulous fish for pond culture, says Rex Dunham, Auburn professor. They don t do well in cages or small tanks. But for the traditional pond farms, they re a vast improvement over channel cats. One of our goals is, within five to 10 years, to have a majority of the catfish industry utilizing the hybrid. To that end, Auburn s research is focused in two areas: " Producing fry. Dunham says the reason hybrids aren t already more widespread is the difficulty to getting the two species channel catfish and blue catfish to mate. We ve worked every year trying to improve the technique for artificially producing these hybrid eggs. " Genetics. Even though the hybrid is a great fish, it isn t perfect. So, we re working on selective breeding to develop lines of channels and blues that, combined, make increasingly better hybrids. Roger Yant graduated from Auburn in 1975 with a master s degree. His post-graduate research and thesis were on hybrid catfish. I guess that s a long time to be interested in the hybrids, says Yant, who runs Hybrid Catfish Company, a hybrid fingerling operation near Inverness, Miss. Yant has taken a winding road to his current job. After managing a catfish processing company and trying his hand at farming, Yant went to work for Gold Kist, a large Atlanta-based farmer co-op, in 1990. At that time, Gold Kist was the second-largest U.S. poultry business and was interested in diversifying into aquaculture. In the modern poultry business, a segment in the chain is called primary breeders. These breeders produce the chicks taken to large poultry houses to grow out. Because of their work in genetics, the poultry industry made huge jumps in efficiency. Gold Kist figured Yant could help do the same with catfish. We made a lot of progress at that until about 2001. After about 10 years, Gold Kist moved towards becoming a stock company, so they decided to get rid of everything but poultry. It s too bad, because they d decided hybrids would be something to concentrate on in the breeding program. So we put a lot of emphasis on it and were close to solutions for the common hybrid problems. Gold Kist sold its breeding facility to Harvest Select, based in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Paul Bryant Jr. the legendary Bear s son is an owner, and the company has farms and processing facilities in Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas. I stayed with Harvest Select, a more vertically integrated company, until a couple of years ago when I set up the fingerling company. Now, the company wants our Inverness operation to produce hybrid fingerlings to be grown out in its farm ponds. Once hybrid fry are produced, there are few troubles with the fish they grow well and survive well. But currently, securing fry economically is a major, delicate, time-consuming task requiring hand-stripping and the death of parent fish. I d guess the industry processes around 300 million to 400 million fish every year, says Yant. We produce about 1.2 billion channel catfish fry. That shows the survival rate from fry to processing plant is low mostly due to disease, birds, what have you. Even though hybrid survival rates are much better than that, we still probably need 500 million hybrid fry annually. But the industry produced, maybe, 25 million hybrid fry (in 2006). Back in the 1970s, we thought it was a big deal to have 10,000 head of hybrid. By the 1990s, we were up to a million or two million. Even then, though, it s a far cry from what the industry needs if hybrids are to catch on. It is possible for channels and blues to mate without outside intervention. Neither Yant nor Dunham are enthusiastic about that approach, however. I don t think that s a wise place to put our resources, says Dunham. We studied that a lot in the past. And we thought we had solved the puzzle, that we had found lines of blues and channels that would mate reliably. Auburn researchers had good luck with those lines for two years. The third year their luck turned. You can t operate a farm under that sort of uncertainty, says Dunham. A grower can t afford a year with a fingerling wipeout. But with artificial fertilization hand-stripping techniques we can nearly guarantee fry will result. Long-term it would be fantastic to find fish strains or lines that, year after year, would mate to produce a hybrid. But to make this work in the short-term, artificial fertilization is the only way to go, says Yant. As for meeting the goal of converting the industry to majority hybrids, part of the challenge is this is a newer technology, says Dunham. That means there s a time lag to scale up for the hybrids. The other part is that even though farmers who have tried hybrids have had positive experiences, adoption will take a little while because many people need proof positive about the hybrids, and well they should. They need to see a track record of good performances that leave little doubt this fish will benefit them. That will come. Yant believes in the same, patient approach. Most of my customers this year wanted to try a pond or two to see how they like the hybrids. And that s smart I don t think I d jump into something like this without a feeling out period. But I think they ll have a good experience and want to order more. That s what I ve found over the years farmers who try these hybrids typically come back for more. It s true the hybrid is a better animal, says Yant, but management techniques may need to change to maximize its potential. We re still learning what those changes are. For example, farmers are familiar with topping. In a given pond, not all fish are ready for harvest. We go in with a special net that allows the fish less than a pound in size, say, to escape back into the pond. We send the larger fish to the plant. One of the problems with the hybrids, it s difficult to do such partial harvests. The biggest part of the channel cat is the head. If it can get its head through the net, it can get through. The hybrid, though, is taller there s an area behind the head that s actually the largest part of its body. That means the hybrids don t grade through the seine like channels do. And that means you can unintentionally harvest hybrids that aren t ready to go to the plant. We ve got to find a way to work with, or around, that. Pressures on U.S. aquaculture from Asian fish imports are helping fuel the need for hybrids. Whenever you have threats to sustainability and profitability, it makes development of improvements all that more urgent, says Dunham. That said, even without those international developments, we d be putting forth the same effort. Even if economic conditions were better for the catfish industry, the hybrid still makes huge economic sense. Now that the Chinese are pond-raising catfish, what would prevent them from appropriating any hybrid research breakthrough? Oh, we ve thought about that, says Dunham. The Chinese are smart people and the hybrid would benefit them, like it will us. What we need to do is continue to make advancements in genetics, in hybrids, in disease control, water-quality management. We need to do everything we can to stay a step ahead of them. Research funding is absolutely critical for that. Hybrid fingerlings cost more because it s a lot more work to generate them, says Yant. But if they weren t working well, there wouldn t be such high demand for hybrids. How much of a difference can hybrids make? A few years ago, we did an economic analysis on a company with ponds in both hybrids and channel catfish production. Obviously, the numbers have shifted since then, but at the time we could lower food fish production costs by 7 cents per pound by going with hybrids. And those savings are after accounting for the more expensive hybrid fingerlings. e-mail: dbennett@farmpress.com</Td> </Tr> <tr> <td><a href="http://southeastfarmpress.com/news/052907-hybrid-catfish/">Full Story</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="10"> </td> </tr> <Tr> <Td Align="left"> <A name="21782923"></A><hr size="5" class="bodyHR"> Doing something about the lack of women in IT 05/17/2007 Networkworld.com Staff </Td> <td width="15%"></td> <Td Align="Right"><A href="#News21782923"> Return to Top </A></Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td width="500">**AU is mentioned as a member of an NSF-funded alliance to increase diversity in computer science and other IT fields.** The Students and Technology in Academia, Research and Service Alliance is backed by $2 million from the National Science Foundation. It is using that money to recruit a diverse group of students into computer science and other IT-related fields. Florida State University research associate Anthony Chow says that a falling number of foreign nationals and immigrants entering the U.S. IT job market has left the door open for more women and minorities to fill many of the 1.5 million new jobs expected to arise over the next 6 years. One way that Florida State is attempting to lure students is by doing away with nerd images and emphasizing the coolness of the field through print and Web ads. The consortium is also uniting a group of students to spread the word and mentor others. Participants in the effort, in addition to FSU, include Florida A&M, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Auburn University and others. The diversity of the IT workforce is also being investigated by a Penn State researcher named Eileen Trauth, who is a professor in the College of Information Sciences and Technology. She found in interviews with 167 women working in IT in the U.S. and three other countries that women's career choices were influenced by a wide range of factors including gender stereotypes, family issues and job security. She urged employers to rethink one-size-fits-all policies that might work against women in IT.</Td> </Tr> <tr> <td><a href="http://www.networkworld.com/news/2006/051706-women-in-it.html">Full Story</a></td> </tr> </Table> <td bgcolor="FFFFFF" width="10%" valign="top"><img src="http://www.vocus.com/images/pr/citigroup_dot_clear.gif" width="10%" height="580"></td> </TABLE> </td> </td> </tr> <table Width="99%" valign="bottom" Border="0" Cellspacing="0" Cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td align="right"> <a target="_top" href="http://www.vocus.com"><img border="0" src="http://vocuspr.vocus.com/pralitypro/images/PoweredByVocus.gif"></a> </td> </tr> </table> </table> </BODY></HTML>