De  Jure Segregation continued at UNC with JSNN  and JMC fraud  Gateway Research Park, Inc.
   

Dream Launcher, HBI North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, a Land Grant institution where students made the bricks, to build the building, in which to be educated, in order to launch their American Dream!!!!!!

Aggieland  Participate in Nation Building
Samantha Hargrove June 18, 2014
Greensboro, N.C.-North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University is a land-grant university, which means, among many other activities, we make things.

Our researchers make things you can hold or touch, like hypoallergenic peanuts and asphalt that requires less petroleum. And they make things less tangible, like biometric software, carbon nanotubes and history.

With a little elbow grease and lots of collaboration, our researchers and students spend time discovering, designing, building, and growing new ideas and solutions.

North Carolina A&T's motto is "Mens et Manus": Mind and Hands. Those words set the university on a course more than 100 years ago. Today, that course brings N.C. A&T together with President Barak Obama and more than 150 other
universities to celebrate a Nation of Makers (#NationOfMakers on Twitter).  "On Wednesday, June 18, President Obama will host the first ever White House Maker Faire and meet with students, entrepreneurs and everyday citizens who are using new tools and techniques to launch new businesses, learn vital skills in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), and fuel the renaissance in American manufacturing. The President will also announce new steps the Administration and its partners are taking to support the ability of more Americans, young and old, to have to access to these tools and techniques and brings their ideas to life.


"America has always been a nation of tinkerers, inventors, and entrepreneurs. In recent years, a growing number of Americans have gained access to technologies such as 3D printers, laser cutters, easy-to-use design software, and desktop machine tools. These tools are enabling more Americans to design and build almost anything.

"The rise of the Maker Movement represents a huge opportunity for the United States. Nationwide, new tools for democratized production are boosting innovation and entrepreneurship in manufacturing, in the same way that the Internet and cloud computing have lowered the barriers to entry for digital startups, creating the foundation for new products and processes that can help to revitalize American manufacturing."

At A&T we celebrate our researchers, like Dr. Salil Desai, Dr. Stephanie Luster-Teasley, and Dr. Jianmei Yu, who all have received patents recently for things they've made. We celebrate Dr. Ellie Fini and Dr. Ajit Kelkar, who have made things that they've been able to build businesses around. And we celebrate our students – those who have competed in the annual Innovation Challenge and those who we feature on Aggie Entrepreneurs webpage – who aren’t waiting to graduate before they start making things.

New products and processes that can help revitalize American manufacturing: N.C. A&T joins the nation to celebrate our work and the nation of makers.

For more information on A&T research initiatives, visit http://www.ncat.edu/research/index.html.

     
School of Nursing to Open Diabetes Education Center
In partnership with Greensboro Urban Ministry, the School of Nursing at North Carolina A&T State University will hold an open house for the new Diabetes Education, Prevention, and Management Center. The event will be held Thursday, May 1 at 3 p.m. at 305 West Lee Street in Greensboro, N.C.
The diabetes education center will provide community members with access to diabetes self-management and prevention education through one-on-one and group interactions facilitated by North Carolina A&T faculty and students.

According to the American Diabetes Association, as many as one in three American adults will have diabetes in 2050 and an additional 79 million Americans are at high risk for developing type 2 diabetes. Since 2010, mortality rates for diabetes mellitus have increased in both Guilford County and North Carolina.

In response to the community need, in 2013 Greensboro Urban Ministry agreed to provide a space for North Carolina A&T faculty and students to provide weekly diabetes support through education and outreach.

“It is an opportunity to serve the citizens of Greensboro and to move our community engagement forward,” said Inez Tuck, Dean of the School of Nursing.
     
 

A&T Signs Agreement to Commercialize Hypoallergenic Peanut
Samantha Hargrove

GREENSBORO, N.C. -Hypoallergenic peanuts, peanut butter, and other peanut products are a step closer to grocery stores with the signing of an exclusive licensing agreement for the patented process that reduces allergens in peanuts by 98 percent.

North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University signed the agreement with Xemerge, a Toronto-based firm that commercializes emerging technologies in food, agriculture, and a variety of other fields. Xemerge has opened an office at the Gateway University Research Park south campus in Greensboro.

“This is one of the best technologies in the food and nutrition space we have seen,” said Johnny Rodrigues, Chief Commercialization Officer of Xemerge.

“It checks all the boxes: non-GMO, patented, human clinical data, does not change physical characteristics of the peanut along with maintaining the nutrition and functionality needed, ready for industry integration from processing and manufacturing to consumer products.”

The process was developed by Dr. Jianmei Yu, a food and nutrition researcher in the School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, department of family and consumer sciences, and two former A&T faculty members, Dr. Mohamed Ahmedna and Dr. Ipek Goktepe, both of whom are now at Qatar University.

“Treated peanuts can be used as whole peanuts, in pieces or as flour to make foods containing peanuts safer for many people who are allergic,” Dr. Yu said.

“Treated peanuts also can be used in immunotherapy,” she said. “Under a doctor’s supervision, the hypoallergenic peanuts can build up a patient’s resistance to the

allergens. ”Research funding was provided by the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.


The process treats roasted peanuts, removed from the shell and skin, with food-grade enzymes commonly used in food processing. The treatment consists of soaking the peanuts in an enzymatic solution.

The treatment reduces two key allergens, Ara h 1 to undetectable levels and Ara h 2 by up to 98%. The resulting peanuts look and taste like roasted peanuts. The peanuts are not genetically modified.

The effectiveness of the process was demonstrated in human clinical trials at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, using skin-prick tests.

 

In contrast to various other approaches to eliminating peanut allergens, the N.C. A&T process doesn’t involve chemicals or irradiation, and uses commonly available food-processing equipment.

In collaboration with Xemerge, Dr. Yu is continuing to refine the process by testing the effectiveness of additional food-grade enzymes.

Peanuts cause serious allergic reactions in an estimated 0.9% of the U.S. population, about 2.8 million people. Highly sensitive children and adults can develop anaphylaxis, a severe allergic reaction, in as little as a few seconds from ingesting extremely small amounts. Anaphylaxis symptoms can include difficulty breathing; low blood pressure; swelling of the tongue, eyes or face; stomach pain, nausea and vomiting; skin rashes, blisters, itching, inflammation, and pain; and in some cases even death.

Xemerge

Xemerge (pronounced “zee-merge”) specializes in helping early-stage and established companies achieve business milestones, including early customer acquisition (pilots/simulations), strategic channel development, company messaging and positioning. The firm commercializes clients’ intellectual capital and products by implementing repeatable and measurable approaches to media, management, and collaboration.

Xemerge collaborates with technology transfer offices of research labs and universities to aggressively push technology into the marketplace. The firm helps faculty researchers turn inventions into products and in many cases serves as the supportive management team to lead a start-up company into a commercial entity.

http://www.xemerge.com/

North Carolina A&T State University

North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University is a doctoral research university, located in Greensboro, North Carolina. It is a constituent member of the University of North Carolina system. The university’s history as an 1890 land-grant university is reflected in its strengths in agriculture, animal science, engineering, and environmental science.

The development of the hypoallergenic peanut is the latest example of A&T’s research strengths in food safety, value-added food processing, and post-harvest technologies emerging from its School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences.    A&T research news appears first on the Aggie Research blog (aggieresearch.wordpress.com) and Twitter (@AggieResearch). research.ncat.edu

 
National Nuclear Security Administration Awards $25 Million Grant to Consortium
Alum news
The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Development announced an award of a $25 million grant to a North Carolina State University-led consortium that includes North Carolina A&T State University, for research and development in enabling capabilities for nonproliferation (CNEC).
This sizeable, long-term investment will support the consortium at $5 million per year for five years. The grant is in response to a funding opportunity announcement issued in May 2013. The CNEC consortium proposal won over 22 other proposals.

Dr. Abdellah Ahmidouch, chair of the department of physics at North Carolina A&T, nuclear physics professor is the NC A&T project principal investigator. He stated: “The proposal is of research nature and includes an educational component in the field of nuclear science and nuclear non-proliferation. It will offer a great opportunity for our students to work with world-class researchers and introduce them to career opportunities at national labs. This grant will greatly enhance the Department’s research and educational capabilities in the field nuclear science.”

This grant will provide the U.S. government with cutting edge research and development to identify and address multi-disciplinary and cross-functional technology and research needs that are critical to detecting foreign nuclear weapon proliferation activities. Specifically, the research projects pursued by the consortium will include technologies to enhance simulation capabilities, algorithms, and modeling; new test and evaluation models for detection sensors; new remote sensing capabilities; and applications of data analytics and data fusion to better characterize and detect special nuclear materials.

In addition to North Carolina A&T, the consortium includes the University of Michigan, Purdue, the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Kansas State, Georgia Tech as well as three national laboratories, Los Alamos, Oak Ridge and Pacific Northwest.
     
Nuclear Industry Engineer Boasts Three-Decades-Long Career
By: Courtney J. Jackson
Allison Jones-Young stands at the helm of an impressive 30-year career in the nuclear industry. As she celebrates a milestone of service in her field, Young has picked up an extensive list of life lessons and successes.
Young has worked for Duke Energy for three decades holding various positions at the McQuire, Catawba and Oconee Nuclear sites. She now serves as lead engineer in nuclear development, where her job is to monitor the site according to regulations set by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. In the rigorous field of nuclear engineering, Young shared that she is regularly exposed to highly secure and, at times, highly stressful environments—which makes the length of her career even more notable.

“You are trained on where you need to go, how long you stay and the consequences if you stay too long,” she said.

But safety concerns aside, the significant lesson that propelled her career came when she discovered the value of the education she received from North Carolina A&T State University. “I learned that one pretty early on, she said.”

Undeterred by others, her strategy for building a sustainable career in the nuclear industry was to infuse the confidence she gained from her alma mater into every fragment of her work.

“You have to say, I am going to do what I know and what I’ve been trained to do,” Young affirmed.

Before graduating in 1981 with a degree in mechanical engineering, she was a typical college student who used the power of perseverance to her advantage she recalled. She learned about North Carolina A&T from a high-school guidance counselor and experienced her first taste of Aggieland during a pre-engineering summer program.

Although she was unsure about attending A&T or majoring in engineering at first, Young fought to earn her spot in the demanding program by attending summer classes to meet the school’s enrollment requirements.

Young went on to earn a master’s degree in business administration from Queens College and is a member of the Business Women’s Network.

In her spare time she mentors girls in engineering through presentations and school visits in the Charlotte Mecklenburg County area. With retirement on the horizon Young, anticipates spending more time volunteering in the school system.

“It really does not matter where you start,” she said.

“I am from one of the poorest counties in North Carolina. People think that if you are from a poor area you cannot learn, progress or succeed. I am a prime example of why that logic is flawed,” she explained.
 
A&T Gets Approval for MBA Program

Samantha Hargrove
GREENSBORO, N.C.-North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University recently received approval from the University of North Carolina General Administration to change the name of its Master of Science in Management Program (MSM) to the Master of Business Administration (MBA). The change will become effective in the fall semester 2014.

This change is significant because MBA programs are the signature graduate programs for business schools. The renaming will enhance the visibility of graduate programming in the School of Business and Economics at North Carolina A&T State University.

The MBA program will continue to offer prospective students opportunities to focus on concentrations in accounting, human resources management, and supply chain systems. In the near future, the MBA will also offer more interdisciplinary opportunities to individuals with STEM backgrounds.

“This is an excellent opportunity for North Carolina A&T to showcase its wealth of knowledge and expertise. This MBA program will prepare more qualified and highly marketable employees who understand the business process,” said Joe B. Whitehead Jr., provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at North Carolina A&T State University.

According to the North Carolina Department of Commerce - Labor and Economic Analysis Division report, employment in professional and business services will experience the highest growth rate of all sectors between 2010 and 2020. The university’s goal is to build a highly competitive MBA program with core courses that continue to provide traditional business and management concepts that are very responsive to current workforce needs.

“Our goal is to create an MBA graduate who is adept in a specific area of concentration but who can also apply interdisciplinary knowledge within a management system,” added Whitehead.

 
Electrical Engineering Professor Wins North Carolina Space Grant New Investigator Award
Samantha Hargrove
GREENSBORO, N.C.- Dr. Fatemeh Afghah, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering won the NC Space New Investigator Award for her research in Inter-Satellite Communications in Autonomous Small Satellite Networks.
The New Investigators Program is designed to strengthen North Carolina's aerospace-related research infrastructure by providing startup funding to early career university faculty who are conducting research that is directly aligned with NASA's Strategic Framework.
Afghah is the director of Wireless Networking (WiNet) Laboratory in the ECE department. Her research focuses on wireless communications, dynamic spectrum sharing, game theory optimization and biomedical data analysis. She is a recipient of several awards such as International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Granted Fellowship, N2Women Fellowship, Maine Economic Improvement Doctoral Fellowship (MEIF), and Graduate Student Government Research Grant. She is the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) youth forum alumni.
Afghah received her Bachelor’s and Master’s of Science from Khajeh Nassir Toosi University of Technology in 2005 and 2008; and her doctorate from the University of Maine in 2013.
     
     
A&T Ranks No.4 for Online Graduate Computer Systems Program for Veterans

North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University’s online graduate computer information technology program has been ranked among the top online degree programs for veterans the U.S. News & World Report.
The U.S. News & World Report 2014 Best Online Programs for Veterans ranking, released on Tuesday, May 20, includes schools that were first numerically ranked in the U.S. News & World Report’s 2014 Best Online Programs ranking. Additional factors that were considered in the ranking of the program include veterans-focused initiatives.
“I am extremely excited to see the hard work and strategic planning that is taking place on our campus being nationally recognized,” said Chancellor Harold L. Martin Sr. “We are committed to producing excellence and will stay focused on preeminence.”

The university’s distance learning computer systems program ranked at No. 4 on the best computer information technology programs list and was ranked as the No. 15 best online graduate programs in U.S. News & World Report’s 2015 best online graduate programs list.

To be ranked, an online degree program had to report participation in four key programs that offer educational benefits to people with military service. The rankings methodology requires programs to belong to institutions that are certified for the GI Bill; they must also belong to schools participating in the Yellow Ribbon Program or public institutions that charge in-state tuition for all out-of-state veterans. The Best Online Programs for Veterans are also affiliated with schools that are members of the Service members Opportunity Colleges (SOC) Consortium and offer at least once course in the Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Education Support (DANTES) catalog.
     
Professor’s New Discovery in COPD Wins Prestigious Support

Dr. Jenora Waterman has made one key discovery toward improving the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) among agricultural workers, and now she’s been accepted into a prestigious career development program to advance her research.
Waterman is an assistant professor of functional genomics in the Department of Animal Sciences at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. COPD is a major cause of death in the United States, most typically found among smokers. A less studied aspect of the disease is the 7% of its U.S. victims who are agricultural workers. They can develop COPD as a result of long-term exposure to animal production facilities containing dust that contributes to respiratory diseases.

High-density swine production houses are one example of such facilities.

Waterman’s first key finding came from comparing pigs raised indoors with those raised outdoors. Pigs aren’t as severely affected by the dust as humans are, but her work demonstrated that their respiratory systems are uniquely adapted to their housing type.

“My lab recently showed for the first time that pigs reared indoors and those raised outdoors exhibit structural and cellular differences in their respiratory systems,” Waterman said.

“The next step will be studying those differences to identify potential biomarkers that could serve as diagnostic or prognostic markers of agriculture-related COPD in humans.”

Waterman will take that step as an NC TraCS K-Scholar, a professional development honor for junior faculty members funded through the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) program of the National Institutes of Health.

She will receive funding for her research and mentored training for three years. Two faculty members from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will serve as mentors, Dr. Claire Doerschuk, a medical doctor and pathologist, and Dr. Lee Graves, a pharmacologist.

The scholars program is designed to train younger investigators in a dramatically new approach to research. It’s based on interdisciplinary teamwork, because the traditional single-discipline focus isn’t well suited to attacking complex biomedical problems or to putting new discoveries into practice as quickly as possible. And it’s translational – work that seeks to improve the health of the population by transforming discoveries from laboratory into clinical practice in community and health policy.

N.C. A&T is a partner in the CTSA grant won by UNC-CH last fall. Dr. Waterman’s grant is funded through the North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences (NC TraCS) Institute, the integrated home of the CTSA program at UNC-CH.

The goal of NC TraCS is to accelerate the translation of clinical research results into the treatment of disease.

Waterman is the director of the Respiratory Biology and Toxicology Laboratory at North Carolina A&T State University. Her interests include respiratory cell biology, environmental toxicology, and cellular pathology. Her research focuses on the extent of environmental and functional genomic/proteomic influences on the pathophysiology of agriculture-related respiratory diseases.

She is an affiliated faculty member of the North Carolina A&T bioengineering program and a contributing faculty member of the doctoral program in energy and environmental systems. Dr. Waterman was named the School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences Outstanding Junior Researcher this year and research Rookie of the Year in 2011. She serves as a member of the A&T Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee and the Institutional Biosafety Committee.

Dr. Waterman received a master’s in biology from N.C. A&T and a Ph.D. in functional genomics is from N.C. State University.