Entrepreneurs - Born or Made?

People often say "so and so was born to be an entrepreneur". I disagree. I, personally, didn't always aspire to be an entrepreneur, despite the fact that now I can't imagine doing anything else. During my first degree I got a job in the hi-tech industry and that was what I continued to do when I graduated. I worked for years in that field in different roles, working my way up to management level. During that time I was very focused on my career path in the hi-tech industry - I didn't even think about entrepreneurship or whether it was suitable for me.

Then things changed. I realised I wanted to do things in a different way. But even then it wasn't as if I just decided to set up a business and got on with it. Becoming an entrepreneur is a journey and mine took me back into education, this time to study design. Only that move put me in the position to get to where I am now.

While I do believe entrepreneurs can be made, rather than being born to do it, there are some personality traits I think it is vital people who are setting up their own business have. Patience and determination are at the top of my list.

For example, it was a huge leap coming from the hi-tech domain and opening a business in gardening product design. At the planning stage, everyone I contacted because I needed their services or support to get up and running was negative, explaining to me in detail why I would fail. Because it was my first business, no bank was ready to take the risk and loan me the money I needed. Raising funding was for me, like for so many entrepreneurs in every country, the main barrier. In product design and manufacturing especially, the costs to get the first stages in place are very high - but without moulds you can't make any products.

But my patience and determination paid off and thankfully Youth Business International (YBI) was able to support me through its partner in Israel, Keren Shemesh so I could set up Greenbo. From securing funding to selling our first products and then way beyond, I was guided through their mentoring process. Being mentored by people who already understands the difficulties of starting a new business in the same field gives you the kind of assistance at all the critical stages of the start-up process you just can't get anywhere else.

I was also exposed to stories of success and the talents of many young entrepreneurs from around the world through the YBI network - there's so many people and examples out there to learn from. That's why I am so excited to be coming to London this weekend as one of the three finalists in the YBI Entrepreneur of the Year competition which is run by Youth Business International and supported by Barclays. The winner is announced on Tuesday so there are just a few days to go!

When you're working hard day-to-day to make your business a success, there's not often time to take a step back and reflect on what you've achieved. So, when an organisation that cares about what you are doing acknowledges that work to the world, bringing you together with successful young entrepreneurs from across the globe in a great competition, you understand the difference you've made. That's very exciting for me - my patience and determination feel duly rewarded.

Dave Spence cites business credentials in governor's race

Over the din of machinery, Dave Spence is leading a media tour of the factory that was once the hub of his plastics empire.

Though he hasn’t worked here in a year, he still sounds like the boss. He greets the workers at Alpha Packaging warmly and by name. He reels off facts, such as the precise number of seconds it takes for a machine to spit out a perfectly formed bottle.

The tour is intended to underscore the business acumen that Spence, the Republican nominee for governor, would bring to state government if voters choose him over the Democratic incumbent, Jay Nixon, in the Nov. 6 election.

“I want to make Missouri the most business-friendly place on the planet,” Spence declares at his campaign rallies.

He has spent more than $4.5 million of his own money to market that message since he began campaigning a year ago. But even some of Spence’s supporters say he is still struggling to clearly define himself.

Recently, Spence made headlines by filing a lawsuit and running a TV spot saying he is “not a banker,” to fend off Nixon’s accusation that Spence profited from the federal bank bailout.

“Spence is going to have a tough climb,” Sen. Brian Munzlinger, R-Williamstown, said as he waited for the gubernatorial candidate to speak at a Republican rally in Jefferson City this week.

Nixon has made regular visits to Munzlinger’s rural northeastern Missouri district, including a deer-hunting trip one year and a stop last week to cut a ribbon at a new grain elevator in Canton.

But residents have little awareness of Spence, Munzlinger said. “Truthfully, they just don’t know him.”

Spence, 54, of Ladue, dove into the race last November when it was unclear whether anyone would challenge Nixon, who is seeking a second, four-year term.

Spence’s Mizzou fraternity brother, Republican Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, had been expected to make the race but bowed out after Spence announced he was running.

For Spence, the timing was perfect.

He ran Alpha Packaging for 26 years before he and the other owners sold it to a private equity firm in 2010 for a reported $260 million. Spence stepped down as president in 2011.

Spence, who has four children with his wife, Suzanne, calls the company his “fifth child.”

Donning an obligatory hairnet, he starts the plant tour by pointing out the variety of plastic bottles that fill a display case in the company's lobby. All shapes and sizes, they are sold to businesses such as Walgreen’s and Bath and Body Works to hold vitamins, shampoo, mouthwash and other products.

It’s not economical to ship an empty bottle more than 600 miles, Spence said. So he lined up capital and bought factories near his customers.

Today, Alpha has plants in seven states, Canada and the Netherlands. The work force has grown from 15 employees to 800. A trade publication called the firm the 18th largest plastics business of its kind.

Scott Chamberlain, 42, got a temporary job at the company in 1990, painting yellow lines on the factory floor. Twenty-two years and several promotions later, he is the shipping supervisor.

Spence is “a dreamer,” Chamberlain said. “He dreams of what he can get and then he goes for it.”

About 260 people work at the low-slung grey building in Overland, Alpha’s headquarters since 2002.

They include Clay Steinbach, 23, who graduated from Ranken Technical College in St. Louis in 2008 and makes $20 an hour as a toolmaker, maintaining aluminum molds.

Spence said employees have full benefit packages. The company even has a scholarship program that is helping about 20 children of employees afford college.

Spence said that because of his experience, he knows how to make the state more business-friendly. He would overhaul civil lawsuit rules to discourage what he considers “frivolous” claims against employers. He also would outlaw agreements that require employees to pay union fees as a condition of employment.

Most neighboring states have adopted “right to work” laws, Spence said, and Missouri should move that direction to be competitive.

U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, who introduced Spence at this week’s rally in Jefferson City, said that Spence could set the state on a path for job growth.

“Government doesn’t create jobs, but government can create an atmosphere where people want to create jobs,” Blunt said.

However, that theme got pushed aside recently as Spence battled Nixon’s allegation that Spence profited from the federal bank bailout.

The dispute centers on Spence’s role at St. Louis-based Reliance Bancshares Inc., a bank holding company that received $40 million under the federal Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.

Spence joined the company’s board in May 2009, about three months after the bank took the federal money. In April 2010, he took out a $1.1 million loan from Reliance Bank, which was owned by Reliance Bancshares. The loan financed Spence’s vacation home at the Lake of the Ozarks.

Spence later voted with the other board members not to pay the federal money back. He no longer sits on the board.

A Nixon ad alleges that Spence “helped run” the bank, got a $1.1 million “insider loan” and thus, used bailout money “to help himself instead of repaying the taxpayers.”

Spence tried to get Nixon to pull the ad, then sued the governor for defamation of character. He said that as a director, he never "ran" the bank, and that he did nothing wrong in giving the bank his loan business.

“Everybody says, ‘That’s politics,’” Spence said. “I look at it and say, ‘If that’s politics, it needs to change.’”

Nixon’s campaign calls Spence’s suit frivolous.

“We stand by everything in our ads,” said Oren Shur, Nixon’s campaign manager. “The facts may make him uncomfortable but they’re still the facts. Our focus is on his experience with tax dollars.”

Some analysts said Spence’s suit just drew more attention to the sensitive issue and could turn voters off.

George Connor, head of the political science department at Missouri State University, paraphrases Spence's ad as saying: "I’m not a banker, he knows I’m not a banker, I’m suing...because I’m not a banker."

"I don’t think that’s making many inroads,” Connor said.

Republicans have a hard time finding an issue that gets traction against Nixon because he often stakes out the conservative ground, Connor said. That leaves critics to complain about side issues, such as Nixon’s habit of padding his office budget by juggling money from other agencies.

Huntsville artist Everett Cox creates

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - Huntsville sculptor Everett Cox was just 7 years old when he saw something that defined his future -- a thumbprint in a cast bronze sculpture of a wolf.

"I realized 'somebody made that,'" said Cox, remembering the moment he saw that mark on the sculpture, one of a pair that graced the base of a staircase at the Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens in California.

By the age of 10, Cox was making his own toy soldiers with molten lead and aluminum molds. Today, he creates sculpture in his studio and foundry at Lowe Mill Arts & Entertainment.

Cox, 58, is probably best known for the nudes he casts in bronze. Their lifelike qualities are almost startling, looking as if the metal could crack open and the real woman behind the bronze could step out. Visitors to his studio, in fact, often ask him if he's seen one of the B-movies about wax museums in which characters get dipped in wax and turned into statues.

Creating these pieces, some of them life size, is far more complex than that, despite Cox's modest statement that "it's not that hard if you know a few things." For one thing, Cox is an engineer of sorts who makes his own molds and even some of his own tools. He has to bring architectural considerations to his works to make sure they'll stand up under their heavy weight of bronze, the primary medium in which he works.

He also does his own casting in a kiln set up at the back of his garage-like space at Lowe Mill and understands the processes and chemicals it takes to get bronze to look a certain color.

On a recent afternoon, he was working on a bust of Zoe Knecht, the stepdaughter of Susan Knecht, who has a glass-blowing studio at Lowe Mill. "This gives me practice, keeps my hands in the clay," Cox said as he pulled a stool outside his studio for Zoe, 16, to sit on. He likes to work outside because the light is better and because people can see what he's doing and possibly stop by and ask questions.

To create any sculpture, Cox first builds an armature. That's another place where the latent engineer crops up. Cox has to figure out the placement of the metal rods on which he layers his clay. If it's a standing figure, he has to weld pieces together that will support, say, the angle of a leg. For a bust, he starts with a single straight rod topped with a metal bar. He then works with extruded clay, an eighth of an inch in diameter, layering in tiny bits until the image emerges.

"She sits on a stool and I look at her," Cox said, explaining how he combines the nuances of Zoe's personality and facial expressions into the bust he's working on. "I lot of people presume (modeling for a sculpture) is sitting there like a sphinx. We carry on a conversation, and I get to know her."

On this afternoon, Cox is using those bits of clay and a thin stick he made on his drill press to raise the angle of the cheekbones on the clay model. "I just shove clay until it looks like Zoe," Cox said.

Cox is carrying on an art form that dates back centuries, even before written communication, said Casey Downing, a fellow sculptor and Cox's longtime friend. The two met as college freshmen at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Cox went on to earn his bachelor of fine arts at Auburn University and received his master's degree, also in fine arts, from the University of Georgia.

Downing said Cox is one of the best figure sculptors in the region and brings an intimate quality to his work. "That's the difference between a really nice portrait and a mannequin," Downing said. "There's something alive about it if you've done your job right. There's a presence."

Downing lives in Mobile, but he and Cox talk all the time to compare techniques and talk about their work. Cox taught Downing how to do his own casting, but that's something he has now turned over to an apprentice.

Casting is a difficult and expensive process, with a single firing of the kiln costing $600 in gas alone, Cox said. "The crucible gets to 2,100 to 2,220 degrees Farenheit."

Doing his own casting, however, is the only way Cox can control his work to his satisfaction. Lowe Mill manager Marcia Freeland calls Cox "meticulous."

Most of the figure sculptures Cox does are commission pieces other than the ones he creates for himself. His many art history classes inform his work, and he chooses nude figures for a couple reasons.

First, the nude harkens back to the Greeks, who perfected so many art forms. The nude figure "is also the human form reduced to its basic bottom line," Cox said. By sculpting a nude figure, he can make sure the form is correct and then can add clothing or other elements to the work.

Sometimes, the nudes, from half to full size, shock people who glance in his studio at Lowe Mill. The work, however, "is not erotic at all," Cox said. "I'm not interested in that at all."

While his figure sculptures are probably what he is best known for, they're certainly not all Cox does. He recently completed a commissioned bas relief panel of the Anunciation of Mary for a parishioner at Saint William Catholic Church in Guntersville. On a recent afternoon, a metal gate he made for another Lowe Mill artist was leaning against the garage door outside his studio.

He also made bronze replacements for the original and deteriorating ceramic frogs on the sixth floor of the Terry Hutchens building in downtown. Look up the next time you're on the corner of Clinton Avenue and Jefferson Street, and you'll see them. He also created several cast iron pickets for the Church of Nativity, Episcopal, to replace ones that were damaged when a tree fell on them several years ago.

Who might lead Energy

When voters head to the ballot box Nov. 6, they won’t just be electing a president for the next four years — they also effectively will select a whole slew of government leaders who will chart the U.S. course on energy and environmental issues.

Although neither Barack Obama nor Mitt Romney has specifically said who would lead the departments of Energy and Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency under their watches, the candidates have given some signals about the kinds of people they would choose.

Their ideal picks would withstand political pressure to push the White House’s priorities while drawing on relevant experience and expertise, noted Brandon Rottinghaus, an associate political science professor at the University of Houston.

But the candidates — whether they are Nobel laureates, like Obama’s current energy secretary, Steven Chu, or longtime politicians, such as Interior Secretary Ken Salazar — also need to survive Senate confirmation.

That process could be especially bloody if Obama wins and Republicans take Senate control, or if Democrats hold the upper chamber but Romney captures the White House.

The confirmation hearings in early 2013 will give senators a chance to highlight their complaints about energy policies and try to extract pledges from the Cabinet nominees about their plans for regulating industry, enforcing environmental laws and selling drilling leases.

“The most important element for Obama energy and environment appointments is that Senate Republicans could wage pitched confirmation battles to bully the administration into weakening public health safeguards,” predicted Dan Weiss, a fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Customarily, when presidents are re-elected, their Cabinet secretaries hand in resignations, though many may be invited back. With little Cabinet turnover during Obama’s first four years in office, political experts say some changes would be inevitable if he won a second term. Among the likely contenders to leave: EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and Chu, who heads the sprawling
$26 billion Department of Energy.

Where Obama might seek to elevate existing agency leaders and tap state regulators, Romney has signaled that he would be looking for people with business experience.

Energy experts widely predict Obama and Romney would look to governors and lawmakers from the West in filling the top job at the Interior Department, which oversees oil drilling, recreation, grazing and other activities on federal lands and waters.

If Romney wants a Democrat in his Cabinet, Interior is a logical place for one, because many western Democrats are used to dealing with the intersection of energy development and public lands — and tend to be more supportive of oil and gas production.

Picking a member of the opposing party lets any president give a nod to bipartisanship, Rottinghaus noted. The move also could smooth the way for more contentious nominees in other posts.

Blade modular turbine wins Husum award

Skywind GmbH, a recent wind turbine manufacturer, was honored with the Windalliance Technology Award at the just completed Husum 2012 exhibition. This prize is an international award given to honor outstanding innovation in wind energy. Skywind received the award for their innovative 3.4-MW modular prototype turbine that allows for a new generation of turbine component testing, and eventually, a lower cost to wind energy.

A jury of four experts honored the Rendsburg (Schleswig-Holstein) based company. The company wins advertising and exhibition space at Hannover Messe 2013 and HUSUM WindEnergy 2014 to the value of €30,000.

New components for wind turbines are usually tested on a supplier’s test benches or at research establishments, which can only approach real operating conditions. The development honored here has created a modular test turbine in the multi-megawatt range with which manufacturers can test their products under real conditions. The wind turbine has a modular design which enables the main components – such as gears, generators and main bearings – to be separately controlled, exchanged and tested during operation. This means it is possible to install components and very varied drive concepts from different manufacturers into the system without the need for cost-intensive customisation work. “Unique, ambitious and revolutionary”

The tower of the 3.4-MW system also serves as a crane. This means the turbine can be erected at not easily accessible locations with little effort, which also further reduces costs. For example, less clearing is required at high-altitude wooded sites, and also less transport effort and costs. The first test turbine is to be erected in summer 2013, prior to series production.

“SkyWind’s overall concept is unique, ambitious, and revolutionary”, said juror Alois Schaffarczyk, professor of mathematics and engineering mechanics at Kiel University of Applied Science. The four-person jury was unanimous in its decision to award the prize to SkyWind. “The concept is a milestone in cost reduction. We hope that our decision will give the wind industry motivation to develop further creative cost reduction solutions.”

In addition to SkyWind, the other nominated businesses, Münster-based Kenersys Europe and HOCHTIEF Solutions, represented by its centres of excellence for offshore wind and tunnel construction in Hamburg and Essen, presented their innovations to the public at the award ceremony in Husum,

For blades, the company turned to Global Blade Technology. GBT and Skywind inked the contract for designing blades for this innovative two-bladed turbine in September 2011. GBT was able to offer a fully-integrated blade solution that includes the design and production the molds, tooling, and prototypes needed for blade certification, as well as turbine testing and qualification.

The production of these blades will start in January 2013, just 15 months after the contract was signed, in an offshore facility in Emden in northern Germany. GBT says its integrated blade system delivers everything from blade design to production, in a short period.

“The SkyWind 52-m blade stands as a highly optimized design, with a balance between aero, loads, and structures,” says Mark Klaassen, GBT’s lead blade design engineer for the project.

State-of-the-art multi body simulation software (SIMPACK) was used to generate loads. Thanks to this software, lower loads were realized which resulted in a light, durable, and cost-effective blade. GBT uses advanced design tools such as Ansys and FOCUS 6 in combination with tools developed in-house to shorten development time.“We are getting ready for production and although we are only  building prototypes, six-sigma methods will be followed,” says Klaassen.

Lab work in meningitis probe painstakingly slow

In row upon row of test tubes inside Vanderbilt University Medical Center's microbiology lab, culture samples from the spinal fluid of potential meningitis patients sit and develop.

Spores thrive and reproduce, but in many cases the pace is more like a tree than a weed. It can take up to a week for the first colored fuzz to appear. It can take six weeks before scientists are comfortable that the growth has provided enough evidence for a negative diagnosis.

And even then, nothing is certain.

Fungal meningitis is a moving target. The deadly disease is exceedingly rare. That's what makes this type of research so dynamic. Scientists across the country have been working overtime underneath biohazard hoods to perform daily diagnostic analysis and test potential treatments for the outbreak that has now infected 214 people in 15 states, causing 15 deaths.

Researchers expedite what they can, but the process takes diligence. What once may have appeared irrelevant in a petri dish or on a stained slide is now painstakingly noted — just in case it holds later significance. And every answer leads to more questions.

"On TV it happens in an hour," said Carol Rauch, associate medical director of Vanderbilt Pathology Laboratory Services. "In the clinical laboratory setting, it's not a test with an answer."

At Vanderbilt, a rainbow of different colored fungi grow in test tubes stored within a sealed room inside the microbiology lab.

Right now 700 cultures are growing in the incubator, 175 of which are samples from patients' spinal fluid. Among them is a cylinder boasting the fuzzy, powdery gray, blue-green mold aspergillus — one of the two fungi indicated as the contaminating cause of the current fungal meningitis outbreak.

Inside the tube, the fungus appears velvety — like a soft moss — but its potency caused one of the first fungal meningitis deaths in Tennessee. And it is in this lab that it grew from a sample of the sick patient's spinal fluid, alerting scientists first locally, and then nationally, to a potential medical and scientific anomaly.

The fluid, which when uninfected is clear and colorless, acts as a liquid cushion protecting the brain and spinal column from injury. Before this crisis, the microbiology lab at Vanderbilt may have received 10 spinal fluids a week. Now, it is receiving at least five a day, medical technologist Tonya Snyder said.

Pressure measured during the procedure is one of the most immediate indications of potential meningitis, as inflammation of brain tissue may obstruct normal fluid flow. There may also be immediate visual clues, such as cloudy or colored fluid.

But most of the evaluation is done in the lab. The samples of spinal fluid are studied for protein, glucose and blood cell counts, which can be done in a matter of hours.

Then the specimen undergoes microbiologic analysis, where part of the sample is put into culture tubes to see whether any infection, such as bacteria or fungi, grows. The growth process can take weeks. And once a fungus appears, the challenge becomes determining its type.

Tucked inside a Vanderbilt lab drawer is a copy of "Medically Important Fungi," one of the dozens of reference books used for analysis. Under her arm, Rauch carries another, "Identifying Filamenytous Fungi." Inside, blue sticky notes serve as bookmarks to entries on aspergillus and exserohilum — the second fungus now believed to be responsible for a majority of the meningitis cases in Tennessee.

‘I need N5.38m for hearing aids, ear surgery’

At the first encounter with her, this fair-complexioned lady exhibits no physical disability. Rather, she presents all the physical features of a young, healthy lady who possesses all it takes to win a beauty pageant.

But call to her from behind or while she’s not looking in your direction, beautiful 27-year-old Miss Folashade Oluwaseun Kokumo will not in the least respond to you. This is not deliberate. She has hearing impairment which she has been grappling with since the age of two! She goes about oblivious of the happenings around her.

Her case is compounded by the fact that she’s an orphan: she lost both parents as a child. So severe is her hearing challenge that she finds it very difficult to compose a complete sentence. Doctors say her ears could not send the signals required for her to compose speech. Her only option when she wants to communicate with people is by writing whatever she wants to say on paper.

In spite of this hearing challenge, the brilliant young lady has been able to weather the storm of life, especially in academics. Kokumo, who is an indigene of Abeokuta North Local Government Area of Ogun State, has been able to complete her Ordinary National Diploma programme and is currently a Higher National Diploma 1 student in the Department of Business Administration at the Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta. She attained this feat because of the scholarship offered her by the authorities of the MAPOLY for two academic sessions.

She said, “My predicament began at the age of two after an illness. My parents suddenly realised that I could no longer hear. Later, a speech impediment was also discovered. My parents made valiant efforts to take me to various hospitals for treatment and when it was finally ascertained that the only possible cure for my hearing impairment was N3.6m cochlear implant that would take place in India, they lost all hope because they couldn’t afford it.

“Subsequently, I have struggled from primary school to the Moshood Abiola Polytechnic where I am currently a Higher National Diploma 1 student of Business Administration. To say the journey so far has not been easy would be an understatement. The successful completion of my National Diploma was solely with the help of a hearing aid I purchased five years ago with the assistance of well wishers who perceived my doggedness and zeal for success in life. However, at the twilight of my ND programme, the hearing aid was damaged and it had an adverse effect on my academic performance.”

The crux of the matter now is that she needs about N5.38m to correct this hearing challenge —N380,000 to purchase a new set of hearing aids and N5m to undergo ear surgery in an Indian hospital. The hearing aids would give her temporary relief from the excruciating pain she suffers currently and also assist her in attending lectures and listening to what the lecturers are saying to the entire class.

Confirming Kokumo’s urgent need for hearing aids and surgery in India, the Director of the Nigerian Army Audiological Centre, Nigerian Army Reference Hospital, Yaba, Lagos, Dr. Irene Okeke-Igbokwe, in a cover note attached to the receipt issued the patient in August, said the N380,000 was required for the purchase of the pairs of the Siemens behind-the-ear hearing aid and batteries, while a cochlear implant in India would gulp about N5m.

Okeke-Igbokwe’s cover letter reads in part: “Physical examination revealed a healthy looking young lady without any physical defects. Otoscopic examination revealed clear canal and both tympanic membrane intact. Audiological investigation on Pure Tone Audiometry revealed bilateral severe to profound sensoneural hearing loss.

“A physician recommended cochlear implant in India, which is expected to cost N5m and medical treatment device that replaces the function of the damaged ear. Unlike hearing aids, it does the work of damaged parts of the inner ear (cochlear) to send signals to the brain. It also transforms speech and other sounds into electrical energy that is used to stimulate the hearing nerve in the inner ear.

“It also has both internal and external components. She was diagnosed with lack of speech and language acquisition and inability to hear and no history of familial hearing loss.

“She will require binaural post auricular type of cochlear and hearing aids, with ear mould to enable her to hear better and cope with her education. The cost of the cochlear implant treatment and moulds is N5m in India.”

Kokumo is therefore appealing to well-meaning andpublic-spirited Nigerians to come to her aid to enable her to make use of her ears.

“I hereby call on well-meaning and kind-hearted Nigerians to come to my aid in raising the required amount (N5.38m). This would bring sunshine into my life and also bring to an end untold hardship experienced in coping with my academic career and in my day-to-day life. I would be forever grateful for your assistance,” she says.

Be prepared for feed quality issues with 2012 harvest

The summer of 2012 has presented us a great deal of challenges. This fall’s crop will be characterized by lower than expected yields in many places as well as dryer than expected crops. These concerns could lead to quality and quantity issues when harvest high-moisture crops such as corn silage and earlage and even dry kernel corn.

Common issues regarding crop quality include molds and mycotoxins. Mycotoxins in feedstuffs can reduce performance in cattle and can have detrimental effects on both finishing animals and reproducing males and females.

Aspergillus, an olive-green powdery mold, is favored by hot, dry conditions at pollination. These conditions were present in many areas this summer. Aspergillus begins to grow when corn moisture is around 32 percent, and will continue to grow until moisture drops below 15 percent.

Aspergillus itself is not the greatest concern. The greater concern occurs when Aspergillus fungi produce the mycotoxin aflatoxin. Aflatoxin growth is promoted with high temperatures during grain fill and pollination, and may also be promoted when high overnight temperatures (greater than 70 degrees) are present.

As kernel moisture decreases, aflatoxin production increases. Optimum aflatoxin growth occurs at 18-20 percent kernel moisture and stops at around 15 percent kernel moisture. If Aspergillus is a potential concern, producers should scout their fields at 5-10 locations throughout the field. If powdery-green molds are present on greater than 10 percent of the ears sampled, the field should be scheduled for immediate harvest and ears should be sent in to a testing laboratory for analyses.

If suspect feed is tested and aflatoxin concentration is below 200 parts-per-billion (ppb), the feed should be safe for all classes of cattle. At 200 ppb, calves may show reduced intake and weight gain, while adult cattle may not be affected until concentrations reach 500 ppb or greater.

These feeds can be utilized, but should be diluted so that aflatoxin concentrations do not exceed 20 ppb in the total ration for calves, 100 ppb for breeding cows, and 300 ppb for finishing cattle.

For the reproducing animals, the mycotoxin zearalenone (ZEA) is also of concern. Zearalenone is produced by the fungus that causes gibberalla ear rot, Fusarium graminearum, and often co-exists with the mycotoxin deoxynivalenol (DON), also known as vomitoxin. Zearalenone has many profound impacts on reproductive function due to its estrogenic actions.

Zearalenone competes with the naturally produced hormone estradiol-17? for binding sites (estradiol receptors) in various organs in the body of both males and females. Although the efficiency that ZEA will bind to the estrogen receptor is low, it can interfere with normal reproductive functions. By mimicking the actions of estradiol, ZEA can cause estrogenic effects even when natural estradiol concentrations should be low.

Beef and dairy producers should be cautious when feeding ZEA-contaminated corn (5+ ppm) to developing heifers, since the estrogenic activity of ZEA can compromise normal endocrine function and uterine development. Heifers consuming as little as 1.5 ppm of ZEA in the feed have exhibited swelling of the mammary gland and increased incidences of vagintitis.

This would also include creep rations for beef calves. In females during the breeding season, ZEA concentrations greater than 10 ppm in the feed can result in failure to conceive and increased incidences of abortions. Diets of non-lactating cows in late gestation should not contain more than 20 ppm of ZEA.

Controlling the Cost of Tooling

With increasing regional and global competition, and new demands from customers for lower prices and higher service levels, manufacturer profits are under intense pressure. As a result, OEMs and suppliers are investing in product cost management and looking at every opportunity to reduce product costs without sacrificing quality. There is a strong desire to understand and control product cost variables, especially larger expenses like tooling. Any company that makes or buys plastic and stamped sheet metal parts is likely spending significant sums on tooling – tens, hundreds of millions, even billions of dollars per year. Ask any manufacturer in a range of industries; they know that tooling has a significant impact on their bottom line.

For years, many manufacturers put very little scrutiny on tooling budgets – partly because tooling costs were sort of a mystery. Quotes for tooling were (and often still are) very high level, broken down only by material and labor costs. Very little detail is available and there are few cost standards against which to compare tooling costs. Manufacturers just did not (and still do not) have many valid reference points. The information they did have often depends on a few individuals or suppliers with specific tooling expertise. In addition, these benchmarks may even vary quite a bit. All this has made it difficult to compare and assess whether tooling costs are right or not. As a result, most manufacturers simply absorb tooling costs and focus their product cost savings efforts on more predictable and measurable areas.

This is changing though. With the increased pressure on profitability and cost management today, OEMs and suppliers are taking a closer look at tooling costs. They want to make sure the prices charged are valid and are requesting more detail on tooling estimates from internal costing experts as well as suppliers. However, this greater degree of granularity requires better, easier to use methods to estimate the costs of tooling, systems that usable by both tooling experts and non-experts.

Not surprisingly, the cost pressures make their way downstream in the supply chain as well. Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers responding to RFQs from OEMs are also being challenged to provide an increase in detail about tooling costs. That request is a time-consuming process done manually, with homegrown, template-type solutions developed in MS Excel or similar database applications. Compounding the problem is that an individual must have great expertise in costing and tooling to develop a quote. Usually, a company has a handful of different individuals generating quotes who may be using different estimation methodologies, creating even more inconsistency. Suppliers are looking to automate and accelerate the quoting process so that they can respond quicker, and more accurately, to RFQs, ultimately driving increased revenues.

To manage, effectively, tooling costs, designers, cost engineers, sourcing professionals, and suppliers need to be able to quickly and precisely determine the cost of tooling for any given product or part. They also need to be able to standardize the tool estimating process to ensure consistency and set cost benchmarks for future reference. At the same time, they cannot give up control. The cost of manufacturing a product or tool in one factory or region may be different from another. Machine and process capabilities may be different. If manufacturers are really going to understand their tooling costs, they need to estimate costs in a way that reflects the unique capabilities of their specific manufacturing environments.

Manufacturers also need the ability to generate highly detailed cost estimates on components for both injection molding and stamping processes. However, beware of systems that can only be used by tooling experts. Some capabilities to look for include.

Imelda Marcos's shoe collection ruined by floods and termites

Termites, storms and neglect have damaged part of former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos's legendary collection of shoes and other vanity possessions, left behind after she and her dictator husband were driven into US exile by a 1986 popular revolt.

Hundreds of pieces of Ferdinand Marcos's clothing, including the formal see-through Barong shirts he wore during his two-decade rule, have also begun to gather mould and fray after being stored for years without protection at the presidential palace and later at Manila's National Museum, officials said.

The Marcoses fled the Philippines at the climax of the army-backed "people power" revolt, which became a harbinger of change in authoritarian regimes worldwide. Ferdinand Marcos died in exile in Hawaii in 1989 and his widow and children returned home years later.

They left behind staggering amounts of personal belongings, clothes and art objects at the palace, including at least 1,220 pairs of Imelda's shoes.

More than 150 carton boxes of clothes, dress accessories and shoes from the pair were transferred to the National Museum for safekeeping two years ago after termites, humidity and mould threatened the apparel at the riverside palace.

There they deteriorated further as the fragile boxes were abandoned in a padlocked museum hall that had no facilities to protect such relics and that was inundated by tropical storm rains last month due to a gushing leak in the ceiling, museum officials said.

Museum staff, who were not aware the boxes contained precious mementoes from the couple, opened the hall on the fourth floor of the building after noticing water pouring out from under the door. They were shocked to see Imelda's shoes and gowns when they opened the wet boxes, officials said.

Workers hurriedly moved the boxes to a dry room and some were later brought to a museum laboratory, where a small team of curators scrambled to assess the extent of the damage, a process that may take months given the huge volume of the apparel. Some items have obviously been damaged by termites and mould beyond repair, according to Orlando Abinion, the museum curator who is heading the effort.

"We're doing a conservation rescue," Mr Abinion said. "There was termite infestation and mould in past years, and these were aggravated by last month's storm.

"It's unfortunate because Imelda may have worn some of these clothes in major official events and as such have an important place in our history."

Two AP journalists saw a badly tattered box at the museum with damaged and soiled leather bags and designer shoes of Imelda Marcos's bulging out. Termites damaged the heel and sole of a white Pierre Cardin shoe. Other shoes had been warped out of shape or messed by stains.

About 100 of Ferdinand Marcos's Barong shirts were squeezed tight into another box, some still attached to plastic hangers. A white Barong shirt on top, with the colourful presidential seal emblazoned on its pocket, looked dishevelled with reddish stains and a sleeve nearly torn off.

Imelda Marcos, now a member of the House of Representatives, was not immediately available for comment.

Her massive shoe collection, including top European and American brands, astounded the world and became a symbol of excess in the South East Asian nation, where many still walked barefoot out of abject poverty.

Ferdinand Marcos's successor, Corazon Aquino, accused him of stealing billions of dollars during his 20-year rule and ordered many of his assets seized.

The Marcos's clothes and shoes were not among the assets allegedly stolen by them and sequestered by the government following the dictator's fall, according to Presidential Commission on Good Government official Maita Gonzaga. The government has so far recovered US$2.24 billion worth of cash, bank accounts and prime real estate from Marcos and their cronies, she said.