Wednesday, February 23, 2000
The University Daily Kansan
Section A · Page 5
Innovative wheelchair becomes classroom project
Engineering class to build vehicle for paralyzed girl
By Kandwa Kankondo writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
A mechanical engineering class at the University of Kansas has been challenged to design and build a vehicle for a paralyzed 4-year-old girl attending school at Lawrence Early Childhood Special Services, housed in Dole Human Development Center.
Robert Sorem, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, said 10 students had just finished the designs. The students should be able to construct a motorized vehicle for the paralyzed girl, Taimee Taped, once they get through with other course assignments.
Teachers at LECSS said they were pleased with the enthusiasm shown by the students for this particular assignment.
"The students have shown concern for the child," said Sandra Davalos, an early child special education teacher who is responsible for Tanedo's education.
She said Tapedo was very active and wanted to join her friends as they were playing.
Students in a mechanical engineering class came up with this design to help Taimee Tapedo, 4-year-old girl who is paralyzed from the waist down. Students will begin working on the vehicle after they complete other class projects. Contributed art
"It's kind of nice." he said.
Andrew Fairchild, Lawrence senior and one of the 10 students who worked on the designs, said the project was quite different from what he was used to having in class.
He said the girl seemed shy when they visited her at the school.z
"She might have a better reaction with her teachers and might have found it quite intimidating to meet strangers," he said.
Sorem said this was probably the second time for the department to
be involved in this kind of collaborative effort. The first time, he said, was when the class of Terry Faddis, professor of mechanical engineering, was asked to come up with devices that could be used by children with special disabilities in Counseling and Psychological
Services.
The school in Dole is in the Lawrence Public School system, Davalos said. She said there were seven paraprofessionals and three KU students from the Special Education department doing their practicum there.
Carol McBaide, a physical therapist for Lawrence Public Schools, said she visited the school in Dole every day to work with the staff on cases such as that of Tapedo.
She said Tapedo was a victim of a neural tube defect affecting the lower half of her body.
She is paralyzed from the waist down, Davalos said, but that has not affected her desire to share life with her friends.
Davalos said the car that the students were working on would allow Tapedo to be mobile and participate in school and interact with her friends.
Katz Buck, LECSS school nurse,
said the school normally received
more extreme cases than Tapeado's.
She said that some children had special ailments and that it was her duty to advise both the staff and the other children on how to handle the special cases.
The children are taught not to be afraid of those with special disabilities," she said.
University to receive grant for defense-related research
By Kondwa Kankondo
By Kondwa Kankonda writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
The University of Kansas will be awarded federal funding that will enable it to take part in a national initiative aimed at boosting defense-related research efforts.
Senator Pat Roberts announced Thursday that the University would receive about $600,000 in order for the University to carry out defense research in areas of aerospace engineering, pharmacology and toxicology.
Roberts said in a statement that the
University's research efforts were part of a statewide endeavor that included Kansas State University, which would receive funding for research in physics and mechanical and nuclear engineering.
Richard Hale, KU assistant professor of aerospace engineering, said the proposed research would significantly increase the state of the art for design and analysis of fiber-placed and fiber-steered composite structures.
"We have been notified that we will be funded to perform contracted research on a
proposal entitled Integrated design and analysis tools for reduced weight, affordable fiber-steered composites," he said.
He said commercial or general aviation aircraft, automobiles and civil structures such as bridges may experience significant benefits from the design, manufacturing and analysis tools and techniques developed.
Hale said the department had not yet been notified of its share of the $600,000. He said the department's request totaled $297,986.
But Roberts said in a statement that each recipient would have to negotiate the
amount of the grant award and the average
award would be about $296,000.
The federal funding announced by the senator to the University's research and development exceeds the amount of similar grants in the 1998 fiscal year. This included grants from all agencies of the federal government.
"Research in composite materials and structures has been on-going at the University," Hale said. "The capabilities of the manufacturing processes have just become available and have been the focus of significant research."
KC child dragged to death while dangling from car
The Associated Press
INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — A child tangled in a seat belt outside his mother's car when the vehicle was stolen was dragged to his death at speeds up to 80 mph yesterday as horrified motorists gave chase.
The boy was dragged for five or six miles along Interstate 70, the major highway between Kansas City and Independence.
The boy, thought to be 6 or 7 years old, had been left in the running vehicle while his mother ran into a Mr. Goodcents shop to get a sandwich.
People flashed their headlights and honked their horns at the vehicle, but it did not stop during rush-hour traffic after the carjacking at about 4:30 p.m.
Three other cars gave chase as the car pulled off the interstate and onto a busy road in Independence.
The car halted at a stoplight, and one of the pursuers blocked it from the front while others blocked it from behind.
The alleged carjacker tried to flee, but he was tackled by three or four men and wrestled to the ground. One of the men got some rope from his vehicle and tied the carjacker's feet.
The men then waited until police arrived and took the man into custody.
Workers at the Mr. Goodcents said the suspect had been hanging around and that they had become suspicious of him.
The names of those involved were not made available.
The Associated Press
CHICAGO — When he was a toddler, Heath Barker was nicknamed "the red tornado" for his auburn hair and his penchant for tearing things up and jumping off the furniture. When he was just 4, attention deficit disorder was diagnosed and he was prescribed Ritalin.
A study of more than 200,000 preschool-age children shows this was no isolated case.
The number of 2- to 4-year-olds on psychiatric drugs including Ritalin and anti-depressants like Prozac soared 50 percent from 1991 to 1995, researchers reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Experts said they were troubled by the findings, because the effects of such drugs in children so young are largely unknown. Some doctors worry that such powerful drugs could be dangerous for children's development.
Heath's mother has anecdotal evi-
uence suggesting — as the researchers do — that the number of youngsters on psychiatric drugs is still rising. Through her involvement in Internet support groups for parents of children with behavior problems, Michele Barker said she was hearing of more and more 3- and 4-year-olds being put on drugs like Prozac.
"It's become a quick fix," said Barker. 39, of Hot Springs, Ark.
Although the study did not examine reasons for the increases, Julie Magno Zito, the lead author and an assistant professor of pharmacy and medicine at the University of Maryland, suggested a few possibilities.
With an increasing number of children attending day care, Zito said parents may feel pressured to have their children conform in their behavior. She also said there was a much greater acceptance in the 1990s of psychoactive drugs.
Joseph T. Coyle, a physician at Harvard Medical School's psychiatry department said the study revealed a troubling trend. He said that there was no empirical evidence to support psychotropic drug treatment in very young children.
"These disturbing prescription practices suggest a growing crisis in mental health services to children and demand more thorough investigation," Coyle wrote in an editorial accompanying the study.
The authors reviewed Medicaid prescription records from 1991, 1993 and 1995 for preschoolers from a Midwestern state and a mid-Atlantic state; and for those in an HMO in the Northwest. The states were not identified.
Use of stimulants, anti-depressants, anti-psychotics and clonidine — a drug used in adults to treat high blood pressure and increasingly for insomnia in hyperactive children
were examined. Substantial increases were seen in every category except anti-psychotics, though in some cases the actual number of prescriptions was quite small.
841-PLAY
1029 Massachusetts
HairExperts DesignTeam
- NOVIP  + PASSES  + SUPERSAVERS
* SHOWN FOR TODAY ONLY
W Hollywood Theaters
All Shows Only $2 - Purchase Tickets at the SUA Box Office Level 4, KS Union
BARGAIN MATINEES INDICATED BY ()
STATIM IM SEATING * ALL DIGITAL
Sat & Sun Daily
1 Any Given Sunday * 1.55 (4:40) 7.15; 9.45
2 Cider House Rules * 1.45 (4:35) 7.00; 9.40
3 Eye of the beholder * 1.45 (4:35) 7.00; 9.40
4 Stuart Little * 2.00 (4:35) 7.20 ----
also. The Tailored Mr. Rickey * 4.45 (4:30) 7.90; 9.40
5 Next Friday * 1.55 (4:35) 7.10; 9.35
6 Interrupted * 1.55 (4:35) 7.00; 9.35
**Sat & Sun** | **Utility**
1 Pitch Black *T* | 7.20 | 4.55 | 7.45 | 10.00
2 American Beauty *I* | 1.25 | 4.00 | 7.45 | 10.05
3 The Hurricane *I* | 1.25 | 4.00 | 7.45 | 10.05
4 The Tigger Movie *I* | 2.55 | 4.10 | 6.55 | -
5 Shark Attack *I* | - | - | - | 8.25
5 The Beach *T* | 1.45 | 4.15 | 7.45 | 8.55
6 Hanging Up *T* | 1.20 | 4.15 | 7.20 | 8.40
7 Boiler Room *T* | 1.40 | 4.15 | 7.10 | 9.50
8 Snow Day *N* | 1.15 | 4.40 | 7.25 | 9.55
9 Snow Wide *N* | 1.15 | 4.40 | 7.25 | 9.30
10 The Sixth Sense *N* | 1.35 | 4.55 | 7.20 | 9.45
11 Scream 3 *N* | 1.55 | 4.55 | 7.35 | 10.10
12 The Green Mile | - | (4.00) | 7.45 | -
**PLAZA 6** | **3393 IVA**