WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2003
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 3A
Music model assists epilepsy data
By Kellay Weiss
kweiss@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
Faculty members at the University of Kansas are working to bring epilepsy research and music together.
A musical model will help simplify the details and problems researchers can run into when studying the brain activity during a seizure because the ear has a higher resolution than the eye when processing patterns, said Ivan Osorio, associate professor of neurology.
Osorio and Kip Haaheim associate professor of music, are two members of a team converting brain waves recorded during an epileptic seizure into a musical model. The model will attribute a different key note to the axons of the brain, which are neuro-networks connected
throughout the brain.
"This model will use all quantitative attempts to transduce a seizure into music." Osorio said. "It will more faithfully reflect the changes that happen at an electrical level."
After the music is put into a musical model, Osorio said it would help change the parameters in analyzing an epileptic seizure.
Sanjah Singh, director of the epilepsy program at the University of Nebraska, said using music to model a seizure has never been thoroughly explored. Research has found links between epilepsy and music, Singh said, and he can understand why Osorio was interested in developing this research.
"The only issue is that brain waves during a seizure have so many abnormal patterns that are so varied the difference can be
University of Kansas faculty members are working on a musical model for epilepsy to simplify the details and problems researchers can run into when studying the brain activity during a seizure.
subtle and it could be really challenging to interpret the data," Singh said.
The team has been researching the project since fall of 2001. In Spring 2002, Osorio, Haaheim and others completed a musical representation of an epileptic seizure. Haaheim said the project last spring worked as an interface between the public
and the confusing, sometimes misunderstood, epileptic seizure.
In October 2002, a PBS documentary that featured Osorio's work included the two-minute Mozart's Symphony #40 in Gminor. By forming a two-minute orchestral piece that sounded like the brain activity during a seizure it connected with the public on an emotional level and also was educational, Haaheim said.
"When you're a doctor and trying to explain what epilepsy is to a business man who wants to donate $10 million it's easier to have him listen to a powerful musical piece representing a seizure than trying to explain through formulas and mathematics what happens," Haaheim said.
- Edited by Anne Mantey
Sides of peace pole sprayed by vandals
By Erin Ohm
By Ehm Ohn
eohm@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Two sides of a peace pole were spray-painted black on the lawn of Ecumenical Christian Ministries by an unknown vandal yesterday.
This is the fourth vandalism at the ECM, 1204 Oread Ave., since someone tore down a large anti-war sign last month, said Rev. Thad Holcombe, campus pastor at ECM. During the second and third occurrences, the sign was damaged further.
Holcombe reported the vandalism to the Lawrence Police Department yesterday. He did not file a police report for the first three incidents, and he said he had hoped ECM would not
experience further problems. Such acts of vandalism were difficult to prevent, Holcombe said
Lisa Wilkinson, Lawrence senior, helped make the anti-war sign. She said the acts of vandalism were discouraging, but ECM would continue advocating peace.
About a week ago, ECM began taking the sign down every night to prevent damage, but the peace pole is a permanent monument. It reads "May peace prevail on the earth" in nine languages, and it was dedicated in October 2002 at the University of Kansas Open House.
The pole is one of five peace poles in Lawrence. Lawrence police could not be reached.
Consul general of Japan to share experiences with students
- Edited by Leah Shaffer
By Kelley Weiss
kweiss@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
The consul general of Japan at Kansas City will speak at the Kansas Union today about his personal experiences in North Korea and the relations of Japan and North Korea.
Takao Shibata said he would cover three issues: humanitarian efforts by the United Nations in North Korea, normalization of Japan and North Korea's relationship and the hot topic of North Korea's development of weapons of mass destruction.
Shibata visited North Korea in 1998 to 1999 as a staff member
for the United Nations on the International Fund for Agricultural Development to help solve food shortage issues in North Korea.
"It's not so reported what the United Nations and other people are doing in North Korea for humanitarian aid," Shibata said. "I thought it would be of interest to talk about North Korea. It is a very mysterious country."
The issue of humanitarian aid in North Korea is important and must be balanced with the need to contain the development of weapons of mass destruction, Shibata said.
Explaininq to students the suffering of the North Korean people and that they do not agree with their leader Kim Jong-il is on Shibata's agenda for today's speech.
Shibata said when he visited the provinces of North Korea, it was like being in another world.
"I got the feeling that I was on a time machine and returned 50, 60 or 100 years back in time," Shibata said. "I realized I was in a country that had ceased to develop.
There were extremely poor and hungry people. I can't describe in words what those people were living in."
Since the end of World War II in 1945, Shibata said the relationship between North Korea and
"He is a very polished diplomat, a very learned man with a strong academic background. I think we will all learn something from his speech."
Elaine Gerbert Director of the Center of East Asian Studies
Japan had been poor.
Normalizing interactions between North Korea and Japan is unfinished business and should be resolved, Shibata said.
The consul general of Japan said he looked forward to coming to the University to speak about North Korea and Japan.
The interest that the University has shown in East Asian Studies was unexpected, Shibata said.
"In a way it is surprising that there is such interest in East Asian studies in Lawrence, Kan.," Shibata said. "I am actually impressed with the enthusiasm I have received from the University of Kansas."
Elaine Gerbert, director of the Center for East Asian Studies and associate professor of modern Japanese literature, invited the consul general to the
University of Kansas to speak and said he was an expert on North Korea.
The speech is at 1:30 p.m. in the Malott Room at the Kansas Union.
"He is a very polished diplomat, a very learned man with a strong academic background," Gerbert said. "I think we will all learn something from his speech."
After visiting North Korea as a United Nations worker, and not as a diplomat from Japan, Shibata said he developed a unique insight into North Korea and wanted to share it with people in the Midwest.
- Edited by Anne Mantey
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