VOL.100,NO.26 (USPS 650-640)
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE TECH TUDENT NEWSAPPEAR TO THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAAS
MONDAY
OCT. 2,1989
ADVERTISING: 864-4358
NEWS: 864-4810
Testing shows drug for AIDS does not work
The Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA — An unapproved drug, popular in underground efforts to fight the AIDS virus since it showed promise in the laboratory, is apparently ineffective in the body, according to a medical journal report.
In the Oct. 1 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, researchers reported on the use of dextran sulfate in 18 healthy volunteers, saying that it is effective and intravenously, they found only traces of any activity by the drug.
The study appears to confirm preliminary results announced in February by Frank E. Young, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. Both stated that the drug was poorly absorbed into the bloodstream and showed little promise of fighting the AIDS virus.
The study's results show that the FDA should continue to move cautiously in allowing AIDS patients access to untested drugs, said the principal investigator, Paul S. Lietman of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
"The easier access to unproven drums is a stee backward." he said.
"Just because it works in a laboratory, you can't just go stuffing it in your mouth," said Robert Yarchoan, the cancer at the National Cancer Institute.
Researchers in 1987 discovered that dextran sulfate prevented the human immunodeficiency virus, HIV, from invading the T-cell lymphocytes, a type of blood cell important to the body's immune system that the AIDS virus normally attacks.
Following that report, AIDS patients clamored for the FDA to allow them to import the drug from Japan, where it was used as an anticlotting agent.
However, dextran sulfate's use has not been approved by the FDA. Last May it was approved for use only in limited clinical trials.
During the past two years, the drug has been imported from Mexico and Japan by "buyers" clubs" organized virus infected with the AIDS virus.
But tests of the drug in volunteers have since contradicted the early laboratory findings.
In addition, the drug is unlikely to prove useful when given intravenously, as the size of the large molecule prohibits it from easily crossing membranes. Lietman said
"If dextran sulfate is ultimately found to be an effective anti-HIV agent in humans, its therapeutic index is likely to be small," warned the FDA and the John Hopkins, the FDA and the Colorado Health Sciences Center.
Donald Abrams of San Francisco General Hospital, who has investigated dexran sulfate since 1986, said the drug had little effect in patients infected with the AIDS virus.
Usually, the virus attacks T-cells by attaching to a receptor, a type of protein, on the cell's outer layer or envelope. In the test tube studies, researchers found that dextran sulfate prevented the virus from bonding to the cell, thus preventing it from invading the cell.
Once inside a T-cell, HIV changes the cell's genetic pattern and forces it to make copies of the virus.
Oral sex transmits AIDS, study finds
The Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO — The city's Health Department says it has documented the first two cases in which men have been infected with the AIDS virus through oral sex.
The findings came in the study of hundreds of gay and bisexual men that the Health Department had been told the early days of the AIDS epidemic.
"I if people have bargained that oral sex is what they're going to do and stay uninfected, we now have direct evidence that it can happen," said George Rutherford, director of the department's AIDS office, on Friday.
City Health Director David Werdegar acknowledged the findings were based on interviews with the subjects rather than clinical evidence but said researchers were "absolutely sure" the two gay men had contracted the human immunodeficiency virus through oral sex.
"We believe we got very accurate information," said Werdegar, a physician who added that the subjects trusted the Health Department researchers and had worked with them for a long time.
The research team headed by physicians Rutherford and Alan Lifson is preparing to submit the results to either the Journal of the American Medical Association or the New England Journal of Medicine, Werdegar said.
Both men who tested positive for the HIV virus reported having performed oral sex on numerous partners, Rutherford said.
Other clinicians have reported a few other examples of people infected through oral sex, but the Health Department's findings were the first time such a transmission had been documented in a major study, Rutherford said.
Bud Monroe cuts the hair of Chauncey Jackson. 6. Monroe, a former police officer, has owned his barber shop for 20 years.
Barber recalls 30 years of cuts
By Cory S. Anderson
Kansan staff writer
Pictures of University of Kansas sports greats such as Gayle Sawyers, Wilt "The Stilt" Chamberlain and Danny Manning the walls of a small room near Sixth and Michigan streets.
Sitting along one wall is a row of chairs, mostly unoccupied early in the morning. In the opposite corner sits an old-fashioned leather and barber's chair, the only one with someone in it.
"How close do you want this." the barber, Waldo "Bud" Monroe, asks his first customer of the day.
"Pretty close," the customer says as he
never intended to be a barber and I didn't intend to be a police officer. It just worked out that way.'
- Waldo "Bud" Monroe
Barber
settles comfortably into the chair.
Monroe, 66, and lifetime Lawrence resident, picks up a pair of hair clippers and begins the day. This is Monroe's 30th year in his small shop four blocks from where he was born. He has seen a part-time barber since he was a child and
in 1966 became the first Black officer in the KU police department.
His law enforcement career began in 1953 as a part-time dispatcher for the Lawrence police department. He says he took the job only after being asked several times by the department because they wanted more Blacks on the force. He retired from there in 1965.
Monroe worked for the KU police department for 20 years and was its only Black officer for 17 years. He retired in 1986 and now works for the basketball department as part-time security at sports events.
"I never intended to be a barber, and I didn't."
See BARBER. d. 6
Computer system speeds mapmaking
Kansan staff writer
By Travis Butler
Geologic mapmaking is faster and easier with a computer-based system at the Kansas Geological Survey on West Campus.
The system, called GIMMAP, Geodata Interactive Management Map Analysis and Production, can produce and revise maps of geological features in the state of Kansas in a fraction of the time it would have required before — and with many added features.
GIMMAP is based on a data base of geospatial information that has been collected since 1978, said David Collins, manager of technical information services for the survey. The database includes state and county boundaries, township and range lines, federal and state highways, named streams and lakes above a certain size, principal railroad lines and county seats.
collection of base information, for all of the maps the survey does, he said. Other information, such as the location of most water and some oil and gas wells, has been added over time.
Additional information can be overlaid on the basemap to provide a variety of scientific maps, Collins said. An example is the map of the state's oil and gas resources produced last year.
This information forms the "basemap", or
The survey also produced the maps for the state's recent site proposal for the Superconducting Super Collider project sponsored by the Department of Energy, Collins said. Proposals had to include detailed maps showing the geologic features of the proposed site.
"The state couldn't have done the SSC proposal without our help." he said.
Riches Ross, system analyst for GIMMAP, said that the system has made a big difference in the way people use it.
et cetera had to be done by hand. If they wanted to remake it later, they had to start from scratch. That's not true anymore."
Having the basemap as a starting point has greatly speeded map creation. Collins said that it would take about two to three hours to produce a map listing all of the wells in Douglas County. The data, which require adding new information to the data base, will allow an average man can take up to two weeks to produce
"We don't make maps by hand anymore," he said. "All the line work, color separation, lettering,
Collins said the survey is thinking about revising GIMMAP and putting it in a form that can run on the new, more powerful desktop computers. He sees it being used in a number of applications.
"Once we got it as far as we are now, all sorts of applications come to mind," he said. "It can be used by public utilities, political scientists, and geographers."
There are also educational applications in schools. Students can visually see the relationships between
Bureau attracts conventions
By Steve Buckner Kansan staff writer
One division of the Chamber, the Lawrence Convention and Visitor's Bureau, concentrates its efforts on the lucrative transitory business brought to town via industrial gatherings and tourism.
Not all of the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce's efforts go toward attracting new business to the city.
Billings leads a staff of two people who pursue conventions and tourists for Lawrence. Last year the bureau helped Lawrence land more than 250 conventions, about 360 this year, she said. The team is planning several years in advance, Billings said.
"In 1988 the direct expenditures of people based in hotels was $13 million," said Judy Billings, director of the bureau.
"We're bidding on 1991 and 1992 conventions," she said. "After we were host to the Kansas Association of Realtors this summer, they
booked Lawrence for their 1993 convention."
The bureau bids for conventions either in person, by telephone or through the mail, Billings said. A staff member uses a file of 500 meeting planners to make contacts for conventions
Karla Carney, associate director of communication services for University Relations, said her office provided information about cultural events at KU for the bureau. The office also hands out the bureau's publications to interested persons.
Billings said she relied on many sources around town, such as the University Relations office at KU, the Lawrence Arts Center and the University of Chicago to work with the bureau's information dispersal efforts.
"Local people are also important to us," Billings said. "Convenience is one of the causes of local connections. So, we learn from people's minds around town."
"We exchange information with them," Carney said. "They're
very good about distributing information. They have a lot of traffic in there."
The bureau also promotes tourism by constantly providing information to people, magazines and eventually tour groups. The opening of the Riverfront Flaza next year will necessitate the solicitation of tour groups, Billings said.
The bureau works with a convention while it's in town. Services offered by the bureau include registration assistance, handing out information and planning extra curricular activities.
The competition for conventions is fierce, she said, because 49 other Kansas communities have similar departments which pursue the same business. But Lawrence has many attributes that help it compete for conventions and tourists.
"Lawrence provides a wonderful atmosphere without being in a city," she said. "The downtown area and University help a great deal. We try to tap into to all of that."
Burglars target student possessions
By Rich Cornell
By Rich Cornell Kansan staff writer
On Sept. 25, Michelle Gentry parked and locked her
1977 Honda under a streetlight near her apartment. Then,
between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m., she visited a friend.
When Gentry returned, her car's left rear window was shattered.
Someone had taken her Louis Vuitton purse with a Gucci watch inside. The thief or thieves took property valued at $452, but left behind law books, a car stereo and a radio.
Gentry, a first-year, Tulsa, Okla., law student, said the police believed youths were responsible because more experienced thieves would have taken the books and stereo equipment.
She said her Honda was in the parking lot's last space. Therefore, Gentry said, the thieves must have searched the lot for items to steal.
Entering a vehicle with the intent to steal constitutes burglary and taking an item qualifies as theft.
Chris Mulvenon, Lawrence police spokesman, said students could act to make Genry's experience less
The purse and radio were visible from outside the car. "It's kind of scary because you usually think that if you look your car it's safe," she said.
Between Sept. 21 and early Saturday morning, police records show that property valued at $7,396 was taken from cars in Lawrence. Lawrence police reported 20 cars and thefts during that time, while KU police reported one.
common.
"Students in a college town are traditionally targeted," Mulveon said. "A lot of people in college don't take the time to lock their home or car before they leave."
In addition, students often place high-quality stereo equipment and other valuables in clear view from the outside of their car or home. he said.
Apartments also need to be secured, he said. Doors and windows should always be locked, and valuables should not be visible from the outside.
To prevent burglaries, people should remove or hide valuable items, Mulvenon said. Also, cars should always be locked.
Front door locks should be secured with three-inch wood screws, Mulvenon said. Many area apartments have inadequate locks.
Patio door locks also can be easily broken, he said. A bar or piece of lumber should be inserted in the frame to open the door.
Mulvenon said the police had not found any patterns to the thefts. They have no suspects at this time.
Some of the thieves were probably professional criminals, Mulveyon said.
"We get hit not only from here in town but from people in Tooeila," he said.
However, police do have some leads concerning recent apartment burglaries in east, central and northwestern
KU police Sgt. Schuyler Bailey said increased awareness by students and the police may be why so few car burglaries had taken place in campus parking lots.