University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas
The University Daily
KANSAN
Tuesday, October 7, 1980 Vol.91, No.32 USPS 650-640
KU study may aid in cancer detection
By RAY FORMANEK
Staff Reporter
A simple blood test developed by a KU professor soon may replace biopsies and self-examination as the main methods of early cancer detection.
The process uses a procedure called electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), which was discovered in 1957.
A process, developed by John Zimbrick, KU biochemistry and radiation biophysics professor, measures changes in the level of one blood protein. It also measures the amount of energy absorbed by two types of copper atoms bonded to the protein.
EPR HAS BEEN used widely by physicists, chemists and biologists to measure electrochemical changes in substances, Zimbrick said.
Zimbrick, who has taught at KU for 11 years, was the first KU student to receive a doctorate in radiation biophysics. Before his return to KU, Zimbrick spent two years as a research faculty member at the UCLA Laboratory of Nuclear Medicine and Radiation Biology.
Zimbriack's adaptation of the EPR process passes microwaves through serum, the part of blood that is left when blood coagulates. Normal serum contains ceruloplasmin, a blood protein.
"The absorption of the microwaves gives us a characteristic signal from the copper found in it."
According to Zimbrick, the process essentially introduces energy into the protein to read what it contains.
Financed by National Cancer Institute grants since 1974, Zimbrick's studies have centered on comparisons of EPR levels in blood samples of healthy people and from people with cancer.
Zimbrick, whose tests have focused on people with breast cancer, has examined samples from more than 1,000 people and found that EPR levels were higher in those with cancer.
With the cooperation of the University of Kansas Medical Center and with the help of his research assistant, Wayne Hedrick, Zimbrick will be able to identify the process could detect breast cancer in women.
In Zimbabwe's original study, samples were collected from 400 women who entered the KU Med Center after finding lumps that suggested breast cancer. Neither the doctors at the Med Center nor the experimenters knew which patients had cancer.
THE SAMPLES were frozen in liquid nitrogen and taken to Zimbibrick's lab in the Nuclear Research Center for testing. Then he compared the results with the biopsy reports from the Med Center.
The results were mixed.
"We found statistically different amounts of ceruloplasmin between those with malignant and those with benign tumors," he said. The difference, the difference appeared in women over 45."
He said both groups of women older than 40 had higher than normal EPR readings, but they did not show any difference.
Zimbrick solved the problem when he used KU17 a nuclearreactor to measure the reaction rate.
See CANCER page 5
NCAA rule could ease fiscal burden on sports
By ARNE GREEN Staff Reporter
Major university athletic departments may mail relief N-C-A-CA this winter as they seek to
An expected proposal at the National College Athletic Association's annual convention in January would reduce the minimum requirement for a sports required for Division 4 classification.
The proposal could help the financially troubled KU athletic department ease some of its fiscal problems by stretching the athletic budget among six or seven sports instead of eight.
However, the University has not decided how it will vote if such a proposal should arise, athletics officials said.
Del Brinkman, KU faculty representative to the Big Eight Conference, said he would have to meet with the chancellor to decide the best course of action for KU.
"I really don't know," Marcum said. "It all depends on how it is presented."
Bob Marcum, athletic director, said he did not know whether he would support the proposal.
IF THE PROPOSAL passes—and Marcum has said that he thinks it to be true—in a position of the office of its manager.
This year, travel budgets were cut for all men's non-revenue sports, and last year gymnastics was eliminated in another attempt to trim the budget.
Marcum said that cutting the minimum would not necessarily mean dropping any sports at KU. Much would depend on the income from the other factors, such as inflation and travel costs.
The coaches of men's non-revenue sports said there is a possibility of dropping sports with mixed feelings.
"I think our problem is not unique," Marcum said. "There are a number of schools wondering why students don't have access to math."
"I don't think anyone in non-revenue sports likes to see it happen," said Bock Timmons, head track coach, "but I think it will happen in the next two years.
"I hate to see it happen to any sport, and for selfish reasons, I hope track is not cut. With the economic situation, I don't know that any school can maintain eight sports."
FLOYD TEMPLE, baseball coach, said, "I'm against dropping any sport because the more people competing from the student body, the better off you are. But you have to look at the money available. Lowering the minimum will allow you who can can't afford either or more sports."
Randy McGrath, tennis coach, said that he
wouldn’t swam but that he was aware of the
problem.
"My reaction is, sure. I'd hate to see tennis go," he said. "On the other hand, I know the bottom line, and I wouldn't be offended by it at all."
Temple said that an appeal to alumni had been very successful for the baseball team, and that the team's top priority of upgrading Quigley had been switched to keeping baseball period.
Timmers said he did not like the idea of the NAIA setting limits on the number of sports a school can play.
"All it has done is lower teams to the least common denominator," he said. "It has lowered the number of players."
Timmens said he would rather see the individual schools decide how many teams to team up.
"No non-revenue coach has good feelings about him," he said. He said understanding, but what he did was to crush careers.
Getting a new perspective on her work, Artine Greigrete, KU senior, studies the setting behind the Helen Foresman Spencer Museum of Art for a characal drawing of trees that she is embellishing.
Students, professors discuss pluses and minuses of system
By CINDI CURRIE
Staff Reporter
Students and faculty at the University of Kansas generally have a favorable reaction to the optional plus-minus grading system approved Thursday by Acting Chelan Del尔
Each school at the University will have the option of adopting the new system. The School of Architecture and Urban Design and the School of Law already use a plus-minus system.
The plus-minus system gives different grade points within each letter grade. For example, students will receive 3.3 grade points for a B and receive 2.7 points for a B minus under the new system.
ARCHITECTURE STUDENTS receive pluses and minutes for their projects. The School of Architecture receives these grants.
Jin Huber, St. Louis sophmore in ar-
chitecture and architecture student like the plus-minus sys-
tem studied like the plus-minus sys-tem.
He said pluses and minuses were better indicators of what students did and hard they knew.
"A C plus is better than a C" she said. "If you must make it as well you get the grade on the export card."
Dingerich, St. Louis sophomore in architecture, said the new grading system was more efficient.
Larry Clark and Blair Turnbull, Shawnee Mission sophomores in liberal arts and sciences, agreed that the new system would make grading less "cut and dried."
"You could really tell what you had," Clark said.
Turnbull said, "If you average an 88, you
see GRADING page 5.
Oil shortage doesn't worry U.S. drivers
By ROSE SIMMONS Staff Reporter
Energy strategies from Western nations are peering into their crystal balls to try to predict the consequences of an Iranian-Iraqian clash, but it has been suggested that Mr. Lylet Golz, Kansas' chief fuel allocation officer,
Although more than half of the nation's crude oil needs are supplied by oil from the troubled Persian Gulf region, public reaction to the war has been calm, Goltz said. He attributed the public's calmness to the recently publicized oil glut.
THIS MONTH, 133 million gallons of gasoline will be available to Kansans, Goltz said. Kansans are burning 10 percent less gasoline than they did the year before and expects a month-end surplus of 30 million gallons.
Iraq halted oil production soon after it began fighting with Iran, he said.
"The fact that Iraq is at a standstill in oil production means that importers of Iraq oil will be competing for oil from other sources," he said.
The nation's surplus may keep gas in drivers' cars, but motorists may have to pay a few permits more for each gallon if the fighting continues very long, Goltz said.
Western Europe imports 60 percent of its oil from Iraq, and Japan imports 70 percent of its oil from the Middle East.
IN THE NEAR future, U.S. oil companies might find themselves paying more and competing more fiercely in the remaining oil-producing markets, Goltz said.
Iran's threat to block the Strait of Hormuz, nicknamed the "jugular of the United," could send all oil-importing nations into a panic if it decides to block the passage and succeeds, according to Paul Comolli, assistant professor of economics at the University of Kansas.
The Strait of Hormuz, bordered by the United Arab Emirates and Iran, is a narrow water passage leading into the Gulf of Oman. More than half the oil produced in the Persian Gulf area flows through this waterway in ships bound for the West.
*Blockage of the strait could restrict crude oil exports and cause a severe fuel shortage in the region.*
Emergency plans to cope with an oil shortage have been dusted off and readied by the 18-member International Energy Agency. If Iran were to block the strait, the agency would start an oil-sharing program among member nations, he said.
IN ADDITION to the oil-sharing program, the United States would institute conservation measure to deal with the shortage, he said. He would have to use rationing coupons to buy gasoline.
Kansans, however, would not have to suffer through the winter with inadequate supplies of heating fuel, said Eri Riemann, economist with the state economic development department.
"A shortage of oil won't have much of an impact on home heating fuel in Kansas," he said, "because most Kansas homes are heated with natural gas piled in from Oklahoma and Texas."
Comolli would the most obvious effect on the nation would be a sudden rise in unemployment. Cutbacks in production by industries dependent on oil for energy could lead to layoffs.
Riemann predicted that industrial employment in Kansas would not be affected much because most Kansas industries use natural gas as their energy source.
Inmates learn skills in experimental rehabilitation
By BILL VOGRIN Staff Reporter
By BILL VOGRIN
LEAVENWORTH - Fred Braun is a savior. He hasn't hung on a cross or performed any miracles, but there are 25 people in this northeast Kansas town who swear he saved their lives.
The program, which began in December 1979,
has carried 30 inmates from the Kansas State
Penitentiary into private industry and given
of their new hope and desire.
Braum bleu into Lansing in 1978 with an idea for a private, experimental rehabilitation program for prison inmates that would work in cooperation with the state.
Zephy Industries, Inc., is a private, contract manufacturer of sheet metal products that employs about 50 people in the Leavenworth and Lansing area. Half of those employees are inmates, some with permanent addresses at the Lansing prison.
"Be careful; there are some criminals in the Goliath generalman warns visitors before they enter the Zebra."
The warning is followed by a friendly chuckle and a quick smile. Musselman is a member of the "Lifers" Club," serving 15 years to life, and one of the trusties at Zeherv.
"The majority of our people here have never
worked in the trade." Musselman said during a tour of the plant. "Besides giving us the jobs, we also helped them improve their efficiency."
MUSSELMAN KNOWS EVERY inch of the plant and every employee. He can recipe in detail every responsibility of every worker, and he can develop the mode of the work opportunity offered by Zephyr.
"Knowing a skilled trade will mean quite a bit on the outside. My job here entitles quite a bit of responsibility." he said. "This will really help you—go get out of here and get a job on the outside."
The sentences of the employed inmates vary from six months to life. Musselman said most of the key positions, such as punch set, brake driving and maintenance, were filled by "lifers."
Noble Johnson is a member of the "Iffers" group. He also is the maintenance man for the plant and is considered invaluable by plant executives.
"I've never missed a day since I started, not even when I was sick," Johnson said. "Why stay back there (in prison)? You never know what's on your mind." And he beat, beat up or raped. "I come here any day."
Johnson looks at the Zephyr job as a way to beat the snippet, help his family and improve his character.
"I'm beating them out of one-third of my
sentence if I spend eight hours of each day down
the road, or can I send money home to my
help, help out my
THE INMATES ARE paid $3.10 an hour for their work at Zephyr. From that they pay taxes, room and board, restitution and family payments. Prisoners inside the Lansing prison are paid 90 cents a day for tasks such as dishwashing and dwarfwork.
"Noble's raising a family from here. I'm saving my monev." Musselman said.
Musselman has no family. He was not married before he was imprisoned.
"The others work for an early parole. the liters work for furough, five days on the outside."
Prison life and rehabilitation programs are not new to Johnson. He spent nine years in Iowa prisons and six more in Lansing. He boasted that he got the best program going in the United States'.
"At first I thought he was crazy, but Fred Braun, he's a hell of a man," Johnson said.
The chosen few have been removed from the general prison population and live in the Kansas Co-correctional Facility, formerly a women's penitentiary.
They travel the short six blocks to the plant by Meredith, a guard. Meredith travels unarmed.
Mike Thorne is a former musician who now welds every day at Zephyr. To satisfy his creative urgues, Thorne uses his wedding skills to create murals of files, birds and other animals.
"This here program will give me a better start when I get out than any I have in the last 20 weeks."
"This is one program that Kansas can really be proud of," Musselman said. "Everyone here has one common goal—to get out—but no one is going to try and run. This is a fantastic program, but don't return to prison after going through this program, and that shows it is a success."
Lizards, owls and birds that stand two feet high are popular. Thoree creates, and his welding torch is helping him form his life into a productive one when he is released, he said.
THE TESTIMONIES POUR in for Braun, but he is modest and realistic about the success of the experiment.
"This isn't a typical state project." Braun said last week from his office in the Leavenworth warehouse.
"When you come out of here you can make a good honest wage. It is a great program, and it makes you feel like you are someone worth being."
"This is a private business and it has to be run like a business and make money or all the money."
Weather
It will be sunny and warm today with a high in the mid-80s, according to the National Weather Service in Winds will be southerly at 5-15 mph.
The low tonight will be near 50.
warm with a high in the mid-80s.