KU
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY kansan
Serving KU for 77 of its 101 Years
77th Year, No.25
WEATHER CLOUDY
LAWRENCE, KANSAS
See Weather—page 9
Friday, October 21, 1966
Student guinea pigs
Research rules formed
By JACKI CAMPBELL
As a result of a U.S. Public Health Service suggestion, KU is undergoing an administrative metamorphosis regarding the use of students for research purposes.
A research advisory committee has been formed to determine "the rights and welfare of the individual or individuals involved, the appropriateness of the methods used to secure informed consent and the risks and potential medical benefits of the investigation," said William Argersinger, associate dean of the faculties for research.
The change pertains to the use of human beings as experimental subjects and is in response to a major problem cited by the U.S. Public Health Service in the field of present-day clinical research.
DR. WILLIAM M. BALFOUR, chairman of KU's advisory committee, said most research centers are undergoing similar renovations. He feels, as the Health Service stipulated, "that some independent review is necessary" because of rapidly expanding research projects which involve more and more human subjects each year.
Dr. Balfour said the committee does not suspect that anything unhealthy is going on at KU.
Medical periodicals testify to the need of a control over research in some areas, he said.
Balfour said that only the subject can decide if he will be used in an experiment and the persons conducting the experiment
Hirt sales open soon
Tickets go on sale Monday for the Al Hirt concert featured by Student Union Activities (SUA).
They will be sold from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday outside the Hawklet in Summerfield and at the information booth. Tickets will also be available at the Kansas Union information desk, and the day of the concert (Nov. 5) at Allen Field House.
Seats cost $2.50, $2.25 and $2.00.
Cost $2.50, $2.25 and $2.00.
According to Gary Gribbon,
Parsons senior and publicity
chairman, "there are still plenty
of good $2.50 tickets available."
There are 1,500 block seats
available.
must have their intentions reviewed by a committee.
Each proposal must have the endorsement of the investigator's department chairman and two of his colleagues.
"A statement of consent, to be signed by the experimental subject, will be carefully examined and its relevancy to the aims of the research proposals ascertained," he said.
"THE PRINCIPAL investigator will be asked to present in detail, his method of obtaining consent from the experimental subject so that, as far as possible, the subject will be truly informed about the research aims, potential risks and use of the results obtained."
The experiment must be of scientific importance and must be performed by a qualified person or group. The subject must be free to drop the experiment at any time.
The signed statement of consent will be filed with the committee. It will also make sure the rules are carried out and will keep a record of all its reviews and decisions.
Experiments are widely conducted in four KU departments: psychology, sociology, human development and family life and the Bureau of Child Research.
AP editor here for press meet
Joy Miller, women's editor of the Associated Press, will be the featured speaker at the annual Kansas Press Women's workshop Saturday.
The one-day meeting also will feature seminars on photography, free lance writing, press law and a panel discussion by the presidents of press women's groups from a four-state area.
ABOUT 100 are expected from Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska. The KPW workshop will be held in conjunction with a meeting of Region 6 of the National Federation of Press Women.
Miss Miller, a 1944 graduate of KU, joined the Associated Press the same year, serving the Kansas City bureau before going to New York, and was named women's editor in 1961. She will speak at the noon luncheon in the Kansas Union.
Other speakers will be Perry Riddle, KU instructor and photographer with the Topeka Daily Capital; Judy Taggart, free lance writer from Shawnee Mission; and Elmer F. Beth, professor of journalism.
The presidents' panel will be
Virginia Conrad, Greensburg,
Kansas; Betty Cook Rottmann,
Columbia, Mo.; Arlene Raymond.
JOY MILLER
Des Moines, Ia.; and Bee Johnson,
Pilger, Neb.
The scholarship recipient for 1966-67 will be announced at the luncheon, and two new KFW patron members will be honored.
Scientists study animals with radio Turtles, others, tell all telemetrically
By WILL HARDESTY
"Beep . . Beep . . Beep." said the turtle.
"He's about 15 feet in front of us, and his heart-rate and temperature are normal," translated Dr. Hampton "Tony" Shirer, professor in electrical engineering and associate professor in comparative biochemistry and physiology.
SHIRER IS one-half of a two-man team in charge of the research going on at KU's Natural History Reserve. The other half of the team is Henry S. Fitch, professor in zoology.
Fitch is the naturalist in residence at the reserve and is making a study of the animals there.
Shirer is in charge of biochemistry, which is the study of animals by means of a radio transmitter attached to them.
THE NATURAL History Reserve consists of 590 acres of land five miles north and two miles east of Lawrence. It opened in 1949, and its purpose is to provide a place to study Eastern Kansas plants and animals in essentially their natural state. Undergrad and graduate classes go to the reserve to make studies, and Shirer and Fitch are doing research, too.
The small mammals carry their radio in a collar around their necks. Turtles have their radios mounted on their shells. (The mound on the turtle's back in the picture is his transmitter encased in silicone rubber to protect it from the weather.)
So far, Shirer and his assistants have put radio transmitters on 14 kinds of animals, including possums, raccoons, skunks, rabbits, snakes, and turtles.
SNAKES HAVE their radio units force-fed to them. They will keep the transmitter in them for a few days to a few weeks.
Before the advent of biochemistry, naturalists had to set extensive trap lines to catch the kind of animal they wanted to study. The first time an animal was caught, it would be marked. That way, each time the animal was caught again, the scientist could keep a record of where it had been caught before.
—Kansan photo by Monte Mace
WOULD YOU BELIEVE A RADIO-ACTIVE TURTLE?
If the scientist was exceptionally lucky, he would see the same animal a few times now and again. In this way, he could work out a rough, inaccurate estimate of where the animal had been and the area in which it lived.
NOW, AN ANIMAL is caught once, given a radio, and released. The scientist can locate the animal again at will.
"Telemetry is the most dramatic part of the work we do, but it is only a part. It is the part that makes our other work easier, however, by making it easier to find an individual animal any time we want to." Shirer said.
The technical problem of designing a biotelemetry radio transmitter is great.
First, the transmitter has to be small. It needs to be light-weight, attachable, and it needs to have a low power drain because, necessarily, its battery is small.
THE BIGGER the animal is, the bigger the battery can be for his radio. A bigger battery means a stronger signal and a longer battery life. Currently, the best transmitters in use have a life of four months and a range of one-half mile.
KU is using a frequency of about 26.5 megacycles, or just below the citizen's band frequency, Shirer said. Individual transmitters are five kilocycles apart, with a possible 31 channels available.
Two types of receiving equipment are used. There is one centrally located station with a
Continued on page 5