LOCAL/STATE
The Michigan Daily - Thursday, February 10, 2000 - 3A
RESEARCH
Res. Halls work at bringing healthy menus
Lack of sleep
stimulates some
brain functions
Sleep deprivation can actually stim-
*0late inactive parts of the brain to
awaken and function when an individ-
ual spends enough time not sleeping.
Researchers from the University of
California at San Diego found that the
brain tries to compensate excess strain
employing other inactive.
The researchers found that when 13
students took a word memory test after
35 hours without sleep, a normally
inactive part of the brain sprang to life.
Researchers monitored the blood
1ow in the students' brains to deter-
mine which areas were active. The
parietal lobe, a region of the cortex
that was inactive when the brain was
rested, came to life during sleepless-
ness. The sleepier the subject, the
more active the parietal lobe became
and the better the students' recall.
But the brain appears to respond dif-
ferently to sleep deprivation depending
n what it is trying to do. When sleep-
depived students were asked to solve
math problems, researchers found no
signs of compensation.
Psychiatrist J. Christian Gillin, who
led the study, said the researchersware
now learning how and why different
parts of the brain react to sleep depri-
vation and possible methods of
treatment.
Researchers test
4. coil inhibitor
Researchers at the University of
Alberta in Canada have moved closer
to developing what could be the first
drug to save the lives of victims of an
especially dangerous strain of E. coli.
Infections from a strain called
0157:H7 kills 250 people in the United
States each year,;many of them children
and under. The lethal bacteria
estroys the body by producing a toxic
poison that diffuses into the blood-
stream and damages the kidneys.
Researchers have created a new
inhibitor, called Starfish, to grab the
toxins and escort them out of the body.
In test-tube experiments, Starfish
appears to be far more effective than
the other inhibitors undergoing testing.
There are no vaccines or inhibitors
for E. coli infections on the market
Qd doctors say there is not much they
can do to treat the related kidney dis-
order besides giving patients dialysis
aind blood transfusions.
Scientists say Starfish shows
promise, but they are still testing its
effects in humans.
"You'd have to make sure this mol-
ecule would end up in the right place
in the body, and also that it does not
use any toxicity problems itself. We
I n't think it will," Alberta chemistry
Prof. David Bundle said.
New defibrillator
implant a success
Implanted defibrillators that jolt the
heart back into a normal rhythm can be
lifesavers for people with a certain
inherited heart condition, a study found.
The condition, hypertrophic car-
omyopathy, involves heart muscle
nlargement and an overly vigorous
heartbeat. It affects an estimated
00,000 Americans and about 10 per-
gent of them are considered at high
risk of sudden death.
The drug amiodarone can reduce
tie number of potentially fatal
episodes of heart irregularities, but it
is not recommended in younger
tients because it can have serious
g-term side effects that include
vision deterioration.
The study in last Thursday's New
-ngland Journal of Medicine looked
at 128 hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
patients and followed them for an
average of three years after they
received defibrillators, small
devices that are typically implanted
ider the skin of the chest or the
abdomen.
The study group included 43
tients who had suffered cardiac
arrest or at least one serious episode
of a wildly speeded-up heartbeat
before getting the implants. The defib-
rillators corrected potentially deadly
heart irregularities in 11 percent of
these patients per year.
- Compiled bi Daily StaffReporter
Shabnam Daneshvarf-om
wire reports.
By Karolyn Kokko
Daily Staff Reporter
With the University Dining Halls feeding
more than 10,000 people daily, it's not easy to
accommodate everyone's dietary needs and
desires.
Four weeks ago, Dietician Barbara Howe
was hired as the University's Nutrition Spe-
cialist, filling a position created three years
ago.
"If students have questions about anything
related to the menu, they can come to me," said
Howe, whose job involves answering questions
about nutrition, eating disorders and ingredients
in the food.
Her tasks include working with the Nutrition
Advisory Committee to educate students on
how to eat healthy in the dining halls and work-
ing with the Menu Review Committee to
enhance the nutritional content of the dining
hall meals while satisfying the students'
desires.
She also provides nutritional analysis to stu-
dents through the MSmart program so they
know the health content of the foods they
choose.
Students can easily learn about the nutrition
content of their food by reading the MSmart
cards located next to the entrees, vegetables and
desert counters. They not only give information
such as fat and protein content but also for
which vitamins the food product is a good
source.
LSA freshman Alison Kosinski said, "I do
look at the cards and they do influence my
choices."
Students also can turn to the new Residential
Hall Dining Monthly publication, which fea-
tures articles on nutrition, advice on how to eat
healthy and even recipes.
Howe said a contest is planned for next
month in which students can name the newslet-
ter. The student whose title is chosen will be
awarded S 150.
Howe is working on a project to make the
dining halls more appealing.
"The administration is currently looking in to
a S12 million dollar renovation for East Quad,"
Howe said.
Although all the residence halls are similar in
food content, she said, students will often prefer
one dining hall more than another.
"It's Barbour or nothing," said LSA freshman
Meredith Keller. Keller said she stopped eating
in South Quad because it was too institution-
like. "Seeing mashed potatoes in the masses is a
little less appealing than the homey atmosphere
of Betsey Barbour," she said.
Another complaint students have is the food
quality in the dining halls - especially of East
Quad Residence Hall.
Howe said during the past year a new manag-
er and a new chef have been working at East
KIMITSU YOGACHI/Dail
Dietician Barbara Howe explains nutrition to LSA junior Laurie Burkitt at Betsy Barber Residence Hall
yesterday.
Quad, and so far many students have seemed to
like the new change.
"Anybody at anytime can submit recipes to
me," she said.
In addition to providing literature on how to
eat healthy in the residence halls, Howe will
meet with individual students and groups to dis-
cuss nutrition.
Students with questions or concerns about
nutrition can stop by her office in the basement of
Betsy Barbour or e-mail her at
/akrblhowi'e(Q umich.ecdii.
Torrents of spring?
Union protesters remove
flag, meet administration
'<6
By Josie Gingrich
Daily StaffReporter
The Michigan Union seemed to be
missing something the familiar
maize-and-blue 'M' flag that flies
above the tower
The group of student protesters
occupying the seventh floor meet-
ing area of Michigamua removed
the University's flag and replaced it
with an upside-down U.S. flag
Tuesday night.
"We flew it as a signal of distress,"
said Native American Student Associa-
tion co-Chair Joe Reilly, an SNRF
senior. "Our people are being disre-
spected.'
Beneath the upside down U.S. flag.
flew a white sign announcing the
meeting that took place last night
between protesters and University
administration.
But the flag and the sign were
gone yesterda morning, leaving
the flag staff atop the Union naked.
"They took it down," Reilly said.
"We fly a Michigan flag," Michi-
gan Union Director Audrey
Schwimmer said. "Not an upside
down American flag."
The lock on the door to the roof
was broken, Schwimmer said,
before the U.S. flag and sign were
put up.
The flags were taken down yes-
terday and the door to the roof was
secured, she added.
"The roof is not particularly safe,"
Schwimmer said. "We don't want any-
one to get hurt."
The protesters continued to
announce last night's meeting to
groups of interested students, faculty
and Ann Arbor residents taking tours
of the Michigamua room.
Maintenance still has access to
all floors and University officials
are not being barred from the occu-
pied rooms.
How the protesters gained entry to
the Michigamua room remains a mys-
tery, and maintenance changed the,
locks on all of the rooms on the fifth,
sixth and seventh floors yesterday as a
precaution.
"We don't know how they got in,"
Schwimmer said.
As of last night, there was no flag
flying above the Union.
"I'm sure lots of groups would love
to fly their flags, but we can't do that,"
Schwimmer said.
"Nothing like this has ever hap-
pened while I've been here," she
said.
S pirit Airlines pilot suspended
KIMISTS UYOGACHI/Daiy
Rackham Graduate School student Keiske Nakao looks at his reflection in a
puddle of melting snow as he walks down South University Avenue.
GHB death tria
begins ina Detroit
DETROIT (AP) -- Spirit Airlines
has suspended a pilot after several pas-
sengers complained about an in-flight
incident that didn't match the pilot's
description of the flight, airline offi-
cials said.
The name of the pilot has not been
released by the Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-
based airline. Greg Van Brunt, Spirit's
vice president of maintenance,
described the pilot as very experienced
and said he had been suspended with
pay.
Van Brunt said the airline is cooper-
ating with the Federal Aviation
Administration's investigation into the
Jan. 30 flight from Fort Myers, Fla., to
Detroit.
Several passengers on the flight
called the airline to complain about a
rapid loss in altitude and a howling
sound from one of the MD-80's-
engines. At least one of the passengers'
also believed one of the plane's
engines shut down during the flight,
the Detroit Free Press reported yester-
day.
DETROIT (AP) -- Manipulation
and deception led to Samantha Reid's
date-rape drug death and her best
friend's near death, a prosecutor said in
an opening statement yesterday at the
manslaughter trial of three of four men
charged.
Erick Limmer, 26, of Grosse lie,
Daniel Brayman, 18, of Trenton and
Nicholas Holtschlag, 18, of Wayne
County's Brownstown Township are
charged in the GHB poisoning death
of Samantha, 15.
Prosecutors say the men gave the
Rockwood girl a soft drink secretly
spiked with gamma-hydroxybutyrate
during a party in Limmer's apartment
Jan. 16, 1999. Samantha died the next
day.
A separate jury for Joshua Cole, 19,
of Southgate, will hear opening argu-
ments Thursday, given that prosecutors
say he has confessed to a role in the
case.
Since 1990, GHB has been linked to
at least 58 deaths and more than 5,700
recorded overdoses, the Drug Enforce-
ment Administration has said.
"The weapon in this case - that
which brought about the death and
near death of the complainants - was
not a knife, not a gun, but a drug, just
as fatal as any other, weapon," Doug
Baker, a Wayne County assistant pros-
ecutor, told jurors yesterday.
Cole also faces three counts of
felony poisoning, each carrying a pos-
sible life sentence. Manslaughter is
punishable by up to 15 years behind
bars.
The others are charged with two
poisoning counts each for GIB-taint-
ed drinks allegedly given to Samantha
and her friend, whose ingestion of the
drug left her temporarily comatose. A
third girl alleged to have unknowingly
ingested the powerful central nervous
system depressant was not sickened.
Baker, using a poster board-sized
timeline, laid out for the jury the
events leading up to Samantha's death.
He said the three girls went out with
Brayman and Holtschlag because they
liked them. But "it's the deeds of the
defendants over the next few hours
that really showed their feelings
towards these girls," Baker said.
"It wasn't very pretty, it wasn't very
nice;"he said.
Brayman's attorney, John Gates,
said his client had no idea the drinks
were poisoned.
Gates said somebody other than his
client apparently gave out poisoned
drinks as soon as they walked in the
door of Limmer's apartment. The girl
who survived a coma has said in court
the beer she first was handed was
"skunked" and she refused to drink it.
Gates said his client was a good
friend of the two girls who were sick-
ened and would not want to hurt them.
THE CALENDAR
What's happening in Ann Arbor today
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