LOCAL/STATE
The Michigan Daily - Thursday, February 8, 2001- 3A
Senate investigates airport management
Help for bipolar
patients in sight
Relief to more than 2.3 million
Americans suffering from bipolar dis-
order may be in sight, thanks to a
,study at the National Institute of Men-
OtalHealth.
The $22 million dollar federal
research study, titled "The Systematic
Treatment Enhancement Program for
Bipolar Disorder," boasts 5,000 par-
ticipants who will help find ways to
raise the standard of care for individu-
als with the disease.
The study, centered at the Massa-
6husetts General Hospital in Boston,
Will focus on improvements in med-
tica'ions and therapies for treating both
'depression and manic episodes and
ways to prevent relapses.
Participants in the study will
receive attention for a maximum of
fie years, including evaluations and
,treatment plans to help them cope
with their disease.
Improved system
*to take prints
from crime scenes
The University of Pennsylvania and
,the U.S. Secret Service have teamed
"pto find a new, less expensive, tech-
nique to take fingerprints at crime
scenes.
The technique will cause less dam-
,age to crime scene evidence and
involves a group of chemicals known
as indanediones, a highly sensitive,
*easy to use group, which recently
received a U.S. patent.
A European company also received
a non-exclusive license to the new
technique, which resulted from an
unannounced visit of federal agents to
chemistry Prof. Madeleine Joullie's
Abat the University of Pennsylvania.
Together, the group found indane-
diones the best selection to pick up
the'information in a fingerprint, which
normally equals one millionth of a
gram of amino acids, glycerides, fatty
acids, urea and salts.
Study: Amygdala
Initiates memory
storage in brain
The area of the brain known as the
amygdala stores more than just
ainful and emotional memories,
ccording to researchers at the Uni-
vetsity of Illinois - it also initiates
'memory storage in other regions of
the brain.
The research, shown in the Jan. I
issue of the Journal of Neuroscience,
shows that the amygdala plays a role
Jn initiating memory storage in other
bran locations.
Located in the temporal lobe, the
rmygdala receives electrical signals to
.e sent to the thalamus.
The study, funded by the National
Institutes of Health, is co-authored by
Any Poremba of the National Insti-
tute of Mental Health. It involves
,hooting neurons into different
regions of the brain of 26 male rab-
,bit, disabling the amygdala. Rabbits
who' underwent the treatment experi-
enced a decrease in the ability to
remember learned traits.
Researchers are also examining the
-fOects of firing neurons into the audi-
'toy cortex.
Radiofrequency to
treat fecal control
Researchers at Universijty Health
;System continue to look at ways to
treat fecal incontinence, which is the
Wability to control the movement of
steol and bowel gas through the anus.
The study, done in conjunction with
°uriiversities, including Stanford Uni-
versity, Mayo Clinic and the Universi-
ty of Southern California, uses
radiofrequency energy to treat fecal
incontinence.
The treatment applies radiofrequen-
cy-energy to the muscle of the anorec-
tal junction, which reduces its
flexibility.
Current treatments include modifi-
cations to the diet, medication, exer-
cise and surgery. Without treatment,
people can experience a decrease in
social activity and confidence, celiba-
cy, depression and damage to their job
and relationships.
Compiled by Daily Staff Reporter
Lisa Hoffman.
By Louie Melzlish
DAy Stff Reporter
The Michigan Senate is holding investigations to
find out whether corruption has played a part in the
way Wayne County manages the Detroit Metropol-
itan Airport, the airport that serves most travelers
in southeastern Michigan.
"Being rated as an airport along the lines of
Bangladesh or Mexico City is certainly a concern,"
said Brandon Stewart, a spokesman for state Sen.
Glenn Steil (R-Grand Rapids), chairman of the
new committee.
The purpose of the Detroit Metropolitan Airport
Review Committee, Stewart said, is to figure out
why the airport is plagued with so many problems.
The work of the former Joint Legislative Select
Committee on Wayne County Metropolitan Air-
port, which expired at the end of the last legislative
session in December, was transferred to Steil 's Sen-
ate committee.
"The committee has hired its own private inves-
tigator to assist us into looking into suspicions dig-
ging into what I would call favoritism at the
airport," said Sen. Leon Stille (R-Spring Lake), the
committee's vice-chairman. A state report on air-
port operations accused WCMA management of
attempting to stall the investigation.
"The Office of the Auditor General's efforts to
obtain records and testimony necessary to respond
to the Joint Legislative Select Committee's requests
for preliminary reviews of various Airport opera-
tions have been chronicled with a variety of Air-
port delaying tactics, which we believe are
designed to stall and derail auditors assigned to the
Airport project," Auditor General Thomas
McTavish wrote in a letter last month to Senate
Majority Leader Dan DeGrow (R-Port Huron).
Among tactics that McTavish cited were "pro-
tracted delays in providing records, "withholding
entire files" and an airport practice of having an
"airport observer present at any interviews the
committee conducted with airport employees or
when investigators reviewed airport files.
"I do not consider (these practices) to be consistent
with 'unrestricted access,"' McTavish wrote to
Wayne County Director of Airports Lester Robinson.
Robinson responded with a written statement in
which he said the ongoing investigation was not
impartial.
"The preliminary reviews conducted thus far
have created much innuendo and left too many
loose ends dangling," he said. "None of these
reports have been professional audits according to
government auditing standards."
The committee, on which Republicans hold a 3-
2 seat majority, was chastised by Michigan Democ-
ratic Party spokesman Dennis Denno.
"There is a lot of partisan politics going on,"
Denno said, adding that "the reports they are filing
have so many vague accusations."
Denno said that the previous committee "used
local newspapers for fact finding."
He added that Republicans were going out of
their way to "attack two very successful and popu-
lar Democrats," specifically Wayne County Execu-
tive Ed McNamara and Michigan Attorney
General Jennifer Granholm, who is a potential can-
didate for the governor's office in 2002. Granholm
previously represented the county as corporation
counsel.
Stille denied those allegations.
"Let's face it. Jennifer Granholm is no longer
associated over there," Stille said. "I don't see a
linkage."
He added that the Senate might consider granting
the new committee power to subpoena airport offi-
cials if "stalling continues." Granting such power
would require a simple majority vote in the Senate.
He also added that a state takeover of the airport,
although "not imminent," was not out of the ques-
tion, but added that he would not speculate on what
the investigation would lead to. "We don't know
how profound the mismanagement is," Stille said.
Tie game
Road Scholars to tour
M1ch1gan ti
By Stephanie Schonholz
Daily Staff Reporter
The third annual Michigan Road Scholars Tour
will begin this spring, bringing University faculty to
various parts of Michigan to learn about aspects of
the state such as the economy, educational systems
and health and social issues.
The five-day trip, which includes staff from all
three University campuses, will begin in Ann
Arbor on April 30 and finish May 4. The tour
will include 15 cities and stops at a variety of
sites, ranging from the Muskegon Correctional
Facility to Monitor Sugar Co. in Bay City.
Faculty members will "get out of the classroom
and see a different perspective of the state" and
"open up areas of interest they may or may not get
to" staying in Ann Arbor, said project director
David Lossing.
Thirty-two faculty members will be traveling
with the tour, one of whom is surgical medicine
prof. Steven Rudich.
Rudich said he will take the opportunity not only
to learn but also to talk to people about organ dona-
tion, an issue about which he feels stongly.
1is spring
English Prof. Eric Rabkin, an alumni of the 2000
tour, said he found the program informative and
socially stimulating.
"Every stop I learned something new," Rabkin
said. In regard to meeting faculty from different
departments, he said, "I think that teachers have
an obligation to try to understand the people with
whom they work, it's not easy to have a good, rich
feeling working with the same people" every day.
On a similar note, Math Prof. Charles Doering
said, "it is very hard to interact outside of our depart-
ments and with faculty from other universities."
For Doering, the tour will be "an interesting
opportunity with a bunch of colleagues" to visit
previously unseen areas and people in Michigan.
Rabkin said the University was very good in
setting up the program to foster new relationships
between the faculty, a major criterion for the cre-
ation of the program two years ago.
An orientation will be held Feb. 15, in which
faculty members can meet the colleagues with
whom they will be traveling and begin the
process of "expanding what they know of the
state and its people outside of Ann Arbor prop-
er," said Lossing.
DAVID KATZ/Daily
Eastern Michigan University freshman John Wilkinson and Washtenaw Community College freshman
Skip Colton look at clothes yesterday at Van Boven men's clothing store in Nickels Arcade.
OSEH keeps 'U'
free of hazardous
waste, radiation
'I
I
IF.ster'Thxefuni
By Karen Schwartz
Daily Staff Reporter
They are the people who check for
lead in the walls and monitor radioac-
tive materials so nobody leaves class
glowing with anything other than hap-
piness.
The University's Occupational
Safety and Environmental Health
department is responsible for
addressing the health, safety and
environmental interactions on cam-
pus. The department monitors the
disposal of hazardous materials and
promotes the sharing of safety edu-
cation and information in the Uni-
versity community.
OSEH Director Terrance Alexan-
der said the organization exists pri-
marily to make sure the University is
in compliance with national Occupa-
tional Safety and Health Administra-
tion and environmental regulations
but that working within the commu-
nity is also an important part of the
job.
"We're doing a lot of programs
that really move beyond regulatory
compliance and try to be proactive
and make things better," Alexander
said. "We have a lot of educational
programs that we run, we do training
in radiation, biology and chemistry
safety for labs,"
Alexander also addressed OSEH's
willingness to work with student
groups and answer questions anytime,
saying OSEH would be more than
happy to get involved if a group is
interested in learning more.
"We're here to provide the programs
and help people do what they do safe-
ly, but it's also everybody's responsi-
bility to work safely," he said. "We're
there to help but everybody has to take
some responsibility for it."
OSEH oversees many campus pro-
grams, including radiation safety ser-
vices to deal with radioactive materials
and their disposal, an industrial
hygiene program that works with the
housing department on living quarters
issues, sanitation programs that inspect
food service facilities and environ-
mental programs that analyze samples
to ensure air, water and general living
cleanliness.
Students have the opportunity to
contribute on campus as well. They
can get involved in OSEH's diverse
projects and gain hands-on work expe-
rience.
"We have students using all the
equipment they'd be using in the work
force," Alexander said. "We had an
engineering student working for us....
He walked right into a nice job at an
environmental consulting firm and he
went in with experience."
Being prepared to handle everything
from biohazards to radioactive hazards
definitely takes experience and train-
ing, said Laurie MacDonald, an OSEH
representative. MacDonald oversees
the handling of chemical waste for the
chemistry department.
"If there were ever a chemical spill,
we could deal with it," MacDonald
said. "But we really don't get that
many large spills to be concerned
about."
Patricia Watt, manager of OSEH's
Industrial Hygiene and Safety pro-
gram, addresses problems like
ergonomic difficulties in the work-
place and pollution. Watt said teaching
people how to use chemicals and gen-
erally follow safe practices is impor-
tant to improving the academic
environment.
"We're basically charged to pro-
vide guidance and education to all
University departments on health
safety and environmental issues,"
Watt said. "So we're here to look at
the challenges we might have in
those areas and partner with Univer-
sity departments to find solutions
that work for everyone."
FE
r
1
ol) Tell himi you love him
Tell1 her that you think she 's hot
Tellhim id's over
Tell her you're sorry that you fought
Sa~y t all with a
THE CALENDAR
What's happening in Ann Arbor today
EVENTS Teugels will speak, 4 Scales: Examples from SERVICES
p.m., Salinger Resource the Pacific Northwest,"
'41AClub Poetry Slam, Fea- Center, 3040 Frieze Sponsored by the Ecosys- Campus Information
tuning Khary Kimani Turn- Building, 763-9047. tem Management Initia- Centers,764-INFO,
~Cupid Gramn
th Ue Michian Daily (1atsified!