Multimedia Reporting (Adler-Noland-Utsler)

KU's own radar system to aid in arctic mapping project

2008-05-13T16:54:32Z

David Braaten, professor of geography, and fellow faculty members of geography professors and students are readying equipment to be tested in Greenland at the end of the month for an upcoming expedition to analyze a possible hidden mountain range underneath Antarctica. This advanced radar and image mapping equipment is extremely crucial to the Gamburtsev Aerogeophysical Mapping of Bedrock and Ice Targets project, better known as GAMBIT. According to Braaten, the project will be to map the topography of an underwater mountain range that could be the very start of the ice sheets that cover the earth. “This is extremely crucial to the GAMBIT project, which will be verifying the last significantly hidden area on earth,” Braaten said. The actual expedition to east Antarctica isn’t until December but its important to test the radar system in arctic like conditions beforehand. The project itself will be involving radar system that has been developed in-house at KU since 1993 known as MCRDS (Multi Channel Radar Depth Sounder). Overseeing the production of the radar system has been Dr. Fernando Rodriguez-Morales, who has worked closely with students on making sure this radar system is ready to go by the end of this month. This radar system is a “VHF Ice Penetrating Radar.” Its similar to when you look at a window from a certain angle, you can see through the window partially through it. So we send a radio wave with part of it reflecting off the surface and bouncing back up while part of it goes through the ice until it hits the bedrock below. While flying over the surface at a constant speed, you can measure the times it took for the waves to bounce back from the surface and the bedrock. From this data, you can determine the exact location of each wave bouncing back and create topography of the underwater mountain range.

Improvements made on the radar system this past year include converting it from a single channel to multiple channels (six total). This helps to increase the amount of data the system can collect as well as improve the resolution of the images it maps out. "You can measure the intensity of the reflection,but with this new radar we can have multiple antennae, similar to going from one pair of eyes to six eyes." The KU group had issues with the electromagnetic interference because the other instruments were giving off radiation which was the radar system was picking up because its so sensitive, so we are taking measures to get rid of this. Chris McMinn, Cory, NC, sophomore, has been the software developer for the radar system since June. He was initially brought on board to help out with re-mapping the old software but has since stayed on to insure the software holds up out in the field.

The Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS) will also deploying their latest version of their radar system parallel to the GAMBIT project’s testing this summer. In particular to the GAMBIT project, it's to see that everything is in optimal polar conditions. “The main reason is that you only get one chance per year to do Antarctica, same with Greenland,” Rodriguez said. The radar system will be mounted on the wings of a light aircraft and flown over various areas of interest in Greenland, whereupon it will pick up the reflections sent back to the system and collect the data.

Aircraft used for testing in Greenland
Photo: CReSIS

Michael Hughes, New Strawn graduate student, will be attending the coming out for the actual expedition. Hughes will be helping with signal processing, which involves interpreting the data that the radar gathers during the test runs. "Its my first time going out into the field, so I really don't know what to expect," said Hughes. "But I think its pretty exciting to test out equipment in the field." This project will be done in conjunction with the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University in New York City. Nick Frearson, GAMBIT Lead Engineer and senior staff associate at the observatory, said that their interest in working with KU came from the reputation of its MCoRDS radar system. Frearson has spent a lot of time at the CReSIS center over this past year, working with Dr. Rodriguez on building a duplicate of the MCoRDS radar system. “It had problems with the information provided with the (original) MCoRDS initially, but we’ve built a pretty nice clone,” said Frearson. On Columbia’s end, it will be using their geomagnetic mapping equipment to measure the magnetic field of the earth. Frearson said the GAMBIT group is scheduled to leave for Greenland on May 28, where they will be running tests for three weeks.

Initial flight path for testing in Greenland
Photo: Nick Frearson

Freason is currently in Calgary working on the installation of the radar system to the aircraft. "It's what you might call one of the biggest projects I've ever worked on," Frearson said.

CReSIS Research and Upcoming Field Research Trips

2008-05-10T00:57:44Z

The earth’s climate has been changing, and as a result, more and more people are taking an interest in climate change and related topics like air pollution and the consequences of climate change. It has become a topic of debate during election years, and more people are looking at the earth’s climate, and things related to it, and doing studies on it. One such group is the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets. “Our objective is to increase our understanding of ice sheets so that models can be developed that can reliably predict the contributions of ice-sheets to sea-level rise under prescribed climate changes in the future,” said Dr. David Braaten, the deputy director of the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets at the University of Kansas. It will take time to reach that goal, but those working at it are learning more about the ice sheets with each day. Those who work in the center don’t only study here in Kansas. Many of them go on field research trips to Greenland, Antarctica, and the Arctic. CReSIS will soon be conducting airborne experiments in Greenland, and, towards the end of this year, field experiments in Antarctica. On these trips, there are several objectives. Such goals include inventorying any and all major drainage basins and collecting data through various methods such as flights and radars. Another big objective revolves around identifying gaps in data. “By identifying gaps in data, we will be able to further the advancement of technologies and determine what points our upcoming studies need to focus on,” said Dr. Braaten. On such field research trips, they take measurements of such things as the surface elevation of ice sheets and the thickness of the ice sheets, among others. After their trips they log and archive their data, and create data charts and maps. For airborne research trips they create maps that show their flight lines, while for land research, they create charts and graphs of their data from such measurements as thickness. And so far, they are coming up with interesting results. “This is not yet an official position of the National Science Foundation, but our scientists and engineers have seen solid numbers that show that ice sheets are discharging more fresh water into the oceans than has ever been witnessed in the past,” said Cameron Lewis, a University of Kansas graduate student who works at the center and may go on the upcoming field research trip to Greenland. It has also been found that the fresh water from the melting ice sheets not only contributes to rising sea levels, but that is will be responsible for the disruption of the North Atlantic Current, which is driven by a delicate balance between salt and water. CReSIS has also looked at sea level, which they believe could rise by up to a meter and a half by the end of this century, and has created maps for several different regions of the world that will be impacted the most by it. Scientific research, from CReSIS and from other scientists, has also brought to light facts about the ongoing warming trend of the atmosphere. One of the main facts is that this recent trend of warming in the troposphere is more dramatic than what has been seen in history. It is a common opinion among many scientists and engineers that this recent heating of the troposphere is attributed to the unparalleled rise in the emissions of greenhouse gases. “It’s not statistics, it’s pure numbers…numbers don’t lie,” said Audey Fusco, a member of CReSIS who is also a graduate student at KU. CReSIS has recently developed a master robust signal processing program that will help process all of the data that is collected using depth sounding radars, and using this new tool as well as all the other resources available to them, those at CReSIS will continue to push towards their goal. “I know that the work that I do at CReSIS directly affects the science community’s ability to create better ice sheet and climate models…and that makes it all worth it,” said Lewis.

KU Researchers work for better cancer treatments

2008-05-09T22:37:20Z

Dr. Laird Forrest came to KU in hopes of helping real cancer patients. After a year at KU, he may be able to do just that in the near future. Dr. Forrest, assistant professor of pharmaceutical chemistry, has been researching more efficient and less harmful ways of delivering chemotherapy to cancer patients. Dr. Forrest has a research team made up of two graduate students and two post-doctoral researchers. Together they are trying to combat different cancers by developing a successful localized chemotherapy. “Right now cancer patients go in for surgery and the doctors do a pretty good job in removing most of the cancer,” Dr. Forrest said. “Afterwards the patient goes through chemotherapy or radiation which affects the whole body and makes the patient sick.” Dr. Forrest is trying to localize the chemotherapy to just the affected portion of the body.

Taryn Bagby, Kansas City, Mo., graduate student

Dr. Forrest describes their treatment as “middleground” work between surgery and recovery. “We want to limit how intensely the chemotherapy affects the entire body.” Dr. Forrest said. “The side affects of chemotherapy are terrible.” The research team is also trying to limit the rate of relapses with their localized chemotherapy. Shuang Cai, graduate student, is working to decrease the deadly effects of breast cancer. "Over 60 percent of women with localized breast cancer eventually develop distant late stage disease despite the excellent short-term prognosis with current treatments," Cai said. In addition to Cai's research in breast cancer, the team is working on a number of other cancers . Dr. Forrest said they are working very closely with doctors from the KU Medical Center on colon cancer, lung cancer, prostate cancer, and melanoma. The research team is testing a number of different treatments. Some of the drugs are ready for animal testing. In this testing, they target a certain cancer in a rat or mouse and try to treat the animal in only the affected area.

The research team is testing a new localized chemotherapy treatment for lung cancer. The drug would be delivered to the affected area by an inhaler. “It seemed logical to us to try an inhaler because that’s how we give our lungs cancer by smoking,” Dr. Forrest said. In Yumei Xie's research, prostate cancer is localized and combatted. A polymer is conjugated to a drug or protein and delivered to the body. "The polymer will shield the virus to transport in vivo and delivery specifically to prostate cancer cells," Xie, post-doctoral researcher, said. Taryn Bagby, Kansas City, Mo., graduate student is working with melanoma. Bagby says the research is extremely difficult. “The drug I’m working on is very, very unstable.” Bagby said. “Once you give it to a patient the drug becomes inactive after 15 minutes.” Dr. Forrest confirms the difficulty in the research saying the research group makes constant pharmacy runs because of the instability of the drugs. Despite the difficulty of the research, the team has seen some success. Their research in treating head and neck cancers is showing progress. “We’re seeing extremely good results.” Dr. Forrest said. “The animal testing is showing excellent localization.” Dr. Forrest believes the animal testing stage is nearly complete. He says the next step is phase 1 human testing. “There are some barriers before we can get to that point such as getting approved by the FDA.” Dr. Forrest said. “But we are hoping we can start the phase 1 tests in early 2009.”

Lab mouse infected with different cancers

Dr. Forrest is not surprised by the success. He came KU last January from the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign. He said he chose KU among other institutions because he knew he could get real results here. “I knew people at KU already had multiple cancer drugs on the market,” Dr. Forrest said. While the results are not surprising to Dr. Forrest he says they are definitely rewarding. He has been researching cancer for 10 years and says it’s one of today’s top killers. He believes it’s become a top killer not because of a lifestyle change but because people are living longer. “One out of three of us are going to get it,” Dr. Forrest said. “I’ve had family members that have died from it. It’s a horrible affliction that affects people it shouldn’t.” Dr. Forrest says cancer is a treatable disease. He says he really wants to find a cure for cancer and just make it a disease rather than a killer.

Chiropractic continues to seek recognition of medical establishment

2008-05-09T22:20:28Z

Dr Kendall Payne was once just another patient. He suffered from lower back pain and migraine headaches. His doctor simply prescribed medication and he saw an orthopedic surgeon who recommended surgery. Dr Payne did not want to get surgery and did not want to continue covering the pain up. Now, seven years later Dr Payne is now a practicing chiropractor at the Chiropractic Injury and Wellness Clinic in Overland Park, helping other people get rid of pain. Recently, a resolution has been introduced in congress in support of commissioning chiropractors into all branches of the armed forces according to the American Chiropractic Association, ACA. This is the latest development for a form of medicine that continues to seek recognition from the traditional medical establishment.

“I would say that seven out of ten doctors won’t give a referral to a chiropractor,” Dr Jeff Wingate said. Dr Wingate is a practicing chiropractor at Life Chiropractic in Olathe. One major source of opposition comes from a web site called quackwatch.com. The website is run by Dr Stephen Barrett which investigates questionable medical practices and runs chirobase.com a branch of quakwatch.com devoted to bebunking chiropractic myth. Dr Samuel Homola works on the website with Dr Barrett. Homola is a chiropractor who wrote several books talking about the limits of chiropractic. In 2002, 7.4 percent of Americans used chiropractic. This is more than yoga, massage, and acupuncture. Chiropractic is the most wide-spread alternative medicine and the most regulated alternative medicine.

The ACA defines chiropractic as a health care profession the focuses on disorders of the musculoskeletal system and the nervous system in order to treat back aches, neck pain, pain in joints, and headaches. The procedure performed by chiropractors is spinal manipulation or chiropractic adjustment. The purpose is to restore joint mobility. “It (spinal manipulation) relieves interference from the body,” Payne said. Dr Wingate says he works on managing people and makes people healthier through constant monitoring and work. “I help people get more balanced and funtional,” Wingate said. While chiropractic does not different health symptoms, both Dr Wingate and Dr Payne say that colds, headaches, bowel problems and back pain, can be fixations of the spine. Dr Wingate said getting adjusted, himself, helps deal with his chronic heartburn. However, in his book, Bonesetting, Chiropractic, and Cultism, Dr Homola, said that while there are uses for chiropractic does have uses, chiropractic treatment does not compare with medical treatment in treating organic or infectious diseases. He also said the manipulation has yet to be established as a science. While the medical establishment remains skeptical about chiropractic, Dr Payne said most patients are open to it. “Once they realize you’re not going to hurt them they really enjoy it,” Dr Payne said. Dr Wingate said about 80 percent of people have never been to a physical doctor. Part of his job is to keep putting the word out and making people aware. “We’re trying to work our way into the game,” Dr Wingate said. “Even though they (the medical establishment) don’t like it.

Study examines cause of Fibromyalgia

2008-05-09T21:44:04Z

Most people have felt it before: a bad night’s sleep; the aches and pains, and the lack of focus the next day. It’s occasional, and usually brought on by stress. For people with Fibromyalgia, though, this is a regular occurrence, a vicious cycle that is difficult to break. Fibromyalgia, or FM, is a chronic pain condition that as of yet has no specific cause and very few effective medical treatments. A study by Bennet et al in 2007 found that 79 percent of people surveyed reported that sleep problems made FM symptoms worse. The study also found that fatigue and nonrestorative sleep were rated higher in symptom intensity than pain itself. What if one good night’s sleep could change that? A new study by Nancy Hamilton and Ruth Ann Atchley, associate professors of psychology at the University of Kansas is examining the effects of FM—particularly its effects on the ability to pay attention, and prioritize. The study, called Sleep Neuroscience and Pain, hopes to prove the existence of a link between a lack of ability to pay attention to positive things and the persistence of FM symptoms. The study could have an impact on the treatment of FM, which, for now, relies primarily on over-the-counter painkillers, antidepressants, and living a healthier lifestyle, according to Patty Quinlan, the nursing supervisor at Watkins Student Health Center. As of yet, there is no undisputed source of FM, and proving its existence has been a challenge. Doctors must first rule out any other potential causes of the symptoms, which means that individuals are subjected to a variety of medical tests. Doctors will only test for FM after all other possibilities have been ruled out, Quinlan said. In order to be diagnosed with FM, a person must have widespread aching pain for a minimum of three months, in 11 different locations. Still, though, not all doctors will consider diagnosing someone with Fibromyalgia. “Doctors will tell you that it’s all in your head,” Atchley, Hamilton’s collaborator and cognitive neuroscientist, said. According to her, FM has been, and still is by some, considered largely psychosomatic. The study observes three different groups of people: normal women who don’t have FM or sleep problems, women with sleep problems, and women who have been diagnosed with FM, according to Natalie Stevens, a graduate research assistant for the study. Participants wear an Actiwatch, which monitors their movements, for five days and four nights. The data collected in the Actiwatch is used to determine when participants fall asleep and how much they move during the night. This can be used to determine sleep efficiency, the ratio of time spent in bed to time actually spent asleep. According to Atchley, a ratio 85 percent or higher is considered healthy. This is a sample print out of the data gathered by the Actiwatch. The black spikes indicate movement; the more black spikes there are, the more the person is moving about. Image contributed by Nancy Hamilton Participants then come in for a lab visit. Participants are hooked up to an electro encephalograph, or EEG, which measures brain activity. They are shown 4 sets of images and words. Most of them in are inanimate and neutral, but embedded in each set are certain other images: positive things, living things, negative things, and painful things. The measurements are then converted into a P3 wave, which indicates when someone is attending to something. This is a sample of the data collected by the EEG. It is then averaged and converted to the the P3 wave below. Image contributed by Ruth Ann Atchley The steeper the spike in the P3 wave, the more attention the person is paying to the stimulus. Image contributed by Ruth Ann Atchley The purpose of this is to determine what the participants respond to most often. According to Atchley, when someone is deprived of sleep, she has fewer mental resources available to pay attention to. When fewer resources are available, the brain is forced to prioritize. “You might be better able to [pay attention] to things that are sort of threatening, and be less able to pay attention to things that are less threatening, which might make you feel crummy all of the time,” Hamilton, principal investigator and clinical psychologist, said. This is what her research with Atchley is based on. They believe that people with FM are genetically disposed to feel pain more acutely than others. This affects their ability to sleep, which in turn limits their ability to pay attention. This means that they are more inclined to pay attention to things that are negative and painful. It becomes a vicious cycle that is difficult to break. This flowchart, first drawn by Atchley, visualizes the cycle they believe leads to fibromyalgia. Hamilton said that the first line of inquiry in her research is whether such a link exists. If it does, then their research should show that the quality of sleep for people with FM is lower than both the control group and the people with sleep problems. This data will then be compared to the second part of the experiment, which measures what the participants are attending to. Atchley said that they would expect to see that people with FM pay much greater attention to the negative and painful things than either of the other groups. More importantly, they would pay far less attention to the positive and living things than even the neutral ones. In short, it’s a vicious cycle. According to Hamilton, sleep problems are actually fairly common. Approximately a third of the adult population reports occasional problems, and up to 10 percent report chronic sleep problems. Hamilton said she believes that people with FM already have sleep trouble before ever being diagnosed with it. This is the product of a genetic predisposition to pain, but for most people, sleep problems are a product of stress. “It’s your body’s way of saying ‘hey, things are kind of messed up right now. You may want to pay attention to [them],’” Hamilton said. According to Hamilton, sleep problems are fairly evenly spread across gender in the U.S. Some of those conditions, however, such as sleep apnea, are more common in one gender than the other. Sleep apnea is a condition where a person stops breathing in the middle of the night, which forces him or her to wake up. While it does occur in women, it is more prominent in men possibly because of physiological differences. For example, men have bigger necks and chins, and the jaw line is different. Men also carry their weight more in the center of their chests, which puts pressure on the lungs. Sleep apnea is also affected by weight, and so Hamilton said that the increasing rate of obesity in the U.S. could be linked to the rising prevalence of sleep disorders. Fibromyalgia is more prevalent among women, almost eight times more so than in men. Onset of FM frequently coincides with menopause. One of the complaints of menopause is that sleep becomes harder; weight gain is also common. Hysterectomies are also common among women with FM. There is hope, though. According to Hamilton, many sleep disorders can be successfully treated. If sleep problems are what causes Fibromyalgia, then treating them could in turn reduce the symptoms of FM.

Stomach issues? Join the club.

2008-05-09T21:39:30Z

Logan McCrae, Wichita junior, does not look forward to dinner. As the dinner bell rings at her sorority house, she makes her way down stairs. She says grace with the rest of her sorority sisters and sits down at her usual table. She goes to dinner for the social aspects and slowly picks at the food on her plate.

McCrae despises dinner so much because she has Crohn’s disease. Crohn’s affects McCrae’s digestive system making her very sensitive to certain foods. The sensitivity causes a problem because McCrae lives in a sorority house where food options are not always her own choice. Environmental factors like food make living with Crohn’s almost unbearable for McCrae sometimes. According to digestive diseases web site, Crohn’s is a disease that causes inflammation of the digest tract. Crohn’s can affect any area of the digestive tract, but most commonly the lower part of the small intestine, called the ileum. The disease can cause swelling of the intestines. Crohn’s can be categorized as a inflammatory bowl disease. “ It was hard coming to college with Crohn’s,” said McCrae. “ Freshmen year all of the girls in my dorm though I was anorexic because I didn’t eat a lot in the cafeteria, but I wasn’t. I was just waiting to eat in my room because the cafeteria food would make me sick,” she said. Other students like McCrae had a hard time adjusting to college life with a digestive or intestinal disease. Dr. Mike L. Waldschmidt said many students have a hard time adjusting to a new diet and lifestyle after coming to college. He said some students can go their whole life with out any type of problem, but the new change of a college schedule can throw their body off guard leaving them with a digestive problem. Erin Maloney, a Wichita senior, worked out a deal with her sorority so she wouldn’t have to pay the food fee while living in the house because she could not eat the food. Maloney suffers from Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

Maloney has been diabetic her whole life and said that might have lead to IBS. Maloney noticed something was wrong early in her freshman year at the University of Kansas. She had severe stomach issues especially when she ate any type of greasy or spicy food. She was confused because those types of foods had never been an issue before. “The stomach pains got so bad that I had to see my doctor immediately,” Maloney said. “I was missing classes and missing other big events because I couldn’t eat without having to rush to the bathroom; it was awful and embarrassing on top of that,” she said. Maloney’s doctor diagnosed her with IBS and prescribed her a medication to help with the stomach pains. The medication she takes is a tablet that is placed on her tongue and dissolves acting immediately. Maloney said she only has to take her medicine when the IBS acts up.

Maloney’s diet significantly changed since freshman year. Now she mainly sticks to fruits, vegetables, peanut butter and bread. The only type of meat she can eat is chicken. Maloney’s embarrassment quickly subsided when she realized she wasn’t alone in having a digestive disorder. While at a lunch with a group of new friends Maloney noticed another girl who was asking very specific questions about what type of ingredients were featured in the menu. Courtney Brax, Hutchinson junior, also had IBS. While Brax’s IBS was not as severe, she still had a strict diet. The two quickly became close because of the similar experiences they shared. Brax said it was easier to go out to eat with Maloney because she always asked the same questions that she did. She also said they gave each other tips about which medications worked best and which had the worst side effects. While not every student at KU knows or understands these types of diseases, more are learning. McCrae said when she first started telling people that she had Crohn’s people had no idea what it was, but now most people she talks to do. Because of the environmental changes these diseases are affecting more and more people. “It’s nice not having to explain my situation every time I talk to someone new,” McCrae said. “ More people have similar situations than you would think.”

Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy

2008-05-09T21:06:50Z

Janet Hubble, 65, used synthetic hormones for ten years. She believed the claims that hormone therapy would protect her health during menopause, and keep her bones, skin, and heart from aging. Hubble felt somewhat conflicted about using hormones, because some doctors said they were dangerous, but she never had any side-effects. When research conclusively indicated that synthetic hormones were actually harmful, Janet had already damaged her body. Hubble, like thousands of other women taking hormone therapy for menopause, developed breast cancer. She needed three years of chemotherapy to kill the two cancers growing in her breast, but she survived. In July of 2002, the Women’s Health Initiative stopped their massive research study of synthetic hormone therapy. They discovered manufactured hormones were actually making women sick. Participants in the estrogen plus progestin research group had increased levels of heart disease, blood clots, stroke, and breast cancer. After the study, women using synthetic hormones dropped drastically, and doctors refused to prescribe hormone therapy to women with breast cancer history.

Hubble, however, is happily using hormones again. She feels and looks healthy, and strongly believes that women can benefit from hormone therapy. “I had a dermatologist look at my skin and say, ‘you’re how old?’, and I’ve had four perfect eco-cardiograms,” Hubble said. The hormones Hubble takes are not the synthetic version; no doctor would prescribe them to her. Rather, Hubble uses bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. Bioidentical hormones have the same molecular structure as hormones made by a woman’s body. They are created from plants, and metabolized like natural hormones. When dissolved directly into the blood-stream, bioidentical hormones by-pass the liver, and minimize side-effects. European research and many pharmacists suggest that bioidentical hormones are safe and effective; women should have no adverse health risks from taking them. Deena Khosh, naturopathic doctor and the University of Kansas Medical Center, hopes to prove the efficacy of BHRT. “Lots of physicians worry if this is safe or not, and that’s why we’re doing this study. We’re looking at the different factors, what combinations of hormones works best,” Khosh said. The Program in Integrative Medicine plans to enroll 46 women in its pilot study, which will last one-two years. The researchers want to determine if BHRT is associated with improved lipid profiles when compared to Prempro, a synthetic hormone. They also hypothesize that bioidentical hormones provide a safe alternative to standard hormone replacement therapy. Khosh says she believes BHRT will prove to be an effective treatment for women. “You go into menopause and you’re miserable with the symptoms, the hot flashes, insomnia, memory loss, but your option now is something that could cause cancer. So this is something that could alleviate symptoms naturally,” Khosh said.

Janith Williams, director of The Center for Excellence in Women’s Health Research and Outreach at the University of Texas, will finish a pilot study on BHRT later this year. Like the med center, UT is conducting some of the only American-based research about BHRT. Williams hesitates to say that the study results prove the safety of bioidentical hormones, but admits they look positive. “There’s a real promise, but there’s a need for a tremendous amount of research, on-going and multi-faceted research,” Williams said. Lisa Everett, certified clinical nutritionist and co-owner of O’Brien Pharmacy in Kansas City, already believes BHRT is safe, and prescribes it regularly to patients. “We’ve been using this [BHRT] at O’Brien Pharmacy for 45 years, and with much safer results,” Everett said. According to Everett, only six of her BHRT patients have been diagnosed with breast cancer. She believes some of those women already had cancer before starting treatment, compared to the thousands of women diseased from using synthetic hormones. Everett is adamant that BHRT administered correctly, by dissolving it directly into the bloodstream, is helpful, not harmful to women. “Many synthetics have an effect on the body that has an exact opposite reaction to what happens naturally. No synthetic can replace what was created on this earth, well or better, than our molecules can,” Everett said. In January, the Food and Drug Administration issued a statement saying that the use of bioidentical hormones as safe and effective is, “unsupported by medical evidence” and is, “considered false and misleading by the agency”. Many doctors and pharmacists, like Everett, feel the FDA’s statement is due to lobbying by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, and not a result of scientific evidence. In order for the FDA to retract its statement, the research studies at UT and the med center need to be proven and published. Everett remains confident that her research is factual and bioidentical hormones are helpful to women. “Premarin [a synthetic hormone] is horse trash. I do think that this [BHRT] is the wave of the future,” Everett said.

Monarch Watch

2008-05-09T20:04:38Z

Imagine what would happen to the population of the United States if the area of the U.S. was shrinking each year by an area the size of the state of Illinois. This is the problem monarch butterflies are facing. Every fall Monarch butterflies make a trip south to Mexico to hibernate from the cold winter months in the north. The population of these butterflies is taking a hard hit because of the deforestation in the southern U.S. and Mexico that is destroying milkweed plants. The butterflies use the milkweed plants not only as a source of food, but also as a place to lay their eggs. A program at the University of Kansas is hoping to change this outlook for the butterflies. The program, Monarch Watch, is lead by Dr. Orley “Chip” Taylor, a professor of entomology at the University. Dr. Taylor is very concerned about the alarming rate at which the habitat of the butterflies is decreasing. “In the United States we are losing 9.4 square miles a day due to development. It’s going to have consequences. This loss amounts to 2.2 million acres a year in area, which is equivalent to the size of Illinois, the fourth largest state,” Taylor said. In 2005, the program created Monarch Waystations to combat this habitat loss. The waystations give the monarchs the necessary means to produce offspring and continue their migration. Although the monarch butterfly itself is not in danger of becoming extinct, the phenomenon of its migration is in danger. Because of deforestation, many monarch butterflies are losing their habitats. “The Waystations are encouraging people to be aware of the deforestation and plant gardens for the butterflies,” said Ann Ryan, Monarch Watch program assistant. Since 2005, more than 2,000 waystations have been created.

The program also reaches out to science teachers who are able to use the Monarch Watch program in their classrooms. This part of the program consists of tagging the butterflies to monitor their migration to Mexico in the fall and then back home again in the spring. Per year Monarch Watch sends out about a quarter of a million tags. Although not all of them are used. The number of tags the program sends out has been increasing over the years. Randy Warner, a former science teacher at Olathe Northwest High School, used Monarch Watch as part of his curriculum to teach students about the butterfly and also have them participate in an actual research project where they contributed data to a large-scale database. Warner said he thought the project was a good motivator for his students, as the tagging of the butterflies allowed the students to get hands-on experience and learn about the scientific research process.

A monarch butterfly has an average life span of about six to seven months. In this relatively short time the butterfly travels a distance of approximately 500 miles. “The monarch is certainly an interesting species, Taylor said. “That’s why we are doing our best every day to help keep their habitat alive.”

KUPPL has new study on vowel sounds

2008-05-09T19:44:51Z

“Ciao, amica.” Sitting in Italian class Junior Noy Phimphasone tries to understand the new vocabulary. What she does not know is that the difference in the way vowels are formed in the mouth changes the way they sound. This change changes the wavelength, or frequency, of the vowel, changing her perception of how to say the English word in Italian. This difference in word formation could cause problems in learning a new language. The University of Kansas Laboratory of Phonetics and Psycholinguistics (KUPPL) is eight months into research on different vowel formations and the perception of different vowel sounds in different languages. The research is lead by Dr. Allard Jongman of KU who says there are differences in vowel quality, or tone, based on the position of the tongue and lips. For example, the lips form an ‘a’ in bought changing the tone of the vowels. These differences cause speech differences which result in sound differences. Researchers at the phonetics lab hope to find out if these differences have an affect on listeners of different languages.

“There are different sounds between Italian and English and it makes it hard sometimes to understand how to form new words,” said Phimphasone. Researchers have been studying vowels for more than 50 years and phonetics was studied in ancient India, but not everything is known about language. KUPPL researchers are conducting a new study about the vowel frequencies, hoping to see if differences in these vowel frequencies change the listeners understanding of the vowels. This is the first cross language study done with vowel frequencies. The results could change the way that new languages are taught around the world, by specializing curriculum to match vowel formation. Jongman is leading the study to find the answer to the difference in vowels. The first step he says is comparing the perception by speakers of different languages. KUPPL researchers collaborate with researchers in Germany to study native German and Turkish speakers. Jongman says they completed the German and Turkish study six to eight months ago and will begin testing American English speakers at KU in mid May. KUPPL researchers look at the difference in two specific frequencies in the vowels. F1 is the first format, which has a low sound. F2 is the second format with a high sound. Jongman asks if a native language has a lot of different vowels primarily along the F1 frequency, would it make the listener more or less sensitive to subtle differences along the same frequency.

“At first glance, you may expect that speakers of such a language would be more sensitive. However, there is also evidence that suggests that speakers ignore acoustic differences that do not serve to distinguish distinct vowels,” said Jongman. The study found that German listeners were more sensitive to frequency differences then Turkish listeners. “It could be that Turkish listeners are not sensitive to subtle F2 differences within the grand categories,” said Kazumi Maniwa, at the University of Konstanz, Germany, “Alternatively, it may have resulted from differences in the two languages’ vowel inventories: German involves somewhat more purely F2 distinctions in this region.” The main purpose of the study is for basic knowledge. There are a few applications that could benefit from the study. Jongman says that with the findings it may be able to help students learning a second language. He says that with the findings teachers might be able to help students by teaching the new language based on the formation of vowels of their native language. For example, if teaching Spanish, the teacher would teach it differently to native German speakers than Turkish based on the sensitivity to certain vowel formations. With the German and Turkish part of the study complete and English almost underway Jongman and his colleagues hope to study speakers of Spanish, Greek, Japanese and Finnish soon. Before starting new studies, Jongman and the rest of the researchers will present their findings in Athens, Greece in August. “I think that would be awesome if you could teach for a certain language,” said Phimphasone

Aerospace Engineering creates coleopter

2008-05-09T19:30:14Z

Look, up in the sky. It’s a bird, it’s a plane, no it’s a coleopter? Never heard of it? That's because the word isn't even in the American Heritage Dictionary yet. A celeopter, recently finished at the University of Kansas’ Aerospace Engineering program, is a new kind of flying machine that researchers at KU believe has loads of potential when it comes to unmanned surveillance and attack. The French were the first to build a coleopter, a name that is derived from the French word coléoptère, which means “beetle.” They are characterized by a ring like wing that surrounds the fuselage, and are meant to take off from the ground, hover, and land on their tails without a runway. They are vertically designed, using a propeller or fan for lift, and basically look like a cylinder with a halo around the middle or upper section of the body. They range in size from a few ounces to hundreds of pounds and can perform many different and specialized tasks. Some are built solely for hovering; there are tethered versions, and others can tip horizontally and fly through the air at high speeds.

Side view of Aerospace Engineering coleopter.
Photo: Anthony Pellettiere

View of coleopter's landing gear and propeller from the back.
Photo: Anthony Pellettiere

The University of Kansas’ Aerospace Engineering department is one of a few such departments nationwide currently working on coleopter design and development. It just completed its newest prototype, which resembles a large, and expensive toy. Weighing in at six pounds, it stands a little over two feet tall, and can go about 160 mph. The department’s most recent coleopter is an unimposing figure, but one that Ron Barrett, associate professor in the Aerospace Engineering department, said out performed other small aircraft of its type, including Honeywell’s unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), which is funded by the The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the United States Army. “It smoked everything else that was on the open market,” Barrett said. “It hovered longer, was far faster, much more maneuverable, and it was gust sensitive.” The aircraft itself is a prototype for future coleopters that may be used by law enforcement and the military. David Borys, who is finishing his master’s degree on coleopters, said that as of right now the larger ones are mainly used for reconnaissance and could be fitted with small weapons. He said that the smaller, slower coleopters could be used for police surveillance. Professor Barret said that this is because they are not regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration, and can’t fly as high, or as fast as larger versions. He said that with smaller coleopters there is less potential for danger.

Aerospace Engineering Professor Ron Barrett

Professor Barrett said the Aerospace Engineering department’s coleopter could be equipped with small cameras or weapons like tear gas. He said it was especially useful for identification purposes. “With these kinds of aircraft you can fly next to a building and get a good I.D., you can say, ‘oh, well this is a daycare center. Either those al-Qaida members are all really young and still in diapers or maybe we should think twice about attacking this place,’” Barrett said.

Aerospace Engineering Professor Ron Barrett

The project has developed over the last four years. It started with more basic designs, which have morphed into a larger and more complex coleopter. Andy Gladbach, a junior who worked on a tethered version of a coleopter, by his estimation put in at least 200 hours per semester. His freshman year he worked on a system that measured the different conditions a tethered machine might encounter. The tethered variant is a more simplistic design. It is smaller, attached to the ground with tethers, and cheaper to make. During his sophomore year he worked on a stabilizing system and was able to take the aircraft to a couple of engineering conferences where it was well received. “I really liked going to the conferences,” Galdbach said. “My sophomore year we went to the Air force Academy, and that was just really cool in itself because not very many people get to go there.” Andy Spalding, a junior who also worked on the early tethered aircraft, said he enjoyed taking an idea, building it, and turning it into a real thing. They presented their craft in a half hour presentation, which included an exhibit. He said that the experience allowed them to take what they learned and apply it to real situations. “Since we had a lack of experience we didn’t know exactly what to do, but I think we really surprised a lot of people,” Spalding said. The Aerospace department’s newest design has come a long way from the earlier versions. As a result, the school has received a patent, and according to Dr. Barrett, about $380,000 worth of money and grants from various contracts. Singapore Technologies Aerospace recently paid the department to further develop the craft.

The Aerospace Engineering department’s students and professors continue to work towards more funding and better design. In engineering the ultimate goal is to get a product fully transitioned to industry. “That is the holy grail, that is what engineers come to work for,” Barrett said.

Stigma keeps students from seeking help

2008-05-09T19:28:45Z

Rain taps the outside of Devon Harris’s car as she sits alone in the parking lot of her dorm. Tears mirror the streaks of the rain, while her sobbing leaves her shaking and weak. Wiping violently at her tears, why am I so sad remains unanswered. The loneliness inside her throbs with prominence, it’s the only thing she remembers how to feel. How did it get so bad?

Finally making it to her room, she climbs into bed and turns her phone on silent; anything anyone has to say won’t help. Who is this person I’ve become? Unanswerable questions constantly taunt her thoughts. She had all these plans, an extravagant idea of the person she wanted to become, but somehow she had lost that along the way. Her vivid personality dimmed, Devon’s pain left her screaming inside, her outcries failing on deaf ears. Her confidence, work ethic, ambition, her joy of dancing and singing in the car, the things she was proud of, recognized and remembered for had all disappeared. “I finally called CAPS (Counseling and Psychological Services) and made an appointment,” Harris, Greenwich, Conn., senior, said. “When I said, ‘I think I have depression,’ I was so embarrassed. It sounded so stupid, especially coming from the last person you’d think would have it.” The increase of depression at the University of Kansas and college campuses across the United States prompted CAPS to put out a survey addressing this issue along with the rise of suicide. According to the American College Health Association (ACHA), the percentage of college students diagnosed with depression has increased 56 percent in the last six years. While 92 percent of college students experience over half of the symptoms of depression, only 16 percent have been diagnosed. From the survey, 78 percent of KU students chose “weak and “an excuse” when asked to describe depression bringing the dark image of the disease to the forefront. “Some students feel there is a stigma attached… so they are less likely to seek help,” Kelly Bowers, director of counseling at Baker University, said. “The hardest part of overcoming depression may be making that first call to a therapist and acknowledging that you are having a difficult time in your life and you’re feeling stuck,” Mark Bowers, Ph.D., psychologist at Psych Solutions in Lawrence, said, “but most won’t because of the stigma; you are far from an outsider.”

Neglecting to seek help has led to alarming statistics. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry found suicide is the second leading cause of death among college students and 11 percent of college students seriously consider suicide each year. “College students are in the critical developmental age range, ” Mark Bowers said. “Add time management, relationships, access to drugs and alcohol, financial stress etc. and you have yourself a bit of a perfects storm.”

Depression is a serious and common condition that involves that body and mind and significantly affects a person’s appetite, sleep, energy, thinking, self-esteem and physical wellbeing according to the American Psychiatric Association. The symptoms are persistent and not the same as a temporary blue mood or normal emotional experiences such as sadness or grief. Depression can have severe consequences in terms of suffering and disability. Students don’t seek help for a variety of reasons, but Kelly Bowers attributes a lack of understanding about the physiological aspects of depression and the disorder in general. Ali Woods, a Leawood junior, has friends with depression and understands students’ reluctance in seeking help. “At first, they didn’t know anything was wrong, then they just didn’t want to admit it,” Woods said. “They figured I knew and thought I would think less of them. Honestly, I would have never known if they didn’t tell me.” The CAPS survey found over 90 percent experienced symptoms of depression, but said they didn’t have depression or would never experience it. Gina Graham, a counseling psychologist intern at CAPS, said the thoughts of being “defective” and “weak” need to be changed and depression can’t be ignored any longer or “we’ll be the ones to blame for the consequences.” Shortly after Harris was diagnosed with depression, she was eager to inform her teachers, excited to explain her embarrassing work ethic. “I was so ashamed and embarrassed to begin with, but I completely regret telling them,” Harris said. Each teacher rolled their eyes or seemed to take it simply as an excuse Harris said. “Not one teacher seemed to believe me,” Harris said. “Another ‘please feel sorry for me and give me a good grade.’ The first time I need someone to understand and help me out, I get shot down.” Kelly Bowers says it’s hard for people who don’t understand the disorder to relate to it and respond correctly. The reaction Harris received is one explanation for why some don’t get help.

CAPS plans to inform incoming freshman of its offered services and the symptoms of depression during orientation and at dorms and are increasing its staff, according to John Wade, outreach coordinator and licensed counseling psychologist at CAPS. “Individuals who are depressed need support,” Mark Bowers said. “Be available to listen and provide support and encouragement.” He warns that having a friend or family member experience depression can be difficult and frustrating. “You can still be a good friend even though you cannot fix this for the other person,” Mark Bowers said.

Myths about cancer

2008-05-09T19:17:39Z

In society today it seems like just about anything can cause breast cancer, and understandably so for the simple fact that the chance of developing invasive breast cancer at some time in a woman's life is about 1 in 8. Even the 6 o’clock news poses the questions, “does leaving your water bottle in your car cause breast cancer?” But how much do we really know about cancer? Dr. Ted Gansler, medical director of health content for the American Cancer Society (ACS), and his colleagues conducted a telephone survey for the ACS to find out just how much Americans really knew about cancer and more than 85% said they considered themselves somewhat knowledgeable. Yet a significant number of people still believe common myths about the disease and its treatments.

“The media and medical shows like ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ have put ideas into people’s heads about cancer that aren’t always entirely true,” Oncology Certified Nurse at Lawrence Memorial Hospital Julie Tuley said. “People are actually afraid to drink out of plastic water bottles because they don’t want to develop the disease.” From coast to coast Americans have caught wind that leaving a water bottle in your car and then later drinking from it can lead to breast cancer because the heat and the plastic of the bottle have certain chemicals that can be harmful; more specifically Diethylhydroxylamine (DEHA), a potential carcinogen. “More recently you hear everything causes cancer. You even hear vegetables cause cancer in different reports,” Dr. Eston Schwartz Oncologist at Lawrence Memorial Hospital said. “The most recent one was the water bottle issue and plastics. People have said if you heat these plastics they can cause cancer, that has never been proven.”

Dr. Eston Schwartz, Oncologist Lawrence Memorial Hospital

Danielle Gray, a sophomore at William Jewel College, said that her American Literature class recently spent an entire day discussing the possibility of breast cancer occurring from re-using plastic water bottles. “A class mate of mine saw something about it on the news and brought it up casually as class was starting,” Gray said. “But other people started listening and before long it became a big issue.” The ACS dismisses the rumor entirely. The website claims that DEHA is not inherent in the plastic used to make these bottles, and even if it was the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says DEHA cannot reasonably be expected to cause cancer. The EPA also says that DEHA cannot cause teratogenic effects, immunotoxicity, neurotoxicity, gene mutations, developmental toxicity or other serious or irreversible chronic health problems. “I have been in the field of Oncology for 18 years and never in my career have I seen a cancer patient that probably got it from drinking out of a previously used water bottle,” Tuley said. “Cancer is a very hereditary thing or is usually caused from the same old things everybody knows about: smoking, tanning, things like that.” There are numerous pamphlets inside health facilities such as Watkins Health Center and Lawrence Memorial Hospital that claim eating right and exercise reduce the risk of cancer. “It is not guaranteed that proper diet and working out will keep you safe from cancer,” Tuley said. “But it will definitely help.” In July 2006 Dr. Heather Spencer Feigelson of the ACS conducted a study showing that women who gain weight once they reach adulthood face a much higher lifetime risk of all types of breast cancer. Feigelson found that the most extremely obese women were up to three times more likely to have regional or distant metastases than women with less weight gain. Fat tissue increases circulating estrogen, thereby adding to the risk. Compared to women who gained 20 pounds or less during adulthood, women who gained over 60 pounds were almost twice as likely to have ductal type tumors and more than 1.5 times more likely to have lobular type cancers. Elizabeth Sawalich, a nurse in the gynecology department at the Watkins Health Center, said that she gets people who come in all the time with all types of questions concerning the development of cancer. “The most commonly asked question is ‘does birth control pills cause cancer’ and of course that isn’t true,” Sawalich said. “Although once cancer is developed it is mandatory that patient be taken off the pill.”

Sawalich said that the most outrageous claim she had ever heard was if underwire bras could cause breast cancer, but students at KU aren’t the only ones who think this. The ACS found that 6.2% of Americans thought this myth to be true. In 1995 Soma Grismaijer and Sydney Ross Singer wrote a book called Dressed to Kill. The book quoted two anthropologists who said that underwire bras could in fact cause cancer. However, according to the ACS their study was not conducted according to standard principles of epidemiological research and did not take into consideration other variables, including known risk factors for breast cancer. “Nobody knows for 100% fact if these silly myths will or will not lead to cancer,” Tuley said. “But based on the research I have done and from what I have seen, most of them are just rumors.”

KU program tests method to revive oil fields

2008-05-09T19:01:56Z

Everybody grumbles when they pass the gas stations now. With oil prices flying past $120 per barrel, and the nation's average price for a gallon of gasoline more than $3.60, the nation is suffering through another energy crunch. But the Kansas Geological Survey of the University of Kansas is testing a new way to get more oil out of aging and deserted oil fields. And it's starting here in Kansas. Lynn Watney, senior scientist with the Survey, said the process involves breaking through rock and other obstacles in the ground with high pressure water, then forcing untapped oil pockets toward the pump, and using a new, more efficient pump to increase oil production. The goal is to get 3-10 times as much oil from the fields as they get now, resulting in lower prices at the gas station. “We'd be extending the life of the oil field,” Watney said.
Lynn Watney, senior geologist, Kansas Geological Survey
Watney, a leader for the Survey, received a Ph.D. in Geology from KU in 1985. Along with his Survey work, he's an executive director for the KU Energy Research Center, an adjunct professor for the KU department of Geology. Across the United States, more than 400,000 “marginal” oil wells are aging or abandoned and aren't producing as well as they have in the past. Kansas ranks second in the county behind Texas in the number of these marginal wells. Kansas has 54,000 of these marginal wells. The Survey is conducting the performance tests for this new method in Hillsboro in Marion County, a county with a similar oil history to Douglas County and counties across the nation. According to the Kansas Geological Survey, oil production in Douglas County has fallen from just under 74,000 barrels in 1995 to under 38,000 barrels last year. It is the same way in most Kansas counties – production is fizzling out. The problem is that, as more oil is pumped, more water gets into what is pumped out. Project engineer Saibal Bhattacharya said that these older pumps can be pulling up between 90 and 95 percent water. “You can't sell water,” he said. “Oil – you can.” Fields that produce these high amounts of water in central Kansas comprise 60 percent of Kansas' oil production, according to a Survey proposal sent to the Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America. That's where this new process comes into play. Four water jets, called laterals, are set up 300 feet around the well to jet holes into rock in the ground to basically erode the rock and create more upflow, both more oil and more water. Then a new pump called a progressive cavity pump separates out the water from the oil. They take the water and, in a separate pump, inject it back, very deep into the ground. Bhattacharya said that everything involved in the process has been done before, but that it is usually very expensive. He said the Survey is unique in putting the combination of two new technologies together efficiently to save money for potential users of their process. “At the end of the day, money is all that counts,” he said. If the testing is successful, it could be reproduced and reenacted by anybody with an aging or struggling oil pump. Locally and nationwide, this process might help a number of small and big companies. Ernie Morrison, the senior geologist of Mull Drilling, said he is excited about the project's possibilities. “Anything we can do to enhance oil is good,” he said. “The ramifications of this project succeeding would be unbelievable.” His company, based in Wichita, would be interested in their process if it does work out. “They're trying to get a good model set up,” Morrison said. “If they can do it, it's easy to reproduce their process with less risk and cost.”
View Larger Map The Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America is underwriting what they have already done, and Watney, the senior scientist, wrote a proposal that the Survey sent to the RPSEA. The RPSEA accepted the proposal, and will be giving the survey $250,000 to cover almost half of their $519,000 bill. This accepted proposal from the RPSEA means more money pumped into the project, which will translate to more things the Survey can do in Hillsboro. They will be able to more accurately and more elaborately test the process and even start transforming it into a nationwide sweep. If all continues going well for the Survey, local farmers all over Kansas and the nation will feel the positive effects. “Revitalizing old oil fields affects rural America, such as Kansas, helps farmers and ranches sustain a living through increased royalties,” Watney said. And, for consumers, it will “help reduce pain at the pump.”

Social skills group builds meaningful relationships for children with autism

2008-05-09T19:01:28Z

At the beginning of the fall semester a group of nervous teenagers walked into their first social skills group meeting. Looking around the room, the teens took comfort in knowing they were among peers who all have autism. In school they already learned the academic and behavioral skills needed in day-to-day life, but there was still something missing. They were lacking true friendships and meaningful relationships. They knew their classmates in school, but they usually didn’t receive an invitation to the birthday parties and were not invited to participate in weekend festivities. Wes Dotson, Broken Arrow, Okla., graduate student and Justin Leaf, Long Beach, Calif., graduate student worked with many children with autism around the Lawrence area and noticed the lack of services focusing strictly on social skills. “Schools often focus on behavioral skills, academic skills and independent living skills often to the inclusion of teaching them how to make friends, because they have to focus on what they need to focus on,“ Dotson said. “We felt this was a very pressing need in the community.” Dotson and Leaf started a social skills group for children with autism that meets with different age groups every day from 4:15-5:45 p.m. To recruit the kids, they sent out flyers and a mass e-mail through the Lawrence and Kansas City Autism Society. It wasn’t long before they received over 100 e-mails from interested parents. They performed clinical studies with each kid and the parents before deciding which children were right for the group. Children with autism either lack normal language development or have an impairment in the development of social behavior, or both. The kids chosen for the group needed language skills because the teaching Dotson and Leaf use is language based. The research obtained in their social skills group will not only help them receive their dissertations, but also provides a new kind of teaching environment in the Lawrence area for children with autism. The teaching techniques they use in the groups were developed over thirty years ago, but usually are applied in a clinical setting. Dotson and Leaf not only apply the teaching techniques in a controlled environment, but they also are the first group to evaluate their data rigorously with research.

Dotson leads the 12-18 year-old groups because it matches his expertise. Usually the group begins with an activity where the children learn rules of games and sportsmanship so they can take part in similar activities outside of the group. Next, Dotson moves to the teaching portion of the class that focuses on another skill, either emotional or conversational. They learn how to deal with different situations or about general knowledge so they know age appropriate topics to talk about.

“When the group started out most of the kids named Disney movies when asked what their favorite movies were and only three of them knew how to play soccer,” Dotson said. “We try to teach them things that other kids their age like so in school they know what to talk about with their classmates.”

Dotson collects data before they learn a new skill, immediately after they learn the skill and during a follow-up period to see if the teaching is effective. During the entire group session, the kids are reinforced with praise and encouragement. They also receive points on a point card for appropriate behavior and loose points for inappropriate behavior. The points are collected at the end of the group and the kids can turn their points in for different items including games and candy. Leaf leads the 3-6 year-old groups, which matches his expertise. The kids are younger, so the group is focused on more basic social skills. Some examples of these skills are giving compliments, asking for things politely and recognizing emotions in people through their facial expressions. The children are younger so they are reinforced more than the older kids and need a tangible reinforcer. Leaf uses tickets for their points and each time the children act appropriately they are reinforced immediately and he places a ticket in their cup that are traded in for prizes at the end of the day. Leaf uses the same teaching model and data collection used with the older kids. The kids choose their activity during break time because Dotson and Leaf want to make sure everything that happens in the group serves as a reinforcer. If the children engage in an activity they want to play, then it reinforces their good behavior. “We have seen a lot of progress,“ Leaf said. “The kids would come in and not know how to follow simple instructions and interact with friends and now I think they follow pretty much all instructions and they exhibit a lot of social behaviors they didn’t have before.” In addition to Dotson and Leaf, 12 undergraduate students help teach and collect data for the group. The experience gives them the opportunity to receive real world, hands-on experience while working with children with autism. They have the opportunity to lead and teach a lot of behaviors, which most people don’t have until they are out of college and working. Valerie Johnson, Overland Park senior said she was nervous when she started the group, but now wants to continue this kind of research after college. “I had the public image of what children with autism are and I didn’t really know what to expect and I was just worried I was not going to like it, but I absolutely feel in love with it and completely changed my major because of it,” Johnson said. James Sherman, Ph.D., professor of applied behavioral science, first encountered autism in the 1960s when people regarded autism as untreatable. Sherman said teaching children with autism social skills is absolutely critical for their development. “Humans are social animals and there are many skills they need in order to be successful,” Sherman said. “If they can’t make friends they are going to be at a severe disadvantage.” Dotson and Leaf said they know they are leaving a lasting impression on the kids in their group. One of the 16-year-old in the group received a cell-phone for Christmas and he immediately brought the phone to class and wanted to put everyone’s phone number in it. “That was such a happy day for us and we wanted to do a dance,” Dotson said. “Seeing the relationships that develop between the kids is very rewarding for us.”

Dotson and Leaf plan to continue the group through the summer and into next year. They hope to expand the group to other areas in Kansas including the Kansas City area. They want to show the success of their group and show others how these kids are capable of building meaningful and lasting relationships.

University Dedicated to Learning How Kids Talk.

2008-05-09T18:12:05Z

A researcher works with a child at the Language Acquisition Studies Lab
Photo Courtesy of Language Acquisition Studies Lab

Sitting directly across from a smiling 5-year-old girl, an examiner at KU’s Language Acquisition Lab places a couple toys on a table and begins rattling off a series of sentences—only half of which makes much sense. “I likes milk,” the examiner begins. “He eats pizza. He are standing up.” The young girl is attempting to decide which sentences are correct and which are “not so good.” This is merely one more exercise in a series of tests that will judge the child’s language abilities. The young girl does below average, but at the end she gets to play with the toys anyway. This is just another day at the office for Mabel Rice, director of the Language Acquisition Studies lab. For the last 15 years, Rice and her colleagues have been conducting research on a group of young children with language impairments from over 100 area school districts. The study, funded by the National Institute of Health, is an attempt to better our understanding of language development in young children. But this is just a small piece of the puzzle in KU’s on-going commitment to determining exactly how kids come to develop language. The University has been a leading center for research and social programs on the subject for over 20 years. Becoming a Model Demonstration Center The University’s Life Span Institute recently announced that they had been awarded a $1.6 million grant to establish a Model Demonstration Center for Promoting Language and Literacy Readiness in Early Childhood. The center will be one of only three like it in the county and will work with childcare providers to implement language-promoting strategies inside of preschool and kindergarten classrooms from all across the Kansas City Metro area. “The center will be unique in that it will actually deal with the issue of language and early literacy development by providing training to the people who help develop these skills in children,” said Karen Henry, spokesman for the Life Span Institute. The center will be lead by KU associate research professor Dale Walker and Steve Warren, vice provost of research and graduate studies. The program will be an extension of the earlier work of KU professors Betty Hart and Todd Risley—who showed that children who heard more language in early infancy had larger vocabularies entering preschool than those who did not hear as much language in their homes.

Graphic: Brandon Sayers

This research, which is well known in the field and has even been quoted by the last two presidential administrations, predicted that those who heard more language in early infancy would eventually have higher levels of school readiness, spoken language, early literacy and achievement level. Walker and her colleagues followed-up the study and concluded that Hart and Risely were correct—those children who heard more language at home went on to be more successful academically. “Those children who had better language experiences when they were infants continued to do better in language and literacy related areas in school when compared to their peers that had less language opportunities.” Walker said. Now, with the creation of the $1.6 million model demonstration center, Walker is turning her focus to local children caregivers—hoping to equip them with various language-promoting strategies that have been shown to aid in language and literacy formation. “These strategies come from early intervention research from Steve Warren, Betty Hart, and others. Based on the literature, I simplified their work and developed 8 simple language promoting strategies. And that’s what we’ve been trying to teach childcare workers in Kansas.” Said Walker. Strategies include increasing the labeling of common items and helping finish a child’s incomplete sentence. Figuring out language at KU The model demonstration center will work closely with the Juniper Garden’s Children’s Project, a Kansas City affiliate of the Life Span Institute which works with area professionals to implement a wide variety of programs aimed at improving children’s development, both academically and socially. They also work closely with the University to help foster research in the field. One of their current projects is the Beacon Excellence in Communications Promotion, which provides educational training to early childhood caregivers in the Kansas City Metropolitan area to teach them how to create an environment that offers many opportunities for language and learning development. They also support many programs that deal with other areas of general childhood development, including behavioral and literacy issues. They founded the University’s Center for Early Intervention for Reading and Behavior.

Betty Bunce, director of the Language Acquisition Preschool explains how the school differs from your average preschool.

Another KU-sponsored program that is helping children with language development is the Language Acquisition Preschool, which teaches children through various language and learning exercises. The head teacher of the school is a speech language pathologist and the assistant teacher is an early childhood educator. The preschool was founded by Mabel Rice, who also created the Language Acquisitions Studies Lab. Rice has devoted most of her career to understanding language development, and is considered an international authority on the issue Rice is also the director of the child language doctoral program, which has graduated 17 professionals to date. Her research and contributions to the field are so well known that she was even an adviser to the children’s programs “Sesame Street” and “Dora The Explorer”. Issues in the field Researchers are still debating how much language development is influenced by genetics or upbringing. In their study, Hart and Risley found that children from poorer families had poorer language skills. They concluded that by age 4, a child from an advantaged family may hear 45 million words, while a similar child from a welfare family may hear as few as a third of this—only 15 million. But a more recent study by Rice and her colleagues found that there were no correlations between a child’s economic status and their verbal abilities at age 2.

Betty Bunce, director of the Language Acquisition Preschool talks about a language-promoting strategy that the school employs.

“The conclusion is that we don’t want to assume too strongly that children of poverty are unable to acquire early vocabulary.” Rice said in the report. And at the same time, there is also some uncertainty regarding the influence of a child’s home environment on language development. “We just don’t know why some kids learn to talk so effortlessly, while other children in the same environment struggle with this process,” said Nancy Brady, research professor for Institute of Life Span Studies. Another issue involves finding the best way to implement language-promoting strategies. “We still are still figuring out the best ways to help others understand what we know. These strategies help improve early literacy outcomes, but only if they are actually being used.” Walker said. It is clear that we don’t know all there is to the issue of language and early literacy development. However, through a continued dedication to strong research and social programs, The University of Kansas and its dedicated staff are making sure they are doing their part towards finding these answers.