Thursday August 1, 1985/The Battalion/Page 5
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Challenger
Researchers on shuttle
probe sun's eruptions
rlII Blood tests lessen chances
of getting one form of AIDS
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — With testing
fully under way for blood donors’
exposure to the deadly AIDS virus, a
top federal expert said Wednesday,
“We’ve pretty much solved the prob
lems of transfusion-related AIDS.”
Dr. James Curran, chief of the
AIDS branch at the federal Centers
for Disease Control, acknowledged
that since the disease develops very
slowly, cases contracted through past
transfusions could be showing up
for years to come.
But he and other experts at a Na
tional Institutes of Health confer-
I.Cnce said the apparent success of
pre-donation blood tests begun last
spring should relieve any fears
Americans might have had about
jieuing the disease through trans-
'I Fused blood.
I The great majority of U.S. AIDS
cases still involve homosexual males
and intravenous drug users, but
nearly 2 percent of about 12,000 di
agnosed cases have been blamed on
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transfusions from people who have
the disease or have been exposed to
the virus. About half the victims of
the actual disease have died.
AIDS — acquired immune defi
ciency syndrome — destroys the
body’s ability to resist infection.
No one at the conference was will
ing to estimate the likelihood of
someone who has AIDS antibodies
— showing exposure to the virus —
actually contracting the disease,
though studies havp suggested the
risk is relatively smdll. The pre-do
nation blood tests do not test for the
disease itself.
In tests so far, only about two pro
spective blood donors in every 1,000
have shown exposure — and there
fore at least the potential of spread
ing it. And different tests run on
some in that minority of people have
suggested many of their results were
“false positives,” officials from the
Food and Drug Administration and
the American Red Cross said.
The likelihood of many such false
alarms raises the question of when
people with positive test results
should or should not be notified.
Dr. Walter Dowdle, director of
the center for infectious diseases at
the Centers for Disease Control,
said, “To focus on the false positives
is really not appropriate here.”
He said that only a few months
ago many of the same officials were
gathered in the same auditorium to
announce approval of the first tests,
not knowing what the results would
be. 1
“My feeling
quite a high,” 1
right
ie said.
now is really
False positives, though something
to be worked on, “are a very small
price to pay for the sensitivity” of
tests required to catch nearly all po
tential sources of the disease in
transfused blood, Dowdle said.
Associated Press
SPACE CENTER, Houston —
Scientists aboard Challenger on
Wednesday probed massive erup
tions on the sun, mapped distant star
fields, and sampled the invisible bow
wave of the space shuttle, but they
again failed to repair a $60 million
celestial pointing device.
With delicate instruments focused
on targets both near and far, the
ship cast a wide net of scientific cu
riosity in its low orbit about the
Earth, and made a rich catch that de
lighted experts on the ground, mis
sion officials said.
Three solar telescopes on Chal
lenger focused on awesome nuclear
explosions, called prominences, on
the surface of the sun. These explo
sions spew huge amounts of radia
tion, which can affect the Earth’s
weather and radio communications.
Scientists said an analysis of the
chemical ratios detected on the sun,
which is a medium-size star, may
provide fundamental evidence on
the “big bang” theory of the origin
of the universe and the birth of stars.
An X-ray telescope focused on
more distant stars, the clusters of
Virgo and Centaurus, and mission
scientist Eugene W. Urban said the
instrument gathered “very good in
formation” on the radiation spewed
out from those massive star fields.
The goal is to map the sources of ce
lestial X-rays.
A small satellite called the plasma
detection package spent hours sus
pended from the end of Challeng
er’s robot arm, gathering mea
surements of the invisible ripples in
the ionosphere caused by the pas
sage of the shuttle.
Later, the satellite will be released
from the arm and Challenger will
dance in a full circle about the small
free-flying craft. Instruments on the
satellite will detect the electromagne
tic disturbances caused by the shut
tle, measuring the movement of
electrons and protons about the
spacecraft.
Clouding the success of most of
the science instruments in the orbit
ing lab was the continued failure to
repair a broken telescope-pointing
device. The aiming system is de
signed to precisely focus four of
Challenger’s telescopes on specific
solar targets.
Astronaut-astronomer Karl He-
nize fed a new computer program
into the pointing device and twice
coaxed it into locking onto the sun,
but then it went back to aimless drift
ing.
“We lost the track on the bore-
sight and also on the right tracker,”
said Henize. “Evidently the cen
tering has riot succeeded.”
Another attempt two hours later
brought a shout of triumph from
Henize.
“Hallelujah, it looks like it’s work
ing!” he said. But seconds later, the
tracker again started drifting and
the disappointed astronaut said,
“That hallelujah was a bit too quick,
wasn’t it? We got a good fine track,
then lost something.”
Experts said another repair at
tempt would be made later using
new computer instructions.
NASA scientists are anxious to
verify the use of the German-made
pointing device because it is to be
used next year in a mission to study
Halley’s Comet.
Relatives of hostages urge talks with Lebanese
:k as...
art US
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Relatives of
Americans kidnapped in Lebanon
urged the White House on Wednes
day to seek direct talks with the
seven hostages’ captors if efforts
through intermediaries do not bring
their quick release.
“We welcome the continuation of
quiet diplomacy but feel it can be
supplemented by additional action,”
Jonn Jenco, a nephew of the Rev.
Lawrence Martin Jenco, told report
ers.
Jenco read a statement on behalf
of eight members of the families of
four hostages, who met for an hour
and 10 minutes with Robert C. Mc-
Farlane, President Reagan’s national
security adviser.
“A direct dialogue with the cap-
tors should be attempted if the suc
cess from intermediaries is not in the
immediate future,” he said.
But Jenco and Peggy Say, sister of
hostage Terry Anderson, said the
family members received no assur
ance that the administration knows
where their relatives are being held
or by whom.
Say said the relatives hoped that a
public statement that the administra
tion was willing to talk directly to the
kidnappers might flush something
out from the captors.
There was no immediate com
ment from the White House, but Say
said McFarlane indicated adminis
tration officials would consider the
relatives’ proposal.
Jenco said, “He (McFarlane) has
given us reason 1 to believe that there
are parties involved who'have been
doing things in the Lebanese com
munity that could be useful.”
On Tuesday, Say was critical of
the government’s insistence oh quiet
diplomacy, saying, “We’re asking the
administration to stop being specta
tors on this issue and start being par
ticipants.”
After Wednesday’s meeting, how
ever, both she and Jenco spoke with
more fav6r of the White House posi
tion.
Jenco said, “We Kaye brought the
issue to City Hall, and they have lis
tened.”
Say said, “We came here to have
our voice heard and I feel that we
have accomplished this.”
T he New York Times reported
Wednesday that most of the seven
hostages were believed held by a
family of Shiite Moslem fundamen
talists seeking the release of an im
prisoned relative in Kuwait.
Fares of some airlines
to change this month
Associated Press
NEW YORK — Several of the
nation’s big airlines plan to
change their fare structures later
this month in a move expected to
raise ticket prices for many pas
sengers.
But some observers said
Wednesday that the strong pres
ence of discount carriers like Peo
ple Express and Continental air
lines leaves doubt about whether
the increases will stick.
The move was started last week
by the nation’s largest carrier,
United Airlines, which an
nounced plans to use a fare sys
tem that ties the cost of a ticket to
the mileage of the flight.
United’s chief rival, American
Airlines, said it too would adopt
most of the changes planned by
United beginning Aug. 17. Trans
World Airlines and Pan Ameri
can World Airways said they also
planned to adopt the new system
on many routes where they com
pete with United and American.
While the new system will re
sult in some lower fares, airline
officials estimate that fares on the
average will climb between 3 per
cent and 5 percent.
The change represents an
other attempt by the airlines to
curb price wars that frequently
have erupted since the industry
was deregulated in 1978.
Several major airlines — in
cluding Delta, Eastern and Re
public — have not yet matched
United’s proposal, posing the
possibility that they might under
cut the higher fares..
Index of Leading Indicators up
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The govern
ment’s main economic forecasting
gauge rose sharply in June, posting
the biggest increase in five months
and spurring renewed optimism
about an economic rebound in the
second half of the year.
The Commerce Department said
Wednesday that its Index of Lead
ing Indicators jumped 1 percent in
June, following three months of
lackluster performance.
At the White House, this perfor
mance was hailed as “ringing eco
nomic news” and many private ana
lysts agreed that the increase was
heartening.
In other good economic news, the
government reported that orders to
U.S. factories, boosted by heavy de
mand for military hardware, rose
1.9 percent in June following an
even stronger 2.1 percent May gain.
The two healthy increases follow
ing three months of declines provide
evidence that demand for domestic
goods is rebounding, analysts said.
The leading index is a collection
of a dozen forward-pointing statis
tics that are supposed to signal
changes in direction in the economy.
After rising for 21 consecutive
months as the country pulled out of-
the 1981-82 recession, the index
dropped sharply last June and
started sending much weaker sig
nals.
The economy turned weaker at
the same time as a deteriorating
trade performance depressed the
U.S. manufacturing sector. The
overall economy, as measured by the
gross national product, advanced at
a miniscule 1 percent annual rate
during the first six months of the
year.
The Reagan administration,
which is predicting a sharp rebound
in growth to an annual rate of 5 per
cent in coming months, greeted the
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leading index as confirmation of its
forecast.
Commerce Secretary Malcolm
Baldrige noted that the index has
expanded at a faster pace in the past
six months than it did in the last half
of 1984, but he said the pace still is
not strong enough to meet the ad
ministration’s economic targets.
Many private economists agreed,
saying that while the June rebound
is correctly reflecting an economic
upturn, the rebound is likely to be a
modest one.
“While the indicators point to a
rebound in the economy, much of
the increased demand will be chan
neled into imports rather than re
flected in higher domestic output,”
said Jerry Jasinowski, chief econo
mist for the National Association of
Manufacturers.
He predicted the GNP would rise
at a moderate 2.5 percent rate in the
current July-September quarter.
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