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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 5, 1985)
k & BOB BROWN UNIVERSAL TRAVEL | COMPLETE, DEPENDABLE DOMESTIC AND WORLDWIDE TRAVEL Airline Reservations • Hotel/Motel Accomodations Travel Counsel • Rental Car Reservations • Tours Charter Flights • FREE Ticket Delivery 846-8718 • Agency is fully computerized • 410 S. Texas/Lobby of the Ramada Inn/College Station Page 2b/The Battalion/Thursday, September 5,1985 DANCE INSTRUCTORS NEEDED So cie-f-js f Auditions for Ballet, Tap, Technique, Jazz, Point, and Aerobic dance teachers will be: Tuesday, Sept. 10 at 6 p.m. in East Kyle For information call: Karen 693-3490 Cindy 260-3563 ALPHA CHI OMEGA Sorority 1885-1985 We invite you to learn about the Al pha Chi tradition during fall rush. Tuesday, Sept. 10 Wednesday, Sept. 11 Thursday, Sept. 12 For more information, call: Karen, 693-0065 Sandee, 696-5828 DAVE’S DAVE’S Welcome Back Aggies Bacardi Rum 750 ml 80° Proof $5.89 Segram’s 7 Bourbon 750 ml 80° proof $6.79 Jack Daniels 750 ml 90° proof $9.49 ★ Keg Beer ★ Imported Beer ★ Fine Wines (10% off on Tues.) ★ Weekly In Store Specials ★ Convenience grocery items 524 University Dr. E. ( Across from Intcriirhan) 696-4343 C'iish or Check Prel'crrecl On S;tlc llcins Drive-Up Window Dave Dean, Owner lH ’ • / .i.i ■ ■ Nuke room SHOE mimics real thing Associated Press BAY CITY — Building models might be considered kid stuff, but work on a certain full-scale model at the South Texas Project Training Facility is far from child’s play. Owners of the $5.5 billion nuclear plant have spent about $8 million to construct a simulated control room which mirrors the real thing — right down to the paint job. A nuclear plant control room, where technicians monitor the intri cate details of generating electricity, is the nerve center of operations. The opening scenes from the movie “The China Syndrome” took place in a setting that is eerily similar. Dennis J. Cody, manager of nu clear training for Houston Lighting & Power Co., says that even the noises that will be heard in the actual control room during operation have been duplicated for this costly mockup. But unlike the Jane Fonda film, this control room not only looks and sounds real but acts like the genuine article as well. Technicians have already hooked up thousands of wires from the con trol panel to a computer, which will respond to control commands and will be programmed to pose prob lems for trainees to solve. Cody explains that prospective plant operators need experience be fore they enter the real thing, and the replica is the most valuable learning tool available. “We can set up problems where he can work himself out of a sce nario,” Cody says. “This truly is a place where we can give people ex perience.” David Hooper, SI P information coordinator for Central Power & Light, defends the cost of the replica for this reason. “In one month, they (trainees) could see more go wrong than they would during their whole career,” he claims. Hooper says that properly trained personnel will help offset the costs involved in training them. “This is not only for plant safety but for economic reasons as well,” he says. “The more time can can keep STP on line, the more it can save consumers.” The 40,000-square-foot training center which houses the control room also houses classrooms, busi ness offices and a 5,000-square-foot Tmergency Operations Facility. The EOF is required by law and would be used if a plant emergency should occur. Cody says it is self-contained and that personnel could live there for an indefinite period of time without leaving the premises. “The facilities are a lot like a mo tel,” he says. “And personnel will feel quite at home there.” The EOF is designed to be used in all conditions, he says, pointing to the 12-inch thick walls. “We have a recirculation system, bathrooms and showers,” he says. Training will be ongoing even af ter the plant begins operating, Cody says. Although the plant’s first unit is not scheduled to start producing electricity for another two years, personnel training has been taking place at the plant since 1983. Hooper says tours of the simu lated control room probably will be given starting in January, when it is completely finished. by Jeff MacNel| NOT REALLY. \T0 PINNEP TO A RARE. T-RONE.. SIDS: Mother mourns child, doctors search for answers By SALLY TAYLOR Reporter Carolyn Goddard of College Sta tion knows a killer well. Her 2-month-old son died of Sud den Infant Death Syndrome in 1981. “One morning James woke up about 3,” Goddard recalls. “I usually took him to our den to feed him so as not to disturb the rest of the fam ily. “Sometimes I would fall asleep with him on the sofa, but I was so tired that night I thought I might push him off. We kept a cradle in the den, and I laid him down. “The next morning, my husband was leaving for work,” she continues. “I heard him in the kitchen and I got up and it was kind of late for James to sleep. I immediately knew some thing was wrong. “I turned him over and he was dead.” SIDS, also known as crib death, is the leading cause of death in infants one to six months old, says Dr. Ken neth E. Matthews of the University Pediatric Association in Bryan. One infant in the Bryan-College Station area dies of SIDS each year. Carol Morris, a counselor at the National SIDS Foundation in Balti more, says 7,000 to 8,000 babies are victims of the syndrome each year. She says SIDS is an unexpected and sudden killer. James’ death was completely un expected, Goddard says. “He was an apparently very healthy little boy,” she says. “He pro gressed like he was supposed to. He was a very good eater, just no prob lem.” When Goddard discovered her son was dead, she says her reaction was just to “lose it completely.” “I grabbed him up and I ran out side and caught my husband in the driveway and I was screaming that James was dead. “I came back in the house — it’s very hard to remember much of it,” she says. “I remember I was on my hands and knees holding him in one arm and I was screaming that I had killed him because I couldn’t imag ine why he was dead.” SIDS has been recognized as a cause of death for the past 20 years, but the condition itself is not new, Morris says. When mothers slept with their ba bies it was thought that SIDS victims had accidentally been suffocated by their sleeping mothers. Later, SIDS deaths were attributed to choking or suffocation caused by an infant’s blanket. Only recently has SIDS been iden tified as a distinct syndrome and the reason for the unexplained deaths of its victims. But, so little is known about SIDS that parents often feel that it offers Ohe 'Dinners are a recreation oj a }juleti<)e celebration in the days of fAierne 0/<V Tingland ~ 'A festival of Sony and merriment. Jood and drink, colour and payeantry. ** ^Performance and production opportunities are available ^ r iy a \ Sinyers puppeteers in the follon>iny areas: Atinstrals > Mayicians J u ^ en Jesters t~or more information call the IWal Afusic Office at 845’5P74 or the Student JProyrams Office at 845-1515 -Visit our table at AfSC Open House on Sept. 8 from 4-8pm. Instrumental Auditions Sept. 5. 9, 16 Vocal Auditions Sept. 2.4.5. II no explanation for the death of a child. “For months, even after 1 had the counseling and had gone to Houston to speak with the SIDS researcher and had spoken with the pediai- ricains here and the physician who did the autopsy, I was still demand ing an answer and there still wasn’t one,” Goddard says. Many studies are being per formed to find the cause of the syn drome. The most widely accepted theory is the Sleep Apnea Hypothesis, pro posed by Dr. Alfred Steinschneider, director of the National SIDS Insti tute in Atlanta. Only recently has SIDS been identified as a dis tinct syndrome and the reason for the unex plained deaths of its vic tims. But, so little is known about SIDS that parents often feel that it offers no explanation for the death of a child. Steinschneider conducted a study of sleep apnea, a condition in which an infant stops breathing for pro longed periods during sleep, and later learned that some of the infants in his study had died of SIDS. He theorized that the babies died during periods of sleep apnea; they stopped breathing and never started again. Steinschneider and his staff are working on a five-year study to de velop a screening tool to predict the syndrome in newborns. B. J. Moore, nurse coordinator at NSIDSI, says, “Hopefully from this five-year research study will come a screening tool so that all newborn in fants will be screened in the hospital, especially siblings of SIDS babies.” Moore says that, although the pre cise cause of the syndrome is un known, the Atlanta team believes some abnormality occurs while the baby is in the womb. “We’re certainly looking at it from the prenatal view, from the fact that something happens when the baby is in the uterus,” she says. “Exactly what happens, we’re not certain of. We know it’s not something that happens at the time of delivery, like a problem with the delivery itself. “We know SIDS is not a genetic factor although there are familial tendencies, but it’s not genetic in na ture.” Matthews says, “The only abnor malities detected in autopsies on SIDS babies seem to be small hem orrhages, called petechiae, on tin surface of the lungs and on thesur f ace of the diaphragm.” These hemorrhages are not cause of death and researchers not explain why they occur in victims. Although no precise cause of tlt| syndrome has l>een determined,itl searchers sav high-risk groups hJ l)een identified. “There is no typical SIDS victaj but certain groups of babies have slightly higner risk than othOi' Morris says. "The SIDS victim! more likely to be part of a multkl birth or premature, weighing a that five pounds. * “The Victim is slightly moreliltli to be male and the second or thirl born child. A higher percentage! SIDS deaths occur in the winia peaking in January. Other ba(* considered to have a high risk brothers and sisters of a SIDSn lim.” Matthews says babies twotofoi months old with teenage mother who did not seek prenatal care ait who are in a low socio-econotn group seem to have a high risk "And we have to really look auk families who have a history of infaa death,” he says. “That is one i we can say is a definite higl group. It you had an infant thathi documented SIDS, those childra that are subsequently horn to tb family should have a sleep studydt ne.” During a sleep study, Mattht* says, the baby’s heartbeat and respi ration rate are monitored for I! hours, f ollowed by a complete pity* cal and neurological examination. Afterward, the child’s breathinp, measured. Specialists interpret tk results and, if they find a problem treat the child with medication, breathing monitor or by anotha method. Breathing monitors are beinj used by three or four families in tk area, Matthews says. The monitof can be used to detect abnormi breathing patterns and possibly prt vent SIDS. The monitor is a thin belt over the baby’s abdomen wheneva the child is not being observed. Dr belt is connected to a machine lltf measures heartbeat and respiration rate and sounds an alarm if ik heartbeat drops or if the babystopi breathing for longer than 20 s« onds. This allows the parents, whomusi attend a training session, tohelptl* baby. Goddard monitored the two daughters she had after her died. One, Stephanie, had threeap nea episodes in two days whensfit was about four months old. Till monitor’s alarm sounded each drat, and Stephanie resumed breathinj after Goddard shook her. ON THE SIDE OF TEXAS A&M Book Exchange Sept 2,3,4, 5 214 Pavilion 1:00-4:00 p.m. Bring in your used books, and buy your books for next session! Sponsored by Student Government, Student Services Division