Laptop Users Needed
The National Science Foundation’s Center in Ergonomics located in the Safety En
gineering Program at TAMU is conducting a research project about laptop com
puter users. We need volunteers from the laptop user population to answer
a questionnaire and/or to participate in environmental mock-up scenarios. In
addition for your participation you will receive summary results and descriptive
statistics regarding the mobile computer workforce.
Our research projects involve a study of the mobile computing workforce, that is,
those individuals who use laptop computers on a regular basis as part of their
normal job duties. Surveys were developed to acquire information on 1) the basic
laptop user population characteristics, 2) laptop, software and peripherals usage
patterns and 3) the “non-traditional” working force environments in which laptops
are used, such as airplanes, automobiles, hotel rooms, etc. A general health survey
follows for those who have experienced some pain or discomfort recently.
The survey is available on the Internet (http://trinity.tamu.edu/-eigpcent/), IBM-fbrmat diskettes
or paper copy. If you would like the survey on disk or paper copy or wish to participate in the envi
ronmental mock-up scenarios please contact Kevin McSweeney or Steve Hudock at 862-2649 or by
e-mail at mobile_computing@trinity.tamu.edu
Your cooperation is very much appreciated.
Gig ‘em, Ags
A!
MSR ■/■JCRC in
ERqoNOfviics
National Science Foundation Industry/University
Cooperative Rcncarch Center in Hrgonomic*
THE TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY SYSTEM
HOST/HOSTESS
APPLICATIONS
MOW!!
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Om© ll
11
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Due This Friday
SPRING ’97
Informational
Tuesday, Nov. 12
3:30 - 4:1.5 pm
Thursday, Nov. 14
3:30 - 4:15 pm
Room 35S
Rizzcil Hall W.
Pick ts |> ;m applteaikm at the
m i * zTr
/■it * l i * Tfh
mm
meeting or drop by t he Study
Abroad Program Office,
Study Abroad Programs, 161 W, Blzmlt Hall, 845-0544
GET AN EDGE.
For more information, call
696-9099
GMAT • LSAT • GRE • MCAT
^ THE PRINCETON REVIEW
S The Battalion
¥ ¥? ¥?
V4 i 11 \j Cj
Tuesday
Paj
November 1J
Bad apple may mean buying new barre
After E. coll breakout government may require pasteurization of applej
WASHINGTON (AP) — Alarmed by another
E. coli bacteria outbreak that killed a child and
sickened dozens of others in Western states,
the government is considering forcing all ap
ple juices to be pasteurized.
Also under debate are measures such as
chemically washing fresh produce or forcing
manufacturers to adopt programs that prove
foods stay pure from harvest to the dinner table.
The deliberations come after at least 49
people, mostly children, were sickened from
E. coli in trendy, unpasteurized fruit juices.
One child died Friday in Denver.
Once thought to be a threat only in under
cooked meat, the virulent E. coli 0157 strain
now has surfaced repeatedly in apple cider
and even in lettuce.
Health experts weren’t alarmed until two
weeks ago when Odwalla Inc., based in Half
Moon Bay, Calif., recalled its gourmet juices
that contained tainted apple juice. That out
break showed that even large companies
known for quality are vulnerable.
“The number of outbreaks are significant
in the past year,” said John Vanderveen of the
Food and Drug Administration*But “there’s
no doubt this is a different problem this time.”
Just hours after the recall began, he called a
special meeting to warn apple juice makers
“to ratchet up their quality control” while the
government decides the next step.
Vanderveen is advising parents of young
children and people with weak immune sys
tems, who are most at risk from foodborne ill
nesses, to buy only pasteurized juices. Unpas
teurized ones, a minority on the market, must
be sold cold, so shoppers should check the la
bel when buying any chilled juice, he added.
Many people say unpasteurized juices taste
better. But pasteurization, a heating process,
kills E. coli, while simply washing fruit with
water does not.
If the FDA mandates pasteurization, the
rule could apply both to the upscale, all-nat
ural juices sold in supermarkets and perhaps
even the ones cider farmers sell at tiny road
side stands.
Although the government is looking first at
apple products, they’re not the only threat.
Salmonella has poisoned Americans who ate
alfalfa sprouts, cantaloupes, watermelon and
unpasteurized orange juice. Guatemalan
raspberries are the prime suspect in last sum
mer’s outbreak of the parasite cyclospora.
At least four U.S. outbreaks of E. coli 0157,
a particularly dangerous strain discovered in
1982, were linked to raw lettuce in the past
year. Last month, it sickened 10 people who
drank apple cider in Connecticut.
While bacterial outbreaks are increasing, so
is Americans’ consumption of all-natural foods
— an industry growing about 25 percent a year.
People do not understand that fresli
ural “doesn’t necessarily mean betterf;
said Dr. Mitchell Cohen, bacteriali
chief at the Centers for Disease Com
Prevention. One worry: Organic food:
are fertilized with cow manure even!]
coli flourishes in cattle.
When the Odwalla outbreak hit, i
ton administration already was plar^/ oir
broader initiative to better safeguard^ fl an
One step is expected to be an expansio:, V. J thi
nation’s fledgling early-warning sy . e( " these
foodborne risks, which now operate'ak Mali’s ne
five states.
The latest E. coli outbreak has theFtj
sidering what steps fresh food maker'
Ifha
G
Column
take immediately. Options include:
mental chemical washes that promises
fy produce, additives that might killthei
ria or pasteurization.
“You’re going to have a tremendousa
individuals” if the FDA mandates past
tion, warned Cornell University food:
Bob Cravani. “The unique flavors will
there, but that’s the price you pay fors
The government also could requiretl
ural food industry to adopt strict qni^ litical se/eno
trol programs similar to ones nowmaniT -
seafood and meat companies. These forcavagant evem
|Erin Fitzge
Senior Englisi
to prevent contamination at every step :pi jsent socie
duction, from harvesting the foodtose:omniercializa
icf, the p re mi
Houston surgeon
returns from Russia
Yeltsin making rapid recovery
HOUSTON (AP) — Russian President
Boris Yeltsin appears to be making a speedy
recovery from quintuple bypass surgery and
is expected to be back at the Kremlin by the
end of the year, renowned heart surgeon
Michael DeBakey said Monday.
“This is a very rapid recovery consider
ing the extent of the operation and the ex
tent of his heart condition,” DeBakey said
at a Houston news conference a day after
returning from Russia.
“His heart is now functioning very
Yeltsin
well,” DeBakey said. “This is what I had hoped to occur and
predicted would take place.”
Just days after the seven-hour quintuple bypass opera
tion, Yeltsin already was showing remarkable progress, said
DeBakey, who lead a team of Baylor College of Medicine
specialists that consulted on Yeltsin’s surgery.
DeBakey described the Russian leader as a "highly moti
vated” patient who pledged to follow a rehabilitation regi
men that involves a low-fat diet and gradual exercise. It does
not bar the intake of alcohol.
“He can have (an) occasional drink of wine or a small
amount of alcohol,” DeBakey said.
The surgeon described Yeltsin as a “social” drinker. “As
far as I can tell ... he’s not an alcoholic.”
DeBakey said the operation’s success can be partially at
tributed to doctors’ patience.
Had the surgery been performed soon after Yeltsin’s heart
attack last summer, his chances for survival would not have
been as favorable, the heart surgery pioneer said.
“I would say that certainly at that time his chances of re
covering from an operation were not good,” DeBakey said.
Yeltsin’s heart was functioning at just 20 percent normal in Au
gust. It rose to around 30 percent in September, when DeBakey first
examined him, and to 40 percent the day before the Nov. 5 surgery.
Now, after five bypass grafts, Yeltsin’s heart is “better than
50 percent” DeBakey said.
.•season ha:
from the m
/hile visioi
lanced in kid’:
10! ipers coul
through keyhole bypasESS
Jov. 4 offici
Door of opportunity opet
Aggie 10% Discount
Silver
Station
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Open 10am-6:30pm Mon-Sat
t-5pm Sunday
Some exclusions apply.
New surgery technique show positive reS,fL "holiday
i mall terms,
cedure,” Magovern said. .fees to Chris
Instead of the typical ie j roran g eai
three months of recovery, li i a y Si replacin
many people feel completely reen Vendor:
to normal within two weeks. O oths hung h
Among the differences: 3S t Oak mam
—40 percent of the stan^eamers of tv
surgery patients needed bbin the ceilin
transfusions, compared with8j Un d c d from
cent of keyhole patients. gut wait — i
—Standard surgery pati^jig? Cornuc
needed seven days in the hos[ :ajl g ei brown
compared with 3 1/2 for ke)^ with eggne
patients. n ’t see the tu
—Keyhole patients’hospital And forget
were 40 percent lower. icient histor
Another study by Dr. /^ Instead, rm
Fonger of Johns Hopkins UTrive|[ ow ( | ie Dut
found that keyhole surgery feging mom
$10,000, compared with $17,0 no ing materi
the standard operation. %'he Terrible
Bypass surgery is do My tefis of a I
reroute blood around blockecM son j asts a n
arteries. lli rier mall ar
Typically, doctors makeaJL looks , ikt
long cut in the chest, sawth; n g t ] ie next p
the breastbone and then
apart the rib cage with a ste|
tractor, exposing the heart,
the heart is stopped with4 I
cines, and a machine pumpi^ 1 1 B V f
blood while doctors sewic
new pieces of artery. LJ ■ - I*
The wide chest opening irQ 11 S
recovery slow. Patients oftenc
plain of pain even wheiFr & Thethf
laugh or cough. |A/years
-W V embr
j! most imp<
— — ———- -Nation of its cl
An Invitation To.... Ilt’sashame
The Bridal Style Show of The SeasoC" 11 ,'^
Presented By Ladies and Lords |nd in the sarr
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Coro
nary bypass patients recover faster,
have lower hospital bills and suffer
much less pain if doctors fix their
hearts through a tiny slit in the
chest instead of splitting open the
rib cage, the standard approach for
the past 30 years, a study found.
Surgeons have been experiment
ing with the new approach, called
keyhole surgery, for about two
years. On Monday, they released
the first head-to-head comparisons
with the traditional operation,
which is performed on more than
400,000 Americans annually.
So far, doctors are using it on
patients with single blockages,
which make up only about 5 per
cent of all bypass patients. But the
field is moving so quickly that ex
perts expect more complicated
operations will be done this way
within a year or two.
“This is just the beginning,” said
Dr. Renee S. Hartz of Illinois Ma
sonic Medical Center in Chicago.
In a presentation at the annual
scientific meeting of the American
Heart Association, Dr. James A.
Magovern of Allegheny University
of Health Sciences in Pittsburgh
compared 48 patients who got key
hole surgery and 55 who under
went the usual operation.
“It’s fair to say patients get better
at least twice as fast with this pro-
Phone: 775-7626
Expires 12/31/96
Now Showing Jewelry in Earths 1st Farm (between Luby’s & Fajitas) In-
side Manor East Mall (next to Beall’s) • Texas Ave @ Villa Maria
Bridals * Bridesmaids * TuxedoSjTf atlol ^ s ec|
tepts can be si
Refreshments *
000’s of Dollars in Prizes eve on ]y the l
flowed to hav
Sunday, December 8th
College Station Hilton
1 to 4 P.M.
Tickets $3
available at
Ladies & Lords
“Bridal & Tuxedo”
Traditions
■\&M, but t
lodified in o
prt of traditi
lent desire, tc
plerie, inten
hould never
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Iplved outsid
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, N flh Texas A&I
bringing tl
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re seldom rec
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IliSome Aggie
I'lBditions sucl
LJptlished for a
. . . . , ^Btoric traditii
Discuss questions and concerns with your feypocritica
807 Texas Avenue
All Funds raised will benefit Habitat for Humanil)!
CHAT & CHE
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||nd a defens
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Light refreshments available.
ISJOVUEIVIBER 14
ZACHKY LOBB
tO- 12 F*IV1
o is at A&M.
loser exan
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