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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 15, 2000)
5 I uesday, f'ebniar, 1. DELU ! This Do55a)t' The SCRet/Ji vi »/ (JHEK5 ARE scienceStechnology sday, February 15,2000 THE BATTALION Page 5 ^HAT aJoiSE ?? iillM.homoprtgp.com B-H amily health and fitness tudy focuses on link between genetics and exercise BY I) WE AMBER The; Battalion Ilhere mighi be bad news for some Iters and fitntss freaks. I Genetic Hints miglit keeptlieni iVoin fehing their desired goals. Jack Wilrrbre, Texas A&M depart- ht head and professor of health and kinesiology, Is part of a large intema- pnal study pf genetics’ role in fitness. I Based oi results from the recent Jdy, Wilrrore said it might not matter |\v hard some people tr> to achieve a i fitnesslevel. People respond to exercise stimuli in nerent tuays and each person has ins In fitness range, affected more by |nes thapr.kv That people’s genes might limit their |ness potential might seem like an ob- ous result, but this is the first large- ale population studs' to suggest this. Wilmoreand fellow investigator Jim Skinner, an Indiana University professor of kinesiology, compiled a large inter- generational data set of families’ re sponses to exercise to provide a clearer quantitative difference between those who respond to exercise and those who do not. Their project, the Heritage Family Study, examined sex, age and racial dif ferences in exercise response. The study, funded by the National In stitutes of Health, is in its fifth of eight years. Scientists generally agree that African-Americans have a higher inci dence of hypertension than Caucasians. However, before the Heritage study, the race and age effects on training re sponse was unclear. “There really is not much informa tion in terms of racial differences,” said Wilmore, who began examining sex dif ferences in exercise during the 1960’s. “We usually think of training as a form of adaptation, and with increasing age the ability to adapt goes down,” Skinner said. Skinner said the research team found a wide range of responses to exercise stim- “There is a low correla tion between how you are right now and how you will be in the future” — Dr. Jim Skinner Indiana University professor of kinesiologist uli in all age groups, races and genders. “There is a low correlation between how you are right now and how you will be in the future,” Skinner said. A person might respond a certain way to exercise at one age, but dif ferently when he’s older. In other words, there might be no easy way to predict who will not re spond to exercise. Skinner said that although genetics might limit a person’s fitness potential, family genetics probably matter more than the genetics of race or sex. The study now will begin a time- consuming scan to find gene se quences that may indicate differ ences between responders and nonresponders to exercise. Research into variations in health by gender and race can sometimes be controversial, especially if results show large differences, said Dr. Reuben Wright, a professor of physical educa tion at Prairie View A&M University, who studies health variations in differ ent ethnic groups. 90 non-Hispanic Caucasian families of at least 5 members 40 African-American families of at least 4 members Total of at least 650 subjects subject requirements - healthy and desease-free • sedentary - must commit to complete training - parents £ 65 years old - children £ 17 years old J.P. BEATO/Thf. Battalion Dr. Jack Wilmore, health and kinesiology professor and department head, spoke about recent exercise research to the American College of Sports Medicine Texas Regional Chapter’s 21st Annual Meeting last week at the Bush Conference Center. Wright said the key is to present clear factual results from large population samples. On the practical level, Skinner said that since activity and fitness do not nec essarily go together, athletic coaches might want to focus on the regularity of exercise rather than fitness goals that may be unattainable. “Coaching is both an art and a science because we don’t know how somebody will respond based on current fitness,” he said. irst artificial asteroid orbits satellite Science Briefs l got rid of the min®' t one that required n?- antrollerortvjwdwrfji. until it brckc.Mso,eai& | game hewitefcow theme toaddtotlie of the name. LAUREL, Md. (AP) — With near |;m less precision, a spacecraft slipped ito orbit around the asteroid Pros, he lming the first manmade satellite of asteroid The craft now starts a year- ng close-up study of the potato- aped space lock, hoping to deter- ine its origiis and help scientists ount a strategy to protect Earth from bulders from outer space. A short rocket firing on Monday [hanged the orbital path of the Near arth Asteroic Rendezvous (NEAR) pacecraft to Alow it to settle into an orbit of Eros. The maneuver success fully completd a four-year odyssey that included a failed attempt to ren dezvous with the rock last year. “The NEAR spacecraft is in orbit around the asteroid Eros,” mission di rector Robert Farquhar announced minutes after engineers received a sig nal that a rocket had fired with an er ror of less than 1 percent. “We are very happy and very ex cited,” Farquhar said. Automatic instructions stored aboard the craft triggered the rocket firing at 10:33 a.m. EST and engineers waited tensely in Mission Control for almost 20 minutes before success was confirmed. They broke into applause and high-fives when it was clear that NEAR had reached its target. Farquhar said the rocket firing aimed for an Eros orbit of about 200 by 299 miles and the craft hit that tar get within 30 to 40 miles. This is con sidered excellent “shooting” for such a small object that is 160 million miles away. Eros is so far out that a radio sig nal takes 14 1/2 minutes to reach Earth. Project scientist Andrew Cheng said the success thrilled scientists ea ger to get an unprecedented close-up view of an asteroid and gather data with five different instruments. “Monday may be Valentine’s Day for most people, but its Christmas Eve for me and all the presents are piled about, waiting to be opened,” said Cheng. NEAR will spend a year orbiting Eros, dropping in stages to lower or bits. It will gather basic research that one day may help humans defend the Earth against a “killer asteroid” like the one thought to have fkiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. “Understanding the physical char acteristics of asteroids will be very im portant if we are ever called on to de flect one coming at the Earth,” said NASA’s Carl Pilcher. On Thieves worldwide steal Copernican texts the downs* A. you havetohav o least three tnnnaii ers for the game fun. The compuie control led play® incompetent and o challenging. Al there is no suck ^ as a “short gait: Mario Paly l ^ sit down to play u |,,n game, be read) s-minute chunk oftiitf i have the time, it isw Is together to play :: B+) MOSCOW (AP) — Copies of one of the world’s rarest and most valuable books have been disap pearing— a rash of mysterious thefts that have per plexed police from the former Soviet Union to the United Slates. The first-edition copies of 16th century as- ronomer Nicolaus Copernicus’ renowned treatise n Latin, “De revolutionibus orbium coelestium” On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres) have ranished from collections across the globe. In Poland, i reader said he had to use the bath room —and made off with the treasured volume. A hiefin Kiev, Ukraine, pilfered the book using a fake wlice ID. The latest theft of the book, published in 1543 and valued at up to $400,000, was discovered arlier this month in Russia. Gabk'iM R uss ' an police said they have appealed to Inter- d for help iji locating that book, which disappeared from the Academy of Sciences Library in St. Pe tersburg. Pcjice would give no further details. At leastseven of the 260 known copies of the 1543 edition of “De revolutionibus” have disap peared in recent years, including one copy each from the Univeriity of 11 linois at Champaign-Urbana and he MittagLeffler Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, PRICING: Men's 10K-$345.00 14K-$450.00 i/Vomen's IOK-$220.00 14K-$243.00 Irfrf $8.00 for Class '99 Of teiorc and $15.00 for tut of town ring delivery >6-00 w posted. >u may present lice no later tiori ENTS DR., 7840-2918 according to Owen Gingerich, a professor at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass. Five copies remain missing. Some police have speculated that a ring of thieves and collectors is behind the rash of thefts or that the books may have been stolen on some col lectors’ orders. However, Gingerich said there is no evidence to suggest an international conspiracy to steal copies of the treatise, which describes Copernicus’ then revolutionary theory that the Sun, not the Earth, was at the center of the universe. Gingerich has worked for a quarter-century com piling a list of all known copies ofthe first- and sec ond-editions of the work, a quest that has taken him to cities and libraries worldwide — and has helped him trace at least two stolen copies. While the book is a tempting target for thieves because of its value, it’s also “a very dangerous ti tle to steal,” Gingerich said in an Internet interview, noting that his census can help identify any known copy, making it risky to try to sell a stolen copy at auction or on the international antique market. Still, the disappearances continue. The theft in Poland occurred in November 1998 at the Polish Academy of Sciences’ library in Krakow, where a man in his 40s asked to read a first- edition copy of “De Revolutionibus” valued at $320,000. Sometime later, the reader said he had to visit the toilet — and disappeared. He left behind his belongings and the book’s covers, said Krakow’s deputy police head Euge- niusz Szczerbak. Three months earlier, a man walked out ofthe Ukrainian National Library in Kiev carrying a first- edition Copernicus. The thief had an apparently fake police ID and appeared to be well-acquainted with the library’s se curity arrangements. Librarians said he requested six books, includ ing the Copernicus. He then returned the books to secure a receipt, took a break and came back to request more books, including the Copernicus. The man vanished with the rare book just before closing time, apparently showing the guard the ini tial receipt to prove he had returned it. Eye surgery more common for whites CHICAGO (AP) — A study of Medicare claims found that African- Americans were only half as likely as whites to undergo surgery for glauco ma, the most common cause of blind ness in African-Americans. The researchers, whose study ap pears in the February issue of Archives of Ophthalmology, said the reasons could include lack of health care access, inadequate education about the disease, overtreatment of whites and racial bias. An estimated 3 million Americans have glaucoma, the nation’s second- leading cause of irreversible vision loss. The researchers noted that more than $1 billion is spent on federal aid yearly to about 120,000 blind glau coma patients. Glaucoma is characterized by a buildup of pressure within the eyeball. Excessive pressure may damage the optic nerve. The most common form usually occurs after age 40. Treatment typi cally begins with medication, followed by surgery — either conventional or with lasers — if that fails. The disease is at least four times more prevalent in black Americans than in whites, but the current study and others suggest blacks are un dertreated. The researchers, led by Dr. Uday Devgan, a UCLA ophthalmologist, an alyzed Medicare claims for both types of glaucoma surgery for 30,495 blacks and 160,792 whites between 1991 and 1994. Patients were at least 65 years old. Taking into account the prevalence of glaucoma in patients of both races, the researchers determined that the rate of surgery for blacks was nearly half that of whites and 47 percent be low what would have been expected. Previous researchers found a racial gap in glaucoma surgery when examining Medicare records from the late 1980s through 1991. Though Devgan and colleagues said the gap appeared to be narrow ing in the mid-1990s, they said the disparities still were troubling. UPenn: therapy death an accident WASHINGTON (AP) — The Univer sity of Pennsylvania told the federal government Monday an Arizona teen ager’s death from a gene therapy ex periment was an unavoidable tragedy, not the result of research violations. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last month suspended all the university's gene therapy studies, cit ing 18 rule violations in the experi ment that killed 18-year-old Jesse Gelsinger, of Tucson, Ariz., last fall. On Monday, the university filed a response with the FDA acknowledg ing some “procedural” problems but disagreeing with some of the charges. The university insisted it immedi ately notified the FDA of Gelsinger’s death, fully cooperated in the ensuing investigation, and that none ofthe al leged violations would have changed Gelsinger’s care. • “With the best medical judgment and scientific information we had, we just didn’t anticipate — nor in retro spect do we believe we could have an ticipated — this tragic event,” said Dr. Richard Tannen, the university’s med ical vice dean. Gelsinger’s liver was injected with a virus bearing genes designed to cor rect a genetic liver disorder. h Texas A&M University Masters Programs for Special Educators and Adapted Physical Educators Available Degrees: • Generic Special Education • Low Incidence Disabilities* • Bilingual Special Education • Educational Diagnostician* • Transition Services • Emotional/ Behavioral Disorders* • Consulting Reading Teacher ’SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE For more information contact: Carol Wagner Department of Educational Psychology Texas A&M University College Station, Texas 77843 (409) 845 -1833 m Pick up your favorite supplements now at GNC’s best prices ever... Sale $ 39.99 kilo (good thru Feb 29, 2000) Just $ 7.99 lb Now Accepting AGGIE BUCKS!!! Post Oak Mall 696-6159 Freedom Blvd. (across from Super Walmart in Bryan) 774-9699 i A €71 'VyTA: 1J Ag Workers Mutual Auto Insurance Archer Daniels Midland Co. 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