Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 2, 1987)
A V.lLVnii:::: Partly sunnyand mild today with a high near 65. Wind will bo out of the southwest 10-20 mph, Partly cloudy tonight with a low in the 30s. Partly cloudy Tuesday with temperatures in the 503, News Digest Pags 2 Editorial Paga 4 Sports Page 5 entertainment Page 6 Classified Page 6 Vol. 86 No93 February 2, 1937 University of Nebraska-Lincoln 1 NjvstCM dbijmilt - ' i - - ., - r - i Larry Dare, director of the Department of Administrative Services, outlines part of Gov. Kay Orr's budget proposal at a special briefing Sunday night at the governor's mansion. Computer model made to study cancer causes By Becki Bronson Staff Reporter Cancer. For most, the word evokes thoughts of death. But at the NU Medical Center, doctors are offering hope through biological cancer discov eries that are being sorted out and moved ahead with the help of a computer. In 1980, Dr. Samuel Cohen and Dr. Leon Ellwein, both UNMC researchers and professors, theorized that there had to be a better way to calculate data collected from animal experiements. Cohen and Ellwein spent the next few years formulating computer software that would move science and medicine ahead. They are now at the heart of medical center research that applies computer modeling to cancer studies. To the casual observer Cohen may seem to be executing a routine computer program as he sits at his terminal. Then rows and rows of numbers and figures begin to crowd the screen. Cohen explained that the figures represent the activity of bladder cells in rats from before birth to after death, and the numbers reveal the probability that some cells will become cancerous based on various chemical reactions. "The model was specifically devel oped to study bladder cancer," Cohen said, "which affects about 40,000 Amer icans every year." Cohen said the bladder is ideal for computer modeling because it is a rather simple organ. The computer model costs $50,000 to $100,000 to develop. The development is based on the theory that cancer develops in two stages. So far, test Tl I ' ' t Taction IV.;: ; C, j ;i tl'r.i'.eruiy (f V :. zU.. 'r.V: L)h--sf::.:: J ":s to cc: Lj !"t r '. :-;- Is r ii'J I i - i - i - i'NLCc(:.-T.:.::..-.::i; t af:riv: ii?( : ti iV .; 1 .t(frr Dave bentzUail y Nebraskan results through computer modeling show that cell activity is crucial in the first stage of cancer development and that exposure to an agent like saccharin, for example, plays a major role in the second stage. Lab experimentation showed a dif ference in tumor formation. "The computer model points to the possibility that the difference might be linked to the active state of bladder cells during gestation and immediately after birth," Cohen said. That is where the computer modeling fits in. It has all the necessary genetic and biological information to hypothe size which cells from rats are most susceptible to cancer. For the last five years, UNMC has been the only medical center in the United States using this mathematical concept of cancer research. Monsanto Chemical Co., the American Industrial Health Council and the Environmental Protection Agency had discussed devel oping computer modeling with UNMC, Cohen said. As more additives and chemicals are taken into the human system and many people think cancer risks are increasing, the cancer-detecting computer has begun to catch on, he said. UNMC has received nearly $1 million in research support from government agencies and science institutes. But this will not replace the more traditional use of animals for cancer research, Cohen said. "Ultimately, any new laboratory discovery will have to be tested on a living, breathing system before it can be deemed useful and safe for humans," Cohen said. r. ' ' J f : 1 p :.. - i.., r r J 1 :. n:: IVj. 13 in tha tl'-' ? A t,iv Alb . . ' ' it:r y:u : .tf f: ; 1 , ' t I. Orr proposes state tax system to benefit high-income levels By Michael Hooper Senior Reporter Gov. Kay Orr's proposed changes in the state income-tax system are a "step in the right direction" for ConAgra and other Nebraska businesses, Orr said Saturday. The governor's plan will signal higher-income executives that there will be some relief, Orr said. Under her plan, companies such as ConAgra that concentrate their invest ment dollars and employees in Nebraska but sell most of their products in other states would benefit from the plan, Orr said. ConAgra. is an Omaha-based food company that has threatened to leave the state because it claims Nebraska's corporate taxes are too high. Because its property and payroll are in the state and most of its sales are not, ConAgra would benefit from the plan, State Tax Commissioner Don Leuenberger said. ;- : Doug CarrollDaily Nebraskan Robert and Bernie Kent of Fremont look over one of the Four Tusker exhibits in Morrill Hall Sunday. 14 million years later . . . four-tuskers visit Huskers By Lisa Hoffman Staff Reporter The "Four Tuskers," an exhibition of ancient, mysterious relatives of the elephants, are on display this semester at the Nebraska State Museum in Morrill Hall. Four tuskers arrived in Nebraska 14 million years ago from their ancestral home in Africa. They were elephant-like creatures with two pairs of ivory tusks one in the lower jaw and the other in the usual, upper-jaw position. The fossils of the four-tuskers, members of the Gomphoteriidae family, are older than the fossils of the mammoth mastodon, remains found in Ne braska, However, the four-tusker fossils are not well-known, said Michael Voorhies, museum curator of vertebrate paleontology. The exhibit features a skull found "Business in Nebraska and compan ies thinking of locating in Nebraska will see a very positive change," Orr said in a prepared statement. The Nebraska income-tax system must be changed, she said, because Nebraska rates would have to be raised for the next two years to avoid a $68 million loss caused by federal tax reform and its impact on the state tax system. She said the new system would be fair for all income levels. Leuenberger added that low-income residents, such as students, who make less than $7,000 per year would pay little or nothing, and residents who make less than $3,000 per year would pay no state income tax. Orr's plan will be presented to the Nebraska Legislature this week. The Legislature will decide whether to enact her plan. Orr said senators are willing to listen, "and that's all we ask." 17 rV - ( ... in October 1985 at Long Pine Creek in the Niobrara River Valley by James Landon, a former UNL student. Landon brought a fragment of the skull to Voorhies, who identified it as a four-tusker. Landon and his Seward High School biology class, along with museum staff member Kenneth Imig, returned to the site and unearthed the remaining pieces of the skull. The exhibit also will include artists' depictions of how these living mammals may have looked. A painting by museum artist Marc Marcuson will give visitors a glimpse of the four-tuskers and the jungle like foliage that covered the Great Plains 10 million years ago. Artists used much detective work to create an image of wh it the four tuskers may have looked like. Voorhies said the artists worked The sooner a new plan is enacted, the better, she said, because federal tax reform already is affecting the state. "There will have to be changes in the Nebraska income-tax system before the Legislature adjourns," she said. Orr said although the change in the Nebraska system is major, her plan retains the simplicity Nebraskans have come to depend on. Her new form will remain only one page long. Most taxpayers will be able to figure their taxes by looking up the proper figure on a tax table, she said. To create jobs through economic development, the tax plan would encourage businesses to locate in the state, Orr said. She said companies that had their money and people in other states but used Nebraska only as a market for their goods would pay more taxes. But if their property and payroll were in the state, they would benefit from her plan, she said, and pay less that Nebraska companies pay now. from a skeleton of a four-tusker and discovered that it had anatomical similarities to modern elephants, The artists then assumed that the two had comparable muscle struc ture. Voorhies said the four-tuskers also must have had trunks because their skulls have openings for nostrils in the same place as elephants. The trunk must have been short, Voorhies added, because the protruding lower jaw would have gotten in the way of a longer trunk. The exhibit, which opened Satur day, also will include numerous tusks and fossils, most of which never have been displayed publicly before. Voorhies said about 90 percent of the displayed items were found in the Niobrara River Valley. More four-tusker fossils have been collected in the valley than in any other area of comparable size in North America.