A . •• v -i-s r
Researchers focus on itis treatment
By Michelle Starr
Staff writer
UNL researchers are using a cattle virus to
try to find a Hepatitis C anti-viral drug treat
ment.
The research could help the estimated 3 mil
lion people in the United States infected with
Hepatitis C, said Ruben Donis, UNL molecular
virologist in the department of veterinary sci
ences.
The long-term disease can cause serious
liver damage, incfoding-scarring of the liver,
and in most cases leads to death.
“Ruben Donis has come up with a very sim
ilar virus, which one can work with in the labo
ratory,” said Marsha Torr, UNL vice chancellor
for research.
Donis, along with four researchers in his
lab, is working in collaboration with the
Veterans Hospital of Omaha and Roy French,
associate professor of plant pathology at UNL,
to use culture tissues of Bovine Viral Diarrhea
to research Hepatitis C.
The Hepatitis C virus will not grow in cul
ture tissues, making laboratory research almost
impossible. Because BVD is genetically similar
to Hepatitis C and can be grown in tissue cul
tures, it could aid in finding a Hepatitis C treat
ment, said Daniel Perez, a UNL researcher
working on the project.
The focus of the research, which began
about a year ago, is to determine how the two
viruses are connected and what can be learned
from the tissue samples - possibly a treatment
for the disease.
The research is using BVD plasmid, a pro
cedure developed four years ago by University
of Nebraska-Lincoln researcher Ventzy
Vasslive, which creates an intermediate life
stage of the virus that can be studied in the lab
oratory.
It substitutes genes in BVD for genes of
Hepatitis C. Researchers are able to learn about
Hepatitis C through BVD tissue samples, Donis
said.
Finding an effective drug treatment has
been a problem because no one can grow this
virus in tissue cultures to study it, Donis said.
The researchers are looking for information
about how the virus interacts with its host and
what causes the disease, Perez said. -
The differences between the viruses are that
BVD doesn’t affect humans or the liver of the
cattle, but it does affect the immune system of
the cow. Both can cause persistent infections,
and those infected are infected for life, Perez
said.
Hepatitis C has no treatment. Some patients
with severe liver damage have to resort to liver
transplants, but it is an extreme procedure,
Donis said.
“There aren’t enough livers to go around to
begin with,” Donis said.
Infected people can go five to 10 years with
out experiencing liver problems, and some can
go up to 20 years without problems.
Hepatitis C can be transmitted through bod
ily fluids such as infected blood and mucous.
Contaminated intravenous drug needles, poorly
sterilized medical instruments, unbandaged
a
There aren’t enough
livers to go around to
begin with.”
■ Ruben Donis
UNL molecular virologist
cuts or injuries, tattooing and body piercing
needles, shared razors and toothbrushes can
transmit the virus.
Donis and the researchers are hoping for the
best.
“We’re going to try to work for the next four
or five years. After five years it’s a little ridicu
lous,” Donis said.
If the researchers are unsuccessful, UNL
will still have a large collection of tissue sam
ples, Donis said.
Storied spit history
has followed police
■ The force is happy the
council is considering an
ordinance thatwouldmake
spitting on people illegal.
By Jake Bleed
Senior staff writer
At about 5 p.m. on Christmas
Eve, 1989, Lincoln police officer
Katherine Finnell and other officers
responded to a call from an apart
ment manager complaining about a
man trespassing on the property.
The 34-year-olu trespasser was
drunk and resisted arrest, Finnell
said, forcing officers to handcuff the
man.
As Finnell walked him to her
police cruiser, the 34-year-old
turned and spit in Finnell’s face.
“In my face, down my face, on to
my uniform. It was disgusting,”
Finnell said. “I can still smell it”
An ordinance being considered
by the City Council would make
spitting on otherpeople.- police
' officers and citizens alike - a crime r
The ordinance would make spit
ting “intentionally, knowingly or
recklessly” on another person a mis
demeanor offense.
The Lincoln City Council read
the ordinance for a second time
Tuesday.
Police Chief Tom Casady said
the police department proposed the
ordinance partially because police
officers are a common target of
lung-launched loogies.
“This is the sort of thing that just
about any police officer has experi
enced at one time or another,”
Casady said.
A city ordinance against spitting
on city sidewalks, but not people,
has been in place since 1936.
“It’s been illegal for many
decades to spit on sidewalks in
Lincoln,” Casady said.
“It seems like we should protect
people as well as we protect side
walks.”
People arrested and handcuffed
can still spit at arresting officers
and, for the time being, get away
with it ^ f
Casady said part of an officer’s
on-the-job-training is knowing how
to avoid a suspect’s spit.
“You learn to pick up on the cues
that someone is about to cough up a
wad of phlegm and fling it in your
direction,” Casady said.
Officer Tom Duden, a 26-year
Lincoln police veteran, said he’d
been spit on about 10 times in his
career.
Duden said it was difficult for
police to punish people spitting on
them, making the ordinance a wel
come law.
“That’s what the ordinance is
intended to do,” Duden said. “Be a
little more specific to the problem.”
Correction _
The City Council will vote on the spitting ordinance in two weeks, on Nov.
15- A headline in Tuesday’s Daily Nebraskan misidentified die date of the vote.
T
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THE DALY NBRASKAN
Hard work propels UNL senior
STRENGTH from page 1
said.
“Travis played football in high
school. He was always working. He
wanted to do well, so he put in the time
during the off season so he could do his
best when the time came.”
Travis said he couldn’t think of a
time when he was told he could not do
something.
“Itwasalways, ‘Yeah, give it a try,”’
he said. “A lot of people are surprised.
In high school football, the looks I got
from opponents at the beginning of the
game to the end of the game were dif
ferent. There was definitely a turn
around,” Travis said.
Travis and Garret said heir dad had
a great amount of influence in shaping
the people they are today.
“He taught us how to live our lives,
not to sweat the small stuff, to laugh it
off. He said that we’d go crazy if we
took everything seriously,” Garret said
“He was stem with us; he didn’t let us
get away with a lot. He definitely
helped to shape us into good people as
we grew up.”
Travis and Garret were the
youngest of the four boys.
When interviewed, the brothers
both reminisced about the same child
hood memory, and the trouble they
caused with their two older brothers.
“I remember once that Travis and I
wanted chocolate doughnuts,” Garret
said.
“Our mom had a doughnut
machine, and we decided that we want
ed to make some. We made three dozen
doughnuts and ate them all. Mom
couldn’t figure out why we didn’t want
any of the doughnuts that she made
three days later,” he said.
Travis said, “We spent the morning
getting into trouble with my brothers
and the afternoons fixing it”
Evenings around the Dendinger
home were spent laughing, the blotters
said.
“There were meals that would end
with our family laughing so hard that
they were falling off their chairs,”
Garret said.
Even now, Travis said he doesn’t
have a lot of worries.
“I just want to get my school work
done on time. That occupies most of
my time right now,” he said. “I know
that the work that I’m doing now will
help in my future. I just don’t spend a
lot of time worrying about it”
Mandate sets fraternity rules
MANDATE from page 1
Williamson said the NIC has been
proactive in educating fraternity mem
bers about the dangers of alcohol.
“Statistics show that chapters with
alcohol-free housing have higher
grades, fewer insurance claims and
houses in better shape,” he said.
Though some national houses are
just now signing onto the agreement, it
is not new.
The NIC’s statement urging chap
ter houses to be alcohol-free has been
around for 20 years, Williamson said,
and Farmhouse Fraternity has been dry
since January 1974.
Taylor Faulkner, Beta Theta Pi
Fraternity^ Interfratemity Council del
egate, said he had not heard about the
mandate, but said his house was alco
hol-free anyway.
Jaron Luttich, UNL Chi Phi
Fraternity president, said his chapter is
alcohol-free, but not because of the
mandate.
The national chapter of Chi Phi did
not sign the NIC’s mandate.
“National Chi Phi does not believe
that eliminating alcohol solves prob
lems,” Luttich said. “But it says we
must follow all local, state and national
laws. Because we are a dry campus, we
follow all local rules.”
Kappa Sigma Fraternity President
Adam Miller said he had heard about
the mandate and that his house was
alcohol-fiee.
But that wasn’t always the case.
Kappa Sigma just moved back into
a fraternity house this fall after losing
its house because of alcohol and finan
cial problems in December
1997.“Right now, we’re 100 percent
dry,” Miller said. “(Members) under
stand where we’re going with that”
Being alcohol-free has improved
the living conditions in the house,
Miller said.
“The house isn’t dirty all the time
now,” he said. “And it’s university poli
cy so we don’t have CSOs or campus
police crawling down our backs.”
When contacted by the Daily
Nebraskan, two other University of
Nebraska-Lincoln fraternity presidents
would not comment on the status of
their chapter houses.
With die mandate, Williamson said
the NIC wants to show fraternities that
drinking alcohol is not the only way to
have tun.
“We want to provide options,” he
said. “You don’t need alcohol to have a
great time, and you don’t need alcohol
to have a good life.”
Activist’s life, contributions recalled
OLSON from page 1
Nebraskans for Peace after she decid
ed there were no signs of tee Vietnam
Warsubsiding.
“It was getting more and more
violent,” Paul Olson said. “She didn’t
want her own children to die.”
Betty Olson kept Nebraskans for
Peace going after the Vietnam War
ended, even thoughmany other anti
war organizations came to an end,
Rinne said.
She wasthe state coordinator for
10 years. Shegaveupthejob and then
served on the board of directors.
“She Was indispensable and ubiq
uitous, and now she’s gone,” Rinne
sakL^^"*^’
Paul Olson said he and his wife
urged each other on in their activism.
The two met in college, where
Betty Olson was the homecoming
queen and president of her sorority.
“She was the typical ’50s kid,”
Paul Olson sai<£
The eventual husband and wife
became educated on a number of
causes, from McCarthyism in the ’50s
to Vietnam in the ’70s.
“We sparked each other,” Paul
Olson said. “Our political interests
were a mile wide and an inch deep.”
Not only did Betty Olson take
stands on issues affecting the well
being of people around die world, she
formed a coalition between white and
American Indian people in Thurston
County to get rid of an abusive sheriff,
ho* husband said.
She also supported state Sen.
Ernie Chambers’ efforts for a divest
ment motion for South Africa.
Olson felt strongly about issues
but had a mild demeanor, her husband
said. She would use her soft but confi
dent voice to confront state legislators.
Paul Olson said he remembered
one time when a senator didn’t
respond too well despite his wife’s
gentle approach.
“He just abused her,” he said “But
she just took it gently, went on with
her testimony and finished with digni
ty” , j
Rinne was familiar with Betty
Olson’s way of proving her point
“She made me a better person than
I ever thought I could be - through
guilt,” Rinne said “She had § moral
presence about her.”
Betty Olsonh subtle way of guid
ing others -especially young people -
was evident to her before she died,
Paul Olson said.
Her husband read letters sent to
his wife by young people who learned
from her not to accept the status quo.
He read them to her on her
bed.
“You could see a flicker of a smile
on her face,” Paul Olson said. “What
concerned her the most was people
losing the will to oppose the powers
that be.”
