European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 3, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Tuesday april 3 2007 stars and stripes Page 11 study explores to Impi link by Lauran Neergaard the associated press Washington survivors of traumatic brain injuries from car crash victims to soldiers wounded in Iraq face an extra hurdle As they recover thousands of them will develop epilepsy months or years later the risk is especially High for certain kinds of War injuries stud ies of Vietnam veterans suggest up to 50 percent says or Nancy Tendon of the University of Washington major new research is begin Ning into ways to predict exactly who is most at risk and How to protect their vulnerable brains among the efforts Pilot studies to see if the newer seizure treating drugs top Amax or Zeppra might actually prevent epilepsy if there taken immediately after a serious brain injury it is among the most frustrating things in Medicine to know that someones at risk and be unable to do anything about it says or Marc Dichter of the University of Pennsylvania who is leading the top Amax study and pushing for better recognition of such patients adding to their struggle epilepsy May not begin with the classic jerking seizures but instead with memory loss attention problems or other More Subtle symptoms that doctors can mistakenly at users fooled by Google gag by Rachel Konrad the associated press san Over a company with a Market value of billion apparently gives Silicon valleys most famous billionaires a Good sense of humor and a Case of corporate potty Mouth senior executives at Google inc launched theft annual april fools Day prank sunday posting a link on the company Home Page to a site offering Consumers free High Speed wireless internet through their Home plumbing sys tems codenamed dark porcelain Google said its toilet internet service provider tips works with Microsoft corps new win Dows Vista operating system but sorry septic tanks Are incompatible with the systems require ments the gag included a mock press release quoting Google Confounder and president Larry Page a step step online instal lation manual and a scatological selection of frequently asked questions on some Google Sites the com pants official logo a Multi col ored Google that changes according to the season and on holi Days substituted a commode for the second g As part of the spoof Google said tips would be offered in three speeds trickle the no 2 and Royal flush Caleb Denise Pease of Corona by a patient who developed epilepsy after a head injury in a car crash Speaks to doctors and researchers last week at the National institutes of health in Bethesda my tribute to the original brain injury Post traumatic stress or some other Factor almost 3 million americans have epilepsy a condition in which the brain essentially suffers periodic electrical storms when its circuits misfire fast enough a seizure results epilepsy has multiple causes some people Are born with it but about 5 percent of the nations Epi Lepsy was caused by traumatic brain injury or Tai what5s the risk roughly 25 percent of survivors of moderate to severe brain injury will develop epilepsy even More perhaps for certain types of War injuries the population at risk is huge some 14 million children and adults suffer serious brain injuries every year from car or Bike crashes Falls gunshot wounds and other trauma after the initial injury inflame ration and treatment conies a silent period during which survivors work to recover it can last months or even years before Epi Lepsy appears As the damaged brain tries to re wire itself a crucial process called plasticity misfiring circuitry can form injured neurons can make new connections in wrong places or Overly excitable connections even the brains genes change the Way they work after head injury if s not Clear yet How to do that so scientists instead Are testing what s Ling drugs As possible epilepsy presenters three old medications have failed new Pilot studies funded by the Nih and defense department Are checking top Amax and Zeppra which work differently from older competitors while the tests Are a bit of a Long shot there Are some hints that these newer drugs might work perhaps by inhibiting cell harm ing chemicals wrought by postin jury inflammation he says each study is enrolling about 90 patients a first step to ensure the drugs wont harm Overall recovery before larger trials begin until some Protection is found Dichter wants a bigger Effort at warning about the epilepsy risk so that patients can recognize Subtle symptoms at his urging the american epilepsy society is creating a task Force to target Brainin Jared soldiers work that Dichter says May eventually translate to the far bigger population of injured civilians consider Denise Pease an Assis Tant comptroller for new York City months after what was initially deemed a minor head injury in a 1995 taxi crash she began experiencing lost periods of time in creasing confusion and cognitive problems Only when a Nephew witnessed a muscle jerking seizure Well Over a year later did she get the right diagnosis and begin her recovery today after years of trying differ ent medications she has Good Epi Lepsy control and warns that my experience is not unique airline service is worse but fewer people Are complaining by Jennifer c Kerr the associated press Washington More air line passengers bumped More bags lost and fewer onetime flights for the third year in a Row those problems grew worse for the Industry according to an Nual study that rates airline qual Ity they just dont get it yet said Dean Headley an associate professor at Wichita state University and coauthor of the study being released monday one upside researchers said was that the number of com plaints about airlines has stabilized since hitting a five year Low in 2005 the study does not include in formation from recent weath err elated flight delays such As the ones that left Jet Blue and United airlines planes idling for hours on taxiways an Industry spokesman does not expect travel woes to improve anytime soon were going to see More de lays and those delays translate to cancellations mishandled bags and unhappy passengers said David Castelveter spokesman for the air transport association a Trade group for the major us carriers if s not a pretty picture the airline Quality rating re port compiled annually since 1991 looked at 18 airlines and was based on transportation department statistics the re search is sponsored by the Avia Tion Institute at University of Nebraska at Omaha and Wichita state University among the study conclusions Southwest had the lowest number of complaints in 2006 018 per 100000 passengers United and us airways were tied with the most complaints 136 hawaiian airlines had the Best onetime performance 938 percent for 2006 followed by Frontier airlines 807 percent and Southwest 802 at lactic Southeast airlines had the worst onetime performance 66 onetime was defined As within 15 minutes of the scheduled arrival time the biggest disappointment came in the rate of mishandled bags Headley said last year 650 bags were lost stolen or damaged for every 1000 passengers compared with 606 in 2005 hawaiian had the Best baggage handling performance Atlantic Southeast the worst Romney Giuliani report Campaign funds raised Washington Republican Mitt Romney reported raising million for his presidential Campaign during the first three months of the year a surprising tally for a relative newcomer and an amount rivalling the total re ported a Day earner by Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton meanwhile the gop front run Ner in the polls former new York mayor Rudy Giuliani said his do nations totalled million including More than million during March alone both Republican numbers blew away past party presidential fundraising standards while Romney figure put the former Massachusetts governor in com petition with Clinton the demo cratic front runner the new York senator on sunday reported raising million Between Jan 1 and March 31 High court knocks Bush on greenhouse gases Washington the supreme court ordered the Federal government on monday to take a fresh look a regulating Carbon dioxide emissions from cars a re Buke to Bush administration policy on global warming in a 54 decision the court said the clean air act gives the environmental Protection Agency the authority to regulate the emis Sions of Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from cars the lawsuit was filed by 12 states and 13 environmental groups that had grown frustrated by the Bush administrations inac Tion on global warming two shot to death at u of Washington Seattle two people were shot to death monday morning in Side the University of washing tons architecture building University police said firefighters found the victims while responding to reports of gunfire in Gould Hall around 9 am department spokeswoman Helen Fitzpatrick said University assistant police chief Ray Wittmier told Man by that a weapon was found at the scene that May have belonged to one of the dead people and that murder suicide was a possibility Komov reported that a woman and a Man were shot to death us inquires about citizen last seen in Iran Washington the state department said monday it is seeking information from Iran about a private american citizen reported missing while on a Busi Ness trip to the islamic Republic several weeks ago spokesman Sean Mccormack said the department had sent a let Ter to the iranians through the Swiss government asking if authorities had any information about his welfare and whereabouts Mccormack said the Case was not new and that it predated the current crisis Between Iran and Britain Over 15 sailors and marines seized last month by Irani an forces from the associated press