Technician
tuesday february
14 2012
Raleigh, North Carolina
technicianonline.com
Driver’s daughter alleges poisoning Employee’s daughter says autopsy report blames death on carbon monoxide poisoning. Will Brooks Deputy News Editor
Although official autopsy results have not been released regarding the death of former Wolfline driver Joann Sewell, Sewell’s daughter said the family was told the cause of death was carbon monoxide poisoning. Sewell’s daughter, Sherese Brown, told reporters from WRAL that an autopsy revealed Sewell died of carbon monoxide poisoning three days after collapsing out of a Wolfline bus. Brown’s claim remains unconfirmed. First Transit, who contracts the Wolfline buses, refused to speak about Sewell’s death, but instead sent a brief news release. “First Transit continues to cooperate with OSHA in its investigation, and to date OSHA’s ongoing investigation has not revealed any safety concerns,” Timothy Stokes, First Transit spokesperson, said in the release. “In particular, OSHA has conducted air monitoring on the buses in question, and the testing did not reveal any detectable amount of carbon monoxide,” Stokes said in the release. The release assured the public that
Wolfline buses are safe to ride, and that safety is a priority. Brian O’Sullivan, Assistant Director of Planning and Operations at the N.C. State, said no official reports have been made available to him. “I have not seen anything definitive, and we haven’t really been hunting for any type of progress report,” O’ Sullivan said. “We have no involvement in any kind of investigation that could explain the situation.” O’Sullivan said his department’s primary goal is to make sure that the buses stay running, and although they were saddened by Sewell’s death, his department has undertaken no investigation of their own. “The family may have an interest in some kind of legal resolution regarding First Transit, but as far as the University is concerned, we’re kind of standing on the sidelines,” O’ Sullivan said. Student Government has discussed attempting to get the University involved in a separate investigation. “We’re sorry the incident happened, but we are continuing to operate a system here,” O’Sullivan said. “We’re concerned that everyone believes us that there aren’t any threatening environmental issues going on with the buses.” Rachel Wells, business director of Teamsters Union of Raleigh, said
Sewell was a part of the union along with several other Wolfline members, and that they will consider whether to take action, depending on the outcome of OSHA’s investigation. “Once we receive an official report by OSHA, then we will be able to go a little farther,” Wells said. She said the Teamsters have already provided Sewell’s family with a “death benefit,” but could not say with certainty what, if anything, First Transit had provided to Sewell’s family so far. As for Sewell’s daughter’s claim, Wells could not confirm or deny its accuracy. “From what I understand, the daughter released to the media what the report was, what she had found out from her attorney and from the medical examiner, but I don’t think that has been officially released yet,” Wells said. The investigation of Sewell’s death is ongoing. When complete, the evidence will come out in a report. “Since the investigation has commenced, First Transit has continued to operate safely and efficiently, transporting students, faculty and staff in and around the community and campus,” Stokes said in the news release.
La Vie bohem
jordan moore/Technician
Professor in industrial engineering Ola Harrysson holds up a prototype artificial knee, which is coated with a green chromium oxide. The rough, flat surface was made using a laser deposition device that can 3D print metal objects.
Cat surgery no small feat University team leads world’s first knee replacement surgery on a tabby cat. Hassan DuRant Senior Staff Writer
charlie harless/Technician
Brett Williams, junior in zoology, Jason Cooper, senior in communications, and Leanna Hall, sophomore in Business and Administration, practice the song “La Vie Bohem” for University Theater’s upcoming production of RENT. There will be a soft opening of the show for a limited number of students today, and then the musical will run Wednesday through Sunday of this week.
Local gaming company aims to raise funds Using kickstarter.com, a local company hopes to earn enough to produce a new game. Sarah Dashow Staff Writer
In this tumultuous economy, it isn’t always easy to get a company started. Josh Fairhurst, an N.C. State alumn in computer science, took his chances founding Mighty Rabbit Studios, a company focused on making mobile games. He is currently the lead developer for the company. Upon receiving funding from Joystick Labs, a game development incubator program, Fairhurst was able
to start gathering employees and resources to begin work on their biggest project yet: Saturday Morning RPG, an episodic role-playing game set in a world inspired by 1980’s Saturday morning cartoons. While the company has created other games in the past, they were precursory projects to allow them to continue work on Saturday Morning RPG. “It’s something that we envision to be completely different than what is out there in the app store,” Ben Moore, marketing director at Mighty Rabbit, said. “I was playing it the other day, and even after playing it hundreds of time, it’s just awesome.” “We put as many pop-culture ref-
erences as we can cram into a Japanese-style RPG. It’s really cool. We are really excited about it,” Fairhurst said. “We really hope it will accelerate us into the upper leagues of indie developers.” “I just came on three months ago and every month something new is there, and I enjoy it more and more. I’m the one that programmed it, and I’m having fun,” Kurt Hasian, University alumn in computer science and programmer for Mighty Rabbit, said. In an effort to help the funding of the game and the company’s future, Mighty Rabbit turned to
The tough guy who makes everyone laugh. See page 8.
2012 Wolfpack Baseball Preview. See page 7.
game continued page 3
A very unusual patient checked into N.C. State for a revolutionary surgery this past January. Patient name: Cyrano the Cat. Denis Marcellin-Little, an orthopedic surgeon, and Ola Harrysson, associate professor in the Industrial Systems Engineering department, were leaders of the team that recently performed knee replacement surgery on Cyrano. Dr. Marcellin-Little is also a veterinarian who teaches at the University’s vet school. He and Harrysson have been working together for nearly ten years. Their work has required that they provide implants for many patients -- but never for an animal as small as Cyrano. Replacement surgeries for cats pose a particularly difficult problem for both surgeons and engineers because of the agility of the average cat, and the size of the animal. Cyrano was diagnosed with a tumor in his bone a little over a year ago. Before coming to N.C. State, Cyrano went in for treatment at Colorado State University, which helped his condition greatly. Eventually, Cyrano’s owner Sandy Lerner realized he would need further treatment to improve the his quality of life — his knee was on the verge of collapsing. Lerner was referred to N.C. State, and came in contact with Marcellin-Little. “She had a very clear idea of what was needed, and so did we,” Marcellin-Little said. Because of the clear goals of both parties, the team was able to hit the ground running with Cyrano’s treatment. The research team reached far beyond N.C. State. Due to limitations on the available equipment and the need for quick action, it was necessary to call in two other companies to assist with the preparations neces-
sary for the surgery: BioMedtrix and Germany-based EOS. BioMedtrix is a company that specializes in orthopaedic implant design. In the past, BioMedtrix had developed implants for dogs and even humans, but had also never worked with a cat. Despite delving into relatively unknown territory, the collaboration between the University and BioMedtrix was worthwhile. Both Harrysson and Marcellin-Little agree that a lot of valuable time and effort was saved in the implant’s construction because of BioMedtrix. According to Marcellin-Little, one of the older methods of creating a replacement knee is the “doorhinge” knee, which according to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, operates on the assumption that the knee is a simple doorhinge-like mechanism. In Cyrano’s case, there was so much damage to the femur that the team had to use a different method. This newer, mobile-bearing method includes added rotation that the doorhinge replacement lacks. While the implant will not allow full rotation, it will allow for more flexibility that better mimics the natural movement of the knee. Once the designs for the implant were finalized, EOS was requested to construct the implants. The team realized that they needed a very small and sophisticated implant. EOS’ machines were considered by the team to be the best option they had for the creation of a successful knee replacement. Because of the complexity of the procedure, countless measures had to be taken before Cyrano would even see an operating table. According to Harrysson, many prototypes of the replacement-knee were constructed on-campus with 3D scanners before the actual replacement was built. Marcellin-Little spent time practicing his surgical methods with each of them. By the day of the surgery, everything had been planned and accounted for.
cyrano continued page 3
insidetechnician
Leadership is key to freshmen’s success. See page 8.
Will you be my Valentine?
See page 2.
Darwin peering through the molecular level. See page 5.
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