WEDNESDAY, NOV. 2, 2016 VOLUME 91 ■ ISSUE 38
SOCCER
IN DEPTH
ONLINE
PG. 6
INDEX
6
LA VIDA OPINIONS SPORTS CROSSWORD CLASSIFIEDS SUDOKU
5 4 6 2 7 6
CAMPUS
CITY
iGem team wins silver in international competition
Health Department reports first West Nile case
Competing in the Giant Jamboree competition from Thursday to Monday, the Texas Tech Genetically Engineered Machine Team took second place in an international competition in Boston. The competition, which also included workshops and other presentations, hosted nearly 300 international teams and gave awards to the best presentations, according to a Tech news release. The competition focuses on synthetic biology, which involves the use of engineering principles to design biological components. Tech’s team presented a method on improving healing time of chronic wounds with the use of proteininfused collagen scaffold, according to the release. The team consists of 14 members. “All the team members have remarked about how incredibly valuable this experience has been to them and how well their undergraduate education at Texas Tech has prepared them to win this prestigious award at this international competition,” Dr. Annette Sobel, associate professor of medical education and professor of electrical and computer engineering, said. “We especially thank our corporate sponsors, National Instruments, Mr. DNA, IDT, GenScript and Research and Training Institute.” @MichaelCantuDT
NATIONAL
Mahomes named finalist candidate for Golden Arm football award On Tuesday, the Big 12 Conference announced two Big 12 quarterbacks have been named to the top five candidates for the Johnny MAHOMES Unitas Golden Arm Award. Baker Mayfield, quarterback for the Oklahoma Sooners, and Texas Tech quarterback Patrick Mahomes II cracked the list for the conference. According to a Big 12 news release, candidates must be college seniors or fourth-year juniors on schedule to graduate with their classes. Since 1987, the award has been given to the nation’s top quarterback who demonstrates excellence on and off the football field, according to the release. Mahomes currently leads the nation in passing yards with 3,519 yards. He is second in completions with 270 and is tied for third in passing touchdowns with 28. The award will be presented at a ceremony on Dec. 9 in Baltimore. According to the release, the Big 12 has won the Golden Arm Award four times, and the most recent winner was in 2012, when former Kansas State quarterback Collin Klein won the award. @BSoliz_DT
By MICHAEL CANTU News Editor
The Lubbock Health Department reported its first human case of West Nile for 2016 on Tuesday. Though it is late in the year for mosquitoes to be out, as long as there is some mosquito activity people risk the chance of encountering them, Katherine Wells, Lubbock Health Department director, said. Therefore, people should still take general precautions, such as wearing mosquito repellents, wearing long-sleeve shirts and not going out during peak mosquito hours. “We typically see West Nile cases every summer, and this one is kind of unique because we usually see it much earlier,” Wells said. “This time we’re seeing it later in the season.” The virus is typically spread by the bird population, so when they
migrate into an area, they infect the mosquito population, Wells said. In its research, the department saw some mosquitoes that tested positive for the virus a few weeks ago. Though there have been a lot of cases reported in the Dallas and Fort Worth areas, this is the first human case in Lubbock, she said. “I think we’ve actually did well this year in that we haven’t seen any cases,” Wells said. “I was expecting to see some, so I think mosquito control has been good, people have probably been listening to the messages with all of the information out there about Zika, and people have probably been better about wearing mosquito repellent and trying to avoid the mosquito bites.” When fall comes into full fruition and the weather starts to cool down, the mosquito population will begin to decrease, she said. An important thing to keep in mind about the virus, Wells said, is it cannot
be transmitted from person to person. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, there has been a significantly smaller number of times when humans transmitted the virus to other humans from blood transfusions; organ transplants; laboratory settings; and from a mother to a child during pregnancy, delivery and breast feeding. Most of the time in cases of West Nile, those infected do not realize they have the virus and go about just fine, Dr. Mark Lacy, associate professor of internal medicine at the Health Sciences Center, said. “Most people with West Nile tend to have less upper respiratory symptoms that are not always but frequently associated with influenza,” Lacy said. “The other thing is, sometimes West Nile Virus is associated with rashes, which is somewhat uncommon with influenza.”
There is no definitive set of symptoms one exhibits when infected, Lacy said. However, when it comes down to the statistics, around 80 percent of people are asymptomatic, meaning they exhibit no symptoms or even think they have a sickness. The healthier they are, the less likely a person is to suffer from the virus, he said. “Twenty percent will become ill, but only a small number of those will have a severe illness, maybe one out of 150,” Lacy said. “So it’s less than 1 percent are going to have a severe disease.” Certain hosts and populations run the risk of being severely affected, but for the majority of the population, there is not much risk, Lacy said. Overall, the key to minimize the chances of being infected from a virus is maintaining healthy habits.
SEE WEST NILE, PG. 2
CAMPUS
Student works to reduce walking energy cost By KIRBY WARNER Staff Writer
John Ashley, a kinesiol ogy graduate student at Texas Tech, is recruiting volunteers for research on how much energy the human body consumes while walking. Ashley said the primary purpose of the study is to observe how a dietary supplement called L-citrulline affects the cost of energy for walking. According to WebMD, L-citrulline is a non-essential amino acid which allows for better blood flow and improvement in the levels of muscle protein. Ashley said the energy used to walk is consistent with that used for other daily activities until the age of 65, when the energy cost increases, making walking more difficult. “What we want to do is see if this supplement can decrease that
energy cost to walk,” Ashley said, “and if it can, then it would benefit them, improve their daily lives, their overall well-beings.” Ashley said the study works by finding people of average fitness and then having them partake in two trials. The first involves walking at a normal pace down the hallway before using a treadmill to match that speed. A short break follows, and then the second trial begins, which involves a higher intensity. Oxygen cost and metabolism are measured during both trials. Ashley said neither walking nor running is necessarily better than the other, but walking is beneficial to the older population. If the supplement can be proven to decrease the cost of energy for walking, then it can become a common supplement in markets, he said, with the hope that it helps the older population. @DailyToreador