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Thursday, November 6, 2014
Quad amputee called person of interest in parents’ deaths BY TIFFANY WALDEN TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE
As a teenager growing up in South Florida, Sean Petrozzino made headlines with his upbeat attitude after bacterial meningitis and more than a dozen surgeries ravaged his body. Bacteria destroyed his hands, feet and parts of his limbs. But the sophomore clarinetist — a quadruple amputee at 16 — touched many with his positive outlook, prompting donations of a voicecommand laptop, wheelchair ramps and a specially equipped van. “Lots of important things in life just happen by chance,” he said in an interview 14 years ago. “You know someone and get a job that makes you millions of
dollars. Or you get a disease. There doesn’t seem to be any reason some things happen.” On Wednesday, Petrozzino, now 30, made headlines again — this time as an alleged guntoting, dangerous “person of interest” in the fatal shootings of his parents in their Orange County home. The bodies of Nancy Petrozzino, 64, and Michael Petrozzino, 63, were found Tuesday, prompting a search for their son and his father’s missing vehicle, a red Toyota Camry with Florida license plate 112VZY. He is only a person of interest and not a suspect, sheriff’s office spokeswoman Jane Watrel said at a news conference Wednesday. “We want him to get in here and talk to us so we can
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NEWS BRIEFS TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE
Oregon and Alaska become next states to fully legalize marijuana
PRESTON C. MACK MCCLATCHY TRIBUNE
Sean Petrozzino uses his computer in 2000 after many surgeries to treat bacterial meningitis. Petrozzino, now 30, is a "person of interest" in the fatal shootings of his parents. find out what happened since he was apparently living with his parents,” Watrel said. Deputies think Sean Petrozzino may be heading to Jupiter or Coral Springs in South Florida. As the search for him unfolds, a family member revealed new details about his background. He recently separated from his wife in Georgia and moved in with his par-
Oregon and Alaska became the third and fourth states to fully legalize marijuana on Tuesday, while Floridians rejected a proposal that would have allowed pot to be used for medical reasons. In Washington, D.C., voters approved a more limited plan, removing all penalties for possession and home cul-
tivation of small amounts of pot by adults 21 and older. Oregon and Alaska will now join Washington and Colorado in taxing and regulating pot much like alcohol. While a majority of voters backed the Florida plan, it fell short of the 60 percent threshold required for passage.
ents: longtime Orange County school teacher Nancy Petrozzino and Walt Disney World cast member Michael Petrozzino. Grief counselors have been dispatched to Nancy Petrozzino’s school, Andover Elementary, less than a mile south of the Petrozzinos’ home. His mother-in-law, Cathleen Horne, said Sean Petrozzino has always been a calm and peaceful person. PATRICK TEHAN TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE
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HAND Akhtar said. Every week, each gesture is trained for two to three seconds, which will allow the machine learning algorithm to collect data and analyze the motions being made.
Development of the model Akhtar said the team hopes to incorporate sensory feedback into the next version of the hand. “No commercial device currently has any form of sensory feedback at all,” Akhtar said. “We want to be one of the first prosthetic hands out there that can incorporate this feedback into the device, also at a low price point.” There are two types of sensory feedback that is given to prosthetic hand users. One type is proprioception sensory feedback, which is the ability to feel the position of a joint, Akhtar said. “For instance, if an amputee were to close his eyes and move his prosthetic hand around, he has no
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MARIJUANA still considers the selling of medical cannabis to be a drug transaction, which banks do not want to be involved with, so payments must be done with cash only, Marlin said. Once the businesses receive a response, those that are approved will have to figure out how they will work under a cash basis, Marlin said. Marlin said dispensaries will charge $300 to $400 per ounce and qualifying patients can obtain up to 2.5 ounces every two weeks. She added medical marijuana will be expensive since insurance will not cover it.
Location guidelines based on zoning ordinance amendment The Urbana City Council unanimously voted in early August to pass a zoning ordinance amendment that specifically stated where dispensaries would be allowed. The Illinois Department of Professional Regulations will award up to 60 medical marijuana dispensary licenses in Illinois. The four prospective
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ACES faculty and company representatives to test their technologies and access different types of utilities, such as different types of power, voltages and gas. This is possible because everything is at a scale where it can be moved around, making it more modular and easy to use, Blaschek said. There will be a fee sched-
idea what the joint positions are going to be like in that hand or what the shape of his hand is going to take,” Akhtar said. “If I close my eyes and move my hand around, I know exactly what shape my hand is making.” One way the team is trying to give that sensation back to amputees is through a technique known as skin stretch. When the fi nger moves, Akhtar said, it proportionately stretches the skin so that the position of the joint angle being moved corresponds to the amount of skin stretch users feel. Although the use of sensory feedback does not provide the same senses amputees had before their amputation, it tries to give them ways to feel through their prosthesis. “After only six minutes of training, users were able to distinguish between six different grips, just based off the skin stretch,” Akhtar said. “They couldn’t see the device, they couldn’t hear the device at all and they were able to get above 88 percent accuracy in distinguishing the different grips that were being presented through skin stretch.”
The team is also working on a prototype that uses four-bar linkage, which Slade designed within about two weeks. Slade said the four-bar linkage allows the joints to move in a natural, consistent manner because the joints are coupled together. “The use of four-bar linkage - which is four mechanically bridged and rigid links that are all attached by joints - it will move through a small motion rather than the tendon winch method, where you are like pulling in the string,” Slade said.
businesses in Urbana have applied for licenses and are undergoing a competitive application process. Licenses are divided between the 21 police districts in Illinois based on the district’s population size. Champaign County police district can have up to two dispensary facilities and one cultivation center, where business owners can actively grow cannabis to be shipped to the dispensary locations, Marlin said. Alderman Bill Brown, Ward 4, said the Champaign County police district extends from Decatur to Danville. Marlin said she expects one of the two dispensary facilities will be in Urbana. A zoning analysis of the city in the amendment requires the dispensaries to be 1,000 feet away from areas containing schools and day care centers. Since the product will be serving a large population, Libby said the city compared similar types of services in the area, such as pharmacies and clinics, when setting the parameters. Tyler believes these dispensary locations are an opportunity for economic development in Urbana.
Although there is no set deadline for license awards, Stephen Morrill, attorney at Morrill & Associates PC and representative of Pfx Farms, said they are expecting to hear back some time between December and January. Pfx Farms was created to own and operate a medical marijuana business since the pilot program was enacted in early January 2014. “If we are fortunate to obtain a license, medical cannabis would be available to patients some time in mid 2015, after the initial growing cycle of new cultivation centers,” Morrill said. “When the product is ready for the market, the available inventory will be sold to retail establishments.” Morrill said the team at Pfx Farms is looking forward to creating a positive and longterm relationship with the city of Urbana if awarded the medical cannabis dispensary license. “We are excited to participate in a highly professional manner in this new medical market,” he said. Brown said the state has tight guidelines as to how medical cannabis could be dispensed within these facilities, but he said he is not wor-
ried the drug will be used for the wrong purposes.
ule set up for company use, allowing the facility to be feasible from a business standpoint and produce revenue for the University, Merchen said. There will also be a program where faculty will be able to submit proposals to use the facility and carry out their own project. Students will be able to benefit from the laboratory as well through workshops where they can be involved with the state-of-the-art equipment.
“Educationally, I think the facility would definitely boost the knowledge,” said Nate Wells, senior in ACES. “I think some things that are discovered there should be open source, and that knowledge should be distributed.” Blaschek said in the long run, the facility will help to create jobs. “We’re creating new technologies around which companies can be based,” he said. Merchen said the facility will be beneficial to the Uni-
versity in several ways. “I think it will facilitate a good deal of partnerships between the world of private enterprises and a public institution like the University of Illinois,” he said. “I think (the facility) also helps put the University of Illinois in the position to be one of the national and maybe global leaders in the use of bioprocessing.”
Research in Ecuador In collaboration with David Krupa, cofounder of Range of Motion Project and University alumnus, team members traveled to Ecuador to test their prototype. “It was a very great experience working with an actual person who happens to have an amputation and who could help us with learning what we needed to do for our prosthetic device,” said Nguyen, graduate student in Aerospace Engineering. “It’s one thing to be up here testing the device;
we do have some access, but when we are trying to develop devices for people in developing countries, it’s important to go down and see what the needs are and what they want.” Nguyen said the experience with Juan Suquillo, an Ecuadorian patient who tested the device, was successful and fulfi lling for everyone involved. “The next time we go back, we plan on having a fully-functional prototype that we can actually leave for long-term testing,” Akhtar said. “Our goal in this fi rst trip was just to make sure that we can actually get our devices to work.” Akhtar said he and his team are trying to design a new prototype that would be able to completely fi t into a socket and include all the electronic devises and the electromyographic sensor board. The team will continue working to make prostheses accessible to everyone who needs them.
Shubham Banerjee assembles the Braille printer he built out of Legos in his San Jose, Calif., home on Saturday. The 13-year-old is creating a sensation in the venture capital world after he built the Braille printer.
Teenager becomes youngest person to receive venture capital funding SANTA CLARA, Calif. — One school science fair victory, a few national accolades, $35,000 of his parents’ savings and a visit to the White House later, 12-year-old Shubham Banerjee today is the founder of Palo Alto startup Braigo Labs, which aims to become the fi rst purveyor of low-cost Braille printers. And on Tuesday, Intel Capital, the company’s global investment arm, will announce it has invest-
ed in the teenager’s company, making Shubham the world’s youngest tech entrepreneur to receive venture capital funding. “It was curiosity,” explained Shubham, now 13 and an eighth-grader at Champion School in San Jose. “I’m always thinking up something. If you think it can be done, then it can probably be done.” What started as a homebuilt Lego project for a science fair has morphed into a family-run startup.
Jane can be reached at janelee5@ dailyillini.com.
User to benefit from medical marijuana Graduate student Charlie Johnson, a patient suffering from syringomyelia, a condition in which a fluid-filled cyst develops on the spinal cord, actively uses dronabinol, a cannabis, man-made pill. Johnson said he is uncertain whether he would sign up for different varieties of medical cannabis at a dispensary in Urbana. “My dronabinol is already paid for by my insurance with a small co-pay like any other prescription would be,” Johnson said. “However, there is no insurance coverage for medical cannabis in Illinois, so to enter that dispensary facility system would be at my own expense.” However, Johnson said he may consider purchasing cannabis at these dispensary locations if the quality is high and the price is affordable. Johnson believes these dispensary locations could be highly beneficial to people who are unable to receive cannabis for their illnesses.
Walbert can be reached at wcasti2@dailyillini.com.
Eric can be reached at fries2@dailyillini.com.
BRIAN CASSELLA TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE
Republican candidate for governor Bruce Rauner declares victory at Rauner’s election night celebration at the Hilton Chicago on Tuesday in Chicago.
Pat Quinn concedes to challenger Bruce Rauner in governor race I l li nois Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn conceded Wednesday afternoon to Republican challenger Bruce Rauner, a day after the most expensive and bitter contest for chief executive in the state of Illinois’ history. “It’s clear that we do not
have enough votes to win the election,” Quinn said. The governor pledged to work with Rauner on a transition and said he would spend his remaining two months in office pushing to raise the minimum wage, which he made a central theme of his campaign.
Fresh outbreak of violence hits and kills 1 in Jerusalem, injures more In a fresh outbreak of violence in Jerusalem Wednesday, one person was killed and at least a dozen others injured when a Palestinian man rammed his vehicle into pedestrians in what has become a familiar if unpredictable pattern of action in the troubled city. According to eyewitnesses, a white van deliberately struck several police troops at a light-rail stop and continued to ram the vehicle
into other pedestrians and cars before stalling at a traffic light 500 meters later. He got out of the car and began attacking passersby with a crowbar before a police officer who arrived at the scene shot him. One victim died of fatal injuries shortly after the incident, described by authorities as a terror attack. Thirteen people were taken to hospitals throughout Jerusalem.
ISIS kidnapped and tortured dozens of boys in Syria for several months The Islamic State militant group kidnapped and tortured dozens of boys in Syria this year, beating them with hoses or electrical cables and forcing them to watch videos of beheadings and combat, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday. The youths, ages 14 to
16, were held for months and beaten if they tried to escape, performed poorly during compulsory religious lessons or had a relative in the YPG, a Syrian-Kurdish militia known as the Popular Protection Units, which has fought the Islamic State, according the rights group.
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