I The Behrend Beacon
Student's directing
Is it possible to begin a career as a freshman? It is for
Behrend student Aaron Amendola, THEA/EDU 02, who
was rewarded the role of director for the theater troupe
"United We Stand's" performance of Neil Simon's "The
Odd Couple."
Amendola has been interested in theater since high
school, which helped him land his first directing role with
United We Stand. One of his high school theatre teachers
introduced him to Cathi Mitchell of the theater troupe
and, after numerous interviews, Amendola was awarded
the job.
As a director, Amendola has already 40 hours at
rehearsals and a lot of added time outside of the theater
since he became director in late February. He needed to
cast all the roles and is continuously helping the cast with
the set, sound and lights, in addition to his job of direct
ing the actors and interpreting the show.
"The actors in it all are experienced and in most cases,
a little older than me, so it was fun directing people even
though I was a little younger," said Amendola. "I knew a
few of [the actors] from shows around the Erie area but if
they weren't so experienced and well-rounded, this show
probably wouldn't be getting off the ground by Friday."
United We Stand's performance of "The Odd Couple"
has the same premise as Neil Simon's, but the leading
roles' gender is changed. The performance under direc
tion of Amendola has female leads, so instead of Oscar
and Felix, the characters are Olive and Florence. Because
most of the cast is female, Amendola decided to ask a fel-
Cultures are lurking in your yogurt
By Janet Helm
Chicago Tribune
(KRT)
Bacteria in your food are a bad
thing, usually: Think of E. coli or
other harmful bugs. But a whole other
world of "friendly" bacteria lurks out
there. Called "probiotics" and found
in such products as yogurt and yogurt
drinks, they provide health benefits
beyond the regular live cultures found
in those foods.
Probiotics are among the fastest
growing category of functional foods,
according to the market research firm
Mintel, which cites a 140 percent
increase last year in the launch of new
probiotic-fortified products.
So far, the strongest evidence on
probiotics has focused on digestive
tract problems such as lactose intoler
ance and diarrhea, including infec
tious diarrhea among children and the
type that develops after a person has
taken antibiotics (which wipe out
both good and bad bacteria in their
path, altering the natural balance of
the digestive tract).
Additional studies suggest probi
otics may help decrease the risk of
colon cancer and ease symptoms of
irritable bowel syndrome and the
more serious inflammatory bowel dis
ease, which includes Crohn's disease
and ulcerative colitis. Researchers
also are beginning to see signs that
probiotics may help lower blood pres
sure and blood cholesterol levels.
Europeans have long embraced the
concept of probiotics (which is
derived from the Greek word mean
ing "for life"), but Americans haven't
fully warmed up to the idea of down
ing a drink swimming with billions of
live microorganisms.
"We've done a good job in this
country of scaring people to death of
microbes," said Mary Ellen Sanders,
president of the International
Scientific Association for Probiotics
and Prebiotics, a non-profit scientific
organization. "People don't under
stand the important role microbes can
play in our health."
Unlike antibiotics, which kill harm
ful microbes in the body, probiotics
simply take up temporary residence
and neutralize the negative effects of
the "bad" bacteria living there. Some
of the benefits of probiotics appear to
be their feisty aggression toward
these nasty bugs in our bodies,
Sanders said.
TRACKING DOWN 'GOOD BUGS'
Some foods may be made with
microbes, everything from sourdough
bread to pickles, sauerkraut, kim chi,
miso and fermented meats like sala
mi. But it doesn't mean all the "good
bugs" survived the processing or that
By Lori DeFabio
student life editor
the strains used provide actual health
benefits, which is required before it
would qualify as a probiotic, Sanders
said.
You also can't assume that all
yogurts contain probiotics (although
not all experts agree on where you
draw the line). Though many of the
national brands contain "live active
cultures," the typical strains used to
make yogurt don't make it the full ride
through our digestive tract.
These starter bacteria produce lac
tic acid and are used to give yogurt its
tart flavor, but they don't seem to have
the same types of health benefits as
probiotics, which do survive the
digestive tract, Sanders said (although
they still might help folks with lactose
intolerance).
If you want a yogurt with the gut
healthy, friendly bugs, you need to
scour the label to see if the manufac
turer supplemented the standard
strains with probiotic bacteria. The
two most common are Lactobacillus
acidophilus and bifidobacteria. (or
bifidus). You won't necessarily see the
word "probiotics" on the label.
These bacteria (and their probiotic
cousins L. casei, L. reuteri and others)
also are being added to fermented
milks like acidophilus milk, kefir and
soy beverages.
New to the market is Dannon's
Dan Active, a probiotic dairy drink
that contains 10 billion live cultures
per serving, or 10 times more cultures
than yogurt, according to the label.
Dan Active also appears to be the first
product to use the immunity claim to
try and sell Americans on the benefits
of live microorganisms. The label
touts its ability to "naturally strength
en your body's defense system."
Companies are exploring adding
the cultures to a wide range of non
dairy products, including breakfast
cereal, energy bars, juices and other
beverages, and even candy. Capsules
of probiotics also are available in
health food stores, but experts believe
there may be additional benefits of
getting your bacteria in a food form,
especially through dairy products.
To take care of the "good" bacteria
you buy, don't let your probiotic prod
ucts linger at room temperature, and
don't heat them or you'll kill the live
cultures. Also, it's best to consume
probiotics before the use-by date on
the label (or within the week follow
ing the sell-by date). Otherwise, the
live cultures begin to die off.
To reap the full benefits, you need
to consume probiotics on a regular
basis. The friendly bacteria only per
sist in your gut as long as there's a
steady supply. So if you don't eat any
foods or supplements containing pro
biotics, after about a month they will
be gone.
fir
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f MENU' LI
"It's my first time directing and I've
learned a ton from it already."
low female Behrend Theater student, Tanaz Balaporia
DUS 04, to be his assistant.
"Aaron needed a girl to help him with an all girl cast
(minus 2 men) so he figured that I would be the best fit
ted to help since I am a girl going into Theater Arts," said
Balaporia. "He asked me to assistant direct with him
and naturally I said 'of course.' We have put a lot of
hours in. I would have to say nine hours every week plus
we are in the musical, so that's another nine."
Even though directing is taking up a lot of time for a
college student, Amendola does not plan to stop any time
soon. "It's my first time directing and I've learned a ton
from it already," said Amendola. "And I want to keep on
directing. I'd love to go back and do another show for
them. It may be stressful and as long as it is fun, I'll keep
doing it. I'm directing a one-act for the Matchbox Players
here when 'Working' is done."
United We Stand's female version of "The Odd
Couple," under direction of Amendola, will begin tonight
and will be presented every Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.
at St. Patricks's Cauley Center until April 23. For tickets
to see Amendola's first directed show, call the troupe's
box office at 814-459-5084.
career begins
EMERGING
HEALTH BENEFITS
Some of the most exciting
research on probiotics
involves its potential to
boost immunity, according
to Allan Walker, a professor
of nutrition and pediatrics at
Harvard Medical School,
who is studying how expo
sure to good bacteria could
help children decrease their
susceptibility to infections
and allergies.
Probiotics appear to com
municate with the cells in
our intestines to turn on
antibodies to fight infec
tions, Walker said. This
"cross-talk" helps rev up
our immune response so
we're better prepared to deal
with invading bacteria and
viruses that could make us
sick, he said.
Though research is pre
liminary, scientists are
revealing some promising
immune function benefits,
particularly among chil
dren:
Finnish researchers cut in
half a baby's risk of devel
oping allergies early in life
by giving probiotics to
expectant mothers and their
newborns who were predis
posed to asthma, hay fever
and eczema.
A recent study published
in Pediatrics found that
infants fed formula contain
ing probiotics had less diar
rhea and fever, and fewer
clinic visits and absences
from child care centers,
compared to those who con
sumed a formula without
probiotics.
A seven-month study of
more than 570 children in
day care centers found that
intake of a probiotic milk
reduced the number and
severity of respiratory
infections and the need for
antibiotics.
- Aaron Amendola
student/director
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Mom of Mt •
Ask ASCII:
Why
change file extensions?
By Logan Stack
staff writer
Dear ASCII,
Why can I change some file types
by changing the extension (a .jpeg
picture to a .gif picture), but not other
file types (a Word .doc to an Adobe
Acrobat .pdf)?
Conversion Error
Dear Conversion,
Changing the file extension doesn't
actually change the file. A file exten
sion (the ".doc" at the end of
"my_story.doc", or the ".jpeg" at the
end of "Pie_in_B ill_Gates_face
.jpeg") is just a part of the name of the
file; it doesn't actually mean anything.
Unfortunately, instead of figuring out
what a file really is, Windows just
believes whatever the file extension
says. It's a lot faster to do it this way,
but not very accurate.
So why does changing a .jpeg to a
.gif work? When Windows opens both
of these file types, it will open them in
some sort of image viewer (probably
the same one for both types.) When
the image viewer opens it, it reads the
file and notices that it's a JPEG file
and the program knows how to dis-
ATTENTION 5 ORS
sEI
111111
PRIZES & BOOKSTORE DISCOUNTS GIVEN AWAY
WHEN: MONDAY, APRIL 4---ICkun - 6:lspm
TUESDAY, APRIL 5---gam - 4pm
WHERE: REED WINTStGARDEN
` a ' (FOR MORE IWO—STOP BY THE BOOKSTORE)
Friday, April 1, 2005
play a JPEG, so it does. However,
when Adobe Acrobat (or any other
PDF reader for that matter) opens up a
Word document, it doesn't know how
to display it, so you get an error.
If you want to actually change file
types, the easiest way is to open the
file in whatever program can read its
current form, and go to "Save As" in
the File Menu to save it as a different
file type. You choose the file type
from a drop-down list that appears in
a box just below where you type in the
name of your file.
If you can't find the file type you
want to convert to in the drop down
list, then the program you're using
doesn't support converting to that file
type. For instance, Word cannot save
to a PDF format. In a case like this,
you may be able to find another pro
gram which understands both types. If
no such program exists, you will need
to get special converting software,
like you do for converting a Word
document to PDF.
Do you have a computer question?
Then ask ASCII! Send an e-mail to
lwsllB@psu.edu with "Ask ASCII" in
the subject line, and you may see your
question in next week's paper.
ITM
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