xt7mw6696h2n https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7mw6696h2n/data/mets.xml University of Kentucky. Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies Kentucky University of Kentucky. Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies 1986 volumes. Call Number: LD2762.9 .K38c. Accession Number: 2018ua049 journals LD2762.9 .K38c English Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies  Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection University of Kentucky Odyssey Magazine Research -- Kentucky -- Periodicals Education -- Research -- Periodicals Research -- Kentucky Odyssey: The Magazine of University of Kentucky Research, Spring 1986 text images Odyssey: The Magazine of University of Kentucky Research, Spring 1986 1986 1986 2026 true xt7mw6696h2n section xt7mw6696h2n  

 

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Executive Director

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Dean for Research, Lexington
Campus

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Assistant

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for Research, Medical Center Campus

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Associate

Publications Office

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Program Development Division

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Associate 1

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Associate 11

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Associate

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Project Administration Division

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Administrator

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 Volume IV, No. 2

ODYSSEY is a magazine published
by the University of Kentucky
Research Foundation under the
auspices of the Vice Chancellor for
Research and the Dean of the
Graduate School. Each issue of
ODYSSEY describes only a few of the
many University of Kentucky research
projects underway in a variety of
areas.

Requests for permission to reprint
material and readers comments
regarding ODYSSEY are welcome and
should be sent to the Editor,
University of Kentucky Research
Foundation, University of Kentucky
(0057), Lexington, Kentucky 40506,
Phone 606-257-8297.

The publication of ODYSSEY is not
financed by state-appropriated funds.

Editor: Susan Hodgetts Donohew

Designer: Jim Foose

Writers: Tawny R. Acker, Laith N.
Alkhoja, Maria Braden, Moira
Skinner

Publications Assistant: Anne M. Coke

Printing: U. of Ky. Printing Services

Student Designers: Betty Milburn,
Jeanne Williams

Credits:

Cover photograph and photographs
on pp. 2, 5 by Alen J. Malott; all
other photos by Ken Goad;
illustrations by: Jeanne Williams

pp. 18, 20; Bruce Jones p. 21; Laith N.
Alkohoja p. 23; and, Jim Foose pp. 7,
8, 9, 10.

‘.’

Getting Mr. Potato & Friends to Fight
Back

Violation by Burglary
Making Waterpower More Feasible

UK’s Orient Express: An Inventor,
Philosopher & Realist

Carriers of Death: Parasites Revenge
One-Third of World

Disease and Priorities

International Genetic Data Enhance
Chances for Survival in Organ
Transplants

The Futile Migration: A Third World
Dilemma

When Do They Stop the Pain?
Research Briefs

Reducing Complications for
Chemotherapy Patients
Purifying Water with Membranes
They Want You!

Database Theory

Directory of UK Researchers

University Archives
Margaret l. King Library - North
University of Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky 40506

 

  

Getting Mr. Potato 8:. Friends to Fight Back
N

The scientist fills the small
hypodermic needle with solution,
takes the spindly stem in hand,
carefully inserts the needle into the
external tissue, just below the
“epidermis,” and deposits a few drops.

He has deliberately infected a
tobacco plant with the dreaded blue
mold disease, an act that would make
any tobacco farmer cringe. But here
the fungus won't result in the telltale
yellow lesions, bluish spores, and
finally brown spots that signal the
plant's destruction. Instead, the
needles contents will protect the plant
from onslaught of the fungus and even
spur it to greater growth.

Like doctor with patient, the
scientist has immunized the plant. It's
a common scene in plant pathology
laboratories at the University of
Kentucky. Dr. Joseph Kuc,
internationally renowned expert in the
ways plants recognize and resist
disease, has spearheaded the research
in plant immunization,

(This is the second chapter in Kuc’s
story. See the Spring 1982 issue of
ODYSSEY for the first article, ”The
Plantly Art of Self Defense")

By Moira Skinner

Besides tobacco, Kuc (pronounced
kutch) and his research group have
successfully immunized potatoes,
green beans, cucumbers, watermelons,
and muskmelons to defend themselves
against diseases caused by viruses,
fungi and bacteria. They now are
testing immunization of pine trees,
their first perennial.

Tackling several plants and several
diseases at once was an ambitious
undertaking. “But we felt that was the
way to go because we wanted to study
organisms in general,” said Kuc, a
biochemist whose life work has been
to apply chemistry to plant pathology.

All the work, all the information,
pointed in one direction. The
difference between disease—resistant
plants and susceptible plants is not the
presence or absence of genes for
resistance mechanisms, but rather the
speed and magnitude with which the
plant recognizes an invader and acts
to stop the invasion.

”The difference between resistance
and susceptibility," explained Kuc, “is
not whether you can or can't, but
whether you do or don't, how quickly
and how much, and how the

environment affects the whole
process.”

That summation makes immunity in
plants sound, in general principle,
very similar to immunity in animals.
“After all,” Kuc added, “we don't
have to cross people to get resistant
people. When the doctor immunizes
us, he doesn’t put new genes into our
cells. We already have the genetic
potential to do what needs to be
done.”

What Kuc and his colleagues have
seen suggests a common thread
through all living organisms. Not that
the mechanisms are precisely the
same, but it seems there's a general
plan for metabolism, for
immunization.

The UK research team has been able
to immunize plants since 1974. But a
much-sought breakthrough concerning
what prompts plants to defend
themselves came four years ago.

In their work with potatoes, they
discovered the alarm signals that spur
potatoes to fight off a fungus causing
late blight disease.

The alarm signals are fatty acids in

 

 

  

the fungus. Because the potato cannot
synthesize these acids, it recognizes an
intruder and rallies its defenses.
Correct identification of these alarm
signals removed a bottleneck. Kuc and
his researchers have since learned a
great deal about how the foreign acids
are incorporated into the potato's
lipids and membranes, where they act
as chemical irritants and put the
potato under a low—level but persistent
metabolic stress.

They’ve also found that within the
plant, certain enzymes act on the fatty
acids. It turns out that in animal
tissue, the same enzymes and similar
fatty acids produce compounds that
affect animal metabolism, especially
the immune system of animals—
evidence, perhaps, of that common
thread in living things.

Another commonality is the role
that compounds called beta glucans
play in plant and animal immune
systems. Kuc learned that besides the
fatty acid "alarm signals,” the fungus
produces compounds that either
suppress or enhance a potato’s defense
reaction.

"Of course, the strain of the fungus
that can cause disease on a potato
variety is one that can suppress the
immune system," said Kuc. "But in
some cases we also find compounds
that enhance the immune system.”

Such enhancers appear to be beta
glucans, compounds formed by sugars
linked in a particular way. “It’s
interesting that in animal systems,”
Kuc pointed out, “these beta glucans
also have a role in mediating aspects
of the immune system."

With the knowledge that certain
compounds enhance a potato's
immune system, and also that second
messengers—calcium is one—help
prompt the plant to produce plant
defense compounds called
phytoalexins, the UK immunization
team is now searching for novel ways
to get the most out of the potato's
resistance mechanisms.

And plants do indeed employ
several defense mechanisms against
attacking virus, fungi, or bacteria.
When a plant is immunized, it
becomes sensitized to respond with
many mechanisms rather than a single
one.

Kuc compares the immunization
with an electrical switch on a wall:
when you flick it on, it can control
many different things—radio, TV,
stereo, lights—and not just one.

Joseph Kuc

“In the process of evolution,”
explained Kuc, “resistance could not
be dependent on a single mechanism
or a single compound; otherwise, the
resistance would have been lost.”

Current examples abound.
Chemical companies have produced
compounds with a single site of
action. After such a compound, say a
fungicide, is used in farmers' fields for
several years, strains of the pathogen
resistant to the chemical begin to crop
up.

But with multiple sites of action,
with many mechanisms fighting a
disease, the chances are nil that a
pathogen can always overcome the
plant's—or animal's—defenses. “And
that's why people survive and plants
survive," said Kuc.

His laboratory has received support
over the years from the National
Science Foundation, Rockefeller
Foundation, Herman Frasch

 

Foundation, USDA, Ciba—Geigy
Corporation, the RJ. Reynolds
Tobacco Company, Weyerhaeuser
Corporation and others, with the
grants often providing stipends for
post-doctorates and graduate students.

Much of the credit for UK's cutting
edge work in induced resistance goes.
Kuc insists, to his ever—changing team
of top—notch scholars, including
several post-doc superstars from the
United States and other countries.

”If you have dedicated people,
you're a long way to reaching your
end. But you can't do big things with
hopes and intentions alone,” Kuc said.
He then described rows of plants in
corridors, and make—shift shelves in
every inch of lab space~an
illustration of the shortage of facilities
the UK researchers face.

continued on page 4

 

   

Getting Mr. Potato continued

“I have very good people who have
been able to make do,” he said. “Their
ingenuity is incredible.”

”Incredible” also describes the UK
team's results. They’ve made great
strides, for example, studying immune
systems in cucumbers and melons.
Much of their early work concentrated
on these plants, since they grow in
abundance, produce big leaves and
good-sized seeds, contain ample
tissue, and are plagued by important
diseases which show symptoms in a
few days.

them—a much more practical
approach than inoculation.

”You can inject people, but from an
economic and logistics point of View,
you can't very well inject plants," said
Kuc with a chuckle.

Another breakthrough occurred
when the researchers discovered they
can immunize with materials from
sources other than pathogens.
Surprising enough, they can extract
effective chemicals from healthy
cucumbers and other plants, like
spinach.

When extracted, the chemical from
the cucumber is changed somehow,
Kuc explained. When the changed

UK researchers can immunize cucumbers by
inoculating a single leaf. It hecomesa
“factory leaf, " producing a chemical that
sensitizes the rest of the plant.

Cucumbers & Melons:

The researchers can immunize
cucumbers by inoculating a single leaf.
It becomes a “factory leaf,” producing
a chemical that moves through and
sensitizes the rest of the plant. The
signal is thorough. It penetrates the
buds, with their embryonic leaves
folded and waiting; when a new leaf
opens, it’s immunized. Indeed, each
new leaf on an immunized plant
becomes another factory producing
and sending out even more chemical
signal when challenged by a pathogen.

With a single immunization, Kuc
can protect cucumbers and melons
against 13 different fungi, viruses and
bacteria. The protection lasts for four
to six weeks. If a disease organism
challenges the plant during that time,
not only does the plant thwart the
attack, but the challenge serves as a
booster to immunize the plant for its
lifetime.

Immunization against virus
constitutes quite an achievement.
“There aren't any chemicals you can
use to protect plants from virus,” Kuc
said. “So here we have something——
something already occurring in
nature—that protects against viruses."

The cucumber work has advanced
to the point that Kuc and his
associates also can spray materials on
the plants and systemically immunize

11

chemical is sprayed on another
cucumber, the plant recognizes non-
self and becomes sensitized. The same
reaction occurs with chemicals
obtained from spinach.

“We're right on the trail of what the
chemical substance is from the
cucumber, and what the substance is
from spinach, too,” Kuc said.

He and his team are encouraged by
another finding. Immunizing with
chemicals from spinach and the
cucumber itself provides almost
immediate protection, a dramatic
improvement from the previous lag of
four to five days for the immunization
to take.

”Now," said Kuc, “with some of
these compounds we've extracted from
other plants, including spinach, we
have to wait only a day or less than a
day. That’s very exciting.”

“What that means," Kuc continued,
”theoretically at least, since it has yet
to be tested in the field, is that if I
expect a disease in a few days, I can
go out and quickly immunize plants.”

Ideally, there would be a way to
produce immunized plants. While
immunization can extend through the
lifetime of a plant, it cannot be passed
on from generation to generation. The
UK researchers hope someday to grow
immunized plants from seed, through
seed treatments, although that
capability so far has eluded them.

Each time they have collected seeds

 

from immunized plants, and have
grown plants from the seeds, the
immunization was lost. That’s not so
strange, though, Kuc pointed out.
After all, people who are immunized
against certain diseases don't pass on
the protection to their children.

The UK researchers may perfect a
method of treating seeds, possibly
with a slow release inoculant, that will
protect plants from the beginning. But
tissue culture most likely is the key to
propagating immunized plants—
something Kuc already has achieved
with tobacco.

Tobocco:

Kuc's tobacco research sprouted
naturally from the previous work with
vegetables. Once basic concepts of
plant immunity were known, it was
time to test them in tobacco—a model
crop for testing since it is such an
important crop in Kentucky and the
United States, a wealth of information
exists about it, and it is a plant easily
manipulated.

The UK scientists soon discovered
they could immunize burley against
the serious fungus disease blue mold
by injecting the fungus into the
tobacco stern.

”We found that the tobacco was
extremely well-protected, as well or
better than with the best chemical
substance available," said Kuc. “It’s
permanent. And it’s the tobacco’s own
mechanisms providing the defense, so
it’s nothing artificial.”

But the plants were stunted. So the
real challenge was to provide
protection without inhibiting growth.

One of Kuc’s graduate students, Sadik

Tuzun, soon hit upon the solution:

injecting the material in the external

tissue only. Then the tobacco not only

was protected, but actually grew
better—taller, with more leaves and

more leaf area, and greater fresh and .,
dry weight. Field tests confirmed it;
the marketable yield from the
experimental crops exceeded yields
from nonimmunized tobacco by 10 to
25 percent, even with no blue mold
present.

“We thought we had a good thing
going,” was Kuc's understated
assessment.

Next, he and his associates tried to
identify what chemicals sensitized the
tobacco to respond to an attack of
blue mold, and which ones the plant
produced to stop the fungus. The

 

  

answers, are being provided by Dr.
Steven Salt, a post-doctorate
researcher. Some degradation
compounds of carotenoids called beta
ionones were found to be extremely
toxic to the fungus. Immunized plants
contained a 50—fold increase in beta
ionones and other derivatives.

Greenhouse tests revealed that beta
ionone injections protected against
blue mold and enhanced growth,
almost as well as did inoculating with
the fungus. So Kuc and his team took
their show on the road. This past
summer, in field tests throughout
Kentucky and even in Puerto Rico,
they compared immunized and
nonimmunized plants, plants injected
with beta ionone and plants sprayed
with beta ionone. The tests bore
encouraging results with the sensitized
plants—excellent protection, enhanced
plant growth, and often greater
marketable yield.

But a curious circumstance came to
light when Kuc and his researchers
brought leaf samples from the field
periodically and infected them with
blue mold (in the safety of the lab,
where there was no danger of starting
an outbreak). As predicted, the
immunized plant leaves showed no
disease symptoms, the nonimmunized
plant samples did—until late in the
season.

At that point, it didn’t matter
whether plants were immunized or
not; none exhibited blue mold
symptoms when inoculated with the
fungus. ”We looked at this in detail
and found that as tobacco plants age,
they become more resistant to blue
mold," said Kuc.

Doctoral student Tuzun and Moshe
Reuveni, a post-doctorate fellow
working with Dr. Kuc and professor
Dr. Malcolm Siegel, unlocked the
secret. The surface of the tobacco leaf
contains compounds, duvatriene 1.3
diols (DVTs), that are toxic to the blue
mold fungus. As plants age, and when
they are under drought, heat and
perhaps cold stress, they produce
more DVTs.

“In the immunized plant, we get the
production of about three times more
of these DVTs," Kuc said. “So the
immunized plant does many things.
It’s sensitized to respond quickly, but
also it’s protecting its outsides.”

Now Kuc, Seigel and Dr. Bill

continued on page 6

The Research Team

—
s

     
 

 

Dr. Steven Salt Dr. Moshe Reuveni

 

Dr. Malcom Siegel Dr. Bill Nesmith

Dr. Sadik Tuzun, an important member of the research team, was out of
the country and unavailable for photographing.

 

 

  

Getting Mr. Potato continued

Nesmith, Extension plant pathologist
and blue mold expert, are studying the
relationship between the DVT level,
immunization and resistance to blue
mold in the field. Perhaps there are
times chemical immunizations are not
needed at all; the tobacco plant may
already be protected.

Grafting:
The most dramatic technique Kuc

and his fellow scientists use is
reproducing tobacco plants by tissue

”Now this was unbelievable,” said
Kuc, the veteran researcher in awe. "It
suggests there's some chemical way we
can permanently modify the genome
that is coding for disease resistance, or
perhaps modify the expression of the
genome.

”It's mind-boggling that you can
transfer this on to a plant from one
cell.”

Kuc and his associates now have the
potential to propagate thousands of
plants from a single immunized
tobacco plant, and they're immunized.

Last summer saw the first field tests
of the tissue culture plants, in a plot
near Commonwealth Stadium. (”Who

‘5
We found that if we took a
nonimmunized root stock and grafted
on just a little bud from an immunized
tobacco plant, a piece about this big
[the size of his fingertip] . . . grows
into a tobacco plant, bigger than I am,
and it's immunized! " Professor Ioseph Kuc

culture. As a preliminary measure,
they began grafting tops from
immunized burley onto
nonimmunized root stock and vice
versa, to confirm that the
immunization signal moved from one
part to the other, as with cucumbers
and melons.

Kuc animatedly describes the
process.

”We found that if we took a
nonimmunized root stock and grafted
on just a little bud from an immunized
tobacco plant, a piece about this big
(he shows a fingertip), that thing
grows into a tobacco plant, bigger
than I am, and it's immunized. Wow!
That was very exciting to us.

“How could there be such a
chemical substance that would do
such a profound thing?”

The grafting success prompted Kuc
and his associates to try growing
immunized tobacco plants from tissue
culture. That technology allows the
scientist to regenerate entire plants
from cells in a leaf or stem. Kuc
attempted the tissue culture with small
leaf sections and succeeded in growing
full-size, normal plants—immunized,
of Qourse.

o

knows," said Kuc, ”maybe some of
the fans can even see our field from
the top of the football stadium.”) The
test was a big success!

He foresees producing blue mold
resistant plants from the best burleys
available. “The practical implications
and the fundamental implications are
very profound," he concluded.

As a scientist, Kuc believes his goal
is to understand. “But in the process
of understanding—it sounds trite, but
it’s true—we hope to benefit people,"
he explained. “The plant

immunization work has the potential
to benefit the farmer, agriculture, and
hence all of society.”

But Kuc is quick to point out that
he is not an economist or field
scientist; he may discover tremendous
conceptual breakthroughs but they
may not necessarily be put to use on
the farm, for economic or practical
reasons.

He nevertheless likes the idea that in
the UK College of Agriculture,
researchers are encouraged not only to
unearth fundamental, conceptual
information but also to consider
solving practical problems. He
emphasizes that a strong benefit of
this environment, according to Kuc, is
the collaboration with field scientists
and UK Extension specialists who
present different approaches and
perspectives.

He, in fact, presented a different
approach at a recent meeting of the
New York Academy of Sciences.
There he talked about signal
transduction in plants, to an audience
of medical personnel.

”1 think many people are surprised
there are immune systems in plants,”
he said. ”The animal scientists just
don't think in terms of that. But with
some of our work, we’re using their
literature. The terms and the
compounds aren't all the same, but
some of the general molecular
concepts are very similar.

”The play is the same but the actors
are different.”

 

 

 Violation by Burglary

She's in her 305, she lives alone
near downtown Lexington, and her
house has been burglarized eight times
in five years.

”I like my neighborhood, I like my
house,” she says. ”The burglaries?
That's life. I figure they won't harm
me; they're just after my stuff.”

***

After the burglary, the couple
considered moving. They loved their
neighborhood, with its well—kept
homes and mature trees, near
Lexington's Chevy Chase. They had
lived there several years and felt
established; their children were
happily attending good schools
nearby. But the break-in, performed
in broad daylight when no one was
home, left them frustrated and fearful.

Instead of leaving their home, they
chopped down the evergreens along
the front of the house. (The police said
burglars could hide there.) They
confined their dog inside, to bark at
any intruders. And they invested in a
new, state—of-the—art alarm system;
they couldn’t count on their old
burglar alarm anymore.

***

Burglary is an all-too-common
crime that affects people in various
ways. For some, it's merely a hassle of
filing police and insurance reports and
replacing a television or VCR.

But for others, the experience adds
anger, stress and fear to their lives,
shatters an illusion of invulnerability,
and makes them feel “violated.”

The uneasy feeling of violation an
intruder leaves behind bothers most
people more than anything else, even
the loss of their material things, said
Melissa Himelein, a doctoral student
in the University of Kentucky's
psychology department.

She is studying how burglary affects
victims as the basis of her dissertation,
under the direction of psychology
professor Dr. Mike Nietzel. Himelein
was awarded a competitive grant from
the National Institute of Justice in

By Moira Skinner

 

September 1984 to support her work.
The current project allows Hime—
lein, who has a master's degree from
UK in clinical psychology, to further

develop her dual interest in
psychology and law. She and Dr.

with inmates, assesses courtereferred
inmates for evaluation, and is
involved in crisis intervention.

The research involving burglary
victims will evaluate their
psychological well—being, coping
strategies, social supports, and
perceptions of and support from the
criminal justice system.

Himelein originally planned to
include victims of both violent and
non—Violent crimes in her research. But
her focus shifted when she found few
Violent crime victims to interview in
Lexingtonva fortunate circumstance
for the city/s residents.

”There are plenty of burglaries in
Lexington,” she said, ”but not many
violent crimes, relative to other cities
its size."

The emphasis on non—violent
crimes, namely burglaries, should
yield new information for the fields of
law and psychology. Previous studies
have focused on violent crimes such as
rape or assault, which inflict victims
with deeper psychological scars.

“But non—violent crimes also can
have serious psychological effects,"
l-limelein stressed. “Most people don't
realizeAl didn't realize—that burglary
has as much of an impact as it does on
victims, particularly women."

Nietzel foresees that the results of
the study will be useful in informing
lawyers, police officials, and mental
health professionals about some ways

5‘
Most people don't realize—I didn’t

realize—that burglary has as much of

an impact as it does on victims . . .

ll

Melissa Himelein, UK graduate student and researcher

Nietzel have co—authored papers on
probation and parole and the
prevention of crime. And she works
part-time as a unit psychologist at the
Federal Correctional Institute, a
minimum security facility in
Lexington. There she conducts therapy

that people either successfully or less
successfully cope with being
victimized by crime.

“There's an assumption that

continued on page 8

 

  

Violation by Burglary continued

burglary victims are not going to be as
traumatized as victims of violent
crime," he said. ”But people who have
had their home burglarized, especially
it the home has been ransacked, have
quite an emotional reaction to it."

Himelein has witnessed a wide
range of reactions in her interviews
with victims—40 men and 40 women.
But she expects the data to show that
burglaries generally affect women
more profoundly than they do men.
With a few follow—up interviews plus
the data analysis yet to do, she
predicts that along with the victim's
sex, other prime factors will be
whether a victim lives alone and
whether the person's home has been
burglarized before.

”Married couples or people with
roommates tend not to be as
traumatized, since they have each
other for support and a feeling of
security," said Himelein. ”And first-
time victims seem to experience a
more severe impact.” To measure both
immediate and more lasting reactions,
Himelein interviews victims a week or
so after the burglary and again three
to four months later. Since last
January, she has gone to the police
station every few days to look
through reports. She sends letters to
potential interviewees, then follows up
with a phone call.

The letter, computer—printed on UK
stationery, allows burglary victims to
verify the project with the UK
psychology department, if they wish.
And some do. To further dispel
reluctance, Himelein offers the option
of holding the interview not only in a
person’s home, but in her campus
office or in the Commonwealth At-
torney’s office, a neutral setting, and
convenient for people who work
downtown.

 

“It's a time when people have
heightened fears and suspicions
anyway,” said Himelein. ”Some
people could get upset about a
stranger calling and asking about the
burglary."

Most people she contacts agree to
participate. “Many people want to
ventilate anger or frustration at that
time and it's probably a good thing to
do,” she said. Research with violent
crime victims shows that taking part
in such an interview can be helpful in
coping with the crime.

“And it helps me feel like less of an
ambulance chaser,” when people want
to talk about their experience,
Himelein added. “It helps me feel that
I'm not an intrusion on people.”

Of course, burglary is much easier
for victims to talk about than are
rapes or assaults. People seldom are
threatened or injured during
burglaries; they rarely encounter the
intruder.

”Burglars are very unlikely to break
into a house when someone is there,”
Himelein said. “And if they do, it's a
mistake and they usually run."

Only four victims in the study said
they were home when the burglary
occurred, but they didn't wake up.
The next morning, they discovered an
intruder had stalked through their
home.

”That must be a horrible feeling, to
realize someone was in your house
while you were asleep and you didn't
even know it,” Himelein said. “But it
was clear to those people that the
burglar wanted only their things and
didn't intend to hurt anyone."

Some victims in the study reported
coming home to ransacked houses—
another horrible feeling. But many
said the burglars were tidy, taking
what they wanted and not touching
anything else. One woman didn't
notice her VCR was missing until she

went to put in a videotape. That's a
common occurrence, Himelein said.

The intrusion into their homes and
lives distresses victims more than
anything else. Nearly everyone agrees
with this questionnaire statement: ”I
felt that someone violated me.
Someone was in my house, picking
through my things, deciding what to
take and what to leave, someone I
never would have invited into my
home.”

Victims express that feeling over
and over again, said Himelein. They
react more to the violation than to the
loss of their possessions. ”In fact," she
said, ”many people say that after the
burglary, they dont feel as tied to
their material things. They realize
other things, like their health, safety
and privacy, are more important.”

How people react to getting
possessions stolen depends partly on
what is taken and whether they have
insurance. Losing the family silver,
jewelry, other heirlooms, or items
with sentimental value can be
heartbreaking.

But thieves usually head instead for
the TVs, VCRs, stereos and other
electronic equipmentiitems they
quickly can convert to cash. VCRs are
taken most often, Himelein is finding.
VCRs and guns. ”I was surprised at
how many people owned guns,” she
said. “And of course they are always
stolen if they/re found.”

People who don't have insurance to
help replace stolen valuables are the
most frustrated by burglaries. Said
Himelein, “They most often express
the feeling that ‘life isn't fair—you
work hard to get ahead, to get nice
things, and someone comes along and
takes it all away from you.’ ”

Some victims harbor more
suspiciousness and paranoia toward
strangers after a burglary. And while
some think their break-in was bad

 

 

 luck or random chance, others take it
personally. They agree with the
questionnaire statement that “people
don't respect me if they think they can
come into my house and take my
things.”

During the interviews, participants
complete questionnaires that measure
anxiety, depression, distress, and fear.
For example, a checklist shows
whether victims have had headaches,
chest pains, upset stomach, or sore
muscles since the burglary—all the
physical symptoms that crop up in
crisis reactions. Also, respondents tell
how often since the burglary they felt
relaxed or tense, and how much of the
time they thought the future looks
hopeful and promising.

A self—esteem inventory reveals
whether the person views himself or
herself as a person of worth, with a
number of good qualities. Crime can
jolt a victim's self—esteem. In that case,
said Himelein, recovery from
psychological effects of a crime can be
delaye