HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — The Hutchinson Correctional Facility has ended a program that allowed inmates to train service dogs.

Prison spokesman Dirk Moss says staffing shortages prompted the decision to stop the program as of Aug. 1. The prison had one full-time officer overseeing the program and Moss said that person had to be put back into a security job.

The Wichita Eagle reports that as of early August, about 40 vacancies existed at the prison, which has 365 uniformed security officers when it is fully staffed.

Dogs that would have been sent to Hutchinson will now go to either Ellsworth Correctional Facility or an out-of-state prison.

Advocates say the decision will extend what is already a long wait for those who need service dogs.

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — A suburban Kansas City man has pleaded guilty to the death of a 3-year-old girl.

Forty-year-old Kham Khamchanh, of Shawnee, pleaded guilty Monday to intentional second-degree murder. He admitted that he killed 3-year-old Yamarawit “Yami” Sahle, of Merriam in January 2014. The girl’s mother was Khamchanh’s girlfriend at the time.

He said he threw the girl to the ground five to 10 times after becoming angry with her. He also admitted that hit the girl on several other occasions.

The Kansas City Star reports (https://bit.ly/1MtJaSI ) an autopsy found the girl died of a skull fracture and bleeding to her brain as well as abdominal injuries.

Sentencing was set for Oct. 15.

By Beth Bohn

MANHATTAN — A research project by an interior architecture & product design student at Kansas State University is one that could get some tails wagging.

For her Developing Scholars Program project in the 2014-2015 school year, Kelsey Castinado, now a fourth-year student in the College of Architecture, Planning & Design, turned CT scans of animal bone fractures and deformities into full-scale 3-D prints that veterinarians at the university’s College of Veterinary Medicine are using for teaching, to plan surgeries and to find more cost-effective ways to treat four-legged patients.

The project, “3-D Printing Animal Bone Fractures Through Experimental Applications in Digital Fabrication,” was suggested to Castinado by her second-year studio instructor Dustin Headley, an assistant professor of interior architecture & product design. Headley’s research interest is in digital design, including 3-D printing.

“I knew that for my third year I wanted to change my research a little bit since I had been doing mostly architecture-based research,” said Castinado, who is from Overland Park. “I thought product design-based research would be a little bit more interesting, so I asked Dustin if he needed any help with his research and if he would like to mentor me in the Developing Scholars Program.”

The program pairs underrepresented students with faculty mentors on research projects.

Castinado joined Headley on a collaborative project with the College of Veterinary Medicine involving 3-D printing of bone fractures and deformities.

“A lot of my research focuses on alternative applications for the design discipline,” Headley said. “Instead of studying the lines of architecture or looking at new products to market, I’m interested in looking at what are some of the skills interior architects have that we can engage with other disciplines and expand the scope of the design profession as a whole.”

For her project, Castinado used digital files of CT scans provided by the college’s Veterinary Health Center.

“The digital CT scan files are just a lot of small, chopped up pieces of the bone image,” Castinado said. “I use a 3-D modeling software to make all those pieces into a whole. I also have to take away all the extra fragments that are attached to the bone so that when it is 3-D printed, it will look like a bone.”

The 3-D printing process retains — and can enhance — the important information found on the scan that a doctor or veterinary needs in making a diagnosis.

Walter Renberg, an orthopedic surgeon and professor and head of small animal surgery at the Veterinary Health Center, said the 3-D models Castinado and Headley have produced are proving beneficial in a variety of ways.

“While Kansas State University is not the first to use 3-D printing in veterinary medicine, we’ve thought about doing so for awhile,” Renberg said. “It helps us with a couple of things clinically, particularly with bone deformities, which can be difficult to reconstruct with a CT scan. For example, when planning a surgery to correct a deformity or even determining whether such a surgery is necessary, the model can help us determine the right surgical approach or come up with less expensive alternatives to certain procedures.”

That’s what happened earlier this summer with a 3-D print Headley made of a dog’s malformed tibia, which is one of two bones in the lower hind leg.

“I thought we would have to do an expensive reconstruction that the client probably couldn’t afford, but the 3-D modeling gave us a better understanding of the problem and we came up with a less invasive and less expensive route,” Renberg said.

The models also are teaching tools.

“From a clinical standpoint, we can use the 3-D models with clients to explain procedures,” Renberg said. “It can be easier to show them a model than a CT scan.”

Renberg and Headley are continuing to collaborate on other ways 3-D printing could be used.

“We are looking into the ability to explore soft tissues in 3-D at scale, such as tumors and vascular systems,” Headley said. Such models would have potential to assist in teaching procedures, too.”

While such 3-D models already exist, Renberg said they can be expensive. Having the capability to produce them in-house has cost benefits in a time of tight budgets for state universities.

“I’m very surprised at the capabilities 3-D printing has opened up,” Renberg said.

STILLWATER, N.Y. (AP) — Police say an upstate New York man had his 10-year-old drive his pickup truck while he was sitting in the passenger seat drunk.

The Times Union of Albany reports police in the Saratoga County town of Stillwater were contacted by a motorist on Saturday who saw the child driving the truck on Route 9P.

Police say officers pulled over the truck and found that the 10-year-old was behind the wheel while his father, 46-year-old John Barling of Saratoga Springs, was intoxicated in the passenger seat.

Police say the child was picked up by a relative and Barling was charged with endangering the welfare of a child and permitting unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.

Saratoga County Child Protective Services was contacted by police.

It couldn’t be determined if Barling has an attorney who could comment on the charges.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas City woman with six children who was helped by a police officer when she was shoplifting diapers is jailed on a federal drug charge.

Wyandotte County Sheriff’s department spokeswoman Lt. Kelli Bailiff says Sarah Robinson was taken to jail Friday. She was indicted by a federal grand jury in St. Louis in July with possessing methamphetamine with the intent to distribute. The alleged crime occurred in Lincoln County, Missouri in March 2014.

Bailiff says she was not sure where Robinson’s children were taken.

When Robinson was stopped July 6 for shoplifting the diapers, Roeland Park Police Officer Mark Engravalle bought shoes, diapers and baby wipes for some of Robinson’s children.

After his gesture received national attention, the public donated about $6,000 and numerous items to the family.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Wichita State University president John Bardo says the school has to improve its enrollment efforts.

The Wichita Eagle reports a report issued last week showed the university would have about 430 fewer students this fall than last year. The university has had about 15,000 for several years.

During a convocation Friday, Bardo said the university must concentrate on enrolling and retaining students, particularly graduate students.

University data show applications to Wichita State increased 63 percent to 10,056 from 2013 to 2014. Admissions also increased for undergraduates. But those increases haven’t led to a larger overall number of students being enrolled.

Bardo has repeatedly said he wants the university to have about 22,000 students. He says the university has to change its culture from maintaining stability to enrollment and growth.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Topeka officials plan to consider banning electronic cigarettes in enclosed public places.

The e-cigarettes, which allow nicotine users to inhale vapor, have become increasingly popular substitutes for tobacco cigarettes.

But Topeka City Councilwoman Elaine Schwartz says questions remain about the safety of e-cigarettes. She is proposing expanding Topeka’s smoking ban in most enclosed buildings to include e-cigarettes. Currently, building owners can decide whether to allow the e-cigarettes. The proposal would include an exception for retail smoke shops that sell the e-cigarettes.

The council will consider the proposal on Tuesday.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that Overland Park, Olathe, McPherson and Kansas City, Kansas, already ban the use of e-cigarettes in some public places.