Today’s weather Mostly clear High 67 Low 40 Forecast The cold weather the past few days has been a wake up call but at least it hasn’t been rainy. There is still a chance for some rain with very nippy temperatures on Friday. Tyson Tilmont, atmospheric science major Aggie Forecasting Team Partly cloudy Chance of rain Friday High 60 Low 39 Thursday High 68 Low 40 This is the day after Modern Warfare 3 has been released. More than 6 millions copies were estimated to be sold in the first 24 hours and more than half of the world’s relationships are already over. Mimi Vo & Justin Chan Elections end tomorrow (Thursday) at 8 a.m. Don’t forget to vote! Find out how ants are crucial to the ecosystem on the Science and Technology page. Sciene & Technology | Page 3 ASUCD ELECTIONS Something science SERVING THE UC DAVIS CAMPUS AND COMMUNITY SINCE 1915 www.theaggie.org VOLUME 130, NUMBER 112 WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2011 University to offer new majors and minors Artists get craſty in annual Gallery Staff Show Cowboy spirit still alive at e Davis Graduate Fast food is not entirely to blame for high rate of low-income obesity Craft Center auctioning handmade crafts in South Silo New areas of study needed to stay competitive, administration says Line dancing, music forms country community You, too, can learn to fly By RICHARD CHANG Aggie News Writer Ever wanted to minor in human rights? You now can, thanks to the efforts of your professors. Despite threats of further cuts from the state, the uni- versity expanded its curric- ulum this year, in the form of several new majors and minors. “This is one of the ways we are staying competitive,” said Patricia Turner, vice provost of undergraduate studies. The sustainability in the built environment minor, ad- ministered under the depart- ment of civil engineering, is one example of the univer- sity’s commitment to stay competitive. “This minor will give stu- dents the opportunity to work in an integrated de- sign capacity, which is the By DANIELLE HUDDLESTUN Aggie News Writer With November already underway and the holidays quickly approach- ing, the Craft Center is hosting its 10th annual Gallery Staff Show and Silent Auction. Located in the South Silo, the Craft Center currently has pieces donated by instructors and vol- unteers available for sale in a silent auction format. These pieces will be open for bidding through Dec. 2. “This year we have a T-shirt quilt, photography, stained glass and glass fusing. We are really heavy on ceramics. We have received tons of donations,” By HUDSON LOFCHIE Aggie Science Writer Comedian Richard Jeni once said, “one out of every three Americans weighs as much as the other two.” That was the part of his act that was not supposed to be funny. Fast food has received a bad rap as being the primary cause of obe- sity, but a recent study by UC Davis researchers has found that fast food is more common among middle-in- come families than it is among low- income families. Those same middle- income families also have lower rates of obesity than low-income families. “For the very poor, fast food is not the biggest factor [in obesity],” said Paul Leigh, a professor of public health sciences at UC Davis and lead author of the study. There is a direct coloration be- tween lower income and increased obesity rates, but if fast food isn’t the cause of low-income obesity, what is? There are a few other factors that lead to higher obesity rates in low-income families. Elizabeth Applegate, director of sports nutrition at UC Davis said that obesity is caused by a discrep- ancy between how many calories are taken in, versus how many are being burned — what she calls the “energy balance equation.” “If output doesn’t equal input, obe- sity develops over time,” she said. When money is tight, priority is put on cost-per-calorie, which means that poor families will buy high- ly processed carbohydrates, food with saturated fats and sugar-rich so- das and snacks — empty calories. Furthermore, lower-income neigh- borhoods are generally not as safe as middle and upper-income neighbor- hoods so children do not receive the recommended 60 minutes of physical BY CHRISTINA NOVAKOV-RITCHEY Aggie Features Writer Those who stop by the The Davis Graduate on a Monday, Friday or Saturday night may find themselves being asked to dance by a man in a plaid shirt and a cowboy hat. However, be- fore you start running to The Grad to find the man of your dreams, you better know how to dance — line dance, that is. The Grad’s Country Night features music vid- eos of the latest country hits, songs of the Billboard Top 40 and line danc- ing lessons. Meanwhile, its participants bring the cowboy boots, hats and plenty of plaid. The Grad, a bar and res- taurant that hosts night- life events for patrons 18 and older, has been host- ing Country Night since its opening in 1971. Country Night takes place at The Grad, lo- cated in University Mall on Russell Blvd., most Monday, Friday and Saturday nights. There is no cover charge for pa- trons 21 and up before 9 p.m.; otherwise it’s $6 ($4 with college ID) for 21 and By LANI CHAN Aggie Features Writer I never thought that I would ever get to take a joyride, in a plane, over and around Davis during my four years here. Not only that, I never thought that I would be the one fly- ing that plane. In the pilot’s seat. Two thousand feet in the air. Campus looks a lot smaller from up there. Although I was given my lesson free of charge, any- one can take an introduc- tory demo flight at the UC Davis University Airport for $55. The lesson in- cludes a basic overview of air transportation and of the different mechanisms of the plane, and 30 to 45 minutes of actual flying over areas such as Winters and Vacaville. I had expected, prior to the lesson, that I would walk around the plane a few times and the instruc- tor, University Airport CEO Jonathan Bar-Or, would size me up in terms of in- telligence and decide from there whether or not to let me near one of his pre- cious $95,000 planes. But right after we sat down in front of Bar-Or’s iPad with the map of the route we would be taking that day, he informed me that I’d be the one flying the plane the entire time. While we were still on the ground, Bar-Or be- gan by teaching me how to direct the plane up and down, and how to roll from side to side using the wheel. Next, he taught me how to steer the plane left and right using pedals on the floor. Among the plethora of dials to pay attention to in the cockpit are the speed Sarena Grossjan / Aggie Crafts up for auction include ceramics and other projects made by Craft Center volunteers. Linda Katehi UC Davis Chancellor ASK KATEHI What steps are being taken to make UC Davis an internationally-rec- ognized research insti- tution? UC Davis is already rec- ognized around the world as a leading public research university. We are proud of the many prestigious academ- ic and governmental ex- change programs and re- search enterprises that have global impact. But we are taking steps to do even more. Today, UC Davis is engaged in an esti- mated 150 international agreements of co- operation with leading research universi- ties around the world and with ministries of science and education in Chile, Brazil, Vietnam, China and the Netherlands. We have also established partnerships with pri- vate sector companies like BGI, the world’s largest genomic institute. On campus, more than 40 percent of our new faculty in 2010-11 received a degree from an international university. We are among the top five U.S. universities in host- ing international scholars — nearly 2,500 postdoctoral students and researchers an- nually. UC Davis is also among the top 10 U.S. universities in hosting Fulbright schol- ars and in sending our faculty around the globe on Fulbright Awards. In addition, our faculty and administrators actively partici- pate worldwide in international conferenc- es, workshops, symposiums and collabora- tive research. And UC Davis supports 30 in- ternational alumni networks on six conti- nents. Looking to the future, our newly-an- nounced 2020 Initiative includes plans to in- crease the number of eligible California, na- tional and international undergraduates. This will bring great depth and diversity to the educational experience for all UC Davis students, and help better prepare our grad- uates to be future global leaders in science, academia, government and industry. Do you have a question for the chancellor? E-mail campus@theaggie. org. Middle-income families more likely to eat fast food than poor families Kristina Geddert / Aggie The Davis Graduate, located at the University Mall, hosts Country Night on Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays. University airport allows students to experience flight courtesy Lani Chan learns to fly with instructor Jonathan Bar-Or. See MAJOR, page 2 See CRAFT, page 2 See FOOD, page 2 See FLIGHT, page 3 See GRADUATE, page 6
Transcript
Today’s weatherMostly clearHigh 67Low 40
ForecastThe cold weather the past few days has been a wake up call but at least it hasn’t been rainy. There is still a chance for some rain with
very nippy temperatures on Friday.
Tyson Tilmont, atmospheric science majorAggie Forecasting Team
Partly cloudy Chance of rain
Friday
High 60Low 39
Thursday
High 68Low 40
This is the day after Modern Warfare 3 has been released. More than 6 millions copies were
estimated to be sold in the first 24 hours and more than half of the world’s relationships are
already over.
Mimi Vo & Justin Chan
Elections end tomorrow (Thursday) at 8 a.m. Don’t forget to vote!
Find out how ants are crucial to the ecosystem on the Science and Technology page.
Sciene & Technology | Page 3
asucd elecTions something science
serving the uc davis campus and communit y since 1915www.theaggie.orgvolume 130, number 112 Wednesday, november 9, 2011
University to offer new majors and minors
Artists get crafty in annual Gallery
Staff Show
Cowboy spirit still alive at The Davis Graduate
Fast food is not entirely to blame for high rate of low-income obesity
Craft Center auctioning handmade crafts in South Silo
New areas of study needed to stay competitive, administration says
Line dancing, music forms country community
You, too, can learn to fly
By RICHARD CHANGAggie News Writer
Ever wanted to minor in human rights? You now can, thanks to the efforts of your professors. Despite threats of further cuts from the state, the uni-versity expanded its curric-
ulum this year, in the form of several new majors and minors. “This is one of the ways we are staying competitive,” said Patricia Turner, vice provost of undergraduate studies. The sustainability in the built environment minor, ad-ministered under the depart-
ment of civil engineering, is one example of the univer-sity’s commitment to stay competitive. “This minor will give stu-dents the opportunity to work in an integrated de-sign capacity, which is the
By DANIELLE HUDDLESTUNAggie News Writer
With November already underway and the holidays quickly approach-ing, the Craft Center is hosting its 10th annual Gallery Staff Show and Silent Auction. Located in the South Silo, the Craft Center currently has
pieces donated by instructors and vol-unteers available for sale in a silent auction format. These pieces will be open for bidding through Dec. 2. “This year we have a T-shirt quilt, photography, stained glass and glass fusing. We are really heavy on ceramics. We have received tons of donations,”
By HUDSON LOFCHIEAggie Science Writer
Comedian Richard Jeni once said, “one out of every three Americans weighs as much as the other two.” That was the part of his act that was not supposed to be funny. Fast food has received a bad rap as being the primary cause of obe-sity, but a recent study by UC Davis researchers has found that fast food is more common among middle-in-come families than it is among low-income families. Those same middle-income families also have lower rates of obesity than low-income families.
“For the very poor, fast food is not the biggest factor [in obesity],” said Paul Leigh, a professor of public health sciences at UC Davis and lead author of the study. There is a direct coloration be-tween lower income and increased obesity rates, but if fast food isn’t the cause of low-income obesity, what is? There are a few other factors that lead to higher obesity rates in low-income families. Elizabeth Applegate, director of sports nutrition at UC Davis said that obesity is caused by a discrep-ancy between how many calories are taken in, versus how many are being
burned — what she calls the “energy balance equation.” “If output doesn’t equal input, obe-sity develops over time,” she said. When money is tight, priority is put on cost-per-calorie, which means that poor families will buy high-ly processed carbohydrates, food with saturated fats and sugar-rich so-das and snacks — empty calories. Furthermore, lower-income neigh-borhoods are generally not as safe as middle and upper-income neighbor-hoods so children do not receive the recommended 60 minutes of physical
BY CHRISTINA NOVAKOV-RITCHEY
Aggie Features Writer
Those who stop by the The Davis Graduate on a Monday, Friday or Saturday night may find themselves being asked to dance by a man in a plaid shirt and a cowboy hat. However, be-fore you start running to The Grad to find the man of your dreams, you better know how to dance — line dance, that is. The Grad’s Country Night features music vid-eos of the latest country hits, songs of the Billboard Top 40 and line danc-
ing lessons. Meanwhile, its participants bring the cowboy boots, hats and plenty of plaid. The Grad, a bar and res-taurant that hosts night-life events for patrons 18 and older, has been host-ing Country Night since its opening in 1971. Country Night takes place at The Grad, lo-cated in University Mall on Russell Blvd., most Monday, Friday and Saturday nights. There is no cover charge for pa-trons 21 and up before 9 p.m.; otherwise it’s $6 ($4 with college ID) for 21 and
By LANI CHANAggie Features Writer
I never thought that I would ever get to take a joyride, in a plane, over and around Davis during my four years here. Not only that, I never thought that I would be the one fly-ing that plane. In the pilot’s seat. Two thousand feet in the air. Campus looks a lot smaller from up there. Although I was given my lesson free of charge, any-one can take an introduc-tory demo flight at the UC Davis University Airport for $55. The lesson in-cludes a basic overview of air transportation and of the different mechanisms of the plane, and 30 to 45 minutes of actual flying over areas such as Winters and Vacaville. I had expected, prior to the lesson, that I would walk around the plane a
few times and the instruc-tor, University Airport CEO Jonathan Bar-Or, would size me up in terms of in-telligence and decide from there whether or not to let me near one of his pre-cious $95,000 planes. But right after we sat down in front of Bar-Or’s iPad with the map of the route we would be taking that day, he informed me that I’d be the one flying the plane the entire time. While we were still on the ground, Bar-Or be-gan by teaching me how to direct the plane up and down, and how to roll from side to side using the wheel. Next, he taught me how to steer the plane left and right using pedals on the floor. Among the plethora of dials to pay attention to in the cockpit are the speed
sarena Grossjan / aggie
Crafts up for auction include ceramics and other projects made by Craft Center volunteers.
Linda Katehiuc davis chancellor
ASK KATehiWhat steps are being taken to make UC Davis an internationally-rec-ognized research insti-tution?UC Davis is already rec-ognized around the world as a leading public research university. We are proud of the many prestigious academ-ic and governmental ex-change programs and re-
search enterprises that have global impact. But we are taking steps to do even more. Today, UC Davis is engaged in an esti-mated 150 international agreements of co-operation with leading research universi-ties around the world and with ministries of science and education in Chile, Brazil, Vietnam, China and the Netherlands. We have also established partnerships with pri-vate sector companies like BGI, the world’s largest genomic institute. On campus, more than 40 percent of our new faculty in 2010-11 received a degree
from an international university. We are among the top five U.S. universities in host-ing international scholars — nearly 2,500 postdoctoral students and researchers an-nually. UC Davis is also among the top 10 U.S. universities in hosting Fulbright schol-ars and in sending our faculty around the globe on Fulbright Awards. In addition, our faculty and administrators actively partici-pate worldwide in international conferenc-es, workshops, symposiums and collabora-tive research. And UC Davis supports 30 in-ternational alumni networks on six conti-nents. Looking to the future, our newly-an-nounced 2020 Initiative includes plans to in-crease the number of eligible California, na-tional and international undergraduates. This will bring great depth and diversity to the educational experience for all UC Davis students, and help better prepare our grad-uates to be future global leaders in science, academia, government and industry.
Do you have a question for the chancellor? E-mail [email protected].
Middle-income families more likely to eat fast food than poor families
Kristina Geddert / aggie
The Davis Graduate, located at the University Mall, hosts Country Night on Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays.
University airport allows students to experience flight
courtesy
Lani Chan learns to fly with instructor Jonathan Bar-Or.
See MAJOR, page 2
See CRAFT, page 2
See FOOD, page 2
See FLiGhT, page 3See GRADUATe, page 6
You know you’re old when your idea of a good sale is five cents
off toilet paper, when the thought of new groceries makes you salivate more than all of Pavlov’s dogs put together, or when it’s four in the morning and your skin is encased with cold, nee-dle-like icicles because you refuse to turn on the heater and pay extra for PG&E. It was my birthday on Sunday and according to the cashier at Trader Joe’s, I look even older than I really am. After carefully examining my re-flection beneath the blind-ing radiance of no less than eight light bulbs, for no less than eight minutes, I no-ticed something unusual… The face gazing back at me looked frighteningly fa-miliar. As evidenced by the matching bags beneath our eyes, the parentheses wrin-kles enclosing our lips and the stress-induced grouchi-ness which often dominates our temperaments — the similarities between me and my mom were growing with every passing second.I never wanted to adopt the habits of incessant foot-tap-ping, hair-wrenching, fin-gernail-biting and eye-brow-knotting; I had al-ways hoped to happily by-pass any collagen-destroy-ing manifestations of old age and anxiety. But there I was, on day 6,935, half-crazed with sleep-deprivation, pacing about while scribbling to-do lists, carrying more respon-sibilities than a see-saw has children or a bathroom scale has pounds, and doing all I could to manage my life as a (nearly) independent woman. I feel old. I certainly still act like I’m eight when I have the free time to do so, but that time is becoming increasingly sparse. I am al-most afraid to sit here typ-ing at my computer, be-cause if I get too consumed by work, I may inadvertent-ly take that final step into adulthood — a dreamless land of cold efficiency and dull prudence. So in the midst of my 19th birthday, I found myself en-tangled in the angry whirl-
wind of a mid-midlife crisis. Then I received my pres-ents: stickers, bubble-wrap, a cute mini tea set and Pokémon cards. My friends and I ended up maniacally jumping on the bubble-wrap, playing hide-and-seek and games of worst-case-scenario, having staring contests and watch-ing animated movies. I think we succeeded in reversing the clock. It felt nice to temporarily for-get college stress and have some good, anachronistic junior-high fun. Of course, it’s impossi-ble to permanently avoid the responsibilities that come with your false, mis-leading and unnecessary numerical age. Some days you’ll just have to sit down and get your work done before taking a break is even plausible. Nonetheless, it is not the
quanti-ty of your breaks, but their qual-ity that matters. So rath-
er than spending your free time washing the couch with your drool as you stare mouth agape at a mundane television screen, why not rediscover your poor, ne-glected Lego sets that are gathering dust in forgotten corners? Better yet, you can go to Target and spend a glorious hour browsing for toys. The games and contraptions for children nowadays are even more exciting than the ones available when we were kids! The circumstances of your life — your duties, your residences, your relation-ships, your dreams — will rarely remain constant. But even though life may be hard to reign, you always have the power to retain your youth if you so please. When the shock of old-er age hurls you off your feet and spins your thoughts into a terrifying tornado of Doom, make sure to stand your ground and clutch the nearest stuffed animal avail-able for comfort. So even if your excite-ment for free coupon books rivals that for presents on Christmas eve, even if you find yourself visiting Costco just to indulge in free sam-ples and escape the sor-ry scorn of a refrigerator as empty as your starving stomach, you must not lose hope! While college might at-tempt to impose upon you the effects of age at an alarming pace, for now you are certainly capable of shoving them aside. Good luck!
Make ZENITA feel important by telling her your secret eight-year-old pastimes at [email protected].
There are few things in life quite as ex-citing as receiving a
Facebook notification. It’s like the less eventful, mi-nuscule version of open-ing gifts on Christmas morning. But when your notifi-cation button is inundat-ed with a barrage of invites and reminders for your high school reunion, you run away from Facebook like a fat kid runs away from a treadmill (ironic?). Don’t get me wrong, re-unions sound like a superb idea. Sure, it’s been a few years and I’d love to see how my classmates have changed. Of course, a nice get-together to reminisce old times and catch up on our new lives would be fas-cinating! But, underneath the be-guiling surface lies the ter-rible truth of why reunions have come to be. Anyone who attends, or creates, these awful events (save those who have been in-duced by sheer force of will) only attend for one singular reason: to flaunt to everyone how much better they are now than they were before. For the nerd, it could be that he will appear wear-ing contacts and embrac-ing a hot girlfriend. For the jock, he will make a show-ing with an even hotter girl-friend. And for that shab-by-looking girl we all used to avoid ... well, she will be unrecognizable in her new-ly blossomed body. But, those that have no new and improved physical attributes to showcase will make up for it with success stories. “Have you been to New York over the summer? It’s beautiful. Oh, by the way, I worked as an intern on Wall Street,” one might boast, or “Last year, I in-terned for Senator So-and-so, so I’m pretty much a big deal.” If this is how we are after just three years of school, imagine what it would be like 15 years from now. I’m sure many of us will attend with the intention of show-ing off our wealth. Some guy might casually remark,
“Getting a salt-water in-door pool installed on the second floor of my vintage chateau is so complicated!” And your impending re-action? “I don’t care!” But, you won’t say that. So, you fake a smile and offer a phony and complacent re-sponse like, “How wonder-ful!” just to assure him that his personal life story is not at all boring and dulling away the very neurons of your brain. The worst, though, will be when someone talks about how smart/athlet-ic/talented their kids are. “My daughter can name the capital of every state,” or “My son can roller blade backward. You should see him do it, it’s hilarious!” But instead of laughing, all you want to do is roll your eyes to the back of your head and keep them there until they stop talking.
Following this expo-sé of inter-actions be-tween class-mates, we should keep
in mind never to adver-tise reunions as a meaning-ful occasion for meeting old pals. Because let’s be frank, we are not, and never have been, pals with everyone from our class. The only people we really care for seeing are our real friends, whom we keep in touch with on a weekly if not daily basis anyway. The most likely circum-stance that would occur at one of these reunions is that you’ll huddle in a group with your close friends and comment on someone else’s weight or make fun of the way someone dresses. This is not much dif-ferent from what you al-ready do (Facebook stalk-ing sound familiar?), except now, this insensitive activ-ity is done in a more pub-lic manner over cheese and wine. The occasional small talk with those outside your clique only happens when you stroll to the table to grab more hors d’oeuvres. Personally, I was never a fan of the whole clique scene in high school, and reunions are just the adult version of that. We like to surround ourselves with only those we’re comfortable with and everyone else is a poor vic-tim of our ridicule. So, why do I fear re-unions more than I fear the Apocalypse? Because I don’t want to tire my face mus-cles flashing fake smiles, nor is it in my interest to tell someone it’s good seeing them when deep down in-side what I genuinely want to say is, “I hate your face.”
Send MICHELLE NGUYEN ideas for excuses not to attend her high school reunion at [email protected].
page two The california aggie2 wednesday, november 9, 2011
accuracyThe California Aggie strives to ensure that all of its facts and details are accurate. Please bring any corrections to our attention by calling (530) 752-0208.
I certainly still act like I’m eight when I have the free time
to do so ...
Personally, I was never a fan of the whole clique scene in high
cancelled: uc provost pitts open ForumPreviously scheduled: 9:30 to 10:30 a.m.Previous location: King Lounge, Memorial UnionThe discussion with UC Provost Larry Pitts has been cancelled.
refund california rallyNoonQuadStudents, workers and community members will march and rally to make banks pay their fair share to fix the economic crisis they created. Refund California is a statewide coalition of students, teachers, homeowners, community members and faith leaders working to make Wall Street banks pay for a crisis they helped to create.
uc davis Bookstore author event1 to 2 p.m.UC Davis Bookstore Special Events Room, next to Memorial Union Post OfficeTania Hammidi, of the UC Davis women’s studies department, will discuss her new book, Judgement Day: Fashioning Masculinities. The book features 24 portraits of queer masculinities by Los Angeles- and New York-based photographers Lola Flash, Love Ablan and Leon Mostovoy, as well as essays on stud/butch self-fashioning.
nameless Magazine info Meeting5:30 to 6 p.m.201 WellmanNameless Magazine is UC Davis’s official undergraduate literary and arts magazine. E-mail [email protected] for more information.
peace corps info Meeting6 to 7 p.m.1130 HartThis meeting is for people who want to learn about the Peace Corps, the application process and how to gain skills to be more qualified. All are welcome.
careers in genetic counseling6:30 p.m.194 YoungLearn from a UC Davis alum about exciting career options such as a genetic counselor.
Food addicts in recovery anonymous
7 to 8:30 p.m.Davis United Methodist Church, 1620 Anderson RoadFree yourself from excess weight and obsessive thoughts about food and body image. Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous is a 12-step fellowship based on the principles of Alcoholics Anonymous.
tHurSday
energy institute Fall Seminar Series2 to 3:30 p.m.1065 KemperRyan J. Andress, Ph.D., will discuss optimization-based synthesis andanalysis of hydrogen-producing alternative thermochemical cycles.
Biomedical engineering department Seminar Series4 p.m.1005 Genome and Biomedical Sciences BuildingDr. Shankar Subramaniam, chair of the department of bioengineering at UC San Diego, will discuss perspectives and challenges of systems biology and medicine.
to the Zoo and Beyond: San diego Zoo Vet talk6 p.m.1001 GeidtInternship and Career Center and the Vet Aide Club at UC Davis will present this special one-night-only talk with the senior veterinarian of the San Diego Zoo. He will present stories about panda births, koala reproduction and what it’s like to be a zoo veterinarian. On a side note, lots of cute baby panda pictures be will shown.
american red cross club Meeting6:15 to 7:30 p.m.118 OlsonMissed the first general meeting? No worries! Just come to this general meeting to learn about all the volunteer opportunities around Davis and the Yolo community.
To receive placement in the AGGIE DAILY CALENDAR, e-mail [email protected] or stop by 25 Lower Freeborn by noon the day prior to your event. Due to space constraints, all event descriptions are subject to editing, and priority will be given to events that are free of charge and geared toward the campus community.
MichelleNguyen
Midlife crisis
ZenitaSingh
said Jan Garrison, coordina-tor at the Craft Center. Each year, Craft Center affiliates donate pieces to be sold in the show. Over four weeks, the crafts are open for bidding. Anyone can place a bid on items. On the final day of the show, Dec. 2, everything is opened up in a live auction format. In celebration of this final day, the Craft Center hosts a reception, in which Jared Tolla, the assistant director, serves as the auctioneer. “It is fun being the auc-tioneer. I know lots of peo-ple who crafted the piec-es, so I have behind-the-scenes knowledge,” Tolla said. At this reception, the piece will go to the highest bidder. For the artists, it is an opportunity to put their work on the market. “It’s nice to have people check out your pieces. It’s also a lot less stress than selling work myself, and you get to find out what other people are willing to pay for your work. It’s sur-prising to see what some things end up going for at auction,” said Jennifer Rutherford, an artist in the show, as well as a volunteer and sewing and glass in-structor at the Craft Center. For this year, Rutherford has contributed small mo-saic glass-fused plates and a decoupaged box. This is also a unique op-portunity for all members
of the community to bene-fit. While students and pa-trons can purchase hand-made pieces, artists also get a chance to appreciate both their work and the work of others. “We all like to go around looking at everyone’s stuff. I also like it when someone puts up something ‘big’ at the auction that sets off a massive bidding war and everyone wonders who is going to get it. I’ve seen some high bids for a cus-tom doll that incorporat-ed something from every craft at the Craft Center, a large robot sculpture and fancy glass jellyfish done by one of the instructors. I ex-pect this year’s Craft Center T-shirt blanket and the ‘Day of the Dead’ Craft Center diorama that Jan made are going to go for a lot of mon-ey. I know I’ll be putting in a token bid even if I can’t afford them by the end of the final night,” Rutherford said. Not only is this an oppor-tunity for artists to sell their work and see how much it will actually sell for, but all of the proceeds support the Craft Center. According to Tolla, artists are often sur-prised at how much their work sells for.“We use the funds for things that will benefit the majority of the Craft Center,” Tolla said. “We of-ten buy books, so that any-one who comes in can ben-efit from the proceeds.”
activity per day. “The rate of aging is prob-ably set during develop-ment years,” said Roger McDonald, a professor of nutrition at UC Davis. “The reality is that the only two things that will slow down aging are keeping weight off and staying active.” There are serious health problems that come from obesity: cardiovascular problems and insulin resis-tance, just to name a few. “There has been an ex-plosion in cases of Type 2 Diabetes,” said Judith Stern of the UC Davis nutrition department. Obesity is not just a health concern, but a social concern as well. Obese chil-dren are often the targets of bullying, and obesity-relat-ed complications cost the health care system $147 bil-lion in 2008. There is no single person or institution that can be blamed for the easy access to unhealthy foods. Over
the past decade, the manu-facture of refined carbohy-drates has become far less expensive, and fats used in cooking are easier to pro-duce. The U.S. government also spends $17 billion an-nually subsidizing grain farmers. This makes emp-ty calories even cheaper. There are a few ways to fix these issues. According to Leigh, there needs to cheap, healthy alternatives to the unhealthy foods on fast food menus, as well as government subsidies for healthy choices. He also believes that there should be a tax on sugary so-das and that the proceeds should go to fund food stamps. Applegate suggests that neighborhoods create an environment for safe phys-ical activity. “Davis is a model com-munity,” Applegate said. “There are bike paths, farmers markets with or-ganic food and parents here know the importance of ac-tivity and nutrition. Davis is fitness utopia.” Some fast food chains
have begun to address these issues in their own way. “McDonalds has done a good job of creating aware-ness through labeling calo-ries on their menu boards,” Stern said. “We need to promote both sides of the energy equation,” Applegate said. “I compliment McDonalds. They offer play areas which are a safe place for calorie
burning.” Applegate said that kids who eat healthy and are physically active are not only healthier later in life, they have better blood flow, better attention span, bet-ter mental acuity and even higher scores on standard-ized tests.
future of the civil engineering field,” said Frank Loge, a professor of civ-il and environmental engineering who was instrumental in creating the minor. According to Loge, the integrated design capacity requires engineers, architects and others to collaborate during the design process so that a more efficient sustainable design can be achieved. Another new program to arrive at the university is the human rights minor. Instead of starting from scratch, the new minor is a joint col-laborative effort between the history
department and the religious stud-ies program. Keith Watenpaugh, a historian of the Middle East and a religious stud-ies associate professor, describes the minor as a way for students to link their major fields of study with the history, theory and promotion of hu-man rights. The process for approving a ma-jor or minor can be described as long and arduous. Faculty members are typically the ones who bring forward such a proposal. The proposal is then taken up by a dean or an academic senate committee. If the proposal has enough support, it will be reviewed by the administration, which makes the ultimate decision. The entire process can take anywhere from 18 months to
upward of several years. According to Turner, the time-con-suming process is necessary. “It doesn’t make sense to invest in something that’s not practical. We’re using public money, and we should be prudent with it,” she said. The review process ensures an ef-ficient distribution of resources to fields that impact students the most, Turner said . Vice Provost Turner is optimistic that the new programs will substan-tially contribute to the prestige of UC Davis. “It’s a very good time to be a stu-dent here. We have a reputation to be admired,” she said.
RICHARD CHANG can be reached at campus@theaggie.
mAjoRscont. from front page
courtesy
Fast food is often blamed for obesity among the poor, but due to recent studies, this has been called into question.
Wednesday, november 9, 2011 3The california aggie
On a purely selfish level, I enjoy the switch from Daylight
Saving Time to Standard Time. Anything that gives me an extra hour of sleep is a cause for celebration for my sleep-deprived brain, and I imagine many col-lege students feel the same (especially since midterm season is just ending and we can finally relax from studying a bit). Thinking too hard about the concept of Daylight Saving Time, however, makes one wonder why it was a good idea. Yes, the original goal was to give an extra hour of sunlight as the fall and winter make for earlier evenings and therefore save electricity. However, the concept does create confusion for those who don’t pay attention to the dates of the switch-overs or forget the con-cept of “Spring forward, fall back.” If you find it confus-ing now, you should know that there are certain ar-eas that don’t observe Daylight Saving Time at all. Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and most of Arizona (with the exception of the Navajo Reservation) do not switch their clocks. There is no federal law re-quiring that states observe Daylight Saving Time, only that if they do, it must be-gin at 2 a.m. on the second Sunday in March and end at 2 a.m. on the first Sunday of November. Even these regulations are subject to change; this range of Daylight Saving Time is actually from the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Until the Uniform Time Act of 1966, when Daylight Saving Time was set from the last Sunday in April to the last Sunday of October, every locality was free to choose when to change their clocks for Daylight Saving Time, which caused a great deal of confusion for the broadcasting and travel industries. The law was amended in 1986 to change the spring-forward date to the first Sunday in April, extend-ing Daylight Saving Time by nearly a month. At this time, the fall-backward date was in the last Sunday of October and remained with these dates until 2005, when the date was changed to the first Sunday of November. But why does all of this confusion need to exist at all? The most basic rea-son is that the Earth’s axis
is tilted relative to its or-bit around the sun. As the planet revolves around the sun, this tilt means that at different points of its orbit, different parts of the earth are closer to the star, which is why we have seasons and why winter in the north-ern hemisphere occurs at the same time as summer in the southern hemisphere (and vice versa). When our hemisphere is tilted away from the sun, it also means that we spend a greater amount of time in darkness. People have known this for thousands of years, and different cit-ies set their clocks differ-ently depending on their own sunlight, but it wasn’t until common use of pub-lic transportation that knowing the time became a requirement.
The first proposal for setting the clock forward for spring and sum-
mer was from Benjamin Franklin in 1784, but the idea didn’t catch on un-til a proposal from an Englishman named William Willett in 1907. Willett’s idea left some-thing to be desired. He wanted to move the clocks 80 minutes ahead dur-ing the summer months — in four, 20-minute incre-ments. This plan is more precise compared to the one-hour jump we do to-day with regard to the Earth’s tilted axis, as the length of daylight increases gradually (not all at once) during spring. However, who here would be able to keep track of how often to turn the clocks ahead 20 min-utes four times per year, as well as back 20 minutes an-other four times per year? Sometimes, scientific preci-sion has to take a backseat to practicality. The issue of scientific precision versus practical usefulness comes up again in one of the major claims of Daylight Saving Time: that it reduces electricity use. The precise, scientific answer appears to be that yes, it does. Is this reduced use enough for the average person to notice? Not really. The first national study was commissioned by the United States Department of Transportation in the 1970s and found that, na-tionally speaking, electric-ity usage decreased by 1 percent each day when us-ing Daylight Saving Time. A similar study from 2008 from the United States Department of Energy found that extending Daylight Saving Time by one month reduced nation-al electricity usage by 0.03 percent. Not per person — na-tionally. Of course, every little bit of electricity saved is helpful. Just don’t expect to see that difference re-flected in your utility bill.
Have a science question? E-mail AMY STEWART at [email protected] and she’ll find an expert to ask.
Sometimes, scientific precision has to take a backseat to
practicality
AmyStewart
Fall back
By ERIC C. LIPSKYAggie Science Writer
Watch where you step, because ants are crucial contributors in the continued discovery of the world we live in. Insects, although small, are one of the greatest indicators of bio-diversity in an area. Brian Fisher, chairman of the de-partment of entomology at the California Academy of Sciences, has been studying insects and ants for decades. Fisher’s travels have taken him from the Congo, to the Amazon and now to Madagascar. Located off the coast of southeastern Africa, Madagascar is considered a model for biodiversity. “We have been traveling all over Madagascar using insects to try to create a fine-scale biodiversity map,” Fisher said. Fisher said that insects share an incredible amount of microen-demism, meaning that these in-sects are unique to certain loca-tions. Some scientists are reliant on mapping bird species to deter-mine biodiversity, but this meth-od has problems. Fisher said that if scientists were to try to map out biodiversity based on just birds, they would only get a broad histo-ry of the area. “In eastern Madagascar, it’s the same bird species, it doesn’t matter where you go, you find the same bird species,” Fisher said. “We wouldn’t be able to see life’s story with just birds.” Fisher said only about 15 percent
of species have been discovered on earth. He said that it is only a mat-ter of time before society loses the chance to learn more about the re-maining 85 percent of undiscovered species. “Many species will go extinct with-out us seeing them. It may be only 50 years until they are extinct, so it’s our last chance to try to explore the species before they’re gone,” Fisher said. One of the biggest problems Madagascar faces is deforestation. Similar to how other forests around the world are being destroyed, Fisher is seeing humanity’s impacts in the forests of Madagascar. “It’s shocking what has changed over the past 20 years. One of the for-ests that we studied last year is gone; it shows how vulnerable these areas are,” Fisher said. According to a thorough forest review published by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 2010, deforestation has slowed over the past 10 years. However, the report states that each year, an area about the size of Costa Rica is lost to deforestation. “I see poor recognition from the public. We need to do a better job to make people aware of why we need more people to inventory these things [biodiversity of areas],” Fisher said. According to Fisher, ants act as great representatives of the biodi-versity in areas because they eat the most diverse sets of foods and be-
cause within groups, they show the broadest range of lifestyles. He said that the mining compa-nies in Madagascar have got to know about the biodiversity of the areas they are trying to mine. “They have to know what’s down there is not found elsewhere in Madagascar; the problem is we don’t have enough information to quickly provide it to people who want to mit-igate our impacts,” Fisher said. He hopes to create a sort of ant culture with people that is similar to the relationship people have with birds. “My goal is to be like the bird peo-ple and have field guides that can make people aware of how impor-tant insects and ants are,” Fisher said. “You could remove birds and have an ecosystem function; you couldn’t remove insects and have an ecosys-tem function,” Fisher said. “They are like the glue that holds the ecosys-tem together.” Nevertheless, Fisher said that he is going to continue his pursuit to dis-cover and preserve the insect species on earth. Fisher is making his way from Madagascar and will be in Davis to-day for a seminar that will cover his experiences in Madagascar and re-lating to the ant diversity found there. The seminar will be located in the Recreation Pool Lodge on La Rue Road, and will be from 6:15 to 7:15 p.m.
College unfortunate-ly costs a great deal of money — to attend, live, play, eat, party. As with any long list, priorities and disarray abound at the thought of paying ex-penses. Fortunately for students and adults alike, Mint.com can make this job easier by managing, tracking and budgeting users’ personal finances. In this secure, accurate forum, one does not need spreadsheets or financial advisors; Mint gets the job done in a manner our generation is trending to-wards — neatly. The platform is simple: create a Mint account, enter your financial in-formation, and quickly see all your balances and transactions together in one place. No more log-ging in to different check-ing, savings and invest-ment accounts; no more Excel e-mail attachments to parents back home; no more calendar reminders and certainly no more
fretting about the state of your money affairs. We can finally get the entire picture with Mint and not have to worry about piecing it together. My favorite feature (besides being a free ser-vice and sending text re-minders) is the helpful graphs. Spending is bro-ken up into categories based on when and what was spent. Net worth, in-come and account bal-ances are tracked as well, making it easy to under-stand financial patterns. There is even the option to track spending against personal goals, which can then be contrasted with the graph that com-pares spending against national average. Already done for you, Mint’s fi-nancial analysis beats the arduous work that is Excel any given day. Your life will great-ly benefit from financial streamlining.
— Chelsea Mehra
Ants: one of the most important parts of
our ecosystem“They are the glue that holds our ecosystem together”
courtesyBrian Fisher in Madagascar
navigation panels and communica-tion systems. After only 30 minutes or so of basic instruction, I was seated behind the controls of a small four-seater plane, facing a long runway and preparing for takeoff. Bar-Or was sitting on my left, and my friend Tyler Bronstein, who kindly agreed to come along for moral support, sat in the back. Before I knew it I was giving the engine a full shot of gas, watching for the speed-ometer to reach 60 so I could lift the nose in the air ... and then we were flying. For most of the time we were air-borne on that clear afternoon, I was silently in awe. Getting to Winters in what seemed like less than five min-utes felt like being tossed through a timeloop. Beyond that, I was work-ing hard the entire time to process the fact that I was actually behind the wheel of a plane. Back in the day when I was learn-ing how to drive, I could never under-stand how the driving school teach-ers could be so patient. Bar-Or was no different. He was remarkably calm the entire time, tolerated my cursing every time my stomach dropped and made sure to reduce any anxiety I had when he could. To my surprise, once I had made it safely off the ground, I found that fly-ing was actually relatively easy. Yes, it was true I wasn’t worrying about oth-er traffic or really anything other than what was directly in front of me, but controlling the plane felt like playing a video game after about 10 minutes. Bar-Or left a surprising amount of control to me, only maintaining con-trol of the foot pedals which were em-barrassingly too far away for me to reach. He let me experiment steering until I learned could keep the plane riding smoothly, and even though Tyler was sick for most of the ride I think he would agree that I got the hang of it by the end.Bar-Or even commented that I
was an aggressive flier, which was strange in the context of real life and not Star Wars, but it helped me transition from freaking out to hav-ing fun. Flying that plane, even though it was just to the edge of Lake Berryessa and back, was easily one of the coolest things I’ve ever done in my lifetime. I thought getting a car when I was in high school was awesome, but sitting in a private plane at that elevation with the nose pointed in whatever direction I wanted made it truly feel as if the world was my oyster. Judging by the kind of daily activi-ty at the airport, there are plenty that feel the same way. Only a few planes were still parked at the airport on the afternoon we were there. Anyone with a pilots’ license can rent a plane to fly for $85 an hour, including fuel and insurance, opening up endless possibilities for day trips and adven-tures. Bar-Or told me how he would fly out to Half Moon Bay for picnic dates when he was in school and how he
can routinely get to Los Angeles in only an hour and 45 minutes. Whatever the scenario, it seems that a pilots’ license, while being quite the hefty investment of roughly $6500 for 60 hours of instruction, is something that could definitely be put to good use. While I am a long way from obtain-ing my pilots’ license, getting to ex-perience flying on an ordinary day was unlike anything I’ve ever experi-enced. I got off work at the Memorial Union and biked out to the airport right afterwards, only to fly right back in that direction half an hour later to look at the same area from two thou-sand feet above. It was unreal that this was possible, all in the space of an hour and a half, for a person with absolutely no prior knowledge or experience in flight. If anyone is aching to cross something off of their bucket list, head out to the UC Davis Airport when you have a free afternoon and fly somewhere. It’s worth it.
Students enjoy views like these while learning to fly at the University Airport.
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4 Wednesday, november 9, 2011 The california aggie
By CLAIRE TANAggie News Writer
On Oct. 26, President Barack Obama in-troduced his “Pay As You Earn” proposal at the University of Colorado in Denver. The goal of the plan is to improve the college loan repayment process to make it easier and more affordable for students.
“We’re making changes that will give about 1.6 million students the ability to cap their loan payments at 10 percent of their income starting next year,” Obama said in his student loan savings plan op-ed. “We’re also going to take steps to help you consol-idate your loans so that instead of making multiple payments to multiple lenders ev-ery month, you only have to make one pay-ment a month at a better interest rate.”
Obama said a fact sheet called “Know Before You Owe” will be given to students to help them make the right loan decision. Still in the works, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau teamed up with the United States Department of Education to help schools improve the student loan infor-mation given to students and their families.
“This looks really cool and I hope they do it,” said Director of UC Davis Financial Aid Kathryn Maloney. “With all the infor-mation in one place, students can under-stand better and make better decisions.”
There are two main repayment plans; the standard repayment plan and the in-come based repayment (IBR) plan. There are also other repayment plans that are de-pendent on a student’s financial situation.
“There are several repayment plans for student loans,” Maloney said. “One is called the standard and it’s a 10-year plan based on the amount you owe divided by 10 years. There’s also [the IBR plan] that was introduced in 2009 but not as many people knew about it.”
The current IBR plan allows for loan re-payments at 15 percent of a person’s in-come. Beginning in January 2012, that will change to 10 percent.
“It’s fairly new but wasn’t very publi-cized,” Maloney said. “We don’t promote it; we just do the loans and don’t deal as much with repayment but we definitely could do more to let people know.”
Another improvement of the plan is
consolidation, which does not affect UC Davis students because UC Davis is not a part of the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program. To be eligible for the spe-cial direct consolidation loan, a person must have a federal loan and a commer-cially-held FFEL loan.
“Some schools use banks, some schools used the federal government,” Maloney said. “We use the federal government, but there are students like graduate students or transfers who use both [the banks and federal government] and may need con-solidation, although more students don’t need consolidation.”
According to Studentaid.ed.gov, the re-payment term is different for the special direct consolidation loan than the tradi-tional direct consolidation loan.
“Each loan that is consolidated retains its original repayment term,” Studentaid.ed.gov said. “As a result, borrowers will pay less interest over the life of the loan than they would under the traditional consoli-dation program.”
According to Maloney, right now is when people are going into repayment. She said
it is a six-month grace period so for those who graduated in June, come December is when they will begin asking for repayment.
Those from the Project on Student Debt said that two-thirds of college seniors graduated with loans in 2010 and carried an average of $25,250 in debt. There is also data released by the U.S. Department of Education that shows an increase in feder-al student loan default rates.
“The official ‘two-year cohort default rates’ show that 8.8 percent of student loan borrowers who entered repayment in 2009 had defaulted by the end of 2010, up from 7 percent for those entering repayment in 2008,” the U.S. Department of Education stated.
UC Davis has a site called CashCourse that helps with basic budgeting.
“It helps you think more about wheth-er you really need to take out a loan,” Maloney said. “Sometimes you can look at your lifestyle and see if you can make other adjustments, such as getting a roommate or making your own food.”
Obama introduces student loan relief planImprovements to student loans will take effect January 2012
Avoid awkward conversations
on the bus.
Read the Aggie.
By CuRAN MEhRADaily Californian
(University of California-Berkeley)
U. California-Berkeley research shows a more dynamic role for stem cells and insulin in the intestine, a finding that could have implications for diabetes treatment.
The research, which was published in the journal Cell on Oct. 28, shows that the quantity of intestinal stem cells grows or shrinks to accommodate food, instead of maintaining a stable quantity, as scientists previously thought.
For researchers Lucy O’Brien, postdoctoral researcher, and David Bilder, associate professor of cell and developmental biology, the logic of the findings made evolutionary sense.
“If the animal can expand the size of the intestine and digest more food but then shrink when there is not as much need, it makes the animal more efficient, more physiologically fit,” O’Brien said.
The four-year-long research project, which examined the intestines of fruit flies, began somewhat by chance, she said.
One day in the lab when O’Brien needed to observe a certain genotypic mutation, there was only one slide available — one of a fly that had not been eating.
“When I opened it, its gut was so small,” O’Brien said. “I thought there’s no way this organ could have as many cells as a normal organ I’m used to looking at. That got me wondering whether the act of feeding was actually changing the makeup of the original tissue.”
Her idea diverged from the research of the time, which argued that stem cells in fruit flies divided at a reasonably constant rate, according to O’Brien.
In the lab, she began her work by observing the flies immediately after they had undergone metamorphosis and emerged as adult flies but before they had first eaten. At this point, the stem cells were mostly “inert,” according to O’Brien.
“But when I would give the flies food, I would see the stem cells come to life, and they would divide and divide and divide and divide,” O’Brien said.
O’Brien then spent a year digitally reproducing the intestines of the fruit fly and using computerized algorithms to rigorously count the 4,000 to 10,000 cells in any given fruit fly.
Here, the small size of the fruit fly helped.“The ability to get at really fine-grain
detail about individual cells in the organ makes the fruit fly such a useful animal to study,” O’Brien said.
As a biologist, O’Brien said her first thought was that insulin — which is central to regulating metabolism — would be a key factor in the response of stem cells to food.
The secreted insulin directed stem cell growth. During feeding, insulin secretions would increase, signaling intestinal growth.
In exploring the impact of insulin,
O’Brien’s research has laid preliminary groundwork regarding the use of stem cells in the treatment of diabetes in humans, according to an article by Abby Sarkar, a Harvard University graduate student, and Konrad Hochedlinger, associate professor of stem cell and regenerative biology at Harvard, that accompanied the study’s publication.
Musclelike cells in the human intestines similarly secrete insulin. However, understanding the impact of those secretions is much more challenging in the context of a human versus that of a fruit fly, O’Brien said.
“The fruit fly is going to give us indications about how the equivalent process would work in the human,” O’Brien said.
O’Brien plans to continue her current work by examining involvement of muscle tissue in the secretion of insulin. She will also explore what factors limit stem cell growth.
Research finds that intestines grow in response to food
wednesday, november 9, 2011 5The california aggie
By Kathryn ElliottMinnesota Daily (University of Minnesota)
Sticking to pill regimens can be tough for anybody, but for HIV patients it’s especially important to adhere to the treatment schedule recommended by their doctors. Keith Horvath, a U. Minnesota researcher in the School of Public Health’s looking at how social media can help patients maintain the rigorous regimen — following the efforts of drug companies and medical providers. Pill reminders sent to a patient’s mobile device or inbox are already a common strategy to encourage medication adherence, but psycho-social factors like depression or drug use can put a damper on patients’ taking their medication, Horvath said. Last spring, Horvath launched a pilot study to find how online support networks might motivate HIV patients to follow their medication regimens. He built a “Facebook-like” website, which allowed participants to network with other HIV-infected individuals. The user feedback has been positive
enough that Horvath is preparing to submit a grant proposal next semester to the National Institutes of Health for a larger study. Medication adherence is critical for HIV patients because missing a dose can provide an opportunity for the virus to replicate. If this happens while low levels of an HIV drug are in the blood, the virus can mutate to become drug-resistant. Ten years ago, a typical medication load included about 30 to 40 pills daily. That’s down to about three now, said Terri Foley, director of communications for the Minnesota AIDS Project. The more than 6,000 HIV-positive Minnesotans have an array of services available to help them stay true to their medication schedule. But Tim Marburger, director of fundraising and special events at The Aliveness Project — a community center in south Minneapolis that provides services to people with HIV —said that about 70 percent of the 1,600 people that the center serves are below the federal poverty line of $10,830 annual individual income. Many of them use pay-as-you-go
cellphones — not smartphones that can send alerts — and many don’t have regular Internet access. Alternatively, one free, high-tech option for HIV-patients sponsored by the Minnesota Department of Human Services is a pill box with a built-in alarm. Another DHS support program for HIV patients struggling to stay in control, Medication Therapy Management Services, sets up counseling at the pharmacy. Darin Rowles, director of case management at the Minnesota AIDS Project, said all of its programs use email to communicate with clients plus a fraction that use text messaging. But the best way to help patients is to meet in person. Online interaction, even over chat, slows down the conversation, he said. “I don’t see social networking as being realistic for [the clients] because of the boundary concerns,” Rowles said. “It’s much more about relationship building — face to face interaction.” Positive Link, a program within the Minnesota AIDS Project for HIV-positive gay and bisexual men, has a “secret”
Facebook page that roughly 50 of its 600 participants feel comfortable using, said Nick Schrott, a health educator with the program who is also HIV-positive. At least half of the 600 have Facebook but don’t use the Positive Link page, he said. Their main concern is privacy — making sure HIV-related alerts that pop up on their wall won’t be viewed by the wrong eyes, Schrott said. Even though the page is unsearchable and its announcements can’t be viewed by non-members, people don’t feel comfortable taking the risk. A site like Horvath’s that isn’t as big and as public but has the same options as Facebook might work better, Schrott said. Horvath said he realized the population with access to social media technology is a subset of those infected. The web site he created, which allows private posting and networking, appeals to a more educated, higher income group. It’s only one part of the solution for medication adherence, and people with privacy concerns might choose not to use it, he said. “That’s fair and that’s their choice,” he said.
New technology may help HIV patients to avoid skipping medications
By Florence LauThe Johns Hopkins News-Letter
(Johns Hopkins University)
It is generally assumed that everyone has a stable IQ (intelligence quotient) score, thereby making it a standard measure of intelligence for teenagers everywhere. Those who perform badly in IQ tests as teenagers are written off as being unable to do as well in future endeavors, like getting into a highly ranked college or finding a job. Those who do well in such tests can get complacent, believing that they are “naturally smart” and are destined to do well.
However, new research has found that IQ is not a stable a trait as was previously believed. Using IQ tests taken from a group of 33 adolescents when they were between the ages of 12 and 16 and then again four years later when the same adolescents were between 15 and 20 years old, researchers have found that there were significant changes in their scores from 2008 compared to the scores from 2004.
Changes were up to a 20 point increase or decrease in scores, whether it was in verbal (language, math, knowledge and memory) or non-verbal (visual puzzles, identifying missing pieces of a picture) types of IQ. Changes to one type of IQ did not appear to cause a change in the other type.
Along with comparing IQ scores, researchers also looked at MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scans of the subjects brains. They found that the increase in scores correlated with increases in grey matter of the brain.
Grey matter is where processing takes place in the brain, so it makes sense that increased intelligence would correlate with increased information processing. Specifically, increased verbal IQ scores correlated with increased density of grey matter in the part of the brain which is activated during speech, and increased non-verbal IQ scores correlated with the part of the brain activated during hand movements. It was not clear whether decreases in IQ scores meant a decrease
in grey matter in the relevant areas of the brain.
So what does this mean? This research shows that intelligence is still developing in children, and that having a low IQ score during the pre-teen years doesn’t necessarily mean anything later on. It also shows that students who have a high IQ score earlier in life may not have the same score later, so they have to keep working hard and studying.
This last point especially is supported by research which has also found that the brain doesn’t lose its plasticity — its ability to mold itself and change with the amount and type of input it is receiving and the environment it is in — even when people are adults. For example, Professor Eleanor Maguire from the Wellcome Trust Centre found that taxi drivers in London have increased volume in their hippocampus, an area of the brain which controls memory and navigation.
Further research will be needed to decide whether or not this finding can be generalized to IQ changes even as adults,
and whether these results also apply to other cognitive functions. Research can also be done to determine why these changes are happening and if it’s really just as simple as “working out” that part of your brain more or less. Research on these changes may have long-lasting impacts on education, employment, and how the education system is structured in the future. Furthermore, this research could be applied to mental disorders and whether changes in supposedly “stable” traits like IQ could contribute to such disorders.
Clearly, people’s brains don’t stop changing as they grow older, and this applies to no other group more distinctly than teenagers. Their brains are still changing and molding dramatically, even more so than adults’ brains, and intelligence is something that can be molded along with practical and physical skills. Brains are made to adapt to situations, and if one stops trying to study and better himself or herself, his or her brain might simply stop trying to keep up.said.
IQ can change noticeably during adolescence, for better or worse
By Michael LeeThe Duke Chronicle (Duke University)
When clinical trials suggest an expensive cancer drug is ineffective but individual cases highlight its benefits, the methods for evaluating clinical research come into question.
Avastin, a drug for use against metastatic breast cancer — an advanced stage of the disease — is currently pending final approval by the Food and Drug Administration. Recent clinical trials do not show overall improvements in survival rates, casting doubts on the drug’s practical effectiveness. But some oncologists are saying that if ways to see which patients would respond positively to Avastin are developed, it could be a very effective treatment for metastatic breast cancer.
“Some patients do benefit from Avastin,” said Dr. Gary Lyman, medical oncologist and professor of medicine at Duke U. “The problem is that most don’t.”
Lyman was part of the FDA’s Oncologic Drug Advisory Committee, which in 2007 placed Avastin on an accelerated track for use against breast cancer. Accelerated approval is uncommon, and it was granted partially due to promising results of a clinical trial and Avastin’s previous success as a treatment for colorectal cancer, Lyman said. Avastin, though potentially beneficial, is also toxic, like most cancer drugs. It was approved with the provision that the drug be assessed again when two other clinical trials concluded.
When the trials ended in 2010, they showed unexpected results.
“The [new] data reviewed this past year was not as encouraging as we had hoped based on the initial, accelerated approval decision,” Lyman said. “None of the [new]
trials have shown an overall survival improvement indication.”
Compared to the first trial, the new trials indicated a shorter period of progression-free survival, the time during or after medication in which the cancer ceases to worsen. They did not demonstrate a survival advantage or an improved quality of life on average, Lyman said. He and other oncologists noted, however, that there are certain patients for whom Avastin works very well, a phenomenon that might not be reflected in a large clinical study.
“In individual patients, we have seen remarkable responses to Avastin, but we have not yet learned to tell who will be one of those people with the remarkable response,” Dr. Gretchen Kimmick, Duke associate professor of oncology, wrote in an email Monday. “Here, further research needs to be done.”
The FDA, however, required the advisory board to either unconditionally approve the drug—which would have exempted Avastin’s developer from providing more clinical data—or deny it. The board ultimately rescinded its approval. Lyman and 10 others voted against Avastin, and one member voted for it.
“If we had been given the opportunity to extend approval, I think several panel members including myself would have voted for that,” Lyman said.
The FDA has yet to make the final decision, though historically it has rarely deviated from the advisory board’s decision, he said. If it rescinds Avastin’s approval, then it is likely that insurance companies will cut off funding for the drug for breast cancer use.
“To me, [the end of insurance coverage] would almost be the worst case scenario,”
Lyman said. “It’s very likely that those with means would be able to pay for the drug and many patients would not, or they would end up mortgaging their homes or end up going into great debt in order to get the treatment they or their doctor thinks they need.”
Dr. Neil Spector, Duke associate professor of medicine and associate professor of pharmacology and cancer biology, said there is financial need to develop an identifying method.
“If we prescribe expensive drugs to 100 people in order to get two responders, our health care system will not be sustainable,” Spector wrote in an email Tuesday. “That is not being harsh, it’s being realistic…. We need to develop effective therapies, understand who is most likely to benefit and make them available to likely responders at costs that patients can afford.”
Economics may limit developers’ ability
to tailor a drug to specific individuals, added Dr. Erich Huang, a surgical oncologist and the director of cancer research at Sage Bionetworks in Seattle, Wash.
“The question then is, are we incentivizing people to figure out which drug works for which patient?” Huang said. “It’s the kind of question that needs economic analysis because it is more profitable for [pharmaceutical companies] to market an agent to a larger, un-selected group of patients.”
Lyman said he is confident that Avastin’s usefulness as a drug will emerge as ways of finding which patients would respond well to it are developed.
“I sincerely believe in the near future there will be a marker, a gene, gene pattern or protein that will tell us which patient is most likely to respond,” he said. “To me, that’s the holy grail for Avastin because of [its toxicity].”
Breast cancer drug likely to be disapproved by FDA
You’re probably ten feet from a bin right now.
Recycle the aggie.
The california aggie6 wednesday, november 9, 2011
Amid everything that is going on with Aggie athletics this year, the spotlight now turns to bas-ketball. Last season, the UC Davis women’s basketball program made it to the NCAA tournament — a first for UC Davis basketball in Division I — after having won the Big West Conference in Coach Sandy Simpson’s final year of his 14-season-long tenure.
It would be easy for UC Davis to make excuses and call this a rebuilding year, with a new head coach and the loss of its two key seniors.
But to UC Davis, the pursuit of excellence never meant taking the easy route.
With all the things that have changed from last season to this, the Aggies know they are not the same team as last year and have modified their goals after having the most successful season in UC Davis’ Division I existence. Led by Head Coach Jennifer Gross, they have set the bar higher.
“The neat thing about coming off such a successful season is our kids are determined to come back and they’re ready to step into new roles,” Gross said. “To be hon-est, we weren’t satisfied [with last year’s results] … the talk has been not just getting back but at least getting to that second round.”
The loss of the graduating se-niors Paige Mintun and Heidi Heintz left holes in the roster that the Aggies will be searching to fill.
Yet, UC Davis’ goal this year is not necessarily to replace those players. Gross and her players have made it clear they will be tai-loring their playing style to the roster they have this year rath-er than trying to duplicate that of last season.
“People are going to have to step it up this year. There’s a huge void, but I feel like we do have the capabilities to fill them,” se-nior forward Kasey Riecks said. “I don’t know if it will be a consistent three or four players scoring every night, but it will be a group effort this year.”
The loss of top rebounders and scorers is not exactly something that is easy to overcome. But
Gross is certain they will make up for this in other areas.
Gross stated some of the team goals were not simply results-ori-ented, but that they were striving to build the team relationships and work ethic.
“We want to play tough, we want to play gritty, we want to play dis-ciplined on both sides of the ball and we want to have fun doing it,” she said. “We will be working not just on technique, but also flat out toughness and effort.”
The absence of Simpson is also something Gross is unfamiliar with, but she knows his philoso-phy will not leave.
“You win with people: you re-cruit good people and do it as a team,” Gross said.
Riecks, Samantha Meggison, Lauren Juric and Hana Asano head the team as senior cap-tains, but even they say leader-ship can come from anywhere on the court.
“We know what it’s like to end a successful season,” Riecks said. “We were all here last year and we know what we need to do to achieve that this season.”
The young talent Riecks speaks of could refer to a number of play-ers, from incoming freshmen to returning juniors. Highlighting that group will be junior Cortney
French, who will return after hav-ing missed last year due to inju-ry, and who Asano credits as “the greatest shooter in the confer-ence, by far.”
Asano hopes to lead the team as point guard and plans to spread the ball out, crediting the team as being balanced and faster than last year.
“We have a different style of play. We’re faster and scrappier and our defense is going to be dif-ferent,” she said. “We’re excited to bring that onto the court and for the fans to see us.”
UC Davis opens its season on Friday at the University of Washington and plays a tough schedule for the duration of the season. But if there’s one thing the Aggies are working at, it’s doing whatever it takes to be successful.
“I think we’re going to be a real-ly fun team to watch, we’re going to be a little faster pace,” Gross said. “I’m excited to see where that takes us because I’m ready to get going. We’re on our toes.”
Last year’s results showed that UC Davis belongs in Division I, but they will not stop there. The Aggies are out to prove they are here to compete with the best teams in the nation.
— Matthew Yuen
Teams: UC Davis vs. UC Santa Barbara; TBDRecords: Aggies 7-7-4(5-3-2); Gauchos 13-5-1(6-4-0)Where: Meredith Field at Harder Stadium –– Santa Barbara, Calif.When: Wednesday at 7 p.m.; TBDWho to watch: If you want to find Lance Patterson, look for the man who towers over the rest. The senior will enter his second and final Big West Conference tour-nament, with the hope his college ca-reer does not end in Santa Barbara.
The Aurora, Colo. native has proven to be a multi-fac-eted force every-where on the field. He terrorized op-ponents last year, leading the Aggies in almost every of-fensive category. Then he made the switch this year to defense, shut-ting down threats on the UC Davis goal.
Patterson gained a start-ing job his freshman year, the last time UC Davis made it to the NCAA tournament, and has been a mainstay of the Aggie lineup ever since. Patterson has played almost every minute the Aggies have been on the field, and will be an essential part in leading the young UC Davis team.Did you know? The Aggies were one win away from home field advantage for any Big West Conference champi-onship games they played.
Settling for ties in their final two games, UC Davis missed out on the number one seed, and will travel to No. 17 UC Santa Barbara as the third seed.
The Aggies have not beat-en the Gauchos the past three
times they have played at Meredith Field, with their last victory in Santa Barbara com-ing on Oct. 11, 2008.Preview: This is it. All the overtime minutes (about 138 extra minutes, equivalent to more than a game and a half) have led to this game. Head Coach Dwayne Shaffer said his team’s goal from the beginning was to make it to the Big West Tournament for a chance to
battle for an NCAA Tournament bid. The first step has been checked off the list, and now the Aggies must take on the 17th-ranked Gaucho team in Santa Barbara.
UC Davis has dropped two deci-sions to UCSB this year, but this up-coming game will be the battle that
truly matters. The Aggies have abundant experience in close games, as all but two of their games this season have been decided by one goal or ended in a tie.
“The big thing is, we’ve gained a lot of experience playing in tight games,” Shaffer said. “They’ve grown as a team and all of that will help us against Santa Barbara.”
Should the Aggies win against UCSB, they will move on to the conference finals, which will take place on Saturday. A loss would result in the end of the 2011 cam-paign for Aggie soccer.
“We are going to the best place in America to play col-lege soccer,” Shaffer said. “It’s an exciting time, I know the guys will be excited for it and hopefully we will give UCSB all they can handle.”
— Matthew Yuen
women’s basketball season PReVIew men’s socceR PReVIew
I came across this gazebo on Drew Circle while coming back from an as-signment in South Davis. I’m a suck-er for interesting architecture so I thought I’d snap a couple of pictures of it. I got low and tilted my camera a bit to get some depth and make it interesting. The sun peeking out of the clouds was the icing on the cake. Through experimenting with photog-raphy, you can gain a whole other per-spective on the boring structure you pass on the way to class. You can also just kill time while waiting for your bus.
— Shazib Haq
Photo of the WeekEditor’s note: The “Photo of the Week” is an addition to The Aggie during the 2011-2012 academic year. It will dis-play the best single moment on cam-pus or in the city in the past week — anything from students, classes and sporting events to campus protests, farmers markets and city festivals.
The photographer will briefly describe how the shot was captured, what type of lens was used and how the settings
helped to capture the moment.
Zach Land-Miller / Aggie
senior kasey Riecks will be a key piece in Uc Davis’ 2011-12 season.
lance Pattersonsenior
up and $10 ($8 with college ID) for 18 and up. Line dancing lessons are offered at The Grad before Country Night officially be-gins. Each night features a different dance. On Friday, dancers will learn the “hillbil-ly,” and on Nov. 25, dancers will learn the “Hawaiian Hustle.” Titles of some of the most well-known dances include the elec-tric slide, the cupid shuffle and the water-melon crush. “I actually can’t stand country music, but the dancing is too damn fun,” said Davis resident Philip Johns. According to Christian Guth, who grad-uated from UC Davis in 2006, when songs with the most well-known dances are play-ing the dance floor is so crowded that the regulars don’t generally go up. “For some songs there are only five peo-ple up dancing. It’s when the hard songs start playing that the locals go up to dance,” Guth said. “[For] certain songs, everyone and their mother goes out and dances.” When talking about “country dancing” there’s another half to the equation in ad-dition to the dances: what country real-ly means. For Country Night participants such as Andrew Dasso, a graduate student at UC Davis in agricultural engineering, country is a way of life. “[Being country is] working hard and striving,” Dasso said. Country music has been with many of the attendees for their whole lives, so they can’t imagine anything different. For Galt resident Natalie Gray, country equals ranches and cowboys.
“I grew up listening to it,” Gray said. “My whole family’s very country.” Guth said she loves country music and finds it hilarious. “I appreciate the stories they tell. They’re not as repetitive as other kinds of music,” Guth said. To be fair, it isn’t just the dancing or the country lifestyle alone that keeps these people returning week after week. Many of the Country Night regulars said they have special ties with the community here, and it’s that community that really keeps them coming back. “You’ll be friends with everyone by the end of the night. The community is so hap-py,” said Mike Rockport, who graduated from UC Davis in 2006. And by saying that it keeps them com-ing back, that’s not just every once in a blue moon. The regulars at The Grad come al-most every week, sometimes more than once. “If I get off work on Mondays before 10 p.m., I’ll come by The Grad,” said Natalie Grace, who graduated from UC Davis in 2006. And despite their seemingly chilled-out nature, these country people can get a lit-tle wild sometimes, too. “A couple of years ago they had the me-chanical bull in the middle, that was some-thing pretty memorable,” Rockport said. “I went out there and I rode it.” And of course, like almost anywhere nowadays, people come to Country Night at The Grad looking for love. “If you want to find someone special, this is probably the best place to come,” Dasso said.
