Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Daily

Herald

THE BROWN

vol. cxlviii, no. 115

since 1891

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2013

Early decision applications hit record high Study

examines elderly population

The Office of Admission intends to notify applicants by the end of December

By MAGGIE LIVINGSTONE SENIOR STAFF WRITER

The Office of Admission received 3,086 early decision applications for the class of 2018, a record high and a 2 percent increase in applicants from last year’s early pool, said Dean of Admission Jim Miller ’73.

The University received 3,010 early applicants last year.

Minority students make up about one third of the applicant pool, a proportion consistent with last year’s figures, Miller said. Applications to the Program in » See APPS, page 3

The demographic of Americans aged 65 and over is expanding and diversifying

By CAROLYNN CONG CONTRIBUTING WRITER

SAM KASE / HERALD

The Office of Admission extended the Nov. 1 early decision deadline for applicants who experienced difficulties with the Common Application website. Herald file photo.

STEM concentrators find employment success Grads have been able to find jobs despite claims that inadequate positions are available

By GABRIELLE DEE SENIOR STAFF WRITER

As the national climate emphasizes putting more resources toward the disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, some critics have questioned the career opportunities for students in these fields after they graduate. But Brown students and faculty members said they did not notice a shortage of jobs in STEM fields.

Technology in particular continues to provide opportunities for students

aiming to join the industry.

The last few years have heralded an uptick of Brown students interested in tech jobs, because of the “excitement, energy and money being put into tech right now,” said Andrew Simmons, CareerLAB director.

Though a recent article from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers argues the estimated 227,000 STEM jobs that open up every year are not enough to accommodate demand, faculty members and administrators in fields such as computer science and engineering said most students have not faced significant difficulty in finding employment.

“I think for the vast majority of our students, they have not had a particularly tough time getting jobs,” said Tom Doeppner, associate research

professor and vice chair of the computer science department, adding that students receive multiple offers each year.

Doeppner said the University is widely regarded as one of the top computer science schools in the country and is one of only 17 schools in the country that Facebook recruits from, he said.

“There is still a shortage of people with technical qualifications for the number of jobs in the broad computer industry,” he added. Doeppner said financial companies also place high value on students with technical skills.

“Different branches of engineering have different needs for young engineers,” said Lawrence Larson, dean of the School of Engineering.

“All of our students have had really

good luck getting great jobs when they graduated.”

Larson said during his time at Brown, job prospects for engineers and students in STEM fields have steadily improved, reflecting growth in the country’s economy.

Though physics has never “had the incredible highs of engineering and computer science,” graduates have found jobs in academia, finance, startups and education that all made use of physics, said Professor of Physics Robert Pelcovits.

Pelcovits said employers value physics concentrators’ ability to “analyze and model complex systems,” he said. The only concentrator now involved in a totally unrelated field is a student who plays for the Canadian » See STEM, page 3

Shifting dynamics of the United States’ elderly population include increased racial and economic diversity and a more prominent role of grandparents in their families’ lives as adult children rely more on their mothers and fathers for support, according to a recent study published Nov. 6.

The report, “Diversity in Old Age: The Elderly in Changing Economic and Family Contexts,” was written by Judith Seltzer and Jenjira Yahirun and sponsored by the Russell Sage Foundation’s U.S. 2010: America after the First Decade of the New Century, a project headed by Professor of Sociology John Logan.

The Russell Sage Foundation funds research on shifting trends in American society at the start of each decade around the same time the United States releases the census, Logan said.

“I thought the particular topic of aging would be very important,” because it addresses the family, a central part of American life, Logan said. » See ELDERLY, page 2

SCIENCE & RESEARCH

CS department purchases robot, plans to program for human assistance

By WING SZE HO CONTRIBUTING WRITER

By Thanksgiving of 2014, students in the computer science department may be preparing traditional desserts alongside Baxter, a new two-armed robot the department acquired Nov. 5 that may be able to assist with pie-baking.

Assistant Professor of Computer Science Stefanie Tellex and Associate Professor of Computer Science Chad Jenkins decided to purchase the robot

SCIENCE & RESEARCH

BRITTANY COMUNALE / HERALD

inside

Baxter costs 20 times less than the last robot purchased by the computer science department, said Stephen Brawner GS.

with $30,000 from the University’s research fund, Tellex said.

Tellex said the new robot, Baxter, is more flexible than PR2, a robot the computer science department purchased in 2011. It is equipped with movable joints resembling those of humans, making it suitable for tasks such as cutting and assembling. The design makes the robot “really safe to be around humans,” Tellex said.

A Boston-based company, Rethink Robotics, created the Baxter robot for industrial use in small factories, Tellex said, adding that “it may bring outsourced jobs back to the country.”

Stephen Brawner GS, a PhD student working with the robot said the large-scale production of Baxter for factories has significantly lowered its price — Baxter costs 20 times less than its predecessor, PR2.

Find the light

Sweet dreams

Anti-Rape Wear

Researchers seek solution for non-24-hour sleeping schedules of the blind

Study finds sleeping improves visual learning performance

Isman ’15 condemns “AntiRape Wear” for shifting blame away from assailants

SCIENCE & RESEARCH, 4

SCIENCE & RESEARCH, 5

COMMENTARY, 7

weather

Researchers ultimately hope to teach the robot, Baxter, how to help with basic household tasks

The robot is equipped with 3-D cameras and video cameras that enable it to see a room’s environment.

The images it collects are then processed on an external computer which provides the computational power to analyze the data, Brawner said.

University researchers are currently testing different programs on the robot, including one enabling it to give people hugs. They ultimately hope to program the robot to assist with household tasks like food preparation and diaper changing, Tellex said.

Brawner and another PhD student, Nakul Gopalan GS, are using Baxter to research robotic learning.

“We teach robots to do things,” Brawner said. “The more a robot can do, the more useful it will be for the society.” » See ROBOT, page 2 t o d ay

tomorrow

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2 science & research » ELDERLY, from page 1

calendar TODAY

NOVEMBER 20

5:30 P.M.

TOMORROW

NOVEMBER 21

6 P.M.

Lecture by Ewen Bowie (Oxford)

Who’s the Fairest of Them All?

Rhode Island Hall, Room 108 7:30 P.M.

Granoff Center, Martinos Aud. 9 P.M.

The Wubappella Wubsgiving Show

Chinatown Screening

Wilson Hall, Room 102

Metcalf 101, Friedman Aud.

menu SHARPE REFECTORY

VERNEY-WOOLLEY

LUNCH Chicken Fingers, Spinach Pie Casserole, Lyonnaise Potatoes, Red Velvet Cupcakes

Pulled Pork Sandwich, Italian Meatballs with Sauce, Mediterranean Eggplant Sauce

DINNER Pork Teriyaki, Vegan Stir-Fried Noodles w/ Tofu, Korean Style Marinated Beef, Black Thai Rice

Black Bean Sweet Potato Ragout, Vegan Black Eyed Peas with Spinach, BBQ Navy Beans, Garlic Bread

sudoku

The proportion of Americans who are age 65 has tripled in size since 1900 and is expected to be one and a half times its current size by 2050, according to the study.

This trend is due in part to rising life expectancy, said Professor of Sociology Michael White, who was not involved in the study.

Old age is becoming a distinct life stage, and grandparents today have more opportunities to assume more meaningful roles in their grandchildren’s lives, according to the report.

“I can’t imagine not growing up with (my grandparents) around,” said Mikala Murad ’16, whose grandparents moved in with her, her mother and her sister when she was 3 years old. “It’s almost as if instead of being my grandparents, they are another set of parents,” she said.

Murad said that when her parents split up, she, her sister and her mother relocated with her grandparents into a bigger house.

“It was easier to pay for a house with more people there,” she said, adding that her grandparents wanted to be around to help out after her parents split.

Murad’s experience growing up with her grandparents mirrors a broader national trend.

Increasingly, the elderly are moving in with their adult children to combine family resources and save money, according to the study. This increase has

accompanied rising divorce rates and family instability during the past few decades.

As divorce rates continue to climb, there has been a lot of discussion about the alleged decline of the American family Logan said, but “my personal view is that in spite of all these challenges and changes, the family continues to be the core part of how people manage their lives.”

The study highlights wealth gaps along generation lines, White said, adding that the elderly segment of the population has gained financial stability compared to younger segments of the population.

Rising generational inequality can be attributed to the improving Social Security system and rising debt among the younger generation, according to the report.

Adult children today are increasingly dependent on their elderly parents, raising questions of whether the older generation will be able to bear the burden, Logan said. “My personal view is that, yes, they’ll carry the load because that’s what people do.”

But the report says adult children also assist their parents with physical and emotional care and, in some cases, financial support, when their parents become frailer with age.

Sophie Cohen ’16, who said her grandparents played a primary role in her upbringing, said her mother and her grandparents offer each other “different

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2013

kinds of support.” Her grandparents encouraged her mother to work hard, and supporting her grandparents financially is her mother’s way of giving back.

The report also highlights the shifting demographics of the elderly population.

“Rather than simply thinking of people over the age of 65 as being one homogeneous grouping,” White said, the study underscores the idea of diversity in old age and points out the variety of circumstances that people of different demographics face.

The study revealed a wide gap in social and economic welfare between the elderly who received a college degree and those who did not. It also highlighted the rising racial diversity of the elderly due to increased immigration from Latin American and Asian countries.

“Enough time has passed since the start of (the) big waves of immigration that many of the people who came as young adults are now grandparents,” Logan said.

Extensive assessment of these immigrant groups’ the socioeconomic status in old age has not been done before and is a “new element” this study brings to the field, he said.

The report was designed to paint a portrait of the elderly population in the United States, White said. “It does a very fine job of pointing out the issue of how we need to think about intergenerational relations.”

crossword

BRITTANY COMUNALE / HERALD

Baxter the robot has been mass-produced for small-scale industrial use, which “may bring outsourced jobs back to the country,” said Stephanie Tellex, assistant professor of computer science.

» ROBOT, from page 1 Brawner is focusing on configuring the robot to cook and bake, which includes helping teach the robot to respond to natural language with questions for clarification or suggestions.

“If you ask the robot for apples, flour, sugar and a baking dish, it should ask if you are making an apple pie. And if you say so, it should automatically bring you a rolling pin

for preparing the crust,” Tellex said, adding that one of the goals of the research is to teach the robot to “infer recipes.”

Gopalan researches how the robot can aid childcare, with a current focus on developing programs that will enable the the robot to help change babies’ diapers.

Brawner and Gopalan are still developing the mathematical programs that drive the robot.

“Getting a robot to perform tasks

reliably requires more effort than (one) would think initially,” Brawner said.

He and Gopalan expect to begin testing their complex programs on the robot over winter break.

Tellex said she hopes the group will be able to publish research results in six months.

Her goal is to make robots that are “useful to people,” she said. “In 20 years, there will be a robot in every home.”

university news 3

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2013

» STEM, from page 1 American baseball league, he added.

The STEM job search The University provides several opportunities for students in STEM fields to find jobs, Simmons said, citing career advisers, an alumni series for students in science, on-campus recruiting and the January CareerLAB fair.

Individual STEM departments also offer internal programs for students seeking jobs.

Margaret Baxter ’14, an electrical engineering concentrator, said she did not use the CareerLAB and instead searched for jobs through the engineering department. She said that in engineering, resumes and cover letters are less relevant than the practical interview process. Baxter said her classes left her feeling wellequipped for these interviews, adding that they taught her “more how to think.”

Baxter said because engineering is an industry with such high barriers to entry, it is not as difficult for qualified people

» APPS, from page 1 Liberal Medical Education increased by about 6 percent, with 409 applicants this year as opposed to 386 the previous year.

International early decision applicants comprise nearly 13 percent of the early decision pool, an increase of 25 applications over last year, with 409 international students applying early to the class of 2018, Miller said.

Applications to the Brown-Rhode Island School of Design Dual-Degree program rose 54 percent this year, at 77 applicants this cycle as compared to 50 last cycle, Miller said. But he said this increase is not significant, because the class of 2016 early cycle had 70 applicants to the program, so the “50 was more of an anomaly.”

The Office of Admission extended its Nov. 1 early decision deadline for

to acquire jobs in the field. She said she noticed many people incorporating the skills they learned in engineering to jobs in different fields.

“I feel like I’m very adequately prepared for different positions,” said Theresa Anderson GS, a graduate student in mathematics, adding that her academic adviser also helped her prepare for a job in academia.

Some students said they noticed a certain degree of sexism in the hiring processes for STEM field vocations.

“I had old white men interviewing me, and I kind of felt talked down to at times,” Baxter said.

But Anderson said she found a more supportive climate.

“I didn’t think too much about it,” she said.

Long-term employment STEM employees deal with “fastmoving, fluid sectors,” meaning people can shift jobs frequently, Simmons said.

“It’s important if you want to continue to grow as an individual.”

Anderson said she knew of many positions that could provide long-term STEM employment.

Though some students in STEM fields pursue graduate school, she added that “people get fed up with the academic track and leave and go into industry.”

She said the process of getting into grad school and acquiring an academic job is extremely competitive and consists of many rigorous steps, making it a less attractive long-term option for some students.

“Each step of the line you’re going to be judged,” she added.

Because of recent growth in the economy, grad school entry has dipped, while more students have found jobs after graduating, Simmons said. This does not account for gap years, and the range of data between years is not high, he added. “(My adviser told me to) keep doing what you love until you don’t want to anymore, and you’ll figure it out — you can’t think too far ahead in the future,” Anderson said.

applicants on a case-by-case basis due to glitches in the recently revamped Common Application website.

“There was a fair amount of difficulty with the Common Application at high schools and on our end,” Miller said.

“Ultimately, people were able to apply, and that’s good news.”

Applicants were most likely to indicate interest in life sciences, with about 27 percent identifying a life science as a potential concentration, Miller wrote in an email to The Herald. The social sciences followed closely behind, as nearly 26 percent of early applicants chose that category as an intended area of concentration.

The physical sciences, humanities and undecided rounded out the choices for intended field of study, claiming 22, 18 and 7 percent of early applicants, respectively.

Yale and Penn each reported a record high number of early applicants, with 4,768 and 5,133, respectively, though Yale offers a nonbinding single-choice early action program instead of early decision.

Dartmouth also saw an increase in early applicants from this year to last, with 1,678 applicants or a 6.7 increase.

Princeton, which also offers single-choice early action, reported 3,831 applicants, but admission officers at the school indicated to the Daily Princetonian that this number could change due to late applications.

Cornell, Columbia and Harvard have yet to release their early application figures.

Brown’s Admission Office hopes to notify early decision applicants of their admission status by mid-December, though the exact date is not yet confirmed, Miller said.

DAVID DECKEY / HERALD

Though some national reports have suggested a lack of STEM jobs, students and faculty members said they had not seen evidence of such a trend.

4 science & research

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2013

Scientist shines light on how vision affects sleep cycle The Harvard professor discussed how to help regulate the circadian rhythms of blind people

By ALEXANDRA SAALI CONTRIBUTING WRITER

When the sun set in the middle of Harvard Associate Professor of Medicine Steven Lockley’s lecture, Lockley’s computer darkened as a program called f.lux automatically disabled his computer’s blue light. Blue light has been shown to stimulate cognitive brain activity even in visually blind individuals and should be eliminated before bed to facilitate sleep, Lockley said.

A group of 15 experts gathered Tuesday night to hear Lockley talk about advances in how scientists understand “the relative contributions and interactions of visual and nonvisual photoreceptors in mediating the physiological effects of light, and the role of light wavelength, timing, duration,” in a seminar organized by the Providence Sleep Research Interest Group, according to an email from Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior Mary Carskadon.

Humans have an internal clock — called a circadian rhythm — that measures light levels from the sun and programs important bodily functions, such as waking up from a night’s sleep.

“We need a daily, light-dark cycle to reset our clock,” Lockley said.

“Many people think still that (blind

people) have no rhythms.”

In reality, the clock works but fails to synchronize to a 24-hour rhythm.

In studies of totally blind individuals, 100 percent of test subjects experience non-24-hour cycles, according to Lockley’s slides. But researchers may be on the verge of a solution.

A team at Vanda Pharmaceuticals has presented the Food and Drug Administration with two successful clinical trials in which Tasimelteon, a melatonin receptor agonist, was used to correct the non-24-hour cycle.

“As a field, we need to start pushing hard the need for circadian phase assessments to diagnose circadian disorder,” Lockley said. He chastened the International Classification of Sleep Disorders for suggesting physicians take only seven days to diagnose a non-24-hour sleep-wake disorder, when it generally takes about a month to ascertain a diagnosis.

“You completely change your mind when you get more data,” Lockley said.

“With one month it is still not always possible to see if someone has a circadian disorder.”

Lockley also shined light on how phase angle, a measurement of how an individual’s sleep cycle is shifted from the 24-hour normal, can affect mood and performance. “Phase angle is what really drives these daytime symptoms and daytime function.”

A normally entrained individual wakes four hours after a neurological peak in the concentration of sulfate.

People whose cycles are “advanced do

go to sleep earlier and wake earlier in clock time, but wake later in their circadian phase,” Lockley said. “Advanced type are better in the morning, but fall off more rapidly because they wake at equivalent of noon.”

The “delayed” go to bed later and wake up later in clock time, but since they arise early in their circadian phase, their performance and mood tend to be significantly impaired.

Lockley also tackled what he called a prevalent misconception among his peers that significant exposure to light is necessary to have a biological effect.

“I don’t understand why. We all know it does,” Lockley said. Even the small amount of light visible “in the evening is pushing the teenagers (further),” keeping them up late into the night, Lockley said.

Lockley is doing “incredibly important work at a really basic level.

Bringing it into the applied realm is really important,” Carskadon said, citing the possiblity of manipulating the human response to light-dark cycles to help people stay awake and sleep soundly.

Lockley suggested in his lecture that “lighting design optimize visual and non-visual effects,” as with the f.lux program on his computer.

Looking at the number of practical applications already surfacing as a result of this research, it’s clear “there’s still a lot of work to be done in this area,” said Instructor in Psychiatry and Human Behavior Eliza Van Reen, who did postdoctoral work in Lockley’s lab.

COURTESY OF STEVEN LOCKLEY

Harvard Professor of Medicine Steven Lockley explained the mechanism for maintaining circadian rhythms in response to light stimuli.

www.browndailyherald.com

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2013

» RAINFOREST, from page 8 results are difficult to distinguish, Fisher said. She added that it is important to understand different effects of rainfall and temperature because they change independently.

“It was likely that soil moisture, not high heat directly, caused higher tree mortality during El Nino,” Silva wrote in an email to The Herald. He added that forests are more sensitive to drought than heat stress because the differences in elevation at La Selva are not large enough to have significant temperature differences.

In the future, the duo would like to see if their findings are specific to La Selva forest or if they apply to all rainforests.

“We need to be able to characterize how forests respond to drought much more generally and extensively,” Kellner said. “You hope you discovered something that is going to be general, but the more important thing you’re doing is getting an understanding.”

The tropical forest’s response to extreme weather conditions is important on a global scale because it influences atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, which can lead to global warming.

“Half of the anthropogenic carbon emissions are absorbed by the ocean and land. For the amount absorbed by land, half of that is in tropical forests,” Silva said.

“Think of forests as being gigantic reservoirs of carbon,” Kellner said.

When a tree dies, the carbon in its wood and leaves is “committed to the atmosphere,” he added.

The study “offers some information about where those carbon losses might be happening,” Silva

» SPECTRO, from page 8 so Earth and the moon come form the same origin,” he added.

Shimizu said he has found the machines very user-friendly.

“The hardest part is dissolving the rocks and purifying the elements without contamination,” he said. “Once we have the dissolved samples, the process after that is pretty simple.”

Shimizu said the University’s mass spectrometers incorporate the newest technology and require much less effort to analyze substances than older versions of the machine.

They also generate more accurate and precise data, Saal said.

Saal added that the machines have diverse uses. They can detect dangerous substances such as tiny traces of lead in paint or platinum group elements that produce defects

science & research 5 said. “The question we’re trying to better understand is what fraction of tropical forests worldwide are likely to experience drought impacts and therefore carbon losses to the atmosphere in the future.”

Prior to coming to Brown, Silva and Kellner were at the University of Maryland-College Park — Silva as a graduate student and Kellner as assistant professor of geographical sciences. The duo spent two years compiling their data and preparing their results for publication.

“I got lucky. I was a new student of (Kellner’s) and when I arrived at the university, he said ‘Hey, I’ve got some data, would you want to get your feet wet?’” Silva said.

“The paper would not exist without (Silva’s) work and intellectual contribution,” Kellner said.

Kellner and Silva relocated to Brown this summer to continue their work and studies, respectively.

At Brown, Kellner is now working on obtaining remote sensing equipment. By using drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles, for example, “you can learn things about the structure, composition and physiological status of forest representation,” Kellner said.

The technology can perform multiple functions from the sky, like measuring canopy height or detecting how much nitrogen is in a leaf, Silva said.

Though remote sensing cannot substitute walking around in a forest to collect data, it has greatly improved the researchers’ ability to interpret certain data, Kellner said.

He said he hopes to involve undergraduates and graduate students in remote sensing projects and obtain the necessary equipment by this summer.

Study finds effect of sleep on visual learning

in fetuses. The mass spectrometers can also examine archeological material and environmental samples that shed light on climate change and can be used for research in fields including chemistry, biochemistry and geochemistry, Saal said.

The mass spectrometer can be used to detect the source of lead poisoning by analyzing the isotope and tracing its origin, Shimizu said.

“We can pinpoint exactly what company is creating the pollution,” Saal said.

“For Brown it’s a great thing that a lot of other institutions are acknowledging us for allowing them to collect the data,” Shimizu said, adding that professors from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology visit campus to use the machines.

Saal said the machines are important for Brown as a whole, offering students accessible research opportunities at a “top-level capacity.”

T U R K E Y D AY T R E AT S

Researchers learned that participants’ performance on tasks increased after sleeping

By ALIZA REISNER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

As it turns out, falling asleep soon after studying might help you remember what you just read, according to findings that researchers in Professor of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences Takeo Wantanabe’s lab presented at the Society for Neuroscience conference in San Diego, CA last Sunday.

From their research, Associate Professor of CLPS Yuka Sasakiand PhD student Ji Won Bang GS discovered the particular kind of brain activity that occurs during some kinds of sleep, when people are consolidating learned information, according to a University press release.

To conduct their research, Sasaki and Bang had participants perform a visual learning task both before

and after sleeping, Bang said. During the task, participants had to locate a particular pattern in a group of lines, according to the press release. The pattern that each participant had to find was located in a different region of space that corresponded to a particular part of the visual cortex in the brain, according to the release.

The researchers found that after sleeping in the lab, participants’ performance on the task improved, Bang said.

During slow wave sleep, a large group of neurons are synchronized together, firing and going silent simultaneously, Bang said. This synchronization occurs at a specific frequency known as sigma waves. The researchers found greater wave power in trained regions of the visual cortex after sleep, Bang added. This increase in synchronization correlated with subjects performing better on the visual learning task, according to the release.

The study was conducted using magnetoencephalography, a technique that records brain waves as well as magnetic resonance imaging to achieve

quality spatial and temporal resolution, Bang said.

MEG not only measures brain wave activity but also localizes it to individual parts of the brain, Sasaki wrote in an email to The Herald.

Bang said she was interested in conducting this research, because she wanted to determine the reason why people get better at tasks after sleeping.

The goal of their work was to isolate “which neuronal oscillation is involved in the consolidation of visual perception learning,” she said.

Sasaki noted that the study enabled the researchers to link sleeping sigma wave oscillations to learning consolidation.

Their study was one of a small number chosen as a “hot topic” at the Society for Neuroscience conference, Bang said, adding that this means it was published in a booklet given to those in attendance.

The researchers said they hope investigating the underlying mechanisms of sleep will result in an improved understanding of visual learning.

comics Eric & Eliot | Willa Tracy

BRITTANY COMUNALE

Executive Chef Dave Chabot prepared a meal from leftovers in the demonstration, “Creative Ways to Utilize Your Turkey Leftovers,” at the Brown Faculty Club on Tuesday.

6 commentary

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2013

EDITORIAL

Compliance with ACA reforms right move for Rhode Island As controversy unfolds surrounding the rollout of the Affordable Care Act, Rhode Island has taken its own stand on implementing the law’s reforms: The state will not adopt a fix President Obama announced last week, which would allow consumers to keep insurance plans for a year that do not comply with the law. Rhode Island health care officials announced last Thursday that the state will opt out of the temporary extension. We support this move: The state’s decision to uphold the ACA’s compliance standards is the best way to minimize confusion while the state eases into the changes mandated by the federal health care reforms.

Though Obama’s option appears politically expedient — especially as complications with the online federal exchange and other factors sink his approval ratings — we believe this move threatens the sound policy of the ACA. By contrast, Rhode Island’s decision will ensure the simplest, most comfortable transition to the inevitable policies of the ACA. Rhode Island is not the only state to foresee this issue: So far, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Vermont and Washington have also decided to be non-compliant, demonstrating the broad appeal and acceptability of this option.

The state has already begun designing plans to meet with the standards of the ACA, and allowing individuals to maintain their discontinued health care policies will only add confusion to the transition.

Moreover, as the Providence Journal recently reported, the changes in health insurance that Rhode Island has experienced in the past year have already proved less dramatic than the experiences of other states. The state’s transition into the law has been gradual and relatively effective: Maintaining compliance with ACA standards allows the state to maintain this gradual transition.

And indeed, many experts have agreed that complying with the future changes, rather than reverting back to old policies, is the most effective and pain-free way to transition. As noted in an article in Tuesday’s Herald, simply delaying the law’s rollout does not necessarily solve problems, and it forces insurers to backtrack on plans they have already made.

The state’s decision to reject Obama’s proposed fix in favor of maintaining compliance to ACA standards is the best way to ensure the most stable, manageable long-term goals.

Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board: its editor, Rachel Occhiogrosso, and its members, Daniel Jeon, Hannah Loewentheil and Thomas Nath. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.

Q U O T E O F T H E D AY

“(My adviser told me) to keep doing what you love until you don’t want to anymore.” ­— Theresa Anderson, GS See STEM, page 1.

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2013

The broken mental health system SCOTT FREITAG opinions columnist

Mental health disorders remain one of the most widely stigmatized and misunderstood issues of our day.

At Brown, nearly one in five students suffers from anxiety or depression. Brown provides official support through Psychological Services and other community groups, but whether the University provides adequate support to the mentally ill is up for debate. And the same can be said for society at large.

A study conducted between 2001 and 2003 by the World Health Organization found that the United States has the highest prevalence of mental disorders in the world, with 26.4 percent of the population suffering from some form of mental illness. That number far exceeded the other 14 countries that participated, including Lebanon at 16.9 percent, Germany at 9.1 percent and Japan at 8.8 percent.

Though cultures vary — in terms

of employment structure, relationship norms, family values and other factors — some of the differences in prevalence of mental health disorders can only be explained by how individuals are diagnosed. The cultural differences in acceptance and the treatment infrastructure available prevent people from seeking treatment and doctors from diagnosing patients.

Whether the United States overor underdiagnoses remains ambiguous. But our failure to efficiently allocate funding toward treatment has led to a bloated psycho-pharmaceutical market. Drugs are an integral part of treating mental disorders. But the unprecedented rise in prescribing psychotropic drugs is largely due to the rising power of drug companies.

In the United States, antipsychotic drugs bring in almost $15 billion per year in revenue, making them the most lucrative of all classes of medicine. The pharmaceutical lobby spent more than any other lobby from 1998 to 2012, giving over $2.7 billion in donations. Through political contri-

butions, corporate control over the fective treatment is the one delivered. health care industry has moved the The marketing of psychiatric United States to become a nation drugs has led to a common percepbent on mass medication. tion that medication is the best apA study in the American Jour- proach to care. Often, patients believe nal of Psychiatry drugs are a substifound that the numtute for therapy, re“Designing a ber of Americans quiring less time mental health who participated in and less effort. But psychotherapy restudies on depressystem that mained constant and other menallocates treatment sion from 1998 to 2007. tal disorders have resources more But the proportion shown that a comof individuals prebination of psychoefficiently and scribed psychotrotherapy and mediovercomes barriers cine are most effecpic drugs increased from 44 percent to tive in the treatment associated with 57 percent during insurance coverage of patients. that time. In adIn order to imand differences in prove our national dition, the number of individuals perceived need is mental health, we who sought treatmust eliminate the essential.” ment through psystigma attached to chotherapy without psychological illprescription drugs decreased signifi- ness by continuing to increase awarecantly. ness. Designing a mental health sysMental health care is evolving as tem that allocates treatment resourcscience develops and awareness ex- es more efficiently and overcomes pands. But as more people seek care, it barriers associated with insurance is important to make sure the most ef- coverage and differences in perceived

need is essential.

Increasing government spending on program-based therapy, expanding mental health insurance and spreading awareness through a reformed health-education system can help reduce the deleterious effects of mental health problems. It is imperative that politicians increase funding for mental treatment clinics, while resisting the financial temptation of the pharmaceutical lobby.

Our duty as Brown students is to work toward creating a more inclusive, tolerant and healthy society.

About one in three students who visit Psychological Services at Brown have been referred by a friend. Increasing that number for those who need help — both here at Brown and outside of school — is the best way we can help the 26 percent of Americans and 20 percent of Brown students currently living with mental illness.

Scott Freitag ’14 specializes in economic issues and can be reached at scott_freitag@brown.edu.

Rape: It’s not about what you wear SAMANTHA ISMAN opinions columnist

Over 17 million American women have been sexual assaulted, and 73 percent of those assaults were committed by someone the assailed knew.

Yet AR Wear has started a campaign for shorts to protect women from rape when they are “going out on a blind date, taking an evening run, ‘clubbing,’ traveling in unfamiliar countries and any other activity that might make one anxious about the possibility of an assault.”

The garments work through a series of locks on the thighs and the waist that can only be unlocked through clocklike movement of different parts. Additionally, the material on the waist and the thighs as well as the area covering the genitals are tearproof and cutproof.

Good intentions aside, this product exhibits some fundamental flaws.

For starters, marketing clothing as an item meannt to prevent rape keeps focus on what the victim should or should not wear to avoid sexual assault. As an article in Think Progress notes, this apparel furthers the “fundamental premise upon which rape culture rests” — that the victim should have been more careful.

Most likely, the product will further women’s genitals, yet sexual assault increase the belief that it’s the vic- can also take place orally, whether tim’s responsibility to protect himself through verbal abuse or forced fellaor herself from possible abuse, rath- tio. Does that mean that in order to er than the rapist’s fault for attacking protect ourselves from rape, we also someone. need to walk around with locks on The producers market the shorts our mouths and ears? as empowering and giving women The garment is advertised as and girls “more power to control the “wearable protection for when things outcome.” Yet shorts cannot stop a go wrong,” transforming rape into person from attempting to harm an- something circumstantial, rather other — they do not work as a weap- than premeditated. Rape is not an on, and if someone is assaulting you, accident or something that “went the shorts might wrong.” It is a delibstop the intercourse erate attack on an“Rape is not but not the attack itother person — and an accident or self. that mentality is not But more than going to change besomething that that, such shorts someone is ‘went wrong.’ It’s a cause make women even wearing special unmore insecure about deliberate attack on derwear. their bodies and Though AR another person — safety. As AmanWear might make and that mentality assault more diffida Hess sarcastically writes in Slate, cult, if people go out is not going to “nothing makes a with the intention change because woman feel comto hurt another hufortable in her own someone is wearing man being, they will body like a constant special underwear.” achieve this. Maybe physical reminder the undergarments that she’s expected will decrease the to guard her genitals against poten- instances of rape, but they will not tial sexual assaults at all times.” protect people from being verbally The product spreads the myth harassed or beaten. The clothes we that sexual intercourse is the only ac- wear do not change other people’s tion that constitutes sexual assault. intentions, which is fundamentally The undergarment only protects what the producers of the line do not

seem to grasp. As Louise Pennington writes in the Huffington Post, “rapists rape because they choose to, not because they are confused.”

More than anything, AR Wear does not tackle the real problem of rape but attempts to cover it up — literally. A “modern day chastity belt,” as the Guardian’s Vicky Simister called it, does not make me feel like I am invincible and can evade rape.

It makes me feel like we are not comfortable, as a society, with really dealing with rape, so we try to appease it.

For starters, the source of the problem is not gendered, — men also suffer from sexual assault — but AR Wear only focuses on women. There is no “male model” in the company’s three-minute infomercial, and AR Wear does not even mention a plan to create this type of clothing for men.

Moreover, the real way to prevent rape is through education and justice. As long as we continuously lead victims of rape to believe the attack is their fault, rapists will continue to act. By removing blame from the perpetrator, society inevitably commends their actions. The stigma that surrounds being sexually assaulted means that not only do most rapes go unreported, but victims are left to suffer the emotional and physical trauma in silence.

There needs to be greater focus

on making people understand that they are not to blame for what others do to them. More than that, blame shouldn’t be placed on a victim’s actions or choice of clothing, but rather on understanding that assaulters act based on their own desires. The only one to blame for sexual assault is the rapist.

The creators of AR wear have the best intentions at heart. Granted, these shorts can be a useful tool to prevent rape, but they go as far as protecting a woman as pepper spray might — they might help delay it, but they do not eliminate the intent. The solution to rape should not only focus on the victim’s actions. It should aim to avert the occurrence of directed violence in general.

That’s why the biggest problem does not lie with the creators of this product or the product itself. The real issue is in the way we address rape — by blaming the victim and not fully understanding that rape is not random. Under these circumstances, AR Wear makes perfect sense. If society is serious about decreasing instances of sexual assault, what needs to change is not what we wear, but how we deal with it.

Sami Isman ’15 doesn’t think anyone should have to live in fear.

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daily herald science & research THE BROWN

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2013

SCIENCE & RESEARCH ROUNDUP

BY KATE NUSSENBAUM, SCIENCE & RESEARCH EDITOR

Prenatal cocaine exposure affects adolescent risk-taking Adolescents who grow up in adverse environments are likelier to “engage in risk-taking behaviors,” according to a new study published in the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics last week.

The study involved a multi-institution collaboration between researchers including Associate Professor of Pediatrics Linda Lagasse.

Researchers evaluated risk-taking behavior in close to 1,000 15-year-olds, including over 400 who were prenatally exposed to cocaine.

After controlling for other environmental factors, the researchers found that adolescents who experienced prenatal cocaine exposure were likelier to be arrested and to engage in “early onset sexual behavior” than those who did not.

COURTESY OF MIKE COHEA / BROWN UNIVERSITY

The plasma mass spectrometer can be used to ionize elements, creating charged particles that travel through an electric field. The spectrometers can also date rocks, trace their origins and identify their compositions.

U. acquires sole spectrometers in R.I. The two devices cost approximately $1.2 million and can be used by the public for a fee

By GABRIELLE DEE SENIOR STAFF WRITER

In a small room in the Geological Sciences building — where it is about 70 degrees Farenheight and 55 percent humidity — resides the University’s two plasma mass spectrometers. The larger of the contraptions measures the isotope, or the structure of an element, according to its atomic mass and the number of neutrons it contains, while the smaller one measures the concentration of elements in a material, said Alberto Saal, associate professor of

geological sciences.

The mass spectrometers originally cost around $1.2 million. Saal arranged for the University to match funds he raised from donors, finally succeeding in bringing the machines to campus last year. Though they underwent months of installation, they can now be used by the public for a fee.

Brown’s two spectrometers are the only ones in the state.

Both devices use plasma to ionize the elements, creating charged particles that travel through an electric field.

“You bring the elements to such a high temperature in the plasma that it’s easy to ionize,” Saal said.

The room also features a laser, which dissolves the material into

a solution before it can be passed through the machine, Saal said.

Kei Shimizu GS, a graduate student in the department of geological sciences, said he uses the machine to investigate the properties of rocks at the bottom of the ocean. The mass spectrometer can detect even elements that are present in very low concentrations as well as their isotopic compositions, he said.

The mass spectrometer is important to “understand what kind of different compositions there are in the mantle,” he added.

The mass spectrometers can be used to date rocks, as well as trace their origins, Saal said.

“Rocks from the moon have the same isotopes as those from Earth, » See SPECTRO, page 5

Study examines rainforest after El Nino The data on effects of unusual weather patterns could aid understanding of global warming

By MOLLY SCHULSON SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Findings from a study showing that the impacts of extreme drought conditions and high temperatures vary across a tropical rainforest’s landscape have implications for understanding global warming trends.

The findings of Carlos Silva GS and Jim Kellner, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, were published in the November issue of “Global Change Biology.”

Kellner and Silva, along with collaborators David Clark and Deborah Clark from the University of MissouriSt. Louis, were interested in how the forest responds to climate changes.

They were especially curious about “the increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,” Silva said.

For this study, they wanted to see how canopy height was affected by the 1997-8 El Nino — an anomalous series of weather conditions involving

high temperatures and low precipitation brought about by warm ocean currents.

The study “really emphasizes the benefits of long-term field observation,” said Rosie Fisher, a climate expert and project scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

“Long-term data is rare and this data is very powerful,” she added.

“It’s an example of responsiveness of a natural forest system to a natural drought.”

A field crew from the La Selva biological station forest reserve in Costa Rica spent 12 years, from 1999 to 2010, collecting data by individually measuring trees with poles and laser rangefinders from 18 different plots, Silva said. It was an arduous process for them, he added.

After receiving the data, “we were able to compare observed distribution of height every year to what the equilibrium would be,” Silva said. Equilibrium was defined as the expected heights of the canopy if El Nino had not occurred.

During the first three years of data collection, a higher proportion of trees were at a lower height than expected

at equilibrium.

“We’re quite confident that the departures that we observed in 1999 are a legacy of that extreme heat and low rainfall in 1998,” Silva said.

On hill slopes, for example, the number of trees over 15 meters declined by about 10 percent.

“One of the most interesting findings is that the impact of what’s considered a relatively severe drought was transient, at least in terms of its apparent duration.” Kellner said.

Though the canopy height recovered after a few years, this does not mean that the forest recovered in terms of mass, Kellner added.

Kellner and Silva also discovered that impacts from El Nino-type weather were not uniform across landscapes.

In low-lying areas where there was access to rain water reserves, trees showed no departure from equilibrium, Silva said.

“Trees die less when they have more water,” Fisher said. “The death was very concentrated in tall trees, the ones exposed to most sunlight.”

Their study focused on the effects of rainfall and temperature changes combined, two factors from which » See RAINFOREST, page 5

Head impacts more common among male hockey players Female hockey players are less likely to suffer head injuries than their male counterparts, according to research published last month in the Journal of Biomechanics. The research was led

by BJ Wilcox, a researcher in the department of Orthopedics at the Warren Alpert Medical School.

Wilcox and his team examined 99 collegiate hockey players over the course of three seasons, recording over 37,000 head impacts.

They found that male players experienced an average of 287 head impacts per season, compared to 170 for females.

They also found that players were likelier to experience impacts during games than during practices.

Understanding the conditions in which players are most likely to experience head impacts may inform strategies for reducing the frequency of their occurrence.

Such strategies “need to be sport and gender specific, with considerations for team and session type,” according to the study.

Renal stenting does not affect patient outcomes Professor of Medicine Lance Dworkin and Professor of Diagnositic Imaging Timothy Murphy led a national study on the effects of renal artery stenting, a process to open arteries that lead to the kidneys, according to a Lifespan press release.

They shared their results Monday at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association.

The study focused on people “who suffer from a narrowing of the arteries,” according to the release.

“The use of stenting to treat patients with renal artery stenosis is a treatment that clinicians have disagreed on for some time,” Dworkin said in the release.

Close to 1,000 patients across the world enrolled in the study — one group of participants received medical therapy and renalartery stenting and one group only received medical therapy.

The researchers tracked patients for seven years, finding no differences in the outcomes of patients between the groups.

“Stents do a good job in opening the arteries, but less invasive medical therapies, which have only gotten better over time, means that patients can often avoid more invasive stenting procedures,” Dworkin said in the release.