Wednesday, January 29, 2014

THE

BROWN DAILY HERALD vol. cxlix, no. 6

since 1891

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 29, 2014

Study finds Obama highlights opportunity, inequality in speech State of the Union outlines high sexting proposals to reduce income gap, expand access rates for ‘atto higher education risk’ teens

By KIKI BARNES

UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR

Over one-fifth of at-risk early adolescents have sexted in past six months, recent research indicates

By EMMA HARRIS CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Sexting — sending sexually explicit messages or pictures — has been proven “not uncommon” for at-risk early adolescents in a study published Jan. 6 by a team led by Christopher Houck, assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior.

The study found that 22 percent of seventh-grade participants who were identified as “at risk” by their Rhode Island public schools reported they had sexted in the past six months — 17 percent with messages and 5 percent with photos.

The study, titled “Sexting and Sexual Behavior in At-Risk Adolescents,” was conducted by researchers from the Bradley/Hasbro Children’s Research Center, Rhode Island Hospital and the Alpert Medical School and was funded by the National Institute of Health. It was published online in the journal Pediatrics.

SCIENCE & RESEARCH

DAVID BRAUN / HERALD

Students watch the State of the Union address in a screening hosted by the Brown Democrats in Wilson 102.

The president’s address focused on closing income inequality gaps and continuing the economic recovery.

China Initiative to foster Animal welfare complaint research, institutional ties filed against researchers Watson Institute’s new program to focus on issues including climate change, social justice

By KHIN SU STAFF WRITER

The Watson Institute for International Studies is developing a China Initiative over the coming year that aims to build on faculty research, provide opportunities for student fellowships and create long-term partnerships with Chinese institutions, administrators said.

After the University’s Year of China in the 2011-2012 academic year, the new China Initiative will channel the Year of China’s “energy and excitement” to introduce innovative programs that link the academic study of China to the solution of real-world problems, said Edward Steinfeld, the initiative’s director.

“It’s a continuation of our previous interest in China,” said Sonia Feigenbaum, associate provost for international affairs.

Though the initiative does not yet have a specific launch date, programs

are already taking shape through University-sponsored scholarship and research focusing on issues in China, including climate change, development and sustainability, social justice and public health, Steinfeld said. “The aim of the China Initiative is to scale up those activities substantially,” he added.

In the short term, organizers are working on building a two-year postdoctoral program open to a wide range of disciplines and meant to attract individuals in the early stages of their careers, Steinfeld said. The postdoctoral program opens up the opportunity “to get the best and the brightest” of Chinese scholars who would like to visit, he said, though he is unsure when this part of the initiative will launch.

The University is also developing a “visitors program” that will bring a different audience — practitioners focused on China-related issues, including social entrepreneurs, government officials, journalists, businesspeople and medical professionals — ­ to campus, Steinfeld said. These visitors will remain at the University from a few weeks to a few months, he said.

The initiative will also introduce a » See INITIATVE, page 4

Science & Research

Physicans’ organization alleges pigs were given excessive amounts of alcohol in experiment

By ANDREW JONES SENIOR STAFF WRITER

An animal welfare group has filed a claim with federal regulators alleging that a study examining alcohol’s effects on pigs led by an Alpert Medical School faculty member violated the Animal Welfare Act. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a nonprofit based in Washington that promotes alternatives to animal research, filed the complaint in December with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The group alleged that the study, conducted at Rhode Island Hospital, violated provisions of the Animal Welfare Act, multiple news outlets reported. The committee asked the USDA to investigate the study.

The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is currently reviewing the complaint to determine if researchers

SCIENCE & RESEARCH

Commentary

Animal welfare and rights in research pose issues at the University and peer institutions

Biologists have found humans’ most distant animal relative by extracting and analyzing DNA

Sindhu MD’17: Corporation should revisit October coal divestment decison

Delaney ’15: In face of tech advances, refocusing on interpersonal relationships

SCIENCE, 3

SCIENCE, 4

COMMENTARY, 7

COMMENTARY, 7

weather

inside

A rise in technology One of very few studies done on early adolescents in this field, it focused on students “identified by their schools as potentially having symptoms of emotional or behavioral difficulties,” Houck said.

Four hundred and eighteen students completed long surveys, in which four of the questions were yes or no questions pertaining to sexting. The researchers obtained the information privately to encourage honest answers, Houck said.

“The intersection of technology and sex and sexuality was of interest to us because there’s very little literature out there,” Houck said. Most sexting studies have focused on college and high school students, he added.

This study in particular looks at the connection between emotional competence, sexual behavior and sexting, Houck said. “We do a lot in adolescent sexual risk behavior in general, but we’ve never looked specifically at sexting and how it relates to sexual risk before.”

Sexting is a “marker” of sexual behavior in seventh-grade students, Houck said. Other markers include emotional and behavioral problems, therefore leading to the focus on at-risk students.

Since the study was conducted on youth who were identified as being at » See SEXTING, page 3

President Obama emphasized reducing income inequality and expanding opportunity, in part through increased access to higher education, in his sixth annual State of the Union address Tuesday night.

He also stressed job creation, the United States’ reduced military presence in the Middle East and his commitment to increasing funding for renewable energy sources and natural gas.

Obama declared that he will use as many presidential powers as possible to move his agenda along in 2014 should Congress not act quickly enough. “America does not stand still — and neither will I. So wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more American families, that’s what I’m going to do,” he said.

Early and higher education received major attention in Obama’s speech. The president focused on the need to improve the quality of education for pre-kindergarten students and access to college for all students. » See OBAMA, page 8

violated the Animal Welfare Act, said Tanya Espinosa, a public affairs specialist for APHIS. The USDA may then conduct an unannounced investigation of the research facilities, she said. If evidence of mistreatment is found, it could result in a range of punishments from a warning letter to license suspension or revocation, she added.

The committee’s complaint stated that the pigs in the study had reached the equivalent of “near lethal alcohol intoxication in humans.” The committee alleged that “the volume of alcohol is equivalent to an adult human consuming more than 20 shots of vodka per day,” according to the statement.

The experiment, led by Frank Sellke, professor of cardiothoracic surgery at the Med School, was published in the supplement to the journal Circulation Sept. 11, 2012. Researchers examined the effects of red wine and vodka on the cardiovascular system and sought to determine potential benefits of consuming moderate amounts of alcohol, according to the study.

“I think in the end, you have to ask yourself what we were possibly learning from baby piglets getting large quantities » See PIGS, page 2 t o d ay

tomorrow

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2 science & research

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 29, 2014

The allegations

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine filed a complaint against Rhode Island Hospital researchers for their treatment of pigs in a cardiovascular study involving alcohol. They identified three alleged violations of the Animal Welfare Act:

Violation 1: The pigs were given excessive amounts of alcohol, putting them near the equivalent level of lethal intoxication in humans.

Violation 2: The toxic levels of alcohol given to the pigs could have severe health consequences.

Violation 3: Thiopental, a sedative drug given to the pigs, cannot properly be injected intravenously into conscious pigs.

Source: Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine JILLIAN LANNEY / HERALD

» PIGS, from page 1 of alcohol,” said Kenneth Litwak, associate director of laboratory medicine for the committee.

But the study’s researchers pushed back against the committee’s allegations, denying that the pigs were mistreated.

No rules or regulations on ethical treatment of animal research subjects were broken during the conduction of the study, according to a statement released by Rhode Island Hospital on behalf of the study’s researchers. The pigs involved in the study — adolescents weighing an average of 50 pounds — “were either below the legal limit for human intoxication, or slightly above the legal limit,” according to the statement.

“It is important to note that pigs metabolize food and alcohol at a much faster rate than humans,” the release states.

“I think we performed the research in a very humane, logical and approved manner,” Sellke said. “There’s always a line that should not be crossed. I surely don’t think we crossed it in this case.”

In addition to filing the complaint, the committee conducted an advertisement campaign last month in Rhode Island protesting the experiments, Litwak said.

The ads encouraged passersby to contact the Rhode Island Department of Health and Human Services to request that the agency cut off funding for the research, Jeanne McVey, the committee’s media relations manager, wrote in an email to The Herald.

The ad campaign featured images accusing University researchers of “wasting federal funds on experiments giving alcohol to piglets,” the Providence Journal reported in December.

“We should be focusing on doing some real work with issues that are directly affecting Rhode Island right now, such as binge drinking,” McVey wrote.

Sellke said he thinks top funding groups and federal agencies involved with the research would agree that “this is an important question that cannot be answered in any other way, and animal research is important.”

- With additional reporting by Isobel Heck

COURTESY OF REBECCA BURWELL

Researchers at Brown use animals for experiments ranging from bat flight simulation to memory and cognitive processing in rats. Research subjects such as rats have to be euthanized in order to complete some studies examining brain function.

Across Ivies, animal research raises ethics questions

Faculty and students working with laboratory animals emphasize careful protocol

By RILEY DAVIS AND ELANA JAFFE SENIOR STAFF WRITER AND

salient due to a recent complaint filed against a Rhode Island Hospital study for alleged mistreatment of pigs. In the study, led by Frank Sellke, chief of cardiothoracic surgery at the Alpert Medical School, researchers examined alcohol’s effects on the porcine cardiovascular system.

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Many Brown researchers spend their days working with mice, bats and primates, a practice that many members of the community call a scientific necessity. But others say they find animal research morally ambiguous, an opinion that has become especially

Animal ethics across Ivies Violations in animal research protocol have been the subject of debate at Ivy League universities for many years.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine published a report in 2011 on Ivy League Animal Welfare Act violations, citing Penn as the most egregious offender, followed

by Princeton and Yale, which were tied for second.

Though the committee ranked Brown as the third-best Ivy League school, they cited the University for

35 violations of the Animal Welfare Act and noted, “Students used animals in surgical experiments not approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. Two had to be euthanized.”

The allegations were based on United States Department of Agriculture reports. Some Ivy League administrators found fault with the report’s analysis of these statistics because they did not account for the size of the research institution, the Yale Daily News reported at the time.

The report incited more volatile reactions among students at several universities. Students at Penn took to the streets with protest flags, criticizing their school for the mistreatment of animals that led to a puppy dying, the Daily Pennsylvanian reported at the time.

More recently, Harvard has come under scrutiny for its primate research

practices. Last September, researchers at the New England Primate Research Center were charged with violating the Animal Welfare Act multiple times over the last several years. Since 2010, at least nine mammals, inlcuding a goat and monkey, have died in Harvard research facilities as a direct result of protocol violations, according to the report. In December, Harvard was found guilty by the USDA of 11 violations of the Animal Welfare Act and fined $24,036, the Harvard Crimson reported at the time.

‘Protocol at all times’ Since 1966, the Animal Welfare Act has regulated the use of animals in research. It has been amended at various times, most recently in 2008.

Under this act, every institution that uses animals for scientific research must have an Institutional » See ANIMALS, page 3

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 29, 2014

» ANIMALS, from page 2 Animal Care and Uses Committee, which comprises researchers, nonscientists, a veterinarian and unaffiliated members of the community.

The committee follows national guidelines set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Institutes of Health, according to its website.

“Every animal that gets used for research at Brown has to be covered by a protocol at all times,” said Rebecca Burwell, chair of Brown’s Animal Care and Uses Committee and a professor of cognitive, linguistic and psychological sciences. “Before you touch an animal you have to have training and you have to have a protocol that spells out what you’re doing, how many animals you’re going to use, and exactly what you’re going to do with the animal.”

Burwell said the committee always asks, “Is the potential benefit of this research worth the use of these animals? Is the potential human good worth the use of these animals?”

“It’s a judgment call,” she said.

“And there are always gray areas.”

All Ivy League schools are also accredited and evaluated by the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care, an independent nonprofit organization that advocates “humane treatment of animals in science,” according to its website.

Rights and responsibilities Despite the recent complaint against Sellke’s procedures and the 2011 report by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, most students interviewed said they were unaware of any potential animal welfare violations at the University.

Benjamin Flakoll ’16 has had hands-on experience working with mice in a lab run by Ruth Colwill, associate professor of psychology. With Colwill, he worked on a memory experiment to see if mice could predict which cage they would be placed in based on pattern conditioning. Flakoll

science & research 3 said that he and everyone else in the laboratory had to undergo extensive training protocols before they were allowed to handle the animals.

“The mice were kept very well and had a very good quality of life, and we treated them very, very carefully,” he said.

Emily Longman ’15 worked in Professor of Biology James Simmons’ lab training bats for flight simulation studies. She said that teaching everyone in the lab the proper handling of the bats was the highest priority.

“There was a ridiculous amount of training. And the bats are in a very specific area of BioMed (that) has so many precautions to get in there, to keep them safe,” she said.

But Adam Horowitz ’16, the University’s People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals representative, wrote in a statement that researchers’ treatment of animals is “cruel.”

“Forcing baby pigs to consume a half bottle of wine or one fourth bottle of vodka every day for weeks and then intentionally giving them heart attacks is wrong and it would be illegal if it happened outside of the laboratory,” he wrote.

Burwell said the concept of animal research can be looked at from two different standpoints.

“I think of it as an animal welfare approach versus an animal rights approach,” Burwell said. From the animal welfare approach, “we as humans are responsible for animals,” she said.

“We are obligated to use them in the most humane way possible.”

The animal rights standpoint asserts that “animals have the same rights as humans do,” Burwell said.

From that perspective, “if you could save one hundred children by sacrificing a single rat then you wouldn’t do that, because that would be violating the animal’s rights,” she said.

Burwell added that she supports the animal welfare approach. “I can’t say that I don’t have moments of doubt. But pretty much I think yes, if I can do an experiment using 30 rats that will save a human child, I think it’s worth it.”

» SEXTING, from page 1 risk, “this may increase the number of youth who are reporting sexting, since it appears that teens who sext may be involved in multiple risk-taking behaviors, including, of course, engaging in sex and risky sex,” wrote Eric Rice, assistant professor at the University of Southern California and researcher in the field, in an email to The Herald.

The team’s hypothesis, based off of previous works, held true — “those who are engaged in sexting are more likely to engage in sexual behaviors,” Houck said.

This discovery “reinforces our finding that teen sexting is relatively common, even among younger adolescents,” wrote Jeff Temple, an associate professor and psychologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch who did postdoc research at Brown, in an email to The Herald.

While the hypothesis held true, Houck said the team was surprised to find that those sending picture messages were even more likely to be engaged in sexual activity than those sending text messages.

Ultimately, the findings of the study show that “the line between online and offline behaviors is becoming increasingly blurred,” Temple wrote.

Monitoring information Houck said he believes the information found can be widely used to combat risky sexual behaviors.

Houck urged parents to confront their children if they find sexually explicit messages or photographs on their devices. “Don’t just dismiss it as kids being kids, because we think of it as a marker of probably something more,” he said.

Parents should “perhaps use sexting as a means to introduce the topic of sex and safe sex,” Temple wrote.

It is important for parents to monitor information and communicate with their children, Houck said, adding that involvement is crucial to prevention.

Those found to sext were also found to have greater emotional problems, Houck said.

Sexting can be used as a tool to “get around those awkward social moments,” he said. “This study would say that those who sexted feel less competent in terms of their emotions.”

Some argue mobile phone technology is no more sexually risky than passing notes like kids have been doing for years, Houck said, but there are two large differences.

First, everything is faster with technology, he said. “The whole process that used to take a couple days now can happen in a few minutes.”

Second, the digital nature of the messages makes them easier to share with others by forwarding, making the risks associated with sexting much more serious, he said.

A ‘bigger target’ This study is part of a much greater

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initiative, Houck said. The surveys the students took included many other questions relating to other aspects of sexual behavior, and the data for this specific study came from one of many surveys taken in the greater project.

As a whole, the study looks to find an effective method to “prevent sexual risk behaviors,” Houck said. The participants take the baseline survey, which the sexting results came from, then complete one of two programs. They continue to take the survey every six months to see which program proves more effective, he added.

Originally proposed in 2008 and starting in 2009, this five-year project is only now beginning to wrap up, with the participants now in high school, Houck said.

Ultimately there is a “bigger target” to the project, Houck said. “If we can keep early adolescents from having sex, then we have a better chance of reducing some of the negative outcomes that could happen from sexual behavior, like STDs, early pregnancy, that kind of thing,” he added.

As of now, it is unclear whether sexting leads to sexual behavior or whether sexual behavior leads to sexting, Houck said. “With the larger study, hopefully we’ll be able to look longitudinally and see a pattern as to which comes first,” he said.

The data from the complete two-anda-half-year time period will be used to “see the trajectory of these two behaviors and how they go together,” Houck said.

4 science & research

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 29, 2014

SCIENCE & RESEARCH ROUNDUP

BY ISOBEL HECK AND SARAH PERELMAN SCIENCE & RESEARCH EDITORS

Rhode Island doctor Milton Hamolsky dies at 92

COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Sponges are more directly related to humans than the comb jellyfish is. But, unlike the sponge, the comb jelly possesses its own nervous system, according to research by Assistant Professor of Biology Casey Dunn.

Humans’ most distant animal relative found Brown researchers distinguish DNA of the comb jellyfish as most distinct from humans’

By JASON NADBOY STAFF WRITER

The comb jelly — a shapeless, squishy blob that reflects the colors around it — may be our most distant animal relative, according to a study conducted by an international team of researchers that included Assistant Professor of Biology Casey Dunn. The study was published last month in the journal Science.

The study suggests the ctenophora, or comb jelly, is the animal most evolutionarily different from humans, rather than the sponge, which was previously thought to hold this title. Dunn said comb jellies “are like a distant cousin.”

Dunn and his team determined this relationship by extracting and analyzing the DNA from comb jellies and other animals, he said.

Though the comb jelly’s DNA is less similar to human DNA than that of

sponges is, comb jellies have nervous systems, unlike sponges.

Dunn’s team discovered that comb jellies are missing many genes necessary to produce nervous systems, but interestingly still have them, he said.

“One way to explain this is that the nervous system evolved independently,” said Samuel Church ’15, who conducts research in the Dunn Lab. “It was thought that (nervous systems) were so complex and could only evolve once,” Dunn said, but this research could show otherwise.

Sponges, which are now known to be more closely related to humans than comb jellies are, don’t have nervous systems, he said. There are two ways to account for this — it is possible that the comb jelly independently evolved a nervous system, but it is also possible that sponges lost their nervous systems over the course of evolution.

One way to resolve this ambiguity would be to see if sponges contain genes associated with developing a nervous system that is present in animals with nervous systems, Church said. “If these are found in sponges then we might think they once had

the machinery for a nervous system, but they’re not making a nervous system now.”

This sort of research can be difficult “because it has been more than 550 million years ... since these splits happened,” Church added.

Dunn and his team are continuing their studies by doing more detailed analyses of the genomic data, Dunn said.

“We are also very interested in finding life on other planets to find out how nervous systems can form,” Dunn said.

“My lab is very interested in answering the big questions.”

Church has been a member of Dunn’s lab since he was a first-year, and this past summer he did research in Norway with the lead author of the comb jelly study, Church said.

“I love the idea of figuring out the history of life on earth, the history of animals,” Church said. “And it’s really fun now that things like sequencing DNA (are) pretty inexpensive. It is really exciting to see these sorts of open questions get resolved. We get a lot of new answers as to how the world is organized.”

» INITIATIVE, from page 1 student fellows program that will ensure undergraduates have an opportunity to work alongside scholars at the University who are involved in research on China, Steinfeld said. The fellows and visitor programs are expected to begin this fall, he added.

Undergraduates will also have the chance to participate in student-initiated conferences and seminars, such as the first Brown-China forum in April, which will focus on contemporary China, Steinfeld said.

In the long run, initiative organizers hope to strengthen partnerships with China-based organizations and encourage more students to undertake internships in China, Steinfeld said. The initiative aims to have both an academic and physical footprint in China, with the potential of establishing University buildings in China for research projects, he added. “I hope we have so many programs going on in China that we’ll need some kind of a formal presence there.”

RYAN WALSH / HERALD

The Watson Institute for International Studies’ China Initiative will allow undergraduates to participate in seminars and internships tied to China.

Administrators’ inspiration for the initiative came partly from the University’s Brown-India Initiative, which has funded new faculty positions and hosted events and conferences on issues related to India. “I think there are ways that these regional initiatives can be built such that they end up entering synergies with each other and crosspollinating,” Steinfeld said.

The initiative goes hand in hand with ongoing efforts to refocus the activities of the Watson Institute, but will also involve faculty members in the humanities, the sciences and engineering, Feigenbaum said. “It’s going to be encompassing of the entire Brown community and beyond,” she said.

“I think this initiative is going to be around for a long time,” Steinfeld said.

Professor Emeritus of Medical Science Milton Hamolsky died Jan. 18 after a lifetime of accomplishment in the medical field.

Hamolsky played a role in creating the Alpert Medical School, the Providence Journal reported.

After arriving in Providence in the 1960s, Hamolsky became Rhode Island Hospital’s first full-time physician-in-chief of medicine. He received a multitude of awards for his research and work as a physician during his lifetime, according to the Journal.

In 1959, Hamolsky discovered the T3 uptake test, which is still used today to measure thyroid hormone levels, according to a University press release.

Last September, Hamolsky was awarded the annual Human Dignity Award by the Home and Hospice Care of Rhode Island, according to the Journal.

In addition to being a physician, Hamolsky was also a teacher.

He “loved his students,” his daughter Deborah Hamolsky told the Journal, noting that a “plethora of young people” came to the hospital while Hamolsky was sick to “express gratitude” for what he had taught them.

Outside of the academic world, Hamolsky’s children remember him as a loving father and dedicated grandfather, his son David Hamolsky told the Journal.

Leaf greenness in photos does not indicate maximum chlorophyll levels While leaves may appear to be at their peak greenness in photographs, they are not necessarily at their peak chlorophyll levels, according to a study conducted by researchers from Brown and the Marine Biological Laboratory published online in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences this month.

Recently, scientists have turned to photography to track changes in leaf color from spring to fall. This method has been implemented to monitor changes in the onset times of leaf budding in the spring and leaf falling in autumn, since changes in leaf cycles may be due to climate change, according to the release.

The study aimed to determine whether the images captured in these photographs can also provide information about the inner workings of the plants, said lead author Xi Lang GS in the press release.

After analyzing the colors of the leaves in the photographs and the times of low and high chlorophyll levels in the plants, the researchers found that peak greenness in photographs does not correlate with peak chlorophyll levels, though the maximum redness captured in photographs does correlate with the peak of red pigments in the leaves, according to the press release.

This research is “really exciting” because of its implications for monitoring the effects of climate change across the globe, Professor of Geological Sciences Jack Mustard PhD’90 said in the press release.

Correlation discovered between intimate partner violence and HIV Women in relationships with intimate partner violence are found to have a higher risk of contracting HIV, according to a study published online in the journal Women and Health.

“Our findings suggest that women involved in violent relationships fear that their partner might respond with violence if asked to use a condom, which in turn leads to less condom use for these women,” said Theresa Senn, author of the study and associate professor of psychiatry and human behavior, in a Lifespan press release.

Researchers recruited participants at a public clinic in New York that treats patients with sexually transmitted infections, according to the study. The researchers administered a computerized survey about intimate relationships, risky sexual behavior and other related information.

Senn said simply teaching these women the importance of condoms is unlikely to be enough.

“Women in violent relationships may need additional counseling about healthy relationships, and assistance developing a safety plan. Further, we may need to develop interventions for couples or for men who are violent,” she said in the release.

today 5

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 29, 2014

l e a n i n g t o w e r o f p i z z a p l at e s

menu SHARPE REFECTORY

VERNEY-WOOLLEY

LUNCH Linguica Sandwich, Honey Mustard Chicken Sandwich, Black Bean and Spinach Soft Taco, Apple Pie

Italian Meatballs with Sauce, Mediterranean Eggplant Saute, Vegan Great Northern Bean Casserole

DINNER Meat Tortellini, Sunny Sprouts, Grilled Caesar Chicken, Vegetable Pasta Medley, Red Flannel Hash

Parmesan Baked Chicken, Vegan Paella, Wild Rice Risotto, Roasted Baby Carrots and Red Onions

sudoku

RELEASE DATE– Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle c rNorris o s sandwJoyce o rNichols d Lewis Edited by Rich

ACROSS 1 Fly-by-nighter?

4 Hartford market checker’s action?

10 To be, to Brutus 14 Pod resident 15 La Quinta rival 16 Mocked, in a way 17 Boise jewelry?

19 Radius neighbor 20 Huffington Post piece 21 Catches on, with “up” 23 Helen Reddy’s “__ Woman” 24 Signs of approval 26 Seek, as a fugitive 28 Like Mont Blanc 31 Harrisburg loudspeaker network?

35 China’s Chou En-__ 36 “My Fair Lady” composer 38 Piddling 39 Best of Hollywood 41 Jackson hair styles?

42 Pull an all-nighter, perhaps 43 “The Ides of March” actor Gosling 44 Grind to __ 45 Environmental prefix 46 Tulsa bull pen?

48 Lyric poems 51 New Rochelle campus 52 Agenda unit 53 Every little bit 54 Like Richard Burton, by birth 58 First name on a 1945 bomber 62 Commotion 64 Richmond medical center?

66 Start from scratch 67 Pass by 68 Spleen 69 Evangelist Roberts 70 Baton Rouge equipment?

71 Doo-wop horn DOWN 1 Mayberry kid 2 Unites

3 Physical exam tests 4 Coloring stick 5 “Tic __ Dough”: old TV game show 6 Small diving ducks 7 City SW of Bogot· 8 Lemony drinks 9 Cager Archibald 10 Evian water 11 Broke into small, sharp pieces 12 Contest for a seat 13 Cheese in a red coat 18 Delhi royal 22 Hardly outgoing 25 Beach town NW of San Diego 27 “Semper Fi” org.

28 Last Olds model 29 Playboy 30 Rum-andcoconut drink 31 Organ part 32 Illegally off base, briefly 33 Six-line sonnet section 34 Bulletin board postings

37 Workplace protection agcy.

40 Like most Internet trolls: Abbr.

47 Unpolished 49 Eye 50 Upscale hotel chain 52 “Fingers crossed” 53 Curly hairdo 55 Stunt legend Knievel

56 Singer’s syllables 57 Chase, as flies 59 Elevator man 60 “60 Minutes” correspondent Logan 61 “Jeopardy!” fixture, to contestants 63 Capitol Hill fig.

65 Fed. benefits agency

EMILY WOOLDRIDGE / HERALD

Waste piles high in Andrews Commons. The new campus eatery and study space has seen heavy traffic in its first days since opening at the beginning of this semester.

comics Eric & Eliot | Willa Tracy

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

xwordeditor@aol.com

01/29/14

Culture Shock | Chloe Hequet

calendar TODAY

JANUARY 29

12:00 P.M. LINGLANGLUNCH: THOUGHT INTERACTIONS IN DEVELOPMENT

By C.C. Burnikel (c)2014 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

01/29/14

Professor of Psychology Anna Shusterman of Wesleyan University discusses her research regarding the relationship between language and thought during human child development. Metcalf 305 6:30 P.M. WOMEN: WIRED TO INVEST

q u o t e o f t h e d ay

“Is the potential human good worth the use of these animals?”

— Rebecca Burwell, chair of Brown’s Animal Care

and Uses Committee

See animals on page 2.

Jaylene Howard, consulting director of U.S. private client services at Russell Investments, will discuss women’s changing role in the financial world and will share strategies on achieving financial security. Kassar House, Foxboro Auditorium

TOMORROW

JANUARY 30

4:30 P.M. 17TH ANNUAL MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. LECTURE

Pulitzer Prize-winning auther Taylor Branch, whose writing focuses on the civil rights era, will deliver the annual address followed by a book-signing event. Salomon 101

7:00 P.M. HOW DO WE KNOW THE UNIVERSE IS ACCELERATING, AND WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Science Underground presents Associate Professor of Physics Ian Dell’Antonio’s discussion of dark energy’s discovery and its effects on the evolution of the universe. English Cellar Alehouse, 165 Angell St.

6 commentary

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 29, 2014

EDITORIAL

Brown mental health services need improvement Mental illness is a very real issue affecting university students. Collegeaged young adults are at a period of personal growth and discovery as well as academic, social and extracurricular stress, which effectively creates a perfect storm of risk factors. These statistics give some idea of the big picture: One in four 18- to 24-year-old students have a diagnosable mental illness, and more than 10 percent of college students reported being treated for depression within the past year in a 2012 American College Health Association survey.

What is worse, mental illness is simultaneously one of the most stigmatized and least discussed issues affecting students on college campuses around the country. Many students around the country report feeling tremendous pressure not to disclose their mental health information because of the stigma they fear is associated with it. In addition, students at many universities feel that their schools are either incapable of or insufficient in dealing with mental illness; a recent Yale Daily News article reported that some students asked to leave the school for mental health-related issues were not even seen by the psychiatrist in charge of making the decision.

Brown’s Psychological Services, too, has come under criticism from the student body. Two noteworthy articles — one an open letter to the Brown community from Okezie Nwoka ’13, the other in post- Magazine — expressed the belief that Brown’s mental health infrastructure is lacking in the way it addresses students’ problems. So the question remains a major issue for both this school and the wider abstract of college campuses: What can and should be done in terms of mental health support?

One idea that Brown should seek to implement is a peer counseling program. Many other colleges have this system, which gives students an avenue to talk to other students with whom they may be better able to identify. Student counselors are trained to talk to students and serve as advocates for mental health throughout campus. Sherri Nelson, the new director of Psychogical Services, stated her desire to increase mental illness outreach on campus following her appointment in September. This has failed to fully materialize as of yet, but a peer counseling program would be a step toward achieving these goals.

Such a program would also work toward greater on-campus discussion of mental illness and would likely make students more comfortable with discourse relating to this issue. What’s more, the concept is certainly not foreign to Brown. Peer counseling is not unlike the Meiklejohn system, in which students advise others and serve as resources for any first-year. A peer counseling system would merely extend the system to mental health, allowing for greater campus-wide psychological support.

By implementing a peer counseling program, Brown would at once be working toward removing the stigma of mental illness on campus and be providing a greater resource for those students who are affected by mental health issues. It would be a step in the direction that Nelson said she wants to guide the department. Students need to be brought into the discussion around mental illness on campus; only then will the stigma around mental illness begin to dissolve.

I VA N A L C A N TA R A

CORRECTION An article in Tuesday’s Herald (“Campus blog showcases student fashion scene,” Jan. 28) misidentified the school Chloe Karayiannis attends. She is a student at the Rhode Island School of Design, not Brown. The article also misspelled her name. The Herald regrets the errors.

Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board: its editors, Matt Brundage ’15 and Rachel Occhiogrosso ’14, and its members, Hannah Loewentheil ’14 and Thomas Nath ’16. Send comments to editorials@ browndailyherald.com.

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commentary 7

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 29, 2014

Bright and sunny, with a chance of disaster KUNAL SINDHU opinions columnist

A few weeks ago, a draft of the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, was leaked. Like its predecessors, the leaked report proved to be a cautious, dry document. But the report’s conclusions are worth sharing, if only because its authors were able to paint a dismal portrait of humanity’s future on this planet.

After having updated its assessment in 2013 by remarking that “it is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century,” the IPCC has now pointed out that we are on the cusp of disaster. By 2030, at current emission rates, we will exceed the upper limit for the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide agreed upon by the majority of the world’s nations. While clean technologies are spreading, any progress being made is countered by the increased use of fossil fuels by developing nations and the decreased use of nuclear power across the world.

Worst of all, within 16 years, all our existing technologies will be unable to fix the problem. In other words, we’re screwed.

Can anything be done? Outside of the Environmental Protec-

tion Agency, the U.S. government has proved that it has little appetite for this fight. But as maddening as that is, the United States is not the only place responsible for this mess.

With Africa, China and India still early in the industrialization process and the world population slated to increase by as much as 3 billion by 2050, things can only get worse.

Unfortunately, as the IPCC seems to be hinting, our only real hope is a major technological breakthrough.

But if our best answer to this prob-

too great to ignore. Doing nothing, which has conveniently served humanity for the last 250 years, now puts our species at risk of self-destruction.

Only a small sliver of the University’s endowment is invested in coal — about 0.1 percent, as The Herald reported in November. Given that small amount, could divesting from coal companies actually have an impact? Absolutely. History has proven that symbolic acts of divestment can have a profound effect on shap-

versity. Such an announcement would undoubtedly bring favorable publicity, enhance the University’s credibility with students and job applicants and assist with fundraising efforts. Additionally, by basing its actions on the work of the IPCC, generally regarded as the world’s foremost authority on climate change, Brown would stay true to its central mission of “communicating knowledge,” as Paxson outlined in the October announcement of the Corporation’s decision. Why

The Corporation’s unilateral exercise of power to support an antiquated form of energy that promises to destroy our environment was not only ethically unconscionable, but also incredibly selfish. lem is to hope for the best, maybe we really are in trouble.

In light of this impending disaster, I’d like to revisit the Corporation’s recent decision not to divest from major coal companies. As a crude form of energy, coal is responsible for 43.1 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions. It is also true, as President Christina Paxson and others have pointed out, that coal is a major global commodity that supports many communities economically. Thus, eliminating coal from the marketplace would undoubtedly cause some short-term pain. But, as the IPCC report makes clear, the cost of inaction is now

ing society’s views. As a well-reputed Ivy League university whose actions are closely monitored by many across the globe, Brown has a valuable opportunity to not only become a leader on the most pressing issue of our time, but also act as a role model for others considering similar routes of action. While there is no guarantee that such an approach would succeed, the Corporation owes it to posterity to try.

As the IPCC report points out, we have few other clear paths forward to combat this problem.

Aside from the clear ethical case to be made, divestment would have clear financial benefits for the Uni-

would the Corporation want to pass on that opportunity?

Moreover, the Corporation’s decision perplexingly ignores the coal industry’s weak underlying fundamentals. Simply put, coal is a terrible investment. With a plethora of novel EPA regulations forthcoming and increasing competition from the more efficient, cleaner fuels mentioned in the IPCC report, coal companies can expect smaller profits and slower growth in the future, ultimately leading to less money in the hands of their investors. Onetenth of a percent may represent only a tiny slice of the University’s portfolio, but surely it could be in-

vested in industries that offer higher returns.

The most stunning aspect of the Corporation’s decision, however, was that it showed an abject disregard for us as students. Not too many of the Corporation’s members will be around to manage the superstorms, rising oceans and devastating ecological damage outlined by the IPCC. But we will. And as members of the first generation in human history forced to inherit a scarred planet, we deserve a say in the divestment debate. The Corporation’s unilateral exercise of power to support an antiquated form of energy that promises to destroy our environment was not only ethically unconscionable, but also incredibly selfish.

In light of the leaked IPCC report, I am calling on the Corporation to reconsider its stance on divestment. With catastrophe on the horizon, now is the perfect opportunity to step up and act as an agent of change in an otherwise frightful time. It’s time to listen to the students, the scientists and the investment professionals. It’s time to demonstrate that the Corporation values our opinions and understands the scale of the problem outlined by the IPCC. It’s time to rectify past mistakes. It’s time to divest from coal.

Kunal Sindhu MD’17 can be contacted at kunal_sindhu@brown.edu.

How engaged are we?

DANIEL DELANEY opinions columnist

As I sat in the airport waiting for my flight back to Providence last week, the terminal was filled with college students heading back to school.

A few were reading books and a few were napping, but the vast majority was looking at their iPhones or iPads. Not a single one of them was talking to someone sitting in the next seat. I was taken aback. And yet, that image seemed all too familiar.

Big things happened in technology during the last decade. Chief among them was that the world went from being connected to being hyperconnected. The world is quite literally at our fingertips. Ten years ago it would have been unheard of to video chat friends from your phone or text people in other countries. Now it’s second nature.

But as we continue to make computers smaller and communication more accessible, we have been unable to help ourselves from excessively indulging in the social media and real-time connectivity around us. I guarantee this is something you notice every day. Can you remember a time when you were so buried in a Buzzfeed article that you almost walked into oncoming traffic, or a time you missed a story a friend told you because you were reading a text message? When we’re less engaged in the world around us, we have a greater propensity to lose out on what’s going on in our lives. We fail to

notice the little things, to take advantage of opportunities at hand, and to develop meaningful relationships with people around us.

Our failure to make meaningful human relationships is the most unfortunate consequence of our recent dependence on technology, and also the one that will perhaps be most difficult to rectify. In a 2011 New York Times opinion piece titled “You Love Your iPhone.

Literally,” author Martin Lindstrom wrote about an experiment he conducted to find out whether iPhones were truly addictive.

as they would respond to the presence or proximity of a girlfriend, boyfriend or family member.”

Lindstrom’s experiment indicates that technology has a tangible impact on our relationships with others. We can literally fill a void of human contact with our electronics, and it’s so easy to do that we don’t bother to do things the old-fashioned way. I bet that if Lindstrom ran a similar study using Facebook notifications, he would find comparable results. Our phones are our lifelines to everything and everyone, but at

When we’re less engaged in the world around us, we have a greater propensity to lose out on what’s going on in our lives. We fail to notice the little things, to take advantage of opportunities at hand, and to develop meaningful relationships with people around us.

Eight men and eight women between the ages of 18 and 25 were exposed to audio and video of a ringing or vibrating iPhone. Lindstrom found that when his subjects heard or saw the iPhone ringing, the fMRI scan showed a burst of brain activity in the insular cortex of the brain, linked to emotions like compassion and love. As Lindstrom wrote, “The subjects’ brains responded to the sound of their phones

what cost?

For those of you who have seen it, these themes come to life in Spike Jonze’s newest movie, “Her.” The film follows the story of Theodore Twombly, who, after going through a dreadful divorce, falls in love with his artificial intelligence system named Samantha. As the plot develops, Samantha becomes so realistic that viewers find themselves bringing her to

life in their own heads. They can imagine what she looks and feels like, and what they would want her to do. Suddenly, she’s no longer a computer.

I’m not suggesting that it is realistic for college students to fall in love with their phones the way that Theodore falls in love with Samantha. But just as Theo uses Samantha to fill the absence of love in his life, we can use our technology to fill real emotional gaps in ours. We use Facebook and Twitter to satisfy our cravings for attention, we use our phones as an excuse to avoid the awkwardness of running into people on the sidewalk, and we hide behind text messages because it’s easier than saying the hard stuff in person.

I won’t ruin “Her” for those who haven’t seen it, but I will say that at some point none of us can ignore the power of real human interaction. As the spring semester progresses and we attempt to adhere to our New Year’s resolutions, it might be worth adding another to our lists. The man or woman you or I love may have been sitting across from us at the airport terminal last week, but how can he or she compete with the 16GB in our pockets if we won’t even look up to say hello? Let’s be conscious of our dependency on technology and remember that human relationships are strongest when in the presence of others.

Daniel Delaney ’15 will be trying not to text in the presence of others. He can be reached at daniel_delaney@brown.edu.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 29, 2014

THE

BROWN DAILY HERALD

university news

THIS WEEK IN HIGHER ED

BY MAXINE JOSELOW, UNIVERSITY NEWS EDITOR

Chancellor at U. of Illinois faces criticism Online controversy has flared around the chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s decision to keep the university open Monday despite cold temperatures, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported Tuesday.

Students posted comments via social media that attacked Chancellor Phyllis Wise in sexist and racist manners, the Chronicle reported. A Twitter hashtag gained traction that combined a profanity with her first name.

On Sunday night, students circulated an online petition urging the school to cancel classes that gained more than 8,000 signatures.

But the university announced in a statement Sunday that it would remain open and suggested that students take precautions against the weather. Several other universities in the state chose to cancel classes Monday, including Northern Illinois University and Northeastern Illinois University.

Robin Kaler, a university spokesperson, told the Chronicle that the online criticism did not reflect the views of the majority of the student body. “I’ve seen a lot of students say they were embarrassed by it,” she added.

U. of Missouri reexamines rape case The president of the University of Missouri has called for an investigation into the school’s handling of an alleged rape case in 2011, after an ESPN program criticized the school’s response to the case, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported Monday.

The ESPN program “Outside the Lines” reported Friday on Missouri’s response in 2011 to an alleged assault on a swim team member by a football player. The school learned of the rape accusation but failed to report it to the authorities, ESPN reported. The swimmer committed suicide 16 months after the incident.

Timothy Wolfe, president of Missouri, said Sunday he hoped to conduct a review of the school’s treatment of the case “so that we can determine if there were any shortcomings with respect to (Missouri’s) handling of this matter and, if so, ways in which to improve the handling of such matters in the future,” the Chronicle reported.

Wolfe also called for the school’s chancellors to perform a “comprehensive review” of sexual assault policies and mental health services available on campus.

DAVID BRAUN / HERALD

Meghan Holloway ’16 and Elena Saltzman ‘16 sport Democratic footsie pajamas during a Brown Democrats screening of President Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday night.

Penn State faces aftermath of Sandusky scandal The U.S. Department of Education is set to review Pennsylvania State University’s handling of sexual harassment and sexual assault complaints in the years during the Jerry Sandusky scandal, the New York Times reported Sunday.

Department officials expressed concern in a statement Sunday about a rise in “forcible sex offenses” reported to the federal government by the university around 2011, the year the Sandusky child sex abuse scandal broke.

Sandusky, the school’s assistant football coach, was indicted on 52 counts of child molestation, and some university officials allegedly covered up his actions or failed to inform authorities.

The investigation is meant to determine whether the university mishandled complaints that were made around 2011 in efforts to keep the numbers “artificially low,” an Education Department spokesperson told the Times.

Data finds drop in community college enrollment Following a national trend, a declining number of students are enrolling in community colleges in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia, according to new data published in the Washington Post Jan. 22.

The total enrollment in Virginia’s 24 public two-year colleges last year fell 2 percent from 2012 and 3 percent from 2011, according to data from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.

Maryland experienced an even more dramatic dip, with enrollment in its 16 community colleges down 4 percent from 2012 and almost 6 percent from 2010, according to data from the Maryland Higher Education Commission.

The enrollment dip may be tied to an improving economy, said Jeffrey Kraus, the Virginia Community College System’s assistant vice chancellor for public relations, the Post reported. During a recession, many students resort to community colleges as an affordable means of boosting their job prospects, he said. But when the economy stages a recovery, demand goes down.

Robert Templin Jr., president of Northern Virginia Community College — one of the only community colleges in the region to experience an enrollment increase, having expanded by about 6 percent since 2010 — said administrators have worked hard to attract certain applicants, including first-generation, minority, immigrant and low-income students.

DAVID BRAUN / HERALD

In his speech, Obama emphasized issues related to social and economic equality, such as unemployment, low average wages and the provision of aid for military forces and veterans.

» OBAMA, from page 1 “I’m going to pull together a coalition of elected officials, business leaders and philanthropists willing to help more kids access the high-quality pre-K they need,” Obama said.

The president mentioned the recent College Opportunity Summit, where 150 institutions, including Brown, pledged to make higher education more affordable for low-income students.

He also touted the development of programs that partner businesses with community colleges to train more skilled workers.

The president spotlighted rising levels of inequality, unemployment and aid for military forces and veterans as he laid out his liberally aligned plan for the coming year.

Obama cited the fact that average wages for U.S. workers have remained stagnant over the last four years, though corporate profits have skyrocketed.

“The cold, hard fact is that even in

the midst of recovery, too many Americans are working more than ever just to get by, let alone to get ahead,” he said.

“Our job is to reverse these trends.”

Obama also addressed inequalities among workers. “It’s time to do away with workplace policies that belong in a ‘Mad Men’ episode,” Obama said after stating that females make 77 cents to every dollar a male earns. He added that issues such as alleviating gender inequality and raising the federal minimum wage require bipartisan compromise.

The Brown Democrats hosted a screening of the address in a packed Wilson 102. Many students enjoyed the president’s voicing of support for gender equality in the workforce, which solicited loud applause from members of the audience.

John Perilli ’15, communications director for the Brown Democrats, praised Obama’s commitment to making college accessible for all students.

“It made me realize what a gift it’s been to have such a great education,” he said.

The president also called for

restored federal funding to research programs after last year’s sequestration cutbacks. Increased support for research will help “unleash the next great American discovery,” he said.

Obama defended the Affordable Care Act, which caused significant conflict in Congress, where many Republicans are working to repeal the legislation.

“Let’s not have another fortysomething votes to repeal a law that’s already helping millions of Americans,” he said.

The Brown Republicans could not be reached for comment on the speech.

Elena Saltzman ’16 said she enjoyed how the president’s speech “brought back a lot of themes from his campaigns.”

Sam Shepard ’14, president of the Brown Democrats, said he particularly liked the emphasis Obama put on increasing the minimum wage, adding that legislation has “stalled” in the last year. But the success of the president’s agenda “all depends on how much action is taken,” he said.