LOCAL/STATE
The Michigan Daily - Thursday, February 7, 2002 - 3A
Mail storm floods students with e-mail
Blood pressure
treatment made
more effective
Kenneth Jamerson, associate
professor and director of the Uni-
versity Health System's Program
for Multi-Cultural Health, along
with two other physicians discov-
ered a more effective treatment for
high blood pressure, which occurs
more often in blacks than in any
other ethnic group.
Results from his study indicate
that blacks with high blood pres-
sure and resulting kidney damage
benefited most from new medica-
tions that help preserve kidney
function by acting on hormones
produced by the kidney.
Jamerson's study found the most
effective type of medication for
1,100 back participants diagnosed
with hypertension-induced kidney
damage. According to Jamerson,
with the right medication and
lifestyle changes, the risk of kid-
ney failure in blacks was no higher
than in the rest of the population.
An estimated 50 million Ameri-
cans have high blood pressure.
Also referred to as the silent killer,
high blood pressure causes no dis-
cernible symptoms until it is too
late to prevent complications
including heart attack, stroke or
kidney failure.
According to Jamerson, scien-
tists used to believe that blacks
were genetically predisposed to
develop high blood pressure but
there is little evidence of a genetic
basis and blacks in the U.S. are
genetically more similar to whites
in the U.S. than they are to blacks
in Africa.
The cause of racial differences in
the incidence of high blood pres-
sure is still unknown, but Jamerson
believes that with improved treat-
ment, new medications and better
education, racial disparities in dis-
ease complications should be elim-
inated.
'U' researchers
look at improving
insulin injections
Endocrinologists at the Universi-
ty Health System are studying two
insulin delivery systems for diabet-
ics. They include injections using
the insulin "pen" and continuous
insulin itfision using the pum.'
Diabetes is a serious lifelong
condition that occurs when the
body doesn't produce enough
insulin to convert sugar into ener-
gy.
The insulin injections, part of the
prescribed treatment for diabetes can
be difficult to manage.
The insulin pump delivers a contin-
uous dose of insulin through a
catheter placed under the skin. The
pump can also be programmed to
deliver additional amounts of insulin
before meals and snacks. The "pen"
also allows diabetics to set a dial to
the desired amount of insulin.
To find the most effective way of
delivering insulin for older people
with Type 2 diabetes, researchers at
the University of Michigan in collabo-
ration with the University of Texas
Southwestern, are conducting a 13-
month study to compare the insulin
pump treatment and daily insulin
injections in patients who are 60 and
older. Treatment satisfaction, cost-
effectiveness, side effects and blood
control will be the comparative meth-
ods for the study.
Americans over the age of 65 with
diabetes, which is an estimated 15 to
20 percent of Americans over the age
of 65 are specifically targeted for the
study. Researchers are trying to come
up with the most cost-effective way to
manage blood sugar levels in elderly
diabetics.
Diabetes can lead to chronic life-
threatening complications such as kid-
ney failure, blindness and can affect
the nerves in the legs and arms, possi-
bly resulting in amputation.
People with Type 2 diabetes- dia-
betes that begins after the age of 40-
are more likely to have cardiovascular
disease, strokes and heart attacks.
Controlling blood sugar levels is a key
part of preventing diabetes complica-
tions.
- Compiled by Daily Staff Reporter
April Effort.
By C. Price Jones
Daily Staff Reporter
Following the "My Party" computer virus that
spread throughout campus e-mail accounts last
week, a new mass-mailing list filled inboxes and
strained Information Technology Central Services
with more than 700 complaints.
"This is our first mail storm in a while, and the
worst I've ever seen," said ITCS User Advocate
Jim Sweeton. "Getting a lot of e-mails is serious in
the individual's mind ... we get bogged down with
complaints."
Although the original message was not a virus,
its subject and body resembled the Sircam virus,
which damaged computers this summer by delet-
ing hard drive information and filling desktop recy-
cle bins to capacity.
The user "sent this e-mail from a group he cre-
ated," Sweeton said. "Hiding his unigname, he
used (the group) to send the message to hundreds
of groups."
ITCS knows the identity of the person who start-
ed the mail storm, but Sweeton declined to com-
ment further.
As a result, two groups of people responded -
those who didn't know any better and asked to be
removed and those who responded maliciously. For
each e-mail, the hundreds of groups listed in the
reply lines of the e-mail received responses, too.
"By Monday morning, it had escalated," Sweet-
on said. "I sent out a mail to inform people not to
respond. ... By 3:00 Monday afternoon, anyone
who (sent e-mail) would have their service sus-
pended for 24 hours."
Six or seven people had their e-mail services
suspended beginning last night. Sweeton added
that although many individual's inboxes were filled,
the University mailing system could handle the
barrage of e-mail.
"If 5 percent of the people complained,
then several thousand people were affected,"
he said. "Our mail systems are pretty robust,
so they weren't affected. ... We have an
unusual facility - that anyone can create
their own groups. Most of the time they are
used appropriately."
Later next week Sweeton and other ITCS staff
will meet to discuss solving future mail storms and
to affirm a policy that will allow abusive users to be
suspended more quickly.
Some students hope that measures will be taken
or utilities be available to restrict and monitor e-
mails.
Student go'
"I probably got 50 to 60 e-mails, it was kind of
annoying," said LSA freshman Gabrielle Szyman-
sky. "I wish there were some kind of program that
U-M had to restrict all those e-mails."
Other students were concerned with the ability
to block and filter e-mails themselves.
"I think you should be able to block or filter
what comes in," said LSA freshman Kaema
Akpan. She added that students should still be able
to create their own groups.
School of Art and Design senior Jeff Glogower
said that the e-mails didn't anger him - he simply
deleted them.
"I think I got (the e-mails) from a list or
group I recently joined," he said. "I changed
the e-mail on the list to a Hotmail e-mail that I
have to avoid all of those messages in my mail-
box."
vernments
Message on a wall
from Big Ten schools
meeting in. Ann Arbor
PATRICK JONES/Daily
Graffiti decorates the wall of the Michigan Theater in an alley off East Liberty Street.
Senate approves state's
anti-terror legislation
LANSING (AP) - A sweeping package of tap individuals.
legislation designed to thwart terrorism in "The suggestion that this bill will protect
Michigan easily cleared the state Senate yester- Michigan citizens from terrorism is just a
day, with senators evoking the attacks on the spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go
World Trade Center and the Pentagon to rally down," said Sen. Martha Scott (D-Highland
By Tomislav Ladika
Daily Staff Reporter
Eight student government delegates from
every Big Ten school will arrive in Ann Arbor
tonight to take part in the tri-annual Association
of Big Ten Students conference, which will be
hosted by the University for the first time since
Oct. 1997.
"It's an amazing congregation of thought, of
people who are willing to put a lot of time into
student government," Michigan Student Assem-
bly President Matt Nolan said. "The opportunity
to be able to be the school to host the conference
is an honor."
Nolan said the primary benefit of the confer-
ence is that MSA can share its ideas and con-
cerns with the other schools and learn what
programs have worked at campuses across the
Big Ten.
Quinn Wright, chairman of the Associated
Students of Michigan State University, said he
hopes the representatives "can come together as a
Big Ten and pass legislation on rape awareness,
as well as brainstorm ideas that we can take back
to our own campus."
Another benefit is that the MSA delegates will
develop connections with the other student lead-
ers, said LSA Rep. Zack Slates, chairman of the
External Relations Committee that organized the
meeting.
Nolan said when MSA was working to' insti-
tute a fall break at the University last fall, he
needed statistics from Penn State University,
which had already implemented a similar pro-
gram. He said he was able to access this informa-
tion through the relationship he had developed
with Penn State's student president during ABTS.
"When you need information, it's there,"
Nolan said.
Slates said the conference this weekend will
consist of four issue sessions focusing on issues
including student government accountability,
housing and communications between university
administration and students.
Nolan added that the sessions will be informal
discussions between the delegates where most of
the ideas and problems experienced by the vari-
ous student government will be shared.
Wright said he believes ASMSU will be able
to offer some innovative ideas to the other
schools on relations between students and police,
an issue that has plagued Michigan State recently.
He added that his delegation hopes to leave
with ideas on how to cope with student apathy on
its campus.
In addition to the issue sessions, the student
governments will meet on the final day of the
conference as a general assembly to pass joint
resolutions.
"When we speak as MSA, we speak for 38,000
students, but when we speak as ABTS, we speak
for 400,000 students," Nolan said.
During the final meeting, the student govern-
ments will also discuss changes to the ABTS
constitution, which primarily provides the struc-
ture of ABTS conferences.
Wright said the constitution is defunct because
its "philosophies and principles are not what
ABTS stands for right now."
Nolan said MSA is looking forward making
the constitution work better for the conference,
but he added that the changes will not have a sig-
nificant effect on how ABTS is run.
Slates said he has worked several hours a day
to organize the conference. He said he had to
plan out and make arrangements for the entire
agenda, including funding, dinner and hotel
reservations and tickets for the Saturday night
Michigan hockey game.
"The University is very much behind us in
hosting this conference, and we feel that's part of
the reason it will be so beneficial; Slates said. $
Nolan said the ABTS conference "gets you re-
excited about ideas because you spend an entire
weekend talking about them."
broad support.
"September 11th was a wake-up call for
everyone," said Sen. William Van Regenmorter
(R-Georgetwn Twp.), chairman of the Senate
Judiciary Committee which approved the 19
bills. "The issue of terrorism is real. We need to
give our police agencies the powerful tools-they
need to protect us."
Several senators - all Democrats - balked
at a bill to permit state and local police to wire-
Park).
But Van Regenmorter said the bill contained
extensive protections to avert abuse.
That bill and others were approved by lop-
sided majorities and sent to the House, which is
already considering several more minor mea-
sures to complete the anti-terrorism package.
The primary bill in the package would make
terrorist acts a crime in Michigan and enhance
the penalties for those acts.
Arab League names
local man to act as
liaison to the U.S.
DEARBORN HEIGHTS (AP) -
A Dearborn Heights businessman
will work for better communication
between the Arab world and the
United States as an Arab-American
liaison for the Arab League.
Nasser Beydoun, a local Arab-
American community leader, was
tapped for the post earlier this
week. He will help open lines of
communication between the Arab
world and the United States for the
League, a leading political organi-
zation in the Middle East.
The 56-year-old group represents
22 Arab countries.
Beydoun, 37, is traveling this
week in Washington with Amr
Moussa, secretary general of the
Arab League. The Arab League
announced it was going to create
the liaison position during a
November conference in which
Detroit's large and influential Arab-
American community brought
Moussa and other diplomats from
Arab nations together with business
and political leaders from Michi-
gan.
"This is the first time there will
be a commissioner to deal with you
and make you part of the Arab
League," Moussa said in November.
Beydoun, who has worked to
build bridges and better under-
standing of Arab-Americans, said
much of his duties in the volunteer
position will include 'trying to build
stronger economic ties between the
Middle East and the United States,
especially Detroit.
"Through economics, you can
build cultural understanding,"
Beydoun told the Detroit Free
Press for a story yesterday. "You
have to give people a reason to
understand each other, and trade is
a good reason."
Michigan is home to about
350,000 Arab-Americans, with the
population concentrated in the
southeastern part of the state.
THE CALENDAR
What's happening in Ann Arbor today
EVENTS
"Women Redefining
Security in East Asia";
Sponsored by the Center
for Japanese Studies,
5:30 p.m., Vandenberg
Room, Michigan League
"Nickelkand Dimed: On
(Not) Getting by intAmeri-
ca"; Sponsored by the
( anta.. fnra 6,,cat ninn
4:30 p.m., Colloquium
Room, East Hall
"Monika Fieischmann and
SERVICES
Campus information
Centers, 764-INFO,
info@umich.edu, or
www.umich.edu/ -info
S.A.F.E. Walk, 763-WALK,
C
,I
go