The Michigan Daily - michigandaily com
Thursday, October 11, 2007 - 7A
Study to track 105,000 kids
STUDY From page 1A
they change a developing child.
In addition to physical environ-
mental factors, researchers will
also gather data about a child's
social environment by looking
at interactions in the home and
having parents fill out question-
naires.
These factors will be analyzed
along with the children's genetic
makeup in the hope that the miss-
ing pieces of the equation will fall
into place.
The key will be examining how
all of the little pieces of children's
environments interact with their
genes and "biological factors in
general," Keating said.
In some cases, the study will
track the children before they even
exist.
Starting in Wayne County,
which includes most of Detroit, the
University of Michigan will recruit
a sampling team to go door to door
to see if there are any women of
"childbearing age," Keating said.
If so, the surveyors will follow up
with telephone calls on a weekly
basis to see if these women become
pregnant. They must find 1,000
pregnant women in Wayne County
by going door to door. Their goal is
to identify 25 percent of the chil-
dren that will be included in the
study prior to conception.
Keating said the study will pay
participants. He estimated that
a woman who participates from
before she conceives until her child
is two years old will receive about
$500.
"It's not like a living, but there
are payments for every time
there's a visit," Keating said. "We
want to make sure to retain par-
ticipants."
The study will pay for some
doctors' visits and ultrasounds for
women without insurance becu-
ase testing must take place in a
controlled setting. Keating said
the aim of the study is to observe
developing children in their natu-
ral environments. However, in
some cases children could poten-
tially receive better care as a result
of their participation in the study
because their parents would oth-
erwise not have access to quality
medical care.
Keating said that the team in
charge of assessment would use
a variety of statistical modeling
techniques to try to control for the
study's impact on the quality of a
child's medical care.
Currently, it's hard for research-
ers to pinpoint the source of some
developmental diseases because
geneticists have failed to provide
a genetic template to predict who
will and will not have a certain
developmental outcome.
But Keating said that with a
sample as large as this, research-
ers would inevitably come across
children with certain develop-
mental disorders like asthma and
obesity that researchers have
been working unsuccessfully to
determine the exact cause of for
years.
There is strong scientific con-
sensus that the answer must lie
with some combination of predis-
posing genes and environmental
factors, and this study could help
identify the formula.
Of the $18 million designated
to the Michigan Alliance for the
National Children's Study for the
first portion of the study, which
will investigate Wayne County,
$4.4 million will go to the Univer-
sity, Keating said.
He predicted that Wayne would
be the most expensive of the five
Michigan counties to research, but
not by too much because the same
number of children will be recruit-
ed in each county. He estimated
the amount of money devoted to
the other counties to be about two-
thirds of the amount designated
for Wayne County.
The Michigan Research Cor-
ridor, consisting of Wayne State
University and Michigan State
University in addition to the Uni-
versityofMichigan,were recruited
to carry out research for the coun-
ties of Wayne, Genessee, Lenawee,
Traverse and Macomb.
"The Michigan counties rep-
resent a fairly good cross section
demographically of the whole
state," Keating said.
BENJI DELL/
One hundred students are enrolled in the introductory modern Arabic language
course this fal.
CROWNING CAMPUS ROYALTY
ARABIC
From page 1A
Near Eastern Studies and reli-
gious studies professor at Univer-
sity of Illinois, said the Sept. 11
attacks and the resulting increase
in media coverage of Arab nations
encouraged more people to study
Arabic.
"It made the Arab world and the
Muslim world front and center in a
lot of people's minds," Khalil said.
"Before 9/11, people's knowledge
of Arab nations was really quite
limited."
Khalil, who started studying
Arabic at the University as an
undergraduate in 1997, said there
has been a shift in the motivations
for many of those taking Arabic
language courses.
"(Before 2001) there was a good
chance of having classmates who
were generally interested in the
language for its own sake," he
said. "Now many people see it as
a requirement for what they want
to do."
Michael Bonner, acting chair of
the department of Near Eastern
Studies, said students who study
Arabic for more than two years
usually have a career goal in mind.
Many of those are looking for jobs
in government, military or jour-
nalism. But Bonner said students'
career goals don't shape the pro-
gram.
"We're not just producing peo-
ple for the intelligence agencies,"
members.
At Zeta Psi fraternity, sopho-
more Michael Weist said he saw
a larger number of students take
interest in his fraternity this fall
than did last fall. As part of the
rush committee, he said Zeta Psi
took efforts to attract more atten-
tion to their chapter this year.
"We make sre to bring people
to the house and make them feel
comfortable," he said.
LSA freshman Chandra Pathuri
said he noticed his freshman hall-
mates talking about the Greek sys-
tem and saw advertisements for
rush activities all around campus.
"It's pretty in-your-face," he
said.
Pathuri said he's not interested
in joining a fraternity, butreceived
many e-mails and mailings sent
over the summer about campus
Greekhouses.
LSA junior Gabrielle Sims, left, and LSA senior Phil Drazewski, right, were crowned Homecoming king and queen in the Michigan Union last night. The ceremony is part of
the Michigan Student Assembly's attempted revival of Homecoming week. The pair will take part in the Homecoming parade tomorrow. The parade starts at 3 p.m. at the
chemistry Building.
ban GREEKS
ome colleges From page
credit card reps
CREDIT From page 1A
Becky Timmons, an assistant
vice presidentforgovernmentrela-
tions for the American Council on
Education - an organization that
represents 1,800 universities -
said college students often do not
know enough about money to fully
understand credit card offers.
"Colleges know that students
come to our campuses with very
little financial sophistication and
savvy," Timmons said in the same
conference call. "The overwhelm-
ing changes that they're experi-
encing at that time can make them
vulnerable to undertaking credit
thatthey may later come to regret."
Kathryn Greiner, the direc-
tor of credit education at the
University-affiliated University
of Michigan Credit Union, who
counsels students, said she often
works with students who are in
debt.
Her office handles students in
debt and holds seminars to edu-
cate them about credit card pit-
falls like high interest rates.
Some colleges, like the Univer-
sity of Chicago, don't allow credit
card companies to market their
products on campus at all, but the
University of Michigan isn't one
of them.
Credit card advertising is a com-
mon site near campus, but some
areas of campus are restricted.
The only way most companies
can promote their products on the
Diag is if they are sponsored by
a student group., but credit card
companies aren't allowed at all.
The same rules don't apply to the
Michigan Union, though.
"If they want to sign students
up, they have to do that in the
(Michigan) Union, and anybody
can sell stuff there," said Susan
Wilson, director of the Office of
Student Activities and Leader-
ship.
In response to the announce-
ment of the campaign, Discover
Financial Services, which issues
Discover cards, issued a press
release that said it no longer mar-
kets to college students.
"Discover stopped market-
ing on or near college campuses
nearly a year ago," the release said.
"We share the interests of states,
colleges and students to make sure
students use their credit wisely
and develop good credit histories
and are committed to providing
the tools and tips to help them
maintain good credit."
Most other major credit card
companies, like MasterCard
Worldwide, which issues the Mas-
terCard, haven't taken that step.
MasterCard spokesman Tristan
Jordan said in a written state-
ment yesterday that the company
believes credit education is impor-
tant and pointed to a program it
said it uses to teach college stu-
dents about money management.
Rachel Wikoff, a 2007 Universi-
ty of California at Davis graduate,
said on the conference call that
her credit suffered because of the
obscure way the credit card com-
panies explained the deal she had
signed up for.
"They had spiked my minimum
payment from 11 to 29 percent and
myminimumbalancehadchanged
from $10 a month to $89 a month,"
Wikoff said. "I couldn't afford the
payment, so I had to take out a stu-
dent loan and I got behind on my
credit card payments and it just
ruined my credit."
Wikoff said she later found a
clause buried in her credit card
agreement that explained the
interest rate change.
Gomes said that the Office of
GreekLife's"ChooseYour Letters"
advertising campaign and efforts
to send information to freshmen
helped make people aware of the
Greek system.
The twc other Greek umbrella
organizations - the Multicul-
tural Greek Council and National
Pan-Hellenic Council - haven't
released fall recruitment num-
bers.
The National Pan-Hellenic
Council - which oversees his-
torically black fraternities and
sororities - doesn't induct mem-
bers until the end of the semes-
ter.
Multicultural Greek Council
President David Mickey said sta-
tistics about new members are not
yet available because the council
doesn't require its member chap-
ters to provide information about
prospective members.
Both Averbuch and Gomes said
they think student perceptions of
the Greek system have improved
in part because recent press for
the Greek System has been mostly
positive. Averbuch said he thinks
University students are realizing
how being in a fraternity can ben-
efit them both on campus and in
their professional lives.
"It's lifelong membership,"
Gomes said. "And it gives you all
these tools and opportunities that
you can take past your collegiate
years."
The extra pledges shouldn't
pose a problem to Greek houses,
which Averbuch said have enough
space to accommodate the new
he said. "We're not only about
training people to do war on ter-
ror."
LSA sophomore Amanda Can-
vasser said the Sept. 11 attacks
got her interested in Arabic cul-
ture. She said she is taking Arabic
courses because she wants to work
in the State Department or run for
political office.
Government officials on the
national level should be familiar
with Arabic language and culture,
Canvasser said.
LSA senior Newell Blair is also
considering a career with the State
Department after studying Arabic,
but he said his interest in Arabic
language and culture preceded
both his job search and Sept. 11,
2001.
The interaction Blair had with
Arabic neighbors near his Man-
hattan home inspired him to
learn about the cultures of Arabic
nations beyond what the media
highlights, he said.
"There was a whole culture hap-
pening beside me," Blair said.
Blair said he is disappointed
with the University's Arabic lan-
guage program because it empha-
sizes Modern Standard Arabic
- which is used in news broad-
casts and formal documents - but
professors offer little istruction
on the language's regional dia-
lects.
"It isolates them from what
really is happening in Arabic coun-
tries, from what the person on the
street is saying," Blair said.
STEROIDS
From page 1A
er anti-doping policies are arbi-
trary, because sports are already
full of random rules. Murray
used the seemingly arbitrary dis-
tance of 60 feet 6 inches from the
pitcher's mound to home plate on
a baseball diamond to illustrate
his point.
Countering what he called the
"resistance is futile" argument -
which claims that athletes will take
steroids no matter what - Mur-
ray argued that the possibility that
athletes will use steroids does not
relieve officials of their responsi-
bility to defend the integrity of the
sport.
Sports,' according to Murray,
encourage the honing of natural
talent. He said the problem of ste-
roid use lies not in the drugs them-
selves, but in a disregard for sports
ethic.
"It is not the means we are argu-
ing," he said. "It is the relationship
of the means to the goal we want to
achieve."
Use of performance-enhancing
drugs has been a matter of debate
among NCAA officials and athletes
for decades.
The University of Michigan
follows NCAA protocol for ath-
letes caught with steroids, giving
first-time offenders a one-year
suspension and permanent loss of
eligibility for a second offense, said
Assistant Athletic Director Paul
Schmidt.
University of Michigan athletes
are also subjected to intermittent
drug tests given at random times
throughout the year.
Schmidt declined to comment
on any test results, but said Uni-
versity of Michigan teaims and
athletes hold themselves to a high
standard.
"Our athletes train extremely
hard and are very invested in doing
positive things to help them win
and compete physically and men-
tally, (both) in the classroom and
on the playing field," he said.
Study questions SUV side protection
Trailblazer, Grand
Cherokee get low
side-impact ratings
WASHINGTON (AP) - Some
sport utility vehicles don't pro-
vide the protection in a side crash
that one might expect from such
large vehicles, according to tests
released today by the insurance
industry.
The Insurance Institute for
Highway Safety gave marginal
scores in side-impact tests of 2008
versions of the Chevrolet Trail-
Blazer, Jeep Grand Cherokee and
two SUVs built by Nissan Motor
Co. - the Pathfinder and Xterra
without optional side air bags.
In similar side testing, the
Toyota 4Runner and Pathfinder
and Xterra models equipped with
side air bags received top marks of
good in the side testing. The Ford
Explorer and Mercury Mountain-
eer received the second-highest
rating of acceptable.
"The performance of some of
these models in the side test was
surprising," said David Zuby, the
institute's senior vice president.
"SUVS should have an advantage
in side crashes because the driver
and passengers ride higher up
than in cars."
"People often think they're safer
in one of these vehicles, but many
cars hold up better than some of
these midsize SUVs in this test,"
he said.
In the institute's side test, vehi-
cles are struck with a barrier mov-
ing at 31 mph to reflect the force
of a pickup or sport utility vehicle
hitting the vehicle.
The TrailBlazer and Grand
Cherokee, built by General
Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC,
respectively, lack air bags that
protect the chests and abdomens
of front-seat occupants. The com-
bination of weak side structures
and the lack of chest protection
led to high forces on the driver
dummies' chests and abdomens,
Zuby said.
Company officials noted the
TrailBlazer, Grand Cherokee and
the Nissan SUVs received top-
scores in the government's side
crash tests.
In frontal testing, all of the
SUVs received the top score of
good except the TrailBlazer,
which improved to receive the sec-
ond-highest rating of acceptable.
Previous versions of the SUV had
been rated marginal.
Ratings for the TrailBlazer also
apply to the GMC Envoy, Isuzu
Ascender and Saab 9-7X.
In rear crash testing, only the
Grand Cherokee received the top
rating of good. The Nissan Path-
finder was rated marginal while
the remaining SUVs received the
lowest score of poor.
GM spokesman Alan Adler said
the TrailBlazer "meets or exceeds
all federal motor vehicle safety
standards and was the first mid-
size SUV to offer rollover-capable
head curtain air bags." The air
bags are standard on the 2008
TrailBlazer.