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.