The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom
Thursday, September 29, 2011 - 7A
AL-HASHIMI
From Page 1A
magnetic resonance allows Al-
Hashimi, who is the University's
Robert L. Kuczkowski profes-
sor of chemistry, to see how the
atoms and nucleic acid move in
three dimensions.
"The advantage of using this
nuclear magnetic resonance
method is that in principle, it can
provide us with insight as to how
the atoms jiggle and wiggle and
not just the static arrangement
of how they look in a structure,"
he said.
By getting a detailed picture of
the atoms "dancing," AI-Hashimi
said he and his team examined
the RNA molecule for HIV and
identified the compound that can
stop HIV replication. Al-Hashi-
mi compared the imaging meth-
od to identifying the proper lock
or molecule shape, so research-
ers can determine which key or
drug can unlock it.
"By imaging the whole image
of the lock ... we increase our
chances of finding the key," he
said.
This method of imaging can
also be applied to finding the
proper drug to combat multiple
diseases found in RNA including
cancer and Alzheimer's.
As his experiment progresses,
Al-Hashimi said he would like
to begin imaging larger pieces of
the cell and eventually take 3-D
images of the entire cell in order
to see large-scale movements.
The goal, Al-Hashimi said, is to
make a movie of a cell and anoth-
er of a drug interacting with the
cell.
"It's a big game changer," he
said.
Al-Hashimi said he found out
about his Popular Science award
in an e-mail and was honored to
hear that he was selected.
"It's wonderful to be recog-
nized," he said. "It's great to
share this with my students and
collaborators."
Al-Hashimi said the Univer-
sity community, including his
wife, Allison Aiello, the John G.
Searle assistant professor of epi-
demiology in the School of Pub-
lic Health, has encouraged his
work.
"It's nice to be at the Univer-
sity of Michigan where you're in
a very supportive environment,"
Al-Hashimi said.
Al-Hashimi added that he
also received support from LSA,
as the college purchased more
space for his research expan-
sion. In turn, Al-Hashimi said he
likes to use his research to better
engage his students.
"I love teaching and I often
try to mix (research and teach-
ing) together," he said. "I have
lots of undergraduate students,
for example, doing my research
and learning science by doing
science at the lab, and it's a nice
compliment to the lecture mate-
rial."
When he teaches about ele-
ments, for example, Al-Hashi-
mi doesn't teach the concept
abstractly. Instead, he likes to
focus on one or two elements
that he's currently researching
to make a more interesting and
concrete connection for stu-
dents. Al-Hashimi added that he
also makes an effort to have an
undergraduate student work on
each of his academic papers.
"I often in the lectures talk
about science from a research
perspective ... I present the
material in a way that a scientist
might think about it," he said.
AATA
From Page 1A
Program, which supports the
increase of clean fuel technolo-
gies for transit buses.
However, the AATA isn't the
only transportation service plan-
ning an environmentally friendly
revamp. As part of the Univer-
sity's new sustainability plan, the
University will add seven hybrid
buses to serve the campus com-
munity.
Construction on Blake Transit
Center, located on East William
Street and South Fourth Avenue,
is scheduled to begin in spring
2012 and will triple the space from
2,000 square feet to approximate-
HOSPITAL
From Page 1A
with two children, didn't real-
ize the importance of cervical
cancer screening until it saved
her life.
"I was very lucky that I had
an excellent OB/GYN who
explained to me that pap smears
were a necessity to me once
a year, and I was obedient, so
I did that," she said. "But the
truth is I knew pap smears were
important, but I wasn't exactly
sure what they were for. Then it
turned out that this pap smear
was positive for cervical cancer."
Hope Haefner, a professor in
the Department of Obstetrics
and Gynecology in the Medi-
cal School, said having access
to and knowledge about cervi-
cal cancer tests can be the dif-
ly 6,000 square feet. The projectis
estimated to cost $5.5 million.
The $2.7 million grant will be
divided into $1.013 million for
improvements to Blake Transit
Center and $1.697 million for the
cost of the 10 hybrid buses.
The $2.7 million is part of
the $4.195 million that has been
allocated to AATA for the proj-
ect thus far. In Oct. 2010, AATA
received a $1 million federal
grant for the Blake Transit Cen-
ter renovation. AATA has also
applied for an additional federal
grant to aid the project.
Dingell wrote that updating
TheRide and other modes of pub-
lic transit are integral to the lives
of Michigan residents.
"As travel time is becoming a
ference between life and death.
Haefner described that in some
countries, women have to travel
by foot three days to get a pap
smear. However, women abroad
and in the United States often
don't follow up on their test and
die of cervical cancer.
"We've done a great job in
the United States, but still 4,300
women die of this cancer in the
United States, which I think is
atrocious," Haefner said. "But
of that number, 50 percent were
never screened."
To decrease these numbers,
Haefner suggested doctors reach
out to women who don't typical-
ly receive treatment for cervical
cancer, like women in impover-
ished areas.
"I saw a woman 45 minutes
away who had advanced cervical
cancer," Haefner said. "If we'd
have gotten to her earlier maybe.
key quality of life issue for Michi-
gan workers, public transit is an
accommodating transportation
option to provide access to jobs
and school while alleviating car
congestion," Dingell wrote.
This $2.7 million federal grant
follows last week's announcement
that TheRide plans to expand its
services between Ann Arbor and
Ypsilanti. AATA spokeswoman
Mary Stasiak told The Michigan
Daily last week that the proposal
to extend the TheRide's services
and make transportation more
efficient in the next few years is
in response to the needs of Ann
Arbor residents. The proposal also
includes the creation of a shuttle
from Ann Arbor to the Detroit
Metro Airport.
she would be doing better. We
need to go to the people in Pon-
tiac (and) Detroit that are not too
far from us here in Ann Arbor."
Vivian Pinn, founding direc-
tor of the Office of Research on
Women's Health at the Nation-
al Institutes of Health, said
researchers need to help the
general population better under-
stand the causes of cervical
cancer and why it progresses so
quickly. The health care indus-
try can then be informed, and
women can gain access to qual-
ity health care offered at places
like the Von Voigtlander Wom-
en's Hospital.
"Access to health care is
extremely important," Pinn said.
"It doesn't matter how much
research we have. If the results
go into the test book and don't go
into the medicine, then it is all
for naught."
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CARLOSOSORIO/AP
' Alan Mulally, president and CEO of the Ford Motor Co., stands with United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger, far
left, and Ford Motor Co. Executive Chair Bill Ford after the executives signed the auto workers contract in 2007.
Ford's success stirs UAW
resentment in labor talks
Union employees
looking to get
raises, bonuses
DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) -
Ford's turnaround over the last
five years has resulted in big
profits and won its CEO a repu-
tation for brilliant management.
But those same achievements
are stirring resentment among
many of its factory workers. And
that is complicating contract
talks between the company and
its union employees.
At The Rouge, Ford's massive,
94-year-old factory complex in
Dearborn, Mich., there's talk
along the assembly lines of win-
ning back raises and bonuses
lost when the company was near
financial collapse in 2007. Work-
ers, who assemble F-150 pickup
trucks at the site, are upset that
Ford is trying to cut labor costs,
especially after nine straight
profitable quarters and a $26.5
million pay package for CEO
Alan Mulally.
A few miles to the north, inside
Ford's 13-story headquarters
known as the Glass House, exec-
utives are worried because work-
ers, on average, cost the company
$58 an hour in pay and benefits,
the highest in U.S. auto industry.
Both sides are trying to find
a compromise this week while
work continues at Ford factories
under a contract extension. A top
union bargainer told workers on
a telephone recording Monday
night that talks are accelerating
and he is "hopefully optimistic"
a deal can be reached this week.
Ford's profits and the possi-
bility of a strike could force the
company into a deal that's more
generous to workers than the one
already negotiated with General
Motors Co. Chrysler, meanwhile,
continues to negotiate its own
contract with the union.
Differences between Ford and
the union date to 2007, when all
three Detroit automakers were
on the verge of financial ruin.
The year before that, Ford lost
$12.6 billion, and U.S. sales were
down 8 percent. Worried that
the company would collapse,
Ford workers began a series of
givebacks.
Like workers at GM and Chrys-
ler, they eventually gave up cost-
of-living pay raises, performance
bonuses and other benefits. GM
and Chrysler needed government
bailouts and bankruptcy protec-
tion to stay in business, but Ford
took billions in private loans and
endured on its own.
As a result, Ford became a
consumer favorite and the com-
pany prospered. It paid Mulally
for engineering the turnaround
and restored merit pay and some
other benefits for white-collar
workers, angering union, mem-
bers.
"The compensation for the
CEO has been widely publi-
cized, and those kinds of things
wend their way up and down the
assembly line," says Harley Shai-
ken, a professor at the University
of California at Berkeley and a
specialist in labor issues. "It cre-
ates higher expectations."
At Ford, bargainers are expect-
ed to use the deal with GM as a
template. But it's unclear if its
provisions will be acceptable to
Ford or its union workers. Under
the deal, GM workers would get
a $5,000 bonus for ratifying the
contract, more profit sharing and
higher pay for entry-level work-
ers. Although the deal has no pay
raise for most workers, it appears
headed for approval.
It's the lack of raises that has
rankled many of Ford's 41,000
factory workers.
"Ford has to do a lot more,"
says Gary Walkowicz, a worker
at the company's Dearborn plant,
the epicenter of union dissent.
Walkowicz says many work-
ers are ready to strike, especially
in Dearborn. Workers there led
the rest of the company in reject-
ing a round of concessions in
2009. Ford sought the conces-
sions to match deals given to GM
and Chrysler as they were going
through bankruptcy protection.
Ford is the only Detroit auto-
maker where the union can
strike, something it has not done
at Ford since 1976. Walkouts over
pay are banned this year at GM
and Chrysler Group LLC under
the terms of their government
bailouts. At Ford plants, workers
are making picket schedules in
case they need to strike. But get-
ting ready is standard procedure
during contract talks.
Gary Chaison, a professor of
labor relations at Clark Univer-
sity in Worcester, Mass., says
Ford can cut the risk of a strike
if it doesn't stray too far from the
GM contract. But if Ford tries for
big labor cost cuts, the odds of a
strike rise to 50-50, he says.
UAW President Bob King has
said he's not thinking about a
strike. But he thinks workers
should get a piece of the profits
because they have each given
up $7,000 to $30,000 a year in
concessions since 2007. He also
has called Mulally's pay "outra-
geous."
Mulally, in a recent inter-
view, defended his compensa-
tion, saying it was determined
by the company's success and
the free market. He said much
of his pay is "at risk" because it
comes in stock that can rise and
fall in price based on Ford's per-
formance. Mulally's salary is $1.4
million, with the rest coming in
stock and a bonus.
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