The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Thursday, October 13, 2011 - 3A

The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Thursday, October13, 2011 - 3A

NEWS BRIEFS
DETROIT
Detroit schools
get grants to fight
childhood obesity
Three Detroit schools are
among 63 across the state award-
ed grants to help fight childhood
obesity.
The grants are part of Blue
Cross Blue Shield of Michigan's
Building Healthy Communities
school program
The Charles H. Wright Acad-
emy of Arts and Science will
receive $32,000; Maybury Ele-
mentary will get $31,000 and
Neinas Elementary, $27,000 for
programs emphasizing physical
activity and nutrition.
Blue Cross first offered the
program in 2009. Grants have
been awarded to 63 schools
across the state to help children
incorporate exercise and healthy
eating into their lifestyles.
Blue Cross has partnered with
Wayne State University's College
of Education Center for School
Health and the Michigan Fitness
Foundation on the program.
AUSTIN, Texas
Texan exoneration
by DNA test after
25 years in prison
A Texas appeals court yes-
terday formally exonerated a
man who spent nearly 25 years
in prison for his wife's 1986 fatal
beating, reaffirming a judge's
decision to set him free last week
after DNA tests linked the killing
to another man.
The Texas Court of Criminal
Appeals declared Michael Mor-
ton innocent of killing his wife,
Christine, and made him eligible
to receive $80,000 from the state
for each year of confinement, or
about $2 million total.
Morton, 57, was convicted
on the basis of circumstantial
evidence and sentenced to life
in prison. He maintained over
the years that his wife and their
3-year-old son were fine when he
left for work at an Austin grocery
store on the day she was killed,
and that an intruder must have
attacked her.
WASHINGTON
Iran: Occupy Wall
Street protests to
topple capitalism
Iran's top leader said yesterday
that the wave of protests spread-
ing from New York's Wall Street
to other U.S. cities reflects a seri-
ous crisis that will ultimately
topple capitalism in America.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
claimed the United States is now
in a full-blown crisis because its
"corrupt foundation has been
exposed tothe American people."
Khamenei made the remarks
during a rally yesterday in the
western Iranian city of Kerman-

shah that drew tens of thousands
of people. His speech was broad-
cast live on state TV.
The Occupy Wall Street move-
ment started in New York City
last month and is spreading to
other parts of the country.
BOGOTA, Colombia
Women end sex
strike after officials
agree to pave road
The women of the Colombian
town of Barbacoas have declared
their sex strike over.
It is not clear how many
women took part, and compli-
ance is impossible to prove. But
the women of the remote south-
western town say their demand
for a road was met.
They announced June 22 that
they would deny their partners
sex until authorities began pav-
ing a 35-mile (57-kilometer) road
linking the town of 35,000 peo-
ple with the provincial capital of
Pasto.
Army engineers began work
yesterday. The paved road will
cut travel time by at least six
hours.
-Compiled from
Daily wire reports

GERALD H$RBERT/AP
In this Aug, 11, 2011 photo, a participant in the weekly NOLA Social Ride, prepares to ride to a local pub. Since 2007, the
city has used about $100 million in federal rebuilding dollars tolay 56 miles of new asphalt on 55 heavily used streets.
Post-storm New Orleans
makes room for cyclists

City has 40 miles
of bike-friendly
pathways
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - For
decades, blogger Joseph Don-
nelly saw few improvements
for urban cyclists like himself
in New Orleans, so he used the
title of a website he started
five years ago as a call to arms:
"How To Start A Revolution In
An Unfriendly Bike City."
But a push by the city to use
Hurricane Katrina recovery
money to make the roads more
accommodating has left him
with little choice but to scrap
the label in favor of something
more prosaic. The top of the
blog now reads: "Bicycling New
Orleans: Practical Survival Tips
for Cyclists in NOLA."
"A lot of my gripes have been
resolved," said Donnelly, who
started cycling in the 1970s and
ditched his last car for good in
1989. "When I started the blog
in 2006, there was not a single
bicycle lane anywhere in New
Orleans. Before Katrina, the
roads were dangerous for every-
one."

Since 2007, the city has used
about $100 million in federal
rebuilding dollars to lay 56 miles
of new asphalt on 55 heavily
used streets, transforming pot-
holed boulevards into smooth
blacktops ideal for bike riding.
Under the city's Submerged
Roads Program, bike lanes have
also been painted on 15 streets,
giving the city about 40 miles of
bike-friendly pathway. There are
plans to pave 26 more streets.
The city is also poised to
spend $7 million in federal aid
to turn a wide 3-mile stretch
of an abandoned railroad ease-
ment between the French
Quarter and City Park into a
greenway that will be known as
the Lafitte Corridor.
Ridership has also grown. In
2010, New Orleans ranked 12th
in the number of bicycle com-
muters among American cities,
an 84 percent increase in bike
commuters since 2005, accord-
ing to the latest Census data.
New Orleans-based urban
planner Robert Tannen said an
increase in cycling has many
benefits. "It slows down traf-
fic. People are more cautious. It
makes for a far more pedestri-
an-friendly city; bikers are also

walkers. And it increases the
health and overall well-being
of citizens," Tannen said. "It
increases the number of people
who patronize local stores and
smaller shops rather than the
malls."
The progress has bike enthu-
siasts dreaming: Can New
Orleans, with its flat terrain,
warm weather and tightly-
knit neighborhoods, rival the
nation's best cycling cities like
Seattle, Portland, Ore., and
Boulder, Colo.? This summer
New Orleans was named a
"bicycle friendly community"
by the League of American
Bicyclists, but it still has further
to go to attain the league's top-
tier "platinum" status.
By comparison, Portland has
180 miles of bike lanes. Nearly 6
percent of workers there com-
mute to work, according to the
league's database, compared to
about 2 percent of commuters in
New Orleans.
Still, the city has come a long
way. Bicycle shop mechanic and
bike activist Tim Eskew said
groups plodded along for years
in obscurity and tried to drum
up interest in cycling mostly
through schools.

TECHARB
From Page 1A
business idea or helping them
market their product.
Lee expressed enthusiasm
for student entrepreneurs at the
University given their strong aca-
demic backgrounds.
"UM has so many top 10
schools in the nation," Lee wrote.
"Imagine if we can bring students
across these schools together to
work on 'change the world' ven-
tures. We would give silicon val-
ley a run for its money!"
Paul Kirsch, an associate direc-
tor of the Zell Lurie Institute who
also helps manage TechArb, said
the accelerator hopes to connect
with more students and host a
greater number of events in its
new space, which moved in Sep-
tember from its former location
in the McKinley Town Centre
across the street.
"We also want to engage a
larger community of student
entrepreneurs, and not just the
ones that are officially tenants of
TechArb," he said. "The previous
space was functional but didn't
have enough room for any event
that was bigger than a few dozen
people."
In addition to TechArb's week-
ly advisory sessions, Kirsch said
the accelerator holds monthly
board meetings to update staff
members on the progress of each
business team and challenges
each group faces. TechArb also
facilitates networking opportu-
nities for students to help them
further their businesses, accord-
ing to Lee.
"This upcoming year, we are
goingto do more to catalyze com-
munity, engage more mentors
from the area and connect stu-
dent teams to funding opportu-
nities," Lee wrote. "Our hope is
that TechArb becomes the best
in class student incubator in the
world. We have already seen sev-
eral student teams receive ven-
ture capital funding or get bought
out."
One of the companies that
has secured capital funding
RESEARCH
From Page 1A
But the researchers discovered
that deactivation of the p38-
gamma molecule causes the
fibers to be arranged like a bas-
ket weave, which interrupts the
cell's movement.
"What we were able to find
is that the motion of the cell
changed very drastically from
being very fast, directed motion
to being more like fluctuating
back and forth without moving
very great distances," Merajver
said. "The cells looked a little
more like fried eggs or empana-
das just sitting around versus the
elongated cells that move large
distances, which is the usual way
aggressive cancer cells are."
Merajver said the study is
unique in that it provides under-
standing of the molecular basis
for cell movement and identi-
fies a target molecule that plays
a specific role. She added that
the discoveries could lead to the
development of new drugs to
fight and prevent breast cancer
by targeting cell motion.

"Hopefully we will be able
to develop drugs against it,"
Merajver said. "Whether it will
be us here at the University of
Michigan doing that or not, that
remains to be seen - we'll see
what the future holds."
The research also shows that
analyzing live cells could be an
effective way to monitor patients
undergoing therapy. This would
be done by obtaining cells from
a patient and looking at them
under a microscope while the
cells are still alive, Merajver
said. She added that live-cell
monitoring is not widely used,
but the study's findings suggest
it would be a useful addition to
certain cancer treatments.
"It could help to know if the
therapy is working," Merajver
said. "One of the biggest prob-
lems in cancer is people may not
be respondent to therapy, but
that doesn't mean that you know
exactly where the cancer is. So
we need to know indirectly some-
times if the cancer is being killed
or not, or if it's respondingor not."
According to Merajver, the
Breast Cancer Research Foun-
dation and the Avon Foundation
have provided more than $2 mil-
lion in funding for her team's
work over the last few years. She
added that Breast Cancer Aware-

and reaped many benefits from
working with TechArb is Giant
Eel Productions, a company that
works on innovations for 3-D
media. University alum Edmund
Zagorin, a Giant Eel executive
producer, wrote in an e-mail
interview that TechArb's close-
knit community of businesses
inspired the company to take the
risk of starting a business and
helped him and his colleagues
avoid certain mistakes.
"One of our first video produc-
tion clients was a TechArb com-
pany and provided us an amazing
experience to gain feedback and
build relationships," Zagorin
wrote.
Benjamin Blackmer also said
TechArb's constant support
helped develop his team's com-
pany, called "Are You a Human?"
The business gives websites a
new way to verify that users are
actual people, and not robots. The
company's option is an alterna-
tive to a program that generates
distorted words that users must
translate.
TechArb isn't looking for one
specific start-up to join the accel-
erator, but a diverse group of stu-
dents with a range of different
business ideas and companies in a
variety of stages, Kirsch said.
"It's an environment where
students can learn from each
other as well as from the whims
and learning moments the other
teams experience as well," he
said.
Among the qualities TechArb
looks for in its applicants are a
drive to succeed and a willing-
ness to be coached, according to
Lee. Zagorin echoed the impor-
tance of havingthese qualities.
"If you want to apply to
TechArb, be honest about how
much time and energy you have
to commit to your vision," Zago-
rin wrote.
He added that TechArb is
"good at helping people with nei-
ther a business or engineering
background."
"So don't be scared off if your
company idea doesn't fit the pro-
file of a high-tech start-up," he
wrote.
ness Month plays an important
role in furthering research to
prevent the disease.
"Most of us feel that hav-
ing this focus on breast can-
cer worldwide in October is
extremely helpful to channel a
lot of energy and funding to con-
quer breast cancer, because it's a
very complex disease that isn't
going to be a single solution,"
Merajver said. "Breast Cancer
Awareness Month puts scien-
tists in touch with a lot a breast
cancer survivors and advocacy
groups, and they work together
for one cause: to cure and pre-
vent breast cancer."
Researchers at the Univer-
sity's Comprehensive Cancer
Center were also awarded a
$3.5 million grant from Susan
G. Komen for the Cure in Sep-
tember to study cancerous stem
cells and to develop and test new
treatments for triple negative
breast cancer - an aggressive
form of the disease that dispro-
portionately affects African-
American women.
Max Wicha, the director of
the Comprehensive Cancer Cen-

ter and the principal investigator
of the study, said research in this
area will involve a collaboration
between the Karmanos Can-
cer Institute in Detroit, the Van
Andel Institute in Grand Rapids,
Mich. and the Henry Ford Hos-
pital. Since the centers are geo-
graphically diverse, treatments
will be available to patients
across the state, Wicha said.
After studying the differences
in stem cells in the first phase of
research, Wicha said he and the
other researchers plan to devel-
op medicine that can specifically
target cancerous stem cells and
develop therapies for triple nega-
tive breast cancer.
Wicha has previously stud-
ied why some cancers are more
aggressive than others, and his
research team has determined
that the aggressiveness of the
cancer depends on the amount of
cancerous stemcells. Preliminary
studies have shown that African-
American women have more can-
cerous stem cells when they get
breast cancer, while Caucasian
women have the lowest percent-
age of stem cells when they have
the disease, according Wicha.
"We really need to develop
new therapies that are specific
for this form of breast cancer and
can offer women with this breast
cancer a new hope," Wicha said.

N igerian man pleads guilty
in underwear bomb attack

Man receives
life sentence for
Detroit plane plot
DETROIT (AP) - A Nigerian
man pleaded guilty yesterday to
trying to bring down a jetliner
with a bomb in his underwear,
defiantly telling a federal judge
that he acted in retaliation for
the killing of Muslims world-
wide and referring to the failed
explosive as a"blessed weapon."
Umar Farouk Abdulmutal-
lab, who acknowledged working
for al-Qaida and never denied
the allegations, entered the plea
against his attorney's advice on
the second day of his trial. He
stands to get a mandatory life
sentence for the 2009 attack
that aimed to kill nearly 300
people on Christmas Day in the
skies above Detroit.
Abdulmutallab calmly
answered the judge's questions
and read a political statement
warningthatifthe United States
continues "to persist and pro-
mote the blasphemy of Muham-
mad and the prophets," it risks
"a great calamity ... through the
hands of the mujahedeen soon."
"If you laugh at us now, we
will laugh at you later on the day
of judgment," he said.
Abdulmutallab suggested
more than a year ago that he
wanted to plead guilty but
never did.' He dropped his
four-person, publicly financed
defense team in favor of rep-
resenting himself with help
from a prominent local lawyer
appointed by the court, Antho-
ny Chambers.

In an interview, Chambers
said Abdulmutallab privately
renewed his interest in a guilty
plea Tuesday before the start
of the trial. But it did not hap-
pen immediately because the
defendant was not prepared to
go through the lengthy required
question-and-answer session
with the judge.
When the two met again
Wednesday morning, Abdul-
mutallab was ready, Chambers
said.
Prosecutors were aware of
a possible plea, but there were
no negotiations. Abdulmutallab
had "no interest" in speaking
to prosecutors, Chambers said,
and was unlikely to get any ben-
efit at this stage of the case.
"It was too late. We were
ready to go," U.S. Attorney Bar-
bara McQuade said.
Chambers wanted to go to
trial to raise doubts about just
how powerful the explosive
was. And if Abdulmutallab were
convicted, there was also a pos-
sible appeal involving the lack
of a Miranda warning before a
crucial FBI interview.
"I know he prayed about it
and came to what he believed
was the right decision," Cham-
bers said. "I don't think there
was anything done (at trial) that
made him say, 'This is a done
deal. I have to take a plea.' It was
a personal decision."
Passenger Lori Haskell of
Newport, Mich., watched the
plea by video from a room near
the court. She called Abdulmu-
tallab's statement "chilling" but
not surprising.
"I'm just really relieved that
it's done with," she said. .

The Amsterdam-to-Detroit
flight was just moments from
landing when Abdulmutallab
tried to detonate the bomb in his
pants. It failed to go off, but his
clothes caught fire, and passen-
gers jumped on him when they
saw smoke and flame.
The evidence was stacked
high.
The government said Abdul-
mutallab willingly explained
the plot twice, first to U.S. bor-
der officers who took him off
the plane and then in more
detail to FBI agents who inter-
viewed him at a hospital after
he was treated for burns to his
groin.
There were also photos of his
scorched shorts, video of Abdul-
mutallab explaining his suicide
mission before departing for the
U.S. and scores of passengers
who could have been called as
eyewitnesses.
Attorney General Eric Hold-
er said the plea "removes any
doubt that our courts are one
of the most effective tools we
have to fight terrorism," refer-
ring to a long-running debate
over whether suspects such as
Abdulmutallab should be tried
in civilian or military court-
rooms.
"We will let results, not rhet-
oric, guide our actions," Holder
said.
Dimitrios Bessis of Harri-
son County, Ga., sat two rows
behind Abdulmutallab on
Northwest Airlines Flight 253
and used his hat to beat out
the flames. He said his trip to
Detroit to serve as a potential
witness was his first plane ride
since the attempted attack.