defenseman 
Zach 
Werenski: 

“Someone who can hit like that 
definitely brings energy to the 
bench. You can see guys on the 
other team don’t want to go his 
way.”

Downing’s 
junior 
season 

was no different. On top of 
his 
continued 
massive 
hits, 

he became a focal point of the 
offense. He led the second power 
play unit, and he had an uncanny 

ability to get his shots through 
traffic and toward the net, which 
often led to goals.

The junior finished the season 

with three goals and 17 assists 
and was one of two defensemen 
to reach 20 points.

Now, Downing is eager to get 

his professional career started.

“I am going to go in and 

prove myself to my coaches 
and teammate,” Downing said. 
“There’s a lot to prove and do go 
in there and do what I do and gain 
the respect of my teammates.”

affect the availability of mental 
health information for men.

“I find that the majority of 

research on stress and health 
has 
focused 
primarily 
on 

women,” Watkins said. “I think 
it does negate the importance 
of understanding the ways 
in which stress differentially 
affects men’s health, especially 
vulnerable groups of men and 
boys.”

Assari’s study found over 

time women adapt to stress 
in ways men do not. He said 
women are better able to 
manage their stress, while he 
also noted that men experience 
depression 
at 
higher 
rates 

due to a number of factors 
inclduing 
inability 
to 
deal 

with stress, while women are 
exposed to higher levels of 
stress at a younger age than 
men, levels of depression in 
men are delayed. Yet women 
are more prepared than men 
to manage their stress and 
depressive symptoms, and are 
more likely to seek help.

“The literature says yes, 

women get more stress,” Assari 
said. “But, from the other side, 
we know that women get used 
to stress in the way that they 
can mobilize the psycho-social 
resources. They can better 
communicate or talk about 
their emotions. They don’t 
stigmatize using health care 
… As men, we think that’s not 
appropriate, that reduces our 
power or control over life. We 
don’t talk about our emotions 
and our difficulties.”

Watkins 
said 
long-term 

stress can lead to a range 
of health outcomes, such as 
more severe problems with 
mental health, susceptibility 
to diseases and risk of chronic 
conditions.

“Stress can be detrimental 

to 
everyone’s 
health 
and 

well-being,” 
Watkins 
said. 

“Its effects on health are 
evident, directly through more 
physiological 
pathways, 
but 

also indirectly through health 
behaviors and practices.”

In particular, Assari said 

hegemonic masculinity — a 
traditional belief among men 
that identifies being a man as 
needing to show power and 
dominance can lead to showing 
higher vulnerability to higher 
effects of stress because they 
do not seek professional help. 

Expressing 
a 
similar 

sentiment, Watkins said men 
usually abide by the general 
social 
codes 
set 
for 
their 

gender so as to avoid the 
stress associated with doing 
otherwise.

“Because men tend to adhere 

to 
those 
more 
traditional 

definitions of manhood they 
won’t go and seek physical 
health care or mental health 
care because, despite all these 
risks, they’re saying, ‘I’m the 
man, and because I’m a man, 
I can handle that,’ ” Watkins 
said.

Jill Becker, professor of 

Psychology 
and 
Psychiatry, 

who studies sex differences 
in motivation and drug abuse 
primarily using rat models, 
said the study was a needed 
contribution 
to 
the 
field. 

Becker said when subjecting 
the rats to restraint stressors 
repeatedly for a long period of 
time, female rats show better 
capabilities for learning, while 
male rats do worse following 
repeated 
restraint 
stress. 

Becker said this concept could 
be applicable to human males 
as well. 

“The ability to use these 

large data sets to begin to 
answer questions about where 
are there sex and gender 
differences in how stress is 
affecting us makes this a very 
important article,” Becker said.

For Assari, this research 

ultimately suggests men are 
less likely to take care of their 
emotional problems, an issue 
that could have adverse effects 
on mental and physical health 
in their future.

“We need to work with 

this 
gender 
identity, 
help 

them to seek care, reduce 
stigma associated with mental 
health care organizations and 
(increase) 
communication 

about emotion among men,” 
Assari said.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Wednesday, March 30, 2016 — 3A

NEWS BRIEFS

UHS tests 
artificial heart 
technology

The University of Michigan 

Health System is testing the 
Transmedics Organ Care System 
(OCS), a high-tech heart box that 
circulates blood from the donor 
to the heart, according to the 
University Health System. The 
OCS Heart system will nourish 
the heart with oxygen and 
nutrients and keep it at normal 
body temperature. The current 
method of storing the heart on 
ice keeps it viable for only four 
hours . This new technology aims 
to keep the heart beating while in 
transit.

“With this method of 

transplantation, hearts are kept 
beating, allowing for organs to 
be transplanted longer distances 
so that more opportunities 
may arise for our patients 
to receive the organs they 
desperately need,” said Francis 
Pagani, cardiac surgeon at the 
University of Michigan Frankel 
Cardiovascular Center, the 
study’s lead investigator

According to UHS, there 

are about 4,000 people in the 
United States in need o f a heart 
transplant. This new technology 
will allow many more donor 
hearts to be transplanted because 
hearts can travel longer distances, 
allowing for more potential 
recipients. Also, surgeons will be 
able to examine the heart because 
it is kept functional during 
transportation. 

Flint lags in 
water plan to fix 
infrastructure

The Fast Start program, a 

30-day initiative to replace 
infrastructure at 30 homes by the 
March 31, is far from completion, 
according to MLive. So far, 
less than 10 homes have been 
completed. 

In early March, engineer teams 

identified the 30 priority homes. 
Part of the project includes the 
removal of pipes made of lead and 
galvanized steel. Flint officials 
have attributed the delayed 
progress to rain, snowstorms and 
paperwork issues. 

Weaver’s spokeswoman Kristin 

Moore said they will continue 
infrastructure replacement even 
after the date passes. There are 
potentially 5,000 homes in Flint 
in need of new infrastructure. 
Currently the program is funded 
by the $2 million the state gave to 
reimburse Flint’s expenditures in 
2015 when the city had to switch 
back to the Detroit water system. 
Weaver said she is looking for 
more funding to continue the 
project. 

Detroit Public 
School official 
charged for bribery

The principal of a Detroit 

Public School that was set to 
receive more than $500,000 
worth of donations from TV 
talk show host Ellen DeGeneres 
has been charged with bribery 
in an unrelated criminal case, 
according to the Detroit Free 
Press. 

Federal court records show 

that Ronald Alexander, the 
principal at Charles L. Spain 
Elementary Middle School, 
allegedly appropriated $23,000 
in kickbacks from Norman Shy, in 
exchange for using Shy’s company 
Allstate Sales as a school supply 
vendor. Allstate Sales sells 
school supplies and items such as 
auditorium chairs. 

This is part of a larger saga 

involving $1 million worth 
of kickbacks and at least 12 
Detroit Public Schools that 
contracted Allstate Sales in 
exchange for money. Charles L. 
Elementary Middle School gained 
prominence when DeGeneres 
announced, in a show segment 
that aired in February, that the 
school would receive more than 
$500,000 worth of donations, 
construction materials and 
technology. 

 
 
 
 

 

 —DESIREE CHEW

ELIZABETH XIONG/Daily

A Phi Beta Sigma member performs at the National Pan-Hellenic Council 
Step Show Tuesday.

STEP UP

NHL
From Page 1A

STRESS
From Page 1A

ANDREW COHEN/Daily

LSA sophomore Julia Pompilius examines a Nigerian mask up close in UMMA’s object study room for Art History Prof. 
David Doris’s Yoruba Visual Culture class. The University’s art museum is in the process of assessing its African Art 
collection following the recent addition of their first African Art curator.

AFRICAN ART

