8
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2013 since 1891 vol. cxlviii, no. 86 D aily H erald THE BROWN 66 / 52 TOMORROW 64 / 48 TODAY WEATHER UNIVERSITY NEWS, 2 What stinks? Students report seeing a larger number of skunks on campus this year INSIDE SCIENCE & RESEARCH, 5 COMMENTARY, 7 Drone wars Robyn Sundlee ’16 calls for more transparency and certainty in drone strikes Mind on fire Assistant professor explores the stories of the psychiatric patients she treats By BRITTANY NIEVES SENIOR STAFF WRITER President Obama will nominate Janet Yellen ’67, current vice chair of the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors, for the Federal Reserve Chair position today, the White House announced Tuesday. If confirmed, Yellen would be the first woman to lead the bank in its 100- year history. Ben Bernanke, current chairman of the Federal Reserve, will retire January 2014. Yellen’s confirmation would also make her one of two Brown alums to lead major economic institutions — Jim Yong Kim ’82 currently leads the World Bank. Yellen’s confirmation process will be in front of a majority Democratic Senate. Barring a filibuster, she is ex- pected to have enough support to be confirmed. Prior to her position as vice chair, Yellen served as chairwoman of Presi- dent Bill Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers and as president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. She has also taught at universities including Har- vard and the University of California at Berkeley. “I noticed when she was appoint- ed vice chair several years ago. I had looked her up to make sure she was the same person I went to school with,” Yellen ’67 to be nominated to Fed Chair post If confirmed by the Senate, Yellen would be the first woman to head the Federal Reserve By EMMA JERZYK CONTRIBUTING WRITER Mars may have once been a habitable place for life, said John Grotzinger, a project scientist for the Curiosity Rover and a pro- fessor of geology at the California Institute of Technology, in a lecture he delivered yesterday in nearly full MacMillan 117. e rover Curiosity landed on Mars aſter missions by three previous rov- ers, Sojourner, which was launched in 1996, and Spirit and Opportunity, which were launched in 2003. Path- finder served as a guinea pig for land- ing vehicles on Mars, and Spirit and Opportunity landed in search of water. But Curiosity was launched to look more closely at the chemistry of Mars to see if the planet could support life, Grotzinger said. Curiosity landed in the Gale Crater, which has a large mountain — Mount Sharp — in the middle of it. is mis- sion marks the first in which landing in Gale Crater was possible. In previous missions, landing technology was not Lecturer elucidates Mars missions Grotzinger discussed previous rover missions and the possibility of life on the ‘Red Planet’ By GABRIELLE DEE SENIOR STAFF WRITER e number of students entering em- ployment immediately aſter graduation increased from 56 percent in 2009 to 65 percent in 2012, according to a survey conducted by CareerLAB. Of the 1,321 members of the class of 2012 who responded to the survey, 24 percent alternatively pursued full- time graduate or professional study immediately following graduation, 11 percent pursued “other endeavors” including volunteering, fellowships and additional courses, and 36 graduates reported that they were still “seeking employment” as of March this year. Data for the survey was collected be- tween May 2012 and March 2013. Medicine, law, and teaching and education were the three most popular professional degrees pursued by alums, while education, finance and bank- ing, and science and research were the three most common post-employment industries. e five most popular employ- ers were Teach for America, Brown, Google, Morgan Stanley and Epic Systems. CareerLAB Director Andrew Simmons said he assumed the spike in employment is a result of a better economy. Education might be the most popu- lar sector due to the vast opportuni- ties it offers, while the low number of students working in the government and public policy sector is due to the amount of specialization needed to go into these fields — students need to gain “frontline experience” first, Sim- mons said. Simmons added that the survey might underestimate the numbers pur- suing graduate and professional study as many students work for a few years before entering graduate school. e number of students entering medical school is also boosted by the students in the Program in Liberal Medical Educa- tion class, he said. Clearer trends might be evident once CareerLAB gathers data over a longer period of time, Simmons added, and if CareerLAB examines how alums have changed their career tracks 10 years aſter graduating. CareerLAB also sorted its post- graduate data by concentration on its website and linked it to Focal Point, indicating the diversity of career op- portunities that exist within each dis- cipline, Simmons said. “What alumni do is all over the place. is is consistent with the kind of place that Brown is,” he added. Because students from the class of 2013 have not yet had enough time to solidify their plans aſter Brown, Career- LAB plans to release data indicating their post-employment paths in the Survey suggests employment on rise for recent grads e most popular employers include Google, the University and Morgan Stanley By EMMA HARRIS CONTRIBUTING WRITER Brown Concert Agency held its first of many open forums to inform the student body of the Spring Weekend planning process and solicit student opinions yesterday at 6 p.m. in Sa- lomon 101. “We want to reach out to the student body, and we want them to understand the process of the con- cert planning and how it works,” said Micah Greenberg ’14, booking chair BCA plans on holding more open forums, setting up a table on the Col- lege Green in the months leading up to Spring Weekend and taking into account the preferences students ex- press in the ongoing Undergraduate Council of Students poll, she said. BCA’s primary purpose is to “provide students with the best acts possible,” said Cameron Johnson ’14, administrative chair. BCA reaches out to the student body for their founda- tion of information, he said. e meeting consisted of a discus- sion of BCA’s timeline for the year, their selection of performers, ticket- ing issues and a question-and-answer session on what groups BCA can af- ford. About 14 students attended, including four non-BCA members. Instead of having a Fall Concert, Greenberg said BCA requested a “su- per-sized budget” to make this year’s Spring Weekend “truly memorable.” “We try to predict what will be popular in the spring,” Johnson said. Last year, BCA was able to book Ken- drick Lamar at an affordable price by acting early. Within 24 hours of his album “good kid, m.A.A.d city” leaking in February, all BCA members listened to it online and contacted their mid- dle agent to book him, Johnson said. Due to budget constraints, artists such as Beyonce and Taylor Swiſt are out of reach. In his hit song “Started from the Bottom,” when Drake raps, “now I’m on the road, half a million for a show,” he’s not kidding, John- son said. But booking artists like Lorde is possible, Greenberg said. “is year isn’t quite like the oth- ers,” Greenberg said. “It’s the 250th anniversary of Brown, and Spring Weekend is really the only event that brings the whole undergraduate body At forum, BCA outlines Spring Weekend act selection BCA will have a larger budget than in years past for the U.’s 250th anniversary EMILY GILBERT / HERALD BCA members said reaching out to their middle agent as soon as Kendrick Lamar’s album first leaked helped them book the artist. Herald file photo. COURTESY WIKIMEDIA COMMONS Prior to her position as vice chair of the Federal Reserve, Yellen was chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. » See MARS, page 2 » See YELLEN, page 4 » See EMPLOYMENT, page 3 » See BCA, page 5 SCIENCE & RESEARCH

October 9, 2013

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Page 1: October 9, 2013

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2013 since 1891vol. cxlviii, no. 86Daily HeraldTHE BROWN

66 / 52

t o m o r r o w

64 / 48

t o d ay

wea

ther

UNIVERSITY NEWS, 2

What stinks?Students report seeing a larger number of skunks on campus this yearin

side

SCIENCE & RESEARCH, 5 COMMENTARY, 7

Drone warsRobyn Sundlee ’16 calls for more transparency and certainty in drone strikes

Mind on fireAssistant professor explores the stories of the psychiatric patients she treats

By BRITTANY NIEVESSENIOR STAFF WRITER

President Obama will nominate Janet Yellen ’67, current vice chair of the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors, for the Federal Reserve Chair position today, the White House announced Tuesday.

If confirmed, Yellen would be the first woman to lead the bank in its 100-year history. Ben Bernanke, current chairman of the Federal Reserve, will retire January 2014.

Yellen’s confirmation would also make her one of two Brown alums to

lead major economic institutions — Jim Yong Kim ’82 currently leads the World Bank.

Yellen’s confirmation process will be in front of a majority Democratic Senate. Barring a filibuster, she is ex-pected to have enough support to be confirmed.

Prior to her position as vice chair, Yellen served as chairwoman of Presi-dent Bill Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers and as president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. She has also taught at universities including Har-vard and the University of California at Berkeley.

“I noticed when she was appoint-ed vice chair several years ago. I had looked her up to make sure she was the same person I went to school with,”

Yellen ’67 to be nominated to Fed Chair postIf confirmed by the Senate, Yellen would be the first woman to head the Federal Reserve

By EMMA JERZYKCONTRIBUTING WRITER

Mars may have once been a habitable place for life, said John Grotzinger, a

project scientist for the Curiosity Rover and a pro-fessor of geology

at the California Institute of Technology, in a lecture he delivered yesterday in nearly full MacMillan 117.

The rover Curiosity landed on Mars after missions by three previous rov-ers, Sojourner, which was launched in 1996, and Spirit and Opportunity, which were launched in 2003. Path-finder served as a guinea pig for land-ing vehicles on Mars, and Spirit and Opportunity landed in search of water. But Curiosity was launched to look more closely at the chemistry of Mars to see if the planet could support life, Grotzinger said.

Curiosity landed in the Gale Crater, which has a large mountain — Mount Sharp — in the middle of it. This mis-sion marks the first in which landing in Gale Crater was possible. In previous missions, landing technology was not

Lecturer elucidatesMarsmissionsGrotzinger discussed previous rover missions and the possibility of life on the ‘Red Planet’

By GABRIELLE DEESENIOR STAFF WRITER

The number of students entering em-ployment immediately after graduation increased from 56 percent in 2009 to 65 percent in 2012, according to a survey conducted by CareerLAB.

Of the 1,321 members of the class of 2012 who responded to the survey, 24 percent alternatively pursued full-time graduate or professional study immediately following graduation, 11 percent pursued “other endeavors”

including volunteering, fellowships and additional courses, and 36 graduates reported that they were still “seeking employment” as of March this year. Data for the survey was collected be-tween May 2012 and March 2013.

Medicine, law, and teaching and education were the three most popular professional degrees pursued by alums, while education, finance and bank-ing, and science and research were the three most common post-employment industries.

The five most popular employ-ers were Teach for America, Brown, Google, Morgan Stanley and Epic Systems.

CareerLAB Director Andrew Simmons said he assumed the spike in employment is a result of a better

economy. Education might be the most popu-

lar sector due to the vast opportuni-ties it offers, while the low number of students working in the government and public policy sector is due to the amount of specialization needed to go into these fields — students need to gain “frontline experience” first, Sim-mons said.

Simmons added that the survey might underestimate the numbers pur-suing graduate and professional study as many students work for a few years before entering graduate school. The number of students entering medical school is also boosted by the students in the Program in Liberal Medical Educa-tion class, he said.

Clearer trends might be evident

once CareerLAB gathers data over a longer period of time, Simmons added, and if CareerLAB examines how alums have changed their career tracks 10 years after graduating.

CareerLAB also sorted its post-graduate data by concentration on its website and linked it to Focal Point, indicating the diversity of career op-portunities that exist within each dis-cipline, Simmons said.

“What alumni do is all over the place. This is consistent with the kind of place that Brown is,” he added.

Because students from the class of 2013 have not yet had enough time to solidify their plans after Brown, Career-LAB plans to release data indicating their post-employment paths in the

Survey suggests employment on rise for recent gradsThe most popular employers include Google, the University and Morgan Stanley

By EMMA HARRISCONTRIBUTING WRITER

Brown Concert Agency held its first of many open forums to inform the student body of the Spring Weekend planning process and solicit student opinions yesterday at 6 p.m. in Sa-lomon 101.

“We want to reach out to the student body, and we want them to understand the process of the con-cert planning and how it works,” said Micah Greenberg ’14, booking chair

BCA plans on holding more open forums, setting up a table on the Col-lege Green in the months leading up

to Spring Weekend and taking into account the preferences students ex-press in the ongoing Undergraduate Council of Students poll, she said.

BCA’s primary purpose is to “provide students with the best acts possible,” said Cameron Johnson ’14, administrative chair. BCA reaches out to the student body for their founda-tion of information, he said.

The meeting consisted of a discus-sion of BCA’s timeline for the year, their selection of performers, ticket-ing issues and a question-and-answer session on what groups BCA can af-ford. About 14 students attended, including four non-BCA members.

Instead of having a Fall Concert, Greenberg said BCA requested a “su-per-sized budget” to make this year’s Spring Weekend “truly memorable.”

“We try to predict what will be popular in the spring,” Johnson said.

Last year, BCA was able to book Ken-drick Lamar at an affordable price by acting early.

Within 24 hours of his album “good kid, m.A.A.d city” leaking in February, all BCA members listened to it online and contacted their mid-dle agent to book him, Johnson said.

Due to budget constraints, artists such as Beyonce and Taylor Swift are out of reach. In his hit song “Started from the Bottom,” when Drake raps, “now I’m on the road, half a million for a show,” he’s not kidding, John-son said.

But booking artists like Lorde is possible, Greenberg said.

“This year isn’t quite like the oth-ers,” Greenberg said. “It’s the 250th anniversary of Brown, and Spring Weekend is really the only event that brings the whole undergraduate body

At forum, BCA outlines Spring Weekend act selectionBCA will have a larger budget than in years past for the U.’s 250th anniversary

EMILY GILBERT / HERALD

BCA members said reaching out to their middle agent as soon as Kendrick Lamar’s album first leaked helped them book the artist. Herald file photo.

COURTESY WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Prior to her position as vice chair of the Federal Reserve, Yellen was chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

» See MARS, page 2

» See YELLEN, page 4

» See EMPLOYMENT, page 3

» See BCA, page 5

SCIENCE & RESEARCH

Page 2: October 9, 2013

university news2 THE BROWN DAILY HERALDWEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2013

12:30 P.M.

Lunchtime Meditation Sit

Manning Chapel

2 P.M.

Consent Day Fair

Main Green

12 P.M.

Perception Action Seminar Series

Metcalf, Room 305

8 P.M.

Concert of Modern Jazz

Grant Recital Hall

SHARPE REFECTORY VERNEY-WOOLLEY

LUNCH

DINNER

Mediterranean Orzo, Quinoa with Kale and Olives, Vegan Quinoa Stuffed Portobello, Salmon with Provencale

Turkey Cutlet with Veloute Sauce, Vegan Paella, Roasted Corn Chowder with Bacon, Six Bean Soup

Polynesian Chicken Wings, Organic Red Rice with Papaya and Pineapple, Vegetables in Honey and Ginger Sauce

Roasted Corn Chowder with Bacon, Vegan Six Bean Soup, Tacos, Vegan Roasted Veggie Burrito

TODAY OCTOBER 9 TOMORROW OCTOBER 10

c r o s s w o r d

s u d o k u

m e n u

c a l e n d a r

By WING SZE HOCONTRIBUTING WRITER

Skunks have been frequently sighted by students around residence halls and campus eateries this year, but University administrators said they have not dealt with any skunk incidents.

Students said they have seen the animals on various campus quads and outside multiple buildings in recent weeks, and some expressed surprise at the seemingly high number of skunks on campus.

Isabella Amram ’17 said she saw three skunks in one night about two weeks ago near the Sharpe Refectory, in front of the Sciences Library and near the Gate.

Amram said she also saw a skunk under the arch covering the entrance

to Morriss Hall and Champlin Hall last Thursday evening. “It was really scared” and running away from on-lookers, Amram said.

“There seems to be an increase in skunks and other small animals all over the state,” said Stephen Morin, director of the Office of Environmental Health and Safety. But staffers from the office have not responded to any reports from Brown community members about skunks because such reports fall under the jurisdiction of the Department of Facilities Management, Morin added.

The Pembroke campus has been a hotspot for skunk sightings this semes-ter, some students said. Asya Igmen ’17 said she saw a skunk on Pembroke Green three weeks ago and Katie Liu ’17 said she saw one outside the Gate a couple of weeks ago.

But skunks have also been preva-lent on south campus, students said. Marileni Benopoulou ’17 and Tamsin Rankine-Fourdraine ’17 said they saw a skunk outside Josiah’s last Thurs-day evening. None of the students

interviewed by The Herald said they were sprayed or attacked by the skunks.

Though students noted the in-creased presence of skunks on campus, administrators did not express concern about the animals.

“We are not aware of any situations involving skunks on campus; I have worked here over 20 years, and cannot recall any visits to Health Services due to skunk spraying or injury,” Health Services Associate Director Lynn Du-pont wrote in an email to The Herald Monday. “A few times per year we have students who come in with a dog bite or cat scratch, but (that’s) the extent of it.”

Michelle Nuey, manager of the community relations and outreach bureau for the Department of Public Safety, wrote in an email to The Herald that DPS has not received any recent reports about skunks. Nuey wrote that she “could not speculate” about the locations of skunk sightings.

Facilities Management could not be reached for comment about the re-ported skunk sightings.

Students report skunk sightingsAdministrators express little concern over a potential increase in the campus’ skunk population

advanced enough to allow vehicles to land in a precise location, but NASA scientists made technological advances which enabled Curiosity to target a much smaller landing site.

The team chose this location be-cause it provided interesting terrains for Curiosity to examine within a small radius. That way, if Curiosity was not fully functional after landing, there would still be interesting materials available for analysis. Because it is a crater with a mountain, Gale exhibits large differences in altitudes, expos-ing many different types of “geologies,” Grotzinger said, including clay, sand and dust. Curiosity’s landing site was also positioned near an area in which many “canals” converged, leaving be-hind exposed terrain, Grotzinger said.

Gale Crater has been an area of interest for several of NASA’s past

missions. “Maybe someday we’ll get up there,” Grotzinger said of the mountain.

Curiosity used two different tools for its chemical analyses, Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer and ChemCam. One of the Curiosity mission’s aims was to compare the data from APXS, which is “tried and true,” with data from ChemCam, which is a much newer technology. ChemCam uses a laser to drill into rock samples, creating plasma and passes the light from the plasma through a spectrometer, a device that determines the elements of a sample.

APXS refines a rock sample by finely sifting it and then passes it through another tool called CheMin, which provides a mineralogy analysis. It also passes it through a group of three in-struments called Sample Analysis at Mars, which Grotzinger claims “is its own spacecraft.” SAM is composed of three instruments that determine the molecular components of atmospheric

samples, Grotzinger said. The Curiosity team used these and

other tools to analyze samples from the Rocknest sand shadow Deposit, a specific location within the Gale Cra-ter. The team chose the Rocknest sand shadow Deposit because it provided local samples from the sand as well as global samples from the dust that settled there, which could have origi-nated from anywhere on the planet. From this data, the team was able to determine that, had there been a bio-sphere, Mars could have supported life, Grotzinger said.

“We really did find a quite habitable environment on Mars,” he added.

Audience members said they en-joyed the talk.

“He was very clear in every state-ment and he explained it very well,” said Margaret Lengerich MS’13. “I’m not familiar with these terms, but I could understand almost everything.”

JUSTINA LEE / HERALD

During his lecture, John Grotzinger addressed the possibility of someday reaching the mountain that sits within Mars’ Gale Crater, an area that has been of interest for several of NASA’s past missions.

» MARS, from page 1

www.browndailyherald.com

Page 3: October 9, 2013

university news 3THE BROWN DAILY HERALDWEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2013

spring, Simmons said.

From campus to careerMarvin Li ’13, who studied chemical

engineering, currently works for Epic, a company he said creates software for medical use.

Despite Epic’s attempts to create a college vibe in the workplace, “there’s less of a sense of unified community” outside Brown, Li said. “It’s harder to make friends.”

Li said his time at Brown, especially in his engineering classes, taught him to figure out concepts on his own. He is able to apply this to software gen-eration because he is constantly “doing something that no one knows how to do,” he added.

“I think that there’s nothing to to-tally prepare you for your first year of teaching,” said Kyra Mungia, a Teach for America corps member. She added that she worked closely with Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron to prepare for her interviews.

Alejandra Lindstrom Peralta ’12,

who concentrated in visual arts, went to New Mexico to become a beekeeper, moved to Montana to become a goat herder and currently works at an oyster farm in Providence, she said.

“My time working with animals and being in these different places has basi-cally just given me materials for artwork that I’m currently working on,” Peralta said. She hopes to apply to an MFA pro-gram at a graduate school next year, she said.

Lei Ma ’13 said that Brown Taekwon-do, rather than her academic experi-ences, wielded the most influence over her interests — and this has carried over to her work at the University of Texas at Austin’s evolutionary biology ecolab.

In Taekwondo, students learn to “just do one thing and try not to think of anything else,” Ma said. “That applies to everything else you’re doing.”

Ma said she found this applicable to her studies at Brown, as well as her current job as a lab technician.

Hitting the books (again)

Kimberly Wachtler ’13, who dou-ble concentrated in anthropology and

gender and sexuality studies, currently attends Yale Law School. Wachtler said a different kind of diversity exists in grad school. Wachtler’s colleagues at Yale vary in age, experience and route to law school, she said.

Watchler chose to go to grad school because of the multitude of opportuni-ties that law school opens up, as well as the enjoyment she derives from learn-ing, she said.

“It’s not that it takes a certain type of person (to go straight into to grad school), but I think that it’s a choice,” she said.

Wachtler said Brown prepared her for graduate studies by teaching her to analyze course material well and apply it through her own perspective.

“I think that regardless of what you study at Brown, you learn how to think,” she said.

PLME students Julius Ho ’12 and Jovian Yu ’12, who currently attend Alpert Medical school, said the biggest difference between their undergraduate and graduate studies at Brown is that the schedule for graduate school is more structured.

“Everybody takes the same classes,” Ho said. “There’s just one curriculum.”

Yu said above academics, he appreci-ated the teamwork and people skills that Brown taught him.

Michael Goldberg ’13, who concen-trated in biology and music, is currently on a Fulbright Fellowship in France to help create a database for diseases, he said.

“It provides a great platform to be able to look at diseases over space and time,” he said.

Brown prepares its students in ways that they do not necessarily realize dur-ing their time there, Goldberg said, adding that it taught him to constantly question his surroundings.

Brown lent him “academic indepen-dence” that he uses in his workplace today, he said.

“You have to spend a lot of time stepping back and thinking about the entire situation,” he said.

Liberal arts in motion

Life after graduating is like a “breath of fresh air,” Ma said, referring to the pressure in college to fill up every

moment with activities. She enjoys the “distinction between work and non-work that really doesn’t exist in college,” she added.

Peralta said she misses her peers, who are currently dispersed all over the world. “I feel like I’ve lost a community that’s really important to me,” she said. But she said she appreciates the fact that many alums still live in Providence and that she is able to reconnect with many of them.

While Watchler said she found Ca-reerLAB helpful because its law school info sessions allowed her to envision life at a certain school without having to leave campus, Ma said she found Ca-reerLAB unhelpful in finding a job as a research biologist, because the resources she needed, such as connections and contacts, were department-specific.

“For someone who knows what they want to do, CareerLAB is not that help-ful,” she said.

When searching for employment, students should apply to as many jobs as they can, no matter how unqualified they may feel, Li said.

“It’s a numbers game,” he added.

» EMPLOYMENT, from page 1

0

10

20

30

40

50

60%

2012201120102009

65% employment

24% graduate/professional school

11% other endeavours

17%

27%

56%

GREG JORDAN-DETAMORE / HERALD

Evolving post-graduate plansFrom 2009 to 2012, the percentage of seniors reporting a post-graduate plan of employment increased, while the percentage saying they were pursuing graduate school, professional school or other endeavours decreased.

A closer look at the class of 2012’s post-graduate plansEach year, CareerLAB surveys graduating seniors to find out their post-graduate plans. Presented here are the class of 2012’s survey responses.

EmployerGrads hired

Teach for America 32

Brown University 15

Google, Inc. 13

Morgan Stanley 12

Epic Systems 11

National Institutes of Health 11

AmeriCorps 10

Microsoft Corporation 10

Bain & Company 9

Citigroup 9

Massachusetts General Hospital 8

Goldman Sachs 7

Match Education 7

Boston Consulting Group 6

EF Education First 5

Federal Reserve Bank 5

Harvard University 5

McKinsey & Company 5

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

5

TripAdvisor 5

Top employers and employment sectorsThe top employer was Teach for America, with other leading companies and organizations falling in the technology, education, finance, consulting and health sectors.

Public Policy and Public A�airs

Government

Environment and Sustainability

Other

Engineering

Community Activism and Organizing

Construction, Manufacturing and Retail

Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations

Law and Legal Services

Arts and Arts Administration

Health Care and Public Health

Communications and Media

Sports and Entertainment

Technology

Consulting

Science and Research

Finance and Banking

Education 15%

15

11

9

8

6

5

5

4

4

4

3

3

3

2

2

2

1

1% Not reported8% Government/public

31% Nonpro�t

60% For-pro�t

Top graduate and professional degreesA total of 143 students reported attending professional schools and 170 reported attending graduate schools. (Note: Thirty of the students attending graduate schools did not report their degree type.)

Degree Students

Medicine (MD, MD/PhD, MD/MA) 84

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, PhD/MS) 66

Master of Science (MS) 53

Law (JD) 23

Master of Arts (MA) 20

Teaching and Education (MAT, M.Ed, Ed.M) 11

Fine Arts 7

Architecture and Landscape Architecture (MArch, LAN) 4

Business (MBA) 4

Public Health (MPH) 4

City and Regional Planning (MCRP) 1

Dentistry (DMD) 1

Ministry (MDiv) 1

Pharmacy (PharmD) 1

Master of Philosophy (MPhil) 1

Public Administration (MPA) 1

Public Policy (MPP) 1

Page 4: October 9, 2013

university news4 THE BROWN DAILY HERALDWEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2013

By MANDI CAICONTRIBUTING WRITER

A new experiment conducted by Jen-nifer Tidey, associate professor of psy-

chiatry and hu-man behavior, will examine the effects of differ-

ent nicotine levels in the cigarettes of depressed smokers.

Tidey’s research is part of a new federally funded project to research methods of lessening tobacco use. The

U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health awarded $19.5 million to the University of Vermont as part of their new Tobacco Centers of Regulatory Science Program.

Stacey Sigmon, research associate professor of psychology at the Univer-sity of Vermont, said Brown researchers will receive $1.6 million to conduct their study, functioning as one of the project sites contributing to the larger federal research project.

Though the research at Brown fo-cuses specifically on depressed smokers,

other sites will evaluate the effect of low nicotine content in women of child-bearing age and smokers with multi-substance dependence.

Tidey’s study aims to find a nicotine level that will “reduce cigarette use with-out increasing puff intensity, worsen-ing psychiatric symptoms or causing people to go back to their usual brand of cigarettes,” Tidey said in a University press release. If a person becomes ac-customed to smoking cigarettes with smaller amounts of nicotine, he or she may find it easier to decrease depen-dency on the substance.

The FDA does not have the authority to ban the sale of nicotine products, but

it can “regulate, among other things, the amount of nicotine in tobacco,” Tidey said. “There have been a handful of studies showing that if you do that, people will gradually reduce their smok-ing over a period of weeks to months,” she added.

To conduct their study, Tidey’s team, along with researchers at the Univer-sity of Vermont, will test experimental cigarettes on a group of around 400 participants who identify as smokers. The testing will take place over a course of 12 weeks.

First, study participants will smoke their usual brand of cigarettes for a week, and then researchers will switch

the smokers to cigarettes with different nicotine levels manufactured by The National Institute of Drug Abuse. Nei-ther the participants nor the researchers will know what level of nicotine partici-pants are receiving in their cigarettes until after the experiment concludes, Tidey said.

Over the course of the experiment, researchers will collect a range of data including biological measures of toxic-ity and participants’ levels of craving.

“Tobacco already costs the U.S. about $190 billion in health care costs and lost productivity,” Tidey said. “This study is really fascinating — it has the potential to make a huge impact.”

Prof receives $1.6 million grant to study smokingThe research will focus on weaning smokers with depression off their preferred cigarette brands

L E A R N I N G CO M E S N AT U R A L LY

DAVID DECKEY / HERALD

Students and professors took advantage of Tuesday’s warm weather by holding their classes outdoors on the Main Green.

By TYLER DAELEMANSCONTRIBUTING WRITER

Brown Dining Services officials said the program’s policy for to-go meals remains unchanged this year, despite some students’ perception that the of-fice has recently implemented a stricter approach to take-out meals.

Students taking to-go meals from University eateries must inform Din-ing Services employees upon enter-ing an eatery that they would like a to-go box and cup, a policy officials said has not changed despite reports

from some students that this policy is not uniformly enforced.

Cecilia Cerrilla ’16, who wrote in an email to The Herald that she visits the Verney-Woolley Dining Hall multiple times a week, wrote that she recently noticed a difference in the V-Dub’s takeout policy.

“Last Thursday, when I asked the swiper if I could have a cup, he told me that if he gave me a cup, he had to give me a take-out box too,” Cerrilla wrote. “He said it was a new policy because too many people were using the cups to steal milk and other items from the

V-Dub.”But Dining Services Director of

Administration Ann Hoffman wrote in an email to The Herald that Din-ing Services employees still operate under the current to-go policy, which permits students to turn down a cup if they choose.

“There has been no change in policy, nor is the policy at the (V-Dub) differ-ent from that of the Sharpe Refectory,” Hoffman wrote.

Though the to-go policy remains unchanged, student theft from campus eateries occasionally occurs, Dining Services Associate Director Peter Rossi wrote in an email that Hoffman for-warded to The Herald.

Rossi wrote that he could not pro-vide an exact amount of money that Dining Services loses to theft annu-ally, adding that Dining Services does not have any way to calculate losses from theft. Rossi said staffers play an important role in mitigating theft and preventing losses.

“Our staff is trained to manage these situations as they occur by following appropriate policy guidelines,” he wrote.

Some students said they believed theft from campus eateries was a prob-lem but not an urgent issue. “I think it happens pretty often, especially little things like fruit, but people don’t steal large amounts of food,” said Dipal Nagda ’17.

“I know people who have stolen food before, but I don’t think it’s an incredibly prevalent issue,” said Chester Kilfoyle ’16. But Kilfoyle added that he believed Dining Services has been stricter about its to-go policy this year, which he said has helped reduce theft.

The high cost of meal plans mo-tivates much of the theft of food in campus eateries, some students said. Nagda said many students think they have a right to steal food because they are already paying high costs for the food offered by meal plan choices.

“There’s a high perceived cost of meal plans,” Kilfoyle said. “People just feel like they’re trying to make the best of it.”

BDS, students dispute whether to-go meal policy has changedDespite student reports, the Dining Services take-out policy has not changed, officials said

William Fink ’67 said. “When I found out who it was, I wasn’t surprised.”

The other top contender for the position, Larry Summers, withdrew his name from consideration Sept. 15. Summers, who was formerly president of Harvard, had received significant opposition from Democrats who ex-pressed preference for Yellen. Progres-sives and women’s groups also endorsed

Yellen for the chair position. Jeff Koshel MA’67 said he was not

surprised that Yellen became the front-runner following Summers’ withdrawal from the race.

“I think it’s actually a very fitting, very appropriate and very wise appoint-ment,” Koshel said. “She doesn’t seem to be somebody who’s in it for the glamor of the appointments.”

Brown professors and students who overlapped with Yellen recalled her as

a student with significant drive and academic potential, The Herald previ-ously reported.

Yellen has over 10 years of experi-ence as a top official at the Fed, com-pared to Bernanke’s three years as a Fed governor.

According to a July 2013 Wall Street Journal article that “examined more than 700 predictions made between 2009 and 2012” by 14 Federal Re-serve policy makers, Yellen’s financial

predictions were most accurate overall, The Herald previously reported.

“She is the best choice and would be regardless of who else might be under consideration,” said John Kwoka ’67, professor of economics at Northeastern University. “Her nomination is par-ticularly welcome since her expertise is on the very issues facing the U.S. and global economies — employment and growth.”

According to NBC News, Obama’s

nomination announcement is set for 3 p.m today.

“Once in a while, good things hap-pen to good people,” said Koshel. “I think in this case, that’s what happened to Janet Yellen.”

In a statement emailed to The Her-ald, President Christina Paxson said she was “delighted” by the appointment.

“I commend President Obama for this inspired choice,” Paxson said in the statement.

» YELLEN, from page 1

SCIENCE & RESEARCH

Page 5: October 9, 2013

science & research 5THE BROWN DAILY HERALDWEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2013

Culture Shock | Chloe Hequet

c o m i c s

By ANDREW JIANGCONTRIBUTING WRITER

A woman who swallows steak knives, a mother who constantly imagines injur-ing her child and a tunic-clad young man who fixates on the love radiating from his surroundings are all psychiatric patients featured in a new book written by Christine Montross, assistant profes-sor of psychiatry and human behavior at the Alpert Medical School and a staff psychiatrist at Butler Hospital.

The book, “Falling into the Fire,” is a humanistic account of Montross’ encounters with psychiatric patients.

“There’s a tendency for people to marginalize the mentally ill or cast (them) as a population that is all very different from us,” Montross said. “It’s important to me to write about patients in a way that emphasizes their human-ity, so that readers won’t view them as strange or peripheral.”

When selecting which stories to in-clude in “Falling into the Fire,” Mon-tross said she chose those she “could not stop thinking about.” Though the general public may know of psychiatric patients who inflict self-harm by cutting or burning themselves, Montross said the cases she describes in her book are more esoteric.

The case that has sparked the most public interest involves a woman who swallows dangerous objects again and again, Montross said. The patient — also featured in an earlier New York Times op-ed piece by Montross — makes fre-quent trips to the emergency room but cannot afford regular psychiatric care. The chapter that contains the patient’s case focuses on the complex emotions the woman evokes in the people who care for her, Monstross added.

Holding both a masters in poetry and a medical degree, Montross bridges the gap between the two often dispa-rate fields of mental health and creative nonfiction.

In order to balance writing with her medical career and personal life, Montross said she has a very specific

schedule that she “created by design.” She works weekends at the Butler Hos-pital and spends one to two half-days at the Med School. During the rest of the week, she can focus on being a mother and on writing.

Montross first became interested in psychiatry as a graduate student at the University of Michigan, when she encountered portrayals and themes of madness in her study of poetry. As she interacted with troubled teenagers during a stint as a high school English teacher, her interest intensified. After considering becoming a social worker or a clinical psychologist, Montross decided to go to medical school. Her first book, “Body of Work,” documents her experience as a student at the Med School.

During her psychiatry residency, Montross “was a keen observer, defi-nitely extremely bright and focused,” said Steve Rasmussen ’74 MMS’77 MD’77 P’13 MD’17, chair of the psy-chiatry and human behavior depart-ment at Alpert and former medical director of Butler Hospital.

Though she writes nonfiction, Mon-tross’ prose style has a lyrical quality, owing to her Master of Fine Arts in poetry, she said.

She said her poetry background has been helpful to her practice as a physician as well. “Poetry is looking closely at things and drawing conclu-sions — medicine is like that, also,” said Montross.

The book has been well-received, Montross and her colleagues said. She said both laypeople and other profes-sionals in the psychiatric field have contacted Montross about “Falling into the Fire.”

Montross’ writing prompts read-ers to reflect on “familiar situations (they’ve)encountered in (their) lives that maybe (they) haven’t understood,” said Professor Emeritus Ted Goslow, who instructed Montross in anatomy at the Med School.

Montross said she hopes her book “gives people an appreciation for the vast capacity of the mind and the many ways that it can derail.”

She said she is in the beginning stag-es of a new book about mental health in prisons and “the confluence of mental health and the judicial system.”

Psychiatrist’s book seeks to demarginalize mentally ill‘Falling into the Fire’ explores unusual cases of patients’ self-injurious behavior

BRITTANY COMUNALE / HERALD

Montross’ book was inspired in part by her experience with troubled adolescents when she worked as a high school English teacher. After earning her MFA in poetry, Montross went on to receive a medical degree.

together.”Once acts are picked, BCA co-

signs a contract with the artists specifying concert details including when the line-up can be publicly an-nounced. If these terms are violated, artists have the right to drop out, Greenberg said, making confidenti-ality of utmost importance.

The BCA starts planning for Spring Weekend over the preceding summer, Johnson said. In the fall, members meet weekly, interview potential new members and book “as many artists as we can.” In the spring, they finalize the booking process, looking for groups that are

relevant in the music world, popular with students, good live performers and fit well together “creating a com-plete puzzle,” Johnson added.

Brown Student Agencies is also working in collaboration with the BCA to fix ticketing issues. Because payment verification must go through a contracted service called TouchNet, ticketing must happen on TouchNet’s servers, said Connor Shinn ’14, BSA executive director. “We’re confident that this year it’s in their best inter-est, as well as ours, to have this go well,” he said.

“They seemed to know what they are doing, and I’m looking forward to when the lineup gets revealed,” said Dani Dichter ’17.

» BCA, from page 1

Page 6: October 9, 2013

commentary6 THE BROWN DAILY HERALDWEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2013

The face of Thayer Street has changed significantly this semester, with storefronts previously situated around Meeting Street moving further down the street or shutting down completely. Construction on new luxury apartments is underway, and community organizations seek to revitalize the area around Thayer.

Construction around campus is necessary and important to maintain the University’s facilities. But when it comes to undertaking new projects, we hope any endeavors are used to benefit as many students and members of the local community as possible.

Looking onto Meeting Street — the location where Ben and Jerry’s, Sahara Hookah and Squires Salon previously stood— one will now find a wasteland of construction. The area’s developer, Gilbane Development Company, has begun to construct units of luxury apartments for students, a project offering questionable benefit. The original plans met criticism from both students and community members, who said the project did not necessarily reflect the area’s needs.

We agree: The luxury apartment complex, like other projects on Thayer Street, strikes us as inconsistent with the interests of the Brown community. Only a small number of students will actually benefit from the construction and live in the apartments upon their completion. Most others will likely find the apartments prohibitively expensive — indeed, the apartments could strengthen divides between students of different socioeconomic backgrounds.

Meanwhile, those who live or work near the zone must deal with the constant sounds of construction and the problems that often accompany that work. If construction continues in such a central community area, it should go toward projects that will directly benefit the area and the students and local community members who use it.

Instead of luxury apartments, we believe the area could benefit from other additions — for instance, students have professed the need for a grocery store within walking distance from campus, something wholly absent from Thayer Street. The addition of Gourmet Heaven has some-what alleviated the need for a nearby grocery vendor, but students who do not have access to a car on campus are limited in their abilities to shop for reasonably priced groceries. The vacancy created by Tedeschi Food Shop could be used to fill this gap, if, for instance, a grocery vendor occupied the space.

Change is necessary, and construction projects and transformations around Thayer Street are inevitable. But we hope future endeavors ad-dress concerns relevant to the needs of the Brown community, rather than creating or exacerbating existing problems.

Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board: its editor, Rachel Occhiogrosso, and its members, Dan Jeon, Hannah Loewentheil and Thomas Nath. Send comments to [email protected].

Construction must reflect community needs

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ZHENGYANG GAO

E D I T O R I A L

Q U O T E O F T H E D A Y

“Once in a while, good things happen to good people.” — Jeff Koshel MA’67

See yellen, page 1.

Page 7: October 9, 2013

Drones are here to stay. There is no going back, now that they have proven so tactically effective in foreign combat. The U.S. govern-ment estimates that 75 percent of al Qaeda leadership has been deci-mated by lethal aerial strikes in the last five years. Drones are now be-ing built, tested and deployed to potential combat areas by nations all over the world. The New York Times reported earlier this month that China is currently in the midst of pursuing the largest campaign in drone technology advancement ever seen. Regardless of the legal and moral implications, states’ in-vestments in drone technology have made the future clear. A spy-assassin that requires no risk of hu-man life is simply too seductive for governments to pass up.

We are commencing an en-tirely new generation of warfare. To assume these machines will be retired in the near future for any reason, technological or ethical, is naive. That being said, current methods of drone warfare are mor-ally dubious to say the least. His-torically, there’s been far too much room for error when conducting

lethal strikes. In a war of ideology, non-crucial civilian casualties are unacceptable. There is a dearth of transparency from the government regarding both the criteria for le-thal strikes and the number and type of casualties. This in turn rais-es a question: How can the govern-ment ensure this new kill-and-run warfare is conducted in a way that minimizes civilian deaths?

The first step is greater transpar-ency. Last May, President Obama released the pol-icy guidelines for deploying lethal strikes. But those guidelines over-looked the prac-tice of “signature strikes” — when the United States kills people whose identities aren’t confirmed. These strikes, which have nev-er been publicly addressed by the administration, are based on cer-tain behavioral patterns that are deemed characteristic of terrorist activity. This precedent is vague, and the policy surrounding it opaque. There is also a significant lack of clarity regarding the num-ber of civilians killed surrounding these strikes.

Reports on the number killed

vary wildly, and even the military cannot know with certainty just how many innocents have been shot down. When a U.S. predator drone fires hellfire missiles, it is do-ing so in the name of the American people. Americans have a right to know who is being killed and why — especially considering the effects drone strikes have had on opin-

ions of the United States among pop-ulations near heav-ily targeted areas. If our government is determined to commit acts as se-rious as assassina-tions, those acts need to be subject to public scrutiny.

The next im-perative is to en-sure intelligence

gathered before a strike is rock solid. The United States has been notoriously inept at conducting foreign covert operations involv-ing terrorist organizations, and the blunders show — particularly in the death tolls of innocents. Drone surveillance alone cannot deter-mine who is a civilian and who is not. This deficit of essential infor-mation is due partly to streamlin-ing issues in the intelligence com-munity. It is the classic case of mul-tiple agencies doing the same work

with poor communication. Joshua Foust, a former contrac-

tor with the Defense Intelligence agency, wrote in a column pub-lished by PBS that, “there is simply not enough granular, local-level in-telligence being generated, either for the kill missions or even more generally for the broad knowledge required for appropriate analysis and advice to policymakers”. The information provided to the kill-or-don’t-kill decisionmakers is largely based on the work of hu-man intelligence. This means that we cannot afford to be generating anything but the most thorough, accurate information possible.

The United States has tried to make up for this intelligence gap through technology, but those ef-forts have boasted only limited success. Reports are emerging of technological intelligence endeav-ors being compromised by Ed-ward Snowden’s leaks of national security information. Terrorist or-ganizations are responding to the leaked information by devising new means of communication or reverting to old-fashioned meth-ods like couriers. Other nations are adopting new strategies to com-bat drone strikes and surveillance. These events underscore the im-portance of on-the-ground intel-ligence gathered by humans. The United States needs to emphasize

this not only for tactical advantage, but also to ensure no more extra-neous lives are wasted.

This is a familiar argument. We have been demanding efficiency and transparency from our gov-ernment for centuries. It is true that issues of national security of-ten must remain largely classified and that the American public can never be completely informed. But maximizing the efficacy of our foreign engagements is most definitely a public concern. Here, the stakes are exceptionally high. When drones are involved, inter-national reputation, security and innocent lives are all on the line.

The military predicts it is only in the early stages of realizing the potential of unmanned aerial ve-hicles, known as UAVs. The Air Force estimates a third of its attack and fighter planes will be UAVs within the decade. Some mili-tary strategists posit that with the right surveillance and intelligence, drones could actually prove to be the most humane form of warfare ever. We must do everything we can in order to ensure we embark on this uncharted territory with the lives of innocents as our high-est priority.

Robyn Sundlee ’16 is very scared of drones.

Personal choice is one of the hall-marks of a Brown undergradu-ate education. Our young scholars have the choice of following their own passions amid a wide selection of disciplines and potential experi-ences. This liberty is cherished by virtually every student who passes through the Van Wickle Gates. In the coming years, Brown gradu-ates will continue to follow their dreams, and for many, this will in-clude starting families. Some will choose to settle down right here in Rhode Island. Those newly minted Brown alums will want the same education choices available for their children that they have today for themselves.

What they will find is that our public school system is an overly bureaucratic, financial mess that demands uniformity and confor-mity from both teachers and stu-dents. They will quickly learn that teachers can’t teach properly be-cause of the state-mandated cur-ricula and contradictory expecta-tions. A parent trying to get help for a child who has trouble learn-ing, or who has advanced beyond the other children in his grade, will encounter a wall of resignation or indifference from teachers and ad-ministrators.

In a recent Herald opinions col-umn, Daniel Carrigg GS argues

that education reforms in Rhode Island and elsewhere “have largely ignored long-term statewide plan-ning, land use and municipal de-velopment.” Carrigg calls Rhode Island “New England’s public edu-cation laggard” because, historical-ly, we have not had enough com-munity planning around schools. He argues that, “With a long-term plan, consistent long-term invest-ment and constructive input from the community, we could atone for some of the sins of the past.”

This seemingly innocuous so-lution is actually a call to institute a statewide school board with the power to redefine and override lo-cal school districts and confiscate private lands for state use. In ef-fect, this would give a tremendous amount of power to a few and limit the choices that exist for parents in our public education system.

I want to make the alternate case. The only chance for parental choice and educational freedom is the elimination of compulsory, government-run schools in Rhode Island.

There is no collective moral “sin” for which we have to atone. Parents are responsible for educating their own children. The taxpayers in Barrington and Newport have no moral obligation to pay for govern-ment schools in Central Falls and North Providence. And Rhode Is-land is not “lagging” in its spend-ing. According to the Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosper-ity, we spent an average of $13,707 per student in 2009, roughly com-

parable to levels in Massachusetts and Connecticut, and considerably more than in Maine or New Hamp-shire.

But placing our decentralized public school system under a cen-tral planning authority is immor-al. The first compulsory education law in colonial America was en-acted by Massachusetts in 1642, re-quiring that parents and guardians “make certain that their charges could read and un-derstand the prin-ciples of religion and the laws of the Commonwealth.”

Rhode Island never established a similar system of common schools – not out of igno-rance, but rather out of fear. Roger Williams, an edu-cator and religious reformer, and a host of other “her-etics” and non-be-lievers realized that the rulers of Mas-sachusetts were trying to use the compulsory edu-cation laws to convert the children of Catholics to Puritan Protestant-ism. Rather than accept this assault on their intellectual and religious freedom, they fled the Massachu-setts authorities. The early Rhode Islanders knew centrally controlled schools would empower the politi-cal clergy and lead to the imposi-tion of an unacceptable social tyr-

anny. Today, we face a similar tyranny

by a new set of ideologues in our own government. Who shall run this statewide school board which can use the full force of government to mandate values and virtues? John Dewey’s pronouncement that “education is the fundamental method of social progress and re-form” may resonate with some, but it is the same dictatorial mindset as

the Puritans who persecuted com-peting religions and non-believers. When your child goes through the doors of a govern-ment-run school, he is no longer yours to control or educate accord-ing to your wishes. Should you choose a different path for your children, the state can, under the legal doctrine of parens patriae — which literally means the state as

parent — take your children from you and forcibly indoctrinate them with ideas that are contrary to your values and beliefs.

Exercise and defend your right to choose. We must reclaim our legacy of intellectual and religious freedom and push the government out of the school business instead of following the collectivist path of “long-term planning,” “long-term

investment,” “community input” and reallocating other people’s re-sources. Any scheme of education reform that includes compulsory education at a government-run school will fail because bureaucrats always treat your child’s mind as theirs to mold as they see fit. Your children, especially the brightest and most independent thinkers among them, will be treated as ex-pendable.

On the other hand, parents who make individual educational choic-es for their children — through pri-vate and home schools — can and will provide their children with the best education they can afford, fol-lowing a curriculum that reflects their own personal values and be-liefs.

The traditional arguments against private schools focus on the inability of some parents to pay for private schools. But this is only val-id in a high tax, anti-individualist culture. As free people, we can sup-port other parents with the costs of private education in numerous charitable ways. To that end, we need to foster a small government, low-tax culture that respects indi-vidual rights and allows people to keep more of the money they make.

Scott Lloyd, a graduate of the Uni-versity of California at Berkeley, is

a Brown staff member and resident of Rhode Island who sends his son

to private school. He reads The Herald daily and believes Brown

students can still be saved.

commentary 7THE BROWN DAILY HERALDWEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2013

Freedom to choose is a right for Rhode Island parents

Minimizing drone casualties

“Any scheme of education reform

that includes compulsory

education at a government-

run school will fail because

bureaucrats always treat your child’s mind as theirs to mold as they see

fit.”

“How can the government ensure this new kill-and-

run warfare is conducted in a way

that minimizes civilian deaths?”

SCOTTLLOYD

guest columnist

ROBYNSUNDLEE

opinions columnist

Page 8: October 9, 2013

daily heraldTHE BROWNscience & research

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2013

Study reveals lasting events of smoking during pregnancy

A 40-year study found that female children of women who smoked or had higher levels of stress hormones while pregnant were more likely to develop nicotine addictions in adulthood, according to a Lifespan press release.

The study, which was published online last month, more broadly supports the idea that prenatal conditions faced by children can determine illnesses or conditions in adulthood. More than 1,000 pairs of women and their adult children were studied over a 40-year period following the initial Collaborative Perinatal Project at Brown from 1959-66, according to Providence Business News.

“While maternal smoking during pregnancy has been shown to be an independent risk factor for nicotine dependence, we didn’t really know — until now — which pathways or mechanisms were responsible,” said Laura Stroud, lead author of the study and associate professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Alpert Medical School, in the press release.

“Because mothers who smoke are often more stressed and living in adverse conditions — these findings represent a public health concern and highlight the need to help smoking moms quit and reduce stress levels,” she added. The study’s findings show a vicious cycle of increased likeliness of nicotine addiction passing from mother to daughters, she said.

Nearly one in five pregnant women continue smoking during pregnancy in the U.S., according to the release.

Prof wins hospice awardProfessor of Medical Science Vincent Mor received the

Distinguished Researcher Award from the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization last month, according to a University press release. Mor was honored for three decades of researching and teaching about long-term care.

A highlight of his research was Mor’s involvement in a Medicare study that caused the national implementation of a hospice system, according to the release. The study, which Mor helped run early in his career, showed that family members of terminal cancer patients living in hospice were significantly more satisfied with the care their relatives were receiving than family members of patients living elsewhere.

“Hospice patients’ use of impatient care was much lower, and hospice cost less than usual care, as long as the patients didn’t enter hospice ‘too early’ relative to their date of death,” Mor said in the release.

The study was integral to Congress’ enactment of hospice legislation in 1982, which still stands over 30 years later, according to the release.

Books boost the brainNeuroscience and English are not so different after all, argues a

book by Professor of English Paul Armstrong. In his new book, “How Literature Plays with the Brain,” Armstrong compares the experiences of reading literature to other neurological functions, according to a Johns Hopkins press release. The book was published in August.

“Literature matters for what it reveals about human experience, and the very different perspective of neuroscience on how the brain works is part of that story,” Armstrong said in the press release.

“(Armstrong) makes explicit some of the most vital, yet heretofore overlooked, connections between the aims of literary criticism and cognitive neuroscience,” said G. Gabrielle Starr, dean of the college of arts and science and professor of English at New York University, in the release.

Armstrong taught ENGL 1900Z: “Neuroaesthetics and Reading” last semester.

BY JENNIFER KAPLAN, FEATURES EDITORSCIENCE & RESEARCH ROUNDUP

By VI MAICONTRIBUTING WRITER

Police officers’ response can greatly affect whether a person survives a drug overdose, a new study led by University researchers found.

The research was published online in the journal Drug and Alcohol De-pendence at the end of the summer.

“Overdose is the leading cause of unintentional death among adults,

and opioid pain relievers cause more than half of these unintentional over-doses,” said Traci Green, assistant professor of medicine and epidemiol-ogy and the study’s lead author.

Opioid pain relievers can be dan-gerous because they “bind to the brain’s receptors, cut off the flow of oxygen and then cause respiratory failure” in the case of overdose, said Nickolas Zaller, assistant professor of medicine and one of the study’s co-authors.

To treat overdoses, Naloxone is often administered by Emergency Medical Services, Zaller said. The drug blocks opioids from reaching key neuroreceptors, so that oxygen

can continue to flow, he said.Police officers are often the first

people on the scene of drug over-doses, but they very often do not know how to medically treat them, according to the study. Law enforce-ment officials are also not allowed to administer Naloxone, Green said.

The researchers focused their study in suburban and rural areas of Rhode Island and Connecticut, where there have been significant numbers of fatal drug overdoses. They interviewed and surveyed dif-ferent populations in these regions, including drug users and police of-ficers, to try to determine the cause of the high overdose mortality rates.

The researchers determined that the lack of overdose response op-tions, as well as the lack of addiction treatment facilities, the perpetua-tion of drug addiction and the easy accessibility to prescription drugs, exacerbate law enforcement officials’ frustration with their inability to pre-vent fatal overdoses.

In its analysis, the study suggests that law enforcement officials should be allowed to administer Naloxone because they are often the first ones to respond to overdoses.

But there have been some prob-lems implementing the less-restricted administration of Naloxone due to the drug’s high cost.

The study recommends the imple-mentation of Good Samaritan laws, which give people legal protection when they call medical services to respond to drug overdoses.

By implementing these laws, Zaller said, more lives would be saved.

Given the persistent stigma against drug users, law enforcement officers also need to have more train-ing so they can approach overdose situations with sensitivity, Green said.

If public health and public safety merge, awareness about how to re-spond will increase, as will preven-tion of drug overdoses, Green said.

Study suggests police treatment could reduce deaths by drug overdoseResearchers suggest training police officers to administer a life-saving drug on site

By RILEY DAVISSTAFF WRITER

When yoga instructors tell you to take a “healing breath,” they aren’t just us-ing a metaphor. Recent studies show that practicing yoga may actually have a significant effect on a person’s physi-ological well-being.

Researchers have studied the effects of yoga on fitness for years. “(Yoga) engages a lot of muscles at one time” said Andrea Soberaij, physiol-ogy courses manager. “It does a lot of lengthening. That’s one thing con-ventional workouts — like doing the machines at the gym — don’t do. They just shorten the muscle.”

The effects of yoga on hyperten-sion, or high blood pressure, are currently being studied by Debbie Cohen-Stein, associate professor of medicine at Penn.

“A lot of people are interested in an alternative to medication, especially with mild hypertension,” she said.

“The preliminary data does appear to show that yoga has a modest effect on lowering blood pressure.”

According to Cohen-Stein, most forms of yoga can contribute to lower-ing blood pressure.

“Any type of yoga that incorporates breathing and movement and a com-ponent of meditation will do,” she said.

MRIs taken of participants in her current blood pressure study suggest yoga activates the same part of the brain responsible for impulse control, Cohen-Stein said. She said she hopes to study next the effects of yoga on people attempting to quit smoking.

Patricia Gerbarg ’71 has spent years studying the effects of yoga on different disorders and afflictions of the body.

“We have found that the most ef-fective practices are certain breathing practices,” Gerbarg said.

She and her husband, Richard Brown, developed these practices us-ing breathing techniques that were safe and easy for almost everyone. They use these breathing practices to work with several different groups of people including victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and

recently-liberated slaves in South Su-dan, Gerbarg said.

One of the most recent studies on which Gerbarg has worked examines the effects of yoga on people with in-flammatory bowel disease, or Crohn’s Disease.

“We know that it is very much af-fected by stress,” Gerbarg said.

Because inflammatory bowel dis-ease is very difficult to treat, studies are currently being conducted to see if breathing practices can help control symptoms.

While researchers are exploring the physiological effects of yoga prac-tice, others are simply experiencing its benefits directly.

“When I started practicing (yoga), there were so many parts of my body that I wasn’t even aware of,” said Eliza Brine ’14, co-leader of the student group Yoga and Mindfulness. “Yoga involves awareness of all the parts of your body.”

Brine said that while teaching yoga classes, she has observed students de-velop greater flexibility and range of motion. Her favorite part of her yoga classes is listening to people afterward talk about how much better they feel, she added.

Yoga may offer physical benefits, studies findAs scientists probe yoga’s physiological effects, students report feeling its mental benefits

JAE KIM / HERALD

Yoga has helped students develop greater flexibilty and range, said Eliza Brine ‘14, co-leader of the student group Yoga and Mindfulness.