By KELLEY DRECHSLERAggie News Writer

The Lunch with ASUCD series com-menced last Thursday at the Memorial Union (MU) Coffee House. This lunch se-ries opens a gateway for the student body to access their student government offi-cials in an informal setting. Passed unanimously on Oct. 11, Senate Bill 7 allocates $245 to fund lunch at the ASUCD Coffee House, with seven students at each meeting. “The goal of the program is, in essence, to create an avenue of communication in

which students could more easily access student government officials,” said Roman Rivilis, author of the bill and a second-year political science major. The idea for the lunch series branched out from the Meals with Mrak program, in which students could enjoy informal break-fasts with the University administration. Organized by former Student Assistant to the Chancellor Nick Sidney, the Meals with Mrak program received positive feedback from students, inspiring ASUCD to devel-op a similar program. “Both [programs] promote outreach and provide a relaxed setting where students

can interact with, and better humanize campus administrators,” Former Senator Justin Goss said in an email interview. Goss and Rivilis first brought the idea for Lunch with ASUCD under consideration in the summer of 2012. They envisioned a program that would allow students to in-teract with senators over lunch, but they also wanted to avoid high costs for the meals. By using the CoHo instead of the Dining Commons, ASUCD could keep all the costs in-house, Goss said. “I think the MU is a more convenient meeting place for many students,” he

added. Although ASUCD senators hold public office hours, there is no consistent rate of students who come. Many students either do not know these office hours exist or do not typically visit the third floor of the MU, where most of the office hours are held.

“[Lunch with ASUCD] aims to bridge that gap by offering a source of outreach to students who want to effectively commu-nicate with a group of ASUCD officials in an informal setting, without the hassle of figuring out office hours,” Rivilis said.

Today’s weatherSunnyHigh 64Low 36

Forecast

Looks like sunny skys for the rest of the week. Perfect weather to stay inside and study, right?

Written by Amanda NguyenWeather courtesy of www.weather.com

Sunny Sunny

Friday

High 66Low 39

Thursday

High 65Low 36

Fun fact: the phrase “rule of thumb” is derived from an old English law which stated that you

couldn’t beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.

Amanda Nguyen

serving the uc davis campus and communit y since 1915

www.theaggie.orgvolume 132, number 13 wednesday, january 30, 2013

Increase in UC Davis international transfer applications

Trend seen as part of diversity initiative

Student government officials host first Lunch with ASUCD

Chief of Police to oversee Davis Fire Department

Appointment allows scope for shared management model

Program aims to bridge gap between students, senators

News iN BrieF

Arrest made in sexual assault and robbery

case On Monday at 2:20 p.m., the Davis Police was notified of a possible sight-ing of the suspect in the sexual as-sault and robbery case that occurred on Saturday at the Davis Community Church. The Davis Police arrested 25-year-old transient Christopher Turk at a shopping center in West Davis. The police found physical evidence that connected Turk to the case. Turk is currently being held at the Yolo County Jail for sexual assault, robbery, burglary, false imprison-ment and sexual battery, according to a Davis Police press release.

— Claire Tan

see LUNCH, page 5

By MEREDITH STURMERAggie News Writer

UC Davis experienced a 23 percent in-crease in applications from internation-al transfer students for Fall 2013, the larg-est percentage increase of all University of California schools. According to the UC Office of the President, UC Davis received a total of 69,642 applications, an 11.4 percent in-crease from 2012. Of these applications, 8,789 were from international students. Additionally, 6,747 were international students applying as first-years, a 65 per-cent increase from 2012. The University received 2,042 applica-tions from international students applying as transfers, a 23 percent increase and the largest increase of any UC. UC Riverside saw the second-largest increase in interna-tional transfer student applications at 21.9 percent. “For the last three years, UC Davis has put forth a significant effort in the area of outreach and recruitment to create a more global campus community,” said Walter Robinson, director of UC Davis Undergraduate Admissions. “The bene-fits of outreach and recruitment efforts are starting to show. We’re starting to re-ceive applications of highly qualified students who come from globally diverse communities.” According to Robinson, this all ties into Chancellor Linda Katehi’s 2020 Initiative. “The general direction is one of growth,” Robinson said. “Of students from across the nation, the globe and from all regions of California.” According to the “2020 Initiative: Work Plan” from Nov. 30, 2011, one of the three main goals is to create a more diverse scholarly community. UC Davis seeks to accomplish this by increasing the proportion of national and

By JOE STEPTOEAggie News Writer

Davis Chief of Police Landy Black has been tasked with temporarily supervis-ing the Davis Fire Department while the city explores a range of options to foment more cooperation and efficiency between the UC Davis Fire Department and the Davis Fire Department. The appointment, which was made on Jan. 8 by City Manager Steve Pinkerton, follows the departure of Interim Fire Chief Scott Kenley. Kenley left the post because he had reached the maximum number of hours permitted to work for the city as de-termined by state regulation. “It makes a lot of sense to merge the public safety departments on a temporary basis during this period of transition and Chief Black was the logical choice to over-see this process,” Pinkerton said. The appointment is expected to last be-tween six and nine months, during which time the city will comprehensively assess the prospect of shared management to oversee both fire departments. “We don’t have any prior expectations.

courtesy

City of Davis Chief of Police Landy Black will be temporarily supervising the City of Davis Fire Department while the city assesses shared management of the UC Davis Fire Department and the City of Davis Fire Department.

Irisa Tam / Aggiesee reCOrD, page 2

see Fire, page 5

page two The california aggie2 wednesday, january 30, 2013

daily calendardailycal@theaggie.org

One Shields Ave.25 Lower Freeborn, UCD

Davis, CA 95616Editorial (530) 752-0208

Advertising (530) 752-0365Fax (530) 752-0355

The California Aggie is entered as first-class mail with the United States Post Office, Davis, Calif., 95616. Printed Monday through Thursday during the academic year and once a week during Summer Session II at The Davis Enterprise, Davis, Calif., 95616. Accounting services are provided by ASUCD. The Aggie is distributed free on the UC Davis campus and in the Davis community. Mail subscriptions are $100 per academic year, $35 per quarter and $25 for the summer. Views or opinions expressed in The Aggie by editors or columnists regarding legislation or candidates for political office or other matters are those of the editors or columnist alone. They are not those of the University of California or any department of UC. Advertisements appearing in The Aggie reflect the views of advertisers only; they are not an expression of editorial opinion by The Aggie. The Aggie shall not be liable for any error in published advertising unless an advertising proof is clearly marked for corrections by the advertiser. If the error is not corrected by The Aggie, its liability, if any, shall not exceed the value of the space occupied by the error. Further, The Aggie shall not be liable for any omission of an advertisement ordered published. All claims for adjustment must be made within 30 days of the date of publication. In no case shall The Aggie be liable for any general, special or consequential damages.© 2009 by The California Aggie. All rights reserved. Reproduction in any form whatsoever is forbidden without the expressed written permission of the copyright owner.

The California Aggie is printed on

recycled paper

wedneSday

Breakthrough collaborative’s Summer Job information SessionNoon to 1 p.m.229 South HallJoin Breakthrough Collaborative and find out how to be a competitive applicant for paid summer jobs teaching underserved middle school students. For more information, go to their website at breakthroughcollaborative.org. Applications are due on Feb. 25.

Uc davis energy institute Special Seminar4 to 5 p.m.1605 Tilia St., Ste. 100Join Dr. Malay Karmarkar of the Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute as he discusses “Gasification of Biomass in Fluidized Beds — Thermodynamic Modeling and Experimental Analysis of Single and Multi-bed Reactors.” There is no cost and all are welcome to attend.

drawing on Migrations exhibition opening6:30 to 7:45 p.m.Yocha Dehe Grand Lobby, Mondavi CenterCome down for an exhibition of large-scale works on paper and small objects on display by Chau Huynh, Lisa Rybovich Crallé, Alan Hopkins and Meredith Tromble.

Food addicts in recovery anonymous7 to 8:30 p.m.Davis United Methodist Church, 1620 Anderson RoadAre you having trouble controlling the way you eat? Free yourself from excess weight and/or obsessional thoughts about food and body image. Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous is a 12-step fellowship based on the principles of Alcoholics Anonymous. Meetings are open and free to the public. Visit www.foodaddicts.org for other meeting locations.

cultural programmer information Session7 to 8 p.m.Regan MainVisit an informational meeting about opportunities to be a cultural programmer for the 2013-14 school year. Primary responsibilities include providing culturally based programming, support and mentorship for new students living in the

Living Learning Community.

tHUrSday

panel discussion2 to 4 p.m.Yocha Dehe Grand Lobby, Mondavi CenterCome down for a panel discussion moderated by David Kyle, associate professor of sociology at UC Davis and faculty director of the UC Global Health Institute. Guest panelists from various

expertises will participate.

Biomedical engineering departmental Seminar Series: dr. Brian Munsky4:10 to 5 p.m.1005 GBSFJoin Dr. Brian Munsky for his discussion on “Integrating Single-Cell Experiments and Stochastic Analyses to Predict Gene Expression Dynamics.”

Kirtan night

7 to 8:30 p.m.Cal Aggie Christian AssociationCome join Sikh Cultural Association for its second Kirtan Night of the quarter as we sing glorious praises of the Timeless Being in a congregation. There will be food for everyone afterward. We welcome everyone and please bring your friends.

technocultural Studies club introductory workshop6 to 7 p.m.TCS Mac Lab, Art AnnexJoin us for a workshop focusing on music composition for those who have little to no experience with music theory or music software. For further information, contact Steven Gordon at swgordon@ucdavis.edu.

american red cross club general Meeting7:30 to 8:30 p.m.146 OlsonThe ARCC is an on-campus organization dedicated to emergency preparedness and community service. Join them for their second general meeting.

Friday

woodland animal Shelter adoption SaleNoon to 4 p.m. Woodland Animal ShelterCelebrate My Furry Valentine with discounted adoption rates for all dogs and cats from the Woodland Animal Shelter. Help save a life for the same price as buying a coffee — all adoptions are $5. For more information or to see pictures of the adoptable animals, go to their Facebook page at facebook.com/YCAS.Shelter.

the art of athletes5 to 7 p.m.Basement Gallery, Art BuildingJoin us for the fourth annual art show featuring the work of current intercollegiate student-athletes enrolled in all four undergraduate colleges at UC Davis. Exhibition is free and open to the

public.

SatUrday

the art of athletesNoon to 6 p.m.Basement Gallery, Art BuildingJoin us for the fourth annual art show featuring the work of current intercollegiate student-athletes enrolled in all four undergraduate colleges at UC Davis. The

exhibition is free and open to the public.

SUnday

the art of athletes1 to 5 p.m.Basement Gallery, Art BuildingJoin us for the fourth annual art show featuring the work of current intercollegiate student-athletes enrolled in all four undergraduate colleges at UC Davis. The exhibition is free and open to

the public.

To receive placement in the AGGIE DAILY CALENDAR, email dailycal@theaggie.org or stop by 25 Lower Freeborn by noon the day prior to your event. Due to space constraints, all event descriptions are subject to editing and priority will be given to events that are free of charge and geared toward the campus community.

Janelle BitkerEditor in Chief

Hannah StrumwasserManaging Editor

Jonathan WesterBusiness Manager

Caelum ShoveAdvertising Manager

Muna SadekCampus Editor

Claire TanCity Editor

Elizabeth OrpinaArts Editor

Adam KhanFeatures Editor

Matthew YuenSports Editor

Hudson LofchieScience Editor

RebeccaPetersonOpinion Editor

Joey ChenCopy Chief

Brian NguyenPhotography Editor

Janice PangDesign Director

James KimAsst. Design Director

Amanda NguyenNight Editor

Allison FerriniAsst. Night Editor

Irisa TamArt Director

David OuNew Media Director

The other night we were getting faded on the roof when my

friend started talking about how he had broken his leg.

He went into excruciat-ing detail about the pain he felt and the sight of his twisted leg.

While I’m sure he didn’t mean to, his story got me stressed and disturbed and sent me into a mild panic. I backed away from him and from the sight of his cast and tried to focus on something else, but it was too late.

I couldn’t stop imagin-ing the pain he felt and I couldn’t shake the image of his leg bent at the shin.

It somehow immediate-ly sobered me up, but then I just got lightheaded and my body started shiver-ing and felt like it wanted to shrivel into itself. I felt like I was about to pass out or throw up or start cry-ing, and I didn’t want to move or talk or have any-one near me.

I’ve had an anxiety problem for a while now, but it has al-ways been an anxiety that hits me at random times and that usually is triggered inside my own head. This was the first time some-body else had directly caused my brain to slightly short-circuit.

I’d been avoiding drugs to treat my anxiety, and I thought I was doing just fine without them. But this recent experience made me realize that this might not be something I’d be able to get through on my own.

Maybe my head had been through too much and needed a little chemical as-sistance before it could go back to its healthy self. I was fed up with my condition, and I was ready to believe that the prescriptions that my doctor had given me were not just drugs, but that they were actual medicine intended to heal.

One reason I’d been un-sure about taking drugs is because there’s always a risk of dependency when not used appropriately, and I never want to end up addicted to the stuff and thinking that I need it every day just to survive.

But the real reason I was so scared of taking the pills my doctor had recommended for me was because I already had a

terrible experience a cou-ple months back when he put me on Prozac, an anti-depressant.

They made me extreme-ly restless and emotion-al and had me feeling a low like no other. I flushed them down the toilet and in my drug-induced rage I swore I’d never return to that fuck-ing doctor ever again.

But my doctor’s actual-ly a really sweet guy who just wants to help oth-ers, so he had no problem prescribing something else when I finally did re-turn to his office a couple days ago.

Ativan (mainly known as Lorazepam) was not at all what I expected. It is essen-tially an all-around relaxant and it is normally used to treat anxiety, insomnia and even acute seizures.

I was expecting it to have a heavy, druggy ef-fect, and I thought it would leave me numb and distant. But really I didn’t feel anything at all.

Before I took the half-milligram pill, I was ex-tremely nervous and sen-sitive and felt sick to my stomach. But after about 20 minutes I felt fine and perfectly normal.

I didn’t feel “floaty” or out of it or forcedly hap-py. I just felt like all the nerves in my head that

were previ-ously tan-gled and heated were now calm and smoothed out.

I was able to return to my friend with the broken leg and was no longer as both-ered by the gory stories.

As a student, I am weary of taking pills since I have to be constantly reading or writing and cannot af-ford to have my brain in a drunken fog.

Unfortunately, anxi-ety can be very debilitating and trying to study while in a panic is just as futile as trying to read in the dark.

The simple thought of taking pills for my anxi-ety used to make me even more anxious, but I am now a little more trust-ing in them and feel com-forted in knowing I could treat my nerves without getting hazy or slow.

As awful and as scary as anxiety can be, it still some-how tricks you into think-ing you don’t need help.

Many are embarrassed to seek help for their anx-iety because it does not seem as much of a health concern as a broken leg.

However, your brain should be your priority, and this first-hand expe-rience was with just one of the many options out there designed to keep it in good health.

LEO OCAMPO feels a lot better after sharing all this and invites you to do the same at gocampo@ucdavis.edu.

I watched Groundhog Day five times this past week-end. Like most exercises,

it was an act of repetition.Groundhog Day tells the

story of Phil Connors, a sarcastic TV weatherman who is mysteriously made to relive the same Feb. 2, again and again. He wakes that morning at 6 a.m. in a wintery Punxsutawney, Pa., no matter what.

Watching it on repeat was my entirely naïve at-tempt to empathize with the character.

Although I could not live with no tomorrow, I thought maybe I could gain a sliver of wisdom that comes from eternity.

Initial encounters with Bill Murray’s Phil, and the small-town residents of Punxsutawney, in-duced alarmingly loud laughter — more than one housemate threw a concerned look my di-rection. It was then, mid-guf-faw, I knew I needed to watch again.

Somewhere between the second and third time, my discreet snickers deflated to a tired recitation of the lines in my head. I felt re-luctant to go on, but a rom-com this profound was surely worth the time.

By end of the fifth time, the movie’s repetition — my own repetition — seemed much more inten-tional. I was smiling, not just because of Phil’s crack-ling dry wit, but because a sort of cosmic truth had re-vealed itself.

The character of Phil ar-rives at the same truth from an analogous path.

At the beginning of the film he dismisses others with a glib irony, his insur-ance against unhappiness.

As he realizes he is reliv-ing Groundhog Day, he re-sponds with utter bemuse-ment. This is followed by a series of gleeful romps — bank robbing, joyrid-ing, womanizing — there are no consequences. But life has no meaning either, and he settles into a suicid-al malaise.

Only by dedicating his time to self-improvement and establishing substan-tial relationships to others does he gain freedom.

Accepting that he cannot leave, he learns everything in his small world. He knows everyone, and he knows

what will happen to them. He uses this knowledge to help — like saving a kid fall-ing from a tree. He also culti-vates absurdly specific skills, such as ice-sculpting. He be-comes omniscient.

That my own experience did not contain supernat-ural elements is somewhat less important than I antic-ipated — the lesson is the same:

It is a sad truth that we must repeat ourselves to learn and live better. When experiencing déjà vu, it’s like-ly you have been there be-fore, in one way or another.

Sometimes we can’t know when we’re wrong ei-ther — the universe isn’t al-ways going to tell us right away. Living the adage, “learn from past mistakes” is somehow insufficient.

As many have pointed out, this embodies the con-cept of “eternal return,” given voice by Friedrich Nietzsche. Eternal return suggests that the universe (and all human beings), with infinite time, will in-evitably repeat.

Nietzsche’s remedy to this existential problem is called “amor fati,” or lov-ing fate. By affirming every moment in his life, good and bad, Phil conquers the acrimony he exudes on his first Groundhog Day. This awareness allows him to

connect with those around him and live happily.

Nietzsche (Mr. “God is dead”), is not the only

one with ties to the film. Proponents of Buddhism, Judaism and Christianity preach Groundhog Day, with its themes of enlight-enment and salvation.

This recurrence, this selfish paralysis, is not a problem bound by culture. Nor is it bound by time or space. Those laws don’t ap-ply in the film, do they?

So how do we embrace our lives today? What can we take seriously when we are constantly inundat-ed with messages from our phone, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, email, our TVs and our game consoles? It can be hard to tell how the present moment is more significant than the one just past, or the one coming.

These are questions worth repeating. With the answers we may be able to live more deliberate, mean-ingful lives in the present.

This Saturday happens to be Groundhog Day. If you keep your TV on, you are almost certain to meet Phil Connors. He’ll give you a philosophy lesson dressed up as a Bill Murray comedy.

If you are smart enough, you may only have to watch it once.

SEAN LENEHAN has programmed his alarm clock to play Sonny and Cher. He can be reached at splenehan@ucdavis.edu.

Using Ativan

Leo OcampoSome shake

... he dismisses others with a glib irony, his insurance

against unhappiness

... I never want to end up addicted to the stuff and thinking that I

need it every day just to survive

correctionOn Monday, The Aggie reported that Joohi Kasliwal was appointed as Education Abroad Center commissioner in the Senate Brief. Kasliwal was appointed as External Affairs Commissioner. The Aggie regrets this error.

Déjà Vu

Sean LenehanMemory

Financial Workshop scheduled at Student Community Center

A Finance Workshop for students is scheduled Thursday, Feb. 7.

The event will be host-ed by the UC Davis Senior Class Challenge in con-junction with River City Bank; it will feature alum-ni Bryen Alperin and Yulia

Yevsukova, credit analysts for River City Bank.

The event will address how students can manage school-related debt be-fore and after they gradu-ate, according to a Jan. 29 press release.

The UC Davis Senior Class

Challenge is a philanthrop-ic opportunity for gradu-ating UC Davis seniors to give back to the University or their College. This year, the graduating class of 2013 is encouraged to give $20.13 to either their college, the UC Davis Annual Fund or

We Are Aggie Pride, which provides emergency fund-ing to students that are in need of it.

For more information on the Challenge visit senior-challenge.ucdavis.edu.

— Muna Sadek

newS in BrieF

Students attended the first lunch last Thursday in the company of ASUCD Senators Bradley Bottoms and Kabir Kapur. The lunch included a discussion of the structure of ASUCD, reasons for being part of student government and where student fees go.

“It was a rewarding ex-perience. They were excit-

ed to be a part of the first [lunch],” Kapur said. “I was excited to hear that they were interested in being a part of the program.”

The next Lunch with ASUCD is on Thursday from noon to 1 p.m. at the CoHo.

Students can register online at asucd.ucdavis.edu/2012/10/30/asucd-meals.

KELLEY DRECHSLER can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.

LUNCHcont. from front page

international students while increasing the enrollment of California residents, encouraging international experiences for non-international students and increasing the amount of international graduate students and faculty members. “We’ve been very inten-tional in developing a stra-tegic recruitment plan,”

Robinson said. Systemwide, there was a 30.9 percent increase in ap-plications from internation-al students, both first-years and transfers. “We are still seeing increas-es,” Robinson said. “People still consider the University of California to be one of the best values in undergraduate education and graduate edu-cation in the world.”

MEREDITH STURMER can be reached at city@theaggie.org.

RECORDcont. from front page

RECYCLE THE AGGIE RECYCLE THE AGGIE RECYCLE THE AGGIE RECYCLE THE AGGIE RECYCLE THE AGGIE RECYCLE THE AGGIE RECYCLE THE AGGIE RECYCLE THE AGGIE RECYCLE THE AGGIE RECYCLE THE AGGIE RECYCLE THE AGGIE RECYCLE THE AGGIE RECYCLE THE AGGIE RECYCLE THE AGGIE RECYCLE THE AGGIE RECYCLE THE AGGIE RECYCLE THE AGGIE RECYCLE THE AGGIE RECYCLE THE AGGIE RECYCLE THE AGGIE RECYCLE THE AGGIE RECYCLE THE AGGIE RECYCLE THE AGGIE RECYCLE THE AGGIE RECYCLE THE AGGIE RECYCLE THE AGGIE RECYCLE THE AGGIE RECYCLE THE AGGIE RECYCLE THE AGGIE RECYCLE

SUBLIMINAL MESSAGES DO NOT WORK

The term butterfly ef-fect may refer to more than a 2004 film star-

ring Ashton Kutcher. What’s the saying again? A butter-fly flaps its wings and a tor-nado touches down in Texas? How could that even hap-pen? Let’s think for a mo-ment about butterflies. While I’m reasonably sure that even the mightiest of earthly but-terflies outside of fiction couldn’t generate disastrous wind storms with a single motion, further investigation into the processing of natu-ral laws could make the idea a little less far-fetched. The average monarch butterfly has a wingspan of about 10 centimeters and weighs close to half a gram. If butterflies had perfectly square wings, then the ap-proximate total surface area would be 10,000 square mil-limeters or 0.01 square me-ters, roughly two iPhone screens put side by side … I’m not trying to insult any-one’s intelligence. Butterflies exist on earth, and they fly. In order to achieve this, they need to overcome this pesky thing called grav-ity. Sir Isaac Newton observed gravity’s ac-tion on fall-ing bod-ies, and through some fancy math, discovered that our planet’s gravity causes falling bod-ies to accelerate at a constant rate. In order to cause accel-eration, gravity exerts force. It just so happens that the force acting on the butterfly is about half a millinewton. In simple terms, the earth pulls on this hypothetical butterfly just about as much as it pulls on a paper clip. In order to achieve flight, the butterfly would need to exert a force greater than the 0.0005 newtons of down-ward gravitational force act-ing on it. Insects in gener-al are pretty spry and zippy; for simplicity’s sake, I’ll say that the flap of a butterfly’s wings exerts .001 newtons (1 millinewton) of upward force, twice the force keeping it down. Conservation of en-ergy would lead us to believe that any of the subsequent molecules of air in the hypo-thetical volume of the but-terfly’s wingbeat are being hit with about 1 millinewton of force. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry’s standard mea-sure of temperature and pressure gives dry air — the air our butterfly is fly-ing through — a density of about 1.3 kilograms per cu-bic meter. Meaning that for every flap of the wings, if our butterfly’s 0.001 square meter wings travel 4 cen-timeters (0.04 meters), we’d have a total volume of 0.0004 cubic meters of air being displaced, or .5101 grams of air being hit. Recap number one: ev-ery time the butterfly flaps its wings, it is moving half a gram of air, about the same as the butterfly weighs. The

information is irrelevant, but it’s a cool coincidence. Assuming the atmospher-ic air being hit is largely ox-ygen and nitrogen gas, we can use Avogadro’s num-ber (6.0223) to calculate that our little butterfly is hitting 240,885,660,000,000,000,000 (240 quintillion, 885 quadril-lion 660 trillion) molecules of air with about 1 millinewton of force. There is a lot of oth-er complex math involved that I am probably forgetting to include, but the things I don’t understand are literally Greek to me. Recap number two: we have this monstrous insect transferring enough force to cause a plurality of mole-cules to accelerate by a val-ue of some other unwieldy number. But to put things in perspective, every time a butterfly flaps its wings, it moves a small jar’s worth of air — still a big stretch from throwing any houses out of Kansas. So now let’s move to the tornado. How do torna-does work? In simple terms, when warm air passes un-derneath cold air, the warm-er air tries to rise, but can’t pass through the dense, cold air. The air swirls horizontal-ly until enough force builds up that the different bodies of air have to move past one another, and the entire rapid wind current comes spiraling to the ground. Conceptually, we are now left thinking about two things that at first glance are wild-ly different. One is a weath-er-pattern-sized mass of de-structive air, and the other is small enough to fit into a jam

jar. It’s easy to imagine one small but-terfly caus-ing this small jar’s worth of air to move. From there it

wouldn’t be hard to imagine that jar of air going out and pushing other “jars” worth of air. Before too long, this but-terfly has made a very large number of air molecules move just a little bit faster. This miniscule speed in-crease doesn’t happen all on its own either. The addi-tive forces from billions or trillions of other literal and metaphorical butterflies all come together in a very specific, yet random, inter-connected way. The funny thing about time, is that on earth at least, it happens for everything simultane-ously; on a long enough timeline, everything affects everything else. Recap number three: but-terfly flaps its wings, moves a little bit of air, which in turn moves a lot of air very slowly. The small butterfly has con-tributed to the monumental force of a tornado. And while no single but-terfly may ever be the sole progenitor of an entire torna-do, the miniscule shift in ini-tial conditions caused by that one flap of a butterfly’s wings could have an untold cascad-ing effect on future events. Ultimately, be it with re-gard to particle physics, or something complex like in-terpersonal interactions, no moving matter exists as an isolated system. Our uni-verse is made out of a vast web of connections both vis-ible and invisible, known and unknown. In a long enough timeline, even the smallest change in initial conditions can yield a quantifiable dif-ferent outcome.

ALAN LIN likes to think about butterflies’ effects on weather and can be reached at science@theaggie.org.

&Science Technology wedneSday, january 30, 2013 3The california aggie

Alan Lin

Butterfly effect

... every time the butterfly flaps its wings, it is moving half a

gram of air ...

Glowing brain cell reactivationMouse nerves show how memory works

By VICTORIA TRANGAggie Science Writer

The basic assumption of researchers dealing with memory, including Brian Wiltgen, an assistant pro-fessor of UC Davis’s depart-ment of psychology and the Center for Neuroscience, is that memory retrieval in-volves the activation of the same neurons that were engaged during learning. He is in charge of a neu-roscience laboratory fo-cused on various topics such as memory circuit ac-tivation and memory con-solidation. Recently, using genetically modified mice, Wiltgen and his group test-ed this assumption. In the past, psycholo-gists would study various cases such as humans with their hippocampuses re-moved, or animal tests. “In humans, several pa-tients have had the hip-pocampus removed and it produced dense amnesia,” Wiltgen said. “In animals, the hippocampus is im-

portant for learning about places. If this structure is re-moved, the animals will not recognize a familiar place.” In humans, the hippocam-pus serves a similar role. Researchers call the role of the hippocampus a storage center for “trace” memories. This means that if we smell, taste, hear or feel something similar to the stored trace in the hippocampus, the entire associated memory will be reactivated. “By studying patients with brain damage pro-duced by medical condi-tions such as strokes, and brain damage induced in experimental animals, [psy-chologists detected where memories are stored],” said Arne Ekstrom, an assistant professor of the depart-ment of psychology and UC-Davis Human Spatial Cognition Lab. Researchers have iden-tified the importance of the hippocampus by do-ing brain scans of test sub-jects, and recording which areas of the brain were

most active during memo-ry retrieval. “Other information has come from functional brain imaging (fMRI) studies that identify areas of the brain that are active when peo-ple retrieve memories of past events,” said Charan Ranganath, a professor of the department of psychol-ogy at UC Davis and the Dynamic Memory Lab. In other cases, elec-trodes were used in place of an fMRI to help track learning and memory lo-cations in the brain. “Researchers sometimes insert electrodes into the brain of epileptic patients to find the foci [focus] of their seizures,” Wiltgen said. “It’s been found that some neurons in the hip-pocampus are activated when a specific video clip is watched and then reacti-vated when the person re-calls that same clip.” To further cement psy-chologists’ basic assump-tion and add more data to the evidence already

backing the assumption, Wiltgen conducted his study on mice. “In our experiment, we use genetically modified mice to permanently label neurons that are activated during learning,” he said. Out of the many types of mice generated from the various scientific research interests, Wiltgen picked mice with green fluores-cent nerve cells. “In our mice, cellular ac-tivity leads to the expres-sion of a protein called tTA. This protein [produces] a fluorescent marker, called green fluorescent protein (GFP), which allows us to identify the activated neu-rons,” Wiltgen said. “Mice were essential for our ex-periments because they are the only animal with the genetic changes that al-lowed us to tag neurons.” Wiltgen and his colleagues could track what neurons were active while mice learned. In particular,

By ALLEN GUANAggie Science Writer

The processes in the brain of a schizophrenia patient are still some-what of a mystery, but researchers from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the VA San Diego Healthcare System are on track to understanding how environ-mental stimuli are processed in the mind of a schizophrenia patient. Through the use of electroencepha-lography (EEG), researchers are able to follow the pathways that are activated

in the brain from the time of the stimu-lus up until the higher brain processes. Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by symptoms that fall into two categories: positive and nega-tive. Positive symptoms are those that are associated with psychosis, and in-clude delusions, disordered speech and thoughts and hallucinations. The negative symptoms are generally a bit more complex and can affect one’s quality of life. They include, but are not limited to, apathetic behavior, alogia (impoverished speech), lack of moti-vation, and even lack of desire to form

relationships. Although there are med-ications that can help suppress these symptoms, they generally only miti-gate the positive symptoms. “The medications treat psychotic [positive] symptoms pretty well, but don’t really treat the negative symp-toms. What’s unfortunate is negative symptoms are a stronger predictor of one’s ability to function in the envi-ronment than positive symptoms,” said Michael Minzenberg, an associ-ate professor of Clinical Psychiatry at UC Davis. “Negative symptoms on the other hand are more disabling because if people are socially disconnected or unable to think clearly … they can’t get a job and adequately take care of themselves.” Currently, the only treatments are pharmaceuticals. “There have been significant ad-vances in the last 15 years with the in-troduction of atypical antipsychot-ic drugs, heralded first by clozapine and followed now by other drugs,” says Ralph Hoffman, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine. The causes of these symptoms are still not completely clear, but recent research by Gregory Light, associ-ate professor of psychiatry at UC San Diego and senior author of the study, may help predict the severity of the symptoms. In a series of simple audi-tory tests (which include playing tones within roughly a half second of each

The big picture is soundNew schizophrenia study suggests sensory signals develop into bigger issues

By KELLY MITCHELLAggie Science Writer

Last year, in a lab at Loyola University in New Orleans, something hap-pened that has never been seen before — a chick-en embryo regenerated a joint. We know lizards re-grow their tails and sala-manders are capable of growing a new leg, but never has this been seen before in a chicken. In the case of this event, Rosalie Anderson, a pro-fessor in the department of biological sciences at Loyola University, was with her undergraduate lab when removing the el-bow joint of the chick em-bryo’s wing. “The project was orig-inally initiated to devel-op a model to study joint-regeneration,” Anderson said. “Because of the acces-sibility of the chick embryo to manipulation and the many years I had worked on the chick embryo to un-derstand the mechanisms of anterior-posterior pat-terning during develop-ment, I chose to work on the chick.”

Eighteen hours after Anderson removed the joint, it had regrown. In this phenomenon the em-bryonic cells actually mi-grated to the location of the missing joint and re-placed it. “While the chicken is not the most obvious choice since it had never been shown to be regenerative,

we were asking it to regen-erate in a context that had never been tested before,” Anderson said. “Excising the prospective joint tis-sue and thereby creating a “window” in the limb proved to provide the right environment for regenera-tion to occur.” Surprisingly, human genes for development

are the same as a chick-en’s. This means it is pos-sible to apply this research to humans one day, and our own bodies will be ca-pable of regenerating our joints. There will no longer be problems with our bod-ies rejecting the new joint and the limited movement

Regrowing a chickenRegenerative medicine blurs the line between the chicken and egg

Courtesy

UC San Diego researchers, using a series of simple auditory tests, were able to map the neural circuitry of where a schizophrenia patient’s brain suffers deficits and abnormalities in the presence of auditory stimuli.

Courtesy

Researchers at Loyola University observed a chicken embryo regenerating a joint. Embryonic stem cells migrated to the missing joint and replaced it.

See JOINT, page 4

See SOUND, page 5

See BRAIN, page 5

classifieds

Sudoku

Enter digits from 1 to 9 into the blank spaces. Every row must contain one of each digit. So must every column, as must every 3x3 square. Each Sudoku has a unique solution that can be reached logically without guessing.

Hard

Are you interested in a health relat-ed field? Join C.H.E. and learn more about our pre-health organization! Meetings every Tuesday at 7:10pm to 8:00pm. For more information, contact Fabiola Sanchez at fsanchezmarti-nez@ucdavis.edu. See you soon!

Overpopulation is sexually transmit-ted. http://population.sierraclub.org/population/

SPACIOUS 2 BEDROOM 2 BATH, HOUSE FOR RENT NEXT TO CAMPUS TO CAMPUS: $1400/MO. PLEASE CALL 415-948-8278 FOR MORE INFORMATION. 4 Bedroom 2 Bath House for Rent on Sycamore Lane. $2300/mo. Please call 415-948-8278 for more info.

5 Bedroom 2 Bath House for Rent on Menlo Drive; $2,550/mo. Please call 415-948-8278 for more info.

EXPERIMENTAL SUBJECTS. Get paid $10-20 for completing easy 60-90 min. experiment. Perform group decision-making task. Payment deter-mined in part by individual success. Register: www.experimetrix2.com/ucdesp. One time participation only. You must be at least 18 years old.

The California Aggie reserves the right to, without notice, classify all advertisements, delete objectionable words and phrases, and edit or refuse advertisements. Categories will be strictly adhered to. The Aggie reserves the right to change, without notice, deadlines for advertising copy, rates, rules, and regulations. The advertiser will not hold The Aggie liable for any claims resulting from publication of the advertisement. Further, the Publisher will not be responsible for any claim resulting from an agreement made between the consumer and advertiser. Copy should be checked for errors BY THE ADVERTISER following the first insertion. Errors

in advertisements must be reported before 1 p.m. for correction in next issue. Credit for Publisher error(s) will only be given for the incorrect portion of the advertisement for the first publication date. All phone numbers appearing in classifieds will be in the 530 area code. Only area codes outside the 530 area will be printed. For placement or questions e-mail classifieds@theaggie.org.

There are no refunds/creditsfor cancellations.

Notice to ReadeRs25 Lower Freeborn Hall, UCD

One Shields Ave.Davis, CA 95616

Editorial: (530) 752-0208Advertising: (530) 752-0365Fax: (530) 752-0355Office Hours: Monday-Thursday 9 a.m.- 4 p.m.

CLASSIFIED AD RATES* Students: 20¢ per word/day General: 25¢ per word/day * Minimum 5 words

LOCAL OPEN AD RATES $10.00 per column inch

DEADLINESPublication Display Ads Classified AdsMonday 4 p.m. Wed 1 p.m. ThursTuesday 4 p.m. Thu 1 p.m. MonWednesday 4 p.m. Fri 1 p.m. TueThursday 4 p.m. Mon 1 p.m. Wed

YUaNdWhatarmy!? by Angela Yuan angela.yuan@me.com

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Lewis

FOR RELEASE MARCH 22, 2010

ACROSS1 Prefix with

brewery6 Quite a ways

away10 Field furrow

maker14 Like a specially

formedcommittee

15 Infrequent16 Learn about

aurally17 Track shoe part18 Canon shots,

briefly19 Dark and murky20 Hopelessly, as in

love23 Meal remnant24 Cribbage piece25 Writer’s coll.

major, often26 Piper in the air29 Field sobriety

test32 Fossil fuel35 Draw a bead36 Keeps for later37 A single time38 Theater chain

founded in 190441 __ Beach,

Florida42 Firestone

products44 Bit of a chill45 Formerly,

previously46 Fierce way to

fight50 Reply: Abbr.51 __, dos, tres ...52 ’50s car

embellishment53 “Antiques

Roadshow” airer56 Facetious60 Forte of a certain

“doctor”62 Eye blatantly63 Throw with effort64 Political alliance65 Mass transit

option66 Game show host67 “The Sun __

Rises”68 Somewhat69 Competed in a

bee

DOWN1 Virile2 Work shirker3 Copy from your

classmate’spaper, say

4 Willie Nelson’s“On the __Again”

5 Squid cousins6 Broken chord, in

music7 Expo8 Shooter with a

quiver9 Bristle at

10 Golfer Mickelson11 Camera’s

protective cap12 Cask material13 Droll21 Bribable22 They’re big in

Hollywood27 Online surfers,

e.g.28 Stupefy with

booze29 Hertz inventory30 Edit31 Umbilicus32 Terra __: pottery

clay

33 Burger topper34 Puzzles

involving quotes,usually

39 Hall of Fameoutfielder Daveor actor Paul

40 Madrid’s country43 Steer clear of47 Long-haired cat48 Chewy candy49 Yard’s 36

53 What a V-signmay mean

54 Slanted edge55 Trapshooting57 Not hoodwinked

by58 Director Kazan59 Natural rope

fiber60 Place to be

pampered61 Buddy

Saturday’s Puzzle SolvedBy Robert Fisher 3/22/10

(c)2010 Tribune Media Services, Inc. 3/22/10

Meetings

Websites/Internet

House For Rent

Help Wanted

The california aggie 4 WeDneSDaY, JanUarY 30, 2013

of the replacements we have today. “Our study can only be one of the stepping stones for develop-ing therapeutic methods of restor-ing joint function,” said Duygu Özpolat, a researcher from the University of Maryland. “The ba-sic idea here is to induce a form of regeneration response in an oth-erwise non-regenerating struc-ture. In this sense, a chicken em-bryo is similar to a human’s: We cannot regenerate easily.”

A large interest for this research project is for veteran amputees. The possibility of being able to re-place a joint, or even a limb, with their own tissue would be a major discovery.

“We are focused on the joint at present, but we will definite-ly need to interface our work at some point with the issue of re-growing a limb,” Anderson said. “Currently, our collaborator, Dr. Ken Muneoka, and his laboratory at Tulane University, are making great strides at addressing limb regeneration using their mouse-digit-tip model.”

The model Anderson men-tioned was another research proj-ect Özpolat worked on.

“One of the reasons why we wanted to understand joint re-generation specifically was due to the mouse-digit-tip regeneration model we have been working on at the Muneoka lab,” Özpolat said. “In this model, when a fingertip of an adult mouse is amputated the structure regenerates. The regen-erating structure has both bone and connective tissues, as well as a part of the nail. If you make the amputation a larger one, by in-cluding the first joint from the fin-

ger tip, there is no regeneration.”Humans regenerating joints

seems like a daunting task for re-searchers to accomplish.

“It is important to remember that while aiming for the complete limb regeneration can be an in-timidating task, even the mildest, smallest tissue regeneration re-sponse can make a big difference for somebody who is losing the in-tegrity of their joints through de-generative joint diseases, or an-other patient who lost a part of their finger,” Özpolat said.

Currently, Anderson and her students are continuing research

to find the cells and genes that lead to the embryo’s recovery. One of those students is Jeffrey Coote, a fourth-year undergraduate bi-ological sciences major at Loyola University.

“I do plan on using what I have and will continue to learn about joint regeneration throughout my medical career,” he said. “[I] will definitely keep up with this study and similar studies with the hopes of using what I learn to help my patients.”

KELLY MITCHELL can be reached at science@theaggie.org.

jointcont. from page 3

Tuesday’s puzzle solved

By KIM CARRAggie Sports Writer

The UC Davis men’s basketball team has brought an entirely new look to the courts this season after a disappointing 2011-12 campaign. Part of that fresh start has been from the revitalizing spark that sophomore Corey Hawkins has provided for them. It can be said that basketball is in his blood, as his two brothers also play bas-ketball and his father, Hershey Hawkins, was a successful 13-year NBA player. Hawkins has been a force on offense and hit the game-winning shot against Cal Poly in a thrilling game at home.

He recently sat down with Aggie Sports Writer Kim Carr and discussed his new career at UC Davis, life with a former NBA player as a father and what it is like being in a family passionate about basketball.

Aggie: You played your freshman year at ASU. How is the atmosphere different here?Hawkins: ASU is a bigger school with more people and bigger facilities so it’s a little different than here. There’s a differ-ent energy here though. People definitely take academics way more seriously here at Davis though.

What pushed you to transfer to Davis?

Actually, when I transferred I ended up transferring late. Coach Les called my dad to tell him he had gotten a coaching job here and he had played with my dad in college so it just worked out for me.

How much did your dad coach you as a kid?He definitely helped me. When I was start-ing off he guided me but he was also play-ing [in the NBA] at the time. So he was away for games quite a bit. But even just being able to go to his practices and use those facilities was a huge advantage. Obviously he’s helped me but I’ve got-ten a lot of help from my teams and play-ing [with] my brothers. It was a nice com-bination of both.

How is Coach Les as a mentor?Oh, he’s awesome. He’s a player’s coach and he knows when guys get tired dur-ing the season and need some rest but he knows when to push you too. He really has everybody’s best interests at heart.

Do you have aspirations for the NBA?Definitely. That’s what I’m in it for. I have to keep working on it. I’m not there yet but I’ve still got two more years and I need to keep progressing within the team and in-dividually and just keep on winning.

What would you like to do after the NBA then? Would you still want to be involved in basketball in some way?Absolutely. My dad works for the Portland Trailblazers in the player development department. My major revolves around social media and mass marketing so I would like to use that. You know, I love the game too much to not be around it.

You have a weird knack for taking off-bal-ance shots and Coach Les has touched on your gift for landing the fade-away jump-er. Have you always had that ability?Yeah. I mean honestly when I was a kid I would go to the gym and throw up shots, run over to the ball and throw it up again.

I saw when you were warming up for the game against Cal State Fullerton you just lobbed it up in the air from half court and it swished right in.That was just luck. I don’t know how to ex-plain it. I just try and keep focused on the shot all the way through, I guess.

What are your warm-up songs?Honestly it depends on what kind of mood I’m in. If I’m tired when I hit the gym I want to listen to something that’s going to pump me up. Usually some kind of hip-hop or rap — I don’t like slow songs. A lot of Kendrick Lamar, The Game and any-thing with a pump-up feel to it.

You’re currently shooting 92 percent from the free throw line. What is your mental process when you’re getting ready to take the shot?I set my feet, spin the ball, take three drib-bles and then I spin again. I spin it for me and take my dribbles for my mom and each of my two brothers then I spin it again for my dad. Then I tell myself “Good shooters make their free throws every single time.”

What’s been your favorite basketball moment at UC Davis so far?It had to be the game winner against Cal Poly. Yeah, for sure. That was, that was ... well, I’ve never hit a game winner like that.

KIM CARR can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.

The california aggie wednesday, january 23, 2013 5

Lucas Bolster / Aggie

INSIDEthe game with... Corey Hawkins

We’re considering a range of options and we’ll be using this time constructively so we can reach the outcome that makes the most sense,” Pinkerton said. The priority for the city is to find a cost-effec-tive management model that encourages greater cooperation, thereby improving response times to emergency calls. Black said he considers his ap-pointment to be a move toward achieving this lev-el of collaboration. “It reflects that both departments believe there is a lot of lost efficiency by standing separately. It’s not efficient and doesn’t provide the highest-qual-ity service. Our goal is to provide a better service for the people asking for help,” Black said. It is thought that this level of efficiency can be attained by dropping logistical boundaries that currently exist between the two departments. “Dropping these boundaries would statisti-cally improve response times to emergencies,” Black said. “We want an operation that enables us to respond in the fastest, most effective way possible while reducing the risk of any serious in-jury or casualty.” Discussion over the coming months will focus on the budgetary, staffing, logistical and man-agement considerations before a decision can be made. While the culmination of the projected six- to nine-month period is by no means a strict dead-line, it is hoped that a permanent solution will be reached within this timeframe. “We have to find a solution that everyone will be comfortable with. Our task is to work out the most effective way of delivering public safety services while maintaining our responsibility to be good stewards of public money,” Black said. The appointment, however, has not been unan-imously well received. Reservations have been voiced with regard to Black’s qualifications for the role due to limited experience in the firefighting field. “Chief Black has done a fine job with the police

department, but there’s quite a difference between firefighters and police officers. It’s a completely different mindset. It’s not an administrative per-son we need; it’s someone that has the knowledge of what the fire department entails,” said Bobby Weist, fire captain and 3rd District vice president of the California Professional Firefighters (CPF). “This isn’t something that would have been done with any other department that has public safety in mind.” Weist, furthermore, raised questions surround-ing the legitimacy of Black’s appointment, giv-en that California’s government code 38611 stip-ulates that “the fire department shall be under the charge of a chief who shall have had previous training and experience as a fireman.” Frustration was also expressed with the length of time taken to reach a permanent solution. “The Davis Fire Department has been without a permanent chief for almost four years. We need a Chief, and this is the person that leads the depart-ment as well as makes decisions on operational is-sues,” Weist said. Weist said while he has no issues with Chief Black, the city’s priority should be to find a per-manent chief. “He’s [Chief Black] very personable and all my dealings with him, whether on a professional or personal level, have been fantastic. But in order to carry out this role you have to have the relevant expertise in managing the day-to-day operation of the fire department,” Weist said. While Chief Black’s appointment could be inter-preted as suggesting the contrary, the city is not considering a joint management model between the police and fire departments at present. “The discussion regarding police and fire rela-tions has been in limbo for some time, but at this stage the city is not ready to explore what a com-bined model would mean for both communities,” Black said. The City Manager’s office says that during this transitional period there will be no noticeable differ-ence to fire services provided for the community.

JOE STEPTOE can be reached at city@theaggie.org.

FIRECont. from front page

other) and the use of an EEG, Light’s team was able to map the neural circuitry of where a schizophrenic patient’s brain suf-fers deficits and abnormalities in the pres-ence of auditory stimuli. “The research studied two major parts of an auditory response complex. The first is called mismatched negativity, or MMN. It starts to

occur about 1/20th of a second after a sound is presented … called an infrequent unexpect-ed stimulus. The second part of the response complex is called P3a,” Light said. “The first figure shows patients have MMN deficits in isolated areas at the medial frontal cortex. At the second part of the wave, P3a shows there are deficits across large sections of the brain. So taking those two pieces together suggests that impairments at the earliest stages of sen-sory discrimination start off in relatively iso-lated areas and propagate forward to produce

large-scale dysfunction in attention.” These processes all occur within fractions of a second, and can help explain some of the causes for the positive symptoms such as auditory or visual hallucinations. This ex-plains why schizophrenia patients are un-able to detect certain social cues and subtle-ties such as sarcasm or a raise in vocal tone. The pathway in which these stimuli travel also explains why there are so many symp-toms; the widespread propagation of the signals affect different portions of the brain,

making it difficult for the mind to piece to-gether simple external inputs. The experi-ment isn’t just limited to sound inputs ei-ther; these same patterns are shown in other sensory cortices such as those dealing with visual and tactile inputs. With this new research, Light hopes to create possible treatment plans that involve conditioning schizophrenia patients to rec-ognize and respond to certain stimuli.

ALLEN GUAN can be reached at science@theaggie.org.

soundCont. from page 3

the mice learned about the danger of elec-trical shock. When they sensed that they were in the same cage where the initial electrical shock originated, they tensed up in fear, and the neurons during the learn-ing process reactivated. However, in a new environment, there was no reactiva-tion. The results were similar to what was found in the prior research with epileptic patients. The hippocampus is not by any means the only part of the brain associated with memory storage and retrieval. Other areas assist in learning and memory storage. “It appears that there is a division of la-bor, with different areas supporting differ-ent kinds of memories. So, for instance, the amygdala seems to be responsible for

learning about the salience (importance) of objects or places, such as whether they are associated with danger or reward,” Ranganath said. According to Ekstrom, cortical areas such as the parietal cortex and prefrontal cortex are also important. “Parts of the thalamus are also involved, but their exact functions in memory are unclear,” Ekstrom said. Researchers have differentiated be-tween areas that are responsible for form-ing memories and areas responsible for re-calling memories. In mice, reactivation of memories decreased over time in brain re-gions such as the amygdala, which is re-sponsible for forming memories. The study has opened many new possi-bilities and has greatly added to research-ers’ understanding of how memory works. “Prior to Wiltgen’s study, we thought that when a memory is retrieved, most of

the cells representing the original mem-ory trace are reactivated. Wiltgen’s study shows that while many of the cells active during encoding are active during retriev-al, many are not,” Ekstrom said. “This begs the question of what these additional neu-rons are doing and opens the door to bet-ter understanding the role of individual neurons in representing memories, at least in [animal] models,” Ekstrom said. According to Ranganath, Wiltgen’s re-search has provided the strongest evidence to date showing that the hippocampus is involved in storing memories and the con-text of those memories. In the future, this research could help current and future researchers investigate ways to reactivate neurons in patients with Alzheimer’s disease or other memory-de-generative disorders.

VICTORIA TRANG can be reached at science@theaggie.org.

BRAInCont. from page 3

Thursday in the company of ASUCD Senators Bradley Bottoms and Kabir Kapur. The lunch included a discussion of the structure of ASUCD, reasons for being part of student government and where student fees go.

“It was a rewarding experience. They were excited to be a part of the first [lunch],” Kapur said. “I was excited to hear that they were interested in being a part of the program.”

The next Lunch with ASUCD is on Thursday from noon to 1 p.m. at the CoHo.

Students can register online at asucd.ucdavis.edu/2012/10/30/asucd-meals.

KELLEY DRECHSLER can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.

lunChCont. from front page

Developments to increase bicycle safety continue

Campus officials implement programs to reinforce bike safety and regulations

By JOYCE BERTHELSENAggie Features Writer

During last week’s rainy days, many of us were splashed with the infamous “Freshman Stripe” — an embarrassing phe-nomenon that occurs when your bike tires splatter your back with muddy water. A lot of us also cringed when our buses drove up with foggy windows. Then we endured the discomfort of being tightly packed in it.

For the even more unfortunate, how-ever, rainy days are also bike-crash sea-son. While arguably there are fewer bicy-clists on campus in the rain, the hazards of a slippery road are also greater. Some people may even argue that students lose all biking abilities when it rains. Both the transportation and police departments are working to minimize the risks of accidents through roundabouts and other features.

With over 22,000 bicycles on campus ev-ery day, the probability of accidents seem great. However, there have only been ap-proximately 600 reported bicycle accidents in the past 10 years (five per month) ac-cording to a report from the fire depart-ment. Still, this does not account for mi-nor accidents when students hit a curb or fall off their bike because they are tex-ting. Well over 90 percent of bicycle acci-dents are not reported, according to Cliff Contreras, Transportation and Parking Services (TAPS) director.

“There are accidents, [but] the major-ity are minor,” said William Beermann, UCPD representative. “I think the majority of accidents involving vehicles are report-ed to the police department. The accidents that are caused by a single bike are prob-ably not reported, but those are minor — maybe not even to a point of a scrape or a bruise. I think that as a campus, we’re very safe as far as bikes go.”

The 17 roundabouts on campus help reduce biking accidents by providing a more fluid flow of traffic. The construc-tion of the new roundabout on Hutchison Drive and Bioletti Way replaced a stop sign, which some students seemed to disregard. Constructed during Martin Luther King Day weekend, it was in place by Tuesday, Jan. 22.

“Historically, nationwide, the replace-ment of standard intersections to round-abouts has greatly increased traffic safe-ty and reduced crashes,” said David Takemoto-Weerts, TAPS bicycle coordina-tor. “So that’s the assumption we’re operat-ing under.”

As Tercero South Residence Halls contin-ues to grow, Takemoto-Weerts said he an-ticipates there will also be increased bicycle traffic on Bioletti Way and onto campus.

The new roundabout is only part of the project to make the Hutchison/Bioletti in-tersection safer. Around 400 to 500 students pour out of the Science Lecture Hall every hour onto Hutchison Drive, keeping the street busy throughout the day and adding to the constant foot and vehicle traffic.

“That area where the roundabout is now has been notoriously a problem where a lot of bicyclists don’t stop,” Contreras said. “It creates problems for traffic and pedestrian circulation, so we believe that this will mit-igate some of that.”

The existing construction found at the Hutchison/Bioletti intersection is a cur-rent gate construction project and improv-

ing the parking lot. The gate on Hutchison Drive and California Avenue is the current campus-enclosed core perimeter, but the new gate will extend the boundary, where there will be little vehicular access. The project is funded by TAPS and Unitrans, and aims to create a safer environment for bicyclists and pedestrians. The gate is an-ticipated to go up in the next several weeks, according to Contreras.

“When you see class breaks on any day of the week, we believe that trying to go down Hutchison [Drive] is very dangerous for anybody involved in that movement, and we don’t want any vehicles in there during [breaks],” Contreras said. “So we created [the roundabout] and improved the park-ing lot to complement the gate.”

The only routine vehicles permitted through the gate will be transit and cam-pus service vehicles. A kiosk will also be built to allow communication for other ve-hicles that need access to the core.

As part of enforcing bike safety, TAPS and the police department formed a part-nership to create and implement dif-ferent programs. The Bicycle Education Enforcement Program was developed through this partnership, and is an on-line training course about bicycle safety and regulations. Starting last October, they also implemented an ongoing bike light giveaway program. Bicyclists with no bike lights will be stopped by a police officer, talked to about bike safety and given a bike light instead of a citation.

“It’s a form of education, encourage-ment to ride safely and to utilize the safety equipment,” Beermann said.

Future plans to improve bicycle safety include developing a scramble phase on La Rue Road and Orchard Road, which is a light signal allowing only pedestrians and bicyclists to move. Another bicycle round-about will also be placed at the California Avenue and Shields Avenue intersection this summer.

During the rainy days when students aren’t biking in the dark or through round-abouts, many are found in Unitrans bus-es complaining about how crowded it is. Some wonder aloud why Unitrans doesn’t send them a spacious double-decker bus instead.

In fact, there are only two vintage and two modern double-deckers. Buying an-other one would cost about $800,000.

“We don’t have that many double-deck-ers because they’re very expensive and they’re all diesel-powered,” said Anthony Palmere, Unitrans manager. “Because we’re in an air quality nonattainment area, we’re restricted in how many diesel buses we can have. We have the natural gas buses, so we’re on what’s called the alternative fuel path. It’s difficult for us to get diesel buses unless we’re also getting natural gas buses at the same time. We don’t have the fund-ing to buy either kind of bus right now.”

Palmere also explained that crowded buses are one of the reasons UC Davis is a sustainable school. Dividing out the car-bon footprints of the people on the bus, the emissions per person is low. They are even lower on a bicycle. But rain allows you to hold onto your environmentalist credit aboard the bus while avoiding that stripe down your back.

JOYCE BERTHELSEN can be reached at features@theaggie.org.

6 wednesday, january 30, 2013 The california aggie

Get tatted, fight cancerLocal tattoo shop hosts event to help fund toddler’s cancer treatment

By TANYA AZARIAggie Arts Writer

If you walk into Primary Concepts on Feb. 2, it’ll seem just like a normal day for one of Davis’ neighborhood tat-too shops. You’ll see various pieces of art and tattoo flash sheets adorning the walls, hear the buzzing of tattoo guns and the murmur of conversation be-tween artists and customers. Only one thing will seem strange: Everyone there will be getting the same tattoo. A cancer ribbon. They’re all there for Primary Concepts’ “Tattoos Fighting Cancer” event, in support of little Jeffrey Matthew Fagan. “I’ve known Jeffrey’s dad for a long time,” says Phil Geck, owner of Primary Concepts. “We went to high school to-gether and I’ve been tattooing him for about five or 10 years. About six months ago, he called me to cancel his tattoo appointment because they had found a lump in his son’s chest.” The lump turned out to be cancer, and Jeffrey was diagnosed with lympho-ma at the age of two. Since the tumor is too close to his trachea, surgery is not an option, and he will undergo two years of chemotherapy. Jeffrey is already several months into his treatment. “It’s been a bumpy road,” said Jeff Fagan, Jeffrey’s dad. “But he’s a strong, tough, happy kid. When he’s feeling OK, you wouldn’t even know he was sick, other than his bald head.” Jeffrey’s parents, Jeff and Brianne Fagan, are having difficulties paying for Jeffrey’s medical bills while still sup-porting themselves and their five-year-old daughter Zoey. Jeff hasn’t been able to work since the diagnosis, and the two juggle watching the children with almost daily trips from Vacaville to Sacramento for their son’s treatments. Thankfully, the Fagan family has re-ceived nothing but care and support from those closest to them. “Friends have put together fundrais-ers before, and that’s what’s really keep-ing us afloat,” Fagan said.

What makes Geck’s fundraising event stand out from the others is that when you give, you get something permanent in return. “Tattoos Fighting Cancer” will feature ten different artists, all avail-able to tattoo any color cancer ribbon for only $20. “People want to show support with these tattoos for their loved ones that are suffering from or have passed away from cancer,” Geck said. “Our tattoos are usually a minimum of $70 or $80, but we chose to offer these for $20 to make it more accessible for those interested.”

The money paid for each tattoo will go directly to Jeffrey’s family.

Primary Concepts is also holding an art auction at the same time and place as the tattoo event, for individuals who don’t want tattoos but wish to contribute.

“We’re going to have a lot of hand-made art pieces, and we’ll be selling them off via raffle,” Geck said.

For those who can’t make it on Saturday but still want to show their support, Geck has set up a fundrais-ing website on gofundme.com to help Jeffrey’s cause.

“I think it’ll be the first of many,” Geck said of the event. “There are a lot of peo-ple out there with cancer, and I think we can try and help some of them.”

The Fagan family is thankful for the support.

“We really appreciate the help that we’ve received from Phil and everybody that’s stepped up for us during this hard part in our life,” Fagan said. “I’d just like to convey that we don’t want peo-ple to feel sorry for us. It’s something that happens that’s hard for our fami-ly, but at the same time we’re trying to stay positive, beat the cancer and move on with our lives.”

“Tattoos Fighting Cancer” will be taking place from noon to 9 p.m. on Saturday at Primary Concepts on 219 E Street. To donate online, go to go-fundme.com/1v3e54. For any ques-tions, call (530) 400-9622.

TANYA AZARI can be reached at arts@theaggie.org.

Zach Land-Miller / Aggie

A roundabout replaced a stop sign on Hutchinson Drive and Bioletti Way. Roundabouts on campus reduce bike accidents by facilitating the flow of traffic.