Academics and research in the news

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Column: Don’t attack legal immigration

“If you hate legal immigration, then Trump’s new plan is for you,” Jonathan T. Weinberg wrote. The plan, according to Weinberg, would give us a nearly 40 percent cut in what President Trump calls “chain migration,” and the rest of us call “family-based migration” – legal immigration to the United States to join a close family member who is a U.S. citizen or green card holder. “Trump’s plan is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how U.S. immigration law works, and what immigration to this country has always looked like. This plan isn’t an attack on illegal immigration; it’s an attack on the legal immigration that has made this country strong,” Weinberg wrote.
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What history tells us about power of presidential speeches

What makes a president’s words ring throughout history? What are the best presidential speeches in history? Wayne State University history professor Marc Kruman says the most impactful presidential speeches usually come at inaugural addresses when the leaders tend to be aspirational. Kruman says Trump’s first inaugural address, which referenced “American carnage” and other dark and negative imagery, played to his campaign style. Kruman says Trump is unlikely to change his style and delivery any time soon. “I’d be surprised if he sought to redirect it,” says Kruman.
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Opinion: Three 2018 resolutions for a more prosperous metro Detroit

Last year brought news of upheavals in the world, around the country and in our backyard. News of hurricanes and the California fires made me more grateful than ever to claim southeastern Michigan as home. It also makes me concerned that not everyone in southeast Michigan benefits from our region's riches. Worse, I fear that we are being reckless with our treasures. Thus, I offer this resolution for southeastern Michigan: Let's think like a region in 2018.    
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Opinion: I-375 was a mistake. Here's what we can learn from it

Using urban freeway building as a reason for demolishing black neighborhoods was seen as accomplishing two goals at once — in other words, it was deliberate, not incidental. This is precisely what happened with the construction of I-375 in Detroit. Black Bottom and Paradise Valley, two vibrant African-American neighborhoods, were simply scraped off the face of the earth to accommodate the new urban freeways, Lafayette Park, the Detroit Medical Center, and, decades later, Ford Field.
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Detroit, International Experts React to Trump’s Jerusalem Announcement

Saeed Khan, senior lecturer in Near East and Asia studies at Wayne State University, explains why there is so much tension behind the decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Howard Lupovitch, associate professor of history and the director of the Cohn Haddow Center for Judaic Studies at Wayne State University, explains that President Trump’s announcement was part of promises he made during the presidential campaign.   
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The Credibility Gap in Academe

The Harvey Weinstein scandal has led to renewed awareness about sexual misconduct in every sector, including a string of recent allegations in academe. In the past, claims by women — especially those in subordinate or less senior roles — were not always considered credible. That appears to be changing this time. Women are being believed, and predators are losing their jobs. Yet a recent incident showed me how much women’s credibility remains under siege, in subtle ways, even when dealing with faculty peers. In an academic environment where credentials are everything, women’s credentials may still mean little.
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In an era of billionaire media moguls, do press unions stand a chance?

The newspaper industry and unions have a long history. One of the earliest unions formed in the newsroom was the American Newspaper Guild, founded in 1933. The guild (now renamed the NewsGuild) has evolved to represent 24,000 employees performing a variety of jobs, from reporters and editors to graphic designers. However, over the past several decades, rapid technological change and growing competition for readers and advertisers have strained labor-management relations in the industry.

Psychiatry’s Dr. David Rosenberg talks child and adolescent internet addiction on TV’s ‘20/20’

ABC television and “20/20” program co-anchor Elizabeth Vargas turned to Wayne State University School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences Professor and Chair David Rosenberg, M.D., for insight into the effects of compulsive internet device use on the child and adolescent brain for an episode expected to air May 19 at 10 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Compulsive internet use is increasingly common, he said. “Internet addiction in children and adolescents is a growing problem and part of our culture. The internet is a wonderful servant, but a cruel and crippling master,” Rosenberg said. “There is some debate in the field about whether internet addiction is real addiction or pathology. We contend it exists, and it can devastate children and their families. But there are differences – as well as similarities – with other addictive behavior, and you can't just stop with a diagnosis of internet addiction, since there are always underlying conditions that must be aggressively diagnosed and treated for the long-term benefit of the internet addiction.” Rosenberg shared with Vargas his department’s approach to internet addiction, brain imaging and neuropsychiatric assessments, as well as problems with executive function, brain abnormalities and changes observed in the brain after digital fasts. A digital fast, also known as a digital detox or unplugging, is when an individual voluntarily stops using all connected devices such as smart phones, tablets and computers for a specific period of time. The department’s preliminary studies, while needing considerable additional research, suggest that brain abnormalities may normalize with a digital fast, but those normalizations may not persist if the individual’s environment does not change. This includes the continuation of possible family behaviors that may enable internet excess. “It is not an isolated phenomenon. There are always associated and underlying conditions, such as depression, poor self-esteem, poor impulse control, anxiety, obsessive compulsive behaviors and chronic pain,” he said. The studies discussed for the television show are facilitated by the unique and state-of-the-art MRI infrastructure at Wayne State University, and the expertise of internationally-recognized scientists and MRI experts Vaibhav Diwadkar, Ph.D., and Jeffrey Stanley, Ph.D., department faculty members who are conducting pioneering and sophisticated MRI imaging studies that are unlocking potential mechanisms for a wide variety of neuropsychiatric disorders. “They are leaders who are sought out by teams doing neuroimaging throughout the United States, and internationally,” Rosenberg said. Filming of clinical interviews and neuropsychiatric/neuropsychologic assessments took place over the last year at WSU’s Tolan Park Medical Office Building and the WSU MR Research Facility at the Detroit Medical Center. He also was interviewed last week by co-anchor Vargas in New York. The appearance is one of several Rosenberg has made on the program since 2009 about the department’s studies into obsessive compulsive disorder utilizing functional magnetic resonance imaging technology. “I was honored and humbled. Hopefully this is an opportunity to let people know what to recognize, and that there is hope,” he said. He also spoke with ABC’s local affiliate, WXYZ-TV, on May 10 for a related segment about the affects of both regular and excessive iPad use on a person’s behavior and brain. That interview is expected to air at 11 p.m. May 19, following the "20/20" program.
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Karmanos Cancer Institute, Wayne State University receive grant to conduct nation’s largest study of cancer in African Americans

Following a five-year, $9 million grant from the National Cancer Institute, the Karmanos Cancer Institute and Wayne State University School of Medicine today announced they will launch the nation’s largest study of African American cancer survivors to better understand disproportionately high incidence and mortality from cancer in this specific population.