Massachusetts Daily Collegian: Nov. 6, 2013

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ArcAde fire Gets feArLess

BAcK iN ActiON

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Daily Collegian DailyCollegian.com

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Hadley begins solar project Part of an effort to reduce energy costs By Marleigh Felsenstein Collegian Correspondent

In an effort to reduce the high cost of energy in Hadley, the town is beginning a solar development project to generate electricity that is expected to benefit taxpayers for the next 20 years. Through a partnership with Nexamp, an independent solar power producer, the town is installing solar grids, which will help produce electricity and reduce the cost of energy. According to David Nixon,

Hadley town administrator, the town itself is not putting forth any money for the project. “Nexamp is raising private dollars for installment,” Nixon said. To help alleviate the problem of expensive energy in Hadley, Nexamp has created “coupons” to help reduce electric bills. Hadley, with cooperation from Nexamp, can use these coupons for a 21 percent discount on electric bills. This will provide the town with at least $300,000 in savings, which could increase to as much as $600,000 in the future, according to Nixon. The solar panels, located on Mill Valley Road at Allard

Farm, will begin operating in Jan. 2014. The Daily Hampshire Gazette reported that the solar panels will generate up to 3 megawatts of power. “(Hadley is a) small town with big town issues,” Nixon said. Many more people than just its 5,000 residents travel through the town on any given day because of its central location between the Amherst and Northampton commuter route. Nixon also said that the town has many “energy hogs,” which include a wastewater treatment plant and the two Hadley schools— Hopkins Academy and Hadley Elementary School. Parts of the University of

Massachusetts campus are also located in Hadley, including the Mullins Center. These places use a lot of energy and water, Nixon said, which is what contributes to the high cost of energy. The new solar panels are not the town’s only environmentally conscious feature. Hadley also has anaerobic digesters, which convert organic waste, such as livestock manure, into energy. Nixon said that cutting back on emissions is important in preventing environmental damage, and added that he would like to see more solar panels on Hadley see

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Happy Holla-ween

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Vocal Suspects perform their Halloween concert in Herter Auditorium on Oct. 31.

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Construction switches up paths to class Site fence lines won’t be changing By Katrina BoroFsKi Collegian Staff

For students at the University of Massachusetts this fall, the struggle of trudging to class across the large campus goes beyond the cold temperatures and fierce wind chill, as students also face the inconvenience of major construction sites obstructing many routes to class. Current construction projects include the Central Campus Infrastructure Project, the New Academic Classroom Building and the Champions Center. The Central Campus Infrastructure Project began Jan. 2013 and is projected to continue through this month. According to UMass Amherst Design and Construction Management, the project’s purpose is to “improve existing capacity and install new utilities in the area while supporting the planned development of new buildings.” Construction for the project begins at the Commonwealth Honors Colle ge Residential Complex and extends through the center of campus all the way to the location of the new academic building. As a result of this construction, the pathway from the W.E.B. Du Bois Library to the Student Union has been narrowed by fences on both sides. For many students, this poses a challenge for travelling across campus, as the project cuts into one of the busiest parts of campus. Project Manager Jason Venditti said that the project is estimated to end after

November. If the scheduling goes as planned, this means that students will only have to walk through the congested pathway for the remainder of the month. The New Academic Classroom Building is another construction site located at the center of campus that, despite temporarily blocking pathways across campus, will benefit UMass in the near future. UMass Design and Construction Management reported that the four-story, 173,000-square-foot structure will offer 2,000 seats in more than 60 new rooms. The building will also include case study rooms and an auditorium. “Few campuses boast a large pond as their iconic center and this modern new building at its edge will reflect the spirit of sustainability and natural environment that are part of the planning and engineering design,” said UMass Design and Construction Management on its website. With big hopes for this new facility, there is still much to do. Project Manager Jeff Quackenbush estimated that the project will be completed in spring 2014. For the time being, however, construction will still interfere the regular flow of traffic on campus. Through November, some of the biggest interruptions will take place on North Pleasant Street, where the construction will shift access for cars. Construction fence lines will remain the same for the remainder of the month. The Champions Center is one of the other major construction sites on campus, see

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Security questioned on Sperm capacitation HealthCare.gov website researched at UMass Official tries to reassure senators

By tony Pugh McClatchy Washington Bureau WASHINGTON — A top Obama administration official on Tuesday tried to assure anxious senators that Americans’ personal information was secure on the troubled HealthCare.gov web site, which erroneously provided a South Carolina man’s personal information to a man in North Carolina last week. In testimony before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Medicare Administrator Marilyn Tavenner said she became aware of the mistake on Monday and told the committee a “software fix” had

remedied the problem. After a bruising round of testimony in the Republicanled House of Representatives last week, Tavenner again faced a pointed, but this time more cordial, line of questioning from the Senate committee chaired by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa. The more relaxed atmosphere was evident before the proceeding as committee members from both parties warmly greeted the beleaguered Obama administration health care official. The incident involving the personal information occurred last week when Justin Hadley of North Carolina opened his personal account on HealthCare.gov and saw a letter from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services addressed to Tom Dougall of Elgin, S.C.

The letter, on department stationary, included information about Dougall’s eligibility for federal subsidies. According to a blog on the web site of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative policy think tank in Washington, Hadley used the information to contact Dougall by phone. He left a message, which caught Dougall by surprise. “Initially I was concerned because I didn’t know if this was some guy who was scamming me or if in fact this was a guy who really had my personal information,” Dougall told the Heritage blog. Dougall eventually contacted Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., a member of the Senate health committee, who chided Tavenner about see

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Biologists part of international team

Reproductive biologists at the University of Massachusetts are working with an international team to better understand the basic processes of how sperm fertilizes an egg, which may one day lead to a better success rate of in vitro fertilization. Pablo Visconti, a professor of veterinary and animal sciences at UMass, was the lead author of two recent papers on the subject published in “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” and the “Journal of Biological Chemistry.” JBS named the study its “Paper of the Week.” Visconti said in a press

release that a male version of the birth control pill is still some ways off, but knowing how sperm fertilizes an egg and giving scientists the ability to enhance or block the process is a major step forward. “Our laboratory is mainly interested in the basic science of how sperm acquire fertilizing capacity, but one interesting idea here is that this shortcut offers some translational possibilities for calcium ionophore use in IVF,” said Visconti in the press release. “This shortcut may address many of the difficult situations we encounter in IVF, in many species.” The release stated that “Sperm are not fertile until they spend time in the specialized environment of the female reproductive tract,

moving through a series of biochemically delicate stages known as capacitation.” Studies conducted over the past 50 years have shown scientists that this “signal transduction cascade” is a multi-stage process, and also that each mammalian species has distinct requirements for prosperity. Species-specific requirements must be discovered on a case-by-case basis, according to the press release. Visconti and his team at UMass worked with Weill Cornell Medical College, University of Hawaii Medical School, Asahikawa Medical University Japan, Universidad Nacional de Rosario and Facultad de Medicina Argentina and

see

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