UCLA In the News lists selected mentions of UCLA in the world’s news media. See more UCLA In the News.
‘Rivers in the sky’ are why California is flooding | National Geographic
“You need two ingredients for an atmospheric river,” says Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles. “A plume of really concentrated moisture in the atmosphere and strong, fast winds to move it around…. These saturated plumes of air are like a damp sponge, and a mountain range or a storm system is like a hand wringing that sponge out.”
Stroke recovery: Obesity may improve odds of survival, study finds | NBC News
The reason may be tied to the amount of energy stored in fat cells, said the study’s lead author Dr. Zuolu Liu, a stroke fellow in the department of neurology at the University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Center. “If you’re underweight you might not have the energy reserve to go through physical and occupational therapy.” It’s also possible, Liu said, that many of the thinner patients had a different — more serious — kind of ischemic stroke than the severely obese ones. (Also: Healio)
The climate change lawsuit that could stop the U.S. government from supporting fossil fuels | CBS “60 Minutes”
“Well, if the plaintiffs won, it’d be massive, particularly if they won what they’re asking for, which is get the federal government out of the business of in any way subsidizing fossil fuels and get them into the business of dramatically curtailing greenhouse gases to protect the children who are the plaintiffs in order to create a safe climate. That would be enormous,” said UCLA’s Ann Carlson. (Also: Independent [U.K.])
The dark side to making tax returns public | Bloomberg Opinion
President Donald Trump has been able to stymie Democrats’ demands to see his tax returns, arguing that his information should remain strictly private. This wouldn’t be an issue in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland, where all individuals’ tax files are accessible to the public. But the practice of full openness has drawbacks: it undermines the well-being of poorer residents, according to a new study by Ricardo Perez-Truglia from the University of California, Los Angeles…. “The rich may be happier because they learned that they were richer than they thought, while the poor may be unhappier because they learned that they were poorer than they thought,” Perez-Truglia wrote.
Self-powered sensor helps track firefighters in burning buildings | Futurism
Researchers from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, announced on Friday they had created a fireproof, self-powered sensor that could be used to track people working in high-risk environments, such as firefighters, steelworkers, and miners. The research team — from McMaster, UCLA and University of Chemistry and Technology Prague — published their work in the journal Nano Energy.
UCLA survey shows professors worry about discrimination but aren’t prepared to deal with class conflicts over diversity | Inside Higher Ed
Discrimination is a source of stress for many faculty members, especially women and ethnic minorities. And most professors say they’re not prepared to deal with diversity-related conflict in their own classrooms. So finds a new report from the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles…. “The peer-review culture and pressure to achieve excellence in the areas of teaching, research and service can foster feelings of uncertainty and doubt among some faculty regarding the adequacy of their productivity,” reads the report. Those “who feel such uneasiness may feel as though they need to work even harder to keep up with their seemingly highly productive colleagues.”
Erratic hours are the norm for workers in retailing. Can Los Angeles buck the trend? | Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles labor activists, community groups and nonprofits serving low-wage workers began organizing a campaign to address scheduling more than a year ago. A UCLA Labor Center study last March reported that 77% of retail workers surveyed got less than a week’s notice of their schedule, and 44% experienced “clopening.”
What it’s like to go to school when dozens have been killed nearby | Los Angeles Times
“You look at the kind of complex traumas that some of these young people face, it requires professionals who understand those situations,” said UCLA education professor Tyrone Howard. (UCLA’s Roya Ijadi-Maghsoodi is also quoted.)
Why Lyft’s offer of cash and stock may not benefit most drivers | PBS “NewsHour”
In the case of ride-sharing companies, it could encourage drivers to spend more time driving for a single company instead of splitting their time between Uber, Lyft and other apps because they have “skin in the game,” said Keith Chen, who was the head of economic research for Uber from 2014 to 2016 and is now an associate professor of economics at UCLA.
These ancient artifacts honor Egypt’s powerful queens | National Geographic
Kara Cooney, professor of Egyptology at the University of California in Los Angeles, provides insight into this phenomenon in her recently published book “When Women Ruled,” an inspiration for the new exhibit. Her examination of female power profiles six ancient leaders — Merneith, Neferusobek, Hatshepsut, Nefertiti, Tawosret, and Cleopatra — and the existing power structure that enabled them to rule thousands of years ago.
Warming oceans have already harmed the world’s fish supply | Grist
“Everyone wants to know what the future of our marine resources are — the problem is that getting even basic information is hard,” says Daniele Bianchi, an assistant professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences at the University of California-Los Angeles. It’s a great starting point, he says, “that they can prove there is this influence, and to do that they had to do a lot of work, not just in this paper, but really collecting all the data.”
Colleges add cannabis to curriculum | KNBC-TV
Universities have done little research on marijuana because of federal restrictions, but that's starting to change. UCLA's Cannabis Research Initiative, which bills itself as one of the first academic programs in the world dedicated to the study of cannabis, has studies underway ranging from medical treatments to economic impacts.
To build a better bus lane, just paint it | CityLab
That’s why city leaders looking to pull commuters out of their cars and onto public transit should put the bus first and apologize later, urges a new report from UCLA’s Institute of Transportation Studies. The name of the game is “tactical transit lanes” — also known as dedicated bus lanes. The report serves as a how-to guide for whipping up bus-only infrastructure on the cheap, and reaping outsize benefits. “TTLs” are a pretty recent phenomenon. John Gahbauer and Juan Matute, the UCLA transportation scholars who authored the guide, found 17 examples in cities around the U.S. — including Boston, Denver, Seattle, L.A., and San Francisco, among others — all of which were installed after 2013, and mostly after 2016.
Sleeping in on the weekend can’t make up for lost sleep | Science News
Peter Liu, a sleep endocrinologist at UCLA, questions whether these results are broadly applicable, especially in people who are chronically sleep deprived. He’s found that a few extra hours’ sleep was beneficial for insulin sensitivity in his studies of people who self-reported not getting enough sleep. “This is not the final word on this important topic,” he says. But resting is “the third pillar of a healthy lifestyle: sleep, exercise and diet,” Liu says. “Just like you wouldn’t say to someone, ‘You need to be on a good diet from Monday to Friday, but on the weekend you can eat whatever you like,’ I think it’s the same principle here with sleep.”
Cooperative, gentle, generous: The radical society of Meredith Monk in ‘Cellular Songs’ | Los Angeles Times
Presented by the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA on Saturday night at Royce Hall, “Cellular Songs” is an intimate, lovely work inspired by the complex biological processes of cells. Monk says that what fascinates her about cells, apart from the fact that they are the fundamental unit of life, is that “for a cell to operate, everything cooperates.” All the molecules are working in harmony.
The perfect steak is clean meat’s biggest hurdle. Here’s the solution | Wired
Every cut of meat is, on one level, a microcosm of the animal that made it — a life support system in miniature. “From a biophysics perspective, it’s fascinating to think about how we could re-create that,” says [UCLA’s Amy] Rowat. And the taste and feel of food is intimately connected to its biology, which is why Rowat devised a class on the science of cooking as a way of teaching students about biophysics.
Scientists use yeast to produce cannabinoids affordably and efficiently | Popular Mechanics
As these findings continue to bubble up, keep an eye on the work of microbiologist Jim Bowie and colleagues at the University of California, Los Angeles, who are working on converting sugar into CBD without the genetic modification of cells.
Students pitch solutions to racial segregation in schools | Associated Press
Overall, New Jersey is ranked the sixth-most-segregated state in the nation for black students, and seventh for Latino students, according to a study by the Civil Rights Project at UCLA.
Feds extend temporary protected status for people from four countries | Fronteras
Cecilia Menjivar, a sociology professor at UCLA, studies temporary protected status. She said the roughly 10-month extension leaves bigger questions unanswered. “What about the other groups who are not included in this extension?” Menjivar said. “And, even more importantly, what about the long term?”
Meet an Artist Monday: Jennifer Moon | LA Weekly
“Yep, I went to art school: Art Center for grad and UCLA for undergrad. I applied to art school because my parents told me I had to go to college. And the year I applied, in 1991, UCLA didn’t ask for a portfolio, only an essay. I always wanted to be an artist but couldn’t draw or paint well, so I thought I couldn’t be an artist. However, I could write an essay. So I did, and I got in! To this day, it is probably the luckiest thing that has ever happened to me. It changed my life.”
According to experts, this diet rule Is the key to weight loss | PopSugar
CICO and the idea of calories in, calories out follows the notion that weight loss requires a balance between the energy consumed and energy used. “Increasing your calorie expenditure beyond what is consumed will result in the number on the scale going down,” says Dr. Adrienne Youdim, an associate clinical professor of medicine at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine and a diplomat of the American Board of Internal Medicine, the National Board of Physician Nutrition Specialists, and the American Board of Obesity Medicine.
From Vietnam to Kentucky Derby dreamer | San Diego Union-Tribune Column
UCLA professor Gerald Kominski, a senior fellow at the university’s Center for Health Policy Research, said efforts like those can translate to real and lasting change. “A foundation like this can play a very important role to help provide the initial financial support to initiatives that may not save money immediately, but certainly in the long run it can be very successful,” Kominski said. “Partnerships between foundations and hospital systems, that’s real change. That’s commendable.”
Helping seniors connect with tech | Santa Monica Mirror
On Saturday, March 9, approximately 15 UCLA undergraduates will be volunteering their time to teach seniors how to better utilize their iPhones, iPads, laptops and other mobile devices as part of an initiative developed in conjunction with UCLA Health 50-Plus, a community wellness program based at UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica… “It’s wonderful that these technologies exist, making it so much easier for people to connect. But older people, who are already more likely to be lonely, may not have the skills needed to utilize benefit from them,” explains Ishara Bailis, manager of UCLA Health 50-Plus.
UCLA spreads colon cancer awareness | KABC-TV
It’s Colon Cancer Awareness Month, and UCLA has a unique and creative way to spread awareness about how to prevent the disease. Starting tomorrow, UCLA Health is offering free education walkthrough tours of its larger-than-life, inflatable colon tunnel.
