SoCal Minds

Your 'Personal Space?' It Really Is In Your Brain

From Caltech

Part of the scenario sounds as if it could have leaped from a book by Dr. Oliver Sacks. Call it the Case of the Lady Who Got Uncomfortably Close. "SM", in fact, was a patient who had suffered extensive damage to her amygdala, a part of the brain known as the "seat of emotion." She had a habit, those who knew her well discovered, of being too friendly and getting uncomfortably close. She invaded folks' "personal space." And from that observation of human behavior sprang experiments that have led researchers to decide that, independent of sensory clues (sounds, sights, smells), the amygdala regulates social distance. Cultural factors may help humans learn to adjust their sense of social distance, say in places where space is more at a premium. But the findings about where social distance gets regulated may be key to autism research; the complex neurodevelopmental disorder manifests with an inability to interact socially and to communicate with others. Besides her over friendly approach to personal space, patient SM, like some with autism, has difficulty recognizing fear in others' faces and in judging others' trustworthiness.

A New Link Between Brain Region, Sense of 'Personal Space'

Hoover's Pro-Labor Policies Blamed in Depression

From UCLA

Public policy made in haste can create as much if not more havoc than the conditions it aims to remedy. That's the trenchant reminder from research on the only American economic collapse that exceeds the current crisis. An economist says that President Hoover's pro-labor actions in the wake of the great 1929 market crash accounted for almost two-thirds of the drop in the gross domestic product and transformed a bad recession into the Great Depression. By propping up wages, encouraging job sharing and other such steps, Hoover prompted a steep decline in manufacturing hours worked, depressing employment and singularly leading to an economic collapse that was three times worse than it might have been, the researcher says. He previously has faulted President Roosevelt, too, for his policies, blaming them for prolonging the Depression for years. The debate over the Great Depression, its causes and remedies is more than academic; stark disagreements over the issues dominate current discussions over actions by President Obama, Congress and, yes, Fed chairman Ben Bernanke, himself an economics scholar on government responses to the Depression.

Pro-Labor Policies by Hoover Faulted as Key Cause of Depression

What's Up, Doc? Doing Disserations Differently

From USC

It's a critical rite of passage for serious scholars, who actually undertake it once and who go through a stress-inducing, pell mell process to get it done. For aspiring Trojan education doctorates, however, the way through the demanding, rigorous crafting of a dissertation,defending it and attaining their high academic credentials is handled differently. They go through a collective effort, working in teams, listening to faculty presentations and tackling practical problems and issues of practice. That compares with the traditional alternative: the singular hunt for a topic, often theoretical and abstract, for a committee, a chair.

Educators Employ Teams, Collectives as Part of Disseration Process

*Mount Wilson Observatory and the Station Fire

From Mount Wilson Observatory & UCLA

*Updated, noon, 8-31-09: UCLA has posted more info on its scientific apparatus on Mount Wilson:

Click Here to Read More About UCLA Solar Tower at Mount Wilson

The terrifying, destructive Station Fire, which has swept the northern Foothill communities and tens of thousands of acres of the Angeles National Forest, threatened broadcast and other facilites atop Mount Wilson on Sunday night. That brought passing reference, too, to the fire-endangered historic observatory, which remains an important teaching and research institution for the likes of UCLA, USC, UC Berkeley and Georgia State University. Founded in 1904 and once holding a commanding role in astronomic research, the observatory is run by the Carnegie Institution of Washington and the Mount Wilson Institute.

Click Here for More Info on the Mount Wilson Observatory

Latest News on Effects of Station Fire From Observatory Blog

Aye, That's the Rub -- for Competitors on Hooves

From Cal Poly Pomona

It's good, it seems, for man and beast. Massage, that is. Working with four animals from the W.K Kellogg Arabian Horse Center, researchers got them a 90-minute, standing sports rub down from an expert in horse massage. They then let the animals rest for 30 minutes before putting them on special treadmills and collected a range of data on their well-being and response. More research will be done to see the detailed benefits of massage to horses, including those with gait problems. It took students, by the way, weeks of preparation for the animal tests, getting them, among other things, accustomed to the apparatus. Horses get massage after competing in jumping, dressage and barrel events.

Photo: Debranne Pattillo massages Gentle Touch, a Kellogg Arabian / Cal Poly Pomona

A Rub Down, a Treadmill Trot: It's All in a Day's Testing on Horse Massage

Invasive Mussels Give Up a Super Sticky Secret

From UCSB

As a parasite, it has migrated widely -- from the Sea of Bengal, around the coasts of Australia, Korea, China, the Phillipines, Indonesia and Japan. It has invaded waters surrounding many Pacific isles and the shores of lands around the Gulf of Mexico. The terrible tenacity of the green mussel may have an up side, however, researchers say. They say that after six years they have unraveled the chemical mystery of its super sticky foot -- and this may lead to the development of powerful new, man-made adhesives that can bond wet surfaces and be used for repairs of ships at sea and in wet environments. The mussels' aggressive spread has caused high environmental anxiety because they appear to fare as well in polluted waters as clean; they thrive in warm temperatures, making them a bane of electrical generation plants, where they clump in sizable, well-anchored, clogging clusters.

Photo: a green mussel / Rod Rolle

Man-Made Adhesives May Be Modeled on Sticky Feet of Pesky Mussels

How Do Money, Finance Affect Globe's Ultra Poor?

From UCI

While the global focus in the current economic crash has zoomed in on the role of mega-financial institutions that move billions and billions of dollars around in transactions that take less than a blink, there's a big slice of the planet that is super poor and where much needs to be learned about how tiny fiscal shifts can wrought huge life changes. Which is why researchers in Irvine have funded and are studying 17 projects in 14 nations to amass information on topics such as how shamans in Nigeria might be converted into bankers and what effect prepaid phone cards may be having on nomadic tribesmen in a farflung area of Russia. The projects all affect people who are so impoverished they live on less than $1 a day; even micro shifts in money, banks, banking and other financial services, researchers say, can have vast effects on these super poor people. 

Grants, Research Focuses on People Who Live on Less Than $1 Per Day

Crazy Heat, Water Curbs: Time for Succulents?

From the Huntington

Just in time to peer out the window at the browning landscape, to ponder the crazy heat and the summer's water restrictions: Time to sign up for next week's symposium on succulents? Experts next Saturday (9-5) will take on an array of topics related to the water-sipping plants. There will be plant sales, a silent auction and a tour of the 10-acre Desert Garden. It's a full day, with an optional dinner and the registration deadline is Monday (8-31). There's a $75 fee and a separate charge for those dining.

Click Here for Info on Succulents Symposium

Race, Gender, Orientation in a New Framework

From Pomona

Incoming freshmen were invited to read one book  this summer and to be prepared to discuss it as part of the campus orientation program. And on Sunday, they and the public will get to meet that tome's author, to hear him speak and to sign and chat about "Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights." Kenji Yoshino, a law professor, constitutional scholar and specialist on antidiscrimination cases, put together his memoir-analysis and offers an interesting conceptual framework to consider how Americans tone down their "stigmatized identities." He looks at topics like gender, race and orientation and asks how individuals deal with these according to appearance, affiliation, activism and association.

Kenji Yoshino, Author of Key Frosh Text, to Talk, Sign Books

Click Here for More Info on Kenji Yoshino

In Claremont, a Karl Benjamin Retrospective

From Claremont Graduate School

An alum and longtime friend to the school whose works hang in the Whitney, Hirshorn, LACMA and other key spots will be the subject of a retrospective show in Claremont that opens Monday. Karl Benjamin, whose "hard edge" paintings combine color and geometry, picked the two groups of works for the show from the 1970s and 1980s. He had not seen these artistic efforts installed together.

Click Here for Info on Karl Benjamin Show in Claremont