SoCal Minds

New insights on curbing risky sex, clean needle programs

From UCLA & Cal State Dominguez Hills

Even as the Obama administration announced its new strategy to combat HIV-AIDS with a focus on high-risk groups, experts in Southern California have revealing new research about African American couples and intravenous drug users and the disease. In Westwood, Bruin scientists say they've seen promising results in promoting safer sex practices among black couples who have tested a culturally specific intervention program based in the African concept of 'Eban.' It symbolizes 'safety, security and love within one's family and relationship space,' researchers say, noting their program saw safer sexual behaviors in African American couples in which one partner is HIV-positive. Meantime, in Dominguez Hills, two psychology grad students, in examining the workings of 'clean syringe' programs that try to reduce HIV-AIDS infections among intravenous drug users, found geographical, attitudinal disparities among pharmacists who might be asked to sell safer needles to at-risk populations. While 74% of pharmacists in Los Angeles turned away suspected injection drug abusers seeking to buy clean syringes, only 33% of their professional counterparts in San Francisco did so, the researchers found, noting that the potential harm reduction (lessened risk of HIV-AIDS or Hepatitis C infection through shared kits) seemed vastly less persuasive in the Southland than the Bay Area.

In Westwood, African 'Eban' program found to help curb risky sexual behavior in black couples

In Dominguez Hills, a finding of skepticism among L.A. pharmacists about 'clean needle' programs

Degrees for battlefield scholar, 13-year-old, 2 Nisei

From USC & Cal State Dominguez Hills

Surprises still from the commencement-graduation season in Southern California? Try tales of the warrior-scholar, the prodigy and those who see long-denied justice.

In Exposition Park, the Trojans proudly conferred a master's degree on a student who, until he collected his sheepskin, not only had never stepped foot on campus but actually had been on military fronts during some of his time of matriculation. Capt. Matt Smith considered his academic options carefully before deciding that he would follow on his MIT bachelor's in physics with distance-learning at the Viterbi school, which just resulted in his earning his master's in electrical engineering. But even as he wrote papers, participated in online classes and discussions and occasionally called to chat with his profs and classmates, Smith also provided supporting military intelligence to his fellow warriors in Kuwait, then at Bagram airfield in Afghanistan. Though rocket- and mortar-fire provided some distraction during his studies, the officer says the spartan conditions of battle area service let him focus on his academics. He's back stateside but still in the service; he hopes after his military duty ends to apply his education to a career in medical physics, defense research or quantitative finance.

Medicine also is the aspiration of Sarita Mantravadi who at age 13 (!)  just earned her bachelor's degree in biology. The home-schooled prodigy hopes to become a cardiologist or anestheseologist and will spend a little time upping her medical school admission test scores -- a 28 out of a possible 30 -- before she seeks her graduate education. Joining the Harbor City teen at the South Bay area ceremonies were two Japanese American seniors awarded honorary degrees, long-awaited recognition for how the injustice of the World War II internment had disrupted the academics of the onetime Nisei students.  

Photos: Capt. Smith, r / John Vidar; Mantravadi, l, and mom / Joanie Harmon

Here's distance learning: Earning engineering master's from fronts in Kuwait, Afghanistan

How parental income carries lifelong effect on kids

From UCI & the Cal States

As politicians and policy-makers slash and burn social programs in their effort to stanch the flow of government red-ink, especially in Sacramento, an education professor in Irvine has some noteworthy research they might consider. He has examined the deep, sweeping data from a study that has followed more than 9,000 U.S. families and individuals for more than four decades. And, with colleagues, the researcher asked what would happen to kids younger than 5 if their parents got more annual income but nothing else changed in the picture -- mom and dad don't get more education, they don't alter their parenting practices, the family structure remains the same and genetic factors don't shift a whit. Well, look down the road and those youngsters show higher incomes and less use of food stamps (social programs) when they become adults, the researchers found, arguing for the importance of governmental efforts, if necessary, to supplement the incomes of families with youngsters to break a long cycle of potential poverty.

A key insight into breaking the cycle of poverty

And speaking of funding arguments, the Cal State system, like its powerful siblings in the UC network, has been lobbying furiously to try to stem the budgetary bloodletting now under way in public higher education in California. Part of the latest campaign aims to show the economic impact of the various CSU campuses, and, finally, there are detailed, online break-outs on the hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of jobs that can be linked to each of the institutions.

Click here for online look at Cal States' economic impact

In Carson, a scholarly advocate for glories of ancient Nubia

From Cal State Dominguez Hills

While the pyramids, pharoahs, dynasties and other doings of the ancient kingdoms of Egypt may hold most of the modern world still in its academic and popular thrall, a prof in Carson is waging his own battles to shine a light on the crucial role that a neighboring and neglected civilization played in shaping the world, including bolstering a once new religion called Christianity.

Salim Faraji, along with Stuart Tyson Smith, is said to be one of only two West Coast experts of note on ancient Nubia, the onetime African empire that stretched over what is now modern Sudan. He'll be among the select group of international scholars who will gather for a 12th time at the British Museum to present their latest findings on Nubia, an advanced civilization that he says traces through archeological findings to a time before and after the pharoahs of Egypt and that traded with ancients in India, Saudi Arabia, Greece and Rome. His scholarship keys in on the Nubian conversion to Christianity in the 4th and 6th centuries and how, with Egypt and north Africa, Nubia served as a cradle to growing religion. He notes the Crusaders' romantic, idealized attachment to their royal Nubian counterparts who fought with the Europeans; he says the West would have greater attachment and knowledge about the great and learned Africans except that French and British scholars fixated, instead, on their conquered holdings in Egypt. 

Pharoahs of Egypt don't eclipse doings of Nile Valley neighbors in Nubia for this prof

Gathering up the history of women in trades

rom Cal State Dominguez Hills

While Rosie the Riveter and her pals pioneered paths for women in the era of heavy industry, a soon-to-retire group of women finally broke through big equality barriers by taking on and succeeding in nontraditional careers in various crafts and trades traditionally dominated by men, say researchers in the Dominguez Hills. They are tapping federal grants and slowly building an archive, online and in the physical world, of what, how and when women won their individual and collective battles to work in the trades, such as the electrical apprentice (as shown above, right). Scholars involved in the collecting of historical materials say they want their subjects to help shape their own record of their struggles and lives. They have, among other things, cooperated with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender young people in gathering oral histories and key materials. 

Soon-to-retire generation broke barriers to earn a living in male-dominated crafts

Click here to learn more, participate in Tradeswomen Archives online

4 million report sexual and physical violence

From UCLA & Cal State Dominguez Hills

Geez, after billions of years of evolution, one might think that the human species would have finished its struggles with and perfected one of its most basic, primordial drives and functions: sex. But Bruin researchers, based on scrutiny of one of the nation's largest health surveys, offer some deeeply disturbing news on how partners do some pretty brutal things to each other in relationships, straight and gay, with some 4 million Californians reporting they were victimized with physical or sexual violence by a spouse; 1 million said they were forced to have sex. More than a quarter of the incidences of 'intimate partner violence' involved gays and lesbians. Women suffer from it more than do men and those who are divorced and widowed are at high risk. Physical and sexual violence between partners is a bigger problem for African Americans, though Latinos are seeing it as a growing issue; it is lowest among those of Asian descent. Hmm, maybe if parents started early in talking with their children about sex, relationships and other deeply personal issues, would violence and other thorny concerns be eased? A Dominguez Hills researcher has won a state grant to study whether text messages to kids and parents might prompt some important talk about birds and bees and more.

Grim snapshot of sexual, physical violence in relationships

Can texting help parents talk better with kids about sex?

A weekend for books, gardens, history, eccentrics

From UCLA, the Arboretum, the Huntington, Cal State Dominguez Hills & Occidental

On a weekend with promises of no rain, brisk temperatures but plenty of sunshine, here's to the ample opportunities to explore and experience what once would be an idyllic, ideal scholarly life awash with books, history, gardens and plenty of other diversions.

From Westwood to Arcadia, of course, there are the pillars and posts of the spring season: on the Westside, there will be the big Los Angeles Times Book Festival attracting tens of thousand of bibliophiles and an array of authors, including Bruin faculty; and on the eastside, there's the Los Angeles County Arboretum's annual garden show, one of the largest such outdoor events on the West Coast with plenty of plants for sale and a focus this year on environment friendly gardening. Snatch the kids' wagon and take it to both events to bring home piles of autographed tomes and lots of great new greenery to add to the lushness of the area's rain-soaked yards.

Click here for more info on the Times' 'Festival of Books'

Bruin authors at the book fest in Westwood

In Arcadia, Arboretum stagest one of the largest garden events on West Coast

The Golden State, then as it sometimes feels now, might only have been a far imagining in the farthest distance of the frontier. But for some reason, on a contemporary basis, the Revolutionary period of the nation rides triumphant this weekend in the Southland as a major exhibit opens in San Marino, examining not the 1776 American divorce from Britain as a crown colony but the crucial predecessor stirrings on the new continent as colonists, including a young soldier named George Washington (shown at right), took on French interlopers in 1754 and set a tone and tenor in the Seven Years War that would be critical for then British America and all that would follow. That New World conflict, experts say, had a huge effect on shaping not just what would become the United States but it also ended up involving and affecting many of what then were global powers. The result? Well, a key document that would spring forth from the rabble-rousing set makes a West Coast stop in a national tour and will be available for a free, public but restricted viewing Saturday. It's a historic pressing of the Declaration of Independence, printed by colonial craftsman John Dunlap just hours after Thomas Jefferson had finished his writing. This rare copy moldered behind and hid in a junky picture frame until it was discovered in a flea market and later changed hands to a Norman Lear-supported foundation that paid $8.1 million for it.

In San Marino, opening of exhibit focused on Seven Years' War, British America

In South Bay, a chance to view historic Declaration

If the clamor for getting out of the house or tackling something fun don't encompass, well, say, chowing down on entries in the annual Grilled Cheese Invitational or maybe roaming downtown to collect pointers so as to win hotel stays in an online trivia contest, well, then perhaps the thing to do is to hie over to Eagle Rock for an eccentric, eclectic, free, public event that hearkens to a time when it is said the arts and sciences weren't separated and even more weirdness than can commonly be found in zany Southern California often prevailed. Intellectual impressario Lawrence Weschler (shown at right) will be putting on his day-long cavalcade of art, film, chat, PowerPoint, music, performance and whatever else fits into the ol 'Wonder Cabinet.' Hmmm.

In Eagle Rock, a day-long cavalcade of art, science, music, performance

Say what? Value put on schools' polyglot strengths

CSULB, CSUN, Cal State Fullerton, Cal State Dominguez Hills

In a riven world full of challenges and potential threats, Southern California can play a unique role based on its polyglot population -- a reality recognized in new congressional legislation that would boost the aid for specialized programs in area schools that teach strategically key languages. The Cal State campuses each have a particular focus tongue and interconnected programs to emphasize not just the given language but also linked majors of high value, such as in math, computer sciences or communications. The added $2.88 million in defnee funding pressed by Sen. Barbara Boxer would help teach: Mandarin in Long Beach, Farsi in Fullerton, Korean in Los Angeles, Russian in Northridge and Arabic in Dominguez Hills and San Bernardino.

Federal funding would boost efforts to teach 'strategic' languages

What's crucial for small business in health reform?

From Cal State Fullerton

With all the red-hot debate going on in Washington about what Americans want from Congress and the Obama Administration on health care and health insurance reform, a researcher in Southern California has broken that topic down from a small business point of view and has some answers about what's crucial to hundreds of folks he has surveyed while studying the topic. He created a hot list of 13 issues and services; he interviewed more than 360 small business employers (those with 100 or fewer workers) and talked with a separate pool of 500 employees of small businesses. For small business employers what mattered most? Their maximum out-of-pocket costs and the company's annual health care cost deduction -- in other words, what does the coverage cost? For employees at small businesses, two things topped their concerns list: the cost of their monthly premiums and the cost of their co-payments.

Small businesses focused on cost of providing health coverage to employees

Crack Down on Tax Cheats, Uncle Sam

From Cal-State Dominguez Hills

So the Treasury Secretary had this problem. The same booboo for the prospective Health Czar. And for millions of Americans, there's a multibillion-dollar issue -- why don't folks pay their taxes, and, more importantly, why doesn't Uncle Sam step up and make them do so? It isn't as if this has become an annual April saw; too many studies and panels have advised about it. The IRS needs to crack down and it needs more help to do so, researchers say.

Cracking Down on Tax Scofflaws