SoCal Minds

A catch-up lagniappe with a soupcon from all over

From Cal State Fullerton, RAND, CSUN, Loyola Marymount, UCLA, UCR, UCI, Claremont Graduate University, Chapman

Let's play fast catch up. With apologies that the press of fuller time employment for actual pay has cut into the posting here -- and may continue to do so -- here's stuff from around the area worth a gander:

The Bruins open their spiffy, new Terasaki Life Sciences building today, a major facility named after the emeritus surgery prof, transplant pioneer and key developer of tissue typing technology who also donated $50 million to the school.

Also of note in Westwood: a $2.9 million study on gum disease among diabetics with emphasis in new genetic techniques that will let researchers better understand whether changes in health affect body systems and allow certain types of bacteria to flourish. Bruin scholars also will join colleagues from five other schools in a major new scrutiny of climate change in the Southwestern United States, a region that experts predict will be among the most affected by issues related to global warming.

In Fullerton, a researcher has put together nearly $7 million in grants to study and boost the health of Asian Pacific Islanders, some 870,000 of whom live in Southern California and must deal with particular challenges with obesity and cancer. Other research on campus recently has targeted Asian American women and their reproductive health, particularly since some of the student-assisted work found that this group of females, while sexually active, used contraceptives less and were unlikely to undergo routine testing for disorders affecting women. And yet another Titan scholar has become a surprising expert for highly personal reasons on the topic of suicide among people, especially young women, of Asian descent; suicide is the second leading cause of death among Asian American women ages 15 to24 and women of Asian descent in this age group, joined by those older than 65, have the highest suicide rates across all racial-ethnic groups, experts say.  

In Santa Monica, the think tank folks have found thatGood Samaritans could get better, more cost effective results if only they would work harder to coordinate all those after-school programs aimed at helping kids; the full report available here details how, in principle, five cities have proved they can help more urban youngsters reach their fullest potential through the after-school programs if sponsors work together. Other researchers, meantime, have raised questions about the market for residential wind and flood insurance, coverages that were found tragically lacking and still have not been put back together five years after Hurricane Katrina.

In Riverside, itty-bitty guppies have told a tale of species' resilience after a poor, early start in life, while in Orange, little sea slugs, jolted by electricity and shocked by nasty lobster attacks, have provided intriguing insights into brain activity and memory.

In Claremont, researchers have created a computer model to help figure how to reduce public conflicts over the location of power lines and other transmission facilities for advanced but remote solar and wind power plants, while in Westchester, student broadcasters are celebrating the resolution of a frequency dispute so that campus radio station KXLU (88.9) can be heard without interference in eastern Los Angeles, including by underground hipsters in Silverlake, downtown and Pasadena.

 

What happens when science gets twisted, exploited

From Loyola Marymount

For those who might wonder why certain scientists get so agitated when reality gets turned into magical fictions and outright denials out by partisans, extremists and worse, there's a solemn reminder now on view in Southern California as to the great wickedness that can't result from twisting scientific fact. In Westchester over the weekend, the school's library started its hosting of a U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum display, 'Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race.' This work  traces the Nazis' nefarious campaign to work with cooperative professionals to convert caring, compassionate practices in science and medicine into a means to 'legitimize persecution, murder and ultimately genocide.' There's an online component to the exhibition, which also be part of an October, teacher education program at the school on the Holocaust.

Traveling exhibit from U.S. Holocaust Museum offers chilling warning on misuse of 'facts'

Click here for online 'Deadly Medicine' web site

Green tomorrow a front and center focus on campuses

From UCLA, Cal State Fullerton, Loyola Marymount, Occidental, Cal Poly Pomona, CSULB & Chapman

For those in northern climes, will global warming offer surprising boon?

It's not exactly an expected scenario. And, at root, it speaks to a vast global divide that will occur, experts say, due to dire circumstances associated with global warming: Those who live in what's now a vast, often desolate and lesser developed frigid northern climes will find themselves in a newly prosperous, resource rich, probably more affluent and favored zone of the planet when the global environment warms and shifts, a Bruin geographer predicts. This will lead to Canada, Scandinavia, Russia and the northern United States, he says, suddenly becoming beckoning havens, spots with, perhaps, the only abundant supplies of fresh water, abundant population growth and almost miraculously released natural resources, such as oil and gas supplies. Meantime, he sees wet places on earth getting wetter and parched spots getting even more so, with little cheery news at all for many of the highly populated spots on the present planet. He forecasts China as the world's economic superpower by 2050, with the U.S. sliding into the No. 2 spot and the longer rise of cities north of the 45th parallel. Los Angeles and other spots will still be major population centers and more folks will still be in traditional population centers but look to Seattle, Minneapoli-St. Paul, Toronto, Copenhagen, Moscow and other northern burghs to be the capitals of the climate change tomorrow.

A sunny forecast for northern lands in the era of drastic global climate change

Can student commuters find eco alternatives to cars, crowded parking?

• Now that Labor Day has come and gone and the calendar marks the end of summer, tens of thousands of students across the Southland have or soon will be racing back to campus, all too often commuting across considerable distances, one to a car, to get to classes and a higher education. And, if the responses from 500 students studied for a Fullerton research project are indicative at all, driving -- and especially stashing that car in costly, chaotic, congested parking -- is no fun at all for young people, who argue they have little choice about how they get to school. Three-quarters of those Orange County students motor to school, alone, researchers, including Edwin Shin and Jessica Watson, found in Prof. Ray Young's urban planning course. (Shin and Watson flank Young in Karen Tapia photo at right) Here's another big finding, though: Students who take public transportation or who bike or walk to school are much more satisfied with their commuting experience. The students involved in the academic research on commuting offered their own suggestions on how to provide incentives to get their peers out of the car-parking-commuting snaggle. In Westchester and Eagle Rock, though, school officials have taken one small step to cut down on the presence of so many vehicles, working, as many other campuses have, to provide the Zipcar program. The vehicle-sharing program aims to allow not only students but also neighbors to sign up for relatively affordable, short-term rental of cars.

In Fullerton, proof that the headache list often tops out with cars for commuting, campus parking

In Eagle Rock, a new sharing option for those who need a car only rarely

In Westchester, a way to cut congestion, parking through vehicle sharing program

How to power up, track better campus environmental programs

•  As long as there's going to be huge demand for big expanses to park student commuters' cars, well, why shouldn't such spots do double-duty and provide campus shade and solar generating spots, too? In Pomona, two new installations on the roof of a school gym (shown in photo at right) and with a canopy over a parking lot will help the school chip away at becoming 'carbon neutral.' The leased equipment, which also comes with grants and subsidies, will generate roughly 1.8 kilowatt hours of electricity annually for the campus, which has an annual, total electric consumption of some 45 million kilowatt hours, school officials say. But how best to monitor and encourage green practices at institutions of higher education? In Long Beach, where the school spends more than $7.5 million annually on utility costs, officials have created an intern program to help both track and spread best environmental practices with efforts such as a fall audit of classroom energy use and a residence hall competition to see which dorm can conserve the most power. And, in Orange, school officials are touting their participation in a new, 230-institution 'sustainability' program, which aims to provide greater accounting and transparency about campuses' environmental and conservation efforts. An aim of the 'STARS' program, in which the Orange County folks also hope to win some key certifications, is to provide an alternative to some existing efforts, which have drawn considerable criticism for their evaluation methods and seemingly punitive rating systems.

In Pomona, solar power arrays start popping up all over 

In Long Beach, interns help campus push its green programs

In Orange, joining up with consortium's new, more open monitoring of green campus efforts

New center to focus on Catholic education in L.A.

From Loyola Marymount

For thousands of parents, particularly in the city's diverse communities, what choices do they have if they do not want to enroll their children in the city's sprawling, hit-and-miss public school system? A prime alternative has been provided by the Catholic church through its system of parochial schools. But even the Los Angeles archdiocese, one of the largest by number of faithful, in growth and by geographical reach, has struggled to maintain the quality of its schools, particularly in the face of enrollment declines and painful costs incurred by the church, in part due to scandal-related litigation. So it's good news for at least 80,000 youngsters (including the two shown in photo at right from Loyola), their families and educators that the folks in Westchester have decided to pull together their array of existing offerings and to open a center dedicated to support, advancing and researching key issues for pre-kindergarten to high school Catholic education. Among the activities already under way and that will become an integral part of the new center are development programs, including advanced degrees, for Catholic educators, and efforts to recruit young folks nationwide to work in parochial schools in poor, under-served areas of the city. 

Array of existing programs will be pulled together to aid parochial kids, parents, teachers

Click here for more info on Center for Catholic Education

At L.A. campuses, ways to make money matter, too

From Loyola Marymount & LA Trade Tech

While academics matter a ton, in grisly economic times like these, it's also good to know that campuses around the region also help students in another critical area of accomplishment: finding real world talents and skills that lead to work, jobs and careers. In Westchester, for example, just a small, nice yarn about two guys who convert their wish to scribble homework formulas on a wall to a burgeoning entrepreneurial enterprise providing Whiteyboards, a stick-on, peel-off white writing surface. And downtown, the first, all-female graduating class of electrical line workers has gotten a lot of attention, some of it a little shocking in its negativity. But the video, in case the widely publicized story didn't already catch the eye, gives a taste of the hard work in and need for those who help power our lives.

Photo: Lion entrepreneurs Saachi Cywinski, l, and Jason Wilk / Whiteyboard

Celebrity? Sure, since it's L.A., here's 2 takes on it

From Loyola Marymount & Cal State Fullerton

Of course that stunning frosh in Westchester with the special spring in her step will look familiar when she pops up on campus later this year: To those who haven't had their heads under a rock and who partake of even a little bit of pop culture, Laura Froderman just won $250,000 and top honors as 'America's Favorite Dancer,' copping that title on the weeks-long competition television show, 'So You Think You Can Dance.' She'll tour 40 U.S. cities for two months with other finalists from the Fox show before taking up her university-awarded, 'Arrupe' academic merit scholarship, named after Jesuit big Fr. Pedro Arrupe. The Phoneix native, who earned a high school 4.25 GPA and ranked in the top 10% of her class, plans to study to be a teacher. She's shown at left in one of her dances with third-place finisher Robert Roldan.

'America's Favorite Dancer' soon will be a lioness in Westchester

So sometimes alums earn their accolades for turning lemons into -- ocean rescue equipment? In Fullerton, the university's talking up the latest accomplishments of onetime business major Kevin Costner. He, of course, starred in some top-grossing, extremely popular films like 'Dances With Wolves,' 'Field of Dreams' and 'Bull Durham,' before getting whacked by critics and the box-office for 'Waterworld,' a movie with a whale of a budget and a production to which the public gave a big thumbs down. (That's Costner at right in a still from the flick.) That soggy Universal Pictures flick, the actor has said, provided him with a different kind of inspiration, however: a personal push to invest his own millions in an oil-extracting device, which garnered media and coporate attention due to he ghastly Gulf spill. Costner, who has been propelled into the spotlight anew, has said he never hoped there would be a disaster to demand the deployment of the device he has backed. But BP, as it turns to the giant task of spill clean-up, has contracted with the celeb for 32 of them.

Alum Kevin Costner built it, now BP has come for oil-cleaning rig

Relationships, sex included, can be better online? Really?

From Loyola Marymount

Well, dearies, this could be a little dreary information about yet another challenge if that spouse or partner already has a wandering heart and spends a wee bit more time online than with thee. Researchers in Westchester report that those who take on online personas, adopting avatars and a whole Second Life in a 3-D, animated cyber world, well, they find their initimate relationships there more satisfying than their real ones. And, gasp, it's a pretty close call as to whether their imaginary sex is hotter than doin the nasty with a flesh-and-blood companion. Well, all righty, then. The conclusions are based on 2009 research with more than 400 participants in Second Life, all of whom said they had relationships and, eeesh, cyber sex in that online world; 71 of the study subjects also had, well, flesh-and-blood relationships, too. While 71% of respondents said their cyber relations were akin to long-distance romances and half of them said they communicated better and more openly with that 'net lover, researchers found reasons for why that Second Life may be more intimately and sexually satisfying: those who adopt online roles create avatars that suit them and these can be made as rockin hot as imagination allows; that Second Life honey also doesn't hang around 24/7 so s/he can be seen only in optimal context -- no curlers, ripped underwear or mutual gravitational sag here, guys and gals.

Online relationships in 'Second Life' found better than the real thing. Sigh.

SoCal campuses rank high on key diversity measures

From Loyola Marymount, UCR & UCLA

Mind the gap, signs and announcements warn British travelers often. That's good advice not just for train riders to step across a platform breach but also for those who want to dig deeper into statistics on how African Americans and Latinos fare in graduating from institutions of higher education across the country. And for folks of color in Westchester and Riverside, there's good news on that account, according to a private, nonprofit that seeks to close the gaps in opportunity and achievement for minorities in colleges and universities. The Education Trust examined data from schools nationwide and singled out for praise the successes by LMU and UCR in getting black and Latino students not just admitted but educated and graduated with concerted efforts that ensured little or no gaps between them and their comparable white classmates. Only a dozen or so public and private institutions merited the group's praise.

And, meantime, those Bruins, Trojans, and, oh yes, the folks in Riverside won top marks from another advocacy organization for promoting an excellent campus atmosphere for their lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered students. Other Southland spots also receiving accolades from the LGBT group: UCI, Pomona, CSULB, University of Redlands and UCSB. 

In Westchester, praise earned from black, Latino graduation successes

Another spotlight on Riverside for its achievement in African American, Latino graduation rates

In Westwood, accolades for campus clime that's kind to gays, lesbians

Click here to get full Education Trust studies on Latinos, African Americans and the 'gap'

Click here to see state Campus Pride ratings of LGBT friendly schools

Scribbles on a few notable matters for the weekend

From Loyola Marymount, the Japanese American National Museum, Zocalo & the Huntington

Because some domestic chores look as if they'll take more effort than expected, an abbreviated spin through the intellectual ferment around the Southland for today and into the weekend doings. But some stuff worth taking a look at:

• In Westchester, the disccussions of the university's 20-year master plan draws a crowd estimated at 350; how will the school burgeon at the same time it acts as a good neighbor, of course, is a key concern, as parties look to the future and worry about growth, traffic, pollution, digital signage, buffer zones and other important matters. 

• In Little Tokyo on Saturday afternoon, documentary film makers will show off their bio-pic that should prove greatly enlightening about a familar, comedic face from television and movies. The sardonic humor of veteran star Jack Soo, appreciated for his work in everything from 'Flower Drum Song' to 'Barney Miller' and 'Monk,' may have kept wider audiences from learning his fascinating life story, including his Japanese -- not Chinese -- ancestry. There's more, of course, on this path-breaking actor and his refusal to play to harmful ethnic stereotypes at the 'You Don't Know Jack' documentary site.   

• And if other diversions still are called for, there is, of course, a premiere of 'Countdown to Zero,' a powerful new film tracking the history and potential harm of nuclear weapons; the Zocalo-KCRW sponsored screening is free but reservations are required. And, of course, the folks in San Marino show off from their collections starting Sunday 'British Landscape Prints.'

Campuses take on Haiti relief, volcanoes, mercy

From UCSB, Pomona & Loyola Marymount

Across the region, campuses have taken on disaster release, the calamitous potential power of nature and a quality that may be far too strained in public life:

• In Santa Barbara, the UC system's response to the disastrous Haitian earthquake and its nightmarish, unending aftermath will be headquartered at the Center for Black Studies Research, which says that it is, after expertise in big metropolitan enclaves in Miami and Boston, one of the premier sites with scholarly knowledge about Haiti. Concerned parties from throughout the UC system conducted a system on this campus in the spring and set up a reconstruction organization and plans to work with academic counterparts, as well as government, nonprofit and community groups in Haiti to provide the university's top-flight expertise in key areas such as agriculture, arts and culture, education, economics, education, engineering and architecture.

In Santa Barbara, a headquarters for UC system's Haiti reconstruction efforts

Click here for more info on UC Haiti relief

• In Pomona, there's talk about the timely release of a scholarly tome that takes on mountains that blow up beneath us. Richard Hazlett, a geology and environmental analsis prof, got out his new text, 'Volcanoes: Global Perspectives,' just in time for huge swaths of the planet to be plunged into an air travel mess caused by the eruption of that wickedly named Icelandic volcano. For Hazlett, whose childhood fascination was piqued by tales of Vesuvius and Pompeii, an initial experience with a summer volcanic eruption in Hawaii since has been followed with eyewitness volcanology scholarship in Galanggung for a grey volcano, Kilauea for a red one and sightings in Japan, the Pacific Northwest, Aleutians, Italy, Kamchatka, Iceland and mainland Alaska. His book also discusses legendary explosions in Krakatoa and Santorini. The prof says he's not a thrill-seeker and concedes that to scrutinize the awe-inspiring power of volcano means taking risks.

From Pomona, a timely glimpse into global awe of volcanoes, eruptions

• In Westchester, a prof and his academic partner in Iowa have decided to delve into the fascinating question about a key happening at a crucial intersection of religion, philosophy and politics. When resources get scarce, the public's scared and policy making gets particularly rough in areas such as punishment for juveniles, amnesty for immigrants, reparation for much harmed people such as slaves or truth telling and reconciliation after large scale chaos and killing in a society, must the quality of mercy be strained, the profs ask? Besides considering this topic in classes they conduct, they're hard at work on a book, tentatively titled, 'The Death of Mercy,' which examines its role in public life.

In Westchester, seeing role for mercy at the intersection of politics, religion and philosophy