UCLA in the News December 14, 2023

UCLA in the News lists selected mentions of UCLA in the world’s news media. Some articles may require registration or a subscription. See more UCLA in the News.

Netflix: Content with Latinos among top viewed | Los Angeles Times’ De Los

For Ana-Christina Ramón, one of the authors of UCLA’s annual Hollywood Diversity Report, Netflix’s new viewership data reveal makes one thing clear: “Audiences want to see programming featuring Latinx creatives.” Ramón also points to the high viewership of individual seasons of licensed TV shows featuring Latino actors.

‘Historic’ COP28 deal: What’s in it? | KCRW 89.9-FM’s ‘Press Play’

“There was a little bit of dissonance involved. There were high-level calls for sustainable development, and these high-level calls were taking place in Dubai surroundings. It’s a modern megacity that has sprung up from the desert. It doesn’t have enough water. It has pretty terrible air pollution problems. Sound familiar?” said UCLA’s Cara Horowitz.

Zelensky: Putin may “enter the New Year in high spirits” | CNN

“I think he will be in high spirits, and I think he’ll really be trying to project a certain image. Because this is, in effect, the start of his reelection campaign,” said UCLA’s Daniel Treisman.

Are these things antisemitic? L.A. Jews tell us | Los Angeles Times

[UCLA’s Dov Waxman was featured] Fundamentally, antisemitism is anti-Jewish racism. It’s distinct — it has its own history and different kinds of manifestations, but it is a form of racism. And when we think about racism, we recognize that racism isn’t just about prejudice or intent. It is also about the effects of actions. (Waxman was also quoted in another Los Angeles Times story about antisemitism.)

Neurons responsible for poor sleep and stress found in mice | Nature

Researchers have now identified a group of neurons in the brains of mice that are involved in regulating blips of wakefulness, called microarousals. The finding could help to explain how stress disrupts sleep, says Ketema Paul, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Los Angeles. “That is a very big step in the right direction as we look for targets to better treat sleep impairments that result from stress.”

More citations than relocations in encampment sweeps | Los Angeles Times

The findings were released Tuesday in the fall update of the Periodic Assessment of Trajectories of Housing, Health and Homelessness Study (PATHS), a joint USC-UCLA project to gain a better understanding of homelessness by tracking the same people over time … “I think the big message here is that interim options are just an extension of the street,” said co-author Randall Kuhn, professor in UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health.

L.A.’s fentanyl hot spots reveal where resources are missing | Daily Breeze

“Put a methadone clinic in Skid Row; that’s kind of the lowest-hanging service gap,” said Chelsea Shover, health services researcher and assistant professor-in-residence at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine. “If you happen to live in Skid Row, as lots of people who might need or want treatment for opioid use disorder do, there’s nowhere practical to access it.” [UCLA’s David Goodman-Meza was also quoted.]

What are comets? The secret lives of space snowballs, explained | Mashable

Researchers say the scale of Bernardinelli-Bernstein, which has a mass of 500 trillion tons, is significant because it provides a clue about the size range of other comets orbiting in the distant outskirts of our solar system. “This comet is literally the tip of the iceberg for many thousands of comets that are too faint to see in the more distant parts of the solar system,” David Jewitt, a UCLA astronomer, said in a statement.

Rain enters Southern California forecast | KTTV-TV

In a YouTube weather update, UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain said the change would happen “pretty quickly and dramatically.” “It has been pretty dry in California for the last month or so … But I still think that is very likely to change perhaps pretty quickly and dramatically, at some point toward the end of December, so mid- to late December, and very likely by January,” he said.

Science yet to support curbing social media for teens | Los Angeles Times

“There should be some restrictions on the content that adolescents see. I’m a little concerned about waiting until the research and science comes out fully,” said Dr. April Thames, a professor of psychiatry at UCLA. “We know about adolescent brain development. It’s highly vulnerable to the effects of social media. We need to work with what we’ve got.”

Americans may get paid for more time off work | Newsweek

Comparably, federal workers in the U.S. get 12 weeks of maternity leave, and at least nine states and the District of Columbia offer more than four weeks. Globally, the average paid maternity leave is 29 weeks and the average paid paternity leave is 16 weeks, according to data from the World Policy Analysis Center at UCLA.