UCLA In the News lists selected mentions of UCLA in the world’s news media. Some articles may require registration or a subscription to view. See more UCLA In the News.
The career cost of COVID-19 to female researchers | Nature
“In May, the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research announced a pause in editorial activities, given our concern around adding to colleagues’ and reviewers’ existing burdens. We knew that the impacts of coping with the pandemic would fall to women, and that early-career researchers will face a dismal job market. Reviewers are a limited resource right now, and we want to use their contributions in a way that addresses structural inequality,” said UCLA’s Ananya Roy.
Study links gas flares to preterm births | New York Times
“It’s on par with the increased risk you see for women who smoke,” said Lara Cushing, an assistant professor of environmental health sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles, and lead author of the study. Unlike smoking, however, “it’s not really something you can do much about on an individual level,” she said.
Shooting suspect was a men’s rights activist | USA Today
Juliet Williams, a professor of gender studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, said the men’s rights movement was borne out of the fight for women’s rights in the 1960s and 1970s, encompassing reproductive choice, the civil rights movements and Title XI legislation, the federal law that prohibits discrimination based on gender in school programs. ”The men’s rights movement is best understood as a reactionary movement that emerged into real visibility in the wake of the accomplishments of feminist legal reformers,” she said, “who were able to, after not just decades, but centuries of struggle, to ensure that all of the rights that are accorded to people are extended without regard to sex.”
Virus antibodies fade fast, but not necessarily protection | Associated Press
Dr. Otto Yang and others at the University of California, Los Angeles, measured these more precise antibodies in 30 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 and four housemates presumed to have the disease. Their average age was 43 and most had mild symptoms. Researchers found that the antibodies had a half-life of 73 days, which means that half of them would be gone after that much time. It dovetails with a previous report from China also suggesting antibodies quickly fade. (Also: Bloomberg, KNBC-TV and Headline News.)
The latest on the pandemic | KPCC-FM’s “AirTalk”
“Contact tracing is a very important part of control measures for COVID-19, but it’s not the only thing. Because of the fact that number one, many of the cases may, in fact, be asymptomatic, and therefore, people may not have presented for being tested. So, that’s one thing, as you’ve got the silent spread going around,” said UCLA’s Dr. Robert Kim-Farley (approx. 1:25 mark). Kim-Farley is also quoted in the Los Angeles Times.
UCLA brings the promise of an education to Black students | KABC-TV
UCLA started a program called VIP Scholars in 2005 to address the declining number of African American students accepted to or attending UCLA…. “Students are learning about the impact of race, class, gender and inequality in the U.S., but it’s not just to learn about it, but how does this affect my school, how does this affect my community, my peers. Okay, now how can I pursue a career or a path that allows me to something about it,” says program director Dr. Jonli Tunstall.
COVID-19 death rates highest for Latino Californians | CapRadio
Report co-author and UCLA professor David Hayes-Bautista said the trend is directly linked to the fact that Latino workers comprise much of the high-risk agricultural sector. “Farmworkers work in large gangs, they often times sleep in barracks, they ride out in busses,” he said. “The packing house workers … they work shoulder to shoulder.”
Is dining outside really safe? | ABC’s “Good Morning America”
When asked, “Would you dine out outside in an area that’s a COVID-19 hot spot?” all seven experts answered “no.” “In a hotspot state, everybody needs to be doing what they can to reduce the spread of the virus ... that means social distancing, masks, all of the things that are really hard to do when you’re eating out,” said Dr. Anne Rimoin, an epidemiology professor at UCLA. (Rimoin is also quoted in the New York Daily News.)
Monkeys poke each other’s noses, pull hair in odd rituals | National Geographic
While groups of capuchins elsewhere in Costa Rica had been seen displaying these behaviors occasionally, [UCLA’s Susan] Perry noticed they seemed especially popular among the Lomas Barbudal monkeys. She and the research team documented almost 450 instances of these behaviors among the more than 50 Lomas Barbudal monkeys over 15 years.
Preschoolers’ parents face tough choices | Bloomberg
Social distancing “doesn’t make for a very developmentally stimulating or enhancing environment” for preschool children, said Alice Kuo, a professor of internal medicine and pediatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Complaints against domestic violence rise as rape incidents fall | Quartz India
Meanwhile, rape and sexual assault complaints fell, “likely due to decreased mobility in public spaces, public transport, and workplaces,” the study by researchers from University of California Los Angeles noted. “Women face a portfolio of danger and policies such as lockdowns can improve certain types of violence outcomes while exacerbating others,” said Manisha Shah, study’s co-author and professor of public policy at UCLA.
California school closings bring economic worry | Bloomberg
The closing of public schools could be devastating for the economy as those parents scramble to find child care, said David Shulman, a senior economist at the UCLA Anderson Forecast. “It’s going to be very hard for families with children to make arrangements for their kids so they can go back to work.” “California is about 15% of the U.S. economy, so if it’s just California I think things will muddle through. I think things will be fine,” he said. “But if it gets to be much more than California, then we have a problem.”
Writing the perfect recommendation letter | Nature
“Over years of reading recommendation letters for graduate students, postdocs and junior faculty members, I took note of techniques that I found compelling. One of them is using stories rather than a standard ‘list’ format to emphasize a candidate’s positive traits. Often, candidates will all sound the same in letters and will have the same positive traits listed — so one that comes with a story that demonstrates the applicant’s skillset will ring more true,” said UCLA’s Dino Di Carlo.
Surge in coronavirus cases causes contact tracing delay | Ventura County Star
Infectious disease epidemiologist Shira Shafir called contact tracing a mighty effort — one that requires a lot of infrastructure, a large workforce and people in the community willing to alter their behavior. Tracing is half the equation of controlling the spread of the coronavirus while allowing people to have some interaction, she said. The other half is testing. “We need to be able to test and figure out who is infected,” said Shafir, an associate professor with the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. “Once we know who is infected, that’s where contact tracing comes in.”
