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.
L.A.’s Russian community reacts to Ukraine war | Los Angeles Times
An economics professor at UCLA, [Oleg] Itskhoki said that Russian citizens had ample territory, resources and opportunity to change the trajectory of the nation after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. “At the end of the day, it’s people who live in that geography who are in charge of what will happen in that country,” said Itskhoki, whose father was born in Ukraine. “We started with a country that could have been free and prosperous, and we ended in this complete catastrophe.”
Experts break down de-masking risks as COVID cases fall | Los Angeles Times
“If you are a young person who’s healthy, who’s been vaccinated, who’s been boosted, and who is not around others that may be vulnerable, you’d feel much more comfortable going into places without masks,” Dr. Robert Kim-Farley, a UCLA epidemiologist and infectious-diseases expert, said in an interview. (Kim-Farley was also quoted in another Los Angeles Times article and interviewed about future pandemics by KCRW-FM.)
Baby gets first heart and thymus transplant | CNN
However, T cells make up only one part of the immune system’s response to transplanted organs, noted Dr. Reshma Biniwale, associate professor of cardiac surgery and director of pediatric heart transplantation at UCLA. “I would be very hesitant to say that the child will be completely off all immune suppression, because this technique only takes care of the T cells, of the thymic cells,” said Biniwale, who was not involved in Easton’s surgery.
Nuclear angst sparks demand for iodide pills | Wall Street Journal
The thyroid tends to absorb radioactive iodine. But potassium iodide fills the gland to block the radioactive iodine from coming in, said Angela Leung, an associate professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine. Radioactive iodine is a common isotope released after accidents such as those at power plants including Japan’s Fukushima plant in 2011 and the Chernobyl plant in Ukraine in 1986, said Dr. Leung.
Stop dividing immigrants into ‘good’ vs. ‘bad’ | Los Angeles Times
Talia Inlender, deputy director at UCLA’s Center for Immigration Law and Policy, points out: “It’s essentially giving a double penalty” to people who are targeted by police and then turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, “often because of the color of their skin.”
Hollywood’s lack of Black executives harms Black community | Deadline
The report, released Wednesday on the heels of last month’s NAACP Image Awards, was commissioned by the NAACP Hollywood Bureau in collaboration with Dr. Darnell Hunt, Dean of Social Sciences at UCLA, and MEE (Motivational Educational Entertainment) Productions. The report, titled “The Black Executive: A Partial Solution to the Psycho-Social Consequences of Media Distortion,” makes the case that “Black executives play a crucial role in leading the effort to accurately depict African-Americans in Hollywood storytelling.” (Hunt is quoted. Also: The Wrap.)
Why do gas prices vary so much between stations? | LAist
To find out, I called up UCLA Anderson Forecast senior economist Leo Feler. He told me the price of the gas itself is only one — of many — factors that gas station owners consider when deciding how much to charge customers at the pump. “How much does it cost for the underlying land? What is the amount of rent that they are paying to be on that corner? How many other gas stations are around that are competing with them and putting pressure on them?” he explained.
A potential new COVID treatment | City News Service
Scientists from Cedars-Sinai have reported research findings that have opened the possibility to a new therapy for COVID-19 patients, a discovery made in a biologic substance created by re-engineered human skin cells. The substance stopped SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, from reproducing and protected cells when tested in human lung cells, scientists reported. The research is in the early stages … Investigators at UCLA collaborated in the study and research. (Also: Medical Xpress.)
Court rulings and Trump-era border policy | The Hill
“It’s not March 2020 anymore,” said Monika Langarica, an attorney with the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at UCLA School of Law. “There is this massive availability of testing and vaccination that did not exist then. The border is now open to vaccinated nonessential travelers who come here to shop, do other things, as it should be. The fact that it remains closed to people who are seeking protection is contradictory, it’s illogical. And it’s really unacceptable at this point, coming from the Biden administration.”
How sensory therapies may help ease anxiety | Healthline
Dr. Margaret Gail Distler, a psychiatrist at the Anxiety Disorders Clinic at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at the University of California, Los Angeles, said the results of the study aren’t surprising. “The finding that sound-based treatments reduced the experience of anxiety is consistent with previous findings,” Distler told Healthline. “In the medical literature, music has widely been reported to aid relaxation and distract patients from unpleasant physical sensations.”
What are circadian rhythms? | U.S. News & World Report
“The eyes serve two functions,” says Dr. Alon Y. Avidan, a professor of neurology at the University of California Los Angeles, where he serves as director of the UCLA Sleep Disorders Center. “Sight and the circadian signal.” As the sun rises, light travels into the eye and sends a signal that stimulates the circadian master clock, explains Avidan.
Seeing inside single brain cells | ScienceDaily
The technology could also be used to better understand how genes and cells interact to cause neurodegenerative diseases. “These diseases can broadly affect many cell types. But there could be certain cell populations that are particularly vulnerable,” says co-first author Chongyuan Luo, assistant professor of human genetics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. “Genetic research has pinpointed the regions of the genome that are relevant for diseases like Alzheimer’s. We’re providing another data dimension and identifying the cell types affected by these genomic regions.”
How to beat your sugar cravings | The Healthy
According to Dr. Dana Ellis Hunnes, PhD, MPH, RD, dietitian and assistant professor with the Fielding School of Public Health at UCLA and senior dietitian at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, adding more healthy sources of protein to your diet helps to maintain blood sugar stability while slowing down the rate of absorption of starches and carbohydrates in food. “These two mechanisms, blood sugar stability and slowing down the rate of blood sugar absorption, help reduce sugar cravings,” Dr. Ellis Hunnes says.
New data: Latino communities spread out in U.S. | KPCC-FM’s “AirTalk”
“This internal migration of Latinos, this dispersion, that we see has been happening over the past two decades, as the Pew report says — so it’s part of that overall trend. Two decades ago, we saw Latinos dispersing to what we call new destination areas in the South, on the East Coast, and what we’re seeing now is part of that,” said UCLA’s Cecilia Menjívar (approx. 2:35 mark).
The latest on the pandemic | KPCC-FM’s “AirTalk”
“Things are looking a lot better than they were a few months ago, in January and through February. So we’ve seen kind of a continued decline of cases here in LA, but also less hospitalizations, at UCLA but also at many other health centers in Los Angeles,” said UCLA’s Dr. Paul Adamson (approx. 2:00 mark).
Southern California supermarket labor dispute | KPCC-FM
“I do think that the memories of the four-month strike, back in 2003–2004, are a factor in both sides trying to avoid a prolonged conflict. I do think there have been significant changes, however, especially in recent years, under the pandemic,” said UCLA’s Kent Wong (approx. 0:40 mark).
