USC hosts West Coast premiere of Monica Bill Barnes & Company: The Running Show
USC Kaufman student dancers are put to the test with just four days between auditions and the final show.
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Exposure to air pollution worsens COVID-19 outcomes, even among the fully vaccinated
Researchers from USC and Kaiser Permanente conducted the first individual-level study of air pollution exposure and COVID-19 vaccination.
Can school choice lead to segregation?
Research by USC Marshall professor Kalinda Ukanwa suggests an unintended consequence of open school choice.
How L.A.’s culinary roots lie in its Mexican tradition
USC Dornsife’s Sarah Portnoy provides a guide to L.A.’s culinary history, its cultural shifts and its transformation.
Dad brain is real: Study reveals men’s brains change after baby arrives
Psychologist Darby Saxbe discusses why studying these changes in parents is important and what she hopes to tackle next.
Forbes
Founding a startup? Don’t leave your day job just yet
USC researchers followed more than 5,000 entrepreneurs for 14 years. They found that startups were 33% more likely to survive if their founders didn’t quit their jobs right away.
Bloomberg
Los Angeles looks to beat New York in returning to pre-pandemic transit ridership
L.A.’s transit chief aims to hit that milestone by mid-2023, while New York’s MTA may not restore its ridership until 2035. USC transportation expert James Moore notes one reason: Many L.A. transit riders don’t have any other option.
U.S. News & World Report
Candidates look to bypass debates amid pivot from substance to spectacle
Voters were turned off by the tenor of the 2020 debates between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, says USC Annenberg’s Tom Hollihan — who also notes that debates still matter.
Los Angeles Times
Student information remains at risk after massive cyberattack on Los Angeles Unified
LAUSD is an attractive target for cybercriminals because of the large number of people affected when district systems become unavailable, USC Viterbi’s Clifford Neuman says. “This makes the impacted organization potentially more willing to pay a ransom to recover their systems,” he says, “and encourages criminals to seek larger payments.”
Los Angeles Times
Like a breath of fresh air on a hot day, USC football feels like USC football again
“On a scorching Saturday afternoon at a Coliseum rollicking with a rebirth, with players bouncing on the sideline and fans pumping fists through the sweat, an old friend returned with a roar,” writes columnist Bill Plaschke. “USC football feels like USC football again.”
U.S. News & World Report
How USC helped This Is Us put Alzheimer’s care in the spotlight
When the wildly popular TV show wrapped up its final season this year, it did so with a storyline that showed one of the lead characters dealing with Alzheimer’s as her adult children disagreed over the type of care she should receive. The storyline was developed in close collaboration with the Hollywood, Health & Society program at the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center.
The Conversation
Extreme heat plus air pollution can be deadly, with the health risk together worse than either alone
High heat and air pollution are each problematic for human health, particularly for vulnerable populations such as older adults. But when they hit at the same time, death rates spike, USC researchers found.
The Associated Press
At $249 per day, prison stays leave ex-inmates deep in debt
As prison populations ballooned, policymakers questioned how to pay for incarceration costs, says USC Dornsife’s Brittany Friedman: “So, instead of raising taxes, the solution was to shift the cost burden from the state and the taxpayers onto the incarcerated.”
ZME Science
How friendships between rich and poor kids could lift people out of poverty
USC sociologist Ann Owens notes that income segregation is growing: Rich families have become richer and more isolated from middle-class and low-income families.
WebMD
Using a blood pressure smartphone app doesn’t beat traditional home monitoring, study finds
The study is noteworthy for several reasons: its large size, the level of comfort with technology reported by participants, and representation of Black and Hispanic people, says USC internal medicine specialist Matthew Jung.
Los Angeles Times
Hate crimes in L.A. this year could again set records
An analysis by Crosstown, USC’s nonprofit data-driven news outlet, found that hate crimes against Black, transgender and LGBTQ Angelenos this year were all up significantly compared with the first six months of 2021.
HuffPost
1 in 2 Black teens experience racism online: What parents should know
In one study, USC Rossier’s Brendesha Tynes found that Black youths experienced more than five discriminatory experiences per day — mostly online racial discrimination.
Mind-body practices lower blood sugar levels in people with type 2 diabetes
New research from the Keck School of Medicine of USC reveals mind-body practices are highly effective at reducing blood sugar levels in people with Type 2 diabetes.
Keck Hospital of USC named top performer by leading heath care performance improvement compapy
Hospital receives a five-star ranking from Vizient Inc. for excellence in delivering high-quality care.
What are tactical nuclear weapons?
A USC international security expert explains and assesses what they mean for the war in Ukraine.
LGBTQ+ History Month: A time to honor the past and build community in the present
Series of in-person events planned throughout October for USC students, faculty and staff.
Next-generation liquid biopsy detects nano-sized signs of breast cancer in early-stage patients
A USC-led team of researchers finds remarkable results with the blood test in a small group of patients.
Low-calorie sugar substitute consumption during adolescence appears to impair memory later in life
Scientists using lab models find that eating FDA-approved levels of saccharin, ACE-K and stevia early in life may result in several changes to the body, including in brain regions involved in memory and reward-motivated behavior.
USC’s zero waste football game is Saturday
USC won the Pac-12 Zero Waste Challenge in 2021-22 in both football (USC’s third win) and men’s basketball.
Impressive numbers shape the USC Class of 2026
With a strong showing by first generation college students, USC’s newest class is off and running. Academic achievement and diversity are key characteristics of the USC freshman class.
Fasting-mimicking diet reduces signs of dementia in mice
Short cycles of a low-calorie diet that replicates fasting appeared to reduce inflammation and delay cognitive decline in mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease.
Disadvantaged workers face more challenges in retirement, too
As Healthy Aging Month winds down, research from USC Price’s Emma Aguila documents the varied work pathways of America’s increasingly diverse older workforce.
Women still less likely to be hired, promoted, mentored or even have their research cited
Researchers at USC’s Information Sciences Institute used artificial intelligence to study gender disparities in science.
K-pop takes center stage at USC concert, dance competition and academic forum
Events include an academic examination of the phenomenon as well as a concert featuring Korean musical artists Sejeong Kim and Kingdom.
In a warmer world, half of all species are on the move — but where are they going?
A new computer modeling tool provides a more accurate analysis of species’ movement amid climate change. What it’s finding is bleaker than experts expected.
USC Gould incoming JD class sets records
The class is the school’s most academically accomplished, and marks the lowest acceptance rate on record. In addition, women comprise two-thirds of the entering class — another record at USC Gould.
50 years ago, USC’s Information Sciences Institute was tapped to design and run the internet
From a three-person shop in 1972 to an institute of more than 400 today, ISI continues to lead the way in computing research.
Traditional incentives don’t offset COVID vaccine hesitancy
New study finds financial incentives and other behavioral nudges made little difference among certain groups.
USC’s Warrior Scholar Project puts service members on the front line in the classroom
The college preparatory program helps prepare veterans and transitioning service members to succeed in higher education.
The Rev. Cecil ‘Chip’ Murray retires from USC
Since his arrival at USC in 2004, Murray trained about 1,000 faith leaders in the “Murray Method,” equipping them to transform their communities as he had helped transform South L.A. in his first career as a pastor.
In memoriam: Irving Biederman, 83, explored the brain’s role in vision, shape and face recognition
The longtime USC Dornsife professor was a voracious seeker of knowledge and a beloved mentor to countless students and postdoctoral researchers.
Newly discovered protein connected to Alzheimer’s Disease risk
A mutation in a microprotein is connected to a significant increase in the risk for Alzheimer’s and highlights a possible target for treatment, a USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology study finds.
Julia M. Ritter installed as dean of the USC Kaufman School of Dance
The accomplished public artist and academic leader promises to be a “partner in dance to do things that matter.”
Book bans reflect outdated beliefs about how children read
USC Dornsife’s Trisha Tucker notes that nearly 1,600 books were targeted in 2021 — the highest number of attempted book bans since tracking began more than 20 years ago.
Governor names USC’s Erroll Southers to Commission on the State of Hate
The panel will review data on hate crimes in California, provide resources for victims and make policy recommendations to better protect people’s civil rights.
Some forms of elder abuse worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic
A study led by the Keck School of Medicine of USC — the first direct comparison of elder abuse data before and during the pandemic — found increased reports of physical and emotional abuse.