Transition to adulthood is much more complex for foster youth compared to those growing up outside the foster care system, write Rachel Kuebler and Rachelle Rivera, graduate students at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work.
Sony/ATV Music Publishing and Bleeding Fingers Music have established a Screen Scoring Diversity Scholarship for Black composition students at the USC Thornton School of Music. The scholarship is funded by a gift from Quincy Jones and will cover the full cost of the school’s Screen Scoring master’s program.
The machine learning model, which analyzes language data in a movie script, was developed by USC researchers in collaboration with a UCLA colleague.
Art can help us make sense of these charged, complex and difficult times, says USC Dornsife’s Enrique Martínez Celaya. And Amelia Jones of the USC Roski School of Art and Design notes that art displayed in public needs to reflect the current conditions — not just be plunked down without context.
USC Alzheimer’s expert Lon Schneider says the panel made the right call in rejecting aducanumab. Studies showed the drug’s impact to be insignificant at best.
The vaccine’s 90% effectiveness far exceeds the FDA’s bar of 50%, says David Agus of the Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine of USC: “This is a momentous occasion.”
It may seem that movie theater chain AMC’s troubles are solely due to COVID-19, but Gene Del Vecchio of the USC Marshall School of Business writes that the company was in trouble well before the pandemic. ()
Diversification of leadership can be an important step toward meeting the goals of racial equity, notes Adrianna Kezar of USC’s Pullias Center for Higher Education: “The ability to speak from your heart and authentically about this issue and to have a vision for a direction forward is much more likely to happen with leaders of color.” ()
Even for voters who are concerned about climate change, the issue is often eclipsed by other topics of greater immediate concern, notes Joe Arvai, director of the USC Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies: “Our attention span is limited.”
Birth rates were already on the decline. If hundreds of thousands of millennial women choose to delay pregnancy even longer, “we’re looking at a fundamental and unprecedented change to our population,” says demographer Dowell Myers of the USC Price School of Public Policy.
Shopping could be a way of coping with being alone, USC Marshall’s Lars Perner says. To reduce your impulse purchases, he suggests a “cooling off” period after you spot something you want — even just overnight.
Even for voters who are concerned about climate change, the issue is often eclipsed by other topics of greater immediate concern, notes Joe Arvai, director of the USC Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies: “Our attention span is limited.”
Since the COVID-19 outbreak, cancer screenings have dramatically decreased across the country. Caryn Lerman, director of the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, notes that early detection of cancer can improve the chances of survival — and that by delaying screening, patients are also delaying treatment and putting their health at risk.
About three-quarters of families surveyed by researchers from USC and the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools had experienced a pandemic-related loss of income and food insecurity. Yet 1 in 3 families made investments to support online learning, including paying for internet access. “This isn’t a trivial amount of money for our families,” USC Rossier’s Stephen Aguilar says.
Movement in the U.S. has traditionally been based on economic opportunities. USC Viterbi’s Bistra Dilkina, who has modeled migration patterns from sea-level rise, thinks that’s going to change as the intensity of climate-driven disasters increases.
“We’ve seen so many lives lost, so many families hurting,” says Monica Escobar, an ICU nurse at Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center. “But not coming to work is not an option for me.”
The traditional advice — to rest and not stress your back — actually runs counter to what we now understand to be the best course of action, says Eric Robertson of the USC Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy.
Some people view uncertainty as a threat or a loss, while others seem more inclined to view it as a challenge, says USC Dornsife’s Beth Meyerowitz says. But the aspects of the pandemic that can be met as challenges may also provide opportunities for personal growth, she says. (The Washington Post)
If you can see and smell smoke outdoors, “it’s probably not a good idea to be exercising outside,” says Ed Avol of the Keck School of Medicine of USC. That’s because exerting yourself outside when the air quality is poor has potential short- and long-term risks.
Ergonomic issues with home workstations can cause a variety of ailments — with low back pain and neck pain among the most common, says Jared Vagy of the USC Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy.
Some 30% of Southern California residents don’t have air conditioning. USC Viterbi’s Kelly Sanders notes that many of them live in “urban heat islands” — areas with fewer parks and greenery to absorb the heat caused by the urban environment.
“Children growing up in more polluted areas have slower growing lungs and don’t attain the kind of lung health that other children grow to,” says Edward Avol of the Keck School of Medicine of USC. “And we have no proof that those children catch up.”