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News for Faculty and Staff of the University of California, Riverside • Volume 6, Number 5• March 10, 2010 • www.InsideUCR.ucr.edu
Strategic Vision for Campus Ready for Feedback
If UCR is to be grouped with the top research
universities in the country, the campus must
attract more highly qualified students, earn
more peer-reviewed research grants and support graduate student success, according to a
vision statement released March 1 as part of
UCR’s Strategic Planning process.
The plan identifies areas of strategic priority:
• Enriching Society through the Creative
and Performing Arts
• Transforming Communities: Educational, Entrepreneurial and Social Contributions
• Novel Technology, Materials, Phenomena and Devices
• Advances in Human Health and WellBeing
• Energy, Environment and Sustainable
Development
• Food and Plants: From Genomics to
Market
Decisions about how to invest will be
based on data, said Dallas Rabenstein, executive vice chancellor and provost, who has been
instrumental in leading the planning process,
along with eight subcommittees with membership from across the campus.
Rabenstein asked for “robust campus
feedback” by March 29 on the first of what
is intended to be three drafts of the plan. It
is available for review on the Web along with
the reports from all of the subcommittees at
strategicplan.ucr.edu/ucr2020.html.
“The plan is ambitious,” said Chancellor
Timothy P. White, who is scheduled to present the final version to the UC Regents in September. “Not everything will be accomplished
immediately; some of our more far-reaching
goals may take years to attain. We will need to
invest our existing resources wisely, and identify new resources.”
Specific goals set out in the vision statement include:
• Achieve critical mass through strategic
consolidation of departments or programs.
• Increase the service orientation of the
Office of Research to assist in the
development of successful grants.
• In faculty promotion, reward faculty
for earning peer-reviewed extramural
grants; mentorship and support for
graduate students; membership in the
national academies; and engagement
with the community.
• Regularly evaluate research centers for
success and relevance.
• Reshape sales and service activities to
be more entrepreneurial, and to fully
account for costs and equipment
maintenance.
• Protect staff support for faculty in
order to maximize time spent on
teaching, research, and service.
• Take advantage of efforts across the
UC system to pool purchasing power,
and eliminate waste and duplication.
• Raise admission standards for freshman applicants, in order to reduce
the amount of money spent on preparatory writing classes.
• Grow our own graduate students from
the most talented of our own undergraduate population.
• Meet the 300:1 student-to-advisor
ratio recommended as best practice
by the National Academic Advising
Association.
• Expand First-Year Learning Communities to all incoming freshmen to
increase retention rates.
• Provide an opportunity for a capstone
project for undergraduates, such as
a senior thesis, creative activity or
equivalent.
• Increase diversity among graduate
students, staff and faculty.
E-mail feedback to ucr2020@ucr.edu.
Go Stark Raving Plaid: Wear Your School Spirit on Your Kilt
By Pat Murkland
Plaid extra-baggy cargo shorts, hooded
sweatshirts with plaid appliqués, even a plaid
cummerbund for those formal occasions — the
Highlanders have dressed their school colors
of blue and gold in a new line of Tartan Wear.
It’s not just any old plaid. It’s the official
UC Riverside Tartan, a design of royal blue
criss-crossed with bands of black, white and
a bold gold.
The official UCR Tartan is among the trademark-protected properties of the University of
California. It’s even registered with the official
Register of Tartans in Scotland.
University officials say the tartan was developed specifically to be representative of UCR,
with the aid of Linda Clifford and contributions
by UCR Pipe Band members Mike Terry, Josh
Taylor and Robbie Conacher.
Susan Allen Ortega, assistant vice chancellor and dean of students, is also a plaid visionary and has been instrumental in spreading
tartan pride. She said students need to understand what it means to be a Highlander.
Just as a tartan is a woven fabric with
stripes of different hues, so she and other
campus leaders wove together UCR Highlander
history, traditions, school pride and the University of California ethical core values for students. The result: plaid Highlanders, outside
and inside.
The University of California’s core ethical
values are embodied at UC Riverside in the
Tartan Soul Campaign, which challenges all
students to live with these values in mind: tartan royal blue, symbolizing the value of integrity; white, accountability; gold, excellence;
and black, respect.
Highland tartans are symbolic in Scotland and woven with powerful traditions. UCR
has promoted its Highlander theme since the
1950s, when the “Hylanders” beat out other
possible university mascots such as aphids and
rocks. “Highlander” evolved from the university’s geographical elevation relative to the rest
of Riverside, and the Scottish traditions followed. All campus residence halls are named
for Scottish locations. In UCR’s athletic logos,
a fierce Braveheart-style warrior has bear leads
althletics toward Highlander victory.
So the official Tartan Wear Collection is a
natural, according to Robert Getman of UCR’s
Campus Store. The store advertising campaign
exhorts: “Don’t just show your school spirit; go
stark raving plaid.”
The store began offering the Tartan Wear
Collection to the public about a month before
February’s Homecoming events. By wearing
the tartan one can wear school spirit, Getman
said. Most items can be found at www.ucrcampusstore.ucr.edu.
Along with hats, sweatshirts, and a scarf
sporting UCR plaid, there is a sport kilt for
women ($49.95) and a mini kilt ($39.95) that
Hundreds of students, staff and faculty listen as Chancellor Tim White speaks during the
March 4 “National Day of Action for Education.” At one point, he entreated the crowd to
look north, point to Sacramento and yell, “Fund education!” The crowd walked to downtown
Riverside to continue the peaceful event with speakers, chants, drums and even dance.
Photos by Cindy Giorgio
Some of the options for showcasing Tartan
Photo by Kim Lane
Soul pride.
has been selling well.
So far the best-selling Tartan Wear has
been a hooded sweatshirt with a tartan appliqué, Getman said. The store has sold so many
he has already had to reorder.
In the fall, look for another two dozen Tartan Wear items, he said.
After all, the school fight song begins:
“Brave Scots, one and all we stand together,
the tartan clan of UCR!”
Resources for Handling and
Helping Difficult Students
By Kim Lane
A student comes into your office on a regular basis. With each visit his or her behavior
becomes increasingly more agitated and you
and others in your office feel threatened. And
at the back of your mind are recent shootings
that involved a student at one university and a
professor at another.
What can you and your co-workers do? How
do you tell if the situation is serious?
Trust your instincts, said Sarah Pemberton,
a student affairs case manager who is available
to help in just such situations.
“For some students, this aggressive and
disruptive behavior is a sign that they are
struggling with personal, academic or mental
health issues,” said Pemberton. “Our job is to
step in and help them to deal with that stress
in a more appropriate way and to get them the
resources they need before it becomes a more
harmful situation.”
Pemberton’s position was created in
response to a recommendation by the UC
Campus Security Task Force’s Student Mental
Health Committee, which formed in 2007 in
the wake of the Virginia Tech shooting.
Warning signs include threats of violence
to themselves or others, difficulty getting along
with others, substance abuse, depression or
hopelessness, sudden mood and behavior
changes, and withdrawal.
“If the student seems volatile, seems to
be getting into the personal space of others or
exhibits any other behavior that is ongoing or
makes others feel uncomfortable, contact my
office for advice,” she said.
Pemberton keeps detailed accounts of
such calls and uses that information to track
potential problem behavior. She also takes
more serious cases to the Critical Student Incident Team. Comprised of representatives from
UCPD, the campus health center, the counseling center, the dean of students and residential
life, the team meets every two weeks to explore
solutions on how best to serve those students
in need, to discuss campus policy and to develop plans for responding to potential crisis situations.
Pemberton recommends that departments
develop a proactive plan on how to deal with
possible problems. This includes defining what
is acceptable versus unacceptable behavior,
developing a plan for alerting others of an
emergency (a key word or signal) and becoming
familiar with the student Standards of Conduct,
which can be viewed at conduct.ucr.edu.
Pemberton suggests that if faculty or staff
are concerned about a student’s behavior, they
should keep a log or notes on interactions to
make sure they can remember things accurately and begin to build an accurate timeline
of events. This information helps Pemberton
more accurately determine if the problem warrants developing an intervention plan.
Pemberton and Wade Stern, from the
UCPD crime-prevention unit, give planned and
on-demand presentations to help faculty and
staff identify warning signs, develop strategies
for working with students who are struggling
and to make available various resources.
Strategies include speaking in low, calming tones and being aware of one’s own body
language. Don’t respond with hostility as this
can escalate the situation. Acknowledge the
person’s perceived problem, but also set clear
expectations and use behavioral terms.
“When you tell someone to calm down, that
can mean different things to different people,”
said Pemberton. “It’s better to be direct – ‘I
want you to lower your voice,’ or ‘I need you to
take a step back.’ ”
Use empathy and active listening, but know
your limitations.
“You may be limited as to how much you
can help this person or, because you have other
students waiting for your attention, you may not
have the time needed to really address their
needs,” she said. “You can ask your supervisor
to step in, or ask the person to come back at a
time when you can give them more attention.”
And, she said, don’t hesitate to call her
office to discuss concerning behavior because
others on campus may be having the same
problems with that person.
“What we do not want are departments
not communicating difficulties or concerns.
We want to gather all information needed to
help make decisions about how best to help
students. ”
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• March 10, 2010
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www.InsideUCR.ucr.edu
Getting Personal
Who Says?
Name: Marsha Tolson
Department: Campus Health Center
Job: Administrative Assistant III in the student health insurance
office
Length of employment at UCR: 13 years.
My work focuses on: I am the student/patient liaison and lead insurance assistant for the student health insurance plan. I assist
students with their insurance questions and sometimes difficult
billing problems. I help them understand their policy and make
sure that the policy protocol is adhered to so they not only receive
the maximum benefit but have their claims paid in a timely manner. I also assist students with referrals to off-campus providers and
sometimes help them with scheduling appointments.
Marsha Tolson
Things you should know: I have been married for 27 years and have two grown children. I now have an empty
nest and it is very strange and quiet. I guess it is my turn, right? Outside of work, I love to camp and I enjoy
anything to do with water. My husband and I recently purchased a Harley so we have been enjoying some
weekend trips with friends. I guess I am now an official Harley Mama! No tattoos.
UCR Game Design Program at the Top of Its Game
UCR’s program in video game
design ranks in the Top 50 of 500
North American universities, according to The Princeton Review and
GamePro Media.
The Princeton Review developed
its “Top 50 Undergraduate Game
Design Programs” list – the first project of its kind – in partnership with
GamePro, one of the most respected
brands in the video game industry,
reaching more than 3 million gamers
a month.
The comprehensive survey asked
more than 50 questions and covered
areas from academics and faculty
credentials to graduates’ employment and career achievements.
Criteria included the quality of
the curriculum, faculty, facilities and
infrastructure. The Princeton Review
also looked at data on scholarships,
financial aid and career opportunities.
UC Riverside is one of two UC
campuses named to the Top 50 list
and will be featured in an article
that will appear in the April issue of
GamePro magazine, which is available on newsstands and on GamePro.com.
The
ranking reflects the
research
and
course
offerings
of Victor Zordan,
associate professor of computer
science and engineering.
“Game development is an exciting area for our
undergraduates,
and I’m pleased Student Muzaffer Akbay works on a performancethat
we
have based interface for characters that allows human acreceived this rec- tors to use their own body to interact with virtual 3D
ognition,” Zordan environments in a physically based manner.
Photo by Lonnie Duka
said. “I hope that
we can offer even more opportunities simulation, motion capture and algorithms used to create believable (and
to our students in the future.”
Zordan directs the Riverside unbelievable) motion and to explore
Graphics Lab in developing cutting- novel uses for animation in electronic
edge techniques in graphics and games, medical and training applicaanimation with a focus on physically tions, and 3D virtual worlds.
“We are very pleased with the
based modeling and human motion.
He has been an animation enthu- listing, which indicates our facsiast and graphics programmer for ulty’s determination to provide a
more than 20 years and a researcher quality education for our students,”
investigating animation techniques said Reza Abbaschian, dean of the
Bourns College of Engineering.
for more than a decade.
His interests are in physical
People
In Memoriam
David S. McLellan, a founding
faculty member in the Department
of Political Science, died Feb. 21
at his home in Yellow Springs, Ohio.
He was 85.
Dr. McLellan taught at UCR from
1955 to 1971, and at Miami University, Ohio, from 1971 through
1990.
He earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from Yale
University, and authored several
books about the Cold War, including “The Cold War in Translation,”
“Cyrus Vance” and “Dean Acheson:
The State Department Years,” which
won the Truman Library David Lloyd
Prize for the best book on the Truman era.
Dr. McLellan served as a navigator and bombardier with the Army
Air Corps in the Pacific during World
War II, earning an Air Medal.
He is survived by his wife,
Ann Handforth McLellan of Yellow
Springs; son Eric, daughter Marjorie and son-in-law Gary Greenberg,
all of Yellow Springs; daughter
Michele McLellan of Phum Thum,
Cambodia; son-in-law Robert Wyatt
of Saratoga Springs, N.Y.; and three
grandchildren. His oldest daughter,
Hilary, preceded him in death in
October 2009.
Wartella, Whitney Going to
Northwestern
Ellen Wartella, distinguished
professor of psychology and former executive vice chancellor, and
“ What we are finding in our study is that the DVD itself is not a substitute
for that kind of live social interaction. For children under the age of two,
social interaction is key to their ability to learning something like words.
Rebekah Richert, assistant professor of psychology, on research
that shows that educational DVDs such as “Baby Wordsworth” do
not actually enhance a child’s vocabulary or comprehension.
TIME
“I believe that the focus of this field is moving from ‘sensors’ to ‘point of
care technologies’ (POCT) that bring bioanalytic methods from the laboratory to the point of need, whether it is the bedside, emergency room
or for preventative medicine such as cholesterol monitoring. This type of
device would have wide applications for water quality, especially for third
world countries, food contamination and bioterrorism.”
Jerome Schultz, professor of bioengineering, on technological advances yielding “sensing” devices that are more efficient and adept at detecting toxins and pollutants.
WASHINGTON POST
“Restraint is something that the Buddha teaches right at the beginning …
Buddhism discusses an idea best translated as ‘attachment,’ the idea that
we hold onto things too much and that to look for answers beyond oneself
is pointless. Buddhism teaches you to start with yourself.”
Vivian-Lee Nyitray, associate professor of religious studies, on
Buddhist practices, in light of Tiger Woods’ recent return to Buddhism as part of a rehabilitation process.
EONLINE.COM
“I think we have to crank out different kinds of doctors,”
Dr. G. Richard Olds, founding dean of the UCR School of Medicine, speaking about the shortage ofphysicians in the Inland Empire and the state, and the need for new doctors to focus on prevention and wellness.
NEW YORK TIMES
“The media will represent that consumer confidence is down, and it’s
another piece of bad news that will just push confidence lower.”
David Stewart, professor of marketing and dean of SOBA, on the
disparity between economists and the unemployed in understanding the economy in its current recovery phase.
THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE
“We don’t have any good way to predict earthquakes. In terms of shortterm warning — from a few days or weeks — with high reliability. We’re
just not there at this point.”
Jim Dieterich, professor of geophysics, on scientific prediction and
evaluation in light of the recent devastating earthquakes.
AUDUBON MAGAZINE
To become a media source or to announce upcoming
published research or an award, contact the Office of Strategic
Communications at (951) 827-6397 or (951) UCR-NEWS or
insideucr@ucr.edu.
Charles Whitney, professor and
chair of the Department of Creative
Writing, have accepted appointments in the School of Communication at Northwestern University,
effective in fall 2010.
Wartella, formerly UCR’s executive vice chancellor and provost,
will head a new research and graduate education program in children
and media that is a joint project
of the School of Communication,
the School of Education & Public
Policy, and the Weinberg College
of Arts and Sciences. She will hold
an endowed chair in the School of
Communication.
Whitney will be associate dean
for academic affairs in the School
of Communication.
Did You Know?
ters Essential Science Indicators as
a Fast Breaking Paper in the field
of plant and animal science. That
means it is one of the most-cited
papers in its discipline published
during the past two years.
Of the various stress hormones,
abscisic acid (ABA), produced naturally by plants, has emerged over
the last 30 years as the key hormone that helps plants cope with
drought conditions. Under such
stress, plants increase their ABA
levels, which helps them survive the
drought through a process not fully
understood.
For years, scientists have contemplated spraying ABA directly
onto crops to enhance their protection in times of stress. But ABA is
a costly, complicated and light-sensitive molecule that has not found
use in agriculture.
Cutler’s research paper suggests
the possibility of spraying stable
synthetic chemicals on plants to
enhance stress tolerance during
times of drought and improve yield.
Using a method called chemical genomics, pioneered by UCR
researchers for studying plant biology, he identified pyrabactin, a new
synthetic chemical that turns on
the ABA signaling pathway in Arabidopsis, a small flowering plant used
widely in plant biology laboratories
as a model organism. His lab then
used pyrabactin to fish out a receptor for ABA.
It’s simple to change how your name and information appears in
the UCR Find People directory, the campus’ electronic telephone directory, and other online campus directories, and you don’t even have
to leave your department to do it.
Each of these Web sites pulls their directory information from the
main Enterprise Directory database. This database information is overseen by each department’s Enterprise Directory administrator, and the
information that appears online can only be changed by them.
Common changes include removing middle names or middle initials, adding nicknames (for example “Bob” in addition to “Robert,”
correction of first names and clarification or correction of job titles.
To change your information, contact your directory administrator
and have them make whatever changes are necessary.
If you don’t know how your name appears in the database, visit enterprisedirectory.ucr.edu and conduct a search for your name. To find
the administrator for your department, click the Enterprise Directory
Administrator List link that appears beneath the search button.
Awards & Honors
Yin Gets Career Award
Yadong Yin, an assistant professor of chemistry who joined UCR in
2006, has been recognized by the
National Science Foundation with a
CAREER award, a
prestigious honor
recognizing
the
early career development activities
of scholars most
likely to become
the
academic
Yadong Yin
leaders of the 21st
century.
Yin’s interests focus on the
development of new fabrication
methods for magnetically tunable
photonic crystal structures, and
exploring their applications.
The
five-year
$700,000
CAREER award will allow Yin to
expand his efforts in developing a
unique self-assembly approach for
the preparation of photonic structures whose color can be changed
rapidly and reversibly by applying
an external magnetic field. He plans
also to integrate the project with
educational outreach aimed at generating student interest.
Photonic materials with properties that can be tuned by external
stimuli have important applications
in areas such as color displays, biological and chemical sensors, inks
and paints, or active optical components.
Paper Named Fast Breaking
A research paper by Sean Cutler,
an assistant professor of plant cell
biology, titled “Abscisic Acid Inhibits Type 2C Protein Phosphatases
via the PYR/PYL Family of START
Proteins” as published in the journal Science on May 22, 2009, has
been identified by Thomson Reu-
Best Publication
The University of California Toxic
Substances Research and Teaching
Program (TSR&TP) has given the
Best Publication Award for 2009 to
a research paper by Shenfeng Qui,
a graduate student (now at the University of Southern California Keck
School of Medicine, Los Angeles)
who worked in the lab of Margarita
Curras-Collazo, an associate professor of neuroscience.
The paper, titled “Domoic Acid
Induces a Long-Lasting Enhancement of CA1 Field Responses and
Impairs Tetanus-Induced Long-term
Potentiation in Rat Hippocampal
Slices,” was published in the journal Toxicological Sciences.
The TSR&TP executive committee created the Best Publication Awards in 2007 to showcase
important research in the area of
toxic substances.
Nominations are solicited once
a year and are evaluated on originality of the work, significance of the
results, and potential for impact on
the field of toxic substances. Qui
was supported by TSR&TP through
a predoctoral fellowship.
www.InsideUCR.ucr.edu
Research & Scholarship
Economic Forecasts Subject of
Lecture
Tae-Hwy Lee, professor of economics, will discuss “Combining
Forecasts with Many Predictors” in
the Werner Sichel
Lecture Series at
Western Michigan
University (WMU)
on April 7.
The
lecture
series, now in its
46th year, brings Tae-Hwy Lee
six nationally and
internationally recognized economists to the Michigan campus to
discuss some of the latest techniques used to forecast economic
fluctuations. It is named in honor
of longtime WMU economics professor, Werner Sichel, who retired
in 2004. The series is cosponsored
by the W. E. Upjohn Institute for
Employment Research.
Swanson Edits Journal Issue
David A. Swanson, professor of
sociology and a leading demographer in the U.S., co-edited a special “Business Demography” issue
of the journal Population Research
and Policy Review that published in
February. He co-edited the publication with Farhat Yusuf of Macquarie
University in Sydney, Australia.
Swanson also co-authored three
articles in the issue: “Business
Demography in the 21st century,”
with Yusuf; “Forecasting the Population of Census Tracts by Age and
Sex: An Example of the HamiltonPerry Method in Action,” with
Alan Schlottmann of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and Bob
Schmidt of Claremont Graduate
University; and “Teaching Business
Demography Using Case Studies,”
with Peter A. Morrison of RAND
Corp.
The issue is available at www.
springerlink.com/content/102983/.
Allgor Judges Book Prize Entries
Catherine Allgor, professor of
history and UC Presidential Chair,
was one of three
historians invited
to judge entries
for the 2010
George Washington Book Prize.
The
$50,000
award is the larg- Catherine
est prize awarded Allgor
in the United
States for a book on early American
history. It is co-sponsored by Wash-
ington College, the Gilder Lehrman
Institute of American History and
George Washington’s Mount Vernon
Estate.
Allgor and judges Theodore J.
Crackel, editor in chief of The Papers
of George Washington project at the
University of Virginia, and Andrew
Cayton, university distinguished professor of history at Miami University,
Ohio, selected three finalists out of
62 books published last year about
the period of 1760 to 1820. The
winner will be announced May 20 at
Mount Vernon.
Paper Explores Astrocytes
Astrocytes are star-shaped brain
cells that play a role in structuring
the brain. They provide neurons
with nutrients, such as glucose, and
play a principal role in the repair
and scarring process of the brain
and spinal cord following traumatic
injuries.
Todd Fiacco, an assistant professor of cell biology and neuroscience,
is a co-author on a paper published
March 5 in Science that provides
strong evidence that astrocytes play
a role in driving “long-term potentiation” or LTP in the brain. LTP is
thought to be the
synaptic mechanism behind learning and memory
in the brain.
“The traditional view in neuroscience has been Todd Fiacco
that
astrocytes
are ‘passive bystanders’ in synaptic
communication, that neurons do all
the work when it comes to synaptic communication in the brain,”
Fiacco said.
The lead author of the research
paper is at the University of North
Carolina – Chapel Hill. Fiacco performed some of the experiments
reported in the paper, did the statistical analyses and contributed to
the writing of the manuscript.
Travel Fellowship
Michelle Lorimer, a Ph.D.
candidate in history, won a 2010
Heldrich-Dvorak Travel Fellowship
from the Southwest Texas Popular
Culture and American Culture Association.
Three awards of $200 each
were presented to graduate students whose papers were accepted
for presentation at the association’s
annual conference, held in Albuquerque in February. Lorimer pre-
sented a paper at the conference,
“Mission Misrepresentation: An
Analysis of the 1775 San Diego
Revolt and Current Mission Representation,” which was originally
written for Steven Hackel, associate professor of history.
Lorimer also won the Albuquerque Convention and Visitors Bureau
Award for Southwestern Culture.
The $500 award is presented annually for the best graduate essay
focusing on Southwestern culture.
Applied Mathematics Grows
The Department of Mathematics
is building an applied mathematics program and is in the process
of interviewing candidates for two
assistant professorship positions.
“Currently, the department has
23 pure mathematics faculty,”
said Vyjayanthi Chari, the chair of
the department. “We also have 15
visiting faculty who each serve the
department for three years. At the
moment, the department offers
some undergraduate applied mathematics courses. We hope to recruit
two applied mathematics faculty
members soon who will help us
expand our undergraduate curriculum and develop a strong graduate
program in applied mathematics.”
Dynamometer Installed at CECERT
A Heavy-Duty Vehicle Dynamometer is being installed at the College
of Engineering-Center for Environmental Research and Technology
(CE-CERT). A dynamometer is the
rotating drum that the wheels of a
car are mounted on when drivers
take their car in for a smog check.
The new dynamometer will be
able to handle buses and trucks
at on-road driving conditions. It
will include a 48 Electric AC Chassis Dynamometer with dual, direct
connected, 300 horsepower motors
attached to each roll set. The dynamometer applies appropriate loads
to a vehicle to simulate factors
such as the friction of the roadway
and wind resistance that it would
experience under typical driving.
Measurements will be collected
with CE-CERT’s Mobile Emissions
Laboratory (MEL).
The first research planned for the
new facility is a comparison of emissions from federally mandated diesel
fuel with those from the stricter California formulation. The project calls
for 15 heavy-duty trucks to be tested
over a 75-day period.
Tiny Pea Aphids Provide Big Genome Breakthrough
Isgouhi Kaloshian, a professor
of nematology, was a member of
an international research team that
recently sequenced the pea aphid
– the first aphid genome to be
sequenced and a major milestone
in insect ecology and evolution that
can help pave the way for controlling these plant pests.
Aphids are small, soft-bodied
insects that are major vectors of
viral plant disease. Essentially plant
parasites, they are common pests of
crops and ornamental plants, and
feed on the phloem (sap) of plants
to survive.
The pea aphid (Acyrthosiphon
pisum), which belongs to a group
of insects that are more ancient
than flies and bees, is a model
for insect scientists studying sym-
biosis, development, and host plant
specialization.
The sequencing, which already
has shown that a large part of the
typical insect immune system is
absent from the pea aphid, will allow
scientists to further understand the
relationship between a virus, the
host insect and the plant.
The consortium, led by Stephen Richards of the Baylor College of Medicine, released the 464
megabase draft genome of the pea
aphid in the February issue of PLoS
Biology.
“One of the important elements
of a genome sequence project is to
predict the genes in the sequence
and to assign functional roles to the
genes,” Kaloshian explained. Specifically, her lab helped identify and
Chancellor: Timothy P. White
Associate Vice Chancellor for Strategic Communications: Marcia McQuern
Editor: Kim Lane
Editorial Assistant: Konrad Nagy
Inside UCR is published by the Office of Strategic Communications,
twice monthly, except December, July, August and September, when it is
published once a month.
Send story ideas and comments to InsideUCR@ucr.edu
Issues are available online at www.insideucr.ucr.edu.
assign functions to aphid genes
involved in immunity and defense.
Kaloshian is the principal investigator of a nearly $634,000 grant
from the Agriculture and Food
Research Initiative Competitive
Grants Program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The three-year grant will allow
her lab to study the resistance mediated by the tomato gene Mi-1 that
confers resistance to four distinct
animals: potato aphids, whiteflies,
psyllids, and root-knot nematodes.
“Mi-1 belongs to the largest
class of plant resistance proteins,
and members of this class confer resistance to a wide range of
pathogens and pests,” Kaloshian
explained. “However, the effect of
the plant resistance on the pathogen or pest is not understood. This
grant will allow us to investigate
how Mi-1 resistance is able to control the potato aphid – a relative of
the recently sequenced pea aphid
– and the effect of Mi-1-mediated
defenses on the aphid pest.”
Thomas Girke, the director of
UCR’s Bioinformatics Facility and
an assistant professor of bioinformatics in the Department of Botany
and Plant Sciences, is a co-principal investigator of the USDA grant.
• March 10, 2010
•
page 3
DVDs Not a Good Toddler Teaching Tool
Parent time beats TV time
in a research project on
the effectiveness of infant
-focused videos.
By Bettye Miller
In a study published online in
the journal Archives of Pediatric
& Adolescent Medicine, “Word
Learning from Baby Videos,” UCR
researchers found no evidence
that children age 12 to 24 months
learned words from infant-focused
DVDs. The study, “Influences of
Digital Media on Very Young Children,” is funded with a $500,000
grant from the National Science
Foundation.
Researchers Rebekah A. Richert, assistant professor of psychology; graduate student Michael B.
Robb; Jodi G. Fender, post-graduate researcher; and Ellen Wartella,
distinguished professor of psychology, randomly placed an ethnically
diverse pool of 96 children ages 12
months to 24 months and their primary caregivers into two groups.
One group was assigned to
watch a baby DVD at home, and
the other was not. Both groups,
selected from communities in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, visited the researchers’ lab
at two-week intervals over a sixweek period. The viewing group
was instructed to watch the DVD
five times in each two-week period between visits to the lab, but
otherwise follow their normal routine. Researchers allowed parents
to decide who, if anyone, would
watch the DVD with their children.
Parents were asked to record in
a diary the dates and times when
viewing occurred. The control
group did not view the DVD and
was instructed to follow normal
home routines. Because participants in the control group returned
to the lab at the same intervals, all
parents knew the specific words
the researchers were tracking.
Words on the videos were common
objects or places such as table,
chair, kitchen and bathroom.
At each visit the researchers
measured knowledge of the specific words highlighted in the DVD
in three ways: words understood,
in which parents reported which
words their children could understand out of a list of 30 words
highlighted in the DVD; words said,
in which parents identified which
words their children could say out
of the same 30 words; and picture identification, in which children were shown paired pictures
of objects chosen from among the
DVD-highlighted words and asked
to point to a target word.
In lab viewing sessions
attended by participants in both
groups, children who spoke new
words were most likely to do so
either following parents’ use of
the word or parents’ general talk
about what was happening on the
screen.
“Other than the general gains
in word knowledge attributable
to time and age, children who
viewed the DVD at home over six
weeks did not demonstrate new
knowledge of the DVD-highlighted
words,” the researchers wrote.
There was no evidence that
exposure to the DVD over six
weeks helped or hindered children’s general language learning,
they said.
Parental
interaction,
not
solitary viewing of baby videos,
makes a difference in the acquisition of language skills, said Richert, the article’s lead author and
co-principal investigator of the
project. Wartella is the principal
investigator for the grant.
“Cognitive development still
happens in the way it has for centuries. Infants learn through live
social interaction,” Richert said.
Pulitzer Prize Winner Gives Boyce Lecture
Bert Hölldobler, recipient of a
Pulitzer Prize and one of the world’s
great ant experts, was the scheduled speaker for the 2010 Alfred M.
Boyce Lecture on campus, March 8.
His lecture was titled “The Superorganism: Communication and Cooperation in Ant Societies.”
Superorganisms are insect societies in which vast numbers of often
tightly entangled and socially interdependent insects function as a
single organism.
Ant societies, which are superorganisms, rely upon successful communication through chemical and
mechanical signaling on both interindividual and pan-society levels, as
well as on a division of labor between
hundreds of thousands of individual
organisms.
Hölldobler is Foundation Profes-
sor of Life Sciences at Arizona State
University. His book (co-authored
with E. O. Wilson) “The Ants” was
awarded the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for
nonfiction writing. His book “The
Superorganism” was ranked among
the top books of 2008 by the New
York Times and named the Best Science Book of the year by the Financial Times.
The Boyce lectures were instituted in 1977 and honor Alfred M.
Boyce (1901-97), one of the world’s
leading authorities on insects and
mites that attack citrus and walnuts.
Boyce served as the director of the
UCR Citrus Experiment Station, first
dean of the College of Agriculture,
and assistant director of the statewide Agricultural Experiment Station.
Town Hall Meeting Outlines Campus Progress
Chancellor Timothy P. White
provided updates on the Western
Association of Schools and Colleges
(WASC) review, recent budget planning and the strategic planning process on Feb. 23 at the HUB.
He introduced the new dean
of the UCR medical school, Dr. C.
Richard Olds, as the best possible
person to lead the effort to build the
medical school.
White said he was encouraged by
the prili“We are a national exemplar
when it comes to achieving excellence in the context of diversity,” he
said. Recommendations from WASC
include the need for more testing
and assessment of student learning,
and the completion of the strategic
plan for the campus.
He gave an update on budget
planning, with the promise that the
furlough program will end after one
year on all of the UC campuses.
“We did so many difficult things
this past year, I think we are in a
position to say that we took the hit
once, and now we are in equilibrium
and we can start upward again,” he
said. “That is if Sacramento does
not take more money away.”
He lauded EVC/Provost Dallas
Rabenstein, as well as staff members Bill Kidder and Cindy Giorgio
for their work on the ongoing strategic planning process for the campus. And he outlined some examples
of successful research programs.
The full meeting and powerpoint
slides are available for viewing on
the Web at chancellor.ucr.edu/webcasts/townhall_feb10.html.
page 4
•
March 10, 2010
•
www.InsideUCR.ucr.edu
Fresh Produce a Campus Perk at Farmer’s Market
Held several times a month, the
next market will take place on
March 17 at the HUB.
Have a hankering for just-picked fruit and
vegetables, freshly baked bread or flavorful
home-baked sweets? Then pack your reusable
shopping bags and head for the HUB.
Sponsored by Dining Services and held several times a month, the UCR Farmer’s Market
brings local family farmers to campus to provide faculty, staff and students with fresh and
healthy food options. Some products are grown
on campus.
The selection can vary, said Cheryl Garner,
director of dining services. Fruits and vegetables are always abundant, but one week you
might also find fresh bread and desserts, and
another week gluten-free products or nuts.
Some days fresh flowers are also available.
Garner said dining services takes note of
what seems to be most popular.
“It’s an opportunity for us to test new products, to see how well they are received,” said
Garner. “If an item is really popular we sometimes add that product to our convenience
store.”
The market was kicked off last year near
Scotty’s convenience store on the grounds of
Glen Mor residence hall.
Too far for many on the campus to travel,
Dining Services decided to give the market a
test run near the HUB on Earth Day.
UCR’s Farmer’s Market offers wide selection
of healthy options.
It was a hit, said Garner.
“We really didn’t anticipate that it would
be as successful as it was, but it has grown
every single time we offered it.”
Held in alternating locations at the HUB
and Glen Mor, the next farmer’s market will be
11 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 17 at the HUB.
Other dates, times and locations are: 11
a.m. to 2 p.m., April 21 and May 12 at the
HUB; 5 to 7 p.m. April 1, May 6 and June 3
at Glen Mor.
For information, visit www.dining.ucr.edu.
UCR Pipe Band Holds Its First Pipe and Drumming Competition
Terry, adding that the band hopes to make the
program an annual event.
Sponsors include the San Manuel Band
of Serrano Mission Indians, Thrivent, BMW of
By Bettye Miller
Riverside, and Mark Schneider, CEO of Bite
Bagpipers and drummers from the western
Me Energy Drink.
United States will compete in the first solo pipFor the second consecutive year the UCR
ing and drumming competition hosted by the
Pipe Band was named the top Grade IV band in
award-winning UCR Pipe Band on Saturday,
the western United States in 2009. Bands and
March 27.
soloists compete in grades from I to IV, with IV
The Harry Moore Memorial Solo Piping
being entry level. The band also placed first at
and Drumming Competition for Grade III and
the Queen Mary games in mid-February.
Grade IV pipers and drummers is named for the
Band members who won top
band’s first drum sergeant. The allhonors as soloists in 2009 compeday event begins at 9 a.m. at Canyon
tition sanctioned by the Western
Crest Country Club, 975 Country Club
United States Pipe Band Association
Dr. in Riverside.
include:
Renowned piper Ian Whitelaw
Piping: Grade II – Marshall Gerand drummer Ed Best will conduct
man, first; Grade III – Erin Thomson,
a workshop for pipers and drummers
first; Grade IV – Stephen Wilkinson,
during the mid-day break.
second; Mike McCarty, fourth.
General admission is $10, or $5
Drumming: Grade II – William
for students with ID. General admisTerry, first, snare; Kimberly Fairchsion and participation in the pipe and
ild, first, tenor; Alexandria Mueller,
drum workshop is $15. Admission for
fourth, tenor; Carole McCarty, fifth,
competitors is $20, which includes
tenor; Zoltan Koncz, sixth, tenor;
participation in the workshop. A
Grade III – Ryan Slagle, fourth,
lunch buffet is available for $10, and
snare; Grade IV – Kimberly Fairchild,
vendors will be available with piping, UCR’s Pipe Band will host the Harry Moore Memorial Solo
first, snare; Adam Galindo, second,
drumming and Celtic supplies.
Piping and Drumming Competition.
snare; Malia Maynard, fourth, snare.
Organizers hope the event will become an annual tradition.
The indoor competition is sanctioned by
the Western United States Pipe Band Association. Entry forms may be downloaded at www.
pipeband.ucr.edu.
Prizes to be awarded will include the Harry
Moore Cup for Grade IV drumming, to be presented by Moore’s daughter, Barbara Tully; the
George McCloud Cup for Grade III piping; and
the Linda Joy Terry Memorial Trophy for Grade
IV piping.
“This competition is something we’ve
always wanted to do,” said Pipe Major Mike
New Lecture Series
Promotes Solar Energy
The Bourns College of Engineering held
the first of several lectures in a new series on
March 4.
Titled “Bright Horizons in Solar Energy”
the Southern California Research Initiative
Solar Energy (SC-RISE) is presenting the series
to promote the adoption of solar technologies
throughout the region, including new ways to
collect, store and transmit solar energy.
It will feature academic and industry
researchers and other experts to provide a platform for new ideas and a catalyst for problem
solving in the solar field.
Mihri Ozkan, professor of electrical engineering at UCR, delivered the first lecture on
“Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells: Engineering
at the Nanoscale,” in Room 205/206 Engineering Building Unit II. Ozkan is working to
produce materials that can be applied to walls
and other surfaces on a massive scale, turning
nearly any structure into a solar collector.
Other speakers for the 2010 series are:
• March 25 – Javier Garay, Mechanical
Engineering
• April 15 – Nosang V. Myung, Chemical
and Environmental Engineering
• May 6 – Valentine I. Vullev, Bioengineering
• May 27 – Cengiz S. Ozkan, Mechanical
Engineering
All lectures are free, open to the public and begin at 3 p.m. All lectures
in the series will be in Room A-265
Bourns Hall. For more information, call
(951) 781-5652.
Conference Focuses on
Pest Management
Urbanization creates costly pest problems.
Insects and rodent pests can contaminate
food, destroy wood in homes and can result
also in health problems – disease, hospitalizations and even death.
UC Riverside will host the 19th annual
Urban Pest Management Conference on March
24, from 7:15 a.m. until 5 p.m., at the University Theatre.
Topics to be covered at the conference
include safe pesticide use; residential water
runoff studies; the changing role of termiticides applied to soils to control termites; bed
bugs; and spiders and their significance for the
pest control industry.
The keynote speaker is Mary-Ann Warmerdam, the director of the California Department
of Pesticide Regulation, who will discuss the
changes and challenges facing the pest control
industry.
More information, including how to register, is available at urban.cmsdev.ucr.edu/pest_
management_conf_18.html.
Campus Calendar
Ongoing
UCR/ California Museum of Photography
Exhibition: “Ansel Adams at Work: The Fiat Lux
Commission.” Fiat Lux (Let There Be Light) is
the motto of the
University of
California and
the title of the
book Ansel Adams published
in 1968 to
celebrate the
UC’s centenThe Fiat Lux Commission
nial. Drawn
from reproduction prints the photographer made
for this commercial commission, the exhibition
shows Ansel Adams at work.
Exhibition: “Mirjam Dröge: The Need to Hold
Still.” This exhibition features the work of Mirjam Dröge, a contemporary artist based in Berlin,
Germany. Dröge captures physical locations that
emphasize privacy, stillness and contemplation,
such as clandestine treehouses, self-portraits
and still lifes. This is the artist’s first exhibition
in the United States.
Exhibition: “Smoke and Mirrors.” Before mass
produced subtractive color film was available,
the Autochrome was the favorite color method of
professional photographers and amateur artists.
The Autochrome process, which used miniscule
grains of potato starch dyed red, blue, and green
to create a chromatic screen to capture muted,
smoky colors, lends a vague and painterly aspect
to images.
The exhibits run through May 8. The UCR/CMP
is located at 3824 Main St., Riverside. Information: www.cmp.ucr.edu.
March
10 Wednesday
Festival: Mental Health Day Spa, 11 a.m.-2
p.m., HUB 260. Free.
Information: www.well.
ucr.edu.
Performance: Asian
American Culture
Shows, noon-1 p.m.,
ARTS 166, PerforAsian American Culture
mance Lab Open Air
Shows
Theatre. Free. Information: www.dance.ucr.edu.
Recreation: StressBusters/Meditation Session, 4-6
p.m., HUB 260. Free. Information: www.well.ucr.
edu.
Lecture: Imagining the Future Lecture Series“UCR’s Solar Energy Research Initiative,” 6-7:30
p.m., 44-500 Indian Wells Lane, Indian Wells,
California 92210. Free. Information: www.palmdesert.ucr.edu.
17 Wednesday
Training: Making Excellence Inclusive: a UCR
Diversity Certificate Program, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.,
Human Resources Building Suite I. Free. Information: www.humanresources.ucr.edu.
18 Thursday
Screening: Public Art
Documentary Film Series:
“Herb & Dorothy,” 6-9
p.m., UCR Palm Desert.
“Herb and Dorothy”
Free, reservations required. Information: www.palmdesert.ucr.edu.
19 Friday
Meeting: White Ribbon Campaign Planning Meetings, 3:30-5 p.m., Student Services Building
3201-C. Free. Information: www.wrc.ucr.edu.
20 Saturday
Performance: Dance Showings: Winter 2010, 8:30
a.m.-4:30 p.m., ARTS 100, ARTS 300 and PE
102. Free. Information: www.dance.ucr.edu.
Training: Spring 2010 ‘In the Garden Class/
Tour’ Series - The
Maloof Foundation, 9:30
a.m.-noon, Maloof
Gardens in Rancho
Cucamonga. $35
non-member and
$30 for member
Maloof Gardens
of UCRBG Friends,
reservations
required. Information: www.gardens.ucr.edu/
events/calendar.html#maloofttp:
16 Tuesday
22 Monday
Seminar: Weigh Well 2010, noon-1p.m., HUB
355. $20, reservations required. The seminar
runs through April 27. Make reservations at: www.
hrtraining.ucr.edu. Information: www.well.ucr.edu.
Training: Career Discovery Series-Your Roadmap
to Success at UCR, 1:30-4:30 p.m., Human
Resources Building (Personnel) Suite I. $10.
Information: www.hrtraining.ucr.edu.
Exhibition: U.S.-Mexico Border Wall Exhibit,
Orbach Science Library. Free. The exhibit runs
through March 26. Information: www.ucmexus.
ucr.edu.
12 Friday
23 Tuesday
Training: Time Management, 9-11 a.m., Human
Resources Building (Personnel) Suite I. $10.
Information: www.hrtraining.ucr.edu.
24 Wednesday
Conference: International Drought Symposium, 8 a.m.-8 p.m.,
Riverside Marriott
Hotel. $150 general,
$100 UCR staff/faculty and students,
reservations required.
The conference runs
International Drought
through March 25.
Symposium
Information: www.
cnas.ucr.edu/drought-symposium/
Training: Social Security Workshop, 2-3 p.m.,
HMNSS 1500. Free. Information: www.hrtraining.ucr.edu.
26 Friday
Forum: A World with Less Water, Discussion on
Drought Policy, 2-4 p.m., Riverside Marriott
Hotel. Free. Information: www.cnas.ucr.edu/
drought-symposium.
For the most up-to-date information on
these and other events view the UCR
Calendar at www.events.ucr.edu.