UC Merced Grad Student's Urban Art Research has Global Reach

Graduate student Marco Valesi is turning a scholarly lens on an emerging form of expression. He searches cities for art that appears without the approval of authorities.

Few scholars across the globe document and interpret this kind of unsanctioned work, termed "urban art." UC Merced’s World Cultures graduate group lets Valesi focus his study in a way that might be difficult at more traditional schools.

"I write about hybrid culture, post-colonial society and trans-modern cultures," Valesi said. "All of these topics are very UC Merced — they bring together diverse subjects and different professors and disciplines."

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UC Merced Research Shows Continued Smoking Can Spread Cancer

Cigarette smoke cannot only cause cancer, but it's also responsible for the spread of it, according to research by UC Merced biochemistry Professor Henry Jay Forman.

Forman discovered tobacco smoke activates an enzyme — called Src — that causes cancer cells to spread to other parts of the body. The study will appear in the April 15 edition of Free Radical Biology and Medicine.

Cigarette smoke is the major cause of lung cancer, Forman said, but nearly half of lung cancer patients remain active smokers. Nonetheless, researchers haven't understood how cigarette smoke causes cancer to metastasize.

The lab was also able to prevent cigarette smoke from activating the enzyme by introducing an antioxidant. Forman's discovery could prove useful in the fight against cancer, as it creates more understanding on how it spreads and how antioxidants can help combat this.

Forman will present his findings on April 21 at the Experimental Biology 2012 conference in San Diego.

Forman coauthored the paper with a professor from the University of Padova in Italy. Forman served as a visiting professor during the summer while also conducting research.

Excitement Grows After Inaugural Varsity Sports Season

The field is set for more success next year after UC Merced student-athletes earned top honors and played to impressive crowds during the debut season of varsity sports.

Last fall, more than 50 student-athletes competed in men’s basketball, women’s volleyball and men’s and women’s cross country — the Bobcats’ first season in the California Pacific Conference of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA).

“We have a great group of student-athletes, coaches and staff who worked extremely hard this season,” said David Dunham, the campus’ director of recreation and athletics.

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Bobcat Art Show Features More than 80 Artists

The seventh annual Bobcat Art Show is the largest ever, featuring the work of more than 80 students, faculty and staff.

The show began March 19 and runs until April 27. The event was organized by the UC Merced Art Gallery, the Kolligian Library and Arts UC Merced.

"I look forward to having community members come to see the show," said Gail Benedict with Arts UC Merced. "Nothing gives me more pleasure than finding ways to welcome visitors to UC Merced. The art exemplifies the great diversity of the San Joaquin Valley."

The art show entries range from drawings and painting to sculptures, photography and mixed media. The works can be seen in the Kolligian Library and in the UC Merced Art Gallery, which is in the Social Sciences and Management Building, Room 106.

Winners of “Visual Artist of the Year” awards in the categories of two dimension, three dimension, photography and digital media will be announced during the artists reception from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. April 5 in the UC Merced Art Gallery.

UC Merced Researchers Discover Protein Critical for Tissue Regeneration

A normal planarian, left, and
a planarian with TOR disabled.

A flatworm known for its ability to regenerate cells is shedding more light on how cancer could be treated and how regenerative medicine could better target diseases, according to researchers at the University of California, Merced.

In research published online in the Journal of Cell Science, biology Professor Néstor Oviedo has shown that signaling by a protein called Target of Rapamycin (TOR) — found in humans and most other mammals — is crucial for planaria’s unique tissue regeneration. Disabling the protein prevents the flatworm’s regrowth, a sign that disabling it in abnormal cells could prevent the growth of a cancer.

"It's a new model in which we can study stem cell behavior by manipulating the signaling pathways," Oviedo said.

Researchers have recognized that the TOR protein plays a role in cancer, aging and degenerative diseases, but they haven't figured out how it works.

Oviedo’s lab is approaching this question using tiny flatworms known as planaria. Long relegated as a scientific oddity, the planarian is now among the species that could be crucial in understanding the role of stem cells. The worm’s ability to repair itself is unparalleled, and its secrets could help combat cancer and degenerative diseases.

UC Merced's Spendlove Prize to be Awarded to Armenian Genocide Author

Peter Balakian

Peter Balakian, an award-winning author and a leading voice of Armenian Genocide recognition, has been named the 2012 recipient of the Alice and Clifford Spendlove Prize in Social Justice, Diplomacy and Tolerance.

The University of California, Merced, will award the prize to Balakian during an evening ceremony April 12. The following day at 10 a.m. in the Classroom and Office Building, Room 105, Balakian will give a talk that's open to the public. No RSVP is required.

The Spendlove Prize was established through a generous gift to the university from Sherrie Spendlove in honor of her parents, lifelong Merced residents Alice and Clifford Spendlove. The prize every year honors an individual who exemplifies the delivery of social justice, diplomacy and tolerance in his or her work.

"Peter Balakian has been called 'the American conscience of the Armenian Genocide,'" Sherrie Spendlove said. "Our world history is incomplete without the full story of the Armenian Genocide being inscribed therein for all to see. Genocide in any part of the world in any epoch is an affront to humanity everywhere, in every time."

Citi Gift to UC Merced a Boost for Parent Support

UC Merced received a $33,000 donation from Citi to support its Center for Educational Partnership's Parent Empowerment Program — $10,000 will fund the continued support of high schools in Madera and $23,000 will be used to start a new program in Stanislaus County at Grace Davis, Modesto and Turlock high schools.

Over the years, the financial corporation has shown a strong commitment to supporting educational programs that prepare students for college and careers.
“Citi is committed to expanding access to higher education for underserved individuals and families,” said Brian Hepburn, managing director and division manager for Citibank’s Growth Markets Division. “Education is at the heart of economic empowerment, and through the Center for Educational Partnerships’ innovative program more California students will have the opportunity to pursue a college degree.”

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UC Merced Humanities Lecture Series Debuts Thursday

Kwame Anthony Appiah, Princeton University philosophy professor and recipient of the National Humanities Medal, will deliver a public lecture at 4:30 p.m. Thursday in UC Merced's California Room.

Appiah will be the first speaker in the inaugural Distinguished Lecturer in the Humanities series, which will be an annual event. His talk is titled "For the Humanities."

He is an internationally renowned moral and political philosopher. He has written many award-winning books, including "The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen," "Experiments in Ethics," "The Ethics of Identity" and "Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers."

The lecture series is sponsored by UC Merced's Center for Research in the Humanities and Arts, along with the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts.

UC Merced Partners in Program for Public Lands and Cultural Heritage

UC Merced is one of six universities that are part of a certificate program to develop forward-thinking leaders who will manage public lands through 21st-century challenges.

The Leadership for Public Lands and Cultural Heritage Certificate comprises six graduate-level courses and is accepting applications for the 2012-13 academic year. The deadline to apply is April 1.

"Public lands face challenges that are unique, in that they require a holistic view of how to address key management problems," UC Merced management Professor Erik Rolland said. "Such challenges cannot be addressed in isolation. They require a unique and broad cross-functional view of the world in which we live.

“The key is to get the students — typically managers of national parks — to think outside the box by exposing them to a wide range of ideas."

The program is looking to attract National Park Service employees at Yosemite National Park and other nearby parks along with other interested students. The program is particularly useful to those who are currently employed, and particularly in the areas of parks and cultural heritage.

The managers of the world's public lands must grapple with diverse and changing challenges, including climate change and invasive species that can undermine the ecosystem, Rolland said. The interdisciplinary program has faculty with backgrounds in public policy, management science, ecology and natural resources management. They hail from UC Merced, Colorado State University, Indiana University, George Washington University, Clemson University and the University of Vermont.

Newsam Earns NSF CAREER Award

Mapping what is where on the earth’s surface is currently done primarily through overhead aerial and satellite images. This is useful in many ways but is limited in terms of portraying things like land-use classifications or public sentiment about a given location or landmark.

UC Merced computer scientist Shawn Newsam is aiming to enhance that mapping using georeferenced multimedia — specifically, photos and videos provided voluntarily by users of social media websites like Flickr.

The idea recently earned Newsam the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award, which will provide him research funding of $497,208 over five years to pursue the viability of using these multimedia collections as volunteered geographic information (VGI) for mapping purposes.

VGI is a field in which geographically relevant information is provided voluntarily by individuals. One example is the Audubon Christmas Bird Count, which for more than 100 years has used “citizen scientists” to gather data and create a census that aids in knowledge about bird populations and conservation efforts.

To date, though, researchers have not yet examined the possibility of using the millions of geotagged ground-level images and video provided by users of social media sites as VGI, nor have they looked into the potential benefits of using such data for purposes other than things like the automated text tagging of submitted images.

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