Sustainability recognition; 29,100 lost years

March 23, 2023

Anteater Time Machine: In February 1967, students line up at a voter registration table for the first ASUCI elections.

UCI ANNOUNCEMENTS AND NEWS

UCI Health lauded for eco-friendly efforts

A new article in Healthcare Facilities Today describes UCI Health as one of “only a select few organizations… [that] have made sustainability a centerpiece of their new and existing facilities from top to bottom.” In particular, the story cites UCI Medical Center’s shift to 100% sustainably produced electricity and its reduced use of nitrous oxide, which damages the ozone layer, in operating rooms. Also, all gardening equipment (lawn mowers and leaf blowers) is now electric.

Stat of the day: 29,100 ‘lost years’

Since 1989, the National Registry of Exonerations, a database operated by UCI’s Newkirk Center for Science & Society and two Michigan law schools, has recorded 3,287 exonerations for wrongful convictions. The combined amount of time served by those prisoners before their guilty verdicts were overturned is more than 29,100 years, according to the registry.

Botox shots can change how brain reads emotions, study says

A small study by UCI researchers found that botox injections to a person’s forehead may alter the way their brain interprets and processes other people’s emotions. Apparently, when people see a happy or angry face, they unconsciously mimic that expression. But because botox prevents that muscle reaction, it scrambles the brain’s ability to interpret other people’s facial expressions. On the flip side, other research has found that an inability to frown may help patients suffering from depression.

#UCICONNECTED

UCI surgeon to lead humanitarian health efforts

Dr. Cristobal Barrios, a professor of surgery and assistant dean of admissions at the School of Medicine

Dr. Cristóbal Barrios, a professor of surgery and assistant dean of admissions at the School of Medicine, has been named president and CEO of IMAHelps, a nonprofit that provides free healthcare to impoverished people in Central and South America. Barrios, who will receive no pay in his new post, has volunteered his surgical skills on every IMAHelps mission over the last 12 years. In July, he’ll lead a trip to Ecuador with a dozen UCI surgeons, a number of UCI students and other volunteers. He also plans to lead a team of surgeons on a humanitarian medical mission to Guatemala in October.

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UCI IN THE NEWS

Note: Some news sites require subscriptions to read articles. The UCI Libraries offer free subscriptions to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Orange County Register and The Washington Post for students, faculty and staff.

The Ground Beneath Their Feet

Grist, March 22
Cited: Alana M. W. LeBrón, assistant professor of public health and Chicano/Latino studies

China’s population is shrinking. It faces a perilous future.

National Geographic, March 22
Cited: Wang Feng, professor of sociology

Alien Life May Exist in the Zone Between Night and Day, Study Says

Popular Mechanics, March 20
Cited: Ana Lobo, postdoctoral student

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