February 3, 2022

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UC DAVIS EQUINE MEDICAL DIRECTOR TEMPORARILY SUSPENDED, PLACED ON ADMINISTRATIVE LEAVE Events since Jeff Blea’s suspension reveal divisions between the California Veterinary Medical Board and the California Horse Racing Board

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VOLUME 140, ISSUE 15 | THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2022

SACRAMENTO COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS APPROVES ORDINANCE BANNING THE SALE OF FLAVORED TOBACCO PRODUCTS Community discussion ensues surrounding public health benefits and potential repercussions for marginalized communities

A horse eats grass at UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine Large Animal Support Facility on January 26, 2022.The equine medical director, Jeff Blea, was placed on administrative leave after the Veterinary Medical Board issued formal accusations against him which included “dispensing dangerous drugs.” (Quinn Spooner / Aggie)

BY CAROLINE VAN ZANT campus@theaggie.org Jeff Blea, jointly appointed as the equine medical director at the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) and at UC Davis, was placed on administrative leave after his veterinary license was suspended on Jan. 3.

His license suspension followed an emergency hearing called by the California Veterinary Medical Board (VMB), and formal arguments were heard on Jan. 21.

On Dec. 17, the VMB issued a formal accusation outlining eight causes of discipline against Blea. The accusations ranged from minor charges of sloppy recordkeeping to “dispensing dangerous drugs without medical necessity.” As noted in the complaint, “dangerous drugs” are defined under California law as any drug that cannot be obtained without a prescription.

The infractions allegedly occurred when Blea was working in private practice, but he left after accepting the equine medical director position in July 2021. When The California Aggie requested an interview with Blea on Jan. 23, he declined to comment on the allegations, citing the ongoing legal case.

In his position, Blea would have overseen the necropsy of Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit, but, due to the nature of the horse’s death and the allegations against Blea, the VMB asserted in a Dec. 21 filing that Blea’s involvement in the investigation would be “a clear conflict of interest.” The three-year-old horse collapsed after a workout at Santa Anita on Dec. 6 in what has been classified as a “sudden death” by the CHRB. He had tested positive for a drug that was banned on race day that cast doubt on his Kentucky Derby victory in May 2021. His trainer has stated that it was never given to him.

In response, the CHRB announced that John Pascoe, the executive associate dean of the UC Davis School of Veterinary

Medicine, will replace Blea in the investigation. Pascoe did not respond to a request for comment.

“UC Davis has sufficient personnel to ensure that the obligations of the position are fulfilled,” UC Davis News and Media Relations Specialist Amy Quinton said via email.

The series of events has reportedly been characterized as infighting between the CHRB and the VMB. Though both organizations fall under the umbrella of the Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency, they operate independently. While the VMB is attempting to rescind Blea’s license and remove him from his position as equine medical director, the CHRB is defending its employee.

At the Jan. 21 hearing, the CHRB argued that the VMB’s actions constitute “agency overreach,” and that it has no role in determining the equine medical director. The CHRB, however, was denied a motion to intervene on Blea’s behalf.

George Wallace, the attorney representing Blea, takes issue with the VMB’s characterization of his client.

“He is one of the finest equine veterinarians, certainly in California, and probably in the country,” Wallace said.

Seeking an interim suspension order is reserved as “an unusual and extreme measure” taken to restrict the practice of veterinarians who present a clear danger to public safety, according to Wallace. “[The interim suspension order] is not appropriate, particularly since he’s not in practice, for someone like Jeff Blea,” Wallace said.

The VMB has never sought an interim suspension order against any practitioner except for Blea.

Prominent figures in the veterinary community have expressed support for Blea. He is “an exceptional individual — high integrity, high ethics and very high standard of practice,” Rick Arthur, Blea’s predecessor in his role as equine medical director, said.

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BY LEVI GOLDSTEIN city@theaggie.org On Jan. 11 and Jan. 25, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors met to discuss an amendment to the County Code Chapter 4.07 introducing a ban on all flavored tobacco sales in the county.

A similar ordinance went into effect in the city of Sacramento on Jan. 1, 2020. This new county-wide ordinance would expand the ban to Elk Grove, Rancho Cordova, Folsom, Citrus Heights, Galt and Isleton.

Bans on flavored tobacco sales are meant to curtail the circulation of tobacco products among youth, who are more attracted to flavored products, and prevent disproportionate use of mentholated cigarettes in Black communities, according to Jose Mendez, the Code Enforcement Manager for the City of Sacramento.

“In certain parts or zip codes of the city, where there’s a high minority population, marketers or wholesalers or distributors will reduce the price of mentholated cigarettes to encourage purchase of those products,” Mendez said. “The impetus was to strengthen regulation to reduce the access of tobacco products to minors, but in addition to that, there was a push to eliminate the sale of mentholated cigarettes to reduce access to certain populations that were impacted most.”

The ban was highly contested among county residents. Some, including health professionals, parents and school teachers, expressed their support and gratitude for the ordinance through public comment at the Board of Supervisors meetings. However, other residents were concerned that it would have an unintentional negative impact on marginalized communities and business owners despite the Board’s good intentions.

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FOURTH-YEAR, 15-YEAR-OLD TIARA ABRAHAM RECEIVES YOUNGARTS AWARD Abraham discusses her college experience, YoungArts honor and her next career steps

BY ANNE SALTEL features@theaggie.org

Fourth-year Tiara Abraham sits on the egg head in front of UC Davis Music Building. (Tiara Abraham / Courtesy)

Tiara Abraham, a fourth-year vocal performance major, was named a 2021 YoungArts award winner in the category of Classical Voice. An impressive feat at any age — actors Viola Davis and Timothée Chalamet are a few past recipients — Abraham has won it, while completing her final year of college, at just 15 years old.

YoungArts is an annual contest for 15- to 18-year-old artists in many mediums, from dance to design arts. There are over 7,000 applications between the various categories, but only approximately 700 artists are awarded and accepted to the program.

With acceptance, artists don’t just get an award, but also gain access to both creative and professional opportunities as their careers grow. These include fellowships, financial aid awards and access to a platform for artists to connect called YoungArts Post.

Abraham said that these resources open up many opportunities.

“To be able to have a platform exclusive for YoungArts award winners where we can contact and collaborate with each other from different fields, not just music, I think is definitely cool,” Abraham said. “Using the platform to collaborate with other musicians, or even non-musicians will be really nice.”

The program, established in 1981, has an extensive list of notable alumni, like Hunter Schafer, known for playing Jules in

the HBO’s hit show Euphoria, and Kerry Washington, who has most notably played Olivia Pope on the ABC series Scandal.

Abraham said having such noteworthy alumni is definitely a perk of the award.

“I haven’t really applied to something like this; it is a really unique program,” Abraham said. “It’s really exciting to be a part of this program because of some famous alumni also.”

Abraham said that in addition to using YoungArts Post, she also makes use of the collaborative community of musicians in the music department at UC Davis. She entered UC Davis last year as a vocal performance major at 14 and plans to graduate in June 2022. During her time at Davis, Abraham said that she has been able to work closely with faculty and develop skills outside of vocal performance, like composing, music history and conducting.

“As a musician, all lessons are really helpful,” Abraham said.

“I’m a vocal performance major, but it’s nice to be a well-rounded musician [...]. You never know where you might end up later down the path.”

As she prepares to audition for graduate programs, Abraham said that the close-knit music community’s support has been integral.

“I really like that it’s a small environment,” Abraham said.

“We’re very supportive of each other, and it’s an intimate environment.”

DiSC 2022 RECOMMENDED FOR CITY COUNCIL APPROVAL Innovation Park may be heading to another vote

BY RACHEL SHEY city@theaggie.org On Jan. 12, the Davis Planning Commission voted unanimously to recommend that the city council approve the new Davis Innovation and Sustainability Campus, or “DiSC 2022.”

The new project, which will be built in the “Mace Triangle,” has been revised to occupy a smaller space, reducing from 194 to 102 acres. Most of that reduction is in housing units and office space.

Retail has remained largely intact. Otherwise, the project is largely untouched, according to Principal Planner Sherri Metzker.

“It’s pretty much the same project except it’s about half the size of what it was, and the bike undercrossing is no longer part of the original proposal,” Metzker said.

Opponents of the plan are concerned about traffic problems that the new development would create. Metzker explained that there are many traffic mitigations required for the builders of the project.

“There’s some bike improvements that they have to build, and they’re required to build a new bike lane on the inside of the Mace Curve,” Metzker said. “We did an analysis of the project as if you could wave a magic wand and the whole thing would suddenly appear, to figure out what they would need at full build-out. As

each project comes in, they’re required to do a study to say what has to be built to meet traffic requirements.”

Some are also worried that the retail components of the new project will take away customers of Davis downtown, leading to decreased foot traffic in the downtown area. Principal Officer and Treasurer of “No on Measure B” Alan Pryor was concerned that while the housing and office space has been halved, the projected retail was only reduced by 20%.

“That 80,000 square feet of retail is a big concern,” Pryor said. “That’s going to be devastating to the downtown, which is already reeling from COVID-19. We’ve had dozens of businesses shut down there that have yet to reopen. This is simply going to cannibalize that. DiSC will generate 130,000 square feet of empty office and retail space. That would be devastating to our downtown and our hotel industry.”

Metzker said that the new retail is designed to serve those working in the campus.

“We’ve had to do an urban decay analysis, and the study does not show any evidence that the new retail will cannibalize Davis downtown,” Metzker said. “The commercial in that area is meant to serve the folks who are working in the DiSC. It isn’t as though the businesses in the downtown area are there to serve a specific type of end-user. The idea is that there might be a coffee shop in

Agricultural fields behind Ikeda’s market in East Davis, Calif on January 26, 2022. The DiSC project is proposing commercial, residential, and manufacturing real estate development in these empty fields. (Quinn Spooner / Aggie) DiSC so folks don’t have to go all the way downtown to get a cup of coffee.”

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DURING BLACK HISTORY MONTH, THE AGGIE RECOGNIZES BLACK ALUMNI A celebration of plant biologist and mentor Dr. Beronda Montgomery

BY MAYA SHYDLOWSKI features@theaggie.org This article is the first in a four-part series in honor of Black History Month in which The California Aggie interviews a few of the many distinguished African American UC Davis alumni. These alumni discuss their achievements, how they’re uplifting underrepresented communities and offer their wisdom to Davis students.

During Black History Month, which is celebrated annually throughout February, The Aggie will be interviewing and showcasing a group of African-American alumni. One of these alums is Dr. Beronda Montgomery, who earned her Ph.D. in plant biology from UC Davis in 2001.

Today, Montgomery is the Assistant Vice President for Research and Innovation and an MSU Foundation Professor at Michigan State University (MSU). During her time at UC Davis, she was part of a training grant funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), a prestigious honor for graduate students whose research goals are deemed especially creative and impactful.

Montgomery’s research focused on plants’ perception of light signals (including which proteins are involved) and how plants change to adapt to different light environments for successful growth. Montgomery remembers her time working in the plant biology and biochemistry departments well, but she acknowledges that other on-campus organizations also impacted her time at UC Davis.

“I think that when I was there, I was the only African-American graduate student in my program,” Montgomery said. “But I found that there was a larger community at Davis.”

Montgomery joined various organizations, including the Biology Undergraduate Scholars Program (BUSP) and groups centered on women in the sciences, in order to find a community in biology. By joining these organizations, which were mostly made up of undergraduate students, Montgomery said that she became a mentor for younger students, especially those who came from underrepresented backgrounds. She said that in addition to being able to help younger biologists, these larger networks helped her through her time at UC Davis.

After leaving Davis, she continued to mentor while completing her postdoctoral work at Indiana University, where she became a formal mentor for the Graduate Women in Science program.

She also participated in a collaborative program between Indiana University and several historically Black colleges and universities.

In this way, she connected with a wide and diverse group of students across the U.S. When she began her career, she found herself diving deeper into different methods of mentoring.

“I wanted to know if there were some documented practices that worked well for mentoring, and that’s how I moved from just doing the mentoring to also being involved in conversations about effective mentoring,” Montgomery said. “Over the years, I began to study mentoring and published papers on it. Some of that work, together with a number of students and junior scientists that I’ve mentored, ultimately led to me getting some recognition.”

Montgomery’s website lists all of her publications on both mentoring and leadership. Her work primarily focuses on mentoring and uplifting women and communities of color in STEM and in higher education in general.

Mentoring, Montgomery said, is about promoting the growth of an individual rather than trying to fix them or the work that they’re doing. It also includes creating an environment that supports a diverse array of mentors and mentees.

Montgomery takes a different stance to mentoring than the “classical approach,” which she said pushes individuals along a narrow, pre-paved path that is in the “mainstream.” Instead, she aims to address the individual mentee’s needs and goals in work and social settings, paving a new path for mentorship.

UC Davis Ph.D. graduate Beronda Montgomery is a plant biologist, mentor and author. She was interviewed for a profile series celebrating Davis’s many distinguished African-American alumni during Black History Month. (MSU Plant Research Lab / Courtesy) In a collaboration between the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) and the NSF, Montgomery and some of her colleagues have built a program to support mentoring in STEM, called the ASM-NSF Leaders Inspiring Networks and Knowledge (LINK) program, which aims to “link” or connect students with professors and researchers. She was also a chair of the ASM Watkins Graduate Research Fellowship, which works to increase the number of students from underrepresented backgrounds in STEM earning their Ph.D. in microbiology.

Most recently, Montgomery was awarded the 2021 Mentoring Keynote Lecture Award from the American Society of Cell Biology to celebrate her efforts and success. This award is given to an individual each year who mentors “scientists and scholars who belong to underrepresented groups, particularly racial and ethnic minorities.”

In addition to being a mentor and studying mentorship, Montgomery attributes a lot of her success — in both plant biology and leadership — to her own mentors.

“Some of my most powerful mentors have been peer mentors,” Montgomery said. “I’d like to mention that because a lot of times, we think we have to find the ‘wise senior Guru,’ [...] but some of the most powerful mentors I’ve had throughout my career have been peers who were going through some of the same things. We have different strengths, and we can share our strengths through community.”

Montgomery also stressed that everyone needs, and has, mentors; everyone has people who have helped them get where they are today. She said that science is tough, especially for members of underrepresented groups and that no one should go through that alone.

“I think sometimes science can really prize people who we think are these lone geniuses who figure things out all by themselves, but I still have mentors now at this stage of my career,” Montgomery said. “We all need mentoring, and we can also all serve as mentors.”

Overall, Montgomery emphasizes that forming networks with

STUDENT FARM HELPS COMBAT FOOD INSECURITY ON CAMPUS Through partnerships with on-campus initiatives, the Agriculture Sustainability Institute is working toward a more sustainable and accessible Davis food system

Freedge in Memorial Union. Photo taken on January 25, 2022.

The student farm has a collaboration with the freedges on campus. (Kayla Bruckman / Aggie)

BY JALAN TEHRANIFAR features@theaggie.org UC Davis’ Agricultural Sustainability Institute’s goal is to ensure that everyone has access to healthy food while also promoting agriculture’s vitality for the current and future generations, according to their website. They conduct integrative research, education, communication and early action to try to mitigate large, emerging environmental concerns. The Student Farm on campus is a part of this institute which helps educate Davis students about sustainable agriculture by allowing them to participate in the practice.

The mission of the Student Farm is to provide a space for students to learn, practice and model agriculture and food systems that are ecologically, socially and economically sustainable.

The 23-acre farm is run by a team of UC Davis students, including Katharina Ullmann, the farm director. Ullmann said that across the 23 acres of land, they grow organic fruits and vegetables, sustainable flowers and herbs and native plants. When harvested, these products are sent to a few different places to be sold.

Some fruits and vegetables are sent to the Community Supported Agriculture program (CSA), which sells organic seasonal produce to students through a weekly subscription. Students and other community members can also purchase their produce at the on-campus farmers market on Wednesdays during fall and spring quarters.

The Student Farm also partners with UC Davis Dining Services and the ASUCD Coffee House on campus. Davis’s Dining Services uses Market Garden produce to have a more sustainable and nutritious dining system in the dining commons.

These partnerships have allowed the farm to hire more students and produce more crops each season. This income also helps the farm partner with organizations to donate their crops to.

The Student Farm established the Community Table Project (CTP), which examines how the Student Farm can help address campus food insecurity and initiate dialogue about the intersections of people, place and food. This project was started by two UC

Davis students, Nicole Lesnett and Kiko Barr, who wanted to fight food poverty.

Their website reads, “In 2014, two Student Farm students, [...] began delivering [Student Farm] produce to the Associated Students of UC Davis (ASUCD) Pantry, where it was made available, free of charge, to all UC Davis students.”

Barr’s and Lesnett’s initiative evolved into the UC Global Food Initiative in fall of 2016, but the Student Farm produce still contributes to the UC Davis Pantry through a program called Fresh Focus.

Nicole Curiel, a fourth-year sustainable agriculture & food systems major, is the lead student farmer at Fresh Focus and a partner coordinator at the Student Farm. She first started volunteering at the Student Farm as a first-year and began interning at Fresh Focus during her sophomore year in 2019. Curiel said that she is passionate about the student farm because of its mission.

“It’s a space for experiential learning in terms of food justice, land stewardship and regenerative organic practices,” Curiel said.

Now, Curiel is a partner coordinator at Fresh Focus, which she explained works to obstruct food insecurity on campus.

“The goal is to increase food security and destigmatize food insecurity on campus, [while] simultaneously reducing food waste as well,” Curiel said. “When Fresh Focus was first born, it was mainly because the Pantry at that time didn’t have that much fresh produce, so students were really passionate about increasing the availability of fresh fruits and vegetables for patrons.”

The Student Farm has partnered with the Pantry for over 30 years, but through Fresh Focus and the Community Table Project, they’ve been able to distribute to many other associations on campus.

“Our role […] is to provide fruits and vegetables to different groups and communities on campus,” Curiel said. “We distribute to the Pantry, Fruit and Veggie Up! and different resource centers like the LGBTQIA+ center, the AB540 and Undocumented Student Center, the Native American Academic Student Success Center, Center for African Dispora Student Success and the Educational Oppurtunity Program.”

Even after Fresh Focus makes all these donations, there are times where they find themselves with extra produce. Curiel said that this extra produce is sent to the Freedges at the Memorial Union and Silo on campus. The Freedges are part of UC Davis’s Food Loss and Waste Collaborative, and are places where anyone with extra sealed or packaged food can donate it. Anyone can grab this donated food. This helps reduce food waste and helps those in need. Curiel said that often, the food found in Freedges is from the Student Farm.

“I think it’s really important, really cool, that a lot of the work that’s happening toward combating food insecurity and increasing food security in that aspect is being done by students,” Curiel said.

The Student Farm is currently hiring multiple positions in the Market Garden, Eco Garden, Flower Project and with Fresh Focus.

For more information and employment opportunities, check out the Agricultural Sustainability Institute website or contact studentfarminterest@ucdavis.edu.

people of diverse backgrounds and perspectives is very important in science — and in life. When asked what advice she would give to underrepresented students in the sciences, she emphasized this need for diverse perspectives.

“I think the first thing I would say is that you’re needed in these spaces, even if you don’t hear that message routinely,” Montgomery said. “The other thing that I would say is that it’s critically important to build and find networks of support. Sometimes those networks will be built in for you […], but I also had to show some agency to identify networks that had diversity, whether it was gender diversity or racial and ethnic diversity.”

While diversity in STEM education and careers has increased, there is still a gap between white and Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) populations in these fields. While a campaign to support women in STEM has gained popularity in recent years, the campaign to support BIPOC students in STEM has not grown as successfully. Eleven percent of the workforce in the U.S. is Black, but only 9% of the STEM workforce is Black, according to a 2021 Pew Research Center report. More specifically, only 6% of those in the life sciences, which would include biology and botany, are Black, compared to 65% white. Montgomery said that this pattern is what motivated her to be so involved in mentoring students and in the conversations around effective and inclusive mentoring.

“For me, some of the biggest struggles have been a frustration with the system adapting and changing,” Montgomery said. “I think that too frequently we focus on individuals and want to point to their individual deficits or the problems that they have.

We don’t often pay as much attention to the ways in which the system itself could improve to support people, and that has been a frustration, but also a motivation, for some of the mentoring and leadership work that I do.”

However frustrating the system may be for Montgomery, she has always found a way to both grow through and work to address the problems she has faced. She also said that she has found successes worth celebrating along the way, which is somewhat uncommon in science. While many people constantly look toward the next step or don’t accept something as a “success” until an experiment is complete or a paper is published, Montgomery has been called an “over-celebrator” by friends. She doesn’t mind this title, though; she recommends celebrating every small step — and then celebrating again when the whole project is done.

“I think it’s critically important that we celebrate the small steps,” Montgomery said. “If you celebrate the small steps, and you get to the end, and something’s not successful, you still recognize the successes and the hard work that you had to put into that, as opposed to just whether you don’t get the grade that you want or the paper is not accepted.”

Though so much of her life has been devoted to mentoring, she is also an acclaimed plant biologist with multiple publications on photosynthetic organisms. Her research today is an extension of her Ph.D. work at UC Davis and her postdoctoral studies at Indiana University. Her contributions to the study of plant biology have earned her much recognition and awards.

According to her Wikipedia page — yes, she even has her own Wikipedia page — she was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology in 2018, a fellow of the American Association of the Advancement of Science in 2020 and a fellow of the American Society of Plant Biologists in 2021. A complete list of her many awards and accomplishments can be found on that page.

In 2020, Montgomery co-founded Black Botanists Week, a weeklong celebration of BIPOC who are interested in and work with plants. In April 2021, she published her first book, “Lessons from Plants,” which ties together her plant biology knowledge and what it has taught her about the art of mentorship.

SEVEN PIECES OF LEGISLATION PASSED AT JAN. 27 SENATE MEETING SR #22, SB #43, #42, #41, #40, #37 and #39 passed unanimously

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BY KAYA DO-KHANH campus@theaggie.org Vice President Juliana Martinez Hernandez called the Senate meeting to order at 6:10 p.m. on Jan. 27 and recited the UC Davis Land Acknowledgement.

Sabrina Zahid was confirmed to the position of vice controller after being nominated by Senate Controller Isabelle Poux.

Cynthia Carter Ching, the interim vice provost and the dean for undergraduate education, gave a presentation about the Office of Undergraduate Education’s support for students and academic flexibilities for the current academic year.

Ching discussed the Teaching and Learning Complex, which is partially open at this time and will be fully open in the spring.

Regarding the return to campus for winter quarter, she touched on academic flexibilities such as lecture capture technology, student assistants and workshops that are available to faculty to advance teaching during the pandemic through the Center for Educational Effectiveness and Academic Technology Services.

Research and Data Committee Chairperson Stephen Fujimoto nominated Vishal Duggal to be a member of the committee, and he was confirmed without any objections.

Calvin Wong was confirmed as the Infrastructure Task Force chairperson and the Communications Outreach chairperson after recommendation by ASUCD President Ryan Manriquez.

Nisha Dharmara was confirmed as the Alternative Crisis Response Task Force chairperson, and Michael Logoteta was confirmed as the chairperson for the Donation Drive Task Force.

Next, Dhanya Indraganti, the chairperson for the Library Committee, and Itzel Gallardo, the chairperson for the Fair Trade Committee, provided a quarterly update and both mentioned efforts to increase their staff with future vacancy listings.

The co-director of the UC Davis Mental Health Initiative, Aparna Manoj, provided a quarterly update and specified the initiative’s most popular workshop from last quarter, “Exploring Grief Concepts and Creative Coping.” Manoj also said that the team is preparing for its winter quarter recruitment and planning events, such as themed activities during the day and evening workshops for Mental Health Awareness Month in May. SENATE on 7

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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2022 | 3

SCIENCE AND TECH VIDEO SERIES SEEKS TO PROVIDE FAMILY CAREGIVERS WITH EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES The UC Davis Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing took part in a collaborative project that created educational videos about wound care, mobility and more to assist caregivers in caring for family or friends at home CHRISTINA LIU/ AGGIE

BY SONORA SLATER science@theaggie.org Nearly one in five American adults are unpaid caregivers for a family or friend with health or functional needs, according to a 2020 report by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) and the National Alliance for Caregiving. Often, this can be very difficult and time-consuming — which is why the UC Davis Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing Family Caregiving Institute, in collaboration with AARP, created an educational series made

up of videos and articles that seek to give family caregivers the resources they need to take care of their family members or friends at home.

The idea for the project began with a study done in 2012 by the AARP called the Home Alone Study, according to Heather Young, a professor at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing and one of the founders of the Family Caregiving Institute at UC Davis. The biggest finding of the study was that more than half of caregivers are now doing “medical nursing tasks.”

“The old way of thinking about caregivers was helping with bathing, maybe cooking a meal,” Young said. “It wasn’t very high tech, and it wasn’t very complicated. But what’s happened in the last decade is that people are getting discharged from hospitals much sicker and much quicker than they used to, and families are being asked to do a lot of things that nurses used to do.”

Tasks like administering injections, facilitating breathing treatments, checking blood sugar and giving medicines are a few examples of the jobs that family caregivers have, and are often unprepared to do.

“What happens is, you’re about to leave the

hospital, and you’re taking someone home who is very sick, and someone comes in and says to you, ‘Here’s what you’ve got to do!’” Young said.

“They give you a list and a bunch of things really quick, but you don’t have time to process it, to think about it and to be ready to actually do it when you get home.”

Holly Kirkland-Kyhn, the director of wound care in the patient care services department of the UC Davis Medical Center, described the unpredictability of caregiving.

“We do a great job when people are in the hospital, but when they go home [...] there’s a huge area we need to work on, and they’re calling that transition of care,” Kirkland-Kyhn said.

“We try to teach them how to do it here, but oftentimes something happens that you don’t expect.”

After recognizing the gap in resources, Young said that the Family Caregiving Institute, along with AARP, the Family Caregiving Alliance and the United Hospital Fund, created a formal group called the Home Alone Alliance.

As a group, they then decided that the way they wanted to provide caregiving education was

through video.

“We looked at all the videos that are out there, and realized that they’re not teaching a family caregiver how to do it — they’re teaching a nurse how to do it,” Young said. “So we didn’t find resources for family caregivers to do these complicated nursing things. We’ve got about 42 videos now.”

Kirkland-Kyhn, who participated in making the educational series, shared what sort of content the videos focused on.

“It’s actually kind of basic things [like] how to get yourself from your wheelchair into your car,” Kirkland-Kyhn said. “It’s one of those things that you don’t really think about until you’re at home trying to figure it out.”

According to the AARP website, where the videos are published, there are video series on special diets, operating medical equipment, wound care, mobility, medications and more.

“They’re based on what caregivers have told us are the most pressing issues for them,” Young said.

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IN COLLABORATION WITH UC DAVIS SCIENTISTS, CLINICIANS WORKS TO OPTIMIZE SMART PROSTHETICS, IMPROVE QUALITY OF LIFE FOR PATIENTS WITH UPPER LIMB AMPUTATIONS A combination of surgical Targeted Muscle Reinnervation and machine learning helps patients make more complex upper limb prosthetic movements

BY BRANDON NGUYEN science@theaggie.org A team of UC Davis scientists and reconstructive surgeons is collaborating to improve the quality of life for patients with upper limb amputations. Through a novel surgical procedure called Targeted Muscle Reinnervation, surgeons can rewire residual nerves surrounding a patient’s amputations to reduce nerve ending pains.

Dr. Clifford Pereira, an associate professor in the Plastic Surgery Division at the UC Davis Medical Center, described the pains that patients with amputations typically accumulate.

“When amputations are done, the main nerves going into the muscles in the part that has been amputated, those nerves are traditionally either dumped into bone or muscle,” Pereira said. “If you leave the nerves where they are, they try to regenerate and find a partner on the other side. And because the other end is not available

Patient mirrors actions of intact hand with residual limb following targeted muscle reinnervation. (UC Davis Health / Courtesy) to connect, they end up forming these live fibers that are right under the skin that can be very painful.”

Nerve ending pains, or neuromas, are just one of the two main pains that can develop into large lumps, according to Pereira.

“The second thing is the same nerves give the

sensation to the brain that the missing hand or foot is still present,” Pereira said. “This is called a phantom pain, so people still feel pain in the foot, although the foot is not present anymore, and they also feel like they’re still attached to the foot.”

Targeted Muscle Reinnervation is a surgical procedure that reroutes these nerve endings to a nearby muscle to reduce these two primary types of pain, which can become unbearable.

As a result, patients often undergo prosthesis abandonment, leading to a reversion back to the old hook and cable system that does not require the use of a smart device.

“I recently worked on this patient that had an arm amputation, and when I went into the operating room, he had four neuromas that were almost the size of golf balls,” Pereira said.

“He was on chronic pain medication for the last four or five years with very high doses of opioids. As soon as we did the surgery [Targeted Muscle Reinnervation], he no longer needed the medication, no longer felt any discomfort, and it

changed his life.”

Dr. Andrew Li, another reconstructionist surgeon working alongside Pereira at the UC Davis Medical Center, explained how this surgical procedure is crucial not only for resolving pains from amputations but also for improving the patient’s quality of life.

“It has become increasingly apparent that restoring the muscles to their normal physiology has benefits not only for prosthetic control, but also for a patient’s day-to-day mental well-being,” Li said.

In addition to surgical reassignment of nerves, surgeons are working with mechanical engineers and neurologists to improve patient control of complex upper limb prostheses movements.

Dr. Jonathon Schofield, an assistant professor at UC Davis’ Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, is working with Dr. Wilsaan Joiner, a UC Davis neurologist, to optimize smart prosthetic devices to better predict the movements of patients with upper limb amputations.

PROSTHETICS on 7

RESEARCH USING DEEP MANTLE KRYPTON DEDUCES MORE ABOUT EARTH’S OUTER SOLAR SYSTEM ANCESTRY Using precise measurements of krypton isotopes, UC Davis researchers prove that volatile organic compounds were incorporated into the Earth earlier than they thought

BY MONICA MANMADKAR science@theaggie.org KATHERINE FRANKS / AGGIE

According to a new study published in Nature by UC Davis researchers, krypton (Kr) isotopes provide better insight into how, when and where carbon, nitrogen and water were brought to Earth. The study of these volatile organic compounds is an extremely important component of understanding Earth’s history and, by extension, the history of other planets.

Pulling these isotopes together from the Galápagos Islands, researchers Sandrine Péron and Sujoy Mukhopadhyay analyzed these isotopes for chemical fingerprints. According to the study, since krypton is composed of both meteoritic and atmospheric isotopes, this element can tell us a lot about Earth’s history and how its volatile elements like carbon, nitrogen

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and water initially developed.

“This study will allow [researchers] to better understand how Earth came to be and more importantly when these volatile elements developed in Earth’s history,” said Sandrine Péron, the lead author of the study and a current Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Fellow at ETH Zürich in Switzerland.

Péron conducted the research at UC Davis as a postdoctoral fellow working with Professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences Sujoy Mukhopadhyay. She described how the deep mantle krypton remains unchanged from the moon’s formation, which is why the isotopes can be used to deduce when volatile compounds came to Earth. The volcanic spots at the

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“Since the process of deducing their impact poses a challenge, [Péron] was able to come up with a better method for measuring the mantle krypton with mass spectrometry,” Mukhopadhyay said. “[She] was able to concentrate the krypton from rock samples where the samples would be void of air contamination and separated from argon and xenon.”

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4 | THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2022

OPINION

EDITORIAL BOARD MEETS WITH CHANCELLOR MAY, UC DAVIS ADMINISTRATORS May and administrators discuss return to in-person instruction, conversation with students, spring graduation plans and more The California Aggie’s Editorial Board met with Chancellor Gary May, Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Mary Croughan, Chair of the Academic Senate Richard Tucker, Associate Chancellor and Chief of Staff Karl Engelbach, Chief Campus Counsel Mike Sweeney, Vice Chancellor for Finance, Operations and Administration Kelly Ratliff, Director of Athletics Rocko DeLuca, Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Renetta Tull, Faculty Advisor to the Chancellor and Provost Ari Kelman, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer Dana Topousis and Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Pablo Reguerín on Jan. 27.

Below is a transcript of the meeting that has been edited for length and clarity. This interview took place the Thursday before in-person instruction resumed. Our questions and the administrators’ answers reflect this.

How did you decide that all classes will return on campus starting Jan. 31?

May: I think most of it is a data driven decision. We’re looking at case positivity data. We’re looking at the availability of isolation quarantine housing. We’re looking at booster updates. We’re looking at what the situation is in Yolo County and in our hospital and all those things. The good news is we’ve passed the local omicron peak by a pretty substantial margin. If you look at our dashboard on Campus Ready, you can see that we’re currently at 1.47% positivity over the last eight day window compared to almost 5% at the peak a couple weeks ago. This is consistent with the modeling we had looked at when we made the decision to start on Jan. 31, and things are looking good. The other thing that was a concern earlier that is less of a concern now was the positivity [rates] for our staff which was going to inhibit some of our ability to provide services to students — custodial staff, housing and dining staff, etc. Those numbers have also declined as well, so we think we’re going to be able to start on Monday.

Croughan: All of our modeling for fall quarter and winter quarter showed that risk of transmission on campus is incredibly low, even with the omicron variant. It’s our high vaccination rate, wearing masks and our testing programs that make the risk so minimal.

Thankfully, with Healthy Davis Together you also are at lower risk than most of the rest of the populations in any other community because even here, you’re less likely to get it in a grocery store than anywhere else. But it really came down to a decision for all of us at the first week of January, end of [December] really, of looking at staff numbers. If we couldn’t provide the services that students needed on campus, then it made more sense to take the time that it was going to take for the surge to be over and have us on the downside of the slope for the surge and then be able to reopen the campus. Our prediction was the surge would peak between Jan. 15 and Jan. 20. We called that one right again, and sure enough, we’re way down at this point, so we really do have faith and full expectation that we’ll be fine next week. I say all this also noting there were students who did not heed our advice and in fact didn’t stay in Davis, so they are starting to return now in anticipation of return to in-person instruction on Monday. So we are seeing a few more positive cases than we’ve seen in the last week and that’ll probably reach another little, small blip, so don’t get concerned if you see another miniature surge here — just students returning from places with a higher incidence of the omicron variant. We expected this, but we’ll still get through that fine. They may need to be isolated next week, but we need to get people back here and get them back in the classroom, so we appreciate your patience with that little blip too.

May: Overall, I just think this is a healthier environment here than there would be anywhere else, so that’s why we really are confident in restarting in-person instruction. We think this is the best thing for all, all things considered.

What are the current plans for spring graduation? Are the commencement ceremonies still expected to happen in person?

When will this news be released to students?

May: Commencements are planned to be in person. I’m very excited about it because we have a new format that we were going to debut in 2020, but we all know what happened in 2020. We’re going to be having commencement at UC Davis Health Stadium.

We’re going to do three large ceremonies — early in the morning because it’s going to be hot in June, so we’re going to make sure it’s early in the morning. I think I’m excited because rather than doing the traditional thing where you graduate from your college, you’re going to be graduating from UC Davis. You’re going to get a full experience of the entire university and all your friends from all other parts of the university participating. A little bit higher profile experience.

Engelbach: So the in-person undergraduate ceremonies will take place June 10, 11 and 12. We’ll have roughly 2,500 of our graduates participating in each of the three ceremonies. We anticipate our students will begin to be able to register to participate in the commencement ceremony some time in March, and next month in February we are going to begin the process for nominations for student speakers who will speak at the ceremonies. Happy to share more details if there are other questions, but plans are underway and we’re making progress to ensure that we can have safe, inperson ceremonies this June. That’s our plan. In March we’re going to start sending out information to students who are eligible to graduate so that they can register.

In light of the Fossil Free UCD petition, which advocates for UC Davis to end the use of fossil fuels as a source of energy for UC Davis campuses by 2030, what actions is the administration going to take to achieve the UC-wide promise to be carbon neutral by 2025? Will the administration take steps towards being completely fossil fuel free by 2030?

May: This is an area I’m actually very proud of UC Davis. You saw the most recent ranking by GreenMetric. We’re No. 1 in North America in terms of campus sustainability. We have lots of really good stories and good projects, the Big Shift — or as I like to say shift happens — where we’re changing from steam to water-aided systems which will save a lot of energy cost and be a more sustainable solution. We did form a new Campus Advisory Committee to the chancellor on Sustainability. Many of the authors or the generators of that petition, the Fossil Free UCD group, were part of the meeting that we had prior to the holidays to talk about that. I have charged that committee which is chaired

by Camille Kirk who’s our campus sustainability officer and Jim Carroll, our campus architect essentially, to come up with a plan for a fossil-free campus within some reasonable time frame. I think this 2030 thing, there’s nothing magical about 2030. It just has a zero at the end. Let’s just make sure we can do something that’s feasible in a reasonable time frame, and consider cost as well and all the different strategies we might employ. I asked them to come up with that plan by the end of this year, the end of 2022.

Ratliff: I put in the chat the new Campus Advisory Committee on Sustainability and in there is a link to this request the chancellor just made of [Carroll] and [Kirk] as co-chairs of the committee but in consultation with the committee which has a lot of faculty and staff experts, student representatives as well. This isn’t the only thing that we do. This is one example, but we have made a commitment to have a plan and understand what it would take time wise and budget wise to achieve fossil free. That will enable us to continue on this path. We definitely are well on our way to carbon neutrality. That’s a university-wide, University of Californiawide goal by 2025, and so those efforts continue. As the chancellor mentioned, this Big Shift project which is in the way now that folks are starting to come back to campus, this is a really good thing.

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At the last Board of Regents meeting last week, planning funding was approved for phase two and some heat exchangers that will take that project. It’s probably a five or six phase project but this first phase of $57 million, the campus self funded. We’re looking for funding partners as we proceed, but we’ve started the planning for phase two of that project and that’s one of the really major efforts. Also, efforts are underway on our Sacramento campus as we’re getting ready there for major renovation and rebuilding of the hospital tower to move to an electrification strategy in Sacramento.

So there’s many, many things happening. We’re trying to find better ways to share what’s happening and then have this broad based committee. We have engagement from throughout campuses as we take these steps.

What is the best way for non-student leaders who are interested in having such conversations to reach out to any of you?

May: I have never turned down a meeting with a student. It’s quite simple. You can email our office. You can get a phone call. You [will] get a response to the email, and you can ask for a meeting.

I’m sure the other campus leaders feel similarly. It’s very easy to reach out and to make connections with us.

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HAVING TOO MANY CHOICES IS BECOMING A BURDEN The onset of decision paralysis

BY ALEX MOTAWI almotawi@ucdavis.edu Making confident choices and shrewd decisions is something everyone strives to reach. Making a solid choice and dealing with the consequences has been a battle humans have been fighting for the entirety of their existence, and it’s been getting more and more difficult every day. It’s easy to spot in all facets of life. Whether you are deciding how to invest your hard-earned cash, buying a pair of jeans that fits better than the rest or picking the right variety of chicken breast, the number of options we have to pick from is honestly getting excessive and just hurting my brain. Doing basic shopping used to feel therapeutic, but now even getting groceries feels stressful due to the sheer amount of options to pick from.

Being able to make choices for ourselves is one of the foundations on which our society is built. What is freedom if not the ability to make your own choices? While having the freedom to choose for ourselves is obviously something extremely valued, is there a point when it gets excessive? When you are at the front of the line trying to order some ice cream and you are starting to sweat due to not being able to choose from the 80 flavor options, it doesn’t feel all that liberating. It takes a bit of introspection to realize that more isn’t always better.

The pinnacle of research on the subject of decision paralysis is the jam study, which was published in 2000. The jam study was a grocery store experiment in which the researchers switched between offering six and 24 different gourmet jam types to sample before purchasing to try and gauge how the number of options affected purchases. You would think that offering more options would increase sales as it’s more likely each customer would find the perfect jam for them, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. While the larger selection did garner more samplers (60% versus 40% of people stopped at the booth), customers still sampled a similar amount of flavors (roughly 1.50 versus 1.38).

In addition, 30% of shoppers at the smaller booth purchased jam while only 3% of browsers ended up purchasing from the booth with 24 options. The six choice station garnered 10 times as many purchases as the 24 option station. Even though having more options theoretically makes it easier to find the “perfect choice,” something about having so many options drove away purchasers.

Having more options just doesn’t make people happier, it’s that simple. Since the breakthrough jam study, similar experiments in different industries (snacks, alcohol and retirement planning) have consistently reached similar results. More options come with diminishing returns to the point that eventually fewer choices end up being better. Colin Camerer, a professor of behavioral economics at Caltech and author of a similar study, says the sweet spot for choices like jams resides in the eight to 15 range

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depending on the person.

Decision overload is something that weighs on everyone at some point in their life. Whether it’s a big decision that’s been dragging you down for weeks like a college commitment or job offer, or a plethora of small choices made in bulk like what to eat for breakfast every day — they add up. It’s honestly really draining and depleting to the point where you just wish someone will make the choice for you. I already have to make a litany of choices just to function every day, sometimes choosing a restaurant for date night is the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Everyone has those days, and with the way our society is trending, they will become more and more common; however, there are a few ways to make it more bearable.

I’ve found that setting a schedule is a great way to save brainpower. Instead of having an inner debate of when to wake up and eat breakfast, just set an alarm and get into the habit of making

the same thing every day. Setting a morning routine can let you run on autopilot at the start of the day and save your inner battery for when it’s needed most.

On the other hand, you can just let go a bit and think less about small decisions. People (myself included) often end up looking through all the options for the “perfect choice” and end up unhappy because of it. Being good with good really is a good mindset. I personally never like to settle when I know a better option is at the tip of my tongue, but the effort spent finding the best option is rarely worth the payout. Unless there’s a drastic shift in society, decision overload is here to stay — don’t forget it.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by individual columnists belong to the columnists alone and do not necessarily indicate the views and opinions held by The California Aggie.

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2022 | 5

ARTS & CULTURE

‘HEARTS OF DAVIS’ PROJECT CELEBRATES LOVE AMONG THE COMMUNITY Project originator and artist Will Durkee shares the importance of a community-building art project

BY CLARA FISCHER arts@theaggie.org

Founder of “Hearts of Davis” project Will Durkee with wooden hearts for community members to paint. (Will Durkee / Courtesy)

Davis might not be the first city that comes to mind when you think of artwork, but the humble town has a mighty spring of local artists working on their own projects every day. Among these artists is Will Durkee, the 29-year-old from the Bay Area behind the “Hearts of Davis” project.

As a community effort, the concept is simple enough — Durkee provides blank, white wooden hearts to any member of the community who wants to paint one and will then place the finished products up around town.

The hearts act as a visual representation of the love among the Davis community: proof that not even a pandemic can strip away humanity’s best qualities.

“It was really rough during the pandemic — especially during the first year — just not being able to see anyone,” Durkee said about the inspiration behind the project.

Absence of genuine connection is something

that many people suffered from during this longstanding health crisis. Art has always been a response to the times and has often served as an outlet for humanity’s troubles.

It seems fitting, then, to respond to the difficulty of the last two years with a project meant as a visual display of the area’s resilience — especially in Davis, where the sense of community is so strong.

Furthering the concept of collaboration, Durkee took inspiration from another nearby town for the actual hearts.

“I was actually staying in Sonoma at the time with [my] family, and they kind of had this heart thing going there,” Durkee said. “I thought, ‘Oh, we should try that in Davis!’”

After creating a few of his own wooden hearts, Durkee teamed up with the City of Davis Arts program, who bestowed him with a grant to bring his vision to life. This action highlights what makes the project so special: It’s a true

community effort from the ground up, with public offices getting involved at the base level and regular citizens (not just trained artists) going on to create the pieces.

Having these hearts up around town may provide just a little boost of encouragement to those in need after a hard couple of years.

By turning Davis into something of a curated community gallery, Durkee is painting the town in a colorful, loving light.

“A lot of people got sick and it was really hard, but hopefully having a positive message out there will let us know that we’re ok and that we still like each other,” Durkee said.

Anyone looking for more information on the project, such as how to pick up a heart or when the next community-painting session will be, should look on Durkee’s Instagram for further details (@will_durkee_fine_artiste_69).

THE FEMME FATALE: AN EMPOWERING BADASS OR AN EXTENSION OF THE MALE GAZE? Students share thoughts on the historically controversial character trope through a modern lens

BY SIERRA JIMENEZ arts@theaggie.org Provocative body, luscious, silky hair and radiant red lips that whisper seductive words as she struts through the sea of men hypnotized by her sexual allure — this is the stereotypical depiction of the femme fatale in film noirs from the 1920s to ‘50s, who uses her sexuality as a tool to achieve an underlying or hidden agenda.

While men are often applauded for their sexual conquests, the femme fatale is often viewed negatively for abusing her feminine charm and sexuality. From a young age, women are dissuaded from embracing their sexuality, but the femme fatale counteracts these societal expectations of the submissive woman and encourages her primordial sexuality.

Is the femme fatale an empowering character trope who rises from the ashes of the patriarchy, or does she “air on the side of a tragic hero?” asked Sophie Adriasola, a Davis graduate in neurobiology, physiology and behavior whose view of the femme fatale stems from 1950s classic noirs like the film “Gilda.”

“She wants sex, she wants money, she wants power. These are things men are supposed to want, but here she is. She’s going to ruin everything,” said Adriasola. “Everything that the femme fatale

does is centered around the worst nightmares of a man,” she added with a smirk.

Her ability to enchant her victim with her charm gives the femme fatale a supernatural aura. Referred to as the enchantress, witch, vampire or siren, these terms have one trait in common — sex. French for “fatal woman,” the femme fatale quite literally brings out the destruction of men in her story, oftentimes from her seductive nature.

Early versions of this trope, such as the biblical Eve or Circe from Greek mythology, are depicted as cautionary tales to warn against the risks of unchecked female sexuality and empowerment.

She is the epitome of female power and sexual liberation, yet she is villainized for it.

As Adriasola pondered this double standard, she asked, “What is this expectation that women have to be so moral? That’s an issue too, nobody expects a man to have perfect morality,” she said.

Rather, men tend to be quickly excused for their faults.

The core of the femme fatale exposes the cultural anxieties of female empowerment. Rooted in post-World War II culture, the trope was created to counteract the male discomfort and fear of women gaining too much autonomy when called away from traditional domestic roles to work men’s jobs during the war.

Janek Kindel, a fourth-year German exchange student

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majoring in studio art, communicated his thoughts on the femme fatale through his perspective as a man. “[The femme fatale is] a woman who is hard to reach and who is met with either disdain or disrespect,” he said. “The masculinity of the man is hurt by that because the man cannot conquer her.”

FEMMEFATALE on 7

MUGLER’S FASHION: POWER AND PLAYFULNESS Remembering Manfred Thierry Mugler (1948-2022) and his revolutionary fashion designs

BY ANGIE CUMMINGS arts@theaggie.org

Model wearing vintage Thierry Mugler clothing, from Mademoiselle Agency. The popular French fashion designer Thierry Mugler died on January 23, 2022. (Courtesy of Gabriel Moginot Mademoiselle Agency / Wikimedia Commons)

Whether or not you know or care about fashion, it’s hard to avoid Mugler’s striking designs. Even after over 30 years in the industry, his work managed to stay fresh and relevant to the ever-changing tastes of the fashion world.

Manfred Thierry Mugler launched his first collection in 1974, and by the ‘80s, he was a fashion powerhouse, known for his hyperfeminine designs, highly structural pieces and brightly-colored creative concepts.

Most of Mugler’s work can be identified by cinched waists, exaggerated shoulders and a general “femme-bot” feel. Inspired by the iconic feminine designs of the ‘40s and ‘50s Balenciaga

and Dior, Mugler created revolutionary (and sometimes controversial) avant-garde fashion that somehow felt timeless. From his recent minimalist Fall/Winter 2021 collection to even his most extravagant gowns and corsets of the ‘90s, there is always a definite sense of power in his work. Even a sheer glittery dress is never understated when it’s from Mugler — from the way his designs are presented on runways to the celebrities he dresses, the women who wear Mugler always seem in control of the room.

Mugler’s creations have been worn time and time again by some of the most influential people in pop culture, only further establishing his long-lasting legacy as a forefather of bold and modern fashion. Some of his muses include Diana Ross, David Bowie, Lady Gaga, Beyoncé

and essentially every top supermodel from each decade. He dressed these icons in latex, metal, leather and other materials previously deemed unconventional in the high-fashion world, but we have now become fairly accustomed to seeing them on runways and red carpets.

His use of these materials and constructions reminiscent of fetish wear has always branded Mugler as controversial, but it is also what makes so many appreciative of his impact on mainstream fashion. Fetish has always been a part of the queer community, and for many years, it was something considered shameful that was hidden from the public eye. But Mugler’s fashion designs turned it into a joyful celebration of these visual components.

READ THE FULL STORY ONLINE KATHERINE FRANKS / AGGIE

BY JACOB ANDERSON arts@theaggie.org Davis Craft & Vintage Market (Central Park Pavilion, Sunday, Feb. 6 and 20, from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.)

The Davis Craft & Vintage market is offering a place to get your hands on a varied selection of local products — from stationery and pottery to food, art and plants. The market runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and will feature live music from the New Harmony Jazz Band. Small business and independent sellers will be offering their best, so check it out if you get the chance.

Artist Talk: Kota Ezawa (Manetti Shrem Museum, Thursday, Feb. 17, 4:30 p.m.):

“Heartbeat Opera: Beethoven’s Fidelio” (Jackson Hall, Saturday, Feb. 19, 7:30 p.m.):

An Evening with Fran Lebowitz” (Mondavi Center, Thursday, Feb. 24, 7:30 p.m.):

Koto Ezawa, most notable for his 2002 animation “Simpson Verdict,” which now resides as a permanent installation at the Museum of Modern Art, will be at the Manetti Shrem for a talk on Feb. 17. He uses a distinctive flat and unshaded style of animation to depict wrought and often racially charged moments in recent American history.

Another of his exhibits, “National Anthem’’ (2018), uses footage of NFL players protesting police violence as an object to be reimagined in his uncanny style. The Japanese-German-American’s talk is sure to be enlightening.

This daring adaptation of “Fidelio” places the famed opera in a modern context, featuring a digital chorus of more than 100 incarcerated singers in the U.S. It follows the wife of a Black activist who must infiltrate the prison system in order to free her husband.

Seven musicians and five singers unite to bring this vision to the stage, one that the New York Times called “Imaginative, vital and heartbreaking.”

Writer and keen, caustic social commentator Fran Lebowitz will be in town on Feb. 24 for an interview and Q&A at the Mondavi Center. Her hilarious essays have been collected in “Metropolitan Life” (1978) and Social Studies (1981), launching a career that has brought her countless television and speaking appearances for decades.

Most recently, Martin Scorcese’s Netflix series, “Pretend It’s a City’’ (2021), introduced Lebowitz to a new generation of audiences.

“Ronald K. Brown and Evidence, A Dance Company” (Mondavi Center, Saturday, Feb. 26, 7:30 p.m.): Ronald K. Brown’s Evidence dance company fuses traditional African dance with eclectic, modern choreography and spoken word that revitalizes and reacquaints contemporary audiences with the joys of African art. On Feb. 26, Evidence will be performing three pieces, including “The Equality of Night and Day: First Glimpse” — which is inspired by John Coltrane’s “Equinox” and, according to the company, “examines the concepts of balance, equity and fairness.”

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6 | THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2022

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In a letter to the Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency Secretary Castro Ramirez, Arthur called the VMB’s treatment of Blea “a political hit-job” and called on the secretary to investigate.

Rather than any misconduct on Blea’s part, Arthur said the issue is that “veterinarians in ambulatory practice have challenges to meet the

California Veterinary Medical Board regulations that are designed for dog and cat hospitals.”

Administrative law Judge Nana Chin is expected to rule on Blea’s license within 30 days of the Jan. 21 hearing. Further down the line, Wallace predicts a hearing to determine the merits of the allegations made by the VMB, which could take several weeks.

TOBACCO CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Many feared that it would lead to overpolicing in Black neighborhoods and increased legal action against Black tobacco users due to a history in the U.S. of disproportionate punishment for drug crimes.

The use of flavored tobacco in the city of Sacramento was not criminalized with the ban, according to Mendez. The ordinance only prohibits the sale, not the use, of flavored tobacco.

“There was a large push from advocates not to penalize the users for flavored tobacco,” Mendez said. “There was concern that a regulatory agency or a public safety agency would then cite the users, and that’s not what they wanted to achieve, and the city agreed with that. [...] We only regulate and cite the business that is ultimately selling the product.”

Despite taking care to ensure that users are not punished at an increased rate because of the ban, police are still very involved in the enforcement of tobacco sale laws in the city.

“We conduct sting operations with the police department,” Mendez said. “We will have a decoy, usually a person under the age of 21, go into a retailer and attempt to purchase a product. […] We incorporated the prohibition of flavored tobacco into our routine inspection process. [...]

We look to ensure that retailers are not selling flavored tobacco. If they do, their license is suspended.”

These undercover inspections of retailers are conducted at least twice a year, according to Mendez.

Sacramento County Supervisor Don Nottoli addressed the concerns, saying during the Board of Supervisors meeting on Jan. 25 that the ban is “not meant to be punitive.” In the meetings, it was unclear what the methods of enforcement would be across the county.

Another contestation was that the flavored tobacco ban would also ban the sale of hookah.

During public comment, residents spoke about the cultural value of hookah lounges. Many of them are owned by immigrants from the Middle East and Eastern Europe. The flavored tobacco sales ban would most likely close the majority of these businesses owned by people of color, taking away an important social destination and cultural practice for marginalized communities in the county, as was discussed during public comment.

Other small business owners were also worried about the financial ramifications of the ban.

“They were concerned that people would start driving to places outside of the city to buy flavored tobacco, and therefore would impact their sales,” Mendez said. “Not just the sale of tobacco, but any auxiliary sales. [...] Their biggest concern was the loss of revenue.”

Other residents were anxious that the ban would redirect sales from convenience stores, where flavored tobacco products are better controlled and regulated, to an underground black market. However, this hasn’t been observed anywhere else where a similar ban went into effect.

“A couple stakeholders, mostly wholesalers

that sell flavored tobacco, indicated that all they would do is they would push flavored tobacco into the black market or underground,” Mendez said. “In talking to the city of Oakland and other cities that had adopted a similar prohibition; they didn’t experience that. And it’s not something that we’ve experienced either.”

Alternative options to curtail the use of tobacco were suggested in the board meeting, including rehabilitation and recovery programs, education and outreach and regulations of targeted advertising and price reductions in marginalized communities. Residents believe that these would better address substance use issues without unintended consequences.

No such programs have been introduced in the city of Sacramento.

“We feel that our focus should be the retailer, not the person that’s ultimately using the product,” Mendez said. “We also feel that maybe some of that should be left to the school district.

We don’t feel like it’s really our role.”

Mendez also commented that if there were a grant available, the city wouldn’t be opposed to working with non-profit organizations to establish rehabilitation programs or increase outreach with schools and health professionals.

However, it is not currently one of the city’s main goals or interests.

Sacramento County does have publicly funded substance use services, but no updates or amendments to the programs that address tobacco use among minors and marginalized communities specifically were discussed as alternative options during the Board of Supervisors meetings.

In the state elections of November 2022, a ballot proposition will be put to a citizen vote that, if passed, would ban the sale of flavored tobacco products across the entire state of California. Sacramento Board of Supervisors members were asked to wait for the verdict of this vote instead of imposing a county ban. County residents said this would allow California citizens to decide on the matter instead of a board, and prevent tobacco users from going to another county to obtain products.

Despite the upcoming election and the many concerns that were brought to the board meetings, the ordinance to ban sales of flavored tobacco in Sacramento county passed on Jan. 25.

It will go into effect officially on July 25, allowing retailers a six month period to destock flavored products in preparation to comply.

The flavored tobacco sales ban in the city of Sacramento has been functioning as intended since it was enacted. According to Mendez, the city has seen a compliance rate of approximately 98% from retailers.

Because of similar successes elsewhere, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors and county residents are hopeful that the new ordinance will be a step in the right direction for county-wide public health and for curbing the teen vaping epidemic. Some, however, are still wary of the potential consequences. The actual impact of the ordinance will become evident in the months following the implementation of the ban.

DiSC

PROSTHETICS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3 “We’re measuring movements using what we call EMG, or electromyography, and what we do is, we put a bunch of electrodes around the muscles that have been reinnervated surgically,” Schofield said. “And we can see that that measures the electrical activity of the muscles underneath the skin, and so anytime they think about doing a different hand movement, we can actually see different patterns of electrical activity.”

Using EMG has been the standard for smart devices worn by patients with amputations, but what Schofield and Joiner have been working on is a combination of EMG, ultrasound imaging and machine learning. Old prostheses movements used to require patients to contract their muscles in a specific pattern or a certain number of times, in order for the prosthetic limb to complete the patient’s intended movement.

However, with Schofield and Joiner’s smart prosthetic device, these devices adapt to the patients, rather than forcing the patients to do the learning and adapting.

“What we do is, we put a small ultrasound transducer, like an ultrasound probe, on top of the reinnervation area, and what we can see is we

can actually literally see the muscles underneath the skin moving in unique patterns depending on what the patient intends to do with their prosthetic limb,” Schofield said. “Using machine learning algorithms, the smart prosthetic device can actually pick out those patterns and predict what the users are trying to do.”

Schofield described the importance of tackling clinical progress of patients from a multidisciplinary approach as he looks to the hopeful advancement of prosthetic technology.

“As we look forward into the future, I think we’re going to continue to see technology advance, being more reliable in reading user intentions with more unique ways to communicate with the remaining neural anatomy after amputation,” Schofield said. “But even if we have the most advanced system that’s able to communicate perfectly with the user, if it’s not comfortable [for the patient], it’s not practical. So I see us having to apply these interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary approaches in the future in which we’re working with prosthetists, we’re working with clinicians and we’re working with the patients as a collaborative team.”

KRYPTON CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3 Péron continued to explain how their study was the first one to exactly calculate all krypton isotopes, including the rarest krypton isotopes, Kr-78 and Kr-80. Using these isotopes like a fingerprint, the researchers hoped to find where the volatile elements and compounds initially arose from the asteroid belt, the inner solar system or somewhere else.

“These isotopes are basically acting as the DNA in terms of their lineage, [and are answering questions like] where did these elements come from and which bodies delivered these elements that are essential for life,” Mukhopadhyay said.

The researchers soon discovered that the isotopes’ fingerprints contained traces of primitive, carbon-rich meteorites which originated from very early in Earth’s history.

This reveals two novel discoveries, Péron

said. Firstly, although the isotopes show that the volatile elements arose very early in Earth’s history, not all of the isotopes were accounted for in the known meteorites. Secondly, the researchers found that the ratio of deep mantle krypton doesn’t match the atmospheric krypton isotope levels, which means that some of the ones in the atmosphere were delivered during the moon formation. If not, then the ratio for the deep mantle krypton and the atmospheric one would be the same, Péron explained.

Keeping this research in mind, Mukhopadhyay’s lab hopes to continue answering questions about why the fingerprint of krypton in the Earth’s atmosphere is different from the deep mantle and how representative the study’s measurements are of the entire interior of the Earth’s mantle.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5 Pryor pointed out that the project is still anticipated to increase Davis traffic by 5% and suggested alternative projects that might not cause the same degree of traffic gridlock.

“We’ve still got a hundred acres and there’s going to be 12,000 cars a day going on Mace Boulevard,” Pryor said. “I think they have to seriously start looking at some major infill possibilities that are closer to the train stations so you can get mass transit in there from over the causeway and some type of enhanced bus transport. They say they’re going to add a free shuttle that runs from 2nd Street, but they won’t commit to making that an electric shuttle. And the developer is selling us hope and a prayer backed only by his promise.”

SENATE CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2 External Affairs Vice President Shruti Adusumill provided a quarterly update for the Office of External Affairs and stated that in the fall quarter, the commission had a fully staffed office that worked to promote voting for ASUCD elections and the Double the Pell campaign. Ongoing projects for winter quarter include the legislative team’s redesign of housing bill AB #1277, which is now AB #886, and the legislative team is looking to help with a scholarship bill.

Morayah Horovitz, the creative director of Creative Media, presented the unit’s quarterly update. There were new additions to the unit’s staff, such as new art directors, a graphic designer and a computer programmer. Creative Media contributed jumbo screens, glow sticks and mask and merchandise designs to ASUCD’s annual welcome concert, Sunset Fest in fall quarter.

For this quarter, the animation department is working on the Picnic Day logo, and the photography department is working on taking pictures of campus life during the return to campus.

Next, there were elected officers reports, in which elected officers detailed their weekly progress.

In Public Announcements and Discussion, Cindy Lamas, an intern from the CALPIRG organization, announced that a petition in support of banning unnecessary plastic packaging in California received 1,040 signatures.

Manriquez gave updates about ASUCD operations: The third floor of the Memorial Union is fully open, and N95 and K95 masks

point in this series to try to portray caregivers who are different kinds of caregivers to really reflect the diversity of who’s out there doing care,” Young said.

She then detailed why she thinks it’s important to devote time to making resources and support available to this group of people, and how being a family caregiver can affect a person’s whole life.

“I think it’s an invisible issue,” Young said.

“It’s not nearly as visible to employers. It’s also a huge economic issue — if [...] you have to reduce your work hours, or you have to not take a promotion at work because you’ve got these family demands, you won’t end up accruing the same amount of wealth in your lifetime. And then when you get to be old, you’ll have less financial means to support your own aging. So, it’s a lot of sacrifice.”

Young also explained the generational cycle of care that caregiving can lead into.

“We also know that caregivers experience higher rates of depression, loneliness and health problems than the general population,” Young said. “So, in caring for someone else, you’re creating a person who’s going to need more help as well, unless we support them properly.”

FEMMEFATALE

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Metzker also noted that the developers are unable to promise that the residential units will be filled by those who work in the campus, but they agreed to stipulations that hope to sync up the building of the residential units with the creation of the office space.

“The best the developer has been able to commit to is to meter the amount of residential they can build,” Metzker said. “They can only build one residential unit for every 2,000 square feet of nonresidential that they’re building. In other words, they can’t just run out there and build all the residential first because that’s the thing most people are most interested in and the market would sell them real quick. It meters the residential building so that it’s more synced up with the building on the nonresidential side.”

From there, the project expanded into a partnership with the American Journal of Nursing through an article series directed at teaching nurses how to use the videos to teach people.

“We package the videos with an article that goes with them that tells [nurses] how to use the videos, and the evidence that goes with them,” Young said. “The videos are for consumers, the articles are for nurses, and then we also have resource guides for consumers.”

Young went on to talk about the Family Caregiving Institute’s partnership with AARP, and how it has helped make the video series more accessible.

“Our school of nursing has collaborated with the public policy institute for many years,” Young said. “We really like that partnership because we’re an academic partner and we have clinical expertise, and they’re a public-facing consumer organization. [...] We can make research come to life together.”

She also emphasized another goal of the video series: recognizing the diversity present in caregivers.

“Caregivers [come] from all ages, and different racial/ethnic groups… We made a real

are available for employees and visitors. The ASUCD Coffee House and Unitrans will return to their normal fall schedule.

The senators transitioned to emergency legislation, with Senator Dennis Liang introducing SR #22, which urges UC Davis Academic Senate, faculty and administration to provide hybrid learning options, require the recording of all lectures and discussions, and prohibit attendance-based grading. The bill passed unanimously.

SB #43, which calls to amend chapters of the ASUCD bylaws related to the Internal Affairs Commission vice chair of regulation and finance to establish responsibilities and duties was discussed, revised and passed unanimously.

SB #42 is a bylaw amendment which puts bylaws in congruence with the constitution to reflect the new ASUCD election process. SB #40 calls for a revision of the Unitrans budget due to changes in operations. SB #41 allocates $3,615 to KDVS to purchase new dehydrator equipment.

SB #37 establishes the Executive Board of the ASUCD Lobby Corps. SB #39 reflects procedural updates to ASUCD Sustainability Audit procedure from bi-annual to annual and adds a section about the ASUCD sustainability guide. All passed unanimously.

Martinez Hernandez adjourned the meeting at 11:45 p.m.

“The femme fatale challenges the male ego, giving her power, and therefore creates this idea that the sexual woman must be discriminated against,” he continued. “The independent woman is frowned upon because she doesn’t adhere to the man, she does not follow his orders, she has her own line and all of a sudden, the man is not in control anymore. And so, the femme fatale is a derogatory term made by men.”

Kindel goes as far to say that the femme fatale could be a “highbrow” way of calling a woman “slutty” in the antiquated postwar era. Adriasola also considers this idea: “What if she just wants sex but not money, does that make her just a slut?” By using her feminine charm, she hurts the male ego and in effect, takes away the perceived right of men to control female sexuality.

“Is [the femme fatale] solely about sex appeal?” Adriasola questioned. The conundrum here is that she is villainized for her sexuality when her male counterparts are idolized.

If the femme fatale was historically created by men for men, her mere presence creates a pseudo illusion of feminism. She may come off as a strong independent trope, but is then romanticized, then besmirched, by the male gaze.

Correspondingly, Kindel refers to the classic French film, “Love in the Afternoon,” to reveal “how powerful the male gaze is and how much power [men] have in the world,” in which he sadly admits is “always present.”

The notion of the femme fatale is a doubleedged sword: “Is it empowering or is it just sad?”

Adriasola asked.

In the face of a dominantly patriarchal world, she also contemplated if utilizing one’s sexuality is actually the only way for women to achieve their goals: “Can women do things based on their own merit, or will they always have to go the extra mile?”

On the flip side, utilizing what society already views about the sexual woman and using it to her advantage is, in its own way, empowering.

By recognizing the blatant sexism weaved into the fabric of societal norms, she can utilize that reality to take back her power.

“Women understanding that males are inherently sexual creatures with one brain cell,

and taking advantage of that in an [empowering] way” is in itself powerful, said Juan Nava, a fourth-year history major.

This angle of the femme fatale breaking the cycle of the antiquated notion of the feminine mystique is a byproduct of the evolution of the archetype throughout history.

“Archetypes should be able to evolve over time,” Adriasola said. “The femme fatale reflects different struggles of womanhood throughout the decades.”

Recently, the “femme fatale is being reclaimed by women” in contemporary popular culture through various outlets of expression, according to Adriasola. Lana Del Rey’s song “F*cked My Way Up To The Top” is an example of this artistic expression of this renewed version of the femme fatale using her sexuality for personal gain.

By having agency, the femme fatale has evolved from “sexpionage” to a “bad-asssery character,” explained Kyle Anderson, a thirdyear managerial economics and accounting major whose fondness of reading sparked interest in sharing his thoughts on the literary female character trope.

From the prior manipulation of female sexuality portraying her as an unsuitable woman to a more recent embrace of her sexuality as a strength, the femme fatale is now perceived as a “women empower women” scenario, according to Nava.

“It’s not the switch from villainization to empowerment that I find most empowering, it’s what you do with that concept of the femme fatale,” said Adriasola, who finds the modern femme fatale influential.

There may be different perceptions of this character trope dependending on your perspective. Is she simply a creation to feed into the male gaze? Or is the femme fatale set free by her sexuality, perhaps even a mockery of female expectations?

Anderson concluded that his view on the controversial archetype is empowering: “this woman is empowered. She’s not empowered because she’s a woman, she’s empowered because she’s a human, she’s a person.”

8 | THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2022

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

SPORTS

LONG BEACH ICES UC DAVIS AS THEY LOSE TWO STRAIGHT AT HOME Ezra Manjon’s spectacular performance was not enough to keep the Aggies afloat in their loss to The Beach

Ezra Manjon attempts to shoot a basket at the basketball game against CSUF at the University Credit Union in Davis on January 27, 2022. The Davis Aggies lost 78-54 to Fullerton Titans. (Claire Diepenbrock / Aggie)

BY MARLON ROLON sports@theaggie.org After two straight road games, the UC Davis men’s basketball team hosted a homestand on Jan. 27 and Jan. 29, where they took on Cal State Fullerton and Long Beach State at the University Credit Union Center. After losing to Cal State Fullerton, 78-58, on Thursday night, the Aggies dropped a second consecutive home game against Long Beach State.

UC Davis’ point guard Ezra Manjon poured in 26 points, keeping the Aggies at distance throughout the contest. But, the team’s three point shots were not falling en route to a home loss

70-63 to Big West rival, Long Beach State.

Manjon scored 10 points in the first half as Davis led for the majority of it. His intensity on the floor energized the Aggies as their defense was superb in the paint.

“We knew he was going to come out today and play at a high level, that’s just who he is and that’s a sign of a good player,” said Coach Jim Les. Coach Les stood by the sideline, arms crossed as he usually does and let Manjon operate the offense. It’s as if he expected his star point guard to come out guns blazing with Manjon running plays, controlling the pace. His teammates set up screens for him and he shot freely.

Elijah Pepper added 12 points for the Aggies in the first half

with two back to back three pointers that revitalized the home crowd. Both teams traded points with one another and Davis led by as many as seven. However, Long Beach kept the home team at bay.

Towards the end of the first half, the Beach trailed by three points when first-year guard Jadon Jones scored a three pointer off a fast break to tie the game with 35 seconds left on the clock.

The momentum had swung in favor of Long Beach in which they finished the half shooting 47% from the field and an astonishing 50% from beyond the arc. Davis shot a mere 25% going 3-12 during the first 20 minutes.

“It’s hard to fault some of the things we were doing cause we were getting some great looks,” said Les. “I know a lot of times, we as coaches want to over analyze and at the end of the day it’s making and missing. We had some good looks with the right guys shooting them.”

Indeed the momentum shifted in the second half, as Davis’ shooting woes followed them. They went scoreless for the first three minutes and their inconsistencies in transition turned into six turnovers in the half.

Long Beach relied on their fast break play and quickly established control with a 49-38 lead. They never looked back from that point on.

“They play really fast, a huge component of the game was their transition points. They come at you, they’re going to shoot it, they shoot it quick,” said Les. Manjon responded to the challenge with his stellar play.

Manjon and company trimmed the deficit down to 51-47.

Although the Aggies had great looks,they missed many shots that could’ve changed the momentum.

“He’s upset about the loss, he’s even more upset about his level of play. That’s the kind of competitor he is. That’s the sign of a good player,” said Les about Manjon.

Third-year guard Joel Murray answered every time the Aggies scored, he finished with 19 points. Murray took over the offensive duties making nine straight free throws as he could not be contained in the paint. The Beach pulled away late in the game to steal a game on the road.

Pepper finished with a double double, 16 points with 10 rebounds and three steals. Meanwhile, Manjon finished with 26 points in 38 minutes.

The Aggies finished shooting 39% from the field and 16% from the three point line, going 3-18 which was a factor in their loss. Still, Coach Les sounded optimistic about the team moving forward.

“This group has a great attitude and a really great work ethic and the character of this team is really good,” he said postgame.

“Before it’s all said and done, this is going to be a really good basketball team,” said Les. “We have to focus on, as staff and players, the continuation of getting better and growing as a unit and I think if we do that good things will happen.”

UC Davis fall to 8-7 (1-3 in Big West Conference play) and will travel to Riverside on Tuesday to face off the Highlanders in a Big West Conference game. The Aggies will come back home on Feb. 5 to face off against Hawaii.

PHOTO GALLERY The UC Davis men’s and women’s basketball teams in action throughout out 21-22 school year (Photos

by Benjamin Cheng / Aggie)