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Rain, humidity lead to an increase in mosquitoes in southern Wisconsin

Channel 3000

“This summer, all those mosquitoes that were waiting in the ground for water have found it,” says Dr. Lyric Bartholomay, who works in the Department of Pathobiological Sciences at UW-Madison. “So, the nonstop rain that we’ve had, and the warm temperatures just make them for the perfect storm, for the mosquitoes to have a place to grow and reproduce. And then come out hungry to feed on us.”

UW-Madison researchers find high PFAS levels in natural foam on Wisconsin lakes, rivers

Channel 3000

“We sampled several dozen different lakes and rivers in Wisconsin, and so we were looking at PFAS in foam,” said Christy Remucal, a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and interim director of the University of Wisconsin Aquatic Sciences Center. “It’s the white stuff you sometimes see on the side of the lake or in the river.”

How the Home Insurance Market Became So Distorted

The New York Times

Deciphering the cost of home insurance from one place to another is almost impossible. But two professors — Benjamin Keys of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and Philip Mulder at the University of Wisconsin — found a workaround. They obtained data showing how much millions of American households pay to mortgage service companies, which typically includes insurance. Then they deducted payments for mortgages, property taxes and other fees, leaving them with an estimate of home insurance premiums.

Feds pull plug on Russia ‘bot farm’ that spread social media lies

USA Today

Dietram Scheufele is a professor of science communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies misinformation. The number of bots taken offline by the FBI operation is small compared to the myriad fake accounts on social media, he said. But he felt encouraged that the feds were going after the roots of AI-generated misinformation instead of flagging doctored videos. “I feel heartened,” the German native said. “We’ve seen tons of activities that are putting bandages on symptoms but haven’t really addressed the root cause – removing the tumor.”

How Long Is Milk Good After the Sell-By Date? | How Long Milk Lasts

Readers Digest

There are a lot of factors that affect how long milk is good for after the sell-by date. The biggest is whether the milk has been through pasteurization, which John A. Lucey, director of the University of Wisconsin’s Center for Dairy Research in Madison, defines as “the process of heating every particle of milk or milk product in properly designed and operated equipment to any of the specified pasteurization time/temperature combinations designed to destroy all human pathogens” in a 2015 paper published in the journal Nutrition Today.

Bird flu makes step in evolving toward human spread

Washington Examiner

Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory, and two Japanese universities studied how H5N1 has evolved since the March outbreak by infecting humanized mice and ferrets in experiments funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Amid attack on affirmative action, race-conscious scholarships are latest targets – The Washington Post

Washington Post

The University of Wisconsin system is removing race as a factor in more than 160 scholarships, grants, fellowships, study abroad and hiring programs, according to the system’s director of media relations, Mark Pitsch. Individual universities, he said, are also discussing scholarship criteria with donors who funded specific awards to ensure they comply with the court’s ruling.

Tom Still: Wisconsin’s Biohealth Tech Hub has a long list of proud parents

Wisconsin State Journal

Anjon Audhya, senior associate dean for basic research, biotechnology and graduate studies at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. Audhya brought the perspective of a biochemist to the team, with expertise ranging from genetics to mapping mechanisms and pathways that underlie human disease.

Chris Kozina, assistant vice chancellor for industry engagement, UW-Madison. Kozina brought deep industry experience to the party as well as a collegial way of navigating the university’s many colleges, schools and disciplines. There’s little doubt that research universities such as UW-Madison bring important breakthroughs to the table; organizing them in ways they can be applied commercially or for society is the trick. Kozina brought that perspective to the table.

UW-Madison students’ Garage Sale game all about ‘cozy exploration’

The Capital Times

Juniper’s journey in the indie video game Garage Sale in some ways mirrors the journey of its lead writer and director, University of Wisconsin-Madison journalism student Amelia Zollner. She started the game on her own while in high school isolated during the pandemic. Then she found a community of like-minded students around her on a quest to bring it to completion.

John Walter Eichenseher

Wisconsin State Journal

After a stint at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana he became a tenured professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where he worked for more than 20 years. He was especially proud of the numerous interdisciplinary student trips he led to China.

New research uncovers troubling ‘triple threat’ facing the world’s oceans: ‘The impacts of this have already been seen and felt’

The Cool Down

Andrea Dutton, a climate scientist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, compares the situation to the end of the Permian period 252 million years ago, when similar environmental changes led to Earth’s largest known extinction event. “Oceans aren’t just a nice backdrop for your selfies in summer; we rely upon them for our lives. It’s very important to recognize this,” Dutton said.

Not Everyone Has an Inner Voice Streaming Through Their Head

Scientific American

Most of us have an “inner voice,” and we tend to assume everybody does, but recent evidence suggests that people vary widely in the extent to which they experience inner speech, from an almost constant patter to a virtual absence of self-talk. “Until you start asking the right questions you don’t know there’s even variation,” says Gary Lupyan, a cognitive scientist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. “People are really surprised because they’d assumed everyone is like them.”

June sizzled to a 13th straight monthly heat record

NPR

“Our world is in crisis,” said University of Wisconsin climate scientist Andrea Dutton. “Perhaps you are feeling that crisis today — those who live in the path of Beryl are experiencing a hurricane that is fueled by an extremely warm ocean that has given rise to a new era of tropical storms that can intensify rapidly into deadly and costly major hurricanes. Even if you are not in crisis today, each temperature record we set means that it is more likely that climate change will bring crisis to your doorstep or to your loved ones.”

Mecha disaffiliates from UW-Madison

Daily Cardinal

Mecha described the investigation as “a pattern of harassment and intentional intimidation of our already vulnerable Latine, Chicane and Indigenous members” in a July 4 statement announcing their independence from the university.

UW-Madison volleyball star nominated for ESPY

The Daily Cardinal

University of Wisconsin-Madison volleyball player Sarah Franklin received a nomination for the Best College Athlete in the Women’s Sports category at the 2024 Excellence in Sports Yearly Awards (ESPYS).

People of all political beliefs share view on how inflation is hurting families | Opinion

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

In fact, the issue unifies all Wisconsinites — Democrats, Republicans and independents alike. It ranks at the top of issues residents rated as most significant problems they face. And while it is a common problem for all, inflation has an outsized impact on the young, according to the “WisconSays” survey of nearly 4,000 residents conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Survey Center in partnership with the La Follette School of Public Affairs.

What August’s constitutional amendment vote means for Wisconsin

The Capital Times

“There’s a shift of power from the (governor’s) administration to the Legislature,” said Andrew Reschovsky, professor emeritus of public affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an expert on public finance. “And is that good or bad? It depends on one’s politics. But in a very fractured political environment, the consequences could be substantial.”

Wisconsin got $49M to invest in personalized medicine. What does that mean?

The Capital Times

Wisconsin’s application was submitted by a coalition of businesses (GE HealthCare, Accuray, Exact Sciences, Plexus and Rockwell Automation), colleges and universities (Madison Area Technical College, Milwaukee Area Technical College, the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health and the Universities of Wisconsin), economic development agencies (Milwaukee7, Madison Region Economic Partnership and Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation) and workforce training organizations (Employ Milwaukee and WRTP | BIG STEP).

UW-Madison says it found a new way to fight cancer

WISC — CBS Channel 3

Thanks to a recent study from the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, UW said Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell therapy can be improved by altering the conditions the T-cells are grown in. Researchers at the WID accomplished this through “metabolic priming.”

Wisconsin biohealth industry named one of nation’s elite tech hubs

Wisconsin State Journal

The Wisconsin hub focuses on personalized medicine, or tailoring treatments to a patient’s genetic makeup or other individual characteristics. Along with UW-Madison and Madison Area Technical College, partners include Madison companies Accuray and Exact Sciences, GE Healthcare and Rockwell Automation in the Milwaukee area and Neenah-based manufacturer Plexus.

Wisconsin lands $49 million in funding for medical sciences

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The Wisconsin Biohealth Tech Hub Consortium members include the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC), the University of Wisconsin System Administration, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, GE HealthCare, Rockwell Automation, Exact Sciences Corporation, BioForward Wisconsin, Employ Milwaukee, Accuray, Plexus, WRTP Big Step, Milwaukee Area Technical College, Madison Area Technical College, the Madison Regional Economic Partnership (MadREP), and Milwaukee7.

Opinion | Redaction costs threaten police video access

The Capital Times

UWPD spokesperson Marc Lovicott told me his department is “working through challenges” with the new law and hoping to receive guidance from the state’s Office of Open Government, part of the Department of Justice. “It’s a broadly worded law that’s really untested. We’re all trying to figure it out.”

Leo M. Walsh

Wisconsin State Journal

Leo began his teaching career at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1964, first serving as an Assistant Professor in the Soil Science Department, then as an Associate Professor, and subsequently rising through the ranks, eventually becoming full Professor and Chair. Leo’s long and impressive career culminated in his appointment as Dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS) in 1979 and served in this capacity until 1991.

Infant mortality rate rose in wake of Texas abortion ban, study shows

AP News

But the results did not come as a surprise to Tiffany Green, a University of Wisconsin-Madison economist and population health scientist who studies the consequences of racial inequities on reproductive health. She said the results were in line with earlier research on racial disparities in infant mortality rates due to state differences in Medicaid funding for abortions. Many of the people getting abortions are vulnerable to pregnancy complications, said Green, who was not part of the research.

Bringing Back Local Milk, Ice Cream, and Cheese

Civil Eats

As the ballooning demand continues to shape market forces, the shift towards fewer, larger farms is inevitable, says Charles Nicholson, associate professor of agricultural and applied economics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. With smaller-scale dairies harder hit by labor shortages and fluctuating milk prices, “this long-term trend would be hard to change with public policy or private initiatives [alone],” he says.