Author: jplucas

Noted: Meanwhile, the World Bank commissioned the University of Wisconsin at Madison as a part of its East Asia urbanization data initiative. The Wisconsin team typically studies urban sprawl in order to assess how costly it would be to provide infrastructure. Mapping houses and buildings may seem like a straightforward task, but converting data into information depends on the objectives of the institution conducting—and funding—the project.

Noted: “I’m not sure how much people will know that term,” says Dominique Brossard, a communications professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison specializing in life science issues like GMOs. “I don’t think it’s going to be very easy for people to find out [which foods are genetically modified].”

Noted: This is the planet now. Of the seven major storm regions on Earth, five had their strongest storms on record since 2013. And any of them, or any other storm, could be worse depending on if or where it comes ashore. “Irma, we had a chance of having a $500 billion disaster, had it taken the eastern track along the Florida coastline,” says Shane Hubbard, a disaster researcher at the Space Science and Engineering Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Generally we plan for the 1-percent annual chance flood, and in Houston we had an event that was so far from that, how do we plan and prepare? Should we? Did they just flip a coin and win a $500 billion jackpot?”

The United States government reinstated tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada, Mexico, and the European Union. The Trump Administration said that the tariffs were in the interest of national security. But U.S. allies disagree with that claim. Since then, Canada and the EU have been swift to retaliate by implementing tariffs on some U.S. exports. We speak with Mark Copelovitch, associate professor of political science & public affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, about the move and how it could import foreign trade.

Noted: “I think the people making these videos are tapping into a need where you want to be social without being disrupted from your study goals,” says Mitchell Nathan, professor of educational psychology and learning sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Think of it like parallel play. This is parallel studying: You’re ignoring each other, but that’s still much more preferable than doing it all by yourself.”

Noted: Brad Singer, a geology professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, who investigates lava flow magnetic fields, said: “When the lava flows erupt and cool in the Earth’s magnetic field, they acquire a memory of the magnetic field at that time.

Noted: Even with the switch from rain to heat, mosquitoes that carry the West Nile virus may not emerge right away, said Tony Goldberg, an epidemiology professor at University of Wisconsin.

Noted: Bradley Bolling, a food-science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, decided to put some women on a yogurt-heavy diet. He and his colleagues had 60 women, half of whom were obese, eat 12 ounces of low-fat yogurt every day for nine weeks. A control group ate a non-dairy pudding during that same time. Then, they measured the levels of proteins excreted by immune cells to determine how much inflammation was in these women’s bodies.

Noted: “People are scared of what their neighbors think,” said Paul Robbins, the director of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the author of “Lawn People: How Grasses, Weeds and Chemicals Make Us Who We Are.”

Noted: “It appears that all of this proactivity paid off,” notes Barry Burden, political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In November 2016, Madison saw high voter participation while overall state turnout declined. This April, Madison’s turnout roughly doubled that of the state at large, helping to propel progressive Rebecca Dallet to a landslide victory in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race.

Noted: While everyone we spoke to is relieved a serial killer is off the streets, Dr. Alta Charo, a law professor at University of Wisconsin Madison who also researches bioethics, says the case could have negative consequences.“ Anytime we give people the impression that the information may be turned against somebody else, or against them, we discourage people from participating in what I think is going to be a 21st Century necessity,” Dr. Charo said.

Noted: If the judge pursues that thought, it could have sweeping effects across the business world. Many tech companies, including Facebook, Google and Snap, are set up with dual-class structures. If Delaware judges start reining in controlling owners, it could change how those companies are run. “It’s a ray of light,” said Yaron Nili, a professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School, who has raised concerns about dual-class structures.

Noted: “I do have this fear that these divides have exacerbated some since the 2016 election,” said Kathy Cramer, a University of Wisconsin political scientist who consulted with Pew on the new report, which asked more than 6,000 adults to self-identify their communities as urban, rural or suburban. Urban-rural divides in politics are not new, but Ms. Cramer believes we’re witnessing something different. “We’re in a political moment where cultural divides overlap with political divides, which overlap with geography.”

Noted: “So many issues have come up. They have to [abandon the limits]. The Chinese government has no choice,” said Yi Fuxian, a longtime critic of the limits, and senior scientist at the University of Wisconsin’s School of Medicine and Public Health.

Noted: But before you plant anything, figure out whether the crops you want to grow match up with Wisconsin’s growing conditions, said Vijai Pandian, a horticulture educator for University of Wisconsin-Extension in Brown County.

Noted: Many major pharmaceutical companies are currently studying the concept, according to industry experts. “That’s the promise—that you’ll be able to target a range of things,” says Aseem Ansari, a professor of biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin–Madison who is involved in this area of research. Despite thalidomide’s success, protein degradation so far remains largely untested in humans—and it will probably be several years before early trials in patients can advance enough to prove the approach will work beyond multiple myeloma.

Noted: Kenneth Mayer, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin, told me, “What Wisconsin gave the nation was the model where you could take a very tiny electoral margin and act as if you had won an overwhelming victory, and the other side had no say at all.” Dale Schultz, a Republican who was formerly a leader in the state senate, told me that the early days of the Walker administration, “created a malaise that hangs in the state to this day.”

Noted: “A colony of microorganisms could survive and evolve in those clouds,” says Sanjay Limaye, senior scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.