Quoted: “Is this area of pharmacology for cardiology dead?” says James Stein, a professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “Have we maxed out with very powerful statins and excellent blood-pressure drugs? Is there going to be another cardiology blockbuster ever again?”
University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin signed an agreement Monday that could pave the way for a future academic exchange with Tikrit University in Iraq, taking part in a growing trend among U.S. universities to reach out to scholars in Iraq.
Using videoconference technology and a translator, Martin signed the agreement in Bascom Hall on UW-Madisonâ??s campus while Tikrit University President Maher Saleh Allawi signed it in Iraq.
Passing through the Union the other day, I ran into two friends who asked me about Chancellor Biddy Martinâ??s Undergraduate Initiative, unveiled Tuesday to student leaders and the subject of immense speculation since. They were not enamored of the plan, and their objections, coming from people I consider perfectly rational, seemed rather bizarre.
A UW-Madison discovery that could someday help people with multiple sclerosis came from an unlikely source: pregnant cats.
When Harlan Laboratories in Madison gave irradiated food to cats to study their growth and development, some of the cats who were currently or recently pregnant developed movement disorders, vision loss and paralysis, said Ian Duncan, a neuroscientist on campus.
Potential for a painless way to deliver flu protection has vaccine makers in Europe and the U.S. seeking regulatory approval, for injections that are only skin deep. A Madison company that was a spin-off from UW Madison is among those testing what’s called intradermal delivery.
A shortage in 2004 spurred research in ways to stretch the vaccine supply. Dr. Jon Tempte is a UW-Madison Associate Professor of Family Medicine at the UW Hospital, and is on a Center for Disease Control advisory flu panel, the Committee for Immunization Practices. He says intradermal delivery appears to use one-fifth the vaccine of a regular shot to deliver flu immunity. Previous U.S. studies show there can be side effects, but Tempte says they tend to be localized and minor. (Eighth item.)
Students and staff raised questions and concerns at a campus forum Monday regarding the University of Wisconsinâ??s initiative to increase tuition.
The tuition increase is an effort to fund more tenure-tracked staff as well as other projects to keep improving the university.
During the event sponsored by the Associated Students of Madison, Chancellor Biddy Martin addressed student issues and explained in detail the reasons behind the increase.
Chancellor Biddy Martin and the Associated Students of Madison will create a student oversight committee to help implement the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates, Martin announced Monday at a forum about the initiative.
â??Iâ??d like to get their advice in advance of making decisions about expenditures, and let them be the messengers to the campus,â? Martin said.
ASM Chair Brittany Wiegand said the committee will likely operate through the Shared Governance Committee of ASM. While seats on the committee will be limited in number, Wiegand said any student will be able to apply.
In the bid for a fat envelope this year, it may help, more than usual, to have a fat wallet.
Facing fallen endowments and needier students, many colleges are looking more favorably on wealthier applicants as they make their admissions decisions this year.
As Wisconsin soldiers prepare for deployment, the University of Wisconsin-Madison is formally establishing ties with a changing Iraq by partnering with a prominent university.
UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin and the president of Tikrit University signed an agreement to share teaching and research during a videoconference Monday. Martin called it an “unprecedented opportunity” to share education and science with the university, WISC-TV reported.
While the violence in Iraq continues, the heads of the UW and Tikrit University are having a meeting of the minds by signing a deal to help each other academically and foster dialogue between the two countries.
It may be prickly on the outside, but the sea urchinâ??s spines hide â?? well, if not a heart of gold, at least teeth of calcite.
The urchinâ??s five teeth are very strong and capable of grinding limestone, creating depressions in the rock that the sea urchin can settle in. Since limestone also consists of calcite (a form of calcium carbonate), how can the teeth grind the rock without being ground down, too?
The teeth consist of calcite crystals (including a small amount of magnesium) in the shapes of needles and plates, and a polycrystalline calcite matrix that contains a higher concentration of magnesium. Yurong Ma, Lia Addadi and Steve Weiner of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, with Pupa Gilbert of the University of Wisconsin and other colleagues, show that the magnesium levels increase toward the tip, contributing to the hardness, and that all the elements are aligned in what they call polycrystalline blocks.
It was five years ago today that a missing UW-Madison student was found alive in a marshy area across from the Alliant Energy Center.
Audrey Seiler would later admit she lied about being abducted from her campus-area apartment.
Police Chief Noble Wray, who five years ago was just appointed as acting head of the police department, says the case has changed the way the MPD looks at missing persons cases. (Audio.)
Margie Jean Jesberger died on Wednesday, March 25, 2009. After graduating from Sun Prairie High School, she worked at UW Memorial Library.
Marion Louise Ahlquist Jensen, age 91 of Madison, passed away peacefully on Friday, March 27, 2009. Marion was a public health nurse in Madison, and later worked at UW Hospitals in radiation therapy.
Dr. Charles William Hirschler, passed away unexpectedly on Sunday, March 22, 2009. Charles worked for over 20 years with Madison Anesthesiology Corporation and was assistant clinical professor at the UW-School of Medicine.
Charles (Chuck) Greenwood, age 74, died on Thursday, March 26, 2009. Chuck worked as a machinist throughout his life and retired with 20 years of service as an instrument maker from UW-Madison’s Bock Laboratory.
Burrell Carroll Eveland, age 80 of Madison, died on Thursday, March 26, 2009. Burrell was the director of purchasing at University Hospitals in Madison for 22 years until retiring in 1990.
Byron Edward Bahr “Ed” age 80, passed away peacefully Friday, March 27, 2009. In 1952, he became employed by the State of Wisconsin at the UW-Madison heating station as a boiler operator helper. He retired in 1990, after 38 years of service.
George K. Steil, Sr., age 84, of Janesville, died on Sunday, March 29, 2009. He was named as Lecturer by the University of Wisconsin in 1974, and received the University of Wisconsin Law School Alumni Distinguished Service Award in 1991, which is the highest award given to a faculty member or a graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School. He was appointed by Governor Tommy Thompson to the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents from 1990 to 1997, where he served as President from 1992 to 1994, Chairperson of the University of Wisconsin Medical Foundation, the clinical practice group of the UW Medical School from 1995 to 1999, and member of the Board of Directors of the University of Wisconsin Hospital Authority from 1995 to 2004.
A new study, published online March 18 in the Journal of Human Evolution, shows that the efficiency of human running varies with speed and that each individual has an optimal pace at which he or she can cover the greatest distance with the least effort.
The result debunks the long-standing view that running has the same metabolic cost per unit of time no matter the speed â?? in other words, that the energy needed to run a given distance is the same whether sprinting or jogging. Though sprinting feels more demanding in the short term, the longer time and continued exertion required to cover a set distance at a slower pace were thought to balance out the difference in metabolic cost, says Karen Steudel, a zoology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Stem cell researchers have created embryonic-cell lookalikes that don’t have the cancer-causing genes found in earlier experiments.
The team led by University of Wisconsin researcher James Thomson Thursday released a study showing how it changed skin cells into “induced pluripotent” cells by adding growth genes that disappear after the new cells reproduce.
Quoted: â??I think that skepticism is healthy in the scientific process,â? said Steve Vavrus, a senior scientist for climatic research at the Gaylord Nelson Institute of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. â??I think it would be very dangerous if everyone had the same view and didnâ??t question each other.â?
Quoted: While people in the study had acceptable LDL cholesterol levels, most of them had other conditions that increased their heart disease risk, said James Stein, a cardiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Medicine and Public Health. Those conditions included their age, being overweight and having slightly elevated blood pressure.
Quoted: Dr. James Stein of the University of Wisconsin-Madison said that doctors examining treatment guidelines should pay close attention to the new results.
University of Wisconsin-Madison is signing an agreement to collaborate with a prominent university in Iraq in teaching and research.
UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin and the president of Tikrit University are expected to finalize the deal during a videoconference Monday.
UW-Madison professors have proposed teaching their Iraqi counterparts about dairy management, agriculture, medical training and engineering through videoconferencing.
UW-Madison was first in the nation to establish a Tibetan language and culture program, and Wisconsin played an active role in resettling Tibetan refugees. The Dalai Lama has visited us seven times, including right after the Nobel Prize. And I have been personally involved in the Tibetan plight since 1968 when I was UW student.
It is in all of our best interest to stop TB.
The Dalai Lama has recognized the great challenge that TB poses to his people and is committed to helping fight the disease. The global community and the Tibetan government-in-exile must join forces to control TB in the Tibetan community.
You can help reinforce the commitment to fight this disease by writing to Congress and stressing the importance of acting now.
Paster is professor of family medicine at UW-Madison.
An issue that came up at Friday afternoon’s state budget forum has been at the heart of a big debate in recent years. Expanded protections for same sex couples and allowing state employees to extend their healthcare coverage to domestic partners is included in Governor Jim Doyle’s budget.
Critics say these items should not be in the budget and they should be separate bills, others, like Laura Sommer, urged the state’s Joint Finance Committee to support the governor’s proposal.
Quoted: “In Wisconsin Supreme Court races, there is a large incumbency effect,” said UW-Madison professor Katherine Cramer Walsh. “People don’t follow the doings of the state Supreme Court.”
A new film is renewing Madison’s fascination with the smart college student who led a second life as a prostitute and killer in the 1970s.
“Winter of Frozen Dreams” is debuting April 4 at the Wisconsin Film Festival.
It recounts the story of former UW-Madison student Barbara Hoffman. She moonlighted at a massage parlor and was accused of fatally poisoning 2 of her clients.
When an International Olympic Committee delegation visits Chicago this week, their visit could take a detour north of the border.
Officials in the Madison area have been told they should be ready if the delegation decides to make a visit.
Road racing and time trials would begin on the UW-Madison campus, travel through Downtown and end at Blue Mound State Park. The mountain biking competition would be at Tyrol Basin near Mount Horeb.
Quoted: Dr. Paul Smith, a UW-Madison family medicine physician, said he was surprised to learn after 15 years in practice that some patients didnâ??t understand instructions for taking medications or the various forms they have to sign.
Q: How can stimulant drugs, such as Ritalin, calm hyperactivity?
A: As any coffee drinker can attest, small amounts of caffeine usually do wonders for alertness, energy and the ability to concentrate. Quaff too many cups of joe, however, and jitteriness and insomnia set in.
Itâ??s the same with Ritalin, Adderall and other stimulant medications now taken by millions of Americans to quell the symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). At low doses, these drugs calm behavior, boost mental performance and focus attention.
Ramp up the dosage, though, and they act like stereotypical stimulants: impairing thinking, and causing anxiety and even addiction, says UW-Madison psychology professor Craig Berridge.
One wonders how high the salaries were of the public relations professionals and university administrators who worked overtime to pick the name â??Madison Initiative for Undergraduates,â? and to produce the slick promotional film pitching the program. The proposed tuition surcharge would be better named â??Biddy Sticks it to Out-of-Statersâ? or â??Martinâ??s Increase in Undergraduate Debt.â? As a parent of a non-resident student, and as a UW alumnus, let me comment on the chancellorâ??s talent for doublespeak as displayed in the e-mail memo I received, the same one that informed me Iâ??ll be paying this accumulating surcharge on top of an expected 5 or 6 percent tuition increase over the next three years.
I’ve always been fascinated with words, even have a few favorites that I think create an image as they are uttered. “Moonlight” may mean taking a second job, not an unusual occurrence these days. But to me, it has always conjured up that time of night when all is still and not even the neighbor’s dogs dare to break the silence.
“Bittersweet” is another word that immediately brings to mind that something is both a boon and a bane. Love can be bittersweet and so can victory. But there is no mistaking that if something is termed bittersweet, it is a universal concept that everyone understands.
My love of words extends to familiar sayings and wondering about their origins. That’s one reason I’m pert near in a swivet that the Dictionary of American Regional English is almost complete.
A decline in sun-dimming airborne dust has caused a fast warming of the tropical North Atlantic in recent decades, according to a study that might help predict hurricanes on the other side of the ocean.
About 70 percent of the warming of the Atlantic since the early 1980s was caused by less dust, blown from Saharan sandstorms or caused by volcanic eruptions, U.S.-based scientists wrote in the journal Science.
A decrease in airborne dust and volcanic emissions has contributed to warming the North Atlantic Ocean in the past three decades, a study showed.
About 70 percent of the Atlantic’s warming since 1980, at an average per-decade rate of a half-degree Fahrenheit (a quarter-degree Celsius), was due to less dust blown from African dust storms or to volcanic eruptions, scientists wrote in the journal Science.
“Volcanoes and dust storms are really important if you want to understand (climatic) changes over long periods of time,” said the study’s lead author Amato Evan, a researcher with the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: “This is a time-honored tradition in American politics,” says David Canon, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Congress does this all the time, too. It’s just something that political leaders like to do, to either recognize certain individuals or groups that are doing good things, to raise public awareness about a problem like a disease or just make a nice gesture to a group you want to support, like amateur radio operators. A cost-free way to make people feel good.”
The recently formed Linguistics Club will host an event on regional dialects Monday at 8:30 p.m. in Lalumiere Language Hall.
Joseph Salmons, co-director of the Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures and a professor of German at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will give an overview of different English dialects found in Wisconsin. Salmons refers to these dialects as “Englishes.”
Quoted: â??The good news then is that the recession, as captured by the official statistics, may not be as severe as it appears,â? said Edgar Feige, a professor at the University of Wisconsin- Madison who has studied the underground economy for 30 years. In past slumps, unregistered activity increased as a proportion of the official economy, he said.
Under Milwaukeeâ??s Parental Choice Program, abbreviated MPCP, thousands of low income families can use taxpayer money to send their children to private and even religious schools. The money is subtracted from the budget of the Milwaukee Public School system. Proponents want parents to have a choice as to where their children are educated, believing student achievement will follow.
John Witte of UW-Madison is one of the researchers examining the programâ??s impact. He delivered the bottom line.
The chancellor of UW-Stevens Point hit a parked car while in Madison to see Gov. Jim Doyle speak and left the scene of the crash without alerting anyone, according to a Madison Police Department report.
Linda Bunnell, who was driving a car registered to the UW Board of Regents, said in a statement Thursday that she was in a hurry to get to the governorâ??s budget address last month and was planning to follow-up with police and her insurance company later that evening.
On a bone-chilling night in late January, a capacity crowd of roughly 400 people packed the main auditorium at First Unitarian Society on Madisonâ??s west side.
The man everyone came to see was selected by Time magazine in 2006 as one of the worldâ??s 100 most influential people. Heâ??s in regular contact with the Dalai Lama. His work has made him a veritable rock star in the world of neuroscience.
Yet UW-Madison researcher Richard J. Davidson, Ph.D., known simply as “Richie” to friends and colleagues, seemed to genuinely enjoy taking questions from the public just as much as he might from scientific colleagues.
The UW-Madison scientists who created a new kind of stem cells two years ago have removed a major obstacle to using the cells to develop treatments: genetic mutations that could cause cancer.
To make the cells â?? called induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells â?? scientists put key genes into skin cells to reprogram the cells back to their embryonic states.
University of Wisconsin students expressed both concern and support Thursday at the first of two campus forums on Chancellor Biddy Martinâ??s Madison Initiative for Undergraduates, which would increase tuition, financial aid and academic services for students.
The forum focused on student perspectives with prominent issues being the transparency of initiative fund spending, how students are supposed to pay the tuition increase and the voice of students in the spending process.
The initiative is focused on adding faculty to the College of Letters and Science, which has lost 65 to 70 professors since 2004, Martin said.
The chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point wound up with a traffic citation when she visited Madison to hear Gov. Jim Doyle speak last month.
A police report said Chancellor Linda Bunnell hit a parked SUV and left the scene without telling anyone.
She released a statement Thursday saying that when the incident happened around 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 17, she was in a hurry to get to Doyle’s budget address and planned to follow up with police and her insurance company later that evening.
Meanwhile, a witness called police with her car’s license number, and an officer found the car and left a note.
Advocates for domestic partner benefits hope to gain the support of UW students. Once again this year, Governor Jim Doyle includes domestic partner benefits in his proposed budget.
Leia Ferrari of New Berlin is a UW student and member of the Coalition for Domestic Partner Benefits. “Faculty members who have left in the past have documented the lack of domestic partner benefits as one of their reasons for leaving” said Ferrari. “Faculty members don’t feel as if they’re being valued equally. It’s an issue of fairness and equality.”
As police near the one year anniversary of the murder of Brittany Zimmermann, officials are offering up insight into their investigation.
Over the course of the past year, 143 Madison police officers have worked on the case, and an investigative team made up of full-time and half-time detectives and analysts is focused solely on the case.
UW-Madison’s Chancellor wants to make Wisconsinâ??s flagship university more affordable for low and middle income studentsâ?¦by raising tuition.
Chancellor Biddy Martin says the University has far less need-based financial aid than any other Big 10 university, with $20-million in unmet aid every year. To close that gap, the Chancellor’s Madison Initiative for Undergraduates is calling for a $250 annual increase in tuition over the next four years for in-state residents, and $750 annually for out-of-state students. Martin says the increase would not affect students whose families make $80,000 or less.
â??Itâ??s going to be harder for low and middle income families to send students to UW-Madison in these times than it already was,â? says Martin. â??Our students need even better preparation for these challenging times and the economy they face as graduates than they have ever needed.â?
UW-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin explained her newly proposed initiative to students and listened to their feedback at a forum Thursday.
The Madison Initiative for Undergraduates would propose a supplemental charge in tuition to improve educational quality for undergraduates while helping to make UW-Madison affordable to all students.
A study shows few performance differences between voucher students and those in Milwaukee Public Schools. UW-Madison’s Dr. John Witte says the study shows no significant differences between students in Milwaukee Choice schools and Milwaukee Public Schools.
Madison – Most University of Wisconsin-Madison undergraduates would eventually pay $1,000 more per year under a plan to improve quality and increase financial aid. Chancellor Biddy Martin has proposed in-state undergrads pay a $250 supplemental tuition charge next school year and out-of-state students pay $750. The charge would go up the following three years.
(Posted in the state-by-state national news top stories.)
Noted: Other schools on the entrepreneurship vanguard: Arizona State University; University of Wisconsin-Madison; Oberlin College; University of Iowa; California State University, Fresno; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Stanford University; University of Maryland-Baltimore County.
The Critical Badger picked up on the Madison Initiative. Some good criticism by â??Country Bobâ? in the comment minefield. This caught my eye:
$80,000 is very arbitrary, and doesnâ??t take into account a studentâ??s expected financial contribution (EFC). A family with two kids in college making $82,000 per year is much different than a family with one kid making $79,000 per year.
Totally true! But with a little work the details can be sorted out â?¦ but the devil is in the details. Seems like things are moving in a positive direction at UW after more than a few years of asking each other what we should do.
There will be a lot of empty space at the University of Wisconsin at Madison’s upcoming career fair for students from the College of Letters & Science. Last year, 43 employers turned out to talk up their internship programs and full-time opportunities; this year only 23 plan to attend. It’s gotten so bad that business students, who normally clamor for jobs with investment banks and consulting companies, are settling for less. “Retail used to be not that appealing to business studentsâ??it’s kind of a back-up plan,” says career services director Leslie Kohlberg. Not anymore.
Quoted: The economic crisis means some risk for MyMenuâ??s expansion, but the Midwest economy is stronger than other areas, said Kyle Stiegert, a UW-Madison assistant professor of agricultural and applied economics.
A proposed surcharge would raise UW tuition $1000 for instate students and $3000 for out of state students by the year 2013.
The increases will be phased in over the next four years. Instate students will pay $250 more a year during that time, while out of state students will pay $750 more.
“When this proposal is fully implemented in four years, tuition and fees at UW-Madison will continue to be among the lowest in our peer group, defined as the Big Ten,” reasoned Biddy Martin, UW Madison chancellor.
The school hopes the increase will fill in a $20 million dollar annual budget gap. The ultimate goal is for the money to increase the quality of education while making the university more affordable to lower income students.
Members of the Wisconsin Coalition for Domestic Partner Benefits camped out on Library Mall on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus Wednesday to encourage people to support their cause.
The “Day of Action” was designed to make it easy for students and faculty to contact lawmakers about the need for domestic partner benefits for state employees, including faculty on campus.
Madison police on Wednesday released an update on the investigation into the slaying of Brittany Zimmermann nearly one year ago.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison student’s body was found by her fiancé in their campus-area apartment on Doty Street on April 2, 2008.
Nearly a year since her death, investigators said they’ve identified 830 people worth checking out and have interviewed more than 700.
In wake of the announcement of an initiative that would increase tuition, financial aid and academic services for University of Wisconsin students, Chancellor Biddy Martin will host a forum tonight to field questions, comments and concerns of students and other community members.
The Madison Initiative for Undergraduates would increase in-state tuition by $250 and out-of-state tuition by $750 per year over a four-year period, after which rates will top out at $1,000 and $3,000, respectively, more than current rates.
The funding brought in by the initiative would allow for increased financial aid, the restoration of faculty seats and the improvement of studentsâ?? academic experiences.
Volunteers watched the wall clock and braced themselves for what one described as “a book scrum.”
At precisely 5 p.m. on Wednesday at the University of Wisconsin-Madisonâ??s Memorial Library, the stateâ??s largest book sale began with a rush of customers as quick as the wind off Lake Mendota. Several dozen patrons â?? some of whom are book dealers from as far away as Tennessee and had been waiting since 7 a.m. â?? clawed at more than 15,000 used books.
“Itâ??s like opening the cages to the zoo and letting the animals out,” said Beth Kuply of event sponsor Friends of UW-Madison Libraries.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Biddy Martin on Wednesday proposed increasing undergraduate tuition at the state’s public flagship school by $250 to $750 per year for four years to pay for increases in financial aid for needy students and to add faculty and student services in high-demand areas.
The plan, dubbed the Madison Initiative for Undergraduates, relies on more affluent families and private donors to subsidize financial aid for lower-income students and improvements to undergraduate education at a time when Gov. Jim Doyle is calling for budget cuts throughout the university system.
