The positive impact the FHLBanks have on housing affordability and a functioning mortgage market in this country has also been clearly demonstrated. A recent University of Wisconsin study estimates that the activities of the FHLBanks reduce interest payments on mortgages by $13 billion each year and make more than $130 billion of additional mortgage credit available each year.
Education researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have secured a federal contract to open and operate a national center to combat growing mental health concerns in K-12 schools.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison determined that heating compost or soil to at least 104 degrees for three days will kill the cocoons, but solarizing isn’t an option in a bed containing plants.
She turned to the internet for help. After a little detective work, she sent off her sample to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It was soon confirmed she had a case of Asiatic garden beetle in her midst, the first ever seen in Minnesota.
Teaching faculty in the University of Wisconsin Integrative Biology Department Scott Hartman spoke on how thermal modeling is an effective tool for predicting the End-Triassic Extinction period Sept. 28 at Birge Hall.
Dr. Dixon Kaufman, director of UW Health’s Transplant Research Center, worked with a team of UW-Madison researchers and specialists at Stanford University to optimize compatibility between host and recipient transplants.
“If you have a dysregulated dopaminergic, serotonergic or neurogenic system, exercise could help re-regulate that system,” UW professor Dane Cook says.
Michael Light, another co-author of the study and a professor of sociology at UW-Madison, noted the percentage of Black men more likely to go to college has increased and is trending upward.
In their research, which was a collaborative project with scientists at USDA-ARS, UW-Madison, UC-Davis, Bayer, and other collaborators from Poland, the authors also found that areas of the carrot genome under strongest selection by humans were genes involved in flowering.
While we know that stress is associated with health problems, plenty of people with high-stress lives are thriving. How is that possible? In 2012, researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison published a seminal study looking at how 28,000 people perceived stress in their lives.
In a recent publication, University of Wisconsin Life Sciences Communication assistant professor Sedona Chinn and University of Michigan Communication and Media assistant professor Ariel Hasell look into the effects of “doing your own research” on COVID-19.
Access gaps, economic adversity and school segregation in Wisconsin lead to racial disparities in educational outcomes, with efforts growing to expand learning options for diverse groups of students.
A detailed study done by the University of Wisconsin, show that despite the widespread agreement on both sides of the isle that the tax code needed radical reform, every reform effort was cautious in the extreme.
Every year, the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin catalogs thousands of new books a year for various measures of diversity. In 1994, just 2% of children’s books were either by or about the Latino community — a community that comprises nearly 20% of America.
To dig deeper, the researchers used the participants’ MRI scans and further assessed whether they lived in disadvantaged neighborhoods based on their zip code’s area deprivation index (ADI). The team was able to determine that by using Neighborhood Atlas, which was developed at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine’s Public Health.
olleges might think that essays help open up opportunities for students, but the opposite could be true. A new study by Taylor K. Odle, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Preston Magouirk, a data scientist at the District of Columbia College Access Program, looked at the nearly 300,000 students who started but never submitted an application through the Common App.
The first of the Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences colloquium series began Sept. 25 spotlighting University of Wisconsin professor Daniel Vimont’s summer research. Vimont developed stochastic-dynamic models to understand and predict the 2023 El Niño event.
Michael Light is a UW-Madison sociology professor and co-author of the study.
“Those are still stark inequalities and still very high numbers,” he said in a statement accompanying the study’s release. “But it’s important to note that, across the country, this is not getting worse. It hasn’t plateaued. It’s getting better.”
He also be happens to be on a six-person team from UW-Madison that has developed a machine-learning network that can help neurosurgeons mitigate the impact of cerebral hemorrhaging.
Soon, they’ll need even more help. The average age of a farmer is 57.5 years old, according to the US Department of Agriculture’s most recent estimates. With older farmers about to retire, estimates indicate that young people won’t be able to fill the gap; A 2022 survey conducted by The National Young Farmers Coalition and the University of Wisconsin Survey Center found that this is primarily because land is so expensive.
Wisconsin job numbers reached a record high in July, at more than 3 million. However, a new report from COWS – High Road Strategy Center says beneath the bigger picture is a troubling decline of women participating in the workforce, falling below 60% for the first time since the late 1980s. Laura Dresser, associate director at COWS, dives deeper into the report’s numbers.
Associate dean for clinical trials at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health Dr. Nasia Safdar spoke about “Gracefully Sharing Your Awesomeness with the World” Thursday. Safdar’s talk is part of UWSMPH’s Pathology Grand Rounds series.
Badger fans packed the stadium for the season opener Saturday despite temperatures soaring over 90 degrees.
For example, SHINE Technologies in Janesville is looking to use fusion to recycle fissile material from reactors, past and future. Company founder Greg Piefer said climate change can’t wait to be solved by fusion energy, but safe fission energy is possible now. The nuclear engineering programs at UW-Madison are also a part of that research mix.
Keith Gennuso of the University of Wisconsin’s Population Health Institute says the reason Hispanic life expectancy is worse in El Norte is likely linked to centuries of discrimination. “Unjust housing policies and forced land dispossessions, immigration enforcement, racial profiling, taxation laws and historical trauma, among numerous other issues, all act as barriers to equal health opportunities for these populations at the border, with known impacts across generations,” he noted.
University of Wisconsin-Madison population geneticist Aaron Ragsdale, who wasn’t involved in the research, says the study raises some very intriguing questions about human evolution during a time period from which both genetic and fossil data are relatively scarce. “I am eager to see if their results are replicated using other methods,” Ragsdale says.
Adrian Treves, a predator-prey ecologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who sits on Peer’s board, said no proper studies exist on whether the hunts protect livestock. Rather, more studies have been conducted on how the kills affect populations of caribou, moose, elk and other wildlife, and a 2020 meta analysis of available science found little evidence that they increase populations.
“With cats, there is excessive vocalization and disorientation and changes in interaction with humans or other animals, such as hissing and swatting,” said Starr Cameron, clinical associate professor in small animal neurology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison’s School of Veterinary Medicine, who studies cat dementia. “Some cats are up all night and vocalizing. They go outside the litter box or can’t find it.”
Many us of are familiar with the phrases ’Hey, Alexa!’ or ’Hey, Siri!’ But how familiar are the voice activated systems with your own voice? Digital security engineers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have found these speaker identification systems can be easily fooled.
Recent research from the Wisconsin Paper Council examined the often-overlooked role of the state’s paper converters in the state’s paper industry. Scott Bowe, a professor in the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, explains what paper converters do and why they’re booming in Wisconsin.
A research team at the UW-Madison is using drones to study erosion along Lake Michigan. We hear from the lead scientist about methods to track where eroded soil ends up and how the research might prevent more shoreline loss.
New research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison shows that talking through a PVC tube can alter the sound of someone’s voice enough to trick these types of systems.
Kassem Fawaz, an assistant professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering, led the research. He said this type of voice identification security is becoming popular for applications like banking. So, he wanted to test its limits.
Professor of electrical and computer engineering Kassem Fawaz and doctoral student Shimaa Ahmed have developed a mathematical model that could allow almost anyone to imitate the resonance of another person’s voice with a simple tube. As long as a person could nail down the frequency of a voice with a PVC pipe that, based on the algorithm, had the correct width and length, they could trick the security technology 60% of the time.
The nonprofit National Young Farmers Coalition surveyed more than 4,300 farmers ages 40 and younger in 2022, with the help of the University of Wisconsin Survey Center. The biggest challenge faced by current, former and aspiring young farmers: finding land.
Noted: Wisconsin is known for having tight elections. According to the UW-Madison’s Elections Research Center, the margin between two front-runners in Wisconsin is often less than 1 percent in four of the last six elections between 2000 and 2020. Only two wins, from former President Barack Obama, stood out as sizable wins for a candidate, according to the director of the research center, Barry Burden, per USA Today.
Dr. Megan Moreno, a professor of pediatrics with UW Health Kids, said the study had a surprising impact.
“I think there was a lot of skepticism around whether a five-minute conversation with a pediatrician would have much effect,” she said. “The answer was, ‘Yes, absolutely.’ A pediatrician isn’t going to be able to go into great detail, but if our intervention got kids to talk to their parents, that is great.”
Most people who have had cancer drink, including some at high levels during treatment, says a study involving a UW Health cancer doctor, even though alcohol increases the risk of some types of cancer and can make treatment for any cancer riskier and less effective.
Americans on private insurance as well. But the greatest beneficiaries may be the poorest seniors: Studying Medicare claims data, researchers at the University of Wisconsin’s School of Medicine and Public Health and the University of Southern California’s Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics projected that patients had filled 50,000 more insulin prescriptions for $35 each month between January and April — and about 20,000 of them might never have been filled without the law. Rebecca Myerson, a professor who helped write the study, said the data suggest the IRA is providing some financial relief to patients who would have “otherwise gone without” insulin.
It may be time to break out the face masks again.
COVID-19 cases are on the rise nationwide due to a new omicron subvariant, EG.5, nicknamed “Eris.” Though Wisconsin isn’t getting hit hard yet, hospitalizations are up 14.3% and deaths are up 10% in the last week, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
A new study from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health finds that even a brief conversation about social media with their doctor can improve teens’ behavior on the platforms.
“I think there was a lot of skepticism around whether a five-minute conversation with a pediatrician would have much effect,” Dr. Megan Moreno of UW Health Kids and a professor of pediatrics at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health said. “The answer was, ‘Yes, absolutely.’ A pediatrician isn’t going to be able to go into great detail, but if our intervention got kids to talk to their parents, that is great.”
While some radiopharmaceuticals have been utilized in thyroid cancer treatment for decades, new radiation drugs are showing promise in many other areas, according to Dr. Steve Cho, a professor and section chief of the nuclear medicine section of the Department of Radiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Medicine and Public Health.
Research that makes pathogens more dangerous or likely to spread would be banned at Wisconsin colleges and universities under a bill proposed by Republican state legislators, who point to incidents and controversy involving bird flu studies at UW-Madison.
The CDC established the National Wastewater Surveillance System with Wisconsin and five others as founding members. Wisconsin demonstrated the value of having an academic, public health and state lab all working together on the effort, said Martin Shafer, a senior scientist at UW-Madison and the Wisconsin State Lab of Hygiene.
“It was an amazing couple of years where close to 70 or 80 different jurisdictions (were getting started),” said Shafer, adding, “Everybody kind of did something a little bit different. So that spurred a lot of innovation.”
Journalism professor Mike Wagner audited the studies that granted academic researchers around the nation access to Facebook’s internal records. The studies were produced in partnership with social scientists at Meta, the company that owns Facebook.
In the early 2000s, researchers at the University of Wisconsin found that Ricard’s brain produced gamma waves — which have been linked to learning, attention and memory — at such pronounced levels that the media named him “the world’s happiest man.”
The notion of planting miles of trees to hold back encroaching deserts is misguided and damaging; we should promote programs that secure livelihoods and respect dryland ecologies instead
Co-authored by nature-society geographers Matthew Turner of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Diana Davis of the University of California-Davis) and Emily Yeh of the University of Colorado Boulder.
Senator Tammy Baldwin is celebrating millions of dollars for the Marshfield Agricultural Research station– or MARS.
Baldwin toured the facility in Stratford in which she helped them get $6-million dollars.
The senator met with officials from UW Madison and their facility in Stratford to talk about the importance of funding for the school’s Wisconsin Rural Partnership program, and how crucial it is that farms receive adequate funding.
Now, new research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison could give doctors a better understanding of which patients are affected by these strains by mapping the location of antibiotic resistance in great detail.
Laurel Legenza is a postdoctoral researcher at UW-Madison’s School of Pharmacy and lead author of the new study. She used data from cases of E. coli infections at three Wisconsin health care systems to map out where bacteria were susceptible to two common antibiotic treatments.
With an annual economic impact of about $105 billion, according to a UW-Madison study, agriculture is one of the three pillars of the state’s economy, along with tourism and manufacturing. The dairy industry contributes about $46 billion to that total.
A new study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and the University of Southern California Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics found that the $35 cap on monthly out-of-pocket costs of insulin for Medicare beneficiaries has led to a significant increase of insulin prescription fills, especially for Black and Latino patients.
A conservative estimate from a recent University of Wisconsin-Madison study puts the number of undocumented Hispanic workers on medium-to-large farms at roughly 6,200. That figure excludes the many immigrant workers on smaller farms, those with fewer than 500 cows.
Satellite imagery of Typhoon Khanun as the eye passed south of Okinawa on Tuesday. (UW-Madison CIMSS)
A series of Meta-supported are finding Facebook’s algorithms alone weren’t responsible for harmful polarization in the 2020 presidential election cycle. But an independent audit found Meta maintained strong control over what data to provide researchers for study. We talk with Mike Wagner, a professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UW-Madison, about research into the power of social media algorithms and what makes an independent study.
Feng He, a senior scientist with the Center for Climatic Research within the Nelson Institute of Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said Wisconsin would see some pretty abrupt changes under a collapsed current, likely mirroring the major warming episode between 48,000 and 68,000 years ago.
Michael Wagner, a social scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who was asked to observe the work and wrote a commentary accompanying the Science papers , says Meta’s business interests may have influenced the project at some points. For instance, he says Meta researchers believed that the experimental studies changing users’ feeds were unlikely to show any big effects—and they pushed to get these papers done first. “You could read it as ‘the big splash is going to be that there aren’t huge effects that are so deleterious to democracy that we need to have a bunch of new regulations on our platform.’”
“It’s a little too buttoned up to say this shows Facebook is not a huge problem or social media platforms aren’t a problem,” said Michael W. Wagner, a professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication, who served as an independent observer of the collaboration, spending hundreds of hours sitting in on meetings and interviewing scientists. “This is good scientific evidence there is not just one problem that is easy to solve.”
Still, collaborations with platforms may not be the model for research going forward and perhaps it shouldn’t be, according to Michael W. Wagner, professor in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication, who served as the collaboration’s independent rapporteur.
The work was not a model for future research since it required direct participation from Meta, which held all the data and provided researchers only with certain kinds, said Michael Wagner, a professor of mass communications at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who was an independent auditor on the project. The researchers said they had final say over the papers’ conclusions.
“Meta set the agenda in ways that affected the overall independence of the researchers,” wrote Michael Wagner, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
