A recent study looked at the relationship between meth and opioid use with non-fatal drug overdoses in rural areas across 10 states, including Wisconsin. We speak with an author of the paper on who uses multiple drugs and how they can best receive treatment, Dr. Randall Brown.
The findings “challenge our ideas about what sleep is,” says Benjamin Baird, a researcher who studies dreams at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and was not involved in this study. Sleep has classically been defined as unresponsiveness to external environmental stimuli—and that feature is still typically part of the definition today, Baird explains. “This work pushes us to think carefully—rethink, maybe—about some of those fundamental definitions about the nature of sleep itself and what’s possible in sleep.“
The researchers, led by psychology professor Dr. Nicholas Buttrick of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, hypothesize that this correlation exists because of the Reconstruction period in American history, which occurred immediately after the Civil War — “a moment when a massive upsurge in the availability of firearms co-occurred with a worldview threat from the emancipation and the political empowerment of Black Southerners.”
Wisconsin researchers have turned to sharks to develop new ways to detect and treat cancer. Dr. Aaron LeBeau, an associate professor of pathology and radiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has been leading the research.
In 2002, 3% of kids’ books were about Latinos, according to the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Simon Goldberg at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and colleagues compiled data from 14 meta-analyses including a total of 145 randomized-controlled trials (RCTs) of mental health apps among 47,940 participants. The sample size may seem impressive, but the results were weak. Overall, the authors didn’t find convincing evidence that apps were effective, only “highly suggestive evidence” of efficacy for anxiety, stress, depression, and quality of life
Most people don’t think of their own households as reproducing sexist societal dynamics, research by Allison Daminger, a sociology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has shown. That would be too painful. Instead, we find ways to rationalize the housework disparity, making excuses like “She’s a perfectionist” and “He’s laid back.” This isn’t really true — as Daminger points out, some men who claim they aren’t detail-oriented hold jobs as project managers or surgeons.
Climate hazards like flooding, drought and wildfires are making known infectious diseases worse for people, according to a new study.
The research identified more than 1,000 pathways for events tied to climate change like extreme rainfall, sea level rise and heatwaves to make people sick, according to Jonathan Patz, one of the study’s co-authors.
“We’ve known for a long time the impacts of climate change,” said Patz, a professor with the Nelson Institute and Department of Population Health Sciences at UW-Madison, describing direct effects like heat waves and mosquito- and water-borne disease. “In this study, these viral and bacterial diseases show up as worsening from the effects of climate change.”
UW-Madison scientists studying the genetics of orangutans in zoos were stumped. The lineages they found didn’t match those made public when the orangutan genome was sequenced in 2011.
Quoted: “Catching the star engulfing a planet is going to be difficult to do” because it’s “a short-lived event,” said Melinda Soares-Furtado, a NASA Hubble Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a co-author of the study. “But the signatures that are left behind can be observable for much, much longer — even billions of years.”
University of Wisconsin researchers found a drug that reduces asthma attacks in children living in low-income urban neighborhoods, according to a study published in The Lancet.
Noted: The non-scientific survey the Ideas Lab has been conducting as part of its Main Street Agenda project has spotted a similar partisan breakdown, with Republicans far more likely to rank inflation and the state of the economy as their top concern heading into this fall’s midterm elections. The project is a collaboration between the USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin, Wisconsin Public Radio and the La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
24/7 Tempo reviewed health data from the 2022 County Health Rankings & Roadmaps, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute joint program, to identify the most obese metro areas in every state.
Ah, internships: a time for exploring new interests, hands-on learning, and…exploitation?
Not always. But often. Data from the Center for Research on College-Workforce Transitions at the University of Wisconsin-Madison estimates somewhere between 31% and 58% of internships in the United States don’t pay.
When a woman answering a customer-service number for InSinkErator was asked if the company can cite any research about the effects of using disposals in homes with septic systems, she pointed to a 1998 paper on the company’s website in which a company engineer summarizes and interprets research done at the University of Wisconsin.
People hospitalized with COVID-19 in the first 20 months of the pandemic were more likely to die if they had active cancer but not if they had a past history of cancer, according to a large new study led by UW-Madison researchers.
Chemotherapy and other treatments can suppress immune systems and cancer can deplete other physical reserves, making it harder to fight infections like COVID-19, said Dr. Margaret Nolan, the UW-Madison scientist who headed up the study.
Quoted: “We’re looking at 18 different varieties from around the world and which ones can maybe produce the best grain or the best for future use if industrial hemp becomes more of a mainstream crop,” UW-Madison Extension Chippewa County Agricultural agent, Jerry Clark, said.
UW-Madison Extension Buffalo County Agricultural Educator, Carl Duley, says the fiber and grain produced from industrial hemp has many different uses.
“Right now they are approved for human food, not for animal feed at this point, but they are used a lot in health food stores like granola,” Duley said. “There’s a lot of flour made after the oil is squeezed out.”
Climate change is an issue that scientists across the globe have been trying to combat since the late 1800s.
Warming temperatures and increased rainfall over the past few decades have brought uncertainty to Wisconsin’s agricultural sector. One of the major causes of this erratic weather is the greenhouse gasses that continue to warm the planet.
But a small group of scientists at the University of Wisconsin are working on a solution.
An antibody drug decreased asthma attacks by 27% in Black and Hispanic children and adolescents who have severe asthma, are prone to asthma attacks and live in low-income urban neighborhoods, a federally funded study led by UW-Madison researchers found.
Medications like mepolizumab have “revolutionized” treatment for adults with severe asthma, but data in children and diverse populations had been limited, said Dr. Daniel Jackson, a UW School of Medicine and Public Health professor of pediatrics who led the study, funded by the National Institutes of Health.
From the 1930s through the 1970s, roughly a third of women in Puerto Rico were sterilized under population-control policies that coerced women after their second child, according to a publication by the University of Wisconsin.
Researchers from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and collaborating institutions have published a new collection of research papers that identify ways to improve emergency care for people with dementia.
Daniel Grabois, an assistant professor of horn at UW-Madison, joins the show to tell us what electro-acoustic music is, and to tell us about the Electro-Acoustic Research Space that makes it possible for him and his students to experiment with instruments.
“If climate is changing, the risk of these diseases are changing,” said study co-author Dr. Jonathan Patz, director of the Global Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Glioblastoma is one of the most deadly forms of cancer, often returning with a vengeance after surgery to remove it. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have now developed an immunity-boosting hydrogel that can be injected into the brain after surgery to clear out remaining cancer stem cells.
The most likely issue to be experienced with a poorly drained houseplant is root rot. As explained by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Division of Horticulture, this is the common name for any number of diseases that kill off a plant by destroying its roots. Many of these diseases are caused by four different species of fungi, which are commonly found in wet soil: Pythium, Phytophthora, Rhizoctonia solani, and Fusarium.
A University of Wisconsin analysis recently ranked DuPage the healthiest county in the state when it comes to health factors like smoking and access to doctors.
Downsizing a workforce by 1% can lead to a 31% increase in voluntary turnover, according to a study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the University of South Carolina.
Dr. Donoughe contacted Christopher Rycroft, an applied mathematician now at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and showed him the dancing nuclei. ‘Wow!’ Dr. Rycroft said. He had never seen anything like it, but he recognized the potential for a data-powered collaboration; he and Jordan Hoffmann, then a doctoral student in Dr. Rycroft’s lab, joined the study.
Noted: Beyond Usona, the Midwest has been waking up to psychedelic medicine’s potential. UW-Madison and University of Michigan both started research centers for psychedelic drugs in 2021. Ohio State launched such a center earlier this year. University of Chicago has a leading researcher in the field in Harriet de Wit. And the Medical College of Wisconsin has one of the best serotonin-based pharmacology researchers in John McCorvy.
Scientists identified the moth with the help of the University of Wisconsin Diagnostic Lab.
Guests include assistant scientist Tyler Lark and Yanhua Xie, a postdoctoral research associate, both at UW-Madison’s Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE).
We’ve never seen anything quite like this in our politics.
There have been bitter divisions in the past — the Civil War and Vietnam Era come to mind — but at no time in our history has politics been so fraught with anger, distrust and disinformation — and turbocharged by algorithms that reward fighting and conflict and discourage deliberation.
We need to find our way through this thicket, and I think it begins with encouraging thoughtful discussion.
That’s why we’re collaborating this year with the La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Wisconsin Public Radio on a project we’re calling Wisconsin’s Main Street Agenda.
In 2020, a study from the University of Wisconsin–Madison found “considerably lower felony arrest rates among undocumented immigrants compared to legal immigrants and native-born US citizens.”
A UW-Madison educational center celebrated its 30-year anniversary Tuesday.
The OJ Noer Turfgrass Educational Facility is a research facility for professors to study and develop turf grass for the state. It is located on South Pleasant View Road in Verona.
The news came as no surprise to Karen Oberhauser, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum. A globally recognized expert on monarch butterflies, Oberhauser has been studying the species for nearly 40 years.
A 2020 study by the Department of Dermatology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison looked into the effects of prolonged exposure to UV and LED light used for gel polish manicures.
The United States has been overcome with extreme weather events over the past week from wildfires to droughts to floods. A new report from UW-Madison shows Wisconsin is also dealing with its fair share of climate change impacts, too.
Now, engineers at The Ohio State University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed battery-free sweat sensors that can measure several chemicals and give accurate readouts at a range of concentrations. Their sensors can be worn like a necklace or even implanted into the skin, where they would work throughout a user’s lifetime.
Noted: A University of Wisconsin economics professor estimated an annual loss of more than 6,000 jobs and roughly $5 billion in lost economic output due to reduced production or closure of refineries in the Upper Midwest. Experts for the tribe dispute those findings.
For the first time, researchers have learned two cancer drivers are linked together, and some top University of Wisconsin scientists are taking the credit for the incredible discovery.
“It’s an emergent field,” lead author Dr. Mo Chen said as she explored how the two most mutated cancers markers actually work together.
“Science teaches you that you have to be open to things that are unexpected,” UW Health’s Dr. Vince Cryns said of what they found underneath the microscope.
Metro level data was aggregated from county data in the 2022 County Health Rankings & Roadmaps, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute joint program.
Noted: Entomologist PJ Liesch is director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Insect Diagnostic Lab, aka @WiBugGuy on Twitter. He’s been studying the not-so-little buggers for nearly 15 years and graciously agreed to share his insights, offer some tips and bust a few myths.
Noted: In the summer, peak energy demand is pretty well matched with peak solar generation, as University of Wisconsin at Madison professor Gregory Nemet notes. People crank up the AC most when it’s sunny out.
Written by Andrea Dutton, an international expert on climate change and sea level rise who is a MacArthur Fellow and a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Noted: A study by the Medical College of Wisconsin and The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in March 2021 reported that firearm-related homicides in Milwaukee among non-Hispanic African Americans were 14.6 times greater than among white residents. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has also reported that there has been more than a dozen juvenile homicides as of late June.
“My research is [focused on] how to improve access, how to make sure that communities benefit from the research, and how to make life a little easier, at least on the healthcare side,” says Dr. Maria Mora Pinzón, a preventive medicine physician and scientist at the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who focuses her research on improving access to Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia (ADRD) services within the Latinx community.
“My research is [focused on] how to improve access, how to make sure that communities benefit from the research, and how to make life a little easier, at least on the healthcare side,” says Dr. Maria Mora Pinzón, a preventive medicine physician and scientist at the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who focuses her research on improving access to Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia (ADRD) services within the Latinx community.
Noted: It’s true the U.S. does not guarantee parental leave. And multiple studies have found the average cost of daycare in Wisconsin can cost as much as in-state tuition at a University of Wisconsin school, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Noted: Before the pandemic hit, 1 in 12 Wisconsinites were food insecure — meaning they couldn’t or were uncertain they could get the food they needed. Food insecurity is linked to children struggling more in school, worse health outcomes in all age groups and greater stress on families, according to the Wisconsin Food Security Project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Jo Handelsman, a UW-Madison biologist and director for the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, warns in her new book “A World Without Soil” that global soil erosion is an invisible crisis. We have the author on to discuss the harms of worldwide soil erosion and what can be done to stop it.
Noted: While the deadline to apply has already passed, the city will still allow families to participate in surveys regarding the program, which will be studied to learn more about the success of the program. These surveys will be given out three times at six months apart from each other, and participants will be compensated for their time, according to the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Noted: While the country as a whole is facing an obesity crisis, the problem is much more pronounced in some states. To identify the most obese states, 24/7 Tempo reviewed health data from the 2022 County Health Rankings & Roadmaps, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute joint program.
One of the experts Frederickson enlisted to help chart that path was James Tinjum, the director of the geological engineering program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
In addition to helping the city develop an easy-to-understand guide to PFAS for residents, Tinjum and some of his graduate students also launched research in Rhinelander, putting together a map of how water flows and interacts in the water table beneath the city and its surrounding areas.
“It’s a way to draw analysis to what types of compounds are contributing to the ‘fingerprints’ of the wells, whether it’s an organic sludge, (firefighting foam), or a more dispersed pattern of PFAS typical of landfill situations,” Tinjum said. “If we don’t have this information, we don’t know how to fix the problem.”
Noted: According to the study, which was conducted by researchers with the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the state Department of Health Services, 92% of the 4,452 adults surveyed said they had eaten fish within the last 12 months, with most of those surveyed reported eating fish they purchased. But because the fish were bought, instead of caught, those consuming the fish were likely to be less aware of the advisories.
Henry Anderson, one of the researchers involved in the study and a professor at the Nelson Institute of Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said to counter the lack of information, states in the Great Lakes region should focus on putting advisory information in areas they know people will be looking.
“You don’t go to the grocery store and go to the fish counter there and point to the salmon or sea bass or walleye and ask what the fish consumption advisory is,” Anderson said.
A recent survey of nearly 1,000 doctors by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Collaborative for Reproductive Equity puts the statistic at approximately 80 percent. A vast number of them expressed concern “that abortion laws will make it difficult for physicians to offer timely and appropriate care (93 percent) and for patients to receive the care they need (91 percent).”
Collin County is the healthiest county in the state, according to a new report from the University of Wisconsin’s Population Health Institute, which ranks the health of nearly every county in the country.
NASA is releasing new images from deep space thanks in part to a University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate.
Doctor Ken Sembach is the director of the Space Telescope Science Institute and helped launch the James Webb telescope back in December. Sembach stood with President Joe Biden while the first images from the telescope were released Monday night. Sembach graduated from University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1992.
Wisconsinites have the weight of the nation’s problems on their minds heading into the 2022 midterm elections, a nod to a state whose voters might be pivotal to the balance of power in the U.S. Senate this fall.
That was a key finding of the La Follette Policy Poll, a written survey sent to 5,000 state residents last fall, which asked about the issues that matter to them most and the problems they most want solved. Nearly 1,600 responded.
“The main goal was taking a pulse on what are the policy topics Wisconsinites care about most with the hopes of steering our elected officials and candidates toward those topics,” said Susan Webb Yackee, a professor of public affairs and director of the La Follette School of Public Affairs at UW-Madison.
Alexandra Villa has spent her summer examining rocks on the ocean floor in order to learn more about carbon dioxide in the sky.
Villa, a UW-Madison geoscience graduate student, is a scientist on board the International Ocean Discover Program’s Expedition 393. Her research will help examine ways to help combat climate change and make predictions about the Earth’s future climate.
