A new analysis from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Applied Population Laboratory shows that poverty is on the rise in Wisconsin. In 2014, the most recent data in the study, the poverty rate reached 13 percent, the highest rate since 1984. The rate increased 20 percent in just five years between 2010 and 2014.
Poverty in Wisconsin is at its highest level in 30 years, according to a trend analysis of U.S. Census data by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers.
According to a recently published University of Wisconsin Applied Population Laboratory report, the state’s poverty level has worsened significantly in the last several years despite economic growth.
The lab’s analysis of U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey data collected between 2005-09 and 2010-14 revealed poverty reached 13 percent — its highest level in 30 years — during the latter period, Malia Jones, assistant scientist at the Applied Population Laboratory, said.
Three UW-Madison professors have been selected as Sloan Research Fellows, one of the top awards given to young researchers.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is one of three schools working with non-profit research institute SRI International under a $5.3 million federal grant to develop technology to thwart particularly costly cyberattacks.
Scientists at the University of Wisconsin have developed a new energy-harvesting technology capable of capturing energy produced as humans walk. WSJ’s Monika Auger reports. Photo: UW-Madison College of Engineering
Balance is like breathing. It’s essential, and we take it for granted when it comes easily. Without a reliable sense of balance dressing, cooking, driving and many job skills become exhausting tasks.
UW-Madison graduate student Amy Alstad released survey findings Friday about human influence on the rate of species change in Wisconsin prairies.
Researchers in the United States who have infected monkeys with Zika virus made their first data public last week. But instead of publishing them in a journal, they have released them online for anyone to view — and are updating their results day by day. The team is posting raw data on the amount of virus detected in the blood, saliva and urine of three Indian rhesus macaques, which they injected with Zika on 15 February. “This is the first time that our group has made data available in real time,” says David O’Connor, a virologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a leader of the project, whose scientists have dubbed themselves ZEST (the Zika experimental-science team). He hopes that releasing the data will help to speed up research into the nature of the virus that has spread across the Americas.
The selling of sociology’s next great hope began with a long talk between a literary agent and her potential client. Jill Kneerim was a veteran dealmaker known for helping Boston-area academics publish trade books. She’d done it for Stephen Greenblatt, shepherding the Harvard Shakespearean’s Will in the World (W.W. Norton) onto the bestseller list. She’d done it for Caroline Elkins, also of Harvard, whose history of colonialism in Kenya, Imperial Reckoning (Henry Holt and Company), won the Pulitzer Prize. Now here was Matthew Desmond, an urban ethnographer eager to fight poverty. Another Cambridge star paying a visit to her office near Boston’s North Station.
After an anti-abortion organization released videos portraying Planned Parenthood as callously haggling the price of aborted fetuses, legislators have attempted to restrict research using such material, while scientists have found their work limited and riskier. Interviews with Anita Bhattacharyya, Gail Robertson and Alta Charo.
UW-Madison scientist Dave Pagliarini has been selected by Pres. Barack Obama as a recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.
The first comprehensive study of lower extremity body injuries in high school athletes shows those who specialize in one sport are at a much higher risk of injury.
Quoted: “We found overall slightly less than 40 percent specialized in a sport, meaning they really concentrated on that one sport. They may play in multiple sports, but concentrated on one,” says Tim McGuine, senior scientist at UW School of Medicine and Public Health and author of the study’s findings.
Quoted: Claudio Gratton, professor of entomology, who worked on the pollinator proposal for the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection; Paul Mitchell, associate professor and co-director of the UW-Extension’s Nutrient and Pest Management Program; Russell Groves, an insect ecologist and vegetable crop specialist at the UW-Madison Department of Entomology.
Noted: By 2012, virtually all corn seed, and about 30 percent of soybean seed planted in Wisconsin and across the country, was coated with neonics, said Paul Mitchell, a UW-Madison associate professor who co-directs the UW-Extension’s Nutrient and Pest Management Program. Neonic-coated seeds also are widely used on other crops such as potatoes and in lawns and gardens. Also: Russell Groves, an insect ecologist and vegetable crop specialist at the UW-Madison Department of Entomology, said farmers continually search for ways to reduce the risk of crop loss due to pests in part to meet consumer demand for low food prices. Groves said federal policies also incentivize larger farms, where natural pest solutions are less practical.
They were just tiny black dots on sesame stalks, unnoticed except to the trained eye.
Noted: Coyote meeting, chat: A public meeting on the Milwaukee County coyote trapping and tracking project will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Monday at Wil-O-Way Underwood, 10602 Underwood Parkway, Wauwatosa. Researchers from the UW-Madison Urban Canid Project will discuss coyote ecology, coyote-human conflict and behavior modification as well as ongoing monitoring and management efforts. Representatives of the Milwaukee County Parks Department and DNR also will be on hand.
The first time the sociologist Matthew Desmond rode along during an eviction, he was shocked by the suddenness of “seeing your house turn into not your house in seconds.”
About 60 years ago, renowned University of Wisconsin-Madison Botany Professor John Curtis and some of his students did a survey of plants growing in hundreds of prairie remnants in southern Wisconsin. Thirty years later, researcher Mark Leach returned to those same sites to find that many of those species had disappeared.
An ambitious project to map the human brain by the National Institutes of Health has funded a four-year, $5 million statewide study to image the brains of people with epilepsy. Researchers at UW-Madison and the Medical College of Wisconsin have joined the NIH Human Connectome Project, a national library of medical imaging data being used to create maps of human brain connectivity.
Free memory screenings and caregiving workshops will be part of a University of Wisconsin Health event in Madison dedicated to raising awareness of Alzheimer’s disease in African-American communities.
Among the legislation passes is a bill to provide $50,000 in additional funding annually for Alzheimer’s research at UW-Madison
Noted: The 10-bill package includes proposals to spend $50,000 for virtual dementia tours, in which participants wear goggles to simulate dementia effects, and give the University of Wisconsin-Madison an additional $50,000 for Alzheimer’s research.
A University of Wisconsin assistant professor co-authored a paper which projects the impact of four different CO2 emission scenarios by 2300. Shaun Marcott, assistant professor in the Department of Geoscience at University of Wisconsin, is the co-author of a perspective paper published in Nature Climate Change on Feb. 8.
The state Assembly is set to approve a package of legislation designed to help people cope with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
The 10-bill package includes proposals to spend $50,000 for virtual dementia tours, in which participants wear goggles to simulate dementia effects, and give the University of Wisconsin-Madison an additional $50,000 for Alzheimer’s research.
Quoted: “We’re trying to make the campus more accessible as a destination for the best and brightest students in our state,” said Ilia Guzei, director of the X-ray crystallography lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the organizer of the contest.
Noted: According to a UW study, nearly 90% of Wisconsin’s immigrant dairy workers are from Mexico. Some of them have come here from other states, such as Arizona, that have passed laws cracking down on undocumented workers.
Low oil prices are restraining the ability of renewable energy technologies to compete, but work forges ahead on alternatives to petroleum-based fuels.
U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin column: I have worked across party lines with U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and introduced the Next Generation (NextGen) Researchers Act. Our bipartisan legislation builds opportunities for new researchers, helps address the debt burden that young scientists face today, and invests in the future of research, science and innovation. This common-sense proposal, which cleared Senate committee consideration this month, would create the “Next Generation Researchers Initiative” in the NIH Office of the Director to coordinate all NIH policies aimed at promoting opportunities for new researchers and earlier research independence. The legislation also directs the NIH to consider recommendations from a National Academy of Sciences comprehensive study and report on fostering the next generation of researchers.
Letter to the editor from UW-Madison undergraduate student, Ryan Prestil, president of the Student Society for Stem Cell Research, opposing current efforts in the state to restrict fetal tissue research.
Noted: A University of Wisconsin-Madison research project looking at the habits and health of urban coyotes and foxes has emerged as something of an ambassador for the animals. “What we’re really trying to do with this project, in addition to understanding how these animals are using the urban landscape and understanding how health or not healthy these animals are, is trying to engage the public and educate the public and increase the public’s tolerance of these animals so we can increase a peaceful coexistence,” said David Drake, the lead researcher for the UW Urban Canid Project, which studies the urban habits of both coyotes and their cuter, less-threatening cousins, the foxes.
UW Madison professor and researcher Kenneth Cameron made a monumental discovery this week.
Fungi samples found by George Washington Carver, the famous African American scientist, were discovered after sitting untouched for over fifty years.
Column cites research of Sohad Murrar, a doctoral candidate in social psychology at UW-Madison, who used the Canadian TV show “Little Mosque on the Prairie” to test whether entertainment media can reduce prejudice.
Noted: MM: How has the McPherson Eye Research Institute and its events enhanced the Madison community?
For those who have an interest in vision – in the broadest sense of the word – the McPherson ERI is a place where one can present or consider new ideas. The events that are presented range from cutting edge research to basic information about vision and eyes from the cellular to the cultural. By providing a greenhouse for research and ideas, the McPherson ERI helps to keep UW-Madison as a world leader in vision research. This, in turn, helps to foster growth and development in departments and labs throughout the UW, which brings in more resources that can benefit a number of other environments.
Q&A with Associate Professor of Engineering Laura Albert McLay about operations research, in which mathematical models are used to aid decision-making, offers much more benefit to the world than trying to win the lottery.
Despite the constant media attention the Zika virus has received so far in 2016, University of Wisconsin-Madison pathologist David O’Connor thinks people shouldn’t panic.
UW-Madison researchers published a journal Feb. 11 detailing how they genetically reprogrammed the most common type of cells in mammalian connective tissue into master heart cells.
The research team, led by Timothy J. Kamp, said that the technology they created has the possibility of producing a virtually unlimited amount of the three major types of cells in the human heart, according to a university release.
A group of UW-Madison engineers has discovered how to turn on and off specific genes within bacteria, according to a university press release.
“We were frustrated because synthetic biology is littered with examples of artificial factors that can turn on and turn off gene expression under different conditions, but they only work for certain genes,” said Brian Pfleger, a UW-Madison associate professor of chemical and biological engineering.
As the Zika virus continues to make headlines around the world, researchers here in Madison are working hard to find answers to questions surrounding the outbreak. Next Monday they are hoping to start their research on the virus’ effects.
“I’m excited about this in the same way a meteorologist would be excited about a hurricane,” said David O’Connor. He’s one of the professors heading the Zika virus study at UW, and there are many reasons why he is passionate about this study.
Believe it or not, Wisconsin is the Silicon Valley of sheep cheese.
A unique organic agricultural research opportunity in the form of a $2 million endowment has been created for UW-Madison with help from two organic food companies.
UW-Madison researchers plan next week to start monkey studies of Zika virus, which has caused an outbreak apparently linked to birth defects in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The National Institutes of Health is funding a Zika Virus at UW-Madison. While many research teams across the country are still drafting their proposals, a team led by UW-Madison Pathology professor Dave O’Connor and associate professor of Pathobiological Sciences Thomas Friedrich will begin their first study on Monday.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor Bill Tracy has become the school’s first organic agriculture researcher, inaugurating an endowed professorship that could lead to new advances in a field that might not otherwise see university research.
The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences is the recipient of the nation’s first endowed chair focused on plant breeding for organic crops, representatives of Organic Valley and Clif Bar & Company said today at a ceremony at the State Capitol. The endowment will be funded in perpetuity with a $1 million gift from the companies and matched by a $1 million gift from UW graduates John and Tashia Morgridge.
Noted: In the Journal of Adolescent Research, researchers from the University of Wisconsin and Bowling Green State University describe relationships as “intimate unions” that are “best conceived of as dynamic trajectories involving a heterogeneous and multi-directional array of transitions.” That’s academic for: you don’t really have a clue what’s going to happen. In a study of 792 young adults who were dating, about half of the respondents had tried to rekindle an old relationship; a few more, 57 percent, had at least had sex with an ex.
Shaun Marcott, an assistant professor of geoscience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is a co-author of a new article in Nature Climate Change that tracks the grim long-term effects of climate change on sea level, UW-Madison News reports.
A group of international climate scientists warning that if carbon pollution continues at its current rate, it will wreak havoc on the global climate for more than 10,000 years.
The college frenzy obsesses on key hurdles students must clear to snag a spot in a good college: taking tough courses and getting good grades, building an impressive list of extracurriculars, gathering the financial resources to pay the bills. But the simple fact of a student’s street address can be as big a hurdle as any.
Fresh produce isn’t usually on the menu for astronauts in space, but some University of Wisconsin-Madison botanists are working with NASA to get astronauts gardening.
University of Wisconsin-Madison mechanical engineers have developed technology that could reduce reliance on the batteries in mobile devices by simply plugging a device into your shoe, according to a release. (Researchers: Tom Krupenkin, professor of mechanical engineering, and J. Ashley Taylor, senior scientist in Department of Mechanical Engineering.)
Noted: The University of Wisconsin School of Business student has collaborated with Askar Choudhury, James Jones and Raquiba Choudhury of Illinois State University, using an innovative statistical approach to analyze data by finding a trigger point that would initiate payment for crop loss through a simplified, index-based insurance policy. The approach is designed to be less costly than traditional agricultural insurance policies.
UW-Madison’s Jorge Osorio, Matthew Aliota and Jonathon Patz speak about the spread of Zika virus, funding issues in infectious disease research, the interdisciplinary nature of the work, and the role of climate and climate change in the global spread of the virus.
Matthew Aliota, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine who helped detect Zika in Colombia, discusses a possible reason why Colombia has not yet seen cases of the rare birth defect linked to the virus in Brazil.
The spread of mosquito-born Zika virus, which has been linked to birth defects in children of infected women, has led to travel advisories for pregnant women and, in some countries, advice that women delay pregnancy entirely. What is Zika, and how can countries fight it? Joy Cardin talks to UW-Madison’s Kristen Bernard about how Zika is spreading, the challenges it poses, and how big a problem it may become in the U.S.
CLEMSON — Gloria Ladson-Billings may not be the first to name-drop hip-hop superstars like Lupe Fiasco, Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj in the halls of higher education.
Noted: The bills would lay out $50,000 to purchase licenses for a virtual dementia tour; $50,000 in additional funding annually for Alzheimer’s research at UW-Madison; and $1 million in additional money annually for the state’s Alzheimer’s family and caregiver support program.
Noted: In addition, Johnson says she’ll work with UW-Madison to get funding to watch for the particular mosquito that caries the virus.
A new study from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the University of Minnesota found lithium ion batteries used to power laptops and cell phones can be harmful to important microorganisms in soil.
The Legislature’s budget committee is set to vote on five bills to help people cope with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.The bills would lay out $50,000 to purchase licenses for a virtual dementia tour, a program that simulates dementia; $50,000 in additional funding annually for Alzheimer’s research at UW-Madison; $1 million in additional money annually for the state’s Alzheimer’s family and caregiver support program; $465,000 in ongoing funding to support four more dementia care specialists spread across counties with fewer than 150,000 people and a state specialist trainer; and an additional $250,000 in fiscal year 2016-17 for state grants for training county and regional crisis teams on providing help to dementia sufferers.
