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Category: UW Experts in the News

Dinosaur diaries: Fossilised stomach contents reveal a dinosaur’s last meal

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Natural History Museum

Noted: A new study published in PLoS ONE by David Lovelace and team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison used a series of climate models and predictions of body temperature to investigate the biology of some Late Triassic dinosaurs. They investigated the small theropod Coelophysis bauri and large prosauropod Plateosaurus engelhardti during the hot, dry global greenhouse conditions that prevailed at that time.

‘This is shocking to me’: A voter ID case that could rattle Wisconsin’s fall election has been on hold for more than 3 years

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: Robert Yablon, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School who specializes in election law, called the case “a true outlier.”

“Seventh Circuit cases rarely sit for even one year after oral argument, much less three,” he said by email.

“The judges’ internal deliberations are confidential, so it’s impossible to know for sure what’s happening behind the scenes. The judges may have disagreements that they’re truly struggling to resolve. It’s also conceivable that they’re waiting to see if Wisconsin law changes in ways that moot the appeal or hoping that the U.S. Supreme Court eventually decides another voting-related case that offers further guidance on the relevant legal standards.”

In-person election, protests, bars opening. None appear to have spiked COVID cases. Experts hope public precautions keep spread in check

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: “This is just a sliver of the nearly 6 million people in Wisconsin,” said Patrick Remington, an epidemiologist and a professor of population health sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “These were highly visible and they could be high risk, but in reality, these were isolated events.”

“It is really hard to isolate one thing when so many things are going,” said Ajay Sethi, an epidemiologist and associate professor of population health sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“We cannot deny such an impact because of people on the street in public, standing close and shouting out and not wearing masks. That is ideal to spread the virus,” said Song Gao, assistant professor at the UW-Madison Geospatial Data Science Lab.

Oguzhan Alagoz, a professor of industrial engineering and infectious disease modeling expert at the UW-Madison, said his work shows social distancing adherence plays a major factor in the spread of coronavirus.

“Me and my family are also tired of being careful,” Alagoz said. “But unfortunately we cannot get super comfortable. … People should still be careful. Wearing masks, I think, is important, especially indoors.”

Local experts weigh in on black communities disproportionate share of COVID-19 deaths

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WKOW-TV 27

Quoted: UW-Health Doctor Tiffany Green studies the causes and consequences of racial disparities in health.

“We see across the country that Black Americans are dying disproportionately relative to our share of our population, and that is especially true here in Wisconsin unfortunately,” Green said.

“Currently we’re talking about what can we do about the police, but the police are not the only issue, every other social system was built on the same inequities,” Alvin Thomas, UW-Madison Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Human Development and Family Studies, said.

Facts behind concerns of COVID-19 second wave

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NBC-15

Quoted: NBC15 also reached out to Nasia Safdar, the Director of Infection Prevention at UW-Heath, and asked if a second wave of COVID-19 is likely to happen this fall. “I think with a new virus, it’s difficult to predict if it’s going to behave exactly like other viruses that are in the same family,” Safdar said.

What if all viruses disappeared?

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BBC Future

“If all viruses suddenly disappeared, the world would be a wonderful place for about a day and a half, and then we’d all die – that’s the bottom line,” says Tony Goldberg, an epidemiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “All the essential things they do in the world far outweigh the bad things.”

Hands-on curriculum teaches kids about mosquitoes

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Yale Climate Connections

“They think a lot about, well, what happens if this mosquito larva is in cold water or if it’s in really hot water? Or what happens if this adult female mosquito can’t find a shady spot to rest in?” says Lyric Bartholomay, an entomologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “It’s awesome what kinds of questions emerge.”

Opinion: Black men and boys are especially vulnerable to mental health challenges because of coronavirus and police violence

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Somewhere in America, a 14-year-old Black boy is playing video games in his room, and his parents are satisfied that they are keeping him safe from COVID-19. But then, in Minneapolis, George Floyd is killed by a police officer, and his parents are reminded that their son’s life could just as easily be snuffed out.

Author Alvin Thomas is an assistant professor in the Human Development and Family Studies Department in the School of Human Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Anti-immigration protests- more nuances than we think

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Mirage News

“This thesis brings us new knowledge about why people do engage themselves, it brings nuances to our understanding of the anti-immigrant sentiment, and none the less shows how storytelling can be a mobilizing force for this type of protest movements”, first opponent professor Katherine Cramer (University of Wisconsin-Madison) said during the disputation.

Activities to Help Fight Depression

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US News and World Report

“There has been increasing evidence that mindfulness meditation – or the ability to pay attention to one’s body, thoughts and emotions in a nonjudgmental way – can have an antidepressant effect,” says Richard Davidson, a professor of psychology and psychiatry and founder of the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. “The idea is that just like physical exercise builds muscle, we can build our mental muscles to become more aware and calm in the faces of challenges and stress.”

What We Know About Face Shields and Coronavirus

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Wall Street Journal

Some companies, including Midwest Prototyping, that already provide shields to hospitals are also starting to sell to consumers. Additionally, the University of Wisconsin-Madison offers open-source shield design for its Badger Shield, which is being used both in hospitals and nonmedical settings, says Lennon Rodgers, director of the university’s Grainger Engineering Design Innovation Lab.

UW-Madison professor explains disparities in American history education

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WISC-TV 3

Quoted: As a professor of Black history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Christy Clark-Pujara said she sees the disparities told in history from the students in her classes. “They come in with a lot of fairy-tale,” Clark-Pujara said. “The vast majority of them have no idea how central and important race-based slavery was to the economic stability of the colonies, nor do they have an understanding of the centrality of slavery and the founding of the nation.”

Justices rule LGBT people protected from job discrimination

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NBC-15

Quoted: In the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Neil Gorsuch sided with their four liberal-leaning counterparts, a move that UW-Madison political science professor Howard Schweber said is unusual. “It’s not as though it would have been impossible for Roberts and Gorsuch to join that other opinion,” Schweber said.

Trudeau’s 21-Second Pause Wasn’t An Awkward Silence

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Forbes

Beyond damage control, it’s become common practice in leadership to work in moments of silence. As University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of psychology and psychiatry Richie Davidson, a confidante of the Dalai Lama, shared in a recent interview with my home institute, his team regularly takes “2-3 minutes between meetings” to sit in meditation. What this silence does for the problem at hand, far from turning away, is allow us to turn toward it—the problem within ourselves.

black lives: In corporate reckoning on race, a skin-deep industry stands out

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Bloomberg

But beauty brands have historically enabled a “consistent erasure of people of color,” said Sami Schalk, a professor of gender and women’s studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Because black folks have not been in power, the beauty industry has always marginalized us and told us that our bodies and hair is not okay and needs to be changed.”

First-of-its-kind drive-thru veterinary clinic planned for Sun Prairie

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Wisconsin State Journal

Ruthanne Chun, a clinical professor in the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine and director of the UW Veterinary Care hospital and clinic, said she and 30 or 40 colleagues she contacted via a veterinary medical Listserv had never heard of the drive-thru concept before, excepting the switch during the pandemic to curbside service.

How to host a get-together as safely — and graciously — as possible

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The Washington Post

The number of guests should also depend on how much space you have. Monica Theis, a senior lecturer in the department of food science at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, notes that you need to keep social distancing even as people move around. “What’s the setup — can you really keep all guests six feet apart at all times?”

U.S. Insurers Use Lofty Estimates to Beat Back Coronavirus Claims

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Reuters

Only about 40% of small firms have business interruption coverage, according to the Insurance Information Institute, and most of the policies explicitly exclude pandemics, according to Tyler Leverty and Lawrence Powell, professors who specialize in insurance at the University of Wisconsin and the University of Alabama, respectively.

Decade of data dents idea of a ‘female protective effect’

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Spectrum News

“I don’t think we’re at the stage yet where we can go all in on one possible explanation,” says Donna Werling, assistant professor of genetics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who was not involved in the study. Instead, the sex bias is likely due to a combination of many factors, which could include both those that protect girls and those that sensitize boys, among others, she says.

Experts share tips to stay safe while at the pool

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NBC-15

Quoted: UW Expert in Virology Kristen Bernard said that chlorine is one of the best disinfectants for viruses like COVID-19.”Chlorine is one of the best things to kill viruses, it’s gonna kill any virus not just the coronavirus, any virus like polio, any virus we can get from water like that,” Bernard said.

What If Working From Home Goes on … Forever?

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The New York Times

“People start to synchronize their laughter and their facial expressions over time,” says Paula Niedenthal, a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an expert in the science of emotion. “And that’s really useful, because it helps us predict what’s coming next.” Constantly making micropredictions of our partner’s state — and having these turn out to be correct — is, it turns out, crucial to feeling connected.

Wisconsin’s ice cream makers rely on pints, carryout and new flavors as an unusual summer begins

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Noted: A three-day short course in ice cream making has been taught for decades at the University of Wisconsin’s Department of Dairy Science in Madison. Students travel from as far away as Asia, often with a goal to make ice cream with indigenous ingredients and flavors.

“Certain ingredients behave differently when added to ice cream,” explains Scott Rankin, who heads the UW program. “Alcoholic beverages are one example. You can’t just add them” without consequences.

Summer internships are canceled or going virtual

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The Washington Post

The novel coronavirus’s overall impact on internships and entry-level hiring could be huge. “I think this will end up being a pretty devastating event for college students,” said Matthew Hora, director of the Center for Research on College-Workforce Transitions at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

How K-Pop Fans Are Supporting Black Lives Matter

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The Atlantic

But by 2018, young Harry Styles fans were exerting pressure from the bottom-up: They started bringing Black Lives Matter flags to his concerts and urging him on Twitter to recognize the cause, wrote Allyson Gross, a PhD student at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, in a recent paper on how fans identify with celebrities and view them as representatives for their values. They were guiding him toward action, hoping “to mobilize his image for their own political purpose,” she argued. (The pressure campaign was largely successful.)

Borsuk: On the education front, one way to move from anger to action would be to make sure all youngsters are proficient in reading

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Noted: I read this past week an article in the New York University Review of Law and Social Change by McKenna Kohlenberg, a Milwaukee area native who is in the home stretch of getting both her law degree and a master’s degree in educational leadership and policy analysis from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

It uses Madison as a case study in what Kohlenberg calls the “illiteracy-to-incarceration pipeline.” She cites research that 70% of adults who are incarcerated and 85% of juveniles who have been involved with the juvenile justice system are functionally illiterate.

“Literacy strongly correlates with myriad social and economic outcomes, and children who are not proficient by the fourth grade are much more likely than their proficient peers to face a series of accumulating negative consequences,” Kohlenberg writes.

Maps show ZIP codes with highest percentage of people at risk of severe complications from COVID-19

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: “We found substantial variation across communities in the proportion of people who had these risk factors for severe complications,” said Maureen Smith, a physician and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health. “That finding suggests that matching community with the right resources needs to take into account that communities are different.”

The information compiled by UW researchers can help identify potential hot spots, said Jessica Bonham-Werling, director of the Neighborhood Health Partnership Program, which prepared the reports, at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. That in turn can help public health and other officials make decisions on where to allocate resources, from testing and contact tracing to community services, such as delivering groceries.

Protests prompting concern about new outbreaks of coronavirus

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: Jim Conway, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Global Health Institute, said the good news is that being outdoors decreases the risk of transmission.

“However, since the primary transmission is from human to human, individuals in close quarters with little movement do have increased opportunity for higher ‘quality’ contact and subsequent infection,” he said in an email. “Obviously it depends on how many infected people there are in the group, and how careful individuals are about their own hygiene.”

“It’s really disappointing to hear that the police in Madison took actions that exacerbated the risk of transmission at the protest, like pushing people together into crowded spaces, forming riot lines, and using chemicals that make people cough and spread more droplets,” said Malia Jones, a social epidemiologist and assistant scientist in health geography at the Applied Population Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Protesting In A Pandemic: Gatherings Against Police Violence Strain Social Distancing, Public Health Measures

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Wisconsin Public Radio

“Being outdoors might reduce your risk, but being in a protest where people are shouting and talking loudly — that might put more virus in the air. So, it’s really about staying physically distant from others and wearing a mask, so in case you’re sick and don’t know it, you reduce the chances of transmitting it to others,” said Patrick Remington, professor emeritus of public health at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health.

How to Talk to Friends and Family About Racism and Injustice

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Patricia Devine

It is productive to share your personal views, as long as you don’t say “you’re wrong” about alternatives. Patricia Devine, PhD, psychology professor and director of the Prejudice Lab at University of Wisconsin Madison, recommends statements like, “I want to share with you what my perspective is, how I understand these issues, and how it makes me feel.”

Protests defy coronavirus guidelines, but health experts say engagement is ‘essential.’ Here’s how protesters and police can reduce risk.

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Appleton Post Crescent

Quoted: Nasia Safdar, medical director of infection control at UW Health, said she noticed that the gatherings violated distancing recommendations. But she said she had to weigh which was the greater threat to society: COVID-19, or accepting what Safdar called “murder in broad daylight” by police.

Protests are another way of engaging in the political process — which is “essential,” said UW-Madison epidemiologist Patrick Remington.

“We have to get back to being engaged in society, we just have to do that understanding that there’s an infectious disease that could make you pay a high (price) for that involvement,” he said.