Quoted: Jerry O’Brien, director of the Kohl’s Center for Retailing at UW-Madison, calls Von Maur, which is privately held, a “high-service, high-quality, high-touch retailer” that isn’t big into promotions like Kohl’s but is focused more on creating “a great shopping experience with personalized attention.”
Category: UW Experts in the News
Uncertainty growing in Wisconsin’s manufacturing sector as survey finds job cuts
UW-Madison economics professors Menzie Chinn and Noah Williams weigh in.
Is California ignoring the science on wildfire-prone housing?
Quoted: “Certainly, there were areas where just everything got torched,” said Anu Kramer, co-author of the report and researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “But it was not uncommon to see areas where the trees were still intact and the houses were gone.”
UW sports analytics, bracketology and solving the opioid crisis
Noted: According to the UW-Madison College of Engineering website, Albert researches “modeling and solving real-world discrete optimization problems with application to homeland security, disasters, emergency response, public services, and healthcare.”
The research on emergency response, for example, focuses on how to match the right resources with the right needs at the right time. In one aspect of this research, Albert looks at how to get the right mix of vehicles to an emergency.
Trump Asked China to Investigate the Bidens Because It’s Thursday
Quoted: “Discussion of the Bidens is part of a deflection strategy,” said Yoshiko Herrera, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and former director of the Center for Russia, East Europe and Central Asia. “It’s like breaking into someone’s house and then saying, ‘That person had bad credit.’”
National Academy of Sciences pulls video on possibility of designer babies
Quoted: “I am disappointed by this,” said Alta Charo, a University of Wisconsin, Madison ethicist involved in past academy panels on gene editing. She said the tweet and video could further misunderstanding about editing’s most important uses or wrongly suggest that it’s possible now to bestow traits like intelligence.
Wisconsin manufacturing hub asks, ‘what factory recession?’
Quoted: “We have pretty much tapped out the labor market,” says Steve Deller, an economist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “We have companies that are saying that that’s causing part of the slowdown. It’s a bottleneck.”
What electronic games can teach us
Quoted: Green, now a cognitive psychologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, admits that the benefits of playing hours upon hours of Call of Duty may be limited in real life.
Analysis: 8 Percent of Wisconsin’s Corn Crop Is Mature
It’s no secret it’s another tight year for row crop farmers in the Corn Belt and Upper Midwest. Analysts say the uncertainty hasn’t changed.
“That’s the status of the farm economy,” said Paul Mitchell, an economist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “It’s waiting for results for this uncertainty while we go in to harvest.”
A Big Question About Prime Numbers Gets a Partial Answer
Noted: The new proof, by Will Sawin of Columbia University and Mark Shusterman of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, solves the twin primes conjecture in a smaller but still salient mathematical world. They prove the conjecture is true in the setting of finite number systems, in which you might only have a handful of numbers to work with.
China’s ‘awkward silence’ as lack of family planning slogans from 70th anniversary parade could signal policy shift
Quoted: “Family planning was an achievement for the People’s Republic at its 60th anniversary, there was an awkward silence at the 70th anniversary,” said Yi Fuxian, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a long-standing critic of China’s birth restrictions.
Census Finds Widening Income Inequality In US
Interview with Timothy Smeeding, Lee Rainwater Distinguished Professor of Public Affairs and Economics.
How the sharing economy is changing lives
UW-Madison professor Christine Whelan explains how clothing rental companies are changing the way some people live.
As the economy teeters, Trump’s ‘eighth wonder of the world’ wobbles with it
Quoted: “Every couple of months there’s been a different plan,” said Steven Deller, an economist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. “First it was 13,000 jobs. Now it might be 1,000 jobs. They’ve really scaled back on what they plan to do.”
Science history: Going back in time
Quoted: A study guide titled “Robert Hooke, Hooke’s Law & the Watch Spring”, written by Shusaku Horibe from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US, explains that “the determination of longitude was a major problem by the mid-seventeenth century … One needed a clock able to keep accurate time on long voyages at sea … The development of portable and jerk-resistant watches that could be taken on ships and could keep accurate time for extended periods was an obvious economic concern.”
UW study shows connecting habitat fragments leads to species growth, slows extinction
A two-decade research project headed by a UW-Madison professor has shown that minor modifications to the landscape can dramatically improve the chances of plants in increasingly rare and fragmented ecosystems.
Flash drought declared in Washington due to abnormally hot and dry weather
Quoted: Jason Otkin, a meteorologist at the University of Wisconsin who published a study on the characteristics of flash droughts, wrote in an email that the D.C. area “is on the northern edge of large region centered on the southern Appalachians” that has seen sudden drought onset due “to a prolonged period of much drier and warmer than normal conditions.”
Rudy Giuliani’s role in Ukraine’s investigation of Joe Biden
Quoted: Soliciting help or anything of value from foreign officials in an election is unusual and could be illegal, said Yoshiko Herrera, professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It’s also uncommon for a president’s personal attorney to communicate with foreign officials on matters that could influence White House policy, she said.
At Yale’s Singapore college, a canceled course on dissent triggers censorship claims
Quoted: Most U.S. universities that pursue such growth “recognize that their assumptions about academic freedom will need to be adjusted,” said Kris Olds, an expert on the globalization of public education, at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. “How far will they bend, though?”
Rates of Autism and ADHD Are Increasing Significantly for U.S. Kids
Quoted: It isn’t clear whether the greater prevalence of reported ADHD and ASD cases is necessarily a bad thing. According to Maureen Durkin, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, in an editorial appearing accompanying the study in Pediatrics, greater awareness of the disorders and better diagnosis might be largely responsible for the higher numbers.
Harry Potter’s Broadway Box Office Tactic Cloaks Drop in Demand
Quoted: “When supply is fixed (as in this case), a decrease in demand requires a decrease in price to clear the market,” stated University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Alan Sorensen.
Climate change: Landmark UN report warns sea levels will rise faster than projected by 2100
Quoted: “It drives home the message that policies that curb greenhouse gas emissions can have a strong effect on future sea level rise,” said Andrea Dutton, an associate professor in the Department of Geoscience at the University of Wisconsin Madison. “What we do today can decide which of those pathways we’re on.”
How To Help Save Our Oceans If The New UN Climate Report Scares You
Quoted: “It drives home the message that policies that curb greenhouse gas emissions can have a strong effect on future sea level rise,” Andrea Dutton, associate professor in the Department of Geoscience at the University of Wisconsin Madison, said to CNN.
How Trump’s Presidency Looks from Rural Wisconsin
Quoted: “Is it backfiring?” Mark Hagedorn, a dairy expert at the University of Wisconsin-Extension, asked about farmers’ decision to back Trump. “I think we can argue that six ways to Sunday.”
UW-Madison scientist earns ‘genius’ grant as she seeks 125,000-year-old clues about climate change
A scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is looking back at least 125,000 years to try to figure out how climate change might impact humanity’s future.
Andrea Dutton and her work have been recognized with a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, otherwise known as a ‘genius’ grant.
Harry Potter’s Broadway Box Office Tactic Cloaks Drop in Demand
“When supply is fixed (as in this case), a decrease in demand requires a decrease in price to clear the market,” stated University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Alan Sorensen.
Community discusses pros, cons in vaccination debate at State Capitol
Quoted: “People that have a medical reason they can’t be immunized, they may have a religious reason they can’t be immunized or they may just choose not to be vaccinated, They benefit solely because there are firewalls around them of people who are immunized,” said Dr. James Conway, a UW Health immunization specialist.
UW expert explains implications in impeachment inquiry
Interviewed: According to David Canon, a political science professor at UW-Madison, after President Donald Trump’s comments confirming he did discuss Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden with the Ukranian president, the speaker felt there was enough evidence to change her stance.
In wake of global protests, UN gathers to debate climate change solutions
Noted: According to Constance Flanagan, author of “Teenage Citizens: The Political Theories of the Young” and an associate dean at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Human Ecology, social movements must build momentum over time, and the urgency of an issue like the environment can be difficult to sell because the consequences are long-term and abstract. It is harder to galvanize support to stop temperatures from rising slowly over several decades than to respond to a school shooting that left numerous children dead.
“There’s no one event that grabs media attention or people’s interest,” she said. “It really has to be cumulative, and climate
ESTHER CEPEDA: Why your children’s school lunches matter
Noted: Last week I was primed for a conversation with Jennifer Gaddis, the author of “The Labor of Lunch: Why We Need Real Food and Real Jobs in American Public Schools.” I had just eaten a lukewarm cheeseburger (the cheese was totally unmelted) and then moved on to the accompanying banana, since I couldn’t stomach the wilted iceberg lettuce that was called “salad” or the soggy, undercooked fries that came with the “meal.”
But the public-school culinary experience isn’t what makes Gaddis’ new book important. It is required reading for anyone who wants this part of our students’ school day to be nourishing — not only for the kids, but for the women who feed them.
“So much of the work of feeding children is gendered — the majority of workers in food service, especially frontline food service, are women,” Gaddis told me. “Whether it’s happening at school or in the homes of the millions of students who take lunch from home to school, feeding students is typically done by women.”
There Is Such Thing as a Free (School) Lunch
School’s back in session, and every day, 30 million kids head to the cafeteria to chow down. On this episode of Bite, Tom returns to the lunchroom at his elementary school alma mater and finds that the grey mystery meat he remembers has been replaced by tasty, fresh offerings that are free to every student. And he catches up with Jennifer Gaddis, author of the book The Labor of Lunch, who explains the economic forces that figure into school food, from “lunch shaming” to fair wages for cafeteria workers.
Column: Jumping worms invaded my compost. Have you checked your garden yet?
Quoted: He and fellow jumping worm expert Brad Herrick, a University of Wisconsin ecologist, stress that since there are not yet any proven silver bullet methods to kill off these slithery pests, information may be their worst enemy. “Since humans are the main vectors for spread, education and best management practices can go a long way to slowing the spread,” Herrick said. “Gardeners informing other gardeners” is the best weapon we have right now.
Madison cartoonist Lynda Barry wins MacArthur Foundation ‘genius’ award
Graphic novelist, cartoonist and creativity educator Lynda Barry of Madison is one of this year’s winners of the prestigious MacArthur Foundation fellowship, commonly known as a “genius” grant.
Are DTC brands disrupting the original furniture disruptor?
Quoted: Of the new DTC brands, Hart Posen, professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s school of business, said, “You get the sense from looking at all of them that this is not your Ikea construction set. This is a high-quality product with a superior flat-pack to construction technology.”
Five signs it’s time to leave your job
We all have frustrating days at the office, but how do you know when it’s just that, or when it’s time to think about moving on? Wisconsin School of Business Senior Lecturer for the Weinert Center of Entrepreneurship, Dr. Phil Greenwood is in the studio — he says there are five clear signs it’s time to leave your job.
Trump’s Ukraine call, a whistleblower and the Bidens: What we know, what we don’t
Noted: Yoshiko Herrera, a University of Wisconsin professor who previously headed the university’s Center for Russia, East Europe and Central Asia, said Hunter Biden’s hiring echoes the strategy common within Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union, in which powerful interests try to secure influence on foreign policy by leveraging family members and associates of key leaders.
How to fix student debt
Quoted: ? Fenaba Addo , Assistant Professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison
We believe that in order to address the black student debt crisis, we need to eliminate racial wealth inequality.
Campuses should proceed with caution when it comes to student internships (opinion)
From Matthew T. Hora, assistant professor of adult and higher education: As a researcher engaged in a national study of internships and their relationship to student success, I’ve come to the conclusion that we need to proceed with caution when advocating for the widespread adoption of internships
UW Engineering professor talks about minimizing concussions
Video interview: UW-Madison engineering professor Christian Franck talks about how to make helmets safer.
Denisovan face and body reconstruction uses DNA methylation
Quoted: University of Wisconsin anthropologist John Hawks, who was not involved with this research, endorsed this group’s investigation of ancient DNA methylation and called them pioneers of the technique. “It’s a line of investigation that I want to see people pursue,” he said.
This is almost certainly not what Denisovans looked like
Quoted: “Today we cannot predict very much about a person’s bone morphology,” says John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
How Imelda’s Prolific Rain, Flooding Compares to Harvey in East Texas
Quoted: According to an analysis by Shane Hubbard from the University of Wisconsin, Harvey’s 20-inch-plus rainfall footprint was about 13 times larger than Imelda, a whopping 28,949 square miles. That’s an area slightly smaller than the entire state of South Carolina.
Labor of Lunch Discussed on America’s Work Force
Jennifer Gaddis, assistant professor at UW-Madison and author of The Labor of Lunch spoke with America’s Work Force on Sept. 17 about getting better school lunches in schools.
The Labor of Lunch
Noted: Author Jennifer Gaddis discusses her new book about The National School Lunch Program.
The key to curing the common cold could lurk within our own cells
Quoted: This discovery, like most, raises at least as many questions as it answers. “It’s a beautiful piece of science,” says Ann C. Palmenberg, a University of Wisconsin, Madison biochemist and enterovirus expert who was not involved with the research. But “don’t throw away your chicken soup just yet,” she says
Wisconsin farmers find ways to adapt to wet weather
Quoted: “We’ve had a lot of issues getting crops planted on time. Many significant rainfall events in a cool growing season,” Shawn Conley, UW Crops Expert said.
Here comes the sun
Noted: UW-Madison physics professor Jan Egedal tells me that, within the community of solar physicists, “it is well known that a Carrington-level disturbance today would be devastating.” If wide swaths of the highly interconnected North American electrical grid were damaged, backup generators would conk out long before the multitude of necessary grid repairs could be made. Lack of electricity itself might hamper the manufacture and transport of the required replacement equipment.
Monarch migration: Experts say now is the best time to see the natural phenomenon
Quoted: Karen Oberhauser, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Arboretum, said she has seen huge clusters in trees along the south edge of Curtis Prairie by the Leopold Pines.
A Newly Identified Protein May Be the Key to Vanquishing the Common Cold
Quoted: Carette and his colleagues have “done a tour de force here, to find this gene and characterize it,” says Ann Palmenberg, a virologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who provided some advice and materials for the study but was not directly involved in it. “It’s a beautiful piece of work.”
Moving plants indoors for winter? Ease them into it gently
Quoted: Quarantine houseplants for a time after bringing them indoors, said Diana Alfuth, an Extension horticulture educator with the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
What Is The Ketamine-MDMA Drug Cocktail In Hustlers?
Quoted: Both MDMA and ketamine can lead to memory loss, meaning that the Hustlers storyline makes sense. But according to Lucas Reichart, Associate Professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Pharmacy and author of Strange Trips: Science, Culture, and the Regulation of Drugs, the women wouldn’t be able to count on the mixture working the same every time.
We Know It Harms Kids to See Smoking on TV. What About Rape?
Quoted: Karyn Riddle, a professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who researches the effects on children and adolescents of viewing violent media, echoes Ms. Murphy’s concerns.
Noted: ‘It’s amazing’: Community gets behind family’s search for kidney match
University of Wisconsin Health media specialist Gian Galassi said as living donation evolves, centers including UW Health can expand options even when a relative can’t provide a best match.
Telehealth program boosts diabetic eye screening
Patients at Mile Bluff Center in Mauston can walk in and have a retinal photograph taken in a matter of minutes. Dr. Yao Liu is an assistant professor of opthalmology at the UW School of Medicine.
We Know It Harms Kids to See Smoking on TV. What About Rape?
Quoted: Karyn Riddle, a professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who researches the effects on children and adolescents of viewing violent media, echoes Ms. Murphy’s concerns. “Watching sexual violence could be traumatizing,” she explains, “and that fear could stay with you for many years.”
A Beautiful Sight: ‘Huge Wave’ Of Monarch Butterflies Prepare To Migrate
Quoted: “What people are seeing when they are looking into their backyards and along the shores of Lake Michigan, they are seeing a part of a huge wave of monarchs that are moving south right now,” said Karen Oberhauser, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Arboretum.
Wisconsin Crops Continue To Lag Behind As Harvest Nears
Quoted: “Usually we’re (harvesting silage) pretty heavily by about the middle of September,” said Joe Lauer, agronomist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “It’s going to be delayed a week or two due to not only some of the cool weather we had in the spring but also due to the fact that there’s a lot of corn that was just planted late.”
Kids Are Now Being Taught About 9/11 As Part Of History
Quoted: Another study, led by professor Jeremy Stoddard of the University of Wisconsin/Madison School Of Education, found that “the most popular method of teaching about 9/11 and the War on Terror was showing a documentary or ‘similar video,’” TIME reported.
What Americans Get Wrong About Student Debt
What’s clear is that Americans are wrong about student debt—both in how much students borrow and how large the cumulative, outstanding portfolio of student loans is.
Wisconsin clerks are looking for poll workers. If you’re a political partisan, here’s why they want you.
Quoted: “You can see why states might think this is a good solution,” said Barry Burden, director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “For one it provides a kind of balance that you have representatives from both parties at the polling place so they can keep a check on one another.”