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Category: UW Experts in the News

Reinvigorating The Wisconsin Idea

Wisconsin Public Radio

The Wisconsin Idea is a concept that university research can help stakeholders solve real world problems. The theory is more than a century old. UW–Madison biochemistry professor Mike Sussman says now is the time to rejuvenate the Idea and use innovation, collaboration, and passion to achieve Wisconsin’s full potential.

Foundation Revisits Anti-Poverty Strategies with an Eye to Change

Nonprofit Quarterly

Noted: Elaborating on the timing of the publication, Katherine A. Magnuson, a poverty researcher at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and an editor of the double-issue journal, told Colorlines, “We felt it was important to bring together a set of fresh ideas that would engage with what we have learned about anti-poverty policies of the past in order to generate positive and innovative solutions.”

‘Accountability and Opportunity in Higher Education’

Inside Higher Education

Noted: Also contributing essays to the volume are the two editors of the book, Gary Orfield, Distinguished Research Professor of Education, Law, Political Science and Urban Planning, and co-founder and co-director of the Civil Rights Project, at UCLA; and Nicholas Hillman, an associate professor of educational leadership and policy analysis at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Orfield and Hillman responded via email to questions about their new book.

Watch an Atlas V rocket launch a next-generation weather satellite to space

The Verge

Noted: The two satellites — part of the so-called GOES-R series — are a much needed upgrade to NOAA’s old weather satellites, which sport 1990s hardware. “Very few people still have a tube television in their house; they have a nice flat screen TV,” says Jordan Gerth, a research meteorologist at the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies at the University of Wisconsin. “So the old satellite was built on that tube television technology, and it really doesn’t provide a crisp image that a nice LCD or plasma screen TV provides today.”

As Organic Produce Sales Grow, So Does Competition For Farmers

Wisconsin Public Radio

Noted: “Not only do we have still a vibrant local market for organic products including community supported agriculture, farmers markets and farm stands, but we also see increased interest in our grocery stores procuring local organic product to meet consumer demands,” said Erin Silva, assistant professor of organic and sustainable agriculture research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Why Is California Rebuilding in Fire Country? Because You’re Paying for It

Bloomberg

Noted: Nonetheless, local officials almost always decide that rebuilding makes sense despite the risk that the houses will burn again. Anu Kramer, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, looked at what happened to 3,000 buildings destroyed by wildfires in California from 1970 to 1999. She found that 94 percent were rebuilt. The result is that fires consistently—and predictably—destroy homes in the same place.

This Smart Mouthguard Can Monitor Concussions

Wired.com

Noted: “It’s opened up the ability to measure head impact exposure in sports other than football,” says Dr. Brian Stemper, an associate professor in the joint department of biomechanical engineering at Marquette University and the University of Wisconsin. Earlier this year, Stemper’s team started using the Prevent mouthguard to measure head impact exposure in NCAA Division III football players.

Science of smiles

Waupaca County Post

Paula Niedenthal will present “The Science of Smiles” at 6:30 p.m. Monday, March 5, at the Waupaca Area Public Library. Niedenthal, a social psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will share her research into emotions.

Black farmers finding their way in Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Quoted: “Many black folks came north not to continue their jobs as a farmer, but to move into the rust belt and fill the factories,” said Monica M. White, an assistant professor of environmental justice at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of the forthcoming book “Freedom Farmers: Agricultural Resistance and the Black Freedom Movement.”

10 super-rich spending most in midterm elections for Congress

USA Today

Noted: “No one had heard of Kevin Nicholson, but suddenly this gift was available,” Barry Burden, who oversees an election research center at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, said of the Uihlein money.  “I doubt that Kevin Nicholson would be a candidate — at least not a serious one — if he didn’t have the Uihlein family backing.”

Fed’s Crisis-Era, Bond-Buying Plan Was Largely Ineffective, Economists Say

Wall Street Journal

The paper presented at the conference was written by David Greenlaw of Morgan Stanley , James Hamilton of the University of California San Diego, Ethan Harris of Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Kenneth West of the University of Wisconsin. It argues most of what people now believe of the asset purchases is likely wrong.

Ancient cave paintings turn out to be by Neanderthals, not humans

The Verge

Other experts agree with the dates and that the timing means the art must have been created by Neanderthals. There’s no fossil evidence of modern humans in Spain that long ago, says John Hawks a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who wasn’t involved in the research. “There’s no secret story,” he says. “The results are just, ‘Hey, Neanderthals were making these things, and you didn’t know it.’”

What Is Telehealth and Is It Right for You?

Care Dash

Noted: A study conducted by the Wisconsin School of Business found that increased use of e-visits might have unintended consequences.

“Our study shows that giving patients email-like e-visit access to their doctors, does not reduce the patients’ use of office or phone visits,” said Hessam Bavafa, study author and Assistant Professor of Operations and Information Management. “In fact, we find that e-visits lead to more office visits without obvious improvements in patient health. We also found that doctors accepted fewer new patients after they started using e-visits.”

Preventing a Silent Killer

Bovine Vet Online

“Most cows will revert back to positive calcium balance by six to eight weeks post-calving, meaning the calcium intake now equals or exceeds calcium outflow,” says Garrett Oetzel, DVM, professor at the School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison. “However, she can draw on her bone calcium for up to four months into lactation, including during times of stress or low feed intake.”

The U.S. State With the Most Bipolar Politics

OZY

The tallies were always close. And when turnout in cities like Madison and Milwaukee lags, urbanites can be swallowed by rural folks — and those latter voters have become more consolidated around the Republican flag in the last decade, says Barry Burden, director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Obama’s success in the state, and Hillary Clinton’s loss in 2016, proved, “Yeah, we could be very blue, but you have to excite and engage the base,” Burden says.

Surgery may affect patients’ memory

The Tribune

“The cognitive changes we report are highly statistically significant in view of the internal normative standards we employ, and the large sample size of the control, or non-surgery, population,” said Kirk Hogan from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US.

Why social media appeals after mass shootings have done little to change gun laws

Washington Post

University of Wisconsin researchers found a similar trend in their study of Twitter conversations after 59 mass shootings from 2012 to 2014. That research, which has not yet been published, analyzed 1.3 million tweets and 700 related hashtags, using machine learning to sort them into various categories, said political science professor Jon C. W. Pevehouse, who co-authored the study with Dhavan V. Shah, a journalism professor, and several others.

Should You Exercise When You Are Sick?

Time

There’s some evidence that very intense exercise—running a marathon, say—can briefly suppress your immune function, says Dr. Bruce Barrett, a professor of family medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. But in general, physical activity is a great way to shield yourself from illness, he says.

Depression and Caregiving

Wisconsin Public Radio

Caregivers of cancer patients are just as likely to be depressed as the cancer patients themselves, but a new study finds that they’re less likely to seek treatment. We talk with a researcher about the study and what we can do to take better care of caregivers. Interview with Kristin Litzelman from the School of Human Ecology.

Blue Sky Science: Does space go on forever?

Madison.com

Jim Lattis, director of UW Space Place, University of Wisconsin-Madison astronomy department: We really don’t know if space goes on forever. The universe is big enough that we can’t see all of it for a number of reasons. And there are ways that we could live in a space that doesn’t go on forever, but still has no actual edge to it.

The More Gender Equality, the Fewer Women in STEM

The Atlantic

Noted: The findings will likely seem controversial, since the idea that men and women have different inherent abilities is often used as a reason, by some, to argue we should forget trying to recruit more women into the stem fields. But, as the University of Wisconsin gender-studies professor Janet Shibley Hyde, who wasn’t involved with the study, put it to me, that’s not quite what’s happening here.

Prevalence and danger of little known tsunami type revealed

Cosmos

On 4 July 2003, beachgoers at Warren Dunes State Park, in the US state of Michigan, were enjoying America’s Independence Day holiday when a fast-moving line of thunderstorms blew in from Lake Michigan. They scurried for shelter, but the event passed so quickly it didn’t appear that their holiday was ruined. “In 15 minutes it was gone,” says civil engineer Alvaro Linares of the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Call of the (Urban) Wild

Sierra Club Magazine

Noted: One expert on the cutting edge of coyote research is Dr. David Drake with the University of Wisconsin-Madison Urban Canid Project. UWUCP is shedding a light on many aspects of coyote behavior, and those findings, in turn, are illuminating how to create smarter coexistence strategies between humans and wild coyotes.

The Iceman Cometh Out

New York Times

Noted: As Ramzi Fawaz, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has pointed out, superhero comics are the only popular genre in which anomalous bodies are not just tolerated but celebrated: The same thing that makes you look weird means you can save the world.

There’s no such thing as naturally orange cheese

Popular Science

Noted: “Today it’s used to bring out the tradition of the cheese, more so than to even out fluctuations over the year,” says Gina Mode, one of the lucky few people who gets to work with and research cheese at the Center for Dairy Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (she also grew up on a dairy farm). She explains that cows today, and really for much of the past century1, are fed year round on grain-based feed, not grass. And it’s the grassfed cows that have variations in their milk.

Valentine’s Day: Talk Money with Your Honey

Public News Service

Quoted: There’ll be plenty of flowers and candy given out today, but to make love grow, you need to have a talk with your honey about money. That’s the advice of Christine Whelan, a clinical professor who directs the Money, Relationships and Equality initiative at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. One of her sayings is, “Roses are red, violets are blue; talk about money and grow your love, too.”

A NASA satellite spotted this strangely prominent pattern of long, sinuous clouds over the Pacific

Discover

Noted: Just to make sure, I checked in by email with Scott Bachmeier, a research meteorologist with the University of Wisconsin’s Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies. “Those are indeed ship tracks — a few cases are documented on our blog,” he wrote back. For more imagery, make sure to click on that link to the excellent CIMSS satellite blog.

Why Is It So Hard for Democracy to Deal With Inequality?

The New York Times

Before reform, Byron Shafer, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin, writes in “Quiet Revolution: The Struggle for the Democratic Party and the Shaping of Post-Reform Politics,”

there was an American party system in which one party, the Republicans, was primarily responsive to white collar constituencies, and in which the other, the Democrats, was primarily responsive to blue collar constituencies.

Olympic Games impact on host country South Korea

NBC-15

Quoted: UW Madison’s Dr. David Fields, a historian who actually lived in South Korea on and off, was living in South Korea in 2010 when the country found out it was not selected to host.

“I remember they had a countdown through Seoul, and countdowns all over the place, until the day the decision was going to be made. I can remember a feeling of disappointment among many of my friends when they didn’t get it that first time, nor did they get it the second time,” recalled Fields.