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Category: UW Experts in the News

Top Democrats for governor square off for first time at Madison candidate forum

Wisconsin State Journal

Noted: “In a general election, Madison and Milwaukee have a lot of influence,” said UW-Madison political science professor Barry Burden. “In a Democratic primary it’s exacerbated because Democrats are so heavily concentrated. The candidates have to spend time in those places. Madison plays an out-sized influence in the primary stage.”

Maine Could Benefit By Spending More On Poor Students, Research Indicates, But Effort Falls Short

Bangor, Maine Daily News

Noted: “Taken together, these results highlight how improved access to school resources can profoundly shape the life outcomes of economically disadvantaged children and thereby reduce the intergenerational transmission of poverty,” wrote the researchers, Kirabo Jackson of Northwestern University; Rucker C. Johnson of the University of California, Berkeley; and Claudia Persico of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

What should I take for flu? Remedies that do and don’t help

Today.com

Cough medicines that contain opioids like codeine should never be given to children, the Food and Drug Administration warned in early January.“Children should not take any cough or cold medications,” said Dr. Nasia Safdar, medical director of infection control at the University of Wisconsin Health. “They are not beneficial and might be harmful.”

Be ready to fight if a pet insurer, like a people insurer, denies a valid claim

LA Times

“These are very different cancers,” he told me. “It’s like saying a dog had an infection and then got another infection years later, so it’s a preexisting condition.”Dr. David Vail, an oncologist at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine, said he “would tend to agree that the two are unlikely to be related.”

Jaw fossil discovered in Israel looks human, but it’s much older than it should be

The Verge

This new find adds another important clue towards solving the mystery of this earlier spread of humans out of Africa, write the authors of a commentary published with the study. “I think that’s pretty cool,” agrees John Hawks, an paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “You have a modern-looking upper jaw in Israel that was there much earlier than it was supposed to have been.” He cautions, however, against getting too attached to the label Homo sapiens: with only a small chunk of bone to go on, it’s hard to say for certain. It’s possible that it could be from another, unnamed relative of modern day people, for example.

Left behind: Who looks out for children when their parents go to prison?

Isthmus

Quoted: “The children of incarcerated parents have been invisible for a long time because of stigma,” says Julie Poehlmann-Tynan, UW-Madison professor of human development and family studies. Poehlmann-Tynan has researched this population since 1996. She’s done the first ever observational study of children visiting incarcerated parents. Her work focuses on what will help children cope and thrive while a parent is incarcerated.

Beer school – and U.S. Brewers Academy – coming to Milwaukee

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: Ryder, who teaches fermentation sciences in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, wants the class to be geared to “regular people.” Ryder doesn’t imagine he’ll make brewers out of his students. He just wants to round out their knowledge “so they won’t feel intimidated about some of these beers. People don’t know what’s a good beer and what’s a bad beer and why.”

Wet and warped stacking stickers

Woodworking Network

In the future, I suggest you only buy kiln-dried stickers, as they will be straight and the correct thickness. Many people today also get a profiled sticker that has grooves on the faces to help drying where the sticker contact the lumber.Gene Wengert, “The Wood Doctor” has been training people in efficient use of wood for 35 years. He is extension specialist emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Brand choice can break bonds

Noted: Thomas O’Guinn, marketing professor and Thomas J. Falk distinguished chair in business at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, thinks the study is on point. Having studied sons who got into longstanding grudges over not picking the same brand of car as dad or not liking the same “family” brand of beer, he attests that the results are not surprising at all.

Two years after dogs killed by coyote hunter, DNR hasn’t changed confusing sign

Wisconsin State Journal

Noted: Patricia McConnell, an adjunct professor of zoology at UW-Madison and a certified applied animal behaviorist, echoed the fears … that more tragedies will occur if the DNR doesn’t make more of an effort to educate everyone about the rules. McConnell, a widely known author and speaker on animal behavior, said more than 90 dogs were caught in traps in Wisconsin in 2016.

Democratic candidates for Wisconsin governor advocate for sweeping criminal justice reform

Capital Times

At the forum, Pam Oliver, a professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said there’s little or no evidence that checking in with parole officers lowers the risk of a future criminal offense. She called supervision rules “almost impossible not to violate,” especially considering many ex-prisoners struggle with addiction, mental illness and poverty.

UW professor to discuss teen brains

McFarland Thistle

Noted: At the local level, McFarland High School will host a Wednesday, Jan. 31, presentation about the teenage brain led by UW Health psychologist and UW-Madison professor Dr. Jack Nitschke, an expert in psychology and neuroscience who specializes in teen mental health.

Case of 13 California kids allegedly tortured ‘fits this pattern we’ve been tracking for a long time’

The Washington Post

A 2014 study by University of Wisconsin pediatrician Barbara Knox and colleagues found that in 38 cases of severe child abuse, 47 percent of parents had never enrolled their children in school or pulled their youngsters out when abuse was suspected and told authorities they were home schooling.

Ready for an anti-Trump wave in November? Look at Wisconsin.

The Washington Post

Democrats won Wisconsin in every presidential election from 1988 to 2012, but Hillary Clinton’s strategists made the mistake of taking the state for granted in 2016. What they missed were trends brilliantly analyzed by Katherine J. Cramer, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin, in her prophetic book, “The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker.” It was published eight months before the 2016 vote.

Luxury retailers are set to reap the benefits from tax reform

CNBC

Jerry O’Brien, director of the Kohl’s Center for Retailing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told CNBC the tax cuts could result in a bigger gap between luxury retailers (i.e. Tiffany, Hudson’s Bay, Neiman Marcus and Tapestry) and other players, though he said off-price brands will continue to outperform in 2018. This leaves the “middle ground” of the industry at risk, he added.

Donald Trump Gets His Sanity Grades

New York Times

When we think about presidents losing their mental grip, we generally go back to Woodrow Wilson, who had a stroke in 1919 that left him bedridden and pretty much off the playing field. “Wilson was the worst case of presidential disability,” said John Cooper, a Wilson expert at the University of Wisconsin. The stroke was followed by other physical ailments and a long period of isolation under the protection of his wife, who some claimed was taking over the presidency. It left Wilson’s cognitive function unimpaired, Cooper said, “but it warped his judgment horribly.”

When States Make It Harder to Enroll, Even Eligible People Drop Medicaid

The New York Times

“Without being tremendously well organized, it can be easy to fail,” said Donald Moynihan, a professor of public affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who is writing a book on the effects of administrative burdens. Researchers have studied the ways complexity can reduce sign-ups for workplace pension plans, participation in food stamps and turnout in elections, he noted. “These sorts of little barriers are ways in which humans get tripped up all the time when they’re trying to do something that might benefit them.”

The slow burn for marijuana legalization

Madison Magazine

Noted: Dr. Angela Janis, co-director of mental health services and director of psychiatric services at the University of Wisconsin–Madison University Health Services, says Schedule 1 classification of marijuana makes it difficult to legally study the drug, so its benefits and risks to one’s health aren’t fully understood.

State farmers rely on NAFTA partners

Eau Claire Leader Telegram

Quoted: Brian Gould, an associate professor of agricultural and applied economics at UW-Madison.

“Mexico has been actively exploring trading relationships with some of our competing countries for their dairy imports and there’s a potential that we could lose those markets,” Gould said. “Even if we don’t lose NAFTA, we may lose those markets anyway.”

Scott Walker has nearly four times more cash than the Democratic field

Wisconsin State Journal

Noted: UW-Madison political science professor Barry Burden said Walker’s fundraising total is somewhat lower than he expected given individual contribution limits have doubled to $20,000 since the 2014 election, Walker’s national profile was elevated during his short-lived presidential run and he became chairman of the Republican Governors Association.

Technology on Park Street intersections will communicate with passing vehicles

WISC-TV 3

Quoted: “If they’re behind by say five minutes on their schedule and they have people either trying to get to a location on time, trying to get to work on time, or trying to get picked up on time, they can actually preempt the signal so the signal knows by the time it gets here it needs to be green,” said Jonathan Riehl, transportation systems engineer at University of Wisconsin-Madison.

How Scientists Saved Bald Eagles From Destruction in Minnesota

Inverse

Over two-and-a-half decades later, it’s being hailed as an unqualified success. On Tuesday, scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the National Park Service, and the U.S. Geological Survey announced in the Journal of Applied Ecology that bald eagle populations at Voyageurs have been tremendously rehabilitated to stable numbers thanks to nest protection. Collected data in reveals that the breeding population of these birds has risen from 10 pairs in 1991 to 48 pairs in 2016.

Independent investigation into sexual harassment at Rochester provides little closure

Inside Higher Ed

Seth Pollak, a distinguished professor of psychology and professor of anthropology, pediatrics, psychiatry and public affairs at the University of Wisconsin at Madison who signed the open letter against advising students to work or study at Rochester, said Thursday that he hoped Seligman’s resignation was a step in the right direction for the campus. But the report itself was unsatisfying, he said, as Jaeger was found not to have harassed women to a “pervasive” or “severe” degree, even though multiple women testified about harassment.

This Is When Your New Year’s Resolution Will Fail

Fast Company

Make sure the quick win isn’t too hard or too easy, adds Alex Stajkovic, assistant professor of management and human resources at the Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin. “Easy goals are not motivating, and goals perceived to be beyond our ability may cause cessation of effort,” he says.

The Olympics in the Korean Crisis

Huffington Post

According to David Fields, Center for East Asian Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Korean-American complex is like a precarious iron tower, which is strong but brittle, ready to collapse from any unexpected action like a preemptive strike of North Korea by the Trump administration.

Climate Change Is Altering Lakes and Streams, Study Suggests

The New York Times

“We’re monkeying with the very chemical foundation of these ecosystems,” said Emily H. Stanley, a limnologist (freshwater ecologist) at the University of Wisconsin — Madison. “But right now we don’t know enough yet to know where we’re going. To me, scientifically that’s really interesting, and as a human a little bit frightening.”

Protecting eagle nests aids in reproduction

WI Farmer

Although the result is most relevant to large, undisturbed habitat like Voyageurs, “the model can be used for other raptors, in other places, regardless of the level of disturbance,” says Zuckerberg. “Long-term monitoring data is really hard to fund, but it’s critical for conservation. This is a perfect example of the benefits of collecting data in a standardized way over a long period of time.”

The Olympics in the Korean Crisis

Huffington Post

Noted: According to Daniel Fields, Center for East Asian Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Korean-American complex is like a precarious iron tower, which is strong but brittle, ready to collapse from any unexpected action like a preemptive strike of North Korea by the Trump administration.