Quoted: In many cases, says Christina Kendziorski, a biostatistician at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the tools used in bulk RNA-seq can be applied to scRNA-seq. But fundamental differences in the data mean that this is not always possible.
Noted: Trump’s policy differs from Obama’s in two main ways, said Martina Kunovic, a doctoral candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and visiting researcher at the Cuban Institute for Cultural Research in Havana.
It’s that time of year again where things tend to go boom! We’ll hear from a UW-Madison chemistry professor about the science behind fireworks.
For more than three decades, the Comparative Ocular Pathology Lab of Wisconsin has quietly helped veterinarians diagnose eye diseases while amassing an archive used by researchers in dozens of countries to study human and animal diseases.
Quoted: “Nobody would use glass anymore,” says Richard Hartel, a professor of food engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Glass is obviously too fragile for industrial operations, and popsicles with shards would be wildly unpopular. Lucky for food manufacturers in the 1920s, there were lots of new materials coming down the pike.
Noted: “It is the responsibility of the news media in this democracy to be running down stories” like the probe into charges that Russia interfered in last year’s presidential election, says Kathleen Bartzen Culver, director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
UW–Madison Arboretum ecologist Brad Herrick interviewed on-site about the invasive asian jumping worm
Jonathan Renshon, a professor of international relations at the University of Wisconsin Madison. Renshon studies the psychology of foreign policy — how the way leaders and decision-makers think affects the way states interact. His new book, Fighting for Status, is about why leaders care so much about the way others perceive their countries, to the point that they’re willing to go to war over it.
Noted; Concerns at the time were substantiated in documentation by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin, which reported that of 3,200 children’s books published in 2013, only 93 were about black people. (The 2016 figures reflect a jump: Out of 3,400 books received at the center, 286 are about black people.)
Noted: Dipesh Navsaria, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, points out that Medicaid pays for a lot of sick children’s care, so children’s hospitals may lose enough business that they’ll have to close or roll back the services they offer. That affects everyone: children’s hospitals have a valuable role in training new doctors and developing new procedures.
Noted: But Dietram Scheufele, a life sciences communication professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, advises that the results should be taken with a grain of salt.
Noted: “That’s an awesome photo. I have not heard of a mole being fed on by bass or any other fish, but I’m not surprised,” Peter Lisi, a post-doctoral scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Limnology, and lead author of the 2013 paper, told me in an email. He noted that bass eat lots of terrestrial and semi-aquatic animals.
Noted: Kathy Cramer of the University of Wisconsin-Madison followed the same groups of voters in Wisconsin from 2007 to 2012 and wrote about her findings in “The Politics of Resentment”. This is how she describes the atmosphere during a heated recall referendum that was won by Governor Scott Walker: “People stole yard signs from each other. They stopped talking to one another. They spat on each other. They even tried to run each other over, even if they were married to one another. I am not kidding.”
There have also been efforts to reduce the amount of phosphorus—mainly in cow manure—from running off of farm fields into the Madison watershed. But things like manure digesters or voluntary management practices aren’t having much of an impact, according to Jake Vander Zanden, an aquatic biologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison Center for Limnology.
Noted: Digging deeper into the debt details, Houle and his study co-author Lawrence Berger, a professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s School of Social Work, found that the type of debt makes a big difference. When parents took on or increased their home or education debt, it seemed to have a positive effect on their children’s well-being. On the other hand, additional unsecured debt – which includes credit card debt, medical debt, payday loans and loans from family and friends – tended to coincide with more behavioral problems.
Quoted: “It becomes really overwhelming and overloading to be thinking about all of these choices,” says Evan Polman, an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies decision fatigue.
Noted: “All of a sudden, they could now brew at colder temperatures and get crisper cleaner flavors,” said Chris Todd Hittinger, a University of Wisconsin geneticist who isn’t involved with the bumblebeer project.
Following Democratic candidate Jonathan Ossoff’s loss for Georgia’s 6th congressional seat, party members are trying to regain their footings and figure out what’s next for the party. University of Wisconsin’s Barry Burden joins us to talk about what the future could hold for the Democrats.
Quoted: University of Wisconsin fruit crop entomologist Christelle Guédot.
Quoted: Donna Friedsam, health policy programs director at UW-Madison’s Population Health Institute.
Warren Porter, a University of Wisconsin-Madison zoology professor who has done extensive research on environmental toxicology .. said that even in minute amounts, glyphosate can have profound long-term health effects. “Most people don’t have a clue as to what’s going on,” he said.
Quoted: “It is a bit surprising that Democrats haven’t managed a single victory yet, and haven’t had more success in turning their anger against the Trump administration into something tangible,” said Barry Burden, the director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “The party can weather that for a while, but at some point it could become demoralizing.”
Quoted: That could make coverage unaffordable for many people with medical conditions, said Donna Friedsam, health policy programs director at UW-Madison’s Population Health Institute. “Insurers could be offering a much thinner set of benefits for less cost and price the more comprehensive benefits at a much higher cost,” Friedsam said.
Quoted: Donna Friedsam, health policy programs director for the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, said while Anthem’s decision will be a big change for the affected members, it won’t necessarily mean a huge change for Wisconsin’s individual health care market.
Noted: In 2013, Richard Davidson of the University of Wisconsin at Madison and his colleagues reported that even one day of mindfulness meditation can impact the expression of genes. In their study, 19 experienced meditators were studied before and after a full day of intensive meditation. For control, the researchers similarly studied a group of 21 people who engaged in a full day of leisure. At the end of the day, the meditators showed lowered levels of activity of inflammatory genes—exactly the kind of effect seen when one takes anti-inflammatory drugs. The study also showed lowered activity of genes that are involved in epigenetically controlling expressions of other genes. The state of one’s mind, it seems, can have an epigenetic effect.
The training was held Tuesday evenings at the Spooner Agriculture Research Station and involved a different horticulture subject each week including: annual, perennial and native plants, houseplants, landscape design, fruit and vegetables, weeds, wildlife, soils, insects, plant diseases and low input lawn care. Participants learned from a wide range of instructors from University of Wisconsin, UW-Extension, local experts and through on-line materials.
Noted: Kathy J Cramer, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin, has seen this sentiment in her fieldwork. “The feeling of cultural inequality comes out of the perception that it is urban culture that gets everything,” she says, meaning that her interview subjects feel that cities are receiving inordinate financial rewards as well as media attention and cultural respect. They believed this partly owing to what Cramer called their “rural values” – tastes and beliefs that they feel have been overlooked or cast aside – rather than their class position.
Noted: “There’s not really a solid theory about why dreaming is there,” says Benjamin Baird, a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Sleep and Consciousness at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. “It’s a big mystery.”
Mark Stephenson, Director of Dairy Policy Analysis with the UW, said that this spring’s events, with Wisconsin dairy farmers being told there was no market for their milk, created shock waves through the industry here and across the country. Even overseas, dairy people were aware of what was going on here and were “keeping their eye on the situation.”
While there were hundreds of headlines about the dairy industry during that time, the whole problem was more complex, he said. “Regional milk production has been evolving and that was a big part of the story.”
Noted: A lack of diverse representation in media tends to exacerbate polarization, said Sue Robinson, associate professor in the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Noted: Patricia Devine, a social psychologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is an expert in the study of racial bias and the unconscious effect of stereotypes. She said the court’s method of “tuning jurors into their biases” a generally sound approach, though it’s hard to predict how well it will work without some experimental testing. “They’re giving them generally good advice,” Devine said. “But they’re not doing research.”
Noted: Hart Posen with the University of Wisconsin’s School of Business joined Wisconsin’s Morning News to discuss what this deal would mean for you.
Quoted: “The best possible outcome of this case, for the Democrats, is that SCOTUS grants review of the case, reverses the lower court’s decision and adopts a different standard by which to monitor the redistricting process within the state for the lower court system to reevaluate,” said Ryan Owens of the University of Wisconsin.
Noted: And of course, climate change plays a role. “Any insect-borne disease is very sensitive to climate conditions,” says Jonathan Patz, director of the Global Health Institute University of Wisconsin. “Warmer temperatures speed up the development of tick larvae and nymphs, and that can influence transmission dynamics. Modeling studies of climate change effects on Lyme disease show a northward expansion of the disease,” says Patz. “Lyme is already moving north into Canada.”
Noted: TV ads can have a powerful effect on local elections, where turnout is generally low, said Barry Burden, director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Mike Knetter, president and chief executive of the UW Foundation, said the merger helped the campus better engage with alumni.
Quoted: UW-Madison political science professor Barry Burden said people shouldn’t view the stay as an indication of where the court stands on the case overall. He added, though, that because of the time it will take for the Supreme Court to decide the case, “In 2018, we’re very likely to be using the districts we have today,” regardless of how the court rules. He said he doesn’t believe the court will rule until possibly the middle of 2018.
Quoted: “Many women in the mindfulness group used the skills to avoid pain medication in early labor and then opted for epidural when things became more intense, but as a more intentional, mindful choice, versus out of fear of the bodily sensations of labor,” said lead study author Larissa Duncan of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Noted: Chin Wu, an environmental engineering professor at the University of Wisconsin, who is helping lead the Ann Arbor meteotsunami forum, “The energy (of the regressing wave) can sustain for 10 or 20 minutes. So you can imagine a swimmer swept far out into the lake, trying to fight it for that long.”
Noted: Heat kills ten times more people in the U.S. than tornados or other extreme weather events, says Richard Keller, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of medical history.
Noted: But Lydia Zepeda, a consumer science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has found the largest consensus for what is local to be any product that comes from within an hour’s drive. But is that with or without traffic? she asks.
It’s no secret Donald Trump benefited from rural voters. But Democrat or Republican, they usually tell Katherine Cramer – who has spent a decade visiting residents of small-town Wisconsin – the same thing: it’s the cities that get all the breaks, and then have the gall to look down on them, too
Noted: The students also met with Lesley Sager, assistant faculty associate in the design studies department of the School of Human Ecology at UW Madison, and some university students who took part in the study-abroad program, UW Design Studies in Kenya, which she led. The college students talked about their experiences there and the East students did an exercise that involved cutting out magazine pictures that depict things teenagers value.
Noted: Melih Eriten is an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Noted: Jordan Ellenberg is the John D. MacArthur and Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the author of “How Not to Be Wrong.”
Noted: Barry Burden, a political science professor and director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin Madison, said the efficiency gap was a fundamental part of the case aimed at providing Kennedy with a concrete way of distinguishing when a gerrymander is constitutional and when it isn’t.
Quoted: UW-Madison Political Science professor Barry Burden predicts even more candidates. He says some will be lured by the open seat; meanwhile, people with liberal leanings may feel compelled to run. Burden says that’s because no one challenged Justice Annette Ziegler this year when she ran for reelection. Burden also expects a lot of campaign spending:
Noted: Medical historian Judy Leavitt, a professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, traces the history of fathers and childbirth in her book “Make Room for Daddy: The Journey from Waiting Room to Birthing Room.”
There’s an online dating site for nearly everybody, but can too many choices be problematic? Live at Four talks with professor Catalina Toma, one of the authors of a recent University of Wisconsin study, that reveals choice overload can raise the stakes.
Noted: Interview with Hart Posen of the Wisconsin School of Business.
Noted: The results highlight the fact that the fetal immune system is not merely an immature, less-active version of its adult counterpart, but one that has its own distinct function, says transplant immunologist William Burlingham at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
Noted: Folks insist that the pasteurisation process decreases some of milk’s nutritional value, and that drinking raw milk might confer some sort of protective effect against allergies or asthma. There’s some evidence that the pasteurisation can affect proteins and vitamins, but not enough to lead to a nutritional deficiency. Nor is there much evidence to back up the protective effect, according to a review in Nutrition Today by University of Wisconsin food science professor John Lucey.
Video: Dr. Moses Altsech is the president of Moses Altsech Consulting and in the UW Schools of Human Ecology and Business. He talks about what the rate increase might mean
“It’s always exciting to be here,” said Schroeder as she watched members of her team check the measurements on the westernmost pit. “This is the third consecutive summer on this project to discover and explore what daily life at Aztalan was like 900 to 1,000 years ago.”
Noted: “It’s an association. It doesn’t show cause and effect. So it’s hard to know what the children who may not have been drinking cow’s milk, what else was going on in their diet,” said Beth Olson, associate professor of nutrition at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “They also didn’t distinguish between the types of non-cow’s milk and those sources can be quite different.”
Noted: Doctors in the study also overused medical terms that patients might not understand, said co-author Dr. Toby Campbell, chief of palliative care at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
Interviewed: Susan Paskewitz talks about the upcoming tick season, and ways we can protect ourselves from getting bitten.
Recognizing poisonous plants and knowing proper livestock management are important steps in minimizing the potential for poisoning according to Mark Renz, University of Wisconsin-Extension weed scientist at UW-Madison.
“We often receive questions about toxic plants, the level of toxicity, and what animals they are toxic to,” Renz said.
Quoted: Barry Burden, a UW-Madison political science professor, said Walker’s approval ratings don’t provide as much of a cushion as he’s had in past election cycles, and visiting schools and providing more money for schools might rebuild public support.
