Category: UW Experts in the News

Noted: Government regulations and other guidelines for human research generally require that people be allowed to withdraw from experiments. When this happens, it can make it hard to determine whether a treatment is safe, says Alta Charo, a bioethicist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. In this case, she says, it is unclear whether the parents received enough information to appreciate how long-term follow-up could benefit their child as well as science.

Noted: The Evers campaign told us the statistic came from research conducted by Peter Goff, a UW-Madison professor who is leading a team studying teacher supply and demand in Wisconsin.

Nick Hillman, a University of Wisconsin professor who studies higher-education finance and policy, and his graduate students Ellie Bruecker and Valerie Crespin-Trujillo have been tracking FAFSA completions for several years using federal data. For the latest FAFSA cycle, their graph shows a steep climb in the opening months. After hitting 1 million completed applications by December, the number of new FAFSAs slowed down until another, small surge in late February, as financial-aid deadlines approached.

Noted: “If I throw the ball across the desk, and you are watching through the camera and the tongue, you can catch it, and you can learn it in a matter of a couple of hours,” said Yuri Danilov, a neuroscientist who has worked extensively on that device at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Tactile Communication and Neurorehabilitation Laboratory.

Noted: “These are Americans [who] are dying essentially in the prime of their life,” said Abbey Cofsky, the deputy director of data and science at the University of Wisconsin’s Population Health Institute, which collaborated on the report. “They are dying as young adults” or with young families, she added.

Quoted: “This has been a very dark report,” says Marjory Givens, one of the authors of the 2017 County Health Rankings. She is deputy director of data and science for the project as well as an associate scientist at the University of Wisconsin’s Population Health Institute. “We’re facing a crisis here.”

Noted: Kestell’s champion cow is an extreme example, but the average amount of milk per cow has shot up since 1950. There are fewer than half as many dairy cows in the United States as there were back then, but now they produce almost twice as much milk. One of the reasons for this huge rise in milk production, said dairy expert Mark Stephenson, is the introduction of artificial insemination.

Noted: The Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center in Madison works to develop new liquid biofuels. The center’s researchers work closely with farmers on the crops that go into making sustainable fuels, said John Greenler, director of education and outreach for the center.

Noted: One researcher who co-wrote an influential 2012 study suggesting that changes in the Arctic could be driving mid-latitude weather extremes, Stephen Vavrus of the University of Wisconsin, praised the new research in an emailed comment Monday. “This study goes beyond statistical correlations and explores a specific process that can plausibly explain how enhanced high-latitude warming trends may trigger remote weather impacts,” he said.

Noted: Consider the University of Wisconsin’s Madison campus, which in 2014 combined its foundation and alumni associations. The impetus for that union involved the growing demand for private philanthropy in an environment of shrinking state support for public higher education, said Mike Knetter, president and CEO of the UW Foundation.

The westernised definition of feminism, and misconceptions that surround Muslim feminists as being in opposition to Shariah, were challenged at a session at Northwestern University in Qatar (NU-Q). In her session, “How Not to Talk about Muslim Feminism,” distinguished scholar and Islamic and US constitutional law expert, Asifa Quraishi-Landes, spoke about the goal of women’s empowerment within Muslim societies.

Orf, a University of Wisconsin-Madison scientist with the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies, uses supercomputers to create 3D simulations of weather patterns.

Quoted: Whether they are trained therapy animals or not, pets can help their owners with physical and psychological conditions, UW-Madison professor Linda Sullivan said.

Steve Ackerman and Jonathan Martin, professors in the UW-Madison department of atmospheric and oceanic sciences, weigh in.

Noted: “What is interesting is that they found, yes, we have a type. But when we think about the idea of having a type, we think it is internal, only our unique preferences. That is not really true,” said Christine Whelan, clinical professor in the School of Human Ecology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who was not involved in the study.

Noted: Thomas O’Guinn, a marketing professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and expert on branding and advertising, said he didn’t think using the term made sense, but he could understand its application. He said the move could result in a smaller applicant pool or even a loss of liberal customers if the campaign rubs enough people the wrong way.

Noted: Dane County and other small- to medium-sized metro areas are seeing most of that population growth, said David Egan-Robertson, applied demographer with the University of Wisconsin-Madison Applied Population Laboratory.

Noted: Professor emeritus Bob Cropp from the University of Wisconsin-Madison said milk prices usually decrease later in spring as nice weather brings an increase in milk production.

Quoted: “Fruits are treated differently in Asian culture and in Japanese society especially,” Soyeon Shim, dean of the School of Human Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, tells CNN. “Fruit purchase and consumption are tied to social and cultural practices.

Waisman Center’s Sigan Hartley talks to Channel 4 about Sesame Street’s new muppet, Julia.

“High turnout has been maintained by a combination of three factors: a strong culture of civic participation, supportive election laws and competitive elections,” said Burden. “The participatory culture probably did not change substantially since the last election. The more likely culprits are changes in election laws and the competitiveness of the 2016 campaign.”

“We are looking for a much improved year for dairy farmers,” said Cropp, professor emeritus with University of Wisconsin-Extension and UW-Madison. “Feed prices are lower and milk prices will be higher, which will improve margins — returns over feed cost. As of now it looks like milk prices could average about $2 per hundredweight higher than last year.”

Noted: “Study after study has shown that this assumption is not supported by the data,” says Dietram Scheufele, who studies science communication at the University of Wisconsin.

Noted: Nancy Keller, who studies fungal pathogens at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, also emphasizes the importance of studying the corn outside of a greenhouse laboratory. Regulatory agencies would insist on all this testing before allowing the modified corn to be introduced globally.

Noted: Karen Strier, a University of Wisconsin-Madison anthropologist, just visited the forest, which lies within the federally protected RPPN Feliciano Miguel Abdala reserve near the Brazilian city of Caratinga.

Recently, Wisconsin has lagged by this measure even as the cost of renewable energy has fallen, said Greg Nemet, a UW-Madison La Follette School of Public Affairs professor who specializes in energy policy.

Noted: One of your best weapons during a disease outbreak is knowledge, says Dr. Jonathan Temte of the University of Wisconsin.

We’ve all heard of the great divide between life in rural and urban America. But what are the factors that contribute to these differences? We asked sociologists, economists, geographers and historians to describe the divide from different angles. The data paint a richer and sometimes surprising picture of the U.S. today. Contributor: Tessa Conroy, Economic Development Specialist, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Noted: Dr. Diane Heatley, an ear, nose and throat specialist for children, echoed the pinch-and-hold method in a piece on the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health’s website, noting that an ice pack is also useful as, much like your fingers, cold surfaces work to constrict blood vessels in the nose. However, she also said that these cold items must be applied to the nose only — so if you’ve heard others tell you to place an ice pack near your neck or mouth, it wont help. Said Dr. Heatley, “A cold cloth or small ice pack on the bridge of the nose will also slow blood flow by constricting blood vessels. … But an ice pack on the back of the neck won’t do much.”

Noted: “Probably in other sciences this is where you’d be done. However, in math that’s just the beginning. Now we want to know for sure,” said Melanie Wood, a mathematician at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Noted: Air quality, in particular, represents an enormous environmental-health achievement, said Tracey Holloway, a professor of environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Noted: Marine fisheries tend to be commercial operations, while freshwater fishing is almost exclusively a means of subsistence. “Most freshwater fish catches don’t enter the global trade economy, so they draw less interest,” says University of Wisconsin–Madison zoologist Peter McIntyre.

Noted: “Understanding and addressing pay gaps in higher education is a complex matter. Unpacking how these gaps continue to exist, albeit with some progress, requires both a close look at the institutions and individuals involved,” says Dr. Jerlando F.L. Jackson, the Vilas Distinguished Professor of Higher Education at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Noted: Kim Truong, a 2016 graduate of the full-time MBA program at the University of Wisconsin—Madison’s Wisconsin School of Business, says she learned some companies mainly recruit full-time MBA candidates.

Quoted: Hart Posen studies competition at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and says these skirmishes underscore Airbnb’s success.

They’re prepping for a huge Lyme disease year in the northeast but maybe not so much in Wisconsin. University of Wisconsin entomologist Susan Paskewitz says she’s seen nothing to suggest the state as a whole will face a Lyme outbreak this year – just not the kind of mouse population explosion happening in the northeast.