Why zebrafish represent a miracle for the economics of lab-testing?—?and why rats are overpriced. Maybe the biggest advantages of zebrafish, though, is the species’ expansive reproductive capacity. “One of the benefits is the number of offspring they can produce,” says Cara Moravec, a postdoctoral fellow in the genetics department at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. “A single female can lay several hundred eggs per week,” according to Sirotkin.
Here, via University of Wisconsin-Madison economist Menzie Chinn, is their result in a picture: On the horizontal axis, we see the strength of the effect of minimum wages on employment. A positive number means that a minimum wage is found to increase employment; a negative number means it decreases it. On the vertical axis, we see the precision of the studies — a higher point means a study with a bigger sample size, indicating greater accuracy.So what does this graph tell us? The average effect found in the econ literature is an elasticity of about -0.2 as indicated by the vertical red line. That means that a 10 percent increase in the minimum wage would decrease employment by about 2 percent. So if we doubled the minimum wage — a 100 percent increase — we would expect to see the employment of young people go down by a fifth.That’s a small but real effect — a $15 federal minimum wage might throw a million kids out of work. We would have to balance that negative effect against the broad-based positive effect of raising lots of low-income people’s earnings. Balancing the good against the bad is necessary to make a decision.
Noted: David Canon, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin said, “If you have too high a percent African-Americans in a House district, it does dilute the overall representation of African-American interests.”
Once you’ve recognized your biases, learned more about racism, and talked to people of different races, you need to start replacing biases and stereotypes with what you know to be true about people, according to Patricia Devine, a psychology professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
“Naked protests in Africa have historically been symbolic forms of collective protest, generally by the poorest and most marginalised women in society,” says Aili Mari Tripp, Professor of Political Science and Gender & Women’s Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Women have used these forms of protest throughout history and in many parts of the world, but especially in Africa.”
Quoted: In majority-minority districts, minority voters are, by definition, packed beyond that threshold. Ultimately, this is detrimental to the minorities. David Canon, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison said, “If you have too high a percent African Americans in a House district, it does dilute the overall representation of African American interests.”
Noted: Edward Friedman, an expert on China elite politics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, agreed that the response to Stalin’s death was pivotal in the birth of the Cultural Revolution.
Quoted: Timothy Smeeding, a professor of public affairs and economics at the University of Wisconsin.
Academics have consistently found that making “gives kids agency” over their learning in ways that traditional classes often don’t, said Erica Halverson, an associate professor of curriculum and instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. There’s also mounting evidence that making is a good way to teach academic content. “The fear out there is that schools have to choose between making and academic work, but empirically that turns out not to be true,” Halverson said.
Noted: University of Wisconsin Extension Forage Agronomist Dan Undersander said each type of hay has its place — from high-yielding pure alfalfa stands to versatile grass-alfalfa mixes — depending on feeding needs and growing conditions.
“Royal democracy is only possible because of him. It is not an exaggeration to say that without him, royal democracy might not survive,” said Thongchai Winichakul, a Thai scholar and professor of history at University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Thailand’s political future is highly uncertain.”
Quoted: “The research is indicating that you don’t need extended, long-term therapy for most kinds of problems,” said Bruce Wampold, a psychologist specializing in counseling at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Though some patients may seek therapy to help manage chronic conditions like depression, many seek treatment for problems that can be overcome relatively easily, like conflicts at work or in relationships. Therapy should be like seeing any other kind of doctor: You make an appointment, work to gain the tools you need to manage your problems, and eventually discontinue your time together.
They’ve never been a well-liked insect, but now more than ever most people want nothing to do with mosquitoes. A University of Wisconsin Entomology researcher is the exception. With the help of county health departments, Dr. Susan Paskewitz is actively tracking mosquitoes in Wisconsin that could be carrying the Zika Virus.
Noted: That would be three election cycles from now, which University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientist David Canon said implies that Democrats could win a few seats this year and a few seats in each election after that.
Quoted: Heather Kirkorian, who heads up the Cognitive Development & Media Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, agrees. “The extent to which parents are tied up with these devices in ways that disrupt the interactions with the child has potential for a far bigger impact,” she says. “If I’m on the floor with a child but checking my phone every five minutes, what message does that send?” How much parents play with and talk to their kids is a very powerful predictor of how the kids will develop, she adds.
The protest just outside Baltimore was an event that UW-Madison’s Shawn Peters knows well, but he had never heard about Byrne’s connection to it.
Noted: University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor Barry Burden and UW-Madison journalism and political science professor Mike Wagner weigh in.
Quoted: “There’s two sides to a bank — there’s the interest side and the non-interest side. Because of Fed monetary policy and because of trends in competition in banking, the margins on the interest side of the bank are shrinking,” said banking expert James Johannes, a finance professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: “Sex offenders are maybe the most typical older inmates,” said Walter Dickey, University of Wisconsin-Madison law professor emeritus and an expert in corrections and sentencing. “There are certain sex offenders for whom time is no cure, so to speak. They’re going to continue that behavior even when they’re in the most debilitated position.”
Noted: This stereotype is often held up as proof that some racial stereotypes can be favorable, even flattering. But the model-minority image brings with it a number of problems. For instance, research done by Stacey Lee, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Education, shows how this image can deter Asian American high-school students from seeking help when they’re struggling in school, socially isolating them and, ironically, causing them to fare worse academically.
Quoted: “Most studies show that election reforms don’t affect turnout very much, and when they do, the people who turn out look a lot like the people who are already voting,” said Barry C. Burden, the director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Elections Research Center.
UW-Madison vector biologist Matthew Aliota joined Steve Ketelaar on Wisconsin’s Weekend Morning News to look at the latest case of the Zika virus in Wisconsin, if it could start to spread locally, and if athletes should be concerned about it in Rio for the Olympics.
Quoted: Because so many factors are driving this mortality, it’s hard for policy makers to know what to do, said Dave Kindig, professor emeritus of population health sciences at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Quoted: Bruce Allison, an adjunct professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is the creator of a handheld device tree experts will soon be able to use to detect tree decay in its early stages.
Noted: “The fact that the cap set problem finally yielded to such a simple technique is humbling,” Jordan Ellenberg, a mathematician at the University of Wisconsin, Madison told Quanta Magazine. “It makes you wonder what else is actually easy.”
Quoted: For both child and parent, the best way to improve reading skills is by practicing, according to University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Library and Information Studies Associate Director Michele Besant.
Believe it or not, there is a science to airport lines and some logistics that can help travelers. Laura Albert Mclay, an associate professor of industrial and systems engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, talks about it on Live at Four.
Quoted: UW-Madison Real Estate Professor Andra Ghent says we as a society have grown leery of phone calls and door-knockers. It’s why she encourages people to be skeptical, but also open to these offers because deals can be had.
Quoted: “As long as there were at least a little carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, a lifeless planet that had the environmental conditions of Earth [without] oxygen could probably be terraformed relatively quickly with Earth flora,” Kevin Baines, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of Wisconsin at Madison, told me.
Quoted: But at times the process is onerous enough that property owners withdraw, according to University of Wisconsin Madison wetland policy expert Morgan Robertson: “The Corps will say that’s the process working — the permit compensating for the impacts.”
Believe it or not, there is a science to airport lines and some logistics that can help travelers. Laura Albert Mclay, an associate professor of industrial and systems engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, talks about it on Live at Four.
Noted: Noah Williams, an economics professor at UW-Madison, noted Wisconsin’s population has also grown very slowly — from 2010 to 2015 Wisconsin grew 1.5 percent while the country grew 3.9 percent.
Noted: Steve Ackerman and Jonathan Martin, professors in the UW-Madison department of atmospheric and oceanic sciences, are guests on WHA radio (970 AM) at 11:45 a.m. the last Monday of each month.
Area farmers didn’t have to replant corn fields that were touched by frost just after the plants emerged from the soil earlier this month, but their ability to fully recover is dependent on getting timely rain at least through the early summer, a UW-Extension crops and soils specialist said.
Quoted: “We see propaganda take on an unprecedented importance and influence in girding public opinion against the chosen enemy of the U.S.,” said John Hall, a U.S. military history professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
How are you supposed to buddy up with your professor, when you’re just one of 300 other students in a lecture hall?
Quoted: “It seems to me in developed and semideveloped countries there is emerging a new kind of politics for which maybe the best taxonomic category would be right-wing populist nationalism,” said Stanley Payne, a professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “We are seeing a new kind of phenomenon which is different from what you had” in the 20th century.
Noted: Some resistance to using the predictive model stems from “click fatigue” as doctors deal with a wealth of electronic information, such as best-practice recommendations for treatment, that increasingly pops up on their computer screens, says David Feldstein, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
Quoted: UW-Madison political science professor Barry Burden said that because Feingold has made it clear he is not taking sides in the nomination contest between Clinton and Sanders, it’s not clear whether the fundraising plea was instigated by the Sanders campaign or the Feingold campaign.
Since winning his regional bee in March, Jashun has been studying with Jeff Kirsch, a Spanish professor from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Noted: Retailers are attempting to reverse the trend of showrooming and brick and mortar companies have fought back by offering to match prices, said Neeraj Arora, a marketing professor at the Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
If you’ve ever started a sentence with, “If I were you . . . ” or found yourself scratching your head at a colleague’s agony over a decision when the answer is crystal-clear, there’s a scientific reason behind it. Our own decision-making abilities can become depleted over the course of the day causing indecision or poor choices, but choosing on behalf of someone else is an enjoyable task that doesn’t suffer the same pitfalls, according to a study published in Social Psychology and Personality Science.
Noted: But paltry prices can work against developing countries, says James Cleary, a palliative-care specialist at the University of Wisconsin: they mean drug firms have little incentive to bring them to new markets. Tariffs, import licences and high costs for small-scale local production mean that morphine can cost twice as much in poor places as rich ones. Some countries, such as Jamaica, subsidise opioid painkillers. Many others do not.
Quoted: In a study last year, the CDC warned that drug-resistant infections would continue to rise. And while the medical community has been anticipating the strain’s arrival, the troubling part is that “this case seems completely home-grown,” according to Dr. Nasia Safdar, an associate professor of infectious diseases at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
Noted: Commenting on the reports Dr Nasia Safdar, from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, said: “The results are very concerning.
An expert on political statistics told a panel of federal judges on Wednesday that Wisconsin’s Republican-drawn legislative map was about as biased as possible in favor of GOP candidates for the state Assembly.
Quoted: Paul Mitchell, associate professor of agricultural economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said exports still have an impact on the local market.
Quoted: “The environment just isn’t right for the practice with low interest rates, balance sheets generally in good shape, plenty of heifers and milk prices are low,” said Mark Stephenson, director of Dairy Policy Analysis at the University of Wisconsin, who said it was more common in the 1990s. “Why would anyone want to lease what they could own?”
Noted: “Suddenly people were homeowners like never before … so these landscapes and suburbanization just mushroomed,” said Paul Robbins, author of Lawn People: How Grass, Weeds and Chemicals Make Us Who We Are.
Noted: Witnesses include Barry Burden, Professor of Political Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Director, UW Elections Research Center.
Noted: Seth Pollak, a child psychologist at the University of Wisconsin—Madison, says that it is unclear whether poverty harms cognition and mental health, or whether a person’s intrinsic biology increases the likelihood that he or she will be poor as adults. But epigenetic research, such as the new study, shows that genetic differences are not the only important factors. “You might have a particular gene — but depending on the experience you have or don’t have, the gene might never be turned on,” Pollak says.
Noted: In researching the effect of stricter voter ID laws, Dr. Hajnal found they resulted in lower minority turnout. That finding is consistent with a 2014 study by the US Government Accountability Office, Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who testified in 2014 against the Texas law, tells the Monitor.
Noted: But all these factors are exacerbated by common forces, says Judith Kimble, a developmental biologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison: competition for grants and positions, and a growing burden of bureaucracy that takes away from time spent doing and designing research. “Everyone is stretched thinner these days,” she says. And the cost extends beyond any particular research project. If graduate students train in labs where senior members have little time for their juniors, they may go on to establish their own labs without having a model of how training and mentoring should work. “They will go off and make it worse,” Kimble says.
Noted: At the heart of the case challenging Wisconsin’s 2011 redistricting process is something the plaintiffs are calling an “efficiency gap.” UW-Madison political scientist David Canon says it refers to the wasted votes cast when a large number of voters aligned with a party are packed into one area. In essence, he says it lets Democrats win a few races with big margins, while Republicans are able to win more races with smaller margins.
Medical science has had difficulty developing flu vaccines that accurately match circulating seasonal influenza strains.
Birds found so far from their native range are considered “vagrants,” according to David Drake, a wildlife biologist at the University of Wisconsin- Madison.
Noted: Piloting an airplane is an intense job that requires physical stamina, excellent vision, concentration for significant periods of time and the ability to react quickly to new information. “For airline pilots there is a mandatory retirement age,” says Karen Holden, a professor emerita of consumer science and public affairs at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. “The airline might move you to another job.”
Quoted: “It’s already too late,” says Yi Fuxian of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a critic of Chinese population policies. “China’s population is aging quickly and will start to shrink soon.”
Featuring Susan Paskewitz:
Mosquitoes like to have a good time like anyone else, which is why studies have shown they often target beer drinkers. “There’s possibly something different about the way they smell to a mosquito,” Susan Paskewitz, an entomologist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, told ABC News.
Noted: Daniel Huffman is a cartographer who lectures at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, considered by many to be the cradle of academic map-making in the United States.
