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Category: UW Experts in the News

UW retail expert says proposed sales tax holiday would be boon for consumers

Channel3000.com

Quoted: Jerry O’Brien, director at UW’s Kohl’s Center for Retailing Excellence, said the proposal would benefit consumers.

“Consumers get more bang for their buck, retailers get an opportunity to draw more people into their store,” O’Brien said “It might be easier to plan sales, you know that’s going to be a big day.”

First-of-its-kind study finds parental debt affects children’s socioemotional well-being

Medical Xpress

Certain types of debt that parents take on may have adverse effects on children’s socioemotional well-being according to a new study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and Dartmouth published by the journal Pediatrics. The study sheds new light on the link between debt and family well-being, as previous research on debt has typically focused on how debt affects the mental health and well-being of adults and has yet to explore how parents’ debt may impact a child’s well-being.

Recent Controversies Spark Discussion About Slavery Books

AP

Noted: Tate and others say slavery books for children are an intricate art of communicating historical crimes that neither overwhelms nor misleads readers. “There’s no checklist for the right way to do this,” says Megan Schliesman, a librarian at the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “We’re in the midst of a huge learning process.”

Lily’s Luau raises money for epilepsy research on UW campus

Channel3000.com

(Video) Lily’s Luau is known for its tropical food, music and attire, but it’s all for a great cause. The event raising money for epilepsy research on the University of Wisconsin campus is this weekend. Quoted: Antoine Madar, research assistant in neuroscience; Mathew (Matt) Jones, associate professor of neuroscience.

Freedom for Avery, Dassey? Don’t bet on it

KARE-TV, Minneapolis

Quoted: “It’s extremely difficult to overturn a conviction,” said Keith Findley, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School and a co-founder of the Wisconsin Innocence Project. “The system is designed to (keep convicted criminals in prison). There are all kinds of burdens and hurdles built into the system that makes it more difficult to overturn convictions.

High School Sports Taunting Policy, And One Player’s Suspension, Causes Uproar

Wisconsin Public Radio

Quoted: The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld limits on student speech, according to University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientist and law school professor Howard Schweber. However, he said districts should have to justify that such speech interferes with school discipline. It’s hard to maneuver in a time when even presidential candidates are less than civil.

No homicide charges in Amish crash deaths

Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune

Quoted: The state statute for homicide by drunken driving defines it as causing the death of another while under the influence of an intoxicant, said David E. Schultz, law professor for the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School. However, the law gives a defendant leeway if he or she can argue that the crash would have happened regardless of intoxication, Schultz said.

Parents’ Financial Debt Linked to Behavioral Problems in Their Kids

LiveScience

Noted: Unsecured debt tends to be more expensive than secured debt, such as a mortgage or a car loan, because people generally pay higher interest rates for unsecured debt, and “it is expected to be paid off over a shorter period of time,” compared with other types of debt, said study author Lawrence M. Berger, a professor of social work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The History of Food as a Weapon of Hate

Eater

Noted: The individuals contributing to the growing list of vandalism against mosques are using pork predominantly because of its symbolic meaning as forbidden. But according to Corrnie Norman, a professor of religious studies at University of Wisconsin-Madison, “given the discussion going on right now, people think they can get away with doing, these things to Muslims,” she says, citing the coverage of the presidential campaigns.

Nuclear options

Isthmus

Quoted: The bill provides an “interesting opportunity” for bipartisan action, says Paul Wilson, a UW-Madison professor of nuclear engineering and interim chair of the Nelson Institute’s Energy Analysis and Policy certificate program. “There are a lot of different interests that kind of coalesce around nuclear energy,” he says.

$3.3 million in grants aimed at achievement gap

Channel3000.com

Noted: University of Wisconsin’s Hope Lab says the program has proved its success over the years. In a new evaluation to be released next month, the study found 73 percent of AVID/TOPS students go to college compared to 62 percent who go to college who are not in the program. Those statistics are credited to expanding opportunities and increasing attendance.

“It’s reducing the number of absences that they have and as any parent knows, showing up for class is a hard task and getting them there is so important because that’s where the learning happens,” said Dr. Sara Goldrick-Rab, of Wisconsin HOPE Lab.

2016’s Best Frequent Flyer Program

CardHub

Amber Epp, associate professor of marketing in the Wisconsin School of Business, quoted: “Whether the airlines or consumers benefit most depends on how the programs are structured (e.g., blackout dates, types of rewards, points expiration, reward structure). For airlines, the profits are not so much related to the business they gain directly from consumers, but rather from the money they make on selling miles to other companies (e.g., credit cards, restaurants, etc.) for consumers to cash in as rewards.”

Groups work to keep talent in Madison

Madison Magazine

Quoted: “The reason we formed was we noticed there was an absence of input from Black professionals and we wanted to help groom, recruit and retain Black professionals in this community,” says Dawn B. Crim, [Madison Network of Black Professionals] president for the 2016-18 term and associate dean for external relations in the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Crim says Madison can be a transient place. People come here for school, graduate and decide to stay and enter the workforce. But for some African Americans, they become the one Black professional there. “So we thought it made sense to try to build a network across the city so professionals feel supported and connected as well as informed on what’s happening in the community.”

Also: Madison Magnet has partnered with the University of Wisconsin–Madison to join its new graduate student resource fair.

Bitter cold weather brings danger for pets

Channel3000.com

Quoted: “I think no animal should be outside when it is that cold,” says Dr. Sandi Sawchuk, a clinical instructor at the UW Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital. “You’re looking at pretty instant flesh freezing and even though dogs tend to have more padded feet and have hair on their feet they can still get very cold and get frost bit quite quickly.”

UW researchers find possible treatment for Alzheimer’s

Channel3000.com

University of Wisconsin researchers say they’ve found a treatment to clean up the plaques that form in the brain of mice with Alzheimer’s disease.

The research published in the journal Brain shows that compounds that inhibit two cellular proteins can help clean up the plaques found in the brain of mice with Alzheimer’s disease. The proteins work inside the cell to remove toxic material.

Quoted: Luigi Puglielli, of the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.

Why I Taught Myself to Procrastinate

New York Times

Noted: I wasn’t convinced. So Jihae, now a professor at the University of Wisconsin, designed some experiments. She asked people to come up with new business ideas. Some were randomly assigned to start right away. Others were given five minutes to first play Minesweeper or Solitaire. Everyone submitted their ideas, and independent raters rated how original they were. The procrastinators’ ideas were 28 percent more creative.

Flu numbers down other viruses up

NBC15

Quoted: “The bottom line is people are still getting sick the way that they usually are but it’s not influenza that’s causing it,” UW Dr. Nasia Safdar, said. [Safdar is associate professor in the department of medicine.]

According to UW Health, Dane County is seeing a surge in something else.

“There’s a lot of other respiratory viruses that are going around,” Dr. Safdar said.

Business, Engineering and Tech Grads Lead the Class of 2016

GoodCall News

Quoted: And business students are in demand because they have a great balance of hard and soft skills, according to Amanda Earle, associate director of career advising at the Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Business students are trained to be able to dive into data, make meaning and connections with the data, and then tell a clear and concise story through written and oral communications to both internal and external stakeholders.”  Earle says the ability to understand data and know how to effectively communicate it is crucial to helping businesses make important decisions for the bottom line.

SCOTUS looks at labor unions. Unions are worried. Here’s why.

The Washington Post

Noted: But as private sector unions cratered, private sector workers, especially those without college degrees, have watched pay stagnate and work rights shrink while simultaneously bearing more of the risks of illness, unemployment, and retirement. As a result, as Kathy Cramer of the University of Wisconsin-Madison demonstrated (gated), resentment toward state workers can run deep. The belief that public sector unions are self-interested, politically influential, and exclusive supporters of Democrats compounds this resentment.

Teens face harder road speeding into adulthood

Appleton Post-Crescent

Quoted: “People this age are making decisions for the rest of their lives — like what am I going to major in for a career — and we’re asking them to do it at a time when their brains aren’t fully developed,” said Danielle Oakley, director of mental health services at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Deer kill up in PA neighbor: Outdoor Insider

PennLive.com

Quoted: “Our goal was to look at the climate where these birds were observed breeding over this period and determine where that ’sweet spot’ was moving as the climate changed in this period,” explained Brooke Bateman, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

On Campus: Professor says ‘Making a Murderer’ shows justice system flaws beyond Steven Avery case

Wisconsin State Journal

The UW-Madison law professor who helped free Steven Avery after a wrongful conviction in the 1980s says “Making a Murderer,” the Netflix documentary about his 2007 homicide trial, illustrates problems in the criminal justice system that affect many cases beyond Avery’s.

Hunt for Ebola’s wild hideout takes off as epidemic wanes

Nature

Quoted: Tony Goldberg, an epidemiologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, is one such advocate. He no longer subscribes to the view that “we have to blanket the continent of Africa with field-deployable DNA sequencers and sample everything that crawls, flies or swims and eventually we’ll come across it. I used to think that way,” he says, “but I’m cooling off to that approach.”

The Trouble With Talking Toys

NPR News

Quoted: “Personally, I think it’s quite problematic,” Heather Kirkorian says of the potentially misleading claims by toymakers. She studies child development at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and thinks Sosa has put her finger on a troubling trend.

How to prevent, treat frostbite

Channel3000.com

Noted: Frostbite can result in loss of limbs in extreme cases, and that’s one of the reasons UW Health Dermatologist [and clinical assistant professor] Apple Bodemer is reminding people to bundle up.

“Hats – face masks – mittens – multiple layers,” she suggests.

Chris Rickert: For lawmakers backing tougher drunken-driving penalties, Jesus awaits

Wisconsin State Journal

Noted: Comment from Joe Glass, UW-Madison assistant social work professor who specializes in addiction, and Julia Sherman, coordinator of the UW-based Wisconsin Alcohol Policy Project.

Glass pointed to sobriety checkpoints, alcohol ignition locks, license revocation and suspension laws as among the examples. But it’s also quite possible that someone working on a fourth drunken-driving offense has an addiction. “Repeated use in hazardous situations, including drinking and driving, is a characteristic of alcohol use disorder, as defined by the medical community,” Glass said.

Sherman said she’s not aware of evidence that the threat of tougher penalties alone deters drunken driving. Evidence does show that treatment changes alcohol-related behavior, she said, but “just locking people up isn’t treatment.”

Is filing a patent worthwhile?

Herald Tribune

Quoted: File your patent early or opt for secrecy. Martin Ganco, associate professor of management and human resources at the Wisconsin School of Business, advises, “A small-business owner should consider filing a patent as early as they have a patentable technology. It can be in the early stages. It is a common mistake to think that a fully functioning prototype is needed to apply for a patent. In rare cases, if the patent provides weak protection, it may be better to opt for not patenting and opt instead for secrecy.”

New nutritional guidelines strike familiar tone, emphasize cutting back sugar

Channel3000.com

Noted: “I think it’s a little more strict than it used to be, but it’s the same message, the same key messages that you want to take home,” said Julie Andrews, UW Health chef and registered dietitian. “The FDA suggests reducing the intake of added sugars, and so that means any sugars added during the processing of the food.”

Andrews is the coordinator for UW Health’s Learning Kitchen program, which offers cooking classes to those looking to learn how to cook healthier meals. Classes are held at UW Health at The American Center building on Madison’s northeast side.

Female hunters urge Senate panel to scrap blaze pink bill

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison textile expert Majid Sarmadi, who studied fluorescent pink’s visibility for the bill’s authors, backed up that assertion. He told the committee pink stands out more than orange in a fall landscape.”If pink is more visible, shouldn’t it be a good choice? Shouldn’t it be allowed to save lives?” Sarmadi said.