Category: UW Experts in the News

Noted: Committees like this have seen a resurgence after a 2014 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that ended an overall limit on campaign contributions by a donor to political parties, candidates or PACs in a single calendar year, said Ken Mayer, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who studies campaign finance.

A law school professor is weighing in on a referendum, to legalize marijuana, on the Menominee Indian reservation.Tribal members voted in favor of allowing recreational and medicinal use, last week. UW-Madison Professor Richard Monette says tribal sovereignty is similar to that of the states. But he says it’s not clear whether the Menominee would be allowed to sell marijuana to non-members.

Quoted: “Part of it is confidence,” Chris Velden, a senior scientist and hurricane researcher at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, told CBS News.

Quoted: And yet, it’s likely longform television dramas like The Wire wouldn’t exist if soap operas hadn’t paved the way. “Daytime soap operas were the first instances of serialized narratives in television,” Elana Levine, associate professor of media studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison told Quartz. “It was in daytime that TV writers, producers, and directors figured out how to create moving-image stories that had no set ending, that had characters that changed over time and had histories and memories.”

Quoted: Future robots could be more practical if they are able to reconfigure their arms without the need of moving parts. As such, understanding how to bend materials smoothly or snap them quickly could enable more efficient mechanical designs, said Arthur Evans, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: UW-Madison professor Mike Wagner said Walker’s lower approval rating might impact his working relationships with state legislators.

Noted: Rebecca Mather, an outreach specialist with the UW-School of Human Ecology, said unfortunately there’s no magic number that implies your child is ready.

“It really depends on a number of factors. Probably most importantly the maturity of the child, the circumstances of the family and probably the parenting style of the parents too,” said Mather.

There are a certain number of factors that can give parents a touch stone. Mather said things like responsibility and impulse control are among the most important.

Over the last 38 years, bicycle fatalities in the United States have decreased dramatically, according to a study published by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The study was led by Jason Vargo, an assistant scientist with University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Global Health Institute and Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies.

The NCAA and the NFL have launched a new campaign to prevent kids from focusing on just one sport. Dave Knight, an athletic trainer at UW Health’s sports rehab clinic, talks about the pros and cons.

Quoted: Jill Boissonnault, an associate professor in the doctor of physical therapy program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said she doesn’t have a problem with parents balancing babies on their hips — so long as it’s only for a short period of time and they’re paying attention to their spines and posture while they’re doing it. They should focus on keeping their spines in a neutral position rather than bending to one side, forward or backward, she said.

Noted: But if Aprecia does manage to move the drug-manufacturing process closer to the patient, it will buck more than a general trend toward centralization and mass production. Drug manufacturers have tended to consolidate not only over the past 100 years but also over the past couple decades, says Gregory Higby, a University of Wisconsin professor and the executive director of the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy. This corporate consolidation especially accelerated during the 1990s, he told me.

Various cities on the east and west coasts of the county have raised their minimum wages to $15 per hour. Amid calls for other cities and states to follow suit, an economist looks at what economic impact that raise would have in Wisconsin, a state with lower wages an a lower cost of living than cities like New York, Washington DC, and Seattle.

Quoted: But Leslie Bow, English and Asian-American studies professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, called the employee’s following “quite bizarre,” noting the fetishistic aspect of a fascination with a woman who looks like a doll.

(Video) UW-Madison chair of psychiatry Dr. Ned Kalin shares tips on how to help kids cope with school anxiety.

Quoted: Gary Green, professor of community and environmental sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the six ICC counties experienced numerous changes what some scholars call “the Great Reset,” which started in about 2007 and is only now starting to show signs of waning.

Quoted: Kurt Squire, a professor in digital media at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said teachers who have designed lessons using games like World of Warcraft see students getting more excited about what they’re learning.

Noted: Professor Jerry Kaster of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his students are collecting mayfly eggs and putting them in the bay. The Green Bay Press Gazette reports the goal is to restore the ecosystem and help Green Bay become a world-class fishery.

Noted: Calling Donald Trump a “novelty candidate,” Barry Burden of the UW-Madison Elections Research Center said Walker is well positioned to gain support in Iowa, citing proximity to Wisconsin and the governor’s former residency in the Hawkeye State as likely contributors.

Quoted: Working with colleagues at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine, Dougherty began by wondering whether the flashes are communications between clams. But even though the clams have 40 eyes, their eyesight is surprisingly poor.

Noted: Attempting to counteract that last, problematic development has been a longtime goal of the creators of educational television series. Sadly, however, a research team led by Marie-Louise Mares of the University of Wisconsin–Madison reports the impact of such shows appears to be extremely limited.

Quoted: “We’re not sure that the roads have become safer,” says Jason Vargo, assistant scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Global Health Institute and the lead author of the report. “We may be just putting people out on the same roads that are as dangerous as they were before.”

Noted: The traditional way of making transistors using photolithography doesn’t work because it leaves the nanoribbons with rough, disordered edges, which compromises performance and is not ideal for digital applications, says Michael Arnold, a professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Quoted: The blast, which was caught on camera at numerous angles, was so powerful that it knocked down anyone in its path, and the heat it generated could be detected from space, according to Russell Dengel, a science and engineering researcher at the University of Wisconsin.

Quoted: “Harley is often held up as an American success story,” says Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. “There are people who buy those bikes over other brands because they’re American-made. There were unions involved and there was government assistance at various times. It hasn’t just been market forces that have made that happen.”

Quoted: The state legislators who introduced and whipped votes to pass VIVA refused to testify in the trial, but they deny both discriminatory intentions and the charge that the law will yield discriminatory results. University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor Barry Burden, an expert witness for the civil rights team, had a different testimony:

Noted: “We too often in higher education embrace the one size fits all view,” says Conrad, the Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Higher Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “The challenges that many students at Minority Serving Institutions face are very diverse. It isn’t just about money or being non-native speakers. But it’s some of the more invisible challenges and the intersection of these challenges that are not often discussed.”

Quoted: “These things are almost never a good deal from a macroeconomic standpoint,” said Kenneth Mayer, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. “How does he explain it to undecided or Republican primary voters?” Mayer said.

Milk prices have been falling lately, creating problems for farmers throughout Wisconsin.  A dairy anaylst looks at the reasons for the falling prices, and when things might turn around.

Quoted: “Right now, our patients are getting mixed messages from ‘don’t bother taking D at all’ to ‘take 2,000 too 4,000 units a day,’ so what are we to do?” said the lead author, Dr. Karen E. Hansen, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin. “This study supports a middle-of-the-road approach. If your D level is 20 or higher, that’s enough, and if you’re low, you can achieve that with 600 to 800 units a day.”

Noted: The call for more teachers of color has grown more urgent in recent years because of America’s changing demographics. In an increasingly multiracial, multicultural society, some education experts question the impact on white students’ world views when the face of teaching almost always mirrors their own. Gloria Ladson-Billings, an African American professor of urban education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, broached this subject in a recent essay for Education Week responding to the apparent decline in nonwhite teachers—what some observers have described as a “disappearance crisis.” “I want to suggest that there is something that may be even more important than black students having black teachers and that is white students having black teachers! It is important for white students to encounter black people who are knowledgeable,” she wrote. “What opportunities do white students have to see and experience black competence?”

Even though harvest is months away, agriculture experts say most of Wisconsin’s corn and soybean crop is exceeding expectations. It’s been a good year for Wisconsin farmers, according to University of Wisconsin-Madison corn agronomist Joe Lauer. He said there’s been a good balance of rain and warm, sunny days.

Quoted: Overwhelmingly, bioethicists agree with Pinker that the red tape surrounding scientific research is awful, and there’s way too much of it. Norman Fost, a professor emeritus of pediatrics and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin, mentioned a slew of cases in which scientists who conducted solid, ethical work were threatened with sanctions because the consent form was slightly unclear, or the IRB minutes didn’t note if a quorum was present.

Quoted: Bruce Jones, a University of Wisconsin-Madison agricultural and applied economics professor,  said that’s because farm incomes have been on the rise, especially for dairy producers.

Quoted: Marcus Perlman from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his colleagues wanted to test this. They challenged nine pairs of students to express certain words, such as big, slow or attractive, using only simple vocalisations.

Quoted: “They have been in place for a very long time under both Republican and Democratic administrations,” said Alta Charo, a bioethicist and law professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientist Ken Mayer has similar expectations for Walker, along with much of the other candidates in the debate. However, he notes the one “wild card” is Donald Trump. The current leader in the polls has been making headlines with controversial statements on the campaign trail. Mayer says it’s unlikely Trump will keep a low profile on stage, and could try to “stir things up” on stage by interrupting or making other statements.

Political analysts describe Wisconsin as purple – neither liberalism’s traditional blue, nor conservatism’s typical red.  The state’s deep political divides are well-documented, but often in terms of political parties.