Quoted: “One of the Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Control Plan’s goals is to reduce the risk of people in our state getting cancer,” said LoConte, an oncologist. “By increasing the use of the HPV vaccine statewide, we are closing the door to cancer for our children’s generation.”
Quoted: Nadav Shelef is a professor of Israel studies and political science at the University of Wisconsin.Unlike in American politics, where candidates of similar ideology often settle their scores before election day, Shelef says the game of drawing distinctions never really ends in Israel.
Quoted: “It just changes expectations for who’s responsible for making elections work,” said Barry Burden, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and director of the Elections Research Center. “In every other state it’s the responsibility for the voters to make sure it happens.”
Quoted: Nadia Alber, outreach coordinator, and Dick Cates, director, of the Wisconsin School for Beginning Dairy and Livestock Farmers.
Cycle for Sight is an indoor cycling event that raises money for vision research at the McPherson Eye Research Institute at UW-Madison. Quoted: David Gamm, associate professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences.
Dr. Jordan Ellenberg, a math professor at the University of Wisconsin, pointed to a coin-flip statistic for last year’s tournament that he said showed “coin-flip brackets do REALLY REALLY BADLY relative to the median ESPN Tournament Challenge player, who is presumably using their basketball knowledge and trying to win.”
Noted: But “cisgender” and “cis,” used for people whose gender identity aligns with their birth sex, didn’t begin catching on until around 2008, according to Anne Enke, a professor of gender and women’s studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Before that time, she recalls, her undergraduates considered “cisgender” to have “too much of a subcultural ‘insider’ feel,” but then she noticed that an increasing number of students savvy about gender issues “began to casually toss ‘cis’ ” into classroom discussion. (Subscription required.)
Quoted: “In a crystal, everything is periodically arranged. If you know what’s happening in one little bit, you can predict where the atoms are going to be everywhere else. In glass, things are much more disordered,” explained Mark Ediger, an experimental chemist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who was not involved in the study.
If science-as-political-football prompts people give up on the idea that a consensus emerging from a growing body of scientific evidence “is the best available evidence for decisionmaking … we’re basically undermining the very value of the scientific enterprise,” says Dietram Scheufele, who studies science policy and science communication at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Noted: Computer algorithms shouldn’t displace children’s real conversations with real friends, pediatrician Dipesh Navsaria, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, said in the statement.
Quoted: But if annatto is flavorless, what accounts for the difference? According to Dean Sommer, cheese and food technologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, some manufacturers actually make their orange and white cheddars differently, altering the moisture, fat content, and aging times to reflect regional palates.
Quoted: The results underscored the extent to which chief audit executives “encountered some form of political pressure, almost on a daily basis, said Larry Rittenberg, one of the authors of the report and professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: At the University of Wisconsin School of Business, Professor Charlie Trevor says in the future some companies could lose many good workers unless they make changes.
Alta Charo, a professor of law and bioethics at UW-Madison, said the “anti-vaxxer” movement has a long history in the U.S., stretching back 200 years.
Quoted: The right-to-work bill is unlikely to have a major economic effect, because unions have been in decline for three decades, said William Jones, a University of Wisconsin-Madison labor historian.
On Thursday at the UW Institute for Discovery, more than 250 of the greatest minds in research joined forces in the hopes of finding a cure to these degenerative diseases. Quoted: Marina Emborg, director of the Preclinical Parkinson Research Program and assistant professor of medical physics; Dorothy Farrar-Edwards, professor and chair of kinesiology.
“The assumption from past research has been that cities of all sizes will eventually decline in density,” says author Annemarie Schneider, a geographer at University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Quoted: “The law is a symbol of the weakness of unions,” University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientist John Ahlquist said.
Noted: If the Supreme Court rules that tax subsidies only apply to states that operate their own health insurance exchange, more than 180,000 people in the state would lose financial assistance. And Donna Friedsam, the health policy programs director at the UW Population Health Institute, says that would, in all likelihood, mean people would not afford their health insurance plans.
Quoted: “There is a common mantra that if you reduce biodiversity, that’s bad for infectious disease. That’s too simple,” said Tony Goldberg, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who was not involved in the study. “It’s not biodiversity that matters; it’s the species.”
Quoted: “The success of his policy of transitioning adults off of BadgerCare is built on the existence of the ACA and the availability of those subsidies,” says Donna Friedsam, Researcher and Health Policy Programs Director at the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.
Noted: A new analysis estimates the effect of committing Pell Grants to low-income students in the eighth grade, including a cost-benefit analysis. A paper on the study, by Robert Kelchen, an assistant professor of higher education at Seton Hall University, and Sara Goldrick-Rab, a professor of educational-policy studies and sociology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, finds that such a program could increase the enrollment rate of low-income students.
Dietram Scheufele, professor of life sciences communication, and Dominique Brossard, life sciences communication department chair, partnered with the Morgridge Institute for Research. Their study shows people who feel the most informed in terms of politics tend to interpret information differently.
A UW crop scientist says it’s going to take the FDA’s blessing before you bite into the genetically modified fruit. Amaya Atucha, assistant professor of horticulture, says the browning is a natural phenomenon known as polyphenol oxidase. “When we cut the apple, the flesh is exposed to the oxygen and this enzyme reacts with the oxygen.” Dr. Atucha said.
Conducting great research and making exceptional advancements in the field of engineering has earned two UW-Madison professors — Raymond J. Fonck and Thomas M. Jahns — recognition by membership into an elite institution known as the National Academy of Engineering.
Quoted: Prof. Tom Oliver researches health policy and politics at UW Madison. He says a Supreme Court ruling against tax subsidies in states like Wisconsin would be a huge blow to thousands.
To WOECF Graduate Project Assistant David Lassen, the fellowship is a way to make the Wisconsin Idea manifest locally for communities around the state. “There’s a lot of folks that are interested in this idea of taking the university to the state,” Lassen said. “I think there are a lot of people who are anxious to actually do it but don’t know how.”
Quoted: Joshua Morrill, senior evaluator in DoiT’s Academic Technology; Paul Robbins, director of the Nelson Institute.
More information about the UW System public authority model was brought to light Thursday and further fueled a heated debate surrounding the potential shift to increased autonomy for system officials in exchange for decreased state funding. Quoted: Sara Goldrick-Rab, professor of educational policy and sociology.
Panelists at a campus-wide forum on ‘Confronting Campus Rape’ Monday said the University of Wisconsin System has failed to address the issue properly and called for policies which better protect victims of sexual assault. Quoted: Anne McClintock, professor of English and gender and women’s studies; Cecilia Klingele, assistant professor of law; Claudia Card, professor of philosophy
Although varying in political disposition and opinions on the budget cuts, members of the panel consisting of UW-Madison faculty and Associated Students of Madison Vice Chair Derek Field agreed on the effects a public authority model would have on undergraduate education. Quoted: Noel Radomski, director of WISCAPE; Sara Goldrick-Rab, professor of educational policy studies and sociology
UW Hospital performs surgery for chronic pancreatitis by blending up organs and reintroducing cells into the body. It is one of a few facilities in the country that is known for performing the eight-hour procedure. Noted: Luis Fernandez, associate professor of surgery; Nancy Radke, senior transplant coordinator for UW Health.
A UW-Extension paper estimates that workers in the manufacturing sector earn an average of $8,100 less in states that have right-to-work laws, and that right-to-work states have more poverty and fewer college graduates.
Quoted: Christine Whelan, a professor of consumer science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says there’s a a reason for this arrangement of stocking clothes months before you can wear them: “It’s aspirational.”
Quoted: For Yoshiko Margaret Herrera, a Russia expert and co-director of the International Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the US response wasn’t good enough. “We know that the justice system in Russia is deeply flawed,” she told DW. “I think essentially asking the Putin regime to investigate amounts to basically zero.”
Noted: Bugs, however, could lessen this capacity dramatically, according to a new study. “Insects may change in response to elevated carbon dioxide levels and limit or compromise the capacity of forests to serve as carbon sinks,” says Richard Lindroth, an ecologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: “Thirty days is a game-able number,” said Dr. Gretchen Schwarze, a vascular surgeon at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and co-author of an editorial on the metric in JAMA Surgery. Last fall, she led a session about the ethics of 30-day mortality reporting at an American College of Surgeons conference.
Humans are creatures of habit. And some of them don”t make us very happy. So how can we change behavior, learn a new habit or make a fresh start? Christine Whelan, a public sociologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an expert with AARP’s Life Reimagined Institute who studies happiness, human ecology and habits, provided some answers:
So what gives these fruits and veggies their curious and crazy shapes? Rest assured: These aren’t genetic mutants, says Irwin Goldman, a professor of horticulture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. While malformed produce can result from genetic mutations, “most of the time it’s just an environmental effect,” he says.
Quoted: “It’s not a lot of money,” says Timothy Smeeding, an economist and former director of the University of Wisconsin’s Institute for Research on Poverty. “If you think of what it costs to give a kid a fair chance, you’ve got to do better than the poverty line.”
Noted: “We are skeptical of the secular stagnation view,” concluded a paper presented at the Booth conference. Like many Fed officials, the authors— James Hamilton of the University of California, San Diego; Ethan Harris of Bank of America ; Jan Hatzius of Goldman Sachs and Kenneth West of the University of Wisconsin—concluded the economy has been held back by temporary headwinds and not a permanent reduction in its potential growth rate.
Quoted: Scott Gehlbach, Political Scientist, University of Wisconsin–Madison: The more I think about Nemtsov’s murder, the more worried I am about what comes next. Historical experience, in Russia and elsewhere, demonstrates that political terror doesn’t require direction from the top. It simply needs a strong signal that terror is okay. And one could hardly ask for a stronger signal than the assassination of a prominent opposition activist a block from the Kremlin.
Quoted: “That is Twitter on speed,” says Katy Culver, an assistant professor at the UW Madison School of Journalism and an expert in social media. “It goes by so quickly that you can’t even process any of the messages. You actually have to stop it to be able to read and absorb any of them.”
Quoted: Unlike factories, ports can’t be moved to low-wage countries. The jobs are “impervious to outsourcing,” said John Ahlquist, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who has studied port unions worldwide.
Quoted: “They never used their real names on the title page while Emily and Anne were alive,” says Emily Auerbach, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of Searching for Jane Austen. “But the pen names helped them open the door and at least get a reading.”
Noted: David Egan-Robertson, a demographer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Applied Population Laboratory, said many federal jobs, as well as private-sector positions in the D.C. region under federal contract, require high levels of expertise. And “to attract and retain this high level of expertise requires higher levels of compensation.”
Assistant Professor Michael Wagner studies political communication at UW-Madison, and says there’s going to be no compromise here.
Noted: “There may be benefits to waiting to raise the nominal rate until we actually see some evidence of labor market pressure and increases in inflation,” concluded the authors, the economics professors Kenneth West of the University of Wisconsin and James Hamilton of the University of California, San Diego and the economists Ethan Harris of Bank of America and Jan Hatzius of Goldman Sachs.
A research team from University of Wisconsin has partnered with Johnson Controls, a global energy company headquartered in Milwaukee, to develop more efficient heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems for large commercial buildings.
As econoblog readers, we follow Econbrowser pretty regularly, mainly for Jim Hamilton’s insights, but recently, we’ve begun paying closer attention to the comments of his co-blogger, Menzie Chinn, who is an economics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Quoted: That makes scientists engaging the public — especially young people — more important than ever, University of Wisconsin-Madison Life Sciences Communication professor Dominique Brossard says.
Quoted: “It’s virtually impossible to make any claims” about the economic impact of right-to-work laws, says John Ahlquist, an associate professor of political science at UW-Madison who has studied labor market institutions.
University of Wisconsin “bug guy” Patrick “P.J.” Liesch has the creepiest, crawliest email inbox on campus.
Liesch, assistant faculty associate in the Department of Entomology, has been the solo “bug guy” in the Insect Diagnostic Lab for roughly one year. His role consists mainly of handling questions from the public, but he also teaches and conducts statewide outreach.
In a research lab at the McPherson Eye Research Institute, Dr. David Gamm and a team of researchers are looking for a cure and treatment for blinding diseases.
Quoted: “We are still on pace to break the all-time record — no question about it,” says Jonathan Martin, a professor of meteorology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Despite the brutal cold in the eastern U.S., the whole hemisphere is warmer this winter than it has ever been in history.”
Quoted: “The biggest driver of the number of vetoes is divided government,” said Kenneth R. Mayer, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies executive power.
Quoted: Michael W. Wagner, an assistant professor of journalism and political science at the University of Wisconsin, said that Mr. Walker frequently speaks to the news media, but that the encounters are amid gaggles of reporters without time for pointed follow-up questions. “Local reporters have become conditioned to the idea he’s not going to amplify his answer,” he said.
Two professors at the University of Wisconsin have been selected for Alfred P. Sloan fellowships to support their research in mathematics and computer sciences.
Quoted: Remind guests, too, that dogs will reflect their own level of activity, said Patricia McConnell, certified animal behaviorist and zoology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Ramp up the excitement, and the dogs will get excited,” she said. “Settle down, and they’ll settle down.”
Quoted: Robert Drechsel, director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, echoed that sentiment. “I don’t buy the idea that because they occupy different roles … that somehow a different standard should apply. I think they’re all subject to the same standard in that you report accurately and that you characterize the reporting accurately,” he said.
Quoted: Ron Schultz, a long-time researcher of canine vaccines, finds immunity of many diseases can last a dog’s lifetime, much like humans. He says vaccines are vitally important, but questions the need to vaccinate so often.
