UW-Madison researchers on the therapeutic potential of psychedelics, including MDMA. Madison was the only Midwest site for phase 3 trials of a psychedelic-assisted therapy treatment for Post-traumatic stress disorder. We learn about the potential for these substances in improving mental health.
PJ Liesch, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Insect Diagnostic Lab, began seeing reports of Japanese beetle activity the last week of June, which is typical. Numbers will increase during their prime feeding months of July and August when they damage (but usually don’t kill) roses, grape vines, basil, raspberries, crabapples, birches and ornamentals, among others, by skeletonizing the leaves.
But the results did not come as a surprise to Tiffany Green, a University of Wisconsin-Madison economist and population health scientist who studies the consequences of racial inequities on reproductive health. She said the results were in line with earlier research on racial disparities in infant mortality rates due to state differences in Medicaid funding for abortions. Many of the people getting abortions are vulnerable to pregnancy complications, said Green, who was not part of the research.
Even some of USDA’s discretionary spending could be challenged, explained said Steph Tai, a professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School.
As the ballooning demand continues to shape market forces, the shift towards fewer, larger farms is inevitable, says Charles Nicholson, associate professor of agricultural and applied economics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. With smaller-scale dairies harder hit by labor shortages and fluctuating milk prices, “this long-term trend would be hard to change with public policy or private initiatives [alone],” he says.
The reintroduction of wolves has only had temporary effects on other small carnivores at Isle Royale National Park on Lake Superior, according to new research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Heather Kirkorian is a professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison who studies how kids and parents interact with digital media. Warning labels are good for raising awareness, she said, but “my sense is that most teens and parents have heard about the potential risks and are aware that that might be a concern.” Treating social media “as analogous to cigarettes is unhelpful, because there are potential benefits of using social media as well, and I don’t think we can make that same argument for smoking cigarettes.”
“Republicans are having a harder time when it comes to picking a city for their national conventions. Big cities have become more Democratic in recent years and the GOP’s messaging is increasing about the ills of big cities, including problems like crime, culture and failing schools,” said Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and director of the university’s Elections Research Center. “Being in a big city is an opportunity for Republicans to emphasize their arguments about Democrats having failed to govern urban centers effectively.”
Thomas O’Guinn, professor emeritus in marketing at UW-Madison, said businesses typically gain cult-like followings by accident. But it’s the businesses that help fulfill a person’s need to belong that stick out from the pack, he said.
Another scholar who disagreed with Mr. Frank’s diagnosis was Kathy Cramer, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. But like Mr. Frank, she was interested in the question of how social class shaped politics, and thought that the way to get an accurate picture was through fieldwork. Over five years, starting in 2007, she visited 27 small towns in Wisconsin.
Some of the fruits have long been given as gifts, especially in Japan and Korea. That trend is catching on in the United States, as is the taste for flawless berries and melons that travelers may have tried overseas, produce experts said. And as the luxury goods industry has grown, so too has the interest in luxury fruit, said Soyeon Shim, a scholar of consumer and financial behavior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “The market has become much more global,” she said. Ms. Shim added, “you can buy anything you want.”
In a famous 1974 paper titled “Why the Haves Come Out Ahead,” the University of Wisconsin law professor Marc Galanter argued that litigation systematically favors repeat players with the wherewithal to take fullest advantage of the courts. Key to his argument was the point that courts are “reactive”: They only do something when someone asks them to. That favors “the claimant with the information, ability to surmount cost barriers, and skill to navigate restrictive procedural requirements.” And most repeat players, Galanter said, tend to be “larger, richer and more powerful” than single-shotters.
Inequitable access to high-quality education plays a role in systematically routing young Black Americans into a narrow set of jobs. “Although our schools should be preparing all students for well-paid satisfying work, far too many of our Black and Brown students are relegated to poorly resourced schools,” says Gloria Ladson-Billings, the Kellner Family Distinguished Professor Emerita of Urban Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“It’s a nudge encouraging federal agencies to do more to help people register,” says Dan Tokaji, an election law expert, who serves as dean of the University of Wisconsin Law School. “Until recently, the complaints were really the federal government wasn’t doing enough, not that they were doing too much to advance voter registration.”
But those habitats are often understudied. While the stretch of river in northern Cambodia has been designated a Ramsar site—a wetlands area of international importance—little research has assessed the ecological damage to the flooded forest there. “What we have is basically interviews with people,” says Ian Baird, a geographer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who has studied fisheries across the border in Laos for several decades.
Mariel Barnes, a founding faculty member of UW–Madison’s Sexual Violence Research Initiative, joined host Allen Ruff to talk about the Supreme Court case as well as statistics of domestic violence in Wisconsin.
UW-Madison scientists have developed a new technique for identifying and analyzing a single molecule.
The new development, published in the May edition of the journal Nature, is the most sensitive way of identifying single molecules yet. With a variety of applications in a wide variety of scientific fields, it offers a future of “new microscopic perspective of unprecedented detail.”
As University of Wisconsin at Madison political scientist Barry Burden noted on Thursday, debate viewership has been trending up since the 1990s, though that may be in part because of more investment in partisan identities. That is, people may tune in not to learn more about the candidates but, instead, to root on their team’s representative.
“Everybody expected a local contamination issue,” said David Gay, coordinator of the National Atmospheric Deposition Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and lead author of the new study. “But I think what most people don’t understand about this fire is how big it was and how wide-ranging the implications are.”
With a population explosion going on in the flowerbeds, what is a gardener to do? UW-Madison entomologist PJ Liesch says gardeners have several options in combating the hungry horde.
“If the population of aphids is not harming the plants or competing with the monarchs, you can just tolerate them. However, if it’s getting out of hand, blast them off with a jet of water (which causes the aphid’s mouthpiece to break off and eventually starve), or you can squish them and wipe them off the plant,” he said.
We look at how electronic absentee voting works and why it’s not more common. Interview with Bryna Godar, a staff attorney with the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School.
Written by John Shutske, a professor of biological systems and engineering and also an Extension specialist at University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Jake Vander Zanden is director of the Center for Limnology at UW-Madison, a research center focused on Wisconsin’s inland waters. He is exploring whether lake ecosystems can themselves keep invasives in check. But for now, a lake district’s best bet is to “manage to minimize” the negative impacts, Vander Zanden said.
“The wet springs become even wetter, the drier springs become even drier. That creates risk that these producers need to manage,” said Jeff Hadachek, assistant professor of agricultural and applied sciences at UW-Madison.
Howard Schweber, an emeritus professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, thinks the judge still has enough time to rule on this case, which he expects will be in favor of the city of Milwaukee.
Schweber spoke to WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” about the First Amendment arguments in the case and the lack of clearly defined legal guidelines on the issue.
“Humans are definitely still evolving,” agrees John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
But “intelligence” itself is a concept that’s hard to define or quantify. “General intelligence” is even trickier, says Gary Lupyan, a cognitive neuroscientist and psychology professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. In his view, AI researchers are often “overconfident” when they talk about intelligence and how to measure it in machines.
Julie Poehlmann, a professor of human development and family studies from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, has studied the impact of incarceration on families and children for 25 years. “One hug is worth a thousand video visits,” she said. “Young kids, they need that form of comfort and connection in order to have a deep connection with that parent or family member.”
“Many politicians, law enforcement personnel and ordinary citizens are nonetheless incensed because this person should not have been in the country and thus capable of committing a crime,” said Michael Light, a sociologist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison who has studied the issue. “This view that the person’s undocumented status is an aggravating factor is also likely a reason why these crimes generate such strong responses.”
“This is a case where, if you invalidate this statute on the basis of originalism, you go back in time and say, essentially, at the time of the original ratification of the Constitution, domestic violence was tolerated — and therefore, based on originalism, we need to invalidate the statute,” John P. Gross, a professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School who’s also the director of the Public Defender Project, told BI. “And that is, of course, an absurd, horrible result.”
Column authored by Steven Wright, a clinical professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School, where he directs the Constitutional Litigation, Appeals, and Sentencing Project.
Susan Carpenter, the native plant garden curator at UW-Madison’s arboretum, said she also likes to keep an eye out for the yellow bumble bee. It’s one of the species in Wisconsin in need of conservation, she said.
Authored by Chris Vagasky, a meteorologist at UW-Madison and the manager of the Wisconsin Environmental Mesonet. Vagasky is an expert on topics related to lightning data and lightning safety, meteorological measurements, and applications of weather measurements.
“It’s the idea that law enforcement kind of wears several hats,” said Rachel Burg, a clinical assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School. “One is monitoring and investigating crime and preventing crime but also protecting people and property and doing welfare checks on folks. So the community caretaker exception allows law enforcement to to take action if they have a concern about the welfare of a person.”
University of Wisconsin Law School State Democracy Research Initiative Attorney Bryna Godar told WPR governors have gotten creative with how they’ve used partial vetoes, “but we now have this very long standing practice that is really codified in state law.”
UW Health Behavioral Health and Recovery Clinic addiction medicine physician Dr. Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar examines how incarceration impacts people struggling with mental health and substance abuse.
UW-Madison entomologist PJ Liesch is back. We talk with him about what’s hampering the spread of spongy moths in Wisconsin. We also talk about how climate change is aiding the spread of joro spiders to northern regions. Then, two WDNR invasive species specialists share success stories from across the state.
University of Wisconsin-Madison social work professor Tova Walsh is glad more people are paying attention to postpartum depression in moms. She said that’s a big improvement.
“She was a connector,” said Ethelene Whitmire, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of a 2014 biography of Andrews, who retired from the library system in 1966. “She wasn’t there to take credit, but to work behind the scenes.”
With a wave of new hemp-derived THC alternatives hitting the market in Wisconsin, we check in with a cannabis historian about what these products are and how they’re shaping policy discussions around marijuana in the state. Interview with Lucas Richert, professor in the School of Pharmacy at UW-Madison.
Murv Seymour talks with Courtney Bell at the Wisconsin Historical Society about leading the Wisconsin Center for Education Research in its work on classroom innovations, challenges and inequities.
New federal funding will help place more OBGYNs in training in Wisconsin’s rural communities.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Medicine and Public Health will receive a $750,000 grant over the next three years to expand their rural OBGYN residency track.
University of Wisconsin-Madison sociologist Jessica Calarco believes her profession is an act of “un-gaslighting people.” She said she wants to help others see the challenges they face in their lives as products of large social structures and forces. In particular, she said she wants women to let go of guilt they might feel when they face struggles because of the unfair burden of social structures place on women.
In her new book, “Holding It Together: How Women Became America’s Safety Net,” Calarco said women are often tasked with more of the unpaid or underpaid care work that keeps the economy moving.
Officials with La Crosse County, the town of Campbell, UW-Madison, U.S. Geological Survey and the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey earlier this week drilled three “sentinel” wells to help identify PFAS migration in the area and monitor the untainted aquifer.
That slight overlap does not necessarily mean the two broods will breed with one another. “Is there a possibility of interactions and hybridization? That could occur—but given the long life cycles, it’s really hard to study,” PJ Liesch, the director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Insect Diagnostic Lab, tells TIME.
Bird flu has not been found in Wisconsin cows, but voluntary testing has been minimal since late April, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture mandated testing of dairy cattle moving between states and quarantines of herds that test positive, said Keith Poulsen, director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at UW-Madison.
The study caught the attention of Megan Moreno, professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and co-director of the American Academy of Pediatrics Center of Excellence on Social Media and Youth Mental Health. Moreno, whose expertise is in the field of adolescent health and digital media, says she has been troubled by the widespread message — “almost to the edge of moral panic” — that social media use is causing adverse mental health outcomes for adolescents. “That has been a narrative I’ve been really interested in because I’ve really been wanting to see: Where is that evidence?” she says. “And it hasn’t been there.”
Crucially, no forms of the bird flu virus seem to have spread efficiently from person to person. That is no guarantee that H5N1 will not acquire that ability, said Yoshihiro Kawaoka, a virologist and bird flu expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.“ I think the virus is clearly changing its property, because we never saw outbreaks in cows,” Dr. Kawaoka said.
UW-Madison Extension Entomologist PJ Liesch spends much of his time identifying and confirming insect sightings. This spring has brought him a number of unusual observations, including a scorpion.
I am back this month to say goodbye. This will be my last “Pleasure Practices” column for Tone Madison. I had discussed ending the column earlier this year to make some space for my new book projects during my upcoming sabbatical, but my recent experience with police violence has accelerated my timeline for wrapping up this series.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded $750,000 to the University of Wisconsin-Madison on Thursday, directed toward the establishment of new residency programs in rural communities.
“When looking for a new checking account, students should take their time to identify accounts specifically tailored to their needs – frequently these are promoted on college campuses in the fall,” says Anita Mukherjee, an associate professor in Risk and Insurance Department at the Wisconsin School of Business. “Many banks offer student-specific checking accounts that come with perks such as no monthly fees, lower minimum balance requirements, and free online banking.”
Answering the political science professor’s query was Dr. Jenny Higgins, director of UW Collaborative for Reproductive Equity and professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“How do you feel, right now, being here in person?” Higgins asked the audience in the Great Hall of Harwood Memorial Union.
“I see some nods,” Higgins said. “Now think about trying to communicate that with somebody on your phone or even on Zoom.”
“At the time of reentry, we know that rates of returning to use – to substance use – are very high. That in combination with someone having no really no tolerance puts them at super high risk for having an overdose if they return to use,” explained Dr. Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar, an addiction medicine physician and professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. She treats patients with substance use disorders at UW Health’s Behavioral Health and Recovery Clinic.
Some people face disenrollment despite still qualifying for Medicaid. So before looking for new coverage, first check on whether you still qualify for Medicaid, said Adam VanSpankeren, navigator program manager for Covering Wisconsin, a University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension program that helps people enroll in publicly funded health care.
As the health care industry continues to struggle with staffing, UW Health is looking to artificial intelligence to help nurses respond to patient messages more efficiently.
Wetlands aren’t the most eye-catching ecosystems. They include swamps, bogs, fens and other places where soil is covered by water most of the time. But they perform a huge range of valuable services, from soaking up floodwaters to filtering out pollutants and providing habitat for thousands of species of mammals, fish, reptiles, insects and birds.
–Professor of Law and Associate Dean, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison
In November 2020, in the thick of the coronavirus pandemic, Calarco, who is an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, told the writer Anne Helen Petersen, “Other countries have social safety nets. The U.S. has women.”
Protests, polarization, voter outreach, and the future of the Republican Party. Political experts from UW-Madison on Tuesday shared their expectations for the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
More than 12-million Americans aged 40 and over have some level of vision impairment, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. David Gamm, an ophthalmologist from UW Health, joins us to talk all about the eyes — from macular degeneration to glaucoma.
