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Category: UW Experts in the News

Sharps containers, notification of accessibility issues are positive steps toward inclusivity (The Daily Iowan)

Quoted: The UI is not alone among public universities in offering real-time notification of obstruction or closings. Cathy Trueba, the University of Wisconsin-Madison assistant dean for Student Services and the McBurney Disability Resource Center director, told the DI Editorial Board Wednesday that Madison has had a similar system for the five years she?s held her position.

Gail MarksJarvis column on children’s financial literacy

Chicago Tribune

Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison professor emeritus Karen Holden, who advised “Sesame Street,” notes that preschool is an ideal time to lay the groundwork about personal finance because it is about making choices, suppressing immediate urges, assessing opportunity costs, budgeting resources over time and accepting financial risk.

Now and Then: Social Media and Relationships

WKOW-TV 27

Quoted: Joanne Cantor, is a Professor emerita at the University of Wisconsin in the Communication Arts Department.  She says social media can become too much.  For example, “It?s sort of like if you keep eating and eating and never stop, when are you going to digest your food?” 

Plain Talk: Walker needs national economy to soar

Capital Times

Scott Walker promised to create 250,000 jobs during his four years as governor providing he makes it that far and so he?s got his staff trumpeting every small sign that he may be on his way to that goal. Trouble is, in his zealousness to pat himself on the back at every uptick in the economy, he?s making himself look foolish ? even more so than he?s already done in just four months in office.

Mentioned: Professor emeritus of economics Don Nichols

Momentum building for state wolf hunt

Wisconsin State Journal

(This story first appeared in the Sunday edition of the Wisconsin State Journal.)

With the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on the verge of removing the gray wolf from endangered status, more calls are being heard in Wisconsin for a hunting season on the once rare animal.

Adrian Treves, a researcher with UW-Madison who surveys public opinion on wolves, said his work shows growing concern about the number of wolves and their presence in populated areas.

“There is a dramatic increase in the number of people who have heard or seen wolves on their lands,” Treves said. “That’s feeding their fears.”

Judge Grants Extension In State Supreme Court Recount

WISC-TV 3

Quoted: “I think we?ll probably call for recounts less often in the future,” said Barry Burden, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “This one looks like it?s going to essentially reinforce the results we already suspected, so that just builds trust in the system, and I think is going to make us as citizens and candidates think less skeptically of how the process works.”

?Buy Local? state grants are on the chopping block

Capital Times

….The Buy Local, Buy Wisconsin grant program was part of former Gov. Jim Doyle?s 2008 budget and was designed to connect local food producers with local buyers. It has awarded about $220,000 annually in development grants over the past three years. Recipients in 2010 included the Bayfield Apple Co., Perfect Pasture in Ashland, the Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition and Green & Green Distribution in Mineral Point.

Quoted: Steve Deller, a professor of agricultural and applied economics at UW-Madison

But the grant program is on Gov. Scott Walker?s budget chopping block and was not included in his proposed 2011-2013 budget ? a development that some are calling short-sighted and contrary to Walker?s goal of growing the private-sector economy.

UW professor emeritus Jerry Apps discusses Boundary Waters

Wisconsin State Journal

Jerry Apps is professor emeritus at UW?Madison and the author of more than 30 books, mostly about country life and history. His newest, ?Campfires and Loon Calls: Travels in the Boundary Waters? (Fulcrum Publishing, $15.95), springs from journals he kept as he and his son Steve, chief photographer for the Wisconsin State Journal, canoed in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness over the past 25 years.

Cardiac Arrest Less Deadly in Exercise Facilities, Study Finds (HealthDay News)

U.S. News and World Report

Quoted: “Survival from sudden cardiac arrest with prompt resuscitation can really be quite high at exercise facilities,” said lead researcher Dr. Richard L. Page, a cardiac electrophysiologist and chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin. “That relates to the fact that people are healthier, they?re feeling fit enough to go exercise, and they had a higher likelihood of CPR.”

The surge in land deals: When others are grabbing their land (The Economist)

The Economist

Quoted: Then there is corruption. Many of the west African ?land grabbers? described by Ms Hilhorst are local politicians, civil servants and other urban elites who bribe local chiefs with gifts of motorbikes. Madeleine Fairbairn of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, argues that in Mozambique, an informal division of the spoils has emerged. Local bigwigs use their influence to get ?facilitation fees?, while national leaders manipulate the law and promote (or obstruct) projects to their own and their supporters? advantage.

Are kids getting too many medical scans?

Boston Globe

Quoted: They should also feel comfortable when their doctor opts to skip a scan, says Dr. Megan A. Moreno, assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who wrote about the study in an accompanying Archives article. Observing a child with a suspected appendectomy might be just as effective as wheeling them right into the scanning room, she said.

CDC: Over 50? Heat cold cuts to 165 degrees to avoid listeria

USA Today

Quoted: Listeria is a problem because of its unique ability to keep growing even when refrigerated. Lunch meats are cooked at food-processing plants, and the bacteria in them is killed when they?re prepared and packaged, says Jeff Sindelar, a professor of meat science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The problem with cold cuts and lunch meats is that once they?re sliced, or the package is opened, if even a single cell of listeria from a contaminated surface, a meat slicer or even the air gets on them, it can continue to grow in the refrigerator.

Temple putting lung-transplant program on hiatus (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Philadelphia Inquirer

Quoted: When certifying a program for Medicare payments, CMS looks at quality measures, including outcomes and patient volumes, said Maryl Johnson, a University of Wisconsin transplant cardiologist who is president of the American Society of Transplantation. Its rules help determine where Medicare patients can get transplants and are often followed by private insurers.

Soaring Costs Deprive Some Children of Medical Care (HealthDay News)

U.S. News and World Report

Quoted: “Every U.S. family has a finite amount of resources available to them, and every day they have to make decisions about how to allocate those resources. This is especially true in today?s economy where you hear people talk about ?feeling the pinch,?” study leader Lauren E. Wisk, a doctoral student and graduate research assistant at the School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin, Madison, said in an American Academy of Pediatrics news release.

Instructor offers an unconventional class geared to singers who just want to wail

Wisconsin State Journal

Maggie Delaney-Potthoff’s unique approach to teaching singing is apparent during a visit to one of her voice classes, this one as unusual as her instruction: Singing for Screamers. The class, offered through UW-Madison Continuing Studies, is an addition to Delaney-Potthoff?s established offerings of beginning and advanced voice classes. It is designed for rock ?n? roll performers and ?anyone who just really wants to belt, to get their power out,? she said.

States’ Pay Cuts Present Mixed Economic Blessing

Wall Street Journal

Quoted: Wisconsin?s more than 300,000 state workers represent about 14% of the state?s work force. They will experience the equivalent of a 7.7% cut in take-home pay due to a provision requiring them to pay for pensions and pay more for health care, according to Steven Deller, an economist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

US Treasury To Propose Exemption For FX Swaps and Forwards

Wall Street Journal

Quoted: “Once you have an exemption for [foreign-exchange] transactions, you immediately have one that also covers interest rate transactions, and the two together represent roughly 90%” of over-the-counter derivatives trades, said Antonio Mello, a finance professor at the University Of Wisconsin (Madison) School of Business. “So that would be a major portion of the [over-the-counter] market that would immediately become somewhat exempted” from the new derivatives rules.