Category: UW Experts in the News

Quoted: “There?s some room for doubt that being CEO of a company prepares you for the skills of negotiation, the mutual accommodation that goes with the role of senator,” said Charles Franklin, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “At some level, anybody who?s in the Senate has to play the political role he?s elected to play.”

Quoted: UW-Madison Political Science Professor Charles Franklin says Walker promised voters he would stop the train, and he intends to keep his word.

Quoted: Adam Gamoran, director of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at UW-Madison.

Quoted: Andrew Taylor, director of the Bolz Center for Arts Administration at UW-Madison.

Noted: Explainer thanks Tineke Hellwig of the University of British Columbia and Ellen Rafferty and Melisa Tjong of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: Adam Gamoran, director of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research.

A rush of buildings is set to open in the coming months on the UW-Madison campus ? marking the completion of a spate of major projects on the state?s flagship campus. A $33 million makeover to the UW-Madison education building will be officially unveiled next week. The Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery will open next month. Next year will bring a new south campus union, a biochemistry building and the Chazen art museum addition. “In the next three to five years, that big pulse will slow down,” said Alan Fish, associate vice chancellor for facilities, planning and management. “It marshals in an era where focus will be less on new structures and more on maintaining.”

Quoted: There are real-world consequences to this decision for many IT folks. Dave Schroeder, a systems engineer at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, posted an open letter to Jobs, asking that if they have to cancel Xserve, could Apple please allow Mac OS X virtualization on non-Mac hardware?

Noted: HarvestPlus also is developing pumpkin-colored beta-carotene-rich corn. Kevin Pixley of the University of Wisconsin heads the corn research in collaboration with seed companies in Zambia. Orange corn now must go through two years of trials under Zambian regulations. Pixley said they hope to learn from the success story of sweet potatoes when it?s ready for use.

Quoted: The toxicology report describes a THC finding of 4.2 nanograms per milliliter, an impossible amount to generate from secondhand marijuana smoke, according to a University of Wisconsin forensic toxicology expert.”It?s not possible to get those results from passive inhalation,” Laura Liddicoat said. “It could have been one hit off a bong 10 minutes before [his death] or it could have been several joints.”

Noted: The second contract, for up to $1.5 million, was awarded to the University of Wisconsin. The school will help the district begin creating value-added scores for its teachers, termed “academic growth over time.”

Quoted: “I think Governor-elect Scott Walker and the state Legislature will be completely preoccupied initially solving the budget problems,” said Mark Bugher, director of the University Research Park near the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “It?s a significant problem they?ve inherited, and it will take a herculean effort to get a balanced budget together and passed by July 1.”

Pressed on the point by one of the journalists in attendance, UW political science professor Charles Franklin admitted that emotions sometimes play a larger role in political elections than facts and logic.

Quoted: At American Family Children?s Hospital here in Madison word of this game is nothing new but they?re dealing with more and more genital injuries to kids. Director of Pediatric Urology Dr. John Kryger says, “Bullying is ultimately a game of control and domination of one person over another and that?s the part of it that really is frustrating as a public health concern and safety in our schools.”

A. Amphibians are at great risk during the winter but employ several strategies for getting through, says Scott Craven, professor of forest and wildlife ecology at UW-Madison.

Q What is La Nina and how does it affect Wisconsin weather?A Both La Nina and El Nino refer to big changes in the sea-surface temperature across much of the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. The water temperatures off the west coast of South America are typically 60 to 70 degrees; during a La Nina these waters get as much as 7 degrees colder.

Quoted: Thomas R. Oliver, a professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, and Charles Franklin, UW-Madison political scientist.

Quoted: ?Rivers around the world really are in a crisis state,? says Peter B. McIntyre, a senior author of the new study and a professor of zoology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison?s Center for Limnology.

Quoted: Researchers voice frustration with school officials? hesitancy. At the National Board for Education Sciences meeting last week, board member Adam Gamoran, the director of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, argued that states should be required to share student data with researchers as a condition of receiving federal grants to build databases.

Quoted: “Voters respond to what they think they are getting from their government,” said Charles Franklin, a polling expert and professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: Debra Shapiro, a UW-Madison librarian with a background in food history.

Quoted: ?Independents deserted Democrats, period,? said Ken Goldstein, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. ?This was not about Feingold?s record or the money or the advertising. It was about the anger of independents at the status quo.?

Quoted: “Wisconsin has historically been a battleground, so when a national tide comes in, the margins to flip things here are smaller,” said David Canon, a political scientist at University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Quoted: His unpredictability “gave him more leverage than an average senator” because both parties had to plead their sides before Feingold would make a decision, said Barry Burden, a University of Wisconsin political science professor who studies American politics. “It made the Senate a more interesting body.”

Quoted: “I think Governor-elect Scott Walker and the state Legislature will be completely preoccupied initially solving the budget problems,” said Mark Bugher, director of the University Research Park near the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “It?s a significant problem they?ve inherited and it will take a herculean effort to get a balanced budget together and passed by July 1.”

Quoted: Walker?s promise to eliminate the corporate income tax for new businesses will almost certainly deepen the state?s budget deficit, said Andrew Reschovsky, professor of public affairs and applied economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: “I would be interested in using it,” says Douglas Weibel, a University of Wisconsin, Madison, researcher who also uses microfluidics devices to study bacterial chemotaxis. He thinks that the new chip could address cellular differences in migrating bacteria populations — for instance, how cells on the leading edge of migrating bands differ in protein expression from those at the trailing edge.

Quoted: “It?s rare to find someone who gets into office and reverses course,” said Charles Franklin, a UW-Madison political science professor. “Every governor implements their policy incrementally.”

Quoted: The race in Wisconsin reflects a national dissatisfaction with the direction of government, said Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

Quoted: Dennis Dresang, a political-science scholar and professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin, doesn?t see Tuesday?s Feingold loss in quite such stark terms, arguing that while the state?s penchant for liberalism has taken a sharp detour, it will rise again in Wisconsin and around the country.

Quoted: “There?s a huge question of what governing looks like if tea party folks get elected to the Senate, where each individual can tie the Senate into knots by themselves,” Charles Franklin, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin, told the Monitor before Election Day. “It?s hard to see how Congress adopts a governing program that would satisfy most of the people in the tea party movement.”

Noted: New technologies, especially minimally invasive technologies, present another problem, said Dr. K. Craig Kent, chair of the Surgery Department at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. When a technology is new and looks like a panacea, everyone wants it and resists being randomly assigned to the comparison group receiving the standard treatment. That desire wanes only after a couple of years when the inevitable drawbacks begin to manifest.

Noted: When this research first came to light last year, University of Wisconsin anthropologist John Hawks cautioned against reading too much into fossilized fingers. He said the index-to-ring ratio “may be correlated with mating system in primates, but that doesn?t mean it?s a good predictor of mating system. … As fossil hominins go, I wouldn?t expect the story to go any further — there just aren?t many hands, so there?s never going to be a significantly predictive result.”

Noted: That said, Kenneth R. Mayer, professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, tells BATTLE ?10 that Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D., WI-02) has been running ads in Madison against her opponent, 27-year-old businessman Chad Lee (R). Merely an ??insurance policy? to be sure, Mayer says, but almost unprecedented in a district that voted nearly 70 percent for Obama.

Quoted: Charles Franklin, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison added: ?If history holds, this is the prediction of a Republican wave of genuinely historical proportions.?

Quoted: Dr. Barbara Knox, a child abuse expert at UW Children?s Hospital.

Quoted: UW-Madison law professor Shubha Ghosh, who specializes in intellectual property and business law.

Noted: Barry Burden, political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said Madison Area Technical College has not done enough to spread the word to such a wide range of voters.

Quoted: Charles Franklin, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison added: ?If history holds, this is the prediction of a Republican wave of genuinely historical proportions.?

Ending on an upbeat note is a typical strategy after a hard-fought race, said Charles Franklin, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. As voters get ready to head to the polls, each candidate wants to leave them with positive thoughts, he said.