Category: UW Experts in the News

Karl Malcolm is a PhD student in the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Wisconsin. He?s also a lifelong hunter and a coordinator for the state?s Learn to Hunt program.

Quoted: Jim Johannes, UW-Madison School of Business professor and director of the UW?s Puelicher Center for Banking Education.

UW-Madison engineering professor emeritus Rajan Suri was one of 10 people named to IndustryWeek?s 2010 Manufacturing Hall of Fame for fundamental contributions to the field. Suri developed the concept of “Quick Response Manufacturing,” a strategy aimed at cutting costly lead time by increasing efficiency in all of a company?s processes. Suri also founded UW-Madison?s Center for Quick Response Manufacturing, which applies QRM principles to help state manufacturers reduce overhead and be more competitive in the global economy.

Quoted: ?The concern we?ve had is that the decisions they made were based on flawed, outdated data,? said Maryl R. Johnson, medical director for heart failure and transplantation at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics in Madison, and president of the American Society of Transplantation, a professional organization.

Quoted: An M&I merger or acquisition is not a surprise, said Jim Johannes, UW-Madison School of Business professor. “Everybody knew this was coming; it was just a matter of when and who,” he said.

Quoted: “If this doesn?t raise an ethical red flag, nothing will,” said Stephen Ward, director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin. By moonlighting for the companies and industries they cover, he notes, reporters risk compromising their independence and neutrality and leave themselves open to suspicions of being bribed.

That line between being angry and perceiving anger is crucial. As University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Leonard Berkowitz points out, anger “can be linked to an urge to hurt, and at times, even to destroy the target object.” (More on Time.com: The New Map Of The Brain)

Noted: This is precisely what happened to the catastrophic-insurance program that a Democratic Congress and President Ronald Reagan added to Medicare 1988. Opponents in both parties succeeded in repealing the program within 18 months, as older Americans who hadn?t yet warmed to the entitlement railed against the higher costs. ?There?s a case where the window was open, and the opposition slammed it shut,? says Byron Shafer, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin.

A department on the University of Wisconsin campus dedicated to educating faculty and staff on effective technology use has a new director, UW?s Division of Information Technology announced Friday.

A federal judge in Virginia on Monday ruled part of the federal health care law unconstitutional, but a law professor from the UW-Madison says the battle is likely far from over.

Quoted: The call to boycott the ceremony was ?probably a happy event among those authoritarian regimes because the rich government of China now owes them for something they probably would have done without Chinese urgings?, said Edward Friedman, a specialist in Chinese politics at the University of Wisconsin.

Quoted: That kind of thinking has apparently penetrated to the very highest levels of the American judiciary, as University of Wisconsin law professor Ann Althouse noted.

Quoted: ?A lot of research shows that by far the most important thing for long-term residents, for quality of life and quality of care, is their relationships with their caregivers,? said Barbara Bowers, a nursing professor and researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. ?Most people would actually take inferior technical care done by somebody they care about, who cares about them,? over skilled care by a string of strangers, she said.

Quoted: But does that mean it?s a bad idea to buy a home? I don?t believe so, based on some dispassionate analysis. For the long-term homeowner (or patient investor), a home appears to be one of the better investments around, with minimal downside risk. “Housing is priced to earn its historic real rate of return of 0.5 percent to 1 percent and interest rates are low,” says Morris Davis, professor of real estate and urban land economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Now may be a once-in-a-lifetime time to buy.”

About a dozen U.S. children die in faith-healing cases each year, a handful of which spawn criminal charges, according to Shawn Francis Peters, a University of Wisconsin lecturer who wrote a book about the phenomenon.

Letter from Darald Hanusa, UW-Madison School of Social Work.

Quoetd: Sarah Orr of the UW Law School.

Quoted: Susan Nitzke, a professor of nutritional sciences at UW-Madison.

Quoted: Sara Goldrick-Rab, assistant professor of educational policy studies and sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the results are deeply troubling and mean elite colleges and universities have succeeded in diverting blame from themselves.

Flanked by his wife, three kids and friends at an East Side technology center, Noel Radomski launched his campaign for Madison mayor on Tuesday, promising to focus on quality-of-life issues and job creation. Radomski, a 44-year-old UW-Madison administrator who served one term on the Madison City Council from 2005 to 2007, said Cieslewicz has done a “fabulous job” in his eight years as mayor. But he said it?s time for a change.

Quoted: Species that nest in the grassy “margins” around farms have the most to lose or gain, said Tim Meehan, a University of Wisconsin ecologist.

Noted: At first, controllers back on Earth lost contact with the probe and got modulating signals indicating that spaceship may be wobbling a bit, said Sanjay Limaye, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who is one of five American scientists on the Akatsuki research team.

There?s something for everyone ? almost ? in President Obama?s tax deal. UW political scientist Barry Burden says the deal the president cut with Republicans to extend the Bush tax cuts sends a pretty clear signal that he?s willing to work with the new Republican majority in the House. ?This is really him working quite directly with the Republican leadership and in some ways stepping on his own party,? said Burden. ?It?s hard to know whether this strategy in the end benefits the Democratic Party, or maybe just him in 2012.?

Noted: Karen Tuerk of UW-Madison?s geology department.

Quoted: Experts such as Thomas R. Oliver, professor of population health sciences at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, hope that understanding of the 2,500-page law will improve as time goes on.

Quoted: Perhaps a dozen children from faith-healing churches die without receiving medical care each year in the United States, but no one really knows the true number, said Shawn Francis Peters, who wrote the 2007 book “When Prayer Fails: Faith Healing, Children, and the Law.”

Quoted: Michael Scott, director of the UW-Madison Center for Problem-Oriented Policing.

Quoted: John Schaffer, director of the UW-Madison School of Music.

Quoted: Dr. Megan Moreno, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, was among researchers who conducted a 2009 study relating risky behavior among adolescents, such as underage drinking and smoking, and posting about it on social media websites such as Facebook or YouTube. 

Quoted: That huge range of temperatures means the new material could be used in everything from spacecraft to car shock absorbers, said Roderic Lakes, a scientist at the University of Wisconsin who studies viscoelastic materials. Spacecraft equipped with this material could withstand the intense cold of Jupiter?s largest moon, Titan, said Gogotsi, or the heat of the sun in space, said Lakes.

Quoted: “If this holds, we will find ourselves at the higher end of [temperature] predictions,” says team member Ralf Bennartz of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: “What I?ve heard from folks running for office is that they don?t want a ?Pants on Fire,?” says Ken Goldstein, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who specializes in political advertising. “Pants on Fire” is the worst rating doled out by PolitiFact, reserved for assertions that make a ridiculous claim and are clearly false. Goldstein admits being surprised that some politicians have even changed the wording of statements in response to criticism from a fact-checker. “If you had asked me before, I would have been dismissive about the impact of these,” Goldstein says. “But I have been hearing some anecdotal evidence that some politicians know that it?s in place and are reacting.”

Quoted: Charles Franklin, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Quoted: UW-Madison School of Business assistant professor Kersi Antia.

Noted: Dave Schroeder, a systems engineer at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, penned an open letter to Jobs a few weeks ago and posted it online, asking this very thing. As much of a hassle as it is for a lot of people, if Apple has to cancel Xserve, could Apple please allow virtualization, he asked.

Quoted: “I think that?s pretty standard,” Barry Orton, a University of Wisconsin-Madison telecommunications expert, said about the new approach. “In cities where they don?t meter water, for example, you can use as much water as your family needs — and New York City is a classic example. But if you start a brewery in your apartment, and you start carting our millions of gallons of beer that you?ve made from free city water, the city?s going come back and say, ?No, that?s a commercial operation.?”

Quoted: Primates have traits that may help shield them from seasonal ups and downs, Karen Strier, an anthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said.

Quoted: “It?s a mixed bag,” said Charles Franklin, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in evaluating the potential clout of the new delegation. “Losing Obey obviously is a case of clout lost. But you?re gaining Paul Ryan on the budget committee. He?s certainly in a position to be influential.”

Quoted: Dave Riley, professor of human development at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said whatever was bothering Hengel likely was related to his peers or family members or possibly biological mental health problems.