Category: UW Experts in the News

Quoted: Chip Hunter, a professor of management and human resources at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said an advantage to bringing back former employees is the savings in training, valued years of experience and the familiarity with work processes within the company.

Quoted: â??Wetlands used to be the place where you dumped your old refrigerator, but now theyâ??re gems,â? said Joy Zedler, a UW-Madison botanist who studies wetland plants. Still, Wisconsinâ??s remaining wetlands face other threats today. Near the top of the list are invasive plants.

Noted: Also going to the National Spelling Bee will be his coach, Jeff Kirsch, who teaches Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Continuing Studies. He met Andrew when he first began competing in fifth grade when Kirsch was coaching another contestant.

Quoted: But Tom Reason, interim director of admissions at UW-Madison, said that eliminating class rank will not necessarily mean that more of a high schoolâ??s students will be admitted. It means different students might be admitted, he said.

Only two candidates remain in the race for the Republican nomination for US Senate. However, UW Political Scientist Charles Franklin says businessmen Ron Johnson and David Westlake will need to overcome their outsider status if they hope to compete.

Several hundred dogs and cats in southeastern Wisconsin may need to be revaccinated after being given expired rabies vaccines. But an animal-vaccination expert at the University of Wisconsin says the expired vaccines are probably still effective.

Quoted: “We use a truckload of spironolactone,” says James Stein of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Itâ??s hard to beat a drug that costs four bucks at Wal-Mart and has been around for fifty years.” He says he mainly switches patients to Inspra when men had breast growth or tenderness, a side effect he says is rare.

Quoted: “I think the most important point here for Republicans is the prize for them is the fall election,” said University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientist David Canon. “They want to have a chance to beat Russ Feingold and so to have the party coalescing behind one candidate now is to their advantage for sure.”

Quoted: “If you said there was a candidate who entered the race five days before the convention and five days later stood as the odds-on favorite, you would think that candidate was (former GOP Governor) Tommy Thompson,” said Charles Franklin, UW-Madison poltical science professor. “Instead, itâ??s a guy most of us have not heard of before.”

Quoted: Farmers are â??looking for low-cost reliable workers,â? said Brad Barham, a dairy researcher with the UW-Madison Program on Agricultural Technology Studies, which conducted the study of immigrantsâ?? roles on dairy farms.

Quoted: Dr. Michael A. Stier, a forensic pathologist with UW-Madison School of Medicine & Public Health, wrote that the childâ??s injuries were non-accidental and were “inconsistent with the reported history of being sustained from a fall down a short flight of steps,” according to the complaint.

Noted: For the last two years, the agency has awarded money for “buy local” projects, including $35,000 to the Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition (MACSAC), $25,000 to Underground Catering in Madison to develop traditionally made pork products, and $20,000 to the UW-Madisonâ??s Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems to beef up Wisconsin apple distribution to the stateâ??s K-12 schools.

“The number of farmerâ??s markets in the region has increased almost exponentially in the past five or six years,” said Rick Brooks, outreach program manager and one of the founders of Dane Buy Local, an organization of local businesses that encourage local commerce. “East side, north side, west side, south side and many smaller communities host markets,” he noted.

Quoted: If companies find their costs are more predictable, they can be â??more focused on operations that should improve quality and improve value,â? said Mark Ready, UW-Madison School of Business professor.

Quoted: Tim Van Deelen, a University of Wisconsin-Madison bear expert and a Waunakee resident, said he saw the 150-pound animal when neighbors called him on Sunday night. He said the bears maturity can be compared to that of a teenager.

Noted: University of Wisconsin-Madison engineering grad student Carl Johnson explained that major roads like the Beltline are basically square slabs of concrete, and they have slices, or joints, in them for a reason — to give the slabs some room to breathe. UW-Madison physics professor Clint Sprott said itâ??s one of the basic principles of physics — expansion and contraction.

To track how well Johnny could read last week â?? and the week before that â?? Gina Tortorice can now drag her finger across the front of an iPod Touch and watch her studentâ??s progress. The first-grade teacher is one of 11 educators at the adjacent Black Hawk Middle and Gompers Elementary schools using KidGrid, an experimental iPod application designed by UW-Madison researchers to make documenting student progress frequent, instantaneous and high-tech. “This is a research project as much as it is a tool for teachers to use,” said Richard Halverson, associate director of the education research and development group for the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, who is developing KidGrid with Suzanne Rhodes, a UW-Madison graduate student in educational psychology.

Ken Goldstein, UW-Madison political science professor, said a variety of factors go into Gov. Jim Doyleâ??s selection of appointees, including expertise and how well known to Doyle the applicant is.

Stem cell research happening at UW-Madison every day slowly works toward a cure. Many students and professors are spending years working with stem cells. Su Chun Zhang, a professor of Anatomy and Neurology at the Waisman Center at UW-Madison says, “Itâ??s a very mysterious disease.. the problem is we donâ??t even know what causes ALS. Even though itâ??s difficult to predict when we will get there [to finding a cure}, I think we are doing our best to go from multiple avenues toward that goal.”

Quoted: Charles Franklin, a professor of political science at UW-Madison, said the criticism was to be expected in todayâ??s polarized political climate.

Quoted: Adaptable deer mice came to dominate the small furry communities of northern California as the climate warmed at the end of the last ice age, around 11,700 years ago, an excavation of one ancient woodrat nest shows. Overall, the number of small mammalian species in the area declined by about one-third, say Jessica Blois, currently at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and her colleagues.

Quoted: Although executive incentives are nothing new, the concept of basing them on company performance has become increasingly common, said Barry Gerhart, a professor of management and human resources at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Noted: People of the same ethnicity are more likely to have matching blood types, so fewer donors make it harder for minorities to find a match, said Jill Ellefson of the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics Organ Procurement Organization.

Quoted: “Thereâ??s no one problem you canâ??t just say itâ??s on any one individualâ??s or one groupâ??s back,” said Julie Underwood, Dean of Education at UW-Madison. She is part of the School Finance Network , a group which is advocating for changes in school funding. “We need to put everything on the table,” Underwood said. “We need to think about whatâ??s our public commitment to K-12 education. What do we really want for our children in the state of Wisconsin? And then figure out how weâ??re going to fund that in a sustainable way.”

Quoted: UW-Madison Political Science Professor Charles Franklin agrees Republicans have momentum, including a slight lead over Democrats in the governorâ??s race.

Quoted: “The mosquitoes are coming but I havenâ??t seen anything to indicate that tears are going to come to our eyes,” UW-Madison entomologist Phil Pellitteri told Newsradio 620 WTMJ. “We havenâ??t had a lot of flooding, thatâ??s usually what gets us into the biggest trouble.”

Quoted: Katy Culver is a social media expert at the U.W. Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication. She says getting sucked in is not at all unusual.  “A lot of people, the minute they get on, experience this new level of connectivity. This social engagement that they had been craving. So they dig in and theyâ??re joining groups, games, theyâ??re writing on everyoneâ??s walls. Theyâ??re tilling crops in Farmville, and they canâ??t be without it,” says Culver.

Quoted: Dr. K. Craig Kent, chair of the department of surgery at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine & Public Health and author of an accompanying journal editorial, said that “in this country about 60 percent of aneurysms are repaired with the minimally invasive approach whereas about 40 percent are repaired with the traditional open surgery.”

Noted: Now a new review of Posnerâ??s work shows much more. A 48-year-old Wisconsin doctoral student named Greg Gelembiuk has discovered Posner lifted 35 passages in two books: his 2003 take on the 9-11 attacks, Why America Slept, and Secrets of the Kingdom, a 2005 tome about Saudi Arabia.

Quoted: According to University of Wisconsin School of Medicine audiologist Ted Tweed, sounds louder than 80 decibels can cause hearing loss by damaging the hair cells in the inner ear. Lawnmowers and shop tools create noise in the 90-decibel range. Chainsaws create about 100 decibels, and the loudest jet skis have been measured at 115 decibels.

Quoted: Angel doesnâ??t exactly have four kidneys, she has a “duplication of the collecting system,” according to Dr. Bryan Becker, president of the National Kidney Foundation and professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

Interviewed: Patrick Winn, Global Postâ??s correspondent in Thailand, is in the thick of the violence in Bangkok and speaks to us from there. Thongchai Winichakul, a professor of history at the University of Wisconsin and an expert on Thailand, lets us know why what unfolds in Bangkok matters here in the United States.

Quoted: “The bad news is we have nothing thatâ??s been proven to prevent Alzheimerâ??s disease,” said Cynthia Carlsson, a professor and Alzheimerâ??s researcher at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, who was not on the panel that reviewed the research. “But the good news is weâ??re really at a tremendous point in understanding more about the disease causes.”

Quoted: Walkerâ??s position may speak to a larger divide on the issue within Wisconsin Republicans, said Barry Burden, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor. He said Walkerâ??s critical comments of the law were a surprise.

Quoted: Still, the retirements likely wonâ??t have much impact on the balance of power next session, said University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor Charles Franklin.

Quoted: So far, 20 state lawmakers have announced they wonâ??t seek another term in the Legislature. UW-Madison Political Scientist Dennis Dresang says thatâ??s actually a little below average, when compared to other states. He says itâ??s not all that unusual to see 30-percent turnover in state Legislatures during an election cycle.

Mallards and other waterfowl may stay around, but only if they can find open water where they can forage for food, says Anna Pidgeon, an assistant professor of forest and wildlife ecology at UW-Madison.

Itâ??s â??very commonâ? for a new facility like Overture to â??take years to settle into balance on its operations and expenses,â? said Andrew Taylor, director of UW-Madisonâ??s Bolz Center for Arts Administration.