Category: UW Experts in the News

Quoted: Wendy Machalicek, an assistant professor at UW-Madison who studies autism.

Noted: Once blood is collected from an infant, specimens are sent to the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, an internationally recognized leader in the field of newborn screening. Wisconsin has historically been a leader in newborn screening for a variety of reasons, said WSLH public affairs manager Jan Klawitter.

Quoted: As one expert, Aili Mari Tripp of the University of Wisconsin Madison, put it, most Americans “donâ??t seem to realize that weâ??re not part of the discussion at all.”

A UW expert says a number of factors led to Tuesdayâ??s stunning election results in Massachusetts. How did Republican Scott Brown pull off his big upset in the Massachusetts Senate race? â??It is a very blue state, especially for presidential voting, but while Democrats outnumber Republicans by three to one, Independents outnumber both of them, and so there was a big group of unaffiliated voters.â? said UW political scientist Charles Franklin. â??The other thing that happened is turnout.â?

For immigrants and their families who need legal help, finding a lawyer is only half the battle. UW Law School students and faculty are involved in trying to help offer it.

Quoted: His victory clouds the billâ??s prospects because it will spark concern among Democratic lawmakers about the November midterm elections, said Charles Jones, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. â??Here is dramatic evidence that it could have a negative effect on them,â? Jones said.

Quoted: Experts on journalistic ethics, however, say asking for taxpayer funding presents a bit of a quandary for independent media outlets like Bmore. Stephen J. A. Ward, founding director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says Bmoreâ??s public-financing request “is a problem if Bmore is pretending to do journalism. Thatâ??s a problem for a media outlet, if your boss is asking for money from people youâ??re covering. And itâ??s a problem for the writersâ??they have to ask themselves â??How independent can we be?â??”

Quoted: Marjorie A. Rosenberg, chair of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Actuarial Science Department.

Quoted: Deborah Mitchell, senior lecturer in marketing at the UW-Madison School of Business.

A nine-minute documentary by UW-Madison graduate student Liese Dart about Milly Zantow, “Plastics One Through Seven,” will be shown as part of the free “Making it Home” film festival.

Quoted: Gregg Mitman, interim director of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at UW-Madison.

Deborah Blum, who has won a Pulitzer Prize and currently teaches investigative reporting and creative non-fiction at UW-Madison, is awaiting the imminent publication of a new book. â??The Poisonerâ??s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York,â? due next month, is being heralded as the work of a gifted writer who knows her science.

Quoted: Terry Warfield, an accounting professor at UW.

Noted: The UW-Madison faculty who are helping citizen organizers launch Badger Rock Middle School on Madison’s south side.

Quoted: Robin Whitty-Novotny, director of Wisconsin Singers, a song-and-dance troupe at UW-Madison.

Quoted: UW-Madison School of Business Dean Mike Knetter.

Quoted: Phil Pellitteri, an entomologist at UW-Madison.

University of Wisconsin Business School Dean Michael Knetter also spoke and agreed the economy is set for a “muted early recovery” that could be derailed by any unexpected surprise developments politically, economically or otherwise.

Bold plans for a new kind of middle school in Madison deserve encouragement and strong consideration. The proposed Badger Rock Middle School on the South Side would run year-round with green-themed lessons in hands-on gardens and orchards. UW-Madison faculty are helping citizen organizers launch Badger Rock.

Quoted: The bill also mandates annual fitness assessments of all schoolchildren. The test would consist of a 20-meter shuttle run designed to measure aerobic capacity. The University of Wisconsin-Madison has found this PACER test a good gauge of fitness and an indicator of diabetes risk, said Dr. Aaron Carrel, a UW pediatrician.

Quoted: Charles Franklin, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the success of President Barack Obamaâ??s election campaign in using online media convinced a lot of campaign professionals that there is real potential in social media.

Noted: The UW Survey Center, which conducted a survey about satisfaction with city services.

Quoted: Jonathan Martin, of the University of Wisconsin-Madisonâ??s Department of Atmospheric & Oceanic Sciences, said Arctic oscillation is behind the extreme cold.

Quoted: Judith W. Leavitt, who was on the panel as a parent and is a professor of the history of medicine, history of science and womenâ??s studies at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, described different messages she received as she went off to college. Her parents told her to “be sure you learn how to type and get your credentials as a teacher because if you donâ??t get married, thatâ??s what youâ??ll be.”

Quoted: Donna Weihofen, a nutritionist at UW Hospital and Clinics.

Letter written by Steven Deller, a professor of applied economics at UW-Madison.

Quoted: Pop-culture expert Jonathan Gray said celebrity influence on pet owners may be inevitable. People already looking for a pet will take cues from media stars who suggest one breed might be desirable over another, said the University of Wisconsin-Madison professor.

Quoted: UW-Madison zoology professor Warren Potter says studies showing BPAâ??s safety concentrate on toxicity –not other negative health effects. He says the current safety criterion focuses on whether or not the chemical kills rather than is it affecting a childâ??s immune system or their ability to function neurologically.

Quoted: Scott R. Craven, extension wildlife specialist and professor in the forest and wildlife ecology department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: “Any time someone in a setting of excitement has a sudden cardiac arrest, especially at a young age with a seemingly normal heart, you have to consider [an inherited condition] such as long QT,” said Dr. Richard Page, chair of medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and president of the Heart Rhythm Society. “One of the genetic variants is especially predisposed to having an arrhythmia when exposed to loud sound.”

Quoted: “My own feeling is there is an actual increase in incidence of autism, but itâ??s not at an epidemic level. And we have to be careful we donâ??t identify it as such,” said Darold Treffert, MD, professor of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison.

Quoted: Economic issues will be at the top of the agenda, said Charles Franklin, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor.

Quoted: â??Itâ??s not unusual for the task of supervising students to fall to someone who already has plenty of responsibilities,â? says Elizabeth A. Tyron, the community learning coordinator at the Morgridge Center for Public Service at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. â??If service learning is not well coordinated by the academic institution, it can place a lot of burden on the community partner.â?

Quoted: â??If youâ??re not one of those few obvious schools, you need to be able to offer students and employers real depth,â? says Blair Sanford, assistant dean and director of M.B.A. career services at the business school at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, which enrolls about 125 students a year.

Her name is Joanne Cantor and she is a â??recovering cyber-addict.â?

â??I love my work and Iâ??m a pretty industrious person when working on a project,â? says Cantor, the director of UW-Madisonâ??s Center for Communication Research and an expert on the psychological impact of media and communications. â??But my life was getting so cluttered with all this information that I was never getting anything done. If e-mail came in I felt a need to read it right away. Or Iâ??d go to look up one thing on the Internet, and Iâ??m so curious Iâ??d get distracted and spend time reading all these interesting articles. I figured if I was experiencing some of these problems, others were, too.â?