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Category: UW Experts in the News

Women frame a new dialogue between cultures (Aspen Times)

Quoted: University of Wisconsin law professor Asifa Quraishi, at the opening of Wednesday’s session, pointed out that Islamic conservatives point to the very topic of “women’s rights” as “a Western imposition” of outside values on Muslim women, which therefore means it can be dismissed as irrelevant and anti-Islam.

Frank Lloyd Wright and the House Beautiful

New York Times

You get an engrossingly detailed picture of how he achieved his vision in â??Frank Lloyd Wright and the House Beautifulâ? at the Portland Museum of Art. The show displays more than 100 examples of his furniture, metalwork, textiles, plans, drawings and publications, along with photographs of particular interiors.

It was organized by International Arts and Artists, of Washington, D.C., in conjunction with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation of Scottsdale, Ariz. Virginia T. Boyd, professor of design studies at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, served as curator.

Seniors still have sex, study finds

USA Today

Americans pushing 60, 70, 80 or even 90 don’t forgo sex just because they’re aging, according a new study that shows many older adults are having sex well into their 70s and 80s.

The University of Chicago study being published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine is being called the first comprehensive look at the sex lives of older adults in the USA. It portrays an image that researchers say runs counter to the stereotypes of older people as either asexual or “dirty old men.

Quoted: John De Lamater, UW-Madison professor of sociology

Outdoors: CWD experts address first meeting of advisory committee

Capital Times

Why should we care? That was a rhetorical question asked by Scott Craven, professor of wildlife ecology at UW-Madison, in leading off the second CWD Stakeholder Advisory Committee meetings in Madison last Saturday.

The meeting, held at Lowell Inn and Conference Center on the UW-Madison campus, drew a surprisingly small public attendance, less than 10 people. However, the reason for the meeting was for the 16-member committee to hear from experts about what is known about chronic wasting disease.

….”I obviously care for both personal and professional reasons, but this issue is just not on people’s radar screen like it was three years ago,” he (Craven) said. “One of the most important challenges that you face, as liaisons to groups of citizens and hunters, is to bring that back.”

(Also mentioned are Chad Johnson, an assistant scientist in the School of Veterinary Medicine, and Joel Pedersen, associate professor of Soil Science.)

Robotic surgery: UW doctor uses ‘da Vinci’ to heal

Capital Times

Three-fourths of cancerous prostate removal surgeries at the University of Wisconsin Hospital are now performed by a robot. The robot and its very flexible “wrists” are controlled by a surgeon, however.

The first robotic prostatectomy at UW Hospital was performed in March 2006 by urologic surgeon Dr. David Jarrard, who also performed the 200th on July 31 this year.

Delicious art: Sink your teeth into Chazen show of still lifes

Capital Times

….in the 1618 painting of “Two Citrons” by Filippo di Liagno (called Filippo Napoletano), a lemon is more than either just a lemon or just a painting.

That is typical of most of the 43 works you can see in “Natura Morta: Still-Life Painting and the Medici Collections,” a new show of 17th and 18th century works that goes on exhibit Saturday at the University of Wisconsin’s Chazen Museum of Art.

Professor Gail Geiger, who teaches Italian Renaissance art at the UW and specializes in patronage, knows how to decode these paintings and other works of art.

Rx for pet care: Specialty services growing in acceptance

Capital Times

It wasn’t that long ago when few people embraced alternative medical practices such as chiropractic services, acupuncture and massage.

Today, such services, like many advanced traditional medical practices, are moving into the mainstream of pet care as more and more people pamper their pets — although medical care isn’t seen on the same plane as some other pampering practices.

Quoted: Dr. Sandi Sawchuk, School of Veterinary Medicine

Expert: August usually wettest

Capital Times

Whether climate change has caused the extreme weather we’ve experienced in recent weeks — near-drought followed by heavy rain — is a subject of debate among scientists.

A study by the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Ecological Society of America in 2005 said Wisconsin’s climate was warming, that extreme heat would occur more often and long periods of flooding rains may increase. John Magnuson, UW-Madison professor emeritus, helped write that study and definitely believes that global warming is causing more extreme weather.

Quoted: Jonathan Martin, chair of the UW-Madison Department of Atmospheric Sciences

For sale by owner might not be smart home sales strategy (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)

Will an agent secure you a higher selling price? The National Association of Realtors claims homes sold by its realty agents bring 16 percent higher prices on average. On the other hand, a study released earlier this summer by economists from Northwestern University and the University of Wisconsin showed FSBO sellers in Madison, Wis., made out better than if they had hired an agent and paid a commission. But Madison has a more-robust-than-usual local FSBO Web site, and the researchers’ calculations placed no value on services provided by an agent.

When bedbugs attack

Capital Times

Bedbugs are back, with a vengeance.

The tiny night-time bloodsuckers were common in Madison and elsewhere in the United States in the 1940s, until DDT ended the threat. But the insecticide damaged wildlife and was banned in the U.S. in 1972, and in recent years travelers brought bedbugs back, according to Phil Pellitteri, a UW-Extension entomologist affiliated with the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

A chemical family known as synthetic pyrethroid has been used to get rid of the unwelcome pests, but they have developed resistance to it, he added.

Gift of sight for only $20

Wisconsin State Journal

Cataracts, a clouding of the lens of the eye that begins as a vague blurriness and can lead to blindness, is a common affliction of aging. For insured Americans, cataract surgery is a routine procedure that restores vision completely.

Despite the simplicity of cataract surgery, about 20 million people worldwide are blind because of cataracts, and 90 percent of them live in developing countries.

Dr. Suresh Chandra, an opthalmologist at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, has been working to eliminate preventable blindness through the Combat Blindness Foundation he started in Madison in 1984. Since then, the CBF has supported more than 100,000 free cataract surgeries.

Gifts of sight

Wisconsin State Journal

Everyone who lives long enough will eventually get cataracts, a clouding of the lens of the eye that begins as a vague blurriness and can lead to blindness. For insured Americans, cataract surgery is an routine procedure that restores vision completely.

Despite the simplicity of cataract surgery, about 20 million people worldwide are blind because of cataracts, and 90 percent of them live in developing countries.

Dr. Suresh Chandra, an opthalmologist at UW-Madison medical school, has been working to eliminate preventable blindness through the Combat Blindness Foundation he started in Madison in 1984. Since then, the CBF has supported more than 100,000 free cataract surgeries.

Fog of History

Nobody will ever accuse Jeremi Suri of lacking style or insight. His study of Henry Kissinger’s personality and place in history offers piercing originality–so much so that laying down Dallek for Suri feels rather like that moment in The Prince and the Showgirl when Laurence Olivier, after telling all and sundry that they have too little love in their life, meets his ex-mistress . . . and realizes that she has too much.

Suri fires off insights and theories about Henry Kissinger at a rapid clip. He especially delights in paradox.

Doug Moe: UW prof knows just why Elvis matters

Capital Times

NOT LONG after Frank Sinatra died, his journalist friend Pete Hamill, spurred by obituaries that were full of Sinatra’s feuds and foibles, wrote a wonderful little book called “Why Sinatra Matters.”

….At noon Wednesday at the Rotary Club of Madison’s meeting at the Inn on the Park, UW-Madison Professor Craig Werner — an admirer of Hamill’s Sinatra book — will make a similar case for another music legend, Elvis Presley.

Constipation can have many causes, cures (HealthDay News)

If you’ve tried loading up on fruits, vegetables and whole grains and still can’t get relief from constipation, maybe you need more than a boost of fiber.

“The idea that many patients have, and unfortunately their physicians, if we just keep pushing fiber until the grass grows out of their behind they’ll have been treated successfully, that’s not really true,” said Dr. Arnold Wald, a professor of medicine in the section on gastroenterology and hepatology at the University of Wisconsin.

The 1% Solution (ScienceNOW)

ScienceNOW

Quoted: Molecular geneticist Sean Carroll of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, says the study offers some “intriguing leads” on candidate genes to be followed up. “There is an important message here” that changes in regulatory sequences may be important in the evolution of many species, he says.

Meteor showers Sunday night

Wisconsin State Journal

The best thing about this weekend ‘s Perseid meteor showers, according to UW-Madison astronomer Jim Lattis, is that it doesn ‘t take any fancy equipment or knowledge to enjoy the spectacle.

“All you need, ‘ ‘ Lattis said, “is a lawn chair. ‘ ‘

Inches of rain to bring pests

JANESVILLE, Wis. (AP) — The eight inches of rain that fell in some parts of central Wisconsin over the last three days will bring back an unwanted pest – mosquitoes.

So says University of Wisconsin Extension entomologist Phil Pellitteri.

Pellitteri says people will notice an increase in the biting insects.