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Category: UW Experts in the News

Milwaukee officials urge ambulance policy changes following woman’s death

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Wisconsin Public Radio

Laura Albert, an industrial and systems engineering professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said although the initial response time of four minutes was quick, she questioned why it was labeled a low priority call. “Maybe some information wasn’t really conveyed clearly along the way,” Albert said.

Albert also said it’s common for people not to be found when they call 911, mainly because they leave before an ambulance gets to them. Baker also said false alarms are common, especially at bus stops. He said callers sometimes call for an ambulance at a bus stop and get on a bus if it arrives before the ambulance does.

Waves of grain: How Wisconsin’s sustainable grain movement is growing

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The Capital Times

What happened? Lauren Asprooth is a research scientist with the Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems at UW-Madison. As corn and soybeans shot up, she said, “every other row crop has gone down or stayed stagnant.”

“We have decoupled livestock production and crop production, so there’s not as much of a need for small grains in terms of forage,” Asprooth said. “We put a lot of funding into the markets for byproducts and R&D for corn, and therefore made other crops relatively less easy to grow.

Hurricanes becoming so strong that new category needed, study says

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The Guardian

Michael Wehner, a scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the US, said that “192mph is probably faster than most Ferraris, it’s hard to even imagine”. He has proposed the new category 6 alongside another researcher, James Kossin of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Being caught in that sort of hurricane would be bad. Very bad.”

After a rough chapter in 2023, the dairy industry storyline is looking better in 2024

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Wisconsin State Farmer

Dairy’s storyline for 2023 in Wisconsin and across the United States “was not the best storyline we could imagine,” said Chuck Nicholson, associate professor of economics, however he is seeing signs that point to milk price improvement in the coming year.

Nicholson, an associate professor of dairy economics at the UW-Madison spoke about dairy’s economics at the Renk Agribusiness Agricultural Outlook Forum in late January on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Space tomatoes, Hanging out, RSV explained, Struggling US parents

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Wisconsin Public Radio

We learn about a UW connection to experimenting with growing tomatoes beyond Earth’s atmosphere. Next we talk about the art of doing nothing in particular. Then we hear what to know about the rise of the respiratory virus RSV. And we explore the problems American parents face compared with those in other countries. Interviews with Simon Gilroy and Dr. James Conway.

Keeping a journal, 15-minute meals, Sky-high rent

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Wisconsin Public Radio
In 2022, half of all U.S. renters paid more than 30% of their income on housing—a new all-time record, according to a new report from the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. We talk to Kurt Paulsen, an expert from UW-Madison, on the housing market about why rent is now considered “unaffordable” for a significant portion of Americans.

With the Super Bowl coming up, will the sports gambling wave crash into Wisconsin?

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Wisconsin Public Radio

Jason Lopez’s studies of sports betting throughout history show this: The act of traveling to gamble is about as old as gambling itself.

Lopez, a University of Wisconsin-Madison assistant professor of media and cultural studies, wonders if the recent steps to expand sports betting in Wisconsin’s neighbors could pressure the Badger State to change its laws.

UW-Madison researchers uncover hint for cause of cleft lips and palates in developing babies

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Wisconsin Public Radio

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are one step closer to understanding how and when cleft lip and palates form during pregnancy.

The discovery, recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could mitigate the risk of the birth defect that affects about 1 in every 1,700 babies born in the United States.

What is Wisconsin’s minimum wage, and why hasn’t it changed when other states’ minimum wages have?

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Low-wage workers have found it especially hard to afford higher housing costs, even before a spike in prices in 2022, explained Laura Dresser, associate director of the High Road Strategy Center (formerly COWS, a left-leaning think tank) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Dresser’s research has found that increasing the minimum wage to $15 over the next five years would increase wages for one in seven workers in Wisconsin. That includes one of every four Black and Hispanic workers.

Air sampling in Dane County schools tracks flu, COVID-19

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Wisconsin State Journal

“It can tell us about the virus without us needing to stick anything up anyone’s noses or even know who was in a space,” said Dave O’Connor, a UW-Madison researcher involved in the surveillance. “Air sampling should be something that lots of schools bring on board to understand what the respiratory virus transmission risk is.”

Monitors have been at seven schools in the Oregon School District for two years, where air sampling last school year tracked flu and COVID-19 activity as reliably as student absences, rapid tests at school and regular tests from samples collected at home, UW-Madison researchers recently reported. That research was part of a UW study, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that has analyzed respiratory illness at Oregon schools since 2015.

Putin’s Top Generals Have Gone Missing

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Newsweek

Mikhail Troitskiy, professor of practice at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Newsweek via email on Friday that Russia’s relative silence is unsurprising considering the ongoing conflict and a lack of incentives to publicly disclose the whereabouts and/or deaths of top military commanders.

Morning Rush – Scripps News – Morning Rush

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Scripps: Morning Rush

Joining us now is Julie Stam, assistant clinical professor at the University of Wisconsin. Madison and author of “The Brain on Youth Sports, the science them its and the future.” Julie, good morning. So Roger Goodell says the risk of concussion is the same as walking down the street as a medical professional. What’s your take on that?

Humans and Neanderthals Lived Side by Side in Northern Europe 45,000 Years Ago, Study Finds | Smart News| Smithsonian Magazine

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Smithsonian

“These groups are exploring,” says John Hawks, a University of Wisconsin–Madison anthropologist who was not involved in the study, to NBC News. “They’re going to new places. They live there for a while. They have lifestyles that are different. They’re comfortable moving into areas where there were Neanderthals.”

Here’s the Happiness Research that Stands Up to Scrutiny

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Scientific American

Such rigor is admirable, but it also means one can miss things, says Simon Goldberg, a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He studies the effects of meditation, including research among people who have psychological problems such as depression and anxiety. He noted that because of Dunn and Folk’s strict criteria, they omitted hundreds of studies on meditation’s benefits. “It’s, in the spirit of rigor, throwing lots of babies out with the bathwater,” he says. “It’s really very obvious that meditation training reduces symptoms of anxiety and depression.”

Police presence in schools, UW-Superior welcomes new research center, How to avoid probate court

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Wisconsin Public Radio

We examine a new study about the effectiveness of having police officers in schools. Then, two members of UW-Superior’s newest research center explain their efforts to advance community-based projects. Then, a Madison-based attorney offers advice for end-of-life planning. Includes interview with Ben Fisher, associate professor of civil society & community studies at UW-Madison.

Inequity in higher education funding, A Republican conflict on border measures and Ukraine funding, The significance of Pitchfork

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Wisconsin Public Radio

We talk about where the most government funding for higher education goes — and why the recipients may not be the most needy. Then we look at what’s happening with a compromise bill that former President Trump could be holding up to energize his 2024 campaign. And we reflect on the demise of a major taste-making music enterprise.

The joy of dictionaries

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Wisconsin Public Radio

Who decides which words make it into dictionaries and how to define them in non-biased ways? Professor Emeritus Marshall Cook looks behind the scenes at lexicographers such as Kory Stamper (author of Word by Word), and Derrick Allen (graduate of the UW Odyssey Project www.odyssey.wisc.edu) adds readings of “I Love Webster’s” by Tosumba Welch and Malcolm X’s “A Homemade Education” on the life-changing power of dictionaries.

How Wisconsin museums are responding to new rules on using objects sacred to Native Americans

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Wisconsin Public Radio

University of Wisconsin-Madison, Anthropology Museum Director and Campus NAGPRA Coordinator Liz Leith: “The university is already in compliance with the recently announced NAGPRA revisions. UW–Madison does not have human remains or cultural items on exhibit, and access to and research on human remains and cultural items is already restricted, pending approval through consultation. My colleagues and I in the Department of Anthropology have been consulting with the Wisconsin Intertribal Repatriation Committee since the mid-2000s. UW-Madison deeply values and prioritizes consultation as a standard practice in relation to human remains and cultural items present on campus. Through these consultations, we have successfully repatriated most of the remains and cultural items that had once been on campus, and we will continue our work to maintain a strong shared future with Wisconsin tribes.”

Why Wisconsin judges are increasingly involved in elections

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Wisconsin Watch

In 2022, there were at least 13 lawsuits filed related to election administration, according to a tally from the University of Wisconsin Law School’s State Democracy Research Initiative.

Questions of election administration landing in court isn’t a new phenomenon, said Derek Clinger, a senior staff attorney with the University of Wisconsin Law School’s State Democracy Research Initiative. But there’s been an uptick in such cases since the 2000 presidential election, when a razor-thin margin in Florida “brought attention to the actual defects in how we run our elections.” The U.S. Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore halted a Florida recount because of time constraints, effectively awarding the presidency to George W. Bush.

These Americans more likely to suffer from hearing loss, new study finds

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The Associated Press

Audiologist Melanie Buhr-Lawler, a clinical professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said she saw the threats to hearing health growing up on a farm in rural Wisconsin and later researching hearing loss in rural residents.

“People who live in rural areas have a hearing health double-whammy,” said Buhr-Lawler, who was not involved with the study. “So they’re more exposed to high noise levels through their work, be it mining or farming or other rural occupations, but also through leisure activities.”

8 weeks of free medication available to help people quit tobacco

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Wisconsin Public Radio

Fiore, a professor of medicine, founder and director of the Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said there are about 650,000 smokers in Wisconsin. If those smokers don’t quit tobacco products, Fiore said about half will die prematurely of a disease caused by smoking.

“There’s nothing a person can do that will improve their current and future health as much as quitting smoking,” he said.

Opinion | C’mon drivers, chill out

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The Capital Times

One of the experts Shaer interviewed was UW-Madison psychologist and specialist on anger Martin Ryan, who attempted to explain what’s going on. Ryan explained that emotions have to go somewhere, and far too often drivers find their outlet in a car.

“If I was to set out to create a situation that would make the most people act badly and angrily, I couldn’t come up with anything better than driving,’ Ryan told the Times. “Every element that provokes an anger response is there. There’s your mood when you entered the car in a rush. There’s provocation — something that happens to you, like being cut off. And relatedly, there’s how you interpret the provocation based on your mood.”

States rethink reading

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Axios

The system is populated with educators who were taught entirely different methods, and “the resistance is real,” said Mark Seidenberg, a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin.

A rare fungal infection is popping up in an unexpected part of the U.S. 

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NBC News

There are a number of things that could be happening, said Dr. Bruce Klein, a professor of pediatrics, medicine and medical microbiology and immunology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. These pathogens can hitch a ride on shoes when people travel. New developments can stir soil — and the fungi they harbor — releasing spores into the air in places they weren’t thought to exist.

Opinion | A.I. Should Be a Tool, Not a Curse, for the Future of Work

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New York Times

Katherine Cramer, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientist, said that lower- and middle-wage workers have “pretty basic” expectations for the future of their work. “One man in Kentucky said, ‘I’m not looking for a mansion on a hill.’” What he and others want, Cramer said, is jobs that don’t destroy their humanity, that are meaningful and that give them time with their families. Many don’t feel they have that now. .

Wisconsin union membership rebounded slightly in 2023

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Wisconsin Public Radio

Union membership in the state hovered between 215,000 and 230,000 from 2015 through 2021. That makes it hard to tell if the membership gains in the new data reflect actual membership increases or a correction after an under-estimate last year, said Laura Dresser, associate director of the COWS economic think tank at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“You need to see multiple years of data to really know what’s going on or to be able to say, ‘Absolutely, unions are growing in this state,’” she said.

Rural Wisconsinites see farm pollution, PFAS as big threats to clean drinking water, UW survey finds

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“If we’re thinking about how we want to manage or protect groundwater resources in the future, we really need to be thinking about what’s happening on the land surface. And if you look at Wisconsin, greater than 90% of the land is, really, rural land,” said Michael Cardiff, a professor in the department of geoscience at UW-Madison. “Rural water users are probably most connected to the largest area of land in Wisconsin, and could probably tell us about what sort of concerns they’re seeing.”

Madison could again allow streets to be named after people in proposed policy

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Wisconsin State Journal

UW-Madison linguistics expert Dan Pell said Madison’s street names, many of which honor white historical figures, do not always project the progressive values city government has sought to establish.

“If you turn the (street) names into faces, it would be really obvious that there is white privilege baked in,” Pell said. “I think it’s important that we rethink how we represent history and how we project who writes history.”

UW-Madison researchers lead nationwide Alzheimer’s study

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Spectrum News

A $150 million dollar grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will be used by UW-Madison to fund nationwide research that investigates the neurobiology of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias.

Dr. Nate Chin is the medical director for that study which will involve all 37 of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers in the U.S.

More studies show younger athletes across sports are at risk of developing brain disease

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Wisconsin Public Radio

Julie Stamm researches CTE at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and authored a book called, “The Brain on Youth Sports: The Science, the Myths, and the Future.” During a recent interview with WPR’s “Central Time,” Stamm said the new Boston University study adds to other research undermining a misconception that CTE is only a concern for professional athletes.

“We know that’s not the case,” said Stamm, a clinical assistant professor in the university’s Department of Kinesiology.

Can you afford an emergency? UW survey shows many don’t have $400 to spare. Blame inflation.

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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

With the new year, millions of people resolve to diet, exercise more or make changes in other aspects of their lives, including personal finances. For most of us, personal finance-related resolutions are a combination of spending less, saving more and maybe paying off some debts. Some of the newfound attention to our financial outlook may even stem from an expensive holiday season that just wrapped up. But the new year offers new opportunities to get on track.

Written by J. Michael Collins, the Fetzer Family Chair in Consumer and Personal Finance at UW-Madison and a professor in the La Follette School of Public Affairs and the School of Human Ecology.

Why demand for Covid vaccines lags behind uptake of flu vaccines

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STAT

The short-term side effects associated with the mRNA vaccines may also be contributing to reluctance. For some people, these vaccines are a breeze, but for others, a day or two of fever, aches, and chills are guaranteed to follow a booster. “We know from other vaccines that any mark in the ‘this is inconvenient for me’ column will suppress uptake,” said Malia Jones, an assistant professor of spatial dimensions of community health at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Research finds early exposure to lead pipes shortens lifespan

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Wisconsin Public Radio

New research finds that early exposure to lead pipes can reduce an American man’s lifespan by an average of almost three months. Those are the findings from a paper co-authored by a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The results are part of a broader body of research examining conditions in childhood that may affect the longevity of Americans.

Jason Fletcher, a professor with the university’s La Follette School of Public Affairs, said researchers compared U.S. Census records of men living in cities that had lead pipes to those living in cities that used non-lead materials in the early 20th century. Fletcher said they then linked the names and addresses of those individuals to their death records from 1975 to 2005. Fletcher said the paper did not examine women because of difficulties with linking data due to name changes when women married.

Will Wisconsin’s presidential primary matter? Experts say we’ll see

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Wisconsin Public Radio

“It’s a really unusual dynamic where neither party has a competitive primary process this year,” said Eleanor Powell, associate professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  “I’m hard pressed to think of a cycle where there was this much lack of interest or competitiveness.”

There will be other races and measures on the primary ballot. Some municipalities will see elections for county boards or local school funding measures, said Barry Burden, director of the UW-Madison Elections Research Center.

“So even if the presidential race doesn’t look competitive, hopefully there’ll be other things that’ll draw voters out,” Burden said.