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Category: UW Experts in the News

‘This is an extreme year’: Air quality alerts may become more common as climate gets warmer, drier

WKOW-TV 27

Volker Radeloff, professor of Forest and Wildlife Ecology at UW-Madison, says while the fires are far from home, Wisconsin isn’t immune to these dry, hot conditions.

“This is an extreme year,” Radeloff said. “I’m not saying this is what every year will be like, but I think there will be more years like [this].”

Judge dismisses lawsuit seeking to block Wisconsin tribe from barricading town roads

Wisconsin Public Radio

University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor of Law and Director of the Great Lakes Indian Law Center Richard Monette said the raft of lawsuits in the easement dispute was “very foreseeable” and it may take an act of Congress to get the various parties to the table.

“This case is giving rise to the complex nuances of the political relationship between the United States and the tribes,” Monette said. “That’s why this is a matter for the political branches, not for the courts.”

COVID rates are rising. Now, a UW-Madison scientist has found a way to recycle face masks.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

It may be time to break out the face masks again.

COVID-19 cases are on the rise nationwide due to a new omicron subvariant, EG.5, nicknamed “Eris.” Though Wisconsin isn’t getting hit hard yet, hospitalizations are up 14.3% and deaths are up 10% in the last week, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

What to Know About Long COVID

CNET

Dr. Nasia Safdar, medical director of infection control at the University of Wisconsin spoke with CNET in 2021, when scientists were first getting a grip on long COVID, that the key to discerning the condition is to pay attention to new symptoms that develop or ones that never go away — about 30 days post-infection. This separates long COVID from the initial viral infection itself.

Getting your kids to talk about social media with their doctors improves online behavior, study finds

Channel 3000

A new study from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health finds that even a brief conversation about social media with their doctor can improve teens’ behavior on the platforms.

“I think there was a lot of skepticism around whether a five-minute conversation with a pediatrician would have much effect,” Dr. Megan Moreno of UW Health Kids and a professor of pediatrics at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health said. “The answer was, ‘Yes, absolutely.’ A pediatrician isn’t going to be able to go into great detail, but if our intervention got kids to talk to their parents, that is great.”

UW-Madison professor Dr. Steve Cho lauds new prostate cancer therapy, notes shortages of needed radioisotopes

Wisconsin Public Radio

While some radiopharmaceuticals have been utilized in thyroid cancer treatment for decades, new radiation drugs are showing promise in many other areas, according to Dr. Steve Cho, a professor and section chief of the nuclear medicine section of the Department of Radiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Medicine and Public Health.

Now is the time to transition bedtimes from summer to school schedule, doctors say

Channel 3000

Dr. Steve Barczi, a professor of medicine at UW Health, said making a few small changes during the weeks leading up to the school year will go a long way.

“Most people project that if you can even just shift a child’s bedtime by maybe 15 minutes everyday or a couple days, until you move them back let’s say that hour that they need to be back to be able to be prepared for school, that’s a good gauge,” Barczi said.

Monday’s soaking relieves some drought stress on Wisconsin crops, lawns

Wisconsin State Journal

Rains like Monday’s downpour will help catch up on lost rain and relieve crop stress from the drought earlier this summer despite rainfall being “fairly normal” during the corn pollination period from July 15 to Aug. 4 compared to the past 30 years, said Joe Lauer, an agronomist at UW-Madison and expert in corn research.

Generative A.I. forces Wisconsin teachers to adjust lesson plans

NBC-15

UW Madison Sears Bascom Professor of Learning Analytics, David Williamson Shaffer, says teachers at all levels of education are having to adapt quickly to this new wave of technology.

“We know that students are going to use it whether or not teachers plan for it, which means that teachers have to plan for it. Unfortunately, when change comes this rapidly, teachers are sort of left on their own to figure it out, and I think that’s a big problem,” said Professor Shaffer.

Uncured bacon isn’t any healthier. Here’s why.

Consumer Reports

Without these compounds, meat would spoil. “Nitrite is especially important because it has inhibitory action against microorganisms and specifically against spores of Clostridium botulinum [which cause botulism], should they be present,” says Jeff J. Sindelar, a meat science professor and extension meat specialist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

‘Here & Now’ Highlights: Alejandra Ros Pilarz

PBS Wisconsin

Gov. Tony Evers called a special legislative session for Sept. 20 to address Wisconsin’s workforce shortage — included in his $1 billion spending proposal for consideration is money to shore up the child care industry, which UW-Madison social work professor Alejandra Ros Pilarz describes as a “failed market.”

Capital City Sunday: Sparks continue to fly among Wisconsin Supreme Court justices

WKOW-TV 27

“The regular lawmaking process in Wisconsin has basically broken down and become nonfunctional since Evers was elected in 2018 and has faced a really stalwart Republican majority,” said Barry Burden, a political science professor at UW-Madison. “Aside from signing two budgets into law, both of which were acrimonious and left both sides somewhat dissatisfied, there hasn’t been any regular lawmaking to speak of.”

Madison businesses launch GoFundMe campaigns to pay the bills and fund expansion

Wisconsin State Journal

Michelle Somes-Booher, director of the Wisconsin Small Business Development Center at the UW-Madison School of Business, said that coming out of the pandemic, business owners have had to make lots of adjustments.

“We’ve had wage increases and whatnot,” she said. “And then with higher interest rates, that always causes business owners to have to do things maybe they wouldn’t have done in the past.”

The Clean Energy Future Is Arriving Faster Than You Think

The New York Times

“The world has produced nearly three billion solar panels at this point, and every one of those has been an opportunity for people to try to improve the process,” said Gregory Nemet, a solar power expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “And all of those incremental improvements add up to something very dramatic.”

Maui fires: Impact of climate change, drought, hurricane winds

CBS News

Maui experienced a two-category increase in drought severity in just three weeks from May to June, with that rapid intensification fitting the definition of a flash drought, said Jason Otkin, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.Otkin co-authored an April study that shows that flash droughts are becoming more common as Earth warms by human-caused climate change. A 2016 flash drought was connected to unusual wildfires in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, he said.

Sharp actions from Wisconsin Supreme Court’s new liberal majority extend deep divide

Wisconsin State Journal

Ryan Owens, a UW-Madison political science professor, said the liberal justices’ actions are harming the court’s reputation.

“Disregarding procedure, purging state employees without notice and making blatantly political decisions is an institution-destroying cocktail that, for the public, will taste like ipecac syrup — and have the same effect,” said Owens, who briefly ran for attorney general as a Republican.

Kimchi and the wonder of fermented foods

NPR

HUANG: So here’s what’s happening. The salt draws water out of the cabbage leaves, breaking down cell walls, and that releases sugars that feed the kimchi-making microbes. I called up fermentation professor Victor Ujor at the University of Wisconsin. He loves fermentation, and he loves talking about microbes.

VICTOR UJOR: So I think they are such beautiful things.

Abandon the idea of ‘great green walls’

Knowable Magazine

The notion of planting miles of trees to hold back encroaching deserts is misguided and damaging; we should promote programs that secure livelihoods and respect dryland ecologies instead

Co-authored by nature-society geographers Matthew Turner of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Diana Davis of the University of California-Davis) and Emily Yeh of the University of Colorado Boulder.

Janesville’s SHINE Technologies demonstrates nuclear fusion milestone

The Capital Times

This achievement is a milestone, according to Gerald Kulcinski, director emeritus of fusion technology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“It doesn’t change any physics, but what it does is that we can now say with confidence that there’s a nuclear process going on and we can tell where it’s located,” he said. “It’s confirmation of something that we’ve known for a long time, but now we actually have visible evidence of it.”

Want your yard to withstand extreme weather in Wisconsin? Plant native plants

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

At the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum’s Wisconsin Native Plant Garden — home to hundreds of species native to the region — the turf grass on the ground is brown but the native plants are green, said Susan Carpenter, the garden’s curator.

“It’s a stark reminder that they are more resilient in the face of drought than turf grass, which has very short little roots,” Carpenter said.

ChatGPT is in the classroom; teachers want kids to think on their own

The Capital Times

UW-Madison computer sciences professor Jerry Zhu explained how AI language models work,  illustrating the increasing complexity that chatbots are able to operate with. ChatGPT and others base their technology on “conditional probabilities” of what letter, word or punctuation is most likely to come after another based on its database of how language has been used.

Irish language lessons come to Madison

WORT FM

Ever wanted to learn the Irish language? A program at UW-Madison offers Irish classes to the campus community. And a similar program, along with a weekly conversation circle, is being offered to people outside of campus through the Isthmus Conversation Circle. WORT Reporter Heewone Lim is here today with Dr. Becky Shields, who is an instructor and an academic advisor in the Language Sciences program here at UW-Madison and leading efforts to bring Irish to Madison.

Covid-19 cases on the rise in Wisconsin as summer winds down

TMJ-4

Dr. Jeff Pothof, chief quality officer and emergency medicine physician at UW Health, says a new COVID booster is good news. Dr. Pothof encourages people to get the new booster in September or October when they get their flu shot.

“Our immune systems get a little bit lazy and they don’t work as well against COVID. So having this booster is going to be helpful. It’s actually against the strain that’s pretty common out there right now,” Dr. Pothof.

Preparing your teen for college and life in a dorm: Avoid over-packing

Fox News

“Sometimes we don’t know what to do with emotions,” so parents channel them into packing and shopping to feel productive, said Beth Miller, a coordinator for residence life at University of Wisconsin-Madison who has been involved in campus life for the past 17 years. “But sometimes parents are purchasing things based on emotion and not necessarily based on need.”

What Kai Cenat’s chaotic giveaway in Union Park reveals about influencer culture

NPR

NPR spoke with Megan Moreno, an adolescent medicine physician and researcher at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, about the unique impact that content creators can have on young people, and how it can lead to events like Cenat’s meetup. Here’s what she told us: On the unique nature of internet celebrity with fans:For some followers, the connection to that content creator can feel so strong and so personal that they’ll start to develop what is sometimes called a parasocial relationship.

Joking around with kids isn’t just fun, it’s vital

The Washington Post

So calibrate your comedy accordingly. You’ll know if your approach is on the right track because laughs never lie. “Interactions with your child that are filled with mirth should be unscripted and spontaneous,” says Dipesh Navsaria, associate professor of pediatrics and human development and family studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics. “They should involve a back-and-forth where parent and child are ‘riffing off’ each other.”

The new liberal majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court is off to a tense start

NBC News

“The court has been a contentious place, by some measures, for a decade,” said Michael Wagner, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “But I do think it’s in the court’s interest to demonstrate how the decisions they make are rooted in the law and not rooted in politics. “It’s a difficult thing to do,” he added.

The NIH halts a research project. Is it self-censorship?

CBS News

Even though the NIH has had to navigate political rapids for decades, including enduring controversy over stem cell research and surveys on the sexual behavior of teens, this is a particularly fraught moment. “It is caught up in a larger debate about who gets to decide what is truthful information these days,” said Alta Charo, a professor emerita of law and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who has advised the NIH in the past.

Addiction-treating drug still seldom prescribed in ERs, study finds

The Capital Times

“Buprenorphine is a first-line treatment for opioid use disorder, and offering it to anyone seen in the emergency department after an opioid overdose should be standard of care,” said Dr. Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar, a UW Health addiction medicine physician and University of Wisconsin-Madison associate professor of family medicine and community health, who called the study results “promising.”

Where did all the mosquitoes go?

PBS Wisconsin

“Mosquitoes emerge from standing water – like what’s in our gutters and puddles or in more forested areas – but we haven’t had a lot of that,” said Lyric Bartholomay, a public health entomologist and professor of pathobiological sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “So without much rain, there just haven’t been good habitats for mosquitoes to grow.”

July Was Likely Earth’s Hottest Month on Record

Smithsonian Magazine

“The reason that setting new temperature records is a big deal is that we are now being challenged to find ways to survive through temperatures hotter than any of us have ever experienced before,” University of Wisconsin–Madison climate scientist Andrea Dutton tells Seth Borenstein of the Associated Press. “Soaring temperatures place ever-increasing strains not just on power grids and infrastructure, but on human bodies that are not equipped to survive some of the extreme heat we are already experiencing.”

Journalism Is a Public Good and Should Be Publicly Funded

Scientific American

Other journalism models—including nonprofits such as MinnPost, collaborative efforts such Broke in Philly and citizen journalism—have had some success in fulfilling what Lewis Friedland of the University of Wisconsin–Madison called “critical community information needs” in a chapter of the 2016 book The Communication Crisis in America, and How to Fix It. Friedland classified those needs as falling in eight areas: emergencies and risks, health and welfare, education, transportation, economic opportunities, the environment, civic information and political information.

Tech companies like Epic Systems increasingly want workers back in the office

Wisconsin State Journal

Don Olszewski, director of the Weinert Center for Entrepreneurship at UW-Madison, said many important features of the workplace are difficult to replicate on Zoom. But Olszewski said some of the advantages of in-person work can be achieved with a hybrid schedule, especially if commuting is an issue.

“It’s hard to really engage new employees in the company and feel virtually,” Olszewski said. “The mentoring that goes along with that, a lot of that tends to be informal, running into people at the water cooler.”

Birders flocking to Green Bay to see ‘mega-rarity’ roseate spoonbill

Wisconsin Public Radio

David Drake, a wildlife specialist and forest and wildlife ecology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison compared juvenile birds to 16-year-old drivers.

“They know how to drive but, they don’t know where they’re going or how everything works,” Drake said. “We refer to that as an accidental. I’m assuming that’s likely what happened.”

There’s a gap between what you pay for dairy and what farmers get for their milk

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Dairy farmer Sarah Lloyd says consolidation in the industry has allowed processors, distributors, and retailers to keep consumer prices high even as farmers are paid less. “There’s been reduced competition in the marketplace,” said Lloyd, who’s worked as a food systems scientist for the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems.

“Farmers don’t have the power to push back…and consumers are also getting a raw deal,” she said.

15 best deodorants and antiperspirants of 2023, according to experts

NBC News

Ingredients: Mostly, conventional deodorants will have lab-derived antimicrobial ingredients like alcohols and triclosan. If you want mostly natural ingredients, look for deodorants with essential oils for fragrance and natural moisture absorbers like baking soda, arrowroot, charcoal and cornstarch. Some deodorants also have ingredients like baking soda, vinegar, citric acid and lemon juice that kill off some of the odor-causing bacteria and keep their numbers down, according to Dr. Apple Bodemer, a board-certified dermatologist and associate professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

Understanding Facebook’s impact on politics

Wisconsin Public Radio

A series of Meta-supported are finding Facebook’s algorithms alone weren’t responsible for harmful polarization in the 2020 presidential election cycle. But an independent audit found Meta maintained strong control over what data to provide researchers for study. We talk with Mike Wagner, a professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UW-Madison, about research into the power of social media algorithms and what makes an independent study.

Were fired Waukesha teacher Melissa Tempel’s First Amendment rights violated? Experts weigh in

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: Whether public employees’ speech is constitutionally protected depends on the context they are acting in, said Robert Dreschel, University of Wisconsin-Madison professor emeritus of journalism and mass communication.

“It doesn’t take long before things get complicated and difficult to sort out,” Dreschel said. “It’s certainly quite a clash of interests.”

Climate change could collapse a key Atlantic Ocean current. How that could affect Wisconsin

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Feng He, a senior scientist with the Center for Climatic Research within the Nelson Institute of Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said Wisconsin would see some pretty abrupt changes under a collapsed current, likely mirroring the major warming episode between 48,000 and 68,000 years ago.

Hold-outs no more? Madison police body camera test run to face final City Council vote

Wisconsin State Journal

UW-Madison Professor Keith Findley, who co-chaired the Body-Worn Camera Feasibility Review Committee, said despite the pilot program’s differences, it largely reflects the committee’s recommendations.

“It’s taken so long to get to this point we can’t keep dragging our feet on this,” Findley told the Civilian Police Oversight Board on Monday. “I think Madison has fallen behind on the times.”