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Category: UW Experts in the News

Amid efforts to curb binge drinking in Wisconsin, large study quashes purported health benefits of alcohol

Wisconsin Public Radio

“If you’re drinking one to two drinks (per day) because it’s good for you, it doesn’t necessarily increase the length of your life,” said Dr. Patrick Remington, an emeritus professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison medical school. “There’s no evidence in this large, well-designed study of a life-extending benefit.”

Humans evolved flexible arches to walk upright

Popular Science

“We thought originally that the spring-like arch helped to lift the body into the next step,” study co-author and University of Wisconsin-Madison biomechanical engineer Lauren Welte said in a statement. “It turns out that instead, the spring-like arch recoils to help the ankle lift the body.”

As Wisconsin continues to lose dairy farms, a national dairy group hopes to make milk more profitable

Wisconsin Public Radio

Quoted: “A lot of things obviously have changed in 15 years, including a lot of cost increases particularly for things like labor and for utilities,” said Chuck Nicholson, an ag economist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “So it has become harder and harder to use that old value to accurately represent what it takes to transform a pound of farm milk into a certain amount of cheese.”

The politics and economics of the debt limit standoff

Wisconsin Public Radio

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned lawmakers earlier this month that the federal government could default on its debt by June 1st. We examine the political options available for Republicans and Democrats, as well as the potential economic consequences of failing to increase the debt limit. Interview with Mark Copelovitch, a professor of political science and public affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Wisconsin researchers develop first hearing test for Hmong community

WUWM

About four years ago, Maichou Lor was living in New York completing a postdoctoral fellowship, when family members back home in Wisconsin kept telling her that her dad’s hearing was getting worse.

“He wasn’t responding to conversations even though he had a hearing aid,” said Lor, now an assistant professor of nursing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “I brought him in to see his doctor through the ENT clinic here at UW-Health.”

Weather station expansion seeks to aid Wisconsin farmers

Wisconsin Public Radio

Noted: Thanks to more than $3 million in grant funding, the University of Wisconsin-Madison now plans to establish 90 sites to monitor weather and soil conditions throughout the state by fall of 2026. The state currently has 14 weather stations.

Chris Kucharik, a UW-Madison agronomy professor, is overseeing the university’s effort to build the new network. He recently joined Wisconsin Public Radio’s “The Morning Show” to discuss how more weather and soil reports could be used and how researchers will decide where to build the new stations.

On campus, preparing for mass shootings is part of police training and student life

Wisconsin Public Radio

It’s eerily quiet in the vacant Biotron Laboratory building on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. It’s been closed for two years, but various pieces of office equipment are still scattered throughout offices and what were once state-of-the-art, climate-controlled research labs sealed with thick metal doors. That silence is about to be shattered by the UW Police Department’s annual Active Killer Training.

 

DNA Suggests Modern Humans Emerged From Several Groups in Africa, Not One | Smart News| Smithsonian Magazine

Smithsonian Magazine

“All humans share relatively recent common ancestry, but the story in the deeper past is more complicated than our species evolving in just a single location or in isolation,” says lead author Aaron Ragsdale, a population geneticist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, to Reuters’ Will Dunham.

More Wisconsin communities are participating in Now Mow May. Does it actually work?

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Noted: Do pollinators actually benefit from an unmowed lawn?

Sometimes. It depends on the lawn, say experts from University of Wisconsin-Madison. Lawns with turfgrass don’t provide as many resources for pollinators compared with a yard containing an abundance of low growing flowering plants. Adding more flowering plants, shrubs and trees to your yard can increase benefits to pollinators.

With Climate Panel as a Beacon, Global Group Takes On Misinformation

The New York Times

Climate change is “hard science,” said Young Mie Kim, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who serves as vice chair of a committee focused on research methodology. “So, relatively speaking, it’s easier to develop some common concepts and tool kits,” Ms. Kim said. “It’s hard to do that in social science or humanities.”

How presidential ambitions shape state education policy

Inside Higher Ed

Barry Burden, a professor of political science and director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, said while both have “general skepticism about whether public universities are serving the state well,” Walker framed his attacks on higher education around the need to improve economic efficiency at state institutions. Walker was also less focused on “meddling in the day-to-day affairs of the university in the way that DeSantis is,” in terms of imposing sweeping change on public colleges.

Bank Runs Trash Long-Held Assumption on Deposits

WSJ

“The current environment of declining deposits and runs on banks raises questions about whether most deposit amounts are sustainable, especially uninsured deposits, reducing deposit-franchise value,” said Tom Linsmeier, an accounting professor at the University of Wisconsin and a former Financial Accounting Standards Board member.

Possible Antidote to World’s Deadliest Mushroom Discovered

Smithsonian Magazine

“It’s a spectacularly cool paper,” Anne Pringle, a mycologist who studies death caps at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and did not contribute to the findings, tells the New York Times’ Alla Katsnelson. “They do this amazing amount of work and end with this hypothesis that they’ve found an antidote.”

Artificial intelligence could be the answer of moms’ mental overload

Wisconsin State Journal

Research by Allison Daminger, an assistant professor of sociology at the UW-Madison, has found through extensive interviews with couples that men and women tend to share responsibility for research and decision-making, while women do more noticing (this will need doing soon) and monitoring (is anyone actually doing this?). And women tend to have more household responsibilities overall. As a result, women do more cognitive labor.

Wisconsin Supreme Court upholds Marsy’s law constitutional amendment for crime victims

Wisconsin Public Radio

Quoted: “As long as (the ballot language) doesn’t say the opposite of what the amendment accomplishes, then it’s sufficient under this standard,” said Dustin Brown, an attorney with the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School. “This decision gives the Legislature very broad authority to present constitutional amendments to the people, and it very much limits the degree of oversight that courts can exercise over that process.”

Understanding immigration after Title 42

Wisconsin Public Radio

Following the end of the pandemic-era Title 42 border policy, the number of migrants trying to enter the United States illegally have dropped by roughly half. We examine the new immigration policies and enforcement in Mexico and the United States and how that is affecting migration patterns. Interview with Erin Barbato, director of the Immigrant Justice Clinic at the University of Wisconsin Law School.

Survey: Value of Wisconsin farmland continues to climb in 2023

Wisconsin Public Radio

A report from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Division of Extension found the average price of agricultural land sold in the state last year was $5,551 per acre. That’s 11 percent higher than in 2021 and nearly 24 percent higher than in 2020.

Heather Schlesser, the Extension agriculture educator who prepared the report, said the sustained increases trace back to the cash farmers received from federal COVID-19 assistance programs. She said at the same time, many farmers decided it was the right time to sell land.

“It’s all about give and take, supply and demand,” she said. “There’s not a lot of ag land out there. So if there’s more money out there and there’s less land, the farmers that are selling are going to want more for it. So I think that started driving it.”

Madison ranks 5th lowest in women’s business ownership, study finds

The Capital Times

The new findings come as no surprise to Tessa Conroy, an assistant professor of agricultural and applied economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who studies economic development and has written about this gender gap.

“Wisconsin tends to rank relatively low on several measures of business ownership and entrepreneurship,” including overall business ownership and business ownership among people of color, Conroy said in an email.

Why Madison rents are rising so fast and won’t slow down

The Capital Times

The resulting rent increases are economics 101, said Kurt Paulsen, a professor of urban planning at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. When demand exceeds supply, prices go up.

“It’s a story of too many people chasing too few units,” he said. “And like any region, we face a real choice: Either we build lots of housing where people want to live, or we don’t build a lot of housing.”

Cityscapes Create Cloud Cover, Satellite Images Reveal

Eos

The detailed nighttime cloud trends are significant and striking, said Aaron Alexander, a doctoral candidate at the University of Wisconsin–Madison studying water resource engineering in urban landscapes who was not involved in the research. Measurements of turbulence are difficult to collect at night, when the winds are calm and temperatures are cool, using physical monitoring devices, Alexander said.

NASA Image Shows Powerful Cyclone That Injured 700 People

Newsweek

“The science on how hurricanes will change in the future is fairly complex and not entirely settled, but a few things are generally accepted: 1) there might not be more hurricanes overall, but those that do form will tend to be more intense both in terms of the strength of their winds and the amount of rainfall that they produce; 2) because of this intensification and also due to some potential changes in the directions that storms tend to move, it is probable that there will be more Category 4 and 5 storms hitting the U.S.,” Daniel B. Wright, a civil and environmental engineer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Hydroclimate Extremes Research Group, told Newsweek in November.

Is AI the Answer to Moms’ Mental Overload?

Bloomberg

Research by Allison Daminger, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has found through extensive interviews with couples that men and women tend to share responsibility for research and decision-making, while women do more noticing (this will need doing soon) and monitoring (is anyone actually doing this?). And women tend to have more household responsibilities overall. As a result, women do more cognitive labor.

UW Health expert gives advice on how to cope with a challenging Mother’s Day

WKOW-TV 27

Shilagh Mirgain, a health psychologist for UW Health, says reframing how you view the day may help you still enjoy it and work through those hard feelings.

“Reframing the focus of this holiday can be an effective way to celebrate all the positive attributes of motherhood you may not have experienced yourself as a child or missed out on as an adult,” she said.

Over 30 million birds will land in Wisconsin beginning Friday; here’s what to know

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Bird expert and University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Stanley Temple said most of the birds that will make Wisconsin home on Friday were in Missouri or Arkansas on Thursday afternoon.

“There are so many factors that go into predicting where they will land, like wind and route, but it’s very likely they will be in Wisconsin by Friday morning,” Temple said.

Buildings continue to rise in Milwaukee while its finances dry up. What explains a tale of 2 cities?

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The potential Milwaukee and Milwaukee County sales taxes that could be implemented under the Assembly bill would not be without consequences, said Andrew Reschovsky, professor emeritus of public affairs and applied economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“You don’t pay attention if you have plenty of money,” he said of the increased prices that come with a sales tax. “But if you’re having trouble getting through the month, those extra pennies can make a big difference.”

Money available for nonprofits to address maternal and infant health disparities

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Medicine and Public Health has money to give away. Now it needs applicants.

The school is inviting nonprofit health organizations to apply for grants “to provide better care and address root causes of maternal and infant health disparities.” Awards will be made for a maximum of $1.15 million for up to two years. Applicants must propose working with community partners.

A better whey? Researcher wants to convert cheese byproduct into eco-friendly plastic

Wisconsin Public Radio

John Lucey, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Dairy Research, wants to turn whey into the chemicals used to make plastics, adhesives and other consumer products that are currently being derived from petroleum. Just like our reliance on oil and gas, Lucey said the chemical building blocks made in oil refineries are holding us back from a greener future.

“We’ve got to replace those too unless we want to keep using fossil fuels,” he said. “These basic chemistry kinds of things, the stuff you would have learned in organic chemistry like butanol — we want to make those kinds of compounds because they can feed into the existing industry.”

Four things to know about some of the most overlooked educators in Wisconsin: child care workers

Appleton Post-Crescent

Family child care providers make an average of $7.46 an hour, while center-based teachers make an average of $12.99. Both make less than the average Wisconsinite with a high school diploma, according to research by Alejandra Ros Pilarz, an assistant professor at the Sandra Rosenbaum School of Social Work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

She found poor wages and lack of career advancement opportunities are top reasons why 18% of family child care providers and 28% of ECE teachers plan to leave the field within a few years.

As COVID-19 emergency ends, changes will be far-reaching — and nearly invisible

Wisconsin Examiner

“Certainly fewer people are dying than were dying in the beginning of the pandemic, but we’re still losing over 200 Americans a day,” says Prof. Tiffany Green, a health economist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“I hope the average person in Wisconsin doesn’t see the ending of the emergency declaration as the ending of the pandemic,” says Prof. Ajay Sethi, a UW-Madison epidemiologist.

The spring allergy season is upon us. What steps can you take?

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Dr. Mark Moss, an allergist at UW-Madison’s School of Medicine is the station master of the university’s pollen counting site, which is part of a nationwide network of such stations. He’s been the station master for 13 years, and the university has pollen counts going back into the 1990s.

“Over the past two decades, there has been two clear changes: the beginning of the season in the spring starts earlier and the end of the season in the fall goes later,” Moss said.

Political rifts end friendships, spark safety fears in Wisconsin, but civics can be healed

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Guest column authored by Nathan Kalmoe, executive cirector of the Center for Communication and Civic Renewal, Michael W. Wagner, professor of Journalism and Mass Communication and faculty director of the Center for Communication and Civic Renewal, and Dhavan Shah, Maier-Bascom professor and research director of the Center for Communication and Civic Renewal, all of UW-Madison.

How Putin’s Victory Parade Speech Changed Drastically From Last Year

Newsweek

Mikhail Troitskiy, professor of practice at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Newsweek that Putin’s Victory Day speech last year “did not meet the expectations” of pro-Ukraine War supporters who desired an immediate escalation, mobilization of civilians, and a rhetorical shift to an all-out “war” from a “special military operation.”

COVID emergency not over for travelers with disabilities. Here’s why.

USA Today

“This puts a lot of lower-income people at a greater disadvantage,” said Amy Gaeta, a disability rights activist and postdoctorate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies disability and technology and has nerve damage in one leg as well as invisible disabilities. “This is especially concerning given that so many disabled people are low-income, especially if they’re on disability welfare benefits.”

State lawmakers proposed solutions to the state’s housing crisis. Here’s what to know

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

These changes would cut back on delays and roadblocks that drive up prices, said Kurt Paulsen, professor of urban planning at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“Housing dies a death of a thousand cuts because every change, every delay, just adds costs,” Paulsen said.

UW-Madison can’t punish student for racist video, expert says

The Capital Times

While students of color say the video has made them feel unsafe, campus administrators have repeatedly said the law binds them in disciplining or punishing the student. That’s true, said political science Professor Howard Schweber, an expert in constitutional law.

“The mere fact that expression is hateful, or deeply offensive, or deeply disturbing does not make it unprotected by the First Amendment,” he said. “I think the university got this one right.”

UW-Madison student racist rant video goes viral, expert weighs in on what makes hate speech protected or punishable

CBS 58

Howard Schweber, political professor at the university, said legally, there’s not much action the school can take.

“This is not a matter of the university choosing not to take disciplinary action – they simply cannot, without running afoul with the First Amendment,” said Schweber.