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Category: UW Experts in the News

‘New era of treating Alzheimer’s’: Wisconsin doctors, researchers celebrate FDA approval of new drug

Posted on
CBS 58

Quoted: Dr. Cynthia Carlsson, Professor of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said Leqembi targets deposits of proteins in the brain called amyloid. Amyloid is believed to contribute to the symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease.

“What was impressive about this study is that it improved the amyloid levels in the brain, lowered those. It improved their cognition, improved their function, improved their quality of life, all of these things we really care about, as well as, what the brain looks like,” Carlsson said.

Carlsson told CBS 58 the drug is primarily given to people with mild Alzheimer’s symptoms intravenously every two weeks.

She said side effects can include increased risk of micro bleeds and swelling in the brain.

“The results from the clarity study showed pretty vigorous responses across all of these outcome measures, which we hadn’t seen for a therapy like this before,” Carlsson said.

Eating only raw food is ranked the worst diet

Posted on
Popular Science

“What’s nice is Mediterranean is relatively user friendly. How it’s structured is similar to the (U.S. Department of Agriculture) healthy eating plan,” Camila Martin, a nutritionist at University of Wisconsin Health in Madison, who wasn’t involved in the rankings, tells TODAY.com. “It’s very modifiable based off what people have access to even with limited resources.”

7 questions older patients should ask their surgeon

Posted on
Popular Science

What’s the goal of this surgery? Ask your surgeon, “How is this surgery going to make things better for me?” said Margaret “Gretchen” Schwarze, an associate professor of surgery at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. Will it extend your life by removing a fast-growing tumor? Will your quality of life improve by making it easier to walk? Will it prevent you from becoming disabled, akin to a hip replacement?

Day 3: Small Talk Has Big Benefits

Posted on
The New York Times

Weak ties often have different knowledge from those in our immediate social circle, said Stav Atir, an assistant professor of management at the Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Atir led a study in 2022 that suggested that people underestimate the potential for learning from these interactions. “In our data, we often see strangers giving each other recommendations such as a new restaurant to check out, a new band to listen to and even a potential place of employment,” she said.

‘It landed in the checking account’: Wisconsin farm economist, lender say 2022 was a good year for ag

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

Even after a year of record high inflation, economic forecasts show 2022 was a good year to be farming.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service estimated that national net farm income will reach $160.5 billion for the year. That’s 13.8 percent higher than in 2021 and roughly 50 percent higher than the 20-year average, according to ag economist Paul Mitchell.

Mitchell, who leads the Renk Agribusiness Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said part of the prosperity comes from COVID-19 aid from the federal government, which helped kick-start demand after an initial downturn at the start of the pandemic.

“We’ve had unprecedented levels of commodity support for agriculture for a couple years and then really good prices,” he said.

Q&A: Author and UW prof Beth Nguyen finds a new perspective

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Growing up as a Vietnamese refugee in a predominantly white community, Beth Nguyen began grappling with her identity at an early age.

At 8 months old, she and her family fled Vietnam by ship after the fall of Saigon, eventually immigrating to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Nguyen detailed that journey, her coming of age and her longing to fit in as an American in her award-winning debut memoir “Stealing Buddha’s Dinner,” published in 2007.

Now an English and Asian American studies professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Nguyen teaches others how to shape their own thoughts and experiences into meaningful stories. “Find that perspective,” she encourages them. “Meld into it. Use it.”

UW-Madison engineers use carbon nanotubes to better protect against brain injuries

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers have developed a new shock-absorbing foam made from carbon nanotubes aimed at reducing traumatic brain injuries in U.S. soldiers. The material has been shown to absorb shock 18 times better than existing military helmet liners and could also offer athletes better protection against concussions.

In order to tackle big issues like brain injuries on the battlefront, UW-Madison associate professor of engineering and physics Ramathasan Thevamaran thinks small — as in micrometers. He and fellow engineers at the university have developed a way to make flexible carbon tubes, around a thousand times smaller than a human hair, into a new type of ultra-shock-absorbing foam.

UW-Madison researcher says drone-delivered defibrillators can save lives

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

When a heart stops, survival rates fall with every passing minute. A University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher thinks minutes and lives can be saved in rural areas with fleets of autonomous drones equipped with defibrillators.

And saving lives is in UW-Madison assistant professor and researcher Justin Boutilier’s blood. When he was growing up in Canada, his mother was a nurse and his father was a paramedic and firefighter.

Fact check: Post falsely links WI military votes to election tampering

Posted on
USA Today

Such a comparison is inappropriate because of turnout differences in both elections, Barry Burden, a politics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told USA TODAY in an email.

“Turnout of military and especially non-military voters is far higher in a presidential contest because of the intensity, visibility and national importance of a presidential election,” Burden said. “Military voters in particular tend to be less involved in non-presidential elections because their deployments take them away from the everyday news of state politics.”

Private investors, Rising Rents

Posted on
The Washington Post

These firms “have an incentive to raise rents as quickly as they can so that they can get the next buyer to pay more,” said Michael Brennan, chairman of the Brennan Investment Group, a real estate firm, and director of the James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Other owners, he said, are “not as maniacally focused on getting the last nickel as quickly as they can.”

When To Use Your Rainy Day Fund During A Recession

Posted on
Forbes Advisor

Households need to start behaving a bit like a company would, says J. Michael Collins, faculty director of the Center for Financial Security at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. As a head of the household “company,” you decide when to spend your earnings and where you need to cut expenses first.

Best Kids TV Shows And Cartoons for Toddlers

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Fatherly

“The main key, as in all parenting, is to know your kid,” says Marie-Louise Mares professor in the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Some kids are pretty easily scared, others really love excitement, some adore anything to do with trucks, others are crazy about puppies.”

Madison Children’s Museum to lead climate change project

Posted on
Wisconsin State Journal

“Caretakers of Wonder” will be grounded in expert research from UW-Madison, including work by Richard Davidson, founder and director of the Center for Healthy Minds, and Jonathan Patz, professor of environmental studies and medicine and public health at the Global Health Institute and the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. David Sobel, professor emeritus at Antioch University New England, is also a key player.

Do you really need 8 cups of water a day? UW study weighs in

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Wisconsin State Journal

It depends on what food and other beverages you consume, along with factors such as your age, sex, size, physical activity and climate, a study involving UW-Madison researchers says.

The study analyzed 5,600 people in 26 counties, looking at their water turnover, or the amount they took in and lost each day. Subjects drank water labeled with hydrogen and oxygen isotopes, a method first used in people at UW-Madison in the 1980s, allowing scientists to track water replacement and calories burned.

Fact check: The science behind why a snowball seems to ‘burn,’ when held by a lighter

Posted on
USA Today

Quoted: Said Daniel Weix, a chemistry professor at the University of Wisconsin: “Butane lighters don’t burn very cleanly. Like a candle, they will deposit soot onto things.”

And the ice can melt without generating visible droplets.

“The ice can go directly to the vapor phase and so the person holding the flame does not see it,” he said. “Another explanation is that the melting part that becomes water is drawn into the porous snowball – much like the syrup that is poured onto a snow cone that one enjoys in the summer – so you don’t see it.”

10 UW-Madison profs share their favorite books of 2022

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With the fall semester drawn to a close and a new year on the horizon, University of Wisconsin-Madison professors in departments ranging from math to English are reflecting on their favorite reads of the year.

They shared with the Cap Times the best books of 2022 — a diverse array of topics and genres, including social justice, animal studies and Slavic science fiction.

Wisconsinites feel the effects of national veterinarian shortage

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Wisconsin Public Radio

Quoted: Mark Markel, dean of the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine, said many vets are no longer willing to work the brutal hours they did in the past.

“If veterinarians used to work 70 hours a week or 80 hours a week, and now they’re working 40, we’ve got a workforce shortage by almost half — even if we’re seeing the same number of patients,” he said.

UW Madison Joins National Harm Reduction Research Network

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WORT FM

In 2021, over 107,000 people lost their lives to opioid addiction across the country. Public officials across the country have been working to address the issue for years, but a new nation-wide harm reduction research network is looking to find new ways to address the problem.

Today, UW Madison announced that they are joining a new nationwide network to research and evaluate harm reduction services.

Dr. Ryan Westergaard is a professor of medicine at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, and is leading UW Madison’s research wing of the initiative.

In praise of the monthly water bill

Posted on
The Hill

The cost of delivering safe, clean tap water to every household and business in a community is massive. In fact, it may be among the most expensive of all human undertakings. That is why only the wealthiest countries have achieved it at high rates and why 2 billion people on our planet still lack it.

Co-authored by Manny Teodoro, an associate professor of public affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Booster rates fall short of health officials’ goals before holidays

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

Quoted: Dr. Ajay Sethi, a professor of Population Health Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said BQ.1 can be treated with Paxlovid, an antiviral drug. But in some cases, people with severe cases of COVID-19 may need to receive monoclonal antibodies, or injectable medical treatments at a hospital.

Sethi emphasized that masking remains one of the safest ways to protect yourself and the community against the virus.

“As people gather for the holidays, you know, getting a rapid test and verifying whether you could be infected is a good idea. And if you have any symptoms, stay home,” he said.

What Is a Bomb Cyclone? A Winter Storm Explained

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WSJ

If traveling by vehicle, pack a winter survival kit, and in the event of getting stranded in the snow, stay with the vehicle. Laura Albert, an industrial engineer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies emergency response and preparedness, recommends packing such a kit with jumper cables, a small shovel, a flashlight, warm clothes, blankets, bottled water and nonperishable snacks, plus a bag of sand or cat litter to regain traction on snow or ice.

Drunken driving crashes are rising, and car safety features might be masking the real problem

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Wisconsin State Journal

“The engineering of roads has gotten just tremendously better. We maybe can’t solve the problem of that person getting into that car and being impaired, but we can mitigate the consequences,” said Andrea Bill, a traffic safety research project manager at the Traffic Operations and Safety Laboratory at UW-Madison.

“We’ve done more things with better roads, more things with better vehicles. We’ve done more things with people having to understand the consequences of their actions. With all of that, though, I think we lead people into a false sense of security.”

Judge rules against Kari Lake in bid to overturn Arizona election results

Posted on
Washington Post

Noted: Olsen relied heavily on the testimony of Rich Baris, a conservative author and pollster who goes by the name “The People’s Pundit” on Twitter. Baris told the court that interviews he had conducted with 813 residents in Maricopa County proved that the printer problems were to blame for Lake’s loss. A defense witness, Kenneth Mayer, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, called the theory “pure speculation.”

In Memphis, the Phonics Movement Comes to High School

Posted on
New York Times

Quoted: Mark Seidenberg, a cognitive scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who has studied reading, described the program as “the legacy of balanced literacy” because it offers teachers many options, some more effective than others.

“There are things in there that would allow teachers to teach many different ways — and that is the problem,” he said.

Scientists: Atmospheric carbon might turn lakes more acidic

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Wisconsin State Journal

But it’s unknown how big such problems will get, said Emily Stanley, a University of Wisconsin freshwater ecology professor.

“I honestly don’t see this as a thing that we as lake scientists should be freaking out about,” Stanley said. “There are so many other challenges facing lakes that are larger and more immediate,” such as invasive species and harmful algae.

What older Americans need to know before undergoing major surgery

Posted on
CNN.com

Quoted: Ask your surgeon, “How is this surgery going to make things better for me?” said Dr. Margaret “Gretchen” Schwarze, an associate professor of surgery at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. Will it extend your life by removing a fast-growing tumor? Will your quality of life improve by making it easier to walk? Will it prevent you from becoming disabled, akin to a hip replacement?

Schwarze, a vascular surgeon, often cares for patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms, an enlargement in a major blood vessel that can be life-threatening if it bursts.

Here’s how she describes a “best case” surgical scenario for that condition: “Surgery will be about four to five hours. When it’s over, you’ll be in the ICU with a breathing tube overnight for a day or two. Then, you’ll be in the hospital for another week or so. Afterwards, you’ll probably have to go to rehab to get your strength back, but I think you can get back home in three to four weeks, and it’ll probably take you two to three months to feel like you did before surgery.”

Among other things people might ask their surgeon, according to a patient brochure Schwarze’s team has created: What will my daily life look like right after surgery? Three months later? One year later? Will I need help, and for how long? Will tubes or drains be inserted?

UW-Madison researchers seek to understand how forever chemicals move through soil

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Wisconsin State Journal

Scientists at UW-Madison are working to better understand how toxic “forever chemicals” move through the ground, which could help communities like Madison find and clean up the manufactured compounds before they contaminate drinking water.

Christy Remucal, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at UW-Madison who specializes in PFAS but was not part of Gnesda’s study, said the research is a critical first step to being able to focus cleanup efforts.

UW Health expert offers advice for keeping children safe while driving in winter weather

Posted on
CBS 58

As holiday weekend travel gets underway, an expert at UW Health in Madison is sharing some steps to keep children safe on the roads.

If you want to warm up your car before heading out for the day, try to move the car outside of the garage to avoid the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning. Then, ensure that the vehicle’s tailpipe is not blocked with snow or ice.

Vehicles should also be inspected to ensure any child’s car set or booster seat is installed correctly, while remembering that bulky clothing or winter coats will impact the fit of a safety harness on a child.

Rishelle Eithun, a UW Health pediatric injury prevention manager says, ” … but definitely making sure that when we’re traveling, they’re making sure they’re sitting up nice and tall, and they’re not falling to the window to take a nap, those are you know some of those risks we try to stay away from if we could.”

Black and Hispanic Students Far Less Likely to Receive Race-Matched Instruction

Posted on
Diverse Issues in Higher Education

Noted: The team of researchers, led by Dr. Taylor Odle, an assistant professor of educational policy studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, found even lower levels of matching in crucial first courses in subjects like reading and writing, as well as gateway classes like algebra. Only 4% of Black students matched in reading and writing courses and only 6% in non-STEM math courses.

Black and Hispanic students had the highest match rates in remedial and developmental courses: 34% for Hispanic students and 17% for Black students. However, Odle’s team found that the faculty in these matches were more likely to be temporary staff or adjuncts, rather than tenured or tenure-track. Although contingent faculty may be equally good teachers as tenured faculty, their positions might limit them as mentors for students of color.

Kathleen Gallagher: Could Wisconsin be the center of a regional medical physics hub? The stage is already set.

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: At the heart of Great Lakes medical physics research is the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Department of Medical Physics. It was the first such department in the country and is the largest in terms of faculty members and graduate students, said Brian Pogue, department chair and a professor in the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health.

“We have close to 100 grad students working on medical imaging technologies,” Pogue said. “We have an army.”

Medical Physics’ faculty are among the university’s top royalty recipients and have developed world class technologies like the tomotherapy radiation technique, the ubiquitous pinnacle radiation treatment planning software, and lunar bone mineral densitometry to detect osteoporosis.

Democrats close legislative year with final swipes at Trump: The Note

Posted on
ABC News

Along the way, testimony provided by Richard Baris, the director of Big Data Poll, a group that conducts exit polling, and Dr. Kenneth Mayer, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin, highlighted the use of polls and methodology, a key feature of elections that are sure to continue to be put under scrutiny in future cycles.

Shining a light on the growing problem of antisemitism in Wisconsin

Posted on
PBS Wisconsin

Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison sociology professor Chad Alan Goldberg said this type of rhetoric is partly driven by what’s termed “affective polarization,” which describes the partisan sorting via demographic characteristics a political party dislikes or distrusts.

“What you see is an increasing reluctance for people to call out antisemitism within their own political camp,” Goldberg said, “So they will be happy to call it out when it appears on the opposite side, but when it appears on their side, there’s a kind of defensive reaction.”

Biden poised to lean into election denial attacks even if reforms pass

Posted on
Washington Examiner

Quoted: Acknowledging the limitations of the Electoral Count Reform Act, included in the $1.7 trillion omnibus government funding deal struck to avoid a shutdown at the end of this week, University of Wisconsin-Madison Elections Research Center Director Barry Burden agreed it is an “important improvement.”

“It is unlikely that any change in law on its own will have much effect on misinformation about how elections are run in the U.S.,” the political science professor said. “However, the bipartisan initiative to put more guardrails on the electoral count process is a welcome reform that should control efforts to undermine future presidential elections.”

Wisconsin’s 52 Most Influential Black Leaders, Part 1

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Madison 365

Noted: Angela Fitzgerald Ward is the host of Wisconsin Life on PBS Wisconsin, as well as the limited series Why Race Matters. In addition to her work hosting the television series, Angela is the Associate Dean for the School of Academic Advancement at Madison College. Previously she worked as Director of Family, Youth & Community Engagement for the Madison Metropolitan School District. She is also pursuing her Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she is studying the intersection between education, organizing, and research as it relates to improving outcomes for historically marginalized groups.

‘It was a set-up, we were fooled’: the coal mine that ate an Indian village

Posted on
The Guardian

Leah Horowitz, a cultural geographer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, takes a different view. “It stops being persuasion and becomes manipulation when you’re offering someone something they don’t feel that they can refuse,” she said. This kind of process, Horowitz added, is shaped by massively unequal power dynamics between the corporations, local elites and villagers. In many cases, the latter are very poor and have not been empowered to make informed choices. Shukla, the Chhattisgarh-based activist, put it like this: “How can you even expect villagers to give a free and informed consent in such compromised situations?”

Trump Is in ‘Deep Trouble’ and the ‘End Is Near’: Former GOP Congressman

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Newsweek

“Although the DOJ is independent, such a referral is more than symbolic,” Ion Meyn, an assistant law professor at the University of Wisconsin, previously told Newsweek in a statement. “A referral from a congressional committee that has conducted its own investigation is particularly influential. The referral would place significant pressure on the DOJ to prosecute, and the DOJ will be expected to justify any decision to decline the referral.”

Warming climate leads to changing Wisconsin winters, but drawing links to individual storms challenging, UW professor says

Posted on
Channel 3000

The storm dropped as much as two to four feet of snow in parts of Minnesota and South Dakota and tornadoes in areas of the country that usually see them more in late winter, but Jonathan Martin, a professor of atmospheric and oceanic science at UW-Madison, said it’s not as simple as drawing a direct line between this week’s winter storm and a warming climate.

Charged with homicide for the shooting death of his mother, a 10-year-old is being tried as an adult. Some legal experts say that’s too young.

Posted on
Wisconsin Public Radio

Quoted: Ion Meyn, an assistant professor of law at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, believes 10 is too young to face criminal culpability in the same way as an adult.

“The science is finding that in many respects, it’s irresponsible to decide that a child should be incarcerated for conduct,” Meyn said.

Wisconsin sees 2 major hospital mergers finalized back to back

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Wisconsin Public Radio

Quoted: University of Wisconsin-Madison Economist Alan Sorensen said mergers may give hospitals more leverage in negotiations with insurance companies.

He said insurance companies want to pay as low a price as they can negotiate, while health care providers want to get paid as much as they can negotiate.

“Those negotiations are enormously important for the bottom lines of these companies,” Sorensen said. “A lot of times what’s driving the mergers is that (hospital systems) feel like if they’re bigger, they’ll do better in those negotiations, they’ll have more bargaining power, they’ll be more indispensable to the insurance company.”

If health systems can negotiate for higher rates, he said, it could raise prices for patients.

“If the insurance companies have to pay higher prices to the hospitals, some of the increase is going to get passed through to the consumer in the form of higher insurance premiums,” Sorensen said.

Lie of the Year 2022: Putin’s Lies to Wage War and Conceal Horror in Ukraine

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NBC Miami

It’s not unusual for authoritarian leaders to lie in an attempt to strengthen their hold on power. What sets Putin apart “is the length to which he is willing to go — destroying his own country and a neighbor — for fanciful, unrealistic, imperial motives,” said Yoshiko Herrera, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientist and author of “Imagined Economies: The Sources of Russian Regionalism.”

‘Great concern’: Invasive group A strep cases spiking in parts of US — CDC is investigating

Posted on
Fox News

“We are seeing an increase in invasive Streptococcus pyogenes (Group A strep) bacterial infections here in our area, mostly following respiratory viral illnesses like Influenza A and RSV,” said Conway, who’s also a professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

Study finds Indigenous people face high financial burden of Alzheimer’s disease, related dementias

Posted on
Spectrum News

A new University of Wisconsin-Madison study finds that Indigenous people face high health and financial burdens from Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.

Researchers said it costs $880 million to $1.9 billion annually in additional health care-related costs for dementia diagnoses among Indigenous people.

“Taken together, this work exemplifies the potential benefits of offering programs to prevent, accurately diagnose and treat Alzheimer’s and related dementias among Indigenous adults,” said Adrienne Johnson, assistant professor of medicine, UW School of Medicine and Public Health, and lead author of the study, in a press release.

Deaths on public roadway eyed in new WI farm-related fatalities report

Posted on
Wisconsin State Farmer

Quoted: “Farm fatality numbers remain alarmingly high, and because a farm is like any other dangerous industrial workplace, the types of hazards are many,” said John Shutske, Ph.D., professor and agricultural safety specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Many continue to be concerned with the high number of deaths on public roadways. Clearly, as farms get bigger and farmers need to spend more time on the road moving from farm to farm/field to field, we are going to see more and more risk on roadways.”

Dairy Management CEO received $2.68 million pay package in his last year on job

Posted on
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Quoted: “It may be hard to set another record in 2023, but there is a possibility of increased exports,” Robert Cropp, professor emeritus at University of Wisconsin-Madison Cooperative Extension professor said in a recent column.

Each dollar of net farm income results in an additional 60 cents of economic activity as farmers spend money in their local communities, according to University of Wisconsin research.

Subnivium: The secret ecosystem hidden beneath the snow | New Scientist

Posted on
New Scientist

ECOLOGIST Jonathan Pauli used to spend a lot of time keeping track of animals over winter – often across cold, harsh landscapes that seemed inhospitable to life. It always surprised him that as soon as the weather got warmer in early spring, insects would pop up. “Snow fleas would emerge from underneath the snow,” Pauli recalls. Where, he wondered, had they been hiding? Eventually, he discovered some old scientific papers from the 1940s and 1960s. They revealed a secret world that Pauli, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has been studying ever since: a hidden ecosystem under the snow.