Tag: featured

As a parent, Cliff Robb, a professor of consumer science at the University of Wisconsin, tries to talk about basic finances like budgeting to his kids on a normal basis.

There is little doubt that the chaos ushered in by the pandemic will lead to more cancer deaths. But determining how many has been difficult: many cancers are slow-growing, their development can be complex, and factors such as treatment decisions play a big role in outcomes. To assess how missed screenings might affect cancer mortality rates, the National Cancer Institute turned to Oguzhan Alagoz, a professor of industrial and systems engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison whose research involves modeling both cancer epidemiology and infectious diseases.

Holly Gibbs, a University of Wisconsin-Madison geographer who has been researching agribusiness in the Amazon for a decade, said that though legitimate middlemen often buy and sell cattle on the same day, the fact that the transactions aren’t closely tracked “is a huge loophole.”

“So much of the prosecution’s argument is rooted in the idea that the jury needs to stop vigilantism,” Steven Wright, a professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School told The Recast.

“This is a case that brings to the fore a lot of matters of public concern – gun rights, the use of force by police officers – and it makes sense that people are paying attention, then, to what’s happening in the courtroom and the manner in which conversations are occurring,” said Cecelia Klingele, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

John P. Gross, the director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Public Defender Project, said he has seen only judges do the picking, but he didn’t object to Rittenhouse’s having the heavy hand of selection.

“It’s completely random, and whoever is picking is picking,” Gross said. “It was an interesting piece of theater having the judge inviting the defendant to make the draw.”

Solar has had a six-fold decrease in costs since 2010, “below where even the most optimistic experts expected they would be in 2030,” according to Greg Nemet of University of Wisconsin. The cost of batteries for electric vehicles have fallen 88 percent in 10 years, below what 37 separate estimates put it in 2020, 2030 or even 2050.

Roman Catholic leaders believed a consecrated church was “protected space,” Karl Shoemaker, a professor of history and law at the University of Wisconsin and author of “Sanctuary and Crime in the Middle Ages, 400-1500,” told History.com in 2019. “It would be inappropriate in the extreme to carry weapons into the church or to arrest someone or to exercise force within the church.”

Schroeder said he has allowed defendants to perform such a move for the last 20 years. While not illegal or unethical, the task is usually reserved for the clerk of courts, said Ion Meyn, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School.

Why did this emerge so late in the process? Did someone at TIAA change their mind? Sometimes a late-stage reversal occurs because a previous employer learns of the move only when it’s announced, said Martin Ganco, a professor of management and human resources at the University of Wisconsin. Some people also think a prior employer won’t enforce a noncompete clause or legal agreement on conflicts.

The misdemeanor charge of illegally possessing a dangerous weapon as a minor was the least serious one Mr. Rittenhouse faced and carried a relatively short sentence. But jurors might have settled on the charge, said Steven Wright, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, if they balked at the more serious counts but wanted to convict Mr. Rittenhouse of something.

Ashley Ruba, a developmental psychology expert in the Child Emotion Lab at University of Wisconsin-Madison, was not affiliated with this study, but has done similar work during the pandemic. She said she saw similar results with her work.

“Anytime a judge opens his or her mouth while on the bench, that’s just another opportunity for an appellate attorney to use that down the line as evidence of the judge making a mistake,” said Steven Wright, a clinical law professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who has been following the trial.

Adams said prosecutors most likely will seek second-degree versions of the intentional homicide charges. Such charges could apply if jurors determined that Rittenhouse sincerely believed his life was in danger but used an unreasonable amount of force, University of Wisconsin-Madison criminal law professor Cecelia Klingele said. Second-degree reckless endangerment could apply if jurors found that he put someone in harm’s way but did so without showing utter disregard for human life, she said.

“It feels like the case is very, very close. And in very close cases, the defendant should win,” said Steven Wright, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“We have a choice as we look into the winter,” David O’Connor, a pathology professor at the University of Wisconsin, recently told Insider. “Down one path, we have being reluctant and living with waning immunity, living with cases and the problems that brings with it. Down the other path, we have something that looks more like Israel, where a large fraction of the population is highly protected from being infected in any way with Delta. I don’t know why you would choose the first path when the second path is right in front of us.”

While pearls lack carefully planned symmetry that keeps brick buildings in order, pearls will maintain symmetry for 20 layers at a time, which is enough to accumulate consistency over its thousands of layers. In a way, the pearl “self-heals” when defects arise without using external scaffolding as a template, comments Pupa Gilbert, a physicist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who was not involved with the study, to Science News.

“There’s a grouping of higher-level features, which seem to be very closely associated with what we think of as human consciousness, which come back in that shift from a non-lucid to a lucid dream,” says Dr Benjamin Baird, a research scientist at the Center for Sleep and Consciousness at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “And there’s something to be learned in looking at that contrast.”

John Eason, an assistant sociology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said closing arguments and the verdict will be a pivotal moment for America.

“I think the mood in Wisconsin, not just Kenosha, is that they’re over the whole racial awakening. All signs are this is going to be the case that vindicates white people,” Eason said, adding: “If the peak of the country’s social justice reckoning was George Floyd, then this is the pendulum swinging back. This is the tipping point back.”

Steven Wright, a clinical law professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, disagreed with Dean’s characterization, but said that judges have a responsibility to be neutral so that people have a sense that a trial is being conducted impartially and fairly under the law.

His young appearance — one witness testified that the 18-year-old defendant has a “baby face” — could help the jury sympathize with him, added Steven Wright, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin.

“It would be a pretty dramatic turn of events,” Keith Findley, a former public defender and University of Wisconsin law professor, said of the judge possibly declaring a mistrial. “This is a judge who likes to be in control of his courtroom and everyone knows it, and he doesn’t particularly care if people are unhappy about it or his rulings.

“What’s not being assessed is whether the shooting of Mr. Blake [was] justified. Nor will Second Amendment rights, outside of a limited sense, be litigated,” said Keith Findley, a former public defender and University of Wisconsin law professor.

“Aaron Rodgers is a smart guy,” said David O’Connor, a virologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Packers fan. But, he added, “He’s still vulnerable to the blind side blitz of misinformation.”

“It’s really been a surprise even for people working on it,” said Greg Nemet, an environmental policy researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Speaking to Spectrum News, John Gross, a clinical associate professor of law at the University of Wisconsin Law School and director of the Public Defender Project, described the testimony from Grosskreutz as “remarkable.”

And prices have increased, said University of Wisconsin economist and Manhattan Institute adjunct fellow Noah Williams. “Inflation is up somewhere between 4.5% to 5%, probably, year-over-year,” Williams said. “So, yeah, that 5.5% average wage gain is really only maybe .5% to 1%.”

Among those listed as signing the latest letter: Thomas Linsmeier, a University of Wisconsin accounting professor who served from 2006 to 2016 on the Financial Accounting Standards Board, the nonprofit organization that sets U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP, and retired Cornell University professor Thomas Dyckman, who held positions with groups affiliated with FASB in the 1980s and early 1990s.

“When something is factually incorrect, you need to take greater care with what you are going to do with it,” said Kathleen Culver, director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “I applaud the Post for being transparent in what they decided to do … I don’t know that we necessarily do enough of that in journalism, explaining to readers and viewers and listeners, explaining why we made the choices that we made.”

“Almost all of our thoughts were about families who had very low or zero earnings who would not work or reduce work effort,” said Timothy Smeeding of the University of Wisconsin at Madison. “We did not have any credible estimate of the substitution effect for families earning $25,000 to 40,000, and so we ignored it.”

“The earliest observers that wrote these down were not scientists. Ice was important for the way of life and living and killing whales and fishing in the wintertime,” said John J. Magnuson, a limnologist the University of Wisconsin at Madison. “The longer records all began before there was a science, and the science is capitalizing on what’s occurred.”

“No one involved in this had any expectations that we were going to find naledi bones in these situations,” says John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “We’re pushing into places that are meters and meters down impossible passages.”

“I think that’s a fair question to ask, not only of Aaron Rodgers: Why did you potentially put these folks at risk?” said Jeff Pothof, University of Wisconsin Health’s chief quality officer and an emergency medicine physician. “Also, the Packers organization. If you knew Aaron Rodgers was a more high-risk individual being unvaccinated, why did you tolerate that? And lastly, the NFL in general. It sounds like the NFL in general knows who’s vaccinated, who’s not vaccinated. I’m sure they saw Aaron Rodgers speaking at press conferences too.”

Kenneth R. Mayer, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, said the program aimed to “allow candidates to be less reliant on private contributions from individuals, political action committees and parties.”

“This makes this the richest site for fossil hominins on the continent of Africa and makes naledi one of the best-known ancient hominin species ever discovered,” said John Hawks, Vilas-Borghesi Distinguished Achievement Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and lead author of a previous study on the Neo fossil skeleton, in a statement.

“Grasslands are mostly used for grazing of livestock and when that balance gets out of line, and crop agriculture becomes more profitable, that’s when we see the resurgence of the tillup,” says Tyler Lark, an researcher at the University of Wisconsin who has studied grasslands for the past decade.

But convincing the 20-person jury to convict Mr Rittenhouse will be an uphill climb, says John Gross, a criminal defence expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“Once the evidence suggests that the defendant may have acted in self-defence, the burden shifts to the prosecution, and the prosecution has to disprove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant acted in self-defence,” he explains.

“If deer can transmit the virus to humans, it’s a game changer,” said Tony Goldberg, a veterinarian at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies the evolution of infectious diseases as they jump between animals and people. “To have a wildlife species become a reservoir after transmission from humans is very rare and unlucky, as if we needed more bad luck.”

Parents can talk about their child’s personal growth and say, “ ‘I’ve been thinking how great it was that you found ways to stay connected to your friends,’ ” says Seth Pollak, a professor in the psychology department at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. “A child may not have the meta-awareness to reflect in that way, but you can help them develop a self-concept of, ‘I’m a person who handles things.’ ”

Further, prosecution rates are higher and plea deals are lower for Black residents, said Ion Meyn, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“It’s a battle of the narratives,” said Steven Wright, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin. “People will either see this as a young man who came across state lines with a weapon intending to do trouble, or people will come with the belief that he came here with a medical kit and attempted to defend the law and defend people.”

But Anuj Desai, an expert on the intersection of free-speech law and the usage of the U.S. postal system at the University of Wisconsin Law School, explains that the mail is considered a conduit for the free flow of ideas. In other words, the First Amendment protects people’s ability to mail out even baseless conspiracies and falsehoods freely.

The case “represents that clash of our polarized politics,” said Keith A. Findley, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin.

“It’s a pretty substantial burden for the prosecution to do that and I think that’s going to be where the real challenge for them lies,” said John Gross, a clinical associate professor and the director of the Public Defender Project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School.

Those chosen to sit on the jury will be tasked with assessing the reasonableness of Rittenhouse’s actions that night.”We want the jury to be a check on the power of the state and to enforce community norms,” said Cecelia Klingele, an associate professor of law at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “So when the law requires that force is used reasonably, we want our community to decide what is or isn’t reasonable.”

David O’Connor, a pathology professor at the University of Wisconsin, said there’s little downside to adults of all ages getting a booster.

Ultimately, the case will be decided by the jury based on their assessment of the reasonableness of Mr. Rittenhouse’s actions, said Cecelia Klingele, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School.

Keith Findley, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin and a former public defender, said that while the order is more of a “defense-friendly position,” it’s not entirely unjustified, because it would “allow the prosecution to continually use language that suggests a conclusion as if it’s a given fact to jurors.”

Findley explained the judge is differentiating the facts of the case from the questions the jury must answer. Since Rittenhouse is claiming he acted in self-defense, the question is not who shot three people, killing two of them, but rather if Rittenhouse was justified in defending himself out of fear of bodily harm. If his lawyers can show he had reason to believe the men were each engaged in activities such as looting, rioting and arson at the time, that could sway the jury to accept Rittenhouse’s defense.

“You know, there are a lot of downstream decisions that need to be made,” said Margie Rosenberg, professor of risk and insurance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She said this is where calculating costs starts to involve some prediction, planning and math.

“Media influence on young people is something that’s been known for years,” Ellen Selkie, an adolescent medicine specialist and researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Mashable. “But I think the thing with influencers that is additional is that there is a development of a para-social relationship with the influencer.”

But other experts are skeptical of how much of an impediment masks really are. “Faces aren’t necessarily the only or the most important cue to someone else’s emotions,” says Ashley Ruba, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Child Emotion Lab. There are other vital signals too, she says, “things like tone of voice, body posture, and overall social situation”.

Emily Howell, a science communication expert at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, says that the trust part happens when researchers meet people where they are by asking about their concerns, their hopes and their fears. Howell, who studies how to communicate controversial topics such as fracking and gene editing, says starting with emotions and values rather than with facts and figures can help to foster trust. People tend to trust someone when that person not only is competent but also seems to care about the same things as they do, Howell says.

“I will say that it’s encouraging to see a group of scientists like this say we have talked about this standard of behavior and we’re willing to agree to it,” said John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who was not involved with the paper. “It’s a step forward for them to say at least we’re going to follow the law.

“We know there are these big tipping points in the climate system, and once we get past them, it’s too late to go back,” said Andrea Dutton, a climate scientist at University of Wisconsin-Madison who co-authored a study finding that a 3 degree trajectory could lead to an abrupt jump in the rate of Antarctic melt as early as 2060.