Advances

(Advances gives a glimpse of the many significant research projects at the university. Tell us about your discoveries by e-mailing: wisweek@news.wisc.edu.)

Endostatin study progresses
All 21 patients enrolled in an endostatin study tolerated the drug well, report researchers from the Comprehensive Cancer Center. Endostatin is a naturally occurring protein and potentially promising cancer treatment that has been shown to cut off the blood supply of tumors to mice.

Researchers recently presented results from one of the first clinical studies of endostatin sponsored by the National Cancer Institute under an agreement with EntreMed Inc.

James Thomas, assistant professor of medicine and chair of the university endostatin study, and George Wilding, professor of medicine at the Medical School and principal investigator of the Experimental Therapeutics Program, are the two primary UW researchers involved with the endostatin clinical trial.

Colleges collaborate on stray voltage research
A new research project may determine if and how lower-level stray voltage affects livestock. David Alumbaugh, civil and environmental engineering assistant professor, will work with researchers in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences to examine imperceptible – yet possibly harmful – electric and magnetic fields created by low-voltage current flowing through the earth.

Traditional stray-voltage research addresses the annoying electrical shocks associated with a farm’s grounded neutral system. “The more recent claims are that the electricity in fact has a pathway through the earth, so even though the farm’s electrical wiring might be correct, there’s a concern that the electricity may be contacting the animal by traveling through the earth,” says Douglas Reinemann, biological systems engineering associate professor and member of the research team. “The question is whether or not that would affect the cow’s immune system or health in any way,” he says.

Algebra benefits enumerated
All students, regardless of their prior mathematical skills, benefit from taking algebra, a study by university researchers concludes. That finding, published in the fall issue of Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, a journal of the American Educational Research Association, should add weight to the recent push to encourage all students to take the course, one of the researchers said.

“The findings indicate that general-math classes should be eliminated because those are low-level classes that lack a strong pathway to the future,” says sociology professor Adam Gamoran. “Students learn less in them, no matter how low their test scores are, than if they took algebra.” The study is based on data from the first two phases of the National Educational Longitudinal Study conducted in 1988 and 1990.

Bandwidth boundaries?
A team of researchers is seeking to break the boundaries limiting the development of the next generation of wireless services and devices. Until researchers devise methods to reliably and efficiently send large volumes of data over the limited frequencies available, large-scale e-commerce will remain largely tethered to a wire. By investigating the boundaries between traditional layers of communication, the researchers believe they can increase the amount of data by a factor of 1,000 or more. Professors Barry Van Veen, Parameswaran Ramanathan, James Bucklew and Rajeev Agrawal, associate professor Daniel van der Weide, and assistant professors Susan Hagness and Akbar Sayeed are involved in the project.