PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

NIST data: Enabling the technical-basis for evacuation planning of high-rise buildings

2010-09-16
(Press-News.org) Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are stepping up the pace for designing safer building evacuations by releasing large, numerical data sets that track the movement of people on stairs during high-rise building evacuation drills. The data sets will ensure that architects, engineers, emergency planners and others involved in building design have a strong technical basis for safer, more cost-effective building evacuations.

"While stairs have been used in buildings for ages, there is little scientific understanding of how people use them," explained NIST researcher Erica Kuligowski. "For example, we know little of how the width of the stair affects the flow rate, whether people grow fatigued as they descend from tall buildings, or how people merge into a crowded stairwell."

Working with the Public Buildings Service at the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), NIST researchers made video recordings of evacuation drills in stairwells at nine buildings ranging in height from six to 62 stories tall. The first data sets being released (available at www.nist.gov/bfrl/fire_research/building-occupant-evacuation.cfm) come from four of the buildings and include movement information on more than 3,000 people. Other evacuation data will be posted on the NIST Web site as it becomes available.

NIST researchers have already reported analysis of some of the underlying data at human behavior and fire conferences and will report more in the future. These reports, like most egress studies, provide their findings, but without the raw data.

"The raw data NIST is providing will help to ensure that GSA and others have the scientific basis necessary to provide safe and cost-effective building evacuation," said Kuligowski.

GSA provided research funding support for the project. NIST researchers hope that making the data available will help to develop new evacuation models, provide assessment of the accuracy of existing egress models, and ensure that building owners and managers have a sound basis for evacuation planning.

Before each drill, researchers positioned video cameras to record an overhead view of the evacuation that would not interfere with occupants evacuating the building. Images were pixilated to protect the identity of the building occupants. In most experiments, cameras captured a view of that floor's main landing, the door opening into the stairwell and two to three steps on both sides of the main landing.

Using the videos, researchers developed spreadsheets of data on people's movements. For each occupant, researchers noted the time the individual first entered the video and captured data about their movements until they left the building. Additionally, researchers noted other factors that might influence speed, including the number of people in close proximity, whether they were helping another person, and whether they were carrying something. They also noted if the occupant handrail was used and how much space the person occupied in the stairwell.

"These data will allow researchers to calculate movement speeds of people traveling down stairs as a function of stair width, occupant density, total distance traveled, and merging characteristics at stair landings that could influence updating building safety requirements," Kuligowki said.

This knowledge also will assist in building design and perhaps influence standards on how occupants evacuate during emergencies, she added.

### END


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

New GSI website experience puts product standards on the map

2010-09-16
Those looking for the latest product standards-related news, regulatory developments, events and workshops around the world now can turn to the new Global Standards Information (GSI) Web site (http://gsi.nist.gov). Launched on Sept. 1, 2010, the new site includes a variety of interactive tools and will serve as an essential "first stop" for users seeking up-to-date information on international product standards. "Given the rapid adoption and complexity of new product standards both locally and globally, we realized we needed to create a new way for our customers to find ...

NIST finalizes initial set of smart grid cyber security guidelines

2010-09-16
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has issued its first Guidelines for Smart Grid Cyber Security, which includes high-level security requirements, a framework for assessing risks, an evaluation of privacy issues at personal residences, and additional information for businesses and organizations to use as they craft strategies to protect the modernizing power grid from attacks, malicious code, cascading errors and other threats. The product of two formal public reviews and the focus of numerous workshops and teleconferences over the past 17 months, ...

New supercomputer 'sees' well enough to drive a car someday

New supercomputer sees well enough to drive a car someday
2010-09-16
New Haven, Conn.—Navigating our way down the street is something most of us take for granted; we seem to recognize cars, other people, trees and lampposts instantaneously and without much thought. In fact, visually interpreting our environment as quickly as we do is an astonishing feat requiring an enormous number of computations—which is just one reason that coming up with a computer-driven system that can mimic the human brain in visually recognizing objects has proven so difficult. Now Eugenio Culurciello of Yale's School of Engineering & Applied Science has developed ...

Placebo successful in treating women with sexual dysfunction

2010-09-16
A new study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine reveals that women with low sexual arousal experienced clinically significant symptom changes after taking a placebo. Andrea Bradford, Ph.D., a psychologist at Baylor College of Medicine, along with co-author Cindy Meston, Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin, analyzed the behaviors and symptoms of 50 women who were randomly chosen to receive placebo in a large clinical trial of a drug treatment for low sexual arousal. Neither the women nor the study doctors knew whether they were taking the real drug or placebo. Results ...

CEOs with top college degrees no better at improving long-term firm performance than other CEOs

2010-09-16
DURHAM, N.H. – Whether or not a company's CEO holds a college degree from a top school has no bearing on the firm's long-term performance. And when it comes to getting canned for poor performance, CEOs with degrees from the nation's most prestigious schools are no safer than the average CEO, according to new research from the University of New Hampshire. Conducted by Brian Bolton, assistant professor of finance at the Whittemore School of Business and Economics at the University of New Hampshire, the new research is presented in the working paper "CEO Education, CEO Turnover, ...

Link to autism in boys found in missing DNA

2010-09-16
September 16, 2010 – (Toronto) – New research from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), both in Toronto, Canada provides further clues as to why Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) affects four times more males than females. The scientists discovered that males who carry specific alterations of DNA on the sole X-chromosome they carry are at high risk of developing ASD. The research is published in the September 15 issue of Science Translational Medicine. ASD is a neurological disorder that affects brain functioning, ...

Chef Point's 'Acquired Taste' Menu - A Walk on the Wild Side

Chef Points Acquired Taste Menu - A Walk on the Wild Side
2010-09-16
Oxtail, marinated in homemade spicy African seasoning, slowly cooked it until it falls off the bone. Where can you enjoy this delicious delicacy and other hard-to-find dishes? Only during a unique fine dining experience at Chef Point Cafe. Franson Nwaeze, the head chef at Chef Point Cafe, has never been afraid to try something new. He is giving curious diners the opportunity to take a walk on the wild side with his new, one-of-a-kind "Acquired Taste" Menu. The most popular dish on the special menu has been Liver and Onions. The dish of beef liver sauteed with mushrooms, ...

CiCi's Pizza Targets 500-Store Expansion Over the Next Six Years

2010-09-16
CiCi's Pizza, home of the $4.99 endless pizza, pasta, salad and dessert buffet, announces today its plans to add 500 restaurants in the next five to six years. "Our 'One Brand' mission is well underway, ensuring we have a repeatable approach to operations that gives guests across the country a consistent, high-quality experience with every visit," said Mike Shumsky, CiCi's Pizza CEO. "Our team of industry leaders will take CiCi's to the next level and grow the company." CiCi's has hired two industry veterans Bill Spae and Nancy Hampton to drive the expansion of the ...

Informatics = essential M.D. competency

Informatics = essential M.D. competency
2010-09-15
In an article published in the Sept. 15 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association, (JAMA), author Edward H. Shortliffe, MD, PhD, points out that although information underlies all clinical work, and despite the growing role that information management and access play in healthcare delivery and clinical support, there is a dearth of informatics competency being developed in America's future corps of physicians. Formalized education in the application of informatics and the use and methodologies of health information technology and exchange, Dr. Shortliffe ...

A proven tool for losing weight: Reading food labels

A proven tool for losing weight: Reading food labels
2010-09-15
PULLMAN, Wash.—Diet and exercise have long been the top two elements of effective weight loss. Now add a third: reading the labels on packaged foods. Washington State University Economist Bidisha Mandal has found that middle-aged Americans who want to lose weight and who take up the label-reading habit are more likely to lose weight than those who don't. In some cases, label reading is even more effective than exercise. "I'm finding that reading labels is useful," said Mandal, an assistant professor in the WSU School of Economic Sciences. "People who are trying to lose ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Reality check: making indoor smartphone-based augmented reality work

Overthinking what you said? It’s your ‘lizard brain’ talking to newer, advanced parts of your brain

Black men — including transit workers — are targets for aggression on public transportation, study shows

Troubling spike in severe pregnancy-related complications for all ages in Illinois

Alcohol use identified by UTHealth Houston researchers as most common predictor of escalated cannabis vaping among youths in Texas

Need a landing pad for helicopter parenting? Frame tasks as learning

New MUSC Hollings Cancer Center research shows how Golgi stress affects T-cells' tumor-fighting ability

#16to365: New resources for year-round activism to end gender-based violence and strengthen bodily autonomy for all

Earliest fish-trapping facility in Central America discovered in Maya lowlands

São Paulo to host School on Disordered Systems

New insights into sleep uncover key mechanisms related to cognitive function

USC announces strategic collaboration with Autobahn Labs to accelerate drug discovery

Detroit health professionals urge the community to act and address the dangers of antimicrobial resistance

3D-printing advance mitigates three defects simultaneously for failure-free metal parts 

Ancient hot water on Mars points to habitable past: Curtin study

In Patagonia, more snow could protect glaciers from melt — but only if we curb greenhouse gas emissions soon

Simplicity is key to understanding and achieving goals

Caste differentiation in ants

Nutrition that aligns with guidelines during pregnancy may be associated with better infant growth outcomes, NIH study finds

New technology points to unexpected uses for snoRNA

Racial and ethnic variation in survival in early-onset colorectal cancer

Disparities by race and urbanicity in online health care facility reviews

Exploring factors affecting workers' acquisition of exercise habits using machine learning approaches

Nano-patterned copper oxide sensor for ultra-low hydrogen detection

Maintaining bridge safer; Digital sensing-based monitoring system

A novel approach for the composition design of high-entropy fluorite oxides with low thermal conductivity

A groundbreaking new approach to treating chronic abdominal pain

ECOG-ACRIN appoints seven researchers to scientific committee leadership positions

New model of neuronal circuit provides insight on eye movement

Cooking up a breakthrough: Penn engineers refine lipid nanoparticles for better mRNA therapies

[Press-News.org] NIST data: Enabling the technical-basis for evacuation planning of high-rise buildings