VIDEO: The new simulation program represents every individual in a ten-thousand crowd and shows color-coded crowd densities. Click here for more information. At twenty past five on Saturday evening in the German city of Kaiserslautern, 40,000 rival soccer fans pour out of the Fritz-Walter stadium after the final whistle has been blown on a league game. All of the fans are either heading to the parking lots or train stations. Even without any incidents, this is a difficult ...

ENERGY -- Designing tomorrow's water heater . . . Consumers and the environment could ultimately be the beneficiaries of a high-efficiency CO2 heat pump water heater concept being researched by General Electric and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Through a cooperative research and development agreement, GE and ORNL are designing a prototype residential water heater that will feature an energy factor of greater than 2.0 with a first hour rating of more than 50 gallons. If the design proves to be technically and economically viable, it could ultimately result in a commercial ...

First, the bad news: all across America, trucks and tractor-trailers are transporting industrial explosives on nearly every artery of the country's interstate and highway system. That's right, volatile explosives, including munitions, rocket motors, and dynamite, are moving at a high rate of speed down a roadway not too far from you. Now, the good news: America's track record in transporting these materials is about as safe as they come. Very rarely, almost never in fact, are the potential dangers of these transports realized, largely due to instituted safeguards that ...

Cleveland . . . Cut marks found on Ice Age bones indicate that humans in Ohio hunted or scavenged animal meat earlier than previously known. Dr. Brian Redmond, curator of archaeology at The Cleveland Museum of Natural History, was lead author on research published in the Feb. 22, 2012 online issue of the journal World Archaeology. Redmond and researchers analyzed 10 animal bones found in 1998 in the collections of the Firelands Historical Society Museum in Norwalk, Ohio. Found by society member and co-author Matthew Burr, the bones were from a Jefferson's Ground Sloth. ...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- More than 70 years after the first sulfa drugs helped to revolutionize medical care and save millions of lives, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists have determined at an atomic level the mechanism these medications use to kill bacteria. The discovery provides the basis for a new generation of antibiotics that would likely be harder for bacteria to resist and cause fewer side effects. The work focused on sulfa drugs and their target enzyme, dihydropteroate synthase (DHPS). Most disease-causing microorganisms need DHPS to help make the molecule ...

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Four leading heart organizations representing cardiologists and cardiothoracic surgeons released initial recommendations today for creating and maintaining transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) programs. The recommendations are aimed at ensuring optimal care for patients with aortic stenosis, a form of valvular heart disease, as use of the new TAVR procedure grows. Since the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of TAVR in November 2011, interest in the procedure has quickly grown among cardiologists and cardiothoracic surgeons as ...

Grave consequences can result from bad decisions made by people in leadership positions. Case in point: the 2009 Gulf of Mexico oil rig disaster. British Petroleum (BP) executives had downplayed potential risks associated with their oil well, claiming that it was virtually impossible that a major accident would ever occur. That same oil rig exploded, killing 11 workers and causing a massive oil spill that's costing BP an estimated $100 billion. For USC Marshall professor Nathanael Fast and his co-authors, the BP case represents only one example that illustrates a fundamental ...

Miami, FL – March 1, 2012 -- Scientists at the Diabetes Research Institute have developed a revolutionary technique to provide critical oxygen for maintaining the survival of insulin-producing cells. This is the first time that scientists have been able to successfully deliver oxygen locally to beta cells using a biomaterial. The results of the study, which represents a major step toward the goal of developing an alternative site to house insulin-producing cells, were just published in the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). One ...

MIAMI -- A University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science-led study shows a link between large dust storms on Iceland and glacial melting. The dust is both accelerating glacial melting and contributing important nutrients to the surrounding North Atlantic Ocean. The results provide new insights on the role of dust in climate change and high-latitude ocean ecosystems. UM Rosenstiel School Professor Joseph M. Prospero and colleagues Joanna E. Bullard and Richard Hodgkins (Loughborough University, U.K.) analyzed six years of dust concentrations ...

The St Louis, MO based musical group Barley Station is proud to announce the release of their first album, "After All," under their new label: Barleyfields Records. The album will be available via major digital outlets such as iTunes, Amazon, Verizon, Napster, etc. Physical copies will be made available via CDBaby.com and through CD Baby's physical distribution partners. The album contains the critcally favored single "I Found You," which the Music Dish Journal described as "Rootsy alternative country at its best: catchy guitar riffs, driving rhythms, ...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- After years of increases in the rates of childhood obesity, a new UC Davis study shows that the increase slowed from 2003 to 2008 among California school children. While encouraged by the results, the authors expressed concern about a group of youngsters currently driving the increase in obesity: children under age 10. "Children who were obese entering the fifth grade remained obese in subsequent years as well, despite improvements in school nutrition and fitness standards," said William Bommer, professor of cardiovascular medicine at UC Davis ...

In 2010, the Center for Gene Therapy at Nationwide Children's Hospital launched a monthly podcast entitled, "This Month in Muscular Dystrophy," featuring internationally known scientists discussing the latest research in muscular dystrophy and other neuromuscular disorders. Now, these podcasts will be available for users on iTunes and at www.NationwideChildrens.org/muscular-dystrophy-podcast. The podcasts are geared toward patients, their families and primary care physicians who take care of patients with neuromuscular diseases. Hosted by Kevin Flanigan, MD, an attending ...

The Grauer School is offering a diverse, accredited Summer School curriculum for college and high school-bound students seeking to accelerate and deepen their studies. In addition, a wide variety of Summer Camp options have been added for students in middle school. This year's summer sessions are scheduled to run from June 25 through July 13 and July 16 through August 3. Standard enrollment begins April 16 and closes June 15; priority enrollment opens March 12 and includes a 5% reduction in tuition. Curriculum details, fees, transfer credits, prerequisites and enrollment ...

Colonoscopy for colorectal cancer screening saves lives, but a loophole in current Medicare law may cause patients to think twice before undergoing this vital test. Legislation introduced today seeks to ensure that colorectal cancer screening for all Medicare beneficiaries is free, as intended. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act waives the coinsurance and deductible for many cancer screening testsi, including colonoscopy, sigmoidoscopy and fecal occult blood testing (FOBT), which screen for colorectal cancer. Colonoscopy is a unique screening test because ...

Philadelphia, PA -- Pass the peas please! How often do we hear our children say this? According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System survey of adolescents, only 21% of our children eat the recommended 5 or more fruits and vegetables per day. So not very many children are asking their parents to "pass the peas," and parents are resorting to other methods to get their children to eat their vegetables. One popular method is hiding vegetables. There are even cookbooks devoted to doing this and new food products ...

Rising pop talent Cara Quici has been snagging well-deserved attention within the industry lately. This incredibly talented singer's recent photographic tribute to stars Madonna and Debbie Harry has been highlighted in hundreds of press outlets, getting Cara Quici some notable national recognition (http://www.cnbc.com/id/46412030/Pop_Star_Cara_Quici_Pays_Homage_to_Madonna_Debbie_Harry). Cara Quici is a strong vocal talent, making her a rare find in today's pop music market. Armed with her solid singing skills, stunning beauty and charismatic personality, Cara is primed ...

London, Ontario - There is good news for the 27,000 plus people around the world who donate a kidney each year. A study which followed living kidney donors for 10 years found that they were at no greater risk for heart disease than the healthy general population. Led by Dr. Amit Garg, a researcher at Lawson Health Research Institute and nephrologist at London Health Sciences Centre, the results provide important safety reassurances to donors, their recipients and health care professionals. In the general population, there is a strong link between reduced kidney function ...

FINDINGS: Devising a novel method to identify potential genetic regulators in planarian stem cells, Whitehead Institute scientists have determined which of those genes affect the two main functions of stem cells. Three of the genes are particularly intriguing because they code for proteins similar to those known to regulate mammalian embryonic stem cells. Such genetic similarity makes planarians an even more attractive model for studying stem cell biology in vivo. RELEVANCE: Stem cells may hold the promise to regrow damaged, diseased, or missing tissues in humans, such ...

Living in a poor neighborhood was linked with worse chronic pain for young adults, according to a study by the University of Michigan Health System, but young black patients faced difficulties with pain management no matter where they lived. With the study, the University of Michigan researchers have opened a new frontier in addressing chronic pain in America. The results were published in a recent issue of The Journal of Pain and showed where a patient lives, its structural barriers, affluence, and access to resources such as pain medicines, play an important role ...

Website: http://www.myspace.com/cheyannewelch Rising pop country singer Cheyanne has the industry buzzing with excitement for her newest single, "Perfectly Imperfect." This charming, charismatic singer is gaining the support of fans and impressing critics from all over and has now released the official video for "Perfectly Imperfect!" Currently working on her full album, Cheyanne has responded to the demand of fans for more with the release of her newest video. "Perfectly Imperfect" is a catchy, candid tune that carries a unique, fresh ...

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill reduced damage from a heart attack by 50 percent by enhancing a protective protein found in mice and humans. The study, in which mice were bred to make a supercharged version of the protein focal adhesion kinase, or FAK, appeared March 1 in the online edition of the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology. "This study shows that we can enhance existing cell survival pathways to protect heart cells during a heart attack," said Joan Taylor, PhD, associate professor in ...

Rochester Institute of Technology's fall 2011 Advanced Digital Media Class was hired by the BioCommunications Association (BCA) to develop and produce video tutorials for amateur medical and biological photographers. The 14 students in Biomedical Photographic Communication Assistant Professor Tom Zigon's class worked in four teams to produce video tutorials on photographing reflective subjects, exposure control, and a topic of their choice including: • Digital file formats and compression • Techniques for maintaining consistency in medical imaging • Sample preparation ...

WASHINGTON -- Centuries of overexploitation of fish and other marine resources — as well as invasion of fish from the Red Sea — have turned some formerly healthy ecosystems of the Mediterranean Sea into barren places, an unprecedented study of the Mediterranean concludes. Research by an international team of scientists designed to measure the impact of marine reserves found that the healthiest places were in well-enforced marine reserves; fish biomass there had recovered from overfishing to levels five to 10 times greater than that of fished areas. However, marine "protected" ...

DALLAS -- UT Southwestern Medical Center cardiologists have uncovered how a specific protein's previously unsuspected role contributes to the deterioration of heart muscle in patients with diabetes. Investigators in the mouse study also have found a way to reverse the damage caused by this protein. The new research, available online and published in the March 1 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, was carried out in the laboratory of Dr. Joseph Hill, director of the Harry S. Moss Heart Center at UT Southwestern. "If we can protect the heart of diabetic patients, ...

The Improv Comedy Club's "Up Yours" Comedy Contest picks Don Barnhart for a spot in the finals in search for America's Next Great Comedian. Barnhart took second place in the Improv Comedy Club's "Up Yours" online contest battling it out with the front-runner in fan votes earing him a spot in the live finals. The contest was open to everyone and votes came from fans around the world using social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter. The top three vote leaders have secured spots in finals with the judges picking 3 wild-card entries for the ...