Traffic planners and engineers worry about "black spots" — intersections that experience a high incidence of traffic accidents. But when it comes to designing safer roads, they lack effective tools to determine what turns a junction into a danger zone for cars and pedestrians alike. Now Ph.D. student Gennady Waizman of Tel Aviv University's Geosimulation Lab at the Department of Geography and the Human Environment and Porter School of Environmental Science has developed SAFEPED, a computer simulation that integrates robotics and statistics on driver and pedestrian behavior ...

This press release is available in French. A Montreal-led international team has identified the mutated gene responsible for three forms of leukodystrophies, a group of childhood-onset neurodegenerative disorders. Mutations in this gene were identified in individuals from around the world but one mutation occurs more frequently in French-Canadian patients from Quebec. Published in the September issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics and selected for the Editors' Corner of the journal, the findings are crucial to the development of diagnostic tests and genetic ...

This press release is available in German. Errors in the copying and reading of genes can have very serious consequences. Fortunately human genetic material is available in duplicate as everyone inherits a complete genome from both their mother and father. However, the two genomes are different: researchers refer to the different variants of the gene sequence on the individual chromosomes as "haplotypes" and the complete analysis of the genome requires detailed knowledge of both haplotypes. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin have now ...

Print It Fast Online, a leading online printing company, has recently expanded their line of printed products to include Band and Musician Press Kits. Musicians can now easily purchase all their printed press kit materials at discount prices at one online printing store. Band and Musician Press kits typically include a cover letter, artist bio, lyric sheets, set list, business card, and promotional posters or flyers along with a demo CD in a presentation folder. Print It Fast Online's discount prices on high quality printed press kits help independent artists put together ...

Researchers at Emory University School of Medicine have identified a new type of potential anticancer drug. The compound, named FOBISIN, targets 14-3-3 proteins, important for the runaway growth of cancer cells. The researchers were using X-rays to see how FOBISIN fits into the clamp-shaped 14-3-3 protein structure. Unexpectedly, the X-rays induced the compound to be permanently bonded to the protein. The finding suggests that compounds like FOBISIN can be used in combination with radiation to trigger potent anticancer activity. The results were published online Sept. ...

A new study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy finds that helicopters that service the drilling platforms and vessels in the Gulf of Mexico crash on average more than six times per year resulting in an average of 5 deaths per year. From 1983 to 2009, 178 crashes resulted in 139 deaths, including 41 pilots and 3 co-pilots. Mechanical failure was the most common cause, leading to 68 crashes (38 percent of the total), followed by bad weather (16 percent of the total). While the challenges such as bad weather and long travel distances ...

Berkeley — Neuroscientists at the University of California, Berkeley, are offering hope to the 10 percent of the population who suffer from tinnitus – a constant, often high-pitched ringing or buzzing in the ears that can be annoying and even maddening, and has no cure. Their new findings, published online last week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest several new approaches to treatment, including retraining the brain, and new avenues for developing drugs to suppress the ringing. "This work is the most clearheaded documentation to ...

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – September 12, 2011 – A year after hospital discharge, the majority of stroke patients are listening to doctor's orders when it comes to taking their prescribed secondary stroke prevention medications, new data out of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center shows. However, there is room for improvement, according to investigators. "Medication non-compliance is a major risk factor for stroke and heart disease, and we know that non-compliance with stroke prevention medications increases over the year or two after a stroke," said Cheryl D. Bushnell, M.D., ...

LA JOLLA, CA - Oncologists have long sought a powerful "magic bullet" that can find tumors wherever they hide in the body so that they can be imaged and then destroyed. Until recently scientists accepted the notion that such an agent, an agonist, needed to enter and accumulate in the cancerous cells to act. An international research team has now shown in cancer patients that an investigational agent that sticks onto the surface of tumor cells without triggering internalization, an antagonist, may be safer and even more effective than agonists. One of the Salk Institute's ...

DFW Elite Toy Museum is dog-friendly and we want all dog lovers to hold their clubs' social and fundraising events for breed rescue here at the museum. At DFW Elite Toy Museum, we know it's a dog's life. Forth Worth entrepreneur and museum owner Ron Sturgeon is active in King Charles Cavalier spaniel rescue and recently hosted a social event at the antique toy museum for the Dallas-Fort Worth King Charles Cavalier Spaniel Club. Members were encouraged to bring their fur-kids and enjoy the museum and a presentation by Kristy Remo of Kristy's Pampered Paws Mobile Pet ...

CLEMSON, S.C. — Celebrating the end to a successful peach season, Clemson University peach specialist Desmond Layne announced the naming of a new peach cultivar — CaroTiger. The fourth in the "Caro" — for South Carolina — series, this late-season peach will be available to growers in January 2013. "Up until now, this peach just had a number — SC82035-13-48 — but it earned a name during our long-term germplasm evaluation research," said Layne. "We've been testing this particular selection at multiple locations for several years. Its performance has been excellent. The ...

COLUMBIA, Mo. –University of Missouri researchers have found evidence that shows those who quit smoking show improvements in their overall personality. "The data indicate that for some young adults smoking is impulsive," said Andrew Littlefield, a doctoral student in the Department of Psychology in the College of Arts and Science. "That means that 18-year-olds are acting without a lot of forethought and favor immediate rewards over long term negative consequences. They might say, 'I know smoking is bad for me, but I'm going to do it anyway.' However, we find individuals ...

With more and more Americans upgrading to smartphones, and as smartphone capabilities continue to improve, even the U.S. government is considering innovative ways to harness this advancing technology. Human factors/ergonomics researchers have evaluated the potential benefits of using smartphones to enable online voting in future U.S. elections and will present their findings at the upcoming HFES 55th Annual Meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada. The 2000 presidential election debacle in Florida became a national embarrassment, prompting many U.S. election officials to opt for ...

Boston, MA - Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) have identified a new combination of targeted therapies that, together, may treat two aggressive tumor types that until now have not had effective treatments. These findings are published in Cancer Cell on September 13, 2011. While numerous anti-cancer drugs are being developed, many tumors do not respond to currently available single therapies. As such, there is a major push to identify new drug combinations that can work together to treat these resistant cancers . The drug combination identified by BWH ...

Using barley as the raw material for ethanol production results in an additional product – dried grains for animal feed. But the presence of a fungal pathogen sometimes found in barley can result in a lethal toxin, called mycotoxin, in the animal feed. Now, Virginia Tech and Agricultural Research Service, USDA researchers have shown that newly developed transgenic yeast used during fermentation will help modify the mycotoxin in the animal feed product to a less toxic form. The research is published online in the September issue of Biotechnology for Biofuels. New varieties ...

You've just finished an amazing dinner at your favorite restaurant and you are ready to put on your comfy pajamas and slip into sweet slumber. You arrive at your doorstep and find the front door ajar. Your heart beats wildly in your chest and you peer in, only to discover that your house has been ransacked. According to author Alexa Tullett, "There's more than one way to interpret this event. You could see it as an indication that there's a bad apple in your neighborhood, and in this case you would only feel comforted if that person was arrested. On the other hand, you ...

(Washington) –Recommendations to reduce federal health care spending in a socially and fiscally responsible manner today were made in a letter to the Congressional Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction from the American College of Physicians (ACP). "On behalf of ACP's 132,000 members, ACP is pleased to offer the joint select committee a framework to achieve hundreds of billions of dollars in deficit reduction, eliminate the sustainable growth rate (SGR), and promote improved outcomes and quality." said Virginia L. Hood, MPPS, MPH, FACP, president of ACP. The letter ...

It was recently announced that the Justice Department of the United States officially charged 91 persons for Medicare Fraud, which equated to $295 million of loses to the American taxpayer. The 91 people charged included doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals. The scheme was nationwide ranging over eight cities. The scheme was based on false billing. Attorney General Eric Holder led the efforts, stating that the persons charged were jeopardizing the integrity of our health care system and our nation's most critical health care programs for personal gain. The charges ...

Chicago – Many patients are responding to a new, minimally invasive way of treating irregular heartbeats by freezing out the bad cells. Atrial fibrillation (A-Fib) is one such heart rhythm disorder, and it's the most common arrhythmia affecting Americans. However, new research shows that 70 percent of patients with the disorder who were treated with cryoballoon ablation, the freezing technique, are free of any heart rhythm irregularities one year out from having the procedure. These results suggest that this minimally invasive procedure may be faster, safer and more effective ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich.---It doesn't take a village to raise a child after all, according to University of Michigan research. "In the African villages that I study in Mali, children fare as well in nuclear families as they do in extended families," said U-M researcher Beverly Strassmann, professor of anthropology and faculty associate at the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR). "There's a naïve belief that villages raise children communally, when in reality children are raised by their own families and their survival depends critically on the survival of their mothers." Strassmann's ...

With its electric vehicle MUTE, the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) presents the first publicly visible result of its research program TUM.Energy. MUTE will showcase the TUM's answer to future challenges in personal mobility at the International Motor Show (IAA) in Frankfurt. MUTE is a purely electric, energy-efficient vehicle that meets all requirements of a full-fledged car. With MUTE, the 20 involved departments present a strategy for manufacturing a mass-production vehicle at an overall cost on par with that of comparable combustion engine vehicles. With MUTE, ...

OAK BROOK, Ill. – Blood flow abnormalities found in the brains of veterans with Gulf War illness have persisted 20 years after the war, and in some cases have gotten worse, according to a new study published online in the journal Radiology. "We confirmed that abnormal blood flow continued or worsened over the 11-year span since first being diagnosed, which indicates that the damage is ongoing and lasts long term," said principal investigator Robert W. Haley, M.D., chief of epidemiology in the Departments of Internal Medicine and Clinical Sciences at the University of ...

The World Alzheimer's Report 2011 'The Benefits of Early Diagnosis and Intervention', released today by Alzheimer's Disease International (ADI), shows that there are interventions that are effective in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, some of which may be more effective when started earlier, and that there is a strong economic argument in favour of earlier diagnosis and timely intervention. ADI commissioned a team of researchers led by Professor Martin Prince from King's College London Institute of Psychiatry, to undertake the first-ever, comprehensive, systematic ...

A study led by Canadian researchers has found the first evidence that lifelong musicians experience less age-related hearing problems than non-musicians. While hearing studies have already shown that trained musicians have highly developed auditory abilities compared to non-musicians, this is the first study to examine hearing abilities in musicians and non-musicians across the age spectrum – from 18 to 91 years of age. The study was led by Baycrest's Rotman Research Institute in Toronto and is published online today in the journal Psychology and Aging, ahead of print ...

URBANA – Teaming fresh broccoli with a spicy food that contains the enzyme myrosinase significantly enhances each food's individual cancer-fighting power and ensures that absorption takes place in the upper part of the digestive system where you'll get the maximum health benefit, suggests a new University of Illinois study. "To get this effect, spice up your broccoli with broccoli sprouts, mustard, horseradish, or wasabi. The spicier, the better; that means it's being effective," said Elizabeth Jeffery, a U of I professor of nutrition. In the study, when fresh broccoli ...