LONDON, April 14 /PRNewswire/ --

- "Coronary Artery Disease Can be Silent, Like a Volcano Lying Dormant. Now we are Able to Accurately Predict a Coronary Eruption."

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, April 13 /PRNewswire/ -- The Dubai School of Government is hosting tomorrow April 14, together with Business Week and in cooperation with DNM Strategies, the third annual "State of the Region" Forum. The theme of this year's Forum was "Leveraging Opportunity, Managing Risk."

The Forum, sponsored by the Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD), Sama Dubai and Etisalat, connects representatives from both the public and private sectors in the UAE and neighbouring countries. The event provides a unique opportunity to examine and analyze key trends and critical developments affecting the Arab world and to devise strategies to mold the future of the region.

UK astronomers have produced the most sensitive infrared map of the distant Universe ever undertaken. Combining data over a period of three years, they have produced an image containing over 100,000 galaxies over an area four times the size of the full Moon. Some of the first results from the project were presented by Dr Sebastien Foucaud from the University of Nottingham at the RAS National Astronomy Meeting in Belfast.

Due to the finite speed of light, these observations allow astronomers to look back in time over 10 billion years, producing images of galaxies in the Universe's infancy. The image is so large and so deep that thousands of galaxies can be studied at these early epochs for the first time. By observing in the infrared, astronomers can now peer further back in time, since light from the most distant galaxies is shifted towards redder wavelengths as it travels through the expanding Universe.

LONDON, April 13 /PRNewswire/ -- A major international exercise using advanced new technology to help European nations improve their response to massive coastal flooding was held throughout Europe last week. Emergency command centres in the UK, Sweden, Holland and Ireland worked together to coordinate a joined-up response to flooding from a simulated tsunami in another EU member state. The exercise was of particular relevance in the light of the major tidal surge that nearly overwhelmed flood defences in the eastern United Kingdom, Germany and Holland in November 2007, and the growing threat from rising sea levels caused by climate change.

What do you learn by looking at the spines of hundreds of Finnish twins? If you are the international team of researchers behind the Twin Spine Study, you find compelling proof that back pain problems may be more a matter of genetics than physical strain.

The findings of the Twin Spine Study, an ongoing research program started in 1991, have led to a dramatic paradigm shift in the way disc degeneration is understood. Last month a paper presenting an overview of the Twin Spine Study’s multidisciplinary investigation into the root causes of disc degeneration received a Kappa Delta Award from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, arguably the most prestigious annual award in musculoskeletal research.

Combustion without flames can be used to build much more efficient industrial gas turbines for power generation than are used in current models and produce almost no polluting emissions, say
Mohamed Sassi of The Petroleum Institute in Abu Dabi and colleagues Mohamed Hamdi and Hamaid Bentîcha, at the National School of Engineers of Monastir.

They explain that flameless combustion, or more precisely flameless oxidation (FLOX), has become a focus of industrial research. It has, they say, the potential to avoid one of the major noxious pollutants from gas turbines, NOx, or nitrogen oxides.

In flameless combustion, the oxidation of fuel occurs with a very limited oxygen supply at very high temperature. Spontaneous ignition occurs and progresses with no visible or audible signs of the flames usually associated with burning. The chemical reaction zone is quite diffuse, explains Sassi, and this leads to almost uniform heat release and a smooth temperature profile. All these factors could result in a much more efficient process as well as reducing emissions.

KeeLoq, a remote keyless system used for access control since the mid-1990s, is by many the most popular of such systems in Europe and the US. Besides the frequent use of KeeLoq for garage door openers and other building access applications, several automotive manufacturers like Toyota/Lexus base their anti-theft protection on assumed secure devices featuring KeeLoq.

Researchers from Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, presented a complete break of remote keyless entry systems based on the KeeLoq RFID technology. The shown vulnerability applies to all known car and building access control systems that rely on the KeeLoq cipher and allows for illicit access from a distance of 300 feet without leaving traces.

“The security hole allows illegitimate parties to access buildings and cars after remote eavesdropping from a distance of up to 100 meters” says Prof. Christof Paar. His Communication Security Group in the Electrical Engineering and Information Sciences Department has developed the break as part of their research in embedded security.

The world’s oldest recorded tree is a 9,550 year old spruce in the Dalarna province of Sweden.

The spruce tree has shown to be a tenacious survivor that has endured by growing between erect trees and smaller bushes in pace with the dramatic climate changes over time.

For many years the spruce tree has been regarded as a relative newcomer in the Swedish mountain region.

”Our results have shown the complete opposite, that the spruce is one of the oldest known trees in the mountain range,” says Leif Kullman, Professor of Physical Geography at Umeå University.

Cycling is great fun and and modern bicycles give riders a lot of options. Perhaps too many. For example, novice riders getting onto a cycle with 27 gears change gears too infrequently and too late, get out of breath and don’t enjoy themselves.

Some new research may soon help; recently on display was a bicycle with adaptronic components which report inappropriate biomechanical stress and an intelligent pedal crank that helps the biker to direct his strength.

Fraunhofer researchers recently displayed a concept. There are two piezo-sensors integrated in one of the pedal cranks of the bicycle. One function of the sensors is to measure the forces that propel the rider forward and show him how ‘evenly’ he is pedaling.