Floods are among the most frequent and costly natural disasters in terms of human hardship and economic loss. In recent years Europe suffered over 100 major damaging floods. Since 1998, floods have caused damages of some 700 facilities, the displacement of about half a million people and at least 25 billion Euro in insured economic losses. In the United States, about 90 percent of the damage ca...

Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome virus (PRRSv) can cause significant production losses due to reproductive failure including abortions, stillbirth, and premature farrowings. In growing pigs, it can cause increased mortality and decreased growth performance and increased number of cull pigs. The economic impact of an acute PRRSv outbreak in the breeding herd was estimated at USD $25...

Cybersecurity was a major topic of discussion at the 2015 World Economic Forum in Davos the Sony attack; huge data breaches at Target and Adobe; a 91% increase in targeted cyber-attacks; annual losses of over $400 billion; the exposure of 904 million personal data records; cyber-attacks on a Finnish bank, a South Korean credit bureau, a German factory’s industrial controls, and the Ukrainian go...

In and out of government, determining the cost of illness is a major concern. The allocation of health care resources and the evaluation of current research and program efforts depend in large measure on such information. This article updates the 1963 benchmark study of the cost of illness. For the 16 major diagnostic categories of illnesses, the cost is presented in terms of the direct costs f...

Tall fescue is native to Europe and was rarely planted in the United States until after the first four decades of the 20 century. However, since the release of the variety ‘Kentucky 31’ in 1943, this versatile cool season perennial grass has been widely planted for forage, turf, and conservation purposes, with most of the acreage planted consisting of this variety. “Fescue” has many attributes ...

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the most common causes of mortality worldwide in the 21 st century (1-4). More than 36 million people die annually due to NCDs, that almost 80% of these deaths occur in developing countries (lower-and middle-income countries) (5, 6). Hence, the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2005 proposed a strategy for control and prevention of NCDs which offers the hea...

Over 120,000 non-native species of plants, animals and microbes have invaded the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa, India, and Brazil, and many have caused major economic losses in agriculture and forestry as well as negatively impacting ecological integrity. Some introduced species, like corn (Zea mays L.), wheat (Triticum spp.), rice (Oryza sativa L.), plantation forests,...

Understanding and quantifying the impact of a bioterrorist attack are essential in developing public health preparedness for such an attack. We constructed a model that compares the impact of three classic agents of biologic warfare (Bacillus anthracis, Brucella melitensis, and Francisella tularensis) when released as aerosols in the suburb of a major city. The model shows that the economic imp...