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Aim: Disease outbreaks increase the cost of animal production; reduce milk and beef yield, cattle sales, farmers' incomes, and enterprise profitability. The study assessed the economic effects of foot and mouth disease (FMD) outbreaks along the cattle marketing chain in selected study districts in Uganda. Materials and Methods: The study combined qualitative and quantitative study designs. Respondents were selected proportionally using simple random sampling from the sampling frame comprising of 224, 173, 291, and 185 farmers for Nakasongola, Nakaseke, Isingiro, and Rakai, respectively. Key informants were selected purposively. Data analysis combined descriptive, modeling, and regression analysis. Data on the socio-economic characteristics and how they influenced FMD outbreaks, cattle markets revenue losses, and the economic cost of the outbreaks were analyzed using descriptive measures including percentages, means, and frequencies. Results: Farmers with small and medium herds incurred higher control costs, whereas large herds experienced the highest milk losses. Total income earned by the actors per month at the processing level reduced by 23%. In Isingiro, bulls and cows were salvage sold at 83% and 88% less market value, i.e., a loss of $196.1 and $1,552.9 in small and medium herds, respectively. Conclusion: All actors along the cattle marketing chain incur losses during FMD outbreaks, but smallholder farmers are most affected. Control and prevention of FMD should remain the responsibility of the government if Uganda is to achieve a disease-free status that is a prerequisite for free movement and operation of cattle markets throughout the year which will boost cattle marketing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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There is currently a significant amount of discussion regarding new ways to insert ergonomics into the business community through adding financial benefits; however, analysis must be performed to justify this type of investment. Occupational problems that could be reduced by ergonomics solutions can be expressed as financial losses. Although the impact and importance of these losses are high, the difficulties in their quantification prevent adequate cost-benefit analysis. This article aims to document evidence of the difficulties encountered when quantifying the financial losses that are caused by problems that could be reduced by ergonomic solutions. In this study, we performed a literature review concerning the financial costs related to occupational problems from the perspective of ergonomics. The results indicate that losses that occur mainly concern the productivity of the working process or the workers. The chief barriers documented in the scientific literature are the information cost, the multifactorial nature of the problem, the absence of information, and the methods of measurement. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the factors that influence the outcome of financial-loss analysis in voltage sag studies. Focusing on industrial processes, this paper considers the effects of voltage sag profile estimation, plant-load profile modelling, and process cycle modelling on the financial risk associated with process failure. Based on voltage sag monitoring records, sag profile is probabilistically modeled for the estimation of future sag characteristic. Variations in financial risk due to varying process activities in different stages of a process (process cycle) and load profile are also investigated. The effects of the individual factors are analyzed through Monte Carlo simulation. The stochastic net present value method is introduced as a financial analysis tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is becoming clear that the underground hacking industry as a whole (not just individual hackers) is continually gaining ground despite the best efforts of the information security industry. It seems the latter should have an overwhelming advantage, as a multibillion dollar industry staffed with hundreds of thousands of security professionals. However, the efforts of the information security industry are almost always reactive, and in most cases amount to losing ground on the defensive. The unfortunate and seldom acknowledged truth is that the underground hacking industry is always one step ahead. Why are we so slow to respond when all evidence indicates that such delays lead to enormous business losses? Is it possible that the fundamental way our information system security is organized has some inherited deficiencies which are prohibiting us from successfully mounting an effective defense? Today's losses are becoming too great to say that we are just in need of some evolutionary improvements. Instead, we need to reevaluate the way we go about security business as a whole. In this article, we consider various processes common to both information systems and information system security based on both well-known cases and personal experience. This is our initial attempt to analyze how information system security is organized and to suggest some core changes to its processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]