Ready or Not? Protecting the Public's Health From Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism, 2009

Based on ten indicators, assesses progress in the readiness of states, federal government, and hospitals to respond to public health emergencies, with a focus on the H1N1 flu. Outlines improvements and concerns in funding, accountability, and other areas

Assessing and augmenting SCADA cyber security: a survey of techniques

SCADA systems monitor and control critical infrastructures of national importance such as power generation and distribution, water supply, transportation networks, and manufacturing facilities. The pervasiveness, miniaturisations and declining costs of internet connectivity have transformed these systems from strictly isolated to highly interconnected networks. The connectivity provides immense benefits such as reliability, scalability and remote connectivity, but at the same time exposes an otherwise isolated and secure system, to global cyber security threats. This inevitable transformation to highly connected systems thus necessitates effective security safeguards to be in place as any compromise or downtime of SCADA systems can have severe economic, safety and security ramifications. One way to ensure vital asset protection is to adopt a viewpoint similar to an attacker to determine weaknesses and loopholes in defences. Such mind sets help to identify and fix potential breaches before their exploitation. This paper surveys tools and techniques to uncover SCADA system vulnerabilities. A comprehensive review of the selected approaches is provided along with their applicability

An Assessment of the Impact of Climate Change on Human Health in New Hampshire

Climate change threatens human health in many ways. The negative impacts of climate change on human health are likely to increase in both magnitude and frequency as the climate continues to change in response to ever increasing global emissions of heat-trapping gases released from a variety of human activities.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (BRACE) framework provides guidance to states and cities to develop strategies and programs to confront the health implications of climate change. This report serves to address Steps 1 and 2 of the BRACE framework via an assessment of past and future climate change across New Hampshire combined with an assessment of the impact of climate change on human health. A key component of the BRACE framework is building resilience. In public health, resilience is a measure of a community’s ability to utilize available resources to respond to, withstand, and recover from adverse situations. More generally, people think of resilience as the ability to recover, persist, or thrive amid change. The New Hampshire Climate and Health Workgroup has tentatively developed the following definition: Resilience is the ability and capacity to anticipate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from significant threats with minimum damage to human health and well-being, the economy, and the environment. The importance of the way we plan our built environment—including land use, transportation, and water management decisions, as well as how we interact with our natural environment and preserve its life-supporting functions—must be emphasized as pivotal points of intersection as we develop climate adaptation strategies. Notably, a resilience-based approach to climate change adaptation should align with New Hampshire’s transformative State Health Improvement Plan. That plan underscores the importance of cross-sector collaboration and coordinated strategies to address the social and environmental determinants of health. These strategies not only support healthy communities for all New Hampshire residents, but they are also critically important for reducing health care costs and reducing the burden of disease

Growing grass for a green biorefinery - an option for Ireland?

Growing grass for a green biorefinery – an option for Ireland? Mind the gap: deciphering the gap between good intentions and healthy eating behaviour Halting biodiversity loss by 2020 – implications for agriculture A milk processing sector model for Irelan