Risk-informed decision support for assessing the costs and benefits of counter-terrorism protective measures for infrastructure

The paper describes risk-informed decision support for assessing the costs and benefits of counter-terrorism (CT) protective measures for infrastructure. Such a decision support framework needs to consider threat scenarios and probabilities, value of human life, physical (direct) damage, indirect damage, risk reduction and protective measure costs. Probabilistic terrorism risk assessments that quantify the costs and benefits are conducted for three items of infrastructure using representative cost and vulnerability data. The illustrative examples show under what combination of risk reduction, threat probability, and fatality and damage costs the CT protective measures would be cost-effective for United States building, bridge and aviation infrastructure. It was found that if indirect losses (such as business interruption, loss of GDP, etc.) are considered, then CT protective measures are cost-effective even if the terrorist threat probability is not high. Opportunity costs can be considerable, which makes CT protective measures less cost-effective

Religion and child health in West and Central Africa

Studies have suggested a causal link between behaviors and attitudes prescribed by religious doctrine and child health. However, religious affiliation can also be a marker of differential access to resources and living standards. Studies have found that children born to Muslims in West Africa have poorer health outcomes than children born to Christians. Despite coexisting within national borders, communities affiliated with these two religions are highly clustered, geographically. This study investigates differences in child health between Christians and Muslims within 13 religiously heterogeneous West and Central African countries and explores the implications of geographic clustering and community-level religious composition for child health. The results of the study reveal substantially worse health for Muslims living within religiously homogenous communities that are explained by measured for region, living standards, fertility, and maternal education. Conversely, Muslims and Christians coexisting within religiously heterogeneous communities showed no differences in child health