For larger outbreaks, variability poses less of a problem since there is a larger signal-to-noise ratio.
The 1982 study was triggered by an outbreak of health problems among workers at a Marysville, Ohio, plant where vermiculite from Grace's Montana mine was used in making fertilizer.
There was a concern that the prolonged flooding would lead to an outbreak of health problems for those who remained in the city.
The Royal Bank of Scotland chief, Stephen Hester, is due to be handed a bonus worth £700,000 as the bailed-out bank grapples with a new outbreak of computer problems that have left customers demanding compensation.
In January 2011, an outbreak of severe respiratory problems occurred in pigs on a pig farm.
Think of it as an outbreak of a positive infection.
"A collapse in the world trading system, the outbreak of protectionism, security problems in developing countries caused by famine and economic collapse will cost donor countries a lot more to fix than the gap between performance and promise," Simon Scott, head of the O.E.C.D.'s statistics and monitoring division, said in an interview.
India, too, will be looking for US support in any outbreak of its border problems with China.
"Containment of the outbreak should not be a problem," said Dr. Guenael Rodier, a senior World Health Organization official and veteran of a half-dozen Ebola outbreaks in West Africa.
With the outbreak of war, a flurry of large problems quickly followed.
Since disposal of the bodies of victims in a major outbreak of lethal disease is always a problem, the Mongol forces may have used their hurling machines as a solution to their mortuary problem, in which case many thousands of cadavers could have been involved.
