Catastrophes and Climate Change: Concerns and Possible Countermeasures of the Insurance Industry

In the last few decades, the international insurance industry has been confronted with a drastic increase in the scope and frequency of great natural disasters. The trend is primarily attributable to the continuing steady growth of the world population and the increasing concentration of people and economic values in urban areas. An additional factor is the global migration of populations and industries into areas such as coastal regions, which are particularly exposed to natural hazards. The natural hazards themselves, on the other hand, are showing a change for the worse as many atmospheric extremes are strongly influenced by global warming. In addition to the problems the insurance industry has with regard to pricing, capacity and loss reserves, the assessment of insured liabilities, preventive planning and the proper adjustment of catastrophe losses are gaining importance. The present problems will be dramatically aggravated if the greenhouse predictions come true. The changing probability distributions of many processes in the atmosphere will force up the frequency and severity of heat waves, droughts, bush fires, tropical and extratropical cyclones, tornados, hailstorms, floods and storm surges in many parts of the world with serious consequences for all types of property insurance, apart from the consequences of the stratospheric ozone destruction for health and life insurance. Rates will have to be raised and in certain areas insurance cover will only be available after considerable restrictions have been imposed, as for example significant deductibles and low liability or loss limits. In areas of high insurance density the loss potential of individual catastrophes can reach a level at which the national and international insurance industries will run into serious capacity problems. Recent disasters showed the disproportionately high participation of reinsurers in extreme disaster losses and the need for more risk transparency if the insurance industry is to fulfil its obligations in an increasingly hostile environment.     

Feto-amniotic shunting—report of the experience of four european centres

Few reports concerning intrauterine shunting are available. We investigated the impact of this method. In order to evaluate intrauterine shunting and the complication rate for different indications, we sent a questionnaire to all German-speaking level 3 centres. In four level 3 centres, 52 intrauterine catheters were inserted in 34 fetuses. The indications were uni- or bilateral hydrothorax in nine cases, cystic adenomatoid malformation of the lung in four cases, infravesical stenosis in 13 cases, and fetal ascites in eight cases. In three cases (6 per cent), difficulties occurred when the drain was inserted. In 15 cases (29 per cent), the function of the drain was reduced by dislocation or occlusion. The mortality rate caused by shunting was as high as eight per cent (four cases). The application of an intrauterine shunt currently represents a rarely performed ultrasound-guided therapeutic intervention in the fetus. In all cases, the indication for shunting is to avoid compression of normal tissue by cystic structures. A high complication rate restricts the application of drainage to selected cases.     

Gestaltbildung durch Instabilität

The terms growth and evolution can as well be applied to unstable physical systems. The ability of instabilities to create visible shape is being investigated. There are innumerable examples of that in the universe. One class occurring in cosmical plasmas results from the localized dissipation of energy stored in strongly sheared magnetic fields. It leads to the appearance of dynamic luminous structures, as for instance in solar flares and in the northern lights.     

Die Molekularbiologie der Tumorviren

All classes of vertebrates harbor tumor viruses that are capable of inducing either tumors or leukemias. After infection, their genomes become integral parts of the host cell's genetic material (DNA). Many biological functions such as the capacity to code for the synthesis of new proteins and, in particular, the oncogenic property (oncogen) have already been assigned to specific regions (on physical maps) of their DNA.     

Gifttiere und ihre Waffen

Animal venoms have aroused great interest during the past decades. During recent years, especially substances from marine animals have been investigated, not only in regard to their chemical structures but also to their biological relevance. Neurotoxic peptides from scorpions opened new aspects of action mechanisms on cell membranes; from snake venoms also ingredients have been obtained which serve as valuable pharmaceutical drugs.