Biodegradation is the disintegration of materials by bacteria, fungi, or other biological means.

The term is often used in relation to: biomedicine, waste management, ecology, and the bioremediation of the natural environment. It is now commonly associated with environmentally-friendly products, capable of decomposing back into natural elements.

Although often conflated, "biodegradable" is distinct in meaning from: "compostable". While biodegradable simply means "can be consumed by microorganisms", "compostable" makes the further specific demand that the object break down under composting conditions.

Organic material can be degraded aerobically (with oxygen) or anaerobically (without oxygen). Decomposition of biodegradable substances may include both biological and abiotic steps.

Biodegradable matter is generally organic material that provides a nutrient for microorganisms. These are so numerous and diverse that a huge range of compounds can be biodegraded, including hydrocarbons (oils), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and pharmaceutical substances.

Microorganisms secrete biosurfactant, an extracellular surfactant, to enhance this process.

Estimates vary from 1.2 to 5.5 million snakebites, 421,000 to 2.5 million envenomings, and 20,000 to 125,000 deaths. Since reporting is not mandatory in much of the world, the data on the frequency of snakebites is not precise. Many people who survive bites have permanent tissue damage caused by venom, leading to disability. Most snake envenomings and fatalities occur in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa, with India reporting the most snakebite deaths of any country.

Most snakebites are caused by non-venomous snakes. Of the roughly 3,000 known species of snake found worldwide, only 15% are considered dangerous to humans. Snakes are found on every continent except Antarctica. The most diverse and widely distributed snake family, the colubrids, has approximately 700 venomous species, but only five genera—boomslangs, twig snakes, keelback snakes, green snakes, and slender snakes—have caused human fatalities.

Worldwide, snakebites occur most frequently in the summer season when snakes are active and humans are outdoors. Agricultural and tropical regions report more snakebites than anywhere else. In the United States, those bitten are typically male and between 17 and 27 years of age. Children and the elderly are the most likely to die.

Some veterinary experts theorize it is a parasite, others theorize it is bacterial. It is more widely believed that Alabama rot is caused by toxins produced by "E. coli". Because the exact cause has not been found, developing a vaccine is not possible. The cause of Alabama rot in the UK is under study as of 2013 at Anderson Moores Veterinary Specialists in Winchester, Hampshire. A podcast on Alabama rot was published in April 2014 by the Royal Veterinary College. As of February 2015 the Forestry Commission England will only publish specific site location details if ""cases are confirmed as CRGV and a scientific connection to the dogs walked on the site is made"".

A comprehensive report on CRGV was published in March 2015 by the British Veterinary Association, concluding that it is a disease of unknown cause ""carrying a poor prognosis when azotaemia develops"".

In practice, almost all chemical compounds and materials are subject to biodegradation processes. The significance, however, is in the relative rates of such processes, such as days, weeks, years or centuries. A number of factors determine the rate at which this degradation of organic compounds occurs. Salient factors include light, water and oxygen. Temperature is also important because chemical reactions proceed more quickly at higher temperatures. The degradation rate of many organic compounds is limited by their bioavailability. Compounds must be released into solution before organisms can degrade them.

Biodegradability can be measured in a number of ways. Respirometry tests can be used for aerobic microbes. First one places a solid waste sample in a container with microorganisms and soil, and then aerates the mixture. Over the course of several days, microorganisms digest the sample bit by bit and produce carbon dioxide – the resulting amount of CO serves as an indicator of degradation. Biodegradability can also be measured by anaerobic microbes and the amount of methane or alloy that they are able to produce. In formal scientific literature, the process is termed bioremediation.

Snakes are most likely to bite when they feel threatened, are startled, are provoked, or when they have been cornered.

Snakes are likely to approach residential areas when attracted by prey, such as rodents. Regular pest control can reduce the threat of snakes considerably. It is beneficial to know the species of snake that are common in local areas, or while travelling or hiking. Africa, Australia, the Neotropics, and southern Asia in particular are populated by many dangerous species of snake. Being aware of—and ultimately avoiding—areas known to be heavily populated by dangerous snakes is strongly recommended.

When in the wilderness, treading heavily creates ground vibrations and noise, which will often cause snakes to flee from the area. However, this generally only applies to vipers, as some larger and more aggressive snakes in other parts of the world, such as mambas and cobras, will respond more aggressively. When dealing with direct encounters it is best to remain silent and motionless. If the snake has not yet fled it is important to step away slowly and cautiously.

The use of a flashlight when engaged in camping activities, such as gathering firewood at night, can be helpful. Snakes may also be unusually active during especially warm nights when ambient temperatures exceed . It is advised not to reach blindly into hollow logs, flip over large rocks, and enter old cabins or other potential snake hiding-places. When rock climbing, it is not safe to grab ledges or crevices without examining them first, as snakes are cold-blooded and often sunbathe atop rock ledges.

In the United States, more than 40 percent of people bitten by snake intentionally put themselves in harm's way by attempting to capture wild snakes or by carelessly handling their dangerous pets—40 percent of that number had a blood alcohol level of 0.1 percent or more.

It is also important to avoid snakes that appear to be dead, as some species will actually roll over on their backs and stick out their tongue to fool potential threats. A snake's detached head can immediately act by reflex and potentially bite. The induced bite can be just as severe as that of a live snake.

Dead snakes are also incapable of regulating the venom they inject, so a bite from a dead snake can often contain large amounts of venom.

Alabama rot or idiopathic cutaneous and renal glomerular vasculopathy (CRGV) is an often fatal condition in dogs. It was first identified in the USA in the 1980s in greyhounds. The initial symptoms are skin lesions on the legs, chest and abdomen followed by renal involvement.

In November 2012 the first cases were identified in the UK. In January 2014, the outbreak in England was identified as having the same or similar histological and clinical findings as Alabama rot, although a wide range of breeds were affected. The disease has continued to spread across England, with a case being reported as far north as North Yorkshire in March 2015. A UK map posted on-line shows confirmed (with post-mortem) and unconfirmed (without post-mortem) cases of Alabama rot since December 2012. In May 2017 it was reported that 98 deaths from the disease have occurred in the UK, including 15 in 2017.

A remedy, which can work within hours, perhaps by countering constipation, is to feed green pea to affected fish. Fish surgeons can also adjust the buoyancy of the fish by placing a stone in the swim bladder or performing a partial removal of the bladder.

Toxic oil syndrome or simply toxic syndrome (Spanish: "síndrome del aceite tóxico" or "síndrome tóxico") is a musculoskeletal disease most famous for a 1981 outbreak in Spain which killed over 600 people and was likely caused by contaminated colza oil. Its first appearance was as a lung disease, with unusual features; though the symptoms initially resembled a lung infection, antibiotics were ineffective. The disease appeared to be restricted to certain geographical localities, and several members of a family could be affected, even while their neighbours had no symptoms. Following the acute phase, a range of other chronic symptoms was apparent.

The cause was traced to the consumption of colza oil that had been intended for industrial rather than food use. To discourage human consumption, the oil was denatured by the addition of aniline to make it smell and taste bad. It was then imported as cheap industrial oil by the company RAPSA at San Sebastián, handled by RAELCA, and illegally refined by ITH in Seville to remove the aniline, resulting in a palatable product that could then be illegally sold. It was sold as "olive oil" by street vendors at weekly street markets, and was used on salads and for cooking. The commonly accepted hypothesis states that toxic compounds derived during the refinement process were responsible.

Once the origin of the syndrome was realised, public health officials organized an exchange programme, whereby those who had bought the oil could exchange it for pure olive oil, thereby quickly ending the outbreak.

Flacherie (literally: "flaccidness") is a disease of silkworms, caused by silkworms eating infected or contaminated mulberry leaves. Flacherie infected silkworms look weak and can die from this disease. Silkworm larvae that are about to die from Flacherie are a dark brown.

There are two kinds of flacherie: essentially, infectious (viral) flacherie and noninfectious ("bouffee") flacherie. Both are technically a lethal diarrhea.

Bouffée flacherie is caused by heat waves ("bouffée" means "sudden heat spell" in French).

Viral flacherie is ultimately caused by infection with "Bombyx mori" infectious flacherie virus (BmIFV, Iflaviridae), "Bombyx mori" densovirus (BmDNV, Parvoviridae) or "Bombyx mori" cypovirus 1 (BmCPV-1, Reoviridae). This either alone or in combination with bacterial infection destroys the gut tissue. Bacterial pathogens contributing to infectious flaccherie are "Serratia marcescens", and species of "Streptococcus" and "Staphylococcus" in the form known as thatte roga.

Louis Pasteur, who began his studies on silkworm diseases in 1865, was the first one able to recognize that mortality due to viral flacherie was caused by infection. (Priority, however, was claimed by Antoine Béchamp.) Richard Gordon described the discovery: "The French silk industry was meanwhile plummeting from a 130 million to an 8 million francs annual income, because the silkworms had all caught "pébrine," black pepper disease…He [Pasteur] went south from Paris to Alais, and rewarded them by discovering the silkworm epidemic to be inflicted by some sort of living microbe…Pasteur threw in another disease, "flâcherie," silkworm diarrhoea. The cures for both were culling the insects which showed the peppery spots — the peasants bottled the silkworm moths in brandy, for display to the experts — and rigorous hygiene of the mulberry leaf."

The Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2005, created under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. is the legislation in the UK that governs exposure to vibration and assists with preventing HAVS occurring.

Good practice in industrial health and safety management requires that worker vibration exposure is assessed in terms of acceleration amplitude and duration. Using a tool that vibrates slightly for a long time can be as damaging as using a heavily vibrating tool for a short time. The duration of use of the tool is measured as trigger time, the period when the worker actually has their finger on the trigger to make the tool run, and is typically quoted in hours per day. Vibration amplitude is quoted in metres per second squared, and is measured by an accelerometer on the tool or given by the manufacturer. Amplitudes can vary significantly with tool design, condition and style of use, even for the same type of tool.

In the UK, Health and Safety Executive gives the example of a hammer drill which can vary from 6m/s² to 25m/s². HSE publishes a list of typically observed vibration levels for various tools, and graphs of how long each day a worker can be exposed to particular vibration levels. This makes managing the risk relatively straightforward. Tools are given an Exposure Action Value (EAV, the time which a tool can be used before action needs to be taken to reduce vibration exposure) and an Exposure Limit Value (ELV, the time after which a tool may not be used).

In the United States, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health published a similar database where values for sound power and vibrations for commonly found tools from large commercial vendors in the United States were surveyed. Further testing is underway for more and newer tools.

The effect of legislation in various countries on worker vibration limits has been to oblige equipment providers to develop better-designed, better-maintained tools, and for employers to train workers appropriately. It also drives tool designers to innovate to reduce vibration. Some examples are the easily manipulated mechanical arm (EMMA) and the suspension mechanism designed into chainsaws.

Blight refers to a specific symptom affecting plants in response to infection by a pathogenic organism. It is a rapid and complete chlorosis, browning, then death of plant tissues such as leaves, branches, twigs, or floral organs. Accordingly, many diseases that primarily exhibit this symptom are called blights. Several notable examples are:

- Late blight of potato, caused by the water mold "Phytophthora infestans" (Mont.) de Bary, the disease which led to the Great Irish Famine

- Southern corn leaf blight, caused by the fungus "Cochliobolus heterostrophus" (Drechs.) Drechs, anamorph "Bipolaris maydis" (Nisikado & Miyake) Shoemaker, incited a severe loss of corn in the United States in 1970.

- Chestnut blight, caused by the fungus "Cryphonectria parasitica" (Murrill) Barr, has nearly completely eradicated mature American chestnuts in North America.

- Fire blight of pome fruits, caused by the bacterium "Erwinia amylovora" (Burrill) Winslow "et al.", is the most severe disease of pear and also is found in apple and raspberry, among others.

- Bacterial leaf blight of rice, caused by the bacterium "Xanthomonas oryzae" (Uyeda & Ishiyama) Dowson.

- Early blight of potato and tomato, caused by species of the ubiquitous fungal genus "Alternaria"

- Leaf blight of the grasses

On leaf tissue, symptoms of blight are the initial appearance of lesions which rapidly engulf surrounding tissue. However, leaf spot may, in advanced stages, expand to kill entire areas of leaf tissue and thus exhibit blight symptoms.

Blights are often named after their causative agent, for example Colletotrichum blight is named after the fungi "Colletotrichum capsici", and Phytophthora blight is named after the water mold "Phytophthora parasitica".

Fancy goldfish are among the fish most commonly affected by this disorder. The disease may be caused by intestinal parasites or by constipation induced by high nitrate levels from over feeding.

Vibration white finger (VWF), also known as hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS) or dead finger, is a secondary form of Raynaud's syndrome, an industrial injury triggered by continuous use of vibrating hand-held machinery. Use of the term "vibration white finger" has generally been superseded in professional usage by broader concept of HAVS, although it is still used by the general public. The symptoms of vibrating white finger are the vascular component of HAVS.

HAVS is a widespread recognized industrial disease affecting tens of thousands of workers. It is a disorder that affects the blood vessels, nerves, muscles, and joints, of the hand, wrist, and arm. Its best known effect is vibration-induced white finger (VWF), a term introduced by the Industrial Injury Advisory Council in 1970. Injury can occur at frequencies between 5 and 2000Hz but the greatest risk for fingers is between 50 and 300Hz. The total risk exposure for hand and arm is calculated by the use of ISO 5349-1, which stipulates maximum damage between 8-16Hz and a rapidly declining risk at higher frequencies. The ISO 5349-1 frequency risk assessment does not match the estimated risks for vibration-induced white finger well.

Yersinia pseudotuberculosis is a Gram-negative bacterium that causes Far East scarlet-like fever in humans, who occasionally get infected zoonotically, most often through the food-borne route. Animals are also infected by "Y. pseudotuberculosis". The bacterium is urease positive.

Rabbits helped keep vegetation in their environments short through grazing and short grasses are conducive to habitation by the butterfly, "Plebejus argus""." When the population of rabbits experienced a decline due to Myxomatosis, grass lengths increased, limiting the environments in which "P. argus" could live, thereby contributing to the decline of the butterfly population.

Aphantasia is the suggested name for a condition where one does not possess a functioning mind's eye and cannot visualize imagery. The phenomenon was first described by Francis Galton in 1880, but has remained largely unstudied since. Interest in the phenomenon renewed after the publication of a study conducted by a team led by Prof. Adam Zeman of the University of Exeter, which also coined the term "aphantasia". Research on the subject is still scarce, but further studies are planned.

HPV is spread by direct and indirect contact from an infected host. Avoiding direct contact with infected surfaces such as communal changing rooms and shower floors and benches, avoiding sharing of shoes and socks and avoiding contact with warts on other parts of the body and on the bodies of others may help reduce the spread of infection. Infection is less common among adults than children.

As all warts are contagious, precautions should be taken to avoid spreading them. Recommendations include:

- cover them with an adhesive bandage while swimming

- wear flip-flops when using communal showers

- should not share towels.

Plantar warts are not prevented by inoculation with HPV vaccines because the warts are caused by different strains of HPV. Gardasil protects against strains 6, 11, 16, and 18, and Cervarix protects against 16 and 18, whereas plantar warts are caused by strains 1, 2, 4, and 63.

Necrophilia is often assumed to be rare, but no data for its prevalence in the general population exists. Some necrophiles only fantasize about the act, without carrying it out. In 1958, Klaf and Brown commented that, although rarely described, necrophiliac fantasies may occur more often than is generally supposed.

Rosman and Resnick (1989) reviewed 122 cases of necrophilia. The sample was divided into genuine necrophiles, who had a persistent attraction to corpses, and pseudo-necrophiles, who acted out of opportunity, sadism, or transient interest. Of the total, 92% were male and 8% were female. 57% of the genuine necrophiles had occupational access to corpses, with morgue attendant, hospital orderly, and cemetery employee being the most common jobs. The researchers theorized that either of the following situations could be antecedents to necrophilia:

1. The necrophile develops poor self-esteem, perhaps due in part to a significant loss;

- (a) They are very fearful of rejection by others and they desire a sexual partner who is incapable of rejecting them; and/or

- (b) They are fearful of the dead, and transform their fear—by means of reaction formation—into a desire.

2. They develop an exciting fantasy of sex with a corpse, sometimes after exposure to a corpse.

The authors reported that, of their sample of genuine necrophiles:

- 68% were motivated by a desire for an unresisting and unrejecting partner;

- 21% by a want for reunion with a lost partner;

- 15% by sexual attraction to dead people;

- 15% by a desire for comfort or to overcome feelings of isolation; and

- 12% by a desire to remedy low self-esteem by expressing power over a corpse.

IQ data was limited, but not abnormally low. About half of the sample had a personality disorder, and 11% of true necrophiles were psychotic. Rosman and Resnick concluded that their data challenged the conventional view of necrophiles as generally psychotic, mentally deficient, or unable to obtain a consenting partner.

In pet rabbits, myxomatosis can be misdiagnosed as pasteurellosis, a bacterial infection which can be treated with antibiotics. By contrast, there is no treatment for rabbits suffering from myxomatosis, other than palliative care to ease the suffering of individual animals, and the treatment of secondary and opportunistic infections, in the hopes the treated animal will survive. In practice, the owner is often urged to euthanize the animal to end its suffering.

Necrophilia, also known as necrophilism, necrolagnia, necrocoitus, necrochlesis, and thanatophilia, is a sexual attraction or sexual act involving corpses. It is classified as a paraphilia by the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual" (DSM) of the American Psychiatric Association.

Rosman and Resnick (1989) reviewed information from 34 cases of necrophilia describing the individuals' motivations for their behaviors: these individuals reported the desire to possess a non-resisting and non-rejecting partner (68%), reunions with a romantic partner (21%), sexual attraction to corpses (15%), comfort or overcoming feelings of isolation (15%), or seeking self-esteem by expressing power over a homicide victim (12%).

In animals, "Y. pseudotuberculosis" can cause tuberculosis-like symptoms, including localized tissue necrosis and granulomas in the spleen, liver, and lymph nodes.

In humans, symptoms of Far East scarlet-like fever are similar to those of infection with "Yersinia enterocolitica" (fever and right-sided abdominal pain), except that the diarrheal component is often absent, which sometimes makes the resulting condition difficult to diagnose. "Y. pseudotuberculosis" infections can mimic appendicitis, especially in children and younger adults, and, in rare cases, the disease may cause skin complaints (erythema nodosum), joint stiffness and pain (reactive arthritis), or spread of bacteria to the blood (bacteremia).

Far East scarlet-like fever usually becomes apparent five to 10 days after exposure and typically lasts one to three weeks without treatment. In complex cases or those involving immunocompromised patients, antibiotics may be necessary for resolution; ampicillin, aminoglycosides, tetracycline, chloramphenicol, or a cephalosporin may all be effective.

The recently described syndrome "Izumi-fever" has been linked to infection with "Y. pseudotuberculosis".

The symptoms of fever and abdominal pain mimicking appendicitis (actually from mesenteric lymphadenitis) associated with "Y. pseudotuberculosis" infection are not typical of the diarrhea and vomiting from classical food poisoning incidents. Although "Y. pseudotuberculosis" is usually only able to colonize hosts by peripheral routes and cause serious disease in immunocompromised individuals, if this bacterium gains access to the blood stream, it has an LD comparable to "Y. pestis" at only 10 CFU.

The Burmese Way to Socialism (; also known as the "Burmese Road to Socialism") refers to the ideology of the socialist government in Burma, from 1962 to 1988, when the 1962 coup d'état was led by Ne Win and the military to remove U Nu from power. More specifically, the "Burmese Way to Socialism" is an economic treatise written in April 1962 by the Revolutionary Council, shortly after the coup, as a blueprint for economic development, reducing foreign influence in Burma and increasing the role of the military.

The Burmese Way to Socialism has largely been described by scholars as being xenophobic, superstitious and an "abject failure" and as turning one of the most prosperous countries in Asia into one of the world's poorest. However, it may have served to increase domestic stability and keep Burma from being as entangled in the Cold War struggles that affected other Southeast Asian nations.

The Burmese Way to Socialism, by far, greatly increased poverty and isolation and has been described as "disastrous". Ne Win's later attempt to make the currency based in denominations divisible by 9, a number he considered auspicious, wiped out the savings of millions of Burmese. This resulted in the pro-democracy 8888 Uprising, which was violently halted by the military, which established the State Law and Order Restoration Council in 1988.

The Socialist coup led by Ne Win and the Revolutionary Council (RC) in 1962 was done under the pretext of economic, religious and political crises in the country, particularly the issue of federalism and the right of Burmese states to secede from the Union.

Aphantasia is similar to invisible disabilities such as face blindness, word blindness, and tone deafness, though aphantasia itself has not been associated with any functional deficits.

With the 1950s introduction of antibiotics, attempts to explain unexplained diseases via bacterial etiology seemed all the more unlikely. By the 1970s, however, it was established that antibiotics could trigger bacteria's switch to their L phase. Eluding detection by traditional methods of medical microbiology, bacterial L forms and the similar mycoplasma—and, later, viruses—became the entities expected in the theory of focal infection. Yet until the 1980s, such researchers were scarce, largely via scarce funding for such investigations.

Despite the limited funding, research established that L forms can adhere to red blood cells and thereby disseminate from foci within internal organs such as the spleen, or from oral tissues and the intestines, especially during dysbiosis. Perhaps some of Weston Price's identified "toxins" in endodontically treated teeth were L forms, thought nonexistent by bacteriologists of his time and widely overlooked into the 21st century. Apparently, dental infections, including by uncultured or cryptic microorganisms, contribute to systemic diseases.