Increasing population densities and lack of access to health care will contribute to an increase in world-wide disease outbreaks in the coming years, predicts Dr. John Higginbotham, epidemiologist and associate professor of community and rural medicine in the College of Community Health Sciences at The University of Alabama.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) may decide to raise gas prices in the coming year due to a decrease in crude oil supply, says Dr. Peter Clark, associate professor of chemical engineering at The University of Alabama.
Alabama’s economy is expected to grow by 3.8 percent in 2004 with real output, the total value of goods and services produced and expressed in 1996 dollars, rising to $121.6 billion, according to Dr. Carl Ferguson, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at The University of Alabama.
The future of American workers’ pensions will be at stake in 2004 as legal and legislative decisions are made during the year, a University of Alabama pension expert says.
Americans will see the beginning of “cocktail drug therapy” for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease in 2004, say Drs. Lou Burgio and Lucinda Roff, co-directors of The University of Alabama’s Center for Mental Health and Aging. The professors liken the new treatment to current drug combinations used to treat HIV.
While sport utility vehicles (SUVs) are the most popular vehicles on the market today, two University of Alabama engineering professors predict hybrid electric vehicles will join the SUV upsurge next year.
As if 2003 did not experience enough computer problems, three University of Alabama computer science professors predict there is more to come for computer viruses and SPAM in 2004.
E-commerce is reported by the U.S. Department of Commerce to have ballooned to about $55 billion in 2003 — accounting for nearly 1.5 percent of all retail sales in the United States — but 2004 will be a difficult year for Internet retailers, says Dr. Robert Robicheaux, Bruno Professor of Retailing at The University of Alabama’s Culverhouse College of Commerce.
Ousted Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore will “take his show on the road” in 2004, seeking test cases to keep the Ten Commandments issue before the courts and support for a constitutional amendment to protect public officials’ “right to praise God,” predicts a University of Alabama constitutional law expert.
One year ago, a University of Alabama expert in military and political affairs predicted that war in Iraq in 2003 would equal defeat for President George W. Bush in the 2004 election. Now, some 11 months prior to that election, Dr. Donald Snow predicts the post-war situation in Iraq will gradually deteriorate in coming months and only dramatic developments will save the president from defeat.