Original paper

Safety cases are now regularly used to communicate the argument about the achievement of acceptable levels of safety for safety critical systems. Increasingly, safety standards such as Defence Standard 00-56 require the scope of the safety case to cover not only the development of the system, but also operating and maintenance through life, including decommissioning. This involves two dimension...

The constantly growing body of scholarly knowledge of science, technology, and humanities is an asset of the mankind. While new discoveries expand the existing knowledge, they may simultaneously render some of it obsolete. It is crucial for scientists and other stakeholders to keep their knowledge up to date. Policy makers, decision makers, and the general public also need an efficient communic...

The issue of supplying safe food on a global scale is a complicated task. With the advances in expectations from consumers to have a variety of food products from around the world available in their immediate area, the focus on how to meet this demand and do so safely challenges not only the delivery systems used for food transport, but the knowledge base of food safety experts and governmental...

The railroad industry is being challenged by recent state regulations requiring the disclosure of routing information of trains carrying hazardous materials (hazmat) to the general public. While there is a need to know, the dissemination of such information is contrary to both industry practice and Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) rules. The conundrum is that there needs to be disclosure t...

Immunizations are responsible for preventing death and disability from disease and are among the most cost-effective and widely used public health interventions. However, it is also recognized that no vaccine is perfectly safe or effective. Some people will experience side effects from vaccines, and a few may not experience a complete immunologic response to a vaccine, leaving them susceptible ...

Positive Train Control (PTC), often referred to as Communication Based Train Control (CBTC), has been on the National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) “Most Wanted List of Transportation Safety Improvements” for several decades as a safety-enabling system. The Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 mandated its implementation after the September 12, 2008, Chatsworth, California, collision betw...