Purpose – This column looks at questions from teaching faculty about the use of copyright protected materials in an online course. Design/methodology/approach – Copyright guidelines are considered. The US TEACH Act and Fair Use statutes are examined, as well as how to make a risk assessment for the institution. Findings – US universities have a reasonable freedom to use protected materials in t...

The no observed effect concentration (NOEC) is currently a major summary statistic in ecotoxicity testing. Its use is heavily criticized, partly because it is a poor estimator of ‘‘safe’’ chemical concentrations. In this short communication, we review the limited information available on the percentage effect that corresponds with the NOEC, a value designated the ECNOEC, and calculate ECNOEC va...

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This paper discusses an approach for treating model uncertainties in relation to quantitative risk assessments. The analysis is based on a conceptual framework where a distinction is made between model error–the difference between the model prediction and the true future quantity–and model output uncertainty–the (epistemic) uncertainty about the magnitude of this error. The aim of the paper is ...

Over eighty percent of pregnant women in the United States are prescribed at least one drug during pregnancy. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates the labeling of drug products and has established five risk categories for drug use during pregnancy. This classification was introduced in 1979. New FDA regulations (June 30, 2015) deeply revised the pregnancy and lactation labeling...