On Using Blockchains for Safety-Critical Systems

Innovation in the world of today is mainly driven by software. Companies need to continuously rejuvenate their product portfolios with new features to stay ahead of their competitors. For example, recent trends explore the application of blockchains to domains other than finance. This paper analyzes the state-of-the-art for safety-critical systems as found in modern vehicles like self-driving cars, smart energy systems, and home automation focusing on specific challenges where key ideas behind blockchains might be applicable. Next, potential benefits unlocked by applying such ideas are presented and discussed for the respective usage scenario. Finally, a research agenda is outlined to summarize remaining challenges for successfully applying blockchains to safety-critical cyber-physical systems

THE MANAGEMENT OF OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY IN ROMANIA

The management of occupational health and safety constitutes the missing link as concerns the elaboration and implementation of integrated management systems i.e. quality, safety, environment in accordance with the new trends at international and European level. The implementation of management systems completes the existing organisational system in place within the undertakings while also facilitating a systematic enforcement of the OHS legislation. Consequently it contributes to the integration of this field within the general management of the undertaking concerned. The paper herein exhibits the basic elements of the national legislation in the field, the implementation steps of the OHS management systems, examples as regards system procedures drawing up, and the audit of system as well.occupational health, integrated management systems, the national legislation in the field, security assessment systems, assessment method for the risk

Convergence in Food Demand and Delivery: Do Middle-Income Countries Follow High-Income Trends?

This study uses food expenditures and food-sales data from 1990 to 2004 to examine whether food-consumption patterns and food-delivery-mechanism trends are converging across 47 high- and middle-income countries. Results point to a high degree of convergence in global food systems. Middle-income countries appear to be following trends in high-income countries. Convergence is apparent in most important food-expenditure categories and in indicators of food-system modernization such as supermarket and fast food sales.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Increasing resilience of ATM networks using traffic monitoring and automated anomaly analysis

Systematic network monitoring can be the cornerstone for the dependable operation of safety-critical distributed systems. In this paper, we present our vision for informed anomaly detection through network monitoring and resilience measurements to increase the operators' visibility of ATM communication networks. We raise the question of how to determine the optimal level of automation in this safety-critical context, and we present a novel passive network monitoring system that can reveal network utilisation trends and traffic patterns in diverse timescales. Using network measurements, we derive resilience metrics and visualisations to enhance the operators' knowledge of the network and traffic behaviour, and allow for network planning and provisioning based on informed what-if analysis

Competence Framework for Sustainable Construction Safety: ISHCCO proposal

Main topics/tracks Accident forensics Company-based safety management systems Digital work management Digitalisation Education, training and lifelong learning Emerging/new technologies, materials and practices Future trends and emergent issues High risk activities - safety in action Injury prevention by campaigns Methods and approaches to labor inspection Research into practice Risk and prevention during pandemic Risk Management and safety culture Safety culture Safety II Safety Regulation Safety/Risk Management systems Vision Zero Othe

SAFETY II and other recent trends in SMS

The article deals with modern trends in safety management systems at airports. These include Safety II, Paperless SMS, transference of confidence and responsibility to operating employees, and creation of a system to ensure safety at the airport despite the potential for human error

Big Data Risk Assessment the 21st Century approach to safety science

Safety Science has been developed over time with notable models in the early 20th Century such as Heinrich’s iceberg model and the Swiss cheese model. Common techniques such fault tree and event tree analyses, HAZOP analysis and bow-ties construction are widely used within industry. These techniques are based on the concept that failures of a system can be caused by deviations or individual faults within a system, combinations of latent failures, or even where each part of a complex system is operating within normal bounds but a combined effect creates a hazardous situation. In this era of Big Data, systems are becoming increasingly complex, producing such a large quantity of data related to safety that cannot be meaningfully analysed by humans to make decisions or uncover complex trends that may indicate the presence of hazards. More subtle and automated techniques for mining these data are required to provide a better understanding of our systems and the environment within which they operate, and insights to hazards that may not otherwise be identified. Big Data Risk Analysis (BDRA) is a suite of techniques being researched to identify the use of non-traditional techniques from big data sources to predict safety risk. This paper describes early trials of BDRA that have been conducted on railway signal information and text-based reports of railway safety near misses and the ongoing research that is looking at combining various data sources to uncover obscured trends that cannot be identified by considering each source individually. The paper also discusses how visual analytics may be a key tool in analysing Big Data to support knowledge elicitation and decision-making, as well as providing information in a form that can be readily interpreted by a variety of audiences

Predictive Safety Management System Development

Safety management systems are used to systematically manage safety risks. The paper describes and explains safety management systems in the field of aviation. Three aviation safety management methodologies are presented in the paper: reactive, proactive, and predictive. The aim is to show how safety management systems operate in each of the three methodologies. The focus of the paper is on predictive safety management methodology, its advantages, and potential uses. An overview of predictive methods used in the aviation industry is also provided. The research collected information on each safety management methodology, and revealed correlations between them, improving our understanding of safety management systems in general. Based on research described in the paper, the author proposes the development of a more advanced safety management system, i.e. a predictive safety management system which would entail the development of an expanded and well-organised safety database, as well as the use of predictive (forecasting) methods to identify potential and emerging hazards, trends and behaviour patterns