Gaps and opportunities in nitrogen pollution policies around the world

Nitrogen pollution is an important environmental issue gaining traction in policy circles. However, there is little understanding of current nitrogen policies around the world: whether they account for nitrogen’s unique ability to exacerbate multiple environmental impacts or balance nitrogen’s dual role as an essential agricultural input and major pollutant. Here we assemble and analyse the first database of nitrogen policies generated by national and regional legislatures and government agencies, a collection of 2,726 policies across 186 countries derived from the ECOLEX database. The database covers all major environmental sinks (such as air, water and climate), economic sectors (including agriculture, wastewater and industry) and policy instruments (from market mechanisms to regulatory standards). We find that sink-centred policies are focused predominantly on water, mirroring the distribution of nitrogen’s global environmental and human health costs. However, policy integration across sinks is severely lacking, which heightens the risk of substituting one form of nitrogen pollution for another. Moreover, two-thirds of agricultural policies (ranging from broad sectoral programmes to nitrogen-specific measures) incentivize nitrogen use or manage its commerce, demonstrating the primacy of food production over environmental concerns

Goal-based safety cases for medical devices : opportunities and challenges

In virtually all safety-critical industries the operators of systems have to demonstrate a systematic and thorough consideration of safety. This is increasingly being done by demonstrating that certain goals have been achieved, rather than by simply following prescriptive standards. Such goal-based safety cases could be a valuable tool for reasoning about safety in healthcare organisations, such as hospitals. System-wide safety cases are very complex, and a reasonable approach is to break down the safety argument into sub-system safety cases. In this paper we outline the development of a goal-based top-level argument for demonstrating the safety of a particular class of medical devices (medical beds). We review relevant standards both from healthcare and from other industries, and illustrate how these can inform the development of an appropriate safety argument. Finally, we discuss opportunities and challenges for the development and use of goal-based safety cases in healthcare

Sicherheitsanalyse der Programme der Steuerstabfahrrechner Kurzfassung

TIB: AC 8557 / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman