The incidents leading to the exclusion from the analysis had been caused by either human errors consisting prematurely stopped measurements or were technical in nature, such as dosimeter breakdown or failure necessitating repair or replacement.
But "just in case" and "be prepared" have more urgent meanings these days, even if the emergencies are the same ones that have always made cellphones attractive: car breakdowns, power failures in cordless-phone-only homes, orchestrating pickups of children.
One director who sat on the Mail.com board with Mr. Whitman is also on the board of the Parsons Corporation, the contractor that unveiled a $400 million auto emissions system last December that has been plagued by computer breakdowns, equipment failures and long lines of angry motorists.
Indeed, if volumes grow too large, unavoidable breakdowns of facilities, failures of coordination, or other strategic factors may cause costs to rise.
A spoofing attack on these targets could have disastrous ripple effects: blackouts, communications breakdowns, and market failures akin to the "flash crash" of 2010.
The group will also look into the $488 million contract awarded for an auto emissions testing system that has been plagued by computer breakdowns and equipment failures, creating long lines of angry drivers.
But Bob Crow, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport workers' union, said it would mean "massive cuts to renewals and maintenance, compromising safety and leading to more breakdowns, failures and delays".
Breakdowns and system failures caused by insufficient maintenance can lead to significant economic impact such as higher costs, diminishing profits and declined customer satisfaction.
Rushforth recommends cities and states take a more proactive and innovative approach to solve their water problems, "we can't rely solely on technical innovations - crises like Flint are as much a result of technical breakdowns and governance failures.
This paper presents a comprehensive lifetime prediction methodology for both intrinsic and extrinsic Time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) failures to provide adequate Design-for-Reliability.
