Safety is the state of being safe, the condition of being protected against physical, social, spiritual, financial, political, emotional, occupational, psychological or other types or consequences of failure, damage, error, accidents, harm or any other event which could be considered dangerous. Protection is from both the cause and from exposure to something that is not safe. It can include physical protection or that of possessions. Safety is often in relation to some guarantee of a standard of insurance to the quality and unharmful function of a thing or organization. It is used in order to ensure that the thing or organization will do only what it is wanted to do.
Risks and responses
Safety is generally interpreted as implying a real and significant impact on risk of death, injury or damage to property. In response to perceived risks many interventions may be proposed with engineering responses and regulation being two of the most common.
Probably the most common individual response to perceived safety issues is insurance, which compensates for or provides restitution in the case of damage or loss.
[Review] Microarray Technology and Applications in the Arena of Genome-Wide Association Grant, S. F. A., Hakonarson, H. Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0000
Background: There is a revolution occurring in single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping technology, with high-throughput methods now allowing large numbers of SNPs (105–106) to be genotyped in large cohort studies. This has enabled large-scale genome-wide association (GWA) studies in complex diseases, such as diabetes, asthma, and inflammatory bowel disease, to be undertaken for the first time.
Content: The GWA approach serves the critical need for a comprehensive and unbiased strategy to identify causal genes related to complex disease, and is rapidly replacing the more traditional candidate gene studies and microsatellite-based linkage mapping approaches that have dominated gene discovery attempts for common diseases. As a consequence of employing array-based technologies, over the last 3 years dramatic discoveries of key variants involved in multiple complex diseases and related traits have been reported in the top scientific literature and, most importantly, have been largely replicated by independent investigator groups. As a consequence, several novel genes have been identified, most notably in the metabolic, cardiovascular, autoimmune, and oncology disease areas, that are clearly rooted in the biology of these disorders. These discoveries have opened up new avenues for investigators to address novel molecular pathways that were not previously linked to or thought of in relation with these diseases.
Summary: This review provides a synopsis of recent advances and what we may expect to still emerge from this field.