This book presents models and methods for systems reliability assessment, human reliability analysis and uncertainty management. It includes fourteen contributions which are grouped into three sections. Section 1 deals with basic reliability methods and applications. The papers by Saiz de Bustamante and Perlado introduce the stochastic processes and the Monte Carlo method, respectively. Sanz Fermandez de Cordoba and Gonzales discuss important practical implications of the use of reliability methods. The former refers to the aerospace industry. The latter considers nuclear power plants. Session 2 presents some advances in systems reliability techniques. The paper by Contini and Poucet illustrates the mathematical analysis of fault trees and event trees. It includes a discussion on the logical analysis of non-coherent fault trees and considerations on the major measures of criticality and importance of a component. The paper by Babbio is devoted to Petri nets. First, the formalism of this relatively new technique is given. Then, stochastic Petri nets are introduced as a tool to describe the behaviour of systems in time. Finally, by some fully developed examples, it is shown how this approach can be used to represent and evaluate complex stochastic systems. Limnios introduces the notion of failure delay systems and gives the lifetime structure for the evaluation of reliability measures. A reservoir is studied as an example of a failure delay system.

Section 1 - Basic Reliability Methods and Applications.- Stochastic processes, Markov chains and systems availability.- The Monte Carlo method.- Availability: A practical approach on aerospace industry.- Reliability in nuclear power plant operations.- Section 2 - Advances on Systems Reliability Techniques.- Advances on fault tree and event tree techniques.- Systems modelling with Petri nets.- Failure delay systems reliability modelling.- The Dylam approach to systems safety analysis.- Dylam-Treta. An approach to protection systems software analysis.- Section 3 - Human Reliability and Uncertainty Analysis.- Human Reliability models.- Fixation errors: Failures to revise situation assessment in dynamic and risky systems.- Theories of mechanical reasoning under uncertainty.- Reliability parameter estimation by combination of data from various sources.- Uncertainty modelling in systems reliability analysis.