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The chapter is built around the concept of the management system, which contains the policies and procedures for all activities in the laboratory that can affect the quality of the test results and their interpretation. The management system is described in the laboratory quality manual and the Quality Manager is the key position in its control, development, and maintenance. The steps required for effective quality control and quality assurance are identified and discussed, with a focus on the internal audit as the most important tool in assuring conformity with the standards defined in the management system. The standards that should be incorporated into the management system are then identified and discussed. These include factors that ensure the competency of personnel such as training, education, and proficiency testing, the selection and validwation of methods, and assuring the integrity of analytical instruments through effective calibration and maintenance. Most forensic examiners are focused on their examination and testing of evidence and sometimes find it less easy to understand the need for detailed document and record control, and concepts such as traceability and uncertainty of measurement. The chapter presents these in a straightforward manner that shows how they can impact the validity of the day-to-day work of the forensic scientist. Finally, the chapter considers accreditation, an objective means of demonstrating conformity with standards that encapsulate best practice in forensic testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tracy McBride is a Certified Public Accountatn with more than 20 years of experience in the financial services industry. Her background includes more than 10 years at Morgan Stanley where she was a Vice President responsible for corporate-level internal and external reporting and analysis and post-merger Asset Management integration. She also directed the accounting, finance, and operations integration for one of Cendant΄s $3 billion bankrupt acquisitions in 2003 and has held executive positions in the insurance and broker/dealer industries. Her additional expertise includes information systems, process reengineering, change management, mergers and acquisitions, audit, and financial forensics, and as a collaborative leader in mentoring and creating teams. Tracy McBride holds a B.A. in Accounting from William Paterson University and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Cornell University. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The IT governance has been drawn much attention, and the COBIT has been known as a framework for the IT governance. One of the key features of the IT governance is the alignment of business goals and IT goals. The COBIT framework basically provides the definitions of business, IT and processes΄ goals and the links among them. There has been much research on the assessment of the IT governance in terms of applying the COBIT framework to the IT governance of an organization. However, this paper studies the assessment of the IT governance of the COBIT framework itself. We develop an assessment method, apply it to the COBIT framework and derive several assessment results including the weights of the IT goals and the IT processes to the business goal. The results can also be applied to other IT governance areas such as the priority determination of the IT investment or IT audit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the efficiency of audits as incentives for reducing free-riding in P2P storage applications, that is, lessening the number of peers that can store their data without contributing to the storage infrastructure. Audits are remote data verifications that can also be used to decide whether to cooperate with a given peer based on its behavior. We demonstrate how an audit-based strategy can dominate or outperform the free-riding strategy by exhibiting the equilibria of our evolutionary game theoretical model of a P2P storage application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even though the possession of a high CMM level undoubtedly implies prestige and competitive advantages for a software development organisation, its attainment may imply a considerable economic burden because of potentially necessary audits. It is therefore very interesting to minimise the costs by paying only for the truly indispensable audits. This article proposes a Knowledge-Based System that makes it possible to evaluate an organisation at a determined CMM level and as such limit the services of an auditor to those cases in which the system΄s response complies with the requested CMM level and the necessary associated skills. This clearly implies an important cost reduction for audits with a negative result. The design of this system is based on the CommonKADS methodology, and its implementation was carried out with the Clips tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The STAR project΄s extensive replicated sampling programmes have provided the first ever quantitative comparative studies of the susceptibility of a wide range of national macroinvertebrate sampling methods and taxonomic metrics to uncertainty resulting from the effects of field sampling variability and subsequent sub-sampling and laboratory (or bank-side) procedures and protocols. We summarise six STAR project papers examining various aspects of the potential sources of uncertainty in the observed fauna and observed metric values. The use of new simulation software STARBUGS (STAR Bioassessment Uncertainty Software System) to incorporate the effects of these potential errors into quantitative assessments of the uncertainty in assigning water bodies to WFD ecological status classes is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The globalization of financial markets and several spectacular corporate crises were the prime forces that led the German legislator to pass the KonTraG, a law requiring companies to implement risk management systems. In order to harness this change as a value driver for companies, the article introduces a holistic concept of entrepreneurial Chance- and Risk-Management, which is designed to fulfill the dual requirements of the legislator on the one hand and of corporate management needs on the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chapter 9 of the book "Flight Catering" is presented. It identifies the hazards to food safety in flight catering, reviews the nature and control of micro-organisms and discusses the Hazards Analysis, Critical Control Points which is the advocated food safety management system. It states that those who produce meals must be constantly vigilant to prevent contamination and to ensure appropriate temperature control.

Knowledge management systems are proliferating through organizations as management seeks to gain competitive advantage by enhancing and sharing knowledge across the organization. Unfortunately there are risks and consequences associated with knowledge management systems that may not be adequately controlled and audited, and may breach privacy concerns and legislation. This chapter addresses these Issues and provides a framework and guidelines for management to provide assurance over their KM systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]