Risk Assessment in Internal Auditing: A Neural Network Approach

Abstract Risk assessment is a systematic process for integrating professional judgments about relevant risk factors, their relative significance and probable adverse conditions and/or events leading to identification of auditable activities (IIA, 1995, SIAS No. 9). Internal auditors utilize risk measures to allocate critical audit resources to compliance, operational, or financial activities within the organization (Colbert, 1995). In information rich environments, risk assessment involves recognizing patterns in the data, such as complex data anomalies and discrepancies, that perhaps conceal one or more error or hazard conditions (e.g

Using Neural Networks for Risk Assessment in Internal Auditing: A Feasibility Study

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Diagenesis of vascular plant organic matter components during burial in lake sediments

Diagenetic changes are difficult to distinguish from variations in sources of organic matter to sediments. Organic geochemical comparisons of samples of wood, bark, and needles from a white spruce ( Picea glauca ) living today and one buried for 10,000 years in lake sediments have been used to identify the effects of diagenesis on vascular plant matter. Important biogeochemical changes are evident in the aged spruce components, even though the cellular structures of the samples are well preserved. Concentrations of total fatty acids dramatically diminish; unsaturated and shorter chainlength components are preferentially lost from the molecular distributions. Concentrations of total alcohols are similar in the modern and 10,000-year-old wood and bark but markedly lowered in the aged needles. Hydrocarbon concentrations and distributions show little diagenetic change in the 10,000-year-old plant materials. Cellulose components in the wood decrease relative to lignin components, although both types of materials remain in high concentration in comparison to other organic components. Aromatization of abietic acid proceeds more rapidly in buried spruce wood than in bark; retene is the dominant polyaromatic hydrocarbon in the aged wood. In contrast to the variety of changes evident in molecular compositions, neither σ 13 C values nor C/N ratios differ significantly in the bulk organic matter of modern and aged spruce components.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/41810/1/10498_2004_Article_BF01025230.pd

Neurotoxic Vulnerability Underlying Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders

Neurotoxic vulnerability that putatively contributes to the etiopathogenesis of schizophrenia spectrum disorders encompasses perinatal adversity, genetic linkage, epigenetic disadvantage and neurodegenerative propensities that affect both symptom domains, positive, negative and cognitive, and biomarkers of the disorder. Molecular and cellular apoptosis/excitotoxicity that culminates in regional brain loss, reductions in reelin expression, trophic disruption, perinatal adversity, glycogen synthase kinase-3 dysregulation and various instances of oxidative stress all influence the final end-point disorder. The existence of prodromal psychotic phases, structural-functional aspects of regional neuroimaging, dopamine signal overexpression and psychosis propensity provide substance for neurodegenerative influences. The pathophysiology of schizophrenia spectrum disorder encompasses the destruction of normal functioning of the neurotrophins, in particular brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), dyskinesia of necessary movements, and metabolic-metabolomic and proteomic markers. Neurotoxic accidents combined with genetic susceptibility appears to play a role in interfering normal neurodevelopment or in the tissue-destructive neurodegeneration or both, thereby elevating the eventual risk for disorder tendencies and eventual expression

Make EU trade with Brazil sustainable

Brazil, home to one of the planet's last great forests, is currently in trade negotiations with its second largest trading partner, the European Union (EU). We urge the EU to seize this critical opportunity to ensure that Brazil protects human rights and the environment