Norovirus (NoV) is a major cause of infectious human viral gastroenteritis. Detection is important to understanding the epidemiology of NoV and the viral dynamics of NoV infection which is poorly understood. In 2006, a marked increase in gastroenteritis outbreaks occurred worldwide. During this period, a total of 231 stool samples were obtained from patients with acute gastroenteritis from Australia and New Zealand. A total of 186 isolates of NoV were detected and sequenced to determine the genotype and relatedness to known epidemic NoV GII.4 variants. Two GII.4 variants, 2006a and 2006b, were identified in 61.8% and 11.3%, in these cases, respectively. Thus, the increase in NoV gastroenteritis in 2006 was linked to the emergence of two novel co-circulating GII.4 variants, 2006a and 2006b. During an outbreak in an aged-care facility, stool samples were collected from the onset of illness to cessation of viral excretion. Here, viral shedding peaked in the acute stage of illness and continued for an average of 28.7 days. The viral decay rate was 0.76 per day. Prolonged asymptomatic shedding of NoV was detected in the elderly. A quality control for the assessment of molecular based viral assays for NoV and other RNA viruses is necessary to meet current testing requirements. Available controls only monitor the RNA and DNA amplification steps. An MS2 bacteriophage BioBallTM with 100 pfu was evaluated and applied as a multi-purpose phage control. It was assessed as a quality control, in comparison to MS2 phage stock, to validate MS2 phage assays. Furthermore, MS2 BioBallTM was used as a process control for the molecular detection of RNA viruses. It validated every performed step, determined if the assay worked and its sensitivity. Thus, MS2 BioBallTM offered uniformity, stability and reproducibility across molecular based viral detection systems. Overall, this thesis provided valuable insight into the molecular epidemiology of NoV in the southern hemisphere and nature of NoV infections in the elderly. The MS2 BioBallTM provides standardisation and quality control of viral RNA assays. Understanding the genetic diversity and viral dynamics of NoV will be crucial to developing effective intervention and treatment strategies, and ultimately lead to reduced viral gastroenteritis worldwide.

Accounting numbers are not only the products of peripheral economic events, but, by and large, can be consciously influenced from the effects of calculated business decisions and the selective applications of alternative reporting procedures. In academic parlance, the term accounting quality, or lack thereof, is often used to describe the extent to which these convoluting influences create a disparity between economic fundamentals and their numerical portrayal. This doctoral thesis speaks to three aspects of accounting quality; (i) Earnings Thresholds: A Re-Examination of the Role of Earnings Management, (ii) Earnings Manipulation and the Investigation of 'Red Flag' Accounting Ratios, and (iii) An Empirical Analysis of Standard and Poor's (S&Ps) Core Earnings metric. Each topic is outlined in a separate research paper.

Thesis PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--Missouri University of Science and Technology, 2008. / Vita. The entire thesis text is included in file. Title from title screen of thesis/dissertation PDF file (viewed January 15, 2009) Includes bibliographical references (p. 51-52).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Queensland, 2003. / Includes bibliography.

The modern automobile industry faces an increasing demand on personalized high quality products. In order to stay competitive the automobile manufacturers have to ensure the customers high quality demands. With the increasing amount of applied parts and components manufacturing processes are becoming more complex. The recent quality assurance of the manufacturers considers only the product quality. Furthermore are with the recent quality assurance methods only punctual integrations of quality assurance tools in production chains possible. These limitations cause a large quality control loop. This leads in case of defective parts to an enormous time and money effort to track the cause for the defect. This project presents an innovative measurement strategy of quality assurance within the modern automobile production which will minimize the control loop and identify the tool causing the defect in the part. It highlights the possibility to integrate equipment for quality assurance directly into the production cell itself and analyse the geometrical conditions within the manufacturing processes. The result of this thesis is a fully automated prototype which is installed into the actual production of the Volkswagen Golf assembly. The prototype system consists on the one hand out of different on the market free available hardware and software components. On the other hand there are specifically for this prototype developed hardware components and software tools. For the first time it is possible to inspect the geometrical conditions of one tool continuously during production and identify, if occurring, deviations in the tool in position direction and size. The installation of similar systems in the production will minimize the control loops of the production. The chance of early recognition of errors will reduce the efforts and cost of error backtracking. In ideal conditions this instrument will identify defective tools before a product is manufactured. This innovative quality tool is the ideal addition to the current quality assurance and is the first link between the product quality and the geometrical conditions of the tools.

M.Ing. / Electrical quality of supply affects every consumer, from the homeowner to large industry and mining. Customer awareness of poor power quality is increasing due to the more sensitive nature of modern equipment. The positioning of a new plant is therefore very important and cannot only be determined by the availability of resources in the area. To determine the quality of the electricity in a certain network, years of historical data is required. To get enough information regarding a distributions network performance would require voltage dip measurements at a few places in the network for at least three years. For this reason a new method are used in this study. By using the existing information in a network, like: • The amount of lightning strikes per year • The amount of electrocuted birds • The type of protection used • The amount of vandalism incidents on a line per year • The tower footing resistance • The fault level in the network The fuzzy logic principle can be used to determine how susceptible a network is to voltage dips, by determining the favourable and unfavourable conditions for a number of membership functions. Conventional set theory (Boolean) states that an element is either a member of a set or not. Fuzzy logic is an extension of conventional set theory enabling an element to belong to a set degree. This study will look at all the important factors influencing voltage dips, and to use these factors in a fuzzy logic program to determine the voltage dip risk factor for new customers setting up plant in a specific network. The voltage dip risk factor will then determine if it is cost effective for a customer to take on the additional cost in dip proofing his plant.

Health service organizations are increasingly required to deliver quality healthcare services without increasing costs. The adoption of health information technologies can assist these organizations to deliver a quality service; however, this again exposes the health information to threats. The protection of personal health information is critical to ensure the privacy of patients in the care of health service organizations. Therefore both quality and information security are of importance in healthcare. Organisations commonly use management system standards to assist them to improve a particular function (e.g. quality or security) through structured organizational processes to establish, maintain and optimise a management system for the particular function. In the healthcare sector, the ISO 9001, ISO 9004 and IWA 1 standards may be used for the purpose of improving quality management through the establishment of a quality management system. Similarly, the ISO 27001 and ISO 27799 standards may be used to improve information security management through the establishment of an information security management system. However, the concurrent implementation of multiple standards brings confusion and complexity within organisations. A possible solution to the confusion is to introduce an integrated management system that addresses the requirements of multiple management systems. In this research, various standards relevant to the establishment of management systems for quality and security are studied. Additionally, literature on integrated management systems is reviewed to determine a possible approach to establishing an IMS for quality and information security in healthcare. It will be shown that the quality management and information security management standards contain commonalities that an integration approach can be based on. A detailed investigation of these commonalities is done in order to present the final proposal of the IMSQS, the Integrated Management System for Quality and Information Security in healthcare.

Health service organizations are increasingly required to deliver quality healthcare services without increasing costs. The adoption of health information technologies can assist these organizations to deliver a quality service; however, this again exposes the health information to threats. The protection of personal health information is critical to ensure the privacy of patients in the care of health service organizations. Therefore both quality and information security are of importance in healthcare. Organisations commonly use management system standards to assist them to improve a particular function (e.g. quality or security) through structured organizational processes to establish, maintain and optimise a management system for the particular function. In the healthcare sector, the ISO 9001, ISO 9004 and IWA 1 standards may be used for the purpose of improving quality management through the establishment of a quality management system. Similarly, the ISO 27001 and ISO 27799 standards may be used to improve information security management through the establishment of an information security management system. However, the concurrent implementation of multiple standards brings confusion and complexity within organisations. A possible solution to the confusion is to introduce an integrated management system that addresses the requirements of multiple management systems. In this research, various standards relevant to the establishment of management systems for quality and security are studied. Additionally, literature on integrated management systems is reviewed to determine a possible approach to establishing an IMS for quality and information security in healthcare. It will be shown that the quality management and information security management standards contain commonalities that an integration approach can be based on. A detailed investigation of these commonalities is done in order to present the final proposal of the IMSQS, the Integrated Management System for Quality and Information Security in healthcare.