FORESIGHT: A Business Approach to Improving Forensic Science Services
Abstract Managers of scientific laboratories see themselves as scientists first and managers second; consequently, they tend to devalue the managerial aspects of their jobs. Forensic laboratory managers are no different, but the stakes may be much higher given the importance of quality science to the criminal justice system. The need for training and support in forensic laboratory management has been recognized for many years, but little has been done to transition the tools of business to the forensic laboratory environment. FORESIGHT is a business-guided self-evaluation of forensic science laboratories across North America. The participating laboratories represent local, regional, state, and national agencies. Economics, accounting, finance, and forensic faculty provide assistance, guidance, and analysis. The process involves standardizing definitions for metrics to evaluate work processes, linking financial information to work tasks, and functions. Laboratory managers can then assess resource allocations, efficiencies, and value of services—the mission is to measure, preserve what works, and change what does not. A project of this magnitude for forensic laboratories has not been carried out anywhere.
The balanced scorecard: sustainable performance assessment for forensic laboratories.
The purpose of this article is to introduce the concept of the balanced scorecard into the laboratory management environment. The balanced scorecard is a performance measurement matrix designed to capture financial and non-financial metrics that provide insight into the critical success factors for an organization, effectively aligning organization strategy to key performance objectives. The scorecard helps organizational leaders by providing balance from two perspectives. First, it ensures an appropriate mix of performance metrics from across the organization to achieve operational excellence; thereby the balanced scorecard ensures that no single or limited group of metrics dominates the assessment process, possibly leading to long-term inferior performance. Second, the balanced scorecard helps leaders offset short term performance pressures by giving recognition and weight to long-term laboratory needs that, if not properly addressed, might jeopardize future laboratory performance.
O2 constraints from Paleoproterozoic detrital pyrite and uraninite
Redox-sensitive detrital grains such as pyrite and uraninite in sedimentary successions provide one of the most conspicuous geological clues to a different composition of the Archean and early Paleoproterozoic atmosphere. Today, these minerals are rapidly chemically weathered within short transport distances. Prior to the rise of oxygen, low O2 concentrations allowed their survival in siliciclastic deposits with grain erosion tied only to physical transport processes. After the rise of oxygen, redox-sensitive detrital grains effectively vanish from the sedimentary record. To get a better understanding of the timing of this transition, we examined sandstones recorded in a scientifi c drill core from the South African 2.415 Ga Koegas Subgroup, a mixed siliciclastic and iron formation–bearing unit deposited on the western deltaic margin of the Kaapvaal craton in early Paleoproterozoic time. We observed detrital pyrite and uraninite grains throughout all investigated sandstone beds in the section, indicating the rise of oxygen is younger than 2.415 Ga. To better understand how observations of detrital pyrite and uraninite in sedimentary rocks can quantitatively constrain Earth surface redox conditions, we constructed a model of grain erosion from chemical weathering and physical abrasion to place an upper limit on ancient environmental O2 concentrations. Even conservative model calculations for deltaic depositional systems with suffi cient transport distances (approximately hundreds of kilometers) show that redox-sensitive detrital grains are remarkably sensitive to environmental O2 concentrations, and they constrain the Archean and early Paleoproterozoic atmosphere to have <3.2 × 10 –5 atm of molecular O2. These levels are lower than previously hypothesized for redox-sensitive detrital grains, but they are consistent with estimates made from other redox proxy data, including the anomalous fractionation of sulfur isotopes. The binary loss of detrital pyrite and uraninite from the sedimentary record coincident with the rise of oxygen indicates that atmospheric O2 concentrations rose substantially at this time and were never again suffi ciently low (<0.01 atm) to enable survival and preservation of these grains in short transport systems.