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Recent criticisms and challenges to fingerprint evidence in the United States have prompted fingerprint examiners to reconsider the notion of using probabilities in the courtroom. A growing number of examiners are interested in learning more about this approach, but there is still considerable inertia and fear with respect to this paradigm shift. The present paper provides the author’s viewpoints on why the community can and should be moving in this direction. These viewpoints were shaped through personal experiences as a case-working fingerprint examiner, an instructor of other examiners, and the author’s participation in a moot court exercise that delivered fingerprint probabilities to non-forensic laypersons acting as mock jurors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: Research efforts by the nuclear power industry and, most recently, its regulatory agency, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (USNRC), have provided information useful for risk-informed analysis of the effects of spurious actuation (“hot shorting”) of alternating current (AC) electrical circuits at nuclear power plants. The results from these efforts have been integrated into a methodology to predict the likelihood of spurious actuation of AC circuits due to fires in commercial nuclear power plants. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Precipitation patterns analyzed for rainfed agriculture in Southeastern United States. • Regionalization method combines principal components and cluster analyses. • Three precipitation regions are delineated based on statistics and similarity criteria. • Probability tables developed for seasonal precipitation totals/events in each region. • Results may improve awareness of precipitation deficit or excess relatively to crops. Over the last two decades, signs of precipitation irregularity were frequently reported across the Southeastern United States (US). Even though the region receives a relatively high annual precipitation, the precipitation events are not equally distributed in the time and space. Hence, rainfed agriculture, a common practice in the region is threatened by changes in precipitation frequencies during the crop growing seasons. With this situation, a better understanding of the actual patterns of precipitation irregularity is needed to support the local agriculture. This study uses a spatial regionalization approach to delineate precipitation regions for an area spanning the states of South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia. The data used include time-series of seasonal precipitation totals and seasonal numbers of precipitation events >5 mm over the period 1960–2017. A regionalization method which combines principal components and cluster analyses was applied to 208 precipitation stations selected across the study region. Finally, three precipitation regions were delineated based on statistics and similarity criteria. A comparative analysis of these three regions shows significant differences in the seasonal precipitation totals and the seasonal number of precipitation events. In addition, the differences were examined using a probabilistic approach. As a result, tables of probabilities and seasonal precipitation characteristics (precipitation totals and number of events >5 mm) were generated for each region. These tables could provide information about the chances of precipitation deficits or excesses relatively to a crop and henceforth be useful for agricultural water use planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]