Bias in Forensic Examination

The article discusses various aspects of the influence of bias on the formation of conclusions of a forensic expert. The author highlights that the negative effect of bias is especially significant in identification examinations, where the conclusions are based on subjective interpretations of the results of marks comparison (toolmark, fingerprint, firearms examinations, and others). The author also notes that there is no clear border between objectivity and subjectivity in forensic examinations. All types of forensic examinations exist in an objective-subjective continuum, which causes different conclusions’ reliability. Since subjectivity is the basis for bias formation, minimizing its impact can be achieved in several ways – increasing the “transparency” of documenting the research process, technical analysis and verification of an expert’s opinion, applying quantitative criteria for evaluating the matching features in the compared marks. The most logical way to reduce the influence of bias is to eliminate the causes that give rise to this phenomenon. These are the excessive contextual information provided to the expert, the expert’s deviation from the requirements of methodological recommendations in examining the objects, and various external and internal influences.

Methodical Support for Conducting an Expert Research to Establish the Statute of Limitations for the Execution of Documents’ Requisites: Problems of Expert and Judicial Practice

The article addresses the problems of methodical support for establishing the statute of limitations when conducting a forensic document examination, directly affecting the admissibility of an expert’s opinion as evidence in legal proceedings. Establishing the statute of limitations for the execution of documents’ requisites is one of the most demanded tasks when considering all categories of cases – administrative, arbitration, civil, criminal. Analysis of the forensic practice of this type of examination in legal proceedings shows the application of various methods and approaches. Such variety raises questions among both the judicial and legal communities. For example, what existing methods are scientifically substantiated, tested, certified, lead to reliable results, and can be used to solve expert tasks? Which are unsuitable for the use in expert practice, and for what reasons?To confirm the suitability of their author’s developments for forensic examination, individual non-state experts provide various patents and certificates. How legal and permissible is this practice?The article offers a competent analysis of the current situation on the example of the widely used method of “wet copying”

Construction and Validation of Academic Stress Scale for University Students

Present study aimed to construct and validate an instrument to measure the academic stress among university students of Pakistan. Item construction of this instrument was based on literature review, interviews from university students and expert’s opinion. After pilot study exploratory factor analysis was performed on a sample of477 student (226men and 251 women), recruited from different departments of University of Sargodha, Pakistan. 26 items were retained after exploratory factor analysis with three well defined factors(1, Personal, Parental and Teachers’ attitude, 2. Perception of workload and examinations, 3. Concerns about education system and management)Range of Alpha coefficients for scale and its subscales was .72 to .87.Results of Confirmatory factor analysis performed on an independent sample revealed excellent model fit to present data. Three factor structure of Academic stress scale was confirmed by CFA. Convergent validity of Academic Stress Scale was proved by finding its positive correlation with UCLA Loneliness scale, Depression scale and Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale. Excellent reliability and validity evidences proved this scale as a promising measure of academic stress.

Determinism of the problems of Using the Expert'S Opinion as Evidence by Mistakes Made in the Preparation, Appointment and Production of Forensic Examinations

The paper analyzes the errors committed by law enforcement officers in the implementation of various types of special knowledge at all stages of criminal proceedings. Shortcomings under consideration are differentiated into shortcomings committed in the production of investigative actions, during which objects were seized, subsequently presented for an expert examination, when forensic examinations are appointed, in the production of forensic examinations, when examining the expert's opinion by officials of the preliminary investigation bodies and the prosecutor's office. At the same time, such errors are periodically repeated and multiply: forensic examinations, the need for the production of which is caused by the specifics of the crime being investigated, the current investigative situation and, being justified by specially developed recommendations, are not scheduled; the questions posed to the experts do not cover all the circumstances the establishment of which is possible only through the involvement of persons knowledgeable in a particular area of special knowledge; the questions themselves are not always directly related to the expert's specialization and the type of examination; the presence of proper qualifications of a person involved as an expert is not verified, etc.Without setting themselves the task of analyzing all or most of these errors, the authors thoroughly consider the most serious errors using specific examples from judicial investigative practice and they come to the conclusion that the effectiveness and efficiency of using the expert's conclusion in proving is possible only under the context of impeccable observance by officials of preliminary investigation bodies, forensic experts and heads of forensic institutions of the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Law, the Federal Law "On State Forensic Expert Activity", departmental regulations and forensic recommendations.

Specific peculiarity of the forensic veterinary expert conclusion structure according to the research of fowl corpse results

The article identifies and systematizes some issues of the forensic veterinary expert conclusion structure according to the research of fowl carcass results. It is claimed that the sequence of fowl carcass examination results presentation is determined by a forensic veterinary expert with account the examination specifics, the object study state and the issues nature raised by the subject of examination appointment for the expert decision. It is shown that the peculiarity of its introductory part is a specific issues list raised for the forensic veterinary expert decision by the research subject. Mandatory elements of the “Research” section in the expert's conclusion is a statement of the individual documents study results in the proceedings and directly related to the examination (extract from the animal's health history, fowl ambulatory card, site inspection report, etc.), carcass registration data, results of its external and internal research according to certain algorithms description, results of additional researches (forensic chemical, histological, forensic toxicological, etc.), forensic veterinary diagnosis and the synthesizing part conclusion formulation. The final part of the expert's conclusion is the questions answer to the mentioned in the introductory part in a categorical or, as an exception, in a probable form. Be sure to indicate the damage nature or pathological changes, their location, the cause of fowl death, the causal relationship between the damage caused to the fowl health and the onset of its death. The appendices peculiarity is that they are drawn up in the photo tables form, which carry information about the fowl carcasses forensic veterinary examination stages, supplement and confirm the expert's opinion verbal part.

Plithogenic SWARA-TOPSIS Decision Making on Food Processing Methods with Different Normalization Techniques

Decision making (DM) is a process of choosing the optimal alternative with the maximum extent of criteria satisfaction. The challenging aspect in making optimal decisions is the suitable choice of multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods that consider the initial input as the expert’s opinion on criteria satisfaction by the alternatives. This initial decision-making matrix representation discriminates MCDM as fuzzy, intuitionistic, neutrosophic to handle the decision-making environment that is characterized by uncertainty, impreciseness, and indeterminacy, respectively. A generalized kind of representation by plithogenic sets optimizes the decision-making risks. This chapter aims in developing SWARA-TOPSIS with plithogenic representations and discusses the efficiency of this integrated approach over the method of TOPSIS with equal criterion weight. A comparative analysis of four different normalization techniques is likewise made. The proposed plithogenic integrated MCDM model is validated with the decision making on four food processing methods. The final ranks of the alternatives are also compared under the proposed plithogenic SWARA-TOPSIS and TOPSIS models with different normalization techniques. The results witness the efficiency of the proposed model over the existing models.

Picture Fuzzy Maclaurin Symmetric Mean Operators and Their Applications in Solving Multiattribute Decision-Making Problems

To evaluate objects under uncertainty, many fuzzy frameworks have been designed and investigated so far. Among them, the frame of picture fuzzy set (PFS) is of considerable significance which can describe the four possible aspects of expert’s opinion using a degree of membership (DM), degree of nonmembership (DNM), degree of abstinence (DA), and degree of refusal (DR) in a certain range. Aggregation of information is always challenging especially when the input arguments are interrelated. To deal with such cases, the goal of this study is to develop the notion of the Maclaurin symmetric mean (MSM) operator as it aggregates information under uncertain environments and considers the relationship of the input arguments, which make it unique. In this paper, we studied the theory of MSM operators in the layout of PFSs and discussed their applications in the selection of the most suitable enterprise resource management (ERP) scheme for engineering purposes. We developed picture fuzzy MSM (PFMSM) operators and investigated their validity. We developed the multiattribute decision-making (MADM) algorithm based on the PFMSM operators to examine the performance of the ERP systems using picture fuzzy information. A numerical example to evaluate the performance of ERP systems is studied, and the effects of the associated parameters are discussed. The proposed aggregated results using PFMSM operators are found to be reliable as it takes into account the interrelationship of the input information, unlike traditional aggregation operators. A comparative study of the proposed PFMSM operators is also studied.

Factors Involved in the Success of Bir-Billing (H.P.) as One of the Top-Rated Paragliding Site in the World and Learning's for Uttarakhand

Adventure sports such as River Rafting, Zip-Line, Paragliding and Skiing become popular in India in last few years, there are many factors which helped this trend to increase and millennials are driving this entire sector. Adventure Sports provide an unexplainable thrill and kills the stress with recreation and unforgettable life time experiences. Paragliding is one of the most popular adventure sports in India and there are more than 25 sites and still growing. Due to the increased popularity, all states are exploring the opportunities to develop sites wherever its feasible. When we talk about Paragliding in India, the first site which comes to the mind is Bir-Billing in Himachal Pradesh. These twin town are not only famous in India but in the entire world and also hosted the world cup in 2015. Now Bir-Billing emerges as the role model for other sites. There is yet another state – Uttarakhand, which has approximately 5 operational sites for paragliding however, could not become popular like Bir- Billing despite having all the necessary elevation and large landing fields. This study is based on the exploratory research and intended to draw conclusions based on expert’s opinion, on site observations and other secondary source of data and aimed in finding out the factors which played a key role in the success of Bir-Billing and how Uttarakhand can learn from it to develop Paragliding in the state. The findings can provide a substantial base for the further development and scope of improvement to attract more tourists.

A MODEL OF DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGIES DETERMINATION FOR DEFENSE SPHERE

The paper describes a model determining the list of disruptive technologies in the defense sector based on the apparatus of fuzzy logic. Input linguistic variables are indicators that determine the criticality of technologies. Each input indicator reflects the presence or absence of a certain feature in the evaluated technologies, so a simple linguistic evaluation is used. However, for the most part only objective evaluations are used without the expert’s opinion. The proposed model is presented in the form of seven fuzzy inference systems, which are arranged hierarchically. The method of bibliometric analysis for determining the prospects of technologies is described and improved. The level of technologies criticality is determined as a result of fuzzy evaluation. It is proposed to apply a new principle of technologies selection as disruptive or critical ones.

A CONCEPTUAL STUDY ON INDIAN STOCK MARKET'S RESPONSE TO COVID-19 PANDEMIC- A COMPARATIVE STUDY WITH OTHER CRISES

The 2020 pandemic has shattered all most all the activities around the world, resulting to a great depression in the economy. Pandemic has poisoned all economic activities. The pandemic has affected public health in the country. If we make a keen look, every 10 years, there is some crash or scam happening in the country. However, after every crash if we make an analysis, there is a new revolution in the economy. The Harshad Mehta's scam which is one of the major scams in Indian share market history brought remarkable changes in banking sector, the Covid-19 crises has made India to depend immensely on technology which would otherwise not be possible in a country like India. With the spread of Covid virus across the country, the Government, after seeing the medical expert's opinion, announced nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of the virus across the country. Life of millions of people was shattered as they could not earn their livelihood. Many youth lost their jobs, there was unemployment problem gearing up across the country. Due to the lockdown, the financial markets also reacted to the pandemic and there was lot of volatility in the share market. The present paper aims to examine the impact of Covid-19 on stock market volatility in India. The paper also considers some of the crashes that have happened in the past and to make a comparative study of various crashes with that of the Covid19 crash.