To Certify or Not to Certify? A Proposed Graduate Course and Universal Certification for Forensic Expert Witnesses

During a court proceeding, attorneys will oftentimes bring up evidence related to their case. Since attorneys are usually not an expert in the field of evidence that they are discussing, they will bring in an expert witness. Expert witnesses are asked “. . . to testify in court when complex or specialized knowledge, beyond that of the lay person, is needed to interpret the evidence” (Wilcox & NicDaeid, 2018, p. 100). Forensic expert witnesses and their testimony, especially, are becoming increasingly important regarding accuracy and delivery. It’s been found that juries tend to rely heavily on forensic evidence when reaching their verdict and that they value forensic testimony such as DNA and trace evidence over non-forensic evidence such as eyewitness statements (Eastwood & Caldwell, 2015). With forensic testimonies having a potentially large impact on the outcome of a case, one would think that there would be a certification required for these experts to give testimonies, but there is not. If a baseline certification were to be made for expert witnesses, then it would ensure that only the most credible and knowledgeable individuals would be able to make these life-altering testimonies. It has been found that many aspects of an expert’s testimony can change the juror’s views of the evidence presented, from the expert’s experience to how they verbalize their testimony (Eastwood & Caldwell, 2015). I propose that there should be a mandated certification for expert witnesses to testify in court, and I subsequently propose a graduate level class for Merrimack College Students which will aid them in completing this certification

To Certify, or Not to Certify: A Comparison of Australia and the U.S. in Achieving National Mediator Certification

This article aims to trace the progress of establishing mediation accreditation in Australia and the United States. Part II briefly describes how each country came to the decision of exploring the necessity of national mediator certification, and also illustrates the proposed designs for the Australian certification program and U.S. certification program recommended by the ACR. Part III suggests possible reasons for why the U.S. has failed to implement the mediator certification program proposed by the ACR while Australia is moving forward to establish their system. Part IV concludes with why the U.S. should continue to push for national mediator accreditation in the future

Device-independent Certification of One-shot Distillable Entanglement

Entanglement sources that produce many entangled states act as a main component in applications exploiting quantum physics such as quantum communication and cryptography. Realistic sources are inherently noisy, cannot run for an infinitely long time, and do not necessarily behave in an independent and identically distributed manner. An important question then arises -- how can one test, or certify, that a realistic source produces high amounts of entanglement? Crucially, a meaningful and operational solution should allow us to certify the entanglement which is available for further applications after performing the test itself (in contrast to assuming the availability of an additional source which can produce more entangled states, identical to those which were tested). To answer the above question and lower bound the amount of entanglement produced by an uncharacterised source, we present a protocol that can be run by interacting classically with uncharacterised (but not entangled to one another) measurement devices used to measure the states produced by the source. A successful run of the protocol implies that the remaining quantum state has high amounts of one-shot distillable entanglement. That is, one can distill many maximally entangled states out of the single remaining state. Importantly, our protocol can tolerate noise and, thus, certify entanglement produced by realistic sources. With the above properties, the protocol acts as the first "operational device-independent entanglement certification protocol" and allows one to test and benchmark uncharacterised entanglement sources which may be otherwise incomparable

Certified public accountants as the health officers of industry should advertise their services

Professionals should not advertise individually, but they may do so collectively. Publicity campaigns descriptive of the position which the professional holds in the community and which the professional work of the doctor, lawyer, engineer, architect, health expert, certified public accountant holds in the condition of the community, should be carried on for the enlightenment of the people and for the assurance of the general mind of the community. Professionals who are equipped to certify to the healthy condition of individuals or associations of individuals are also equipped to certify to the healthy condition of the city or town in which those individuals or associations of individuals are part of the community

Assessment of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Fisheries Certification Program

A variety of seafood certification schemes have developed over the past decade, all claiming that the fish that they certify have been sustainably caught or farmed and that they are the best option for consumers to purchase. Greenpeace is of the opinion that no fully credible certification programme for sustainable wild-caught or farmed seafood currently exists. So far, the challenges facing our oceans are far from being tackled and the fundamental principles of precaution and ecosystem approach are not yet incorporated into fisheries management

Assessment of the Friend of the Sea Fisheries and Aquaculture Certification Program

A variety of seafood certification schemes have developed over the past decade, all claiming that the fish that they certify have been sustainably caught or farmed and that they are the best option for consumers to purchase. Greenpeace is of the opinion that no fully credible certification system for sustainable wild-caught seafood currently exists. So far, the challenges facing our oceans are far from being tackled and the fundamental principles of precaution and ecosystem approach are not yet incorporated into fisheries management