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Inverse transform sampling

Inverse transform sampling (also known as inversion sampling, the inverse probability integral transform, the inverse transformation method, or the Smirnov transform) is a basic method for pseudo-random number sampling, i.e., for generating sample numbers at random from any probability distribution given its cumulative distribution function.

Inverse transformation sampling takes uniform samples of a number $$u$$ between 0 and 1, interpreted as a probability, and then returns the smallest number $$x\in\mathbb R$$ such that $$F(x)\ge u$$ for the cumulative distribution function $$F$$ of a random variable. For example, imagine that $$F$$ is the standard normal distribution with mean zero and standard deviation one. The table below shows samples taken from the uniform distribution and their representation on the standard normal distribution.

We are randomly choosing a proportion of the area under the curve and returning the number in the domain such that exactly this proportion of the area occurs to the left of that number. Intuitively, we are unlikely to choose a number in the far end of tails because there is very little area in them which would require choosing a number very close to zero or one.

Computationally, this method involves computing the quantile function of the distribution — in other words, computing the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of the distribution (which maps a number in the domain to a probability between 0 and 1) and then inverting that function. This is the source of the term "inverse" or "inversion" in most of the names for this method. Note that for a discrete distribution, computing the CDF is not in general too difficult: we simply add up the individual probabilities for the various points of the distribution. For a continuous distribution, however, we need to integrate the probability density function (PDF) of the distribution, which is impossible to do analytically for most distributions (including the normal distribution). As a result, this method may be computationally inefficient for many distributions and other methods are preferred; however, it is a useful method for building more generally applicable samplers such as those based on rejection sampling.

For the normal distribution, the lack of an analytical expression for the corresponding quantile function means that other methods (e.g. the Box–Muller transform) may be preferred computationally. It is often the case that, even for simple distributions, the inverse transform sampling method can be improved on: see, for example, the ziggurat algorithm and rejection sampling. On the other hand, it is possible to approximate the quantile function of the normal distribution extremely accurately using moderate-degree polynomials, and in fact the method of doing this is fast enough that inversion sampling is now the default method for sampling from a normal distribution in the statistical package R.

Formal statement
For any random variable $$X\in\mathbb R$$, the random variable $$F_X^{-1}(U)$$ has the same distribution as $$X$$, where $$F_X^{-1}$$ is the generalized inverse of the cumulative distribution function $$F_X$$ of $$X$$ and $$U$$ is uniform on $$[0,1]$$.

For continuous random variables, the inverse probability integral transform is indeed the inverse of the probability integral transform, which states that for a continuous random variable $$X$$ with cumulative distribution function $$F_X$$, the random variable $$U=F_X(X)$$ is uniform on $$[0,1]$$.

Intuition
From $$U \sim \mathrm{Unif}[0,1]$$, we want to generate $$X$$ with CDF $$F_X(x).$$ We assume $$F_X(x)$$ to be a continuous, strictly increasing function, which provides good intuition.

We want to see if we can find some strictly monotone transformation $$T:[0,1]\mapsto \mathbb{R}$$, such that $$T(U)\overset{d}{=}X$$. We will have

$$F_X(x)=\Pr(X\leq x)=\Pr(T(U)\leq x) = \Pr(U\leq T^{-1}(x))=T^{-1}(x), \text{ for } x\in \mathbb{R},$$

where the last step used that $$\Pr(U \leq y) = y$$ when $$U$$ is uniform on $$[0,1]$$.

So we got $$F_X$$ to be the inverse function of $$T $$, or, equivalently $$T(u)=F_X^{-1}(u), u\in [0,1]. $$

Therefore, we can generate $$X $$ from $$F_X^{-1}(U). $$

The method
The problem that the inverse transform sampling method solves is as follows:

 * Let $$X$$ be a random variable whose distribution can be described by the cumulative distribution function $$F_X$$.
 * We want to generate values of $$X$$ which are distributed according to this distribution.

The inverse transform sampling method works as follows:
 * 1) Generate a random number $$u$$ from the standard uniform distribution in the interval $$[0,1]$$, i.e. from $$U \sim \mathrm{Unif}[0,1].$$
 * 2) Find the generalized inverse of the desired CDF, i.e. $$F_X^{-1}(u)$$.
 * 3) Compute $$X'(u)=F_X^{-1}(u)$$. The computed random variable $$X'(U)$$ has distribution $$F_X$$ and thereby the same law as $$X$$.

Expressed differently, given a cumulative distribution function $$F_X$$ and a uniform variable $$U\in[0,1]$$, the random variable $$X = F_X^{-1}(U)$$ has the distribution $$F_X$$.

In the continuous case, a treatment of such inverse functions as objects satisfying differential equations can be given. Some such differential equations admit explicit power series solutions, despite their non-linearity.

Examples

 * As an example, suppose we have a random variable $$ U \sim \mathrm{Unif}(0,1)$$ and a cumulative distribution function

\begin{align} F(x)=1-\exp(-\sqrt{x}) \end{align} $$
 * In order to perform an inversion we want to solve for $$F(F^{-1}(u))=u$$

\begin{align} F(F^{-1}(u))&=u \\ 1-\exp\left(-\sqrt{F^{-1}(u)}\right) &= u \\ F^{-1}(u) &= (-\log(1-u))^2 \\ &= (\log(1-u))^2 \end{align} $$
 * From here we would perform steps one, two and three.

 * As another example, we use the exponential distribution with $$F_X(x)=1-e^{-\lambda x}$$ for x ≥ 0 (and 0 otherwise). By solving y=F(x) we obtain the inverse function
 * $$x = F^{-1}(y) = -\frac{1}{\lambda}\ln(1-y).$$
 * It means that if we draw some $$y_0$$from a $$ U \sim \mathrm{Unif}(0,1)$$ and compute $$x_0 = F_X^{-1}(y_0) = -\frac{1}{\lambda}\ln(1-y_0),$$ This $$x_0$$ has exponential distribution.
 * The idea is illustrated in the following graph:

 * Inverse transformation method for exponential distribution.jpg
 * Note that the distribution does not change if we start with 1-y instead of y. For computational purposes, it therefore suffices to generate random numbers y in [0, 1] and then simply calculate
 * $$x = F^{-1}(y) = -\frac{1}{\lambda}\ln(y).$$

Proof of correctness
Let $$F$$ be a cumulative distribution function, and let $$F^{-1}$$ be its generalized inverse function (using the infimum because CDFs are weakly monotonic and right-continuous):

 * $$F^{-1}(u) = \inf\;\{x \mid F(x)\geq u\} \qquad (0<u<1).$$

Claim: If $$U$$ is a uniform random variable on $$[0,1]$$ then $$F^{-1}(U)$$ has $$F$$ as its CDF.

Proof:

\begin{align} & \Pr(F^{-1}(U) \leq x) \\ & {} = \Pr(U \leq F(x)) \quad &(F\text{ is right-continuous, so }\{u:F^{-1}(u)\le x\}=\{u:u\le F(x)\}) \\ & {} = F(x)            \quad &(\text{because }\Pr(U \leq u) = u,\text{ when } U \text{ is uniform on }[0,1]) \\ \end{align} $$

Truncated distribution
Inverse transform sampling can be simply extended to cases of truncated distributions on the interval $$(a,b]$$ without the cost of rejection sampling: the same algorithm can be followed, but instead of generating a random number $$u$$ uniformly distributed between 0 and 1, generate $$u$$ uniformly distributed between $$F(a)$$ and $$F(b)$$, and then again take $$F^{-1}(u)$$.

Reduction of the number of inversions
In order to obtain a large number of samples, one needs to perform the same number of inversions of the distribution. One possible way to reduce the number of inversions while obtaining a large number of samples is the application of the so-called Stochastic Collocation Monte Carlo sampler (SCMC sampler) within a polynomial chaos expansion framework. This allows us to generate any number of Monte Carlo samples with only a few inversions of the original distribution with independent samples of a variable for which the inversions are analytically available, for example the standard normal variable.

Software implementations
There are software implementations available for applying the inverse sampling method by using numerical approximations of the inverse in the case that it is not available in closed form. For example, an approximation of the inverse can be computed if the user provides some information about the distributions such as the PDF or the CDF.

 * C library UNU.RAN
 * R library Runuran
 * Python subpackage sampling in scipy.stats

title: Inverse transform sampling


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Nevi'im

The  (נְבִיאִים Nəvīʾīm, Tiberian: Năḇīʾīm 'Prophets', lit. 'spokespersons') is the second major division of the Hebrew Bible (the Tanakh), lying between the (lit. 'instruction') and  (lit. 'writings'). The Nevi'im are divided into two groups. The Former Prophets (נביאים ראשונים Nevi'im Rishonim) consists of the narrative books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings; while the Latter Prophets (נביאים אחרונים Nevi'im Akharonim) include the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve Minor Prophets.

Synopsis
The Jewish tradition counts a total of eight books in Nevi'im out of a total of twenty-four books in the entire Tanakh: there are four books of the Former Prophets, including Joshua and Judges, and the collected Books of Samuel and Books of Kings are each counted as one book. Among the four books of the Latter Prophets,Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel account for three books and the ("Trei Asar," Aramaic for "twelve": Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi) are counted as a single book.

The development of the Hebrew Bible canon placed the Book of Daniel as part of the "Writings," or Ketuvim, rather than Nevi'im, in distinction to the later approach of the various Christian Bibles for Protestants, Roman Catholics, and Eastern Orthodox, in which Daniel is found among the Prophets, due to its prophetic nature according to common Christian theology. In the Jewish liturgy, a series of selections from the books of Nevi'im ("Prophets") of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) is publicly read/sung aloud inside the synagogue, as part of Jewish religious practice. The Haftarah reading follows the Torah reading on each Shabbat and on Jewish festivals and fast days. The Haftarah readings do not contain the whole text of the Nevi‘im however; they are selections.

Former Prophets
The Former Prophets are the books Joshua, Judges, 1st & 2nd Samuel, 1st & 2nd Kings. They contain historical narratives that begin immediately after the death of Moses with the divine appointment of Joshua as his successor, who then leads the people of Israel into the Promised Land, and end with the release from imprisonment of the last king of Judah. Treating Samuel and Kings as single books, they cover:
 * 1) Joshua's conquest of the land of Canaan (in the Book of Joshua),
 * 2) the struggle of the people to possess the land (in the Book of Judges),
 * 3) the people's request to God to give them a king so that they can occupy the land in the face of their enemies (in the books of 1st and 2nd Samuel)
 * 4) the possession of the land under the divinely-appointed kings of the House of David, ending in conquest and foreign exile (1st and 2nd Kings)

Joshua
The Book of Joshua (Yehoshua יהושע) contains a history of the Israelites from the death of Moses to that of Joshua. After Moses' death, Joshua, by virtue of his previous appointment as Moses' successor, receives from God the command to cross the Jordan. In execution of this order Joshua issues the requisite instructions to the stewards of the people for the crossing of the Jordan; and he reminds the Reubenites, Gadites, and the half of Manasseh of their pledge given to Moses to help their brethren.

The book essentially consists of three parts:
 * 1) The history of the conquest of the land (1–12).
 * 2) The allotment of the land to the different tribes, with the appointment of cities of refuge, the provision for the Levites (13–22), and the dismissal of the eastern tribes to their homes.
 * 3) The farewell addresses of Joshua, with an account of his death (23, 24).

Judges
The Book of Judges (Shoftim שופטים) consists of three distinct parts:
 * 1) The Introduction (1:1–3:10 and 3:12) giving a summary of the book of Joshua.
 * 2) The Main Text (3:11–16:31), discussing the five Great Judges, Abimelech, and providing glosses for a few minor Judges.
 * 3) The Appendices (17:1–21:25), giving two stories set in the time of the Judges, but not discussing the Judges themselves.

Samuel
The Books of Samuel (Shmu'el שמואל) consists of five parts:
 * The period of God's rejection of Eli, Samuel's birth, and subsequent judgment (1 Samuel 1:1–7:17).
 * The period of the life of Saul prior to meeting David (1 Samuel 8:1–15:35).
 * The period of Saul's interaction with David (1 Samuel 16:1 – 2 Samuel 1:27).
 * The period of David's reign and the rebellions he suffers (2 Samuel 2:1–20:22).
 * An appendix of material concerning David in no particular order, and out of sequence with the rest of the text (2 Samuel 22:1–24:25).

A conclusion of sorts appears at 1 Kings 1–2, concerning Solomon enacting a final revenge on those who did what David perceived as wrongdoing, and having a similar narrative style. While the subject matter in the Book(s) of Samuel is also covered by the narrative in Chronicles, it is noticeable that the section (2 Sam. 11:2–12:29) containing an account of the matter of Bathsheba is omitted in the corresponding passage in 1 Chr. 20.

Kings
The Books of Kings (Melakhim מלכים) contains accounts of the kings of the ancient Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah, and the annals of the Jewish commonwealth from the accession of Solomon until the subjugation of the kingdom by Nebuchadnezzar II and the Neo-Babylonian Empire.

Latter Prophets
The Latter Prophets are divided into two groups: the major prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel) and the Twelve Minor Prophets (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi) collected into a single book. Again, although Daniel is considered a major prophet, his book is not in the category of the Nevi'im.

Isaiah
The 66 chapters of the Book of Isaiah (Yeshayahu [ישעיהו]) consist primarily of prophecies of the judgments awaiting nations that are persecuting Judah. These nations include Babylon, Assyria, Philistia, Moab, Syria, Israel (the northern kingdom), Ethiopia, Egypt, Arabia, and Phoenicia. The prophecies concerning them can be summarized as saying that God is the God of the whole earth, and that nations which think of themselves as secure in their own power might well be conquered by other nations, at God's command.

Chapter 6 describes Isaiah's call to be a prophet of God. Chapters 36–39 provide historical material about King Hezekiah and his triumph of faith in God. Chapters 24–35, while too complex to characterize easily, are primarily concerned with prophecies of a Messiah, a person anointed or given power by God, and of the Messiah's kingdom, where justice and righteousness will reign. This section is seen by Jews as describing an actual king, a descendant of their great king, David, who will make Judah a great kingdom and Jerusalem a truly holy city.

The prophecy continues with what some scholars have called "The Book of Comfort" which begins in chapter 40 and completes the writing. In the first eight chapters of this book of comfort, Isaiah prophesies the deliverance of the Jews from the hands of the Babylonians and restoration of Israel as a unified nation in the land promised to them by God. Isaiah reaffirms that the Jews are indeed the chosen people of God in chapter 44 and that Hashem is the only God for the Jews (and only the God of the Jews) as he will show his power over the gods of Babylon in due time in chapter 46. In chapter 45:1 the Persian ruler Cyrus is named as the messiah who will overthrow the Babylonians and allow the return of Israel to their original land. The remaining chapters of the book contain prophecies of the future glory of Zion under the rule of a righteous servant (52 & 54). Chapter 53 contains a very poetic prophecy about this servant which is generally considered by Christians to refer to the crucifixion of Jesus, though Jews generally interpret it as a reference to God's people. Although there is still the mention of judgment of false worshippers and idolaters (65 & 66), the book ends with a message of hope of a righteous ruler who extends salvation to his righteous subjects living in the Lord's kingdom on earth.

Jeremiah
The Book of Jeremiah (Yirmiyahu [ירמיהו]) can be divided into twenty-three chapters, which are organized into five sub-sections or books:
 * 1) The introduction, ch. 1.
 * 2) Scorn for the sins of Israel, consisting of seven sections, (1.) ch. 2; (2.) ch. 3–6; (3.) ch. 7–10; (4.) ch. 11–13; (5.) ch. 14–17:18; (6.) ch. 17:19–ch. 20; (7.) ch. 21–24.
 * 3) A general review of all nations, foreseeing their destruction, in two sections, (1.) ch. 46–49; (2.) ch. 25; with an historical appendix of three sections, (1.) ch. 26; (2.) ch. 27; (3.) ch. 28, 29.
 * 4) Two sections picturing the hopes of better times, (1.) ch. 30, 31; (2.) ch. 32,33; to which is added an historical appendix in three sections, (1.) ch. 34:1–7; (2.) ch. 34:8-22; (3.) ch. 35.
 * 5) The conclusion, in two sections, (1.) ch. 36; (2.) ch. 45.

In Egypt, after an interval, Jeremiah is supposed to have added three sections, viz., ch. 37–39; 40–43; and 44. The main Messianic prophecies are found in 23:1–8; 31:31–40; and 33:14–26.

Jeremiah's prophecies are noted for the frequent repetitions found in them of the same words, phrases, and imagery. They cover the period of about 30 years. They are not in chronological order. Modern scholars do not believe they have reliable theories as to when, where, and how the text was edited into its present form.

Ezekiel
The Book of Ezekiel (Yehezq'el [יחזקאל]) contains three distinct sections:
 * 1) Judgment on Israel – Ezekiel makes a series of denunciations against his fellow Judeans (3:22–24), warning them of the certain destruction of Jerusalem, in opposition to the words of the false prophets (4:1–3). The symbolic acts, by which the extremities to which Jerusalem would be reduced are described in Chapters 4 and 5, show his intimate acquaintance with the Levitical legislation. (See, for example, Exodus 22:30; Deuteronomy 14:21; Leviticus 5:2; 7:18,24; 17:15; 19:7; 22:8)
 * 2) Prophecies against various neighboring nations: against the Ammonites ( Ezek. 25:1–7), the Moabites ( 25:8–11), the Edomites (25:12–14), the Philistines (25:15–17), Tyre and Sidon (26–28), and against Egypt (29-32).
 * 3) Prophecies delivered after the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar II: the triumphs of Israel and of the kingdom of God on earth (Ezek. 33–39); Messianic times, and the establishment and prosperity of the kingdom of God (40–48).

The Twelve
The Twelve are:
 * 1) Hosea or Hoshea [הושע]
 * 2) Joel or Yo'el [יואל]
 * 3) Amos [עמוס]
 * 4) Obadiah or Ovadyah [עובדיה]
 * 5) Jonah or Yonah [יונה]
 * 6) Micah or Mikhah [מיכה]
 * 7) Nahum or Nachum [נחום]
 * 8) Habakkuk or Habaquq [חבקוק]
 * 9) Zephaniah or Tsefania [צפניה]
 * 10) Haggai or Haggai [חגי]
 * 11) Zechariah Zekharia [זכריה]
 * 12) Malachi or Malakhi [מלאכי]

Liturgical use
The Haftarah is a text selected from the books of Nevi'im that is read publicly in the synagogue after the reading of the Torah on each Shabbat, as well as on Jewish festivals and fast days.

Cantillation
There is a special cantillation melody for the haftarah, distinct from that of the Torah portion. In some earlier authorities there are references to a tune for the "prophets" generally, distinct from that for the haftarah: this may have been a simplified melody for learning purposes.

Certain cantillation marks and combinations appear in Nevi'im but not within any of the Haftarah selections, and most communities therefore do not have a musical tradition for those marks. J.L. Neeman suggested that "those who recite Nevi'im privately with the cantillation melody may read the words accented by those rare notes by using a "metaphor" based on the melody of those notes in the five books of the Torah, while adhering to the musical scale of the melody for Nevi'im." Neeman includes a reconstruction of the musical scale for the lost melodies of the rare cantillation notes. In the Ashkenazi tradition, the resemblance between the Torah and Haftarah melodies is obvious and it is easy to transpose motifs between the two as suggested by Neeman. In the Sephardi traditions the haftarah melody is considerably more florid than the Torah melody, and usually in a different musical mode, and there are only isolated points of contact between the two.

Extraliturgical public reading
In some Near and Middle Eastern Jewish traditions, the whole of Nevi'im (as well as the rest of the Tanakh and the Mishnah) is read each year on a weekly rota, usually on Shabbat afternoons. These reading sessions often take place in the synagogue courtyard but are not considered to be synagogue services.

Aramaic translation
A targum is an Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Scriptures that was compiled or written in the Land of Israel or in Babylonia from the Second Temple period until the early Middle Ages (late first millennium). According to the Talmud, the targum on Nevi'im was composed by Jonathan ben Uzziel. Like Targum Onkelos on the Torah, Targum Jonathan is an eastern (Babylonian) targum with early origins in the west (Land of Israel).

Like the targum to the Torah, Targum Jonathan to Nevi'im served a formal liturgical purpose: it was read alternately, verse by verse, or in blocks of up to three verses, in the public reading of the Haftarah and in the study of Nevi'im. Yemenite Jews continue the above tradition to this day and have thus preserved a living tradition of the Babylonian vocalization for the Targum to Nevi'im.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Nevi'im


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Coordinate covalent bond

In coordination chemistry, a coordinate covalent bond, also known as a dative bond, dipolar bond, or coordinate bond is a kind of two-center, two-electron covalent bond in which the two electrons derive from the same atom. The bonding of metal ions to ligands involves this kind of interaction. This type of interaction is central to Lewis acid–base theory.

Coordinate bonds are commonly found in coordination compounds.

Examples
Coordinate covalent bonding is ubiquitous. In all metal aquo-complexes [M(H2O)n]m+, the bonding between water and the metal cation is described as a coordinate covalent bond. Metal-ligand interactions in most organometallic compounds and most coordination compounds are described similarly.

The term dipolar bond is used in organic chemistry for compounds such as amine oxides for which the electronic structure can be described in terms of the basic amine donating two electrons to an oxygen atom.

 * → O

The arrow → indicates that both electrons in the bond originate from the amine moiety. In a standard covalent bond each atom contributes one electron. Therefore, an alternative description is that the amine gives away one electron to the oxygen atom, which is then used, with the remaining unpaired electron on the nitrogen atom, to form a standard covalent bond. The process of transferring the electron from nitrogen to oxygen creates formal charges, so the electronic structure may also be depicted as

This electronic structure has an electric dipole, hence the name polar bond. In reality, the atoms carry partial charges; the more electronegative atom of the two involved in the bond will usually carry a partial negative charge. One exception to this is carbon monoxide. In this case, the carbon atom carries the partial negative charge although it is less electronegative than oxygen.

An example of a dative covalent bond is provided by the interaction between a molecule of ammonia, a Lewis base with a lone pair of electrons on the nitrogen atom, and boron trifluoride, a Lewis acid by virtue of the boron atom having an incomplete octet of electrons. In forming the adduct, the boron atom attains an octet configuration.

The electronic structure of a coordination complex can be described in terms of the set of ligands each donating a pair of electrons to a metal centre. For example, in hexamminecobalt(III) chloride, each ammonia ligand donates its lone pair of electrons to the cobalt(III) ion. In this case, the bonds formed are described as coordinate bonds. In the Covalent Bond Classification (CBC) method, ligands that form coordinate covalent bonds with a central atom are classed as L-type, while those that form normal covalent bonds are classed as X-type.

Comparison with other electron-sharing modes
In all cases, the bond, whether dative or "normal" electron-sharing, is a covalent bond. In common usage, the prefix dipolar, dative or coordinate merely serves to indicate the origin of the electrons used in creating the bond. For example, F3B ← O(C2H5)2 ("boron trifluoride (diethyl) etherate") is prepared from BF3 and :O(C2H5)2, as opposed to the radical species [•BF3]– and [•O(C2H5)2]+. The dative bond is also a convenience in terms of notation, as formal charges are avoided: we can write D: + []A ⇌ D → A rather than D+–A– (here : and [] represent the lone-pair and empty orbital on the electron-pair donor D and acceptor A, respectively). The notation is sometimes used even when the Lewis acid-base reaction involved is only notional (e.g., the sulfoxide R2S → O is rarely if ever made by reacting the sulfide R2S with atomic oxygen O). Thus, most chemists do not make any claim with respect to the properties of the bond when choosing one notation over the other (formal charges vs. arrow bond).

It is generally true, however, that bonds depicted this way are polar covalent, sometimes strongly so, and some authors claim that there are genuine differences in the properties of a dative bond and electron-sharing bond and suggest that showing a dative bond is more appropriate in particular situations. As far back as 1989, Haaland characterized dative bonds as bonds that are (i) weak and long; (ii) with only a small degree of charge-transfer taking place during bond formation; and (iii) whose preferred mode of dissociation in the gas phase (or low ε inert solvent) is heterolytic rather than homolytic. The ammonia-borane adduct (H3N → BH3) is given as a classic example: the bond is weak, with a dissociation energy of 31 kcal/mol (cf. 90 kcal/mol for ethane), and long, at 166 pm (cf. 153 pm for ethane), and the molecule possesses a dipole moment of 5.2 D that implies a transfer of only 0.2 e– from nitrogen to boron. The heterolytic dissociation of H3N → BH3 is estimated to require 27 kcal/mol, confirming that heterolysis into ammonia and borane is more favorable than homolysis into radical cation and radical anion. However, aside from clear-cut examples, there is considerable dispute as to when a particular compound qualifies and, thus, the overall prevalence of dative bonding (with respect to an author's preferred definition). Computational chemists have suggested quantitative criteria to distinguish between the two "types" of bonding.

Some non-obvious examples where dative bonding is claimed to be important include carbon suboxide (O≡C → C0 ← C≡O), tetraaminoallenes (described using dative bond language as "carbodicarbenes"; (R2N)2C → C0 ← C(NR2)2), the Ramirez carbodiphosphorane (Ph3P → C0 ← PPh3), and bis(triphenylphosphine)iminium cation (Ph3P → N+ ← PPh3), all of which exhibit considerably bent equilibrium geometries, though with a shallow barrier to bending. Simple application of the normal rules for drawing Lewis structures by maximizing bonding (using electron-sharing bonds) and minimizing formal charges would predict heterocumulene structures, and therefore linear geometries, for each of these compounds. Thus, these molecules are claimed to be better modeled as coordination complexes of :C: (carbon(0) or carbone) or :N:+ (mononitrogen cation) with CO, PPh3, or N-heterocycliccarbenes as ligands, the lone-pairs on the central atom accounting for the bent geometry. However, the usefulness of this view is disputed.

title: Coordinate covalent bond


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Talk:Bromeliales

Untitled

 * Bromeliales I tried to fix this stub, but i found that the taxonomy of the Bromeliales and their closest relatives is heavily disputed among scientists. Not being a plant taxonomist, i feel unable to do that subject justice. The article needs attention by someone knowledged in plant taxonomy. Lady Tenar 16:05, 6 Feb 2005 (UTC)

A taxon at the level of order is a box. When the box contains a single family only, nothing can be said of the plants in the order that can not be said of the plants in the family. So this is doomed to be a bare-boned entry no matter what. Quite useful as a quick reference, and as a node of links, but not otherwise. Brya 09:06, 19 May 2006 (UTC)

Ref
Reference probably best deleted or moved to Bromeliaceae:

Brya 08:53, 19 May 2006 (UTC)

title: Talk:Bromeliales


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Forensic science

Forensic science, also known as criminalistics, is the application of science principles and methods to support legal decision-making in matters of criminal and civil law.

During criminal investigation in particular, it is governed by the legal standards of admissible evidence and criminal procedure. It is a broad field utilizing numerous practices such as the analysis of DNA, fingerprints, bloodstain patterns, firearms, ballistics, toxicology, microscopy and fire debris analysis.

Forensic scientists collect, preserve, and analyze evidence during the course of an investigation. While some forensic scientists travel to the scene of the crime to collect the evidence themselves, others occupy a laboratory role, performing analysis on objects brought to them by other individuals. Others are involved in analysis of financial, banking, or other numerical data for use in financial crime investigation, and can be employed as consultants from private firms, academia, or as government employees.

In addition to their laboratory role, forensic scientists testify as expert witnesses in both criminal and civil cases and can work for either the prosecution or the defense. While any field could technically be forensic, certain sections have developed over time to encompass the majority of forensically related cases.

Etymology
The term forensic stems from the Latin word, forēnsis (3rd declension, adjective), meaning "of a forum, place of assembly". The history of the term originates in Roman times, when a criminal charge meant presenting the case before a group of public individuals in the forum. Both the person accused of the crime and the accuser would give speeches based on their sides of the story. The case would be decided in favor of the individual with the best argument and delivery. This origin is the source of the two modern usages of the word forensic—as a form of legal evidence; and as a category of public presentation.

In modern use, the term forensics is often used in place of "forensic science."

The word "science", is derived from the Latin word for 'knowledge' and is today closely tied to the scientific method, a systematic way of acquiring knowledge. Taken together, forensic science means the use of scientific methods and processes for crime solving.

Origins of forensic science and early methods
The ancient world lacked standardized forensic practices, which enabled criminals to escape punishment. Criminal investigations and trials relied heavily on forced confessions and witness testimony. However, ancient sources do contain several accounts of techniques that foreshadow concepts in forensic science developed centuries later.

The first written account of using medicine and entomology to solve criminal cases is attributed to the book of Xi Yuan Lu (translated as Washing Away of Wrongs ), written in China in 1248 by Song Ci (宋慈, 1186–1249), a director of justice, jail and supervision, during the Song dynasty.

Song Ci introduced regulations concerning autopsy reports to court, how to protect the evidence in the examining process, and explained why forensic workers must demonstrate impartiality to the public. He devised methods for making antiseptic and for promoting the reappearance of hidden injuries to dead bodies and bones (using sunlight and vinegar under a red-oil umbrella); for calculating the time of death (allowing for weather and insect activity); described how to wash and examine the dead body to ascertain the reason for death. At that time the book had described methods for distinguishing between suicide and faked suicide. He wrote the book on forensics stating that all wounds or dead bodies should be examined, not avoided. The book became the first form of literature to help determine the cause of death.

In one of Song Ci's accounts (Washing Away of Wrongs), the case of a person murdered with a sickle was solved by an investigator who instructed each suspect to bring his sickle to one location. (He realized it was a sickle by testing various blades on an animal carcass and comparing the wounds.) Flies, attracted by the smell of blood, eventually gathered on a single sickle. In light of this, the owner of that sickle confessed to the murder. The book also described how to distinguish between a drowning (water in the lungs) and strangulation (broken neck cartilage), and described evidence from examining corpses to determine if a death was caused by murder, suicide or accident.

Methods from around the world involved saliva and examination of the mouth and tongue to determine innocence or guilt, as a precursor to the Polygraph test. In ancient India, some suspects were made to fill their mouths with dried rice and spit it back out. Similarly, in ancient China, those accused of a crime would have rice powder placed in their mouths. In ancient middle-eastern cultures, the accused were made to lick hot metal rods briefly. It is thought that these tests had some validity since a guilty person would produce less saliva and thus have a drier mouth; the accused would be considered guilty if rice was sticking to their mouths in abundance or if their tongues were severely burned due to lack of shielding from saliva.

Education and Training
Initial glance, forensic intelligence may appear as a nascent facet of forensic science facilitated by advancements in information technologies such as computers, databases, and data-flow management software. However, a more profound examination reveals that forensic intelligence represents a genuine and emerging inclination among forensic practitioners to actively participate in investigative and policing strategies. In doing so, it elucidates existing practices within scientific literature, advocating for a paradigm shift from the prevailing conception of forensic science as a conglomerate of disciplines merely aiding the criminal justice system. Instead, it urges a perspective that views forensic science as a discipline studying the informative potential of traces—remnants of criminal activity. Embracing this transformative shift poses a significant challenge for education, necessitating a shift in learners' mindset to accept concepts and methodologies in forensic intelligence.

Recent calls advocating for the integration of forensic scientists into the criminal justice system, as well as policing and intelligence missions, underscore the necessity for the establishment of educational and training initiatives in the field of forensic intelligence. This article contends that a discernible gap exists between the perceived and actual comprehension of forensic intelligence among law enforcement and forensic science managers, positing that this asymmetry can be rectified only through educational interventions

The primary challenge in forensic intelligence education and training is identified as the formulation of programs aimed at heightening awareness, particularly among managers, to mitigate the risk of making suboptimal decisions in information processing. The paper highlights two recent European courses as exemplars of educational endeavors, elucidating lessons learned and proposing future directions.

The overarching conclusion is that the heightened focus on forensic intelligence has the potential to rejuvenate a proactive approach to forensic science, enhance quantifiable efficiency, and foster greater involvement in investigative and managerial decision-making. A novel educational challenge is articulated for forensic science university programs worldwide: a shift in emphasis from a fragmented criminal trace analysis to a more comprehensive security problem-solving approach.

Development of forensic science

In 16th-century Europe, medical practitioners in army and university settings began to gather information on the cause and manner of death. Ambroise Paré, a French army surgeon, systematically studied the effects of violent death on internal organs. Two Italian surgeons, Fortunato Fidelis and Paolo Zacchia, laid the foundation of modern pathology by studying changes that occurred in the structure of the body as the result of disease. In the late 18th century, writings on these topics began to appear. These included A Treatise on Forensic Medicine and Public Health by the French physician Francois Immanuele Fodéré and The Complete System of Police Medicine by the German medical expert Johann Peter Frank.

As the rational values of the Enlightenment era increasingly permeated society in the 18th century, criminal investigation became a more evidence-based, rational procedure − the use of torture to force confessions was curtailed, and belief in witchcraft and other powers of the occult largely ceased to influence the court's decisions. Two examples of English forensic science in individual legal proceedings demonstrate the increasing use of logic and procedure in criminal investigations at the time. In 1784, in Lancaster, John Toms was tried and convicted for murdering Edward Culshaw with a pistol. When the dead body of Culshaw was examined, a pistol wad (crushed paper used to secure powder and balls in the muzzle) found in his head wound matched perfectly with a torn newspaper found in Toms's pocket, leading to the conviction.

In Warwick 1816, a farm laborer was tried and convicted of the murder of a young maidservant. She had been drowned in a shallow pool and bore the marks of violent assault. The police found footprints and an impression from corduroy cloth with a sewn patch in the damp earth near the pool. There were also scattered grains of wheat and chaff. The breeches of a farm labourer who had been threshing wheat nearby were examined and corresponded exactly to the impression in the earth near the pool.

An article appearing in Scientific American in 1885 describes the use of microscopy to distinguish between the blood of two persons in a criminal case in Chicago.

Chromatography
Chromatography is a common technique used in the field of Forensic Science. Chromatography is a method of separating the components of a mixture from a mobile phase. Chromatography is an essential tool used in forensic science, helping analysts identify and compare trace amounts of samples including ignitable liquids, drugs, and biological samples. Many laboratories utilize gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) to examine these kinds of samples; this analysis provides rapid and reliant data to identify samples in question.

Toxicology
A method for detecting arsenious oxide, simple arsenic, in corpses was devised in 1773 by the Swedish chemist, Carl Wilhelm Scheele. His work was expanded upon, in 1806, by German chemist Valentin Ross, who learned to detect the poison in the walls of a victim's stomach.

James Marsh was the first to apply this new science to the art of forensics. He was called by the prosecution in a murder trial to give evidence as a chemist in 1832. The defendant, John Bodle, was accused of poisoning his grandfather with arsenic-laced coffee. Marsh performed the standard test by mixing a suspected sample with hydrogen sulfide and hydrochloric acid. While he was able to detect arsenic as yellow arsenic trisulfide, when it was shown to the jury it had deteriorated, allowing the suspect to be acquitted due to reasonable doubt.

Annoyed by that, Marsh developed a much better test. He combined a sample containing arsenic with sulfuric acid and arsenic-free zinc, resulting in arsine gas. The gas was ignited, and it decomposed to pure metallic arsenic, which, when passed to a cold surface, would appear as a silvery-black deposit. So sensitive was the test, known formally as the Marsh test, that it could detect as little as one-fiftieth of a milligram of arsenic. He first described this test in The Edinburgh Philosophical Journal in 1836.

Ballistics and firearms
Ballistics is "the science of the motion of projectiles in flight". In forensic science, analysts examine the patterns left on bullets and cartridge casings after being ejected from a weapon. When fired, a bullet is left with indentations and markings that are unique to the barrel and firing pin of the firearm that ejected the bullet. This examination can help scientists identify possible makes and models of weapons connected to a crime.

Henry Goddard at Scotland Yard pioneered the use of bullet comparison in 1835. He noticed a flaw in the bullet that killed the victim and was able to trace this back to the mold that was used in the manufacturing process.

Anthropometry
The French police officer Alphonse Bertillon was the first to apply the anthropological technique of anthropometry to law enforcement, thereby creating an identification system based on physical measurements. Before that time, criminals could be identified only by name or photograph. Dissatisfied with the ad hoc methods used to identify captured criminals in France in the 1870s, he began his work on developing a reliable system of anthropometrics for human classification.

Bertillon created many other forensics techniques, including forensic document examination, the use of galvanoplastic compounds to preserve footprints, ballistics, and the dynamometer, used to determine the degree of force used in breaking and entering. Although his central methods were soon to be supplanted by fingerprinting, "his other contributions like the mug shot and the systematization of crime-scene photography remain in place to this day."

Fingerprints
Sir William Herschel was one of the first to advocate the use of fingerprinting in the identification of criminal suspects. While working for the Indian Civil Service, he began to use thumbprints on documents as a security measure to prevent the then-rampant repudiation of signatures in 1858.

In 1877 at Hooghly (near Kolkata), Herschel instituted the use of fingerprints on contracts and deeds, and he registered government pensioners' fingerprints to prevent the collection of money by relatives after a pensioner's death.

In 1880, Henry Faulds, a Scottish surgeon in a Tokyo hospital, published his first paper on the subject in the scientific journal Nature, discussing the usefulness of fingerprints for identification and proposing a method to record them with printing ink. He established their first classification and was also the first to identify fingerprints left on a vial. Returning to the UK in 1886, he offered the concept to the Metropolitan Police in London, but it was dismissed at that time.

Faulds wrote to Charles Darwin with a description of his method, but, too old and ill to work on it, Darwin gave the information to his cousin, Francis Galton, who was interested in anthropology. Having been thus inspired to study fingerprints for ten years, Galton published a detailed statistical model of fingerprint analysis and identification and encouraged its use in forensic science in his book Finger Prints. He had calculated that the chance of a "false positive" (two different individuals having the same fingerprints) was about 1 in 64 billion.

Juan Vucetich, an Argentine chief police officer, created the first method of recording the fingerprints of individuals on file. In 1892, after studying Galton's pattern types, Vucetich set up the world's first fingerprint bureau. In that same year, Francisca Rojas of Necochea was found in a house with neck injuries whilst her two sons were found dead with their throats cut. Rojas accused a neighbour, but despite brutal interrogation, this neighbour would not confess to the crimes. Inspector Alvarez, a colleague of Vucetich, went to the scene and found a bloody thumb mark on a door. When it was compared with Rojas' prints, it was found to be identical with her right thumb. She then confessed to the murder of her sons.

A Fingerprint Bureau was established in Calcutta (Kolkata), India, in 1897, after the Council of the Governor General approved a committee report that fingerprints should be used for the classification of criminal records. Working in the Calcutta Anthropometric Bureau, before it became the Fingerprint Bureau, were Azizul Haque and Hem Chandra Bose. Haque and Bose were Indian fingerprint experts who have been credited with the primary development of a fingerprint classification system eventually named after their supervisor, Sir Edward Richard Henry. The Henry Classification System, co-devised by Haque and Bose, was accepted in England and Wales when the first United Kingdom Fingerprint Bureau was founded in Scotland Yard, the Metropolitan Police headquarters, London, in 1901. Sir Edward Richard Henry subsequently achieved improvements in dactyloscopy.

In the United States, Henry P. DeForrest used fingerprinting in the New York Civil Service in 1902, and by December 1905, New York City Police Department Deputy Commissioner Joseph A. Faurot, an expert in the Bertillon system and a fingerprint advocate at Police Headquarters, introduced the fingerprinting of criminals to the United States.

Uhlenhuth test
The Uhlenhuth test, or the antigen–antibody precipitin test for species, was invented by Paul Uhlenhuth in 1901 and could distinguish human blood from animal blood, based on the discovery that the blood of different species had one or more characteristic proteins. The test represented a major breakthrough and came to have tremendous importance in forensic science. The test was further refined for forensic use by the Swiss chemist Maurice Müller in the year 1960s.

DNA
Forensic DNA analysis was first used in 1984. It was developed by Sir Alec Jeffreys, who realized that variation in the genetic sequence could be used to identify individuals and to tell individuals apart from one another. The first application of DNA profiles was used by Jeffreys in a double murder mystery in the small English town of Narborough, Leicestershire, in 1985. A 15-year-old school girl by the name of Lynda Mann was raped and murdered in Carlton Hayes psychiatric hospital. The police did not find a suspect but were able to obtain a semen sample.

In 1986, Dawn Ashworth, 15 years old, was also raped and strangled in the nearby village of Enderby. Forensic evidence showed that both killers had the same blood type. Richard Buckland became the suspect because he worked at Carlton Hayes psychiatric hospital, had been spotted near Dawn Ashworth's murder scene and knew unreleased details about the body. He later confessed to Dawn's murder but not Lynda's. Jefferys was brought into the case to analyze the semen samples. He concluded that there was no match between the samples and Buckland, who became the first person to be exonerated using DNA. Jefferys confirmed that the DNA profiles were identical for the two murder semen samples. To find the perpetrator, DNA samples from the entire male population, more than 4,000 aged from 17 to 34, of the town were collected. They all were compared to semen samples from the crime. A friend of Colin Pitchfork was heard saying that he had given his sample to the police claiming to be Colin. Colin Pitchfork was arrested in 1987 and it was found that his DNA profile matched the semen samples from the murder.

Because of this case, DNA databases were developed. There is the national (FBI) and international databases as well as the European countries (ENFSI: European Network of Forensic Science Institutes). These searchable databases are used to match crime scene DNA profiles to those already in a database.

Maturation

By the turn of the 20th century, the science of forensics had become largely established in the sphere of criminal investigation. Scientific and surgical investigation was widely employed by the Metropolitan Police during their pursuit of the mysterious Jack the Ripper, who had killed a number of women in the 1880s. This case is a watershed in the application of forensic science. Large teams of policemen conducted house-to-house inquiries throughout Whitechapel. Forensic material was collected and examined. Suspects were identified, traced and either examined more closely or eliminated from the inquiry. Police work follows the same pattern today. Over 2000 people were interviewed, "upwards of 300" people were investigated, and 80 people were detained.

The investigation was initially conducted by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), headed by Detective Inspector Edmund Reid. Later, Detective Inspectors Frederick Abberline, Henry Moore, and Walter Andrews were sent from Central Office at Scotland Yard to assist. Initially, butchers, surgeons and physicians were suspected because of the manner of the mutilations. The alibis of local butchers and slaughterers were investigated, with the result that they were eliminated from the inquiry. Some contemporary figures thought the pattern of the murders indicated that the culprit was a butcher or cattle drover on one of the cattle boats that plied between London and mainland Europe. Whitechapel was close to the London Docks, and usually such boats docked on Thursday or Friday and departed on Saturday or Sunday. The cattle boats were examined, but the dates of the murders did not coincide with a single boat's movements, and the transfer of a crewman between boats was also ruled out.

At the end of October, Robert Anderson asked police surgeon Thomas Bond to give his opinion on the extent of the murderer's surgical skill and knowledge. The opinion offered by Bond on the character of the "Whitechapel murderer" is the earliest surviving offender profile. Bond's assessment was based on his own examination of the most extensively mutilated victim and the post mortem notes from the four previous canonical murders. In his opinion the killer must have been a man of solitary habits, subject to "periodical attacks of homicidal and erotic mania", with the character of the mutilations possibly indicating "satyriasis". Bond also stated that "the homicidal impulse may have developed from a revengeful or brooding condition of the mind, or that religious mania may have been the original disease but I do not think either hypothesis is likely".

Handbook for Coroners, police officials, military policemen was written by the Austrian criminal jurist Hans Gross in 1893, and is generally acknowledged as the birth of the field of criminalistics. The work combined in one system fields of knowledge that had not been previously integrated, such as psychology and physical science, and which could be successfully used against crime. Gross adapted some fields to the needs of criminal investigation, such as crime scene photography. He went on to found the Institute of Criminalistics in 1912, as part of the University of Graz' Law School. This Institute was followed by many similar institutes all over the world.

In 1909, Archibald Reiss founded the Institut de police scientifique of the University of Lausanne (UNIL), the first school of forensic science in the world. Dr. Edmond Locard, became known as the "Sherlock Holmes of France". He formulated the basic principle of forensic science: "Every contact leaves a trace", which became known as Locard's exchange principle. In 1910, he founded what may have been the first criminal laboratory in the world, after persuading the Police Department of Lyon (France) to give him two attic rooms and two assistants.

Symbolic of the newfound prestige of forensics and the use of reasoning in detective work was the popularity of the fictional character Sherlock Holmes, written by Arthur Conan Doyle in the late 19th century. He remains a great inspiration for forensic science, especially for the way his acute study of a crime scene yielded small clues as to the precise sequence of events. He made great use of trace evidence such as shoe and tire impressions, as well as fingerprints, ballistics and handwriting analysis, now known as questioned document examination. Such evidence is used to test theories conceived by the police, for example, or by the investigator himself. All of the techniques advocated by Holmes later became reality, but were generally in their infancy at the time Conan Doyle was writing. In many of his reported cases, Holmes frequently complains of the way the crime scene has been contaminated by others, especially by the police, emphasising the critical importance of maintaining its integrity, a now well-known feature of crime scene examination. He used analytical chemistry for blood residue analysis as well as toxicology examination and determination for poisons. He used ballistics by measuring bullet calibres and matching them with a suspected murder weapon.

Late 19th – early 20th century figures

Hans Gross applied scientific methods to crime scenes and was responsible for the birth of criminalistics.

Edmond Locard expanded on Gross' work with Locard's Exchange Principle which stated "whenever two objects come into contact with one another, materials are exchanged between them". This means that every contact by a criminal leaves a trace.

Alexander Lacassagne, who taught Locard, produced autopsy standards on actual forensic cases.

Alphonse Bertillon was a French criminologist and founder of Anthropometry (scientific study of measurements and proportions of the human body). He used anthropometry for identification, stating that, since each individual is unique, by measuring aspects of physical difference there could be a personal identification system. He created the Bertillon System around 1879, a way of identifying criminals and citizens by measuring 20 parts of the body. In 1884, over 240 repeat offenders were caught using the Bertillon system, but the system was largely superseded by fingerprinting.

Frances Glessner Lee, known as "the mother of forensic science", was instrumental in the development of forensic science in the US. She lobbied to have coroners replaced by medical professionals, endowed the Harvard Associates in Police Science, and conducted many seminars to educate homicide investigators. She also created the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, intricate crime scene dioramas used to train investigators, which are still in use today.

20th century

Later in the 20th century several British pathologists, Mikey Rochman, Francis Camps, Sydney Smith and Keith Simpson pioneered new forensic science methods. Alec Jeffreys pioneered the use of DNA profiling in forensic science in 1984. He realized the scope of DNA fingerprinting, which uses variations in the genetic code to identify individuals. The method has since become important in forensic science to assist police detective work, and it has also proved useful in resolving paternity and immigration disputes. DNA fingerprinting was first used as a police forensic test to identify the rapist and killer of two teenagers, Lynda Mann and Dawn Ashworth, who were both murdered in Narborough, Leicestershire, in 1983 and 1986 respectively. Colin Pitchfork was identified and convicted of murder after samples taken from him matched semen samples taken from the two dead girls.

Forensic science has been fostered by a number of national and international forensic science learned bodies including the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (founded 1948), publishers of the Journal of Forensic Sciences; the Canadian Society of Forensic Science (founded 1953), publishers of the Journal of the Canadian Society of Forensic Science; the Chartered Society of Forensic Sciences, (founded 1959), then known as the Forensic Science Society, publisher of Science & Justice; the British Academy of Forensic Sciences (founded 1960), publishers of Medicine, Science and the Law; the Australian Academy of Forensic Sciences (founded 1967), publishers of the Australian Journal of Forensic Sciences; and the European Network of Forensic Science Institutes (founded 1995).

21st century
In the past decade, documenting forensics scenes has become more efficient. Forensic scientists have started using laser scanners, drones and photogrammetry to obtain 3D point clouds of accidents or crime scenes. Reconstruction of an accident scene on a highway using drones involves data acquisition time of only 10–20 minutes and can be performed without shutting down traffic. The results are not just accurate, in centimeters, for measurement to be presented in court but also easy to digitally preserve in the long term. Now, in the 21st century, much of forensic science's future is up for discussion. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has several forensic science-related programs: CSAFE, a NIST Center of Excellence in Forensic Science, the National Commission on Forensic Science (now concluded), and administration of the Organization of Scientific Area Committees for Forensic Science (OSAC). One of the more recent additions by NIST is a document called NISTIR-7941, titled "Forensic Science Laboratories: Handbook for Facility Planning, Design, Construction, and Relocation". The handbook provides a clear blueprint for approaching forensic science. The details even include what type of staff should be hired for certain positions.

Subdivisions

 * Art forensics concerns the art authentication cases to help research the work's authenticity. Art authentication methods are used to detect and identify forgery, faking and copying of art works, e.g. paintings.
 * Bloodstain pattern analysis is the scientific examination of blood spatter patterns found at a crime scene to reconstruct the events of the crime.
 * Comparative forensics is the application of visual comparison techniques to verify similarity of physical evidence. This includes fingerprint analysis, toolmark analysis, and ballistic analysis.
 * Computational forensics concerns the development of algorithms and software to assist forensic examination.
 * Criminalistics is the application of various sciences to answer questions relating to examination and comparison of biological evidence, trace evidence, impression evidence (such as fingerprints, footwear impressions, and tire tracks), controlled substances, ballistics, firearm and toolmark examination, and other evidence in criminal investigations. In typical circumstances, evidence is processed in a crime lab.
 * Digital forensics is the application of proven scientific methods and techniques in order to recover data from electronic / digital media. Digital Forensic specialists work in the field as well as in the lab.
 * Ear print analysis is used as a means of forensic identification intended as an identification tool similar to fingerprinting. An earprint is a two-dimensional reproduction of the parts of the outer ear that have touched a specific surface (most commonly the helix, antihelix, tragus and antitragus).
 * Election forensics is the use of statistics to determine if election results are normal or abnormal. It is also used to look into and detect the cases concerning gerrymandering.
 * Forensic accounting is the study and interpretation of accounting evidence, financial statement namely: Balance sheet, Income statement, Cash flow statement.
 * Forensic aerial photography is the study and interpretation of aerial photographic evidence.
 * Forensic anthropology is the application of physical anthropology in a legal setting, usually for the recovery and identification of skeletonized human remains.
 * Forensic archaeology is the application of a combination of archaeological techniques and forensic science, typically in law enforcement.
 * Forensic astronomy uses methods from astronomy to determine past celestial constellations for forensic purposes.
 * Forensic botany is the study of plant life in order to gain information regarding possible crimes.
 * Forensic chemistry is the study of detection and identification of illicit drugs, accelerants used in arson cases, explosive and gunshot residue.
 * Forensic dactyloscopy is the study of fingerprints.
 * Forensic document examination or questioned document examination answers questions about a disputed document using a variety of scientific processes and methods. Many examinations involve a comparison of the questioned document, or components of the document, with a set of known standards. The most common type of examination involves handwriting, whereby the examiner tries to address concerns about potential authorship.
 * Forensic DNA analysis takes advantage of the uniqueness of an individual's DNA to answer forensic questions such as paternity/maternity testing and placing a suspect at a crime scene, e.g. in a rape investigation.
 * Forensic engineering is the scientific examination and analysis of structures and products relating to their failure or cause of damage.
 * Forensic entomology deals with the examination of insects in, on and around human remains to assist in determination of time or location of death. It is also possible to determine if the body was moved after death using entomology.
 * Forensic geology deals with trace evidence in the form of soils, minerals and petroleum.
 * Forensic geomorphology is the study of the ground surface to look for potential location(s) of buried object(s).
 * Forensic geophysics is the application of geophysical techniques such as radar for detecting objects hidden underground or underwater.
 * Forensic intelligence process starts with the collection of data and ends with the integration of results within into the analysis of crimes under investigation.
 * Forensic interviews are conducted using the science of professionally using expertise to conduct a variety of investigative interviews with victims, witnesses, suspects or other sources to determine the facts regarding suspicions, allegations or specific incidents in either public or private sector settings.
 * Forensic histopathology is the application of histological techniques and examination to forensic pathology practice.
 * Forensic limnology is the analysis of evidence collected from crime scenes in or around fresh-water sources. Examination of biological organisms, in particular diatoms, can be useful in connecting suspects with victims.
 * Forensic linguistics deals with issues in the legal system that requires linguistic expertise.
 * Forensic meteorology is a site-specific analysis of past weather conditions for a point of loss.
 * Forensic metrology is the application of metrology to assess the reliability of scientific evidence obtained through measurements
 * Forensic microbiology is the study of the necrobiome.
 * Forensic nursing is the application of Nursing sciences to abusive crimes, like child abuse, or sexual abuse. Categorization of wounds and traumas, collection of bodily fluids and emotional support are some of the duties of forensic nurses.
 * Forensic odontology is the study of the uniqueness of dentition, better known as the study of teeth.
 * Forensic optometry is the study of glasses and other eyewear relating to crime scenes and criminal investigations.
 * Forensic pathology is a field in which the principles of medicine and pathology are applied to determine a cause of death or injury in the context of a legal inquiry.
 * Forensic podiatry is an application of the study of feet footprint or footwear and their traces to analyze scene of crime and to establish personal identity in forensic examinations.
 * Forensic psychiatry is a specialized branch of psychiatry as applied to and based on scientific criminology.
 * Forensic psychology is the study of the mind of an individual, using forensic methods. Usually it determines the circumstances behind a criminal's behavior.
 * Forensic seismology is the study of techniques to distinguish the seismic signals generated by underground nuclear explosions from those generated by earthquakes.
 * Forensic serology is the study of the body fluids.
 * Forensic social work is the specialist study of social work theories and their applications to a clinical, criminal justice or psychiatric setting. Practitioners of forensic social work connected with the criminal justice system are often termed Social Supervisors, whilst the remaining use the interchangeable titles forensic social worker, approved mental health professional or forensic practitioner and they conduct specialist assessments of risk, care planning and act as an officer of the court.
 * Forensic toxicology is the study of the effect of drugs and poisons on/in the human body.
 * Forensic video analysis is the scientific examination, comparison and evaluation of video in legal matters.
 * Mobile device forensics is the scientific examination and evaluation of evidence found in mobile phones, e.g. Call History and Deleted SMS, and includes SIM Card Forensics.
 * Trace evidence analysis is the analysis and comparison of trace evidence including glass, paint, fibres and hair (e.g., using micro-spectrophotometry).
 * Wildlife forensic science applies a range of scientific disciplines to legal cases involving non-human biological evidence, to solve crimes such as poaching, animal abuse, and trade in endangered species.

Questionable techniques
Some forensic techniques, believed to be scientifically sound at the time they were used, have turned out later to have much less scientific merit or none. Some such techniques include:
 * Comparative bullet-lead analysis was used by the FBI for over four decades, starting with the John F. Kennedy assassination in 1963. The theory was that each batch of ammunition possessed a chemical makeup so distinct that a bullet could be traced back to a particular batch or even a specific box.  Internal studies and an outside study by the National Academy of Sciences found that the technique was unreliable due to improper interpretation, and the FBI abandoned the test in 2005.
 * Forensic dentistry has come under fire: in at least three cases bite-mark evidence has been used to convict people of murder who were later freed by DNA evidence. A 1999 study by a member of the American Board of Forensic Odontology found a 63 percent rate of false identifications and is commonly referenced within online news stories and conspiracy websites.  The study was based on an informal workshop during an ABFO meeting, which many members did not consider a valid scientific setting. The theory is that each person has a unique and distinctive set of teeth, which leave a pattern after biting someone. They analyze the dental characteristics such as size, shape, and arch form.
 * In 2009, scientists were able to show that it is possible to fabricate DNA evidence, thus "undermining the credibility of what has been considered the gold standard of proof in criminal cases".
 * Police Access to Genetic Genealogy Databases: There are privacy concerns with the police being able to access personal genetic data that is on genealogy services. Individuals can become criminal informants to their own families or to themselves simply by participating in genetic genealogy databases. The Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) is a database that the FBI uses to hold genetic profiles of all known felons, misdemeanants, and arrestees. Some people argue that individuals who are using genealogy databases should have an expectation of privacy in their data that is or may be violated by genetic searches by law enforcement. These different services have warning signs about potential third parties using their information, but most individuals do not read the agreement thoroughly. According to a study by Christi Guerrini, Jill Robinson, Devan Petersen, and Amy McGuire, they found that the majority of the people who took the survey support police searches of genetic websites that identify genetic relatives. People who responded to the survey are more supportive of police activities using genetic genealogy when it is for the purpose of identifying offenders of violent crimes, suspects of crimes against children or missing people. The data from the surveys that were given show that individuals are not concerned about police searches using personal genetic data if it is justified. It was found in this study that offenders are disproportionally low-income and black and the average person of genetic testing is wealthy and white. The results from the study had different results. In 2016, there was a survey called the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) that was provided by the US Bureau of Justice Statistics. In that survey, it was found that 1.3% of people aged 12 or older were victims of violent crimes, and 8.85 of households were victims of property crimes. There were some issues with this survey though. The NCVS produces only the annual estimates of victimization. The survey that Christi Guerrini, Jill Robinson, Devan Petersen, and Amy McGuire produced asked the participants about the incidents of victimization over one's lifetime. Their survey also did not restrict other family members to one household. Around 25% of people who responded to the survey said that they have had family members that have been employed by law enforcement which includes security guards and bailiffs. Throughout these surveys, it has been found that there is public support for law enforcement to access genetic genealogy databases.

Litigation science
"Litigation science" describes analysis or data developed or produced expressly for use in a trial versus those produced in the course of independent research. This distinction was made by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals when evaluating the admissibility of experts.

This uses demonstrative evidence, which is evidence created in preparation of trial by attorneys or paralegals.

Demographics
In the United States there are over 17,200 forensic science technicians as of 2019.

Media impact
Real-life crime scene investigators and forensic scientists warn that popular television shows do not give a realistic picture of the work, often wildly distorting its nature, and exaggerating the ease, speed, effectiveness, drama, glamour, influence and comfort level of their jobs—which they describe as far more mundane, tedious and boring.

Some claim these modern TV shows have changed individuals' expectations of forensic science, sometimes unrealistically—an influence termed the "CSI effect".

Further, research has suggested that public misperceptions about criminal forensics can create, in the mind of a juror, unrealistic expectations of forensic evidence—which they expect to see before convicting—implicitly biasing the juror towards the defendant. Citing the "CSI effect," at least one researcher has suggested screening jurors for their level of influence from such TV programs.

Controversies
Questions about certain areas of forensic science, such as fingerprint evidence and the assumptions behind these disciplines have been brought to light in some publications including the New York Post. The article stated that "No one has proved even the basic assumption: That everyone's fingerprint is unique." The article also stated that "Now such assumptions are being questioned—and with it may come a radical change in how forensic science is used by police departments and prosecutors." Law professor Jessica Gabel said on NOVA that forensic science "lacks the rigors, the standards, the quality controls and procedures that we find, usually, in science".

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has reviewed the scientific foundations of bite-mark analysis used in forensic science. Bite mark analysis is a forensic science technique that analyzes the marks on the victim's skin compared to the suspects teeth. NIST reviewed the findings of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine 2009 study. The National Academics of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine conducted research to address the issues of reliability, accuracy, and reliability of bitemark analysis, where they concluded that there is a lack of sufficient scientific foundation to support the data. Yet the technique is still legal to use in court as evidence. NIST funded a 2019 meeting that consisted of dentists, lawyers, researchers and others to address the gaps in this field.

In the US, on 25 June 2009, the Supreme Court issued a 5-to-4 decision in Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts stating that crime laboratory reports may not be used against criminal defendants at trial unless the analysts responsible for creating them give testimony and subject themselves to cross-examination. The Supreme Court cited the National Academies of Sciences report Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States in their decision. Writing for the majority, Justice Antonin Scalia referred to the National Research Council report in his assertion that "Forensic evidence is not uniquely immune from the risk of manipulation."

In the US, another area of forensic science that has come under question in recent years is the lack of laws requiring the accreditation of forensic labs. Some states require accreditation, but some states do not. Because of this, many labs have been caught performing very poor work resulting in false convictions or acquittals. For example, it was discovered after an audit of the Houston Police Department in 2002 that the lab had fabricated evidence which led George Rodriguez being convicted of raping a fourteen-year-old girl. The former director of the lab, when asked, said that the total number of cases that could have been contaminated by improper work could be in the range of 5,000 to 10,000.

The Innocence Project database of DNA exonerations shows that many wrongful convictions contained forensic science errors. According to the Innocence project and the US Department of Justice, forensic science has contributed to about 39 percent to 46 percent of wrongful convictions. As indicated by the National Academy of Sciences report Strengthening Forensic Sciences in the United States, part of the problem is that many traditional forensic sciences have never been empirically validated; and part of the problem is that all examiners are subject to forensic confirmation biases and should be shielded from contextual information not relevant to the judgment they make.

Many studies have discovered a difference in rape-related injuries reporting based on race, with white victims reporting a higher frequency of injuries than black victims. However, since current forensic examination techniques may not be sensitive to all injuries across a range of skin colors, more research needs to be conducted to understand if this trend is due to skin confounding healthcare providers when examining injuries or if darker skin extends a protective element. In clinical practice, for patients with darker skin, one study recommends that attention must be paid to the thighs, labia majora, posterior fourchette and fossa navicularis, so that no rape-related injuries are missed upon close examination.

Forensic science and humanitarian work
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) uses forensic science for humanitarian purposes to clarify the fate of missing persons after armed conflict, disasters or migration, and is one of the services related to Restoring Family Links and Missing Persons. Knowing what has happened to a missing relative can often make it easier to proceed with the grieving process and move on with life for families of missing persons.

Forensic science is used by various other organizations to clarify the fate and whereabouts of persons who have gone missing. Examples include the NGO Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, working to clarify the fate of people who disappeared during the period of the 1976–1983 military dictatorship. The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) used forensic science to find missing persons, for example after the conflicts in the Balkans.

Recognising the role of forensic science for humanitarian purposes, as well as the importance of forensic investigations in fulfilling the state's responsibilities to investigate human rights violations, a group of experts in the late-1980s devised a UN Manual on the Prevention and Investigation of Extra-Legal, Arbitrary and Summary Executions, which became known as the Minnesota Protocol. This document was revised and re-published by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in 2016.

title: Forensic science


text:
Talk:Nevi'im

Untitled
What method of transliteration are you using for Hebrew. You seem to be showing all the alephs but not noting all the shva na's. BTW, the name is Malakhi, with a patach under the mem. Finally, what exactly is the purpose of this piece, besides giving Hebrew names to biblical books? Danny

If you have a better transliteration, fix mine. The proper transliteration of shva is an upside-down e, but I can't type that. There is no perfect transliteration of Hebrew vowels into English without using diacritics. The purpose, so far, is to list what books are in this section of the Bible and in what order. Christian Bibles generally have them arranged differently, so Christians may not be familiar with the sections of the Hebrew Bible. If you have more to add, add it. -phma

From this entry i don't know what is that nevim anyway. I can guess of course, but encyclopedia entries should be made so guessing is not necessary, right? szopen

Have made a couple of changes to transliteration, and have added the Hebrew: נביאים. Can't find a solution to the schva na thing, though. -Avi

I just fixed this up to make it look better and clearer and easier to read. Hope people approve of the changes. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.179.188.81 (talk) 23:10, 25 November 2003

Removed text
Hi. The text you removed on cantillation is, as you said, duplicated in Haftarah. But when you removed it, you left the following paragraph completely out of context! Furthermore, there is no reason why the material belongs more in Haftarah than in Nevi'im - it is equally relevant to both from opposite angles.

I suggest either fixing the article up without the material or else putting it back. Dovi 23:01, Dec 16, 2004 (UTC)

Okay, I fixed up this article. The info about the rare trop is not relevant to haftarah, but is relevant here, so I included it here, not there.  —msh210 04:09, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC)

isn't Daniel in Ketuvi'im, not Nevi'im?
The list in the article includes Daniel at roman numeral IV. But he's also listed in the Ketuvi'im. I think the latter is correct. I didn't make the edit myself because I'm not sure about the fix, I just know that the wiki is contradicting itself about Daniel's place in the canon.

Msvitale 22:52, 25 February 2007 (UTC)mark
 * Daniel is definitely in Ketuvim as stated in the Talmud (Bava Batra 14b). --   --   --   23:32, 8 July 2010 (UTC)

Merge with Nebim
These two articles discuss the same subject. They should be merged. Neelix (talk) 22:57, 10 October 2008 (UTC)

External link
I would suggest adding the following External link: --  --   --   21:05, 27 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Nevi'im (Judaica Press) translation at Chabad.org

N'bhi'im vs. Nəḇî’îm
I've changed the secondary spelling given in the article to "nəḇî’îm" for the same reasons given for the similar change in the Ketuvim article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Ketuvim). Cevlakohn (talk) 05:49, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

Prophets disambiguation
I just discovered that adding a wikilink to Prophets redirects to a disamb page which had no option to the common (in Google Books, check please) use of "The Prophets" to mean the prophets in the Hebrew Bible/Tanakh/Old Testament: This is a bit weird isn't it. The same 16(15) books cannot share the same article simply because in one ordering they, minus Daniel, come in the second bit, in another ordering the third? (note also Minor Prophets and Major Prophets.) In ictu oculi (talk) 14:34, 9 March 2012 (UTC)
 * The Prophets Nevi'im, which is the name in Hebrew for the second of the three major sections in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible)
 * Prophets (Old Testament), a description for the third of three major sections in the Christian ordering of the Old Testament.

 * Hi, as someone who contributed to the early versions of this article years ago, I understand what you mean, especially when you look at this Nevi'im article as it currently stands, which unfortunately contains a long (and unnecessary) summary of the biblical books. As such, I think this is an unfortunate example of how some Wikipedia articles degenerate over time instead of improving.

 * In that sense, I think you are correct that there is no important difference between this article and Prophets (Old Testament).

 * However, that was not the original intent of the article, nor does it even reflect the last part of the article as it currently stands. The point of Nevi'im is to deal with the unique characteristics of the exactly eight books of Nevi'im specifically as they are reflected in the Jewish tradition. These unique aspects which only apply to Nevi'im specifically still do appear in the current article: Unique Targum, unique liturgical use in the Haftarah, unique history in the canonization process of the Hebrew textual tradition of the Bible, and unique halakhic status. To these may be added unique textual characteristics that come into play when editing the details of the masoretic text. For none of these purposes can the books be counted as 15-16, be re-ordered, be anything but the second tier, or include Daniel.

 * I move that the article be redone to return the focus to the unique history and characteristics of the books of Nevi'im. Thoughts anyone? Dovi (talk) 18:15, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

Focus on the Nevi'im
This article contains a lot of off-topic material concerning the concept of prophethood in Judaism. It needs to be rewritten to focus on the Nevi'im, the second section of the Tanakh. Most of the off topic material should be at Prophet, not here. Editor2020 (talk) 03:52, 28 September 2012 (UTC)

It seems to me that the revision "17:47, 1 June 2016 81.137.204.237 (talk) . . (20,711 bytes) (+2,430)" includes some helpful and informative additions about the nature of Nevi'im that could be added to this article. Unfortunately they were a bit untidy and have been reverted by Isambard Kingdom (were there good reasons to revert them?). If there are no objections I'm planning to add them back in, but would like to get some feedback first. Ulgarg (talk) 21:28, 1 June 2016 (UTC)

Former "Prophets"?
Nevi'im is divided into the Former Prophets and Latter Prophets.

In colloquial English, prophecy is generally understood to have a significant aspect of foretelling. So the "Prophets" description of the "Latter" group (Isaiah, etc.) can easily be appreciated because of the foretelling or "future warning" aspect of the writing. But why are the "Former" group (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings) labelled as "prophets"? There seems to be very little in the way of "prophecy" in them.

Could the article clarify the reasons behind this "Prophets" description, please?

And, as a related aspect, if these books are are labelled "prophets" why is the very similar Chronicles not labelled as "Prophets"?

As a reader, I'm trying to grasp the reasoning that led to these books having been classified and labelled in this manner.

Feline Hymnic (talk) 15:00, 9 May 2018 (UTC)

 * Perhaps someone will give you a better answer than this one, or what is found at . And perhaps this discussion will lead at some point to some edits. But here's a first shot:
 * In Jewish tradition, the "age of prophecy" (or "age of prophets") runs up to about the time the Second Temple was created—around the time of Zechariah, Haggai and Malachi. There is a tradition that there were consistently prophets throughout the period. Not all have books named after them, or course, but all of these books contain some prophecy. Consider not only Joshua and Samuel, but also people like Deborah in the book of Judges, or Elijah and Elisha in the book(s) of Kings. (And this doesn't even consider people also said traditionally to have prophecy, like King David.) So in any event, these are books of the "age of prophets", all of which contain prophecy.
 * Former/Latter is mainly a chronological division, although to be sure the books of the "Former Prophets" also have much historical content, while the books of the "Latter Prophets" have much less.
 * Why Chronicles in one place and Samuel/Kings in the other? That's a good question. I do not know the answer for sure, but it's fair to say that there is more prophecy in Samuel/Kings than in Chronicles. Given that the Ketuvim (writings) are generally more about the content of the writing than about passing along prophecy per se, that's potentially the reason.
 * Why put Daniel in Ketuvim, then? For starters, the earlier part of the book is more about the historical consequences of his prophecy than about the prophecy itself. (Example: "Mene, mene ...": the next day the ruler was overthrown.) Beyond that, while the eschatological bits of Daniel are surely prophecy, the prophecy happened outside land of Israel, so was somewhat downgraded by the subsequent redactors. (Some of Ezekiel's prophecy was also exilic prophecy, but he had a career as a prophet in the land of Israel before that.)
 * All that said: don't necessarily assume that the Men of the Great Assembly, who are the ones who (tradition says) finalized the canon, used the same logic of consistency that we would use now. StevenJ81 (talk) 16:39, 10 May 2018 (UTC)

Many thanks for your reply. As you probably spotted I struggling even to frame the question! Your reply is helping. Let me focus on just the "Former Prophets"; references outside that are secondary in this context, so let's also leave aside the complicating wrinkles of Chronicles, Daniel, etc.

In modern-day terminology, the natural inclination is to think of the genre of the Joshua-Kings as some sort of journalism, news-reporting, documentary or similar. The words "prophet" and "prophecy" seem a most strange way to describe this documentary activity. Sure, there is the tradition that there were consistently prophets in the land throughout the period. But the genre of the books themselves is, in essence, of journalism or reporting, not of what a modern reader would call "prophecy". Contrast the genre of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, the Twelve, etc., for which the claimed "prophets" description does fit. So:

 * for the "Latter Prophets", we modern readers can readily, even subconsciously, accept that "Prophets" label; the label is concordant with the genre.
 * for the "Former Prophets", we modern readers, by contrast, scratch our heads and say "huh?" when we see that "Prophets" label; the label is discordant with the genre.

My basic query then becomes something like: While I readily accept the the label 'prophets' attached for the 'Latter Prophets', it seems totally weird to have that word (as the modern reader understands it) attached to the 'Former Prophets'. I'm hoping to read something like, "The Former Prophets are described as 'prophets' because...".

Feline Hymnic (talk) 12:33, 13 May 2018 (UTC)

 * I'm sorry I let this slip for a bit.
 * If I wasn't entirely clear above, I do want to mention, briefly, that even if the books in this section are more [history/documentary] than prophetic, the books do directly report and state prophecy. See, inter alia, (Deborah's song) or  (David's song, substantially repeated in ).
 * Now, that said:
 * It seems as if the terminology "historical books" and "prophetic books" is used more in the articles on the Christian Bible at this point. And in many ways, those are entirely appropriate descriptions—maybe more accurate than "Earlier Prophets" and "Later Prophets". But please understand that there is a lot of history associated with the terms "Former Prophets" and "Latter Prophets"; these are far from recent coinages, and they have plenty of history, both in Judaism and in Christianity, and both in Hebrew and English (and other languages?). So part of what is going on here is that there is a term with a lot of history—one whose specific meaning many people are quite familiar with—and people use the terms today. So even if the descriptor is not your favorite, it's one that works for people, because it's already pretty well known.
 * Also, please keep in mind that whatever you might prefer to call things, the section of Tanakh called Nevi'im absolutely does contain the books of Joshua, Judges, (1/2) Samuel, (1/2) Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the Twelve. There is no ambiguity within Judaism; these are called the books of Prophets (Nevi'im). In liturgical use (Haftarah), each is represented at least once at some point during the year. (I don't think that each of "the Twelve" is, but they constitute a single book in our canon.) These books are collectively "The Prophets". There is no ambiguity about that at all. We wouldn't (even can't) change that.
 * So once you say that, the question becomes "If these need to be divided for some purpose, how do we do it?" And the main breaking point chosen was between Kings and Isaiah. It may very well be that the division was drawn that way because the nature of the one set of books is [history/documentary] and the other straight prophecy. (That seems likely to me; most of the "Latter Prophets" were actually prophesying during the later years of the Book(s) of Kings, so the chronology actually overlaps.) But when a title was given to the sets as a whole, they were titled Nevi'im Rishonim (Early [lit. First] Prophets) and Nevi'im Acharonim (Later [lit. Last] Prophets). And overall, the one set of books reports from an earlier point in history, while the other reports from a later point in history, even if the Book(s) of Kings tend(s) to overlap in chronology. So it's a reasonable set of terms to use. Whether it's "the best"? Who knows? Who cares? It's the established terminology, though. And within the Jewish world, we have no need to exclude "Prophets" from the title of the earlier one, because it's still part of the larger section of the canon that we call "Prophets".
 * Maybe it will be easier for you to consider that the term "Nevi'im" could refer to [actual] "Prophets" or "Books within the section called 'Prophets'" equally easily. So perhaps you might more comfortably translate this as "Earlier books within the section called 'Prophets'" and "Later books within the section called 'Prophets'". But in practice, that's not the translation used in English.
 * Hope that was useful. StevenJ81 (talk) 18:08, 30 May 2018 (UTC)

 * Many thanks. Much appreciated!  Feline Hymnic (talk) 12:39, 4 June 2018 (UTC)

Etymology missing
Why does this article not have any Etymology? As it is the most-controversial section title of the Hebrew Bible, it should have the most-extensive etymology, showing where this word came from. Misty MH (talk) 10:17, 4 November 2022 (UTC)

Sons of the Prophets
Why does "sons of the prophets" redirect here? They were a group of people exclusively referenced in the Elisha story of 2 Kings, and have nothing to do with this page's topic, as far as I know. 141.156.182.177 (talk) 14:14, 19 March 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Nevi'im