Arresting Children: Examining Recent Trends in Preteen Crime

Are juvenile offenders getting younger? The American public often hears policymakers and justice practitioners assert that young people are committing crimes at younger and younger ages. Is this true? This analysis explores this question by examining data collected by law enforcement agencies across the country. It tracks juvenile crime patterns from 1980 through 2006 and finds that the age profile of juvenile offenders has not changed substantially in 25 years. Crime rates among children under age 13 have generally followed the same crime patterns exhibited among older youth. In a few offense categories, however, increases in preteen crime have outpaced increases among older juveniles, particularly sexual offenses, assaults, and weapons possession (not necessarily firearms). The fact that school authorities and family members often report these offenses suggests a possible hypothesis to explain increases in some preteen crimes: The juvenile justice system today may be dealing with child behavior problems that were once the responsibility of social welfare agencies, schools, and families

Construction of direction selectivity in V1: from simple to complex cells

Despite detailed knowledge about the anatomy and physiology of the primary visual cortex (V1), the immense number of feed-forward and recurrent connections onto a given V1 neuron make it difficult to understand how the physiological details relate to a given neuron’s functional properties. Here, we focus on a well-known functional property of many V1 complex cells: phase-invariant direction selectivity (DS). While the energy model explains its construction at the conceptual level, it remains unclear how the mathematical operations described in this model are implemented by cortical circuits. To understand how DS of complex cells is constructed in cortex, we apply a nonlinear modeling framework to extracellular data from macaque V1. We use a modification of spike-triggered covariance (STC) analysis to identify multiple biologically plausible "spatiotemporal features" that either excite or suppress a cell. We demonstrate that these features represent the true inputs to the neuron more accurately, and the resulting nonlinear model compactly describes how these inputs are combined to result in the functional properties of the cell. In a population of 59 neurons, we find that both simple and complex V1 cells are selective to combinations of excitatory and suppressive motion features. Because the strength of DS and simple/complex classification is well predicted by our models, we can use simulations with inputs matching thalamic and simple cells to assess how individual model components contribute to these measures. Our results unify experimental observations regarding the construction of DS from thalamic feed-forward inputs to V1: based on the differences between excitatory and inhibitory inputs, they suggest a connectivity diagram for simple and complex cells that sheds light on the mechanism underlying the DS of cortical cells. More generally, they illustrate how stage-wise nonlinear combination of multiple features gives rise to the processing of more abstract visual information

BUILDINGS AND HOUSING Landfills: Require Identification and Record Keeping

The Act requires that all property on which a landfill is or has been located be properly identified. It also requires the Environmental Protection Division of the Department of Natural Resources to maintain certain landfill records. The Act mandates that deeds conveying an interest in land previously used as a commercial landfill include proper notice and other pertinent information related to the operation of the landfill. The Act imposes liability on the seller of real property if he willfully violates the Code provisions. Further, the Act creates a civil remedy for a purchaser of such land if the purchaser suffers damage or loss as a result of the sale

A Phenomenological Study of the Student Engagement Experiences of African Americans Formerly Attending Urban Public High Schools

The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to interpret the student engagement experiences of African Americans formerly attending urban public high schools in a major city in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Self-determination theory, established by Ryan and Deci (1985), is the theoretical framework for this study, and was used to understand motivation in terms of basic psychological needs satisfaction and fulfillment, and how those motivations influence human behavior. The central research question was: What were the student engagement experiences of African Americans formerly attending urban public high schools? The three research sub-questions were: (1) what instructional experiences did African Americans attribute to their student engagement experiences, (2) what interpersonal experiences did African Americans attribute to their student engagement experiences, and (3) what environmental experiences did African Americans attribute to their student engagement experiences? Qualitative questionnaires, focus groups, and semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from 12 participants selected using homogenous and snowball sampling. Data analysis was conducted using van Manes’ approach (1990) of reflecting on significant participant statements, developing thematic meaning units, and constructing textual and structural written descriptions of student engagement, concluding with a written composite interpretation of the lived experiences of the participants. The essential themes identified in the study were Engagement Experiences, Instructional Considerations, Relationships, School-Related Experiences, and Non-School-Related Factors. Participants identified the satisfaction of psychological need as the cornerstone of student engagement and as essential factor in mitigating student disengagement

BUILDINGS AND HOUSING Landfills: Require Identification and Record Keeping

The Act requires that all property on which a landfill is or has been located be properly identified. It also requires the Environmental Protection Division of the Department of Natural Resources to maintain certain landfill records. The Act mandates that deeds conveying an interest in land previously used as a commercial landfill include proper notice and other pertinent information related to the operation of the landfill. The Act imposes liability on the seller of real property if he willfully violates the Code provisions. Further, the Act creates a civil remedy for a purchaser of such land if the purchaser suffers damage or loss as a result of the sale

CRIMES AND OFFENSES Health Records: Prohibit Destruction, Alteration, or Falsification

The Act prohibits the knowing and willful falsification, alteration, or destruction of health records if done with an intent to conceal any material fact relating to a potential claim or cause of action

CRIMES AND OFFENSES Health Records: Prohibit Destruction, Alteration, or Falsification

The Act prohibits the knowing and willful falsification, alteration, or destruction of health records if done with an intent to conceal any material fact relating to a potential claim or cause of action

INSURANCE Life Insurance: Grant to Publicly Owned Corporations an Insurable Interest in Employees

The Act amends the Code by granting to publicly owned corporations an insurable interest in their directors, officers, and employees, permitting employers to deduct as business expenses premiums paid for employees\u27 term life insurance

Efficacy Of Blended Finance In Climate Change Infrastructure Projects

As the conversations surrounding climate change prevention and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) financing grow in importance in the 21st century, so too do the conversations around the intersections of solutions around the topics. Blended financing has been utilized in several different forms over the past decade or so to tackle the largest problems in the global economy set out by the United Nation’s SDGs. While the tool has been leveraged for several of these Sustainable Development Goals, it has been particularly useful in attracting private investment for environmental sustainability-focused projects via the programs in place at several of the Development Financing Institutions of which multilateral banks make up the majority. This paper explores the characteristics of several types of Blended Finance investments in the climate change space to identify if there are any descriptive drivers that have attracted more investment. The hope of this paper is to identify certain characteristics in these investment projects that may attract investments of lesser scale, in different sectors, or in countries that are not receiving as much Blended Finance investments