Determination of Delinquency in the Juvenile Court: A Suggested Approach

The object of this Article is to show that there is no inherent inconsistency between the juvenile court philosophy of correction in lieu of punishment on the one hand, and on the other, the equally sound proposition that when a child commits what would constitute a crime if the same act were committed by an adult, fair play requires that the child be afforded equal procedural safeguards

Listening Leadership: An Academic Perspective

Much of the literature on leadership continues to focus on the leader who has the ability to shape a vision and articulate that vision, a vision that resonates with the mission, values, personnel and technology that make up the organization. To shape and articulate a resonant vision, the effective leader must be willing and able to listen. Only through listening to the stakeholders can a leader know how that vision should best be framed and implemented. One significant way that leadership listening can be implemented is through listening sessions. This study provides a detailed example of the effective use of listening sessions in an academic setting. University of Maryland administrators offer observations on the role of listening to engage students, faculty, staff, and administrators in developing strategic plans for moving forward

Application of Upconverting Nanoparticles and Gold Nanorods for Biomedical Sensing and Detection

Nanoparticles are organized structures that exist on scales between the molecular and cellular levels. They are being intensively studied in a variety of fields for their potential to overcome the limitations of traditional materials. In particular, inorganic nanoparticles such as rare-earth doped, upconverting nanoparticles (UCNPs) and gold nanorods (AuNRs) are being investigated as the next generation of biological optical sensors, as well as potential therapeutic agents. This thesis summarizes the work that I have done in the synthesis, design, fabrication, and implementation of UCNPs and AuNRs towards biological applications. It covers how to make both UCNPs and AuNRs, and also explains how to conjugate them with molecular species such as optical dyes or antibodies. Using a nanoparticle system consisting of a Tm3+-doped UCNP conjugated to the pH sensitive fluorescent dye FITC, my colleagues and I were able to demonstrate optical, ratiometric sensing of pH. Similarly, we were able to conjugate Er3+-doped UCNPs and AuNRs with the commercial antibody C225 to target bladder cancer cells and tumors. Irradiation of the C225-conjugated UCNPs with 980 nm light allowed the specific, optical detection of cancerous cells, while irradiation with 808 nm light led to observed cell death due to photothermal damage caused by the AuNRs. This combination of imaging and therapeutic capabilities makes these C225-conjugation nanoparticles very promising for future cancer treatments.</p

Detecting chaos in lineage-trees: A deep learning approach

Many complex phenomena, from weather systems to heartbeat rhythm patterns, are effectively modeled as low-dimensional dynamical systems. Such systems may behave chaotically under certain conditions, and so the ability to detect chaos based on empirical measurement is an important step in characterizing and predicting these processes. Classifying a system as chaotic usually requires estimating its largest Lyapunov exponent, which quantifies the average rate of convergence or divergence of initially close trajectories in state space, and for which a positive value is generally accepted as an operational definition of chaos. Estimating the largest Lyapunov exponent from observations of a process is especially challenging in systems affected by dynamical noise, which is the case for many models of real-world processes, in particular models of biological systems. We describe a novel method for estimating the largest Lyapunov exponent from data, based on training Deep Learning models on synthetically generated trajectories, and demonstrate that this method yields accurate and noise-robust predictions given relatively short inputs and across a range of different dynamical systems. Our method is unique in that it can analyze tree-shaped data, a ubiquitous topology in biological settings, and specifically in dynamics over lineages of cells or organisms. We also characterize the types of input information extracted by our models for their predictions, allowing for a deeper understanding into the different ways by which chaos can be analyzed in different topologies.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figure

Résilience climatique au Rwanda : évaluation de la vulnérabilité face aux risques encourus par les réfugiés et les populations hôtes: Climate resilience in Rwanda: evaluating refugees’ and host populations’ vulnerability to risk

Au Rwanda, les réfugiés vivant dans des camps et les populations d’accueil sont souvent exposés à des risques de graves dangers liés au climat. Des recherches récentes évaluent le potentiel des stratégies de réduction des risques climatiques afin de limiter les dommages corporels et les décès, améliorer la santé publique et le bien-être, et préserver les moyens de subsistance. In Rwanda, refugees in camps and host populations often face high risks of climate-related hazards. Recent research assesses the potential of climate risk reduction strategies to reduce injury and loss of life, improve public health and well-being, and protect livelihoods