Book Reports Research Articles

Drawing Words & Writing Pictures: Making Comics: Manga, Graphic Novels, and Beyond (review)

Reviewed by: Drawing Words & Writing Pictures: Making Comics: Manga, Graphic Novels, and Beyond April Spisak Abel, Jessica; Drawing Words & Writing Pictures: Making Comics: Manga, Graphic Novels, and Beyond; written and illus. by Jessica AbelMatt Madden; and with photographs. First Second/Roaring Brook, 2008; 282p Paper ed. ISBN 978-1-59643-131-7 $29.95 R Gr. 9 up Comics are increasingly appreciated as complex, sophisticated blends of illustration and text, and this volume is a timely in-depth examination of the format. This exhaustively comprehensive guide features fifteen individual lessons that take readers from concept to finished product. A landscape-formatted paperback chock-full of diagrammatic examples, the book looks every bit the sophisticated how-to, and [End Page 62] the tone is encouraging, highlighting comic strips that have rudimentary artwork or simple concepts and encouraging readers to explore everything from formal, paneled comics to wildly imaginative freeform interpretations. The authors offer guidelines on how the book can be used by individuals, by groups, and by classes; regardless of whether one goes it solo or uses the volume with a course, the accessible and highly detailed lessons on everything from penciling to structuring a story to selecting a title will engage and inform readers. The first fourteen chapters include background information, activities, sidebars with related but not directly relevant information, a homework assignment, and an extra credit activity, with the final chapter being a challenge to create a full comic in one day. Extensive end matter presents almost as much information as the guide itself: appendices offer hints about necessary supplies, book reports that can be done on comics, and the making of minicomics, and a thorough bibliography suggests both graphic novels or comics that emphasize points in the lessons as well as drawing handbooks. Serious readers seeking information will be drawn by the witty, informal tone and casual narrative voice as much as by the impeccably designed and accessible lessons. Copyright © 2008 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

독서치료를 통한 여대생의 부정적 정서 회복과정에 대한 근거이론적 연구

Today. the mental health has a great deal of impact on individuals and the society surrounding. Therefore. this research is to propose a way of bibliotherapical intercession by stages and patterns as to examine the recovery process of students with negative emotion by using the grounded theoretical method. This research collected materials through focus-interview, participant observation and book reports of 4 experiments involving female college students aged from 21 to 23, all having emotional and psychological difficulties. The recovery process of female students with negative emotion involved causal factors such as recognition of hidden wound Sense of inferiority, and difficulty in forming relationships, as well as contextual factors like sympathetic attitude. which altogether brought about the core phenomenon. pursuit for healthy ego. This core phenomenon induced to recovering the bright and positive attitude through using the strategies of `self insight` and application of `management plan`, influence by such incoherent conditions as `intimate surroundings` and `support system patterns`. And as time passed. the recovery process appeared tin four stages: `issues recognition`. `emotional responses`, `issue solution` and `self application`.

We're Getting Stronger, More Mission Focused

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article From the PresidentFull AccessWe're Getting Stronger, More Mission FocusedCarolyn Robinowitz, M.D.Carolyn RobinowitzSearch for more papers by this author, M.D.Published Online:18 Jan 2008https://doi.org/10.1176/pn.43.2.0003In my previous column, I shared my end-of-year review of some APA activities. As I welcome the New Year, my emphasis is on organizational structure and activities that will continue to strengthen APA.©Sylvia Johnson Photography 2007Last spring, we began work on a Board retreat focusing on organizational function and performance. In preparation, Board members identified critical issues and challenges for the profession and a more focused listing of APA's perceived strengths and weaknesses.Access to care, financing of care, and health care reform were deemed the most important environmental issues, with additional emphasis on stigma, how scientific advances will affect psychiatric practice, and advocacy for specific groups, such as children, the military, and prison populations.Board members commented that member involvement in the Association and quality of APA staff were our greatest strengths and noted the quality of our annual meeting, our effective advocacy efforts, our close-knit, cohesive culture, and the positive impact of APA's recently improved financial stability as major organizational assets.At the same time, we are not always flexible, nimble, or responsive to change, and one of APA's weaknesses was described as the lack of greater member awareness and involvement both nationally and locally. It has been said that our best-kept secret is how much APA does for members. Given the need to educate policymakers, professionals, and the public, it is vital that members be well informed about and engaged in advocacy.As an additional aspect of our planning, the Board reviewed Seven Measures of Success: What Remarkable Associations Do That Others Don't. This small book reports on a study of organizations (some of which are medical specialty organizations), identifying measures and activities that separated the “good” from the “great” or“ remarkable” organizations. The seven significant measures were grouped into three categories—commitment to purpose, commitment to analysis and feedback, and commitment to action. Key elements of these measures included aligning products and services with the organization's mission, having a customer-service culture, using data-driven strategies, dialogue and engagement, organizational adaptability and alliance building, and using the CEO as a broker of ideas.How do we use this information?Members and mission are at the heart of a “remarkable” organization. Addressing our mission was an initial step. APA has a dual focus—our members, who are our primary focus and for whom APA is their professional membership organization, and the patients our members treat. As a professional membership organization, our members are our“ customers,” and this focus must take priority in decision making. There are many things the Association can do, but we need to emphasize what we must do and that which only we can or will do.In being mission focused, we understand that staff and elected leaders are here to serve our profession and our members and to help psychiatrists care for their patients. Recognizing that the Assembly and components are the voice of our members, we look to them to help us determine the right mix of products and services that align with our mission, protecting our core purpose and related activities, while investigating and initiating new efforts.Because our membership is so diverse in background and activities, we must accumulate and analyze data to drive priorities and directions, and to do so requires the engagement of members and staff. We have begun a process of member surveys and focus groups to increase our knowledge of members' needs and expectations. We also are tracking the wider health care scene to clarify what we know and experience now, as well as what is on the horizon, and to incorporate both into our strategic and operational planning. The results should trigger continued cycles of data gathering and analysis and lead us to make changes based on what was learned.Our medical director is a highly experienced leader. As a “broker of ideas,” we anticipate he will facilitate visionary thinking throughout the Association. To that end, I have initiated monthly Board conference calls in addition to our on-site meetings, in which Dr. Scully informs the Board of current and anticipated events or issues that will affect our profession and our patients.We cannot work alone; we are expanding alliances with medical colleagues—subspecialty psychiatrists and other physicians, health and mental health professionals, as well as advocacy groups and others who influence public opinion and policy. To succeed, we need you—our members—to join our voice in action for our profession and our patients.▪ ISSUES NewArchived

Response to Franz, Freedman, Goldstein, and Ridout

D uring presidential elections, most voters in contested states face a barrage of campaign ads. While these commercials are meant to persuade and not necessarily mobilize voters, there are ample theoretical grounds to suspect they stimulate turnout by informing viewers and activating their sense of civic duty (Freedman, Franz, and Goldstein 2004) or by signaling a competitive election (Cox and Munger 1989). The behavioral consequences of exposure to campaign ads is interesting in its own right, but important political and policy issues hang in the balance as well. Candidates and their consultants have reason to wonder the extent to which their advertising spurs turnout as they allocate resources. Proposals to regulate campaign financing or campaigns themselves inevitably meet the objection that any reduction in the volume of campaigns will lead to a less informed, interested, and active electorate (Ansolabehere and Snyder 2000). Our position is that presidential campaign ads have a minimal impact on voter turnout. In their response, Franz, Freedman, Goldstein and Ridout (FFGR) seem equivocal on this point. Their analysis of individual-level survey data (Freedman, Franz, and Goldstein 2004) produced very large effects. We have nothing against survey data per se, but we are particularly cautious about using the nonvalidated vote item as a dependent variable given respondents’ propensity to misremember or exaggerate. That is not necessarily a fatal error: a recent paper by Ashworth and Clinton (2007) that controls for potential endogeneity of ad exposure and turnout concludes that presidential campaign ads in 2000 had little effect on survey respondents’ professed intention of voting. Indeed, FFGR’s aggregate analyses generate an array of much smaller effects. They point out that their forthcoming book reports that exposure to 10,000 campaign ads increases turnout by a meager 0.3 percentage points, leading them to back away from their survey results, describing them as the product of ‘‘irrational exuberance’’. If that is their position, then both sides now agree: presidential advertising does not stimulate turnout (Franz et al. 2008, p. 265). However, FFGR caution against inferring that advertising’s effect is ‘‘universal or consistent across election years.’’ Perhaps, but their essay provides no evidence about any election other than the 2000 election. We look forward to applying our natural experiments framework to other elections when the data gathered by FFGR become publicly available. We expect to continue to find that presidential ads have a small impact on turnout, as they do not engage voters personally and rarely encourage viewers to vote (Franz et al. 2008, p. 265).

Analysis on the Types of Peer Evaluation in Writing Book Reports by Aid of Webboard

Analysis on the Types of Peer Evaluation in Writing Book Reports by Aid of Webboard

New Findings from the Preschoolers with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Treatment Study (PATS)

103 THE FIRST SEVEN PAPERS in Part Two of this book report new findings from the 6-site Preschoolers with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Treatment Study (PATS). The PATS was designed to assess the efficacy and safety of short-term methylphenidate (MPH) and the effectiveness and tolerability of longterm MPH in 3-to 5-year-old children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The design of PATS was complex, reflecting input from multiple government agencies and scientific review in addition to the investigators, and included 8 phases: 1) screening/enrollment, 2) 10-week, uncontrolled parent training, 3) baseline assessment, 4) 1-week, open-label, safety lead-in, 5) 5-week, random sequence (doses! 1.25 mg, 2.5 mg, 5 mg, 7.5 mg, and placebo, administered tid), double-blind, crossover titration, 6) 4-week, optimal dose, double-blind, placebocontrolled parallel phase, 7) 10-month, open-label maintenance, and 8) 6-week, placebo-substitution discontinuation. Informed consent was obtained at each phase (Kollins et al., 2006). The first 5 papers from PATS were published in 2006. The primary outcome results from Phase 5 crossover titration (n ! 165 of 303 enrolled) were: Compared to placebo, significant differences were found for tid MPH doses of 2.5 mg, 5 mg and 7.5 mg, but not for 1.25 mg (p .06). Of participants (n ! 114) randomized into the parallel-design, best-dose, Phase 6, only 21% on MPH and 13% on placebo achieved remission (Greenhill et. al., 2006). Also, of note, only 7% of 261 who completed Phase 2 parent training showed significant improvement (Greenhill et al., 2006). Safety and tolerability data for the entire study was described in a paper by Wigal and colleagues (2006). For Phases 4 to 7 combined, parents reported moderate or severe adverse events (AEs) in 30% of participants. The most common were: emotional outbursts, difficulty falling asleep, repetitive behaviors/thoughts, appetite decrease, and irritability. During Phase 5 titration, decreased appetite, trouble sleeping and weight loss occurred more frequently on MPH than on placebo. During Phase 7 maintenance, trouble sleeping and appetite loss persisted. Eleven percent of participants discontinued because of MPH-attributed AEs. The impact of MPH on growth was presented in a paper by Swanson and colleagues (2006). Of note, the preschoolers with ADHD began the PATS study at significantly greater average heights and weights than established norms. During treatment, there was a significant decrement in growth: height ! #1.38 cm/yr, weight ! #1.32 kg/yr. These decrements in preschoolers were greater than those observed in school-aged children in the Mul-

Regional Economic Voting: Russia, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, 1990–1999

Regional Economic Voting: Russia, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, 1990–1999, Joshua A. Tucker, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006, pp. xxii, 417.Recognizing and predicting the patterns of voting behaviour is a formidable task even in the case of mature and stable democracies. Needless to say, the identification of such trends in the wake of a fundamental political and economic restructuring, when the basic rules of the game are still in flux, can be frustratingly elusive. In this ambitious and methodologically sophisticated study, Joshua Tucker takes on the challenge and suggests a fresh approach for cutting through the fog of post-communist institutional ambiguity. The book reports on several prominent regularities in the voting outcomes that span five countries, several distinct institutional designs, twenty national elections and ten years of transition. In contrast to the studies that rely on micro-level survey data or small-n cross-country comparisons, Tucker aggregates and analyzes the election results at the intermediate, regional level. Cross-regional comparison provides enough resolution for detecting systematic voting patterns shaped by local economic conditions. Explaining the observed connection between regional economy and regional vote is the central theme of Tucker's study.

Into the Firestorm: A Novel of San Francisco, 1906 (review)

Reviewed by: Into the Firestorm: A Novel of San Francisco, 1906 Elizabeth Bush Hopkinson, Deborah Into the Firestorm: A Novel of San Francisco, 1906. Knopf, 2006 [208p] Library ed. ISBN 0-375-93652-1$17.99 Trade ed. ISBN 0-375-83652-7$15.95 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 4-6 Nick Dray has just made his way alone from the cotton fields of Texas to the "Paris of the Pacific," but so far the doors of San Francisco have remained closed. He makes a tenuous connection with a young man in Chinatown, who directs him to the shabbiest section of the city and suggests places he might seek employment, but he's certainly not the only poor kid looking for a job. He finally talks his way into a trial run with eccentric stationer Pat Patterson, who entrusts him to mind the shop and his dog, Shake, while he travels on business to Oakland. Hours after Patterson leaves, the ground begins to heave and Nick, determined to keep his new employer's trust, is hard pressed to keep the looters out and the dog in tow, and to deliver a pregnant neighbor lady and her voluble little daughter to safety outside the fire zone. The story unfolds like pretty standard adventure fare, with its spunky twelve-year-old orphan hero, charming dog, and epic disaster, but Hopkinson [End Page 127] comments in a closing note that it is based on an account of a boy who "braved a soldier's gun to rescue business records and his employer's dog." Characters run through their paces a little too neatly, nobody of any importance to the tale suffers too badly, and by the end Nick is conveniently set for life with the generous Pat Patterson. While this may not be quite the thriller the fiery cover art suggests, middle graders in search of quick, entertaining historical fiction—ideal for book reports—should take a look. Copyright © 2006 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Mr. Hobbs's Extraordinary Approach to Teaching Reading

Author Danny Brassell's seventh‐grade reading teacher, Will Hobbs, positively affected his reading attitude with a simple, straightforward approach that motivated students to want to read for pleasure. The teacher Provided a huge variety of high‐interest books in his classroom Led book discussions that encouraged students to talk about what they were reading Allowed students to choose books to read on their own while he read Discouraged book reports in favor of student oral reviews Developed a point system to reward students for the number of books they read Encouraged students to always try to read more by posting the names of the five top readers on the chalkboard This reading teacher went on to become a best‐selling children's book author whose stories inspire countless reluctant readers to pick up books for fun. The author credits this former reading teacher for providing him with the motivational approach he uses to get his students to read today.

Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig (review)

Reviewed by: Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig Jean Hastings Ardell (bio) Jonathan Eig. Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005. 420 pp. Cloth, $26.00. Jonathan Eig, a senior special reporter for The Wall Street Journal, had wanted to write about Lou Gehrig as a third grader, when he lost out to a classmate on the coveted book report assignment. Several years ago, as he read Laura Hillenbrand's Seabiscuit: An American Legend, Eig revisited the idea of writing about Gehrig. If Hillenbrand could weave a compelling picture of Depression Era America through a long-deceased racehorse, perhaps he might achieve the same with the Gehrig, whose steadfast dedication as the New York Yankees first baseman over seventeen seasons (1923–39: 2,130 consecutive games played, 493 home runs, .340 batting average, and a .477 on-base percentage) can be summed up in his nickname, "The Iron Horse." The first two-thirds of the book take us into the world of early twentieth-century New York City. It is a city where impoverished immigrants such as Gehrig's German parents, Christina and Heinrich, fought for survival. Christina worked as a cook and laundress while her husband dreamed of better times in the local bars. It was a time when the children of these immigrants, like Lou, had the run of the city and played sports like baseball without much supervision. Christina lost her three other children at early ages to illness, and Lou became her talisman, the center of her world. His mother, the dominant force in his life, fought his interest in baseball, wanting him to attend college, and he complied. Enrolling at Columbia University, where Christina had once worked as cook and housekeeper for the Sigma Nu Theta fraternity, he was a middling student. Baseball was his passion, and he showed significant promise, moving quickly from Columbia to the Minor Leagues and up at the age of twenty to the New York Yankees in 1923. The introverted Gehrig was rather a misfit in the clubhouse—caught between the rough ways of his teammates and the pleasure-grabbing excesses of the Yankees' star, Babe Ruth. Indeed, Ruth epitomized the Roaring Twenties, when women, speakeasies, and money were easy to come by. Gehrig, quiet and seemingly without ego, was out-of-step with the times. [End Page 146] Eig is not a baseball writer; while he dutifully records Gehrig's mounting achievements on the diamond, he shines when he widens the lens of his view. Woven into the story of Gehrig's career is the birth of sportscasting and the shift in fortunes as the Yankees replace the Giants as New York's premier baseball club with the opening of Yankee Stadium in 1923 and the Great Home Run Derby of 1927 between Ruth and Gehrig. One of the richer threads to this reviewer was the media's part during this era in the creation of baseball players as celebrities. Ruth offered great copy for the writers hungry for color and story, but when he was traded to the Boston Braves in the winter of 1934–35, New York's sportswriters focused upon Gehrig the following season. "Gehrig's greatest attributes were his steadiness and his all-around decency—fine stuff for a Boy Scout manual, but not much good for filling newspaper columns," Eig writes (p. 204). In 1936, Joe DiMaggio burst onto the scene as the Yankees' rookie centerfielder. Gehrig and DiMaggio shared similar backgrounds and personality traits, but sportswriters quickly flocked to the Italian from San Francisco. Eig continues, But the same characteristics that made Gehrig seem colorless somehow made DiMaggio mysterious, even sexy. DiMaggio had flair. He had charisma. He had style. He was Fred Astaire in pinstripes. . . . "Joe became the team's biggest star almost from the moment he hit the Yanks," pitcher Lefty Gomez said. "It just seemed a terrible shame for Lou. He didn't seem to care, but maybe he did." To return to the equine motif, Gehrig, the team's workhorse, was admirably reliable but not compelling. (Even Eig has admitted that had Gehrig's career not ended so early...

Lung Penetration by Thoracostomy Tubes

We have analyzed the radiographic and computed tomographic (CT) appearance of thoracostomy (chest) tubes inadvertently placed into the lungs. We have studied the clinical sequela of such malpositioning and discussed treatment options. Cases were collected from chest CT log book reports between January 1998 and January 31, 2005 which indicated or suggested intrapulmonary thoracostomy tube placement. CT scans were reviewed by the authors. The chest radiographs and medical records--including thoracic surgical reports--of those patients whose scans demonstrated intrapulmonary tube placement or indeterminate tube location were reviewed. Fifty patients, in whom 51 thoracostomy tubes were placed into the lungs, are included in this series. None of these tubes were described as intrapulmonary on reports of chest radiographs done before CT scanning. In 13 patients (26%), thoracostomy tube placements produced immediate improvement in pleural abnormalities. Dramatic increase or development of chest wall emphysema or pneumothorax was noted in 4 (8%) patients after tube placement. Twenty-five patients (50%) demonstrated either abrupt or gradual increase in pulmonary or pleural opacity on postplacement chest radiographs. Twenty-one (42%) had no apparent clinical complications. Thirteen (26%) had either prolonged air leaks or recurrent pneumothorax. Ten (20%) developed pneumonia. Retained hemothorax or empyema occurred in 8 (16%). Twelve patients (24%) required subsequent thoracic surgery. Intrapulmonary placement of thoracostomy tubes is probably more common than previously reported. This possibility should be considered when radiographs and CT scans are evaluated.

Book reports

Book reports

Encouraging Students to Take Responsibility for Their Own Grades: A Systematic Pedagogical Approach

Students often asked, “Can I do extra work to bring my grade up?” If I said “No,” I would wonder, “Where is my redemptive compassion?” But to say “Yes” could be allowing the students to circumnavigate the consequences of not doing their best from the start. So I instituted a system that required the students to earn a preset number of points to achieve a specific grade. Points were assigned to each grading opportunity: pop quizzes; tests; term papers; book reports; etc. And there were minimum scores set to gain certain opportunities. This paper describes the process, and its results.

Interview: Cynthia Cockburn on women, equality and social science research

PurposeCynthia Cockburn's research spans some three decades and has covered several major and distinct themes – technology and technical change, organizational equality policies and practices, and more recently conflict studies – but she has consistently studied gender from a feminist perspective and it is this interest that binds her work together. She has published more than ten books, numerous book chapters, articles, pamphlets and reports. Aims to find out more about this person.Design/methodology/approachThis article is based on an interview with Cynthia Cockburn conducted in March 2006.FindingsHer book In the Way of Women, published in 1991, stands out as having had enormous influence – it is still widely cited today, making it one of the classic texts and essential reading for those researching the dynamics of inequalities in organizational contexts. This article deals largely with the themes and methodological issues posed by Cynthia's early‐mid 1990s research focusing on organizational equality.Originality/valueThis is an update on this influential researcher's work and ideas on women, equality and social science research.

Book Review: From High School to College: Improving Opportunities for Success in Postsecondary Education

Background: Two decades of elementary and secondary education reform (P-12) presumably affects programs and policies in higher education (P-16). Purpose: This article offers an essay review of the book, From High School to College. The book includes a report on a Stanford University project that investigated the policy articulation between P-12 and higher education. Research Design: The book reports case studies on six states with an additional chapter commenting on the status and future of community (2-year) colleges. Findings: Findings suggest that the case studies depend heavily on perceptual data from stakeholders. In addition, the editors and contributing authors do not address differences in the two sectors’ missions. Specifically, the P-12 system includes both open admissions and compulsory attendance requirements, whereas institutions of higher education (IHE), from 2-year to research institutions, wrestle with the tension between open and elite admissions and comparative rankings among the IHEs.

Lucky Strike (review)

Nancy Zafris, fiction editor of the Kenyon Review, author of The Metal Shredders and winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, adds to a notable list of credentials with her second novel, Lucky Strike. The setting is 1950s Utah, site of the Cold War–provoked "uranium frenzy," in which countless amateur prospectors, hoping to strike it rich, unwittingly subjected themselves to radiation. Widowed Jean Waterman instinctively distrusts the idea of a "lucky strike," but she brings her bright daughter, Beth, [End Page 199] and her ill son, Charlie, to the desert canyons anyway, hoping they can genuinely share in the excitement before they too become jaded. Jean's strange jumble of positive and negative thinking attracts a host of like-minded characters, all of them suffering from the same mixed assessments of the world and what it has to offer: Jo Dawson, a squatter on the Waterman campsite, plainly desperate for companionship beyond that of her oafish husband; Harry, a lapsed Mormon traveling salesman who falls in love with both Jean and Jo; Miss Dazzle, proprietor of the Stagecoach Oasis motel, ever genial but more lonely than she cares to admit; and many others. Using an ensemble of narrators, Zafris achieves quite an interesting pace, admirable, yet a bit disorienting. Readers of Lucky Strike may convince themselves that not a lot is happening in the story, though in fact the plot involves a gunfight, a plane crash, helicopter rides, claim jumping and quite a few bawdy motel scenes. There's a reason for the discrepancy: many of these events are quickly introduced and then left unpondered—by every narrator, but especially by the theatrical Beth, who, like any twelve-year-old, takes it upon herself to choose what is and is not important, often choosing wrong. After dutifully completing the reading list she's been assigned for school, Beth begins narrating her own story, not quite objectively, inventing opportunities to use her new vocabulary—words like detonation and delectable. Lucky Strike begins to read like just such a book report; the characters highlight certain words they love, and people, and experiences, leaving others behind. They stretch the truth, stake claims that cannot register, and yet do. Hence Harry's love for both Jean and Jo seems perfectly sincere, as does Jean's relentless anxiety over her children at the same time that she neglects to read any of her own mother's letters. The characters in this book feel conflicting emotions constantly, repeatedly, as if, again and again, they're all falling for the same joke. It's Beth who looks for the explanation. Aloft in the impressive Vincent Flaherty's helicopter, she searches the view of the river for a sign from God. Life is not just brown, she discovers. Life is a zigzag. "Ha, that was it!" she quickly congratulates herself, only to reflect a moment later that "she would have liked something a little more personal." Every character in Lucky Strike wants this—a way to have their unsophisticated stories told, sophisticatedly. Unfortunately, this can't happen—the desert won't allow it. Zafris is at her best when she lets her setting invade her characters' narratives, when the [End Page 200] desert atmosphere becomes the villain furtively driving the heroes on, to whatever damage or danger. "I guess convincing yourselves is about the only thing left to do in the desert," one character remarks near the end, and, fittingly, no one can think of a response. Finding uranium is just a pretext for what these characters are really hoping to find. But there is no guide for them, only their own suspicions, and the suspicions echoed by the treasure-seekers who have already come and gone. By the end, when the ghostly voices of the canyons appear, audibly and visually, it is truly eerie, and we join in with the desert's final entreaty to the characters we've come to care for. You shouldn't be here, whisper the...

Does the Beige Book Move Financial Markets?

About two weeks prior to each Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, the Federal Reserve releases a description of economic activity in a document called the Beige Book. By creating a quantitative index of these qualitative reports, we examine whether the content of the Beige Book affects asset prices. The results indicate that more positive Beige Book reports on economic growth are associated with increases in interest rates, particularly intermediate‐ and long‐term rates, but not after controlling for several other macroeconomic indicators. The results are consistent with markets viewing the report as a summary indicator of economic growth but not of monetary policy moves in the near term.

Does the Beige Book Move Financial Markets?

About two weeks prior to each Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, the Federal Reserve releases a description of economic activity in a document called the Beige Book. By creating a quantitative index of these qualitative reports, we examine whether the content of the Beige Book affects asset prices. The results indicate that more positive Beige Book reports on economic growth are associated with increases in interest rates, particularly intermediate- and long-term rates, but not after controlling for several other macroeconomic indicators. The results are consistent with markets viewing the report as a summary indicator of economic growth but not of monetary policy moves in the near term.

Diagnosis and Fault-Tolerant Control [Book Report

Diagnosis and Fault-Tolerant Control [Book Report

Matrix Riccati Equations in Control and Systems Theory [Book Report

Matrix Riccati Equations in Control and Systems Theory [Book Report