Simple Letter Research Articles

Assessing the influence of letter position in reading normal and transposed texts using a letter detection task.

During word recognition, some letters appear to play a more important role than others. Although some studies have suggested that the first and last letters of a word have a privileged status, there is no consensus with regards to the importance of the different letter positions when reading connected text. In the current experiments, we used a simple letter search task to examine the impact of letter position on word identification in connected text using a classic paper and pencil procedure (Experiment 1) and an eye movement monitoring procedure (Experiment 2). In Experiments 3 and 4, a condition with transposed letters was included. Our results show that the first letter of a word is detected more easily than the other letters, and transposing letters in a word revealed the importance of the final letter. It is concluded that both the initial and final letters play a special role in word identification during reading but that the underlying processes might differ.

Strategic control in AGL is not attributable to simple letter frequencies alone

In Norman, Price, and Jones (2011) , we argued that the ability to apply two sets of grammar rules flexibly from trial to trial on a “mixed-block” AGL classification task indicated strategic control over knowledge that was less than fully explicit. Jiménez (2011) suggested that our results do not in themselves prove that participants learned – and strategically controlled – complex properties of the structures of the grammars, but that they may be accounted for by learning of simple letter frequencies. We first explain why our main conclusions regarding strategic control and conscious awareness are a separable issue to this criticism. We then report additional data which show that our participants’ ability to discriminate between the two grammars was not attributable to differences in simple letter frequencies.

Role of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) in modulation of cognitive functions: recordings via deep brain stimulation electrodes (DBS)

Event Abstract Back to Event Role of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) in modulation of cognitive functions: recordings via deep brain stimulation electrodes (DBS) Ivan Rektor1* 1 Masaryk University, Germany Neuropsychiatric disturbances after DBS indicate the STN involvement in cognitive functions. We report the STN recordings via DBS electrodes in cognitive tasks (Baláž et al., 2008; Rektor et al., 2009; Baláž et al., 2010; Bočková et al., 2011). The STN is implicated in tasks with increased cognitive loads. A dual task but not the simple oddball task evoked local field of P3-like potentials (Baláž et al., 2008). Oscillations in STN were modulated by writing other letter than that which appeared on a screen, but not by simple letter copying (Bočková, in Rektor et al., 2009). In the three stimulus paradigm, the distracter stimulus evoked an early potential (latency 200 ms), not known from the scalp recordings (Bočková et al., 2011). The rTMS of the inferior frontal cortex but not of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex increased the speed of processing the dual task (Baláž et al., 2010). The STN (1) is implicated in modulation, rather than in a direct regulation, of cognitive functions; (2) there is a spatial overlap of sites regulating various functions, the STN might modulate cognitive activities via contextual modulation of certain cortical areas; (3) implicated in the non-motor activities in some way other than the well-known organisation of the basal ganglia-thalamocortical circuits; direct cortex-STN connexions may play an important role; (4) the modulation of cognitive functions is selective, probably determined by involvement of cortical neuronal population that are interconnected with the STN. Keywords: DBS, Neuropsychiatry Conference: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI), Palma, Mallorca, Spain, 25 Sep - 29 Sep, 2011. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Poster Sessions: Neuropsychiatric Applications Citation: Rektor I (2011). Role of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) in modulation of cognitive functions: recordings via deep brain stimulation electrodes (DBS). Conference Abstract: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI). doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2011.207.00111 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 16 Nov 2011; Published Online: 25 Nov 2011. * Correspondence: Dr. Ivan Rektor, Masaryk University, Brno, Germany, irektor@med.muni.cz Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Ivan Rektor Google Ivan Rektor Google Scholar Ivan Rektor PubMed Ivan Rektor Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

Prompts to Encourage Appointment Attendance for People With Serious Mental Illness

Background Prompts to encourage attendance at clinics are often used in day-to-day practice by diligent carers of people with mental health problems. These may take the form of telephone prompting, financial incentives or issuing a copy of the referral letter to the appointee. Objectives To estimate the effects of simple prompting by professional carers to encourage attendance at clinics for those with suspected serious mental illness. Search methods We searched the Cochrane Schizophrenia Group Trials Register (April 2009) and reference lists, as well as contacting authors of studies. We updated this search on 17 May 2012 and added the results to the awaiting classification section of the review. Selection criteria All relevant randomised (or quasi-randomised) studies comparing the addition of 'prompts' to standard care for those with serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia. Prompts had the stated purpose of encouraging attendance or contact with mental health teams and could be text-based, (for example in the form of a letter), electronic, by telephone call, by personal visit, or could employ financial or other rewards. Data collection and analysis Studies and data were independently selected and extracted. For homogeneous dichotomous data the random effects relative risk (RR), the 95% confidence intervals (CI) and, where appropriate, the number needed to treat (NNT) were calculated on an intention-to-treat basis. For continuous data the reviewers calculated weighted mean differences. Main results Only four relevant trials were identified (total n=789). It is not clear whether there is any real difference between attendance of those prompted by telephone one or two days before the appointment, and those given the standard appointment management system (2 RCTs, n=457, RR missed appointment 0.84 CI 0.7 to 1.1). Text-based prompts in the form of a letter, a few days before the appointment day, may increase clinic attendance when compared with no prompt (3 RCTs, n=326, RR missed appointment 0.76 CI 0.43 to 1.32). Only one small study (n=61) reported data on the combination of telephone and text-based prompts versus no prompt, no real difference between groups was apparent (RR missed appointment 0.7 CI 0.4 to 1.2). When telephone prompts were compared with text-based prompts (1 RCT, n=75), the latter, in the form of an 'orientation statement' (a short paragraph, taking about 30 seconds to read, explaining the programme of care, the fee system, and providing gentle encouragement) may be somewhat more effective than the telephone prompt (RR missed appointment 1.9 CI 0.98 to 3.8). One study (n=120) compared a standard letter prompt with a letter 'orientation statement'. Overall, results tended to favour the orientation statement approach rather than the simple letter prompting attendance but the results did not reach conventional levels of statistical significance (RR missed appointment 1.6 CI 0.9 to 2.9). When prompts were considered regardless of their type, the results were of greater significance and suggested an effect to increase the rate of attendance (RR missed appointments 0.80 CI 0.65 to 0.98). The inclusion of five new studies to the awaiting classification section may affect results when assessed. Authors' conclusions There is evidence that a simple prompt to attend clinic, very close to the time of the appointment may encourage attendance, and a simple orientation-type letter may be more effective than a telephone prompt. This simple intervention could be a more cost effective means of encouraging compliance at first attendance, but supplementing these data with the results of large, well designed, conducted and reported randomised studies would be desirable.

The mere perception of eye contact increases arousal during a word-spelling task

Eye contact is a highly salient and fundamentally social signal. This entails that the mere perception of direct gaze may trigger differentiated neurobehavioral responses as compared to other gaze directions. We investigated this issue using a visual word-spelling task where faces under different gaze directions and head orientations were displayed on-screen concomitantly with the words. We show evidence for automatic increase of skin conductance response (SCR), indicative of arousal, associated with the perception of direct gaze as compared to both averted gaze and closed eyes. Moreover, the perception of averted gaze was associated with an increase of electromyographic (EMG) corrugator activity. These effects were observed in two demanding word-spelling tasks, but not in a simple letter decision task. We propose to interpret these findings in terms of the social value of direct and averted gaze and conclude that some circumstances such as the task at hand may be essential for uncovering the neurobehavioral responses associated with the perception of others’ gaze.

A Critical Analysis of School Enrollment and Literacy Rates of Girls and Women in Pakistan

Since Pakistan's inception in 1947, the government has made continuous efforts to provide free, universal, basic education to its citizens. This is evidenced by educational plans, policies, and five-year education sector reforms, including partnerships with international agencies and developed countries. However, these efforts have not yielded any gains for the citizens. Pakistan has a literacy rate of 49.9 percent, one of the lowest in South Asia and the rest of the world. Pakistan's male and female literacy rates are 61.7 percent and 35.2 percent. The female literacy rate drops to 25 percent in rural areas, and girls' school enrollment of fifty-five percent drops to twenty percent from Grade 1 to 6. For the purposes of these statistics, a literate person is defined by Pakistan's Ministry of Education as one who can read a newspaper and write a simple letter in any language. Pakistan's population of 167 million is sixty-five percent rural and thirty-five percent urban, with citizens facing multiple interlinked issues affecting their quality of life, such as illiteracy, poverty, and the lack of basic necessities (shelter, gas, water, and electricity). In addition, a culture of feudalism and patriarchy creates structures of power and control that deprive citizens of their rights, including that of education (Farah 2007; Latif 2009). Studies have been conducted on education in Pakistan,1 but they have been limited in scope in terms of girls' education. This article addresses the gap in female literacy scholarship. Its purpose is to critically analyze the state of girls' education in Pakistan in terms of three factors: the reasons for low literacy and school enrollment rates, gender biases in curriculum and textbooks, and cultural norms. Based on this analysis, the article concludes with measures to increase school enrollment and literacy rates for girls and women.

Secondary prevention of osteoporotic fragility fractures in patients with Colles' fracture

A simple letter to the general practitioner after a fragility fracture could make a big difference to future fracture risk, argues Nick Kalson, a medical student at the University of Manchester. The work was undertaken at Stepping Hill Hospital, Stockport.

Towards produtive language mapping: A magnetoencephalography study of letter naming.

This study aims to examine the sensitivity and specificity of magnetoencephalography (MEG) integrated with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for productive language mapping using a simple letter naming task. Six healthy adult volunteers participated after screening for handedness and medical history of speech, language, hearing, and vision. The data were collected using a 148‐channel whole‐head MEG system (Magnes WH2500, 4D Neuroimaging, San Diego) at the Magnetic Source Imaging Laboratory in United Hospital, St. Paul. During the recording session in a magnetically shielded room, the subjects were instructed to pay attention to the visual stimuli and articulate the letter from the English alphabet as soon as it was shown on the screen. The averaged epochs and trial‐to‐trial raw data were analyzed using Brain Electrical Source Analysis (BESA) and BrainVoyager software. Although visual processing of the letters showed similar temporal and spatial activation patterns, letter naming did not show uniform activation patterns in the Broca’s area. Large inter‐subject variability was found in terms of superior temporal, inferior parietal, motor, and supplemental motor involvement. The results are discussed with respect to the technical challenges in implementing MEG with millisecond resolution for presurgical productive language mapping and potential risks of sensorimotor and language deficits.

« L’étrangeté vocalique » dans quelques nouvelles de Flannery O’Connor et de Barry Hannah

Starting from Steven Connor’s definition of “the vocalic uncanny” as thwarted or imperfect utterance or “the conflict of embodiment and meaning” (in Myth, Modernity and the Vocalic Uncanny), this article attempts to identify the different manifestations of strangeness or the uncanny, notably strange vernacular words or the repressed voice which surges unexpectedly in simple letter changes. Our survey is reinforced by the observation of the strange voices of many characters in Flannery O’Connor’s and Barry Hannah’s short stories. All these symptoms of the “vocalic uncanny” tend to show that any vocal change has a metaphorical impact, thus encouraging the reader to discover hidden meanings in sounds, graphical errors or “strange and alien occurrences”. Indeed, as Julia Kristeva argues in Le Langage, cet inconnu, there are “acoustic images” in both writers’ stories, which disturb representation and create a network of indeterminate referents. Finally, one may hastily retain the impression of obscurity and abstruseness from both writers, but this eariness / eeriness contributes to the main quality of their short stories (their poetic virtues). Even if Barry Hannah’s strangeness obliges the reader to decipher and decode abstruse references and passages, his fascinating writing relies precisely on that strangeness and difficulty. As for F. O’Connor, the strangeness of her voice simply mirrors the mystery of God’s presence.

An Examination of the Dutch Health Care Inspectorate's Supervision System for Suicides of Mental Health Care Users

An Examination of the Dutch Health Care Inspectorate's Supervision System for Suicides of Mental Health Care Users

The bounded Community: Turning foreigners into Americans in twenty-first century L.A.

At the turn of the twenty-first century, ‘globalization’ is the order of the day. With international migration bringing the alien ‘other’ from third world to first, and worldwide trade and communications amplifying the feedbacks travelling in the opposite direction, the view that nation-state and society normally converge has waned. Instead, social scientists are looking for new ways to think about the connections between ‘here’ and ‘there’, as evidenced by the interest in the many things called ‘transnational’. Those studying international migration evince particular excitement. Observing that migration produces a plethora of connections spanning ‘home’ and ‘host’ societies, these scholars proclaim the emergence of ‘transnational communities’ (see Glick Schiller, et al. 1992; Smith and Guarnizo 1998; Glick Schiller 1999; Portes et al. 1999; Levitt and Dewind 2003, and accompanying articles in International Migration Review, V. 37, 3). Evidence of ties that the scholars call ‘transnational’ abounds. To begin with, the reality of ‘immigration’ diverges from the definition employed by dictionaries and social scientists alike, namely, migration for settlement. While some migrants do move to settle and others settle despite initial plans to the contrary, today’s mass international migrations entail movements of other type, including return migration, repeat migration, and circular migration, as well as migration for settlement. Such flows leave large numbers of persons moving back and forth, not certain where to settle, let alone how much importance to place on the connections ‘here’ versus ‘there’. The passage of so many people moving across borders generates a huge, subsequent flow of information, goods and money. Though the simple letter did a remarkably good job of knitting together distant trans-oceanic contacts during the migrations of the last turn of the century, today’s migrants can communicate with the stay-at-homes in any number of ways, doing so with a speed and immediacy that, in the view of many

Recruiting top students: A letter writing approach

Abstract This paper presents the outcome of a letter writing technique to influence top business students to consider enrolling in the first intermediate accounting course. Accounting educators and professional recruiters have expressed concern that accounting may not always be attracting the “best and brightest” students. What can accounting educators do to mitigate this concern? A study was conducted to see whether a simple letter writing effort can make a difference in attracting top students to the first intermediate accounting course.

Reducing occupational psychological distress: a randomized controlled trial of a mailed intervention

There are increasing levels of psychological distress among general practitioners (GPs). The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a mailed intervention to reduce distress among 'at-risk' GPs. A questionnaire was sent to 1356 GPs from eight Divisions of General Practice. Out of 819 (60%) who responded, 233 GPs were recruited with scores indicative of psychological distress. These GPs were randomized to intervention (n = 120) or control (n = 113). The intervention consisted of a simple letter feeding back and interpreting the psychological score together with a self-help sheet. During the study, an educational program was offered to GPs by Divisions of General Practice. The main outcome measure used was changes in psychological distress (General Health Questionnaire 12) score after 3 months. Significance was set at P < 0.05. Initial analysis of the data showed borderline significance (P = 0.05). However, analysis of the data post hoc excluding GPs who participated in the educational program showed a significant reduction in psychological distress (P = 0.03). It appears that there may have been a dilution of the intervention effect. Mailed interventions are a cost-effective way of reaching at-risk GPs and may contribute to a reduction in psychological morbidity.

Do patients really want copies of their GP letters? A questionnaire survey of older adults and their carers

Aims and MethodThe National Health Service Plan stated that all correspondence between clinicians would be copied to patients by April 2004. We wanted to find out whether this practice reflected the true desires of their patients. A questionnaire survey was therefore performed in older adults and their carers attending a psychiatric out-patient clinic.ResultsA total of 88 participants were recruited; 50 patients and 38 carers. The majority of patients and carers wanted a letter about their care but most preferred a separate, simple letter rather than a copy of the letter sent to their general practitioner.Clinical ImplicationsAlthough this study supports the existing evidence that patients would like written information about their care, it indicates that certain patient groups might not want this in the form of copies of their medical correspondence. Further research into patient and carer preference is needed before the implementation of this policy.

Degree of illiteracy and phonological and metaphonological skills in unschooled adults

Phonological and metaphonological skills are explored in 97 Brazilian illiterate and semiliterate adults. A simple letter- and word-reading task was used to define the degree of illiteracy. Phonemic awareness was strongly dependent on the level of letter and word reading ability. Phonological memory was very low in illiterates and unrelated to letter knowledge. Rhyme identification was relatively preserved in illiterates and semiliterates, and unrelated to letter and word reading level. Phonetic discrimination (minimal pairs) was fairly good and marginally related to reading ability. These results suggest that phonological sensitivity, phonological memory, rhyme identification, and phonemic awareness are distinctive cognitive processes, and that only phonemic awareness is clearly and strongly dependent on the alphabetical acquisition.

Prompts to encourage appointment attendance for people with serious mental illness.

Prompts to encourage attendance at clinics are often used in day-to-day practice by diligent carers of people with mental health problems. These may take the form of telephone prompting, financial incentives or issuing a copy of the referral letter to the appointee. To estimate the effects of simple prompting by professional carers to encourage attendance at clinics for those with serious mental illness. Methodical searches of Biological Abstracts (1985-2000), CINAHL (1982-2000), Cochrane Schizophrenia Group's Register (June 2000), Cochrane Library (Issue 2, 2000), EMBASE (1980-2000), MEDLINE (1966-2000) and PsycLIT (1887-2000) were undertaken. These were supplemented by searching of reference lists, personal contact and hand searching of high yield journals. All relevant randomised (or quasi-randomised) studies comparing the addition of 'prompts' to standard care for those with serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia. Prompts had the stated purpose of encouraging attendance or contact with mental health teams and could be text-based, electronic, by telephone call, by personal visit, or could employ financial or other rewards. Studies and data were independently selected and extracted. For homogeneous dichotomous data the random effects relative risk (RR), the 95% confidence intervals (CI) and, where appropriate, the number needed to treat (NNT) were calculated on an intention-to-treat basis. For continuous data the reviewers calculated weighted mean differences. Only three relevant trials were identified (total n=597). It is not clear whether there is any real difference between attendance of those prompted by telephone one or two days before the appointment, and those given the standard appointment management system (2 trials, n=457, RR missed appointment 0.84 CI 0.7 to 1.1). Text-based prompts, a few days before the appointment day, did increase clinic attendance when compared with no prompt (2 trials, n=200, RR missed appointment 0.6 CI 0.4 to 0.9, NNT 6 CI 2 to 14). Only one small study (n=61) reported data on the combination of telephone and text-based prompts versus no prompt (RR missed appointments 0.7 CI 0.4 to 1.2). When telephone prompts were compared with text-based prompts (1 trial, n=75), the latter, in the form of an 'orientation statement' (a short paragraph, taking about 30 seconds to read, explaining the programme of care, the fee system, and providing gentle encouragement) may be somewhat more effective than the telephone prompt (RR missed appointments 1.9 CI 0.98 to 3.8). One last study (n=120) compared a standard letter prompt with a letter 'orientation statement'. Overall, results tended to favour the orientation statement approach rather than the simple letter prompting attendance but the results did not reach conventional levels of statistical significance (RR missed appointments 1.6 CI 0.9 to 2.9). There is evidence that a simple prompt to attend clinic, very close to the time of the appointment may encourage attendance, and a simple orientation-type letter, 24 hours before the clinic appointment, may be more effective than a telephone prompt. This simple intervention could be a more cost effective means of encouraging compliance at first attendance, but supplementing these data with the results of large, well designed, conducted and reported randomised studies would be desirable.

Writing and Submitting Publications in Digital Format

INTRODUCTION With personal computers now in the workplace, on many peoples' desktops, and even within many peoples' homes, the electronic production of documents is now widespread and commonplace. The use of the computer for the generation of anything, from a simple letter to a multicolored advertisement for a magazine is now the norm. This, coupled with the availability of high-quality image output devices, such as laser and bubblejet printers, and high-speed data communications, has completely revolutionized the way that we produce and distribute materials for publication. With high resolution graphics on a computer monitor, it is possible to read the document directly on the screen without the need to generate a paper hardcopy - potentially leading to what some have called a paperless society (Note: in this writer's experience computers generate more paper, not less).

Binocular Coordination, Fixation Disparity, and Ocular Dominance

In a series of experiments we have quantified the spatial and temporal dynamics of binocular coordination. Tasks studied ranged from simple scanning and letter detection to complex visual processing in text reading. In all of these paradigms we found similar eye movement characteristics: in 70% to 90% of the observations, the saccade of the abducting eye is larger, relative differences being in the order of 5% to 15% of the amplitude. During the subsequent fixation the disparity is typically reduced by a convergence movement (about 1 deg s−1), which sometimes exceeds the initial saccade amplitude asymmetry. Interestingly, the relative vergence contributions of the eyes depend on saccade length. For progressive 2-letter reading saccades, the left (adducting) eye accounts for only 20% of the total movement as compared to about 70% for 14-letter saccades. Up to now our analysis was limited to relative rather than absolute estimates of fixation disparity. To overcome this restriction, we measured disparity using the psychophysical method of dichoptically presented nonius lines as well as direct infrared pupil-reflection registration of binocular vs monocular fixation. Both measures were independent of target eccentricity (within a range typical for reading) and produced similar subject rank orders (Spearman's \rho=0.75). When we studied vergence movements in a letter detection task using autostereograms with different levels of virtual depth, it became clear that spatiotemporal vergence parameters can be quite asymmetric for both eyes. This led to the question of whether unequal contributions to vergence may be related to ocular dominance. This hypothesis is currently being investigated with a new procedure that provides a reliable estimate of subjective visual direction (the ‘cyclopean eye’) under static viewing conditions.

Large vocabulary recognition of on-line handwritten cursive words

This paper presents a writer independent system for large vocabulary recognition of on-line handwritten cursive words. The system first uses a filtering module, based on simple letter features, to quickly reduce a large reference dictionary (lexicon) to a more manageable size; the reduced lexicon is subsequently fed to a recognition module. The recognition module uses a temporal representation of the input, instead of a static two-dimensional image, thereby preserving the sequential nature of the data and enabling the use of a Time-Delay Neural Network (TDNN); such networks have been previously successful in the continuous speech recognition domain. Explicit segmentation of the input words into characters is avoided by sequentially presenting the input word representation to the neural network-based recognizer. The outputs of the recognition module are collected and converted into a string of characters that is matched against the reduced lexicon using an extended Damerau-Levenshtein function. Trained on 2,443 unconstrained word images (11 k characters) from 55 writers and using a 21 k lexicon we reached a 97.9% and 82.4% top-5 word recognition rate on a writer-dependent and writer-independent test, respectively.

Review Essay: A Reluctant Nation Finds Its Voice: English Canada Considers the Alternatives

Philip Resnick. Thinking English Canada. Toronto: Stoddart, 1994. xii + 129 pp. $19.95 cloth. David Bercuson and Barry Cooper. Deconfederation: Canada Without Quebec. Toronto: Key Porter Books, 1991. xi + 180 pp. $14.95 paper. Robert Young. The Secession of Quebec and the Future of Canada. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1995. xiv + 376 pp. $17.95 paper. Gordon Gibson. Plan B: The Future of the Rest of Canada. Vancouver: The Fraser Institute, 1994. x + 217 pp. $19.95 paper. Alan Freeman and Patrick Grady. Dividing the House: Planning for a Canada Without Quebec. Toronto: HarperCollins, 1995. xii + 257 pp. A recent letter to the editor of the Toronto Globe and Mail reflected a deep-seated confusion currently besetting Canadians. (1) Under the heading Search of National Meaning, the writer questioned a recent article covering St.-Jean-Baptiste Day, referred to as Quebec's national holiday. How can this usage of the term `national' relate to the Globe's reference to itself as `Canada's National Newspaper,' the writer asked. Does this mean the Globe and Mail implicitly accepts the idea of Canada as two nations, or is Canada a nation which includes a province with a National Assembly and related national institutions which in turn includes Indian nations? A confusion of terminologies to be sure. Yet, more significantly, this simple letter hints at the broader and more complicated political and sociological confusion at the root of the country's past thirty years of constitutional wreckage. For, at the heart of Canada's unresolved and seemingly intractable unity debate lie profound disagreements over how to reconcile the concepts of state and nation. If the books reviewed here in some ways reflect this confusion, they also challenge the model of Canada as a single nation-state. In fact, if these books can be assumed to represent an emergent, yet quite divided opinion of the unity impasse from an English-Canadian perspective, then one's hopes for Canadian constitutional closure in the near future grow only dimmer. These volumes make a frank and, at times, bold attempt to delineate a new agenda for English Canada within the unity debate. Written amid the fulminations which have characterized the years since the Meech Lake and Charlottetown debacles, these volumes attest to a new and greater willingness on the part of English Canadians to carve out a constitutional agenda that perhaps, for the first time, genuinely reflects the concerns of what might be called a reluctant nation, English Canada. (2) This willingness to speak out represents a significant shock to the conventional political wisdom that necessarily included Quebec within all conceptions of the Canadian nation. For decades, any discussion in Canadian federal political circles about the issue of English Canada has clashed with this increasingly frayed federalist paradigm. Thus, as Reg Whitaker has written, the gospel of national unity, as it has been played out on the Canadian political stage over the past thirty years, has stifled the emergence of an authentic English-Canadian voice. (3) Yet, the period in Canada between the failed Charlottetown Accord and the recent referendum in Quebec has seen a thorough breakdown in the pan-Canadian federal model. A conflict has emerged from the context that Peter Russell calls mega-constitutional politics, in which agreement on the very essence of the Canadian political community has all but vanished. It is at this mega level, as Russell suggests, that disagreements over formal constitutional principles have become overshadowed by powerful, emotional divisions between different groups' perceptions of identity and of belonging in the Canadian polity. (4) Jane Jenson has similarly described this divisive period as one marked by the attempts of various groups to assert their collective identities--to name nations--wherein much more was involved than the division of powers in federalism, self-government for Aboriginal peoples, recognition of the distinctiveness of Quebec society, the composition and role of the Senate, or even the economic and social consequences of embedding a neo-liberal agenda in the Constitution. …