Economia Spring 2004: Journal of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (Economia)

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This semiannual journal from the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA) provides a forum for influential economists and policymakers to share high- quality research directly applied to policy issues within and among those countries.

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IV Law, a succinct, easy-to-read and essential guide to legal issues for those who are HIV positive, takes on complicated points of law that every HIV-positive person needs to understand and presents lucid solutions and strategies for solving legal problems.

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The Biodemography of Human Reproduction and Fertility takes an interdisciplinary look at the subjects of fertility and reproduction.
Key topics include:

- anorexia as a reproductive disease with evolutionary origins;
- the evolutionary basis of menarche;
- the familial (genetic) basis of having boys versus girls;
- twin fertility;
- extramarital childbearing.

This book is for advanced level students and researchers who study human reproduction and fertility.

Customer Reviews:

Review by American Journal of Human Reproduction &Fertility.......2004-05-05

Biodemography is a sullied concept in anthropology. It ought to be about the biological and evolutionary basis of demographic events that determine Darwinian fitness. Usually it is merely descriptive, and I have come to expect that titles with biodemography in them will disappoint. This book is a nice surprise: it has many pieces that do just what biodemography ought to do.
The strength of the book is that is it a collection of pieces (12 chapters) from different fields in anthropology, biology, epidemiology, psychology, and even sociology that are not obviously related and tempts scholars to read outside their fields. Anthropologists, for example, learn early on that phenotypic plasticity is what humans are about, and it never occurred to me to question the assumption that phenotypic plasticity is a good thing until I read the second chapter of the book, by Hughes, Burleson, and Rodd. Environmentally cued development may have costs not incurred by genes coding for canalized development. For example, there may be costs associated with information acquisition.
Most human reproductive ecology is based on plastic responses to the food supply or energy output, and we ought to be developing models that compare the costs of this kind of response to fixed responses. Valeggia and Ellison in Chapter 5 use Ellison's energy balance model (see Ellison, 2001) to interpret data on the duration of lactational amenorrhea in the Toba of Northern Argentina. Unfortunately, the beauty of Ellison's energy balance model is its weakness. It explains all the data we have or ever will have on ovarian suppression. In this sense it is not a true scientific model since it is impossibe to falsify.
The Toba have breastfeeding patterns similar to the !King Bushmen of Southern Africa. The !King are known for their long lactation periods and low fertility, and after Melvin Konner and Carol Worthman's landmark piece in 1980 establishing the intense lactation patterns of !Kung and suppressed ovarian activity, the 4-year-wide birth intervals of !Kung were attributed to lactational suppression. But the Toba have a surprisingly short period of lactational amerorrhea - half of all lactating Toba women have resumed cycling by 9 months postpartum, illustrating that breastfeeding intensity is not solely responsible for variation in lactational amenorrhea. Since there are no comparative data (Konner and Worthman's data were much less detailed), the piece does not elucidate the role of energetics, but Valeggia and Ellison describe some plausible physiological mechanisms for a regulatory role of food on ovarian activity.
Some variation in the timing of life history events previously attributed to plasticity can now be attributed to genetic variation. In Chapter 9 James Murray and colleagues describe differences in fertility among Honduran men with different alleles at the dopamine D2 receptor gene (DRD2)/TaqI/site. DRD2/Taq1/A1+ men have earlier age at reproduction and higher fertility than DRD2/Taq1/A1- men. In the past, they argue, the higher fertility of the DRD2/Taq1/A1+ allele was balanced by higher mortality in carriers that today produces excess morbidity. They summarize a large body of literature about genes with similar effects that may be responsible for so-called diseases of modernization (e.g., hypertension).
Like all edited volumes, this book varies in quality. Because the statistical methods and the theoretical content change with each chapter, the book is unlikely to be suitable for standard undergraduate courses. Undergraduates could grasp the conclusions, but not where they came from, and there are too many statistical techniques and too much theory and biology to introduce in a semester. Anderson and Low in Chapter 4, for example, find that the higher fertility of unmarried women disappears when covariates are included. This is an interesting but questionable finding. Many of the covariates (like age at first birth, age at marriage, and schooling) are competing risks. Women who become pregnant young are less likely to be married and receive less schooling, and a different model incorporating interactions among these terms might produce a different answer.
There are many other pieces by prominent scholars on many issues. This book should give readers a lot of new ideas with which to approach their own research problems, including up-to-date literature reviews in fields outside their own fields. It would be a great choice for a journal-club-like course in which students and faculty can hash out the issues and the consequences of better data or different statistical methods.
American Journal of Human Biology (Wiley-Liss), pages 101-102, Volume 16, Number 1 January/February 2004.

Product Description

The picture writing of ancient Egypt is the most beautiful ever created. Living close to the land, the Egyptians modelled the lovely symbols of their written lanquage after the living things, the earth, and the objects of daily use in the Nile Valley. A farmer's hoe, a stonecutter's chisel, a flower, a bird--almost anything might be chosen to write their words, and the number of things they chose was enormous. This coloring book contains only a sampling of the many hundreds of different hieroglyphs.

Book Description

Part I describes the fundamental laws underlying science. The emphasis is on intuitive understanding of the foundations of scientific knowledge to enable deciphering of Mother Nature's designs for the physical universe. It explains the six fundamental laws: Conservation of Energy, Gravity, Coulomb's force, Newton's laws, Quantum Mechanics, and Special Relativity. The book follows a trail of scientific ideas and clues from the Greeks to Newton, Mach, Clifford, Einstein, Dirac, and Feynman to Modern galactic astronomy.

Part II discusses cosmology, space and the universe. It explores their enigmas and paradoxes. Dr Wolff's role is a friendly guide to the reader, enabling her/him to understand the machinery behind Nature's laws, and to help solve the puzzles which have confounded scientists over the years. The century-old controversy of wave structure or substance structure of particles is examined and it is shown that a wave structure is the probable origin of the natural laws. The mysterious role of space itself is explored and the reader is asked and helped to choose between truth and prejudice.

Customer Reviews:

Waves are the answer!.......2007-07-18

In this book, Dr. Milo Wolff describes the state of knowledge and the open problems in physics at the near-end of the twentieth century. In the final chapters of his book, he proposes a solution to the open problems. His solution is very simple: There are no atoms, no photons, no electrons; just waves in space. And the waves in space form what we perceive to be light and matter. His proposed solution is consistent with the accepted paradigms of the day, quantum mechanics and relativity.

The book is worth buying for anybody who is interested in physics and the big questions in physics. Warning: In order to appreciate the book, one must be willing to think very deeply.

An illuminating concept .......2007-03-26

This book made a good addition to my library. The present emphasis on the Standard Model de-emphasizes understanding of why things are the way they are in favor of just describing the observed interactions. Here is a good attempt to model things at the most fundamental level. His websites offer updates from when the book what published in 1990.

A good read, and an insightful introduction to wave theory.......2007-02-03

In this book, Dr. Wolff presents a different way of looking at the building blocks of the universe, and the results are truly eye-opening. His book is written with an easy to understand history of physics and many of its current inconsistencies. He also presents his solution to these problems, with simple real-world analogies to atomic-scale movements and forces, but for those with a scientific background he also presents appendices with derivations to prove the same things with math.

This book is a thorough introduction to the wave structure of matter, which rectifies Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. It shows that probability waves of QM that irked Einstein are waves (oscillations) of energy, not a particle blinking in and out of existence, or a cat being alive and dead at the same time. There are many other simple explanations for previously difficult physics concepts in this book, as well.

Another benefit, mentioned by a previous reviewer, is that I have actually e-mailed the author many times with my own questions and ideas on these topics, and he has been very positive and helpful.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading Stephen Hawking's non-technical books, to career physicists and engineers who have seen too many holes in modern physics over the past century.

Unity is a place where everybody wants to go .......2007-02-02

I am, as a university physics lecturer of 23 years of experience, very proud that I have met this excellent book. As I am deeply involved in learning about the constituent matter of our universe, this book shows me several route to the end. It is really nice to think that all the forces in the universe can be unified. Again the unification of the universal facts simply means that we can understand the universe in simpler terms, therefore can feel much more secure.

The Wave Structure of Matter.......2005-09-05

I know Milo Wolff very well, have met him several times, and filmed a video interview of him back in 2,000. His book (which I have read 3 times) is sensible and honest, and provides a simple explanation of many of the problems of modern physics. This is achieved by rejecting the current paradigm of 'particles' generating 'fields' in 'space-time' and replacing it the more simple foundation of waves in Space. Matter, as a spherical standing wave, causes the particle effect at the Wave-Center. The 'particle / photon' properties of light are discrete because standing waves only exist and interact at discrete frequencies (which explains the foundations of Quantum Theory and why Schrodinger's Wave Equations work so well).
This book will be very famous one day! Read it!
And to see his video interviews go to;
http://www.spaceandmotion.com/#Milo.Wolff

Amazon.com

Emma Thompson spent five years translating Jane Austen's work to the screen. Fans of the film will treasure this beautiful volume that includes her screenplay, diaries of the writing and the filming, and many gorgeous color pictures from the film.

Book Description

This engaging and beautiful book includes the complete Academy Award-winning script and Thompson's own diaries detailing the production of the film, reviewed by Stanley Kauffmann in The New Republic as "vivid, funny, and gamy." 88 photos including 36 in color.

Customer Reviews:

Emma Thompson's dazzling adaptation of Jane Austen's novel.......2001-11-28

If you read Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility" before or after seeing the 1996 film version then I think it is pretty easy to conclude that Emma Thompson's Oscar for Best Screenplay adaptation was richly deserved. After writing and performing a series of short skits for British television, Thompson was approached by producer Lindsay Doran to write the screenplay. Thompson began by dramatizing every scene in the novel, which resulted in 300 hand written pages to be followed by 14 drafts as the 1811 novel was crafted into the final script. The result was a script that manages to be not only romantic and funny, but also romantic and funny in the best Austen sense of both words.

Be aware that this is the Original Script, not to be confused with the Shooting Script. This should be clear as soon as you beginning reading, because originally Thompson had the scene shifting back and forth between Mrs. Dashwood and Elinor/John and Fanny Dashwood (credit for this revision must go, I believe, to Film Editor Tim Squyres, who recut the scene so that we get all of one side and then the other instead of alternating back and forth as in the original script). Overall the strengths of Thompson's script are in two main directions. First, she manages to convey the scope of the novel in a two-hour screenplay, no mean task. Second, the little details she adds to Austen's story are simply marvelous. For example, her use of Shakespeare's Sonnet 116 ("Let me not the marriage of true minds"), which Marianne and Willoughby share to their great mutual delight and which Marianne repeats standing in the rain looking at Willoughby's new estate. In fact, Thompson revised the first scene to make it even better, having Willoughby misquote a key word in an elegant bit of foreshadowing. Thompson also makes one nice little change at the end. While Austen has Elinor bolt from the room to cry outside during the happy ending. Thompson creates a wonderful moment by having her stay in the room and having the rest of her family flee. There are not too many scenes where you are crying and laughing at the same time, but Thompson certainly created one (and has the added virtue of relying on herself as an actress to nail the performance as well). All of these are marvelous examples of playing to the strength of the cinema to bring Austen's novel to the screen.

But we get much more than just the screenplay in this volume, because Thompson includes excerpts from her diaries kept during both the writing of the screenplay and the actual production of the film. It would be nice if there was more insight into what she was thinking when writing the screenplay as I am always interested in how decisions were made and where inspiration comes from, but Thompson makes up for that with her little tales of working with director Ang Lee and the rest of the cast in making the film. Finally, in the Appendices, there is a very choice little treat, namely Imogen Stubbs' Prize-Winning Letter, written to Elinor from Lucy. Do not worry; by the time you read it you will understand why it is so hysterical. There is also a list of the fine homes and estates where "Sense and Sensibility" was filmed if you happen to be roaming around England and are interested in looking for such things.

A look inside the making of the film.......2000-11-21

Most for-sale screenplays are just that -- screenplays. Emma Thompson, who wrote the screenplay for the delightful Jane Austen film "Sense and Sensibility," chose to include journal entries throughout the filming of the movie as well, in addition to the winning entry of a contest to see who could write the best letter from Fanny to Elinor.

There is wit in the descriptions and the photos, all well-captured. The journal entries are entertaining and a good look into the making of a movie. Although be forewarned -- because they dress like the characters of S&S, they do not talk like them. There is definitely some verbal crudeness in the book, men and women alike, but if you can overlook that (or are used to it) then this book will be a delightful read for any Jane Austen fan.

A fascinating look at a remarkable film........2000-07-07

There are three separate parts to this fine volume; introduction, script and diaries. The producer of the film, Lindsay Doran, opens the door for us with her wonderful introduction. At age 13, she was determined that not only was "Jane Austen a very stupid writer," but also she would "never, never read one of her stupid books again."

Fortunately for the rest of the world, Ms. Doran changed her mind, and some twenty-five years after that first erroneous conclusion, has brought us this wonderfully witty, and extremely faithful film version of this first novel by Austen. As producer of the Kenneth Branagh/Emma Thompson film, DEAD AGAIN, she became acquainted with the woman who was not only a phenomenal actress, but also a gifted writer-one with a sense of humor and a strong romantic bent. These two qualities had proven to be the stumbling block over nearly ten years of searching for the right scriptwriter for Sense and Sensibility.

It took nearly seven years to come up with something close to a shooting script, sandwiched as it had to be between Thompson's many award-winning acting chores. Serendipity was obviously at work, however, and eventually, a budget was established, and casting accomplished.

Many of the actors Emma had envisioned in various roles had participated in a read-through the year prior to the filming; they were all in the film, in those same roles.

While the Dashwood ladies are all suitable beautiful, it is the men who are truly gorgeous. ("Repellently so," writes Ms. Thompson in the diary portion, referring to Hugh Grant. "He's much prettier than I am.") With his look-alike Richard Lumsden, they are the brothers Ferrar, Edward and Richard, with Greg Wise as the fickle Willoughby. Alan Rickman (be still my heart!) brings maturity and virility to the role of Colonel Brandon. The sets and costumes are sumptuous.

Interspersed with the actual shooting script and the diaries are some 50 photographs, 36 of them in luscious color. One script looks pretty much like another, but this one allows Ms. Thompson's wry wit to shine, especially in some of the non-spoken words. Of course, not every scene from the book could be included; the movie would have been more than six hours had they been. But the essentials are here, along with all the major characters. Providing testimony to just how perspicacious was the choice of writer is the number of awards garnered by Thompson for this, her first film script.

The diaries portion begin with a production meeting on January 15, 1995 and continue through July 9 of that year. A very small mention is made of Hugh Grant's visit to California, where he'd gone for his next film project after the completion of filming his scenes in England. A final two pages describes the 'location' houses chosen to represent those lived in by the families in the novel.

It may come as somewhat of a surprise to some readers to discover rather explicit language in the diaries. In addition to an apparent fascination with the alimentary process, our Emma has a bit of a potty-mouth, as do some of the gentleman involved, and their words are recorded, one presumes unhappily, all too accurately. They seem curiously jarring and out of place in a book otherwise devoted to the pristine words of Jane Austen.

Nevertheless, this is a lovely, hefty book; one which will bring the reader back to it time and again. There is always a new and enjoyable nugget to be mined from its various depths.

Great marriage of screenplay and journal writing.......2000-02-28

The screenplay itself is a must-read for anyone wanting an education in bringing a well-loved story to life. Emma Thompson does an ingenius job of crafting scenes that are faithful to Austen's original while inventing more that add character development and plot intrigue. I especially like her diary, though. For those who wonder what to include in a memoir of an experience, this journal is a rich model of self-disclosure and humor. I heartily recommend it!

Excellent Book!.......2000-01-04

I truly enjoyed this work by Emma Thompson. Not only is the screenplay included, with pictures, but also there are diary entries by Thompson that give insights into the making of the movie. If you loved this movie, you should read this book. I really enjoyed it.

The Sense and Sensibility Screenplay & Diaries: Bringing Jane Austen's Novel to Film

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The Sense and Sensibility Screenplay & Diaries: Bringing Jane Austen's Novel to Film

Manufacturer: Newmarket Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000I2DGJC

Book Description

From the North-West Campaign of the late 19th century to the UN missions of the late 20th century, from the heights of glory to the depths of indifference on the part of politicians and the public, through two world wars and unification of the Forces, this third and final volume covers more than a century of armed services history. The author has painstakingly researched documents and personal accounts to trace the evolution of the Canadian Forces to their current highly professional status, and to describe the commitment of the men and women who serve their country around the world - men and women whose sole objective, at the dawn of a new century and millennium, is peace.

An original, creative design as well as a large number of colour illustrations, photographs taken in the field and reproductions of military uniforms make this volume an artistic treasure as well as a unique history book and valuable reference.

Book Description

Gikandi explores the politics of identity to analyze how the colonial experience inspired narrative forms that changed the nature of the English identity by surveying the British imperial tradition since the nineteenth century. He provides detailed readings of the works of Trollope, Carlyle, and others; through the narratives of imperial women travelers such as Mary Kingsley and Mary Seacole; and through Africanist texts by Joseph Conrad, Graham Greene and postcolonialists such as Salman Rushdie and Joan Riley.

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Maps of Englishness
Simon Gikandi
Manufacturer: Columbia University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OPIOCC

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