Archive for September, 2010
New Government Report: Suicide Prevention Among Veterans
Suicide Prevention Among Veterans
by Ramya Sundararaman, Sidath Viranga Panangala and Sarah A. Lister
Paperback, 13 pages, 2009, $10.00
ISBN: 1437939651
Numerous news stories have documented suicides among servicemembers and vets returning from Iraqi and Afghanistan. The VA has carried out a number of suicide prevention initiatives, including: establishing a national suicide prevention hotline for vets, conducting awareness events at VA medical centers, and screening and assessing vets for suicide risk.
Contents of this report: Intro.; Data Systems for Tracking Suicide; Suicide in the U.S. General Pop’n.: Incidence of Suicide; Risk and Protective Factors; Suicide Among Vets: Incidence of Suicide; Risk and Protective Factors; Effects of PTSD, TBI, and Depression on Suicide Risk; VA’s Suicide Prevention Efforts: Mental Health; Strategic Plan; Suicide Awareness; Screening; Suicide Prevention Hotline.
New Government Report: Public Defender Offices
Public Defender Offices, 2007: Statistical Tables
by Lynn Langton, Donald J. Farole jr.
Paperback, 17 pages, 2009, $15.00
ISBN: 1437933505
Examines offices that provide representation for indigent defendants through a salaried staff of full-time or part-time attorneys employed as direct government employees or through a public, nonprofit organization. Public defender (PD) offices are categorized according to whether they are funded and admin. at the state government level, the county level, or through a combination of state and county government.
Topics include PD office staffing, caseloads, expenditures, and standards and guidelines used by the nearly 1,000 PD offices across 49 states and the D.C. In 2007, 964 PD offices across the nation received nearly 6 million indigent defense cases. Misdemeanor cases accounted for about 40% of all cases received by PD offices. Extensive charts and tables.
New Government Report: Developments in Oil Shale
Developments in Oil Shale
by Anthony Andrews
Paperback, 30 pages, 2008, $20.00
ISBN: 1437939724
Rising oil prices and concerns over declining petroleum production worldwide revived U.S. interest in oil shale after a two-decade hiatus. In addition to technological challenges left unsolved from previous development efforts, environmental issues remained and new issues have emerged.
Challenges to development also include competition with conventional petroleum production in the mid-continent region, and increasing petroleum imports from Canada. Contents of this report: Background; Oil Shale Resource Potential; Challenges to Development; Commercial Leasing Program; R&D Program; Programmatic Environ. Impact Statement; Mineral Leasing Act Amendments; Commercial Lease Sale and Royalty Rates.
New Government Report: Why Don’t Lenders Renegotiate More Home Mortgages?
Why Don’t Lenders Renegotiate More Home Mortgages?: Redefaults, Self-Cures, and Securitization
by Manuel Adelino, Kristopher Gerardi and Paul S. Willen
Paperback, 41 pages, 2009, $20.00
ISBN: 1437928714
Servicers have been reluctant to renegotiate mortgages since the foreclosure crisis started in 2007, having performed payment-reducing modifications on only 3% of seriously delinquent loans. This reluctance does not result from securitization: Servicers renegotiate similarly small fractions of loans that they hold in their portfolios. The paper’s results are robust to different definitions of renegotiation, including the one most likely to be affected by securitization, and to different definitions of delinquency. Redefault risk, the possibility that a borrower will still default despite costly renegotiation, and self-cure risk, the possibility that a seriously delinquent borrower will become current without renegotiation, make renegotiation unattractive to investors.
New Government Report: Climate Change: Design Approaches for a Greenhouse Gas Reduction Program
Climate Change: Design Approaches for a Greenhouse Gas Reduction Program
by Larry Parker
Paperback, 27 pages, 2008, $20.00
ISBN: 1437928188
Facets of the cost issue that have raised concern regarding a greenhouse gas reduction program include absolute costs to the economy, distribution of costs across industries, competitive impact domestically and internationally, incentives for new technologies, and uncertainty about costs.
Contents of this report: (1) Intro: Price Versus Quantity Debate; (2) Five Dimensions of the Cost Issue; (3) Addressing Cost Concerns: Tonnage Options; Expand Supply Options; Carbon Tax: Economic-Based Circuit Breaker; Technology-Based Timetable: Banking and Borrowing; Auctioning Permits; Safety Valve; (4) Illustrative Approaches; (5) Resolving the Price-Quantity Issue; (6) Selected Options to Address Cost Uncertainty of Greenhouse Gas Reduction Programs. Charts and tables.
Timeless Toy Trains, Now Half Off!
Weekly Book Special: September 28th-October 4th
It was in September of 1900 that Joshua Lionel Cohen opened up a small manufacturing company in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The line of model electric trains produced there would soon become known as “the standard of the world” and, even 110 years later, are still marveled at by adults and children alike. At Diane Publishing we’re celebrating the history of model trains with this week’s special:
A Century of Lionel:
Timeless Toy Trains
by Dan Ponzol, Hardcover, 160 pages, 2000, ISBN: 1567999662
List Price: $35.00, Lowest Amazon.com Price: $30.00, OUR PRICE: $17.95
“This officially licensed, centennial celebration of the Lionel electric train tells the story of the first 100 years of Lionel and showcases stunning, full-color photographs of some of the most famous — as well as some of the rarest — examples of the Lionel output.
Readers are treated to a warm retelling of the history of the cherished toy, from the first electrical devices invented by engineer and Lionel founder Joshua Lionel Cowen to the technical marvels being produced today.
Written by toy train expert Dan Ponzol, this wonderful book is a stunning tribute to one of the most cherished American institutions.”
The Midwest Book Review declares this gorgeous coffee table exposition “a ‘must’ for all true Lionel train fans.” Author and Lionel train collector Dan Ponzol has given these gorgeous, hand-crafted playthings the royal treatment they truly deserve.
A Century of Lionel is sure to draw in readers of all ages; it is “wonderfully illustrated throughout with reproduced images from legendary catalogs and Lionel train ads, as well as representative models from [Ponzol’s] expansive collection.”
This book is discounted only through October 4th. Purchase it for $17.95 (list price $35.00):
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In addition, let your loved one, relative or friend choose a unique gift from our extensive selection of nearly 40,000 hard-to-find books and prints. Give a gift certificate in any amount. |  |
New Government Report: Intellectual Property in Industrial Designs
Intellectual Property in Industrial Designs: Issues in Innovation and Competition
by John R. Thomas
Paperback, 18 pages, 2010, $15.00
ISBN: 1437928188
“Under current intellectual property laws, industrial designs may potentially be protected through design patents, trade dress, and copyright. In addition, the Vessel Hull Design Protection Act established a specialized, or sui generis, intellectual property right for the protection of boat hull designs. Some experts argue that the present intellectual property regime does not adequately protect industrial designers. In the 111th Congress, two bills would establish a ‘repair’ exemption within the Patent Act. Although potentially of broad application, H.R. 3059 and S. 1368, each titled the ‘Access to Repair Parts Act,’ appear to have been motivated by the enforcement of design patents that are said to restrict competition in the secondary market for automobile replacement parts. Also in the 111th Congress, legislation has been introduced that would establish proprietary rights in fashion designs. H.R. 2196, the Design Piracy Prohibition Act, would provide a three-year term of protection for fashion designs based upon registration with the U.S. Copyright Office.
Contents of this report: (I) Industrial Designs and Intellectual Property: Copyright; Trade Dress; Design Patents; Vessel Hull Design Protection; (III) Current Issues in Industrial Design Protection: Intellectual Property Rights in Fashion Designs; U.S. Adherence to the Hague Convention; Automobile Spare Parts; Judicial Developments Concerning Design Patents; (III) Issues in Innovation and Competition.”
New Government Report: Honey Bee Colony Collapse Disorder
Honey Bee Colony Collapse Disorder
by Renee Johnson
Paperback, 17 pages, 2010, $15.00
ISBN: 1437928196
“Starting in late 2006, commercial migratory beekeepers along the East Coast of the U.S. began reporting sharp declines in their honey bee colonies. Because of the severity and unusual circumstances of these colony declines, scientists named this phenomenon colony collapse disorder (CCD). Reports indicate that beekeepers in most states have been affected. Overall, the number of managed honey bee colonies dropped an estimated 35.8% and 31.8% in the winters of 2007/2008 and 2006/2007, respectively. Preliminary loss estimates for the 2008/2009 winter are reported at 28.6%. To date, the precise reasons for colony losses are not yet known. Honey bees are the most economically valuable pollinators of agricultural crops worldwide.
Contents of this report: (I) Importance of Honey Bee Pollination; (II) Extent and Symptoms of Colony Collapse Disorder: Past Honey Bee Population Losses; Current Colony Losses from Available Surveys; How CCD Differs from Past Bee Colony Losses; Symptoms of Colony Collapse Disorder; Possible Causes of Colony Collapse Disorder; Other Related Events; (III) Issues for Congress: Committee Actions and Hearings; 2008 Farm Bill; Conservation Provision; Research Provisions; Insurance and Disaster Provisions; Other Provisions; USDA Actions and Funding; USDA’s Action Plan; USDA’s 200-2008 Progress Report; Available USDA Research Funding. Tables and figures.”
New Government Report: Future of NASA
Future of NASA: Space Policy Issues Facing Congress
by Daniel Morgan
Paperback, 36 pages, 2010, $25.00
ISBN: 143792817x
“Contents: (1) Intro. and Legislative Context; (2) What is NASA for?; (3) What Should NASA Do?: Human Spaceflight: The Vision for Space Exploration; Current Program to Implement the Vision; Cost and Schedule; Why the Moon?; “The Gap” and Utilization of the Space Station; Human Spaceflight: The Augustine Comm.; Balancing Competing Priorities; (4) Space Shuttle Program: Why the Shuttle Program is Ending; Possible Extension of the Shuttle Program; (5) International Space Station; (6) Future Access to Space: Orion and Ares; (7) Destinations for Human Exploration; (8) Alternatives to Human Exploration; Robotic Exploration; (9) Other Space Policy Issues; The U.S. Commercial Space Industry; (10) Legislation in the 111th Congress. Charts and tables.”
New Government Report: Non-Marital Childbearing
Non-Marital Childbearing: Trends, Reasons, and Public Policy Interventions
by Carmen Solomon-Fears
Paperback, 57 pages, 2008, $25.00
ISBN: 1437939511
“In 2006, a record 38.5% of all U.S. births were non-marital births. Many of these children grow up in mother-only families. Children who grow up with only one biological parent in the home are more likely to be financially worse off and have worse socio-economic outcomes (even after income differences are taken into account) compared to children who grow up with both biological parents in the home. Contents of this report: Key Findings; Trends in Non-marital Births: 1940-2006; Numbers, Percentages, and Rates; Characteristics of Unwed Mothers; Fathers of Children Born Outside of Marriage; Reasons for the Increase in Non-marital Childbearing; Impact of Non-marital Births on Families; Public Policy Interventions; Future Prospects.”
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