Why do some surprises delight—the endings of Agatha Christie novels, films like The Sixth Sense, the flash awareness that Pip’s benefactor is not (and never was!) Miss Havisham? Writing at the intersection of cognitive science and narrative pleasure, Vera Tobin explains how our brains conspire with stories to produce those revelatory plots that define a “well-made surprise.” By tracing the prevalence of surprise endings in both literary fiction and popular literature and showing how they exploit our mental limits, Tobin upends two common beliefs. The first is cognitive science’s tendency to consider biases a form of moral weakness and failure. The second is certain critics’ presumption that surprise endings are mere shallow gimmicks. The latter is simply not true, and the former tells at best half the story. Tobin shows that building a good plot twist is a complex art that reflects a sophisticated understanding of the human mind. Reading classic, popular, and obscure literature alongside the latest research in cognitive science, Tobin argues that a good surprise works by taking advantage of our mental limits. Elements of Surprise describes how cognitive biases, mental shortcuts, and quirks of memory conspire with stories to produce wondrous illusions, and also provides a sophisticated how-to guide for writers. In Tobin’s hands, the interactions of plot and cognition reveal the interdependencies of surprise, sympathy, and sense-making. The result is a new appreciation of the pleasures of being had.
Why do some surprises delight—the endings of Agatha Christie novels, films like The Sixth Sense, the flash awareness that Pip’s benefactor is not (and never was!) Miss Havisham? Writing at the intersection of cognitive science and narrative pleasure, Vera Tobin explains how our brains conspire with stories to produce those revelatory plots that define a “well-made surprise.” By tracing the prevalence of surprise endings in both literary fiction and popular literature and showing how they exploit our mental limits, Tobin upends two common beliefs. The first is cognitive science’s tendency to consider biases a form of moral weakness and failure. The second is certain critics’ presumption that surprise endings are mere shallow gimmicks. The latter is simply not true, and the former tells at best half the story. Tobin shows that building a good plot twist is a complex art that reflects a sophisticated understanding of the human mind. Reading classic, popular, and obscure literature alongside the latest research in cognitive science, Tobin argues that a good surprise works by taking advantage of our mental limits. Elements of Surprise describes how cognitive biases, mental shortcuts, and quirks of memory conspire with stories to produce wondrous illusions, and also provides a sophisticated how-to guide for writers. In Tobin’s hands, the interactions of plot and cognition reveal the interdependencies of surprise, sympathy, and sense-making. The result is a new appreciation of the pleasures of being had.
We study 1,400 UK syndicated loans, together with the financial history of the lead bank and the borrowing firm. We interpret abnormal equity returns around loan announcements as the value of the lending relationship to the firm. We find that: (i) Consistent with previous evidence, the value of lending is higher when the firm is riskier or more opaque, suggesting that it primarily reflects the lead bank’s screening and monitoring activities. (ii) As a bank becomes larger, more profitable or more capitalized, the value of its loans first increases and then decreases. The largest, most capitalised or most profitable banks do not give the most valuable loans. (iii) Firms which receive low-value loans are more likely to experience low profitability and financial distress during the lending relationship. By relating the state of bank balance sheets to borrower performance, we offer a new angle to evaluate the impact of financial conditions on the real economy.
Community Psychology, 5/e focuses on the prevention of problems, the promotion of well-being, empowerment of members within a community, the appreciation of diversity, and an ecological model for the understanding of human behavior. Attention is paid to both “classic” early writings and the most recent journal articles and reviews by today’s practitioners and researchers. Historical and alternative methods of effecting social change are explored in this book, with the overall theme that the environment is as important as the individual in it. This text is available in a variety of formats – digital and print. Learning Goals Upon completing this book, readers will be able to: Understand the historical and contemporary principles of community psychology. Apply theory and research to social services, mental health, health, legal, and public health systems
In this second volume of Strong on Music, Vera Brodsky Lawrence carries into the 1850s her landmark account of the nineteenth-century New York music scene. Using music entries from George Templeton Strong's famous journals—most published here for the first time—as a point of departure, Lawrence provides a vivid portrait of a vibrant musical culture. Each chapter presents one year in the musical life of New York City, with Lawrence's extensive commentary enriched both by excerpts from Strong's diaries and a lavish selection of little-known music criticism and comment from the period. The reviews, written by an often truculent, sometimes venal tribe of music journalists, cover the entire world of music—from opera to barrel organ, salon to saloon. In this New York, operas performed by renowned artists are parodied by blackface minstrels; performances of the Philharmonic Society are drowned by the raucous chatter of flirtatious adolescents, who turn concerts into a noisy singles' hangout; and irate critics trash the first performances of Verdi operas, calling the plots indecent and the scores noisy and unmelodic. In this volatile atmosphere, a native musical culture is born; its whose first faltering efforts are dubiously received, and the first American composers begin to emerge.
This book presents a holistic exploration of the banking systems in Africa. Considering the central role that banks play in most developing countries and the vastly different trends and challenges they face, the book provides a crucial understanding of the specific environments in which banks operate. It addresses specific banking issues relevant to developing countries in general and Africa in particular, and explores the various dynamics of money and banking that separate Africa from the rest of the world. The authors build upon extensive Africa-based research and university teaching, and illustrate each topic with examples and cases from the continent. Written in an accessible style while retaining its practicality and relevance, it is an essential read for professionals, students, and other readers interested in policies affecting the banking sector’s development in Africa.
The idea for this handbook arose from an awareness that whilst various WHO documents called for developing national capacity for tobacco control, there was not comprehensive guide to the development of such a capacity. This book is thus, essentially, a pragmatic "how to" manual. The Introduction presents the evolving definition of "national capacity", identifies the types of capacities needed for effective tobacco control and outlines the key features of building capacity. Section 1 provides a descriptive overview of the tobacco epidemic. It looks at tobacco as a risk factor, presenting its health, social and economic costs; the global strategies of the tobacco industry to counteract public health measures; the scientific evidence for effective tobacco control interventions; and the WHO FCTC as a global solution to an epidemic with prominent politico-legal and socio-cultural attributes. Section 2 focuses on the fundamental capacities necessary to empower countries to control the tobacco epidemic successfully. These chapters apply the lessons learned from the experiences of different countries and offer advice and suggestions to enable countries to put the theories of tobacco control into practice.
Today educational activities take place not only in school but also in after-school programs, community centers, museums, and online communities and forums. The success and expansion of these out-of-school initiatives depends on our ability to document and assess what works and what doesn't in informal learning, but learning outcomes in these settings are often unpredictable. Goals are open-ended; participation is voluntary; and relationships, means, and ends are complex. This report charts the state of the art for learning assessment in informal settings, offering an extensive review of the literature, expert discussion on key topics, a suggested model for comprehensive assessment, and recommendations for good assessment practices.
Pigment spots are the third most common issue addressed by skincare specialists. Both young and elderly clients come with this complaint, many not for the first time. Therefore, specialists who can effectively resolve these problems will undoubtedly be in demand and achieve well-deserved recognition. This book provides complete and reliable information that will help you build a truly effective and safe program for treating pigmented lesions. The book consists of four parts. The first part describes the nature and mechanisms of pigmentation formation, both constitutive (fixed genetically) and facultative (caused by internal or external influences). The stages of melanogenesis, the current understanding of melanocyte physiology and melanin functions, and differences in skin types between people of different ethnic groups are discussed in detail. Special attention is given to factors influencing pigmentation: hormones, stress, inflammation, nutrients, and ultraviolet radiation. Moreover, "new" factors, such as visible light, infrared radiation, and air pollutants, are discussed clearly and comprehensively. This part concludes with a chapter on the evolution of pigmentation. All this information will give you an in-depth understanding of the nature of pigmentation lesions and, thus, the possibilities of effectively combating them. The second part presents clinical types of dyschromia and describes methods for assessing pigmentation. The third and largest part of the book is devoted to methods of pigmentation prevention and treatment available in skincare practice. Modern depigmenting and exfoliating cosmetic products and the dermal targets on which they act are discussed in detail. Also covered are outdated and dangerous ingredients that can still be found on the market. Separate sections are devoted to sunscreens and antioxidants because they are no less important than bleaching agents in the modern concept of working with pigmentation lesions. Furthermore, in this part, the possibilities of physical methodsare discussed with a detailed description of lasers and IPL devices. These methods allow both pigment-producing and pigment-distributing cells of superficial and deep lesions to be targeted. Injection procedures are also touched upon, focusing on their real possibilities and risks, as well as nutraceuticals for skin lightening with proven effectiveness. The last, fourth part, is devoted to treating vitiligo as the most common variant of hypomelanosis. Many different methods and approaches are used for its treatment, which is also relevant for other acquired pathologies associated with loss of pigment or melanocyte function. The book is intended for aestheticians, skincare specialists, dermatologists, specialists in aesthetic medicine, students at medical schools, and all interested persons.
The Power of Beginning is the story of how a social entrepreneur, Vera Cordeiro, a physician working in a public hospital in Rio de Janeiro, came to understand the inextricable relationship between poverty, inequality, and health and how her life and work as a doctor was changed finding a way to bring health and human development to extremely vulnerable families. The book covers a period between 1991 to this day. It was written and revised by Dr. Vera Cordeiro and the journalist, Roberta Pennafort and is an account of how making a life changing decision brings with it tremendous energy and power to make positive social transformation.
For minority law students or attorneys, no factor is more important in deciding where to work than the quality of a firm's diversity program is central to their decision.
Using simple models this book shows how we can gain insights into the behavior of complex systems. It is devoted to the discussion of functional self-organization in large populations of interacting active elements. The authors have chosen a series of models from physics, biochemistry, biology, sociology and economics, and systematically discuss their general properties. The book addresses researchers and graduate students in a variety of disciplines.
In this book, Vera Dika rewrites the story of the Pictures Generation from the perspective of the Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center in Buffalo, NY. Her work is based on interviews with living artists, archival research, and personal collections, including films, videotapes, and sound recordings. At once aesthetic, cultural, and political, this renewed perspective asks new questions and rewrites past assumptions about the artists’ work. The legendary members of the East Coast Pictures Generation emerged at Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center in Buffalo in the mid-1970s. These young people had started Hallwalls, an artist-run organization that invited artists from a variety of mediums to show their work. It also featured productions by the founding members themselves: Robert Longo, Charles Clough, Cindy Sherman, Nancy Dwyer, and Michael Zwack. The works discussed in the volume include performance, video, films, painting, music, and literature, and have been chosen because of the way they foreground states of the body in relationship to conditions of their medium. As a distinguishing feature of Hallwalls artists’ work, the practice uses these traces to make metaphors on the process of mechanical reproduction itself. The Hallwalls artists’ work also gives testament to Buffalo and to New York City, the cities that formed their historical contexts. This book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, performance studies, film studies, and gender studies.
British mercantile houses--privately financed commercial enterprises dealing in the import and export of goods--integrated Argentine production into the world economy between 1810 and 1880. Reber evaluates business operations and decision making and analyzes the relationship between business practices and Argentine economy and politics.
Combining their years of experience working with individuals on the autism spectrum, the authors bring practical ideas and teaching methods for offering visual supports to students with autism spectrum disorders.
This Second Edition of TAKING SIDES: CLASHING VIEWS IN MANAGEMENT presents current controversial issues in a debate-style format designed to stimulate student interest and develop critical thinking skills. Each issue is thoughtfully framed with an issue summary, an issue introduction, and a postscript. An instructor’s manual with testing material is available for each volume. USING TAKING SIDES IN THE CLASSROOM is also an excellent instructor resource with practical suggestions on incorporating this effective approach in the classroom. Each TAKING SIDES reader features an annotated listing of selected World Wide Web sites and is supported by our student website, www.mhcls.com/online.
New York is the center of the legal universe for what is known for as BIGlaw. Vault brings lawyers and law students inside information on firm culture and compensation at more than 50 firms with major offices in the Big Apple.
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