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Discusses Gary Tate's career as a teacher of writing and as an administrator and scholar in the field of composition. Includes questions and responses concerning pedagogy, the state of contemporary composition research, composition publishing, and the changing status of the teaching of writing. (HB)

A fast and accurate multigrid (MG) algorithm is presented for the direct method-of-moments (MoM) numerical simulation of radar scattering from large-scale one-dimensional (1-D) dielectric randomly rough surfaces. The proposed MG algorithm combines the desirable features of the generalized conjugate residual preconditioned iterative procedure and a parallel implementation of the spectral acceleration scheme proposed by Chou and Johnson. In addition, the paper proposes effective preconditioning schemes designed to further enhance the numerical efficiency of the proposed algorithm. The accelerated MG algorithm was benchmarked against the exact MG solution for both transverse electric and transverse magnetic polarizations. The efficiency of the proposed algorithm facilitates scattering calculations from electrically large surfaces. Hence, the algorithm was used to assess the performance of an approximate physical-optics scattering model used for ocean forward scattering simulations at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL). The validations are performed at X-band and W-band frequencies. Index Terms--Iterative schemes, method of moment (MoM), numerical methods, rough surface scattering,.

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmoneco.2005.10.001 Byline: Deborah Lucas (a)(b), Robert L. McDonald (a) Keywords: Financial institutions; Options pricing; Value at risk Abstract: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac assume a significant amount of interest and prepayment risk and all of the credit risk for about half of the $8 trillion U.S. residential mortgage market. Their hybrid government-private status, and the perception that they are too big to fail, make them a potentially large, but largely unaccounted for, risk to the federal government. Measuring the size and risk of this liability is technically difficult, but important for the debate over the appropriate regulation of these institutions. Here we take an options pricing approach to evaluating these costs and risks. Under the base case assumptions, the estimated value of the guarantees is $7.9 billion over 10 years, with a combined .5 percent value at risk of $122 billion. We evaluate the sensitivity of these estimates to various modeling assumptions, and also to the regulatory regime, including forbearance policies and capital requirements. The analysis highlights the benefits, but also the challenges, of taking an options-based approach to evaluating the value of federal credit guarantees. Author Affiliation: (a) Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management, 2001 Sheridan Road Leverone Hall, Evanston, IL 60208-2006, USA (b) NBER Article History: Received 23 October 2005; Accepted 26 October 2005 Article Note: (footnote) [star] This paper was prepared for the 2005 Carnegie Rochester Public Policy Conference. We thank Wendy Kiska, Marvin Phaup and David Torregrosa for their generous help and suggestions on this project, and Robin Seiler for useful conversations. We also thank conference participants, and especially Marvin Goodfriend, Andreas Lehnart, Wayne Passmore and George Pennachi for their detailed comments.

Tax consequences of a firm using options on the firm's own stock, is given little consideration even though they are relatively common. According to a section of the Internal Revenue Code (US), transactions by a firm in its own stock and options on its own stock do not face tax consequences.

The style of Jack Spencer's photographs may initially attract a viewer's attention, but it is the observer's perception of the dynamic relationship between that style and their content that gives them narrative power. His practice of his ``presents profound opportunities to discuss the traditional themes and concerns of the Southern United States such as race, class and the persistence of history, as he pursues these beyond the geographic boundaries of the South.

A fast and accurate multigrid (MG) algorithm is presented for the direct method-of-moments (MoM) numerical simulation of radar scattering from large-scale one-dimensional (1-D) dielectric randomly rough surfaces. The proposed MG algorithm combines the desirable features of the generalized conjugate residual preconditioned iterative procedure and a parallel implementation of the spectral acceleration scheme proposed by Chou and Johnson. In addition, the paper proposes effective pre-conditioning schemes designed to further enhance the numerical efficiency of the proposed algorithm. The accelerated MG algorithm was benchmarked against the exact MG solution for both transverse electric and transverse magnetic polarizations. The efficiency of the proposed algorithm facilitates scattering calculations from electrically large surfaces. Hence, the algorithm was used to assess the performance of an approximate physical-optics scattering model used for ocean forward scattering simulations at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL). The validations are performed at X-band and W-band frequencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]