In defense of derivatives
Securities regulators and the media have decried derivatives-exchange-traded futures, options, and other sophisticated financial instruments-for exacerbating the effects of the 1987 stock market crash. Merton Miller counters this popular view in Merton Miller on Derivatives (John Wiley & Sons), a collection of essays and speeches in which the Nobel laureate and GSB professor emeritus defends the controversial financial tools, arguing they are quite valuable in managing financial risk.

Arresting review of mouth-to-mouth
A recent study published in the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation suggests mouth-to-mouth ventilation may not be the most effective response to adult victims of cardiac arrest. The study was conducted by an AHA task force led by Lance Becker, a U of C associate professor of medicine. Unlike victims of choking or drowning, the study says, those in cardiac arrest may benefit more from improved blood flow than increased oxygen. In addition, the study says even health-care professionals have trouble performing CPR with mouth-to-mouth correctly, and bystanders are often reluctant to perform CPR for fear of disease transmission. Until new guidelines are released, Becker advises: "If mouth-to-mouth ventilation bothers you, skip it and concentrate on chest compressions."

Putting a human face on postwar Japan
In 1995, Norma Field, a U of C professor in East Asian languages and civilizations, returned to Tokyo to care for her dying grandmother. In her loving tribute, From My Grandmother’s Bedside: Sketches of Postwar Tokyo (University of California Press), Field, who grew up in Japan as the daughter of a native woman and an American G.I., interweaves details from her childhood and contemporary Japanese life-the sound of wooden clogs on Tokyo streets, the azure blades of an electric fan, the difficulties of caring for her grandmother-with the country’s broader postwar political and social struggles.

All work and no play...
People who have a graduate degree average 50 sexual acts a year, while those with only some college education average 62, according to a study by the U of C's National Opinion Research Center. The center says the pattern holds for both men and women, regardless of age, work hours, or other variables. The findings are based on 10,000 interviews conducted over the past decade.-E.C.