A Lower Bound on the Growth Exponent for Loop-Erased Random Walk in Two Dimensions

The growth exponent $\alpha$ for loop-erased or Laplacian random walk on the integer lattice is defined by saying that the expected time to reach the sphere of radius $n$ is of order $n^\alpha$. We prove that in two dimensions, the growth exponent is strictly greater than one. The proof uses a known estimate on the third moment of the escape probability and an improvement on the discrete Beurling projection theorem

Unwelcome And Unlawful: Sexual Harassment in the American Workplace

Nearly every American woman will, at some point during her working life, be sexually harassed, according to Raymond F. Gregory, a lawyer specializing in employment and discrimination law. This book provides information for those victims as well as for those suffering same sex harassment and for male victims of sexual harassment. Gregory analyzes sexual harassment from the perspective of existing federal law and describes the legal rights that may be asserted by victims of harassment to obtain either injunctive or monetary relief. By clarifying little understood aspects of the law barring sexual harassment, the author presents an indispensable resource for victims seeking to learn what to expect from the legal system if they contest the actions of their harassers in the courts

The New Germany and the New Europe. Edited by Paul B. Stares

The Brookings Institution\u27s new book, The New Germany and the New Europe, is an attempt along these lines. Actually a collection of twelve scholarly papers, it is an in-depth examination of the roiled political and economic currents that washed away the Berlin Wall and the rest of the Iron Curtain and continue to affect the flow of so much of current events. There are two more substantive shortcomings that pervade the book. The first of these; to be fair, the book shares with many of the policy debates that presently occur on the planet: a persistent failure to consider the limits on the willingness of the populations of the NATO countries to bear the costs of what is recommended, or already underway, and the consequences of reaching those limits. The second major flaw in the book is related to the first. Little consideration is given to events at the level at which most people function, namely, the household, the workplace, and the local community. Keeping these deficiencies in mind, the book does contain a great deal of information and a number of valuable insights

Defining SLE in multiply connected domains with the Brownian loop measure

We define the Schramm-Loewner evolution (SLE) in multiply connected domains for kappa \leq 4 using the Brownian loop measure. We show that in the case of the annulus, this is the same measure obtained recently by Dapeng Zhan. We use the loop formulation to give a different derivation of the partial differential equation for the partition function for the annulus

Book Review: The American Indian Oral History Manual: Making Many Voices Heard

The times have changed. American Indian people, like indigenous population worldwide, have finally begun to impress scholars with the fact that in spite of centuries of colonial exploitation their cultures are alive and they hold ownership of them. Oral history and ethnology both have to listen to this new voice and come to understand the ethical and legal implications for the academic disciplines. These three authors bring unique experiences as well as “best practice training” to this small book