This is a very new and unique book that covers the gamut of statistical issues through all phases of drug development. Shao is a distinguished professor from Wisconsin and Chow teaches at Temple but is known for his long career in the pharmaceutical industry.

The book is good for biostatisticians and regulatory affairs specialists as a reference source. All the key statistical issues are addressed and the reader is given the perspective of the ICH and FDA guidance documents. The underlying statistical methodology that justifies the recommendations in the guidances is presented. This is a state-of-the-art book. Shao and Pigeot produced some of the recent research in individual bioequivalence that established a bootstrap procedure as an appropriate way to construct confidence intervals for the problem. Their method is recommended in an FDA guidance document.

But more than just this one example, all the key issues that have been the subject of FDA workshops over the past several years are addressed in this book. These topics include calibration, assay and assay validation, dissolution testing, stability analysis, shelf life estimation, bioequivalence, randomization and blinding, what constitutes substantive evidence in clinical development, therapeutic equivalence and noninferiority, Bayesian approaches in clinical trials, problems involving missing and incomplete data, longitudinal methods, meta-analysis, quality of life studies and instrument validation, and medical imaging.

Other prevalent issues in clinical trials include group sequential methods, hierarchical Bayesian models and multiple testing. These issues are not covered as much in this text as the others we have mentioned. But there is some discussion of multiplicity in the context of quality of life studies. An example of sequential testing is used to illustrate model selection in Chapter 2. The important issues of design and sample size requirements are presented throughout the book.

While not all topics are covered in sufficient depth, the book is remarkable in the breadth of material covered in just 350 pages of text. The authors also provide a very authoritative list of references and regulatory guidances and other documents.

As a Medical School lecturer, running a virology course, I found this book to exactly what I had been waiting for. It is more fleshed-out and more virus-centred than the otherwise excellent introductions to infection and immunity by Mims and by Mitchinson but isn't as dry and encyclopedic as Fields (or Nathanson's big "Viral Pathogenesis"). It deals in a well-organized, clear and accessible way with the current scientific understanding of the interactions between virus and host at the molecular, cellular, systems and population levels, and provides sufficient clinical examples to be appealing to medical students and biologists alike. Clinical students will need, in addition, to have access to a more systematic text. My only gripe is that, as a duo-tone softback at a little over 200pp., the publishers have priced it too high for the mass market it deserves.

This is a great book on hydrology, the author is very famous in both hydrology and hydraulics area.

This is a well-written and fairly comprehensive textbook for the science and engineering of hydrology, suitable for undergraduate and graduate courses. I used it for a class taught by one of the authors (David Maidment), so it was a natural fit for the class, but I believe that any competent teacher could make good use of it. The example problems are useful and the explanations are clear.

A must have reference for those of you guys in the field of Applied Hydrology. If you are tackling the task of modeling some particular hydrologic process, you will find the detailed descriptions and flow charts very handy. Step by step derivations of equations, excellent referencing and convenient chapter setup makes this book a first-to-look reference. Although it is a 1988 print, you will hardly feel it unless you really dig into details like flow routing in meandering rivers.

I believe you will enjoy reading this book...

The English translation of this book can be improved, as the Chinese version is much better.

Sentient beings, in their constant transmigration throughout the realms of Samsara accumulate much more unwholesome karma than they can ever imagine. Humans are no exception to this, as some would like to believe. Negative karma is primarily created through breaking any of the Five Precepts and Ten Wholesome Deeds. However, the most difficult precept to uphold is the precept of refraining from sexual misconduct.

In his 145th book, Living this Moment in Purity, Living Buddha Lian-sheng recounted the hardships endured by humans in controlling their desires. Humans are born of sexual desire and as a result will perish from it. The Living Buddha cautions readers, "Amid the endless seas of karmic transgressions, hindrances of sexual desire are among the hardest to remove." The Living Buddha expressed his wish that everyone will maintain their purity, cherish their bodies and souls and seek the path of spiritual cultivation. To immerse oneself in cultivation is the only way to eradicate karmic hindrances that ultimately lead one to the suffering of transmigration.

Translated from Chinese, this amazing book has been made possible by the talents of Janny Chow and the publisher, Purple Lotus Society. The uncanny ability of Janny Chow to accurately translate even the personality of Living Buddha Lian-sheng makes this book very worthwhile to read. Thanks to the Purple Lotus Society in disseminating the universal compassion of the Buddha, such life-altering literature has been made available to all, regardless of race, creed or color. This book is a must for all.

Living this Moment in Purity is a book that benefits all: including vajrayana practitioners and those engaged in high cultivations of mind and body, as well as everyday people with spiritual inclinations who seek a lamp of clarity in a time of anxiety.

While on secluded retreat, Master Sheng-yen Lu has continued to give profound Buddhist teachings through his prolific writings. These works have touched the hearts of many. Living this Moment in Purity is the 145th book written by His Holiness. For those English readers especially who anticipate each translation of Master Sheng-yen Lu`s work, this book is a precious gem.

Indeed, the faultless elegance, style and simplicity of Janny Chow`s translation make it seem as if there was no translation at all! While reading the book, I felt an intimate joy that I was receiving a direct transmission of Master Sheng-yen Lu`s words, without any sense of language barrier. These vast and profound teachings are given their proper homage and respect of clarity and power in the translation.

Each of the thirteen chapters of the book recounts a true encounter by Master Sheng-yen Lu, from his many years of giving spiritual consultations, with students who are faced with grave circumstances and dilemmas that are all found to be rooted in karmic causes and conditions. Master Sheng-yen Lu poignantly elucidates how we truly create our own realities. Yet as much as we create our own prison of sufferings, we also have the potential and opportunity to create a more positive reality and, ultimately, to reach perfect enlightenment. Indeed, it is precisely because of the infallible law of cause and effect that we have an opportunity to turn the light around! Karma is what is so real and immediate in our daily lives: it is what we have to work with.

Why do we need to cultivate morality? As any spiritual adept can testify, true morality is true bliss. In the preface of Living this Moment in Purity, Master Sheng-yen Lu writes: `With a deep understanding of the Buddha`s supreme wisdom, I live totally in the moment, "the moment of purity and liberation."

Janny Chow`s translation is inspired and pure. Only a cultivator, from years of patient and devotional practice, who has truly experienced the benefits of such an extraordinary teacher, could make such a work directly accessible to the hearts and minds of beings with varying tendencies and intellects.

Master Sheng-yen Lu is renowned for his ability to fuse teachings and bring people together who come from a wide variety of backgrounds, and to give teachings and inspiration to everyone appropriately. These are qualities that are only possessed by perfectly enlightened beings. With more than five million students, he continues, while on secluded retreat, to benefit beings ceaselessly through his prolific writings. His many books, reaching 160, include such varied topics as Feng Shui, Vajrayana Buddhism, Taoism, compassionate living, and spiritual philosophy in general. Only a dozen or so of these books have been translated into English.

We are lucky to receive this present translation from Janny Chow. As in all her classic translations, the radiance of Master Sheng-yen Lu`s wisdom, compassion and power truly shine through!

Covers all the essentials to every Chow owner, including history, standard, breeding, showing, obedience, grooming, and much more, including artwork by the author. 200 b/w illus.

This book is a wonderful resource for any chowist. Kip covers a multitude of information including structure, grooming and showing. She also gives Top Producer information as well as OFA registered dogs through #1156. OFA's website does not reflect most of the dogs Kip has listed. Pictures are also a wonderful resource. Kip did a great job representing our breed with this publication.

A professor teaching my Open Channel Flow class stated that this book is widely regarded as "The Bible" of open channel hydraulics. After reviewing a library copy, I was so impressed with it that I bought one for myself. The text is written in a clear, concise language that is sorely lacking in other texts. His chapter on energy and momentum principles is especially good. Sure, it's an old text (1959) but 98% of this book is still relevant. There's a reason it still in print; engineers love it and continue to buy it!

Incidentally, I found the review of this book by Hubert Chanson to be at best, disingenuous. He rates the book with only one star (every other reviewer gave it 5 stars) while at the same time recommending a "better" text that he fails to mention he authored and is out of print! There's one in every crowd.

This is the foundational text of modern open-channel hydraulics. All engineers should have a copy. The only negative review on this page (or that I have ever heard) is by an author (Hubert Chanson) of books which compete with this one.

This is superb text, a standard for over 40 years and for justcause. The explanations are clear and easy to understand--providingexplanation of theory, for example momentum versus energy and confusion between the two.

The English translation of this book can be improved, as the Chinese version is much better.

I first read this book and could not comprehend its contents until I read "Encounters with the Spiritual World" also written by Master Sheng-Yen Lu. In order to understand the meaning behind this book it is important to have read Grand Masters other books about his experiences. After going back to "A detailed exposition on the true buddha tantric dharma" I was actually able to follow the instructions to better my meditation. I also recommend going to a local True Buddha chapter for help in the practices. Having read this book I have experienced many phenomenons in practicing the guru heart practice and recommend it to everyone to try. I am sure if they pray wholeheartedly they too will experience spiritual healing.

I had a continueing dream after reading his books and doing the practice and it is true he is a living buddha. I have now read 16 of his 130 books and this is the best.

David Chow was the technical advisor during the first season of the old "Kung Fu" television series. Many of the people who saw those shows commented on how much the techniques resembled judo. This book will show you why. Chow's background was in the grappling arts, and it is that orientation which he brought to both the show and this book. The first part of it deals with the history and theories of some of the more famous kung fu styles. The technique section contains some fairly effective responses to grabbing attacks. The poetry section could have been left out. This book is O.K., but nothing to write home about.

This is a good book for someone just starting to explore martial arts. Chow gives historical information about the origins of chinese martial arts (legends included), brief overviews of the more mainstream internal and external chinese boxing styles, some chin na techniquue, chinese philosoophy and training methods and disciplines. Has a cool section on some obscure styles of martial chi kung. Also talks about the spread of martial arts into western pop culture. This book helped me get started in kung fu and provides a lot of information about chinese boxing. I only give it 3 stars because the information held within the book is limited and common place upon further study of chinese boxing.

As someone who teaches kung-fu, I simply have to recommend this treatise on the history and philosophy of Chinese martial arts.

This book is unlike many others of its genre. It does not try to teach the reader Kung Fu. It does try to provide a historical perspective and philosophical background to the foundations of the art. The story begins with the travels and teachings of the founder of ancient boxing arts, Bodhidharma. An entire chapter is devoted to the relationship between Taoism and the development of Kung Fu to its current form. Finally, the different styles are explained along with the theory and philosophy behind each. Hard and soft style systems are both adequately covered and described.

Throughout this book are a number of interesting photographs of the masters of various styles of Kung Fu and some of the amazing feats they perform. The book has an extensive section explaining how certain "miracles" are done. Stunts such as climbing a vertical brick wall, leaping ability and hand hardening are described along with the training exercises necessary to perform these stunts. All of these stunts that at first seem impossible suddenly become plausible with the explanations that Chow provides.

This book provides a valuable insight to the foundations of the Kung Fu. It is a great addition to the library of any martial arts enthusiast and the pictures are mostly one-of-a-kind that one is unlikely to see elsewhere.

This is not the type of book that I would normally pick up, but I got it for one simple reason: my girlfriend asked me to read it.

First though, I would like to talk about the positive things in the book, because I believe there is a lot of positive stuff here. It's just unfortunate you have to sift through dozens of pages of chaff to find a paragraph or even a sentence of wheat. (I might add that my girlfriend felt the same way too about most of the book...and she's Asian.)

The most valuable chapters I read are the ones on relationships to mothers, relationships to fathers, and the one about choosing a mate. Even those I must herald with caution though. Since I am not Asian, I wanted to read this, because she said it might help explain some of the dynamics of her family as well as letting me know why they aren't too keen on me. I couldn't agree more, I was amazed at how many parallels there were between certain situations in this book and the life of my girlfriend (once again, this pertains to the three chapters mentioned above.) If nothing else I'm glad I read those, because I have a greater understanding of what we are up against to get parental approval of our relationship.

Now for the bad stuff and the awful stuff: This book is full of both subtle and overt racism...some of it expressed reluctantly, some of it stated as cold hard fact. For instance, in the chapters about parental expectations in academic achievement (and other such similar issues) there was a constant theme insinuating that most other races don't have the burden of parental pressure to succeed in school. I can assure you from my experience, as well as that of my peers, that this is false. Not only was the grade of "B" not accepted, "A-" grades opened you to questioning about "why were your grades so close to a 'B?'" I assure you all that this is not isolated to just me. I come from a community were academics are EXTREMELY important and failure to do well in them reflects poorly on all. That was one of the more subtle instances of racism in the book...the assumption that whites (and others) don't expect their children to excel.

The worst that I came across was when marriages were being discussed. Many people's only objection to interracial marriages were that they didn't like whites, blacks, latinos, etc. No other reason. Some people were defiant in their stance against racism, some didn't defend their parents' views but shrugged it off because it was their parents, others acquiesced, and others adamentally (yet in a subtle manner...what a paradox) agreed to both the moral and intellectual inherent superiority of Asian people. No one stated it so boldly, but it is not hard to read between the lines. If such things were written by white people they would be branded as heretics of "American multicultural ideology." Racism is racism no matter what color mouth it comes out of or what color mind it is formed in. (I would once again like to reiterate that my Asian girlfriend found this to be true too. She was quite upset members of her community could speak such things so freely.)

I certainly don't negate any of the racism some of these people experienced (or still do experience for that matter.) Racism is an ugly scar on society's face. I just can't justify some of these things. I don't know what it is like to be an Asian woman (as a matter of fact I don't know what its like to be Asian or a woman) but I do know racism when I see it.

I don't mean to chastise the whole book because there are some great things in it. Its just unfortunate that it is also full of rubbish.

As bizarre as this might seem, I still recommend parts of this book. My suggestion is to proceed with caution and to filter the junk so you are left with the pearls that are here.

I found this book to be quite interesting, and as an asian American I found some comfort, as a person of mixed race I still feeel there is no book yet, but this is a start I do one thing to say in regards to ragamala78 someone who reviewed this book, For someone who's not of Asian descent I am not sure on her point of critiquing this book??? Perhaps her friend should have reviewed it here and not her.

As a Chinese-American woman, the themes in this book resonated deeply with me. In fact, it articulated many thoughts that have been fomenting in my mind for quite sometime but that I could never articularte as clearly (and I consider myself quite articulate on these issues!). Although none of the sketches are exactly my experience; there were bit of almost everyone of of them that I could relate to. Furthermore the collage of voices made me feel that there is a group of Asian American women out there with whom I share a kindren spirit -- it is rare that a book resonates with me at such a level.

Others who have not had these experiences may not understand what comes across as "overt racism" in this book (e.g., parental objections to interracial marriage). However, the xenophobism of the older generation is the reality that many Asian Americans face, and the book does a great job of "telling it like it is" rather than trying to gloss over these issues is a more politically correct fashion.

This book might be useful to someone looking for a book with general information about tea, but for someone who wants to learn about the real art of Chinese tea, this book is useless . The book does not go into any detail about important elements of Chinese tea drinking such as Yixing teapots and the gongfu brewing method; it just tries to explain them in a few sentences. After reading this book, you will hardly have gained any knowledge of Chinese tea at all.
The book is obviously an imitation of John Blofeld's "The Chinese Art of Tea", which is an excellent book on the subject of Chinese tea. This book even copied the format of "The Chinese Art of Tea" by inserting small drawings in the margins, and they also copied the teahouse section of "The Chinese Art of Tea". The only thing they forgot to copy was all the good information.

The section in this book on tea brewing, entitled "How to Make a Nice Cup of Tea", provides instructions on making tea that could only be used to make tea for your dogs. The book does not explain any of the Chinese brewing methods, it seems like the authors just read the back of a Lipton box and copied into their book. If you are interested in Chinese tea, it is much better to find a few good websites on Chinese tea than to buy this book. Anybody who has even a small amount of knowledge of Chinese tea can see that this book is very badly made.

I found this tea book to be a very good reference book on tea's origin, how and when it's popularity spread to other realms, how to enjoy tea and what kinds of utensils are used to make and drink tea. I would have enjoyed more pictures and the ones that are here are in black and white, but this is an information packed read.

No fetishism nor fussiness in this volume, just excellent information and tips for the tea drinker and interested historian/gardener/travel buff/philosopher/health-seeker. If anything, this book demystifies Chinese teas with its clear and readable presentation -- instructive but not school-bookish. If you think there's more to life than powdered iced-tea mixes -- or even if you don't -- this book will tell you the rest of the story of your favorite brew.