I have not reviewed the Solid State portion of the book, and my review is limited to the relativity portion. I have been very pleased with the other books in the excellent series, but in the area of special relativity, I found this one somewhat disappointing. There were only seven problems in this area, and three were essentially the same thing. One was the basic derivation of the Lorentz transformation, which can be found in any relativity textbook. As I mentioned, I can not speak for the Solid State part of the book, but if you expect a variety of useful problems on special relativity, you will be disappointed. The general relativity part is OK, but I do not know of many schools which include general relativity on their qualifying exams.

This book has LOTS of sample problems. Though the solutions are not indepth, they do point you in the right direction. A good book to have if you need to study for a PhD exam, though your school should have it's own library.

All of these books titled "Problems and Solutions on (subject): Major American Universities Ph.D. Qualifying Questions and Solutions" are invaluable tools for a physics graduate student, in my experience.

It is difficult to find solved problems concering the topics in this text, so it is smaller than some of the others. However, it is still invaluable.

Criticism: Sparse index. You might find yourself adding a lot of notes of your own to the index as well as the contents.

If you are a student in physics, I suggest that you get your hands on these books.

Roy Appleman started working on this book when he was a combat historian in the US Army during the Korean War and continued into the 80s. By examining military records and interviewing many of the participants at all levels, he brings a great deal of detail to bear on a narrow focus: the experiences of the United States Eighth Army (with attached Turkish, British, and South Korean units) in the Korean War from November 24th, 1950 to December 26th,1950.

That detail can be mindnumbing at times, especially for a life-long civilian like me. A large portion of this book is taken up with such details as when x platoon detached from Company Y to occupy Hill Z. Appleman tries to be as clear as possible and substitutes organizing his history around units for a straight chronological telling of events. On occasion, he stops to remind us what is happening elsewhere simultaneous to the events he is covering or backtracks to place things in context. There are plenty of maps, many of them detailed, but the book could have used even more.

The book doesn't start to get really interesting until about half way through when Appleman takes up the harrowing retreat of the 2nd Infantry Division from Kunu-ri. This account, even more than the rest of the book, is drawn from post-combat interviews since most of the official records were lost. It tells of an approximately six mile retreat, done by some units at night in subzero temperatures, down a narrow road while under enemy fire from both sides. It is an example of confused command, bad coordination between units, and courage and cowardice.

After the retreat from Kunu-ri, we get the details of Operation Bug-Out, its unofficial title in some quarters, when the UN forces fled approximately 300 miles south of their most northernly positions in Korea.

All this detail, while boring at times, is sometimes quite informative to those unacquainted with the details of military logistics. I gleaned, in passing, some understanding of how advances and retreats are planned, the intricacies of the quartermaster's work, and the coordination of artillery support with the infantry.

As you would expect from the author of the US Army's offical history of the first five months of the Korean War, this book is also partially intended as a case study for professional military men. Appleman criticizes the actions of everyone from the Joint Chiefs of Staff and MacArthur to the behavior of privates. He restates the frequent criticism that MacArthur's notion of reunifying Korea was foolish. Korea's border with China was unpatrollable by the forces MacArthur had to say nothing of his misreading of Chinese intention and capabilities. The Joint Chiefs of Staff should have denied MacArthur permission to advance to the Chinese border. Appleman also notes a general lack of ground reconnaisance to scout out the disposition of Chinese forces before and after their second offensive. It was failure to maintain contact with the enemy which was partially responsible for the decision not to form a defensive line at the waist of Korea in December 1950 even though the Chinese did not, indeed could not, follow the retreating forces.

On the mid-levels of command, Appleman also notes problems. In the withdrawal from Kunu-ri, Colonel Freeman's controversial decision not to perform a rearguard action for the retreating column is covered. Appleman sees it as a breakdown in coordination and the chain of command. Appleman also notes how General Walker had units in reserve but did not use them in a northward attack to clear the Chinese roadblock between Sunchon and Kunu-ri. He mentions, but has no explanation for, the British Middlesex Battalion's failure to support the retreat as ordered.

On the lowest levels, Appleman notes a general lack of discipline, with some notable exceptions, about maintaining supplies and equipment and also armor units failing to support infantry in clearing Chinese from the sides of the Kunu-ri-Sunchon road.

Appleman also stresses that his account corrects two misconceptions in the history of the Korean War. Chinese General Lin Piao, a legendary figure from the Long March, did not lead troops in the second Chinese offensive of the war, and the Chinese did not exploit a gap between the Eighth Army and the X Corps. Rather, they punched a whole in the front and exploited it.

Military professionals and veterans of the events covered should find this book valueable. Casual readers of military history will find parts slow going, but the book should ultimately reward their attention.

The Eighth Army's retreat from Northwest Korea after the invasion of the Chinese Army in 1950 is a difficult event to understand because of the simultaneous occurrence of many interconnected battles. Appleman's treatment of these events brings clarity to the overall picture, and brings into sharp relief the command failures and inconsistencies which exacerbated the defeat of U.S. forces. Unanswered in Appleman's detailed treatment, however, is the question of why the Eighth Army failed to carry out its declared intention to establish a defensive line north of Pyongyang. Instead, the Army seemed to lose all coherence and fall back in a panicked rush until it was well below the 38th parallel, long after it had lost contact with the advancing Chinese. Appleman's harsh evaluation of Col. Paul Freeman's decision to withdraw his regiment by the coast road is also somewhat controversial, although I must say that after reading Appleman's account of the sequence of events it is hard to disagree with his conclusion.

It was great reading a book that finally addressed the cause of economics and capitalism. Economics is very fascinaing to me, and it interesting to see it applicable for the 18th century as well.

Adam Smith wrote the book the same year our great nation was established. The book was very intriguing and genuinely full of good, useful economics principles.

All in all, the book deserves a B+. I give it a strong B and not an A, only because of the wordage used. At times it was even above my intellect.

Thanks, Raymon Perry 850-521-9647

Tu Wei-ming's brilliant essay on the sociopolitical, religious and personal dimensions of the Chinese Confucian classic "Doctrine of the Mean" is not only the perfect companion for the original text, but stands alone as a useful analytical text. Tu's treatment of the profound person, fiduciary community and the moral metaphysics as propounded by the esoteric text attributed to Confucius' grandson are enlightening. His final analysis of Confucianism as a religious system is eye-opening and convincing, and rings with his personal beliefs. Not perhaps the most easy text to follow for the uninitiated novice, but highly informative to those who would seek to understand this ancient system through a different lense.

Having fallen in love with Chung Kuo: The Middle Kingdom, I sought this book out with high expectations. Wingrove delievers again: well-planned characters in a rich future world where China rules. It seemed to me that Wingrove has definately read up on the philosophy, language and culture he has based Chung Kuo's society on.

Not to spoil it for anyone, but I will say this: I have read and own the entire series. This one is a keeper.

This is a great book written those people who have lots of experiences with optics and the deep mathematics associated with optics. The best things I like about the book are the Matlab example programs found through out the book.

The authors have experience conducting clinical trials in the pharmaceutical industry and this shows in their approach. All the issues that arise in an NDA submission to the FDA are covered. In the introduction the authors describe the regulatory process and the role of the FDA. They even provide organizational charts for the FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. I have been working as a senior biostatistician for medical device companies for the last 5 years. Most of the trials I have worked on were regulated by the FDA and a number of issues that have been important to the FDA include (1) multiple comparisons, (2) intention-to-treat versus per protocol analysis, (3) pooling centers, (4) baseline data and demographics, (5) data monitoring and (6) safety. They are all covered in chapters 11 and 12 of this book.

Chapter 10 emphasizes sample size determination and interim analyses are covered in chapter 9. Randomization and blinding are covered in chapter 4. These topics are emphasized because of their importance in regulated clinical trials. One does not find them covered very much in other statistics texts on survival analysis or clinical trials.

The mathematics level is intermediate. The authors write well and incorporate the important practical interplay between the statistician, the clinician and the physician.

They provide many good references. The book is a good reference for anyone interested in clinical trials. Points are illustrated through the use of real trials.

Recent advances in Bayesian methods, resampling and meta analysis are not covered but most important topics are covered including group sequential methods.

The new edition of this book continues the tradition of readability, relevance and practicality. It is to be highly recommended for medical and dental students and for trainees in all surgical specialities.

this text exhibits strong research methodology and interesting conclusions about perceptionsand how they are related to ethnicity.

I have several of the boks from this series and I do like most of them - apart from this one. This book contains the more idiosyncratic Zen stories. The main problem is that if you haven't understood those stories before you might not really understand them after having read this book. This is mainly due to the stories' nature and, of course, not due to the way the artist presents them. I did know some but not all of the stories before I read this book. I found that the ones I knew were presented in a nice way but I had doubts the comics made them clear. So if you want to learn more about Zen you might want to get the "Shouts of Nothingness" book from the same series and another book, maybe one by Suzuki. Zen is a hard topic to talk/write about in the first place and putting the hardest bits into a format like this doesn't really seem to work.

PS: If you understand the stories why would you want to read any book about them anyway?

If you are a fan of his other works that convert Eastern literature, riligion, and philosophy into an entertaining and reliable comic format, you will also love this book. I agree with others that it is not as engaging as his first Zen book. Presumably, this is because of the Zen literature used for the books, and not some nuance of his performance. If you don't have the first book ("Zen Speaks") then get that and read it first. If that one left you wanting more, as it did for many of us, then pick up this book- you'll enjoy it.

Just getting started on your desire to understand eastern philosophies? Have you stood at the bookstore for hours pouring over where to start and what to buy?

Any of this authors books are a wonderful place to start. The reason? Because these books are all about the title subject in a nutshell, easy to read as a comic book, the story lines and illustrations are wonderful, and after you read this as well as all the other books by Tsai, you will have a great, well rounded start on your path and will know what you want to study more deeply!

To add, when others ask you about your interest in eastern philosophy, you can get them started here as well, because these books are fun, consise, and you know they will enjoy them over and over again!