A detailed and fascinating account of the White Lotus sect and rebellion during the Ching dynasty. Precursor to the Boxer uprisings.

Prof Wang ' Specal fuctions is a classic on specai functions,
In fact Prof, Wang was also an admirer of Modern Analysis.
The style of writting this book is in fact follows the style
of Modern Analysis, That is why is so good. But of course
Prof Wang had his own scheme and add topics not included
in Modern Analysis. To me, the best part is on the elliptic integrals and elliptic functions. I cannot find another book
on this subject which is started with basic theories, then
step by step, to introduce you to more advanced theories
from more simple theories.
Moreover, this book is originally written in Chinese.
Now it is tranalated in English.
This quality of this book is camparable to other famous books
on special functions like George Adrewo's or J. W. L. Olver's.
As a Chinese, I am proud of that and also give my repsect to
Prof Wang, whose contribution to Scientic developmeant in
China cannot over overestimated!

With all of the complexities involved with using and interacting with a personal computer, wading through a thick technical book isn't high on my list. So it's nice to have a simple reference for a light read or an occasional lookup. Let's head "under the covers" of "Start! The no nonsense guide to Windows XP" to see if it delivers that.

Short chapters with names such as Acquaint, Customize Windows XP, Connect, Games, and Enhance Windows XP offer simple, straightforward explanations, practical advice, and tips. You can work through the chapters in order, or skip around, reference-style. There are ample screen shots.

The logical organization of each chapter makes it easy to focus on a particular topic or task. For example, the chapter called Working with Windows includes information and procedures on running and installing programs, using the start menu, working with your desktop, and adding equipment.

Since Windows XP includes e-mail and Internet programs, the "Connect" chapter explains the purpose of an Internet service provider [ISP], then walks you through the process of accessing and navigating the Internet, as well as handling e-mail and using newsgroups. There's even a chapter entitled "Have Fun" that digs into the multimedia and lighter side of Windows, exploring playing games and music, listening to Internet radio, and working with digital photos.

One of my favorite areas of the book is a six-page appendix listing all of the keyboard shortcuts available in Windows XP, organized by function. Especially for readers new to PC's or new to Windows XP, the chapter called "Enhance Windows XP" provides a concise listing of important maintenance items such as hard disk maintenance, data backup and restore, task scheduling, and importantly, keeping Windows updated. User account creation is introduced, however you'll need to look elsewhere if you're looking for narrative about sophisticated user account management.

A bonus area called "Power Toys" explains how to find and download many tools available from Microsoft for Windows XP. While unsupported, they are built by Microsoft developers and add fun and functionality to your use of Windows. Finally, the book also includes a very comprehensive glossary of PC and Windows XP terms.

Emerging from the book's covers, I conclude that at around 200 pages and a retail price of [$$], this book won't put a dent in your shoulder -- or your wallet. Because's it simply organized with short, readable chapters, it's easy to pick up and put down. The author, Wallace Wang, both a stand-up comedian and the author of many computer books, writes in a simple, straightforward style. As he states, "It's about making your computer do something useful for you...". And this book helps you do just that.

As a graduate student in epidemiology who is incessantly looking for better ways to learn abstract concepts in statistics, I highly recommend this book by Elisa Lee. It's one of the few books that I found which explains advanced level statistics, such as parametric and non-parametric analysis, in a way that non-statisticans like myself can understand. It's also a handy reference to have at your side while reading the methods section of journal articles.

The compiler and translator of this book did a very good job of telling these entertaining stories of the martial arts world's most famous warriors. Complete with explanatory footnotes and English translations these tales are a wonderful reference for kung fu artists or Chinese history lovers alike. A great book with many stories that have never been told in English before.

This book is one of the most useful I have come across in recent years. Poroelasticity is a challenging field, but rewarding to those who make the effort to study it. Wang does an excellent job, leading the reader from basic principles to a detailed understanding-with this book you can leapfrog dozens of more arcane works and get to grips with real problems. Yet, if you need the detail, a wide range of previous works are referenced, and put into historical perspective: a true work of synthesis. I hope this book will stimulate more Earth Scientists and Engineers to follow Wang's lead. Figures are as admirably clear as the writing. Only spoiled by the drab cover! This book covers quasi-static poroelasticity theory-consolidation and so on.
Now all we need is for someone brave to do the same job on dynamic poroelasticity!

An outstanding book for any field of engineering responsible to deliver projects in on schedule and under budget. Book is filled with examples from all areas that ease comprehension and make the book enjoyable to read. Specifically enjoyed the treatment of risk as more than the classic "potential to do harm", but also includes "opportunities for gain." The chapters on cost and schedule risk management are refreshing, informative and through the use of examples allows the concepts to be easily applied. At times the book can be whimsical, adding to the readers enjoyment. I most strongly recommend this book to engineers who want to sharpen their engineering and project management skills.

Wang Zheng¡¦s Women in the Chinese Enlightenment presents five personal narratives of women who were deeply affected by May Fourth and the political turmoil in almost the entire 20th century. In Part One of her book, Wang also launches her version of the history of China after the May Fourth era as the background for her oral narratives. Her textual history supplements what Gilmartin takes for granted in Engendering the Chinese Revolution, for example she explains and redefines feminism and its close relationship with nationalism in the May Fourth era, how feminism was used for political cause by the nationalists, the CCP and the GMD, and how the women¡¦s movement evolved and changed in different periods. In a way, she deconstructs the generalization of ¡§feminism¡¨ and ¡§women¡¦s movement¡¨. Moreover, she does not stop at 1927, but argues that ¡§feminism did not ¡¥fail¡¦ or disappear at that point.¡¨ ¡§Rather,¡¨ she continues, ¡§as a viable discourse, New Culture feminism continuous affected the historical processes of twentieth-century China. A whole generation of educated women with a new subjectivity were both constituted by and contributed to the feminist discourse in China.¡¨ (359) She asserts that those new women brought or sustained institutional changes and enabled Chinese women¡¦s social advancement in the first half of the century by pursuing ¡§independent personhood¡¨. Furthering Gilmartin¡¦s search for the ¡§language and rituals of women¡¦s emancipation¡¨ the CCP kept after 1949, she argues that the first Marriage Law in 1950 which was drafted by May Fourth feminists, the general secretary¡¦s speech in 1996 socialist-feminist visions of public kitchens, nurseries, and other social welfare facilities for women ¡§tell a story of continuous feminist contestation within the system of the party-state. (360) Women¡¦s issues such as women¡¦s equal legal rights have been incorporated in the political discourse because ¡§gender equality and modernity were cemented so fast by the New Culturalists that no Chinese ruling group claiming to lead the nation toward modernity has openly tried to separate them.¡¨ (360) She admits that the CCP¡¦s ideology became the dominant one, but she also attempts to show how women contested and negotiated their feminist interest within the dominant political discourse.

Even though Wang uses oral accounts of women to challenge the dominant official history of the CCP, she believes that the influence of the May Fourth era and liberal feminism is indisputable. Her goal is to ¡§highlight the unique experience of the May Fourth women and simultaneously illuminate the differences and similarities between Chinese and Euro- American women¡¦s struggles for liberation.¡¨ (6) I am baffled by the author¡¦s purpose. Even though she maintains that she is aware of poststructuralist criticism and counter argues that she is only concerned with ¡§what might have been useful for Chinese women in their struggle for social advancement and improvement¡¨, and that Western liberalism ¡§provided a discourse of resistance, facilitating Chinese men¡¦s and women¡¦s struggles against the hegemonic Confucian framework¡¨ and it was ¡§actively deployed and appropriated by various Chinese social groups in their pursuit of self-interest and national interest¡¨ (361), it seems that Wang takes in the story of women subordination and emancipation (as in Croll¡¦s book) without questioning it. I am not sure how much of the oral narratives is edited and rearranged to present that story that ¡§highlights¡¨ the May Fourth influence, but I suspect that she has overemphasized the power of May Fourth in some of the oral narratives. Also, I do not understand why the author needs to compare China with what happen in Europe and America. Is it to prove that women¡¦s movement in China take a path on its own? Or to show there that ¡§universal womanhood¡¨ does not exist? Or to argue that Chinese feminists were so much better because they did not embrace the notions of female inferiority associated with the sex binary as the West?

Wang¡¦s goal of writing the book is inspiring and ambitious, as she says: ¡§My study grew out of both a political interest in deconstructing the CCP¡¦s myth of Chinese women¡¦s liberation and an intellectual dissatisfaction with stories about women that lacked women as protagonists.¡¨ (2) Her method of using oral histories greatly stimulates my interest. By presenting an alternative micro-history, she is successful in debunking a macro-history and teleological view, one that does not contain women as agents or actors. The discordant noises in these accounts help the readers to rethink about the contradictions, to deconstruct and demystify what has been written, and perhaps to reconstruct a fuller picture closer to the ¡§truth¡¨. It is especially important in Wang¡¦s case since she thinks that the history we have now is male-oriented and it is necessary to supply what those texts cannot do. However, I somehow think that her combination of oral and textual histories makes her book less approachable. In Part I of the book, the author informs (mesmerizes?) the reader with her questions and arguments, after that it seems the oral histories cannot be read without the author¡¦s surveillance. (Not to mention that the narrative is translated, edited, and selectively presented by the author.) Furthermore, the author attaches her interpretation after each narrative, thus the reader is further subjected to the author¡¦s psychoanalysis of the narrator. The role of the reader as a critic is limited, and both the narrator and the reader have to entrust the author with the storytelling. Nevertheless, it is a relief to know that the author is well aware of the positions of the interviewer and interviewee, and the limitations and effects of oral histories. I am notice that the interviewees were all educated women who lived in Shanghai for most part of their lives, and they were included intentionally because they were eager to participate in history-writing (from the author¡¦s point of view) and the author believes that ¡§the richest and most colorful stories were told by those who had many accomplishments before 1949 but were reduced to marginal positions in the Mao era.¡¨ (123)

Wang is successful in showing the relationship between feminist groups and other political forces, the struggle of the women in those political forces, and the hypocrisy of the male leaders in the Communist party. Even though the discourse of women¡¦s movement was at first created by men, women were inspired by the man-made feminist discourse and responded to it actively. The author successfully shows their active participation and how they were very different from the new women images constructed by the male writers. (62) She also tries to show the conflict between the belief independent personhood and the dominant ideology and how the search for independence was reflected in the women¡¦s lives. This belief, together with an independent women¡¦s movement, was dropped after Marxism came into play and socialist revolution became the first and foremost goal. To me, it seems that women¡¦s emancipation had always been used to serve a larger purpose. It was used to overthrow feudalism and tradition when nationalism was professed. Only because the anti-oppression proclamation fit well in both nationalistic and feminist purposes that there were no obvious conflicts. Despite that, Wang demonstrates how gender hierarchy persisted even in the early 20s by telling the story of Lu Xun and his wife: ¡§the male champions¡¦ sense of superiority as well as their cultural entitlement to privileges unchallenged but sustained in an age of unprecedented agitation for women¡¦s emancipation.¡¨ She uses the history of the ¡§Ladies¡¦ Journal¡¨ to reveal the change in ideologies in the women¡¦s movement and how women¡¦s reaction to the publication affect the journal. ...................

fuseproject and Yves Behar are showing the future of industrial design. fuseroject's profound and generous ideas come accross in this book: from the early concept sketches, to the computer renderings and the final products.

can't wait for their next book and projects.

This book is crammed with highly condensed notes on "high yield material", covering antatomy, physiology, biochemistry etc. It's been specially designed for the Step 1 exam but it's useful for any kind of preclinical exam (i.e. I'm using it for the British BM part 1 exam).

You will find this book most useful when you already know a fair bit about each subject area; then you can look through it to revise what you know and spot anything you've missed. If you can cover everything in this book you'll only know the basics, but at least you'll know ALL OF the basics ! That should be enough to get you through Step 1 with a good score.

Another great thing about First Aid is its fully comprehensive guide to review resources, both books and on the web. It's also got useful tips for planning your revision.

All in all, a great study aid with a real medstudent-friendly feel. Recommended !

I worked hard through out my first two years of Medical school. We even started studying early for the boards. However when crunch time came and there was a limited amount of time for review I used First Aid. I got the score I wanted and felt like I was prepared for 99% of the questions I had on the boards. If you can use this book during your course work-DO IT! What I did was made flash cards from this book and quized myself. I also used this along with the Clinical Vignettes which were awesome as well.

This book is a must-have for second year medical students and anyone taking Step 1 of the USMLE. It's great preparation for your second year classes, and the most concise and comprehensive text of what you'll need to know for Step 1. If you understand the material in this book, you will do quite well on Step 1. The information could be a bit better organized, but otherwise this book is unreservedly recommended.