Taiwan’s Statesman: Lee Teng-hui and Democracy in Asia

An international issue at or near the top of any list of potential nuclear conflicts is the status of Taiwan. Beijing insists the island is merely another Chinese province, Taipei insists the island is an independent nation, and officially Washington stands with neither view but insists on a peaceful resolution. The two books under review here address this important matter. Both authors, Richard Kagan and Alan Wachman, are experienced academics specializing in China and able to access Chinese sources. Their works join other schol- arly efforts to explain the imbroglio over Taiwan, including those by Rich- ard Bush, Alan Romberg, and Nancy Bernkopf Tucker

Far Ultraviolet Diffuse Emission from the Large Magellanic Cloud

We present the first observations of diffuse radiation in the far ultraviolet (1000 -- 1150 \AA) from the Large Magellanic Cloud based on observations made with the {\it Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer}. The fraction of the total radiation in the field emitted as diffuse radiation is typically 5 -- 20\% with a high of 45\% near N70 where there are few exciting stars, indicating that much of the emission is not due to nearby stars. Much less light is scattered in the far ultraviolet than at longer wavelengths with the stellar radiation going into heating the interstellar dust.Comment: Accepted in ApJ Letter

Variance and Sample Size Calculations in Quality-of-Life-Adjusted Survival Analysis (Q-TWiST)

The Quality-Adjusted Time Without Symptoms or Toxicity (Q-TWiST) statistic previously introduced by Glasziou, Simes and Gelber (1990, Statistics in Medicine 9 , 1259–1276) combines toxicity, disease-free survival, and overall survival information in assessing the impact of treatments on the lives of patients. This methodology has received positive reviews from clinicians as intuitive and useful, but to date, the variance of this statistic has remained unspecified. We review aspects of the Q-TWiST method for analyzing clinical trial data, extend the method to accommodate multiple treatment arms, and provide closed-form asymptotic variance formulas. We also provide a framework for designing Q-TWiST clinical trials with sample sizes determined using the derived asymptotic variance formulas. Trials currently collecting quality of life data did not have the benefit of these sample size calculation techniques in designing their studies.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/65778/1/j.0006-341X.2000.00173.x.pd

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