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Reviews several books on political affairs of China. 'Mao's China and the Cold War,' by Chen Jian; 'The Tianamen Papers,' edited by Zhang Liang, Andrew J. Nathan, and Perry Link; 'Hegemon: China's Plan to Dominate Asia and the World,' by Steven W. Mosher; 'The Coming Collapse of China,' by Gordon G. Chang.

The article reviews the book "The Structured Oral Examination in Clinical Anaesthesia: Practice Examination Papers," edited by C. Mendonca, C. Hillermann, J. James and G. S. A. Kumar.

• The principle of virtual energy (PVE) is established based on the modern thermodynamics for the accurate prediction of material strength. • Some examples are presented to show the universality and feasibility of the principle, demonstrating its excellent prospects for all engineering applications. • It is found that material strength may not be an intrinsic property of the material but rather a property of the material specimen. As a matter of safety, the reliable prediction of the structural failure of materials is the most important key issue for various types of engineered structures. Traditional theories of material strength mainly rely on empirical formulas. Although there are a variety of strength theories available in the literature, they are largely limited by the materials and working conditions of their application. To ensure safety, engineering structures are often designed with large safety factors, resulting in a significant use of material resources. However, this still cannot eliminate the occurrence of catastrophic accidents. Recently, the author developed a thermodynamic framework, referred to as the thermodynamic strength theory (TST) [Eng. Fract. Mech., 2021, 254: 107936; Adv. in Mech., 2023, 53: 693–712.], to accurately predict the failure strength of engineering material structures. In this paper, the principle of virtual energy (PVE) is established based on the modern thermodynamics for the practical application in engineering. For a given imaginary small change in the key state variables of a material system, one can establish a failure strength criterion for the loaded material structure by investigating the induced change in the free energy. Some examples are presented to show the universality and feasibility of the principle, which demonstrates its excellent prospects for all engineering applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reviews the book "How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper," by Robert A. Day.

Reviews the book `Paper Dinosaurs, 1824-1969 - A Review.'

Reviews the book `The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, Vol. 6 The Berlin Years 1914-1917,' by A. Einstein, translated by A. Engel.

Reviews the book `Natural History and Evolution of Paper-Wasps,' edited by S. Turillazzi and M-J. West-Eberhard.

Reviews the book `Paper Tigers and Minotaurs: The Politics of Venezuela's Economic Reforms,' by Moses Naim.

Reviews the book `A Paper House: The Endings of Yugoslavia,' by Mark Thompson.

The article reviews the book "Southeast Asia in Political Science: Theory, Region and Qualitative Analysis," edited by Erik Martinez Kuhonta, Dan Slater and Tuong Vu.

Reviews the book `The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, Volume 5. The Swiss Years: Correspondence, 1902-1914,' translated by Anna Beck, with consultation by Don Howard. Intentions of the book; Glimpse into Einstein's scientific work, politics of his profession and his personal life.

The literature argues that children are more likely to succeed academically if they acquire strong reading skills and a love of reading at a young age. In this paper, I evaluate an early childhood literacy program, Cocky's Reading Express (CRE), to understand how reading events at school and the gifts of books impact learning. Combining the CRE visit records with administrative student data, I find that CRE leads to 0.02–0.03 of a standard deviation increase in statewide English Language Arts test scores among low-income students one year after the visit and find suggestive evidence that CRE improves the math scores for subgroups of students in poverty. In particular, the CRE effect varies based on locality and access to reading materials, with a larger effect on students residing in metropolitan areas or close to public libraries. However, the positive effects on low-income students diminish over time; CRE does not show impacts on the scores of students from better-off families either. • CRE positively impacts the academic performance of low-SES students. • The effect grows over time, then declines, and may last up to three years. • CRE benefits students who face a deficiency of reading materials more. • CRE also benefits students with potential access to books outside schools more. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reviews the book `Political Constraints on Brazil's Economic Development,' edited by Siegfried Marks.