Lie-Poisson groups and the Miura transformation

We point out that the recent proof of the Kupershmidt-Wilson theorem by Cheng and Mas-Ramos is underpinned by the Lie-Poisson property of the second Gel'fand-Dickey bracket. The supersymmetric Kupershmidt-Wilson theorem is also proved along these same lines. Finally we comment on the possible repercussions in the problem of the coproduct for W-algebras.Comment: .dvi file, uses AMSFonts 2.1+, 10 pages (5 physical pages in landscape mode), no figure

Value and selfhood: pragmatism, Confucianism, and phenomenology

This article articulates a dialogue between Edward Casey, Cheng Chung‐ying, and me that began at the Eastern Division annual meeting in Philadelphia of the American Philosophical Association, in a session sponsored by the International Society for Chinese Philosophy. There, we read brief versions of the papers presented in this issue and commented on one another. Casey represented Continental phenomenology, Cheng the Chinese tradition as he has developed it into onto‐generative hermeneutics, and I the melding of American pragmatic and Confucian traditions that I have been developing

Beaming effects in GRBs and orphan afterglows

The overall dynamical evolution and radiation mechanism of $\gamma$-ray burst jets are briefly introduced. Various interesting topics concerning beaming in $\gamma$-ray bursts are discussed, including jet structures, orphan afterglows and cylindrical jets. The possible connection between $\gamma$-ray bursts and neutron star kicks is also addressed.Comment: 10 Pages, 4 figures, to appear in a special issue of ApSS. Oral report presented at "The Multiwavelength Approach to Unidentified Gamma-Ray Sources" (Hong Kong, June 1 - 4, 2004; Conference organizers: K.S. Cheng and G.E. Romero

Hasegawa Teru alias Verda Majo (1912-1947). A Japanese woman Esperantist in the Chinese Anti-Japanese War of Resistance

Englische Übersetzung von: Gotelind Müller-Saini: Hasegawa Teru alias Verda Majo (1912-1947). Eine japanische Esperantistin im chinesischen anti-japanischen Widerstand. In: Gimpel, Denise und Hanz, Melanie (Hrsgg): Cheng. Festschrift in Honour of Monika Übelhör, Hamburg 2001, S. 259-274

Magnetars and pulsars: a missing link

There is growing evidence that soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) and anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs) are isolated neutron stars with superstrong magnetic fields, i.e., magnetars, marking them a distinguished species from the conventional species of spindown-powered isolated neutron stars, i.e., radio pulsars. The current arguments in favor of the magnetar interpretation of SGR/AXP phenomenology will be outlined, and the two energy sources in magnetars, i.e. a magnetic dissipation energy and a spindown energy, will be reviewed. I will then discuss a missing link between magnetars and pulsars, i.e., lack of the observational evidence of the spindown-powered behaviors in known magnetars. Some recent theoretical efforts in studying such behaviors will be reviewed along with some predictions testable in the near future.Comment: Invited talk at the Sixth Pacific Rim Conference on Stellar Astrophysics, a tribute to Helmut A. Abt, July 11-17, 2002, Xi'an. To appear in the proceedings (eds. K. S. Cheng, K. C. Leung & T. P. Li