An Attempt to Read Mencius’ Philosophy with Help of Cicero: Focusing on the Relationship of the Term 'ren' 仁 with the Building of Empire

Already in 17th century, Ph. Couplet (1623–1693) used Ciceronian terminology to interprete the texts of Confucian philosophy, including that of Mencius (372–289 BCE), an important philosopher especially in terms of understanding Chinese ethics and morals. This paper attempts to read Mencius’ political term “empire”  in the context of political philosophy. The paper observes Mencius’s political idea with help of that of Cicero. For this, it demostrates how and why Mencius introduces the ren as a principle of Kingship and the building of Empire. According to him, the ren is a core principle in operating the empire that was formulated with the tianxia (“all-under-heaven”). However, the ren is an ambivalent concept. On one side, the ren is a universal value that stands fundamentally against violence. On the other side, historically to see, the ren was an imperial ideology, because as a part of the “all-under-heaven” policy represented by Mencius was de facto nothing but a regional hegemon

Adaptive Tracking of a Single-Rigid-Body Character in Various Environments

Since the introduction of DeepMimic [Peng et al. 2018], subsequent research has focused on expanding the repertoire of simulated motions across various scenarios. In this study, we propose an alternative approach for this goal, a deep reinforcement learning method based on the simulation of a single-rigid-body character. Using the centroidal dynamics model (CDM) to express the full-body character as a single rigid body (SRB) and training a policy to track a reference motion, we can obtain a policy that is capable of adapting to various unobserved environmental changes and controller transitions without requiring any additional learning. Due to the reduced dimension of state and action space, the learning process is sample-efficient. The final full-body motion is kinematically generated in a physically plausible way, based on the state of the simulated SRB character. The SRB simulation is formulated as a quadratic programming (QP) problem, and the policy outputs an action that allows the SRB character to follow the reference motion. We demonstrate that our policy, efficiently trained within 30 minutes on an ultraportable laptop, has the ability to cope with environments that have not been experienced during learning, such as running on uneven terrain or pushing a box, and transitions between learned policies, without any additional learning

Superconformal Indices for Orbifold Chern-Simons Theories

We calculate the superconformal indices of recently discovered three-dimensional N=4,5 Chern-Simons-matter theories and compare them with the corresponding indices of supergravity on AdS4 times orbifolds of S7. We find perfect agreement in the large N and large k limit, provided that the twisted sector contributions at the fixed loci of the orbifolds are properly taken into account. We also discuss the index for the so-called "dual ABJM" proposal.Comment: 27 pages, 1 figure; v2. reference added, minor correction

Randomized Trial of Stents Versus Bypass Surgery for Left Main Coronary Artery Disease 5-Year Outcomes of the PRECOMBAT Study

AbstractBackgroundIn a previous randomized trial, we found that percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) was not inferior to coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) for the treatment of unprotected left main coronary artery stenosis at 1 year.ObjectivesThis study sought to determine the 5-year outcomes of PCI compared with CABG for the treatment of unprotected left main coronary artery stenosis.MethodsWe randomly assigned 600 patients with unprotected left main coronary artery stenosis to undergo PCI with a sirolimus-eluting stent (n = 300) or CABG (n = 300). The primary endpoint was a major adverse cardiac or cerebrovascular event (MACCE: a composite of death from any cause, myocardial infarction, stroke, or ischemia-driven target vessel revascularization) and compared on an intention-to-treat basis.ResultsAt 5 years, MACCE occurred in 52 patients in the PCI group and 42 patients in the CABG group (cumulative event rates of 17.5% and 14.3%, respectively; hazard ratio [HR]: 1.27; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.84 to 1.90; p = 0.26). The 2 groups did not differ significantly in terms of death from any cause, myocardial infarction, or stroke as well as their composite (8.4% and 9.6%; HR, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.52 to 1.52; p = 0.66). Ischemia-driven target vessel revascularization occurred more frequently in the PCI group than in the CABG group (11.4% and 5.5%, respectively; HR: 2.11; 95% CI: 1.16 to 3.84; p = 0.012).ConclusionsDuring 5 years of follow-up, our study did not show significant difference regarding the rate of MACCE between patients who underwent PCI with a sirolimus-eluting stent and those who underwent CABG. However, considering the limited power of our study, our results should be interpreted with caution. (Bypass Surgery Versus Angioplasty Using Sirolimus-Eluting Stent in Patients With Left Main Coronary Artery Disease [PRECOMBAT]; NCT00422968

The Fifteenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Surveys: First Release of MaNGA-derived Quantities, Data Visualization Tools, and Stellar Library

Twenty years have passed since first light for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Here, we release data taken by the fourth phase of SDSS (SDSS-IV) across its first three years of operation (2014 July–2017 July). This is the third data release for SDSS-IV, and the 15th from SDSS (Data Release Fifteen; DR15). New data come from MaNGA—we release 4824 data cubes, as well as the first stellar spectra in the MaNGA Stellar Library (MaStar), the first set of survey-supported analysis products (e.g., stellar and gas kinematics, emission-line and other maps) from the MaNGA Data Analysis Pipeline, and a new data visualization and access tool we call "Marvin." The next data release, DR16, will include new data from both APOGEE-2 and eBOSS; those surveys release no new data here, but we document updates and corrections to their data processing pipelines. The release is cumulative; it also includes the most recent reductions and calibrations of all data taken by SDSS since first light. In this paper, we describe the location and format of the data and tools and cite technical references describing how it was obtained and processed. The SDSS website (www.sdss.org) has also been updated, providing links to data downloads, tutorials, and examples of data use. Although SDSS-IV will continue to collect astronomical data until 2020, and will be followed by SDSS-V (2020–2025), we end this paper by describing plans to ensure the sustainability of the SDSS data archive for many years beyond the collection of data

Study on Micro Patterning Process using Impact-type Hot Embossing Technique

Hot embossing, Impact-type hot embossing, Multi-header, Flexible device, Micro patterning, 3-dimensional patterning, Bending testprohibitionⅠ. Introduction 1 IⅠ. Body. Development of Impact-Type Hot Embossing Technique. 4 2.1 Analysis on the Electromagnetic Actuator. 4 2.1.1 Mechanical System 5 2.1.2 Electric System 7 2.1.3 Magnetic System 9 2.1.4 Concluded System Equation 12 2.1.5 Experiment on Electromagnetic Actuator 12 2.1.6 Simulation of Concluded System 14 2.2 Further Study on Impact-type Hot Embossing Process 17 2.2.1 Verification on processing a line pattern and applicability as an electric channel. 17 2.2.2 Investigation on the glass transition temperature to engrave patter on various material. 20 2.2.3 Analysis on processing a line pattern with changing pattern height and width in real-time. 24 2.2.4 Measuring the finest width and depth of the pattern of various polymer film. 26 2.2.5 Study on effects of impact-type hot embossing technology on surface roughness. 30 2.2.6 Study on durability of the tip of the electromagnetic actuator. 32 2.3 Study on Processing a 3D Pattern: Development of Impact-type hot embossing Technology. 34 2.3.1 Construction of Experimental Setting for 3-axis Patterning Process. 35 2.3.2 Patterning Algorithm for 3-axis Patterning Process using Multi-Header. 38 2.3.3 Experiment on manufacturing 3-dimentional pattern on polymeric film. 43 2.4 Study on manufacturing micro-electric circuit using impact-type hot embossing technique. 46 IⅠI. Conclusion 50MasterdCollectio

Sinnfiguren und Wortfiguren von Alexander Numeniu

Die neue Edition des De figuris sententiarum et verborum von Alexander ist grosso modo ins Zweierlei eingeteilt dargestellt. Zum ersten Teil gehoert die Einleitung, die die Eroerterung ueber den Rhetor Alexander Numeniu, ueber das Werk De figuris, ueber die Ueberlieferungsgeschichte der Handschriften, ueber die bisherigen Editionen und schliesslich ueber meine Edition angestellt hat. Zum zweiten Teil gehoert der Text des De Figuris. Das Werk De Figuris besteht aus zwei Gross-Einheiten, und zwar aus den Teilen de figuris sententiarum und de figuris verborum

Cicero’s humanitas in forensic Speech: focusing on Pro Roscio Amerino

Many investigations regarding this were already made that the idea humanitas originated directly from Greek New comedy and especially from philosophy of Plato and the Stoics but fundamentally from the Greek literatures like those of Homer. Regarding to this, however, the real birth and growth place of the idea of humanitas and the sub-ideas was not classroom but forum in which legal court or political assembly was held. The most significant evidences for this are Cicero’s speeches, because it is not difficult to discover the fact that Cicero’s speeches are usually disposed according to the idea of humanitas and are full of sub-ideas of it. As an exmaple for this, I have tried to analyze Cicero’s Pro Roscio Amerino which is the first causa publica for Cicero. Based on this, I would like to suggest that Cicero’s speeches are to be emphasized also in the humanitas-studies. To this, it should be mentioned that there are some strong relationships between Cicero’s speeches and his late theoretical texts. Thus, philologically seen, my concrete suggestion in this paper is to investigate the so-called ‘intertextuality-problem’ between Cicero’s speeches and philosophical treatises

Confucius and Cicero. Old Ideas for a New World, New Ideas for an Old World

This book explores the relationships between ancient Roman and Confucian thought, paying particular attention to their relevance for the contemporary world. More than 10 scholars from all around the world offer thereby a reference work for the comparative research between Roman (and early Greek) and Eastern thought, setting new trends in the panorama of Classical and Comparative Studies