Magic and superstition in baseball in Taiwan: an examination of the Puyama aborigines’ use of the betel nut

Much work has been published on the place of rituals in numerous areas of life with reference both to general activities and, more specifically, to sport. As yet, however, there has been no significant study of the use of magic by and on behalf of players in Taiwan where baseball can legitimately be described as the national sport. This article seeks to fill that void by focusing in particular on the practices of the island’s Puyama aboriginal people and the use of the betel nut to cast spells on opponents. The data for this study were collected during two research trips to Taidong County, where the Puyuma have traditionally used betel nuts on the baseball field for magical purposes. It is apparent from a series of personal reminiscences that the use of the betel nut spell had an influence on Puyama players and opponents alike. Its passing owes much to the increased acceptance of seemingly more rational ways of instilling confidence in athletes. The author argues, however, that the modern recourse to the sport sciences has much in common with the Puyama belief in the power of the betel nut

Normalized solutions for a Choquard equation with exponential growth in R2\mathbb{R}^{2}

In this paper, we study the existence of normalized solutions to the following nonlinear Choquard equation with exponential growth \begin{align*} \left\{ \begin{aligned} &-\Delta u+\lambda u=(I_{\alpha}\ast F(u))f(u), \quad \quad \hbox{in }\mathbb{R}^{2},\\ &\int_{\mathbb{R}^{2}}|u|^{2}dx=a^{2}, \end{aligned} \right. \end{align*} where $a>0$ is prescribed, $\lambda\in \mathbb{R}$, $\alpha\in(0,2)$, $I_{\alpha}$ denotes the Riesz potential, $\ast$ indicates the convolution operator, the function $f(t)$ has exponential growth in $\mathbb{R}^{2}$ and $F(t)=\int^{t}_{0}f(\tau)d\tau$. Using the Pohozaev manifold and variational methods, we establish the existence of normalized solutions to the above problem.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2210.02331. text overlap with arXiv:2102.03001 by other author

On a class of singular Hamiltonian Choquard-type elliptic systems with critical exponential growth

In this paper, we study the following Hamiltonian Choquard-type elliptic systems involving singular weights \begin{eqnarray*} \begin{aligned}\displaystyle \left\{ \arraycolsep=1.5pt \begin{array}{ll} -\Delta u + V(x)u = \Big(I_{\mu_{1}}\ast \frac{G(v)}{|x|^{\alpha}}\Big)\frac{g(v)}{|x|^{\alpha}} \ \ \ & \mbox{in} \ \mathbb{R}^{2},\\[2mm] -\Delta v + V(x)v = \Big(I_{\mu_{2}}\ast \frac{F(u)}{|x|^{\beta}}\Big)\frac{f(u)}{|x|^{\beta}} \ \ \ & \mbox{in} \ \mathbb{R}^{2}, \end{array} \right. \end{aligned} \end{eqnarray*} where $\mu_{1},\mu_{2}\in(0,2)$, $0<\alpha \leq \frac{\mu_{1}}{2}$, $0<\beta \leq \frac{\mu_{2}}{2}$, $V(x)$ is a continuous positive potential, $I_{\mu_{1}}$ and $I_{\mu_{2}}$ denote the Riesz potential, $\ast$ indicates the convolution operator, $F(s),G(s)$ are the primitive of $f(s),g(s)$ with $f(s),g(s)$ have exponential growth in $\mathbb{R}^{2}$. Using the linking theorem and variational methods, we establish the existence of solutions to the above problem

Asteroseismology of Vibration Powered Neutron Stars

Chapter from the book "Astrophysics", p.287-308. Edited by Ibrahim Kucuk, ISBN 978-953-51-0473-5, InTech, March 3, 2012.Comment: http://cdn.intechopen.com/pdfs/34269/InTech-Asteroseismology_of_vibration_powered_neutron_stars.pd

An MPCC Formulation and Its Smooth Solution Algorithm for Continuous Network Design Problem

Continuous network design problem (CNDP) is searching for a transportation network configuration to minimize the sum of the total system travel time and the investment cost of link capacity expansions by considering that the travellers follow a traditional Wardrop user equilibrium (UE) to choose their routes. In this paper, the CNDP model can be formulated as mathematical programs with complementarity constraints (MPCC) by describing UE as a non-linear complementarity problem (NCP). To address the difficulty resulting from complementarity constraints in MPCC, they are substituted by the Fischer-Burmeister (FB) function, which can be smoothed by the introduction of the smoothing parameter. Therefore, the MPCC can be transformed into a well-behaved non-linear program (NLP) by replacing the complementarity constraints with a smooth equation. Consequently, the solver such as LINDOGLOBAL in GAMS can be used to solve the smooth approximate NLP to obtain the solution to MPCC for modelling CNDP. The numerical experiments on the example from the literature demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is feasible.</p

An MPCC Formulation and Its Smooth Solution Algorithm for Continuous Network Design Problem

Continuous network design problem (CNDP) is searching for a transportation network configuration to minimize the sum of the total system travel time and the investment cost of link capacity expansions by considering that the travellers follow a traditional Wardrop user equilibrium (UE) to choose their routes. In this paper, the CNDP model can be formulated as mathematical programs with complementarity constraints (MPCC) by describing UE as a non-linear complementarity problem (NCP). To address the difficulty resulting from complementarity constraints in MPCC, they are substituted by the Fischer-Burmeister (FB) function, which can be smoothed by the introduction of the smoothing parameter. Therefore, the MPCC can be transformed into a well-behaved non-linear program (NLP) by replacing the complementarity constraints with a smooth equation. Consequently, the solver such as LINDOGLOBAL in GAMS can be used to solve the smooth approximate NLP to obtain the solution to MPCC for modelling CNDP. The numerical experiments on the example from the literature demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is feasible.</p

Compact and high-performance vortex mode sorter for multi-dimensional multiplexed fiber communication systems

With the amplitude, time, wavelength/frequency, phase, and polarization/spin parameter dimensions of the light wave/photon almost fully utilized in both classical and quantum photonic information systems, orbital angular momentum (OAM) carried by optical vortex modes is regarded as a new modal parameter dimension for further boosting the capacity and performance of the systems. To exploit the OAM mode space for such systems, stringent performance requirements on a pair of OAM mode multiplexer and demultiplexer (also known as mode sorters) must be met. In this work, we implement a newly discovered optical spiral transformation to achieve a low-cross-Talk, wide-opticalbandwidth, polarization-insensitive, compact, and robust OAM mode sorter that realizes the desired bidirectional conversion between seven co-Axial OAM modes carried by a ring-core fiber and seven linearly displaced Gaussian-like modes in parallel single-mode fiber channels. We further apply the device to successfully demonstrate high-spectralefficiency and high-capacity data transmission in a 50-km OAM fiber communication link for the first time, in which a multi-dimensional multiplexing scheme multiplexes eight orbital-spin vortex mode channels with each mode channel simultaneously carrying 10 wavelength-division multiplexing channels, demonstrating the promising potential of both the OAM mode sorter and the multi-dimensional multiplexed OAM fiber systems enabled by the device. Our results pave the way for futureOAM-based multi-dimensional communication systems