Search Results (10)

This article studies different forms of martyrdom in secular contexts, tracing their roots back to Western European Christian traditions. The article argues that distinct trajectories of martyrdom have emerged: (a) the more passive martyr, who refuses to acknowledge sovereign power and dies for a transcendent truth, and (b) the more assertive martyr, who sacrifices their life fighting for God and the sovereign. In secular contexts, this assertive martyr fights for secular ideals such as ‘freedom’ or ‘nation’ and represents the symbolic body of the sovereign. The historical distinction between divine truth and state falsehood has been turned into differentiations between democratic rule and threats like terrorism. To further study this transition, this article studies discourses following the deaths of Pim Fortuyn and Jaques Hamel, as both were strongly labeled as martyrs. This results in the final part of the article that examines the cult of commemoration surrounding soldiers in the US and the Netherlands. It argues that the assertive martyr has reached its fully secularized form in these contexts. The transcendent imagery of state sovereignty is evident in the sacrificial discourses around fallen soldiers. At this point of death, the state’s power is reinforced as a transcendent norm and reveals itself in those who ‘sacrifice’ their lives for the freedom of many. Full article

Let ${\left(k_{\mu }\right)}_{\mu =1}^4$ be a quartet of cyclic cubic number fields sharing a common conductor $c=pqr$ divisible by exactly three prime(power)s, $p,q,r$. For those components of the quartet whose 3-class group ${\mathrm{Cl}}_3\left(k_{\mu }\right)\simeq {(\mathbb{Z}/3\mathbb{Z})}^2$ is elementary bicyclic, the automorphism group $\mathfrak{M}=\mathrm{Gal}({\mathrm{F}}_3^2\left(k_{\mu }\right)/k_{\mu })$ of the maximal metabelian unramified 3-extension of $k_{\mu }$ is determined by conditions for cubic residue symbols between $p,q,r$ and for ambiguous principal ideals in subfields of the common absolute 3-genus field $k^{*}$ of all $k_{\mu }$. With the aid of the relation rank $d_2\left(\mathfrak{M}\right)$, it is decided whether $\mathfrak{M}$ coincides with the Galois group $\mathfrak{G}=\mathrm{Gal}({\mathrm{F}}_3^{\infty }\left(k_{\mu }\right)/k_{\mu })$ of the maximal unramified pro-3-extension of $k_{\mu }$. Full article

The religious color of folk beliefs and customs, a concrete and ideal artistic presentation of the Mazu (媽祖) image reflected in ancient books, folk customs and myths, endows Mazu with its unique image and humanistic connotation. The visual image, which implies the meaning of the thought, serves as important material for historical research. Therefore, this paper refers to and draws on three changing images of Mazu summarized from the perspectives of state and society, social function, and region of belief, respectively, by anthropological researcher Mr. Bozhong Li in his study of Mazu. Based on the analysis of Mazu image data, three significant images of Mazu are proposed, namely, the initial image, the transformation image and the typical image, along with a comprehensive analysis of its evolution and relationship. The image of Mazu in the statue is not only an artificially constructed social and cultural symbol but also a folk art symbol with religious and folk characteristics, and secular and emotional characteristics. It is also the visual form of Mazu’s intuitive concrete materialization, carrying a certain representative thought and concept, meaning and spirit, and the various pieces of information it contains is more intuitive than words, bringing the incomparable dissemination power of knowledge and information from the classics. Moreover, it can transcend language barriers and regional boundaries, stimulate personal inner original feelings, interact with Mazu’s beliefs and customs, and serve as an important medium for spreading Mazu’s beliefs and customs. Full article

Achieving accurate channel estimation and adaptive communications with moving transceivers is challenging due to rapid changes in the underwater acoustic channels. We achieve an accurate channel estimation of fast time-varying underwater acoustic channels by using the superimposed training scheme with a powerful channel estimation algorithm and turbo equalization, where the training sequence and the symbol sequence are linearly superimposed. To realize this, we develop a ‘global’ channel estimation algorithm based on Gaussian likelihood, where the channel correlation between (among) the segments is fully exploited by using the product of the Gaussian probability-density functions of the segments, thereby realizing an ideal channel estimation of each segment. Moreover, the Gaussian-likelihood-based channel estimation is embedded in turbo equalization, where the information exchange between the equalizer and the decoder is carried out in an iterative manner to achieve an accurate channel estimation of each segment. In addition, an adaptive communication algorithm based on constellation aggregation is proposed to resist the severe fast time-varying multipath interference and environmental noise, where the encoding rate is automatically determined for reliable underwater acoustic communications according to the constellation aggregation degree of equalization results. Field experiments with moving transceivers (the communication distance was approximately 5.5 km) were carried out in the Yellow Sea in 2021, and the experimental results verify the effectiveness of the two proposed algorithms. Full article

The resurgence of a deterministic mode of representation mythologizing Arabs as figuring (threatening) Saracen by judging their epistemological commitments as hostile to Enlightened reason-based ideals is demonstratively identifiable after 9/11, and more so following the Arab uprisings in 2011, when we notice that the Arab in general, and Muslim in particular, was historicized as the “new barbarian” from which (liberal-secular) Westphalian society must be defended. Such neo-Orientalist representations disseminate powerful discursive (symbolic) articulations (i.e., culture talk) —in tandem with the (re)formulation of legal concepts and doctrines situated in jus gentium (i.e., sovereignty, immanence, and pre-emptive defense strategy)—legally adjudicating a redemptive war ostensibly to “moralize” a profane Arabia. Proponents of neo-Orientalism define their philosophical theology as not simply incompatible with Arab epistemology (Ar. العربية المعرفة نظرية), but that Arab-Muslims are an irreconcilable threat to Latin-European philosophical theology, thus, accentuating that neo-Orientalism is constituted by an ontological insecurity constituting Arab-Islamic philosophical theology as placing secular modern logic under “siege” and threatening “civil society”. This legal-historical research, therefore, argues that neo-Orientalism not only necessitates figuring the Arab as Islamist for the ontological security of a “modern” liberal-secular mode of Being, but that such essentialist imaginary is a culturalist myth that is transformed into a legal difference which proceeds to argue the necessity of sanctioning a violent episode transforming a supposed lawless “Middle East” receptive to terror, into a lawful “New Middle East” receptive to reason. This sacrilegos process reveals the “inclusive exclusion” temporal ethos of (a positivist) jus gentium which entails maintaining a supposed unbridgeable cultural gap between a (universalized) sovereign Latin-European subject, and a (particularized) Arab object denied sovereignty for the coherence of Latin-European epistemology. Full article

Given a homogeneous ideal $I\subseteq k[x_0,\dots ,x_n]$, the Containment problem studies the relation between symbolic and regular powers of I, that is, it asks for which pairs $m,r\in \mathbb{N}$, $I^{\left(m\right)}\subseteq I^r$ holds. In the last years, several conjectures have been posed on this problem, creating an active area of current interests and ongoing investigations. In this paper, we investigated the Stable Harbourne Conjecture and the Stable Harbourne–Huneke Conjecture, and we show that they hold for the defining ideal of a Complement of a Steiner configuration of points in ${\mathbb{P}}_k^n$. We can also show that the ideal of a Complement of a Steiner Configuration of points has expected resurgence, that is, its resurgence is strictly less than its big height, and it also satisfies Chudnovsky and Demailly’s Conjectures. Moreover, given a hypergraph H, we also study the relation between its colourability and the failure of the containment problem for the cover ideal associated to H. We apply these results in the case that H is a Steiner System. Full article

Most studies determining data rate or power conversion efficiency (PCE) of simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) focus on ideal models for the non-linear energy harvester, or focus on simplified waveforms that carry no information. In this paper, we study SWIPT using realistic waveforms and a measurement-based energy harvesting model. For a special class of multisine waveforms carrying only information in the phase, we analyze PCE as a function of waveform design, including the impact of pre-equalization to mitigate wireless channel distortion. A balanced pre-equalizer that trades off between the peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) and signal to noise ratio, maximizing the total PCE is proposed. The impact on the information rate of the analyzed waveforms is also presented. The results show that balanced pre-equalizers can improve the total PCE more than three times within 5% rate loss compared to the pre-equalizer that solely maximizes the signal PAPR or the capacity using the same transmit power. We also show that the maximum normalized PCE is increased by a factor of two by only allowing phase modulation to ensure the PAPR of one symbol, compared to traditional modulation schemes that carry information in both phase and amplitude to maximize spectral efficiency. Full article

In 1982, Stanley predicted a combinatorial upper bound for the depth of any finitely generated multigraded module over a polynomial ring. The predicted invariant is now called the Stanley depth. Duval et al. found a counterexample for Stanley’s conjecture, and their counterexample is a quotient of squarefree monomial ideals. On the other hand, there is evidence showing that Stanley’s inequality can be true for high powers of monomial ideals. In this survey article, we collect the recent results in this direction. More precisely, we investigate the Stanley depth of powers, integral closure of powers, and symbolic powers of monomial ideals. Full article

Female villains, both fictional and real, are subject to unconscious gender bias when part of their iniquity involves the disruption of male authority. Disney’s most popular animated villain, Maleficent, from Sleeping Beauty (1959) and Elizabeth Holmes of the now-disgraced blood testing startup, Theranos, reveled in their power, deviating from idealized feminine propriety. An analysis of scenes featuring Maleficent, the “mistress of all evil”, and coverage of Elizabeth Holmes, once the first self-made female billionaire, illustrate how powerful women with hubris are censured beyond their misdeeds. Elizabeth Holmes’ adoption of a deep voice and other masculine characteristics parallels Maleficent’s demeanor and appearance that signal female usurpation of traditional male power. Both antagonists also engage in finger pricking that penetrates the skin and draws blood, acts associated with symbolic male potency. The purported ability to bewitch, in conjunction with the adoption of patterns associated with male dominance, suggest that Maleficent and Elizabeth Holmes wield power over men and wield the power of men. Discomfort with the way in which magical powers were allegedly employed by these women echo historical fears of witches accused of appropriating male power. Furthermore, powerful women who encroach on male authority but ultimately fail to upend the gender hierarchy trigger schadenfreude beyond that expected from their wrongdoings. In the end, the stories of Maleficent and Elizabeth Holmes celebrate the downfall of women who brazenly embrace power, without showing women how to challenge the gender hierarchy. Full article

As nodes in wireless sensor networks are usually powered by nonrenewable batteries, energy efficient design becomes critical. This paper considers a battery-powered transmitter using on-off keying (OOK) modulation and studies its energy efficiency in terms of the battery’s energy consumption for per bit transmission (BECPB). In particular, the transmitter may use one of two distinct types of batteries with battery utilization factor (BUF) depending on discharge current. The first has an instantaneous discharge current (IDC)-based BUF, while the second has a mean discharge current (MDC)-based BUF. For each type of battery, a closed-form BECPB expression is derived under a Rayleigh channel when a prescribed symbol error rate (SER) is guaranteed. Then theoretical analysis is made to study the impact of battery characteristic parameter $\gamma$ , communication distance d and bandwidth B on the BECPB. Finally, the analysis is corroborated by numerical experimental results, which reveal that: the BECPB for each type of battery increases with $\gamma$ and d; the BECPB for the two batteries first decreases and then increases with B, and there exists the optimal bandwidth corresponding to the minimum BECPB; the battery with IDC-based BUF corresponds to a larger BECPB. When $\gamma$ and d are large, the BECPB for each type of battery is significantly higher than that for the ideal battery whose BUF is aways 1. For instance, when $\gamma =0.015$ , $d=90$ m and $B=10$ kHz, the BECPB for IDC-based and MDC-based battery is nearly 60% amd 25% higher than that of the ideal battery, respectively. Full article