We review a perturbative approach to deal with Lagrangians with higher or infinite order time derivatives. It enables us to construct a consistent Poisson structure and Hamiltonian with only first time derivatives order by order in coupling. We show that, to the lowest order, the Hamiltonian is bounded from below whenever the potential is. We consider spacetime noncommutative field theory as an example.

We extend the perturbative approach developed in an earlier work to deal with Lagrangians which have arbitrary higher order time derivative terms for both bosons and fermions. This approach enables us to find an effective Lagrangian with only first time derivatives order by order in the coupling constant. As in the pure bosonic case, to the first order, the quantized Hamiltonian is bounded from below whenever the potential is. We show in the example of a single complex fermion that higher derivative interactions result in an effective mass and change of vacuum for the low energy modes. The supersymmetric noncommutative Wess-Zumino model is considered as another example. We also comment on the higher derivative terms in Witten's string field theory and the effectiveness of level truncation.

We investigate the role of magnetic impurities in the transport properties of surface states on a three-dimensional topological insulator. First, we use second-order perturbation theory and the Boltzmann transport equation to calculate the magnetically induced resistivity in a topological insulator. Our result shows a non-perturbative behavior when conducting electrons and magnetic impurities' spins are antiferromagnetically coupled. The surface resistivity is found to display an oscillatory rather than isotropic behavior compared to the conventional Kondo effect. Both the variational method and renormalization group (RG) analysis are employed to compute the Kondo temperature, through which the non-perturbative behavior is confirmed. We further study the RG flows and demonstrate that the RG trajectories flow into a strong coupling regime if coupling is antiferromagnetic. Our work is motivated by the recent transport experiments with surface currents on topological insulators. Our calculation is qualitatively consistent with the low temperature dip observed in the experimental R-T curve and might be one of the possible origins of the dip.

The prevalence of temples in Taiwan is indeed a unique phenomenon. According to literature and news reports, the development of traditional religions was not encouraged during the Japanese Occupation Period and the Kuomintang administration. Rather, religious practice in Taiwan was controlled and derogated. This study investigated the structural factors affecting the flourishing development of well-known temples in Taiwan based on the religious and cultural policies from the Japanese Occupation Period to Kuomintang’s lifting of martial law. It also attempted to understand the impact of local factions and clientelism on temple culture.

The incidence of congenital malformations of the heart in autopsies including stillbirths has been stated to be about 8 per 1,000(1). In a consecutive series of 891 autopsies performed at the Department of Pathology, National Taiwan University in a period of 10 years from 1946 to 1956, there were found 26 cases of major congenital malformations of the heart, of which 14 were males and 12 females.The age distribution of these 26 cases is shown in Table I.The relative incidence is rather high. TABLE I Stillbirth 0-3 mos. 4 mos-5 yrs. 6 yrs.-20 yrs. 21 yrs.-70 yrs. No. of cases of autopsy 162 175 119 63 372 Total 891 Cases of congenital malformations of heart 7 13 5 SUMMARY 1. In a 10-year period from 1940 to 1956, 891 autopsies were performed in the Department of Pathology of the Medical College of the National Taiwan University.2. Among these, 26 cases of congenital malformation of the heart were found, giving an incidence of 2.92 per cent.3. Stillbirths and children under 5 years formed more than half of the population, viz : 51.18y0, made up of stillbirths, 18.18% ; neonatal deaths, 19.64% ; and children under 5, 13.350/,.4. Nine rare cases were reported and discussed.