Let $\mathbb {D}\subset \mathbb {C}$ be the unit disk and let $\gamma_{1},\gamma _{2}:[0,T]\to\overline{\mathbb {D}}\setminus\{0\}$ be parametrizations of two slits $\Gamma_{1}:=\gamma(0,T], \Gamma_{2}:=\gamma_{2}(0,T]$ such that $\Gamma_{1}$ and $\Gamma_{2}$ are disjoint.

A basic, simple energy method for the Boltzmann equation is presented here. It is based on a new macromicro decomposition of the Boltzmann equation as well as the H-theorem. This allows us to make use of the ideas from hyperbolic conservation laws and viscous conservation laws to yield the direct energy method. As an illustration, we apply the method for the study of the time-asymptotic, nonlinear stability of the global Maxwellian states. Previous energy method, starting with Grad and finishing with Ukai, involves the spectral analysis and regularity of collision operator through sophisticated weighted norms.

In this paper, we study contact surgeries along Legendrian links in the standard contact 3-sphere. On one hand, we use algebraic methods to prove the vanishing of the contact Ozsváth–Szabó invariant for contact (+1)-surgery along certain Legendrian two component links. The main tool is a link surgery formula for Heegaard Floer homology developed by Manolescu and Ozsváth. On the other hand, we use contact-geometric argument to show the overtwistedness of the contact 3-manifolds obtained by contact (+1)-surgeries along Legendrian two-component links whose two components are linked in some special configurations.

We study the geometry of the Grassmannians of symplectic subspaces in a symplectic vector space. We construct symplectic twistor spaces by the symplectic quotient construction and use them to describe the symplectic geometry of the symplectic Grassmannians.

We study a certain improved fractional Sobolev–Poincaré inequality on domains, which can be considered as a fractional counterpart of the classical Sobolev–Poincaré inequality. We prove the equivalence of the corresponding weak and strong type inequalities; this leads to a simple proof of a strong type inequality on John domains. We also give necessary conditions for the validity of an improved fractional Sobolev–Poincaré inequality, in particular, we show that a domain of finite measure, satisfying this inequality and a ‘separation property’, is a John domain.