Let X be a real Banach space. The rectangular constant $\mu (X)$ and some generalisations of it, $\mu _p(X)$ for $p \geq 1$ , were introduced by Gastinel and Joly around half a century ago. In this paper we make precise some characterisations of inner product spaces by using $\mu _p(X)$ , correcting some statements appearing in the literature, and extend to $\mu _p(X)$ some characterisations of uniformly nonsquare spaces, known only for $\mu (X)$ . We also give a characterisation of two-dimensional spaces with hexagonal norms. Finally, we indicate some new upper estimates concerning $\mu (l_p)$ and $\mu _p(l_p)$ .

A radical α has the Amitsur property if α(A[x])=(α(A[x])∩A)[x] for all rings A. For rings R⊆S with the same unity, we call S a finite centralizing extension of R if there exist b1,b2,…,bt∈S such that S=b1R+b2R+⋯+btR and bir=rbi for all r∈R and i=1,2,…,t. A radical α is FCE-friendly if α(S)∩R⊆α(R) for any finite centralizing extension S of a ring R. We show that if α is a supernilpotent radical whose semisimple class contains the ring ℤ of all integers and α is FCE-friendly, then α has the Amitsur property. In this way the Amitsur property of many well-known radicals such as the prime radical, the Jacobson radical, the Brown–McCoy radical, the antisimple radical and the Behrens radical can be established. Moreover, applying this condition, we will show that the upper radical 𝒰(*k) generated by the essential cover *k of the class * of all *-rings has the Amitsur property and 𝒰(*k)(A[x])=𝒰(*k)(A)[x], where a semiprime ring R is called a *-ring if the factor ring R/I is prime radical for every nonzero ideal I of R. The importance of *-rings stems from the fact that a *-ring A is Jacobson semisimple if and only if A is a primitive ring.

In this paper, nonlinear minimax problems are discussed. Using Sequential Quadratic Programming and the generalised monotone line search technique, we propose a new algorithm for solving degenerate minimax problems. At each iteration of the proposed algorithm, a search direction is obtained by solving a new Quadratic Programming problem which always has a solution. Global convergence can be obtained without the regularity condition of linear independence. Finally, some numerical experiments are reported.

We introduce the notion of a positively independent set of elements in an ordered module. With this concept we determine a necessary and sufficient condition which insures that on a strictly ordered module over a strictly ordered ring there exists a strict total order refining the given order. This generalizes a previous result of Fuchs, concerning the case of ordered abelian groups.

As an application, let R be a strictly ordered totally ordered ring and let M be the R-module of all mappings from a set I into R, with pointwise order; then this order on M may be refined to a strict total order.

A constructive proof of a theorem of Worrell and Wicke, which states that every open covering of a θ-refinable space has a σ-distributively point-finite open refinement that covers the space minimally, is presented. Spaces for which every open covering has an open refinement which covers the space minimally are characterized by the use of discrete closed collections and some open questions relating to spaces of this type are included.

Let G be a torsion-free abelian group of finite rank n and let F be a full free subgroup of G. Then G/F is isomorphic to T1 ⊕ … ⊕ Tn, where T1 ⊆ T2 ⊆ … ⊆ Tn ⊆ ℚ/ℤ. It is well known that type T1 = inner type G and type Tn = outer type G. In this note we give two characterisations of type Ti for 1 < i < n.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a general technique for attacking problems involving extensions of continuous functions from dense subspaces and to use it to obtain new results as well as to improve some of the known ones. The theory of structures developed by Harris is used to get some general results relating filters and covers. A necessary condition is derived for a continuous function f: X → Y to have a continuous extension : λx → λy where λZ denotes a given extension of the space Z. In the case of simple extensions, is continuous and in the case of strict extensions is θ-continuous. In the case of strict extensions, sufficient conditions for uniqueness of are derived. These results are then applied to several extensions considered by Banaschewski, Fomin, Kattov, Liu-Strecker, Blaszczyk-Mioduszewski, Rudölf, etc.

We define the class of weakly approximately divisible unital ${C}^{\ast } $-algebras and show that this class is closed under direct sums, direct limits, any tensor product with any ${C}^{\ast } $-algebra, and quotients. A nuclear ${C}^{\ast } $-algebra is weakly approximately divisible if and only if it has no finite-dimensional representations. We also show that Pisier’s similarity degree of a weakly approximately divisible ${C}^{\ast } $-algebra is at most five.

In this paper we derive local error estimates for radial basis function interpolation on the unit sphere . More precisely, we consider radial basis function interpolation based on data on a (global or local) point set for functions in the Sobolev space with norm , where s>1. The zonal positive definite continuous kernel ϕ, which defines the radial basis function, is chosen such that its native space can be identified with . Under these assumptions we derive a local estimate for the uniform error on a spherical cap S(z;r): the radial basis function interpolant ΛXf of satisfies , where h=hX,S(z;r) is the local mesh norm of the point set X with respect to the spherical cap S(z;r). Our proof is intrinsic to the sphere, and makes use of the Videnskii inequality. A numerical test illustrates the theoretical result.

We present refined and reversed inequalities for the weighted arithmetic mean–harmonic mean functional inequality. Our approach immediately yields the related operator versions in a simple and fast way. We also give some operator and functional inequalities for three or more arguments. As an application, we obtain a refined upper bound for the relative entropy involving functional arguments.

Let G be an arbitrary finite group, R be a finite associative ring with identity and RG be the group ring. We show that ℤ2Q8 is the minimal reversible group ring which is not symmetric, and we also characterise the finite rings R for which RQ8 is reversible. The first result extends a result of Gutan and Kisielewicz which shows that ℤ2Q8 is the minimal reversible group algebra over a field which is not symmetric, and it answers a question raised by Marks for the group ring case.

We prove the Legendre Necessary Condition of the Calculus of Variations in Mean an arbitrary finite dimension. When the Lagrangian is convex, we establish that if the Euler-Lagrange equation possesses an almost periodic solution then it possesses periodic and constant solutions. We deduce from this fact various consequences on the structure of the set of almost periodic solutions.

Sullivan's problem of describing rings, all of whose additive endomorphisms are multiplicative, is generalised to the study of rings R satisfying ϕ(a1 … an) = ϕ(a1)…ϕ(an) for every additive endomorphism ϕ of R, and all a1,…,an ∈ R, with n > 1 a fixed positive integer. It is shown that such rings possess a bounded (finite) ideal A such that [R/A]n = 0 ([R/A]2n−1 = 0). More generally, if f(X1, …, Xt) is a homogeneous polynomial with integer coefficients, of degree > 1, and if a ring R satisfies ϕ[f(a1, …, at)] = f[ϕ(a1), …, ϕ(at)] for all additive endomorphisms ϕ, and all a1, …, at ∈ R, then R possesses a bounded ideal A such that R/A satisfies the polynomial identity f.

We study the weighted Turán type inequality for generalised Jacobi weights, and give a complete positive answer to Zhou's conjecture.

We use exponential sums to obtain new lower bounds on the number of distinct distances defined by all pairs of points (a, b) ∈ A × B for two given sets where is a finite field of q elements and n ≥ 1 is an integer.

Let

where λ is rational and not an integer. The author investigates lower estimates for example for

where the αi are distinct rational numbers not 0, and where x1, …, xk, are integers and

Suppose the qth derivative of a function f is Hölder continuous of index α, where 0 < α ≤ 1, on the interval [-1,1]. Suppose further that pn is any polynomial of degree at most n such that |τn(x)| = |f(x) - pn(x)| ≤ c {max ((1 - x2)½/n, 1/n2) } q+a [-1,1]. If

then it is shown that

‖τn‖β ≤ cn−q−α+β, 0 < β ≤ 1.

This paper is concerned with extending the theory of the existence of fixed points for generalised nonexpansive maps as far as possible. This can be seen as a continuation of the work of Maurey on the extension of the fixed point theory for nonexpansive maps beyond the requirement of normal structure type conditions.