In this note we study commutative Baer rings, uniting the abstract algebraic approach with the approach of [3] using minimal prime ideals. Some new characterisations of this class of rings are obtained, relations between the minimal prime ideals of a commutative Baer ring B and its algebra EB of idempotents are considered, and some results concerning the direct decomposition of commutative Baer rings are given. We then study Baer ideals, and finally state without proof a new construction of the Baer extension of a commutative semiprime ring.

We prove that a finitely generated semigroup whose word problem is a one-counter language has a linear growth function. This provides us with a very strong restriction on the structure of such a semigroup, which, in particular, yields an elementary proof of a result of Herbst, that a group with a one-counter word problem is virtually cyclic. We prove also that the word problem of a group is an intersection of finitely many one-counter languages if and only if the group is virtually abelian.

The existence of strictly feasible points is shown to be equivalent to the boundedness of solution sets of generalized complementarity problems with stably pseudomonotone mappings. This generalizes some known results in the literature established for complementarity problems with monotone mappings.

We show that for all n ≥ 3k + 1, n ≠ 6, there exists an incomplete self-orthogonal latin square of order n with an empty order k subarray, called an ISOLS(n;k), except perhaps when (n;k) ∈ {(6m + i;2m):i = 2, 6}.

In this paper we prove a generalization of the well known theorem of Krasnoselskii on the superposition operator in which the domain of Nemytskii's operator is a product space. We also give an application of this result.

We present some properties of orthogonality and relate them with support disjoint and norm inequalities in $p$-Schatten ideals. In addition, we investigate the problem of characterization of norm-parallelism for bounded linear operators. We consider the characterization of the norm-parallelism problem in $p$-Schatten ideals and locally uniformly convex spaces. Later on, we study the case when an operator is norm-parallel to the identity operator. Finally, we give some equivalence assertions about the norm-parallelism of compact operators. Some applications and generalizations are discussed for certain operators.

It is shown that every possible spectrum of a Mal'cev definable class of varieties which should occur does occur. It follows that there are continuum many Mal'cev definable classes, a result also obtained by Taylor (1975) and Baldwin and Berman (1976).

In his work [5] on subgroups of one relator groups, Moldavanski observed that if G is a one relator group whose defining relator R is cyclically reduced and has exponent sum zero on some generator occurring in it, then G is an HNN extension of a one relator group H whose defining relator is shorter than R. This observation, together with Britton's Lemma, can be used to give rather easy proofs of the basic results on one relator groups. To exposit this point of view, we give here a proof of the Freiheitssatz, the solvability of the word problem for one relator groups, and the theorem classifying elements of finite order in one relator groups. In particular, the solution obtained for the word problem is often easy to apply. We also give a proof of the “Spelling Theorem” of Newman [6].

A first kind Frobenius graph is a Cayley graph Cay(K,S) on the Frobenius kernel of a Frobenius group such that S=aH for some a∈K with 〈aH〉=K, where H is of even order or a is an involution. It is known that such graphs admit ‘perfect’ routing and gossiping schemes. A circulant graph is a Cayley graph on a cyclic group of order at least three. Since circulant graphs are widely used as models for interconnection networks, it is thus highly desirable to characterize those which are Frobenius of the first kind. In this paper we first give such a characterization for connected 4-valent circulant graphs, and then describe optimal routing and gossiping schemes for those which are first kind Frobenius graphs. Examples of such graphs include the 4-valent circulant graph with a given diameter and maximum possible order.

It is known that all locally flat projective planes in S4 have homeomorphic normal disk bundles. In this paper we investigate the homeomorphisms of Q3 (= boundary of the normal disk bundle) on to itself. We show that a homeomorphisms of Q3 onto itself is determined, up to isotopy, by the outerautomorphism of π1(Q3) that it induces. Since Q3 is an irreducible, not sufficiently large 3-manifold with finite fundamental group this characterization is interesting in its own right. The characterization of homeomorphisms is then used to study certain questions about embeddings of the projective plane in S4. One result is that there are at most two distinct projective planes in S4 with a given complement.

Generalizing known results for special examples, we derive a Khintchine type decomposition of probability measures on symmetric hypergroups. This result is based on a triangular central limit theorem and a discussion of conditions ensuring that the set of all factors of a probability measure is weakly compact. By our main result, a probability measure satisfying certain restrictions can be written as a product of indecomposable factors and a factor in I0(K), the set of all measures having decomposable factors only. Some contributions to the classification of I0(K) are given for general symmetric hypergroups and applied to several families of examples like finite symmetric hypergroups and hypergroup joins. Furthermore, all results are discussed in detail for a class of discrete symmetric hypergroups which are generated by infinitely many joins, for a class of countable compact hypergroups, for Sturm-Liouville hypergroups on [0, ∞[ and, finally, for polynomial hypergroups.

This paper considers the estimation and filtering of fractional random fields, of which fractional Brownian motion and fractional Riesz-Bessel motion are important special cases. A least-squares solution to the problem is derived by using the duality theory and covariance factorisation of fractional generalised random fields. The minimum fractional duality order of the information random field leads to the most general class of solutions corresponding to the largest function space where the output random field can be approximated. The second-order properties that define the class of random fields for which the least-squares linear estimation problem is solved in a weak-sense are also investigated in terms of the covariance spectrum of the information random field.

New estimates are obtained for the maximum modulus of the generalized logarithmic derivatives f(k)/f(j), where f is analytic and of finite order of growth in the unit disc, and k and j are integers satisfying k>j≥0. These estimates are stated in terms of a fixed (Lindelöf) proximate order of f and are valid outside a possible exceptional set of arbitrarily small upper density. The results obtained are then used to study the growth of solutions of linear differential equations in the unit disc. Examples are given to show that all of the results are sharp.

Let R be a ring. A right R-module C is called a cotorsion module if Ext1R (F, C) = 0 for any flat right R-module F. In this paper, we first characterize those rings satisfying the condition that every cotorsion right (left) module is injective with respect to a certain class of right (left) ideals. Then we study relative pure-injective modules and their relations with cotorsion modules.

The Birkhoff orthogonality has been recently intensively studied in connection with the geometry of Banach spaces and operator theory. The main aim of this paper is to characterize the Birkhoff orthogonality in ${\mathcal{L}}(X;Y)$ under the assumption that ${\mathcal{K}}(X;Y)$ is an $M$-ideal in ${\mathcal{L}}(X;Y)$. Moreover, we survey the known results, as well as giving some new and more general ones. Furthermore, we characterize an approximate Birkhoff orthogonality in ${\mathcal{K}}(X;Y)$.

A theory T is said to κ-stable if, given a pair of models U ⊂ B of T with U of power κ, there are only κ types of elements of B over U (types are defined below). This notion was introduced by Morley (1965) who gave a powerful analysis of ω-stable theories. Shelah (1971) showed that there are only four possibilities for the set of κ in which a countable theory is stable. This partition of all theories into four classes (ω-stable, superstable, stable, and unstable theories) has proved to be of great value. However, most familiar examples of theories are unstable.

The classic Banach Contraction Principle assumes that the self-map is a contraction. Rather than requiring that a single operator be a contraction, we weaken this hypothesis by considering a minimum involving a set of iterates of that operator. This idea is a central motif for many of the results of this paper, in which we also study how this weakended hypothesis may be applied in Caristi's theorem, and how combinatorial arguments may be used in proving fixed-point theorems.

The coincidence degree for the pair (L, N) developed by Mawhin (1972) provides a method for proving the existence of solutions of the equation Lx = Nx where L: dom L ⊂ X → Z is a linear Fredholm mapping of index zero and is a (possiblv nonlinear) mapping and Ω is a bounded open subset of X, X and Z being normed linear spaces over the reals. In this paper we have extended the coincidence degree for the pair (L, N) to solve the equation , where L: dom L ⊂ X → Z is a linear Fredholm mapping of index zero, and X, Z and Ω are as above, CK(Z) being the set of compact convex subsets of Z.

Subject classification (Amer. Math. Soc. (MOS) 1970): primary 47 H 15, 47 A 50; secondary 47 H 10, 47 A 55.

This paper is concerned with a vector optimization problem set in a normed space where optimality is defined through a convex cone. The vector problem can be solved using a parametrized scalar problem. Under some convexity assumptions, it is shown that dependence of optimal solutions on the parameter is Lipschitz continuous. Hence differentiable dependence on the solutions on the parameter is derived.

Let α be a totally positive algebraic integer of degree d≥2 and α1=α,α2,…,αd be all its conjugates. We use explicit auxiliary functions to improve the known lower bounds of Sk/d, where Sk=∑ di=1αki and k=1,2,3. These improvements have consequences for the search of Salem numbers with negative traces.