With respect to a given family of functions F, a function is said to be F-convex, if it is supported, at each point, by some member of F. For particular choices of F one obtains the convex functions and the generalized convex functions in the sense of Beckenbach. F-convex functions are characterized and studied, retaining some essential results of classical convexity.

The aim of the present paper is to extend the dualizing object approach to Stone duality to the noncommutative setting of skew Boolean algebras. This continues the study of noncommutative generalizations of different forms of Stone duality initiated in recent papers by Bauer and Cvetko-Vah, Lawson, Lawson and Lenz, Resende, and also the current author. In this paper we construct a series of dual adjunctions between the categories of left-handed skew Boolean algebras and Boolean spaces, the unital versions of which are induced by dualizing objects $\{ 0, 1, \ldots , n+ 1\} $, $n\geq 0$. We describe the categories of Eilenberg-Moore algebras of the monads of the adjunctions and construct easily understood noncommutative reflections of left-handed skew Boolean algebras, where the latter can be faithfully embedded (if $n\geq 1$) in a canonical way. As an application, we answer the question that arose in a recent paper by Leech and Spinks to describe the left adjoint to their ‘twisted product’ functor $\omega $.

Several categorical aspects of localisation to compact closed categories and free compact closed categories are discussed.

We consider the finite dam model due to Moran, in which the storage {Zt} is known to be a Markov chain. The method of generating functions is used to derive stationary distributions of Zt in the two particular cases where the input is of geometric and negative binomial types.

We consider classical curvature flows: 1-parameter families of convex embeddings of the 2-sphere into Euclidean 3-space, which evolve by an arbitrary (nonhomogeneous) function of the radii of curvature (RoC). We determine conditions for parabolic flows that ensure the boundedness of various geometric quantities and investigate some examples. As a new tool, we introduce the RoC diagram of a surface and its hyperbolic or anti-de Sitter metric. The relationship between the RoC diagram and the properties of Weingarten surfaces is also discussed.

We establish two results in the pointwise convergence problem of a trigonometric series for some nonnegative integer m. These results not only generalize Hardy's theorem, the Jordan test theorem and Fatou's theorem, but also complement the results on pointwise convergence of those Fourier series associated with known L1-convergence classes. A similar result is also established for the case that , where {ln} satisfies certain conditions.

In this paper we follow the approach of Bertrand–Beukers (and of Bertrand’s later work), based on differential Galois theory, to prove a very general version of Shidlovsky’s lemma that applies to Padé-approximation problems at several points, both at functional and numerical levels (that is, before and after evaluating at a specific point). This allows us to obtain a new proof of the Ball–Rivoal theorem on irrationality of infinitely many values of the Riemann zeta function at odd integers, inspired by the proof of the Siegel–Shidlovsky theorem on values of $E$-functions: Shidlovsky’s lemma is used to replace Nesterenko’s linear independence criterion with Siegel’s, so that no lower bound is needed on the linear forms in zeta values. The same strategy provides a new proof, and a refinement, of Nishimoto’s theorem on values of $L$-functions of Dirichlet characters.

We shall introduce the notions of strong Morita equivalence for unital inclusions of unital $C^{\ast }$-algebras and conditional expectations from an equivalence bimodule onto its closed subspace with respect to conditional expectations from unital $C^{\ast }$-algebras onto their unital $C^{\ast }$-subalgebras. Also, we shall study their basic properties.

Let k be an infinite cardinal, F a field, and let GL(k, F) be the group of all non-singular linear transformations on a ki-dimensional vector space V over F. Various examples are given of maximal subgroups of GL(k, F). These include (i) stabilizers of families of subspaces of V which are like filters or ideals on a set, (ii) almost stabilizers of certain subspaces of V, (iii) almost stabilizers of a direct decomposition of V into two k-dimensional subspaces.

It is also noted that GL(k, F) is not the union of any chain of length k of proper subgroups.

We obtain necessary and sufficient conditions for the compactness of differences of composition operators acting on the weighted Bergman spaces in the unit ball. A representation of a composition operator as a finite sum of composition operators modulo compact operators is also studied.

Associated with each uniform space (S, U) there is a uniform lattice (P, V, ≦) called the scale of (S, U). The scale was first introduced by D. Bushaw (see [2] and [3]) for the purpose of studying stability in topological dynamics. Further properties of the scale were investigated in [4], and this paper pursues one of the research problems suggested in the latter paper.

Let Γ be a graph with finite vertex set V. Γ is homogeneous if whenever U1, U2 ⊆ V are such that the vertex subgraphs (U1), (U2) are isomorphic, then every isomorphism from (U1) to (U2) extends to an automorphism of Γ; homogeneous graphs were studied by Sheehan (1974) and were classified by the author. Γ is locally homogeneous if whenever U ⊆ V, then every automorphism of (U) extends to an automorphism of Γ. We prove that every locally homogeneous graph is homogeneous.

We consider the effect on the stability properties of a graph G, of the presence in the automorphism group of G of automorphisms (uv)h, where u and v are vertices of G, and h is a permutation of vertices of G excluding u and v. We find sufficient conditions for an arbitrary graph and a cartesian product to have stability index one, and conjecture in the latter case that they are necessary. Finally we exhibit explicitly a large class of graphs which have stability index one.

In an earlier paper we showed that the set ψ+ (X, Y) of super Tauberian transformations between two Banach spaces X and Y forms an open subset of B(X, Y) which is closed under perturbation by super weakly compact transformations. In this note we characterize a class dual to ψ+ (X, Y) which we denote by ψ-(X, Y). We show that T∈ψ+(X, Y) if and only if T′ ∈ ψ-(Y′, X′) and that T′∈ψ+(Y′, X′) if and only if T ∈ ψ-(X, Y) and provide standard and nonstandard characterizations of elements of ψ-(X, Y). These two classes thus play in some ways analogous roles to the sets of semi-Fredholm transforms ϕ+ (X, Y) and ϕ-(X, Y).

Moreover en forms an open subset of B(X, Y) closed under the taking of adjoints, under the taking of nonstandard hull extensions, and under perturbation by super weakly compact transformations.

We study lens space surgeries along two different families of 2-component links, denoted by ${A}_{m, n} $ and ${B}_{p, q} $, related with the rational homology $4$-ball used in J. Park’s (generalized) rational blow down. We determine which coefficient $r$ of the knotted component of the link yields a lens space by Dehn surgery. The link ${A}_{m, n} $ yields a lens space only by the known surgery with $r= mn$ and unexpectedly with $r= 7$ for $(m, n)= (2, 3)$. On the other hand, ${B}_{p, q} $ yields a lens space by infinitely many $r$. Our main tool for the proof are the Reidemeister-Turaev torsions, that is, Reidemeister torsions with combinatorial Euler structures. Our results can be extended to the links whose Alexander polynomials are same as those of ${A}_{m, n} $ and ${B}_{p, q} $.

In [3] and [4], the near-rings R with no zero divisors are studied. In particular, a near-ring R is a near-field if it has a non-zero right distributive element ([4], Theorem 1.2.). Also, (R, +) is a nilpotent group if not all non-zero elements of R are left identities of R ([3], Theorem 2). The purpose of the present paper is to extend the above results to a class of near-rings with zero divisors; that is, the set of annihilators of an element x in R, T(x) = {g/xg = 0} is either {0} or R. The examples of such near-rings are those R with (R, +) simple groups and those R with no zero divisors as given in [1], [2], [3] and [4]. For this r, we can easily see that R = A∪S where A = {x/T(x) = R} and S = {x/T(x) = {0}}. Then the second part of this paper will give a structural theorem on the semi-group (S, · ), and more properties on R can be derived.

We investigate the number of symmetric matrices of nonnegative integers with zero diagonal such that each row sum is the same. Equivalently, these are zero-diagonal symmetric contingency tables with uniform margins, or loop-free regular multigraphs. We determine the asymptotic value of this number as the size of the matrix tends to infinity, provided the row sum is large enough. We conjecture that one form of our answer is valid for all row sums. An example appears in Figure 1.

Let B be an associative ring with identity, A a subring of B containing the identity of B. If B is commutative then it is customary to define an element b of B to be integral over A if it satisties an equation of the form for some a1, a2, …, an A. This definition does not generalize readily to the case when B is non-commutative. Van der Waerden ([11], p. 75) defines b ∈ B to be integral over A if all powers of b belong to a finite A-module. This definition is quite satisfactory when A satisfies the ascending chain condition for left ideals, but in the general case this type of integrity is not necessarily transitive, even when B is commutative. Krull [6] calls an element b ∈ B which satisfies the above condition almost integral over A (but he only considers the commutative case). The subset Ā of B consisting of all almost integral elements over A is called the complete integral closure of A in B. If Ā = A, A is said to be completely integrally closed in B. More recently (in [3]), Gilmer and Heinzer (see also Bourbaki, [1]) have discussed these properties in the commutative case and have shown that the complete integral closure of A in B need not be completely integrally closed in B. If B is not commutative, the set A of elements of B almost integral over A, may not even form a ring. In [5] p. 122, Jacobson uses a definition equivalent to Van der Waerden's for the non-commutative case but the definition applies only for a very restricted class of rings.

The duality properties of the integration map associated with a vector measure m are used to obtain a representation of the (pre)dual space of the space Lp(m) of p-integrable functions (where 1<p<∞) with respect to the measure m. For this, we provide suitable topologies for the tensor product of the space of q-integrable functions with respect to m (where p and q are conjugate real numbers) and the dual of the Banach space where m takes its values. Our main result asserts that under the assumption of compactness of the unit ball with respect to a particular topology, the space Lp(m) can be written as the dual of a suitable normed space.

The BMO norm of f is equivalent to where Pt is the Poisson kernel. In this note, we show that Pt can be replaced by a nonnegative radial function h, which is positive in a neighbourhood of 0, with and , where h is the least decreasing radial majorant of h.