The aim of this note is to give a sharp lower bound for rational approximations to ζ(2) = π2/6 by using a specific Beukers' integral. Indeed, we will show that π2 has an irrationality measure less than 6.3489, which improves the earlier result 7.325 announced by D. V. Chudnovsky and G. V. Chudnovsky.

Theorems 1 and 2 are known results concerning Lp–Lq estimates for certain operators wherein the point (1/p, 1/q) lies on the line of duality 1/p + 1/q = 1. In Theorems 1′ and 2′ we show that with mild additional hypotheses it is possible to prove Lp-Lq estimates for indices (1/p, 1/q) off the line of duality. Applications to Bochner-Riesz means of negative order and uniform Sobolev inequalities are given.

Let G be a group acting on a ring R. We study the problem of determining necessary and sufficient conditions in order that the skew group ring RG be von Neumann regular. Complete characterizations are given in some particular situations, including the case where all idempotents of R are central. For a regular ring R admitting a G-invariant pseudo-rank function N, with G finite, we obtain a necessary condition for RG being regular in terms of the induced action of G on the N-completion of R.

The notion of pointwise cleavability is introduced. We clarify those results concerning cleavability which can be or can not be generalized to the case of pointwise cleavability.

The importance of compactness in this theory is shown. Among other things we prove that t, ts, πx, the property to be Fréchet-Urysohn, radiality, biradiality, bisequentiality and so on are preserved by pointwise cleavability on the class of compact Hausdorff spaces.

Lipschitz spaces are important function spaces with relations to Hp spaces and Campanato spaces, the other two important function spaces in harmonic analysis. In this paper we give some characterizations for Lipschitz spaces on compact Lie groups, which are analogues of results in Euclidean spaces.

A balanced directed cycle design with parameters (υ, k, 1), sometimes called a (υ, k, 1)-design, is a decomposition of the complete directed graph into edge disjoint directed cycles of length k. A complete classification is given of (υ, k, 1)-designs admitting the holomorph {øa, b: x ↦ ax + b∣ a, b ∈ Zυ, (a, υ1) = 1} of the cyclic group Zυ as a group of automorphisms. In particular it is shown that such a design exists if and ony if one of (a) k = 2, (b) p ≡ 1 (mod k) for each prime p dividing υ, or (c) k is the least prime dividing υ, k2 does not divide υ, and p ≡ 1 (mod k) for each prime p < k dividing υ.

We give an alternative short proof of a recent theorem of J. A. Hillman and P.A. Linnell that an elementary amenable group with finite Hirsch number has, modulo its locally finite radical, a soluble normal subgroup with index and derived length bounded only in terms of the Hirsch number of the group.

We give a characterization of complex extreme measurable selections for a suitable set-valued map. We use this result to obtain necessary and sufficient conditions for a function to be a complex extreme point of the closed unit ball of Lp (ω, Σ, ν X), where (ω, σ, ν) is any positive, complete measure space, X is a separable complex Banach space, and 0 < p < ∞.

If R is a 2-group of symplectic type with exponent 4, then R is isomorphic to the extraspecial group , or to the central product 4 o 21+2n of a cyclic group of order 4 and an extraspecial group, with central subgroups of order 2 amalgamated. This paper gives an explicit description of a projective representation of the group A of automorphisms of R centralizing Z(R), obtained from a faithful representation of R of degree 2n. The 2-cocycle associated with this projective representation takes values which are powers of −1 if R is isomorphic to and powers of otherwise. This explicit description of a projective representation is useful for computing character values or computing with central extensions of A. Such central extensions arise naturally in Aschbacher's classification of the subgroups of classical groups.

We give a revised and updated exposition of the theory of full dualities initiated by Clark, Davey, Krauss and Werner, introducing the (stronger) notion of a strong duality. All known full dualities turn out to be strong. A series of theorems which provide necessary and sufficient conditions for a strong duality to exist is proved. All full dualities in the literature can be obtained from these results and many new strong dualities can be derived. In particular, we show that within congruence distributive varieties every duality can be upgraded to a strong duality. Amongst the new strong dualities are the dualities of Davey, Priestley and Werner for the varieties of pseudocomplemented distributive lattices which are either strong as they stand or can easily be made strong by the addition of partial operations to the dual structures.

In this paper, we obtain some trace inequalities for arbitrary finite positive definite operators. Finally an open question is presented.