Four properties of congruences on a regular semigroup S are studied and compared. Let R, L and D denote Green's relations and let V = {(a, b) ∈ S × S|a and b are mutually inverse}. A congruence ρ on S is (1) rectangular provided ρ ∩ D = (ρ ∩ L) ° (ρ ∩ R), (2) V-commuting provided ρ ° V = V ° ρ, (3) (L, R)-commuting provided L ° ρ = ρ ° L, and R ° ρ = ρ ° R, and (4) idempotent-regular provided each idempotent ρ-class is a regular subsemigroup of S.

A rectangular congruence is (L, R)-commuting and a V-commuting congruence is idempotent-regular. If ρ is idempotent-regular and (L, R)-commuting then ρ is V-commuting. Examples and conditions are given to show what other implications among the four properties hold. In addition to characterizations of the properties, these are studied in the presence of other conditions on S. For example, if S is a stable regular semigroup, then each congruence under D is rectangular.

A posteriori error estimates for a class of elliptic unilateral boundary value problems are obtained for functions satisfying only part of the boundary conditions. Next, we give an alternative approach to the a posteriori error estimates for self-adjoint boundary value problems developed by Aubin and Burchard. Further, we are able to construct an alternative estimate with mild additional assumptions. An example of a linear differential operator of order 2k is given.

For enriched categories the correct notion of limit involves indexing by a module. This paper studies the question of cocompletion for a given set of indexing modules. As well as providing a simplified treatment of cocompleteness for ordinary categories, associated sheaves and associated stacks are also included as cocompletion processes for appropriate bases. In fact the saturation of a general set of indexing modules has properties which justify our use of the term “covering” for members of the saturation.

It is shown that that an ordinary linear differential equation may possess a holomorphic solution in a neighbourhood of an irregular singular point even though the usual linearly independent solutions corresponding to the two roots of the indicial equation both have zero radius of convergence.

Let σ be an ergodic endomorphism of the r–dimensional torus and Π a semigroup generated by two affine transformations lying above σ. We show that the flow defined by Π admits minimal sets of positive Hausdorff dimension and we give necessary and sufficient conditions for this flow to be minimal.

One way of constructing a 2 – (11,5,4) design is to take together all the blocks of two 2 – (11,5,2) designs having no blocks in common. We show that 58 non-isomorphic 2 – (11,5,4) designs can be so made and that through extensions by complementation these can be packaged into just 12 non-isomorphic reducible 3 – (12,6,4) designs.

We obtain various refinements and generalizations of a classical inequality of S. N. Bernstein on trigonometric polynomials. Some of the results take into account the size of one or more of the coefficients of the trigonometric polynomial in question. The results are obtained using interpolation formulas.

We establish a measure of algebraic independence for values of E-functions which is more nearly effectively computable than the previous one. When the system of equations meets either of two criteria, then the measure becomes entirely effectively computable.

In this paper “a map” denotes an arbitrary (everywhere defined, or partial, or even multi-valued) mapping. A map is constant if any two elements belonging to its domain have precisely the same images under this map. We characterize those semigroups which can be isomorphic to semigroups of constant maps or to involuted semigroups of constant maps.

A compensator is defined for a point process in two dimensions. It is shown that a Poisson process is characterized by a continuous deterministic compensator. Sufficient conditions are given for convergence in distribution of a sequence of two-dimensional point processes in the Skorokhod topology to a Poisson process when the corresponding sequence of compensators converges pointwise in probability to a continuous deterministic function.

Alspach and Sutcliffe call a graph X(S, q, F) 2-circulant if it consists of two isomorphic copies of circulant graphs X(p, S) and X(p, qS) on p vertices with “cross-edges” joining one another in a prescribed manner. In this paper, we enumerate the nonisomorphic classes of 2-circulant graphs X(S, q, F) such that |S| = m and |F| = k. We also determine a necessary and sufficient condition for a 2-circulant graph to be a GRR. The nonisomorphic classes of GRR on 2p vertices are also enumerated.

For Fredholm equations of the first kind with continuous kernels we investigate the uniform convergence of a general class of regularization methods. Applications are made to Tikhonov regularization and Landweber's iteration method.