We adapt the Toeplitz operator proof of Bott periodicity to give a short direct proof of Bott periodicity for the representable K-theory of σ-C*-algebras. We further show how the use of this proof and the right definitions simplifies the derivation of the basic properties of representable K-theory.

Let R be an artinian ring. A family, ℳ, of isomorphism types of R-modules of finite length is said to be canonical if every R-module of finite length is a direct sum of modules whose isomorphism types are in ℳ. In this paper we show that ℳ is canonical if the following conditions are simultaneously satisfied: (a) ℳ contains the isomorphism type of every simple R-module; (b) ℳ has a preorder with the property that every nonempty subfamily of ℳ with a common bound on the lengths of its members has a smallest type; (c) if M is a nonsplit extension of a module of isomorphism type II1 by a module of isomorphism type II2, with II1, II2 in ℳ, then M contains a submodule whose type II3 is in ℳ and II1 does not precede II3. We use this result to give another proof of Kronecker's theorem on canonical pairs of matrices under equivalence. If R is a tame hereditary finite-dimensional algebra we show that there is a preorder on the family of isomorphism types of indecomposable R-modules of finite length that satisfies Conditions (b) and (c).

We answer some questions which arise from a recent paper of Campbell, Heggie, Robertson and Thomas on one-relator free products of two cyclic groups. In the process we show how publicly accessible computer programs can be used to help answer questions about finite group presentations.

Some fixed point theorems on H-spaces are presented. These theorems are then applied to generalize a theorem of Fan concerning sets with convex sections to H-spaces and to prove the existence of equilibrium points of abstract economics in which the commodity space is an H-space.

In this paper, we consider a class of strong symmetric distributions, which we refer to as the strong c-symmetric distributions. We provide, as the main result of this paper, conditions satisfied by the recurrence relations of certain polynomials associated with these distributions.

We consider hypersurfaces of En+1 whose position vector x satisfies Δx = Ax + B, where Δ is the induced Laplacian, and prove that these are open parts of minimal hypersurfaces, hyperspheres or generalized circular cylinders.

A rational number is called a best approximant of the irrational number ζ if it lies closer to ζ than all rational numbers with a smaller denominator. Metrical properties of these best approximants are studied. The main tool is the two-dimensional ergodic system, underlying the continued fraction expansion.

We discuss the application of nonstandard methods to local versions of certain lattice notions. In a particular case, we find that imposition of certain local conditions imply a surprising global one, namely boundedness of the given lattice.

Let X be a completely regular Hausdorff space, let V be a system of weights on X and let T be a locally convex Hausdorff topological vector space. Then CVb(X, T) is a locally convex space of vector-valued continuous functions with a topology generated by seminorms which are weighted analogues of the supremum norm. In the present paper we characterize multiplication operators on the space CVb(X, T) induced by operator-valued mappings and then obtain a (linear) dynamical system on this weighted function space.

The paper gives a spectral representation for a class of random fields which are bounded in mean square almost surely. A characterisation of the corresponding spectral measure in the representation is obtained based on Beurling's duality theory and generalised Fourier transforms. A representation for the covariance function of asymptotically stationary random fields is also derived.

In the general context of ideals in universal algebras, we study varietal properties connected with ideals that are equivalent both to Ma'cev conditions and congruence properties such as 0-regularity, 0-permutability, etc.

Assume G is a graph with m edges. By T(n, G) we denote the classical Turan number, namely, the maximum possible number of edges in a graph H on n vertices without a copy of G. Similarly if G is a family of graphs then H does not have a copy of any member of the family. A Zk-colouring of a graph G is a colouring of the edges of G by Zk, the additive group of integers modulo k, avoiding a copy of a given graph H, for which the sum of the values on its edges is 0 (mod k). By the Zero-Sum Turan number, denoted T(n, G, Zk), k¦m, we mean the maximum number of edges in a Zk-colouring of a graph on n vertices that contains no zero-sum (mod k) copy of G. Here we mainly solve two problems of Bialostocki and Dierker [6].

Problem 1. Determine T(n, tK2, Zk) for ¦|t. In particular, is it true that T(n, tK2, Zk) = T(n, (t+k-1)K2)?

Problem 2. Does there exist a constant c(t, k) such that T(n, Ft, Zk) ≦ c(t, k)n, where Ft is the family of cycles of length at least t?

This paper answers a recent question concerning the relationship between two notions of paracompactness for bitopological spaces. Romaguera and Marin defined pairwise paracompactness in terms of pair open covers, motivated by a characterization of paracompactness due to Junnila. On the other hand, Raghavan and Reilly defined a bitopological space (X, τ, σ) to be δ-pairwise paracompact if and only if every τ open (σ open) cover of X admits a τ V σ open refinement which is τ V σ locally finite. It is shown that pairwise paracompactness implies δ-pairwise paracompactness, and that the converse is false.

Groups in which every infinite set of subgroups contains a pair that permute were studied by M. Curzio, J. Lennox, A. Rhemtulla and J. Wiegold. The question whether periodic groups in this class were locally finite was left open. Here we show that if the generators of such a group G are periodic then G is locally finite. This enables us to get the following characterisation. A finitely generated group G is centre-by-finite if and only if every infinite set of subgroups of G contains a pair that permute.

We study the residual finiteness of free products with amalgamations and HNN-extensions of finitely generated nilpotent groups. We give a characterization in terms of certain conditions satisfied by the associated subgroups. In particular the residual finiteness of these groups implies the possibility of extending the isomorphism of the associated subgroups to an isomorphism of their isolated closures in suitable overgroups of the factors (or the base group in case of HNN-extensions).

In this paper we study groups with Černikov conjugacy classes which are nilpotent-by-Černikov groups, giving full characterizations of them and applying the results obtained to some related areas.