We show that the Harris-Sevast'yanov transformation for supercritical Galton-Watson processes with positive extinction probability q can be modified in such a way that the extinction probability of the new process takes any value between 0 and q. We give a probabilistic interpretation for the new process. This note is closely related to Athreya and Ney (1972), Chapter 1.12.

If G is the special orthogonal group O+(V) of a quadratic space V over a finite field of characteristic p, and r is a positive integer, we determine the abelian p-subgroups of largest order in G whose fixed subspaces in V have dimension at least r. In particular, we determine the abelian subgroups of largest order in a Sylow p-subgroup of G, extending some results obtained with different methods by Barry (1979).

In this paper an ill-posed problem for the heat equation is investigated. Solutions u to the equation ut – uxx = 0, which are approximately known on the positive half-axis t = 0 and on some vertical lines x = x1,…, x = xn, are considered and stability estimates of these solutions are presented. We assume an a priori bound, governing the heat flow across the boundary x = 0.

In an earlier paper the author investigated the properties of a class of multivanable polynomial vectors which generalise the multivariable Chebyshev polynomial vectors. In this paper the behaviour of these polynomials over rings of the typeZ/(m) is investigated, and conditions are determined for such an n-variable polynomial vector to induce a permutation of (Z/(m))n. More detailed results on the Chebyshev polynomial vectors follow. The composition properties of these vectors imply that the permutations induced by certain subsets of them form groups under composition of mappings, and the structure of these groups is investigated.

Let S be a regular semigroup and D(S) its associated category as defined in Loganathan (1981). We introduce in this paper the notion of an extension of a D(S)-module A by S and show that the set Ext(S, A) of equivalence classes of extensions of A by S forms an abelian group under a Baer sum. We also study the functorial properties of Ext(S, A).

Necessary and sufficient optimality conditions of Kuhn-Tucker type for a convex programming problem with subdifferentiable operator constraints have been obtained. A duality theorem of Wolfe's type has been derived. Assuming that the objective function is strictly convex, a converse duality theorem is obtained. The results are then applied to a programming problem in which the objective function is the sum of a positively homogeneous, lower-semi-continuous, convex function and a continuous convex function.

The aim of this article is to review the progress made in the last few years in the representation theory of solutions of parabolic systems in the sense of Petrowskii.

From an integer-valued function f we obtain, in a natural way, a matroid Mf on the domain of f. We show that the class of matroids so obtained is closed under restriction, contraction, duality, truncation and elongation, but not under direct sum. We give an excluded-minor characterization of and show that consists precisely of those transversal matroids with a presentation in which the sets in the presentation are nested. Finally, we show that on an n-set there are exactly 2n members of .

In this paper we characterize the structure of finite inverse perfect semigroups and study congruences on those semigroups, in particular we study those semigroups that have modular lattice of congruences.

Congruences on regular semigroups have been characterized in terms of normal equivalences on sets of idempotents and kernels of congruences. A revised characterization is presented here with considerably simplified expressions for the least and greatest congruences associated with normal equivalences and with a new description of kernels. The results are then applied to characterize congruences on completely regular semigroups.

The object of the paper is to establish an instability theorem for sixth order differential equations of the form (1.1). The proof is based on the use of Krasovskii criteria.

A Banach space is an Asplund space if every continuous convex function on an open convex subset is Fréchet differentiable on a dense G8 subset of its domain. The recent research on the Radon-Nikodým property in Banach spaces has revealed that a Banach space is an Asplund space if and only if every separable subspace has separable dual. It would appear that there is a case for providing a more direct proof of this characterisation.

The purpose of this note is to determine the automorphism group of the doubly regular tournament of Szekeres type, and to use it to show that the corresponding skew Hadamard matrix H of order 2(q + 1), where q ≡5(mod 8) and q > 5, is not equivalent to the skew Hadamard matrix H(2q + 1) of quadratic residue type when 2q + 1 is a prime power.

Minkowski established a lower bound for the determinant D of a Minkowski-reduced quadratic form in terms of the product of its diagonal coefficients aii (i = 1, …n). Oppenheim and Barnes found, for n = 3 and n = 4 respectively, the precise minimum of D in terms of the aii; in each case the minimum is a polynomial in the aii. Here it is shown that no such result exists when n = 5; however a polynomial in all,…, a55 is determined which gives the minimum of D when a55 is sufficiently large.

Suppose that (pn) is an infinitely divisible distribution on the non-negative integers having Lévy measure (vn). In this paper we derive a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of the limit limn→∞ pn/vn. We also derive some other results on the asymptotic behaviour of the sequence (Pn) and apply some of our results to the theory of fluctuations of random walks. We obtain a necessary and sufficient condition for the first positive ladder epoch to belong to the domain of attraction of a spectrally positive stable law with index α, α ∈ (1,2).