A category V is called universal (or binding) if every category of algebras is isomorphic to a full subcategory of V. The main result states that a semigroup variety V is universal if and only if it contains all commutative semigroups and fails the identity xnyn = (xy)n for every n ≥ 1. Further-more, the universality of a semigroup variety V is equivalent to the existence in V of a nontrivial semigroup whose endomorphism monoid is trivial, and also to the representability of every monoid as the monoid of all endomorphisms of some semigroup in V. Every universal semigroup variety contains a minimal one with this property while there is no smallest universal semigroup variety.

Orthogonal diagonal latin squares of order n, ODLS(n), are orthogonal latin squares of order n with transversals on both the main diagonal and the back diagonal of each square. It has been proven that ODLS(n) exist for all n except n = 2, 3, 6, 10, 14, 15, 18 and 26, in which the first three are impossible. In this note an example of ODLS(14) is given.

There is no single generalization of distributivity to semilattices. This paper investigates the class of mildly distributive semilattices, which lies between the two most commonly discussed classes in this area—weakly distributive semilattices and distributive semilattices. Particular attention is paid to describing and characterizing congruence distributive mildly distributive semilattices, in contrast to distributive semilattices, whose lattice of join partial congruences is badly behaved and which are difficult to describe.

Let all the zeros of a polynomial P(z) of degree n lie in |z|≤ 1 and a be a given complex number. In this paper we study the location of the zeros of higher derivatives of the polynomial (z – z) P(z) and obtain certain generalizations of some results of Rahman and Rubinstein. We shall also extend a result of Goodman, Rahman and Ratti for the zeros of the polar derivative of the polynomial P(z) given P(l) = 0.

Ramanujan conjectured that if n is of a specific form then p(n), the number of unrestricted partitions of n, is divisible by a high power of 7. A modified version of Ramanujan's conjecture was proved by G. N. Watson.

In this paper we establish appropriate generating formulae, from which Watson's results follow easily.

Our proofs are more straightforward than those of Watson. They are elementary, depending only on classical identities of Euler and Jacobi. Watson's proofs rely on the modular equation of seventh order. We also need the modular equation but we derive it using the elementary techniques of O. Kolberg.

We establish a necessary condition (E) for a semigroup variety to be closed under the taking of epimorphisms and a necessary condition (S) for a variety to consist entirely of saturated semigroups. Condition (S) is shown to be sufficient for heterotypical varieties and a stronger condition (S′) is shown to be sufficient for homotypical varieties.

We introduce the notion of functions of bounded proximal variation and the notion of orderly connected topology on the real line. Using these notions, we define in a novel way an integral of Perron type, including virtually all the known integrals of Perron and Denjoy types and admitting mean value theorems and integration by parts and the analog of Marcinkiewicz theorem for the ordinary Perron integral.

We define and investigate the notion of a decomposable hypergraph, showing that such a hypergraph always is conformal, that is, can be viewed as the class of maximal cliques of a graph. We further show that the clique hypergraph of a graph is decomposable if and only if the graph is triangulated and characterise such graphs in terms of a combinatorial identity.

The purpose of this paper is to establish comparison criteria, by which the oscillatory and asymptotic behavior of linear retarded differential equations of arbitrary order is inherited from the oscillation of an associated second order linear ordinary differential equation. These criteria are new even in the case of ordinary differential equations.

In this note we characterize PSL2(7) by conditions on the order of the group and the orders of its elements.

The purpose of this paper is to present a novel proof of a well-known relationship between functions in harmonic subspaces of L2(Rn) ∪ L1 (Rn) and their Fourier transforms. The proof uses a characterisation of spherical harmonics given by Hecke and a method developed by the author in a previous paper.

The notion of a recursive causal graph is introduced, hopefully capturing the essential aspects of the path diagrams usually associated with recursive causal models. We describe the conditional independence constraints which such graphs are meant to embody and prove a theorem relating the fulfilment of these constraints by a probability distribution to a particular sort of factorisation. The relation of our results to the usual linear structural equations on the one hand, and to log-linear models, on the other, is also explained

This is an investigation of whether a group epimorphism maps the maximal perfect subgroup of its domain onto that of its image. It is shown how the question arises naturally from considerations of algebraic K-theory and Quillen's plus-construction. Some sufficient conditions are obtained; these relate to the upper central series, or alternatively the derived series, of the domain. By means of topological/homological techniques, the results are then sharpened to provide, in certain circumstances, conditions which are necessary as well as sufficient.

Vertices u and v of a graph G are pseudo-similar if G – u ≅ G – v, but no automorphisms of G maps u to v. Let H be a graph with a distinguished vertex a. Denote by G(u. H) and G(v. H) the graphs obtained from G and H by identifying vertex a of H with pseudo-similar vertices u and v, respectively, of G. Is it possible for G(u.H) and G(v.H) to be isomorphic graphs? We answer this question in the affirmative by constructing graphs G for which G(u. H)≅ G(v. H).

A Hausdorff space X is said to be compactly generated (a k-space) if and only if the open subsets U of X are precisely those subsets for which K ∩ U is open in K for all compact subsets of K of X. We interpret this property as a duality property of the lattice O(X) of open sets of X. This view point allows the introduction of the concept of being quasicompactly generated for an arbitrary sober space X. The methods involve the duality theory of up-complete semilattices, and certain inverse limit constructions. In the process, we verify that the new concept agrees with the classical one on Hausdorff spaces.

A variant of Kurosh-Amitsur radical theory is developed for algebras with a collection of (finitary) operations ω, all of which are idempotent, that is satisfy the condition ω(x, x,…, x) = x. In such algebras, all classes of any congruence are subalgebras. In place of a largest normal radical subobject, a largest congruence with radical congruence classes is considered. In congruence-permutable varieties the parallels with conventional radical theory are most striking.

Let G be a compact abelian group with dual Ĝ and let K be a Banach L1 (G)-module. We introduce the notion of character convolution transformation of K which reduces to ordinary Fourier or Fourier-Stieltjes transformation when K is one of the spaces Lp(G), M(G). We show that the question of what maps Ĝ → K extend to multipliers of K is a question of asking for descriptions of the character convolution transforms. In this setting some results of Helson-Edward and Schoenberg-Eberlein find generalizations, as do some classical results, including the inversion formula and the Parseval relation. We then apply these results to transformation groups, obtaining a variant of a theorem of Bochner and an extension of a theorem of Ryan.

We provide an algorithm for calculating the Alexander polynomial of a two-bridge link by putting every two-bridge link in a special type of Conway diagram. Using this algorithm, some necessary conditions for a polynomial to be the Alexander polynomial of a two-bridge link are given, in particular, certain alternating and monotonicity conditions on the coefficients, analogous to corresponding known properties of the reduced Alexander polynomial.

A Room n-cube of side t is an n dimensional array of side t which satisfies the property that each two dimensional projection is a Room square. The existence of a Room n-cube of side t is equivalent to the existence of n pairwise orthgonal symmetric Latin squares (POSLS) of side t. The existence of n pairwise orthogonal starters of order t implies the existence of n POSLS of side t. Denote by v(n) the maximum number of POSLS of side t. In this paper, we use Galois fields and computer constructions to construct sets of pairwise orthogonal starters of order t ≤ 101. The existence of these sets of starters gives improved lower bounds for v(n). In particular, we show v(17) ≥ 5, v(21) ≥ 5, v(29) ≥ 13, v(37) ≥ 15 and v(41) ≥ 9, among others.

In 1903 H. Minkowski obtained two integral formulae for closed convex surfaces in three dimensional Euclidean space. In this paper we obtain generalised Minkowski formulae on compact orientable immersed submanifolds of an arbitrary Riemannian manifold. By successive specialisation we indicate how known integral theorems can be obtained as particular cases of our result.