Throughout we assume all rings are commutative with identity. We denote the lattice of ideals of a ring R by L(R), and we denote by L(R)* the subposet L(R) − R.

A classical result of commutative ring theory is the characterization of a Dedekind domain as an integral domain R in which every element of L(R)* is a product of prime ideals (see Mori [5] for a history). This result has been generalized in a number of ways. In particular, rings which are not necessarily domains but which otherwise satisfy the hypotheses (i.e. general ZPI-rings) have been widely studied (see, for example, Gilmer [3]), as have rings in which only the principal ideals are assumed to satisfy the hypothesis (i.e. π-rings).

Consider any group G. A [G, 2]-complex is a connected 2-dimensional CW-complex with fundamental group G. If X is a [G, 2]-complex and L is a subgroup of G, let XL denote the covering complex of X corresponding to the subgroup L. We say that a [G, 2]-complex is L-Cockcroft if the Hurewicz map hL:π2(X)→;H2(XL) is trivial. In case L = G we call X Cockcroft. There are interesting classes of 2-complexes that have the Cockcroft property. A [G, 2]-complex X is aspherical if π2(X) = 0. It was observed in [4] that a subcomplex of an aspherical 2-complex is Cockcroft. The Cockcroft property is of interest to group theorists as well. Let X be a [G, 2]-complex modelled on a presentation (〈S; R〉 of the group G. If it can be shown that X is Cockcroft, then it follows from Hopf's theorem (see [2, p. 31]) that H2(G) is isomorphic to H2(X). In particular H2(G) is free abelian. For a survey on the Cockcroft property see Dyer [5]. A collection {Gα: α ∈ Ώ} of subgroups of a group G that is totally ordered by inclusion is called a chain of subgroups of G. Denning β ≤ α if and only if Gα ≤ Gβ makes Ώ into a totally ordered set. The main result of this paper is the following theorem.

A large class of measure-valued critical branching processes can be classified in terms of a parameter ρ which arises as a measure of the recurrence of the underlying spatial Markov process. By establishing upper and lower bounds for the total weighted occupation time process, it is shown that if a measure-valued process is started from an invariant measure of its underlying spatial process, then a necessary and sufficient condition for (a.s.) local extinction is that ρ > 0.

Nonautonomous parabolic equations of the form ut − Δu = f(u, t) on a symmetric domain are considered. Using the moving-hyperplane method, it is proved that any bounded nonnegative solution symmetrises as t → ∞. This is then used to show that for nonlinearities periodic in t, any non-negative bounded solution approaches a periodic solution.

A characterisation is provided for the weak closure of the set of rearrangements of a function on an unbounded domain. The extreme points of this convex, weakly compact set are classified. This result is used to study the maximising sequences of a variational problem for steady vortices.

For each p ∈ [2, ∞)a p-harmonic map f:Mm→Nn is a critical point of the p-energy functional

where Mm is a compact and Nn a complete Riemannian manifold of dimensions m and n respectively. In a recent paper [3], Takeuchi has proved that for a certain class of simply-connected δ-pinched Nn and certain type of hypersurface Nn in ℝn+1, the only stable p-harmonic maps for any compact Mm are the constant maps. Our purpose in this note is to establish the following theorem which complements Takeuchi's results.