Suppose that D is a plane domain and that f(z), g(z) are meromorphic in D and f(z) ╪ g(z) for all z in D. Then following Rubel and Yang [11], we say that f(z) avoids g(z) in D. A system of functions g1(z), …, gn(z) is said to be unavoidable if, whenever f is meromorphic in D, at least one of the equations f(z) = gv(z) has a root in D. Rubel and Yang [11] proved that if D is the open plane, then any two functions form an avoidable system, but three distinct polynomials a1, a2, a3 such that a1−a2 and a2−a3 are not both constant form an unavoidable system.

Let p(x) be periodic with mean value c and let α > 0. Then the investigation of the asymptotic solution of the second-order equation

can be split into four cases: (i) α > 2, (ii) α > 1 and c = 0, (iii) 0 < α ≤ 1 and c = 0, (iv) 0 < α ≤ 2 and c ≠ 0. The first two cases are straightforward because then there are solutions y1 and y2 of (1·1) such that y1(x) ~ x and y2(x) → 1 as x → ∞ [5, theorems 2·7·2 and 2·7·5; 7, p. 375; 8]. Thus the coefficient of y in (1·1) represents a perturbation which has no effect on the dominant asymptotic behaviour of solutions. Case (iii) is less simple because here the nature of p(x) does influence the asymptotic form of solutions and, indeed, when α < 1 the solutions of (1·1) are oscillatory. This case has been fully covered by a number of authors: Atkinson, Eastham and McLeod[2, §3], Cassell[3, 4], Eastham[5, §4·13], Mahoney[10], Willett[13] and Wong[14, 15]. In addition, corresponding results for a higher-order self-adjoint analogue of (1·1) have been obtained recently by Al-Hammadi and Eastham [1, 6] as an application of general asymptotic methods for differential systems.

Each number a in the segment (0, ½) produces a Cantor set, Ca, by putting b = 1 − 2a and recursively removing segments of relative length b from the centres of the interval [0, 1] and the intervals which are subsequently generated. The distribution function of the uniform probability measure on Ca is a Cantor function, fa. When a = 1/3 = b, Ca is the standard Cantor set, C, and fa is the standard Cantor function, f. The upper derivative of f is infinite at each point of C and the lower derivative of f is infinite at most points of C in the following sense: the Hausdorff dimension of C is ln(2)/ln(3) and the Hausdorff dimension of S = {x ∈ C: the lower derivative of f is finite at x} is [ln(2)/ln(3)]2. The derivative of f is zero off C, the derivative of f is infinite on C — S, and S is the set of non-differentiability points of f. Similar results are established in this paper for all Ca: the Hausdorff dimension of Ca is ln (2)/ln (1/a) and the Hausdorff dimension of Sa is [ln (2)/ln (1/a)]2. Removing k segments of relative length b and leaving k + 1 intervals of relative length a produces a Cantor set of dimension ln(k + l)/ln(1/a); the dimension of the set of non-differentiability points of the corresponding Cantor function is [ln (k + l)/ln (1/a)]2.

We show that the Liouville-Arnol'd theorem concerning knowledge of involutory first integrals for Hamiltonian systems is available for any system of second order ordinary differential equations. In establishing this result we also provide a new proof of the standard theorem in the setting of non-autonomous, regular Lagrangian mechanics on the evolution space ℝ × TM of a manifold M. Both the original theorem and its generalization rely on a certain bijection between symmetries of the system and its first integrals. We give two examples of the use of the theorem for systems on ℝ2 which are not Euler-Lagrange.

Our aim, in this paper, is to study a class of functions which occurs in pure integer programming, and to investigate conditions under which discrete subadditive functions belong to that class. The inspiration for the paper was the problem of classifying discrete metrics used in pattern recognition, while the methods of proof of the main theorem are those of pure integer programming.

This paper shows that the localization theory for algebras of smooth functions and Fréchet modules provides a basis for a theory of differential spaces of finite type, as well as the usual localization theory for commutative rings and modules grounds the theory of schemes. Moreover, most of the elementary results and proofs in the theory of schemes remain valid for differential spaces.