The structure of finite groups in which permutability is transitive (PT-groups) is studied in detail. In particular a finite PT-group has simple chief factors and the p-chief factors fall into at most two isomorphism classes. The structure of finite T-groups, that is, groups in which normality is transitive, is also discussed, as is that of groups generated by subnormal or normal PT-subgroups.

A holomorphic map ψ of the unit disk ito itself induces an operator Cψ on holomorphic functions by composition. We characterize bounded and compact composition operators Cψ on Qp spaces, which coincide with the BMOA for p = 1 and Bloch spaces for p > 1. We also give boundedness and compactness characterizations of Cψ from analytic function space X to Qp spaces, X = Dirichlet space D, Bloch space B or B0 = {f: f′ ∈ H∞}.

We study the perturbation of the generalized Drazin inverse for the elements of Banach algebras and bounded linear operators on Banach space. This work, among other things, extends the results obtained by the second author and Guorong Wang on the Drazin inverse for matrices.

This paper gives a complete classification of essentially commutative C*-algebras whose essential spectrum is homeomorphic to S2n−1 by their characteristic numbers. Let 1, 2 be such two C*-algebras; then they are C*-isomorphic if and only if they have the same n-th characteristic number. Furthermore, let γn() = m then is C*-isomorphic to C*(Mzl, …, Mzn) if m = 0, is C*-isomorphic C*(Tz1, …, Tzn−1, Tznm) if m ≠ 0. Some examples are given to show applications of the classfication theorem. We finally remark that the proof of the theorem depends on a construction of a complete system of representatives of Ext(S2n−1).

Various properties of continuity for the class of lower semicontinuous convex functions are considered and dual characterizations are established. In particular, it is shown that the restriction of a lower semicontinuous convex function to its domain (respectively, domain of subdifferentiability) is continuous if and only if its subdifferential is strongly cyclically monotone (respectively, σ-cyclically monotone).

An asymptotic estimate is derived for the expected number of extrema of a polynomial whose independent normal coefficients possess non-equal non-zero mean values. A result is presented that generalizes in terms of normal processes the analytical device used for construction of similar asymptotic estimates for random polynomials with normal coefficients.

We investigate a locally full HNN extension of an inverse semigroup. A normal form theorem is obtained and applied to the word problem. We construct a tree and show that a maximal subgroup of a locally full HNN extension acts on the tree without inversion. Bass-Serre theory is employed to obtain a group presentation of the maximal subgroup as a fundamental group of a certain graph of groups associated with the D-structure of the original semigroup.

A class of totally disconnected groups consisting of partial direct products on an index set is examined. For such a group, the scale function is found, and for automorphisms arising from permutations of the index set, the tidy subgroups are characterised. When applied to the case where the index set is a finitely-generated free group and the permutation is translation by an element x of the group, the scale depends on the cyclically reduced form of x and the tidy subgroup on the element which conjugates x to its cyclically reduced form.