Determining meaningful lower bounds on the supremal strict p-negative type of classes of finite metric spaces is a difficult nonlinear problem. In this paper we use an elementary approach to obtain the following result: given a finite metric space (X,d) there is a constant ζ>0, dependent only on n=∣X∣ and the scaled diameter 𝔇=(diamX)/min{d(x,y)∣x⁄=y} of X (which we may assume is >1), such that (X,d) has p-negative type for all p∈[0,ζ] and strict p-negative type for all p∈[0,ζ). In fact, we obtain A consideration of basic examples shows that our value of ζ is optimal provided that 𝔇≤2. In other words, for each 𝔇∈(1,2] and natural number n≥3, there exists an n-point metric space of scaled diameter 𝔇 whose supremal strict p-negative type is exactly ζ. The results of this paper hold more generally for all finite semi-metric spaces since the triangle inequality is not used in any of the proofs. Moreover, ζ is always optimal in the case of finite semi-metric spaces.

Using generalized position vector fields we obtain new upper bound estimates of the first nonzero eigenvalue of a kind of elliptic operator on closed submanifolds isometrically immersed in Riemannian manifolds of bounded sectional curvature. Applying these Reilly inequalities we improve a series of recent upper bound estimates of the first nonzero eigenvalue of the Lr operator on closed hypersurfaces in space forms.

Let p be a prime. We say that a transitive action of a group L on a set Ω is p-sub-regular if there exist x,y∈Ω such that 〈Lx,Ly〉=L and LYx≅ℤp, where Y =yLx is the orbit of y under Lx. Our main result is that if Γ is a G-arc-transitive graph and the permutation group induced by the action of Gv on Γ(v) is p-sub-regular, then the order of a G-arc-stabilizer is equal to ps−1 where s≤7, s≠6, and moreover, if p=2, then s≤5. This generalizes a classical result of Tutte on cubic arc-transitive graphs as well as some more recent results. We also give a characterization of p-sub-regular actions in terms of arc-regular actions on digraphs and discuss some interesting examples of small degree.

In a wide variety of related problems, a flexible but inextensible membrane is filled to capacity with incompressible fluid. In all such cases, the resulting shape satisfies a set of three simultaneous partial differential equations. At present there are no known solutions of any generality, and the main aim of this paper is to formulate the partial differential equations with a view to stimulating further interest in this important class of problems.

We discuss a Conley index calculation which is of importance in population models with large interaction. In particular, we prove that a certain Conley index is trivial.