Let M be a compact n-dimensional Riemannian manifold with nonnegative Ricci curvature and mean convex boundary ∂M. Assume that the mean curvature H of the boundary ∂M satisfies H≥(n−1)k>0 for some positive constant k. In this paper, we prove that the distance function d to the boundary ∂M is bounded from above by 1/𝑘 and the upper bound is achieved if and only if M is isometric to an n-dimensional Euclidean ball of radius 1/𝑘.

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For any nonsimply laced Lie group G and elliptic curve , we show that the moduli space of flat G bundles over  can be identified with the moduli space of rational surfaces with G-configurations which contain  as an anticanonical curve. We also construct Lie(G)-bundles over these surfaces. The corresponding results for simply laced groups were obtained by the authors in another paper. Thus, we have established a natural identification for these two kinds of moduli spaces for any Lie group G.

Let A , A be two regular commutative unital Banach algebras such that A is integral over A . In 2003, Dawson and Feinstein showed that the topological stable rank A whenever A . In this note, we investigate whether we will have A in general. For instance, when A is a commutative unital A -algebra, we show that A , and the equality holds at least when the integral extension is separable. In general, A and A have the same Bass stable ranks A .

We use adiabatic limits to study foliated manifolds. The Bott connection naturally shows up as the adiabatic limit of Levi-Civita connections. As an application, we then construct certain natural elliptic operators associated to the foliation and present a direct geometric proof of a vanshing theorem of Connes [Co], which extends the Lichnerowicz vanishing theorem [L] to foliated manifolds with spin leaves, for what we call almost Riemannian foliations. Several new vanishing theorems are also proved by using our method.