We study the behaviour of the $n$-dimensional centered Hardy-Littlewood maximal operator associated to the family of cubes with sides parallel to the axes, improving the previously known lower bounds for the best constants $c_n$ that appear in the weak type $(1,1)$ inequalities.

We consider a problem of intervals raised by I. Ya. Novikov in [Israel Math. Conf. Proc. 5 (1992), 290], which refines the well-known theorem of J. Marcinkiewicz concerning structure of closed sets [A. Zygmund, Trigonometric Series, Vol. I, Ch. IV, Theorem 2.1]. A positive solution to the problem for some specific cases is obtained. As a result, we strengthen the theorem of Marcinkiewicz for generalized Cantor sets.

If the Poisson integral of the unit disc is replaced by its square root, it is known that normalized Poisson integrals of $L^p$ and weak $L^p$ boundary functions converge along approach regions wider than the ordinary nontangential cones, as proved by Rönning and the author, respectively. In this paper we characterize the approach regions for boundary functions in two general classes of Orlicz spaces. The first of these classes contains spaces $L^{\Phi }$ having the property $L^{\infty }\subset L^{\Phi }\subset L^p$, $1\le p<\infty$. The second contains spaces $L^{\Phi }$ that...