title: Hepatocellular carcinoma

text: The risk of hepatocellular carcinoma in type 2 diabetics is greater (from 2.5 to 7.1 times the nondiabetic risk) depending on the duration of diabetes and treatment protocol. A suspected contributor to this increased risk is circulating insulin concentration such that diabetics with poor insulin control or on treatments that elevate their insulin output (both states that contribute to a higher circulating insulin concentration) show far greater risk of hepatocellular carcinoma than diabetics on treatments that reduce circulating insulin concentration. On this note, some diabetics who engage in tight insulin control (by keeping it from being elevated) show risk levels low enough to be indistinguishable from the general population. This phenomenon is thus not isolated to diabetes mellitus type 2, since poor insulin regulation is also found in other conditions such as metabolic syndrome (specifically, when evidence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease or NAFLD is present) and again evidence of greater risk exists here, too. While there are claims that anabolic steroid abusers are at greater risk (theorized to be due to insulin and IGF exacerbation), the only evidence that has been confirmed is that anabolic steroid users are more likely to have the benign hepatocellular adenomas transform into the more dangerous hepatocellular carcinoma.


title: Hepatocellular carcinoma

text: Hepatocellular carcinoma, like any other cancer, develops when epigenetic alterations and mutations affecting the cellular machinery cause the cell to replicate at a higher rate and/or result in the cell avoiding apoptosis.


title: Hepatocellular carcinoma

text: In particular, chronic infections of hepatitis B and/or C can aid the development of hepatocellular carcinoma by repeatedly causing the body's own immune system to attack the liver cells, some of which are infected by the virus, others merely bystanders. Activated immune-system inflammatory cells release free radicals, such as reactive oxygen species and nitric oxide reactive species, which in turn can cause DNA damage and lead to carcinogenic gene mutations. Reactive oxygen species also cause epigenetic alterations at the sites of DNA repair.


title: Hepatocellular carcinoma

text: While this constant cycle of damage followed by repair can lead to mistakes during repair, which in turn lead to carcinogenesis, this hypothesis is more applicable, at present, to hepatitis C. Chronic hepatitis C causes HCC through the stage of cirrhosis. In chronic hepatitis B, however, the integration of the viral genome into infected cells can directly induce a noncirrhotic liver to develop HCC. Alternatively, repeated consumption of large amounts of ethanol can have a similar effect. The toxin aflatoxin from certain "Aspergillus" species of fungi is a carcinogen and aids carcinogenesis of hepatocellular cancer by building up in the liver. The combined high prevalence of rates of aflatoxin and hepatitis B in settings such as China and West Africa has led to relatively high rates of hepatocellular carcinoma in these regions. Other viral hepatitides such as hepatitis A have no potential to become a chronic infection, thus are not related to HCC.


title: Hepatocellular carcinoma

text: Methods of diagnosis in HCC have evolved with the improvement in medical imaging. The evaluation of both asymptomatic patients and those with symptoms of liver disease involves blood testing and imaging evaluation. Historically, a biopsy of a tumor was required to prove an HCC diagnosis. However, imaging (especially MRI) findings may be conclusive enough to obviate histopathologic confirmation.


title: Hepatocellular carcinoma

text: HCC remains associated with a high mortality rate, in part because initial diagnosis commonly occurs at an advanced stage of disease. As with other cancers, outcomes are significantly improved if treatment is initiated earlier in the disease process. Since the vast majority of HCC cases occur in people with certain chronic liver diseases, especially those with cirrhosis, liver screening is commonly advocated in this population. Specific screening guidelines continue to evolve over time as evidence of its clinical impact becomes available. In the United States, the most commonly observed guidelines are those published by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases(AASLD), which recommends ultrasound screenings every six months for people with cirrhosis, with or without measurement of blood levels of tumor marker alpha-fetoprotein (AFP). Elevated levels of AFP are associated with active HCC disease, though their reliability can be inconsistent. At levels >20, sensitivity is 41–65% and specificity is 80–94%. However, at levels >200, sensitivity is 31 and specificity is 99%.


title: Hepatocellular carcinoma

text: On ultrasound, HCC often appears as a small hypoechoic lesion with poorly defined margins and coarse, irregular internal echoes. When the tumor grows, it can sometimes appear heterogeneous with fibrosis, fatty change, and calcifications. This heterogeneity can look similar to cirrhosis and the surrounding liver parenchyma. A systematic review found that the sensitivity was 60% (95% CI 44–76%) and specificity was 97% (95% CI 95–98%) compared with pathologic examination of an explanted or resected liver as the reference standard. The sensitivity increases to 79% with AFP correlation.


title: Hepatocellular carcinoma

text: Controversy remains as to the most effective screening protocols. For example, while some data support decreased mortality related to screening people with hepatitis B infection, the AASLD notes, “There are no randomized trials [for screening] in Western populations with cirrhosis secondary to chronic hepatitis C or fatty liver disease, and thus there is some controversy surrounding whether surveillance truly leads to a reduction in mortality in this population of patients with cirrhosis.”


title: Hepatocellular carcinoma

text: In a person where a higher suspicion of HCC exists, such as a person with symptoms or abnormal blood tests (i.e. alpha-fetoprotein and des-gamma carboxyprothrombin levels), evaluation requires imaging of the liver by CT or MRI scans. Optimally, these scans are performed with intravenous contrast in multiple phases of hepatic perfusion to improve detection and accurate classification of any liver lesions by the interpreting radiologist. Due to the characteristic blood flow pattern of HCC tumors, a specific perfusion pattern of any detected liver lesion may conclusively detect an HCC tumor. Alternatively, the scan may detect an indeterminate lesion and further evaluation may be performed by obtaining a physical sample of the lesion.


title: Hepatocellular carcinoma

text: Ultrasound, CT scan, and MRI may be used to evaluate the liver for HCC. On CT and MRI, HCC can have three distinct patterns of growth:


title: Hepatocellular carcinoma

text: A systematic review of CT diagnosis found that the sensitivity was 68% (95% CI 55–80%) and specificity was 93% (95% CI 89–96%) compared with pathologic examination of an explanted or resected liver as the reference standard. With triple-phase helical CT, the sensitivity was 90% or higher, but these data have not been confirmed with autopsy studies.


title: Hepatocellular carcinoma

text: However, MRI has the advantage of delivering high-resolution images of the liver without ionizing radiation. HCC appears as a high-intensity pattern on T2-weighted images and a low-intensity pattern on T1-weighted images. The advantage of MRI is that it has improved sensitivity and specificity when compared to ultrasound and CT in cirrhotic patients with whom it can be difficult to differentiate HCC from regenerative nodules. A systematic review found that the sensitivity was 81% (95% CI 70–91%) and specificity was 85% (95% CI 77–93%) compared with pathologic examination of an explanted or resected liver as the reference standard. The sensitivity is further increased if gadolinium contrast-enhanced and diffusion-weighted imaging are combined.


title: Hepatocellular carcinoma

text: Liver image reporting and data system (LI-RADS) is a classification system for the reporting of liver lesions detected on CT and MRI. Radiologists use this standardized system to report on suspicious lesions and to provide an estimated likelihood of malignancy. Categories range from LI-RADS (LR) 1 to 5, in order of concern for cancer. A biopsy is not needed to confirm the diagnosis of HCC if certain imaging criteria are met.


title: Hepatocellular carcinoma

text: Macroscopically, liver cancer appears as a nodular or infiltrative tumor. The nodular type may be solitary (large mass) or multiple (when developed as a complication of cirrhosis). Tumor nodules are round to oval, gray or green (if the tumor produces bile), well circumscribed but not encapsulated. The diffuse type is poorly circumscribed and infiltrates the portal veins, or the hepatic veins (rarely).


title: Hepatocellular carcinoma

text: Microscopically, the four architectural and cytological types (patterns) of hepatocellular carcinoma are: fibrolamellar, pseudoglandular (adenoid), pleomorphic (giant cell), and clear cell. In well-differentiated forms, tumor cells resemble hepatocytes, form trabeculae, cords, and nests, and may contain bile pigment in the cytoplasm. In poorly differentiated forms, malignant epithelial cells are discohesive, pleomorphic, anaplastic, and giant. The tumor has a scant stroma and central necrosis because of the poor vascularization. A fifth form – lymphoepithelioma like hepatocellular carcinoma – has also been described.


title: Hepatocellular carcinoma

text: The prognosis of HCC is affected by the staging of the tumor and the liver's function due to the effects of liver cirrhosis.


title: Hepatocellular carcinoma

text: A number of staging classifications for HCC are available. However, due to the unique nature of the carcinoma to fully encompass all the features that affect the categorization of the HCC, a classification system should incorporate tumor size and number, presence of vascular invasion and extrahepatic spread, liver function (levels of serum bilirubin and albumin, presence of ascites, and portal hypertension) and general health status of the patient (defined by the ECOG classification and the presence of symptoms).


title: Hepatocellular carcinoma

text: Of all the staging classification systems available, the Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer staging classification encompasses all of the above characteristics. This staging classification can be used to select people for treatment.


title: Hepatocellular carcinoma

text: Since hepatitis B and C are some of the main causes of hepatocellular carcinoma, prevention of infection is key to then prevent HCC. Thus, childhood vaccination against hepatitis B may reduce the risk of liver cancer in the future. In the case of patients with cirrhosis, alcohol consumption is to be avoided. Also, screening for hemochromatosis may be beneficial for some patients.


title: Hepatocellular carcinoma

text: Treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma varies by the stage of disease, a person's likelihood to tolerate surgery, and availability of liver transplant:


title: Hepatocellular carcinoma

text: Loco-regional therapy (also referred to as liver-directed therapy) refers to any one of several minimally-invasive treatment techniques to focally target HCC within the liver. These procedures are alternatives to surgery, and may be considered in combination with other strategies, such as a later liver transplantation. Generally, these treatment procedures are performed by interventional radiologists or surgeons, in coordination with a medical oncologist. Loco-regional therapy may refer to either percutaneous therapies (e.g. cryoablation), or arterial catheter-based therapies (chemoembolization or radioembolization).


title: Hepatocellular carcinoma

text: Surgical removal of the tumor is associated with better cancer prognosis, but only 5–15% of patients are suitable for surgical resection due to the extent of disease or poor liver function. Surgery is only considered if the entire tumor can be safely removed while preserving sufficient functional liver to maintain normal physiology. Thus, preoperative imaging assessment is critical to determine both the extent of HCC and to estimate the amount of residual liver remaining after surgery. To maintain liver function, residual liver volume should exceed 25% of total liver volume in a noncirrhotic liver, greater than 40% in a cirrhotic liver. Surgery on diseased or cirrhotic livers is generally associated with higher morbidity and mortality. The overall recurrence rate after resection is 50–60%. The Singapore Liver Cancer Recurrence score can be used to estimate risk of recurrence after surgery.


title: Hepatocellular carcinoma

text: Liver transplantation, replacing the diseased liver with a cadaveric or a living donor liver, plays an increasing role in treatment of HCC. Although outcomes following liver transplant were initially poor (20%–36% survival rate), outcomes have significantly improved with improvement in surgical techniques and adoption of the Milan criteria at US transplantation centers. Expanded Shanghai criteria in China have resulted in overall survival and disease-free survival rates similar to those achieved using the Milan criteria. Studies from the late 2000s obtained higher survival rates ranging from 67% to 91%.


title: Hepatocellular carcinoma

text: The risks of liver transplantation extend beyond risk of the procedure itself. The immunosuppressive medication required after surgery to prevent rejection of the donor liver also impairs the body's natural ability to combat dysfunctional cells. If the tumor has spread undetected outside the liver before the transplant, the medication effectively increases the rate of disease progression and decreases survival. With this in mind, liver transplant "can be a curative approach for patients with advanced HCC without extrahepatic metastasis". In fact, among patients with compensated cirrhosis, transplantation is not associated with improved survival compared to hepatectomy, but instead is significantly more expensive. Patient selection is considered a major key for success.


title: Hepatocellular carcinoma

text: In disease which has spread beyond the liver, systemic therapy may be a consideration. In 2007, Sorafenib, an oral multikinase inhibitor, was the first systemic agent approved for first-line treatment of advanced HCC. Trials have found modest improvement in overall survival: 10.7 months vs 7.9 months and 6.5 months vs 4.2 months.


title: Hepatocellular carcinoma

text: The most common side effects of Sorafenib include a hand-foot skin reaction and diarrhea. Sorafenib is thought to work by blocking growth of both tumor cells and new blood vessels. Numerous other molecular targeted drugs are being tested as alternative first- and second-line treatments for advanced HCC.


title: Hepatocellular carcinoma

text: A host of additional targeted therapies and immune checkpoint inhibitors have been found to be effective against this disease. For instance, in the recent phase III trial IMBrave 150, the combination of atezolizumab and bevacizumab was found to improve both overall and progression-free survival compared to sorafenib alone.


title: Hepatocellular carcinoma

text: Tremelimumab (Imjudo) was approved for medical use in the United States in October 2022. It is indicated, in combination with durvalumab, for the treatment of adults with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma.


title: Hepatocellular carcinoma

text: The usual outcome is poor because only 10–20% of hepatocellular carcinomas can be removed completely using surgery. If the cancer cannot be completely removed, the disease is usually deadly within 3 to 6 months. This is partially due to late presentation with tumors, but also the lack of medical expertise and facilities in the regions with high HCC prevalence. However, survival can vary, and occasionally people survive much longer than 6 months. The prognosis for metastatic or unresectable HCC has improved due to the approval of Sorafenib (Nexavar®) for advanced HCC.


title: Hepatocellular carcinoma

text: HCC is one of the most common tumors worldwide. The epidemiology of HCC exhibits two main patterns, one in North America and Western Europe and another in non-Western countries, such as those in sub-Saharan Africa, Central and Southeast Asia, and the Amazon basin. Males are affected more than females usually, and it is most common between the ages of 30 and 50, Hepatocellular carcinoma causes 662,000 deaths worldwide per year about half of them in China.


title: Hepatocellular carcinoma

text: In some parts of the world, such as sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, HCC is the most common cancer, generally affecting men more than women, and with an age of onset between the late teens and 30s. This variability is in part due to the different patterns of hepatitis B and hepatitis C transmission in different populations – infection at or around birth predispose to earlier cancers than if people are infected later. The time between hepatitis B infection and development into HCC can be years, even decades, but from diagnosis of HCC to death, the average survival period is only 5.9 months according to one Chinese study during the 1970-80s, or 3 months (median survival time) in sub-Saharan Africa according to Manson's textbook of tropical diseases. HCC is one of the deadliest cancers in China, where chronic hepatitis B is found in 90% of cases. In Japan, chronic hepatitis C is associated with 90% of HCC cases. Foods infected with "Aspergillus flavus" (especially peanuts and corns stored during prolonged wet seasons) which produces aflatoxins pose another risk factor for HCC.


title: Hepatocellular carcinoma

text: The most common malignant tumors in the liver represent metastases (spread) from tumors which originate elsewhere in the body. Among cancers that originate from liver tissue, HCC is the most common primary liver cancer. In the United States, the US surveillance, epidemiology, and end results database program, shows that HCC accounts for 65% of all cases of liver cancers. As screening programs are in place for high-risk persons with chronic liver disease, HCC is often discovered much earlier in Western countries than in developing regions such as sub-Saharan Africa.


title: Hepatocellular carcinoma

text: Acute and chronic hepatic porphyrias (acute intermittent porphyria, porphyria cutanea tarda, hereditary coproporphyria, variegate porphyria) and tyrosinemia type I are risk factors for hepatocellular carcinoma. The diagnosis of an acute hepatic porphyria (AIP, HCP, VP) should be sought in patients with HCC without typical risk factors of hepatitis B or C, alcoholic liver cirrhosis, or hemochromatosis. Both active and latent genetic carriers of acute hepatic porphyrias


title: Hepatocellular carcinoma

text: are at risk for this cancer, although latent genetic carriers have developed the cancer at a later age than those with classic symptoms. Patients with acute hepatic porphyrias should be monitored for HCC.


title: Hepatocellular carcinoma

text: The incidence of HCC is relatively lower in the Western Hemisphere than in Eastern Asia. However, despite the statistics being low, the diagnosis of HCC has increased since the 1980s and it is continuing to increase, making it one of the rising causes of death due to cancer. The common risk factor for HCC is hepatitis C, along with other health issues.


title: Hepatocellular carcinoma

text: Mipsagargin (G-202), has orphan drug designation as a treatment during chemotherapy for HCC. It is a thapsigargin-based prodrug with cytotoxic activity used to reduce blood flow to the tumor during treatment. Results from Phase 2 trial recommended G-202 as a first-in-class PSMA-targeted prodrug and that it move to clinical trials.


title: Hepatocellular carcinoma

text: Current research includes the search for the genes that are disregulated in HCC, antiheparanase antibodies, protein markers, non-coding RNAs (such as TUC338) and other predictive biomarkers. As similar research is yielding results in various other malignant diseases, it is hoped that identifying the aberrant genes and the resultant proteins could lead to the identification of pharmacological interventions for HCC.


title: Hepatocellular carcinoma

text: The development of three-dimensional culture methods provides a new approach for preclinical studies of cancer therapy using patient-derived organoids. These miniaturized organoid 'avatars' of a patient's tumor recapitulate several features of the original tumor, rendering them an attractive model for drug-sensitivity testing and precision medicine for HCC and other types of primary liver cancer.


title: Hepatocellular carcinoma

text: Furthermore, HCC occurs in patients with liver disease. A biomarker named six-miRNA signature allows effective treatment of patients with HCC and is able to predict its recurrence in the liver.


title: Hepatocellular carcinoma

text: JX-594, an oncolytic virus, has orphan drug designation for this condition and is undergoing clinical trials. Hepcortespenlisimut-L (Hepko-V5), an oral cancer vaccine, also has US FDA orphan drug designation for HCC. Immunitor Inc. completed a Phase II trial, published in 2017. A randomized trial of people with advanced HCC showed no benefit for the combination of everolimus and pasireotide.


title: Iraqi conflict (2003–present)

text: The Iraqi conflict is an armed conflict that began with the 2003 invasion of Iraq by a United States-led coalition that toppled the government of Saddam Hussein. The conflict continued as an insurgency emerged to oppose the occupying forces and the post-invasion Iraqi government. The United States officially withdrew from the country in 2011 but became reinvolved in 2014 at the head of a new coalition. The main phase of the conflict ended following the defeat of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the country in 2017, but a low-level ISIL insurgency is ongoing in the rural north parts of the country.


title: Iraqi conflict (2003–present)

text: The main rationale for the invasion of Iraq was based on allegations by the American and British governments that Saddam Hussein was developing weapons of mass destruction and that he thus presented a threat to his neighbors and to the world. The United States stated "on November 8, 2002, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1441. All fifteen members of the Security Council agreed to give Iraq a final opportunity to comply with its obligations and disarm or face the serious consequences of failing to disarm. The resolution strengthened the mandate of the UN Monitoring and Verification Commission (UNMOVIC) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), giving them authority to go anywhere, at any time and talk to anyone in order to verify Iraq's disarmament."


title: Iraqi conflict (2003–present)

text: Throughout the early 2000s, the administrations of George W. Bush and Tony Blair worked to build a case for invading Iraq, culminating in the U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's address to the Security Council one month before the invasion. Shortly after the invasion, the Central Intelligence Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, and other intelligence agencies refused to continue to support the allegations related to Iraqi weapons (as well as the Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda link allegations), at which point the Bush and Blair administrations shifted to secondary rationales for the war, such as the Hussein government's human rights record and promoting democracy in Iraq. Opinion polls showed that people all over the world opposed a war without a UN mandate, and that the view of the United States as a danger to world peace had significantly increased. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan described the war as illegal, saying in an interview in 2004 that it was "not in conformity with the Security Council."


title: Iraqi conflict (2003–present)

text: Revelations of faulty evidence and shifting rationales became the focal point for critics of the war, who charge that the George W. Bush administration purposely fabricated evidence to justify an invasion that it had long planned to launch. Supporters of the war claim that the threat from Iraq and Saddam Hussein was real and that it had later been established. The U.S. led the effort for "the redirection of former Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMD) scientists, technicians and engineers to civilian employment and discourage emigration of this community from Iraq."


title: Iraqi conflict (2003–present)

text: The invasion of Iraq lasted from 20 March to 1 May 2003 and signaled the start of the Iraq War, which was dubbed Operation Iraqi Freedom by the United States. The invasion consisted of 21 days of major combat operations, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and deposed the Ba'athist government of Saddam Hussein. The invasion phase consisted primarily of a conventionally fought war which included the capture of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad by American forces with the assistance of the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland.


title: Iraqi conflict (2003–present)

text: 160,000 troops were sent by the Coalition into Iraq during the initial invasion phase, which lasted from 19 March to 9 April 2003. About 130,000 were sent from the USA, with about 28,000 British, 2,000 Australian, and 194 Polish soldiers. 36 other countries were involved in its aftermath. In preparation for the invasion, 100,000 U.S. troops were assembled in Kuwait by 18 February. The coalition forces also received support from Kurdish irregulars in Iraqi Kurdistan.


title: Iraqi conflict (2003–present)

text: The invasion was preceded by an airstrike on the Presidential Palace in Baghdad on 20 March 2003. The following day, coalition forces launched an incursion into Basra Province from their massing point close to the Iraqi-Kuwaiti border. While the special forces launched an amphibious assault from the Persian Gulf to secure Basra and the surrounding petroleum fields, the main invasion army moved into southern Iraq, occupying the region and engaging in the Battle of Nasiriyah on 23 March. Massive air strikes across the country and against Iraqi command and control threw the defending army into chaos and prevented an effective resistance. On 26 March, the 173rd Airborne Brigade was airdropped near the northern city of Kirkuk, where they joined forces with Kurdish rebels and fought several actions against the Iraqi Army to secure the northern part of the country.


title: Iraqi conflict (2003–present)

text: The main body of coalition forces continued their drive into the heart of Iraq and met with little resistance. Most of the Iraqi military was quickly defeated and Baghdad was occupied on 9 April. Other operations occurred against pockets of the Iraqi army, including the capture and occupation of Kirkuk on 10 April, and the attack and capture of Tikrit on 15 April. Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and the central leadership went into hiding as the coalition forces completed the occupation of the country. On 1 May, an end of major combat operations was declared, ending the invasion period and beginning the military occupation period.


title: Iraqi conflict (2003–present)

text: Invading U.S.-led forces were unable to immediately fill the power vacuum caused by the sudden collapse of a highly centralized state authority, resulting in weeks of virtual anarchy. The rampant looting during this time period, and the inability of U.S.-led forces to control the situation, led to Iraqi resentment. Additionally, the unexpectedly quick implosion of Saddam Hussein's regime meant that the invading forces never engaged and decisively defeated his army in any major battle; the Iraqi army forces simply melted away, often with their weapons, back to their homes. Another cause of resentment was the lack of immediate humanitarian aid and reconstruction efforts for Iraqis suffering from the invasion, the long-term effects of the repression and mismanagement of the Saddam Hussein regime, and international sanctions. A number of factions felt suspicious of long-term American intentions; the conduct of some American soldiers also served to heighten tensions. The de-Ba'athification Commission set up by the Coalition Provisional Authority, the nature of selection of the Governing Council, and other policy decisions were interpreted by Sunni Arabs as actions intended to single out their community for discrimination; this encouraged the beginnings of sectarian tensions.


title: Iraqi conflict (2003–present)

text: In May 2003, after the Iraqi conventional forces had been defeated and disbanded, the U.S. military noticed a gradually increasing flurry of attacks on U.S. troops in various regions of the so-called "Sunni Triangle", especially in Baghdad and in the regions around Fallujah and Tikrit. The U.S. military blamed the attacks on remnants of the Ba'ath Party and the Fedayeen Saddam militia. Tensions between U.S. forces and the residents of Fallujah were especially severe, with crowd riots and small skirmishes commonplace.


title: Iraqi conflict (2003–present)

text: Members of insurgent groups came from a variety of sources. Former members of the security services of the Ba'ath regime, former military officers, and some other Ba'ath Party members are cited as members of insurgent groups; indeed, these elements formed the primary backbone of the nascent insurgency. Initially, most former members of the Ba'ath Party and former Iraqi soldiers expressed a willingness to compromise with the Coalition forces. However, many lost their jobs and pensions with the disbanding of the Iraqi army by Paul Bremer; this, and the unwillingness of the Coalition Provisional Authority to negotiate with former Ba'ath elements, provided impetus for the initial insurgency. While 80% of the army officers were Sunni, the rank and file of the regular army was 80% Shia. Prisoners let out of prison by Saddam Hussein before his disappearance provided another source both of insurgent recruits and of organized crime factions. Finally, as O'Hanlan says, the porous borders of Iraq and the subsequent foreign insurgents also bolstered the insurgency.


title: Iraqi conflict (2003–present)

text: Resistance to U.S.-led forces would not for long be confined to the Sunni regions of Iraq. Between 2003 and 2004, Shiite dissatisfaction with the occupation, especially among the urban poor, had been gradually increasing for some of the same reasons it had been among the Sunnis: the perception that the Coalition had failed to deliver on its promises and a nationalist dissatisfaction with foreign occupation. Many young men without jobs or prospects and who had lost faith with the promises of the U.S. began to become drawn to Shiite religious radicalism, especially of the brand advocated by the cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Sadr's distinguished family background, and his fiery anti-occupation rhetoric and calls for the implementation of Islamic law, caused him to emerge as the leader of this portion of Iraqi Shiite society. In June 2003, after being rejected from a spot on the Iraqi Governing Council, he had created a militia known as the Mahdi Army, whose mission he said was to help keep order and cleanse Iraq of "evil." Since that point, the U.S. had regarded him as a threat, but was divided on whether or not to proceed with a crackdown. Eventually, as Sadr's rhetoric heated and his militia paraded through Sadr City in what seemed like a challenge to the United States, they decided to begin to squeeze his movement. On March 29, they moved to close Sadr's newspaper known as "al-Hawza" and arrested one of his aides on murder charges. That, combined with his steadily decreasing political prospects for success within the U.S.-backed interim government, pushed Sadr to decide for armed revolt.


title: Iraqi conflict (2003–present)

text: On April 4, the Mahdi Army was directed to begin launching attacks on coalition targets and to seize control from the nascent U.S.-trained Iraqi security forces. The Mahdi Army, which by then numbered from 3,000 to 10,000 men, organized quickly escalating violent riots and then a coordinated assault, surprising coalition and Iraqi forces and seizing control of Najaf, Kufa, al-Kut, and parts of Baghdad and southern cities like Nasiriyah, Amarah, and Basra. A widespread collapse of the Iraqi security forces ensued, with most deserting or defecting to the rebels rather than fighting. Soon, combat was erupting in many urban centers of southern and central portions of Iraq as U.S. forces attempted to maintain control and prepared for a counteroffensive.


title: Iraqi conflict (2003–present)

text: At the same time, the Sunni insurgency was rapidly intensifying. On March 31, 2004, four private military contractors working for the U.S. military were killed and subsequently mutilated by insurgents and a crowd of residents in the city of Fallujah, long a particularly troublesome center of Sunni resistance to the U.S. presence. On the same day, 5 U.S. soldiers were killed by a large IED on a road a few miles outside of the city. The attacks took place as the Marines were taking over responsibility for al-Anbar province, in which Fallujah is located, from the U.S. Army. The intended Marine strategy of patrols, less aggressive raids, humanitarian aid, and close cooperation with local leaders was quickly suspended and the U.S. decided that it was time for a major assault to clear the city of insurgents. On April 4, U.S. and Iraqi forces launched Operation Vigilant Resolve to retake the city, which had clearly fallen completely into rebel hands. They met very stiff and well-organized resistance from the guerrillas. After three days of fighting with the U.S. Marines, the insurgents still held three-quarters of the city. Cases of widespread reach and planning, suggesting national insurgent coordination, were noted. Hundreds of insurgents cut the road between Fallujah and Baghdad to the east, while west of Fallujah in Ramadi, over 150 insurgents launched an offensive against U.S. Marine positions. A similar attack followed, conducted by about 150 insurgents, against U.S. Marines near the Syrian border in al-Qaim. The assaults were beaten back, but the U.S. toll from the combined attacks numbered in the dozens. Political pressure began to build on the United States and the Governing Council of Iraq as the hospital of Fallujah continued to report high numbers of civilian casualties, inflaming further the Iraqi people and Muslim world in general. After two weeks of fighting, the U.S. Marines were on the verge of capturing, but had not yet taken central control of, the city of Fallujah. Pentagon leaders, fearing that continuing the effort to capture the city might further inflame a larger revolt against Coalition authority, pulled back the forces. The Marines were ordered to stand-down and cordon off the city on April 30, where they would remain in a perimeter around the city for the following six months. A compromise on April 30 was reached in order to ensure security within Fallujah itself by creating the "Fallujah Brigade", a unit that drew from former members of Iraq's Army, local volunteers, and even the insurgents themselves. The unit's formation was part of a truce negotiation. This unit was to act under the control of the Coalition Provisional Authority, patrol alongside the Iraqi Police and National Guardsmen but maintain its autonomy. The Fallujah Brigade had many former Saddam loyalists. From various reports, Brigade members re-integrated themselves into the insurgent outfits that dominated. The city remained under the control of insurgent forces. Reportedly, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's organization was among the several that exercised some authority in the area.


title: Iraqi conflict (2003–present)

text: By the end of the spring uprising, the cities of Fallujah, Samarra, Baquba, and Ramadi had been left under Sunni guerrilla control with American patrols in the cities ceased. The insurgency had undergone another major shift, as insurgent organizations now had safe havens in cities such as Fallujah to develop and coordinate with each other. Zarqawi's group and its allies were in a period of uneasy cooperation with other insurgent groups dominated by nationalist and Ba'athist agendas, although the groups increasingly came into competition for territory within Sunni insurgent-controlled areas. U.S. forces launched only occasional armored forays into Samarra and Baquba, while about half a dozen small forts were maintained by the U.S. Marines in Ramadi, with the surrounding territory in the city controlled by rebels. American ground forces remained outside of Fallujah, though regular air strikes were conducted on alleged safehouses of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's followers in the city. With the battle for Fallujah over, the Sunni insurgency continued against the U.S. forces remaining outside these cities as the guerrillas resumed their tactics of using IED's and mortars to attack U.S. forces indirectly, for the most part avoiding direct combat.


title: Iraqi conflict (2003–present)

text: Meanwhile, the fighting continued in the Shiite south. Over the next three months, over 1,500 Mahdi Army militiamen, several hundred civilians, and dozens of coalition soldiers were killed as the U.S. gradually took back the southern cities. On June 6, a truce was reached, temporarily ending the fighting.


title: Iraqi conflict (2003–present)

text: On June 28, 2004, the occupation was formally ended by the Coalition, which transferred power to a new Iraqi government led by Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. Although many Iraqis were optimistic about the government, militants saw it as little more than an American puppet and continued the fight unabated. On July 18, guerrillas offered a $285,000 reward for Allawi's assassination.


title: Iraqi conflict (2003–present)

text: In February 2006, the Salafi jihadist organization Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn (also known as Al-Qaeda in Iraq) bombed one of the holiest sites in Shi'a Islam - the al-Askari Mosque in Samarra. This set off a wave of Shi'a reprisals against Sunnis followed by Sunni counterattacks. The conflict escalated over the next several months until by 2007, the National Intelligence Estimate described the situation as having elements of a civil war.


title: Iraqi conflict (2003–present)

text: In 2008 and 2009, during the Sunni Awakening and the surge, violence declined dramatically. However, low-level strife continued to plague Iraq until the U.S. withdrawal in late 2011.


title: Iraqi conflict (2003–present)

text: In October 2006, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Iraqi government estimated that more than 370,000 Iraqis had been displaced since the 2006 bombing of the al-Askari Mosque, bringing the total number of Iraqi refugees to more than 1.6 million. By 2008, the UNHCR raised the estimate of refugees to a total of about 4.7 million (~16% of the population). The number of refugees estimated abroad was 2 million (a number close to CIA projections) and the number of internally displaced people was 2.7 million. The estimated number of orphans across Iraq has ranged from 400,000 (according to the Baghdad Provincial Council), to five million (according to Iraq's anti-corruption board). A UN report from 2008 placed the number of orphans at about 870,000. The Red Cross stated in 2008 that Iraq's humanitarian situation was among the most critical in the world, with millions of Iraqis forced to rely on insufficient and poor-quality water sources.


title: Iraqi conflict (2003–present)

text: According to the Failed States Index, produced by Foreign Policy magazine and the Fund for Peace, Iraq was one of the world's top 5 unstable states from 2005 to 2008. A poll of top U.S. foreign policy experts conducted in 2007 showed that over the next 10 years, just 3% of experts believed the U.S. would be able to rebuild Iraq into a "beacon of democracy" and 58% of experts believed that Sunni–Shiite tensions would dramatically increase in the Middle East.


title: Iraqi conflict (2003–present)

text: Two polls of Americans conducted in 2006 found that between 65% to 85% believed Iraq was in a civil war. However, a similar poll of Iraqis conducted in 2007 found that 61% did not believe that they were in a civil war.


title: Iraqi conflict (2003–present)

text: The withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Iraq was a contentious issue in the United States for much of the 2000s. As the war progressed from its initial invasion phase in 2003 to a nearly decade-long occupation, American public opinion shifted towards favoring a troop withdrawal; in May 2007, 55% of Americans believed that the Iraq War was a mistake, and 51% of registered voters favored troop withdrawal. In late April 2007 Congress passed a supplementary spending bill for Iraq that set a deadline for troop withdrawal but President Bush vetoed this bill, citing his concerns about setting a withdrawal deadline. The Bush Administration later sought an agreement with the Iraqi government, and in 2008 George W. Bush signed the U.S.–Iraq Status of Forces Agreement. It included a deadline of 31 December 2011, before which "all the United States Forces shall withdraw from all Iraqi territory". The last U.S. troops left Iraq on 18 December 2011, in accordance with this agreement.


title: Iraqi conflict (2003–present)

text: The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's (ISIS, ISIL) military campaign was very successful, and the group took swathes of territory in northern Iraq during 2014. Violence reached very high levels, with 1,775 people killed in the month of June alone. These figures remained very high for the remainder of the year.


title: Iraqi conflict (2003–present)

text: The 2017 Iraqi–Kurdish conflict occurred in and around the Kurdish region of northern Iraq that began on 15 October 2017, shortly after the Iraqi Kurdistan referendum in 2017 was held on September 25. After the independence referendum, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi demanded the referendum to be canceled. In October, the Iraqi military moved into the Kurdistan region after the entry of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. On 16 October 2017, the Kurdish Peshmerga ignored a deadline given by Iraq to withdraw. This led to Battle of Kirkuk (2017), and Iraqi forces and Iranian-backed PMU retaking Kirkuk and its province on 15 October 2017. Within 15 hours, the city of Kirkuk and the nearby K-1 Air Base, along with surrounding oilfields, were retaken by Iraqi forces. This resulted in the conflict's end.


title: Iraqi conflict (2003–present)

text: On December 9, 2017, the last ISIL-held areas in the al-Jazira Desert were captured by the Iraqi military. The prime minister later declared victory, and celebrations occurred soon after.


title: Iraqi conflict (2003–present)

text: Following ISIL's defeat in December 2017, the group has continued an insurgency mostly in the rural parts of the country. However they have been greatly weakened and violence in Iraq has been sharply reduced in 2018. Only 95 people lost their lives during the month of May of 2018 from violence-related crimes, the lowest figure in 10 years.


title: Electrode

text: An electrode is an electrical conductor used to make contact with a nonmetallic part of a circuit (e.g. a semiconductor, an electrolyte, a vacuum or air). Electrodes are essential parts of batteries that can consist of a variety of materials depending on the type of battery.


title: Electrode

text: The electrophore, invented by Johan Wilcke, was an early version of an electrode used to study static electricity.


title: Electrode

text: Electrodes are an essential part of any battery. The first electrochemical battery made was devised by Alessandro Volta and was aptly named the Voltaic cell. This battery consisted of a stack of copper and zinc electrodes separated by brine-soaked paper disks. Due to fluctuation in the voltage provided by the voltaic cell it wasn't very practical. The first practical battery was invented in 1839 and named the Daniell cell after John Frederic Daniell. Still making use of the zinc–copper electrode combination. Since then many more batteries have been developed using various materials (see List of batteries). The basis of all these is still making use of two electrodes which can be divided in two categories: Anodes and Cathodes.


title: Electrode

text: A term coined by William Whewell at Faraday's request, derived from the Greek words ἄνο (ano), 'upwards' and ὁδός (hodós), 'a way'. The Anode is the electrode through which the conventional current enters from the electrical circuit of an electrochemical cell (battery) into the non-metallic cell. The electrons then flow to the other side of the battery. Note the difference in the flow of current and the flow of electrons, this is due to the discovery of the flow of current prior to the discovery of the electron. Benjamin Franklin surmised that the electrical flow moved from positive to negative. The electrons flow away from the anode and the conventional current towards it. From both can be concluded that the charge of the anode is negative. The electron entering the anode comes from the oxidation reaction that takes place next to it.


title: Electrode

text: The cathode is in many ways the opposite of the anode. The name (also coined by William Whewell) comes from the Greek words κάτω (kato), 'downwards' and ὁδός (hodós), 'a way'. It is the positive electrode, meaning the electrons flow from the electrical circuit through the cathode into the non-metallic part of the electrochemical cell. At the cathode, the reduction reaction takes place with the electrons arriving from the wire connected to the cathode and are absorbed by the oxidizing agent.


title: Electrode

text: A primary cell is a battery designed to be used once and then discarded. This is due to the electrochemical reactions taking place at the electrodes in the cell not being reversible. An example of a primary cell is the discardable alkaline battery used in for example flashlights. Consisting of a zinc anode and a manganese oxide cathode in which ZnO is formed.


title: Electrode

text: The ZnO is prone to clumping and will give less efficient discharge if recharged again. It is possible to recharge these batteries but is due to safety concerns advised against by the manufacturer. Other primary cells include zinc-carbon, zinc-chloride, and lithium iron disulfide batteries.


title: Electrode

text: Contrary to the primary cell a secondary cell can be recharged. The first of which was the lead-acid battery invented in 1859 by French Gaston Planté. This type of battery is still the most widely used in among others automobiles. The cathode consists of lead dioxide (PbO2) and the anode of solid lead. Other commonly used rechargeable batteries are nickel-cadmium, nickel-metal hydride battery, and Lithium-ion batteries. The last of which will be more explained more thoroughly in this article due to its importance.


title: Electrode

text: Marcus theory is a theory originally developed by Nobel laureate Rudolph A. Marcus and explains the rate at which an electron can move from one chemical species to another, for this article this can be seen as 'jumping' from the electrode to a species in the solvent or vice versa.


title: Electrode

text: We can represent the problem as calculating the transfer rate for the transfer of an electron from donor to an acceptor


title: Electrode

text: The potential energy of the system is a function of the translational, rotational, and vibrational coordinates of the reacting species and the molecules of the surrounding medium, collectively called the reaction coordinates. The abscissa the figure to the right represents these. From the classical electron transfer theory, the expression of the reaction rate constant (probability of reaction) can be calculated, if a non-adiabatic process and parabolic potential energy are assumed, by finding the point of intersection (Q). One important thing to note, and was noted by Marcus when he came up with the theory, the electron transfer must abide by the law of conservation of energy and the Frank-Condon principle.


title: Electrode

text: Doing this and then rearranging this leads to the expression of the free energy activation (formula_4) in terms of the overall free energy of the reaction (formula_5).


title: Electrode

text: With A being the pre-exponential factor which is usually experimentally determined, although a semi classical derivation provides more information as will be explained below.


title: Electrode

text: This classically derived result qualitatively reproduced observations of a maximum electron transfer rate under the conditions formula_10. For a more extensive mathematical treatment one could read the paper by Newton. An interpretation of this result and what a closer look at the physical meaning of the formula_11 one can read the paper by Marcus.


title: Electrode

text: the situation at hand can be more accurately described by using the displaced harmonic oscillator model, in this model quantum tunneling is allowed. This is needed in order to explain why even at near-zero Kelvin there still are electron transfers, in contradiction to the classical theory.


title: Electrode

text: Without going into too much detail on how the derivation is done, it rests on using Fermi's golden rule from time-dependent perturbation theory with the full Hamiltonian of the system. It is possible to look at the overlap in the wavefunctions of both the reactants and the products (the right and the left side of the chemical reaction) and therefore when their energies are the same and allow for electron transfer. As touched on before this must happen because only then conservation of energy is abided by. Skipping over a few mathematical steps the probability of electron transfer can be calculated (albeit quite difficult) using the following formula


title: Electrode

text: In this equation μ represents the chemical potential, with μ° being its reference value. T stands for the temperature and k the Boltzmann constant. The term γ inside the logarithm is the activity and x is the ratio of the ion to the total composition of the electrode. The novel term Ω is the partial molar volume of the ion in the host and σ corresponds to the mean stress felt by the system. The result of this equation is that diffusion, which is dependent on chemical potential, gets impacted by the added stress and, therefore changes the battery’s performance. Furthermore, mechanical stresses may also impact the electrode’s solid-electrolyte-interphase layer. The interface which regulates the ion and charge transfer and can be degraded by stress. Thus, more ions in the solution will be consumed to reform it, diminishing the overall efficiency of the system.


title: Electrode

text: In a vacuum tube or a semiconductor having polarity (diodes, electrolytic capacitors) the anode is the positive (+) electrode and the cathode the negative (−). The electrons enter the device through the cathode and exit the device through the anode. Many devices have other electrodes to control operation, e.g., base, gate, control grid.


title: Electrode

text: In a three-electrode cell, a counter electrode, also called an auxiliary electrode, is used only to make a connection to the electrolyte so that a current can be applied to the working electrode. The counter electrode is usually made of an inert material, such as a noble metal or graphite, to keep it from dissolving.


title: Electrode

text: In arc welding, an electrode is used to conduct current through a workpiece to fuse two pieces together. Depending upon the process, the electrode is either consumable, in the case of gas metal arc welding or shielded metal arc welding, or non-consumable, such as in gas tungsten arc welding. For a direct current system, the weld rod or stick may be a cathode for a filling type weld or an anode for other welding processes. For an alternating current arc welder, the welding electrode would not be considered an anode or cathode.


title: Electrode

text: For electrical systems which use alternating current, the electrodes are the connections from the circuitry to the object to be acted upon by the electric current but are not designated anode or cathode because the direction of flow of the electrons changes periodically, usually many times per second.


title: Electrode

text: Chemically modified electrodes are electrodes that have their surfaces chemically modified to change the electrode's physical, chemical, electrochemical, optical, electrical, and transportive properties. These electrodes are used for advanced purposes in research and investigation.


title: Electrode

text: Electrodes are used to provide current through nonmetal objects to alter them in numerous ways and to measure conductivity for numerous purposes. Examples include:


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) rights in Italy significantly advanced in the 21st century, although LGBT people still face some legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. According to ILGA-Europe's 2021 report, the status of LGBT rights in Italy is the worst among Western European countries – such as still legally banning same-sex marriage, no discrimination protections for goods and services and also lacking any parental rights for same-sex couples within adoption and IVF.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: In Italy, both male and female same-sex sexual activity has been legal since 1890, when a new Penal Code was promulgated. A civil union law was passed in May 2016, providing same-sex couples with many of the rights of marriage. Stepchild adoption was, however, excluded from the bill, and it is currently a matter of judicial debate. The same law provides both same-sex and heterosexual couples which live in an unregistered cohabitation with several legal rights.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: Transgender people have been allowed to legally change their gender since 1982. Although discrimination regarding sexual orientation in employment has been banned since 2003, no other anti-discrimination laws regarding sexual orientation or gender identity and expression have been enacted nationwide, although some Italian regions have enacted far more comprehensive anti-discrimination laws. In February 2016, days after the Senate approved the civil union law, a new poll showed a large majority in favour of civil unions (69%) and a majority for same-sex marriage (56%), but only a minority approving of stepchild adoption and LGBT parenting (37%).


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: Italian unification in 1861 brought together a number of States which had all (with the exception of two) abolished punishment for private, non-commercial and homosexual acts between consenting adults as a result of the Napoleonic Code. One of the two exceptions had been the Kingdom of Sardinia which punished homosexual acts between men (although not women) under articles 420–425 of the Penal Code promulgated in 1859 by Victor Emmanuel II. With unification, the former Kingdom of Sardinia extended its own criminalizing legislation to the rest of the newly born Kingdom of Italy. However, this legislation did not apply to the former Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, taking into account the "particular characteristics of those that lived in the south".


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: This bizarre situation, where homosexuality was illegal in one part of the kingdom, but legal in another, was only reconciled in 1889, with the promulgation of the Zanardelli Code which abolished all differences in treatment between homosexual and heterosexual relations across the entire territory of Italy. This Penal Code became effective in 1890, and there have since been no laws against private, adult and consensual homosexual relations.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: This situation remained in place despite the fascist promulgation of 19 October 1930 of the Rocco Code. This was to avoid discussion of the issue completely, in order to avoid creating a public scandal. Repression was a matter for the Catholic Church, and not the Italian State. This did not, however, prevent the fascist authorities from targeting male homosexual behaviour with administrative punishment, such as public admonition and confinement; gays were persecuted in the later years of the regime of Benito Mussolini, and under the Italian Social Republic of 1943–45.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: The arrangements of the Rocco Code have remained in place over subsequent decades, namely, the principle that homosexual conduct is an issue of morality and religion, and not criminal sanctions by the State. However, during the post-war period, there have been at least three attempts to re-criminalise it. Such attitudes have made it difficult to bring discussion of measures, for example to recognise homosexual relationships, to the parliamentary sphere.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: Same-sex sexual activity has been legal since 1890. The age of consent is 14 years old, regardless of gender and sexual orientation.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: At present, while same-sex couples cannot marry, they can access civil unions, enacted in 2016, which provide several of the rights, benefits and obligations of marriage. These benefits include, amongst others, shared property, social security and inheritance.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: Since the 2005 regional elections, many Italian regions governed by centre-left coalitions have passed resolutions in support of French-style PACS (civil unions), including Tuscany, Umbria, Emilia-Romagna, Campania, Marche, Veneto, Apulia, Lazio, Liguria, Abruzzo and Sicily. Lombardy, led by the centre-right House of Freedoms, officially declared their opposition to any recognition of same-sex relationships. All these actions, however, are merely symbolic as regions do not have legislative power on the matter.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: Despite the fact that several bills on civil unions or the recognition of rights to unregistered couples had been introduced into the Parliament in the twenty years prior to 2016, none had been approved owing to the strong opposition from the social conservative members of Parliament belonging to both coalitions. On 8 February 2007, the Government led by Romano Prodi introduced a bill, which would have granted rights in areas of labour law, inheritance, taxation and health care to same-sex and opposite-sex unregistered partnerships. The bill was never made a priority of Parliament and was eventually dropped when a new parliament was elected after the Prodi Government lost a confidence vote.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: In 2010, the Constitutional Court () issued a landmark ruling which recognized same-sex couples as a "legitimate social formation, similar to and deserving homogeneous treatment as marriage". Since that ruling, the Supreme Court of Cassation (, the supreme and last revision court in most matters) remanded a decision by a Justice of the Peace who had rejected a residence permit to an Algerian citizen, married in Spain to a Spaniard of the same sex. After that, this same judiciary stated that the (police office, where residence permits are issued) should deliver a residence permit to a foreigner married with an Italian citizen of his same sex, and cited the ruling.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: On 21 July 2015, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that in not recognizing any form of civil union or same-sex marriage, the country was violating international human rights.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: On 2 February 2016, Italian senators started to debate a same-sex civil unions bill. On 25 February 2016, the bill was approved by the Senate in a 173–71 vote. The bill was then sent to the Chamber of Deputies where it passed on 11 May 2016, with 372 votes in favour, 51 against and 99 abstentions. In order to ensure swift passage of the bill, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi had earlier declared it a confidence vote saying it was "unacceptable to have any more delays after years of failed attempts." The civil unions law provides same-sex couples with all the rights of marriage (while not allowing same-sex marriage), however, provisions allowing for stepchild or joint adoption were stricken from an earlier version of the bill. Italian President Sergio Mattarella signed the bill into law on 20 May 2016. It took effect on 5 June 2016.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: In 2017, the Italian Supreme Court allowed a marriage between two women, which was performed in neighboring France, to be officially recognised. However, in May 2018, the Court of Cassation ruled that same-sex marriages performed abroad cannot be recognized in Italy. Instead, they must be registered as civil unions, regardless of whether the couple wed before or after Italy introduced civil unions in 2016.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: Adoption and foster care are regulated by the "Legge 184/1983". Adoption is in principle permitted only to married couples who must be of the opposite sex. According to Italian law, there are no restrictions on foster care. In a limited number of situations, the law provides for "adoption in particular cases" by a single person, however, and this has been interpreted by some courts, including on the appeal court level, to include the possibility of stepchild adoption for unmarried (opposite-sex and same-sex) couples.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: On 11 January 2013, the Court of Cassation upheld a lower decision of court which granted the sole custody of a child to a lesbian mother. The father of the child complained about the "homosexual relationship of the mother". The Supreme Court rejected the father's appeal because it was not argued properly.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: Several individual cases where same-sex couples have been allowed to legally adopt or foster children have occurred over the years. On 15 November 2013, it was reported that the Court of Bologna chose a same-sex couple to foster a three-year-old child. On 1 March 2016, a Rome family court approved a lesbian couple's request to simultaneously adopt each other's daughters. From 2014 to 2016, the Rome Family Court made at least 15 rulings upholding requests for gay people to be allowed to adopt their partners' children. On 29 April 2016, Marilena Grassadonia, president of the Rainbow Families Association, won the right to adopt her wife's twin boys. The possibility of stepchild adoption was confirmed by the Court of Cassation in a decision published on 22 June 2016.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: In February 2017, the Trento Court of Appeals recognized both male same-sex partners as fathers of two children born with the help of an egg donor and a surrogate mother in Canada. The decision was challenged ln late 2017 by local officials and the Ministry of the Interior. In May 2019, the Court of Cassation ruled that the fathers cannot both be named on the children's Italian birth certificates. Instead, only the biological father will be listed as their legal parent, while his partner will have to apply for special permission to become their adoptive father, despite the fact that both men are named on the children's Canadian birth certificates.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: In March 2017, the Florence Court for Minors recognised a foreign adoption by a same-sex couple. The Milan Court of Appeal also recognised a foreign same-sex adoption in June 2017.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: In January 2018, after a surrogate mother gave birth to twin boys for a same-sex couple in California, Milan officials refused to register the boys as both the fathers' children. At first, a judge ruled against the couple, who later appealed; a higher court held that since each man's sperm was used to fertilise eggs from the same donor and one of each was implanted into the surrogate, both men would be able to register the birth of their own child and become its legal parent. The twins cannot be recognised as children of the couple, however, and the fathers could not adopt each other's non-biological son. Although not legally brothers, both boys have been given the same surname. Despite this contradiction, LGBT association "Famiglie Arcobaleno", has welcomed the court's decision as a "positive step".


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: In April 2018, a lesbian couple in Turin was permitted by city officials to register their son, born through IVF, as the child of both parents. Two other same-sex couples also had their children officially registered. A few days later, a same-sex couple in Rome was similarly allowed to register their daughter.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: On 2 June 2018, the day after becoming the new Family and the Disabled Minister, Lorenzo Fontana said same-sex families "don't exist". He denied making homophobic comments, saying he was not "against gays", and adding "I have many homosexual friends… after all I lived in Brussels for many years where there are many gay people in powerful positions... I am Catholic, I do not hide it. And that's why I believe that the family is the natural one, where a child must have a mother and a father". This led to protests from LGBT activists, who used the hashtag #NoiEsistiamo (#WeExist) on social media to share photos of their same-sex families.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: In 2021 Italy recognized the adoptions abroad by same-sex couples because they were judged to be non-obstructive for the purposes of the adoption itself.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: As of 2022 the situation turned more complicated and with mixed results, especially after a Ministry of Interior Affairs’s Circulaire specifically forbids (as a result of laws) Municipalities from automatically register homosexual couples’ children’s abroad birth certificates with the name of both parents. The Ministry tried, in this way, to fill the loophole used by left-wing mayors to help gay couples. Mayors and administrative personnel could face charges for “abuse of office”. In this way, judge sentences (that cannot be limited by government without a clear rule on the matter) remains the only safe way to adopt and/or obtain results.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: In September 2022 a court in Rome ruled that the government's requirement that children's ID cards list their "mother" and "father" discriminated against same-sex parents and ordered the government to issue documents that correctly identify the parents. The ruling is permanent, but only applied to this specific case. Unless and until the government changes the rules around ID cards, other parents will have to sue for correct identification as well.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: In 2002, Franco Grillini introduced legislation that would modify article III of the Italian Constitution to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. It was not successful.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: Since July 2003, discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in employment has been illegal throughout the whole country, in conformity with European Union directives. The Implementation of Directive 2000/78/EC on equal treatment in employment and occupation () prohibits unfair discrimination in employment and recruitment processes. One of the most famous convictions under the directive was that of lawyer Carlo Taormina, who in July 2013 during a radio interview declared that he would never hire a gay man in his law firm. The Tribunal of Bergamo condemned Taormina to a payment of 10,000 euros and ordered the publication of the ruling on a national newspaper at his expense.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: In 2006, Grillini again introduced a proposal to expand anti-discrimination laws, this time adding gender identity as well as sexual orientation. It received less support than the previous one had.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: In 2008, Danilo Giuffrida was awarded 100,000 euros compensation after having been ordered to re-take his driving test by the Italian Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport due to his sexuality; the judge said that the Ministry of Transport was in clear breach of anti-discrimination laws.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: In 2009, the Chamber of Deputies shelved a proposal against homophobic hate crimes that would have allowed increased sentences for violence against gay and bisexual individuals, approving the preliminary questions moved by Union of the Centre and supported by Lega Nord and The People of Freedom. Deputy Paola Binetti, who belongs to Democratic Party, also voted against party guidelines.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: On 16 May 2013, a bill which would prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity was presented in a press conference by four deputies of four different parties. The bill is cosponsored by 221 MPs of the Chamber of Deputies, but no member of the center-right parties has pledged support. In addition to this bill, some deputies introduced another two bills. On 7 July, the Justice Committee advanced a unified bill.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: The bill was amended in compliance of the request of some conservative MPs who were afraid of being fined or jailed for stating their opposition to the recognition of same-sex unions. On 5 August, the Chamber started to consider the bill. On 19 September 2013, the Chamber of Deputies passed the bill in a 228–58 vote (and 108 abstentions). On the same day, a controversial amendment passed, which would protect free speech for politicians and clergymen. On 29 April 2014, the Senate of the Republic began examining the bill. In 2019, the bill was still in the Senate Judicial Commission, being blocked by several hundred amendments from conservative MPs.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: In July 2020, debate resumed on the proposal to extend anti-racism laws to outlaw discrimination and hate crimes against women, gay and transgender people, following a number of attacks in preceding months against LGBT people. It modifies an existing law punishing offenses based on someone's race or religion with up to four years in jail. The proposal was drafted by Alessandro Zan and supported by his ruling Democratic Party and opposed by the Lega, Brothers of Italy and the Italian bishops' conference.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: Italy's lower house approved the bill on 4 November 2020 with 265 votes to 193 in the 630-member chamber. The bill died in the Senate on 27 October 2021 following a 131–154 secret ballot vote allowed by the president of the Senate Elisabetta Casellati, a devout catholic, who, following the approval of the civil unions law, had given an interview stating her opposition to the new law.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: On 28 October 2021, the Chamber of Deputies approved in a 271–16 vote an infrastructure bill containing an amendment which made advertisements with homophobic or transphobic messages illegal to expose on streets or on vehicles. The bill was approved by the Senate as well on 4 November in a 190–34 vote. The bill was signed into law by Italian President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella on 9 November and became effective starting from 10 November.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: In 2004, Tuscany became the first Italian region to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the areas of employment, education, public services and accommodations. The Berlusconi Government challenged the new law in court, asserting that only the central Government had the right to pass such a law. The Constitutional Court overturned the provisions regarding accommodations (with respect to private homes and religious institutions), but otherwise upheld most of the legislation. Since then, the regions of Liguria (November 2009), Marche (February 2010), Sicily (March 2015), Piedmont (June 2016), Umbria (April 2017), Emilia-Romagna (July 2019) and Campania (August 2020) enacted similar measures.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: Cross-dressing is legal in Italy, and sex reassignment surgeries are also legal, with medical approval. However, gender identity is not mentioned in Italy's anti-discrimination law, meaning that transgender people may face discrimination in areas such as employment, access to goods and services, housing, education and health services.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: There is a history of third genders in Italy, such as the Femminiello in traditional Neapolitan culture, as well as there being accounts of individuals spending significant portions of their life as genders other than the ones they were assigned at birth, such as Catterina Vizzani in the early-to-mid-1700s.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: During the period of fascist rule in Italy from the 1920s to the 1940s, the penal code contained prohibitions against cross-dressing and trans people were targeted by police for arrests. The first documented Italian trans woman to undergo genital reconstruction surgery did so in Switzerland in 1967. However, on her return to Italy, she was detained and confined to a small village in the south of the country.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: In 1982, Italy became the fourth nation in the world to recognise the right to change one's legal gender. Before Italy, only Sweden (1972) Chile (1974) and Germany (then-West Germany) (1980) recognised this right.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: The first transgender MP was Vladimir Luxuria, who was elected in 2006 as a representative of the Communist Refoundation Party. While she was not reelected, she went on to be the winner of a popular reality television show called "L'Isola dei Famosi".


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: In 2005, a couple got legally married as husband and wife. Some years later, one of the parties transitioned as a transgender woman. In 2009, she was legally recognized as such according to the Italian law on transsexualism ("Legge 14 aprile 1982, n. 164"). Later, the couple discovered that their marriage had been dissolved because the couple became a same-sex couple, even though they did not ask a civil court to divorce. The law prescribes that when a transgender person is married to another person the couple should divorce, but in the case of the transgender woman mentioned above (Alessandra) and her wife, there was no will to divorce. The couple asked the Civil Court of Modena to nullify the order of dissolution of their marriage. On 27 October 2010, the court ruled in favour of the couple. The Italian Ministry of Interior appealed the decision, and the Court of Appeal of Bologna subsequently reversed the trial decision. The couple later appealed the decision to the Court of Cassation. On 6 June 2013, the Cassation asked the Constitutional Court whether the 1982 law was unconstitutional when it ordered the dissolution of marriage by applying the "Legge 1 dicembre 1970, n. 898", which regulates divorces, even if the couple did not ask to do so. In 2014, the Constitutional Court finally ruled the case in favour of the couple, allowing them to remain married.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: On 21 May 2015, the Court of Cassation ruled that sterilisation and sex reassignment surgery are not required in order to obtain a legal gender change.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: Until 1986, "sexual deviance" was a reason for exclusion for military service. At that time, some men claimed to be homosexual to avoid the draft. Lesbians have never been banned from the Italian military, as women were first allowed to serve in 2000. Since 2010, discrimination against gays and lesbians in military service is banned, but the situation for transgender people is unclear. The organization Polis Aperta estimates that 5 to 10% of Italians in uniformed service (military or police) are LGBT. Despite the ban on discrimination, some service personnel face harassment or violence because of their sexual orientation.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: The major national organization for LGBT rights in Italy is called "Arcigay". It was founded in 1980, and has advocated for the recognition of same-sex couples and LGBT rights generally.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: In 2007, an advert showing a baby wearing a wristband label that said "homosexual" caused controversy. The advert was part of a regional government campaign to combat anti-gay discrimination.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: Prevailing social attitudes about LGBT issues tend to reflect traditional Catholic values concerning human sexuality and gender roles, with lower support compared to other Western European states. In 2020 LGBT activist and legislator Alessandro Zan described homophobia as widespread and often emerging whenever LGBT people tried to live their lives openly. In June 2020 a man walking with his boyfriend in Pescara was violently attacked by seven individuals, leaving him with severe injuries requiring jaw reconstructive surgery. In September 2020 in Acerra a trans man was seriously injured and his fiancée, a cisgender woman, was killed by the woman's brother who wanted to “teach her” a lesson and rammed their motorcycle with his car.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: Pride parades celebrating LGBTQ achievements and community take place in more than 30 towns and cities across Italy from mid-May to the end of September. Turin will host the next conference of the European Pride Organizers Association in 2022, the first time for an Italian city.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: A number of Italian cities are recognised as gay-friendly destinations, including Naples, Catania, Rome , Palermo, Milan, Noto, Bologna, Taormina and Gallipoli.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: According to data from the 2010 Italy Eurispes report released 29 January, the percentage of Italians who have a positive attitude towards homosexuality and are in favor of legal recognition of gay and lesbian couples is growing.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: According to a 2010 poll, 82% of Italians considered homosexuals equal to heterosexuals. 41% thought that same-sex couples should have the right to marry in a civil ceremony, and 20.4% agreed with civil unions only. In total, 61.4% were in favor of a form of legal recognition for gay and lesbian couples. This was an increase of 2.5% from the previous year (58.9%) and almost 10% in 7 years (51.6% in 2003). "This is further proof that Italians are ahead of their national institutions. Our Parliament hears more and more people on the issue and what it hears is to soon approve a law that guarantees gay people the opportunity to publicly recognize their families, as is done in 20 European countries," said the national president of Arcigay, Aurelio Mancuso.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: A 2013 Pew Research Center opinion survey of various countries throughout the world showed that 74% of the Italian population believed that homosexuality should be accepted by society (the 8th highest of all the countries polled), while 18% believed it should not. Young people were generally more accepting: 86% of people between 18 and 29 were accepting of gay people, while 80% of people between 30 and 49 and 67% of people over 50 held the same belief. In a 2007 version of this survey, 65% of Italians were accepting of gay people, meaning that there was a net gain of 9% from 2007 to 2013 (the 4th highest gain in acceptance of gay people of the countries surveyed).


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: In December 2016, a survey was conducted by the Williams Institute in collaboration with IPSOS, in 23 countries (including Italy) on their attitudes towards transgender people. The study showed a relatively liberal attitude from Italians towards transgender people. According to the study, 78% of Italians supported allowing transgender people to change their gender on their legal documents (the 4th highest percentage of the countries surveyed), with 29% supporting the idea of allowing them to do so without any surgery or doctor's/government approval (the 6th highest percentage of the countries surveyed). In addition to that, 78.5% of Italians believed that transgender people should be legally protected from discrimination, 57.7% believed that transgender people should be allowed to use the restroom corresponding to their gender identity rather than their birth sex, and only 14.9% believed that transgender people have a mental illness (the 6th lowest of the countries surveyed).


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: According to Pew Research Center survey in 2015–17, 59% of Italians supported same-sex marriage, while 38% opposed. At 27%, young people aged between 18 and 34 were less likely than their elders to oppose legal gay marriage.


title: LGBT rights in Italy

text: A survey conducted on Ipsos's Global Advisor online platform among more than 19,000 individuals in 27 countries between 23 April and 7 May 2021, found that 63% Italians aged between 18 and 74 believed that same-sex couples should be allowed to marry legally. This percentage was higher than that of some countries where, unlike in Italy, same-sex marriage is legal, such as Australia, France and United States.


title: The Tor Project

text: The Tor Project, Inc. is a Seattle-based 501(c)(3) research-education nonprofit organization founded by computer scientists Roger Dingledine, Nick Mathewson and five others. The Tor Project is primarily responsible for maintaining software for the Tor anonymity network.


title: The Tor Project

text: The Tor Project was founded in December 2006 by computer scientists Roger Dingledine, Nick Mathewson and five others. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) acted as The Tor Project's fiscal sponsor in its early years, and early financial supporters of The Tor Project included the U.S. International Broadcasting Bureau, Internews, Human Rights Watch, the University of Cambridge, Google, and Netherlands-based Stichting NLnet.


title: The Tor Project

text: In October 2014, The Tor Project hired the public relations firm Thomson Communications in order to improve its public image (particularly regarding the terms "Dark Net" and "hidden services") and to educate journalists about the technical aspects of Tor.


title: The Tor Project

text: In December 2015, The Tor Project announced that it had hired Shari Steele, former executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, as its new executive director. Roger Dingledine, who had been acting as interim executive director since May 2015, remained at The Tor Project as a director and board member. Later that month, The Tor Project announced that the Open Technology Fund would be sponsoring a bug bounty program that was coordinated by HackerOne. The program was initially invite-only and focuses on finding vulnerabilities that are specific to The Tor Project's applications.


title: The Tor Project

text: On May 25, 2016 Tor Project employee Jacob Appelbaum stepped down from his position; this was announced on June 2 in a two-line statement by Tor. Over the following days, allegations of sexual mistreatment were made public by several people.


title: The Tor Project

text: On July 13, 2016, the complete board of the Tor Project – Meredith Hoban Dunn, Ian Goldberg, Julius Mittenzwei, Rabbi Rob Thomas, Wendy Seltzer, Roger Dingledine and Nick Mathewson – was replaced with Matt Blaze, Cindy Cohn, Gabriella Coleman, Linus Nordberg, Megan Price and Bruce Schneier. A new anti-harassment policy has been approved by the new board, as well as a conflicts of interest policy, procedures for submitting complaints, and an internal complaint review process. The affair continues to be controversial, with considerable dissent within the Tor community.


title: The Tor Project

text: In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Tor project's core team let go of 13 employees, leaving a working staff of 22 people.


title: The Tor Project

text: , 80% of The Tor Project's $2 million annual budget came from the United States government, with the U.S. State Department, the Broadcasting Board of Governors, and the National Science Foundation as major contributors, "to aid democracy advocates in authoritarian states". The Swedish government and other organizations provided the other 20%, including NGOs and thousands of individual sponsors. Dingledine said that the United States Department of Defense funds are more similar to a research grant than a procurement contract. Tor executive director Andrew Lewman said that even though it accepts funds from the U.S. federal government, the Tor service did not collaborate with the NSA to reveal identities of users.


title: The Tor Project

text: In June 2016, The Tor Project received an award from Mozilla's Open Source Support program (MOSS). The award was "to significantly enhance the Tor network's metrics infrastructure so that the performance and stability of the network can be monitored and improvements made as appropriate."


title: The Tor Project

text: In March 2011, The Tor Project received the Free Software Foundation's 2010 Award for Projects of Social Benefit. The citation read, "Using free software, Tor has enabled roughly 36 million people around the world to experience freedom of access and expression on the Internet while keeping them in control of their privacy and anonymity. Its network has proved pivotal in dissident movements in both Iran and more recently Egypt."


title: The Tor Project

text: In September 2012, The Tor Project received the 2012 EFF Pioneer Award, along with Jérémie Zimmermann and Andrew Huang.


title: The Tor Project

text: In November 2012, "Foreign Policy" magazine named Dingledine, Mathewson, and Syverson among its Top 100 Global Thinkers "for making the web safe for whistleblowers".


title: The Tor Project

text: In 2014, Roger Dingledine, Nick Mathewson and Paul Syverson received the USENIX Test of Time Award for their paper titled "Tor: The Second-Generation Onion Router", which was published in the "Proceedings of the 13th USENIX Security Symposium", August 2004.


title: Weathering steel

text: Weathering steel, often referred to by the genericised trademark COR-TEN steel and sometimes written without the hyphen as corten steel, is a group of steel alloys which were developed to eliminate the need for painting, and form a stable rust-like appearance after several years' exposure to weather.


title: Weathering steel

text: U.S. Steel (USS) holds the registered trademark on the name COR-TEN. The name COR-TEN refers to the two distinguishing properties of this type of steel: corrosion resistance and tensile strength. Although USS sold its discrete plate business to International Steel Group (now ArcelorMittal) in 2003, it still sells COR-TEN branded material in strip-mill plate and sheet forms.


title: Weathering steel

text: The original COR-TEN received the standard designation A242 (COR-TEN A) from the ASTM International standards group. Newer ASTM grades are A588 (COR-TEN B) and A606 for thin sheet. All alloys are in common production and use.


title: Weathering steel

text: The surface oxidation of weathering steel takes six months, but surface treatments can accelerate the oxidation to as little as one hour.


title: Weathering steel

text: The history of weathering steels began in the US in 1910s, when steels alloyed with different amounts of copper were exposed to the elements; the research continued into the 1920s and ca. 1926 it was discovered that phosphorus content also helps with the corrosion resistance.


title: Weathering steel

text: In 1933 the United States Steel Corporation decided to commercialize the results of their studies and patented a steel with exceptional mechanical resistance, primarily for use in railroad hopper cars, for the handling of heavy bulk loads including coal, metal ores, other mineral products and grain. The controlled corrosion for which this material is now best known was a welcome benefit discovered soon after, prompting USS to apply the trademarked name Cor-Ten. Because of its inherent toughness, this steel is still used extensively for bulk transport and storage containers.


title: Weathering steel

text: Railroad passenger cars were also being built with Cor-Ten, albeit painted, by Pullman-Standard for the Southern Pacific from 1936, continuing through commuter coaches for the Rock Island Line in 1949.


title: Weathering steel

text: In 1964, the Moorestown Interchange was built over New Jersey Turnpike at milepost 37.02. This overpass is believed to be the first highway structure application of weathering steel. Other states including Iowa, Ohio, and Michigan followed soon after. Those were followed by York University Footbridge in the United Kingdom in 1967. Since then, the practice of using weather steel in bridges has expanded to many countries.


title: Weathering steel

text: "Weathering" refers to the chemical composition of these steels, allowing them to exhibit increased resistance to atmospheric corrosion compared to other steels. This is because the steel forms a protective layer on its surface under the influence of the weather.


title: Weathering steel

text: The corrosion-retarding effect of the protective layer is produced by the particular distribution and concentration of alloying elements in it. It is not yet clear how exactly the patina formation differs from usual rusting, but it's established that drying of the wetted surface is necessary and that copper is the most important alloying element.


title: Weathering steel

text: The layer protecting the surface develops and regenerates continuously when subjected to the influence of the weather. In other words, the steel is allowed to rust in order to form the protective coating.


title: Weathering steel

text: The original A242 alloy has a yield strength of and ultimate tensile strength of for light-medium rolled shapes and plates up to thick. It has yield strength of and ultimate strength of for medium weight rolled shapes and plates from thick. The thickest rolled sections and plates – from thick have yield strength of and ultimate strength of . ASTM A242 is available in Type 1 and Type 2. Both have different applications based on the thickness. Type 1 is often used in housing structures, construction industry and freight cars. The Type 2 steel, which is also called Corten B, is used primarily in urban furnishing, passenger ships or cranes.


title: Weathering steel

text: A588 has a yield strength of at least , and ultimate tensile strength of for all rolled shapes and plate thicknesses up to thick. Plates from have yield strength at least and ultimate tensile strength at least , and plates from thick have yield strength at least and ultimate tensile strength at least .


title: Weathering steel

text: Weathering steel is popularly used in outdoor sculptures for its distressed antique appearance. One example is the large Chicago Picasso sculpture, which stands in the plaza of the Daley Center Courthouse in Chicago, which is also constructed of weathering steel. Other examples include Barnett Newman's "Broken Obelisk"; several of Robert Indiana's "Numbers" sculptures and his original "Love" sculpture; numerous works by Richard Serra; the "Alamo" sculpture in Manhattan, NY; the Barclays Center, Brooklyn, New York; the "Angel of the North", Gateshead; and Broadcasting Tower at Leeds Beckett University.


title: Weathering steel

text: It is also used in bridge and other large structural applications such as the New River Gorge Bridge, the second span of the Newburgh–Beacon Bridge (1980), and the creation of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) and MONA.


title: Weathering steel

text: It is very widely used in marine transportation, in the construction of intermodal containers as well as visible sheet piling along recently widened sections of London's M25 motorway.


title: Weathering steel

text: The first use of weathering steel for architectural applications was the John Deere World Headquarters in Moline, Illinois. The building was designed by architect Eero Saarinen, and completed in 1964. The main buildings of Odense University, designed by Knud Holscher and Jørgen Vesterholt and built 1971–1976, are clad in weathering steel, earning them the nickname "Rustenborg" (Danish for "rusty fortress"). In 1977, Robert Indiana created a Hebrew version of the "Love" sculpture made from weathering steel using the four-letter word ahava (אהבה, "love" in Hebrew) for the Israel Museum Art Garden in Jerusalem, Israel. In Denmark, all masts for supporting the catenary on electrified railways are made of weathering steel for aesthetic reasons.


title: Weathering steel

text: Weathering steel was used in 1971 for the Highliner electric cars built by the St. Louis Car Company for Illinois Central Railroad. The use of weathering steel was seen as a cost-cutting move in comparison with the contemporary railcar standard of stainless steel. A subsequent order in 1979 was built to similar specs, including weathering steel bodies, by Bombardier. The cars were painted, a standard practice for weathering steel railcars. The durability of weathering steel did not live up to expectations, with rust holes appearing in the railcars. Painting may have contributed to the problem, as painted weathering steel is no more corrosion-resistant than conventional steel, because the protective patina will not form in time to prevent corrosion over a localized area of attack such as a small paint failure. These cars have been retired by 2016.


title: Weathering steel

text: Weathering steel was used to build the exterior of Barclays Center, made up of 12,000 pre-weathered steel panels engineered by ASI Limited & SHoP Construction. The "New York Times" says of the material, "While it can look suspiciously unfinished to the casual observer, it has many fans in the world of art and architecture."


title: Weathering steel

text: Using weathering steel in construction presents several challenges. Ensuring that weld-points weather at the same rate as the other materials may require special welding techniques or material. Weathering steel is not rust-proof in itself: if water is allowed to accumulate on the surface of the steel, it will experience a higher corrosion rate, so provision for drainage must be made. Weathering steel is sensitive to humid subtropical climates, and in such environments it is possible that the protective patina may not stabilize but instead continue to corrode. For example, the former Omni Coliseum, built in 1972 in Atlanta, never stopped rusting and eventually large holes appeared in the structure. This was a major factor in the decision to demolish it just 25 years after construction. The same thing can happen in environments laden with sea salt. Hawaii's Aloha Stadium, built in 1975, is one example of this. Weathering steel's normal surface weathering can also lead to rust stains on nearby surfaces.


title: Weathering steel

text: The rate at which some weathering steels form the desired patina varies strongly with the presence of atmospheric pollutants which catalyze corrosion. While the process is generally successful in large urban centers, the weathering rate is much slower in more rural environments. Uris Hall, a social sciences building on Cornell University's main campus in Ithaca, a small town in Upstate New York, did not achieve the predicted surface finish on its Bethlehem Steel Mayari-R weathering steel framing within the predicted time. Rainwater runoff from the slowly rusting steel stained the numerous large windows and increased maintenance costs. Corrosion without the formation of a protective layer apparently led to the need for emergency structural reinforcement and galvanizing in 1974, less than two years after opening.


title: Weathering steel

text: The U.S. Steel Tower in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was constructed by U.S. Steel in part to showcase COR-TEN steel. The initial weathering of the material resulted in a discoloration, known as "bleeding" or "runoff", of the surrounding city sidewalks and nearby buildings. A cleanup effort was orchestrated by the corporation once weathering was complete to clean the markings. A few of the nearby sidewalks were left uncleaned, and remain a rust color. This problem has been reduced in newer formulations of weathering steel. Staining can be prevented if the structure can be designed so that water does not drain from the steel onto concrete where stains would be visible.


title: Mark Jackson (actor)

text: Mark Jackson (born 23 August 1982) is an English actor best known for playing artificial lifeform Isaac on the American Fox/Hulu television series "The Orville" (2017–present).


title: Mark Jackson (actor)

text: Mark Jackson was born on in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Europe, to British parents Jill Cornelius, a nurse from Coventry, and Andy Jackson, an engineer from Birkenhead. He has a younger sister named Danielle who works as an environmental professional.


title: Mark Jackson (actor)

text: Although Jackson's early screen work has been stated to have included a role in "That Peter Kay Thing", he has clarified in interviews that this is an error on IMDB, and that he has no knowledge of how it came to be credited to him, and further that he has so far been unable to remove the error from his profile. Jackson confirmed his earliest television role was a two-episode arc in ITV's "The Royal Today". Since 2017, he has had a starring role in the Fox/Hulu series "The Orville" as artificial lifeform Isaac. Beyond this, Jackson has worked in the theatre, starring in the Royal National Theatre's productions of "War Horse" and "One Man, Two Guvnors", the latter of which he followed on their international tour.


title: Álvaro Odriozola

text: Álvaro Odriozola Arzalluz (; born 14 December 1995) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a right-back for La Liga club Real Madrid and the Spain national team. Mainly a full-back, he can also play as a winger.


title: Álvaro Odriozola

text: Born in San Sebastián, Basque Country, Odriozola joined Real Sociedad's youth setup in 2006, at the age of ten. On 1 September 2013 he made his senior debut with the reserves, starting in a 3–0 Segunda División B away loss against UD Las Palmas Atlético, and in the same month made the first of several appearances in the UEFA Youth League.


title: Álvaro Odriozola

text: Odriozola was definitely promoted to the B-side ahead of the 2014–15 season, and scored his first goal on 6 September 2014 by netting the last in a 3–0 home win against Real Unión. On 25 February 2016, he renewed his contract with "Sanse" until 2018.