We show that the endomorphism rings of kernels ker ϕ of non-injective morphisms ϕ between indecomposable injective modules are either local or have two maximal ideals, the module ker ϕ is determined up to isomorphism by two invariants called monogeny class and upper part, and a weak form of the Krull–Schmidt theorem holds for direct sums of these kernels. We prove with an example that our pathological decompositions actually take place. We show that a direct sum of n kernels of morphisms between injective indecomposable modules can have exactly n! pairwise non-isomorphic direct-sum decompositions into kernels of morphisms of the same type. If ER is an injective indecomposable module and S is its endomorphism ring, the duality Hom(−, ER) transforms kernels of morphisms ER → ER into cyclically presented left modules over the local ring S, sending the monogeny class into the epigeny class and the upper part into the lower part.

The conference ‘Rings and Modules’, in honour of Patrick F. Smith's 65th birthday and on the occasion of his retirement, gathered in Lisbon 67 of Patrick Smith's students, co-authors and friends from all over the world. The conference was held at Centro de Álgebra da Universidade de Lisboa (CAUL), 16th–19th September 2008.

Motivated by a relation on submodules of a module used by both A. W. Goldie and P. F. Smith, we say submodules X, Y of M are β* equivalent, Xβ*Y, if and only if is small in and is small in . We show that the β* relation is an equivalence relation and has good behaviour with respect to addition of submodules, homomorphisms and supplements. We apply these results to introduce the class of -supplemented modules and to investigate this class and the class of H-supplemented modules. These classes are located among various well-known classes of modules related to the class of lifting modules. Moreover these classes are used to explore an open question of S. H. Mohamed and B. J. Mueller. Examples are provided to illustrate and delimit the theory.

We survey some old and recent results concerning the Goldie dimension of modules and modular lattices and its properties which are counterparts of properties of the dimension of linear spaces.

The purpose of this paper is to study finiteness conditions on injective hulls of simple modules over Noetherian down-up algebras. We will show that the Noetherian down-up algebras A(α, β, γ) which are fully bounded are precisely those which are module-finite over a central subalgebra. We show that injective hulls of simple A(α, β, γ)-modules are locally Artinian provided the roots of X2 − αX − β are distinct roots of unity or both equal to 1.

Let R be a semiprime algebra over a field of characteristic zero acted finitely on by a finite-dimensional Lie superalgebra L = L0 ⊕ L1. It is shown that if L is nilpotent, [L0, L1] = 0 and the subalgebra of invariants RL is central, then the action of L0 on R is trivial and R satisfies the standard polynomial identity of degree 2 ⋅ []. Examples of actions of nilpotent Lie superalgebras, with central invariants and with [L0, L1] ≠ 0, are constructed.

In this survey paper we present some results relating the Goldie dimension, dual Krull dimension and subdirect irreducibility in modules, torsion theories, Grothendieck categories and lattices. Our interest in studying this topic is rooted in a nice module theoretical result of Carl Faith [Commun. Algebra27 (1999), 1807–1810], characterizing Noetherian modules M by means of the finiteness of the Goldie dimension of all its quotient modules and the ACC on its subdirectly irreducible submodules. Thus, we extend his result in a dual Krull dimension setting and consider its dualization, not only in modules, but also in upper continuous modular lattices, with applications to torsion theories and Grothendieck categories.

We introduce a general framework for modelling the dynamics of the propensity to offend in a population of (possibly interacting) agents. We consider that each agent has an ‘honesty index’ which parameterizes his probability of abiding by the law. This probability also depends on a composite parameter associated to the attractiveness of the crime outcome and of the crime setting (the context which makes a crime more or less likely to occur, such as the presence or not of a guardian). Within this framework we explore some consequences of the working hypothesis that punishment has a deterrent effect, assuming that, after a criminal act, an agent's honesty index may increase if he is caught and decrease otherwise. We provide both analytical and numerical results. We show that in the space of parameters characterizing the probability of punishment, there are two ‘phases’: one corresponding to a population with a low crime rate and the other to a population with a large crime rate. We speculate on the possible existence of a self-organized state in which, due to the society reaction against crime activities, the population dynamics would be stabilized on the critical line, leading to a wide distribution of propensities to offend in the population. In view of empirical works on the causes of the recent evolution of crime rates in developed countries, we discuss how changes of socio-economic conditions may affect the model parameters, and hence the crime rate in the population. We suggest possible extensions of the model that will allow us to take into account more realistic features.

Let X and Y be separable Banach spaces and denote by 𝒮𝒮(X,Y ) the subset of ℒ(X,Y ) consisting of all strictly singular operators. We study various ordinal ranks on the set 𝒮𝒮(X,Y ). Our main results are summarized as follows. Firstly, we define a new rank r𝒮 on 𝒮𝒮(X,Y ). We show that r𝒮 is a co-analytic rank and that it dominates the rank ϱ introduced by Androulakis, Dodos, Sirotkin and Troitsky [Israel J. Math.169 (2009), 221–250]. Secondly, for every 1≤p<+∞, we construct a Banach space Yp with an unconditional basis such that 𝒮𝒮(ℓp,Yp) is a co-analytic non-Borel subset of ℒ(ℓp,Yp) yet every strictly singular operator T:ℓp→Yp satisfies ϱ(T)≤2. This answers a question of Argyros.

The covariogram of a compact set A⊂ℝn is the function that to each x∈ℝn associates the volume of A∩(A+x). Recently it has been proved that the covariogram determines any planar convex body, in the class of all convex bodies. We extend the class of sets in which a planar convex body is determined by its covariogram. Moreover, we prove that there is no pair of non-congruent planar polyominoes consisting of less than nine points that have equal discrete covariograms.

We compare three different ways of defining group cohomology with coefficients in a crossed module: (1) explicit approach via cocycles; (2) geometric approach via gerbes; (3) group theoretic approach via butterflies. We discuss the case where the crossed module is braided and the case where the braiding is symmetric. We prove the functoriality of the cohomologies with respect to weak morphisms of crossed modules and also prove the ‘long’ exact cohomology sequence associated to a short exact sequence of crossed modules and weak morphisms.

In this paper, we argue that quantitative empirical research to explain and predict criminal and related behaviour can benefit greatly from explicit theories of action linking individual and contextual factors in the causation of crime. Such theories foster a systematic selection of causal variables for data collection and hypothesis testing instead of a more indiscriminate accumulation of ‘risk factor’ correlates. Moreover, action theory encourages statistical modelling of crime causation beyond the most common linear regression. This paper illustrates both points by estimating two empirical models – a conventional logistic model and a Rasch model – on scenario response data concerning youth violence. The findings of this study show that the extent to which young people indicate a violent response to a provocation is dependent on their (law relevant) morality and ability to exercise self-control as well as the deterrent qualities (monitoring) of the setting.

Let G be a fixed connected multigraph with no loops. A random n-lift of G is obtained by replacing each vertex of G by a set of n vertices (where these sets are pairwise disjoint) and replacing each edge by a randomly chosen perfect matching between the n-sets corresponding to the endpoints of the edge. Let XG be the number of perfect matchings in a random lift of G. We study the distribution of XG in the limit as n tends to infinity, using the small subgraph conditioning method.

We present several results including an asymptotic formula for the expectation of XG when G is d-regular, d ≥ 3. The interaction of perfect matchings with short cycles in random lifts of regular multigraphs is also analysed. Partial calculations are performed for the second moment of XG, with full details given for two example multigraphs, including the complete graph K4.

To assist in our calculations we provide a theorem for estimating a summation over multiple dimensions using Laplace's method. This result is phrased as a summation over lattice points, and may prove useful in future applications.

We investigate decompositions of a graph into a small number of low-diameter subgraphs. Let P(n, ε, d) be the smallest k such that every graph G = (V, E) on n vertices has an edge partition E = E0 ∪ E1 ∪ ⋅⋅⋅ ∪ Ek such that |E0| ≤ εn2, and for all 1 ≤ i ≤ k the diameter of the subgraph spanned by Ei is at most d. Using Szemerédi's regularity lemma, Polcyn and Ruciński showed that P(n, ε, 4) is bounded above by a constant depending only on ε. This shows that every dense graph can be partitioned into a small number of ‘small worlds’ provided that a few edges can be ignored. Improving on their result, we determine P(n, ε, d) within an absolute constant factor, showing that P(n, ε, 2) = Θ(n) is unbounded for ε < 1/4, P(n, ε, 3) = Θ(1/ε2) for ε > n−1/2 and P(n, ε, 4) = Θ(1/ε) for ε > n−1. We also prove that if G has large minimum degree, all the edges of G can be covered by a small number of low-diameter subgraphs. Finally, we extend some of these results to hypergraphs, improving earlier work of Polcyn, Rödl, Ruciński and Szemerédi.

We consider the problem of testing expansion in bounded-degree graphs. We focus on the notion of vertex expansion: an α-expander is a graph G = (V, E) in which every subset U ⊆ V of at most |V|/2 vertices has a neighbourhood of size at least α ⋅ |U|. Our main result is that one can distinguish good expanders from graphs that are far from being weak expanders in time . We prove that the property-testing algorithm proposed by Goldreich and Ron with appropriately set parameters accepts every α-expander with probability at least and rejects every graph that is ϵ-far from any α*-expander with probability at least , where and d is the maximum degree of the graphs. The algorithm assumes the bounded-degree graphs model with adjacency list graph representation and its running time is .

We study the ‘rank 1 case’ of the inhomogeneous random graph model. In the subcritical case we derive an exact formula for the asymptotic size of the largest connected component scaled to log n. This result complements the corresponding known result in the supercritical case. We provide some examples of applications of the derived formula.