New Methods of Census Record Linking

The Minnesota Population Center (MPC) has released linked datasets through its NAPP and IPUMS projects, making them readily accessible to researchers. Prior to the availability of complete count census microdata from the MPC, researchers applied various forms of record-linking software. This essay describes the techniques used in the MPC's linking program and briefly compares this technique with those used by other researchers. The key feature of the MPC linking method is the construction of cumulative name similarity scores, based on approximately 2.5 billion record comparisons; we also use support vector mechanics to classify potential links. This article explains modifications made for the final linked datasets and includes a discussion of the role of weighting variables when using linked data.     

Ancient Boats, Boat Timbers, and Locked Mortise-and-Tenon Joints from Bronze/Iron-Age Northern Vietnam

This paper describes two nautical discoveries buried c .2000 years ago in the Red River alluvial plain, northern Vietnam. One is part of a logboat with a series of empty mortise and locking-peg holes for plank attachment using loose rectangular tenons. The other, from an infant mortuary house, is a series of re-used 4-m-long timbers with exactly the same locked mortise-and-tenon technology. Both finds are interpreted as having belonged to river-boats like those shown on the sides of Heger 1 (Dong Son) bronze drums. Potentially-related technologies from the Mediterranean and China are also discussed.
© 2006 The Authors     

La représentation de l’espace public par la photographie : Une étude de cas dans la région de Montréal (Québec,Canada)

Beyond the material forms that constitute public space, it is subject to representations or images that shape the types of use, forms of appropriation, and general perception that people have of it. Following a centre‐periphery gradient that allows us to compare three zones of the Montreal region (pericentral, periurban, and the northern ring), we analyzed photographs available within cyberspace (from different municipalities and boroughs, local newspapers, and social media) to draw out representations of public space. What can photographs available online tell us about how space is perceived? We have established a typology of images of public space (idyllic nature, urban scene, festive space, empty space, family portrait) that are representative of the overall corpus studied. We have compared these results with a correspondence analysis to clarify the structure of interaction between the variables. The analysis demonstrates that the representations are more differentiated between neighbourhoods than between regions, and that while newspapers and municipalities represent more themes of sociability and family life, social media shows more empty spaces, whether they be monumental spaces, or spaces of daily life.     

Power or policy: a comparative study of the cohesion of Italian coalition governments in the First and Second Republics

In the 1990s the Italian political system witnessed momentous changes that have severely impinged upon the country's political parties and party system. What has been the resulting effect on the cohesion of Italian governing coalitions? Has the effect on the nature and workings of governing coalitions been a product of the changing motivations of political parties? This article attempts to tackle the following questions by using the general framework of several formal coalition theories complemented with an analysis of the specific features of the Italian political context.     

Personality and national identity: How the Big Five relate to civic and ethnic conceptions of nationhood

In recent years, the concept of national identity has recaptured the imagination of public opinion research and with it individuals' conceptions of what it takes to be a “true” member of their nation. This investigation aims to add to the explanation of varying conceptions of nationhood by scrutinising their personality-based foundations. It provides the first systematic analysis of a yet unstudied link between the Big Five personality traits and two ideal-typical conceptions of nationhood: civic and ethnic national identity. Using 18 samples from six European countries (Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, and the United Kingdom), each containing around 1000 individuals, we uncover psychological underpinnings of attitudes towards national membership, revealing several consistent trait patterns. We find a negative relationship between openness to experience and an ethnic national identity, while conscientiousness associates positively with the civic ideal type of national identity content. The findings presented extend current understandings of how people conceptualise national belonging and provide evidence that distinct conceptions of nationhood are related to different dispositional foundations.     

Low‐temperature dunite hydration: evaluating CH4 and H2 production from H2O and CO2

Abiotic methane (CH₄) and hydrogen (H₂) produced after hydration of mafic/ultramafic rocks represent energy sources for microbes that may thrive in the deep subsurface regions of Earth and possibly on other planets. While H₂ is a direct product of serpentinization, CH₄ can form via Fischer–Tropsch Type (FTT) reactions (carbon reduction) that, due to potential H₂ migration, can be spatially and temporally detached from serpentinization. We tested an alternative process hypothesized by some scholars, in which CO₂ can be reduced through dunite hydration without initially added H₂, implying that CH₄ can form in the same serpentinized fluid–rock system. The experiment used natural dunite sand (Forsterite 92), CO₂ with δ¹³C ~ ?25‰ (VPDB), and a 1 mm dissolved SiO₂ solution mixed in 30 glass bottles (118 mL) stored for up to 8 months at low temperature (50°C) to simulate land‐based serpentinization systems. In addition, 30 control bottles without olivine were used as blanks. Trivial amounts of CH₄ (orders of 0.2–0.9 ppmv) were detected in both samples and blanks, likely representing analytical noise; essentially, no significant amount of CH₄ formed under the experimental conditions used in this work. Low amounts of H₂ (~2.55 ± 1.39 ppmv) were generated, with production yields that were one order of magnitude lower than in previously published experiments. Moderate concentrations of SiO₂ appeared to hinder low‐temperature H₂ production. Our experiment confirms that the low‐temperature reduction of CO₂ into CH₄ through direct olivine hydration, without initial H₂, is sluggish and not straightforward, which is consistent with previous studies. The presence of substantial amounts of H₂, as well as suitable metal catalysts, appears to be essential in the low‐temperature production of abiotic CH₄, as observed in published FTT experiments.