Typologies of Advantage and Disadvantage: Socio‐economic Outcomes in Australian Metropolitan Cities

Australia's metropolitan cities have undergone significant social, economic and demographic change over the past several decades. In terms of socio‐economic advantage and disadvantage these changes, which are often associated with globalisation, wider economic and technological restructuring, the changing demographics of the population and shifts in public policy are not evenly dispersed across cities, but represent a range of often contrasting outcomes. The current paper develops a typology of socio‐economic advantage and disadvantage for locations across Australian metropolitan cities. More specifically, the paper takes a range of Australian Bureau of Statistics data and uses a model‐based approach with clustering of data represented by a parameterised Gaussian mixture model and discriminant analysis utilised to consider the differences between the clusters. These clusters form the basis of a typology representing the range of socio‐economic and demographic outcomes at the local community level.     

A regional comparison of the implications of climate change for the golf industry in Canada

Golf is a recreation industry particularly sensitive to climate, yet the potential implications of climate change for the industry remain largely unexamined. This study presents findings of the first known impact assessment to compare the regional impacts of projected changes in the climate on the golf industry in Canada (or internationally). Empirical relationships between daily rounds played and four weather variables were defined through multiple regression analysis and then used to examine the potential impacts of two climate change scenarios on the length of the golf season and the number of rounds played in three regions of Canada (West Coast, Great Lakes, East Coast). Regionally, the West Coast region was projected to benefit the least from projected climate change, as golf courses that are currently open year round experienced only slight projected increases in rounds played in the 2020s and 2050s. Golf courses in the Great Lakes region could experience a 10- to 51-day longer average golf season and a 21 percent to 3 percent increase in rounds as early as the 2020s, and an even more pronounced increase in the 2050s. East Coast golf courses were projected to benefit the most under both climate change scenarios, experiencing larger gains in average operating seasons (25 to 45 days in the 2020s) and a 40 percent to 48 percent increase in rounds played by as early as the 2020s.     

Resources, people and places: resource and environmental geography in Canada 1996–2000

The years 1996–1999 were productive ones for Canadian geographers working in resource and environmental planning and management. This review highlights and partly summarizes a hopefully representative sample of that work under three main headings: Science, Surveys and Climate Change; Assessment, Planning and Management; and Social, Cultural and Economic Dimensions. The concluding section addresses Themes, Trends, and Prospects. Canadian strengths in the past could have been said to include at least land and resource analysis and mapping, institutional and procedural analyses, watershed management and water resources, sustainable development, protected areas and ecosystem approaches, field and case study‐based approaches addressing questions of how can we do things better both in Canada, and application of our expertise to resource and environmental management abroad. Research has continued in these areas, but many are evolving and transforming. Some trends include study of multiple aspects of climate change, the processes and results of comprehensive regional planning, sustainability at local and regional scales, resource cycles and restructuring, the experience of historically neglected social and economic groups, and some progress on adding more, critical, social and political economic theory to the methods and analysis of Canadian resource and environmental geographers. Les années 1996–1999 ont été productives pour les géographes travaillant dans le domaine de la gestion et de la planification des ressources et de l'environnement. Ce compte‐rendu fait le point sur un échantillon aussi représentatif que possible de ces travaux en les regroupant sous trois rubriques principales: Science, recherche et changement climatique; Évaluation, planification et gestion; ainsi que Dimensions sociales et culturelles. L'article conclut en abordant les thèmes, les tendances, et les perspectives. On pourrait dire, que dans le passé, la recherche canadienne s'affirmait dans les domaines suivants: l'analyse et la cartographic des ressources naturelles et des terres; l'analyse des procédures et des institutions; la gestion des bassins hydrographiques et des ressources en eau; le developpement durable; l‘étude des écosystèmes et des zones protégées; et enfin, les approches qui, par l'entremise d’études de cas, examinent les façons d'améliorer, au Canada et à l‘étranger, la mise en application de notre expertise dans la gestion des ressources et de l'environnement. La recherche s'est poursuivie dans ces domaines, mais d'autres perspectives émergent et se transformet. Nous discutons ici des thèmes suivants: les divers aspects des change‐ments climatiques, les processus et les résultats de la planification régionale, la “durabilité” aux échelles locale et régionale, la restructuration et le cycle des ressources, l'expérience de groupes économiques et sociaux historiquement négligés, et les progrès obtenus grâce l'addition de considérations critiques, sociales et théoriques aux méthodes et analyses des géographes canadiens s'intéressant à l'environnement et aux ressources.     

Planting an Asylum for Religion: Berkeley's Bermuda Scheme and the Transmission of Virtue in the Eighteenth‐Century Atlantic World

Following the aftermath of the South Sea bubble, George Berkeley grew disenchanted with British morality and turned his attention to a new project: a missionary college in Bermuda. Not only did he personally lobby friends and government officials, but he also worked tirelessly to persuade the public of his scheme's value. To this end, he published his plan under the title A Proposal for the Better Supplying of Churches in Our Foreign Plantations (1724) and at the height of this enthusiasm wrote his only (existent) poem “America, or the Muse's Refuge” (1725/26). These verses were premised upon a classical commonplace, the notion of a translatio imperii and translatio religionis: the belief in the constant westward migration of empire and religion that provided the foundation of his plan. Through a contextual reading of these two pieces, this paper examines Berkeley's contributions to early eighteent‐century missionary activity in the Atlantic world.     

A BRONZE SCULPTURE ATTRIBUTED TO LOUIS-SIMON BOIZOT AND PLATINUM COATING METHODS

During the examination of the sculpture of Medea Rejuvenating Aeson attributed to Louis-Simon Boizot (1743–1809), X-ray fluorescence analysis revealed, surprisingly, that the outer surface of the brass cast was patinated with platinum. Research into the history of platinum coating methods revealed that chemical techniques for the deposition of platinum from solution were in use before the advent of electroplating. Some experimental work to replicate the patination technique of electrochemical replacement plating of platinum based on recipes from the nineteenth century is described. The technical evidence suggests that a late eighteenth-century date for the sculpture is reasonable.     

BLOOD AS A BINDING MEDIUM IN A CHUMASH INDIAN PIGMENT CAKE

As part of a study of Chumash Indian pigments, some black pigment cakes have been examined. One pigment cake was characterized as soot by polarized light microscopy, and Fourier transform infrared microscopy showed that the binder was proteinaceous. Protein determination was followed by examination using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis which showed a characteristic suite of amino acids to be present, proportionally similar to blood. The blood identification was confirmed by immunological analysis. The binder was shown to be a mixture of human and animal blood, the animal being pronghorn antelope. This is the first successful identification of a binding medium from a Chumash Indian pigment cake.