A laboratory cave for the study of wall degradation in rock art caves: an implementation in the Vézère area

The aim of this proposal is to present an original approach to the study and preservation of rock art caves. A multidisciplinary study of cave wall alteration will be performed to understand the impact of environmental context on the evolution of wall surfaces. The approach involves the choice of a cave with characteristics similar to painted caves in the studied area (Vézère Valley in Dordogne, France): e.g., cave wall alteration, lithology, morphology, etc. This selected cave is intended to become a laboratory cave, monitored for the acquisition of chemical, physical and biological environmental data on bedrock, air and fluids along with their characteristics. A cave without art or archaeological interest has been chosen specifically to conduct experiments, to make in situ analysis and to obtain samples. The results are to be completed by specific observations in several other caves and compiled in a database.     

A New Perspective about Moran's Coefficient: Spatial Autocorrelation as a Linear Regression Problem. Moran系数的新视角：空间自相关视为线性回归问题

The computation of Moran's index of spatial autocorrelation requires the definition of a spatial weighting matrix. The eigendecomposition of this doubly centered matrix (i.e., one that forces the sums of all rows and columns to equal zero) has interesting properties that have been exploited in various contexts: distribution properties of the Moran coefficient (MC), spatial filtering in linear models, generalized linear models, and multivariate analysis. In this article, this eigendecomposition is used to propose a new view of MC based on its interpretation in the simple context of linear regression. I use this interpretation to demonstrate the different properties of MC and also the inefficiency of this index in some situations involving simultaneous positive and negative spatial autocorrelation. I propose some new statistics and procedures for testing spatial autocorrelation, and conduct a simulation study to evaluate these new approaches.     

The transition of British Africa

At the turn of the century British literary historians and critics, such as Geikie, Sharp, and Thomas, studied the influence of environment on the works of novelists and poets. In particular, the concepts of literary geographers and a writer's country were developed. Earlier deterministic approaches have been modified and more recent studies by Drabble, O'Brien and Pocock have looked at the totality of influences of place on the work of various writers.     

Range of motion and energy cost of locomotion of the late medieval armoured fighter: A proof of concept of confronting the medieval technical literature with modern movement analysis

ABSTRACT

Study of technical, normative, and narrative medieval literature and of archaeological pieces allows the motor skills of armoured members of the aristocracy to be outlined but not quantified. The authors present novel data on the impact of wearing armour on both the freedom of movement and the energy cost of locomotion, and confront the results to systematic analysis of medieval written sources. An accurate harness replica realized in an informed archaeological experimental way, close to medieval material and manufacturing conditions, was used for the experiments. Measurements of the energy cost of locomotion in and out of armour were taken during walking and running on a treadmill. Gait analysis and range of motion of joints were performed with 3-D kinematics. The results indicated an increase in the energy cost of locomotion in slight excess to the added weight and for most movements studied reductions in the range of motion over the joint, potentially to the advantage of the wearer during combat. This proof of concept appears promising for further study in this field of scholarly endeavor.     

1866: why the Russian bomb did not explode

The fall of the Berlin Wall has provided access to archives in Central and Eastern Europe and especially in Russia; new theses may be written as long as they remain open and they often show that our conceptions of international relations during the nineteenth century are outdated and mistaken. This contribution takes as a starting point the events of 1866 that we can consider to be a major turning point in nineteenth century Europe: the end of a relative and concerted balance of powers in central Europe, the first step towards the creation of a unitary German State. The article uses them here to question Russian foreign policy during a transitional decade of its history, through an analysis of the figure and missions of Minister Aleksandr Gorchakov. In order to do this, the article relies on completely new and varied material in four languages: diplomatic archives, personal archives, and a meticulous study of the press. The conclusions reached have been hitherto unseen and they put into question what was thought to be known regarding Russia's political line after the Crimean War. Now it is no longer possible to consider that Russian policy in Europe has been passive, conservative, and pro-German.