Spatially Disaggregated Modelling of Voting Outcomes and Socio‐Economic Characteristics at the 2001 Australian Federal Election

This study uses GIS and spatial modelling to relate voting outcomes at the 2001 federal election for polling booths across Australia with the socio‐economic characteristics of polling booth catchment areas. The data and analysis used are more detailed and comprehensive than previous studies. It is conducted at a fine level of spatial disaggregation across the whole nation to examine voting outcomes for both major and minor political parties. Because the aim of the paper is to distinguish voting outcomes between political parties rather than to predict voting outcomes for particular political parties, a discriminant analysis is used rather than regression analysis. The statistical discriminant analysis identifies two main socio‐economic dimensions that are able to predict polling booth outcomes with a relatively high degree of accuracy. That analysis shows how, at the 2001 federal election, the middle ground, in terms of socio‐economic characteristics, was being claimed by the Liberal Party, Country Liberal Party, The Greens, and, to a lesser extent, by the Australian Labor Party. However, the Australian Democrats, National Party and One Nation had more distinctive constituencies, with the National Party and One Nation Party competing for areas with similar socio‐economic characteristics. Using GIS mapping tools, examples of actual and predicted polling booth voting outcomes are given, along with selected socio‐economic characteristics of booth catchments.     

六朝初期铜鎏金铺首衔环保护与研究

为了对一件六朝初期的铜鎏金铺首衔环进行保护,运用X光透视、扫描电镜、红外光谱等仪器对其鎏金层和腐蚀产物进行了分析。通过扫描电镜能谱分析得知鎏金层含有较高的金元素并有部分的汞元素,由于汞元素的存在,进一步验证了其为鎏金器。根据浅绿色锈蚀样品的红外光谱分析,浅绿色锈蚀是有害锈氯铜矿(Cu2(OH)3Cl),必须对其进行除氯处理。而覆盖鎏金层的绿色锈蚀在扫描电镜能谱分析中所示氯离子含量并不明显,并根据红外光谱的分析确认其为无害锈孔雀石(Cu(OH)2.CuCO3),但其影响了铺首鎏金层艺术欣赏价值,需采取措施将其清理,对位于铺首背面的则给予保留。保护修复过程中,尝试了先用去离子水浸渍填充鎏金文物毛细管后,再用强酸性离子交换树脂快速处理覆盖鎏金层的绿色锈蚀,达到了预期效果。实践证明该方法可以有效地把铺首左面鎏金层清理出来。     

Local indicators for categorical data: impacts of scaling decisions

When the geographic distribution of landscape pattern varies, global indices fail to capture the spatial nonstationarity within the dataset. Methods that measure landscape pattern at a spatially local scale are advantageous, as an index is computed at each point in the dataset. The geographic distribution of local indices is used to discover spatial trends. Local indicators for categorical data (LICD) can be used to statistically quantify local spatial patterns in binary geographic datasets. LICD, like other spatially local methods, are impacted by decisions relating to the spatial scale of the data, such as the data grain (p), and analysis parameters such as the size of the local neighbourhood (m). The goal of this article is to demonstrate how the choice of the m and p parameters impacts LICD analysis. We also briefly discuss the impacts spatial extent can have on analysis; specifically the local composition measure. An example using 2006 forest cover data for a region in British Columbia, Canada where mountain pine beetle mitigation and salvage harvesting has occurred is used to show the impacts of changing m and p. Selection of local window size (m = 3,5,7) impacts the prevalence and interpretation of significant results. Increasing data grain (p) had varying effects on significant LICD results. When implementing LICD the choice of m and p impacts results. Exploring multiple combinations of m and p will provide insight into selection of ideal parameters for analysis.     

Policy Styles and Degenerative Politics: Poverty Policy Designs in Newfoundland and Quebec

This article examines the proposal suggesting that policy designs are consistent with the social construction of target groups. Associated with policy design theory, the proposal pessimistically suggests that underprivileged citizens will be targeted with policies that do little to help them, creating a vicious circle of degenerative politics. This article argues that the prevalence of degenerative politics depends on policy styles. Significant where the adversarial style prevails, degenerative politics is less common in consensual systems. This proposal is examined through a systematic content analysis of action plans to reduce poverty in Newfoundland and Quebec.     

On Neanderthal subsistence strategies and land use: A regional focus on the Rhone Valley area in southeastern France

This study of Middle Palaeolithic assemblages from the Rhone Valley, in the South-East of France, increases our understanding of Neanderthal subsistence strategies and modes of territorial organisation by comparing a wide corpus of human occupations in limited chronological and geographical frameworks. The Neanderthal occupation modes may be examined using sites located in a reduced area, linking medium-altitude territories (Massif Central and the Alpine foothills) to the Rhone corridor. Through the combined analysis of the occupation levels of ten sites, all dated to between Marine Isotopic Stage (MIS) 7 and the beginning of MIS 3, we identify three types of occupation durations: (1) type 1 as long-term residential camps, (2) type 2 as short-term regular hunting camps and (3) type 3 as brief stopover camps. We discuss this variability of habitat types according to various parameters: site age, technical behaviour, environmental conditions, and site localisation and occupation seasons. The aim is to discern the underlying motivations behind Neanderthal group mobility. One of the main features of the Rhone Valley area is the great homogeneity of behaviours reflected within the sequences. This homogeneity, linked to the variability of the site occupations, supports the hypothesis of Neanderthal groups anticipating their land use requirements, and furthermore suggests that another type of circulating model was used in this area.     

The children of Kaminaljuyu: Isotopic insight into diet and long distance interaction in Mesoamerica

Known for its spectacular tombs and adobe talud–tablero architecture, the highland Guatemalan city of Kaminaljuyu is key to models of long distance interaction in Mesoamerica. We use stable isotopic data from human bone, dentine and tooth enamel to reconstruct Kaminaljuyu’s dietary history. Stable carbon isotope ratios and alkaline earth ratios of enamel carbonate indicate a decline in maize consumption from Preclassic to Classic periods, perhaps due to the desiccation of Lake Miraflores, which was used to irrigate Late Preclassic fields. Stable oxygen and strontium isotope ratios in enamel shed light on the geographic origin of Early Classic skeletons, and show that the central skeletons in the tombs were local children. However, four decapitated skulls and two peripheral skeletons show enriched oxygen ratios, similar to Lowland Maya sites. Strontium isotope ratios indicate that most of these are from an area underlain by Cretaceous limestones; one is from a metamorphic region. Two individuals may have traveled to or from Central Mexico. The greater evidence for lowland individuals among the tomb skeletons implies that political connections with the Maya area were more significant to elites at Kaminaljuyu than was direct contact with Central Mexico.     

Combining pollen and charcoal: evaluating Holocene vegetation composition and dynamics

Pollen analysis reveals vegetation change on a local and regional level over (ideally) continuous time spans but with complications when it comes to the reconstruction of spatially precise species occurrence and composition. Wood charcoal analysis provides site-related information on species occurrence and woodland composition, especially when sediments containing pollen are lacking, but is normally discontinuously available and has the danger of human bias due to potential selection of certain species for e.g. fire making, house construction or charcoal making. Combining the two methods – assuming that suitable palaeoarchives are neighbouring – might compensate for their disadvantages and strengthen the interpretations on vegetation composition and dynamics on a local, extra-local and regional scale. Three examples are given where pollen analysis from “classical” archives – mires and lake sediments – was carried out, and where additionally species identification of wood charcoals was done on samples extracted from close-by archives. The first example (Kugelstattmoos, Bavarian Forest, Germany) combines a Holocene pollen diagram derived from a small mire with late medieval/early modern times charcoal spectra from charcoal production sites which are situated on the margin of the mire. Results show the local occurrence of the main woodland species Fagus sylvatica and Abies alba, and raises new questions on the montane species composition of the formerly natural forests in the Bavarian Forest. The second example (Bargstedter Moor, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany) combines Holocene pollen diagrams from a peat bog with late medieval/early modern times charcoal spectra from charcoal production sites in a woodland close to the bog. It shows the role of Quercus, Fagus, Alnus and Carpinus in medieval and early modern times woodlands and its use by man. The third example (Kleiner Tornowsee, Brandenburg, Germany) combines pollen data from sediments of a small lake with charcoal data derived from Holocene colluvisols and soils. The examples show that anthracological and palynological data complement one another to create a more detailed picture of woodland history and landscape change than one method alone would provide.     

On the origins of extractive metallurgy: new evidence from Europe

The beginnings of extractive metallurgy in Eurasia are contentious. The first cast copper objects in this region emerge c. 7000 years ago, and their production has been tentatively linked to centres in the Near East. This assumption, however, is not substantiated by evidence for copper smelting in those centres. Here, we present results from recent excavations from Belovode, a Vin?a culture site in Eastern Serbia, which has provided the earliest direct evidence for copper smelting to date. The earliest copper smelting activities there took place c. 7000 years ago, contemporary with the emergence of the first cast copper objects. Through optical, chemical and provenance analyses of copper slag, minerals, ores and artefacts, we demonstrate the presence of an established metallurgical technology during this period, exploiting multiple sources for raw materials. These results extend the known record of copper smelting by more than half a millennium, with substantial implications. Extractive metallurgy occurs at a location far away from the Near East, challenging the traditional model of a single origin of metallurgy and reviving the possibility of multiple, independent inventions.     

Pollen analysis of 15th century cesspits from the palace of the dukes of Burgundy in Bruges (Belgium): evidence for the use of honey from the western Mediterranean

Pollen analysis of two late medieval cesspits from the palace of the dukes of Burgundy in Bruges (Belgium) revealed the presence of pollen from several food plants and their associated weeds. Also a large amount of exotic taxa was found, most of which are not commonly used as food plants. This last group of taxa shows 4 common characteristics: (1) their distribution is restricted to the Mediterranean region, (2) no macrobotanical remains from these taxa have been found (3) they are insect-pollinated and (4) most of these taxa are important elements in pollen assemblages from modern honeys from SW-Spain and S-Portugal. The presence of these pollen types can therefore most probably be attributed to the use of honey originating from this region. The consequences for the palynological analysis and interpretation of pollen assemblages of medieval and post-medieval cesspits and other types of waste deposits are discussed.     

Western technical traditions of pottery making in Tang Dynasty China: chemical evidence from the Liquanfang Kiln site,Xi'an city

This study is based on the SEM-EDS and LA-ICP-AES analyses of a sample of twenty-nine Tang sancai sherds unearthed from the Liquanfang site, Xi'an city. The results indicate that ceramics with yellowish bodies are calcareous and those with red bodies were made of ferruginous clays. The use of calcareous clay in Tang sancai bodies is otherwise unknown in Chinese history, which suggests that the technique of Tang sancai making at this site might have been influenced by ceramic technology from the Near East or Central Asia. The paper therefore argues that the traditional approach of treating calcareous clay as the main characteristic of pottery made in the ancient Near East or Central Asia is not necessarily accurate. It is likely that some calcareous Tang sancai ceramics were made in the capital city of the Tang dynasty.